| Item: | Wasp Info / Cognito Hazard |
| Size: | Varies depending on test subjects |
| Type: | Weaponized Info / Cognito Hazard |
| Usage Precautions: | Authorized staff, be mindful of key phrases, and accompanying stimuli that could trigger said anomaly. All individuals who demonstrate potential signs of contamination are to be monitored weekly. |
| Handling Precautions: | For controlling anomaly's effect, personnel should deploy any means of memory suppression or sensory deprivation on targets. For controlling of major outbreaks, personnel on-site should don protective bee suits and have ready access to insecticides, smoker, and portable incineration devices. |
| Location: | Base 18 |
| Reported Anomaly: | mentally (or is it astrally?) generated wasp anomalies |
Usage
Item is to be used for instilling paranoia in select individuals to erode their mental health and discrediting their social and mental standing.
Alternatively, the item can be utilized to demoralize and systematically weaken large groups of individuals. In this manner, the item is to be considered an indiscriminate mass effect weapon with all restrictions removed and no need to cover up and cleanse.
In both instances of usage, the purpose is to provide a clean, subtle, contagious, weapon that can be deployed with minimal resources, plausible deniability, and the added bonus of forcing our opposition to invest considerable effort in order to neutralize/contain the anomalous effects discussed later on.
When handling or testing manifestations of the item, all personnel should wear protective equipment and have portable insect suppression and incineration equipment on hand.
WARNING
Before deploying the item, all personnel involved should be made aware of potential key phrases, physical and mental stimuli, as well as possible symptoms that may indicate contamination.
If personnel is discovered to have symptoms of the item manifest in the preliminary stage1 during storage or deployment of the item, they are to immediately consume a prescribed mental scrubber and later on undergo extensive sensory deprivation and mental re-education until onsite medical staff clears them. If the treatment regimen proves ineffective, a lobotomy would need to be performed quickly without consent.
If contaminated personnel resist treatment and/or show symptoms similar to the emergence stage2, all personnel are to forcibly subdue and inflict fatal head trauma onto the contaminated to contain the threat. If manifestations of the item prove uncontrollable, personnel are to use any methods necessary to purge all hazards with priority given to the termination of any contaminated personnel.
Storage
When not in use, all visual and auditory stimuli that could trigger the anomaly are to be sealed in several marked envelopes stored and cataloged in a standard file cabinet in a records room under lock and key.
Report
Item is various color photographs, artwork, and video files all relating to the subject of various species of wasps.
The anomalous effects of the item are manifested when the target is exposed to a combination of audio, visual, and physical stimuli including the selected mediums. Examples include:
- Reading or listening to communications inquiring if anyone else experienced minor skin irritation, proclamations that said insects are [EXPLETIVE] or [ELDRTICH REFERENCE], and general revulsion or fear of said insects; all of which occurs during or after exposure to the item.
- Observing, listening, or reading any non-anomalous material that discusses the topic of said insects before and after exposure to the item.
- Hearing any sound that can be generally considered "buzzing" after exposure to the item.
- Being pricked or nicked on the skin by any sharp object after exposure to the item.
- Any past or present encounter with an actual wasp of any species in real life before or after exposure, especially if it was a traumatic encounter.
For further clarification and insight into the transmission of this anomaly, consult Test Log-2018-46.
After a certain (undetermined) period of time after exposure, the target will start experiencing sensory hallucinations which become progressively more pronounced and vivid over time. The duration of the anomalous effects depends on the fortitude and nature of the target's psyche. The progression of the item's effects on targets can be categorized roughly into 4 distinct stages.
STAGE 1
Target experiences minor audiovisual and physical sensations of which the source and origins are difficult to detect or discern from normal sensations.
Symptoms include:
- Itchiness around any area of the body which may result in scratching of the irritated area
- Physical stimuli on the skin and hairs akin to something crawling or moving atop them
- Hearing faint noises around the vicinity that is described vaguely as "buzzing" "droning" or "whining"
- Seeing movements out of the corner of the eye or things whizzing past the face.
- In response to the above stimuli depending on where the person lives, they may attempt to swat the air and slap parts of their body in order to deal with said stimuli.
In this stage, the target may display signs of nervousness or annoyance depending on their psychological state prior to exposure. All targets undergoing Stage 1 exposure effects will always experience signs and symptoms of Stage 2. The speed of transition from Stage 1 to Stage 2 is expedited significantly if the victim had previous trauma relating to wasps or other insects.
Successful discernment between actual symptoms and average environmental stimuli can prove difficult until the target starts showing symptoms prevalent in Stage 2.
STAGE 2
Audiovisual hallucinations and physical sensations become more pronounced with the target inferring them to be related to wasps more and more. Target's mental state deteriorates.
Symptoms include:
- Vivid physical sensations akin to something crawling on the target's skin
- Audible sounds of insect buzzing around the target's vicinity
- Sudden pain in a localized area of the skin
- Seeing movements out of the corner of the eye
This stage can often vary in duration depending on the person's mental fortitude.
STAGE 3
Target fully perceives representations of wasps around them. These entities are only visible and interactable with the target themselves and are undetectable by any conventional or esoteric means of tracking at our disposal.
Target will attempt any possible means to isolate themselves from the anomaly's effects, (often) to no avail. This results in further mental deterioration and instances of insanity depending on the target's previous mental fortitude.
Signs indicating Stage 3 effects are usually.
- Excessive sanitation of surroundings
- Obsession with insect extermination and contacting extermination companies and professionals
- Fight or flight to shapes that resemble that of an insect.
- Moving to remote desolate regions with arctic climates.
- A feeling of powerlessness when detecting wasp representations.
- Elevated respiration and heartrate upon when thinking about wasp-related topics
Personnel tracking targets should document all instances of target interactions and behavior in order to approximate, nature of manifestations that may occur during Stage 4.
STAGE 4
Emergence event, when the target is sufficiently paranoid and displays signs of insanity, instances of the item will begin astrally manifest around the general area; fully visible to all observers.
Multiple instances can spawn from a single target dependent on the intensity of their paranoia, and detachment from rationality.
These manifestations appear as warped interpretations of wasp morphology based on the target's own subconscious interpretation. Manifestations from the target often defy biological constraints normally imposed on actual wasps.
For a list of known manifestations, please consult the testing logs and other relevant data.
Manifestations of these wasps will disappear if the target suffers sufficient brain trauma to cease cognitive functions or the brain expires before the anomalous effects progress. There is currently no recorded instances of the manifested wasps self-sustaining their existence.
There are currently new observations that show the manifestation's abilities to self-sustain themselves without the living brain of the original target. Please consult the Provisional Note for further information.
Provisional Note
A provisional Stage 5 has recently been discussed after a target was exposed to a then undocumented instance of the item in question. The target transitioned to Stage 4 after 28 days manifesting eusocial wasp entities with minor mutations.
Immediately after the occurence of the emergence event, the target experienced immense burning sensations throughout their body while the wasp manifestations sought out and attacked nearby bystanders.
What is the item? What does it look like? What's the size? What does it do? Is there something we should be aware of? What are its anomalous properties? How'd we find it? When? How do we store the item safely? How do we protect it?
The Report portion should describe the item, provide the protocols for storing it, etc.
EdAWACS Brief Summary of what he wants this item to be
I want this item to convey to people the dread and paranoia regarding wasps that I feel on a day to day basis every time I go outside. For those who don't know me, I have almost a PHOBIA OF WASPS and even one wasp in the house is enough to drive me to panic attacks. I AM NOT JOKING ON THAT MATTER. I thought I would use that fear to channel it into my writing.
The intimidating compound eyes above those massive mandibles
The stinger that flicks in and out of their abdomen. The dread of anticipating a sting which I imagine feeling like having a white-hot iron nail shoved into my skin.
The dread drone of the wings and the infernal buzzing that increases my heart rate and breathing where I feel like I'm gonna die at any moment.
The twitchy seemingly erratic but hostile motions the body of a wasp makes.
And lastly, a personal nightmare, that I slowly become their nest for their squirmy slimy larvae nestling in my flesh.
It is an info/cognitohazard which occurs when users are exposed to certain phrases and or imagery related to wasps, hornets, or other related insects.
After exposure, the victims start to have auditory and mental hallucinations that others don't register.
This includes feeling itchy in various parts of their body. Along their legs and arms, they sense something crawling or brushing against the skin or hairs.
They will also hear a buzzing sound seems to come from the room around them. Sudden hot and painful pinpricks on certain parts of the body, especially back of the neck.
If untreated, these hallucinations start to become much more intense and realistic for the victim, and the frequency increases.
If the subject is anxious or paranoid enough, actual wasps will start manifesting in reality visible to all affected and unaffected personnel.
The appearance, behavior, and characteristics of the manifested wasps demonstrate improbable mutations based on the extent of the person's imagination and which aspect of the wasp that they fear.
The victim starts to isolate themselves in ways to attempt to hide away from the phenomenon.Long term can result in severe paranoia and can result in insanity or suicide.
In certain rare cases for people, their body would slowly transform into a wood pulp composition and eventually become a hive for the manifested wasps.
Mental reconditioning and therapy have been known to have mixed results.
Difficulty in differentiating differences between occurence of the Wasp Cognito hazard and just random stimuli of the body.
