Red
All that was left after the first euphoria was boring routine. Technician Adams wished he could feel as high as then, back in January, when everyone at Mission Control was in a state of constant exaltation. One could almost touch the tension on that day. Even the recluses from the Theoretics Department came to the Control Room and gathered around in shy, self-contained groups at the far back. Everyone was staring at the big screen intensely, although it only showed diagrams and debug output from the probe. The smell of coffee and sweat, the permanent humming of voices around him had excited him somewhat unusually, given his rather cold nature. Now Adams had fully adjusted to the strange surroundings he could see through the eyes of the Rover.
Adams sighed with delight at the memory while he was cautiously moving the control stick in front of him. Some minutes later and 230 million kilometers of empty space away, the Rover rolled forward on the red dust with two strange moons rising on the horizon. The daily goal was to drive a few meters further away from Cape York and then gather another sample of the endless rusty soil that covered everything the machine could lay an electronic eye upon. Meanwhile, he replayed the scenes for the hundreth time in his head. Davies calmly, but nonetheless relieved, announcing the successful dropdown. The whole room starting to cheer. Papers flying through the air, Sampson spilling his coffee, Edwardsson patting him on the shoulder. And then, the first picture from the ground. It didn't really show anything much: Just the landing platform and the Rover's shadow. Still, it was a wierd feeling of being only a few inches of computer screen away from a different world. Everything at Mission Control was bright white, shiny and looked artificial and out there was an endless waste no man had ever set foot on. True wilderness in every aspect.
On the distant planet, the machine came to a halt. Sampson came by and left a cup of hot black liquid awakeness on Adams' desk. Greedily slurping it down, Adams panned the camera down and took a look at the ground below the Rover. Still dwelling in fond recollections, he was about to initiate the sample process, when he thought he saw something odd. There, almost buried in the reddish desert was a hint of light blue color, barely visible through the feed. While he activated the manual access for the grapplers, Adams called out for Edwardsson and Sampson, who were talking about some movie three rows of computer screens below. He threw the feed on the main screen to get a better look, then slowly began wiping away the dust until he could perceive the shape of his find.
There was an eternity of absolute silence when the Rover finally lifted the object up. Adams could almost hear the looks of his now assembled co-workers as they blankly stared at the big screen. The item he had found up there moments, years, aeons ago was now clearly visible, red dust falling off it and being blown away by alien winds. Adams gazed in disbelief at a miniature globe, a small replication of his own planet, spelling out all the countries and capitals of his world. Including South Sudan.
The mission had started on 07/07/03.
Whisperer in the Void
Multiple instances of SCP-number in containment |
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SCP-number-A |
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Item #: SCP-number
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: All instances of SCP-number are to be stored in a locked room at Storage Site 1.
Description: SCP-number is a collection of currently 46 45 Vizion 19" LCD television sets, designated SCP-number-1 through -46 (with exception of -61), showing no signs of anomalous activity while unpowered. Once attached to a suitable power source and turned on, any instance of SCP-number will engage in following behaviour, regardless of it being connected to any antennae, cable input or other signal source.
Stage One: Beginning immediately upon activation, viewers2 will become more and more somnolent, regardless of their former state of vigilance. Exiting SCP-number's "field of view" will reverse this effect at once. Otherwise, subjects will fall asleep after 7 to 23 minutes of watching SCP-number, depending on their languor before exposure. The effect will not affect viewers via camera or other means.
Stage Two: When all subjects have entered sleep state, SCP-number's display will revert to static for exactly 2 minutes, showing no anomalous properties at all3. However, Stage Three will not be entered if a new subject is introduced into SCP-number's "field of view" during this stage and the device will function normally instead.
Stage Three: SCP-number will then display a white, presumably male face with short hair and eyebrows, hereby designated SCP-number-A, in front of a white background. Notable is SCP-number-a's complete lack of oral an nasal cavities, as well as ears and it's white pupils. Surveillance footage shows SCP-number-a slowly extending forward from the screen into the room, rendering it three-dimensional. Despite not having an oral cavity, SCP-number-A will then begin to move its jaw and whisper in a language which has not yet been identified4. Sleeping subjects will display accelerated eye movement, distressed facial features and vocalisations consistent with nightmares. This behaviour continues for 15 to 87 minutes, upon which the utterances of SCP-number-A seize. Hereafter it retracts into the display, which then reverts first to static for exactly 2 minutes, and finally shows the program initially tuned in. Subjects will slowly wake, do not generally5 do not show any anomalous behaviour and have no memories of the incident or unusual nightmares. The instance of SCP-number will not show it's anomalous properties again until it has been completely powered off at least once.
Addenda:
Testing Log #: number-B3
Subject(s): D-2352
Details: SCP-number-5 powered on, DVD player connected, playback of movie "The Shawshank Redemption" started. Subject placed on a yellow line on the floor parallel to SCP-number-5's screen. Subject instructed to move sideways to the right when she started to feel sleepy while under observation through surveillance camera. Experiment repeated 3 times. SCP-number-5 then powered off, placed on one end of the yellow line and repowered. Subject agains placed on line and instructed do move backwards when beginning to feel sleepy. SCP-number's "field of view" measured as [DATA REDACTED]
Testing Log #: number-B9
Subject(s): D-5425, D-1245
Details: SCP-number-6 powered on, no signal input given. D-5425 seated in front of SCP-number-6, testing continued into Stage Three as expected. D-1245 instructed to enter "field of view" and describe what he was seeing. Subject proceeded, but upon spotting SCP-number-A, [DATA EXPUNGED]. Remains of SCP-number-6 show no anomalous properties and have been incinerated without further complications.
Interviewed: D-5640, subject of test number-B23
Interviewer: Dr. Kavka
Foreword: Subject has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, as well as domestic violence. Only notable difference from any other test subject is his Native American descent.
<Begin Log>
Dr. Kavka: Hello, D-5640. Please describe the events during test number-B23.
D-5640: Alright… well, at first I thought it was a nice change. Just to sit there and watch TV after all the strange things you guys put me through.
Dr. Kavka: Please continue.
D-5640: After a couple of minutes, I began feeling drowsy. It's been a really tough weak and all, and the lab coats didn't say anything, so I guess I just dozed off for a bit.
Dr. Kavka: Was there anything unusual about your sleep?
D-5640: Hell, yeah! I had the wierdest nightmares. Won't forget those for some time…
Dr. Kavka: Please describe your dreams.
D-5640: I don't know. I-It was all fucked up. I was standing on an endless plane, nothing to see wherever I turned and above me was the sun. Well, not really the sun, more like a ring of fire, like an eclipse, you know. And suddenly - bam! - there were these things around me. Tall and white, almost like people, but something was odd about them. Something didn't fit.
Dr. Kavka: What happened next?
D-5640: They began calling out to me. N-no, not really calling. I couldn't hear them, but, you know, feel that they were talking to me. I could see pictures in my head. It didn't make any sense!
Dr. Kavka: Can you describe what you saw?
D-5640: Crumbling buildings. People p-panicking and running away from something. The sky darkening. And then… emptiness. I can't… can I go now, please?
<End Log>
The Block Bomb
Item #: SCP-tobefilledinlater
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-tobefilledinlater is to be kept in Standard Storage Locker 12, located at Site 23. The item is to be contained in a 75 cm x 75 cm x 75 cm locked steel container and is to be guarded by one (1) security officer at all times.
Description: SCP-tobefilledinlater is a 70 cm x 7 0cm x 70 cm cubical electronic apparatus, weighing exactly 10kg, superficially resembling a detonation device. All of the six (6) sides are completely covered in stainless brushed steel, with the exception of one (1) small rectangular display and three (3) square red buttons without labeling on what is considered to be the top side. The letters "OAC" are written neatly on what is considered to be the down side in red ink. The object has no other openings, leading to the assumption of some sort of internal power supply within the casing.
SCP-tobefilledinlater's anomalous properties become apparent when one of the buttons is pressed. The display will then begin to show a numerical countdown in digital numbers, starting at a range between 07:32 13:44 and 00:59. It is not known how SCP-tobefilledinlater generates these seemingly random numbers. When the countdown reaches 00:00 every angle on every surface in a certain cubic range with the object at its center, depending on the button pressed, may it be artifical or organic, is transformed into a multiple of ninety (90) degrees, thus forming either an rectangular angle or a straight edge, leading to lethal damage in any living organism due to the restructuring of internal organs, bones and tissue. Microscopic analysis has shown that this transformation occurs downward onto the cellular layer. The ranges in respect to the three (3) buttons (as seen from the display) are:
- left button: 3█ meters
- center button: 3██ meters
- right button: unknown, since testing is forbidden by order of O5-█.6 However, it is theorized that the range would likely exceed ████ meters
Interior analysis shows complex circuitry, wired in multiple ways non-euclidian. All attempts to dismantle or damage SCP-tobefilledinlater have thus far proven ineffective.
SCP-tobefilledinlater was acquired after Incident tobefilledinlater-1-Alpha in the town of ███████, Germany on 08/22/1995, resulting in 3█ deaths among the population. MTF Psi-10 recovered the item undamaged from the remains of an affected public transportation vehicle. Due to the object operating via a manual release switch, it is thought that the original perpetrator could be among the victims. While identification is still difficult because of the results of the following fire and restructuring of finger prints, the most probable suspect is one H█████ M█████, a banker at D███████ B███. Howerver, investigation of his apartment has yielded no further evidence.
Testing Logs:
Date: 09/13/1995
Test chamber: 23-Beta-1
Button pressed: left
Personnel: Senior Researcher Dr. Kavka
Execution: D-3257 instructed to press left button. Countdown recorded via video surveillance as started from 05:12. D-3257 instructed to wait until countdown finishes. Upon reaching 00:00, SCP-tobefilledinlater emitted a low and short noise before camera seized functioning. Test chamber 23-Beta-1 opened, interior (including body of D-3257 and security camera SC23B1-4) found transformed as stated in item description in a cubic range of exactly 3█ meters. Subject dead due to severe trauma inflicted by restructuring of organs, bones and body tissue.
Note: Everything now looks like a masterpiece of Cubism. -Senior Researcher Dr. Kavka
Date: 11/02/1995
Test chamber: 23-Beta-7
Button pressed: left
Personnel: Senior Researcher Dr. Kavka
Execution: Test chamber 23-Beta-7 was equipped with following items in order to observe the effects of SCP-tobefilledinlater:
- One (1) ordinary glass cup of destilled water (0,2l)
- One (1) basketball
- One (1) watermelon
- One (1) CD holding a recording of Let The Dream Come True by DJ Bobo
- One (1) round chocolate cake, baked by Dr. Kavka herself
- One (1) teddy bear
Left button was pressed using a remotely controlled robotic arm. Countdown recorded via video surveillance as started from 03:52. Upon reaching 00:00 SCP-tobefilledinlater emitted a low and short noise before camera seized functioning. Test chamber 23-Beta-7 opened, contained items found transformed as following, robotic arm malfunctioning:
- Glass cup is now square in shape, otherwise no effects. Destilled water is still contained in cup and shows no anomalies
- Basketball transformed into a cube, material remains otherwise unchanged. Cross section reveals fitting material has been adjusted to fill in new shape
- Watermelon also transformed into a cube. Pulp is now very squishy, seeds rectangular in shape. Proved edible but tasted somewhat similar to lead
- CD transformed into a square, is now completely unreadable
- Cake is now also square in base. Tasted like overripe grapefruit
- Teddy bear transformed into having only rectangular angles
Note: So it doesn't affect liquids, but seems to restructure even carbonhydrates and minerals. I wonder what happens if we press the middle button? -Senior Researcher Dr. Kavka
Date: 01/04/1996
Test chamber: 23-Beta-13
Button pressed: center
Personnel: Senior Researcher Dr. Kavka
Execution: Test chamber 23-Beta-13 was equipped with following items in order to observe the effects of SCP-tobefilledinlater:
- One (1) sealed glass cylinder containing bromium
- One (1) red balloon filled with helium
- One (1) round hand mirror
Center button was pressed using a remotely controlled robotic arm. Countdown recorded via video surveillance as started from 07:32. Upon reaching 00:00 SCP-tobefilledinlater emitted a low and short noise before camera seized functioning. All matter in a cubic radius of exactly 3██ meters transformed according to the object's anomalous properties, thus causing a critical internal structure failure at Site 23, leading to a massive containment breach of [REDACTED]. After the situation was cleared, security door to test chamber 23-Beta-13 was manually opened using a blowtorch due to transformation of door hinges and lock mechanism. Contained items were found as following:
- Glass cylinder crushed by concrete debris from ceiling, possibly caused by [REDACTED]
- Remnants of balloon found scattered across test chamber, though it remains unknown if this was caused by SCP-tobefilledinlater or [REDACTED]
- Hand mirror transformed into rectangular shape, undamaged
Note: I would like to apologize for this horrible incident caused by my curiosity. -Senior Researcher Dr. Kavka
Additional Note: Dr. Kavka has been reassigned to other duties by immediate leave. -O5-█
Date: 04/15/1996
Test chamber: 23-Delta-1
Personnel: Researcher Schneider
Execution: One (1) Basketball was placed with its center at exactly 3█ meters distance from SCP-tobefilledinlater. A robotic arm was then used to press the left button. Countdown started at 06:48, upon reaching 00:00 expected events ocurred. My team found the basketball [REDACTED].
Note: Not quite what I had in mind, but nevertheless very interesting. I would really like to see what happens when we take a living organism. -Researcher Schneider
Date: 06/29/1996
Test chamber: 23-Delta-2
Personnel: Researcher Schneider
Execution: One (1) living and healthy German Shepherd was sedated and then placed at exactly 3█ meters distance from SCP-tobefilledinlater. A robotic arm was then used to press the left button. Countdown started at 13:44, upon reaching 00:00 expected events ocurred. The dog was [REDACTED]. No anomalous effects were noted during termination.
Note: We're really getting onto something here. I can't believe the effect of Experiment Delta multiplied. This calls for further research. -Researcher Schneider
Date: 10/01/1999
Test chamber: 23-Delta-10
Personnel: Senior Researcher Schneider
Execution: [REDACTED]
Note: This is enormous! Maybe we can verify our results by testing with a self-regenerating SCP? -Senior Researcher Schneider
Additional Note: Request is pending O5 approval.
Date: 12/12/1999
Test chamber: 16-Beta-2 (Site 16 was evacuated prior to testing)
Personnel: Researcher Schneider
Execution: Test aborted.
Note: No! Are you insane or something? Just no! -O5-█
Additional Note: Further testing regarding the right button is strictly prohibited by O5 command.
A Tale of Beauty
Harald hat never thought about beauty this way before. Sure, there had been beautiful things in his life in the past: He enjoyed an occasional piece of minimalistic art and loved his collection of weights. Still, everything else seemed so… disorderly.
His long-time job at the bank wasn't really satisfying anymore. Harald remembered his euphoria the day he got accepted and the high for all the first years, juggling with large numbers and complex equations, shooing rows and columns of matrices through regular expressions and abolishing the undeserving undervalued yields of some old contracts. He was a genius, a god, a rockstar of financial calculating back then. Granted, his work stayed the same more or less for the passing decades, but the fun part drifted away from his responsibility and onto the computer's. Harald was bored sitting in front of that stupid screen for hours, just watching the numbers scrolling by, not allowed to even touch them anymore. His whole life became a grey slurry after that, as he had never really been the social type anyways. Were he any more devoted towards art, perhaps he would have described his daily routine as aimlessly drifting in slow-motion in front of a grey, colorless sky while all the rest of the world hurried away in every direction. Harald grew even colder towards his surroundings and locked himself inside, well, himself.
That was, of course, until the day he perceived true and honest beauty in his life. Unfortunately, it was also the day he died.
Both of this happened on a Monday. Full four working days still in front of him, Harald shuffled out of the elevator into the posh lobby. Another grey, dull day was about to be over. He had the usual slight headache and his stomach churned from the cheap cantina food. All Harald longed for was to get home into his tidy yet small apartment, close all the blinds an listen to the silence and Beethoven taking turns while drinking some beer. Along with a crowd of more mindless economical zombieworkers he entered the grey bus, left his grey seat to a grey old man and stared out of the grey windows into the grey sky, framed by grey buildings. One, two, three, four, five stops trailed by in what seemed half an eternity until finally the nex one was his. The bus had emptied somewhat at the train station, so Harald could now take a careful look around at the other passengers. The old man still occupied the seat Harald had given him, his brown tweed jacket and antique glasses somewhat out of fashion, even Harald could tell. He couldn't quite remember the huge guitar case the creeper was carrying, oddly displaced in the arms of a veteran bore such as himself. Just as Harald had appraised the old man, he absent-mindedly opened the guitar case which contained no musical instrument but a rather big metal cube. He didn't even take the thing out, just fumbled about it and closed the case shut. Hmm, a mobile computer maybe? A case for transplant organs? In hindsight, Harald didn't occupy his mind very long with the sight, and had almost forgotten about it entirely, when exactly three minutes and three seconds (and two red traffic lights) later the same old man exited the bus. The case was still standing there.
Harald didn't approach it immediately, just played around with the option of doing so in his mind. As he finally decided to get the case and maybe drop it off at the lost property office of the public transportation company, he could suddenly hear a low humming noise, comparable to large machinery. While he still wondered where that sound was coming from, the magic happened. All around him the whole clutter, the mess, the chaos just vanished and was instantly replaced by… order. Harald's eyes marveled and gleamed at the sudden transmutation. He was enchanted, charmed, entranced by the sheer beauty of his surroundings - so much that he didn't even notice the crippling pain in his body that reshaped too.
Seconds later the bus got completely out of control. Though in unimaginable pain, the driver still tried to hold on to the steering wheel that had turned into a square, but he was too preoccupied to care. The now cubical wheels weren't much of a help either and so the vehicle broke through the crash barrier and onto the opposite lane. There wasn't much left of the bus after the flames had died down.
Luckily, Harald didn't notice. The few seconds he was still alive went past slowly, but not at all like the slow days of routine. These were the happiest seconds in his life. Because he saw the real beauty of order. And for the first time in years, Harald had a smile on his face…
Pi is 3
Item #: SCP-pi
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Every leaflet thus far recovered containing SCP-pi is to be stored in a locked safe in the Infohazard Wing of Site 38. Due to its nature, removal of items associated with SCP-pi is limited to Level-3 clearance. Test subjects and victims of non-intentional exposition are to be treated with Class-A amnesiacs.
Description: SCP-pi is a Level-3 infohazard distributed by a series of leaflets presumably by the same author, stating incorrectly that the mathematical constant π (or Pi) equals three (3). However, any exposed subject is led to believe that this is in fact the case, regardless of former teaching, frequent usage of the constant etc.
Because of the implications in calculation of circle properites, this has led to a growing number of impossible architectural structures worldwide, showing non-Euclidian geometry in a frequent manner. Examples of such buildings can bee seen in the addenda. Furthermore, SCP-pi is held responsible for a severe mathematical error in the distance calculation algorithm for the European Union's global navigation satellite system 'Galileo', rendering it effectively useless by placing subjects incorrectly as far as 3,178 km away from their real location.
Reproductions and photographs of the original leaflets do not inherit the anomalous effect. However, since the containment of the first leaflet on ██/██/19██ there have been 259 new instances confirmed and retrieved from various company offices as well as public buildings. Paper analysis has yielded no conclusive results so far. All leaflets are signed 'OAC'.
Wearing Masks
I'm still not entirely sure how it did happen. All I can tell you is what we could gather from Aaron's notes in his personal quarters, though they seemed somewhat tainted after that one incident with the missing number. However, it had been years since then.
Back then he was working on something completely new. We already had made some things dark and dangerous, but Aaron was about to really cross the line with this. Like always, my brother became fully absorbed in his work, like geniuses tend to, coming out of his laboratory at the lowest level of our new laboratory on the campus only to eat or sleep. On the rare occasions during that time that I could speak with him, he told me of brilliance and transcendence, and I believed him. Little did we know he would eventually achieve the latter in a way. I'm telling you this because you now need to know, not because you asked for it.
It wasn't until maybe a week after I had last spoken to Aaron that I saw myself forced to head down there. We were making little to none progress on the butterflies and I needed his advice as an Entomologist badly. To say the least, I wasn't well prepared for what I found. He had erected a curtain of milky plastic dividing the large room in half, the sole lamp behind it casting shivering shadows on his equipment and the spare furniture.
Aaron was working hunched over a table in the far section of the room, wearing a bright yellow hazmat suit, facing away from me and the door. As I approached the curtain, I could see he was wearing something on his face, but it clearly wasn't the hazmat mask. Still, I politely waited outside his compartment and made my presence known by coughing. As my brother turned, I recognized he was wearing some sort of a bizarre carnival mask, but not the ones with the long beak. Instead it was completely white, covering only the top half of his face while leaving his mouth bare. Currently he was experimenting on small rodents, I could see one cut open lying on the table and another one manically gnawing at its cage nearby. "Aren't we all?" was his only response when I asked him why he was wearing a mask.
Of course I had to question him what exactly it was he was doing. We were cautious against cognitohazards and the like ever since we made that unspeakable thing no one else seems to remember. And then Aaron Siegal, my brother and companion, told me about his grand plan for all humanity. He was going to transform us all into a higher level of existence, whether we would like it or not. He had some lunatic ideas about incorporeal existence and repeating complex patterns in his head. I didn't even try to convince him of his craze but backed away immediately, ready to alert our security personell. Before I could retreat to the door, I heard a whimper from a dark corner and a small voice saying: "Daddy, are we okay now? I want to go home." Aaron had brought his only son to witness his hour of greatness.
Knowing he had gone way too far, I hastened up the stairs while I could hear him calling out to me. I wish I could remember what he was yelling, but I am absolutely sure it was not solely the words of a madman. When I finally reached the door to the hallway, I saw a blue glowing light beneath me and could hear, no, feel electricity. I slammed the door shut behind me and reached for the nearerst red phone.
Minutes later the security people were at my side and ready to take my brother. But as we opened again the door, we found the stairwell had changed entirely. It was pure darkness and infinity, we couldn't see the bottom of the formerly four flights anymore. Yet we heard my nephew crying down below in the gloom.
You already know what came next, don't you? We sent some disposables to explore and rescue the child if there was yet anything to be rescued, we had to. I am sure you have seen the logs. Do you want to know what happened during the fourth exploration? We sent an agent down there and he really did reach the bottom. Trust me, you don't want to know what he found there and I won't tell you. All I can say is that we had to bar the door immediately. And that nothing can ever be allowed to leave that staircase. I told you we knew we'd need more help.