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Item #: SCP-1344
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: For security purposes, all instances of SCP-1344 are to be kept in an industrial fire safe secured by an electronic combination lock. All instances of SCP-1344 (Including the partially destroyed SCP-1344-04) may only be removed directly by, or with consent from, a Level 3 or higher researcher.
Description: SCP-1344 collectively refers to a series of four types of goggles. The goggles (henceforth referred to as SCP-1344-01 through SCP-1344-04) are as follows:
- SCP-1344-01: “Swedish-style” swimming goggles, lenses and body colored black.
- SCP-1344-02: World War II-era AN-6530 aviation goggles. Lenses are colored black.
- SCP-1344-03: Welding goggles, lenses colored black. See above photograph.
- SCP-1344-04: Identical to SCP-1344-01. They have been cut vertically approximately 3 cm from the center so that a portion of the left lens was removed. SCP-1344-04 was acquired intact and was cut for research purposes (see Addendum 1344-02).
In addition, all SCP-1344 instances have a small wheel slightly sunken into the goggles’ left temple similar in shape to a computer mouse’s scroll wheel. Turning the wheel while the goggles are considered inactive will not produce any effect.
When worn by any human, two needles (estimated to be 4.8 cm long and █ mm thick at their widest point) automatically extend from two recesses in each lens and proceed to slowly pierce the eyes of the wearer (hereafter referred to as ‘the subject’). The experience causes intense pain, temporary loss of vision, and desires to remove the goggles. If the subject succeeds in removing the goggles, they are totally blinded for approximately 25-30 minutes. During this period, substantial blood can be observed leaking from the user's irises. After 30 minutes, 70% of users will make a full recovery. The 30% that do not will recover after this time window will be permanently blinded.
If the subject does not remove the goggles after 3-5 minutes, normal vision will be restored. At this point, the goggles are considered “active.” When the goggles are active, the aforementioned wheel may be turned forwards or backwards to manually control the subject’s pupil dilation. The use of SCP-1344 seems to override natural pupil function: when the pupils are manually dilated, bright light exposure will result in eye damage or temporary blindness, but the pupils will not contract. When the subject’s pupils are contracted in a low-light environment, they will not dilate naturally.
SCP-1344 also has the ability to widen or contract pupils beyond their natural limits. In some cases, the pupils may become between ██% (maximum) and ██% (minimum) of their normal sizes. Experiments done with high- and low-light conditions show that SCP-1344 can function to shield the eyes from light or aid night vision.
While wearing the goggles, the subject is unable to move their eyes in their sockets. Instead, they must rotate their entire head to look around. Subjects report not needing to blink while wearing the goggles; when asked to blink, they appear not to feel SCP-1344’s needles.
The effect persists until the goggles are removed. When the subject takes them off, the needles quickly retract into the lenses. Approximately five seconds after removal, all damage caused by the needles to the eyes will be rapidly healed. The healing has been shown to not affect eye damage sustained by other means, and will not affect pre-existing blindness or bad vision.
Addendum 1344-01: Foundation Acquisition: All SCP-1344 instances were discovered at ███ ███████ International Airport in California. They were contained in a cardboard box abandoned outside of a Starbucks coffeehouse at the airport, which was reported as a suspicious package. The goggles were confiscated by police; their anomalous qualities were discovered when undercover Agent ██████ attempted to wear SCP-1344-02. Agent ██████ alerted the Foundation, which confiscated the goggles and contained them.
The back of the note showed various stylized drawings (ranging in style from hyper-realistic to surreal) of human eyes.
Airport security footage was reviewed following the discovery. Only one was trained on the Starbucks and, therefore, had a view of the box containing SCP-1344. Said footage is described as follows:
[06:25:12] View of approximately four customers waiting in line at Starbucks. The only other person visible is a white male, aged approximately twenty, leaning against a wall and looking at a phone.
[06:25:44] One customer at the back of the line exits Starbucks and leaves camera frame to the left. Approximately one second later, aforementioned white male exits frame in the same direction.
[06:25:50] The video abruptly cuts out. For three seconds, low static can be heard, even though the rest of the footage is silent.
[Time Stamp Missing] A solid white line appears across the footage. Periodically, the line will move as if it were displaying audio levels, although no sound can be heard. Five minutes after the appearance of the white line, it abruptly disappears, to be replaced by a still image of the Starbucks from the original recording. The phenomenon lasts for approximately twenty minutes.
[07:25:50] Normal video resumes abruptly. The film appears to skip one hour ahead from the last time stamped portion. More customers are at Starbucks, and people can periodically be seen walking past the store. The cardboard box containing SCP-1344 is visible at the far right of the camera frame, outside Starbucks.
All attempts to reveal what happened during the missing hour of footage have been failures thus far. Security footage was copied (albeit with anomalous portion edited out) and given back to airport security; the time skip was blamed on a faulty hard drive within the camera. Original footage has been stored at [REDACTED] for future review.
Addendum 1344-02: Partial Destruction of SCP-1344-04: After four weeks in Foundation possession, Dr. █████ requested permission to partially destroy SCP-1344-04 so that researchers could see what happened inside the goggles when someone wore them. The request was approved by O5-█.
Following authorization, SCP-1344-04 was cut using a high-powered industrial laser so that a section of the left lens was removed. The modification allows the operation of the interior of the goggles to be observed more closely in SCP-1344-04 than in other instances, as all of the goggles have opaque, black lenses. Observation of SCP-1344-04 has provided most of the knowledge of the inner workings of the goggles that has been described above.
