Case 2024W: Brother
[[Description: The emergence and proliferation of the "My Brother" entity, recorded from various media.]]
[Source 1: Café [REDACTED], surveillance camera]
9:45AM: A customer enters the property, listening to unknown media on headphones. She reaches the counter, where the barista takes her order. The barista is a brown-haired white male, wearing glasses, with light stubble. He is of average build. As the conversation continues, the customer looks away from the barista to check her phone.
As this happens, a bystander approaches the large café window. This bystander is a brown-haired white male, wearing glasses, with light stubble, of average build. The customer makes eye contact with him for 16 frames of footage.
When the customer looks back to the barista, the barista and bystander both exhibit the same expression: a closed-mouth smile, one eyebrow raised, which could be described as midway between rueful and impatient.
9:50: The customer leaves the establishment. As she exits the door, a third individual, a brown-haired white male, wearing glasses, with light stubble and of average build, opens the door for her, wearing the same expression. As he enters the establishment, the camera cuts.
[Source 2: [REDACTED] Bus route, dashboard footage]
10:46AM: The bus draws to a stop at [REDACTED] high street bus stop A, and the door opens. Visible in the side mirror, the bus driver frowns and makes a note on his console. The bus stop is half taken up by a family car. In the back seat, three white males with partially visible stubble, brown hair, and glasses are facing away from the camera. These individuals are sitting still.
Four passengers embark on the bus, and five disembark.
10:47: The bus driver receives a call from the bus station, and describes the car in front of him. As he does so, a passenger boards. The passenger is a brown-haired white male, wearing glasses, with light stubble, of average build.
As the conversation continues, the passenger raises one eyebrow and looks into the side mirror, reflecting directly towards the dashboard camera.
10:49: The bus driver concludes the phone call, and turns to the passenger. The driver makes eye contact with the passenger for twelve frames of footage. As the passenger boards, the three individuals in the car turn to face the dashboard camera. They are each making the same expression.
[Source 3: [REDACTED] Basketball game, broadcast [REDACTED], 2024]
11:56AM: The game enters an emergency break due to injury. As cover for the severity of the situation, event staff begin a "Look-alike Cam" segment, focussing on several individuals on the crowd.
Seven of thirteen individuals are brown-haired males with glasses, an average build, light stubble. As the camera pans to them, each is assigned a different lookalike object, as follows:
1. A famous "meme" comic character that is saying the word "yeah".
2. A small child wearing a colourful hat adorned with a propeller.
3. An assortment of [REDACTED] studios characters standing back-to-back.
4. An anthropomorphic rabbit (side-character from a popular children's show.
5. A turtle.
6. A podcaster.
7. The words "Your Brother".
11:59: The announcer enters the field of play with a microphone. She announces the beginning of play. As the camera comes into focus, the row of chairs directly behind her show seven brown-haired white males with glasses, an average build and light stubble - the same ones shown on the "Look-alike cam", each seated in a row.
As the crowd cheers, 6% of the attendees stand to clap. Of these, 50% are brown-haired white males with glasses an average build and light stubble. None of these individuals open their mouths during this celebration.
[Source 4: [REDACTED] daily newspaper, published [REDACTED] hours after the events of Source 3.]
The paper consists of 72 pages. Of these pages, 26 have images which overlap the same three(3) square centimetres. These images include crowd shots of sporting events, images from documentaries, publicity pictures from art galleries, a painting of a crowd scene from 1807, and an image of rolling hills.
Within the three(3) square centimetres shared by all of these images, there is at least some part of a brown-haired, white male wearing glasses of an average build. The smallest of these - the image of a rolling landscape - is under three(3) millimetres, but examining the online version of the relevant article has uncovered that the image, which is hosted at a size of 14GB, is of a high enough fidelity to identify the individual pictured as a brown-haired white male wearing glasses of an average build, facing the camera.
The final of these images is an advertisement for a dna-testing "heritage" service, which centers the face of a brown-haired white male wearing glasses and stubble of average build. The caption of this advert reads "I finally found my brother!"
[Source 5: emergency call, recorded [REDACTED], 6:34PM]
"Hello? Yes, I need an ambulance, I'm sorry. I was walking in the woods and I found my brother. He's very sick. He's... Pale, and he can't see, and he won't open his mouth. Please send someone as soon as you can, I think he hasn't been taking care of himself for a few days.
What's his name? I... I'm not sure. Please, just send someone. We're at [REDACTED], West Virginia. He's just looking at me, I think he's in shock. Yes, I can put him on, just give me a-"
The phone goes dead at this point. All attempts to trace the call or call back have thus-far failed. A police escort accompanied an emergency vehicle to the mentioned area, but after several hours the search was abandoned. In our attempts to gather more information, we have discovered the identity of both police officers on the scene.
Each is a brown-haired white male, of average build, with glasses and stubble. A freedom of information request has returned a description of the search which mentions three officers, but obscures their names. Each surname appears to share the same number of letters.
Attempts to identify the medical professionals involved have thus far failed.
[[Description fails.]]