DAP Orientation - SCP Foundation

Fish^12

I am lifting off the ground! My baby, Atypical Persuasion! And this is my Author Page!

Reorientation for the Department of Atypical Persuasion

Or: A Summary of Why We Do the Things We Do

The Way We Do

Doctor Jeremy Filia, ePhD

Head of State Liaison

Nonlethal Applications Subdepartment

Extrocommunication Subdepartment

"John, are you really being transferred to DAP? You do know they get off on torture, right?"

"Aw hell, Mary. Can you really handle irreversibly mutilating people?"

"Sound like a group full of Satanists. We even have actual Satanists, but those guys are fucked beyond belief."

Greetings. I have no doubt that you were told something along those lines before being transferred here. And really, I don't blame them. Before reallocation here, you're required to work for least seven years with the Foundation, and work on the containment of at least five distinct anomalies, two of which must have significant HR/EC presence.

At least one of those anomalies will have something to do with people dying, and you're the one who ordered them to die.

It would be unreasonable to assume you know nothing about what we do here, and Atypical Persuasion is a prime target for such unsavory rumors.

"Atypical persuasion." Such legalese denotes the softening of language, the spoken word, a fresh image over a millennia old practice. Now that you're here, we will substantiate those rumors.

We torture people.

A Brief Overview of Torture throughout History

Oh, such deep malice in the hearts of man.

To understand the history, we must first understand what torture means.

tor·ture

/ˈtôrCHər/

noun

the practice of inflicting severe pain or suffering in order to force them to say or do something.

Today, we shall take a departure from this definition. We are not bastards looking to tear the world a new one. We are the Foundation. We are not looking to undermine the system, we are looking to build upon ourselves a better world.

That means we aren't going to be torturing people.

For all of written history, torture was used not as an interrogation method, but as a way to demean and dehumanize your enemies. Flayed skin, tar and acid, those people are going to rot in hell. We seek the platonic ideal of torture, a pure relationship between tormentor and whistleblower. No more iron maidens, no more rocking horses, we've deprived the word of it.

When you hear torture, you will think of conversations, joviality and morality clad in beautiful partnership. Anyone who walks into DAP will walk out alive and well, with amnestic cocktail in hand.

After the dawn of the Cold War, the Foundation realized it needed information, as the wartime strategy dictated. Our agents, as well as that of all nations, were sent around the globe to consolidate this information, the efforts of which eventually proved fruitful. You should know this. Humanity as a species walked out of the Cold War with not a single klaxon sounded, and it was in large part due to the unceasing efforts of our all agents. But there came a problem. Our addiction, our call to data, gave way to greed. Now, we must know everything, and the last person on Earth tends to be the most stubborn person on Earth. Question not our overseers, question instead how to collect this information.

We encountered one person, who never cracked. Not once. Her name was Maxine Graham, or at least, her code name was. We don't know her real name, nor where she came from, how she got here, or what she was doing.

Although she was attractive in a conventional sense, she was also mundane, just skirting below the radar. She was funny, but in a way that wouldn't make you laugh. When she shook hands, it was decisive, yet delicate, leaving not but a shadow of a feeling of a person. Her voice was clear but ambiguous, with a nonexistent accent. Yet she was a deadly spy, the actions of which has been classified beyond both of our security clearances.

All I know is that the Foundation created the Department of Atypical Persuasion for her, and her alone.

Entrepreneurship of Atypical Persuasion Techniques

Strength and will comes at a cost, especially in the Foundation. One that we're willing to take advantage of.

Over the course of seven hours, we scanned Maxine Graham's brain in a million different angles, saw how she was built, and thusly defined the boundaries of Atypical Persuasion.

It is one thing to torture someone, it is another to know when to stop. Everyone knows that any amount of psychotropic fear enhancers will make people hallucinate, but only we know the ratio of drug dosage and synapse density to get people to start making small talk with the shadow people. Of the four subdivisions in the cortex, we only care about two, both of which we shall never, ever touch.

Between the ovoid cavity and the cerebellum, there exists very specific nerve groupings, common in about a third of the population. Using Class-D ballistics as a lubricant on this will cause either one of two things. The first is just plain old amnestics, although a bit worse for wear than our normal drugs. The second, and the far more interesting thing, the person will become honest, outspoken, and god-fearing, for about thirty minutes.

This isn't all that useful, in all fairness. While honest, they still hide information if they feel compelled to. They're only honest about telling us they're hiding information. But during this time, they also feel confused, their cognition now active and going into overdrive. The words they say and what they think are actively incongruent, as if their brain had been divided in two.

After the thirty minutes are up, and they return to their original state, they will be distinctly aware of their position. Their brain does not belong to them, it is its own entity. It is a foreign agent, working together in callous partnership.

It is this disconnect that breaks down their will.

The techniques you're learning today? All nonanomalous.

These are things people have come up with before us, and have perfected before us. We're the only ones to do so in such a heavyhanded, liturgical way. Each method, performed with an obligation not to harm our fellow man.

Very few organizations can prepare people for what we have in store. The anomalous ones though, those are beyond your clearance.

But…

Why do we do this? Why all this hubbub about ethical treatment and do-no-harm philosophy we've got, treating people in a torture chamber? It is a pit characterized by human pain and suffering, and in the many centuries of conquest and war, it had never changed. The great emperors and warriors could see no wrong in their techniques.

Why change now?

The answer isn't so honest.

Restriction breeds creativity.

Conclusion Statement

Atypical Persuasion is about torture. That will never change.

But we're the frontier of information through human relations. We extend an olive branch to our many enemies, and ask only of one thing.

"You are not Graham. Will you try your luck?"

We do this not out of malice, although many outside will misconstrue our actions. After all, most information is filtered through our many branches and departments, used to undermine their organizations. But that's not our fault. Understand that when our agents fail to bring up useful information, they ship them off to DAP.

The nerve of some people.