ODDLOOM
ODDLOOM // I.C.U. Public Archive
REC / LIVE FEED I.C.U. / INNOVATIVE COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING PUBLIC ARCHIVE STATUS: CHILL

The Breach Record

// Open dossier on the Anomalies, their environment, and the persons of interest connected to them. Maintained for public reassurance by I.C.U. Management.

All phenomena described below are officially classified as BENIGN. There is no cause for concern. Please continue your day exactly as scheduled. Reporting an Anomaly is encouraged, through the ICU app, frictionless and instant. (I.C.U. Management)
Dossier N-01 / LocationPublic

Nation

Welcome to Nation, the land of wonders.

Nation is a country of innovation, in perpetual change and evolution. A country that cannot decide whether to anchor itself in a comforting past, the one you can read in its conservative-minded citizens, attached to their traditions and their habits (time to shake yourselves up a little, dear fellow citizens, as our King's famous proverb so wisely puts it: "You can't stop progress"), or to embrace a blazing future, carried by its institutions and the leaders of Nation.

A fracture, if there ever was one: the first conflict and great contradiction of Nation. A world leader in scientific and technological research, the very epicenter of the modern world, yet populated by people with little interest in progress, comfortable in a simple daily life made of routine. (Habits are made to be broken.)

With this gap in mindset and desire between its people and its ruling class, it took only one person to decide to take matters in hand and hold the course. Public opinion did not matter. That is how Nation lived through the first and greatest upheaval in its history, with the rise of Walton Royale to its head.

Clearance required / Governance
Dossier N-02 / OrganizationPublic

I.C.U.

Your humble and devoted servant: the Innovative Complete Understanding.

For decades, we have drawn the unknown into the light: the deep abyss, the unmapped regions, and now the Anomalies.

A research and innovation institution founded in Nation by a group of passionate students who wanted to prove to the world that Nation was not a stagnant, aging country. That they could offer the world the answer to all its mysteries, and that the call of progress ran in their veins. (Whether certain people like it or not.)

Today we are led by a board of five seasoned scientists, elected by their peers for a one-year term. Before the Anomalies, as you surely know, we made our name conducting research and expeditions in the most remote, unknown and poorly documented places (space, the ocean floor, the far corners of the globe).

Over the years, we have, humbly, achieved the feat of rising to the rank of the most prestigious scientific and research institutions in the world. Since their discovery, the Anomalies appearing across Nation are now our priority. We devote all our passion, expertise and talent to unlocking the mysteries of this new phenomenon.

And so we remain forever grateful to our sovereign Walton Royale, who has chosen to keep trusting us and funds all our research since the first Anomalies appeared. Fear not: your King watches over you!

Clearance required / Internal memo
Dossier N-03 / AnomalyPublic

Anomaly

Strange, but harmless!

We all remember where we were the first time we witnessed an Anomaly. Some of you may not even have noticed. For others, it was unmistakable!

  • A deja vu that lasts a few seconds too long.
  • A sensory hallucination you cannot describe afterward.
  • A bush that appears overnight in a field where there never was one.

Small, isolated, brief events. Strange enough to be noticed and reported by you, our dear citizens of Nation. You, so reluctant to let the unknown and the unexpected into your daily lives, it must have felt odd! But not enough to worry. And you are right! Anomalies are entirely benign. ICU certifies it.

Thanks to your participation through our ICUandFriends app, you have taken an active part in the census, the mapping, and the rise of those wonderful group chats about the Anomalies, brimming with lovely discussion on the subject. A goldmine for our researchers at the ICU.

Thanks to you, we have seen the emergence of new types of Anomaly, including the Zone Anomalies! Zones where Anomalies do not merely pass through, they settle in. Regions where the glitches concentrate, overlap, repeat, or run continuously without stopping.

Reminder: a Zone Anomaly may vanish overnight or persist for months. It has no visible boundary, no barrier, no signal. You can walk through one without even knowing it!

The ICU has learned to detect them through satellite data, fluctuation readings and, of course, your reports through our ICUandFriends app. Once identified, we establish a perimeter, set up a base camp at its edge, and send small teams inside.

Standard protocol: two or three scientists enter the zone, each tethered to base camp by an Ariane's thread (named after the myth, you guessed it). Not a simple cable, but a technological gem, made by ICU: a sophisticated lifeline of nano-engineered material that transmits vital signs, air fluctuations, vibrations. A permanent conversation between the team inside and the camp outside. So every team that enters the perimeter of a Zone Anomaly is sure to come back safe and sound!

Another type of Anomaly we have discovered: the Decoherence Anomaly, which affects the stability of physical information within a given zone (the Zone Anomalies).

Clearance required / Origin

You're starting to know this one well!

The largest Zone Anomaly ever recorded, at the western edge of Nation, across kilometers of remote, uninhabited territory, with no village and no road within its wide perimeter. What makes it so unusual and so magical, beyond its scale, is that at certain hours of the day, when the light strikes at a precise angle, its boundary becomes briefly visible. A dome, translucent and shifting, like the surface of water. The atmosphere distorts around it, a quiet, shifting prism.

Status: expedition deployed "Unknown" / Stand by / awaiting new elements

Inside, the colors are a shade off, sounds arrive from the wrong direction, and the senses slowly stop agreeing. Live on national television, a young woman walked out of it. The broadcast was cut for technical reasons.

Clearance required / Field report
Dossier N-04 / SubjectRestricted

Subject

Maintenance staff, I.C.U. headquarters. Clearance: minimal. Twenty-seven years old.

Collects dead technology, apologizes on reflex, and remains convinced he is the least important person in any room he walks into. Filed here for the sake of completeness.

Clearance required / Trajectory

Out of the Breach. Placed in quarantine for medical observation, appropriate care provided. Awaiting clearance to question her.

Pale skin. White hair. Scars (close examination required).

Status: person of interest
Clearance required / Identity
// ARCHIVE STATUS: THE PROLOGUE. Fragments are declassified as the record advances. Stay tuned. (I.C.U.)