rccola

sauver la vache

Seeking Greenlights: yes

Page Type: SCP Article

Genre (Optional): Drama/Emotional

Page Layout (Optional): relatively standard description + incident (e.g. scp-5266)

Elevator Pitch: 19th-century French typewriter-like device can save lives at the cost of an equal number dying elsewhere. An XK/HK event starts. A researcher enters 'il monde' in the device and saves the earth, but at what cost?

Central Narrative:
The Device:

• two rows of brass keys of the Roman alphabet, 'saveur' and an input area, a crank on the side, and a voltaic pile attached.

Origin:

• Device was used by a man calling himself "Le Docteur" to heal people for money
• The foundation became aware reports of mysterious deaths and specifically of "Le Docteur" after reports that he'd cured Napoleon of the plague he'd contracted during the siege of Jaffa.
• Le Docteur was found dead under mysterious and gruesome circumstances with 'moi' input.

How the device works:

• SCP researchers discover that someone in mortal danger can be saved by typing their name into the device. However, a similar random person will die in a like manner as a result.
• Targets of the device must be in real mortal danger: inescapable drowning and decapitation, chronic illness, and deadly poison are all tested.
• This effect occurs for non-humans (i.e. cows) and for more than one person (e.g. an experiment of five D-class locked in a cage and submerged in water resulted in five deaths by inexplicable drowning at a nearby prison)

Incident report:

• A containment breach causes an HK event to start. People fall to their knees to venerate their new god.
• Dr █████ happened to be investigating the device and rushes to it.
• She enters 'il mond' and turns the crank wildly (surveillance shows this takes considerably longer than previous uses), and shouts "come on" and smacks the 'Oui' button as soon as it appears.
• HK event reverts.
• Dr. █████ is given a commendation and class C amnestics (commendation is classified)
• Device no longer appears to be operative. Still, the O5 council has ordered monthly testing in the event it becomes operative again.

Hook/Attention-Grabber: If you could save the world by pushing a button, but another would be destroyed, would you?

Additional Notes: Seeking advice. SCP-5099 awakening seemed like a good source of the HK event as well as a nice cross-reference to a six series. Suggestions welcome.

The Butterknife

'the butterknife'

premise is that in a popular 'forged in fire' type competition someone makes an SCP

• person who made the blade had no knowledge about what they were making but found the design and/or special materials for making from an unknown source. They confess to the camera that they know very little about forging but are hoping to win the show's monetary prize.
• They appear to go into a trance during the forging.
• the forging of the blade involves unusual visual artifacts seen by the camera e.g. purple flame and strange shadows in the corner of the frame. the camera is seen to move erratically as if the cameraperson saw something. Possibly ice is seen forming on the outside of the forge. The person forging the blade at one point chants in a deep monotonous tone that other contestants complain about. He also keeps doing unorthodox things during the forging that the judges crack jokes about, but nervously.
• The knife forger pulls out a leather flask that is filled with a red liquid similar to blood visually and quenches the blade in it. Judges talk about how this will make the blade brittle and don't appreciate the showmanship. Another contestant complains about the smell.
• The resulting blade appears rounded, dull, and cracked. The judges, surprisingly, speak of its superb craftsmanship and approve it for the next round. Other contestants are visibly outraged by the decision.
• During the testing phase the knife is shown to be unnaturally sharp (e.g. during ice block chopping challenge it cuts right through the ice and table, slices rope cleanly, and decapitates the ballistic dummy)
• The judge doing the testing appears visibly reluctant to hand it off to the next judge who visibly is eager to hold it. Eventually one judge reaching for the blade has their hand severed, at which point the person who forged the knife begins to chant in an unknown tongue. This appears to drive the judge into a fury and he begins attacking everyone else in the room.
• At this point it becomes difficult to follow as cameras continue recording but are dropped or not following the events happening.
• Police arrive, shouts of "drop the knife" and gunshots can be heard. Silence. Eventually another voice can be heard talking about the knife, likely an officer, then more shouting and gunshots.
• SCP arrives and contains the knife and the knife forger. The source of knife is traced to X, amnesiacs etc.

Containment

• the knife draws people to it to hold it, and then drives them to kill. Because the knife can cut through most known materials containing it once held is difficult. Those holding it appear to gain tremendous strength and speed as well as resistance to physical damage
• the knife draws people to it even if it is not visible. If in a locked box the knife will change its location to be outside of said box in the direction of the closest person to it by unknown method. This transportation is possible for thicknesses up to N meters after which testing was stopped (side note about denying a request to see if the knife can move itself out of locked buildings with no people inside)
• Attempts at destroying the knife by heat or cold have failed.
• the one material that can contain the knife is butter. This was discovered by Dr. Jack Bright who was found to be unaffected by the compulsion to kill and tried to use it to spread his favorite imported Irish grass-fed butter on toast in the microkitchen (side note about the inappropriate use of SCPs by Dr. Bright and having better testing policies going forward. Dr. Bright defended his action by saying that the microkitchen refrigerator was at an inappropriately cold temperature - a request to adjust it by 1 degree has been approved) and noted the blade had extreme difficulty in even deforming butter.
• Subsequent testing reveals that the blade, if wedged into butter, has its ability to draw people to it, and to move out of a sealed box, blocked. (side note that further investigation showed that the person who made blade had an obsession for fine butter and that this may have contaminated the creation of the blade in some way). It is also found that melted butter does not prevent the blade's powers.
• Blade is to be kept in a locked transparent box containing no less than N pounds of butter in a refrigerated room. Regular store bought butter (but not margarine) has been shown to be as effective at containment as fancier butter. N pounds of emergency backup butter are to be kept in the microkitchen. The cheapest brand of butter that is at least Y% milkfat is acceptable (side note: grocery store generic is preferable to deter Dr. Bright from eating the reserve supply).
• class D personnel must replace the butter monthly as a precaution.