The Holders


 * In any city, in any country, there's a mental institution or halfway house you can try any of these in. There were 2538 of these Objects, but 2000 were lost.


 * The remaining 538 must never come together. Ever.


 * &mdash;Holders Series website

The Holders is an ever-expanding series of creepyfic. Originally conceived by someone on 4chan's /x/ board (or possibly /b/, or /tg/, no-one really remembers exactly), the first series of thirteen or so were snatched up by 4chan's population and expanded with ferocity. After several stints on a variety of websites, they eventually found a home on their own page, the Holders Series website. We'll let that page speak for itself.

Though originally limited to mental institutions and halfway houses, subsequent items have been found in pretty much any sort of public or semi-public building in existence. Not all 538 have been found, but the discoveries haven't stopped yet.

In Relation to The PPC
Holders items are among the list of items that are Absolutely Forbidden to be taken into possession by PPC agents; bringing one into HQ is likely among the most eminently punishable things an agent could possibly do. Besides the fact that the items are part of one gigantic and almost certainly evil prophecy, the items themselves have inherently nasty properties and effects, and keeping them around is almost certain to speed up the already-alarming rate of insanity that agents suffer. Disposing of them is impossible&mdash;the items are utterly indestructible and attempting to do so would be catastrophic at best. Plus, as the introduction implies, one item tends to draw others to it&mdash;or rather, draw its Holder to others. The last thing the PPC needs is agents going renegade to try and fulfill a potentially mulitverse-ending prophecy. The second-last thing it needs is agents dying in hideously painful ways while attempting the above, but then any agent stupid enough to try and face a Holder A) probably doesn't deserve to live, and B) would probably be happier to face the Holder than to face the Flowers That Be after disobeying them in such an extreme manner. The items are also heavily implied to be sentient and malevolent, and may also be the aspects of a single eldritch abomination whose very existence would annihilate reality itself. Possessing one of these items may also attract other Holders to itself in an attempt to reunite with the others, which would both fatally compromise the security of the PPC and possibly help bring about the aforementioned destruction of reality.

Because Sues are highly unlikely to know of the complex methods required to survive acquiring even one Holder item, let alone remain sane after doing so, releasing Sues into Holders situations has recently become a favorite method of execution for some agents, especially since the inherent "resetting" nature of the canon handles cleanup on its own. Even if a Sue does obtain the item in the situation, possessing the item erases the Sue's personality and any inherent abilities they may possess, transforming them into a new Holder. They have to be picked carefully, though, as many of the Holders inflict fates worse than death rather than actual death, which does not technically count as a kill.