BY ORDER OF THE OVERSEER COUNCIL
The following file is Level 4/XXXX classified. Unauthorized access is forbidden. Your location is being tracked, if you are not authorized, you have 10 seconds after access to close this file or a task force will be dispatched to terminate you on sight.
XXXX
Hello,
This is Dr. Karin Baudelaire, Lead Researcher assigned to SCP-XXXX, or Vesper, as it calls itself.
If you are accessing this file, it means you are a member of the 05 council, or someone who they or I gave explicit permission to. If you are not, the world will not miss you.
My role in this anomaly's containment was twofold. The public role was to research it, discover its capabilities, the standard things a researcher was made to do within the foundation. Only myself, a select few level 4 personnel, and the Overseer council were aware of my second role. I was to gain the trust of the object. To be friendly towards it, to make it feel comfortable. The purpose of this was a means to an end.
This object was unlike many of the others we contain at the foundation. It had immense potential, and still had an intact and malleable mind. I was to keep it contained until such a time that it was willing to use its abilities for the greater good. If we could get it controlled, it could burn down the skeleton tree, maybe even obliterate that damned lizard with some chemical compound we couldn't even imagine. That was your plan anyway, wasn't it?
In my second task, I succeeded. It trusted me. It liked me. There were even some that said I was like a surrogate mother to the object. This was the ideal result. Despite that the object does not need any form of sustenance, I needed it to rely on me. In my first task, I also succeeded, though I did not realize at the time that My success in my first task was entirely dependant upon my success in the second. I could explain why, but the incident log you came here for will explain much better than I could.
As a foreword to the log: SCP-XXXX was asked, after a few months, if it was willing to undergo an interrogation exclusively about itself and its abilities, something it had thus far been unwilling to do. Due to pressure from the 05 council, I was more willing than normal to push for it. It agreed, provided I was the only one it talked to, that I wouldn't reveal the information, and that I gave it a full manifest of all the victims of the attack on Nagasaki so it could find a picture of its mother. I was reluctant but agreed. Of course, I didn't keep the second promise; keeping secrets from the 05 council is signing my own death warrant, so I recorded it, and transmitted it to 05-11.
Incident-XXXX-Alpha Video Log Transcript
Date: 10/25/2016
Time: 1400 hours
Subject: SCP-XXXX
Lead Researcher On Duty: Dr. Baudelaire
Team Members On Duty: All Dismissed
Additionally Attending: 05-11 via Video Call
[BEGIN LOG]
Dr. Baudelaire sits at the transmission desk in front of the observation window with a laptop. She leans up to the microphone and hits the transmit button.
Dr. Baudelaire: Vesper? We're ready to start.
SCP-XXXX: No one's there?
Dr. Baudelaire: Just me.
SCP-XXXX slowly manifests, sitting cross-legged in the centre of the room. It looks up at the observation window. Dr. Baudelaire waves to it, it waves back, notably less enthused.
Dr. Baudelaire: Alright, if at any point you get uncomfortable, we can stop and start again later, alright?
SCP-XXXX: I need that manifest, Karin. Let's get this over with.
Dr. Baudelaite: I'll do my best to make it quick then. Let's start out with a quick summary of your abilities, just how you view them.
SCP-XXXX lifts a finger which sparks slightly before an explosion is released from the tip.
[Note: SCP-XXXX and I had been working on control of its abilities. It had recently learned to form C3H5N3O9, AKA nitroglycerin, and apply heat to create a purposeful explosion.]
SCP-XXXX: That.
Dr. Baudelaire: In more detail, please.
SCP-XXXX: Alright, fine. After the Americans blew me up, somehow or another all these things I'm made out of, atoms as you've called them, kept my brain in them and got wacky.
Dr. Baudelaire: Wacky? Is that how you see it?
SCP-XXXX: They sure aren't normal. They change into other things constantly, which they didn't used to do.
Dr. Baudelaire: True enough. Now, do you see me right now?
SCP-XXXX: Yes.
Dr. Baudelaire: What do I look like to you?
SCP-XXXX: Human, white-skinned, bit glowier than you usually are.
Dr. Baudelaire raises an eyebrow, looking into a monitor screen. [Note: I was checking to see if I was somehow glowing.]
Dr. Baudelaire: I'm glowing?
SCP-XXXX: Yeah, everyone does, right?
Dr. Baudelaire: What else is glowing?
SCP-XXXX: Those machines.
It indicates the monitors and computer towers. Dr. Baudelaire takes a lighter out of her pocket, lights it for 4 seconds, then puts it out.
Dr. Baudelaire: Is the metal on top of this glowing?
SCP-XXXX nods its head.
Dr. Baudelaire: Well, Vesper, it seems you have the ability to see infrared radiation, in addition to light.
SCP-XXXX tilts its head.
SCP-XXXX: What does that mean?
Dr. Baudelaire: A lot of things, but basically, you see how hot something is.
SCP-XXXX: Huh. I suppose that does make sense. Alright, let's keep going, this may be more fun than I thought!
Dr. Baudelaire: That's good to hear! Alright, how do you see?
SCP-XXXX raises its eyebrow.
SCP-XXXX: How the heck am I supposed to know that? Imagine if I asked you how you saw and you didn't know what an eye was. You're the scientist here!
Dr. Baudelaire: Okay, that's a good point. Suppose that will be on us to figure out. Now these atoms you're made out of, do you feel them?
SCP-XXXX: Mhmm! It's a lot like it was when I had a body, just a lot more to feel. I can tell when I'm contacting another bit of me, and when a bit of me is far away, I can feel what it's feeling, but it feels weird, like… Like if your leg was amputated, but you could still feel everything it feels. It's creepy, and I don't like it.
Dr. Baudelaire: Alright. Now this one might be a bit of a tough one, are you feeling alright?
SCP-XXXX: I'm a big girl, I can take it.
Dr. Baudelaire: Okay. Shortly after you entered Foundation custody, there was a major containment breach in which you were involved. Many were killed or injured. Do you remember this? [Note: I was specifically asked to ask this by the ethics committee.]
SCP-XXXX looks to the side, it seems ashamed.
SCP-XXXX: Yes. I remember it.
Dr. Baudelaire: Were you aware during the incident?
SCP-XXXX nods.
Dr. Baudelaire: What do you remember?
SCP-XXXX: When I was released from that weird tank they put me in, I didn't know where I was. I was confused. And then men I didn't know came at me with vacuums or something and… They took a part of me without even asking. I'd never felt that creepiness before. All these strange forces I couldn't identify the source of. I think they tried to set me on fire or something, but it didn't feel like fire used to. They kept doing all sorts of things. I hated it, I wanted to struggle but I barely knew how to move. I was so scared. I didn't know what else they could do to me. I couldn't even hear anything, and they had me in these dark tanks, so I couldn't see anything either. I don't think they knew I was alive. I tried screaming, but no one could hear me. Then I started to panic. My thoughts were racing and racing and then…
There is a 5-second pause.
SCP-XXXX: Then I was out. I think I had somehow burned through the tank, maybe blew it up, I didn't know and I didn't care. All I wanted was to get the piece of me back and to get out. The piece came back when I called to it, but someone was in its way and it just, burned a hole straight through them, like a fireball. Then there was water all over, sprinklers or something, and they kept pushing me all over. So many people tried to blow me around with fans but they just kept blowing me through things, or into people. Eventually I couldn't handle it anymore and I just, blanked. I didn't pass out, I don't think I can do that, but I just stopped processing anything. All those deaths, all because of me. I'm glad I don't have to sleep. I don't think I could.
Dr. Baudelaire: It's alright, Vesper, it's not your fault for existing.
SCP-XXXX nods.
Dr. Baudelaire: Are you alright to continue?
SCP-XXXX nods again.
Dr. Baudelaire: Alright. Do you remember being buried?
SCP-XXXX nods again.
Dr. Baudelaire: Did you hate us for doing that?
SCP-XXXX: No. I was glad you did. I was, am, a danger. I shouldn't be out there until I can really control myself.
Dr. Baudelaire: And what did you do while you were buried?
SCP-XXXX: I figured out how I could hear. I was able to pick up stray radio signals. I got to hear some really cool things! I got to hear the first airing of Starman! I couldn't understand a word of it, but I loved it! There's a starman waiting in the sky, he'd like to come and meet us but he thinks he'd blow our minds. Man, maybe there are aliens out there that are like me. That'd be cool. I also patched into you guys' radio for a while, though I think they noticed me and shut it down.
Dr. Baudelaire: Is that why you were so much less scared when we dug you up?
SCP-XXXX: Yeah. I knew what you were about, so I didn't panic or anything. And I knew you'd keep me from killing anyone else.
Dr. Baudelaire: Well that's good. Now let's get back to your abilities again. How do you see the atoms you're made of?
SCP-XXXX: They're like, little blobs made of these tiny bunches of other, really tiny blobs.
Dr. Baudelaire: So you can see them changing?
SCP-XXXX: Yeah! They get more and less tiny blobs on them, growing and shrinking and whatnot.
Dr. Baudelaire: I see, have they ever split?
SCP-XXXX: I don't think so, here, lemme try!
Dr. Baudelaire: Wait, Vesper don't!
A much larger than normal explosion can be seen within the chamber. A scream can be heard through the speakers. Dr. Baudelaire manages to take shelter before the glass breaks and the camera feed cuts.
[END LOG]
I want to state that I have never, nor hopefully will ever regret something as intensely as I regret asking that question. It was careless, it was stupid, I should have seen this coming, and the results were catastrophic.
The explosion was small for a nuclear explosion, likely due to not being intended and thus not reaching supercritical mass as is seen in a normal atom bomb; but it was still a nuclear explosion. I barely escaped with my life. I was knocked out after the concrete overhang I was hiding under gave out and piled on top of me. I was found battered beneath it and the ceiling, and I was heavily burned. The on-site medics and plastic surgeons have mostly patched me up, but I have many damaged nerves, and am soon going to have my right arm replaced with a prosthetic as I have lost the use of it. The medics called it a miracle. I know she protected me.
I was one of the lucky ones, however. The explosion blew through the top, sides, and bottom of XXXX's containment chamber, then a few more after. Some of the objects stored within were vaporized or turned into plasma, some were able to barely endure, and some escaped mostly unscathed. Death total was 1342, nearly half killed by the blast itself or structural damages caused by it. Their lives are all on me, and all I can hope to do is make their deaths worth something.
XXXX, no, fuck your protocols. Vesper, was found buried under the rubble, still in human form, completely fucking solid, wrapped around herself in the fetal position. She screamed the whole time. Every speaker that didn't blow out echoed with that cry of pain. I don't know when she stopped, but I know no one heard a word from her after she did, right until we moved her into Area-678.
We had to set up a containment area just for her, far away from anyone in case she accidentally goes off somehow. After that blast, her atomic density was remeasured and it turns out that splitting a variable atom results in two variable atoms, meaning she can violate the second law of thermodynamics grow herself, thus growing how large the mass of fissile material she can be. This girl can single-handedly cause an XK-class end of the world scenario if she so chose, but she doesn't. She chooses not to.
As of now, Manifest-XXXX-A does not exist. I can't trust you nor anyone else to interact with her and not just make her worse. She's barely talking to me as it is anyways and you are not going to get any more out of her than I am. She and I share in the guilt about what happened at Site 16. We know each other, and yes, we're connected. As of right now, that connection is the only thing standing between you and a nuclear holocaust.
If you goddamn bureaucrats want to sign the death warrant of the whole damn world, go right ahead and reassign me. If not, leave me and Vesper alone.
Seems we're both just revenants of fights we wanted nothing to do with - Vesper
- Signed, Dr. Karin Baudelaire.
