Item #: SCP-2796

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: Due to the low priority placed on testing SCP-2796, the Foundation maintains a stock of roughly 100 litres of SCP-2796 in Site-22 low-temperature long-term storage. As it has been observed that the substance is stable in low temperatures, stock monitoring have been downgraded to annual inspection. (As of this revision, the next scheduled inspection is 06/04/1997).

The instructions for the creation of SCP-2796 are stored in hard copy on Site-15, with appropriate paper and electronic back-up in select archives. In the event that available stocks of SCP-2796 falls below roughly 50 litres, Foundation personnel are instructed to refresh the stock.

Excess material is to be destroyed by dissolution in water.

Description: SCP-2796 is a water-based liquid compound which acts as an anomalous contact hallucinogenic. The substance is easily created from a simple recipe of commonly-available extracts and household chemicals, and poses no discernible health risk from limited contact or consumption. The effects of SCP-2796 wear off within 90 minutes.

Those affected by SCP-2796 experience a shared and consistent hallucination. They perceive, visually and tactilely, the sudden appearance of scar tissue, necrotization, and pigmentation on the portions of their bodies which have come into recent contact with SCP-2796. Subjects consistently describe these phenomena and their descriptions are consistent with one another even in isolation.

Scar tissue most frequently appear as common surgical incisions, ranging from small straight incisions to thoracic Y-cut and rotary scars around the skull or joints. The location and extent of these scars are consistent across multiple exposures to SCP-2796, though a small number of "fresh" scars were reported to have manifested during long-term testing. A small percentage of subjects have reported that individual scars correspond to aches or pains they experience, often reporting these scars to appear recent, inflamed or infected. This corresponds with psychological trends of pattern-forming common among those subject to perception-altering drugs.

Pigmentation consists of thin black lines, both solid and interrupted, drawn across the body. These tend to concentrate around the armpits, chest, wrist, neck and genitals of the subject, and often vary immensely across multiple exposures. It is noted that some subjects gain a fixation on certain locations on their body, reporting that lines on these locations are frequently redrawn with slight modifications. In a small percentage of cases, subjects have reported symbols accompanying some of these lines, most frequently on reappearing lines. Reproduction of these symbols have been produced and are currently1 awaiting analysis by Foundation linguist and cryptographic departments, but have been tagged low priority.

Necrotization is rare and usually consists of degradation of facial features, and was not consistent across multiple exposures. Due to the small number of instances, there is currently no strong explanation for these divergent reports.

Through testing, it has been determined that younger subjects perceive themselves to have more pigmentation lines and older subjects perceive themselves to have more scar tissue. It is notable that test subjects suffering from hypochondriasis perceive themselves as having a greater number of markings and scars than average.

SCP-2796 was originally discovered in 197█ during a Foundation inspection of a palliative care center in ███████, Canada, following reports of anomalous treatment methods being employed. Employees were found to be creating and using SCP-2796 on both themselves and their patients to enable "treatment" of non-existent wounds, and multiple patients with chronic or terminal diseases had marked their bodies with paint or markers in imitation of the hallucinatory pigmentation. An investigation and information-control campaign was launched, but discontinued during a redeployment of resources to containment of SCP-███. As of the most recent revision of documentation (05/04/1996) there have been no known instances of SCP-2796 or its recipe outside of containment since.

Footnotes

1. [As of 24/07/88]