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."
Adam scoffed. "Just a lock?" He muttered.
Item #: SCP-001
Containment Class: Safe
Secondary Class: None
Disruption Class: Dark
Risk Class: Notice
"Oh thank the lord." Emily muttered to herself, relieved that this SCP wasn't nearly as dangerous to the humans as the previous ones have been.
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.
"Hmm, betcha five bucks I'll be able to swipe that suckah." Cherri grinned, elbowing Angel.
"You're on, Sugartits!" Angel grinned back.
"Please don't steal from the living." Sera said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"Oh chillax, head genocider." The explosion maniac waved the Seraph off. "I'll give it right back. Gems ain't my style anyway, I just wanna do it for the thrill."
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.
"Ooohhh, pretty." Niffty said, her eye as wide as it could be.
"Now, I think she does wanna have it." Cherri said, grinning at the pained expression of the angel.
"Niffty dear, please don't take it from them." Sir Pentious smiled, gently discouraging the cyclops. "I don't think they'll like it when you take something from them."
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.
Adam's eyes widened, recognizing what it was. 'How the Hell did they find that thing?! I thought I buried it in the middle of nowhere!'
Project Pluto Master Log
The following experiments have failed to open SCP-001:
conventional lockpicking
Alastor simply snorted. Protection to that is considered child's play back in Hell, especially for those with abilities like himself.
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)
Lute raised an eyebrow. Not even angelic steel was able to resist that kind of heat.
direct application of industrial cutting laser (~160 kW/cm2 concentrated on the "lock") (artifact reflected all energy)
"Just stop trying, you losers." Adam muttered, his voice shaking slightly, much to the concern of both Sera and Lute.
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)
"What in the world is an "atomic warhead?"" Alastor asked, tilting his head in confusion.
"Well, long story short, the humans managed to find a way to split the atom-" The youngest Seraph started before getting interrupted by the King of Hell.
"They did what?!" Lucifer screamed, already knowing how destructive that can be. "Why the hell would humans even do that?!"
"War." Niffty answered, of all people, a haunted look in her eye.
Alastor then realized what they were talking about. He may have purposely kept himself ignorant of many things created after his death, but he knew what America did to Niffty's home country at the end of the second World War.
Specifically, what they did to Niffty's family before she emigrated, when she just happened to be out of town.
Alastor simply gave Niffty a one-armed hug, the tiny cyclops silently leaning into it while muttering some prayers in Japanese.
Project Pluto is to be immediately terminated. - Dr Hack
Project Pluto is ongoing with the full support of Foundation resources. - Dr Mirski
"Yeah, I don't think they're gonna open that one." Husk bluntly said.
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.
"A death god?" Emily asked, tilting her head. "Do they mean Azrael?"
"Maybe, maybe not." Vaggie shrugged. "Humans have made up a lot of gods over the years. This one could just be a forgotten one."
Young's account of his journey to the location of the ruin is incomplete. It has not yet been located.
"Thank fuck." Adam muttered. He knew exactly what this temple was, having built it himself and making sure that nobody would've been able to find it. If there's one thing he and that wife stealing cuck agreed with, it's that he severely underestimated his descendants.
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']
Lucifer froze. He only heard the word Apkhat once before, back when he was rooting around deeply within Heaven's grand libraries. Just rumors and almost forgotten legends, but nothing to indicate that it was anything good.
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.
"Fuck." Both Lucifer and Adam said at once before glancing at the other, both understanding that the other also knew that something was seriously wrong with this thing.
"What's wrong dad?" Charlie asked, worried at her father's reaction.
The fallen archangel simply sighed. "I'll explain it if the Foundation doesn't, honey."
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.
"They actually managed to find that?" Sera asked in amazement, seeing that humans had managed to find the echo of His birth and the birth of the Universe.
"I keep telling you to stop underestimating them, Sera." Emily said, rolling her eyes and momentarily forgetting that she was supposed to give her the cold shoulder.
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.
"Good." Adam growled. "If those morons know what's good for them, they won't waste time trying to put that key into the 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."
Pentious couldn't help but agree with his fellow academic. As much as he loathed Adam, he couldn't ignore it when both he and the ancient father of one of his best friends agreed with the cybernetic scientist.
Some secrets should stay hidden.
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."
"And they're still trying to open that thing up?!" Adam screamed. "For fucks sake, why do all my kids on Earth these days turn out to be fucking retarded or something?!"
"Sir!" Lute grabbed Adam on the shoulder, shaking him to get him back to his senses, continuing after he calmed down. "Sir, what are you talking about?"
"Erm." Lucifer awkwardly interjected. "Do you want me to talk about it oooorrrr?"
"No, you'd screw up the explanation anyway." Adam waved the Devil off, surprisingly chill to him. "Long story short, I hid that thing in that temple that professor shit found back when I was alive. Don't know if the story's true though, but that was what I was told by the Harbinger."
Sera quickly looked at him. "Why didn't you tell us about this?!"
"I thought she was one of you guys at the time, chillax!" The First Man defended himself. "Besides, I don't think I'd be able to stop her if I tried. She felt more powerful than you and Lucicunt."
"Hey!"
"Fuck you too, you bastard."
Sera simply sighed. "We'll talk about this, later." From the tone of the Seraph, it was clear that it wasn't up for discussion.
An awkward silence hung in the room before the next file played.
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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!