[SCP fanfic] Containment Psychiatry Orientation - The Sequel

This is a sequel to https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/containment-psychiatry-orientation. As it is set in the SCP Foundation Universe, like all such things, this page is licenced under the CC by-sa licence as scp-wiki requires, although I don’t intend to post it there.

In terms of storylines this reorientation fits into, this leads into either the early Broken Masquerade (perhaps an intervention-arm skip leaked something) or pre-Vanguard. The fact that high harm containment practices had gone on so long after overwhelming evidence started emerging of compassionate containment’s advantages (reduced costs, improved staff morale, reduced ethical concerns, mostly without hurting the Veil) might be a bit of LOLfoundation. The explicitly-good morality may be mis-casting the SCPF in a more UNGOC-appropriate role, although the point is that a warmer approach to containment fits in with the “cold, not cruel” aspect - unnecessary cruelty can be removed and still have a “cold” Foundation, as in coldly dedicated to containment of those anomalies where containment remains necessary.

Initially written starting Fri Jul 7 17:10:41 UTC 2023 by Reinhilde Bjornsdottir (she).

Hey y'all! Four or five years ago, all of you were in this very room, plus a few who went anomalous or died (take a moment to thank them for their service). If you don’t remember, and you won’t because save four, all of you got plastered, I can play a video.

Oh, you remember? Yeah. I was giving orientation for your then-new job as psychiatric containment specialists, treating cognitively-humanoid anomalies. I have drinks here too, because what I’m telling you here is similarly heavy stuff.

Some of you predicted in that meeting that you were demoted to this job because you were good shrinks. The word then was that all of you were ethically flawed and that’s why you’re here. For some of you, it is. Most of you were picked randomly because the people we needed to demote anyway weren’t enough to fill the vacancies.

So… I’m gonna give up the foreplay. You were part of a study. Ethics asked me to play this song and dance about how you were shit shrinks and how that made you uniquely qualified to be containment specialists for these anomalies. None of it was technically wrong. At another site, in another part of the world, the same sort of demotees were told, also correctly, that their job was to help the anomalies, because it was. Yours wasn’t. You were the control arm of a study into reintegrating or otherwise having more compassionate treatment of cognitively-humanoid anomalies.

The results are in. On average, all figures, even the ones we don’t care about, are better in the intervention arm. The primary endpoints, containment costs, breaches, personnel fatalities, and staff morale, all went in the right direction. Additionally, psychiatrists assigned to these details generally don’t reoffend the ethical failings that resulted in their reassignment to anomalies in the first place, whereas that happened a lot in our branch (no need to worry, none of you will be punished.. but some of you are going to be reassigned to positions where you don’t have such contact).

The specific details of the intervention differed from object to object. Some, really most, objects were treated much the same as they would have been in the control arm, due to the dangers they posed in breach or due to the general derangement their anomalies caused, or because their treatment before the intervention already met relevant target ethical standards. Some objects were completely paroled, only requiring weekly contact with their psychiatrists (to help them process the issues they had with being, well, cursed, and to help them accept that we were a necessary part of their lives without feeling like they owed us anything other than secrecy) and other Foundation personnel. Some objects were able to, say, attend school remotely, but not in person due to their anomalous properties. Some have been able to accept visitations and have limited Internet access. One object has become valued personnel at his site.

“You what? The foundation hired a whole skip?”

Junior Researcher Grabnok (he was forced to settle on a name and Grabnok, after one of his more fanciful nicks, is what he chose) was reclassified because he would also have been qualified to be hired if he wasn’t anomalous (making him staff was not a mere Potjomkin village to aid in containment, although it certainly helps). Obviously he has resentment to his time numbered, and he still technically requires procedures for containment (he can’t sleep in the accomodations his colleagues use, for instance, and must still be attended by one of his colleagues at all times), but he has never begrudged the containment. Hiring him as staff was also necessary for the O5s to approve giving him classified training on cognitohazards he indicated he needed to withstand his “shifts.” Don’t ask me why they wouldn’t approve a special exception that the SCP could be given the training without being given an identity and a designation but they would let a literal SCP be hired as staff primarily for the purpose of receiving such training. _(OOC note: The idea here is that the bureaucracy is so severe that it was easier to hire a literal SCP than to get a carveout. Hybrid of lolFo and Vanguard-without-Vanguard,

I suppose.)_

One of the shrinks pipes up. “I know that guy. I used to work with him before I was transferred here. I fielded some of his earliest equipment requests. He always resented being called 507, and overhearing himself being called ‘it.’ I never fingered him as bright enough to get hired there.”

Yeah, me neither. But I think they figured they didn’t want to lose an asset, and there was this trial going on anyway. I’m not sure why O5s were directly involved in the decision, either. They’re all class A, which means they aren’t cleared to specific info about anomalies, even ones who are staff.

Anyway… Enough about Jr. Rsr. Grabnok.

“Didn’t he go missing back in 87 or whenever?”

Yes. We did eventually find him. He’d gotten himself committed again, because of his anomaly making people think he’s nuts. Enough about him, now.

The main change I have sought approval for, and that was implemented in the intervention arm, is that case files for humanoid objects are to cease using “it” unless that’s what the object wants, and to allow and encourage usage of preferred names for all objects both inside and outside of the presence of the object, with exception of hazardous names - humanizing almost all human objects. As far as we care, the effect this intervention had was improving staff morale. Object morale being improved was a nice side effect, but we wouldn’t care if it made it worse.

“Is this the Marie Sault timeline?” [on the tape, this sounded like Mary Sue, and records were stored under the file named Merry Soo. On further examination, it was found that Marie was from Sault St. Marie….]

No. The simulation where we hired the perfect person was a fucking disaster. In reality, not much is going to change if my conclusions from the findings are implemented. We still have to mistreat a lot of, frankly, people, or isolate them for whatever reason. The only change here is that we’re now [interruption by an attendee “uh, if the overseers' council so approves..”].. Yes, if the O5s so approve, we’ll be treating low-risk human objects as fully human, with the right to an identity, communications with family and friends, an education in normal and paranormal subjects, some level of privacy, and if qualified, employment here and, if their nature is conducive, with other employers (although, while there are plans to change this, for now this is still subject to restrictions for Veil preservation).

I’ve reported the layman’s version of the findings. If you have other engagements, you may go to attend to them now. Otherwise, I suggest you stick around so I can present the data.

[OOC note: To be written…]