RPC-361

They Go Dancing

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An RPC-361 manifestation.

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Registered Phenomena Code: 361

Object Class: Omega-Red (Pending Re-Classification)

Hazard Types: Aggression, Grouped, Sapient, Transmutation, Mind-Control


Containment Protocols: Authority personnel are to prepare for occurrences of RPC-361 near the beginning of February1 until the end of the month. Agents and researchers alike are encouraged to participate in public celebrations around the time to increase the chances of spotting an RPC-361 manifestation.

The nature of RPC-361 makes manifestation within a public setting very probable with direct prevention of RPC-361-1 creation unfeasible, and as such requires significant collaboration between the Authority and the HKSAR Government; the Hong Kong Police Force is to alert the Authority of any manifestations and secure a perimeter to prevent contact between civilians and RPC-361-1. Agents are embedded within major news outlets to either distract the public or misinform civilians of the event.

Once a manifestation is discovered, MST-Romeo-7 "Suited Gentlemen" will be immediately sent to the location to engage and disconnect RPC-361-1 instances from the main body, utilizing non-lethal methods2 in order to cease the manifestation. Should a Protocol Failure be reported, Romeo-7 is authorized to terminate the RPC-361-1 instances through gunfire, primarily those approaching population centers.

Following the termination of RPC-361-1 instance/s, the corpse/s will be delivered to the nearest hospital and discretely transported back to Site-038 at a later date.


Description: RPC-361 denotes the phenomenon that targets ethnically Han Chinese performers of dances that involve the mimicking of an animal or otherwise non-human creatures through the usage of costume. The criteria for these manifestations are not fully understood beyond the previous condition, though RPC-361 commonly takes place within territorial Hong Kong3 during New Year celebrations or other traditional festivals, when such dances would have been performed by large amounts of people.

RPC-361 begins on an unspecified date, with a varying frequency of █ to ██ events occurring every year. During the onset of a manifestation, victims report the feeling of nausea and heaviness on their heads, followed by them slowly conjuring the image of a beast during performance. Description of the entity is unclear due to the victims often focusing on their performance, but the creature4 is described to be "enormous" and "towering" with its head constantly shifting and swirling, obstructing its true appearance. Should subjects be disrupted as a result of the distraction caused by the incoming thoughts, the event will immediately cease, manifesting into another group of people and continuing on until the creation of RPC-361-1 instances.

The imagery would become increasingly vivid until RPC-361-A utter the phrase "混蛋得滾着跑"5 in Mandarin, at which point victims find themselves in an unrecognizable environment being continuously chased after by RPC-361-A presumably for the entire duration of the event.6 Through this it is assumed that victims are unable to consciously react to external stimuli or perceive the outside world beyond this point. This is commonly believed to be the moment in which subjects' consciousness is taken over by an external force.7

These victims, now designated RPC-361-1, appear to no longer be able to identify themselves as anything other than the creature they are mimicking, playing their part in greater unison and coordination than before. RPC-361-1 instances become more tolerant to pain and gain a noticeable increase in strength and agility. Instances display hostility to all individuals within their vicinity and will attack them through multiple ways such as running and stomping over them, kicking them with their legs, or bludgeoning/"biting down" with the head of the costume through the forefront RPC-361-1 instance.

The forefront RPC-361-1 will be subjected to bodily change to their lower half. Both leg muscles and bones begin to increase in mass, expand, and reorganize themselves: The knee bone is expelled, with the fibula extended and shifted to the back of the tibia. The metatarsus reduces in size and splits from the instep while the metatarsals and 4 outer phalanges enlarge. The transformation concludes with the distal phalanges breaking apart, protruding from the top of the toes through the toenail to form into claws. The resultant structure resembles the forelegs of a quadrupedal animal. Blood loss during the process does not impede the instances and the wounds will quickly heal themselves.8 As they are unconscious at the time, victims reported no pain during the transformation.

RPC-361-1 will continue their acts of aggressions until the removal of one or more instances or the costume's head from the main body,9 resulting in the breakdown of the performance or otherwise rendering it unable to continue. At which point surviving victims' vision will change, with RPC-361-A bursting into flames and the sounds of explosions being constantly heard, followed by a bright flash of red colouration that precedes their return to consciousness. Victims suffer no additional effects beyond the injuries sustained during the event. The lower bodies of forefront performers do not return to normal, usually resulting in death from the ensuing health complications.


Discovery: RPC-361 was initially discovered on 12/02/2009 in Chai Wan, Hong Kong, where it manifested through a pair of Lion Dance performers and attacked the surrounding audience. Police were dispatched to the scene shortly afterward and engaged the anomaly after the injuring of one of the responding officers. The instances were then terminated via gunfire after further injuring two officers when attempting to flip over their car and causing the near-death of one officer.

The officers and the two deceased instances were then brought to the New Territories West Cluster Hospital where the physical changes to the forefront instance are noticed during examination. An Authority-embedded operative soon alerted Site-038 of the incident and MST-Romeo-7 is deployed to amnesticizie all witnesses and retrieve the body. Following a second occurrence in the following year, RPC-361 is recognized as a phenomenon and designated afterward.


Addendum 1: Notable Incidents, Occurrence 8

On 15/02/2015, an RPC-361 manifestation occurred in Victoria Harbor where an art display is being held by Art Forum Hong Kong. The performance in question involved a modified Lion Dance costume, with its appearance altered to that of a fish's head, the inclusion of serpentine features, and extension of the body, allowing it to be manned by a 5-men crew.

First responders arrived at the scene attempted to arrest the 5 instances but were met with opposition by the venue organizers. It is only with additional officers arriving at the scene and RPC-361-1 beginning to attack the attendees that a fenced perimeter could be erected around the entities as Romeo-7 is being deployed to the scene.


Addendum 2: Notable Incidents, Occurrence 10

On 22/05/18, an incident occurred in Fukuoka, Japan. Two shishi-mai dancers were reported to "go feral" and attacked the attending townspeople. This incident resulted in 12 injuries and the death of the 2 dancers following confrontation with police personnel.

Post-mortem examination of the forefront performer revealed a similar mutation occurring within her legs. This attracted the attention of Site-089 staff who began research into the subjects under the assumption that this was an independent anomaly. A connection to RPC-361 was not drawn until investigation into the deceased's background found them to be second-generation Chinese immigrants, at which point Site-089 liaison contacted Site-038 5 days later, and the incident identified as a manifestation of RPC-361.

The alarming discovery prompted Site-038 to contact Sites of surrounding states for any similar event that has occurred:

  • A mischaracterized incident at Neipu, Taiwan on 11/03/16 was confirmed to be an attack perpetrated by RPC-361-1 instances by Site-016-TW following the inquiry.
  • Site-080 reported an incident on 28/01/17 that matches the overall description of RPC-361 occurring in northern Vietnam. Due to the difficulty of mobilization into the region to retrieve of bodies and the non-concerning nature of the event no actions were taken by Site-080 and the corpses were believed to have been incinerated by the Vietnamese military.

This indicates represents a great change in our perception of RPC-361:

Previously we were led to believe that the phenomenon is only limited to a portion of China or even just the territory of Hong Kong, even then it'd have been a particularly difficult anomaly that strains our logistics. Note that this does not imply an oversight in our prior discoveries of RPC-361 — All the reports we've gotten show that these are all fairly recent incidents.

But with this comes a dark implication that is arguably more concerning — RPC-361 is growing, its reach and frequency are expanding beyond a scope that Site-038 will be able to manage on its own. For now the rule of "influencing only Chinese victims" seems to remain consistent, but for how long?

Who is to say any of the arbitrary observations we've made in the prior decades would continue to be applicable in say another 10 years? What if it can infect a different nationality? And what if it grows more than just that, what if it gets more powerful?

These questions are not ones we can afford an answer to. For that, we must remain vigilant.

— Dr. Zhang Jiabao, Lead Researcher of RPC-361


Addendum 3: Occurrence 13 and PCAAO involvement

On 16/02/2020, RPC-361 manifested in Tsing Yi, Hong Kong. The HKPF mobilized within 15 minutes after the reported initial time of manifestation. This incident is noted by the unusual behaviors from the HKPF; More men were deployed to the scene than the HKPF would commonly use; an additional two Special Tactical Squad units were deployed to combat the threat. Strangely, the HKPF also did not contact Site-038 in regards to the incident, choosing to confront the entity on their own.

MST-Romeo-7 and on-site ASFs were then mobilized following reports of the deployment of 3 PLA military trucks from the People's Liberation Army Hong Kong Garrison Headquarters. Upon arrival, vehicles were found to be smashed and burned, with most of the people present sustaining serious injuries. Multiple charred corpses were found on the scene, at least six forefront RPC-361 instances were counted.

The Fire Services Department was called. During the cleanup operation, 1 officer and 7 of the HKG members were declared dead. Documentations recovered from the HKG members revealed them to be personnel from the People's Committee for the Acquisition of Anomalous Objects.13

Due to the relatively low exposure to the public, the Authority is able to masquerade the incident as a clashing between local protestors and the police.14 PCAAO's liaison soon contacted the Authority and requested a meeting at the HKG Headquarter in regards to the incident.

PCAAO's proposal regarding the neutralization of RPC-361 was sent to Site-038 and delivered to Regional Site-07 for review, but an agreement on action was not reached amongst the Asia Command staff. Following the Global Directors Election of 2020, the proposal was forwarded to the Board for review as part of the pending budgetary restructure initiatives:

DIRECTOR VOTE SUMMARY:

YEA NAY ABSTAIN
WEST NORTH SOUTH
AFRI EAST SCHL
EURA ASIA
OCEA
CMDR
ARCH

STATUS
APPROVED

Addendum 4: Occurrence 15 and Neutralization Attempt

On 21/06/21, Authority and PCAAO were gathered at Tai Long in preparation for a Neutralization attempt of RPC-361. Local Operatives were deployed to monitor all nearby festivals for any potential manifestation of RPC-361. A manifestation was never reported. Instead, post-incident interviews conducted at nearby village indicated that local men began spasming, before breaking into the village's warehouse, taking the 11-meter long Fire Dragon prop located inside.15 This resulted in a confrontation between Authority's MST units and PCAAO's soldiers and anomalous assets.


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