#just so yall know there was a lot of uh gruesome research so be careful

[russeliarat]

So this one's a lil more of a gruesome analysis so be warning, lots of talks about misuse of medical equipment and executions and the electric chair and death. This is for @starryhologram's SCP AU so know what you're getting yourself into.

I've been looking into the requirements of the electric chair recently as I've been wondering what it takes to kill a man using it, how it would feel if alive, and how would a totally unethical facility such as the SCP foundation use it (plus we're sorting out a headmate's memories surrounding the ordeal). I may be planning on writing something surrounding it for the AU for discord. So here's a little think-piece ramble I have about it.

Normally for an electrical chair-based execution, the prisoner has their legs and head shaved, is prepared with a brine-soaked sponge on the head beneath their small metal cap (which is made to fit the skull), and has electrodes placed on the legs and head, all done to allow electrical flow through the body while preventing major burns or combustion. The prisoner is then strapped to a wooden chair at the wrist, ankles, forearms, chest, and waist to stop the prisoner from involuntarily jumping out their seat when the volts tense their muscles and to generally stop them escaping. By command, an electrical supply of about 1,700 - 2,500 volts are shocked through the body. This is only the first surge and is meant to cause lethal brain damage and cardiac arrest. The second surge is a jolt of about 500 to 1,500 volts of electricity for a longer period of time which is meant to damage the vital organs to ensure death.

In a perfect world, the first surge of electricity would immediately kill the prisoner and have absolutely no pain involved as electricity travels at light speed - a speed too fast for the nervous system to process and then respond with pain before death. The prisoner would go unconscious the second the electricity would be powered on and very very quickly die. The rest of the process is a fail-safe. However, that doesn't always work and can be botched by improper set-up of the electric chair, leading to multiple shocks and a lot of pain for the prisoner.

I'm not gonna argue the ethics of this execution method, however I will be the first to say that a facility such as the SCP foundation in the AU would most definitely intentionally set up an unethical, botched electric chair to keep Simon alive. This is all based on the notion that the SCP foundation haven't got enough evidence yet that Simon is dangerous enough to want to kill, at least as of writing this.

The way I believe the foundation would set up the electrical chair for an experiment would basically go against most laws in the western world for the execution method.

For a start, they prepare Simon in a way that feels purposefully torturous. They drill a metal halo into his head to prevent direct immediate contact to the brain with electricity, prolonging his life. Electrodes are used normally as a precise point at the crown of the head and calves to flow electricity through the entirety of the body. Because of the open-ness the halo and metal cap would produce, it would be frankly impossible to keep a soaked sponge on his head, which will definitely cause burns and has the risk of catching his head on fire. Simon is strapped to a chair like normal, but he isn't blindfolded and isn't given a hood. This is mostly used in executions to ensure other people watching don't have to see facial contortions or a corpse's eyes, however the SCP foundation wants to observe what happens, which I think is one of the most unsettling parts and really shows that they've been through shit like this before many times. I also imagine Simon hasn't been shaved as seen by the fact he isn't bald.

In the electrocution cycle, a deadly 2,000 volts are initiated for ~8 seconds and then a second 1,000 volts are initiated for ~22 seconds. For estimation's sake, I think the SCP foundation would give a dose of under 1,000 volts for less than 20 seconds only in order to keep Simon alive. It would cause damage to his body, which they would likely want to prevent him escaping/using his voice, but wouldn't kill him. Keep in mind however that Simon is often tasered and they give a shock of up to 50,000 volts for less than five seconds to a single area. This probably means Simon's body might have gotten slightly used to the voltage.

Also note that this would only be for the first instance of electric chair usage, if there's more than one, since Simon also survives without an incredible amount of damage. The fact the foundation would use a not-lethal dose of electricity would probably come from the fact they assume Simon is a mostly human man who can't withstand a lot of electrical shocks. Likely as the foundation discovers Simon's ability to withstand electricity more than most humans as it seems, the scientists at the foundation would likely push their luck more and more if they were to keep dragging Simon to the electric chair.