

SCP-3436: ABE

Author: $sc(rn)p$

(More from this author.)

Images Used:

Main

A still of SCP-3436, pre-enclosure, taken from video feed during initial reconnaissance. An abrupt, barb-like projection can be seen at the apex.

Item #: SCP-3436

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-3436 is contained within a 70 m × 85 m, 172 m tall concrete building, which acts as a provisional site (Provisional Site 3436). The building is designed to blend inconspicuously with the surrounding metropolis.

Access into the building is exclusive to the Site Director and accompanying Engineering and Technical Service Department Class C/D personnel who have been consented (Form 3436-A) and briefed to Level 2 security clearance.

There is no known safe method by which to rescue those who physically encounter SCP-3436. No aspect of SCP-3436 is to be touched, neither by direct nor indirect means. The Site Director has been authorized by the Ethics Committee to utilize euthanasia procedures as deemed appropriate for those who have come into contact with SCP-3436 and who have yet to experience atmospheric buoyant events.

Description: SCP-3436 is a 166 m tall free-standing structure in Lower Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. It is dark grey in color, has vermiform massing, features an apical barb-like projection, and is made of an undetermined material that visually resembles steel. Evidence suggests SCP-3436 was constructed by the avant-garde art collective Are We Cool Yet? (AWCY?) in 1994. The identities of the author(s) and any involved patrons are not known.

Individuals who make direct or indirect physical contact with SCP-3436 and then cease said contact will begin to accelerate upwards at rate of approximately 3.14 m/s2 until the height of SCP-3436 is reached. After this point, the object is accelerated dramatically, and is beyond the scope of the unaided eye within seconds. Events of this nature are referred to as atmospheric buoyant events, or ABEs, and the boundary demarcated by the height of SCP-3436 is referred to as the event threshold.

Selected Supporting Documents:

+ Evidence Regarding Origins

- SCP-3436-i

A 50 cm x 30 cm x 15 cm sculpted rhombohedron, designated SCP-3436-i, rests 1 m from the base of SCP-3436. SCP-3436-i is assumed to be made of an identical material as SCP-3436, and thus to possess identical inertial properties as well; testing to corroborate this conjecture has been deemed unnecessary. SCP-3436-i features a plaque on its largest face that contains an inscription in the French language. Below is a reproduction of SCP-3436-i, translated from the original French.

Revelation Claw

• The sinew of God.

The living-and-dead will rise into the sky and become open to the embrace of Christ.

10.28 seconds is a brief tribulation compared to what awaits those who remain. You are welcome.

The series of statements loosely fits the format of an AWCY? Project Proposal. Given that the original Project Proposal for SCP-3436 would have been presented to an intended patron prior to its completion, it is likely that the author intended SCP-3436-i as either an additional proposal to those who read it, or a meta-proposal intended for the religious deity it endorses.

+ Security Clearance Level 2

- Selected Test Logs

Test Log – 02 – May 12–24th 1994

Abstract:

The initial purpose of this study was to collect material samples from SCP-3436 for analysis. A secondary purpose of this study was introduced; to investigate the inertial properties of SCP-3436 with respect to the transfer of momentum. Dismantling and/or relocation of SCP-3436 subsequently became a tertiary goal.

Results:

May 12, 1994

Time: 0340 - Four Class D personnel are instructed to comb the proximity of SCP-3436 and locate trace materials with appropriate equipment. Trace materials of SCP-3436 were suspected to have been identified near the base. Personnel instructed to collect.

Result: ABE x 3, complete ascent. No materials retrieved.

Time: 0400 - The remaining Class D person acting outside Foundation orders throws a rock which impacts SCP-3436.

Result: ABE x 1, complete ascent.

May 19, 1994

Time: 2302 - Remote girth measurement utilizing a monocular reticle suggests SCP-3436 may be felled given sufficient force. Two Class D personnel (D1 and D2) are asked to perform demolition maneuvers upon lower segments of SCP-3436 with two armored D9R continuous tracked tractors modified with substantially reinforced blades and added tonnage. They approach SCP-3436 from the south as to avoid SCP-3436-i and to ensure safe felling.

Result: ABE x2. Both ascents impeded by the roofs of the D9Rs. The driver-side window of D2's D9R was lowered at the time of the event; D2's body moved laterally along the roof, then out the window with subsequent and complete ascent. D1 was fully enclosed in the vehicle and found as pomace1. The doors of D1's D9R were opened by recovery personnel, one of whom was contacted by D1's remains as they responded to the newly introduced egress from the D9R; ABE x1, complete ascent, followed by complete ascent of D1's remains. Two heavily-modified D9Rs retrieved.

May 24, 1994

Time: 0025 - Two Foundation operatives are instructed to pilot unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the base of SCP-3436 to collect via negative pressure the previously detected trace materials, presumably originating from SCP-3436. Materials are located and authorization is given for collection.

Result: ABE x2. Unimpeded, complete ascent of two pilots. Two UAVs retrieved.

Conclusions/Discussion:

The presented attempts to influence, analyze, and dismantle SCP-3436 are unsuccessful. Relocation is deemed infeasible. Indirect physical contact has been confirmed to precipitate ABEs. Organic matter that is the cause of an inorganic material's contact with SCP-3436 precipitates ABEs that involve only the causal organic matter. ABEs can only be interrupted/delayed and not ceased.

If a barrier is encountered during an ABE, the ascent is interrupted. The organic matter will move laterally along the interrupting surface and towards any negative space in the barrier. If there is no such space, the organic matter becomes stationary at the maximum achievable elevation in wait for continued ascent. During this time, the organic matter experiences compaction pressures disproportionate to those predicted by classical mechanics; the pressures ostensibly exceed the human body’s ability to remain structurally sound, resulting in complete musculoskeletal collapse.

It is debatable and outside of the scope of this study as to whether an intentionally impeded ascent is more humane than an unimpeded one. Recommendations for a complete enclosure for SCP-3436 will be deferred to the Ethics Committee. Tests that require the proximity of personnel are highly discouraged and it will be recommended to Research by this committee that no such tests are considered for approval.

Test Log - 04 - June 14, 1994

Abstract:

A numerical estimation of temperatures and stresses SCP-3436 is capable of withstanding is approached in this trial. All personnel decisions and thermo-mechanical methodologies were approved by on-site containment specialist Dr. Robert Goleman PhD and carried out by certified, Class C researchers and research technicians. A thermal field was engendered at the base of structure and physical contact with SCP-3436/-i was strictly avoided.

To estimate the depth of SCP-3436's purchase into the terrain, ground penetrating radar is used to infer root dimensions, geometry, and approximate torque resistance.

Results:

The base withstood temperatures orders of magnitude higher than the literature demonstrates regarding the apparent material. Researchers estimate that the thermal energy needed to dematerialize the base of SCP-3436/-i would exceed current means of energy production. Test discontinued.

Conclusions/Discussion:

In light of SCP-3436/-i's tolerance to advanced thermal energies, the structural integrity of SCP-3436/-i cannot be determined and will no longer be pursued. GPR suggests no perceivable terminus to SCP-3436/-i's subterranean dimensions. With limited data, tunneling cannot be suggested or justified for excavation and relocation.

+ Security Clearance Level 3

- Incident 3436-2a

On 07/04/1994, a civilian trespassed upon what was then the construction site for the enclosure currently around SCP-3436, attempted to climb the structure, and experienced an unimpeded ABE. That day, several eyewitness accounts from commercial airline ██████ █████ Flight #████ reported without inconsistency visualizing a rapidly ascending object, hereafter designated SCP-3436-2a, at approximately 40° 50' 13.3728'' N and 73° 51' 55.5588'' W. Individuals of testimony were covertly quarantined and treated with the proper amnestics, then reconnoitered by field agents, as is standard procedure.

Dispatched Foundation aircraft located the figure, which had become stationary at approximately 5,900 meters. Pilots reported via telecommunications of a subject with gross human anatomy. Upon more detailed inspection, SCP-3436-2a's topography was interrupted by an incomplete, saggital bisection. What were inferred to be SCP-3436-2a's lungs could be seen expanding rhythmically as if ventilating, despite the non-intact central nervous system and the exposed thoracic cavity.

Available data could not ensure that SCP-3436-2a was safe for mechanical acquisition and transfer, and so the figure was incinerated and never recovered for further study.

Footnotes

1. The pulpy matter remaining after some other substance has been pressed or crushed.