“It’s just the same shit” Rene complained as he pulled out the weekly test logs for SCP-055.
“Look on the bright side, you could be on Keter duty but here you are with me! Cushy, bored and with our mortality intact.” Arthur shot Rene a look, “Maybe if you were more grateful you wouldn’t be so miserable all the time.”
Rene snorted his displeasure at that affront, refusing to deign that insult with a reply. He pulled out the first page of the logs.
1
[70/100]
2
[80/100]
3
[53/100]
4
[96/100]
5
[41/100]
“Come on Art, clearly discussing what is it not is not going to be remotely useful, or possible for that fact,” Rene broke the amiable silence, “Look at this, who pulls these hypotheses out of their ass, ‘SCP-055 is not a cow’, no shit sherlock, the smell would be obvious enough.”
Arthur scooted over.
“I mean, of all the things it stops us from knowing, the first breakthrough we had is discovering that Fifty-Five can be understood in what it is not." Arthur admonished. "Unless you can think of a better idea, we're stuck with this.”
He raised his eyebrows, "In a way... we're thinking of it the same vein as Deleuze," he reaches for the ashtray absentmindedly, "Since we can't know what it is, the best bet we have is conceiving its difference-" finding the ashtray, he grabs it, "God, this ashtray is disgusting." Standing, he hunts for the disinfection station while resuming his last train of thought, "Difference, in that through how it is empirically related with everything else."
Closing the enquiry on his behalf Rene concluded, “In other words, what it is not." He signs, "Okay fine, you have a point... but I can't believing you're defending them." He glances to the flickering lights of his dashboard "It could be that... there is nothing in that room, if Fifty-Five is an absence, then again not that we know, these negative statements could be getting us nowhere.”
"Horror vacui." Arthur remarked from across the room, Rene frowned, "You mean..." Arthur looked over his shoulder, "Yes, nature abhors a vacuum."
"But not our nature" Rene mused silently.
"It can't be nothing Rene, even an absence stands for something, we just need the right way to think about it." Arthur finished.
"This reminds me of a page from SCP-152," Rene wondered. "'The Stars do not wait for You', an awfully poetic designation for the end of the world really."
Arthur laughed in response, "That prediction, or might I say fan fict, about a reality bender that realises its full potential, ascends into a being called the 'absence', and CKs humanity?" He shakes his head, amused, "How are you still hung up on that?"
Miffed, Rene retorted, "Well, It was a prediction from SCP-152, which mind you has been accurate so far."
Cynical, Arthur countered, "The date for that entry was fucking question marks, the life expectancy of your average foundation researcher is 10 years, give or take, and that's only if you're lucky." He continued, "The number of ways everything can go tits-up right now was too goddamm many to be worrying about hypotheticals... There's even a K-class SCP right at the end of our corridor, under many locks, behind many walls, but only 20 minutes away, if you are so inclined to visit."
Rene signed and leaned back in his well-worn chair and protested weakly, “But we still argue on how this universe is going to end." Defeated, he admitted, "Mate, I don't want to argue but being a month deep in this shit, we've been forced to confront that there are things we do not and cannot know" He looked over to Arthur's hunched back, "It has got me doubting the nature of my reality."
“At least you have your doubt,” Arthur commented as he scrubbed the filth from between his meaty fingers, "That's something right?" Drying his palms, “And to think philosophy helps to better the human condition.” Glancing over to Rene’s troubled countenance, “Lay off that Nietzsche, maybe then it'll start working for you.”
“An examination of the truth doesn’t care about sunshine and rainbows Art.” Rene sighed, “We need another approach, one that is more feasible... and perceptible.” Arthur shrugged, "Just another day at the office mate, maybe this sort of work ain't cut out for you."
Arthur wondered out loud as he returned to his desk, “Hey how bout….” Rene raised his eyebrows. “So think about the last stand-up where the Morpheus team presented their findings on temporal memory-sucking spiders and hypnic jerks. Could the fact we can’t perceive SCP-055 be a type of biological cognitohazard filter, protecting us for something dangerous, or something more real?”
"You mean like those hosts in Westworld?” Rene added, "They can't see the things that hurt them., man that line really hit different when Ford said it."
“Clearly we are confabulating worlds here, but yes in a way,” Arthur fished out a pack of Reds “In that Fifty-five is a type of ‘truth’ we can’t or aren't allowed to perceive... if that is so, who’s making that decision?”
"Someone needs to turn up our Bulk Apperception then." Rene commented as he flipped to the next page of the logs.
1
[98/100]
2
[7/100]
3
[47/100]
4
[65/100]
5
[77/100]
...He tabbed back to the main file and highlighted a part of the containment procedures:
‘All of these facts are periodically rediscovered, usually by chance readers of this file, causing a great deal of alarm. This state of concern lasts minutes at most, before the matter is simply forgotten about.’
“It’s terrifying how we so easily forget that Fifty-five is actually Keter,” Rene looked up “We are on Keter duty, we just keep forgetting what its Keter for.” He continued, “It may be picking us off one-by-one or restructuring the reality under our feet... it could even be a dammed Apollyon-class SCP." He licked his lips nervously, "But here we are, at lost of words a impending demise we don't even know is happening.”
Arthur lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply, “Like pigs blind to the slaughter.” Exhaling he added, “I think your Schopenhauer is spreading...got me questioning the value my state of existance ."
Rene turned to the logs for comfort. The smell of burning tobacco filled the room.
1
[33/100]
2
[76/100]
3
[50/100]
4
[74/100]
5
[84/100]
...Ten minutes passed as the researcher verified and cross-verified the logs. Rene quipped, “Have you heard? They have plans to ask 343 about Fifty-five.” Stubbing out his light, Arthur replied, “You mean ask God about the unknowable? Well, good luck with that, if he even tells you anyway.”
Rene protested, “I don’t think he’s the God, or even a god–"
Arthur interrupted, “I’m just glad he’s like a cool-uncle type than blood-and-brimstone one yeah?” ending that conversation. “I’m really more concerned about the rumours that leadership is getting skittish over some anonymous letter.”
“You mean…” Rene questioned
“I only know bits and piece but it’s something about Fifty-Five being a work of art.” Arthur answered conspiratorially, "Heh Art, but I’d be glad if that were true, at least it’s not some K-class bullshit.”
Rene blinked response and glanced at the clock, its hour hand inching to midnight, "Art can be anything, Arthur."
“Hey time for the evening dose.” He reminded Arthur. They downed their on-duty dose of combat-grade mnestics.
Swallowing Rene commented, “These ones are new right? Synthesized from the blood of some D-class that was overdosed with class X. I've heard these ones are meant to counter a memetic kill agent known as 'Grey'.”
“Yeah” Arthur agreed “The team isolated the emergent reagents from his catanionic body, poor sucker, God bless his soul. But for all their research, they can't seem to fix that fact it's probably gonna give you pancreatic cancer in 10 years... if we even manage to live that long anyway.”
"Legasov will be proud." Rene joked
“And to think they force us to take this stuff.” Arthur grimaced “Hey, we’re almost done here. I’ll take a quick piss and let's finish up and get out of this shithole.”
“Sure,” Rene responded, “I’ll press on.”
“Good lad.” Arthur clapped Rene on his shoulder and left the lab. Rene opened the logs once more.
1
[42/100]
2
[42/100]
3
[42/100]
4
[42/100]
5
[42/100]
...Rene frowned something was clearly wrong here, had the numbers been changing? Why hasn’t he noticed it before? He flipped to the first page of the logs. Why is everything 42/100?
“Hey, I thought on another one,” Arthur said as he pushed open the lab’s door. “Could Fifty-five be an antithesis to reality?” Arthur continued “Since we can’t perceive, have not qualia of it, could Fifty-five be an absence of reality or space? Or could it be a form of a higher reality, a sort of thing-in-itself in a way its own meme complex? God knows the last time we had a run-in with one, it's been theorized there could be much bigger ones. Borro–“
Rene whirled around, startling Arthur. “Woah, easy there, you look like you’ve just seen a ghost, what’s going on?” Arthur asked concernedly
“Arthur come… come see this.” Rene was visibly shaking as he pulled open the log. Both felt a growing dread as their mnestics being to shred away their notions of a comforting ignorance.
“Have the numbers…”
“Yes… they have.”
"The statements?"
"Yes... them too."
Their instincts screamed red flags, they arrived at the last page of the logs.
1
[42/100]
2
[42/100]
3
[42/100]
SCP-055 is not a undefined
[42/100]
SCP-055 is a —
...