Item #: SCP-2121

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-2121 is to be mounted on a simple square-arch frame measuring 3.5 meters in height. Once every lunar month (approximately every 28 days), a D-class personnel avowing devout faith in any religion is to be hanged using SCP-2121 in such a manner as to result in death by strangulation rather than by breaking the neck. Interviews are allowed during this period, and any significant responses are to be recorded and included in the master log.

Once deceased, the hanged individual is to remain in SCP-2121 for no less than 24 hours, or until total desiccation has occurred. At this point, remains of the body and any residual fluids are to be removed from the containment chamber and incinerated.

Aside from the D-class personnel meeting above qualifications, the only Foundation personnel allowed to have contact with SCP-2121 are confirmed atheists (rating less than 5 on the Standard Rating Measures of Religious Beliefs and Practices) who have never been a member of any religious organization or come into contact with any SCP Item, Anomalous Object, or GOI with significant religious or mythological connections.

Description: SCP-2121 is a hangman's noose composed of a variety of fleshy tissues. The tissue is resistant to all attempts to acquire samples for analysis, but visually appears to be composed of ligaments, tendons, portions of intestine, and a single 1.3 meter tongue tied and woven together into a single rope, which is itself tied in a traditional hangman's knot. The tissues appear fresh and feel wet to the touch, but do not decay or dry out, regardless of environmental conditions.

If SCP-2121 is not used to hang a qualifying individual at least once every lunar month, it will begin to emit a chaotic noise composed of screaming, moans of pain, and seemingly panicked vocalizations in a variety of unidentified languages. This noise will steadily increase to a maximum of 137 dB over the course of 24 hours and will not cease until a qualifying individual is hanged using SCP-2121. The noise also has a telepathic component and can be clearly heard by any sapient being, including those who are in soundproof chambers or who are sensorineurally deaf, up to a distance of 1.7 kilometers. Any individuals who actively possess faith in any religious belief will become increasingly despondent as the length of exposure increases and will attempt to commit suicide via hanging at the earliest possible time. If the affected individual is aware of the existence of SCP-2121, they will attempt to use it to commit suicide, although this is not an overriding compulsion. Individuals who have committed suicide without use of SCP-2121 will not experience its other effects. Religious individuals who make physical contact with SCP-2121 outside of active broadcasts experience the same effect to a lesser degree, manifesting symptoms of a variety of depressive disorders with only a slightly increased rate of suicidal ideation and attempts.

Qualified subjects hanged using SCP-2121 will remain conscious for an average of 3.7 minutes longer than expected by use of a non-anomalous noose and remain capable of speech for the entire duration prior to loss of consciousness. Vocalizations are exclusively of a religious nature and include wails of shock and despair over the apparent deaths of a variety of divine figures, curses against and insults towards an unidentified and unnamed deific figure, and pleas of mercy towards the same figure. Epithets used to describe the unknown deific figure indicate a tendency towards jealousy and violent retribution. Once an individual is deceased, the body will desiccate, with all bodily fluids exiting the body via orifices and skin pores. Although most liquids will stream downwards off the body to pool below it, all blood will flow towards SCP-2121, into which it will be absorbed.

SCP-2121 was initially brought to the attention of the Foundation by representatives of the Horizon Initiative, who stated that due to its specific properties and the nature of their organization, they were unable to either destroy or effectively contain it. They reported that it had been found near a remote village in northeastern Russia, in a purportedly haunted grove of trees. The local priest of the Russian Orthodox Church was found complicit in executing local criminals using SCP-2121 and, under interrogation, revealed that he did so in order to placate the "demon" within it so that it did not consume the souls of the villagers, a task entrusted to him by his predecessor. Church records imply that SCP-2121 had been in the area for approximately 500 years, since the time of the founding of the village and the eradication of local pagan tribes.