Chapter Text
Dipper couldn’t believe it. He was actually here. After all these years, I finally get to keep learning more about supernatural and unexplained phenomena. He walked up the concrete steps toward the facility, accompanied by three armed guards. The building itself wasn’t much to look at. But, then again, a building containing mysteries and monsters wasn’t the kind of building you would want to draw undue attention to. Regardless, Dipper couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe at just how massive the facility really was. Turns out the government really did know a thing or two about the supernatural.
Dipper was escorted through the front door where he was greeted by a bunch of men in lab coats. Most didn’t react, while a few seemed surprised as they looked him over a few times. Dipper shifted in place, suddenly feeling a bit young and inexperienced in their presence. He perked up as one of them stepped forward and addressed him.
“Mr. Pines, thank you for meeting with us. I’m Doctor Hamm. We’ve been anxiously expecting your arrival. We can’t wait to receive whatever insights you’ll be able to provide on some of our subjects. Now, if you’ll please-”
“Now hold on a minute.” one of the other scientists from the group interrupted, “This boy is way too young to be the Mr. Pines I know . Where is Stanford?” Dipper began to sweat and glanced at the ground uncomfortably. I’m not supposed to be here. I’m not good enough . He shook his head as he tried to dismiss the anxious thoughts and cleared his throat.
“Yes, well, um, Ford was not able to make it and sent me instead. I, uh, I have all the paperwork authorizing me as his replacement if you would like to see it.”
“That won’t be necessary,” said Dr Hamm as he gave a reassuring smile. “Stanford notified us well in advance and gave you a shining recommendation as his replacement. Some of use just can’t be bothered to read their email updates once and a while it seems.” Dr Hamm scowled slightly at his colleague. The other scientist apathetically shrugged and walked off to rejoin the group he had left. “You’ll have to forgive Dr Sherman. He can be a bit rude around strangers, but he is quite brilliant at what he does.”
“Hehe, oh, it’s not a big deal,” said Dipper politely. But I’ll show him just how good I can be. This is my chance. I’ll make the biggest discovery the foundation has ever seen! Dipper clutched Ford’s journals closer to him. Besides, I have everything I need. The two men walked down the hallway in silence until Dipper interrupted. “Where are we going right now, exactly?”
“Down to my office- just right there, actually.” He gestured toward the third door on the right as they took a left turn down a second hallway. “There’s some paperwork that needs to be finalized before I can show you to where you will be staying.”
“What else is left?” asked Dipper as Dr. Hamm motioned for him to take a seat in front of his desk.
“Oh, liability paperwork, mostly. Please, read this fully and sign at the bottom. Please don’t hesitate to ask me if you have any questions.” And with that, Dr Hamm took a seat and resumed some work form earlier at his computer.
The paperwork was about what you would expect- a bunch of legalese absolving the SCP Foundation of any harm, injury, or death that may occur while on the premises. Although, one section in particular was a bit more worrying than the rest.
Lockdown Procedures
In the event of a containment breach , all door s in the affected section of the facility will automatically lock in order to prevent any entities from escaping. The doors will remain locked until the situation has been resolved and the entity is back in containment.
“Hey, I’ve got a question about some of these lockdown procedures. There isn’t really any danger, right? I mean, h-how often does a monster escape containment?”
Dr Hamm suddenly looked older as he sighed. “More often than you think,” said Dr Hamm solemnly. “We do try our best to keep entities safe, and to keep us safe from them, but you must understand that the work we do here is dangerous. We are not just prison wardens- we are scientists. Learning more about the entities in our care often means interacting with them, which at times does put us in compromising situations or allows for an entity to escape. They frequently surpass our expectations despite overwhelming precautions.”
Dipper gulped. He had been trapped with monsters before, but this sounded so much more serious. “So, if a monster escapes, then I’m trapped in with it?”
“Not necessarily. Every room locks individually. Unless you were in the exact same room as the entity the door should keep you separated, protecting you. There’s not much else to do except wait for the military personnel to subdue it. The SCPs are dangerous, but very few are so dangerous that we weren’t able to recover that section of the facility.”
“You mean there are parts of the facility that are permanently on lockdown? All because a monster- er, an entity- escaped and couldn’t be controlled?”
“Yes. Sometimes it is deemed that the risk of re-capturing an entity outweighs the cost of losing a part of our labs. Or, sometimes it is even too dangerous to risk opening the doors just to let some containment personnel in.”
“So, wait, if it’s dangerous enough, do the people stay trapped inside as well?”
Dr. Hamm’s visage darkened again.
“Yes, Mr. Pines. Like I said before, we do our best to minimize risk, but some of the things we work with are too dangerous to risk escape- even if it means saving our own colleagues.”
Dipper pursed his lips as he thought. It made sense. Preventing a monster from escaping into the real world would be the top priority, even at the price of human lives inside the facility. Still, you’ve made it this far . You can’t leave now - investigating new monsters always has some risk. Dipper signed his name at the bottom of the page.
“Excellent,” said Dr Hamm as he scooped up the paperwork and slid it into a manila folder. “Allow me to show you around.”
Dipper slumped onto his bed, exhausted. He still couldn’t believe how mind-bogglingly huge this facility was. He had just spent the last several hours walking around with Dr Hamm, getting a very vague tour. There were far too many SCPs for him to describe them in detail as they passed by, but he got a fuzzy idea of how the facility was laid out and what it contained. Dipper also got to see the lab he would be working in. He wanted to feel excited, but he mostly felt overwhelmed. It’s ok, he thought. Just take this one day at a time. You’ll learn it all eventually.
Dipper glanced over at the handbook Dr Hamm had given him at the end of the tour. In short, it contained everything the SCP Foundation knew about the entities it housed- much like Ford’s journals about Gravity Falls.
Dipper was exhausted and knew he needed to sleep. But there’s just too much to learn. He gave into temptation, cracked open the handbook, and began to study.