SCP-4434-C pursuing a subject

Item #: SCP-4434

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Outpost-4434 has been constructed adjacent to AOE-4434 for the purposes of research and surveillance, and is designed to house 15 or fewer personnel for long-term assignment.

Figure A

As SCP-4434-A instances manifest irregularly and cannot be accurately tracked or predicted, containment efforts are dedicated to preventing entry into the property. Posted signage around the perimeter of and at the driveway entrance to the property containing SCP-4434 states that trespassing is prohibited. Persons who successfully arrive at AOE-4434's address via SCP-4434-A and exhibit signs of severe cognitohazardous influence are to be detained until after effects subside; Class-B amnesticization is mandatory for release. Detained persons who are not anomalously affected and appear to be strictly trespassing may be transferred to Site-42, Site-626, or into the custody of state law enforcement at the discretion of supervising personnel.

Description: SCP-4434 is the designation for a group of interconnected anomalies, detailed below. SCP-4434 is located in or under — or, potentially, is nonphysically associated with — a small valley on a remote plot of private land south of Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. From an elevation of 65 meters above sea level downward, aetheric resonance imaging indicates a high concentration of thaumaturgic particles1 has settled in the valley and is now stationary; this is referred to hereafter as AOE2-4434. SCP-4434 has four components:

Designation
Description

SCP-4434-A
Advertisements which manifest temporarily3 in the WV/VA/MD tri-state area on billboards, in print, and digitally; contain a Class II Textual Cognitohazard with a short-term compulsion effect; provide the address of AOE-4434 and apparently compel the subject to seek it out; when photographed, display as blank white space; Figure A is a non-anomalous recreation of one such advertisement, with sensitive information redacted.

SCP-4434-B
One amorphous entity; likely sapient; capable of vocalization in at least four languages4; appears to the naked eye as singular or multiple living organisms, with form based upon a concept or memories considered personally significant to the subject; convinces the subject to descend further into AOE-4434 and into range of SCP-4434-C.

SCP-4434-C
25 entities physically similar to deer and behaviorally similar to canine pack animals; sentient; cannot manifest above a height of 50m from sea level; will lethally attack and consume subjects before proceeding into SCP-4434-D and remanifesting the next time a subject is present.

SCP-4434-D
Hole in ground at base of AOE-4434 with 3.5m diameter; unknown depth due to apparent anomalous spatial characteristics; drone exploration yields equipment failure before successful transmission of data; results of human exploration detailed in addenda.

The current hypothesis as to SCP-4434's nature is that it is a Class IV Conceptual Predator which uses its components to bait and consume prey via SCP-4434-D. However, this is based upon context obtained from the document included in Addendum II and cannot be objectively confirmed. It is unknown if SCP-4434 is sentient or only some of its components.

History: The Foundation investigated the street address listed on all SCP-4434-A instances following a significant increase of missing person reports in the area and detected the thaumaturgic abnormalities in AOE-4434 immediately; personnel were stationed at AOE-4434 from that point forward until and after Outpost-4434 was constructed in July 2009.

State records indicated that before and up to its point of discovery in 2008, a man named Richard Redkinne owned the property containing SCP-4434. Redkinne was contacted following investigation into property records and interviewed by Information Security Department personnel under the cover of federal investigation into a crime committed on the property without his presence. He claimed that the property did not ever experience any abnormal events while he resided on it, but was frequently the subject of fiction stories created by his daughter, who purportedly had a considerable interest in witchcraft and the occult. She fell into the nearby Shenandoah River and drowned one week before anomalous effects manifested; Redkinne claims she likely wrote the document transcribed in Addendum II.

Addendum I: Archived Experiment Logs

Test #: 1

Date: Dec 27 2008

Supervisor(s): B-27055, B-4023, C-6674

Subject(s): D-84021

Purpose: To determine if subjects introduced to AOE-4434 without the influence of SCP-4434-A still experience anomalous impairment of reasoning; additionally, to determine if biological matter consumed by SCP-4434-C is anomalously transferred elsewhere inside of SCP-4434-D, becomes untraceable, or remains in SCP-4434-C.

Procedure: D-84021 was implanted with three separate GPS locators in his neck, torso, and right thigh three days prior to testing. He was equipped with a radio and camera before entering AOE-4434.

Summary of Events: SCP-4434-B presented itself as D-84021's deceased dog and vocally imitated it while moving deeper into AOE-4434. D-84021 was unresponsive to explanations of the anomaly and perceived it as legitimate, despite the fact that he had actively resisted entering AOE-4434 beforehand. D-84021 followed SCP-4434-B for 90 seconds before SCP-4434-C attacked.

Results/Analysis: Subject expired. All three GPS trackers remained active following consumption by SCP-4434-C. Two of three remained active for 40 minutes following SCP-4434-C's entrance into SCP-4434-D and appeared to travel slowly in a sidewinding pattern before dropping further downward and disconnecting.

Test #: 2

Date: Dec 27 2008

Supervisor(s): B-27055, B-4023, C-6674, C-70112

Subject(s): D-84022, D-84025

Purpose: To determine what SCP-4434-B will imitate if more than one subject is present and the subjects are not expected to share the same emotional priorities on which SCP-4434-B appears to base its form.

Procedure: D-84022 and D-84025 are each equipped with radios before entering AOE-4434, and are instructed to immediately return to supervisors after encountering SCP-4434-B.

Summary of Events: SCP-4434-B apparently manifests as a young male wearing business attire, which tells subjects that it can help them eradicate their debt and expunge their criminal record. Subjects do not comply with requests to return from AOE-4434, instead trying to speak to SCP-4434-B, and are attacked by SCP-4434-C 130 seconds after encountering SCP-4434-B.

Results/Analysis: Subjects expired. It appears that affected subjects are not capable of leaving AOE-4434 of their own accord even without the factor of having viewed an SCP-4434-A instance beforehand.

Test #: 3

Date: Dec 28 2008

Supervisor(s): B-27055, B-4023, C-6674

Subject(s): D-84044

Purpose: To determine if subjects are compelled to stay in AOE-4434 as soon as entering or only after contacting SCP-4434-B; additionally, to determine if SCP-4434-B will pursue a subject out of AOE-4434 even when the subject is forcibly removed.

Procedure: D-84044 is equipped with a body harness attached to a pulley system and instructed to wait at the base of an outcropping directly inside the edge of AOE-4434's affected range.

Summary of Events: When initially present and asked to verify his mental state, D-84044 still claims that he does not want to be in AOE-4434. Once SCP-4434-B is heard speaking nearby, D-84044 is asked to return and does not comply. D-84044 is pulled out of the affected area; however, SCP-4434-B — visible to all observers as a middle-aged woman — quickly draws a knife from its pocket and severs the rope. SCP-4434-C arrives 15 seconds later.

Results/Analysis: Subject expired. SCP-4434-B appears to induce anomalous compulsion through means separate from those of SCP-4434-A. Unprecedented behavior from SCP-4434-B documented.

Test #: 4

Date: Dec 28 2008

Supervisor(s): B-27055, B-4023, C-6674

Subject(s): D-84041

Purpose: To determine the contents of SCP-4434-D.

Procedure: A remote drone retrieves the camera from previous testing and installs an anchor point for a rappelling system on the edge of SCP-4434-D. (Steel cable is used in light of the previous test's results.) D-84041 is equipped with a radio, flashlight, and harness and told to proceed immediately to SCP-4434-D. D-84041 is informed that she can be subjected to SCP-4434-B's compulsion effect if it manifests and thus should move as quickly as possible.

Log of Events: D-84041 successfully reaches SCP-4434-D before the manifestation of SCP-4434-B. She attaches herself to the rappelling point and descends into SCP-4434-D.

BEGIN LOG 12/28/08 16:56

D-84041: I'm in here. I don't think it found me yet.

B-4023: Noted. Continue downward and describe the environment.

D-84041: It's just dirt and rock in front of me. I'm looking- yeah, behind me too. Okay, it's getting a little wetter now. Mud on my shoes.

B-4023: Is the hole still the same size?

D-84041: Yes. I'm looking down and- oh, yeah, this goes on a while. Flashlight can't see the end of it. How much cable did you give me?

B-4023: You can go down about 40 meters, I think. Just pull the line closest to you to go back up. When you're done, that is.

D-84041: So keep going until I run out?

B-4023: Yep.

D-84041: Alright. I'm still not seeing anything out-of-place for a hole in the ground; what's supposed to be in here?

B-4023: We don't know yet. Please continue to tell us what you see.

D-84041: I'm further down. I'm going kind of quick, sorry.

B-4023: Just ensure you don't miss any details.

D-84041: I know. There's nothing but mud, dirt, and rocks. Okay there's- alright, I see a floor down there. Yeah, there's definitely something. I'm almost… It's soft, huh. I'm looking- yeah, this isn't dirt anymore. This ground is really shiny and soft. You know what, I'll bet it's- yep, I touched it. It's flesh. You guys do seem to have a knack for finding this kind of bullshit.

B-4023: Is it alive?

D-84041: Give me a minute. It's the floor, the walls- well, the wall. This is like a sorta-spherical room at the end of the hole. Nowhere else to go.

B-4023: What is the diameter of the room?

D-84041: Uh, what's the diameter of the hole again?

B-4023: 3.5 meters.

D-84041: It's probably no more than eight across, then.

B-4023: Noted. And-

D-84041: It's moving like it's breathing, definitely. Mostly under where I'm standing. Want me to try to get under there?

B-4023: Uh, under the flesh? Isn't it solid?

D-84041: Well, yeah.

B-4023: That is not necessary, especially without the proper protective equipment. However, if you are able to take a small sample of the material, that is useful.

D-84041: I'll try. Isn't that thing waiting for me up there?

B-4023: We aren't able to view you or the entrance to 4434-D in real-time, sorry.

D-84041: Shit, alright. I can- oh shit, there's something stuck in the ground down here. I almost didn't see it. It's a folded-up piece of paper, looks old as shit. It says… it's got some lines on it, like a story.

B-4023: Please put it somewhere safely on your person so that we may retrieve it.5

D-84041: Right, alright.

B-4023: If you can gather a sample, please do so. If not, and you see nothing else of note, proceed back up.

D-84041: There, I pulled a chunk off it. If it's alive, it didn't seem to react. You guys really should've given me a container or something, though, ew.

B-4023: We should have, you are correct.

D-84041 is silent for three minutes while intermittent scraping and breathing sounds are heard.

D-84041: You sure I can climb up out of here? That thing isn't waiting?

B-4023: Again, we cannot see if it's there.

D-84041: Right, right, I'm looking. I don't see anything around me. I'm just gonna- yeah, I'm just gonna make a break for it.

D-84041's subsequent vocalizations are unintelligible, but she is in sight of supervisors within 75 seconds and is able to return equipment and recovered items to personnel. However, a platter of dinner food on a cloth napkin with utensils — presumably SCP-4434-B — is then noted to be present 5 meters to her right, and her attention turns to this. D-84041 begins eating the food and turns around to descend further into AOE-4434, ignoring further attempts at communication.

END LOG 12/28/08 17:03

Results/Analysis: Subject presumed expired. Subject's experience seems to indicate SCP-4434-D's internal geography is not definitive, and likely depends on the presence of SCP-4434-C. Genetic testing of tissue sample yielded a 78.9% match to Melanocetus johnsoni6. Further D-class testing is pending approval.

Addendum II: Recovered Document

The forest is a sea;

the wind is the waves and the water is the leaves.

The streams become undercurrents,

the birds become fish,

and coral finds its home as fungus,

growths sprouting as I wish.

The ground is the shore,

pulling me by the feet,

dragging me down and pulling me back

Back and forth on repeat.

I dove down past the light

down where I couldn't breathe,

and found nature looking for a fight.

Yes, the forest is a sea,

but I've made it barely big enough for me.

The forest is a sea,

so now something's bound to come eat.

Footnotes

1. Residue from prior practice of thaumaturgy in the area or an anomalous event which involved a thaumaturgic process, in some cases one which took place without human intention or knowledge.

2. Area of Effect

3. until 3-5 subjects are affected

4. English, Spanish, German, and Russian have been confirmed, with further testing pending.

5. This document is transcribed in Addendum II.

6. Deep Sea Anglerfish