scp-184
the architect by most people's standards
we live in a relatively mundane world
especially when compared to the wonders
of
fantasy and science fiction that is not
to say that we don't sometimes have our
own wonders
and in fact we'll be discussing one of
them today but
fictional universes such as scp tend to
be on a different level
but sometimes what can look fairly
harmless on the surface
such as scp-184 can also hide an
incredible truth behind it
scp-184 is a small metallic object in
the shape of a dodecahedron
composed of an unknown highly magnetic
substance
when inside of a structure whether it be
a mansion
or a cardboard box 184 will cause the
interior dimensions of the structure to
expand without affecting the exterior
size
this process starts one hour after 184
enters a structure
and first begins by extending the walls
out
eventually adjusting the ceiling as well
until the interior has tripled in size
so far this sounds fairly beneficial
greatly expanding spaces with no
downsides
but 184 isn't done yet
at this point 184 will begin to create
entirely new rooms for the structure
again without adjusting the exterior
dimensions
at first 184 seems to copy furniture and
other items that already exist in the
structure
making rooms that look consistent with
the originals
but over time the process begins to
deviate
rooms will become oddly shaped doors
open to nowhere
and hallways will deform into tiny
crevices or twisting mazes
also items within rooms will start to be
made from inappropriate materials
such as glass books or wooden microwaves
this process continues as long as 184 is
kept inside of a structure
with rooms deviating more and more until
184 is removed
at which point any rooms that were
created will remain
but no new ones will pop up
to prevent 184 from turning one of the
foundation's sights
into a planet-sized maze of nightmarish
rooms and hallways
184 is kept outdoors in an area
resembling a park
attached to a high-powered electromagnet
disguised as statuary
it was first retrieved by the scp
foundation after they started to look
into the
kowloon walled city intrigued by its
bizarre nature
i've done an entire video on the walled
city if you're interested in a more
historical perspective
but basically it was a mostly ungoverned
self-contained city
that was generally considered to be the
most densely populated location on earth
until its demolition in 1994.
the city consisted of ramshackle stacks
of homes
and businesses on top of one another
filled in with jury rigged electrical
wires and water pipes
the city served as a testament to
humanity's ingenuity
and adaptability but is definitely one
of the most curious things to exist in
the modern world
a city like that where space comes at
such a premium
could certainly find a use for an
anomalous item that expanded interiors
mobile task force zeta-9 the mole rats
who you may remember from scp-1730
were sent into the walled city to
retrieve scp-184
we get information about this retrieval
from the personal log of one of the mole
rats
named gordon richards i'll read his
first entry
dispatched to the kowloon walled city to
recover an object and document anything
affected by it
i have never seen such a horrible place
the filth is everywhere
whole walls and even structures made of
garbage
if you crack your suit for even a second
you get flooded by the smell of smoke
cooking sweat machine oil and excrement
henry fell into a pit used as a sewer on
the ground level
after breaking through a trash walkway
he was fine the suit was just filthy but
he threw up
and had to be removed i'm not sure if
he's going to work out
everyone here avoids us like the plague
or darts out to throw trash or insults
they are a tribe and a territorial one
at that
the sheer crush of humanity is
intimidating
and i'm glad i have the suit between me
and them
the object is supposed to be somewhere
in the core of this mass
but getting there is going to be tricky
the mole rats assisted by local law
enforcement performed a number of raids
throughout the city
finding a few homes affected by 184
gordon remarks on how strange it is to
go inside one
and place your hand on a wall knowing
you should be six feet outside of the
structure
in midair he notes that henry is
better today but is rather jumpy and
gordon caught him muttering to himself
they continue to do recon to hopefully
find where 184
is currently located two days later
henry was swarmed by a mob of locals and
carried off deep into the city
the mole rats were planning a rescue op
when henry's voice popped up on the
radio
rambling about the endless heart of the
city and the hell
of glass his radio cut off again
and shortly after he came running down
an alleyway screaming like a madman
he slammed into a dead end but broke
through it
falling six stories onto a pile of metal
junk
the remaining mole rats decided to round
up some of the local leaders
and interrogate them about what's going
on
the interrogation inevitably involves
physical coercion and the mole rats
learn that the locals refer to the
object as
the builder and that it's kept in a sort
of temple
in one of the oldest parts of the city
one of the elders says that it makes
wonderful things
but only the worthy can look upon it
without being overwhelmed by it
when the mole rats first arrived the
locals had moved the object
deep into the temple so that they would
not find it
but the mole rats decide to head into
this temple anyways
to retrieve it the next log entry is a
few days later
and gordon reports that the temple is
amazing
as it seems like someone built 12
temples into one
they find 83 rooms connected to one
another by sliding doors
each with a tiny buddha in the center of
the floor
they also found a room that was a
perfect reproduction of the first altar
room
but was carved out of one solid mass of
wood with no tool marks or seams
they uncovered documents written by
locals that described how they continued
to move the object
deeper into the temple as it built new
rooms and believed it to be a gift from
god
they would also loan the object to other
locals in the city in exchange for
donations
by gordon's account the mole rats should
currently be 20 feet above the top of
the city right now
but are still inside of a single small
building
presumably two more days pass although
gordon seems less
sure of the date now and he has split
away from the other mole rats to
continue exploring
he passes through wavy halls and rooms
made entirely of jade
chairs made from thousands of tiny
dragon statues and tables made of super
dense paper
gordon's mental state is beginning to
deteriorate now that he's alone in this
endless
abstract maze he begins to hear voices
as he runs low on food and water and he
continues to climb through this
anomalous location
he encounters a room filled with
millions of lit candles
and proceeds to remove his helmet and
smash a number of candles with it
before crying for hours he drops a pick
down a vertical shaft but never hears it
hit a bottom
soon his food and water supplies run out
entirely
and the location's design continues to
grow even stranger
as he runs down a hallway with thousands
of doors
he cuts his suit and feet to ribbons on
a floor that looked like carpet
but turned out to be super sharp stone
he also continues to hear henry's voice
despite gordon telling him that he's
dead
gordon's final two logs read top of
shaft
hall to forever lights everywhere
going to kill the heart and
hell is heaven heaven is hell
life is wonderful
we're informed that gordon was never
recovered from inside the temple
and that scp-184 was retrieved by the
other mole rats
gordon's log was found in the rubble of
the temple after it was demolished
scp-184 is an intriguing enough article
on its own
as an early example of a really
anomalous location
combined with the natural strangeness of
the kowloon walled city
but there is a tale i'd like to discuss
here as well
the tale is called codename the truth
and the effect of its final reveal is
somewhat diminished since you're
watching a video on scp-185
but i'll summarize it nonetheless
it's a tale that concerns the true
identity of scp-001
starting by asking what is the easiest
way to hide the identity
of scp-001
it discusses how the zero zero one page
is intentionally misleading
suggesting that none one several
or all of the zero zero one proposals
are the true one
and that most people conclude that there
is no scp-001
or that all of zero zero one proposals
are true
most people however don't think outside
of the box
and don't realize the truth
we're then given a series of transcribed
audio logs from a foundation expedition
into deep space in order to observe
parts of space
imperceptible from earth the foundation
has suspected something
is off about some distant galaxies and
now possesses the technology to travel
much faster than light
so that they can have first-hand
observations
a number of individuals are sent on the
mission but we mostly only follow
frank as he is recording the logs
it takes them about 18 days to pass by
the galaxy
messier 83 which is approximately 15
million light years from earth
two months later they've passed by gn
z11 the farthest galaxy observable from
earth
32 billion light years away
the next log finds the ship approaching
the nearest galaxy
and it turns out to be a copy of the
milky way
not perfect but close enough
moving into the galaxy they find a star
made of ice cream
tasting of avocados and cigarettes
another star composed entirely of liquid
chlorophyll
one of solid iodine and a copy of
proxima centauri made of charcoal
finally they reached the copy of earth
but find it also messed up
with australia apparently a solid block
of gold
the american continent made of maple
syrup
and the oceans are glowing
frank also mentions that another crew
member marie
is pregnant although they're not sure
that it's her husband's child
the ship leaves the galaxy to head to
the next nearest one but finds that it's
another copy of the milky way
just as messed up as the other one
mercury is made of ice jupiter is
composed of an edible jelly
and frank describes this earth as a
sarkic
utopia comprised of flesh bone
and blood as expected the third galaxy
they approach
looks to be another copy and frank
mentions an incident with a crew member
whose arm was broken while fixing a
strange mechanical fault
the ship continues on its mission
finding more copies of the milky way
each as strange as the last and frank
mentions other anomalies out here such
as a galaxy that always seems to be in
the distance
and another galaxy that their computers
won't pick up
despite them being able to physically
see it
he also says their computers have been
picking up some voices
from pockets of space and occasionally
their entire ship will go
offline for a brief period of time
before turning back on
additionally marie has been quarantined
by security for an unknown
reason they find an
earth with a copy of las vegas made of
poker chips and
cards and a new york carved out of a
single mass of obsidian
but they have yet to find any signs of
life
frank continues to list the oddities
with tokyo made of seaweed
chicago carved from a giant mango and
uranus made of a silent
lattice of turning gears
the sun is covered by a vast horde of
stone
that shift and move whenever they stop
looking at it
seemingly a reference to scp-173
he also says mars is made of camel
leather
and a single raging immortal walks its
surface
although he doesn't elaborate on that
security around marie is increased up to
20 guards armed with assault rifles
and the ship begins to make its journey
back home
the next log is from another crew member
named david
rather than frank and david informs us
that frank
along with most of the crew is dead
marie finally gave birth to some sort of
eldritch abomination
that slaughtered nearly everyone david
tells us to stay the hell away from this
corner of the universe
as it's a cesspool of anomalies and it
continues to expand
he then realizes why and wonders if the
overseers already knew what they would
find out here
he remarks that the cafeteria is only
issuing out rat poison
but says that they didn't go far enough
for the ship to really start to be
warped
the final log seems to be automated as
it contains only different fragments of
audio from past logs
randomly thrown together the report
ends by saying that these logs have been
buried to hide the truth
which is that the easiest way to hide
the identity of scp-001
the architect of the universe and its
infinite hordes of flaws
is to not classify it as 001
but instead as 184.
in other words just as scp-184 was
capable of expanding a structure
by adding to the interior with new rooms
made of flawed items
so could it expand the universe by
making flawed copies of our galaxy
essentially our universe was the
structure that 184 was expanding
and it is not a perfect architect
like other scp-001 proposals
you can feel free to accept this as the
truth or not
whether scp-184 is an interesting little
scp
featuring an exploration into the
fascinating kowloon walled city
or it's a far more impactful part of the
scp universe
it holds a lot of appeal it does make
you wonder though
if scp-184 treats the entire universe
as a structure to be expanded without
changing the exterior
what exactly is the exterior
you