Special Containment Procedures: SCP-8255's existence is yet to be confirmed. Foundation webcrawler I/O-PLEASANT is being used to monitor websites that primarily focus on paranormal events and cryptozoology for any mention of entities fitting the criteria of SCP-8255. Due to the nature of information on SCP-8255, any mention of SCP-8255 will not be targeted for deletion to encourage discussion of SCP-8255 so that more information may come to light. Additionally, all witnesses to SCP-8255 events will not be contacted by any personnel due to low priority and the possibility of affecting future gathering of information about SCP-8255, though this is subject to change should there be any reason to contact those individuals. Any personnel who believe they may have encountered SCP-8255 in the past are recommended to inform the Department of Unconfirmed Anomalies.
Description: SCP-8255 refers to the collection of entities involved in several events listed in the below table. The only known constant of SCP-8255 is their possession of five legs. Due to a lack of coherence between sources regarding SCP-8255, it is currently unfeasible to fill out the description of this document any further. All information regarding different SCP-8255 sightings is currently in the below table.
Reported Sightings of SCP-8255: All sources listed are placed in the order they were created, not in the order their associated event happened. The order in which the sources were found has been placed next to their dates. All sources have been shortened to remove any unnecessary and irrelevant information. Access to any of the unabridged sources can be provided at any terminal at a Level-1 clearance level.
| Original Documentation | Location of Sighting | Description of Event |
| Article in a local newspaper "Fallview Gossiper" 27th of April 1998.5 | Fallview, Nevada. | An unnamed witness was exiting their bedroom to get water from their kitchen sink when they spotted SCP-8255 walking into their house through their front door. SCP-8255 was described as having "the appearance of chewed gum" in shape, texture, and color, with five limb-like protrusions. SCP-8255 was believed to lack visual sensory organs, repeatedly bumping into various pieces of furniture. The witness claimed to have attempted to contact local authorities but their phone was rendered inoperable during the event. The witness eventually attempted to assault SCP-8255 with a broom, causing SCP-8255 to quickly move around the witness' house before leaving out the open front door. |
| Originally posted on a Parawatch thread focused on the topic of crypto-zoological encounters. 13th of November 2018.4 | Mackinac Island, MI | Witness uses the pseudonym Crypt0K33p3r, real name is Isaac Woods. The witness spotted SCP-8255 while on a camping trip with their family when they left the area momentarily while the others were asleep to relieve themself. While returning, the witness found SCP-8255 in the form of a deer suffering from albinism with a fifth leg extruding from the left side of its abdomen. SCP-8255 appeared to be completely still during the entirety of the encounter. The witness desired to photograph SCP-8255 but had left their phone in their tent. The witness went back to their tent to retrieve their phone but then decided against going back and decided to sleep. Upon waking up, the witness tried to relocate SCP-8255 with no success. The witness reported hearing a soft buzzing sound for the rest of their trip. |
| Reply to the previous event's post. 15th March 2019. Believed to have occurred between 2004 and 2011.3 | Granville, Ohio. | Witness uses the pseudonym Idiosynthetic, real name is Bernadette Foley. The witness spotted SCP-8255 while at a party with their family in their adolescence1. Near midnight, the witness went into their basement to avoid talking to their family. While going upstairs to get food, the witness noticed SCP-8255 on the stairs leading to the main floor. SCP-8255 is described as being similar to an octopus, although with five tentacles instead of eight, and a dark red coloration. Witness, alarmed by the sudden appearance of SCP-8255, accidentally fell down the stairs, receiving no serious injuries. The witness did not see SCP-8255 present on the stairs afterward. After the event, witness infrequently had nightmares involving SCP-8255. |
| Text messages sent by a phone taken by a fifthist cultist. 6th to 14th of May 20212 | Georgie, Michigan. | Witness's real name is Drew Banks, recipient's name is Jessie Haines. The conversation begins shortly after the end of the SCP-8255 event. At the start of the conversation, the majority of messages from the witness feature multiple spelling and grammar mistakes to the point of near unreadability. The recipient attempts to calm down the witness, succeeding after a period of time. Witness describes SCP-8255 as a humanoid of medium height wearing a white bathrobe with grey hair and pale skin. SCP-8255 suddenly appeared next to the witness's bed at some point while they were sleeping, looking down at the witness when they woke up. After waking up, the witness attempted to call for help; however, they were unable to as their phone's battery was uncharged. Witness plugged their phone into a charging cable when they noticed that SCP-8255's left leg split in two at the hip, and its right split in three at the knee. Witness experienced a sudden, intense headache, and passed out from the pain. The rest of the conversation revolves around SCP-8255's possible connection to fifthism. |
| Emergency report sent by custodian, Jamie Henshaw. 23:47, 3rd of December 2022.1 | Illinois, Site-29 Men's Restroom. | SCP-8255 was supposedly spotted by the witness while performing maintenance in one of Site-29's restrooms. After noticing SCP-8255, the witness immediately exited the restroom to report an anomalous sighting. Upon returning with additional personnel, SCP-8255 was not present. SCP-8255 seemed to have evaded being seen on camera due to repairs on the surveillance system within the site due to a previous incident rendering them unusable. The witness described SCP-8255 as a waist-high, light-pink arachnid with five limbs that pulsated while standing still otherwise. The description given was used to search for any other possible sightings, which would eventually lead to the discovery of the above sources. |
Consensus On Theories Regarding SCP-8255: The Department of Unconfirmed Anomalies holds monthly meetings to create theories on anomalies under their jurisdiction that members would then vote on the legitimacy of. The results of these votes would then dictate ways that research involving those anomalies would be focused or broadened. SCP-8255 had recently reached the required amount of information to be acknowledged at the meeting of March 2023, producing the following six theories.
1. 1998 source is an outlier and should not be used as a source.
Arguments for: There are a few constants across the other four sources that, by the inclusion of the 1998 source, are considered invalid. Mainly, all other SCP-8255 instances are motionless animals in the Midwest region of the United States of America, whereas the 1998 instance is a roaming blob in Nevada. The 1998 source also implies electronic interference, an attribute unique to that specific report.
Arguments against: All sources have at least one unique characteristic. The 1998 instance isn't unique in its uniqueness. There is a gap between the 1998 source and the 2019 source, Perhaps by putting more focus on the time between those events, as well as the area between those two locations, we may find more sources for SCP-8255 reports.
Agree: 12 Disagree: 25 Undecided: 10
2. SCP-8255 is connected to the Fithism religion
Arguments for: SCP-8255's most identifiable trait is its five legs, being the only commonality across all of our sources. The 2021 event is even directly connected to fifthism.
Arguments against: All sources include SCP-8255 having five limbs because that is the only attribute from the SCP-8255 Mr. Henshaw reported that has led us to find other events. While the recovered text messages are directly from fithist cultists, none of the other data recovered from fifthists we have in our databases make any mention of SCP-8255. Even the text messages show that the cultists were confused and had no prior understanding of SCP-8255.
Agree: 1 Disagree: 43 Undecided: 3
3. SCP-8255 is a singular entity capable of shapeshifting.
Arguments for: Five separate distinct entities should have more than one appearance each across almost thirty-five years. While still unlikely, it would make more sense if it was one single entity. Any oddities with the 1998 source could be chalked up to SCP-8255 being in an adolescent stage of its existence, maturing over time until it was sophisticated enough to break into one of our sites.
Arguments against: The five sources we have now are likely only a fraction of reports made on SCP-8255, and those are likely only a fraction of all SCP-8255 events. More importantly, SCP-8255 being the work of a single entity capable of shapeshifting adds an additional layer of complexity to research for no gain as we would still be looking for animals with five legs.
Agree: 4 Disagree: 13 Undecided: 30
4. SCP-8255 is only active at night.
Arguments for: In three of the five sources, we know that the SCP-8255 event occurred during the night. The 2021 source doesn't specify what the time was during the event, only that the witness had woken up without the use of an alarm. It is possible that they had woken up early in the morning and SCP-8255 would have viewed it as still being night. In the 1998 source, the witness makes no attempt to call their neighbors for help when their phone fails, suggesting it may have been night during the event.
Arguments against: After some discussion, no counterarguments were made during the meeting.
Agree: 46 Disagree: 0 Undecided: 1
5. 2019 source is an outlier and should not be used as a source.
Arguments for: SCP-8255's arrival is highly impractical. The witness did not see it on the way down meaning it's highly likely that it wasn't down there before they went down. If there really was a party on the main floor, navigating through the home, to the basement staircase, would be an incredibly difficult task, especially for a five-legged octopus. The color is also off. In all other sources, when a color is mentioned with SCP-8255, it is typically white or light red. In the 2019 source, however, SCP-8255 is described as a dark red. While the witness says that they were unharmed in the fall, they may be incorrect, intentionally or not. A possible head injury and the passage of time after the event casts doubt on this source as being reliable.
Arguments against: We don't have a clear idea of what SCP-8255 is capable of. The intelligence of SCP-8255 is an unknown factor. Even if unlikely, SCP-8255 could have been in the basement beforehand or navigated through the party. Entering Site-29 is a far more improbable task and that's the most reliable source we have. The coloration of SCP-8255 in other sources already shows a range of white to light red, the 2019 source is more likely showing that that range instead should be all shades of red. A possible head injury impacting the reliability of the source can't be addressed until clearance is given for more invasive research of the sources and witnesses.
Agree: 14 Disagree: 2 Undecided: 31
6. SCP-8255 is naturally outside and events showing it in buildings are not how it normally acts.
Arguments for: SCP-8255 instances are animal-like in appearance in three of the collected sources. In the 1998 source, the witness credits the arrival of SCP-8255 to their open front door, meaning that it would have come from outside. It is possible that we would be able to find more sources if we focused on finding SCP-8255 events that occurred outdoors, such as hiking trips and camping.
Arguments against: This runs under the assumption that SCP-8255 instances have animal-like intelligence and have accidentally encountered people. While this seems accurate with the first source, two of the other sources have it able to discretely enter someone's home and a third has SCP-8255 able to infiltrate Site-29. SCP-8255 instances may be more intelligent than we give them credit for. Perhaps SCP-8255 has certain types of buildings that SCP-8255 prefers, we could figure that out if we focused on finding sources including an indoor setting.
Agree: 13 Disagree: 29 Undecided: 5
Update: Following the meeting, the search methods being used were updated according to the conclusions reached on the above theories. I/O-PLEASANT restarted shortly afterward with the updated search methods and is currently searching for more sources. As of now, no new sources have been found.