CAUTION!

By opening this unredacted document, you may have been exposed to a virulent, Keter-class memetic agent. If you do not already have 5586-Visionary clearance, follow the instructions below. Failure to comply will result in amnesticization and containment or summary termination. Do not wait; do not read further sections of this document.

Find and open the blue box labeled Clearing Kit on the wall to your left as you entered the Containment Unit.

Take the red autoinjector labeled Self-Prep, remove the safety cap, and press it against your thigh. You will feel a slight sting. Count backwards from 120 to allow the anesthetic and stimulant to take effect.

Choose one of your eyes to remove, then swab the area immediately around it with the supplied disinfecting wipes.

Remove the gray cylindrical object labeled Ocular Liberation Device and place the open end over the prepared eye. Adjust the position until you can clearly see a green light.

Pull the trigger.

The Ocular Liberation Device should have sealed the orbit to prevent further injury or infection, but if you are experiencing significant pain and/or bleeding, please make use of the supplied medical gauze and tape.

When you are finished in the Containment Unit, please inform a member of site security with 5586-Visionary clearance to replace the Clearing Kit.

If you find yourself unable to follow any of these instructions, take the orange autoinjector labeled Emergency, remove the safety cap, and press it against your thigh.

Congratulations, you now have 5586-Visionary clearance, and may proceed with this document.

Item #: SCP-5586

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Documentation of SCP-5586 is to be stored within a Cognitohazard Containment Unit in Site 167. To avoid memetic contamination, only 5586-Visionary individuals are to be allowed entry into the chamber, and all guards must also be 5586-Visionary. The chamber is also to contain a Clearing Kit (see Document-5586-12 for contents) in case an individual susceptible to SCP-5586 is accidentally granted access to the chamber.

5586-Visionary personnel are to search for outbreaks of SCP-5586. Persons susceptible to the effects of SCP-5586 may be used in this monitoring if necessary, but they must not be allowed to learn details of the practices of SCP-5586. If possible, personnel should also search for partial matches to SCP-5586 practices, which can develop into manifestations of SCP-5586. Any SCP-5586 cults found are to be destroyed, all suspected instances of SCP-5586-1 captured, and recovered paraphernalia incinerated.

SCP-5586-1 members may be identified by brain scan (see Addendum 5586-24 for an analysis of differences in fMRI readings between SCP-5586-1 and uninfected persons) or by being ordered to eat a piece of Syrian rhubarb1, which hosts of SCP-5586 will not consume. While Class-C amnestics are effective at freeing infected individuals from SCP-5586, it is recommended that SCP-5586-1 either be terminated or undergo Procedure 5586-Clarify to protect them from being absorbed by SCP-5586 in the future. If instances of SCP-5586-1 are to be contained for research purposes, follow level 4 countermemetic isolation procedures.

True containment of SCP-5586 has not yet been established, as it can still spread rapidly if rediscovered. At present, it presents unacceptable risk of causing an AK-class “contagious madness” end of the world scenario. Therefore, current containment efforts are focused on developing and deploying Procedure 5586-Revelation, which will permanently negate the anomalous allure of SCP-5586.

Description: SCP-5586 is a cult that spreads via a virulent memeplex associated with its practices. The more a person knows about the practices of SCP-5586, the stronger their positive feelings towards it will be, and the more active they will become in following its prescriptions. While SCP-5586 does not overwrite basic life preservation instincts or general knowledge, infected individuals, designated SCP-5586-1, have their personality and morality completely replaced by SCP-5586.

SCP-5586 is inimical to human health and societal wellbeing. Among other practices, SCP-5586-1 will:

Conduct, singly or in groups, rituals current research suggests are an attempt to summon inhuman and powerful extradimensional entities to alter the biosphere and subjugate persons outside of SCP-5586. Recordings, transliterations, and approximate translations of these rituals may be found in Addendum 5586-3.

Expose themselves to chronically toxic and psychoactive fumes, believed to be for the purpose of making themselves vessels for the aforementioned extradimensional entities.

Avoid certain nutritious foods that are plentiful near where SCP-5586 was first discovered.

Instances, typically 60 or older, will self-terminate by consumption of a large quantity of opiates and subsequent immolation.

Conceal information regarding SCP-5586 and their incorporation into it to undermine efforts to fight SCP-5586 infiltration.

For a full breakdown of observed behaviors of SCP-5586-1, see Addendum 5586-1.

Persons who have lost an eye are unaffected by SCP-5586 and may safely interact with information about SCP-5586 without risk of being converted into SCP-5586-1. The neurological cause of this is not at present known, though see Document 5586-14§5:Visual Cortex Subversion for the current leading hypothesis. Congenitally blind individuals cannot be removed from the influence of SCP-5586 in this way. Any person who has lost a previously-functional eye is therefore considered 5586-Visionary.

SCP-5586 was discovered in 1998 by a member of a Foundation task force investigating rumors of a cave of carnivorous diamonds in northern Iraq (now classified as SCP-████, and unrelated to SCP-5586). While researching community knowledge of SCP-████, Agent Mamand found a group of SCP-5586-1 instances and was himself infected, bringing the meme back to the Foundation. See Addendum SCP-5586-2 for his initial report. Countermemetic Integrity detected Agent Mamand’s compromise in an audit, and experimentation found that 5586-Visionary individuals were unaffected by the meme, leading to the development of the current containment procedures.

Addendum 5586-2:

Translated from Kurdish

[DATA CONCERNING SCP-████ REDACTED]

West of ███████, I found a remarkable community, called the Children of Ash. Initially, they showed a prudent reticence towards outsiders and declined to answer my questions regarding the Cave of Teeth. As this was the final village I was assigned to investigate, and the others had been so quick, I spent the remaining weeks of the deployment ingratiating myself to the Children of Ash and learning their ways.

Similar to the people of ███████ and █████, they have legends of an ever-growing bear that was trapped in a cave near ███████ and either merged with the walls or gifted the cave its hunger. Their religious beliefs, however, are fascinating. Unlike their primarily Muslim neighbors, the Children of Ash follow the Guttering Path. They preserve the wisdom of Arjîn Salh, a human who rose on fire to join Qiral Erîbav2, the Creator, and His angels Milyak Badîn3 and Milyak Ewrai4.

Arjîn saw how people’s shortsighted and selfish impulses, instilled in them by Yek’kûl Girta, the demon of waste5, separated them from the will of Qiral Erîbav, and received a set of precepts for living a life aligned with the divine virtues of devotion, craft, and remembrance. The Children of Ash are peaceful and happy, as well as brilliant artisans6.

I am somewhat uncomfortable sharing observances that are clearly private to the community, but I’ve attached some recordings I made of the Children of Ash’s prayer sessions, and perhaps others will find them as moving and uplifting as I do.7

Addendum 5586-30:

Level 3/5586-Visionary Clearance Required

Procedure 5586-Revelation Overview:

We were lucky that once SCP-5586 started to spread to the Foundation, it was checked before it could suborn the whole organization. At present, while there are no known instances of SCP-5586-1 outside of containment, it is unlikely that a meme so potent was present only in one small, isolated community. Indeed, practices similar to those of SCP-5586 are common, and have even been observed among Foundation personnel. Ideas do not die.

But this one, perhaps, can be killed. We know that SCP-5586 cannot take root in people who have lost an eye. While this is a dramatic intervention, the long-term harms are relatively small, as we know from experience.

The Foundation’s mandate is to protect normalcy. A one-eyed world would not be fully normal, but it would be closer to normalcy than a world where humanity has been supplanted by SCP-5586-1. Protecting the population in this way while preserving secrecy will not be easy, but it is necessary. Only in the embrace of Yek’kûl Girta are we truly safe.

Footnotes

1. Rheum ribes, also known as rêwas, a notably healthy and tasty vegetable known to treat diabetes, depression, and many other ailments

2. Translates as “Sire of Tyranny” and speculated to refer to SCP-2317

3. “Shining Prince,” identified as the Abrahamic Satan

4. “Clouded Prince,” likely referring to a Masked Lord of Alagadda

5. A remarkably inaccurate description of the spirit of protection

6. Interrogation of current and former SCP-5586-1 instances has yet to reveal the true purpose of the glasswork objects recovered from the village where SCP-5586 was first encountered

7. Keylogger records found that Agent Mamand had typed and then deleted the sentence “May we be worthy to follow the path of Arjîn” at the end of his report.