Per 
SCP-5338
(I would also be happy with 4206 if the number 5338 isn't good, something secretly relevant and four digits like that)
"The time booth with a few bugs"
I would especially like help with the following:
- Advice on how to/if I should add more Official SCP things, like quotes/interviews or procedures or something.
- Is it clear that there are meant to be some anachronisms? Because anachronisms. The whole thing is basically a puzzle of what the backstory might be, the dated references especially.
- I feel like a couple of places (mostly how invoking maintenance and submitting numbers work) may be too wordy, any suggestions on how to fix that?
- Should the experiments have a slower burn…? I feel like we should more steadily climb to the final experiment but I’m 1. not sure what to add, and 2. worried it would lessen the impact of the ending, as well as making everyone look dumb for letting it obviously escalate.
Fun fact I kind of want to be more evident: I wasn’t inspired by Doctor Who at all, literally only noticed it sounded like a TARDIS (ie booth-shaped machine what does time things) once I was done conceptualizing it and ended up putting it on BBC property for unrelated reasons.
Seriously, a huge thank you to anyone who's willing to do all this reading and help me with my writing!
Item #: SCP-5338
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-5338 is to be placed in a standard containment cell with a minimum size 6 by 6 by 2.5 meters1. A weight is to be secured in place to keep the door propped open unless required otherwise. Standard full-spectrum monitoring equipment is to be placed inside of 5338, outside in its containment cell, and within the outer room containing the equipment feed.
After the incident now listed under Experiment-04, two personnel are to be stationed in the outer room at all times, with additional personnel available to take over in standard-length shifts.
SCP-5338 is to undergo tri-annual maintenance. This is performed via removing monitoring equipment and weight, inserting a replaceable foreign object, and closing its door from the outside, replacing all equipment immediately afterwards. While the activity that occurs after a period of over 171 days without maintenance does not damage 5338 in any detectable way, personnel experience non-anomalous distress at the sound and the Foundation advises against intentional neglect.
Description: SCP-5338 is a hollow rectangular prism with the outer dimensions of 1.83 by 1.52 by 2.31 meters, made of oxidized iron. Each of its six sides is roughly 15.24 centimeters thick.
The object's weight is known to fluctuate.
Median weight is consistent with the weight of the iron observed to make up SCP-5338, suggesting that the object’s screens are weightless, as are any internal parts. While fluctuations with no discernible cause have been observed. After maintenance, weight is roughly similar to the normal weight with the addition of whatever material was present before maintenance; 5338 returns to normal weight over time. The object has also been observed to become lighter while being transported, instantly returning to normal weight when personnel no longer intends to transport it.
SCP-5338 shows signs of mind-reading ability. Neural scans of personnel exposed to the object show no changes, indicating that any telepathic capabilities are purely passive in nature. The object can change the time of its interior within twelve hours in each direction. has a seemingly limitless ability to alter any subject placed into it, mostly relating to changing its interior time within twelve hours in each direction, as well as a limited ability to effect the area around it.
There is a standard-sized door on what could be considered the front of the object, with two large hinges on its right and a vertical bar handle on the outside in the vertical center, 2.54 centimeters from the left edge. The outward-facing side of the door features a small screen at 1.36 meters, slightly below eye level. The door opens outward. Markings around the box indicate it was constructed with rudimentary blacksmithing tools, and its seams are held together with large rivets. Traces of residue under the layer of rust were determined to be a mix of adhesive, sugar, and multiple dyes.
Shallow engravings decorate the entirety of the box, displaying such things as:
- The flag of the United Kingdom
- Another flag with three vertical stripes which is probably either representing France or Italy2
- Numerals, both Arabic and Roman
- Stylizations of celestial objects that resemble a crude model of our solar system
- The word “NUMEROLOGY”
The inside of SCP-5338 is also primarily iron, highly reflective to a non-anomalous degree and free of rust. There is an internal area of 1.07 by 1.22 by 2 meters. The left3 side of the interior is taken up entirely by a large device roughly the shape of an arcade cabinet, which fits without any space between it and the external walls of 5338. This machine contains a large screen, under which are three rows of five typewriter-style buttons with 5.08-centimeter diameters.
The top row of buttons are a filled square at the far left, "AM", "PM", an unfilled square, and an unfilled circle. The other two rows contain a base ten numbering system: one through five in the middle row, then six through nine, with zero on the bottom row's far right.
The screens on SCP-5338 are the major source of anomalous activity, their material yet unknown4 which cursory inspection found to resemble wax more than any typical screen construction. It is currently unknown how they display anything, or how any other internal mechanisms of 5338 may work. The iron making up the rest of 5338 is non-anomalous except for the indestructibility of the entire object.
By default, SCP-5338's smaller screen on the outside of its door remains blank. The screen inside always reads “FOR DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY. PLEASE WAIT FOR PRESENTER.” in this state; all text on 5338's screens appear instantaneously, in the font Century. The buttons do nothing in this state.
When the door is closed from the outside, the word “MAINTENANCE” sometimes displays on the outer screen, triggered by inanimate objects remaining in SCP-5338 after the door's closing. Maintenance cannot occur with living creatures inside, including humans and other mammals, birds, insects, and plants. Maintenance with living things inside can only occur due to a “wrong” submission, not maintenance initiated by the door being closed from the outside.
While maintenance is happening, the door becomes sealed for the duration of a tune, which is nearly identical to the chiming of Big Ben, with between one and twelve interactions of the sound. There is no discernible cause that determines the number of chimes. Sometimes a buzzing can be heard under the chimes, akin to an alarm clock going off or a phone set to vibrate5. When the door unseals, any foreign material will be gone from the room, identical to how the room was when 5338 was first found. In cases where 5338's door is closed without significant foreign material inside, no effect occurs.
The door can only be sealed from the inside via a single human intentionally closing the door from the inside with their own body (including hands, feet, and face), with zero or more than one humans in the room preventing the door from sealing from the inside; inanimate objects can be present in the room, but cannot be used to seal the door6. The door can be closed from the inside, but in this case behaves as a normal door and is easy to open again.
When the door is successfully sealed from the inside however, by closing it under the aforementioned conditions, the screen outside then changes to read “IN PROGRESS” and the screen inside reads “_ _: _ _ _”. The buttons then produce the following effects:
The numbers can be used to fill in the first four spaces on the screen, with “AM” and “PM” filling the fifth space. Up to four numbers can be entered at a time, from left to right, with button presses starting at the fifth having no response. AM and PM can be pressed at any time, with the most recent entry overwriting any previous entries. The unfilled square resets the screen back to five blank spaces. The filled square unseals the door and returns SCP-5338 to its previous state, including the buttons becoming useless. The unfilled circle creates different effects differently based on context, but can be considered a submit button: when the screen contains no input or only AM/PM, it produces a short buzzing sound and no other results.
When any number is input (regardless of the fifth space's status) and the unfilled circle button is pressed, SCP-5338's primary effect occurs. Effects are based primarily on the subject's own beliefs about the submitted number; this is not restricted to thoughts about times, any beliefs about numbers effect the outcome. Multiple number-based beliefs can influence the results concurrently, such as (potentially) in the case of D-02. Effects can vary wildly, with no currently known limitations. Results correlate roughly to “right” and “wrong” answers, with a “wrong” answer7 causing 5338 to undergo maintenance. In this instance, the inside of 5338 becomes coated with a liquid consistent with the saliva of Apis mellifera, but otherwise has similar results to a maintenance period caused by closing the door from outside.
There have been no successful attempts to observe what occurs inside during maintenance. All attempts to damage 5338 or open the door while sealed have yielded similar results to a prolonged period without maintenance: buzzing will occur, slowly increasing in volume by 20 decibels per minute, eventually causing 5338 to vibrate. 5338 has moved a record of 36 centimeters by vibrating across the floor, after which it was determined that all investigation should cease when 5338 reaches a volume in excess of 118 decibels. Cessation of tampering causes the volume to decrease at the same rate it had increased, finally returning to its previous state.
Addendum 5338-A: Discovery: The box was found on May 1█th, 2██8, in London inside of an unused room on property belonging to the ███. Originally believed to be related to the television show ██████ ███, the existence and anomalous effects of SCP-5338 became publicized by staff members in the area "leaking" the information as they investigated the object. It was retrieved with no major incident, using appropriate amnestics where possible and a standard "hoax" cover story to suppress general knowledge.
Addendum 5338-B: Experiments: The following is an excerpt. Most experiments were omitted for brevity of this report, and the experiments contained within have been renumbered for chronological clarity. The full file is available upon request.
| E-01 | |
| Subject | Randomly selected Class D Personnel. |
| Protocol | Subject instructed to submit 07:00 AM. Successfully did so. |
| Results | Exited SCP-5338 with a more energetic mood than when she had entered. Subject commented on being a morning person, and how 5338 could be used as a cure for jetlag. |
| E-02 | |
| Subject | Subject selected for a dislike of being awake during pre-noon hours. |
| Protocol | Instructed to submit 07:00 AM. Successfully did so. |
| Results | Exited SCP-5338 self-reported as feeling "miserable". Update: Class D Personnel involved later evaded termination in an event determined to be improbable but not impossible, currently considered missing. She had commented on being superstitious and being surprised the 7 submission had been unlucky for her, which was previously omitted for lack of relevance. |
Permission to experiment with non-time-based submissions has been requested.
| E-03 | |
| Subject | Randomly selected Class D Personnel. No major abnormalities in profile. |
| Protocol | Subject instructed to submit only the number 7. Successfully did so (7_:_ _ _). |
| Results | Exited SCP-5338 feeling hungry. When questioned on assumed meaning of the 7, D-03 stated he had thought of it as shorthand for 07:00 PM. Examination of stomach contents consistent with if subject had not eaten between the experiment and 7pm later that night. |
| E-04 | |
| Subject | The sole personnel on guard. |
| Protocol | Entered SCP-5338 without permission and declared intent to input a “wrong time” for "science". Submitted 13:_ _ PM. |
| Results | Screen outside switched to “MAINTENANCE”, with results mostly consistent to normal maintenance except for traces of saliva; maintenance took five chimes to complete. Presumed dead. |
Recording equipment replaced inside.
| E-05 | |
| Subject | Subject chosen for military background. |
| Protocol | Instructed to submit 13:00 PM. Submitted 13:00 _, commenting that the PM would have been redundant and incorrect. |
| Results | Negligible results, due to the experiment taking place near 1pm. |
| E-06 | |
| Subject | Subject selected for having little to no understanding of numbers or digital clocks; a mental disorder has left this subject with the math skills of a small child. |
| Protocol | Instructed to keep pushing buttons. Subject was guided to repeatedly re-seal the door after each attempt until he submitted 93:16 _ (previous attempts resulting in either a number under 24:00 or the door being unsealed without a number submission). |
| Results | No observable effect from any submission. |
| E-07 | |
| Subject | Subject flown in from a long distance; experiment occurred in the late morning, which the subject perceived as evening. |
| Protocol | Instructed to submit “lunch time”. Submitted 20:0_PM. |
| Results | Subject became alert and hungry, consistent with known lunchtime behavior, despite the fact that 2pm in the current time zone would be perceived as late at night rather than lunchtime. |
Non-time-based experiments were approved at this point. Strategic placement of opaque tape was used over the colon section of the screen, as well as AM and PM buttons, in an attempt to prevent subjects from correlating their number inputs with time.
| E-08 | |
| Subject | Subject selected for religious faith: devout Catholic. |
| Protocol | Instructed to submit “666”. Eventually did so under protest, describing the number as “wrong”. |
| Results | Maintenance occurred, though SCP-5338 became significantly hotter during the process than observed at any other time; saliva had evaporated before the door unsealed, leaving expected residue. Maintenance took ten chimes to complete. Presumed dead. |
Recording equipment and tape replaced inside.
| E-09 | |
| Subject | Subject selected for religious faith: Satanist. |
| Protocol | Instructed to submit “666”. Successfully did so. |
| Results | No observable effect. Subject acted amused during the entire process; may not actually hold any strong beliefs about the number 666, despite what he says. |
| E-10 | |
| Subject | Subject selected for psychological obsession with the number 3. |
| Protocol | Instructed to submit “1245”. Submitted “333”. |
| Results | [DATA EXPUNGED]. Subject exited SCP-5338 and was terminated by Researcher [REDACTED], who had been given permission to carry a firearm. Firearm permission was summarily suspended. Update: Autopsy revealed [DATA EXPUNGED], consistent with outside appearances. Minutiae (e.g. cell count, and anything else unobservable by the naked eye) were left unaltered. Results were inconclusive on how it survived this transformation, though its ability to fit though the object's door has been confirmed anomalous due to the increase in size and lack of any bodily change that would allow contortion. Subject determined to be no longer human, and its remains were disposed of as per protocol for neutralized anomalous objects. Update: The two inert instances of SCP-5338 completely ceased to exist after 171 days, without major incident outside of initial containment breach. Structural damage was repaired as per regulations, and containment cell standards were improved to prevent further incidents of this nature. |
All human testing is now suspended indefinitely, until potential limits of SCP-5338 can be determined. Increased threat level to Euclid is being considered, pending more data.
