Active Duty

<pooryoric> "why did you ask if I knew who I am?" <Gerald> "It's either Yoric Elroy or D-1347. The first thing you lose as D-Class is your identity."

<O5-6> "Alex, we just lost O5's 2, 3, 4, 5, 12, and 13."

Active Duty is the official roleplay for the (SCP Foundation). It was created to replace the now-defunct Fieldwork roleplay, which everyone can safely say was a good switch.

Taking place at Site 23, buried in the Australian outback, Active Duty (unlike its... "looser" predecessor) emphasizes horror, realism, permadeath, and the sheer powerlessness of humans trying to cope with the unknown. Explore the constantly changing Tamlin House, contain dangerous outbreaks, or get your character executed for treason.

When that fails, there's always drama!

Tropes used in Active Duty include:

• Above Good and Evil: This is the Foundation- is this surprising?
• Accidental Pervert: Kat accidently copped a feel off a slime zom- dead Chilean woman. There were laughs, before Akane slapped her shit for it.
• Alas, Poor Scrappy: Yoric, everyones favorite jerkass, is going to get mindwiped, and retired. At the last moment, as the drugs are coursing through his system, he reaches up, and commits suicide by 963.
• Almighty Janitor: "Mac" Guffin may well qualify for this, even though he's been promoted to Director of Engineering.
• Alternate Self: Alternate-Light is the original O5-2, Alternate-Mann is probably running around killing people, and in an unrelated incident, we have no idea what happened to Alternate-Yoric or if he exists.
• And Zoidberg: Paraphrased, for space:

<Jason>: "Kaze, we're almost there. I've got Brad, Berk, and Rosalyn." <Jack>: "And me!" <Jason>: "...And Jack."

• Anything That Moves: Serra Argent. For example, Black.
  • One of the rooms in Tamlin did this.
• Ate His Gun: Heiden, and then, shortly after, Facette.
• Author Avatar: That weird bearded guy in room 93. Rumor has it that it's Bright, the real Bright.
• Authority Equals Asskicking: Vance Goddamn Harding managed to kill a vampire epically while having operational control on a mission.
• Back From the Dead: Yoric and Heiden. Although, technically, Yoric is from an alternate timeline, and Heiden was never actually dead.
• Bad Future: A possible future experienced through the 307 Ale showed a Site infested with 173s. Everyone died. Jason wrote "I LOVE DICKS" on one of their faces. Then he died.
• Badass Boast:

< Makoto: You will let go of me now.

• Badass Mustache: Mann.
• Badass Normal: Pretty much in the job description for O-23.
• Badass Preacher: Ruwaydah Al-Jahani (Muslim), Tau Vriska (Broken God), and Father Robert Jakal (Christian)
• Battle Couple: Any couple in the setting, more or less. Currently Alice and Jason(the Directors Dodridge) and John and Akane.
• Berserk Button: Staff Sergeant Blevins's wife spends a lot of time with some "Roy" fellow, her "stylist". Several PCs introduced the possibility that she might be cheating. He took it out on the HR department. In the words of Jason Dodridge, "[the] Watercooler breached containment. He terminated it."
  • Jason Dodridge has one for Alice Erdritch.
  • Do not invade Williamson's mind. As one particularly twisted reality warper found out, it's a sure fire way to end up tortured to death(or til he gets bored) with a pair of pliers. In fact, not only will he lose his shit, but John will remember you if you somehow escape. And take your scalp as a trophy.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Chad, a mild-mannered, good-natured Foundation motivational speaker and seminar leader, apparently plots the murders of the Omega-23 personnel that constantly make shams of his seminars.
  • Director Alice Erdritch, relatively mild-mannered and described as "a bundle of nerves" can outshoot a Marine MP sharpshooter.
• Beyond the Impossible: The coherent G.M.ing of SIX RP channels at once during the Sealing-Jager run.
  • Director Tamlin has the entire Tamlin House tattooed onto his body. Both the inside AND out.
• Big Labyrinthine Building: People have been known to get lost in the Tamlin House and die.
• Bizarrchitecture: Pretty much all rooms in the Tamlin House.
• Boom! Headshot!: Director Dodridge clipped Agent Foley in the head to stop his SCP-029-induced murder spree; justified, as he was using Agent Martin as a human shield.
  • O5-6 terminating Akane.
  • Jason again, but with John Williamson. He was aiming for his gun.
• Body Surf: Bright and Jager!
• Break the Cutie: The universe seems determined to insanify Alice Erdritch.
• Butt Monkey: Walter, just Walter. Even more so the chicken eating cab driver who's name eludes me.
  • Agent Jack.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: You can count the number of times that Ten's been serious on one hand. Yet, somehow, she's still an O5.
  • Many other characters have quirks that would make it very hard to do their original jobs before the Foundation, especially if their work in the Foundation caused it.
• Cassandra Truth: Alice, all the time. Why wont you listen to her?
• Crowning Moment of Awesome: So many. All right. Any of the Able/Black/Thompson fights. (Dick shaped rocket launcher? No gravity fight? Pushing Able into the Empty room?) Black and Thompson's fight on the island. Mann escaping the site. Shane shooting a lake with a magic bow at a boat.
  • Tau Vriska, threatened by a vampire wielding mental affecting magic recites Broken God scripture, warding him off with her cog tattoo and her words. She advances on him, quietly singing a song of praise to The Broken God...and then Vance goddamn Harding comes flying off the third level floor, shoots the vampire in midair, and then heel springs off his spine. To call Tau's reaction a Flat What is an understatement.
• Crowning Moment of Funny: Brad Gibson, whilst singing and dancing to The Lonely Island's "I'm On A Boat," managed to dance around two punches, and breakdance under a taser. Then Janus showed up.
• Crowning Moment of Heartwarming: After the team rescued Emily from Mr. Headly within her mind, Alice Dodridge found a note in her pocket that simply read, "Thank you."
  • Also, Alice found flowers on her grave from her son. Time travel is involved. Don't ask.
  • Akane fixing John's favorite shirt counts. As does his immediate changing into it and then hugging her.
  • Joseph Travis Tamlin delivering himself and telling Jason and Alice, "I always loved you, mom and dad."
• Deadpan Snarker: That's Yoric for you.
• Don't Explain the Joke:

<Jason> "She was a little shocked to see me." <Jason> "On account of I shot her with a tazer."

• Drama Bomb: Half of O-23 gets the shit tore out of them, then Alice has Travis, inducing so much drama that time itself got warped for a second.
  • Jason gets demoted, Akane promoted, and there's a confrontation on the roof. Akane ends up brainless and John finally snaps. The drama was delicious.
  • Priscilla gets reality bent into someone else. Jason and Alice, tired of their bosses being stupid, quit the Foundation.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Agent Jack Harker's death. Finally driven insane, he punched out a dragon before suicide bombing the Eldritch Abomination Mann by jumping into his mouth. All while Mann was erasing him from existence.
  • Linda Aniston, Brad Gibson, Hadley Park, Kaze Sakura and Bob Jameson all sacrificed themselves to seal Jager. They are now within the Tamlin House. It was glorious.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Alice calls her dad and she and Jason escape The Foundation to "Anyplace better than here."
• Eyepatch of Power: Tau has one.
• Extranormal Institute: Site 23.
• Fan Nickname: Travis is the Time Babby.
• Fate Worse Than Death: Chandra Markov was turned to stone, but is fully conscious and will technically live forever.
• Five-Man Band:

Jason Dodridge: The Hero Brad Gibson: The Lancer Alice Erdritch: The Chick Linda Aniston: The Smart Guy Berkley Frick: The Big Guy

• Flock of Wolves: Janus's dinner party, which was filled to the brim with people with conflicting loyalties. Turns out that every director at the site was either an infiltrator, or with their own hidden agenda.
• Friend in the Black Market: This is "Mac" Guffin's hat, since he has all sorts of schemes, scams, and such running in the background.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Required, to be able to use the simulacrums in Zeta Wing.
• Fun with Acronyms: Site Human Intensive Training - mandatory for insensitive personnel in the workplace. Which is most of the PCs.
  • IC and OOC speculation on what the new powered armor should be named. Finally settled on Titanium Reinforced Armed Vanguard Infantry Suite or TRAVIS.
• Gargle Blaster: Linda Aniston and Jake Wilson ordered actual Pan-Galactic Gargle Blasters in a room in Tamlin House. It gave them an alcoholic PTSD.
• Genre Savvy: Nearly everyone at times. But Akane moreso then usual.
• Groin Attack: To Able, courtesy of Black. With a knife.
  • Chandra Markov to Director Linda Aniston.
• Growing the Beard: Essentially the entire RP after the shift from Fieldwork.
• Hates Being Touched: Akane, due to spending much of her early teenage years 'working' in a brothel.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Jason Dodridge was boasting about how he could have kicked a Tamlin entity's ass. O5-6 came in right at that time and invited Jason to partake in a friendly scuffle.
• Hot Scientist: Arguably, all of them.
  • Averted heavily with John Williamson. Even before having been set on fire, set on fire again and then burned with acid, he was no looker. Now, it's advisable not to look at him whilst eating chili-mac.
• Hurricane of Puns: After the electric sheep broke containment, everybody was making sheep-related puns, in-character and out.
• Ice Queen: Light... and maybe Ten... And a lot of the female characters.
• Idiot Ball: John Williamson fired a grenade into a train full of civilians, in an effort to stop an aggressive D-Class affected by SCP-342.
• Incredibly Lame Pun:

<LindaAniston>: He did a bear-al roll!

• • Jameson.
• Killed Off for Real: Theoretically, that's the point of the game. (Except, uh, Bright, Yoric, and Heiden.)
• Killer Game Master: Echo Four Delta is becoming one, but nobody can top Bright.
• Knife Nut: Director of Espionage Linda Aniston has a bit of a thing for blades.
  • In a mission near the end of a raid into a compromised site, a Terminator-like robot barges into a room with all the agents in it and trashes all but one (but then proceeds to beat him up anyway). Instead of shooting at it like everybody else, Makoto lunges at robot (and getting in harm's way) to stab it repeatedly (and failing to do any damage).

< Makoto> 2d6 BANZAI MOTHERFUCKER! < Makoto> Makoto launches himself at the robot, trying to stab it < Makoto> 2d6 BACKSTAB LIKE A SPY < Makoto> "MOTHERFUCKER *SHOT* ME!" < Jillian> "It shot me too Makoto, but Ididn't try to stab it" < Makoto> "You don't have a knife!"

• Lame Comeback:

< Shadow Man: Maybe you should join your friend. < Makoto: And maybe you should chill out!

• Mad Bomber: Agent Jack was discharged from the US Army for causing extensive destruction and casualties thanks to psychological trauma. He's mostly over it.
  • John Williamson. Mad? Possibly. Bomber? Oh yes.
• Mad Scientist: Again, all of them.
• Memetic Badass: DOOR
• No Name Given: Jack Harker prefers to be referred to as Agent Jack.
• Nuclear Option: Jason Dodridge's simulacrum deployed a nuclear grenade in Site Beta. Everything died.
  • John Williamson repairing and arming a Mk54 SADM during an incident with 610. Unfortunately, nobody told him that it was put in the wrong spot(not that it mattered). He spent the rest of the night after returning to Site-23 staring whistfully out the window like a lovesick schoolboy.
• One Steve Limit: Averted with Jack Bright and Jack Harker in the same room. Yes it is as confusing as it sounds.
• Our Elves Are Better: Ghost in the Leaves, a guardian of a Tamlin Artifact and an elf who has a taste for red meat.
• Powered Armor: Jason Dodridge has a suit of powered combat armor, custom-manufactured by John Williamson and finished up by Doctor Alice Dodridge.
• Pungeon Master: First Jameson, now Churney. Goddammit.
• Reality Warper: SCP-239, SCP-343, Jager, Tamlin, the Little Boy... oh, and that weird bearded guy in room 93.
• Really Seven Hundred Years Old: The old O5's. And Director Tamlin, who may have been around in the BC.
• Ret-Gone: Agent Jack Harker died while fighting "Bad" Mann. Bad Mann would strike the Task Force through time itself, and his final strike on Harker reached through his life and killed him in his own crib. Jack's final action before being erased from history was to dodge a ton of created monsters and jump down Bad Mann's throat, igniting a charge of C4.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Stuff tends to die when Jason sees Alice get hurt.
  • Hurting Akane physically is a good way to incite one of these. Just ask Ward's sister.
• Sarcastic Confession: Remember when Akane was all "I killed my Mom, because she was a huge bitch"? And everybody laughed? Well...
• Secret Government Warehouse: Again, Site 23.
• Semper Fi: A number of combat-oriented agents and researchers are old Marine hands, to include Shane Hayes, Brad Gibson, Jason Dodridge, and most recently Kathrine Smith.
• Slasher Smile: John Williamson. During an incident inside a 'haunted' fun house being controlled by a sociopathic ten year old, he adopted one in an attempt to out-mind-game her. The attempt failed, but it, and his threats during the battle did unsettle those who were on the op with him, despite his claims that it was just an act.
• Small Girl, Big Gun: Katherine Smith now uses an M82 Barrett. Alice Dodridge has on occasion fired guns that were as big as her.
• Space Whale Aesop: "Don't screw three interns on a desk or you'll be killed by attack helicopter." from Sensitivity Training. Pretty much.
• Stuff Blowing Up: John Williamson.
• Supreme Chef: MacKay has been known to, and is willing to, cook anything for just about anyone.
  • Also Pangaea, but we don't talk about him.
• Surprisingly Elite Cannon Fodder: Special Task Force Omega-23 is basically this.
• Taken for Granite: Linda Aniston in a room with statue plinths.
  • Chandra Markov
• Techno Wizard: JAK upgraded the internet. Also, Gnosis.
• That Came Out Wrong:

<Brad> "I'll cross swords with you, if you know what I--oh god no!" Brad desperately claws at his eyes. <Aniston> "Brad, I think you'll want to look elsewhere for /that/ sort of fun."

• The Engineer: John Williamson. Combat engineer to a T, with a little bit of Demoman thrown in for good measure.
• The Game Plays You: Technically from Fieldwork, but the gameshow plot was one of its finest moments nonetheless.
• The Scrappy: Agent Hamill managed to get on everybody's short list on his first day.
  • Agent Jack Harker
  • Researcher Chandra Markov
  • Agent Katherine Smith
• Timey-Wimey Ball: Alice Dodridge is nine months pregnant after two months time.
• Took a Level In Badass: Black after joining Pandora's Box, Thompson after fighting Able (Able threw a CAR at his HEAD), and maybe Yoric before joining the Serpent's Hand.
• Too Dumb to Live: Katherine Smith. She pressed the button that ends the world. As it turns out, apocalypses are a very personal thing.
  • Her player can be this, considering his body count.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Sort of...

<pooryoric> ONE LENGTHY STOMACH PUMPING LATER

• Visual Pun: Berk coming out of the Noodle Room wearing a wedding dress and with a sweet new Church of the Broken God tattoo. He's married to the Church, getit.
• Walking Armory: Director Dodridge carries a combat knife, a handgun, a shotgun, a battle rifle with a grenade launcher, and a heavy machine gun everywhere he goes. While in his Powered Armor, anyway. Elsewhere, it's just a baton, tazer, another knife, another handgun, and another rifle.
  • John Williamson carries an M 240 G, .22 caliber PDW with 40mm grenade launcher, a martini-Henry rifle chopped down into a pistol and enough explosives to kill just about anything everywhere he goes. On certain missions, add an anti-tank rifle.
• What the Hell, Player?: During a test involving SCP-342, one panicked civilian passenger tried to leave the car they were occupying. So John Williamson shot a grenade at her.
  • Makoto trying to stab a robot to death.
  • Eric using C4 in an old, structurally unstable castle.
• What the Hell, Hero?: The team was sent out to kidnap a perfectly innocent female police officer Why? Oh, so she can be used as a D Class.
• Wild Mass Guessing: In-universe. Who the fuck is Coyote? Is he/it an actual god, a reality bender, or a rogue facet of Jager?
• The Woobie: Poor, poor Priscilla.
• Zip Me Up: Jillian Cunningham to Makoto Yamazaki.