PLN-118

"Nowhere to Go"

## Containment Procedures

As it is incapable of physically containing, PLN-118 must be actively search for in mental wards across the world. When a person with possible exposure to PLN-118 is discovered, they are to be quickly taken to the nearest Nero black site for questioning and research. Doctor Artyom (or Doctor Hannaford) will then be contacted for further instructions.

## Description

PLN-118 is a strange occurrence that has happened in a seemingly random order to a small number of people across the world. Roughly 0.009% of the human population has experienced and taken note of PLN-118, though there is quite possibly a higher number of people than this. It has been noted that the only pattern found in those affected by PLN-118 (while vague) is that it tends to mainly affect those who have a history of violence, or those who have been victims of violence.

People who are exposed to PLN-118 report shadows of people and animals without any object to cast it. While these shadows do require light from an existing light source, they do not appear to be made by any individual creature. People who are not exposed to PLN-118 do not see these shadows. Said shadows cannot speak, interact with the physical environment, but often move. The most common action for a shadow to take is to stand idly, often looking like they are waiting for something. Loud noises often disrupt these shadows, causing them to disappear for a limited time.

Another symptom experienced by those who are exposed to PLN-118 is often mistaken for schizophrenia. People who have been exposed to PLN-118 often find themselves talking to people that aren’t there. Upon questioning, those affected by this often make it clear that they are not, in fact, speaking to the aforementioned shadows. However, they do not often know who they are speaking to. Conversations reportedly include many questions from those affected by PLN-118, with barely any answers from the unknown voice(s).

During a series of tests in held in 1994 by Doctor ██████, test subjects reportedly witnessed vivid audio hallucinations when they were exposed to religious prayer of any kind. Hallucinations were different depending on each individual, though two similarities were found that span all of the test subjects’ experiences. Every hallucination was powerful enough to cause the test subject to bleed from the nose, and the main synopsis of each hallucination always looped back to death and loneliness.

One test subject, named [DATA EXPUNGED], supposedly witnessed what he initially thought to be the sounds of the ocean, and what he thought was the gurgling of a drowning person. Shortly after these sounds expired, he began to experience a sort of silence. He described it as “the kind of silence that comes from standing in a dark room by yourself, and not the kind that comes with a peaceful rest on your porch.”

Nero psychologists initially believed this hallucination to be the results of a spectral-class entity overtaking the people’s minds. However, upon further investigation (including use of OBJ-K001) no spectral presence was found within the area of the test subjects. After several years of research, Doctor ██████, alongside Doctor Artyom and Doctor Hannaford, Doctor ██████, came to the conclusion that the subjects were experiencing a planar-class entity.

Amnestic treatment has proven to disrupt the effects of PLN-118, but only temporarily.

## Addendum 1: Doctor ██████'s Theory

Doctor ██████ came to the recent conclusion that people who were under the effects of PLN-118 were actually stuck in between our physical plane, and another timeline’s metaphysical plane. In other words, somehow, these people had done something to get caught within a certain timeline where the effects they so commonly experience are normal. What metaphysical plane they are stuck in is currently unknown.

What most of Doctor ██████’s theistic team agrees on is that in this metaphysical plane, something happened along it’s timeline that destroyed any trace of an afterlife. With nowhere for the spirits of this plane to go upon death, they too were trapped in this metaphysical plane. These spirits cannot interact with the environment, and technically do not exist in our physical or metaphysical plane. A good way to describe this would be to compare it to an open window, allowing you to hear what is outside your home, while not looking out. Several scientists wish to continue exploring this strange anomaly, though Doctor ██████ has since resigned from the case.

Those that do not agree with Doctor ██████’s theory believe that this can still be traced to a spectral-class entity that somehow managed to cloak itself from any means of identification.

## Addendum 2: Doctor ██████'s Final Study

Shortly before his resignation from the case, Doctor ██████ made a statement on PLN-118, he made the following statement on his studies:

“I may not go to church... hell, in my line of work it’s hard to believe there’s any afterlife at all... but I honestly do believe that these people are experiencing some sort of divine tragedy. Something similar to a nuclear fallout of space and time. I haven’t had much sleep since I came to this conclusion, and I may just be delirious, but there isn’t a doubt in my mind; these people have something special. Whether it’s good or bad, I don’t know. Maybe we can eventually help these ‘spirits’.”

No comment was made on this statement.

## Observation Logs

See *Test Log PLN-118-03* and *Test Log PLN-118-20* for more information.