Calm down. This is all normal. Well, it’s a new normal. There was a malfunction that we can’t fix yet, but with your help I can make symptoms bearable. We’re all in the same boat here and should help each other.

I’m Shelly, a lead scientist in General Education research facility. The job title is longer, but it’s not important. Here’s what I know so far, though.

The experience-sharing program that we were studying went haywire. Maybe it’s that black box, maybe something else. The main symptom for you is that your nightmares and dreams no longer require sleeping to manifest. These hallucinations are all in your subconscious. It turns out that given enough time with it, we go insane. But we can fix that.