Attune your ears, to the grinding gears

“A proper stalactite grows downward,” said Sato, “But these younger stalactites are rebellious and have little respect for tradition. We’ve caught them growing sideways, diagonally, I saw one just yesterday that grew down at first but then went straight back up again into the rock ceiling.”

Numerous theories abound as to why the stalactites are growing more bold. Some blame global warming for chemical shifts in the dripping minerals. Others feel television is to blame. But Sato has another theory:

“Many stalactites today come from modern rock. Classic rock held superior morals and produced straight stalactites. But modern rock, such as hard rock or acidic rock aren’t so solid. To keep stalactites on course, we must examine both the rocks and the role played by the minerals, the substance they communicate downward. Only with a comprehensive study of rock and role will we come to an understanding of the problem, and begin to move toward a solution. Such as an opaline silica solution, or a 50% fluorite solution.”

Others feel that blaming rock is a cop-out, and that the problem lies with society’s standard of binary geological roles. Said Peter Saenz of GLAAD (Geological Land Appraisal And Diagnostics), “Who are we to say a stalactite has to be straight and hook up with a stalagmite? Maybe some stalactites are meant to meet other stalactites, maybe some stalactites want to find their own way through the caves. It’s not for us to dictate.”

This viewpoint has proven controversial, with high ranking clergy at the Vatican stating, “The Bible clearly states that speleothems are between one stalactite and one stalagmite, and that it is the stalactite’s role to descend upon the other.”

Thaumiel is not a typical object class. Most SCPs are either Safe, Euclid, or Keter. A common misconception is that these describe how dangerous an object is, but that’s not it; object class is based on how easy they are to contain.

For example, a Safe object might be capable of causing apocalyptic damage, but if you put it in a box, it will stay in the box. (Though there are a lot of Safe SCPs that are genuinely harmless as well) 

Put a Euclid object in a box and it will usually sit in the box and not make active attempts to escape, but might escape incidentally, due to inherent unpredictability (for example, many sapient SCPs are classified as Euclid even if they’re normally friendly, just because they have free will) or just because the Foundation doesn’t understand it well enough to give it a true safe containment.

Keter objects will actively try to leave the box, and are typically malicious about it as well. Alternatively, they require so much time and energy to contain that it’s nigh-impossible to effectively contain, or are extremely poorly understood.

Thaumiel is special, because.. it is the box. It’s the object class that the Foundation uses for SCPs that are used to contain other SCPs.