Undaeveling - SCP Foundation

Undaeveling

Judith Low unscrewed the cap, tilted the bottle, and let ink fall onto the pages of the book.

Nothing happened.

For good measure, she pricked her thumb, squeezed out a few droplets of blood and rubbed them across the pages. Still nothing.

She closed the tome and handed it to her assistant, who put it back into its steel chest with all the other copies, which he locked up.

"I guess that's it for SCP-140 then. That's one I won't miss." He taped a piece of paper to the chest and stamped the word "NEUTRALISED" across it. He then grabbed the pallet truck's handle and prepared to take it back to the warehouse across the Site, where dozens of other inert artifacts now laid.

"Remind me, what's next on the agenda?" Judith asked before he left the room.

"That Mekhanite automaton in cell 32-C. Its thaumic reactor went dead and it's not moving anymore. The research team is debating if it's possible to create a working replacement, and if so should they do it or just let the thing stay inanimate. They want your opinion."

"Alright, I'll see them shortly. I just need a break first."

"Want me to grab you some coffee on my way back?"

"That would be much appreciated, thank you."

As the door closed behind her assistant, Judith turned back towards her monitor and the email she was drafting. In the wake of SCP-6500 and the damage it had done, the Foundation needed to reassess the state of everything they had in containment.

It felt weird, seeing some of the things she had spent years studying now reduced to such a state. SCP-140 had once been one of the most dangerous objects she had ever laid eyes upon. Now, all its copies were nothing more than non-magical paper that would soon decay and rot.

She sent the email, letting her RAISA liaison that it was now definitely neutralised, and moved on with her day.

She saw an urgent call coming in, pushed her current paperwork over to her assistant, and picked up the phone.

"Hi, Director Low? This is Dr Eva Laroche, sorry to bother you but I have kind of a little problem here."

"What is it?"

"Well, I had orders to take my team and set up a research outpost in the countryside southeast of Vizinga, but we just got here and… there's nothing there?"

"Define 'nothing'."

"Nothing anomalous I mean. It's just a field ma'am. Big rows of crops. The owner saw our team of scientists arrive so we had to lie and say we were from a weather agency, here to measure the impacts of the last drought. He bought it. We did take some readings, there's nothing to research here. Nothing of historical value either."

"And are you sure you're at the right place?"

"Triple-checked the dispatch notice, that's where we were told to be."

With a few keys pressed and buttons clicked, Judith brought up the relevant files.

"Ah, I see what's going here. There is a research outpost 50 kilometers from your location that recently asked for more personnel. Someone must have made a mistake when typing up your notice, we've all been a bit overworked lately."

"That makes sense. We'll head there, have a good day, Director!"

With a sigh, she logged in that clerical error, and moved on with her day.

As Judith was walking through the Site, leaving a prior meeting, she noticed a man furiously hammering keys on his computer.

"Someone get IT in here right now, or else I'm going to break this stupid machine!" He yelled.

She moved closer and asked "I trust you have a good reason to be making a scene, Dr Jarvy?" It startled him.

"Oh! I'm sorry Director! It's just that this computer is giving me no end of trouble, I can't get anything done."

"What is the problem?"

"I just received the data I asked from the cryptobotany department, and I was trying to log onto my research project to update it with their findings, but it won't let me." He raised a hand. "And before you ask, yes, I'm sure I'm using the correct credentials. The exact same ones I used to access the computer, and I know they work because I've already turned it off and on again five times!"

"Alright just, show me what's not working."

Jarvy turned back towards the monitor, opened his research files and typed his credentials into the access pop-up. Sure enough, a bright red "ACCESS DENIED" flashed across the screen, causing Jarvy to groan.

At the same time, Judith's PDA beeped with an alert, and she brought it up.

"Ah, this seems relevant. I am being warned that an employee with insufficient clearance has repeatedly tried to gain access to classified data. Would this be you?"

"In— INSUFICCIENT CLEARANCE!? But I wrote all of it!"

"The "ongoing observations reports following the evolutions of thaumaturgically cross-bred species following the decline of occult civilisations" is that right?"

"Yes, although I'll admit that the title is a work in—"

"That file is classified for Level 3 and higher, and you appear to be… Level 2?" She stared at the information in disbelief. "That can't be right."

"Of course it can't! I'm an accomplished researcher here, with a Foundation-issued doctorate."

"Yes, I remember, I was on the jury evaluating your thesis. It was an interesting exploration of—" Her mind wandered. "What was it about again?"

"It was… I uh, I can't seem to remember." His expression switched between panic and worry. "I know I spent years on it. Why can't I remember any of it? What about my doctorate?"

"Try to get in touch with RAISA and tell them to check the Deepwell database. I have a bad feeling about something."

Three was a pattern, Judith knew that. That had been strike two. And as an historian, she had learned to spot patterns early.

"Hey boss, you have a call coming in from Site-91."

"That must be Director Varga, put her through."

The phone at her desk beeped, and she picked up.

"Hello Iona. So, good news or bad news?"

"Weird news."

"I should have expected as much. What happened?"

"So, we looked into the status of every Daevite anomaly we have custody of like you asked and… when it comes to SCP-5267, well, there's a city there now."

"There's… a city there now."

"Yes, a pretty modern one. The agents found a lot of evidence of human activity, like vehicles, meals, trash… but no people. Like they suddenly stopped to exist."

"Or they never started to."

O5-4: I must admit I am confused Director Low. Not too long ago you personally declared SCP-140 neutralised, and now you're telling us it's causing all this trouble?

Director Low: It's not directly causing all this. Trust me, it is well and truly neutralised, it doesn't have the power to alter history anymore. That's the problem.

O5-4: Explain yourself.

Director Low: We've known for a while now that whatever magic 140 was using to bring the Daevites towards the present, it wasn't clean. Wasn't perfect.

Director Low: Our current theory is that it was forcing these new additions to implant themselves in reality, using itself as an anchor point. Now that this anchor point is gone however, a lot of what it had brought into reality is starting to get uprooted. And they're leaving holes behind.

O5-4: And as nature abhors a vacuum, those holes are getting plugged in. I think I'm starting to see the picture.

Director Low: Exactly. But without magic like 140's to guide them, those corrective changes are messy. We can't know how much it will affect the world, or our memory… we are pretty sure it won't rewrite all of history though. Those are just natural corrections, they don't abide to a grand plan. The state of the world should remain roughly the same as it currently is, and in the cases where it doesn't, we should be able to cover it up.

O5-4: Those are a lot of suppositions Director. Is there anything you know for sure?

Director Low: We've noticed that not everything related to the Daevites is getting removed. Most likely, those are elements that have significant anchors outside of 140, though we haven't figured out what the criteria for those are. What we are absolutely sure of though… is that we're going to lose a lot of anomalies.

O5-4: Ah well, we're getting used to it by now.

The fallout of 140's neutralisation had given Judith quite a lot of paperwork. There were reports to sign off, files to update, operations to approve… but she believed they were finally seeing the end of it.

She stamped her name on a new batch of papers and prepared to hand them over to her assistant to pass around the department.

She looked up, glanced towards his desk.

Then she blinked.

Her gaze was met with one just as confused as she was, but perhaps a little more lost. For indeed, the man staring back at her from the small desk in the corner of the Director's office had never been a loyal Foundation employee of level 3 clearance.

He was the first to scream.

O5-4: That's all the honey harvested under a red moon. And now for the final step…

Unidentified: Please, please let me go! I'll do anything!

O5-4: Oh come on, if you're not going to be a junior researcher anymore, the least you could do is contribute a little.

Unidentified: Yes, anything you want, just please don't—

The sound of flesh being sliced, and of blood dripping on paper.

O5-4: There we go, that should do it.

O5-4: …

O5-4: Nothing, really?

A sigh.

O5-4: And now it's all drenched and unreadable. How many more copies do we have left?

Factotum: Twenty-seven, sir.

O5-4: And how many more of these newly unemployed?

Factotum: More than enough for all the copies, sir.

O5-4: Well then send the next one in, and get me another of those ritual grimoires. Hopefully we'll find one that kickstarts that book again without needing to go through all these people.

Factotum: And if we don't, sir?

O5-4: Then we'll be saving a lot of money on our D-class budget.