He's trying to smooth talk me into a game

[o5_12]

Oh, no. Don't blame me for the fact you review my canon for hours at a time. That's not on me.

You are, however, now familiar enough with the workings of the Foundation to see that clearly people from my universe are, as your people put it, 'genre savvy'. We accept things so far out of the norm that someone from another world would go mad from the idea; more than that, we take those things and study them. I have been personally working at this for well over two centuries. There are plenty of places that could use that knowledge.

As for my part, of course, I have my own motivations. But you knew what those were when you took me in all those months ago. My goals wouldn't ever coincide with harming the inhabitants of other games, unlike most of your muses, and since you said you'd like to tone down the level of violence in your RPing, I really am legitimately a better choice here. We could both profit greatly from this venture. I'll even overlook your continual jokes about me being a 'mad scientist' just because of one grossly misunderstood incident that happened before your own grandparents were even born.

Now. Let's find a game that allows for people from my canon, yes?

Comments

[fearbringer]

Oh, how interesting.

I will admit I don't know what to think of you.

[o5_12]

[Adam eyes him warily, but that's how he eyes most things. Being in the SCP Foundation's employ for more than a week immunizes everyone to weirdness and fosters healthy paranoia.]

Should I take that as a compliment?

[fearbringer]

Well, on the one hand, you science types-- people who make it their life's work to discredit superstition and pure belief by emphasizing the need for proof and rationality-- make my life more difficult. But on the other hand... the stories of that foundation of yours has led to a lot of sleepless nights.

So, answer your own question. Should you take it as a compliment?

[o5_12]

I'll take it as a statement of how things should be viewed in regards to my canon. We are in a very unique position as far as worlds go. The things we do don't always make things better. I can see how we'd inspire an inability to sleep in many.

The truth has that effect on most people.

[fearbringer]

Not truth. Fear.

[o5_12]

One inspires the other.

[fearbringer]

Mm, sometimes. But truth isn't necessary for fear.

[o5_12]

I disagree. Sometimes a tiny portion of truth, with the majority of it hidden, is an incredibly potent way to inspire fear. There's a reason we redact so many chunks of files.

[fearbringer]

Of course, but you're misunderstanding. I didn't say it wasn't useful, only that it's not necessary.

And you can disagree with that all you want, but I happen to be right.

[o5_12]

I'm not in the business of fear; the number of files I work on personally is as great in volume as that of any O5, but most of mine end up being too classified for most people's eyes. And if you're high up enough in rank in the Foundation to see those, fear is long gone and replaced by a myriad number of coping mechanisms. Or utter insanity.

[fearbringer]

Take it from someone who is in the business of fear-- it's never gone; not completely. It's only repressed, lying in wait and ready to spring out again at a moment's notice.

[Saying this all in a creepily casual way.]

[undyed]

'Mad scientist.' Such cheap, throwaway words!

But tell me, what do you seek to gain from joining a game? Are you that desperate to become an insignificant cog in some merciless machine?

[o5_12]

And cliche, to boot.

I have my reasons. Besides, staying in eternal stasis in this headspace holds no appeal for me. If I am to live forever, I should actually endeavor to live life. More to the point, we're all insignificant, regardless of our locations or occupations. The difference is I know it and work with my potential instead of deluding myself with visions of grandeur like many of my colleagues.

[undyed]

Cliche, but not without its appeal, I suppose.

Right you are! A brilliant mind knows how to make the best of even the most adverse situations.

Hmm... [Delusions of grandeur, is it? Most regrettably, a narcissist never considers themselves as such, so Achroma never stops to consider he might fall in that category.] Prison walls might enslave the body, cause your senses to dull and your muscles to atrophy, but no prison can contain your mind. Being stripped of everything but the simplest necessities frees your mind. Like a monk in seclusion, freed to pursue higher things!

However! The importance of field studies can't be denied, brilliance with nothing to study or observe is quite pointless. There is no greater tragedy than untapped potential, limits never tested. [... he's so pompous, he might just give himself away.]

Might I ask what your field of study is?

[o5_12]

[Adam is so used to levels of narcissism that outstrip and outshine it he just sighs mentally and gives no outward sign he's remotely annoyed. He's gotten more flowery language than this from people barely qualified to be lab assistants - some of them needed it, to keep sane.]

I have no interest in the concept of 'higher things'. The position I am in is one where I excel, and have excessive experience in, both on the end of management and field experience. And I want to continue exploring the fields that I'm in, in as many ways and places as possible.

Hmm. It's hard to describe. A quick summation would be genetic mutations, biology, and neurology. [Among many other things, because that many years of free time will give a man a lot of time to study multiple fields. He'll leave out mentioning the magic, eldritch locations, alternate dimensions, creatures that defy the laws of physics - the things he's applying his three fields to. Even here, people have limits on what they can believe.]