Going up and up and up and …

Canon Hub » Black Diamond Billions Hub » SCP-8257

mxsinister

SCP-8257 : A Long Way Up by mxsinister

Do you like heights?

I always have. The mountains are invariably beautiful, but never more so than when you are viewing them from way up high. There is not a more breathtaking sight in the world, and I don't say that merely because of the thin air.

Always such a shame when the mist blocks it. The rattling of the cable car isn't always pleasant, either. Can't I just enjoy my way up in peace?

Yet, as I creep up and up, the vertigo keeps getting worse and worse. It's odd to say that, cause I've never had vertigo before, but I think that's what this is. My ears ache, and there's no direction but up.

I like the gondolas around here, always have, but I've never had one go up for this long.

I've seen the day and night turn a hundred times by now. I can't see the sun or moon—not through this mist—but I can tell when it gets dark. The things outside get needy then. They sound hungry, but I have nothing to feed them. Don't they know I'm hungry too?

Hungry and sick. Sick of this.

They do not count as company anyway. Not that solitude has ever bothered me in the past, but when the air keeps getting thinner, and when the cold brume creeps through the only crack you left in the cable car, it reminds me that this ascent has stolen all the freedom I have ever enjoyed.

If anyone's listening, I would like off this ride, please. It is not right to leave me here.

No matter how much I dread the summit and the conclusion it might bring, I cannot bear an infinite climb, forever reaching for it through an uncaring and famished aether.

and up and up and up. . .

EC/5/8257 CLEARANCE: APPROVED

Containment of SCP-8257

Item #: SCP-8257

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Containment procedures to prevent SCP-8257 events currently do not exist. Efforts are to be directed instead towards disseminating appropriate cover stories for SCP-8257-related losses to minimize panic.

SCP-8257 is currently contained in a spatially anomalous cable car located in the ████████ Valley, Austria. SCP-8257-1 is to be reinforced via purified iron, the welding shut of all doors and windows, and thaumaturgic locks, which are to be redrawn annually via UAV.

Aside from continued monitoring of the item, further Foundation action is not anticipated at this time.
Should SCP-8257 manifest outside SCP-8257-1, an immediate request is to be made to the Ethics Committee for the necessary resources to perform Procedure 201-Himmel.

Description: SCP-8257 is a phenomenon affecting aerial tramways in the Alps mountain region. SCP-8257 appears as a humanoid male of Scandinavian descent, manifesting at random inside the cabins of active cable cars.

SCP-8257 itself exhibits no aggressive behavior, and in fact seems to have limited comprehension of the abnormality of its appearance. However, within five minutes of SCP-8257's manifestation, opaque mist will envelop the cable car, and the cabin will be subject to severe physical disturbance akin to turbulence, with reports describing unseen entities attempting to break into the cable car.

During this event, all present passengers are lost to the surrounding sky, leaving no physical remains. Once the cabin is empty, SCP-8257 will demanifest.

Discovery: Cpt. Thomas Wagner, who was at the time embedded within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Austria as a covert Foundation liaison, transcribed the following notice and had it delivered to Dr. Finn Merkatz, Director of Site-201.

10 May, 1985

Heinrich Chinaski
Minister for Foreign Affairs

Dear Minister,

I am writing to inform you of a number of alarming reports I've had across my desk. In the past two weeks, no fewer than eight companies have reached out regarding inexplicable passenger disappearances. Whole cable cars arriving at the summit, empty.

There were tourists aboard. Urban legends are not so funny when explaining them to diplomats, as you know.

Incidents attached.

Yours sincerely,

Marc Haas
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment

On 14/05/1985, the following letter was discovered in Dir. Merkatz's PO Box at Site-201, enclosed in an envelope bearing a GoI-012 wax seal.

To whom it may concern,

We are, at the end of the day, merely businesspeople. That is why, when certain anomalies come to our attention, we are quick to recognize when they fall outside our purview to handle. Ultimately, we are aware that not everything we encounter may be turned profitable through sheer force of will.

For this reason, we are approaching your organization to share knowledge of a phenomenon of mutual interest and concern. We've opted to let you and your experts handle this, as you're better equipped for such endeavors. After all, one might say that collection is an art, but containment is a science.

The simplest way to convey our request is to enclose an incident report from one of our employees.

INCIDENT REPORT ████/████/████

DATE: 09/05/1985

PENNED BY: █████ █. ██████

Cable cars are a surprisingly shrewd place to do business. No prying eyes, no walls for ears, and nowhere for your negotiation partners to run off to.

I didn't go to the Alps for meetings, though, for once. God forbid I get a relaxing vacation, right? It takes more than smoke and mirrors to properly frighten me, but this shit scared me all the way back to the home office.

Where to start? The beginning, I guess. I landed in Vienna on Sunday, then met up with my two younger brothers, Remy and Roger. We all travel for work, and we decided it had been too damn long since we'd all taken a little bachelor's trip. It was supposed to just be some hiking, hunting, and a few luxury gondola rides so we could all just sit around and shoot the shit with a good view.

So we got into the cable car, and everything was fine until maybe ten, fifteen minutes into the ride. The mist that came up around us seemed sudden, but no one really paid attention to it, focused more on conversation than on the views.

But that was when he showed up. Blonde guy, parka and gloves, but other than that, nondescript. I was more concerned with where he came from than what labels he was wearing.

It was like we just blinked, and he was there in the seat across from me. We all started shouting and arguing, but the guy must have been either a village idiot or a real sadist, because he just kept on all friendly like nothing was wrong.

It got worse after a minute. Right as Remy decided that bringing the guy in with a broken jaw or a black eye wouldn't be the end of the world, the cabin began to shake. It rocked back and forth on the wire with the violence of a storm, though the weather had been beautiful all day.

Things—don't know what—started pounding on the windows. The guy cried out, like the movement alarmed him, too, or maybe it was Remy grabbing him by the shirt and trying to slam him against the table and walls.

I'm still not sure what happened, but somehow, the door blew open. Must have been from the inside, because the guy went to shove Remy out the window. But he didn't just fall, no. It was more like the fall reached in and took him. Not the hands of some terrible creature, just the aether itself, folding him into the mist as if it could swallow and digest him.

I heard Roger finally scream, and I knew it was too late to save him. To save either of them. I gave in to panic and hopped the leyline back to London.

Call me a coward, but at least I'm a coward who got a message back.

I want this shit dealt with. Can we deal with it, please?

As you can see, to leave this anomaly alone would be a reckless hazard, one that would surely endanger civilians across the range of normalcy. Not to mention that its existence is suboptimal for the travel and transportation industries.

Do take care of this—we know how you love to.

Gracious Regards,
Marshall, Carter & Dark Ltd.

Addendum 8257.1: Following its discovery, a task force of Site-201 containment specialists was tasked with finding a permanent solution to SCP-8257 beyond the disinformation procedures initially put in place.

During these discussions, SCP-████—an infinitely ascending cable car located ██ km from Site-201—was proposed as a possible vessel for containment.

On 22/06/1985, the following request was sent to the Ethics Committee Liaison of Site-201:

Subject: SCP-8257
Author: Jakob Nilsson, Containment Specialist
To: Ema Baranová, Foundation Ethics Committee
The main issue we face in containing SCP-8257 is the random nature of its manifestations. Although we believe SCP-████ has the potential to contain SCP-8257 indefinitely within its cabin, we have to get it there first.
For this purpose, my team has devised a summoning ritual with a projected 98% chance of success. Details of the proposal attached for your review.
Anticipating your objections, assume I am fully willing to participate in this procedure myself.

Procedure 201-Himmel

Materials Needed:

Two human beings. Ideally, one containment specialist and one D-Class.
1mg Gnostics.
1mg of Entheogen.
4 candles.
1 canister of Ozone.
Salt.

Guidelines:

Ritual must take place at least 2500 km above sea level.
The noises outside are turbulence, nothing more.
Eye contact must be avoided between participants once the ritual begins.

Directions:
1. Enter cabin.
2. Reinforce cabin according to specifications provided by project engineers.
3. Ascend to proper altitude.
4. Ingest .5mg Gnostics, .5mg Entheogen each.
5. Place a candle in each corner of the cabin, then light.
6. Draw a circle of salt around your feet. Each participant must remain inside their circle and must not speak while drawing.
7. Repeat the words "We are small. We are seen. Spirit, be swift." until the candles are extinguished.
8. Release ozone from canisters. Continue until the ozone within the cabin reaches a level of 150ppm.
9. In accordance with personal beliefs, participants may say prayers or last rites so long as it does not disrupt any physical elements.

Ethics Committee Verdict

Approved

E.Baranová | J.Cimmerian | S. Sinclair | M.Tejani | J.Sharp

On 10/07/1985, Procedure 201-Himmel was successfully used to summon SCP-8257, as was confirmed by aerial drone surveillance and eyewitness reports.

In light of this, the containment procedures for SCP-8257 were amended, and SCP-████ was reclassified as SCP-8257-1, Thaumiel-class.

Addendum 8257.2: During routine monitoring, pieces of paper were observed to have fallen out of SCP-8257-1. Agents were dispatched to collect the items from the surrounding ground.

Below are selected notes confirmed to have been penned by SCP-8257.

The cabin had the oddest smell when I showed up, and those other two passengers left the party early.

The interior of this is comfortable, and perhaps might have even been nice, if not for all the haphazard furnishings. I wouldn't have minded sticking around a while, were it not that I am painfully aware of the fact that I will likely never leave.

I wear no chains, but the iron cage those dead men called me to serves the same purpose.

I am content for now, even if only because I can still look through the windows. Though they have been framed in ugly bars of steel like the rest, I can still gaze upon the sky.

There is even a maddeningly thin sliver where one of the doors should open—paper thin, but enough for me to crouch down and feel the kiss of the aether outside.

Is it disappointed with me? Furious? Does it mourn me?

No, of course not. The air up here is too thin for such sentiments. And after all, have I not always loved its gentle indifference? Has it not always been my kindred spirit, in that way?

…But surely it will not leave me here?

It might be truly lonely in this cabin, if not for those things knocking. They're always so insistent, so hungry. I tried to feed them like I always do, but those men in the white coats were already expired when I arrived.

They must be upset with me, because the car rattled terribly for quite a while. Then, it all just left me alone for…days? Weeks? Longer?

How can that be? Surely I must eventually reach the top. Every peak has a summit.

Yet, staring out the windows, revelling in yet another sunset, I cannot help but wonder—a mountain might have an apex, but why should open sky?

I have given much thought to infinity, given my nature, given my position. By its mere existence, it erases all urgency. All the time in the world, and only humdrum to fill it with…

I have no anchor, no proof I exist. Is that why I have you? Because otherwise, I would lose myself entirely? As if I haven't already…Everything I am, everything I have ever served or been, is cut off from me now. Nevertheless, if I must continue to this limbo of a life without purpose, then I cannot—will not—bear to leave that existence totally undocumented.

I might be an empty shell, but I am still here right now. I am still breathing, thinking, doing. I search for little things to love, but it does not erase the fact that I do not know who I am or who I am not. I know only that I am meant to be freer than this.

I miss what I was. I will miss it every day. Do you even care?

It is too painful to look forward to anything, and to reflect on the past is even worse. There is only this, only now, only up.

and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and up and