Description
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.
Fig 1. Traditional orizuru crane
Generally, they take the form of the typical orizuru2pattern. However, some have been found in more complicated patterns, such as the following:
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.
Behaviors
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.
Fig 2. Fan-tailed variant
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:
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.
Biology
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.
Discovery
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.
Collapse of Base Omega
Do's and Don'ts:
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.
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