SCP-001: The Prototype

The First SCP-001 Proposal by Dr. Gears

Before the classification system, before the sprawling Foundation archives, there was one anomaly. It did not have a number, not at first. Later, it would be designated as SCP-001—but only as one of many proposals. This first version, known as “The Prototype”, was penned by one of the earliest SCP authors: Dr. Gears, a figure synonymous with the mythos’ stark, clinical horror.

Dr. Gears helped shape the tone of early SCP entries. His style was stripped-down and chilling, relying on implication and psychological unease. The Prototype stands as one of the first SCP-001 proposals, representing a vision of the Foundation’s beginning not with divine beings or grand cosmic secrets—but with one malformed, starving monster.

SCP-001’s Discovery and Early Containment

Reports first surfaced in Guatemala, where locals described a sickly, humanoid “demon.” Witnesses included a group of four boys who fled in terror after the creature opened its mouth to reveal a single eye. Following days of high-pitched screams and unexplained disappearances, the SCP Foundation intervened.

Radiation spikes were detected wherever the entity teleported—twelve hospitalized, seven missing. The Foundation’s capture of this being would set a precedent for containment strategy, security protocol, and even classification nomenclature.

During the effort to restrain it, the creature killed numerous personnel—most notably Dr. Hermann Keter, whose name would go on to define the most dangerous class of SCP objects.

SCP-001’s Appearance: A Starving, Alien Form

The creature measured exactly 6’5″ (1.96 meters) and weighed a mere 97 pounds (44 kg). Its grey-brown skin was tight over protruding bones. It had no body hair, no visible orifices apart from the mouth, and no reproductive anatomy.

Its arms and legs were abnormally long—each limb ending in sharp, black points. Each hand had three fingers, and its legs ended similarly. The head was disproportionately large, nearly spherical, with a thin neck that appeared structurally incapable of support.

Most unsettling: the mouth stretched halfway around the head. It had 21 teeth, crooked and rotting, and a single milky-blue eye inside the mouth. This eye rolled forward when the mouth opened, staring out like a lighthouse from a corpse.

SCP-001’s Powers and Abilities: Singularities and Flesh Hunger

The Prototype was far more than a malformed creature. It possessed a nightmarish power: the ability to create singularities—temporary black holes generated through the eye inside its mouth.

These singularities enabled instant teleportation, lethal gravitational attacks, and unexplained dimensional shifts. Anyone caught too close would be torn apart, pulled inward by crushing force.

Though primarily carnivorous, SCP-001 was believed to be omnivorous, though it only showed interest in human flesh. It hunted silently, moved without warning, and seemed impervious to conventional damage.

Its weaknesses were environmental. High heat and humidity weakened it, and flashing lights left it stunned or immobile. This vulnerability became central to containment.

SCP-001’s Personality: The Rota Monologue

Though the creature never spoke aloud, a recovered inner monologue, titled “Rota,” offers a haunting window into its mind:

“I just want to RUN! To be FREE! To FEED. I just want their skins.”

The text paints SCP-001 as not mindless, but tormented—trapped, suffocated by containment, lashing out with primitive hunger. Once loved, now hated. There’s even a tinge of sorrow—suggesting it once had a connection, perhaps to its first victim.

It wasn’t evil. It was simply following its nature. It wanted to escape. It wanted flesh.

Behavior and Containment Measures

The entity was kept in a lead-lined cell, surrounded by strobing floodlights. This setup prevented teleportation and kept the creature in a paralyzed, weakened state.

Attempts to communicate failed. The Prototype did not respond to language, nor did it display higher intelligence. It did not hesitate, hesitate, or plan. It hunted, killed, and devoured. That was all.

Any breaks in power, light failure, or containment breach led to near-instant deaths. And yet, over time, SCP-001 began to weaken, possibly from age or exhaustion.

SCP-001’s Final Years and Death

By the 1930s, SCP-001 had begun to deteriorate. During a brief containment breach in 1932, it attempted to escape but was repelled by armed personnel. After that, it never again showed its former strength.

On August 17, 1961, the Prototype died in its cell of natural causes. Its body was recovered, studied, and reclassified as Neutralized.

Its remains were eventually transferred to Site-87 in Sloth’s Pit, Wisconsin, a location known for anomalous topography and deep metaphysical anomalies.

The Legacy of The Prototype in SCP Lore

SCP-001: The Prototype isn’t about cosmic truths or universal origin stories. It’s about the Foundation’s first monster—a grotesque, terrifying, and pitiful being. It defined the early tone of the SCP mythos: brutal containment, clinical horror, and moral ambiguity.

It’s the reason “Keter” exists. It’s the first lesson the Foundation learned in how to cage monsters. And it’s one of the earliest signs that the anomalous world doesn’t care about our rules.

The Prototype still echoes through SCP stories—not as a god, but as a memory of raw horror, a relic of when the Foundation barely understood what it was up against.

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