The Foundation secures, it is without approach, it can operate anywhere without jurisdiction and outwith the law. The Foundation contains, eldritch horrors, beings from other dimensions, technology from beyond the stars; nothing has proved too great a power that the Foundation has not been able to put it in a box and prevent it from doing harm. The Foundation protects.
And this greatly annoys me.
Tell a writer that this agency has an unlimited budget, is infallible and can somehow support a huge infrastructure of hundreds of thousands of staff, cross data networks and even house it's own small military with somehow zero public information leakage and watch as I do everything they can to break it.
In my experience, large parts of the "hardcore" SCP community has found it almost insulting, to believe that 'their' Foundation, can be flawed either in philosophy, motive or operating procedure.
"No, No, No" they scream, a fine spray of Mountain Dew hazing through the air as their chubby fingers slam into the keyboard with alarming speed "The Foundation does not make mistakes, any researcher capable of such stupid errors would have been fired very quickly, let alone one who would put their personal agenda over that of the Foundations ultimate goal!"
"How Dare you!" Cries another, pausing mid-way through describing his katana collection "You cannot portray the O5 council as a bunch of wrinkled, brain-fart busy bodies with all the real work done by assistant bureaucrats! Such a thing is too LOLFoundation!"
And for others, how the Foundation could even exist in this world is just too complicated to think about, and yet the stories in which the Foundation fucks up and things go wrong are arguably the best and highest praised.
So how does this apply to the RPC?
In our quest to be different and become our own thing we may not have to stray too far from what we already are, in fact all we may need to do is power kick down a few doors that the Foundation, while touched on in rare isolated cases, generally likes to pretend don't exist.
All our Authority needs to do is exist in a universe much more grounded in reality than the hyperbolic mary sue universe of the foundation.
Put simply our Authority is not perfect, it does not know everything, it is not without limits and it faces a constant battle against the forces of incompetence, corruption, well meaning policy explosions and human error.
It is a massive, over-bureaucratic agency where personal power struggles and inter-office drama play as big a factor as the articles themselves. Because conflict, mistakes, and risks generate more interesting stories.
Lets say, for example, the United States of America finds out it's giving the RPC way much more funding than anyone else.
Wouldn't the US start demanding perks for this level of cash?
Perhaps it might decide certain RPC's might be better in their hands, it might try to restrict the capabilities and limit the actions of the RPC within it's borders. Attempting to create it's own version of the RPC in order to get "first dibs" on any anomalous item that may present itself.
In such a way a simple article about a Karaoke machine that, if set too high causes earthquakes, while boring in it's description and containment methods, becomes far more interesting as the various attachments of obtained files from the US Military, a base commander, several privates and the President of the United States, detail a drunk singing contest that went horribly wrong, are slowly revealed to the reader.
And of course the fun doesn't stop there.
National militarises, mega corporations and eccentric billionaires, all with their own versions of the Foundation, all trying to acquire RPC's to further their own goals and needs. Perhaps to enhance their own nation, cripple another or just to embarrass a political rival.
We also have to consider sites and logistics. How the hell do we transport RPC's to and from facilities? Is something contained at a specific facility because it was closer?
How are containment cells built? What do we do with RPC's while waiting for their containment chamber to be finished?
Do we skimp on low risk RPC's to save a few bucks or throw objects with similar containment methods in together, causing them to react in unexpected ways?
Do Sites exist that are just training facilities? do sites compete for resources? Or, in a field where there are few experts and fewer still experts willing to do a job with such a high risk factor over a comfortable university position, are we facing a manpower shortage where gaps in employment are filled by less-than-perfect personnel.
This is not just a tool to liven up an RPC but something we could roll out as a whole, a canon suggestion where we are not above the law nor able to operate with impunity because, hey, the world simply does not work like that.
Comment below on why I'm wrong or why someone else has already thought about this.