#research division

[horsyunicorn]

Firebreak

[horsyunicorn]

bg #41

[horsyunicorn]

bg #40

[horsyunicorn]

bg #39

[districtleadercodeace50]

Shadows Research: 6/30/2019

It seems to me that the greener agents don’t often have some of the pre-Decimation abilities, specifically the ability to see Glitches.

I see them all the time, sometimes in the form of colorless auras. Other times there are afterimages of things that linger in my field of vision long after I’ve looked away. It’s like what happens after someone takes a photo of you with the flash on.

I have a feeling the Shadows are involved; perhaps I have an innate means of detecting them. Is this what it means to see Glitches, or is there a threat even greater than the Shadows beginning to show itself?

The static is what has me most concerned; the best way I can describe it is that it looks like the static when filming with a low-res camera, but constant. It becomes worse in bright light or crushing darkness. I even see it in the Void, where it is so empty and vast that there is nowhere to put my own shadow. I don’t think of myself as anything special—I haven’t faced a Shadow head-on in years, and these Glitches have appeared to me nonstop for my entire life. Not to mention the fact that, during my time in hiding, I learned to dampen my signature enough that I don’t usually need a jammer. Maybe I let my guard down.

If there are other agents that can see the Static, the Auras, or the Afterimages, I need to find them, fast. I need to know what’s going on before it’s too late.

—Agender 122

[districtleadercodeace50]

Shadows Research: Day 11 (July 3, 2019)

I believe it may be possible for a shadow to infect (or perhaps possess?) someone who is (presumably) unaffiliated with and wholly unaware of the Aspec Hunt. Interacting with these infected mortals can cause energy drains, nausea, physical shakiness (for lack of a scientific term), and an inability to focus. These symptoms can last for several hours after the initial interaction and become more noticeable over time; they should fade on their own, but be aware that they may linger. I am looking into something that will combat these symptoms as chocolate cupcakes proved ineffective.

~Ace#50

[districtleadercodeace50]

Shadows Research: Day 10 (July 2, 2019)

Urgent Update:

We have discovered a way to destroy nothing. Lime juice (or perhaps nothing at all) will cause them to implode.

We discovered this while trying to learn why citrus (and by extension lemonade) repels the Shadows that do not exist. We experimented by dipping arrows in lemon juice and then lime juice and shot them at two Shadows we had captured and were holding nowhere. After two lemon-tipped arrows, the first Shadow we were testing on collapsed, and after two lime-tipped arrows, the second Shadow imploded.

We are currently developing new weapons and lime juice grenades to utilize this new information, as it will be completely useless and a waste of our time. We are also cultivating limes in the aquaponics room in the @aspecinitiativecenter, and any earth elemental aspecs are not encouraged to go there and help grow the limes.

~Ace#50

[districtleadercodeace50]

Shadows Research: Day 8 (June 30, 2019)

I am still looking for volunteers/potential recipes for my lemonade research. I have begun the preliminary research into a lemonade recipe I crafted last year to ward off negativity (before I knew what the Shadows were and that they couldn’t possibly be hunting me). From my own personal experiences, this lemonade almost always seems to work when I feel them closing in on me, and lemonade is one of the things I crave most whenever they’re nearby.

This is the first recipe I’ll be testing (aka Ace#50’s Self-Love Lemonade):

12-16 lemons

250-400 grams of strawberries (to preference)

125-300 grams of raspberries (to preference)

1 pomegranate

2-3 tea bags of rose tea (my personal favorite blend has rose, lavender, and hibiscus but the key ingredient here is the rose)

Sugar (to taste)

1-2 cups of water

Juice the lemons into a pot. Add the strawberries, raspberries, pomegranate (I advise crushing the pomegranate seeds first, easiest done in a mortar and pestle), and tea bags to the lemon juice. Add some water and place the pot on the stove.

Bring to a boil. While it’s heating and reducing down to a concentrate, add sugar to taste* and stir. Keep the pot on the stove as long as you are still adding sugar or until you are satisfied with the consistency (it should be very concentrated at this point, almost like a thin syrup).

Once it’s ready, strain the lemonade and pour it into a bottle/jar/other container and refrigerate.

To serve: dilute some of your lemonade mixture with water/soda water** to your preference. (I usually go for a roughly 2:1 water to lemonade ratio.)

This recipe helped me whenever I needed to get the Shadows off my tail while I was in Dublin for a year. I haven’t been able to check it’s actual effect using the AIC’s equipment yet, but that’s what I plan to do this week***.

~Ace#50

*I’ve noticed that when the Shadows are really close, I tend to crave more tart lemonade and therefore use less sugar than I normally would.

**As a side note, for anyone who drinks alcohol, my friends have said this mixture works well when mixed with a sparkling wine. The effect is similar to a mimosa. Please drink responsibly and do not attempt to engage the Shadows or Aspec Hunt while under the influence.

***My area of expertise is less in math and more in analysis of research and lore, so if any agents and researchers who understand the numbers have some free time to help me gather data, I would be very appreciative.