Bureau of Anomalous Regulation
DOC-000-17 / Anomaly Regulation Case File
CASE-1300 - "DARKVISION"
POST-EXPOSURE PERCEPTION REPORTING
Personnel granted access to restricted CASE-1300 perceptual materials are required to report any persistent sensation of being observed, watched, or otherwise perceived. Such materials include recovered imagery, recording equipment, derived imaging, and materials from Program PG-1300-500-01 "DARKVISION." Reports are to be filed through Bureau Security channels within twenty-four hours of onset.
Reporting personnel are to consider themselves subject to immediate quarantine pending review under Contingency CY-400-83 "Black Horse-TERMINUS." No exceptions are authorized.
Control Code-Modifiers
BRD-A
Hazard Types
A/C/H/P
Protocol
BLACK HORSE
Lead Investigator
Investigator ████████ / BAR-ACD-04412
CONTAINMENT PROTOCOL
CASE-1300-α instances identified through neonatal intake under Protocol PR-500-1300-01 "BLACK GUTHRIE" are to be transferred to Pandora Site-██ under cover of enrollment in a rare neonatal research program. Instances identified after infancy are to be placed under the same physical and personnel containment requirements upon confirmation. Cover Story CC-1300-01 is to be maintained for civilian-facing documentation relating to neonatal intake and infant fatalities. The Department of Aberrant Incidents is to determine the civilian-facing handling of late-onset adolescent and adult cases individually, according to the circumstances of discovery, manifestation, and death.
Instances are to be housed in windowless containment chambers separated from any exterior wall by no fewer than three solid doors. Walls, ceilings, and floors are to be lined with lead sheeting no less than 3 cm thick and overlaid with black felt. All light sources within containment are to be filtered through specialized red glass manufactured at Bureau Facility-19. Reflective surfaces are prohibited within containment areas.
Personnel are to remain blindfolded during entry to and exit from CASE-1300-α containment and whenever any chamber door is open. Blindfolds may be removed only after all chamber doors are sealed. Security personnel are to be stationed outside each door, with standing instructions to detain any staff member who attempts to exit without completing the established exit and decontamination procedure.
Direct-contact duty is limited to two-hour shifts. No personnel member may remain assigned to the same CASE-1300-α instance for more than seven consecutive days. Continuous-duty and extended single-instance assignments are prohibited. These restrictions incorporate the measures established following Incidents CASE-1300-2 and CASE-1300-3.
Manifestation Response. Indicators of imminent CASE-1300-β manifestation are subject distress, followed by a sudden temperature drop of 8 °C or greater and detectable static discharge across containment surfaces. On detection of these indicators, all personnel are to don blindfolds immediately and evacuate via predetermined routes marked with tactile floor indicators. No personnel are to open their eyes until they reach designated safe zones outside the chamber's three-door perimeter.
Mechanical recording of CASE-1300-β, attempted reconstruction of CASE-1300-β imagery, and analysis of recovered recording media or devices are prohibited without Level 5 authorization. Equipment or media believed to contain a successful or partial capture of CASE-1300-β is to be isolated, without playback or visual review, and referred through Bureau Security channels. See Incidents CASE-1300-1, CASE-1300-6, and CASE-1300-7.
Cover Story. Infant fatalities associated with CASE-1300 are to be classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome per Cover Story CC-1300-01. Bureau pathologists are to maintain findings consistent with the cover. The subdermal nature of the strangulation indicators described in Notes & Observations ordinarily permits this classification without alteration of external presentation.
Program PG-1300-500-01 "DARKVISION." The standing operative program authorized for perception, observation, and engagement of CASE-1300-β entities was terminated on 2002-02-08 following Incident CASE-1300-9. No new perceptive procedures are authorized. Remaining ARU "DARKVISION"-1 operators are housed under indefinite medical quarantine at Pandora Site-██, in dedicated chambers conforming to standard CASE-1300 containment specifications. Medical personnel assigned to operator quarantine duty are to maintain the operators in continuous darkness; no exception is to be made on welfare grounds. All Program materials remain under Level 5 restriction.
PHENOMENOLOGICAL SUMMARY
CASE-1300 designates an anomalous neurological condition characterized by the presence or development of a parietal-lobe structure, designated CASE-1300-α, and by the entities, designated CASE-1300-β, that are perceptible to individuals who carry the associated perceptive state or reproduce it experimentally.
CASE-1300-α appears as a heavily folded, purplish tissue mass embedded within otherwise normal brain tissue, in regions associated in the case record with visual processing and sensory integration. Individuals possessing CASE-1300-α demonstrate perception across a substantially wider range of the electromagnetic spectrum than baseline humans; testing has confirmed detection from approximately 3 kHz to 300 EHz. Affected individuals describe the additional perceptual information as visual elements that cannot be satisfactorily communicated to non-affected personnel.
In the majority of congenital cases, the anomalous perceptive capability activates between two and four months of age, coinciding with the maturation of complex visual processing. A small minority of CASE-1300-α subjects remain perceptively typical until later in life; documented late-onset cases range from early adolescence to middle adulthood, with no identified triggering factor. CASE-1300-α-like tissue has also developed in at least one adult following prolonged close-contact assignment to an affected subject (see Incident CASE-1300-3). It has not been established whether congenital, late-onset, and acquired presentations share the same underlying cause.
Activation is followed within hours by behavior or testimony consistent with perception of CASE-1300-β. Descriptive testimony derives primarily from late-onset subjects and from personnel exposed under the terminated DARKVISION Program, because infant subjects are pre-verbal at the point of activation.
CASE-1300-β entities are ordinarily imperceptible to personnel without CASE-1300-α or an induced perceptive state. Subject descriptions are remarkably consistent across cases in which prior communication can be excluded. CASE-1300-β is described as a figure of indeterminate gender, with features that subjects identify as familiar but cannot recognize. Prolonged observation discloses anatomical proportions inconsistent with human form, although subjects report that these inconsistencies are not immediately apparent.
CASE-1300-β does not initially acknowledge being perceived. Subjects report first noticing an entity at a distance — in adjacent rooms, in crowds, or through windows. Over a period of hours to days, the entity appears in progressively closer locations without being observed moving between them. It engages in mundane activity appropriate to its surroundings and does not respond to address. As observation continues, CASE-1300-β begins to exhibit awareness of being perceived and appears in increasingly private locations, progressing from public spaces to the interior of the subject's home.
Termination of CASE-1300-α subjects occurs between six and seventy-two hours after initial CASE-1300-β perception. During this period, subjects display increasing anxiety, followed by periods of catatonia in which they fixate on apparently empty areas. In the final stage, subjects report sensing CASE-1300-β directly behind them, although no ordinary observer can detect its presence.
A separate exposure pathway was established during Program PG-1300-500-01 and, in retrospect, accounts for the outcome of Incident CASE-1300-1. Successful or partial mechanical capture of CASE-1300-β, and subsequent handling or analysis of the associated recording equipment or derived imagery, has been followed by perceptual effects and fatal outcomes in personnel without confirmed CASE-1300-α. The relationship between this recording-mediated exposure and the primary CASE-1300-α manifestation has not been established.
The mechanism by which termination is effected remains undetermined. Pathology indicates strangulation through subdermal pressure (see Notes & Observations). The Bureau presently knows of no method of preventing termination once a CASE-1300-α subject has begun to perceive CASE-1300-β.
NOTES & OBSERVATIONS
2001-02-08 — Entity Mechanics — OPM Neurocognitive Anomalies Research Sector / BAR-OPM-NCAR-█████
The entity's method of traversal remains undetermined. No instrumentation has captured CASE-1300-β in motion between locations. Despite sealed chambers and continuous observation, the entity appears in proximity to subjects without crossing detectable thresholds.
Outside Program-induced perceptive states and recording-mediated exposure, CASE-1300-β behavior is centered on subjects possessing CASE-1300-α. No conventional physical interaction with personnel or inanimate objects has been documented.
Recording attempts have yielded inconsistent results. Most produce no image. Since Incident CASE-1300-1, partial captures have shown only visual distortion or focal anomalies that technical staff have been unable to enhance. Recording equipment associated with a successful or partial capture has consistently failed, degraded, or become unsafe to examine after exposure. Further recording and analysis are prohibited under current containment procedure.
2001-03-22 — Post-Mortem Findings — Pandora Site-██ Pathology / BAR-DPC-█████
Post-mortem examination reveals signs of asphyxiation consistent with strangulation. The indicators are atypically distributed and easily overlooked by standard medical examiners. Pressure marks appear subdermally rather than on the skin surface, and microscopic tissue damage indicates that pressure was applied from multiple directions simultaneously. The pattern is unlike any conventional ligature or manual strangulation and resembles, on cursory examination, natural respiratory failure.
Microscopic analysis indicates complete cessation of electrical activity in the brain prior to physical termination, with particular deterioration of the CASE-1300-α structure. In every confirmed case, CASE-1300-α tissue is found to be missing approximately 0.8 g of neural matter. No discernible extraction point or surgical disturbance is present. The mechanism by which the tissue is removed has not been determined, and the missing matter has not, to date, been recovered.
The pathology pattern in infant subjects is congruent with Cover Story CC-1300-01. Standard civilian autopsy procedure does not include the brain-tissue examination required to detect the absent matter.
2001-06-18 — Historical Context — OPM Aberrant Linguistics Sector / BAR-OPM-AL-█████
Pre-Bureau medical records from multiple cultural traditions reference infant fatality patterns consistent with CASE-1300. Medieval European parish records preserve accounts of "cradle-stalkers," figures said to be visible only to the dying child. These accounts are distributed across a sufficient geographic and temporal range to suggest that the phenomenon is not novel.
OPM researchers have hypothesized that the CASE-1300-α structure may represent an evolutionary adaptation that enables detection of CASE-1300-β entities, and that the entities themselves are the older anomaly. The hypothesis is not supported by direct evidence and is recorded for completeness only. No active research line is presently authorized on this question.
2001-08-30 — Program PG-1300-500-01: Authorization and Operative Regime — Investigator ████████ / BAR-ACD-04412
Program PG-1300-500-01 "DARKVISION" was authorized in 1999 following the recovery of texts from a monastic archive in ██████. The texts described ritual practices for the perception of entities consistent with CASE-1300-β in description and behavior. They were translated by OPM Aberrant Linguistics Sector and adapted into a procedural regime under Bureau medical and ritual-protocol supervision.
Operators of ARU "DARKVISION"-1 were prepared through extended sensory deprivation, ingestion of compounded herbal preparations, and exposure to controlled auditory patterns. The induced perceptive state, once achieved, was maintained for no longer than three minutes. Operators were blindfolded and sedated immediately after the procedure.
Mandatory surgical blinding was instituted following the first three perceptive procedures. The blinding procedure preserved the optic nerve to permit prosthetic replacement after a thirty-day quarantine period in continuous darkness. Class III memory suppression was added to the post-procedural regime following Incident CASE-1300-5.
Operators were field-deployed to locate and observe CASE-1300-β entities. Their field reports were transcribed and assembled into a Bureau registry of identified CASE-1300-β entities; the registry is retained at Level 5 classification.
2002-09-04 — Program PG-1300-500-01: Termination and Residual Quarantine — Investigator ████████ / BAR-ACD-04412
Program PG-1300-500-01 was terminated on 2002-02-08 by directive following Incident CASE-1300-9. No further perceptive procedures are authorized. All Program materials — the source texts, the procedural regime, the entity registry compiled from operative testimony, and all materials pertaining to Incident CASE-1300-9 — are placed under Level 5 restriction.
Remaining ARU "DARKVISION"-1 operators are housed at Pandora Site-██ in indefinite medical quarantine. The operators have remained surgically blinded since their final procedures. At various intervals after blinding, all operators have reported continued perception of CASE-1300-β presence: most frequently in their own quarantine chambers, occasionally in adjacent chambers, and on three documented occasions in chambers known to contain no active CASE-1300-α instance.
The reports are consistent across operators and have not abated with time. The Bureau possesses no instrumentation capable of confirming or refuting them. Operator welfare is maintained pending further direction.
DISCOVERY LOG
The Bureau first identified the CASE-1300 pattern in 1993, when OPM Analyst Dr. ████ ██████ noted a statistical irregularity among infant mortality cases classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. A subset of cases that had undergone detailed autopsy displayed consistent neurological abnormalities and tissue damage inconsistent with natural respiratory failure. Subsequent investigation, conducted under cover of an extended pediatric research initiative, identified the CASE-1300-α structure, the subdermal strangulation indicators, and the missing neural matter.
A Bureau-wide identification regime was authorized in 1994 to flag candidate CASE-1300-α instances at neonatal intake, before the usual activation interval. The current form of that regime is codified as Protocol PR-500-1300-01 "BLACK GUTHRIE." Initial containment efforts focused on isolating affected infants. These efforts did not prevent CASE-1300-β manifestation: containment delayed termination but did not avert it. The means by which CASE-1300-β appeared within closed containment was not understood at the time and is not understood now.
The Bureau subsequently documented late-onset CASE-1300-α activation outside infancy. Incident CASE-1300-3 later established that CASE-1300-α-like tissue can also arise following prolonged close-contact exposure, although the relationship between that acquired presentation and the congenital cases remains unresolved.
The decisive expansion of the Bureau's operational posture followed the 1999 recovery of bound vellum manuscripts from a monastic archive in ██████ during the closure of an unrelated investigation. The manuscripts described ritual preparation methods for the perception of "unseen watchers" that matched CASE-1300-β in description and behavior. OPM Aberrant Linguistics Sector completed the translation within nine months. Program PG-1300-500-01 "DARKVISION" was authorized on the basis of the translation, and the first operative procedures were conducted in 2000.
Program PG-1300-500-01 was terminated on 2002-02-08 following Incident CASE-1300-9. Containment and identification of CASE-1300-α continue. The surviving operators of ARU "DARKVISION"-1 continue to report CASE-1300-β presence from quarantine despite surgical blindness.
INCIDENT LOG
1995-08-12 – Incident CASE-1300-1: First Confirmed CASE-1300-β Recording
Experimental high-frequency imaging equipment deployed during a contained manifestation event recorded partial visual data of a CASE-1300-β entity. Before the equipment failed, the capture showed a humanoid figure with proportions inconsistent with human anatomy.
Three OPM personnel involved in the subsequent image analysis reported a persistent sensation of being observed in the weeks following exposure. The first analyst withdrew from Bureau service on medical grounds within eighteen days. The second was found deceased in his quarters on day twenty-four, by self-inflicted means. The third entered indefinite quarantine on day thirty-one and remains there.
The recording media were destroyed and the imaging equipment dismantled.
1996-11-30 – Incident CASE-1300-2: Containment Breach During Power Failure
A power failure at Pandora Site-██ compromised containment of three CASE-1300-α instances. Emergency lighting failed to activate. The instances were unobserved for seventeen minutes. On restoration of power, all three were found deceased with characteristic CASE-1300 termination indicators.
Security footage from the corridor adjacent to the containment chambers recorded no anomalous presence during the outage. In separate interviews, four staff members on duty in administrative areas distant from the containment wing reported perceiving figures moving through the walls during the blackout interval. None of the four held CASE-1300-α. The reports could not be reconciled with the standing model and were not investigated further.
Direct-contact rotation was subsequently reduced from eight-hour to two-hour shifts.
2000-03-17 – Incident CASE-1300-3: Spontaneous CASE-1300-α Onset in Containment Personnel
Researcher Dr. ██████ ██████, who had been assigned for seven months to extended close-contact study of a CASE-1300-α instance, presented with progressive visual disturbance. Imaging confirmed the development of a CASE-1300-α-like structure in the parietal lobe, morphologically indistinguishable on examination from native CASE-1300-α.
Dr. ██████ ██████ entered the manifestation interval within thirty-one hours of confirmation. His final recorded statement, made while restrained for medical evaluation, was:
They're behind all of you too, you just can't —
followed by choking sounds and loss of vital signs consistent with the standard CASE-1300 termination pattern.
The incident documented an acquired CASE-1300-α presentation associated with prolonged close-contact duty. Single-instance containment assignments exceeding seven consecutive days were prohibited by a directive issued the following week.
2000-04-17 – Incident CASE-1300-4: ARU "DARKVISION"-1 First Deployment
The first operative procedure under Program PG-1300-500-01 was conducted on three volunteer operators of ARU "DARKVISION"-1 at Pandora Site-██. All three achieved the induced perceptive state. Two reported CASE-1300-β entities at the deployment location and provided observations consistent with each other and with the source texts.
The third operator entered the perceptive state and did not return from it. The operator expired during the procedure; post-procedure examination did not establish a cause.
The two surviving operators underwent surgical blinding immediately after debriefing and entered the standard thirty-day darkness quarantine.
2000-07-22 – Incident CASE-1300-5: Post-Blinding Perception Reports
During the standard thirty-day post-procedure quarantine, Operator ████████ — surgically blinded fourteen days earlier — began providing detailed verbal descriptions of CASE-1300-β presence within the quarantine chamber. The descriptions were spatially specific, including proximity, height, and position relative to the operator's bed, and were consistent with prior operative reports.
The operator's eye sockets, not yet fitted with prosthetics, remained empty at the time of the reports. Monitoring instrumentation detected no anomalous presence in the chamber.
The reports continued, decreasing in frequency but not in detail, through the remainder of the quarantine period and beyond. Operator ████████ remains in indefinite quarantine. Class III memory suppression was added to the post-procedural regime as a result of this incident. The treatment did not prevent recurrence of comparable reports in subsequent operators.
2000-12-03 – Incident CASE-1300-6: First Recording-Aware Manifestation
During a standard observation operation, ARU "DARKVISION"-1 Operator ████████ deployed a modified infrared recording device in contravention of the standing recording prohibition. The device captured visual data of a CASE-1300-β entity with unprecedented clarity.
Upon being recorded, the entity ceased its prior activity and oriented toward the device. Over the following eight minutes, five additional CASE-1300-β entities, not previously observed at the location, converged on the observation post.
Four operators expired during the convergence. The fifth survived and was found by the recovery team repeating a single phrase:
They can see through the recordings.
The operator did not respond to further address and entered a vegetative state from which he has not recovered.
2000-12-05 – Incident CASE-1300-7: Tertiary Exposure Through Recording Equipment
OPM personnel examining the recovered recording equipment from Incident CASE-1300-6 reported anomalous visual artifacts on laboratory monitors during the salvage process. Within thirty-six hours, all seven staff members involved in the analysis had expired with characteristic CASE-1300 termination indicators.
Security footage of the laboratory captured the personnel, individually and in sequence, ceasing work and staring fixedly at unoccupied corners of the room in the minutes preceding their deaths.
The recording media from Incident CASE-1300-6, the recovered device itself, and all imaging derived from the analysis were incinerated. The prohibition on mechanical recording of CASE-1300-β entities was formalized as Bureau-wide policy.
2001-01-14 – Incident CASE-1300-8: Multiple-Exposure Procedure
ARU "DARKVISION"-1 Operator ████████, who had undergone post-procedural blinding and Class III memory suppression following his first deployment, volunteered for a second perceptive procedure. The protocol forbidding multiple exposures was overridden on operational grounds.
Approximately twelve seconds into the induced perceptive state, the operator began exhibiting acute distress. His final coherent statement before [DATA EXPUNGED] was:
It's the same one. It's been here the whole time.
Of the fourteen Bureau personnel present during the procedure, three were subsequently found catatonic, each having attempted to remove his or her own eyes with improvised implements. The catatonic personnel were transferred to indefinite quarantine alongside the surviving ARU "DARKVISION"-1 operators.
The remaining eleven personnel are unaccounted for in the post-incident roster.
2001-06-15 – Incident CASE-1300-9: [DATA EXPUNGED]
[Incident content has been formally removed from Bureau records under Level 5 classified order. Refer Bureau Security for access authorization. No reference to this incident's content is permitted in subsequent case documentation.]
2002-02-08 – Incident CASE-1300-10: Program Termination
Program PG-1300-500-01 "DARKVISION" was terminated by directive following Incident CASE-1300-9. All active operative procedures were suspended. Program materials, source texts, and operative testimony archives were transferred to Level 5 restriction.
The remaining ARU "DARKVISION"-1 operators, those not already transferred to indefinite quarantine after earlier incidents, were transferred to quarantine at the same time and have remained there since. ARU "DARKVISION" was formally decommissioned.
The standing post-exposure perception reporting requirement described in the Warning was issued the same week.
EVIDENTIARY ATTACHMENTS
Subject sketch sheet — CASE-1300-β forms
Containment chamber still — CAM 04, 1997-10-14
Intake interview still — 2000-03-11
Monastic folio — blindfolded observers
PR-500-1300-01 "BLACK GUTHRIE"
PG-1300-500-01 "DARKVISION"
End of file.