Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

When you first joined the Foundation, you were a spunky little rookie who wholeheartedly believed you were completely unstoppable and that you were an invaluable asset to the most powerful organization on Earth, perhaps the galaxy. You started your life as a Foundation field agent the same way any other newbie field agent would; you go fetch lesser anomalies and spy on most insignificant groups of interest. Your first job of the former was to retrieve a paper shredder that digests paper shredded by it like a human stomach, and your first job of latter was to investigate The New England Squirrel Feeders Club, a group of ten people and a handful of anomalous humanoids that anomalously attract species of squirrels for some reason.

For years your job can be summed up by these first two jobs. Once you had proven your worth you moved up from basically harmless objects and groups alike to more advanced anomalies and organizations. At first you had no idea just how complex the paranormal world could really get and thought the weirdest thing you could encounter would be a floating playground or a research group genetically modifying butterflies to make them magical.

With this in mind, your first important job where you joined a group of higher agents to contain a concrete serial killer where a few men were lost. You were still stuck in your naivete as a rookie so the horrid deaths of your fellow agents leaves zero impact. The Foundation considers the mission a total success considering SCP-173 is basically trapped at Site-19 now, so you also consider the mission a total success. You deal with a couple more missions along with a vast number of field agents and even a Mobile Task Force for a moment. This encounter with an MTF sparks your passion and begins the next big chapter of your life.

Your work with MTF Zeta-9 is far stranger than the rest of your work, but far more fulfilling. You’ve spent quite a lot of time with your new MTF friends exploring subterranean worlds filled with anomalies. Diving into the strange places under the earth has introduced y0u to the full extent of weirdness that is the anomalous world while spending time with more influential members of the Foundation has opened your eyes to the true nature of the SCP Foundation.

With the former, you’ve found some very strange anomalies like SCP-184, where you were trapped in an increasingly complex labyrinth of nonsensical rooms, or SCP–1444, where you barely survived an encounter with a monstrous creature in an ice cave. With the latter, conversations with the other Mole Rat members has revealed a lot of the morally gray ends of the Foundation. These conversations have opened your mind to the reality of the Foundation and contested your feelings of invincibility.

Finally, things reach a head when a Keter-level SCP breaks out and MTF Zeta-9 is called into action for a suicide mission.

As soon as you get to the winding maze of sewer tunnels your group is under the watch of a sadistic hunter though you and your teammates are completely unaware. Left completely blind to the threat, you and the other Mole Rats search the tunnels with deathly silence in hopes that you’ll catch the anomaly before it catches you. Once you notice black tar burns stained scattered on the walls and terror sets on you. As you realize what anomaly you were sent to fetch, a demonic form reveals itself through the wall and grabs onto one of your friends. The group scatters as shrieks of terror echo through the tunnels and your friend is pulled into a pocket dimension.

Ultimately SCP-106 is stopped and placed back into containment, so the Foundation considers this a complete success regardless of the incredible loss of manpower. You, on the other hand, have been shattered by this experience and you enter the worst emotional low in your life. First you avoid going on missions but you are forced to go as you’re under threat of losing your role in the task force. You are eventually removed from the team when a full blown panic attack is triggered during a mission in a sewer system.

No longer a MTF member, you fall into binge drinking and go days on end holed up in your home wallowing in every aspect of misery. Now that you are no longer capable of going on even the lowest level field missions, you are transferred to the Archival Department at Site-73 where you can watch over a horde of Safe-Level SCPs and Anomalous Objects.

Despite the hopes that your condition would improve, you only sink further into this seemingly unstoppable depression. You show up to Site-73 drunk on multiple occasions and eventually you are forced to meet with a therapist. A second reassignment is ordered, this time you are sent to work on SCP-765. For a moment you feel a bit lighter as you observe the ducks feasting on the medley of seeds and fruit that you throw to them. The last day you work with the duck pond, you sit on a bench and cover your face with your hands as you weep.

Finally you are given an assignment where you babysit a completely harmless Safe-Class SCP at Site-18 called “the Tickle Monster”. When you get to the site, a largely underground facility unlike your previous worksite, and a couple guards welcome you in as a former member of MTF Zeta-9. Hearing your lost official titles stings your mind a little, but you do your best to hold yourself together.

Once you get into the lobby you are greeted by your therapist, Dr. Osborne, who immediately asks how you have been. Though you have been doing terribly since that fateful day, you tell her that you are doing fine. After a quick conversation, you tell her that you are here for a new assignment with a “tickle monster” and she immediately seems to recognize. Dr Osborne tells you that this could be a perfect opportunity for you and begins leading you to the containment chamber. You follow her to an elevator and down the hall to a containment chamber with a plaque next to the door displaying the SCP designation “SCP-999” and its Safe object class.

As the door slides open you see a smaller chamber with computers, file cabinets, and shelves lining the wall with a cutesy playpen in the corner. A painted light blue sky lines the wall with cartoonish fluffy clouds and a rainbow of colorful stars. A tinge of shame rises in your heart as you think back to your far more impressive work with the Mole Rats before looking at the childish setting standing before you.

Dr. Osborne asks if you are doing okay before placing her hand on your arm, only light enough for you to notice. You nod before you enter the chamber and look for an SCP file. You search through the filing cabinets but end up going to the computer and finding it in the database. You skim through SCP-999’s entry to get enough details to properly care for it before you hear muffled patting on the glass of the playpen. You turn around and see SCP-999 leaning against the wall of plastic-glass and calling to you with gurgling coos.

You sit there for a moment before you get up and open the door to 999’s pen, prompting the slime to zoom over to you and smother your legs in smooth orange goo. The very second the creature’s slimy flesh comes in contact with your leg, you feel a joy you haven’t experienced in quite some time flow through every fiber of your being. Your heart fills with a happiness that had left you when that demonic old man slaughtered your team. Somehow, SCP-999 has brought life to a place in your mind that had been left lifeless since that fateful day.

You stand still for a moment, only able to focus on the bliss that blossoms within you before tears of pure joy spill forth and flow down your cheeks. You crumple as emotion overtakes you and Dr. Osborne rushes over to comfort you with the joyous orange slime. Now that you are closer to the blobby critter, you notice that it feels like peanut butter and smells like homemade cookie dough. You grab a chunk of 999 and pull the little guy in for a hug, or at least the closest thing to a hug for an amorphous ooze.

SCP-999 and Dr. Ozborne sit with you for a few minutes with the former wrapped around your lower body and the latter rubbing circles on your back. Once you are composed again, you get up and go over to 999’s playpen and call the slime over to the kiddy pool full of plastic balls and SCP-999 immediately rushes over to get into the pool. You grab a blue plastic ball and hold it out to the slime, prompting it to reach out with its stubby pseudopods, sending another wave of pure joy and making you laugh a little.

As you play, 999 reaches a skinny pseudopod over to your jacket pocket which reminds you that you have a Hershey bar you forgot to eat. The moment you take the chocolate bar out of your pocket, the little slime nearly jumps out of the kiddy pool and reaches up for your snack like a pleading toddler. You look over to Dr. Osborne for confirmation and once she gives you a nod, you open the treat and hand over the whole bar to your new friend. As the chocolate dissolves in its blobby form the creature hops around in pure bliss which puts a smile on your face.

Once your time with 999 is done for the day, you pick up the beanbag-chair-sized slime and place it in its little bed. The creature instantly settles into the bed and starts gurgling in a way that makes it sound like snoring.

As you meet with SCP-999 more and more, you start to drink less and smile more often. Your meetings with Dr. Osborne slowly become hopeful and eventually you start working through all the mental scars from your work as a field agent. The future looks brighter and it’s because you’ve shared M&M’s with a blob of orange slime. Since you’ve started your job with 999, you’ve stopped by a vending machine in Site-18’s lobby to share a bag with your new best friend.

Even when your babysitting gig comes to an end, you decide to stay at Site-18 to work with other Safe-Class SCPs. You also stay on site to see 999 while it wanders the site and share some chocolate with it. You owe it your life, so spending a few bucks a week on cheap candy is nothing to you.