Retrograde Motion [SCP X Reader]

Chapter 4: Butterflies

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|| Timelines were so inconvenient. ||

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You stared at the anomalous butterflies. They continued to flutter. You closed your eyes and counted to 10 before reopening them. Damn it, they were still there. You sighed. Guess you weren't hallucinating from stress after all. SCP 408 wasn't in the game and you hadn't expected to see them here. What were they doing here? You knew that canonically (or as canonically as a universe like SCP was), the main doctor associated with 408 would be Dr. Kondraki.

But, Kondraki was dead in some canons. Was he dead in this timeline? Actually, that brought up a lot of questions. Which canon was this timeline? Which doctors were dead or retired? What was the date? Which SCPs were canon? Which hadn't been discovered yet? So many questions yet so few answers. You exhaled, a little annoyed. Timelines were so inconvenient.

The only thing good about this unexpected encounter is that the 408s weren't necessarily malicious. Sure, they were prone to mischief according to the article but it wasn't as bad as it could be. But, that didn't answer the question of why they were here. There was a chance that Kondraki happened to be around the facility right now, assuming he was alive. There was also the chance that they had escaped containment but you were pretty sure they were supposed to be contained at Site-17, not 19.

Ugh. There were way too many complications with this. A stray thought crossed your mind that maybe their feeders weren't refilled and they needed sugar water. You wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. Well, aside from the butterflies in the room, there wasn't much else different from the scenery of the facility. This particular room you had walked into was the server farm room. A bit strange of it to be right outside of the checkpoint but you had seen stranger things.

You stepped out onto the catwalk. Now, did you have to go down to the lower level to get to the other side of the room or did you need to go to the other door by the catwalk? Pulling out the S-Nav, you looked over its map. The blinking red circle showed the SCP 408s of course, but no 173. Huh, so it wasn't in here. You glanced over the railing. Yup.

You put the S-Nav back into your pocket. It looked like you needed to go to the other door on the catwalk. You ducked under the 408s, being careful not to hit any of them, and walked to the other door. Pressing the button, the door slid open. Your brows furrowed in confusion as the butterflies fluttered around you.

"You gonna follow?" you hesitantly spoke.

A few of the butterflies landed on your head while others circled around you. You took it as a yes. Muttering a quick "Okay" under your breath, you walked through the door and pressed the button while making sure none of the butterflies got trapped behind. Doing a headcount, er, butterfly count, there seemed to be about 15 of them though you could be wrong.

The room you entered was the basic office. There wasn't anything important in here but you peeked over a few desks, finding various documents and notes that were left scattered when the breach started. You found the note signed by Dr. Gears telling the staff not to call 106 "Radical Larry" particularly funny. If you had released 035, the body would have been found in this office in the game but since you hadn't, the room lacked a corpse.

All the better for you.

You hurried on through the room, only stopping at the exit to pick up a few random coins that were on the floor. You inspected them, deeming them pretty normal before putting them in your pocket. The next room you entered appeared to be the shared conference room with the large glass divider separating the main room itself from the hallway. You gave it a quick glance, finding it to be less messy than the previous room. Like in the game, there was a poster each of Albert Einstein, Dr. D.H. Aeslinger and Dr. Gears.