Draftswap

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX-1 is to be guarded by MTF-Iota-36 ("21 Skip Street"), who will pose as members of the Congress Head High School janitorial staff. Any persons inquiring about the nature of SCP-XXXX-1 are to be told it is a commonly used broom closet, marked as a prank by an anonymous student. MTF-Iota-36 is to monitor SCP-XXXX for any differences in its physical appearance and run daily tests on its structure. All blueprints for the North Building have been altered to include SCP-XXXX-1

SCP-XXXX-2's general vicinity is off-limits to civilians exploring the archeological ruins nearby, and it is to be studied by personnel stationed at Site-56. All personnel interacting with SCP-XXXX-2A are to supply it with one carcass of a rodent or feline animal before conducting interviews. Level 2 and higher personnel assigned to SCP-XXXX-2 are required to carry one standard Aerosol Dispersal Unit, loaded with 10 mL of a heavily diluted solution of SCP-XXXX-2A's oil, with them when entering containment. Personnel are to dose themselves with a single, small spray of the mixture before beginning interaction. Before an interview is conducted with SCP-XXXX-2A, all Level 3 and higher personnel at Site-56 are to be wired into Eisenstein-Albany neural-implant cameras for recording purposes. The footage from each Eisenstein-Albany camera is to be stored in a secure computer at Site-56. No more than one person who has dosed themselves may be present in SCP-XXXX-2 at any time, due to conflicting Eisenstein-Albany recordings.

SCP-XXXX-2A has not shown any willingness to leave SCP-XXXX-2 or its containment beyond two brief walks of about 20 minutes or so twice a day. Security personnel are to guard SCP-XXXX-2A from encounters with potential civilians during these excursions.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a pair of similar anomalies in Phocis, Greece, and Congress Head, Maine.

SCP-XXXX-1 is a wooden door in the basement of the North Building of the Congress Head Area High School. It is constructed of maple wood and painted white. SCP-XXXX-1 is locked, and has apparently been since the school's construction in 1955. All attempts to destroy or force SCP-XXXX-1 open have been unsuccessful, keys manufactured to fit SCP-XXXX-1's lock have also failed to open it.

A US Letter-sized sheet of paper is attached to the surface of SCP-XXXX-1 by an extremely strong adhesive. The paper reads "Formerly the Red Door Room." Despite being chemically dated to 1936, the text is in Arial font, invented in 1982, and appears to have been created using a modern word processor. No air currents have been detected from underneath SCP-XXXX-1. It is unclear if it actually leads to a space or if there is anything within that space

All of the original blueprints for the North Building of the high school show a blank wall where SCP-XXXX-1 is located. None of the [former] employees of the construction company that built the North Building have any recollection of SCP-XXXX-1.

SCP-XXXX-2 is an identical door located in a cave on Mount Parnassus, outside the town of Delphi in Phocis, Greece. SCP-XXXX-2 is identical to SCP-XXXX-1 except it lacks a lock and is labelled "Formerly the Blue Door Room" in a similar manner to SCP-XXXX-1. SCP-XXXX-2 can be opened, and leads into a small room carved out of the cave walls. The room is tiled with marble, and the cave walls are covered in sheets of blue-dyed fabric. A small stool, fire pit, and bed are in the center of the room. A large bookshelf carved of maple wood stands on one wall, holding a variety of books and scrolls of varying condition and age.

SCP-XXXX-2A is a sapient reptilian humanoid organism that resides in SCP-XXXX-2. SCP-XXXX-2A secretes an oil from its scales, which in both liquid and vapor form causes immediate and powerful aural/visual hallucinogenic episodes for those who consume it or make skin contact. SCP-XXXX-2A's oil is nontoxic, aside from its hallucinogenic properties, and no side effects have been seen with prolonged exposure. Subjects exposed typically report SCP-XXXX-2A appearing as a disabled or elderly family member in need of care. Subjects at this time will usually become fixated on procuring food for SCP-XXXX-2A. According to those affected, SCP-XXXX-2A's most requested foodstuffs include feline meat, rodent meat, and ███████ meat, which has been extinct in Greece since 1156 CE.

Though SCP-XXXX-2A is itself unable to speak, it is able to anomalously alter the hallucinations of subjects by using their own inner monologue in order to speak. Once SCP-XXXX-2A procures food, it will attempt to converse with them on either events it predicts for their future, or else events from their past which it will attempt to interpret. How exactly SCP-XXXX-2A procures this information is yet unknown.

SCP-XXXX-2A is extremely courteous to Foundation personnel, and gladly submits to interviews regarding SCP-XXXX-1 and -2. Its personality is gentle and cultured, and it is a self-described "cave intellectual" with a wide range of historical knowledge. It refers to itself as "The Python, earth-dragon of Delphi, Guardian of the Blue Prophecy Door" or else simply "Python."

Addendum-XXXX-1:

Interviewed: SCP-XXX-2A

Interviewer: Dr. Malcolm Truffaut.
Foreword: Interview was conducted on █/██/198█. Eisenstein-Albany records show SCP-XXXX-2A communicated in English. Transcript from Eisenstein-Albany reader.

<Begin Log>

(Dr. Truffaut enters SCP-XXXX-2 with the dead rat and inhales an aerosol of SCP-XXXX-2A's oil from his Dispersal Unit. SCP-XXXX-2A is sitting on the stool in the center of the room, by the fire-pit. Dr. Truffaut tosses the rat to SCP-XXXX-2A who consumes it whole. Dr. Truffaut sits on the ground opposite SCP-XXXX-2A.)

(Images from Dr. Truffaut's Eisenstein-Albany camera show SCP-XXXX-2A has taken the form of his wife, currently undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma.)

Dr. Truffaut: How was the rat today, SCP-XXXX-2A–er, sorry. Python. I meant Python.

SCP-XXXX-2A: That is it. You will get used to it eventually. I cannot abide that 20th century clinical formality. And the rat was good. Much better than the guinea pig Dr. Lanthimos brought yesterday. So, tell me. Past or future today, Doctor Truffaut?

Dr. Truffaut: Past, if you don't mind. And sorry for the whole mixup with the name. Force of habit, you know?

SCP-XXXX-2A: Forget it. Water under the bridge. And do not be so flippant with me. I may be a charismatic lizard, but you must maintain your organization's standards. You are a highly trained doctor, not some student. And I am a dangerous anomaly, not some friendly chameleon.

Dr. Truffaut: I understand, I'll try to be professional.

SCP-XXXX-2A: Anyway, the past then. What do you want to know?

Dr. Truffaut: Today I want you to tell me the history of SCP-XXXX. Not your history, the general history of the anomaly.

(SCP-XXXX-2A exhales slowly.)

(Ten seconds of silence as SCP-XXXX-2A shuts it's eyes.)

SCP-XXXX-2A: Before the Xia Dynasty and Ancient Mu fell, before Mekhane and Yaldabaoth, before the Twin Gods, before Alagadda was stranded, and even before the Pattern Screamers and that cosmic starfish formed the Unholy Alliance against Ortothan thought, before the walrus wrote the first post and birthed this multiverse and mesh, and before more old stories and yarns in dead languages that I would not expect you to understand, back at the beginning there was a…group. They called themselves The Seven Disciples of the Light. And they made some, how would you say, places. Where the Narrative of Things is thinnest. No one knows why, and they are long dead anyway. I cannot even find out why, and their names and deeds have become but dissipating gas in dying nebulas.

These places, I call them Prophecy Doors, where for a fee you can go in and a Guardian like me will tell you what you need to know. There are seven on this planet, all scattered throughout space and time and each with a different Guardian. They are all named after differing colors in the your visible light spectrum. "Formerly the Red Door Room", "Formerly the Orange Door Room", "Formerly the Yellow Door Room" and so forth. Do not ask me why they are named for your colors, it is merely so.

Dr. Truffaut: We haven't found any other SCP-XXXX instances. Just this one and The Red Door Room. Also, that one has no Guardian and won't open. Why is that?

SCP-XXXX-2A: It is complicated.

Dr. Truffaut: I have all day. It's my job, after all.

(SCP-XXXX-2A smoothes his skirt)

SCP-XXXX-2A: Fine then. I do not usually interpret this part of the past, but the rat was enjoyable today. Why must you know?

Dr. Truffaut: It's necessary for containment and study.

SCP-XXXX-2A: I suppose. Whatever must be done. Anyway, on why you have not found any of the other Prophecy Doors, it is simply because there are not extant anymore. You would not have been able to find The Indigo Door Room at any rate, that is after your time. But the rest? Destroyed. Brutally, utterly destroyed.

Dr. Truffaut: By who? Who would want to destroy them?

(SCP-XXXX-2A smiles.)

SCP-XXXX-2A: Recently –well, recently is relative to your kind– there was an inconcievably vast civilization of barbarians who did not like the system the Seven Disciples laid down. A metaphysical private army for whatever vengeful god wants to destroy the Seven Disciples' work.

Dr. Truffaut: Have we encountered the work of this group yet?

SCP-XXXX-2A: Very probably. They are extremely angry and extremely dangerous. And they are everywhere, in every alternate timeline and collapsing bubble universe and distant construct.

Dr. Truffaut: Are they called something, this army?

SCP-XXXX-2A: They have not one name, but are called a different title depending on their employer: The Dark Elves, Voidsmen, Kaled Gods of War. Some know them as the Crimson King's Men, but that is possibly untrue. They were known as the Venezian Empire here. I own a record of a battle where they are referred to both as The Delegations of Alameda and the Black Seraphim. And that only scratches the surface! There are countless others. These days they go by the name Empire of Throat. We guardians just call them the Takers of The Doors.

Dr. Truffaut: And so the Empire of Throat took the doors, I guess?

SCP-XXXX-2A: That is right. They claimed them from the Guardians, and destroyed them. The Guardians either fled or were inducted into their ranks. It took a full force to claim the nineteen Prophecy Doors of the shining Jupiterian Arklight World, they say. And here? Aside from your SCP-XXXX, I am afraid the Takers of the Doors did their dirty work long ago.

Dr. Truffaut: And you're the only Guardian left then?

(SCP-XXXX-2A is silent for a full two minutes)

SCP-XXXX-2A: When your team infiltrated the school, did they meet a man named Janitor Samuels?

Dr. Truffaut: I'm afraid I don't know the details of the actions of MTF-Iota-87. I'm assigned to the other SCP-XX–

SCP-XXXX-2A: To interrupt you, they did not. He was a good man, Samuels. A fine young Guardian in his prime, just ready to begin a thousand years of prophecy. And he is now gone. In the blink of an eye. It probably took seconds but was a slow death anyway. He went a hero, defending his door against the Takers and their powerful weapons.

Dr. Truffaut: Is there anything the Foundation can do to protect you? We can file the Takers of The Doors as a Group of Interest, maybe start gathering some intelligence. Ask around with our contacts in other organiations.

SCP-XXXX-2A: No. I refuse. Do not put yourself at risk. Gather all the information you like, they are a worthy threat you ought to be aware of, but I have handled myself fine in my cave for thousands of years without an incursion. It is not like I have kept myself private. I have become a presence in the great myths of Apollo, who slew me before I rose again. But I do not think I have seen a single soldier for thousands and thousands of years.

Dr. Truffaut: You don't seem, let alone act, that old.

SCP-XXXX-2A: You would be surprised. It is easy to not seem like an ancient reptilian soothsayer when you appear as a dying 21st century mate. Do not look surprised, I know what you see. You interpret my speech and actions when you see me to fit your vision. You cannot hear the language I truly speak, cannot comprehend my idioms, cannot see my scales and look into my yellow eyes. Perhaps that is why I am safe. Most who visit could not find it in their hearts to kill me. Even Takers have families…

(SCP-XXXX-2A trails off and stares into space.)

SCP-XXXX-2A: I do not have anything more to tell you.

Dr. Truffaut: Well, uh, this seems like a natural place to stop anyway. Again, thank you for your cooperation, I suppose.

(Dr. Truffaut gathers his papers and Dispersal Unit. He then stands up to leave SCP-XXXX-2. SCP-XXXX-2A calls out for him as he walks towards the door.)

SCP-XXXX-2A: Doctor Truffaut?

(Dr. Truffaut turns to face SCP-XXXX-2A.)

Dr. Truffaut: Yes, Python?

SCP-XXXX-2A: Do not ever try to open The Red Door Room.

Dr. Truffaut: Why? What would happen?

SCP-XXXX-2A: The Takers of The Doors did not destroy that one, they…changed it. They became its new Guardian. It is the first and only time they have done that.

Dr. Truffaut: Why did they do it? It was the first time, as you said. Why here? Why now?

SCP-XXXX-2A: It is my belief that they are reaching the final phase of their plans. The research is scarce on this point, it is all very much in shadow. Legend, however unreliable it is, says they would end what they began on a world whose doors number the same as the Disciples and that the door it starts from will radically change in unexpected ways.

Dr. Truffaut: Is there a room beyond The Red Door, like here?

SCP-XXXX-2A: I do not know what's beyond the door and that scares me. I have no idea what they have done to it but I'm sure it cannot be good. My suspicions are that it will radically remake this world in some way, if you are lucky.

Dr. Truffaut: And if we're unlucky?

(SCP-XXXX-2A is silent.)

Dr. Truffaut: Is there anything the Foundation can do?

(SCP-XXXX-2A is silent.)

SCP-XXXX-2A: There are some things I cannot and will not describe. Things too ghastly to think off. Perhaps we will talk another time. Goodnight.

<End Log>