What is the purpose, I tell you, of being moderate before Death? Take. Be taken. Give yourselves as much as you are and for all that you are, dust and water, until there is no water left, and you have nothing but dust.
Author: Dr Reach Dr Reach
Translated by: morhadow morhadow
Original date: 11 Jun 2018
Link to original: SCP-ES-145
And now the author note about Terminal class:
Object Class: Terminal
Terminal Class Objects are anomalies that, after having been properly studied, have resulted in incorporating human identities after the death of their physical bodies. While the Foundation normally disregards the idea of an immaterial existence of identity that persists after death and would contain, say, a disembodied being claiming to be a deceased member, there is evidence that the Terminal SCP understands, implies, includes or could include human beings after their deaths.
This is an extraordinary revelation. It is an afterlife, whether it is beautiful, horrible or a mixture of both. For the Foundation, however, it is an infohazard. Ghosts don't have the loyalties of the living and they don't have to think the same way.
For the Foundation, the containment of a Terminal event is probably impossible. Certain forms of technology have been applied to anomalies that look like Terminals, but are not; ghosts, spectres or resurrected ones that can be contained by technical means ARE NOT OBJECTS OF TERMINAL CLASS. If their existence cannot be contained, only detected and concealed or cure their effects on the material world, they are Terminal Class Objects.
Containment of a Terminal Class Object involves, among other things:
- Inform the members of the Foundation that they may become involved about what it is, what it entails, what they will have to face when they die and how they can continue to serve the Foundation.
- Trying to supply amnestics to members of the Foundation with sensitive information who are about to die. This is not always effective, but every bit of help is necessary.
- Hiding the existence of Terminal Class Objects from personnel who a) could not emotionally handle their existence or the existence of postanatic identities of their associates, acquaintances or relatives, b) would prefer to become part of an Object rather than others for their living talents would make them much more useful to the Foundation and its mission and c) would attempt to destroy deceased subjects. The dead are dead. There are methods by which simulations, copies or new versions of the dead can be recreated, but the originals will always remain dead.
- Any necessary containment requirements. A Terminal Object can be a Keter, Euclid or Safe Object, if it is based on or related to anomalies in the material universe (in the case of ES-145, the Orgy is material, as is the funerary complex; they are thus anomalous Euclid class events, and it is also suspected that it could be a Terminal anomaly… but there is no way to confirm that it is, not with the means at the disposal of the Foundation); even (and more frequently) Taumiel or Apollyon; after all, a non-Terminal Object only has to worry you until it kills you. A Terminal Object can persist forever. Hordes of postanatic beings, human and non-human, exist in who knows how many Terminal Objects, and more than one is an eternal condemnation to those who enter them. It is a moral duty of the Foundation to try to find ways to alleviate suffering, to organize and even to give a mission to its own fallen agents… although nothing guarantees that they will follow that mission. They are dead, after all, and there are not many oaths that bind you even beyond death.
Bonus: The box test:
If you lock it in a box, leave it alone, and nothing bad will happen, then it's probably Safe.
If you lock it in a box, leave it alone, and you're not entirely sure what will happen, then it's probably Euclid.
If you lock it in a box, leave it alone, and it easily escapes, then it's probably Keter.
If it is the box, then it's probably Taumiel.
If you die, and you still need a box, then it's probably Terminal.
Opinions? :)