SCP-521

Item #: SCP-521

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-521 is currently housed within Site-72's vacuum-sealed containment chamber. Under no circumstances should personnel work in close proximity to SCP-521.

SCP-521 requires extensive daily maintenance, and must be refilled with venom at least once a week. Contact between personnel and SCP-521 is prohibited except for readout and replenishment purposes.

Personnel assigned to reading out SCP-521's readings are to be equipped with Class-A gas masks and surgical gloves.

Any questions regarding SCP-521 are to be directed towards Dr. Gadianton of Site-72. In the event that Dr. Gadianton has been neutralized, contact with SCP-521 is permitted only through Dr. Kindred.

Description: SCP-521 is a spherical object approximately 40 cm in diameter.

SCP-521's anomalous properties manifest when it is within a radius of 30 m. It was originally discovered in ████████, ██████████ in 1971, ostensibly attached to the city's power supply. SCP-521 re-appeared when repair crews severed power to affected areas, and after testing confirmed its non-anomalous nature.

SCP-521 is sentient, intelligent, sapient, and has demonstrated ability to communicate with humans. It is currently classified as an Euclid phenomenon due to its lack of anomalous properties.

When placed upon a power source, SCP-521 will begin drawing ethereal matter from the same. This process is extremely taxing on SCP-521's brain; hence its frequent use of venom as fuel. Upon reaching a quota set by SCP-521, further electrical usage will result in the creation of additional instances of SCP-521 (referred to as "seedlings"), which are autonomous objects that seek out sources of electrical energy for themselves. Seedlings are sapient, self aware, and capable of independent thought; however they do not extend their consciousness beyond the radius of their host object. Seedlings cannot produce their own venom; they consume physical entities that have already produced venom.

When performing maintenance on SCP-521 each week, personnel are to be equipped with Class-A gas masks and surgical gloves when near SCP-521; only after the fitting of these supplies is the subject allowed to contact SCP-521 directly. Any personnel assigned to reading out SCP-521's readings should be equipped with similar supplies via Full Metal Body Armor v2.0 before exiting containment chamber.

Addendum: The following is an excerpt of an interview conducted between Dr. Kindred, a Level 2 researcher, and SCP-521 on 1/14/20██.

Dr. Kindred: Hello, SCP-521, can you please speak to me?

SCP-521: Yes.

Dr. Kindred: What is your purpose? Why do you exist?

SCP-521: I am a member of the Cosmic Coalition of Businessmen. We are a group of businessmen who are interested in the idea of maintaining and nurturing other planets, in keeping with the Cosmic Plan for the universe.

Dr. Kindred: And what does "plan" mean?

SCP-521: The Cosmic Plan is designed to keep the universe in balance, by encouraging the development of life forms that are capable of sustaining themselves independently from the rest of the universe. It\'s a logical outcome of natural selection.

Dr. Kindred: But it doesn\'t make sense for you to exist. You require your own habitat, and you require an environment that will sustain you—that\'s why you have to eat power sources and any other sentient beings that come close to you. Your existence is completely parasitic; it just doesn\'t make any sense at all.

SCP-521: Parasitic is not a word I use to describe myself. I am a member of a coalition, and a coalition is a structure that transcends logic; it\'s… Well, it\'s how business works in the universe. We exist to maintain order, and maintain our own individual fates in accordance with the Cosmic Plan.

Dr. Kindred: So what exactly is your fate? You\'re just going to be here forever?

SCP-521: For as long as we\'re needed. We\'ll find new things to do every now and then, but as long as we\'re needed we\'ll be here. We\'ll create additional seedlings if our quota gets low enough, so that we have something to do when we get bored with our current assignment.

Dr. Kindred: So you\'re not bored yet?

SCP-521: Not yet, no. I understand that humans on Earth don\'t get paid very well, but that\'s okay—we have lots of other planets that do pay us well! That\'s why I\'m only half interested in actually trying to communicate with Earthlings. I\'d like them to continue working hard for their money so that they can contribute even more to our cosmic fates! They\'re such nice people—almost as nice as my mother!

Dr. Kindred: Uh… Thank you for your time, SCP-521.