MOTION AS FOLLOWS: PROCEED WITH 
CONTINGENCY PLAN 2798-5, TO DISTRIBUTE 
MEANS OF EFFECTIVE SUICIDE TO GLOBAL 
POPULATION IN ORDER TO SPARE ALL 
INTERESTED CIVILIANS FROM SCP-001 


YEA: 05-3, 05-4, O5-7, 05-9, 05-10, O5-11 
NAY: 05-2, 05-5, 05-8, 05-13 

ABSTAIN: 05-1, 05-6, O5-12 

RESULT: MOTION FAILS 


harbinger.docx 


scp-001 .pdf 
continued_deliberations.docx 


a_night_at_the_movies.pst 


STANDARD DREAM REPORT 66-Y 990-1.paf 
After Action Report 2272'.padf 

STANDARD DREAM REPORT 66-Y 990-2.pdf 
the_man_at_the_threshold.avi 


jaci_and_aurelio.padf 


Harbinger 


05-2 carefully arranged the surgical mask over her face, tugging the 
disposable fabric this way and that, ensuring that her mouth and 
nose were covered properly. She bent down and eased off her black 
pumps, exchanging them for a pair of sterile slippers. A set of gloves 
and a disposable cap were on the table next to her. 


"Is this really the extent of protocol for interacting with a four- 
hundred-year-old-man?" said the Overseer as she looked down at 
her new shoes with disgust. 


"You're worried about protocol at a time like this?" Dr. Zhang 
adjusted his glasses as he examined the tablet in his hand. 


"A time like this. What could you possibly know about that? You live 
in a separate world from us. That's exactly what Existential Isolation 
Facility Beta was designed for." O5-2 tucked her long silver hair 
under the cap, pushing individual strands away from her forehead 
and up underneath the protective garment. 


"Overseers aren't supposed to be here. Should | even ask why that 
rule is being waived today?" 


"No. You shouldn't." She pulled the latex gloves onto her hands, 
accentuating the end of her sentence with a tight snap. "And don't." 


The Overseer and the Site Director passed the rest of their time 
preparing in silence. A soft chime and a green icon flashing on the 
Director's tablet indicated that the subject was ready. Dr. Zhang 
began to speak. O5-2 spoke instead. 


"No recording devices. No one else." O5-2 held her security pass up 
to the reader on the hermetically sealed door. Latches clicked open 
as her card was acknowledged, air rushing past them from the 
positive pressurized antechamber. 


She looked one last time at Dr. Zhang. "| was never here. Do you 
understand?" 


The Site Director nodded. O5-2 didn't bother to wait for 
acknowledgment as she proceeded into the main chamber. 


The second door sealed behind her automatically. Before her was a 
man in a hospital bed, at the center of a mass of tubes, wires and 
specialized lifts designed to enable movement with the least 
possible effort. She only knew that this was a man because she had 
read the file; the person before her was a shriveled husk of cobweb- 
thin strands of hair and translucent, spotted skin. Machines 
registered respiration and heartbeat, assuring anyone who cared to 
listen that this was a living creature. 


She sat in the chair placed at the ancient man's side by the research 
staff. A speaker was wired to the bedside railing next to the man. 


"Goodbye, SCP-411." 


The wasted old man moved his lips, faint noises wheezing out of 
him, captured by the small microphone next to his mouth, held in 
place with surgical tape. Several seconds elapsed before a 
monotone voice emerged from the speaker, reconstructing and 
interpreting his barely perceptible words. 


"You are the first of the quiet times. Some peace and quiet, finally." 


O5-2 parsed the response. Not an answer to any questions she 
might ask. No causality issues yet. 


The monotone voice resumed. "Suffering. Cruelty. The currency by 
which the world is purchased. Everything that you are is a reflection 
of this. You will remember the true nature of cruelty in time." 


She had to be careful now. This sounded like something. She went 
through the checklist of questions she had prepared, mentally 
forbidding herself from any desire to deviate from the script. She 
read aloud the question that she thought fit the answer best. 


"What is the price that we will need to pay for this?" 


She didn't like the stilted manner of this conversation. O5-2 watched 
a thin stream of spittle trickle out of the corner of 411's mouth as his 
lips moved. She waited for the transcription. 


"Your kind did not just appear in my path. | recognize your faces. All 
of my life | have seen faces like yours. Not full of fear, and 
desperation and hate like the faces of my recent years. But joy. The 
happiness of untroubled days, illumined by a different star. Your 
future is clear in my past. You have been, and you will continue to 
be." 


A different star. This was consistent with the data from the newest 
Determinative Set that had been examined. The nature of how it 
would occur was murky, as all data from SCP-2003 were, but the 
possibility that escape from 001 was an option had been 
tantalizingly coming into focus for the past several weeks. 


There was a future after all. 


She started to speak the question to the answer. She was cut off by 
monotone, clipped laughter from the speaker. Something about it 
chilled her. She started again. 


"411, does humanity exist in your past?" Her feelings of relief 
collided with the unnatural flow of the conversation. Her elation at 
being able to believe in another path forward was cut with something 
that felt like poison inside her. Nothing about this interaction felt 
right. Many items provided glimpses of the future. All of them 
distorted those events through the madman lenses of their creators, 
human and otherwise. The future was forbidden from the central 
planning process, but O5-2 felt the need to make an exception, 
given the vote that was before them tomorrow. 


The speaker crackled once more, breaking her thoughts. "A barren 
rock. Home to terrors beyond imagining. It is well that life has fled. It 
is even better that life for others continues far away from this place." 


Well. The next response was an easy one, then. She sighed, 
annoyed with the rules of this game despite the awful gravity of the 
situation. 


"Is there a future for humanity on Earth?" 


That was the last non-pleasantry she had been planning on asking 
of the decrepit humanoid. Precious little material, but apparently an 
extended conversation would kill someone of this advanced age. 
Then they'd all be truly screwed. She decided to wait a few more 
moments while the time-wasted man gasped words inaudibly in his 
own slow time. Her vote tomorrow was decided now. She began to 
formulate the beginnings of the argument she would make to her 
peers. How would she reconcile- 


"The Planet of Hands. This is what we are to speak of. | am from 
there, you know. As are you, child. You shall know more of it in time. 
| am glad to be here now instead." 


05-2 sighed. Senility hadn't been mentioned in the file, but it was 
certainly to be expected from someone who had racked up multiple 
centuries of life. A brief thought occurred that perhaps 411's other 
answers should be reconsidered. She banished it quickly. Any 
chance, no matter how slight, was better than tomorrow's proposal. 
She focused herself on convincing the others. 


"Greetings, prodigal daughter. Unlike me, you'll be home soon." The 
ancient face on the bed twisted into something resembling a polite 
smile. Like she had just walked in the room. That was her cue, 
thankfully. 


"Greetings, SCP-411." 05-2 promptly stood up, turned around, and 
left the chamber. 


Continued Deliberations 


05-2 let the e-mail alert fade from her terminal screen without 
opening it. She already knew that the Foundation had suffered more 
casualties in the past twenty-four hours than all of the last five years 
put together. The only thing reading the details would accomplish 
would be the sapping of her resolve. The path forward was clear. 
Ensuring a future was worth any price. She wished she could tell 
each field commander personally, we're certain about this, just hold 
the line. Then again, desperation was on her side. People had a 
remarkable tenacity in the face of death. Nobody needed to remind 
anyone of what the consequences of failure were. 


The large video monitor on the wall beside her chimed with an 
incoming videoconference notification. O5-3. She buried her face in 
her hands. Did she not get her fill of vitriol during the Council vote? 
Knowing O5-3, it was quite likely. She sat up. Internecine warfare 
was one of the few ways the Council had to amuse itself in this 
world. Even now, those habits died hard. Maybe especially now. 
She motioned at the screen, and O5-3's dark, lined face was on her 
wall. 


"Vote's over, Three. You lost. Does that still make you mad?" 
The woman on the screen sighed. "What | am is scared, Two." 


It had not yet been a full two days since SCP-2798 had gone down, 
and the toll had been horrific. There was no way that current 
operations were sustainable for more than a week. Fear was 
probably the only reasonable response. 


"Telling someone else that you're frightened isn't very therapeutic in 
our line of work, Three. Fear is contagious. Can | do something for 
you?" 


05-3 leaned a little closer to the monitor. "You blocked the vote. You 
cut off our exit." 


SCP-524: Walter the Omnivorous Rabbit 


Item #: SCP-524 
Object Class: Safe 


Special Containment Procedure: As it has a benign nature, little 
security is needed for this SCP. More commonly known as "Walter", 
SCP-524 must be kept under surveillance in order to prevent 
accidental damage to any vital material within the site. Whilst not 
under the direct care of a personnel member, SCP-524 may be kept 
in a specially designed pen, roughly 5 by 5 meters, with sensors 
placed within to notify SCP-524's current keeper of any escapes. 
Due to its abilities, there are no specific diets to be assigned to this 
SCP. 


Description: SCP-524 is a common white rabbit, of the species 
Oryctolagus cuniculus. It can be identified by its white fur with 
symmetrical black markings on its body. 


SCP-524 has shown the ability to be able to consume any material, 
regardless of edibility. It eats in the same fashion as any other 
member of its species, though it can eat substances that are not 
only inedible, but dangerous. SCP-524 has been recorded chewing 
through wood, steel, glass, and in one instance, several kilos of 
radioactive material. SCP-524 shows no adverse effects from 
anything it has consumed. 


Despite the obvious paradox involved, SCP-524 has been known to 
fully consume its own body. It begins by chewing on its tail, slowly 
eating up past the hind legs, and up towards its head. When it 
reaches up past its front legs and neck, SCP-524 somehow 
manages to flip its entire mouth inside-out, consuming its entire 
head, and disappearing completely. Roughly thirty minutes later, 
SCP-524 reappears near the spot it had eaten itself, completely 
whole. It is essentially unharmed by the process. 


"Oh, bullshit, there were plenty of us with doubts." 


"But none with the certainty of yours. Five and Thirteen were never 
going to vote for it anyway, but Six and Twelve would have. | talked 
to them before. | know that you talked them out of it." 


"That's still not enough. One was the difference, and even you can't 
tell me that | can make One bend to anything." 


05-3 sighed again. "Look. That doesn't matter, | guess. It's done, 
and that's that. But you owe me something, Two." 


"Do |?" O5-2 moved closer herself now. "| owe you something for 
not letting you kill everyone? You're beyond absurd. I'm done with 
this now." 


"Wait. Please. | need to know." O5-3 paused a moment while she 
forced out the question. "| need to know what you know. | need you 
to tell me why we didn't just make the worst mistake in the history of 
the world. The real reason, Two." 


O5-2's hand hovered over the red button to end the call. She pulled 
it back. "| went to the precog items. | peeked." 


The revelation washed over O5-3's hard features, her determined 
upper lip and furrowed brow softening as her face betrayed shock. It 
was the first time O5-2 had seen her face like that. "You didn't. That 
can't possibly be-" 


"Is it really that hard to believe? With the gun in your own mouth, 
you're not the least bit curious about how things might turn out if you 
don't pull the trigger? Yes, I'm aware of the prohibitions. Who cares 
about that now? Are you going to report me? Requisition a detail to 
come and detain me in the middle of all of this?" 


O5-3 sat in silence. There was no arguing the point. "So what did 
you see?" 


"You know what it's like, Three. Being old. Ideally, you learn to not 

delude yourself with false hope. Resign yourself. You remember the 
old Eleven? His obsession with uploading his consciousness, like he 
could cheat Death? Ridiculous. He was ridiculous..." Two trailed off, 


the wild eyes of the former O5-11 haunting her for a moment. "But 
this...we've always fought to preserve what is, Three. We've never 
thought about what could be." 


"What do you mean by that?" 


"All of the precog items point to a future. | haven't seen how we get 
to it, but it's not just survival. | saw great spires of glass that pierced 
the clouds, unspoiled landscapes, great flocks of birds passing 
through cityscapes built into mountaintops. I've seen people who 
don't fear sickness and death. No wars, no poverty." She grew more 
animated. "All of the anomalies under our control that can tell us 
anything have all showed me this place. That it exists. Someone 
survives to make it there." 


05-3 looked skeptical. "That's a very different place than the one 
we're seeing now." 


"It's a different planet. We know that much." 


"Do you think that we're going to be able to mount a space 
colonization mission when we can't even keep ourselves alive right 
now?" 


"No. Probably not," said O5-2. "But at some point, someone does. 
And | want to give whoever that is the chance to do that. Don't you 
see? There is a point to all of this, now. There is an end goal for 
humanity, more than just living another night. Our children will have 
a chance not just to live, but to live in peace. Isn't that worth 
continuing on?" 


"That seems very ideal, doesn't it," said O5-3. "Almost like it's 
designed to stay our hand." 


"What reason do | have to make this up? And it was useless as a 
tool to influence the Council. If | had brought this up during the vote, 
| very well would have been detained, then." 


"Hm. You do seem to believe it." 05-3 frowned. "You know that 
these...things, they can be very untrustworthy." 


"One or two, maybe they come up with the same deception," said 


05-2. "All of them? Vanishingly unlikely. Some of these things are 
kept in separate realities. No, this is all pointing to something, and | 
believe it is true. Or rather, | believe in it enough to keep going for 
the chance to make it real." 


05-3 was silent for a moment. She swallowed. "You know that we've 
already had two activations of SCP-089? In two days?" 


O5-2 took a moment. "No. | did not know that. And really, | would 
prefer not to know things like that." She went on. "Nothing we're 
doing now is anything that we haven't been called upon to do 
before. It's harder. But it's the same thing. We've always tried to 
preserve some sort of future. And now that we've got proof of it, we 
can't stop now." 


"Proof," said O5-3 quietly. "God, | hope you know what you're doing, 
Two." 


"Just help me hold things together. Until we can't do it anymore, so 
that whoever it is that gets us out of here and away from whatever 
the hell it is that's hunting us can do their duty." O5-2 fought hard, 
and the tears stayed in her eyes; she would not let them flow.