P is for [the] Paraphysiology Intelligence Division

Thanks for all the comments on O is for Oppression, much appreciated. Today, I'd like to introduce you to the force opposing (or oppressing, if you believe Naima) my world of witches - the Paraphysiology Intelligence Division.

Enjoy.

**

Still feeling uneasy about what she'd read on the Hartley Incident, Maggie wanted to know what had happened after that. Had the Paraphysiological Beings Registration Act been passed?

She returned to Wikipedia, searched for the Act and found the following excerpt:

On September twenty-nine, nineteen-eighty-six, a government referendum voted 'yes' on the Paraphysiological Beings Registration Act, with a majority of eighty-five percent.

The Act states that all human beings displaying above human capabilities are to be assessed to ascertain exactly what those abilities are, before being judged by a panel of government officials to

determine if said abilities posed a danger to the public.

Above human capabilities, as defined by the government, are any physical or mental functions that go beyond the normal physiology of a human being. For example, being able to move objects with the power of the mind.

When a being is found to be of no danger to the public, they are to be released back to their normal lives. However, they now have to report to a government official every month to prove they are abiding by the law, and not abusing their abilities. Furthermore, all travel out of the country has to be sanctioned by the persons' overseeing official.

In cases where it is deemed that the person's above human capability pose a danger to the public, that person will be detained at a government facility either until the being gains control of their ability, or permanently if the ability is regarded as too powerful to control, or if the person in question has previously displayed extreme criminal tenancies.

To regulate beings with above human capabilities the government formed the Paraphysiology Intelligence Division (PID), with agents being specially trained in how to recognise those with paraphysiological abilities and assess what those abilities are.

The PID operate from government facilities, known as Arcane Abilities Alignment Centres, the first of which was opened in London, on October thirty-first, nineteen-eighty-seven and was managed by Zacharia Pemberton, who was head of the PID at the time.

Arcs have a secondary function in that they also act as a holding facility for those the PID deem too dangerous to be released into the public. The prison facility ranges in varying degrees of security, the parts for the lower level inhabitants akin to hotel rooms, and the section for the hight level inmates using the latest technology to confine prisoners.

To regulate beings with above human capabilities PID scientists have created a new chemical compound, Xanark Nitrate 43, that they injected into weapons such as whips and guns, to neutralize a person's abilities.

As the London Arc thrived, further centres were built around the county, at present count totalling seven.

Maggie closed the article, and rubbed her temples. She and her sisters had had a lucky escape, she decided. She wondered how the PID would have judged them. Would they have been found too dangerous to return to their normal lives? Would they have faced a future locked up in an Arc?

The Article had also raised other questions, especially about the chemical compound Xanark Nitrate 43. Maggie shuddered as she remembered the neutralizing whip the agents had used, and vowed to ask Sebastian about his.

She also wondered why her grandmother had been imprisoned, and what exactly she had done to make the PID feel as though she was a danger to the public.

With those questions in mind, Maggie rose from the computer desk, and crossed the warehouse with the intention of seeking out both Sebastian and her grandmother.

**

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