#scp 5243

[aleph-trix]

random thought (theory? prediction?) - SCP-5243 is sapient (sentient? autonomous?) [SPOILERS FOR ON GUARD 43/NO RETURN]

NOTE/DISCLAIMER: I have not read all of On Guard 43, specifically Bury the Survivors so this is less of an informed thought ramble and more of my own sort of theorising. I just had this thought. Whether or not it’s true is well. Idk how to end that sentence but yeah

So, SCP-5243. The Breach That Keeps on Breaching. The reoccurring annual time loop localised to AAF-D at Site-43 on September 8, every single year. Caused by a combination of massive anomalous waste conglomerated together, an unknown precipitating subject and the counter-chronological material making it a loop in the first place! Fun.

What if it had sapience and/or sentience? There are a lot of definitions for these words but I’m using them as a vague stand-in for “able to make conscious decisions”. And as for how it could gain that sentience/sapience, well perhaps it’s because of some quality of some of the anomalous waste. Or whatever. It’s anomalous.

There are primarily three pieces of evidence that I picked up that could point towards an idea like this:

One. The distinction between what gets incorporated into the loop and what does not: One quality of SCP-5243 is its ability to incorporate events into its loop even if they did not happen in September 8, 2002 (the original breach). The most prominent example of this is the death of Adrijan Zlatá in 2015 which lead to his death re-occurring ever year from then on out.

However, there are also examples of 5243 NOT incorporating events into its annual loop, two in particular are related to 5243’s production of a secondary memetic anomaly: SCP-5109. The main star of the show that is “The Time After Time Password”.

We learn about SCP-5109 originating from 5243 in TTATP as well as several other details about it. 5109 was “discovered” in 2009 after Elstrom had gotten it while stumbling into AAF-D in 2008 and getting it from the breach (5243) somehow (I guess there was some memetic wordsoup floating around in the waste too.) The interesting part, however is this:

The production of SCP-5109 (instances) is an incorporated part of 5243’s loop, however the event of Elstrom receiving the anomaly is not. The same is true for Sokolsky receiving SCP-5109. While he did annually camp at AAF-D (ever since 2004) in order to gain more instances of SCP-5109, he did not do this in 2008 when Elstrom gained it instead which would have lead to the creation of an alternate timeline if it was incoporated to the loop. Now there is an argument to be made that Elstrom simply replaced Sokolsky and this is the thing that does happen with 5243 (e.g. Torosyan replacing and taking Nascimbeni’s role in the annual 5243 loop) but Elstrom receiving 5109 was purely by happenstance. Sokolsky had gotten a bad stomach that day on 2008 (not lying).

So, this shows that there is a possibility that interceptions into AAF-D are not always incorporated into SCP-5243’s loop. Maybe it’s because these events don’t interfere with the actual breach, but Zlatà’s death did not technically interfere either (He’s not even mentioned in the main section of the ConProcs.). However, there are also two more events of interest relating to this phenomena of SCP-5243 incorporating some events into the loop and leaving out others and it comes in the form of everyone’s favourite pair of tragic brothers: Phillip and Dougall Deering.

This is pretty straightforward: Phillip was in AAF-D during the original breach, and 5243 even gifted him his self-deprecation personified as a mirror monster (5056) yet he doesn’t have to play a part in the annual containment of 5243. Meanwhile, Dougall wasn’t in AAF-D in 2002 (from what I gathered) and yet he is resurrected and killed every single year. We know that him being killed is the result of Resino Cannon shenanigans from the Paradox Timeline/TL-5956-X and later on, the intervention of Site-43 personnel themselves as part of the ConProcs but why is he revived every year? In fact, Dougall being alive and NOT dying in 2002 is what leads to the Paradox Timeline which is a result of 5243 being *prevented* by Dougall. What if 5243 is actively trying to stop its existence by reviving Dougall every year? Something interesting to think about.

Anyways, what all of the above shows is that SCP-5243 can both incorporate and ignore events into the loop on a whim, and that this could be evidence of it being able to make decisions.

Two. SCP-5243’s evil twin from the Paradox Timeline: SCP-001. The SCP-001 we’re referring to here is the one from TL-5956-X so we’ll refer to it as 001-X. 001-X is essentially a mirror version of 5243 occurring in the Paradox Timeline and is a result of time-paradox bullshit rather then anomalous waste conglomeration. And it is most definitely sentient and/or sapient: it specifically targets Dougall (the person responsible for the time-paradox) psychologically by producing fucked up versions of the mainline Site-43 anonmalies including both SCP-5056 (now SCP-001-A, and also Phillip) and SCP-5109 (now SCP-001-B). This not only gives credence to the idea that SCP-001-X’s mirror, 5243, also has some level of sentience/sapience and that both are perhaps self-deprecating? (With the former punishing its creator for creating it and the latter trying to prevent itself). Who knows

Three. The Critical Post-Impasse Pivot: Within the Metafoundation mega-canon (?), SCP-5243 seems to be localised to the Prime-Timeline and that the semi-extant timelines created from messing the ConProcs up seems to branch from the Prime-Timeline (specifically from 2002). However, in SCP-6500 following the O5 Council vote on the Impasse, the Prime-Timeline splits in two and creates the Vanguard (post-Foundation) and Threshold (continuing the Foundation) timelines. Now, the next piece of evidence in regards to this point comes from outside the actual articles, but: in an old iteration of the Metafoundation timeline map, TL-5243-F (the timeline created due to a 5243 failure in 2021) is shown to be branching off the Threshold timeline as the failure takes place after the Prime-Timeline splits into two. While it would technically branch from 2002, what this seems to imply is that SCP-5243 only took place in 2021 in the Threshold timeline. Maybe Vanguard didn’t experience a “VNP-5243 failure” but considering that sections of Site-43 begin to sink in that timeline (as shown in Voyager), I doubt 5243 continues to persist in it.

If we take the idea of 5243 only persisting in Threshold following the Impasse split, this means that 5243 defaulted to the Threshold timeline to localise itself into: perhaps it chose that timeline due to its greater similarity to the Prime-Timeline then Vanguard.

Those are the three points of discussion that I believe support the idea of SCP-5243 being sentient and/or sapient. Although this is pretty much all just my rambling and is more similar to a headcanon then anything else

[dino--draws]

Being curious gets you dragged into those, curious on your findings so far on the Chart. I would like to see them a lot, take this as a public ask. If you want to send these privately, my DMs are always open!

(I hope I don't sound creepy or crossing any boundaries)

The Chart(tm) is the timeline/timeplane map made by @oqmemphis, a talented and scheming little bastard. In the most recent version of this chart he hid a little puzzle for us behind the blackboxes talking about the Multifoundation, an anagram that — upon me and some buddies solving it — revealed that the Multifoundation is run by “Iterations of Ilse Reynders”. If what I remember from the last time I was on vc with them is correct, he’s got another lil puzzle in the works he is currently demo-ing via throwing at Place LMAO

Here’s the file that has the map! Its very very fun

[placeholder-mcd]

Hiii hello I was thinking about your silly little Devices this morning and found myself wondering “what the hell is going on with them???” because while the PEE is labeled in its diagram the PXE isn’t. So I proceeded to spend an hour and a half trying to deduce just that. I have no idea if I am anywhere CLOSE to correct or accurate with any of this but it WAS fun to speculate here ya go

I snapped a little. Hopefully tumblr doesn’t butcher the quality and hopefully my handwriting is legible. For the amusement of the jury here is the full Mess of a canvas i was working on:

this is extremely cool of you

there are two pretty well-defined categories of transport to alternate universes in most sci-fi: there's time-like travel, and space-like travel. time-like travel to alternate universes is the """creation""" of alternate universes by changing the natural course of causality via time travel eg. 5243 or 5956; space-like travel to alternate universes is like Lampeter / Multiversal Compass where you're transitioning to a different "region of the multiverse" or whatever

since the SCPverse has narrative dimension, there's also "story-like" travel to alternate universes, in which you essentially abuse plot convenience to travel to whatever alternate universe facilitates the rest of the current story taking place. The PEE is the first ever attempt at this type of interdimensional travel

The PXE is intended to be much more comprehensive in scope. Its main chassis is near-identical to the PEE (you can actually see that the body of the PXE is built off the PEE model), but it also incorporates the jank-ass Para!SCP-5956 from Paraline. These facilitate story-like travel and time-like travel, respectively.

the designation "███X-MCD/II" could be interpreted as "this is the PXE mark two". But why not just abbreviate to PXE Mark II? Why have a more convoluted designation? And what is the purpose of this redaction? Is there another common type of designation used by the Foundation which would have the relevant researcher's initials in the designation?

presumably, PHMD can use this thing to go just about anywhere he wants -- like, okay, it's only got 2/3 of the types of multiversal travel capabilities (SO FAR) (THAT WE KNOW OF), so maybe he can only explore causally- or narratively-relevant universes, but that's still got to be uncountably infinitely many potential realities -- so, like, why doesn't he? Why is he hanging around in admoline and causing problems here? What does he have to gain from this? What is he going to accomplish here that he won't be able to find someplace else in the infinite multiverse?

since PHMD carries over he and Gears' invention of the PH-GOS after the 6820 timeline reset (renaming it to the PH-OS and pretending he designed it independently), and since it seems to be an extremely powerful piece of technology (the ultimate reality anchor), it's safe to suppose some elements of the PH-OS were integrated into the PXE in the interim. The PH-OS is concerned with the ontokinetic / informational view of the current state of the current universe; perhaps it can be repurposed as a tool for scanning and processing data about alternate universes

Why can Ilse see through PHMD's bullshit? Why doesn't she draw attention to it? Why are they rhyming at each other?

What happened to the Ilse from Paraline?

[lakesbian]

looking forward to the eventual scp list!

ive been reading scps on and off for a long ass time, at this point, and it's been real enjoyable to see your scp posting. it's also really neat to see posting about 3000, since i remember reading it when it was quite new.

personally, i have quite enjoyed 5243, and have read it several times.

i haven't finished 5243 yet but i have to answer this now to say that i love it in here

this article is the perfect level of esoteric horror concepts phrased in convincing clinical documentation...i need to find more scps like this so the list can be 75% comprised of them

[maybemoss]

hai moss im curious. what are your favorite scps. :3

mine are pretty basic (049, 999, etc) but I also like 6448 (the not deer) & 783 (the crooked man)!! i haven't been able to check out the less well known scps but i will someday

YES!! i have a lot to say about this wait let me pull something up i made a list

SCP-7000 “The Loser” (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-7000) and anything and everything related to william wallace wettle — horrible pathetic wet cat of a man. the world hates him personally and the feeling is mutual. cannot have ONE nice day without something going wrong. by god he deserves a break and he won’t get one. canonically divorced (to the extent that canon is a Thing). there are other articles with him but 7000 is the perfect showcase of the bullshit surrounding this man

SCP-6326 “The Manbear” (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-6326) — absolutely fucking hilarious. looks like a generic spooky scp article at first but just scroll down to the first picture and you’ll see what i mean. it’s just punch after punch and it left me IN TEARS laughing. someone calls the manbear hung at some point.

SCP-7243 “Existential Abatement” (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-7243) — insanely good but probably relies quite a bit on you already being familiar with the characters present; you can read about them at https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/on-guard-43-hub (particularly SCP-5056, SCP-5243, and The Significant Others A & B) if you want but be warned there’s A LOT there. also has a lot of what i can only call bullshit sci-fi jargon (affectionate) and it’s great but i uh see why it might be off-putting if you’re not used to it

SCP-INTEGER (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5242) — there’s a guy named Dr. Placeholder McDoctrate in there. do i need to say more.

ANYTHING Undervegas (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/undervegas-hub) — agent calendar my beloved. site-666 my beloved. it’s all great. based on the idea of vegas falling into literal actual hell. the director of the site keeps using everyone’s souls as collateral on bets with demons. if you need a starting point i recommend SCP-4661 but any article works

honestly literally anything with the O5 Council, doesn’t even have to be a specific version of them. see https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/o5-command-dossier for more info. off the top of my head one i really liked is captain kirby’s 001 proposal “O5-13” (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/captain-kirby-s-proposal) but i am INSANE about all of them. i have my own personal OC interpretations of the council and i have been rotating them in my mind for six months straight. they started as a silly thought experiment but have turned into actual fully-fledged Characters and i am sad that they only exist in my brain :(

SCP-7600 “Six Feet Under” (https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-7600) — it’s been a while since i read this one so i don’t remember ALL the details but it’s about two O5s (4 & 8) and a magic realm. made me Feel Things

OKAY THATS ALL i could dig up more but i’m sleepy and i think this is a pretty good overview. ty for asking!!! :D

[soupotown70]

On the 7th day of each month, the Steve gang's hometown get reset to 7/7/2017 for 24 hours. So the Steve gang must redo all the important things they did on that day, or else an universe-ending time paradox will happen. (Idea inspired by SCP-5243)

[charaznablescanontoyota]

every day i reread scp-5243 and go 'hey what the fuck is THAT' about something new

[aleph-trix]

a map (?) of everything 5243-related. including all the timeline fuckery bullshit

spoilers for on guard 43 (primarily SCP-5956 and the Time after Time Password series and secondarily (?), SCP-5243)

so uh. Yeah I don’t know why I made this either but it was actually a lot of fun. purple is just general 5243 happenings, blue is 5109-related stuff, red is the paradox timeline/5956 shenanigans.

imagine this as the ramblings/work of a temporal anomaly department agent if you will. Maybe Reynders made this. Who knows

[humanmorph]

Just read scp-5243 (and most related material) and wah...... Time loops

[aleph-trix]

see you in september!

from top clockwise: blank, lilihammer, mcinnis, ibanez, okorie, torosyan, wettle

[queencryo]

genie wish 1: genie rimjob

genie wish 2: forcefem joe biden

genie wish 3: make 9/11 happen every year as a time loop sort of thing

[charaznablescanontoyota]

anyway scp-5243 is making me insane

[IDs: “Each of the personnel killed in 2002, and one additional casualty from 2015, will be returned to life by SCP-5243 sixty seconds before the moments of their deaths. They are sapient human beings with physical forms and agency, and will behave as they did in 2002/2015 so long as the appropriate contextual triggers are received. If they are interfered with, it is possible for them to miss their appointments with SCP-5243. They may survive, and containment will have failed.”

“18:00:— All personnel without containment duties must be confined to quarters. 18:21:13 Technical and support personnel must begin repairing or reconstructing all containment apparatus Site-wide. 18:21:— Site Director Dr. A. McInnis must fail to answer his redline telephone.”

“Update 09/08/2013: Dr. Deering has been resurrected by SCP-5243 as per usual, but has not expired. Security and Containment Chief D. Ibanez has executed him on the order of Director McInnis to prevent potential timeline disruptions.

Update 09/08/2014: Dr. Deering's execution must now take place annually, and has been added to the Special Containment Procedures.“

“The following personnel must perish:”]

[whistl-stahp]

pretty cool

i looked at the tales i linked and they dont give us much solid stuff. in one of the 5243lines, the scp logo becomes cognitohazardous and something's weird with cognition of the stars + moon, which could be related to the "true art is coghaz"?

as for "next to nothing" there was a timeline where polly + molly progressively could not understand any word spoken. next to no... words? it could work! and theres also a timeline where there is nothing there! (I am bullshitting i dont know)

theres also a timeline where humans go extinct in feb. 2018, like 5 months after the fifth 5243 containment failure, which would be during 5243-e, so that could be it i guess. i have no idea

either way i think theres a good chance all 6 red hashes are about 5243lines. and i also really want to know #5. and graveyard shift got more confusing after reading wrong tomorrow. and i need to shower

Back on my bullshit because I’m shrieking about this still and I’m incapable of being normal ever this damn series has my brain in a chokehold

A convo with my buddy @moose-in-jeans also proposed the following:

Since narrative travel requires an abuse of plot convience and a continuation of the current story (implying no genre hopping, this would explain part of ‘why go to a Deepwell timeline?’ Its the same level of tragedy as TL-5956-X)

Wouldn’t it be similarly plot convenient if there just… wasn’t an Ilse Reynders in admoline? If there wasn’t the one person there capable of stopping him? …until one followed and carved herself a place..?

Also, bonus:

[gunpowder77]

Me at SCP-5243 on the 8th of September:

Alarms blare throughout the facility. Screams and gunshots echo through the halls. The rookie scientists around you are in panic. You sip your coffee at the breakroom table in peace, “just another tuesday.” You state calmy.