Word Count: 1806 (est. 6 mins)
Tomorrow's all you're really buying.
SCP-9996 (circa 1917)
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9996 is housed in a humanoid containment chamber at Site-17. The chamber is acoustically damped, and all monitoring is to be performed via remote audio-visual systems.
Disputes, adversarial negotiations, or unresolved grievances are prohibited within a 20 m radius of the chamber. Personnel assigned to SCP-9996 must obtain psychological clearance for unresolved interpersonal conflict and complete Foundation de-escalation training prior to direct interaction.
Total elimination of proximate conflict stimuli has been observed to destabilize containment parameters. Controlled exposure to minor quarrels is authorized under Ethics Committee oversight.
Description: SCP-9996 resembles a male human of late middle age (approx. 45–50 years). Subject self-identifies as “the Middleman.”
SCP-9996 is involuntarily drawn to disputes at or near a Critical Escalation Point (CEP): a quarrel projected to result in systemic collapse, physical violence, or irreparable loss of trust.
When activated, SCP-9996 manifests in immediate proximity to disputants. Within Site-17, SCP-9996 bypasses physical barriers and reappears in proximity to quarrels, with spatial sensors registering transient distortions consistent with low-level displacement. Prior to containment, SCP-9996 was documented manifesting at disputes worldwide. Current consensus holds that it is not actively teleporting, but rather drawn into position by the conflict itself - consistent with compulsion rather than volition.
Upon manifestation, SCP-9996 compulsively assumes a mediatory role. Disputants consistently perceive it as neutral and persuasive. Compromises proposed by SCP-9996 are habitually accepted. Subject frames negotiations in idiomatic language resembling early 20th-century American sales conventions, employing colloquial phrases, bargaining metaphors, and handshakes.
All agreements mediated by SCP-9996 collapse within a period ranging from days to decades, occasionally escalating beyond the initial quarrel. Retrospective analysis indicates that SCP-9996 interventions nevertheless avert immediate outcomes projected as catastrophic.
Addendum 9996-1: Historical Transactions
The following documents have been translated to English.
1917 - Verdun, France
Diary of Lt. Armand Chevalier
Captain Duval insisted we charge at dawn. Lieutenant Marchand called it murder. Voices rose. Knives might have followed if the stranger hadn’t stepped in.
“Now lads, I see what you’re selling - and what you’re selling is suicide. Charge at dawn, and you’re buying twice the widows by sundown. But what if I told you there’s a better offer? Three days’ truce. You bury your boys, breathe a little. Then back to business. Better three days lost than three thousand graves dug. That’s a bargain I’ll sign right here.”
We agreed. For three days we buried our dead in the mud, and I thought him a saviour. On the fourth day the gas came. I still wonder what fire he spared us, and whether it would have been kinder.
1432 - Lombardy, Italy
Town notary record
Two brothers quarrelled over a vineyard. One raised a knife. A stranger stepped in: “Split the land, sell the surplus. Both richer, both alive. Nobody leaves empty-handed.”
The deal unravelled within weeks. The brothers salted each other’s soil, burned each other’s vines - but neither raised the knife again.
The stranger was never seen in Lombardy again, though his words lingered like smoke.
1962 - Geneva, Switzerland
Declassified Soviet archive
Stranger: “Gentlemen, let’s talk turkey. You take yours out this month, they take theirs out the next. Nobody loses face, nobody loses skin. Call it compromise, call it common sense. Tomorrow the world wakes up intact - and tomorrow is all you’re really buying.”
Soviet Envoy: "Your terms are… acceptable."
Stranger: “That’s the spirit. You shake today, and the world wakes up tomorrow in one piece. What happens a year from now? Well, who can say. But today, we’ve still got a tomorrow.”
Researcher Note: The accord collapsed within months. Several nuclear tests were indefinitely suspended.
2004 - Site-██ Breach
Incident Log ████-Theta, abridged
SCP-9996: “Now, boys, no need for blood when we can close a deal. You want freedom, friend? East wing’s clear. You want survival, soldiers? Lower the guns. Everybody walks away upright, nobody loses face. That’s a bargain, gentlemen - and it’s closing fast.”
SCP-████ escaped. Projected fatalities: 23. Actual fatalities: 0.
Three weeks later, disciplinary proceedings fractured along departmental lines. Security and research divisions accused each other of negligence. Containment protocols stalled, trust eroded, and Site-██ operations entered a sustained collapse.
Addendum 9996-2: Interview Log 9996-V
Interviewer: Dr. Varga
Location: Interview Suite 3, Site-17, Remote Audiovisual Systems.
Note: Conducted under Class-II apophasic counter-persuasion field. Transcribed verbatim where possible.
[BEGIN LOG]
Dr. Varga: Comfortable?
SCP-9996: Comfortable’s a moving target, Doc. But I’ll call it good enough to do business.
Dr. Varga: Alright. Let's start simple: When do you know to step in?
SCP-9996: The knock. Polite at first, then it leans. Louder than thunder, harder than guilt. When it’s leaning hard, I’m already on my feet.
Dr. Varga: Okay. What about the scale - say, two people compared to two governments?
SCP-9996: Loud is loud. Bedrooms, boardrooms, borders. If it’s about to tip, the door's already swinging.
Dr. Varga: And if you ignored it?
SCP-9996: I’ve tried closing up shop. Things go where they were pointed anyway. Maybe slower, but they go. That’s the price of not answering.
Dr. Varga: So… you feel obligated?
SCP-9996: Feels like terms. I don’t choose the call, I choose the pitch and the price I offer when I walk in.
Dr. Varga: You do have a certain way of putting things.
SCP-9996: Old trade. You learn to smile on bad floors and offer something folks can live with. I’d shake on that, but we’re on video.
Dr. Varga: Mm. What's your earliest memory before this all started?
SCP-9996: Two neighbors, one fencepost, yelling loud enough to curdle the stew. I said, “Split the line.” They shook, ate warm. First close I remember. Haven't stopped since.
Dr. Varga: You know these agreements don’t hold.
SCP-9996: I’m not in the miracle trade. It holds long enough to keep the worst from happening, then it fails like everything else. You don’t see the fires I smother, just the ash from the next one. Time always calls in the debt. Ash or blood, Doctor?
Dr. Varga: …Now then, if I asked you not to intervene in Foundation disputes?
SCP-9996: Keep them from boiling and I won’t hear a thing. Let them reach the brink, I’ll hear it through your walls and anchors.
Dr. Varga: Right… so our leverage is before that point.
SCP-9996: Only place the margin lives. At the door, the deal’s already on the table.
Dr. Varga: Last one. Do you want out?
SCP-9996: Some days. Want's not in the terms.
[END LOG]
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING FILE IS LEVEL 5/9996 CLASSIFIED
ANY ATTEMPT TO ACCESS THIS FILE WITHOUT LEVEL 5/9996 AUTHORIZATION WILL BE LOGGED AND WILL LEAD TO IMMEDIATE DISCIPLINARY ACTION.
Addendum 9996-3: Incident Report 9996-O5
Video Log Transcript
Date: ██/██/19██
Location: Secure Council Chamber, Site-01
Participants: O5-1 (Chair), O5-7, O5-10, additional Council members [REDACTED]
Protections Active: Class-III apophasic counter-persuasion field, Type-B memetic firewalls, dual SRA array (Scranton Reality Anchors), thaumic interdiction lattice, noospheric dampers.
Emergency session convened regarding secessionist activity within Foundation Divisions Kappa and Delta. Predictive models indicated imminent escalation to systemic fracture. SCP-9996 manifested inside a Level-5 warded environment.
[BEGIN TRANSCRIPT]
O5-1: Order. Containment vote of Divisions Kappa and Delta pending-
O5-10: Containment? Don’t sugar-coat it, they’ve bailed! We gut them now, quick and clean.
O5-7: If we purge them, we knock out half our operations. The fallout would be huge.
O5-10: Christ, here we go with the numbers on a page. I’m not trusting spreadsheets over loyalty.
O5-7: Loyalty doesn’t keep supply lines intact, or do you prefer an empty gun in the field?
O5-10: Better than a loaded one pointed at my back!
O5-7: (snaps) That paranoia will bury more of us than treachery ever will.
O5-10: And your cowardice will get us gutted in our sleep-
[00:00:06 - Spatial shear event. Lattice registers breach without ward failure. Noospheric dampers spike. SCP-9996 manifests, hands visible, posture non-threatening.]
SCP-9996: Afternoon. You boys argue loud enough to split the plaster. Thought I’d save you the shouting.
O5-10: Oh, for fuck’s sake - up the shields! Get this bastard out!
[Field amplitude increased. SCP-9996’s audio registers at reduced persuasive index (Δ-0.31), comprehension unaffected.]
O5-7: Hold on. If it bypassed the lattice, I'd guess containment already failed on the model, so expulsion’s irrelevant.
O5-1: Logged. Subject may speak.
SCP-9996: Split the stock clean: assets to Stability, autonomy to Initiative. You keep the crown where you must, they keep the keys they already stole.
O5-10: That’s a surrender.
O5-7: Reality anchors are holding at 0.92 Humes. I’m starting the Paraclete risk run now.
SCP-9996: Run your math. It’ll tell you the same thing I am: bleed now, or bleed later. Most folks pick later.
O5-7: Paraclete results are in.
If we purge: ~86% chance we’re shooting within 36 hours. Expect 1,200–4,000 dead. 41% chance the whole thing breaks apart.
If we take the deal: almost no one dies now. There’s a 93% chance we split anyway, within a median ~30 months.
If we stall: things get shakier and we drift toward the purge scenario, just slower.
O5-10: So all roads lead to shit. That’s what you’re selling?
SCP-9996: That’s the fine print. One of them still buys you a tomorrow.
O5-7: My call: give them tight, temporary autonomy. Fence them off, lock the assets until terms are met, wire in fail-safes. Review in two years.
O5-10: Jesus, listen to yourself. That’s scaffolding for traitors.
O5-7: They’re already building. Better we draw the blueprint than let them-
O5-1: Terms.
O5-7: Quarantine zones. Assets locked until terms are met. No outside alliances. If they break terms, we fold them back in.
O5-10: Add this: they so much as sneeze wrong, the whole deal’s void.
O5-7: I'll also add liaison oversight for safe measure. Better we argue on paper than on the field.
SCP-9996: There it is. A sentence you can live with. Won’t last - never does - but long enough.
O5-10: Still pitching the same busted bargain. Doesn’t it ever get old?
SCP-9996: It’s nothing but old. Every tomorrow I sell turns to ash, and I know it will - I’ve always known. But the knock comes, and I answer. I don’t get to stop.
O5-1: Call the vote.
[00:47:22 - Vote recorded. Result: PASS. 7-2-2.]
O5-1: The Temporary Operational Autonomy Accord (TOAA) is hereby adopted under seal.
SCP-9996: There’s your bargain. Tomorrow, nothing more. I wish I had better goods… but I don’t. When this one fails, you’ll see me again.
[Spatial shear event. Subject demanifests. Anchors return to baseline.]
[END TRANSCRIPT]
After-Incident Summary: The TOAA forced the Foundation to concede 17 assets and 412 personnel under quarantine, with assets locked until the terms were met. Embedded fail-safes postponed open conflict for 26 months. By Month 34, the signatory faction had reorganized into a hostile paramilitary network now known as the Chaos Insurgency. Internal records later recovered describe the TOAA as their “founding charter.”