SCP-PL-021
rating: +10+x

Item #: SCP-PL-021

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: The object should be stored in its original packaging, inside an armored cabinet, secured with a combination lock. Due to the nature of the object, it can be placed both in a separate containment cell and in a properly secured Foundation warehouse depending on the resources at the Foundation's disposal. Employees with clearance level 3 or higher should have access to the object.

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(From the right) Object SCP-PL-021 and its package.

Description: SCP-PL-021 is a poker card deck consisting of 52 cards, made in accordance with the guidelines applicable to the equipment used by casinos in the USA. The whole is placed in the original packaging, which cannot be replaced. If such attempts are made, the cards will disappear and return to their original box using an unknown mechanism. An analogous reaction occurs when you try to incomplete the deck or destroy individual cards. If anything outside the object is put into the box, it disappears and after a while appears next to it. The packaging itself is resistant to high temperature, acids and dampness. It also demonstrates high resistance to mechanical damage and in case of their occurrence is able to self-supplement even significant defects in its structure accompanied by the disappearance of detached fragments, if any, at a rate corresponding to the regeneration of the packaging (it was observed that the greater the distance between the box and the detached fragment is the longer it takes). The bottom of the box has been interfused using an extremely strong glue, which has so far resisted all efforts to unfold the packaging.

The object's existence was recorded on 11/09/20██, when Mr. ██████ ████████ found himself in a psychiatric hospital, supervised by the Foundation, claiming that that morning he was the president of the National Bank of Poland (Narodowy Bank Polski), but he lost it because of the "stupid" game (according to available information, Mr. ████████ never served such a function, nor was he even connected with banking or politics). He also showed all the people he met a deck of poker cards, claiming that they were responsible for it. In accordance with the KSP1 procedure, the artifact was secured, and Mr. ██████ ████████ was subjected to an interrogation, which revealed the anomalous nature of the subject, later confirmed experimentally (a transcript of the interrogation is available in the attachments).

SCP-PL-021 does not show any anomalous reactions until the cards are shuffled and placed on a table of any parameters that allow comfortable use of it with at least two chairs attached to it (or they may be chairs or stools). After performing this action, opposite to the person interacting with the subject appears, classified as SCP-PL-021-1, about forty-year-old man dressed, according to testers' reports, in an old-fashioned, gray, striped suit, wearing a hat covered with identical material (according to Foundation analyzes this outfit corresponds to the American fashion of the 1950s). According to accounts, it is impossible to see his face because of the shadow cast by the hat, which it never takes off. Conversation is possible with the object, however, he gives information about himself cursorily and reluctantly.
After its appearance, SCP-PL-021-1, will propose a poker game in which the stake is not to be money, but events in the player's life. After accepting the rules, the game begins, where at first low "stakes" occur (minor events, e.g. purchase of new pants). However, with the development of the game, SCP-PL-021-1 forces the player to put more and more important moments. If the interacting player wins the encounter, they will then receive a green poker chip, which will soon be automatically exchanged for an event in the life of the interacting player of the same weight as those placed during the game. When this occurs, the token will disappear regardless of where it was stored or whether the winner had it (the effect does not change if the token is sold or transferred to someone else and applies to the original holder). Events resulting from the "implementation" of the token are usually positive (the exception is incident 021-1, available in the attachements).

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Token received in the evidence of victory

Things get worse if the interacting player loses the game. Then, events will be "erased" from reality, manifesting themselves in the fact that no one but the loser will remember them, and in the available documentation (if any exists) there will be no mention of them. Possible effects of such events are also removed, as if they never took place. However, it is possible to recover lost events if you win a game with a stake corresponding to the "value" of lost life pieces.
Regardless of the outcome of the game, after it ends, the interacting player will unwittingly put the cards in the box.
It is worth noting that if the object is removed from the packaging, but it is not shuffled, after ten minutes it will be hidden unknowingly by the person nearest to it. If there is nobody around, the artifact will immediately dematerialize and appear in the package after 2.96 seconds. A similar reaction will occur if the interacting refuses to play, but according to testers' reports it is extremely difficult, because apart from the pressure of SCP-PL-021-1, then one feels an extremely strong need to take the challenge.

Closing Statements: Research on the object is made difficult by the fact that it is impossible to record the course of the game with the help of any equipment used by the Foundation, because for an external observer, interacting, after shuffling the deck, freezes for a time ranging from 1.2 to 3 seconds, after what they start to organize the cards (Details about attempts to capture the course of the game, available in the attachements). SCP-PL-021-1 could not be detected either. Therefore, despite testers' reports ensuring that the room in which they were located was a storage room in which experiments took place, it is assumed that the game takes place in an unknown space, to which the consciousness of the interacting person is transferred. This space, for unknown reasons, takes on the appearance of the place where the manifestation begins.
SCP-PL-021-1 itself is also a mystery, which by testers is described as an outstanding gambler, but seems to have no overriding impact on cards (it sometimes lost because of weak cards). Understanding his past could allow a better understanding of the subject, but for now only a few vague sentences have been obtained (available in the attachments).
Understanding the mechanism used by the artifact is also not easy due to its nature, through which it has not been possible to directly observe the subject's impact on reality, which forces the Foundation to rely on often inaccurate testimonials of the Testers.

Attachements

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