reappears five months after the end of their shift and having been 
exposed by their own admission to numerous special containment 
procedure objects would surely be terminated—’” there is something 
in Professor Gelding's wizened expression, a minute twitch; but the 
glare on his spectacles allows him to maintain the necessary illusion 
that he is making eye contact “—regardless of the Foundation's debt 
to him." 


He fell silent for a moment, and Keagan was about to speak before 
the little man continued: 


"On the other hand, you are aware that the nature of your 
experience means we have no documentation of your status. If you 
were to think very carefully now and remember that, in fact, you had 
been a field agent or researcher for the Foundation, we would have 
no means of contradicting you. The only person who, it seems, 
possesses the capability to contradict your version of events is 
unwilling to do so." He turned his head slightly, and Edward closed 
his eyes. "Dr Barker has already been implicated in the events 
which led to Dr Skinner's removal from this organisation. Given the 
extreme accuracy and usefulness of the information you have 
provided thus far, your testimony that you as an employee of the 
Foundation were subject to unsanctioned experimentation by Dr 
Barker would be believed and upheld, with immediate force." 


Everywhere the same, Keagan thought, office block or cell block, 
front yard, prison yard, sightseeing or visitor's centre. Lie for us, 
snitch on this man—it doesn't matter if it's true. We sanction it, we 
make reality, no less powerfully than a Sir Malcolm, when it comes 
down to it. Thus it is and ever shall be. 


"And then | join you," Keagan said, throat dry. 


"And then you would be rebriefed and if necessary retrained as an 
employee of the Foundation. We are aware your experience was 
traumatic; leeway will be provided if you require duties which do not 
immediately bring you in close contact with the preternatural." 


A smile spread slowly over Keagan's face. "Just look at yourselves." 
He drew some gratification from the way Agent Howard's brow 
furrowed and Edward's eyes widened at his tone. "You rule the 


whole world, but you sit in here, making shitty little deals like mob 
bosses. You can't help it, can you? Even now, you want to use me, 
to elbow out Dr Barker." 


Professor Gelding's shrivelled little face showed no emotion, but his 
voice had a placatory tone. "No, Keagan, that's not my intent. That's 
not our—” 


"| won't work for you. Maybe | understand, a little. That everyone's 
lives out there rest on your scheming and lying and murder. That the 
world is a crust on top of a—a swarming mass of maggots, ready to 
break out into madness at any moment. What | don't get, what | just 
don't get, is why you people think that's worth saving." 


Agent Howard's lips curled up over his teeth. "It's the same damn 
world it always was. Don't you have anything you want to protect?" 


Keagan thought about sunlit fields and the Lake District and Lauren. 
He shuddered. "You're wrong. It's different, everything's different, 
when you know what it costs. But you've made it easy for me, 
haven't you? You've offered me the world, and | can take it or leave 
it. No. I'm done. My name is—” he stopped for a moment, forcing the 
pretence, one last time “—Keagan O'Neill. | was convicted of murder 
on the 21st April, 2011, at Southwark Crown Court. An agent of the 
Foundation who used the name Fredericka Mendelbrot offered me a 
place in a work-release programme, and | accepted. | arrived—” 


"Why?" Edward shouted. "Why? Why are you doing this?" He 
sounded hurt, personally affronted. 


Keagan turned to face the young researcher. "You don't think of 
yourself as a prisoner, even though you are a prisoner here, in this 
place, but you identify with prisoners, don't you? You think you can 
mitigate your guilt, your complicity in what happens here, by making 
little gestures, never smuggling people to the fence but trying to 
make them more comfortable in the camp. And that shows you don't 
believe what you said to me, about everything being a stage play for 
your own benefit. | won't let you evade it—but you also shouldn't 
think I'm doing this for your benefit, or anyone's." 


Edward breathed out, as though the words were painful to him. 


Professor Gelding showed for the first time some sign of expression, 
leathery lips pursing and the skin under his glasses darkening. 
Keagan thought he was about to yell, but instead he sighed. 


"Very well. The fact is, Mr O'Neill, | could very easily make you 
recant your statement, which seems to me so self-denyingly 
perverse | can scarcely believe you persist in it. | could apply both 
force and a number of preternatural items, if necessary, to make you 
persuade yourself that you were a loyal employee of the Foundation. 
| will not. | will respect your gesture. | ask you to remember that. 
Agent Howard." 


Keagan stood, and shrugged away Agent Howard's hand. "I'm not 
going to run away," he said. "You just gave me a way out, and | 
turned you down. Try to keep up.” 


After the two men walked out, Professor Gelding turned to face 
Edward, whose gaze had an accusatory intensity to it. 


"| thought we were the good guys," Edward said, voice cracking 
slightly. 


"Edward," Professor Gelding took his glasses off, and his eyes 
beneath were surprisingly small, with deep bags. "In this world—in 
this world, do you understand?—we are positively and absolutely 
the final arbiters of right, which is not the same thing as goodness. 
We determine the scope good can occupy—we are the people who 
decide the parameters of the world-within-a-world in which people 
act out their dramas of good and evil—compelling dramas, 
meaningful dramas, | don't belittle them in any way. We buy them 
that freedom, to live, or to die—inevitably, just to die—rationally, in 
the belief that what they do matters—with sweat, with blood." 


"In many parts of the world we make use only of people whom the 
State has sentenced to death—for whom whatever time they survive 
as D-Class is a gain, not a loss. Here, we make do with what we can 
get from the rest of the English-speaking world, and with those who 
have committed equivalent crimes and received a sentence 
loathsome to them, not to death, but to life. Keagan O'Neill falls into 
the latter category." 


"| have warned you before. You become attached to the people 
whom we must use, and eventually use up. You become—invested 
in their stories, and you take it personally when those stories come 
to an end. As if there was anything else that could be done. As if 
there was such a thing as choice. Like blaming God for running out 
of ink." 


Edward continued to stare at him. "God?" he said, quietly. "We keep 
the God you're talking about in a secure containment facility in 
Kansas. Don't talk about God or fate like there was some—some— 
some higher power." He got up, hands shaking, and left the room. 


Professor Gelding sat alone. After a while, he too rose and left, 
closing the door behind him. 


This, then, is how it ends: 


The man allows himself to be led through the metal corridors of the 
facility for one last time, following the black lines until they reach a 
series of small rooms to their right, the doors open. He is shown into 
the nearest, and he realises that although he has never seen the 
room before, he knows every inch of it. The floor is dark, a grill of 
metal bars pressed close together. The light is not turned on—there 
is no need for that subterfuge. And there is a screen that can be 
pulled across, with a slit in it, wide enough for the barrel of a gun. He 
looks at the guard who has brought him here to see if he will require 
this sop to squeamishness. He will not. 


The man is not told what to do—he is allowed, perhaps uniquely, the 
luxury to decide the manner in which that which needs to be carried 
out will be carried out. He walks over to the centre of the room, 
where there is a small square of smooth, hard tiles, and kneels 
down on them. It's time, he says. He hears the other man approach 
behind him. He closes his eyes, and in the blackness wonders 
whether he will feel any regret. There is silence in that room for a 
long time. You never hear the bullet that kills you, the man thinks; all 
he hears is a little sound, something like a pen making a tick beside 
a name on a clipboard. 


After a very long time, the man opens his eyes and realises he is 


alone in the room. He feels something like relief, something like 
expiation. Some weight, some horrible, pressing weight upon his 
body that he has worn for as long as he could remember has fallen 
away. What seems to be the end might not be, someone had told 
him once. He could not remember who. The memory was already 
dying. He gets up—being very, very careful not to look at the thing at 
his feet—and turns. The brilliant rectangle of the doorway almost 
blinds him—it shimmers and blurs and it seems impossible, after so 
long in the dark, that it leads back out to the world by which he 
entered. He hopes it is somewhere better. Then, at last, at long last, 
he moves towards the light. 


« Book II - "Mr Brightside" | HUB | Book III - "Gunning For The 
Buddha” » 


Nexus Series 


Operational Information on 
Nexuses 


+Overview of Nexuses 


¢« A Nexus is a concentrated area of Anomalous 
Activity. 
¢ A Nexus can usually be defined with three criteria: 


1. Low population: Only one Nexus in existence has 
a population exceeding 100,000, and the second- 
largest beyond that only has 30,000. 

2. The inability for anomalies from the area to exist 
outside of the given area, or at least, have difficulty 
maintaining existence. Let's say that you were to 
take a Hodag out of Sloth's Pit, Wisconsin. It would 
survive for a few weeks, but certain 
circumstances- in this case, the fact that its sole 
source of food, a particular type of bush, only 
grows in the Sloth's Pit nexus zone- means that it 
either gets brought back or it "fails" being an 
anomaly. 

3. Some sort of central idea or theme to the area. 


¢ A Nexus can exist anywhere on Earth, so long as it 
has a human population of at least 27 individuals. 
There are Nexuses in the US, Canada, China, 
England, Japan, Spain, Russia, Timbuktu... 

¢ Nexuses are so numerous to the point where they 
took up too many SCP spaces, so they gave them 
their own classification. 

* (meta) The name of the Nexus should not match 


the name of an IRL place. 
¢ Populations don't notice or don't care. 
¢ No rules. If it's weird, it's gonna happen. 


+Nexus Documentation 


[([>]] 
[[module Rate] ] 


iN! 

**Nexus #:** Nx-XX 

**xCivilian Designation:** [Name of Nexus Town] 
**Population:** [Approximate number of people livin« 
**Area Class:** Briar/Asphodel/Camelot/Shangri-La/D\ 
**xNexus Interaction Protocol:** [Paragraphs explain: 
**Containment Facility:** [Optional Site/Area dedicé 
**xDescription:** [Paragraphs describing the Nexus] 
*xAddendum:** [Optional additional paragraphs] 


+Area Classes 


Nexus Area Classes are determined using a combination 
of A) how blatant and obvious the Nexus is and B) how 
likely civilians are to encounter it. The more effort that 
the Foundation has to put in to prevent an information 
breach, the higher the Class. 


¢ Briar- Name derived from the old Briar Patch from 
Song of the South. A few local curiosities, higher 
frequency for extranormal events and anomalous 
objects. Requires little to no cover-up by the 
Foundation. 


Asphodel- Name derived from the Fields of 
Asphodel, the incredibly mediocre afterlife in 
Greek Mythology. Civilians will get the feeling that 
something's off about this place, higher frequency 
for extranormal events and anomalous objects. 
Requires some cover-up by the Foundation. 


* Camelot- Name derived from the King Arthur 
Legends. Anomalous activity is a fairly integral part 
of the town. Foundation has to perform cover-ups 
regularly, as well as make it a bit more difficult for 
civilians to find by taking it off maps and such. 
Containment Facilities may be needed on a case- 
by-case basis. 


¢ Shangri-La- Name derived from James Hilton's 
Lost Horizon novel. Hotbed of anomalous activity. 
Active attempts to stop civilians. The Foundation 
rolls with the anomalous as it comes. Containment 
facility required. 


¢ Dunwich- Thank you H.P. Lovecraft. The entire 
place is practically anomalous. The Nexus is 
almost entirely cut off from the non-anomalous 
world. Special measures may be required to keep 
personnel safe. Containment facility required. 


List of Nexuses 


¢ Nx-03 Hy-Brasil 

* Nx-07 Gwag Hen y Cwn, Swansea, Wales 
« Nx-17 Boring, Oregon 

¢ Nx-18 Sloth's Pit, Wisconsin 

¢ Nx-33 Drake, Inverness-shire, Scotland 

¢ Nx-58 Yumegému, Tokushima, Japan 

¢ Nx-59 Amityville, Missouri 

¢ Nx- Eventide, Oregon 

¢ Nx- Daleport, 


Nx-03 


Canon Hub » War On All Fronts - Hub » Nx-03 


Nexus #: Nx-03 

Civilian Designation: Hy-Brasil 
Population: Approximately 27,000 623 
Area Class: Dunwich Camelot 


Nexus Interaction Protocol: The population of Nx-03 is aware of 
the anomalous phenomenon concerning it, and the Nexus is exempt 
from the Masquerade Protocol. The Foundation currently has a 
diplomatic relationship with the government of Nx-03. 


Site-03, which was originally constructed for the purpose of 
overseeing Nx-03, has been renovated into a general purpose 
Foundation Site. While the location of Site-03 is not kept secret from 
the general anomalous community, it remains a secure location due 
to the difficulty of reaching Nx-03. 


OPEN FORMER NX-03 INTERACTION PROTOCOLS 


THE FOLLOWING INTERACTION 
PROTOCOLS FOR NX-03 WERE 
ARCHIVED FOLLOWING THE 
AFTERMATH OF INCIDENT-NO3-78 


The population of Nx-03 is aware of the anomalous 
phenomenon concerning it, and the Nexus is exempt 
from the Masquerade Protocol. The Foundation currently 
has a diplomatic relationship with the government of 
Nx-03. 


Researcher [ERROR]: lon drives are 
comparatively easy to make. Cryogenically 
freeze it, toss it in the portal pool, and point it 
at the nearest black hole. It'll take a while to 
actually get there, but there'll be no real 
reason to worry about it in the meantime. 


Doctor Clef: Does cryogenic 
freezing even work? | mean, if an 
invasive crystalline organism can't 
stop it... 


Doctor Gears: What happens if it 
adapts? that's how it's breaking 
containment so much, it keep 
adapting to things. it might adapt to 
the freezeing [sic], and raw 
vacuum...and then come back extra- 
pissed. it loses the new adaptations a 
while after they stop being useful, but 
still, it's dangerous to try too much on 
682, in case it survives it. 


Assistant Researcher Noaqgiyeum: Have we 
tried any of the following: 


SCP-157, possibly in combination with 
SCP-127 

SCP-017 

SCP-096 

SCP-294, possibly in association with 
SCP-075 

SCP-053 

SCP-061 could be extremely beneficial. 
SCP-162 

SCP-123. I'd like to see it try to adapt to that. 


Doctor Fish: The notion of 682 
finally getting taken out by 053 is 
pretty damn funny. 


Site-03 has been constructed at Nx-03 for the purposes 
of monitoring and safeguarding Nx-03. 


Containment operations are only to be implemented for 
dangerous anomalies greatly disrupting the society of 
Nx-03, rather than all anomalies upon Nx-03. The 
government of Nx-03 has limited veto power over 
anomalies contained by the Foundation. Low-danger 
anomalies may be relocated to Nx-03 as an alternative to 
standard containment. 


The actions of Groups of Interest within Nx-03 are not to 
be overtly impeded by the Foundation. The government 
of Nx-03 has declared their territory to be a "neutral 
ground" in which hostilities between outside groups are 
to be suspended, and has prevented Foundation efforts 
to exclude other Groups.