Item #: SCP-2041

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-2041 is currently being kept in Mobile Research Lab 48-M under the supervision of a temporary investigative research team headed by Dr. Darritz.

Description: SCP-2041 is a playground-style merry-go-round, approximately 2.3 meters in diameter. It is composed of galvanized steel, and coated in red acrylic paint. It was discovered in the playground of ████████ School, in ██████, Denmark. The school itself had closed ██ years previously due to budget cuts, but children in nearby neighborhoods still used the playground equipment regularly. Numerous reports of children in the area disturbed by hallucinations led to the recovery of the object, which was in notably better condition than the other equipment. It is suspected it was added to the playground after the school shut down.

SCP-2041's effects are not experienced unless it is used outside, uncovered. If a person has been spinning on it for a duration of 10 seconds or more at a speed of at least 9 km/h, they will begin to experience hallucinations. Initially, descriptions of these hallucinations recorded from D-Class and several researchers were consistent and benign in nature. Researcher Paasio tested the object after it was deemed safe, and was able to give the most cohesive and detailed account of the object's effects. Below is a transcript of his description:

Normally on these things you just hold tight, and don't pay much attention to the blurry world spinning around you. But on this thing, you feel like you want to look up and around after its effects kick in, like the illusion is drawing your attention, almost forcefully. You can tell that the world is still spinning quickly around you, but somehow you're able to focus on individual details like a person or object in the background. Some things start to look like they're out of an old cartoon, like the sun will have a big smiley face, and the trees appear to swaying back and forth happily, like they're dancing. Any people in the area appear to look damn near euphoric, though they don't look like cartoons. I know it might sound creepy, but it doesn't feel sinister at all. It just feels like…I dunno, manufactured fun? Like a misguided Walt Disney wannabe thought it up. I'm not sure if that's what freaked out all those kids that used it, but I don't have any other explanation for it. The only thing that seemed off was that Agent Bjerre had a yellow tinge to his skin, and he looked…grumpier than usual I guess.

Further testing revealed no other anomalies, and Agent Bjerre was the only person reported by a test subject to appear yellow while they were riding.

Addendum-01: Request for additional testing approved by Dr. Darritz. Researcher Paasio provided several new ideas for variables that were overlooked in the initial testing of SCP-2041.

Addendum-02: Testing was concluded, with no new results. Researcher Paasio inquired about interviewing the children who were frightened by their experience with SCP-2041. Agent Bjerre was in charge of those interviews, and was asked to provide their recordings, as he had not initially relinquished custody of the tapes to the research team assigned to SCP-2041. The tapes had been damaged due to mishandling, though Foundation sound engineers were able to recover excerpts from two of the interviews. Agent Bjerre was reprimanded for not following proper procedure, as he was also unable to find his notes from the interviews.

+ Interview Recording SCP-2041-C1

– hide block

Foreword: Excerpt of Interview with ██████ ████, age 12.

Agent Bjerre: Was that scary to you?

██████: No, that wasn't scary, but I thought it was kinda weird.

Agent Bjerre: Weird in what way?

██████: Um, well I'd never had that happen to me on a merry-go-round before. It was kinda cool, too.

Agent Bjerre: Then what did frighten you?

██████: Um, well usually when I was spinning on it, my friends all looked happy. Then one time there was this kid at the playground already when we got there. None of us liked him, so we just ignored him. When I was riding the merry-go-round, he looked yellow.

Agent Bjerre: Yellow? Yellow how?

██████: Um, his skin was yellow, almost a little orange, and he had a yellow-orange glow around him. And he looked, um, angry. He…he didn't look normal. He looked sorta scary. Like he was a little taller than normal, and skinnier, and I coulda swore he had a little bit of a beard. When he was there, the sun didn't look as happy, and the birds looked a little scared. After my friends took their turns, they said they saw the same thing I saw. We didn't say anything to the kid about it though.

Agent Bjerre: I'm guessing that didn't cause your…episode, either.

██████: No, it didn't. We used the merry-go-round a lot, so we would see different yellow people sometimes. And sometimes orange people, too. They looked even scarier than the yellow ones. They looked even taller and skinner, with mean looking eyes and really big mouths. When they were around, the sun looked sad, and the trees stopped dancing.

Agent Bjerre: What did these yellow and orange people look like when you weren't riding the merry-go-round?

██████: I dunno, they were all different. I guess…I guess I didn't see many girls. Maybe just one or two who were old ladies. Well, um, not really old ladies or anything. Older than my mom, I guess. The rest were all guys. The orange ones were usually older.

Agent Bjerre: Son, that is actually very helpful. But I can tell you really don't want to talk about what caused you to go to the hospital. Unfortunately I do need you to tell me, as it might save lives. I need you to be brave for me.

██████: Um…I saw a red m-

Remainder of recording could not be salvaged

+ Interview Recording SCP-2041-E5

– hide block

Foreword: Excerpt of Interview with ██████ ████████, age 8

█████: -did that too. I don't like that. Please, I want to go home.

Agent Bjerre: You can go home soon, I promise. What color was he? I need to know.

█████: He was orange at first. Then my friend Marcus dis-

Remainder of recording could not be salvaged

Addendum-03: Researcher Paasio committed suicide by hanging himself shortly after he had completed the new round of testing. An investigation is ongoing to determine if SCP-2041 contributed to his death. Additional testing of the object has been authorized.

Addendum-04: Additional testing results have been deemed inconclusive. Though a link could not be made between SCP-2041 and Researcher Paasio's death, one of the children interviewed after the object's recovery was recently reported to have committed suicide by purposely walking into the path of an oncoming truck. Normal testing has been suspended, as Agent Bjerre has proposed a hypothesis for the intended function of SCP-2041, which is currently being investigated using Mobile Research Lab 48-M. That operation is currently classified due to its nature, though results will be added to this report once the operation is over.

Addendum-05: A file entitled "pdf file" was emailed to Dr. Darritz on ██/██/████. It contained the following message:

Doctor, do you know what kind of people gravitate towards schools, towards playgrounds, towards children? Whoever invented that thing was a genius. I'd like to shake his hand someday. For now, you may want to watch your back better than I watched my own.

The file was sent from a temporary email address which could not be traced.

Addendum-06: Agent Bjerre has been suspended from duty pending an investigation into possibly tampering with SCP-2041 and the research surrounding it. Dr. Darritz has requested that testing be continued using Mobile Research Lab 48-M, and has submitted a new hypothesis to support this request.