Josie is a half-cat. No, she isn’t half cat, half something else. And she’s not a humanoid with feline features
either. She is literally half of a cat. Actually, to be more precise, she’s the
front half, but an otherwise ordinary black and grey tabby cat. That is, ordinary apart from having no visible
back legs or hindquarters. You might think that’d make it hard for
Josie to get around, but if you asked her how only being a half-cat affects her on a
daily basis… well, she wouldn’t be able to answer you
due to the simple fact that cats generally can’t speak. But nevertheless, Josie will happily and effortlessly
walk around on her own two legs, moving as if she had a second pair of hind legs in place
behind her. Her back half isn’t invisible, it’s as
if it’s not even there at all, not showing up on X-rays. And yet, it can give a slight yield when touched,
being almost tangible, but not fully. Despite this, Josie suffers no adverse health
problems or any other complications despite lacking one half of her body. Occasionally, she doesn’t mind having her
semi-corporeal hind quarters stroked, although she will usually get a little bit scratchy
if people try that. So, how does the SCP Foundation keep an anomaly
like Josie contained? Well, it turns out that they don’t really
need to. She’s perfectly harmless and is actually
allowed to roam freely around the lower levels of the facility she’s kept at. Casually as you like, she slinks around the
corridors, passing from one room to the next. Of course, if cats could talk, then Josie
would probably tell you that she has the run of the whole facility. The only real question left is, what does
a half-cat do when she’s left to wander around a Foundation facility completely unsupervised? Easy, she starts looking for a ball of yarn. Josie was sure she’d seen one somewhere
around here, one of the researchers had carried it off for testing not too long ago. Her small front paws patted against the ground,
as Josie navigated her way to where she last remembered seeing that coveted ball of yarn
being taken. She passed a group of researchers, one of
them kneeling down to give her a friendly scratch behind the ears. Just as she closed her eyes and purred at
the greeting, a sound coming from down the hall startled her. It was a low, distressed sobbing. Having never been taught that old saying about
curiosity and cats, Josie slunk past the researcher’s legs towards the source of the noise. The room that the crying was coming from had
no windows, no way for her to get in. Luckily, Josie – despite only having half
a body – had enough determination and resourcefulness for two whole cats. Around the corner, she knew there was an open
air vent, and, sure enough, she leaped gracefully up to it with ease. The cold metal tunnel was just big enough
to accommodate her little furry self as she crawled through, the echoing sound of sobs
guiding her. As she reached the grate looking out into
the windowless room, Josie spotted a tall, thin creature sitting with its back to her. Its arms would have been long enough to reach
the ground if it had been stood at its full height, but for now they were wrapped tightly
around its legs as the creature rocked back and forth. Its loud wails showed it was clearly in a
great deal of distress, although Josie wouldn’t be able to understand why having someone look
at its face would make this slender creature so upset. Nearby, there was a giant metal cube with
a hole ripped in it, and while the rest of the room was empty, there seemed to be several
large, red smears on the ground. How strange. She cocked her head to one side and meowed,
tapping one paw against the air vent grate. It seemed pretty loose; with a few good pushes,
the screws came free and the adorable half-cat hopped down into the room. As she got closer to the creature, she noticed
it had a black bag covering its face. Little did Josie know, an hour earlier, a
junior researcher had made the terrible mistake of putting on a pair of x-ray glasses he ordered
from the back of a comic book. As it turns out, these were the only ones
to ever actually work: He saw right through 096’s containment cube and all hell had
broken loose. But Josie didn’t mind. She decided to endear herself to the strange,
shy creature by rubbing up against its long leg. Returning the same affection that it had so
rarely been given, it bent down and gently scooped Josie up in its spindly arms. The pair of them sat in the corner together,
Josie getting herself comfortable on the tall creature’s lap, purring as long fingers
ran over her tabby fur. The creature, being so careful not to harm
the half cat, treated her like she was as delicate as glass. It had briefly stopped crying, thanks to its
visitor, and as much as she noticed the sounds of sobbing had ceased, Josie would never understand
the difference she had made to SCP-096’s day. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before their
encounter was cut short. A legion of guards in SCRAMBLE goggles burst
into the room to retake control of the situation. The last thing they expected to see was 096
sitting calmly with Josie on its lap and the bag covering its face. But the sudden entrance of a security team
startled the poor half-cat. Within a second, she had bolted out of the
room, shooting under the legs of the guards and back out into the facility. Now that she was back outside, Josie recalled
her earlier hunt for a ball of yarn to play with. She still wasn’t sure where it had gotten
to, maybe someone had moved it. Pacing over to the elevator, she stared up
at the heavy steel doors. The numbers above were gradually ticking down,
denoting which floor the elevator had currently stopped at. Of course, Josie couldn’t read, so instead,
she sat and meowed loudly at the elevator. Maybe if she made enough noise the doors would
open. Eventually, after a few short minutes of waiting
and growling, the doors slid apart. Another gaggle of researchers passed her by,
and Josie plodded into the elevator, spotting a familiar face. One of the researchers, a doctor by the name
of Sophie Cartwright, was still inside, and smiled down at the half-cat explorer. Doctor Cartwright had come across Josie a
few times, enough for the intrepid little tabby to consider them friends. “Where to, Josie?” Doctor Cartwright asked, her hand hovering
over the elevator’s buttons. As if in reply, Josie looked up and meowed;
humans always seemed to smile if she meowed after they’d said something to her. Sophie chuckled and pushed the door close
button. “Hold the elevator!” another, much gravellier voice called. A hand, or rather a paw, reached out and caught
the doors before they could slide closed. It was another of the Foundation’s doctors,
one with both a considerable reputation and a very… distinguishing look, to say the
least. Doctor Kain Pathos Crow stepped inside the
elevator and pushed one of the buttons. Sophie had to force herself to keep her head
down, but couldn’t help herself from stealing the occasional glance up at Doctor Crow; she’d
heard the rumors about a peculiar anomalous event changing his appearance but had never
seen him up close before. Josie, on the other hand, couldn’t take
her eyes off Crow, staring up at him, frozen to the spot and letting out a low, cautious
whine. If her tail was visible, Sophie would have
seen it swaying from side to side, as the brave little half-cat kept her defensive ground,
standing between her friend Doctor Cartwright and her mortal enemy. You see, Doctor Crow was a dog. Or at least, a man who had been turned into
something very much like a dog. Still capable of speech, but with a distinctively
canine body. Crow kept to himself the entire ride down,
although Sophie could feel the tension between the dog-bodied doctor and her little half-cat
friend. Out of the corner of his eye, Doctor Crow
spotted Josie, trying his best to ignore her. He let out a low, discomforted growl, the
kind a dog makes when they’re on edge. To his credit, he couldn’t really help it,
the man had been turned into a canine after all. But it took all his stoicism to suppress a
bark and to stop himself from chasing Josie around the cramped elevator. Arriving at her floor, Sophie stepped out,
followed by little Josie, who moved as far away from Crow as quickly as she could. The doors closed once more and sent him further
down into the depths of the facility. As she turned to look, Sophie noticed Josie
had craned her head up to check on her. “Aw, were you protecting me, Josie?” she asked with a smile, bending down to thank
the half-cat with a scratch behind the ears. Before she could stay for too long, Josie
and her human companion parted, each heading down separate winding corridors. There was a funny smell hanging in the air,
like something gradually melting and bubbling. Only to reform and melt again, filling the
half cat’s pink nose with a strange burning scent. As she passed a holding cell, something broke
Josie’s concentration yet again: the noise of a hand tapping at glass. She turned and instantly meowed a greeting,
to the second familiar face of the day, albeit a more beaked face. Kneeling down on the other side of the glass,
the black-robed Plague Doctor waved politely at the dual-pawed passer-by. Sitting in front of the glass, hoping to be
let in, Josie gave another meow. “I’m quite well,” the Doctor mused. “And how are you, my dear?” he added politely. Josie got up on her back legs. Or rather, that’s what it would have looked
like if she had hindquarters. Instead, it looked like she was almost floating
in place from halfway down, stretching her front paws up, reaching towards the bird-like
face as the masked Doctor playfully tapped his fingers against the glass to amuse his
feline friend. “No, I can’t let you in, I’m afraid,”
he sighed, sounding a touch more melancholic; not that a half-cat can understand the difference
in someone’s cadence. “Not all of us here are gifted the freedom
you enjoy, my furry friend. Freedom is not something this organization
would ever understand. No matter how much they claim to know of us,
the fact of the matter is, they never really listen.” From the other side of the glass, Josie blinked
and cocked her head to one side confused. She’d barely heard a word he had said. “Oh, but listen to me go on,” the Plague
Doctor chuckled, rapping his fingers in front of the half-cat again. “I suppose you’ll be looking for that
ball of yarn they took for testing. I saw them carrying the box it was in that
way.” He pointed, and Josie’s little green cat
eyes followed the direction of his finger. Barely able to comprehend what had been said
to her, she simply meowed up in thanks and plodded the way she’d been directed. “Farewell, little Josie,” SCP-049 said
quietly from inside its cell, watching the half-cat until she had disappeared from view. As she continued through the lower levels
of the facility, Josie slipped through doors seconds before they closed, leaped up onto
tables, and dashed between legs. That strange smell was back, having caught
her attention and distracted her from her quest again. Tracking it to its source, Josie suddenly
felt uneasy. She entered a room with a huge vat of acid,
the source of the burning scent she’d picked up. Though it was what was inside the vat, trapped
in a loop of regenerating itself only to be melted over and over again by the acid, that
got her feeling defensive. The vast, reptilian monstrosity sensed a small
life form outside its tank, and opened one yellow eye, squinting through the searing
burning acid at the tiny little creature staring at it. The reptile snarled, screwing its now-healing
eye shut and swiping what was left of its limbs at the glass. Rearing back, Josie gave the monster her fiercest
hiss, baring her fangs at it. This beast usually abhorred other beings,
finding all other forms of life unnatural, unforgivable and so detestable that it would
normally stop at nothing to eradicate them. But today, a tiny tabby cat with her entire
back half missing was standing up to the crocodilian nightmare, and it barely had enough will to
retaliate. Maybe it was just lethargic, too tired to
try anything today. Perhaps it didn’t think she was worth the
effort, or figured it would see to her – along with the researchers and guards – next time
it broke free from containment and went on yet another killing spree. But, in Josie’s mind, this facility was
her home and the brave little half-cat had scared SCP-682 into staying put. As she trotted away again, she knew that monstrous
reptile would have to think twice before messing with her. Back on track, at last, Josie rounded a corner
and arrived in a familiar-looking corridor. She was certain this was where she’d seen
a researcher carrying the box containing the string that she coveted. Sure enough, she could see into the room where
the box had been left, noticing a group of researchers and a human in an orange jumpsuit
were gathered around it. A few were making notes on their clipboards
at a safe distance, while the one in orange stepped closer to the box. Josie watched as a single bee flew out of
the box, her feline eyes following it, ready to pounce if it came close enough. The man wearing the jumpsuit was waving his
arms, trying to swat the insect away. A moment later, he grabbed his arm in pain;
the bee had gotten agitated, stinging him and flying away, somehow surviving. As she waited, Josie’s patience was rewarded. The researchers and the man wearing orange
bustled their way out of the room, offering her the chance she needed to zip between them
and get one step closer to her prize. The room was entirely empty, save for the
box in the center, sitting precariously atop a table. Wiggling herself as she readied her invisible
and intangible back legs, Josie shot up, just missing the table’s edge. She clawed and scratched at the surface, trying
to pull herself up, but her lack of hindquarters made it impossible to climb the rest of the
way. Dropping back to the floor, she looked up
at the table and gave a loud, indignant meow. Changing tactics, she started to hop up one
of the table legs, digging her claws into the woodwork to hoist herself up bit by bit. Sure enough, her new strategy worked a treat,
and Josie was presented with what she had been searching for. One final hurdle was left, however: the box
was closed. Now, the struggles of only being half a cat
are one thing, but not having opposable thumbs is a difficulty that has plagued all cats
since the dawn of time. But, not being able to grab or hold things
with the ease of a human, there’s one thing cats are great at, and that’s pushing things
over. Nudging the box to the table’s edge with
gentle ‘boops’ of her nose, Josie eventually tipped the whole thing off, causing it to
land on its side on the floor, the lid falling open. Triumphantly, she jumped back down to claim
her prize, expecting to find the ball of yarn and spend the next few hours playing with
it. But something was wrong, the yarn had changed
and now it was… looking at her. The ball had started as yarn and ribbon, the
perfect plaything for any half cat, or full cat for that matter. But the Foundation had been running their
usual invasive tests on it, and since cutting a portion of the string off, it had transformed. It was now a ball of meat, functioning, blinking
eyes staring out of a mass of overlapping sinew and blood-red matter. The multiple eyes looked up at the half-cat
that had knocked it to the floor, and asked a single, simple question in a deep voice
emanating from somewhere within its lipless form:
“Are you Eric?” Completely unphased by this, Josie whacked
the ball with her paw and watched as it rolled halfway across the room. Tentacle segments of its ‘body’ gradually
pulled the amorphous mass back to where it had started, and then it asked once again:
“Are you Eric?” Once again, Josie slapped the ball and watched
as it rolled away from her, both completely unaware of who ‘Eric’ was and a little
perturbed that someone had replaced the ball of yarn with such an inadequate toy. Turning her back on SCP-066, Josie the half-cat
searched for a way out of the room, and went back to prowling around the facility looking
for something to entertain herself. She noticed she was starting to get hungry;
maybe, if she got lucky, one of the researchers would sneak her a piece of cheese. Now go and check out “SCP-999: THE TICKLE
MONSTER” and “SCP-348 A GIFT FROM DAD” for more anomalies that are classed as Sweet,
Cute or Playful!
