War Within Overview

THE WAR WITHIN
STORY OVERVIEW


INTRODUCTION

Essentially, The War Within tells a story about power, and how it corrupts people. That could mean a whole range of things, from the O5 Council turning on itself, to sites falling into disarray, to friendships drifting apart.

All of these concepts, and hopefully more, will be explored throughout the series.

Note: The narrative layed out from here is totally not set in stone, and can change pretty easily. Also, this page discusses the general scope of the story, not necessarily the gritty details. -Azamo


PART ONE - DIADEM

DIADEM aims to do several things:

  • Establish our cast of characters;
  • Establish the relationships between these characters;
  • Portray the arrival of our anomaly, the Usurper, in as swag a way as possible.

The current storyline for Part One goes roughly like this. Note that this is in chronological order, and will probably not end up being the order of events in the actual article.

Anyways, here we go:

After some sideways meddling with SCP-5712-A, conducted by a shady and unknown group of individuals for the betterment of the Foundation, things begin to spiral out of control.

Turns out that fishing without protection in the open Infosphere is a bad thing to do, and this ends up unearthing… something. Now, as of right now, it's open to interpretation what exactly this thing is, but generally speaking it is either a supremely powerful idea-based entity hellbent on achieving absolute power, or it is quite literally the concept of power incarnate, doing exactly what you would expect it to do.

No matter what you think the Usurper is, it really, REALLY wants to be at the top of the food chain. Now, it has access to our reality, and can do what it likes.

The catch is though, it's unfamiliar with the concept of the physical realm. That, or it's a little fatigued after having come through. It turns Site-33, the location it happened to arrive in, into it's personal food source.

After consuming and removing an unknowable amount of Site-33 personnel from existence, it is now able to act independently. Unbeknownst to those involved, the Usurper has attached itself to the enigmatic O5-2, who may or may not be the same person as Adelaide Worth, influential Site Director, who also happens to be the sole survivor of this whole thing. She is now in charge of Site-33.

At this stage, O5-2 is unaware of the Usurper's presence.

And so, Power Itself rides on the back of the most powerful woman, all the way to the throne.


PART TWO - SCEPTER

Out of all three parts, SCEPTER is the least planned out, and for that reason there isn't too much I can write about in here. I suspect I need some help figuring out how this is going to play out.

What I have decided about Part Two is that it is going to take place within Area-406, a massive underground facility used for heavy containment, data storage, and MTF training/deployment. Adelaide, unknowingly having been the Usurper's puppet for the past year, has managed to become Area-406's Director.

From here on it is relatively vague, but I know (in the current version of Part Two, at least), that the Usurper ends up forcing Adelaide to kill a researcher, Dr. Jonathan Fryxell, after an intense confrontation, something that sends Adelaide down a depressive spiral, and later begins to pave the way for her eventual escape from her tormentor.

It's a little on the fence, but in the current draft a confusing spatial anomaly emerges as a result of Fryxell's death, which could be related to The Usurper or could be caused by something entirely different. This could make a good B-plot.

Eventually, Adelaide gets found out and returns to her role as O5-2 after Worth is (on paper) cast out of the Foundation and amnesticized. Out through the front door, back in through the back door. Awfully convenient for the Usurper too, since it can now directly influence the O5 Council.

This is where O5-1 really enters the scene. He's been semi-present through the whole thing so far, acting as a kind, supportive friend for Adelaide (which I really should've mentioned earlier). Again, this is not decided, but I would like to have some sort of dialogue between the two at the end of SCEPTER. From here, cracks begin to form in their friendship as Adelaide appears to grow more power-hungry and selfish. Despite what she's done, though, the Council have seen worse. Jacob forgives her but warns her to watch where she steps.


PART THREE - USURPER

Oh, boy. This one is definitely going to take a while to write, particularly because it encompasses over half of the storyline. It's pretty planned out; The War Within actually began as just this part, until I realized that the story I had in mind couldn't fit into one big giant skip. Oh yeah, all three of these are SCPs. There'll be tales too, hopefully.

USURPER is not formatted in a typical way, though. It's structured fairly similarly to 5555, in that it's presented as a series of independent files and logs that tell the story in an arguably richer way. Downvote from me.

Anyways, I'll do my best to describe the current state of Part Three, which is better than my original vision of it thanks to TWW's lovely co-authors.

It's been quite a while since Part Two, and things have escalated equally. Adelaide has begun to identify that something is affecting her mind, although she doesn't quite understand what. For now she's keeping it quiet and carrying on with her work.

A council meeting is held due to some anomalous activity within Site-01 — undoubtedly caused by The Usurper's meddlings, which leads to some subtle confrontation between Jacob and Adelaide. This is then resolved with some dialogue between the two afterword. Adelaide reveals she is struggling with an out-of-control feeling. Jacob responds to this in an odd fashion, encouraging Adelaide to get some rest and refusing to ask the question he brought up initially. Perhaps Jacob is suffering too.

It's at this point that we take a break from the current storyline and investigate the B-plot: Sophia Light.

Sophia has noticed a rise in suspicious behavior within the Foundation's ranks, and will take on a sly, neutral position; cleverly unravelling the situation as it develops.

She is later stopped by the enigmatic O5-10, who, instead of prosecuting Sophia, chooses to help her with the case. Ten has also noticed this rise in corruption, and is eager to uproot it.

Ten is good friends with Jacob, but is forced to probe him for answers when he uncovers subtle connections between him and the Administrative Department. It turns out that Jacob has been aiding a Department investigation into Sophia's unruly behavior. They have known the whole time.

From here on, the boundary becomes clear. Ten and Jacob are now enemies.

Almost instantly, Jacob is losing control. Swarms of MTF are being sent left and right to eliminate any kind of perpetrator, any single individual that may be able to uncover the Department's secrets. This includes most of the O5 Council. Light and Ten manage to dodge these attacks for now, although this cover won't last for long.

The Foundation is becoming a Power-hungry war machine. Anomalies are being used to dominate opposing factions.

Finally, inevitably, Jacob finds Adelaide again. But Jacob is too far gone. They experience an emotional confrontation, before Adelaide is killed by MTF, per O5-1's orders. The last true Council member is now dead. If it isn't clear by now, the Usurper finds no more use in her. She has not done the things Jacob has for it.

Ten and Jacob duel endlessly, waves of MTF clash against each other. Eventually, Sophia has had enough. No more fighting. Ten hesitates, but eventually backs down. This, of course, gets them both captured. We get a series of fragmented video logs, detailing each individual's situation at once.

In the end, Jacob unexpectedly succumbs to the pain, and the guilt, and the chaos, and lets himself die at the hands of O5-10. Adelaide's death was too much, even for him. In a moment of quiet liminality, Ten realizes what he has done. Ten realizes what is going to happen. And as he sobs, he is overtaken by the Usurper, and makes his way to Sophia's interrogation chamber.

Sophia is let go, and silently makes her way to the residence of Jude Kriyot, who she infects with the real Usurper, the real crown, what it has always truly been. An idea. Power.

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License