Ghostchibi

Site 89
The bad day
Lea the Antlion rewrite
how to write mental illness without looking like a gobshite essay
Ghost tries to rescue Bones, Ghost avoids detection by throwing blankets on researchers
Apollyon the African Grey Parrot (tale or SCP? maybe both)

CHARACTER LIST:

Aurelia Goldstein - new researcher to Site 89; distinctive in not having a doctorate like the other researchers; prior friends with Mikhail Mitchell; possibly prior affiliation with CotBG???; Ashkenazi Jewish, late 20s, female (she/her)
Blake Yamagusuku - junior psychologist w/ additional sociology focus; secretly part of Ethics Committee personnel; Japanese-Okinawan, early 30s, nonbinary (they/them)
Arc Mitchell - senior researcher w/ focus on artistic-based anomalies especially music; distinctive in being one of the few personnel who leaves the site on a regular basis; married to Mikhail Mitchell and in a relationship with two other non-Foundation people; Black-Japanese, early 40s, agender (they/them)
Mikhail Mitchell - site security officer; partnered with Hazard Bhatia; married to Arc Mitchell and in a relationship with two other non-Foundation people; Russian (mixed Asian/European Russian), late 30s, trans male (he/him)
Hazard Bhatia - site security officer; partnered with Mikhail Mitchell; formerly part of a MTF that was disbanded after SCP acquisition; dating Nathe Caro; Punjabi, mid-30s, trans female (she/her)
Nathe Caro - researcher w/ focus on medically-based anomalies; partially blind in right eye, scar running diagonally across eye; European Russian-Mexican, early 30s, male (he/him)
Robert Felix Bronstein - senior researcher w/ focus on medically-based anomalies; has a prosthetic left leg (up to knee); Ukrainian-Ashkenazi Jewish, mid-40s, male (he/him)

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[topic focus: Robert loses his leg again]

The days are not kind to Dr. Robert Felix Bronstein.

The object barrels straight into the wall, bounces off at too sharp of an angle for the angle it hit the wall at, and rams Robert in the knee. Or at least the spot where his knee would be, had it not been replaced with a mechanical joint. The force of it is enough to knock him off balance, and sends the socket loose from his leg; he has just enough time to think about how many times he's had to deal with this in the past month before he hits the ground shoulder-first.

"My specialization is medical anomalies," he groans loudly as the object rounds the corner with another physically-impossible rebound. There are a few alarmed shouts and the sound of another collision. Given the lack of any further thuds, he figures that someone has at least caught the anomaly now.

It seems that he's correct; Officer Bhatia has the large ball in her hands as she rounds the corner, the object vibrating as if attempting to squirm out of her grip.

"Technically, this is medical," she says, squatting down to try to pick up Robert's leg. The ball starts to thrash again, and she thinks better of loosening her hold on it. "Sorry buddy. Gotta wait till the cavalry arrives."

"Physical therapy balls are not the kind of 'medical' that my work entails," he replies, sitting up with a huff. The security officer gives him a tooth grin.

"Don't you ever get bored of machines that make you sick, except not really, or miraculous pills in an endless bottle that actually dissolve you from the inside?"

"If the alternative is being downed in the hallway every week by a rogue anomalous object that the physics department should have already contained, then no, I will never be bored of my job."

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[topic focus: Mik and Arc's relationship]

Mikhail looks like he might choke on his mac and cheese, given the speed he's shoving it down his throat, but Aurelia can't really bring herself to be all that concerned. He looks comical like this, inhaling food as if he's starving. It's very much unlike him to do this. He usually takes his time eating, mindful of manners and making polite small talk with his dining mates, but it seems like he has no time for any of that right now.

"If you choke, I'm punching you in the chest," Aurelia warns him, taking slow sips of her still too-hot cream of chicken. Mikhail shrugs and lets his spoon drop into the bowl, clattering noisily in the mostly-empty cafeteria.

"I have to wake Arc," he explains, as if Researcher Mitchell wouldn't wake up anyway if he somehow didn't wake them.

Aurelia doesn't understand them at all. They're one of the few married couples working at the site; she expects that they might attempt to make their schedules align a little better, but neither seems to care. She's seen them pass each other in the hallway, Hazard chatting Misha's¹ ear off and Arc awkwardly shuffling a sheaf of documentation while Robert attempts to prevent a spill. They walk past each other, engrossed in their own worlds, and not a single indication of acknowledgement goes between them. Not even a nod, or a smile, or a glance. It can't be that they don't see each other. And it can't be that they don't care about each other. Aurelia has seen them together outside of their shifts, and she has yet to find a word to describe the sheer saccharine-sappy mess that is Arc and Mikhail Mitchell.

They seem… transient, almost. Lovers are compared to planets sometimes, orbiting in each other's gravitational pull. Not entirely an accurate metaphor, actually. But Arc and Misha are like comets. No, not even comets. Something more akin to a tag-team race. One begins where the other ends.

Just like right now, in fact, as Mikhail stands and hurriedly pushes his tray into the dishwashing chute before jogging away to wake his spouse. Aurelia knows that in forty minutes Dr. Mitchell will walk in, and she's going to see the cycle begin again.

He'll get to the dorms in about ten minutes. It'll take him maybe three or four to get up to his floor. It'll take a minute and a half to get to the door, and then then thirty seconds to unlock the slightly stuck latch, drop his wallet, badge, and key on the table, and walk into the bedroom.

"Good night, Arc," he says softly, shaking the lumpy mass under the covers.

"Guh'moring, Mmk," the now wiggling mass under the covers responds, a bit muffled. Arc's head pokes out, wavy hair a mess and one eye open to regard the man.

"Aurelia may interrogate you at breakfast," Mikhail says, pressing a quick kiss to Arc's forehead. He pulls back the covers so he can slide into bed just as Arc climbs out on the other side.

"Practicing for the possibility of getting a humanoid contained here?" Arc asks sarcastically, and pats Mikhail's shoulder when he snorts. "See you later, sweetheart."

"Love you," Mikhail calls back as Arc steps into the bathroom. He's already asleep by the time they're ready to go.

Researcher Mitchell arrives exactly 43 minutes after Misha had left in a hurry, fixing their badge and making a beeline for the exact spot that Misha had been sitting in earlier. Aurelia regards them with a raised eyebrow.

"Good morning, Ms. Goldstein," they say, taking a sip of coffee.

"It's 3 am," Aurelia points out.

"Mmh. Morning, Ms. Goldstein."

She shakes her head at the little joke, and even though Researcher Mitchell is as stoic-faced as ever, there's an unmistakable twinkle in their eye.

"So, my dear Mik tells me you're in the mood for interrogation."

"'Your dear Mik' is a filthy liar."

There's another look of amusement in Dr. Mitchell's eyes, despite the lack of a smile. It's actually a bit hard to tell; their mouth is obscured by a mug of coffee.

Arc Mitchell begins where Mikhail Mitchell ends, it seems, and vice versa. Aurelia doesn't say anything, just watches silently as the researcher wipes a splatter of coffee off of their badge with a grumble. Not quite the idea of completion, or togetherness. Continuation, instead. And the moments when they meet are a moment of beginning and end, not quite stopping, not quite starting.

There's probably some sort of message she can garner from this, but Aurelia has never cared very much for weird symbolic bullshit.

"So does Misha kick you out of bed, or how does that all work?"

"He yanks the entire mattress out from under me," Arc replies in a deadpan, taking another sip of coffee. "And then claims that you're easier to wake than I am."

She's had her own teasing turned on its head and aimed at her. Aurelia makes a mental note not to underestimate them.

Item #: SCP-1864

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1864 is kept in a 40 liter glass tank, filled halfway with dirt and covered with a secure top. Insecticides are sprayed daily within a 20 meter radius to prevent severe swarming around containment along with occasional cleaning off of swarmed insects on the tank. Feeding occurs once every month, consisting of ten (10) live ants of any species.

Description: SCP-1864 is an insect of family Myrmeleontidae commonly known as an antlion. The exact species of SCP-1864 is unknown. It is about 5 centimeters long, roughly three times the size of normal antlion larva, and if given access to a dry dirt environment will create a nest to trap prey as per normal antlion behavior. The nest is also three times the size of normal antlion nests, as expected with SCP-1864's size.

SCP-1864 can cause prey (defined as individuals of any flightless insect species smaller than itself) in an area between 10 to 15 meters around it to gather at its location via unknown means. Prey exhibiting this swarming behavior will attempt to reach SCP-1864 regardless of obstacles or injury, and continue to move to SCP-1864 until dead. SCP-1864 will consume all prey that reach it and move on when all prey are eaten. This "calling" ability seems to be triggered by SCP-1864 consciously, as it has activated solely during inconvenient times for Foundation personnel to deal with swarming events at a frequency that cannot be explained as chance. SCP-1864 displayed a higher level of intelligence than expected of other normal specimens during initial testing after acquisition. As such, SCP-1864 is thought to be aware of the limitations of its current living space.

Due to SCP-1864's ability, it is theorized that it has caused severe ecological damage in the past. SCP-1864 has been linked to instances of sudden insect population loss in locations nearby its place of retrieval, and it is highly likely that other incidents in locations farther away were caused by SCP-1864 as well.

Addendum A: On 04/08/20██ SCP-1864 caused a severe swarming event, possibly in an attempt to breach containment. When personnel arrived to ensure that SCP-1864 had not breached containment, its tank was found with the top secured using regular cellophane tape wrapped around the tank and the swarm of insects all dead. A note which read "UNTIL YOU LEARN YOUR LESSON, ABSOLUTELY NOT" was found inside the tank, torn up by SCP-1864 but still legible. No fingerprints were found on the tank, tape, or note. Video surveillance cameras of SCP-1864's containment and the hallways leading to it were covered with black cloth during the event by an unknown individual, leaving no viewable footage.

Whoever did it down really didn't want SCP-1864 to get loose. It took almost an hour to get all of that tape off. Although I still don't understand what that note means, and why — if it was meant for us to see — it was inside the tank where the SCP could damage it, instead of outside. -Dr. Keller

Title: Writing Mental Illnesses (aka How to Write Mental Illness in SCPs Without Being Offensive)

So you want to write an SCP. Okay, so maybe you want to write an SCP that's psychological, or maybe the SCP causes people to suffer mentally. Okay, so we'll start off with insanity, maybe hallucinations, and then the victims kill themselves-

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Ignoring the fact that this is pretty cliche, it's also pretty incorrect. Mental illness is not a progression of hallucinations leading to suicide. Mental illness doesn't necessarily lead to suicidal thoughts, or psychotic episodes, or murderous intent. You will come across as extremely insensitive if your only depiction of mental illness is "crazy killer" or "crazy suicidal" or "crazy hates people" and so on and so forth.

The first step to writing mental illness in a way that doesn't make you look terrible would be research. Proper research, not guessing from what you know. Popular media is infamous for depicting mental illness and the mentally ill terribly for the sake of spectacle, so what you "know" is going to be at best incorrect and at worst utter hateful trash.

A little thing about research though; depending on the mental illness, the research itself can be biased, because some mental illness research is only ever done in criminal research. As you can imagine, that's not good for offering a non-biased view. Wikipedia is actually a fairly good place to start, as their health topic entries tend to use mostly research papers, medical findings, medical books, etc as sources. It's also a good place to find sources to branch out into doing more research.

An optional step (which I say is optional only because you may or may not be able to do this) would be to politely ask someone about said mental illness. See if there's someone who is willing to talk to you about it, and would like to help you write an accurate depiction of it. Again, you're not assured to find someone who has experiences with the mental illness you're looking to write and you're not assured to find someone who has the mental illness and is willing to talk about it either. Please don't go about pressuring people into talking about it, because that just makes you a terrible person rather than just an ignorant person. Note: If you have any questions about depression or dissociative identity disorder (also known as multiple personality disorder or split personality), or about therapy/psychiatric therapy, I will be more than happy to answer them.

Some notes about depiction and misconceptions:

Many mental illnesses have physical causes. Case in point, just look up "depression brain scan" on Google and you'll find a lot of comparison images of various types of scans done on the brains of healthy and depressed people. If you're depicting a mental illness that does have possible causes in physical body changes, it's a good idea to remember that and possibly include that in your SCP if it makes sense to do so (don't take this to mean that you have to shoehorn it in).
Mental illnesses have varying degrees of severity and varying symptoms just like other illnesses. Not every person with depression will be suicidal. Not every person with bipolar disorder will not violently swing from a sobbing mess to a reckless happy-go-lucky daredevil. Not every person with antisocial personality disorder will consider other people to be completely disposable tools to use as desired.
Comorbidity² is commonly seen in those with mental illnesses.
Mentally ill people are still people, no matter what their illness is. Writing an SCP about how someone with antisocial personality disorder isn't a person because of their illness is a fast track to getting kicked in the ass for being… well, an ass.
Mental illnesses tend to share similar symptoms. It's important to remember that a symptom is not an illness in and of itself, as one symptom could be indicative of a variety of mental illnesses, just like with physical diseases and disorders.
The thing about medication and mental illness is that it's super fucking hard to find a good match sometimes for patients, much more so than physical illness. After all, we're dealing with the human mind and brain, and two different minds and brains are not going to function the same way, like two different hearts would. Even medication for physical illness can be hard to get a match for. Mental illness is even harder.
There are proper names for mental illnesses. Use them. Their names change over time, but that's no excuse to continue using outdated names, and it's not accurate to clinical tone either. Make sure the illness you're writing about also is still considered to exist.
While I have thankfully never seen this occur on the wiki, I have encountered people before who think that it's somehow appropriate to "explain" mental illnesses using mythology or the supernatural or anything other than reality and hard facts. This is incredibly offensive and unacceptable. Suicidal people are not "angels" trying to go back to Heaven, bipolar people are not fairies, schizophrenics are not dragons, or whatever else bullshit someone might come up with. Attempting to put some sort of positive spin on a mental illness by "explaining" it like that is a terrible thing to do.

And finally, the most important part of all of this: YOU DO NOT DECIDE WHETHER OR NOT YOUR DEPICTION IS OFFENSIVE OR INSENSITIVE. If you've read this and you write an SCP with this essay in mind, and someone still comes to you and says that your depiction is offensive and you tell them that it's not because you read this, I will personally come and kick your ass.

You don't get to decide whether people can be offended by what you wrote, especially if you have no experiences in suffering from mental illnesses. If ten people who have dealt with depression tell you that your depression-related SCP is horrible, you listen to those ten people. It doesn't matter if a hundred people who have never dealt with depression, or even a few people who have dealt with depression, find it completely okay, if people who have been affected by these illnesses tell you that what you are doing is offensive, not listening to them is going to make you look like an absolute jerk.

Basically, if you do your research, listen to what people tell you, and don't fall into the trap of cliches, you probably aren't going to write something horribly insulting and insensitive. If you do end up writing something horribly insulting and insensitive, an apology and taking responsibility for what you wrote will help smooth things over, and then you can rework your idea. We're human, and we all make mistakes especially if we're ignorant. The most important thing you can do if you mess up is to accept and admit that you messed up, learn from your mess up, and then move on.

The helpers:

Bones the Bearded Vulture/Lammergeier
A "Rat King"
A hyena (too cliche?)
Lea the Antlion (works even if SCP idea doesn't)
what are some aquatic foragers
this is definitely not enough helpers

Are the Angels a thing in this verse

Are the other Cardinals a thing, if so what about the Immortals (ask TheAlly beforehand)

hope I can make this a mini canon

Pangloss "crossover" ???

SCP IDEAS
1) The person's coat/hat.
He carries people's souls in the pockets of his coat and even in his hat when he can't "physically" carry any more. This property works regardless of whether or not the coat or hat is in his ownership.

2) A bottle of the person's "breath"
His ability to add "life energy" to a human. "Life energy" in this case is purely mental/emotional, because he has no power to physically alter people beyond what normal human beings can. Mental and emotional health have an effect on physical health, and knowing this his way of helping those whose bodies are failing is his "breath." It's not the same as optimism or hope, but more along the lines of a will to live.

How in the world it ended up bottled is anyone's guess, but I'm thinking that there are several bottles of it. Or maybe he did it himself, I dunno.

3) A handwritten book that is a very bad idea to read
This one is a little more bland. There's a notebook that when read by someone feels more like someone is reading it to them than them reading it. The "internal voice" we use to read is replaced by a different "voice," and this change is always noticeable. The reader can always understand the contents, and trying to figure out what language the book is written in has been impossible despite the fact that the writing is plain as day written out and the handwriting is even describable.

The only issue is that reading it causes the reader to lose their "internal voice" after reading it for a while, which makes reading and even thinking to be impossible in the way we consider it. The foreign "voice" will get more upset the more is read from the book, and eventually refuses to read any further.

The book's front cover says "Please do not read" and the front page says "Do not speak of this." These are the only parts that don't have the "outside voice" effect when read, although they do appear in whatever language the reader is most familiar with. The contents list a name, birthdates (sometimes), a short description of the person's appearance, personality, and life, and cause of death. It's not clear whether the people are connected in any way.

4) A collection of vintage items that protect themselves
The items themselves can be anything. The thing is, touching them with the intent to take it for one's self causes it to explode at, or physically assault, or run away from the taker. They don't cause any serious damage, but it's usually enough to make the person who took it put it back and run away. Or just drop it, in which case they break like normal objects. All the items have little tags on them, with a name, date, and place written on it, with "If Found Please Return to [insert place here]." Showing up with the item with the intent to return them will lead to someone coming up to take the item back, with a small reward for the returner. The person who came to retrieve the item has been different every time so far.

"You want me to do what now?"

The time of the year for annual psychological evaluations for sapient SCPs had come around again, and as usual Junior Researcher Hellen "Chibi" Yamagusuku was helping evaluate low-threat SCPs. Of course, exactly what required such an evaluation was sometimes contested and arguments were bound to occur.

"Seventeen-ninety-three has attempted to communicate with researchers before. If you'd like, I can show you a copy of the note," Chibi sighed, still reading down the list she was given of SCPs she was responsible for that day.

"I've seen that note," the fellow junior researcher said, rolling his eyes. "And yes, it's at the very least sentient. But, it hasn't manifested anything dangerous intentionally, and they've always been things like decommissioned and unusable weapons that it couldn't possibly use."

"Still, it's required that a psychological evaluation be performed on-"

"Hellen, it's a fucking rabbit."

"It's a fucking rabbit that's sapient," Chibi snapped back, still not looking at the other researcher. "You can note on your report that you don't think that a psych eval is necessary, but until the board decides that it needs an eval."

"What am I gonna do anyway? Ask it if it wants to stab anyone with its carrots?"

"Look, it's obvious that you're going to bullshit that eval. I'll do it myself if you're so fucking annoyed about having to talk to a rabbit for twenty minutes. You take one from my list, I'll take Seventeen-ninety-three. Okay?"

And that was how Chibi had ended up having to run to the other side of the facility to stay on-time for her schedule. She unlocked the containment for 1793 and entered, out of breath and severely irritated at her coworker.

The inside of the containment was rather interesting. Most of the floor was made of dirt save for one corner of the room which had a wood floor, a low-seated couch, and a fireplace with a rug in front of it. 1793 was sitting in front of his food bowl, occasionally making what might be a grimace as he ate.

Chibi set a keyboard down, set up the screen on her lap, and sat down by the rabbit. He looked to her, and hopped over.

"You don't like your food?" she asked.

the supplements do not taste as good

"Sorry about that. Everything else though?"

the carrots you give me are good

"I heard you didn't like the ones that you summon."

it is not the same as summoning
but no they do not taste as good

"I see. Well, wherever the carrots are being made, they're not being made correctly. Now, I had a few questions I need to ask y-"

1793 suddenly froze and put one paw in the air. Chibi had long since recognized that as its way of politely interrupting.

you will want to move from where you are sitting

"I'm sorry?"

Suddenly, the room turned a strange shade of blue. Chibi looked up, seeing the source of the sudden change in light-

And a barrage of carrots rained down on top of her.

SCP Sandbox Wiki I

Sandbox Smarter

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