Case 70

Case 70s are the case used by the PRT when dealing with powers that manifest in two or more people. So-called due to the power expression phenomena being the 70th anomalous case investigated by the PRT.<ref name="II.1.1 e1">Official files. Classification documents. Then there were the notes for case one, case fifteen, case thirty-two, case fifty-three, case ninety. The ‘cases’ were the events the PRT had deemed of interest. Riddles both solved and unsolved. My collection there was incomplete, but some were official enough to be confidential, and I’d never had that access. Others were closed, the mystery deemed nonexistent or something to be folded into popular knowledge. - Excerpt from Daybreak 1.1</ref><ref name="R2"/>

Details

Case seventies are all about blurred lines. Where does one person start and the other begin? When one identical sibling triggers and touches another, what can happen?

One example seen is Capricorn, where the twins are not in constant communication, but sharing their sensorium. Anything one individual chooses to listen to and focus on is what non-active twin will also experience. In two hour shifts they have a habit to switch places physically. Clothes and all are caught up in this switch. They can switch outside this window voluntarily. One twin must consciously "Hand off the Wheel" to the other.

It is unknown how this phenomena presents in other individuals.

Case seventies reportedly have a low life expectancy, even compared to other parahumans. The majority of them were already out of the game before the Gold Morning.<ref>There’s not a lot of case seventies left. Even before Gold Morning, most were dead or they had totally gone off the deep end.” - Excerpt from Torch 7.6</ref>

Examples

Capricorn
Knot<ref>Prisoners 604 and 603, Knot, were happily gorging themselves on food in Cell Block Y. Despite their cognitive impairment, they had fallen into a role as enforcer and heavy hitter for Prisoner 390, leader of their cell block. Prisoner 390 had had a son – she could only hope that he would find some similar affection for Knot, with their childlike mentality. - Excerpt from Interlude 10.5</ref><ref name="2.6"/>
Tandem<ref name="2.6"/>
House of Three<ref name="2.6"/> (possibly)
Zigzag<ref>cite comment about zigzag not getting an explanation until the sequel</ref><ref name="2.6"/>

Background

Usually happens when two people are with the Agent conglomeration the two people into one individual.<ref name="2.6">“Case seventies in North America included Knot, Tandem, Zigzag was one, I think, there was House of Three in Quebec. And… you, it seems.”

“One or two of them might not be seventies, but they get called seventies because they’re close enough. Blurred lines, like you said. When twins trigger, the powers are identical or nearly identical. When twins trigger and they’re touching one another, like you said to Rain, things get blurry, the agent is too stupid or careless to tell where one starts and the other ends, or it wants to fuck with us, and it jams everything in together. Two minds, two similar powers, and one body to be shared.”- Excerpt from Flare 2.6</ref><ref name="R2">It's not about scale. It's about 'this is something we as an organization need to look into'. - Comment by Wildbow on reddit</ref> It may be due to the agents makeup.<ref>Lunatic Blue:
I have a question, what does the Butcher mean for shards/entities? Is it an aberration?

Wildbow:
keep in mind that the shards are pieces of the entities, they have residual effects & processes from being part of a larger organism, so where stuff isn't skewed intentionally, sometimes you just get quirks running through. - Wildbow on Discord, archived on Spacebattles</ref>

Trivia

The twins Nix & Nyx are not an example of this case.<ref name="R1">sanctaphrax: What was the deal with Nix and Nyx, anyway?

Wildbow: Twin sisters, took Cauldron vials, one went Case 53. - Comment by Wildbow on Reddit</ref> They may have been an attempt to replicate the phenomena.

References