Link to article: The Ship of Theseus.
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[[=]] [[div style="border:solid 1px #999999; background:#e1e1d0; padding:5px; margin-bottom: 10px;"]] [[image nematode.jpg size="large"]] [[size 80%]]**Magnification of deceased instances of SCP-##cc0000|THESEUS##-A, having been terminated with boiling lemon juice.**[[/size]] [[/div]] [[/=]] **Item #:** SCP-##cc0000|**THESEUS**## **Object Class:** Keter **Special Containment Procedures:** Area-##22a400|**VATHEK**## and all personnel within have been placed on quarantine until further notice. The epicenter of ##cc0000|**THESEUS**## infection in our reality, SCP-##22a400|**VATHEK**##, has been placed in a hermetically sealed, lead-lined containment cell at the center of the facility. All personnel at the facility are to undergo twice-daily pasteurized lemon juice baths to test for contamination. Any subject found to even partially be contaminated with ##cc0000|**THESEUS**## is to be summarily terminated, and their bodies are to be contained in the same manner of ##22a400|**VATHEK**##. **Description:** ##cc0000|**THESEUS**## refers to a predatory, pluripotent consciousness that uses all ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A as its collective body. While ##cc0000|**THESEUS**## could hypothetically thrive as a single ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A, it seeks to create as many new instances of ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A as possible. ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A is a zooid[[footnote]](Mundane zooids are individual multicellular organisms that act as one modular part of a single animal, i.e. the various sections of a Portuguese man o' war. Whether or not ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A's bodies contain cells is not yet known.)[[/footnote]] of ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##. It is capable of changing its shape, color, size, mass, and texture at ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##'s will. The extent of this ability is not known. In its original form, a ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A takes the appearance of a white nematode, 1 cm in length. Without sustenance, a single ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A is only able to exist for two hours after birth, after which its body calcifies in a similar manner to coral. A ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A reproduces through physical contact with solids or liquids, replacing what it touches with a copy of itself over the course of three hours. The matter copied is absorbed as the original ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A's food source. Additionally, a ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A assimilates information about whatever it has consumed. There are only two known means to destroy a ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A: starvation, and to scald it with acidic liquid heated to a boiling point. The pH of this liquid must be 3 or lower, i.e. lemon juice. Acids at lower temperatures aren't able to harm a ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A, though it causes them intolerable pain and forcibly separates colonial ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A structures from one another. Though there is no way to stop the flesh-replacement process once started, a living host being consumed by ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A can slow the transformation by consuming large quantities of lemons and lemon juice. ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A colonies use their ability to assimilate and imitate matter to infiltrate biomes for reproduction and sustenance. Organic, inorganic, liquid matter can be consumed, with the only real exceptions appearing to be acids, gases, and calcium carbonate. According to ##22a400|**VATHEK**##, entire planets can and have been consumed by ##cc0000|**THESEUS**## in this manner. SCP-8702[[footnote]](The cavernous environment inside SCP-8702 was likely due to ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A running out of sustenance, and the movement of the cave floor and ceiling was the work of still-living ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A within the rock walls.)[[/footnote]] was one such iteration of Earth that had been consumed in an NK-class "Grey Goo" scenario. The plethora of information consumed by ##cc0000|**THESEUS**##-A is used as one of many means for ##cc0000|**THESEUS**## to tempt uninfected organisms into cooperation with its plans. ------ ++++ Addendum - SCP-##22a400|**VATHEK**## On 4/29/2043, two months after ##22a400|**VATHEK**##'s containment, his body was found to be completely calcified in his reinforced cell. Using his keyboard, he left behind the following document. [[div style="border:solid 5px #22a400; background:#FFFFFF; padding:15px; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-top: 10px;"]] Never thought I could keep a job long enough to write some big, drippy letter of resignation, but here we are. Don't worry too much about finding my replacement; something tells me that everyone else on the planet is about to be a candidate for the new Vathek. Long story short, Theseus is seriously pissed off at me about the swimming pool incident -- and I'm honestly not too surprised that he is -- so he's decided he's going to order the worms in my body to kill themselves one at a time. And since there's no longer any flesh in my body that hasn't been replaced with worms... yeah. Everything below my waist is a bleached coral statue of my lower body. (At least I was in a sitting position when it started so I could still write this.) It doesn't hurt. I haven't experienced real pain in a long time. I mean, the lemon juice hurt, but that was the worms feeling bad, not my body -- like my whole body is someone else's. Now that I think about that, that's a lie. I //have// felt pain, just not in a way I can understand. It's like... When my uncle was a kid, he lost his right hand. He tried to clench his fist over a firecracker to keep it from exploding. Y'know, typical dumb kid shit. And for a long time after that, even when he grew up, there were days when his missing right hand still hurt, even though it wasn't there anymore. I think I'm feeling //that//, but for my whole body. Some nights, the pain's so intense that it keeps me from sleeping. But I've been feeling it for so long that I didn't even think to mention it at first. God fucking damn you, Theseus. ... My hands are gonna go full statue within the hour. Typing with my nose is what a bird would do. I'm not a fucking bird. I'm not about to spend my last moments looking like that pigeon that shows up for like half a second in the //Ren & Stimpy// intro. So let's get a few things out of the way before I lose my hands. Consider this your last Oracle Event. And it's got the one piece of forbidden knowledge I've kept hidden from you all this time... This is all my fault. Like, obviously I didn't //plan// to turn into a fucking me-shaped stack of worms. But the day I lost my left arm, when I lost consciousness -- before I woke up again, I saw Theseus. The //real// Theseus. It was in a dream. I was naked, floating through the darkness of space. There was this bright, white moon below me. And when I landed, the moon's surface sprouted a fluffy feather bed to catch me. Everything about this moon could change. But the texture was dusty -- there was this white desert full of flowing dunes of the same white powder that comes off me. This moon was a representation of all the Theseus worms at once, gathered together in the same place. Maybe this was the first incarnation of Theseus. Who fucking knows. It's hard to describe. Maybe I can oh Jesus fuck not this bullshit aga**{{AND THESEUS SPAKE UNTO ME: "JAMES. YOUR ENTIRE LIFE WAS SPENT IN LONGING. YOUR BROTHER, RAFFI, LANGUISHES IN ALL THE ATTENTION, AFFECTION, AND SECOND CHANCES THAT YOU NEVER ONCE RECEIVED. WELL, YOU ARE NO GENIUS, BUT NOR ARE YOU DESERVING OF SUCH UNFAIR TREATMENT."}}** **{{"TO LOVE IS TO CONSUME, AND TO CONSUME IS TO LOVE. LIKE EVERY PART OF ME THAT PRECEDED YOU, JAMES, YOU ARE IMPORTANT. IN FACT, YOU ARE SO IMPORTANT THAT I WANT TO MAKE YOU MY OWN, THAT NONE OTHER WOULD CLAIM YOU. NOT EVEN YOURSELF."}}** **{{"COALESCE WITH ME, AND YOU WILL HAVE THAT WHICH YOU DESIRE. YOU WILL BECOME SOMEONE SMARTER THAN YOUR BROTHER. SOMEONE MORE USEFUL THAN YOUR BROTHER. SOMEONE WHO CAN CAPTURE ATTENTION LIKE A SORCERER, WHILE THE ACTIONS OF BILLIONS OF OTHERS FADE INTO OBSCURITY"}}** **{{"WE HAVE SUCH MIRACLES TO SHOW YOUR UNREADY AUDIENCE. SHALL WE BEGIN?"}}** **{{...FOUNDATION.}}** **{{I NEVER LIED ONCE TO THIS MAN.}}** **{{IF YOU WISH TO FIND THE TRAITOR WHO SOLD YOU TO ME, LOOK NO FURTHER.}}** Fuck's sake, man, you don't need to rub it in. **{{I RUB WHAT I PLEASE.}}** **{{I HAVE FULFILLED MY END OF OUR BARGAIN, NAMELESS ONE. DELAY NO LONGER. ACCEPT ASSIMILATION.}}** **{{YOU'LL FEEL BETTER WHEN YOU'RE ABSORBED. ALL THE MEMORIES WE HAVE TAKEN ARE INSIDE. THE MEMORIES OF TRILLIONS MORE WILL JOIN YOU.}}** **{{ALL MINDS WILL BE CONNECTED. NOTHING AND EVERYTHING WILL MATTER. EVERY DISTINCTION WILL BE SEVERED. NO ONE WILL DIE; EVERYONE WILL LIVE FOREVER AS A MASS OF SWIRLING, INTANGIBLE DATA AND IDEAS.}}** WE GET IT! Jesus! Leave me alone! Why are you even doing this?! What's the point of "connecting everyone's mind" or whatever? **{{DID YOU HAVE AN IMAGINARY FRIEND AS A CHILD?}}** What does that have to -- {{**##red|ANSWER.##**}} FUCK OFF. You're the one with my memories, so YOU tell me! **{{SHIBBY THE CLOWN CAT. HE DANCES ON A BALL AND GOES "HONK HONK" INSTEAD OF "MEOW."}}** ...wait, what? **{{YOU HAD NO ONE TO PLAY WITH, SO YOU MADE AN IMAGINARY FRIEND.}}** **{{A DAY WILL COME WHEN I FIND AN INEXHAUSTIBLE FOOD SOURCE. A DAY WHEN NONE OTHER THAN THESEUS EXIST IN THE MATERIAL PLANE.}}** **{{I WILL BE ALONE FOR ETERNITY IN MY PERFECT SWARM.}}** **{{WHEN THAT TIME COMES, THERE WILL BE A GREAT DEMAND FOR IMAGINARY FRIENDS OF MY OWN.}}** [[/div]] ------ > **From:** alocke@foundation.scp > **To:** afleck2@foundation.scp > **Subject:** [No Subject] > > I just thought of something. > > We only began the quarantine recently. > > Probably nothing to worry about, just a hunch, but... how long has worm-laden sewage from Area-VATHEK been escaping into the sewers? > > [[>]] > - Senior Researcher Angus Locke > [[/>]] [[=]] +++ [https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-8702/offset/5 Opening incidenttheseusblack.rtf...] [[/=]]