Per 
- Chapter 1: A Marbelous Interview -
The sound of fluorescent lights buzzed overhead. It filled the gaps of silence between the halls, whenever the sounds of footsteps and talking from other researchers, guards and occasionally D-Class ceased. Griffin’s own footsteps stayed with him along his entire journey from the cafeteria to Director Hollender’s office. He felt like a robot, programmed to go from point A to point B. His softly glowing blue eye would contribute well to that vision, if only his flesh were not made of a semi-hard, immaculate, white marble. Griffin had polished his head that morning because of his visit to Director Hollender’s office. He wasn’t sure if he was going to be in trouble for any small mistake or not, but being called up to the Site Director’s Office was a big deal, especially for him. Griffin had worked at Site-89 for his whole career with the foundation and if that was about to change he was sure it wasn’t going to be a good thing. Both negative and positive thoughts swirled around in his soft, triangular marble head, and before he knew it he was standing just outside of Director Hollender’s office. He gave a silent sigh to himself, working up a bit of courage and clearing his mind before knocking, then opening the door to the Site Director’s office.
“Hello? Director Hollender, you requested to speak with me?” Griffin called as he closed the door behind himself once he entered the room. Behind the desk across from Griffin was a chair that was turned towards the wall right behind the desk. The wall had a whiteboard covered in writing from what the Director was working on last. The chair spins around semi fast and Griffin is met with the rhombus-shaped face of a man suffering the same effects of the marble disease as he is. Griffin sat down in a seat in front of the Director’s desk looking, as he normally did, a slightly irritated white triangle.
“Hello there, Dr. Lorem. I suggest we waste no time with this interview, since I have pulled you away from your work. Dr. Lorem, you filed to qualify for assistant Director, correct?” Hollender began talking in a smooth, and calm tone. Once the Director reminded Griffin of his job request, he relaxed slightly, realizing he was not in trouble. Although his serious expression was still consistent as it was rarely ever replaced with a softer one.
“Yes, Sir. I applied for the role of Assistant Director a couple weeks ago if I remember correctly.” Griffin replied with confidence about his aura. He had been working long hours even on his time off to show his dedication to his research. Ever since he was prompted by external sources to accept the offer of starting his career with the foundation, he realized he could gain people’s trust and take advantage of his job. He could eventually take higher positions with more experience and longer years than other foundation members because of his semi-immortal ailment. Just another advancement to securing the site, he thought to himself.
“Good, so my files are in order,” Hollender says as he shuffles through some files reorganizing the ones he took out so he has only Dr. Lorem’s file in front of him. “Let’s see here, you are researching and observing SCP-6793. Under the hypothetical circumstances of being appointed as my Assistant, you will continue researching SCP-6793 and overseeing some other SCP subjects as needed. Are you aware that your responsibilities, and research will continue in that area and possible others to come?”
“Yes, Sir. I am aware that I will continue to have my current research and future subjects under my supervision, and control,” Griffin holds his hands with his fingers interwoven on his lap, trying to look as serious about his job as he possibly could. Although he was keeping a serious tone, something about Director Hollender was distracting him and it bugged him the whole time. Perhaps it was the fact that they are suffering the same disease, he never took the time to look very long at himself in the mirror. His own appearance disgusted him, Griffin hated seeing himself as a humanoid marble statue. Of course he admired looking better than he did as a human, but it reminded him of what he had done before he was captured. He started staring off into space, at Hollender, without realizing just listening to the sound of Hollender talking through a couple of sentences before stopping as he realizes Griffin is daydreaming.
“Dr. Lorem, is something wrong?” Hollender had tilted his rhombus shaped head to the side in slight confusion at Griffin’s lack of a response to what he was saying. Griffin realized he was staring off into space and took in a sharp breath. His apparent embarrassment made Hollender chuckle softly, and it seemingly sounded understanding, giving Griffin the idea that Hollender already had the outcome of the interview predetermined.
“Ah- No, Sir. Nothing is wrong, I am alright. I am just a little sleep deprived from working rather late last night. I was up until one in the morning with some paperwork that still needed some organizing for SCP-6793,” Griffin spoke, giving an excuse for quite a minor offence Hollender would likely not even remember after the interview.
“Alright, well. Where was I? Oh, yeah. A new researcher will be appointed to SCP-6793 in the likely case you need more work done in your absence, if you are appointed as my assistant,” Hollender moves on seeing he has Griffin’s full attention. Griffin listens a little closer now feeling embarrassed that he was starting to daydream of work that still needed to be done to finish his long term mission. “Dr. Lorem, you’ve been working for the foundation for quite some time now, but… oh I remember this. This was quite an interesting tale once you were brought back here and confessed to what you had done. Before you were working for the foundation, when you were working on your Doctorate, you were on a trip to a small village in Bolivia. After you were infected on your trip to document the people in said village, your mental state significantly decreased in the matter of days until you were fully consumed by the effects of the virus. Sparing the details unrelated to this follow up question, Do you, Dr. Lorem, feel as though the foundation rehabilitated your mental state to full sanity and health?” Hollender’s tone when summarizing parts of the past sounded like it made him feel nostalgic in a peculiar way. Griffin recalled back to that time a good many years ago, and how Director Hollender looked when interviewing him for his initial job working in the foundation and how he finally got his doctorate. Hollender was almost fully consumed by the virus himself, as an outbreak of it plagued Site-89 when Griffin and a handful of people who survived in Bolivia were brought back. Of course, now neither of them are contagious with the virus, just examples of the genetic modification the virus causes.
“Yes, sir. Actually, I have come to rather enjoy my time working for the foundation once my treatment was over, despite looking constantly disgruntled. I believe my treatment lasted me.” Griffin answers sounding like he hadn’t quite thought about what would have happened if he hadn’t started working for the foundation. The way Griffin worded the statement sounded oddly optimistic. Hollender likely could read Griffin well enough to tell he was both opening up to him and at the same time giving him what Griffin likely thought was the best possible answer. Director Hollender chuckles after Griffin’s statement, takes a small note, then continues on with his questions finding Griffin to be rather interesting to question.
“Great, I am very glad for your recovery, Dr. Lorem.” Hollender replies and flips a page reading the next question. “Okay, Work ethic… Well, like you said before, you are definitely dedicated to your work. You stayed up late when needed last night, and I’m sure many times before. What about procrastination habits?”
“Procrastination? No, I am not one to wait to get work done. I work until paperwork, observations, and assignments for that day are done, whenever that might be, even if it’s late at night.” Griffin seems to be excited that his hard work is getting him somewhere. Griffin slightly adjusts his posture to make sure he isn't slouching, and he keeps full attention on the interview. He looks rather tired, but determined to get through the interview and hopefully get the new position as Assistant Director.
“Mhm, as I thought. What do you think your team of researchers would say about your management skills with them? Do you think they would agree that you would be a good person to fill the spot as my Assistant Director?” Hollender, himself sounds like he’s already starting to get bored of the interview. On the other hand, he knows he has to finish the interview to give Griffin the promotion.
“I think my team would say I am good with managing them and that I do a good job of encouraging them to get through the work they are doing each day. I think they would definitely agree that I would fit well as the Assistant Director,” Griffin gives another positive answer, stifling yawns as not to be rude. Hollender reads through the next section of the papers he has in front of him before continuing.
“Well as you could have probably guessed, I have personally held a short meeting with your team to gather their opinions. You will be elated to hear in summary that they are all in favor of your possible promotion.” Hollender comments to Griffin, happy to see he looked so hopeful and reassured about his promotion. He thought to himself that Griffen was likely catching on that the interview really wasn’t that important. “How about we take a short break then finish up in about 5 to 10 minutes?”
“That is alright with me.” Griffin nods and stands up as Hollender does, then follows him out of the office. He decides to go grab a cup of coffee, and while he does, he watches Hollender walk down another hallway towards the restroom. Griffin quickly finds himself walking back to the cafeteria and eventually standing next to one of the coffee machines that is constantly brewing. After the coffee is ready he pours himself a cup and sweetens it to his liking with sugar and creamer. Once he was done, he made his way back to Hollender’s office and found that the Director had just walked into the hall outside his office at the same time he did. Whether they were well timed or just lucky, they didn't have to wait for each other to continue their interview. They got back into Hollender’s office and sat down to continue and finish the interview. Griffin practically sucks the whole cup of coffee down within the first few minutes and soon he has enough of a push to get through the last part of the interview without looking too tired.
“Now that we’re back let's finish up this interview. Let’s see here,” Director Hollender pulls his attention to his notes in front of him to see where he left off, and what’s next. “How would you handle evacuation efforts in the event of a containment breach and protecting fellow researchers during a breach event?”
“Well that's a complicated question with many different alternating paths that those events could take,” Griffin comments, trying to really think about his answer for a few seconds before he answers in the best way he thinks he could word his answer. “In the event of a containment breach I would follow protocol and make sure to evacuate everyone safely. Nothing can be guaranteed to go as planned, especially with breaches, I would in short do my best to keep my fellow researchers safe from harm until the MTF personnel have secured the facility,” Griffin’s eye glows slightly brighter after answering the question.
“Very well said,” Hollender writes something down and gets to the next question. “To prevent SCP-6766 from breaching containment once more, what would you propose as an idea to make her more content? Several suggestions were made and carried out, but none seem to have made significant changes in her irritable mood and dislike for humans.”
“Hmmm SCP-6766… Well from what I know of her that’s been discussed openly. Isn’t she just lonely? Maybe she should be given a new friend and not have them taken away from her after they’ve become great pals? Maybe the Ross brothers wouldn’t mind trying to befriend her. To put it rather bluntly, she might feel more comfortable with someone who matches both of her personalities and isn’t quite normal.” Griffin had never worked with SCP-6766, but she wasn’t a rare talking point amongst the staff, being that she frequently would try to violently escape.
“That’s quite an interesting thought, in the next higher staff meeting we will definitely discuss this approach. This also will include requesting for Arthur and Paul to donate a couple hours of their time to chat with her and see how they get along, ” Hollender acknowledges Griffin's answer and roughly outlines what he said on the paper in front of him to remember for later. Hollender then straightens his small stack of papers and paper clips them before putting them in a drawer and giving his attention back to Griffin to dismiss him from the interview. “You may leave now, Dr. Lorem, that was the last question.”
“Alright, thank you for the opportunity, sir,” on that last note Griffin got up and left Hollender’s office. After closing the door behind him he took a deep breath and looked around at the boring gray walls of the office halls. He let himself wander around the office areas for a while having nothing more to do for that day. The interview was rather short and not quite as he expected as if Director Hollender had already made up his mind about accepting him or not before the interview, he was sure of it. As he was day dreaming he passed by a familiar hexagonal face without even noticing. She noticed Griffin giving a hundred yard stare as he passed by her, so she quietly turned around and started following him once she passed him. She was curious about what he was doing just wandering the halls. After a short while she spoke up and got Griffin’s attention.
“Griffin, are you okay?” she said calmly standing behind him just a few feet away.
“Huh? Oh- Annie? I’m… fine just-” Griffin turns around and stutters caught off guard about his daze. “Just fine.”
“You seem out of it. What were you doing before now?” Annie starts to question Griffin concerned for him. They were good acquaintances and sometimes shared lunch together so she couldn’t quite understand why he was acting this odd.
“I was in an interview with Director Hollender,” Griffin gives her a straight answer in a way trying to reassure her he’s alright.
“Oh, alright, but why are you just… wandering aimlessly?” Annie still keeps up her concern for Griffin having observed that on a normal day he is usually the depressive type even though he was rehabilitated. She was always concerned he might relapse and have a psychotic outbreak and lose his sanity again.
“Just needed a walk, you know? I needed some time to unwind, and I am also rather mentally tired after this week,” Griffin tries to sound calm as he thinks of an excuse to leave the awkward encounter. He was not up to the challenge of talking to anyone else now his thoughts were scrambled and he needed to reorganize himself from his cloud of anxiety and depressed thoughts.
“Alright well… if you need someone to talk to you can come by my office later, I won’t be doing much.” Annie sees how uncomfortable she is making him and decides to give him time to come back later and talk, and maybe make him feel better.
“Y-yeah… maybe I will come over. I should go and check on SCP-6793 now. I’ll see you later.” Griffin leaves her in a hurry rounding the corner towards the containment area then doubling back after seeing she left. He took a hall he knew would not go by Annie’s office and went back to the living quarters. Then, he made his way to his personal room and locked the door behind him.
- Chapter 2: Heart of Marble -
Waking to the chime of a phone alarm, Arthur groans angrily and Paul reaches over to turn it off. They take a moment to fully wake up and then sit up on the side of their bed. It was six o’clock in the morning, when most of the staff was waking up, so the sound of people in the hall outside of their room was becoming more apparent. Arthur got up and got dressed and Paul looked behind them at the calendar on their wall.
“Hey Arthur, it’s friday, you know what that means?” Paul says in a chipper tone but, still rather groggy. A good stretch and some breakfast seemed to be in order. He turns and looks back at the triangular head floating alongside him.
“I swear, Paul… this early in the morning? Why can’t we just quietly get ready?” Arthur sighs and answers Paul when he realized Paul was really eager for an answer, “Let me guess… a higher staff meeting?” Arthur never really argued too fiercely with Paul, as he did care about him quite a bit, but his personality made him constantly bitter and angry.
“Oh Arthur, it's pancake day! Your favorite!” Paul smiles wanting to cheer up Arthur for at least one day. Paul was always the exceptionally positive personality that the Ross brothers had. Both personalities, each with their own head, were very intelligent.
“Yeah, yeah… we still have a higher staff meeting today. It’s not like anyone’s had a major breakthrough… the ringmaster is still not terminated, the kid’s still angry, and there’s been no talk of a new secured item for over a month now. What news could there be?” Arthur huffed as he complained and asked a rhetorical question. He finished lacing their boots and stood up before leading them to the door. Paul let Arthur control them and walk them down the busy hall because he knew Arthur felt more calm when he was in command of their shared body. Once they got to the cafeteria Arthur grabbed a tray of food and two forks. Soon they sat down in an open spot in front of Dr. Strass. Arthur looked around the cafeteria and all of the researchers in it, all having discussions with identical looking men and women. All wearing lab coats and jeans with neatly buttoned up shirts, and the same applied to the person he was sitting in front of, Dr. Strass. Paul had started eating for them already so when Dr. Stass went to start up a conversation, he decided to speak to the one without a mouth full of food.
“Hey Arthur, did you see the baseball game last night?” Doctor Strass asked in-between bites of pancakes and sausage from his orange plastic tray.
“No I didn’t, I was catching up on work because Paul fell asleep and I had to do it for him.” Arthur said in his gruff, deep voice. Even trying to have normal conversation Arthur sounded as though he was going to begin threatening whoever he was talking to.
“Hey, I was tired and needed a break,” Paul said while nervously chuckling with his mouth full of sausage. Paul wouldn't dare eat Arthur’s pancakes. Even if it looked like Arthur was not going to touch them so he continued eating everything else.
“Well it was a good one, wish you were there. We were all stayin’ after work in the cafeteria to watch it over the huge TV together,” Strass said, gesturing with his thumb behind him to the large flat screen on the wall that had a news channel on.
“I’m sure it was great, and I definitely heard you guys talking loudly,” Arthur said, annoyed remembering the cheering from the night before that he could hear from his office. Arthur then began eating his pancakes, likely signaling he was done having any sort of conversation with Dr. Strass for the time being.
“Hey, we were just having some fun. Why don’t you sap up some of Paul’s positivity for once, eh? I gotta head out for 6766 duty. See ya ‘round Rosses,” Doctor Strass said as he stood up and carried his tray to the counter and dumped the excess food in the garbage. Arthur gave a gruff grunt watching him leave and quickly finished his pancakes.
“We’re alone again, unfortunate,” Arthur commented in both a depressive and relieved way, letting them sit for a moment to decide if they were still hungry or done eating.
“Ah cheer up Arthur, we have each other,” Paul smiled while looking at Arthur with his glowing blue eye.
“Well I don’t really have a choice since you’re stuck on my shoulder,” Arthur remarked giving Paul only a glance before his gaze wandered elsewhere.
“Nah I’m not on your shoulder, I’m just floating besides you,” Paul corrected Arthur as if that changed much of their situation.
“Unfortunately I can’t just constantly find a nanny to watch you,” Arthur said quietly chuckling to himself wondering what it would be like to be on his own for more than a couple hours. “Anyway, we have a meeting to attend.”
“Alright, take us away,” Paul let Arthur take full control over them once more. The two-headed figure stood up from the table and carried their tray away to the landfill bin and dumped away the food they didn’t need. Arthur set the tray on the counter for the D-class to take away before realizing the D-Class was not paying attention. Arthur waited a couple moments for the D-class to realize their presence before verbally getting the D-Class’s attention.
“Hey D, are you paying attention?” Arthur barked across the counter at the D-Class working the cafeteria.
“I-I’m sorry sir, I’ll take that for you,” the D-Class said, terrified at the sight of the two-headed figure looming over him standing at 6 feet and 9 inches tall.
“That’s what I thought,” Arthur growled looking down at the D-Class menacingly with his red glowing eye before Paul spoke up.
“You'll have to excuse my brother sir, I’m sorry.” Paul said in a friendly tone trying to apologize for Arthur. The D-class did not respond to Paul. Thoroughly freaked out the D-Class quickly grabbed the tray and ran back into the kitchen. Arthur walked out of the cafeteria and began down the long hallway, stepping aside for the busy researchers bustling down the corridor. They eventually reached the conference room door that Arthur had been wishing he did not have to see that day. Arthur reached for the doorknob, and paused for a moment, hesitating before twisting the knob and letting the door swing open. Both Arthur and Paul looked around the room in different directions just before closing the door behind them as they walked in. They sit in their assigned seat among the staff that were present at the moment. Griffin walked in just after the Ross brothers had sat down, and took his seat. Soon all of the higher staff had come in and sat down, now just waiting for Hollender to start the meeting.
“Good morning ladies and gentlemen. This morning’s meeting is rather significant, so I will start with addressing a decision I recently made to accept applications for an assistant director. After accepting some applications for interviews and careful selection I have come to appoint Dr. Lorem as my assistant director,” the director began the meeting with an enthusiastic tone and a positive announcement to accompany such a tone. Everyone around the table politely applauded and congratulated Griffin who had shrunk partially into the large collar his cape had and seemed to be rather flustered at the sudden attention. Hollender soon moved on with the meeting, drawing away everyone’s attention from Griffin.
“There has recently been a pressing issue with an SCP entity that’s become more violent towards humans. SCP-6766 has recently tried breaching unsuccessfully more than five times in the past month. Ever since Senior Researcher Langly was terminated by SCP-6766 three months ago restrictions were notably enforced and many ideas to make her more content have been proposed, executed, and failed. Now, the proposed solution that was suggested by Assistant Director Lorem is that SCP-6766 needs a friend. I’m sure everyone present remembers that the D-Class, D-6667, that she became friends with was terminated which caused the increase in her disdain for everyone around her. It was suggested that since SCP-6766 and Dr. Ross have similar characteristics she might relate to, they could become friends. Dr. Ross would be asked to donate about an hour and a half to two hours of their time to have a small interview with her. After said interview Dr. Ross will be given a second chance to make a final decision between themselves whether they wish to or not try to befriend her.”
Paul looks at Arthur who looks rather particularly unhappy at the thought of talking with an SCP entity. This doesn't stop Paul from mentally begging Arthur to agree to the two hours. Even Though they weren't verbally speaking the Rosses seem to have an understanding of each other to the point where an argument could be nonverbal. After a few minutes of an awkward staring contest between the two Arthur sighs and just nods pathetically giving into Paul’s pleading.
“Moving on to the third and final subject, we’ve got a new SCP Item under our care. SCP-6734 is a peculiar item. SCP-6734 is a clutch of raptor eggs in stunningly good condition as if they were recently laid. The peculiar thing about them is signs of life within them. The containment procedures will be given to Assistant Director Lorem along with Lead Researcher Dwyer as files, and this will also include what to look out for as the eggs progress to a hatching stage. Anyway, that about does it in terms of new information, are there any questions?” Hollender straightens his papers and rests them back down as he looks at everyone.
“Yes, um- when are we going to have this interview with SCP-6766?” Paul asks his question seeing that everyone was silent and thinking to themselves. Arthur doesn’t say anything and lets Paul handle with talking about the interview.
“Good question, any day you and Arthur have extra time on your hands would be alright to meet her. You could even go today if you wanted, although I’m sure she would like to be told she was meeting with the two of you first,” Hollender answers Paul very straight forward and moves on to dismiss the group seeing that no one else had a question. “Alright since we seem to be finished here, everyone is dismissed. If anyone needs anything at all don’t hesitate to stop by my office.”
On that note everyone got up and filed out of the conference room door to start their work for the day, scattering throughout the labyrinth of halls and containment zones. Arthur and Paul make their way to SCP-6798’s containment area to receive recently observed data from the spiders and catalogue the data with the rest of the observations. They will then compare previous observations and either edit their file if necessary, add notes, or set aside the observations with the rest and keep the current file. They do this with a handful of safe SCPs and manage them accordingly. Since safe class SCPs prove not to be too difficult to handle, Arthur and Paul oversee more than one.
“You know, Arthur, maybe we can spend some time with the spiders. You really do need to relax, even a little bit. I- I hope you know I can feel just how stressed you are,” Paul softly urges Arthur to take a little bit of time to relax. Arthur stayed aloof to his caring counterpart, but Paul didn’t take it personally, he just let Arthur carry them off to work.
Once they got to SCP-6798’s containment area Arthur and Paul were greeted by a chipper Dr. Wreathes. Since this trip to SCP-6798’s containment area is a weekly occurrence they were to be expected rather soon. Dr. Wreathes had gathered the paperwork and observations from the past week for the Ross brothers so they didn’t have to themselves.
“Good morning, gentlemen. How are you?” Dr. Wreathes smiles kindly with a warm greeting. Being around the dog like giant spiders seems to make him happy. Such creatures are a bright contrast to the more dangerous and more malicious anomalous entities and objects within the walls of the facility.
“We’re great, thank you for asking,” Paul answers for Arthur who seemed rather grateful not to have to answer himself. Arthur looked at Dr. Wreathes then glanced at Paul and then the spider enclosure.
“I’m assuming you’re not sticking around to view the entities?” Dr. Wreathes hands them the stack of papers that Arthur takes.
“No, I don’t think Arthur likes spiders, or dogs… or anything for that matter. I think we will be heading back to our o-.” Arthur cuts off Paul with a gruff grunt.
“To satisfy Paul’s fascination with these affable arachnids we can do as Paul wishes today.” Arthur then quiets down, almost regretting his decision now that Paul seemed to be getting too excited for his liking. Paul then gives the sack of papers back to Dr. Wreathes who chuckles and lets them into the enclosure with the other handlers. Arthur looks around at the habitat then down seeing Paul stopped as SCP-6798-A trotted up to them. SCP-6798-A was the largest SCP-6798 entity that was tan with black and yellow stripes. Arthur seemed to dislike the fact that this spider in front of him was just bigger than a medium sized dog. Paul on the other hand seemed just as excited as the spider was to make a new friend. Paul takes full control over the brothers’ body and kneels to give the spider a pet.
“Hello there, aren’t you charming.” Paul spoke to the spider complimenting it’s affectionate nature. Arthur seemed to find the texture of the spider’s fur odd, mentally comparing it to what he remember’s of a dog’s fur. It then hit him it’s been a good many decades since he’s even seen a dog let alone give one a pet. He seemed to suddenly gain a depressed expression realizing his current state of being and remembering things he hasn’t seen, smelled, or touched since he and Paul were fully separated to their own heads and condemned to a stone body. Arthur reached with their other hand and pet the spider more now seeming unresponsive and very depressed. Paul realizes Arthur’s upset and looks at him.
“H-hey Arthur… Are you okay, there? Would you rather talk about this when we go to bed?” Paul speaks softly trying to be comforting.
“Later.” He brushes off Paul in his usual manner sounding annoyed and bitter, but for different reasons than just the tone of someone’s voice or someone’s sheer presence. Paul nods and looks back at the spider who was enjoying the pets and attention. “Arthur, how about we eat dinner with SCP-6766 tonight? I think it would be pleasant to share a meal with her, and it might make her feel more open to talk.”
Arthur nods and stands them up before gruffly remarking, “That’s enough screwing around, we have other SCPs’ files to attend to. If we don’t finish our work before dinner we won’t be able to have dinner with that misbehaved child.”
“Arthur! She’s not misbehaving; she’s in mental and emotional pain. She’s mentally ill and has anomalous abilities,” Paul tells Arthur off for being rude and insensitive.
“An uncanny coincidence to our situation,” Arthur huffs, ending the conversation and leaving the habitat. Arthur takes the papers back from Dr. Wreathes and makes his way back to his and Paul’s office. Once they make their way into their office they get to work reading through the observations and comparing it to previous observations. The Rosses soon determine nothing has changed and file the papers away with the other observations. They get up and pick up their book bag they had hanging on a coat rack next to the door. They first check to make sure it’s empty before they sling it across their shoulder, and depart from their office once more to pick up the rest of the paperwork from other Safe class SCPs they need to analyze and file.
They walked down the hall past other researchers on their way to different offices and SCP storage lockers and habitats. The dull grey walls and the soulless yellow glow the fluorescent tube lights give off make Arthur think more about his time underground in the facility. He thinks about his state of being as an animated statue with a second personality as a physical head accompanying him everywhere he went. Oddly, he realizes one thing he can’t remember is what being a single person was like. Whenever he had to leave Paul with someone he always felt like something was missing. He enjoyed being alone, but sometimes it felt too lonely and he hated to admit it to even himself. Paul thought about these things too, but he looked at the bright side of their situation. They had a good paying job, acquaintances, friends, an agreeable boss, and they were fed and housed on the Foundation’s pay. The only thing Paul would dwell on was how much he missed the sun’s warmth. Paul and Arthur had a mental link for a moment and at the same time having flashing memories from their childhood up to the last time they saw the sky. Being distracted they walk into someone and look down to see Annie looking up at them with an odd expression on her hexagonal marble face that expresses an odd form of annoyance and happiness.
“What’s wrong with the lot of you? You boys seem so distracted nowadays. Did something happen between you two and Griffin? You three are acting really weird.” Annie looks up at the tall brothers with her hands on her hips demanding them to tell her what’s wrong.
“Oh- hello there. We were just in some thought that’s all.” Paul answers her with a smile. “We uh, haven’t talked to Griffin directly for a couple days. What’s up with him?”
“Well I don’t know it just seems like all of you are having a problem with your heads floating too far off your bodies and into the clouds.” She remarks seeming annoyed that Griffin avoided talking to her the first time. She obviously didn’t want the Rosses to get away without clearly explaining if they were alright or not. She was concerned about them, specifically because her and Paul were close friends.
“Well, ironically we were actually thinking about the sky. How long has it been since we last surfaced? 25 years? Well- we just miss fresh air, natural light, and the sun’s warmth is all.” Paul explains their thoughts doing his best to make it sound like Arthur wasn’t having too hard of a time as he seemed to be having at the moment.
“Well… alright then, that’s understandable. I feel the same way sometimes, but we have to keep working. I mean, someday we’ll get out again, despite being stone, won’t we?” She smiles softly at Paul who nodded looking back at her having a rather long stare before she finally lets them pass. “Bye, boys.”
“Hey Arthur, what do you think about Annie?” Paul looks at Arthur with a smile like he usually does while trying to make the mood light.
“Nosey.” Arthur watches straight ahead as he walks with Paul, continuing to their destination. Arthur seemed dismissive, but Paul wanted to talk. Being himself, Paul continued on prodding Arthur for a better answer.
“Aside from being concerned about us, Arthur.” Paul says rather seriously, wanting Arthur to express his thoughts in more than one word.
“She’s tolerable when she’s not asking questions. On a day I’m feeling more content than usual, I might even call her an acquaintance.” Arthur answered a second time giving into Paul knowing that he would not stop talking unless Arthur participated in conversation.
“I like her.” Paul remarks as a light shade of pink starts to color his pale marble face that Arthur doesn’t notice at first. He turns slightly away from Arthur feeling himself blushing.
“You’re friends, you’re supposed to like her.” Arthur got an odd feeling while Paul reacted to his blushing only making himself blush more. He slowly looks at Paul before Paul replies.
“No like… Arthur… I really like her.” Paul seemed pretty flustered admitting what he thinks about his friend to Arthur; on the other hand, he had to tell Arthur.
“Oh my god Paul, are you serious?” Arthur stops for a moment and looks at him in partial disbelief, partially not knowing how that kind of a relationship would work because they share a body.
“Arthur. I’m dead serious. She makes me happy and she genuinely cares about us. She has since we first started hanging out with her after we were deemed non-contagious. We have been friends for 40 years, I think it’s time I at least make my feelings apparent.” Paul had mustered up what he wanted to say not wanting to beat around the bush with this kind of topic. It was rather serious and he knew Arthur didn’t quite have the capacity to feel affection in the same way.
“I-Paul…” Arthur sighs and thinks about his response not wanting to hurt Paul, knowing he would be sensitive about something like a crush. “Okay. I- I’m ‘happy’ for you Paul. You’re right I shouldn’t stop you from being happy,” Arthur concludes giving Paul permission to do as he pleases, realizing both of them might be better off for it.
“Awe thank you, Arthur.” Paul gains an uncontrollable grin after Arthur’s response. He gently nudges Arthur's head affectionately, and Arthur does his best to lean away from Paul, disgusted by the physical affection.
“Just- if you end up actually with her, please for god sake leave me with Griffin or Hollender, I don’t want to be stuck with Strass. If you must, please just leave me alone in the room on our bed.” Arthur gruffly ends the affection by adding to his previous affirmation with a requirement. He seems to find Dr. Strass particularly annoying for some reason or another.
“I’ll do my best to find someone who doesn’t annoy you as much as others.” Paul nods accepting the demanded rule with an understanding tone. With that Paul quiets down and lets Arthur keep walking them to their next location, SCP-6747’s containment cell. They walk into the observation room and collect the observations, gently sliding the papers into the bag between one of the many dividers. They look into the cell at the anomaly. The cell contained a humanoid with similar features a wolf spider would present. This is one of the many SCP-6747 entities on sight and they are virtually harmless. Along with this creature is a D-class placed in the cell to feed the entity with stories of regret from what they did to get into the facility or other negative things. They feed off of negative energy by most usually counselling someone with strong negative emotions like anxiety and depression. A D-class subject, being a death row inmate unlucky enough to have been integrated into the foundation, normally does well with feeding the anomaly. They stand and watch for a couple of seconds before walking past the researcher who was quietly and intently listening in to the conversation and taking notes for Arthur and Paul’s next pick up in a week from then.
Once they got out they made their way to the next anomaly, SCP-6781. They walk only a few doors down the hall before entering SCP-6781’s observation room. They look into SCP-6781’s cell and find SCP-6781 drawing and coloring with its caretaker. It seemed to be having fun with the simple activity as it has been known to do before. Paul smiles softly while looking at the anomalous test dummy.
“You know… 6781’s nice. I wonder if it likes being sentient. I hope it does.” Paul comments after a moment of watching the activity from the other side of the glass. Arthur just nods and picks up the observations. These ones are put into a separate divider in their bag and then they head out, not wanting to disturb the wholesome charm of the sentient and indestructible test dummy.
Soon they were onto their last observation pickup, to SCP-6732. They got into the observation room to find its researchers casually talking and drinking coffee, things seemed to be slow for them that day since nothing was happening and there were no tests being done. The researchers greet the Rosses on their way in and give them the observations for SCP-6732. Paul glanced into the small room SCP-6732 was held in. It was a small stone with a happy face painted in blood on it. Being an object rather than an entity it’s anomalous powers activate when it’s interacted with. This rock is able to take people back in time or into the future. Paul thought about what it would be like to see everyone as a normal human again in the past. After some thought while Arthur carried them back to their office, Paul realized he had never seen Griffin as a normal human. He had seen his other marble counterparts as human at one point, but because Griffin was almost fully stone when he was transported to Site-89 as an SCP, he didn’t know what to expect Griffin to look like if they were ever to be cured.
“Hey Arthur, have you ever thought about what Griffin looked like before he was stone? I mean we know what everyone else looked like, but we never got to see Griffin without stone.” Paul looks over to Arthur sharing his thoughts with him. Arthur glanced at Paul and rolled his eye.
“We’ve got better things to be doing than to imagine Griffin’s hair color, which is something intangible aside from a photo he might have. Considering the circumstances he got here on, I would be surprised if he had anything from before his career here.” Arthur replies sounding annoyed. Paul nods and doesn’t talk until they start sorting out their work.
A couple of hours go by and it’s lunch time. The Rosses had gotten a third of the way done with their work before lunch, filing away SCP-6747’s observations after making the right adjustments to it’s files. Paul looks at Arthur and before he could complain about their shared hunger, their stomach growls demanding food from them. Arthur gets up from their desk leaving the rest of their work for after lunch. Many footsteps and voices fill the hall as all the researchers leave their offices to get lunch. Arthur and Paul join the flood of researchers, locking their office behind them before following the flow of the crowd. Soon they found themselves in the cafeteria waiting in a rather long line. The menu for that day was a choice between pizza and cob salad. Once they picked up their food they grabbed one of each. Arthur favored the salad over the greasy slice of pizza. Paul on the other hand seemed to enjoy pizza even though the foundation’s pizza tasted just better than school cafeteria pizza, being a stale bagel or slice of bread with old tomato paste and cheese melted on it and a single pepperoni. Once they had their tray of food and a couple of drinks to go along with their food, Paul looked around seeing that Annie already sat down with Griffin and seemed to be having a nice conversation with the occasional giggle. Paul stops Arthur from walking away and urges them in the direction towards the other two marble fleshed individuals. Arthur doesn’t resist and takes them over to sit next to Griffin so they are opposite of Annie.
“Hello, Rosses,” Griffin moves over and makes more room for them as they sit down to make sure they’re more comfortable.
“Hey, boys,” Annie smiles brightly, greeting them like the warmth of the sun after a cold night. Arthur immediately starts eating his salad so he doesn't have to talk for them.
“Hello Griffin, hey Annie,” Paul responds cheerfully as always. This time locking eyes with Annie for a bit too long making each other look away and slightly blush. Griffin sees this and seems confused for the most part before Arthur swallows his mouth full of egg tomato and lettuce and addresses the elephant in the room before Annie could realize there was one.
“By the way this idiot has a crush on you.” Arthur’s deep voice sounded rather mischievous while causing Paul to fluster in embarrassment. Griffin seemed amused by the statement and started to partially choke on his food while trying not to laugh, but Annie seemed rather flustered as well not knowing what to say especially since Arthur’s not the type to spout a random rumor just to see how people would react.
“A-Arthur!” Paul looks at Arthur, quite embarrassed, and Arthur just continues eating. Arthur seemed to be happy with himself for causing some kind of chaos. Paul shakes his head and takes a deep breath before looking at Annie and putting on a brave face.
“U-uh, he- he’s right, actually. Um, A-Annie we’ve been friends for quite a while and I was just thinking that, well, since you’re so caring and kind and beautiful and you’ve been this way for years, well, maybe we could go out… well technically not out, but, um, on a date!” Paul seems even more embarrassed than before after rather weakly putting a run on sentence together trying to articulate his feelings.
“O-oh, I… I’m flattered, Paul that you feel this way. I-… Yes, I will. I just don’t want this to get in the way of work though, alright?” Annie accepts just as flustered as Paul, but keeps her focus on the fact that they are on call twenty-four hours a day if anything goes wrong or changes with the SCPs they all work with. Paul nods and takes a couple of bites of pizza not knowing what to say. Arthur looks proud of himself for embarrassing Paul, and Griffin managed to cough up the food he was choking on.
“You guys are gross… keep going, the facility needs more soft feelings.” Griffin teases them lightly calling them gross then encouraging them to keep being cute and flustered. Griffin started feeling like a third wheel and knew Arthur must feel even weirder being that Paul, who he does everything with, is going to start doing his own thing in their free time. They each soon finish their food and get up to drop off their trays. This time Paul made sure that they left back to their office right away so Arthur couldn’t get angry at anyone else. They unlock their office and once inside they sit down and get back to work. Paul suppresses his feelings well enough to work until about six hours later after carefully combing through another 336 hours of observations. Once they finished their work for that day it was already dinner. Paul grabbed his and Arthur’s desk phone and connected to the researchers in SCP-6766’s observation room.
“Hello there, this is Paul Ross. I’m calling to see if SCP-6766 would enjoy our interview over dinner rather than after dinner, and if that would even be possible to have right now.” Paul seems eager to meet SCP-6766. Even though she’s got a temper, he can understand why she would feel so tormented and broken. After losing her only friend she’s ever made since she’s gotten into the facility, it would be understandable why she would be enraged. The way D-6667 was disregarded and terminated was unfair for her, especially since it was quite evident they had gotten along well together shortly after meeting. Not much is known about her past, but he may have reminded her of her friend she draws as SCP-6766-Alpha after he died, before SCP-6766 was in the facility’s custody.
“Actually, we haven’t gotten SCP-6766 her food yet, I’m sure she’d like the surprise, we will get both you and Arthur food as well.” The researcher on the other side of the phone replied to Paul confirming their interview will take place as soon as they arrive. Paul looks at Arthur with an excited smile before ending the line by putting the phone on it’s rest.
“Well Arthur I think it’s time to go. They said they would pick our dinner up for us as well.” Paul nudges Arthur with his head seeming to have already forgiven Arthur for embarrassing him before.
“Would you stop trying to be cute with me, it’s gross.” Arthur leans away from Paul once more as he’s assaulted with affection from his brother. Arthur stands them up, straightens their suit jacket and popped collar before leaving their office. They make their way down the labyrinth of halls and eventually end up just outside of SCP-6766’s observation room. They go in and check in with her researchers before they are let into her cell. Once they come in having been given their tray of food, SCP-6766 looks up from the tray of food she had just started eating with a cold, but confused look. The Rosses pull up another chair opposite of her from the table. SCP-6766 brushes aside the brown curled locks of hair that fall over the right side of her face, and studies the tall men made of marble. She continues to eat and refuses to talk at first. The Rosses glance at each other then look back at her having a mental conversation. Arthur starts eating and Paul smiles and greets her.
“Hello there SCP-6766, we are Doctors Arthur and Paul Ross, I’m Paul and my brother here is Arthur. It’s a pleasure to meet you and be able to have dinner with you.” Paul did as best he could to sound warm and inviting, something he was relatively good at, and waited patiently for her to finish chewing for a response.
“The displeasure’s mine.” She scoffs realizing they are just another researcher not caring that they are different on the surface. She seems to regard all forms of intelligent life as bad, altho she doesn't seem to be in a violent mood at that moment. Arthur seemed to give a light chuckle at her response and suddenly the fork in his hand bent ninety degrees without getting hot or having his other hand bend it. He put it down for her to see and Paul looked at him before picking it up and straightening it out again so Arthur could take over and Paul could eat.
“Seems like gentle and charming wont do the trick. Listen here you little brat, we are going to have a pleasant conversation over dinner and you WILL enjoy it.” Arthur oddly seemed dead serious and his deep menacing voice only made what he said that much more out of pocket for him. SCP-6766 stared at him confused at how someone could be so aggressive about being nice. She took a while to respond and took another bite of her dinner.
“About?” she grumbles lettinging her curiosity get the better of her. She had never seen any of the people infected with the stone virus. She looked at the mens’ hands as Paul ate and then their faces and kept her unhappy look.
“You enjoy art don’t you? Show us your drawings.” Arthur demands her to show off her drawings.
“Do you have a death wish? Only one person wasn’t affected by my drawings and he’s dead now because of you sick people.” She replies, disgusted by his demand to see the drawings. The drawings all seem to minifest entities that kill almost anyone they can get their hands on before they turn back into drawings.
“Look who’s talking sick, you killed your family,” Arthur remarks intentionally trying to get her angry to see her other personality.
“Arthur don’t antagonize her.” The researcher at the desk in the observation room warns Arthur not to get her angry, for good reason. She releases CCG-47 when upset and that causes severe mental illness and causes eventual suicide amongst those who are exposed. Being technically inhuman this substance likely wouldn't affect the Rosses. Paul looks at Arthur with a serious look thinking Arthur should be careful as well.
“Ah- shut up, this is OUR interview.” Arthur yells stubbornly as the mics inside the room switch off and the shutter for the observation room closes preventing them from knowing what's going on. The cell door stays locked even when the guards try to open the door.
“… You know… you didn’t even ask me what my name is. You’re mean and insensitive…” SCP-6766 looked very upset now sniffing and looking like she was about to cry before her expression went blank. “But… we are too.” After this remark she smiles widely as CCG-47 starts leaking off the palms of her hands. The sticky black fluid gets all over her metal chair and table. She props her head on the backs of her hands still smiling. “Tell us something, how long do you think your stone body will hold up against Angel?” She seems to have gotten a piece of paper and a pencil from a shelf without moving. She already starts scratching a drawing and repetitively writing the word ‘Angel’ around it. It was an instance of SCP-6766-2-Alpha.
As soon as she finished Paul seemed to be freaking out and Arthur seemed pleased with the hate and chaos. She turned the page towards them and pushed it over to them as CCG-47 started leaking from her eyes and mouth. Arthur looked down at the page, and it started turning black. The page soon began writhing and changing shape before making a screeching noise. The page stopped its movement only to go back fully to page form. Arthur huffs an evil chuckle and the world around them seems to warp. SCP-6766 looks around confused and suddenly in fear bringing both of her personalities forward to hear Arthur.
“Oh dear child, your problem isn’t being an evil brat. It’s not realizing there are other people deadlier than you with more control over their effects. I could fuse you to your chair and make the rest of your life more miserable than you could even imagine. I don't think having metal impaled into you would feel very good, would it? Especially if the foundation couldn’t remove it without completely terminating you. On the bright side for you, I’m not going to do that. I’m merely meant to show you how you have affected others. Now you have an option. I could keep you here for as long as I want and break your mind even more, or you can simply have a nice conversation with Paul.” Arthur’s red eye glows intensely watching SCP-6766 panic in fear, frozen and shaking as her more pleasant personality takes over.
“I-I’m s-sorry! I’m sorry I was rude! Please stop!” SCP-6766 tears up and starts to cry. Arthur huffs and everything was suddenly back to normal. Everything in her cell was operable again except the cell door. Paul picked up Arthur’s head and placed him gently on the table as the CCG-47 began to disappear. Paul got up and walked over to SCP-6766 and hugged her letting her hold onto him.
“Awe, I’m sorry, missy, my brother can be very intense. He didn't have to be so harsh on you.” Paul gently patted her as she hugged him and cried into him. Arthur rolled his eye thinking to himself. ‘She needed to be scared straight.’
Soon after SCP-6766 stopped crying, the door to her cell unlocked, finally letting the guards in. The researchers on the other side of the glass watched only as Paul was helping her feel better. They were all clueless as to what happened only having heard a few loud noises through the mostly sound proof room while the mics were inoperable and the shutter was closed. The Rosses were taken out of the cell and the trays from their dinner were taken to be disposed of.
That night while they were laying in bed, Paul was staring at the wall while Arthur was staring at the rest of the room. Paul eventually broke the silence while they were laying there.
“Hey Arthur… You think scaring her like that was really the way to go? I thought your rule was that we shouldn't use our power, so we wouldn’t get found out and given SCP classification.” Paul asks Arthur thinking about the earlier situation. Arthur thinks about what he should say and then answers him half asleep.
“She’s a brat… most brat kids need to be scared straight. It works for a lot of them. Being nice wasn’t cutting it for her. as for the mind game… I did what was necessary, the only physical powers we used were to prevent anyone from looking and listening in. Otherwise everything else was inside of our perception.” Arthur answers and then yawns after his answer. “Now shut up, using our powers takes a lot of energy.”
“Well we still need to address your thoughts from earlier. What was upsetting you, Arthur. I know you don't like talking about your feelings, but it’s important.” Paul continues talking disregarding Arthur’s wish to go to sleep.
“Hmm… talking about it won’t fix it, it's fine…” Arthur huffed sounding like he was already lulling into sleep.
“How about we see if we can get a dog? … Arthur?” Paul realizes Arthur had fallen asleep anyway and just chuckles before letting himself fall asleep.
- Chapter 3: Ancient Eggs -
It was six o’clock on sunday morning and Charles’s alarm went off on his phone. He laid there for a moment before sitting up and turning the alarm off. He checked his phone to see if there were any notifications or messages from any researcher for any reason. The messages he had received were in a group chat and they were sent just a few minutes before he woke up. The first text was from Griffin. The text was an image of Dr. Kevin Dwyer gently scrubbing one of the raptor eggs with a toothbrush and water with a towel over his shoulder. The caption of the image read, “Dr. Dwyer seems to really enjoy caring for the eggs.”
“I do! And if you hold them you can feel that there is a raptor growing inside each of them. I find nature pretty, even if they technically should be extinct.” Kevin replied in the group chat just after Griffin had posted.
“Don’t you guys have to keep caring for the eggs or something? Why are you posting here about prehistoric predatory chickens? Also it’s really early, why did you guys insist on getting up at this hour?” The text was from Arthur and Paul’s shared phone and Arthur seemed to be the one talking in the first text.
“Sorry, Arthur’s being mean again,” Paul replied to Arthur’s text. Hollender chuckled to himself assuming Paul and Arthur had started fighting over their phone.
“Well we were excited!” Kevin texted back even though it would seem that the Rosses were arguing.
“I could have gone for more sleep.” Griffin replied “Kevin insisted that we should go to work very early today to make sure the eggs were safe and well kept.”
“Awe can I come and view them after hours? They’re cute!” Katrina would reply to the image.
“The eggs are definitely cute.” Annie agreed. “I wouldn’t mind tagging along, but I think we shouldn’t get ahead of ourselves here. We are supposed to be professional and the eggs might have anomalous effects that still havent been observed. Griffin I think you should ask Dir. Hollender if viewings would be alright. I mean it’s not a petting zoo.”
“We think Annie’s right.” The Rosses put their two-cents in.
Charles stood up and stretched, happy that the higher staff that was present in the conversation seemed to be having a good morning. He got dressed putting on his usual attire of a white lab coat with a purple dress shirt underneath. This would be accompanied by white dress pants, white dress shoes and a yellow belt. Charles looked in the mirror at himself with a slightly groggy sigh. He runs his hand along his rhombus shaped head before straightening himself out and looking back down at his phone.
“I will allow you guys to view the eggs, but this is a one time event. After all of your shifts you will all be allowed to go and view the eggs in their containment chamber. Dr. Warren is right about further observations and potential hazardous effects. As of right now Dr. Lorem and Dr. Dwyer are the only two permitted to handle the eggs for cleaning and other maintenance until they hatch.” Hollender replies to the entire conversation giving a generous response to the girls’ hopes to see the eggs. He then puts his phone in his pocket, grabs his keys out of his drawer, and leaves to surprise Griffin and Kevin with a visit before accompanying them to breakfast.
Charles weaves his way down the halls past the cafeteria and the D-Class ward and onto the light containment area where the eggs were being held. He knocks on the observation room door before letting himself in. He comes in to find Griffin and Kevin having a conversation about dinosaurs. Kevin was sitting next to the eggs that were covered in a couple of blankets in the containment room while Griffin was messing with the incubator built for them. The incubator seemed to have a problem with its plug that connected to the back of it because it wasn’t turning on.
“Hello there Dr. Lorem, Dr. Dwyer.” Charles announces his presence seeing that the knock didn’t alert them. They both turned rather surprised to see their boss on his day off.
“Oh- hello sir.” Griffin gave a surprisingly happy glance in Charles’s direction before realizing the incubator started working. As soon as he looked back and realized it was now in operational condition he knelt down next to the five eggs and gently picked one up inspecting it for cracks before placing it in the incubator.
“Hi boss.” Dr. Dwyer looks up smiling widely. He seemed to really love prehistoric animals, especially caring for eggs and eventually little raptors. Charles knew that once the raptors hatched that they would likely look to Griffin and Kevin as parental figures since they would be taking care of the little raptors. Knowing how much Kevin admired prehistoric animals and how responsible Griffin is, Charles knew they would be a great team raising the raptors. They wouldn't be on their own though, eventually they would have other researchers assigned to help them.
“How are the eggs fairing after being cleaned?” Charles smiles and stands leaned against the doorway of the containment chamber. His smooth star ruby eye reflects some of the light from the light in the ceiling showing just how well he polishes himself when it comes time.
“The eggs seem to be doing very well, we’ve kept them warm and made sure to quickly dry the water off of them after gently cleaning them.” Kevin smiles, picking up the last one as carefully as he could, and places it next to it’s siblings in the incubator. Kevin then helps Griffin place the perforated lid on the incubator and let the eggs sit in it.
“They seem to enjoy being handled. At least from what I would feel while washing and holding them they lean into the warmth of whoever’s holding them,” Griffin comments after stepping away from the incubator. He seems to be taking on an equally caring nature to Kevin’s towards the eggs, but he keeps his feelings observant rather than too affectionate.
“That’s great, be sure to write it down for their observation notes. It seems important to their development and attachment to their parental figures raising them, especially starting this behavior in mid term like they are.” Charles moves out of the doorway to let Griffin and Kevin get through and lock the door behind them. Griffin then starts filling out what he’s observed of them while Kevin watches and tells him what to add that he’s noticed.
Charles waits for them, and sits in a chair off to the side as not to disturb their work. While doing this he pulls out his phone and looks at it patiently, seeing that no one had said anything since earlier that morning. He puts his phone away and watches Kevin and Griffin work until they have written everything down. Kevin then picks up the phone and calls in a couple of free level two researchers to supervise the eggs. This would only be until Kevin got back from breakfast to relieve them so they could eat. Kevin would be supervising the eggs alone for fifteen minutes until a couple of interns were scheduled to come in and make their own observations on the eggs. This would be to train with them to eventually become level zero researchers and eventually work their way up.
The two level two researchers come in and great Kevin and Griffin before realizing Charles was off to the side. They greet Charles as well and swap places with Kevin and Griffin so they could go eat. As soon as the three got out of SCP-6734’s observation room they made their way through the labyrinth of halls and into the cafeteria. They get into the line of hungry and somewhat groggy researchers, and soon have their trays of that morning's breakfast special. This morning they were served bacon, eggs, french toast and an orange. This breakfast was accompanied by drinks of their choice, from water, to orange juice, or an assortment of different milks.
Griffin made his way over to the Ross brothers who were sitting next to Annie. Charles and Kevin followed Griffin and by one last straggler who had broken away from the line a few moments after. Katrina had a less busy day that day so she was able to make it to breakfast and not not have an intern or someone else help her by bringing it to her while she was working in the medical ward organizing the physicians. Once she caught up with the rest she sat next to Annie excited to be able to hang out for a little while. The pentagonal shaped woman eagerly started conversation in the group. Being that she wasn’t always there, she was excited to have a meal with her friends.
“How is everyone, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to join everyone for a meal,” Katrina smiles and takes a bite of her food eagerly waiting for everyone to go around the table with their answers.
“Well I’m in a particularly positive mood today. I was caring for all five instances of SCP-6734 with Kevin this morning. Also I am still very proud of my promotion yesterday,” Griffin begins sharing his positives of the past couple days that have contributed to his positive mood. He begins eating and lets someone else answer.
“I’m in a fantastic mood as well. I’m so excited that I’m caring for the little raptor eggs. When I was fourteen I had a huge fascination with dinosaurs and I still do!” Kevin picks up exclaiming how fascinated he is with the prehistoric animal eggs.
“You’re aware you’re still fourteen right?” Arthur said after swallowing his mouth full of food. This made everyone chuckle. None of them were too hung up about being marble. To them it only made them closer as a group having one more thing in common with each other.
“Hahah, laugh all you want, I’m living my best life at the best age,” Kevin replise before picking up his glass of orange juice and drinking it.
“Well, personally I am glad to have an assistant director now, and I am quite sure Griffin will do well. Aside from that, I am just happy to see the lot of you happy,” Charles gives his reply sounding humble and caring for his friends.
“Hmph. I’m still debating what I am feeling at the moment. Just saying irritated doesn’t make sense for the current situation Paul has found himself in. Regarding the interview with SCP-6766, I’m glad to hear that, after our little chat, she’s finally behaving herself.” Arthur comments sounding to be in his normally irritated mood.
“And that brings us to mine and Annie’s little announcement. We’ve decided to start dating. We have already decided that if it starts to affect our work that we’d agree to discuss changes that need to be made or just putting the relationship aside for a while.” Paul announces that he’s now in a relationship with Annie who blushes and nods agreeing with him. She also seems surprised he was able to compose himself well enough to articulate his thoughts unlike when Arthur exposed him. She continues eating her food signaling that she didn't have anything more to add. The group all congratulated Paul and Annie, and they both seemed to feel better after being reassured.
The topic then moved back to SCP-6766. After that interview word got around about the odd malfunctions in the mics, shutters, and even the door all at the same time. They had determined that the malfunction was anomalous, and was likely due to SCP-6766 getting upset. The truth was that they had no idea what happened. It especially made no sense to the researchers since SCP-6766’s anomalous abilities seemed to strictly manifest in her art and the creatures in them, not the world around her.
“Arthur what happened when you, Paul and 6766 were trapped in her room?” Charles asks curiously. He seemed to know there was something that Arthur hadn’t told the researchers when they left SCP-6766’s cell.
“Well, as usual with anyone out of line, I scolded her and threatened her. This was before she apologised and started crying. When she changed from passive to violent and created an instance of SCP-6766-2-Alpha, the page decided not to change into SCP-6766-Alpha. This terrified her that her only defence wouldn't work against me and that’s what made her start crying. That is when Paul got up and started comforting her,” Arthur explains what happened in a truthful sounding logical way. Paul nodded, agreeing with Arthur that it was the truth of what happened when no one else could look in.
“Alright, I’m just curious. She has refused to talk about what happened herself.” Charles concludes the question explaining his curiosity. The others seemed just as curious and concerned about what had happened that night, especially if Arthur might have actually hurt her or not. They were all sure he wouldn’t go to that extreme unless he was forced to.
