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]

"I just showed you."

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

"This isn't something that just happens!"

Henry rubs his temples.

"Show me again how it works?"

Henry asks Gabe to input the bucket at 1:1

[erinflight]

The machine returns a tightly woven, cane basket.

[unadalturedstrength]

Gabe hands the basket to Henry.

"I think the one on one is the boring setting. The others make interesting things or a bunch of stuff. Really cool, right?"

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Henry accepts the basket and reflects on Gabe's words.

The two have currently observed several laws of physics being broken. A large portion of human knowledge is simple false or part of a much bigger messed up whole. The rules that allowed humankind to walk on the moon and split the universes' smallest parts. The understanding that saves countless lives everyday by applying the knowledge of how chemistry works. All of the long journey to bring light to the darkness, replacing mystery and fear with science and wonder. All of that is currently being contradict by some weird machine built on some random hotel's basement, where it isn't being used to the betterment of the rest of humanity.

Outwardly, Henry's eye twitches. The only thing that prevented the explosion was remembering that Gabe is sick and should be in bed.

Oh, right.

Henry tries to drag Gabe out of the room.

There is an argument... which Henry loses. So they leave and return minutes later with a few more things. A chair and blanket for Gabe. A cardboard box for the weird balloon thing. The rest for Henry to perform experiments.

The machine's by-products are organized in a neat little rows and columns. Henry writes down each experiment and each result on a notebook. It is all very scientific because is being written down.

Meanwhile, they input five ice cubes, each individually in a different setting.

[erinflight]

At the rough setting, the door opens and reveals, nothing.
Nothing visible anyway.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Henry writes "Nothing" then erases that and writes "No visible results"

[erinflight]

At the coarse setting, the door opens and reveals a puddle of room temperature water.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Henry collects the water in a cup with a improvised label. He writes the experimental result while ignoring Gabe snickering.

[erinflight]

The setting 1:1 returns a puddle of vodka at 0 degrees Celsius.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Henry collects that too, he places the collected the vodka cup near the water cup.

Henry looks at Gabe.

Henry looks at the vodka cup.

The vodka cup is moved to where it can't be reached easily.

[erinflight]

The fine setting returns an instant cold pack.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Of course it does.

It gets a label like the others. Henry is still sorting the results from Gabe's experiments, since somethings are hard to describe.

[erinflight]

At very fine the machine returns an ice cube.
At first glance it appears to be normal, but after several seconds, it remains completely dry.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

It takes a moment for Henry to notice this, the ice cube is placed in a cup and labeled, and only then the dryness is noticed.

...

So...

No visible results.

Puddle of water.

Puddle of vodka.

Instant cold pack.

Nonmelting ice cube.

...

At least there is a pattern: Four liquids; three cold things; two water-related objects.

Well, frozen water was chosen because it is simple. How about something more complex?

Henry inputs a small pencil at 1:1

[erinflight]

The machine returns a cheap mechanical pencil.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

...It is capable of understanding function? Seems like it, given previous results.

Henry folds two cups out of paper sheet. The two cups are input at 1:1.

[erinflight]

The machine returns two red, origami roses.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Henry stares at the result... at least it should mean the same output will change objects in the same way.

One origami rose is input at Fine.

[erinflight]

The machine returns an intricate origami forest.
The trees are folded from hundreds of colors of tissue paper.
Each tree is perfectly formed, down to each individual twig and leaf.
The leaves rustle in a nonexistent wind.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Henry and Gabe stare at it in wonder. The Origami Forest is carefully placed on a table so it isn't damaged.

Noticing a pattern, Henry draws a stick-figure in a sheet of paper and inputs it at Fine.

[erinflight]

The machine returns an extremely detailed pencil sketch of Henry.

[there_is_no_such_thing_as]

Henry smiles at the sketch.

[unadalturedstrength]

"Aha! You like this thing! This means is my turn!"

Under Henry's protestations Gabe inputs a paper plane at Very Fine.