The Green Prince - SCP Foundation

The marketplace was busy, as always. Goods being heaved off of and onto ships, merchants trying to raise their voices above the clamor to peddle their wares, the various colorful trinkets being sold. All set beneath the overpowering aroma of the ocean.

Caleb couldn’t care less about any of it. He was just trying to get the crates of God knows what off of the boat and onto the dock without killing himself. It was hard work, but it paid well enough, especially this job. For some reason, whoever owned this cargo was paying the crew double what they normally got for a load this size. No one knew what was in them, but for that kind of money, Caleb wasn't really in the mood to ask questions.

What Caleb did know was that whatever it was, it was heavy. It took three men working the ropes to hoist the cargo off the upper deck of the ship and down to the dock. Even then, the boxes still made a resounding thud when they hit bottom.

The job only got harder as the sun got higher. Caleb’s hands were getting sweaty, and he was getting tired. Still, there were only two or three more crates to go. Better to finish the job now and go home early then spend more time out in the sun.

Then, without any kind of warning, a little girl, unimpeded by the thick crowd in front of her, dashed over, past the guiding ropes and onto the docks. Before anyone could yell to her to stop, or even have the time to recognize her presence, she had tripped on a loose plank. At that exact moment, the rope holding the crate gave way.

The next few moments were forever etched into Caleb’s memory. He heard the snap as the rope broke, and saw the little girl on her knees directly below it. He tried to call out to her, but even in that instant, he knew it wouldn’t do any good. He saw the crate falling, faster and faster, getting ever closer to the girl’s head…

Global Occult Coalition Manifestation Priorities for Extranormal Abilities in Type-Green Entities

This document outlines the order in which abilities typically manifest in Type-Green entities. Keep in mind that while this progression is typical for Type-Greens, it may not be representative of all cases. In addition, in many cases Type-Greens may manifest multiple levels of ability simultaneously.

Level 0: Spontaneous Defensive Behavior

Typically, a Type-Green entity’s first experience with his or her abilities comes unintentionally, in response to an immediate perceived threat. While the mechanism by which this reflexive action occurs is not well understood, it has been shown that increased levels of adrenaline, as well as other hormones associated with the acute stress response, can cause reality-affective powers to manifest more easily.

… and then it wasn't.

Caleb blinked. The crate was gone. There was no trace of it anywhere. No pieces of rope, no splintered wood, none of whatever was inside it. The only evidence that something had fallen was the frayed end of the rope still attached to the pulley.

Everyone who had seen the incident froze for a moment. No one knew exactly how to process what had just happened. The poor girl kept staring up where the crate used to be, as if she was still waiting for it to come back down.

Most people, however, hadn’t seen the crate fall. Because the crate never hit the ground, it never made any noise, so nobody really paid attention to it. The dumbstruck dock workers escorted the girl back into the crowd and gave her a lecture on how it wasn’t safe to go onto the docks when people were working.

The human mind copes with what it doesn't understand by ignoring it. Among the people who had actually seen the incident, most chose to believe that they had somehow mis-seen what had really happened. The crate missed the girl and fell into the water. The rope never broke. The entire incident never happened.

A select few, however, chose to remember. They knew what they had seen, and what they had seen wasn’t normal. Some of these people were later dragged from their homes in the middle of the night and made to forget. Others were smart enough to keep their heads down about it, earned the right to guard their memories, and with it, the knowledge that the world around them was not nearly as coherent as they had been led to believe.

One person in particular, however, learned a little bit more that day. The instant they saw the crate vanished from the air, not simply moved somewhere else or made invisible, but actually removed wholly from existence, they knew that they were responsible. They did not understand how or why it had happened, but they knew for certain that they had been the cause. In that instant, as they perceived the imminent danger, they looked at the offending object. Then they looked at it in a slightly different way, and it was no more.

Thus, Josephine, the little girl who was nearly crushed, lived. And a great power lived with her.

Level 1: Manipulation of Matter

After the initial discovery event, many Type-Greens will begin a phase of experimentation. Typically, abilities which involve the manipulation of matter are the first conscious abilities to manifest. These can include telekinesis (the physical manipulation of objects without applying measurable force), transmutation (the conversion of one type of matter into another type), and violation of the conservation of matter (destroying matter or bringing new matter into existence).

It took some time before Josephine was again able to cause something to happen by her will alone. At first, she tried pointing at inanimate objects and ordering them around, as if the atoms contained therein were soldiers waiting for orders. When that failed, she tried making hand gestures and saying magic words. This, too, proved ineffective against the permanence of reality. She tried simply thinking very hard at an object, but the solution proved more complex.

She reached an epiphany in the middle of the night. She awoke from a nightmare, breathing heavily and shaking slightly. She had dreamed that she was again on that dock, immobilized as the crate fell down on her in slow motion. She smelled sweet salt water, heard the waves rushing around her. She struggled desperately to move out of the crate’s way, but she felt as if her whole body were encased in concrete. Her physical body failing her, she was now forced to control her power or be crushed. She closed her eyes and tried to focus. In her mind, she saw the crate. She saw the gravity pulling it down, and the friction pulling it up. She saw the air moving across the surface of the crate, she saw the nanoscopic foam which formed the atoms which formed the molecules which formed the wood which formed the box. She saw the crate for what it was.

And then, she saw that it was not. Influencing reality is, in the simplest possible terms, a matter of perspective.

Many years later, Josephine returned to the dock. The waves were rolling in gently. Gently, at least, so far as other people would see it. Josephine could feel the kinetic energy in the water, the energy pushing the waves, the energies flowing in waves and particles between earth and water and sun and moon. But the salt water, the sweet smell basking in the air, she had no way to reproduce or analyze it. Deep down, it was all neural impulses, memories, particles. But some part of Josephine didn't want to analyze it. She didn't want to spoil every little magic for herself.

Josephine told nobody about her… condition. She did it to protect herself, and her loved ones. But part of the reason was that she knew, deep down, that if anyone knew what she could do, they would try to use her for their own purposes.

And Josephine had plans of her own.