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Item #: SCP-445-EX

Object Class: Explained

Containment Procedures: No further containment procedures are necessary.

Description: SCP-445-EX is a collection of Dr. Wondertainment (GoI-386) brand origami kits, each labelled "Dr. Wondertainment's Origami Ori-Games". Inside each kit are 36 square pieces of construction paper, of various colors, and a paper booklet that gives instructions on how to make several origami figures with the provided papers. Pouring salt over the paper will activate microscopic sensors calibrated to detect salt crystals, which in turn activate dielectric elastomers1 within the construction paper.

The resulting effect is a minimal but thematically appropriate movement — for example, a crane made with this paper, following the instructions in the booklet exactly, will slowly flap its wings when introduced to salt.

Due to the Dr. Wondertainment brand, SCP-445-EX were immediately confiscated from storefronts across the United States, and given an SCP number and Euclid object class. However, research quickly revealed that SCP-445-EX were, despite their seemingly anomalous effects, entirely mundane in nature. SCP-445-EX's effects were able to be reproduced using non-anomalous means.

Further inquiry discovered that SCP-445-EX had arrived at storefronts in a non-anomalous fashion, against the usual operations of GoI-386. Documents tracing the acquisition of SCP-445-EX determined that they were being manufactured at a GoI-386 owned factory in Boston. Covert surveillance of the factory discovered no anomalous activity within, except for the presence of two workers matching the profiles for Wonder World denizens. Said individuals, however, hid their anomalous nature from other mundane workers within the building.

The GoI-386 Research & Investigation team met on 04/12/2042 to discuss how best to proceed. Dr. Justine Everwood, the head of the team, suggested they call the help number in the back of the booklets, and ask directly about the product. Despite mixed feedback, it was agreed that the possibility of negative consequences was minimal. Calling the number yielded the following conversation:

► Access SCP-445-EX Phone Call

◄ Hide SCP-445-EX Phone Call

Interviewer: May Waters

Interviewed: PoI-445-EX-003 (Respondent)

(After two rings, Unknown picks up the phone, and speaks in a feminine voice with a Boston accent.)

Respondent: Hello, this is Dr. Wondertainment's Origami Ori-Games help hotline, how may I help you?

May Waters: Hello, this is May Waters, a record donor to the Sweets & Consumables Department in 2002. I am wondering why this product lacks the same… magic, as your other products do. I buy from your company expecting a certain level of wonder and fantasy, and this recent product lacks the same… spark. As your other products do.

(Pause.)

Respondent: Um, that's a long story, really. I'm not equipped… to answer that. Are you… are you from… ahem, sorry. (Pause, shuffling papers can be heard.) Does GoI-386 mean anything to you?

May Waters: GoI?

Respondent: Yes, group of — well, if it doesn't, if you don't know anything about it, then nevermind, the product is —

May Waters: (Having conferred with other present GoI-386 R&I members:) Yes. GoI-386 is Dr. Wondertainment. I am asking on the behalf of the SCP Foundation. We mean you no harm, in fact, we are, uh… pleased. We are happy about this new development. We just —

Respondent: Want to know why.

May Waters: We want to know why.

(Respondent can be heard breathing more heavily.)

Respondent: We've been expecting you to call, sorry, I just need to compose myself for a second.

May Waters: Take your time.

(There is a full minute pause. In this time, May Waters converses with other present personnel. The next voice is from another unknown party, this time in a soprano, breathy voice.)

PoI-386-Prime-3: Hello?

May Waters: Hello, to whom am I speaking?

PoI-386-Prime-3: You are speaking to Holly Light, formerly Dr. Holly Light Wondertainment. Hello, Ms. Waters. I'm good friends with your biggest fan.

May Waters: Fan? Do you mean Judy Papill?

PoI-386-Prime-3: I do. She's making a better Wondertainment than I ever did. I'm very, very proud of her. I suppose you have a lot of questions — but every conversation worth having is worth having in person, don't you agree, sweetie?

May Waters: What do you mean in person?

PoI-386-Prime-3: I mean, we should arrange a time and place to meet. I have a lot to tell you.

May Waters: Allow me a second to compose a plan.

PoI-386-Prime-3: Take your time.

(May Waters takes fifteen minutes to confer with the Research & Investigation team, who are at this point all present in an adjacent room and listening to the conversation.)

May Waters: Are you still there?

PoI-386-Prime-3: Haven't moved an inch.

May Waters: We know where your Origami Ori-Games production plant is, would it be possible to meet near there?

PoI-386-Prime-3: Oh, Boston is a hop skip and a jump away. I'd be happy to. How about that new coffee shop that opened near the industrial district?

May Waters: I'm not sure it's wise to —

PoI-386-Prime-3: Oh I don't want you to have to try to hear me over the sounds of production. Trust me, other than being a bit tall, I'm not too strange to look at. Don't worry about the Veil. If anything, you should notice that we're respecting it more and more lately.

(Pause.)

May Waters: Donnie's Coffee Roasters?

PoI-386-Prime-3: That's the one. This coming Sunday, at 3:00 pm. Could you make that?

May Waters: Will anyone else be with you?

PoI-386-Prime-3: No one. But you can bring as many as you like.

(Pause as May Waters receives instructions.)

May Waters: We will be there. Thank you so much.

PoI-386-Prime-3: Call back if you need anything, sweetie. This is my personal number.

May Waters: Alright, goodbye.

PoI-386-Prime-3: Goodbye, have a wonderful day.

(May Waters hangs up.)

Dr. Everwood volunteered to be the interviewer of PoI-386-Prime-3. On 4/20/2042, Dr. Everwood met Holly Light at Donnie's Coffee Roasters in Boston, Massachusetts. After introductions, Dr. Everwood placed a microphone on the table, and the following conversation was recorded.

► Access PoI-386-Prime-3 Interview

◄ Hide PoI-386-Prime-3 Interview

Interviewer: Dr. Everwood

Interviewed: PoI-386-Prime-3 (Holly Light)

Dr. Everwood: And we are on!

Holly Light: Exciting. I've never been interviewed outside of Wonder World, tee em before.

Dr. Everwood: Exciting to interview you! Alright, then, I am here to ask you… why make Origami Ori-Games without magic? What's this plan? What are you doing?

Holly Light: It's for you, sweetie. We thought you'd like it.

Dr. Everwood: Oh really, for us? Why for us?

Holly Light: Oh, I admit, it wasn't my idea. But, then again, that's why I stepped down, you see. Both Chester Williams and Cornelius Młynarczyk died, and had their successor written into their will. But I knew that I wasn't the best fit for the job. (Holly sighs, and stirs her coffee.) The world doesn't want magic.

Dr. Everwood: What do you mean by that?

Holly Light: (Chuckles, slowly.) Isn't it obvious, honey? You must know the people you work for, right? (Pause.) I only poke fun. But Wondertainment's main priority is to enrich the lives of children, and hopefully, by extension, everyone.

(Pause. Both present sip their drinks.)

Holly Light: Did you know that birthrates have been falling?

Dr. Everwood: Umm, yes, I'm aware.

Holly Light: For decades. Everywhere. Do you know what that means, honey? (Pause.) People are losing hope. All around the world. It's becoming a scarce commodity. And that's why I knew I wasn't the one for the job. I was one of them. I'd lost hope. Without hope, the spirit dies. And without spirit, what drive is there to make people happy? (Holly takes a deep breath.) It's there, but it's… weak. It doesn't help you get up in the morning. It holds down your smile.

(Pause.)

Holly Light: I like my smile, too.

Dr. Everwood: You… lost hope? What, what made you lose hope?

Holly Light: Oh, many things. The earth cooks, the poor get poorer and the rich get richer. The people at the top don't care and the people at the bottom lack the power to do anything. Famine and drought rates are rising, natural disasters and weather patterns are becoming more severe. It feels like there are too many problems, and I'm just one woman. I'm an old woman, too. Maybe older than you would think by looking at me.

Dr. Everwood: 70 something?

Holly Light: Oh, older than that, sweetie. I'm a natural born Wonder World tee em citizen — one of the first, even. I was 44 when I gained the title of Dr. Wondertainment in 1999. I grew up during the later days of Chester Williams. He was just about to reach 100 in 1976, when he passed and Cornelius took his place. I lived through the Civil Rights era, and the Vietnam War. I've since lived through the nuclear scare under President Trump, the election of Bolsonaro. I've seen countless coups and I've seen sinking cities.

(Pause.)

Dr. Everwood: I'm…

(The jingle of a door opening and closing can be heard in the background.)

Holly Light: Growing up in Wonder World tee em gives you a lot of things. It fills you with a sense of magic, and wonder at everything on earth and elsewhere. It tells you that you can do anything you set your mind to, accomplish all of your dreams and more. Best yet, it tells you that you can make the world a better place. Just by being here and being yourself. What it doesn't do, it doesn't prepare you for when that doesn't happen. For when everything you've ever done amounts to the smallest possible blip on the radar, a tiny squiggle up on a graph that trends down.

(Holly breathes audibly for five seconds.)

Holly Light: I'm sorry.

Dr. Everwood: Uhh… don't be, I… take your time.

(There is a fifteen second pause.)

Holly Light: The more hope you have, the more you have to lose, and the longer you have it, the less you know how to live without it. But it still remains that without hope, the spirit dies. And hope was a scarce commodity. So… so, I appointed Judy. Judy's… such a sweetie. Such a slice of pie. (Giggles, and then pauses.) She'd figured out something I hadn't. I still don't know where she gets it, but good Lord I am so happy she has it. She still has hope. She has faith that we can make the world a better place. And even if I've lost that soul myself… it keeps me afloat to see just how much she has. Maybe it rubs off on me a little, because even when all I feel like doing is crying and giving up, Judy can make me smile. And even when I feel like everything is lost, she can convince me to go out and make friends out of enemies, eheh.

(Pause. Holly sips her drink.)

Dr. Everwood: I still don't think I understand, why… why create a toy without properties? Why make something mundane?

Holly Light: (Finishes her sip before speaking.) Dr. Wondertainment, the company, had been content to supply toys to the wondrous community alone for a very long time. There came a point at which we realized that we couldn't keep doing what we were doing and also supply the normal kids with magic. We still gave it a shot, every once in a while. I have it on good authority that you seem to find toys that have snuck through and into a child's lap every once in a while.

Dr. Everwood: Heh, yes, yes we do.

Holly Light: I like to believe that for every one you find, there are five or ten you don't. And those are the children that will know what magic is. How the world is filled with wonder. But for every five or ten that do get an original Dr. Wondertainment brand toy, there are thousands, millions that don't. Children that don't ever learn that they can be surprised by the beauty of the world. That don't know what it's like to sit down and let their imagination take them everywhere and anywhere. Who don't know what it's like to truly have hope that something magical and miraculous will happen.

Holly Light: Well, Judy thought, if we can't touch the hearts of every man woman and child, then what are we even doing here. What's our point. She said it less pessimistically of course, the darling… but that was the idea. In the world's time of need, it's not enough that we give those gifted enough to be born with magic in their bodies more magic in their lives. Our truest dedication needs to be to those people who don't know magic. Who don't know wonder. Who don't know what it's like to be awestruck in the confines of their own room. Those people that never believed in Santa Claus, or the Tooth Fairy. Those are the people we need to touch. And those people don't get magical toys. Other people make sure that they don't.

(Pause.)

Dr. Everwood: I'm so sorry.

Holly Light: Don't be, please. Despite my disagreements with your organization, I'm of the belief that everyone is trying to do what they think is best. Sometime's it's hard to hold that belief. But I at least think it makes me happier to believe it. I understand that you believe that society crumbles without rules, and those include the rules of the universe. I know we seem to break them to you, sweetie. It's alright.

(Holly sighs.)

Holly Light: I need you to know that I love you.

Dr. Everwood: What?

Holly Light: I need you to know that, because we started this project out of love for each and every human being. No matter their flaws. No matter who they are. No matter what they believe. And we need you to feel that love. Because that's the only way this will work. Because we need you to agree with us, to set aside our differences. We made Origami Ori-Games to attract your attention. It's worked, clearly. But the next step is that you let us distribute our toys. Please.

Dr. Everwood: I—

Holly Light: We promise we won't break the veil — nothing anomalous in the non-anomalous community. We promise we will operate in plain sight. We'll leave a paper trail. We're a registered national company now. But we need your support, or we will fail. (Pause.) Please.

Dr. Everwood: I…

Holly Light: Please.

(Pause. The sound of a coffee grinder can be heard in the background.)

Dr. Everwood: I… I can contact my superiors, and try to arrange a meeting.

Holly Light: Are you sure they will listen to you, darling? To me?

Dr. Everwood: I can't promise anything but… yes, but, yes, I'm almost certain they'll listen. They would love to hear that an anomalous company is… going mundane.

Holly Light: It would mean a lot to me.

Dr. Everwood: Yeah.

Holly Light: Thank you ever so much. Thank you for meeting me here and listening to me. Thank you for giving me hope.

Note: Dr. Everwood asked that the rest of the recording be cut. The SCP-445-EX research team deemed the information gleaned irrelevant, except for compiling further information on PoI-386-Prime-3, which will be kept in their own file.

As of 6/18/2042, the O5 Council has unanimously accepted GoI-386's proposal for a peaceful relationship. The GoI-386 Research & Investigation Team is being moved to a location within Wonder World. GoI-386 has agreed to share openly with them all future Dr. Wondertainment market operations.

Dr. Everwood has retired at age 56.

Footnotes

1. Materials that expand or contract when given an electrical signal.