Do you enjoy going to fairs? You know the drill: roller coasters, haunted houses that make you laugh instead of scare, overly sugary treats, and games that are always rigged. Back in the day, they also installed those machines that try to see the future, read minds, or tell your fortune. The problem is that sometimes they are more than simple machines, and if we have to talk about their intentions, well… let's just say people have died. The Foundation has one of them in its possession, and beyond its simple containment, it still sends chills: It killed every one of its targets, without exception.
The machine is kept in container 51164 at Site 66. It's not common for the Foundation to reveal exact details about its location, but I imagine the plan is to never lose sight of it. The only additional precautions are that it faces the opposite direction from the door, and that it is covered with a thick sheet at all times. NO ONE should make eye contact with that thing, or they can consider themselves dead. The file image? Don't worry, it's safe:
Meet SCP-517
SCP-517. Doesn't look like much, right? A little grandma who makes predictions. The model isn't that strange either, and when they opened it up they found a configuration similar to other machines. Now, the truth is that someone tried to interrupt its power in the past, and did so in a hurry. Only a 15-centimeter piece of cable remains coming out of its base, but that wasn't enough. The grandma turns on by itself even without electricity, although it has ignored every attempt to activate it with a coin.
Once it chooses its victim, SCP-517 follows them with its gaze, and hands them a fortune card. This is mechanical, and the geniuses here don't believe the grandma is conscious. The fortunes are... strange. They almost always reference the subject's past behavior, especially if it was bad. Whatever the strategy, it works. Everyone who receives the card is disturbed, but the story doesn't end there. Unfortunately.
The Attack
One way or another, SCP-517's target will be attacked at 1:43 AM by a series of entities resembling arms, coming from the same place. And there are many, more than three dozen in the worst case. The arms extend indefinitely, and if the 'prey' is more agile than normal (they all end up running in the end) new arms are added. Once they catch their target: they drag them to a dark and isolated place (think basements, closets, even under a bed) to beat them savagely until dawn. The beating is so brutal they turn them into pulp.
The last time the Foundation tried to interfere with SCP-517's hunt was in August of '97. It didn't end well. Five agents and the original target were reduced to a pulp of blood and flesh, after battling for hours against hundreds of arms. Bullets, fire, explosives, nothing worked. Anyone who tries to interrupt SCP-517 becomes 'part of the package', so to speak. The Foundation also confirmed what happens if SCP-517 is activated twice in the same day. A couple of Class D personnel in the name of science... not much was left of them. SCP-517 simply doubled its efforts.
And there it is. 17 years since the last series of tests. Honestly, why continue? SCP-517 killed and turned into pâté every poor soul it chose. Justice? Revenge? No one is sure, but the point is that the grandma knows things... and has no mercy.
