Fire Suppression Department Hub

Hello and welcome to your new Fire Suppression Department position.

Now, you may be asking yourself, 'what does this new position entail'? And let me tell you, it's very simple. We put out fires. Not physical fires, no, we leave that up to the Foundation Fire-Rescue Department. We deal in metaphorical fires.

For example, let's say a high-ranking member of the Foundation is offered a job by the Global Occult Coalition. This is not only a breach of contract on their behalf but also a serious fire risk for us. After all, what's stopping them from leaving and spilling all our secrets to them? We wouldn't want that to happen now, would we? No sir.

But what can we do to stop said fire from starting? I'm glad you asked. We simply remind them of why they chose to be employed with the Foundation in the first place. Everyone's got a family, don't they? We can use them as an example. No one wants any ill to befall their family. Their protection is part of what the Foundation offers. We cannot guarantee the safety of the family of someone who has impulsively terminated their employment.

That's not to say we will harm them, heavens no, but if something were to happen to them and we weren't able to respond to them, that would certainly be a tragedy now, wouldn't it? After all, the Foundation only has so many Mobile Task Forces and it cannot afford to stretch them so thin as to protect the family of an employee who is considering jumping ship.

What about an employee who smokes? Well, we would simply remind them of the excellent healthcare options the Foundation provides. The damage they are doing to their cardiovascular system is irreparable and only brought on by themselves, unfortunately. They will need our superior healthcare options in order to survive the trials and tribulations of the cancer they are inevitably bringing upon themselves. It's not our fault they smoke, we are simply trying our best to care for them.

But what about those pesky edge cases? The real toughies? That is where you, my dear problem solvers, come in. It will be your job to put out the fires these individuals can potentially cause in trying to leave.

Think of it as designing Special Containment Procedures for your coworkers. You will have to do whatever it takes to keep them in line and keep them within the Foundation. Because if one person leaves, more are sure to follow. Fire spreads quickly, and we don't want fires in the Foundation.

It will be your job to keep them quiet and keep them content. Because at the end of the day, we're all a family here at the Foundation. A big, happy family. And no one leaves our family.

Art by Mark0riginals.

SCP-6630 - Fire on the Horizon by T Rutherford

You should really head back inside. It's only going to get colder out here.

Life Insurance Policy - by Uncle Nicolini

We'll see you bright and early tomorrow, Mr. Rodriguez.

SCP-6355 - A Choking Grip upon the Neck of Propriety by T Rutherford and UraniumEmpire

Answer me, 6355. Are you ready to get back to work?

Turn the lights off when you leave. - by UraniumEmpire

… enjoy your freedom, Mr. Schalit. You've earned it.

Fourth-Degree - by UraniumEmpire

"… I don't hate you, Nari." She looks back. "I don't feel anything for you, and I don't think I ever did."

SCP-7726 - So long, and thanks for all the fish. - by Uncle Nicolini

I can't live with this guilt any longer.

SCP-6856 - Look What I Can Do - by crashb

"Are you feeling fulfilled, generally speaking?" "Uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess so."

SCP-7340 - I is for "Incision" by bigslothonmyface

And remember: we're always here if you need to talk again.

Sebastian - by Uncle Nicolini

I wanted to do all I could for Sebastian.

SCP-6857 - The Birthday Problem - by crashb

There is still fire in your eyes, Caroline.

+ How do I write a Fire Suppression Department article?

- It's complicated.

UraniumEmpire's advice:

Right off the bat: me and my teammates had different opinions on the nature of the FSD. I believe T Rutherford's take was that the FSD justified its actions by claiming that even if a "replaceable" employee left, it might embolden the "irreplaceable" employees to leave for greener pastures. Uncle Nicolini considers the FSD an answer to a particular "trolley problem": protect normalcy and conserve resources at the cost of your employees. Other people think the FSD only targets those "irreplaceable" employees. Personally, my take is that the FSD is a cruel legacy system that makes no attempt to justify itself, and though the Foundation suffers for its existence, its administration refuses to allow for an alternative.

All this to say, there's no one way to write the Fire Suppression Department, except that they're an antagonistic force, and often a criticism of neoliberal work culture.

The first three articles are your introduction, not your outline.

The first three articles written for the Fire Suppression Department were drafted around the same time; as a result, they tread a lot of the same ground, working to establish the department rather than twist an existing concept.

If you want to write an FSD article, we highly recommend you play around with it. Play the horror for black comedy, introduce them as a secondary antagonist, hell, explore the family life of an FSD ghoul; just know that, when it comes to straightforward bureaucratic horror about not being able to quit your job, you're competing with three >+200 articles.

"Coldness As Cruelty" vs. "Slipping Through The Cracks"

I personally believe the SCP Foundation is evil — they're usually a prison, after all — but no matter your views on its concept, any Foundation with the Fire Suppression Department is almost certainly going to be a villainous force. How do you reconcile this with the adage of "cold, not cruel"?

I think there are two ways to go about this, neither of which is necessarily exclusive:

Coldness As Cruelty: The SCP Foundation does not tolerate "unnecessary cruelty"; however, it's views on "necessary" vs "unnecessary" cruelty are skewed by its position as a massive hierarchical entity, dedicated to a concept as nebulous as "Normalcy". Rather than becoming an overtly abusive entity, the Foundation adopts deeply alienating policies that, despite ensuring its continued existence,¹ inadvertently harms it employees and subjects.
Slipping Through The Cracks: The SCP Foundation is too big — or too stretched for resources — to stop every act of cruelty that happens under its domain. If an employee retention department is covertly abusing 10% of its projects, fixing that costs time and money better spent on containment, and hey: if it keeps their best employees working, that's all the more reason to look the other way.

These are not your only options when it comes to reconciling the FSD's existence, but they might help if you need them.

Addendum: How do you "defeat" the FSD?

Long Answer: Most stories with an antagonist will see them come into conflict with the protagonist. In most Fire Suppression Department stories, the Department is the antagonist and usually wins. But what about a story where they "lose"?

The easy answer would be to say that much of the Department is staffed by humans, and humans are incredibly squishy; even discounting the more anomalous elements of the Department, however, this ignores its collective nature. If one agent dies, what's to stop another from taking their place?

You could, of course, report them to the O5 Council, and token action might be taken. But this assumes a competency and benevolence on the part of the Foundation absent from its closest real-life counterparts. Just in America, the CIA has rarely accounted for its alleged crimes, partly due to its unique structure, but also because those alleged crimes served American interests.

Ultimately, the Fire Suppression Department exists because the Foundation allows it to exist. As long as the bureaucracy wills its existence, the Department can't be outlawed; as long as unions can be busted, the Department can't be outbargained; and as long as the Foundation is willing to replenish its staff, violence will only stop it temporarily.

Do not mistake the Fire Suppression Department for some unimaginable horror. They're not trying to resurrect the Scarlet King, eat the planet, or enact any kind of fantastic apocalypse. Every act of manipulation and atrocity performed is in service of solving an utterly mundane problem, the same problem faced by Sparta, Rome, Japan, Genoa, Portugal, Britain, Qatar, Eritrea, America, and almost every society that's ever existed: "how do you get someone to do something they don't want to do?"

If you want to defeat the Fire Suppression Department, you either have to defeat the Foundation or change what it values. If that's not possible, redefine what you mean by "defeat".

Short Answer: You either take what small victories you can get, or you do what the Zapatistas did in response to NAFTA.

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