SCP-5000: The Payphone
Item Number: SCP-5000
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-5000 is to be locked within a standard humanoid containment cell, measuring 2.7 meters by 1.5 meters and 7 2.1 meters high. On a regular basis, a rotation of D-Class Personnel should answer the payphone when they hear it ringing.
SCP-5000 will ring between 12 and 24 hour periods, calls may be ignored but it is advised one call is answered every 168 hours. If SCP-5000 goes unanswered for over 168 hours, staff regularly operating within 2 square kilometers of the phone may occasionally hear a distant ringing or feel compelled to find the phone and answer it.
When answered, call duration must not last longer than 21 minutes, but shouldn't be fewer than 3 minutes. When answering a call from the payphone a researcher should be instructed to listen to all of their options before making a selection, with care not to select more than 42 consecutive choices. Responses will be made solely by using the payphones touch-tone keypad, numbers 1 through 9, #, and * are available at all times, though may not always lead to valid options.
At no point during the call are researchers allowed to verbally answer the voices on the payphone, doing so will result in immediate termination. If researchers reach such a point in the phone call that they are not able to proceed without verbal communication they should wait 45 seconds, and then proceed to hang up, unless within those 45 seconds a response via keypad becomes available.
Temporary Containment Procedure Update: (See Addendum 5000.1) Per the request of Lead Researcher Alan Obadiah, testing has begun to determine SCP-5000's means of communication, the evolutionary benefit of its neurotoxins, and ability to transfer consciousness to the Astral Plane.
Description: SCP-5000 is an unbranded payphone, circa 1993. At random intervals, often within a 24-hour window, the payphone will ring. When answered, conversationalists are greeted by SCP-5K-1, a voice claiming to be the "Announcer" of "OKAY Cola." SCP-5K-1 will then offer a number of options to listeners, including the option to hear OKAY Poetry, OKAY Testimonials, leave one's own testimonial, talk to a human representative, or various other options. This has been dubbed the "Main Menu." This phone menu closely resembles the actual "OK Soda" phone menu created by The Coca Cola Company in 1995 but perverts it. As a caller interacts with the Announcer, additional options will become available on the Main Menu, enticing callers to extend their call, and continue exploring the strange options.
After approximately 10 minutes have elapsed, callers will be unable to physically hang up the phone. Through repeated trials, it has been determined that SCP-5000 only resembles a payphone, and is actually a biomechanical creature, not unlike a venus flytrap, luring subjects to answer it's phone and engage until a neurotoxin has set in via the phone receiver, thus paralyzing them.
Despite the almost total paralysis, subjects have demonstrated the ability to continue vocalization or using the SCP-5000's keypad to continue the conversation.
After approximately ███ minutes, the subject enters a comatose state, at which point all movement or vocalization ceases. Shortly afterward, the neurotoxin wears off, at which point muscles relax and the subject goes limp, though is not deceased. Brain scans of comatose subjects have shown rapid bran activity as if dreaming vividly.
Unfortunately, efforts to fully record the phone menu have failed, as no actual auditory noise is emitted from SCP-5000, excluding when the phone rings. It is believed that SCP-5000 communicates telepathically, or transmits auditory sensation to subjects via touch.
Hypothesis from Senior Researcher Alan Obadiah
After initial testing, I've stumbled onto a strange thought- Something delivered to me in a dream, if you can believe it! What if SCP-5000 isn't just a strange creature presenting as a payphone, but what if it's actually an access point? A door!
We've been looking at the brain activity of comatose subjects, and we've concluded that they're in REM sleep, right? We thought they were just having lucid dreams, but what if they're actually consciously accessing the Astral Plane?
This would change a few things about our understanding of the creature… While it is still a predatory entity, it isn't seemingly "consuming" subjects, at least not physically. Why else would the neurotoxins wear off so quickly?
Perhaps it's feeding off of their conscience? Trapping them in a small bubble within the Astral Plane and consuming them over time? What happens if a subject physically dies?
We've been nourishing the comatose subjects, but if we let them wither and starve, would their conscience cease in the Astral Plane? Or was their conscience been stripped from their bodies the moment they made prolonged contact with SCP-5000?
There is much to consider…
| Subject |
Objective |
Results |
| D-93475 |
Test if communication is possible during SCP-5000 interaction |
D-93475 answered SCP-5000 on August ██, 20██. Subject was directed to interact with SCP-5000 via keypad only until such time as the conversation could not continue, the subject reached an impasse after 12 minutes. Subject began to recount their conversation, providing a partial transcription and mapping of the Main Menu, before being instructed to verbally engage with the OKAY Cola Representative (See Addendum 5000.3). Total comatose and non-responsiveness reached after ██ minutes. The research team waited for 72 hours with no response before moving onto the next trial. |
| D-94876 |
Test if communication is possible post SCP-5000 interaction |
Subject was instructed to answer SCP-5000, communicate freely for five minutes, and then hang up the phone. After the five minute period ended subject tried to end the call but found that while they could move, they could not release the receiver. Shortly thereafter, the subject reported a searing pain in their hand and found that their skin had melded with SCP-5000. A blade was produced to separate the subject's skin from SCP-5000, the blade was able to piece skin, but as it sliced SCP-5000 seemed to reform its grip on the subject's hand. By the time D-94876 was surgically separated from SCP-5000, neurotoxins had set in and the subject had fallen into a comatose state. |
| D-10201 |
Test if communication is possible post SCP-5000 induced coma. |
Subject strapped into a brain interfacing machine and then instructed to communicate freely with SCP-5000. As communication progressed subject's brain activity was monitored, a large spike in brain activity was noted 13 minutes into the experiment, approximately when neurotoxins are expected to have set in. After the subject fell into a coma state an attempt was made to communicate through the interface technology, basic communication was established via yes and no questions. |
| D-34912 |
Test if resuscitation possible post SCP-5000 interaction. |
As with the previous experiment, subject was strapped into a brain interfacing machine, and instructed to freely communicate with SCP-5000. Once subject fell into a coma basic communication was established, and resuscitation was attempted. After the third attempt, subject "awoke" and communication through the interfacing machine ceased, and brain activity drastically faltered. The subject was determined to be brain dead. An attempt was made to connect D-34912 with SCP-5000 but no interaction was noted. |
| MTF-ZZ-1: "Astralnauts" |
To test if there is a way "out" of the Astral Plane. |
(See Addendum 5000.2.1: MTF-ZZ-1 Exploration) |
Note from Senior Researcher Alan Obadiah
It's worked! We've established an actual connection between our physical world and the Astral Plane! Albeit a basic one, this opens up many possibilities. I'm going to refine some of my work, and then I hope to send a task force inside the Astral Plane!
MTF-ZZ-1 "Astralnauts" Exploration
Mission Parameters: Communicate with SCP-5K-2, "Carol", and determine if there is a way out of the Astral Plane.
Mission Date: January 16, 2020.
Team Members: ZZ-1 "Armstrong"
Notes: ZZ-1 was briefed about the current understanding of SCP-5000, and Researcher Obadiah's hypothesis. ZZ-1 was tasked with establishing contact with likely allies within the Astral Plane. Transcription was created thanks to Armstrong's repeating of what they "heard."
SCP-5000 rings.
Obadiah: Please initiate contact with SCP-5000.
Armstrong answers the phone, and listens to all of their options, before selecting 2 (OKAY Poetry). After listening to three different poems, Armstrong then returns to the main menu and selects 1. They listen to an OKAY Cola Testimony, then Armstrong hits a button and is connected to the OKAY Cola Representative, Carol. There is a pause as the phone connects to SCP-5K-2. //
Carol: Thank you for calling OKAY Cola, my name is Carol, and I'd be glad to help you today! If you'd like to record a complaint, press 1. If you want to- Are you an echo? You don't sound like me.
Armstrong: Sorry ma'am, I'm working with a team to learn more about this anomaly.
Carol: And they're transcribing what you say?
Armstrong: Yes ma'am. Carol, I'm from the Foundation. I'm told that you may be able to help me get out of here?
Carol: Oh, oh! Yes! Now, where are you, uhm, accessing us from? A rotary phone, cell phone, or-
Armstrong: A payphone, ma'am.
The sound of pages flipping can be heard.
Carol: Hmmm, that's a tough one dearie, but I think I may be able to help. You must go to The Black House… I can help get you there, but first you're going to have to go back to the Main Menu and find Charon.
Armstrong: Charon? I don't think I'm familiar with-
At this point Armstrong stopped talking, it is presumed the neurotoxins began to fully paralyze them.
//Aproximetly 21 hours later SCP-5000 rang, D-56219 was instructed to answer and relay what they heard. They reported hearing a gruff male voice, seemingly to sound from far away.
Unknown: Your voyeurism isn't appreciated. Stop sending trash in, this is the only one you get back.
32 minutes later, Armstrong awoke.
Addendum 5000.3: As noted during the earlier tests, some progress was made in "mapping" out SCP-5000's interface. Obadiah and his research team have compiled a list of known entities that subjects may communicate with when interfacing with SCP-5000.
| Designation |
Name |
Notes |
| SCP-5K-1 |
Announcer |
The first voice subjects hear when answering SCP-5000. It has often been described as sounding of having a slight British accent. SCP-5K-1 guides callers through the OKAY Cola Main Menu, while seemingly pre-recorded, on several occasions SCP-5K-1 has "broken character" when becoming extremely frustrated with a caller. Though on returning to the Main Menu |
| SCP-5K-2 |
OKAY Cola Representative "Carol" |
SCP-5K-2 can be reached from the Main Menu. Unlike the Announcer, SCP-5K-2 presents itself as an actual person, named "Carol" and begrudging "employee" of OKAY Cola. SCP-5K-2 has proven extremely beneficial in navigating the Astral Plane. |
| SCP-5K-3 |
The Lady of the House |
Interactions with SCP-5K-3 are often short, despite the fact that SCP-5K-3 gives callers many options, only few of these are actual paths, most are dead ends that redirect callers to the Main Menu. SCP-5K-3 resides in an area dubbed The Black House |
| SCP-5K-4 |
Samuel Shore |
Contact with SCP-5K-4 has yet to be established, but occassionally within the Main Menu, The Black House, and The Labyrinth, messages from Samuel Shore can be found. SCP-5K-4 claims to be stuck in a small room, somewhere within the vicinity of The Black House, reportedly after being "sucked in by a weird radio program about some soda." This has lead researchers to speculate that other similar instances of SCP-5000 exist, uncontained. |
| SCP-5K-5 |
The Resident |
Little is known about SCP-5K-5, but it has been determined to be hostile to the Foundation's intentions. Astralnauts that have come in contact with SCP-5K-5 have either been forced out of areas of the Astral Plane, or "killed" resulting in subject's brain death. |
| Location Name |
Description |
| Main Menu |
Here resides the Announcer, it is set up to closely replicate the actual OK Soda main menu, but through exploration, this façade falters, and one can find stark differences. Most commonly people are greeted with the option to listen to OKAY poetry, testimonials, uses of OKAY Cola, and a line that connects to the OKAY Representative. |
| The Black House |
This area of SCP |
| cell-content |
cell-content |
| cell-content |
cell-content |
Note from Lead Researcher Alan Obadiah
Yes, to us it's just a phone menu, and when you're standing there in front of SCP-5000 pressing buttons, it appears to be just a phone menu, but as you talk, as you wander through, this reality melts away and slowly you become immersed in the Astral Plane- A place of thoughts and dreams! I've tried to wrap my mind around how it works, even tried to push D-Class towards other observable spots within the Astral Plane- And that's our problem!
The Astral Plane is huge, massive!
SCP-5000 only connects to a small part- a neighborhood if you will, that is perhaps more cohesive than the rest of the Astral Plane.
Here we have our locations, The Black House, the OKAY Cola conglomerate, and the "houses" to all the other residents in this area. But to try and approach the dreams and thoughts of, say a staff member? Well, this neighborhood might as well be on a different planet!
This place is a dark spot in the Astral Plane. I fear that perhaps there is no way to truly break free from this neighborhood- Physically, sure. But mentally? Can we really cross from here to another spot in the Astral Plane? What would we find? Could we influence the masses?
All these questions could be answered, if only The Resident would stop slaughtering our men…
Hypothesis Two from Senior Researcher Alan Obadiah
Addendum 3: The following is a partial transcription of SCP-5000. This includes explorations into the Main Menu, the Black House, and various other threads that are currently incomplete.
Per 
