Link to article: SCP-8345.
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[[>]] [[module Rate]] [[/>]] **Item #:** SCP-8345 **Object Class:** Euclid **Special Containment Procedures:** The only known sample of SCP-8345 exists on a piece of flat 1cm^^2^^ canvas cut from the remains of Case Study #5 surrounded by inert gas, contained inside a hermetically sealed glass container within the Biological Agents Containment Lab of Site-19. **Description:** SCP-8345 is an extinct, infectious Euclidean microorganism that exhibits a number of anomalous effects on its hosts. SCP-8345’s primary anomalous quality is its ability to exist in standard, three-dimensional, non-Euclidean space despite possessing two-dimensional, Euclidean topology and presumably originating from such a lower-dimensional space. SCP-8345 accomplishes this feat by occupying flat planes within three-dimensional space such as walls, paper, and screens where it can survive. While it can survive in such spaces, the absence of living hosts for reproduction make its existence inevitably short-lived. It is believed that SCP-8345’s anomalous predation method was an evolutionary adaptation to living as a two-dimensional entity in three-dimensional space. > **Stage 1:** Early SCP-8345 infection is functionally undetectable. It is believed to occur by a flat section of the skin coming into contact with a plane occupied by SCP-8345 cells. SCP-8345 cells then migrates across the skin, often appearing as a blemish or a bruise, until it can reach an entry point such as a cut on the skin. SCP-8345 will propagate freely and aggressively on the walls of the host’s veins and arteries, as the three-dimensional immune system cannot recognize or react to the two-dimensional foreign bodies. No outward physical symptoms present, but the host may complain of a general feeling of unwellness. At this stage, the loss of mass is generally too low to be unnoticeable. > > **Case Study:** Twenty-eight-year-old male D-class with a large amount of body tattoos. Upon contact with the subject's sole, SCP-8345 infection migrated up as a bruise until it reached a tattoo, whereupon it shifted into an extension of the tattoo and moved up until it encountered a pre-placed entry wound on the skin. > **Stage 2:** Symptoms begin to manifest. SCP-8345 has covered essentially all the walls of major arteries and veins, and naturally begin to contract as the three-dimensional cylinder is incompatible with their topology. This presents as inexplicable, sudden bruising across the extremities and moving towards the chest, as capillaries and arterioles burst from being suddenly compressed into two dimensions. Blood, unable to flow through flat vessels, pools where it is, giving rise to potential crush syndrome as dying blood cells release poisonous potassium (though hosts do not live long enough to exhibit crush syndrome regardless). Having reached critical mass in the collapsing topology of the bloodstream, SCP-8345 cells flow out into major organs and tissues. At this stage, loss of mass is noticeable, and is usually attributed weight loss from illness. > > **Case Study:** Thirty-year-old female D-class, unable to move due to swelling and pain in the extremities. MRI revealed that 78% of the blood vessels in her limbs had flattened out, destroying the internal muscle. > **Stage 3:** Advanced SCP-8345 infections cause immense physical pain to the host as SCP-8345 reaches critical mass within minor organs and tissues, forcing their topology to simplify. The three dimensions are compressed down to two, and internal organ details and structures such as those of the gallbladder or pancreas are lost in the simplification, causing them to cease functioning. Muscle mass cannot be represented accurately in two dimensions and is further compressed, causing gangrene and necrosis in the extremities; hosts typically lose the ability to walk. As the interior marrow of bones is compressed out of existence, blood cells cease reproducing, and internal bleeding begins. At this stage, loss of mass is considerable, and the host will have lost 50-75% of their pre-infection body weight. > > **Case Study:** Forty-two-year-old male D-class, death caused by diabetic shock after pancreatic failure. Autopsy revealed most of his internal muscles and organs were gone entirely; the flattening of the stomach lining caused stomach acid to flow out into the abdominal cavity, melting the simplified organs and tissues away. > **Stage 4:** Late-stage SCP-8345 infections are precipitated by a buildup of SCP-8345 cells in the major internal organs. The ongoing simplification of the host flattens the lungs’ alveoli and eliminates their ability to breathe, though this usually has no effect as the internal topology of the heart’s valves has already been compressed out and caused massive heart failure. Pores have closed and hair has fallen out. All major organ systems have failed at this point. The subject would be in immeasurable pain, but the flattening of the lobes of the brain has rendered them brain-dead. At this stage, loss of mass is nearly total (80-95%), and the subject is no longer visible when seen from a dead-on angle. > > **Case Study:** One of two non-Foundation workers inadvertently exposed to SCP-8345 sample during initial discovery. Nature of SCP-8345 was not realized until three months later, whereupon the worker (38 y/o male) was tracked down. Apartment was mistaken as empty until recovery agents discovered the flattened subject had slipped into the 0.75 cm gap between the shower curtain and liner. > **Stage 5:** At this stage, the host is infested with SCP-8345 cells and has been simplified and flattened onto a two-dimensional surface, where they are indistinguishable from any other marking or graffiti. > > **Case Study:** Second of two non-Foundation workers inadvertently exposed to SCP-8345 sample during initial discovery. Worker’s corpse was found being sold at auction at Sotheby’s, having been mistaken for a postmodern artwork; has been contained as last remaining sample of SCP-8345. [[include component:image-block name=cave.png| caption=SCP-8345 discovery site.| align=right ]] **Discovery:** SCP-8345 is believed to be extinct in the wild, and was resurrected by the Foundation using SCP-███ after initial fossilized cells were discovered in 1951 in scrapings from Lascaux, a network of caves in France containing over 600 cave paintings dated to the Paleolithic, primarily of large animals and humans. A secondary anomalous effect in Lascaux, a high-pitched, nearly-imperceptible supersonic whine throughout the cave, is believed to be unrelated. [[div class="footer-wikiwalk-nav"]] [[=]] << [[[SCP-8344]]] | SCP-8345 | [[[SCP-8346]]] >> [[/=]] [[/div]]