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|| Timelines were so inconvenient. ||

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You stared at the anomalous butterflies. They continued to flutter. You closed your eyes and counted to 10 before reopening them. Damn it, they were still there. You sighed. Guess you weren't hallucinating from stress after all. SCP 408 wasn't in the game and you hadn't expected to see them here. What were they doing here? You knew that canonically (or as canonically as a universe like SCP was), the main doctor associated with 408 would be Dr. Kondraki.

But, Kondraki was dead in some canons. Was he dead in this timeline? Actually, that brought up a lot of questions. Which canon was this timeline? Which doctors were dead or retired? What was the date? Which SCPs were canon? Which hadn't been discovered yet? So many questions yet so few answers. You exhaled, a little annoyed. Timelines were so inconvenient.

The only thing good about this unexpected encounter is that the 408s weren't necessarily malicious. Sure, they were prone to mischief according to the article but it wasn't as bad as it could be. But, that didn't answer the question of why they were here. There was a chance that Kondraki happened to be around the facility right now, assuming he was alive. There was also the chance that they had escaped containment but you were pretty sure they were supposed to be contained at Site-17, not 19.

Ugh. There were way too many complications with this. A stray thought crossed your mind that maybe their feeders weren't refilled and they needed sugar water. You wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. Well, aside from the butterflies in the room, there wasn't much else different from the scenery of the facility. This particular room you had walked into was the server farm room. A bit strange of it to be right outside of the checkpoint but you had seen stranger things.

You stepped out onto the catwalk. Now, did you have to go down to the lower level to get to the other side of the room or did you need to go to the other door by the catwalk? Pulling out the S-Nav, you looked over its map. The blinking red circle showed the SCP 408s of course, but no 173. Huh, so it wasn't in here. You glanced over the railing. Yup.

You put the S-Nav back into your pocket. It looked like you needed to go to the other door on the catwalk. You ducked under the 408s, being careful not to hit any of them, and walked to the other door. Pressing the button, the door slid open. Your brows furrowed in confusion as the butterflies fluttered around you.

"You gonna follow?" you hesitantly spoke.

A few of the butterflies landed on your head while others circled around you. You took it as a yes. Muttering a quick "Okay" under your breath, you walked through the door and pressed the button while making sure none of the butterflies got trapped behind. Doing a headcount, er, butterfly count, there seemed to be about 15 of them though you could be wrong.

The room you entered was the basic office. There wasn't anything important in here but you peeked over a few desks, finding various documents and notes that were left scattered when the breach started. You found the note signed by Dr. Gears telling the staff not to call 106 "Radical Larry" particularly funny. If you had released 035, the body would have been found in this office in the game but since you hadn't, the room lacked a corpse.

All the better for you.

You hurried on through the room, only stopping at the exit to pick up a few random coins that were on the floor. You inspected them, deeming them pretty normal before putting them in your pocket. The next room you entered appeared to be the shared conference room with the large glass divider separating the main room itself from the hallway. You gave it a quick glance, finding it to be less messy than the previous room. Like in the game, there was a poster each of Albert Einstein, Dr. D.H. Aeslinger and Dr. Gears.

You moved on to the hallway straight ahead. Nothing interesting occurred as you continued in a straight path through the facility, using the S-Nav as a guide. The butterflies followed you, straying away from time to time, seemingly exploring the area as well. You crossed by Dr. Gears, Dr. Harp and Dr. Maynard's offices, none of which you entered.

Dr. Maynard and Dr. Harp were original characters created for the background lore of the SCP containment game. Hopefully, you wouldn't encounter either of them. Maynard was almost certainly dead, within the game at least, it was revealed 106 had abducted them shortly after the breach had begun. Plus, they were the orchestrator of this containment breach and a double agent for the Chaos Insurgency, that is, assuming you were in the same timeline as the game's.

You weren't too certain seeing as how things had already deviated from the game. Dr. Bright's body, the appearance of 408, you weren't too excited to see if anything else would come out this breach. You especially hoped there wouldn't be a reality bender. You didn't want to know how their powers would affect you. Regardless, Dr. Harp, on the other hand, may be alive. Within the game, you were pretty sure they were alive but, who knows, it may have changed.

Dr. Gears, meanwhile, was an actual character within SCP lore. Infamous for his lack of emotional response to just about everything and being around for a rather long time as much as "canon" was concerned. The writer themselves, quite famous as well for writing several SCPs. You weren't too concerned with the possibility of meeting him during this breach.

A few of the 408s lingered around the door to Dr. Gears' office. You waited for them while you considered whether Dr. Iceberg was dead in this timeline. In an infamous tale, "In His Own Image", Iceberg had committed suicide. You... you hoped that wasn't the case in this timeline but, you wouldn't know any better at the moment. In a canon like the SCP universe, people die, people live, and some never die. The universe was at the whims of horror writers after all.

You and the butterflies departed from the hallway with the offices shortly after. A few twists and turns later, you came across the electrical center which was just the place you needed to be. You swiped your keycard through the slot and the door opened up with a beep. You walked up the stairs and into the smaller room at the back.

Two of the 408s landed on the remote door control switch. You went over to the table to see if there was anything interesting. Just a note talking about an elevator. One of the two monitors attached to the wall showed a complaint about the layout of the site. The other one was off. In the corner of the room, there was a security camera, as you expected. You sighed and turned to the switches.

The two 408s that were on the remote door control switch flew from the switch to your hand. You guessed it was their way of helping. You pulled the switch from "On" to "Off". Immediately, the lights flickered and grew dim as the secondary light switch moved to "Off", courtesy of 079 messing with it. How annoying. You waited three seconds before turning it back on.

Great! Now all that's left would be to go pay a visit to 079 and strike up a deal. You left the electrical center and headed back to Heavy containment. Completely by accident, though perhaps somewhat intentionally, you had gotten lost on your way to Heavy containment. So, what if it was somewhat intentional, you were curious about the other rooms in the site.

You found SCP 066, Eric's Toy, rolling around in a hallway that you crossed through. You assumed it had wandered off from the cafeteria where it spawned in the game. Close to where you found it, you found the cafeteria. It was on a lower level with stairs leading down on the left side from where you came from.

If you were correct, SCP 294, the coffee machine, should be down there. You weren't too sure on SCP lore but this was most likely the personnel cafeteria within the game. They would probably have another cafeteria for D-Class that was closer to where you had awakened. You doubted they would put an SCP in a D-Class cafeteria too. Well, you might as well go down there and see if there was anything interesting.

You walked down the stairs, finding a blue propaganda poster taped to the wall. Right. You almost forgot those were a thing. You glanced around the room, finding it to be larger than most of the other ones you had gone through which made sense considering what it was for. The cafeteria had several tables lined up with plates of food and cups left on them. A few were spilled, likely due to the ensuing panic of a containment breach.

You avoided the messes, finding them gross. At the back of the room, there was SCP 294 which was placed against a wall and a little desk area with a divider around it. You went to the desk first, noting the various binders and a half-empty cup of coffee beside them. Some of the 408s flew and landed on the keypad of the coffee machine. Under the desk was a quarter which you picked up. Hmm, you were pretty sure there was another quarter somewhere on the desk. Oh well, whatever.

You went around the desk and approached the SCP. What should you get? Did you even have 50 cents from the coins you picked up earlier and the quarter you picked up? You pulled out all the coins in your pocket and counted them. In total, you had 1 dollar. You kind of wished you had 69 cents but regardless, this meant you had enough to get 2 drinks from 294.

"Do you guys want sugar water?" you asked the illusionary butterflies.

Their wings fluttered quicker and two butterflies landed on your open palm with the coins. You could guess what their answer was. You quickly read the yellow sign on the wall beside 294 which just talked about how only personnel with level 2 clearance or higher were allowed to use said SCP, and that requesting anything other than human-consumable beverages was forbidden. Obviously, you ignored the first half of the sign seeing as how you were an intruder despite not knowing how you got here. The second part, you didn't care much for.

The 408s that were on the keypad earlier made way for you, landing on your head in the process. You inserted two quarters into the machine and they echoed loudly in the silent room as they fell. On the keypad, you typed in "sugar water". The SCP rumbled as it dispensed the liquid into a paper cup. Almost immediately after it finished dispensing, the 408s swarmed the cup.

"Right, right, hold on a second," you muttered, picking up the cup from 294 and setting it onto the nearest table.

You left them to that and turned back to 294. You were allowed to treat yourself to something, right? As long as you didn't enter something that would be bad for you, you would be fine. You hummed to yourself, thinking of something to buy. Water should be alright as boring as it was, it wasn't like it would kill you. You inserted the rest of your coins in and quickly typed in "water". As expected, the liquid was dispensed into a paper cup again.

You picked up the cup and watched the water swirl in it. This was safe, right? You shrugged and in one gulp, downed the water. Five seconds later, nothing happened which was great. Normal meant good, normal meant there was less of a chance you would die. This universe sucked, you grumbled to yourself. While the horror and anomalous element of the SCP universe made it what it was and made it interesting, it also made things so much more inconvenient for you. You wouldn't say you hated it but you didn't like it either.

Was there a recycling bin around here in the cafeteria? There should be, it would be strange for there not to be. On the left side of the cafeteria, there were 3 bins, garbage, recycling and compost. You squished the empty paper cup and threw it into the recycling. It flew through the air and landed perfectly in the blue recycling man.

"Yes." You grinned.

Glancing at the 408s, still gathered around the cup you left on a table. You spent long enough with them, they were probably safe enough here in the cafeteria. Without gaining the attention of them, you headed back up the stairs. You skipped every other step on the way up and looked left and right. Which way was the closest way to Heavy containment? You pulled out the S-Nav, trying to decipher the hallways displayed.

Left. You had to go left. You took a few steps to the door and prepared to press the button. Fortunately or unfortunately, your attention was stolen away by little green butterflies. It wasn't all of the swarm that had followed you at the beginning, however, it was about four or five of them. You gave them a look that could only be translated as "really?". Well, if they were going to continue following you through the facility, you might as well let them.

It would be as close to company as you could get for the last few areas.

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New SCPs in this chapter:

SCP 066

SCP 294

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Published: February 28, 2020

Word count: 2,311

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Don't be surprised if I mysteriously die off because I'm busy procrastinating lol. Thanks for reading!