Dr. Bright.
Throughout this series, we've discussed monsters, aliens, phenomena, apocalyptic scenarios,
and multiple shadowy organizations, but we haven't really talked about the specific people
that work for those organizations.
Most of the material you read about a group such as the scp foundation contains scores
of faceless doctors, agents, and d-class personnel, but there are sometimes notable individuals.
What would cause someone to work and continue working for an organization like the scp foundation?
What would that kind of work do to their psyche?
This video will look at perhaps the most famous individual working for the foundation, dr.
Jack Bright, as well as other members of his family involved with the group.
Jack's parents, Adam and Evelyn, were working for the SCP foundation sometime during the
1800s, Adam as a junior researcher and evelyn as a medical assistant, although Adam was
apparently one of the founding members of the foundation, if you follow this canon.
Together, they had five children, Mikell, Jack, TJ, Claire, and Sarah.
Sarah was stillborn, and Adam, desperate to bring her back to life, utilized several SCPs.
One of these was SCP-590, TJ Bright, one of his sons.
TJ was born with the incredible gift of being able to heal any injury or ailment, both physical
and mental, that an individual might have simply by touching them.
The downside of this ability is that TJ receives the injury or ailment upon himself, experiencing
all of the pain, after effects, and mental aberrations that the subject was experiencing.
When he was young, he could choose to consciously activate this ability, but after puberty,
it became an involuntary effect.
In conjunction with other SCPs, Adam Bright used TJ's ability to bring his daughter back
to life, but she was taken into foundation custody immediately afterwards, and soon was
designated SCP-321.
TJ was also taken into Foundation custody because of this, becoming SCP-590, and by
this point Mikell was already working for them.
SCP-321 was found to be capable of recuperating from any injury at five times the normal rate
of a human, believed to be caused by an over abundant production of stem cells.
Additionally, 321 has continually aged and grown since her rebirth, and is currently
3.1 meters tall and weighs approximately 110 kilograms.
She shows no signs of stopping growth, and at a certain point, her heart was reaching
the limits of its circulation capabilties.
An artificial heart was created and implanted into 321's body, allowing her continued growth
and existence.
Despite her age being at least over 100 at this point, her intellectual capabilties are
similar to that of an infant, taking months to learn a simple task, and she's unable to
speak more than nonsensical noises.
After being taken into foundation custody, her father, junior researcher Adam Bright
requested that she be removed from scp status, but he was denied.
Later, personnel director adam bright again requested she be removed from scp status,
and it was again denied.
Much later, site director Adam Bright suggested that they can learn nothing more from scp-321,
and that her scp designation be removed, but again he was denied.
Finally, o5-12, adam bright, made a note that scp-321 is to be decommissioned and returned
to her family immediately, but he was shut down for a final time.
He was told that she was not now, nor has ever been, his daughter, and that if he attempted
this again the council would remove him.
In reaction to this, adam bright resigned from the o5 council, an unprecedented action
as it's typically a lifetime position.
By this point, Mikell bright was also on the o5 council and Jack had moved up in ranks
as well.
At some point, scp-590, TJ, had accumulated enough injuries to leave him bedridden and
on life support, unable to breath on his own.
A single dose of scp-500 brought him back to full health however, and his abilities
are used on foundation personnel of researchers and above, as an alternative to utilzing scp-500.
By the insistence of Jack, TJ was used to cure several cases of mental retardation,
reducing him to the mental level of a three year old.
Jack likely did this to mentally protect his brother from understanding what the foundation
was doing to him.
TJ now spends most of his time watching children's television shows and coloring, although he
does have his moments of surprising lucidity.
Which brings us to Jack Bright himself, who followed in his parents and brother's footsteps
and also joined the scp foundation.
Claire meanwhile, who possesses the ability to see into the future, would go on to join
the serpent's hand, a counter organization to the scp foundation focused on spreading
awareness of the paranormal.
Jack joined after his brother TJ went into foundation custody, and became a junior researcher
of good standing.
He was eventually assigned to researching SCP-963, a white gold amulet containing a
ruby surrounded by 13 diamonds.
963 was discovered in the apartment of an individual who apparently committed suicide,
surrounded by supernaturally-related books, and was brought into the foundation since
it was found to be incapable of being damaged.
Later that year, scp-076, able, breached containment, leading to a large number of casualties.
Dr. Bright happened to be walking past 076's containment unit at the time, transporting
the amulet by hand, and was killed by able.
A few days later, a d-class assigned to clean up the rubble, and picked up 963.
A noticeable change went over the d-class, who began referring to himself as jack bright.
Upon removal of the amulet from his possession, all of his higher brain functions ceased until
the amulet was returned.
Apparently, the individual that created the amulet hoped to gain immortality, by binding
his soul to the amulet so that he could possess whomever touched it.
His ritual failed however, due to the simple fact that he killed himself to initiate it,
rather than being killed by some other force.
Jack Bright activated the amulet correctly when he was killed while holding on to it,
binding his soul to it.
When the d-class picked it up, it overwrote his mind with the mind of Dr. Bright, including
all of his memories.
This allows Dr. Bright to be functionally immortal, as long as someone eventually touches
the amulet, whether it be a human or some other creature or animal.
Since the amulet is invulnerable to damage, the only way to prevent this would be to keep
the amulet locked away, but since Jack Bright is a loyal member of the foundation, he's
allowed to continue to operate.
However, there is a side effect to 963: if a subject maintains contact with the amulet
for 30 days, their consciousness becomes a duplicate of Dr. Bright's and removal of the
amulet does nothing.
Since this would allow Dr. Bright to make potentially unlimited copies of his mind,
sanctions were put into place to prevent this, although so far Dr. Bright has not attempted
to break this rule.
So far, Dr. Bright has found no way to release himself from 963, not for lack of trying.
On the flipside, the foundation actually spent some time trying to recreate 963, eventually
resulting in 963-2.
All information on 963-2 has been expunged, so it's unclear exactly what it does, but
it's likely not good.
Dr. Bright has so far jumped between countless bodies, including male and female humans,
animals, and SCPs.
While Dr. Bright's loyalty and intellect, combined with his immortality, have certainly
been a benefit to the foundation, it's also taken its toll on bright's psyche.
A tale that demonstrates some of the consequences of 963 is The Executions of Doctor Bright,
although keeping in mind it does take place in the broken masquerade canon where information
about anomalies is public.
In it, Bright is part of a team operating in the middle-east, when they are suddenly
captured by armed terrorists.
They possessed knowledge of Bright and 963, and proceeded to kill the team one by one.
However, they started with Bright, and then put the amulet on another member of the team,
so that they were killing bright each time.
The rest of the team waited in horror as their associated minds were wiped and they were
killed.
The tale gives us a sense of how much Bright resents his condition, and in turn, grows
to hate himself.
A consistent theme across a number of tales is Bright's deep-seated desire for release
from 963 and his inability to do so.
The tale code Brown describes a Bright family reunion that occurs because of Claire's death
while working for the serpents hand.
We see that the bright family is large, including children, grandchildren, cousins, and so on.
Practically none of them seem to get along very well.
Mikell seems to have fathered a large number of children in his younger days, now collectively
known as the unnumbered brood.
Evelyn, Jack's mother, also makes an appearance, and is said to sometimes be referred to as
the mother of monsters, as she apparently spends her time creating creatures.
It's clear that the bright family is not a typical one, each with their gifts and quirks.
Dr. Bright has developed a reputation over the years of being eccentric, to say the least,
but it's fair to say that he hasn't had the most normal of lives.
Between the tragedies associated with his family and his own unfortunate situation,
Jack has suffered more than any one person should.
He ultimately believes in the Foundation's methods and goals, despite what they have
done to him and his family, and continues to work for them, becoming the site director
of a number of sites.
He so far has not reached the rank of o5, perhaps due to his mental state, or perhaps
because the council would rather not have what is technically an scp sitting amongst
them.
I hope that this video has provided some greater degree of insight into the backstory of Dr.
Bright, who is certainly not a normal member of the foundation, but is nonetheless an integral
part of it.