Soon she's completely alone.

She takes some phone pictures of a few end tables to send to Ned.

There's no signal.

Irritating. She wanders toward the front of the store, waving her phone around.

She can't find the front of the store.

And the furniture surrounding her now is not the furniture she saw when she first came this way.

No matter how far she walks, her surroundings don't get any more familiar and her phone continues to find no signal.

"Hello?!" she calls, now and then.

Eventually, there's a response.

"Hello?" someone calls. The voice is faint and from somewhere behind a row of dressers.

She goes around the dressers. "Hello! Is someone there?"

There's a man coming towards her from behind a row of bookshelves. He smiles when he sees her, looking relieved, and quickens his pace.

"Hi, do you know what's going on here?"

"Partially. You've probably already figured out that this isn't IKEA."

"I don't know that I'd say I had figured out that it isn't IKEA. I have figured out that it is not a normal IKEA and is instead some kind of space warping IKEA variant."

He nods.

"You're not wrong. How long have you been in here?"

She looks at her watch. "Couple of hours now."

"Your door might still be nearby, if that's how it works. I was part of a team studying this place. We discovered it when someone escaped, so I know a way out exists."

"- all right. How do we find the door? It is not where I left it."

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. You should know, this place has variations on IKEA employees that become hostile at night. You'll need to find shelter before then. Although, my working theory, based on only one example, is that the doors appear when the employees are attempting to chase you out. I haven't yet worked up the nerve to try it."

"I can't run, I have dyspraxia which affects my balance."

"Well, let's hope my theory is wrong. You should still be safe enough. It's easy to find a place to hide as long as you're prepared and there are several hours before the lights turn off."

"How fortunate there's all this furniture here. What's your name?"

He hesitates and then says, "Kyoya Ootori. Yours?"

"Miranda Kirsch."

"Where and when are you from?"

"And when? I live in Baltimore and it's 2015."

"I came in from Rockport, Maine in 2013. Do you mind if we start walking?"

"Lead the way," she sighs. "So. Is your 2013 the one I had two years ago or is it a different one?"

"Different, I think. It might be hard to tell for sure, but..." he hesitates again, "We do have other evidence that alternate Earths exist. It seems more plausible that this place is reaching into multiple worlds than that it is reaching across time, though both might be possible."

He picks a direction and starts walking. 

"Are you going to look for your own door even if we find mine or take your chances in my timeline?"

"Take my chances with yours. I'd take my chances with almost any Earth we stumbled across. I'd recommend you do the same."

"I'm married."

"Ah."

He's silent for a moment.

"I'd still recommend you risk it. There might be another way to get home and you don't know how many chances you'll get to get out of here. The survivor who alerted us to this place met people who were in here for years."

"Thanks for letting me know."

"Do you remember if there was a major earthquake in Miami in 2007?"

"I'd need to look it up, so if it was major enough that I wouldn't have to, then there was not. Is that the usual way to identify a timeline, natural disasters?"

"Yes. You likely would've heard of it. There wasn't as much media coverage as is typical, but it affected tourism for years."

"Okay. I could list disasters that did happen but you'll know and I won't if they're common or not, I suppose."

"That would be helpful."

"Hurricane Katrina? Big earthquake in Haiti in - I was first year then so 2010 or 2011? Huge fire in western Texas in June 2012? Sinkhole ate half of Banff in... I was in college so maybe 2006ish?"

"We had Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake. I don't remember any particularly notable fires in 2012 and we didn't have the sinkhole."

"Lucky alternate universe Texas and Banff."

"There should be small settlements in here somewhere. I haven't run across any yet."

"Me either, I would have noticed that."

"I've been considering piling several things on top of each other to get a better view. It's something of a waste of time, but aimless wandering hasn't gotten me anywhere."

"I'm not going to be very helpful with that, unfortunately."

"If you were sitting down, could you hold the bottom of a ladder steady?"

"I'm better than nothing."

"The ladders aren't tall enough by themselves, but if I push two bookcases together and put a ladder on top that should be a decent vantage point. Could you climb a bookcase if I helped?"

"I wouldn't bet on it, but if that's the best plan going it probably won't kill me to try."

He nods and glances at his watch.

"Let's see if we run across what we need in the next hour. After that, we should start looking for a place to hide."

"Okay."

Kyoya lapses into silence and starts looking. It's not difficult to find bookcases here. Finding a ladder is a little harder, but he climbs up on one of the bookcases and manages to spot a one before the hour is up. 

With some difficulty, he manages to shove two bookcases together to create a surface on top that is plausibly large enough to hold the ladder.  The ladder is of the folding, free-standing variety. 

"Do you want to try and use the ladder to get up there?" 

"I'll give it a shot."

She manages to ascend the ladder, although she is almost comically slow and careful.

He holds the ladder steady as she climbs and then follows her up. 

"I hope you're not superstitious," he says, "You're going to need to sit under the ladder."

"I'm not," she says. She sits where directed.

With some difficulty, Kyoya manages to pull the ladder up to the top of the bookshelves without knocking either of them off and arrange it so it's relatively stable. 

"This is not as secure as I would like, but it will have to do. Would you mind holding on while I climb up?"

She does so.

Kyoya carefully climbs the ladder. It rocks a little, but does not overbalance. 

Once he reaches the top, he spends a few minutes looking around and sketching a rough map in his notebook, then climbs back down. 

"No door out unfortunately, but I did see a kind of barricade that way," he points, "that might be a settlement."

"Well, it's better than aimlessly wandering among the MALMs and POANGs."

"And it's probably the safest place we'll find tonight."

He lowers the ladder and then descends, carefully, from the bookcase. He turns to steady the ladder once he's on the ground.

Down she gets. "How far is it, about?"

"Three kilometers?" he guesses, "if we could walk there directly. Maybe twice that with all the turns we'll have to make."

"All right. I can do that. But if it gets late we can only make a run for it if we find something with wheels and you push me."

He nods.

"As far as I can tell, they don't have any supernatural ability to detect people. Hiding in a wardrobe or a cupboard works as long as you're quiet and they don't see you enter. So far, I haven't run across more than one at once. If I have to run for it, it should chase me and you'll have time to tuck yourself away."

"I'll keep an eye out for wheels and wardrobes both, then."

"What's 2015 like?"

"Could you be more specific?"

He considers.

"I wouldn't expect too many drastic changes in only two years. I suppose the more subtle ones might be hard to describe. Is there anything that would've obviously surprised the you of two years ago if she'd heard about it?"

"I mean, I wouldn't have predicted individual newsworthy events, but nothing dramatically out of character for the time period, no."

"That's reassuring," he says absently. 

"And nothing from the astronomers? No strange movements in the stars?"

"Uh. Not that I heard, but I'm a doctor, not an astronomer."

"What I'm concerned about would've made headline news. Though I'm not entirely sure what I'd do with the information if you'd told me the stars had all changed position. Try a little harder to make it home I suppose."

He shakes his head.

"I would have counted that among notable natural disasters. Very literally."

"Would you? It wouldn't have killed anyone or caused any property damage, though it probably would be one of the first things to mention regardless."

"I was making a pun on - never mind. Yes, I would have mentioned it."

"Oh, my apologies. I'm not a native english speaker and I'm afraid I missed it."

"Etymologically 'disaster' means 'bad star'. As though a bad omen were present in the stars."

"Ah, that is fitting."

"I thought so. I'm getting hungry, does the maze include instances of the restaurant and if so is it safe to eat there?"

He nods.

"That's where I've been eating. I saw one from the ladder, it's slightly out of our way but we should have time."

"If you think so, but we could also just hope the settlement has food, do remember if we mistime things I cannot run."

"Are you hungry enough that it will slow you down?"

"No. I had lunch."

"It's probably not worth risking then, sorry. I got a good idea of the layout, but I didn't memorize it and we could get turned around trying to find the restaurant."

"Understood."

"So," Kyoya says after a minute, "Any tips on where I should invest if I do get back home?"

"Uh, I have a co-worker who's into something called Bitcoins and claims they've gone up by two thousand percent since he bought some. Google keeps growing."

"Huh. I'd heard of those, but I hadn't expected them to go anywhere.

"They could crash any time where I'm from, but for you it's a better bet than it'd otherwise look like, just cash out before my date I guess."

"You said you were a doctor? Any major advancements in medicine?"

"Yes, I do medical research and public health stuff. Biological cancer therapy's new."

A shape ambles into view.

At first glance, you might mistake it for an employee, but no IKEA employee has ever been this tall and all of IKEA's real employees have faces. 

"They'reonlydangerousatnightright?"

"Yes," he says, stopping to let the creature pass in front of them. He's tense but not visibly afraid. He pulls a small notebook out of his pocket and makes a quick and rough sketch of the creature's bodily proportions. 

"I believe this is the sixth one I've seen, though they're similar enough that it's hard to tell."

"How unprofessional of them not to wear nametags."

"It would make them easier to tell apart. I have no idea how many there actually are."

"I suppose in principle you could tag them while they're harmless."

"I don't know how harmless they are. Touching them might count as provocation and I might not have time to get away."

"I was thinking paintballs but I don't think IKEA sells them."

"No, but that's a good idea. We might be able to find something that will stain."

"Food, I suppose, but that depends on how often it restocks."

"Both of the restaurants I found were stocked and the food was fresh."

"That's promising, though it might just meant they're too far for routine supply runs from any pockets of civilization."

He nods.

"It's difficult to tell. This place may actually be infinite. Though, finding both you and the settlement suggests that the people are deposited at least somewhat close to each other."

"If it's infinite, yes. If it's merely very large it could be that it's just eating a lot of people."

"And with how many worlds we suspect there are, it could be taking no more than one or two from each. Not enough to gain attention in most of them."

"The IKEA I went into itself isn't a casualty?"

"I don't know. The IKEA on my world has been connected to this place for several years. But, the one you went into was open to the public. So either it's new or it hasn't been eating people."

"And we haven't met anyone who was also eaten by the same one."

"Hopefully the people in the settlement will know more."

"Hopefully."

Nothing eventful happens the rest of the way to the settlement. 

The settlement is surrounded by a wall of furniture, several items thick with the outside carefully placed so there are no footholds. 

There's a gate of sorts that's blocked only by a single bookcase, but the lead to the gate is narrow and surrounded by walls, so only one person can approach at a time. 

"Do we call out or wait for them to notice or knock, do you suppose?" she murmurs to Kyoya.

Kyoya shrugs and then goes up and knocks. 

"Who's that?" a voice shouts.

"We're new."

There's muffled grumbling and a shout of "Don't just sit there! Come help me."

The bookcase is moved aside. 

Behind the bookcase there are two women. One is middle aged and scowling, though it doesn't seem to be directed at them in particular. The other one is younger and rocking back and forth on her heels.

There are a dozen other people inside the settlement. Some are sleeping. Two are playing chess. Others sit around having quiet conversations or eating.

"Hi. I'm Miranda."

"I'm Kyoya."

The woman waves them in.

"I'd welcome you, but I'm not going to pretend any of us actually want to be here. And before you ask, no none of us know where we are, or what this place is, or how to get out."

"What's the food rationing situation?"

"The restaurants round here fill up fast enough that there's no any problems. Except when they don't, then things get tight."

"How often does that happen?"

She shrugs.

"Every three or four months. It ain't regular."

"I could use something to eat now. We walked a long way to get here."

She turns to the younger woman.

"Alicia."

Alicia gives a mocking salute and leads them to one of the cupboards lining the wall. She pulls it open. There's a microwave and a pile of food inside. 

"We usually keep stuff in the fridge but it's been a few days and nothing's good. We'll restock soon. There's the freezer," she points.

The cupboard contains mostly packaged sweets, nuts and potato chip along with a variety of condiments. The freezer has shrimp, mashed potatoes, meatballs, and a single frozen waffle in an otherwise empty box.

"Thanks."

Kyoya grabs nuts and shrimp.

"How long have you been here?"

Alicia shrugs.

"I haven't kept close track. About a year maybe?"

Miranda loads up on meatballs and potatoes, and eats some candy while waiting for the microwave.

"No luck finding a way out?"

She shakes her head.

"There's not a way out. Doors vanish the moment you're in. Didn't you notice? And I'm not about to risk my neck for something that doesn't exist."

Miranda has a phone charger with an AC adapter in her purse. She looks for a place to plug in her phone.

There are several outlets in the floor. A few are next to comfy chairs. 

"Hmm," Kyoya says, noncommittally.

"Would you mind introducing me to everyone?"

She and Kyoya go around. Kyoya meets everyone and smiles and learns their names.

Miranda listens with half an ear. She'll pick up everyone's names eventually if she lives here now.

After a while, Kyoya comes and sits by her.

"No one here is motivated to get out. The ones who were left already."

"Not motivated to go hunting for a way out, or wouldn't take a portal if one appeared?"

"Hunting. Most of them would love it if a door appeared right now."

"I assume if we do find one it won't work somehow to alert them to it."

"It might. If we can make a noise loud enough or find something they can see from a distance."

"And you'd expect it to stay put?"

"The others didn't disappear while we were looking at them. We could hold it open and wait."

"Good."

"IKEA probably doesn't have flares or fireworks. We could find a long pole and a flag, but it'd be difficult to carry."

"We could explode something metal in another microwave, if there's another to be found, but I don't know how well the sound would carry. Could catapult something into the air with a long piece of wood and a fulcrum."

"There might be extra microwaves in some of the restaurants. I'm not sure a microwave would be significantly easier to carry though."

"Aren't there carts?"

"Somewhere. We'll need to find a warehouse section."

"I suppose it wouldn't be very professional of the staff to leave them lying around."

He sighs.

"We never were going to manage this all in one trip."

"Would have been a lot to hope for."

"It might be worth following an employee if we don't make any progress. But," he shakes his head, "I'm not feeling that adventurous yet."

"I assume you're better calibrated than me on that. Uh, how did you get to know all this stuff?"

He walks in silence for several steps before answering.

"It's my job. I couldn't tell you that if we were still on Earth, but it'd be pointless to try and keep the secret here. I work for an organization that works to find and secure anomalies like this."

"Secure them?"

He nods.

"The majority of the anomalies are dangerous to the public, but destroying them is difficult or impossible, and on the few occasions where it does work, often backfires. So instead we try to keep them contained."

"Why isn't this common knowledge? People know about, oh, nuclear waste, even though that meets the description."

"There are a large number of anomalies that are memetic or information based. Knowing about them harms you, or changes you personality, or subtly influences your behavior, or brings you to the attention of hostile beings. In general, it is safer to keep all of them secret."

"Is this one like that?"

"Not as far as we know."

"Must make recruitment a nightmare."

"It does. People who have already been unfortunate enough to encounter SCPs are a decent number of our new recruits. Others notice something unusual and search us out. Occasionally we actively recruit, but it's ethically dubious, since we have to erase memories if they refuse."

"I would call that ethically dubious, yes. You don't do that when people innocently encounter things, do you?"

"I think you know the answer to that. Of course we do. The foundation is far better than the alternative, but it's still terrible in many ways."

"How did this organization get started?"

"There are contradicting stories. The actual story likely lies in the true nature of SCP-001, but I'm not high enough access to know what it is."

"How'd you get recruited?"

"My family owns several hospitals. I noticed some inconsistencies in the patient records and started digging. Patients were appearing or disappearing during transfers. It was covered up very well, but not completely. When I had enough evidence, I told my father. The next day they brought me in."

"Was your father in on it or was someone intercepting your communication?"

"He wasn't. It was one of the members of the board and several dozen lower level staff. Our family's hospitals were- are the standard dropping off point for amnesticized Japanese citizens."

"So presumably your father got his memory erased. How do they do that?"

"Amnestics, a class of drugs that has never been released to the public. They can do anything from erase a few hours of memory to erasing a person's entire life."

"Uh, is that just a risk that gets run every time or is it a matter of dose or something?"

"No, as I understand it, it's very precise. Entire lives are erased only in very rare cases, when it's the only way to remove the effect of a strong memetic anomaly."

"Is it, uh, safe to describe the memetic anomalies?"

"It depends. Some require direct exposure, others can be passed on second hand. However, I'm not part of the anti-memetics division, so the only memetic SCPs I know of are safe to talk about. I can give you a minor, harmless example if you'd like?"

"Yes please."

"SCP-426. I may sound insane for a moment, so forgive me."

His tone of voice changes, as if he's repeating something memorized.

"I am SCP-426. I must be introduced this way in order to prevent ambiguity. I am an ordinary toaster, able to toast bread when supplied with electricity. However, when any human being mentions me, they inadvertently refer to me in the first person."

- Miranda giggles.

He smiles.

"Try it and you'll see what I mean."

"I - I mean, uh - the toaster is - oh that's strange."

"It is. I spent far to long trying to use third person when I first heard about me."

"That's so weird. Why doesn't this happen when people try to talk about all toasters as a group?"

"I don't know, but thank god it doesn't. We'd have to get rid of toasters entirely."

"Can I talk about all of the magic toasters, they're -? Hmmm."

"SCPs frequently don't make much sense."

"I'm in- - magic toasters are interesting! Is your job like that?"

"Not quite. My job is more personnel management than scientific research."

"Do you manage magic personnel or just personnel who handle magic things?"

"The foundation doesn't really have magic personnel," he says, sounding faintly disapproving, "so the latter."

"People don't come in magic, or they're rare, or they're always too dangerous, or -?"

He sighs.

"None of the above, but the foundation has a very strict policy against treating any SCPs as people and that includes hiring them. The only exception to this is when existing employees turn into SCPs somehow."

"Did they implement that policy because something bad happened or are they just kinda racist? - also how do employees turn into SCPs?"

"They used to be more lenient, but several seemingly friendly or neutral SCPs turned out to be incredibly dangerous, leading to large scale deaths and containment failure. I understand the reasoning, but frankly, in each of the incidents people behaved with a startling lack of caution. Some compromise should be possible, but they're not willing to consider it."

He shakes his head.

"As to your second question, some SCPs can confer anomalous properties to individuals who interact with them."

"Like what?"

"The most notable example is Dr. Bright. He was killed while transporting SCP-963. Now, anyone who wears SCP-963 gains Dr. Bright's personality and memories."

"Temporarily, or...?"

"Temporarily if you wear it for less than thirty days. Permanently if it's longer than that."

"How many of him are there now?"

"Just one. They've allowed him to keep working, but that was one of the restrictions."

"Then how do you know it's thirty days exactly?"

"They tested it. They killed all the excess Dr. Brights afterwards."

"What the fuck?"

"In terms of bad things the foundation has done, it doesn't really stand out."

"Do I wanna know?"

He shakes his head.

"No."

"How sure are you the organization is doing more good than harm?"

"Completely. The things we contain get much worse than this."

"How much of the unpleasantness is necessary towards that?"

"Some of it, not all of it. The foundation could be much better than it is."

"Why isn't it?"

"Fear. And we do have to do some horrible things. It's... hard to figure out where to draw the line. It's much easier not to have a line at all, or to have one so far away you never have to worry about it."

She nods. "I guess I'm not going to remember this conversation anyway if I'm ever in a position to do anything about it."

"It depends. The foundation might not exist in whatever world we come out in. If it does, they're likely to try and recruit you."

"Is being against murdering excess doctors and wiping memories disqualifying?"

"As moral issues, no. But I've had to have my memories wiped several times. It's not safe to work for the foundation otherwise."

"Because of - containment accidents, or is it routine?"

"Both. I frequently choose to go into situations that have a decent risk of requiring amnestics afterwards. I could have avoided almost all of them by being extremely cautious and choosing to avoid any SCPs with mental effects. However, there's no way to completely eliminate the risk, though that's true for an average member of the population as well."

"Yes, I'd noticed that."

"It really is better than the alternative."

"That's not impossible."

"There are some examples that are safe to share, if you want to know?"

"Yes please."

"Marie, SCP-4057. Everyone who saw her believed her to be in imminent danger and in need of protection. Several civilians escorted her to one of the foundation's facilities, believing it to be a local military base. At first, the on-site researchers knew that she wasn't in danger, that it was a memetic effect. But then, they forgot. They began to believe she was the target of an unknown hostile SCP. The belief in the threat spread, from everyone she met personally to everyone they met. As it spread, the scale of the imagined threat grew. No one could describe it. It was the worst thing you could imagine. People who had never met Marie began trying to break into the facility, to protect her, to save her. The scale of the perceived threat grew great enough that people began dying from shock as soon as they were exposed. Finally, the foundation finished a countermeme and spread it through the population. The countermeme removed the infection, but at the price of making everyone forget she existed. We only know who she is now because of the documentation."

"- how are countermemes made? What are they?"

"It's not my area of expertise, but as I understand it, they take a relatively harmless meme and twist it into the right shape. It's only effective in certain situations. In this case, humans had originally created the meme, so it was possible to counteract it."

"How do humans make one?"

"Created might not be entirely the right word. It might be similar to the process the Foundation uses to create countermemes. But, the Foundation isn't the only organization with access to anomalies. We know this meme was purchased from one of the others and was specifically tailored for Marie. It was intended to protect her. We're not sure if they knew how dangerous it would become or if they just made a mistake."

"What other organizations with anomalies are there?"

"There are at least twenty-five we know of. The scale varies. There are six that stand out to me as major players. The Church of the Broken God, Marshall, Carter & Dark, Doctor Wondertainment, Are we cool yet?, the Serpent's Hand," and, he says the last name softly, "the factory. A different operative likely would have given you a slightly different list."

"What are those organizations - doing?"

"It depends. The Church of the Broken god is collecting anomalies it believes were once part of a greater being. Marshall, Carter & Dark is a very exclusive club that collects and sells anomalous items and experiences. Doctor Wondertainment creates anomalous children's toys and anomalous people. Are we cool yet? is the source of strange and dangerous art instillations. The goal of The Serpent's Hand is unknown, but they have caused several large security breaches and have their home in an anomalous location called The Library that we cannot access. The Factory-"

He shakes his head.

"-is more of a mystery than I would like, but it also creates anomalous artifacts, is capable of mass producing them."

"Do they produce useful ones, or -?"

“No, the opposite. They are one of the larger existential threats we have to deal with.”

"Why isn't this more conspicuous? If containing the knowledge of the existence of the SCPs is feasible at all and you're relying on administering pills then it can't be all that obvious in the first place, but it sounds like there's a ton..."

“Amnestics do not need to be in pill form. There are contingencies in place to amnesticize the entire population.”

"- okay. Why do you do this for SCPs that aren't memetic in nature?"

“If people knew how much danger they were in, how close they were, at any given moment, to fates significantly worse than death, society would collapse.”

He smiles a smile with no warmth behind it. 

“Melodramatic, but no less true for being so. We have failed before, badly. Billions have died. Humanity only survives through luck and desperation and the intervention of the few entities who do not want us all dead. There are more Earths that have failed than have survived. If people get even a hint of the truth they will dig for more, and there’s no way for humanity as a whole to find out without that itself causing the end.”

"Do you get a lot of news through parallel earths that doesn't come through nightmare IKEAs?"

He nods.

"From various SCPs. It's erratic, but occasionally we get a stable connection."

"Do you have reason to believe they show you a representative sample? How many Earths are there? What about worlds that aren't Earths?"

"It's true that the sample might be biased, but every SCP that allows access to multiple universes shows the same thing, the majority of Earths that have existed have been destroyed by one anomaly or another. The only exceptions are SCPs that specifically seek factors that require an intact Earth, like life or bathrooms without coat hooks. There are worlds other than Earths, but they tend to be singular examples and more difficult to discern a pattern from."

"Why would Earths be so common? Are there more of them or does looking through SCPs from Earth just produce that sampling?"

"The latter, I think."

"Do you have any data on whether most anomalies could reach to other celestial bodies? Should we be aggressively colonizing the solar system?"

"There are universe wide and solar-system spanning anomalies. A large number of anomalies also seem to target intelligent life specifically and would not be deterred by a change in location. There are a few anomalies that might be aggravated by humanity spreading out, but none that are inherently uncontainable. The Foundation hasn't tried to prevent humanity from colonizing other worlds, but hasn't put any resources towards promoting it either."

"How can you tell if an anomaly reaches that far? - or that there aren't inherently uncontainable anomalies?"

"There are several anomalies we have identified in deep space. There are also several anomalies that we have contained because of advance warning from other universes that were, themselves, destroyed. One of the Foundation's final duties if containment completely fails is to warn all possible other Earths that can be reached. We don't know that there aren't any inherently uncontainable anomalies that would be aggravated by humans spreading out. There might be. There just aren't any that we currently know of."

"Fair enough."

"I wish I had better answers to give you. Too much of what we do is guesswork."

"It sounds really hard."

"It is. That's part of why I'm telling you all this. I'm always in active recruitment mode for anyone who seems remotely competent. We need all the help we can get."

"If not all the help you could actually advertise for."

"Unfortunately not."

"Do you have much use for medical researchers?"

He nods.

"Some SCP are compeltely inexplicable, but a decent number have discernible physical effects.  While our researchers frequently can't tell how something is possible, they can often figure out how it is operating."

"Is there much scope for using the useful stuff or just containing everything?"

He grimaces.

"For now, mostly containment."

"For now?"

"There have been attempts to make use of SCPs before. It's not completely out of the question."

"How'd that go?"

"Poorly, usually, but I think we could do better."

"How did it fail?"

"We didn't try just once. Generally, the problems came from things growing out of our control, due to what I believe to be a lack of caution, leading to civilian deaths and containment breaches. There are SCPs we continue to use safely, from when the time of testing of such things was allowed."

"Like what?"

"SCP-151 is an iron alloy similar to steel. It can only be created from iron mined from an otherwise unremarkable iron mine in southern Arizona. SCP-151 is not physically stronger than steel, but people who are presented with anything made from SCP-151 will believe it is impossible to break. People driving cars made of 151 will be more reckless and more willing to break the speed limit. Criminals in handcuffs made of 151 will not attempt to break them, even if they have the tools available to do so. Because of this, 151 was put to widespread use in the foundation for many years."

"Have you not been presented with any, that you can report on it like that?"

He nods.

"I've been working for the foundation for 12 years. All use of 151 ceased 17 years ago. The Foundation originally believed 151 was safe to use, despite its memetic properties. It does not have a secondary memetic effect, so individuals who have never been exposed can safely set policy regarding it. And, individuals using it can still be aware of its memetic nature. So, policy for SCP-151 was to treat it as if it had the durability of steel and, even though every foundation employee who personally used it believed that not to be true, they still followed policy. It allowed us to contain some otherwise un-containable SCPs, particularly reality warpers. However, it ended up backfiring on us badly. Over an extended period of time, SCP-151 gradually "infects" all other iron based alloys in its vicinity. This effect is gradual. If it made other iron alloys seem unbreakable, we would have noticed. Instead, it simply makes them seem slightly more durable then they actually are. Iron alloys infected by 151 can, in turn infect other iron alloys. Fortunately for us and the world, it stopped there, as only alloys infected by 151 directly can spread the infection."

"This only happens when the iron from this one mine is refined? Does the iron have any properties if unrefined - or if made into compounds?"

"Unrefined or used to make any other alloy, the iron is completely unremarkable."

"What if it's mixed with iron from another mine, then turned to steel?"

"It becomes an instance of 151. What are you getting at?"

"I don't have an application in mind, I'm just trying to feel out the - aesthetic, if not the mechanism. Is that pointless, is there not any kind of feel you can develop for how SCPs are likely to work if you have enough experience with them?"

"You can. Nothing that guarantees results for any particular SCP, but there are patterns."

"Okay, so you stopped using 151 - why are these all numbers, doesn't that get easy to mix up? Why don't you call it memesteel or something?"

"There are thousands. Any system that wasn't numbers would be too difficult to keep track of. Many do have nicknames though. We stopped using 151 when an analyst in a facility with no instances of 151 realized that the rate of casualties and escapes had been increasing at a gradual and predictable rate in seven of our facilities, and that the vast majority of the instances could be attributed to equipment failure. After that, it didn't take long to realize what was going on. It was something we could have caught much earlier, if we'd had the right precautions in place."

"Good for that analyst. What else has been put to use? Perhaps me - I mean - perhaps you toast things?"

"I can't actually think of a way I-" he closes his eyes, sighs, "could be useful."

"In my capacity as a toaster! I wouldn't exactly be a magical asset, though. - that's just so charmingly bizarre."

"In-person exposure to me is actually dangerous over extended periods of time. People start believing they actually are a toaster, which has inevitably tragic results. That's one of the patterns of skips unfortunately, even the charming ones have dark sides."

"Ah. So I never even get to toast anything. Poor me. What else has been put to use?"

"The potential danger isn't the only reason that the use of SCPs is strictly banned. SCP-590 was a teenager that healed the injuries of anyone he touched, gaining the scars of the healed wound and all of the pain from the wound, including when it was initially inflicted and the healing period. He also could heal mental illnesses, transferring the mental illness to himself in its entirety. There is another SCP, SCP-500 which is a pill that straightforwardly restores a person to full health. The foundations supply is small and finite. For a time, SCP-590 was used to heal important foundation personnel. When his cumulative injuries became life threatening, he was healed with SCP-500 and immediately given mental retardation to make him pliable. This cycle repeated itself several times, until it was decided that the supply of SCP-500 was too limited to be used on him and he died of his accumulated injuries."

"Bleah."

"The current consensus is that we so frequently have to compromise our morals already that we can no longer safely walk that line. The only way to prevent future SCP-590s is to commit fully to containment and ban any new use of SCPs for any reason."

"- or just prevent the use of SCPs that seem likely to be people, that seems an equally obvious line. We manage to prohibit slavery and not, uh." She glances around. "Furniture shopping."

"SCP-1609 is a teleporting chair who may or may not be a person."

"What makes it seem personable?"

"Originally, SCP-1609 was a chair that would teleport behind anyone in its vicinity who needed to sit down. It was found by the Global Occult Coalition, who have a general policy of destroying any anomalous objects they find, and put through a wood shredder. It then teleported into the lungs of the members of the GOC, killing them. After that, it, on its own, teleported into one of the Foundation's unused containment cells. It is currently being used as mulch in one of our containment sites and seems happy to remain where it is, as long as it is being used for something. It continues to react violently to anyone who wears uniforms reminiscent of the members of the GOC."

"Poor chair."

He nods.

"SCP-1609's situation is not unusual. There are many skips that may or may not be people."

"Is much of an attempt made to communicate with them?"

"In some cases, yes. In others we avoid communicating at all.  It depends a lot on the specifics, particularly their threat level."

"Examples?"

"SCP-645 is a large marble disk with a humanoid face carved into it. If someone puts their hand into its mouth and lies, their hand will be bitten off. It's purpose seems straightforward and in normal testing it shows no signs of sentience. However, a particularly unusual test showed that it might be capable of forming opinions of people. A test subject who had seen a depiction of SCP-645 in a movie and guessed what it could do, was unusually truthful and described in detail the motivations behind several murders he had committed. SCP-645 spit out his hand and prevented him from re-inserting it. When a scientist involved in the experiment revealed that he had been lying in an attempt to coerce the test subject, SCP-645 revealed the previously unknown capability to attack people at a distance and extended a tongue which severed the scientist's hand. These behaviors could indicate a personality. They also just may simply be built in responses to certain extreme stimuli. It's difficult to tell."

"Huh. - Do skips get depicted in movies, uh, often?"

He shakes his head.

"No, but sometimes myths are founded in reality and that particular movie was based on a local myth that turned out to be true."

"Did the movie get disappeared?"

"No, it had been out for too long and didn't have any anomalous properties itself."

"Small mercies."

"If the movie had been dangerous, it would have been a nightmare to contain."

"I assume occasional containment nightmares do happen -? Are any of those, uh, recoverable?"

"So far, yes. But it's always difficult and stretches our resources very thin."

"How's all this funded?"

"Military budgets, mostly. And powerful individuals who've been recruited to our cause our found out about it on their own."

"Military budgets openly, like, the President knows about it, or like embezzling for a good cause?"

"The president often knows. It's officially sanctioned, but carefully hidden so that you can inspect the military budget without it ever leading directly back to us."

"Often? You skip some presidents?"

"We try to tell some presidents and it goes poorly."

"Ah. How do you get around the Secret Service?"

"The majority of them also know what's going on and it's easier to influence the hiring of secret service personnel than it is to influence elections."

Miranda nods. "Besides the movie, which doesn't sound familiar, anything I might have heard of that's actually skip-related?"

He takes a moment to consider this. 

"Does your world have a Yellowstone National Park?"

"Yes."

"In my world, Yellowstone may or may not be a skip. We're not sure. Do you remember when you first heard of it?"

"I think I heard about it first when I was learning about volcanoes when I was eight but I'm sure I'd heard of it by the time I moved to the States for university."

"So before 2007, assuming you're remembering correctly?"

"Right. Is that weird, in most universes did it spring into existence in 2008 and everyone felt like they were just coincidentally finding out about it for the first time?"

"Not everyone, but everyone in the Foundation. Before 2007, not a single Foundation employee knew Yellowstone existed. That's plausible for personnel like me, who aren't from the U.S. But it's far less plausible for for the ones living in Wyoming. We still have no idea what happened."

"Is there any evidence that they used to know and then forgot - surely lots of people growing up in Wyoming visit it and there'd be some physical evidence?"

He shakes his head.

"None. No vacation photos, journal entries, school reports, nothing. Family members sometimes had heard of Yellowstone prior to 2007, but saw no reason to bring it up to the Foundation employee and generally could never remember the employee discussing it."

"Huh. This is the only known anomalous feature of Yellowstone?"

He nods.

"We've looked and found nothing."

"Maybe an anomaly was living in it, and then died or moved away."

"That's one of the theories. It could also be a probability effecting anomaly or Foundation interference with another skip could have altered reality to create Yellowstone, altering the memory of everyone but Foundation employees. Or it could be something else entirely."

"Lots of possibilities. Well, if I were a skip I'd probably want to hide from the Foundation too, does that seem like a common motive -"

He nods.

"There are skips whose entire purpose seems to be making it impossible to comprehend what they are. No matter how many steps back we take or what angle we look at them at, it's impossible to know what's actually going on because they, by their very nature, won't let us. Those are sometimes the most frightening ones. They could be harmless or they could threaten everything and we have no way of knowing."

"That sounds so interesting up until the point where it just gets frustrating - are there examples safely transmissible in conversational format like the toaster one?"

He considers this.

"Part of my job, though only a minor part, is keeping track of perception altering SCPs and making a report any time they or references to them appear outside of specifically allowed circumstances. SCP-2602, which used to be a library, is conversationally transmissible and is on the list of skips to watch out for, though I'm not quite sure why."

"Naively I'd assume whatever it became after it stopped being a library?"

He makes a so-so gesture with his hand. 

"Before I continue, are you sure you want information about the skip that used to be a library? As far as I know, it's harmless apart from its insistence on informing you that it used to be a library, but I assume it's on the list for a reason."

"I mean, I don't have any immediate use for information about an ex-library, but I'm definitely curious."

"Bringing me up," he closes his eyes, sighs. Instead of attempting to rephrase, he mimes putting bread into a toaster, "reminded me of the ex-library because it has a similar conversational tic. It's impossible to discuss SCP-2602 without also immediately mentioning that it used to be a library. That seems to be the ex-library's primary anomalous effect, the ability to record physical details of SCP-2602 seems otherwise unaffected. Personnel who entered were unharmed and were able to give full reports that was normal except for the continual reminders that SCP-2602 did, in fact, used to be a library."

"Okay, so it was a library, and then what?"

"It used to be a library. The foundation identified it in 2004, which seems to be when it first began to manifest anomalous properties."

"It used to be a library. What did it become after that? What is or was its post-library use?"

"I told you," he says, sounding frustrated, "it used to be a library."

Then, his frustration fades and his expression turns considering.

"Except, you're not the type to waste words are you? I obviously answered your question. It used to be a library. But then why are you asking me again?"

"Because you didn't answer my question, you're just repeating that it used to be a library! Over and over!"

"I did warn you," he says, looking a little amused. 

"As far as I can tell, I am answering your question, SCP-2602 used to be a library. But obviously you think I'm not, which is probably why this skip is on the list. Why don't you try asking a different one?"

"If we were talking about a - a different, non-skip library, that was then converted into a - church, and then I asked you the same question about that, the answer would be 'it was converted into a church'."

"As far as we can tell, SCP-2602 isn't anything else now. It's not being used. It's just a building that used to be a library."

"Okay. Why did it stop being used as a library? It does have an anomaly but not one that seems like it'd obviously interfere with the use, people could just say, 'oh, let's go down the street to the place which used to be a library and still is' - did it run out of funding or something?"

"There was a fire on the day that SCP-2602, which used to be a library, developed anomalous prosperities."

He thinks, chewing on his lip.

"But that was in 2004. It was a library until 1988."

"Is this just not known - or known to you, I don't expect you to have thousands of these memorized in all their details -"

"No. It, the building that used to be a library, is one of the skips on the list. Knowing the skips on the list is part of my job. And these are skips that worry us, we've found out everything we can."

He's speaking with some difficulty. 

"Part of the advantage of the list is that it lets us be generic. We can speak about common properties of the SCPs on the list even if that property isn't true for any individual skip on the list. If I don't think about the question you're asking specifically, then it seems relevant that there's information that we can find out but never know. We can have every piece of information we need to come to an obvious conclusion and still be completely unable to make that conclusion. I know that there are skips on this list we have photographs of, but still have no idea what they look like. I couldn't tell you which of the SCPs on this list that's true for, because I can only hold on to that information in the generic. So, theoretically, they are questions we technically have all the information we need to answer, but still can't."

"- what can you tell me about the one that used to be a library?"

"SCP-2602 is a brick building which has three floors above ground, which is a typical design for buildings that used to be libraries. Many of the items inside SCP-2602 were damaged to the point of being unrecognizable due to the fire and long-term storage in a building that used to be a library, but the items that were identified were consistent with items you would expect to find in a building that used to be a library."

"Did it still have books?"

"Yes, just like you'd expect in a building that used to be a library. Many of them were too damaged to be legible, but the salvageable books covered a variety of the topics you'd expect to find in a building that used to be a library, from records of experimental surgical procedures to instructions on how to synthesize plagues to target specific populations."

"Did it use to be a medical library?"

"Not specifically, but it's to be expected that a library would include books and records on medical topics."

"I do not think I could find books on synthesizing plagues to target specific populations in the JHU medical library, let alone an ordinary public library."

"I'm not surprised? It's a dangerous topic and most libraries likely wouldn't be comfortable hosting such material. I think it would draw our attention if an average library did, even one at a medical school."

"Yet while the ex-library skip had these books in circulation it didn't get noticed?"

“I don’t know why it would? Those kinds of books are to be expected somewhere that used to be a library.”

"You're contradicting yourself. Is it more worrying that you're doing that or that I'm noticing?"

"Have I been?"

He thinks back over his words.

"I'll take your word that I have, but I can't find the contradiction. That in itself wouldn't worry you, that's the nature of skips like this. It is interesting that you're noticing. There are skips that cause easily observed contradictions, where the person affected doesn't notice but it's obvious to everyone else. This isn't one of them, or at least, I don't remember it being one of them."

"Decontextualizing what you said if I'm not making a mistake trying to do this from memory, you said it would be surprising to find X in the general class of Ys to the point where it would have attracted Foundation attention; and then that it was not surprising to have found some X in an instance of Y because it was a Y."

"Hm, you're right. That's an obvious contradiction. I'm not going to identify which part of what I said matched that pattern, because brute forcing this is unlikely to work and could potentially be dangerous. But, if you were able to identify the contradiction and hold onto it..."

He suddenly stops walking and lifts off the cord that's been hanging around his throat. At the end, there's a simple metal tube. He unscrews it and shakes the contents, a pill and a tightly rolled up piece of paper, into his palm.

He hands the paper to Miranda, without unrolling it.

"Read this."

"...you're confident it's safe? There isn't an SCP that deposits necklaces containing hostile memes on people?"

He shakes his head.

"I can't be confident. I don't know what it says. I do know that its a failsafe and I know I was given it by people who are better at their job than I am at mine. I'm supposed to read it under certain conditions. This isn't one of them. But, in the event that I found myself resistant to any of the effects of the skips on the list, I was supposed to read it first, no matter what crisis I found myself in."

"I think I'd like more thorough details on the circumstances in which you're supposed to read it and any other instructions it came with before I look."

"I'm security level four. There are five levels. The day I was promoted I received the list and this capsule from the only people with higher clearance levels than me. I was told that the capsule is a fail safe. That I would only be able to remember it was a fail safe as long as I didn't know what it was protecting against. I was supposed to read it in three scenarios. The first was if I became aware of anything that could potentially combat the effects of the skips on the list. The second was if I became aware of a skip that should be on the list but wasn't. The third was in the event of a containment failure. I was also told that if I thought there was a chance I should use it, but wasn't sure, then I definitely should. Because, in any situation that requires it, I would likely be unable to know. Which is why I'm giving it to you, despite not actually knowing anything about you. I was also told that each employee could only trigger the fail-safe once, which is why I haven't read it myself yet."

"Is the list just all the skips there are or a subset?"

"A subset, 74 of the several thousand skips we have contained."

"Selected how for inclusion on the list?"

"I don't know. I wasn't part of the process, but they all seem to have powerful memetic properties and I suspect the ones that don't simply have memetic properties it is difficult to retain the knowledge of."

"Yeah, okay." She unrolls the paper and has a look.

Antimemes are ideas that can not be spread. Everything on the list is an antimeme. There are 11 entries on the list you do not remember.

The included pill is a mnestic. It will enable you to remember things you would otherwise forget. If there is a containment failure, take it now and contact one of the O5 immediately. If the O5 are out of reach, access the Antimemetic Division protocols. You do not need permission, they are open to anyone who can remember they exist. 

Otherwise, you have a choice. If you believe you are most useful in your current role in the Foundation, write whatever you have learned on the backside of this paper and reseal it and the pill inside the capsule. Afterwards, you will forget that you ever had a failsafe. 

Otherwise, take the mnestic. You will join the Antimemetic Division. This will make you a target. They know who remembers them. The life expectancy of personnel in the Antimemetics division is a third of the life expectancy of the average foundation employee. 

It's your choice. Remember what's at stake. 

If you've taken the pill, it is time to relearn everything you've forgotten. Start with SCP-055.

"I'm honestly not inclined to take strange drugs without a lot more information about them," remarks Miranda. "I'm also not able to get in touch with anybody about it and I'm assuming it's the sort of thing you need several doses of."

"I still don't know what it says. Can you tell if your seeming resistance to the ex-library is reason enough for me to read it?"

"My guess is that you do not need to read it but you were right to give it to me, but if you disagree you can certainly have it."

He nods.

"You can hold onto it for now. I would guess that you were right and the pill is intended to be the first in a series. You can decide what to do with it once we're out of here. If they recognize me, I should be able to get a replacement. If they don't, it won't be of much use to me anyways."

"Sure. Can I have the vial so the pill doesn't fall out of my pocket and get stepped on or whatever?"

He passes it over.

She puts pill and paper neatly back in the vial and wears it as a necklace. "Thanks. So I'm guessing it's a waste of time to continue talking about the building that used to be a library."

"I think so, but it might be worth recording the conversation we already had. Any new behavior of an existing skip is potentially valuable."

"I don't think I can remember it in transcript-quality detail, not having taken notes at the time, and I'm much more confident you can't."

"It doesn't need to be transcript quality to be useful."

He looks around. They are currently passing through a series of miniature homes. 

"I think I need to take a break from walking soon anyways. If I try to record what I remember, can you mark down any sections that seem obviously off?"