Imagine you're living through your ordinary day, which, as always, begins with you waking up, then getting out of bed and heading to the bathroom to wash your face and brush your teeth. After that, you prepare breakfast, eat, and then get ready for work. At exactly 7:30, you leave the house and head toward your car, greeting your neighbors along the way. You drive to the office, park your car, enter the building, greet the guards and colleagues, sit at your workspace, and start your job.
By the time you've finished more than half of your tasks before lunch and are getting ready to go eat, your boss approaches you, almost shouting, causing everyone to look at you, asking about the report from yesterday's project. You endure her behavior, mask your frustration with a calm face, and reply that you left the report on her desk before leaving yesterday. She tries to keep a calm face, but inside, she's boiling with rage at your cool response and the fact that everyone is listening to your conversation. She says she'll check, but, irritated and vindictive, she dumps even more work on you. You tell her that you can't take on additional work, that you're heading to lunch, and that you already have five unfinished projects and reports. She replies that you must complete the extra work no matter what, and then she crushes your spirit by saying that you'll stay late and, if necessary, even overnight.
You nearly lose it, seeing her smug face and knowing you have no way to refuse. Once again, you endure, replying that you'll do it. She scoffs and returns to her office. Watching her walk away, you can't help but notice her attractive backside and feel the urge to smack her and finally tell her all the nasty things you think about her — that she's a jerk, a witch, a …
Exhale. Inhale.
You calm your mind, knowing such thoughts won't help. You go to a nearby cafe for lunch and order a coffee and a sandwich. After eating, you head to the restroom because, well, why hold it in? When you're done, you wash your hands and glance in the mirror, seeing a 32-year-old man with messy black hair, a scruffy beard with some crumbs from lunch caught in it, blue eyes, and an average face, dressed in black pants, a white shirt, and a bluish suit. This man is the main character of our story. His name is Alastor Morningstar.
Now the narration shifts to Alastor's perspective.
"Looking at my reflection in the mirror, I wonder how I ended up in a life where a woman younger than me can push me around. Ugh, back in school and college, I was a completely different person. You could say I was an Alpha, a Big Shot, or a Giga-Chad. I was the cool guy, admired by everyone because I was good at my studies and a bad boy. I was the bad boy that every girl wanted. I could get any woman I wanted — classmates, seniors, teachers, heck, even friends' moms. If I'd had a tan back then, I'd have looked just like those villains in hentai manga with the NTR genre.
But after describing who I was back then, a serious question arises. Why do I look like this now? How did I end up in this state? It can all be summed up in one word: 'girl.' Yep, it's all because of a girl and my own naïveté. Like any fool, I fell in love at first sight. I met my love in a club when I was 26; that's where we met. Back then… ugh, I don't want to remember."
With those words, I washed up and left the restroom, and immediately regretted it. As soon as I walked out, three people with guns and masks entered the cafe. I thought, *"Why did these people come here — to rob the place? No, why rob a cafe when there's a bank nearby?"* I didn't finish the thought, though, because before they noticed me, I started quietly retreating to the restroom. But then a man walked out of the men's restroom, saw the situation, and shouted, "WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?"
Inside, I cursed at him with every existing swear word, knowing that I'd been spotted because of this idiot. I didn't have time to assess the situation when I heard gunshots in my direction. All the bullets hit me, and I fell to the floor, feeling nothing. Only one question echoed in my mind:
"So, this is how I die? Because of some moron? Although this isn't what I should be thinking about right now…"
Usually, when people die sooner than they expect, the only emotion they feel is regret. Regret over things they didn't do, over not spending enough time with family, and so on. Our hero also felt regret over these things as he took his last breath, closed his eyes, and died.
[ALERT! ALERT!]
[FUSION SYSTEM WITH IMAGINARY CHARACTER AND TRAVEL HAS FOUND A USER]
[DEAR USER, DO YOU WISH TO ACCEPT THE SYSTEM?]
[YES/NO]
...
[IF YOU DO NOT MAKE A CHOICE WITHIN 15 SECONDS, THE SYSTEM WILL MAKE A CHOICE FOR YOU!]
...
...
...
[SINCE YOU DID NOT MAKE A CHOICE WITHIN THE ALLOTTED TIME, THE SYSTEM WILL CHOOSE FOR YOU!]
[CHOICE: YES]
[SYSTEM LOADING]
[...1%.....23%.....47%....87%...99%...100%]
[SYSTEM SUCCESSFULLY LOADED AND FUSED WITH USER]
[SYSTEM INITIATING CHARACTER SELECTION ROULETTE]
...
...
...
...
[CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE BEEN ASSIGNED THE CHARACTER: SCP-001: The Scarlet King]
[INITIATING FUSION WITH CHARACTER]
[CHARACTER RESISTS FUSION]
[SYSTEM INITIATING FORCED FUSION]
[ERROR...ERROR...ERROR...]
[IT SEEMS THE CHARACTER IS OF A HIGHER LEVEL THAN SEVERAL MULTIVERSES]
[SYSTEM ATTEMPTING TO NEGOTIATE WITH CHARACTER]
...
...
...
...
[SYSTEM UNDER ATTACK... ERROR... SYSTEM UNDER ATT...........…............…........................…..................... SYSTEM DEFENDED SUCCESSFULLY]
[SYSTEM ATTEMPTING TO NEGOTIATE WITH CHARACTER (crossed out) The Scarlet King again]
[THIS TIME, THE SCARLET KING HAS AGREED. INITIATING USER FUSION WITH THE SCARLET KING]
Item #: SCP-001
Object Class: Keter Safe
Special Containment Procedures: Following the recent investigations of Dr. Robert Montauk, no action is currently needed to contain SCP-001. It is functionally self-containing, and any Foundation interference may harm or alter its containment irreversibly.
No Foundation personnel are to engage with any new matters related to SCP-001, with the exception of related anomalies already in Foundation containment.
Description: SCP-001 is an entity ordinarily referred to as the Scarlet King. SCP-001 is currently located in several alternate dimensions simultaneously, and is unable to enter into the prime dimension. However, it is believed to have been repeatedly attempting entry for a period of several thousand under 300 years. SCP-001's physical, mental and conceptual properties are unknown to the Foundation; nevertheless, it continues to assert a strong influence on a number of individuals and events within the prime dimension.
It is believed that SCP-001's existence represents an ongoing but dormant Tashkent-Class "Cross-Pollination" Scenario1; should SCP-001 enter the prime timeline, an irreparable alteration to normalcy will occur. Containment of SCP-001 is a top priority is, however, unnecessary. Any attempt to alter SCP-001's classification or object class will result in immediate dismissal from the O5 Council.
References in art and oral tradition to SCP-001 appear across a wide variety of human and non-human cultures across the universe, including in communities which have never previously had any contact with one another. Common descriptions within these traditions are of a red creature of immense size, ordinarily wearing a golden crown or other headdress signifying royalty. Although the names ascribed to SCP-001 vary, the majority contain two elements: a word signifying some form of royalty combined with a word signifying the colour red. Cultures which do not have a concept of the colour red but follow this naming pattern universally use a colour analogous to the English concept of the colour red.
Most personnel, except those working on anomalies related to SCP-001, possess no knowledge of the entity. As part of SCP-2317's containment procedures, Level 4 personnel2 are to be informed that SCP-2317 is, in fact, SCP-001. The truth of this is unknown, although it is a hypothesis which has received strong support among several members of the council. The apparently multidimensional nature of SCP-001, however, renders the possibility of SCP-2317 being anything more than a single aspect of SCP-001 unlikely.
It is unknown when SCP-001 was discovered. The loss of several archives concerning the Foundation's origins in the 1889 "Snarling Coup" has prevented a full reconstruction of events, although an investigation shortly following [DATA EXPUNGED]. A variety of groups dedicated to bringing SCP-001 into the prime dimension have existed over the years. The most recent of these has been the "Children of the Scarlet King", which was destroyed in a joint GOC-SCP operation in January 2018. Its former leader, Dipesh Spivak, is currently in Foundation custody under the designation PoI-3172.
Update 01/06/2018: SCP-001 has recently been the subject of an extensive investigation by Dr. Robert Montauk, Project Lead on SCP-001, SCP-231 and SCP-2317, and deviser of Procedure 110-Montauk.
Based on the results of this investigation, SCP-001 has been downgraded to Safe following a decision taken by the O5 Council. Upon the request of the former O5-13, a number of documents related to this investigation can be found below, in order to provide context and further information pertaining to this theory. These have been curated, categorised and included by the former O5-13 herself with the permission of O5-1, in order to provide some context to this re-evaluation.
+Phase 1: 'Blood'
+Phase 2: 'Concrete'
+Phase 3: 'The Howling'
[aaaaCC62SS DEN---]
Footnotes
1. A K-class scenario wherein the imminent alteration of reality or eradication of all human life is caused by the interaction between two anomalous objects of a radically different type.
2. With the exception of Dr. Robert Montauk, Project Lead on SCP-001, SCP-231 and SCP-2317.
3. An antiquated term for "amnestics" in use in some Foundation sites at this time.
4. A Bengali social gathering, involving a group of friends (usually but not exclusively male) meeting up for an extended discussion of literature, social relations or other aspects of life. These often took place over the course of several hours.