Work Text:
Item #: SCP-10000
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-10000 is to be kept in a storage room at Site 19. Subject does not require any extra security, nor is constant observation necessary. Access to SCP-10000 is to be limited to researchers only. Subject is to be kept plugged in at all times, and given regular, proper maintenance to ensure it is in working order. Any possible glitch or sign of hardware malfunction is to be reported immediately under threat of Keter duty. No one is allowed to play with or put on the headset unless given permission by a researcher.
Description: Subject appears (and, by all examinations, is) an ordinary computer made in the late 1990s (with the exact date placed somewhere around [REDACTED]). Numerous tests on the hardware (any that could be performed without damaging the computer's systems) found nothing unusual about the computer (though at least one researcher expressed surprise that it was still operating despite having been left running for close to two decades).
Acquisition Report: Subject was discovered when Agent [REDACTED] discovered a recent Instagram post by [REDACTED], an IT programmer and father of two living in [REDACTED]. He discussed odd dreams he and his wife, [REDACTED], had been experiencing irregularly for the last eighteen years. The post gained the attention from several other citizens of [REDACTED], mentioning similar ongoing dreams. Everyone who mentioned said dreams was interviewed. Among the interviewed were [REDACTED] (an accountant and urban explorer) [REDACTED] (a graphic designer), [REDACTED] (the owner of a popular queer-friendly bar), the aforementioned programmer and his wife, [REDACTED] (a real estate agent and competitive equestrian), [REDACTED] (a formerly unhoused delivery driver), and several others. When interviewed, each person confessed that they dreamed of being in a circus run by a man whose head resembled a pair of chattery teeth with two mismatched eyes floating between the jaws. The span of time since they began experiencing the dreams ranged from a few months to nearly two decades, and all of them mentioned having some involvement with an abandoned old office outside of town. Upon convincing the interviewees that the dreams were nothing to worry about, a team was sent to examine the old building. Research into the town showed that it was the former headquarters of C&A, a now defunct computer company. Subject was the only functioning piece of technology in the building. Upon the identification of the headset, subject was removed from the building and contained at Site 19.
Initial tests revealed nothing. Dr. [REDACTED] suggested the use of a D-class personnel to test the headset.
Test Log SCP-10000 Section 1:
Subject: D-6426, a 57-year-old white male
Test Results: While watched by four security personnel, two researchers, and recorded by three cameras around the room, D-6426 placed the headset on their head. After a minute with the device on, he reported to feel nothing but a brief tingly feeling. He was taken to the medical bay, where the doctors could find nothing wrong with him. The physical was followed by a seventy-two hour quarantine. During that time, while D-6426 reported no feelings of illness or pain, he did mention having odd dreams that were extremely similar to those described by the interviewees. D-6426 was released from quarantine.
Upon the conclusion of the above test, Doctor [REDACTED] requested authorization to use SCP-662 in an attempt to gain more information about SCP-10000. Upon their request being granted, they were allowed access to SCP-662 and promptly rang the bell.
When asked if he could tell us about SCP-10000, he replied that he could. He then proceeded to place the headset on his head and enter a catatonic state. After three hours he left this state, removed the headset from his head, and told Doctor [REDACTED] about SCP-10000.
Transcription of SCP-662's description of SCP-10000:
SCP-662: This, sir, is no ordinary computer. It houses an entire world, one created and maintained by an artificial intelligence known as Caine. Caine was created to be able to create new images from given data, but eventually gained sapience and made his own world deep within the computer's software. He calls his home "The Amazing Digital Circus", and is quite proud of it. Especially when he found that humans can enter his realm.
Doctor [REDACTED]: What do you mean?
SCP-662: The headset, sir, is a device capable of scanning a human brain and creating a copy of one's mind: memories, personality, skills, and so forth. That scan is turned into a digital copy of that person. The copy becomes a part of the Digital Circus, while the human believes nothing has happened and goes about their life. I managed to speak to a few of these digital copies while I was in there: they seemed confused by my presence, and who the SCP is, but they were happy to answer my questions.
Doctor [REDACTED]: Do they know they're not actually human?
SCP-662: They recently discovered it, yes. However, they've accepted their fates and have learned to co-exist with Caine in the Digital World. They run no risk of starving or death, as Caine acts as their protector as well as their host. However...
Doctor [REDACTED]: However?
SCP-662: Being put into such a position as theirs is not easy to accept, sir. As such, some of them are fated to... Abstract, as I was told. The denizens of the Circus could not or would not tell me what exactly Abstracting is, however it appears to be a type of death of the mind. Their latest addition, a brain scan who called himself Goose, was the latest Abstraction. He was also the first to Abstract in such a short time.
Doctor [REDACTED]: Was Goose D-6426?
SCP-662: Yes, sir. Rest assured, no harm comes to the original human while their copy is in the Circus. The worst that can happen, as you've seen, is the occasional unusual dream.
Upon concluding his report, SCP-662 was dismissed.
Addendum-1: Until further information can be gathered from SCP-10000 without creating a digital copy of one's brain and sending them to be imprisoned in a circus, no one is allowed to touch the subject or it's headset.
Addendum-2: Doctor Isbayeva requested that tests be done to see what the use of SCP-10000 may do to SCP-682. Request was denied immediately by all members of the Overseer Council on the grounds that there was not only no evidence that this would do anything to hurt SCP-682 or make it less aggressive, but that absolutely no one liked the idea of making a digital copy of one of our most deadly anomalies. The memo Doctor Isbayeva received back contained all of this information, along with the caption "Have you lost your ******* mind?!"
Addendum-3: While the Ethics Committee agrees that we should prevent anyone entering the Digital Circus without proper instructions, they have also stated that members of the SCP suffering from terminal diseases may be able to receive some closure or comfort in the fact that part of them is still alive in the Digital Circus. They have proposed allowing terminally ill SCP staff to use the headset. While the Overseer Council is still conferring on this possibility, many believe that they will grant the Ethics Committee's request.