Hey guys, TheDoctor1998 here with another chapter. This time we're going for the Lock, as well as some mention of one of the largest tales I've seen to flesh it out a bit more.
Now, on with the show!
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Doctor Nori appeared on the screen. "Good afternoon everyone, my name is Doctor Nori, and today we're going to be studying one of the SCP-001 proposals. Specifically, the proposal of the researcher only known as qntm, AKA the Lock.
Lilith scribbled in her notes. "A lock to what, though?"
Item #: SCP-001
Containment Class: Safe
Secondary Class: None
Disruption Class: Dark
Risk Class: Notice
"Thank the Titan." Skara breathed a sigh of relief. After seeing a message from the future that described the end of Luz's world, it would be nice to see something harmless.
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-001 is to be kept locked along with all data pertaining to it inside the Primary Archival Vault on Sub-Level 1 of Site 10. The Vault is a custom-manufactured, reinforced concrete and steel, vertical octagonal prism (see Appendix U for full schematics) with a 2000-kg, 0.9-m-thick, time-locked access portal in the ceiling. The time-locking schedule should be classified and available only to Dr. Y. Mirski. Access is conditional on three-factor authorization (e.g. keycard+fingerprint+passphrase). SCP-001 is among the safest artifacts in the Foundation's possession and these measures are primarily intended to prevent theft.
Eda suddenly started sporting a massive, shit eating grin on her face. If she still had both her hands, she'd be rubbing them together. "Ohh, mama likes a challenge."
"Eda, please." Luz begged her cursed mother. "Don't make that Foundation notice you."
Description: SCP-001 is a smooth, black, perfectly ellipsoidal (~15.1 cm x 15.4 cm x 16.5 cm) onyx gemstone with a mottled white pattern. Wrapped around its exterior, encompassing its equator and both poles, is a complex and layered fractal filigree of gold metal. The gold is sculpted into broad strokes at what is now usually agreed to be the lower or "south" pole of the object, but with increasing "latitude" the pattern becomes progressively more intricate. Near the "north" pole, also called the "lock" or "singularity" (see acquisition report, below), the pattern complexity progresses beyond the capability of optical or electron-beam microscopes to resolve. Further investigation is pending advances in microscopy technology.
"It glitters and shines and I must have it for my nest." Eda's eyes sparkled at the sight of the anomaly.
Luz and King only put their claws over their eyes at the actions of their mother.
The gemstone continuously emits a small quantity (~34.5007 to 34.5010 mW) of thermal radiation in the microwave range. As a result, the gold filigree is warm to the touch. The white mottled areas emit fractionally more radiation than the black onyx areas.
Other than this, SCP-001 is totally inert. It is opaque to all forms of electromagnetic and hard radiation, and, so far, indestructible (see log for Project Pluto, below). Its onyx/gold composition is guessed from visual inspection, since the taking of samples for chemical analysis has proven impossible.
"So it's just an indestructible trinket?" Raine asked.
"Seems like it." Darius said to his fellow Coven Head.
Project Pluto Master Log
The following experiments have failed to open SCP-001:
conventional lockpicking
Not exactly impressive to the Demon Realm natives, many spells existed that made it impossible to break in somewhere without the use of magic.
brute force assault with hammer, chisel, sledgehammer, bolt-cutters, welding torch, bandsaw, etc.
sustained heating to 5000 degrees Centigrade in industrial furnace (artifact reflected all thermal energy, did not increase in temperature)
Edric whistled. "Now that's a durable gem!"
direct application of industrial cutting laser (~160 kW/cm2 concentrated on the "lock") (artifact reflected all energy)
Alador had to ask. "Lasers?"
Camila, the resident science fiction nerd among the group, easily answered. "It's a highly concentrated beam of light, hot enough to cut and melt through most things."
"Interesting." He wondered if he could use that idea with one of his inventions.
compression in vice, car crusher, hydraulic diamond-face press (all destroyed)
application of corrosive acids and other highly-oxidizing compounds (no reaction)
detonation of plastic and solid explosives up to 0.5 kt TNT-equivalent at point blank range (no effect)
detonation of a 15 kt TNT-equivalent atomic warhead at point blank range [authorization granted retroactively by Dr. Mirski] (no effect)
"They nuked it?!" Luz exclaimed in a panic.
"Luz, what does "nuked" mean?" Alador asked his future daughter in law.
The half titan winced. "Basically, us humans figured out a way to split atoms, which can release a lot of energy. As in, enough to create a bomb that's capable of wiping out the Boiling Isles on its own."
Everyone in the room who never heard about nuclear warheads before was shaken up by this revelation, even Alador started stuttering. "I-I see." Perhaps science can go too far.
Project Pluto is to be immediately terminated. - Dr Hack
Project Pluto is ongoing with the full support of Foundation resources. - Dr Mirski
"Well, if a nuke can't destroy it, I doubt anything can." Camila said, more amazed by the fact that something can survive that kind of power in the first place.
SCP-001 Acquisition Report
The earliest record of SCP-001 is in the handwritten journal of the minor Scottish aristocrat Sir Edwin Young, 3rd Baronet (1611-1677). As was customary at the time, Young kept a "Cabinet of Curiosities", a small room of artifacts of undetermined provenance such as sculptures, preserved creatures, and trinkets. Young's journal includes references to his acquisition in 1654 of "ane bouned jew'l of onycs and filigree gold, of fineneſs beyond rational ſtatement" while travelling across the Mesopotamian desert. The journal indicates that SCP-001 was found buried in the ruin of "a bitter, blaſted place, older than days", or what Young took to be a temple to "a fearſome death god". SCP-001 was found encased in stone at the centre of four enormous runic stones. Young's journal includes a sketch of the most readable side of the most well-preserved stone, but he was unable to read the runes or find a scholar who could translate them.
Lilith, being the history enthusiast that she was, scribbled down this information. "Something so old that it predates known human history!"
Eda just chuckled, happy to see that Lilly's pursuing her old interests again.
Young's account of his journey to the location of the ruin is incomplete. It has not yet been located.
Lilith's ears visibly dropped at that.
Young's "ſelections of curious provenance" lay in storage for several centuries after he died. In 1805, his descendants donated SCP-001 to the Scottish National Museum in Edinburgh. The curators of the museum regarded SCP-001 as an ancient, fragile, and priceless example of ancient Sumerian metalworking. They therefore failed to discover its anomalous warmth, its indestructibility, or its impossible microscopic-scale construction. They were, however, able to identify the runes in Young's sketch as Tertiary Sumerian Cuneiform, circa 3400 BCE. Only a partial translation is possible:
with loss and ? we/I ? [a noun] Apakht [probably a proper noun] on this ending/finality ? joy + permanence [possibly 'protection']
"Apakht?" King asked, feeling extremely uneasy after hearing that word. He didn't know why, but whatever's inside that thing should stay inside.
Mr. McCandlish, who performed the translation, noted:
This appears to be some sort of incantation or "spell of containment". "Apakht" is the name of whatever is imprisoned within the gemstone.
Luz was faring little better, her claws digging into the armchairs of the seat she was sitting on. She could feel her magic shifting with that word.
Amity noticed the shift in the mood of her girlfriend and her little brother. "Luz, everything okay?"
"No." The half titan said. "I don't know what this "Apakht" is, but I don't think that the titan in me likes it."
"That makes two of us." The last pure titan said. "Normally I'm all for a prison break, but I think that this prison is not one that should be opened up. And that's coming from the guy who freed the Collector."
SCP-001 was finally placed on semi-permanent display in 1949.
In 2003, Foundation staff observed that the mottled white patterns on the surface of SCP-001 resembled the cosmic microwave background, a pattern of microwaves encompassing the entire observable universe, as mapped by NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe earlier that year. Closer inspection showed the two patterns to be identical. SCP-001 (along with Baronet Young's journal) was immediately purchased by a Foundation front organization and transferred to Site 10 where Dr. Q. Hack and Dr. Y. Mirski performed initial routine analysis.
Lilith looked closer at the patterns, but was confused on what it was. "What is that cosmic background thing?"
Camila answered this time. "Essentially, an echo of the Big Bang that can be detected with the right equipment."
"The Big Bang?"
"The moment our universe was created." Camila explained. "We don't know how or why it happened, but we know that our reality suddenly expanded from an infinitely small point."
The witches and demons sat in silence. They seriously underestimated humanity if they could figure out how the universe was created. Sure, they knew that life popped up from the titans, and that the titans themselves popped up from the Demon Realm, but they didn't know how the Demon Realm itself got created.
Research continues under the auspices of Dr. Mirski, Dr. Hack having recently left the Foundation.
Young's journal also includes several detailed sketches of SCP-001. In one of the sketches a small ornate object resembling a key is shown fitted into its "north pole". The key has not been recovered.
Luz actually growled. She didn't know why, but she knew that that key needed to be destroyed at all costs. Or, at the very least, prevented from ever getting into its lock.
Doctor Nori appeared on the screen. "So, SCP-001. I don't know why it's been made a 001, but I can guess. And while I understand the curiosity of my colleagues, I think that this is one mystery that the Foundation's better off not knowing."
Even Lilith, avid historian that she is, couldn't help but agree on that. If the last two titans knew something was wrong, even if they didn't know what or why, then something would definitely be wrong.
Doctor Nori was shown holding SCP-001 in her mechanical hand, carefully observing the object. "You know, I once heard of an old tale in the region that this thing supposedly came from. According to the locals, the story's existed for thousands of years."
"Oh?" A woman next to her said. "What kind of tale?"
"The kind where hundreds of different variations exist." Nori deadpanned. "Many of the details are different in each iteration of the story, but one thing's always the same, Mirski."
"And what's that?" Dr. Mirski said.
"That one day, a being known as the Harbinger would seek a lock, and that it would put a key into it. And that once the key has been turned, every end of the world would happen at once."
The people in the room shuddered at that thought. "That's it!" Masha said. "Vee, I don't care how dangerous the Demon Realm is, it can't be any worse than that!"
"Yup." Vee said, her eyes wide at hearing that story.
Emira was extremely nervous. "I mean, it's just a story right? Right?"
Barkus barked, saying that, while he can't see into the future of the Human Realm, he could sense that something was off about that Lock. And clearly, he wasn't the only one, as he pointed out that both resident titans felt the same when they heard about this Apakht.
"It gets worse." Yahweh said. "All the beings who'd herald the end of the world from every religion, from the grand and well known ones to the ones from ancient tribes long forgotten, would rampage across the Earth, trying to make their destiny happen. Even me and my angels would have difficulty fighting against all that."
"You'd want the end of the Human Realm to happen?!" Gus exclaimed.
"No, but everything has its end. At least, if I'm able to cause mine, a paradise would be created from the ashes." Yahweh said. "In any case, I think it's time for a break. Go, have some lunch, do whatever you please." And Yahweh vanished with a pop, leaving his guests to do as they please during the break.
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And that's a wrap. For those of you who were wondering about the story at the end, it's a reference to the largest tale that this SCP-001 is a part of, where the Lock causes every end of the world at once. TheDoctor1998 here, signing out!