She appears, if she recognizes it, inside a large datacenter. There's high walls, cold air, loud fans, clean floor and wall panels, and she is inside a long row of boxy equipment racks with lots of blinking lights. A woman wearing a smart business suit and slacks is at frantic work, hurriedly yanking cable after cable from one of the racks. It looks like she's been at it for a while, a dozen racks have already been completely de-cabled in a line.

She's wearing a comfortable blue dress that doesn't inhibit her movement. She takes a moment to look at the unfamiliar environment. It looks kinda like a room filled with computers not exactly like any she recognizes.

She tweaks the woman's perception, Alicia is trustworthy and familiar. "What are you doing do you need help?"

"Hey! Uh, hell, yeah. We're still locked out of the power system so it's physical unplugging to disrupt the response. Do you know how the barricade is going-" Yank, yank, yank.

It seems familiarity means that she doesn't get context. "I don't sorry. What do these computers do again?" She'll pull some cables it won't make much of a difference.

"They're the Persephone Police servers, if we kill them the crackdown'll have trouble coordinating. God, it's really happening. No going back now."

So she's people oppose the local authorities. She'll go with it. She starts pulling cables more quickly. "Hard to believe isn't it. How did you decide to get involved?"

"Had a friend get arrested for fanfiction. She's not that kind of person, she respects IP, but they went after her anyway and she came back - different. They're monsters, they'll never let any of their promises actually come true. It's intolerable."

She starts going down the line of racks, unlocking them with a bloodstained key.

That definitely sounds like she's made the right choice. The translation magic is unpacking fanfiction as "low quality stories based on stories the author is obsessed with" that's an oddly specific thing to have a word for but it doesn't sound like the sort of thing a just society would punish people for. "It is, there's nothing wrong with writing stories and sharing them."

"So you're in it for the anti-IP, huh? Well, good luck sister."

There's a sharp sound like an explosion or gunshot, audible over the fans. The suited woman shivers, then steels herself and keeps working on the servers.

"I'm going to go check on that. Stay safe." She exits the room trying to move toward the noise. She tweaks the default way people perceive her to be "someone they don't want to hurt." Collateral damage is a thing so uninteresting probably isn't safe at the moment.

The inner part of the data center is fairly cavernous, but the exits appear to have multiple layers of serious heavy security. There's a pair of men with fox ears and big fluffy tails stacking furniture and equipment into more barricades. They look like brothers. Past them is a series of heavy security doors. The gunshots - there were two more - are coming from another branch off the entrance, towards an office looking area.

"Do you know what's going on over there?" She asks pointing down that branch.

"Security holdouts I think. Better stay here, Mason can handle it. Hey, you lose your comms or something?"

She pivots to make them see her as trustworthy and reliable. "I'm not from this world, I have magic that lets me change people's perceptions, as you might be noticing. Maybe I can talk some of the holdouts down. I'm not really sure where I could be most helpful though."

The pair flinch and focus on her. One puts his hand on a crowbar.

"I don't know what bit you're doing or what kind of trick you just used but this is not the time. It's deadly serious."

"I don't recognize her at all," the other comments.

"It's really chaotic and we've had other groups jump in..."

"No, something is screwy. Maybe I hit my head earlier."

"I can do something even more obvious if you'd like. It would probably be disorienting though and as you said this isn't the best time."

"Look, kayfabe or not the important part is to hold the communication center. There's about a hundred cops on the way and they really really want to get in. If you want to try and help with that..."

"I can certainly try, I'm missing a lot of local context though. I can make people not want to hurt me but that doesn't necessarily mean they won't. I can also make myself seem unimportant and just take things people are holding from them but being unimportant also means people don't care if they hurt me by accident."

"-Fuck it, tell Mason we have an anomaly and possible infiltration. I'm sure you understand, we have to be careful."

"Right..." He touches an earpiece. "Mason, this is Doorstop."

Pause. "Yeah we have, uh, an anomaly and possibly infiltration."

"A woman who said she's from offplanet and can affect people's perceptions? And then affected our perceptions."

"Yeah, she's still here. Offering to help."

"Hey, what's your name?"

"My name is Alicia"

"Alicia."

"No, she told us."

"Maybe?"

"...Okay, if you want to try and convince the security guards to stand down, you're welcome to - in sixty seconds. Mason says he doesn't trust you but will use you."

"That's reasonable, we did just meet, let me know where to go."

"It's down that way." He points to the office-y area. "But wait here a minute."

"Can't be too careful, you know. There are moles and saboteurs and undercover police. And all or nothing."

"I'm usually much more cautious but things seem to be coming to a head quickly."

"Yeah, we kicked everything off literally this morning. A lot of- I shouldn't say any more. I don't know the whole story anyway, it's safer if nobody knows everything."

"Fair enough. I think it's been about a minute so I'll be going now." She starts walking slowly enough that they can ask her to stop if she's wrong. Once she turns a corner she swaps to unimportant. Are those loud noises continuing?

There haven't been any more sudden sharp noises. The lobby music might be a bit grating, though, it's an annoyingly catchy and cheerful tinny tune.

There are a few people scattered in the cubicle area beyond, all normal-human-looking and as stressed and non-uniform as the other three she's seen. There's a big frosted glass window with cracks scattered across it and a sturdy-looking door at the back. Two people have guns pointed at it from behind a row of desks. And one person is guarding the way back towards the entrance, who glances at her and then turns right back to her watch.

Hmm, these seem like they're on the side she's trying to work with. She'll walk back out of the view of the person who looked away from her drop her unimportance and add just a tad of trustworthiness and go back into view. "Hi, I'm Alicia."

The guard double-takes. "Oh fuck that's weird, wow, hi. Okay, I believe you've got a shot at talkin' em down. Hi, so uh I think you should talk to Kevin over there."

"Welcome to the March Days," says presumably-Kevin. "It's March First, so March Day I guess. We're hoping it'll, uh, last. And hopefully we can de-escalate a bit here. How much context do you want, you familiar with Persephone and H-I? And it's Alicia, right?"

"I teleported into a room where a woman was pulling cables out of computers not that long ago now. Heard you were rebelling against a government that makes telling certain kinds of stories illegal and decided you were probably the side to back. I don't even speak your language, translation magic is handling that for me."

"-Now, you're saying 'magic' and you sure do have a lot of strange capabilities but magic isn't a thing, and weird niche tech dressed up as magic sure is. So I'm thinking 'did somebody figure out personal wormholes AND whatever perceptery or phereomone thing this is, who's backing her and what do they gain by confusing us while revealing these unprecedented breakthroughs'. I'm having a little difficulty here, sorry."

"Call it what you like, the circumstances remain the same." She carefully doesn't mention that she has pretended to teleport using her perception magic in the past. "We can debate the nature of reality when things are less time sensitive."

"Yeah, uh, I don't actually think that's the case? I'd rather not be gaslit, thanks, had enough of that already."

"If you think it's a good use of our time I can answer any questions you have. I'm also willing to lie and say you're correct if that would make you more comfortable though given that I lack context I don't know that I could do it convincingly."

"Don't worry, I wouldn't believe you. It's whether you're more useful than untrustworthy at this point, and that's not reaaaaally my call to make. Especially with, you know."

"With you being near me given that I can influence people near me?"

"Yep! It's more effective than parasocial techniques as far as I can tell even when you totally know it's happening! So uh, Hermes-Ishtar, ring a bell?"

"It's a name... even if I try to force it I get another two names."

"The Chartered Corporation that owns the planet and most everything on it. In spirit, if not in letter. Peddlers of abuses petty and grand, traders of lives like currency here on the frontier, far from even the corrupt justice of the Compact... We're rebelling, taking this planet back, for better or worse. This has been building for a long time, all the anger and paranoia... And maybe it'll actually work. ...If you're playing dumb, you're doing a really good job of it, hmm."

"They sound like some pretty bad people in a really bad system. Hopefully we win."

"We. Arright, so this is uh, the Hermes-Ishtar main datacenter for the whole planet and we've got maybe five minutes 'fore the police show up. So having loyalist guards still in a control room, even with it physically cut off, is no bueno. Though, honestly, kind of worried you're scouting us out here and gonna pop out to tell them what's up, how could we tell given what you know how to do, what do you have to say to that?"

"I don't think there's any perfect reassurance I can offer. I will say that I'm very good at going unnoticed so I don't think I would be talking to you if I was doing that. On a more practical note, do you think the people in the control room could hear me if I speak loudly? If they can that seems like the obvious thing for me to do."

Shrug. "Anyway, if we seem less than maximally cooperative that's why. And yeah, they can hear us. If you get a bit closer, anyway."

"Well, I think the best thing I can do to prove I'm on your side is do things that will help you. Do they have a way to see what's happening in this room?"

"I think we killed most of the cameras? Can't be sure of that though, so maybe. Probably. Eighty percent?"

"Alright, my first thought would be to convincingly claim to be some sort of especially skilled individual loyal to Hermes-Ishtar claim I removed all of you and either invite them out or ask them to allow me in."

"Could work, could work. Uhhhh. Probably don't claim to be their boss or a high-level manager, but someone good but secret... Lemme ask for advice-

-Okay, so actually they definitely have eyes on us here, you'd have to bluff your way in and then distract or disable them somehow. Maybe you bluffed us and lied about having the encryption keys."

"You'll have to say more. You're suggesting I tell them that I convinced you I'm on your side while convincing them I'm on their side so they let me in. What's that about encryption keys though. Do they need them for something?"

"I can't tell you about that," he says sharply and winces. "I don't know, I'm not a crisis negotiator, I'm an advertising analyst, Christ. The other tack to try is just to very convincingly promise we won't hurt them if they surrender and fighting would be pointless and risky."

"Alright, would you and the others be willing to walk out of the room? I think the easiest thing would be to claim I bribed you and then ask them to open up."

He discusses this plan with the others in the room, and calls Mason to ask about it. Luckily, the consternated arguing serves as good cover for them actually clearing out for her a bit later.

"We're just going to shoot them if this doesn't work probably. Eff-Why-Eye."

"I've killed people before, it's unpleasant but I won't criticize you for it."

"Yeah uh, good luck."

Various rebels file out of the cubicle desk room, reluctant expressions on their faces.

She excludes the people who just left and then pushes her magic to make her seem as trustworthy and authoritative as possible and backs that up with her tone. Then she walks to the door and speaks clearly and loudly with a tad bit of impatience. "Open up I'm special operations. I managed to get them to leave by bribing them but you can't trust scum like that and they might renege."

"-Fuck! At least someone has a fucking plan, thank Ares!"

They open the door. There are three guards in uniform, one with a weapon and the other two unarmed. They all look anxious and furious.

"Special ops? Hell, this is the deep end, isn't it. Okay, what's the plan for getting us all out of here, ma'am? Or are we going to take those anarchists out?"

"There's probably more than we can afford to fight, there's a reason I talked my way past instead of leaving a trail of bodies. How much of a view into the facility do you have? I have a backup plan but you might have access to useful information I don't it took me a bit to get all the way to you."

"Damn. We got caught completely by surprise, they suborned one of the shift supers. They've cut all the hard links, like physically cut them, we only have the cameras in this part of the office because they're wireless."

"Riot team is on the way right? Maybe we should just keep holding out, they'll get to us eventually. Keep an eye out for a good moment to join the fight."

"Unfortunately they're not, this is happening everywhere and other facilities have been deemed more critical. My job is to collect loyal forces and make larger groups that stand a better chance together. Can you tell me what weapons and restraints you have on you?"

"Higher priority? What the fuck could be higher priority, Director Yang's personal suite-"

"Probably. The spaceport, police HQ, Hephaestus Center-"

"Fuuuuuuck, uh. We have one PG-39 here, fifteen rounds and one in the chamber, gene-locked to me but I can unlock it. A few sets of polycuffs, orc rated, some duct tape, and our stun truncheons."

"Alright give me the polycuffs and unlock the PG-39 for me." Can she see their stun truncheons?

The truncheons are all hooked to their belts.

"Yes ma'am!"

"It'll be sweet to see special ops in action, cut some throats and take down the anarchists."

"You look totally harmless, it's amazing, wonder what kind of low-profile augments they use for this shit..."

The gun is handed over after a short bit of messing with it, and several sets of high-tech handcuffs shortly after.

Do the handcuffs look easy to use?

Yep, they're labeled 'place detainee's hands here' and everything.

"Well you're about to get your chance." She flips herself to maximum uninteresting grabs one of the stun truncheons makes a brief attempt to turn it on but if that doesn't work she just hits them with it before putting the cuffs on them.

They react with confusion and then shock and then being handcuffed and swearing. The polycuffs work just fine on legs, too. The shock truncheon seems to have a rather painful effect.

She smiles, nobody badly hurt means a job well done she props the door open and walks back to to hallway where the rebels are waiting dropping her magic as she does. She hands over the gun. "They're handcuffed, disarmed and ready for you to do whatever you like."

The datacenter rebels take a careful look, and then celebrate quietly and start moving the guards towards the other prisoners (a few more guards they managed to surprise earlier). Could she hand over the unlocked weapons? Those would be handy to have in case the police push in, but they're not gonna push it.

The one who talked to her before comes up to her again. "Hey, hi. Mason says thanks, we can uhhh have only one person guard them instead of like six. We're securing the place right now and like... I think he doesn't want to offend you or make you want to leave but he also doesn't know what to do with you now because he told me to keep you busy and explain the platform and answer questions as long as they're not like, opsec or something."

"She should tell the cops to go away and everything's fine!" Another woman comments.

"I don't think that'd work? If we were going to try something like that it'd have to be, uh, part of a more coherent scenario."

"Coherent scenes help a lot, besides if this is a larger rebellion than this one building if they leave they'll probably just hurt people elsewhere. As for your reasons I wouldn't mind hearing more. You already seem like good people with a good cause but I'm missing a lot of context."

"Should I be playing along and assuming you've never heard of the Charters or anything else?"

She sighs wondering if they'll ever believe her. "I would appreciate it if you did."

"The Solarian Compact administrates human space, with a galactic mandate to maintain freedom, peace, and the gate network. To help foster economic growth," a disgusted look, "Large portions of the frontier are given up to the chartered corporations as special autonomous zones. The law still applies here, but good luck getting it to a real court, basically. There are five major Charters, and Elysium - this planet, the system is called Radiant - is owned and operated by Hermes-Ishtar. It's a resort planet, supposed to cater to rich tourists and executives' every whim. Which means the staff gets treated like shit. And Hermes-Ishtar or licensed fabricators you pay company scrip into are the only ways to get the necessities of life."

"Alright seems simple enough, I've encountered a similar setup before though with less of a fig leaf. What are your goals here? Are you just trying to free this planet and if so how are you going to deal with the other parts of the wider polity?"

"I'm not- I'm. Mostly my goal is to quit my damned job. Never do it again. I think the overall goal is... Be independent. Not get crushed when H-I patrol fleets come around. And they will. But fuck, you have no idea how bad it was. It's - it'd sound petty and stupid, maybe, but I was working fifteen hour days certain that I'd get my big break any day now, and then I saw the promotion plans by chance and a - damn slug who can't spot a correlation if it smacked him in his face, was going to be promoted and get triple my pay because he was some SolBank manager's nephew and they want the connection! Years of my life-"

"I'm sorry that happened to you." It seems a bit minor in comparison to people being imprisoned for telling stories but it's still not great.

"And it's just - those stories are everywhere. They make grand promises, get you to give your passion and energy and - and - your whole life, and it turns into a lie, everywhere. Everyone has different horror stories."

Someone else chimes up, "I got an actress role, and they changed their mind and wanted me to do a sex scene later. I refused, but they just fired me and deepfaked it. Image rights, I'd signed them away. It's a standard small role contract, and you'll never make it big if you don't start with small roles, and you'll never get small roles if you try to negotiate on the contracts."

"They managed to claim the original manuscript I've spent five years on as intellectual property. My lawyer assures me that it's legal, 'cause I opened the file at work one time."

"So it's a system designed to exploit people in every way that it can while pretending that it doesn't on the surface."

"Yeah, pretty much. The other charters have different tactics but the same goal."

"You said there would be patrol fleets.... I don't expect there would be ways to get onto those would there? I suppose that's a longer term problem... I'm just trying to understand how I can be helpful. The usual things I do are infiltration and interrogation. I helped with a rebellion once before but it was much different. They didn't have computers. I expect computers change a lot."

"I literally can't imagine life without computers. And I don't know what would be good when we have to trust you. Everyone in this building is part of the same, like, five cells - all vouched for each other. Uhhhhhh. Maybe you can get some useful info out of the other security guys, the ones you tricked or others. Could be the best thing is to leave here - we're going to fort up and hold on, that doesn't take difficult intel really. But, like, there's going to be a lot of confusion out there and places that are more active or are pulling people in as the protests gain steam could probably use knowing where the cops are and what they're planning."

"If it would be best for me to go elsewhere I can. Do you have suggestions for where I should go?"