| Item: | Shadowtag Flashlight | ||
| Type: | Toy | ||
| Anomaly: | Transmutation, Localized reality manipulation | ||
| Homeostasis: | 0 | Inanimate | |
| Awareness: | 0 | Insentient | |
| Hazards: | Accidental activation, Item loss | ||
| Required Gear: | N/A | ||
| Dimensions: | 4.4 cm lens, 17.8 cm long | ||
| Location: | Distributed globally | ||
Usage
The Item allows lone or small groups of operatives to sweep entire facilities on their own. Target facilities must fulfil the activation requirements. Successful attacks leave around 0 - 16% of targets alive, filtering for desired prisoners is possible. Structural integrity of target facilities is preserved in most cases. Operation success rate drastically increases the more the chosen operative is familiar with the target facility. Usage by infiltrators is recommended.
Operatives are only required to hold onto the Item until midnight and then participate in the game. Item uses are often paired with an “After team”, deployed at sunrise to the target facility. The Afterteam is usually tasked with re-securing the Item, dispatch or capture any remaining survivors and loot the facility.
Due to the Items finity, caution is to be applied when deploying a Shadowtag flashlight. Usage requires the permission of one military commander designated Beta or above.
Storage procedures are focused on denying the start of a Shadow tag game in friendly facilities by invalidating activation requirements. The most common method of which is storing the objects in a secondary storage location outside of Base perimeter, but well inside some other zone of control. Offsetting the tagger/runner ratio is also a valid strategy.
Report
The Flashlight is the collective Item designation for 89 flashlights distributed by █████ company in 2023. Their anomalous ability consists in initiating Shadowtag games.
The Item was, based on its packaging, created as a commercial product intended to be sold as a Halloween toy in select stores in the American west coast. Post appearance research into █████ was inconclusive. The flashlight was exclusively available on 13th of October 2023. The Items paranormal nature became gruesomely clear the following morning, when a mass of distress calls flooded the region. IA operatives in the area were mobilized to secure as many instances as possible. Most copies of the Item were unfortunately seized by various normalcy upholding or national groups of interest. From the estimated 8000 Instances produced only 89 could be claimed by the Insurgency. Farce efforts wiped the incident from history within 48 hours.
Two components make up the anomaly; first, the flashlight itself, which is always in pristine condition and second, the batteries, which seem to generate an infinite source of power while in the primary component. Separating both components from each other causes both components to lose their anomalous design. Describing the Item as two separate components is based upon replication tests utilizing the House of All. Some researchers theorized that the cessation of anomalous activity can be attributed to some sort of anti-copy mechanism placed there by the Items producer.
The following conditions must be met in order to initiate a Shadowtag game.
- At least one copy of the Item is present within a suitable play area. Multiple copies result in multiple taggers.
- Suitable play areas are buildings or areas that can be closed off via some sort of closing mechanism. Features such as a hole in a wall or an unclosable exit invalidate the location.
- There are eight or more runners for each tagger within the play area.
- It is eight minutes before midnight in the given local time.
Shadowtag games always begin eight minutes before midnight. At the start of each match, players are assigned a role. Runners are tasked with evading the tagger, while Taggers are tasked with finding runners. The tagger is usually the person in possession of the flashlight. When nobody is holding the flashlight at the start of the round, it will teleport into a random participant's dominant hand. The tagger is isolated into an enclosed room and prevented from leaving by an unseen force.
All attempts to leave the play area become effectively futile. Doors and windows leading outside the play area will be locked in for the duration of the game while all doors inside the play area become unlocked. No degree of strength or finesse has yet allowed participants to leave the play area. Weapons and tools within the play area become replaced by harmless toy versions of themselves. This includes phones, computers, Pacemakers, and most electronic devices.
A disembodied voice will speak in English to all participants and explain the rules. This monologue is recorded below. Once the clock hits midnight, all light sources, with the exception of the flashlight, cease to function and the tagger is released.
Shining the central light cone emitted by the flashlight onto runners causes their skin to stiffen, eventually transmutate into a useless papier-mâché like substance. Runners are typically immobilized after 20 seconds of exposure. However, a myriad of circumstances can have an influence on the flashlights effectiveness, like the runners physical constitution and the nature of the specific body part hit. Only runners who have been completely immobilized by the Item count as found. Once a runner is found, the internal organs of targets peal into small increments that similarly transmutate into chewy clumps of boiled sugar and wrapped in plastic foil. Created candy is edible.
The game is played until the sun rises or the tagger is killed. If the tagger has failed to find less than 84% of the runners, it will count as a runner win and the tagger expires from a sudden, total brain aneurysm. When the tagger has found between 84 and 99% of all runners, the match is considered a stalemate and the game ends. If the tagger finds all runners, they win and the game ends.
Transcript of the introductory speech of a Shadowtag game
This transcript was made with the collective consensus of Insurgents who participated in a Shadowtag game.
You will all play Shadowtag. It's a simple game, based on the fears of our ancient ancestors, running from the hungry gods and the equally ancient game of tag. Taggers will hunt runners. Runners are creatures of darkness, they must hide from the light. Taggers are creatures of brightness, they shine light. All look at your hands now. If you hold a flashlight, you are a tagger. Around one seventh of runners must survive to ensure the spawning of another viable generation. Taggers will be confined in one room for the next five minutes, a convenience your ancestors didn't have. That also means that if you get caught your mutations are unfavourable. All your actions will be recorded. Your data is save with us and is exclusively used to feed the amygdala. The irony is not lost on us, yet we continue. Best of Luck.
