SCP-6260
Article (6th second)

Item #: SCP-6260
Object Class: Safe Neutralized
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-6260 must be kept on a pedestal 4.5 metres high in the center of storage space 9-E at Site 7. The storage space above (8-E) is currently being cleared of its contents and is considered to be part of SCP-6260's containment area. Other objects may be kept in the aforementioned area with Research Curator approval, with the exclusion of any data storage devices, including magnetic, digital, physical, biological (cellular material, brain tissue and other objects containing information encoded on a molecular level). This restriction does not apply during experimentation. Storage space 9-E has been retooled into a cinema hall for the purpose of testing.
No personnel are allowed within a 4.5 metre radius of SCP-6260, with operation involving the object taking place with mechanical equipment free of electronic computation devices (such as hydraulic manipulators). All personnel are allowed to examine the motion-picture, provided they maintain notes or video recordings of everything on screen past the 218 second mark.
Description: SCP-6260 is a metallic film reel case with 16-mm celluloid and optical soundtrack inside. The object bears a sticker note reading "Experiment recordings. Site 44. #153. 1974. For internal use. Safe for display" in English. This information is redoubled in Russian on the opposite side of the case, along with all the inventory data. The tape is 1800 metres long. Manual frame-by-frame analysis of SCP-6260 without use of a projector has determined that the projected image corresponds to that on the reel up to frame 5241 (218 seconds in), but what follows after is random footage, unique to every showing of SCP-6260. All attempts to reproduce the film or extract separate frames have failed.
The main anomalous effect of the object (referred to as SCP-6260-A) is that prolonged storage of any form of data - audio, video, static imagery, text, or biological information - in proximity of the object causes degradation of said data. The effect presents itself in the form of soundtrack corruption, disappearance of objects or whole frames from video footage (digital or film-recorded), deformation of images on paper (up until complete unrecognizability), disappearance or distortion of text. This influence results in irreversible retrograde amnesia and dysfunction of biological processes on human beings due to mutation of DNA and RNA. Prolonged human presence within 4.5 metres of SCP-6260 results in the following consequences (averaged and dependent on distance from SCP-6260 and degree of continuity):
1) Long-term memory failure during the first 2 hours of contact, progressing and irreversible retrograde amnesia during the first 5 hours of contact, irreversible loss of higher skills and aptitudes after 12 hours of contact, complete degradation of base cognitive processes after 50-60 hours of contact;
2) Extremely weak DNA mutations (replication failure) during the first 10 hours of contact. Considerable destructive biological processes in test subjects' organisms, coupled with acute apoptosis of actively proliferating cells from 10 to 55 hours of contact. Breaking contact at this stage consequently causes formation and development of malignant neoplasms. Catastrophic degenerative changes on cellular and generic levels will occur, with DNA sequence destruction, total cell death of hepatobiliary and blood-vasculary systems, as well as cell apoptosis of the central neural system following after. Subjects will expire after 70 to 80 hours from time of contact.
SCP-6260-A appears to be highly related to the effect known as SCP-6260-B, which is the appearance of some data lost to the effect of the anomaly in SCP-6260 as played within a film projector, suggesting a kind of "absorption" of said data by the object. Past 218 seconds in, the movie contains fragments of information destroyed as a result of the object's influence. Examination of various versions of the movie has yielded several distinct characteristics:

All versions of the movie are monochrome;

The presence of a background audio scale unique to each viewing of the movie and conveying feelings described as "oppressive", "tedious", "cacophonic". Many viewers noted a distinct pervasiveness of the sounds, reporting being unable to mentally distance themselves from them.

The presence of "men in white coats", SCP-6260-N (not including the persons within the fragment up to 218 seconds in) as central actors in the movie's storyline. These persons will move around the scene without using normal limb movement. Their legs will always be pressed together, and no visible use of muscles has been observed. Their arms remain static while the person moves (pressed close to the body or held in the position they assumed before initiating movement). The subjects move in short, barely observable shifts, "vibrating" slightly, which cannot be written off as artefacts of otherwise smooth and stable playback. Likewise, the subjects do not use their necks to turn their heads, instead turning the whole body in place as needed, without vibration or shifts. No blinking or movement of pupils has been observed. In a number of cases, SCP-6260-N's uniform bears heraldry of the Foundation.

SCP-6260 was located within the archives of Site 7. The Foundation's practitioners were assigned to the film libraries for the purpose of viewing archived movies for planned inventory inspection and acquisition of knowledge. On 31.08.2018, archivist E. Povishev proceeded with the showing of films from the "International archives" section, containing declassified materials transferred around 1990s by foreign colleagues during formation of the Russian branch of the SCP Foundation. During the viewing, racks of seemingly light-struck film have been found; SCP-6260 was located among them.
The relations between "SCP objects" demonstrated in the movie and the real ones [REDACTED]. However, a number of portions of the movie contains noticeable references to the existing objects numbered ███, ███, ███, ████, ████, ████, ████, as well as objects, documentation of which was held in the damaged section of the Site 7 archives (see report 6260-18-9-AA for full list). Full analysis of archived data loss is currently in progress.
The relations between storylines demonstrated in the movie and memories lost by employees under the effect of the object are currently being ascertained.

+ Transcript of the main fragment of SCP-6260

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Seconds
Synopsis

1-4
Frames denoting the film as belonging to the Central Foundation Archive in the █████████████ cave complex, viewing safety mark.

4-6
Film cut. Frames containing information about declassification outside the Archive.

6-8
Article containing information about SCP-6260.

8-36
A group of men in white coats, visually resembling doctors, perform medical procedures on a bloodied and exhausted 10-year old lying on an operating table. The subject's face is concealed by numerous electronic sensors. A painting with a portrait of a man is located nearby. The accouterments and equipment used appear consistent with 1970's standards.

37-56
The face on the portrait begins distorting in a soundless scream, creating the impression that it is alive. Camera operator films the painting tight on.

57-89
The men in coats inflict physical harm to the subject on the surgical table. The mouth of the portraits expands to unnatural size. The eyes fall "inwards", leaving large dark openings in their place.

90-125
Disturbance is visible among the personnel, medical equipment registers arrest of bodily functions. The operator affixes the camera to its stand and rushes to assist his colleagues. The portrait's canvas deforms and curves outwards to conform with the features of the face depicted on it.

125-180
Medical equipment registers the death of the child on the surgical table. The anomaly of the painting disappears, the face appears normal and unmoving for a time, but the canvas soon begins to stretch with uncharacteristic elasticity, forming the shape of a human face pushed out of the painting by approximately 1 meter.

181-215
The portrait tears, revealing nothing behind it. The men in coats observe the object. Suddenly, all light bulbs explode. Light of a kerosene lamp and the silhouette of the employee holding it appears from the darkness. Above and behind his shoulder white smoke manifests, condensing into a round shape.

216-218
Film cut. The following video and audio sequences are unique to each viewing.

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+ Viewing #14. Viewer: senior staff scientist Ryabov

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Seconds
Synopsis

1-218
Unchanged plotline

218-279
Unknown laboratory. Several specimen of SCP-6260-N manipulate unknown instruments. One SCP-6260-N instance turns in place with no visible use of their motor system and begins to look into the camera. After several seconds it begins to move toward the camera in short bursts.

280-346
Spacious laboratory. A large group of men in coats with a defunct logo of the Foundation on their chevrons inspects flasks and test tubes filled with various liquids and powders. Some of the glassware bears labels "H2O", "Cocoa", "Very dangerous acid".

347-378
Sudden change in frame. The same SCP-6260-N instances stand in two rows in the same lab space, holding each other by the shoulders and performing a sort of "sirtaki" dance. The rows fluently shift side to side in opposite directions from each other. Their legs are closed, forming a visual sensation of "unseen levitation".

379-384
Film cut. Article containing information about SCP-███.

385-431
A man is attached to the wall inside a drawn circle and a square inscribed within it. A plaque reading "SCP-███" hangs above his head. A man in a coat stands nearby and semi-periodically throws and raises a switch in unnatural motions using only the bend of his elbow. The image of the man on the wall changes to a comical schematic caricature of a bright vibrating skeleton on dark background. Sets of symbols and punctuation marks appear in the air, similar to depictions of foul language in cartoon media.

432-518
Film cut. A city park, two children walk along the alley. The monochrome colour scheme prevents attempts to ascertain the time of day. Silhouettes of three swaying men moving with legs closed appear in the distance; one of them is holding balloons. The children run away in panic, the camera follows them. A woman-like figure appears in front of them. The children run to it, but notice that it also does not move its legs, though it doesn't sway like the "men in coats" either. The woman moves monotonously, as if sliding, statue-like. The camera turns around and films the SCP-6260-N instances in close proximity. [This fragment bears some resemblance to Dr. ███████████ childhood memories, which he cited during employment discussions as his first personal contact with the anomalous (that being the woman-like figure). When presented the similarity by his colleagues, Dr. ███████████ denied all claims of making such a citation and stated having witnessed nothing of the sort.]

519-734
Film cut. A SCP-6260-N instance shows a sign reading "SCP-███. 05/18/1974", then leaves. The camera shows another SCP-6260-N instance standing beside a human lying down (identified as D-63574, deceased after 72 hours of contact with SCP-6260). After five seconds of stillness SCP-6260-N's mouth begins to sharply open and close unnaturally. The process can be described as part of the lower jaw detaching between chin and lower lip, with two vertical black stitches forming along the edges of the deformed area. The process continues with various levels of intensity for about a minute, before the instance begins to perform manipulations with unknown equipment. The instance begins to attempt to apply an IV with an extremely long needle to the man, who resists and screams inaudibly.

734 - 1218
Film cut. The scene corresponds to block 4 of Site 7, where a number of experiments on the SCP-6260 took place. A SCP-6260-N instance sits at the table across a 16-year old child. Both subjects proceed to play chess, with the instance appearing to lack even basic rule knowledge of the game. In response to the opponent's valid moves it throws two figures off the board, ingests one and partially inserts another into his nostril. After breaking the chess clock with repeated presses of the button, the instance puts the chess away and places two pens and a piece of paper on the table. The subjects proceed to play tic-tac-toe. The coated person places both a nought and a cross during one match, often misses the cells or even draws on the table itself. In their last match the instance loses their pen and attempts to draw a cross using its finger. Despairing, SCP-6260-N instance rips the paper apart, eats it, then begins monotonously beating the teen on the head with a fist, bending only the elbow.

1219 - 1249
No film cut. A short fragment of film depicts a person in an exposure suit running through a dark tunnel. After several seconds a large group of pursuers appears out of the dark from off-screen, consisting of SCP-6260-N instances with the faces of different people, among which have been found: Leslie Nielsen, Benny Hill, Louis de Funès, Bill Murray, archivist Povishev, D-63574, Dr. Heffelbaum (curator of SCP-6260) and several of the research team staff. All these instances wear white coats. Leslie Nielsen waves a screw driving machine above his head menacingly, Benny Hill runs with a large potted ficus in his hands, archivist Povishev pushes a cart of film reels with Bill Murray sitting in it. The scene is accompanied by the default oppressive audio sequence with an overlaid laugh track.

1250 - 1401
Film cut. Extremely low video quality. The oppressive audio background has been replaced with a pleasant musical composition. Scene unknown. A teenager sits at the table takes turns using a screwdriver and soldering tools. A large toy robot resides nearby. After a short period of work the teenager unscrews the robot's head, installs a part inside, drips in a portion of liquid from his oil can, then screws the head back on. The robot's eyes light up one after the other, the mouth opens and closes a few times. The child stands up from his seat, the robot follows with its legs closed, waddling from side to side. Sudden change of scene. Home environment. Both of the subjects mentioned above sit on the floor of a living room corresponding to the style of the USA's seventies. The robot is playing with a toy rocket, the boy is drawing the portrait of a girl, displaying a high level of artistic skill. After some time the child and the robot sit on the sofa and turn on an old-looking television, which proceeds to play cartoons. The child laughs, with the robot often widely opening and closing its mouth. The TV screen suddenly displays a splash picture with the logo of the Foundation on white with undiscernable writing, the usual oppressive audio background returns. The child begins to cry, the robot proceeds to assiduously destroy the TV.

s.s.s. Ryabov stopped the viewing.

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+ Viewing #15 Incident

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Senior staff scientist Ryabov proposed a hypothesis [REDACTED]. A nine-year old orphan (D-22434) was procured from the Foundation subsidiary Orphan Asylum №12 for the purpose of testing. S.s.s. Ryabov records the happenings through a one-way glass.

Experiment stenograph:
<movie launched>
<The viewing of the initial fragment of the movie comes with great emotional distress from D-22434. The subject hysterically asks to stop the experiment (likely addressing what is happening on the screen). The image deformation scene causes genuine fright to the subject. Suddenly, the fragment is cut short. A scene with a boy holding an encyclopedia appears on screen, the subject calms down and approaches close to the screen. The subject begins to talk with the movie projection, the boy on the screen mutely opens his mouth in response. (The following is a transcript of the recording procured by a lip reader after the Incident.) S.s.s. Ryabov is in the meanwhile only able to observe D-22434's responses and urgently attempts to phone the linguistics department. >
Boy: Hello. I'm Victor.
D-22434: Hi. And I'm ████. What are you doing?
Boy: I'm reading about rockets. I like reading a lot. I have a lot of books. I have a book about ships, too <demonstrates the book>, and about stars. Do you know how long it takes for sunlight to reach us?
D-22434: No.
Boy: Almost 8 minutes. If it disappears, we'll learn about it after 8 minutes. Then it'll be dark. And then we'll be cold.
D-22434: Did you read that in the book?
Boy: Mhm. And I have a big strong robot, Titan. He came from the Prometheus nebula to save the galaxy from the evil aliens from planet Scipio-44.
D-22434: Aliens?
Boy: Yes. They kidnap people, especially kids, and make strange, meaningless experiments on them.
s.s.s. Ryabov <in the observation post>: Hello? Hello! Korobov? Send me someone who can read lips… what? Didn't hear you…
D-22434: Why do they do that?
Boy: I don't know. Maybe they just like… to cause pain.
D-22434: And what do they look like?
Boy: They pretend to be people. Wear white coats. They sometimes have a sign, like a circle with arrows pointing in.
D-22434 <shows fear>: No! They're here! Right here! A lot of them! They asked me to watch this scary movie!
<S.s.s. Ryabov pulls away from the call and puts the phone down.>
Boy: They'll torture you too! They will! Titan couldn't save me in time! Run from them, ████, before they cut your head open to see what's inside! They're evil, run!
D-22434 <screaming in panic>: Where? Where do I run?
<S.s.s. Ryabov presses the alarm button and runs out of the post, heading for the viewing hall. His route is interrupted by a cart hauling SCP-████ through a corridor for experimentation. Ryabov thus loses approx. a minute of his time.>
Boy: Run to the projector, there, where the light shines from! Rip the reel out and press it close to your chest!
D-22434: But they told me not to touch it!
Boy: Yes, it'll burn you, but you'll end up here, with me. We'll play with Titan and read books and watch cartoons. They won't leave you alone, they'll do something to you. Do you want me to show what they do? Do you?
<A rapidly shifting montage containing sped up portions of SCP-6260 appears on the screen. D-22434 complies and runs to the projector. At the same time s.s.s. Ryabov rushes into the room and approaches the subject.>
s.s.s. Ryabov: Don't touch it! You hear me! Stop right now!
< D-22434 presses the film reel to his chest. Full biological decay happens to the body of the subject within two seconds, excluding only the skeleton on the floor. Ryabov panickedly rushes away from SCP-6260, security personnel armed with batons break into the room.>
<Despite the film reel being ripped out from the projector, the movie continues on for a time. The screen displays the boy holding D-22434's hand, and a giant toy robot standing next to them. The three turn their backs to the screen and wander away. After their silhouettes are no longer recognisable the movie stops, and the film spontaneously ignites, destroying itself.>

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+ Preliminary Analytics Department investigation results

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According to the report from the American branch of the Foundation, all relevant information about object number 6260 is corrupted and unreadable, and the designation is listed as unassigned. All supplementary information regarding the transfer of the video reel to Site 7 and its storage in the Central Foundation Archives, located in the █████████████ cave complex, is likewise corrupted.
The research group has received a package from an anonymous sender containing a copy of a fragment of the operative part of the High Tribunal ruling №19-А-I/1974, dated 23.12.1974 from the Internal Tribunal Department, with part of the contents expunged:

ᅠ

INTERNAL TRIBUNAL DEPARTMENT

Operative part

23.12.1974
Case №19-А-I/1974
Opened on: 01.10.1974
Status: Archived
Copy # █

The High Tribunal (judge Allbright, judge Weaseby, presiding justice Caul)
Defendants: Doctor ██████ ████████████ (personal ID ████), Doctor ██████ ███████ (personal ID ████), Doctor ██████ ████ (personal ID ████), S.s.s. ████ ████ (personal ID ████), S.s. ███████ ████ (personal ID ████), S.s. ███████ ██████ (personal ID ████).
Corpus Delicti: The defendants are charged with committing crimes provided for in paragraphs § █████, § █████ and § █████ of the ITD LC, as well as attempting to commit a crime provided for in § █████ of the ITD LC.

Ruling

Having reviewed the files of the case № 19-А-I/1974, the High Tribunal of the Internal Tribunal Department of the SCP Foundation determines:
To cease case proceedings regarding the SCP-6260 research group due to the group's death in full force; case files are to be directed to the Tribunal archive, copies of the case files are to be directed to the ISD and the Ethics Committee;
To inflict disciplinary punishment to Site 44 management represented by ██████████, ███████ and █████████ through █████████ ██████████████ ██████ ██ ██ ███.

Inquiries to the ITD archive yielded the following response: "No case files under this designation exist". The existence of Site 44, past or present, is denied by Foundation authorities.

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