A remix of SCP-2776 by djkaktus.
Main idea: The Foundation discovers a heavily damaged and forgotten automaton made to resemble and containing some of the organs of George Washington, and through historical research uncovers the previously unknown story of the years-long campaign behind its creation that sheds light on the role of the anomalous in early American history. Alexander Hamilton and a small group of scientists and physicians sympathetic to his vision of a country ruled by a monarch with a lifelong term clandestinely used a design for a humanoid automaton proposed but never actually designed by Benjamin Franklin to replicate Hamilton's ideal leader, who would rule over the United States indefinitely; the discovery of Franklin's design in turn leads to the discovery of Franklin's work in the anomalous sciences and his efforts to bring the anomalous to light; this in turn sheds more light on the establishment of the United States' first "Nexus" in Bustleton, Philadelphia (, Pennsylvania, United States). Further research into the room in which the SCP was found yields evidence that the Mekhanite machinery Hamilton's team carelessly commandeered gave them more than they bargained for, which, when taking into account Hamilton's contemporary correspondences and the subsequent emergence of the ASCI, suppression of knowledge of the anomalous, and expulsion of Mekhanites from Bustleton paints an ignoble picture of the origins of the quest for "normalcy."
Background:
Early in his life, Benjamin Franklin expressed an interest in what was at the time considered heresy and witchcraft by the Puritan government of his home colony of Massachusetts. Though his opinions of the burgeoning Eastern European Mekhanite minority that he observed in Philadelphia as a printer and shopkeeper were congruent with his shockingly racist opinions on other immigrants and nonwhites at the time, he later went on to befriend and correspond with prominent members of a Mekhanite settlement in central Pennsylvania and documented the sparse communities of members of the Church of the Broken God across the eastern seaboard during his time as deputy postmaster of the colonies. The knowledge of the immortal spirit of the machine fascinated Franklin, and he sought to understand it to the extent that an outsider was allowed to; in turn, Franklin's experiments in electricity intrigued but worried the Cogwork Orthodoxy, who feared that further advancements in mundane technology would cause a schism in their Church. In one letter, more as a catalyst for friendly scientific discussion than an idea for an actual invention, Franklin discussed a possible design for an automaton with similar capabilities as the Cogwork Orthodoxy's spiritually enhanced clockwork androids made solely using the mundane technology of the time.
Later in his life, Franklin went on to study more aspects of the "proven supernatural," including the rituals and customs of the elusive Karcists of the Old World (including eyewitness accounts of the creation of what would later become known as SCP-610, which was the reason for the influx of Mekhanite refugees in the Americas in the mid-1700s). He and twelve other like-minded scholars founded the Society for the Advancement of Supernatural Science in 1789. After Franklin's death, the Society relocated to its own building in a neighborhood in the far northeastern corner of Philadelphia, which was home to a sizeable Mekhanite population. Though members of the Society petitioned the Wanderer's Library several times - both during Franklin's lifetime and after - to be granted entry, the Chief Archivist refused to allow the agents of a colonial empire access to the knowledge contained therein.
During the Revolutionary War, the supernatural was the least of the Continental Congress's concerns. Only a few members of the Congress had even a passing knowledge of the mysterious Mekhanites and their ways; fewer still had dabbled in alchemy and witchcraft themselves.
1/76XX LEVEL 1/76XXCLASSIFIED |
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Item #: SCP-76XXObject Class: Defunct |
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-76XX is contained in situ at the location at which it was found: Provisional Site 015 (formerly known as Franklin Hall), located in Bustleton, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. The building has been closed to the public, and the area in which it is located is patrolled regularly by local police; due to the isolated location of the building and the conclusion of research pertaining to the object and its origin, no further containment measures are necessary.
Description: SCP-76XX is an array of mechanisms situated within the basement of Franklin Hall, a building once operated by the now-defunct American Society for the Advancement of the Supernatural Sciences and the ASCI. The majority of the object comprises a partially melted and heavily rusted clockwork mechanism ten meters long, five meters wide and six meters tall consistent with descriptions of "outer mind" devices used by scholars, priests and government officials belonging to diaspora communities of Mekhanites (GoI-001) since the 16th century. The device is connected by driveshafts, coupling rods and metal tubes to a similarly damaged humanoid automaton in the adjacent room;