Entity 46 : "Lucky Cranes"

Formerly classified as Object 33, Entity 46 look and feel like paper cranes made from high-quality origami paper. Colloquially called "Lucky Cranes," they come in a variety of patterns, colors, and sizes. Some are as small as 1 inch, and others are as large as 5 inches.

Generally, they take the form of the typical orizuru2pattern. However, some have been found in more complicated patterns, such as the following:

• Fan-tail3
• Rose-knot4
• Typical orizuru but with multiple heads

Under normal circumstances, Lucky Cranes are passive and non-hostile entities. They will allow wanderers to pick them up and handle them, and are generally stationary. The only time Lucky Cranes become hostile is when they are in a colony and swarm in response to threats.

While Lucky Cranes are attracted to places where humans gather, they prefer to hide out of sight. Finding a solitary Lucky Crane can be difficult due to the fact that they hide in inconspicuous, yet odd spots:

• Folded up inside books.
• Tucked away in cupboards.
• And in one notable case, having replaced the soup in a can of soup.

Sometimes Lucky Cranes hitch rides with human hosts, tucking themselves in a pocket or in a bag as the hosts wander across the Backrooms. Across these hosts, there are few physical similarities, implying it is not a physical human attribute5 that attracts Lucky Cranes. Rather, it seems Lucky Cranes tend to be attracted to hosts who have a history of random events affecting them positively or a history of escaping danger despite the circumstances.

In layman's terms, Lucky Cranes are attracted to lucky people. When observed in conjunction with large colony behavior, it implies Lucky Cranes feed off luck.

Near large human settlements6, Lucky Cranes will form colonies that have an estimated population of hundreds, if not thousands, of cranes packed together in the space available. These colonies can be found in a secluded spot near the settlements, but are never more than 1 mile away. Usually, these colonies are harmless, but when the Lucky Crane population greatly outnumbers the human population, settlements can quickly collapse due to a series of unfortunate events happening, including but not limited to:

• Increase in minor injuries, such as stubbed toes.
• Increase in freak accidents.
• Misplacement of objects, including those essential to survival.
• Brain aneurysms in people who previously had no risk of such.
• Heart attacks in people who previously had no risk of such.

If the Lucky Crane population becomes too great, settlement collapse is a very likely possibility (See Discovery section for more information). Thankfully, Entity 46 are passive entities, allowing wanderers to pick them up and move them. When threatened with fire or water, Lucky Cranes will no-clip away from the source to safety, either by moving a few feet or to another level entirely.

The threat of fire or water can quickly disperse colonies by scaring them into a new area or into smaller colonies. However, no Lucky Cranes should be harmed by any means. Doing so may trigger swarm behavior. In levels where fire or water is unavailable or inadvisable to use, colonies can be dispersed by simply picking individuals up and moving them gently to prevent causing tears in their body.

Swarm Behavior

While in colonies, Lucky Cranes can become aggressive if the colony has been harmed by a physical creature. While swarming, Lucky Cranes will target the creature that harmed them and rapidly no-clip in and out of its body, taking bits of flesh with them no larger than a paper cut. The combined damage of thousands of paper cuts results in an excruciatingly painful death from blood loss or from asphyxiation as blood fills the lungs. Once the creature is deceased, the Lucky Cranes will become stationary once more.

Due to this behavior, extreme care and caution must be taken when dispersing colonies.

There are a few colonies with numbers too big to completely disperse safely or in a timely manner. They are located at the following levels:

• Level 13
• Level 409
• Level 777

Wanderers visiting or living in these levels should try and disperse 10-25 cranes every day to keep the colony population manageable and prevent settlement collapse.

While it may look and feel like paper, the inner body of a Lucky Crane has a series of incredibly thin and delicate tube-like structures that function as its inner organs. These tube-like structures are found between each layer of a Lucky Crane's paper-like skin. As they move toward the wings or other flat parts of the body, they flatten and shrink, becoming microscopic.

Theses tubes transfer a shimmering gold liquid between layers. This gold liquid makes Lucky Cranes more durable than regular paper cranes, observations showing that it heals small tears in one to two days and larger tears over the course of weeks. However, fire and water destroy and inhibit these organs, making Lucky Cranes susceptible to these elements. When a Lucky Crane dies, the gold liquid hardens and dulls into a dirty yellow color, "gluing" the body together in a form of rigor mortis.

Some wanderers actively hunt Lucky Cranes and attempt to eat them alive due to a rumor that it will give you good luck. However, because it's impossible to verify if this is true, it's inadvisable to eat a live Lucky Crane. Not only do they reflexively no-clip out of danger, but the gold liquid itself is sour-tasting, and eating the paper-like substance can cause gastrointestinal distress. Attempting to eat a deceased Lucky Crane is also inadvisable, as the gold liquid becomes hard enough to break teeth.

The few autopsies done show no evidence of a central nervous system7, but there is evidence Lucky Cranes do have a rudimentary intelligence: avoiding water and fire, hiding from wanderers trying to clear them out, and their behavior during swarms.

It is unknown how exactly Lucky Cranes "feed." Presumably, since colonies exist without physical human contact, luck seems to be an ambient property that humans give off. However, because no instruments that measure luck exist, it's impossible to verify. As to what they do with the luck they consume, there are multiple theories, but one is the most plausible: luck is what allows them to no-clip at will. This theory has credence as many wanderers who can no-clip at will say it's harder after finding a Lucky Crane on them. However, after a few days of rest, their no-clipping ability returns to normal.

It is unknown where Lucky Cranes come from or how they reproduce, but research into Level 409 is ongoing.

For a long time, Lucky Cranes were classified as Object 33 due to their passivity. Many wanderers considered them trinkets that had a habit of disappearing and reappearing, "just an odd feature of the Backrooms." Due to the fact they would appear after a lucky event happened to a wanderer, many considered them good luck charms and used them for trade. While there were creeping doubts from the M.E.G. of Lucky Cranes' status of being an object, it wasn't until the collapse of the original Base Omega on Level 4 that their designation was changed.

Eyewitness account of Erik Corbel

I was a newbie at the time. I'd only been in the Backrooms for about a year. I was… I believe 29 at the time? [laughs] I went from hiking in the woods to being bossed around by a bunch of teens. Life's funny that way. Anyway…

After Base Alpha was made and settled, all the Overseers got together and decided we should make another base. Make more safe havens for wanderers. So they decided on Level 4. It was easy to get to, pretty safe. So we grunts made the outpost's bones. Food, water, a few weapons and beds. But as the outpost grew, things started to happen.

There were accidents. Just minor ones, like stubbed toes, paper cuts. But then they grew worse.

People started losing things. Water would somehow get into rations. The stubbed toes became sprains. The sprains became broken bones. But no one was prepared for Lily's death.

[sighs]

It was a complete accident. No one really knows what exactly happened, but while she was putting together the little clinic we had, a cabinet fell and crushed her leg. I remembered her screaming. I rushed to help pull the cabinet off her leg but—

You gotta remember. We weren't set up well back then. We didn't have any doctors. We did the best we could but—

Her leg started to heal wrong. You could see the pus oozing out of the wound, thick and green. God and the stench. When we found the antibiotics, we thought we hit a stroke of good luck. But Lily, she had a fever. She was out of it. Could barely think, let alone talk. She couldn't tell anyone she was allergic.

What a stroke of rotten luck.

Everything went to hell in a handbasket after that. Ten people, TEN, all died. All on the same day. Brain aneurysms or heart attacks. Our radios, something would get in them, and they would cut out, just as we needed orders on what to do.

Fuck, at one point, some poor bastard ran straight into the outpost with a pack of Hounds on their heels. We fought them off, but lost half the people we started with!

Do you know how long all this took? A month. 30 days. And we'd had more casualties than any other known level at the time. People said we were cursed.

I gotta say, the Overseers stepped up. Told everyone to evacuate. Those kids gained a little respect in my eyes that day. Proved to me they weren't just playing around. They were serious about helping people. Anyway…

We left, but that didn't stop others from moving in. 'Course, they also started to have bad luck. People started dying again. So they left too. Wasn't long before Level 4 became a ghost town.

They were this close to rewriting Level 4's description in the database. But some guy, some wanderer who'd just dropped in, mentioned he saw something on Level 4. I volunteered to check it out, maybe get peace for those who died. Maybe get peace for myself.

He took me to a supply closet, one close enough to the old Base Omega to be within walking distance, but juuust out of range to have been interesting to us when we were setting up.

I opened the door, and you know what I found?

Fucking origami cranes. Hundreds of them. Thousands! All packed together on the shelving, sitting there like fucking dolls. I'd seen one before, found it in my bag. Didn't think much of it until I saw that closet.

'Course, we didn't know at the time everything was because of them, but damn it! We needed to feel like we were doing something.

I went back to Base Alpha, explained what we found, and then Charlie decided he wanted to come too. Had an idea of getting rid of them all at once using hairspray and a lighter.

[sighs]

Again, just a stroke of bad luck. How were we supposed to know that these things could fucking no-clip?

The moment the flames touched one, there was a woosh of air that sounded like pages rustling. Next thing I knew, Charlie was choking. He dropped the lighter and hairspray. He was bleeding from these thin cuts all over his body! I could see those fuckers dropping in and out of reality, blood covering their wings.

It took one, maybe two minutes, tops, but the moment he hit the ground, everything stopped. Everything was the same… except for the blood on the cranes' wings. I rushed to check his pulse, but well… not much you can do when there's thousands of paper cuts on the inside.

After that, well, not much happened. There was a lot of debate, but the Overseers had us move them by hand, picking them up and relocating them far away. It took us two weeks, but we cleared them out. We started to rebuild, keeping an eye out for more closets full of those things, but didn't see one.

Once Base Omega was rebuilt, I moved on to other things. But as far as I know, Base Omega hasn't had an infestation like that one again. But people over there tend to get twitchy there whenever too many people stub their toes.

Do:

• Check pockets and other equipment for Lucky Cranes when traversing more dangerous levels.
• Handle Lucky Cranes with care.
• Keep an eye out for signs of a Lucky Crane colony.

Don't:

• Keep Lucky Cranes as a pet.
• Eat Lucky Cranes.
• Knowingly carry Lucky Cranes to new levels with large human settlements.
• Burn or drown members of a colony.

Want to join the Lucky Crane fanclub? Click Here: https://www.origami-fun.com/origami-crane.html

IETS system by ~ Hylius
Concord System by ~ Kai4C