My issues with this reside mostly in the dialogue. This is the image we're presented at the outset:
elderly, obese human male of African ancestry, exhibiting numerous elephantine traits. Most prominently, its nose and upper lip have been fused together and extended to a length of 30 cm, forming a semi-prehensile proboscis. This proboscis has had four ivory valves surgically installed on its upper portion, allowing SCP-4409 to produce music from it in a matter similar to a brass instrument.
Which translates into this
There are days I wish I'd never heard of it either. Fuller hired me as a labourer when I was still young and the Circus even younger. Despite all the weird exhibits Fuller had, life was pretty normal for me. That all changed when he heard of Joseph Merrick, the Elephant Man. He takes one good look at the photo in the newspaper and says 'Why, he barely looks like an elephant at all! I can do better than that!'.
It's not egregious, but it contrasts. I'm expecting a guy who can barely manage his sentences, wheeezing, on life support, psychologically scarred by a man without scruples about or distaste for fucking about with random humans' biology. Now, perhaps it wouldn't necessarily be that grimdark - as this seems like a piece underlined by some black comedy more than anything - but even for that purpose, I don't really buy it.
It's a great image, though.
(account deleted)
