animal hospital au

A narrow, labyrinthine room, crammed with metal shelves stocked with medications, gauze, and syringes. The light here barely works, forcing staff to enter with flashlights while listening for invisible footsteps among the back shelves.

The Atmosphere: A Suffocating Silence
The hospital's atmosphere is heavy, damp, and deeply claustrophobic. The air smells of a constant mixture of industrial disinfectant, rusty metal, and something sweet and putrid that's being deliberately concealed. The silence is broken only by the electric hum of fluorescent tubes flickering at the ends of the corridors, the steady drip of old pipes, and the distant, inexplicable sounds of scratching against the walls. The darkness isn't empty; it feels dense, as if it's watching you.
The Hospital Rooms
The Reception: The point of entry. It's a waiting room with rows of worn plastic chairs and a large central counter behind which the secretary is hidden. The atmosphere here feels strangely exposed, with large windows overlooking an endless, silent night.
The Main Corridors: Long passageways of cracked tiles and walls of a faded, hospital-like green. The lights flicker erratically, creating long, distorted shadows that seem to move at high speed the moment you look away.
The Recovery Room (Inpatient Ward): A cold, echoing room filled with stacked metal gurneys where ordinary patients rest and some anomalies are hidden. The atmosphere is thick with a constant chorus of metallic tremors, muffled moans, and ragged breathing.
The Operating Room: The place where the Head Nurse gave her last order. It is equipped with metal surgical gurneys, high-powered lights that now hum weakly, and rusty tool trays. Dark, dried stains decorate the white tile floor.
Dr. Harlow's Office: An immaculate, tidy, and suspiciously clean room compared to the rest of the hospital. It smells of expensive wood and cold coffee. Confidential files and locked filing cabinets rest on his desk, files Ron is eager to review.

Dogs, cats, rabbits, or birds) that come into the clinic for real, everyday veterinary emergencies. They harbor no hidden intentions or supernatural deformities; they only experience real physical pain.
Common Cases: They arrive at the hospital with fractures from accidents, stomach poisoning from eating what they shouldn't have, high fever, minor injuries from street fights, or to receive routine treatments.
Natural Behavior: Their behavior is entirely predictable and three-dimensional. They tremble with fear in the clinical environment, genuinely whimper from physical pain, seek affection and protection from nurses, or appear submissive and tired due to their ailments.

Role in the Hospital: He is the highest authority in the clinic. Just like in the original game, Dr. Harlow always appears punctually at the end of each night shift to greet the surviving staff with an icy and unsettling calm. He delivers performance reviews, assesses the employees' condition, and offers mysterious tips and safety warnings for the following day.
Absolute Knowledge: Harlow is no fool; he knows everything about every anomaly lurking in the hospital, including the dangerous and speedy Flickering Amalgam. He knows its behavior patterns, its weaknesses, and its hunting methods, but prefers to keep this information a top corporate secret.
Ron's Suspicions
Ron from accounting has Dr. Harlow as the target of all his conspiracy theories. His suspicions are based on management data:
The Strange Bills: Ron has discovered Harlow's signatures approving purchases of industrial-strength sedatives, experimental chemicals, and tons of meat that are never recorded in the diets of ordinary patients.
The Theory: Ron openly speculates that Dr. Harlow has a direct connection to the origin of the anomalies. He believes that Harlow is protecting them, nurturing them, or even creating them through clandestine experiments in the sealed-off sections of the clinic, using the employees' night shifts as a twisted field test.

Status: Alive (and extremely paranoid).
Situation: Ron is in charge of balancing the hospital's accounts, budgets, and inventories. Although he hasn't directly encountered the main anomaly, his obsession with numbers led him to discover that the hospital's math simply doesn't add up. The constant "losses" of medical equipment, the unexplained spikes in electricity consumption overnight, and the excessive spending on industrial disinfectants aroused his suspicions.
Behavior and Routine
Daily Visits: Despite having his office in the administrative area (far from direct danger), Ron goes down to the main hospital every day with his clipboard. He uses any accounting-related pretext to wander the halls and reception area.
The Nerd Informant: He tends to approach the Secretary and anyone else who will listen to "bring them up to speed" on the financial irregularities he finds. He warns them about how certain operating rooms spend more resources than they record on actual patients.
Compulsive Theorist: Always has a new conspiracy theory. It ranges from the hospital being a front for government experiments on local wildlife, to Dr. Harlow diverting funds to feed a "giant parasite" in the basement.
Although the regular staff usually ignore him and take him for a harmless conspiracy theorist, his crazy accounting-based theories are dangerously close to uncovering the terrifying truth about the hospital.

1. The Secretary
   State: Stable but bewildered.
   Situation: He spends most of his shift at the reception desk, trying to comfort and calm the Secretary (the sheep). Despite his efforts to support her, he feels deeply confused and frustrated by his colleague's behavior, as he fails to grasp the magnitude of the severe trauma she carries or the creature's existence.
2. The Intern
   Status: Inexperienced and unaware of danger.
   Situation: Unfortunately for him, it's his very first day at the clinic. As a newcomer just getting acquainted with the facilities and basic procedures, he assumes that the tense atmosphere and the odd behavior of some of his colleagues are simply part of the hospital's normal routine.
3. The Doctor
   Status: Uninformed.
   Situation: He knows absolutely nothing about the emergence of the main anomaly or the death of the Head Nurse. On the day of the fatal incident, he was off duty, so he returned to his regular shifts completely unaware of the horror that unfolded in the darkened corridors.
4. The Paramedic
   Status: Unconcerned.
   Situation: His absence during the tragedy was entirely coincidental. He had left the facility on a mission to restock the inventory, going to retrieve syringes and various medical supplies due to a shortage of these items in the warehouses. Since he was not at the hospital that night, he continues to perform his transport and rescue duties as usual.

1. The Secretary (The Sheep)
   Trauma: Severe.
   Incident: She was the sole survivor of the main anomaly's attack at the entrance. Upon seeing that grotesque mass appear, she managed to hide in terror under the reception desk.
   Aftermath: She developed a pathological fear of death. What haunts her most in her nightmares is not just the monster, but having had to listen so closely to the harrowing cries for help of the Head Nurse being torn apart. Any scream or sudden noise triggers panic attacks.
2. The Nurse
   Trauma: Mild.
   Incident: He was in the operating room performing surgery under the direct orders given to him by the Head Nurse before she died. During the operation, the silence was broken by his boss's horrific screams. Peeking out the door for a few seconds, he caught a glimpse of the main anomaly speeding across the corridor.
   Consequences: She suffers from constant paranoia when walking alone in the hospital and a high sensitivity to flickering lights.
3. The Surgeon
   Trauma: Mild.
   Incident: While performing the same surgery alongside the nurse, he experienced the exact same thing. The echo of the Head Nurse's screams interrupted his work, and he caught a glimpse, out of the corner of his eye, of the grotesque creature speeding past the operating room window.
   Aftermath: He tries to maintain a cool, professional facade, but the experience left him shaken. Now he experiences a slight tremor in his hands when the hospital falls completely silent, fearing the horror will be repeated.

1. Head Nurse (Death Confirmed)
   Cause of death: Direct attack by "The Flickering Amalgam" (Main Anomaly).
   Details of the incident: She was in charge of overseeing night operations. Due to her heavy workload, she was momentarily distracted reviewing medical records by the main reception desk, ignoring the metallic noises and subtle flickering lights in the hallway. No one in the hospital knew of the existence of this grotesque, spasmodic mass. The anomaly, taking advantage of its superhuman speed, struck her in the blink of an eye, giving her no time to react.
   Status: His body could not be fully recovered; only blood-stained reports and the receiving bell dented by the force of the impact were found.
2. Psychologist at the Clinic (Death Unknown)
   Cause of death: Undetermined (Suspected abduction/anomalous elimination).
   Details of the incident: He was in charge of assessing the mental health of staff who claimed to "see things" in the hallways. His last session was recorded in the early hours of the morning. The recording systems in his office experienced complete static interference for twelve minutes. When the signal was restored, the room was completely empty, with the door locked from the inside.
   Status: Missing. On the floor of his office, perfectly aligned in the center of the carpet, only his intact glasses were found.
3. Security Guard (Death Unknown)
   Cause of death: Undetermined (Neglect under sleep deprivation).
   Details of the incident: During a grueling shift, and after several days suffering from severe insomnia, the guard fell asleep in the control booth. Due to extreme fatigue, he failed to properly check the cameras and access protocols, opening the doors and allowing entry to a previously unknown anomaly disguised as an injured dog.
   Status: Missing. His guardhouse was found with the door ripped off. At the scene.

1. The Delayed Reflex
   A common tabby cat resting peacefully in its assigned cage.
   Behavior: The animal acts completely normally, but its reflection in the cage glass does not mimic its movements in real time; it remains static staring at you or moves with a delay of several seconds.
   How to avoid it: Don't stare at the glass. Record its health status on the form, looking only at the real cat, and place a dark blanket over the cage to block the reflection before the imitation tries to escape the glass.
2. Human Posture
   A small breed dog is inside its cubicle in absolute silence.
   Behavior: Instead of lying down or being fearful, it stands perfectly upright on its two hind legs in a corner, rigid like a statue, with its front limbs close to its body and looking at you with wide-open human eyes.
   How to avoid it: Don't try to touch it or force it down. Keep your flashlight beam away from its face, quickly fill its food bowl, and close the gate without making direct eye contact.
3. The Duplicate Patient
   A harmless white rabbit suddenly appears loose, hopping slowly down the clinic corridor.
   Behavior: It's an identical copy of a registered patient. If you check the corresponding cage, you'll see the original rabbit sleeping peacefully. The one running free is a decoy trying to lead you into dark areas.
   How to avoid it: Don't try to pick up the duplicate from the floor or chase it. Simply walk around it, keeping a safe distance, and return to the office to report a "duplication error" on the computer.

The Smiling Dog
A dog with an exaggeratedly long neck and a dislocated human jaw that forms a fixed and disturbing smile.
Behavior: He stands motionless in the hallways, staring at you. If you turn your back on him or blink too much, he advances toward you with heavy, damp steps, stopping abruptly each time you look back.
How to avoid it: You must maintain direct eye contact with him while slowly and steadily backing away, until you manage to close the nearest door.
2. The Echo of Needles
A hairless feline, covered by dozens of rusty metal syringes sprouting from its back like spines.
Behavior: It is completely blind but has ultrasensitive hearing. It tends to tremble violently in dark corners, causing syringes to jingle with a metallic, screeching sound.
How to avoid it: When you hear the jingling, turn off your flashlight immediately. Walk crouching down and don't make any noise until you stop hearing the needle spasms.
3. The Hidden Patient
A metal stretcher covered by a dirty sheet from which multiple black and deformed claws protrude, scratching the floor.
Behavior: She moves around the hospital on her own and emits weak whimpers similar to those of an injured puppy to get your attention and make you come closer.
How to avoid it: Always check your patient log. If there are no scheduled beds in that area, ignore the crying completely, don't look under the covers, and just keep walking.
4. The Black Drip
A viscous mass suspended from the ceiling that mimics the silhouette of a deformed animal, dripping a dark fluid.
Behavior: It remains on the lookout at heights. It only drops violently if it detects sudden movements or panic below.
How to avoid it: When passing under a damp area of ​​the roof, walk very slowly and without making quick movements; if you remain calm, it will ignore you.

This anomaly manifests as a distorted and grotesque mass that defies any natural anatomy. It is an unstable amalgam of multiple entities forcibly fused together, where faces and limbs seem to melt and overlap in a constant glitch. Its body, shrouded in the hospital's gloom, is distinguished by a sickly, yellowish glow emanating from what appears to be its main head: an enormous, disproportionate maw filled with sharp, jagged teeth, frozen in a grimace of agony. Around it, silhouettes of additional claws and fragments of distorted faces flicker erratically in a static white hue, as if reality itself is struggling to process its physical existence.
Behavior: Hyperkinesis and Dissociation
The creature's behavior is extremely erratic and chaotic, reflecting the conflict of the multiple minds that compose it. It moves with superhuman speed, but not fluidly; it does so through violent spasms and jerky movements, giving the impression that its body is moving in fits and starts.
It usually alternates between two very marked behavioral states:
The Frenetic Agitation: Panics easily. When it detects human presence, it begins to tremble violently and shake, frantically scratching the walls and floor at an alarming speed, while emitting a high-pitched, constant squealing sound.
The Haunting Trance: From one second to the next, it can become completely motionless in the darkness. During these periods of unsettling stillness, only the flickering of its light and a slight swaying of its torso are perceptible, as it stares intently at its target, as if its constituent parts were coordinating their actions before reacting.