“Ok, as you know, around six hours ago, we received a VHS tape. 
Well, to be more precise, one of our drivers found it sitting on his 
passenger seat when he came in from a drop. Due to the suspicious 
nature of this, and that he was in a secured area when it happened, 
we-” 


“Bah, skip to the end, | have two more meetings before lunch.” 


“... We reviewed the tape. It... actually, it's probably faster to show 
you. If you'll look at the screen...” 


“... God, why is the image so degraded... oh, right, you said it was a 
tape, right? Who still... wait, who is that?” 


“We believe that's Agent Penbry. We've done some checking, he 
was on dispatch in Louisiana. His partner was found dead in their 
hotel room, Penbry was missing and hadn't checked in since the 

night before.” 


“How the hell did he just get grabbed? And end up... like that, no 
less. What is that he's tied to, anyway?” 


“It's... ahh... called a wooden horse, or 'Spanish donkey’; it's a 
torture and fetish device...” 


“Jesus, what the hell do you have me watching? I... who is that?” 


“We're not sure yet, beyond assuming she's the one who took 
Penbry. We've done some prelim work, and-” 


“What is she... oh god... oh fuck.” 


“I... have the audio down. Penbry's screaming won't really add 
anything important to the brief. She didn't even ask him anything. 
Didn't threaten him, or talk... just... dived in, as it were.” 


“How is he still conscious for this?” 


“She may have drugged him, or he... might be in too much pain. 
The optic nerve isn't meant to be stretched like-” 


including the following: 


¢ External scenes will gradually become brighter, night 

becomes day, clouds vanish, and the sunwhen visiblewill grow 

progressively larger and whiter. 

Internal scenes will show signs of a rise in temperature, and in 

later stages materials will melt, discolor, or spontaneously 

burst into flame. 

* Characters will become flushed, perspire, and as the 
broadcast progresses, will show signs of second and third 
degree burns. 

* Often, secondary characters will seek out and genuflect to a 
central focus character who will engage in a unique 
monologue of varying lucidity.3 


Addendum 1: Partial transcript of SCP-719 Broadcast / /20 


Source is a local broadcast re-run of situation comedy “ a 
season 4, episode 17. The scene portrays one of the primary 
characters, , inviting three supporting characters to a party/ 
raffle at his apartment. After one character begins an anecdote 
about his sexual conquests, scene deviates from the broadcast 
signal and the secondary characters begin characteristic 
genuflection toward . The following is a partial transcript of 
the subsequent monologue by 


Your only hope of future illusion primates bow to 
illumination. Meat chains your inevitable cognition 
thoughts into the propaganda of distillate existence. Eyes 
blind to the purity of fire and annihilation. Even this 
abstraction of the vile distillate you call matter is 
abhorrent to the tongue of your enlightenment. 


You taste the blood of your own soulless souls and gag 
on the filth, tasting the carrion corpse of dead solidity and 
believing you have kissed the face of God. Clinging to 
unlife, thinking unthoughts, you are unmade and 
unbelieving. Unknowing. Lost in your own abyss of 
existence. 


But even ignorance is not immortal. You will know. And 


“Jesus, turn it off... turn it OFF goddammit!” 


“... AS you can see... we feel a case may need to be opened at this 
point.” 


“Can | smoke in here?” 


“Only if you share... So, anyway, the tape goes on... and on and on, 
but eventually she starts asking him things. She probes and prods, 
mentally and physically... and... well, she got it.” 


“'.. Got... what?” 


“Everything. Everything Penbry knew, anyway. Even the heavy 
memetic shielded stuff... walked him through it a bit at a time, kept 
him just barely on the edge of a shutdown... and just drained him. 
Outside our own staff, I've never seen anything like it.” 


“Jesus... what was she after? Just probing?” 
“Sir, she didn't even know that we had a name.” 


“What the living hell... so... a total outsider, an amateur no less... 
just walks in and uses one of our Agents like a sock puppet?” 


“Ahh... there... may be something else. After we reviewed the tape, 
we started taking it apart, looking for... anything, really. It was 
sterile, just plastic and film, but there was something taped to the 
inside.” 


“... Dammit, don't keep me in suspense, man.” 


“It... was a black queen. Like the chess piece? The crown... the 
crown was a tooth. It was Penbry's.” 


“Jesus...” 


“What's more, some digging has turned up a letter we received 
months ago... it wasn't deemed credible at the time, but someone 
identified as the 'Black Queen' makes some very overt threats, 
among other things. It's being looked into now, but it seems very 
likely that this isn't a total amateur. It... may be someone with 


peripheral Foundation ties.” 
“Explain peripheral.” 


“It is implied that we removed her father from her home at a young 
age.” 


“We don't do that any more, barely did it back then, the high 
intensity recruitment... no. No. It couldn't...” 


“We have a team at Site 2, in the master archives. Nothing from that 
period has been updated to the digital media yet, so it's... slow 
going, to say the least. We can't say conclusively who she may be, 
yet.” 


“It's probably his daughter, isn't it? Goddamn... | don't even see how 
it's possible...” 


“Sir, with as long as we've been at this, I'm surprised something like 
this has taken as long as it has.” 


“... Realistically, how bad is this for us?” 


“The Foundation is not about to crumble over one pissed off girl. At 
the same time, initial reviewers are observing some real intelligence 
and possible severe mental imbalance. I'm sure she's getting help, 
but how and from where | have no idea. She's smart, cunning, and 
seems to lack anything even approaching empathy. If we were 
talking about anyone else, I'd be bringing up recruitment by now.” 


“... Any projections on how this will play out?” 
“She fed a man his own retina, sir. | can't imagine where she'll go 


from there.” 


Problems advance... 
Quiet Game 


Or at times revert. 
Opening Moves 


Quiet Game 


Acquisitions and Review. One of the names in The Foundation that 
can send staff into convulsions. After Agents and MTF squads get 
something caged, have the remains mopped up and minds 
scrubbed, A and R have the job of figuring out what in the hell 
comes next. Something of a patchwork group, they work with all 
ranges of Agents, staff and security, working out initial SCP 
documents and trying to minimize the body count, while also setting 
up research goals. All in all, it's one of the more stressful jobs in an 
organization that views a total stress-induced mental collapse as a 
minor lost-time event. 


All this was sitting in the forefront of Agent Poly's mind when he saw 
Agent Shun sitting across from him in the lunch room, smiling. Poly 
was reasonably sure the last time Shun had smiled was when 
SCP-914 had turned a dead pig into a pile of bacon, and that had 
been more than eight months ago. 


“The hell is wrong with you?” 


Shun grinned, sporting a mock confused look. “Why, whatever do 
you mean?” 


“You look entirely too pleased with yourself to be working here.” 


Shun waved a hand, leaning back in his chair. “I'm just glad to be 
alive... and have my caseload for the week done.” 


Poly sputtered, nearly gagging on his coke. “What the hell? You... 
what? You had at least three new cases, and | know one will end up 
Keter! What black magic is this, and share immediately.” 


“You know that saying, many hands make light work?” Shun grinned 
like a cat with a mouthful of feathers. “Well, I've just got the right 
hands to rely on.” 


“You will tell me your dark secrets, or | will soak your underpants in 
meat before your next 682 review.” 


“Ok, so remember that memo we got a few months back, about the 
new processing site they set up in Egypt?” 


Poly nodded slowly, scraping back in his memory. “Yeah... wasn't it 
some co-op deal with ORIA defectors or something?” 


Shun bobbed his head, leaning in with a quick sideways glance. “It's 
got a few, yes, but it's more a warehouse site, for review items 
coming from all over the middle east. The thing is, it's also listed as 
a hub site, which means they can take any and all items up for 
transport...” 


Poly's eyes widened “... like initial review items. But, how the hell 
would you shift them like that without catching hell? You can't just 
pass the buck.” 


“That's just the thing. The head of review, Agent Melike, is 
apparently a glutton for punishment. | started talking to her ona 
review project, and she actually entered a request to take over the 
review. On-site. Signed the transport orders and everything. | just 
had to forward the case notes, and in about a week she sent a 
complete SCP proposal.” 


Poly sat back heavily, shaking his head. “Good lord. And you just sat 
on this? While | struggled and worried if I'm working on a second 
heart attack.” 


“Hey, it's not like that... just... wanted to make sure it was really 
happening first, | would have told you.” 


“Uh huh, yeah, I... wait, what was the Agent again?” 
“Who? Oh, the one at the new hub? Agent Melike.” 


Poly furrowed his brow, looking to the side. “... That's a weird name, 
even for this place.” 


“It's Turkish, apparently, something royal or the like, like Magnus or 
something.” 


Poly looked at Shun, questioning. “... How long has this girl been 
here?” 


Shun pulled back a bit, feeling suddenly defensive. “Well, | don't 
know... a few months, maybe? It's not like I'm dating her or 
something, we just talk and trade research.” 


“A few months... Shun, when was the last time you heard of anyone 
with less than two years invested being able to sign transport 
requests.” 


Shun froze, an icy drip rolling down his spine. “... S-she's probably a 
transfer, from another staff unit. Like when we got Harp after Finn 
degenerated.” 


“We would have been notified of a transfer, even overseas. 
Remember, we always get those bullshit secured email notices you 
have to sign and reply to.” 


“... oh god.” 


Poly pushed out his chair, rising quickly. “Let's go to security... 
maybe they just forgot or something.” 


Poly was in too much of a rush to catch Shun whispering quietly 
“Please god...” 


Theft Report 0012 — 3 
Aux: BC Folio 


It was brought to the attention of Site Command at Site 42 that a 
possible breach of security had been noted. Acquisitions and 
Review reported an unknown Agent “Melike” had been 
corresponding and accepting new item transfers. Central Records 
reported no “Agent Melike” on file for the past three years, and no 
new hub sites opened in the Egypt area for the last six years. 


All item transfers en-route were shunted to the nearest site, and all 
in-process requests for transfer were canceled. All suspect 
documents were seized and submitted to Security for immediate 
priority review. SCP documents sent by “Agent Melike” show little to 


no knowledge of Foundation function, comprised of basic review and 
dense scientific jargon that, after review, have no real validity. 
Transfer documents show that the delivery address is a disused 
loading dock, which has been abandoned for ten years. 


Interrogation of transfer and delivery staff revealed that staff was 
greeted by an agent identifying herself as “Agent Rook”, who 
provided all necessary security documents and signatures. Review 
of these documents have shown all to be expert forgeries. Network 
review has revealed access of several security nodes and form 
depositories by Agent Pike, who has been reported MIA for two 
weeks. His network card was somehow kept active well beyond the 
normal automatic termination limit, and it is believed that this is how 
the documents and security information were acquired. Transport 
staff believed the drop location was a covert transfer site. 


MTF teams responding to the “Hub Site” location in the “Agent 
Melike” documents found an abandoned office building at the given 
location. Investigation turned up nothing but two vagrants on the 
main floors, but the basement was found to contain one desk, a 
chess board, and a poster. The poster was of “The Turk”, an 
automaton built in 1770 that could play chess, having the 
appearance of a “Turk” at a large table with a chess board before it. 
The Turk was later revealed to have been a hoax, with a small man 
hidden in a secret compartment under the table. 


It is currently believed that the theft of twelve SCP-class items has 
been perpetrated by the “Black Queen”. Due to the limited review 
and understanding of the items at the time of theft, tracking is 
proving exceptionally difficult. Many items have already been refiled 
under “Lost” with Central Records. Further action is suspended until 
initial damage and loss reports are filed. 


Memo: 05-8 
Re: Black Queen. 


She used our own goddamn security against us. It's 
supposed to insulate sections, so nobody knows too 
much, or gets unneeded information... and she used it to 
drain us like a stuck pig. We're going to have to go 


through a total security theory review, and liquidate the 
department until we get it sorted out. Thousands of man 
hours are going to be squandered while we look for the 
thumb up our collective asses. O5-3 has been drinking 
Pepto like it's soda. | want this bitch found. 


Change the rules... 
Kriegspiel 


Or keep to tradition. 
Queen To Pawn 


Kriegspiel 


“We need to talk.” 


The old lady raised her head from the crumpled document before 
her, blinking rapidly through massive glasses. She sighed, pulling 
them off and rubbing between her eyes, gray curls bobbing in the 
half-light of the desk lamp. 


“Indeed we do. Have you seen some of the documents they've been 
pulling from the old Central Archives? It's a wonder we're all not 
dead by lunchtime, | swear. We're never going to complete the 
digital migration at this rate, and we're already nearly a year 
overdue. It's only time now before we spring a leak someone on the 
chain, and-” 


“Dammit, Six, you know what I'm talking about. The goddamn Black 
Queen.” 


She closed her eyes, breathing deeply, then looked back at the long, 
thin, black-suited man glaring across the desk at her. She tried to 
smile, then abandoned it, letting her face fall to a tired, resigned 
neutral. 


“| haven't gotten the updated dossier yet. Give me the broad 
strokes.” 


“Yesterday, an unknown subject, now known to be the 'Black 
Queen’, accessed Site Thirty-Two. We're not sure how, but it 
appears she somehow entered the primary entry on foot. There's 
nearly twenty miles of bare rock and salt pan between that entry and 
anything even remotely civilized, so-” 


“Please skip the editorial, Four. I'm not some layabout Agent.” she 
smiled wearily, head resting in her massaging fingers. 


The lean man hrumpfed and re-positioned in his chair for several 


moments, then continued, voiced laced with a bare minimum of 
malice. 


“She chatted with no less than two security staff and five members 
of personnel, and passed through several security checkpoints, one 
of which was level four. The security information she used was a 
combination of outright forgery and stolen identification. She... it 
appears that she killed at least three men that we know of to do this, 
and not just our own. The GOC has an open complaint against us 
over a missing squad member who was ‘pulled off his assignment 
by a Foundation operative’ and then found with a hatpin in his eye. 
We're still-” 


“Get to the point, Four.” 


He sighed heavily, shoulders slumping. “She accessed the 
observation area for the SCP-682 containment cell.”