NOTICE: CHANGE OF ROLE DETECTED. PLEASE ENTER NEW USER IDENTIFIER AND ACCESS CODE.

USER CODE: O5-1#3

KEY PHRASE: DOES THE BLACK MOON HOWL? DO THE 13 AWAKE?

IDENTIFIER AND PHRASE ACCEPTED. Welcome to the council O5-1. You have 1 new message and 3700 new tasks.

New Message:

This message contains a video file.

Begin Video Message Transcript:

A silhouetted figure is oriented facing the camera, most of their upper body is obscured by darkness. A desk sits between them and the camera. A window is discernible to the right, and illuminates portions of the room with a setting sun.

The flash of a lighter ignites the end of a cigar, and the embers contrast the surrounding darkness. A ring of smoke floats into the light before dissolving.

Figure: "I've been staring at this camera for more than an hour, debating on how to address you, both of you. I've considered cliche openings, launching straight in, political greetings and asking questions you would surely be wondering about yourself. All of it feels disingenuous. Perhaps that's why I chose you."

Another ring of smoke, followed by a sigh.

Figure: "108 years. I know Sherry asked. That's how long."

Figure: "…We'll start there. Yes, that's a good place."

Momentary pause followed by a long series of wet, phlegm-filled coughs.

Figure: "I apologize, my lungs are still adjusting, and there may be interruptions. Where were we?"

Figure: "Right, yes. I've set it so this will be the first thing you see. My predecessor didn't give me the luxury, we didn't have it in 1911. There are things you're going to see and hear that may shock you to your core… things about your past, and my past, and our interactions. I probably seem, and sound, scattered and I also apologize for that. You deserve a more clear and coherent explanation, but the mother's gifts aren't so generous on the mind, and political jockeying for a century makes expressing things clearly… difficult."

O5-1#2 coughs again.

O5-1#2: "Let's start with 001. Yes, the big number no one talks about."

A brief pause followed by more coughs and another puff of smoke.

O5-1#2: "There isn't one. There are 13."

7 seconds of silence.

O5-1#2: "One for each of us. Yes, each member of the council. This is either unsurprising, or a shock, but its a part of your reality now. SCPs, in your frame of mind, are singular anomalous things, people, locations, events, et cetera. Isolated abnormalities in the universe. It's simultaneously a truth and a falsehood. 001s are not like the anomalies you've dealt with and managed at Site-234. They are bigger, deeper, more connected, and have moving parts that usually consist of those smaller abnormalities that we classify. Some are of such cataclysmic scale that failure on our part would mean the end of everything. Believe me, we have failed before. Some, like 13's, are so far beyond any of our comprehension that we've lost track of what it is."

O5-1#2: "I'm waxing political at this point, and I will digress. 001s are projects, sometimes centered on central mono-mythic anomalies. Others focus on immediate threats to normalcy that cannot be met with normal means. Each of us drives one. Mine… is now yours."

O5-1#2 adjusts their chair, pulling on an I.V. next to the desk, running into their arm.