SCP Foundation

[…] The more accurate the map, the more it resembles the territory. The most accurate map possible would be the territory, and thus would be perfectly accurate and perfectly useless. The tale is the map that is the territory.

- Neil Gaiman, American Gods

In late 2007, the people of Bikini Atoll lost a lawsuit against the U.S. Government for its refusal to pay reparations for their displacement due to American nuclear testing on their land. This is about that, sort of. More broadly, it's about homesickness, and immigration, and not having somewhere to return to- but it's also under 500 words long, so I'd rather not get too far ahead of myself there.

This piece took about three hours from start to finish, and was written on impulse in a single sitting. Thanks for reading!

Edit: It seems some key elements of the anomaly aren't quite as clear to some readers as I would have hoped they'd be- if you're one if them, hopefully my replies to the earlier comments in the discussion will clear some of that up for you!

комментатор:

SCP-5146 was brought to the Foundation's attention during a routine database comparison of satellite footage collected during the months of December 2007 and February 2008, when the object was recorded within waters that had been previously designated as unoccupied. Due to the presence of mature vegetation visible on its surface and the lack of seismic or volcanic activity in the area during that time period, the object was issued a provisory designation

Are we still talking about the map here? Or is this the island on the map?

автор: The island is the map, and the map is the island. The quote I've stuck up at the start of my author post actually explains the idea pretty well- It's a play on the concept of map-territory relation, where in this case what makes the object anomalous is the fact that it is a map so ideally capturing the thing it was supposed to represent that it has become the territory itself. As this isn't something that's actually possible to do in real life and constitutes something of a paradox, therein lies the anomaly.

комментатор: You are confusing me by the following sentences (might just be my interpretation skills tbh):

• "The continued presence of SCP-5146 within the area of the Pacific Islands Territory-"
• SCP-5146 is a 1:1 scale map of an unnamed stony island-

Despite you stating that it is a map, I feel really confused. Additionally with the manmade structures and vegetation you mention I don't get if the object is an island or a map now. Perhaps it comes because they would indeed have the same description.

Since the nature of the object is confusing to me, the discovery etc. also don't make 100% sense as a result. The only thing I can imagine now is either the Foundation found an island and just labeled it as an anomalous object, or that it is a floating map on the sea with vegetation, manmade structures etc.
(Not to be disrespectful but when I read an SCP, I try to imagine it and this was stuck in my head.)

I like what you are going for and the extra details you added like the migratory birds but I will probably need to reread this later. For now this sadly is a -1.

автор: Hey, thanks for the read! Sorry to hear this one confused you, from the feedback I'm getting I think I may not have been quite clear enough about this one. Hopefully my replies to the comments above yours will clear things up a little, but either way- you're actually pretty much right on both counts, and the fact that it's both is what makes it anomalous. It's a map so ideal that it is an island, essentially, which makes it very much useless as a map regardless of how good of an island it is. The anomaly here lies in the nature of the object itself, which is why it's written the way it is- the Foundation knows what it is, but it's not something that should be able to exist.
Either way, thank you for taking the time to read and I hope this makes things clearer!