Stephen Blackpool

SCP-XXXX — Follow the Leader

Object Class - Safe

SCP-XXXX is an original Magic 8 Ball consisting of a black plastic shell painted to resemble an 8-ball, which contains liquid alcohol (dyed blue) and a single plastic regular icosahedron (hereafter "the indicator"). A small window in the shell allows for viewing of the indicator. Despite predictions of basic statistics and geometry, each of the sides of the indicator does not show equal likelihood of appearance. The "affirmative" sides, comprising ten of the twenty sides to the indicator, appeared in only 16 out of the original run of 10000 experiments. The "non-comital" sides have appeared in every other recorded test. It is not conclusively known whether the "negative" sides are present in SCP-XXXX, though to date fifteen different messages have been visible, allowing room for the missing five. Attempts to search for the remaining sides have been unsuccessful, as the bulk of the indicator fails to register in any imaging process attempted.

The effects of SCP-XXXX manifest after a subject asks a question, whether spoken aloud or mentally, and the indicator displays an affirmative answer. This constitutes an instance of Event-XXXX-T. When this occurs, the question asked must be recorded verbatim, and the subject must begin keeping a detailed record of all dreams, particularly those which adhere to logical and physical laws. The initial question will be resolved in the affirmative after a period between 1 hour and 3 weeks has passed, confirming the prediction made by SCP-XXXX. During and after this period, Subject will have dreams of a day in her life, experiencing events of trivial to moderate fortune. Events the following day will proceed exactly as foretold by the dream. Predictive dreams will continue in this benign manner until at least the point at which the question has been answered, most likely to build trust in SCP-XXXX. After a highly variable amount of time, Subject will dream of a "perfect day." The following day, Subject will encounter a significant misfortune, which she will view as a direct result of her not adhering to the dream closely enough. This pattern may repeat any number of times: a series of positive dreams mimicked directly by actual fact, followed by one "perfect" dream mimicked incompletely, which leads to some mishap. Subject will eventually reach a point of diminished cognitive activity, in which state she will act only to fulfil the previous night's dream, and follow it unquestioningly. Subject will then dream of ending her own life, which she will be successful in doing regardless of attempts to prevent her.