“The universe doesn’t owe you a clear conscience. It doesn’t give a damn how you feel about the choices it gives you. Protocol Bustuarii will be enacted this year, and now there’s nothing either of us can do about it.”
Special Containment Procedures: No persons are to enter SCP-9280 except to perform authorized research or to enact Protocol Bustuarii. Protocol Bustuarii is to be performed annually on the summer solstice as reckoned by the Daevic Imperial Calendar circa 20 BCE.
In the event Protocol Bustuarii is not performed or fails, SCP-9280-2 instances are to be located and terminated. Meanwhile, Protocol Bustuarii is to be (re)enacted as quickly as possible in order to end the activation event.
The details of Protocol Bustuarii are level 3/9280 classified.
Description: SCP-9280 is an underground gladiatorial arena located near Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, three miles north of Site-191. Foundation archeologists have concluded that the arena was built in approximately 320 BCE while the territory was controlled by the Daevite Empire.
SCP-9280 is believed to have been in active use from the time of its completion up until the conquest of the area by the Adytite Empire around 20 BCE. When and how SCP-9280 acquired its anomalous properties is unknown.
SCP-9280’s main arena is a small, circular stone floor with a diameter of ten meters. This pit is surrounded by tiered seating whose capacity is estimated to be around 1250 people.
Since before SCP-9280’s discovery, the entirety of this seating has been occupied by SCP-9280-1. SCP-9280-1 is a physically conjoined network of humanoid entities of poorly understood composition. They possess a smooth, soft and rubbery texture. They are extremely pale, lack facial features, and are physically fused to one another via a network of roots that run underneath SCP-9280.
SCP-9280-1 is animate and reactive to stimuli, especially to any combat taking place in SCP-9280 or resulting from an activation event. It reacts to such combat as if it were an audience of humans viewing said spectacle for entertainment.
If Protocol Bustuarii is not performed or fails, an activation event will occur. During an activation event, several individuals (dubbed SCP-9280-2) within a 25-kilometer radius of SCP-9280 will suddenly develop the compulsion to engage in lethal combat with any nearby humans. SCP-9280-2 instances will behave this way until terminated. Terminated or restrained SCP-9280-2 will be replaced continuously until Protocol Bustuarii is successfully enacted. Every activation event on record has resulted in at least twenty casualties.
The precise criteria by which the success or failure of Protocol Bustuarii is determined are not completely understood, but it is theorized that the Protocol succeeds when SCP-9280-1 finds combat between Tributes to be sufficiently entertaining. Events that might be expected to disappoint a crowd of gladiatorial spectators, such as a lack of earnest combat, short, uneventful, or highly one-sided fights, or displays of solidarity or pacifism between Tributes, are correlated with failures.
Addendum 9280-1: Incident Report: On June 21st, 2023, in the hours following a successful enactment of Protocol Bustuarii, a group of seven armed individuals briefly infiltrated SCP-9280. Preliminary examination of these individuals identified them as associates of GoI-3088 (The Church of the Second Hytoth). These individuals were detained and brought to Site-191 for questioning.
Addendum 9280-2: Interview Log:
Interviewed: Eiv-Scholar Evelyn Watts, a member of GoI-3088 who had infiltrated SCP-9280.
Interviewer: Director Liam Morgan, Site-191 director and former agent with extensive history dealing with and infiltrating GoI-3088.
Foreword: In the aftermath of her infiltration of SCP-9280, Watts was detained by Foundation Personnel. Shortly thereafter, Site Director Morgan recognized Watts as a former member of the Winnipeg Ortothan Church which he once infiltrated. In hopes of leveraging this familiarity, Dir. Morgan elected to question Watts himself.
<Begin Log, June 21, 2023, 8:13>
[Dir. Morgan enters the interrogation chamber where Watts is restrained.]
Watts: [Looks up at Dir. Morgan as he enters. Watts’ eyes widen with recognition.] Paul?4
Dir. Morgan: It’s a pleasure to see you too, Ms. Watts.
Watts: What… how… what the hell are you doing here?
Dir. Morgan: I’m here to ask you what you were doing inside one of the anomalies under my purview.
Watts: Under your… since when do you work for the Foundation?
Dir. Morgan: Since before I met you, I’m afraid.
Watts: What? No… That’s impossible. You were an Aímact priest. You were my friend—
Dir. Morgan: And I was reasonably fond of you. That’s why I decided to question you myself.
Watts: But you were still a Foundation mole the whole time?
Dir. Morgan: Afraid so.
Watts: And why are you willing to admit that?
Dir. Morgan: You’ll forget soon enough. I thought it would be easier to be straightforward with you while you tell me what you were doing in that arena.
Watts: [Sighs] Nothing you couldn’t guess. We noticed children were going missing from this area every year around the beginning of June. We thought it was because of a group of heretics we’ve been hunting, “The Feathers of Uron-leusan.” We managed to cast a tracking spell on a victim and followed him to your arena.
Dir. Morgan: So, you didn’t know you were targeting a Foundation asset?
Watts: Of course not. What the hell is going on here? Why is the Foundation running a Daevite fighting pit?
Dir. Morgan: Because we have no choice. If this anomaly doesn’t get the show it wants, it can force civilians nearby to go on violent rampages that will claim a lot more lives.
Watts: And to you, torturing and murdering a couple of teenagers is worth it to stop that.
Dir. Morgan: Correct.
Watts: Did you even try to find another way?
Dir. Morgan: Of course we did, and we still are, but until we find one, we’re going to keep doing what’s necessary to limit the harm this anomaly causes. Not every anomaly is kind enough to let us take the moral high ground. Sometimes you have to choose between one atrocity or another.
Watts: And sometimes you make that choice so many times your soul rots through and you find yourself without any morals left.
Dir. Morgan: Fortunately, your opinion on the matter is immaterial.
[Several seconds of silence.]
Watts: So, what’s going to happen to me from here? You hinted a second ago that you’re going to erase my memories?
Dir. Morgan: Correct. Fortunately for you, you’re protected by long-standing agreements between our organizations. You’ll be amnesticized and turned over to the custody of the nearest Ortothan Church.
Watts: [Shakes head.] That won’t work.
Dir. Morgan: Why not?
Watts: Because the church still knows about that pattern of missing children. You really think all of us coming back with wiped memories is going to get them off your trail?
Dir. Morgan: We’ll think of something.
Watts: No need. I already have.
Dir. Morgan: [Studies Watts.] I admit, I’m curious.
Watts: Ignorance isn’t going to keep the Church away from your arena. What would keep them away is if I, the Eiv-Scholar of the local Ortothan church and the leader of the group of Warriors they sent to investigate it, told them that I found the cause of the disappearances and that they’re being addressed as well as possible.
Dir. Morgan: And why would you lie to them for us?
Watts: I won’t be lying.
Dir. Morgan: Given your comments a moment ago, you clearly don’t regard the present situation as acceptable. If I turn you loose with your memories intact—
Watts: I’m not asking you to turn me loose.
Dir. Morgan: What do you want, then?
Watts: I’ll tell the Church that I’ve learned what’s going on and am satisfied that the matter is being looked into as well as it could be. I’ll tell them they shouldn’t send anyone else, even if there are more disappearances. In exchange, I want you to let me stay here, and I want you to give me a chance to find a way to stop this thing from hurting people.
Dir. Morgan: We’re already stopping it.
Watts: Without killing children.
[Several seconds pass.]
Watts: Look, you know me. I’m an expert in both Daevite History and Blood Magic.
Dir. Morgan: I know. I admit that you’re academically qualified to study this anomaly, but how do I know you won’t try something?
Watts: Because then I would lose access to the anomaly.
[Dir. Morgan silently considers this.]
Watts: Please, you know I’m a true Ortothan through and through. You know I will do anything to save innocent people from being fed to a monster, whether it’s for ‘the greater good’ or not. I’m not stupid. I know that the only way I save those kids is to work with you. I won’t do anything that would jeopardize that.
Dir. Morgan: And what happens if you don’t find that “other way” you’re looking for?
Watts: Why would anything happen? If you still think your child sacrifices are necessary, I won’t be able to stop you from performing them. In the meantime, I’ll probably have contributed something to your understanding of this arena.
Dir. Morgan: You realize you’re asking to be a prisoner, right? We can’t let you walk free while you know about a classified Foundation site. For as long as you’re contributing to research on SCP-9280, you’ll be living in a containment cell.
Watts: I know.
Dir. Morgan: And you’re willing to accept that?
Watts: I just said I’d do anything to save those kids.
Dir. Morgan: [Sighs] Your offer is noted. I’ll give it some thought before coming to a final decision.
Watts: Of course. In the meantime, I have one other question.
Dir. Morgan: What?
Watts: There was only one body in the arena. I take it that that was the loser of this year’s fight?
Dir. Morgan: It was.
Watts: Where’s the winner?
Dir. Morgan: The D-Class residential wing.
Watts: [Alarmed] D-Class?
Dir. Morgan: Yes.
Watts: You’ll be using him on more anomalies?
Dir. Morgan: No. We’re keeping him for next year’s fight. The anomaly seems to like it when the previous year’s winner comes back to fight again.
Watts: Oh gods… If I find another way to contain this thing, will you let him go?
Dir. Morgan: That’s not normally how D-Class personnel work.
Watts: Please? I’ll do anything.
Dir. Morgan: [Sighs] I’ll admit, if you really do find a way to contain or neutralize SCP-9280 without recruiting young D-Class, you’ll have done me a big favor. I suppose I’d be willing to do one back by wiping his memory and sending him home.
Watts: [Takes a deep breath.] Thank you. Can I please tell him what I’m doing? Let him know that there’s someone trying to find a way to save him?
Dir. Morgan: Are you sure that’s a good idea? False hope can be a cruel thing.
Watts: I won’t let it be false. Besides, even if his mental state weren’t a concern, I’d want to question him. He’s the only one who’s seen this ritual from the perspective of a participant. He might know something we don’t.
Dir. Morgan: We’ve questioned him thoroughly already.
Watts: He might be more willing to talk to someone who’s trying to save him than he was to the people who kidnapped him.
Dir. Morgan: [Sighs] Fair point. I’ll consider this request along with the rest of your proposal. I’ll come back to you in a day or two with a decision.
Watts: Thank you.
<End Log>
Addendum 9280-3: Researcher’s Notes:
June 22, 2023
Part of me is hesitant to entertain Ms. Watts’ offer. The idea of effectively giving Level 3 Clearance to a member of a GoI, even a relatively tame one like the Church of the Second Hytoth, goes against my instincts.
However, as I contemplate the situation, I can’t help but come to the following conclusions.
First, I know Ms. Watts to be a competent and knowledgeable scholar. If she were a loyal Foundation employee, I would be clamoring to get her onto SCP-9280’s research team. While the odds of her finding an alternative way to contain SCP-9280 which would satisfy her own ethical precepts do not seem high, she probably would make a meaningful contribution to our understanding of SCP-9280 if allowed to study it for a year.
Second, Ms. Watts is not in a position to try anything. Even if she were of a mind to betray us after making this deal, what would she do? I don’t believe she’d be able to escape Site-191, and there’s nothing she could do from within its walls to harm me or the Foundation.
Third, wiping her memory won’t stop the Church from deducing that the Foundation (or, at least, someone with access to amnestics) is responsible for the vanishing of local children. Neither would keeping her on-site indefinitely. Even back when I knew her, her word would’ve carried a lot of weight in the Church, and she’s continued to gain acclaim in the years since. I believe she’s correct that the church would listen to her, and that her proposal probably is the best way to keep them away from this facility.
I’m not going to give Watts formal clearance, but if she does report to GoI-3088 that there’s no need to further investigate the site, I think I might be willing to give her access to a handful of documents regarding SCP-9280.
I don’t think she’ll find what’s she’s looking for, but I’ve been wrong before. Perhaps she’ll surprise me.
- Liam Morgan, Site 191 Director
June 24, 2023
I am pleasantly surprised to have been given the chance I asked for.
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised. Spy or not, this is still the same man I once knew as Aímact Priest Paul Jameson. He’s smart, and he knows what I’m capable of when I set my mind to it.
I wish he’d given me more thorough access to information regarding SCP-9280, but he’s given me enough to get started.
- Evelyn Watts
Addendum 9280-4: Interview Log:
Interviewed: D-18576, D-class personnel assigned to SCP-9280.
Interviewer: Evelyn Watts, Adjunct Research Advisor aiding the study of SCP-9280.
Foreword: Seeking additional information about SCP-9280 and concerned about D-18576’s morale, Evelyn Watts requested an interview with D-18576.
<Begin Log, June 25, 2023, 10:13>
[Watts enters the chamber in which D-18576 being held. D-18576 looks up at her, his gaze hostile.]
D-18576: What do you people want now?
Watts: I was hoping I could talk to you.
D-18576: Don’t pretend to be nice to me.
Watts: [Sits.] I’m not pretending, I swear. I know what the Foundation did to you, and I don’t approve of it. They’re letting me see you, but I’m not one of them.
D-18576: Then who are you?
Watts: Someone who wants to save you.
D-18576: [Studies Watts for a moment.] How do I know you’re telling the truth?
Watts: The people here don’t call you by your name, right?
D-18576: No. They don’t.
Watts: What is your name?
D-18576: Mikhail.
Watts: Well, Mikhail, it’s a pleasure to meet you. [Extends hand.] I’m Evelyn. Call me Evy. I promise, I’m going to find a way to save you, no matter what it takes.
[D-18576 does not accept the handshake.]
D-18576: How?
Watts: By finding another way for the Foundation to deal with the arena.
[D-18576 is silent.]
Watts: Look, what’s happening to you is horrible. If I could make them let you go right now, I would. Unfortunately, I can’t do that, but, hopefully, if I study that… thing hard enough, I can show them that there’s no need to let it hurt anyone, including you. The site director has already told me that if I find another way, they’ll let you go.
D-18576: [Looks up at Watts.] Let me go?
Watts: Yes, and I’m going to make that happen. I promise.
D-18576: Who are you? Why do you care about me?
Watts: I’m someone who doesn’t believe in sacrificing the few for the sake of the many. I’m someone willing to fight for those who other people are willing to write off. I care about you because you don’t deserve any of this.
[D-18576 does not respond.]
Watts: Now, here’s the best way you can help me save you: Tell me everything you can about the arena. I already know the broad strokes of what they do there, but I want to know if there’s anything you saw, heard, or felt, that the Foundation might have missed.
[Several seconds of silence.]
D-18576: They… they pulled me into this weird van and brought me here. They told me to kill the other kid, that if we didn’t fight—
Watts: I know. What I’m asking is… is there anything that was out of place? Anything that you might have been seeing, hearing, or feeling because of the arena’s influence rather than because it was really there?
D-18576: Are you… saying some of it wasn’t real?
Watts: I don’t know. I don’t really understand what this thing is or how it works. I’m hoping you can help me change that, because the better we understand it, the easier it’s going to be to stop it.
D-18576: Those weird gray things in the audience, the ones that were watching us, were they real? No one would tell me what they were, not even the guy who tried to train me to fight.
Watts: As far as I know, they’re real. I don’t think anyone really understands what they are. Did you notice anything about them that you think the guards and researchers might not have?
D-18576: [Hesitates] The way they looked at me.
Watts: What do you mean?
D-18576: I could feel them looking. Even when I couldn’t see them, I could always feel them looking.
Watts: Did it seem like they were angry at you?
D-18576: No. It wasn’t that they hated us. They… they were happy to see us. They liked watching. When… when I won, they cheered.
Watts: I’m so sorry. I can’t imagine what that must have been like.
[D-18576 does not respond.]
Watts: You don’t have to keep talking about it if you don’t want to.
D-18576: No. That’s not… If it’ll help, I can tell you.
Watts: Thank you. That’s very brave. Do you know why you could sense the fact that these beings were watching? Did it feel like they were intentionally revealing this information to you?
D-18576: I don’t know.
Watts: That’s okay.
D-18576: I don’t want to go back in there.
Watts: I don’t want you to, either. I’m going to do everything I can to help.
D-18576: You really think you can stop them?
Watts: I do.
D-18576: You said you promise?
Watts: Yes. I promise. I’m going to save you, no matter what it takes.
D-18576: Thank you.
Watts: I’m only doing what’s right. Stay strong for me, okay? There is someone fighting for you. I’m going to get you out of this.
[Watts’ interview with D-18576 continued after this point. However, this section is deemed to contain no new information and has been expunged for brevity.]
<End Log>
Afterword: After this exchange, Watts requested that she be allowed to have recurring meetings with D-18576 for the purpose of gleaning new information and improving his morale. The request for scheduled recurring interviews was not granted, though Watts was advised that she could initiate interactions herself during socialization hours.
Addendum 9280-5: Research Logs:
June 26, 2023
Dir. Morgan has given me access to a large set of documents regarding SCP-9280. He’s also introduced me to its existing research team.
I get the feeling none of them have seen an Ortothan in person before. They kept glancing at the scars on my palms.
It doesn’t matter. For the time being, they’re my allies. I have a mission to accomplish, and I’ll need their help. Officially, I’m an “Adjunct Research Advisor,” which means I’m allowed to look at some (only some) relevant documents and suggest things to the existing research team. That’s about it.
At least there is an existing research team, even if none of them seem to be working full time on just this anomaly.
Right now, my job is to get caught up on the research that’s already been done. Once I know what the Foundation has tried, I can start looking for what they haven’t.
- Evelyn Watts
June 28, 2023
Fundamentally, there are two approaches I can take to making Protocol Bustuarii redundant. The first is to find an ethical way to sate SCP-9280-1’s bloodlust.
To their credit, the Foundation has looked into many of the most obvious ways of doing this. SCP-9280-1 is a perversely picky eater. It rejects the blood of animals, adults, and the terminally ill.
The Foundation has not tried it on thaumaturgically or theurgically generated blood. I will recommend this to the research team.
Fortunately, we don’t need to wait until the next summer solstice to perform that test. While the arena only demands Tribute once a year, it will drink the blood of additional offerings if they’re given. That means we can try it on new kinds of offerings without waiting for the next solstice.
- Evelyn Watts
July 5, 2023
It took a whole damn week, but I was able to talk the other researchers into performing a few tests.
- Evelyn Watts
| Offering | Result |
|---|---|
| Blood conjured via thaumaturgy. | Rejection |
| Blood conjured via thaumaturgy, with care taken to ensure it is genetically and chemically similar to that of an eligible tribute. | Rejection |
| Blood conjured via thaumaturgy, with care taken to ensure the presence of adrenaline and other substances that might result from live combat. | Rejection |
| Blood conjured via Sarkic theurgy identical to the blood of D-18576, who prevailed in 2023’s successful enactment of Protocol Bustuarii. | Rejection |
July 5, 2023
It’s unfortunate that we didn’t find anything, but I still can’t help but be happy I was able to get them to perform a test. I think Dir. Morgan put in a good word for me. They seem to be genuinely trying to give me the chance I asked for.
This entity seems to delight in the distress of its Tributes. While it does physically absorb the blood of its victims, I think its bloodlust runs deeper than that. I doubt we’ll be able to satisfy it without a significant moral compromise.
Fortunately, there is another option. We could simply destroy it.
While the Foundation is normally unwilling to destroy anomalies, this unwillingness is thankfully not absolute. Indeed, the Foundation’s Ethics Committee approved the neutralization of SCP-9280 decades ago. The only reason it still exists is that the Foundation has not found a way to destroy it.
Physically destroying the stone that makes up SCP-9280 is considered too big a risk, as there is no guarantee that would neutralize its anomalous properties. Indeed, it may exacerbate the situation by making Protocol Bustuarii impossible to enact, resulting in an activation event that cannot be ended.
Extensive attempts have been made to destroy SCP-9280-1. However, while it is possible to take tissue samples from SCP-9280-1, tissue that is destroyed or removed regenerates immediately, with seemingly no lasting harm befalling the entity.
While it’s possible that SCP-9280-1 has an unexpected weakness, I don’t think additional attempts to destroy it with physical force are likely to be fruitful. Unfortunately, despite Dir. Morgan having authorized me to aid in researching this anomaly, I am not in a position to arrange for any costly or risky tests. This leaves me unsure how to proceed.
- Evelyn Watts
Addendum 9280-6: Internal Communication Logs:
Date: July 18, 2023
From: pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD#pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD
To: pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD#pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD
Re: Budgetary Issues
Director Morgan,
I regret having to send this E-mail. However, as I’m sure you are aware, the Foundation’s resources have grown scarce as of late. This has resulted in some necessary reorganization.
Attached to this E-mail is a list of researchers from Site-191 who will be moved elsewhere, effective in thirty days. As much as possible, we have sought to pull resources from anomalies for which a stable containment status quo exists. Due to budgetary limitations, these researchers will not be replaced.
We regret the necessity of this measure. However, these reassignments are not negotiable. Thank you for understanding.
Sincerely, Regional Director Forester
Date: July 18, 2023
From: pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD#pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD
To: pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD#pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD
Re: Re: Budgetary Issues
Director Forester,
I appreciate your advanced notice of these reassignments, and I understand the necessity of redirecting resources. However, I must object to one element of your reallocation, namely, the fact that your reassignments would leave SCP-9280 with no active researchers.
I disagree with any judgement that SCP-9280 is subject to a “stable containment status-quo.” SCP-9280 is capable of causing mass civilian death from within containment, and we currently have no recourse but to appease its desire for bloodshed.
While it has been several years since Protocol Bustuarii has failed, we do not confidently understand the details of how the anomaly determines success and failure, and it is not safe to assume current containment measures will continue to be effective indefinitely. This thing could, at any time, decide that it wants more or different sacrifices. If it does, we will have to sacrifice a large number of civilians in order to work out, through trial and error, what it now wants, and then we will have to oblige it.
That is not an acceptable or stable containment status quo.
Liam Morgan, Site-191 Director
Date: July 19, 2023
From: pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD#pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD
To: pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD#pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD
Re: Re: Budgetary Issues
Director Morgan,
I understand your feelings on this matter. Ordinarily I would agree that SCP-9280 warrants active research. However, its behavior has been stable for decades, and we have no reason to think it will change. Thus, until the anomaly does decide to behave differently, its present status-quo is indeed stable. As stated, the transfer orders you have received are non-negotiable. Thank you for understanding.
Sincerely, Regional Director Forester
Addendum 9280-7: Researchers’ Notes:
August 15, 2023
SCP-9280’s entire research team will be transferred off-site in just a few more days.
I have been placed in a very difficult position. In most situations, the orders I’ve received would leave me with absolutely no choice but to accept that no active study of SCP-9280 will occur for the foreseeable future.
However, circumstances have blessed me with another option I cannot ignore. There is an individual who is demonstrably able and willing to conduct active research on SCP-9280, whose efforts could not easily be redirected elsewhere, and whose status as a captured GoI agent ensures she requires no salary.
I find myself forced to choose between placing Evelyn Watts at the helm of research on SCP-9280 or accepting that no one is actively researching SCP-9280.
Were Ms. Watts an unknown variable, it would be much easier to justify accepting the end of active research on SCP-9280. However, my knowledge of her as an individual leads me to believe that, while her priorities as a researcher will be skewed by her moral beliefs, the results of her research will still be preferable to those of no research at all.
I will be giving her most of the information regarding SCP-9280 I have thus far held back, and I will advise her that any tests she proposes to me will be considered and potentially carried out.
So long as these tests use only resources allocated for my discretionary use as site director, this does not break any rules.
- Liam Morgan, Site 191 Director.
August 16, 2023
I am immensely thankful for Dir. Morgan’s willingness to further empower me to research SCP-9280. I appreciate that this privilege is the result of exceptional circumstances, and I will neither abuse it nor take it for granted.
Given that the Foundation itself has slated SCP-9280-1 for neutralization, I don’t believe there will be any objection to me pursuing that as my primary research objective.
While no one has thus far managed to permanently harm SCP-9280-1 due to its remarkable regeneration abilities, the fact that it can be harmed at all gives me hope that it has some kind of weakness.
I’ve submitted a proposal to Dir. Morgan, requesting several substances be applied to SCP-9280-1 in hopes that they could interfere with its regeneration.
- Evelyn Watts
Addendum 9280-7: Termination Attempts: Under the supervision of both Evelyn Watts and Dir. Morgan, additional tests were performed in hopes of finding a way to lastingly damage, and, potentially, destroy SCP-9280-1. Despite more than one-hundred substances being tested, including several powerful acids and various thaumaturgic materials, none forestalled SCP-9280-1’s regeneration.
September 29, 2023
No luck. Some substances harm SCP-9280-1, but that harm never lasts long enough to matter.
Perhaps spellwork will do better. It’s something the Foundation hasn’t tried as much. Plus, I can cast the spells myself, so Dir. Morgan won’t have to worry about expending resources.
- Evelyn Watts
| Destruction Method | Result |
|---|---|
| A thaumaturgic blast. | SCP-9280-1 regenerated. |
| A thaumaturgic spell ordinarily capable of turning a human into a newt. | Spell had no effect. |
| A thaumaturgic spell which places its victim in an endless state of paralysis. | Spell had no effect. |
| A thaumaturgic spell which solidifies living tissue and is consistently fatal to humans. | Spell had no effect. |
| A thaumaturgic spell which transports an object to another location. The spell was used on several blocks of granite, while the space currently occupied by SCP-9280-1 was set as its destination. | While SCP-9280-1 was severely damaged by the arrival of the granite blocks, the damage was quickly regenerated. |
| A thaumaturgic spell which disintegrates its target. | Spell resulted in significant damage to SCP-9280-1, but this damage was quickly regenerated. |
October 15, 2023
Still nothing.
I haven’t tried every spell in the world, but the level of warding this thing must have to survive what I’ve already thrown at it makes further thaumaturgic solutions seem farfetched.
- Evelyn Watts
November 7, 2023
The more I examine this thing, the less I feel like I understand it.
Why is it so godsdamn resilient?
As I contemplate that question, I find my mind wandering toward another fact. The Foundation knows more than I do, and I still haven’t been given access to most of it. Not only do they know more about the Daevites than I ever will, they also have a massive catalogue of anomalies with destructive power I can’t currently conceive of.
I wonder if there’s something in that catalogue that could help me.
The Foundation doesn’t care about the people they hurt. The individual humans they sacrifice are literally just numbers to them. I doubt they’ve overlooked any glaringly obvious ways of destroying this anomaly, but I also doubt they’ve pored over their database with the diligence I could muster.
I need more information. I need a more complete account of the resources available to them. Maybe, somewhere, in their enormous catalogue, there’s something that I can turn into a breakthrough. The kind of breakthrough that would save Mikhail.
The Foundation won’t let me schedule weekly interviews with Mikhail, but we’re both prisoners at the same site. I’ve managed to interact with him several times since our first conversation.
I can’t imagine what he must be going through. Just an ordinary kid, snatched of the street, tortured, forced to kill another child, then imprisoned with the looming promise that in one year’s time, all of it will happen again.
Despite the fact that there is no actual difference between him and the people they claim to be protecting, they treat him like a piece of meat to be thrown into the maw of a hungry monster.
I try to lift his spirits whenever I can. He’s a smart boy. He’s very interested in chess, and despite his age, he’s better at it than me. The first time we played, I thought I’d have to let him win, but he stomped me.
He has a family. A life. A future. Those things belong to him, and no one else has the right to sacrifice them. The fact that I’m fighting for him seems to be one of the few things keeping him going. I have to do whatever it takes. I cannot fail.
- Evelyn Watts
Addendum 9280-8: Cross-testing Request Log:
November 13, 2023
Director Morgan,
Thank you for considering this request. Despite my best efforts, I have been struggling to find a way to neutralize SCP-9280-1. In the months since you generously allowed me to participate in research regarding it, I have employed most of the obvious destruction methods at my disposal, to no effect.
However, I know that the Foundation possesses a large catalog of anomalous items which I know nothing about.
I believe that it would be to the benefit of all involved if I were allowed to access more of the Foundation’s database. Of course, I would never obtain physical access to an anomaly without your approval, but the information in your database may still enable me to identify a solution I could not otherwise hope to devise, and this could lead to precisely the kind of breakthrough we’re looking for.
I request that I temporarily be granted the clearance necessary to thoroughly search the Foundation’s database, so I may attempt to locate an anomaly capable of destroying SCP-9280-1.
- Evelyn Watts
November 14, 2023
Your request is denied.
I am testing the Foundation’s boundaries by allowing you to work on this project at all. I cannot give you the kind of access to our database that you would need to make meaningful progress pursuing anomalous solutions.
As someone who does have such access, I assure you that everything promising was tried shortly after the Ethics Committee first ordered SCP-9280’s neutralization.
- Liam Morgan, Site-191 Director
November 15, 2023
Director Morgan
I implore you to reconsider.
If there’s anything I can do to prove my trustworthiness, I will happily do it.
You know I am not requesting this access for espionage purposes. If you need to erase some of my memories afterward, that’s fine. Please, just let me save those children.
- Evelyn Watts
November 16, 2023
I’m sorry, but I can’t do what you’re asking. Any permission I gave you would be taken away the moment the Foundation noticed I’d given it, and the authority I’m currently using to allow your research would go with it.
I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to find a way to destroy this thing with the resources you have.
- Liam Morgan, Site-191 Director
Addendum 9280-9: Researcher’s Notes:
November 22, 2023
Director Morgan’s refusal of my request is disappointing, but sadly not unexpected. It pains me to know that there probably is a better solution somewhere in the Foundation’s database, but if I don’t have access to it, it makes no difference. I’m going to have to find another way to accomplish this.
I’ve thrown a lot of powerful forces and spells as the anomaly, and everything seems to bounce off. While trial and error is a perfectly respectable way to locate something’s weakness, it might be more efficient to learn more about the anomaly’s fundamental workings before I proceed with more tests.
- Evelyn Watts
December 4, 2023
I’ve spent the last two and a half weeks drinking in every scrap of information I could about the anomaly. That includes the video logs of previous enactments of Protocol Bustuarii.
I should have watched them as soon as I started working on this. It was cowardly not to. The only reason I avoided them is because it would hurt to watch them. Especially the one from this year, the one I failed to stop, the one that involved Mikhail. I didn’t want to see him in the arena. I didn’t want to see his fear and pain. I didn’t want to hear him cry, or beg, or scream.
I didn’t want to watch him kill.
I did, though.
Fighting in that arena, he couldn’t have been less like the kind, clever child I know. His technique, and that of his opponent, were underdeveloped, but all of that was made up for by a savagery born from sheer determination to survive, right up until the moment he shoved a spear through his opponent’s stomach.
I know that the spear was selected purely because it matches the period this anomaly originates from. I also know that Mikhail chose it from among a handful of weapons they offered him.
Still, I can’t help but see blasphemy in the use of the Holy Fourth’s weapon to shed Unwilling Blood. To placate and appease a demon that deserves only to be destroyed.
Before watching this footage, I was starting to wonder if I was too judgmental of Dir. Morgan when we first spoke. In some ways, I was. I assumed the Foundation was overlooking a clear solution out of apathy for human life. Now that I’ve spent months looking for an easy answer to this thing, I know that there isn’t one.
But seeing that footage, seeing those children scream and fight and die year after year, has reignited my indignation. How do they sleep at night, knowing that they’re doing this? How does seeing it not bring them the searing outrage it brings me? How does the knowledge that they’re responsible for this, that they’re the ones grabbing these children and forcing them to endure this, not destroy them?
I have to use that pain to push myself forward, to bolster my determination to make this cruel ritual end, no matter what it takes. The pain of seeing Protocol Bustuarii in action is nothing compared to what those children gave to spare the rest of the world from this Daevite abomination’s wrath. Not just their lives, but their innocence. Their conscience. They went into that arena as children, and they came out as killers, if they came out at all.
This will not continue. The last sacrifice will be the last sacrifice.
Now that I’ve watched all that archived footage, I’ve seen the arena drinking the blood of its victims. The documents say the humanoid entities that make up the visible portion of SCP-9280-1 are united by a system of roots that run underneath the arena, which is why they can absorb the blood of their victims after it’s spilled onto the arena floor.
It would be nice if we could trick the entity by pretending to enact Protocol Bustuarii only to pull back before either tribute actually died, but that won’t work. The damn thing doesn’t start drinking until someone is dead.
Why are its demands so perversely specific? If this thing needs that blood to sustain it, why isn’t it more eager to drink it? It’s as if this entity was specifically engineered to force something like Protocol Busuarii to be performed. Why would someone do that?
I wonder if it’s truly the physical blood that’s sustaining it, or if it’s something else. Life energy, or perhaps the misery of its victims. I’ve now seen the way this thing cheers and shouts as it watches its victims kill each other. It takes such cruel delight in the spectacle, especially the moment of the kill.
I hate SCP-9280-1. I want it to die. After everything it’s put him through, Mikhail deserves to wake up one day and hear me tell him that this thing is dead, that it will never hurt him or anyone else ever again.
He deserves to be saved, and I promised I would save him.
- Evelyn Watts
December 23, 2023
I finally got Dir. Morgan to grant me physical access to SCP-9280 itself.
There was a pair of guards watching me, but that’s fine. I wasn’t there to try something sneaky. I just want to learn as much about this anomaly as I can, so I can find a way to kill it.
SCP-9280 is small for a Daevite fighting pit, but it’s shockingly well-preserved, probably because its underground location has protected it from the elements. It would be the find of the century if the Foundation hadn’t already snatched it up. Under better circumstances, I could spend years studying it, but as things are, I get distracted by its scholarly intricacies. The only thing I have the right to focus on is finding a way to destroy SCP-9280-1.
SCP-9280-1 clearly didn’t exist while the fighting pit was in active use. It physically occupies the arena’s seating and would have prevented actual Daevite citizens from observing the gladiatorial spectacles that occurred there.
My best guess is that it’s a punishment, that this thing was created as an act of revenge on the people who took this territory from the Daevites, ensuring that they would have to pay a horrible price to remain here.
Whatever the Daevites did to this place as they left, they neglected to leave any carvings about it. Indeed, a handful of suspicious chips in the stone, the only damage to an otherwise intact site, seem to indicate that they destroyed some of the carvings here before they left.
I can only hope that the fact that they felt the need to destroy information about this place means it truly does have some kind of weakness I can rediscover, that there is some way to end the millennia of brutality and suffering this thing has inflicted on the innocent.
- Evelyn Watts
December 24, 2023
I spent all day examining the main arena.
Mikhail told me what it felt like to be watched by the things that lurk there, how much it hurt to feel their mocking gaze. Only now that I have felt it for myself do I even partially understand what he meant.
There are over a thousand figures in there, and their gazes never left me. Wherever I went, they turned to watch me. Even when I couldn’t see them, I could feel their cruel, mocking satisfaction, as if they knew that I was looking for a way to save their victims, and derived tremendous satisfaction from the fact that I hadn’t yet found one.
After feeling that awful gaze for hours, I finally couldn’t take it anymore. While examining the carvings on the arena’s floor from above, I spun around and punched the nearest “spectator” in the face.
It was soft and rubbery, like a balloon filled with jelly. My fist made it bend back like punching bag before gliding back up into place.
Its gaze never left me, and once it was upright, there was a shift, a bend in the lower part of its face, as if, without even having a mouth, it was smirking at me.
I wailed on it more. I jumped on the thing, pinned it against the stone behind it and struck it over and over. Its soft flesh yielded to each strike, but no matter how hard I punched, it never felt like I had harmed it, and that damned grin never went away.
I kept at it for a long time. I don’t know exactly how long. I only stopped when I grew too tired to keep hitting it. I ran out of that place, crying. My total inability to harm that thing, to gain the slightest vengeance on behalf of any of its victims, enraged me, and that rage was just another source of pain by which its twisted hunger could be satisfied.
I thought the guards would be angry, or think I was trying to escape. Fortunately, they didn’t. They still ran out after me, of course, but all they did was calmly escort me back to my chamber.
I’m not done examining that place. The main arena is huge, and I examined less than half of it.
But I’m going to ask Dir. Morgan if I can put that off for a few days. I’m going to have to face that thing again eventually, but right now, I cannot bear the thought of going back into that arena.
- Evelyn Watts
December 25, 2023
I spent today analyzing footage of some previous experiments. I’ve noticed something about the way SCP-9280-1 regenerates. Something that you could never notice with the naked eye.
I said before that SCP-9280-1 felt like a balloon full of jelly. A closer examination of its physical structure shows that that analysis isn’t far off. The actual, physical structure of the entity is composed of a thin, rubbery membrane surrounding a viscous liquid.
In addition, while reexamining close-up footage of tissue samples being taken from the entity, I noticed something else. The blades the Foundation used to remove those samples never seemed to pierce the entity’s membrane, at least not in such a way that they gained access to its interior. On a high-speed camera, you can see that the membrane always fully closes over the interior of the entity before any matter is removed. It’s less like flesh being chopped off a limb and more like a bubble being split in two without popping.
It’s the same with everything else we’ve tried on it. None of the acids we subjected it to ever pierced its skin, and neither did any of the spells. Even with the test where the rocks telefragged into it, if you slow the footage down, you can see that the membrane shifts just before the rocks arrive. They were never properly inside it.
It’s frustrating to see that nothing we’ve done has ever gotten under its skin, but I can’t help but wonder why it’s so protective of its innards. Is that because of what would happen if someone did get inside it? Is that it’s weakness?
- Evelyn Watts
December 29, 2023
I’ve gone back and finished examining the site.
I spent several more hours letting that thing watch me.
It wasn’t worth it. Closer, physical examination only confirmed my existing analysis of the entity’s structure.
The thing didn’t even try to stop me from examining it. It just looked right at me, as if me and everything I’m doing is nothing but a joke. As if I’m not any threat to it whatsoever.
Maybe I’m not. It’s now been six whole months since I started examining this thing, and I have less than six months left to find a way to destroy it. After that, Mikhail and another child will be forced back into that arena, and one of them will die.
I’ve figured a few things out, but I’m nowhere near halfway done destroying this thing. Time is getting away from me, and I find it increasingly hard to reassure myself that I will triumph.
Mikhail has asked me a few times whether I’ve made any progress on saving him. He tries to act strong for me, but I can tell he’s terrified. I’ve tried to be strong in return, to reassure him, but I can feel his fear building as the months go by, and I have less and less to tell him.
- Evelyn Watts
January 12, 2024
This is the first day in months where I’ve allowed myself to do anything other than study.
Part of me thinks I shouldn’t have allowed myself even that, that even a moment of rest means shirking my duty, but another part of me knows better. I need to keep my head screwed on if I’m going to beat this thing. I’ve been unraveling, and I need to pull myself together.
Fortunately, Dir. Morgan was able to lend me some Ortothan scriptures.
It was a collection I’ve read before. I have it at home. I haven’t thought about it in years, but as soon as I saw its cover, I remembered a story I read in it a long time ago, back when I knew Dir. Morgan as a friend and fellow Ortothan.
I read it again. It’s a sad story from about a century before the final collapse of the Earthen Ortothan Kingdom, about the destruction of an entity that had been feeding a settlement of escaped Daevite slaves who were hiding deep in a tundra, where no one else could live.
It pains me to compare that benevolent entity to the abomination I’m dealing with, but I can’t deny there was more than a passing resemblance. It was a soft, loosely humanoid but uncannily featureless entity, superficially resembling a crowd of people while secretly being connected underground by roots that seemingly absorbed the blood sacrifices that sustained it.
Instead of the audience of a gladiatorial arena, this thing took the role of an Ortothan prayer circle, which perhaps explains why it hungered for willingly offered blood, rather than that of innocent victims. It took the offerings this Ortothan community gave it and rewarded them with food, water, and everything else they needed to survive.
Unfortunately, Daevite slave-hunters eventually found this community, and, when they did, they were able to kill it.
They crafted an alchemical poison designed to make the thing rot away from the inside. Applying the stuff to the thing’s exterior did nothing. They had to trick the thing into drinking the poison by mixing it into a blood offering.
It had to be a willing offering. The entity’s nature was such that it would accept nothing else, but it was simple enough for these slave-hunters to give their own blood to satisfy that criteria. It drank their offering, and their poison along with it, and it perished.
There’s no proof that the thing from this story is related to SCP-9280-1. There’s also no proof that this story is true. However, this is still the best lead I’ve gotten in months.
What if the key to getting past that membrane is tricking this thing into drinking something? I’ve already tried and failed to get it to accept an ‘ethical’ offering, but if there’s a way to poison its food, that’s a very good reason to renew my efforts on that front.
If I can find a way to make something it will drink, I might be able to slip my own poison in along with it.
- Evelyn Watts
January 15, 2024
Good news. I have a way to test the effectiveness of the poisons I formulate.
The membrane on the main entity is seemingly impenetrable, but, after a bit of fussing, we’ve figured out how to inject candidate poisons into the tissue samples we’ve removed from it. That means we’re in a position to test if any compound I formulate can destroy it.
The Foundation has moved so many researchers away from this site that some of its facilities are going unused, including a small chemistry lab on the south end of Site-191. Dir. Morgan gave me permission to use it, and some of the equipment in it. He couldn’t assign me any research assistants, so I’ll be conducting the tests myself, accompanied only by a single member of security staff there to supervise me.
I get the impression that Morgan’s superiors don’t know I’m doing this. I’m not sure why he's willing to take that risk. Perhaps Dir. Morgan has more conscience left in him than I assumed, or perhaps he has some cold, clinical, thoroughly Foundation reason to enable my research, and it’s pure moral luck that doing so allows me to save these children.
For me, right now, his reasons don’t matter. All that matters is that he’s giving me the chance I need.
It’s going to take a lot of trial and error to find an effective poison, and Dir. Morgan has warned me that he will not be able to get rare and valuable ingredients for me, but I’m still more hopeful now than I have been in months.
- Evelyn Watts
March 19, 2024
I’ve done it.
After weeks of grueling experimentation, I’ve found an alchemical mixture that is poisonous to SCP-9280-1, or, at least, to tissue samples taken from it.
I don’t know how I’m going to trick it into absorbing this poison. I have no ethical way of creating an offering it will accept. Obviously, poisoning the blood of two children before forcing them to fight in that arena is beneath consideration. But that’s okay. I have a few months left to find another way through that membrane.
I’ve already written up some proposals, along with the final formula for my poison. All that’s left is to give what I have to Dir. Morgan.
- Evelyn Watts
Addendum 9280-10: Internal Communication Logs:
Date: March 20, 2024
From: pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD#pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD
To: pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD#pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD
Re: Unauthorized Testing
Director Morgan,
It has come to my attention that you have been performing unauthorized research on SCP-9280.
According to a tip I received, you have been allowing Evelyn Watts, a member of GoI-3088, to use a laboratory in Site-191 to perform experiments on tissue samples of SCP-9280-1.
Security footage from the room in question seems to extensively corroborate this allegation.
I know I do not need to explain why allowing an enemy combatant such extensive access to Foundation resources and classified information would be a gross violation of both security protocol and my direct orders to leave SCP-9280’s containment status-quo intact.
What do you have to say for yourself?
Sincerely, Regional Director Forester
Date: March 20, 2024
From: pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD#pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD
To: pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD#pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD
Re: Re: Unauthorized Testing
Director Forester,
I appreciate your concern.
I have not allocated any resources to Ms. Watts’ efforts except those which I, as Director of Site-191, held at my discretion.
I do not believe I have violated any of your direct orders. It’s true that you redirected several researchers off of SCP-9280 and toward other projects, and it’s true that you did not make arrangements to replace them. However, you did not forbid me from allocating my discretionary resources toward SCP-9280. It would have been abnormal for me to explicitly seek permission to use resources already placed at my discretion, so I did not think it necessary to contact you about the matter.
Perhaps this assumption was in error. If so, I apologize.
Liam Morgan, Site-191 Director
Date: March 21, 2024
From: pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD#pcs.noitadnuof|retseroFriD
To: pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD#pcs.noitadnuof|nagroMriD
Re: Re: Unauthorized Testing
Director Morgan,
Don’t play games.
Perhaps you could, by some string of pedantic rationalizations, argue that I did not explicitly forbid you from allowing a member of a semi-hostile Group of Interest to research a Keter-class anomaly on the Foundation’s behalf, but such an obvious prohibition should not need to be given.
This goes on no longer. The existing procedures by which SCP-9280 is contained are adequate. The fact that they offend the moral sensibilities of a captured enemy combatant—and perhaps also yourself—does not justify allowing someone hostile to said containment measures extensive access to this anomaly and information regarding it.
Evelyn Watts is to perform no further research on SCP-9280. She is at Site-191 because she was captured after violently infiltrating SCP-9280. From here on out, she is to be treated accordingly, as an enemy prisoner. She is not a Foundation researcher. She is to perform no more tests, and no more resources are to be used on SCP-9280 beyond those already outlined in its containment procedures.
Sincerely, Regional Director Forester
Addendum 9280-11: Interview Log:
Interviewed: Eiv-Scholar Evelyn Watts, former Adjunct Research Advisor on SCP-9280
Interviewer: Director Liam Morgan, Site-191 Director.
Foreword: After receiving the above messages, Dir. Morgan arranged a meeting with Evelyn Watts regarding her research on SCP-9280.
<Begin Log, March 22, 2024, 11:01>
Dir. Morgan: I’m sorry, Evy. There’s nothing I can do.
Watts: So that’s it? It’s all over, just like that? Even though we were on the cusp of a breakthrough, one that would have finally destroyed an anomaly that your own ethics committee ordered—
Dir. Morgan: Evy, I’m not the one you’d need to convince.
Watts: Then put me in contact with the Regional Director. Let me try to explain—
Dir. Morgan: No. There’s no point. He’s livid, and me allowing you to contact him will only make him angrier.
[A few seconds of silence.]
Watts: Mikhail’s life isn’t yours to sacrifice.
Dir. Morgan: I’m sorry, but it is. He’s Foundation personnel. A D-Class.
Watts: Just because you can grab him off the street and put him in a godsdamned orange jumpsuit doesn’t mean—
Dir. Morgan: It does, actually! That’s how the world works. If you can’t stop something, it happens. The universe doesn’t owe you a clear conscience. It doesn’t give a damn how you feel about the choices it gives you. Protocol Bustuarii will be enacted this year, and now there’s nothing either of us can do about it.
Watts: Nothing you can do? As if you won’t be overseeing the whole thing. As if you won’t be the one ordering soldiers to—
Dir. Morgan: You know what this thing does if we don’t keep it happy.
Watts: Mikhail is a child! He doesn’t deserve this! He didn’t do anything wrong! He’s not even a criminal!
Dir. Morgan: And that fact is clearly warping your judgement.
Watts: We can’t just kill him! Please. I knew you for years. I know you know this is wrong!
Dir. Morgan: And yet I can put my personal feelings aside and do what needs to be done to protect the public at large. My advice, learn to do the same. You’ll sleep easier.
Watts: Fine. Your willingness to murder an innocent child is noted. Seeing as my research is concluded, I don’t think I have any further business with you.
Dir. Morgan: Fine by me.
<End Log>
Addendum 9280-12: Personal Notes:
March 28, 2024
Gods damn it.
What the hell am I going to do now?
I can’t give up. Ortothans don’t give up. No matter how hopeless a situation seems, we don’t falter.
- Evelyn Watts
March 28, 2024
Who the fuck am I kidding?
I can’t kill that thing, or save Mikhail, from inside a containment cell.
- Evelyn Watts
March 28, 2024
But what can I do besides try?
I’m going to be stuck in this cell no matter what. Either I sit here and sulk, or I try to find an answer, no matter how impossible that seems.
The Foundation doesn’t give a shit about Mikhail, or any of the other children they’re planning to sacrifice. I’m the only one who does. I’m their only hope.
- Evelyn Watts
March 29, 2024
I have exactly one resource to work with: my notes. Dir. Morgan took all the classified documents he’d given me, but not the notes I myself wrote over the course of my research. That leaves me with a modest collection of records and theoretical observations regarding SCP-9280. If there’s any way left for me to save Mikhail, it’s buried somewhere in them.
The poison was my best lead. I still have the formula for it. If I can find a way to make that thing drink it, then maybe, just maybe, I can show that to Dir. Morgan. If I give him something that’s sure to work, maybe he’ll be willing to bend the rules to enact it. It’s a long shot, but it’s the only shot I’ve got.
- Evelyn Watts
May 2, 2024
I’ve read back through all of my notes, and everything in them points to one conclusion: the only time SCP-9280-1 will drink blood, poisoned or otherwise, is when it’s taken from a child forced to fight for its amusement.
Of course, that is not an option. Mikhail’s blood is not mine to give. If I start allowing myself to perform twisted acts for ‘the greater good,’ I will lose everything that makes me better than the Daevites who built that awful place, or the Foundation that has overseen its horrors for decades.
- Evelyn Watts
May 8, 2024
There is a part of me that doubts, that fears it is selfish to value the sanctity of my own soul over the lives of, in the long run, far more than this one child, but I know that’s just weakness. It’s heretic talk. It’s exactly the kind of thinking that led the Foundation to feed children to this thing for decades instead of moving heaven and earth to find another way.
- Evelyn Watts
May 11, 2024
But I have moved heaven and earth, and I haven’t found one.
What if there isn’t one?
I haven’t been sleeping. All I’ve been doing is reading and rereading my notes, trying to find anything that might save Mikhail’s life, any way to prevent that procedure from being carried out.
There’s always another way. You always have a choice.
No one has the right to sacrifice Mikhail’s life but him.
- Evelyn Watts
May 19, 2024
I’m going to talk with Mikhail again.
- Evelyn Watts
Addendum 9280-13: Video Log:
Interviewed: D-18576, D-class personnel assigned to SCP-9280.
Interviewer: Evelyn Watts, captured member of GoI-3088.
Foreword: In early June of 2024, it became apparent to security personnel that Ms. Watts was trying to speak with D-18576 outside of the Foundation’s observation. Fearing that this was the result of an escape plan, Dir. Morgan surreptitiously planted a recording device on D-18576’s person, then deliberately altered their schedules to ensure they would be able to converse out of sight of site security.
<Begin Log, June 4, 2025, 16:09>
[Watts approaches D-18576 in Site-191’s socialization area. They are the only persons present in the room.]
Watts: Oh, Mikhail, can I talk to you for a moment?
D-18576: [Turns to look at her.] Sure.
Watts: [Whispering.] Do you mind keeping your voice down? This is something the cameras shouldn’t hear.
D-18576: [Matching Watts’ whisper.] Oh. Okay.
Watts: [Watts sits next to D-18576.] I’m not going to ask how you’re doing. I know that would be an insult, under the circumstances.
D-18576: They’ve started training me again.
Watts: I know.
D-18576: You said you were going to get me out of here.
Watts: I know.
D-18576: Are you going to?
Watts: That’s… what I came here to talk about. You know that I’ve been spending the past year researching this thing. I’ve done lots of tests. I didn’t make the kind of breakthrough that I was hoping for, but I did make one discovery. An important one. One that I need to tell you about.
D-18576: What?
Watts: I think I found a way to kill it.
D-18576: [Eyes widen.] Really?
Watts: Quiet.
D-18576: Right, sorry, but that’s amazing. [Pulls Watts into a hug.] Thank you so much.
[Watts reluctantly reciprocates the embrace for several seconds before D-18576 ends the embrace.]
D-18576: What’s wrong?
Watts: There’s… a cost. The method I found of killing SCP-9280, of making sure no child ever has to be sacrificed again, it has a cost, and you’re the one who’d have to pay it.
D-18576: I don’t have anything to lose. If we don’t do whatever it is, I’m dead.
Watts: That’s just it. The cost is… this thing drinks the blood of its victims. No matter what we try, no one can get it to drink anything else. The thing I’ve found, it’s… a poison. A poison that should kill it, so that after this year, after one last sacrifice, there will be no need to make another offering, ever again.
D-18576: One… last sacrifice?
Watts: [Nods] I can’t stop them from getting an opponent for you, and I can’t stop them from putting you back in that arena, but, before you go in, it might be possible to poison your blood, to make it so that whoever dies in that arena this year takes this thing with them, meaning that, starting next year, this never has to happen again.
[D-18576 is silent.]
Watts: I know it’s a horrible decision. I wish with everything I have that I could tell you I found another way, but I didn’t. This is the only option we have, and it’s there whether we like it or not. I haven’t told them yet. I don’t want anyone but you to make the decision. You’re the only one who has the right to make this sacrifice. Mikhail, would you… would you be willing to give your life to make sure you’re the last person who ever has to suffer because of this thing?
D-18576: What the fuck is wrong with you?
Watts: What?
D-18576: You said you were looking for a way to save me. You promised me you would find one!
Watts: [Sobs] I know, and I tried, Mikhail. I tried so hard. I did everything I could. It just wasn’t enough. The other way I was looking for, it just wasn’t there. I don’t think it was ever there.
D-18576: I thought you were pulling me aside to tell me you’re going to get me out of here.
Watts: I would. I would if I could. I promise I would, but I don’t have that kind of power. I can’t get you out of here any more than I can leave myself. I wish it were another way. I wish I had found something better than this, but I didn’t. That’s why I came to you today. I wanted to give you the choice. No one else has the right to sacrifice your life. Only you should be able to make that decision. I know how hard this is, but, sometimes, for the greater good—
D-18576: Don’t.
Watts: What?
D-18576: I have heard those fucking words a thousand fucking times since they brought me here. You’re supposed to be the one who doesn’t think that way.
Watts: I don’t. I promise, I don’t. I won’t make you do this.
D-18576: But they will, and you can’t stop them.
[Watts looks up at D-18576. Her cheeks are stained with tears.]
D-18576: I’m out of here. I don’t want to see you again.
Watts: Mikhail…
[D-18576 turns and walks away, leaving Watts outside the camera’s field of view. Watts can be heard sobbing.]
<End Log>
Addendum 9280-14: Personal Notes:
June 10, 2024
Mikhail hasn’t let me talk to him again.
I could try to draft an escape plan for him, to find a way to break him, and myself, out of this place.
But that wouldn’t solve anything. Not really. The Foundation would just steal an extra child this year and go on feeding this thing for the rest of time.
- Evelyn Watts
June 14, 2024
Just a week left.
I know exactly how to kill this thing. This thing that’s responsible for millennia of terror and suffering.
All it costs is the life of a single innocent child.
A child who wants to live. A child to whom I presented the choice to nobly sacrifice himself, and who told me he doesn’t want to be sacrificed.
Everything I believe in tells me I should respect that choice.
“Forced sacrifice is exploitation.”
“There is no greater blasphemy than the sacrifice of Unwilling Blood.”
For as long as I can remember, I have held these beliefs close to my heart. I have believed that nothing was, or could be, more important than these principles.
I wish with everything I have that I could have found a way to save Mikhail. Perhaps if I had been more diligent, or cleverer, perhaps if I had been a better scholar…
But it’s too late for that, now. There is nothing I can do to save him, nor can I save whatever poor child the Foundation snatches off the street to serve as his opponent.
There is only one choice left that I can make.
Do I tell Director Morgan about my poison?
He never got the final formula. I’m not sure he knows I finished developing it.
I could write a proposal. I could give him that formula, along with instructions on how to incorporate the administration of my poison into this year’s performance of Protocol Bustuarii.
I can’t make him defy Director Forester to implement my plan, but if I give him a plan that’s sure to kill that thing, I think there’s a good chance he’ll do it, and accept the consequences.
The ball’s in my court. Mikhail, the one who should be making this decision, doesn’t want anything to do with my plan, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m capable of giving Dir. Morgan the information he needs to kill this thing. It doesn’t change the fact that I will be choosing whether or not to do so.
I’ve prayed and meditated about this. I’ve spent days poring over Ortothan scriptures, hoping to find some kind of guidance, and all I’ve found is what I already know. That if I do this, if I add a step of my own design to that awful protocol, if I willfully take advantage of Mikhail’s murder to kill this monster, I will have failed as an Ortothan. I will have offered Unwilling Blood. I will have committed the greatest blasphemy there is.
That should be the end of it.
But it’s not. No matter what I do, no matter how hard I force myself to think about what Mikhail has already endured, no matter how hard I try to remind myself that his life is not mine to give, I know, deep down, that my inaction is still a choice. I know that, if I do nothing, the suffering of future Tributes, their agony, their terror, their guilt, their death, will happen because I, having held in my hands the opportunity to save them, chose my own beliefs, my own conscience, my own soul, over their salvation.
If I do not become a murderer, they will be the ones forced to kill. They will be the ones whose souls will be burdened by the murder of a child.
The Holy Fourth will not forgive me. Neither will the church, if they ever learn about it.
Neither will I.
But I cannot live the rest of my life knowing that all of this goes on because of me.
I don’t know if that’s strength, or if it’s weakness. I don’t know if it matters.
But I know what I’m going to do.
I’m so sorry, Mikhail. I wish I could have kept my promise.
- Evelyn Watts
Addendum 9280-15: Testing Log: On June 15th, 2024, despite no longer having any right to contribute to research regarding SCP-9280, Evelyn Watts physically delivered a handwritten report to Dir. Morgan, outlining the formula for an alchemical poison intended to neutralize SCP-9280-1 if injected into the bloodstreams of Tributes prior to the enactment of Protocol Bustuarii.
In defiance of orders from Regional Director Forester that Protocol Bustuarii was to be enacted without alteration, Dir. Morgan ordered that the compound in question be manufactured and injected into the bloodstream of both Tributes before they were placed in the arena.
During the resulting combat, both Tributes sustained fatal injuries.
In accordance with Watts’ predictions, SCP-9280-1 proceeded to absorb the alchemical compound along with the Tributes’ blood. Shortly thereafter, SCP-9280-1’s biomass began to necrotize. After several minutes of frantic movement, SCP-9280-1 became inanimate. Subsequent tests on SCP-9280 suggest the complex’s anomalous properties have been neutralized. Reclassification is pending.
As a result of his insubordination, Dir. Morgan was stripped of his role as Site-191 Director. Shortly before his demotion went into effect, Dir. Morgan arranged a meeting with Watts.
Addendum 9280-16: Interview Log:
Interviewed: Eiv-Scholar Evelyn Watts, a member of GoI-3088.
Interviewer: Liam Morgan, Site-191 Director.
<Begin Log, June 22, 2024, 8:13>
Watts: So it’s dead?
Dir. Morgan: Yes, and I think it suffered, too. I wish you could’ve seen it.
[Watts takes a long, deep breath.]
Watts: Who won? Was it Mikhail, or the new one?
Dir. Morgan: The new one went down first, but the medics weren’t able to save your kid.
[Watts bows her head and cries.]
Dir. Morgan: Still, the thing is dead, now. These will be the last people who die because of it. In the long term, that’s going to save a lot of lives.
Watts: I know. I really do. I know that what I did was for the greater good. I know I did exactly what you and your Foundation think someone in my situation should’ve done, and I’m sure you’re absolutely delighted that you managed to turn me into the kind of soulless bastard you think everyone should be.
Dir. Morgan: Evy, you’re nothing like us.
Watts: [Laughs dryly] How do you figure?
Dir. Morgan: We weren’t going to find what you found. I had to pull strings, make deals, dodge, and then ultimately defy orders just to get the Foundation to allow your research. Fuck knows how many decades it would have been before we bothered to do it ourselves. During our first conversation, when I told you we were still looking for another way, I was full of shit. We’d resigned ourselves to carrying on with Protocol Bustuarii for who-knows-how-long. It’s thanks to that bleeding heart of yours that this thing is dead. You’ve won a victory the Foundation wouldn’t have won.
[Neither speaks for several seconds.]
Watts: How did you get them to let you do it?
Dir. Morgan: I didn’t.
Watts: What?
Dir. Morgan: I’d gotten strict orders to carry out the procedure normally. I disobeyed them, and they’re going to do their damnedest to make me sorry I did it. Starting tomorrow I’m not going to be site director anymore.
Watts: Holy shit.
Dir. Morgan: Which is why, while I’m still in charge, I’m going to let you go.
Watts: [Looks up at Dir. Morgan.] But… but you can’t do that. The Foundation will—
Dir. Morgan: I’m already fucked. You deserve to leave this place.
Watts: …Thank you.
Dir. Morgan: No. Thank you.
Afterword: In accordance with his statements made here, Dir. Morgan proceeded to release Ms. Watts. While he did administer targeted amnestics before doing so, the scope of memories removed was far less than would be mandated by protocol.
However, by the time incoming Site-191 Director Henry Willard was able to reverse this decision, Watts was back in the custody of GoI-3088 and unlocatable. Further disciplinary action against former Director Liam Morgan is pending.
<End Log>