SCP-4104
rating: +52+x
Impossible_staircase.svg

Fig. 1: Characteristic example of native SCP-4104 geometry.

Item №: SCP-4104

Object Class: Keter / Uncontained

Special Containment Procedures: Educational institutions worldwide are to be monitored for SCP-4104 occurrences, with a focus placed on colleges that offer robust mathematics courses. Upon confirmation of SCP-4104 manifestation, the nearby populace is to be evacuated. The attendant Penrose object must then be located and destroyed as soon as possible. Mobile Task Force Theta-90 ("Angle Grinders") is authorized to conduct expeditions into SCP-4104; research personnel may accompany ϴ-90 agents at their own discretion, but are liable for any personal injury. Individuals using prosthetics or implants such as pacemakers are prohibited entirely from entering SCP-4104.

SCP-4104-A has been quarantined under the cover story of a permanent closure due to financial constraints, and its former student body and staff have been relocated. It is kept under constant guard; personnel manning the perimeter must work in rotating 2-hour shifts to minimize proximity to the anomaly. Trespassers are to be detained and forcibly administered a course of Class-F amnestics to prevent unwanted mental alterations.

If possible, SCP-4104-B instances are to be captured alive for study.

Description: SCP-4104 is an extra-dimensional locale in which the laws of geometry and topology are radically altered. This results in geometrically impossible figures such as Penrose staircases (Fig. 1) appearing in physical reality. Gravitational force within SCP-4104 is also highly irregular; for an object traversing any surface with curved or inclined vertices, gravity will always act in a "downwards" direction relative to the moving object (Fig. 2) so long as its path remains consistent.

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Fig. 2: Diagram of gravitational abnormalities in SCP-4104 (simplified). The red arrows represent the relative direction of gravity.

SCP-4104 is capable of subsuming sections of baseline reality through a process that remains poorly understood. Affected locations will initially take on the properties of SCP-4104, with local terrain and objects exhibiting a number of novel deformations to match — in one instance, a campus bar's collection of wines were transfigured into Klein bottles, while its counter contorted into a Möbius strip. This reconstruction does not directly affect organic matter, although persons with inorganic prosthetics or implants are potentially at risk of injury.

The epicenter of a location subsumed by SCP-4104 will always contain an object resembling a Penrose triangle. The interior of this object acts as a Class-A "Relativistic Integrity" Wormhole (D/P-TIMLCU2D)1 leading to SCP-4104 proper. If the Penrose object is not destroyed within 24 hours, it will gradually draw the affected location into SCP-4104, removing it completely from reality. Generally, this leaves behind an irregular crater spanning ~5 km and exhibiting residual topological anomalies.

SCP-4104 disproportionately targets mathematics-focused educational institutions — particularly colleges — for subsumption.

SCP-4104-A is the Keystone Technical Institute in Harrisburg, PA, which was the first recorded target of SCP-4104. Unlike other targets, SCP-4104-A has not yet been removed from baseline reality despite the confirmed presence of a Penrose object on its campus. Rather, it exhibits a steadily worsening level of geometric and topological anomalies, as well as potential mind-affecting properties (see below). This has prevented the Foundation from neutralizing SCP-4104-A's Penrose object.

SCP-4104-B is a group of former KTI students. They reside within SCP-4104 and display unusual adeptness in navigating its environment. They have undergone moderate levels of anomalous transfiguration, resulting in features such as:

  • The appearance of extra limbs which create a visual effect reminiscent of the impossible trident.
  • Perceptive filters, activated based on the body's orientation; see the "My Wife and My Mother-In-Law" ambiguous figure for reference.
  • Irises shaped similarly to Borromean rings, observed in roughly 40% of instances. This condition appears to grant significantly improved eyesight.
  • Dissociation into Menger sponges (Fig. 3) upon termination.
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Fig. 3: Illustration of a singular Menger sponge.

These properties manifested during the initial SCP-4104 event at KTI. For unclear reasons, the group of students that would later be classified as SCP-4104-B disobeyed an evacuation order and entered the Penrose object. They were initially written off as casualties until later expeditions sighted them within SCP-4104, now exhibiting anomalous attributes. It is not known why this occurred, as SCP-4104 does not ordinarily deform living beings; how SCP-4104-B sustain themselves within SCP-4104 is also under investigation.

SCP-4104-B display an abnormally protective attitude towards SCP-4104 with elements of religious fervor, referring to themselves as the anomaly’s "Chosen" or similar epithets. They are aware of and markedly hostile to the Foundation — containment efforts for SCP-4104 are frequently impeded by attacks from SCP-4104-B. Instances have consistently evaded capture due to their skill in traversing the anomaly.

Addendum 4104-01: A recent attempt to detain an SCP-4104-B instance ended in failure after the instance displayed unprecedented abilities.

A division of MTF ϴ-90 had pursued the instance and tracked it nearly 80 km into SCP-4104, across an assortment of terrain subsumed by the anomaly. It was eventually cornered strategically in a dead end — specifically, a road twisted into a Möbius strip that had been halved by a chasm of interminable depth. There was a gap of 1.5 km between the two sections of road, believed impassable even by anomalous means.

ϴ-90 agents were moving in for capture when the SCP-4104-B instance turned to the opposite side of the chasm, tilted its head, lifted its chin and closed one eye. Immediately after, the instance was seen to break into a run and spatially translocate across the gap. ϴ-90 found themselves unable to replicate this maneuver and were forced to abandon the mission.

Before fleeing, the SCP-4104-B instance shouted the following across the crevasse:

"You claim to be men of science, but think you can catch Penrose's Chosen unawares in their own world? How backwards. Our protector, our impossible aegis, will always keep us safe from danger."

It is not clear how the instance effectuated its escape. Based on post-mission debriefing, it is currently theorized that, by eliminating its depth perception and turning its head at a specific angle, the SCP-4104-B instance was able to create a perspective-based optical illusion where the gap in the road was "closed" relative to itself. It then used this illusion to flee.

Research into the heretofore unexplored effects of perception on SCP-4104 is ongoing.

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