Noting that new site member Elias Solemn (account age and site membership 3 days) recently coldposted the following page, which has multiple indicators of AI-generation: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/the-man-with-two-badges page title "No Natural Death"
[[div class="scpstyle" style="border-left: 4px solid #7687e3; padding-left: 1em; margin: 1.5em 0; color: #000003;"]]
**Nobody questioned why Dr. Elias Solemn wore two identification badges.**
Most personnel assumed it was a bureaucratic mistake. Others believed it was tied to his transfer from the Global Occult Coalition years earlier.
**The truth was significantly worse.**
*Solemn never removed either of them.*
[[/div]]
---
The lights in Laboratory Wing C flickered twice before stabilizing.
Dr. Elias Solemn stood motionless beside the observation glass, one hand resting against the edge of the console. Beyond the reinforced panel, D-7712 sat restrained in a steel chair while pale tissue slowly formed around what had once been his left arm.
No screaming.
No convulsions.
Just regeneration.
**Dr. Adrian Veiss:** "How long this time?"
Solemn glanced toward the monitor.
**Dr. Elias Solemn:** "Two hours and fourteen minutes. Faster than the previous attempt."
**Veiss:** "And the pain response?"
**Solemn:** "None."
Veiss remained silent for several seconds.
The new arm looked almost normal. Skin, muscle tissue, blood vessels — everything rebuilt with impossible precision. Only the slight trembling in the fingers betrayed that something was wrong.
**Veiss:** "You know this shouldn't be possible."
**Solemn:** "Most things here shouldn't be possible."
Solemn adjusted the sleeve of his dark suit before stepping away from the glass. His thin rectangular glasses reflected the white laboratory lights for only a moment.
Veiss watched him carefully.
**Veiss:** "You barely sleep anymore."
**Solemn:** "Neither do you."
**Veiss:** "Difference is I don't look like I'm dying."
That earned the slightest reaction from Solemn.
Not amusement.
Recognition.
---
Veiss was one of the few people in the facility Elias respected.
Not because he was intelligent.
Not because he held authority.
But because Veiss understood when not to ask questions.
At least most of the time.
**Veiss:** "They're talking about your project again. Ethics Committee, Site Administration, Internal Security. Half the facility thinks you're trying to build immortality."
**Solemn:** "I'm not."
**Veiss:** "Then what are you trying to build?"
Solemn looked back toward the observation chamber.
D-7712 was staring at his reconstructed hand in silent disbelief.
**Solemn:** "Time."
---
The cafeteria was nearly empty at that hour.
Rain hammered softly against the reinforced windows while emergency lights painted long red reflections across the floor.
Veiss sat across from Solemn with untouched coffee between his hands.
**Veiss:** "You ever miss the Coalition?"
For the first time that evening, Solemn hesitated.
**Solemn:** "Sometimes."
**Veiss:** "You still talk to them?"
**Solemn:** "Sometimes."
Veiss exhaled through his nose.
**Veiss:** "You know Internal Affairs would shoot you for that sentence alone."
**Solemn:** "Then it's fortunate you aren't Internal Affairs."
Silence settled between them.
Solemn slowly removed the second identification badge hanging beneath the Foundation one and placed it on the table.
The emblem of the Global Occult Coalition reflected dimly in the cafeteria light.
**Solemn:** "I was nineteen when they found me," he said.
Veiss did not interrupt.
**Solemn:** "University recommendation. Molecular biology, virology, genetic reconstruction. I thought they were government contractors."
**Veiss:** "And then?"
"Then they showed me what anomalies actually were."
His voice remained calm.
Too calm.
**Solemn:** "People think the Coalition hates anomalies because they're cruel. That's wrong."
Solemn leaned back slightly.
**Solemn:** "They hate them because they've seen what happens when nobody stops them."
Veiss remained quiet for a while after that.
Rain continued tapping softly against the reinforced cafeteria windows.
Then:
**Veiss:** "What actually happened in the cave?"
Solemn's expression did not change.
But the silence afterward lasted noticeably longer.
**Solemn:** "You read that file too?"
**Veiss:** "Most of it was redacted."
**Solemn:** "Good."
Veiss leaned back slightly.
**Veiss:** "People don't get recruited by the Coalition at nineteen unless something goes very wrong first."
For several seconds, Solemn stared at the untouched coffee in front of him.
Then he spoke.
Quietly.
**Solemn:** "University expedition. Geological survey beneath the mountains near the Serbian border. Eight people including me."
**Veiss:** "And?"
**Solemn:** "At first we thought the tunnel system was natural. Then we noticed the markings on the walls. Symbols repeating every few meters. Fresh scratches over older ones."
His fingers slowly tightened around the ceramic cup.
**Solemn:** "One of the professors wanted to turn back immediately. Another insisted we continue."
**Veiss:** "What did you find?"
Solemn shook his head once.
**Solemn:** "I still don't know."
The answer unsettled Veiss more than if he had described some horrific anomaly.
**Solemn:** "Something down there affected perception. Thoughts stopped feeling separate. People became... suggestible."
**Veiss:** "Memetic exposure?"
**Solemn:** "Maybe. Maybe worse."
The cafeteria lights flickered once.
**Solemn:** "After six hours, the arguing started. After seven, paranoia. By hour eight they were accusing each other of hearing voices."
His tone remained completely flat.
Clinical.
Like he was reciting somebody else's memory.
**Solemn:** "One of them attacked another with a climbing hammer. Broke his jaw. Two others started fighting over a flashlight."
Veiss said nothing.
**Solemn:** "Nobody slept. Nobody trusted each other anymore."
Another pause.
**Solemn:** "When Coalition units found the cave three days later, I was the only person still alive."
**Veiss:** "How?"
For the first time during the entire conversation, Solemn looked uncomfortable.
Not afraid.
Ashamed.
**Solemn:** "I locked myself inside a survey chamber and listened to them kill each other outside the door."
Silence.
Heavy enough to drown the sound of rain.
**Veiss:** "And the Coalition recruited you after that?"
**Solemn:** "No."
Solemn slowly lifted his eyes toward him.
**Solemn:** "First they interrogated me for eleven days."
Veiss exhaled quietly.
**Veiss:** "Jesus Christ."
**Solemn:** "No. Whatever was inside that cave wasn't Christ."
---
Elias remembered the first body he ever saw inside a GOC containment facility.
There hadn't been much left.
Fragments of burned tissue fused into concrete walls.
A jawbone melted into steel.
The smell.
He still remembered the smell.
**Solemn:** "I designed pathogens for them," Solemn continued quietly. "Targeted biological weapons. Organisms designed to attack anomalous tissue structures."
**Veiss:** "Living weapons," Veiss corrected.
**Solemn:** "Efficient ones."
**Veiss:** "How many times did they work?"
Solemn stared at the table.
**Solemn:** "Enough times to promote me."
Veiss noticed the change immediately.
The slight tension in his jaw.
The exhaustion behind his eyes.
**Veiss:** "And the failures?"
For several seconds, Solemn said nothing.
Then:
**Solemn:** "You ever watch a person dissolve while they're still conscious?"
Veiss looked away.
---
**Veiss:** "You had cancer," Veiss said suddenly.
Solemn's eyes narrowed slightly.
**Solemn:** "Who told you?"
**Veiss:** "Nobody. I read old personnel files. Most were deleted."
**Solemn:** "Most."
**Veiss:** "Lung cancer. Advanced stage."
Solemn gave a faint nod.
**Solemn:** "I cured it."
**Veiss:** "Using this project?"
**Solemn:** "An earlier version of it."
Veiss stared at him.
**Veiss:** "Jesus Christ."
**Solemn:** "No," Solemn replied quietly. "Just biology."
Rain continued striking the windows.
Outside the facility, thunder rolled somewhere far beyond the mountains.
**Veiss:** "So that's what this really is," Veiss murmured. "Not immortality. Fear."
Solemn's expression hardened.
**Solemn:** "No."
**Veiss:** "Then what?"
For the first time since the conversation began, Elias looked genuinely tired.
"Everyone dies because the body fails before the mind does. Cells decay. Tissue collapses. Organs surrender. It's inefficient."
**Veiss:** "That's called being human."
**Solemn:** "Maybe it shouldn't be."
---
Veiss remained silent.
The answer unsettled him more than he expected.
Not because it sounded insane.
Because it sounded reasonable.
That was always the dangerous part about Elias Solemn.
He never sounded mad.
Only convinced.
---
Several hours later, security cameras recorded Dr. Veiss leaving the cafeteria alone.
Dr. Elias Solemn remained seated at the table for another twenty-three minutes.
Foundation badge resting against his chest.
GOC badge beside untouched coffee.
The following morning, Project VITA-EXT received preliminary approval for expansion review.
Nobody questioned why.
---
**Interview Log Recovered from Internal Audio Archive — Site Command Review Pending**
> **BEGIN LOG**
>
> **Interviewer:** Inspector Hale
>
> **Subject:** Dr. Adrian Veiss
>
> **Hale:** Did Dr. Solemn ever directly state where his loyalties stand?
>
> **Veiss:** No.
>
> **Hale:** Then why approve the project?
>
> *(Silence.)*
>
> **Veiss:** Because after listening to him for three hours… I couldn't tell if he was trying to save humanity or rewrite it.
>
> **Hale:** And that didn't concern you?
>
> **Veiss:** It concerned me enough to say yes.
>
> **Hale:** That's not an answer.
>
> **Veiss:** No. It's the truth.
>
> *(Paper shuffling.)*
>
> **Hale:** You understand what Project VITA-EXT represents if successful?
>
> **Veiss:** Of course I do.
>
> **Hale:** Extended human lifespan. Biological stabilization. Controlled regeneration. That's not a medical project anymore. That's a structural shift in human civilization.
>
> **Veiss:** You're assuming it works.
>
> **Hale:** You're assuming it stops.
>
> *(Silence for 6 seconds.)*
>
> **Hale:** Did Solemn ever discuss SCP-500 directly with you?
>
> **Veiss:** Once.
>
> **Hale:** Elaborate.
>
> **Veiss:** He called it a stabilizer.
>
> **Hale:** That's all?
>
> **Veiss:** No. He also said it was the only thing in this facility capable of teaching his pathogen restraint.
>
> **Hale:** "Teaching?"
>
> **Veiss:** His wording, not mine.
>
> **Hale:** Did that not alarm you?
>
> **Veiss:** Inspector, everything about Elias Solemn is alarming.
>
> **Hale:** Yet you continue defending him.
>
> **Veiss:** Because I've seen what he can do.
>
> **Hale:** Meaning?
>
> **Veiss:** A D-Class subject lost an arm in a containment accident three weeks ago.
>
> **Hale:** I'm aware of the report.
>
> **Veiss:** Then you know the regeneration succeeded.
>
> **Hale:** Barely.
>
> **Veiss:** No. Perfectly.
>
> *(Pause.)*
>
> **Veiss:** That's the problem.
>
> **Hale:** Explain.
>
> **Veiss:** The new arm wasn't scarred. No nerve damage. No rejection. It was biologically cleaner than the original.
>
> **Hale:** You're implying enhancement.
>
> **Veiss:** I'm implying that Solemn stopped trying to repair the human body a long time ago.
>
> **Hale:** Then what is he trying to do?
>
> *(Long silence.)*
>
> **Veiss:** Improve it.
>
> **Hale:** You sound uncertain.
>
> **Veiss:** Because I still don't know whether that's ambition… or desperation.
>
> **Hale:** Final question.
>
> **Veiss:** Go ahead.
>
> **Hale:** If ordered, do you believe Dr. Elias Solemn would choose the Foundation over the Global Occult Coalition?
>
> *(Silence for 11 seconds.)*
>
> **Veiss:** I think Elias stopped belonging to organizations a long time ago.
>
> **Hale:** That's not reassuring.
>
> **Veiss:** It wasn't meant to be.
>
> **END LOG**Excerpts of note:
No screaming.
No convulsions.
Just regeneration.
Veiss was one of the few people in the facility Elias respected.
Not because he was intelligent.
Not because he held authority.
But because Veiss understood when not to ask questions.
The answer unsettled him more than he expected.
Not because it sounded insane.
Because it sounded reasonable.
That was always the dangerous part about Elias Solemn.
He never sounded mad.
Only convinced.
When addressed about AI usage, the user responded: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-17861072/the-man-with-two-badges#post-8013383 (edited one minute later to note "propably think this is AI generated")
Nope, the account is young yes but I was planning to post this article for a long time, I understand not evryone like a wall of text but this is how I wanted to start the story. I don't know why you would think that after knowing that using AI is an easy ban I would do it. It is sad that people propably think but thanks for starting the discussion, most people just rate it with minus and don't say why.
User has no other forum posts or site activity (not a sandbox member). Permanently banned, PM sent. Zoobeeny, Ari, Kufat, storm supporting.