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Author: davShelek

Image Source: Author, released under CC BY-SA 3.0

⚠️ Content warning: Blood/gore/body horror

⚠️ content warning

Item#: 7644

Containment Class: keter

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: keneq

Risk Class: warning

Special Containment Procedures: Until a proactive suppression method for SCP-7644 incidents can be implemented, containment efforts are to focus on the discrediting and isolation of survivors. SCP-7644 survivors should be identified by Foundation assets embedded in emergency and psychiatric care facilities. Each survivor’s care is to be transferred to Foundation personnel, who should convince the subject that the SCP-7644 incident was nothing more than a hallucination. Subjects unwilling to accept this explanation are to be permanently institutionalized, with medical records falsified to reflect sustained psychological complications related to the method of SCP-7644 access.

SCP-7644-1 should be kept in a standard anomalous item containment locker. The interior of the locker should be coated in non-reflective black paint, with a small mirror mounted to one side of the locker. This mirror should be angled such that it is not visible from the opening of the locker. SCP-7644-1 should be stored standing upright, facing directly toward this mirror. Under no circumstances should any other reflective surface be brought into the room containing SCP-7644-1’s containment locker. Access to SCP-7644-1 is restricted to Level 4 personnel only.

Description: SCP-7644 is an extradimensional space of undetermined volume, regularly accessed by human subjects who survive severe concussions, grand mal seizures, suicide attempts, or chemical overdoses. The interior of SCP-7644 resembles a featureless desert plain or salt flat, with no identifying landmarks beyond a cluster of black, tree-like objects in the far distance. With the exception of the area surrounding this grove, there is no horizon inside SCP-7644, as the sky and the ground are identical shades of grey. The sky of SCP-7644 contains a large1 flock of highly reflective bird-like organisms, which is consistently described as moving in patterns similar to nimbostratus clouds.

Immediately upon entry to SCP-7644, subjects experience a strong feeling of dread. After approximately 40 seconds inside SCP-7644, subjects report vivid, repeated hallucinations of receiving lethal cranial trauma. These visions consist of the subject's head impacting a rusted metal surface, into which is set a circular silver drain.2 A stream of blood and liquified brain matter is seen flowing toward this drain, reaching it just as the vision resets.

This visual hallucination is accompanied by a physical sensation, as if the subject’s head were repeatedly impacting a hard, unyielding surface at high speed. Times of impact are not synchronized between vision and physical sensation. Additionally, the expected level of pain does not accompany this sensation; subjects typically describe this discrepancy as analogous to receiving stitches while under local anesthesia. These hallucinations repeat with increasing frequency as time spent inside SCP-7644 continues.

Despite the presence of these physical sensations, no subject has yet been able to perceive their own physical body while within SCP-7644. While capable of looking around in all directions, including into the area their body should inhabit, subjects perceive only empty space. Subjects retain no spatial awareness of the position of any body parts, though they remain capable of forward locomotion by unknown means. Upon this discovery, subjects typically attempt to move toward the distant grove of trees, but are unable to make any quantifiable progress toward it.

As time passes without progress, subjects begin to experience symptoms of panic. Soon after the onset of panic, subjects abruptly perceive the presence of several unknown predatory creatures surrounding them. These beings (designated SCP-7644-A) cannot be perceived visually, but subjects report an instinctive, visceral awareness of their presence. While subjects universally describe SCP-7644-A as preying on humans, no instance of physical assault by SCP-7644-A has yet been recorded.

After discovery by SCP-7644-A, the subject will continue to move toward the trees for a period of up to 2 hours. During this period, awareness of the gradually increasing number of SCP-7644-A around the subject continually aggravates symptoms of panic. Eventually, the subject is completely immobilized by fear, collapsing to the ground.3

At this point, the flock in the sky begins to fly in interlocking circular patterns directly toward the subject. Simultaneously, the subject becomes aware of a nearby, but indistinct, voice speaking derisively in an unknown language. A few seconds later, the subject awakens back in baseline reality. This moment invariably coincides with their actual revival, whether performed by medical professionals or occurring naturally.

After returning from SCP-7644, subjects universally experience a significant decrease in cognitive ability, far in excess of what would typically be expected from the corresponding traumatic event. All subjects report difficulty in physically operating their body for several days after awakening, as well as difficulty with emotional processing and deductive reasoning for a period of 14-18 months. Concussions that result in entry to SCP-7644 have been documented as reducing overall neural activity in the brain by up to 74%, necessitating a recovery program that spans multiple years.

Addendum 7644.1A

Memories of SCP-7644 have proven anomalously resistant to amnestic treatment. Both targeted and untargeted amnestic regimens are incapable of removing the memory of SCP-7644. In cases where the subject's memory is entirely erased, the first story the subject attempts to tell upon re-learning spoken or written language is that of the SCP-7644 incident. Currently, the only known amnestic treatment for SCP-7644 exposure is termination.

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LEVEL 4 ACCESS ONLYCredentials Accepted

Addendum 7644.2A: SCP-7644-1

SCP-7644-1 upon recovery.

SCP-7644-1 is a small electric lamp in the approximate shape of a Great Horned Owl4. Its body is composed of brown polyurethane resin, covered in a mosaic pattern of irregular fragments of dark tinted glass. The lower chest area contains a section of more translucent, orange-tinted pieces. These various glass fragments cover every surface of SCP-7644-1, with the exception of its face, talons, and the branch it rests on.

When SCP-7644-1 is plugged into a power source, and the light inside is switched on, the resin structure of the sculpture will begin to change in coloring from brown to silver. Total coverage by this effect takes between 2 & 14 minutes. At the moment the owl's eyes become completely silver, the nearest reflective surface within SCP-7644-1’s eyeline will become a transversible portal into SCP-7644. Looking directly into this portal for more than 44 seconds without entry triggers an unknown cognitohazard, with highly variable results. However, as remote viewings do not share this attribute, further research into this effect has been deemed unnecessary.

Addendum 7644.2C: Discovery

On 07/04/2022, the Foundation was alerted to a mass suicide incident at a ███████ Industrial warehouse in ██████████, UK. Response agents discovered 41 warehouse workers, 37 of which had self-terminated via jugular incision using shards of glass. The remaining 4 had also died of exsanguination, due to hundreds of lacerations covering their limbs and faces. A shattered mirror was discovered on the outer door of the management office, which was was locked and barricaded from within. After breaching the door, agents discovered the comatose warehouse manager, and SCP-7644-1, which was plugged into a wall outlet and deactivated. Upon revival, the warehouse manager immediately reached up to switch on SCP-7644-1, before collapsing. Subject remained conscious, and was interrogated upon recovery. However, no coherent responses could be gained, nor induced.

Exploration Log: MTF Zeta-9

An exploratory mission into SCP-7644 was attempted by Mobile Task Force Zeta-9 "Mole Rats" on ██/27/20██. Communication was lost immediately upon entry to SCP-7644. However, through a remote video feed placed outside the affected mirror, MTF exclusion suits were observed walking steadily toward the distant grove of trees. All operatives were ultimately unable to reach the destination, as they were each incapacitated by SCP-7644-A within 2-4 hours of entry. All MTF members were safely recovered by the retraction of the hardlines connected to their exclusion suits. After recovery, suits showed no evidence of abrasion damage, despite being dragged across the floor of SCP-7644 for up to 4km.

Upon debriefing, all MTF operatives were found to have quickly lost all spatial awareness upon entry to SCP-7644, including the ability to perceive the presence or operation of Zeta-9 exclusion suits. However, despite mirroring most symptoms of SCP-7644 exposure during the incident, MTF members did not experience the expected cognitive impairment upon recovery. All operatives were able to perform a competent debriefing session less than one hour post-revival.

Debriefing revealed that Zeta-9 Captain Hollis, due to extensive training and an exceptional CRV, remained unaffected by the panic typically induced by SCP-7644-A. However, Hollis was eventually physically immobilized by the crowd of SCP-7644-A that had gathered over the course of the 4-hour incursion. Hollis likened the sensation to standing among a dense herd of moose, but remained unable to visually comprehend SCP-7644-A.

All interviewed MTF agents perceived the time between their own moment of collapse and moment of awakening after extraction as separated by no more than 10 seconds. According to remote monitoring, time elapsed between the first and final operative's incapacitation was 47 minutes. Retraction of hardlines spanned an additional 2 hours. At no point was the presence of any other organism detected by the remote monitoring camera. Video, audio, environmental, and telemetry data retrieved from MTF suits was corrupted, and could not be recovered.

Further exploration of SCP-7644 has been suspended indefinitely.

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The remainder of this file has been locked by O5 order.Overseer Credentials Accepted

Unmanned Exploration Log 2

On 08/28/2022, an UGV drone was dispatched into SCP-7644. Operation of UGV was performed by D-44987, who was reported to have previously visited SCP-7644 during an opiate overdose. Drone was connected to the remote control unit, as well as an external power source, by a 7km hardline. Insertion of drone through the SCP-7644-1-affected mirror proceeded as expected, and control was transferred to D-44987.

After approximately 400m of travel, the drone reached the grove of trees. On-board chemical analysis revealed that these structures were composed entirely of solid black lead-oxide paint. At the base of the largest of these was an underground structure, accessible only by a partially rusted metal hatch; painted in red block letters on this hatch were the words DEPARTMENT OF ABNORMALITIES. The hatch was welded shut.

Footnotes

1. Estimated in the single-digit millions

2. The pattern of grating on this drain varies by subject.

3. After loss of motile function, subject's visual perspective is fixed directly upward.

4. Bubo Virginianus