Routine Tragedies - SCP Foundation

GreenGolem

Written by GreenGolem.

+ Thanks Critters!

- Golem

Thanks to my teammates winkwonkboi for giving the crit in the last 10 minutes of the contest, and Deadcanons for being such a great teammate and helping lay the groundworks for this piece.

This piece would not have been the same without them.

+ Author Commentary

- Author Commentary

I wanted to make a piece about the inspiration and beginning stages of the Anomalous Entity Engagement Division and how that reflects the present too! This ends up being a lead in to the SUN TALK? Tale by Deadcanons.

For more content from me, check out my Author Page!

Memorandum from the Site Director

Greetings to the personnel working at Site-146! As you know, the Administrative staff here are hard at work, and we'd like to report we have successfully gone six months without any anomaly containment breaches! We are very happy to report this to you, as we are now setting a model for other Sites to follow.

In line with this new achievement, we have decided to give all staff a commemorative pay raise of 10%. Congratulations and we hope to see more from you all!

Regards,

Site Director Boris.

????????? ?????? ? | ?/??/?? | ???? ?.?.

The lights in the room flickered several times before stabilizing once more. Mold and mildew covered the outer layers of the wall, leaving the tattered cement wall nearly fully covered.

At the center of the room sat a vaguely humanoid, slimy figure. With its horrifyingly grotesque figure, some on the outside might have assumed that it would start lashing out at any moment. They speculated it might even have been at fault for the conditions of its own room.

But they were all wrong. The figure simply wept.

SITE-146 BREAK ROOM | 4/15/83 | 1:23 P.M.

The new pay raise shot employee morale through the roof. But, the festivities ended as quickly as they began and everyone went back to their devices soon after. There wasn't much time for excitement in this line of work, only time for more work.

A dart flies across a room, creating a faint whistling sound, before landing flat onto the board. Three employees are relaxing in a room, enjoying the off time they get before they get flung back into duties.

"Woah, I didn't peg you for a darts player, but you completely wrecked me!", a guard says. Their nametag was covered in a thin layer of rust, spelling out CAITLIN SINEAD.

"Hah, that's because you missed every single dart you threw. Kind of impressive, actually," a researcher replies. Their nametag was clean and polished, as if someone had spent hours obsessing over it, spelling out FELIX ANDRE.

Quickly after his last retort, a pillow went flying across the room landing square in Felix's face. Felix looked around for the likely culprit, finding Marvin standing across the room sporting an irritated face.

"You told me you were going to come along with me to check out the talking fruit that just showed up", he complained, "Break's almost over, we won't have time!"

"Hey, it's not the end of the world if we don't go today. There's always tomorrow," Felix replies. Ever since the recent announcement, there has been a large amount of anomalies appearing seemingly out of nowhere, almost as if they were lying dormant, waiting for their celebration. A lot of these seemed to be relatively harmless, but its still quite costly. But regardless, the three of them loved to go by and check out the strange anomalies that came by.

"By the way you two, what are you spending your extra money on?" Caitlin asks.

"Extra money?"

"Yeah, the pay raise!"

"I don't know, saving up for a new car?", Marvin said hesitantly. The both of them slowly turn to Felix, expectant for an answer. Felix sighs.

"I don't know, investing in some stocks? I heard SkipCoin is really goi…"

"—Boring! Couldn't you come up with anything better?" Caitlin says.

"Not really, no, I actually wasn't expecting anything like this so I couldn't fit it into anything if I wanted to," Felix says. "Hell, when was the last time you got a pay raise before this? I was half-certain this place had no money left, how was I supposed to expect this?"

There was a silence.

"…And you?"

"Hot pockets," Caitlin replied, "Lots and lots of hot pockets."

????????? ?????? ? | ?/??/?? | ???? ?.?.

"Wh-why?"

"W-who would do this?"

The figure of grime thought to himself. Everything was so good before, he was on his best effort to live up to his captor's expectations. He was promised to be treated nicely, but now look at this.

The janitorial services aren't coming by anymore.

"Why…?"

SITE-146 TESTING CHAMBER 115 | 4/15/83 | 1:35 P.M.

Felix walked through the door, and took a look around. It was a research overview room, kept in relatively decent shape. It was fully decked out with computers lining the tables. There appears to be one wooden desk by a large scale window, awaiting him. Felix walks in and sets his coffee on the counter.

All there is left to do is sit and wait. A large garage-door-like metal build was covering the window. As a Junior Researcher, Felix had to wait for a higher-up to do the heavy machinery, as Junior Researchers had to be followed around in everything like they were children.

No sound is heard in the room apart from the clicking of a clock. Felix, in boredom, rolled a pencil back and forth across a desk. You were supposed to follow and learn from the Senior Researchers, but times like this made Felix wonder what cognitive dissonance led to that rule. The man is forty minutes late, Felix thinks to himself. The sound from the clock seems to get louder and louder for every minute nobody is showing.

And just like clockwork, the Senior Researcher, Winston Hardie, came rushing through the door. Felix had worked under Winston for at least two years, doing the difficult paperwork and likewise for him.

"Sorry I'm late, I hope you weren't waiting too long!"

"No, no, it's completely fine. Take a seat, lets get started," Felix stated bluntly. Winston takes a seat at one of the tables by the window and places his coffee down. He opens a drawer, quickly sweeping its storage, but he couldn't find what he was looking for. After making a frustrated face, he strutted over to the desk Felix was sitting at and swiped his case report, then walked on back to his own chair. He took a few seconds and scanned through the pages.

"Alright… Gorilla… Sapient… Super strong… Has become angry… Research required. Shouldn't be much of a problem. Just send the D-Class right on in."

"Right…" Felix practically muttered. He fidgets with the pencil in his hand once more as the metal door covering the window receded with a mechanical screech. The bright strobe light from the inside of the containment chamber flooded the room, and Felix held his hand up to cover his face. When his eyes adjusted to the scintillating light, he slowly lowered his hand back down and peered into the chamber.

It wasn't the same as the standard containment chambers he was used to. Normally he would deal with anomalies that possessed little chance of posing a breach risk in the slightest. However, the walls of this cell were torn and beaten up. It was almost unbelievable how such a small thing could cause so much damage.

He looked towards the containment unit doors, and watched as they slowly creaked open.

????????? ?????? ? | ?/??/?? | ???? ?.?.

The rate of food he was being given slowly began to decline. First, two times a day, then one time a day, and then every other day… Of course, he had no way of actually dying from starvation at all, as he was physically immortal. But it caused his own body mass to decrease with a striking pain.

He wanted out.

On the other side of the one-way window, a woman stood, watching. She slowly turned her head down to look at one of the many sheets lying on the desk. It appeared to be covered in a thin layer of dust and dirt.

SITE-146 TESTING CHAMBER 115 (EXT.) | 4/15/83 | 1:41 P.M.

"Hey, hey, hey! You're the D-man that was supposed to play-test here!" Caitlin says, "You're late!"

The two stood there with an awkward silence.

"Oh, c'mon! Don't leave me hanging!"

Another silence. The second guard accompanying them gave an irritated face and stepped into the conversation.

"Hey, you aren't supposed to be talking to them, nitwit!"

"Aw, come on, getting ghosted sucks. Lighten up a bit."

Before the guard could make another response, the two of them hear a distant mechanical screeching sound. They both turn to the ginormous large gate standing before them, and watch as the flashing red light indicating the start of testing goes off.

"See what you did?" the anonymous guard complains. "We didn't get to go over what to do with the D-Class!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, my dear prince," Caitlin snaps, turning to the orange suited man and making a slight smile. "It's actually pretty simple really. The animal in there was all nice with the staff, but then it started freaking out. We've tried some other options, but now after it became more and more angry, we are going to try to send someone in to console them, in other words, you. Y'know, cause that worked when they got angry before. Get the picture?"

The D-Class silently nods, and with that, the two guards got into their original positions. Their job was to stay at their post and ensure the anomaly could not get through before the doors closed once again. Until then, they got front row seats to view the action unfold.

The door in front of them creaked open slowly with a mechanical scraping sound as a result of the abrasions against the floor. The D-Class made a face that could only be described as a display of fear for what would come next. A bright shining strobe lights from the containment chamber flooded the room, and they waited for the D-Class to walk in to go and greet…

…?

They looked through the large gateway, but the room was empty. There was a silence, as none of them knew what to do. There was no large gorilla like was promised, just its torn out accommodations.

"Should we go…?" The anonymous guard trails off.

"Yes, you're probably right," Caitlin replied. If it turned out that the anomaly was lost on their watch, their asses would be in trouble. They slowly stepped forward, and forward, and forward.

Once Caitlin was at the containment cell gate border, she stopped. There was nothing in sight. And then her transceiver went off.

"WAIT, STOP!"

"Huh?" Caitlin barely had time to react.

Caitlin felt weight on her back push her to the ground. With a large crack sound, she realized her mistake.

????????? ?????? ? | ?/??/?? | ???? ?.?.

Memorandum from the Site Director

Soon after our last announcement, a containment breach suddenly occurred. I take full responsibility for what happened, as it is clear I allowed security to become a bit too lax following the pay raise, resulting in two staff casualties.

Going forward, we will be changing our containment procedures to be a bit more strict. If we adhere to our guidelines, our site will be back in its old glory in no time. I expect great things from you all.

Regards,

Site Director Boris.

Such cognitive dissonance.

SITE-146 HALLWAY TO CHAMBER OVERVIEWS | 4/18/83 | 10:12 P.M.

"Why the hell did you bring me here? I didn't want to see this." Marvin questioned with a strained voice.

Felix paused for a moment, and then raised a finger to his own mouth. He guided Marvin through the hallway, to arrive at one of the rooms. He double-checked the SCP number to ensure that this was the correct place. The two of them were supposed to be off-duty, and it had been nearly an hour since they clocked out. If they so much as looked at the security cameras, the two of them would be toast.

Slowly and carefully, Felix creaked the door open, and peered inside. It was a strange feeling to Felix being back here after that incident. That same vintage desk laid there, just as it was the last time. Felix grabs Marvin's arm and pulls it to get him to follow him inside.

The room itself looked even darker from the inside than it did on the outside. I guess it's too bad there's no manual light switch, Felix thought to himself. Luckily for him, he brought a hidden handheld pen flashlight. He turned it on and sat at the desk and looked before him.

"Seriously, why am I here?"

"I'm suspicious something is happening here. I wanted your support is all."

Marvin silently sneered but kept it at that. There was no point walking out now, he had already wasted his time thus far accompanying Felix like he was a scared child being led through the dark. But Felix, with a blank face, continued rifling through the drawers.

Felix wasn't usually allowed to check through here, or at least his senior told him he couldn't. But, he had to be sure.

But to be sure of what?

Felix paused to think. Caitlin had been one of Felix's closest friends at not only inside the site, but outside as well. Some, including Marvin, had thought it to be strange that Felix had not shed a single tear over the death of a comrade. But just because he was not thrown into sadness, it was not as if Felix had not felt anything from her death. He felt anger. Towards himself, towards the containment manager, towards his senior. He knew he had to get some form of closure. He continued searching.

He swiped past a stack of research documents piling everywhere, which appeared to have been simply collecting dust. He opened the topmost drawer to find a stack of sheets related to this particular SCP's containment. He read through the pages.

????????? ?????? ? | ?/??/?? | ???? ?.?.

More and more and more papers. The woman heard a loud groaning sound come from the containment cell, and after a brief hesitation, continued reading.

That rings a few bells, she thinks to herself. She had come across what looked like a transcript of a video feed in one of Site-146's chamber overviews. What was his name again…?

She recalled the trespassing and subsequent discipline of the staff member. How could she not? She was on the "Jury duty" of the Foundation and watched it go down. I wonder where he is now, she thinks to herself.

SITE-146 TESTING CHAMBER 115 (EXT.) | 4/20/83 | 10:12 P.M.

"Why does he have to make me do his dirty work…" Marvin murmurs to himself. Only a couple days after the last incident, Felix was making his moves again. But with each passing hour, Marvin was feeling more and more like a pawn. He had escaped punishment because of his own staying in the shadows, making it harder to identify him.

Apparently Felix had come across some terrible thing hidden in the containment procedures that were added due to the budget cuts. He says this wasn't the gorilla's fault or whatever. What, did he want Caitlin dead or something? The gorilla should be neutralized. But Marvin stuck around due to curiosity. Or was it something else keeping him there?

Just as promised, he was just outside the chamber, in the same room that the guards were mauled down in. He looked up at the video camera… or rather what was left of it. It was just a bare amalgam of wires and mesh.

Marvin reached into his pockets and pulled out a snack. Felix told him told that this was the anomaly's favorite. The testing chamber has not yet finished reconstruction, and as a result, there was still a small dent in the gateway. Just enough to stick a hand through. He slowly walked towards the gate with caution, unsure of what would come next.

But all he heard was crying. He stopped for a second and made sure he wasn't hearing things. But sure enough, the raging monster he heard of before was reduced to this. Marvin's caution turned into concern, and he walked over to the edge of the gate, pushing the snacks he brought through the small hole. He heard a light crunching sound before silence.

"Good thing that's fucking over," Marvin exclaims as he prepares to walk out the door once again. But just then, the crying sound started again.

Marvin let out a sigh and turned around, walking back to the metal gateway and sitting down. I was never good at any of this shoulder-to-cry-on bullshit, he thinks, couldn't someone else have been called here or something? But without thinking, he begins singing a soft song. He doesn't know why, but it just felt right.

The crying soon came to a halt and Marvin could hear the thud as the gorilla laid on the ground.

Perhaps Felix… had a good idea for once?

This would not be the last time that Marvin visited. This he knew for sure.

????????? ?????? ? | ?/??/?? | ???? ?.?.

She wasn't supposed to be doing this, but she kept searching through the papers. It was almost like the entire archive of old memories was placed before her.

She recalled that strange person in the containment chamber. She knew what was going on, but she couldn't help but sympathize at the time.

How did that story go again…? Oh, right….

SITE-146 INVESTIGATION COMMITEE (EXT.) | 5/7/83 | 5:17 P.M.

The woman slammed her desk.

"What is your problem?"

"What is your problem?" a suited man snickered back at her. "There is no reason in the world that this should continue at all."

The woman knew this was unjust. But there was no theoretical standing for her here. This was a committee meant to enforce the rules, and there was no chance for her beliefs to be taken into account at all.

There were a lot of older men and women sitting around in a long circular table, and she was sure some of them were half asleep. She was on her own on this one. The woman pulled up a graph on the screen behind her, hoping to rally at least some vocal support.

"You see this right here? This is the result of your 'culprit's' work."

"What are you talking about?" an old lady bickered.

"This depicts the anomaly's estimated danger level over the course of the past few weeks. Notice how it went down with his interactions," she argued. "This is undeniable proof that there was no danger posed from this situation! On the contrary, actually! And-"

"-Okay, so that's all nice and all," another committee member interrupted. "…but what does that have to do with our investigations? What are you suggesting we do here?"

This was her moment of truth. The woman took a deep breath and pushed her proposal forward once again.

"These methods are useful and can be learned from to better the Foundation. I propose what I call the 'Anomalous Entity Engagement Division'. If we go forward with this, we-"

A couple of laughs around the room interrupted her proposal. The woman was simply… saddened. She heard rows of people commenting on how "green" she was or how "unrealistic" she was being.

But this was no time to give up. On the contrary, actually.

It was time to go full steam ahead.

????????? ?????? ? | ?/??/?? | ???? ?.?.

Ah, that was how it went down. Time flies doesn't it?

While caught in her trance, she didn't notice the moans growing louder. She had nearly forgotten why she was in here in the first place. This anomaly was apparently a result of the pay raise of Site-146. She had heard that there actually wasn't enough room in the budget for such a pay raise - the budget for maintenance and caring for said anomalies was simply decreased. But this only showed its importance and usefulness to her and her colleagues.

She opened the door to the chamber and walked in. The grime creature turned to her with a hopeful face.

"Hello, how are you? I'm from Site-169… But you can call me Amelie Metanoia."

There was finally hope in this creature's life.

From Site-169 Staff

It's been awhile! A lot has happened since last time we sent an announcement. But now we are here to celebrate Archie the Gorilla's 28th birthday! We are having a party in the cafeteria, and everyone is welcome.

We hope to see you there!

Sincerely,

Amelie Metanoia