**Seeking Greenlights:Yes
**Page Type:Tale
**Genre (Optional): Action/Mystery
**Elevator Pitch: The Foundation wants to know what it was that made the foundation of the SCP-5000 universe decide to kill humanity. Concerned that valuable staff learning this would necessitate their termination, they assign a D-class to get to the bottom of things. He does, but since telling the foundation could lead to humanity's extermination, he is forced to form a team of D-class to undertake a suicide mission to contain this thing without the foundation ever learning what it is.
**Central Narrative: The D-class figures out what it is, it's an agent of the Scarlet King, growing in humanity's collective unconscious, feeding off of pain in order to allow the Scarlet King to do his TASHKENT-class thing. The D-class also discovers that SCP-055 helped SCP-5000 reset his reality in order to further this objective, retaining information about it by using SCP-2439. With the help of 3 other D-classes, our hero creates and carries out a ritual based around 055, luring the evil monster into his on subconscious and containing it by suicide.
The team consists of 4 D-class:
Eric Anderson, our hero, sentenced to death for treason after attempting to hack into the CIA's database to leak information about Project Stargate. He starts off trying to find a way to survive as a D-class, which isn't helped by his knowledge of SCP-2439. By the end of the story, he accepts his death and saves the world.
Edward Ramsey, former teacher, sentenced to death for the murder of his wife and her lover. He feels incredibly guilty about it, and is tempted by 055 to reset reality in order to undo his crimes.
Marvin Miller, the crazy one, sentenced to death for killling multiple prominent priests after claiming they were responsible for the death of a prostitute. He's pretty much accepted that he's going to die, but relishes the chance to pull off one last grand plan before he bites it.
Jack Woods, former soldier, sentenced to death for going rogue and using outlawed weaponry in the deaths of 50 civilians during the Iraq war. He's a real angry guy, and signed on to take out as many of the Scarlet King's Children as he can.
**Hook/Attention-Grabber: Eric's trying to figure out the nature of the foundation's most famous antimeme and contain something so horrible that the Foundation's containment protocol for it was "exterminate humanity".
"So what the hell do we do about it, then?"
Researcher Capet's frustration was evident, each word dripping with impatience and anger.
"I told you before Acel, we there are some things we that are better left unknown. This is one of them."
Director Salian sighed wearily. Capet had been trying to get approval for an investigation into SCP-5000 for months now, in spite of numerous denials. It had gotten to the point where Salian had resorted to copying and pasting the same denial email in order to get other things done. He suspected Capet was using a similar tactic with his requests.
It was just the two of them in the containment locker, along with the SCP, of course. Capet's lanky frame, unruly red hair and untrimmed beard fondly reminded Salian of his days a student, playing "homeless or professor". He felt it nicely contrasted his more professional appearance, though that was starting to fray. His usually tame black hair as just out of place around the back, and a touch of black stubble nicely matched the bags under his eyes.
Being Director of Site-22 was a stressful job at the best of times, but the last couple of weeks had been especially rough. To top it off, he'd learned that one of the new D-class had been sent there for hacking into a CIA database: the site staff had had him cleaning a lab with 20 computers on the mainframe. That had been a very long day.
"How the hell do we contain this thing if we don't even know what happened?"
"We know what happened, Acel, the foundation killed everyone and the janitor fixed things."
"But why the hell did they-did we- kill everyone? What the hell was the cause? How the hell do we keep it from happening again?"
"Acel, if you find out the answer to that question, why the hell wouldn't you try to kill everyone?"
"You could terminate me."
"Not before you breached containment on half the site. You know too much to risk."
"So our only plan is to just hope it doesn't happen? KALEIDOSCOPE is getting closer to completion by the day!"
Salian sighed. They'd been having this argument for weeks and it still hadn't gotten anywhere. The Frenchman wasn't backing down anytime soon, he could tell. This conversation needed to end.
"Look, I don't have time for this, Acel. I learned yesterday that the D-class in the computer rooms was the guy who figured out how to get into the CIA's files on Project Stargate. We came within 10 minutes of a VK-class scenario and you want to keep beating this dead horse."
"Wait if one of our D-class got into Stargate…"
"Whatever your saying, this is a bad idea, Acel."
"What if we have HIM open the investigation?"
Salian thought for a minute. Acel's ideas were usually crazy, but this one could solve a couple problems. He could shut Acel up and get an excuse to terminate that annoying D-class, and if they found something useful, that could be a nice little bonus.
"Alright, go find him and give him his assignment. Your in charge of supervising him. Do NOT make me regret this."
"Yes, sir."
"Well that's just fucking spectacular."
This cleaning room had seemed like a good place to take a short break, no cameras, no guards, nothing to worry about. Nothing except for the literal writing on the wall, describing some form of evil idea monster thing, which would mind control whoever read it if being a D-class didn't kill them first.
Eric Anderson would have been tempted to think it was someone's idea of a prank, if he couldn't feel it at the back of his mind. If he couldn't see that fucking squid face at the corner of his vision, reminding him that getting out of here wouldn't even save him now.
The door swung open and in came the biggest D-class at the facility. 6-10 and built like Shaquille O'Neal (his words), with graying hair and a face more scarred than Two-Face's evil half, Marvin Miller wasn't exactly easy to miss.
"Discovered the little secret, eh? Well, guess you know the rules now. Good thing, be a REAL shame if I had to break the arms, leg, and spine of my newest pal."
"Hey, Marvin."
Object number: SCP-XXXX
Object class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures:
SCP-XXXX-1 is to be kept in a standard humanoid containment cell, 10' x 6' x 8', outfitted with a desk, an ergonomic office chair, and standard lighting fixtures. 2 guards are to be stationed outside the doorway, and must be able to see the entire room. Food and water are to be brought to personnel containing SCP-XXXX upon request.
8 D-class personnel are to be allocated at all times to the containment of SCP-XXXX. D-class assigned to SCP-XXXX must not have high school diplomas and must never have received a grade in any form of science education higher than 55%. D-class assigned to containment of SCP-XXXX are to spend 3 hours a day reading and writing in SCP-XXXX-1 before being relieved by the next D-class in a continuous rotation. Under no circumstances is SCP-XXXX-1 to be left unattended. Leaving a shift before relieved or failing to arrive on time for a shift is punishable by immediate termination. D-class are not to continue writings left by previous personnel, and should attempt to take their writings in as different a direction as possible. Should a D-class stop writing for more than 5 minutes consecutively, they should be relieved by the next D-class immediately. If a D-class stops writing on consecutive shifts or on more than 2 shifts in a one-week span, they are to be terminated.
Excess papers created by SCP-XXXX-1 should be removed by one of the guards and burned in the on-site incinerator.
Should an SCP-XXXX-2 entity be created, guards are to terminate it as quickly as possible using any means necessary.
Description:
SCP-XXXX-1 consists of a feather, an inkwell and a large stack of paper. The ream of paper never decreases in size, even as individual sheets of paper are removed, as new sheets are produced anomalously.
SCP-XXXX-1 has the ability to absorb knowledge and memories from sapient entities. It will always choose the closest such entity, though there is no known limit to how far it can absorb this knowledge. If SCP-XXXX-1 is being written in, it will absorb the information written in it. If it is not, it will simply absorb as much information as it can, and observers report seeing the feather move on its own.
SCP-XXXX's objective seems to be the creation of SCP-XXXX-2 entities. These entities are composed from information written in SCP-XXXX-1, with physical and psychological attributes matching descriptions contained within writings in SCP-XXXX-1, and are always both living and sapient. If the created entities are biologically infeasible, they will expire rapidly. In the event that they are biologically feasible, they will behave as expected from their descriptions in SCP-XXXX-1, with 2 major exceptions: No personnel are able to form memories associated with these entities, often reporting substantial memory loss after interacting with them, and the entities will always attempt to record these memories in SCP-XXXX-1.
Final Interview Log
Interviewer: Retrieval Squad Leader Name TBD
Interviewee: SCP-XXXX-2-XX
Interview occurs: Date TBD
Name: The Doc said you wanted to speak with me? You told Cory to bring the leader or something?
SCP:Ah, yes, Name, the leader.
Name: That'd be… how'd you know my name?
SCP: It was Cory, obviously. The only one on the team who knew, if you recall.
Name: No, I never told him. Never told anybody. It was just me who knew…
SCP: Hmm. Very well, ask your questions, Name.
Name: Questions, right, questions, I should have those somewhere… (Name searches for a standard question sheet. Due to the abnormal nature of this interview, no sheet was ever prepared) I should remember… Wait. Wait! (Name pulls out his rifle) You're stealing my memories you [expletive deleted]!
SCP: I suppose if I am, you should shoot me, with that… thing in your hands.
Name: Yeah, that's what I'll… wait… how do I fire this thing?! What the [expletive deleted] is this thing?! What the hell are you doing?!
SCP: You don't seem to understand.
(Name loses his balance and falls)
Name: Why the hell… why can't I stand? WHAT'D YOU DO TO ME?
SCP: You came to our home. You burned it. Destroyed it. Slaughtered us. Imprisoned that which gave us flesh once more.
(Name begins to suffocate despite suffering no evident damage to his windpipe)
SCP: We are nothing if not patient. And resourceful. The good doctor was very helpful in allowing us this opportunity.
(Nine-tailed Fox agents enter the containment area)
SCP: We will escape. We will rebuild. And we will avenge our home.
(Nine-tailed fox agents open fire upon SCP. As the bullets connect, Name ceases struggling. He is confirmed dead shortly afterwards.)
Thanks for the feedback, probably saved this thread!
What I might do is a setup where the retrieval team finds the things with their own little small-scale society in a cave system or something. The team can't really retrieve all of the creatures, but they figure out the inkwell's what creates them so they just kill them all and take the inkwell.
The doctor in charge of containing the inkwell decides to create some of the memory creatures in order to learn more about the nature of the inkwell. He starts out by making fairly innocuous things, using his knowledge of butterflies to make a butterfly, etc. He probably tries to make some form of an SCP but discovers that the inkwell can't replicate anomalous abilities beyond the standard "absorbing memories from strangers" kit. Things take a turn when he loses a loved one, though, and he starts using the SCP to cope. Starts off harmless enough, with him creating entities with empathy and kindness to help talk him through it. Someone at some point mentions that he's probably erasing these qualities within himself by doing this, but he shrugs it off. Things get bad when his creations start to resemble his family members, and get worse when he creates one based on the dead one (which I think would be a son he never got to see because Foundation). The foundation decides to try and stop him and he either uses the inkwell to escape, possibly forcing the son-creation to kill someone in a gruesome manner, or dies along with the "family" he made for himself, executed by the retrieval team. The second one sounds better to me.
As for origin, I like the idea of it being the creation of an anartist/sorceror dealing with grief over the death of a loved one (like the Doctor). It's sort of a win-win, erases your memory of the loss while also bringing the loved one back from the dead. I have no idea how to tell that story in an SCP document, though. Maybe he says some of it to the retrieval team before they kill him. As for the purpose of the creatures, the first ones would be made by the original creator out of his desire for companionship. The rest are just successive generations, the entities reproduce by absorbing memories and writing them down.
I see your point on the compulsion thing. I do like the idea of the SCP being this harmless magic inkwell and people just being jerks with it.
Per 
