Anomalies

Anomalies are living beings that bring destruction in one way or another wherever they go, either physically, mentally, or magically. The Anomalies have no control over their means of destruction and they are created when someone breaks. Anomalies are classified using a set of letters that defines their status. First comes a letter that tells you whether it is Pacifist, Neutral, or Hostile. Then comes a number that tells you what number Anomaly it is. Finally, another letter is added that tells you whether the Anomaly has been purified, contained, deemed safe, or on the loose. Although their ways of thinking differ from each other's, the one thing all of them do is destroy things. As a result, Caelum needs to find Anomalies before it's too late. Here is a list of eleven of the known Anomalies.

## Anomalies

* The Crying Child, HP1

The Crying Child takes the form of a 5-year-old child who is looking for his mother. Every time he screams out, a shockwave pulses through the air and destroys the buildings it hits. Upon encountering a woman, the child will instinctively reach out to her and will stop crying for a while. Unfortunately, upon making contact with the woman, she will disintegrate. After this, the child's screams will grow in intensity and his tears will become acid. Every time a woman disintegrates from his touch, the child becomes less and less human-like and his body parts will undergo several changes. He will lash out at any male figure, but if said male figure claims to know of the whereabouts of the child's mother, then the child will listen. If the child finds that he has been tricked, then he will emit a stronger shockwave than usual.

* The Court Jester, HC2

The Court Jester takes the form of an entertainer in the olden days who actively seeks out fun - in the form of murder. Whenever the jester finds someone or something they want to play with, it'll stop at nothing to obtain and destroy/kill it. The jester can float through the air and pass through walls like a ghost, and normally the temperature of the rooms it passes through drops. Once the victim has been ravaged, the jester will then look for another victim. Generally, the Court Jester sticks to a single area (about a kilometer in diameter) and its core can be found somewhere within this area. The core takes the form of a white masquerade mask, and it defines the place where the jester will reside. Once the core is placed the Court Jester will be unable to leave its area. The jester cannot move or influence the core in any way, and as far as Caelum's researchers know, there is no way to destroy the core.

* The Sentient Puddle, N3C

The Sentient Puddle takes the form of a small body of water that's usually a couple of meters in diameter. It can perform thought processes and possesses feelings as any sentient being would, and shows no sign of desiring to destroy the world and murder humanity. Upon touching another body of water, the puddle will absorb it. Luckily for humanity, the Sentient Puddle hasn't managed to reach the ocean, and this Anomaly has only caused a dozen casualties. If swallowed by any animal, the part of the puddle that was swallowed will instinctively burst out of the animal's body. Any blood the water came into contact with would get converted into part of the puddle. Once absorbed by a plant, the puddle will suck all the water out of the plant and then exit through the plant's roots, causing the plant to wilt in the process. The Sentient Puddle cannot evaporate, (phew) but it can freeze.

* The Floating Doll, P4S

The Floating Doll takes the form of an American Girl doll with a strong affinity for telekinesis. When the doll touches something, the item she came into contact with will start to crumble. Objects that are touching the crumbling item will not be destroyed. Upon conversing with her, researchers found that she abhors destruction and started practicing telekinesis so that she could move without touching things. Pitying the poor thing, the researchers crafted a magical barrier-like material that wouldn't crumble at the doll's touch to prevent her from accidentally breaking Caelum's buildings. However, the barrier is invisible, and the doll can still feel things. She still floats around Caelum, but occasionally asks Floppa for entry into the mortal world to see and feel the sights.

* The Eternal Sawblades, N5C

The Eternal Sawblades are indestructible sawblades that are always spinning. They are incapable of complex thought processes (such as speaking) and will stay in place until the scent of blood reaches them. If there happens to be one, the sawblades will immediately seek out the cause of the scent and attack it. On one occasion, the sawblades have been seen "eating" the cause. The researchers believe that blood is the sawblades' form of nourishment, and thus the blades will act upon their instincts and attack the cause of the scent. The blades also lose speed after going several days without blood, further proving the researchers' hypothesis, but no amount of time without blood will get them to stop spinning.

* The Haunted House, N6C

The Haunted House is a haunted house. It does normal haunted house things, like scaring people and making things appear from nowhere, but its effect on a person's mental state is worse than usual. Out of all of the million people that went in, only one came out simply shaken. The rest were subject to complete fear, having been stripped of their sanity and confidence. The house feeds on the fear of the trapped, and once a person is inside they'll have a hard time finding their way out. Warped by the house, the occupants that were significantly affected come out with a thirst for blood and a need for destruction. It has been removed from the mortal world for safety concerns, and the entrance to the house has been bricked up until the researchers can find a way to purify it.

* The Guard Dog, N7L

The Guard Dog is a dog that will ferociously attack anyone that comes near its "owner". This owner is randomly selected, and the only way to figure out who the owner is would be to round up all of the candidates and find the last person standing. The Guard Dog will follow any command the "owner" gives it, and all of the sightings of this dog report that it can become stronger with just a command. Should this "owner" die, the dog will let loose a howl that will decimate everything within a two-kilometer radius and then seek out a new "owner". The criteria for these "owners" are unknown, but all of them are related in one way or another. For example, the last two recorded owners were both social workers. Due to its normal appearance, Caelum has been unable to locate the dog, but the last sighting was in Belgium.

* The AI Corrupter, H8P

The AI Corrupter is a computer virus that can spread to other computers at a disturbingly fast rate. Upon reaching the Internet, the virus will go through to the websites it can reach and from there, corrupt the device on which the website was made. After that, it enters the contact list registered on the device and attacks their devices. The virus will find a way to circumvent any obstacle in its path, and even jumped into a powerline once. Before it was found, several million people had lost their devices to the virus. Thankfully, Caelum was able to track down the virus and purify it. The people affected were given exact copies of the device they had lost and had their minds wiped of the incident, and the Gaudium General insisted on giving them dreams about Floppa.

* The Never-ending Hotel, P9S

The Never-ending Hotel is seemingly normal. However, after its inhabitants reach the tenth floor, they will find that going down a staircase will only lead them back to the tenth floor. The inhabitants cannot enter the elevator. Occupants who look out of a window will find that night has fallen, and they can't open the window. Every time someone enters the tenth floor, a forest fire starts somewhere in the world. The researchers at Caelum solved this problem by making a connection between the tenth floor and the mortal world in the form of a doorframe. This is a two-way trip, and the doorframe will make people want to go through it. The researchers were rather happy about how fast this was resolved.

* The Possessive Hoodie, H10P

The Possessive Hoodie takes the form of a black hoodie possessed by a poltergeist. Anyone who puts it on will have their mind taken over by the poltergeist, and will immediately seek out a weapon to murder as many people as possible. The hoodie can't be destroyed completely but can be destroyed partially. Occasionally, a host manages to fight off the poltergeist long enough to take the hoodie off, although this is rather rare. This caused Caelum quite a bit of trouble since it looked just like a normal hoodie, but soon enough they were able to identify it and purified the Possessive Hoodie. The affected never truly got over the experience of being possessed, and so the angels had to wipe their memories.

* The Parasite, H11L

The Parasite takes the form of a twenty-five year old lawyer. Although it looks like a human, it actually isn't. "Pitt" is not actually a human, but a parasite that expands its lifespan by feeding on the suffering of others. The parasite itself has no name but calls itself "Pitt". It is unknown what the parasite wants and is impossible to contain due to its unpredictable nature. A human named "Ernest" was killed by "Pitt" after witnessing it possess his twin by entering through the twins mouth. Hosts of "Pitt" are to be killed on sight with no questions asked. An Angel named "Artregan" killed his entire unit after being possessed by "Pitt" before being executed by a horde of rampaging Noctis. If "Pitt" was to attempt to enter Caelum however, it would be reduced to ash by a defensive spell built into every portal when RILES was installed. The true form of "Pitt" resembles a large roach/squid hybrid and cannot be removed once attached to a host, since the brain is replaced by "Pitt" who takes the role of every organ in the body.

View the full case report here.

## Breaking

As stated in the introduction, Anomalies appear when someone breaks. Breaking can happen in three ways: extreme pain, severe emotional stress, or an absolute loss of senses and sentiments. By breaking, a person lets out all of their magical and physical power in a burst of emotion. Normally, the power would be absorbed by Caelum, Inanis, or Avalon and the person would die, but on occasion, the power surges back into the person and they'll morph into a new form depending on how they were before being broken. Of course, dear reader, you may be asking, "But I thought they didn't have that much power?" And they don't. In fact, most of the Anomalies' power came from the intense emotions they'd felt, which were converted into power when the person broke. Since Anomalies have full recollections of their past life, breaking is something that all of the Noctis are attempting to achieve. The Nocti that murdered the queen ninety-eight years ago was the only one to succeed in becoming an Anomaly.

## Purification

Purification is the process required to get rid of Anomalies. First, the Anomaly's attachment must be found. Sometimes, it's really easy to find it, but other times it isn't. An attachment that's easy to find would be the Possessive Hoodie's attachment. Since the Anomaly is the poltergeist, the hoodie is the attachment. A harder one would be the Crying Child's attachment. After several weeks of investigation, Caelum's researchers finally found that the child's attachment was his heart.
After finding the attachment, the purifiers need to obtain it - which should be fairly easy. Upon procuring it, the purification can finally start. A purifier will draw a magic circle with salt, and then chant the words, "Ego te exilium" while one of the purifiers places the attachment in the middle of the magic circle, making sure to not disturb the lines of salt. After this, the purifier that placed the attachment into the center of the circle will cover the attachment in blood. Animal blood will suffice, but the blood of an angel or Noctis will have a greater chance of success.

In the case that the ritual does not succeed, the purifiers will reattempt to purify the Anomaly and will use a different type of blood.
After being purified, the attachment will dissolve into dust and the Anomaly will disappear. Sometimes, the Anomaly will leave behind a microcosm of itself. For example, the Crying Child left behind a small figurine of himself when he was purified. This figurine now resides within the Anomaly Containment Center to be studied.

## Containment

Many Anomalies are contained not because they can't be purified, but because the Anomaly's attachment can't be found. As a result, they are placed within the Anomaly Containment Center where researchers study them and attempt to find their attachments. The microcosms the purified leave behind are also kept here so that the scientists can try and find another way to fix Anomalies besides purifying them. In fact, many would live in peace with the Anomalies if they could. Take the Floating Doll's treatment as an example. If an Anomaly breaches containment, it will be immediately sent to a pocket dimension where it will float until the cause of the breach has been identified and fixed.

(Note: god damn this is over 750 words- Floppa)