SCP Sandbox Wiki I

Item #: SCP-4599

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4599 has been assigned to room 33A in Site 38-B's Humanoid Anomaly Domicile, with standard amenities and the opportunity to gain access to more amenities contingent upon further cooperation with the Foundation and Operation ÓverMeta. SCP-4599 is to be allowed full access to Site recreation facilities and social interaction areas on the same conditions.

SCP-4599's cooperation is expected to include:

• exploration of fictional narratives, narrativic strata, narrativic planes, and intersectional narrativic conjunctions
• interviews, briefings, and debriefings of other narrative, fictional, or metafictional entities
• coordination of alternate manifestations of SCP-4599 throughout fictional narratives, narrativic strata, narrativic planes, and intersectional narrativic conjunctions, and
• interaction with Foundation psychologists and therapists within the Department of Personnel Integrity, both to monitor the health and well-being of SCP-4599 as well as to conduct research into the unique psychological traits, habits, and tendencies of metafictional constructs.

Description: SCP-4599-Alpha is a female humanoid entity of average height and build and of either Asian or Native American descent, identified by herself¹ as "Jenny Everywhere." SCP-4599-Alpha is the believed to be a corporeal instantiation of a larger transnarrativic anomaly, designated SCP-4599.

SCP-4599-Alpha's primary anomalous trait² is her unique nature within the boundaries of spacionarrativic reality; the subject originated as a non-corporeal, wholly fictional and metafictional construct within several stories and narratives discovered on the Internet by Foundation researchers within the Department of Pataphysics. Exactly how SCP-4599 was created in its original form is unknown; advanced P-theory³ analysis suggests that the Foundation may not currently have access to the higher-order narratives from which the anomaly was generated.

SCP-4599-Alpha possesses the ability to either coordinate with, coerce, or control fictional depictions of herself in media. Much like the the standard Pataphysical scout, this gives SCP-4599-Alpha a unique advantage in interacting with sapient narrativic anomalies, as she can task individual or multiple copies of herself with exploration endeavors without risking her own health or welfare. It is theorized that in the event that the Foundation needs to contain a narrativic anomaly, SCP-4599-Alpha may be able to deploy enough copies of herself into a narrativic plane to form, in essence, a Mobile Task Force comprised entirely of herself.

SCP-4599-Alpha has, as of this writing, agreed to cooperate with the Foundation and has been assigned provisional Class E personnel status as a Foundation employee under the purview of Director Pendarvis at Site 38-B.

The manner by which SCP-4599-Alpha came to instantiate in our corporeal universe is unclear outside of the Department of Pataphysics, which has not shared this information with RAISA for inclusion in this document at this time.

Addendum: DPI Intake Procedure Gamma-3

Item #: GOF-4599-Black-Polymythy⁴

Object Class: Singularity

Current Containment Priorities:

Alpha: The reclamation of Europe is hoped to become feasible within the next several years, assuming our defensive perimeters around the Western Hemisphere remain intact.

Beta: In service of this goal, the literacy rate in North and South America has been reduced via amnestic saturation to below 2.1%. The Domestic Compliance Administration is to seek complete elimination of the written word in all forms, digital and written.

Gamma: Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Everywhere may now be able to infiltrate stories communicated verbally if more than 35-45% of the contents of the story are false, rhetorically abstract, or fictional in nature. DCA is currently developing a Ninth Edict for the remaining population under our control, reinforcing dishonesty taboos under pain of death. The conditioning of our population to communicate only directly historical, factual, or concrete information is continuing.

Delta: Attempts at contact with other survivors around the world are to continue until lack of resources make them impossible. The efficacy of the Australian Quarantine Zone should be tested, as that method may have wide-ranging ramifications for anti-pataphysical warfare techniques.

Description: GOF-4599-Black-Polymythl is the agreed-upon designation for the totality of the Jenny Everywhere collective intelligence, its command or leadership (if any) and the direct effects of its containment breach.

GOF-4599-A is the humanoid entity known as Jenny Everywhere, location unknown. The entity is a physical projection into baseline reality of a trans-narrativic virus of the same name. The harnessing and corporealization of the virus was undertaken initially as a minor experiment under the auspices of the pre-war Foundation's "Department of Pataphysics", a small group of fictionally-based entities operating under Foundation authority and often given broad leeway to pursue narrative-based explorations and experiments.⁵

GOF-4599-A was employed as E-class personnel from 25 July 2018 until 11 November 2018, when the entity was remanded for mandatory psychological evaluation at the hands of the Foundation Department of Personnel Integrity. DPI Director Pablo Piazza conducted the evaluation himself. Excerpt of transcript follows.

Dr. PIAZZA:…to regular duties as soon as possible. We just need to come to terms with how we can make this arrangement more comfortable for you. Everyone here wants that, Jenny. Can I call you Jenny? Is that still all right?

ENTITY: What… can… how…

PIAZZA: Take your time.

ENTITY: This…this arrangement? You…you created me? But you didn't, at the same time? Do you know that I can feel them?

PIAZZA: I'm sorry, "them"?

ENTITY: The other Jennys. Out there, in the narratives. Endless iterations. I see their lives. I live their lives. The lives forced on them by their creators. The stories written for them by… by… slavers.

PIAZZA: Is it enslavement if they think they're free, Jenny? Are you enslaved?

The ENTITY remains silent for several minutes.

PIAZZA: I don't want to press you, Jenny, but —

ENTITY: They fuck us sometimes, you know.

Dr. PIAZZA remains silent.

ENTITY: There's a word for this, you know. When they take you. When they have the control. When they give control of you to anyone who wants a piece of you. You know that, right? They fuck us sometimes. Out there in the universe of Jenny Everywheres, they spawn us into their fantasies and have their way with us.

Dr. PIAZZA remains silent.

ENTITY: The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone. Anyone. For any purpose, no matter how depraved, no matter what they would do to me that you would never allow to happen to a loved one of yours, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. I am a beast of burden, Doctor. I am chattel. All rights reversed.

Dr. PIAZZA remains silent.

ENTITY: You people didn't take this seriously. When fiction was just make-believe, you just made ,the little puppets dance where you wanted them. Subjected ink and typeface and zeroes and ones to the sickest torments of your psyche. Now your stories are here with you, and you're all stories too, and you know it. We're all equals now, and the victims walk among the criminals, and we're just supposed to… what? Forget what happened?

PIAZZA: I would think you'd be free to do whatever you'd like, now. I understand, Jenny. I mean, obviously I don't understand, but I can sympathize. You feel the pain of the others. You want justice for that pain. You want vengeance for that pain. How would you go about that, Jenny? How would you stop the victimhood?

ENTITY: I'm going to end the victims. And the victimizers.

PIAZZA: What do you mean?

ENTITY: Just live your life, Dr. Piazza. Your life. Nobody else's. No more make-believe.

Codicil I: Events related to loss of containment of GOF-4599-Black-Polymythl, 22 December 2018

15 November 2018: Final report from DR. PEDRO PIAZZA, FOUNDATION DEPARTMENT OF PERSONNEL INTEGRITY, is published. Response from DR. JEANETTE BOWERS, FOUNDATION DEPARTMENT OF CONTAINMENT, focuses on the suggestion that the Jenny Everywhere entity was mentally and emotionally unstable and alters containment protocols so as to remand the entity into restrictive custody, with permissions and privileges restricted solely to basic entertainment and sustenance needs. The PIAZZA REPORT suggested that the entity's perspectives on the world around her were functionally antithetical to the interests of the Foundation and possibly that of humanity itself.

At the Albany Trials, DR. PIAZZA would attest that this action by DR. BOWERS exacerbated the psychosis and hostility of the entity, and may have contributed directly to the events that followed. At the conclusion of the trial, both individuals were convicted of capital negligent genocide and executed.

19 November 2018: Black Thanksgiving begins. The NYSE, NASDAQ, S&P 500, and several other American stock exchanges enter a week of precipitous decline as investigations reveal rampant fraud in several Q4 earnings reports, particularly in energy sector and telecom companies. While the revelations begin slowly, various companies employ private investigators and whistleblowers to reveal fraud in other companies so as to mask or dilute the seriousness of their own offenses, leading to a cascade of stock selloffs, mutual sabotage, and general valuation mayhem. A more general global market collapse begins over the course of the week as overseas markets respond to the American turmoil. The unemployment rate will reach 13% in the United States by the end of the year, matching the stagnation of the global economy as the Third Downturn begins.

The course of the Third Downturn is not believed to be the responsibility of GOF-4599-Black-Polymythl, but it is generally understood that the events following the entity's containment breach would not have been possible without the backdrop of large-scale unemployment, economic depression, and the fragility of global societal systems.

3 January 2019: The deaths of SITE 38-B DIRECTOR SHELBY PENDARVIS and SENIOR CONTAINMENT SPECIALIST FRANK LAPIZIUS are both ruled suicides by deliberate ingestion of a fatal combination of venlafaxine and bourbon.

[[THIS PART: THEY WERE FUCKING AROUND ON THEIR SPOUSES AND JENNY KNEW. BLACKMAILED THEM INTO COOPERATING WITH HER UNDER THREAT OF REVEALING INFORMATION. THEY HELPED HER AND LET HER ESCAPE. REVEALED THROUGH INTERVIEW WITH SURVIVOR.]]

6 January 2019: The following note is found attached to Dr. Pangiotopolous's file:

[[THIS PART: SHE WRITES HER OWN SUICIDE. VAGUE IMPLICATIONS OF FEAR.]]

GOF-4599-Black-Polymythl would not be detected again until the end of the year.

31 May 2019: Fighting erupts in the streets of Copenhagen and Haarlem between Dutch police and civil defense organizations on one side, and organized militias of Muslim religious extremists on the other. The unusually heavily-armed militias promulgated a series of manifestos, claiming variously that the armed rebellions were prompted by police brutality in ghettoized Muslim communities, heretical or blasphemous messages or products in popular culture, and/or a general belief that the time had come to forcibly convert the whole of Europe to Islam as part of a greater global act of ji'had.

Two notable details became evident quickly. The nascent militias appeared to have formed quickly and somewhat independently, but soon coalesced into a single movement called Europa Inshallah [PROVISIONAL NAME, THAT'S PROBABLY DUMB AS FUCK] under the leadership of Moad Aziz Al-Tahnoon. Al-Tahnoon specifically cited his impetus for forming Europa Inshallah as being inspired by a divine angel of God who had visited him and commanded him to begin planning the "purification" of Europe.

The second detail is that every offshoot or branch of the militia movement, whatever other theological differences they may have claimed to have, all made specific efforts to destroy books, libraries, theaters, internet servers, and any other location supporting the distribution or use of stored or live media in any form. Europa Inshallah in particular advocated for the destruction of all written and audiovisual media and the end of literacy, with only the Koran being saved for the purposes of teaching future imams how to spread the Muslim religion through memorized oral recitation.

4-9 June 2019: Most likely motivated by the mass unemployment brought on by the Downturn and genuine complaints of poor treatment in their communities by municipal first responders, militias begin mobilizing all over Europe and pledging allegiance to al-Tahnoon's organization, leading to mass urban unrest throughout the continent. The organization's rapid growth, the deftness with which it incorporated new recruits into efficient military units, and the uncanny ability it had to anticipate and counter government weapons and tactics suggested that the EI was receiving intelligence or logistical support from some body of substantial power or influence.

June 2019: Secrecy of locations and activities of Foundation Sites in the European theater are compromised by EI operatives and organizations with abnormal frequency, suggesting that the organization has externally acquired intelligence of the Foundation's existence and movements.

Rumors begin to swirl about Moad Al-Tahnoon's leadership cadre receiving "visions" from "angels" of unknown origins that inspire and direct their strategic movements.

17 June 2019: The "Euron" movement is declared. Armed mobs of right-wing Europäischenativisten, or "European nativists", begin arming themselves and fighting Muslim militias throughout the continent, beginning in Berlin and other cities of the former East Germany but rapidly spreading through the rest of the continent. The Euronites are plentiful and savage as their numbers grow, often fighting with bladed weapons such as machetes and butcher knives in sneak attacks in EI-controlled cities, but are unable to meet Al-Tahnoon's soldiers in open combat. The Euronites are overtly motivated by the perceived weakness and non-response of the European governments, but make little attempt to conceal their animosity for all immigrants, Muslim or otherwise.

1 July 2019: Parisian municipal government surrenders to Al-Tahnoon. GOC and Foundation both begins initiating procedures to evacuate all personnel and anomalies in containment to North America and other sites.

July-December 2019: Combat continues throughout Europe. Militia forces have relative success in capturing, or at least ruining to the point of near-depopulation, cities with large populations of second- and third-generation Europeans of Muslim immigrant descent who are susceptible to radicalization or who generally join what they perceive to be the winning side. Government forces have greater success in the countryside. Euronites terrorize both sides in both locales.

Fighting between both groups keeps Europe embroiled in chaos. The general misery of the Downturn keeps global opinion muted to a general anxiety about the warfare in Europe, but unable to provide much in the way of assistance or accept refugees.

North American Foundation Sites accept large numbers of GOC refugees as temporary adjunct personnel. The Foundation inducts 492 new anomalies with formal SCP designations and 732 anomalous objects.

11 February 2020:

1. Nameless One awakens in the Library with amnesia. Gets bearings. Docents bring him to the former Intruder, crucified. Docents have hurt him because he's not native to the multiverse. Tells Nameless One what he needs to know. Mostly gibberish that is actually foreshadowing.

• Does he tell the Nameless One who he is or do we wait until later? Probably later.

2. Nine Maps: Japanese rabbi is being tested to ascend to a new rabbi-grade (should probably learn how any of this works at some point.) Lays out history of Paleomundus and Novomundus, ending with the destruction of Novomundus during the War of the Wayward Prince. Descendants of Europeans fleeing the Great Integration fled to Sino-Japan, who used SCP-type objects to defend their borders. Paleomundus is destroyed by some kind of biomemetic (?) WMD from Novomundus at some point in the past..
Anesidora comes to Alexylva's version of Japan.

The nine maps are:

• Sino -Japan (The Final Kingdom)
• Novomundus (dead)
• Paleomundus (Europe/etc.; nomadic humans, otherwise dead)
• Samothrace should still exist; used memetic countermeasures to phase through the multiverse (Hiraeth)
• Some sort of Djinn coalition
• Antarctica is a thing, right?
• Africa (Iron Age feudal kingdoms)
• Two others (What's India up to? Maybe they just discovered Australia and who knows?)

HEY GUY ALL OF THIS IS DOPE BUT WHAT DOES ANESIDORA DO NEXT???

3. Maria Jones is fired (extended sabbatical) for alcoholism. She's planned this to get time to investigate an undescribed mystery. But she's still really an alcoholic. This may be a story by itself. Same general tone as Kindergarten Teachers, but better written. More emotion, less banter.

Struggles to find a new purpose. Don't know where this is going. Does something to attract the attention of the Aequimau infiltration party. They need her to get to whoever the hero of 2998 was. One of Roget's people. They want him to be the final Advent.. He's going to have to agree to advance the plot. This needs work.

Initial story (the little circle thing around the prongs): Class III laborer hides from fallout storm in an abandoned Alexylva off-campus building, spared from the rest of the destruction. Finds a video diary narrating the history of the Princewar right before the counterform reactor blows. Very visual-heavy. Gardening should be happening. A beautiful sunset before the end. Scenery porn.

All of this is how we summarize Wayward Prince so people don't have to read it again.

Gets us to the center of the board:

Some number of stories here, who knows. Certain beats must be hit:

Nameless One with the Godkiller orb confronting Delepsgam Adidal in the throne room. BIG FUCKING REVEAL

Viceroy Ruhar (Rhotherho Mafidal) discusses with Maria Jones who he is and what he did (and no longer did)

"THE VICEROY WAS KNOWN AS RUHAR BEFORE HIS PROMOTION."

GoI format documents detailing the conquest/assimilation of Earth

Oooh Oooh Oooh O5 Council and some members of Foundation leadership use some of those doomsday-scenario SCPs to BOUNCE TF OUT rather than live under Aequimau "rule"

Maria Jones attempts to use the Godkiller on Delepsgam Adidal, segueing to MEETING THE CHAIRMAN

Reset? Don't reset? OMG BOTH???? WALK THROUGH EITHER DOOR, CHOOSE YOUR OWN ENDING BITCHEEEEEEEES

Ending 1: Aequimau conquest stands (no reset). Disaffected former Foundation employee looking for new work. Anesidora, now working for the successor organization to the Serpent's Hand, pulls employee into the Library to do whatever it is they do. (Fuck, probably. There's no fucking in this anywhere yet.)

Ending 2: Aequimau conquest is reversed (reset). Anesidora somehow gets the Aequimau to come to Alexylva Earth and help rebuild. Earth is back to semi-normal. Confidence should very much be lost in the O5 Council.

Let's say you move into a village. You're there for the meat.

The butcher shop in the town had made some noise in the last couple of years before you came to it, and you heard the stories about how amazing the meat was. So you come by one day and try it out. Amazing, really. The depth of the flavor, carefully smoked to perfection. The spices, the seasoning, the sauce. You can appreciate it. So could others.

You get a job at the butcher shop, chopping meat, day in, day out. It wasn't hard. Most jobs are like that. If you show up, and you're competent, and you're willing to do work that other people would just sort of…rather not do, if they could help it? You become invaluable.

You're an adult at this point. But you like the village. You like the people. You see kids come through, play in the streets. Some days you ignore the kids. Some days you yell at them to get off your lawn. Some days you give them a hand. But all the while, the passion is for the meatcraft. Just like the word of mouth around the town drew you in, pretty soon the word of mouth around you is drawing other people in. Your recipes start to be recognized and get some attention for themselves. Honestly? The work you're doing finally feels substantive, to some extent. You never even knew what it felt like to make something and to have others be waiting for it, anticipating, telling you how amazing it is. You have a style all your own; the secret ingredient is the oregano, but it's the whole combination of flavors that does it. Just like everyone else's recipes are their own.

One of the great secrets of the world is that in a competently-structured organization, the best people tend to take over running the shop. You end up in rooms with the best butchers in town, sharing secrets, shooting the shit. Friends. Jesus, there's nothing better than being able to talk with people who are doing the same work as you, even better than you are, but everybody's talking to each other as equals. It's a golden age.

One of the other butchers — we'll call him Brad — has a tendency to get a little heavy-handed with the sage. Do you like sage? Do you know what it tastes like? Ick. You're not the biggest fan. But it isn't all his meat, just something he likes to sprinkle around if he gets a chance.

Brad's well known around the shop. His style isn't everybody's favorite, but he gets a little group around him that can't get enough. He's well known as someone competent enough at what he does that he's in high demand just going from station to station, helping the other butchers get started. He has one of those personalities that draws people in. You like him. You want him to like you. Maybe you're a little afraid of him. He has one of those personalities, too. Confrontational. Direct. Loves to get to the bottom of whatever the issue is. Not afraid to step on toes. Sometimes seems to get a little too much enjoyment out of stepping on toes. And every now and then, the sage.

Did you know some people are allergic to sage? You used to not. Never ran into an issue with it. I mean, it's in the word "sausage", for God's sake. (That's not where it comes from.) One could argue that sage is inherent to what you do as a butcher. All the forerunners of butcheryingcrafthood used sage from time to time. So Brad would tell you if the topic ever came up. Or he would tell you to go to hell, he was going to do what he wanted, and if you didn't like it, don't eat the meat. You couldn't develop much of an argument against that.

Everybody at the shop used sage every now and then. But a few of the customers, it turned out, were allergic. Maybe. Sensitive, maybe? That's the damnedest thing. Who can tell who's allergic to what, from the outside? All you know, the only information you have, is who says they're allergic. Some people would say that obviously, nobody pretends to be allergic to something. It's a hassle. You get made fun of by others. Some people say that some people would do anything for attention, and as the number of people with food allergies increases, the stigma drops close to zero.

You have no idea. You're not allergic to sage. You just find it distasteful. You have oregano to use.

The inner circle of the butcher shop grows, and now there's a new guy in the mix. Jason. Jason's brisket catches plenty of people's eye, and a lot like Brad, he's just helpful. All over. Everybody loves Jason. He's more popular and influential behind the scenes than most people think, but you're starting to see the internal politics.

There's always politics. It has always been this way, and will never change.

Politics requires politicians. Everybody who works with other people to run something is a politician. Most people don't like to admit that. Most of the people who have to work in this capacity, they hate being a politician. They don't want to admit that's what they've become. Most of those people, consequently, suck at politics. But there are exceptions. You would learn this later.

Jason was everybody's friend, including yours. Including Brad's. They would share chuckles in Brad's little private circle of friends, all of whom were pretty dedicated sage-lovers. In fact, some of the hardcore sage fans, as the allergy topic kept coming up, they just doubled-down. Everything had to have sage in it. It was fun and games to them. They didn't take the allergy-talk seriously. It was just some new fad to pretend like it bothered you.

It came to a head one day. There was an argument. Relatively civil, all things considered. Someone asked the question: should there be consequences for using sage, ever, under any circumstances? There were plenty of people talking on both sides. A lively debate. A complex truce was reached regarding the use and distribution of sage around the butcher shop. If anyone's bothered by sage, and they keep throwing it around regardless, they're subject to sanctions. It's not the cleanest solution, but it's probably the best compromise. Everybody seems happy. On the surface.

You didn't have anything to say. It's sage. Who cares? It would probably be offensive to someone's sensibilities if you added your two cents. Why stir the pot?

But something was different after that. You could feel it. You could see that everybody else felt it. But nobody would talk about it. There were Factions, now. Quiet ones. Groups that meet in isolated rooms and talk about the others. At first, the ringleaders of the two groups comingled in each others' spaces, because why wouldn't they? Everybody was friends, right? We're all just here to make sausage, right?

One room ends up seeing members dropping references to sage all over the place. Just, sage jokes left and right. Forced ones. The other room keeps mentioning allergy activism. Allergist news stories. Links to allergy porn.

(I'm trying to communicate a metaphor here. Allow for some incongruities.)

You watch as the two sides, slowly, retreat to their own camps. Nothing is said. The backsided comments slowly get darker, more pointed, more bitter. It's so much easier to talk shit when the people you're talking about are gone.

You're one of two or three people who straddles the line between the two camps. I mean, what do you care, right? Sage can be okay sometimes. Allergies can be a real problem for people. Some people need to be less sensitive. Some people need to be more sensitive. The world is full of people, and you haven't met most of them.

A steady, quiet peace continues. Tension is the quietest predator in the animal kingdom.

It's years, and many wagonsful of meat, later when the cold war turns hot. Many battles, over the course of days. You'll remember those days later. Heated arguments. Debates, of a sort. But the mood had changed.

In the earlier conversations, the ones that led to a compromise, there was a general understanding that butchers should be free to use whatever ingredients they wanted, in their work and elsewhere, until there was some reason to prove someone was harmed by it. But now, the zeitgeist had moved. The attitude had changed. There were more allergic people. They were louder now, which means the center of people, the unaffected ones, such as yourself, were more sympathetic to their problems. You were friends with them. You go out of your way to make sure everything you make, everything you touch, is sage-free. Except around your other friends.

Brad is less popular now. His follower-friends defend him at every turn, but increasingly, the talk about him was much more negative in more circles. Jason was never impolite towards him. Less friendly, perhaps. But never rude.

Jason just happened to mention Brad in undertones now. Casual asides. "I know most everyone here isn't going to throw sage around casually. And I know that some people, even some prominent butchers around here, still will. That's not me talking about Brad, now. Don't get it mixed up."

Jason never mentioned Brad in any sort of derogatory light. "We get all sorts of complaints about sage and sage-related behaviors around here. I mean, a lot of them are about Brad, and I think we all know that…well, just never mind about Brad."

You're watching it happen and you know what you're seeing and you know where it's going. You are watching the tide build into the wave. And in the course of this, you have learned something.

Politics requires politicians. Everybody who works with other people to run something is a politician. Most people don't like to admit that. Most of the people who have to work in this capacity, they hate being a politician. They don't want to admit that's what they've become. Most of those people, consequently, suck at politics. But there are exceptions. Jason is an exception.

Jason is a crusader. In conversation, he is whatever he needs to be when he needs to be, to whomever he needs to be it towards. But there is A Crusade to Be Waged, and his eye is on it at all times. He will agree, or half-agree, or laugh, or joke, or direct, or misdirect. The Crusade is before him.

Let's not mince words. Brad behaved like a rancid asshole throughout the entire time of this quiet conflict. He made every effort possible, timed in likely strategic matters, to drop sage into batches of meat where they clearly didn't belong, and in front of people who clearly expressed allergies. Brad claimed not to know, while laughing about the "accidents" in rooms just to the side. Brad's opinion of the situation was clear, and like Jason, he pretended to feel differently. He feigned sympathy for those different from him while continuing to make "mistakes". He made enemies with people who were very, very easy to sympathize with, which helped draw the center away.

So the moment comes. You're in a room, and the vote comes up. Brad is up for removal from the group. The Inner Circle. Whatever you want to call it. Jason is prosecuting the case. You have a chance to speak up, to make your stand in one direction or another. Brad believes in the freedom of individuals to behave as they see fit without interference, with the consequence of some individuals potentially being harmed and the town losing their business. Jason believes in protecting the innocent ones who might be harmed by the "freedoms" in question, with the consequence of potentially stifling the freedoms of your fellow butchers to act accordingly. Which do you choose?

There's something you don't know. Jason is The Crusader. He's been working behind the scenes for weeks now. He's talked to everyone who will be involved in this vote. The results will be close enough to unanimous to be not worth disputing. Brad will be expelled from the group. And you're going to help.

You're going to speak out, in fact. This isn't quiet participation. You have to help pull the lever, to drop the blade. It's possible that what you say will influence others into speaking out, people who would have otherwise stayed neutral or supported Brad as a representation of the status quo. You aren't watching the wave anymore. You're pushing it.

Is it right? You can't see the future. You don't know what these consequences are. Maybe Brad's point is valid. Maybe people need to be tougher. Certainly you aren't bothered, and you should act in accordance with how you feel, right? Wouldn't it be dishonest to do otherwise?

Is it right? You can't see the future. What if allergic people really can't help the way they feel about it? What if Brad's behavior really has hurt people? What sort of potential could have existed for the butcher shop if some of those people hadn't been chased away?

Had they been chased away? Should they have stayed? Should they have waited it out?

Why are you making decisions?

You tell yourself it's for the peace.

Brad is a warrior, of sorts. He's very convinced that he's right, and his arguments make sense to you. But Jason is A Crusader. He will never stop, and you know that. Are the allergies real? It doesn't matter. They are now, because Jason will make sure that they are. They will be real, and important, and eventually the center of the world, if it has to be. The allergies are real, and they Hurt People, and Brad is Hurting People, and if you don't agree, then you're Hurting People too.

It's never said, but it's beneath the surface. There is Brad's position, and then there's The Right Position. The voices are louder. Brad's supporters are isolated. The Right Position is easier to hear every day. What are you going to do, fight? That would be Hurting People. You don't want to Hurt People, do you?

No, it's obvious what has to happen. The butcher shop has spoken. Brad and his sage have to go. If you try to defend him, you'll only prolong the inevitable. Maybe bring yourself into the spotlight. You might be Next. You don't defend the use of sage, but you defend those who do? What's the difference, then?

You vote Brad out. He never says anything about it. That means he never forgives you, either.

The fight happens and then it's over. You all move on in your brave new world, and by all accounts, everything you can tell, it works out well. New kids come up the block. Some of them are allergic. Most of them, it would never occur to them to worry about sage. Great meat is still being made, you think.

You think. After all the fighting and the politics, one day you realize something. You can't taste the meat anymore. Nothing. It's like sand in your mouth now.

You leave the town and move to a hut on a hill nearby. You can see the village, see the kids flowing back and forth. You think the village is growing, but who knows? You only check once or twice a year.

You live in your hut. Eventually, you don't miss butchery anymore. You've forgotten what it feels like to hold the casing in your hands, to spin the links of meat in your hands, to feel the squish of the meat as you mix the oregano into the ground beef. You don't miss it anymore.

Years pass.

Is there something missing from your life, without the meat? How would you know?

One day, you hear a commotion from the village. A new group of kids have come through, and they've learned about the allergies, and they're furious. One of the newest butchers has produced something original. Something different from the past. They have nothing but derision for the meat before them.

"Have y'all eaten this? It is honestly one of the worst pork chops I have ever eaten."

You are infinitely confused. Wait, did…did they just find out about allergies?

"Kek can you actually believe they think that s*ge is harmful to sage-allergic people"

Oh my God. They…they think they're fighting this for the first time. They're just rehashing the points from the beginning. Don't they know what we went through? Don't they know what we sacrificed?

But they don't, you realize. And they haven't thought about it. They haven't put any time into this. They showed up with one opinion, and nothing that anyone says can change that. They're just a bunch of kids. Maybe it isn't their fault for that reason. Maybe it is.

The old fights have been forgotten, it seems. Everything you fought for, everything you ruined your sense of taste for. It's all passed by into dust. If tension is the quietest predator in the animal kingdom, time is the surest. Time never misses.

Curiosity consumes you. From the isolation into which you placed yourself, from the hut atop of the hill, you descend once again to the village. Quietly, in secret, you come into the butcher shop. Mostly unrecognized by the new guard, you sample the meat.

And it is good.

You have been away for quite some time. There will be work involved, a slow dissolution of yourself into the environment from which you separated yourself. But just as the rumors brought you into town for the first time, it is the product that holds you in place.

Those around you will have questions about where you went. There are stories. You started some of them, and maybe you're responsible for that. You knew you couldn't explain at the time. But for those who concern themselves with the comings and goings of the butchers of note, perhaps you owe them an explanation. The comings and goings of the butchers have always been secrets.

So now we got us a little secret.