fragment:target-audience-12

Link to article: fragment:target-audience-12.

:root{
--general-border-color: 50, 16, 178;
/*scrollbar*/
    --basalt-dark-element-color: 123, 112, 229;
/*links and highlights*/
    --basalt-bright-element-color: 33, 19, 106;
}
body {
    background-image: url(https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/target-audience/Mist_bg);
    background-attachment: fixed;
    background-size: cover;
}
body:before {
  content: ' ';
  position: fixed;
  display: block;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  background-image: linear-gradient(170deg, transparent, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%);
  z-index: -1;
  color:#EDEDED;
}

/* Link colors */
a:link {
  color: #E0E0E0;
}
a:visited {
  color: #E0E0E0;
}
a:hover {
  color: #E0E0E0;
}
a:active {
  color: #E0E0E0;
}

#page-content .peepoo a {
    color: #870F06;
}
#page-content .peepoo hr {
    border-color: #870F06;
}

#page-content a.collapsible-block-link {
    font-weight: bold;
}
.style05-plaintext {
  padding-right: 0.5ch;
}

color: ##210687; border: solid 3px #210687; background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.616); padding:10px; margin: -10px;

```
--content: 'Return to previous page';
```
```
--content: 
```
```
width:600px;
```
```
width:600px;
```
```
--content: 'Why ';
```
```
--content: 'couldn’t ';
```
```
--content: 'I ';
```
```
--content: 'wake ';
```
```
--content: 'up…?';
```

```
style01-link
```
```
style01-plaintext
```
```
animation03
```
```
style04-plaintext
```
```
animation02
```
```
style05-link
```
```
style05-plaintext
```
```
animation01
```
```
style05-plaintext
```
```
animation01
```
```
style05-plaintext
```
```
animation01
```
```
style05-plaintext
```
```
animation01
```
```
style05-plaintext
```
```
animation01
```

[[include :scp-wiki:theme:basalt darkmode=a|redmode=b|hidetitle=a]]
[[include :scp-wiki:component:glitch-elements]]

[[module CSS]]
:root{
--general-border-color: 50, 16, 178;
/*scrollbar*/
    --basalt-dark-element-color: 123, 112, 229;
/*links and highlights*/
    --basalt-bright-element-color: 33, 19, 106;
}
body {
    background-image: url(https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/target-audience/Mist_bg);
    background-attachment: fixed;
    background-size: cover;
}
body:before {
  content: ' ';
  position: fixed;
  display: block;
  left: 0;
  top: 0;
  width: 100%;
  height: 100%;
  background-image: linear-gradient(170deg, transparent, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 100%);
  z-index: -1;
  color:#EDEDED;
}

/* Link colors */
a:link {
  color: #E0E0E0;
}
a:visited {
  color: #E0E0E0;
}
a:hover {
  color: #E0E0E0;
}
a:active {
  color: #E0E0E0;
}

#page-content .peepoo a {
    color: #870F06;
}
#page-content .peepoo hr {
    border-color: #870F06;
}

#page-content a.collapsible-block-link {
    font-weight: bold;
}
.style05-plaintext {
  padding-right: 0.5ch;
}
[[/module]]

[[div style="color: ##210687; border: solid 3px #210687; background: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.616); padding:10px; margin: -10px;"]]

[[a class="style01-link" href="https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/target-audience/offset/11" target="_parent"]][[span class="style01-plaintext animation03" style="--content: 'Return to previous page';"]]Return to previous page[[/span]][[/a]]

----

[[=]]
[[span class="style04-plaintext animation02" style="--content: "Chapter 12";"]]Chapter 12[[/span]]
[[/=]]
[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/target-audience/Lovelace_scene_15 style="width:600px;"]]

Over the course of the next few days, Vera kept alternating between giving me space and showering me with affection, and everytime I ignored and pushed her away. That tactic of hers may have worked on me before, but I knew better than to fall for it now.

While a part of me wanted nothing more to do with her, I found myself unable to let her go and I deeply longed for things to go back to the way they had been before. But I couldn’t get over feeling so used and betrayed.

In desperation, I turned to the supplementary material on SCP-1471-A—Vera’s species. While the information on their psychology was relatively sparse, I did find some things that helped me understand her more.

Apparently, they fed off of interactions of any and all kinds. For example, less developed MalOs would mostly feed off of the attention they received from their human hosts whenever they looked at them. However, once they developed far enough, they would start feeding off of the interactions they had with the world around them, be it by interacting with beings aside from their hosts, or the way physics interacted with their materialized forms. They would also develop strong preferences in the kinds of interactions they fed upon. Many became tricksters, others became social butterflies, and some became even more fixated on their human hosts.

In Vera’s case, she appeared to primarily feed off of her scientific endeavors and from friendly interactions with others. While this might not have been an issue in and of itself, her kind’s morality was, at best, only semi-analogous to ours. As such, from what I now understood about her, she was akin to a psychopath capable of experiencing selective empathy who cultivated human relationships the way a farmer cultivated fruit-bearing plants—her caring about others was purely incidental in getting what she wanted from them.

… Or that was what I kept telling myself.

The truth was that no matter how much I tried justifying my feelings of anger and betrayal towards her, I couldn’t get myself to hate her. And I certainly couldn’t stop loving her.

I didn’t know what to do. It felt just as impossible to end things with Vera as it was to reconcile with her. And so I just kept avoiding her and pushing her away.

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Today had been a fairly typical day—I had gone to my office, responded to emails, gone to a meeting, conducted research, written reports, gone to lunch, and then returned to my office to continue my research.

Then, suddenly, a loud siren began to blare, accompanied by the flashing of emergency lights.

“This is a Code Superblue-Magenta emergency! All non-security personnel are to evacuate immediately!” The automated announcement system called out.

Gripped by panic, I was unsure of what to do.

What I was supposed to do was to follow the evacuation plan I had been given and make my way to the nearest shelter. However, back when Vera and I first joined the Foundation, we had agreed that she would come get me in the event of an emergency such as this.

Despite how rocky our relationship now was, I trusted that she would remain true to her word, and so I hid under my desk and waited for her.

But she didn’t come.

And the longer I waited, the more afraid I was to leave. After all, the more time passed, the more dangerous the breach could become. And if I left, Vera would have no idea where I was.

Thus I continued to wait for what felt like an eternity. The constant rhythm of the alarm occasionally being interrupted by the sounds of screams and gunfire.

I hugged my knees to my chest and shut my eyes, trying desperately to block out all of the noise as my thoughts raced.

Where was she? She was supposed to come get me! Did she drop the pretense of caring about me, or was this her way of punishing me for pushing her away?

Did something happen to her?

I pushed that thought out of my head. Vera’s particular set of anomalous qualities and abilities made her almost unkillable, so there was no way she wasn’t fine.

… Right?

Then, as quickly as it had begun, the alarm went silent and the emergency lights stopped blinking.

“The lockdown has been lifted! All personnel not in need of medical attention are to return to their stations!” The automated announcement system called out.

I got out from under my desk and looked around. However, the relief I felt was quickly replaced with anger.

Why didn’t Vera come get me? This was a life and death situation, and she just abandoned me to fend for myself?

Shaking my head, I decided that the next time we saw each other, I would have some choice words for her. But for now I needed to get back to work.

I spent the next half an hour working on my report, and I had just about finished it when there was a knock on my door.

I got out of my seat and strode over to the door. When I opened it, I was met with a tall, slender man in his mid-40s with a very serious expression on his face. Judging by his suit, he was from Administration.

“Doctor Huey Bertram?”

“That’s me,” I replied. “What do you want?”

He took a deep breath. “It’s about Vera.”

I rubbed the bridge of my nose. “What did she do now?”

“She was at ground zero during the breach,” he explained, his voice too calm and practiced for what came next. “She didn’t make it.”

At first I thought he stopped talking mid-sentence. “Didn’t make it…? What do you mean?”

He looked at me as if he was considering how to phrase what he was about to say. Finally, he said “She’s dead.”

I just stared at him as numbness overcame me. I shook my head and said “No… No, she can’t die…”

“Maybe not normally, but she was up against a powerful reality warper,” he explained. “Once it got a hold of her and forced her into a materialized state, she didn’t stand a chance.”

It felt as if all of the air had been pulled out of the room, and my ears buzzed as I stared at his mouth, which kept moving, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.

I closed the door before he could finish, and I locked it. Hoping that if I could just block it out then it wouldn’t have happened.

It then occurred to me that I might’ve fallen asleep under my desk and that all of this was just a really bad dream. And so I crawled back under my desk, hugged my knees to my chest, closed my eyes, and then waited to wake up.

But… I couldn’t wake up.

[[=image https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/target-audience/Lovelace_scene_16 style="width:600px;"]]
[[=]]
----
@@ @@
++ [[a class="style05-link" href="https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/target-audience/offset/13" target="_parent"]][[span class="style05-plaintext animation01" style="--content: 'Why ';"]]Why [[/span]][[span class="style05-plaintext animation01" style="--content: 'couldn’t ';"]]couldn’t [[/span]][[span class="style05-plaintext animation01" style="--content: 'I ';"]]I [[/span]][[span class="style05-plaintext animation01" style="--content: 'wake ';"]]wake [[/span]][[span class="style05-plaintext animation01" style="--content: 'up…?';"]]up…?[[/span]][[/a]]
@@ @@
[[/=]]

[[/div]]

fragment:target-audience-12

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