SCP-211: Paper-Covered Building

SCP-211: Paper-Covered Building SCP-211 is a deteriorating house in Iowa with paper covering nearly every surface. There are loose sheets, pages from books, pictures, printouts, and stacks of unrelated material in the basement. The building itself is falling apart. It has mold, weakened floors, missing furniture, and a large hole left by an attempted demolition. The paper is much more dangerous than it looks. Its edges can cut through clothing and protective equipment, and the house can move it against people who threaten it. Remove some sheets and more appear to replace them. Nobody knows where the replacements come from. The demolition crew discovered the problem before the main attack. One worker pulled paper away to inspect the mold, and a stack fell onto him. It cut his clothes and left a deep mark in his safety glasses. The glasses may have saved his eyes. When the crew later approached with bulldozers, paper peeled away from the exterior, rose into the air, and tore through the area. The subsequent tests suggest that the building responds to what people do. A researcher can send someone inside to look around without provoking an attack. Taking a single sheet may also be tolerated. Taking a whole stack brings a response. Trying to burn the paper ends badly enough that the resulting remains block the original entrance. The Foundation starts limiting how quickly researchers can collect samples. There is a separate problem with what those samples contain. During one test, a D-class subject finds a painting he made while incarcerated. He can remove that painting without trouble, although taking the nearby stack gets him cut. Other recovered pages are traced to books in libraries, a used bookstore, and documents associated with wartime codebreaking. The building appears to be collecting material from places it should have no access to. At first, researchers note that they have not found any Foundation documents among the paper. They increase security anyway because of the possible information risk. Then three internal memoranda turn up near the entrance. They were addressed to Dr. Spinoza, who has been working elsewhere, and he confirms that the notices went missing after he received them. More breaches follow, including documents about SCP-211 itself. The file ends with a possible upgrade from Safe to Euclid under consideration. The Foundation has already emptied the surrounding neighborhood by encouraging pollution and redistricting, and it has wired the building with explosives. Those measures address the danger of someone walking inside or the paper attacking nearby people. They do much less to explain how confidential documents are reaching its walls. The house is physically fragile enough for a person to fall through its floor. Destroying it may be possible. Understanding what it has been gathering, or where it might obtain its next page, is a different problem entirely. Original Entry: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-211