SCP-2444 manifestation event in [REDACTED].
Item #: SCP-2444
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Foundation analytics bot I/O-VID will scan social media postings, local advertisements and cellular communications for terms associated with SCP-2444. Upon confirming a manifestation, plainclothes operatives with Mobile Task Force Psi-7 ("Home Improvement") will deploy to interview vendors, recover instances of SCP-2444-1, amnesticize witnesses, and maintain perimeter security until the anomaly dematerializes. If SCP-2444 collapses into extradimensional space, MTF Psi-7 will sever its link to mainline reality by demolishing the host structure.
Instances of SCP-2444-1 will be transferred to Reliquary Site-76 for research and storage in the Low-Risk Inanimate Objects Warehouses. Full containment and analysis of SCP-2444-2 is not possible at this time.
Description: SCP-2444 is a recurring physical manifestation which links mainline reality with extradimensional space. While active, SCP-2444 resembles an indoor flea market stocked with anomalous merchandise (designated instances of SCP-2444-1) and populated by vendors (SCP-2444-2). SCP-2444 manifests approximately 2-7 times per year, appearing within abandoned residential and commercial structures across the continental United States and Canada.
Less than 0.01% of people living within a reasonable distance1 of the manifestation will dream about SCP-2444 before it appears in physical space. These dreams always involve exploring SCP-2444 in search of a specific object with sentimental value. If they locate that item, the dreamer may become physically entangled with the object, or dream about transforming into merchandise. Though only a small number of individuals will experience this phenomenon, it will strongly predispose them towards visiting SCP-2444 and encouraging others to do the same.
Individuals within the bounds of SCP-2444 experience an altered state of consciousness, similar to hypnagogic cognition.2 Characteristic traits include impaired memory, diminished focus, and limited situational awareness. As a result, most witnesses are unlikely to recognize environmental shifts or local divergences from mainline reality until they exit SCP-2444's area of effect.
Instances of SCP-2444-1 resemble objects commonly found in secondhand markets, such as clothing, books, electronics, kitchenware, furniture, art and memorabilia. However, all items are extradimensional in origin, as evidenced by significant deviations from logical norms. In most cases, cursory attempts have been made to conceal these anomalies, but unconventional traits remain obvious: for example, SCP-2444-1-18 is a denim jacket with all tags removed, three sleeves, 24-bit colors, and a patch that reads "Bij Gim".
While the anomaly is active, instances of SCP-2444-2 will engage passing shoppers in conversation, advertise their wares, and conduct transactions via cash or barter.3 Instances are unwilling to talk about themselves at length, and will dematerialize upon exiting the host structure. As a result, it is unclear whether SCP-2444-2 are extradimensional entities or local constructs. Foundation personnel approaching these individuals should exercise caution.
A partial list of notable vendors and merchandise is as follows:
Name Given: Mi-Ray Doe
Description: Human male with a low-pitched voice. Wears sunglasses and an imitation leather jacket.
Common items sold:
- Disjunctive versions of pop culture memorabilia, including vinyl "Bunko Pops" based on famous con artists, "Weird Lab Culture 5000" on Petri Video Disc (PVD), and "Imperial Legion" minis depicting goblins in high-tech armor.
- Paperback and hardcover books. Based on a representative sample ("A Brief History of Stairs", "Bloodletting For Dummies", "Thirty Ways to Skin a Cat", and "EDISON VS NINTENDO: The First Console War"), the details of these books diverge greatly from historical and biological fact. Many contain handwritten messages on the inner covers, indicating that they were personal gifts.
- Anomalous kitchenware, such as non-Euclidean cutlery sets, pots which only boil under observation, and plastic tesseracts with airtight lids.
Name Given: Slug
Description: Terrestrial gastropod equipped with one prosthetic arm and an external speech synthesizer. Travels in a wheelchair constructed from an arcade driving game.
Common items sold:
- Counterfeit tokens. All appear to be low-quality copies of coins produced for major arcades, casinos and public transit agencies. Arranged by type, physical dimensions, denomination and destination.
- Magazines depicting a range of anachronistic technologies, including vacuum-tube laptops, personal submersible recreational vehicles, intercontinental ballistic jetpacks, and virtual reality TV sets. Most issues are heavily worn, with featured items being circled and prices highlighted.
- Padded cartridges for the "Dependo 64", a game console/undergarment for players suffering from nocturnal enuresis.
Name Given: George Oliver Ingrid
Description: Tall humanoid male with black eyes, button nose and plastic moustache. Wears a stovepipe hat, necktie, and a pinstripe suit; colors and patterns change when observers break visual contact.
Common items sold:
- Imitation Wondertainment products: "Superb Paper Airplanes" which immediately crash, "Inactivity Books" with a negative number of pages, and "Pvt. Peep", a brass goose which screams on eye contact with humans.
- "Men! by Guyz" action figures. Loosely modeled on Little Misters, Tiny Señors, and Misters Against Weed. All are flawed, damaged, or otherwise incomplete.
- Stuffed animals. Stock includes Anderson Robotics mascot Finn Falcon, a heavily-bandaged Awwy Cowwy, the interactive Count Von Sheep, and a Serpent-in-a-Canon.4
- Zines, prints, and keychains dedicated to anomalous media, such as Raising Danny, Mobile Task Force EX, and Homestuck.
Name Given: All-GNU Animatronic
Description: Humanoid automaton of unknown manufacture. Wears a partial anthropomorphic costume with stylized ungulate features.
Common items sold:
- Open-source prosthetics, vat-grown organs, agnostic circuitry for post-demonic hardware, and wet lumps of mortal clay.
- Chipped ceramic drinkware. Each item contains a wireless transducer which provides synthetics with sensory stimuli. Aesthetics range from functional (a beer stein labelled "BEER") to fanciful ("noinput; firstboot coffe.exe").
- Social masks. Appropriate for business hours, family gatherings, fan conventions and self-deceptions.
Name Given: Akila, daughter of Tutu, favored of Neith
Description: Sphinx with feline anatomy similar to Puma concolor.5 Bald, with a grey-brown fur coat. Frequently seen smoking.
Common items sold:
- Secondhand clothing, offered free to anyone who can answer three riddles. Most items are stained, torn, and/or masticated.
- Three-headed dog collars, n-dimensional hamster wheels, and narrative enclosures for passive infovores.
- Vinyl records, stacked in milk cartons. Selection includes shanties by One and Twenty Boatswains, populi-punk by Flinch-CLXXXII, gnomish rap by Lustre Rhymes, and folktronica by First Time? On The Gallows.
- Cat-eared knuckle dusters, folding knives, sickle-swords, pepper spray, a single brick, and Chekov's gun (recently fired).
Name Given: Rareflight
Description: Asymmetrical biped comprised of 2D shapes and 3D primitives, rendered in shifting oils.
Common items sold:
- An artist's palate with synesthetic pigments: mulberry red, tangerine, lemon yellow, mint, periwinkle blue, grape, black charcoal and seasalt.
- Neon green signage composed of freestanding phosphorescence. These are physically insubstantial, but can still be picked up and placed at will.
- Conceptual caricature portraits. Subjects are always recognizable, even in cases of advanced abstraction.
- Infinite canvas. Linked to a slate grey tablet, powered by an electric blue stylus.
Name Given: Eleven wristwatches
Description: Human male misaligned with local time.
Common items sold:
- Thad.
Name Given: Ida Lawn
Description: Humanoid. Teeth.
Common items sold:
- Free brochures for "Sweeter Dreams, Inc.", a company constructing comfortable conceptual condominiums in the collective (un)consciousness.
- Dapple, Gynoid and Bushberry smartphones. Most units are preloaded with an anomalous application called "Headspace", which allows users to commission custom dreams.
- Set-top boxes and satellite dishes with conspicuous "Oneiroi" branding. Claims of being able to send and receive dreams cannot be verified, as the devices do not function at all.
Name Given: Yours
Description: The shadow of doubt.
Common items sold:
- Upvotes, downvotes, swing votes, spring totes, and toy boats.
- First memory. Sweet chemistry. Lost photograph. Found harmony.
- A personal guarantee: if you can dream it, you can do it.
All recurring instances of SCP-2444-2 are to be recorded in the Extended Log of SCP-2444 Vendors.
Discovery: SCP-2444 became known to the Foundation during an unrelated field operation in 1999, when multiple MTF agents reported shared dreams of an anomalous market and tracked its location using physical landmarks. Since then, Site-76 researchers have confirmed evidence of manifestations dating back to the early 1960s.
The following passage has always been displayed as a hanging banner over SCP-2444's entrance:
take what you need when youre done do not throw away
pleese divide youre things among youre friends
where worthy of being loved to
