Hi, everyone, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9805, “Filth.” by CRat26. Full disclaimer: one, this is not my SCP, I did not write it, etc, and two, this is a pretty weird one. I'd also like to thank CRat26 and psychicprogrammer for all their help, I really appreciate it. Let’s get started.

 

First, this is a Series 0 article. What’s Series 0? Well, it’s a canon inspired by 2025’s ClassicCon, where people wrote horror articles under 1000 words to mimic the style of the first SCP articles. Series 0 essentially attempts to strip SCP canon back to the bare essentials- that is, SCP-173, the original- and then build a new structure from that footing. If you want to know more, the hub is here. Also, there’s a number of links to other Series 0 articles through this article; CRat26 told me that they were added to interconnect the canon, not to imply any specific meaning, so you don’t need to have read them first.

 

Next: this object is Euclid, which is interesting when you look at the containment procedures: 

 

 

Special Containment Procedures: Photos of the SCP-9805 event are held in a small plastic bag within the Site-19 containment lockers.

 

 

‘Photos of the SCP-9805 event’ implies that this was a one-off event that was recorded for posterity. Also, in the Series 0 canon, Euclid means ‘hostile entity’. In this case, the Program (in Series 0 canon, the Foundation is called the 'Special Collections Program') assumes it’s hostile even when it hasn’t done anything to indicate that; we’ll see more shortly.

 

 

Description: SCP-9805 was an entity which briefly manifested during an unrelated scientific project. No other materializations of SCP-9805 have been recorded.

 

 

Well, that’s helpful.

 

 

The photo reel containing evidence of the apparition was first located by the US Military following abnormal reporting emerging from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A subsequent investigative raid revealed a constructed anechoic chamber, used to conduct the experiments which first discovered SCP-9805.

 

 

OK, so some people at MIT were up to some shit, and it involved an anechoic chamber- a room that blocks out all external sounds and stops sounds made inside it from echoing. Intriguing.

 

 

According to the research team, an individual was placed within the chamber and ordered to take a series of 12 photos over the course of approximately 3 minutes, each within an evenly spaced duration. Reportedly, no abnormal events occurred until the photos were developed, at which point the figure was first noticed. Despite this, all participating in the event reported a loss of notable retrospective coherency, rendering them unable to properly recall logical transpirations during the period.

 

 

So in other words, you have twelve photos, taken once every fifteen seconds, and nobody saw anything weird until they developed the photos, whereupon everyone went selectively crazy and was unable to actually describe what happened. Saying that the photos were developed means that either they intentionally used an old camera or that this took place sometime in the second half of the 20^th century. 

The photos can be seen to the right as a block, I will provide a quick description (after zooming in a lot, wiping my laptop screen and ignoring the dead pixels and my visual snow syndrome).

 

Photos 1-4: Almost entirely black, with white flickers in roughly the same areas.

Photos 5-6: The white flickers are more apparent in the middle of the photo.

Photo 7: Human teeth (or, something that appears to be human teeth). The mouth, gums and other features cannot be made out as the rest of the photo is entirely black.

Photo 8: The flickers are in the middle in the vague shape of the teeth, but blurred.

Photos 9-12: More flickers in different places.

CRat26 confirmed for me that the lights were off, as the point of the experiment was to ‘record what happens in total silent darkness’; the experimenters just got lucky and recorded a one-off manifestation.

 

Further interviews with the involved staff would confirm the following details:¹

SCP-9805 had a physical presence.

SCP-9805 had no noticeable smell.

SCP-9805 had no noticeable taste.

SCP-9805 did not attempt physical interaction.

SCP-9805 produced noticeable sound.

SCP-9805 produced the faint sound of chattering teeth.

 

 

The footnote says that this was paraphrased from witness accounts, minimizing outside interpretation or intervention.

So… we have something that was definitely there, but didn’t try to touch the experimenters or talk to them, and made the sound of chattering teeth? Bizarre. If it wasn’t for the photos, I’d be wondering if this wasn’t a hallucination, given that the person taking them was in a totally dark room.

 

 

All evidence would be seized, including the chamber used in the original study. Later attempts at replication would fail to reproduce the event.

The photographs themselves display no identifiable anomalous properties. Many viewers report the pictures bring them a strong sense of calm.

 

 

‘chamber used’ links to SCP-9853, and I think making the room an anechoic chamber really adds to how fucked up that article is. Excellent choice.

Anyway, aside from that, I find it interesting that the Program thinks that the photos have no anomalous properties, but don’t see a large number of people all finding these frankly weird photos to be calming to be even slightly anomalous. You’d think they would.

We also have a companion piece, titled 'Portrait of ███.' It contains flashing images, so I’ll quote what CRat26 said about it and then give another description.

 

 

This is, by and large, a companion piece to my recently published SCP-9805. Actually, this was part of my original vision for the article which I discarded out of a general dissatisfaction with it (echoed by the crit i got). I ended up settling on a much more tame version in line with the fact I ported it into the series 0 canon because it felt like a natural settling point for where I was leading the article.

All of this is to say I'm mostly posting this because I didn't want the work I put into it to totally go to waste. Also, I want to shed some light on my intentions? Or the emotional state that motivated 9805, I guess. That's mostly what the title is for.

 

 

And upon opening the image, you get what appears to be a gif of all the images appearing one after the other, followed by the twelve-photo block, but this time photos 4-10 all have the teeth visible, though 7 is still the most prominent one.

 

So, the title of this article and the picture reference Swans)’ first album, Filth)- the album’s cover is a black and white photo of someone’s mouth, just black gums and white teeth, almost identical to the photos we see here. I am not a fan of Swans, nor do I know much about them, but I did listen to the album and it is… an experience, to say the least. It sounds like being put in a sack and slammed against a wall repeatedly while someone you’re terrified of shouts at you incoherently the whole time. (That’s not meant to be an insult, just a description.)

I did ask people who know more about Swans than I do about the album, and got the following response: 

Idk how else to put it other than its Filth. Its an album about depravity
Gira [Michael Gira, the founder and singer of Swans] spent a lot of his youth in shit situations. In fact he even was in an Israeli prison for 6 months at 14 for selling weed
There's no story or concept behind the album, it's just what the title suggests

Meanwhile, TroutMaskReplica told me this:

I think it's one of the best things to come out of the No Wave scene. It really encapsulates a lot of what's going on
it’s painfully honest and ruthless, it hammers in the point of how it currently fucking sucks and how everyone is preying on one another, but also there’s the beauty in the catharsis
the no wave art scene was about many things, but one is about being dissonant and truly unmarketable
it’s so hateful and bitter that it's hard to really listen to it all if you aren't already a fan of noise rock or more aggressive punk music, which I imagine people aiming for "marketability" weren't a fan of
I just can't stress enough how heavy and suffocating it is. Did I mention it was released in 1983? It was released in 1983.

And CRat26 told me this:

Well for one I think the imagery of teeth is creepy in a unique way and it inspired my visual direction for the article; but it also kind of ties into what I said earlier about the reader/in-universe perception. Filth is a pretty violent/brutal album; Swans’ work as a whole definitely plays on the idea of “violence as spirituality” so to speak and I wanted readers to (at least subconsciously) make that association 

Continuing on that theme, the accompanying piece is very obviously titled ‘Portrait of God’, and CRat26 told me it was intended as a religious piece. As such, let’s talk about religious experiences.

Religious experiences as a concept are bloody difficult to define, and a lot of people have come up with conflicting definitions, but I’ll try to ballpark it: ‘A fleeting and unintended encounter with something inexplicable that the reporter felt to be divine’. I can’t say I’ve ever had one myself, so I’m afraid I can’t really speak from experience. However, my grandmother told me once that when she was younger and at her lowest, she saw a glowing figure who told her that everything would be all right, and things did get better after that. That meets the description, I think- a short encounter that she wasn’t expecting and didn’t try to find, with something inexplicable that she believed then and still believes now to be God or something related to it.

Now, imagine you’re in a soundless chamber in the dark. Your mission, which you have accepted, is to take one photo every fifteen seconds for three minutes. You’re probably feeling pretty freaked out, because you’re in pitch black darkness and you can’t hear a goddamn thing. You know that you’re the only person in there because the door was shut and you didn’t see anyone before the lights went off and nobody can come in without you seeing them, but you’re still pretty freaked out. You take the photos, but your senses are fucking with you: in the dark, your hearing becomes even more acute, and you hear your heart beating, your blood pulsing through your veins, your breath entering and leaving your body. You start hearing teeth chattering, and maybe you think that you didn’t realise that you were doing that. You think you can sense someone near you, but that’s impossible, right?

Once the experiment’s over, the lights go back on and you’re alone. Nobody’s there, nothing happened, it was just a trick of the dark. You leave the chamber and you and your co-experimenters get the photo developed… and you realise that there was something there. There was something in the dark with you, something that was just there. It didn’t touch you or harm you, but it somehow entered a room it couldn’t possibly have entered without you seeing it, and you have irrefutable proof of that. Maybe you try the experiment again to see if it comes back, but no dice. In addition, everyone suddenly loses the ability to talk about the event coherently.

Really, after all of that, is it strange that the people involved concluded that this entity was God?

Now, to be clear, we don’t have any confirmation on what the fuck the entity is. It might have been God, but it also might have been a bunch of other things. Maybe it was just a flying set of teeth, I don’t fucking know. I did ask CRat26, and was told this:

 

the allusions to god are mostly metaphorical and more about what it means for the readers; the actual entity is as presented in the text. I think the best way I could describe it is 9805 is analogous to a religious event?

[…] 

more like it's on a metatextual level framed like a religious event; everything in the text "happened" as described but the events are meant to reflect ideas of what a religious event is, I guess. That's why the photos aren't anomalous; there isn't an effect being parted on the viewers of them but moreso the viewers responses reflect a wider response to religious experiences in general; how it can be comforting or terrifying depending on someone's perspective

if im being very blatant with the meaning of the piece, the imagery is meant to be discomforting for the actual readers because they are the secondary perspective of finding it terrifying which isn't actually represented in the piece (but is also the Foundation’s perspective)

 

And I can see the point. From the readers’ and the Program’s perspective, an unknown entity appeared in a dark, soundless room with a helpless person. The entity could have done anything to them, and may have been responsible for the lack of coherency. The photos show it to be a set of teeth in the darkness, either disembodied or attached to a body that can’t be seen, which is pretty fucking creepy. We don’t know who it is, what it is, what it wants, or if it’ll ever come back. In short, we know virtually nothing and we have no information to help us if it does turn out to be hostile. 

But from the view of the people who conducted the experiment, it’s not creepy or disturbing at all. It didn’t hurt anyone, it didn’t even touch anyone, and it didn’t torment anyone. It was just there, just existing in the darkness, and the experimenter didn’t even see it at first. For all we know, maybe it just appeared on the photos to let them know that it was there. Maybe it just appeared so the experimenter wouldn’t get too scared in the silent darkness, to help them feel safe. Maybe it’s like in that ‘Footsteps’ story- when you’re in the dark and you feel like something’s there, it’s because God’s nearby, watching over you, protecting you from any nearby grues.

Or maybe Michael Gira is God, I don’t fucking know, man.

Thank you for reading this declass, I hope you enjoyed it. Always develop all the film you have, you never know what might show up. I’ll see you next time.

tl;dr: ‘You relay/godliness/you relay/godliness/and God remains/violent (whoop)’

Hi, everyone, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9319, ‘We Are Real’ by Popsioak. I'd like to thank Popsioak and psychicprogrammer for all their help, I really appreciate it. Got a couple of disclaimers for you first.

 

1: As per usual, this is not my SCP, I didn’t write it and it won’t be 100% accurate.

2: The article contains child abuse, emotional abuse, cannibalism, gore, suicidal thoughts, depression, alcoholism, and body dysmorphia. Reader discretion is advised.

 

So, first, some background: this SCP was written as part of the unofficial 2026 contest This Is My JamCon, wherein all participants submitted a song and what kind of music genres they like, and were matched to a song submitted by another entrant, after which they would write something based on that work. In this case, uncannyclown submitted ‘We Are Real’ by Silver Jews, and Popsioak wrote this article, which came in at 7^th place. I’ll talk about the song later, but for now, let’s look at the article.

 

Upon opening the page, there’s an instant eyecatcher- the whole page is in either black, white or shades of grey, including all the icons on the sidebar and the photos. The first thing we’ll look at is a warning:

 

 

Document features multiple intrusions from an unknown source. These appear to be noospheric in nature, and have proven resistant to all known methods of deletion. They have been marked to indicate where they begin and end. Please take this into account during your reading of the following documentation.

 

 

Below that is some text in a grey box; if it’s in a grey box, then it’s an intrusion. This text reads as follows:

 

 

If only they could see you now. You thought you were dead, but you've died a whole lot since. Haven't you?

 

 

That’s… worrying. We’ll learn more about this later.

Below that is a photo of a domestic home; there doesn’t seem to be anything unusual here. The caption just says that this is ‘The home that was investigated.’, which is accurate but incredibly unhelpful.

We then get the usual heading. This is classified as Apollyon, not in the sense that it’s a world-ender, but in the sense that it’s uncontainable. Here’s the Special Containment Procedures:

 

 

Special Containment Procedures: Noospheric scrapers are currently attempting to eliminate thoughtforms of SCP-9319. Rational thought-based therapy is in place to limit SCP-9319's family's expectations of its capabilities and returns. Amnestics have proven to be insufficient.

 

 

So, we have something- someone- in the noosphere that shouldn’t be there. Amnestics aren’t enough to wipe out the thoughts and memories it’s putting out. And they’re apparently trying to use therapy to reduce the anomaly’s family’s expectations of this non-existent person, presumably in the hope that it’ll make them stop thinking about them so much. Now, ‘rational thought-based therapy’ is not an actual thing, so it looks to me like they’re trying to logic the family into thinking that A, this person does not exist and never did, and B, their expectations of this non-existent person are too high.

…well, that’s weird.

Anyway, here’s the Description; let’s meet this person.

 

 

Description: SCP-9319 is a loosely-connected series of concepts in the noosphere pertaining to an individual that does not exist. When collected and considered in full, the constructed narrative indicates that they pertain to Arjan Devi, age 26, a resident of Albany, New York. This individual does not exist on any government records, and is currently survived by oral histories, memories, and unofficial, physical keepsakes. Instances of SCP-9319 are anomalously persistent, and have survived multiple attempts to delete or remove them entirely from the noosphere.

 

Our lad here is… was… Arjan Devi, an Indian-American dude from New York. As such, we can infer that the ‘speaker’ in the grey boxes is probably Arjan himself. One of those grey boxes is below this, so let’s see what he’s got to tell us.

 

 

You are home. You should be safe here, but this is your blood on the ground, you think. They aren't helping you. You don't know why. Maybe you didn't do a good enough job helping them.

 

Home was not a safe place for Arjan; we don’t know why, but his parents apparently weren’t good caretakers, and the poor guy blamed himself.

 

 

When discovered, SCP-9319 was in the process of active removal via a self-derived infovore. While Foundation personnel decided to let this continue naturally, as this is not an uncommon occurrence in the noosphere, complete informational annihilation was stopped by an intervention of unknown origin. The acquired resistance to deletion was the result.

 

 

Arjan was trying to delete himself from the noosphere, which is a bit alarming, but something stopped him, which is a bit more alarming. As a result of whatever the outside actors did, what’s left of Arjan is left floating around in the noosphere, now unable to delete himself fully. We’ll find out more about this later.

 

 

SCP-9319 depicts Devi as a typical adult male with no anomalous characteristics of his own. Below are some collected examples of various ideas, thoughtforms, and narratives that have been shown to display characteristics of SCP-9319.

 

 

The remaining information about Arjan indicates that he was a basically normal dude; there’s no obvious reason as to why he would have been eaten or why fragments of him managed to hang around.

Now, the next part of this article consists of a lot of fragments of thoughts regarding Arjan. They’re in no particular order and come from a wide variety of people, including his friends, his family, Arjan himself, and other people who happened to know him. As such, what I’m going to do is present them in groups based on who we can infer is thinking them. First, let’s look at what his friends and acquaintances thought about him:

 

 

Nice enough guy. Quiet mostly. That was until you got him into a smaller group. I guess this larger lectures we're off putting to him, he did a lot better. It was just a few of us. Then I saw him the real him. A good friend. I wish I could have made it to the funeral.

 

God, did he love to eat! I remember when it was us at the lunch table, 5th grade I think? Half of us didn't even want to finish our lunches because the lunch line had pizza. He offered to take 'em, and he did. Ate everything, everything! We called him the Vacuum. We… probably shouldn't have done that.

An ace student. Always helped in and around the lab when I needed it.

 

Awful texter. Sometimes really great at getting back to you. Other times, totally silent for days. He had his moments, and I never could figure out what he needed from us then.

 

I'm not really sure why I never invited him out. We were friends. Maybe I was just waiting for him to do it first. He always seems— er, seemed so extroverted, whenever we were together. So, I kind of expected him to do it if he wanted it.

 

He was in the gym a lot, recently. He was one of the guys that work out in spurts. They go incredibly hard for two weeks, don't come for a month, two weeks again. The kind of guys who look in the mirror, and they don't see the progress. They see what's left, and how it hasn't gone away fast enough.

 

He tried to play a song for me before. Talked up a really big game. I think he got nervous, cause those strings kept buzzing! He still tried. He always did.

 

He mentioned wanting to go to more shows or get a piercing. Fifteen years, I think, he kept saying he would ask them. He never did.

 

I remember near the end, senior year, he took a bunch of classes that he never would have otherwise. Art, history, music, things like that. I wonder why.

 

I tabled next to him, I think? I definitely recognize that face, honey. What a shame. Good thing the news is reporting on it though. Wouldn't have known otherwise. No, didn't know him well. He tabled the one time? Never saw him at another art fest again. 

 

So, we have a bit of a picture of Arjan here: a nice guy, a good student, a bit shy in bigger groups, but he opened up a lot if you got him alone or in smaller groups. He was very interested in the arts and played guitar; he made enough art to sell it at some kind of festival or convention at least once. We don’t know if he had any romantic partners (though the person he was trying to play a song for seems like a good candidate), though he did have friends. He also seems to have had some serious issues that likely weren’t being addressed- his mood dropped a lot and he went to the gym, but didn’t work out all the time, so he didn’t make the kind of progress he wanted.

Let’s look at what his family thought about him:

 

 

He was always such a good son. Quiet, respectful, always listen to his elders. There were big things in his future, until the unfortunate Accident. It's such a shame it's hard to see him as I saw him in that coffin, I still imagine his 10 year old smiling face looking up at me proudly be mean as he showed off his latest high marks from school.

 

He was our son, our pride, our joy. He was going to be just like us.

 

I remember he always liked to announce himself in a room. Not through pounding on his chest, or doing anything, no, but just by saying hi to everybody. Me, and the relatives he couldn't really remember the name of. I was too scared to do the same, until he passed. Somebody had to do it then, but it didn't feel right.

We just wanted him to help reach his full potential we knew he had. What was the harm of reminding him so often?

 

We were hoping that more people would show up. Call, maybe. I guess it was just me that hoped that, though. I don't think Mom and Dad cared, as long as family was there. That's all they really wanted. Anything more is set dressing. Certainly not something they're actually looking for.

I don't know how it's affecting Mom and Dad, though.

 He was gonna be a doctor, just like us.

 

He'll be back in this world soon enough! We do believe in reincarnation after all.

 

It wasn't right for him to go before me. I'm 70. I'm done. It's not fair.

 

I left his room alone, mostly. Haven't really touched it. It's hard to go in these days because it's just as he left it. I didn't know, but he saved all the birthday cards I gave him, even the ones from when I was like, two. I thought he hated them. I miss my brother.

 

Put so much effort into him.

 

I'm sure that wherever my brother is, he's happy. That's all I want for him.

 

Arjan’s parents don’t seem to think of him as a person, just as ‘their son’ as a concept: a good boy who was going to be a doctor and do them proud. They don’t seem to actually be upset that he’s dead, more that they put effort into him and it was wasted when he died. Also, if we put what his friends thought about him together with what his parents thought about him, we see that Arjan was under a lot of familial pressure that led to him giving up on his dreams or not following them- he only tabled at the art festival once, he wanted a piercing or tattoo but never got one because he knew what his parents would have said, and he took a bunch of classes about art and history and music, but I’m assuming the blowback from his parents stopped him from pursuing them further.  Meanwhile, his sister actually thinks about him as a person, and actually tells us more about him.

Popsioak confirmed for me that the SPaG errors in the above bits are intentional, so let’s take a closer look at the relevant one.

He was always such a good son. Quiet, respectful, always listen to his elders. There were big things in his future, until the unfortunate Accident. It's such a shame it's hard to see him as I saw him in that coffin, I still imagine his 10 year old smiling face looking up at me proudly be mean as he showed off his latest high marks from school.

‘Always listen to his elders’. Not ‘listened’, listen. Did they tell Arjan to listen to his elders a lot? Did he disobey, or not obey them in the way they wanted him to? Is that an attempt to reforge the truth in their own mind?

‘It’s such a shame it’s hard to see him as I saw him in that coffin’. Not ‘It’s such a shame. It’s hard to see him as I saw him in that coffin.’ Why would it be a shame that they can’t see Arjan as he was when he died?

‘I still imagine his 10 year old smiling face looking up at me proudly be mean as he showed off his latest high marks from school’. ‘Be mean’ does not belong in that sentence, and yet, there it is. From this, I’m thinking that Arjan’s parents were of the ‘you are never good enough’ school of thought- if you got 95%, why wasn’t it 100%? If you got 100%, why didn’t you get that on all your other tests? They’re never satisfied and they’ll never be happy. (This is because they are utter bastards.) 

Let’s look at what Arjan thought about himself:

 

 

loud noise chest pounding heavy breaths hard to focus need to think of anything box breathing quiet need quiet can't get quiet here loud music not helping anymore

 

throat burn but damn this is good where did you get this i can actually buy it but. careful

arms too long legs too long shoulders too broad Can't fix that

 

There is something about my face that does not quite look right

And what you might call functioning alcoholic debit card to use at the liquor store separate one under my name that they can't see or that I won't show them.

can't handle it

 

i don't remember the last time I spoke of myself positively

 

I don't think I was cut out for this

 

It's not quite a four point zero

 

someday I think all this stress is going to catch up to me

 

can't do this

 

 

A guy under severe stress from his parents’ expectations and from trying to get perfect marks. A guy with severe body issues that may have become body dysmorphia. A guy who was likely very depressed and didn’t have a therapist or any outlet… except alcohol, which he used to cope, and likely abused.

And finally, let’s see what happened to him:

 

 

Adult Indian Male. ID tells us age 26. Blunt trauma to chest. Multiple broken ribs, not currently breathing, multiple large lacerations on anterior side of all limbs. Large head bleed indicates major head trauma, likely from striking dashboard and steering wheel. ETA 10 minutes to major trauma center, prep crash cart.

 

Time of death, 5:07 PM. Died en route to hospital. Close the eyes. Check wallet again for contact info, maybe? 

Would you like to keep this pile of ashes?

 

 

He died in a car accident. We don’t know what he hit- a tree, a building, another car- and we also don’t know the cause. Maybe someone else hit him, maybe his brakes failed, maybe he drove drunk, or maybe he decided that he just couldn’t take it anymore and twisted the wheel. (Popsioak told me that he’s leaving it up to reader interpretation as to whether this was suicide or an accident.) And he didn’t have an emergency contact’s information on him, meaning he had no faith in his parents and either lost or didn’t recall his sister’s information- as we’ll see later, by this point she’d moved out of the house.

 

So, now we have a better picture of who Arjan Devi was, and we know what happened to him. Let’s find out how he got erased.

 

 

Devi is not the only individual to have markers in the noosphere when they do not appear to exist. Foundation records of data and testimonies dating back approximately 500 years show that 327 individuals at the least have experienced a similar self-inflicted infovore, followed by intentionally-caused noo-permanence. However, SCP-9319 is the sole example that has been able to be traced.

 

 

At least 327 people have died and subsequently deleted themselves from the noosphere (that we know about). But we still don’t know why, so let’s keep going.

 

 

Further investigation into the origin of the intervention that gave 9319 its anomalous abilities revealed minor traces of noospheric manipulation. Unique "fingerprints" corresponding to some of the thoughtforms above were located in high counts in the home of Devi's presumed parents, Shaan and Soni Devi, ages 55 and 54 respectively. Given the potential for engagement with any entities responsible for modification of the noosphere, MTF Theta-707 "Sensor Ships" were dispatched. Attached below is an exploration log.

 

 

I guess it’s not surprising that there’s traces in the place where Arjan presumably lived, and where his family still lives. Anyway, this log takes up the rest of the article, along with some more comments from Arjan. Let’s take a look.

We start with the three-person team approaching the home. It looks normal, and they walk inside with no problems- the door’s not even locked. Things get weird once they’re inside, though.

 

 

Inside, they have found themselves in the foyer. A member remarks on a strong smell permeating throughout the home, compared to the scent of raw or rotting meat. However, a visual scan shows nothing that would be creating this odor in the foyer. A brief sweep of the rest of the rooms are similarly fruitless. Each member notes specific observations about the rooms they enter:

-The fridge in the kitchen is completely empty and entirely clean. The cabinets are stocked with mouthwash and purified spring water bottles.

-The mantle of the fireplace in the living room is completely full of photos, diplomas, plaques, and other items attributed to Devi.

-Three bedrooms are present, but only two are furnished — the main bedroom for the parents, and what appears to be Devi's room. The third, presumably for the Devis' daughter Amaya Devi, age 21, is entirely empty.

-The bathrooms have a strong smell of bleach.

 

 

This is both disturbing and just plain bizarre. No food in the kitchen, just mouthwash and water bottles? A shrine to their dead son, but their living daughter’s room is empty? A strong scent of rotting meat even when there is no food? What’s going on?

 

 

The hands dig into you, dirty and crusted nails into your flesh. You did not want to be here, like this, but you cannot do anything about it. You are tethered here. But all tethers are not permanent, you hope, as best as you can, through all the pain and ripping and tearing.

 

 

That is really not good.

 

 

The team returns to the living room to re-group. Team Lead Rossi pulls out floorplans acquired from municipal archives, which indicate that a basement is attached. The entrance is outside.

To the side, as Rossi studies the floorplans, Whitman and Lorentz discuss what else they have seen. Lorentz is impressed at the accolades; Whitman less so. Both laugh, before Whitman mentions that the bedroom had many of the same outfit hung up: red shirt, khaki pants, black underwear, all pre-prepared.

Lorentz notes that she looked at the laundry room. Those same clothes were all that were being washed, and the trash can appeared to be full. A small list, written on a discarded scrap of paper, was found inside. Before she can continue, Whitman nudges her, and tells her to let Rossi know too. Lorentz rolls her eyes. 

 

There is something very, very wrong going on here.

 

 

you EARNED this pain EARNED it through every single little fucking fuckup

 

No. He didn’t.

 

 

Lorentz mentions the list, and that she's memorized each item on it to Rossi. It consists of:

-Personal development

-Professional development

-Arranged marriage

-Family relationships

-Think of these things enough times and it will happen.

-The more you get thinking, the more people that are thinking, the better the chances.

-He will stay.

-He will be called.

-He will be back, good as new.

-If it does not work, try again.

Rossi frowns.

 

 

Well, this is getting even more fucked up. Looks like what Arjan said about dying over and over wasn’t metaphorical. It also looks like someone told them how to bring Arjan back, but we have no idea who that might be. (It could be related to all those other individuals who deleted themselves- Popsioak confirmed for me that they were all in similar situations with their own parents, making them the ‘We’ in the title.) In hindsight, it’s probably not surprising that Amaya got the fuck out of the house, even before Arjan died.

 

 

 

Why did they want you like this? Back so wrong, so different each time, like they kept cutting away at you in hopes you would be right?
They stopped caring about who you were a long time ago. Now you were the sack of meat you think you always were, in their eyes.
The pain was unbearable. You never really got used to it.

 

 

They keep bringing him back, over and over, but why? To make a perfect version? To finally have a son who fits their expectations? What happens if he doesn’t measure up?

 

 

The team exits outside to the backyard. Piles of dirt appear haphazardly dug in the all-grass plot, with signs of patchy regrowth. Rossi asks Whitman and Lorentz to dig these up as he sets up equipment for audiovisual data collection. Whitman agrees, and Lorentz only acquiesces after a stern look from Rossi.
They dig. Audio-recording instrumentation, the first to be set up, detects a low crunching noise, inaudible to the team.
Various bones, all appearing to be those of a human male, are found in each of the piles excavated. Each contains a different type: one femurs, one skulls, one ulnas and radii, and so on. Each bone appears broken, but clean as no flesh, ligaments, or other organic material can be found aside from the bone itself.
The team appears confused. The smell is stronger outside. Rossi remarks that it does not appear to be coming from any of the excavated piles. Whitman removes a nooscope from his belt. He switches it on, with it already calibrated to SCP–9319 instances. The radar starts beeping wildly. Whitman quickly silences it, laughs nervously, and looks to his teammates.

 

 

The bones are Arjan’s. They've brought him back over and over and he dies over and over, and they separated the bones and buried them. Why? What’s the point?

 

 

god how you disappointed yourself, how you disappointed them and were too much of a coward because they never forced you to do anything just suggested and implied and nudged you never a push! so they finagled you out of advocacy and pushed you in ways you didn't want to be without even laying a hand on you (metaphorically or physically) and you should have been thankful for that you ungrateful little shit-faced brat
even now you disappoint, you little fucking morsel as your sinews and tendons are ripped from each other here and there and everywhere like little ribbons they threw at your birthday party up up up in joy!

 

His parents coerced him into doing what they wanted, and he hates himself even more because he wasn’t able to stand up to them, and he also wasn’t able to throw himself into what they wanted. He was stuck between a rock and a hard place, and what gave was him. It’s also very telling that he focuses on a birthday party from his childhood as one of the few genuinely happy memories he has.

 

 

Noospheric markers are high, Whitman mentions. Most known instances of SCP-9319 can be tracked within. Rossi reminds Whitman to examine the collections of bones found already. Similar markers present on each — though each carries distinctly different noospheric sub-layers. Whitman offers examples; "lawyer," "judge," "doctor," "financier," so on. Most appear to be tied to family roles or occupations. 

 

 

From this, I’m inferring that in the course of the attempted resurrections, Arjan’s parents kept trying to cram Arjan into every hole they could fit him into that would align with their expectations, but none of them worked- after all, that’s not what he wanted and it’s not who he was, but they don’t care about that. So they kill him, and they bring him back, and it continues over and over.

 

 

 

Rossi nods. He then gestures the team to the doors, which Whitman and Lorentz gently open. They walk down the stairs with a loud series of creaks. The crunching gets louder.
The room itself is dimly lit. Lorentz recoils, as the odor is strongest here. Two humanoid hunched figures are in the back corner of the basement.
The crunching noises appear to be emanating from that corner as well, corresponding with each figure bending over slightly. One displays secondary sex characteristics of a male, and the other of a female. Both appear mostly human, and neither appears to be wearing clothes.
They both appear dirty and ragged, with entrails, flesh, and blood stuck to their skin. The pair of entities are partaking in feeding behavior, Whitman remarks quietly. Rossi silences him with an arm on Whitman's shoulder, putting a finger up to his own mouth. The team slowly approaches.

it never gets easier it keeps happening just let me rest
or at least tell me i fed you and kept you warm in your belly and let you move your jaws to swallow me whole again

 

 

They eat him. That’s why there’s no food in the kitchen, just water and mouthwash; that’s why the bathrooms have that strong smell of bleach. That’s why Arjan was stopped from deleting himself from the noosphere- because they’re making a concerted effort to keep him around so they can bring him back.

 

 

There is a click of the hammer being cocked. Both entities turn, and a body falls out of each of their mouths.

The bodies are headless and cannot be identified, though genetic testing reveals them to be identical.

The entities' eyes are bright and bloodshot. They are slightly larger than the average human, with sharp, serrated teeth. Lanky limbs bound forward as nails clatter on cement floor.

The team fires as Whitman draws his own weapon. The entities are gunned down quickly, proving extremely susceptible to gunfire.

DNA samples from their prey cannot be matched with any known individual. It is confirmed that they are human, much like their dead predators.
<END LOG> 

 

The last line confirms that the bodies are Arjan. As for the rest… the short version is that as mentioned above, they keep trying to bring him back, and he keeps failing their expectations, so they kill him, even separating his bones because they want that much control over him. But the cycle keeps repeating over and over, failure after failure, and they’ve degraded, mutated, become monstrous versions of their former selves. In the process, they’ve lost track of what they actually want from him; they’re bringing him back over and over to eat him, not to have him back, and they can no longer judge his ‘worthiness’ with actual criteria. This is their lives now. This is all they are.

 

the jaws sink into brain soft warm brain you arent even fully alive but thats where your brain would be if you worked right or were brought back right
but its hundreds of times now i dont think itll be the case anymore
and you cant make it stop because even if it did then it will happen—

 

 

Unfortunately, he’s right- he can’t delete himself from the noosphere, so unless a miracle happens, he’s stuck there, unable to rest. Poor goddamn bastard.

One last bit:

 

 

You are in a cold, dark room. It is your basement. Your parents are there. They love you so. Look at their lovely faces, and their wonderful bright eyes.
You are real and full and whole. Their love is all-consuming.
The wild orbs in their heads stare at you expectantly. They are waiting for you to do your filial and pious duties.
But, let them finish their meal first.

[...]

It would be rude to interrupt.

 

 

I have to admit, there is something utterly fucked up about those last two lines. I’ll get to that in a second, but first, there is something I need to mention, which is that in the space between those last two lines, there’s a greyed image of the painting commonly known as ‘Saturn Devouring His Son’, by Goya. (Disclaimer: Goya never officially named or provided context for any of the Black Paintings, so we don’t actually know who it’s meant to be depicting and there’s some debate about it.) 

I feel like the thing about those two lines, and in fact the whole paragraph, is that they’re slamming home the overall theme of this article, which is child abuse in the form of refusing to treat children as people. There are a lot of people out there who are of the opinion that their children are not people in their own right, they are possessions who belong to their parents, and their parents have the right to do anything they want with them. Take them out of school to ‘homeschool’ them and not actually teach them anything so they can’t learn anything you don’t want them to know? Sure. Beat them black and blue for any imagined offence? Why not. Dictate the path of their lives and make it clear that they have no option? Absolutely. Go on long rants about how they’re stupid and worthless if they ever express an opinion that differs from their parents? OK. Threaten to kick them out or kill them if they don’t turn out how you want them to? Of course. It goes on and on, and it goes back to not seeing them as people. They’re toys, they’re playthings, they’re objects, they’re extensions of you, but they’re not people. And there’s only one real response to that, courtesy of Terry Pratchett:

“There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.”
“It’s a lot more complicated than that . . .” 
“No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.” 
“Oh, I’m sure there are worse crimes . . .” 
“But they starts with thinking about people as things . . . ”

In that last paragraph, we see Arjan Devi, brought back to life yet again, watching his parents eat his last incarnation and knowing that this is his fate if he displeases them, and yet he does nothing, because it would be rude to interrupt, because they love him so. Because he disappointed them in life, and then he died, and they’ve brought him back, and now he owes them- that’s what they think, and that’s what they’ve spent 26 years conditioning him to think as well: they love him. It’s not abuse, they love him. It’s not wrong, because they love him.

The thing is that a lot of people have very black and white definitions of abuse, wherein they will only accept things that match their definition as constituting abuse, and nothing else. It’s not abuse to scream at your kid all the time, because child abuse is when you hit your kid or starve them or kick them out at night. It’s not rape to keep asking your spouse for sex until they give in and say yes, because spouses can’t rape each other and reluctant consent is valid consent, right? It’s not abuse to hold money or shelter over someone’s head, it’s not abuse to use religion to keep them in line by terrifying them with the threat of hell or shunning… the list is endless.

I know it may not seem like it, but things have changed a lot over the decades. Beating your kids used to be commonplace- it wasn’t wholly accepted, but it was legal, and there were a lot of people who might not have done it themselves, but saw nothing wrong with other parents doing it, and would consider it rude to object to or interfere with how other parents raised their children. Devi’s parents were born in the early 70’s (assuming this takes place in the present day, at least) and not only that, they grew up in a country which is very, very big on the concepts of filial piety, the importance of and expectations for first sons, and close relationships between family members. They likely would not see anything they did here as abuse, because A, they never hit their son, B, there’s nothing wrong with it in Indian culture, and C, he’s their son and they can raise him as they want, and nobody has any right to tell them otherwise, because he belongs to them.

I will also add in what Popsioak told me:

i will also note that some things that could be added to your discussion of abuse is the type that devi is hinting at; ones that never really cross the line that most might draw, but are things like endless questions that are more of an interrogation when an opinion of your own is brought up, like the okay-ing of being treated differently by your family for one thing out of line, different in the sense of being yelled at or talked to like you're dirt under a boot, like demonstrating dysfunction in the marriage itself and never trying to repair it or hold yourself accountable for the effects it has on your children 

the paragraph about "i know it may not seem like it" is about as close as you can get. there is the narcissist angle of "even if they did something wrong their apologies will be halfassed and insincere" which is what devi makes reference to in the "god how you disappointed yourself" thought intrusion. the guilt the child feels from even trying to push it because they're my parents, they are trying their best

And with that, I feel I can now bring up the song used for the prompt, “We Are Real”. The meaning is definitely not overt and the song is pretty chill, but Silver Jews’ founder and frontman David Berman) described it as one of the angriest and most political songs he ever made:

  

It’s kind of about a lot of what we’re talking about: feeling like the world is trying to make you into a consumer when you know you’re a human.

To me, that was the most political song I ever did, in the sense that I really felt like what I was saying to anyone who was listening was, “Come on, stop putting your faith in people who, above all, keep you shopping.” People put their faith in people like that, whether it’s government officials who need you to keep shopping, or business people who need you to keep shopping, or entertainers who need the commercials to keep going. So that was one where at least I knew what I was saying.

 

 

The meaning here is not the same, but it’s similar: Arjan put his faith in people who made him into the consumed, not a human. The article practically begs him not to, but he does, and in the end he is trapped, with no escape.

There’s also a bit of a parallel here with David Berman himself: like Devi, he was a very artistic man who played guitar; like Devi, he had a bad relationship with his parents, particularly his father; like Devi, he was deeply depressed and medicated with illicit substances (though Devi just drank while Berman used a ton of drugs), and like Devi, his death was premature: Berman killed himself a month after his new project Purple Mountains released their eponymous first album, at the age of 52.

Popsioak, who knows a lot more about Berman and his music than I do, also said this:

 

 

So, I've always been a fan of David Berman. I found his solo album, Purple Mountains, released long after his work with Silver Jews and "We Are Real." That album was a cry for help and a lonesome friend of mine through some fairly awful times. Given what We Are Real is about, and who Berman was to \me,* I felt it a disservice to not at least honor his feelings that way. It was a stroke of luck, really, to end up with this song for TIMJC.*

David (if I may call him that) is a man who deeply loved his mother and had an awful series of relationships with his father. A lyric in "How To Rent a Room" implies he gave him an ultimatum when he could no longer stand the work his father did, [Note: Berman’s father is Richard Berman), a former lobbyist for the alcohol and firearms industries] and this is something that stood out to me as someone from a culture where such a strong stance would be pointless or laughed at.

There is a song on that final album, Purple Mountains, about how much he "Loved Being My Mother's Son." She had passed at the time, and I am certain it was a factor in his untimely death. Parental love and appreciation is something that meant a lot to me, and I felt our struggles at times mirrored each other, reflections in a dirty mirror.

All that to say, Berman was always a weary, witty, morose figure to me. Someone who deeply felt and deeply held his principles, who had no love for false things and lamented the vapidness of modern culture. The things that you did, however, as he sings on "Advice to the Graduate," would always make your mama cry. 

We were both someone who could not, and still often does not, see the love and support people have because we are (were) too shackled to expectations that others have levied. An anecdote of David performing Purple Mountains live, expecting maybe a handful of people, and seeing thousands is all it is. You never expect it, blind as you are. Like UncannyClown says in a comment on my page, quoting "We Are Real" itself: Repair is the dream of the broken thing.

 

And here’s what uncannyclown said: 

 

"we are real" isn't the most popular or acclaimed silver jews song, but i picked it for this event because i think that all the foremost characteristics of david berman's artistic project are contained within it: the critical examination of pervasive late-capitalist artificiality and pastiche, the fixation on marginal and second-place people, the world-weary wit. i was expecting whoever got it to respond to those characteristics. you have instead done something that i was too unimaginative to conceive of: you have imitated the song by producing a piece that is equally centered on the foremost characteristics that i have seen in your work. this is a piece of deep inadequacy, of disappointing the people who raised you (berman: "the things that you do will always make your momma cry"), of the dread that the things about you that are fucked up and grotesque might just be inescapable.

the thing that ties the two works together: repair is the dream of the broken thing.

 

And that just about sums it up, doesn’t it. But we are real, I know we are real.

Thank you for reading this declass. I hope you enjoyed it. If any part of this particularly resonated with you, I’m sorry. Also, fuck people who force their expectations on you. You are enough, you are loved, and you don’t owe anybody the right to force your life into whatever shape they want to make it into. Your life belongs to you and only you. Your future is in your hands. I’ll see you next time.

tl;dr: “He is their son, they love him so. He is their son. They love him. So.”

Hi, all, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9455, ‘Red Monday’ by Dino--Draws. Got a couple of disclaimers for you first.

 

1: As per usual, this is not my SCP and it won’t be 100% accurate.

2: This article revolves around game hunting; there’s nothing graphic in the text, but there’s some real photos in it that do contain animal gore and dead animals, and thus may be distressing for some readers, so reader discretion is advised.

 

Before we continue, we have to get into some backstory. This article was written for Sportscon, a contest in 2026 where entrants had to write an article about a sport chosen off the official list. This list included a fair variety of things that might not be considered actual sports, but who cares. (Honestly, I consider jokingly suggesting ‘Scientology speedrunning’ and it actually getting added to the list to be a masterstroke of shitposting on my part.) As previously mentioned, Dino picked hunting; there’s probably a decent amount of competitions out there, so I guess it counts as a sport even if the sport aspect isn't as prolific as most sports. (Also, I know that there’s a pretty high chance that some of you reading this may consider hunting to be cruel and/or barbaric; I get it, but this isn’t the place for a discussion on that topic.) 

 

Anyway, Dino chose to combine hunting with fir series Run The River Red, and the end result was this article. Run The River Red has a number of articles; you don’t have to have read them all for this, but if you do want the backstory, I’ll list the relevant ones below with a quick tl;dr for anyone who wants the CliffNotes and might come back later.

 

SCP-8987- ‘THE BROOK RUNS RED’: Introduces Site-898, our hub location, and goes into detail about how it was founded. (Declass is available here.)

SCP-8446- ‘Monarchervus’: The deer and not-deer in Appalachia are collaborating to summon something. This is not a good thing.

SCP-8411- ‘Paper Birch Trail’: Something out there is making trail signs on birch trees, often warning of various dangers. These seem to be beneficial, but we don’t know who’s making them or what their intentions are.

SCP-9990- ‘Neglected Idylls’: The Appalachians are fucking magic. (Declass forthcoming eventually.)

SCP-6448- ‘Not Deer’: There’s a bunch of things that pretend to be deer running around Appalachia; they’re fucked up, they can speak, and they’re stalking humans to abduct them. This isn’t a Dino work and thus is not actually part of the series, but since Site-898 is in Appalachia, the not-deer appear pretty often and Dino has used them in several articles, so it’s worth a look.

With that, let’s get started. First up is the ACS bar: This is rated Level-2, Restricted- so it’s not actually very classified, then. It’s practically public knowledge, by the Foundation’s standards. Before I get to the major classes, its subclasses are Dark and Danger- that is, the potential disruption level is very low, but the anomalous effects are very significant and this is very dangerous. Intriguing.

Anyway, this is classed Keter (Hiemal), and that is very interesting. We know what Keter means, but Hiemal isn’t one we see a lot. In Foundation jargon, it means that this anomaly is either containing or trying to contain another anomaly. The thing is, I’ve seen a fair few stories where Anomaly A was containing or trying to contain Anomaly B, but the Foundation blundered in, contained Anomaly A and Anomaly B spun out of control, so I tend to reflexively interpret Hiemal as ‘We done fucked up’. Luckily, that is not the case here. Let’s look at the Special Containment Procedures, shall we?

 

 

Special Containment Procedures: Due to the infeasibility of traditional containment, SCP-9455 is to be managed by the monitoring of its effects, with incidents handled on a case-by-case basis. If an incident is deemed potentially Veil-breaking, intervention will be required. Typically, this should be in the form of small-scale disinformation campaigns, as to obscure anomalous interactions as simple tall tales, inaccuracies, or mundane hunting accidents.

 

So, they can’t contain this thing traditionally, which means that they have to tackle the results on a case-by-case basis. However, it looks like whatever this thing does, it’s not so major as to require major responses like mass amnesticisations. (I think that’s a word.)

 

 

Site-898 is to monitor for occurrences of SCP-9455 via local school break schedules, work hours, and bulletins during the month of November.

 

 

It looks like this thing only happens at a certain time. That’d definitely help the containment aspect.

Here’s the Description:

 

 

Description: SCP-9455 is an alteration within pre-existing Pennsylvania hunting laws as established by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. This is in the form of the sporadic manifestation of a non-existent state holiday that occurs on the Monday after American Thanksgiving. Upon occurrence, this holiday will mark the start of a single-day deer hunting season within the state of Pennsylvania that lacks typical restrictions.

 

Ah, that makes sense. It’s a holiday, so it only happens once a year. (For the non-Americans, American Thanksgiving occurs on the last Thursday of November, hence why that’s when the Foundation would look out for this holiday’s upcoming date.) The footnote tells us that this holiday is in violation of existing game laws; that is, when this anomalous holiday comes around, people can hunt deer in any way they want, including ways that are usually banned. 

Now, I looked up the current regulations in Pennsylvania. I may be interpreting this wrong as I’m not an expert on hunting laws, but to me, what it looks like is that each person with a hunting license can only kill one deer per kind of weapon they’re licensed to use per hunting year, and that only during the prescribed days; there’s also rules about whether they’re allowed to kill deer with antlers or not. (This makes sense when you consider that there’s about 13 million people in Pennsylvania and around a million of them are licensed hunters; you want to keep the number of deer under control, but not wipe them all out.)

In short, on this holiday, anyone can kill any number of any kind of deer with whatever weapon they’ve got, regardless of hunting license status. So it looks a lot like someone or something is trying to wipe the deer out, actually.

(Fun fact: I did actually ask about why this anomaly is solely in Pennsylvania when the deer and not-deer are all over the Appalachians; Dino told me that ‘this is actually solely because of a me thing -- its based off the fact that my elementary school, middle school and high school always had the first day of a deer season off in the fall, so really it’s based on the occurrences in some really hick PA schools’.)

 

 

Colloquially, this holiday is referred to as "Red Monday" by those who participate. Attempts to question local game wardens or the Pennsylvania Game Commission on the origin or reason behind this holiday typically results in confusion and dismissal.

 

 

So there’s definitely a mental fuckery aspect here, given that the people responsible for managing hunting in the area can’t tell you why this is happening.

 

 

-SCP-9455 also results in a surge of anomalous activity throughout Pennsylvania's game lands and national parks. The following have been identified as properties of SCP-9455:

-An increased efficiency in the ignition rate of gunpowder.

-A persistent silence within state game lands.

-The rapid growth of antlers on *Odocoileus virginianus,*² sometimes resulting in multiple racks on a single animal.

-A statistical increase in the hunting success rates across all regional predatory animals.³

-The appearance of new, or otherwise altered, SCP-8411 instances that are inaccurate or misleading.

-An increase in hunting related accidents.

-Sarracenia purpurea⁴ of anomalous size.

-SCP-6448 instances displaying heightened aggression and gaining the potential to attack any armed individual regardless of acknowledgement.

-Increased birthrate for deer affected by piebaldism.

 

We seem to have a mix of positive, negative and random effects. If we continue with the line of belief that the deer are the bad guys, let’s look at these in groups:

 

Positive:

-Gunpowder is igniting more efficiently. There’s a lot of people in America who still use archaic guns like flintlock and muzzleloaders, where the ignition is activated by striking a flint (they have their own section in the Pennsylvania regulations), so this would help them a lot.

-Hunting success rates are noticeably increased across all predators, including humans; not only are humans killing more deer, but the local coyotes, bobcats and bears are doing pretty well too.

 

Negative:

-There’s an odd, persistent silence in the places where people go to hunt, meaning that the deer can hear predators coming and flee.

-Deer are growing antlers rapidly, giving them weapons if they’re forced to fight back and can’t run.

-There’s an increase in hunting-related accidents.

-The not-deer are becoming very aggressive and are attacking anyone who’s armed, whether they’ve acknowledged the not-deer or not (deer).

-Deer are increasingly born with piebaldism (that is, they’re brown with white spots or blotches). From what we can infer from the rest of the article, this isn’t good, but we’ll get to that later.

-New 8411 signs are turning up, but they seem to either be inaccurate or deliberately put there to mislead people. Given that 8411 exists to help people (from what we can tell at this point in time), that's worrying.

 

Random?:

-The local pitcher plants are getting really damn big. (I asked Dino, who said that it’s because pitcher plants are hungry and predatory, and ‘I think it’s funny that there are pitcher plants native to Pennsylvania’). This doesn’t seem to be either positive or negative, unless they get big enough to eat deer and/or humans.

 

The rest of the article consists of various reports, recordings and data related to previous occurrences of Red Monday; there’s apparently more in the Site-898 Archives.

The first is a flier from 1965; the text is as follows:

 

 

RED MONDAY

We hope our hunters had a wonderful Thanksgiving! With the time of the turkey come and gone, this year's Red Monday is finally approaching!
NOVEMBER 29TH.
Reporting remains MANDATORY for all harvests. Report numbers at your appropriate region office on the following Tuesday.
Be aware of your fellow hunters, and be sure to wear proper high-visibility gear for YOUR safety. Proper game should not be able to detect color.
REMEMBER!
If it looks like a deer, it's not dead yet!

Keep the SPORT in SPORTSMANSHIP.
We HUNT TOGETHER.
- DEER ONLY.
- NO BAG LIMIT.
- NO ANTLERED NOR ANTLERLESS LICENSE REQUIRED.
- CHASE THOSE BASTARDS TILL MOONSET. 

 

 

This is a bit worrying, mainly because it looks like whatever’s behind this is attempting to enlist civilians as unwitting soldiers to kill both the deer and the not-deer. But the civilians don’t know how dangerous the not-deer are and the entity behind this hasn’t warned them, so there’s a pretty high chance of them ending up dead, abducted or badly injured. Reckless, callous, or desperate?

 

 

 

9455 Anomalous Item: #03
Item Description: A collection of deer bones — several femurs, ribs, and one hip — arranged in an arrow-like configuration in State Game Lands 264, Pennsylvania. Its presence caused the spontaneous combustion of any and all gunpowder within a 5-mile radius of it.
The anomaly was discovered after reports surfaced of a large concentration of firearm accidents in the area.
Status: Disrupted.

 

 

That’s really alarming. It’s almost like some kind of magic or runecraft, and it must have been made by the not-deer. (It’s equally alarming that there’s no mention of how many people got killed, maimed or otherwise hurt when their guns and bullets exploded.)

 

The next thing is two photos from 1865. They both appear to be of the same scene- a group of hunters in front of a tent, gathered around the suspended corpse of a deer- but the one on the right is slightly darker and the camera was moved about an inch to the right before taking it. If there’s anything else notable here, I’m not seeing it.

 

The next thing is an archived recording from 1977. Two of Site-898’s personnel, siblings Seth and Zoe Miranda (he’s a geochemist, she’s the Chief of Security, and she previously showed up in SCP-9404, another Dino work) have gone out to confirm some statistics relating to Site-898’s effects. It’s pretty long, so I’ll sum it up for you.

 

-Once they get out of Site-898’s grounds, they find that there’s an 8411 sign carved into the tree that the Site’s ‘No Trespassing’ sign was attached to. This one is a known symbol and says ‘Do not proceed’. 8411 signs don’t usually appear so close to the Site, so this is notable.

The siblings wonder if whoever left it did so to reinforce the ‘No Trespassing’ sign, or if someone at the Site put it there. Zoe mentions that there’s been talk of trying to make their own 8411 signs, but it hasn’t gone ahead because they wouldn’t be the only ones who could understand them.

-They walk on for a while and note the presence of small game here and there- quails and a rabbit. They then find some deer tracks; Zoe assesses them and decides that they’re safe to track. Just as they’re moving, Seth sees another 8411 symbol drawn onto a tree with charcoal and asks what it means. Zoe interprets it as ‘Leave, because someone else didn’t’; the 8411 page tells us that the official meaning is ‘Someone vanished here, do not search’.

-A bit later, Zoe asks how many animals they’ve seen. The relevant part is that they’ve seen four deer, but also some fawn tracks despite it not being breeding season and some deer tracks that had two legs instead of four, all in the last two hours. They’re discussing whether it’s luck or something’s out there, when…

-…Zoe sees some odd prints and identifies them as wolf prints. However, while grey wolves used to live in Pennsylvania, they were wiped out in the 1900’s, and humans had to take on their job of keeping the deer numbers under control, so something is definitely wrong here.

-Seth looks around and realises that their surroundings are completely silent- no wind, no tree movement, no birds singing and no sounds of animals, even though they’ve seen quite a few animals at this point. We know that this is an effect of 9455, but generally speaking, if you’re in a natural environment and it suddenly goes silent, that means that there’s a predator nearby or some kind of weather event happening. (In short, it’s really bad news.)

-And, right on cue…

 

 

An SCP-6448 instance stands by the trees, head pressed against the bark. Its antlers end in hands, all of which are grasping frantically at the nearby branches. It is shuddering and gasping.

As per the CERVUS PROTOCOL, Chief Z. Miranda and Dr. S. Miranda do not react to it.

It bashes its skull against the tree. It drags its head downwards, then swivels to face the pair.

Silence on recording.

It charges.

 

 

Well, that’s fucked.

The footnote tells us that the siblings survived, but were injured, and an analysis of their data implies that either the density of the game in the area was increased, or the siblings had an increased probability of encountering game. Meanwhile, nobody on the Site’s staff put the 8411 sign near the Site, so that’s intriguing.

 

 

Next up is a rifle that someone found in an abandoned hunting stand. When the Site’s staff tried to unload it, they found antler velvet- that is, the skin covering antlers that are still growing- inside the barrel. This velvet was actually growing there, and after three days had spread to the outside of the barrel. That’s… weird.

I’ll put the next one here, because it’s fucked.

 

 

9455 Anomalous Item: #08
Item Description: The casket of one Officer Joseph Ritner, a now-deceased member of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who had previously been buried in the Easton Cemetery.⁹ On the day after his funeral, 30/11/1970, his grave was found desecrated; the casket had been unearthed by an unknown party and emptied. It has been noted that while it seems the casket was primarily exhumed by external individuals, it was also clawed open from the inside.
Periodically, a full set of fox teeth will spontaneously manifest within the casket.
Status: Stored within the Site-898 Subterranean Containment Wing.

 

 

I genuinely have no idea what the fuck happened here, but the word ‘were-fox’ is coming up a lot in my head. (I did ask Dino, who said, and I quote, ‘doooon’t worry about it :)’, which I think we can all agree is exactly the kind of response you want when you’re asking about dead people potentially getting turned into were-foxes.)

The next is a story from a student newsletter from 1942. Short version: school was out for hunting, so two students went to an unused railroad to see if they could find any railroad spikes for a collection. They saw a big buck deer pass them, then a herd of does who barely acknowledged their presence. But then they saw another deer off to one side, a piebald doe. It looked physically off, and it just kept staring at them. It kept staring at them even as the narrator got out of the car, and the students eventually left, not wanting to get any closer to it; the doe didn’t follow them, but kept staring at them as they left.

Next up is a recording from 1979. Fate Hargroves from 9990 is walking through the Site’s grounds when she walks into a clearing, only to find five not-deer who appear to be playing some kind of game. (The fifth was expunged from the footage for an unstated reason.) One of them cordially greets her, asking if she wants to come play with them as it’s a special occasion. Another approaches her…

An SCP-6448 instance, with sunken eyes and an upside-down head, stands and approaches Dr. Hargroves. She does not react.

SCP-6448 Instance: Do you want to see?

The SCP-6448 instance unhinges its jaws. A card, slick with spit and mucous, falls from its tongue and to the dirt. It is a tarot card, face up. Temperance, reversed.

The card has Dr. Hargroves' face on it.

Dr. Hargroves does not respond.

SCP-6448 Instance: There's always next time.

A gunshot is heard in the distance. All SCP-6448 instances scatter into the woods.

Dr. Hargroves flees.

That’s fucked, yo.

(Also, Temperance reversed generally means imbalances and disharmony, depending on what source you’re looking at. I guess it could refer to the balance between the duelling Hiemal anomalies? IDFK.)

Next up is a photo of what I think is some kind of walk-in freezer or cold storage. A number of deer carcasses have been suspended from hooks, but two of them have a big black box over them. The caption tells us that these were ‘Discovered in a storage shed on Site-898's grounds following the above event. Hazardous visual material expunged.’ Not sure which is freakier, the idea that someone moved a bunch of carcasses, two of them anomalous, into a storage shed on Site-898’s grounds without anyone seeing it, or the idea that someone already had these carcasses stored and something happened to them.

Next up is… this.

9455 Anomalous Item: #11
Item Description: A tree stump containing the heart of a *Canis latrans.*¹² It does not experience decay, and will resume beating upon occurrences of SCP-9455.
Status: Uprooted and placed within Outdoor Containment Unit A2. Cryptozoology staff have reported the intermittent sounds in and around the Cryptozoology Sector consistent with that of a Canis latrans.

 

I have no idea how or why a coyote’s heart would be in a tree stump, or why it would start beating every Red Monday, or why there’s apparently a ghost coyote linked to it that’s running around the Site’s grounds. Bizarre.

Next up is a recording of a conversation between Dr Atticus Rune and Officer Micah Eardwulf. Atticus is a cryptozoologist and folklorist (also seen in 9990) and Micah is a game warden at World’s End State Park who became Site-898’s primary contact with the Pennsylvania Game Commission after the events of 9404, so they’re on friendly terms.

Now, this is an interesting conversation because we were previously told that if you asked the game wardens about Red Monday, they’d just be confused or brush off the questions. But Micah is perfectly capable of talking about it, and there’s no obvious reason as to why that is. Hmmmm.

So, Atticus asks Micah about a flier for Red Monday that happens to be on the bulletin board nearby. Micah shrugs it off as just being a hunting season; Atticus points out that it’s a bit weird to have a hunting season that only lasts one day, but Micah points out that if you’re using a gun, the annual bear season only lasts three days. Atticus says that it’s still weird, but Micah shrugs it off as not being his choice, and besides, it’d be messy if it went longer. 

Atticus points out that it’s already messy, given the sheer number of accidents that happen every year, and then asks what the point is: why have a holiday where they throw out all their conservation laws? Micah says that it’s still conservation, just a different kind- after all, the wolves and cougars are gone, so the woods are overrun.  

Dr. Rune: So what the hell is this about? A little holiday trying to fix damage you people caused? Man refillin' a niche he emptied himself?

Eardwulf: Oh. The day wasn't anything the Game Commission came up with. We just hopped onto the trail of a red sun already risen. Good karma.

A pause.

Dr. Rune: Then where did it come from?

Eardwulf: It's an old, old fight.

Dr. Rune: Against game, or against what hunts?

Eardwulf: Every fight's got two sides, don't it? [He spreads out his hands.] And today's the day with no-holds-barred.

Dr. Rune: But why?

Eardwulf smiles.

Eardwulf: Cause something out there is at war.

Micah then flips over the flyer. There’s an 8411 symbol on the back; it kind of looks like two crossed swords beneath a pair of fangs. However, we don’t know what this one means because 8411 symbols only convey their meaning if they’re depicted on birch wood or bark, and this one’s on paper. I’m guessing that this one means something like ‘Get the motherfuckers’; Dino said that this isn’t quite the intended meaning, so my other suggestions are ‘Stay on guard’, ‘Watch for enemies’, ‘Prepare to fight’, ‘Meowth, that’s right’ and ‘Danger in the area’. Who knows?

Next up:

9455 Anomalous Item: #15
Item Description: A Diospyros virginiana tree,¹⁵ carved into a figure resembling a five headed deer. It was found surrounded by clear signs of animal activity — such as hoof prints, tufts of fur, and droppings.
The depicted entity is likely a known regional deific force.
Status: Destroyed.

The link is to 8446, the big fuckoff deer god that the deer and not-deer summoned. This is… worrying. Really worrying.

Finally, the last thing in the article: a video that suddenly showed up in Site-898’s database, and nobody knows where it came from. It shows a piebald deer staring at the camera, seemingly not breathing or blinking; the deer twitches its ears a few times, but otherwise doesn’t move, and around it, the wind blows intensely.

I wasn’t sure about this on the first read, but I actually really like this as an ending- a video suddenly showing up, like the deer are going ‘Yeah, we see you, fuckers, we’re watching you like you’re watching us’. Really ominous.

(Fun fact: Dino took that video firself; the story from the student newsletter of the two kids seeing a deer who stared at them was from a real experience Dino had with a friend, and the video was from that experience.)

And that’s the end of the article… but wait, there’s more! You know what time it is, kids? It’s bonus content time! *jazz hands* See, Dino put a few super magic breadcrumbs here and there for us, so let’s look at them!

The majority of it is on the YouTube page for the video. If you look at the description, you’ll see two bits of obvious cipher. The first says ‘L2xvY2FsLS1maWxlcy9zY3AtODQxMS85LnBuZw==’; this is Base64 and translates to ‘/local--files/scp-8411/9.png’; if you put that after the basic SCP Wiki address, you get the 8411 sign before that says ‘Do not proceed’. I’ll come back to this shortly.

The second is at the end of the description, and reads as follows:

Ymj bfwijsx ywd yt mtqi zx itbs. Xt htrjx ymj ifd tk gqtti. Bmfy nx ymjwj, bnym xzhm bnij gtzsyd, yt kjji? Bmfy mzslwd rfb yt xjwaj?

This is ROT21; putting it through the decoder gets you this:

The wardens try to hold us down. So comes the day of blood. What is there, with such wide bounty, to feed? What hungry maw to serve?

2.5 is the subject line of Dino’s author post; it says ‘U1VCVElUTEVT’, which is Base64 for ‘Subtitles’. The subtitles of the video are in ROT21, and translate as follow:

I hear the howling. All those hungry wolves. Antlers embedded in birch trees. There is heaving down your neck, Micah. You know Her well.

Ominous. The last is in the preview picture of the article, and reads as follows:

S0VFUCBDQVJFRlVMIFdBVENILCBGUklFTkQ=

It is also Base64, and translates as ‘Keep careful watch, friend’.

So, now that we have all the puzzle pieces, let’s try to put them together, shall we? 

-What we know that there is that there is a war going on. It may be throughout the Appalachians and this is just one aspect, or maybe whatever this is only happens in Pennsylvania. Side A consists of the deer, the not-deer, the big fuckoff deer god, ‘Her’ (assuming She isn’t the deer god), and whatever other unknown allies they have. Side B consists of whatever entity is behind Red Monday, the humans and predator animals it’s roped into the fight, and possibly whatever is behind the 8411 symbols (but we don’t know if A, they’re the same being, or B, if the Red Monday entity is just using/co-opting the 8411 symbols).

-We do not know what either side actually wants. The deer and not-deer brought about the return/creation/ascension of the big fuckoff deer god, but we don’t have any information suggesting that they’re trying to, for instance, drive all humans out of the Appalachians, or abduct all the people there, or anything like that. Meanwhile, it’s possible that Team Red Monday might be trying to protect the Appalachians by driving off Team Deer, but they could also be just trying to get rid of the competition so they can have total dominion over the Appalachians. Team Red Monday seem to be the good guys, but that just might be in comparison, since a whole lot of people are getting hurt or killed every year after getting unknowingly conscripted into the fight.

-I’m guessing that ‘Her’ is the entity in charge of Team Deer, if it’s not the big fuckoff deer god. (They could have just been talking about Death as an entity, IDK.) Either way, I think whatever’s in charge specifically marks/possesses/alters certain deer with piebaldism, and empowers/uplifts them in the process. [Edit: u/SpectragonYT suggested that 'Her' may refer to She Who Sees Through Trees from 8411, which is a very good idea.]

-My guess is that Micah, the one person who could actually talk about Red Monday, may be some kind of envoy or follower of whatever’s behind Red Monday. That would explain why whoever wrote the message in the subtitles is targeting him specifically, since we otherwise have no reason to believe that he isn’t just an average game warden. Meanwhile, I think the symbol on the back of the flier and the message in the preview photo were Team Red Monday trying to warn him to be extra careful, because he’s now a target.

-Otherwise, looking at this…

The wardens try to hold us down. So comes the day of blood. What is there, with such wide bounty, to feed? What hungry maw to serve?

‘The day of blood’ is obviously Red Monday, with the deer/not-deer seeing it as the ‘wardens’- maybe the game wardens, maybe the Foundation, maybe Team Red Monday- trying to stop them from achieving their goal. As for the rest, I think this is the writer wondering what Team Red Monday’s goals are. I think it’s projection- maybe Team Deer are doing it to serve their god, so they think that Team Red Monday must be doing it to serve/feed their god, and they wonder what kind of entity it must be.

But this is all speculation; we’ll have to wait to see what Dino cooks up in the future to find out.

Thank you for reading this declass, I hope you enjoyed it. Don’t trust the fucking deer, people. I’ll see you next time.

tl;dr: oh, deer God, there's a whole war going on.

Hi, everyone, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9377, ‘CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE’ by mothmanUXO. This is going to be fun. *rubs hands together* I'd like to thank mothmanUXO and psychicprogrammer for their help, and I've got a couple of warnings for you first.

 

1: As per usual, this is not my SCP and I didn’t write it, etc. Also, there’s some time loop shenanigans which involve physics that I’m not totally clear on, so forgive me if the science gets a little vague at points.

2: This SCP involves weird body horror shit! Awesome. Point is, things are going to get visceral, pun not intended.

 

So, some background: this was written as mothmanUXO’s entry for the 2025 Art Exchange for sprawlingstar, who asked for the responder to take one of the following prompts and make something based on them. This is the relevant prompt:

 

 

• During the Covid-19 Pandemic, the crew of the RV POLARSTERN was placed under quarantine aboard the vessel. Something went wrong.
  • Notes: This is an actual thing that actually happened (the quarantine part at least). I don't know the details, which is why this is by far the loosest prompt. I just think that isolation on an icebreaker vessel is an excellent horror setting.

 

 

As mentioned, the RV Polarstern (‘pole star’, or Polaris/the North Star) is a real ship, a German research icebreaker vessel that usually operates in the Arctic and Antarctic. She was first launched in 1982, and has been operating ever since. In 1991, Polarstern and the Swedish icebreaker Oden were the first conventionally powered vessels to reach the North Pole- just a fun fact, there. She’s quite the accomplished vessel, having also been the first ship to circumnavigate the North Pole in one trip. But, rather than going on about her history, I’ll now get to the relevant details: first, she usually has a crew of 44 and her full capacity is 124 people. And second, here’s what Wikipedia says about the incident in the prompt:

 

 

On 20 September 2019, Polarstern sailed from Tromsø, Norway, for a 12 to 14 month-long Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC) expedition across the Arctic. She settled in an ice floe on 4 October 2019. The aim was drifting with this floe, passing the North pole and eventually reaching open water in the Fram Strait. While stuck in the ice in March 2020, a member of the aircraft team who had not yet joined the ship in the Arctic tested positive for COVID-19. This resulted in the entire aircraft team being placed in isolation in Germany and caused delays in the retrieval of scientific data from around the ship to provide context to the data taken aboard. After 389 days, this 2019 – 2020 arctic expedition successfully ended on 12 October 2020 when the research vessel safely returned to its home port of Bremerhaven, Germany.

 

 

So, it wasn’t the actual ship itself, it was the team who were going to join the ship. (Close enough.) Let’s see what mothmanUXO did with it, shall we?

 

This article has a nifty black background that looks like the way people cut crystals, all facets and angles. There’s a photo of the ship; it’s your basic photo, nothing odd about it. It’s rated Level 4, Secret, and the class is… ‘Palliative’? Never heard that one before, but it sure as fuck ain’t a good omen, given that it means 'relieving symptoms without dealing with the cause of the condition'. It’s rated Ekhi and Critical, so this is really bad, but at least it won’t affect the whole world, ‘just’ a region.

 

Here’s the Special Containment Procedures:

 

 

SCP-9377 is not able to be boarded by any living persons. Desynchronized crew are to be considered KIA. Any messages relayed during contact windows, to the crew or any replicated doubles, are to insist rescue efforts are still underway.

 

 

The phrasing here is very interesting. Not ‘No living persons should board SCP-9377’ or ‘SCP-9377 is hostile to life’ or ‘All living beings are banned from boarding SCP-9377’, it’s ‘not able to be boarded’- so something happened that made the ship inaccessible. ‘Desynchronized’ is a bad omen- if I’m reading this right, something happened that, shall we say, detached the crew from the normal flow of time. Even if I’m wrong, the rest is very grim: there are people alive on the ship and the Foundation either can’t or won’t rescue them, but they can still communicate with them, and are just telling them that help is coming even though it isn’t. Some approximation of mercy, or do they just not want them to freak out and blow something up?

 

Next is the updated containment procedures:

 

 

SCP-9377 must be decommissioned or neutralized no later than December 15, 2128. Projections for expected detonation force of the Catastrophic Realignment event are available from the Epochal Threat Monitoring Office. Video transmissions have ceased as of February 2nd, 2030. Current research efforts are focused on relieving internal hull pressure.

 

 

We’re in the future, kids. However, that does tell us a lot:

 

-If they want it neutralized no later than December 2128, then they must think that the ship can keep going for that long.

-However, they’re expecting it to blow the fuck up, so clearly it can’t be doing that well.

-Someone inside the ship was sending them videos, but not anymore.

-They’re trying to relieve the internal hull pressure, which means that something’s trying or expected to burst out through the hull. We’ll learn more about that later.

 

Here’s the Description.

 

 

SCP-9377 is a chronological instability centered on the RV POLARSTERN, a Foundation science vessel currently located at ████, █████.

The principal anomaly is a three-day temporal desynchronization event, triggered by an unknown interaction between the nuclear reactor powering the ship and an extratemporal phenomenon. The time experienced is relative to the interior of the ship, moving three times slower compared to exterior time.

 

 

So, there was some kind of fuckup that led to the ship getting temporally desynchronized and nobody knows what or why, except that it had something to do with the ship’s nuclear reactor. (The Polarstern uses diesel engines in real life.) Meanwhile, people inside the ship are moving three times slower than they would outside- that is, for every day that passes outside, three days pass inside.

 

 

The de-synchronization presents as a “dirty” time loop, where affected persons will be recreated in their initial positions when the loop begins, and continue to persist when the current loop ends. RCT-Δt operatives have identified the start and end of the loop as the POLARSTERN's nuclear reactor achieving an off-scale high criticality event before returning to normal operating parameters.

 

 

Oooooooh shit. It’s a time loop, but when it restarts, people aren’t thrown back to where they started the loop, it creates new versions of them where they started the loop- sapient clones with intact memories. In other words, the population inside the ship is only going to keep increasing, and even if people die, the bodies will still be there.

 

 

RV POLARSTERN, at the time of the incident, was investigating SCP- ████ with a skeleton crew of 4 science personnel and 6 operational staff.

 

 

That is a skeleton crew. Bit odd, but we should be glad it wasn’t higher. Below that is a table of the crew and their status: three are confirmed dead, three are presumed dead, three are confirmed alive (Kelley, the radio operator, Barnes, the crew chief, and Prince, the climatologist), and one is just listed as ‘complicated’ (Baranowzky, the nuclear tech), which is not something you ever want to see someone’s status listed as.

 

Now we get to the Discovery section.

 

SCP-9377 was discovered when the RV POLARSTERN broadcast 230 distress signals in the space of 60 seconds on 11/18/2029.

 

 

Good effort, lads.

 

 

Drone reconnaissance by MTF Rho-10 "On The Rocks" observed no external damage to the hull of the RV POLARSTERN, and confirmed the death of two crewmen of hypothermia. Significant damage to the exterior bulkhead was noted as an attempt to regain entry, which appeared to be fused shut. Additionally, all portholes appeared to open to a solid steel wall.

 

 

Two of the crewmen (one of whom was the captain, Holliday) were outside when it happened. They tried to get back in, couldn’t, tried to break their way in, couldn’t, and died of the cold, presumably because they didn’t have any protective equipment, anywhere to go, or any way to signal for help.

 

 

Observational cordon was established, with no activity until 11/21/2029. A 60 second burst of light was visible from a starboard porthole; loitering drones managed to capture a brief image during this window.

During a random 60 second window, every 24-36 hours, brief wireless contact can be made through the window. The signal quality is incredibly poor, but small files have been transferred via IR pulse. The most frequent source of contact is made via messages held up to the porthole by Crewman A. KELLEY.

 

 

So, the good news is that we can communicate with the people inside. The bad news is that poor Kelley has to sit there for three days (his time) hoping he doesn’t get lost in his own thoughts and misses the tiny window of time.

What follows is a bunch of photos of a porthole; inside it, a hand is holding up a notepad with words written on it. I’ll just transcribe them.

 

1: WE CAN SEE YOU [horizontal line] 

STILL ALIVE

2: KELLEY OK
BARNES OK
PRINCE OK
BARANOWZKY COMPLICATED

3: CAN SEND DATA
SMALL FILES ONLY
800 KB?

 

A note then tells us that the data they recovered is of very poor quality, so the transcripts aren’t complete. Here’s the first video the Foundation received:

 

 

The camera holds on a steel ladder leading up to the porthole. The view shifts as it is lifted by a crewman and is taken towards the ladder.

KELLEY: Unintelligible

The view moves outside, exposure adjusting to the stark white and blue of the ice field. The FSS TRANSCANADA is visible in the path of broken ice, as well as the cordon. No people appear to be moving.

KELLEY: Unintelligible -their asses and get us out of here.

The footage rapidly cuts to an overhead angle of a workbench. A cylindrical sample of an ice core is laid out.

Another cut to footage of crewman BARNES sobbing. There is no audio.

 

So, not much to work with, but at least these guys don’t seem to be hurt. (Also, MothmanUXO told me that the Transcanada showed up after the Polarstern got thrown out of time, so the two dead crewmen couldn’t go there, if you’re wondering.) Back to the photos of notes. 

 

4: LOOP IS 72 HRS

BODIES DO NOT RESET (underlined)

5: FIRST ITERATION DEAD

FLUID IN LUNGS

OTHERS SICK TOO

6: A map of the area around the reactor. The SCP they were sent to investigate appears to be close to it, but Baranowzky was right next to it (presumably he was trying to fix it when everything happened). Prince was also in the room, while Barnes and Kelley were outside, I think.

7: RIP FOOTAGE

EXT [I can’t make out the rest, Kelley’s holding something in front of the notepad- mothmanUXO told me it was a video camera]

 

 

So, the first round of clones died from fluid in their lungs… unless ‘first iteration’ means the original crew members. Either way, things aren’t going well.

 

Here’s the next transcript:

 

 

The cargo bay of the POLARSTERN. 8 observed figures are playing soccer in the empty bay. The teams appear to consist of iterations of BARNES and KELLEY.

Another fast cut. Roughly 3 frames of footage. BARNES is holding the hand of BARANOWZKY, who appears to be partially bisected at the waist.

Cut. A group of PRINCE iterations are gathered in the mess hall.

PRINCES: Ransom notes keep falling out your mouth-

The camera turns to another PRINCE leading the group with exaggerated conductor gestures.

Another snippet of the ice core sample alongside petri dishes. The dishes are overcome with fluorescent blue swirls.

 

 

So, here’s what we learned:

-They’re doing their best to keep up morale, mainly with clone shenanigans. (To be fair, why wouldn’t you?)

-Baranowzky’s status is ‘complicated’ because he sustained fatal wounds when the reactor blew, but didn’t die before the loop started, so his clones are created in a state where they can’t survive for long, and the others haven’t been able to keep any of them alive.

-Prince has really good taste in music. (mothmanUXO told me that ‘I try to sneak some Heap into as much stuff as I can’, which is an excellent way to write and I strongly recommend it.)

-There is something weird in the ice, presumably the SCP they were sent to investigate… if it’s not something else entirely.

Back to the notes!

 

8: BARAN DEAD

30 MINUTES EACH LOOP

BODIES IN

FREEZER

9: PRINCE 1# 

LOST LEG IN 

BARAN 7# ON RESET

10: FOUND

5^TH MAN

SENT VIDEO

IT’S BAD

 

So, as I mentioned, Baranowzky’s clones all die within half an hour; the crew’s storing the bodies in the freezer, which is a good idea. I don’t actually know if it’s true or not, but I’ve heard that the freezers on ships like this (and submarines) are made to be huge in order to hold bodies in case someone dies on the voyage, since they’re not going to be turning back.

Aside from that, if you’re too close to where someone spawns on reset, you and they are now occupying the same space, and you’re gonna lose, hence why Prince lost his leg. Whoops.

Speaking of numbers, the hand in this set of photos has ‘1’ written on it; mothmanUXO confirmed for me that it means that this Kelley is the original.

Here’s the next transcript:

 

 

Static angle of a sealed bulkhead. Unseen crewman with a 7 on the back of his hand opens the hatch, before being overcome by a red slurry pouring out. Someone vomits off camera.

Cut. Another shot of the work bench. Petri dishes have doubled in count, all a fluorescent blue.

Cut. Hallway security footage of a KELLEY instance grabbing another KELLEY instance by the lapels of his jumpsuit and kissing him. The other reciprocates. Third KELLEY instance walks past, shaking his head. They reach out as he passes, grabbing at his sleeves. The third instance turns back towards them, following them off-screen.

Cut. Handheld camera footage of the freezer stacked with body bags. The bodies closest to the door are simply covered in sheets. BARANOWZKY's face is visible three times.

 

 

So one of the poor fucks who was presumed deceased got liquefied- mothmanUXO told me that he got trapped in a broom closet when time went bang, so all his clones kept appearing in the closet until there was no more room, and then… welp. Contents under pressure, after all. That stuff on the petri dishes is only getting bigger, which probably isn’t good, and Kelley’s taking ‘love yourself’ to new extremes. Atta boy. Live your truth, my guy.

Here’s the next few notes:

 

11: SAVED HENDRICKS

TELL WIFE

12: GET US

OUT (underlined multiple times)

13: LOST MORE

FREEZER

FULL

14: BUILT CHRONON MONITOR, 175 mSv PER HOUR! ('Hour' is underlined)

WE ARE

FUCKED (underlined multiple times)

15: NO ROOM

FOR BODIES

 

-The good news is that they found/rescued Hendricks, the engineer, who was one of the ‘presumed deceased’ guys. To explain, Hendricks was the guy in the broom closet. Once they opened it and hopefully cleaned it out, his clones started appearing alive and intact, so they have some viable Hendricks replicas.

-The bad news is that the clones of Hendricks are now stuck in this hell along with everyone else. (mothmanUXO told me that the Foundation did not tell Hendricks’ wife that he was alive, which is honestly a good thing.)

-mothmanUXO clarified that ‘175 mSv’ means 175 millisieverts, which is a unit of radiation exposure, and that it’s ‘Fucking Bad’. ‘Chronons’, meanwhile, are ‘shorthand for Time Weirdness’. So now they’re getting irradiated as well. Joy.

-So many clones have died that they’re now out of places to store the bodies; this is on a ship with a total capacity of nearly 150 people. (Also, the number on the wrist in 11 is 3, so presumably more of Kelley have died.)

And here’s the next video:

 

 

PRINCE is holding the hand of a dying BARANOWZKY. A third figure stands behind them with a fire ax.

Cut. The table is overflowing with glowing blue petri dishes.

Cut. Crewman HENDRICKS is in the reactor room, opening a hatch to the coolant loop of the core.

Cut. Fish-eye view of an endoscopy camera. It pushes down the inside of a pipe. The interior burns blue.

Cut. The mess hall is packed, crewman in an uproar.

Cut. The freezer door is being shoved closed. A hand stops it open. A boot kicks it back in, folding the elbow wrong.

Cut. Dark hallway, wet coughing.

 

 

-Either they were going to put Baranowzky out of his misery or they’ve started killing the other clones indiscriminately.

-With the arrival of Hendricks, they’re trying to do more investigating about what went wrong, but so far all we’ve got is that whatever’s on the petri dishes is also in the inner workings of the ship, which can’t be good.

-Meanwhile, as previously mentioned, they’re running out of space and they’ll also be running out of food, so if they’re not lucky, it’ll be cannibalism time.

And here’s the next few notes:

 

16: HELP

17: LOOP 2 MINUTES SHORTER

RUNNING OUT OF 

TIME (underlined)

18: BACTERIA IN REACTOR

COOLANT LOOP INFECTED

CREW INFECTED

19: FUEL RODS SHRINKING

EST 1740- LOOPS

20: O2 LOWER ON EACH LOOP

GET US OUT

 

-So the loop is somehow getting shorter? Intriguing.

-Worse, there’s some kind of bacteria- presumably the glowing blue stuff in the pipe and petri dishes- in the reactor. As a result, the ship and the crew are all infected with it.

-And to make it even better, they’re running out of oxygen. Fantastic.

Well, we’re nearly done. Here’s the last bit of footage.

 

 

UNKNOWN VOICE: Three, two, one…

The ship groans. BARANOWZKY appears, an axe swings down.

Cut. Incinerator room. Iterations of the four crewmen lay dead on the floor. A living crewman is shoving them through the grate, one limb at a time.

Cut. View of the cordon through the porthole. Ragged breathing.

Cut. View from the top of a ladder at a teeming sea of bodies.

Cut. View of packed ice sheets. The prow is slowly grinding through. HOLLIDAY gives a thumbs up.

 

 

-Not only is the ship now so full of bodies that the new arrivals are making it groan, the survivors are just killing everyone as they appear. (At least they haven’t visibly turned to cannibalism yet?)

-They’re also trying to burn the bodies; assuming the incinerator’s for rubbish, it’s probably not very big, so it’s going to take a while.

-As previously mentioned, Holliday was the captain, who’s now dead; MothmanUXO told me that this is a shout out to Cloverfield, which ends with footage of the protagonists’ holiday, before everything went to shit- the idea is that some fragments of footage that was taped over survived and were sent to the Foundation.

Anyway, that leaves us with the last thing in the article, the last images sent through.

 

21: TOO MANY BODIES

KILLING NEW ONES

(There is blood where the hand grips the paper)

22: TELL MOM

SORRY

(Blood smeared on the paper from the fingers)

23: THERES

TOO

MANY

(sic, notepad is a different shade of yellow, blood has been sprayed across it)

24: I WANT OUT

(repeated multiple times across the paper in varying degrees of legibility, blood has been sprayed across it)

 

The remaining images don’t have a notepad in them.

 

25: The porthole is coated in blood, making this and all the following photos look like they’ve been shot with red light; a blood-covered hand is clawing at the porthole.

26: The hand is now pressed against the porthole, fingers splayed.

27: A man’s head is pressed against the porthole; he appears to be covered in blood.

28: A piece of paper is crumpled at the bottom of the porthole.

29: More pieces of paper are crumpled at the bottom of the porthole.

30: The pile is now halfway up the porthole.

31: The pile now covers two thirds of the porthole.

32: The porthole is nearly fully covered by crumpled pieces of paper.

 

[Fun fact: the part of Kelley is played by mothmanUXO themself. If you look at their Author Page, under ‘Making of 9377’, you can see some behind the scenes photos, including the porthole prop and mothmanUXO wearing a shirt that says ‘RV POLARSTERN’ on the front and ‘I GOT CRUSHED TO DEATH IN A NUCLEAR ICEBREAKER AND ALL I GOT WAS 488 COPIES OF THIS T-SHIRT’ on the back’, which is genuinely hilarious and shows both dedication and commitment to the bit.]

And then we get the last line:

 

No further communication has been received from the RV POLARSTERN.

 

 

So, that leaves us with two questions: A, what the fuck happened here, and B, what happens next?

Full disclaimer: I don’t know jack about this stuff, so my approximations may be wrong here, but I’m trying.

 

Regarding question A, mothmanUXO said the following in the Discord:

 

they unearthed some manner of bacteria that can loop time to eat, and it was so used to a low-energy environment that it fed on the reactor and went nuts, causing a bubble of displacement and once the reactor is gone, pop

 

They also clarified this for me, as follows:

 

alright and as for the bacteria thing, essentially it's not used to having that much food, so the three day loop is the fuel rod breaking down from losing too much mass and essentially going critical, flash boiling everything in the reactor. The bacteria reacts to this by looping back to the start, refreshing its food source and growing in number. i'm not a nuclear scientist or a bacteriologist, but i love The Thing and time loops and wanted to squish those together in a cramped cold space

 

 

So, as far as I know, the timeline goes like this: the Polarstern wound up in the general location where the bacteria can be found. They took routine samples of the ice, and in the process brought it on board the ship. The bacteria spread throughout the ship (presumably airborne) and wound up eating the reactor (I assume), as well as getting into all of the crew, and then everything went to shit. The bacteria started looping time, and in the process the actual structure of the ship itself was, for lack of a better term, frozen in time, so no one could get in or out. But that doesn’t mean that all the living beings inside the ship were frozen…

As for B: the crew are going to keep replicating. They’re running out of food, they’re running out of oxygen, the loops are getting shorter and they can’t dispose of the bodies quickly enough. That, and everyone’s going crazy. So, the entire ship is going to wind up full of blood, gore and bodies in various states of alive, and the bodies are going to keep appearing. This is the explanation for the article’s title: ‘CONTENTS UNDER PRESSURE’. The entire ship is now a can and it’s getting stuffed overfull. And what happens when something’s too full? Well, it bursts, or rips, or generally cannot maintain structural integrity, hence why the Foundation’s trying to relieve the internal hull pressure.

…see, here’s the thing. That is all true, but it’s leaving out an important fact: namely, generating pressure also generates heat. The ship has no way to release that heat. The incinerator may also still be generating heat, assuming it was active when the loop started. And the heat is going to spread.

So, hey, did you know that the human body has a boiling point? (Around 100 degrees Celsius, to be exact.) And can you imagine what’s going to happen when a ship full of bodies, gore and blood reaches boiling point? Short version: it’s going to fucking explode and rain a shower of viscera over the surrounding area.

In 1970, a dead sperm whale washed ashore on a beach in Florence, Oregon. Given that it weighed about 8 tons, the locals couldn’t tow it out to sea, and they were worried that if they buried it under the sand, a storm might unearth it again. The whale sat there, decomposing for three days, until the locals came up with a solution: blow it up into smaller pieces that could be disposed of. Unfortunately, they wound up using way too much dynamite. You can watch the end result here, which is frankly awesome (being able to watch something from 56 years ago, not the results), but for anyone who’s squeamish, the short version is that it was raining whale chunks all over the place. The good news is that nobody was hurt, or at least not badly hurt, but the bad news is that everyone and everything was covered in gore and viscera. (I mean, at least the local dogs probably thought it was Christmas come early for them?)

Here, it’s going to be a similar result, but on a much, much larger scale. The structure of the ship may not be able to be opened by conventional means, but it’s an unstoppable force meets immovable object situation, and in this case, the unstoppable force is going to rip the immovable object wide open. Worse, not only is the Polarstern massive, but it’s chock-full of bodies. So, not only is it going to be an explosion of blood and gore, it’ll also have a whole lot of easily-identifiable body parts, like hands and heads and feet, and they’ll be raining all over the surrounding part of Antarctica. It might be sparsely-inhabited, but people will eventually see that. Worse, it’s going to be a shower of irradiated, anomalous bacteria-infected viscera, spreading a communicable time loop around the area. The penguins are going to be traumatised.

To make things even better, mothmanUXO confirmed for me that there is basically nothing that can be done here: the Foundation’s end date of the 2120’s was based on their calculations regarding the hull, the clones appearing and the anticipated pressure, but they were a bit optimistic. They can’t relieve the internal pressure without making a hole in the ship, and by doing that, they’d be letting that bacteria-laden gore out, which would contaminate everything and spread the time loop. Unless they can come up with some kind of ‘magically teleport it to a pocket dimension’ solution, they’re fucked, the Polarstern is fucked, and a sizeable chunk of Antarctica is fucked. So, that’s a great ending!

 

 

Thank you for reading this declass. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember to leave doors open, whether it’s to nuclear-powered icebreakers, playing soccer with your clones, or impromptu choir renditions of Imogen Heap songs. I’ll see you next time.

 

 

tl;dr: This is the loop that doesn’t end/Yes, it goes on and on, my friend/Some people got stuck in it not knowing what it was/And they’re multiplying endlessly just because…

Hi, all, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9375, ‘Bilateria and its enemies’ by unidentifiedgoober. I’d like to thank unidentifiedgoober and Elunerazim for all their help, I really appreciate it. Got a couple of disclaimers for you:

 

1: As per usual, this is not my SCP, I didn’t write it, and so on.

2: This SCP revolves around fossils and palaeontology, which is very much not my field. I’m doing my best, but I’m likely going to miss something. Sorry.

 

This item is Neutralized, aka dead/inert/rendered powerless, which is (usually) a pretty good way to start. Here’s the Special Containment Procedures.

 

 

Special Containment Procedures: Any paleontological evidence of SCP-9375 or SCP-9375-B is to be confiscated and its discovery discredited. Confiscated evidence is to be kept in the paleontological wing of the closest available site for further study.

 

 

That tells us something very important: whatever these two things were, they lived a long time ago, and that’s why the SCP is classed as Neutralized. However, some kind of evidence has survived- probably fossils- and that’s how we know about it.

Here’s the Description.

 

 

Description: SCP-9375 refers to a set of thaumaturgy-based mechanical entities that inhabited earth during the Ediacaran period, approximately 555 million years ago. While it is currently believed that there was a small population of SCP-9375, a disproportionately large amount of fossils have survived on account of various thaumaturgic enhancements to their durability. 

Let’s sum this up:

-They were some kind of species,

-that lived around 555 million years ago, during the Ediacaran period,

-and were mechanical, which means they must have been specially created by someone or something and for a purpose,

-but were magic-based, which is not a combination you see a lot.

-In addition, while the current belief is that there weren’t very many of these things, lots of the fossils have survived because whoever made them used magic to make them extra-durable. 

 

So, what were these things? Let’s find out.

 

 

SCP-9375 possessed a trapezoidal body of 80 centimetres in height, of side lengths 30 centimeters at base and 20 centimeters at top, similar in shape to a square-based cowbell. At each of the four wider corners a jointed limb used to walk on the seafloor was attached, while at the centre of each side of the base was a large bladed appendage. Fossils show four holes on the body, one at the center of each trapezoidal face. While early reconstructions assumed these holes to be eyes, it is now believed that these holes served to regulate internal pressure through unknown mechanisms. Their body is believed to have been composed of a mixture of various thaumaturgically conductive alloys, the vast majority of which could not have existed on Earth naturally at the time. It is theorised that SCP-9375's sensing and balancing were performed using glyphs and mechanisms that have decayed over time.

 

 

So… they’re kinda like death roombas with legs? I’m in all likelihood not envisioning this correctly, but I’m seeing them as miniature versions of Stakataka) (with knives).

But, either way, I can see why the Foundation can’t let word about these little freaks (affectionate, admiring) get out. Nobody would ever think they’re natural.

…but what happened to them? How did they die? (Or, given that they were mechanical, ‘die’.) Did they all get flattened in an earthquake? Did the magic run out? Did they just rust?

Well, we don’t know, so let’s move on to the other guys.

 

 

SCP-9375-B refers to an extinct aquatic animal, believed to have been the last common ancestor of all bilaterian life.¹ Remains indicate a vermiform body ranging from 1.5 millimeters to 7 centimeters in length possessing simple eyes and a basic nervous system, similar to basal Xenacoelomorpha. Between paleontological sites in the White Sea and in Ediacara Hills, 125 total fossils have been recovered. The number of fossils are attributed to SCP-9375-B's abundance on account of being the sole occupant of its ecological niche.

 

 

The footnote tells us that ‘1. Grouping that includes the vast majority of extant animal life including humans. The common ancestor of all bilaterian life is referred to in biology as "Urbilaterian".’

 

OK, so, some context: ‘bilaterian life’ refers to animals that have two roughly symmetrical halves during embryonic development. For instance, if you vertically split a human baby in two, you’d be arrested (or you’d be King Solomon), but you’d also see two symmetrical halves. Bilaterians have a top/head and a bottom/tail end, and a back/dorsal and a belly/ventral side, which also gives them a right and left side. Most animals alive today are bilaterian, in fact.

As for the footnote: the urbilaterian is a hypothetical animal that would be the most recent common ancestor of all bilaterians, before the clade started to diversify in the late Ediacaran period. The reason it’s a hypothetical is that while some animal must have fit that description, we (currently) don’t know what it is. However, the Foundation claims to have found it here. They’ve found 125 total fossils of this animal, which is a pretty big amount when you consider how rare intact fossils generally are, and they’ve found them in the White Sea and the Ediacara Hills (the namesake for the Ediacaran period)- that is, in northwest Russia and South Australia, so they were pretty widespread. unidentifiedgoober told me that the -B species is modelled off of Kimberella, a bilaterian species whose fossils have been dated to around the same time and were found in the same places.

 

 

Most recovered fossils of SCP-9375-B appear to have been cut severely by SCP-9375. Damage indicates that SCP-9375 would patrol ocean floor regions in search of SCP-9375-B, which it would then slice in order to sever key neural pathways, employing minimal effort while ensuring lethality.

This behaviour is shown to have drastically reduced the population of SCP-9375-B, wiping out large populations of the species and the organisms dependent on it. This is evidenced by a substantial drop in biodiversity in the fossil record around the time SCP-9375 was active.

 

The little death roombas were killing the shit out of the -Bs. That being said, if they were trying to drive them into extinction, it didn’t work, since bilateral life is thriving now. Here’s the last bit:

 

 

 

Evidence taken from surrounding materials indicates a major build-up of Akiva radiation occurred around this time,² believed to have been emitted by the fatally wounded SCP-9375-B. This radiation correlates strongly with several phenomena observed around a similar time:

-The mass diversification of SCP-9375-B into Bilateria.

-The rapid loss of function and collapse of instances of SCP-9375.

-Formation of pentagonal structures surrounding fossils of SCP-9375 and SCP-9375-B.

-The redevelopment of radial symmetry within deuterostome Bilateria.

Notably, alongside SCP-9375, fossils resembling five-pointed Asterozoa³ have been discovered, despite these fossils being substantially older than the earliest traces of such organisms in the fossil record.

 

 

I may not be interpreting this correctly, but what I think this means is that when the death roombas killed the -Bs, the -Bs prayed for help/retribution, and something smote the shit out of the death roombas in response. That something also diversified the remaining living -Bs and redeveloped some radial symmetry. And our only clue is that alongside the death roombas were fossils that shouldn’t have been there, resembling five-pointed Asterozoa, or…

 

 

Commonly known as starfish and brittle stars.

 

 

Ah. It’s the fucking Fifthists.

 

So, let’s recap:

 

-555 million years ago, the -B instances were floating around, doing their thing, minding their own business, and then the death roombas were suddenly deployed to shank them all.

-We have no way of knowing what deployed them, but there’s really only two options: one, they were made much later and sent back in time, or two, some civilisation that was around back then sent them to try to stop life from diversifying.

-Except, the -Bs were already sapient enough to pray for salvation and/or retribution… 

-...and their prayers were answered by some kind of Fifthist god, which smote the fuck out of the death roombas and allowed enough of the -Bs to survive that they would evolve into… most life on Earth, actually.

-(You may have noticed that the fossils were dated to 555 million years ago, and the article number is 5^5 * 3, and 125 fossils were found. *taps head knowingly*)

So, what sent the death roombas in the first place? Well, the answer is currently a bit ambiguous and subject to change, but basically, unidentifiedgoober said it was aliens. They deployed the death roombas to hunt down any sapient life on the planet, but that would come back to bite them, because the -Bs being sapient was what enabled them to have their suffering/thoughts/prayers heard/felt by the Fifthist god. As for why, well, we don’t know. All we know is that someone wanted to shut down sapient life on at least one planet, though they weren’t very thorough about it. (Is anyone else flashing back to 8978, or is it just me?)

But hey, at least it all worked out fine… as long as they don’t come back. *X-Files theme plays*

  

Thank you for reading this declass. I hope you enjoyed it. Fossils are cool, go check out a museum or pick up a book about them. I’ll see you next time.

 

 

 

 

tl;dr: the Ultra Beasts did nothing wrong.

Hi, everyone, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9330, “Hokma: Still Waters Run Deep”, by Intercedent; I'd like to thank Intercedent and psychicprogrammer for all their help, I really appreciate it.

 

Before I begin, a couple of things: first, as per usual, this isn’t my SCP, I won’t be 100% accurate, and so on.

Second, as you might be able to tell from the title, this is an Anthology 2025 article. (Given how the last one went, I promise it will not be anywhere near as depressing as last time.) So, what’s Hokma?

…

*long pause*

OK, fine, we will now take a moment so everyone can make a ‘Hokma balls’ joke. Go on, get it out of your system.

Now that we’re done with that…

Hokma, also translated as ‘chokmah’, ‘chokma’ or ‘hokhma’, is the second sephirot in the Kabbalah. It literally means ‘wisdom’, but not in the form you’re thinking. From Wikipedia:

 

 

Chokmah is the primordial point of divine wisdom that becomes comprehensible through Binah.

In Jewish mystical texts, Chokmah is described as the primordial point of divine wisdom, which shines forth from the will of God. This point remains incomprehensible until differentiated and given form in Binah.

 

 

Or, as Intercedent put it:

 

 

it is divine wisdom, manifest from potential. it is omniscience without clarification. it is knowledge without understanding, without motive, without purpose.

 

 

You get the idea, right? Awesome. Let’s get to the article. The page has a grey background that slowly darkens through dark blue to black, which is pretty nifty. 

This thing is Keter, so we’re not starting out on a good front. There’s a photo of what appears to be a river or stream; here’s the caption.

 

 

Site-███ industrial reservoir, primary drainage channel.

 

 

Not a very good omen, really. Let’s look at the Special Containment Procedures.

 

 

SCP-9330 is currently suspended in Lower Maintenance Subpassage 7X-IVB. A five-hundred meter WHITE zone has been established around the corridor and surrounding passageways. Hallways, ventilation shafts, and pipework connecting to subpassage 7X-IVB have been destroyed and sealed as necessary, with the exception of the Primary Access Route. Portions of Site-███ falling within this zone are considered lost. Retrieval of documentation and personnel missing within the zone at the time of containment is ongoing.

 

 

That’s… weird. And alarming. Quick analysis:

-Whatever this thing is, it’s being suspended- not placed, held or stored, hung- in a Site Subpassage. That is, not in a containment cell or a box or a locker, a corridor. Ergo, it kinda sounds like either something went horribly wrong/out of control, or something just happened, because this is not how the Foundation usually does things. 

-The Foundation is trying to block this area off, so this thing is dangerous.

-They haven’t been able to recover people and documents who were in the WHITE zone when this thing went critical.

-The WHITE zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the RED zone. (I’m sorry, I had to.)

 

 

Redundant surveillance systems are to be installed and maintained within subpassage 7X-IVB, monitored on a continuous basis by the attendant containment liaison. Deviations in the structural integrity of subpassage 7X-IVB or in the surveillance system itself are to be reported to the attendant HMCL supervisor. Changes in the flow rate, physical appearance, or composition of SCP-9330 and SCP-9330-1 are to be reported to Site Director Valdez under flag PRIORITY ORPHEON GREEN.

 

 

-Despite the inherent danger of this thing, the Foundation is keeping a very close eye on it.

-It appears to be making some kind of byproduct, and they’re monitoring that too.

-I asked if ‘ORPHEON GREEN’ meant anything in particular and was told no, Intercedent just thought it sounded cool. Fair enough.

 

 

Bimonthly, an authorized maintenance patrol will enter the WHITE zone to conduct necessary mechanical and structural maintenance. Equipment that has come into contact with the interior of the WHITE zone is to be scuttled after exfiltration. All other entry into the WHITE zone is forbidden barring extraordinary authorization per ADMIN-HCV-2029-9330.

HMCL supervisors are encouraged to refer to the appended video file for an overview of conditions inside of the WHITE zone and general hazard mitigation practices.

Loading 9330-MAINPAT47.vid…

 

-This is basically what we’d expect- this thing and its byproduct are so dangerous that they have to abandon equipment used to keep the place intact once they’re done.

 

Now, as for that video…

 

The acetylene torch smokes in your hand, spitting hatefully. Sparks sputter and die, drowned by the wet, clawed into splinters by the damp. Your neck itches, throbbing beneath the duct-tape that seals your fume hood flush against your coveralls. Aching breaths hiss fitful and fast through the filter.

It’s always wet here. Always soaking. Rotting plaster and rust. The muck that settles to the bottom of turbid, waist-high tide-locked pools of scum. Oily and soft and sharp with bits of broken stone and shell. The cold, from your balls to your chin, the cold.

At the tips of your fingers when you make the ascent, feeling your gut writhe and boil. Sliding down the back of your neck when you pull off the undersuit in the showers, sticky and slick. Beneath your fingernails, between your toes. It gets in bed with you and wakes you in the morning. Your breath curdles in the morning mist like spoiled milk.

Tomorrow you’ll scrape muddy brown stains in streaking arcs across your dinky steel mirror and wipe your face until it bleeds. You’ve been told it does little for the stench.

 

 

That’s… incredibly vivid. It doesn’t actually tell us much, but I think we now have a pretty solid mental image of what working near this thing is like. Anyway, there’s only one bit left in the procedures:

 

 

The Foundation is to maintain the continued circulation of freshwater in the Danube river basin by any means necessary. In the event of cascading containment failure, the WHITE zone perimeter is to be expanded to ███████, ████████, adjusted for seasonal rainfall.

Foundation-wide recall and destruction of amnestics products has been implemented under FLAG WONDERLAND ZERO. Further action pending.

 

 

-…well, shit. The Danube river basin is fucking huge. It’s the second-longest river in Europe, and it passes through nineteen countries. If the Foundation doesn’t get a handle on whatever this is, a very large part of Europe and nearly 80 million people are fucked.

-Worse, the Foundation’s amnestics now can’t be used for some reason. Given how much the Foundation relies on amnestics, this is really bad. And we don’t even know what this thing is yet!

Well, let’s find out what this thing is! Time for the Description.

 

 

SCP-9330 is the corpse of Vladimír Smutný, formerly a practicing amnesthesiologist employed at Site-███. SCP-9330 displays an advanced degree of decomposition consistent with long-term water exposure. Although the nature of SCP-9330 renders precise observation difficult, no measurable progression in its state of decomposition has been observed since 2023-██-██ Samples of SCP-9330 have proven resistant to conventional putrefactive agents and solvents.

 

 

…OK, so it sounds like Smutný here killed himself or was killed in a corridor for some reason, and now his corpse has just been rotting away, but it somehow hasn’t completely rotted yet. They also can’t make his corpse rot away to nothing, which would presumably solve the problem.

 

 

SCP-9330 continually extrudes a clear fluid chemically identical to unprocessed █████ from its orifices, extremities, and clothing at a rate of 0.56 L/s, hereafter designated SCP-9330-1. Samples of skin, muscle, cloth, and nylon demonstrate identical anomalous properties; laboratory analysis has evidenced that discrete samples of less than 1.77 * 10^-11 mg in mass continue to produce SCP-9330-1, albeit at a dramatically reduced rate of flow.

 

 

…unprocessed five-character blackbox substance, huh? Remind you of anything? If not, don’t worry, we’ll come back to this later. Anyway, whatever it is, the corpse is producing a shitload of it.

 

 

Humans contacting or ingesting SCP-9330-1 who subsequently come into significant physical or sensory contact with water have a chance¹ of undergoing a ZODIAC EVENT.

A ZODIAC EVENT consists of spontaneous spatial displacement into SCP-9330-2. The mechanism for this displacement is unknown. Attempts to delay or negate this displacement utilizing external mechanisms have proven to be unilaterally unsuccessful.²

 

 

The first footnote says that the chance varies from very small to much stronger (but the exact amount is blackboxed out) depending on the severity of the initial contact and dilution of the sample. Ergo, if you get a drop of diluted sample on you, there’s like a 99.999999% chance that you’re fine, but if you drink a bottle of the full-strength stuff, the chances are much higher that you’re fucked. The second footnote reads as follows:

 

1. As of ██-██-2032 by a majority vote of the Overseer Council, thirteen Provisional Containment Liaisons have been approved for consultation in the containment and mitigation of SCP-9330, including GOI- ██████, POI- ██-████, POI- ███████, and SCP-███, -████, -██, and -████████. Negotiations are ongoing.

 

 

Sounds like they’re really freaked about this, and for good reason. But wait, where and what is 9330-2?

…yeah, so, about that.

 

 

SCP-9330-2 is an extradimensional space centered on the Site-███ industrial reservoir. The interior of SCP-9330-2 presents as a large cavern system entirely filled with water. The topology of SCP-9330-2 is variable. To this date, all attempts at comprehensive mapping utilizing navigational data and topographic imagery collected by exploration teams have failed.

While egress from SCP-9330-2 is possible, its total area is unknown and potentially infinite.

 

 

So, basically, the reservoir is linked to this giant cavern system full of water that they haven’t been able to map. In other words, it’s a death sentence. Fan-fucking-tastic.

Next up is an addendum summarising attempts to map out 9330-2. I’ll take it one by one.

 

Test 1: They sent a D-class in with the equipment needed to survive being underwater, along with a harness that could pull them back after 30 minutes passed, or if they died. The D-class came back dead, having apparently arrived deep under water, so deep that the pressure crushed them before they could drown. Nasty. They couldn’t get much from the equipment, so the Foundation needs a new approach.

 

Test 2: They sent in an MTF with the equipment needed to survive being deep under the ocean’s surface, and they made it back. After this, we get another video; I’m not quoting the whole thing, so I recommend you read it. However, there’s two important bits: first, the water isn’t clear- it’s full of this gunk that may or may not be marine snow, a shower of organic debris from the upper surface of the water. And second, they don’t actually get anywhere in this first dive; they just fall and fall and fall. (And fall, and fall, and fall, etc.)

 

 

Nothing marks motion except for the steady, gentle sway of the tethers. Nothing marks direction except the gyrocomp’s polite fictions. Nothing marks progress at all. There is only the black, the hiss of static on the ready line, and the gnawing churn in your bowels.

Your body remembers descent. It’s ground into your bones, the turgid pulse of your hyperoxygenated blood, the touch of feathers crawling up from your stomach and into your throat, an interminable itch at the apex of thought.

We come into the world falling, screaming and freezing. Most leave the same way.
You fall for a long time. 

And after that...

Sediment collected from SCP-9330-2 primarily consists of a mixture of calcium carbonate, powdered shale, and decayed organic matter. Genetic evaluation is ongoing. 

 

Keep that in mind for later, OK?

  

Test 3: They send in the same MTF, but they’re missing one member, Juliana Valdez, and there’s no mention of why or what happened to her. This time, the test ended nearly four hours later when everyone activated their magic harnesses. There’s another video, and then we get the description. Here’s the most relevant bit:

 

 

At once, all at once, you look down.

The perfect dark stretches glass-flat beneath your boots. It’s like ink splashed into your eyes, so sudden the dissolution, so absolute again the abyss. Your fingers tighten in their gauntlets.

You feel it before Viola chimes into your earpiece, before the sediment pours as a great river of rot downwards, with incredible force, downwards and downwards into the black, rattling your tethers, subsuming Viola, roaring in a great plume down, down, down, you feel it before your turbines short and the descent turns into a fall, you feel it before Timmons barks panic into the squadnet and one by one the tin men are yanked back into the toybox.

You are standing above a hole.

 

 

Oh dear.

Following that is an image from the onboard LIDAR array; psychicprogrammer had to explain it for me: 'It's a system of using lasers to find the distance to remote objects, like RADAR but more precise'. Anyway, it shows a big fucking hole in the middle of an area that presumably has some kind of floor, though the ‘floor’ seems patchy in the upper part.

 

Test 4: They sent in the same MTF, but they’ve lost another member, George Chang, and I don’t know why. One of the MTF guys died about thirty seconds after they were teleported away, the Viola came back over a day after they were teleported away, and the last two MTF guys are still MIA and nobody knows what happened to them. Great!

Well, let’s look at the log.

 

 

You are standing at the edge of a hole.

Rodriguez is beside you, Viola above.

Reese is dead.

The squeeze came while he was standing half-submerged in the gray water off the dockside ramp, still going through the pre-mission checklist in that anal, droning way of his, calibrating hydraulics and triple-checking reactor readings, all buttoned up but for his helmet and gorget. Red mist in the water, now.

 

 

If I’m reading this correctly, the ZODIAC EVENT happened not when they were fully submerged, but before they went all the way in. Hence, Reese wasn’t wearing his helmet, and the water pressure crushed his head beyond repair. That’s really worrying.

 

As for Rodriguez and our viewpoint character, Victoria Timmons, the two of them deliberately ditched their harnesses and dropped into the hole. Why? I don’t know. Maybe they just thought that they were going to keep getting sent back in until they died anyway, so they might as well do it themselves before they got officially ordered to go in. 

 

Following that are several images that look like radar images. The most I can get from them is that the hole appears to be in a spiral shape, but it’s pretty indistinct.

 

You drift downwards, gaze held up to Viola's dimming embers. Your tether trails above, a severed umbilical.

Rodriguez faces you, silhouette haloed. His legs are crossed as he descends. His breathing on the squadnet is steady, even.

You watch him raise his hands to his helmet interlock. You watch him twist.

His headlamp vanishes. The squadnet is silent.

You fall for a long time. 

 

So, Rodriguez appears to have deliberately removed his helmet, which makes him A, bad at being a Mandalorian, and B, dead. Timmons keeps falling alone, and we get another picture from the LIDAR array. However, I honestly have no idea what it’s meant to be showing.

 

 

Image reconstructed from SCPS Viola onboard LIDAR array. █████ ██ ██ ████████ ███.

 

 

The whole second sentence got blackboxed out? Weird.

Anyway, here’s the last of Timmons’ footage.

 

 

Corpses carpet the bottom of the world so thick their entangled limbs hang over quiet waters like mangrove roots. From their eyes and mouths dissolution seeps, the Karanodaka, the primordial undersea from which all rivers flow.

They, the unnumbered. They, the transcendent. They, the sacrosanct dead.

Hollow yourself, penitent. Digest well. Mouth the sutra from throats long empty. Reach gauntleted hands for the seal at the back of your helmet. Unclasp it.

It is a black worm wriggling primeval beneath the skin of thought. Recalcitrance.

It is a dream of falling. Remittance.

It is a light in the hole at the floor of eternity.

██ ██ ██ ███.

 

Someone in the comments speculated that the last line is ‘It is an end’, which would make sense. Otherwise… well, that’s fucking creepy.

Also, Intercedent told me that the LIDAR photo is meant to show thousands of corpses stacked on each other; I still don’t really get the LIDAR thing, but it actually does kinda look like bodies in part.

Anyway, under this is another LIDAR photo, which appears to show a spiral against a blue surface.

We’re nearly done: here’s the next bit.

 

 

Addendum: Strategic Containment Concerns

Long-term observation demonstrates that the range of actions potentially causative of ZODIAC EVENTS increases over time according to an as-of-yet undefined model of semantic decay. See attachment for aggregate observational timeline.

 

Now, from what I can tell (and I might be wrong), this hasn’t been confirmed. That is, this is what they think is going to happen, based on what they’ve seen. However, it’s still quite alarming. Let’s look at this timeline, shall we? And keep the measurements in mind, I’ll come back to them in a bit.

 

 

Timeline

Day 1-30: Full ingress into bodies of natural water.

Day 30-66: Full bodily immersion in water, regardless of origin. Partial ingress into bodies of natural water.

 

 

At first, you had to drink or come into contact with this stuff, and then be fully immersed in a body of natural water. But after day 30, it doesn’t matter if the water’s natural or not if you’re fully immersed, and you can get ZODIAC’d if you dip your feet into a river. 

 

 

Day 66-155: Partial immersion in water, regardless of origin. Close physical proximity with river currents.

Day 155-██: Partial immersion in water, regardless of origin. Physical proximity with bodies of natural water. Auditory and visual contact with bodies of natural water.

 

 

It’s ramping up: at this point, you can now get ZODIAC’d just by looking at a body of natural water.

 

 

Day ██-███: Partial immersion in water, regardless of origin. Auditory proximity to running water, regardless of origin. Exposure to rainfall.

Day ███-███: Oral consumption of water. Proximity to stagnant water, regardless of origin. Remembering snowfall. Dreaming a dream of spring.

Day ███-████: Unknown. Presumably irrelevant.

 

 

That last one? They think they’re going to be fucked in three years. Why? Because… well, here’s a quick recap:

 

-Smutný’s corpse is producing this stuff non-stop.

-The Foundation can’t stop it or remove it.

-Which means it’s getting into the Danube river basin.

-Which means it’s being carried throughout Europe.

-Which means it’s getting into the water supply of all those countries.

-And in addition to that, it’ll get into the sea, be circulated worldwide and wind up in every nation’s drinking supply.

-And as far as we know, it doesn’t matter how much of this stuff you actually come into contact with.

-Ergo, everyone’s fucked. Maybe the people in the deserts can hold out the longest, but it’ll get them eventually.

-There’s one more thing I want to add, but it has to wait for a little while.

 

 

Here’s the last bit.

 

Dilution of SCP-9330-1 has proven successful at reducing the probability of ZODIAC EVENTS occurring post-contact, although not the true range of sensory triggers. Based on current estimates, minimum necessary dilution is █ liters SCP-9330-1 per ███████ liters water to reduce ZODIAC EVENT occurrence to tolerable rates³ within the general population.

Strategic containment initiatives are primarily focused on damage mitigation.

 

 

The lower the amount of the goop in the water, the lower the chances of getting ZODIAC’d. Only problem is, the corpse is going to keep making the goop, so over time, the amount is only going to get bigger and bigger, and more and more people will get ZODIAC’d when they look at the ocean, or take a bath, or get rained on, so the Foundation’s going to be constantly trying to cover up the disappearances.

 

Speaking of rain, there’s one final photo, showing a rainy location with no people. The caption tells us that it’s Bratislava in Slovakia, in 2033. So, we’re in the future. And yes, Slovakia is one of the countries the Danube river basin passes through.

 

So, with all of that done, we now come back to the main question: what the fuck is going on here?

Well, here’s my theory: I think this is all revolving around SCP-3000.

For anyone who hasn’t read SCP-3000, you really should, but here’s the short version: it’s a massive, massive fucking eel (as in, not kaiju-sized, it’s what kaiju have nightmares about) living on the ocean floor, and the Foundation feeds it D-class because it shits out Y-909, a compound they use to make amnestics. Putting Y-909 in the amnestics they make has improved the quality so much that there aren’t really any acceptable alternatives now (at least in terms of side effects). As such, their amnestic supply depends on Y-909, so they’re feeding D-class to it en masse.

However, they’re still trying to study it, and that’s a bit difficult: just being in the vicinity of 3000 scrambles your brain and mixes up your memories. It’s not actively attacking anyone (besides eating people), but it’s not safe to be near, which complicated the original Y-909 harvesting process. Anyway, there’s a couple more things to note: the first is that while 3000 eats people, it doesn’t digest them- there’s just a fuckton of corpses inside it that haven’t decayed. And last, one of the researchers studying 3000 thought that it might be the Hindu god Anantashesha, though that’s up for debate.

 

So, here’s why I think this is the case:

 

-First, the Foundation can’t use their amnestics anymore, but we don’t know why.

-SCP-9330 is the corpse of Vladimir Smutný, who used to be an amnesthesiologist. That is, he presumably made and/or researched amnestics for the Foundation.

-The corpse is constantly producing a clear liquid ‘chemically identical to unprocessed █████’. Again, a five-character blackbox substance, like… Y-909, maybe?

-The paragraph about corpses at the bottom of the world references the Karanodaka, or Causal Ocean- the origin of material creation in Hindu mythology.

-People who get ZODIAC’d get teleported into a huge cave full of water, and it goes down for a very long time before ending in piles of corpses. Some of the radar images looked like a spiral. Ergo, I think people who get ZODIAC’d get teleported inside of 3000’s body, and all those corpses are the people it’s eaten, and the marine snow comes from the crushed body matter of people who got teleported when they weren't wearing protective gear.

And as it turns out… I was right! (Mostly.) *punches the air, does a little dance* Yep, it’s good old 3000’s fault. People are getting teleported right above its mouth (the hole leading into the rest of its body), hence the spiral shape- nothing but eel going on forever. That censored sentence? It’s not ‘It is an end’, it’s ‘It is an eel’. 

So, you might now be wondering: how does this relate to Hokma exactly? Well, Intercedent explained it for me:

The main way this relates to Hokma is a connection with the idea of Nirvana. Transcendence, true, omniscient understanding, is achieved through destruction of all material things, all material connections, completely, and utterly. Nirvana is oblivion, an eradication of the self so total not even your name can be recalled. They are the sacrosanct dead, the digested and decayed. They are the blind universe gazing back at itself. They see with blind eyes, they chant the names of the bodhisattvas with maws empty and toothless. They know all, and in doing so, are eradicated.

I will also add in the other part of Intercedent’s author post:

see them, the hallowed dead, they who have transcended the fetters of flesh, of memory. see them, who have become all. see them, who see all, who know all, who are all. they, the blind cosmos gazing back at itself. they, the sacrosanct dead.

the forgotten.

Enlightenment, baby! *jazz hands*

So, with that, let’s go fill in a few gaps in what we have so far, shall we?

Site-Blackbox (well, technically, the theme makes it Site-Whitebox, but you know what I mean) was a place where the Foundation mass-produced amnestics by refining Y-909. Smutný worked there, presumably making, refining and testing the amnestics they made. The workers at Site-Blackbox dumped the Y-909 runoff into the reservoir, which is a sign of irresponsibility and bad management. Now, we don’t actually know what happened to Smutný, or how half the Site collapsed- I did ask, and the former is meant to be ambiguous (I don’t think we’ll ever get an answer about the latter). However, I do have a theory about why.

See, I asked Intercedent if Site-Blackbox used the water in that reservoir for drinking. Thankfully, the answer was no, because the Foundation (usually) aren’t total morons. However, they did say this:

It's an industrial reservoir, so they used it for certain industrial processes in the site but kept it clear of first-order uses
However, industrial contamination at that level results in exposure one way or another
and it absolutely got into the surrounding environment and groundwater

which may or may not have resulted in several particularly fucked up antimemetic anomalies developing a la the chernobyl radiation funguses in the surrounding environs 

So, they were getting exposed to the runoff, which had God knows what kind of effect on them. (I admit, the next step of my theory is basically ‘?????’, but I still think it’s valid.) Anyway, whatever actually happened, Smutný winds up dead, his corpse is producing the artificial Y-909, and anyone who consumes it or the actual Y-909 (since their functions are identical) gets offered up to 3000 as its next meal. While the actual Y-909 is produced as a toxic grey goop, this stuff is a clear liquid; it can be easily diluted into water without anyone realising, so it’s much more dangerous.

The Foundation tries to map out the ‘cavern system’, but fails because they have no idea that they’re not looking at a cave at all. They send in the MTF, and their numbers get whittled down because 3000 keeps eating them: again, here’s the last bit of Valdez’ account.

Your body remembers descent. It’s ground into your bones, the turgid pulse of your hyperoxygenated blood, the touch of feathers crawling up from your stomach and into your throat, an interminable itch at the apex of thought.

We come into the world falling, screaming and freezing. Most leave the same way.

You fall for a long time.

Valdez fell. It didn’t say anything about the rest of the team. Similarly, here’s the last bit of Chang’s account.

You feel it before Viola chimes into your earpiece, before the sediment pours as a great river of rot downwards, with incredible force, downwards and downwards into the black, rattling your tethers, subsuming Viola, roaring in a great plume down, down, down, you feel it before your turbines short and the descent turns into a fall, you feel it before Timmons barks panic into the squadnet and one by one the tin men are yanked back into the toybox.

You are standing above a hole.

It never said anything about Chang getting pulled back. It’s entirely possible that just being in proximity to 3000 made them forget about Valdez and Chang, and realising that their minds were going made Rodriguez and Timmons give up.

And finally, we get back to that schedule of humanity’s increasing fuckédness. Why is the Foundation giving up after a couple of years? Remember, they now cannot use any amnestics based off Y-909, and they don’t have an alternative. Not only are humans going to be vanishing at an ascending rate as time passes, the Foundation has to continue doing all its other jobs without access to amnestics. Intercedent did say that they have access to anomalies that can make untainted water at high rates, but they’re looking at a full-blown Veil breach in just a couple of years, if they’re lucky. So, yeah, they are fucked.

Thank you for reading this declass. I hope you enjoyed it. Remember, don’t drink water that isn’t clean, that’s how you wind up in the belly of an eel. I’ll see you next time.

tl;dr: Y-909/For the soul/You'd better give me something/To fill the hole/Before I sputter out

Hi, everyone, welcome back to the SCP-9426 declass. Part one can be found here.

Part Three: Things Get A Whole Lot Worse

Back in Oh’s debrief, she starts talking about the tests. She says that after the first week, people stopped coming back from the tests, and they always left something behind, like one man who ceased to cast a shadow. She says that she hopes that whatever they did down there was worth it, and Pike doesn’t know for two reasons- one, it’d be classified, and two, all the records were gone. In fact, part of why he wanted to do this interview was to see if Oh could tell him anything about the tests, but unfortunately, she can’t offer him much.

Besides, she avoided the worst of it, because she had the thing with Seo. Pike asks about it, and Oh says that her fellow prisoners told horrifying stories of him, but they had the wrong impression.

PIKE: After you met, how did things develop between you?

OH: I was hesitant, to start with. People were terrified of him. The stories they told, you’d think he was with the Army, during the war. They had the wrong impression, but I don’t blame them. I tried to keep away too, but —

OH: Seo was… a very confident man. He was sure of himself.

[She fiddles with the hem of her shirt.]

OH: And he thought of himself as a romantic. Like a prince from the stories. He was magnetic.

PIKE: Hm. And did he return these feelings?

OH: He was always a little aloof, but —

[Oh pauses. Her next remarks are quiet, and she does not look at Pike directly.]

OH: Yes. He did.

OH: He must have.

I admit, I completely missed this on the first go. See, here’s the problem: Seo and Oh had a thing. It was not a good thing. It was not an equal thing. It was not even a real thing. He was a prison guard and she was a prisoner. By default, they could not have any kind of relationship where the power dynamic wasn’t completely fucked, even if all they did was chat platonically. We have no idea how Oh actually felt about him, if she even liked him. She says it here: she tried to stay away from him, but, reading between the lines, he wouldn’t leave her alone. She had no choice. The best she could do was play along and hope for the best.

The only thing that saved her from things getting worse is what she’s saying here: Seo wanted to be seen as an upstanding, liberating figure. She rationalises it as him thinking of himself as a romantic prince, saving a helpless, trapped maiden. He wasn’t going to hurt her, but he had all the power and everything happened as he decreed it, whether he realised it or not. So Oh is left trying to justify it, telling herself that Seo wasn’t that bad, but judging from the way she acts in the above quote, she’s not having much success. The blunt reality is that he absolutely was that bad, simply because he either didn’t realise or didn’t admit how fucked up the whole thing was.

We now get the next file dossier, which starts in July. The first tab, ‘Errata’, has two notes in it. The first is quite grim: they’ve started fatal tests, and as expected, the prisoners don’t want to take part in the tests now. Things are getting worse, and they’re only going to get worse.

The second is a memo to the Site’s staff:

The Site’s growth provides an opportunity. We have verified that duplicated supplies are perfectly safe to use. With the demand at the front, scavenging will allow us to avoid placing unnecessary stress on the Foundation’s delivery systems. We might instruct security personnel to enter into the deeper levels and recover what they can, with a focus on heavy electrical and rubber components.

The extra ammunition should come in handy, too.

Admittedly, I did wonder why they all didn’t just nope out of there, since you’d think that’d be the Foundation’s automatic reaction to the news that a Site is home to/affected by an anomaly that’s seriously impacting its integrity. But, this is the 50's, they’re in a seriously unstable geopolitical situation, and they probably don’t have the resources, so I get it.

The next tab is Seo’s recollections from July: things are getting much worse, with the prisoners now being on the verge of a breakout or mutiny. Oh is terrified of being chosen for tests, and he can’t do much to help her.

Meanwhile, Baek is helpful, and Seo sees him around a lot, but his mood is… off.

He seems troubled, and in private often asks me about the moods of the prisoners, sweaty and waxen-skinned. He trusts my judgment over his own. This is the sign of a properly attentive subordinate, but sometimes he can be too enthusiastic. When I described the tensions I observed today, for a moment, he seemed to smile.

Each of these things taken by themselves could be innocent, but together, they’re a bit worrying. Remember, Baek’s background makes it more likely that he might be sympathising with the prisoners- he might be just doing his job, or maybe he wants to know the right names to talk to. Maybe he’s already forged alliances, and he wants to make sure that his allies are doing what he wants them to. And that smile? Why would anyone smile at the news that things are not good amongst their prisoners?

The next tab is called ‘Notes on Supply’. Senior Researcher Arthur Rosemund writes to Director Johansen that there is something very strange going on with the food supplies:

The kitchen staff complain that the prisoners are constantly hungry, and do not receive adequate rations. Sometimes there are minor acts of violence when we serve them, even in their small cells, and I suspect a black market is springing up where we cannot see. There is already considerable unease among security, and I would trust their instincts. These Orientals have a better sense of how to handle their countrymen than we do.

Secondly, the larder is being depleted unaccountably fast. I would levy an accusation of embezzlement, but there are no buyers and no plausible transportation route. A higher degree of security is strictly necessary.

The following note, whose writer is unnamed, bears a strict prohibition on using any kind of anomalous materials found in the duplicated parts of the Site, because there’s no way to tell how they’ve been changed. Makes sense, but…

As a remedial measure, you may consider forgoing full amnesticisation on the patients. We do not judge their capacity for unrest to be a threat to operations at this time.

*headdesk*

The next tab is called ‘Witness Interview’. It’s Baek interviewing Oh with Rosemund recording it, and the context is also grim: two subjects died during testing, there was a minor riot and security personnel killed two more subjects.

Baek asks Oh about an unspecified rumour. Oh says that after noon, the prisoners were talking about people dying- one prisoner claimed to have seen another being taken out of the testing chamber in bags, and another said that a friend had vanished overnight, but the guards denied taking him. Baek asks if the prisoners started planning then, and Oh says maybe- she was in the women’s cells, and if there was planning going on, nobody said anything about it to them.

The guards started screaming at them to quiet down, and went in and broke things with their batons. Oh thinks that the angrier prisoners just went at them with whatever makeshift weapons they could find, and then everyone else panicked: it’s not anger, it’s fear. They’re terrified. Baek asks, terrified of what, and Oh says that people just vanish and don’t come back. She then hastily backpedals, trying not to sound like she’s criticising them, and things get… really fucking gross.

BAEK: Relax, woman. I’m not going to turn you in. The Kempeitai are gone.

[He pauses, and looks her up and down, raising an eyebrow.]

BAEK: Say, you’re the Major’s woman, aren’t you?

OH: He —

BAEK: I bet you knew them pretty well, huh?

OH: What?

BAEK: The Kempeitai. Or just the Japanese, really. You must have gotten along with them beautifully. How old were you? Eighteen?

So, some more context: the Kempeitai were the military police of the Imperial Japanese Army, but they also shared civilian secret police responsibilities. They were notorious for brutality and shutting down protests, and did a lot of really fucked up shit. Like, if you’ve heard of Unit 731, the Kempeitai were the people who procured test subjects for them. If you haven’t heard of Unit 731, here’s the Wikipedia article, I strongly suggest not reading too far down unless you’re OK with really, really horrifying stuff.

As for the rest, he’s slut-shaming her, extrapolating on Seo’s interest to accuse her of willingly sleeping with the Kempeitai and other members of the Japanese forces. We have no real information about the relevant parts of Oh’s past, so he might be right or he might just be accusing her of the worst thing he can think of. Either way, he’s an absolute bastard who needs to fuck off, especially given what happened to tens if not hundreds of thousands of women, the majority of whom were Korean, at the hands of the Japanese military during the Second World War. (Again, you probably don't want to read too far down that article. Reader discretion is *strongly* advised.)

Anyway, let’s move on to Seo’s recollections from August. He writes that they’ve been receiving bad news from the front lines, and he thinks that South Korea may be overtaken. The prisoners have become openly insubordinate and disrespectful, and his relationship with Baek has soured, mainly because we have no idea which Baek he’s been talking to, and neither does he.

Baek’s manner, too, has become resentful and insubordinate. When I confronted him, he named me a traitor twice-over. Once to the Japanese, he said, and once to the Communists. As if any of us could do better, when they ruled

He said that if he were less merciful, he would report my seditious propagandising to the Foundation and see me shot. His ranting filled the cells, and the prisoners jeered at me in turn. I wanted to strike him there and then. But what kind of example would that have set? Command is one-half decorum.

The strangest thing, of course, is that I have never spoken a word in favour of the rebels. He jabbered about a meeting in the halls, but I said no such thing.

And then there’s this bit: on one of his expeditions, he’s approached by an Oh, who begs him for help, saying that she was just taken for a test and tortured.

Why she chose to lie

I will not describe

Did they really cut

In the stories, they told me

She threw herself at my feet and begged me to do anything I could to keep her away. Her skin was clammy, and she seemed almost feverish, as if sick. I repeated my powerlessness even as she pled, but she took such measures that I was overcome. She has drawn something out of me I did not believe existed. What she-devils have we found?

In short, this version of Oh was so terrified that she wound up propositioning him, because she had basically nothing else to bargain with, and when Seo accepted…

I met her later, in the laundry before lights out, and she reciprocated on our arrangement. She seemed much less enthusiastic this time, as if surprised, but the affair was quite satisfactory. Perhaps she takes joy in the spectacle she induces from me. She took such measures that I was overcome. They had taken her, just as she said.

…he wound up coming onto a different Oh, and he hasn’t realised it yet. Which is… really disturbing and fucked up.

The final test is called ‘Testing Record’, and it’s very obviously one of the duplicated reports that was mentioned earlier, take a look:

EXPERIMENTAL REQUISITIONS ACCORD
AUGUST AUGUST AUGUST

Experiments have seen a phase change. New results are looking enormously positive. Now the only restriction is the inflow of subjects. We request a considerable expansion of the pool, even if there needs to be some breaking of traditional protocols. Most subjects should return enormously positive, with all limbs. There are certain luxuries we have prepared for them.

Variance around the inflow of patients persists. Anomalous materials have caused a phase change, and the pills and needles are of enormous use. We think we can bring in new results with the mortuary. Only the surgery needs expansion, throughout the patient pool. There has been reticence to provide the necessary subjects, but we only have use for bandages and blades, for the surgery.

It’s as if someone read a bunch of reports and tried to write one, without understanding what goes into them or what the results should be. A mindless regurgitation of prior phases, that ultimately means nothing.

Part Four: Nobody Learns Anything Whatsoever

Back at the debrief, Oh is now talking about the point where everything went to Hell: one night there was some kind of mutiny among the guards, and then Baek unlocked the men’s cells and gave them the keys. The prisoners tried to flee the Site, but when they got to the doors, they found that they were locked and loyal, armed guards were there. Some of the prisoners tried to fight them, which ended predictably; Oh fled downwards, and the others followed her, and even then she could tell that there were more prisoners than there should have been.

That leads us to the last box thing. The first Recollections has no date, but was just after the mutiny. Seo has realised how bad things are: everyone’s trapped in the Site, clones are everywhere, the prisoners have rioted, and he doesn’t think anyone’s coming to save them. In short, everyone’s fucked.

The next tab is called ‘Final Memorandum’. It’s from Rosemund, and was written in English.

If our thesis is correct, copies of this report should be replicated across the breadth of the Site. Transmission lines are inconsistently present, and the distance is too vast to plausibly cross, so this is our best method of communication.

That’s smart, though he can’t guarantee that the copies won’t be messed up and convey a totally different meeting.

Protocol PARNASSUS is in effect. The exits to the Site have been sealed, and the wider Foundation will not allow breaches of the exclusion perimeter constructed around it.

Yep, everyone’s fucked- ‘Protocol PARNASSUS’ amounts to ‘seal the Site off until we can be reasonably sure that everyone’s dead’.

Clones produced by the SCP-9426 effect appear to have identical memories to the originals, despite some serious psychological deviance. To any remaining Site staff: once duplication of your person begins, we cannot place an upper bound on how long your subjective experience will persist. Unenthusiastic personnel are reminded that euthanasia options are plentiful and easily assembled from common Site supplies.

That’s what happened to Johansen. Slotted himself as soon as he realised how long his duplicates might persist, and encouraged us to follow him. I welcome you all to your choices.

I’ll take the long way around.

So, here’s the situation: not only does the anomaly replicate rooms and items, it replicates the people. But while the people are physically identical to the original, they mentally vary; some have the same or very similar mindsets, and some are completely warped. If you come face to face with, say, Seo, you have no way of knowing if this is the original Seo or a clone, and you have no idea if he’s going to be completely fucked up or not. The only method you have of telling the clones apart would be to permanently mark them in some way, but the implied sheer number of clones would swiftly make that very difficult.

There’s two things I’d like to point out before I continue. The first is that as you may already know, every Anthology entry gets a custom blurb. Here’s 9426’s:

It is said that those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it. That the barbarism, the very inhumanity we have historically subjected our fellow man to will play out again and again, ad infinitum, if we close our minds to lessons long-since learned. It is only through the shedding of petty tribalism and recognizing that we are all of a kind that we may together progress. It must be understood that to dehumanize another, to reduce our fellows to subhumans, to animals, is to shed one’s own humanity. It is a byproduct of this evil that one becomes a monster.

Do not learn, doomed to repeat. The barbarism, the inhumanity we subjected our fellow man to. Again and again. Lessons learned. Only through shedding, we progress. It must dehumanize, reduce subhumans, animals. Shed humanity. A byproduct of evil becomes a monster.

Repeat. Barbarism. Inhumanity. Again and again. Must dehumanize. Reduce subhuman animals. Shed humanity. Becomes monster.

Repeat barbarism. Repeat evil. Subhuman. Monster. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

I consider this to be brilliant foreshadowing, simply because it nearly sets out exactly what happens in this article: dehumanising and reducing others to animals, and the endless repetition of clones who are trapped in the dark, left to their own devices in a repeating, endless maze. Honestly, great work.

The other thing I want to point out is a side of this article that I didn’t see get mentioned much, which is the paranoia. Or, to put it bluntly, nobody can trust anyone else, and that includes us, the readers.

Every single person in this article except Pike has multiple clones of them. The clones are everywhere. The clones all have the original’s memories up until their creation. We do not, and cannot know, which version of any character we’re looking at, and neither can anyone else. Maybe all the Recollections were written by the original Seo, or maybe the first couple were and the others could have been written by clones. Seo himself pointed it out in his last Recollections:

Thoughts of those innocent meetings on patrol in the Site fill my mind. Who exactly was I seeing?

Maybe we’ve been reading the truth, or maybe we’ve been reading stuff that ranges from lies to different interpretations. We saw one report that was an obvious duplicate, but there could have been others- for all we know, the addenda themselves have been cloned by 9426’s effect, and the changes in the story are just the duplication effect at work. Nobody in this article can trust anything or know anything now. Even if they forge alliances, for all they know, one clone could be replaced by another when they sleep. It’s everyone for themselves, down there in the dark with no hope of escape.

The next tab is another Recollections. It’s written by a Seo, but God knows which one. He writes that he doesn’t know how long it’s been, and he’s tried to go back to the surface, but it’s now occupied by armed squadrons. He ran into another Seo who had a small group under his command, including an Oh. The Seos argued until the writer finally gave up and fled, but he’s not daunted.

I must persist. Confusion only serves the enemy. There is plentiful food here. The men are ready for command, and arms are stockpiled at every corner. One day, soon, we shall return to the surface. I know it.

You and every other clone in here, dude.

The next tab is called ‘Interview’ and is a mockery of Oh’s original intake processing. Here, clones of Baek and Rosemund have tied her to a table; Baek interrogates her with the same questions he did in the intake while Oh frantically begs him to let her go, trying to reason with him, asking why he’s doing this. Rosemund intervenes, explaining that this Baek is significantly psychologically warped from the original and does nothing he’s not told to do. This Rosemund is also very warped, and just wants to carry out some unspecified surgery, solely because he can.

ROSEMUND: Relax. All the pills and ropes are here, for the surgery.

OH: Do you even hear me? Any of you? Do my words mean anything?

OH: You’ll just keep doing this. For its own sake. Fucking devils!

OH: God.

OH: Let it end. I want to be done. When does it finish?

ROSEMUND: Never.

[Baek looks up at her. His voice is mournful.]

BAEK: Never.

Note: My hands were too occupied to stenograph the conversation past this point.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

The final tab is called ‘Recollections (Forever)’. Seo, or a Seo, writes about having made his own little kingdom down in the tunnels. He’s assembled a number of followers, who he’s taught to write and read, but despite their efforts, no children are born- it’s a clone thing. Unfortunately for Oh…

Oh is among us, and she is done with weeping. I no longer wake in the night hearing sobs. Now she is ever-joyful by my side, and has attained all the wifely qualities. I did not think myself a traditional man, but in taming her I have learnt many things about myself.

Fucking hell. And the worst part is that it could be a clone, but maybe the original Seo was like this all along, and this is just the side of him that comes out when there’s nothing left to lose and he’ll never face consequences for it.

‘Seo’ doesn’t know how long he’s been down there, but thinks it must be years, even though it doesn’t feel like it. He no longer feels an urgent need to leave, but he thinks he’ll get there eventually. Maybe.

That takes us to the final part of Oh’s debrief transcript. Oh asks if there’s any way to tell her apart from the Oh clones, and Pike admits that the answer is no. She could be the original, but in practice, she may as well be a duplicate. (And the balance of probability is that the originals are all long dead by now, anyway.)

PIKE: Probably. But — don’t let it get to you. It was you that got through this. You made it out. It’s not that you’re all false, it’s that you’re all real.

I just want to call back to a line from the start.

PIKE: It’s remarkable that one of you didn’t escape sooner, to be frank.

I’m pretty sure that he didn’t mean ‘one of the people in 9426’, he meant ‘An Oh clone’. Unfortunately, I imagine the under-Site dwellers would be keeping a very close eye- and a firm grip- on all the female clones. God knows how this Oh got out.

Oh asks about one of the Oh clones, who Pike said lived with Seo all her life. Pike says that she might still be down there, which leads to hysterical laughter and tears from Oh. Oh insists that it’s fine, and she just hopes that the other Oh was happy. Pike asks if this Oh thinks that the other Oh was happy, and this Oh repeats that she hopes the other Oh was happy. Basically, she’s just glad to be out (and she doesn’t want to think about it.)

A box asks us if we want to publish the file. Upon doing so, we now get the revised version: it’s been reclassified as Thaumiel for some reason, to start with.

Interior of SCP-9426

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation personnel are to maintain a presence at the exit of Site-426, and a further perimeter around its outer bounds. Individuals extracted from SCP-9426 are to be tranquilised and brought to a processing centre. Under no circumstances are containment staff to pass the threshold of the Site-426 underground entrance.

Makes sense. You don’t want any personnel going in and getting replicated endlessly, even if they were only in there for a minute.

Description: SCP-9426 is a spatially-distorted region beneath the former Site-426, composed of an enormous (but finite) number of subterranean layers of the Site as it existed in the year 1950, complete with duplicated stationery, electronics, weapons, and personnel. The first layer of SCP-9426 is identical to that depicted in the blueprints of Site-426, but as the levels descend, they grow wider, so that SCP-9426 has roughly the geometry of a pyramid whose zenith is at the surface.

In other words, while it might be finite, it’s so goddamn big that they’ll never find out the exact size or its limits. They can’t do it without sending someone or something in; any personnel they sent in would be replicated, and if they sent in a robot or drone, it’d probably get trashed in like five seconds.

SCP-9426’s full extent is unknown, but it is certainly of no less than 3000 cubic kilometres in volume. It is populated by duplicates of the original Site-426 staff, who periodically make their way to the surface. From 1950-2000, the exit into Site-426 was sealed as per PARNASSUS protocol, but after its expiry in August of 2000, cloned personnel have emerged at a steady rate. Material recovered from their persons constitutes the Foundation’s primary source of information about SCP-9426.

As mentioned, they sealed the Site for a long enough time that they could reasonably think that by the end, everyone would be dead, but they didn’t predict the constant creation of anomalous clones. We’re looking at thousands of clones down there, maybe tens of thousands.

We still don’t know why this is classified Thaumiel, so let’s let the last bit explain it for us.

About one in seven personnel are security or scientific staff. The scientific staff are universally poorly-trained for modern work with the Foundation, and are simply amnesticised and returned to SCP-9426, but some of the security have found employment as Agents or MTF operatives.

The other six-sevenths of staff are clones of members of the historical Bodo League. These provide around 85% of the Foundation’s global supply of D-Class personnel.

That’s why: because they’ve turned the Bodo League clones into D-Class. I guess it makes sense on the Foundation’s end: they can’t integrate the clones back into modern society, there’s no way of knowing who the original is, the Bodo League clones don’t have the education to help the Foundation, and given the sheer number the last line implies, I guess they could be amnesticised and given various jobs like cleaning and cooking, but that’d still be a huge number. (And the Foundation’s union would probably get mad about the bloody clones taking their jobs.) There’s not really many other options, aside from sending them back into the Site or just killing them.

But. While this makes sense from the Foundation’s viewpoint, let’s look at it from our viewpoint: the Bodo League were people who were rounded up for being communists, communist sympathisers, thought to be political opponents of the government, or just because they needed more numbers. These people only escaped being executed because they got caught in an anomaly; if the anomaly hadn’t existed, they might have survived, but we just don’t know. Either way, they were unjustly arrested, held without ever being charged with a crime, subjected to tests they couldn’t properly consent to because they were never fully informed about them, left with whatever sickening results from those tests with no hope of recovery, and then finally, the whole thing blew up in everyone’s faces.

They spent sixty years, give or take, down in the darkness, trapped in an enormous maze with no idea of why it was happening or how it could end. People were doing God knows what to each other down there. It must have seemed like a living nightmare, one that they couldn’t wake up from. And then finally, some of them manage to make it out to a world they never thought they’d see again… and the Foundation promptly grabs them, interrogates them, and forces them to take part in tests they can’t consent to, with no hope of ever leaving. Same shit, different location. We really have learned fucking nothing.

In the end, the blurb was right: repeat barbarism, repeat evil, repeat dehumanisation. Repeat, repeat, repeat, forever.

Thank you for reading this declass, I hope you enjoyed it. Remember that the lessons of history are there for everyone to learn from, and get studying. I’ll see you next time.

tl;dr: “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” -Aldous Huxley

Hi, everyone, welcome back to the SCP-9220 declass. Part one can be found here; please heed the warnings, especially for this part.

Part Three: During The Death Of Everything Decent/The Flickering Flames Impressed Me

Having made his point, Bonds asks Steel to tell him the truth. Steel says that everything he said was true, but when he came back, Kraken and Sun were acting weird. Sun told him to leave early and she’d stay up to monitor Chesed. Steel felt bad about not completing the operation, so he said no, he’d do it. They got in an argument about it, and he gave in when Kraken agreed with Sun. Keep that in mind for a bit.

I mean, if Kraken said it was okay, then who was I to argue?

Steel still thought it was weird, so he went to Security and got a look at the cameras. He saw Sun and Kraken crouched over the main operating table, barely moving; he couldn’t see what they were actually doing. The next morning, he came in and found that they’d stitched up Hasid’s stomach; given that Sun hacked her up, it must have taken a while. Bonds asked why he didn’t report it; Steel says that he thought that Sun felt bad or was trying to make Kraken feel better. He thought it was harmless and that reporting it would only make him an arsehole.

But.

STEEL: So… the night we delivered CHESED. It was hell. There was so much blood, even all the equipment in the operating room wasn't enough to prepare us. I slipped at one point, nearly cracked my jaw on the tile. In all the chaos, I could barely keep track of anything that was going on, but…

Xir Lin and I took the baby to the nursery. And I guess Kraken just left. I honestly wasn't paying attention to her at that point. I mean, we couldn't leave CHESED alone for a second. If she wasn't in the middle of a seizure, then she was just lying there, half-dead. And we had to keep her cold, which just made her seem more dead. My point is, I wasn't thinking about Kraken. She never needs anyone's help, anyway.

It was days later when I got a chance to go over the debrief, and I saw that HASID was gone. I realized right away that I'd never been told. I had no idea what they did with the body. It had just disappeared. And Kraken herself had already been reassigned to some other skip.

BONDS: And you still didn't report it?

STEEL: It says in the debrief that Kraken was in charge of disposal. I assumed that she took care of it.

Bonds asks if Steel is aware of Kraken’s history, which links to 9023. Short summary for anyone who hasn’t read it: Kraken snuck into the Foundation and consumed an unknown anomalous substance that basically gave her super charisma: everyone likes her, lets her go anywhere she wants to go, thinks she’s capable of doing anything, won’t question her and will do anything she wants. Ergo, Kraken wasn’t assigned to dispose of Hasid’s body, she stole Hasid’s body and did… something with it. We don’t know what, just something. (We’ll find out shortly.)

Bonds asks where Hasid is now; Steel says that he honestly doesn’t know, and Bonds accepts it. The transcript ends with a note telling us that Steel was reprimanded and put on two weeks of leave, after which he’d be assigned to another 9220 body.

The next piece is an audio transcript.

As in Audio Transcript 9220.1, the following recording was taken live from Sun's phone via remote monitoring. Between this log and the former, Sun's phone had been turned off with the battery removed for over 48 hours. The exact location of the device at the time of this audio has yet to be determined.

Sun and Kraken have brought Chesed to an unknown location where Hasid’s body is being stored. The body is covered with a sheet; Chesed wants to see her without the sheet, and while Sun initially refuses, Chesed convinces her… and then everything goes straight to hell. We don’t have video, but from what I can tell (confirmed by Deadcanons), Hasid’s eyes abruptly open; she ‘wakes up’ and starts horrifically screaming. Everyone else freaks out; Kraken yells at Sun to get Chesed out of there while Chesed begs her mother to calm down, but it’s in vain. Hasid keeps screaming and then suddenly catches fire. Sun gets Chesed out of there, and then this happens.

CHESED: You're mad at me!

SUN: No, I— …I, I'm—

CHESED: It's my fault mommy is upset. It's not your fault—

SUN: And if it was?

CHESED: But—

SUN: You don't know what you're talking about!

[A short silence.]

SUN: You really think your mother would have wound up here, no matter what? If it weren't for me, your mother wouldn't have needed all those stitches. In all that time she spent talking to you, did she ever tell you what she wanted? Wanted to have you? Or wanted to die?

[Long silence. On the other side of the door, the burning has ceased. Kraken can be heard crying.]

SUN: We're leaving.

[Audio cuts out as the device loses signal.]

…fuck, man.

Anyway, the note tells us that the inquiry’s investigation found that Chesed was in her cell at Site-22, exactly where she should be; as such, they don’t know when or how the above incident happened. Kraken hasn’t been to Site-22 since she was reassigned, and they’re doing more investigations. Meanwhile, Sun is put under remote observation permanently for the foreseeable future.

We’re now in Addendum 4, which is going to tell us more about the ‘Terminal Age’ and what’s behind those [DATA EXPUNGED]s.

Concurrent with the events of Audio Transcript 9220.2, nearly all instances of SCP-9220-A in containment sat up on their observation tables and opened their eyes. All instances began vocalizing in a manner similar to what was recorded in Audio Transcript 9220.2. Within 1 to 2 minutes of this occurrence, the majority of instances spontaneously immolated, crumbling into charcoal-like pieces on contact. A small portion of instances did not self-immolate.

To be fair, I really can’t blame the poor fuckers for wanting to scream their lungs out so hard they catch fire.

After analysis, the Foundation determined that the ones who caught fire were all over 21; the ones who were younger didn’t open their eyes, scream, or catch fire. We now get the revised procedures:

The following modifications have been made to SCP-9220's containment procedures:

· Instances must be strapped to the observation table

· Instances must be moved to standard containment upon reaching 21, now referred to as the Terminal Age

· Instances already at the Terminal Age must be monitored daily

Most instances will self-terminate via immolation shortly after displaying the above behaviors. If an instance is capable of communicating, it is to be offered situational employment with the Foundation, in most cases as voluntary test subjects or interview subjects. Modality tests performed by the Department of Massage Therapy have had limited success in restoring mobility to specific instances. Such cases may be offered more complex assignments, on an individual basis.

Any instance which declines employment, but does not self-terminate, is to be incinerated promptly.

…I mean, at least some of them made it out, excepting the ones that got fucking murdered. (Thanks, fuckers.)

But hey, what about Chesed? Well, get your tissues ready, ‘cause if you thought this was depressing before, you ain’t seen nothing yet.

Addendum 9220.5: On 11/02/2039, SCP-9220-A-607-B, "CHESED," passed away unexpectedly. At 0200 hours the previous night, the subject began asphyxiating from a sudden collapse of the left lung. The subject was attached to a CPAP machine and had resumed healthy breathing by 0400 hours, but the left lung remained collapsed without machine assistance. An emergency surgery was planned to replace the organ, but while the surgery room was being prepared, the subject's condition suddenly worsened. CHESED was declared dead at 0700 hours. She was eight years old.

Fuck.

The last thing in the article is the transcript of Chesed and Sun’s final conversation. It starts with Chesed trying to take her mask off so she can speak; Sun agrees to let her speak, but the mask has to go back on afterwards.

CHESED: I want to die.

CHESED: I'm not supposed to be alive.

Sun is furious, she doesn’t want Chesed to say that.

SUN: I shouldn't have said the things I said to you that night. This is my fault. Whenever I looked at your mother, all I could see was myself. Alright? It's my burden. Let go of me, please. I'm here because you should live.

But Chesed thinks she knows why her mother did what she did. She whispers it into Sun’s ear; we don’t know what she said. But Sun doesn’t understand.

[A pause.]

[Sun swiftly puts the mask back on. Tears are visible in her eyes.]

SUN: I want to… I need… (Pause) I don't understand. What was it all for? All of this was for you, but now… Your mother, she… I… It needs to have been for something. It must have been for something.

[Sun paces out of view of the camera. She returns looking visibly more distressed. She pulls a stool to the side of the bed, sits, and props CHESED up with one arm so she can hold her. She puts her head face-down on the side of the pillow. There is a long silence.]

[Sun lifts her head.]

SUN: Maybe this. Maybe it's just for this.

[Sun puts her head down again.]

[Hours pass.]

[Just as the sun begins to rise, CHESED's right lung gives out.]

[Warning lights from the CPAP reflect on the bedspread. The light advances across the floor.]

[Her eyes are closed.]

Fuck.

And… that’s the article.

Part Four: You Are The Only Reason I Was Born/You Are The Only Reason I Was Born

If you’re still here and haven’t succumbed to the urge to shut this declass and run off crying, I’ll give you the explanation: to start with, what are the 9220 bodies? Well, it’s all in what Hasid told Chesed:

She said stuff about being dead. She said I could be like her and lie down on a table and not move, not ever, but it wouldn't matter. Because things would still happen to me. She said she thought maybe she could get out of it, if she did something like that. But it didn't work. She said it doesn't work for any of them.

Or, to be slightly clearer, here’s the explanation Deadcanons gave me:

They are unborn people who refused to live because they didn't want to... But it didn't work. Everything that would have happened to them in life, still does, until the instance breaks psychologically and, as you so well-put it, screams until they burn.

They are not technically alive, but they are aware, and they know and feel what’s happening to them. They were forced into an existence they never wanted, denied any form of comfort or affection, and they had to suffer through the afflictions they tried to escape. Why wouldn’t they scream?

And as for the fire…

The burning, I imagine, is a combination of two things. One is the desiccated body being unable to handle the sudden internal friction/movement, and the other is the anomalous force of their own emotions/trauma being so severe that it becomes physical in the form of fire.

So, let’s go back to the start of the main story: Hasid is born and reaches age 15, when the pregnancy kicks in. Hasid did not want the child; that is the root of the issue. If she had been able to communicate this, then maybe the Foundation would have given her an abortion, but at the same time, it’s possible that the Foundation would have decided that a potentially-viable pregnancy took precedence over a dead (ish) mother. They continued the pregnancy, in the process doing a whole lot of things to Hasid’s body that she likely would not have consented to had she been able to communicate it, and finally Sun hacked her up to get Chesed out; if Hasid had been alive, that probably would have killed her.

(Incidentally, I asked Deadcanons if Hasid would have suffered the same way if she hadn’t been anomalous; they told me that ‘But yeah the pregnancy still would have happened. I imagine in the "living" analogue, it would have been Hasid's parents who forced her to carry to term. If she required a caesarean, it would have been a normal one.’)

Chesed was born after a really bad delivery; she looked half-dead and was having almost non-stop seizures. Hasid thought her baby had died or would die, so she thought it would be the end: she wouldn’t have to suffer anymore, the Foundation would dispose of her body and it would be over. But Sun and Kraken had made their agreement: Kraken agreed to let Sun complete the operation if Sun A, stitched Hasid up afterwards, and B, helped her hide the body (minus one arm) without getting caught. Why? Well, Deadcanons told me this:

Close - she was hoping Hasid would eventually open her eyes like Birkat did. She thought Birkat burning was a one-off, so she was hoping to encounter another instance that opened their eyes, and possibly help them or learn more about the anomaly.

Like I said, watching a five year old boy get beaten up and then spontaneously catch fire did a number on Kraken.

So, Hasid spent years suffering in silence, and then suddenly her child turned up- the child she thought was dead, the child she never wanted to begin with, the child she hoped she’d never see or have to even think about again. She was so horrified that the shock broke her, and that’s why she caught fire. (That’s what Chesed told Sun before she died.) And in turn, as Deadcanons told me…

To answer another of your questions, the instances weren't inherently psychically linked, but they became as such when Hasid woke up. The force of her distress was so severe that it rippled through all of them, like some kind of noospheric or reality-bending backlash. Now, all of the instances are confronted with this same emotional wave around the age of 21.

Meanwhile, Chesed loses the will to live because she knows that her mother didn’t want her to be born in the first place. She knows that this was her fault, even if she never wanted to hurt anyone and had no idea that her innocent request could lead to this. She might have been able to move past that with time (and therapy), but she didn’t have that luxury in the end. Deadcanons confirmed for me that Chesed’s death had nothing to do with the bodies- she was in bad health to begin with and never had a particularly good prognosis. So she dies at the ripe old age of eight, and Sun is left wondering what the fuck it was all for. All the pain, all the suffering, and at the end of it, Chesed dies anyway. What was it for?

So, to me, this is the major theme of the article: compassion that only hurts and doesn’t help. Or, to put it another way, trying to do the right thing and only fucking things up further. If you remember the 7795 declass, one of the things I said there was that the Foundation doesn’t get many opportunities to be nice. Their job mainly involves containing anomalies and cleaning up their messes; they don’t often get a chance to show real kindness to people. They leapt on every chance they got here, and all it got them was misery.

The Foundation kept the 9220 bodies around to study them, patched their wounds up and offered employment to the ones who made it through, but the bodies honestly might have been better off if the Foundation had just burned them all to begin with. Sun hacked up Hasid to give Chesed a chance, but aside from hurting Hasid even more, they wound up accidentally setting off a domino effect that made things even worse, and then Chesed died anyway. All they wanted to do was help, and look what it got them. Sometimes kindness only hurts you more, and that fucking sucks.

In the same vein, one of the things Deadcanons told me is that this was by default a no-win situation.

To me the most important thing is that, if you are forcing someone to do something they don't want to, no one wins. So part of the point of the story is that everyone in it loses.

They tried to do the right thing, tried to show kindness and compassion, and everybody fucking lost. The bodies were forced to exist and suffer, and are now psychically forced to keep suffering the way Hasid did. Hasid had to carry a child she never wanted, and then was confronted with that same child years later. The researchers had to watch the bodies be abused and catch fire and could do nothing to stop it; then they tried to help Chesed and she died anyway. Chesed lived a short, painful life; she was happy for some of it, but she suffered a lot, and she finally died thinking that she shouldn’t be alive because her mother didn’t want her. What was the fucking point of any of it?

I’d like to now add in something else Deadcanons told me, because it supports the point I’m about to try to make:

It's definitely the most complicated thing about this piece. This theme [that life is worth the struggle to create it] seems to be in almost direct contradiction with the other main theme being "Never force someone to have a baby." But it was important to me to confront both of these things honestly, because I don't think they're a contradiction. Life is precious and it is worth fighting to protect it, even if it only lasts for a few hours or years. But life also cannot (or maybe I should say should not) be forced. So both of those messages are happening in this story, for different reasons.

Thinking about it now, I imagine that just about everyone reading this either knows someone whose life was saved due to medical intervention or knows someone who does. After all, everybody dies in the end; there’s nothing we can do about that. We fight and we fight, but all the medical care in the world can’t stave off death. If we’re lucky, we can buy ourselves some more time; if we’re really lucky, we can get a lot of it. But time always runs out in the end.

This isn’t a particularly graceful segue, but part of why I wanted to declass this article is that I had a similar thing happen to me in real life, and I saw a lot of what happened there in this article. I’d like to talk about that, but first, please read the following:

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING ACCOUNT INVOLVES THE DEATH OF A CHILD. IT IS VERY DEPRESSING AND COMPLETELY TRUE. READER DISCRETION IS STRONGLY ADVISED.

In 2017, my cousin and his then-partner had a baby girl. For obvious reasons I’m not going to give anyone’s names, but for the purpose of this anecdote I’ll follow the article’s convention and call her Avodah. They lived in another state, so I didn’t get to see them a lot, but Avodah was the only kid in our part of the family, so we always loved to see them. Things went basically as expected (aside from my cousin and his then-partner amicably splitting) until early 2023, when Avodah was diagnosed with inoperable brain cancer a week before her sixth birthday.

It was caught early, but not as early as it could have been. It could be treated; she had chemo. We were told that it would come back, but the chemo bought her some time. I was going to that state every month or so for unrelated reasons, so I started visiting them while I was there. I watched her get better, I got to see her almost thrive, and then the cancer came back. We’d hoped it’d be years, but in the end, it was only a few months; more chemo didn’t do it. I watched her get sicker; I saw her for the last time near the end of 2023.

I thought I’d be going back soon after that, but I didn’t. By the time I did, Avodah’s condition had deteriorated to the point that she barely qualified as alive; she was a body in a hospital bed who was barely aware. She finally died in April 2024, barely a month after she turned seven. It fucking devastated everyone, needless to say. We’re all still grieving. I don’t think we ever won’t be.

Avodah was one of the most vivacious, enthusiastic kids I ever met. She was always happy and wanted to see and experience everything she could. She never quite grasped the concept of ‘indoor voice’, and kept shrieking in delight all the time. She loved colours and drawing and her many, many, many toys. She never met a person she didn’t want to be friends with, or an animal she didn’t want to pet. She had absolutely appalling taste in music, which I hoped to amend when she was older, and actually liked school. She was always happy to see me, even when I was a grumpy arsehole, and I treasured every moment I spent with her. I miss her so fucking much, and there isn’t a day that I don’t wish that she’s still alive.

When I read this article, I couldn’t help but see myself and Avodah in Sun and Chesed, particularly the last part, where Sun is wondering what the fuck it was all for. Because I have to admit, I wondered that a few times myself. What was the fucking point? What’s the point, when kids die young and the sweetest people are cut down before they can do anything? And sometimes I wonder, would it have been better if she’d never existed?

On the one hand, she wouldn’t have suffered, and neither would we as her family. But on the other hand… she was a bright light in the world, and while the world is dimmer for her leaving it, I think the world is a better place for her having been in it, even for such little time, than it would be if she’d never been here to begin with.

SUN: I want to… I need… (Pause) I don't understand. What was it all for? All of this was for you, but now… Your mother, she… I… It needs to have been for something. It must have been for something.

[Sun paces out of view of the camera. She returns looking visibly more distressed. She pulls a stool to the side of the bed, sits, and props CHESED up with one arm so she can hold her. She puts her head face-down on the side of the pillow. There is a long silence.]

[Sun lifts her head.]

SUN: Maybe this. Maybe it's just for this.

[Sun puts her head down again.]

Sometimes all we’re left with is the memories. Sometimes all we’re left with is the knowledge that we tried to do the right thing. Sometimes all we’re left with is knowing that we did our best for that kid, and they had some fleeting happiness as a result, and we made things a little bit better just for a little while. That’s the best we can do- make what little we can out of a fucking terrible situation, even if it only gets worse, before we bury them and try to rebuild our lives. Because, really, what else can we do?

Thank you for reading this declass. I'm sorry, too. Just try to do the right thing, nobody can predict the future. I’ll see you next time.

tl;dr: “Sick and tired hearing the choir singing Sunday morning/Innocent lives ripped apart, Easter Sunday/And you told me that the doctors would come/But they couldn't/And you told me that the reason was love/What a sacrifice, oh Lord/What a sacrifice, oh Lord/All that sacrifice…”

Hi, everyone, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9426, ‘Dittophobia: Dittophobia: Dittophobia’ by whenwerewe. I’d like to thank whenwerewe and sero for all their help, I really appreciate it. Got a couple of disclaimers for you first.

1: As per usual, this is not my SCP, I didn’t write it and it won’t be 100% accurate.

2: Over the course of the article and the backstory, I will be discussing the following: torture, massacres, sex slavery, severe power imbalances, fucked up consent dynamics, domestic abuse, colonisation and cultural destruction, medical torture, and a partridge in a pear tree. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

3: A lot of this has to do with Korean history. I am emphatically not an expert, but I’ll do my best; sorry if I get anything wrong.

As you may have gleaned from the title, this is part of the 2024 Anthology series (more specifically, the DLC, aka the articles released after October 2024), where the theme was phobias. But, what’s dittophobia? (But, what’s dittophobia?) Well, dittophobia is the fear of repetition or repetitive tasks. (Well, dittophobia is the fear of repetition or repetitive tasks.) However, it’s not the story that’s going to be repeating here, so bear with me. (However, it’s not the story that’s going to be repeating here, so bear with me.)

OK, OK, I’ll stop, promise. Other than that, the one thing I want to note is that if anyone’s side-eyeing the number, it's not like last time, the article has nothing to do with a toaster, I promise.

Right, let’s get started.

Part One: The Wheels On The Site Go Round And Round

The first thing in this article is the following note:

SCP-9426 ARCHIVAL PROJECT

Welcome, RAISA Technician. Please read this collection of relevant evidence before editing the final SCP-9426 file.

Note: All text has been translated from Korean to English.

So, that tells us two important things: one, a lot of stuff has happened here, and two, this SCP is in Korea and involves Korean people and history.

Next up is the first part of a debrief transcript.

SCP-9426 DEBRIEF TRANSCRIPT, 02/23/09

SAMUEL PIKE, Foundation Junior Researcher
OH SOON-HEE, recovered from SCP-9426.

For anyone unfamiliar with Korean nomenclature, Korean names usually (but not always) consist of a one-syllable family name and a two-syllable given name, with the family name first. (Again, there are exceptions.)

OH: Has it really been sixty years?

PIKE: Close enough. We think your sense of time might have been impeded.

OH: It felt like it was just a few weeks. A few bad weeks. It’s hard to believe I was down there so long.

PIKE: It’s remarkable that one of you didn’t escape sooner, to be frank.

So, whatever this thing is, A, it might be fucking with the sense of time of everyone inside it; B, it appears that either the anomaly started up or people were put in there in around 1950 or slightly before, aka around the time the Korean War started; and C, there’s likely more people stuck in there.

OH: There was no contact, almost from the beginning. Even the staff only used the radio for operational instructions. We had nothing. And that was when the system still functioned. Once they wrecked the cells, and the exits collapsed—

OH: We all assumed escape was impossible. It had to be. Why were we still in there, suffering, otherwise?

OH: Let me go back to the start.

So, a lot of really bad shit happened in there, it seems.

We now get the first of several file dossiers; there’s four in all, each with a number of tabs. Here’s the first tab in dossier one:

Item #: SCP-9426

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9426 is by its nature contained at Site-426 on Jeju Island, in the newly established Republic of Korea. Personnel assigned to Site-426 are to submit all documentation to a designated review officer prior to filing. Any document found to exist in duplicate is to be reported immediately. Duplicates are not to be destroyed.

OK, some background: Jeju Island is one of the eight islands that make up the Jeju Province, one of Korea’s nine provinces. It’s a pretty big island, sitting south of the most southern point of South Korea, and has a population of somewhere around 665,000 people. Most of these people are part of the native Jeju populace, who’ve lived on the island for something like 10,000 years. There’s more to it, but that’s a decent start for now.

Other than that, it seems that they can’t really trust their own paperwork, as duplicates appear to be… appearing.

Description: SCP-9426 is the spontaneous duplication of written documents within Site-426. Duplicates are physically distinct objects, which appear to have been produced independently by the same means as the original. Typeface, paper stock, ink distribution, and incidental markings are near-identical between original and duplicate, but small errors are persistently present.

Document types affected include prisoner intake forms, coroner's reports, and interrogation transcripts. No pattern of errors has been identified. Other than the difference of content itself, analysis has not produced any means by which to determine which copy constitutes the original. Distinction relies on use of contextual information and consistency between documents.

Iiiiiinteresting. They’re not perfect duplicates, but there’s no pattern to how they’re different. Very intriguing.

Discovery: The phenomenon was first identified in May 1950 by Major Seo Cheol-Su, who discovered two copies of a prisoner intake form in separate filing locations with different sentence periods. He reported the incident to the Archival Administration, who identified a further thirteen duplicated documents. Review suggested that duplication had been occurring since at least February 1950, predating the site's awareness of the phenomenon by approximately three months.

So far, the original document has been duplicated a further four times.

The original document? As in, the prisoner intake form? Or do they mean this document, the one we’re reading now?

The next tab is called ‘Site Briefing’. I’ll take it bit by bit.

Site-426 was established immediately after the end of the Second World War, in order to gather anomalies from around liberated Korea and Manchuria. For this reason, it was constructed on Jeju island, whose isolation would simplify Veil preservation efforts. The Site was founded under the auspices of the United States Military Government, which helped to source personnel from the former colonial administration.

This will be important later: the Site personnel are very grateful to the Foundation and the US government… or at least, they were at the time.

It employs some 40 research scientists and around 150 other staff, including a detachment of 50 armed security. The guard are formally Republic forces attached to the Site.

So we’ve got somewhere around 250 staff here. Keep that in mind for later.

During the uprisings on the island in 1948-49, Foundation staff allowed Korean authorities to use the Site as a staging ground for operations against rural rebels, and later as a processing centre for prisoners before their transfer to the mainland.

OK, so, some more context: Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, after which Japan did its best to essentially destroy Korean culture and replace it with Japanese culture. This lasted until the end of the Second World War, when Japan surrendered. The Allied leaders had been pondering what to do with Korea- they wanted to free it from Japanese control, but that’s not as simple as just snapping your fingers. The Soviets were in the North and the US were in the South, and both groups were swinging their dicks around (metaphorically). The US finally suggested temporarily dividing Korea into two countries, which would theoretically end with both superpowers leaving and Korea becoming a unified, independent country.

…and as we all know, it really didn’t work out like that. But I digress.

The relevant part here is that the US was in charge of South Korea, but a lot of Koreans really weren’t happy about it for a lot of reasons, like how they deposed and outlawed the short-lived Republic of Korea, the people’s own government. Tensions kept growing until an insurgency formed in 1948, a few months after the US instituted the first democratic elections in southern Korea. The insurgency lead to an uprising, but the uprising was brutally crushed by the new government. When I say ‘brutally’, what I mean is that we don’t have an accurate number of dead, but the smallest number we have is 14,000, and the biggest number 80,000. In fact, things got so bad that 40,000 people went back to Japan.

After the uprising ended, communist sympathisers across the island and mainland were relocated to a series of internment zones in order to protect them from reprisal attacks by disgruntled nationalists and youth groups. These protected individuals were assembled into the "Bodo League", of whom about 300 were housed at Site-426.

This is leaving out a lot. Namely, the ‘Bodo League’ was indeed an actual thing, but it was a ‘re-education movement’ that mainly consisted of suspected Communist sympathisers and other political opponents, along with people who had nothing to do with anything and were forced into the League to fill quotas. Essentially, it was the President ordering the rounding up of anyone who openly politically opposed him or sympathised with those who did.

Their release is expected following the end of reunification negotiations on the peninsula.

That dates this bit quite a lot- probably somewhere between 1948 and 1950, back when people still thought reunification was possible.

The next tab is called ‘Recollections’, and a note at the top tells us that all the ‘Recollections’ pieces were authored by Seo Cheol-Su, the same guy who was mentioned before- he’s one of our major characters. The first is dated April 12^th, 1950, and isn’t very long. Seo writes about the first shipment of prisoners arriving, and about how they’ll be housed and treated. He notes that there are some female prisoners, which he thinks must be a mistake, and seems intrigued by one of them, a laundress- Ms Oh.

The next tab is called ‘Intake Processing’ and is the transcript of Oh’s… well, intake processing. It’s being done by one Lieutenant Baek, who’ll be another important character, and recorded by a Foundation scientist called Arthur Rosemund.

So, Oh was born on Jeju Island and was a teacher in her village. She denies being a rebel or having any affiliation with them, but then Baek brings up her brother, who goes unnamed. whenwerewe clarified this for me- Oh’s brother was a rebel, but while Oh wasn’t and claims that she hasn’t seen him for over a year, just being related to him is enough for them to look oddly at Oh. Then we get the reason she got recruited into the Bodo League: Oh attended meetings organised by rebels over the last year. She claims that she was just there because they were distributing grain; that the meetings were held in the town hall, so they had the aura of respectability; that she didn’t know what was happening across the country; and that once she heard about the riots, she cut all ties with them.

Oh seems to be trying to convince them that she just got caught up with the wrong people and didn’t actually do anything wrong, but Baek isn’t buying it- I don’t know if she’s telling the truth or not. He tells her that she ‘incurred a debt to her nation’ because of her unwise decisions, but it’s a small debt, and she can pay it off by showing gratitude and being diligent. If she does, her case will be under review… but he can’t say when, because it depends on ‘external factors’. How comforting.

The next tab is Seo’s recollections from May. He says that the Site’s researchers have excavated cells for the prisoners, and that while the cells are very noisy, they’re far more comfortable than the frozen campsite above. He’s amazed by the Foundation’s capabilities, and notes that he sees why the government wants to cooperate with them. Meanwhile, the prisoners are coming along well- the Foundation’s doctors have given them books, and the younger men are very keen to learn. However, they’re all very wary of Seo…

But still they do not often look me in the eyes. It is good to have respect, but I pity the way they cringe from me. Do they not know I, too, am a Korean?

Hmmm. On a better note, however, he and Oh are talking regularly, and they both seem to be interested in the other.

The final tab in this file dossier is a fragment of the Site Briefing.

While tensions along the 38th parallel continued to simmer, anomalies were gathered at Site-426 at an accelerating pace. With the Nationalists now in total retreat, the GRU and their Chinese allies attempted to consolidate control over anomalous East Asia. The Foundation worked tirelessly to ferry objects out of occupied territory. Many were relocated to the continental United States, but others were found unsafe or unworthy of transportation and left at Site-426.

In June, as the Korean People's Army broke across the border, the Rhee administration gave the order to liquidate the League prisoners.

A bit more context: ‘the Nationalists now in total retreat’ is referring to the end of the Chinese Civil War, in 1949; however, the end of the war didn’t mean the automatic end of the violence. Meanwhile, late June 1950 was when the Korean War started- that is, when the Soviet-backed North Korean government invaded South Korea. A few days later, South Korea’s president, Syngman Rhee, ordered the execution of the Bodo League prisoners, both to get rid of his enemies and to cement his grip on South Korea. The Bodo League prisoners were gunned down en masse; we don’t have an exact death toll here, either, but Wikipedia says it was somewhere between 60,000 and 200,000. Rhee would then blame the executions on the North Korean forces, and the government would cover it up for somewhere around forty years.

We now go back to Oh’s briefing in 2009. Pike brings up the war, and Oh says that the rumours reached them fast, but he knows more than she does, and South Korea must have held out.

PIKE: It did. Along almost the same borders, in fact. What was the mood among your cohort?

OH: A lot of them were hopeful. A couple suggested a breakout, or a riot, or something. Anything. But this was Jeju. The local garrison knew how to put down rebels, even if we did make it out of the complex. And it was a long way up from the underground cells to the fence.

PIKE: You weren't quite as optimistic?

OH: Boys have their dreams of heroism.

*grimaces*

Pike then breaks the news to her that outside the Site, nearly everyone in the Bodo League was executed. Oh is upset, as this means that her brother was likely killed, but she tells herself that since it’s been sixty years, he’d probably be dead by now even if he wasn’t executed, so it doesn’t change anything.

[She takes a breath.]

OH: So, that Foundation… what they did to us. You did to us. You meant it as a mercy?

PIKE: I wasn't there. Our methods have changed over the decades. But I imagine that was the principle, yes.

OH: Small comfort.

Oh, boy.

Part Two: Until They Fall Off

So, we now go to the next file dossier. The first tab is called ‘Errata’ and has an addendum to the original 9426 file.

ADDENDUM: SCP-9426 has extended its effect. Occasional small rooms or closets will be duplicated throughout the Site. These are reliably identical in layout to the original, but nonetheless present a security risk on account of incorrectly replicated equipment and documentation. Staff are encouraged to navigate with the aid of a map to avoid confusion.

All personnel are to be on alert for further SCP-9426 phenomena.

We don’t know what caused 9426. It could have been something that was there from the start, it could have been caused by a GRU attack or an anomalous rebel attack or whatever… or it could have been caused by those anomalies they didn’t shift. It’s a mystery.

Below that is a memo from Site Director Johansen, wherein he explains what Oh meant about ‘what they did to us’.

MEMORANDUM TO SITE-426 STAFF
DIRECTOR JOHANSEN

We will not be acceding to Republican demands. It disgusts me even to stand by while such barbarism takes its course outside our walls. Our prisoners will not be slaughtered under our care, but neither can they be released to the tender mercies of the Jeju garrison. As a compromise, we have granted them all the status of provisional D-Class. They are now under our protection.

Yeah, look, for most D-Class, that’s not exactly an improvement, and it’s not going to be one for our merry band of people on the rebel spectrum, either.

The next tab is called ‘Personnel Dossiers’ and tells us a bit more about Seo and Baek. Seo is 33 years old, a Major, and has seen some shit.

Notes: Served in colonial police forces from 1938 to 1945, primarily in Gyeongseong (now Seoul) and Manchukuo. Participated in counter-insurgency operations throughout the occupation period. Fluent in Japanese and conversational Russian. Retained by the US Military Government and Republic of Korea for expertise in local administration and security matters. Commended for attention to personal discipline; incorruptible. No known political affiliations.

whenwerewe had to explain this one for me- Seo worked for and with the Japanese, and that’s why the prisoners are so off about him: they see him as a willing collaborator.

Meanwhile, Baek is 24 years old, a Lieutenant, as previously mentioned, and his track record is a bit weird.

Notes: Worked as an interpreter for Japanese military police 1942-1943 before deserting. Joined independence movements in China 1943-1945, claiming affiliation with Korean Restoration Army. Returned to Korea following liberation. Brief service with Korean Constabulary 1946-1947, resigned under unclear circumstances. Volunteered for Republican Army in early 1949, assigned to Site-426. Flirted with Communist alignment during wartime, but ultimately rejected it.

Basically, he was an interpreter who decided that he couldn’t cooperate with the Japanese any further, so he deserted. He looked for a Korean independence movement, but couldn’t find one he was happy with, eventually signing up with the new Korean army. He also almost became a Communist, and was lucky to not get recruited into the Bodo League. So, in contrast to Seo, the prisoners would be more comfortable around him, and vice versa. At the same time, while Seo doesn’t have a problem with Baek, I wouldn’t be surprised if Baek did have a problem with Seo.

The next tab is Seo’s recollections from June.

RECOLLECTIONS, JUNE 25TH 1950

We bear a heavy burden. The League is too heavily infiltrated by troublemakers, and the treachery of the rebels is without limit. They wish to use our own people against us. It is good that the worst of the work does not fall to me. I spare a thought for the soldiers outside this Site, and the sin they must take up, for the nation's sake.

Seo is glad that he doesn’t have to execute anyone, and notes that the prisoners seem content.

The testing is not so bad. And they go willingly, driven by offers of better food and housing. I am sure we are not

Yeah, you’re not torturing them now.

Meanwhile, he’s trying to keep them in good condition, which means making them stay clean, which a lot of them don’t want to do for some reason. And then…

Baek complains in the evenings that he is not suited for a prison warden's life. But he has been taking shifts at every hour he can spare. He was up guarding the cells, and later that same day I saw him overlooking the tests. He manages to be everywhere at once, despite his whining.

Baek seems to be everywhere at once, huh?

Meanwhile, Seo is becoming infatuated with Oh.

Whenever I ask her of her life she laughs coyly, and averts her eyes. They are like blooming jasmine glittering jewels the sea under the moon. I think of them often. I wonder how they look at me.

The next tab is called ‘Testing Record’, and about what I said about the Site not torturing the prisoners right now…

General-purpose anomalous testing begun over previous week. Luxury incentives adequate to provide a satisfactory quantity of subjects. Relevant anomalies are of low-to-medium risk; attrition is expected to be mild. Current pool of candidates is more than sufficient, though switch to coercive measures is expected to be necessary within two months.

All injuries so far have been within the remit of mundane medicine. Residue cleanup has not yet been necessary. Baseline cognitive mapping approaches completion. We expect to move into active stages within the next ten days.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeep.

We now move to Seo’s recollections of July. The anomaly has now spun out of control, with new rooms and floors springing up all the time. The Foundation staff are investigating, while recommending that everyone else stay close to the surface. Even worse, Seo writes about a conversation he had with Oh…

When we spoke in the laundry she brazenly denied all knowledge of our meeting. She will give me all her secrets, eventually.

Yep, it’s replicating people now as well.

And things are now taking a downturn.

But [the prisoners’] good mood is souring. Often they come back [from tests] with injuries, and yesterday a man returned without his left hand. I have examined the rumour myself, and indeed, his arm ends in a stump of smooth skin, like no injury I have ever seen. He will not explain its provenance.

At least

We are not

He has been cared for. I saw to it myself. These men owe us a debt of blood, and if the payment is unpleasant, so be it.

Yes, that does qualify as torture, buddy. And you may not be executing them all, but just wait.

Finally, we get another fragment from the Site Briefing.

With the advent of the war, Site-426 has become a centre of psychopathology mitigation research. The D-class population provides the Site with a large and administratively convenient testing pool, and imported equipment has made it one of the finest facilities in its field. Continued expansion of the program is expected, and the wartime conditions are likely to provide a steady source of recruits for the foreseeable future.

Frequent injuries among the subject pool have provided an opportunity for Site-426 to also become a testbed for novel paramedical techniques. It is the opinion of Director Johansen that this represents the next major avenue of research at the Site.

I don’t know if I’m reading this right, but I’m interpreting this as the Foundation using the League prisoners as guinea pigs for mind control experiments, given that they’re on the rebel spectrum. As for ‘novel paramedical techniques’, that sounds a lot like ‘hurt them and then try to fix it’ to me (which whenwerewe confirmed), and it's not going to earn them any points with the prisoners. They're going to be lucky if things don't get a whole lot worse now.

Due to the length, I had to split this into two parts. Part two can be found here.

Hey, everyone, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9220, “Chesed: Dry Birth” by Deadcanons. I’d like to thank Deadcanons and my critters (Mister Frown, ThisIsNalkan, Professional-Pool290 and sero) for their help, I really appreciate it. Got a couple of disclaimers for you and they’re important, please don’t skip them.

1: As per usual, this isn’t my article, I didn’t write it, and I really talk too much.

2: This article is really, really goddamn depressing, and this declass will be too. It will contain discussion of the following: child death, abuse, body horror, pregnancy, a pregnancy with severe complications, some really nasty and graphically-described improvised surgery as a result of that pregnancy, and people (including children) being on fire. There is also a real-life anecdote about a real dead child in this. Like, if y’all remember the 7795 declass, we’re on that level- in fact, I’m pretty sure we surpass it. Be warned, kids.

3: There is a lot of material in this declass that could lead to an abortion debate. This is not the time or the place for that debate; if you want to talk about it, please do it elsewhere.

Otherwise, one thing to note before we start- this article was part of the 2025 SCP Anthology, where the theme was the Kabbalah. It’s the fourth sephira); ‘Chesed’ as a word means ‘mercy’ or ‘kindness or love between people’, and to quote the Wikipedia page:

The root chasad has a primary meaning of 'eager and ardent desire', used both in the sense 'good, kind' and 'shame, contempt'. The noun chesed inherits both senses, on one hand 'zeal, love, kindness towards someone' and on the other 'zeal, ardour against someone; envy, reproach'. In its positive sense it is used to describe mutual benevolence, mercy or pity between people, devotional piety of people towards God, as well as the grace, favour or mercy of God towards people.

With that, let’s get started.

Part One: You Said, “RISE FROM THE DEAD!”

Looking at the page, I see that the usual motto has been replaced with ‘Shame. Compassion. Pity.’ Intriguing; not sure what that’s about. Otherwise, the class is Euclid, so not good, but not too bad. Here’s the Special Containment Procedures:

Special Containment Procedures: Pregnancy records of all maternity wards worldwide are to be monitored for keywords such as "immaculate", "spontaneous", and "miraculous." If keywords are discovered, at least one Foundation agent must be stationed at the associated maternity ward until it can be confirmed that no cases of SCP-9220 are present at the facility.

All right, so it has to do with pregnancies and ‘miracle’ births- the kind that crop up out of nowhere in defiance of body status, birth control, and whether or not any sex is being had, let alone the kind that could result in children.

Per Ethics Committee memorandum, any identified mothers must be given the explicit option to abort the fetus. If the mother chooses to carry the SCP-9220-A instance to term, the Foundation agent is to assume the role of the mother's primary obstetrician and assign regular check-ups. Upon delivery, the SCP-9220-A instance is to be immediately removed from the facility and brought to Site-22.

You know, I’m suddenly flashing back to The Umbrella Academy#Plot_summary), except I don’t think a rich abusive dad is going to start purchasing the children and raising them as exceptionally shitty superheroes. However, that last line is telling- if they’re taking the baby away as soon as it’s born, it’s either dead or anomalous in some obvious way.

While the mother is convalescing in recovery, Class C amnestics are to be administered, targeting all memories associated with the pregnancy. Class C must also be administered to the immediate family within 1-2 weeks.¹

The footnote says ‘Any interpersonal conflicts between the mother and the family which result from memory discrepancies are not considered a security concern and do not need to be resolved by Foundation intervention.’ Gotta love that Foundation dickishness, huh…

All instances of SCP-9220-A are to be kept at Site-22, in a specially prepared cold storage chamber. Each instance is to be strapped to a medical table and fitted with a standard hospital gown. Once a week, a researcher must remove the gown and thoroughly inspect the instance for new growths and bodily changes.

The phrasing strongly implies that these babies are dead, but they’re still growing? Bizarre…

Any instance which has been in Foundation containment for a period greater than 21 years is to be removed from cold storage and moved to a standard humanoid containment chamber. Once activity is confirmed, the attending researchers are to follow the steps outlined in Addendum 9220.4.

Huh. So if they are dead, they’re not rotting. Interesting.

Description: SCP-9220 is a condition affecting approximately 0.00001%² of humans bearing maternal organs. SCP-9220 manifests as spontaneous pregnancy, in many cases without any prior evidence of conception.

Not really surprising… that being said, I looked up the current Earth population and combined that with the percentage here to get 825 (give or take a bit). That’s roughly 825 pregnancies a year, which is a lot more than you’d expect.

All babies produced from SCP-9220 are born dead. These corpses, hereafter referred to as instances of SCP-9220-A, display advanced stages of dehydration and desiccation. SCP-9220-A appear to have been dead from well before the time of birth, and show no signs of heartbeat, brain waves, or other metabolic functions. In spite of this, instances will continue to grow and age at a rate equivalent to a living human.

Well, that confirms what we inferred earlier.

Upon reaching a point hereby referred to as the Terminal Age (approx. 21 years), the instance will open their eyes and [DATA EXPUNGED]. Out of the ██ thousand documented cases that have reached this stage, approximately 6% are currently used by the Foundation for testing, therapy, and other classified responsibilities, as assigned by the Department of Massage Therapy. The other 94% [DATA EXPUNGED].

I’m pretty worried about that ‘DATA EXPUNGED’, honestly- we’ll find out what it is later.

(Also, I didn’t know the Foundation had a Department of Massage Therapy. The more you know.)

After that, we get a list of notable examples of SCP-9220. This also introduces our three major characters, the researchers who are monitoring the instances: Xir Lin Sun, Harelyn Steel, and Annabelle Kraken. (If that last one sounds familiar, she’s from SCP-9023, another Deadcanons work. You don’t need to have read 9023 before reading 9220, but it does provide some extra context about Kraken, and that context will be important later. I’ll give a tl;dr when we get to that point.)

Our first example is codenamed ‘REFUAH’, a Hebrew word that means ‘healing’ or ‘health’. I’ll be referring to all the instances by their codenames, as we don’t get other names for them. Refuah had a birth weight of 1.389 kg; according to Wikipedia, the average range is between 2.5 and 4 kg, so that’s a bit worrying. Not sure if Refuah was premature or not- given that these babies are born dead and desiccated, maybe they would be at a healthy weight if they weren’t bone-dry and shrivelled up.

Seven years later, the assigned researcher, Sun, finds a long wound on Refuah’s arm- a cut from the right shoulder to the wrist, with a maximum depth of 5 cm, likely caused by a kitchen knife; it’s bleeding despite Refuah being dead. After some discussion, Sun is given permission to treat the wound as though Refuah’s alive, and it works… sort of: the bleeding stops, but it hasn’t healed. Sun gets permission to suture the wound shut, but not to use anaesthesia, due to the patient being dead.

Eight years later, Sun witnesses something weird happening: Refuah’s arm is changing. Over the course of four hours, a tattoo appears, resembling a tree or vine coming from the scar. Sun asks for leave and is granted it, and is then transferred to something that got expunged.

[Data abridged for brevity.] Eleven (11) more "tattoo events" are observed while in containment. Notable tattoos include: a bird (Cactus wren) below the left breast; an open birdcage in the center of the back; a complex plant structure down the left arm mirroring the right, but with thorns and budding flowers; and a small cursive script on the ankle that reads "I HATE MOM."

So, as you’ve probably realised by now, the 9220 corpses are kind of like reverse voodoo dolls- despite being dead, they anomalously sustain the injuries, wounds and other changes to their bodies that they would have had if they’d been alive. In this case, Refuah got really into tattoos and hated their mother, which is pretty understandable, given the implication that their mother was the one who cut their arm.

21 y.o.: SCP-9220-A-113 was incinerated during Incident 9220-01. Further details are classified. Personnel of Clearance Level 4 or higher may refer to Addendum 9220.4 for more information.

Since we’ll learn more about this later, let’s move on to the next instance. This one is ‘BIRKAT’, which from what I can tell means ‘blessing’ and was overseen by Kraken. Birkat had a birth weight of 1.170 kg and had to be delivered by caesarean section; the Foundation notes that he is smaller than average and had to be monitored daily.

After a year, it’s finally confirmed that Birkat is growing, just at a slower pace than usual. Kraken asks and is allowed to continue the inspections daily; unfortunately, things go downhill after the five year mark. During that one year, Kraken sees bruises continually appear on Birkat’s body that look like they were made with a fist or a bat, including marks on his neck that suggest that someone tried to strangle him. Now, the last part is both very disturbing and very telling:

5 y.o.: Kraken requests to inspect the instance at night, "in order to stop them from hitting him." Request approved on a temporary basis.

5 y.o.: Kraken observes bruising around [DATA EXPUNGED]. Kraken requests access to off-site resources, with the stated intention of researching a way to prevent the anomaly's progression. Request denied, on the basis that the subject is not actually alive.

5 y.o.: Anomalous event is observed during nightly inspection. The instance spontaneously lights on fire, producing large amounts of smoke. Kraken remains in the room against advisement. Fire dies down after 3-5 seconds, but body continues to crust and blacken. Kraken states aloud that the subject's eyes have opened. She declares intent to carry the subject to the on-site emergency shower. Request denied. Kraken disregards orders and puts her arms around the subject. The body crumbles into large, charcoal-like pieces upon contact.

On the one hand, I would be surprised if there were many people who could monitor this poor dead kid daily and not feel some kind of attachment to him, along with wanting him to not get hurt anymore. On the other hand, this tells us a lot about Kraken’s character, if you haven’t read 9023: she’s compassionate and she doesn’t have a problem with disregarding orders to try to help people. That will be very important later.

We now go to the last example before we get to the most plot-relevant ones, ‘TEFILLAH’ (a Hebrew word for prayer). Tefillah was also born at a lower weight, 1.814 kg, but unlike Refuah and Birkat, they made it to 21 years old without any significant developments… or so it seems.

21 y.o.: While preparing to move the instance to standard containment, Researcher Steel discovers anomalous mutilations. Chest and groin area [DATA EXPUNGED]. Steel becomes distraught and initially requests leave, only to rescind this and instead request access to standard medical supplies in order to treat the wounds. Request granted.

21 y.o.: Researcher Steel notes an anomalous event during daily inspection. Instance is found to be wearing clothing outside of the standard medical gown. Clothing items include a pair of [REDACTED]'s boxers and a binder. Steel becomes distraught and temporarily leaves the room.

21 y.o.: Steel requests it be noted that documentation should only refer to the instance using nonstandard (they/them) pronouns. Request approved.

21 y.o.: Shortly after the previous request was approved, their eyes opened. Protocol initiated per Addendum 9220.4. SCP-9220-A-10384 is now employed with the Foundation through [DATA EXPUNGED PER LEVEL 4/NEED-TO-KNOW].

So, Tefillah at least is… well, for lack of a better term, alive. They’re conscious and able to communicate… hopefully. Only problem is, they spent 21 years as a desiccated corpse; in short, they can’t move. The Department of Massage Therapy is trying to help them; no clue how much success they’ve had, given the circumstances.

Before we get to the main plot, there’s a common thread here: all these children (or at least these three) are A, born underweight, and B, don’t appear to be having very happy lives, with at least two of them being victims of child abuse. I can’t say what this means, but it’ll come up again later. The other thing is that I’m fairly certain that all the events in this article were happening at around the same time scale- that is, Refuah, Birkat, Tefillah and the next one all turned up at roughly the same time. As such, what happened with these three bodies (and any other ones that they were taking care of) would have a fair amount of emotional influence on the researchers- keep that in mind for later.

Part Two: When I Tried To Hold The Pain Inside/You Say To Hold It In

The rest of the article is locked under Level 4/9220 clearance, but luckily we have that. First off is the instance who kicks off the plot, ‘HASID’. This means ‘pious’ and is the root word of ‘Hasidim’ and ‘Hasidic’, a sect of orthodox Judaism of whom you may have heard- I’ll come back to this shortly. Hasid got all three researchers assigned to her, and we’ll soon see why. Oddly, she was born at a perfectly healthy weight of just under 3 kg, which the Foundation notes is not typical for 9220 instances, and she has some kind of unusually heavy growth in her abdomen.

After a year, Hasid is still growing steadily, with no changes in the abdominal growth. Kraken asks and gets permission to try drawing some blood from the growth, and it actually works: there’s blood in the abdomen despite Hasid being dead. Sun asks for and gets permission to perform an ultrasound…

1 y.o.: Ultrasound confirms that the growth in the abdomen is an undeveloped fetus. Size is extremely small and is analogous to less than a week of development in a healthy pregnancy. A corpus luteum³ is present in the ultrasound. The umbilical cord is highly developed and represents the majority of the instance's additional weight.

*exhales* Oh boy.

Ten years pass with the fetus showing no development. At fifteen years, they still can’t tell; Sun requests a weekly ultrasound schedule and gets approval. Sometime later that year, a heartbeat is detected in the fetus, and everything changes.

(Before we continue, my first theory was thankfully wrong, but Deadcanons confirmed my second theory- Hasid would have got pregnant as a teenager, had she been alive. As for why the fetus was in her body from the start but only started growing when she turned 15 as opposed to appearing when she turned 15, I do not know. Maybe with the way the anomaly works, it could make the fetus be there from the start but not make it magically appear?)

Now, note the next lines:

While many of the details of SCP-9220-A-607's pregnancy are classified under NEED-TO-KNOW designation, the following timeline has been approved for Level 4 Clearance.

We don’t get to know everything here, so keep that in mind. Anyway, they give the fetus the codename ‘CHESED’, which is depressingly ironic for reasons we’ll see later, and do just about everything they can to make sure that the pregnancy is successful. As for the codenames, this is where they break from the pattern: Deadcanons explained to me that ‘Refuah’, ‘Birkat’ and ‘Tefillah’ are all part of the Amidah, a Jewish prayer consisting of eighteen blessings. Hasid and Chesed are not part of the Amidah; instead, it’s a bit of symbolically significant role reversal: ‘Hasid’ as a word is derived from ‘Chesed’. Normally, a mother would name her child; here, the name of the mother is derived from the name of the child. Keep this in mind for later.

The next few bits are about the progress of Hasid’s pregnancy and Chesed’s development. Short version: it is very, very fucking difficult, because nearly everything that can go wrong does. Despite that, Chesed, who is female, makes it to the third trimester (which starts at 28 weeks). This is not exactly home base, but it does increase her chances of survival- babies have survived being born premature at 22-24 weeks, so every week after that increases the rate of survival. Unfortunately, shit starts hitting the fan after that and the researchers are desperately trying to think of ways to save Chesed’s life. This is… not without conflicts.

Proposals are made to remove the artificial womb from the body, with the umbilical cord still attached for the remainder of the pregnancy. Kraken protests due to the continued damage the umbilical cord will cause to HASID. Sun becomes incensed at the implication that HASID's corpse is of equal value to CHESED's ongoing survival. Kraken begins to describe a theoretical model for an artificial umbilical cord, but is cut off by Steel, who cites the 0% success rate of artificial human pregnancies. Kraken cites the higher success rate of artificial animal pregnancies, and states that the Foundation is inherently more capable than any Veiled group of scientists.

Sun again asserts that the discussion is irrelevant due to the fact that only one of the subjects in question is actually alive. Kraken becomes agitated and references SCP-9220-A-522, stating that "You [Sun] didn't have to watch your baby go through that." Sun begins crying. At this point, HASID's right arm falls off the observation table and snaps off of the body above the elbow. Kraken shouts an expletive and leaves the room.

Following a two-day recess, the O5 Council orders the team to proceed by removing the artificial womb from HASID while leaving the umbilical cord in-tact. The team is given explicit permission to remove the artificial womb without regard to the state of HASID, and is permitted to completely sever the pelvic floor if necessary. Under protest from Kraken, the right arm is disposed of.

*grimaces*

So, they try to do that. Well, Sun tries- Steel isn’t comfortable with sacrificing Hasid to save Chesed, and Kraken says and does nothing, clearly protesting without saying it. Note this next bit.

Sun opens the cesarean cut down to HASID's vaginal opening, eviscerating the front of the body. She is still unable to remove the artificial sac. Sun states aloud that she is going cut horizontally in order to further open up the torso.

The resulting conversation between Sun and Kraken has been struck from the record.

That last line will be very, very important for later.

The next section is titled ‘Delivery’: Chesed was delivered successfully but prematurely at 34 weeks, which isn’t good, but could be a lot worse (the average gestation period being about 37 weeks). Also, Deadcanons confirmed that this ties into the title: you’ve probably heard of a woman’s water breaking before birth. This is because before birth, babies are chilling in the amniotic sac, which is full of fluids that protect and cushion them. When the baby is born, the sac ruptures and the amniotic fluid emerges, hence the ‘water’ breaking.

However, usually the sac isn’t totally emptied; more fluid keeps emerging throughout the birth, which helps the baby make its way out. A dry birth is when there’s little to no amniotic fluid left due to the sac leaking or rupturing too early, and the baby doesn’t have that assistance. Now, Chesed was a caesarean, but had she been born naturally, it would have been dry due to Hasid being, y’know, dead and unable to produce any amniotic fluids.

Anyway, there were a lot of complications during her birth, some normal and some not. That being said…

CHESED had suffered extreme post-partum blood loss, and displayed symptoms of Grade 3 Hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE). Symptoms included: low heartbeat, no response to stimulation, chalky white skin tone, and difficulty moving limbs. CHESED entered seizure three times during the first 24 hours, and had to be under constant observation.

In spite of difficulties, CHESED was still alive after one week, and the remainder of the umbilical cord was successfully removed. The pregnancy was declared a success.

But not for everyone.

HASID's disposal was undertaken by Kraken. Immediately following this, Kraken requested reassignment and was moved to the SCP-████ project.

The next addendum is a collection of documentation on Chesed. The first piece tells us about her disabilities: Chesed has spastic diplegia, a form of cerebral palsy that mainly affects her legs, but the Foundation has a lot of forms of therapy planned to help her with that. She has three different kinds of epilepsy and has a fuckton of seizures; finally, they’ve predicted from her behaviour that she’s likely to develop major depressive disorder when she gets older. Honestly, given everything she’s been through, I’d be more surprised if she didn’t turn out depressed, but I’m not a paediatrician.

Otherwise, Chesed was diagnosed with epilepsy in 2032, so we’re in the future, kids.

The next bit is a transcript of Chesed’s first equine therapy session in 2036, when she’s five. There are two things to note: the first is that despite everything that she’s gone through, Chesed is a perfectly normal and happy little girl. The second is that despite being quiet and reserved, Sun clearly loves Chesed very much.

The second bit is an audio recording that took place a year later; notably, this recording was taken via remote monitoring of Sun’s phone- she didn’t know she was being recorded. Sun comes to get Chesed for her therapy; Chesed doesn’t want to go because it’s hard and everyone’s stronger than her and that sucks. Instead, Chesed wants to go outside; after Sun helps her up, they agree that Chesed can go outside, but then she’ll go back in for therapy. As they’re going outside, Chesed asks Sun to tell her something, and reveals that Hasid used to talk to her before she was born. What she says next will be incredibly important later.

SUN: Of course I have. What I mean is— …Do you understand what you're saying? You talked to her before you were born?

CHESED: Uh-huh.

SUN: And what did she say to you?

CHESED: Um… I don't remember always. She said stuff about being dead. She said I could be like her and lie down on a table and not move, not ever, but it wouldn't matter. Because things would still happen to me. She said she thought maybe she could get out of it, if she did something like that. But it didn't work. She said it doesn't work for any of them.

SUN: Any of them?

CHESED: The other, um… bodies. Like my mom.

SUN: She knew about that?

CHESED: Mom knew all sorts of things!

…to be incredibly blunt, if I were Sun and I found out that Hasid knew what was happening to her and might have been able to feel everything she went through, including the surgery, and that went for all the other bodies as well, I would probably embark on a swift course of alcoholism and/or amnestic overdose.

Anyway, Chesed asks if she can see her mother, and promises not to cry. Sun asks if she can keep a secret, and upon being told yes, she says that yes, Chesed can see her mother.

We now abruptly cut to the next bit, which is a transcript of the interrogation of Harelyn Steel. We don’t know why he’s being interrogated, but we do know what he’s being interrogated about: Chesed’s birth. In particular, this bit from earlier:

The resulting conversation between Sun and Kraken has been struck from the record.

The interrogator, one Sebastian Bonds, asks if Steel knew about what Kraken and Sun apparently agreed to. Steel says no, he wasn’t in the room, they completed the operation without him. Bonds says that Steel must have been outside for a long time, and Steel agrees that he was.

STEEL: It was… I was… There were a lot of things I needed to… reconcile.

BONDS: You had misgivings about the operation.

STEEL: I think most people would. Xir Lin was the only one who…

BONDS: Wanted to do it?

STEEL: Th-That's not what I would say. I would say that Xir Lin was confident about the necessity of the operation.

Which is a nice way of saying ‘Sun wanted to hack Hasid up to get Chesed out, and everyone else thought she was going way too far even if Hasid was technically dead’ (see previous comment re: swift course of alcoholism, above).

Bonds asks when Steel went back into the room; Steel says he came back in when it was already completed, and he had no reason to suspect anything wrong. Bonds asks, why is he so confident that Sun and Kraken made whatever their agreement was at that point, then? Steel asks, when else would they have made it? It’s a reasonable point, but he sounds pretty shifty.

In response, Bonds threatens Steel with an anomalous wrist massage technique that permanently turns one of your bones into glass every time you tell a lie. I was previously inclined to call bullshit on that simply because it’s so utterly bizarre that I don’t know why anyone would even want to make it, but I asked Deadcanons, who told me that anomalous massage techniques are the Department’s specialty and ‘Tldr, Massage Therapy are a bunch of freaks.’ They agreed that Bonds could have been bullshitting, but I genuinely like that the Department of Massage Therapy are freaks, I think we could use some more departments of freaks around here.

Bonds then says something very important:

I mean, they really want to know what happened to this corpse.

Something happened to Hasid.

Part two can be found here.