 Hello, and welcome to the Versus series. This is where I write a tale based on some sort of contest between two different SCPs. This week, I decided to keep going with SCP-343, but I paired them up with someone you might not expect. SCP-173. Now on the surface, this might seem like a silly contest. Who wins, an all-powerful, all-knowing god thing or one peanut boy? But I think, if we examine it from a different perspective, we might be able to find an interesting story. I decided to look at this as a story where SCP-343 is trying to redeem, or maybe even save, SCP-173. And here's what I came up with. There was a flash of light. An SCP-173 was sitting at a table. He had hands, real hands, with long fingers, perfect for playing the piano. Across the table, in natural light, was a redhead wearing a button-up shirt that he was pretty sure was his. She smiled and looked away when he caught her eyes. The sun was just now rising, but he could tell already that her face was about as perfect as you could expect it to be. That perfect face was framed in auburn hair that was perfectly coiffed and had no right to look as good as it did this early in the morning. He looked down. A bowl of brown cinnamon-squared cereal in milk sat in front of him. Then Spoon was already in his hand. Another few seconds, and he forgot whatever it was that had come before. He remembered who he was. He had an hour before work. He had to finish his breakfast, see his new friend out, and then get ready. Carver? The woman across the table said with a slight southern accent. Yeah? I can't believe you still eat cinnamon toast crunch. My mom used to buy this for us when we were kids. Carver chuckled. I guess I'm full of surprises. Fair. She rubbed it some red marks around her neck. They were only just now visible in the increasing morning light. I figured you pretty vanilla when you bought me that drink. I'm glad I was wrong. I didn't hurt you, did I? The woman shrugged and smiled widely. Not any more than I wanted you to. You know I never did get your number. She leveled her emerald eyes at him. It's on your nightstand. Carver looked over at her exposed shoulder where his shirt was hanging off her. He followed the bone structure to her clavicle and then up to her neck. Such a slender delicate neck. The marks his fingers had left the night before were becoming more visible as the sun rose. She stood up with her empty bowl and spun around to take it to the sink. And he watched her bounce as she went and he was pretty sure he was going to be late for work. His boss was a squat fellow with a blood pressure problem and he was pointing a single finger at Carver while he spoke in a raised voice about punctuality or whatever. Carver wasn't really listening. Sure he was late but he could see the man's blood pressure rising as a pulsing quickened on the left side of the man's neck. He wasn't entirely sure he could get his fingers wrapped all the way around that fat neck but he would love to try. But the man seemed to notice that Carver was distracted and so he leaned closer just within arms reach. Do you understand what crunch time means? The fat man literally spat out at him. Yes. Then you understand how important it is to our clients that you keep your appointments. Do you know how much our clients pay us so they don't ever have to wait in a lobby again? Your clients were waiting in the lobby this morning and those new clients are more important than you getting another half hour of sleep. Carver shrugged and stood up. The fat man moved around the desk. Where the fuck are you going? I have appointments now too. If they're important enough for you to yell at me over I probably shouldn't miss them. The angry fat man sneered and went to sit down and the pulsing in his neck slowly began to subside. Carver closed the door to his office and leaned against the door. He flexed his fingers. He shook his head as they flash back to grayish brown concrete with bits of rebar steel sticking out the ends. He blinked and they were still concrete. He blinked again. Still. Another blink. Flesh and bone. He finally breathed. The fuck was that? It didn't matter. He pressed a button on his phone and an older woman's cheery voice filled the room. Yes. Hold my calls and appointments for 20 minutes. Yes, sir. The phone clicked. Carver started his morning workout with 100 crunches. He pulled up to the window and the perfect redhead from this morning handed him his order. One gordita crunch wrap. One bean burrito with extra red sauce and a medium Sprite. He cocked his head to the side. Becca? Oh, holy shit. She said before covering her mouth and looking around. What are you doing here? Getting lunch. I come here all the time. It's right next to where I work. How long have you been working here? I just started. Well, now I have another reason to come here. Becca smiled and touched her hair slightly. So, you want to go out again tonight? I'd like that. I'll pick you up at 7. You know where I live? Oh, not yet, but you're going to text me your address. Her smile was broken when the sound of a horn honked directly behind Carver's car. She handed him his straw. Sorry. Gotta move the line. I'll text you after work. Looking forward to it. A half moon peeked out from behind the clouds only occasionally as the soft crunch of sticks and leaves beneath his feet broke the silence of the night. He carried a shovel in one hand and a redheaded woman was slung over his other shoulder. He finally stopped a few hundred feet into the woods and threw the woman to the ground like a bag of potatoes. She thumped hard and then rolled onto her back from the force. Her blood shot and glassy green eyes stared up at the sky as Carver started to dig the hole. The bruising around her neck was catastrophic and a slight trickle of blood from her mouth ran into her hair which was still mostly perfect except for where the blood had began to gather and matted together somehow through all of it. She still looked like the perfect figure he'd seen in the morning. Getting below the frost line in Southern California was a lot easier than in the other places in the country he'd had to dig and frankly there was a never-ending supply of aspiring actresses that went to make it big and were never heard from again. Good looks and money was all he really needed to make sure that he got what he wanted out of them in the end. No one else was supposed to be out here but for the first time he took a little too long to dig his hole. It had always been a matter of time before someone saw him and an anonymous call to the police led them right to where Becca was buried and surveillance footage from the Taco Bell worked out the rest. The dozen bodies that were buried in the woods beside her sealed his fate and then a flash of light and he was back in the room with SCP-343 wait not he it. SCP-173 was confused again but it really couldn't articulate why because it couldn't speak at all it was just a statue after all. SCP-343 frowned every time. It's like some sort of universal constant. SCP-343 didn't blink. He just stared at SCP-173. Oh fun. I tried to set you free. I tried to make you normal. I've tried everything. It seems like you just can't help yourself so go back to your cell. He snapped his fingers and SCP-173 was back in a darkened room. The containment breach alarms were still going on but the door was shut. For some reason he still couldn't move and then he realized in the corner was a man in an orange jumpsuit hiding. It was a tall handsome man with long fingers perfect for playing the piano but it was dark and the man didn't know what he was looking at. He blinked and they always do eventually and his neck made a satisfying crunch. And that's that. I'm gonna full and let you guys decide the next battle. In the comments below I'll have a pinned comment. It'll be the top of the comments. Reply to that with two SCPs or characters from the SCP verse and define a type of battle. If you want to have a death battle you need to say that. If you want to have them have a discussion or an argument of some kind say that. It doesn't matter what kind of battle you're talking about. The reply to my pinned comment with the highest number of likes will be the one I go with and if you win you'll also get a shout out in that episode so good luck. And if you liked the video I'm sure you've already hit the subscribe button and then dinged the notification bell right? You wouldn't want to miss out on my next upload would you? But if you want to support this kind of content even further head on over to patreon.com forward slash decimarian and pledge. There'll be a link in the description in the pinned comment and at the end of the video where you can actually click on the screen for it and if you do that you can join my newest patron VioletWeb and all the other patrons on the screen right now by pledging five dollars or more. Now any amount helps out and I appreciate each and every one of you. Thanks for letting me know I'm not alone out here. I hope you have a nice day and I'll see you on Tuesday.