SCP-252

SCP-252 SCP-252 has one of my favorite kinds of Foundation screwups: they build containment around what somebody thought they saw, spend a ridiculous amount of resources on it, and eventually discover that the animal has been messing with their perception the entire time. These are anomalous relatives of Humboldt squid. Fully grown, they're no more than about a meter long and forty kilograms. They don't have an ink sac, but they have roughly twenty times the normal density of chromatophores, the cells responsible for changing their coloration. That color-changing ability is where things get interesting. When hunting, they rush their prey while rapidly changing color. An animal that makes visual contact becomes hypnotized and stops defending itself or trying to escape until the squid gets hold of it. When threatened, the squid uses a much more elaborate version of the same general trick. The observer sees an enormous sea monster. The apparent creature can be fifty to seventy-five meters long, with dozens or hundreds of appendages. Tentacles become insect-like limbs or human-looking arms and legs with claws. Its proportions and anatomy never quite settle down. Other animals panic and try to get away, sometimes injuring themselves against the walls of their enclosures. Initially, the Foundation records all of that as a physical transformation. The containment plan includes specialized armed guards and fifteen remotely activated depth charges. They are preparing to destroy a giant monster inside an aquarium because their first account convinced them that this was what they had captured. Then someone reviews the security footage. The squid never became that monster. Its changing colors produced the perception of one. The effect doesn't simply end when someone looks away, either. Directly exposed people remain convinced that they saw a real creature and invent explanations for contradictions. An impossibly large animal somehow fitting into a much smaller tank doesn't necessarily break the belief. Their minds work around the problem. A very high proportion also develop a lasting fear of cephalopods, although the file initially leaves open whether that fear is anomalous or a response to the experience. Watching video first makes a difference. People who haven't encountered it directly can still perceive the squid through the illusion and tend to find the monster less convincing. That secondhand exposure gives them partial resistance to the full effect. With further acclimatization, they can become immune to the fear and barely perceive the illusion at all. Containment gets revised, the classification changes to Safe, and they maintain a breeding pair rather than treating every specimen like a gigantic destructive threat. The agent who captured the first one goes from being recommended for a commendation to facing possible discipline for the expensive containment arrangements based on his account. That ending is rough on the agent. He encountered an animal whose whole defense depends on making an observer believe the wrong thing, survived it, and brought it in. The Foundation then has the benefit of cameras, controlled conditions, and time to work out why his report was wrong. Original Entry: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-252