To Secure, Contain, and Protect
The SCP Foundation is an international organization that is not officially recognized by any one sovereign state. It is considered an organization only in the most basic understanding of the word. The divisions and provisions of the Foundation are indeed organized, orchestrated, and executed by several powerful bodies, but few if any of the parts are aware of the whole. The Foundation is just as much an institution as it is an organization, comprised of many different roles and sectors, dedicated to the same goal. Members of the Foundation have undergone thorough psychological testing and placement procedures for maximized efficiency. Training for assignment is intensive and has been known to result in placement forfeit. Due to the sensitive nature of SCP containment, every member is assigned a level of security clearance. Breach of this assigned clearance is grounds for immediate termination.
In short, the objective of the SCP Foundation is to secure, contain, and protect. The directive 'to secure' refers not only to the acquisition of various scp-objects, but also to the security of information. The 'containment' directive is one the Foundation is most actively involved with, as many of the scp-objects require tedious and extravagant lengths to safely contain. Protection, much like security, is a directive associated with all forms of assignment, security clearance, and behaviours in the work place. Extreme lengths have been covered in order to ensure the protection of society and of the staff involved.
An scp-object is an anomaly. These anomalies take many shapes and many forms. The Foundation has classified these anomalies into three categories: Safe, Euclid, and Keter. Safe SCPs are subjects or objects that may be effectively and reliably contained with reasonable expectations that these containment procedures are more than 80% successful and not subject to revisions. A designation of safe refers to the ability to safely handle the subject or object with appropriate containment procedures, not that the object or subject itself is safe or does not require containment.
Euclid SCPs are subjects or objects whose behaviours or effects cannot be unerringly predicted. This may be due to the sentient nature of the being, or our lack of scientific understanding of an object's functioning. A breach in Euclid containment can be devastating, and more diligence is required to keep them contained than Safe-class objects.
Keter-class SCPs are subjects that display vigorous, active hostility to human life, civilization and/or space time and are capable of causing significant destruction in the event of a containment breach. They require special containment procedures and are to be destroyed if and where possible. Containment protocols are typically extensive, involved, and require precision. Neutralization of Keter-class objects is always a Foundation priority.
Part of Chapter for SCP 087: The Stairwell
Item #: SCP-087
Object Class: Euclid
Tony Stark dragged his hands through his hair for the twentieth time in the hour. Of all the cases to be assigned to first, they considered this to be taking it easy? He was stationed at Research Site-23, a facility built around the SCP-087 object. The nature of SCP-087 was such that moving it was an impossibility. As such SCP-087 had been cornered off, a janitorial door consistent with the design of the building serving as its disguise. Tony looked over his assignment again, "It's a stairwell in a university basement. That's it." At face value, that's all it was. The armed guards were a little off-putting, but overall 087 hadn't proven to be all that dangerous.
He went through the assignment again. In total there had been four exploration missions conducted by Dr. Banner and his colleagues. Tony himself had access to three of the exploration logs, what happened to the fourth, he wasn't sure. What the exploration logs did reveal was that while SCP-087 appeared to be nothing more than a bottomless staircase, it did contain specimen SCP-087-1. This specimen had been encountered on every exploration, and was typically the cause of cessation for the mission. Analyses of the video stream from the D-class participants in the stairwell indicate that specimen SCP-087-1 is mobile, as it appeared at different levels in the explorations. It is also known to close in on explorers once seen. The specimen is only described as a humanoid face with no visible pupils, nostrils or mouth.
The origin of SCP-087, like nearly all SCPs, is unknown. It is an unlit platform staircase. Stairs descend 13 steps before reaching a semicircular platform 3 meters in diameter. Descent direction turns 180 degrees on each platform. A light source is required for exploration, as there are no lighting fixtures or windows present. Lighting sources brighter than 75 watts have proven ineffective, the nature of the shadows contained in SCP-087 seem unnatural or supernatural in origin, and dispel any lights of a brighter wattage.
The exploration of SCP-087 had been disbanded after Exploration-IV. Tony found that the data file for this record was redacted, and he lacked the overseer level clearance required to view it. He sighed and closed the folder. He would be meeting with Dr. Banner tomorrow morning at oh-eight-hundred hours to discuss the recommencement of research on specimen SCP-087.
Tony Stark was a new member of the Foundation, and as his first assignment he was tasked with the reboot of SCP-087 at Research Site-23, formerly known as Containment Site-56. He would be assisting Dr. Bruce Banner in the exploration of the stairwell by personally accompanying a small task force into the stairwell, with enough provisions to last them approximately twenty-one days. Tony himself held a Ph.D. in physics and engineering, and would be the specialist on the force. His primary responsibility would be to remain in constant communication with Dr. Banner, and provide sound observations and analyses of incidents incurred in the duration of the exploration. The remaining two spots on the task force were to be filled by one D-class personnel, and one armed SCP personnel with level 3 clearance.
Tony flipped through the folders, grabbing the personnel file for the other two members.
D-Class Personnel: Steve Rogers
Sentence: Life Imprisonment
Every D-Class personnel were selected from condemned inmate populations. The nature of the position was experimental, and many personnel in the past had lost their lives while research was performed on SCPs. Placement in D-Class was usually voluntary, and a deal of some sort was typically struck between the Foundation and the inmate to assure their cooperation. Tony wondered what Steve's deal was. The files never focused on the crime, just the length of imprisonment. Death row inmates were preferred, followed by those sentenced to life. Tony couldn't say that he was thrilled to be working with a D-class personnel, but that wasn't his decision to make. It was highly unusual that a D-class would even come into contact with regular personnel at all, as they were typically greatly restricted in their mobility and interactions.
From what Tony knew, anyone who signed up for the Foundation's D-class had their history more or less erased. They entered service with the intentions of clearing their names, or getting a full pardon. They were housed on Foundation containment Sectors in prison-like dormitories. D-class personnel were prohibited from interacting with other D-classes if they weren't assigned to the same SCP that they were, they had curfews, and were required to submit to polygraph testing daily, and eighteen hundred hours.
That was another one of Tony's duties on the task force: administering the polygraph test to Steve in the stairwell wouldn't be at all feasible, and Tony was responsible for declaring the man reasonably responsible to continue. The rules of the foundation were strict, and if Steve were to ever miss a polygraph test, he would be subject to immediate termination under normal conditions. And termination of D-class personnel was not pretty. Tony shuddered to think that he might be responsible for the death of a teammate, but that's why they were recruited from criminals: they were expendable.
The second task force member was a level 3 clearance SCP personnel by the name of Bucky Barnes. His file was fairly nondescript, a young man of average build, good health, and normal psychological screenings. He was trained in security, and would be armed throughout the duration of their excursion. They were exploring a stairwell- what in the world could have happened on Exploration-IV that they'd need an armed security officer to accompany them? It made Tony a little uncomfortable, but he had known that when he'd joined the Foundation.
Tony closed the files and slumped in his seat, tomorrow would be a long day, and he'd need his rest.
Excerpt from SCP Extras Exhibit C Journal
The following are journal entries of D-09856, Dean Winchester, recovered from his cell.
August 8
I guess this is good news. I just received my acceptance letter to the Foundation. I don't know anything about it really, just that it's going to get me out of this cell and doing something again. Winchester words of wisdom number one: Don't get tried as an adult if you can help it. Juvie would've been ten times better than this hell hole.
August 10
Damn to do these guys move quick. I thought it would be at least a week before they came to get me. When they say accepted they mean now. They moved me this morning –early, might I add, and they had me waiting in this clean room. They took all of my stuff, including my photos. They let me keep my journal, but I swear to God if I don't get those back someone's going to pay. They hosed me down again, and gave me these stupid scrubs. I went through some tests, a lot of psychological stuff that I don't really understand. It's all a load of crap if you ask me. They took some blood for who knows what, doesn't matter: I'm clean anyway.
I'm sitting in a holding cell, and I'm really getting tired of three grey walls and iron bars. I can hear other people shuffling around in the cells along the same wall as my cell. They told me not to talk to anyone, or I would be terminated from the project. They probably told these other guys the same thing. I've never been terribly good at keeping quiet, but if I'm ever going to see Sam again I'll need to make it through this.
August 11
They had D-class personnel orientation today. I swear this place can't be legal. They're so strict with everything. There was a class full of us, like one of those large lecture halls you see in universities. We were all dressed the same, in our unremarkable scrubs, and masks. They gave us all these hooded face masks, like black ops balaclavas or something. The face is blank and smooth, like one of those opera masks. We all looked the same, like an army of toy soldiers. When I chanced looking around at some of the others, I could tell that some of them were really nervous by their body language: twitching and fidgeting. I heard one of the guys up in the front get reprimanded for looking around and snapped my gaze back up at the empty projection before getting caught.
This orientation business is kinda freaky –I have no idea how they expect us to remember all of this, and it sounds like any mistake could cost us our lives. I had no idea that an organization like this even existed, and I'd never heard of SCP before today. To Secure, Contain, and Protect, that is the mission of the Foundation. This thing is huge, bigger than any government. They have the world's best scientists and who knows what else working on this. Aliens, monsters, freaks of nature, magic... that's what this is, they're using science to try and explain it, but that doesn't change anything.
Orientation's gonna take at least a week, maybe longer. We need to be taught containment procedures and practically a new language in technical jargon. We need to be trained, tested, and routinized. It's like a hardcore boot camp. But without the camaraderie, they're forcing artificial isolation. It's looking like they're trying to break us rather than train us.
August 14
I couldn't take the stupid silence anymore; it's like being completely alone in a crowded room. Luckily, they didn't catch us. Wow, how long has it been since I've been able to say that there's an 'us.' I passed a note to the guy sitting next to me, super discreet like. We're further to the back of the hall, and toward the middle of the row. The guards in the room are fewer day by day as all of us D-class fall into line. They're also not very attentive. My neighbour's name is Steve Rogers, and apparently he doesn't like the silence too much either. He's one heck of an artist, you should see the comic-esque picture he drew of our instructor. It took everything I had not to laugh out loud.
Author's Note:
To read anything more on this SCP universe that is being posted, check out Mangerang, my second account (a joined thing of equal share between my co-author matsu and I). The link is in my profile, just click my name and you'll see it near the top of the screen. It's hard to miss! Check it out guys, I insist ;)
