SCP-209: The Sadist's Tumbler

SCP-209: The Sadist's Tumbler SCP-209 is a worn drinking glass with a chip in its rim and about three ounces of golden-brown liquid inside. Nobody has been able to pour the liquid out, drain it, evaporate it, or remove it by another ordinary method. A person can pick up the glass and drink it, which is exactly what the containment rules are designed to prevent. The drink produces warmth, confidence, and a sense of well-being. Its effects are highly addictive. The entry describes attempts to treat that dependence, but the more immediate danger falls on the people standing near the drinker. Three things have to happen before the glass becomes active. At least two people must be within twenty meters. Someone with a functioning sense of smell must notice its aroma. That same person must then pick it up and swallow some of the liquid. The Foundation calls that person the Activator, and the other people caught nearby become the Prey. The Prey are trapped inside a strange boundary. They cannot move more than twenty meters from the drinker, but they also cannot get closer than one meter. They can't flee, reach the glass, or get close enough to stop the person holding it. Attempts to force living subjects past either limit have failed. People who enter after the initial group has been established are unaffected, which later gives security personnel a way to intervene. The drinker settles somewhere comfortable and takes their time. As they describe the drink, those descriptions produce physical effects in the trapped people. The subjects holding the glass appear to understand both the boundaries and what their words are doing. They remain relaxed and amused even when the consequences are fatal. The experiment included in the entry makes the mechanism clear. Three D-class subjects are placed in a room with the glass and one folding chair. One begins drinking and sits down. The others discover that they can't approach him or reach the far side of the room. He describes the drink as smoky. One of the trapped subjects starts coughing and expelling a dark, smoke-like substance. The drinker then calls it smooth. The other subject begins producing a nearly frictionless liquid from their skin. It destroys clothing, damages the skin, and makes standing impossible. Both subjects die while the man in the chair continues drinking and occasionally applauds. The file gives those examples, but it doesn't provide a complete dictionary of possible descriptions or prove that every word has one fixed outcome. The larger effect is that language normally used to describe a drink becomes a way to hurt people who have been kept within viewing distance. Finishing the glass releases the boundaries. Any surviving victims can finally run. The drinker immediately tries to refill it, though, and approximately three ounces of any liquid will transform into another serving. If a potential victim is available, the cycle can begin again. In the recorded test, the drinker tries to refill the empty tumbler with blood from one of the bodies. A security officer enters and stops him, recovering it before he succeeds. The officer can approach because he wasn't part of the original group caught by the effect. If the drinker is stopped or the glass is taken away before it is refilled, it stays empty and inactive for about seventy-nine hours. Then it fills itself again. There is no permanent safety in getting through one session or finding it empty afterward. The Foundation classifies it Euclid and keeps it in a pressure-sealed locker designed to contain any aroma. Only one person is allowed close to it outside an experiment. During transport, the security escort stays at least twenty-three meters away, and personnel wear filtration equipment because the smell is suspected to draw people toward using it. A proximity-controlled lock prevents the glass from being removed when more than one person is detected near both the keycard and locker. Those precautions explain the whole problem. The glass needs a drinker, an audience, and enough time for somebody to sit back and enjoy what is happening. The trapped people are forced to experience the consequences while the person who caused them feels comfortable enough to ask for another drink. Original Entry: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-209