After the news, we now come to our conversation with Ms. Wertner-Scholl, acting head of the climate policy department at the Wuppertal Institute. Nice that you could come to our studio. Thank you, I'm happy to be here. Before we go into the potential of renewable energies in detail, we should first get a brief overview of what fossil, nuclear and renewable energy sources are. A basic distinction is made between three large groups of energy sources that are available to us to cover our energy needs, i.e. to generate electricity. You mentioned that a distinction is made between fossil, nuclear and regenerative energies. Okay, but you are talking about regenerative, not renewable? Is this to be understood synonymously? Yes, the term alternative energy is also used. Whether regenerative, renewable or alternative – I think we are talking about the same thing. Regenerative or renewable energies are forms of energy that, as the name suggests, renew themselves and that are available in unlimited quantities. These include solar energy, hydropower and wind power. And the other two groups … Yes, fossil fuels clearly include coal, oil and natural gas.
If these materials are burned, they are lost. The two nuclear fuels are uranium and plutonium. Uranium is a radioactive heavy metal, which occurs naturally in the environment, plutonium has to be produced artificially. Does the future really lie in renewable energies? I think so, yes. When using these energy sources , no pollutants are released directly. That's the future. I don't quite believe you that wind, water and solar energy do not have any disadvantages. I didn't say that either, I'm just saying that this is where the future lies. Then let's get straight to the point. Benefits of solar energy? It is free, permanently there, which means there are no supply problems. Biggest advantage? … that no substances are released through use that harm the environment and thus our health.
What are the disadvantages of solar energy? There are two main “disadvantageous” points: weather dependency and storage. With heavy cloud cover, rain and thick fog , the collectors can hardly collect any heat. The sun also shines most strongly in summer, i.e. exactly when we need the least heat. In winter, on the other hand, solar heat is scarce and it is generally difficult to store it. You also need relatively large solar systems, i.e. huge areas, to collect the energy. Solutions will certainly be found … Yes, of course. The ideas are becoming more and more concrete.
I would like to go into more detail about possible solutions later. We haven't talked about water and wind power yet. What are the advantages? Hydropower plants are generally environmentally friendly, as bodies of water are not polluted with pollutants. On the contrary: they enrich the water with oxygen. Because of their simple construction, low maintenance requirements and long service life, they are particularly well suited for use on a small scale. You have to be clear: hydropower saves the environment 20 million tons of CO2 every year. So is everything in favor of further expanding hydropower plants and reservoirs? I would be careful there. Of course, the disadvantage is that our water supplies are becoming increasingly scarce.
The 5th Climate Report shows dramatic developments and therefore the use of hydropower must also have its limits. It also depends on the local conditions, you can't just build huge reservoirs everywhere. From an ecological point of view, this is very questionable because it represents a radical intervention in the ecosystem. This can have serious consequences for plants and animals. And of course hydropower plants are weather-dependent, which means that hydropower can only be used to a limited extent in winter. Then there is wind power as an alternative. Wind power is considered cheap, abundant, clean and renewable. Is that the solution? In many ways, yes. But wind is also not a reliable source of energy. It is not always in the right place and in the right strength. We also have wind near the coast and on mountains, i.e. exactly where it is difficult to locate industries that need the energy. And wind cannot be stored, so it has to be converted into transportable electricity on site. Not to forget the question of efficiency … Exactly. Huge wind turbines are now being built as test power plants, but despite their size, they cannot supply an entire city with electricity.
You would need thousands of these systems to generate the same output as a modern power plant. And residents usually have a problem with the volume. Yes, you want a clean, ecological footprint, but of course no wind turbine behind the house … Here is Radio l03.4 for you with our "Inquire on the street" series. As always, we were out for you, this time in Cologne, and asked people what they think of collective consumption. Here are some responses. Would you share your drill, car or other utensils with others so that you can save resources together, maybe also have space in the garage and thus live more sustainably – on a slightly smaller ecological footprint, so to speak? Why should I lend my drill to someone? I'm glad we have our own and that we can always use it. I would never lend my things! Who guarantees me that I will get it back so neatly and neatly? And I absolutely agree with my wife – what do we do if we need a loan item at short notice? That wouldn't be a problem, you are networked with one another via a website or an app.
You will have your drill back in a few hours. Well, we're also very skeptical about the Internet, nech. I don't want to give my address to anyone and I don't know anything about such strange websites. I'll ask back: What do I get if I borrow something? Well, especially we rich nations live far beyond our means. We consume at the expense of poorer countries. That could be avoided. Young man, you are an idealist. But we now live in a market economy! Our reporter Luc Ehring was met with skepticism, which was certainly to be expected. But there was also other feedback like the following. Would you share your everyday objects with other people, such as a drill, car and such, so that you save resources and live more sustainably? I haven't thought about it yet.
Well, I don't have my own drill and from that point of view it would be really great if I couldn't buy it, but borrow it. As for the car, I even do it every now and then. I can't afford my own car, and to be honest, I don't even want one, but sometimes you need it and then I'm glad I can borrow one. Yeah, well, but I'm sure you’ll pay for it? Yeah yeah That's for a rental fee. But I am referring to collective consumption, that is, borrowing and lending, without money playing a role. That sounds interesting. Well, I can't imagine it for all everyday objects – I prefer to have my clothes to myself, but especially with tools and such … yes, why not? Good idea. Ms. Pfahl, you are a communications scientist. Now communication, language and speaking are often used synonymously – can you actually do that? Here one should separate the terms clearly from one another instead of mixing everything up.
Let's take a quick look at the term communication. Communication comes from Latin and means “to share, to communicate or to do something together”. Communication is therefore a social act, that is, several people or living beings are involved. When communicating, the characters that are exchanged are essential. The communication participants must know and understand the characters or the character system in order to communicate successfully. Aha, and then the sign system is the language? Yes, exactly. Communication takes place in exchange, in interaction, ie at least two conversation partners exchange verbally through linguistic signs or and non-verbally through gestures or facial expressions. In order for communication to work, interlocutors refer to things that both know and use, oral or written signs, such as: B. an alphabet that the other can understand. Hmm, don't animals have a language too? Do you also react to signs? Of course, many animal species can also communicate with one another. Often this happens non-verbally, e.g. B. by the waggle dance of the bees. But when dogs bark, whales sing and pigs grunt, they communicate through sounds, e.g.
B. to threaten an enemy or to warn of danger. These sounds are fixed and therefore easy to understand for all conspecifics. But inventing new words – word creation – only human beings can do that? This is what science thought for a long time. Today we know: that is not entirely true. In the case of dolphins, zoologists are certain that they react to whistles and have individual "name whistles". Animals can therefore invent words or names. And there are even dialects. It has been found that birds, especially songbirds, can sing differently from region to region. For example, the blackbirds in Breisgau sound different than those in the Rhine-Main area. And what does "different" mean? It can happen that the melodies are similar, but the birds sing higher in one area and lower in the other.
Or that they sing louder in Frankfurt than in Freiburg, because it is louder overall in the big city. Birds adapt to the city noise. With the exception of humans, however, no other living being on this planet is able to communicate on such a high level, i.e. to use a differentiated language. That's right, and human language skills go even further. Not only are we able to speak, but we also have the ability to think about language: we then speak of metacommunication. And then you have to talk about the results of the metacommunication again … Sure, as I said: Communication is a basic human need. We communicate without speaking, only through our behavior or our body language. In communicative processes, people express their personality, including their knowledge, experiences and experiences. And only in communication, i.e. in exchange with others, do people develop communicative skills. This is why it is important to seek professional help if you have problems with your voice or speaking. Otherwise you may not be able to participate in these important communicative processes or only to a very limited extent.
All of this is reason enough to deal more intensively with communication and language! Sometimes voices sound sad, happy, anxious or relaxed. Ms. Dancer, what do you think as a voice researcher: Can the human voice say a lot about a person, their mood and their character? I think everyone has already had the experience that the way a person speaks gives clues about their age, gender or emotional state. Women sound different than men or children. And when people are insecure, for example, then the voice is rather thin. If it sounds firm and full, then the speaker is convinced of something. In short, the voice allows a look inside.
Many emotions such as sadness, joy or doubt can be heard by others. So, from that perspective, is the voice almost like a fingerprint? While the way of speaking is shaped by the speed of speech, articulation, rhythm and pauses, the voice is characterized by properties such as pitch, sentence melody and vocal sound. There are probably no two people in the world who speak exactly the same way. Above all, the timbre, the melody and the volume are part of the characteristic voice profile of a person – on the surface it's like a fingerprint, yes. This is also used by forensic phonetics, which helps to solve criminal offenses through precise language and speaker analyzes.
Now some voices sound rather unpleasant to others. Can you actually change your voice, for example through training? The voice is influenced by factors such as the size of the larynx and its muscles, but also by the environment in which someone grows up. A high or low voice depends on the size of the vocal cords. The shorter and thinner the fine muscles in the larynx, the more often they vibrate per second and the higher the frequency generated. If they are longer, then the voice is also deeper. So the voice is physical. Men usually speak more deeply than women. I have read that compared to the 19th and the first half of the 20th century , Europe is supposed to be changing vocally. Can the time someone lives affect their voice? Yes, studies have shown that women's voices have dropped by an average of a third, i.e. by two to three semitones, over the past few decades, so women tend to speak lower.
Why is that? Sociologists suspect this is a consequence of emancipation. A high-pitched, squeaky or a bright, child-like voice is no longer compatible with the self-image of modern women. Voice researchers even found differences between individual countries. For example, the voices of Norwegians are lower than those of Italians, which may be explained by the more advanced emancipation in Scandinavia. Then has a deep male voice advantages? Some studies indicate the advantage of a deep voice, at least for men. Surveys have shown that politicians with lower voices often have better chances of voting because their voice makes them appear more dominant, more attractive, more competent and more trustworthy. But whether the voice can actually give indications of leadership qualities has not yet been proven. However, one thing is undisputed: the voice reveals feelings. In fact, when you speak, you can hardly hide how you are doing. Nervous, emotionally unstable people speak in a less stable voice and often sound higher and more fragile. Apart from the current emotional state, extroverts usually speak louder and faster, vary the sentence melody more strongly and emphasize more clearly than introverts. Then I can tell by the voice who I am dealing with, i.e.
The character of the person? Actually yes. From my point of view, the main problem is that we are “eye people”. We are used to following visual stimuli and pay little attention to other signals. Instead of always relying only on external impressions such as appearance, clothing or hairstyle , we should pay more attention to the sound signals of our communication partner. I think this is particularly important when it comes to central decisions, for example when choosing a partner or selecting personnel in the company.
In this way some disappointments could be avoided. In other words, do you consider outward appearances to be irrelevant? For my subject they don't play a role and I personally consider outward appearances to be at least insignificant. Instead of judging a person immediately based on a visual impression, we should close our eyes more often and let the voice work on us. Quasi voice instead of clothes … Is there still no app for the smartphone? Yes, the idea of voice analysis instead of many different tests is a step in the right direction. Currently, research teams are already working on improving voice analysis, e.g. B. to detect depression at an early stage. Or also to be able to operate household appliances, computers and cars via voice control in the future . A computer that can analyze the human voice would be e.g. B. as a driver assistant in the position of recommending the driver to take a break as soon as he notices signs of fatigue in his voice. For me, it is crucial that machines can become more empathetic by means of voice analysis, that is, they can better adapt to us and our moods and needs.
Instead of us giving commands to the computer, it should recognize what we want or need from our voices. But that is still a long way off. Two points are decisive for me here: words alone can lie, the voice cannot. And – very important: not the eyes are the mirror of the soul, as is often said, but the voice! We are continuing our series of lectures on the topic of the future of work and today we want to deal with the question of whether there is a new corporate culture and what defines it.
I will discuss this question using the example of changes in the management and leadership style of commercial enterprises. Because personnel management is an important part of corporate culture. I also refer to the lecture on personnel development given by Dr. Rose from the Business School of Economics in Mannheim held last week. In my presentation, I also draw on my experience as a management consultant and trainer in medium-sized and large companies. I would like to address the following points: the most important characteristics of a traditional management style from my point of view. I also explain the concept of the authoritarian leadership style. Then I would like to present the requirements of modern societies for personnel management and use an example to make it clear how the management style has changed.
The last part deals with the question of what role women play in the development of a new corporate culture. Until well into the 1990s, an authoritarian style of leadership prevailed , which meant that the boss alone gave instructions. The specifications came from above, and they were implemented below. I would like to cite the Globe study as evidence of this. As part of this long-term study from 1991, over 17,000 managers around the world were asked about their self-image. The study came to the result that a high level of performance orientation and assertiveness count in particular , while social skills are not considered to be so important. This picture has changed fundamentally in the meantime. What are the requirements for companies today? A traditional leadership paradigm is increasingly reaching its limits because companies are increasingly dependent on the creativity and innovation potential of their employees in order to remain competitive. Team spirit and transparency are key words in the new corporate culture.
This is why managers today are taught that and how they should lead teams and hold discussions on an equal footing, instead of demonstrating leadership through authority and control. I would like to illustrate this need for change with an example from practice. Ms. Grünert-Roth from Stuttgart took over her father's company in the metal processing sector a few years ago . She realized very quickly that she did not want to continue the patriarchal style of her father in this medium-sized company , but wanted to establish a different management style that took into account the potential of the employees. For them that meant, above all, building on a strong team. Her father was skeptical, but success proved her right.
She has succeeded in redefining her role as a manager by relying on independent employees on the one hand, but also building up new managers and relinquishing areas of responsibility on the other . There are several factors that favor the new leadership style. If you analyze successful companies, it quickly becomes clear that both hard and soft factors, the so-called soft skills, have to be at stake. This includes highly qualified employees who demand and get more say and responsibility. However, communication channels that enable participation in decision-making processes and the recognition of soft factors such as emotional competence and the ability to empathize should also be mentioned. It is therefore important to harmonize the ideas and needs of the employees with the corporate goals. I now come to the last part of my talk, in which we deal with the role of women in this process. Many experts see the development of a new corporate culture inextricably linked to the feminization of the world of work.
Conversely, the transparency and cooperation required in companies are obviously beneficial to women. Recent studies show that mixed teams of women and men work more successfully because they are more innovative and creative. Evidence comes from the USA that companies with more women in management positions are more economically successful and overtake other companies. In Germany, therefore, calls for more women in management positions are getting louder. Because despite the Equal Opportunities Act, the proportion of women in top positions is still too low. In the 200 largest companies , for example, only 3.2 percent are women on the executive boards.
Action must be taken here as quickly as possible. Not much will change through demands alone. But perhaps through a quota for women, to which Dr. Rose went into more detail last week and I would like to emphasize once again that this will be enforced here. Thank you for your attention. Before we open the discussion now, I would like to point out that we will continue the series of lectures on the future of work on June 13th. Sorry, am I at the right place at the student finance advice center? That's them. Come on in and have a seat. How can I help you? I want to study, but I'm not sure whether I can do it financially. My parents won't be able to support me. They worry that I could get into debt through studying and want me to do an apprenticeship.
I tend to think that they have prejudices because nobody in my family has ever studied. There are costs involved in studying, you are absolutely right. In addition to living expenses, rent, semester fees, literature and other study materials have to be financed. However, you shouldn't let financial reasons keep you from studying. There are many ways of financing, for example through BaföG. This is state support that depends on the parents' income. Would that be an option for you? Perhaps. But half of BaFöG is a loan and then has to be repaid after graduation. What happens if you don't start your career right away? You can no longer be sure of that today. And I don't want to get into debt either. That's why I would prefer to work alongside my studies and thus finance my living. Do you think that is realistic? That could work. Many students have a student job. The employment agency arranges employment. You can also search specifically for part-time jobs via the job boards. But: the more you work, the less time you have for your studies, you should always bear that in mind.
I am very unsure whether I should study at all under these conditions. Well, you wouldn't be an isolated incident. According to the latest social survey by the German Student Union , most students finance their studies with part-time jobs and BaföG. And that's not all of the options you have. You can also apply for a scholarship, for example … Oh yeah? I thought that scholarships were only for the gifted. In principle, the scholarships are awarded to students whose previous career suggests very good academic achievements and who are socially involved, for example in political or social organizations or foundations.
So it is not just about promoting the gifted. In addition to money, a scholarship often also gives you non-material support. This helps, for example, to make contacts and to deepen knowledge in workshops and academies. That's interesting. How do you find out which foundation I can apply to for a scholarship? You have to research the requirements of the individual scholarship providers and then apply specifically. Some sponsor students from certain regions of the world. Sometimes school grades are decisive, sometimes emphasis is placed on performance in the first and second semester. More and more often, volunteer work also plays a major role in the selection. “Scholarship Guide”, for example, is a database that you can use to make targeted searches. There are currently around 800 scholarship providers listed. Perhaps you would like to get an overview first? I will do this under any circumstances. I would like to write down the name of the database. Can you repeat that again, please? The name is "Scholarship Pilot".
This database is made available by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Great thank you! First of all, I have to process all the information in order to be able to assess everything realistically. Can I make a new appointment with you right away? Yes we can do that. How about on … After the news, we now come to our conversation with Ms.
Wertner-Scholl, acting head of the climate policy department at the Wuppertal Institute. Nice that you could come to our studio. Thank you, I'm happy to be here. Before we go into the potential of renewable energies in detail, we should first get a brief overview of what fossil, nuclear and renewable energy sources are. Basically, we distinguish between three large groups of energy sources that are available to us to cover our energy needs, i.e. to generate electricity. You mentioned that a distinction is made between fossil, nuclear and regenerative energies. Okay, but you are talking about regenerative, not renewable? Is this to be understood synonymously? Yes, the term alternative energy is also used.
Whether regenerative, renewable or alternative – I think we are talking about the same thing. Regenerative or renewable energies are forms of energy that, as the name suggests, renew themselves and that are available in unlimited quantities. These include solar energy, hydropower and wind power. And the other two groups … Yes, fossil fuels clearly include coal, oil and natural gas. If these materials are burned, they are lost. The two nuclear fuels are uranium and plutonium. Uranium is a radioactive heavy metal, which occurs naturally in the environment, plutonium has to be produced artificially. Does the future really lie in renewable energies? I think so, yes. When using these energy sources , no pollutants are released directly. That's the future. I don't quite believe you that wind, water and solar energy do not have any disadvantages. I didn't say that either, I'm just saying that this is where the future lies.
Then let's get straight to the point. Benefits of solar energy? It is free, permanently there, which means there are no supply problems. Biggest advantage? … that no substances are released through use that harm the environment and thus our health. What are the disadvantages of solar energy? There are two main “disadvantageous” points: weather dependency and storage. With heavy cloud cover, rain and thick fog , the collectors can hardly collect any heat. The sun also shines most strongly in summer, i.e. exactly when we need the least heat. In winter, on the other hand, solar heat is scarce and it is generally difficult to store it. You also need relatively large solar systems, i.e.
Huge areas, to collect the energy. Solutions will certainly be found … Yes, of course. The ideas are becoming more and more concrete. I would like to go into more detail about possible solutions later. We haven't talked about water and wind power yet. What are the advantages? Hydropower plants are generally environmentally friendly, as bodies of water are not polluted with pollutants. On the contrary: they enrich the water with oxygen. Because of their simple construction, low maintenance requirements and long service life, they are particularly well suited for use on a small scale. You have to be clear: hydropower saves the environment 20 million tons of CO2 every year. So is everything in favor of further expanding hydropower plants and reservoirs? I would be careful there. Of course, the disadvantage is that our water supplies are becoming increasingly scarce. The 5th Climate Report shows dramatic developments and therefore the use of hydropower must also have its limits.
It also depends on the local conditions, you can't just build huge reservoirs everywhere. From an ecological point of view, this is very questionable because it represents a radical intervention in the ecosystem. This can have serious consequences for plants and animals. And of course hydropower plants are weather-dependent, which means that hydropower can only be used to a limited extent in winter. Then there is wind power as an alternative. Wind power is considered cheap, abundant, clean and renewable. Is that the solution? In many ways, yes. But wind is also not a reliable source of energy. It is not always in the right place and in the right strength. Wir haben zudem Wind in Küstennähe und auf Bergen, also genau dort, wo es schwer ist, Industrie anzusiedeln, die die Energie bräuchte. Und Wind lässt sich nicht speichern, also muss er vor Ort in transportfähigen elektrischen Strom umgewandelt werden. Nicht zu vergessen die Effizienzfrage…
Genau. Gewaltige Windernergieanlagen werden heute als Versuchskraftwerke gebaut, doch trotz ihrer Größe können sie keine ganze Stadt mit Strom versorgen. Man bräuchte tausende dieser Anlagen, um die gleiche Leistung wie ein modernes Kraftwerk zu erzeugen. Und Anwohner haben meist ein Problem mit der Lautstärke. Ja, man möchte einen sauberen, ökologischen Fußabdruck, aber natürlich auch keine Windkraftanlage hinter dem Haus… Hier ist Radio l03.4 für Sie mit unserer „Auf der Straße nachgefragt“- Reihe. Wie immer waren wir für Sie unterwegs, diesmal in Köln, und haben Leute gefragt, was sie vom kollektiven Konsum halten. Hier einige Reaktionen. Würden Sie Ihre Bohrmaschine, das Auto oder andere Gebrauchsgegenstände mit anderen teilen, damit Sie gemeinsam Ressourcen sparen, vielleicht auch Platz in der Garage haben und damit nachhaltiger leben – sozusagen auf einem etwas kleineren ökologischen Fußabdruck? Warum soll ich denn meine Bohrmaschine jemandem verleihen? Ich bin doch froh, dass wir eine eigene haben und dass wir die immer nutzen können.
Ich würde meine Sachen niemals verleihen! Wer garantiert mir denn, dass ich die so ordentlich und gepflegt wieder zurückbekomme? Und ich gebe meiner Frau vollkommen Recht – was machen wir denn, wenn wir eine ausgeliehene Sache doch mal kurzfristig brauchen? Das wäre ja kein Problem, Sie sind über eine Web-Seite oder eine App miteinander vernetzt. Ihre Bohrmaschine haben Sie also in wenigen Stunden zurück. Na ja, wir sind da ja auch sehr skeptisch mit dem Internet, nech. Ich will doch niemandem meine Adresse geben und mit solchen komischen Web-Seiten kenne ich mich nicht aus. Ich frage mal zurück: Was hab ich denn davon, wenn ich jemandem etwas ausleihe? Nun ja, insbesondere wir reiche Nationen leben ja weit über unseren Verhältnissen. Wir konsumieren auf Kosten ärmerer Länder. Das ließe sich vermeiden. Junger Mann, Sie sind ein Idealist. Wir leben nun aber in einer Marktwirtschaft! Unser Reporter Luc Ehring stieß auf Skepsis, was sicherlich zu erwarten war. Es gab aber auch andere Rückmeldungen wie die Folgende. Würden Sie Ihre Gebrauchsgegenstände mit anderen Menschen teilen, also Bohrmaschine, Auto und so, damit Sie Ressourcen sparen und nachhaltiger leben? Da hab' ich noch gar nicht drüber nachgedacht.
Also ich habe keine eigene Bohrmaschine und so gesehen wäre es doch echt super, wenn ich sie nicht kaufen, sondern leihen könnte. Was das Auto angeht, mache ich das sogar ab und zu. Ich kann mir kein eigenes Auto leisten, und ganz ehrlich, ich will es auch gar nicht, aber manchmal braucht man es doch und dann bin ich froh, dass ich mir eins ausleihen kann. Ja, gut, aber dann zahlen Sie bestimmt dafür? Yeah yeah Das ist gegen eine Leihgebühr. Ich beziehe mich aber auf kollektiven Konsum, das heißt ausleihen und verleihen, ohne das Geld eine Rolle spielt. Das klingt interessant. Also ich kann es mir nicht für alle Gebrauchsgegenstände vorstellen – meine Klamotten hab ich dann doch lieber für mich allein, aber vor allem bei Werkzeug und so… ja, warum nicht? Gute Idee.
Frau Pfahl, Sie sind Kommunikationswissenschaftlerin. Jetzt wird ja Kommunikation, Sprache und Sprechen oft synonym gebraucht – kann man das eigentlich? Hier sollte man die Begriffe schon sauber voneinander trennen, statt alles zu vermischen. Schauen wir uns doch mal kurz den Begriff Kommunikation an. Kommunikation stammt aus dem Lateinischen und bedeutet „teilen, mitteilen oder auch etwas gemeinsam machen“. Kommunikation ist also eine soziale Handlung, das heißt mehrere Menschen oder Lebewesen sind beteiligt. Wesentlich beim Mitteilen sind die Zeichen, die ausgetauscht werden. Die Kommunikationsteilnehmer müssen die Zeichen bzw. das Zeichensystem kennen und verstehen, um erfolgreich zu kommunizieren.
Aha, und das Zeichensystem ist dann also die Sprache? Ja, genau. Kommunikation findet im Austausch, in der Interaktion statt, dh mindestens zwei Gesprächspartner tauschen sich verbal durch sprachliche Zeichen oder und non-verbal durch Gestik oder Mimik aus. Damit Kommunikation funktioniert, beziehen sich Gesprächspartner auf Dinge, die beide kennen und nutzen, mündliche oder auch schriftliche Zeichen, wie z. B. ein Alphabet, das der andere verstehen kann. Hm, haben dann Tiere nicht auch eine Sprache? Sie reagieren ja auch auf Zeichen? Freilich können auch viele Tierarten miteinander kommunizieren. Häufig geschieht dies nonverbal, wie z. B.
Durch den Schwänzeltanz der Bienen. Wenn aber Hunde bellen, Wale singen und Schweine grunzen, dann kommunizieren sie durch Töne, z. B. um einem Feind zu drohen oder vor Gefahr zu warnen. Diese Laute sind festgelegt und deshalb auch für alle Artgenossen gut zu verstehen. Aber neue Worte zu erfinden – die Wortschöpfung – das können doch nur die Menschen? So dachte die Wissenschaft lange Zeit. Heute wissen wir: das stimmt so nicht ganz. Bei Delfinen sind sich Zoologen sicher, dass sie auf Pfeifen reagieren und individuelle „Namenspfiffe“ haben.
Tiere können also Worte bzw. Namen erfinden. Und es gibt sogar Dialekte. Man hat festgestellt, dass Vögel, vor allem Singvögel, regional unterschiedlich singen können. Zum Beispiel klingen die Amseln im Breisgau anders als die im Rhein-Main-Gebiet. Und was heißt „anders“? Es kann vorkommen, dass die Melodien zwar ähnlich sind, die Vögel jedoch in der einen Gegend höher, in der anderen tiefer singen. Oder dass sie in Frankfurt lauter singen als in Freiburg, weil es in der Großstadt insgesamt lauter ist. Vögel passen sich nämlich dem Stadtlärm an.
Mit Ausnahme der Menschen ist jedoch kein anderes Lebewesen auf diesem Planeten in der Lage, sich auf so hohem Niveau mitzuteilen, also eine differenzierte Sprache zu nutzen. Stimmt, und die menschlichen Fähigkeiten im Umgang mit Sprache reichen sogar noch weiter. Wir sind nicht nur in der Lage zu sprechen, sondern darüber hinaus besitzen wir auch die Fähigkeit, über Sprache nachzudenken: Man spricht dann von der Metakommunikation. Und über die Ergebnisse der Metakommunikation muss man dann wieder sprechen…
Klar, wie ich schon gesagt habe: Kommunikation stellt ein menschliches Grundbedürfnis dar. Wir kommunizieren ohne zu sprechen, nur durch unser Verhalten oder unsere Körpersprache. In kommunikativen Prozessen drücken Menschen ihre Persönlichkeit aus, dazu zählt auch ihr Wissen, ihre Erfahrungen und Erlebnisse. Und nur in der Kommunikation, also im Austausch mit anderen, bauen Menschen kommunikative Kompetenzen auf. Deshalb ist es wichtig, sich professionelle Hilfe zu suchen, wenn man Probleme mit der Stimme oder mit dem Sprechen hat. Denn sonst kann man unter Umständen an diesen wichtigen kommunikativen Prozessen nicht oder nur sehr begrenzt teilnehmen. Dies alles ist doch Grund genug, sich etwas intensiver mit Kommunikation und Sprache auseinanderzusetzen! Traurig, fröhlich, ängstlich oder auch entspannt so klingen Stimmen manchmal. Frau Tänzer, was meinen Sie als Stimmforscherin: Kann die menschliche Stimme eigentlich viel über eine Person, ihre Stimmung und ihren Charakter aussagen? Ich glaube, jeder hat schon einmal die Erfahrung gemacht, dass die Art, wie ein Mensch spricht, Hinweise etwa auf sein Alter, sein Geschlecht oder seine Gefühlslage gibt. Frauen klingen anders als Männer oder Kinder.
Und wenn Menschen zum Beispiel unsicher sind, dann ist die Stimme eher dünn. Klingt sie fest und voll, dann ist der Sprecher von etwas überzeugt. Kurz gesagt, erlaubt die Stimme einen Blick in sein Innerstes. Viele Emotionen wie Trauer, Freude oder Zweifel sind für andere hörbar. Dann ist die Stimme, so gesehen, fast wie ein Fingerabdruck? Während die Sprechweise durch die Sprechgeschwindigkeit, die Artikulation, die Rhythmik und Pausen geprägt wird, ist die Stimme durch Eigenschaften wie Tonhöhe, Satzmelodie und Stimmklang gekennzeichnet. Auf der Welt gibt es wahrscheinlich keine zwei Menschen, die genau gleich sprechen. Vor allem die Klangfarbe, die Melodie und die Lautstärke gehören zum charakteristischen Stimmprofil eines Menschen – oberflächlich betrachtet ist das wie ein Fingerabdruck, ja.
Das nutzt auch die forensische Phonetik, die durch genaue Sprach- und Sprecheranalysen zur Aufklärung von Straftaten beiträgt. Jetzt klingen ja manche Stimmen für andere eher unangenehm. Kann man seine Stimme eigentlich verändern, etwa durch Training? Die Stimme wird beeinflusst durch Faktoren wie die Größe des Kehlkopfes und seiner Muskeln, aber auch durch das Umfeld, in dem jemand aufwächst. Eine hohe oder tiefe Stimme hängt von der Größe der Stimmlippen ab. Je kürzer und dünner die feinen Muskeln im Kehlkopf sind, desto häufiger schwingen sie pro Sekunde und desto höher ist die erzeugte Frequenz.
Sind sie länger, dann ist auch die Stimme tiefer. Die Stimme ist also körperlich bedingt. Männer sprechen in der Regel tiefer als Frauen. Ich habe gelesen, dass Europa verglichen mit dem 19. und der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts gerade stimmlich im Wandel sein soll. Kann die Zeit, in der jemand lebt, die Stimme beeinflussen? Ja, Untersuchungen haben ergeben, dass die Stimmen der Frauen sich in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten im Schnitt um eine Terz, also um zwei bis drei Halbtöne, gesenkt haben, Frauen sprechen also eher tiefer.
Woran liegt das? Soziologen vermuten darin eine Folge der Emanzipation. Eine hohe, piepsige oder eine helle, kindliche Stimme, ist mit dem Selbstbild moderner Frauen nicht mehr vereinbar. Stimmforscher fanden sogar Unterschiede zwischen einzelnen Ländern heraus. So sind etwa die Stimmen von Norwegerinnen tiefer als die der Italienerinnen, was möglicherweise mit der weiter fortgeschrittenen Emanzipation in Skandinavien zu erklären ist. Dann hat eine männlich-tiefe Stimme Vorteile? Auf den Vorteil einer tiefen Stimme, zumindest bei Männern, deuten einige Studien hin. Befragungen haben ergeben, dass Politiker mit tieferen Stimmen oft bessere Wahlchancen haben, weil sie durch ihre Stimme dominanter, attraktiver, kompetenter und vertrauenswürdiger wirken. Doch ob die Stimme tatsächlich Hinweise auf Führungsqualitäten geben kann, ist noch nicht bewiesen. Eines ist jedoch unbestritten: Die Stimme offenbart Gefühle. Genau genommen kann man beim Sprechen kaum verheimlichen, wie es einem geht. Nervöse, emotional instabile Personen sprechen mit einer weniger stabilen Stimme und klingen oft höher und brüchiger. Abgesehen von der momentanen Gefühlslage sprechen extrovertierte Menschen meist lauter und schneller, variieren die Satzmelodie stärker und betonen deutlicher als introvertierte. Dann kann ich an der Stimme erkennen, mit wem ich es zu tun habe, also den Charakter des Menschen? Eigentlich ja.
Das Hauptproblem ist aus meiner Sicht, dass wir „Augenmenschen“ sind. Wir sind gewohnt, visuellen Reizen zu folgen und schenken anderen Signalen nur wenig Aufmerksamkeit. Anstatt sich immer nur auf äußere Eindrücke wie Aussehen, Kleidung oder die Frisur zu verlassen, sollten wir stärker auf die Lautsignale unseres Kommunikationspartners achten. Ich halte dies vor allem bei zentralen Entscheidungen für besonders wichtig, etwa bei der Partnerwahl oder bei der Personalauswahl im Unternehmen. So könnte manche Enttäuschung vermieden werden. Das heißt, Sie halten Äußerlichkeiten für belanglos? Für mein Fach spielen sie keine Rolle und ich persönlich halte Äußerlichkeiten zumindest für nebensächlich. Anstatt dass wir einen Menschen sofort nach einem visuellen Eindruck beurteilen, sollten wir ruhig öfter mal die Augen schließen und die Stimme auf uns wirken lassen.
Quasi Stimme statt Klamotte… Gibt es denn da noch keine App fürs Smartphone? Ja, die Idee der Stimmanalyse statt vieler verschiedener Tests geht in die richtige Richtung. Derzeit arbeiten Forscherteams bereits an der Verbesserung der Stimmanalyse, z. B. um eine Depression frühzeitig zu erkennen. Oder auch, um in Zukunft Haushaltsgeräte, Computer und Autos über eine Sprachsteuerung bedienen zu können. Ein Computer, der die menschliche Stimme analysieren kann, wäre z. B. in der Lage, als Fahrassistent im Auto dem Fahrer eine Pause zu empfehlen, sobald er Anzeichen von Müdigkeit in seiner Stimme feststellt. Entscheidend ist hier für mich, dass Maschinen mittels Stimmanalyse empathischer werden könnten, sich also besser auf uns und unsere Stimmungen und Bedürfnisse einstellen könnten. Statt dass wir dem Computer Befehle erteilen, soll er an der Stimme erkennen, was wir wollen oder brauchen. Doch das ist noch Zukunftsmusik. Entscheidend sind hier für mich zwei Punkte: Worte allein können lügen, die Stimme nicht. Und – ganz wichtig: nicht die Augen sind der Spiegel der Seele, wie oft gesagt wird, sondern die Stimme! Wir setzen unsere Vortragsreihe zum Thema Zukunft der Arbeit fort und wollen uns heute mit der Frage beschäftigen, ob es eine neue Unternehmenskultur gibt, und was diese ausmacht.
Diskutieren werde ich diese Frage am Beispiel der Veränderungen im Leitungs- und Führungsstil von Wirtschaftsunternehmen. Denn die Personalführung ist ein wichtiger Teil der Unternehmneskultur. Dabei beziehe ich mich auch auf den Vortrag zur Personalentwicklung, den Frau Dr. Rose von der Business School of Economics in Mannheim letzte Woche gehalten hat. Bei meinen Ausführungen greife ich auch auf meine Erfahrungen als Managementberater und Trainer in mittleren und großen Unternehmen zurück. Folgende Punkte möchte ich ansprechen: die aus meiner Sicht wichtigsten Merkmale eines traditionellen Leitungs- und Führungsstils. Dabei erläutere ich auch den Begriff des autoritären Leitungsstils. Dann möchte ich Anforderungen moderner Gesellschaften an die Personalführung darstellen und an einem Beispiel deutlich machen, wie sich der Leitungsstil verändert hat.
Im letzten Teil geht es um die Frage, welche Rolle Frauen bei der Entwicklung einer neuen Unternehmenskultur spielen. Noch bis weit in die 90er Jahre es 20. Jahrhunderts herrschte weitgehend ein autoritärer Führungsstil vor, das hieß, der Chef allein gab Anweisungen. Von oben kamen die Vorgaben, unten wurden sie umgesetzt. Als Beleg dafür möchte ich die Globe-Studie anführen. Im Rahmen dieser Langzeitstudie aus dem Jahr 1991 wurden weltweit über 17.000 Führungskräfte nach ihrem Selbstverständnis befragt. Die Studie kam zu dem Ergebnis, dass besonders eine hohe Leistungsorientierung und Durchsetzungsfähigkeit zählen, soziale Kompetenzen hingegen als nicht so wichtig erachtet werden. Dieses Bild hat sich mittlerweile grundlegend gewandelt. Welche Anforderungen stellen sich heute an Unternehmen? Ein traditionelles Führungsparadigma stößt immer öfter an seine Grenzen, weil Unternehmen zunehmend auf die Kreativität und das Innovationspotenzial ihrer Mitarbeiter angewiesen sind, um wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben.
Teamgeist und Transparenz sind Schlüsselwörter der neuen Unternehmenskultur. Deshalb vermittelt man heute den Führungskräften, dass und wie sie Teams leiten und Gespräche auf gleicher Augenhöhe führen sollen, statt Führung durch Autorität und Kontrolle zu beweisen. Ich möchte diesen Veränderungsbedarf an einem Beispiel aus der Praxis veranschaulichen. Frau Grünert-Roth aus Stuttgart hat vor einigen Jahren die Firma ihres Vaters im Bereich der Metallverarbeitung übernommen. Sie erkannte sehr schnell, dass sie in diesem mittelständischen Unternehmen den patriarchalischen Stil ihres Vaters nicht fortsetzen, sondern einen anderen Führungsstil etablieren wollte, der das Potenzial der Mitarbeiter berücksichtigte. Das hieß für sie vor allem, auf ein starkes Team zu bauen. Ihr Vater war skeptisch, aber der Erfolg gab ihr Recht. Es ist ihr gelungen, ihre Rolle als Führungskraft neu zu definieren, indem sie einerseits auf eigenverantwortliche Mitarbeiter gesetzt hat, andererseits aber auch neue Führungskräfte aufgebaut und Verantwortungsbereiche abgegeben hat. Es gibt mehrere Faktoren, die den neuen Führungsstil begünstigen.
Analysiert man erfolgreiche Unternehmen, dann wird schnell klar, dass es sowohl um harte als auch um weiche Faktoren, die sogenannten Softskills gehen muss. Dazu gehören hochqualifizierte Mitarbeiter, die mehr Mitsprache und Verantwortung einfordern und bekommen. Zu nennen sind aber auch Kommunikationswege, die Beteiligung an Entscheidungsprozessen ermöglichen und die Anerkennung weicher Faktoren wie emotionale Kompetenz und Empathiefähigkeit. Es gilt also, die Vorstellungen und Bedürfnisse der Mitarbeiter mit den Unternehmenszielen in Einklang zu bringen. Ich komme nun zum letzten Teil meines Vortrags, in dem wir uns mit der Rolle von Frauen in diesem Prozess beschäftigen. Viele Experten sehen die Entwicklung einer neuen Unternehmenskultur untrennbar mit der Feminisierung der Arbeitswelt verbunden. Umgekehrt kommen offensichtlich die in den Unternehmen eingeforderte Transparenz und Kooperation den Frauen entgegen. Neuere Untersuchungen belegen, dass gemischte Teams aus Frauen und Männern erfolgreicher arbeiten, weil sie innovativer und kreativer sind.
Aus den USA kommt der Beleg, dass Unternehmen mit mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen wirtschaftlich erfolgreicher sind und andere Unternehmen überholen. In Deutschland werden deshalb Forderungen nach mehr Frauen in Führungspositionen immer lauter. Denn trotz Gleichstellungsgesetz ist der Anteil von Frauen in Spitzenpositionen nach wie vor zu gering. So sind zum Beispiel in den 200 größten Unternehmen nur 3,2 Prozent Frauen in den Vorständen. Hier muss schnellstmöglich gehandelt werden. Durch Forderungen allein wird sich nicht viel verändern. Aber vielleicht durch eine Frauenquote, auf die Frau Dr. Rose letzte Woche ausführlicher eingegangen ist und auf deren Durchsetzung ich hier abschließend noch einmal mit Nachdruck hinweisen möchte. Vielen Dank für Ihre Aufmerksamkeit. Bevor wir jetzt die Diskussion eröffnen, möchte ich noch darauf hinweisen, dass wir die Vortrags-Reihe Zukunft der Arbeit am 13. Junifortsetzen. Entschuldigung, bin ich hier richtig bei der Beratungsstelle der Studienfinanzierung? Das sind Sie. Kommen Sie ruhig rein und setzen Sie sich. Wie kann ich Ihnen helfen? Ich möchte studieren, bin mir aber nicht sicher, ob ich das finanziell schaffe. Meine Eltern werden mich nicht unterstützen können. Sie machen sich Sorgen, dass ich mich durch ein Studium verschulden könnte und wollen, dass ich lieber eine Ausbildung mache.
Ich denke ja eher, dass sie Vorurteile haben, weil bisher niemand aus meiner Familie studiert hat. Ein Studium ist mit Kosten verbunden, da haben Sie vollkommen Recht. Neben dem Lebensunterhalt sind Miete, Semesterbeitrag, Literatur und andere Studienmaterialien zu finanzieren. Dennoch sollten Sie sich nicht aus finanziellen Gründen davon abhalten lassen zu studieren. Es gibt viele Möglichkeiten der Finanzierung, zum Beispiel über das BaföG. Das ist eine staatliche Unterstützung, die vom Einkommen der Eltern abhängig ist. Käme das für Sie in Frage? Vielleicht schon.
Aber BaFöG ist zur Hälfte ein Darlehen und muss dann nach dem Studium zurückgezahlt werden. Was passiert, wenn es nicht gleich mit dem Berufseinstieg klappt? Da kann man ja heute überhaupt nicht mehr sicher sein. Und ich möchte mich auch nicht verschulden. Deshalb würde ich lieber neben dem Studium arbeiten und so meinen Lebensunterhaltfinanzieren. Halten Sie das für realistisch? Das könnte klappen. Viele Studierende haben einen Studentenjob. Die Agentur für Arbeit vermittelt Beschäftigungen. Auch über die Jobbörsen können Sie gezielt nach Nebenjobs suchen. Aber: je mehr Sie arbeiten, umso weniger Zeit haben Sie für Ihr Studium, das sollten Sie immer mitbedenken. Ich bin sehr unsicher, ob ich unter diesen Voraussetzungen überhaupt studieren sollte.
Naja, Sie wären kein Einzelfall. Laut der jüngsten Sozialerhebung des Deutschen Studentenwerks finanzieren die meisten Studierenden ihr Studium mit Nebenjobs und BaföG. Und das sind noch nicht alle Möglichkeiten, die Sie haben. Sie können sich zum Beispiel auch um ein Stipendium bewerben… . Ach ja? Ich dachte, dass Stipendien nur für Hochbegabte in Frage kommen.
Grundsätzlich werden die Stipendien an Studierende vergeben, deren bisheriger Werdegang sehr gute Studienleistungen erwarten lässt und die sich gesellschaftlich engagieren, zum Beispiel in politischen oder sozialen Organisationen oder Stiftungen. Es handelt sich also nicht ausschließlich um Hochbegabtenförderung. Neben Geld bekommt man mit einem Stipendium oft auch eine ideelle Förderung. Die hilft zum Beispiel, Kontakte zu knüpfen und Wissen in Workshops und Akademien zu vertiefen. Das ist ja interessant. Wie finde denn heraus, bei welcher Stiftung ich mich für ein Stipendium bewerben kann? Man muss die Anforderungen der einzelnen Stipendiengeber recherchieren und sich dann gezielt bewerben. Einige fördern Studierende aus bestimmten Regionen der Welt. Manchmal sind Schulnoten entscheidend, manchmal wird auf die Leistungen im ersten und zweiten Semester Wert gelegt. Immer öfter spielt auch ehrenamtliches Engagement bei der Auswahl eine große Rolle. „Stipendienlotse“ ist zum Beispiel eine Datenbank, mit der Sie gezielt suchen können. Momentan sind dort ca. 800 Stipendiengeber erfasst. Vielleicht verschaffen Sie sich erst einmal einen Überblick? Das mache ich auf jeden Fall.
Ich würde mir gern den Namen der Datenbank notieren. Können Sie den bitte noch einmal wiederholen? Der Name ist „Stipendienlotse“. Diese Datenbank wird vom Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung zur Verfügung gestellt. Super, danke! Ich muss jetzt erst einmal die vielen Infos verarbeiten, um alles realistisch einschätzen zu können. Darf ich gleich einen neuen Termin mit Ihnen vereinbaren? Ja, das können wir machen. Wie wäre es am….
This next rhythm we’re looking at is called
the Gahu. It’s a rhythm from the Ewe people – I
learned it in Ghana, but the Ewe people sort of stretch across Ghana, Togo, Benin. It’s one of those things where the arbitrary
lines of the African countries don’t necessary mean anything. And it’s played on a different set of drums
from all the other rhythms we’ve looked at so far, it’s played on what’s called
the Ewe Set. The way this rhythm works is quite different
from all the other rhythms. It’s all played with sticks, so it’s a
good one to practise your stick technique, also it keeps changing. So it’s not like the other rhythms where
there’s just, like, a few support parts keeping everything down and then a set of
solos on the top.
Every time the lead drum plays a solo, which
corresponds to a dance, the support parts change. – Learn how to play djembe and other African
drumming with African Drumming Online.
Okay, we are going to show you the first accompaniment
for Kuku, from Guinea, West Africa for the Djembe. When we say first accompaniment we mean the
higher drum, not the soloist, but the first accompaniment player. There is only four notes, slap, base, and
two tones. First I play slap, base, two tones, but the
slap comes in before the beat. So, if I say five, and six, and seven, and
eight, five and six and seven, and eight. So the base is on the beat, five, six, seven,
eight. A little faster, five, six, seven, eight. It is happy music, so we have to play the
happy tempo, five, six, seven, eight, five, six, one. And that is how we play the first part to
Kuko from Guinea, West Africa..
Hi, everybody! My name is Dimon, I want to present you this
West African djembe drum by Meinl, Nino Percussion series,
model ADJ4-S. This is a rope tuned djembe
for children. The height of this instrument
is less than 30cm, it has the 7" head, the head is made of goat skin. The body of this djembe is
made of redwood. The djembe has a hand carved shell. We call this djembe "children's"
just because of its size, it sounds almost like classical models..
Welcome to Milestone Mic Methods, a tutorial
series brought to you by Music In Africa Live, where we show you how to capture
the sounds of African instruments. At Milestone Studios in Cape Town, our engineers
have spent decades finding the best way to mic up instruments that are unique to our continent, and
we're going to share this knowledge in every episode. I'm Thabo Mobo, and today we'll be looking
at the best way to place a microphone on an mbira or thumb piano, for live performance
and recording. Mbiras are musical instruments traditionally played by the Shona people of
Zimbabwe. They are made of a wooden board, often fitted with a resonator or gourd to amplify
the sound, with metal tines attached to it. You play mbira by holding the instrument in both hands
and plucking the tines with your thumbs. Mbira is not a loud instrument, so you'll have to put
the microphone close to it to capture the sound. If you only have one mic, the best place to put it
is over the middle of the instrument facing down.
In a live show, a dynamic mic like the
Beyerdynamic M201 is a good option. Because the instrument is quiet, it's likely that other sounds
on the stage will leak into the mbira microphone. Place the mic pointing down towards the metal
bars and, if you can, pointing away from other loud instruments. Make sure that you position the
mic as close as possible to the bars, but still far enough that the player won't accidentally bump
it. About 10 centimetres is often a safe distance. If the mbira has a calabash, this can sometimes
be used to keep the sound focused on the mic. In a studio or live situation where there's
a lot of leakage from other instruments, you can get a better sound by
using a contact microphone. This is attached to the body of the mbira and will
pick up less of the sound of nearby instruments. Variations of the mbira are
found in many African countries. In the DRC for example, a similar instrument
called likembe is often fitted with a pickup, which allows it to be amplified to compete with
loud instruments like electric guitars and drums. Especially if you're recording
mbira as a solo instrument, another good option is to use two mics like
these Neumann KM84s as a coincident pair. Condenser microphones have a wider frequency
response than the Beyerdynamic M201.
This will give a full stereo sound, with one mic pointing
towards the left side of the instrument and the other picking up the right side. Again, make sure
that the player won't accidentally bump them. Most mbiras have rattles attached to
the body, usually made of bottle tops. These add a percussive element which
is an important part of the sound. Don't feel that you have to try and get
rid of the buzzing when you're recording. If it's too loud, you can use masking
tape to mute some of the rattles. The mbira is softer than most other instruments,
so if you are recording the mbira in a group of musicians, it's often useful to put up screens
between them to prevent too much sound leaking from one set of mics to another.
Otherwise,
if you have access to an isolation booth where you can record the mbira
separately, this is even better. Well, that's it for today. Our thanks
to Sky Dladla for demonstrating how these instruments are played, and to
our sponsors Music In Africa Live, the Goethe Institute, Siemens, and the Federal
Foreign Office for supporting African music. Watch out for more videos in the series,
and until next time, cheers and goodbye. www.milestones.co.za
The desert is still. The night seems endless, silent, and at peace…
until it’s pierced by the sound of gunshots and screams. Deep in the Sahara, the SCP Foundation is
waging war against a newly discovered enemy. A squad of foundation agents is retreating,
trying to get away from the ones who massacred their allies. They were attempting to eliminate the threat
using conventional means, but their rifles were no match for the reality bending entities
of the Kingdom of Abaddon.
The retreating agents cover one another as
they make their way back to the extraction point. The enemy force advances. Agents that are caught too close to the sorcerers
of Abaddon disintegrate into thin air. This is not an enemy they can defeat. The SCP agents need to get back to base and
relay what they have found to their superiors. Out of the hundreds of agents sent into the
Sahara that night, only a handful make it out alive. They are debriefed by their superiors at the
Foundation who classify the anomalous humanoids under the highest of threat levels. The Kingdom of Abaddon is a threat. The Kingdom of Abaddon must be eliminated. Reconnaissance done prior to the disastrous
mission had alerted the Foundation to the presence of anomalies in the region, but they
had no idea how strong the anomalous humanoids would be.
From data gathered through old reports, it
seemed that the Abaddon humanoids were responsible for the deaths of no fewer than 75 Foundation
personnel, and had stolen at least 12 different items from the Foundation. The leaders of the SCP Foundation tasked research
team Omega-5 with developing a weapon that would be capable of destroying the Kingdom
of Abaddon once and for all. The weapon they are researching must be capable
of long range destruction, because the moment any Foundation agent gets close to the area,
they are vaporized by the reality manipulating powers of its inhabitants The project is given
the name “Twins of God” and is led by a Foundation doctor known only by the designation
“O5-1.” O5-1 is popular in the SCP Foundation, well
known for his in-depth research and charismatic personality, making him the perfect person
to lead such a project.
And O5-1 recently came across an anomaly that
he believes holds the solution the Foundation has been looking for to defeat the Kingdom
of Abaddon… Item-001.And so the Omega-5 team gets to work. They discover that the anomaly has incredible
powers when put inside a host, which they refer to as an Item-001 entity, and set up
a series of experiments using different people to harness its energy The first series of
tests all end in tragedy. The anomaly causes the entity it inhabits
to become intensely radioactive. Anyone who gets close to it succumbs to immediate
radiation sickness, and eventually death. To stop the radiation problems the Omega-5
research group intensifies the containment procedures. O5-1 receives reports from the higher ups
that the Kingdom of Abaddon has attacked another Foundation facility in Sudan. Long-range defense is needed A.S.A.P. The administrator puts more pressure on Omega-5,
and especially its leader O5-1, to solve the problems of Item-001 and develop a weapon
that can save the Foundation. He stays awake for days on end, working tirelessly
to create a safe and controllable Item-001 entity. Although there are signs that the weapon will
work, it is still unpredictable.
When Item-001 is initiated, the host entity
becomes paralyzed, suffers severe cerebral hemorrhaging, and soon a new host is needed
before testing can begin again. And that’s not the only thing going wrong. Whenever the anomaly is put into a new host,
sudden and random destruction of on-site structures and personnel takes place. O5-1 knows though, that if this power can
be harnessed and controlled in the right way, that it could be the weapon that the Foundation
needs to wipe out the Kingdom of Abaddon once and for all. In order to control Item-001, O5-1 has a mind-kill
switch implanted in its hosts’ brains. O5-1 can activate the implant to incapacitate
the host and immediately stop the unwanted destruction.
Countless hosts are terminated by this mind-kill
switch in the early trials conducted by the Omega-5 team, but progress continues to be
made and eventually a hypothesis is formulated. Perhaps the disastrous side effects of Item-001
can be offset by spreading the anomaly across multiple subjects. They theorize that the immense mental load
of the anomaly can be distributed among several hosts, thus reducing the toll it takes on
each and giving them the ability to control its immense power. But O5-1 and the Omega-5 team need more data,
and for that, they need more bodies. They consult with the director of Site-17
and it is concluded that the nearby town of San Marco would be an appropriate place to
get the additional test subjects they require. On a quiet Sunday morning, Omega-5 along with
support from a squad of armed SCP agents storm into the San Marcos de la Vida Sterna Church
during the middle of mass. They gather up a number of the younger congregants
and bring them back to the site where Item-001 is housed. The researchers quickly ran through their
new supply of test subjects though, and Omega-5 would need to get even more if their research
was to continue.
Instead of going back and forth between the
testing facility and San Marco, O5-1 decides to move the entire Item-001 operation to the
town itself. He renames the town, Testing Site-001, and
Omega-5 rounds up 23 of the healthiest subjects they can find for use in the next series of
research tests. A few weeks after occupying the town of San
Marco, Omega-5 makes it’s most substantial progress yet. Just as they theorized, by spreading out the
anomaly of Item-001 across a specific group of hosts, they can control its powers. The tests may have cost the lives of almost
everyone in the town, but the ends certainly justify the means. The Kingdom of Abaddon poses an existential
threat to the SCP Foundation after all, and thanks to this research they will soon have
a weapon capable of bringing them victory. The Foundation administrator criticizes O5-1’s
methods, but can’t argue with his results.
Unfortunately, O5-1 has a dark secret. A secret that disturbs even the most hardened
and loyal members of Omega-5. A secret that has to do with the Item-001
hosts. The hosts that Omega-5 has made its major
progress with are not the ordinary test subjects normally used by the Foundation. No, the test subjects O5-1 makes his breakthrough
with… are children. Nine of them to be exact, all between four
and eleven years old. Despite being told specifically by the Foundation
administrator to only test on adults, the research required O5-1 to break the chain
of command and follow the science down the path it led. The children are contained in a reinforced
bunker where only O5-1, and a select few, have access. They are technically alive, but are functionally
brain dead. The group of nine children share a hive mind
that can process information, and more importantly, can unleash the full potential of the implanted
anomaly, creating and controlling a devastating power. But not everyone is thrilled with what they’ve
achieved. Members of Omega-5 are haunted by the screams
of the children that they’ve forced to be part of their weapon development program.
They describe their merging with Item-001
as being a process that rips out their souls and replaces them with something much more
sinister. In fact all of Omega-5 regret what they have
been a part of and what they’ve done, all except O5-1. The nine children can channel unprecedented
amounts of energy from an unknown origin that Omega-5 hypothesizes comes from an extradimensional
source, which is then used to unbind atoms at the quantum level. When the right activation words are spoken,
it appears as though this tremendous power gives the children the ability to annihilate
anything in the entire universe. It’s the gun to end all guns. And only O5-1 has the key to control it. The nine children work so well within Item-001
that Omega-5 reclassifies it to include the nine children themselves. They are not just the entity housing or controlling
Item-001, they permanently become Item-001. Once Omega-5 has a better understanding of
Item-001, they begin to run tests to find out the full extent of its abilities.
First they test the distance Item-001 can
reach. The initial test that Omega-5 carries out
is on a steel rod placed 5 kilometers away. O5-1 orders the children to destroy the target. Moments later the phone next to O5-1 begins
to ring. When he picks it up the observer tasked with
watching the pole is on the other end. He informs O5-1 that the steel rod has been
completely vaporized. O5-1 is not satisfied though. He has another pole set out, this time placed
8,000 kilometers away from the nine children. O5-1 asks the children to destroy that rod. Almost immediately, the phone rings again. The target has been vaporized. O5-1 smiles. The next series of tests Omega-5 runs on Item-001
are to determine the maximum size of an object that can be destroyed. The tests start out with a steel sphere, 3
meters in diameter, placed 1,000 kilometers from Item-001. O5-1 orders the children to destroy the object. It is instantly vaporized. O5-1 has seen enough small tests. It’s time for something big. So he does something that will later be questioned
by everyone at the SCP Foundation. He orders the nine children to destroy a Church
of the Broken God worship site in Turkey.
Not long after the destruction order is given
to Item-001, reports begin coming in. The worship site has been obliterated with
no observable damage to the surrounding area. Deadly and precise. O5-1 closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. He looks as if he is overcome by an immense
spiritual experience. He opens his eyes, leans over to the children,
and whispers the name of someone. Later that day, O5-1 finds out that the target
he had named has been vaporized.
The success of Omega-5 and Item-001 is relayed
to the administration of the Foundation. They are so impressed that they make plans
to use Item-001 to eliminate the Abaddon threat once and for all. However, one of the heads of the foundation,
Administrator Williams, has major concerns about the way O5-1 is running the program. The updates that O5-1 has been sending have
become less scientific, and more philosophical… more… spiritual. Administrator Williams sends a letter to O5-1
reassuring him that he is doing good work, but once the mission to destroy the Kingdom
of Abaddon is completed, O5-1 will be promoted to director, and reassigned to the newly constructed
Site-19. For the good of the Foundation, and maybe
the world, he’ll be permanently moved away from Item-001. O5-1’s response is short and to the point,
“I am fine, Administrator. The project is finished. We will complete our task when you arrive.” Administrator Williams arrives at Site-001
a few days later. He is greeted by O5-1 and the Omega-5 team. Williams can’t help but notice that O5-1
has a strange look in his eyes.
It is the look of a crazed man who has been
lost in his work, and who has, perhaps, lost himself. Williams puts the thought away though and
walks with O5-1 and his accompanying agents to the viewing area where the powers of Item-001
will be demonstrated. Administrator Williams and the other agents
watch from a protected viewing room as O5-1 enters the chamber of his new super weapon. It’s time to see if their weapon that has
had so much time, effort, sweat, tears, and especially blood poured into it, will have
been worth it. Everyone watches as O5-1 leans over and says
the name of the Abaddon Citadel to the nine children.
All at once, they start to glow. No one observing can see what has happened
in the far off Kingdom, but they know something big has happened. The administrator is thrilled, but notices
something. O5-1 hesitated a moment while leaning over
the children before standing back up. Did he whisper something else to them? And then Administrator Williams vaporizes,
pulled apart at an atomic level before he has the chance to scream.
What’s going on? The agents standing next to where Administrator
Williams previously existed begin to yell and pull out their guns. They burst through the door of the observation
room and run down the hallway towards where O5-1 and the nine children are located. The armed agents rush into the room, but O5-1
is gone. The nine children are still. Over the next few weeks O5-1 is reported to
be seen several times by SCP agents. However, no one is able to catch him, and
it appears as though other members of the SCP Foundation have also gone AWOL as well,
perhaps joining him on the run. It is unclear what his plan is, but reports
from the reconnaissance team sent into the Sahara make it obvious what the result of
his first command to the children was. There isn’t a single humanoid or building
left in the Kingdom of Abaddon. But even with this victory, the highest levels
of the SCP Foundation have an ominous thought lurking in the back of their minds. Where did O5-1 go, and what is he planning
to do next? Following the improper use of Item-001 leading
to the untimely death of a high ranking Foundation Staff member, the weapon was deemed too dangerous
and containment procedures were implemented.
Due to the high amount of radiation they were
found to emit, the nine children were placed into lead lined bags and buried under 50 meters
of concrete beneath the church of San Marcos de la Vida Eterna. Though all of the children continue to be
functionally braindead, they still display signs of life despite their containment, and
by order of the Overseer Council, have been classified as a Thaumiel entity. The smell of fire and oil fills the air. The sound of gears grinding can be heard between
the explosions and shrieks of terror.
A man runs out of his house, only to have
his leg grabbed by a metal arm and dragged back through his front door. SCP-001 leaves a trail of metal fragments
and mechanical parts on the ground in the wake of its destruction. Iron chains swing from its form, cast iron
gears whirl within it, a glowing light throbs form the center of its body. SCP-001 is consuming everything in its path. After incorporating the truck chassis into
its being, SCP-001 rolls in a lumbering fashion to the next house. It rips the gutters from the side of the building. Residents who live in the area flee their
neighborhood. All the while hoping that the mechanical monstrosity
skips over their house so they have something to return to if they make it out alive.
A section of SCP-001’s undercarriage drops
away from the main body. It rolls down the street consuming more and
more material. The new entity resembles a human spine and
rib cage. It topples over unable to support itself. The rib like formations extend out to grab
anything and everything within reach. The newly incorporated material forms what
can only be described as a head. Light from within the eye sockets fixate on
nearby civilians. The metallic creature picks up the people
and places them inside its exposed, steel, rib cage. Then it turns and spots a woman helplessly
trying to crawl away. The creature reaches out with a spiked tentacle
and wraps it around the woman’s body.
She is placed inside of the chest cavity. Moments later a severed hand falls out of
the entity and onto the ground. The mechanical monster continues to gather
bodies and materials, incorporating them into its frame. A growth begins to slowly expand on its back. It becomes so massive that the creature falls
over and uses its limbs to scurry into a nearby house. There is a sickening crunching sound as the
growth bursts. From within emerge three humanoid creatures
resembling the civilians that the entity had consumed earlier. A female with chains extending from her scalp
like dreadlocks stumbles away. The second humanoid is a man with cogs for
limbs. He examines the clock-like components that
have been incorporated into his body, then stares blankly into the distance.
The third humanoid lies motionless on the
ground. He did not make it. The two functioning humanoids look at their
creator intently. For a moment nothing moves, then as if they
have been given orders telepathically, the half human half machine humanoids turn and
run away from the mayhem. A few weeks before the massacre caused by
what would be designated as SCP-001, the Foundation had been in contact with the Allied Occult
Initiative. There were rumors of an anomalous object in
Mexico being worshipped by a group of people who identified themselves as The Church of
the Broken God. Intel about the Church claimed their deity
was a small mechanical box filled with cogs and pistons. The box supposedly had supernatural abilities,
it was said to be able to communicate with congregants of The Church of the Broken God
telepathically. The devout worshiped the box, following any
order it gave, and in return they were filled with an emotion that could only be described
as divine.
As World War II rages on in Europe, the Foundation
sends agents to recover anomalies in Mexico that might help with the war effort. While there, the Foundation force is tasked
with learning more about The Church of the Broken God. They are also ordered to investigate a town
near La Paz where there are troubling accounts of a mechanical anomalous creatures causing
mayhem. The agents make their way through Mexico gathering
various objects to bring back to Foundation sites in the United States. The unit loads all of the anomalies they’ve
recovered onto a train with the plan to check out the stories of the mechanical anomaly
they’ve heard about as they make their way to the U.S. border. The train heads north along rusted rails. Just outside of La Paz they come across a
broken down train filled with what looks to be refugees. When the Foundation unit goes to investigate
they find all of the refugees repeating the same words over and over again but they don’t
understand. The Foundation agents look at one another
confused, until one of them translates the words into English. The words the refugees are saying over and
over again are “la máquina, la máquina… the machine, the machine,” The commanding officer orders a squad of Foundation
agents to proceed up the tracks, to see if they can figure out what has the refugees
so scared.
They make their way towards La Paz, disappearing
over the horizon. As the sun sets the remaining Foundation agents
hear gunshots in the distance. They stay awake all night remaining vigilant,
waiting for the exploratory squad, but morning comes without anyone returning. Three days later, the Foundation force still
has not seen anything since the exploratory squad left. Then as the sun sits lazily in the morning
sky, a lone figure is spotted walking down the tracks towards the trains. One of the agents on watch blows his whistle
and points to the figure. A squad of agents rushes towards the shadow
of a man. Their guns are raised, ready for anything. The figure drops to the ground and begins
to crawl along the tracks. The agents reach the fallen man, only to find
that he is one of their squadmates who had been sent up the tracks to investigate La
Paz several days before. The agent’s name is DeMarco. He is covered in blood. His clothes are in tatters and he has lost
a boot.
DeMarco lies on his back with Foundation agents
standing around him, his eyes are wide and wild. He keeps babbling on about a “world eater,”
how the rest of his squad had been mulched, and he is the only one who made it out alive. The Foundation agents carry DeMarco back to
the makeshift base they created by the trains. They need to figure out a way to get the convoy
moving again, but whatever is up ahead has taken out an entire Foundation squad.
It had to be something anomalous, but what
could it possibly be? The unit of Foundation agents prepare to move
towards La Paz. They start loading their rifles and check
the amount of ammunition and explosives available in case the containment process gets out of
hand. Just as they are about to leave the base,
a convoy appears on the horizon. It is an Allied Occult Initiative force preparing
to attack whatever it is that is devastating La Paz. This organization’s mission is not to secure,
contain, or protect, but to destroy. The Foundation may be in over their heads
on this one, and the joint force with the Allied Occult Initiative may be the only way
to stop what is now known as SCP-001. The AOI and Foundation force gears up for
battle. They set out for La Paz, and what they find
causes them to quake with fear. SCP-001 has consumed so much material it is
the size of a mountain.
It moves like a tidal wave of mechanical destruction,
washing over the buildings and landscape under it. Whatever SCP-001 passes over is consumed and
added to its massive body. SCP-001 started as a small mechanical box
with cogs, but now has morphed into a gigantic metal death machine. The Church of the Broken God has finally met
their maker, as the small entity they once worshiped has now consumed all of its members. Their god is an all consuming monster. The AOI and Foundation forces do everything
they can to stop SCP-001 from continuing its reign of destruction. They fire barrage after barrage of bullets
and explosives into the mechanical anomaly. They bring in air support to try and damage
it from the skies, but nothing works. The AOI uses an artifact in their possession
to lure SCP-001 to the coast of the Pacific Ocean where a trap has been set for the so-called
god.
The monstrous mechanical creature moves slowly
towards the water. It consumes abandoned cars, buildings, and
boats as it approaches the coastline. It even shovels large amounts of the earth
into its form, causing flames to spurt out from its inner workings. Smoke bellows from openings between different
mechanical components, like a volcano before it is about to erupt. Suddenly, seemingly from nowhere, a massive
cloud with a reddish tint appears in the sky. Air raid sirens can be heard in the distance. The enormous cloud begins to pulsate. Streaks of lightning shoot through the red
mist in the sky.
It now sits directly over SCP-001. From within the cloud part of a ship can be
seen. It appears to be slightly damaged, electricity
flows over its hull. The vessel in the giant red cloud is classified
as SCP-2399. The underside of the vessel begins to glow
aqua blue. A blinding beam of light is ejected from SCP-2399,
which penetrates straight down and through SCP-001. For a moment everything is still.
There is complete silence. Then as if SCP-001 is trying to reach up and
grab the vessel above it, a mechanical bulge reaches out. Before SCP-001 can grab the vessel above,
there is another bright flash of light. SCP-2399 blinks out of existence. The sound of grinding gears can be heard coming
from within SCP-001. It begins to shed its outer layers of metal. Then the entire structure that was SCP-001
collapses into the water and onto the beach.
Giant cogs fall from the sky. Parts of vehicles embed themselves in the
sand. As the Foundation and AOI agents approach
the piles of scrap metal and mechanical components they see that some of them are still moving. It is as if an invisible powersource is still
pulsating through some of the machinery. The agents of the Foundation celebrate the
destruction of the giant mechanical beast, but little do they know this was only a piece
of the entity worshipped as the Broken God. The Foundation agents collect as many of the
still moving parts as they can. They find spinning gears, twitching pulleys,
and firing pistons. As the parts are separated from one another
and carried away from the main wreckage of SCP-001, they slowly stop moving and become
inactive. Some of the artifacts recovered were identified
as being connected to the Church of the Broken God.
These artifacts are found closer to the middle
of what was once a mountain sized SCP-001. Hundreds of anomalous artifacts are collected
and transported to SCP Foundation sites. Collecting the broken parts of SCP-001 is
relatively safe. However, some agents get too close to the
larger moving parts, getting caught in them and losing a body part or two. But most agents proceed with caution and survive
the collection ordeal with their arms and legs still attached to their bodies. Dive teams are sent into the water to recover
parts that have sunk to the bottom of the sea. One of the divers is a local from the area. He is hired to bring up the heart of the machine,
since he is an experienced diver used to free diving to great depths to collect oysters
from the bottom of the bay.
The diver enters the water and swims down
into the murky depths. He secures straps around the heart of SCP-001
and pulls hard on the rope, as an indication to the surface that it is ready to be hauled
up. The salvage team on the surface begins to
pull. There is a second slight tug on the rope,
then it goes slack. The team continues to pull. When they get the heart to the surface they
are horrified at what else comes up with it. Tangled in the ropes is the lifeless body
of the diver. His head is smashed between two moving pieces
of the heart. It looks as if he shoved his head between
the slabs of metal himself. The salvage team untangles the body, rolls
it off the deck, and back into the ocean. The mechanical box which was the heart of
SCP-001 is offloaded onto the shore, but as the Foundation prepares to move it to a containment
facility, the weather starts to deteriorate. Hurricane force winds sweep across the water
and batter the coast. The heart is kept in a secured storage warehouse
until it can be moved. The people living in the village nearby complain
of hearing voices and rashes so itchy that they practically tear their skin off.
Once the storm passes, the Foundation agents
load the heart onto a ship. It is to be transported to a Foundation site
just across the border. The ocean seems calm and serene. The Foundation ship undocks and begins its
journey up the coast. Not too long after beginning its journey the
ship slowly drifts off course. It is as if the crew has stopped manning their
posts, and the ship is being controlled by a mind of its own.
The Foundation ship crashes and sinks somewhere
in the Pacific Ocean, never to be found, and more importantly, the heart of SCP-001 doesn’t
make it to the Foundation site. Years later a man is walking along the beach. He hears something. It sounds like someone pounding on a large
drum to the rhythm of a heartbeat. The man walks towards the sound. Something is drawing him forward, closer and
closer to the heartbeat. He walks and walks until the beating stops. He bends down and moves the sand aside. He spots the corner of a mechanical box sticking
out of the white sand. The man digs deeper and pulls out the small
box. Inside he can see gears whirling and pistons
firing. He holds the box close to his own heart. It seems to speak to him.
The man brings the box back to town. He starts to worship the box and soon more
and more people in the area join the new religion. They cast aside their old beliefs and focus
on the powerful entity contained within the box. God is not dead… at least not yet, but the
prophecies of The Church of the Broken God say that when the heart is found, the God
will reassemble itself once again. Then the Unbroken God will destroy all other
false deities, until only he remains.
It’s a quiet evening at Area-11 where the
Pietrykau-Fontaine Spatial Stabilization Array is housed. A skeleton crew is working overnight, to ensure
the array is ready for its big test the following day. The Foundation has been working on a particle
accelerator that will contain anomalies with the ability to manipulate the nature of spacetime. The preliminary tests seem promising, but
a few last minute tweaks to the array are necessary. Unfortunately, it is on this night in 1982,
that marks the beginning of the end for the SCP Foundation. Dr. Calvin Desmet is monitoring the array
and he notices as it spools up that there are some minor power fluctuations in one of
the stabilization arms.
This problem is not uncommon due to the vast
amounts of energy being pumped through the array and the harmonic resonance the machine
gives off, which slowly causes the coupling rings to loosen. Calvin Desmet decides that remounting the
stabilization rings will be an easy fix. And it’s a necessary one. He knows that if the rings fail during the
actual test, the array could end up shut down for months. There is still plenty of time, so Calvin Desmet
grabs his toolbox and heads down into the array. The machine is still spooling, keeping the
energy flowing at a constant low rate. There is no danger at the moment, as the inside
of the array is shielded from the radiation and energy pulsing through the outer ring. But then something unexpected happens. The system’s primary generator begins to
fluctuate uncontrollably. A catastrophic failure is imminent. Sirens begin to sound, the facility is evacuated
and the chamber is sealed. Deep in the bowels of the array Calvin Desmet
cannot hear the evacuation announcement. The humming of the array echoes through the
chamber, dampening all sound from the outside world.
The array begins to come online while Desmet
continues to work on the coupling. He has no idea what is about to happen. Meanwhile a team of Foundation scientists
scramble to get the power fluctuations in the main generator under control. As they frantically work, catastrophe strikes. They initiate the power-down cycle, but as
the generator struggles to keep the power flow balanced, an energy surge builds up. A massive amount of energy is released all
at once causing the main reactor to explode. The entire structure rocks back and forth
and Desmet is thrown into the side of the array. He too now knows that something is very wrong
and runs for the exit. When he reaches the door he finds it has been
sealed. In a panic Desmet continues running through
the tube to the next access point. This door has been locked as well. He’s never been so scared in his entire
life, and he shakes uncontrollably from the adrenaline being dumped into his muscles.
The surge of energy rushes through the array
towards Desmet. A singularity begins to form in the containment
chamber. The array is working just as it should, except
that there was never supposed to be a person inside as the singularity was brought into
existence. Moments after the singularity forms, the massive
pull of its gravity causes the stabilizer arm that Desmet had been working on to fail. The side of the array is ripped off, and Calvin
Desmet stares into the naked eye of the singularity.
Everything is silent and still for a moment,
then the singularity collapses in on itself, taking the test chamber and much of the research
wing with it along with Dr. Calvin Desmet. Sparking wires hang from the exposed walls
and ceiling where the singularity ripped the main structure away. Water flows into the deep hole carved out
of the earth where the array once stood. The scientists from Area-11 look into the
crater left by the collapsed singularity.
The Foundation administration sends agents
to collect the staff at the site and document the failings of the project. They conclude that the accident was caused
by human error. They order the array to be rebuilt, this time
using entirely automated systems to eliminate the chances of another mishap occurring. Several years after the catastrophic event
at Area-11 a new array is constructed. An intelligence system called NETZACH is put
in charge of overseeing its functions.
It is a super computer that is programmed
to follow commands, but can also autonomously make decisions in order to prevent any failures
in the system. Experiments begin again in May of 2006. The new array soon manifests its first singularity
in the containment chamber at Area-11 and what happens next will forever change the
Foundation… and the multiverse. The singularity is kept stable in the array,
it seems as if the Foundation has succeeded in trapping and containing spatial anomalies. But as they run more diagnostics on the anomaly,
something unexpected happens. The singularity begins to grow in size. The point of infinite gravity threatens to
breach containment as it reaches the boundaries of the array. Just before contact, the singularity’s growth
slows, and then stops. NETZACH has made the split second calculations
and adjustments necessary to contain the singularity. The artificial intelligence has saved the
facility and the lives of everyone in it. Now, sitting in the array, is a thick rotating
cloud of radioactive gas and dust, obscuring the singularity within.
As Foundation scientists work rapidly to fix
the array, odd events begin to occur. The workers hear noises that sound like painful
wailing. Over time the noises evolve into words, and
then full sentences. They seem to be originating from the singularity. Using equipment able to penetrate the thick
cloud of radioactive gas, the Foundation scientists get a glimpse at the singularity. To their surprise, the singularity has taken
on the shape of a human. The scientists work frantically to figure
out how the singularity could have formed itself into a humanoid shape. Dr. J. Barton Ramsey is the first to try and
make contact with the humanoid within the singularity. He finds that the entity cannot communicate
in the traditional sense. The massive gravitational pull of the singularity
does not allow sound to escape its void, instead, the entity manipulates gravity to vibrate
the suspension rings of the array itself and create soundwaves.
The being in the singularity whispers in a
metallic voice created by the vibrating of the array’s rings and says “Johannes Ramsey.” Dr. Ramsey steps back from the observation
window. “How do you know my name?” he asks the
entity. The humanoid within the swirling gas cloud
identifies itself as having the memories of Calvin Desmet. It is not Desmet per se, the being in the
singularity is so much more than one person, but it was somehow created by the accident
that had sucked Calvin Desmet into the singularity years before. The entity seems to switch between the mind
of Desmet and the vast infinity of the cosmos.
The Desmet entity asks for an Overseer from
the Foundation to be brought in. It has a proposal for the O-5 Council. When Dr. Ramsey asks why the entity needs
to talk to the The Overseers it replies that it wants “to offer them a way out.” The following day, O5-1 enters the facility
and heads to the observation deck. He looks through the reinforced glass at the
swirling cloud of radioactive dust, then glances at a monitor to see the humanoid shape of
the singularity within. He presses the microphone button on the console
and addresses the entity. “To whom am I speaking?” he asks. For simplicity sake the entity tells O5-1
to refer to him as Calvin Desmet. O5-1 makes notes of the events unfolding before
him and then asks about the way out that Calvin had mentioned.
The air is still for a moment. Then Desmet begins to speak through the vibrations
of the structure once again. He informs O5-1 that what the SCP Foundation
is doing by securing and containing anomalous entities around the world, is like putting
a small Band-Aid on a much bigger wound. Desmet wants to propose a final solution to
all of the Foundation’s problems. O5-1 listens intently as the entity unravels
the mysteries of where the SCPs have come from. He explains that the anomalies that the Foundation
has worked so hard to secure, contain, and protect the human race from are actually bleeding
into their reality from a vast multiverse. The only way to stop the manifestation of
anomalies into this universe… is to destroy all other realities. The entity that is Calvin Desmet tells O5-1
that he is able to bring about this destruction… if they release him from the confines of the
array. O5-1 is transfixed by the swirling gas that
is promising him, and everyone else on Earth, salvation. He shakes his head in disbelief.
Could this be true? O5-1 turns away from the swirling gas and
begins to walk away from the viewing glass. “I’ll need to think about what you’re
saying.” The structure begins to shake slightly. The voice of Calvin Desmet reverberates off
of the array a little louder than before. “Choose quickly Overseer, although it won’t
happen for decades, eventually a catastrophic SCP event will wipe out life on this planet. Perhaps not in your lifetime… but it will
most certainly happen within the lifetime of your children. We will talk again soon.” The vibrations slow and then stop completely. There is an eerie stillness in the observation
room as O5-1 walks out. The next day all staff members located at
Area-11 are relocated to other Foundation sites and given amnestics. The O5 Council meets in a large circular room
with wood paneling and no windows. O5-1 begins the meeting by telling the others
what Calvin Desmet had described about the end of the world. He pauses for what seems like an eternity
and then tells them of Desmet’s offer that he could prevent the end of the world, but
at the cost of destroying an infinite number of other realities.
This would mean that all the humans and creatures
of those realities would be destroyed as well. Was murdering countless other beings worth
it to protect their own reality? O5-1 begins to shake, he hasn't slept or eaten
anything since his talk with Desmet. He's being torn apart from the inside. O5-3 stands up and addresses the council. He informs everyone in the room that independent
teams have conducted research into what the Calvin Desmet entity has claimed… and they
found it to be true. The world really would come to an end. Furthermore, the research teams determined
that the capabilities of Desmet would in fact allow him to dismantle the other realities. O5-3 insists that the council must vote to
allow Desmet to destroy the other realities to ensure that this reality could be saved.
They must strike now, before the world is
overrun. O5-1 continues to shake while O5-3 breathes
heavily, sweat pouring down his temples. The rest of the council shifts their gazes
from side to side. It is time for a vote. There are eight “ayes” to allow Desmet
to destroy all other realities and four “nays” against the plan. O5-3 stands and walks around the room, stopping
behind each “nay” voter and putting a bullet in their head. He stops at the last, O5-9, who pulls out
a gun, places it under her own chin, and pulls the trigger. O5-13 abstains from the vote and the measure
passes. The remaining Overseers will use the Calvin
Desmet entity to save their reality at the expense of all others, and they soon head
to Area-11 to execute their plan.
O5-1, 4, and 12 enter the observation room
that looks upon the swirling radioactive gas around Calvin Desmet. O5-1 orders NETZACH to begin powering down
the array, which will allow the entity to prove he can do what he has promised. They have pinpointed the reality that SCP-884
came from and the shaving mirror itself sits on a table in another room in the facility. O5-3 stands in the room, watching the mirror
to see if anything happens. O5-1 asks Calvin Desmet to eliminate the reality
that the mirror had come from. The room shakes as the entity uses it to acknowledge
the request. Moments later the phone rings in the observation
room, it is O5-3, he informs the others that the mirror has disappeared. Its reality has been destroyed, and therefore
it no longer exists. There is a sigh of relief in the room as the
Overseers realize that this just might work. O5-1 asks Calvin Desmet to continue and destroy
all the realities that are bleeding into their own.
This time the entire facility begins to quake. Suddenly, O5-1 jerks backwards, his eyes wide
in confusion and horror. His body seems to be compressing under an
unknown force. O5-1 begins to distort, his legs and arms
fold into the core of his body. His head snaps down, and all that was O5-1
is sucked down into a single point in space before it completely disappears. Calvin Desmet then turns his attention to
the other two Overseers in the room who both seem to collapse into blackholes of their
own in the center of their bodies.
NETZACH's warning klaxon begins to sound,
signalling that the emergency failsafe has been activated. Before Calvin Desmet is brought under control,
the structural supports in the entire facility vibrate with his words. They are in a voice that sounds strangely
similar to O5-1’s. “Your children are free to live lives that
do not end in horror. An end to your perpetual struggle.
An end to darkness. The freedom to live in the light. All traces must be removed. This world must be washed clean. The Foundation does not escape atonement. It is the only way out.” It had been a deception. The Calvin Desmet entity had no intention
of stopping anomalies from infiltrating this world, it wanted to remove all traces of the
anomalous from all universes including this one, and that meant destroying the Overseers
and the Foundation itself. Their destruction would serve as an atonement
for the pain and suffering they had caused in their quest to secure and contain the anomalous. Calvin had to lie to the Overseers about the
real plan, since he knew they’d never sacrifice themselves and the foundation, even if it
meant an end to anomalies plaguing our world. Now though, with the Overseers out of the
way, the Calvin Desmet entity is free to move forward with its plan and purge all realities
of any trace of the anomalous. But just then NETZACH’s failsafes kick in
and the Pietrykau-Fontaine Spatial Stabilization Array subdues the entity's abilities.
Desmet is once again contained. O5-3 bursts through the door and into the
observation room. He stands before the shattered glass of the
window that looks into the array. O5-3 asks NETZACH how long the containment
array can hold Calvin Desmet. The computer’s voice fades in and out but
says, “Given current conditions, one-hundred and nineteen days, six hours, and forty-seven
minutes.” O5-3 sighs, he tells NETZACH to make a note
in the SCP database that the Calvin Desmet entity will now be known as SCP-001.
Then to make dozens of other randomly generated
entries and label them as SCP-001 as well. He knows that they will need to keep the true
nature of what this entity can do a secret. O5-3 walks out of the room. Under his breath he speaks to himself, “they
said that I'll know the one true God when I see it, and to give that God everything
it wants, because that's the only thing that matters. Tonight it appears God wants to talk to me.” Calvin Lucien stands at the end of a dusty
table in an abandoned warehouse.
In the shadows across from him sit several
hidden figures. The warehouse is falling apart, but is suitable
for the meeting Calvin has requested with the heads of the Chaos Insurgency. He has completed numerous missions for the
organization and each one has been successful; now he is proposing one final mission. Calvin Lucien takes a tattered journal out
of his bag and slides it across the table to the figures sitting in the shadows. “It’s a journal with details on the habits
of each of the thirteen Foundation Overseers,” he says. There is silence from the other end of the
table. A hand reaches out and grabs the journal;
the pages begin to turn. “The new models indicate an anomalous catastrophe
is imminent, not even the Foundation can stop it. The only way to save the world is to kill
the Overseers,” There are whispers from across the table as Calvin continues. “The proliferation of anomalies in the world
are the fault of the Overseers.
They have been meddling with reality, if business
continues as usual we might not make it out of the 2020s. We need to act now.” The whispering from the shadows resumes, this
time with what seems to be a little more urgency. One of the voices asks the question on everyone’s
mind, “How do you plan to kill the Overseers? They have a deal with death, they are immortal.” Calvin smiles and takes out a small vial from
his jacket pocket. “With this,” he says. There is silence from the shadows.The journal
slides back across the table and comes to a stop right in front of Calvin.
A deep voice from the shadows says, “do
it.” Calvin Lucien gathers his team; the codename
given to the group is “Killsquad.” He informs them they have been cleared to
take out the Overseers. It will be the most dangerous mission they’ve
ever been on, and even if successful, they probably won't make it out alive. But, the team is loyal, they set out to confront
the Thirteenth Overseer.
This has to be their first stop because without
eliminating O5-13, nothing else will matter. It is this Overseer who has a deal with Death;
a deal that protects all of the Foundation Overseers from dying. If that deal can be broken, and O5-13 can
be eliminated, then Calvin Lucien and his team will have a shot at eradicating the other
Overseers. If the deal with Death cannot be broken, all
is lost. The team boards a ship at the tip of South
America and sails towards the frozen waters of Antarctica. The Killsquad is made up of Calvin and three
others. They sit in the galley preparing for the mission
ahead. Anthony Wright is a battle hardened soldier
who sits at one end of the table. His face is covered with scars. No one can remember when he first joined the
Insurgency because it was so long ago. Next to him is Olivia Torres. She is an anarchist who was recruited into
the Insurgency after she was liberated from a Foundation site during a raid.
Adam Ivanov sits staring into his computer
screen, he is testing different gadgets that might be of use on the mission. He pushes his glasses up the bridge of his
nose and strikes the “enter” key. A long line of code begins to scroll across
the screen. A siren begins to sound, informing the crew
to make their way to the main deck. When they surface from the bowels of the ship
they see something in the distance.
It is a giant black tower rising from the
depths of the ocean like an evil iceberg. Waves crash over the side of the railings,
drenching the deck and crew with frigid water. Calvin looks at the jagged rocks along the
shore of the tower. There is no way to safely dock; there is only
one way onto the island. They know what needs to be done. Anthony waits for the next wave, then opens
the throttle to full. The ship is carried toward the island on the
crest of the wave. The hull is impaled on the rocks surrounding
the tower sending everything flying towards the front of the boat. “See, that wasn’t so bad,” Calvin says
to his team as he bandages a gash on his head. Knowing what lays ahead Calvin orders his
team to wait on the ship while he makes his own deal with death.
He enters the dark structure and is greeted
by a corpse. The corpse speaks to him, ejecting dust from
its lungs with every word; its breath smells like decaying flesh. Death has inhabited the body of Dr. Felix
Carter, the Thirteenth Overseer. Calvin is prepared though thanks to the notes
in the journal he possesses. Without hesitating, he takes out a small bottle
of liquid from his pocket and lunges at the corpse. He grabs it by the neck, tilts the head back,
and pours liquid down what is left of the throat of Felix Carter.
The corpse reanimates into the living Dr.
Carter. Death has been removed from his body by liquid
from the Fountain of Youth that Calvin had acquired on a previous raid on a Foundation
site. Seeing that Dr. Carter is now alive, Calvin
takes out his pistol and shoots the doctor twice, killing him. Calvin picks up the body and throws it into
a bottomless pit at the base of the tower. Dr. Felix Carter’s body disappears from
sight. The Overseers’ deal with death is now broken. They are vulnerable and can be killed at last. Calvin smiles and begins to turn away from
the pit when he comes face to face with Death. She stands with her head cocked to the side
looking at Calvin. “So it is you who has broken the Overseers’
deal with me, Calvin Lucien.” Calvin takes a step back. Why didn’t she stop him from killing Felix
Carter? “Something festers at the heart of the council,”
Death says.
“Something that will not die. I thought that, perhaps, if I had a seat at
their table, I could find it, make it die. But I couldn’t. There are things in this world beyond even
my reach, Calvin Lucien.” With that parting thought Death vanishes. The Killsquad contacts the Insurgency for
an evac and then makes their way to Japan where O5-12, also known as The Accountant,
has been working out of Tokyo. He is so proficient in mathematics and probability
that he can actually predict the future. Everything about the Accountant’s life,
down to the number of breaths and steps he takes each day, is predetermined based on
his own statistical models. This poses a problem for Calvin and his team. If The Accountant can see them coming, then
how can they possibly kill him? That night The Accountant steps out of his
car. He looks to the left and spots Adam. He has already predicted this man has hostile
intentions. The Accountant walks directly towards Adam,
and before he can react, throws the Killsquad member to the ground. Then he turns slightly and adjusts his watch
sending a glare directly into the window where Anthony has the Accountant in the sights of
his sniper rifle.
Anthony fires, but misses, due to being blinded
by the glare. The Accountant is surprised that he just barely
had time to avoid being shot, normally he would be several steps ahead of anyone trying
to kill him. He turns his head and watches as Olivia helps
Adam up and they run down a nearby alley. The Accountant pursues them and corners the
Killsquad members in the alley. He pulls a gun to shoot Adam, but Olivia tackles
Adam behind a dumpster as the bullet hits the wall directly behind where Adam was standing. The Accountant can’t believe that he missed,
and that he was almost tricked into being captured by the Insurgency team. He senses uncertainty in his assailants actions
and runs away unable to predict exactly what they are planning to do.
The Accountant climbs the stairs to a subway
station and boards the last car of the train. It is empty except for one man, Calvin Lucien. The Accountant is dumbfounded. “How are you here?” he screams. “I should have seen this coming!” Calvin stands up. He uses his thumb to flip a coin into the
air. On the way down he grabs it and smacks it
on the back of his opposing hand. Calvin smiles. The team has been making their decisions based
on the flip of a coin which introduced randomness into their actions that even this super advanced
mathematician could not account for. “Tell me where O5-11 is,” demands Calvin. The Accountant pauses, then shakes his head
no. If he’s going to die either way, then why
give any information to the Killsquad. Calvin flips the coin up in the air, catches
it, and looks at it.
The coin is face up. Calvin lifts his pistol and shoots The Accountant
in the head. A few nights later Olivia stands on a balcony
outside of an art exhibit overlooking the city of Seattle. Anthony walks up behind her and tells her
that the Foundation is defeated but Olivia doesn’t understand how. “We broke the Overseers deal with death
and killed The Accountant, there is nothing more to do. We can go back to our normal lives” he tells
her. Olivia is skeptical though. What about the Eleventh Overseer? And his ability to… Olivia’s eyes suddenly open wide. She pulls out a knife and stabs it into Anthony’s
heart. The world around her begins to distort and
falls apart. It was a false reality created by O5-11, better
known as The Liar. Olivia wakes up next to Adam in a hotel room. She sits up in bed and rubs her eyes. What a weird dream, she thinks. Then she realizes it wasn’t a dream. She shakes Adam awake.
Neither of them have any idea how they ended
up here, but they know it must be the doing of The Liar. they had planned for this though,
with Calvin having created a contingency plan. They pull out a laptop log in to view the
classified information Calvin left for them. Olivia begins to type but stops halfway through
her password and looks up from the screen. Olivia pulls out the gun that rests under
her pillow and shoots Adam. The false reality created by The Liar falls
apart around her. Olivia comes out of the previous lie and is
sitting across a table from Calvin. She immediately draws her pistol and points
it at Calvin's head. Is it really him? Or just another one of the Liar’s games? Calvin tries to talk Olivia down as she looks
around the room for inconsistencies that might tip her off that this is another lie, but
doesn’t find any.
Olivia begins to relax. She tells Calvin that The Liar is trying to
get something from her. Maybe the Journal can tell them what he is
looking for, as long as she still has it. Olivia nods her head and holds out her wrist
where a subdermal chip with a copy of the Journal on it has been placed. Calvin looks at her wrist; the world around
them begins to dissipate as Calvin morphs into the Liar. Olivia wakes up in a hospital where she is
hooked up to an IV. Sitting across from her is a former Insurgency
agent named Sam Biel. He explains to her that he is The Liar. He was forced into becoming a monster by the
Foundation. They had manipulated him, but now he’s tired
of running and can’t do it anymore. She is free to go. Olivia hesitantly unhooks herself from the
IV. She walks out of the hospital room and proceeds
down a fluorescent lit hallway. As she walks away, she hears a gunshot from
the hospital room. As Olivia is in the hospital, Calvin and Adam
walk through a dense forest. They are searching for O5-10.
The Journal indicates that the Tenth Overseer’s
identity within the Foundation is The Archivist. Calvin and Adam come upon a small clearing. In the middle of the clearing are two saplings
standing side by side. The void between the saplings shimmers. Calvin walks through the portal, and space
begins to warp and twist around him. His vision finally comes back into focus and
Calvin finds himself in another world. Adam enters the world behind Calvin, practically
knocking him over as he enters through the portal. This is the Wanderer’s Library. But it doesn’t look anything like they expected. Instead of rows of books, the Library is filled
with computer mainframes, humming with the collected knowledge of how to contain anomalies,
a critical backup. As the two look intently at the strange machines,
a figure in a silver robe suddenly steps out of the darkness.
It’s tall and thin, and though it’s hood
is pulled down so that they can’t see its face, they can see that it’s hands are covered
in scales that have a slight, emerald tint. It is one of the Librarians. Calvin tells the Librarian that they are seeking
the Archivist, but the Librarian tells them that the Archivist is no longer in the library. She has broken her pact with the Serpent,
and eaten fruit from the forbidden trees. If they want to see her though, the Librarian
can take them to her. Calvin and Adam follow the Librarian down
a long staircase, passing by countless doors filled with books, scrolls, works of art,
an entire universe of knowledge.
Eventually they reach the bottom of the stairs
where there stands a giant set of brass doors. Beyond the door, the librarian explains, is
the source of all knowledge. Before Calvin and Adam pass through the doors
though, Calvin turns to the Librarian. “Before we go in, I’d like to make a withdrawal”
he says. The librarian nods, and pulls a silver tube
out of its robe. It hands the tube to Adam and he looks it
over in his hands. He looks up to ask what this is, but the Librarian
has vanished.
The doors then open and the two step through. Calvin and Adam feel as if they walk through
the same kind of portal that brought them to the library, and find that they have walked
into a lush green valley with two trees. Sitting underneath one of them is a woman
in a white dress. She is reading a book and eating a piece of
fruit. “Are you the Archivist?” Calvin asks. The woman nods yes and that’s all the confirmation
Calvin needs. He raises his pistol and fires,, but the bullet
passes right through The Archivist as if she wasn’t there. “Do you read?” the Archivist asks Calvin,
seemingly not phased by his attempts to shoot her.
“I haven’t had much time recently” Calvin
replied. The Archivist explains that she’s read every
book in the library. The collected knowledge of the universe is
in the books, even one on how to allow bullets to pass through your body. She came here to find the secret to immortality. It’s her job to document everything that
happens in the world, and she can’t do that if she’s dead. She explains that she figured out that the
fruit that the Serpent forbade everyone to eat wasn’t actual fruit, but the knowledge
contained in the library. By having read every book, she had consumed
the fruit. She no longer needed the Serpent, because
she was the Serpent. The Archivist falls to the ground and begins
to writhe around, contorting her body as it starts to change. She begins to elongate as her limbs seemingly
disappear. The next thing Calvin and Adam know, they
are face to face with a giant snake. Calvin dodges as the serpent lunges at him
as Adam stands in the doorway firing at the snake with his pistol, but just like with
the Archivist’s human form, the bullets have no effect.
The Serpent coils itself around Calvin and
begins to choke the life from him as Adam can only watch, helpless. Calvin cries out with his last breath “The
tube, Adam! Open the tube!” Adam takes the tube that was given to him
by the Librarian and opens the cap. A long, heavy spear slides out that looks
much too large to have ever fit inside. He drops the tube to the ground and watches
in amazement as it starts to transform, turning into what looks like a large harpoon gun.
Adam knows what to do and places the giant
spear into the gun and points it at the Serpent. “You can’t kill me” the giant snake
says, “I’ve eaten from the tree of life!” Adam pulls the trigger and the huge spear
flies through the air, striking the serpent in the head. Adam runs to Calvin and helps him to his feet. They turn to look at the snake, but instead
of the menacing creature, it’s the Archivist once again, pinned against the tree she once
sat under, the spear sticking out of her skull. As the two stand, looking at the Archivist,
a tall, hooded, humanoid figure steps out from behind the tree. It looks similar to the Librarian except its
robe is a greenish color and it wears long black gloves. The creature pulls the spear out of the Archivist,
whose body slumps to the ground, and hands the spear to Calvin. “Who are you?” Calvin asks, but his question is ignored. After a moment, the figure finally speaks.
“That spear you now hold is called the Spear
of the Non-Believer, it is an ancient weapon used to kill gods. It is odd that someone in this realm gave
you the spear. Even with it, I am not sure you will be able
to complete your quest Calvin Lucien, but we shall see.” There is a sudden flash of light and Calvin
and Adam find themselves transported back to the forest they had entered The Wanderer’s
Library from. A week later Calvin and Anthony track down
O5-9, who in the council, is known as The Outsider. She isn’t hard to find and it seems as if
she actually wanted to be found. They find her sitting outside of her burnt
down family home. The journal had listed this as her address,
but Calvin doubted that she would be here. At most he hoped to find a clue to her whereabouts,
but here she was, sitting in the ashes of her home.
Without turning around The Outsider began
speaking. “The council just used me you know,” she
says. “They took away my academic career, my friends,
and my life. They made me conduct research for them that
compromised everything I stood for, and now here I am, with nothing.” The Outsider lets out a sigh. She asks Calvin if he’s afraid of death. Calvin shakes his head and responds, “no.” The Outsider slumps forward and Calvin walks
around to face her. She is covered in blood. Her eyes move to look up at Calvin. “You’re lying,” she says as she dies
from self inflicted wounds. Calvin and Anthony cross O5-9 off of the list
and head back to the car. As they walk, Anthony says what’s been on
everyones’ mind the last few days.
“The easy part is done. It will only get harder from here. We know O5-8 is in his castle, and I’m sure
we can get in, but I’m not sure we’ll make it out alive.” “I know,” replies Calvin. “But if we are going to save the world,
we must eliminate the rest of the Overseers, even if it means sacrificing our own lives.” They get in the car and drive off into the
blood red sunset to pick up the rest of the Killsquad team before their next mission.
Calvin Lucien leads the Killsquad team through
mud and freezing rain. In front of them looms the fortress of Baron
Leeman Hoadley, the Eighth Overseer. The team has already been through a lot: from
breaking the Overseer Council’s deal with death by eliminating O5-13, to using the Spear
of the Non-Believer to kill the god like Archivist, O5-10. The hunting of Overseers has taken a toll
on the Killsquad.
O5-12 almost killed Adam, and Olivia was stuck
in what seemed like an endless mind game with O5-11. The first five Overseers were eliminated,
but the words that the Ninth Overseer spoke to Calvin Lucien before she died still run
through his mind: are you afraid of death? Now the Killsquad is about to infiltrate one
of the most heavily guarded facilities in the world to eliminate the Eighth Overseer. Upon reaching the castle the team is surprised
to find the structure in ruin. No one is supposed to know the location of
O5-8 though. The fortress was supposed to be practically
impregnable. They storm the castle of O5-8 all the same.
The journal Calvin possesses that contains
information about the members of the SCP Foundation’s powerful O5 Council identifies him as a former
industrialist named Baron Leeman Hoadley. With his vast wealth, Hoadley funded the Foundation
at the start and was considered the unofficial leader of the council in its early days with
immense control over the actions of the organization. The Killsquad makes their way through the
dimly lit hallways of the castle.
As they turn the corner they are surprised
to find the charred remains of Baron Leeman Hoadley’s bodyguards. It seems that someone or something has gotten
to Hoadley before they could. The team makes their way to the main chamber
and breaches the door. Laying by a still lit fireplace is O5-8. The Killsquad scan the room to make sure the
killer isn’t still in there with them. Adam walks over to the body and examines it. He quickly realizes that Hoadley hasn’t
been murdered at all. He sees that Barron Hoadley’s body has been
drastically modified using anomalous technology. The Overseer used his immortality to modify
almost every part of his body to make himself stronger.
Unfortunately for Baron Hoadley, when the
Overseers’ deal with death was broken by Calvin, the modifications to his body slowly
tore him apart. His regular body could no longer support all
of the modifications, and what once made him practically invincible became the very thing
that destroyed him. The team leaves the castle and crosses O5-8
off of their list. On their way out Adam pulls Calvin aside. He has the feeling that Anthony hasn’t been
completely honest with the rest of the team. He had the feeling that Antony was hiding
something from them. Calvin had had similar thoughts recently. He pushes Anthony for more information about
his past and Anthony reveals that he’s over one hundred years old. The vial of water from the Fountain of Youth
that Calvin has was not the only one.
Early in his career with the Insurgency he
had confiscated other vials from a Foundation site. His squad drank the water and it extended
their lives. He asks Calvin what he plans on doing with
his water from the fountain. “I’m going to destroy it,” Calvin tells
him. Anthony agrees with this plan. Once you drink from the fountain of youth
you may extend your life, but a part of you dies at the same time. “Vibrancy of the senses disappears, leading
to a seemingly shallow life.” If Anthony could go back and do it again,
he never would have drank the water. Calvin receives intel from the Insurgency
that the Seventh Overseer is in a small town in Cambodia. The Killsquad makes their way to the village
and surveys the area, hoping to get a glimpse at the Overseer who is code named Green.
As the team conducts reconsiance, Anthony
tells them he thinks this mission is a setup. It is too remote, and there are so many unknown
variables. But, Calvin is convinced that this might be
their only chance to kill Green. Since Green arrived in the area there has
been nonstop chaos. She has destabilized the local governments
and now the area is in all out war. The team weaves through narrow passageways
between houses and buildings, trying to make their way to the central compound where Green
is located. Suddenly a mob starts to form. They are getting closer and closer to the
team. In a quick decision to avoid being seen, Calvin
orders everyone into a nearby building. Before Anthony can follow, the mob rounds
the corner.
They spot Anthony and he’s forced to flee. Calvin, Olivia, and Adam watch as the mob
chases after Anthony, but they have to keep moving. Calvin knows that Anthony can take care of
himself, and they are too close to their goal to stop now. Calvin slowly opens the front door of the
house they are hiding in and peers out. The coast looks clear, so he signals Olivia
and Adam to follow him. Before they can step out into the street,
a gas canister enters through the cracked doorway. The room fills with sleeping gas and the team
passes out. When they awake, they are tied up in a large
room with marble vaulted ceilings. O5-7 is standing in front of Calvin. She smiles wickedly while holding a knife. She compliments Calvin on what he and his
team have been able to do so far. No one believed they could pull off even a
fraction of what they have. But now she has an offer for Calvin. She points towards Adam and Olivia and tells
Calvin he must choose one of them to die.
If he doesn’t, she’ll kill the leader
of the rioters and plunge another part of the country into chaos. “Screw you” is Calvin’s response. “Very well,” utters Green. “Have it your way.” She assassinates the leader being held in
her compound, then turns back to Calvin. She now threatens to torture his team until
Calvin makes a choice of who to kill. Green slashes Adam’s cheek with her knife
as Calvin screams for Green to leave his team alone and torture him instead. Green just smiles. “I am going to enjoy killing your friends
while you watch, as you have killed so many of my Overseers on the council.” She reaches up in the air with the knife above
Adam’s head.
Before she can plunge the knife through his
skull a bullet passes through her hand, causing her to drop the knife. Anthony kneels on a rooftop across the courtyard,
smoking sniper rifle still pointed at Green who runs. Calvin uses the dropped knife to cut his ropes
and chases after Green. He follows her to the roof where he watches
as she boards a helicopter. The aircraft lifts off as Anthony fires at
it from his original position, but does no serious damage. In the plaza below the mob that had separated
the team earlier becomes restless. There is complete chaos and someone fires
a rocket at the fleeing helicopter. The rocket hits the tail of the aircraft,
sending it crashing into the plaza full of rioters below as the crowd flees from the
scene. Calvin makes his way towards the wreckage
and reaches the wreckage at the same time Anthony does. Calvin looks at him, smiles, and thanks him
for saving his life. Anthony smiles back but before he can say
anything, a gunshot rings out and a bullet rips through his neck. Calvin turns to see where it came from and
is horrified to see the burning body of O5-8.
Her skin has been charred black, but in her
burnt hand she holds a gun. What’s left of her lips curl back in a sinister
grin as she fires again and hits Anthony in the chest. He falls to the ground. Calvin runs to him and pulls his gun out to
shoot O5-8, but she is already dead. Calvin holds his dying teammate as blood pours
out of his neck and chest. But Calvin can stop this. He pulls out the vial of water from the Fountain
of Youth.
“No,” winces Anthony. “I have lived long enough. Thank you my friend, I will see you in whatever
lies beyond this life.” Anthony’s chest rises then falls, it does
not rise again. Olivia and Adam round the corner to see Calvin
holding the lifeless body of their teammate, tears flowing from his eyes. The team holds a small ceremony and burial
for Anthony, but they are only halfway through their mission, and can’t stop now. They fly back to the United States where an
undercover Insurgency agent named Kowalski informs them that O5-6 is already aware they
are after him. This Overseer is code named The American because
he has the power of the entire U.S.
Military at his fingertips. The Killsquad scouts the base where The American
is located. Kowalski warns them of a crate that was recently
brought to the base from Site-19. The American showed great interest in whatever
was in the container. The group sets up a camp on a hill overlooking
the base. As the sun slowly rises the next day, the
Killsquad is spotted by a drone and forced to hop in their Jeep and try to run. They make their way down the hill, finding
themselves in the valley below with no clear exit. In front of them lands a helicopter as humvees
roar into the canyon behind them.
The team is surrounded. A Jeep pulls up and O5-6 steps out. He introduces himself as Rufus King, member
of the Overseer Council, but an American citizen first and foremost. All he really wants is to protect the country
he loves. “Thanks to you, I have lost my immortality
and can no longer effectively protect the United States anymore,” the American says
to Calvin. “But I am willing to make a deal… your
freedom for the Spear of the Non-Believer. Rumor has it that you have the spear in your
possession, and you used it to kill the Archivist. If you give me the spear I will let you go.” “No,” replies Calvin. “I will never give an Overseer the means
to cause more destruction. The spear stays with us.” “Very well,” the American says with a
frown. “Then I suppose my only other option is
to take it from you, but not without giving you a fair chance. Run Calvin Lucien. Run as fast as you can, I will be coming for
you.” The American turns and walks towards the container
from Site-19, which is being lowered from a helicopter hovering above them.
Calvin sprints back to the Jeep with the other
members of his team. As they drive away they hear a horrible, guttural,
screech from whatever was inside the container. After a few moments the army begins to pursue
them, out in front of the military force is O5-6 riding SCP-682. He is using a black whip to urge the creature
forward, and they’re gaining on the Killsquad… fast. A row of vehicles pulls up beside The American
and SCP-682, then something strange happens. A man appears in front of the oncoming forces
led by the American. The man’s skin bulges and seems to be moving
from within. The skin of the man sloughs from his body. The infection that is SCP-610 erupts out of
him and onto the soldiers in a nearby Jeep.
SCP-610 begins to infect and consume everyone
around it. Suddenly, there are thousands of instances
of SCP-610 coming from the mountain side, flooding into the valley. They close in around the army and O5-6. The American begins fighting off the flesh
eating creatures from the back of SCP-682, but he becomes overwhelmed. He can no longer focus on pursuing Calvin
and his team. From the back of the Jeep Olivia pulls out
her rifle. She aims and fires. The bullet hits The American in the chest. He is flung off the back of SCP-682 and engulfed
in a sea of SCP-610 creatures. The Killsquad continues to drive, trying to
put as much distance between themselves and the SCP-610 infestation as possible. But then Calvin suddenly slams on the breaks. Standing in front of them is a man in a black
suit and bow tie. He introduces himself as Blackbird, the Fifth
Overseer. According to the journal his actual name is
Mortimer J. Denning Von Kronecker. He stands in front of the Jeep with a menacing
grin. “You have been causing a lot of trouble,”
he says looking at Calvin.
Olivia swings her gun around. “Please my dear, that won’t help you,”
Von Kronecker says. He pulls out a knife and stabs himself through
the neck. He falls to the ground apparently dead. There is a gust of wind, a whiff of ozone,
and an identical copy, and still very much alive, Von Kronecker lands next to his own
dead body. “See what I mean,” he says. Olivia lowers her rifle. “Come with me; I have something to show
you,” the Blackbird beccons.
Seeing no other option Calvin, Olivia, and
Adam exit the Jeep and follow the Blackbird. As they walk, the world changes around them. The desert mountains fade away into blackness
and they find themselves in a near-apocalyptic London. “Ah, it’s good to be home,” the Blackbird
says as they emerge onto a cobblestone street. “You cannot stop the Overseers plans, however,
I can give you an alternative. Let’s see if any of you will take it.” In front of each Killsquad member appears
a door.
They have an uncontrollable urge to open their
respective door and walk through. The Blackbird stands smiling as he watches
Calvin, Olivia, and Adam enter each of their portals. Adam enters his door and looks around. He is in Portland. His parents walk into the room. In this universe his family has been granted
asylum. Adam never has to interact with any SCPs or
the Foundation. He is free to live a normal life. From the kitchen comes Calvin wearing an apron. He is holding a steaming pot. Adam locks eyes with Calvin who smiles at
him. The Blackbird whispers into Adam’s ear,
“in this reality both of your parents and siblings are still alive. Also, the man you love loves you back, you
and Calvin could be married if you stayed here, wouldn’t that be nice?” Olivia enters her door. She is on the deck of a yacht. At the bow sits an easel with art supplies. The man that Olivia once loved walks across
the deck towards her. The Blackbird looms over her, “in this reality
you didn’t accidentally kill him.
This could be your happily ever after. Wouldn’t that be nice?” Calvin steps through his door. He is in a grassy clearing near a lake. The Blackbird hisses in Calvin’s ear, “I’m
giving you the opportunity to save your mother this time Calvin. You were just a scared little boy, but in
this reality you can be brave. You can actually save your mother from her
fate.” “No!” Calvin screams. “This isn’t real!” The Blackbird cackles.
Calvin looks away from the lake and towards
the treeline. Hidden in the shadows he can just barely make
out a hooded figure. Calvin walks towards it. The Blackbird follows, he is screaming at
the person in the treeline. “I was only trying to help!” The hooded figure reaches out and hands Calvin
a metal tube. He opens it to find a set of eyeglasses inside. Calvin puts them on and turns to look at the
Blackbird. He steps back in horror. The glasses have revealed the true form of
the Blackbird. He is a winged, pseudo-avian, monstrosity
full of rage. The mysterious hooded figure directs Calvin
to open the tube again. Inside is an interdimensional fishing line
made by Dr. Wondertainment, and white wiffle ball bat. Calvin grabs the fishing line and wraps it
around O5-5’s leg. The Blackbird flies into the air trying to
get away from Calvin, but Calvin wraps the other end of the fishing line around his arm. The Blackbird begins to jump from dimension
to dimension trying to get rid of Calvin. They appear on the deck of SCP-455, in Site-19
where SCP-682 walks freely, in the dead world of SCP-2935.
Every time they stop in a new dimension, Calvin
takes the opportunity to attack the Blackbird with the bat. And it seems that he is slowly weakening the
monster. They finally land at the bottom of a Deepwell
Foundation containment site, where the Darkbody that is SCP-001 is contained. Standing in front of the containment field
is Alison Chao, The Black Queen, whose sole mission is to destroy the Foundation. “You!” cries the Blackbird. “You are the one who has been helping Lucien!” The Black Queen nods her head. “Yes, I have been helping Calvin Lucien
to eliminate you and the other Overseers. The Foundation must fall.” “You are nothing! You cannot stop me! I am The Black King!” screams O5-5. Alison Chao sighs. She pushes a button on the panel next to her,
shutting down the array containing the Darkbody.
Out of the cloud of dust appears SCP-001,
a massive black creature who seemed to absorb all light. “No! Stop!” shrieks the Blackbird. SCP-001 does not move, but the room begins
to shake. The Blackbird continues to scream as his body
folds in on itself until he is reduced to a single superheated point, and then blinks
out of existence. Alison Chao then reactivates the containment
array, sealing 001 away once again. “I will return you to your reality along
with your friends,” says the Black Queen. “But perhaps our paths shall cross again
Calvin Lucien.” There is a bright flash of light and Calvin
finds himself on a private jet sitting next to Olivia and Adam. They are all shaken, but the Blackbird is
dead. O5-5 has been eliminated. The three members of the team sit silently,
still pondering what might have been if they stayed in the alternate realities. Suddenly, the phone on the plane begins to
ring, breaking the silence. Calvin picks it up. On the other line is the Fourth Overseer. He has contacted Calvin to discuss surrendering
to the Insurgency. Unfortunately, things do not always go as
planned. Calvin Lucien is about to make the most difficult
and dangerous decision of his life.
Aaron Siegel, better known to Foundation members
as O5-1, descends into the abyss of a Deepwell site. He exits the elevator and peers into the optical
scanner to unlock the reinforced door. Inside the room is Mobile Task Force Tau-5… Samsara. Aaron Siegel refers to these immortal cyborg
clones, created from the flesh of a dead god, as his Red Right Hand. “Your mission is to eliminate the traitor
O5-4, and to find the insurgents who have been killing the members of the Overseer Council.” The cyborgs stand at attention. “Now!” Aaron Siegel screams. The soldiers of the Red Right Hand march out
the door to start their mission. Aaron Siegel pauses for a moment and then
slams his fist against the wall in frustration. He has lost nine Overseers to Calvin Lucien
and his Kill Squad team. They have been somehow overcoming the odds
each time, and eliminating each Overseer they track down.
It wasn’t supposed to end this way. Aaron Siegel vows to kill them all. Calvin Lucien, meanwhile, sits on a private
jet with Adam and Olivia. He had just hung up the phone after a conversation
with O5-4. The Overseer known as the Ambassador wants
to surrender to the Insurgency. There’s a good chance this is a trap, but
Calvin has decided to meet with the Ambassador all the same. Calvin drops off Adam and Olivia at an Insurgency
base. They still haven’t fully recovered from
the previous mission with O5-5, known as the Blackbird. Before leaving though, Calvin meets with an
Insurgency agent named Sylvester Sloan, who is going to join him as support. Calvin says goodbye to Adam and Olivia, then
leaves with Sloan to meet The Ambassador in South Africa.
After landing at Johannesburg airport, Calvin
and Sloan disembark and are led to a conference room where the Ambassador sits waiting for
them. Calvin and Sloan sit across from O5-4 to discuss
his surrender. “The Council is in shambles,” says The
Ambassador, “everything is falling apart. I want to offer my services and information
to the Insurgency in exchange for protection from O5-1. He has lost his mind.” Calvin agrees to the terms and prepares for
extraction. But as they get up from the table gunshots
can be heard from down the hall. The Ambassador’s eyes open wide in terror.
“It’s too late,” he whispers. Calvin and Sloan grab the Ambassador, who
is frozen in fear, and exit the conference room. They make their way toward their plane, but
the gun shots are getting closer. Calvin looks over his shoulder to see Samsara
pursuing them through the terminal. Calvin shoves the Ambassador behind a table
as bullets whiz overhead. Calvin and Sloan return fire, but their volly
doesn’t seem to slow down the assassins. Calvin and Sloan pull the Ambassador to his
feet and they burst through an emergency exit onto the sun baked tarmac where they make
a mad dash for the plane. From behind them a bullet rips through the
chest of Sloan. The Red Right Hand has caught up, but Calvin
continues to drag the Ambassador towards the plane. They are almost there. Suddenly, a metallic child’s voice blares
through the airport’s external speakers. The child’s voice says, “I want Calvin
Lucien alive. I have business to settle with him.” The Red Right Hand soldiers tackle Calvin
and the Ambassador to the ground when they are just feet away from the plane.
“Kill the traitor,” the child’s voice
says, and Calvin can only watch helplessly as the Ambassador is violently murdered. One of the agents turns towards Calvin and
slams his fist into Calvin's face causing him to black out. Calvin awakens in a dark room. He is unsure how much time has passed. The only light in the room comes from a screen
on the wall. In the middle of the screen is a rotating,
red, SCP Foundation seal. A voice from a speaker speaks. “Hello Calvin Lucien, my name is The Kid. I am the Third Overseer. You have killed all of my friends… and now
I will kill all of yours.” The door to the room opens. Calvin leans through the doorway. There is a long, dimly lit, hallway. The Kid orders him to proceed, so that they
can meet face to face.
As Calvin walks, the Kid’s voice echoes
down the hallway. “There once was another O5-3. He built incredible machines, even one that
could see into the future. But unfortunately for him, he did not have
the passion required to be an Overseer. That was when I was… born. I was chosen by the other Overseers to have
my spinal cord severed in a way that gave me the ability of the All-Seeing Eye.
I now watch everything, all of the time. I have perfect reasoning, perfect awareness,
and perfect understanding.” Calvin gets to the end of the corridor, which
opens up into a large chamber. Tied up in the middle of the room are Olivia
and Adam. Calvin runs to his friends and crouches down
next to them. A mechanical suit stands on a platform looking
down at Calvin, Olivia, and Adam. Calvin realizes the Kid must be contained
inside. “I now sentence you all to death,” the
mechanical suit says as the Red Right hand steps out of the shadows and slowly walks
towards the remaining members of the Killsquad. Suddenly, there is a flash of light and The
Black Queen appears.
“Stop! What are you doing?” shrieks the Kid. The Black Queen hands Calvin the interdimensional
rod and reel he used to defeat the Blackbird. Calvin casts the rod. From out of the tear in space comes a massive,
multi-armed creature, known as Malidramagiuan. The Red Right Hand engages the monster trying
to force it back into its dimension. But the monster is too powerful. It grabs the cyborg clones and pulls them
through the tear in reality. As Samsara battles the Malidramagiuan, Calvin
frees Olivia and Adam. They make a run for the door, but as they
flee, one of the walls opens up to reveal a turret. The gun fires and a bullet hits Olivia directly
in the head, killing her instantly. “No!” yells Calvin. But before Calvin can push Adam out of the
way, a second bullet from the turret lodges itself in Adam’s back. Calvin and Adam slide across the floor. The Kid in his mechanical suit jumps down
from the platform above. “I am going to kill you now Calvin Lucien,”
he says in his mechanical voice. There is another flash of light. Calvin watches in front of him as the Spear
of the Non-Believer manifests itself before his eyes.
Calvin grabs the spear and shoves it into
The Kid’s machine body. It easily penetrates the armor and pins him
to the wall. Calvin walks up to the exoskeleton and tears
off the outer plating, revealing a tank full of fluid, within which floats a malformed
human fetus. As Calvin finally looks upon the Kid’s true
form, he hears the sound of mocking mechanical laughter. Calvin breaks the glass and crushes The Kid
with his bare hands. As Calvin turns from the now silent robotic
body of The Kid, the room begins to shake, debris raining down from above. Calvin helps Adam up and puts Olivia’s lifeless
body across his shoulders. What remains of the Killsquad makes their
way out of The Kid’s lair. Outside of the Foundation site where they
were being held, Calvin helps Adam to lie down on the ground before gently setting Olivia’s
body next to him. Adam grimaces as blood pours out of the wound
in his back. Calvin reaches into his pocket and pulls out
the vial of water from the Fountain of Youth. There are only a couple drops left, which
he pours into Adam’s mouth.
Adam looks up at Calvin, tears filling his
eyes, he whispers “I love you” before he passes out from the pain. The wound in his back begins to heal instantly
and Calvin calls an Insurgency evac team to come pick up Adam. With Adam safe, Calvin picks up Olivia and
walks alone towards a truck in the lot outside of the Foundation site. He needs to finish this once and for all.
He will kill the last two Overseers, or he
will die trying. O5-1, Aaron Siegel arrives at where the Tigris
and Euphrates rivers meet. The Garden of Eden. He is in a frenzy due to the assassinations
of all the other Overseers besides himself and The Nazarene and nothing will stop him. As he approaches the gate to the Garden of
Eden though, he is stopped by the Guardian of the Garden, a massive, powerful anomalous
entity with a flaming sword.
But Aaron Siegel has no time, or patience,
for anything to get in his way. Even something as powerful as the Gate Guardian. The Guardian swings his burning sword at Adam
who rolls out of the way and, in a flash, takes out a Scranton Reality Anchor. He slams the anchor into the ground which
causes the world to shimmer and ripple around him. He watches as the flames from the Gate Guardian’s
sword seem to absorb back into its body, before it shrinks down, looking to fold in on itself
until all that is left is a charred skeleton. With the Guardian defeated, Aaron sprints
into the Garden. He searches the garden for O5-2, but can’t
find her anywhere. He finally comes to the Tree of Life, and
that’s where he finds her. Laying at the base of the tree in a pool of
blood is The Nazarene, she has taken her own life. This is her anomalous power though. She has died many times before yet Death always
spared her and brought her back. But somehow, he knows this time is final.
Aaron drops to his knees and screams in frustration. For all the power Aaron Siegel possesses,
there’s nothing he can do now. He sits next to The Nazarene’s body for
hours, hoping that she might wake up, or that he will to find that this was all a dream. After sitting next to her cold body for some
time, he notices something in her snowy white hand. It’s a note. In it The Nazarene explains that she was the
one who gave the vials from the Fountain to Calvin Lucien, and that she is the one who
made the spear appear before him that he used to kill The Kid. She explained that while she died many times
and Death always brought her back, each time she felt less and less like herself, less
and less like Dr. Sophia Light. She hoped that maybe if things ended up like
this, it would give Aaron the chance to walk away and live the life that they might have
been able to have together, but she knows deep down that Aaron’s fate is to meet Calvin
and finish things once and for all.
Aaron Siegl screams in rage, clutching the
note in his hand. He tries to summon Death, but no one comes. Aaron Siegel is alone. He stands up and walks deeper into the Garden. He walks until he reaches a spot where even
God’s light does not reach. In this desolate land is an impact crater
where Lucifer, Star of the Morning, had fallen. In the middle of the crater lies Lucifer’s
sword. Aaron Siegel descends into the hole and picks
up the sword. He turns and exits the Garden of Eden. Aaron Siegel has only one mission in life
now… to kill Calvin Lucien. Calvin reads the final entry of the journal. In it the author warns that although he hopes
the information contained within the journal is helpful, he hopes the reader does not try
to use it.
The words written on the final page are: “this
information will only lead you to a devastating end.” Calvin closes the journal and looks up at
the structure in front of him. He has made it to Site-01. He had left Olivia’s body in a cave nearby,
promising to her that he would make this right. He now walks up to the massive doors and places
his hand on the knotted wood. The doors slowly creek open. Calvin pauses for a moment and looks behind
him at the setting sun, he enters Site-01, where he knows O5-1 is. Where Aaron Siegel waits. Inside the main hall Calvin sees a giant doorway
in the shape of the SCP Foundation seal, with artistic depictions of certain SCPs that he
instinctively knows are special in some way. Standing next to the doorway is a 2 meter
tall man in what looks to be a futuristic suit.
Calvin approaches and asks who this giant
man is, he responds that his name is Purpose, the Red Right Hand. He is the guardian of O5-1 and none shall
enter the sanctum until he returns. “He isn’t here?” asks Calvin. “No” Purpose responds, “he is.” And with that he steps aside and lets Calvin
pass through the doorway. The doorway leads into a large room where
screens on the wall flash to life, depicting moments from Calvin’s journey, documenting
his entire quest.
Had he been in control at all? Or was this all a setup to lead him to this
moment? As he walks forward he finally sees him. Sitting at a table in the middle of the room,
is Aaron Siegel. “You are O5-1?” Calvin asks. “Aaron” the man responds. “My name is Aaron.” Calvin asks about the location of the second
Overseer, the Nazarene, but O5-1 doesn’t respond.
Without needing any more information, Calvin
pulls out his sidearm and in a flash fires off five shots. The bullets stopped in the air, inches away
from Aaron, before dissolving in a flash of light. Calvin should have known it wouldn’t be
this easy. “Stand up, Aaron Siegel” Calvin calls
out as he holsters his gun. “Let’s finish it.” Calvin pulled the spear of the non-believer
from his back but Aaron’s only response was to laugh. “You don’t even know why you’re here”
Aaron said.
Calvin calls back “I’m here to kill you,
because when I do, I kill the Foundation. Because when you’re gone the universe can
finally heal.” “You’re like me, Calvin Lucien. We are both men driven by our own convictions,
regardless of the outcome. It would seem fate has brought us together. Now, either your convictions will be broken,
or you will die,” says Aaron Siegel. He then draws Lucifer’s flaming sword and
lunges towards As the two men clash with one another, their
supernatural weapons begin to destroy the room around them. Furniture is shattered, video screens are
obliterated, and fire spreads across the walls. Aaron catches Calvin off balance and swings
the flaming sword across Calvin’s stomach. Calvin slides back from the impact, hunching
over from the pain in his midsection. He brings his head up to see Aaron Sigel running
towards him with the flaming sword high in the air. Calvin brings up the spear; from his knees
he leans back and launches it towards Aaron Siegel. The spear enters the final Overseer’s chest;
the force from the throw pinning him against the wall.
Aaron Siegel drops Lucifer’s sword. It shatters as it hits the ground. He clutches the shaft of the spear protruding
from his sternum with both hands. O5-1 looks at Calvin unbelievingly. “You have no idea what you’ve done. It was never about the Overseers,” Aaron
Siegel says, spitting out blood with every word. “It was something deeper – something worse.” Calvin walks slowly towards Aaron Siegel. He stops just in front of his final enemy. “This is the way it ends,” Calvin says. Aaron Siegel manages to whisper one final
word “Sophia…” before his body finally goes limp. Calvin turns to see Purpose standing behind
him.
“He’s dead” Calvin says, half to Purpose
and half to himself “I killed him.” After a moment he asks Purpose what he really
wants to know. “There’s a room in this facility where
someone could unmake the Foundation, right? Take me there.” Without any hesitation, Purpose leads Calvin
back to the room with depictions of important SCPs. There, Purpose opens the door to an elevator
but stops Calvin before he can get inside. “I’m duty bound to tell you” Purpose
says, “that once you step inside this elevator, there is no going back.
There is only one decision to be made and
it is not one that can be unmade.” “I know,” Calvin responds. “It’s time” before stepping inside. The elevator doors open to reveal a room filled
with bookcases and a huge window offering a beautiful view of the sun setting behind
the mountains. On the wall are more monitors depicting the
ways he had killed all of the Overseers, and in the middle of the room is a large desk
with a computer. Calvin sits down at the desk and the computer
comes to life. The computer prompts him to scan his fingerprint,
which it accepts.
He’s logged in. The computer screen displays numerous locations
around the planet, and he quickly recognizes that they are all SCP Foundation sites. Then he sees the single option the computer
is giving him. “Terminate” Calvin reaches out with his finger, this is
it, once he presses this button, the SCP Foundation will be no more. His finger is millimeters from the button
when – The phone rings. Calvin hadn’t even noticed that there was
a phone on the desk Calvin stares at it for a moment then picks it up. “Hello?” he says. The voice on the other line responds.
“Hello Calvin Lucien, my name is The Administrator. I have been following your work for some time
now, and I must say, I am impressed. I have just been informed that you have completed
your mission, congratulations are in order.” “What the hell are you talking about?” Calvin asks. “Please listen,” says the voice on the
other line. “The man you just killed was once in the
same exact position you are in now. Granted, it was a very long time ago, but
Aaron Siegel originally was trying to destroy the Foundation; that was until I convinced
him otherwise. And now, like Aaron Siegel, you will become
the new head of the Foundation.” “Like hell I will!” yells Calvin. “I could hang up, walk away right now, and
be done with all of this!” “You could,” continues the Administrator,
“But if no one is in charge of the SCP Foundation, millions of people will die, if not billions,
and then nobody would be there to manage what comes after.” There is silence from Calvin. “That’s what I thought,” says the Administrator.
“I look forward to working with you Calvin
Lucien… or should I say O5-1.” The line goes dead. The Ouroboros Cycle. One of the biggest, most legendary series
of entries in the history of the SCP Foundation. We’ve covered the events of this SCP-001
epic in six videos – which, we definitely recommend you watch before this one to avoid
your brain exploding from the sheer scope of it all. Because that’s the thing about the Ouroboros
Cycle – it’s a story so big, sprawling, and dense that it can feel almost like an
anomaly itself. Whether you’re immersed in the possible
origin of the Broken God, the sentient black hole that can destroy whole universes, or
Calvin Lucien’s quest to assassinate the O5 Council, it can sometimes be difficult
to see the forest of the trees. But worry not, because that’s exactly why
we’re here today. We’re going to step back and look at this
anomalous odyssey as a whole, and ask the big question: Why is it all here together? What makes these four different storylines
– The Children, The Broken God, Atonement, and The Way It Ends – one big cycle? As with anything involving the SCP Foundation,
there’s always going to be an element of personal interpretation, but now that we’ve
gone through the whole cycle, we think it’s worth adding our two cents to the proceedings.
So, let’s start broad. A question you’ve probably been wondering
is, what do the words “Ouroboros Cycle” actually mean? And what is their significance to the four
stories within? While the spelling can differ, Ouroboros refers
to the ancient symbol of a snake or dragon eating its own tail, forming a circle – a
direct connection to the concept of “cycles.” The Ouroboros symbol has existed in a huge
number of cultures, from the Ancient Egyptians to the Ancient Greeks to modern Gnostic traditions.
It’s often used in alchemy or other magical
practices, and has a variety of meanings such as eternal life, the endless cycle of death
and rebirth, and the cycle of renewal. Anyone familiar with the tales within the
Ouroboros Cycle is probably already noticing some similarities. Cycles are a common theme in all of these
works. People endlessly repeat mistakes, threats
thought to be contained or destroyed return, and oftentimes, those who go out on a quest
to destroy something end up becoming what they wished to destroy in the first place. In a cycle, there is no true end and no true
beginning. Everything repeats endlessly. But let’s start at the closest thing to
a beginning we have: The Children. In this tale, the Foundation faces off against
a terrifying, reality-warping group of interest known as the Kingdom of Abaddon.
This nasty group which came from the Sahara
desert could seemingly take anything the Foundation threw at them, and were able to straight-up
vaporize anyone who got too close. If the Kingdom was able to amass enough power,
it could spell the end of the Foundation, and even the subjugation of the human race. Enter O5-1, a recurring character in the Ouroboros
Cycle. This outside the box thinker put all his chips
on the Twins of God Project, designated SCP-001, like many anomalies before and after it. This project would infuse a human being with
godlike powers, but it was a power so great that it seemed to kill anyone who attempted
to accept it. Needless to say, this was a major bummer for
O5-1, but through relentless human experimentation – even sacrificing the population of entire
towns to the project – he eventually came up with a solution. A horrifying solution, but a solution nonetheless. He found that a group of nine children, with
ages varying from four to eleven, could act as a human conduit for 001’s power – and
as a result, it could be the weapon capable of turning the tide against the Kingdom of
Abaddon.
During the testing phase, though, it seemed
like O5-1 went a little mad with power. He vaporized an entire Church of the Broken
God place of worship, and used the power of The Children to wipe a few others off the
map at his own discretion. His abuses of power got so flagrant that The
Administrator himself was called in to get a handle on the situation. And, surprise surprise, O5-1 disintegrated
him too, before disappearing himself shortly afterwards. In the end, The Children were deemed too dangerous
to be practical, both because of their anomalous powers and from the level of ambient radiation
they put out. All nine were locked in radiation-proof boxes
and buried in the desert, though they each show signs of life to this day.
While this may seem disconnected from the
rest of the series, it actually establishes some of the most important recurring themes
and ideas of the Cycle as a whole. Namely, the Foundation messing with reality
and performing horrific acts to achieve their goals, the corruption of the O5 Council, and
the fact that these grand attempts to change or save the world often blow up in everyone’s
faces, sometimes literally. We also have the introduction and apparent
death of the mysterious Administrator, but trust us, all is not what it seems with this
one. The ripple effect beginning here will affect
everything going forward. Next, The Broken God. This tells the chaotic story of a magical
clockwork box which is worshipped by the Church of the Broken God as a conduit to their deity,
and eventually becomes an all-devouring, mechanical kaiju.
The beast – soon dubbed SCP-001 – devoured
and consumed all the metal around it, slowly becoming larger and more destructive. If the Foundation didn’t take it out before
it reached critical mass, they’d be going toe to toe with a bonafide God – a fight they
really weren’t sure they could win. Thankfully, and with a little anomalous help
from SCP-2399, the Foundation was able to destroy the anomaly. They removed its clockwork heart from the
wreckage and contained the anomalous scrap that once comprised its destructive body. However, the Foundation soon realized that
you just can’t keep a good God down. The clockwork heart eventually evaded Foundation
containment while being shipped to a secondary location, and instead ended up in a small
town. Here, it began to influence the minds of the
residents into more subservient Broken God cultists, intent on building him back up to
his former glory. It’d be easy to discount The Broken God
as an outlier, seeing as the Foundation came out looking much better here than they do
in any of the other Ouroboros tales. But when you look carefully, its place in
the overall Cycle is clear.
The entry ends the way it begins, with the
heart of the Broken God influencing humans to carry out its bidding. The Foundation had to intervene in between
these two instances, but in the end, there was no net loss to the Broken God itself. In a sense, the Foundation is doomed to encounter
the same problems again and again, continually defending the world from the same anomalous
threats.
And the Foundation needs to succeed every
time to maintain peace and normality. A major anomalous threat only needs to succeed
once to drag everything into disarray. In many ways, that is the curse of the SCP
Foundation. Speaking of major anomalous threats, now it’s
time for part three of the Ouroboros Cycle: Atonement. Once again, we start off with the Foundation
meddling with cosmic-scale powers with the creation of the Area-11 Pietrykau-Fontaine
Spatial Stabilization Array. Try saying that three times fast! This was a machine so powerful it was capable
of creating a singularity, though what it actually ended up doing was turning Dr. Calvin
Desmet into an abomination. More specifically, into a kind of immensely
powerful humanoid black hole, whose powers were only restrained by the very machine that
created him.
Think of him as a kind of malicious Doctor
Manhattan from Watchmen. This new entity, dubbed SCP-001, presented
a grim prophecy and an ominous offer. He told the O5 Council that anomalies were
leaking into their universe from other realities, and soon, the anomalous threat would destroy
them all. His offer was to, upon his release, wipe out
the rest of the multiverse entirely, leaving only our reality, free from anomalous threats. Unsurprisingly, it was O5-1 that was most
interested in this offer – so much so that he held a vote, and murdered everyone who
voted against the decision to release SCP-001.
Having built his consensus among the survivors
on the council, O5-1 let SCP-001 out. Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be a terrible
decision, as one of his first acts upon being freed was to kill the members of the O5 Council
that had just voted to release 001, saying that they themselves were anomalous and needed
to be purged to atone for their past sins. The only survivor was the member of the Council
who abstained from the vote, who was able to recontain SCP-001 inside the Pietrykau-Fontaine
Array…for now. Once again, the thematic connections to the
rest of the Ouroboros Cycle is clear. We have a world-ending anomaly held off, but
only temporarily, buying time before the cycle inevitably continues. We have the Foundation abusing its power,
and signing off on the death of countless people in other dimensions. And of course, the O5 Council stepped out
of their bounds and actively warped reality, just like they had with The Children before.
Their chickens truly come home to roost though
in the final part of the cycle. Appropriately named The Way It Ends, this
piece chronicles the story of Calvin Lucien and the Killsquad, an elite group of four
Chaos Insurgency soldiers with one goal: Assassinating the entire O5 Council, thirteen of the most
powerful people in the world. Why? Because they’ve been messing with reality
itself time and time again, and it’s getting to the point that their selfish meddling could
finally destroy everything. And given that we’ve already seen it happen
with The Children and the entity that Dr. Calvin Desmet became, it’s hard to disagree
with them. What follows is one of the longest and most
complicated tales in all of the Foundation, as the Killsquad systematically encounters
and kills each insane, anomalous member of the O5 Council.
In order to do this, they need to make deals
with Death itself, fight giant serpents, cross dimensions, deal with SCP-610 and SCP-682
containment breaches, and go toe to toe with Samsara, arguably the Foundation’s deadliest
Mobile Task Force. A number of other insane things happen along
the way, like O5-1 murdering the Gate Guardian with a Scranton Reality Anchor, and the Black
Queen – the most prominent member of the Serpent’s Hand – helping our heroes defeat more Overseers.
In the end, Calvin Lucien, despite losing
almost everything, reigns victorious in the final battle. Using The Spear of the Non-Believer, a weapon
so powerful it can kill Gods, Calvin managed to finally kill the top member of the Overseers,
O5-1. With the O5 Council destroyed, Calvin set
about completing his final task: Destroying the entire SCP Foundation. But that didn’t happen. Instead, he was contacted by a mysterious
and immensely powerful being known as The Administrator, who gave him some frightening
news: He’d just been hired by the SCP Foundation to be their new O5-1.
This was where our last video on the Ouroboros
series left us. What happens next, you may ask? How does Calvin respond to this offer he seemingly
can’t refuse? In this case, it seems that the Administrator,
a being so completely tied to the nature of the Foundation itself, is SCP-001. And while it seemed that the Overseers were
mad with power, they were actually always there to keep the Administrator in check. Aaron Siegler, the O5-1 that Calvin had just
killed, was doing the exact same thing Calvin was doing when he became O5-1: Trying to destroy
the Foundation.
But the Foundation and the Administrator cannot
be beaten, they can only be joined. And that’s exactly what Calvin did, becoming
the new O5-1, turning his back on the Chaos Insurgency, and rebuilding the rest of the
council and the Foundation in his own image. Insurgency members who were once his allies
vowed revenge for this betrayal, perhaps suggesting that history would go on to repeat itself
once more in future. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what
the Ouroboros Cycle really is – the recurring threat and the changing of the guards that
accompanies it. There will always be a Foundation, there will
always be an Administrator, there will always be an O5 Council. Nothing starts, nothing ends, all that ever
changes are the names and faces involved – whether it’s Calvin Lucien or Aaron Siegler, the
wheel keeps turning, the snake devours its own tail. The Ouroboros Cycle is, and forever will be,
eternal. Now go check out our full, piece by piece
breakdown on the Ouroboros cycle starting with SCP-001 The Children, and then check
out “SCP-5000 Why? – The Full Story Compilation”, just in case
we haven’t blown your mind enough for one day!
