| make a joke about her being up so early, and she just says "Yes”. 
It sounds like her, but it doesn't sound like her. Also, she doesn't 
even look at me. She's watching some show on Discovery; | can't 
remember what. | know I'm making it sound dramatic, but it really 
wasn't. It was off, but not really off. It's like turning the color tintona 
TV a few notches from center: you can tell something is different, 
but you can't quite explain what. For all | knew, she just wasn't 
awake. 


So I'm eating, and I'm half-watching Susie watching the TV. If | had 
to guess, it was fifty-fifty between "Susie is Cute" and "Something Is 
Up". She's fixated on the screen, smiling that smile. with posture 
you're taught in fifth grade. You know the kind, the kind that you 
can't do now for more than a few minutes. To break the ice a little, | 
ask her some questions. Is she okay? "/'m fine.". Does her back 
hurt? "No, it's okay.”. Is she hungry? "No, /'m fine." 


At this point, I'm trying pretty hard not to act on the growing 
Foundation Sense whispering in the back of my head. You guys 
have been here long enough to know that sense. You know it's the 
sense that keeps you alive, brings your training to the forefront, and 
keeps everyone around you from dealing with shit they don't 
deserve to deal with. 


| finish up the box of CTC, and say goodnight. As I'm about to walk 
back upstairs, she asks me to hand her the controller. The one 
sitting right next to her, which | point out. "/ Know. Could you hand it 
to me?" | look at her, still watching the TV. | decide to do it. 
Fundamental rule of the universe: Susie asks, and Bibs complies. If 
she ever became an O5, I'd be a lot more subordinate. Just sayin’. 


As | take a a few steps towards the clicker, | can't help staring at 
Susie. This time, it's not because she's cute. | mean, she is, but that 
Foundation Sense isn't just whispering. It's screaming, over the 
droning narration of the television. Get out. Run. Use the Class-A 
Spray you've got in your bottom-left pocket. GET AWAY. 


Now, | don't get to be an outstanding IA by ignoring the Foundation 
Sense. | back away, keeping my eyes on hers. She's still smiling, 
still sitting straight-backed, still staring at the screen. Perfectly 
normal, except it ain't normal. | hit the stairs, do a 180, and walk up. 
Methodical, one step at a time. | get to the top of the stairs, and | 
see my my room's door, is at the far end of the hallway. Something 
tells me | wouldn't make it to my room's door, so | quickly open 
Susie's door to my left, do a quick 90, and walk in. 


In my peripheral vision, | get a glimpse of the bottom of the stairs. All 
the lights are out, downstairs, and Susie is standing at the foot of the 
steps. She's not smiling. She's not... she's not anything, if you'll 
permit me being vague. It's all | see before | close the door. Pretty 


sure | should be glad that's all | see. 


| stumble around briefly, but find Susie's bed. | hear a groan, and 
before | can react, | feel Susie's arm around me flop around me. | 
don't sleep. | tell her in the morning that the bed made my back hurt, 
and apologize for not waking her up. Susie being Susie, she doesn't 
give a rat's ass. She knows I'm not going to try and get in her pants. 
Again, her boyfriend would kill me. 


| don't tell her about what happened, and | certainly don't tell her 
why I'm disturbed when | flip on the TV and NBC comes up. Or why 
| freak out a little when she tells me her cable package doesn't 
include Discovery. | make it up to her by buying a bunch of 
Cinnamon Toast Crunch, since we ran out. 


Tales N 


Time Keeps On Slippin' 


The lab was empty at night. It was quite small for a scientific 
establishment, with only 6 rooms connected to a hallway with doors 
at either end. Not much was spent in the way of comfort and safety, 
with only a few wooden chairs in the break-room, and a single lock 
on either door. 


A lock which was currently being broken. 


A scratching sound could be heard coming from the north-most 
door. To any onlookers, the handle would have appeared to be 
moving by itself, slowly turning this way and that. With a satisfying 
click, the door popped open, and a man dressed darkly stepped 
inside. Wasting no time, he quickly walked over to the nearest room 
and began shoving lab equipment into a sack. Beakers and fragile 
things he left alone, but microscopes, thermometers, chemicals, 
screens and plates all went in the bag. 


After finishing in one room, he went into the next and repeated the 
process. He was an old hand at burglary, and knew that you 
shouldn't waste time, even when there were no alarms going off. 
You never knew when someone might walk by. 


As he neared the last room, he noticed a hatch in the wall. Unlike 
the rest of the lab, which looked cheap and rudimentary, this hatch 
was made of a smooth, shiny kind of metal. It's lock was more high- 
tech, but the thief had tools for hacking as well. After a few minutes 
work, it popped open. 


Inside was a device unlike anything he had ever seen before. It was 
constructed of brass and leather, and had many small dials on it, as 
well as a lever-like object along its bottom. It also had several straps 
On it, as if it were meant to be worn on the hand. A ticking clock face 
was embedded into its main body, but the hands were in the wrong 
places. 


As he scooped it into the sack, he felt a tingling sensation in his 
hand, as if the object had felt familiar. He was stared at it fora 
moment, then continued into the last room and finished his job. 
He could inspect it further back home. 


~ 


As he took a bite out of an apple, Jayun pondered the device he 
held in his hand. He had wondered at first if the tingle he'd felt had 
just been his imagination, but after going through the sack again at 
home, he had felt that same sense of familiarity in his hand. It was 
strange, and he knew that it shouldn't be possible. No explanation 
he could think of made sense. 


So he gave up on explaining it. 


He led a busy schedule, but he could afford a few hours to play 
around with the machine. The rest of the loot was safely stored 
away, and he knew where he could find a few scientists who 
wouldn't ask where the equipment came from. 


He slipped his right hand through the straps and grasped the lever. 
The feeling of familiarity grew, and he moved his left hand to twist a 
few of the dials. His subconscious appeared to know how to work 
the device better than he did, and he did whatever felt natural. After 
a few seconds, no more adjustments appeared to be required. He 
pushed the lever and— 


Blackness. It was as if the world had disappeared around him. He 
reached out to see if he could feel anything, but his arms wouldn't 
move. He tried opening his mouth to shout, but found he couldn't do 
that either. He began trying to scream, trying to move any part of his 
body, before— 


He stumbled into the kitchen bench and fell over. 


After lying on the floor for a while, his heart finally stopped racing, 
and Jayun stood up. He looked around. He was still in the same 
room, nothing had changed. He looked at the machine. Most of the 
dials appeared to have reset to their previous conditions. After 
thinking for a moment, Jayun began to twist the dials again. His 


subconscious had finally gotten around to telling him what the thing 
actually did, and this time he thought of the back door as he fiddled. 
He finished, and once again pushed the lever. 


The same empty darkness surrounded him, but this time he knew 
what to expect. He couldn't move a single part of his body. After a 
few moments he realized this was applying to his chest too. He 
wasn't breathing. 


He started freaking out, but before he could do so— 


He was in an alleyway behind his home, facing the back door. There 
was no sound except for the ticking of the clock. Jayun went back 
inside, took off the machine, and began rummaging through his 
stolen goods for a few certain chemicals. He stored them in his 
pockets and left through the front door, on his way to a few potential 
buyers. 


Unlike how some people would have acted in the situation, Jayun 
decided it would be best to let the matter of the device settle back 
for a few hours while he did some actual work. Selling scientific 
equipment with very few credentials was harder than you'd think, 
and he'd be lucky to pass off even a few microscopes. Chemicals 
were always the easiest though, for some reason. 


He already had a few ideas regarding the device, any way. 


~ 


Rrrrrrriinng! The alarm in the mall went off, as security officers 
noticed a young man shoplifting on the cameras. He seemed in no 
hurry to run, and continued to stow away valuable goods in a few 
bags. 


By the time security had caught up to him, though, he was nowhere 
to be seen. When the camera footage was reviewed, the man had 
fiddled with something on his hand, then... just disappeared. There 
had been a brief rush of air, but otherwise nothing; he had simply 
been there one moment and gone the next. The staff had puzzled 
over the tape to no end, putting forth many theories as to what had 
happened, but eventually giving up and going home. Sometimes the 


unexplainable happened, and that was that. You couldn't spend your 
life worrying about these sorts of things. 


This hadn't been an isolated event, though. Soon, over a period of 
months, all over the city, various stores and businesses had been 
stolen from. Even a couple of banks had reported thieves. All the 
accounts had had several things in common; the thief was a young 
man, he had bypassed all security, then disappeared after fiddling 
with something on his right hand. There had even been a news story 
about a "teleporting thief". 


Strangely though, no actual evidence could be recovered of the 
crimes. All the camera recordings taken at the time showed normal 
activity when viewed again later. Many stolen goods had reappeared 
in their original shelves, as if they'd never been taken. Managers 
and shopkeepers, when questioned, said they couldn't recall any 
details about the crime, and would prefer to just move past the 
whole thing. 


Some people, though, payed very close attention to the crimes 
indeed. They had all the tapes, all the eye-witness reports. They had 
waited until they were sure. 


Now, they would act. 


~ 


Jayun walked down the street, in broad daylight. He wasn't 
concerned. He'd made sure to cover his face while robbing, and 
even if someone did recognise him, he had an easy escape route. 
He tapped the metal under his sleeve. He only took it off for sleeping 
these days; it was too useful. 


It was strange, he thought. While in transition (a phrase he had 
come up with after watching a cheesy sci-fi film), he experienced the 
seconds and minutes go by, and so did the hands on the clock. But 
the rest of the world didn't appear to change a bit. To eveyone else, 
he popped back into existence the moment he left it. It seemed that 
wherever the empty paralysing multi-dimensional void place he went 
to was, it lay outside of time as well as space. He supposed that 
explained why the hands were always wrong. 


Still though, scientific quandaries aside, he was having the time of 
his life. No vault was locked to him, no bank inaccessible. He wasn't 
even stealing for money, he just did it for the thrill, and look on 
people's faces when he disappeared in front of them. This was his 
sort of life. 


In the midst of his thinking, Jayun noticed something strange. Apart 
from him, there were only two other people on the street. One 
behind him, walking in the same direction, and one at the end of the 
street, just standing there. He slowly moved his hand to his 
sleeve,and pictured a location. He was probably just being paranoid, 
but— 


The one in front pulled a black object out from their pocket and 
pointed it at him. 


He wasted no time in pulling the lever, and he thought he heard a 
bang as he left them behind. 


He had a minute to think about what he'd do next as he floated in 
the blackness. There were people after him. They somehow knew 
who he was, and what he looked like. They certainly hadn't looked 
like the police, and he was pretty sure pulling a gun on someone 
and firing without warning was illegal. He'd have to hide out 
somewhere, possibly leave the city— 


The world came into view again, this time a small alleyway. He often 
used this place to escape, as it was located behind some of the 
major store-lines. The alley was a gap in the city, and it led nowhere. 
He didn't think anybody else knew about it. 


Two more people in black proved him wrong on that count. 


Before he could react, the one on the left raised their gun and fired 
at him. As he pulled the lever, he felt something hit his leg. 


He hadn't had any time to think, so he had went with the first place 
that had come into his mind: his home. It was some way away, so 
he had a lot of time to ponder his next move. 


Jayun wondered if his home would even be safe. These people, 


whoever they were, had somehow known about his hideout. Who's 
to say they didn't know where he lived as well? It would be too risky 
to stay there. He'd setup a few hidey-holes around the city, but not 
with medical supplies. He only felt a small tingling below his knee, 
but he was fairly sure that once he popped out of transit, it would 
start hurting. 


After a little over 10 minutes, he had decided what he would do. If 
there there were already people there, he'd leave before they could 
shoot. If there weren't, he'd grab a few things, then leave. He was 
99% sure they wouldn't know the location he was thinking of. He 
hadn't even used it yet. 


After popping back into his kitchen, his leg immediately starting 
hurting. The pain bent him double, and it was all he could do to not 
scream. He rummaged in a few of the draws for bandages, before 
he heard footsteps running towards him. Before anyone had even 
come into view, he grabbed a few medicines and pulled the lever. 


After a long wait in the void, he popped out into the basement of an 
abandoned house. He had been inside the house, as a guest, 
before it had been sold, and remembered seeing the basement 
door. 


The basement was all but empty, with only a few shelves left around 
the walls. Jayun finally gave into to his leg and collapsed onto the 
floor. He sat up and began bandaging his leg. While it hurt like hell, 
he could still move it about like normal, so he figured the bullet 
hadn't hit anything important. 


After he had patched himself up, he got up and went outside. He 
was hungry and thirsty, and he had never thought of keeping food in 
his hideouts. He had never thought anybody would be this good at 
tracing him. 


In anearby convenience store, he bought several soft drinks and 
chips with some money he kept in his pockets. He made sure to 
keep the device hidden at all times. 


After quickly eating some of his snacks, and saving the rest for later, 
he decided it would be best if he left the city. He zapped himself to 


SCP-910: Dust, Embodied 


SYSTEM NOTICE: Overseer-6, 5 items require your 
attention. 


Item #: SCP-910 
Object Class: Safe 


Special Containment Procedures: One instance of SCP-910 is to 
be stored within Site-01's Critical Information Storage Unit. 
Personnel with Level-4 Clearance and access to Project 
PEARBLOSSOM-11 may request supervised viewings of the CISU- 
held copy of SCP-910. 


MTF Eta-82 ("Inkhounds") is to monitor rare book auctions and 
online marketplaces for instances of SCP-910. Sampling surveys of 
bookstores worldwide are to be conducted by Foundation Al OU- 
BIBLIOPHAGE, which is to further direct Foundation Internet 
trawlers in the detection and removal of all information pertaining to 
SCP-910.