Then suddenly my heart is wrung
By her distracted air
And I remember wildness lost
And after, swept from there,
Am set down standing in the wood
At the death of the hare.
— Yeats
This hare did not die. This hare is not a victim.
Based on the lore established in SCP-001:O5 by AdminBright AdminBright .
Also partly inspired by a line in SCP-1764 by DrClef DrClef .
I've always felt like "that one time the Foundation committed genocide" deserved to be revisited, so here we are.
Thank you for reading.
Colorblind accessible version!
Crit credits:
- jabyrwock jabyrwock
- SCP-3209 - Boredom Butterfly
- CadaverCommander
- SCP-3885 - The High-Octane Full-Throttle Adventures of the Exploding Zombie Gearheads
- DrChandra
- SCP-3717 - Pickl'd Punkz
- 9Volt
- SCP-3140 - Botanical Warfare
- shaggydredlocks
- SCP-783 - There Was A Crooked Man
- Hippo
- SCP-3054 - Cragstaff Sanitarium
- Captain Kirby
- SCP-3633 - I'm Right Behind Me
Image credits:
For translators: Photoshop file for warning image
Discover more of my weird ramblings in
~PeppersGhost's Gallery of Illusion!~
I feel like they should make a movie about this SCP, or an extensive novel going into great detail about all the things that occur in these un-named woods.
When Dr. Japers has his last conversation with the bunny, (im guessing ignoring nonmenclature its 4000年3月1日) the bunny gives him a name, and Japers follows through with it, ignoring SEP-2.10. As such, the bunny takes Japer's name, whatever it is was.
Dr. Japers: On the contrary, I'd quite like to hear more of these stories. The life of you and your people is of great interest to me.
"I'm sure it is, fellow scholar."
A strong breeze moves through the house. Neither party speaks for half a minute. The rabbit-person who lives there grunts and places a hand to its head, as if in pain. Dr. Japers places his hand against the teapot.
Why would the bunny want to effectively kill Japers in this way? The bunny has Taken Japer's name in this way, removing him from the world in the process. rereading the transcript, Japers has also violated SEP-2.08 by accident. Fello scholar is a designation.
The teller of the story sips its tea.
Dr. Japers: No, please, go on. These things are of interest to me—I am a fellow scholar, remember?
"As you wish, fellow scholar. I shall talk until the tea is cold."
However, the bunny knows of the nonmenclature of the place. he realizes that he can get out of the place by "hitchhiking" off of a person that visits. How? Notice the shift in the mood after the "Strong breeze" part.
Dr. Japers: It appears the tea has gotten cold. I think it's time I took my leave.
(Speech slightly slurred) "What? You're leaving? I—I should leave too, then."
Dr. Japers rises from the table.
Dr. Japers: No, no no no. I'll be going alone, thank you. It's abrupt, yes, and I'm grievously sorry to do this, but I really must be going. I believe I'm long overdue to return home.
"What is—? I don't... Please, don't go. Something isn't—"
Dr. Japers: It can't be helped.
"Stop! What have you done? I don't know who... what happened to my name? I can't..."
Dr. Japers quickly exits the house. His former companion whimpers and looks at its hands as he leaves.
Dr. Japers: Hm. It does taste rather tart.
"What happened to my name?" "I'm long overdue to return home" "It does taste rather tart"
Japers and the rabbit have swapped bodies. It is hard to notice at first (It took me a couple of re-reads), but the rabbit has just taken over Japer's body, leaving Japers with the rabbit's body. The rabbit does a good job of hiding this fact in the transcript, likely knowing it's recorded. The rabbit is a faerie, from the factory proposal. the founder Wiped out the faeries, but some of them escaped to SCP-4000. The rabbit has been hiding out for exactly 102 years (1911 —> 2013), waiting to return. Thats why he disappears shortly after returning from SCP-4000.
Very close, but you are in error.
There is no exchanging of bodies in Dr. Japers' case — note that the file states there were no anomalies present in the fur that Japers had shed on his equipment. No, there was a simple exchange of identity, past, present and future. Once the identity is swapped, this Dr. Japers is the only Dr. Japers, and has always been Dr. Japers by any measurable standard of his universe.
(I know this reply has arrived ages late, but I only recently visited the story and I thought I would present my two cents in case anyone else views this discussion.)
I will agree that this theory of mine is possibly a little flimsy, so I'm open to any counter theories someone might have.
It doesn't seem to me that the rabbit desired to steal his name at first. If you look back that conversation, you will see…
Dr. Japers: No, please, go on. These things are of interest to me—I am a fellow scholar, remember?
… that the doctor re-used a phrase that he previously used to identify himself, possibly becoming a form of personal designation.
The doctor gave himself a name.
You will also see that from that point onward, the rabbit repeatedly refers to him as such.
To me, it seems as though the doctor finally slipped after so many years, and the rabbit took advantage of that moment so that he may finally return to our world as he so desperately desired.
It definitely does seem to be the rabbit that returns with the last line being "thorough analysis showed no genetic abnormalities in the fur he'd shed on his expedition gear." No one refers to humans as having fur, but it the rabbit had always been the doctor then his fur and the idea of calling it for would be considered normal for the doctor. Tricky SCP.
I would also assume that this is the source of the "incorporeal humanoid that claims it is not a native entity". They're SCP foundation personnel who had their names stolen, which is why you should listen to them.
The link to the colorblind-accessible version redirects to 4000contestpeppersghost's second offset, which is an invalid link.
Colroblind-accessible version is here for the record.
The only 4000 so far that I've been able to upvote without reservation.
I want to read so much more of this.
Indeed, records and discussions like this tend to peek my interest. Otherwise it was an excellent article, great work!
I feel like they should make a movie about this SCP, or an extensive novel going into great detail about all the things that occur in these un-named woods. (I posted this a second time here because I didn’t mean to post it where I posted it the first time.)
My one gripe with the article is that it takes a very long time to reveal what exactly any of this has to do with history, of any kind.
Welcome to my post history. Enjoy your stay.
Fair enough, though personally I'm quite happy with how the article starts in the present and steadily reveals more and more about the past. I was torn between using this as my 4K entry or going with another idea I had, and I ended up choosing this one specifically because it tells the story backwards.
History is decided by the victors. The only reason these things seem like dangerous monsters at first glance is because the Foundation has chosen to expunge an entire genocide from the record. History provides context for the present, and the absence of that context in the beginning of the article demonstrates how skewed things can seem when you don't know the whole story.
I don't think that's an issue. You would only be thinking about that in terms of it being a contest entry. As a skip it works with you only finding the historical aspect at the end, and it does have that historical aspect.
It fits the requirements and I don't think, if it were 4000, people would have any issues with it appearing modern until the very end.
This was absurdly excellent when I saw it as a draft, and it remains absurdly excellent now. From the perspective of prose, presentation, and pacing, this is among my favorite skips of all times. I don't think there's enough good things I can say about it; it's just a pitch perfect execution from top to bottom. This is the kind of article I'd want to show someone if I want them to understand stuff like escalation, atmosphere, and keeping your readers glued to every sentence.
ETA: Seriously though seeing this article as a draft is partly what made me go "omg I have to collab with this person"
We secure. We contain. Most importantly, we protect. We protect the world from anomalies, yes, but the inverse is equally true. GOC, Obskuracorps, Foundation—whatever name you align yourself with, if you choose death, you will stopped
Missing a word there?
I love mindfuck articles like this, because I'm never sure if the Foundation knows there's something up and is just going along with it to appease the anomaly, or if they're completely clueless. +1.
The unnamed world does not adhere does not adhere to the constraints of linear space.
Was that intentional or a mistake?
I was going to make a comment about it until I got to the "mercy mercy mercy" part. Makes me think it was intentional.
Interview #2 second bunny dialogue has a typo "You went in off quite a hurry."
Maybe it's intentional. It doesn't resonate like intentional strangeness to me, though. I'll just say it's a typo and if I'm wrong then it won't matter anyway.
Glad there was a place up high where I could mention this because I wouldn't have enjoyed burying it under other comments.
I really love this. Very unique, which I think is very important for a major skip.
I've also had a gripe for a while now about how almost all skips are set in/discovered in the USA. Glad it has been explained finally.
Very literally a journey into the dark woods, which at first felt so obvious, but eventually distinguished itself as a disturbing enough faerie tale.
It's too bad we can't have tags like "faerie". :(
I mention them in 2932. Two more articles and we've got a canon, baby.
The last time I counted there were about 13 if I remember correctly. The problem is that these kinds of tags have been rejected, I think.
This is an intriguing journey into an old time fairytale, with a touch of Alice in Wonderland (I mean, there even is a white rabbit). The whole ritualistic and fantastic procedure to get in, and the very specific instructions for interaction truly help you to dive deep in that strange forest.
Also, that is a bit minor but I do want to say that I am colorblind and the passage with the unsaturated red and green text was a bit hard to read because of that.
Hi there! Based on your suggestion, I have created a colorblind accessible version of the document.
This is great. To be honest I think I prefer this version to the original, I think the gothic font go very well with the feel of the article
I like it so much, in fact, that maybe these could just be combined to 1 article with both the color and font? It makes sense for foundation to be efficient about it in this way, I believe. One article for both the colorblind and the not.