I have a problem with the idea of monthly D-class terminations. It's just so… un-Foundation like. The Foundation in all articles, especially the newer, more quality controlled articles, is not wasteful. It even says so in the How to Write an SCP page to make containment procedures realistic and not over the top since the Foundation doesn't waste resources. Why would the Foundation wipe out test subjects fairly quickly. The scope of the Foundation's research would require tens of thousands of D-class, lets say only 10,000 for ease of math. Thats at least 120,000 Terminations by the foundation yearly. That's at least genocide level. It goes against the statement of:
The Foundation is cold, not cruel.
It's a waste and a headcannon I would like to see disappear from the site to be honest.
I'd recommend you check out April's top-rated tale Numbers Never Die. It posits a canon where not only are D-class not terminated at the end of the month, they're not even amnesticized. They can be there for years, even decades.
My personal head-canon is that the monthly termination thing is just an ugly rumour that all new D-class hear at some point or another. Lifers and Death Row inmates serve indefinite terms and are assigned the most dangerous tasks. Other convicts serve a fixed term for time off their sentence (which is more than most prison work programs offer), and typically have a fairly decent chance of making it to the end of their term. If they've survived, they're administered Class-C amnestics and released.
Of course, not all D-class are criminals.
It's an old holdover that, quite frankly, many people do have objections to in regards to scope. It made more sense back when there was only 1,000 SCPs.
The classic interpretation is that D-class are death-row inmates: you can argue that it's crueler to humanity as a whole to let these people go free than it us to off survivors at the end of the month
One modern interpretation is that D-class are amnesticized and rotated on a monthly basis, and researchers are simply told that they're terminated at the end of each month to help ease concerns over human experimentation that almost certainly violates classical ethics regarding volunteer subjects in science. I've also heard of the use of clones being floated around as well.
The amnesticizing makes sense, It makes the most sense in regards to the foundation, just continually use subjects and tell them theyre gonna be set free, when in reality they’re just Guinea Pigs. Thats the kind of cold logic i could see the Foundation using.
Lie to a few death row inmates, tell them they’re going to be set free, but reality they’re our test subjects until the need for termination arises via injury, age, or resistance
I headcanon that D-class would be assigned to a specific anomaly for their entire "career," and amnesticized regularly during that time unless there's a good reason not to (like 173's cleaners with their blink training).
Monthly amnestic treatment for D-class would have major benefits:
- D-class with no memory of what the Foundation does are probably more manageable
- prevents d-class with firsthand experience handling anomalies from learning more than the researchers know, which could be dangerous
- prevents them from organizing resistance or forming black markets
- prevents researchers from becoming attached/forming relationships with them
- knowledge of how anomalies tend to work, or distress about being fodder, could confound a lot of experiments or even change an anomaly's effects. An amnesticized D-class is an experimentally reliable D-class.
Many newer articles imply that D-class can be around for a while and see a bunch of skips if they're lucky enough to survive, and will have them throw out lines like "this isn't the worst thing you eggheads have made me do."
Personally, I can't see the Foundation exposing D-class to all kinds of different anomalies like that, because they'd want to avoid cross contamination. What if a D-class got stuck with a probability-affecting field we didn't catch after he touched the last thing, and now when he touches the next thing that probability field causes a catastrophic breach? What if he got infected with some kind of memetic agent before we sent him to the hell ship, and it compels the rest of humanity to follow him in when it activates? What if 682 acquires keter cake molecules from a D-class bloodstream and starts multiplying? Anomalies are unpredictable by nature - you would want to be careful about exposing a test subject to more than one of them.
I headcanon that D-class would be assigned to a specific anomaly for their entire "career
I headcanon this particular portion. I like to think that some D-Class show proficiency at specific tasks involving certain anomalies, and are counted on as "experts" to help when D-Class are needed.
Maybe I'll write a tale about that one day. I just like imagining a D-Class that feels somewhat proud of his/her field experience.
You should check out We Who Poke With Sticks, one of my all-time favorite tales.