 Dr. Gears is cold not cruel, unflinchingly devoted and willing to do whatever it takes to serve the SCP Foundation. This high-reaching scientist is a major player throughout the canon. Yes, that'll work. Oh! Hi, you're here! Excellent! Well, you've heard my intro, so you've probably already guessed. Welcome to your rundown on Foundation staff member Dr. Gears. It's quite important to get to know the notable names around the Foundation if you want to make psych director yourself someday. What? New facial hair? I've always had. Oh, okay. That reminds me. When dealing with the multiversal, pataphysical, unreal, abnormal, parallel, or whatever other kinds of loose canons we deal with, details are often muddled or contradictory. Whatever I tell you about today's subject, remember that this is our best guess of a general outline in this wild world we call the Foundationverse. Charles Ogden Gears, sometimes known as Cog, was born in 1955, sometimes said to be the son of O5-1, also known as the Founder. The tale loosened up a bit, harkens back to Gears' childhood, where he endured systematic trauma at the hands of his father for the dual purposes of preparing him for a life of singular devotion to the Foundation, and also developing a minor, mostly useless anomalous ability, the power to activate any nearby clockwork-based devices or machinery, which was inherited through their family line. When prompted by his friend and partner, Professor Cain Pathos Crowe, Gears referred to his upbringing as quote, customary. In his unorthodox two-way interview with SCP-1799, Dr. Gears states that he has never been prone to displaying emotion, even in childhood. According to his mother, he seldom cried. Here he makes a careful distinction between feeling emotions and expressing them, the form of which he says he is capable of, the latter being the trait that sets him apart. At some point, prior to joining the Foundation, Dr. Gears was married to a woman named Lian Zhu Chao. Little is known about Lian, but it is mentioned in the tale going out of book that she speaks both Mandarin and English. The tale Cats in the Cradle notes that Dr. Gears, a native English speaker, is also capable of communicating him perfectly in Mandarin, peppered with mistakes and malopropisms for which his wife was known to tease him. It's possible that Gears' efforts to learn Mandarin were prompted by Lian, who may have been a native speaker. Together, Gears and his wife Lian became parents to a daughter named Allison. Remember her, she's important. There are multiple documentations and remembrances of a warm relationship between father and daughter during her early childhood, notably in the photo memory album from SCP-4982, The Family Photo, from a vacation taken in 1991, which Allison treasures and lovingly preserves, guiding amongst the handful of personal items she carries with her in the tale going out of book. Perhaps the most unexpectedly touching recollection of this time comes from the antidote that Gears shares with SCP-1799 when asked about the last time he laughed to quote, It was many years ago when my daughter illustrated me. It was a humorous portrait you see, for I was colored wildly incorrectly. He explained with quintessentially Gearsian candor. Tragically, Dr. Gears was not destined for a life that allowed him to have it all. A burgeoning entanglement with the foundation proved to be the harbinger of utter destruction for his life as a family man. Gears abandoned his wife and daughter without a word, seemingly dropping off the face of the earth. The details of this event vary somewhat from Canada canon, and throughout the various multi-verse incarnations of the relevant characters, Dr. Gears is sometimes portrayed as being forcibly abducted or coerced into leaving his family. He may have also been dosed with amnestics leading to partial or total loss of his family memories. It's more common in recruitment than you'd think. His daughter Allison would eventually go on her own multi-verse hopping journey, eventually taking on a title which paid homage to the chess game she played and won against her father. She came to call herself the Black Queen, and her story intersects with Gears as many times throughout several universes. In the alternate universe featured in House of Gears Part 1 and 2, the Black Queen takes custody of multiple versions of Dr. Gears, housing hundreds of him at a facility. However, unorthodox her methods, most versions of Allison are motivated to rescue Dr. Gears for one reason or another. In other universes, the father and daughter meet for only a brief moment and then part ways once more. Most poignantly, the tale's splinters features Dr. Gears' version of a heartfelt letter to his estranged daughter, written after Gears became aware of Allison's research through reading an article that she authored on theoretical space-time anomalies. In the letter, he acknowledges the hurt that he caused his family to endure after his abrupt departure, and then goes on to urge Allison away from a path that he sees as leading to the foundation. The following quote is the closest we may ever get to heresy from Dr. Gears. Throughout his exemplary career, Dr. Gears proved himself to be an invaluable asset. He was widely known amongst his colleagues as steadfastly committed to the mission of the SCP Foundation, prioritizing his duty above all else. His personnel file makes note of several differences Dr. Gears displays when compared to the typical human. He appears to lack a startle reflex or any fight-or-flight response under duress. A redacted example is given, but the following quote sums up Dr. Gears' particular brand of commitment to the cause. Despite both the internal bleeding and partial blindness, Dr. Gears calmly requested for the testing to finish and walked under his own power to the medical wing a half hour later. When asked about these irregularities, the doctor responds, I'm good under pressure. Some members of staff have asked if Dr. Gears is a robot or an SCP item. Such inquiries are to be directed to Dr. Gears. Also setting Dr. Gears apart from his peers is his unique philosophy towards the anomalous, which he describes in an interview with a member of the O5 Council. He does not believe that the anomalous harbour any malicious intent towards humanity, but that their existence is merely at odds with human existence. He also believes that the anomalous are not part of any sort of broader plot or attack on humanity. They exist simply because they do. Dr. Gears criticized the Foundation's desire to shoehorn the anomalous into a narrative that gives them a purpose or a story to explain why these objects exist. He believes that it is best to hope that the universe does not care about them. Dr. Gears occasionally stepped outside of his role as a scientist to assist the Foundation in other methods. An instance of this is chronicled in the tale The King is Dead, where the O5 Council meets and discuss the growing threat posed by Dr. Benjamin Kondrocki, who has amassed a cultish following amongst his subordinates. Dr. Gears is sent along with Dr. Clef on a mission to secretly assassinate Kondrocki. Gears carries out this order unflinchingly and subsequently cooperates with the cover story. The record states that Kondrocki suffered a mental breakdown and that the gunshot wound that caused his death had been self-inflicted. Oh, don't tell anybody I told you that. The eventful beginnings of Gears' partnership with his assistant Dr. Julian Iceberg Finn is chronicled in The Personal Log of Dr. Gears, which gives a firsthand account of the containment breach involving SCP-882. The tale epitaph gives Iceberg's point of view as he comes to know the hows and whys of Dr. Gears, who answers Iceberg's questions in the following quote. After a time, Gears blinked slowly and nodded. What happened? I've been asked that multiple times and I know of many more theories to this effect. What happened was nothing unique. Nothing that is impossible to repeat or hasn't happened to others. It is easy to assume that there is a single defining moment in the transition to my current state but I do not believe this to be so. It is gradual. Like a sickness. After a time you simply wake up, different. Iceberg shook his head, processing this new tidbit. Okay, so you just declined, I guess? Jesus, I mean, how the hell does something like that happen? You still haven't said what actually happened. What started this? He trailed off as Gears turned to stare at the younger man again. Are you loyal to the foundation, Dr. Iceberg? I assume you will reply in the positive but think before you respond. I am loyal, but not because of a sense of duty or empowerment. I believe fully in the work being done here. I believe that without the foundation humanity as we know it would crumble in a very short time, I believe that we, the few with the resources and the means to do so have the direct obligation to insulate others from all that we are containing. According to the In His Own Image series, after about a decade of working closely with Gears, Dr. Iceberg ended his own life rather than let himself become like Gears, a puppet for the foundation. It was Gears who discovered his assistant's body and wrote the subsequent report to the O5 Council. Despite his characteristic outward composure, Dr. Gears felt grief for the loss of his friend. Because of the intense nature of the relationship between these two scientists, certain corners of the fandom shipped the two romantically, typically referring to the pairing as Ice Gears as is seen in the tale, sex at frigid temperature, if you're into that sort of thing. In addition to stories and plot arcs that revolve around Gears and the tragedies that befall him, Gears features in many stories as a bit player, sometimes a great comedic effect. For instance, Dr. Gears is one of the only members of the foundation to conclude that his portrayal in SCP Foundation the movie was accurate, despite his distaste for the film as a whole. It is worth noting that Dr. Gears was played by the famously monotone actor, Ben Stein. For better or worse, Dr. Gears is the SCP Foundation made flesh and blood, that's all. Right, that's enough for today. Scuttle off to your next bit of work. I'll see you around the site 42 Commissary. Oh, and if you wanna stop by the Site 42 Patreon, even the smallest monthly donation helps us research SCPs in new and unexplored formats, and you'll get early access to future briefings. Secure, Contain, Protect. Thank you for listening. Site 42 studios and its staff are funded by viewers like you. Please become a patron or visit our merch store at the link in our bio to support our work. Secure, Contain, Protect.