Special Containment Procedures: Exact knowledge of SCP-8963 is Level 5 restricted. Application of SCP-8963 can only be authorized by the O5 Council. All instances of SCP-8963-1 are to be kept in Keter-class containment chambers, outfitted with Scranton Reality Anchors. SCP-8963-2 and -3 are to be monitored as part of the 1981 Multi-Foundation Coalition Agreement. TL-001-PRIME is not allowed access to or knowledge of SCP-8963.
If this document is removed from the noosphere by the Department of Deletions, SCP-8963-2 and -3 will live on. This is considered an acceptable outcome.
Description: SCP-8963 is a method of merging the consciousness of an individual across dimensions and creating a new consciousness in a suitable dimension. It is centered around SCP-963 and the individual, “Dr. Jack Bright.” Note that no consciousness has claimed this name, it is merely recorded in historical documentation. Drs. Kain Pathos Crow, Charles Gears, and Alto Clef developed SCP-8963. The process works around the consciousness of the individual within our timeline, henceforth SCP-8963-1, psychologically zoning in on what it is not allowed to do. A new consciousness, made of the desires of the individual across dimensions, is created and fitted into a suitable dimension.
SCP-8963-1 is an anomalous individual with deleterious effects on local reality. There are seemingly hundreds of instances of the same individual all with the same effects on reality. SCP-8963-1 insists that it knew certain members of Foundation staff and that it doesn’t mean to cause its effects. Upon finding documentation for a blank slot, SCP-963, Foundation staff began considering the truth of some of SCP-8963-1’s claims. Dr. Clef in particular remembered some of SCP-8963-1’s existence, possibly due to his status as a reality anchor.
Interview Prior to the Creation of SCP-8963:
SCP-8963-1: I don’t want to die, please, Clef don’t let me die.
Dr. Clef: Calm down, 8963-1.
SCP-8963-1: Clef, it’s me, it’s your friend, please, we’ve known each other for years. Remember? Incident 239-1, that time you killed yourself, that time I killed you? Please, Clef, please.
Dr. Clef: I remember you.
SCP-8963-1: Then help me. You can’t, can you? No one can. I’ve been completely forgotten, deleted from the minds of everyone here. But it’s for the best. As long as the Foundation survives, for I am nothing but the Foundation.
Dr. Clef: The Foundation is still here.
SCP-8963-1: No, no, I am the Foundation, and I’m dying Clef, I’m dying. Do you have any idea how important I am? Please, you have to help me. But it’s for the best, the Foundation is better off without Nine, the new Twelve is better too. No, no, you need me, I am the Foundation, the last backup plan, it’s me, Clef, you have to help me, please. [crying is recorded]
Dr. Clef: Focus SCP-8963-1, now tell me, do you have this object, SCP-963?
SCP-8963-1: [incoherent screaming is recorded], Clef it’s here, but it’s evil, pure evil. It tears everyone around it to shreds, it poisons and manipulates to get its way. I swear, it’s not me Clef, it’s not me. It’s my creator, this damn locket, if only I didn’t pick it up. Oh, I was created to suffer, Clef, I was created to suffer. I just want to be free. Free from this evil. Please, Clef, please.
Dr. Clef: I’ll help you, isn’t that right, “Bright”?
SCP-8963-1: [incoherent screaming is recorded], No, no, it’s not me, I promise. I just picked it up. I just picked up the locket. Why, why must I be punished? I’m not the monkey. I’m not the damn monkey, damn monkey. They always want me to be the monkey.
Dr. Kain Pathos Crow
I make no excuses for what we did. We took a literal hole in reality and combined it with holes from every other conceivable reality. It wasn’t just dangerous, it very well could have ended everything. Indeed, I’ve seen the file for SCP-8000 and what Paul did is almost identical to what we have done. We risked it all, but I’m proud to say that we succeeded. We overcame the great evil of this “Bright” character and replaced it with what he really wanted to do, underneath his creator’s intentions.
I walk around the sites nowadays and no one gives me a funny look. I give a presentation and people are bored. Normality is changing. The Impasse was a reckoning and we haven’t faced it properly. A talking dog is our new normal. The end of the world is Tuesday. The old days of pushing the limits of science and technology are long behind us. Indeed, there are seemingly no limits left. This man, “Bright”, or whatever he is named, was a friend to me, in another life, another history. I just wanted to know if I could still make a difference and I could. I just wanted to save more people. That’s all I ever wanted.
Dr. Charles Gears
I ran the calculations myself. The pataphysical nature of the anomaly counteracts the dangers Paul faced. We were always safe. I also ran the calculations for SCP-6820. And now we’ve made another monster for the Foundation. Even when everything checks out on paper, reality has a cruel way of disregarding the kind truth of math and science. I have no doubt that SCP-8963 can be a force for good, a foundation for the whole Foundation, as SCP-8963-1 calls himself. However, it has already been a force of great evil. SCP-8963-1 destroyed thousands of people, people we can’t even remember. We cannot forget its roots, even if the resultant personalities forge a better path.
People mistakenly believe I don’t feel emotion. I do. I just can’t show it. I’ve been in love and lost both of my wives and my daughter. I am crippled by sadness, I can’t even remember the last time I was happy. I am so incredibly afraid. I am afraid, not of gods and monsters, but of the light of humanity. We die in the dark, but perhaps no one lives in the light. I’m scared that humanity is just some sick joke by an eldritch entity. That my very life was created for the entertainment of others. The narrativstics people tell me to ignore such thoughts. The pataphysical people call me an “author avatar,” that my very essence is that dictated by some entity high above me. I’ve never been one for religion. That’s why I created SCP-8963, to show that we are all more than an avatar.
Dr. Alto Clef
Hey, you heard? I’ve killed the entire Foundation before. Found some skeleton in a cave, had it all written down. I’m not supposed to know, but some O5 leaked it, probably as a joke. I’ve lived a life of many truths. Many would call it a life of lies, but aren’t lies just constructed truths? Who’s to say I’m lying but me? Is it true that I’m some cripple from a house? Yup. Is it true that I’m Adam the first man? Of course. Is it true that I’m the Devil? Obviously. This man, 8963-1, he’s a whole in my head. I can see the outline, where he was in the story, but my feelings towards him are vague. I didn’t help him out of some sort of good will or alternatively, fear. I helped him because he had no truths to himself. He’s a man entirely obsessed with evil. It cloaks him, shrouds his every move. You can hardly utter a word around him without feeling tainted. But that’s just pataphysical energy. That’s just an anomaly from above. Below all of that is a man. And he is a good man. I believe this with all of my demonic heart. We just needed to show him what he really wanted, what he really needed for a good life. Did we succeed? Only time will tell.
I visited Site-43 the other day and was shocked. The once vibrant atmosphere had been replaced with bureaucracy. The Foundation is losing its own foundation, people. Good people to be specific, you used to be able to run into one everyday and now they’re all shut away, working on how to save the world from the latest disaster. I always acted like I didn’t care, but the Foundation’s special to me. It gave me truth, when all I had was lies of my own creation. We will always be threatened. And we will always overcome any threat that comes our way. The Foundation is special, a building block in existence both to us and to whatever sort of monster is feeding on us from above. I will always fight for the Foundation, until every sun goes out.
First Successful Usage of SCP-8963:
I’ve always wanted to be the funny guy. When I was younger everyone just pushed me to succeed. My grandfather most of all. He saw something special in me, something that I’ve never been able to see. He fast-tracked me to the Foundation, put me on a path to replace him. But really, I just wanted to goof off and live my life. I wanted to be a comedian when I was a kid, can you believe that? I wanted to make everyone laugh. I just wanted everyone to have fun.
And then I picked up the damn locket. I suddenly felt it. A pull from beyond, I was now important. It tore me apart. I was never made for any of this. I never wanted to be in the Foundation, I just wound up here. I enjoyed the honor, I even made some people laugh. And then it twisted and the voices above scorned me. And then I was puppeteered, by my very author. He tore me apart, until I became this horror. I’ve killed people, so many, I just wanted them to laugh. I… I want to be a comedian. I want to make people smile and laugh. I want everyone to have a good time. I want to be useful, in a world where people need to smile again.
Resulting Instance: SCP-8963-2
“How you holding up?”
“Ugh, where am I?”
“Site-53 dummy. You just became a whole lot more people.”
“Clef? That you?”
“Nah, it’s Shaw, Elias Shaw.”
“Glad to see you, Clef.”
“What’s got you so emotional?”
“Just feel like I’ve been on a long trip, that’s all.”
“So what’d you do for all of this mess?”
“Became an eldritch entity capable of tearing reality to shreds.”
“Good to see you too, Shaw. Now you want to hear about how I beat a naked Troy with a trout. Man, you gotta hear this.”
Second Successful Usage of SCP-8963:
I’m fine with this locket. I’ve come to terms with it. The resulting deletion of reality, not so much. But the lack of a body is fine for me. I’ve never really cared about anything to do with my body. I think I am asexual, for I have never been sexually interested in another. Being so many different people at once is an interesting experience. It’s no hive mind, but I can see myself as other people, imagine what my self is like in their body. I donated myself to the Foundation. I tried to be the very thing that held it up. But in the process I have forgotten my humanity. I suppose that since I touched this locket, I have become faceless, inanimate. But I am more than some locket, I am more than this “Bright” character or author.
I want to be more, I know I can. I want to have a face again. I want to be considered by everyone to be more than this locket. I… I want my very identity to be whole. What is my identity? Who am I, really? I am no “Bright.” I am stronger. I just want a new perspective. Maybe my whole life is tilted, on the wrong axis. Do you ever feel that way? Like everything is just so slightly wrong. I had no identity after the locket, but did I have one before. Ah… I see now.
Resulting Instance: SCP-8963-2:
“Hey, how’s it going? You seem kind of out of it.”
“Good. Just nervous, you know? It’s my first day here.”
“I can understand. It’s overwhelming isn’t it? This secret organization with the world in the palm of its hand.”
“It’s exciting though. I mean you don’t get to be a part of that everyday.”
“No, no you do not. It’s a beautiful world on this side of the Veil. Speaking of that, pretty locket by the way.”
“Thanks, it’s the reason I’m here.”
“Anomalous?”
“Supposedly. And what’s your name?”
“Clef. Alto Clef. And yourself?”
“Ellie. Ellie Dawn.”
