Does life imitate art? Or does art imitate life? It’s a question that has been asked throughout
human history. This philosophical debate is about the ways
art either reflects the world around us, or influences it, but in the case of SCP-085,
the idea of “art imitating life takes” on a far more literal meaning. This entity was created during an experiment
involving two separate SCPs. The first of these was SCP-067, which is a
fountain pen that, when held by a user, will take full control of the person’s hand and
arm. SCP-067 then either writes about or draws
something linked to the user holding it. The second of these SCPs was SCP-914, better
known as The Clockworks. This massive piece of anomalous machinery
will have various effects depending on what, or who, is placed inside of it and which of
its several settings is is chosen on the selection panel. After Test Subject-1101F was given the anomalous
fountain pen the result on the page was a simple female figure around six inches tall
and 1.5 inches wide. She was drawn wearing a summer dress, with
her long hair tied back in a ponytail and a single word was written underneath her,
“Cassandra”. As part of the experiment, the drawing was
placed inside of SCP-914 and the “fine” setting selected, this is the setting that
is known to improve the object placed inside of it in some way. For example a hunk of steel placed inside
will be transformed into a pile of steel carpet tacks - a “refined” version of the steel. When the drawing was placed inside, something
truly amazing happened. Cassandra came to life, or as she now prefers
to be called, “Cassy.” SCP-085, sometimes known as “Hand Drawn
Cassy”, is a completely sentient being. She is fully able to communicate - however,
it all has to be done non-verbally. Her voice cannot be heard by anyone beyond
the page where she was drawn, but she is able to utilize sign language or create writing
on the page in order to communicate with Foundation researchers. SCP-085 has been shown to also be capable
of understanding text that is written on the same paper she exists on. She is fully animated, aware of her own existence
and the limitations of being two dimensional in nature. According to profiling conducted by the SCP
Foundation, she has her own distinct personality. Cassy is good-natured and agreeable, displaying
a natural drive and motivation, but also seems to feel the burden of loneliness, living in
solitude on the page. It should be noted that any and all attempts
to recreate the same experiment that formed SCP-085 have failed to create the same or
similar results. Tragically, Cassy might be the only one of
her kind in existence, a creation of pure luck with no chance of making another. No wonder she feels lonely. While Cassy is limited to her two dimensional
form and has so far been unable to enter our three dimensional world, she has demonstrated
several different abilities on the page. Firstly, she is not solely confined to the
same paper she was first drawn on. SCP-085 is able to transfer herself from sheet
to sheet. If another page is placed flush with hers,
she will be able to simply step across onto this new page. However, there is a limit to what kind of
page Cassy is able to transfer herself onto. She could easily take a stroll through the
pages of today’s newspaper but can’t just wander onto someone’s family photos - or
anything made of cardboard, glass, or parchment for that matter. SCP-085 can only exist on paper or canvas,
and only when they are directly connected to her original page. According to Foundation testing, this is not
exclusive to blank pieces of paper either. If Cassy ever transfers herself onto a page
bearing a repeated pattern like a piece of wallpaper, then she will appear to be in the
foreground while everything else on the paper appears to be behind her. SCP-085 will perceive each page she “enters”
as a completely new place, from her point of view patterned pages seem to be like endless
space. Additionally, Cassy can also “travel”
to other pieces of artwork, and adopts the same art style of each new environment she
appears in. For example, transferring herself onto the
pages of a comic book will cause Cassy to be rendered in an artistic manner matching
that of her surroundings. The same occurs if she travels to an oil painting,
watercolor, or charcoal sketch. Interestingly, when appearing in comic book
form, Cassy’s thoughts and speech are visible through bubbles that are commonly used to
display text within the comic medium. Her size, and the angle she is viewed from,
also changes to match the different panels of the comic page she is on. At one point, SCP-085 was introduced by Foundation
personnel to a print copy of “Ascending and Descending”, by the famous Dutch artist
M.C. Escher. This painting is of a large building, with
its roof consisting of a looped, never-ending staircase. When she transferred onto the print of Escher’s
painting, SCP-085 curiously explored her new environment, and was able to ascend and descend
the staircase. The researcher gave Cassy the name of the
piece, and asked for her thoughts on it. She remarked “It’s pretty, I guess. Would make a neat exercise track.” When the researcher asked if she noticed anything
inconsistent about the staircase, Cassy replied “No, as far as I can tell it just loops
around down/up all the time. Why don't more staircases do that? It's pretty neat.” Following this, Cassy directly requested more
“impossible” objects or optical illusions be drawn on her page and made part of her
environment. Unfortunately, her request is still pending
review from the O5 Council. Being able to step from page to page, transferring
herself onto canvas or sheets of paper, is but one of SCP-085’s unique abilities. She can also interact with other drawn objects
on the same page she is on. If someone draws an item of clothing on her
page, or a vehicle, even food or drink, then Cassy would be able to wear, use, or consume
these. Objects drawn for her behave as if they were
real, but only when Cassy is directly interacting with them. The rest of the time, they remain still, just
as they were drawn. Once SCP-085 touches them, these items will
animate. This same rule even applies to anything drawn
to depict something in motion, for example trees being blown in the wind, or the waves
of an ocean. These will also stay perfectly still when
drawn, and only move when acted upon by SCP-085. However, much like her ability to transfer
from page to page, Cassy’s power over other two dimensional drawings has limits. Drawing anything that would normally be an
inanimate object within the real world will provide SCP-085 something that she can directly
interact with. But this doesn’t appear to be the case for
living beings, like another person or an animal that would have its own autonomy and freedom
of movement in our three dimensional reality. Animals and people drawn for Cassy to interact
with will remain as static, unmoving drawings, and will not become animated like she is,
even if drawn using SCP-067. She cannot impart any of her own sentience
or free will onto these drawings, and they remain still even when she touches them. You might think that drawings of other people,
whether they are animated or not, might help alleviate Cassy’s solitude, but if anything,
it just reminds her how alone she is. SCP Foundation researchers have noted that
SCP-085 is very friendly towards them and any subjects brought in to conduct experiments
with her. Visits from the three dimensional world outside
the page she inhabits seems to offer some relief to Cassy's loneliness. Through much of her behavior, she has shown
a fascination with our reality, and in particular she has an interest in cars, expressing that
she wishes she had the ability to work on them. This desire appears to be completely genuine
too, as shown when her photo was taken with SCP-978, the camera that reveals its subjects
inner desires, and in Cassy’s case, showed her as a fully realized 3-d version of herself
working on a car. SCP-085’s curiosity about the world beyond
the page is most likely due to how different it is from her everyday two dimensional existence,
but on at least one occasion, Cassy’s curiosity got the better of her and unintentionally
led to a containment breach. From the moment she was first drawn to life,
and even after her initial testing with researchers, SCP-085 seemed unaware that she was a two
dimensional being in a three dimensional world. Foundation security protocols regarding SCP-085
meant that no one on the research team assigned to Cassy was permitted to tell her the truth
about her 2-D nature. The truth about her existence was kept from
her with the best of intentions, as research staff did not want to cause SCP-085 any undue
distress or trigger a possible psychological snap. Anything that Cassy raised as an inconsistency
or discrepancy within “her world” on the page was explained by researchers to be the
result of her imagination or dreams, and research personnel attempted to convince SCP-085 that
she was in a scenario wherein she was the only human survivor, searching for others
in a post-apocalyptic environment. However misguided this decision to conceal
the truth might have been, it was at least done with Cassy’s best interests at heart. But a lie, as they say, is harder to maintain
than the truth, and keeping SCP-085 in the dark about her true nature arguably led her
to more hardship that may have been avoided if she had been allowed to know the truth. In the incident in question, a Foundation
researcher entered the room where the drawing pad Cassy resides was found, and they were
carrying a paper copy of SCP-085’s Special Containment Procedures Report. Given that she had already partaken in tests
where she had transferred herself to other paper and canvas surfaces, Cassy assumed that
this file was yet another new environment for her to explore. The researcher allowed the SCP-085 to make
direct contact with the report, and she was able to transfer over to the document before
the researcher realized their mistake. Whether this occurred accidentally, or if
this researcher intended to confront Cassy with the truth about what she was, is unknown. Nevertheless, Cassy found herself on the pages
of her own SCP Foundation file. The record of every test the research staff
had conducted, a full description of how she had first been drawn by SCP-067 and brought
to life by SCP-914, all clear as day, in black and white, Cassy’s own true nature was presented
to her. Immediately, the yarns that Foundation researchers
had spun about her surviving an apocalypse began to unravel. It was all a lie, meant to keep her in the
dark and prevent her from ever knowing that she was trapped in two dimensions. She returned to her original page shortly
later, but the damage was already done. Due to her having breached containment and
briefly escaped into her own file, a number of Foundation researchers proposed that SCP-085
be destroyed. There was always a risk of this happening
again. What would happen if Cassy unwittingly found
herself inside another file, with access to more of the Foundation’s sensitive information. However, the 05 Council decreed that SCP-085
was not to be terminated, allowing Cassy to continue to exist despite the breach. Ever since she learned the truth about herself,
signs of depression have begun to manifest in her behavior. Finding out you are a drawing, trapped in
two dimensions with no chance of ever having someone else for company, would be enough
to crush anyone’s spirit. But luckily, researchers have since managed
to uplift Cassy a little and offer her a welcome distraction from her unfortunate revelation. The optical illusions like the never ending
staircase she requested were quickly drawn into her environment. Additionally, given the interest she had shown
in a technical drawing of a 1964 Ford Mustang Convertible, SCP-085 has been allowed to assemble
a car of her own. By transferring each individual component
of the car from the blueprint to her page, Hand Drawn Cassy has been gradually building
her very own Mustang, to keep herself preoccupied from her life in cartoon motion. And in the end, if she can distract herself
and find that tiny bit of happiness, isn’t that all that matters? In a sense, we’re all trapped within our
own dimension, Cassy in her 2-D one, us in our 3-D world, filling our lives with hobbies
and entertainment, all in an effort to make sure that we never tug too hard at the threads
of our reality and find out there just might be much more out there that we’re missing. Now check out “SCP-999 - The Tickle Monster”
and “SCP-5094 - Miss J's Whiz Kidz Schoolhouse” for more surprisingly wholesome anomalies
from the SCP Foundation!
