The SCP Foundation, standing for “Secure.Contain.Protect,” is a foundation dedicated to hiding that which lives in the dark so that society can live in the light. It designates the entities they find as “SCP’s” giving them designations like “SCP-682,” or “SCP-23.” These SCP’s can range from lego bricks that move on their own to rapidly-evolving reptiles which are nearly impossible to destroy. Don’t be fooled by its blank, bland appearance – it’s all deception. Within the foundation lie horrors beyond one’s very imagination – comprehension even. Only a very select few intellectuals (and convicts) are selected from around the world to deal with the monsters.
The Foundation divides its entities into four main classes – Safe, Euclid, Keter, and Thaumiel. These can be discerned by “The Locked Box Test,” in which the question is asked – how would the entity respond to being locked in a box? A “Safe” class anomaly would remain in the box, with 0 issues. They are typically 100% harmless, posing no safety threats, and not having much of an effect on anything. A “Euclid” class anomaly might do something in the box – paint the inside, scratch it up, turn it to metal – but would most likely not be able to escape it. These anomalies are usually not dangerous, unless provoked, but are not recommended for messing around with, and have been proven lethal. A “Keter” class anomaly would break out of the box and go on a rampage immediately following. These are dangerous and deadly anomalies which will kill, even unprovoked. Proceed with caution. Then, “Thaumiel” class anomalies. They are the box. Literally. Anomalies used to contain, restrict, or control other anomalies, these are of heavy use to the foundation in dealing with Keter class anomalies, and can range from celestial goddesses (SCP-179) to stopwatches (SCP-2799). There are subsets and subsets of subsets more to classify these anomalies, but as a general field guide, these are what you should use to judge approachability (though you should never approach an entity without caution).
Then, there are the personnel classifications. These range from roughly D-Class to roughly A-Class (there are intermediates in between, above, and below, with no common agreed-upon consensus), but the ones you generally need to remember are – convicts, soldiers, and researchers. The convicts (or D-class), are those chosen as “Bait.” They are generally used when an object’s class or status is unknown, and dangerous tests must be performed. They don’t last long. Then, there are the soldiers. These strapping lads and lasses perform the foundations dirty work – going out on entity recovery missions, fighting back hostile anomalies, and securing foundation sites when there is a security breach. They generally last longer than D-Class, but that’s not to say their job isn’t a dangerous one. Standing in between a ten foot tall, pale, powerhouse of a cannibal really puts the fear of god in a man. After the soldiers come the researchers, who make up the center core of the foundation. They log the files, conduct the studies, and build the database. Although not in danger nearly as much as the other two, working on-site is no small order either – security breaches (though infrequent), do occur and are often deadly. However, there is one unparalleled class that stands above all the danger, superior above all the rest – the 05 Counsel – a group so far separated from the Foundation (or rather so deeply-ingrained), that no one even knows their name or what they look like. They direct everything, down to the very last D-Class, and remain forever in anonymity, leading from the shadows. Despite their furtiveness, they do a good job hiding the foundation and all of its secrets, stopping any leaks when and if they occur.
The anomalies which the foundation discovers are truly breathtaking – not just in quantity, but in quality too. There is an entity, SCP-1459, known as the Puppy Machine. It is a vintage claw machine which, when turned on and given a method of killing a puppy (through a small attached microphone), spawns a puppy inside the glass casing, and then kills it using the aforementioned described method. Upon completion, the machine then dispenses a cookie. These are the kind of monsters, the kind of beasts that the foundation keeps hidden – for us. As is their motto, “We die in the dark so you can live in the light.” While I’m not sure you’ll become a member of the foundation yourself, or that you’ll ever meet an entity even once, I am sure you should do your research – learn how to classify, avoid, and if necessary, terminate SCP’s. If, for whatever reason, you can’t do this research, can’t learn your stuff, can’t be prepared – at least give a small thanks. A thanks that you can live the calm, peaceful, quiet life you do, despite the threats lurking just around the corner.
