Structure found during Manifestation 027 of SCP-1547

Item #: SCP-1547

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: MTF Sigma-08 ("Vincerò") is to locate the area in which SCP-1547-A is currently manifesting. All civilians are to be removed from the area under the guise of a public safety issue and questioned. Unaffected civilians may be released after being treated with a Class-C amnestic; affected civilians, including the 1547-Ψ group, may be detained until SCP-1547 de-manifests, or treated with a Class-B amnestic.

SCP-1547-A is to be engaged with lethal force until it de-manifests. No other containment procedures are necessary. Update: As of June 2003, no use of force is allowed against SCP-1547-A. Protocol Petrushka, devised by Dr. Razak, has been outlined below instead.

Current containment protocol under Protocol Petrushka must be followed. Civilians in 1547-Ψ may be detained only during the day and in direct sunlight. Under no circumstances is MTF Sigma-08 or other non-D-Class personnel to interact with SCP-1547-A or 1547-Ψ during the nighttime.

Failure to conform to Protocol Petrushka will lead to containment breach. All testing done to SCP-1547 must be submitted for approval to Director Jethro and Dr. Razak.

Protocol Petrushka: After positive identification of an SCP-1547 manifestation, the appropriate number of D-class personnel1 is to be escorted from the nearest available site by MTF Sigma-08 to the location where SCP-1547 is closest.

The D-class personnel should fail the Weyl test (<45 score). The selected D-class personnel must not be given any plastic or metallic tools, but protective gloves and headgear are allowed. D-class personnel with physical disabilities should be encouraged to join.

At night, the allotted D-class personnel should be allowed to join the 1547-Ψ group. MTF Sigma-08 should keep close observance of SCP-1547-A and 1547-Ψ, but must not directly interfere during the nighttime.

Civilians should be detained and brought to the nearest Foundation safe house for medical attention during the day if possible; however, no more than three civilians are allowed to be removed each day.

Current Status: A successful application of Protocol Petrushka has extended the manifestation for 245 days; it is expected to last until May 2018. MTF Sigma-08 is to remain on high alert as Protocol Petrushka terminates.

Description: SCP-1547 is a phenomenon associated with various Southeast Asian islands, in particular Sulawesi (38% recorded cases) and Borneo (26%).

A SCP-1547 manifestation refers to the appearance of SCP-1547-A. A few days after the conclusion of the last SCP-1547 event, SCP-1547-A would manifest to a group of people, hereby referred to as “targets”. No correlation has been found between different targets, and the largest recorded instance affected 354 individuals; it is not known whether there exists a limit.

SCP-1547-A is a vaguely humanoid entity of variable appearance. Witness interviews and field reports describe the entity to be approximately two meters tall and covered in black fur; other than a pair of vaguely canine eyes there are no other discernible facial orifices or features. While SCP-1547-A has been observed to walk using bipedal movement, it more notably has been found to possess displacement abilities, and would use this ability to evade physical damage; if SCP-1547-A is unable to avoid the physical damage without leaving the area that it has manifested it, such as in the case of fire or extensive artillery assault, SCP-1547-A would demanifest. No attempt at tracking has been successful, as it has evaded all forms of physical contact. SCP-1547-A also seems to avoid sunlight, mainly manifesting at night and would hide out of sight during the day.

SCP-1547-A is capable of a minor hallucinogenic/compulsion effect; however, the effect is weak enough that persons that score 70 or higher on the Weyl scale (1.6% of global populace) or have undergone Reger Anti-Compulsion Training are able to withstand its effect.

Subjects that are unable to withstand the compulsion effect of SCP-1547 reports a visual hallucination, where they invariably see a tall wooden structure. During a SCP-1547 manifestation, subjects that are unable to withstand the hallucinations and compulsions, now designated as 1547-Ψ, will attempt to construct and build the structure, which is believed to serve as an altar. No two structures have been found to be the same, though repeated motifs have been seen if an SCP-1547 manifestation is interrupted.

Structure found during Manifestation 014 of SCP-1547

At the completion of the structure, the majority of the 1547-Ψ population typically would fall unconscious2 except in rare occasions. Any remaining 1547-Ψ members that did not would usually assist SCP-1547-A, who would usually use this structure for an unknown ritual, that typically concludes with the death of SCP-1547-A, or sometimes an 1547-Ψ instance. See Addendum 1547-1: Recorded Manifestations for more information.

If the ritual is allowed to finish, it does not appear to have an immediate effect. However, in a few hours, all nearby plant life, in particular angiosperms, would start to wilt and wither. No plants species have been able to survive. The effect is irreversible at this point, and in the affected area, no plants have been able to grow. However, the anomaly does not affect animals or fungi - however, total destruction of local plant populations has devastating effects to the local ecosystem, and therefore local fauna populations invariable either die of starvation or migrate to unaffected areas. The area affected has an observed range up to 25 kilometers, diminishing as it gets further from the origin of SCP-1547.

Civilians that were affected by SCP-1547 and join 1547-Ψ groups, after medical attention, will be typically able to recall their activities during their influence under SCP-1547, but extensive interviews were inconclusive. Civilians typically display no lasting effects, other than a significant change in diet and a marked disdain for agricultural activities.

Addendum 1547-1: Recorded Manifestations:

Manifestation 001

Location: Serkin in Sarawak, to a group of eight men working as farmhands and living together.

Length: Estimated to be 7 days.

Context: Earliest known manifestation - it is unknown how many times that SCP-1547 has manifested before this, but it is believed be no more than three times. The Foundation was not alerted at the time of a possible anomaly; the record was obtained after the involved civilians were found unconscious around the structure that they have built, and constructed based on police interview and evidence.

Description: A large fig tree (Ficus obliqua) was stripped of its bark and all the leaves removed from the branches. A circular trench (approximately five meter radius, two meters deep) was dug around the tree, and all the removed leaves were placed inside the trench. The eight men then stood at equal distance from each other around the circular trench and urinated simultaneously, then fell unconscious. As this was constructed from interviews post-event, no record of what happened afterwards is available.

Estimated affected area: Approximately 1.5 kilometer radius.

Manifestation 002

Location: Near Ipil on Mindanao, to a village of approximately 30 people

Length: Two days.

Context: One member of the village had a Weyl score of 92, meaning she was able to resist the effects of SCP-1547 and notify relevant authorities. In her testimony to the police, she indicated that she was horrified by the sudden compulsion that her friends and family had, and drove to the nearest village after a few hours of attempting to wake the villagers. Foundation notified of possible anomaly, but this account was similarly only available after civilian interviews and police reports.

Description: Several betel nut trees (Areca catechu) were dug up and arranged in a square array shape in an empty school soccer field, five by five squares with each square approximately five meters wide. At each section, a small pyramid of betel nuts were made in the center, aside from the center square where a square hole was dug approximately three meters deep and filled with water, tainted red from betel nut juice that the villagers produced by chewing on betel nuts then spitting it into the hole. SCP-1547-A was then observed submerging itself into the hole, after which the villagers fell unconscious.

Estimated affected area: Approximately 3 kilometer radius.

Manifestation 005

Location: A seaside settlement, to four people, located near Sangkimah

Length: Three days

Context: First time observed near a large body of water

Description: Several driftwood branches were tied with vines into an impromptu raft, where SCP-1547-A drifted out to sea; it is then observed to break the raft apart and sink. Notably, SCP-1547 does not seem to affect the seaweed in nearby waters.

Estimated affected area: Approximately 20 kilometer radius.

Manifestation 012

Location: A milk fruit (Chrysophyllum cainito) orchard in southern Sulawesi, affecting three workers

Length: Ended after six hours; Foundation intervention prevented it to finish

Context: First time Foundation deliberately stopped SCP-1547 from completion, due to the devastating effects; while the teleportation was documented earlier, this manifestation overturned a previous hypothesis regarding SCP-1547-A's re-manifestaion.

Description: Fruits were gathered and crushed using rocks, then the resulting pulp was carefully laid out on a flat stretch of road, in a zig-zagging pattern. Foundation agents intervened at this point, and detained all 1547-Ψ civilians. SCP-1547-A demanifested and re-manifested in an apartment complex in Jakarta.

Estimated affected area: N/A

Manifestation 013

Location: An apartment complex in Kramat Jati in eastern Jakarta

Length: Three hours

Context: Foundation failed to prevent ritual from completion

Description: N/A

Estimated affected area: Approximately 3 kilometer radius.

Addendum 1547-2: Letter from Dr. Razak:

To Director Jethro,

I believe that based on our blissfully rare interactions with SCP-1547, we are posed with a unique dilemma.

SCP-1547 doesn't seem very intelligent - it responds with very primal fear towards sunlight and gunfire, and other forms of physical contact. I noted that it was not just humans that it avoids - three times now in the recordings that we have received shows that even hares and certain birds trigger the physical demanifestation response.

Right now we have zero information regarding the origins of SCP-1547; local folklore, the ritual-like nature of observed events, and interviews conducted leads me to believe that there are supernatural elements to its origins. However, it seems like there is little more to SCP-1547 than what we have already observed. I am inclined to believe that the weak psychological influence and teleportation is the extent of its powers, and hold no realty-bending or similar abilities of other SCPs that may have religious or mythological origins. If this is a deity, it is a rather weak one.

As you know, SCP-1547's strongest direct influence is on local vegetation, and vegetation only. SCP-1547, so far, has only caused the deaths of sixteen individuals over the course of seven years under Foundation observation, with eleven of them D-class personnel. The relatively low fatality should not be an indication of safety, however, as we have found no way to reverse the effects of SCP-1547 once a "ritual" has taken place. Analysis of the soil samples affected gives us no reason of the widespread vegetation failure, as the chemical and biological composition are unaffected.

The solution seems very obvious then - prevent the ritual from completion, thus negating the only impact that SCP-1547 is able to enact.

This is where it gets tricky - as I have indicated earlier, SCP-1547 does not seem very intelligent. Perhaps it's sentient, maybe even sapient, but not exactly the brightest - and as I have already indicated, extremely stubborn. Initially, we thought that perhaps that SCP-1547 would cease its attempts if it was engaged with lethal force, as it demanifests after it is engaged.

One major problem arises out of this - we do not know where SCP-1547 goes. Currently no way of attaching a tracking device has been found, and it has so far followed no pattern at all. During initial containment attempts, SCP-1547 were only mainly whizzing around in remote small villages, centered around Borneo, and affected around ten people at most. However, we found that hostile reaction towards it drove it to slightly bigger settlements and towns, and more urban areas, and started to appear farther and farther away from where we first started observing. When one sighting led us to an apartment complex in Jakarta, we knew we had a problem.

With it going into more densely populated urban areas, it becomes increasingly hard to cover up the sightings - and the speed of building the structures needed for its "rituals" gets faster, simply because more people are exposed and join the 1547-Ψ group. The first observed SCP-1547 manifestation had a 1547-Ψ size of ten people, and since it was unhindered, took around six days to complete. The Jakarta incident affected around three hundred people - and even though it only took Foundation agents around two hours to locate SCP-1547 after the first sighting, it was too late. Disrupting the building process, detaining the civilians, destroying the structure - all resulted in it demanifesting, and remanifesting in denser and denser population centers in order to speed up the building process. At the same time, allowing it to complete the structure leads to irreversible devastation that we want to avoid.

As we have been shown repeatedly, SCP-1547 is not exactly the shiniest spirit in the fairy jar. The Petrushka Protocol takes advantage of this - as SCP-1547 demanifests during the day, it is safe to sabotage the structures in a way that obstructs construction.

The Petrushka Protocol is carefully compiled - total destruction and obvious damage to the structure is avoided. Just as the 1547-Ψ folk only use their bare bands, sabotages that can be achieved without the use of tools are the only ones that evade detection. Any mechanical damage that requires the simplest of man-made tools - simple blades, mallets, or even flames - constitutes as major sabotage. Complexity is not our friend here.

Of course, it's highly ineffective. It's also the only method that really works.

Follow what's written - and we're safe. Break what is written and observed - we risk either exposure or environmental carnage.

In a way, Protocol Petrushka is just a stalling technique. What usually takes SCP-1547-A a week or so to complete now has dragged on for months, and we project the current manifestation could potentially last up to a year. Of course, it's not a permanent solution - minuscule, incremental progress is still made. However, this is the safest and least costly way that we have found to contain SCP-1547, satisfying its very basic whims.

In a way we have created our own quasi-religious ritual, attempting to appease a minor deity while at the same time avoiding the negative consequences. I suppose this is how the ancestors of years past created their rituals. After all, what is a ritual if not to merely just placate a god? A minor deity, for sure, but placated nonetheless.

Protocol Petrushka, as scientific and mysterious as it sounds, is just a ritual. I hope this sheds more light on my devised containment procedures.

Best,

Dr. Razak

Footnotes

1. approximately half the number of affected civilians part of 1547-Ψ

2. Typically at this point, civilians in the 1547-Ψ population could be safely retrieved and revived, usually needing to be treated for malnutrition and dehydration.