At Long Last The Smiler

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ATTENTION: This is a tale of a potential encounter between researchers and a smiler. This is not to be considered a canon version of the smiler, rather an alternate interpretation, and a non-canon possibility. 
Oh my God... Melody, come look at this.
...
Irene, I'm in the middle of... Oh my God...
= The Smiler, a case study... =
== ==
Pareidolia, the perception of apparently significant patterns or recognizable images, especially faces, in random or accidental arrangements of shapes and lines. Perhaps this phenomenon is what gave entity 3 its common name: The Smiler. More often than not, a smiler appears to be a misty, black void with a glowing "face" of sorts that is reminiscent of a smiley face, a shape popularized in the frontrooms in the 1960's. These entities are known for their aggression and lethality, being a true horror of the backrooms. 
As the bodies of entity 3 seemed to have been immaterial, not much was known about them outside of their apparent behavior. This was the case until recently when two M.E.G. researchers, M. Berthoud and I. Balzary managed to capture and study one of these entities.
The basic idea of the study was to design a trap of sorts that would efficiently and safely lure a Smiler into an airtight containment system. This will be done by a lure system and a LASER sensory trigger. Smilers, despite almost exclusively thriving in dark spaces are universally attracted to small, artificial lights. These entities are known to chase small lights as though the lights are prey of some sorts. 
CRAVES
== ==
Cylindrical Research Air-tight Vesicular Envelope System or CRAVES is a large, windowed containment system with sampling ports, gas ports, scales, and light probes. The CRAVES mechanism has one, large door encompassing the entirety of one the device's sides. Opposite of this door is a vertical 2-Watt, LED light strip capable of emitting 100 lumens of light. Horizontally perpendicular to this light strip is a LASER beam, when interrupted, triggers a hydraulic system that instantaneously closes and seals the CRAVES single door. This door requires a Tech 5 access to release once activated. 
The idea behind the CRAVES is to lure a Smiler via LED and trap them inside. Once this is accomplished, a team may move the CRAVES into a research laboratory where studies may be performed using the many ports and instruments built into the system. Unfortunately, a M.E.G. operator will be placed in a potentially hazardous situation as they will be equipped with a small flashlight and will have the job of leading a hostile smiler to the CRAVES trap. Once the operator is close, they will kill their flashlight and the Smiler will be attracted or try to attack the light in the CRAVES unit.
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===17 January 2023===
An operation led by M.E.G. officer, Devon Biale accompanied by lead scientists Irene Balzary and Meldoy Berthoud with M.E.G. operator Paul Wooten: On 13 September 2022, the team would set up the CRAVES unit in a known area of Level 1 where smilers were known to appear. Although entity appearances on level 1 were rare, smilers were known to exist in dark areas of the level. With Level 1 being a class 1 difficulty, the team deemed the location to be safe enough to continue operations in a controlled manner. The CRAVES unit was set up with a universal power supply and a generator due to the known power outages that regularly occur on level 1. The team would wait 5 months before achieving their goals.
===Log 230117_001===
Operator S859 - Devon Biale
17 January 2023 at 16:32
Operator O181 was patrolling south of CRAVES base of operations, approximately 500m during a power outage. O181 was discovered by an entity 3 specimen and radioed the appropriate code 3-sierra to S859. The operator confirms to have powered on their flashlight and ran towards the CRAVES unit. The entity 3 specimen pursued. Once operator O181 was within 5m of the CRAVES unit, operator O181 powered off their flashlight. The entity 3 specimen redirected their focus to the LED strip located inside the CRAVES unit. Once the LASER sensor was tripped, the door on the CRAVES unit shut and sealed. Entity 3, as of the time of this report is contained in the CRAVES unit. 
End Log. DB S859 
== ==
==Conducted Research==
After the capture of entity 3, researchers Irene Balzary and Meldoy Berthoud began their studies. They proposed the following questions:
*What is entity 3 made of?
*How does entity 3 move?
*How does entity 3 reproduce?
*How does entity 3 devour its prey?
== ==
To answer the first question, researcher I. Balzary performed a few tests based on a common observation: Entity 3 lives in dark places but is attracted to light sources. Balzary first experimented with a small flashlight. After cutting the power of the LED strip in the CRAVES unit, Balzary illuminated the small flashlight that produces 100 lumens of light. Balzary observed the black cloud that makes up the entity to concentrate its mass around the small light source. Noticeably, the "face" of the entity also centered itself around the light and seemed to illuminate itself even brighter than its average presence. 
Researcher M. Berthoud would try to extract some of the gas the made up the entity. Berthoud first attempted to lock a capsule on to the CRAVES unit in attempts to capture some of the gas. This gas, however, did not enter the capsule and seemed to remain within the main gas cloud. The two researchers attempted a few more times to get a sample of the gas but were unsuccessful until Balzary suggested baiting the cloud with food. As entity 3 is known for devouring lifeforms whole, the idea is that a piece of meat will bait an appendage of sorts to enter the capsule. Their attempt was successful. 
The gas continued to swirl in its new prison and Balzary continued the light experiment. The gas behaved similarly to the 100-lumen flashlight as before however as the researcher exposed the capsule to brighter light, the behavior seemed to change. At 500 lumens, the gas swirls erratically; if the container wasn't so small, the researchers believed the gas was trying to escape the light instead of chase it like before. 
At 1,000 lumens, the gas considerably slowed down and seemed to stop. After about 1 hour of exposure, the cloud dissipated into a fine dust that lay dormant at the bottom of the capsule. The sample did not reanimate. 
Being dust at the bottom of the capsule indicates that entity 3 is not made of gas, rather made of particles. Determined to answer the previously proposed questions, Balzary prepared slides with saline solution and the entity particles. When Balzary put the slide under a microscope these "particles" were both mechanical and biological in nature. Each particle appeared to be an individual nanobot with biological aspects.
== ==
Though research is still being conducted on entity 3 at this time, experiments have provided the M.E.G. with a list of hypotheses based on observations:
*Entity 3 is attracted to low levels of light such as flashlights. 
*Entity 3 prefers to live in dark areas.
*Entity 3 is a colony of flesh eating nanobots that seem to have biological functions.
*We suspect that, as Entity 3 will devour a human in its entirety, including bone, tools and clothing, that these nanobots can separate and utilize material at a molecular level. Perhaps they use this material to replicate and reproduce.
*The white "face" seems to be a specialized nanobot that utilizes photo-receptibility. It is undetermined if this is indeed a sensory organ of sorts, but this is the current hypothesis. We also suspect that low levels of light provide a sort of energy source for basic functions of the entity and is perhaps why it seeks low levels light sources.
*Entity 3 seems to have magnetic properties. This doesn't fully explain its mobility, but we hypothesize that positive and negative magnetic charges allow the cloud of nanobots to repel and attract each other as a colony and perhaps move.
*Intense levels of light are capable of harming colonies of Entity 3 over a period of exposure. 
===Meldoy Berthoud concludes her report:===
Entity 3 is a lethal entity and should be treated as such at all instances and encounters. Physical contact is dangerous and ill-advised as they will devour with great prejudice. Carry a flashlight at all times. Entity 3 will chase a light and one may throw the light to deter the entity. Do not attempt to approach a smiler and run away from entity 3 in all instances. It is quick but an average human should be able to outrun one. Expect that Entity 3 won't chase anyone into a lit area, though it can survive for a time in these areas. Low lumen lighting will not harm Entity 3. This being said, try to avoid overly dark areas if at all possible. If you do decide to go into dark areas, make sure to have an escape plan and preparations for the possibility of encountering Entity 3.
Though these entities are absolutely horrifying, an absolute abomination and a threat to all those who are unfortunate enough to wander the levels of the backrooms, I am in awe of their graceful and intricate design. Smilers... These part-living, and part-mechanical particles thrive on the most basic building block of life: light. They do not feel, they do not want, they only satisfy their need to feed and become. Though they are terrifying, I can't help but respect them. This discovery perhaps even points to some brilliant, if not deitic, grand creator. Were this true, what a brilliant yet sadistic creator this was.
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Main Author: TheDadams
Images: AI generated from Bing, and Dream by Wombo. CRAVES made by author using Paint 3d then "realism" edited using Dream by Wombo.
 Author Note: This is just a concept of the potential make of the Smiler. This is not canon, rather an alternate take on what it could be.
Category:Tales