Would you commit a rape to prevent an indefinite number of 
murders? 


If a person walks in front of a bus, and you can divert the bus’ path, 
but doing so has an 80% chance of killing everyone on board, what 
do you do? 


When Johnson got promoted to his security job, they gave him a test 
where he had to sit in a dark room and answer hundreds of these 
questions. They did it more than once, sometimes waking him in the 
middle of the night, dragging him back to the harsh spotlight and 
uncomfortable stool. 


At first, he tried to give them answers they wanted to hear, but the 
hundreds of questions became thousands of questions, timed, 
variations repeating endlessly. It was impossible to fake, partly 
because it was so disorienting and partly because he couldn't tell 
how they wanted him to answer in the first place. 


During the second week of the evaluation, he realized that he not 
only didn’t know what he was supposed to tell them; he didn’t know 
what he really thought. He lost his point of reference, his moral 
compass disassembled altogether. The answers came easier after 
that. 


Would you allow two men to die to save one woman? 


Would you bury 15 children alive to prevent 300 adults being burned 
at the stake? 


By the end of the fourth week, he knew things about himself he 
never would have discovered on his own. He came out of the 


interview process stripped of his optimism and with a new respect 
for the horror simple numbers can hold. He didn’t know what to 
expect, or what the whole thing was for. He thought they might fire 
him. Or worse. 


For the last interview, they asked him to come in the morning at an 
ordinary time. There were no clipboards, no lab coats, just a gray- 
haired woman in a business suit. 


“What would you do to save the world?” she asked. 


Johnson said, “Anything.” 


Ethics Committee Observer Orientation, Pt. II 


"After this orientation, you will have a short session with 
a few Observers who can give you more hands-on 
information, as well as answer the more... informal 
questions you may have. Instructions on how to connect 
to Ethics Committee's secure instant relay chat and the 
correct room for this session are included in the required 
reading you were given at the beginning of the 
orientation. All of you have already been assigned login 
information." 


"Welcome to Ethics Committee, and the Observers." 


* Connecting... 

* Connected, logging you in... 

* This username is protected. Please input your credentials, or 
use another username. 


* Checking credentials... 

* Credentials accepted, piease wait... 

* Connected 

* Welcome to Ethics Committee secure instant relay chat 
network! You are running version 4.8.17. 

* Joining rooms... (#ecinit) 

* Connected 


* Now joining: #ecinit 
ROFEBRONBelieve that's everyone 
NATAWONGinhis Is everyone 
ARCMITGHThis looks about right. 
ARCMITGHSo, everyone here has been 
through orientation already. 
ARCMITGHIf you haven't, | have no idea how 
you possibly got here in the first 


place. 
HZRDBHT Helio everyone, new Observers. 
TRNROSNRSo, who wants to run real 
Orientation this time’ 
AVVON me 
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HY AMA\Gquestions can come later 
CHYAMAGbut for now, we'll run orientation 
is way 
Gfirst of all, welcome to Ethics 
ommittee 


CHYAMA 


YAMA.Gand weicome to the Observers 
CHYAMAGI'm sure all of you know sirc from 
using it in your various 
departments 
TRNROSNRObservers rely heavily on Ethics 
Committee sirc for communication 
n 


and coliaboratio 
TRNROSNRAs you could probably tell from 
the above conversation, we're a 


little more laid back about how we 


aik to one another 

TRNROSNRSome of us do write as if our shift 

ey is broken, thoug 

NATAWONGsome of us want to relax 
sometimes 


CHYAMAGyou're gonna be working with 
each other relatively closely, likely 


in small groups such as the six of 
Pus you see in here 
UD 


UZ AV () J waves 
CHYAMAGthere's also the main observer 


room, which is #ecoobsm 
CHYAMAGyou'll likely end up finding yourself 
with a group of a few others who 
you work together very weil with 
CHYAMAGmake a room for yourselves on 
ECsirc 
CHYAMAGwe're all professionals with a very 
serious joob, ,sure, but there's not 
much of a reason to be so stingy 
about how you talk to each other 
TRNROSNRWe have greater concerns 
beyond hyperprofessional emails 
CHYAMAGnow, with that part out of the way 
CHYAMAGon behalf of absolutely every 
Observer 
CHYAMAGwe're sorry 
CHYAMAGI know that you've been prepped 
on what this job is, and you've 
been warned what It will do to you 
CHYAMAGand by both your consent and 
your mental profile, you've been 
determined to be a suitable 
Observer 
CHYAMAGI will Say this righ thow 
CHYAMAGthings can and will be worse than 
you think 
TRNROSNRYoutr job is covert monitoring and 
investigation of Foundation 
activities regarding breaches in 
ethical protocol 
TRNROSNBRThis is one of the hardest jobs in 
the Foundation, and not because 
monitoring and investigation is 
difficuit. 
CHYAMAGEthics Committee establishes 
what the Line We Do Not Cross 1s 
CHYAMAGand we watch that line 
CHYAMAGunseen by everyone else except 
for each other 
CHYAMAGyou will see some goddamn awful 


survived. Maybe | would have gone ahead and did it. | don't know. 
It's all fucked up. Anyway, after that, he calmed down a lot, even 
managed to crack a couple of jokes, then | told him to take a nap. 
He slept a bit, thank god. 


About twenty four hours in, we reached... | guess they're calling it 
the stomach now. First warning sign was a gurgling kind of noise, 
louder, with a crunching noise over it. | told the kid to bring his suit 
up to full power and get ready. A little while after, we fell out into this 
big chamber... big as in, big enough for the two of us to fit in it 
comfortably, which was huge compared to the tight squeeze of the 
tube. Kid's suit started hissing and the outer shell started to turn all 
pitted and stuff, and | noticed my gloves were starting to degrade 
too, so | yelled at him to move, and we started heading towards 
this... sphincter, | guess. | remember... god, why can | remember 
this, the insides of the stomach were lined with teeth and faces. 
Human faces, and they were all wailing at us and screaming, they 
were begging us to kill them. 


| almost lost it there, | started opening up with my gun, started 
shooting them in the heads, and if I'd stayed, my suit would have 
melted and I'd be dead, but the kid grabbed me and shoved me 
headfirst through the sphincter and we fell into... the other place. 


It was even worse than the stomach. That one was lined with faces 
and filled with acid, this place was... well, you know what it was full 
of. I'm not squeamish, Bill, you can't be if you're a Mole Rat, but this 
place squicked me out so bad | almost passed out. The kid helped 
me back up to my feet, though, told me we were almost out. "Come 
on, Lieutenant, we're almost out of here, let's go," he said. We 
moved over to the other sphincter, but the thing was... well, it was 
puckered up tighter than my Drill Sergeant's asshole back in basic. 
So no way we were getting out of there. 


We decided to wait for a bit until the thing shot its load, so to speak: 
if it made shit and cum, it would have to spit it out eventually, right? 
Anyway, that's when things started to go bad. The kid started 
complaining about this awful smell. | tried to stay calm. Told him it 
was probably his suit's waste recyclers, told him to let me take a 
look at it. Yeah. There was a hole in the back of his leg, probably 
from the acid. | put a patch on it, and told him not to worry about it. 


ings 
Gand sometimes you will have to 
Say “this is fine” even if it isn 
CHYAMAGbecause if you don't do it, 
something worse will come 
CHYAMAGsometimes you will find things 
that are so clearly unnecessary, 
and ye 
ey continued 
et me put it this way 
HYAMA.Gwe ain't optimists anymore 
TRNROSNRI doubt most of you are optimists 
anyway, since you're here, but 
e rose shades come off here 
\WONGtheyre gonna snap right in ha 
HZRDBHTYou're going to feel sick a lot. 
Physically and menitaily. 
ARCMITGHThis is why we talk to one 
another. 
Gyou are goign to make friends 
ere in this departmen 
you fucking hoid onto them 
ey will Keep you sane 


CHYAMA 


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CHYAMAGnobody is going to look at the 
things you say to each other 


unless there's a damn good 
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Gthis job is going to weigh on you 
ike a fucking anvi 

Gyou talk to one another, you help 
one another 


CHYAMA 


CHYAMA 


HYAMAGon the job and in private 
TRNROSNRNobody in the Observers is a 
one-person team 

TRNROSNRTake it from us. We're serious 
about not Isolating yourseives 

SRONDon'‘t try | 

SRONYou might die 

SRONNOtT a joke 
RNROSNRYowr job Is very g-ddamn crucia 


TRNROSNRAnd you cannot talk about this 
with anyone other than other 


Observers 
TRNROSNROther Observers are the only 
people who can know that you're 
an Observer 
CHYAMAGwell, and the EthCom staff 
psychologists, but they're a busy 
= Deer 
HY AiMA.Gfor Obvious reasons 
CHYAMAGwell, now that we've scared you 
all shitless (sorry) | guess if 
anyone's got any questions‘ 
TRNROSNRYou're free to disconnect if you 


don't. Remember to join #ecobsm 
as well, and set it on your auto- 


J 
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riends mine are mean to me 
* CHYAMAG set mode -m on 


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eaving room... 
* DISCONNECTED 


Ethics Committee Orientation 


Good afternoon, Doctor. Sit down. Your schedule has been cleared. 
Do not attempt to leave the room until you are told that this session 
is over. The door is already locked, but it is crucial you pay attention. 
Good. 


You are now part of the SCP Foundation's Ethics Committee. This is 
not a demotion. 


Sit down. 


Yes, you're terrified. You think you're being punished for some 
failure, some lapse of judgement, some horrible disaster that you 
were involved with. You think that your career with the Foundation is 
over. You might even have thought that ‘transferred to the Ethics 
Committee’ is a euphemism for ‘killed’. This is not the case. 


You'll notice | said "killed" instead of "terminated". That's a 
deliberate choice. On the Ethics Committee, we don't use 
euphemisms. 


Because of the work that the SCP Foundation does, a lot of 
personnel think that the idea of the Foundation having an Ethics 
Committee is just a bad joke. Or they know that the Committee 
exists, but they've got the impression that we're an ineffectual 
laughingstock. A bunch of purposeless seat-fillers who wave a 
rubber stamp that says APPROVED, and never dare to voice an 
objection. 


Yes, | see you've heard the jokes. Here's one - ‘how many members 
of the Ethics Committee does it take to change a lightbulb? None! 
The Ethics Committee can't change anything! 


No, it's all right. You're meant to laugh. 


We make an effort to sustain the impression that we're useless, 


because we are the secret power within the SCP Foundation. 
Sit down. 


Yes, there are the O5s. They judge what is and isn't safe, and that's 
a vital and important function. But we are the ones who advise the 
O5s on what is and is not acceptable. 


You've done horrible, awful things while working for the Foundation 
— don't try to deny it, Doctor. We've al/ done horrible awful things 
while working for the Foundation. That is one of the unavoidable 
consequences of working with SCPs. And on occasion, you've 
wondered if we are the, quote unquote, bad guys. Well... we're not. 
And that is because of the Ethics Committee. This is your first 
lesson. Do you understand? 


Remember this: the Foundation is not evil. We do not torture people 
"just because". We are against unnecessary cruelty. Which means 
somebody has to decide when cruelty is necessary. And that 
somebody is us. 


Stop trembling. 


It is important that you remember this. It is your second lesson. The 
Foundation does not rule the world. The Foundation serves the 
world. Do you understand what that means? Regardless of what the 
general population might think it wants, what we do, what the 
Foundation does, is in the overall best interests of that general 
population. Yes, I'm sure you did realize that already... but you 
haven't thought of the deeper implications. You've consoled yourself 
by thinking that all the torture and murder is for the greater good. 
This implies that there is a greater good... and a lesser good. It 
implies that there are multiple distinct goods, and that these can be 
quantified and compared. This is what we on the Ethics Committee 
do. 


We are the ones who balance the moral costs of everything the 
Foundation does. And in order to balance those costs, we must 

know those costs. Do you realize what that means, Doctor? It 
means that we know everything the Foundation does, has done, and 
will ever do. Everything that has ever been redacted or expunged, 


we know it. Every last detail. 


Yes, including what SCP-447-2 does when it comes in contact with 
dead bodies. Yes, we know exactly what Procedure 110-Montauk is, 
too. We should. We're the ones who designed it. 


No, it's quite all right. It's a common reaction. Perhaps we shouldn't 
schedule these meetings directly after lunch, | suppose. Here, wipe 
your mouth. 


You will no longer be participating in active research. You may 
consider yourself a researcher at large, flitting from one project to 
another, from one site to another, at will. This is not a secret; you 
are welcome to tell all your friends that you have been transferred to 
the Ethics Committee... if you can deal with the jokes and the pity. 
You will observe what is done, and ask the participants — and 
yourself — why it is being done. If at any point you feel that 
something is excessive or unnecessary or wrong, you inform us. We 
will summon the people involved, and ask them questions, in that 
meek ineffectual way that your coworkers have mocked. 


And then, word will filter down from the Ods, through the many 
levels of our bureaucracy. And those who are unethical will be given 
reprimands which will be noted on their permanent record. Or their 
pay will be cut, or they will be demoted, or they will be transferred to 
another project. 


Or they will be shot for crimes against humanity. 
This is your third lesson. Remember it. 


The 'P' stands for 'Protect’. The Foundation protects humanity from 
SCPs, and we protect the Foundation from itself. We judge what is 
and is not acceptable for the Foundation to do. We balance evils so 
that on the whole, and in the long run, evil is minimized. 


No, you don't have a choice about being on the Committee. 


... Yes, the irony is lovely, isn't it. 


Etymology of die Glocke 


FROM: Otto Weber 
TO: Ursula Weber 
SENT: 10 October, 1939 


Heil Hitler. 


How are you, my wife? | hope all is well at Magdeburg. 
As you may have heard from the radio, we have attained 
victory in the September Campaign. More importantly, | 
am alright. We may have married in haste for fear of the 
worst, but it appears that our fears were unfounded. 
Nonetheless, that spur of the moment gave me reason to 
fight on. | owe it to those church bells that gave us that 
thought. At least among my fellows, | Know what | am 
fighting for. You. 


That being said, my deployment is still ongoing so | 
cannot return home yet. Until we reunite, these letters 
shall be our correspondences to each other. 


Sincerely 


Otto Weber 
Ahnenerbe SS 


FROM: Otto Weber 
TO: Ursula Weber 
SENT: 24 December, 1939