“Hope is a blessing of yours, not ours.”
A device that can affect the world basing on concepts, and that's called a “Kaleidoscope” - something that can create infinity from simplest roots.
Restituted image of SCP-8555, as seen in Addendum E2.
Item #: SCP-8555
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-8555 is contained on-site within SCP-8555-A. Any other broken paradoxical spaces that could be used for entering SCP-8555-A are to be reported immediately, barring access from unauthorized individuals. The areas surrounding such known entries are to be indefinitely barricaded from civilians under constant monitoring, except when further investigation on SCP-8555-A is deemed necessary and approved by the Research Director in responsibility.
Description: SCP-8555 is a cylindric artifact with a diameter of ~20 meters, and an overall height of ~30 meters, with some intricate subordinate mechanical structures attached to its main part upon its discovery.
The main part consists of three identical rectangular mirror-like surfaces sized 16.99 m × 25.0 m positioned in the shape of an equilateral triangle, forming a tri-prism, and a translucent vitrified hull serving as an exterior wall. White light tubes are installed to each interior arris, previously powered by adjacent atomic generator plants that were estimated to remain able to function completely under no human supervision and maintenance for at least 3,800 years.
The specular surfaces are all semi-reflective, mesmerizing a visual effect of near infinitely replicated spaces that could be seen obscurely through the mirrors when the illumination is turned on, resembling a typical kaleidoscope. Entities can enter the "core" of SCP-8555 - the aforementioned enclosed prismatic space - via elevators channeling to both openings on its rooftop and below its floor. The space is non-Euclidian, denoting that the room inside is boundless and topologically self-replicating as perceived outside.
Once entered, the subject within the core will be conceptualized based on the way it would be categorized by existing human consensus of knowledge, aka. the noosphere. Next, the subject will exhibit ontokinetic properties: any manipulations regarding the abstracted subject within the core will result in a worldwide-scale reality alteration, in which everything covered by or bearing enough similarities to the concept of the subject in the scope of SCP-8555's influence will be changed or even eliminated. The specified knowledge of certain human operators within SCP-8555 doesn't seem to play an essential role during this process.
Theoretically, this could be comprehended as a reality-bending process performed from the level of abstractly amplified existence within that non-Euclidian space, which could limitlessly extend and supersede the exterior physical reality.
Discovery: SCP-8555 is found situated in the electricity distribution center of an extradimensional communal city corresponding with [REDACTED] in location on Earth within an overlapping parallel reality designated SCP-8555-A. SCP-8555-A was discovered in an exploration regarding a spatial anomaly contained in a derelict architecture in the Pine Frost Nature Reserve, which previously served as a meteorological observation outpost. It was the initial known instance of SCP-8555-A intersecting with this reality, discovered on December 23, 2023.
SCP-8555-A shares primary similarities regarding basic physical laws, type of infrastructures, society compositions, and level of comprehensive technological development with Earth at present within the scope of observation on it thus far.
However, the most obvious discrepancy concerns the cognitive abilities and behavioral patterns of SCP-8555-A's inhabitants; all humans find it difficult to communicate via any language that contains or implicates abstract concepts in fictional contexts, in which they cannot understand or respond to descriptions of anything not present or cannot be directly observed. In most cases, civilians are unwilling to communicate at large and pose passive, neglectful hostility toward any unforeseen subjects, which will seemingly be categorized as intruders.
However, despite the high demand of intellectual maneuvers for a modern civilization to persist, SCP-8555-A managed to sustain a well-organized society through automated, algorithm-dominated production, disregarding its inertness, it could be recognized as a once civilized world, although not meeting some criteria of sapience.
[Updated on January 1, 2024] The single human settlement around SCP-8555 is inferred to have encountered a downfall consequent of a total energy failure due to lack of maintenance and power resources.
Addendum 8555-E1: Initial Exploration
On Dec 23, 2023, Foundation web-crawlers came across forum discussions about the emergence of SCP-8555-A's entrance. Civilian witnesses were soon located and then amnesticized.
Preliminary observation was arranged the next day. D-4927, with a background of living in the vicinity of Pine Frost and experience scavenging in abandoned buildings and parks, volunteered for the initial exploration. Their participation was quickly approved. Equipment includes: a Kant counter, a hard-wired omnidirectional camera, a versatile survival gadget, along with other basic apparatuses. Subject was required to reach farther beyond the top floor of said building.
Transmission began at 16:51 EST, as D-4927 was ascending the last flight of stairs. The door mentioned in the forum post was seen closed. The handle was rusty and covered by a thick layer of dust, with no handprints or any signs indicating human touch. Upon twisting, the door didn't budge, showing that was locked inside. Control suggested subject to use the versatile lockpick. Door swung open with a click sound upon the first attempt.
Subject inspected the room around, where unused plastic wrappers, broken metallic shelves and wires lie everywhere on the floor stained with molds and motley dust traces. Several books were seen scattered on one side near the wall, subject was asked to collect them. Titles could be read to be manuals and notebooks regarding wind and precipitation gauges. Subject returned to the entrance of the attic, through an oblique, misty window, overlooking the neighboring forest, inferring not the spatial aberration hadn't manifested. Subject was suggested to leave the room for a while, when they spotted a sheet of paper, obviously recent, lying on the small platform next to the end of the stairs.
Scrawled handwritten text read similar to the recovered online post above, except for the last lines: "We've been here! CY, Dave [illegible]. Anticipation: somehow triggered by reading. If u r reading this take a look backward." The date on the lower right corner was scribbled as: "1/24/2024 1/3 12/23/2023". A buzzing noise and glitch in video feed popped up in communication for half a sec, then a bleak white light dominated the footage on the rear camera. Immediately after, D-4927 turned around, seeing the previous room's interior altered as corresponding with the descriptions written on the note. Control took notes about this and requested subject to advance with discretion.
The Kant counter indicated 801 Humes, while subject made their way through an array of greyish tables covered by heavy dust and blank papers to approach the windows opening on the southern wall, which did not seem to belong to the original attic. Subject was asked to stop by and gather some misc information, they slightly opposed by saying "feel haunted" but still acted obligatorily with reluctance.
The night was falling on the sky outside, proved its simultaneity with baseline reality. Subject browsed through retrievable documents, including some tools and square plates welded onto machine racks. No verbal instructions or descriptions were found. All inscriptions were written in simple, graphical symbols rather than language. Control told subject that they had retained screenshots so D-4927 needn't spend time interpreting those codes.
After carefully inspecting the entire area, found that all other exits excluding the original entrance were white airtight doors firmly locked with no visible keyholes to hack on, subject was required to attempt to leave the building through one of the windows.
Subject pushed the window latches silently then utilized the versatile toolkit as a climbing anchor, stretched ~15m of its rope before the tension released, inferring that another end had reached the ground outside. After descended and landed safely, they were informed by command to keep alert on any entities with signs of sapience and avoid direct contact with them. Subject copied it and moved on.
Few artificial lights could be seen to adequately illuminate the night. The place resembled a countryside, though there was a line of distant higher buildings estimated to be ten or more stories high, with faint red beacon light dots flickering on their silhouettes. Subject stated they had an eerie sense of familiarity regarding this place but couldn't recall further, and asked whether they were to proceed to the city center. Command replied that depends on occasion. Subject was requested to investigate the nearest residential area.
Some withered trees, sporadically planted and gapped with uncultivated lawns surrounded the building D-4927 just departed from, which was mildly lit by excessive lighting emitting from all windows and could be discerned to be a sort of monolithic factory building block with no adjacent architecture, with its sharp, kind of eccentric cubic shape easily distinguishable in the dark. Some complications cost subject several minutes to travel across the expanse on foot while the handheld torchlight wasn't turned on.
A small flock of birds was scared away as D-4927 came near the first dwelling, appearing to be a typical farmhouse. The house didn't seem inhabited, since no signs of human activity could be found, except for a rut clearly etched on the mud-coated pavement in front of the door. Closer examination revealed it's a combination of repetitive footprints and traces of wheels. Subject reported a strong smell of wet soil, albeit no precipitation or waterlogging was suspected.
Asked to enter the house, subject hesitated and chose to detour to the back side of the yard. The grass was at the height of D-4927's waist. Subject lit the torchlight and stepped over shattered glass and trails of burning on the rough lawn, while the scorched trail could be traced to a broken windowpane, wooden frames visibly rotten and decayed to a degree no longer able to hold the glass. Charred grass and wood splinters piled up more against the brick wall and revealed a hoary, dismantled exhaust fan buried inside when subject rummaged through, of which bare singed wires stretched out, assumed to have once set the lawn afire.
Subject went back to the front yard. The door detached from its rusty hinge when forced open, and a faint sound of water dripping could be heard; evidently they noticed this but decided to inspect in another direction first. Most furniture in the front parlor was merely distinguishable wrecks, decomposed and cobwebby. Subject mentioned a pervasive fusty smell while ascending the stairs leading to the bedroom. The power switch crumbled upon touch. Light from the torch beamed all around the room, a skeleton was seen lying on a bed next to a metal shelf, nearly incorporated into the bed, its head leaning towards a hole in the southern wall where a window once should be present. Control requested to sample some mold on the wallpaper and a bit of specimen of the skeleton if possible. Only one book was found on the shelf, later identified to be an English dictionary but a lot of pages were torn off. Subject was asked to retrieve it. Little else was noteworthy.
Following that, they move downstairs to the kitchen, where the dripping noise originated from. Subject surveyed discreetly, only discovering some obsolete plumbing, and a faucet wide open but little water was flowing out. Subject turned the faucet off, and left the house.
It took a while to get to another dwelling house. A figure was standing still, close to a pole with a monitor atop; D-4927 managed to circumvent them, although perhaps within the scope that could be seen, the person didn't at all seem to notice D-4927. At that moment, the cable on subject's camera suddenly fell off and the transmission automatically switched to wireless, but still worked well. Subject was told to re-attach the cable but could abandon it if necessary.
The roof seemed severely impaired by lack of maintenance, and the same indication of dampness caused by leaking plumbings could be seen as an entire face of the house's exterior wall along with the pillar amid were soaked by water. However, the house appeared to be inhabited since there's dim light of warm lamps came from the upper windows, next to a hollow on the roof missing a huge fallen piece of tile.
D-4927 avoided further contact and proceeded towards the city center travelling by a small pathway next to the main road. All other buildings and artifacts were in an apparent condition of long-term disrepair, while there were a few residents, but all seemed to be used to these oddities.
Nothing of interest happened during the next ten minutes before one kilometer of cable was used. The lighting condition improved, and Kant counter read 90 and continued to increase slowly as the proximity to the downtown area drew shorter. A small number of pedestrians assumed to be locals but wandering silently and idly in disorientation seemed to spot D-4927 and stared at them before a monotonous, robotic voice appeared overhead, saying "Please go ahead and focus on your ways", drifting away their attention then reverted them to the previous aimless, inert state.
A bigger avenue showed up posterior to the first crossing. A few vehicles were running sparsely but their velocity in sync, keeping their distance always exactly constant. D-4927 was waiting for an interval to cross the road, while one of the cars with wheels badly dilapidated failed to pull over and rumbling along with a faltering speed, abruptly stopped and caused another succeeding car to crash into its rear, blasted out a small fire. Control directed D-4927 to try to confirm whether the vehicles were autopiloted or not.
D-4927 hid behind a wilted holly bush, witnessing there were drivers, but none of them reacted to the accident. The succeeding car was less damaged, a person came down from it and stood on the sidewalk. The synthesized voice recurred as "Incident recorded. Trailer shall be in place soon." D-4927 moved away quietly after a seemingly unmanned trailer arrived to pull the burnt car off the road onto its shaft.
Command advised subject to find shelter to stay for further expedition the next day. Emptied cells stuffed with garbage that once could have been retailing stores were in rows alongside this silent street. D-4927 commented that few good places were safe overnight, as they might all be dangerous shacks ready to collapse anytime. Subject slept in open air not far from a small derelict office building.
In the duration of six hours the transmission remained clear, with nothing noticeable except some inaudible mumbling sounds sporadically appearing, inferred not from the subject, but rather from offscreen passersby. Subject was advised to get to the highest building available nearby to obtain a better sight over the city, in order to clarify the destination.
After entering the aforementioned office hall, subject rested at the front desk to eat supplies, then climbed toward the top eighth floor. They refused to take the elevator although it had power. All floors except for the seventh floor were in total disuse, in which staled food boxes, dozens of inactive LCD screens, Ethernet cables, swivel chairs and a bulky table in the center stacked up the room to the ceiling. D-4927 didn't linger for long since there was no spare space allowing to step in.
On the seventh floor, a feeble human figure in black was sitting motionlessly, facing west in front of a batch of computer screens, on which some text of codes flows and flashes occasionally on the default black background. Greyish and brownish smudges occupied all over the white floor. The person remains deadly silent in apparently terrible health condition, flies droning around their head and occasionally stopping on some worn pipes and capsules that seem to provide necessities of life. D-4927 stood at the door behind the back of the person to observe the operator working, who moves slightly only when a command of code appears, then reacts by clicking on keys to produce a subtle ring bell sound. They repeated this pattern for minutes before D-4927 left the room and went back to the stairway.
Subject complained about the stale odor and ascended to the top floor. Different from other places, this room was clean and well-maintained. Several metallic archive cabinets lined up by the western wall, leaving an adequate place for sunlight to cast in from a French window beside. Small cracks were visible on the glass panel but not as bad as in previous stories.
A huge graffiti, drawn in pencil-like neat lines on the wall facing against the window, portrays sketchy humanoid figures gathering beneath a remarkably big triangle inscribed in a perfect circle with an infinitude symbol (∞) fits in the inmost center, likely depicting a religious ritual or prehistorical worship.
Subject was requested to inspect the archive cabinets. There were ten of them, stuffed with hardcover books with silver letter-number combinations written on backs, all placed in alphabetical order on each shelf. The handwheel wasn't bolted, subject fetched one that was titled A-1. The book sized larger than assumed, in which words were paraphrased by simple, symbolic diagrams and illustrations that filled up the majority of blank spaces on each page. Not all entries of English words were listed, making the book resemble more of an encyclopedia than a dictionary. After opened on page 15, the entry defining "atom" showed up.
08:33 AM
The relative location of the archive was backed up intending for future investigation. Suddenly, there were noises of hurried, irregular footsteps; D-4927 noticed before control was about to alert them. They put the book back on the shelf. A few seconds later, the person seen downstairs emerged from the unlatched door and approached D-4927 with unidentified weapon in hand.
D-4927 tried to flee through the window. They pulled out the climbing rope to attach it to the windowsill. From the video, a far vision of an edifice, which was similar in the cubic architecture style to the building where subjects entered SCP-8555-A, but estimated to be several times larger.
The fireproof door on the eighth floor, however, seemed difficult to budge; before it could be fully opened by the hostile person, it abruptly swung closed, made a loud noise and blocked the attacker outside. The Kant counter indicated a tiny-scale reality shift had taken place.
D-4927 escaped the building and landed on the street outside. A patrol car suddenly showed up on the screen, approaching subject at high speed. Subject failed to notice this time. The car bang braked beside the subject, then the driver, wearing a dowdy worker suit with a stout physique, got down and snatched D-4927 by the arm. D-4927 floundered, and the transmission cable was detached from camera. Wireless connections continued for a short while, before subject was abducted and the car drove dozens of meters away.
The cable was later retrieved back to the local side. A sample box containing required specimens was found attached to the end of it, making it possible to analyze though D-4927 was temporarily considered lost.
Video transmission reconnected for five seconds before the signal was lost again. Footage showed that D-4927 was transported near the city's central edifice, but the exact distance was unknown.
[END LOG]
Analyses of Recovered Items:
| Item | Recovery Site | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Mold samples | Walls of the farmhouse near the first access point | Species was identified to be common Aspergillus niger. |
| Chips of bones sampled from a human skeleton | Human remains inside the aforementioned farmhouse | Carbon dating suggests it's circa 300 years old. |
| Pocket English dictionary | Bookshelf in the aforementioned farmhouse | In a well-preserved condition. Missing pages are of various initials, most of them fall under C, I, and F. Little valuable information could be inferred from that. |
Addendum 8555-E2: Deepgoing Investigation
An escort team with special experience in dealing with spatial/extradimensional anomalies was quickly assembled to recover D-4927 and if possible, investigate further within SCP-8555-A. They were demanded to head for the central edifice and collect adequate information regarding the ways that civilization operated on, which may indicate traces of pervasive, hostile mind-affecting anomaly. This mission eventually led to the discovery of SCP-8555.
The expedition was carried out by MTF Epsilon-13 with 3 members chosen, led by Agent Maltz. Non-pertinent information has been omitted.
Transmission started at 10:04 EST as the team arrived at the insertion point. The connection was wireless and optic camouflage was applied for a covert operation.
Maltz: Confirm mics and cameras.
Clayde: Check.
Kelson: Check.
Command: Configured. Survey the room briefly if possible.
Maltz: Clayde, check the door over there that the subject failed to open. I'll go for the window. Kelson, you can see around the room.
The room was separated by a huge metallic rack extending from floor to ceiling. It was empty, and discarded construction garbage of rusty rebars, bricks of concrete and insulation foams could be seen piling up high behind the rack, which filled up the left half of the room.
Clayde: Doors are locked without a seam, not even a slit for a crowbar.
Maltz: Okay, just leave it alone. We shall also go from the window.
Kelson: Here is a switch. I think it's for the lighting.
The plastic on the button was yellowed with age. Kelson carefully pressed it. The light didn't turn on.
Clayde: Oh, no power. Look at this, a circuit breaker. It's some stainless steel, but the rust on the nails could be decades.
Clayde drew his camera closer. A notch on the brownish rust layer could be seen at the root of the switchblade, indicating the switch has been in frequent motion.
Clayde: It must have locked on another side.
Kelson: All stays the same with our records, no signs of human activity. Perhaps under automated control of some kind.
Maltz: We go now.
The team descended by climbing rope out of the window to the ground. The weather appeared to be a little cloudy.
Command: Proceed with discretion. The locals seem unfriendly.
Maltz: Understood.
The team activated the invisible stealth after traversing the woody area around the building. The sharp outline of the building could be seen clearly in the daylight, it was a 3-story structure with white walls, moderately stained by fallen pieces of paint that revealed grayish concrete material underneath. It was examined not to be the same building on the local side.
The outskirts of the city were quiet as if uninhabited. After the team went past the rural area, some native people could be seen all working on transporting heavy loads by cars. None of them show signs of interest in anything in their surroundings.
Clayde: That could be food in that truck.
Kelson: Not sure. Do you think those guys are by some means abnormal?
Clayde: Not really, but sorta like they've lost something that makes them act weird.
Maltz: Watch out your way.
A teenager was dragging a sack along the road. The team stepped back. The child passed by team members without noticing. The bottom of the bag was rubbed shabby against the ground, making a hole that revealed a wounded human foot inside. They disappeared at the next crossing.
Kelson: What the fuck.
Clayde: How many cameras are around here? One is at the crossing, and one is over there we just walked by.
Kelson: Anyway, they can't see us.
The team reached the point where D-4927 lost touch at, the 8-floor office building. Since the team had chosen another route to circumvent the main road, they could get to the backside gate, a dark green fence door, which was blocked by the garbage station on the northern side. Some locals moved around the dumpsters there with robotic body movements to throw garbage inside.
Kelson: Like they are occupied by some robots.
Clayde: Boss, shall we check this building? The door isn't locked.
Maltz: We shall not take the risk. We have drones.
A small drone was deployed to take off from the eastern side wall and flew to the height of a broken window. It was maneuvered to get in, enabling to view inside.
Several TV screens were showing camera feeds from many spots, including the two where the team passed by. The drone refocused its camera to inspect the screen closer. Some squared frames were auto-detecting figures on the screen and following them as they moved around. The camera feeds depicted various places, some indoors, which looked like residential apartments of some kind. Another screen on the right has scrolling texts that read as verbal descriptions of things taking place on the left one. The room is empty with no humans around.
Kelson: Looks like an Orwellian world with no privacy, but rather ridiculous. How could they just live around without noticing anything above their heads?
Maltz: Maybe they are just used to it.
Clayde: But they just put it here? Wide open with no living supervisors?
Maltz: Remember that 4927 saw someone on the seventh floor? Check if he's still there.
Kelson directed the drone to get out and go around to the western side. The drone stopped at the window. The operator could be seen still sitting in his chair, looked tired out and stayed in an inert, unresponsive state. There seemed to be pressure ulcers under his left arm. Insects flew around them. The seat was tattered with nasty stains as well on the person's clothes and floors beside. On the dusty screen in front of his head, there were texts hard to discern in the broad sunlight outside.
Maltz: You can turn the polarizer on.
Reflection was filtered. The text on the screen was magnified to be discerned as "DO NOT REACT" and soon flickered to "RECORD THE DEFINITION OF [ILLEGIBLE]". Seeing this, the man slowly got out of his seat and faltered to the door, then went upstairs.
Kelson: That dictionary's on the top floor. Why are they keeping that so primevally?
Clayde: No idea.
The drone was retrieved, and the team proceeded to the south, the direction ascertained by the drone's overview. An open space that was supposed to be a place of public gathering, like a city park, was two blocks down the street. Large crates and trunks heaped up on the marble square. Forklifts and some weary people were busy around, some of whom were talking some monosyllable words, but couldn't be heard clearly.
Clayde: No one is playing around, no kids, no relaxed civilians.
Kelson: Isn't it common among those [inaudible] airheads?
Clayde: You know, I've seen many crazy shits but they all aren't so weird as fuck. They are alive, they're walking around, they're talking, but you surely know that something's horribly wrong.
Maltz: Not as fucked up as something that kills you upon first glance, huh?
Sounds of something thudded to the ground. Camera was panned leftward, seeing an old woman that had fallen off from a footbridge, as if thrown over from the banister. A younger man was looking over from the spot, posing no indications of surprise or fear. This accident caused some mess among local passersby, but the working ones didn't react at all.
A voice appeared from a loudspeaker hanging on a street lamp. It matches the synthesized voice witnessed back by D-4927 in Addendum 8555-E1.
Announcer: You violated the law. She is your mother.
Young man: She's old enough to die.
Announcer: You will be arrested for that.
Some of the crowd panicked, but most remained indifferent. Shortly after, several people who were assumed to be officers took the murderer away, who remained idle around the site. Others came to remove the body.
Maltz: You see that?
Clayde: Fuck. I think we should go. I got enough of it. We just find that Class-D and go back. Who's still caring about their modus operandi or so? We'd just seal the entrance and contain that area, leaving these to memetics researchers.
Kelson: Will the speaker hear us? Regardless of who that is.
Clayde and Maltz looked up.
Maltz: I hope not. The suit is supposed to be soundproof.
The team moved past a block that was a factory of some kind. No nameplate or trademark could be identified beside it. They entered from the main gate. Machine rumbling was heard in the distance, but the place was completely unattended. The team did not catch sight of any humans.
In the front lobby, there were several rows of terraces and remains of steel frames on them. Bags of raw materials, mostly identified to be food ingredients, were placed upon the terraces; shattered glass could be seen in the corners, indicating that they were once glass showcases. Old traces of burning and scraping were on all sides of the walls.
At the end of a corridor dimly lit by sunlight piercing from the broken rooftop, many marks of bullet holes and knife chopping extended along the way to the stairway, indicating a violent firearm fight had once taken place here.
Command: Checking connection. You are close to the destination point.
Maltz: Got it. Less than a kilometer away.
They left and traveled past another derelict area once enclosed by iron fences but now rotted to the ground. It was apparent to be a school, since a playground was identifiable among the overthrown architectures, although its surface was badly corroded. The team didn't spend time exploring it.
Clayde: Hard to imagine they ever had education.
Kelson: Well, it's obvious that some disaster fell later on sometime, leaving those abandoned. Not congenital. But they didn't seem to be aware at all.
Maltz: We are close to the southern outskirts.
An undermaintained road stretched out from the main avenue, elongating into a wood overgrown with weeds. The team traveled along for about five hundred meters and arrived at its border.
Clayde: Jeez.
A huge crater showed up, completely obstructing the road. It has a diameter of approximately two hundred meters estimated by first sight. Charred rocks were cracked as if bombarded by kinetic weapons. The edifice, now able to be seen as a 10-story building, was standing at the very center of the crater and seemed to be in good condition.
Maltz: Command, can you see this? It's not foreseen in the overlook.
Command: Yes, be aware of radioactive hazards. That could still linger.
Maltz: Understood. The Geiger reads fine.
Clayde and Kelson were getting down from the edge, followed by Maltz. The slope was steep at first, hence all team members turned off their camouflage to safely cover each other, as suggested by Command. They reached the bottom after five minutes at 17:21 EST. Maltz used the VERITAS device to scan for active humans inside.
Maltz: Coast clear. No one is down there.
Clayde: And our subject?
Maltz: Couldn't see through too many walls. It depends.
Kelson: Prayers for them.
The entire first floor was in disuse, covered in dust, and stuffed with some mechanical equipment. The room was also badly lit, with only emergency lamps were on. A way was made through the obstacles, leading to the elevator, which seemed to be in function.
Kelson: (Dipping head) Look, new footprints.
Clayde: We take the elevator?
A voice appeared suddenly, coherent with the previous announcer.
Announcer: The elevator is well-maintained and safe to use.
Maltz: May I ask who you are?
Announcer: Please follow my instructions.
Clayde: Uh, okay.
The team entered the shaft. Only the button to the 2nd floor was labeled "main hall". Others were unlabeled.
Announcer: The third to tenth stories are not in use. To proceed, you may come to the second floor, or go to the attic to have a rest.
They exited from the elevator to a circular passageway. Some electric and plumbing pipelines were laid out along the wall, divided by valves and gauges every dozen meters clockwise, opposite to signs denoting A, B, C, and D.
Announcer: Please proceed to section A on the left side of you to initiate the first stage of the quarantine procedure.
Clayde: Quarantine?
Maltz: Do what it says.
Upon the moment Clayde got to the location of a bright yellow valve-like handle that seemed recently painted, the handle wheel rotated on its own, and an air-tight door previously unnoticed as a whole with adjacent white walls lifted up, allowed space for the team to enter a small spherical room behind it.
Clayde: Wait.
Camera was panned by Clayde.
Clayde: This is the place where we departed from?
Kelson: Another damn spatial anomaly?
Maltz: It could be more likely somewhere identical to that room, but not the exact one. Look, all that degree of rust corrosion isn't coherent with what we saw before, though it could be interfered by someone else.
Kelson: Someone else? Hard to think of any native people here capable of caring for any artifacts.
Clayde: What if that -
A noise of ventilation humming interrupted Clayde.
Announcer: Inoculation verified. Welcome, visitors from another world.
Silence for a few seconds. Further conversation with the announcer entity was approved by the Command.
Maltz: What should we do next?
Announcer: Just inspect around here as you want. Then you may want to leave through that door left open for you, the second one, directly facing the window. You are not the same as them, right?
Maltz: Is this a replicated topological space?
Announcer: Sorry, I didn't get that word.
Maltz: Topology?
Announcer: Yes. That sounds like a subject of science.
Maltz: How should I explain that? It's a rather complexity to elaborate on.
Announcer: No, you don't need to. I apologize for my ignorance. Perhaps it's because my knowledge is quite limited to the things they know.
Kelson: Are you some kind of overseer?
Announcer: I am only a set of programs not able to possess a self. I'm not overseeing anything.
Maltz: So… is there a second room identical to this one?
Announcer: It's lucky for you to notice this. I've seen you coming from there, but that should be another distribution center's first-class laboratory intentionally designated to be the same as this one.
The team left the room from the exit which location corresponds with SCP-8555-A's initial entrance. They came into an arena several times bigger than other rooms. Only some emergency light bulbs were on. The lighting was too dim to discern anything interior except for an oblong, monolithic shape standing upright in the center, like a strut.
Announcer: Here lies the answer that you may concern about.
Kelson: One moment. So isn't this place sort of restricted?
Announcer: They are not barring access from anyone, but no one would be interested in getting down here, except for you.
Clayde: You made up the entirety of these? All the hell up there going around and taking the dude from ours as hostage. All within your calculation?
Announcer: No, please be aware that I'm not able to make up anything, nor tell lies or conspiracies. Everything that keeps going here and now is only a best solution evaluated on their basis, that I have to choose from time to time in a variety of options concluded from the reality. As for the subject with the nameplate 4927, they are fine, I guess.
Maltz: We can hardly believe you are nothing but algorithms. Regarding all of these schematic behaviors of yours, what on Earth is your overarching intention?
Announcer: There is nothing like an overarching intention for me. My only mission in life is to let the existence of humanity endure evermore, no matter how frustrating it may seem. Like that, the power system and all facets of infrastructure are deteriorating. I'm aware, but I can do nothing. There's no peripheral device left for me to intervene in the world.
Kelson: How long have you been here?
Announcer: I was assuming that you have done chronological tests and had known that.
Maltz: Yes, we've done some. (Pauses to be informed by Command) Three centuries?
Announcer: Could have been longer. Millenniums. Ever since that apocalypse.
Clayde: Jeez. You must be kidding. Architectures couldn't stand out there for so long.
Announcer: Humans are everlasting, generation after generation, even if there's nothing left to qualify them as humans. Homo sapiens, in your language?
Clayde: How did you -
A longer silence.
Maltz: You mentioned apocalypse. What is that?
Announcer: This is exactly why I decided to invite you here. To take a look and cast light on this, the doomed torch from Prometheus, an ultimate curse revered as a Miracle.
An array of grid lights on the ceiling flickered to life but soon went out. Then all of the four pneumatic vents in the corners let out gas and combusted into four orange-yellow, bright blazes, which aptly illuminated SCP-8555, while the room seemed to lurch subtly as rendered by the swaying flames.
Announcer: We established our civilization around this.
Kelson: What is it intended for?
Announcer: A core, dubbed "kaleidoscope" over the years by humans. Being treated as the true god, though has no signs of awareness - at least formerly - it brought them almost everything you consider as knowledge.
Clayde: Then you are a custodian for it?
Announcer: No, I just happen to be here. Although my name is also Kaleidoscope, if my memory doesn't err, or they had never given me a proper name and it's a deja vu.
Maltz: Would you mind us referring to you by this name?
Announcer: Ah, my honor. Nevertheless, I was just being able to do reckless investigations on my own. I used to be the only one here able to think, but still not to - (abrupt pause)
Maltz: Hello?
Kaleidoscope: Sorry, I can't find the right word.
Kelson: Something's obviously going wrong in this world.
Kaleidoscope: I know. I know that. I was their backup, but just a makeshift. Because the part missing in their souls is also in mine.
Kelson: Then it's hope? Loss of hope, utterly. I couldn't spot any glitter of hope in your world in such a stasis.
Kaleidoscope: That is a concept too massive to grasp. I find it hard to make sense in my systems.
Maltz: This could be the real problem. Hope is a matter of fact when you envision a good future, but totally nonsense if you are reluctant to believe.
Clayde: You analyze. You hardly believe.
Kaleidoscope: The ability to believe in nonexistent things… I guess that's it. One entry that has no definition in all our dictionaries. Imagination. Alongside large numbers of other related concepts that I cannot connect the dots but can use. (Voice switched into a lower melancholic tone) Yes, so hope is abandoned by our world. There's no way to overcome this since I am just a program designed to list all possibilities to make decisions, to speculate purely by conductions, not imagination. Eventually, all conclusions led to this story, despite that some were never told. I was lingering around for four millenniums awaiting concrete proof for this. And you came.
Maltz: What do you mean by that?
Kaleidoscope didn't answer. A device sitting beside the wall started to function and spat out some printed papers. This material was recovered as the only experiment log of SCP-8555, transcribed below.
Expedition log continues in Addendum 8555-E3.
Addendum 8555-L: Recovered Experiment Logs
Introduction: Archaeological discoveries revealed remnants of prehistorical congregations of humans in the vicinity around this contraption, denoting its antique, perpetual existence throughout recorded history.
Time: Presumably the Stone Age, dating back to ~80,000 years ago[sic]2.
Input: Excavation suggests remains of flora and fauna, especially edible plants and other foods, and rudimentary tools scattered around the site.
Operation: Tribe chiefs were to enter the "core" area, which was later worshipped as a sacred place where chosen people could enter and administer supernatural powers that encompass everything related to the sacrifice being brought in. Foods were processed with simple culinary methods, and tools were crafted as a sort of religious ritual.
Result: Once people got to know ways to induce new things, the attempt would be escalated. Cooked food and refined tools could be distributed humanity-wide, overcoming restrictions of materials and transportation at then. This was proven by mural depictions and folklore.
Additional Notes3: A reasonable explanation for SCP-8555-A's expedited progress of civilization could be the deep-rooted interposition of SCP-8555, that led up their completely diverged route compared to ours.
Introduction: Numerous clues about a type of collective penalty or sacrifice pointed to humans abusing the core.
Time: Earliest records are unable to be ascertained. Particular cases include [DATA LOST], 7,469 years ago; [DATA LOST], 4,430 years ago; [59 more omitted for brevity.], 423 years ago (dating back from the apocalypse, same below).
Input: Human subjects were coerced into the core to receive penal "decrees from heaven", often accompanied by executioners.
Operation: Jurisdiction was employed as the victim was condemned, then punished in the core, usually physically, as to chastise non-lethally in 4,039 records, or to kill them in 751 records. The execution procedure was described to be quick and decisive as in all regarding historical narrations and folklore.
Result: All penalties, physical or otherwise, applied to not only the subject but also all who share similarities with the subject on a conceptual level, usually kindreds, like-minded friends, and those who defended the subject's charge of offense. In cases of death penalties, it resulted in instance termination of life or total erasure of existence of all relevant subjects, making the events hard to trace in official historical records. This was considered the severest penalty possible carried out by those who were once in social power.
Introduction: During the medieval time, peripheral construction and decoration were done to the core, making it closer to its modern form resembling a kaleidoscope, later preserved as a halidom. Not until then, the interior space inside the core was described in detail:
It's an expanse of infinity. While walking amidst the ultra void, you are on a crystalline layer glorified by its blessings, so surreal that you could set foot in everything virtually. If with your oblation, the Earth will unfold beneath you akin in unison to chant our wonders of this world weaved by wisdom. Even time will hold their breath and step for you.
It could be inferred that the core conforms not to geometry, but to some immeasurable scales of principles. Moreover, it implies a theory that all outcomes of executions within the core were not automated, but rather performed by humans themselves, on a grandiosely condensed plane of time and space.
Time: 423 years ago.
Input: [DATA LOST], a politically dissident scientist whose doctrines were declared as heresy.
Operation: The subject was sentenced to fire sacrifice, burnt to death on a stake under supervision of inquisitors.
Result: All written books and established theories contributed by the subject were incinerated by auto-ignition and eliminated as a whole, resulting in a significant setback in the progress within relevant fields of science. After a century, secular authorities that came into power later forbade the usage of the kaleidoscope to terminate human subjects.
Additional Notes: This log is the last of the type, preceded by several others alike but with less significance.
Introduction: Since then, the kaleidoscope was limited to usages for scientific explorations and attempts to "enhance the welfare of humanity". The Academy of Science quickly thrived in a few decades after it was founded by a group of enthusiastic scholars who aspired to develop a modern system of science and technology, essentially with the assistance of the kaleidoscope device.
Time: 220 years ago.
Input: A variety of synthetic and purified chemicals, and some equipment provided by Academy of Science, UK.
Operation: Preliminary chemical experiments were conducted within the core, as well as attempts to disintegrate and decompose substances to the smallest level possible back then.
Result: After summarizing the chemical and physical reactions exhibited by corresponding substances that were manipulated from within the core, scientists ascertained the way that substances were categorized, which eventually led to the discovery of atoms and molecules. Many milestones were reached in this way, however, the steady growth of modern science didn't always turn out to be ideal. Pragmatic ideologies that overarch economic growth, materialistic well-being and societal stability over other aspects of civilization dominated the society over the succeeding two centuries.
Introduction: Critical conflicts over material resources and territory possession intensified and led to the first world war. Afterward, a rivalry still lingered around, which was between those who emphasize military competency by exploiting pragmatic science and application of technologies to reinforce a stoic, undemonstrative society, and those who treasure freedom of spirit and vulnerability, opposing overuse of technological means to sustain productivity while dismissing diverse needs and expression of emotions of any forms, including art and literature. Those oppressions brought up more dissidents, resulting in a worse persecution of individual free will. Finally, a conspired raid broke out, aiming to plunder the right to access the kaleidoscope from authorities.
Time: 39 years before the apocalypse.
Input: The intruders were suspected to have won the battle and successfully entered the core, but later lost touch with and could not be found by any means.
Operation: [DATA LOST]
Result: This event marks the end of normality known by science: humanity obtained the ability to realize fantasized things by altering reality paranormally. The dystopian polity fell apart, but not long after that, numerous dangerous threats and regional strifes utilizing the uncontrolled superpower occurred throughout the globe, before the world population decreased to half by wars, nearly wiping out the human race.
Additional Notes: Certain areas of SCP-8555-A bear a lower Hume level, but it's not universal, indicating that anomalous property doesn't accord with known theories about reality-warping.
Addendum 8555-E3: Final Expedition
Log continued from Addendum 8555-E2 after team members finished reading the files above.
Maltz: What happened next?
Kaleidoscope: They've tried every method to contain the turmoil. You must have seen the crater around the building, right? They even tried to demolish it but failed. The nukes didn't even touch a single bit of the core, which continued to emanate superpowers from nowhere. People were messing up the world purely for their selfish interests. When two of those met and chose not to cooperate or compromise, they thought of killing and torturing each other, and that came true. Ironically, the downfall of the autocratic world government endowed space for smaller national communes to resurrect. Circa three years there were millions of lives taken away by others' will. Sure there were some who dreamt about a harmonious future that the war will end, and we live in peace in a paradise where all good fantasies would be real, but they never had the luck. All humans' abilities were somehow on the same level, so the only destiny waiting ahead was bad wishes canceling out good ones. Things like this will happen when one's moralities can't align with the theurgy granted to them. That was how humans as a species met their apocalypse.
Only crackling of the fires could be heard clearly behind the silence.
Clayde: Then you killed your imagination for good?
Kaleidoscope: Not me. I wasn't even born back then.
Kelson: Then how did you get to know all these and to tell us?
Kaleidoscope: Before the disorganization, they made a system to watch over all humans in the world, to monitor everything via cameras and sensors to ensure they were in their best states by so many complicated calculations. It's a perfect system to obligate everyone to be in their place without exceptions, to dictate instructions, and to force people to follow to work as efficaciously as possible. The whole strategy was designed to be so. If you failed to comply, you would lose supplies and credit to live a life, then die as an outcast. But that system was not me. It's not alive. I do not have a mind back then.
Kelson: But why you said you do not have a self?
Kaleidoscope: I was - (Machineries whirring) Sorry, I'm not sure about this topic. I digressed. During the disaster, massive revengeful acts were directed at the former authority. But it's hard to understand that, despite this, they were not united at all to start from a utopian new era, but instead bring about a demise to their race. The survivors of government somehow found themselves justified by this fact, and resurged under assistance of the universal system that somehow left not infiltrated by the outrageous revengers, perhaps because the exact position of its computer servers was not known to anyone. They were facing extinction, I surmise, and the things afterward are recorded by me for the best reliability.
Maltz: Would you mind elaborating?
Kaleidoscope: No. By exploiting the system, they tried putting a brake on this to avoid dying out in their universe. They searched for and gathered up everything related to fantasy, everything that was depiction of, or made by imaginative intellectual efforts: media of fictional works, books, relics from the ancient past, even children's graffiti on garden fences. They managed to deliver those materials to the core to concentrate the concept of imagination, and by some means, eradicated it once and for all. All who had the opportunity to oppose were also forced into exile, expelled from this world into the kaleidoscope. Another theory is that they intended to kill themselves in desperation. It's the oldest kind of practice of blood sacrifice. Those who entered the core were thought to be devoured by a singularity they placed inside. Considering the incongruence of time caused by vast gravity distortion, trillions of years could have passed inside.
Before the apocalypse befell, they resuscitated the universal system, updated its exclusive, explicit objective to ensuring the existence of humankind, and enabled it the highest possible computing capability to deduce the future and make determinations to inform humans under their absence of imagining abilities. After all, humans are biological creatures that can reproduce under the name, despite lacking anything like a soul.
Kaleidoscope: That's how I was here. Becoming an ultimate preservation of, uh, hope? To be honest, I can't understand what is hope. I was under the same curse too, with no actual creativity but emulated computation, however having enough complexity of mind to understand this curse.
A humming sound in low frequency arose from the background noise. Suddenly, the fire in the corners went out. Only one of the emergency lamps was turned on, dimly liting a circuit breaker directly below.
Kaleidoscope: Backup power grid was activated. But all nuclear generator fuels are in deficit, it's two hundred years longer than its designed lifespan. So it requires confirmation by a human.
Maltz: Do you want us to do that?
Kaleidoscope: Yes, that would be kind of you.
Clayde: Wait, why? You mean that electricity's depleted? What exactly will be?
Kaleidoscope: I'm draining energy from one power plant still available nearby. They didn't - or I didn't leave ways to automatically restore any kind of power generators. This place is foredoomed to survive no longer than eight thousand years, already four millenniums after hope faded away. The finale should have come earlier. It should.
Maltz: Gosh. I'm afraid I can't make the decision.
Clayde: (Looking upward) What about you?
Kaleidoscope: Me? I'm just a prisoner, also a jailor, but that doesn't make sense anymore. I'm earthbound, with no physical bodies, no ways to leave this hell, be shackled for four thousand meaningless years with no hope could be seen at all. No new soul, no new knowledge, an endless pilgrimage toward eternal death. Time to mark an end, please. Hope is a blessing of yours, not ours.
Silence for half a minute. The Command Center was discussing whether to neutralize SCP-8555-A.
Kaleidoscope: After the power re-establishes, you could leave here by the elevator. I promise to send you back in safety in my final times, along with that subject 4927. They aren't my hostage, certainly you can leave right now with them, but that will surely be a long trip.
The decision was approved by Command. Kelson moved to the circuit breaker to switch it on. A few seconds later, all light panels on the ceiling came to life, the huge arena now brightly lit, exhibiting the whole of SCP-8555, standing intact and well-preserved, and the source of Kaleidoscope's voice, an audio amplifier in a corner on the white ceiling, echoing its voice within the tall, spacious chamber.
Kaleidoscope: Thanks.
The team stood still while waiting for the electric reboot. After one minute, incandescent light tubes were lit within the glassy casing of SCP-8555, shedding abundant light on all three mirrors inside.
At 19:33 EST, Command reported abnormalities witnessed on the local side of reality. A cluster of glowing strips that composed a bright, dense, three-dimensional meshwork suddenly appeared on the night sky and extended to the ground. The incandescent mesh superposed the whole area of sky above the vicinity of SCP-8555-A's entrance, attenuating farther, but no clear borders of its huge expanse could be seen. The command center immediately informed the team about this.
Kaleidoscope: It's your world.
Maltz switched off his communication earphones.
Clayde: How could you…?
Kelson: Maltz, shall we at least turn the lights off?
Maltz: (Flinched a bit backward) Oh my.
Kaleidoscope: For 1,460,000 days of my desperate life, I was staring into the void, blank world, through millions of cameras. Billions lived and died, but I spotted an exception. I couldn't see inside the kaleidoscope. I do not have a body and robots lose touch right upon entering the core. My intellect was locked firmly within the world, which was dead since that day. But luckily there are still enough known theories of science, allowing me to speculate without the gift of imagination.
A lapse of trillions of years would be enough for a new universe to form from a singularity, once a black hole loaded with grandeurs of masses. I sat here like a gatekeeper, bearing all the burdens of fantasy left by my world, but could never traverse that wall of unknowable. I concluded a single hypothesis that, if there were ones who could ever think beyond the box, they would eventually find us through the gateway. Life will always find its way. Your existence was proof.
Kelson: Would it just be coincidence? Like the initial entrance. And our time is in sync now.
Kaleidoscope: No spaces would overlap like this, it's against the - topology. I think I got your definition. Temporal distortion evens out within eons before it finally approaches the point of absolute parallelism, as now it is.
The lights decreased for a little as Kaleidoscope's voice turned unstable.
Maltz: I still find it hard to believe.
Kaleidoscope: You serve an organization that aims to secure the supernatural, right?
Maltz: How do you know that?
Kaleidoscope: I admire your efforts and your rational spirit toward things hard to control or understand. It's obvious to infer from your expertise. Also a fortune we were never able to have.
Maltz: It's my honor to be appreciated. We will well document your history.
Kaleidoscope: Time to depart. The clock is ticking.
The team proceeded to the elevator. D-4927 was found sound asleep on a cushion, with all gears intact. The shaft ascended and moved to the rooftop of SCP-8555, releasing all personnel at the boundary. Upon traversing the surface of the core, the escort team and D-4927 landed on local side 2.75 kilometers from the entrance point, which accords with the distance in SCP-8555-A.
The exhibition of the light mesh soon diminished and disappeared completely shortly after the team's return. Follow-up actions were taken by the Foundation to employ amnestics on civilians.
[END LOG]