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Registered Phenomena Code: 288
Object Class: Omega-Orange
Hazard Types: 
Psychotronic Hazard 
Info-Hazard 
Memory-Alteration Hazard 
Sensory Hazard 
Visual Hazard 
Emotional Hazard
Radiation Hazard
Containment Protocols: Due to the phenomenal nature of RPC-288, no effective method of containment exists. However, to best prevent manifestations of RPC-288 from reaching the public, Authority agents have been embedded in chief editorial positions in every major newspaper in the United Kingdom. These agents are to proofread and examine the daily crossword before and after publication. If an instance of RPC-288 is detected, it is to be sent to Site-112 for further testing. Despite these efforts, it is unlikely RPC-288 will manifest before distribution to the public.
A manifestation of RPC-288 will be detectable via a unique radiation signature, which the Authority can trace using specialised Geiger counters. Should an instance of RPC-288 manifest in public and be completed, Authority agents should photograph, transcribe, and then burn the completed crossword. Incomplete crosswords are to be sent to Site-112 for further testing. A civilian who has solved or has started to solve an instance of RPC-288 is to be debriefed and then administered Class A-2 amnestics.
Description: RPC-288 is a crossword puzzle that manifests as the daily crossword in any major United Kingdom-based newspaper. The crossword clues within RPC-288 will initially match the published clues but will change to suit the reader. Answers to these new questions will be personal in nature, and will sometimes be secrets known only to the reader. The source of RPC-288 is unknown; however, instances of RPC-288 bare the signature "Wordsworth", although attempts to identify this individual have proved fruitless.
As the reader solves the crossword and remembers past experiences, their desire to finish the puzzle will become obsessive. The reader will attempt to violently retrieve RPC-288 if it is removed from their possession when they are near completion. If the reader is isolated from RPC-288 for one hour, their mood will become anxious and agitated, and they will attempt to obtain RPC-288 through non-violent means. Should subsequent requests to obtain RPC-288 be denied, the reader will become catatonic and begin self-mutilating, carving words into their bodies. Cross-referencing these words with instances of RPC-288 will show that these words are in fact answers to incomplete parts of RPC-288. A reader who has reached this point will often die of exsanguination or shock.
Completion of an instance of RPC-288 will have a different effect on each reader. Most commonly, the reader will momentarily lose consciousness before reawakening with excessive feelings of peacefulness, nostalgia, shame, depression, or aggression. On occasion, readers with heightened negative feelings will resort to self-harm or attempt suicide. While it is possible to use amnestics on the reader to prevent recollection of RPC-288, the changes to their emotional state seem to be permanent. Attempts by the Authority to use RPC-288 as a therapeutic tool have proved too unpredictable for reliable use. Further requests into this matter will be denied.
Testing Logs:
Subject Name: Lewis ███████, (██)
Conditions: Subject was prevented from completing an instance of RPC-288, however they had not progressed far enough to provoke a violent response. Subject was taken to Site-112, where they were prompted to complete their instance of RPC-288.
Results: Upon completion of RPC-288, subject began mumbling about "that summer in '78" and "those old school days at Bradbury". When asked to expand upon their thoughts, Subject broke down in tears proclaiming "it never got any better." Subject was administered amnestics and released.
Subject Name: CSD-69304, (██)
Conditions: Instance of RPC-288 manifested within Site-112 in a copy of The ████████ that CSD-69304 was reading during a break between testing sessions. Prior to her tenure in Authority custody, CSD-69304 was serving a life sentence for double homicide.
Results: CSD-69304 was locked alone in an interview room to complete her instance of RPC-288 and was observed via CCTV. Upon completion, CSD-69304 became extremely aggressive, pounding on the locked door demanding to be let out and screaming "those bastards had it coming," "I'll kill them, their sons, and the sons of their sons," and variations thereof. Authority agents attempted to restrain CSD-69304 and administer amnestics, but were unsuccessful. CSD-69304 was shot dead when she took Agent ███████ hostage. Agent ███████ suffered lacerations to their face and arms.
Subject Name: Lee ██████-██████, (██)
Conditions: The subject, a soldier in the ██████, came into possession of an instance of RPC-288 and began to complete it. However, on ██/██/████, subject was deployed to ███████████ where he was blinded by shrapnel from an IED. Subject was subsequently discharged and sent home, where both him and his instance of RPC-288 were taken into Authority custody.
Results: Despite being completely blind, the subject was able to solve the remainder of RPC-288 without assistance from Authority personnel. Subject then displayed severe anxiety for around five minutes, before entering a trance-like state of calm. Authority medical officers noted that the subject displays behaviour similar to those who have been lobotomised. Subject is to be kept in Authority custody and monitored for signs of improvement.
Emergency services were called to the family home of Eleanor █████, (██), at approximately ██:██ on ██/██/20██. Key details from the 999 call suggested possible manifestation of an instance of RPC-288. Prior to this call, traces of RPC-288's unique radioactive signature had been detected, but readings were not high enough to warrant inquiry.
Eleanor █████'s cause of death was determined to be exsanguination via self-mutilation. The coroner's report notes Ms. █████ had carved words into her torso with a pair of scissors, drawing the attention of the Authority.
Investigation into the events leading to the death of Ms. █████ is summarised as follows. This summary is corroborated by members of the █████ family:
Ms. █████, a lifelong puzzle fanatic, had recently installed a personal desktop computer in her home. At her age, Ms. █████ lacked the technical literacy required to safely use a computer or browse the internet. Ms. █████ soon began completing digital crosswords on the online versions of popular newspapers, abandoning print media puzzles altogether. Despite repeated protests from her family, access to online puzzles led to sliding standards of personal hygiene and a failure to maintain a stable diet. Ms. █████ revealed to a family member that she had found "the perfect puzzle that never ended". In a bid to help her, Ms. █████'s family staged an intervention; Ms. █████ was locked in the toilet and isolated from her personal computer, which was to be taken away from her and then returned at a later date. Ms. █████ began to beg her family to allow her back to her computer. When this did not work, Ms. █████ became silent for some time and did not respond when addressed. Finding her silence troubling, her family unlocked the door to discover Ms. █████'s corpse, upon which paramedics were called to the scene.
"From the desk of Site Director ████████"
Following recent events, I have determined that current containment protocols for RPC-288 are inadequate. With 288 moving into the datasphere, I have taken it upon myself to form a team of technical engineers with the express purpose of developing a far-reaching application to combat this emerging threat. Currently, this program is operating under the code-name ACID BURN. ACID BURN is a discerning software that cross-references information gathered from cataloged print instances of RPC-288 with data that passes through our centre in ██████ and deletes matching aberrant code where detected.
In light of these developments, I request that all administrative staff inform their subordinates to keep a watchful eye on their inboxes and to not open anything from "Wordsworth". Instead, personnel should simply catalogue the email for future reference by forwarding it directly to the ACID BURN server at this address: ██████████████████████████████.
Signed,
Site Director ████████
LEVEL 4 CLEARANCE ONLY
At approximately ██:██ on ██/██/20██, three arrests were made in the city of ███████, United Kingdom. The subjects arrested were charged with public vandalism and disruption of the peace after painting large scrawls in the middle of the road, causing multiple traffic collisions. Upon questioning, each claimed no knowledge of the actions or identities of the other two.
Upon transfer into Authority custody, investigation revealed that these individuals had experienced nightmares involving crosswords and traumatic past experiences. In interviews, they expressed no particular love of pen-and-paper puzzles or of puzzles in general. Since their nightmares, subjects began to experience severe anxiety and excessive pareidolia, causing sequential squares to resemble boxes on a crossword puzzle. Each subject proclaimed that this anxiety became so great they believed they could "get it out" by defacing the street, an experience which they called "liberating" but "frustrating because [the police] stopped me". Subjects still display symptoms of pareidolia. No subject understood the content of their graffiti, and examination by Authority linguists and calligraphers has yielded no conclusive results, although some correlations between the graffiti and various ancient Mesopotamian texts exist. No subject involved is familiar with the ancient Mesopotamian lexicon.
Authority researchers determined that the placement of graffiti in ███████ resembled the start of a gigantic crossword puzzle when viewed from above, using the city streets as puzzle boxes. Because the purpose of this activity currently remains unknown, the Authority has ruled to keep the three subjects in custody until their condition has improved.
| To; Site Director ████████
| From; Head Researcher █████
-
| Subject: Recent events and capabilities of RPC-288 |
-
Director ████████,
Despite our best efforts, RPC-288 manages to evolve and evade us. The events in ███████ are cause for concern, but what purpose they serve is unknown for now (although some researchers well-versed in the occult have speculated that [REDACTED]). Personally I worry about the pathology of the "███████ three" as we call them, and how it was incepted; if what they are saying is true, I theorise that 288 has access to the collective human subconscious.
If this is the case then I request permission to [DATA EXPUNGED] to confirm this hypothesis. Currently my department is lacking the budget necessary to perform such an extensive procedure, but I believe that the Authority can and WILL succeed in neutralising this threat. No matter the cost.
Signed,
█████████ █████, Head Researcher
Below is a transcript of a shared dream between all Authority personnel across Site-112 on ██/██/20██. Witnesses report dreaming a series of vivid, abstract, unsettling images that could only be described as "a sort of wreckage, like a child had pulled the world apart and then glued it back together". Accompanying this imagery was a disembodied voice that bore no gendered characteristics, instead resembling an incoherent "distorted grumbling" that was automatically understood as a native language.
We are all words on page, ink on parchment, pen on paper. When we are gone and photographs have faded, all that proves our existance is text. Likewise, the text of the mind is just a book to be read, and books can be unbound. This is what I seek at the heart of it all; for if all languages are understood through words, then to know all words is to know all languages, and once one knows all languages, they will know the True Universal language of Humanity. To use this language is to bind the Human race to the will of one. With it, I will reduce the complexities of the psyche to mere lines and then I will rebuild anew, without trauma or pain and through my words I will deliver life and peace everlasting. This is my will. You cannot stop me.
