Welcome to SCPNet, Director Forrester.

You are viewing Document 4884-499-F: Memorandum from the O5 Council, regarding SCP-4884, dated July 25, 2022.

We have each seen it, though we wish we could ignore it.

We are men and women, working to the utmost of our capacities, dying anonymous deaths for the benefit of those who can live as full citizens of the world. The greatest part of humanity exists, blissfully unaware of the million deaths they have narrowly avoided, thanks only to our diligence. We live in the shadows, so that others may live in the light.

This is the lie that we tell ourselves - that by giving our all, we can give humanity the breathing room it requires to thrive.

Every year, normalcy is beset by an ever-increasing multitude of anomalous assaults. Rather than slowing, the number of anomalies - some benign, some threatening, all inexplicable - has increased geometrically.

Far from serving as the care-takers of reality, we increasingly find ourselves in the role of hospice workers, managing a slow but steady decline. Despite what we may wish to believe, there are limits to what human ingenuity can accomplish against such overwhelming odds. The catastrophes resulting from our inability to defend humanity speak for themselves. In recent years, we have attempted to stem the flow with the selective use of anomalous objects and phenomenon via Project Thaumiel. It has not been nearly enough.

What we must do, then, is clear. We must be willing to live up to our creed and give our final measure of humanity to the survival of mankind. If we wish to defend humanity, we must transcend it.

If we must become gods or demons in order to guide humankind through the dark, then so be it.

Once, we found the ritual of SCP-4884 to be madness. We believed it to be the works of megalomaniacs disguised as prophets, and thought that if it were ever achieved, normalcy itself might be threatened.

Now, we see clearly. SCP-4884 is nothing more nor less than a tool. In the proper circumstances, it allows individuals to achieve unimaginable powers, capable of both destruction and of preservation. It is a tool that is desperately needed.

We may wish that there were a path for mankind's survival that would allow us our souls, but one is not forthcoming, and the time for philosophical squeamishness draws to a close.

No one else will protect us. We must stand up for ourselves.

We secure. We contain. We protect.

- O5-12