SCP: Find Us Alive - 46: Stalemate

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Love is awake. Someone makes a big mistake. This episode was written by Anna Maguire and features the voices of Logan Laidlaw (Harley), Jackson McMurray (Lancaster), Tasch Ritter (Klein), Tabi Bardall (Love), and Anna Maguire (Raddagher). Original music by Jackson McMurray. Sign up for our newsletter at findusalivepodcast.com for updates, info, art, and more. Join us on Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes content! Word of mouth is the best advertising, so be sure to share with your friends if you like the show! This podcast and all content relating to the SCP Foundation are released under a Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 license. Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Greetings, friends and listeners. It's me, Anna, the spider in the corner of your room. I'm really looking forward to crawling across your face in the middle of the night. We have a lot of new patrons. Solomon likes Dr. Klein. Jesse, Yoshinan, Felix Cossack, A. Fang Starlight, Kale, Kalartin the Tired, Dr. Catherine Albrecht, Laser, Sion, Blue Jay, Aronelodin, Eric King, Shadow, Pelagaloo, and Knox Skyfall. A very special thanks to all of you.

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Thank you for listening and enjoy the episode. Hello? Hey, hi, love. Sorry, hey. Oh, you're okay. We're okay. Just stay there. Okay, okay, okay. Stay right there. Just stay right there. Harley? It was hard to keep track of everything that was happening.

One side was actively striking. The other was sliding into something of a dictatorship. Both were holding people hostage. And then Lancaster called my walkie. Harley, she's awake. Say again? She's awake. Her eyes are open. Love was waking up.

Locked in a room with Lancaster, who isn't that type of doctor. Medical on the A side were all participating in the strike. In retrospect, I think maybe telling Radica right away wasn't the best decision. Love's awake. What? Is she okay? I don't know. I think so. Lancaster didn't sound like anything catastrophic was happening. Did he already tell Rediger?

Screw it. I'm calling her. Rediger? She's awake. Lancaster just told Harley and Harley told me. I don't know if anything else is going on with her, but Lank says she opened her eyes. Rediger? Rediger, come in.

Is she okay? I don't know. She stopped responding. Check the cameras. Uh-huh. She's not in the infirmary. Where is she? Give me a sec. This is by the... Oh, wait, this is by the office.

Shit. Harley, how does she do this? How many fucking cameras do we have? Quite a few? I can't tell where, like, half of these are. Use context clues. Don't get sarcastic. I'm not used to looking at everything from these angles.

I'm sorry. I'm very stressed out right now. Could you leave the office and go find her? I think I'm gonna have to. I was still... I was still locked in Love's room in the infirmary. I was switching between Harley's Wachie Channel and medicals, while one of the doctors tried to walk me through what to do with her. Okay, okay, love, can you understand me?

Can you nod your head if you understand me? But it wasn't what I expected. She walked me through, checking all the readouts on our machines, making sure that all our vitals and everything were good. And they were. You can? Yes, that's great. That's great.

She was looking right at me. Only, you know, only for a few seconds at a time. Her eyes were kind of, they were opening and closing, but it was... It didn't really look like she was aware. Can you speak? No. Okay, okay. Maybe no speaking.

Sometimes she could respond a little. She nodded her head once. Oh, dump truck is here. You know dump truck, right? I didn't get anything from that. She even moved her hand to touch him, but it was, you know, the lights were on, but nobody was home. And I was working really, really hard on not panicking. I couldn't stay in contact with Harley once I left the office, but I needed to find Radiger.

And I didn't even get that far because as soon as I got a couple steps out the door, I started catching bits and pieces of some other shit that was going on. I thought everybody was still in A-B, where containment and maintenance were keeping them. Turns out they weren't anymore. There were people in the halls. Most of them were avoiding me. I think they thought I was going to narque to Alves. Probably didn't help that the first thing I said to most of them was.

Hey! Why aren't you an AB? But then I caught one of the security guards. Word travels like a wildfire here, doesn't it? So she knew about love. And once somebody in security knows something, everybody does. And if Radiger talked to security, that means security talk to Radiger. Hey, Radiger, I'm gonna need an update from you. I know you've probably heard about Alves wanting to experiment on highway,

but Harley and I are already working on stopping that. You know the readings you took from the reality anchor? We're gonna leverage that first. You really should have let me keep the camera feeds because now I have no way to see what Alves is doing. I meant I should have just told her right away. So, cameras are down. Radiger's nowhere to be found.

People are leaving the A-B floor that just minutes ago was totally locked down by containment. You want to know how? You want to know how all the shit hit the fan so quick? Radigar didn't tell security about love. Not first. She told Gravett. Any word from Radiger? I'm, I've been a little bit preoccupied.

Harley, there's been, uh, some new shit. You in there? I'm in here? Did you get the reading? No, I didn't get the reading. Why not? Because Alves has locked herself in BH9 after she heard about the mob. Oh, yeah, the mob.

Of course, yeah. How could I have forgotten about the mob? The mob! Gravet and Medical overpowered containment, and went down to confront Alves about what she's doing. I didn't think medical would care about what happened to Highway. I don't think they do. I think they're sick of getting bossed around.

And now Alves is getting between Gravit and her patient. And I don't think she's psyched about that. It shouldn't be a problem though, right? Someone has to have a master key. She can't actually prevent anyone from opening the door. She busted up the exterior card reader. It won't open from the outside anymore. That seems like a gross safety oversight from whoever built that door.

Don't ask me, nothing in this stupid building makes sense. Do you have any ideas? Find Radiger first, and we'll work it out from there. We had already lost one of us to containment. Umari, a junior from my department, said that, Haldi took the news pretty well and wasn't letting it swear. It was an acceptable response from containment. She told everybody loyal to Alves that they could lock down anybody they found outside the barricades.

She was really confident that we wouldn't leave. But I knew I was going to have to risk it. I know. I'm sorry. I don't know what to do. Of course I wanted to help her, but she didn't need help her. help from me, she needed a doctor, a real medical doctor. Her eyes were kind of opening and closing, and sometimes she would make sounds like she was trying to say something. She still looked really bad, still kind of pale and sunken looking. And I was, I mean, Dr. Torres said it would probably be fine, but I was so scared that I was going to make it worse. So,

I did break the terms of my own strike, and I helped smuggle Nurse Kim in there with me. She only let me stay in there for a few minutes after I got her in. And she did a lot of the same things that Dr. Torres told me to do over the walkies, like talking to her to try to get a response. But then she was doing other stuff, too, like she would shine a light in her eyes and flip through the monitor with all her, I had heard medical stuff. And then she kicked me out. She said I had to go or I might overwhelm her.

Overwhelm love, I mean. And I don't know, it seemed fair. I don't think I was being, um... I wasn't doing a very good job of staying calm. And obviously I wanted her to get treated more than I wanted to stay. So I knew I had to go. But that sucked because I also knew that containment was out looking for stragglers. Nobody.

Not even security. No, nobody's seen her since she left the surveillance office. She's not responding to my messages either. And the mob? Dispersed to try and fix the door mostly. Engineering is working on the hardware. Security tried seeing if they could get highway to sneak in and out with a reader. Could be promising.

He's too violent right now. They couldn't even get into his cell safely. And dump truck? Nothing. I'll ask Lancaster if he's... Let me in. Let me in. Quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly. It's barricaded.

I can't just open. Open it. Open it just enough for me to squeeze through. I can just squeeze, squeeze through. Can you fit? It's like six inches. And help me push. Help me put it back. They almost got me. Oh, is the strike over? Why are you down here? We swapped. We swapped me for Kim, so she could treat love. I was just getting in the way. I don't think the strike is going to last much longer.

Oh, yeah. We'll have some faith in us, buddy. No, I mean, I think you're going to win faster than we thought. I, like, Alves lost her shit, and she's keeping us from getting the second reading we need for the reality anchors on purpose. Not surprising. I knew she was cracking. So did Medical, apparently. They're still trying to crack the door, but it's one of those containment chamber, high-security airlock types. Maybe it would be easier if she hadn't broken part of it.

Well, I'm glad they're still communicating with you, even though you've been defending her. Shut up! Shut the fuck up! What the fuck was that? Cloyne. Shut up. Something just exploded. What? Just exploded. I said, shut up! Hey, Medical. I'm gonna need somebody to come.

get me an estimate of how many hours of oxygen we have in the building. What? Somebody blew the recycler. What? Now she'll have to open the door. Radiger! Did you blow up the O2 recycler? Are you out of your fucking mind? I'm getting back to her.

I don't care how. We can't hear. What did she say? None of us are getting back to her if we run out of fucking air. BH9 will run out first. Site 107 doesn't have an all-site alarm system for oxygen failure. mostly because it isn't a problem as urgent as a containment breach or a fire. In ordinary circumstances, staff have a number of emergency protocols for locking down or evacuating the building.

Oxygen was of such little concern that it fell under security's instructions for miscellaneous crises. If the problem cannot be fixed, slowly and calmly close the building down until it can. If we were still connected to the outside, we probably would have finished our workday. gone home and then received an email that the building was closed for a few days for unspecified repairs. Of course, now we have no outside to flee to. And Radiger was right. The main containment chamber, BH9, is the most airtight room in the entire building. If anyone is actually in danger of running out of air, it's all this. It shouldn't be too big an issue, at least not yet. She really didn't think this through.

No, she did not. I don't blame her. We blame her if we all die here as a result. We're not going to die. Calm down. Don't tell me to calm down. You're not in the side that's bleeding O2. You're not going to run out of air, Klein. The sight is huge.

You have weeks of oxygen left. Gloria doesn't. Then I guess she should open the door and give you the reading so we can fix this. I don't think anybody is going to be able to reach her but you, Klein. I'll be back. If you see Radiger, try and get her to come to the comm office. Yeah. I'll try.

When we put the sights back together, do you think it'll break our recycler, too? I don't know. I'm worried about her. Which one? All of them. On the A side, word had spread that love was waking up. Kim and Lancaster reported that she showed a level of awareness, even if only for a moment before she fell asleep again.

but it was enough to shake the convictions of everyone still loyal to Alves, even Wright and the few others in containment. On the B-side, Alves held the most likely solution to our problem. She clutched onto it in a bid to retain her power, her position, even while expending the limited oxygen in the room around her, even while grab it and most of the B-side stood outside the door, waiting for her to give up. As Klein left her version of my office, I knew it was over. I didn't know who I wanted to take her place. Klein or Haldi or shall or grab it. But one thing was certain.

Gloria Alves was no longer fit to lead. Attention, Site 107. I have spent the last few hours in contact with Klein on the B side. We have devised a plan we believe will reunite our site once more. using the reality anchor components found in our walls. However, due to the actions of acting psych director Alves, we cannot complete this plan. She is holding the information we need hostage

in an effort to maintain her status as director. I will be sending as many details as I am able to those currently in conference room two so those in positions of leadership can understand the situation to the best of their ability. The staff on the B-side does not believe, I believe Dr. Olives is fit for leadership any longer, and neither do I. My messages are open, and I will be available on Wauke Channel 7.

They cleared out when they saw me coming. I'm glad everybody there had the decency to give me some space, and let me at the viewing booth to myself. Sure, we might not have a dedicated site alarm for the O2 going, but everybody heard the explosion. Word spread fast from the first people who found the evidence. I told everyone in security to go find Radiger. They didn't know that it was her who blew the recycler,

but I didn't want her blowing up anything else on top of it. And I didn't want her blowing herself up either. They got the cameras back on, and they found her in Highway Cell. She's the only person he would let in. I don't know what she was trying to do in there. Maybe she was trying to send him after Alvez somehow. I think she might have given up before I'm. anyone got there, though. Burnett said when they opened the door, Highway had tangled her arms all up,

and there was blood all over the walls and her knuckles. We'll deal with what she did later. Gravett said we had more than enough oxygen to let off a couple charges to get the door to BH9 open, but she let me have a shot at it first. And it's not like Alves could have shut me up either. The intercom from the observation booth can't be turned off from inside the chamber. Hey, Gloria, it's me. The voice of God. Really hoping you've gone dash three or something. That might at least give you some kind of excuse for all this.

How did you fuck it up this bad? I'm not trying to sound like an asshole, but Jesus, Gloria, what... What are you doing? The, uh... The O2 is shut off, by the way. part of the recycler got blown up. Somebody wasn't so happy that you're holding us all hostage like this. Sure, you're going to run out of water before you run out of air,

but that's what you've driven these people to. Love is awake. Harley says the whole A-side has sided against you now. Even containment thinks what you're doing is wrong. I don't know how to handle shit like this, Gloria. They think I'm the only person you'll listen to, but you've never listened to me. And, uh, you were probably right not to most of the time. I've done some stupid shit.

It's not just you. I don't think I'm right to lead either. Yeah, you think the foundation always knows best, but I, I think I know best a little too much. And we're both wrong. You know why I got transferred here And even after that, I still didn't learn my lesson You remember that blackout Before the first reset

After the lights went out, I hit the rift with a pickaxe I don't know why I did it I was panicking Maybe I thought it would turn the lights on or get us out of here But it didn't do anything just left a mark for a few weeks and then faded away like nothing happened. But what a stupid thing to do, right? It could have killed all of us, I don't know.

I thought I had learned. Remember before all this, when we were both just department heads, was better back then. Being on the same level kind of worked for us, didn't it? I didn't have power over you and you didn't have power. over me, and I could keep you from being a hard ass, and you could keep me from being an idiot. I don't want to be site director again. I don't think it's good for me, but I think it might be even worse for you. Maybe I should stop pretending this is about the whole site, and just admit that I miss being on the same level as you. Thanks, Gloria. Dr. Alves was detained by security.

I informed everyone on the A side that the strike was over and Alves wasn't in charge anymore. But by then it was basically over already. I had to stay in the office to keep in contact with Harley. Security had to detain Radiger, too. She wasn't doing well. Let me see her! Klein got the frequency reading from research, and I sent Lancaster to type it into our anchor once we were ready.

All of the barricades were coming down. I told people about Harley and Klein's plan. They said they'd spread the word. We put everyone on the A side in the halls down on the E floor, and everyone on the B side stayed up on A-B, so we could make sure nobody would be occupying the same space when we put the two sides back together. The D-Class remained in their individual cells. From what engineering has told me, reality anchors usually work automatically. I guess they release a kind of radiation that works opposite to the anomalous radiation of whatever they're anchoring.

Hume particles is what they call it. Magic versus anti-magic. But there's a manual override lever, too, for if it doesn't work automatically. Because when Lancaster finished typing in the last piece we thought we needed. It didn't work. With the green connection notification came another message. Disrupt pattern. A little cursory research later and security gave us their understanding of what pattern disruption was.

Kinetic problem solving. Some means of besting anomalies aren't as complex as frequency. and radiation signatures and hum negation. Percussive maintenance. Haldi said pattern disruption is what it's called when you shoot it. Physical damage might not stop an anomaly, but there's a good chance it will cause a slight hiccup in the force it is exerting.

Enough of a hiccup for a reality anchor to wedge itself in and break the circuit. But we already knew that simple cut and dry impacts weren't going to do the job. We know what kind of disaster a big explosion can cause. But what about a small one? Too big! Too big an explosion! It's not too big! We just have to do it at the same time on both sides, like I said. What if it flips us over again? What if it flips us over again?

We locked everybody down. Everybody on the A side moved from out in the halls to inside smaller rooms. And everyone held on to something. You're on the other side of your office? I'm the farthest I can get from my door. Good. I'm the closest I can get to the door. Are you ready? Nope. Do it anyway. All right, research. We're counting you down.

Ready to go down there? Three, two, one. Hi. It worked. Yes! Oh, my God. Are we good? Is everyone okay? Call me when you get there.

I will. From what I gather, site 107, our reunification has been a success. Please report to AB for a head count and further instructions regarding a deep read. Episode 46 was written and produced by Anna McGuire. The voice of Harley is Logan Laidlaw. The voice of Klein is Tosh Ritter. The voice of Lancaster is Jackson McMurray. The voice of Agent Love is Tabby Bardol.

The voice of Radiger is Anna Maguire. Original music by Jackson McMurray. If you like our show and want to support us, sign up for our newsletter at Find Usalivepodcast.com. This podcast, along with all content relating to the SEP Foundation, is released under a Creative Commons share-a-like 3.0 license. Thank you for listening.