Link to article: 8000contestratkingmonkeysky D.
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[[div class="blockquote" style="background-color: black;"]] > What can we learn from all of this? That's what everyone's asking. The O5 have sent all their little clipboard men to tag along with the cleanup team, and I can't even look at one without them asking "how could incidents of this nature be avoided or diminished in the future", like I'm back in boarding school and I got caught with my shirt untucked. I kept telling them I'd get back to them with a full report later. I still can't think of the bureaucratic way of saying "I Don't Know", so chalk the tone here up to psychological stress. It won't be the first time. > > Things are getting worse. I haven't been around as long as most people think, but I've made it my duty to read through the files, and things weren't always like this. I'm not saying it was ever easy, it's always been the fate of the world, but it used to be so much clearer. No matter how big a problem was, we at least knew what shape it was, what it'd do, and how to throw money at it. Enough telekill, enough hydrochloric acid, enough human bodies, and we could hold things down. Sure we were dealing with "magic" from time to time, but we were men of science, and we could always pick apart the logic of these things enough to see the patterns, if not the mechanisms. That's all feeling more and more delusional. > > Now, we still have the big monsters with massive teeth and the sapient thunderstorms and the demonic artifacts, but we've also got new types of existence, unfamiliar types of thought. We can't even understand what we're looking at if we scratch a millimeter below the surface of some of these things. We're still going through the motions of approaching it scientifically, but it's theater. Every time someone at Site-433 calls a toon what it is instead of saying "Alucinari-class", I get a memo from the higher-ups, but that doesn't get us any closer to understanding what they actually are or how they work. It just lets us pretend that they're in a tidy, predictable category. > > There is no predictability, and even trying to engage with it in the conventional ways can be dangerous. Most of the time, you can't tell if you're getting too close, or if there IS a "too close", until you've crashed face-first into it. Testing used to be routine, but lately it feels like a game of Russian roulette. I'll tell you, Rowan is on paid leave right now because he insisted we stop investigation into SCP-8060. If he told me he wanted to go back in for another look, I think I would have killed him on the spot. > > Even when we do make progress, it doesn't feel right. Site-433's role in neutralizing [https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5045 SCP-5045] was supposed to be the big feather in our cap, but the fact is, it was all so sudden and unexpected that the only thing I could think was, "Did it let us win?" I'm not sleeping any easier, and I don't think anyone else involved is either. There's no such thing as just "solving problems" anymore, not for anything that matters at least. > > I was the one to propose the contingency plan for SCP-8060, the one where we erase all traces of //Societown// off the face of the earth, and I know it's basically a fantasy. There is essentially zero chance we could get approval and material support for a response of that magnitude before it's too late, and I honestly have no clue if it would even help things, or make them so much worse. I know Site-433 isn't alone here. All over the Foundation, I hear about teams sitting on time bombs they can't comprehend and can't explain, so they tell everyone not to touch it and make grandiose plans that they pray they'll never have to think about again. Just ask Site-305 how they ended up with SCP-5045 covering them like black mold. Secure Contain and Protect just gets more laughable every day. > > None of us are equipped for what's coming, not one of us, and we all need to be. We can't just depend on turning over the scariest-looking bad guys to the teams with biggest strongest cages anymore, and we can't take it for granted that the big threats are going to come with labels and flashing lights. When they first made SCP-8060 my responsibility, they weren't even 100% sure it was anomalous yet. They probably thought it was some cartoon that melts you when you watch it, and now that I've seen the reports, I couldn't tell you a single thing about what it //really// is. If it turns inside-out one day without warning and the things Rowan showed me come out to say hello, do you think Site-433 is going to be equipped to handle it? Our whole site budget is barely as much as the Foundation spends on [https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-2761 SCP-2761]. The giant banana monster. > > If the O5 knew what was going on with Sputnik, I really think they'd be terrified. This isn't some Fifthist doomsday project; it's just another defunct animation studio, and we still can't even //estimate// everything that's come out of it. It's not just the shows. Scripts, concept sketches, even the pencil shavings could bring down a shitstorm like we've never seen before for all I know. There's no reason that there couldn't be dozens, hundreds of little powder kegs just like Sputnik around the world, just waiting to blow up for reasons we'll never understand. Everyone is still keeping their eyes on the Broken God, but if you ask me, the end of the world is going to come out of some schoolkid's backpack or a box of cereal when everyone's back is turned. > > The upper administrators are probably going to read all of this and underline the word "defeatist" on my personal file, cross-referencing it to their discussion for how I could have made such a massive mistake when it comes to SCP-8060, but I'm not giving up, and I don't think I made a mistake. I approved the risks we took because I know it's the only option we have now. The alternatives are impossible or unacceptable. Let this be a wake up call to everyone else: until we can find a brand new way to approach anomalies, ALL anomalies, we need to get used to things going in directions we don't expect and don't want. We can't treat these sorts of incidents as unfortunate accidents. They're the rule, not the exception. > > That's all, folks. > > {{**- Jonathan Mildew, Director of Site-433**}} [[/div]] @@ @@ [[include component:image-block |name=https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/scp-8060/rowan.jpg |caption=Photograph of Researcher Rowan Raster at the Foundation Rehabilitation and Debriefing Center. |align=center |width=800px ]] [[include :scp-wiki:component:earthworm | first=false | last=false | previous-url=/critter-profile-francis | previous-title=Critter Profile: Francis! | next-url=/scp-8632 | next-title=SCP-8632 | hub-url=/but-a-dream | hub-title=But A Dream ]]