".,.Ah yes. That is a Librarian. Yeah, that one has no mouth. 


"This is because being a Librarian is a punishment. Usually. There 
are a few voluntary Librarians, and they look particularly strange. 
But we won't be seeing those on this recording. 


"The ones with no mouths are Docents. They guide people through 
the Library and... enforce the rules of the Library. They are scary as 
hell — just one can take out one of our paramilitary squads all on its 
own, with ease. When they've been involved in containment 
breaches, which has been incredibly, incredibly rare, the damage 
has been massive. And they're not even the Library's biggest 
defenses. 


"The other two common Librarians are Archivists and Pages. You 
can see some of the Archivists in the background of this shot here 
— they're at the large desks to the left. They are attached to their 
chairs — they have no legs. And you can't see it from this angle, but 
they have no eyes. Don't need them to read, apparently. And — 


<Something like a human spider scuttles across one of the shelves 
above Agent Liu's head. She doesn't seem startled.> 


"—that's a Page. They take care of the books directly. I've never 
seen one touch the ground. 


"All of these used to be people. Most of them were human. Now, 


they're not. 


"See, the Library has rules. Don't damage books, don't steal books, 
return books on time. Don't damage the Library. And don't harm 
those within the Library. 


"If you break rules too egregiously, you are forcibly made into a 
Librarian. And... yes. A number of Foundation agents are trapped in 
the Library right now, serving out sentences as Librarians. Given the 
nature of their offenses... if we're lucky, they'll get out in a few 
hundred years. 


"Question in the back. No. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do 
for them. We don't even know which Librarians they are. An — more 
questions — alright, let's pause the footage. 


<The footage pauses, as Agent Jones appears to be flirting with a 
floating, regal-looking mermaid, surrounded by a stack of green 
books floating in orbs of water.> 


"Alright. More questions. You in the, um, shirt, go ahead. 


"Can we use Sigma-3 to retrieve books from the Library? Um, no, 
not as such. First, the Library already has its eye — metaphorically, | 
assume — on us. If we start making plans like that, even seriously 
start entertaining them, we might lose access to the Library. We 
have to rely on whatever information can be filtered through our 
Sigma-3 agents. Whatever they can film, copy down, etcetera. 
Believe me, that's better than nothing. 


"Second, | haven't yet talked about Library Cards. 


"To check out books, to take them out of the Library, you need to 
have a Library Card. The Library gets a copy and you get a copy. 
On that Card is a magical signature that counts as your True Name. 


"For the majority of you who don't get the significance of that — we 
don't have time to get into the True-Naming business, but what that 
means is, anyone with that Card can cast spells on you as if you're 
willing. They can do nearly anything to you if they're good enough, 
and the Library certainly is. 


"Library Cards also confer the protection of the Library, to a certain 
extent. Killing Card-holders is part of why the Global Occult Coalition 
got kicked out of the Library — they were smart enough not to kill 
anyone in the Library directly, though they did end up killing — sorry, 
| digress. 


"Point is, the Coalition used the Library to monitor 'dissidents' and 
execute them once they left. And you can't cheat the Library. 


"| bring that up as another reminder: this is why Sigma-3 cannot, 
ever, help the rest of the Foundation contain anomalies using the 
Library. We can get death cults and suchlike because they're also 
targeting other Library members and because other Library 
members are helping us do so, but even then, we have to be 
cautious. 


"Let's keep going. 


<The footage resumes. Navarro, Jones, and Liu head past more 
massive, endless shelves, and walk into an atrium. There's a coffee- 
house set up incongruously on the edge of a field of wildflowers. 
People perch laptops atop stacks of books. Liu gestures animatedly 
at an empty blue "couch" that looks like it was designed for 
something much larger than a human, and probably with a different 
limb arrangement.> 


"Another question — Does the Library have free Wifi? Okay, | know 
you're joking, but the answer is actually yes. The Library has almost 
anything you can think of. People can live their entire lives in the 
Library — they typically don't, but it's possible. 


<A massive, towering behemoth lumbers into view. Like a cross 
between a sauropod dinosaur and a kraken. Its many eyes fix on 
each small humanoid in turn as it passes, blotting out whatever 
strange light source emanates from the top of the Library atrium. Its 
eyes seem to fix for an especially long time on Jones, Navarro, and 
Liu, but then it passes onwards, vanishing through an archway that's 
much too small for it to fit under.> 


".,.And that... is one of the Library's bigger defenses. This one didn't 
appear when we invaded. Worse things did. It might be some kind of 


Librarian, it might be something else. Who knows? 


"They call it the Elephant God, even though it's not much like an 
elephant. The size, | guess. 


<The footage ends, as the three Foundation agents gawk at the 
monster's disappearing tails.> 


"And that's all we have for today. Keep in mind, all this is only a 
fraction of the Library. The parts that can easily be accessed from 
Earth. The Library has what they call Archives, which include the 
inner workings of the Library, as well as the wings of the Library 
where humanoids like us don't visit. 


"None of the Sigma-3 agents who can get into the Library have 
access to the Archives. Library doesn't like us enough. But we have 
people working with us who can go there. A very few, mind you. The 
Archives are not entered lightly. They have a manticore in there. 


"And... the Archives are where things really went sideways when 
the Foundation forced their way into the Library. The strange-ways, 
the Boiler Rooms, the guards on the Roots, the... I'm sorry. It's hard 
to talk about some... aspects of this place without... sounding like 
you're speaking fairy-tale. Anyway, like | said, no one really knows 
what happened when the Foundation tried to take the Library. 


"Alright. | really, really, need a break. So let's all have dinner, and 
then come back for our final discussion — about magic." 


"Welcome back. | hope you had a great dinner. Or... whatever you 
did. I'm not here to judge. 


"So. Magic. 


"Anyone who can perform magic on a consistent, sustained basis is 
a Type Blue. Colloquially, a mage, a witch, a magician, whatever. 


"The term, Type Blue, the Foundation lifted from the Global Occult 
Coalition. The Coalition classifies humanoids with anomalous 
capability using colors. We at the Foundation mostly use their terms 
for Green and Blue. Green is reality bender. Blue is magician. 


SCP-658 are capable of running at varying speeds, climbing up 
even flat vertical walls, and swimming. 


SCP-658 are capable of reproduction, achieved through 
"impregnating" other machines. "Machine", in this case, is 
essentially defined as any complex manmade mechanism. This 
includes items as disparate as wristwatches, typewriters, personal 
computers, motor vehicles, and - though rarely - other SCP-658. 
Impregnation is carried out via a poorly-understood process that 
requires only momentary physical contact. As a result of the 
process, an "embryo" will appear inside the machine (hereafter 
referred to as "host"). 


The embryo initially appears to be a featureless lump of plastic and 
metal measuring 1 mm, but develops and grows quickly within its 
host. As an embryo expands, it connects and incorporates 
increasingly more of its host's internal mechanisms into its own 
structure. The embryo partially takes on the task of maintaining the 
functions of its host, whose users usually fail to notice anything is 
amiss, and believe that the host machine is working no less 
effectively than usual; however, visible minor "glitches" and 
anomalies, as well as external deformation, tend to appear toward 
the end of the "gestation". 


The embryo will also break down some of the host machine's 
internal components, both for the purpose of constructing its own 
body, and for weakening the host's structural integrity in preparation 
for "birth". 


At the end of the gestation cycle (which takes a varying amount of 
time depending on the nature of the host), the embryo, now 
developed into a mature SCP-658, exits its host by ripping it apart. 
The new SCP-658 immediately assumes the behavior typical for 
other SCP-658 instances; in particular, it is immediately capable of 
reproduction. Size, form and behavior of the new SCP-658 depend 
on the host machine. See log below. 


Excerpt from Document 658-L: Log of past impregnations 


Host Gestation period Notes 
A mechanical 18 hours Resultant SCP-658 


"Before coming here, some of you read transcripts of a lecture given 
to new Global Occult Coalition operatives about 'applied 
thaumotology.' Magic, in other words. The rest of you will have 
access to some of those transcripts after this session. 


"Your higher-ups want you to read these because new GOC 
trainees still start off reading those, even though they're decades old 
and some of the information is... | would quibble with its 
presentation. The important thing is that you know half the baseline 
our competition has started from. 


"I'm here to give you the viewpoint of the other half. You already 
know that | used to be a member of the Serpent's Hand. 


"You in the back, who raised her hand when | mentioned the 
Coalition transcripts? 


"For anyone who didn't catch that question, she just asked about 
‘that Hogwarts shit.’ She wasn't joking, no. 'Hogwarts' is the, ahem, 
International Center for the Study of Unified Thaumatology. 


"It's not exactly Hogwarts, more a university focused exclusively on 
research, but... yes, it is on some level a school for wizards. 
Depending on your definition of 'wizard’. 


"Why haven't we contained and shut them down? Well, remember 
what | told you about Sigma-3. But, sure, we don't need to use 
Sigma-3 for that. The real answer is that the Center is protected by 
the Global Occult Coalition, among other things, and I'm not 
exaggerating when | say that attacking it could trigger World War 
Three. 


"Something | need to keep reminding people. We're here to secure, 
contain, protect, not to blow everything into the daylight just to make 
sure we possess every paranatural artifact on Earth. 


"Either way, it's not up to us; we're to leave the Center alone by 
order of the O5 Council. But yes, it exists, as part of the anomalous 
community. No, | don't think Foundation members can attend. 


"The Hand and the GOC have a number of Type Blues in their 


ranks. With the Foundation... officially, we have no Type Blues. 
There are no Foundation magicians. Of course, you know that's not 
true. Still, we have only a few, and almost every Type Blue 
Foundation member is associated with Sigma-3. 


"But all that aside. 
<clears throat> 
"You want to know how | could talk to you in blue. 


"Well, it's not especially easy. | did a few rituals before coming here 
so | could do this a few times on cue. All with the permission of our 
higher-ups in the Foundation — yes, there are people higher than 
me, of course there are. I'm only a Director. 


"Point is, any and all magic that any of you will be performing will be 
done under strictest supervision, unless you're out in the field and 
need to blend in. All of it will be done in the service of the 
Foundation. 


"One of you asked me a question when you were supposed to be 
having dinner. Ze wanted to know: why can we talk about Type 
Greens — reality benders — when we can't talk about Type Blues? 


"Some of you have already guessed the answer. The truth — the 
truth that none of you are to repeat in mixed company, certainly not 
to anyone else in the Foundation — is that anyone can become a 
Type Blue. 


"Anyone can become a magician. Anyone can learn to perform 
magic. Many of you are going to at least attempt to learn. Most will 
not succeed, but it is possible for any of you to succeed. 


<clears throat> 


"That gets a little wearing after a while. And a couple of you look ill. 
Sorry about that. 


"Anyway. Anyone can become a Type Blue, but there are some 
caveats. The first is sometimes called Potential. At least, it was 
called that when | was a member of the Hand. 


"A few people get Potential through their genetics, but 99.9% of the 
population is born with a Potential of nothing. After that, whether you 
get Potential is like whether you get cancer. There are about a 
million factors. Some of it's how you think. Some of it's how you do 
or don't fit into society. Some of it's your kind of intelligence. And 
sometimes there is no identifiable cause. 


"Generally, if you want to become a magician — a Type Blue — you 
first figure out what your Potential is. What life's given you. If you're 
lucky, you'll find an established magic tradition that suits you. If 
you're very lucky — by which | mostly mean, you're a Type Blue 
already and didn't know it — you can just go ahead and start 
practicing. Otherwise, you have to take a good, long hard look at 
yourself. 


"Because becoming a magician is hard. It takes a lot out of you, 
something different from every person. It usually requires some kind 
of sacrifice. 


"Question? Go ahead. 


"No, | don't mean a blood sacrifice, necessarily. Even in the 
anomalous community, that is very much not socially acceptable. 
When | say sacrifice, | mean... physically, emotionally, spiritually. It's 
different for everyone. 


"Why a sacrifice? Because it's about perspective. Not just your 
perspective. But the perspective of others, on you. The perspective 
of reality. It's about changing how the World sees you. How you see 
and interact with the universe. 


"You're confused. That's understandable. Let me try to rephrase. 
Becoming a magician is all about discovering and altering your 
metaphysical place in the world. 


"This can be temporary, or permanent. Temporary is easiest. Most 
people can create a really minor Working, or a spell. Serpent's Hand 
members often start with making blue lily flower chains. 


"Then they follow a really complicated set of instructions that, with 
the right materials and mindset, as well as membership of the 


Serpent's Hand, produce temporary Potential inside them, which 
they then use to Work the flower chains, to add magic to them. 
Anomalous effects. 


"Those effects are different for everyone. It's impossible to try to 
make every Type Blue make a luck charm, because almost 
everyone who doesn't believe in luck will reliably fail it, except, 
oddly, actual statisticians, who know what it would take to create 
actual luck. Point is, it's not directly predictable what any one person 
can and can't do. 


"Let's have some more demonstrations. At this point, you've all 
heard me talk in blue. Let's see what someone else can do. Agent 
Navarro? 


"What do you mean, no one told you in advance you'd need to put 
on a show? I'm telling you now. You up for it, or not? 


"| thought so. Alright, everyone who doesn't know, this is Agent 
Daniel Navarro. Agent Navarro is a former anartist, and like me, he 
is a Type Blue. 


<Director Moose hands Agent Navarro a slip of paper, and a knife.> 
"Whenever you're ready, Agent Navarro.