Item #: SCP-2889

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: All ████ bath products containing oil from SCP-2889 are to be confiscated and destroyed immediately. SCP-2889 is to be closed to the public, and a 3 km security perimeter is to be maintained around SCP-2889. The security team for SCP-2889 is to be rotated every week. Trespassers are to be detained, amnesticized, and treated for exposure to SCP-2889 oil. Security personnel are to be prepared for resistance from the inhabitants of Freshwater and should not hesitate to respond with force if necessary. Permanent quarantine of Freshwater is being evaluated as a containment option.

Description: SCP-2889 refers to a logging forest of cypress trees, located in the town of Freshwater, Vermont.1 Trees making up SCP-2889 grow at a rate twenty times faster than that of their non-anomalous counterpart. The inhabitants of Freshwater2 use SCP-2889 for logging purposes, as well as harvesting and selling the essential oils exuded by SCP-2889. All buildings in Freshwater were found to be made of wood from SCP-2889. SCP-2889 is also used as a tourist attraction in the months before the yearly harvest. Examination of the oils exuded by SCP-28893 show them to contain several of the chemical compounds found in human tears.4

When humans are exposed to the oils from SCP-2889, they become fixated on the particular aroma of the substance, universally describing it as "that sweet, clean Freshwater smell." Eventually, over the next 1 to 3 days, the affected individual perceives all olfactory input as the scent of SCP-2889 oil. When input into a search engine, the phrase "that sweet, clean, Freshwater smell" results in a link to the tourism page of Freshwater, VT, which has since been shut down by Foundation operatives. Upon arrival in Freshwater, inhabitants of the town5 will direct affected newcomers to SCP-2889. Affected individuals will then enter the forest, but will not return.

SCP-2889 was discovered after items containing SCP-2889 oil were sold at several ████ brand cosmetic shops throughout New England. Many of the customers who purchased and used the product6 were reported missing anywhere from 24 to 72 hours after exposure, and were always last seen in Freshwater before disappearing.

Interviews with inhabitants of Freshwater show that they are aware of both the effects of SCP-2889 and their immunity to its properties. When questioned about the origins of this immunity, interviewed individuals will claim that it is a boon granted to them by an ancestral figure, referred to intermittently as "The Stag's Widow," "Beloved of Apollo," and "The Boy in the Grove." When questioned about a connection between this figure and the disappearances in SCP-2889, inhabitants will become aggressive and uncooperative, refusing to correspond to further questions. Genetic testing of Freshwater inhabitants shows them to have a 15% higher inbreeding coefficient than a standard town of a similar size. Testing also shows certain genetic sequences corresponding more closely to the equivalent sequence in the red deer.7 Hunting is strictly prohibited in Freshwater and the hunting of any deer is a capital offence.

Personnel assigned to SCP-2889's security perimeter for more than 2 weeks will have all bodily fluids replaced with the oil exuded by SCP-2889. Affected individuals suffer no ill effects from the change, but the process is irreversible. The effect is not cumulative, however, so two security teams may alternate every week and be unharmed.

Below is the recovered audio-visual transcript of an expedition into the center of SCP-2889. The team, consisting of Captain Harris, Agent Klein, and Agent Miller (delegates from MTF Epsilon-36 "Druids and Rangers"), were outfitted in full haz-mat gear, and were accompanied by D-19245, who had been exposed to SCP-2889 oil immediately before entry. D-19245 had been outfitted with a body camera which was relaying to Agent Zhao, who was to remain outside SCP-2889 and call for extraction if needed.

[BEGIN LOG]

Harris: Alright. 19245, you're taking the lead, you've got the camera. And I just got word from Zhao that mics are working. Here we go.

(Team enters SCP-2889. After three minutes of walking, they reach a fork in the path.)

Klein: Which way?

D-19245: Right. The smell's stronger that way.

Harris: And here?

D-19245: The middle path. Then a left, and another left.

Miller: You can smell it that well?

D-19245: I'd know it anywhere. That sweet, clean, Freshwater -

Harris: Yeah, yeah, we know. Cut it with that crap.

D-19245: If you could smell it, you'd understand.

Harris: I think I'll pass. What about here? Jesus, you'd think this is some kind of maze.

D-19245: Go right. Then straight, then left.

Klein: I think it is a maze.

Harris: And she's probably leading us right to the center.

(The canopy begins to thicken and block out sunlight as the team continues along the path.)

Miller: Noting for the record that the branching patterns of SCP-2889 become increasingly irregular as we get closer to the maze. Cypress doesn't do this. It's supposed to taper, but it's getting to look like a damn rainforest.

Klein: How the hell do you know this crap?

Miller: I was a forestry major in college. Wanted to be a forest ranger.

D-19245: Left.

Miller: Hey, anyone hear…

Harris: Sobbing?

Klein: Good to know it's not just me.

D-19245: Straight. We're getting close now. I can almost taste it.

(All overhead light has now been blocked. The team switches on their shoulder-mounted lights.)

Harris: Stop. You hear that?

(The team falls silent. Unintelligible mumbling can be heard. D-19245 moves closer while beginning to mumble to herself.)

D-19245: Sempervirens, sempervivens! Cerve, erasta! Cyparisse, eromene!8 Hail the Verdant! Hail!

Harris: What the…

Klein: She's mimicking it. She can't help herself.

Miller: Quick! Follow her!

(The team follows D-19245 into the center of SCP-2889, where they encounter two figures. One is a Mediterranean youth in his twenties, tending to and caressing the other entity, a cervine-human hybrid with a skeletal face and cloven feet. There are multiple arrows lodged in its chest, shoulders, and legs. The young man appears to be feeding strips of an unknown meat to the cervine entity, kissing its skull intermittently and massaging its genitals. He notices the team and begins to speak.)

Unidentified: I know, love. You're hungry. I know. But look! Right on time. The lure works, love. It always does.

(D-19245 prostrates herself before the cervine entity, assuming a posture that allows the young man to cut her throat. Visual feed is blocked.)

Harris: Go. Get back. Go!

Unidentified: Come, love. Let's hunt.

(The sound of footsteps, and cloven hooves following after. Two distant screams, followed by a short period of silence. A bellow, followed by a third scream, abruptly silenced. Footsteps, followed by the sound of hooves, passing by the camera, and deeper into the center of the maze. Silence.)

[END LOG]

None of the team members who entered SCP-2889 returned. Agent Zhao's attempts to call for backup failed despite a lack of observable outside interference. Subsequent unmanned expeditions returned with footage of a non-anomalous forest, with no sign of either the youth or the cervine entity (designated SCP-2889-1 and -2 respectively).

ADDENDUM: After the neutralization of SCP-3240, SCP-2889 is displaying similar effects as plant life within the area of effect, despite being further north than the anomaly's range extends. In addition, cypress trees within the affected area have begun displaying properties identical to SCP-2889 trees.

Footnotes

1. Despite Mediterranean cypress rarely being found in Vermont climates

2. Population is nearly 98% Greco-American, with few records of outsiders marrying into the town's family trees.

3. It is of note that the internal structure of trees from SCP-2889 almost completely matches the internal structure of instances of SCP-437-A. A link between these two anomalies has yet to be established.

4. Notably, the town motto is "Let us wash your tears away." The phrase "Sweet and Clean" appears on the town flag and seal.

5. Natives to Freshwater appear not to be affected by SCP-2889.

6. The "Holly Jolly" limited edition holiday bath bomb and the popular "Guardian of the Forest" bath bomb.

7. Cervus elaphus

8. Evergreen, everliving! Stag, lover! Cyparissus, beloved!