F████ L████, from whom SCP-1841 emanates

Item #: SCP-1841-EX

Object Class: Euclid Neutralized Euclid Keter Explained

Original containment file retrieved from the archives of the Royal Foundation for the Study of Curiosities and Phantasmagoria. Date of last edit 3/16/1878.

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-1841 remains outside containment at this time, as its scale and ephemeral nature make apprehending all those afflicted an impossibility. The person of Mr. F████ L████ is beyond Foundation reach at this time, being under the protection of the Roman Catholic Church and the German Empire. The Foundation shall shadow the movements of Mr. L████ and communicate via telegraph with constabulatory agencies in all areas through which he performs or travels, and shall provide intelligence and assistance in dispelling any riots or indecent behaviour occurring as a result of his presence.

Fellows and other members of the Royal Foundation are prohibited from attending performances given by Mr. L████, lest they themselves become affected. Any person affected by SCP-1841, presenting a breach of the peace, may be despatched or pacified by any means necessary. Medical examination of infected persons is authorised for the purposes of identifying the means by which SCP-1841 infection is spread. Electrical or manual stimulation of ladies entering a hysterical state as a result of SCP-1841 is authorised as necessary to calm the female urges and prevent improprietous behaviour.

Description: SCP-1841, referred to in the public press as "L████ fever" or "L████omania", is a most curious series of public behaviours engaged in by persons exposed to the public performances of F████ L████, a composer and pianist of Hungarian extraction. Through a means yet unknown to science, any person who observes and listens to Mr. L████ performing on the piano, whether the works in question are his own compositions or those of other composers, is at risk of contracting SCP-1841, which may endure for from as little as three hours to as many as five years thereafter. Since the existence of SCP-1841 was first documented in Berlin in 1844, primary and secondary infections have affected an unknown number of thousands throughout continental Europe.

Approximately sixty-three percent of persons exposed to a L████ performance acquire symptoms of SCP-1841. Those of the female sex are more easily swayed by SCP-1841, though men of the younger generation (Bohemians and confirmed bachelors in particular) have also been demonstrated to be easily affected. Initial symptoms begin to manifest during the performance itself, and include raucous cheering and hollering, dancing of a manner inappropriate to the tempo of the composition, heated conversation, and in many cases attempts to touch Mr. L████ during his performances, or to abscond with his personal effects, refuse, or broken piano strings. Even during performances themselves, fights have been observed to break out among audience-members over discarded effects such as cigar butts or coffee dregs.

Following the conclusion of performances, infected persons have often attempted to follow Mr. L████ to his lodgings, resulting in affray and riotous occurrences requiring police intervention. Persons interviewed following an outbreak of SCP-1841 have insisted on speaking of Mr. L████ in terms most hagiographic, describing him as the greatest musician to ever live, and venerating any effects stolen from his person as holy relics. Secondary infection is possible as a result of these persons' efforts, who have been noted to "preach" Mr. L████'s graces to as many acquaintances of their own as possible, thereby inoculating those people to seek out an audience with him. In multiple instances when touring within Germany, full-blown outbreaks of SCP-1841 have occurred several days before Mr. L████ himself arrived in the city.

In extreme cases, ladies suffering from SCP-1841 have been observed to suffer hysteria as the result of finding themselves in Mr. L████'s company, entirely discarding proper decorum and behaving in a manner becoming unto ladies of the evening. Those so afflicted describe elaborate delusions of Mr. L████'s intimate appeal, to the exclusion even of their own husbands, and cannot be prevented from engaging in brazen and inappropriate behaviours for so long as infection perseveres. Pelvic massage and electrical stimulation have proven effective at temporary dissipation of these behaviours; care must be taken, however, that the lady so afflicted does not at the time have Mr. L████ himself in mind, lest the onset of hysterical paroxysm only strengthen the delusion within her.

The cause of SCP-1841 is unknown. During an interview conducted in 1863, Mr. L████ himself denied any understanding of the phenomenon or ability to control it, and stated that he found the hysterical reactions of ladies in attendance at his performances most unsettling. Owing to SCP-1841's curious ability to affect the mind, a connection to the Parisian salon "Sommes-Nous Devenus Magnifiques?" is suspected; no direct evidence of a link between Mr. L████ and that organisation, however, has to date become known in London.

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Addendum 1841-1 - RFSCP Archives, 7/31/1886

News has reached London this day that F████ L████, the man responsible for the spread of SCP-1841, has died in Germany as the result of a pneumoniac infection. As Mr. L████'s performances are believed to be the sole origin and focus of SCP-1841, and as none of his performances are known to have been recorded on the phonograph, SCP-1841 is now deemed Neutralised. We expect a brief upswell of riotous and hysterical behaviour over the coming weeks during the traditional mourning period, after which infections in those previously afflicted should slowly dissipate. Containment of infectees will continue for five years or until such time as no further cases of "L████omania" are observed. -T.T.B.

Addendum 1841-2 - Memo to the O5 Council, 4/8/1956

As the O5 Council is surely aware, the sudden and unexpected upswell of public excitement and hysteria regarding rock-and-roll musician Elvis Presley has provoked a great deal of speculation within the Foundation that "Elvis" himself, or someone associated with him, poses a cognitohazard or other type of anomalous mind-affecting ability. It is my unfortunate duty to report at this time that this appears to be the case. Based on Research Assistant Wertham's findings, the behavior exhibited by Presley's fans appears to be identical to that exhibited by those afflicted by a neutralized phenomenon designated SCP-1841, a condition which affected fans of composer Franz Liszt in the 19th century. All evidence indicates that the anomalous ability possessed by Liszt to induce irrational behavior in his audiences is now possessed by Presley. I recommend that active containment of SCP-1841 be reinstated at its previous containment level, and that Research Assistant Wertham be assigned to research this recurrence of the phenomenon and draft updated containment procedures as circumstances require. -Dr. Jacobs

Request granted. -O5-2

Addendum 1841-3 - Memo to the O5 Council, 6/23/1958

Our continuing research into SCP-1841 indicates that the problem is far more widespread than previously thought. Rather than emanating from a single individual, I have currently identified no less than two dozen popular performers who are capable of inducing SCP-1841 behavior in their audiences. In addition, several of these performers are members of the Negro community, suggesting that SCP-1841 has the ability to transcend racial and social barriers. Five of the persons so far identified were not active musicians at the time our study began, suggesting that the number of people capable of inducing this effect is growing. If more drastic measures are not taken to stem this tide, our current models predict SCP-1841 infection will reach pandemic levels no later than 1963, and that widespread civil unrest and chaos will ensue. I recommend that SCP-1841 be upgraded to Keter class and that authorization be granted to take aggressive steps to mitigate the effects of its carriers. I additionally recommend that SCP-1841's containment file be expunged from the primary database and information regarding its current active status be placed on a strict need-to-know basis for persons directly involved in its containment. SCP-1841 is highly virulent, especially among the younger generation, and even the knowledge that these musicians exist and have these abilities could result in an outbreak of secondary infection among our ranks. -Dr. Wertham

Request granted. -O5-11

Addendum 1841-4 - Memo to the O5 Council, 1/12/1961

I am pleased at this time to report that our measures at containing SCP-1841 appear to have been largely successful. Subject Presley's service in the United States Army has greatly mitigated his ability to spread SCP-1841, and the neutralization of subjects Holley, Richardson, and Valenzuela has prompted several music critics in the media to proclaim that the genre is entirely moribund. Subject Penniman's conversion to our cause has proven fully effective to date, and our disinformation campaign regarding the potential threats of rock-and-roll music has begun to gain traction within the religious conservative community. Barring the sudden emergence of an unknown group of SCP-1841 carriers acting in unison, I believe we may be able to fully neutralize the phenomenon within three years. -Sr. Researcher Wertham

Addendum 1841-5: Memo to the O5 Council, 7/15/1969

I am beginning to fear that SCP-1841 is growing beyond our ability to control. Following the sudden appearance of subjects Harrison, Lennon, McCartney, and Starkey in 1964, the number of known SCP-1841 carriers has grown into the hundreds and is continuing to grow beyond our ability to track and monitor. Social unrest from SCP-1841 infectees has begun to damage the American war effort in Vietnam and affect the international political process. Within the past two years, various "festivals" featuring SCP-1841 carriers have accrued in excess of 100,000 attendees; an upcoming festival planned in upstate New York is currently projected to draw nearly half a million potential new infectees. The time has come for aggressive measures. I propose that the O5 Council authorize a series of covert assassinations of high-profile SCP-1841 carriers, including but not limited to subjects Eliot, Hendrix, Joplin, Lennon, Morrison, and Relf, to be conducted as possible over the next several years, as well as any future assassinations necessary to prevent the further spread of SCP-1841. -Site Director Wertham

Request granted. O5-8

Addendum 1841-6: Memo to the Ethics Committee, 9/22/1996

To: Site 19 Ethics Committee

From: Col. James A. Ostheim, Director of MTF Activities, Site 19

It has come to my attention that the murder of rap musician Tupac Shakur earlier this month, reported to have been the result of gang warfare, was in fact an assassination committed by members of Mobile Task Force Beta-6 ("Kasem's Revenge"), a unit under my oversight at Site 19. During a routine audit of MTF expenses, we discovered several unexplained travel expenses and unauthorized movements of Beta-6's officers and men. I scheduled a meeting with MTF Leader Callahan to discuss the issue and he openly admitted that his team had committed the murder, and volunteered that they had also been responsible for the apparent self-inflicted death of musician Kurt Cobain in 1994, for the murder of former Beatle John Lennon in 1980, and for the deaths of several other prominent musicians of recent decades. MTFL Callahan informed me that the assassinations had been conducted under direct orders from Overwatch Command, and provided me with written documents bearing O5-6's digital signature, ordering the assassinations as part of the containment of SCP-1841. Upon checking the main Foundation database, I found no information regarding the existence of SCP-1841, not even an indication that such a document had been classified.

On a hunch, I contacted Central Archives and asked if there were any decommissioned or neutralized SCP objects bearing that number which had not been copied over when the main database was computerized in 1983. I was given a handwritten file dating to the old Royal Foundation, which described people having hysterical reactions to hearing the music of Franz Liszt, a German composer who died in 1886. The file had not been updated since then and was listed as Neutralized.

I find it greatly disturbing that a member of the O5 Council itself is superseding the chain of command and issuing orders to persons under my authority, without my knowledge, to conduct assassinations of high-profile civilians in relation to an SCP object which has been inactive for over a century. I would appreciate a review of this matter as soon as possible.

Addendum 1841-7: Ethics Committee Memo, 5/21/1997

From: Site 19 Ethics Committee

To: O5-1 - O5-13, Col. James A. Ostheim

Following a thorough review of the Foundation archives and examination of expert testimony, we have concluded that SCP-1841 bears no anomalous properties and does not merit the containment procedures currently in place. It is our determination that SCP-1841 is a normal human psychological reaction to exposure to charismatic individuals and/or emotionally moving works of art, similar to the mental conditions referred to as "Stendhal syndrome" and "Jerusalem syndrome", and that its "carriers" are in no way anomalous themselves and have no abnormal ability to affect human psychology beyond their own charisma and musical talent.

Effective immediately, SCP-1841 is reclassified as Explained and is hereby stricken from the SCP database. No further monitoring or containment of persons affected by SCP-1841 is authorized, and no further action is to be taken against any person believed to be a carrier. Due to his long involvement in SCP-1841 containment, and in light of his otherwise spotless service record, O5-6 has been allowed to take early retirement with full benefits. No disciplinary action will be taken against any Foundation personnel involved in SCP-1841 containment. Any personnel involved may undergo Class-B amnestic therapy at their discretion.

Please refer any concerns or appeals to the Central Committee.