RPC-268

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Regenerative Mechanical Temporal Tychokinetic

RPC-268.¹ Note the dial, which is damaged and regenerating.

Registered Phenomena Code: 268

Object Class: Alpha (Yellow/Red)

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Hazard Types: Mechanical Hazard, Temporal Hazard, Tychokinetic Hazard

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Containment Protocols: RPC-268 is currently uncontained following a containment breach on 12/10/2017, and is believed to be in the possession of PoI-268-2. As such, recovery of RPC-268 is considered a high priority. In the case of a possible sighting of RPC-268 or PoI-268-2 nearest available dispatch center in the event of a confirmed sighting of RPC-268 and/or PoI-268-2. Direct confrontation with PoI-268-2 is not permitted without the approval of a Level-4 personnel or higher.

Inactive Containment Protocols

Containment Protocols: RPC-268 is to be stored within a standard security locker in Site-038 and monitored to prevent any unauthorized use. The aforementioned locker is to be guarded by two security personnel at all times. Use for testing necessitates approval by no fewer than two Level-4 or higher personnel.

RPC-268 requires regular maintenance every two weeks or more frequently if tested — such as removing dust from crevices, wiping surfaces with a damp cloth, and applying appropriate lubricant to all moving parts. Care is to be taken to avoid damage, as RPC-268’s rate of regeneration is markedly slow.

All uses and results of the anomaly are to be documented appropriately in the provided formats.²

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Description: RPC-268 is a counterfeit instant camera that approximates Polaroid OneStep Land Camera models produced during the mid-1970s. A notable discrepancy of RPC-268 is the noise emitted when a photograph is taken, as opposed to a sound typical of these cameras. Disassembly of RPC-268 reveals no unexpected or unusual internal engineering. An audio sample of the aforementioned noise made by RPC-268 is included below.

Open Audio File

RPC-268’s emitted sound. Note the distorted, mechanical, and grinding properties.

The primary anomalous property of RPC-268 is activated when RPC-268 is used to photograph a human individual within range of the capture lens. The photographed individual will be depicted as deceased by the developed film of RPC-268, hereafter referred to as RPC-268-1. The manner in which the individual expires varies and the cause of death is potentially deducible from information within instances. RPC-268-1 instances are believed to be precursory,³ with no anticipated deaths in the manner depicted successfully prevented by the Authority.

The dial on RPC-268’s facade has been removed forcefully and is currently in a state of regeneration.⁴ No mechanism exists beneath this dial, and it is presumed this lack of detail is due to RPC-268’s status as a forgery.

Through various tests and circumstances, the Authority has compiled a list of parameters that RPC-268 operates under:

• Time for death for subjects is not known.
• There is no change if an individual is photographed numerous times before death, save for the setting.
• Multiple individuals within an instance of RPC-268-1 will be affected; however, information regarding their possible means of demise is limited to which parts of their body are captured in the instance.
  • E.g., RPC-268-1-37A captured the right arm of an individual who was otherwise out-of-frame. In the developed photograph, the individual's skin featured extensive third-degree burns; this individual was later identified to have died in a house fire.
• Individuals who were involved in the deaths of RPC-268-1 subjects, such as the murderer of the subject in RPC-268-1-08C, will not appear in the instance.
• Taking a picture of a person's name or another photograph will not yield an instance of RPC-268-1.
• RPC-268 has shown no signs of sapience/sentience, nor do individuals show any changes to their ACS Reality levels.⁵
• Those in possession of RPC-268 are immune to its anomalous properties when taking a self-portrait.
• Any intervention applied in order to avoid the results observed in RPC-286-1 instances have so far invariably been incorporated into the means of those results. (See Addendum 268.1)
• Any attempts, precognitive or impromptu, to alter or prevent the means of death depicted in RPC-286-1 instances have invariably been met with failure.

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Discovery:
RPC-268 was discovered in 1976, when PoI-9320 was taken into custody. On his person were hundreds of instant photographs of cadavers, later determined to be instances of RPC-268-1. When RPC-268 was removed from PoI-9320 his physical appearance deteriorated over the course of the following weeks, such that the apparent age of PoI-9320 became markedly incongruous with his biological age. This effect has not reoccurred despite attempts to recreate it. The significance of this occurrence remains in dispute.

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Addendum 1: Notable RPC-268-1 Instances

[+] Access File

RPC-268-1-12A

07/11/1978

The subject was depicted as pruned and waterlogged, suggesting drowning as the cause of death. The subject was tagged and surveilled by Authority agents remotely, and covertly secured away from proximity to any appreciable body of water. After being successfully deterred from a travel trajectory towards the coast, the subject crashed his vehicle into a fire hydrant. He stepped out of the vehicle and into a sinkhole likely made as a result of the destruction of the fire hydrant and drowned.

RPC-268-1-36A

02/06/1986

During testing, CSD-19302 was depicted as enduring terminal, blunt-force trauma to the cranium. The abrasions present suggested a round object, one that left imprints of an engraved pattern, presumed to be industrial in nature. He was taken to remote Camp-150 in the Gobi desert and fitted with protective gear in order to reduce the likelihood of the depicted death. While outside of his tent, a tortoiseshell that had been dropped from high altitude by an Aquila chrysaetosfrom (golden eagle) impacted his head, the eagle presumably mistaking his industrial-grade helmet with a rock suitable for shattering the shell. Subject died of sequelae from skull fracture.

RPC-268-1-187B

08/10/1998

The subject was depicted as emaciated with an engorged abdomen, clinically dying from starvation. Authority personnel procured the subject under pretenses of anomalous research and contained her within an Alpha-White humanoid cell where the subject enacted a hunger strike in protest of her incarceration. When the subject became morbidly malnourished, the Office of Ethics and Review approved directed enteral nutrition,6 which was established. The narcotics required to keep the subject sedated for this process caused bowel immotility and formed a large bowel obstruction, rendering her gastrointestinal tract non-functional and protruding her abdomen significantly. Internal rupture and death occurred one week later, the body never recuperating from the malnutrition.

RPC-268-1-291A

10/10/1999

Researcher Chalmers was killed instantly during testing of RPC-268 when the ceiling of the testing chamber caved in, crushing him. The collapse was later determined to be due to material fatigue. Recovered surveillance footage shows the death occurring immediately after Chalmers observes his own RPC-268-1 instance, which was taken by an assistant who survived the event. The instance was recovered and depicted Chalmers as a collection of pomace, blood, and fractured bone.

RPC-268-1-494B

01/02/2001

Posthumous investigation revealed that Researcher Jeremiah Mott7 had his photograph taken in an unauthorized, self-administered test of the anomaly. He destroyed the photograph after, and the performing assistant was unable to view the result, but Mott's personal diary describes his cadaver depicted as "strings of viscera and static". Researcher Mott was so disturbed by this that he requested to be amnesticized and reassigned. This was performed at nearby Site-028 where he was reemployed and reassigned to RPC-███, on account of his past penchant for dimensional anomalies. On 01/02/2001, Researcher Mott uncharacteristically failed to secure a decompression chamber lever after performing routine data collection on RPC-███ despite passing numerous competencies for this in orientation training.8 Mott was partially pulled into the 60cm dimensional orifice and delaminated over the course of several minutes in the process, portions of his internal anatomy being lost into the dimensional anomaly. The caveat that the RPC-268-1 instance might have represented for Mott regarding an assignment such as RPC-███ was presumably lost to him during the amnesticzation process.

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Addendum 2: Selected Test Logs

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Provided in this addendum is a collection of notable test logs, designed to (1) further clarify the mechanism of RPC-268, (2) determine if RPC-268’s effects are causative or simply predictive, and (3) frustrate the capabilities of RPC-268 if possible. The tests and their results are listed below.⁹

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Test 1

(Currently under audit by the Office of Ethics and Review)

Date: 08/11/1976
Testing Design: Researcher Oliver Issac
Photographer: Researcher Oliver Issac
Photographed Individual: CSD-6921
RPC-268-1 Instance: Unknown, by test design.
Hypothesis: If research personnel resist viewing the RPC-268-1 instance, then the depicted death will still occur.

Results: CSD-6921 was killed in action on 12/09/1976 by RPC-███.

Additional Notes: RPC-268-1 instance was observed retroactively and displayed an image of death that was compatible with the means of expiration. This test confirmed that looking at the RPC-268-1 instance itself does not cause the observed effects.

A terrible tragedy to be sure. But we can learn something from this, and not let the horrible death be in vain. This is valuable information due to the unusual and unmistakable manner in which RPC-███‘s victims die. By this, we can remove the previous ambiguity in the means of death, and conclude with sufficient reason that the -1 instances are very specific in their prognosis. — Researcher Oliver Issac

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Test 7

Date: 08/12/1977
Testing Design: Researcher Oliver Issac
Photographer: Researcher Oliver Issac
Photographed Individual: CSD-6980¹⁰
RPC-268-1 Instance: Shown to be a single low-caliber headshot wound to the back of the head.
Hypothesis: If tied to a chair and given lethal injection,¹¹ then this will prevent the death shown in RPC-268-1 from happening.

Results: CSD-6980 was given a lethal injection and was pronounced dead ten minutes after. As the site security guard removed his restraints, CSD-6980 lunged for the guard's firearm. The guard evaded CSD-6980 and shot him once in the head out of self-defense.

Additional Notes: Review of CSD-6980's vital signs at the time of his pronounced death displayed faint ECG activity, which was not noticed at the time.¹²

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Test 12

Date: 08/21/1977
Testing Design: Researcher Oliver Issac
Photographer: Researcher Oliver Issac
Photographed Individual: CSD-6990¹³
RPC-268-1 Instance: The cause of death is presumably natural causes via old age.
Hypothesis: If the subject is executed by gunshot trauma, then this will alter the cause of death and prevent the death shown in RPC-268-1 from happening. A security guard was ordered to shoot CSD-6990 in the chest several times.

Results: Researcher Issac, disobeying protocol brandished his own firearm and proceeded to fire six shots (a full magazine) into the mandible and cranium of CSD-6990. The test was discontinued. Miraculously, CSD-6990 did not die from the injuries but was placed in life-long acute medical care due to a resulting anoxic brain injury. CSD-6990 expired forty years later in his sleep.

Additional Notes: Olivier Issac is currently under suspension per Internal Judicial Affairs. He has thus been removed from his position with RPC-268. Oliver Issac was re-assigned to RPC-268 under conditional participation.

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Test 13

Date: 09/07/1977
Testing Design: Senior Researcher Barry Stevenson
Photographer: Research Assistant Oliver Issac
Photographed Individual: RPC-218
Hypothesis: Anomalies are subject to RPC-268's effect.¹⁴

Results: RPC-218, given its reliable appearance at events of great historical importance, was photographed using RPC-268 at the treaty signings between Panama and the United States. RPC-268-1 instance featured a blank, black photograph. Analysis determines that the chemical film was successfully developed and that the shutter of the camera was open at the time of photography. Further testing on the instance revealed an ACS level approaching 0. The significance of this is uncertain. A message on the posterior side of the instance read:

Prepare for unseen circumstances.

Additional Notes: The RPC-268-1 instance was incinerated by order of the Global Directorate.

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Test 15

Date: 11/12/1977
Testing Design: Senior Researcher Barry Stevenson
Photographer: Research Assistant Oliver Issac
Photographed Individual: RPC-███
Hypothesis: (1) Anomalies are subject to RPC-268's effect. (2) RPC-███ has a definitive and final death.

Result: RPC-268 produced an instance of RPC-268-1, immediately followed by another instance of RPC-268-1, ad infinitum. By the time the experiment was ceased by depletion of film from RPC-268, it had produced over nineteen instances of RPC-268-1, each showing RPC-███ dying in a plethora of varying circumstances.

Additional Notes: Hypothesis (1) is presumed confirmed, although it is currently unknown whether RPC-268 could successfully produce an RPC-268-1 of RPC-███'s final death. Research has been inconclusive in proving whether RPC-███ has a set amount of deaths or if it is potentially infinite.

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Test 34

Date: 11/15/1993
Testing Design: Senior Researcher Molly Wholefield
Photographer: Research Assistant Oliver Issac
Photographed Individual: N/A
Hypothesis: If RPC-268 is used to photograph RPC-268 itself, then the RPC-268-1 instance will depict how RPC-268 becomes inert.

Results: Taking a self-portrait through use of a mirror produced no RPC-268-1 instance.

Additional Notes: RPC-268 does not apply to objects, RPC-268 included. This result in addition to the animal studies suggests that RPC-268 only produces an RPC-268-1 instance in the presence of human genetic material.

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Test 58

Date: 12/10/2017
Testing Design: Senior Researcher Michael Anjou
Photographer: Research Assistant Fae Andrews
Photographed Individual: Research Assistant Oliver Issac
Hypothesis: N/A. The following test was performed as a preliminary PoI workup for the detection of anomalous traits in Research Assistant Oliver Issac, whose seeming inability to age caught the attention of Authority personnel. Any anomalous traits were hypothesized to be secondary due to prolonged exposure to RPC-286.

Result: RPC-268-1 instance featured Research Assistant Oliver Issac seemingly alive, standing directly centered in the shot and facing the capture lens. Upon photography responsibilities being transferred from former Research Assistant Oliver Issac, he immediately began to age, his physique well-surpassing his biological age.

Additional Notes: Oliver Issac is now PoI-268-2 and is to be contained within a humanoid security cell as of 12/10/2017.

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Test 59

Date: 12/10/2017
Test Design: N/A - Containment Breach
Photographer: Former Research Assistant, now PoI-268-2 Oliver Issac
Photographed Individual(s): Twenty-eight CSDs, Senior Researcher Michael Anjou, and two Site security guards stationed within the testing chamber at the time.
Hypothesis: N/A

Results: After gaining access to RPC-268's testing chamber without permission, PoI-268-2 took possession of RPC-268 and began producing instances of RPC-268-1, using nearby Authority research and security personnel, as well as celled CSD personnel. The flash on the camera was sufficient to stun the unsuspecting personnel, and PoI-268-2 escaped the site under guise of his former employment. PoI-268-2 remains at large.

Additional Notes: A handwritten note by PoI-268-2 was found at Site-038, detailed below:

I know by the time these words are read, my employment at the Authority will be concluded. I will have committed the unthinkable and breached the containment we established out of concern for the public. Through various tests, I have suggested that RPC-268 does not cause the deaths and that it only shows us what will inevitably happen… but █████ and a significant source of stress for me. One that I am hellbent on finding a way to resolve before I die. Which I have found a way to prolong. I was the one who damaged RPC-268 and though I didn't expect to wait this long, it will be worth it, because I can simply █████ all the time I'll ever need.

Maybe looking through this camera is like viewing the azure of ocean waves; whether or not we gaze upon their alluring aesthetic does not change that they will crash upon the shore. But in focusing on their simple rhythm, the world seems to slow. Our time feels well spent, our moments bigger, fuller — like seeing the world through the eyes of a child again, who would regard an unexpected day off of school as an infinity of leisure. When I look at the photos, I feel that infinity.

I once saw this camera as a curse, as if we are but slaves to its totalitarian glimpse of our futures. But now, I see it as a gift and an opportunity. I am like Plato's characters who freed themselves from glimpsing mere shadows on a wall. I have viewed the coming storms for the Authority and its leadership, and I refuse to let them crash upon us. I will learn to break the determinism of our reality at any cost. I repeat: At. Any. Cost.

Research. Protect. Contain.
And don’t forget; “research” comes before the other two.
— Oliver Issac

P.S. I’d recommend the GDs heed their photophobia.

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Footnotes

1. Photo credit: Researcher Issac Research Assistant Issac POI-268-2.

2. See Addendum 2.

3. It is currently unknown whether RPC-268 causes these deaths to occur.

4. The rate of regeneration places this damage immediately prior to its containment and is expected to recover fully in approximately 45 years.

5. This was initially postulated to explain the inevitability of the deaths depicted in RPC-268-1 instances.

6. A technique of nutritional delivery that uses a feeding tube inserted into the gastrointestinal tract.

7. RPCs ███ (1987-1992), ███ (1992-1994), ███ (1994-1999), 268 (2000-2001), and ███ (2001).

8. Acquaintances reported that Mott's memory was never the same after the amnesticization.

9. Several testing proposals were denied due to ethics concerns.

10. On death row, execution date set for 08/12/1976.

11. Dose of potassium chloride, which ceases cardiovascular activity.

12. At the time of testing, death was medically defined by lack of activity in the cardiovascular system, and not by the death of the brain, which was established in the early 1980s. For this reason, CSD-6980 was mistakenly pronounced dead prior to actual brain death.

13. Formerly Assistant Researcher Benedict Bendrum, found guilty of feeding a subject to RPC-███ in the process of testing RPC-268.

14. This hypothesis was not able to be confirmed.

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