Singapore, 1942, following a Japanese bombing. The British would surrender unconditionally on the 15th of February.
"It's finished, it's over. You keep looking back, I keep moving forward. I have no regrets." — Low Chun Yong, Out of Nothing: My Directorship of Site-512
Not many people — speaking globally, of course — can pinpoint Singapore on a map. Not many in the Foundation can say where Site-512 stands. But you're here right now, be it due to choice or coercion. Don't worry about the ghosts of your past catching up to you here. Don't worry about the violent anomalous groups springing up in neighboring countries, or anomalies appearing at a rate far beyond our current capacity to contain. Don't worry about just how huge this Site really is, or how weird or insular some of the Sections here feel, or how we'll force you to work with them anyway. In Site-512, we only move onward.
Your first day might be overwhelming. The eleven of you will be doing the Site tour together — yes, that's why we asked all of you to report at the same time, same place — it should only take two-thirds of the day, so long as we skip the Wisdom and Resolve Wings. Then, you'll go through the typical safety induction — I trust all of you have completed the quiz we sent you? — before we issue you your keycards and uniforms. Mr. Ye over there will go for his aptitude evaluation, shooting and whatnot, while the two of you bound for Esoteric Logics & Ritualistics need to take your allergy tests before you start your drug regimens. I think… yes, Ms. Verma, Transportation & Logistics wants to take you for a sortie around the coastal waters at 10 tonight. Who's the telepath? You'll have a separate induction later. IT needs to calculate your informational bandwidth.
Don't need to remember all that. The important thing to remember is to stick with your guide. We've had quite a few new employees get terribly lost on their first day, and it sometimes takes a while for the guides to notice. Even if some Experimentation & Paratechnology researcher is blowing your mind with some magic trick, (they really like to show off their toys,) have the presence of mind to stick with the main group.
Still following? Great. We're in HQ Wing right now, as is made abundantly clear by the signage. Let me start by showing you to the cafe here. It's the best in the Site.
"This may not be my place. This may not be my time. But I am here, and I am ready, and I promise you — I will make it so. Onwards, forever." — Bruno van Rijn, Site-512 Directorship Swearing-in Ceremony
512 Means Onwards. We've got many stories here, some from the heart of this city-state itself, many more from the surrounding region. We've got myths and legends, parascience and paralogic. There's something here for everyone, so long as we all commit to the same things. It's a big Site, chambers and offices and tunnels all buried beneath this city and its train stations. And Singapore is a city which everything flows through.
Of course, moving on doesn't mean we don't look back on the past with some interest; we just need to have the right attitude towards that which is behind us. Curiosity, not obsession. Don't waste too much time digging into what caused the Bukit Ho Swee fire, or the horrible things that happened here in the Seventh Occult War, or the forgotten victims of Operation Coldstore, unless it gives us something useful. Static things are so boring; we prefer to look forward.
The Singapore delegation at the Merdeka talks in London, 1956. The British rejected internal self-rule. The Chief Minister, David Marshall, would resign in protest; his successor, Lim Yew Hock, would heavily suppress trade unions and student protestors, leading to thirteen dead in five days of riots.
MAJULAH
Site-512 is a web of mostly stand-alone stories, with the occasional miniseries thrown in for good measure. These are catalogued below.
What happens here — everything that happens here — matters to someone.
SCP-8638 — Elixir of Immortality (as featured in the Myth of Chang'e)
by WaylandLaurencePan
Further inquiry has revealed consistent references in Late Shang mythology to an eccentric physician in the Chinese pantheon…
SCP-9338 — You Caught Us At A Very Chinese Time Of Our Conceptual Existence
by WaylandLaurencePan
just enough bullshit to make sense.
The 1980 Singapore General Election led to a total victory for the People's Action Party. This came weeks after the conviction of fifteen union leaders from the Singapore Airlines Pilots Association; shortly thereafter, Lee would make his famous declaration: that as long as he was in charge, nobody was going to knock this country down.
512 Means Onwards (512 pronounced five-one-two) is a series focusing on Site-512 in Singapore, the largest Foundation presence in the region of Southeast Asia. Almost all relevant information can be found in this Site's Secure Facility Dossier. Content-wise, this Series aims to deliver a slice of culture, history and politics underrepresented on the rest of the wiki; thematically, the Series is an exploration on moving onward, whatever that means.
The main inspirations for this series, and the reasons it was written, are as follows:
- the lack of foreign, especially Southeast Asian content on the Wiki;
- the impressive India-focused series In Saffron Sands;
- Fiona Apple, Hop Along, and Japanese Breakfast;
- 9KCon;
- My time in National Service (conscription into the military, for those unaware);
- Singapore's National Anthem;
- and my complicated feelings, but mostly love, for my country.
This is a (mostly!) open series. Please: write in your own characters, expand the world, or invite other Groups of Interest in to play, so long as:
- it does not contradict extant articles;
- it fits in the theme;
- it is related to Site-512 in some way; and
- it does not overstretch the believability of this series.
The content of this series is best summed-up as magical realism focusing on a large and messy organization. If that interests you just a bit, all contributions are always welcome!
Fireworks. In 2015, Singapore celebrated its Golden Jubilee.
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