The following document has been in Foundation possession since 
18 . Several dating techniques have all placed the document at its 
authentic time period. Foundation scholars are unable to place 
where this document would fit among the author's other works. 
Current translation from Ancient Greek by Dr. 


Reptilius 

By Plato! 

Date of writing unknown 
Translation by Dr. 
Persons of Dialogue: 


Mactavius the Victim 

Salares the Priest 

Copernicus the Clueless One 

Musinus the Skeptic 

Socrates the Philosopher 

Scene: 

A temple of healing 

Salares: Have you come to see the deluded? 


Musinus: We have come to examine his claims. 


Sal.: He is in a deep slumber. Would you wish for me to 
recite what he told me? 


Socrates: We would wish it for proper examination. 


Sal.: Here is the roll, Socrates. | will recite the recorded 


dialogue as if it were him speaking to me and also my 
servant Copernicus, who was there with me. | have 
omitted, for the sake of convenience, the interlocutory 
words "I said," "I remarked," which he used when he 
spoke of himself, and again, "he agreed," or "disagreed," 
in the answer, lest the repetition of them should be 
troublesome. 


Mus.: Please continue, Salares. 
Salares reads the scroll 
Mactavius: Please help me, priest | am injured. 


Sal.: Servant, fetch this man water and bandages, and 
also olive oil with which to bathe his wounds. 


Mac.: Thank you, priest, | am grateful. 


Sal.: What has happened to you, Mactavius, on this day 
that has caused you to be so injured in such a way? 


Mac.: Let me begin then, priest, so that while you heal 
me | may tell you what has happened. | was walking to 
the house of my uncle Therapedes while | was 
considering the philosophy of true forms, which has 
puzzled me greatly for many years. | was considering the 
true form of a lizard, which has a pointed snout and a 
lengthy tail and four legs, with webbing between each 
finger. It also has scales on it with which any man may 
discern it from other creatures of this sort. My thoughts 
were over what the true form of a lizard would resemble 
in the world of Ideas, where all forms are true, and not 
the world of reality where we are all shadows of a true 
form. 


My mind decided to focus on getting a view of the world 
of Ideas, and not simply shadows, and | decided to sit on 
the road and ponder this realm until it became clear to 
me, and | sat as many men walked by and jeered at my 
ponderance. This did not break my concentration, and | 


continued to think on this realm for many hours before a 
vision began to come clear to me of it. 


Copernicus: Priest, this man is lying. He cannot see the 
realm of true forms because there is no realm of Ideas. 


Sal.: It is the occupation of a philosopher to think on 
such things, servant, and not of a man who spends his 
thoughts on lower realms. Therefore | would ask of you 
to be quiet so that Mactavius may continue his story. 


Mac.: This vision was very hard to view, as my eyes 
were made for the viewing of mere shadows, and not to 
view the realm of true forms, where man has never 
looked before. | decided to view the true form of a lizard, 
which my thought was on earlier, and which | now 
wished to see. | searched for the true form of the lizard 
and | saw it. It was terrible and also majestic, and looked 
at me and saw that | was seeing it and it pursued me. | 
ran away down the road but it followed me and attacked 
me and wounded me. 


Thereafter, many men armed with spears and swords 
came from the house of my uncle Therapedes to rescue 
me from the lizard and they attacked it with their 
weapons. The lizard then changed forms in order to 
protect itself, and it devoured all of the men, then fled 
from the roadside and into the hills of Olympia. 


Sal.: How was it that the lizard changed forms? 


Mac.: It changed shape and thus became many different 
things while the men attacked it. When Euripedes of my 
uncle's men stabbed at it with his spear the lizard 
thereafter gained a shield along its flanks, and it was 
much harder to stab with spear or sword, and the men 
could not slay it, and it devoured them. 


Cop.: Priest, this could not be true. How could a lizard 
possess such intelligence to know to create a shield for 
itself, as a lizard possess only the intelligence to flee 


EXPUNGED] and the damage done to ground-zero, SCP-923 is 
currently undergoing O5 review for its potential to cause an XK- 
Class event. 

Additional note: While more than half of the equipment was lost in 
this experiment, one of the surveillance devices lost at the Intensity: 
75 firing was recovered after this test. It was heavily damaged and 
barely functional. Efforts to recover data from this device are 
ongoing. 


Addendum: Firing SCP-923 causes some internal damage, 
resulting in the minimum intensity it can fire at increasing. 
SCP-923's internal diagnostics report that it can no longer fire at an 
intensity below 66. It is strongly recommended that the object not be 
used for anything that it isn't absolutely required for. 


« SCP-922 | SCP-923 | SCP-924 » 


from its attackers, and not to defend itself by changing its 
shape? 


Mac.: This lizard did possess an intelligence, and told 
me that it must kill me for it to leave this world of 
shadows, so that it may return to the realm of Ideas, and 
that all shadows should die, for they are not a true. Then 
| slept from my wounds as it ran away. 


Salares finishes reading the scroll 


Mus.: This man is delusional, for such a thing could not 
have happened. Were there injuries about his head to 
make him think such things? 


Sal.: No, there were many bites along his chest and 
arms, from which he will be forever scarred. The bites 
were very large, larger than could be made by a lion ora 
bear, and also very deep, and Mactavius bled much 
blood from his injuries, and could not move his left arm. 


Mus.: Surely you do not believe the man. 


Sal.: | believe the beast came from the real of Ideas, and 
was in its ideal form. 


Mus.: Such talk is nonsense. How could a man see the 
realm of Ideas, when he is always tied to reality? 


Soc.: Perhaps it was simply powerful thought of the 
realm of Ideas. 


Mus.: Such an act would not be possible. 


Soc.: Can you not imagine the characteristics of every 
lizard? 


Mus.: Yes, a lizard possess four legs and a tail of 
extreme length, as well as a flattened head and scales 
along its body. Its feet are webbed and it moves quickly 
across the ground. 


Soc.: Can you imagine an animal with all of those traits? 
Mus.: Yes. 
Soc.: Then is that not its ideal form? 


Mus.: You are very wise, Socrates. That is not 
something | had thought to be true. 


Sal.: So then you agree that it is possible to imagine an 
ideal lizard? 


Mus.: Yes. But what of its changing shape? 
Sal.: That, | do not know. 

Soc.: The lizard is of the realm of Ideas, yes? 
Sal.: That is what we have concluded, Socrates. 


Soc.: What of its properties when it enters our lesser 
realm? 


Sal.: It is a true entity among mere shadows. 
Soc.: How are we shadows? 


Sal.: We are the simple shadows of ideal forms, cast into 
this realm by candle light. 


Soc.: Then the beast would not also flicker like a shadow 
in candle light, changing shape? 


Sal.: It would. 


Mus.: An excellent explanation Socrates, but then what 
of its cries for freedom and its devouring of Therapedes' 
soldiers? 


Soc.: An ideal form is made of the characteristics of how 
we perceive the lizard, yes? 


Mus.: That is true. 


Soc.: Then would it not be true that the lizard would 
cease existing if we no longer observed its 
characteristics? 


Mus.: Yes, then it would be free from our lesser realm, 
and would return to the realm of Ideas. Very good 
Socrates, that explains why the beast would wish to 
destroy life around it, because life would observe it and 
prevent it from escaping, and that would anger it, but | 
doubt we can ponder for much longer today. We are 
needed at the house of Antioch to dine with the king 
there, for he has heard of Socrates's wisdom and wishes 
for us to share dinner with him, so we must go. 


Soc.: Tomorrow | wish to return and discuss the 
summoning of this creature and other ideal forms as this 
man has done before us, so it is our duty to find 
knowledge of how he accomplished this. Therefore we 
will discuss this further. For now | wish you goodbye, 
priest. 


Sal.: Farewell. 


The further documentation referred to in the dialogue has not been 
found. 


Footnotes 

1. This is disputed. The content of the document roughly matches 
Plato's philosophy, however a lack of mention in other sources 
regarding Plato's works casts suspicion on its authenticity. It is 
possible that knowledge of this document was suppressed, as it 
deals with acts of summoning something that was not considered a 
god at the time period. 

2. Note that Socrates was used by Plato in most of his dialogues 
(usually cast as the thoughtful philosopher), and that his presence in 
this dialogue is simply as a character. 


Resale Value 


One afternoon, at a fashionable clubhouse belonging to Marshall, 
Carter, and Dark Ltd. 


"Look what / made!" 
"It's lovely, sir. You are truly gifted. May | ask what it is?" 


"| made it using the kit that | bought from you guys last year, and the 
tools that you sold to my friend a few years back before his accident! 
And the wood came from trees on that secret island in the secret 
lake that | had to rent the map from you guys for, and—" 


"Fascinating, sir. But... what /s it?” 

"It's a reverse mirror voodoo puppet!" 

"I'm sorry, sir, a what?" 

"Reverse mirror voodoo doll stick puppet!” 
"A mirror voodoo—" 

"REVERSE mirror!" 


"But, sir, a mirror already... yes, sir. A reverse mirror voodoo doll 
stick puppet. Very impressive. You are a true artist." 


"Yeah! So what'll you give me for it?" 
"... [beg your pardon?" 
"I'm selling it to you! What'll you give me for it!" 


"I, uh, sir, |... I'm not authorized to make purchases on behalf of my 
employer, sir. I'll need to speak to my supervisor." 


"Sure, you do that. This little baby oughta go for eight, maybe nine 
million?" 


"Uh. Sir, |... please realize that the prices for which we sell items are 
not the prices we pay for items, and— " 


"Yeah, yeah, | gotcha. So... eighty, ninety grand?" 


"Sir, really, I'm not authorized to make purchases on behalf of— sir, 
what does the reverse mirror voodoo doll stick puppet even do?" 


"Pick it up." 
"Uh..." 
"No, take it out of the towel. Let it touch your skin!" 


"Sir, |am a client interaction representative, not a test subject. If you 
wish to purchase a human test subject for demonstration purposes, 
that can be arranged as a separate transaction." 


Eleven years later 


"Uh, yeah, hi, | was wondering... uh... did... did anyone bid on my 
puppet this time?" 


"As a matter of fact, sir, they didn't even get the chance!" 
".,.what?" 


"Before the auction could even start, the SCP Foundation raided the 
site, and they sfo/e your puppet!" 


Research Notes Of RJ Tellar 


As much as | wanted Professor Award-Waver-One-Proud- 
Accomplishment-So-Flaunt-It-Until-|-Die to choke on his own vomit, 
some of the stupid habits stuck with me. Pen and paper help me 
think, so writing all this shit down. Working on this Serpent's Hand 
article for my boss. Everyone else is all over the shitstorm in North 
Korea, but that's behind the game. Good journalism is seeing what's 
happening now. They wanna write history, they can. My job is 
turning the low hanging fruit into gold. 


So, ground work. Serpent's Hand: Some weird tree-hugger sounding 
group. What | can find from the Leak suggests they're basically 
human rights for the weird. Going to do some canvassing and 
interviews, see if anyone's seen them or knows about them on street 
level. 


Interviews done, findings: Majority of people have seen them even 
less than these foundation goons. There was some sort of big 
conspiracy, but in the two months that've passed since, you can at 
least spot the occasional weirdo men in black type. It's making 
people nervous, and nervous people come in two varieties: talk to 
the press, or don't talk to the press. Right now I've got all of three 
people who, after a lot of legwork, could, would, and did produce 
anything more concrete than an opinion. 


First guy claimed to have met a rep, looking into his son. Said they 
were investigating the possibility of his kid having some kind of 
powers or whatever. Didn't seem too impressed, the rep was 
apparently some Native American kook who spent some time 
burning incense and left empty handed. New age crap. Had a little 
card the guy gave him. A hand with a snake wrapped around it. 
Seemed to fit. 


Other two had similar stories. Young kids, unusual stuff, 
representatives who looked like aging hippies or young college kids 


coming in and looking over their children. Not one had been a 
positive. Sounds like a complete load so far. Might have a stinker of 
a reveal for my editor, he loves those. Need to figure out a headline 
suggestion. 


Found a 'cell' of the Hand. Got pointed to them by contact. Been 
selling my editor on the whole 'crock of shit’ angle. He's happy. 
Wants me to wrap up the story so he can get more coverage on the 
North Korea clusterfuck. As if there weren't thirty thousand people 
covering that already. 


These guys are based out of the local third tier college for 
underachievers. Going to see if | can't get some info out of them. 
They've got a website. Looks like most of the crazy kooks who 
believe in Bigfoot and want the age of Aquarius or some shit like 
that. Believing in the supernatural is all the rage with this reveal. 


Plan to remain skeptical. 


Met with the cell. Gotta say: /wow/. Just when | thought this couldn't 
get any more bullshit kook amateur hour, these guys show up. First 
off their 'headquarters' was just someone's dorm room, and it reeked 
of pot. Second, not one of them looked like he owned a shirt that 
didn't have wrinkles growing out of its wrinkles. Third, anime posters 
everywhere. Not exactly the kind of black ops group hinted at in the 
dossiers. 


They said their names were Adam, Charoosh, and Morgan. I'm 
pretty sure Charoosh was trying to look impressive. The name, 
combined with the dreadlocks, pubic goatee, and general malaise, 
wasn't doing it. They spoke at length, got the interview recorded on 
MP3. General notes: They're morons. 


Never met a bigger bunch of shysters in my life. Kept babbling on 
about some deeper cosmos and ‘attunement to the universe’ crap. 
Tried to be a little open minded, but it all was new-age hoodoo 
bullshit. Kept expecting one of them to try to give me a pamphlet 
and ask for a donation. Most of the talk was me trying to get any 
details of things they'd actually done, and them trying to frantically 


hide that they just used the name of the group to score pot and get 
laid. 


As it stands, article is looking like satire will be the only thing to give 
it legs. Push for scathing, a little mockery, some clowns throwing 
pies, and call it a day. Going to go back for a followup with that in 
mind and see what turns up. Still need headline. 


Back from followup. Got to get this written down and then hide it. 
Jesus fucking Christ. Don't know what | was thinking, but I'm in over 
my head. Way over. Fuck my hands are still shaking.