"On a larger scale, Sigma-3 helped prevent a direct, coordinated 
assault against the Foundation about a decade ago, after Incident 
Zero — an assault that would've crushed us, and that's almost 
impossible given the Foundation's size and defenses. | can't tell you 
the exact number of times that Sigma-3 has literally saved the world, 


but | can tell you it's in the plural. 


"In exchange, Sigma-3 is set apart from other Foundation task 
forces. They do not aid in the containment of any anomalous 
entities, not even indirectly, unless it's done with the cooperation or 
members of the anomalous community. 


"This is where many people stop, and raise hell. This is worse, to 
them, than even task forces like Omega-7 or Alpha-9. Those task 
forces use or used anomalous entities — but this task force actively 
shields certain anomalous entities from containment! Worse — 
sometimes Sigma-3 even makes deals which allow anomalous 
entities to go free. 


"This goes against the fundamental ethos of the Foundation, they 
say. And maybe they're not wrong. But as things stand now, the 
Foundation is not capable of simply containing every anomaly out 
there in the wild. Until that time, Sigma-3 has proven its worth. What 
good is our ethos if we don't have a world to protect? 


"Let me get colloquial again. Sigma-3 are the people whose job it is 
to know if some cultists are summoning Cthulhu. Generally, their 
friends and neighbors don't want the world to end. But maybe they 
can't really do much to stop it. But we can. They have the 
knowledge. We have the resources. 


"They may not know we're Jailors... er, members of the Foundation, 
but when Cthulhu's involved, they don't mind telling someone who 
knows someone who knows someone else who can call in one of 
our bigger Mobile Task Forces and bust some heads. And save the 
world. 


"Not that I'm saying Cthulhu really exists... if It does, then you're not 
cleared to know about it. Just an example. 


"| think we're due another break. Come back in twenty and we'll talk 
about the, ah, so-called 'anomalous community.’ 
"Alright. The 'anomalous community’. What's that mean? 


"The anomalous community makes up all the people in the world 


SCP-658: "Botflies" 


Item #: SCP-658 
Object class: Euclid 


Special Containment Procedures: Any small instance of SCP-658 
(measuring no more than 50 cm in the largest dimension), when not 
involved in experimentation, is to be stored, alone, within a steel box 
preferably kept closed via simple low-tech means, such as tying with 
strings or duct tape, or weighing down the lid. Boxes with external 
mechanical or electronic locks are to be avoided for this purpose; 
boxes with mechanisms accessible from the inside must not be 
used. 


Larger instances of SCP-658 are to be destroyed as soon as 
possible. 


Unless exposure is necessary for sake of experimentation, every 
instance of SCP-658 is to be kept at least 3 meters from all 
electronic devices, as well as all noticeably complex mechanical 
machinery; when in doubt as to whether an item belongs to such a 
category, personnel are to err on the side of caution. Devices 
affected by SCP-658, when not used for experimentation, are to be 
destroyed. Machinery affected by SCP-658 must not be connected 
to an electrical outlet for any amount of time. 


Description: Each instance of SCP-658 is an autonomous robotic 
device. Size and weight varies widely; specimens as small as 5 mm, 
oraslargeas_ m, have been observed. Bottom half of each 
specimen contains four spiderlike, highly flexible legs and a single 
"eye". Appearance and structure of upper half is different in every 
SCP-658. 


SCP-658 remain active at all times, despite appearing to lack any 
power source. While behavior varies between instances, when 
otherwise unoccupied most tend to explore their surroundings; 


whose lives involve the anomalous. People of all types imaginable. 
A patchwork of individual communities, totalling a few hundred 
thousand people worldwide. 


"That's probably more than you'd guess, but so it goes — and 
another reason why Sigma-3 is necessary. These are all people who 
are aware of, and often are exposed to, the anomalous world. For 
some of them, it's part of their daily life. 


"Many of them have access to the Wanderers’ Library, and most of 
them have heard of it. Many are involved in the so-called anart 
community. Many are involved with the Global Occult Coalition and 
the Serpent's Hand. 


"Even the Foundation itself has roots in the anomalous community, 
from a very long time ago, if you listen to some of the stories — no, 
that's not an official statement, I'm only repeating rumors. Take them 
as you will. 


"How many actually have anomalous capability? Well, that's an 
open question. A distinct minority are low-level Type Blues, who can 
do little tricks or learn a few spells out of books. Mages, witches, 
magicians, soothsayers, etcetera. People like... well, me, before | 
defected to the Foundation. 


"When we catch these people, we don't usually classify them as 
SCPs. The ones we've kept are mostly classified as anomalous 
items. Sigma-3 handles a good number of them. 


"In terms of GOls in the anomalous community... well, technically, 
they all are part of the anomalous community, in some way. But the 
bigger ones are... let me get this slide working. 


Are We Cool Yet 

The Chaos Insurgency. 

The Church of the Broken God 
The Fifth Church 

The Global Occult Coalition 
The Horizon Initiative 

Manna Charitable Foundation 
Marshall, Carter, and Dark Ltd. 


Office For The Reclamation of Islamic Artifacts 
Oneiroi Collective 

Sarkic Cults 

The Serpent's Hand 

Unusual Incidents Unit (UIU) 


"As you can see, that's... most of ‘em. A-W-C-Y, the Insurgency, the 
Fifthists, and the Sarkicists are more... fringe. Technically, so is the 
Church of the Broken God, but the so-called 'Devout' are far more 
accepted in the anomalous community than you might think, except 
by Horizon allies. 


"Manna, Horizon, and ORIA are ‘initiatives’ within the anomalous 
community, | guess you'd call them. MC&D is just what you think it is 
— the rich people in the anomalous community are mostly all part of 
it or associated with it. And Oneiroi... gods only know what the 
Oneiroi are, so... | won't speculate. 


"Then we have the two biggest ones — the Coalition and the Hand. 


"We have a reputation, too. People who don't sign on with the GOC, 
and even some of those, call us Jailors. But the Coalition gets called 
‘Bookburners’. So... it could be worse. 


"About the Insurgency — people outside the Foundation don't view it 
the same as we do. We see them as... well, insurgents, half-crazy 
defectors from the Foundation who want to destroy everything for 
who knows what reason. 


"The anomalous community sees the Insurgency as a movement, 
more akin to the Sarkic Cults than anything else. A movement to 
remake the world, with strong religious overtones, despite the 
Insurgency's professed atheism. People who want to become gods. 
Destructive beyond reason, and crazier even than the people who 
want to summon dark gods. 


"Actually, even the people who want to summon dark gods tend to 
think of the Insurgency as going too far. They're popularly referred to 
as "the Sowers of Discord" and "the Madmen". Keep in mind these 
are literal death cults calling them that. The Insurgency won't be 
winning any popularity contests anytime soon, which is probably 


why they haven't... no, | digress. That's classified. 
"Let's talk the Hand and the Coalition. 


"The Global Occult Coalition is the Big Brother of the anomalous 
community. They're the cops, and the executioners. They have 108 
member organizations, all of them anomalous in some way, all of 
them shielded from us by the Coalition. 


"The Coalition cares a lot about maintaining the so-called 
Masquerade — they wish to preserve normalcy just as much as we 
do. But we aren't part of the anomalous community — and they are. 
Generally, all the respectable members of the anomalous 
community, or those in high society, are on board with the Coalition. 


"They're called 'Bookburners' because, after their formation after the 
Seventh Occult War — around World War II — they essentially 
enacted a hostile takeover of the anomalous community. Either you 
signed on with the Coalition — with Big Brother — or you got 
crushed. 


"Some elements of the Coalition got on the wrong side of the 
Library... and they were mystically barred from it, ever after. Just 
like us. Ironically, even though they crossed the Library first, they 
were acting on information they got from us... but that's a story for 
another time. 


"Suffice to say, many Coalition members are still spitting mad about 
losing their Library access; | suspect it caused the Coalition to tamp 
down many of their activities. Them being barred made it a lot easier 
for people who hated the Coalition to go underground. All they 
needed to do was get into the Library. 


"The Serpent's Hand is sort of the yin to the Coalition's yang. The 
Hand are a movement springing from opposition to the Coalition's 
whole... Big Brother thing. And to the idea of containing or 
suppressing the anomalous community. 


"They're the radical activists of the anomalous community... but also 
the ordinary people who don't take to their equivalent of Big 
Government. The Hand takes all types, anyone who wants to join. 


So there's a lot of decent folk and a lot of death cultists, too. There's 
heavy overlap between the Hand and the fringe communities, 
obviously, plus movements, like religious Cults — or the occasional 
full-blown religion, like the Church of the Broken God — and anartist 
groups. 


"Hand types tend to dislike us, too, but they like us better than the 
Coalition, because we try not to kill people. This is also why Sigma-3 
can exist. 


"Full disclosure: | used to be a member of the Serpent's Hand. | got 
into it through a college organization. Spent a few years in it before 
defecting to the Foundation. It's how | became a Type Blue — a 
magician. 


"Not answering questions about my incredibly interesting history, 
sorry. But I'll talk about the magician part in a bit. Right now, | think 
it's time for another break." 


"What is the Wanderers' Library? Most of you have probably heard 
of it, and know it's, um, a library, and that the Serpent's Hand uses it 
and we... don't. 


"|,.And that's about it. 


"The Wanderers’ Library is a library containing almost every book 
every written, and many that haven't been written yet, and many that 
will never be written. 


"We've got some footage for this. Give me a second to cue it up. 
"Alright, more than a second. Gonna ... keep talking. 


"We won't be showing you the outside of the Library because as far 
as we know, no one has ever seen it. The Library is a place outside 
space. "Extradimensional" is the technical term, though not very 
descriptive. The Library isn't on our world, though it's connected to it. 


"You reach it through Ways. Ways are a network of... basically 
magic portals that take you from one place to another. They're 
scattered around the world. The Foundation contains a number of 


them, mostly classified as anomalous items — a few networks are 
classified as SCPs. 


"The Library is a nexus of Ways. The largest one on Earth. A Way 
that connects to the Library is called a Door, because they attach to 
doors within the Library. Pretty simple. 


"Using the Ways isn't so simple. Okay, some of them are. Each has 
a trick to it, to make it work. Some of them you just need to be 
invited in. Others require some ritual — sneeze on a shadow, recite 
a code-word, befriend a fairy, follow your pet cat, kill a sheep, play 
the harmonica as you walk through a doorway. Sometimes these 
are called Knocks. 


"A Way can be anything you can picture as a door. Or anything like 
a door. A cave, an archway, the back of a truck. Technically, every 
shadow or mirror could be a Way, just not a useful Way. Some of 
them are just art pieces — | once used a picture of a door to enter 
the Library, back when | still could. Some of them are corridors 
between the stars. 


"They're more common than you'd think, too. At least a few in every 
major city. We know the locations of a few, but we know that many 
more exist. 


"If someone from the Foundation or the Global Occult Coalition tries 
to use Ways, they either don't work, or the Library redirects them 
into ... dangerous places. Other planets. Barren, hostile lands. Outer 
space. Someone reported that one literally opened into Hell — you 
can take that for whatever you think it's worth. More commonly, 
though, they just funnel us into the Library Archives and make us 
into Librarians. 


"I'll explain that in a moment — we've got the footage working. 


<The footage shows two women and one man, walking through a 
forest. One woman wears a skimpy Godzilla costume. The other 
woman wears full plate armor. The man is dressed in a red costume 
covered with plastic flames.> 


"So this is a fairly typical — Question? — Why the costumes? Oh — 


this particular Way requires you to dress up as something you're 
not. So... cosplaying. These are our agents, by the way. In 
plainclothes. Er... | guess not... plainclothes. 


"Godzilla is Agent Jones. The knight is Agent Liu. The last one's 
here today — Agent Navarro. The one in the, um, flaming outfit. Say 
hi to everyone, Agent Navarro. You know you want to. 


<The footage shows the three agents walking between two trees 
which have grown closely together. As they pass between the trees, 
they vanish into thin air. The footage cuts out.> 


"Anyway. These are three of our members of Sigma-3 who can 
access the Library. Out of the entire Foundation, generally only 
members of Sigma-3 can get into the Library — and only some of 
them can, at that. 


"We think the Library has some way of knowing who's going to use 
the Library to target its patrons — and not just in the present, but in 
the future. Yeah, the Library seems to have some limited ability to 
see the future. How? Your guess is as good as mine. 


"This is, by the way, why Sigma-3 doesn't help the rest of the 
Foundation contain people in the Library. If they did that, they'd 
simply be kicked out. And then we'd lose our 'in' to one of the most 
important anomalous locations in the world. 


<The footage resumes. It shows Agents Jones, Liu, and Navarro, 
now in ordinary clothing, standing in a huge hall, surrounded by 
massive shelves of books, going up, skyscraper-high, too high to 
see the top. In the hallway are many tables, and many people — 
well over a hundred, at least. As the footage plays on, it becomes 
obvious that not all of the people in the lobby are human. One 
person passes in front of the camera — their face is blue and 
covered in spikes. A thirty-foot-tall walking carpet sits down at a 
nearby table, with a book in each of its three tails.> 


"This is the main hall of the Library. It's... even bigger than it looks. 
This is actually a pretty empty day — usually there's at least a few 
hundred people around at any given time. And it can hold thousands 
just as comfortably. 


"Spaces are deceiving, in the Library. For example, in the main hall, 
it takes half a day to reach the back walls... yet the space you've 
crossed is at least the size of a continent. 


"Oh, and that's just the main hall. The Library has many wings. 
Some of them are small — only the size of a city. It just goes up 
from there. Some of them are actually built into forests and some of 
them of them have their own skies... 


<As the footage continues, Agent Navarro appears to try to 
converse with a robed humanoid figure. The figure has no mouth. 
Where its left hand should be, there's a chain connected to a 
glowing brass lantern.>