00:04 | Adam Leeward 
You said yourself that you're sick. Trust me 
on this one. 


Rance Roberts | 00:05 
okay 

imiss you 

| miss you so much 


00:05 | Adam Leeward 
| miss you too. I'll have to visit you soon, if | 
can get off work. 


Rance Roberts | 00:05 
You coudl go here for work 


screaming, and god, it hurt so bad. [DATA EXPUNGED] Loud 
cackling laugh, oh god, if | thought my grandma's was scary, this 
bitch... she was... if the devil were a lady, that's what he'd 
sound like. 


[REDACTED] ran for it, crawled into the living room where we'd had 
dinner earlier that night, and tried to slam the door shut... rice paper 
screen, not going to help, but | just... | needed something between 
us. 


[REDACTED] killed him and laid him out where the dining table had 
been... his eyes were wide open and his skin was flayed open, like 
a butcher's... oh god, there were the bowls, the ones we'd been 
eating out of, but the meat, it wasn't beef or pork, it was him... and 
the rice... maggots, crawling in his flesh, he'd have to have been 
dead for days, but how, we'd seen him at the base of the mountain 
just yesterday... | threw up. There were... some of them were still 
alive, crawling in my vomit, and | just... 


Do you need a break? 


No, no, | can do this. | was deep in the fairy tale, | just needed to 
complete it. | didn't have any [DATA EXPUNGED] 


[DATA CORRUPTED] 


-wasn't much of a punji stick, but it got her, straight through the gut, 
slowed her down a bit- 


[DATA CORRUPTED] 


-dragging myself across the river, couldn't swim, hit my head on the 
rocks, went downstream at least half a mile through the rapids. She 
didn't even try to follow me downriver, must have gone around 
because later- 


[DATA CORRUPTED] 


-had to be fire, the third was always fire. | got to the van about the 
time the sun came up, broke a window and went to the back. There 
was a flamethrower... sorry, "defoliant projector" there for 
sterilization if needed, so | grabbed it, flicked on the sparker, 


could transfer sites 


00:06 | Adam Leeward 

We'll talk about it later. Just stay where you 
are until the meds get there, alright? Your 
office number is still A-432, right? 


Rance Roberts | 00:07 
i dont remember it 
i dont feel well 


00:07 | Adam Leeward 
Just sit tight for ten or fifteen. Don't go 
anywhere. 


Rance Roberts | 00:07 
ok 


Twelve minutes later, there's a knock on his door. 
"l- | can't get up," he calls out in a rasping voice. "I'm sick-" 


The door handle jiggles for several seconds before it gives way and 
opens. Rance doesn't respond. It's two doctors and a man he 
doesn't recognize. "I'm disappointed,” the man says, much to his 
confusion. The other two shush him in hushed tones, and he leaves 
the room with a grumble. 


"What- what happened? What's wrong?" Rance asks, eyes wide and 
looking for the man. "Why did he say-" 


"Don't talk. Just keep your head down and your heart rate down. 
That's what we need to do here, okay?" one of the doctors says. 
Rance nods and winces as they move him to a stretcher. 


The journey down into the medical wing is obscured by the piece of 
cloth one of the doctors put over his face. He assumes it's to protect 
his eyes from the brightness, but it just makes him feel scared and 
confused. When they take it off, it feels like it's been hours, and he 


winces at the sterile white lighting of the room. To his surprise, 
there's someone in his room. It's the same man from earlier. 


"Hey," Joy says, glowering. 


Rance wraps the bed covers around himself instinctively. "W-why 
are you here? Who are you? Do you know what happened?" 


Joy scoffs. "If | told you what happened, it would burst your bubble. 
And you already forgot me. Impressive. I'm a little offended, | must 
say." 


"W-what is that supposed to mean-" 


They're interrupted by someone at the door. "Mr. Rice, please do not 
converse with him if he doesn't want it right now. We can explain 
everything later. Health needs to come first." 


Rance looks over at the nurse. "Wait, can you- can you explain 
what's wrong? Why don't | remember anything?" 


The nurse sits down in one of the chairs by his bed, clipboard in 
hand. "You self-amnesticized, and rather dangerously at that. To tell 
you any further would go against your own wishes, but please note 
that theft and unlawful ingestion of amnestics is prosecuted as a 
drug use charge in this organization. Were you aware of that, Mr. 
Roberts?" 


"H- how- where's the proof?" 


"The proof is in your symptoms and the presence of the substances 
at the scene of your retrieval." 


He stares blankly, not daring to shoot a glance over at Joy. "I- who 
the hell told you, then?" 


"We received a call from Adam Leeward indicating that you had 
paged him about being dangerously sick. You didn't object to 
medical attendance." 


"Adam told you? Wait, I- if | did that, then how do you all know?" 


"| don't follow-" 


Joy interrupts her. "Rance here was unhappy about some things 
going on in his life." 


"| wouldn't have done that. | don't just try to-" He laughs. "...Forget 
my problems. I'm sure | wouldn't. This had to be foul play." 


The nurse bites her lip and writes on the clipboard. 


Rance feels anger rising in him as he stares blankly ahead. "Who-" 
He clenches his fists. "Was it you?" He looks over at Joy. "I don't 
know you, you know, and you were snapping at me for no reason 
earlier in the office. Don't think I'm dumb, | see the way you look at 
me-" 


"Oh Christ," Joy says, standing out of his chair. He looks at the 
nurse and clears his throat. "Uh, I'll be in the hallway. If I'm needed." 


She nods and keeps writing. "You'll be briefed on what this means 

for your position and status in several hours. For now, rest. Sleep if 
you can. Ring the bell if you need one of the personnel to attend to 
you." She turns the lights off. 


"...S0 you're just gonna keep me here? What the hell is this about?" 


No one answers. He takes out his pager. 


Rance Roberts | 00:39 
help 
are you there 


00:40 | Adam Leeward 
I'm here. 


Rance Roberts | 00:40 

i'm in the fucking hospital 

medical wing whatever you call t 

can you tell me- do you know what the fukc 
happened 


00:40 | Adam Leeward 

Rance, you don't actually want to know. 
That's why you amnesticized yourself to 
begin with. | tried to stop you from doing it, 
both for legal and health reasons. I'm sorry. 


Rance Roberts | 00:40 
wait what 

| did this to myself? 

| can't've 

i hate this 


Rance Roberts | 00:41 
i didnt do this. 
theres just no way. 


00:41 | Adam Leeward 

... You've got me between a rock and a hard 
place here. 

| don't know what you want me to do or say 


Rance Roberts | 00:41 

god just help me 

get me out of here 

come fly here or something i know you 
always offer 


00:42 | Adam Leeward 

I'll try. | don't think i can get off work for at 
least another week. 

I'm this skip's only qualified containment 
specialist 


Rance Roberts | 00:42 
ughhh fuck 


00:42 | Adam Leeward 
Just try to keep yourself calm. 


Rance Roberts | 00:42 
theyre asking me to hand them my pager 


like right now 


00:42 | Adam Leeward 
Just do what they say, please. 


Rance Roberts | 00:42 
im sorry for whatever | did 
i care about you so much 
goodbye 


"|'m just saying | don't understand anything that's going on here. 
You're costing me my job because of- what, me being sick?" 


"Sir, the evidence in your office was quite clear." The doctor sighs 
lowly and takes a seat. "If you just cooperate, this will be easier." 


Rance sits upright in bed. There's something about that phrasing 
that makes him shudder. 


"You're really better-off resting. I'm just here to monitor your 
readings." 


"| don't need 'monitoring’. I'm not a skip." 


"You are a patient, and you're in danger until the amnestics fully 
leave your body. You're on testosterone and antidepressants, 
correct?" 


"__.I'm on testosterone?" 


The doctor looks at his clipboard concernedly. "You started hormone 
therapy in this site's medical wing on September 12th, 2016. Do you 
not recall this?" 


He looks down at his body. It looks almost the same, if a little flatter. 
He hasn't looked at his face yet. "| mean, I- | don't remember." 


"What's your name, then?" 


"It's... Roberts." 


"First name?" 
"| _.Alice?" 


"There's your problem,” the doctor says under his breath. "Listen to 
me. Are you comfortable talking about this right now?" 


His heart rate increases, and he sees it on the monitor by the bed. 
He swallows nervously. "| guess." 


"You amnesticized yourself with an extremely dangerous and potent 
experimental amnestic. There is a reason that only D-classes are 
permitted to use Type Three Class C. It takes a month off your 
memory, and a month is the safest we can go back with just one 
bottle of one substance. Does that make sense? If we wanted to 
take a month off your memory, the safe way would be a four-step 
two-day process with total medical supervision and sedation. But 
you did it by sticking a needle in your arm." 


He stares blankly. 

"Does this make sense to you?" 

"So I- | forgot a month." 

"Yes." 

"There's stuff that happened in a month... and | forgot it all." 
"Correct." 

"...On purpose." 


"You did it to yourself. This is proven in both communication records 
and situational evidence." 


"Well- why?" 


The doctor adjusts himself in his chair and sets his clipboard down. 
"We don't know. But if you did it, you must have had a good reason. 


"Something must've happened that | wanted to forget," he mutters. 


"Do you know what it is?" 


"That's the question, Mr. Roberts. The situation proves that you 
didn't want yourself to know what it was." 


He touches his stomach and arms under the covers. He's hairy. He 
must not have shaved recently. "So during this month- | started 
hormone therapy?" 


"You cited your desire to transition to male, yes." 
"And my name- is still Alice?" He winces. 


"No, it's Rance. You had your name legally changed to Rance 
Roberts on September 17th, 2016." 


"Fuck. Why would | have wanted to forget that? Why would | have-" 


"I'm not insinuating nor attempting to insinuate that your gender 
transition period is the event you were trying to forget. Clearly it's a 
positive thing for you. Unfortunately, it was in the time period that 
you decided to wipe out. We offer counseling for accidental erasure 
of memories-" 


"| don't care about counseling. | just need to think." He puts his head 
in his hands, desperate to know why he would have done this to 
himself. 


"| can monitor your vitals remotely if you're more comfortable with 
that. You need to sleep, frankly." 


"Sure," Rance mutters, gripping the bedsheets with white knuckles. 
His stomach is churning. His head is pounding. Every breath feels 
like an electric shock. 


The doctor leaves, closing the door and turning the lights off again. 
He knows that, when he wakes, people he can't remember will be 
trying to fire him for theft of amnestics. 


Rance falls into a dreamless, angry sleep; as he closes his eyes, he 
realizes achingly that he wouldn't be opposed to never opening 
them again. 


And more than anything, he wishes he could remember. 


The Bold and the Dutiful (Part One) 


To say that the day had started badly would have been a huge 
understatement. 


Used to waking up around seven thirty, the coffee machine on the 
small shelf above the bed bubbling away with his first cup of the day, 
it was a highly unpleasant surprise to be awakened by the overhead 
alarm system blaring out a very rare sequence of beeps. Two long, 
two short, two long, two short, over and over again, informing 
everybody (but particularly those for whom it was highly relevant 
information) that it was not only time to get up, but to prepare for a 
highly unusual and rather dangerous scenario. 


The sound of footsteps rushing past his door was indicative that 
there was at least one other member of staff whose ability to get out 
of bed far exceeded his, but within a minute Dr deValmont was 
dressed and out the door, albeit with his brain and tongue competing 
as to which was the most fuzzy. The alarms in the corridor were 
louder and served to help with the former, the latter would have to 
wait until this was sorted out and he could get to a coffee machine. 


Jogging down the corridor to the main archive area, Rikard was 
surprised to see people struggling into the blue hazmat suits, 
hanging in glass-fronted corridors along one wall. This added to his 
confusion, the blue suits were double-layered, lined with a very fine 
silvery dust that was designed to protect the wearer from any 
electromagnetic waves between 104 and 1029Hz. The security team 
clad in the blue suits ran off down the corridor, looking otherworldly 
with their single camera eye protruding from the over-large head 
coverings, required due to the fact that any light that got through a 
faceplate could let in any other number of horrors. The security 
teams had to be specially trained to deal with using the suits, set up 
as they were with two screens on the inside, one showing a highly 
pixellated black and white live image, the other a full HD display on 
a five second delay so that it could be cut in the event of a 


cognitohazardous or visually dangerous SCP appearing in their field 
of vision. 


The suits suggested that the problem was either a V/S or CH, but 
the alarm said otherwise. There was obviously something even 
more odd than usual going on, and he needed to find out. He pulled 
out his comms and sent a request to Overseers. 


“O5 support, state your number please.” The voice said, 
impassively. 

“Twelve M, five-five-two dot twenty-three M A” he replied 

“Name and location.” It really wasn’t getting any friendlier. 

“Dr deValmont, Rikard, |, C Wing, blue phase, floor 2, corridor 12” 
he rattled off, glancing at the sign at the end of the corridor to check 
the number. 

“Evacuate immediately. Potential EK scenario.” 


The line went dead, and Dr deValmont was left staring at his comm 
unit with the feeling that he really should be walking in the opposite 
direction to the blue-suited team he had just seen leaving the area. 
Every bit of his training and induction told him that a two long two 
short alarm was not something to be getting curious over. 
Something was out of the box, so to speak. He rattled through the 
scenario list in his head to remember the specifics of this one, 
remembering back to his first hazard training inductions, many years 
ago. 


“Now, you’ve covered all the basic Pandora scenarios in the 
previous training, now we're going to deal with how the Site as a 
whole covers scenarios of increasing severity. These we call SK, EK 
and VK scenarios, for reasons that will become clear. These are site 
specific, and are developed for each site based upon the interred 
anomalies, unlike the worldwide CK and XK scenarios which you've 
already covered in General. 


“SK scenarios are the lowest in severity, although this SHOULD 
NOT be underestimated — anyone on Site during a SK scenario is in 
a situation of mortal or existential risk. SKs are situations where the 
actions or effects of a Keter-class anomaly are active outside of the 
controls of its Containment Procedures. This normally means that 
we have a mobile Keter at loose in the facility. You don’t need to be 


managed to get it around just as she came out of the treeline- 
[DATA CORRUPTED] 


And that was when the retrieval team found you with the 
OoPArt? 


Yeah. They took her away and got me to a hospital. | had a raging 
infection for days, not surprising, | guess. 


One last thing. You've been on the record as opposing the 
OoPArt's termination. Given your personal experiences, I'm 
really not sure why you'd want something as dangerous as this 
to live. Can you please elaborate?