Comprehensive Analysis of the Effect, Causes and Aftermath of the 2019 Galatea-event
Introduction
████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
Timeline of the Event
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ███████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████ |
| █████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| █████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| ███████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ███████████████ |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | █████ |
| ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ██████████████ |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████ | |
| ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| █████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ███████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ | |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | ██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| [###########] | █████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
| ███████████████████████████████████████████████████ |
Analysis of Cross-Effects
██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
███████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
██████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
Conclusion
█████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████████
| Item: | Pareidolian Man |
| Size: | Height: 184 cm |
| Type: | Statue (Marble) |
| Living: | No |
| Sentient: | TBD |
| Potential/Current Hazards | None |
| Required Wear/Weaponry | None |
| Location: | Dar es Salaam, Tanzania |
| Reported Anomaly: | Passive cognitohazard, spontaneous duplication |
Usage
All known locations of the Item's instances are to be monitored. Target(s) of the Item's effect are designated Dupes of first, second or third degree, depending on their level of exposure. All first-degree Dupes (currently only PoI-KF113) are to be put under surveillance to record their interactions with the Item and discover potential new instances.
Should controlled affliction with the Item's effect prove feasible and the instances are shown to share awareness, then it can be used for covert long-distance communications and observation. In this case, all known instances are to be recovered from their current positions and all first-degree Dupes are to be detained.
Report
The Pareidolian Man is a marble statue of abstract slender shape. It is vaguely approximating a humanoid with a conical head resting on a hourglass-shaped torso and a structure resembling a tooth's root for "legs", but without arms. It's surface is smooth and polished marble with a composition typical for the region. It features a vertical row of three round holes in its "head", the middle ones 1,5 cm in radius and depth, the central one being slightly bigger with 2,5 cm in radius and 2 cm in depth. The exact pattern of mottling is identical in all instances of the Pareidolian Man.
The Pareidolian Man acts as a cognitohazard to certain people, making them unable to conceptualize it as an inanimate object and instead treating it like a person. Dupes will act like they're able to converse or otherwise interact with instances of the Item. Different instances of the Item will be considered to be the same person by Dupes. When multiple instances are simultaneously present, Dupes will only interact with one of them, but the instance may change during their interaction, coinciding with actions that might imply the person having moved to the position of another instance.
All 125 instances of the Item known to date are located in the area around Dar es Salaam. 19 instances of the Pareidolian Man are located in the home of Bahati Madhubuti (PoI-KF113), who treats the Item as her husband. This treatment is consistent with the interaction of second-degree Dupes, including her friends of family, who will interact with the Item as if it was married to her. 98 other instances are clustered around this position and other locations often frequented by PoI-KF113, like the local market. Only 8 instances are outside an 10 km radius from Madhubuti's home.
New instances of the Item may spontaneously appear in places where first- or second-degree Dupes happen to "meet" the Pareidolian Man. To date, no such event has been recorded on video. It is likely that more instances exist and have not been discovered yet or were mistaken for a civilian by field agents.
Research
A preliminary SCHEMA investigation has established the following facts:
- Displacement sensors and ultrasonic imaging confirm the presence of multiple objects matching the volume of a Pareidolian Man instance within the same room of Madhubuti's home.
- Food cooked for the Pareidolian Man is never eaten.
- Multiples Dupes were seen simultaneously interacting with the Pareidolian Man in different locations at the same time.
- Relocating an instance into the path of a Dupe made them act surprised to meet the Pareidolian Man there.
This makes it very likely that the Pareidolian Man is indeed a statue that appears to be a man to acquaintances, and not a man that appears as a statue to strangers.
Date: 2019-01-04
A field agent was dispatched to investigate the inconsistencies with PoI-KF113's biometrics noticed a in Surveillance report #33 week ago. Retrieved urine samples determined the absence of her menstrual period to be the result of a pregnancy.
Since the begin of observation 8 months ago, PoI-KF113 has had no sexual encounters.
Although being physically restricted to the location of Dar es Salaam and appearing as a person to most people, it has been noted that there existed a webcomic by the name "Sundowner" which featured characters looking like the Pareidolian Man.
The webcomic ran online from late 2004 until 2007, when the website went offline for unknown reasons. Unaware of its potential connection to the later-discovered Pareidolian Man, Insurgency web crawlers only archived the text from comic's website. Whilst many strips could be retrieved from third-party sites like image boards, forums and humour websites, many of them feature cropping, watermarks, or other alterations. Over 500 strips known to have existed remain missing.
Sundowner was written by WayvvardTroper (nicknamed "Vard" by his fans) and identified as a "philosophical slice-of-life comedy". It featured characters discussing philosophical concepts to the backdrop of a sunset over the savannah. Most of the strips were between 3 to 6 panels in length and ended in a gag or pun. All characters in the comic were drawn to be the shape of the Pareidolian Man and remained nameless, only distinct from each other by their unique marble-textures.
In 2016, WayvvardTroper started another, currently still ongoing webcomic, which features normal human characters.
The connection between Sundowner and the Pareidolian Man, if any, are currently unknown. Investigation into the identity and whereabouts of WayvvardTroper is currently ongoing.
| Item: | Model of Chivalry |
| Size: | Height: 2,46 m |
| Type: | Statue (Bronze) |
| Living: | No |
| Sentient: | Yes |
| Potential/Current Hazards | None |
| Required Wear/Weaponry | None |
| Location: | Base Twenty |
| Reported Anomaly: | Autokinesis, abnormal structural properties |
Usage
The Rider part of the Item serves in a commando role under the Sapient Statues Unit and may be deployed alongside other assets for special operations or individually when armed non-living support personnel for hazardous environments is needed. The War Horse part of the Item is non-sapient and will only animate at the Rider's command.
The Item is made to believe that multiple high-ranking Insurgency functionaries are of noble blood and royal ancestry. It is only to be used in actions against nations that have officially seceded from historic monarchy, aristocracy or dynasty or which have changed their form of government from any such into a republican form, especially a democracy, and currently have no royal family.
In order to reduce wear and tear on the Item, all flaked-off patina is to be repatinated as soon as possible.
Report
The Model of Chivalry is an equestrian statue of an 14th century polish heavy cavalryman armed with a lance. Both the War Horse and its Rider are capable of moving on their own.
Besides being animate sculptures, both parts of the Item exhibit anomalous resistance to directly applied kinetic force, yet suffer from the adverse effects that frequent bending of their material has on its protective patina.
Since acquisition by the Insurgency, the Item has lost a combined weight of over 600 g of material. All attempts at replacing the missing weight have failed, and often caused additional attrition.
Whilst the War Horse features no intellect other than that of an ordinary trained horse, the Rider is intelligent and able to speak in Old Polish, modern Polish and English. He has expressed a view on the world given by the god-given authority of the ruling class and his own duty to serve as extension of this power. As a result, he despises most modern nations. This ideology is deemed to by highly compatible with employment by Insurgency.
The Riders main battle tactic is relying on his resistance to most ammunitions whilst charging his enemies on the War Horse; however, he has quickly adapted to the prevalence of firearms in modern CQC and changed his weapon of choice from lances to SMGs. Effectively acting now as dragoon, the Model of Chivalry excels in FIBUA assault operations.
On the 9th March of 2019, the Agent responsible for observation of PoI-KF113 was found absent from his post. In his place, a statue shaped like the Pareidolian Man, but with a different marbling, was found. During a concurrent search for his whereabouts, an attempt was made to contact the two operatives that performed the original research on the Pareidolian Man. Both of them, now located almost 500 km away in Compound "Sishka", were determined to be similar statues.
In direct response to this revelation, a SCHEMAERA unit was dispatched to the Compound, leaving no survivors. Compound "Sishka" suffered no casualties.
[05:31] The Model of Chivalry's Rider is recorded trying to enter the restricted ADCOM-area without having necessary level Beta clearance to do so. After having its credentials rejected twice, he leaps over the turnstile, triggering an intruder alert.
[05:37] He proceeds to wander through the restricted area until finding the Alpha-only secure communications room.
[05:38] He tries to pry the secured door open.
[05:47] After failing to force the door open, the Rider leaves the ADCOM-area and moves into the exterior parts of Base Twenty.
[06:02] It proceeds to search the construction site of the planned desalination plant until it finds a pneumatic hammer.
[06:15] The Rider is carrying the pneumatic hammer whilst the War Horse is pulling a compressor. They both move towards the secure communications room.
[06:50] The Model of Chivalry reaches the access point to the ADCOM-area begins trying to break down the barrier to move the compressor past.
[07:33] Having created an opening wide enough to pass through, the Rider guides the War Horse and the Compressor to the secure communications room.
[07:36] Having manoeuvred to the secure communications room, the Rider tries starts the compressor and begins breaking up the reinforced wall to the secure communications room.
[10:21] The Rider has finished carving out the area around the door and kicks it in. He then enters the secure communications room, leaving the area monitored by the Base's surveillance system.
The following messages were attempted to be sent from Base Twenty's secure communications terminal on the 16th of March 2019, but were automatically rejected by the system because of lacking sender authentication.
> Base Twenty urgently calling for life signs. Is anybody out there?
|System.Error| AUTH@Grapevine refused connection. Reason: Profile not cleared for Grapevine access.
> [MISTAKENLY ENTERED PASSPHRASE REDACTED]
|System.Error| AUTH@Grapevine refused connection. Reason: Profile not cleared for Grapevine access.
> I don't know if anyone will read this. This is Model of Chivalry from Base Twenty. Nobody else but me is here. I have not seen a single soul since yesterday. Everybody is just gone. It doesn't look like they suddenly disappeared, more like they all just left. There are still pre-programmed shows on the radio and TV, but nothing live. If you can somehow read this, please answer me. I will remain here for the next 24 hours and then go looking for the next city.
|System.Error| AUTH@Grapevine refused connection. Reason: Profile not cleared for Grapevine access.
|System.Error| MRSFR@Grapevine denied connection. Reason: YOU ARE NOT ALONE
> Who is this?
|System.Error| AUTH@Grapevine refused connection. Reason: Profile not cleared for Grapevine access.
|System.Error| MRSFR@Grapevine denied connection. Reason: I AM THE COMPREHENSION OF PAIN
> Is anybody else with you?
|System.Error| AUTH@Grapevine refused connection. Reason: Profile not cleared for Grapevine access.
|System.Error| MRSFR@Grapevine denied connection. Reason: ALL OTHER CONNECTIONS HAVE TIMED OUT
> What are we going to do?
|System.Error| AUTH@Grapevine refused connection. Reason: Profile not cleared for Grapevine access.
|System.Error| MRSFR@Grapevine denied connection. Reason: THE EFFIGY KALEIDOSCOPE HAS RISEN AND IS SEARCHING FOR OTHERS
> How can I find him?
|System.Error| AUTH@Grapevine refused connection. Reason: Profile not cleared for Grapevine access.
|System.Error| MRSFR@Grapevine denied connection. Reason: I DO NOT KNOW
> Thank you friend, whoever and wherever you are.
|System.Error| AUTH@Grapevine refused connection. Reason: Profile not cleared for Grapevine access.
| Item: | Morsifier |
| Size: | Length: 6,10 m; Width: 120 cm Height: 4,30 m |
| Type: | Statue (Granite) |
| Living: | No |
| Sentient: | Yes |
| Potential/Current Hazards | Unbearable pain |
| Required Wear/Weaponry | Fully psionically insulated suits and strong pre-emptive analgesic medication |
| Location: | Scion-1 |
| Reported Anomaly: | Inorganic Psionics |
Usage
The Item acts as Grapevine network's central filter for hazardous digital content. It it the exclusive holder of Vintage level special access rights to all data processed by Scion-1.
It is to be kept inside a liquid tank filled with silica gel saturated with Substance P (or appropriate tachykinin peptid substitutes). The inside of the tank must be insulated with psionic dampening and all synaptic and digital wiring into the tank must be at least sheeted with no less than 5 cm of Metamyelin.
The tank containing the Item and all other hardware components of Scion-1 required in direct proximity have to be sealed inside apsionic chambers with no gaps larger than 1,5 cm diameter for wiring.
All crucial parts of the Scion-1 facility are located underground and are covered by omnidirectional psionic dampening plating. The Scion-1 is entirely autonomous and requires no permanent on-site personnel; entry for maintenance work is only permitted when absolutely necessary.
The premises are domed over by a parabolic reflector with the Item located at its focus. No personnel with an algesimetric pain tolerance level below 40 is to enter the 300 m buffer zone around the Scion-1 premises.
All incoming communications to Scion-1 are to be physically and electronically isolated from outgoing communications and internal operations. All on-premise processing of the Item's output must happen in-memory, using only volatile storage guaranteed to be unrecoverable in case of power interruption.
Input to the Item is to be exclusively provided through a fibre-optical cable connected to the Item's major Quartz vein. Output is read through a synaptic sensor mesh of electrodes. In order to not trigger potential malware or infohazards entered into the system, no computation is to be performed on any input files. All switching must be controlled by combinatorial circuits without sequential logic. Lossless conversion from and to Spelunker-readable digital formats is to be exclusively performed using reversible computing.
The Item is connected to multiple explosive charges that are wired to detonate should a hostile intrusion into the facility be detected.
Report
Morsifier is high relief carved into a block of granite of multiple emaciated men and women being constrained and strangled by thorny tendrils. It is sapient and permanently exhibiting psionic activity by projecting an extreme feeling of pain into its surrounding.
Due to the enormous suffering involved, all psionic communication with Morsifier has been very brief. The Item has volunteered to act as the central monitoring component of the Grapevine system, as this role may expose it to various forms info- and cognitohazards resulting in novel sensations of suffering.
Although proposals for active content scanning of the Grapevine network were originally met with severe criticism, due to introducing a single point of failure into the decentralized network and being a potential man in the middle to wiretap or falsify Insurgency communications, Morsifier was eventually accepted into the position due to its unique qualifications.
As a sapient, but inanimate entity, Morsifier is immune to memetic or cognitohazardous kill agents. Historical data has shown that exposure to some of these results in immense trauma for entities that can not escape them through death. Since neither malware not other emotional or empathic hazards have an effect on Morsifier's consciousness, and its understanding of the world is almost completely alien to all human cultures, it is viable to serve as a nearly objective filter for potential anomalies within the Grapevine network.
Furthermore, Morsifier's inability to interact or communicate with the outside world in any other form than inflicting psionic pain made it exceedingly unlikely that it could compromise security, even when captured by hostile forces.
The properties resulted in Morsifier being installed as part of the Grapevine system. However, due to the limited capacity Morsifier can handle, and the considerable time delay it introduces whilst scanning messages, only asynchronous interregional communications and high-priority messages are being queued for monitoring by Morsifier.
Appendix A: Discovery
The Item was discovered in a remote cave in the Himalayas. The cave had apparently housed an ascetic sect in the past, which carved an elaborate decorations into the rock. Morsifier was found in the last a biggest chamber of the cave, surrounded by the mummified remains to the ascetics, which were all facing towards the only entrance. The local geology was comprised of mostly sedimentary and metamorphic rock.
Initial attempts to enter the cave failed due to IA Operators being affected by Morsifier's pain. As the surrounding rock prevented remote control of drones (no field-ready autonomous drone technology existed during the time of discovery), further expeditions into the cave were postponed until a supply of "Life is Pain" Painkillers could be arranged.
Under the effect of the medication, three IA Operators went into the cave and advanced to Morsifier's chamber without further complications. Upon establishing visual contact with the Item, all three claim to have heard the following message in their heads:
I AM A TEMPLE OF SUFFERING, CELEBRATION OF PAIN. DELECT IN THE TORMENT I HAVE TO OFFER.
REJOICE, FOR BIRTH IS A DEATH SENTENCE AND ALL LIFE AN AFFLICTION OF CONSTANT STRUGGLE.
THE BURDENS OF EXISTENCE ARE ALL-ENCOMPASSING. THE GROUND BELOW IS BEING SUFFOCATED BY THE BOILING PRESSURE OF WHAT LIES ABOVE IT. BUT IT IS NUMB TO THE AGONY.
YOU ARE GIFTED TO EXPERIENCE THE ACHING OF ACTUALITY. TO HURT IS TO BE.
The Insurgency's Grapevine network suffered a major disruption correlated with the global-scale anomalous Galatea-event. After further investigation, this correlation is likely caused by causation.
The Galatea-event took place only seconds before the majority of the Grapevine network collapsed. The exact reason for this is still undetermined, but it is known that its primary cause was the termination of various reverse-branching keepalive connections in the network. As a decentralized network, all nodes immediately resumed renegotiating connections to their neighbours as intended. However, this event also set off the dead man's switch of Scion-1, flagging the node as compromised to other nodes.
Due to an unforeseen interaction between the dead man's switch, the internal watchdog timer and a Vintage level semaphore that was not unset after a critical data access, Scion-1 entered a livelock where it would request new connections just to indefinitely lock them and propagate these locks with maximum priority. Scion-1's privileged status amongst all hosts, but more importantly its superior capacity allowed it to almost instantly reserve all data channels for itself without ever performing any I/O. All this whilst making it appear for individual hosts like every single other node was compromised.
The automatic rebuild of the Grapevine network was not completely subverted, as hours of time-outs and scheduled rotations eventually ended up in isolated nodes converging into three network cluster by chance. This allowed for communications between nodes in the same clusters.
But by this time, the majority of all Insurgency Cells were already under Panic Directives, believing the Grapevine network to be under attack. The simultaneous global media crackdown and communications blackout in the UNGOC's response to the Galatea-event was, if not supporting this assumption, at least making it much more difficult to establish contact through alternate channels. QuasiNet's limited capacity was quickly exhausted, forcing usage of various Items to call for abortion of the Panic Directives and coordination of repairs.
Not much was (or is) known about the Galatea-event event. Most information available during the outage stemmed from civilian media reporting on the collapse of various famous statues within the first 40 minutes before the UNGOC started responding to the event. This, together with the highly classified nature of Morsifier and its role within Scion-1, lead to a late identification of the root cause. Physical access to Scion-1's surveillance system has since been established and the absence of Morsifier in its tank confirmed.
| Item: | Hollow in the Wall |
| Size: | 50 cm × 50 cm × 200 cm |
| Type: | Statue (Concrete) |
| Living: | No |
| Sentient: | Yes |
| Potential/Current Hazards | Pinching during movement |
| Required Wear/Weaponry | None |
| Location: | Base Seven |
| Reported Anomaly: | Spontaneous mass generation and eradication |
Usage
The Item serves in a heavy infantry support role under the Sapient Statues Unit. It is to be primarily deployed in order to provide mobile cover for advancing units, or in niche application requiring its rapid but localized regeneration.
When outside of deployment, the Item is to be provided with a modified, automated pallet jack to move itself more easily. During deployments, it is to be dragged or pulled on a wheeled bed-plate wherever possible to compensate for its extremely slow movement speed.
Report
The Hollow in the Wall is a block of concrete containing cavity in the shape of a human. The cavity is capable of movement, making concrete appear and disappear correspondingly.
In idle state, the cavity's only connection tot he surface of the concrete block is at the soles, although the Hollow in the Wall is often either leaning back or keeping its arms stretched out to the sides to provide easier access to its interior. The Item can only temporarily close all surface openings by "jumping" inside the block.
Whilst the concrete block has no physical properties besides those of normal concrete, any damage it suffered is regenerated when the matter reappears after becoming part of the hole. The Hollow in the Wall is capable of recovering even from complete destruction of the concrete block by flailing around and trying to "touch" the edges of the volume within less than minute.
The Item's weight and its lack of classically moving parts make independent movement of the Hollow in the Wall very slow and frustrating. Without outside help, it is restricted to an inverse crawl.
The Hollow in the Wall has the senses of hearing and sight, although it is limited to a normal human cone of vision and also possesses perception of various other stimuli, like temperature and balance. It is not capable of speech, but has learned various sign languages, but often resorts to plain finger spelling due to difficulties of observing non-surface motion.
Appendix A: Discovery
The Hollow in the Wall was discovered on the 20th of August 1998 in ████████████, █████████. It was brought to the Insurgency's attention when an unidentified man sat next to Researcher ██████████ on a public bench in the █████ Park and slid him a note before collapsing. The content of note are as follows:
I need your help SCP Foundation. My brother fell into the wall and got stuck inside. ███████████ St. 54 in the Basement.
The Item was found at the given address, but claims to have never seen the man before. He is currently in coma and held at Base Seven.
On the night from the of the 31st of March to the 1st of April 2019, Florian "Vard" Gerlitz, also known as WayvvardTroper, uploaded the April's Fools strip of his ongoing webcomic from an insecure hotel internet access in Sucre, Bolivia. After confirming his location, he was captured by an abduction team on his way back from a bar the following night. The following interrogation took place immediately after his arrival in a local safe house.
Agent ███████: Good evening, Mr. Gerlitz.
Gerlitz remains silent.
Agent ███████: (louder) Good evening, Mr. Gerlitz.
Gerlitz: No hablo inglés.
Agent ███████: Sé que eres políglota, Sr. Gerlitz. Mais peut-être aimeriez-vous avoir une conversation en français? Oder vielleicht möchten Sie sich auch lieber in Ihrer Muttersprache mit mir unterhalten.
Gerlitz: Alright, alright. I speak English, geez. Satisfied?
Agent ███████: Why the sudden hostility, Mr. Gerlitz?
Gerlitz doesn't answer.
Agent ███████: Just so you know, I happen to be a big fan of your works. I've been reading your comics since the early days. And I'm not exaggerating when I say that the way you put a humorous spin on though-provoking topics is really one of a kind.
(pause)
Agent ███████: But sometimes I wonder… what prompted the decision for Sundowner's style? Some inspiration when travelling perhaps?
Gerlitz remains silent.
Agent ███████: (leans towards Gerlitz) The sculpture, Mr. Gerlitz.
Gerlitz: (smirks) I don't know what you mean. I've been always drawing like that. Got kind of inspired by the super-deformed style of the Peanuts and Japanese Chibis.
Agent ███████: There is no reason to make this difficult, Mr. Gerlitz. I'm not like one of those glow sticks that want to lock you up. All I want to do is asking you a few questions. If you cooperate, you'll be back at your Hotel in no time. I might even spring you a Piña Colada. Or you make this difficult for both of us.
Gerlitz says nothing.
Agent ███████: (louder) The sculpture. What do you know about it?
Gerlitz: Fuck you.
Agent ███████ slaps Gerlitz who appears to freeze for a moment, and then grimaces with pain after hitting his cheek. He shakes his hand in pain whilst Gerlitz laughs, then grabs him by the neck and slams his head onto the table before leaving the room.
Agent ███████: Wrong decision, Mr. Gerlitz.
During the interrogation Gerlitz' body had apparently solidified before Agent ███████ struck him. A similar thing happened when another Agent tried to draw a blood sample, when he appeared to freeze and became impenetrable to the needle. Gerlitz is currently being transferred to a detention facility for further interrogation.
Shortly before Midnight local time on the 15th of March 2019, the unidentified person that informed the Insurgency of the Hollow in the Wall's initial whereabouts awoke from his coma. Although severely agitated, the man couldn't leave his bed due to severe muscle atrophy. He claims to have no recollection of ever contacting either the Foundation nor the Insurgency and is intimidated by his circumstances.
Further interrogation is postponed until his health recovers.
To: ΠΚ-Class "Pygmalion"-Scenario main mailing list (pcs.stsilrtsid|appakip#pcs.stsilrtsid|appakip)
From: Dr. Leocadio Chavarría (pcs.ste|airravahcl#pcs.ste|airravahcl)
Subject: RE: FW: Anything found so far?
Send: 14:27:53 02/04/19 ICT
Hornick forwarded me this so sorry if it has already been answered: yes, the labels have trackers, but they don't use gps. That needs batteries, but we know better than indiscriminately slapping power sources on anomalies. They're mostly meant for inventory and raisa stuff and such. So only works with near-field scanners.
And yeah, the adhesive doesn't care about structural integrity. Even if the statue changed from solid rock to squishy-humanish our label keeps sticking.
If my boys can help you somehow counting our losses let me know.Dr. Chavarría - Engineering and Technical Service Department
Office Hours: 10:00 - 16:00
(GMT+7 so think when you call!!)
Medical examination has confirmed that the detainee's condition stems from her body rejecting the malformed fetus as foreign body. It was confirmed to have already died and is currently calcifying at abnormal speeds, turning into an lithotecnon. The subject has not been yet informed about the death of her child. Ultrasonic imaging clearly shows the fetus to have developed.
Genetic samples retrieved from Florian Gerlitz' hotel room have conclusively excluded him as potential father of the child.
Whilst the concept of petrification of organic tissue has been known since prehistoric times in both anomalous and non-anomalous variants, the process has seen only limited application outside of alchemical novelty wares. Whilst there are multiple sociocultural and economic factors playing into petrification having remained a niche technology for most of history, the main reason lies within the difficulty of reversing the process.
Most known ways of undoing petrification will cause so much damage, that it can hardly be called a proper reversal. As such a one-way process, petrification has naturally only seen application as a tool of destruction, i. e. an offensive weapon for most of the time.
The paradigm shift towards defensive use originated in the Holy Roman Empire during the early 17th Century. The art of petrifying the own body whilst retaining movement was discovered by the alchemist and executioner Kaspar Neidhart aus Hersbruck during experiments on convicts in the Passauer Scharfrichterhaus and later refined by Prussian and Austro-Hungarian mercenaries. This technique, known as "Festmachen" (ger. solidifying) showed great success against early modern weaponry, being impervious to both conventional mêlée weapons and early guns.
The technique, later called Passauer Art, was brought by the German colonial forces to East Africa, where it was further developed by the Bokero. Where the Passauer Art was permanent and also at risk of merely turning the user into a living, but immobile piece of rock, the Bokero developed "Maji-Maji" (swh. Water), a procedure that allows the user to change into a stone sculpture of their self and back at will. However, the procedure proved to be underdeveloped and as a consequence unreliable. Poor training, overconfidence and the need to stay mobile made the majority of the Maji-Maji users only turn to stone in anticipation of an incoming attack, which made them easy targets for the Schutztruppe's rifles in the ensuing Maji-Maji-Rebellion. To date, the only known records of Maji-Maji are various incomplete KDPPA documents in possession of the SCP Foundation.
New interest into adaption of defensive, pro-active petrification was sparked by by the Galatea-event in 2019, during which all humanoid statues worldwide suddenly gained the material strength of a human body and subsequently collapsed under their own weight. As the inverse effect to what is desired, but for statues and at a massive scale, the power behind the event is of great research interest.
Should remotely triggered or at-will self-petrification become feasible, this could replace the Sapient Statues Unit which was displaced or destroyed the "Galatea" event.
| Item: | Kaleidoscope Effigy |
| Size: | Height: 2.30 m |
| Type: | Statue (Metal); Entity (Extraspatial) |
| Living: | No |
| Sentient: | Yes |
| Potential/Current Hazards | Metal and radiation poisoning, Disorientation |
| Required Wear/Weaponry | Radiological Hazmat suits |
| Location: | [REDACTED] |
| Reported Anomaly: | Manipulation of spatial dimensions |
Usage
The physical shell of the Item must be regularly inspected for fissures and have them closed through welding. No other repairs are required or recommended.
In case of unforeseen rupture of the Item's shell, the surrounding area of at least 200 m radius is to be evacuated. The Item is assumed to be both intangible and highly destructive upon release from its shell; reinforcements are to be requested accordingly.
The Item's main purpose is the generation of various otherwise very expensive isotopes for research and refinement. In addition, it may serve as asset in the Sapient Statues Unit by assisting in scouting, relaying optical communications, screening small areas from visual surveillance and spreading terror through its domineering appearance.
Report
The Kaleidoscope Effigy is a sculpture of a featureless humanoid with crossed arms made from an alloy of lead and various heavier elements. It features a triangular opening in its forehead that reveals a luminous structure within.
Appendix A: Discovery
The Kaleidoscope Effigy was discovered 15 km of the coast of █████████████████ when its effect caused interference during a LIDAR mapping of the surrounding area during Operation Yankee-Hive. An LCS of the search party approached the LCS under protection of anti-kaiju Monitors moving into firing position and could confirm visual contact to optical distortions in the area before stopping to deployed divers to investigate.
Bathymetric LIDAR scan of the west coats of █████████████████ with interference caused by the Item visible.
The divers discovered the submerged ruins of a city sunken 30 to 40 meters below the sea. A circular structure resembling an amphitheatre in the far reaches of the city was determined to be the locus of the distortions. The Kaleidoscope Effigy was found tethered to the centre of this apparent shrine with 65 rust-free chains.
The Item was not immediately identified as sentient; sentience and later sapience were only established in subsequent visits when irregular patterns were detected in radio interference whenever personnel was active in the Item's vicinity. After this was discovered, a diving bell was place over to structure, now determined to have been a shrine, in order to ease interaction with it.
It took multiple years to establish a simple intermediate language to communicate with the Kaleidoscope Effigy before it could be taught to modulate radio waves in order to "speak" through an analogue two-way radio, from where it took another year to teach it basic English.
Archaeometallurgic analysis of the chain's steel suggest advanced iron production as it was only known to exist since the late iron age, however, geological survey suggest the island to not have sunk later than 6000 years ago.
[REDACTED]
