"May I smoke?"

This time the receptionist narrowed her eyes at Marion. “No,” she said. “You— no, you cannot smoke anywhere in Site 200. Just because this is an administrative building doesn't mean we don't have lungs. or labor laws”

Marion noticed the irritation on the girl's face. “I asked you this before, right?”

“Test in 15 minutes,” the receptionist said, “You must really want to smoke.” The girl didn't understand the point of asking such repeated questions, and she didn't do a very good job of dispelling her doubts.

"She thinks it's like //

Memento//,

Right?” Marion offered. "You think I don't have long-term memories, and that if I stay in the same place for too long I'll forget why I'm there."

The receptionist was old enough to remember that movie. “I…I guess?”

Marion smiled understandingly and shook her head. It's not something that is easy to understand.

Several minutes passed. She concentrated on flicking the lighter back and forth. This year she turned fifty and started to have gray hair. She was beginning to transform from a “little girl” into a “little old woman.” The phone in her bag notified her that it was time to take the medicine, but she postponed the notification until later. Her fingers trembled slightly,

But it's not because of age, it's just normal stress. She is worried because she came here to meet.

O5

and guys

O5

Awesome, guys.

O5

Never wanted to meet you for some small reason It must be the end of the world or nothing at all.

Finally, forty minutes late, the office door inside opened. Four or five high-ranking employees of the institute walked out, carrying laptops or document envelopes. Walking in groups, they walked past the reception area and onto the waiting car. Marion remembered some faces— Site Director 19, Head of Procurement Western Europe Zone No one looked in her direction.

When they were gone, the assistant

O5-8

Poke your head out of the doorway. He's around twenty. He looked impossibly young, like a teenager secretly wearing his father's business attire. His hairstyle is untidy. One hand held a laptop computer, showing the boss's schedule. It was so packed, the man couldn't get any sleep.

“Marion, right? You can come in now.”

The office door closed behind him with an unusually heavy mechanism //crack//, as if it were all part of a machine built into the office wall. As Marion sat down in the chair she had been told to sit in and put down her bag, the assistant turned and did something with the door, causing several strange sounds to follow.

O5

Want privacy and security

The office was large, but for some reason it was dark. Even with two large windows and bright light outside. All the walls were bookshelves and covered with dark wood; Perfectly beautiful, but it's a nineties style, a little old, but not old enough to be trendy again.

As for what's behind the table,

O5

It's never like you imagine.

Marion took a deep breath. “So what is the topic? All I got was an invitation letter, no agenda or issues. I mean, if

O5

Told to 'jump', you jumped but- -"

Looking to her right, she saw that the assistant, without speaking or making any extra noise, put the tablet down on the table, picked up a gun and aimed it at her head. Marion stopped talking. She remained in the chair for a while longer, paying attention to the change in rhythm, letting her heart beat faster like a hummingbird and begin to slow again.

“Okay?” She was in danger, she licked her lips and gripped the armrest, but besides that she remained perfectly still in her original position, preparing to wait for any sudden events. The assistant's face was now expressionless, as if this was how a meeting should be. Maybe it is, for this person.

“Who are you?”

O5-8

ask her

Marion blinked, “What? oh my God"

“Let me repeat that one more time,”

O5-8

said, “Marion Wheeler, forty-nine years old, is accompanied by a lovely husband and two sons. Likes camping, mountaineering and ornithology. Boring mother along with Complete history and finances with no holes, as far as we can verify. And you have full certification from the institute and we have never had a problem,

Includes access to a list of troop and housing units which… Some places no longer exist, or were closed decades ago. At least one is not yet built, and you already have the front door key for it. That hasn't been mentioned yet. access control

SCP

of you, which I can only describe as 'So many that it's scary'

“So you are a spy, and your goals do not align with ours, and Clay would like to be used.

Xi-3

Take care of you, but I can delay him. I went and talked to him one on one. I think there's a slight chance that if we lock you in a bomb-proof room and ask nicely, you might have a good reason to help the rest of you.”

Marion stopped listening a long time ago. “Dammit,” she said now that she could speak, “I am the head of your antimemetic department.”

“We don't have a memetic department,” Clay said.

“Yes, you have //we// have.”

O5-8

Said, “We have a memetic department, a psychic containment department, a fire department, an operations team-

A, 

Operations team-

B,

Personnel Department, Personnel Department-

D

And two dozen others. We don't have an entimemetic department.”

“Do we have a sarcasm department?” Marion asked, she wasn't as confident as expected, "No? Well, then, try this: Why do you think the department Will the enthimimetic show up in the list?”

“This is just a cover-up,” Clay said.

O5-8,

Without taking his eyes off Marion. “It was good, but you just prepared it.”

“Clay, please be quiet.”

O5

speak up

Although reluctant, Clay did so.

Marion relaxed slightly, “It has.

SCP

Many of them have dangerous memetic properties,” she said. “It is a contagious concept that requires containment like any other physical threat. They come into your head, and control your mind to go to other minds, right?”

"yes"

O5-8

Say, he can trace the numbers of

SCP

Many matched the description without even thinking about it.

“It has

SCP

Many of them have properties. Enthimimetic,” Marion continued. “It is an idea that cannot be published. They are entities and phenomena that harvest and consume information. Especially information about themselves. You took a Polaroid and it never came out clear. You write a description with a pen on a piece of paper and send it to someone—

But whatever was written came out as hieroglyphics and no one could read it, not even you. You can look straight at a creature and it isn't even invisible, but you still see that there's nothing there. Dreams you can't touch and secrets you can't tell, and lies, and A conspiracy in progress It is a unique concept,

To thoughts that consume other thoughts and…sometimes…parts of reality. Sometimes, people

“Which makes them dangerous. That's all to say, in fact entimemes are dangerous and we don't understand them; Therefore, they are part of the problem. So in my department We had to think out of the blue that was necessary to fight something that literally consumed your martial arts training.”

O5-8

He stared back at her for a moment. Clay is restless, doesn't like and is suspicious of the story, but

O5

He seemed open to the idea.

“Tell me the name of one,” he said. “Tell me the name.

SCP

Entimim metigma.”

“ "[[[SCP-055|SCP-055]]]”

Marion answered quickly.

“There isn't any.

SCP-055”

Clay argued back.

“Again; Yes, it does,” said Marion.

“It doesn't have a number,” Clay confirmed.

SCP

are not continuously determined. it has gaps The number has never been assigned. It's not superstition. We have more to worry about than the mysteries of Arabic numerals. We have "[[[

SCP-666]]] 

and "[[[

SCP-013]]] 

But it doesn't have [[[

SCP-001]]] 

and there is no

SCP-055”

“Clay”

O5-8

Saying, “You should look at this.” He turned his screen so Clay could see the file he had just recovered. Clay leaned over and read it from bottom to top. Puzzled, he scrolled back and read it a second time.

"but…"

“This file is from 2008.”

O5-8

Say “Have all the correct symbols and signatures. Locked and encrypted It's real.”

“Have you seen this before?” Clay asked him.

“Never in my life.”

O5-8

Said, “As far as I can remember, however, if the content is accurate, both of us have probably done it dozens of times.”

Clay looked at Marion, “This is impossible.”

Marion strips to spit “For God's sake, Clay, how long have you been working here?”

“But if

SCP

It is so powerful,” he began to speak.

"that?"

“Who wrote this file?”

O5

Continued to the end “And the important thing, how was the interview conducted and who was 'Bartholomew Hughes'? And most importantly, how do you, Mrs. Wheeler, still have knowledge of this?”

"Barth Hughes wrote the file. He's dead," Marion replied.

“What happened to him?”

"You don't want to know."

There was a long hiatus. During both

O5-8

And his assistant responded to this. In fact, they stopped for a long time. And while it stops, other things go on at the same time. Resentment over an act that appears to be rude; Wheeler's bewilderment in warning in front of his malevolent superiors Surprised by the clarity of what is claimed;

pure unbelief; Begin to realize; And finally, terror.

"what…"

O5-8

asked carefully “It will happen if we //push// know.”

“It will happen to you too,” Marion replied, evenly. “…and for the rest of your questions. We take care of that with pharmaceuticals. You know we have Memory Erasing Drug Class-

A ,

It's used for people who really want us to forget something, right? Definitely can remember for a long time Who would forget about the class memory-erasing potion?

A?

Oh, for enthymemetic, we use another drug, for people who want to remember. Things that are impossible to remember any other way. Memory stimulant (

Mnestics)

class

W,X,Y

and

Z  

Like the Greek root word '

mnemonic'

one

M

Not pronouncing

In her bag, the phone alerted again.

With a nod of permission from

O5 ,

Marion reached into her bag and turned off the phone. Be aware of notifications now instead of ignoring them. She pulled out a pill pack from her other pocket and pushed out the pills. It was hexagonal, and green. She held it, and was satisfied to see the glimmer of memory on her face.

O5-8

He began to put it back together.

Marion said, “This is a class memory enhancer.

W,

Very weak, suitable for continuous use two tablets per day Try going to the dispensary section of the site and asking. The pharmacist will say they don't have any of these medicines; They misremembered, tell them to check again.”

O5-8

Sighing, “And now, I think, I understand. I can see why we're having this conversation.”

“That's right,” Marion said, pulling out a second pill and handing it to him. “It was because you forgot to take your medicine. You should eat it like me and all my employees. It's the only way we can function. You forgot to take the medicine, then you forgot all the information that the medicine would help you remember. You forgot why you had to eat it, who gave it to you,

Where can I get more of it? You forgot about me, and my entire department. And now I have to rush you to catch up.”

“And if I eat this,”

O5-8

Say, “How can I remember this whole conversation and then we don't have to talk anymore?”

“I hope I don't have to,” Marion said.

Clay, come on. “Oh, should I eat that too?”

“Sorry, kid,”

O5-8

Said, “You'll find out later. Maybe when you became

O5

And then,” he swallowed the medicine. Marion swallowed hers too.

“So what is it?

SCP-055?” O5-8

ask

“ SCP-055

That's nothing,” Marion said, now completely relaxed.

SCP-055

It is, as stated in the file, a powerful automatic data crusher. As far as the experiment has discovered It can only be spoken of in false terms. We can only record things that //are not// we know are not.

Safe

or

Euclid

We know it's not round, or square, or green or silver. We know it's not //stupid// and we know it's not. //There's only one// If all we know is that it's weak. It's weak because it is. The only enthymematic representation that we have a physical record of is in the file. We have documents for this thing. We have quarantine measures. It's not safe, which means it's dangerous... But it can be contained.

O5-8

Blinking, “Do you have measures? Where do you keep it?”

Marion pointed at her head.

“And how many other entimemes are there? How dangerous are they?”

“I know of ten,” Marion said. “Statistically, there are probably at least five that I don't know. This does not include Enthimime entities that roam the corridors freely, uncontained. There are at least two of them in the room with us right now. Don't look, I said don't look! It has no effect!”

O5-8

Doing an excellent job of controlling himself, his attention was solely focused on Marion. Clay didn't act very well, and quickly swept across the room, looking at his entire back. Disgrace yourself, and finally He didn't find anything. He looked completely dazed.

“There is an invisible monster that follows me around and likes to eat my memories,” Marion explained, patiently.

SCP-4987

Don't look, it's not there. I learned how to control it. It's like a pet that needs to be pampered. I created delicious memories for him so he wouldn't eat anything important, like a password or how to make coffee.”

“And the other one?” Clay asked.

With another nod of permission from

O5-8,

Marion reached into her bag again. This time she pulls out a gun and shoots Clay in the heart twice.

From shock rather than pain Clay fell and hit the bookcase behind him. before pulling his head around to face Marion. ,He tried to say, "How do you know--"

Marion got up, took better aim and shot him a third time, this time in the head.

O5-8

Again, does a great job of not responding. “That's Clay's gun,” he said emotionlessly. “You stole it from him.”

“It's hard to steal a gun this heavy from someone without them knowing,” Marion explained, unloading the bullet and slowly setting it down. “But it's a bit easier to steal a gun and then steal the memories of the Mas robbery. Like I said: pets, some of them are stupid enough to be trained.

“That's right,”

O5-8

speak smoothly “I can guess about them, but why?”

“Because you should take class-class memory-boosting pills.

w,”

Marion said, “You skipped the memory-boosting pills.

class-w

No, I've tried it before. You can change the time, but you can't //forget// eat it unless someone prevents you from eating it. And there's only one person who can get that close to you, and that's your assistant. And do you remember when I asked him how long you've worked here?”

“He did not answer,”

O5-8

Say, “I thought you were just being sarcastic.”

“He doesn't work here,” Marion said. “He's an Entimem. When did you have an assistant? You don't //have/ /assistant, Brent. Look at this office. You only have one table. You have a receptionist outside: //she// who filters your calls and schedules you. Where exactly is Clay sitting?

Where does he have work? Don't blame yourself. You are human, and these are the incarnations of concealment. You have to think like extraterrestrial aliens to be around them.

O5-8

Asking questions that, in any other office, would be nonsense. “Is he dead yet?”

“Maybe,” said Marion. “He can put his body on our research table and we'll see when we cut him open. There's the opposite here, however. They are like parallel universes that share space together. It is abstract versus concrete. Metaphor versus physicality It is very unusual for these things to cross together.

I don't know what Clay used to be, but he has a human body, which makes him strange, even by our standards. As usual, the stalemate was still being worked out. I will let you know if we get any closer.”

“Do these medicines have any side effects?”

O5-8

ask

“Nausea, greatly increased risk of pancreatic cancer,” Mahion said, “and lots of nightmares.”