Work Text
In a world full of change, complexities, and anomalies lives the paranormal. Why? Unfortunately, no one can explain. However, these entities exist and find joy in wreaking havoc among the people. People can speculate day-in and day-out about the reason why they do so, but there’s no confirmed evidence. All we are certain of is that they’re harbingers of chaos and have no plans to stop anytime soon.
Welcome to the team. I’m your supervisor, Sheeban. I will be guiding you throughout your training course. It takes a keen eye at times, so I hope that you are up to the challenge. After all, I’ve already started the paperwork.
You’ll be on the overnight shift, running from 10pm until 6am. Unfortunately, we don’t have the accommodations to provide you with a lunch break, but not to worry, we pay enough to hopefully fulfill the need for such a break. You’re welcome to bring snacks with, but don’t always expect downtime to be available. Some days are easier, however some days can be hectic. Use your best discretion to determine whether or not you will have enough time to sneak a bite or two of food throughout the night.
There isn’t a dress code, so wear whatever is comfortable for you. My highest concern is that you are attentive and quick to make your reports, not if you’re wearing pajama pants or entirely shirtless for all I care. Safety is of the
utmost
importance, so many of our other rules and regulations are fairly lax.
Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, it’s time to begin your training. There are many different types of anomalies that may spawn. It could be as simple as a light being turned on or off, or it could be as extreme as a black hole opening up and beginning to digest the premises that you are keeping watch over. Reasons like the latter is why it’s crucial that you react quickly. We categorize anomalies into the following themes: abyss presence, camera malfunction, distortion, door opening/closing, extra/missing object, object movement, ghost manifestation, intruder, lighting change, art mutation, shadow formation, and other. Below I will address each topic.
In order to prevent things from getting out of hand, you are to keep
up to
three anomalies active at a particular time. I expect you to keep that number down to one or two while reporting them as quickly as possible, but I understand that things can sometimes get out of hand with the extremely persistent entities. On that note, if your anomaly account reaches four or more, I will have to terminate you from your employment. That is, if the entity hasn’t terminated your life already. It’s not
that
common, however, it’s still an occupational hazard. We are also an LLC and therefore not required to provide any form of workman’s compensation whether it be for active or past employees whether they are alive or dead. We at the company appreciate your understanding.
Abyss Presence: As I mentioned before, this is when a black hole opens and begins to consume the room. If not addressed quickly, it will not only swallow the room, it will swallow the entire facility. If it manages to swallow the entire facility prior to being addressed, it will then continue to consume anything and everything that has witnessed or has close potential witnesses. In this case, that would be you. If you would like to leave your shift alive and still in this dimension, be vigilant and prompt with this kind of report.
Camera Malfunction: Sometimes the cameras will experience a malfunction which may or may not be caused by the entities on the premises. In some cases, the entities may cause the entire or only part of the view to error out such as glitching, becoming blurred, covered with a texture, and likewise. In much milder cases, sometimes, especially in the older buildings, the wiring may become loose or briefly lose contact with the internet connection necessary to keep the feed active on your monitor. If there are any cameras malfunctioning, whether it be a partial malfunction or a camera not displaying on your screen, please report it as such.
Distortion: This is somewhat similar to the entity-created malfunctions, except it tends to happen in a specific object rather than to a section or entirety of the camera visual. This may include an object spinning, having a swirl-like effect, rapidly changing color, and so forth.
Door Opening/Closing: I hope I do not need to explain this one to you.
Extra/Missing Object: At times, the entities like to play simple mindtricks where they attempt to make you believe that you’re seeing things that seem completely normal. Be observant to how many items there are in general as well as the exact quantity of each item. There may be times where you have a stack of three boxes, but then it suddenly changes to being a stack of four boxes. On the contrary, you may normally see five cans of paint but then when you look again there’s only four.
Object Movement: When an object seems to have disappeared, before reporting it as missing, verify in the rest of the camera that it has not been moved elsewhere. Sometimes the entities like to move things around to mess with you rather than completely remove them. If the item has been relocated within the room, then report it as a movement rather than a disappearance.
Ghost Manifestation: Every now and then you may catch the entity or entities in the act as they decide to carry out their (albeit annoying) activities. If you see this occur, report it as a ghost manifestation. Generally, they will be spooked away by being caught on camera, but it’s best to report them regardless in case things need to be manually fixed on-site.
Intruder: While uncommon for it to happen, someone aside from our technicians may enter the premises. If this happens, please report it immediately as we need to let the technicians know that there is a potential threat. Not only is the intruder at risk of hurting our on-site employees, they are also at risk of coming into contact with the entity which is
severely
dangerous and we would not like to receive a lawsuit despite the intruder illegally breaking and entering. We’re not sure why they have the audacity to try to sue us despite them getting injured by conducting illegal behaviors, but let’s try to keep that from happening, okay?
Lighting Change: Hopefully this is self-explanatory, but I’ll briefly go over this. Lighting change is included but not limited to the light(s) turning on or off, strobe effects, and color changing.
Art Mutation: Occasionally, the entities will mutate artworks and paintings such as smudging the paint, changing the subject of a sculpture, adding onto the art piece, and completely changing it into something else. When this happens
specifically to an art item
, report it as art mutation instead of a distortion. The only time that you will report this otherwise is if it is an extra item that doesn’t belong, has completely disappeared, or has been relocated. Any modifications must be reported as an art mutation.
Shadow Formation: Different than an abyss presence, ghost manifestation, or lighting change, this is when a shadow appears normally following one or very few items. Generally, this happens when an entity was preparing to interact with an item but got spooked off when they heard the camera power up as you clicked onto its screen on the monitor. When this happens and the entity is
not
present, report as a shadow formation.
Other: Lastly, if anything doesn’t quite match any of these categories but is still an anomaly, please report it with this tag. It’s very uncommon, but every now and then an entity will decide to try something new to keep us on our toes.
After an anomaly is reported, if reported correctly, our on-site technician will fix the issue. Some repairs take longer than others, and as you already know, all of our employees are treated anonymously and confidentially, including the managers such as myself, hence the fake name that I introduced myself as when we began. Because of this, the technician will disable the camera, fix the anomaly, and then after exiting they will re-enable the camera. It has only happened once where an intruder or entity has intervened with our technician while they were completing repairs, but if for any reason the technician has not returned in a timely manner and your monitor is still showing as the room being in repair mode, please press the urgent button and it will be forwarded to a member of management. Hopefully this won’t happen to you, but after only one time we have created an official protocol. If there is anything else
highly
out of the ordinary that cannot be addressed even as belonging in the other category, then you may forward it using the urgent button. Because the ratio of managers to observation agents is extremely limited, please refrain from using the urgent forward function unless absolutely necessary. If you have any non-urgent questions, please enter them in the chat box located in the top left corner and a supervisor will reach out to you when they are available.
Some evenings you will be observing the same facility as the previous night, while other evenings you will be observing a different facility. This varies based on your dependability ranking as the better of an employee you are, we will give you more difficult jobs such as a more complicated facility with the camera and/or present item amount. With the more difficult jobs, do not fret as we will give you a raise as each task gets more complicated. If for any reason you are able to work but seem to be having a day where you feel a bit off, such as not having slept enough or having a headache, please inform management before signing on for the night and we will provide you with an easier facility. Hopefully, the more advanced you become within the company, the less you will need to use this option. However, we understand that our employees are human beings and can accommodate as best as possible per the given situation.
Aside from those things, this completes your manager-provided training. For your first 14 shifts, you will have a help button located near the urgent button to ask for help from a more experienced employee. They may or may not be a member of management, as sometimes we have the long-term employees who are on-call to answer questions. After your initial shifts are completed, this function will be automatically removed from your account. There is a hotkey on your computer in case you still need help, but you will be provided a code to enter to bypass the restriction. If you require too much additional help within a limited time frame, we will be forced to demote or terminate you based on your current position and capabilities.
Thank you for deciding to join our company, and we look forward to receiving prompt anomaly reports from you throughout your shifts.