━━━━━━━━━▲━━━━━━━━━

|| That seemed incredibly unsafe. ||

━━━━━━━━━▼━━━━━━━━━

"So, what are we doing today?" you questioned as you walked a few steps behind Dr. Smith.

"We're going to go see 049."

You blinked and tilted your head. "Oh. Why?"

The doctor sighed. "049 has been... uncooperative recently. It's been asking to see you."

"So, I'm going to go talk to him or something?"

"Yup."

You weren't particularly surprised at the prospect of going to go interact with other SCPs. It was just one of those things that happened all too often within the foundation. You trailed after the doctor as they guided you to 049's cell. It seemed like most of the walls and floors had been fixed up since the containment breach. The facility was clean of any blood and the lightbulbs had been replaced. It was certainly much brighter than the last time you were out and about.

There were a few people, other researchers, doctors, and guards, walking around. You mostly tried to ignore them but you could notice some of them staring at you. It was probably due to your blue jacket. Dr. Smith had dropped off the jacket and a few shirts when they announced your SCP classification. They were blue, probably to contrast with the D-Class's orange uniform, with your SCP number attached on the back.

You supposed it made you stand out in the sea of white lab coats, black guard uniforms and orange jumpsuits. If you were to guess, the blue jacket or shirts were given to SCPs with permission to wander around the facilities. They probably had to add the number of the SCP themselves though.

Eventually, the two of you reached the elevator that would go down to 049's containment chamber. The doctor nodded at the guard who was standing in front of the elevator. The elevator was already on the floor you were on. You waited for the doctor to go in first before following in behind them.

You leaned against the rail on the right side of the elevator while the doctor went to the left. The door closed and down it went. It was as shaky as last time though it was just as loud. When the door opened up, a different doctor greeted the both of you.

"Dr. Smith, SCP [----]," she said. "Welcome."

"Hello," your doctor responded as she stepped to the side to allow you two out of the elevator. You answered a greeting of your own quietly. The two of you followed behind her as you made your way to 049's main containment chamber. The hallway looked exactly the same as always with the room with the backup generator being the first room that could be seen.

You paused briefly in front of it.

This was pretty much where you died, wasn't it?

"Something wrong?" Smith asked as the two doctors paused.

You shook your head. "Nothing."

The three of you arrived at the blast door on the right side of the room. 049's poster was still stuck to the wall as expected. However, the door was closed unlike during the containment breach. Two guards stood on each side of the door. Smith nodded at them as a greeting while the other doctor slid her keycard through the scanner.

Within the room were 3 other doctors and one more guard. SCP 049 was, of course, in his actual containment chamber. As the three of you walked in, the blast door closed behind you. You sort of awkwardly clasped your hands behind your back as the doctors began talking about something. You probably could have paid attention but you lost interest after they started talking about lunch.

A few minutes later, Smith turned to you.

"The procedures are in place," they said. "You're permitted to enter 049's containment now."

"Just go in?"

"Yup."

That seemed incredibly unsafe.

"And if I die?"

They paused. "Your anomaly will work well enough."

"Dude," you said flatly.

To be fair, the doctor did grimace at your tone. That didn't change the fact that you were going in there though. You sighed, resigned to your fate. You stood in front of the door and waited to be let in. The door slid open, revealing a table and two chairs, much like the ones in your cell, along with 049 sitting in one of those chairs. You shuffled into the cell as the door shut behind you.

"'Sup," you said.

"Hello," he answered, gesturing to the empty seat, "please, take a seat."

You pulled the chair out and sat down. You laid your hands on the table, keeping them clasped together. Waiting for 049 to continue, you didn't say anything. Unfortunately for you, he didn't say anything and only continued to stare at you.

SCP 049 was somewhat of a strange SCP. Having gone through two rewrites on the wiki, he was also one of the oldest anomalies written. The original was, well, the original. Not too different from the second rewrite though less expressive. The original 049 was also British. The first rewrite, sometimes referred to as the keter rewrite, was interesting, you supposed. More dangerous, a little edgy and definitely not the version sitting in front of you right now.

This version was likely the current version on the wiki. The article for this particular rewrite was longer, containing more logs and lacking the mention of 035. SCP 049 was also maybe French now which meant you would absolutely beat him in a fistfight.

Well, you would if his touch wasn't lethal.

"So," you began after realizing there had been a long period of silence between you two and also that 049 was starting to lean over the table. "Any particular reason I'm here?"

"I see you have been well," he stated. "The Pestilence has not affected you since."

"Ah." You nodded. "Indeed."

"Are you, by chance, a doctor?"

Not here at least.

You shook your head.

"When we first met, you were clearly infected, tell me, how were you cured? I can tell that it is of my work, however, I do not recall curing you," 049 mused.

"I guess I'm not surprised that's what you're curious about," you huffed, amused.

"Oh?"

"People of science, what little makes sense in this world, and medicine such as yourself often are curious people." You haphazardly waved your hand around. "So it really is no surprise that you would wish to know about what happened."

"Will you divulge my curiosity then?"

"Hmm," you hummed. "A bit."

You held up two fingers. "How about this, I'll give you two pieces of information but the rest you have to figure out yourself."

"Not three?"

"Rule of threes is stupid."

049 tilted his head to the side. It wasn't like your deal was a bad one, if anything he had everything to gain and nothing to lose. Though, you too had nothing to lose as well but also nothing to gain. You wouldn't benefit nor would you be harmed by giving him pieces of knowledge regarding his "cure". You weren't even asking for anything in exchange.

"Very well, I accept your conditions." He held his hand out, probably for a handshake.

You weren't going to take the chance of shaking his hand. At the sight of you shaking your head, he let his hand down.

"Alright then. One, you were indeed the one who 'cured' me. And two, my anomaly is a part of the reason why I'm still alive," you said. "I'm sure you can figure out the rest."

"Certainly, I am sure that once I find the answer, it will help me develop the perfect cure. My cure is most effective."

You gave a non-committed hum at his words. Who cared if his cure was indeed the most effective when no one, maybe not even 049 himself, knew what he was curing. The Pestilence he spoke of may very well be something real within this universe though it was equally likely that it never existed in the first place. Perhaps a cure does exist but who knew if a perfect one could be created when whatever the Pestilence was had been lost to time.

"Anything else you want to know?" you asked.

"What should I refer to you as?"

Seeing no harm in telling him your name, you gave him an answer. "(Y/n), but, I suppose you could also refer to me as SCP [----] since I officially got classified. How about you?"

"049 or simply Doctor will suffice," he said in response.

You were pretty sure 049 and probably many of the doctors within the foundation had never gotten a medical license. Even if they did, you would place very little trust in them actually being able to cure any sort of illness beyond a cold or something. Though you did recall a few beneficial SCP that did cure people such as SCP 500 or SCP 2295. Those beneficial SCPs were few and far in between considering that at its core, SCP is a horror universe above all else.

There were over 6000 SCPs on the site. You were certain that at least some of them didn't exist in this universe. Some SCPs were aligned with a certain canon, others were more about the meta than the horror, and some were perhaps closer to a tale than an SCP. If you were to take SCP 4231, for example, you could argue that it didn't exist in the world you were currently in. You supposed the earlier SCPs were easier to know if they existed or not. Ones that were objects rather than stories were always easier to grasp. The universe had always been shifty you supposed.

On the topic of whether some SCPs existed or not, you wondered if joke ones were here in this universe.

"Something on your mind?" 049 interrupted your train of thought.

You blinked. Leisurely, you shook your head. "It's nothing important."

He clearly didn't believe you. If you could see his face, you were sure you would have seen amusement cross it. You didn't care much to answer him if he wanted to know what you were thinking about. Given then the foundation staff were listening in on this conversation as well, you knew they'd be interested as well. You looked out the glass, making eye contact with one of the doctors outside.

"When do you think they'll let me out?" you inquired, tone light-hearted.

"Perhaps when they are done running their little experiments," 049 said. "Or perhaps when they have gathered what information they want to their liking."

"I'd be here for an eternity then," you quipped.

He stifled a small chuckle. "Indeed. They had entertained the idea of letting me see you, no doubt for information too."

"You asked for me because you wanted information and they took me here because they too wanted information. What did I say? People of science and curiosity."

"How blunt of you."

"I might as well call out what we all know, no?"

"Do you fear death?"

That came out of nowhere, didn't it? You weren't sure, in all honesty. Death was supposed to be the end of everything, the thing that tied all living things together. Everything will end someday and death would be the end of the path. Perhaps, dying wasn't so bad. Surviving was much worse.

"You may leave the containment cell now, [----]," the intercom buzzed before you could answer.

You nodded, preparing to stand up. "Until next time."

You pushed the chair out from the table and turned away from him. Then, something found its way around your wrist. Your body shivered and goosebumps appeared on your arm. You looked back.

"Do take care, dear," 049 said. His hand rested on your wrist that remained on the table, deceptively innocent.

You weren't dead.

You weren't dead.

Shakily, you let go of your breath. Screw this universe, screw the rules of this universe and screw fate. You hated it here. You breathed in, then out, letting it even out. This was fine. You were fine. You were okay. A little more than okay but perhaps being okay in this situation made it all the more complicated.

"You as well, Doctor," you replied.

Shaking his hand off your wrist, you began to take your leave. How cruel of this world, to let you die. How cruel of this world, to let you live. Sometimes, you wondered.

Just what was all this for?

------

New SCPs in this chapter:

SCP 500

SCP 2295

SCP 4231

SCP 049 (Original Article)

SCP 049 (Keter Rewrite)

------

Published: August 10, 2021

Word count: 2,070

Death Counter: 7

------

Writing people is hard. On a side note, does anyone know why people call 035 "dyo/deo (?)" sometimes? I see it sometimes but I've got no clue what it means. Thanks for reading!