Clockwork

[erinflight]

It doesn't arrive in the basement. Instead the basement becomes it.
One minute, there is only dark spaces, old boxes, cobwebs.
The next there is the machine.

The human eye, the human brain could describe it, but it could never contain it.

There are gears, thousands, millions? of them. There wires shaped from copper, tin, gold, and other metals which can not so easily be named. Each component, individually, can be understood. But together? No.

At the front of the machine are two booths, input and output.
There is a copper panel, a knob, a key. Written around the knob are the words Rough, Coarse, 1:1, Fine, and Very Fine.

From the knob hangs a sign. It is hand written, the words are barely legible. It reads:
SCP-914. Disappearing, going. Where? Don't know!
Careful, careful, irreversible. Safe? No!
Euclid? Possibly. Keter?
IRREVERSIBLE

Comments

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe is so sicking and tired of staying in the bed all day that he decides to walk around the deserted hotel. Considering his fever, that isn't really a wise decision, but he does it anyway, and eventually his exploration takes him to the basement that has been closed since their arrival.

...

That is a very weird basement. Gabe approaches... whatever that machine is supposed to be, looking at the doors and gears. The sign doesn't help clear up any confusion.

[erinflight]

Something inside the machine moves slightly. The knob twitches.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe was looking at the sign when that happened, he approaches the machine, and absently tosses the sign into the input chamber.

Not finding anything interesting, he returns to take a look at the knob, moving it to the Fine setting, and then turns the key.

[erinflight]

The door slides shut and a small bell rings.
The clockwork begins to move.

Six minutes and 14 seconds later the door to the output booth opens.

Inside is a single thick book containing thousands of gossamer thin pages.
The first page of the first volume contains the sign's message.
The second page contains the message written in Spanish.
Each page is the same message, in the same handwriting, in a different language.

The first two thousand pages contain known languages.
The next five thousand are new, but have recognizable patterns and derivatives on known alphabets.

After that, the pages stop containing anything humans would recognize as words.

One page contains a static image of a field of stars.
One page contains thousands of interwoven threads, all slight variations on the color blue.
One page has no markings, but when Henry looks at it he receives
Curiosity|Horror|Wonder|Regret|Fear.

Towards the end of the volume, the pages become hard to look at.
Henry experiences something, but his brain refuses to hold onto or analyze the contents of those final pages.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe flips through the book, becoming increasingly more confused. He eventually peaks at the end and drops the book like a dangerous animal.

...

He looks back and forth between the book and the booth it came out.

Not sure why or how he got the idea, Gabe rips a corner from the book and repeats the process, but instead of Fine he sets it for 1:1.

[erinflight]

The machine returns a black, plastic flash drive.
Printed in white characters on it's surface is 0.1 kb.

[unadalturedstrength]

What.

The.

Fuck.

Gabe gingerly picks up the weird-book and inputs it in the rough setting.

[erinflight]

The machine returns a neatly stacked pile of pages, a sharpie, a pen, a brush, a vial of ink, a vial of paint, a vial of blood, a pile of blue thread, a pile of tiny translucent spheres that ring when touched, a pair of pliers, a jar of dark brown powder, a flame trapped inside a cube, many other unidentifiable liquids, many unidentifiable vaguely rod shaped objects, and least a dozen other objects Gabe can't identify.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe has to admit this is weirdly fun.

He takes the objects from the output booth (the unidentifiable and weird ones are pushed away with his feet).

After a moment of consideration he decides to take a page from the pile and writes "WTF" with the sharpie.

Gabe inputs the paper in the Rough setting. You could say Gabe likes it Rough, hehehe.

[erinflight]

The machine returns a small tree growing from a mount of dirt and a stalk of barley.

[unadalturedstrength]

Of course it does. Gabe improvises something with the papers to carry the tree and dirt away.

Gabe inputs the stalk in the 1:1 setting.

[erinflight]

The machine returns a red, seedless grape.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe shows his self-preservation instincts by eating the seedless grape. Nom. Delicious, impossible to explain, fruit.

He considers input-ing the fire cube, but decides against it because the sign said "IRREVERSIBLE".

Instead Gabe inputs a leaf in the Very Fine setting.

[erinflight]

The machine returns a square of flexible, black material approximately the size of the leaf. A long cord with a metal tip emerges from one corner.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe looks at the thing trying to figure out what the fuck it is. While he does that, Gabe inputs another leaf in the Very Fine setting.

[erinflight]

8 minutes and 45 seconds later the output door slides open.

A small object slowly drifts out from the opening. It is dark blue and roughly the size of Gabe's fist.

The top of the object resembles a balloon. It is semi-spherical and bobs slightly in invisible currents of air.
Underneath the balloon are several small nodules.

After several seconds, the nodules begin to unfurl, letting out thin, light streamers that drift through the air.

One streamer bumps into the machine and immediately pulls back. A moment later, it and several other streamers begin slowly extending towards the machine.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe pokes the balloon with a finger and tries to pull it away from the machine.

[erinflight]

The tendrils immediately withdraw, curling back up under the balloon.
At the same time the balloon lets out a small puff of air and begins to drift in the opposite direction.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe looks around and finds a bucket, he traps the ballon-thingie with it, putting the bucket upside-down in the floor.

The leaf didn't get the same result as before...

Gabe inputs three sheets of paper, side by side on the booth's floor, in the... Rough setting.

[erinflight]

The machine opens, emitting a bright flash of light. Inside sits a mound of soil, a puddle of water, and several seeds.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe blinks at the flash of light, that is what he gets for doing science without... Henry.

Henry really should see this.

Gabe dashes out of the basement, with more speed than someone with fever should try running with.

Several minutes later...

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

...Henry walks in the basement, followed by Gabe.

"I am telling you. It is impossible and you are sick!" Henry says irritated.

He happens to not look in the way of the strangest objects and instead heads directly to one of the booths.

[unadalturedstrength]

"LOOK!" Gabe says unusually exasperated.

He lifts the bucket and the weird-balloon thing is released from it's prison.

Gabe also points at the other weird objects that the machine produced.

[erinflight]

The balloon rises up, tendrils still tightly curled, and begins letting out rapid puffs of air. It heads away from the bucket and Gabe as fast as it can.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Henry observes the thing, absolutely speechless.

What.

The.

Fuck.