#Dr. Animi probably runs off and joins the Serpent’s Hand at some point because of course he does

[4ce-of-2pades-inkwell]

I’ve been watching/listening to those SCP videos on YouTube while I draw Cuphead stuff, so it was only a matter of time before I came up with a crossover AU:

Dr. Manuel Animi is a young but talented scientist rising up through the SCP Foundation. He has a particular interest, fascination, obsession even, with SCPs that break the laws of reality, or that are beyond comprehension. Merely out of scientific curiosity, of course, nothing more... He spent many years working with eldritch beings such as… well, I can’t remember any off the top of my head, but things along the lines of what Cthulhu was expected to be, not his SCP reality. Dr. Animi had a better capacity than most for withstanding the dangerously incomprehensible, a mental tolerance for things that would drive an average person to insanity, but he was still human, and many times was affected to the degree of needing prolonged therapy or even intense medical treatment to recover. He would always return to his work with a passion as soon as possible, but eventually he was banned from working with any SCP classified as a significant mental hazard. His superiors claimed he had reached the lifetime exposure limit that was protocol (similarly to scientists working with radiation), and they cited his hair, which had changed from red to pure white as a result of the horrors he had seen, as proof he had been at this long enough to be at risk of permanent mental damage. They claimed his relocation to other SCPs was for his own safety, and that they did not want to lose such a bright scientist, but this was a lie. In truth, Dr. Animi’s obsession with these eldritch beings and mind-breaking ideas concerned them. They saw a high probability that Dr. Animi would not stay content with his permitted research, and would attempt to use the anomalies for his own purposes, becoming a threat. In short, he liked his work too much. If he had refused the ban on his area of study, he would have been deemed too far under its thrall, and would have been terminated. So Dr. Animi now works with other anomalies, though is not satisfied with his current work, and is biding his time for an opportunity to reenter his preferred field.

Chase Animi is a gambler. Addicted to it. This has caused him to go deep into debt, and in and out of prison. Any attempt to keep a job or build any kind of stable life is sabotaged by this addiction. He’s miserable, but he can’t stop. He falls in with shady crowds trying to pay back the money he owes, starts conning people for their cash, gets caught and put in jail again. He is not having a great time. One night, a bar fight gets a little too heated, and results in three men dead by Chase’s hand. If this isn’t enough of a crime to earn a death penalty, then he somehow does something else to earn his sentence. He ends up a D-class at the SCP Foundation. He is given cleaning duty for The Sculpture for several months, and as all goes to plan during that time, he survives without incident. Soon though, he is sent in to observe an SCP that affects a person’s mind—though he doesn’t know that yet. This is where he first interacts with Dr. Animi, who has just convinced the higher-ups that he should be allowed to study mind-altering SCPs again, if only ones of significantly less power and danger to himself. Chase doesn’t recognize the scientist that happens to share his name. But Dr. Animi recognizes him.

They’re twin brothers.

The two had parted ways years ago after an argument. Manuel had just joined the SCP Foundation as a scientist, and tried to convince Chase to apply as well, so they could stick together. Chase was furious with Manuel for wanting to retreat from society into a group of crazy all-powerful scientists, and for not telling him sooner that he was planning this. Chase wanted nothing to do with the Foundation or any organization like it. Manuel warned Chase that if he didn’t join the Foundation in some way, he would have to be given amnestics to forget its existence. Chase said that was fine by him, and that if Manuel wanted to leave him so badly, then he would be more than happy to forget his brother entirely. So Manuel, also caught up in anger, did exactly as he asked, erasing any trace of himself from Chase’s mind and leaving his brother for good, devoting his life entirely to the Foundation. Chase’s life, meanwhile, fell into disarray. It is possible that the careful amputation of such a constant presence in every single one of Chase’s memories negatively altered his mind in such a way that predisposed him to his addiction. With the sudden lack of something he had depended on all his life, he needed to depend on something else…

Dr. Animi recalled Chase from his current assignment before its effects could take a stronger hold, and through application of his recent research, was able to produce a near-total recovery. Dr. Animi then told Chase that they were brothers, and explained what had happened to cause his amnesia about their shared past. Chase was furious with Dr. Animi for destroying his memories of him, and disgusted that he would not only commit unethical experimentation, but do it to his own brother. Chase refused to speak to Dr. Animi further, but Dr. Animi still wanted to help Chase. He knew there were a few rare cases of D-class not only surviving their ordeals, but being allowed to reenter society and live ordinary lives. Only a handful of cases, out of innumerable casualties, but if Dr. Animi played his cards right, he could save Chase.

There was an SCP that had been discovered earlier that year (let’s say this takes place in 1973 I guess), SCP-666. That one that tempts people with addictions. Very few D-class had been tested with it so far, and all had died as a result of succumbing to their addictions, but Dr. Animi had a theory about the nature of SCP-666, and he was going to bet his brother’s life on it. He contacted the team studying SCP-666 and recommended Chase as a test subject, highlighting the strong gambling addiction that had been the root cause of every crime Chase had ever committed. The team had tested subjects with substance addictions, but had yet to try addictions of any other nature. They accepted Chase as their next subject.

Dr. Animi insisted on being the one to deliver the D-class to his destination. Chase refused to speak to him, but Dr. Animi whispered that he was doing everything he could to save Chase’s life. This was his best chance at not only survival, but escape. If Dr. Animi was right, SCP-666 was not a death sentence, but a test. Any D-class subjected to it who was not already an addict had seen no ill effects—666 did not compel a person to act against their will, at behaviors that were not their own, but merely encouraged existing addiction until it reached the point of death. If Chase could resist 666’s temptations, he may be released alive, and in order to study the long-term effects on his addiction, Chase would need to be introduced back into the wider world, where he could be monitored in his natural environment with its usual available temptations. Dr. Animi would convince the Foundation, somehow, that Chase could not be exposed to any other SCP without destroying a valuable research subject. All Chase needed to do was not die from SCP-666. An even more difficult task, as there was not much opportunity to gamble in containment, and Chase was feeling withdrawal. Dr. Animi had a theory, but the facts (which Chase was not supposed to be told) said that everyone who had faced this SCP had died. So why not live it up one last time before he went? What did he have to lose? What did he have to go back to? And yet, this addiction had destroyed his entire life. If he was going to meet his end… what if he could win, just once, over that all-consuming force? Win something not through luck, but through skill, through willpower?

Well, he’s going to try. He doesn’t anticipate an outcome where he survives. He’s not doing this because he believes he’ll be freed, in any sense of the word. He’s doing this to spit in the face of 666-1, and prove to himself that he has control in his life, even if that life is about to end.

Also, there’s one last thing you should know about Chase. See, that mind-altering SCP he did a brief stint with? Well, I looked pretty unassuming. Just a plain white cup sitting on a table. Chase didn’t know what he was supposed to be looking for. And he certainly didn’t realize when he started talking about me in the first person. My effects can end pretty badly for those exposed. Usually, they end up drowning themselves, often with tea. But Dr. Animi caught Chase’s symptoms early, and managed to talk him out of being a danger to himself. He was unable to be convinced that he was not, in fact, a cup like me, but Dr. Animi twisted this belief into something safer. Chase had arms and legs, right? And eyes and a nose and a mouth? He repeated this often, making Chase locate these attributes on himself, until he finally believed it to be true. He was a person, who had different needs than a cup. But he was also a cup, there was no talking him out of that. Dr. Animi could only do so much. Instead, he worked with Chase to develop a persona that became his new self-image, a persona that was, of course, still a cup, but functioned a lot more like a human. Chase once again understood himself to need sleep and food and air, and to be susceptible to death under many conditions that an average non-person cup would thrive in. And despite an insistence that his hair be constantly damp with tea or milk or coffee, Chase was deemed able to live normally again, thanks to a little outside-the-box thinking on Dr. Animi’s part. After all, Dr. Animi understood that you don’t necessarily have to see the world in a way that makes sense to anyone else to live a good life. You don’t have to be one hundred percent “sane.” Sometimes your life can even be better if you let yourself go a little crazy…

#cddwtd #cuphead #mugman #Cuphead AU #scp foundation #scp au #I know there’s a few plot holes but this is just a concept #why did they let Dr. Animi have ANY influence over a D class that was his BROTHER? #I dunno. maybe it just wasn’t obvious to anyone else. #now that they’ve got different hair they don’t look TOO alike. and maybe records got deleted along with Chase’s memories. or something. #they don’t use names for D classes. just their numbers. it’s POSSIBLE they might have overlooked the coincidence of last names. #¯\_(ツ)_/¯ #Dr. Animi probably runs off and joins the Serpent’s Hand at some point because of course he does