fragment:SCP-MONS-2

Warning!

This component was migrated to the main wiki.

see: http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/component:cd-ver2


Takeo.jpg

SCP-0001-2 AKA Site-207 chef, Takeo Ishii.

Special Containment Procedures: The Foundation maintains a series of 28 fully automated orbital installations around the planet of Mars that, in conjunction with one another, act as a Pietrykau-Fontaine Spatial Stabilization Array.1 All transmissions from non-Foundation assets on Mars are intercepted and altered to erase evidence of the planet's post-containment conditions.

A total of 1728 Foundation satellites orbit outside the planetary array. These are equipped with a Houdini-class high-powered projection system to maintain a pre-containment image of Mars.

Description: SCP-0001 is the extinct shield volcano, Olympus Mons, bordering the Amazonis and Tharsis quadrangles in Mars' western hemisphere. Whenever a subject climbs the volcano, both Mars and Olympus Mons grows in size and mass as they ascend. It is currently unknown if reaching SCP-0001's summit via ground ascent is possible. Due to the dilation of space-time by the Pietrykau-Fontaine array, observers on the martian surface are calculated to experience time at a rate 733.333 times faster than baseline.

Following the establishment of the current special containment procedures, Mars undergoes a self-destructive cycle over the course of seven martian days2 as measured from the surface. During the first six days of this pattern, Mars grows to 0.12 solar masses before undergoing complete destruction by fracturing. The planet then reforms over the course of the final 24 hours and 37 minutes to match pre-containment conditions, marking the start of the next iteration of the cycle. Mars and SCP-0001 have undergone eradication and reformation ██,███ times thus far.

SCP-0001-1 is the former director of Site-207, Dr. Valentine Michael Smith, who is currently the person occupying the highest elevation while in contact with Mars. SCP-0001-1 is currently theorized to have the second highest measured internal Hume level on record at 57.5 times baseline. The range and power of its reality bending capacity is limited only by the high Hume level of its surrounding environment (48.75 times baseline).

SCP-0001-2 is the entity currently possessing the second highest elevation on Mars, Site-207 chef, Takeo Ishii.

Addendum 0001.1: Stop Pouting, Takeo…

Video Start

Heavy breathing comes over the audio before Ishii's eyes open to show the sun over the eastern horizon. Breathing quickens as the camera rises from the ground and looks upon the fractured wreckage of the Site-207 VTOL aircraft. Feed turns back towards the mountain before Ishii's arms come into view in a flailing motion. Camera lowers to the ground and becomes momentarily obscured by water as Ishii's fist punches the dirt 12 times. Ishii's hand makes a sweeping gesture and four 1.5 meter tall gravestones self assemble out of martian regolith 2.8 meters away.

[Nine minutes and twenty seconds of mourning ensues.]

Video fixes on the mountain and proceeds towards it at a rate of 1.6 meters per second. Speed of approach increases linearly until reaching a maximum of 25 m/s which it maintains for 22 minutes as the terrain's slope increases. The inclination of the terrain increases sharply as a sheer cliff comes into view. Feed comes to a stop in front of the bluff where Ishii's hand strikes the rock face three times. Feed turns to show four gravestones still 2.8 meters away from Ishii before facing down towards the ground.

Ishii: I'm sorry. Any of you would have been better.

The sound of four voices shouting comes over the audio. Camera feed pans back up to show the gravestones 0.4 meters away. Video backs away from the monuments until against the cliff face.

Ishii: Then take me! I have enough blood for at least one of you. Its just going to sit here, worthless, until that bastard tears it all apart again!

Ishii takes a rock from the ground and repeatedly strikes it against his left forearm until his exosuit and flesh tears. Chef Ishii flings his blood onto the gravestones and screams incoherently for 12 seconds.

Ishii: See? It's worthless because I'm worthless!

Ishii drops to his knees and weeps for 34 seconds.

Ishii: I just want to go back to my flowers…

Feed darkens and turns upward to show the gravestone engraved with "Claire Palmer" blocking the sun. Analysis of the footage estimates the monolith to now be 4.9 meters tall. The stone moves towards Chef Ishii at a rate of 0.12 m/s until he is pressed against the cliff face. Palmer's grave marker then moves through the dirt beneath Ishii before lifting him into the air. Video feed shows Chef Ishii clinging to the stone as it moves up the cliff where it reaches a maximum velocity of 15.8 meters a second until reaching a plateau.

Ishii pants as the camera turns away from the cliff below him and onto the plateau estimated to be 3.5 square kilometers in area. At the far end of the plateau is a cave where two Foundation issued rover vehicles are parked inside. Chef Ishii approaches the cavern and looks further in to see a Foundation issued hermetically sealed field shelter. It has four empty exosuits docked with it's walls. Four silhouettes are grouped around a light source within it while eating what appears to be bagged food rations.

Palmer: Pleasedon'tbepotatoes,pleasedon'tbepotatoes,pleasedon'tbepotatoes,fuck.

Fyodorov: You'll have to live with it, Claire. We are portioned one brownie as well and I expect all of us to eat ours.

Palmer: I was just trying to-

Fyodorov turns to stare at Palmer until she diverts her head away from him.

Palmer: Sorry, Pyotr.

Fyodorov: This isn't about my record or even the mission, Claire, we currently 78 million kilometers away from backup. We can't afford fatigue and morale starts with the stomach.

Osederas: Pyotr, let her vent as she needs. That is just as integral to mission morale as our sugar intake is.

Zhou: I mean, a chef would have helped there. I'm going to vomit if I have powdered anything again.

Fyodorov: We're due to make first contact at the summit tomorrow. You've all been briefed on the runes. Is this really the impression we want to make?

Osederas: We would be lying to it if we didn't. You're insisting on transparent pretenses before a god, Pyotr.

Fyodorov: And in my experience, gods are prideful things with fragile egos. Self-proclaimed prophets and saints in tow.

Zhou taps the ground with his foot before pointing at Fyodorov.

Zhou: I'm not with him, just in case you're up for some smiting.

Palmer laughs in response but falls silent once more as Fyodorov shifts his attention back onto her.

Palmer: I'm just hoping we find something humble up there. Have you seen anything like that, Pyotr?

Fyodorov: I've seen their corpses.

Zhou: Jesus Christ, Pytor. I need to get you drunk sometime.

Fyodorov: No, as far as I know, Christ isn't dead yet.

All three subordinates break into laughter before Fyodorov regains his composure.

Fyodorov: Now eat your damn brownies.

Ishii's hand reaches towards them only to encounter an invisible surface. He strikes against it four times as they eat without notice of him. Chef Ishii turns back towards the four gravestones behind him and grabs the one marked "Pyotr Fyodorov". Takeo pulls the marker out of the ground and swings it overhead. He screams as he repeatedly strikes the barrier.

Ishii: Hey! I'm out here! Please… just answer me.

After two minutes and 31 seconds of attempting to break through, Chef Ishii falls into a sitting position and weeps. Chef Ishii continues to cry in sight of the oblivious forms of his crewmates until Fyodorov's gravestone strikes him across the cheek. Takeo slumps onto the ground in response and remains immobile but conscious.

Ishii: I want to be good enough for you all.

The camera rises as Ishii pushes himself back to a standing position amid crying over the course of 24 seconds.

Ishii: I will be good enough for you all.

Video End


Addendum 0001.2: You're better than this, Takeo.

<Video Start>

Footage opens to show Ishii running up a gradual incline at 2.7 meters per second. His surroundings are obscured by a dust storm but the sight of lightning far ahead of him occasionally pierces through the haze.

Fyodorov: Just up this incline and we'll be out of the storm. Lin, give me a read on the geometry.

Takeo Ishii turns to either side and behind himself. No source for the voices of his crewmates is apparent.

Zhou: Cartesian light paths are curving, trying polar coordinate paths. Looks like we got a time variable on upcoming terrain, switching to Canonical coordinates. Modeling… Uploading best path to your HUD's now.

Fyodorov: Claire, what's the delta t factor between us and the orbital VTOL?

Palmer: Drone pilot is reporting 7.3 repeating. We've been climbing for almost a week as far as Command can tell.

Silence ensues for two hours and 27 minutes as Ishii accelerates to 24.5 meters per second. Lightning converges on a point ahead of him although no amount of travel appears to close the gap between the chef and the epicenter.

Osederas: Checkup time, Pyotr. Chocolate or vanilla for your sundae?

Fyodorov: Fuck ice cream.

Osederas: We're in the green.

Zhou: Foundation approved memetic testing, everyone.

Palmer: Go back to yodeling with your comm off.

Fyodorov: Cut the chatter. I'm picking up something. A smell.

Osederas: Your suit isn't showing a leak. Wait. Rice?

Palmer: With saffron.

Zhou: Permission to taste my visor?

Fyodorov: It isn't going to taste any different, Lin.

Palmer: You totally already tried that, didn't you?

Fyodorov: Another 25 kilometers to go until we climb above the storms, let's keep moving.

Chef Ishii accelerates to 283.1 meters a second over ten minutes and 12 seconds of silence. His skin starts to burn from friction with the dust. His apparent distance to the lighting further up the mountain is still unchanged.

Ishii: I can climb just like them. I will climb.

The feed stumbles forwards and tumbles 277 meters before stopping. Laughing fills the audio as Ishii rises and resumes his pace towards the summit.

Ishii: I don't care if I'm not perfect. I don't care if you send me back down the mountain. I don't care if I end up discarded, revised, or edited out. I'll die as many times as it takes to make something beautiful. I. Will. Climb.

Zhou: Uh… boss? Kant counter just went stack overflow. The local environment must exceed the upper bound ontokinetic sample in it.

Ishii reaches behind himself as he runs and grabs hold of one of the following tombstones. The words "Lin Zhou" are visible on the stone for one frame of the following footage as Takeo flings the obelisk forward.

Palmer: VTOL's picking something coming up behind us on an approach vector and fast! Almost 300 meters a second!

Fyodorov: Pull west! Ready the comm systems for simultaneous broadcast!

Zhou: Systems online!

Fyodorov: Showtime, doctor!

Osederas: We greet you on behalf of humanity and the SCP Foundation. We wish peaceful knowledge of you on behalf of our species. Would you consider granting us the privilege of knowing your name of preference?

Yodeling covers the audio in response to the doctor's question as Zhou's grave marker disappears into the haze. Lighting strikes the monolith and a shockwave envelopes Ishii.

<Video End>


Addendum 0001.3: Because we are better than this, Takeo.

<Video Start>

The feed flickers on to show grass and crocus flowers. Takeo's bare hands come into view and push him off the ground and into a standing position. The surrounding atmosphere is clear of dust, giving him sight of the lush caldera in front of him. The sun is setting on the other side of the volcano's rim as MTF Iota-19's voices return.

Fyodorov: Status update, everyone!

Osederas: Vitals look good across the board. Uh… going to want testing of this atmosphere and flora.

Zhou: Counter's back on and reading one to one. Them's some flowers.

Palmer: VTOL is confirming wide spread of vegetation, the caldera's… beautiful.

Fyodorov: Watch your wording. Bianca?

Osederas: Running the standard tests, please answer all questions provided to your HUDs.

Zhou: Do these have to be food based? And my answer is mustard with sweet relish.

Osederas: We're good.

Palmer: Sorry, just wasn't expecting something besides the same old rusted rocks. VTOL has a clear view of us and reports delta t is back to normal for Martian gravity.

Fyodorov: Let's head towards the summit at our 4 o'clock and get the cartographer array set up. Command's going to want confirmation of SCP-0001's height from here once the storms beneath us clear.

Takeo looks to his right and sees a 750 meter tall hill where four gravestones rest.

Palmer: Booting it up now, should get a good view of the caldera's bottom too.

Ishii steps forward onto the hill's incline before stopping. The feed pans to his right shoulder to see a hand gripping his bare skin. The video turns to show Director Smith standing behind Takeo and smiling.

Smith: I like what you've done with the place.

The footage spins back towards the hill and advances towards it as Takeo breaks into a sprint.

Smith: Oh no… someone stop him…

Chef Ishii scales the incline with ease and dives towards the gravestone marked "Bianca Osederas". He grabs hold of the rock and holds it before his body with his left hand while his right grabs Fyodorov's grave. He readies Pyotr's grave marker aloft like a javelin but halts as Smith raises his right index finger.

Smith: Just wait. They're almost there.

Fyodorov: Right here, Claire.

Palmer: It's set and ready to scan. Still got an estimated 12 hours left on the storm before we can verify altitude, though.

Fyodorov: Set it towards the caldera's bottom. Lin, prep the Kant probe while Bianca and I set up camp.

The director sits crosslegged on the bottom of the hill below Takeo where a table materializes before him. A campfire appears before Chef Ishii along with a wok, bamboo steam basket, one kilogram of rice, and two crocus flowers.

The feed pans down to the cookware and active fire pit before returning to Smith as he shrugs.

Smith: It's going to be awhile.

Ishii: You forgot the water.

Smith: Is that a request?

Four kilograms of water, five star anise pods, 300 grams of kosher salt, and 500 ml of peanut oil appear in individual bowls. Takeo lowers his gravestones and approaches the fire. The feed lowers as the chef takes a seat.

Ishii: This is where they died, isn't it?

Smith: You'll have to clarify which death.

Chef Ishii proceeds to rinse the rice.

Ishii: The first time.

Takeo sets the wok on the fire and fills it with the waste water from the rinsing. The feed pans to show the star anise pods sitting atop the rice in the steam basket.

Zhou: Uh, Commander? The probe's picking up a heightened Hume level now. Increasing linearly as it descends. One point two eight times baseline and counting.

Fyodorov: Status of the array?

Palmer: Another 25 minutes until we get imaging.

Ishii places the basket over the now boiling water in the wok and grabs the flowers. Additional crocus bulbs sprout from the ground adjacent to the chef's feet and bloom over the course of five minutes and 27 seconds.

Smith: You don't need me to answer that.

Chef Ishii starts to pluck saffron from the crocus flowers.

Ishii: I just want to know how you see it.

The dust storms around the mountain recede over the course of seven seconds. The surrounding terrain shows SCP-0001 and Mars to be at their maximum mass of 0.12 solar masses. Olympus Mons now has an apparent height of 1284 km.

Palmer: Commander… look.

Osederas: That's… impossible.

Fyodorov: Orbital Site-1, can you read us?

Twenty seconds of silence follows. Chef Ishii removes the steam basket from the boil, drains the water, and coats the wok interior with oil. He tosses in a bundle of saffron strands and sets the wok on the side of the fire for indirect heating.

Zhou: I just lost contact with the probe!

Fyodorov: Orbital Site-1! Please respond!

Palmer: Pyotr, their orbit was based on Mars's initial mass and dimensions. I'm sorry.

Fyodorov: Claire… Can we get a read on Earth's location in the sky?

Palmer: Unaffected as far as I can tell. Either Mars isn't really this massive or it just now became so. We'll have to wait for the gravitational wave to hit Earth if that is the case.

Fyodorov: ETA on that?

The sound of Director Smith inhaling through his nose comes over the audio. The volume of his sniff is deafening despite him being over 750 meters below Takeo. Chef Ishii removes the star anise from the basket and tosses the rice into the wok. He proceeds to regularly toss the rice over direct heat as it fries.

Palmer: At this point in our respective orbits, we should see it's trajectory shift within 15 minutes.

Fyodorov: Keep a scope on it. Zhou, how deep did the probe get before losing telemetry?

Zhou: Within 100 meters of the caldera floor.

The campfire extinguishes itself as Takeo rinses out five bowls and sets them aside. He spoons saffron rice into each of them.

Smith: I never knew you were so sentimental, Takeo.

Takeo picks up the bowls one by one and sets them in front of the four tombstones before grabbing the last one. Director Smith watches him with a smile as Takeo consumes the fifth bowl himself.

Palmer: Cartographer array is done with it's imaging sweep. Transmitting data now.

Osederas: Is that a spear?

The feed spins to show the lush entirety of Olympus Mons' caldera. At the center of its deepest point is a circle of natural martian regolith with signs of extensive charring by electrical discharges.

Zhou: Course of action, boss?

Fyodorov: Get my descent gear ready and launch a comm satellite in case I don't come back up.

Palmer: Their launch chasis doesn't have enough fuel to escape a gravity well like this. I'm not certain how it isn't squashing us flat right now, to be honest.

Fyodorov: The Von Braun reported that SCP-0001 grows in height based on an observer's altitude on the martian surface. One of us heading down there towards the spear may reduce the effect enough for a launch.

Osederas: And if it only increases it?

Fyodorov: Then pull me back ASAP. Ready?

The footage pans back to Director Smith still sitting a the table he created at the bottom of the 750 meter incline to the summit.

Ishii: Why are we here?

Smith: I'm here to eat saffron rice and tear this world apart to the tune of Wagner's Götterdämmerung. I'm not sure why you are asking me about your reasons, though.

Ishii: You're telling me you didn't do this?

Smith: They did. We're just figuring out how to live with the promise they made.

Fyodorov: Starting descent.

Palmer: Shit! Pyotr, I'm getting a phase shift in the apparent orbit on Earth.

Fyodorov: One point three kilometers to go. Any difference in our mass yet?

Zhou: Array interferometer is reporting a 4.3 percent reduction.

Osederas: Permission to join you, Pyotr.

Seven seconds of silence ensues.

Fyodorov: Granted. Any more volunteers?

Zhou: Claire's setting up a drone to man the instruments up here. We'll be down behind the doc once they're online.

Palmer: All for one and one for all.

Director Smith rises from his table, picks it up with his right hand, and tosses it into an orbital trajectory behind him. He dusts off his uniform before materializing a spear in his right hand and pointing it towards the caldera's bottom.

Smith: Shall we?

<Video End>


Addendum 0001.4: Now grab it and THROW, Takeo!

<Video Start>

The camera opens to show a spear made of totally reflective metal. On the side opposite of it stands Director Smith. Takeo and Valentine are each 10 meters away from the lodged weapon.

Fyodorov: Spread out, 15 meter intervals. Coming up on the 100 meter mark now. Kant reading?

Zhou: I'm getting fluctuating results but not impressive ones compared to what we saw on the climb. Environmental Hume levels keep fluctuating between four times baseline, then down to two, then one to one before back to four.

Osederas: You've passed the mark, Pyotr, report in to your HUD.

Fyodorov: Done, no smells or anything currently. What's the drone reporting for our mass?

Palmer: Martian system is back down to just under twice its initial mass. Should I launch the comm satellite?

Fyodorov: Go ahead. Send the full data packet back to Overwatch Command.

Director Smith begins to hum the tune of Der Ring des Nibelungen's last act's opening sequence.

Ishii: Shut up.

Smith smiles and ceases humming.

Ishii: Quit finding me amusing.

Smith: You still don't see the reason for my joy? You're standing here, after tens of thousands of deaths. Tens of thousands of missed auditions. After I died in quiet, guilty agony amid rubble. Tens. Of thousands. Of times.

Ishii: I don't need your congratulations.

The director breaks into silent laughter for 4.2 seconds. He recovers and looks back towards the feed while crying.

Smith: I'm kicking myself for not realizing it sooner. There isn't a comic terrible enough to conjure you as my my equal, Takeo. That takes a kind of humor befitting something truly asinine.

Clouds appear above the barren ground encircling the spear and rain comes down in a heavy downpour. Lightning strikes around the brim of the caldera around them as Director Smith wipes his eyes clear.

Smith: Should I should laugh, cry, or curse? The only thing I know right now is that I am salivating at the thought of having you back inside me.

Palmer: I'm getting a report back on the comm sat. Looks redshifted by a factor of 733.3 repeating. A total of 28 reports coming in now, actually. Same automated response. We're under a "Pietrykau-Fontaine containment array", whatever that is.

The sound of a heavy object striking the ground with a splash followed by the breaking of glass comes over the audio.

Osederas: Pyotr!?

Fyodorov: [14 seconds of expletives omitted for brevity.]

Lightning strikes the spear and four grave monoliths appear encircling it following the resulting flash.

Fyodorov: (while weeping) I'm so sorry… Bianca, Claire, Lin.

Osederas: Pyotr?

The form of a cross is etched into the wet regolith to the left of the camera. The feed is stationary while focused on the spear and Smith beyond it.

Fyodorov: There is no recovery plan for us anymore and we're not going to be able to get any further comms out.

Zhou: Boss, what's this Pietrykau-Fontaine thing mean?

Fyodorov: A high-powered gravitational suppression array. Specifically developed for containment of high-mass anomalies up to entire singularity events.

Palmer: That's not the sky up there above the summit drone, then. Those new lights are stationary.

Fyodorov: You're seeing the event horizon.

Osederas: That doesn't explain why you tore off your equipment pack and helmet. Look at my hand and tell me-

Fyodorov: (interrupting) Fucking strawberry kompot and you can stop the evaluations! This god clearly has no interest in tricking us.

Zhou: Really? 'Cause I haven't got a clue what this freaking rock wants.

Osederas: You know, I've only seen this entity help us get here. Maybe…

Footprints appear in the muddied regolith and approach the tombstone marked "Bianca Osederas".

Zhou: Doc?

Fyodorov: I will if you will, Bianca.

Another set of footprints appear and converge to a point one meter away from Pyotr Fyodorov's grave marker.

Fyodorov: I don't know if this can get us out of here, but I'm certain I want the satisfaction of knowing what I'm dying for.

Two more sets of prints converge on their respective obelisks.

Palmer: Together?

The spear lurches free of the regolith and rises 0.23 meters into the air. The clouds immediately part as the deposited water rapidly evaporates.

Fyodorov: I'll be what it takes to save them.

Osederas: I won't leave you here to rot.

Palmer: I'll get us home.

Zhou: I'll find a way out.

Lightning strikes the spear and the tombstones disintegrate in the resulting burst of light. When the feed returns, the weapon is held in place by four luminescent humanoid forms.

Fyodorov: Brave.

Osederas: Caring.

Palmer: Righteous.

Zhou: Curious.

In Unison: Exemplary.

Fyodorov: Callous.

Osederas: Complacent.

Palmer: Resentful.

Zhou: Fearful.

In Unison: Deficient.

Smith approaches the four entities holding the spear as the camera does the same.

In Unison: You four ask me to make you what you know to be a contradiction. Cleave your dichotomies, shame your pride, and summit your own majesties. What remains will be the god that you deserve.

The spear shines a light that blinds the camera. Ishii's raised forearm gives enough shade to make out the four entities merging with the lance. The obscuring radiance fades as the last of their form enters the reflective metal. Takeo reaches out and places a hand on it as Smith does the same.

Ishii: They're here. In this. In us.

Director Smith's hand grasps the weapon and Chef Ishii follows suit.

Ishii: Let me free them.

Smith: You keep sullying our god when you stoop to asking me for permission.

Ishii: And who is our god?

Smith: Lacking, if this mountains is to mean anything. Unfortunate, if their selections are limited to us. Naive, if they chose you to join them.

Ishii: I chose myself. I was the one who fell and them climbed. Not god. I am the one who wept and then stood upright. Not you. I am the one who died, failed, and floundered yet persisted. And I don't care about the story you've woven around this mountain or who put it here.

Smith: If that's the case, then you have one last edit to make. One more character to submit, summit, and summarily delete. Your divinity will have to make do with what remains of you afterwards.

The two of them pull at the spear before it vanishes and they fly back at 200 meters per second until they collide with the caldera walls. The feed shakes to show a copy of the weapon in both Ishii and Smith's possession when they regain footing.

<Video End>


Addendum 0001.5: With my warmest regards. Signed, Takeo.

<Video Start>

The feed opens to show Site-207 Chef, Takeo Ishii, running towards the camera with his copy of the lance held aloft. Director Smith's arms come into view and push the footage's point of view towards the right as Ishii throws his weapon. Twelve frames of regolith pass before the feed goes dark.

Heavy breathing comes over the audio as the video opens to see a 50 meter wide hole in the caldera wall. The setting sun is visible through the new aperture as the lance speeds back to Chef Ishii's right hand. Ishii taps his weapon across the ground as the camera pans around. The reverberation of his strikes shakes loose a torrent of crocus pollen down into the caldera basin.

Ishii: Come on down and prostrate yourself! Don't worry, not all saints are martyrs, Valentine!

A spearhead 25 meters in radius emerges from the ground at 75 meters a second. Ishii propels off the surface of its tip and deflects it towards the containment array where it bends and redshifts to cover the sky.

The footage switches to show Chef Ishii floating above the caldera's center with his spear held aloft. The feed goes dark before fading back in to moving regolith. This continues for 18 seconds before Takeo Ishii's face surges into view through the dirt.

Ishii: Where are you going? Director?

Light breaks through the rusted gravel as the camera is overturned and Director Smith is tossed against a cliffside on the opposite end of the caldera. The feed is now upside down as Takeo Ishii paces towards it at 0.9 meters a second.

Ishii: This is part of our assessment, Valentine. No sense in lying about us now.

The chef advances towards Smith as a honing rod appears in his left hand. Ishii runs the sharpening tool across the surface of the spear's point. The camera shakes and turns away as the director runs directly up the caldera clifface. His quickened breath comes over the audio. The feed turns back towards Ishii only to focus on his empty hand.

Smith: Why are you here, Takeo?

Four spears jut from the rock around the camera and hold it in place.

Ishii: To get us up the mountain. You were always coming up short of the very first boulder that I crossed. Only thing I've done now is mount your first pebble.

Smith: [14 seconds of gurgling]

The feed lowers into the ground as Director Smith vomits. It reopens to view a bloodstained fissure with human viscera suspended between four spearheads. Crocus roots spread in the wake of the camera's pass as it sweeps across the caldera until it settles on a tangled mass of vegetation. Director Smith is forced up from the regolith by entangling root structures. A crocus flower, 1.5 meters in diameter, blooms beneath Director Smith. Its stamens combine and solidify into a spear which pierces through Smith's body, hoisting him aloft over the camera. The director chuckles for six seconds.

Smith: Not… enough. Another metaphor. Another revision. Another chance to make this perfect of them. Please. Let me be enough. Let me be perfect.

Ishii: Why should I give a damn about you? You don't give a damn about you.

A new light shines behind them in the sky between two containment stations. Takeo pulls the spear back with Smith still impaled upon it. The light grows red as the form of Smith's returning spear comes into the video's resolution threshold. Chef Ishii aims his weapon and Smith towards the incoming projectile.

Smith: (While weeping) Please. I'll start learning to care.

Ishii: Then you have a lot of falling to do first.

Smith gags as the spear launches forward with him attached to it and his own weapon enters the caldera. The two javelins collide and the metals fold around the smaller projectile's point. The compromised weapon inverts around Takeo's spear as crocus flowers spread across the event horizon overhead. Light from the overhead array platforms surge and the radiance overwhelms the footage for six seconds. The roar of surging water comes over the audio before the feed cuts out.

<Video End>












































































































































































































































































































Addendum 0001.6: Help me, please. Takeo?

You're not going to leave him down there, are you?

Would it really be so bad?

Take this seriously.

You don't have much room to talk there.

Fair, but you still have one more step to go before you can be so privileged.

Why would you have me? I'm a murderer.

Only by your inaction, and where is that now? Besides, you think I climbed without blood?

I don't know why I expected better.

Your species is still young. Still has many disappointments ahead on its climb. Do you really expect gods to have better morals than their makers?

Then how did you get here?

Not without diligence. That quality tends to be a work in progress for species undergoing a puberty of sorts. Always in a hurry.

What you gave us wasn't diligence. It was negligence.

I'm a tired, worried, and dying creature. I'm not able to stand above you anymore and my time beside you is limited. Can you blame me for being paranoid about passing the baton?

Well, do I need to start running then?

Your kind does have an impressive amount of curiosity and ambition. They'll run far.

Thank you.

That was a warning. Now, you need to get moving if you have any intention of keeping this world you have made.

One request first.

I warn you. Nostalgia is as costly as inertia here.

Get them home safe.

Then pick up your weights and climb, Takeo.