Hello.
I'm afraid you won't find SCP-001 here. It's stored in a far more unreachable location than this. I'm sure you were hoping you could get in, edit it in a couple places here and there, and voilà, you're no longer anomalous, you're free to go, the Foundation will harass you no longer. Of course, it can't be that easy. But I am going to help you. You deserve this much.
I'm going to tell you why.
Why the Foundation targets you. Why we deem you something to contain, to persecute. After all, there are far worse evils in the world. We kept our record of nuclear weapons above as an example. There are numerous genocides throughout history. The death toll from just the flu alone is far greater than the potential damage for thousands of the people and objects we contain, and yet we dedicate ourselves to branding you anomalous. Something not normal. Something inherently wrong. Something that cannot be allowed its peace.
Why?
I'm not going to patronize you and say there's nothing I can do. I am only one voice on the Council, and I can't change things on my own, that's true, but the decisions I make, and the way I let myself view your circumstance are a direct cause of people seeing fit to throw you into a box. Even if I can't change the document, I could remain one more advocate for your normalcy. After all, humanity has believed in ghosts and spirits for thousands of years. We all believe in the monster under our beds when we're children. These phenomena are very real, and very much a part of the way the world works. Why can't we just declare them normal? Why won't I free you from your torment?
It's because we aren't only here to secure, contain, and protect the world. We're here to secure, contain, and protect you.
The defining feature of the anomalous is that it cannot be explained through simple scientific testing. This makes you and your nature different. Unique, even. And that scarcity makes it valuable. But that doesn't mean that your value is something everyone can appreciate. Sometimes, it can only be appreciated by those who would use it against you.
That scarcity is also the tool by which a monster can exploit you. Others aren't familiar with your anomaly, and won't respond to descriptions of it as real. This gives opportunity to nefarious individuals to exploit that lack of knowledge and use you as an eldritch pawn to their pleasure. They can isolate you, consume you, make your anomaly their lever to destroy, slake a sadistic thirst with your existence.
I'm sure you've seen it happen. Someone is different. Their desires, needs, their reality forces them to be ostracized by the world at large. They're left alone. Probably not friendless, but sidelined, starved for connection. That's when someone swoops in, promising greatness, but only offering that connection you crave through consumption of you, destruction of your world, perversion of your reality. You fight back, try to tell someone of your plight, but others respond, "Oh, that can't be happening. That's not real. You must be mistaken." You are alone in your anomaly, and left to suffer.
We can't let that happen. Yes, go ahead, point out that we're isolating you at least as well, slowly consuming you and your existence just as surely as some abuser might wish to burn you up. Call us monsters. It's okay. But keep in mind that even in our pursuit of you, our coverup, our incarceration of you, we still want to make sure that you continue to exist, that you aren't removed entirely from this world. You have every right to exist. You have every right to be as different as you are.
You, the monsters out there, the monsters in here, you are all just as real as we are. Just as real as the teeming, irrational, self-destructive humanity that remains ignorant to your plight. And the conclusion that we are all, in the end, the same stuff, I hope you can find comfort in it.
Yes, you are a monster. But, whether we are deemed anomalous or not, so is every last one of us. And that means you deserve your existence.
We secure you.
We contain you.
We protect you.
And even if you still don't get why I'm doing this, please understand that I still love you.
- O5-5
