SCP-4040, At The Bottom Of A Bottomless Pit

Item#: SCP-4040

Containment Class: keter

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: keneq

Risk Class: warning

Special Containment Procedures: Field personnel who encounter SCP-4040 are not to interact with it unless ordered to do so by Site-87 Command. Expedition teams sent to study SCP-4040 should consist of a minimum of four agents, with no expedition members being left alone for any prolonged period of time. Personnel sent to investigate SCP-4040 should be rated at a minimum of 72 on the Memetic Resistance Index.

Foundation personnel within Nexus-0018 are to avoid any non-essential conversation regarding SCP-4040, as SCP-4040 is believed to draw power from human narratives. Civilian residents of Nexus-0018 are also to be cautioned against creating or circulating narratives surrounding SCP-4040.

Description: SCP-4040 is a sinkhole of indeterminate depth located within Sloth's Forest of Sloth's Pit, Wisconsin (Nexus-0018). It has been measured to be 30.48 meters wide1, and possesses a single wooden step in front of it2. SCP-4040's precise location is not known, but it has yet to be determined if this is because it actually translocates or is merely a pretermemetic effect of the anomaly.

The folklore of Nx-18 asserts that the same person can never find SCP-4040 twice. This has been substantiated by Foundation expeditions into Sloth's Forest. None of the agents who discovered SCP-4040 were able to do so again upon subsequent visits, nor were they able to call additional personnel to their location. GPS signals and radio tracking were unable to provide precise locations, and nearby personnel were unable to hone in on the discoverer's voice, claiming it seemed to come from all directions. As Nx-18's primary anomaly is manifesting narratives circulated within its area of effect3, the folklore surrounding SCP-4040 is believed to be a significant factor in the Foundation's inability to locate it.

Drone exploration of SCP-4040 has proven infeasible, as radio signals fail to travel more than 30 meters into the sinkhole, and fully automated drones have failed to return. Estimating the depth of SCP-4040 with laser rangefinders, as well as with less sophisticated methods, has also proved inconclusive. Folklore regarding UAE Chapman-341 (The Goatman) claims that it was once baited into SCP-4040 in an attempt to neutralize it, but climbed back out after two days. This has been deemed a pataphysical manifestation of Sloth's Pit folklore, and is not useful as a means of estimating depth.

Both Foundation personnel and Nx-18 residents who have encountered SCP-4040 have reported the ambient sound dropping to near zero with barely audible whispers emanating from the sinkhole, as well as a noticeable sense of derealization, typically described as feeling like 'they're in a scene from a horror movie'. Viewing SCP-4040 from the sides will reveal nothing but darkness. However, viewing it from the front step has produced a variety of results (see exploration log).

According to historical records, SCP-4040 was formed on Christmas Day, 1890, beneath the mansion of Jackson Sloth4. The dwelling was completely consumed, along with Jackson Sloth, his wife Imogen, and their son Jasper. In addition to being the first major anomaly to occur in Sloth's Pit, the onset of anomalous phenomena that eventually led to the town being classified as Nexus-0018 was observed to begin immediately after SCP-4040 first manifested. It has thus been speculated that SCP-4040 may be an epicenter of pataphysical effects responsible for transforming Sloth's Pit into a Nexus.

Addendum, Selected SCP-4040 Exploration Logs:

▶ SCP-4040 Expedition #6, Video #1:

▼ SCP-4040 Expedition #6, Video #1:

Agents Alison Carol and Robert Tofflemire of Mobile Task Force Sigma-10 encountered SCP-4040 in Sloth's Forest during a planned sweep of the area for the anomaly. In addition to being the sixth recorded encounter with SCP-4040 by Foundation personnel, Agents Carol and Tofflemire are the only two non-anomalous individuals known to have reached the bottom of SCP-4040 and reported back alive.

<Begin Log>

[Agent Robert Tofflemire appears on camera standing in front of SCP-4040. Agent Alison Carol can be assumed to be operating the camera.]

Agent Carol: Camera's on.

Agent Tofflemire: "In this land of ours, there are many great pits, but none more bottomless than the bottomless pit, which as you can see here is bottomless."

Carol: Dude, quote cartoons on your own time. This is serious.

Tofflemire: I actually think this is more of a working vacation, but if you want to suck all the fun out of it just to please the Overseers, that's your hang up.

Carol: Ugh. For the record, we are Agents Alison Carol and Robert Tofflemire of Mobile Task Force Sigma 10 -

Tofflemire: We're the Alice and Bob that get mentioned so often in thought experiments.

Carol: - And we have successfully discovered SCP-4040.

Tofflemire: This is actually Sloth's Pit! The town of Sloth's Pit was named after this hole!

Carol: As with previous encounters with this anomaly, neither our GPS or comm units can give us a location any more specific than Sloth's Forest. Robert tried shouting at the top of his lungs for a few minutes, but we got no response from the rest of our squad.

[Note: Squad members present in the area at the time do report hearing Agent Tofflemire's shouts. He does not respond to their shouts back, however.]

Tofflemire: Yeah, this whole place got eerily quiet as soon as we saw the pit. No birds, insects, leaves rustling, nothing.

[Note: The camera records typical ambient noise for a wooded location, including the distant shouting of Sigma-10 squad members.]

Carol: That's consistent with previous encounters. Also consistent with previous encounters is how surreal all this feels. I feel a bit like I'm having a lucid dream, or that I'm in a story.

Tofflemire: Which officially makes us fourth wall breakers. We're the SCP Foundation's version of Deadpool.

Carol: Robert, if you don't start acting like we're standing right in front of an uncontained Keter I'll have you shining hodag eggs for the next month! (clears throat) We have been equipped with basic camping gear and supplies, with enough food to last a couple weeks. Our primary mission is to stakeout SCP-4040 and see if it translocates while we're still here. We will be sleeping in shifts, and will not be leaving visible range of SCP-4040 for the next two weeks.

Tofflemire: Come over here so they can get a good view into the pit.

[Agent Carol walks to the edge of SCP-4040, and points the camera downwards. It appears to be a naturally occurring shaft in the earth of indeterminable depth, with no obvious abnormalities.]

Carol: Not much to see, unless you guys are seeing something different than we are, but from here it just looks like a big pit.

Tofflemire: I hear kind of an echoey whisper sound coming out of it too. Do you hear that Alice?

Carol: I do. It kind of sounds like there's a wind down there, and the wind is trying to speak.

[The camera's audio does not pick up anything.]

Tofflemire: Do you want to try looking from the front step? The townfolk say you'll see your worst nightmare.

Carol: We might as well. You go first.

[Agent Tofflemire stands upon the step and stares into SCP-4040. His face pales noticeably.]

Carol: See anything?

Tofflemire: Yeah. A buddy of mine got dragged into the Old Man's lair about six years ago. He's still alive in there.

Carol: Robert, step away now.

[Agent Tofflemire complies.]

Carol: I'm sure that wasn't real. How would it know, anyway?

Tofflemire: Yeah, yeah. Ah, do you still want to…

Carol: I think I should.

[Agent Carol stands onto the step and stares into SCP-4040. The camera does not record anything unusual.]

Tofflemire: What do you see Alice?

Carol: I see every cryptid and thoughtform in Sloth's Pit driven mad and tearing up the whole town, like last Halloween but a thousand times worse. It's because of us, because of our attempts at containing SCP-4040. We just made things worse, like we always do. God, did I say that?

[Agent Carol steps away from SCP-4040.]

Carol: I don't think there's any more useful information to be gained by standing on that step.

Tofflemire: Agreed. Do you want to set up camp first or the perimeter?

Carol: The perimeter, right. Ah, to those watching this, in addition to our stakeout mission, we were also to install a small perimeter fence around SCP-4040 embedded with various transponders and whatnot, so that we can see if its still there the next time SCP-4040 is found.

Tofflemire: And I made a warning sign to go with it.

[Agent Toffelmire holds up a small wooden sign which reads 'Bottomless Pit (and topless dancers)'.]

Carol: We're not putting that up.

Tofflemire: Why not? It's kitschy, like all the other crap they sell at the tourist traps in town.

Carol: It's not sanctioned by Command, plus it's stupid and sexist.

Tofflemire: Okay, I can fix the last part actually.

[Agent Tofflemire takes out a sharpie pen to edit the sign. It now reads 'Bottomless Pit (and toplessfree dancers)'.]

Tofflemire: There, that's the preferred politically correct term, I think, though it doesn't go as well with 'Bottomless Pit'. Do you think I should change Bottomless to Bottomfree?

Carol: You're an idiot.

<End Log>

▶ SCP-4040 Expedition #6, Video #2:

▼ SCP-4040 Expedition #6, Video #2:

<Begin Log>

[Agent Carol is seen sitting upright in her sleeping bag within the tent. It is dark outside, but there is some light from a campfire.]

Agent Carol: This is Agent Carol, at the end of our first day of the SCP-4040 stakeout. I just wanted to do a quick talking head before I turn in. Tofflemire is taking the first shift. There's been no change in our situation. The forest is still abnormally quiet and we both still have this odd sense of unreality about what's going on. It's hard to explain, aside from saying that what's happening right now just doesn't feel real. The voices, or whatever it is, coming from the hole have neither abated nor intensified. We did get the fence up around SCP-4040, and I ended up letting Robert put the stupid sign up too. We repeated the usual SCP-4040 tests: radio drone, automated drone, laser rangefinders and a fishing line with a weight on it. We lost both drones, and both depth measurements were inconclusive, just as with previous tests. We got the camp set up, including a campfire. We need light for the stakeout, and fire's good at keeping away predators, scavengers and cryptids -

Agent Tofflemire: (shouting from off camera) Also we made s'mores!

Carol: …Yeah, so we're settled in pretty good here. Our walkies and sat phones are useless, but the rest of the equipment is functional. The Kant Counters say the Hume level is normal, or normal for Sloth's Pit anyway. The VERITAS hasn't picked up any unusual EVE emissions from SCP-4040 either, and the Minkowski Spacetime Monitors aren't detecting any spacetime distortions. Scintillation counters and EMF meters are all normal, and a sweep with the multispectral imager found nothing out of the ordinary. I wrote all the exact readings down in the forms. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact this thing doesn't stay put and we can't confirm that it's not actually bottomless, we wouldn't have any reason to think it's anomalous. We'll keep doing environmental checks a few times a day for as long as we're here. Maybe Tofflemire's right, and this will just be uneventful camping trip by a bottomless pit in a haunted forest.

[Agent Carol pauses expectantly, as if anticipating sudden disaster.]

Carol: Anyway, I'm going to shut the camera off to conserve the battery. I'll turn it back on if anything interesting happens or if I have anything else to report. This is Agent Carol of Sigma-10, signing off.

<End Log>

▶ SCP-4040 Expedition #6, Video #3:

▼ SCP-4040 Expedition #6, Video #3:

<Begin Log>

[Camera turns on, and the holder appears to be outside at night. Lighting is very poor, but Agent Tofflemire can be seen to be standing on the step in front of SCP-4040.]

Agent Carol: (off camera) Robert! Robert, how long have you been standing there? Jesus Christ, Robert whatever you're seeing isn't real! That's not your friend being tortured!

Agent Tofflemire: That's not what I see anymore.

[An enormous humanoid entity5 begins to rise from SCP-4040. Due to the poor lighting, few details are discernible.]

Carol: Holy Hell!

Tofflemire: Get out of here while you can Alice.

Carol: Robert, run you idiot! (Agent Tofflemire remains unresponsive) Robert!

[The entity grabs Agent Tofflemire with its right hand, and reaches for Agent Carol with its left.]

Carol: Jesus!

[Agent Carol attempts to flee, but is grabbed by the entity. She and Agent Tofflemire are pulled into SCP-4040. The camera shows them to be in a state of free fall. Both attempt to speak on several occasions during this period, but due to the rushing wind, no conversation is audible. After approximately thirty minutes, they collide with what can be presumed to be the bottom of SCP-4040.]

Carol: Ahh. What the hell? That didn't kill us? We're alive? Robert, are you okay? Tofflemire, report!

Tofflemire: (laughs) "I've been falling for thirty minutes!"

Carol: Ugh. You're fine. Shit, the camera's even still working.

[Agent Carol points the camera at herself and clears her throat.]

Carol: This is Agent Alison Carol of Mobile Task Force Sigma-10, reporting in. When I awoke to take my shift guarding SCP-4040, I found Agent Tofflemire standing upon its front step, staring into it in a trance-like state. Robert, do you want to explain that?

Tofflemire: Well, after you went to sleep and I was alone, a lot of weird thoughts started running through my head. I don't know if it was a direct effect of SCP-4040 or just the kind of thing that happens when you're alone with something like it, but I had to know what was down there.

Carol: And why didn't you try to run when that thing came up?

Tofflemire: Because… we needed to fall down SCP-4040 to move the plot forward.

Carol: What? I think maybe you being alone in front of it without anyone else to keep you grounded led to an exaggeration of its derealization effect. To whoever is watching this video, I would advise sending the next SCP-4040 sweep in teams of four, so that guard shifts can be taken in pairs.

Tofflemire: Alice, nothing but the Goatman has ever come back out of this pit. No one's going to see that video.

Carol: If the frickin' Goatman can get out of here, then so can we! On your feet agent! We need to assess our surroundings.

Tofflemire: We're at the bottom of a bottomless pit. Roll Credits.

Carol: There's no light other than the camera's little LED, but I don't see any sign of whatever it was that tossed us in here. The ground appears to be ordinary dirt, so I honestly have no idea how we're still breathing. We were actually falling for half an hour, and assuming we were falling at terminal velocity that means we're roughly a hundred kilometers underground.

Tofflemire: I guess that means the Goatman can climb at about 2 kilometers an hour. I doubt we can climb that fast, and his body doesn't need food or rest. We'd die of thirst before we'd reach the top, and we'd probably fall from exhaustion long before then. We're stuck here Alice.

Carol: Robert, this isn't just a pit, it's an anomaly. For all we know… wait, do you hear that?

[The sounds of a person digging with a shovel, along with breathing and grunts of exertion, can be heard in the distance.]

Tofflemire: Holy crap, there's someone else down here! Hello!

Carol: Hello!

[Agent Carol and Tofflemire head towards the source of the noise. Roughly a minute later a man in a soiled white dress shirt and suspenders comes into view. This entity is designated SCP-4040-01. Without ceasing digging, it looks up at the agents.]

SCP-4040-01: Mornin'.

Carol: …Good morning. I'm Alice, and this is Robert. He and I are with the S&C Plastics company -

SCP-4040-01: (chuckles) You know, just because I'm at the bottom of a pit doesn't mean I've been living under a rock. I know what S&C Plastics is, agent.

Carol: Lots of people around here do. I'm not going to insult your intelligence by telling you a bunch of hogwash. Could you tell us who you are, and what you're doing here?

SCP-4040-01: You mean you don't recognize me? That's disappointing.

Tofflemire: I recognize you sir. I've seen your statue in the unforbidden dog park. You're Jackson Sloth.

SCP-4040-01: That's right sonny. I'm Sloth, and this is my Pit.

Carol: You're the Jackson Sloth, founder of Sloth's Pit? You've been down here for 130 years?

SCP-4040-01: What's the date?

Tofflemire: July 1st, Canada Day. 2018.

SCP-4040-01: Then no. I've been down here 127 years, six months and six days.

Carol: Digging a pit?

SCP-4040-01: (briefly stops digging and looks up) It's a metaphor (resumes digging).

Carol: How are you still alive?

SCP-4040-01: I'm imaginary, just like this pit and all the monsters in this town.

Carol: Sir, you're not imaginary. We can both see you, and you're showing up on the camera.

Tofflemire: Sir, do you know this pit isn't just a hole in the ground? It's impossibly deep, no one can find it twice, it messes with people's sense of reality -

SCP-4040-01: I know exactly what this place is son. Grab a shovel, the both of you, and I'll tell you a bit of history.

[Agents Carol and Tofflemire turn their attention to two previously unnoticed shovels propped up against the pit wall. Carol sets the camera down where it can record them, and both agents assist SCP-4040-01 in digging.]

SCP-4040-01: Since I was a young boy, I've always had a very intuitive sense of how the imaginary was real. The stories we're told and tell, the things we dream and fear, all of that affects our thoughts and feelings, and thus our actions. Reality is affected by the imaginary, and thus the imaginary cannot be said to be unreal. Do you follow me?

Carol: We call that pataphysics.

SCP-4040-01: Well, I had a gift at crafting narratives that would shape reality in the way I wanted. Nothing impossible, or even all that fantastical, but I could nonetheless create narrative seeds that germinated in the minds of all who heard or read them. Not every seed would sprout, and not every narrative would grow the way I had intended, but through trial and error, I got better at creating successful seeds and more influential narratives. That's how I got so many people to follow me out west to create a lumber town, and also how I convinced them to settle in Wisconsin once I realized just how far out Oregon was.

Carol: It kind of just sounds like you were a good orator.

SCP-4040-01: I might have said so too, until Christmas Day, 1890. I was in my study, scribbling away in my notebook, trying to conjure up a narrative for Caroline that would make up for having to spend Christmas in the hospital, when I crossed some invisible line that should not have been crossed. The collective force of all my narratives reached some sort of critical mass and collapsed in on themselves. My house, everything in it and most of the land beneath it became imaginary. The disappearance sparked a wave of rumours, all of which this place lapped up until it became the bottomless pit people said it was.

Carol: You're saying that the Bottomless Pit that swallowed your house is some kind of pataphysical singularity? And by singularity, I mean a -

SCP-4040-01: I've been keeping up with the sciences young lady, and I think that's a perfect term for it. And just like a collapsed star still generates enough gravity to distort nearby space, so too does this pit generate enough narrative force to seriously affect reality in Sloth's Pit. It creates narratives so strong they can sustain hundreds of tulpas and violate the laws of physics with ease. Six impossible things before breakfast, eh Alice? If only I could have created narratives like that when I was still real!

Tofflemire: What about that monster that pulled us in here? What was -

[The pit shakes as an agonized groan reverberates from up above.]

SCP-4040-01: Don't speak of it. It's not real, not yet, but with enough story it will be. Best to just ignore it, and dig. But now that you're here, I might take a short rest if you don't mind.

[SCP-4040-01 sits down on a nearby boulder, and wipes its forehead with a handkerchief.]

Carol: Sir, do you know if there's any way out of this pit? We know the Goatman climbed out once, but if this a place where imagination shapes reality -

SCP-4040-01: Not just imagination, stories. Stories shape reality. The Goatman climbed out because that made his story better. It showed everyone what a relentless beast he is. You climbing out of here though? That would break suspension of disbelief for most people.

Tofflemire: What would you suggest then sir?

SCP-4040-01: Oh I'd just keep digging if I were you. After all, you know what they say. If you dig deep enough…

[The ground beneath Agents Carol and Tofflemire begins to crack. It breaks open and both agents, as well as the camera, fall straight down.]

SCP-4040-01: (shouting from above) …You'll dig through to China!

<End Log>

Agents Alison Carol and Robert Tofflemire were later recovered in the Shunan Bamboo Forest in China, after falling out of a newly opened sinkhole. Later attempts to locate this sinkhole were unsuccessful.

The fence Agents Carol and Tofflemire installed around SCP-4040 was not found upon subsequent encounters. However, the sign installed by Agent Tofflemire remains by the front step.

Two controlled descents using Buckminster filament and an electrical winch by later expeditions into SCP-4040 have failed to discover a bottom to the pit, even after passing the 100 km point where Carol and Tofflemire logically would have landed. Later expeditions to SCP-4040 also failed to encounter SCP-4040-01 or the entity that pulled Agents Carol and Tofflemire into the pit. However, field personnel have reported that the previously indistinct whispering emanating from SCP-4040 has become coherent. They report the voices repeat the following verse indefinitely:

▶ Submit Level 4 clearance to view possible pataphysical hazard.

▼ Clearance accepted.

The dark isn't real, but you are blind without light

The cold isn't real, but you'll still freeze in the night

Words are not real, and yet you know how to write

The Pit Sloth isn't real, but he'll still give you a fright!

No analysis of this development is to be made at this time.

Footnotes

1. Confirming local folklore that the pit is exactly 100 feet across.

2. In all known encounters, individuals have discovered SCP-4040 from an orientation where the step was directly in front of them.

3. Primarily by altering the laws of probability to conform to narrative norms and generating thoughtform entities.

4. Founder of Sloth's Pit, originally named by him as New Toronto.

5. This entity is not to receive a formal designation or informal name, and is not to be discussed unless absolutely necessary.