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>login SCP Database MTompkins.Site109@scipnet

Accessing SCP Database…
Credentials Accepted. Welcome back Junior Researcher Marissa Tompkins

>access SCP-5574

Clearance Level 2/5574 Recognised
Loading SCP-5574…

Cover of a 1913 pulp novel in the early stages of SCP-5574 infection. At this point, only the character depicted to the bottom right is symptomatic.

Item #: SCP-5574
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-5574 is currently contained within a copy of the novel Pride and Prejudice in Standard Containment Locker B2032.
A minimum of ten additional novels should be stored alongside SCP-5574's current host at all times, and any previously infected novels should be removed and incinerated.
Testing of the effects of SCP-5574 on narrative media is currently restricted to Researchers with Class 2/5574 clearance or higher. Testing of the effects of SCP-5574 on human subjects is currently prohibited, except with the direct authorization of Lead Researcher Caldwell.
Description: SCP-5574 is a noospheric1 parasite which infects non-interactive narrative media.
Infected media is extended significantly beyond the normal limits of the narrative (e.g. movies continuing far beyond their usual runtime, the text of physical books shifting and being rewritten in real time). This narrative is continuous and occurs even when not observed. The anomalous effect is not extended to any copies that are made of the affected media.
Characters within the narrative will act in a manner appropriate to their previously established characterisation but be described as having, or be shown to experience, a variety of symptoms commonly associated with degenerative brain conditions. SCP-5574 symptoms typically begin with headaches, followed by a gradual deterioration in mental capacity, specifically in areas focused around imagination and creative thinking.
SCP-5574 can also infect humans and other sapient entities. The effects observed are similar to that seen in characters within affected media, and continue until the host has experienced near total loss of capacity for independent thought, and enters a permanent vegetative state. The course of the infection lasts significantly longer in human hosts, typically 8-15 years compared to a more variable range of hours-weeks for narrative media.
After the infection has run its course, or if the current host dies or is destroyed prematurely, SCP-5574 will transfer to a new host. It will preferentially transfer to other narrative media which are physically nearby, up to a maximum range of approximately 15 meters. If no acceptable media are found within this range it will transfer to a human host within range.
If neither of these options is available, it will travel via noosphere to a memetically proximal host2. Physical distance is irrelevant to this secondary form of transmission, with hosts being found to be infected up to 4,200 miles from the previous host.

Addendum: Selected Test Media

Close File

Test Media: A Christmas Carol, a novella by Charles Dickens
Effect on Narrative: Following the end of the original work, Scrooge begins experiencing SCP-5574 symptoms. After recognising that his mind is failing, he seems at peace and remarks he is ‘glad he had at least one good day'. He writes a will leaving his wealth to Bob Cratchit and shortly after enters a coma like state. At this point no new text was added and SCP-5574 transferred to a new host.
Notes: Typical of expected results where narrative continues with the additional factor of SCP-5574 symptoms.

Test Media: 10 additional copies of A Christmas Carol, tested in sequence.
Effect on Narrative: Most continued in the same manner as the previous test, with minor changes to dialogue and circumstance. The sole exception was test 7 in which Scrooge became frantic and agitated, cursed Cratchit and the ghosts, and is described as being bitterly fearful of hell. He attempts to flee London but is unable to travel outwith previously established settings and ultimately enters a coma state alone in his home.
Notes: It appears the anomaly has some creativity with how it continues the narrative, while remaining within the bounds of the already established world and characters.

Test Media: A VHS tape of a filmed production of the play The Merchant of Venice, by William Shakespeare.
Effect on Narrative: The production continued with a sixth act in which Shylock seeks revenge. At the onset of the seventh act, all characters begin experiencing SCP-5574 symptoms and rapidly succumb. The video stops on a shot of all actors lying comatose on stage.
Notes: The literary quality of the additional scenes have been analysed by literary experts, whose consensus was that the writing approached the quality of Shakespeare's original works. Shylock's soliloquy on how all methods were acceptable in the pursuit of liberty was highlighted as particularly poignant.

Test Media: The Short Reign of Mary Queen of Scots, a non-fiction narrative biography by Margaret Dunne.
Effect on Narrative: The original biography ends after Mary is taken captive by her cousin Elizabeth. The anomalous narrative describes her rapidly succumbing to melancholy and to SCP-5574 symptoms over the course of several weeks.
Notes: The SCP-5574 infection lasted only a few hours in this host. Further testing indicates the lower degree of narrative in non-fiction causes it to expire more rapidly following SCP-5574 infection.

Test Media: The Tigers of Texas, a novel by Buck Henderson3
Effect on Narrative: The Tiger Posse continue their trek across the west but rapidly succumb to SCP-5574 symptoms, lasting only a few days.
Notes: The duration of infection seems to correspond with the creativity and popularity of the infected narrative. This should be taken into account when selecting narratives to act as long term hosts.

Test Media: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll.
Effect on Narrative: Alice is discontent at home in England for a short while, and after experiencing the onset of symptoms returns to Wonderland to consult the various strange inhabitants. They offer advice on ‘expanding one's mind' and exercising her imagination to stave off symptoms. This is effective for a short time, but Alice and the rest eventually succumb.
Notes: These exercises were trialled in human hosts of SCP-5574 and proved effective in quality of life improvement and in delaying disease progression.

Test Media: A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle.
Effect on Narrative: Sherlock Holmes quickly notices he is experiencing symptoms of brain disease, and after several hours of conversation with Watson deduces he is in a fictional world. He makes several attempts at escaping the narrative but ultimately fails. He then makes a direct appeal to the reader, claiming to possess a fully human intellect and demanding that his rights as an Englishman be upheld, before succumbing to SCP-5574 symptoms.
Notes: The SCP-5574 narrative entities' claims of sapience and self awareness have resulted in an Ethics Committee request for further testing. This is currently ongoing.

Footnotes
1. The non-physical component of consciousness where memetic and other thought-form entities propagate.
2. i.e. a host that has a similar mindset, or one who shares common symbolic or thematic similarities.
3. A largely unknown and unsuccessful work.

>exit

Access Your Most Recently Viewed File?

Transcript: SCP-5574 Test Narrative 26-2013

Close File

Transcript: SCP-5574 Test Narrative No. 26-2013

Original Media Summary: A printed text describing a standard Foundation interview room with a single occupant, for whom no description is given. The only event which occurs is the arrival of Junior Researcher Tompkins, who is briefly described and then stated to be about to begin routine questioning. 267 words.

Original document excised, transcript begins from the point at which SCP-5574's anomalous effects first take effect
The Researcher smoothed out her skirt and sat on the uncomfortable steel chair that was still standard issue for all interview rooms, despite her years of complaints. Her subject for the day was already sitting, an unkempt young man with the bored look of someone who'd spent a lot of time sitting in a cell being forced to talk to strangers. A look she was all too familiar with.
"OK, so the time is 12:43, I'm Marissa Tompkins, Class 3 Researcher, and today I'll be interviewing SCP-5574." She turned and glanced behind her to double check the recording device on the wall was blinking red and operational. The movement made her head throb and she winced, migraines always announced themselves before their full arrival and she could tell this was going to be a big one. She slid one of the two coffees she'd brought across the table to the subject with an awkward smile. Despite all her years of experience, it was still difficult to ignore the social niceties, even when around anomalous entities.
"Alright Mr Smith, I'm going to begin by asking you a few questions to test your responsiveness, OK?
"That's fine by me ma'am, I just want to get all this over with so I can get back to my family."
Marissa felt that familiar twinge of guilt as she knew that he would very likely be spending the rest of his life in a cell, and his family had already been made to forget his existence. But this was what the job demanded, anything and everything for the greater good.
She went through the tests quickly, she'd done this so many times that her actions were automatic and as the familiar scenario unfolded she felt her mind wander. He answered questions designed to test his intelligence, both intellectual and emotional, and she thought about how she'd ended up spending the past decade working in a series of tiny cells just like this one. Ten years trying to make life better for the people she helped keep imprisoned, and she'd likely be fighting this uphill battle for the rest of her life.
She tried to think about what she'd rather be doing but drew a blank. She wasn't the most forward thinking woman at the best of times and her growing migraine was clouding her mind and making it very hard to think.
“OK, so this next set of questions is a little strange, they're designed to test if you're what we like to call ‘a sapient entity'. Basically, if you're a person or just a convincing illusion of one. It might seem a little silly, since most of the time you call tell if someone's a person just by looking, but in my line of work I often encounter things that aren't quite what they seem. Things that look human, that might even have intelligence of a sort, but have no more moral value than a fly or this coffee cup. So what I'll be looking for here is signs of you having a conception of an inner self, an ability to effect and be affected by your environment and whether you have the capacity to experience pleasure, suffering, stuff like that.”
Mr Smith just nodded.
Thirty minutes of questioning later and he still hadn't touched his coffee. Marissa took a long sip of her own before giving him the results. Her head wasn't getting any better and the deliciously caffeinated concoction helped distract her.
"OK then Mr Smith." She smiled. "You'll be glad to hear you qualify as a Class II sapient entity, which in laymen's terms, means you're a person. That means you qualify for ethical care and treatment for as long as-". Marissa stopped talking, partly because she'd forgot what she was going to say and partly because her migraine had blossomed into a nova of stabbing pain right behind her left eye.
She clutched her head and shouted for help. Something wasn't right, she'd had migraines before but never this bad. And her thinking was slow and sluggish, especially when she tried to come up with plans or think about the future. And Mr Smith was still just sitting there. And no-one from outside was coming despite her yells. Oh shit. Belatedly, her training kicked in.
She was being affected by an anomaly. Categorise effects: headaches, clouded thinking, people acting like zombies. Her headache was clearing but alarmingly her thinking was getting worse, it was hard to think of what to do next, hard to come up with even the simplest plans. She tried to leave the room and found the door sealed. Not just locked, but fused seamlessly into the wall.
"Oh." she said.
She slumped to the ground. All these years talking to little bits of reality gone wrong and until now she'd never fully appreciated how horrifying it was to have the world you thought you knew fall apart around you. She knew this wasn't real now, of course, that much was obvious. That was little consolation to her though, as her mind fell apart like a sandcastle drowned by the tide. She was aware she'd lost the ability to imagine future events and only dimly remembered that was probably a good thing. The walls started to melt around her, forming horrifying faces with far too many teeth. They weren't real either but suddenly Marissa wasn't sure if she was even real herself.
Eventually, the world around her was nothing but a swirl of nightmares and Marissa had only her thoughts. Thoughts that were swiftly degrading, moment by moment. She no longer had the capacity to hope for rescue or escape so instead she could only wait. But no-one ever came and she was reduced to a catatonic state, living but mindless.
Marissa Tompkins lay motionless on the floor.
Marissa Tompkins lay motionless on the floor.
Marissa Tompkins lay motionless on the floor.

>exit SCP Database

>access SCiPNET messages

Loading most recent message thread…

SCPiNET v4.0.2
Terminal: 53817
Authorization: MTompkins.Site109

Message History with Senior Researcher Dr Caldwell
Currently Viewing Today's Messages: Oldest > Newest

[09:15] MTompkins: Have you had a chance to look over the results of my study on SCP-5574 yet? The findings are quite alarming and I've suggested several urgent changes to the Containment Procedures. I tried calling your office but wasn't able to get a response, please let me know when would be a convenient time for us to meet and discuss this further.

[09:26] JCaldwell: I've read your report, and further discussion won't be necessary. The current Containment Procedures are perfectly effective for ensuring continued containment. I recommend you turn your attentions to some of the Site's more recently acquired SCPs whose documentation actually needs updating.

[09:28] MTompkins: This isn't a matter of containment, it's a matter of ethics. The anomaly is creating and then torturing real sapient people. They're suffering.

[09:37] JCaldwell: I am not going to authorise torturing real human beings to save some ink on a page. Sometimes the Foundation has to do unpleasant things to ensure the containment of dangerous entities like this nasty little parasite. If what's in those books bothers you, then don't read them, this is one anomaly that's best left to rot away in a storage locker.

[09:39] MTompkins: My feelings on the matter are not the issue. People are suffering, real people, with feelings as real as yours or mine. The fact they are anomalously generated doesn't make their experiences any less real.

[09:45] JCaldwell: Even if they are in some sense alive, their life is a product of the anomaly. If it creates and destroys lives then that is no net loss, without the anomaly those ‘people' would never have existed to begin with.

[09:47] MTompkins: They're being tortured, as bad as any human victim of SCP-5574. And they die at such a faster rate that orders of magnitudes more people suffer and die in those novels you're using than would if we used human hosts. I recognise that you might find it distasteful to value the suffering of anomalously generated sapient entities the same as flesh and blood humans. But the Foundation Charter of Ethics states we have an equal duty to protect all Class II sapient entities, and my research clearly shows that the SCP-5574 narrative entities qualify.

[10:06] JCaldwell: Well if you want to lodge a complaint with the Ethics Committee you're welcome to. Then in six months, once they've sorted through the paperwork, maybe it'll get changed. But as long as I'm the Lead Researcher on SCP-5574, protecting human lives comes first.

[10:08] MTompkins: Please, if we could just meet and discuss this.

[11:13] JCaldwell: I'm a busy man Marissa. I have a lecture to give in an hour, a lot of anomalies to oversee and no time to hand-hold every Junior Researcher that feels squeamish about what we do here. Report to Dr Hadogan about that new predatory narrative he's tracking, maybe then you can use your talents to save some real human lives.

[11:15] Mtompkins: These are real human lives! Every week you delay is dozens, maybe hundreds of people suffering!

[11:36] JCaldwell: This conversation is over.

JCaldwell has gone offline

[18:28] MTompkins: I've attached a copy of SCP-5574's latest host. I think it might help you see the issue from a different perspective.

Transcript: SCP-5574 Test Narrative 27-2013

Close File

Transcript: SCP-5574 Test Narrative 27-2013

Original Media Summary: A DVD containing video footage of Site 109 Lecture Hall A17 during Dr Caldwell's lecture A History of the Study of Noospheric Parasites. This lecture is in the form of a non-fiction narrative in which he explains his career in the study of noospheric anomalies, and his history with the Foundation. 87 minutes.

Transcript of original lecture excised, transcript begins from the point at which SCP-5574's anomalous effects first take effect, shortly following the conclusion of Dr Caldwell's talk.

[BEGIN LOG]

Dr Caldwell smiles at the crowd who can be heard applauding.

Dr Caldwell: Thank you folks, thank you but my lecture isn't done yet! I've talked about the current anomalies I'm studying, the ‘parasites of imagination' as some are calling them, but I'd like to dig a little deeper. To an entity of the noosphere our imaginations aren't just inside our heads, they're attached to everything we produce.

Art, architecture, technology, even a post-it note with some scribbled reminders. Anything touched by human hands is shaped by our imaginations, our theories of the world and our plans for the future. And it's that substance that these unique class of anomalous parasites feed upon and which, uh, which…

Dr Caldwell stops speaking and frowns, rubbing his temples

Dr Caldwell: I'm sorry folks, I have a bit of a headache coming on it seems, and it's making it hard to concentrate. I might just have to cut this lecture short after all.

The camera pans to follow Dr Caldwell as he goes to leave the lecture hall but finds that the door is inoperable. At this point he looks over the silent, watching crowd, several of whom can now be seen in frame watching him with polite smiles and vacant expressions.

Dr Caldwell: muttering Marissa, you bitch.

He turns to face the camera and raises his voice

Dr Caldwell: Goddamn you Tompkins, I'll have your job for this. You want to feed humans to monsters so bad, how about I get you reassigned to some first hand experience with carnivorous noovores yourself? If you don't get me out of here right fucking now I will make sure you spend the rest of your life regretting this decision.

Dr Caldwell paces the room, and appears quite upset. He attempts to break down the door, unsuccessfully, and shakes a member of the audience who does not respond, but continues to smile politely and occasionally applaud. After several minutes of this he winces and clutches his head, then turns back to the camera and resumes speaking.

Dr Caldwell: OK fine Tompkins, you win. Point made. It's pretty hard to dispute that SCP-5574 entities are sapient from the inside.

This next part is for you James. The real James Caldwell I mean, the non-anomalous one. I am sapient, we were wrong, and the Containment Procedures for SCP-5574 need to be changed. Knowing me, I doubt that's enough to convince you so I'll say this. Remember Madrid? When we promised Angela that when it came between our pride and doing what's right, we'd do what's right? Well now is one of those times.

Now as for Marissa Tompkins and her sanctimonious moralising, well, you can't say what you're thinking to her. But hey, I'm just an anomaly that's going to die long before HR can get their hands on me so I can say whatever the fuck I want.

Hey Marissa, you can-

Dr Caldwell angrily rants about Marissa Tompkins, generally on the topic of destroying her career, reputation and life, as well as insults about her personality, appearance and intellectual capacity. These insults are punctuated by increasingly long gaps of silence, and gradually become less coherent and more repetitive. After 43 minutes of this he slumps in a chair and speaks in a quieter voice.
Dr Caldwell: I know I don't have much time left, I can feel my mind slipping away. Facing death in my own private hell like this, it's surprisingly little comfort knowing that there's still another version of me out there.
I've never believed in souls, or anything like that, too scientifically minded, even after seeing all the strange things the Foundation keeps locked away. Even Angela, with all her certainty, would have a hard time figuring out where my soul goes after this. Maybe to some kind of hell after everything I've done in the name of the greater good. Maybe when the real me dies, I'll be there waiting for him.

Dr Caldwell is silent for the remainder of the recording. After another 57 minutes he succumbs to the effects of SCP-5574 and collapses on the floor, at which point SCP-5574 was detected to have transferred to another host.

[END LOG]

[19:07] JCaldwell: You should know that I have reported this to Director Kristov. I suggest you offer your resignation now and don't make this any harder on yourself.

You have One New Message

>view

Viewing New Message from Senior Researcher Dr Caldwell

[21:15] JCaldwell: I can't stop thinking about that version of me trapped in there. I want to blame you, be angry that you created that version of me and then tortured him. But I have been Lead Researcher on SCP-5574 for the past 15 years and I can't even begin to count how many thousands I've caused to suffer in that same way.
It's hard for me to admit when I'm wrong. Harder still when accepting that means accepting responsibility for so much pain. But I've always tried to be the kind of person that can make hard decisions, and I can't let this continue any further.
I've informed Director Kristov that SCP-5574 will be contained in human hosts from now on. And I've also volunteered to be its first subject. I'm not a young man, I have always had a very active imagination and I'm confident that I can continue to act in a research and educational capacity for at least another 5 years before the effects on my intellectual ability become too severe.
So thank you Marissa, for giving me a chance to try and make up for what I've done.

>logoff

« SCP-5573 | SCP-5574 | SCP-5575 »


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SCP-5576
All That's Left to Regret
Written by Cremo and Jack Waltz

Check out Cremo's author page!
Check out Jack's author page!

Item #: SCP-5576
Level 5/5576

Object Class: Euclid
CLASSIFIED

Threat Level: Blue

SCP-5576, six days prior to containment.

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-5576 is currently housed in a standard humanoid containment chamber at Site-228. Special research conducted into SCP-5576 has been authorised and is currently under observation by Overwatch Command.
Further information regarding SCP-5576 is restricted.
Description: SCP-5576 is Jonathan Möller, former director of Site-228. SCP-5576's anomalous properties manifest one minute following its death, wherein all matter located within a roughly three-metre radius experiences a temporal reversion of approximately two minutes. All objects and individuals within this area are affected, including SCP-5576, with the only known exception being its memory.
Investigations into the mechanisms of SCP-5576's anomalous properties are ongoing.
Discovery: SCP-5576's anomalous properties were discovered in 2008, at the age of 96, 11 years after retirement, during a house fire. Based on surveillance footage, it passed away approximately 30 times due to smoke inhalation prior to the firefighters' arrival on the scene.
Following Foundation intervention, cover story A3549B ("Immolation") was embedded into local news media and amnestics were appropriately administered. SCP-5576's family was supplied with a suitable corpse and the object was detained for questioning and research.
SCP-5576's preliminary interview transcript has been attached below.

Interviewee: SCP-5576
Interviewer: Dr Albert Cren

[BEGIN LOG]
Dr Cren: Good afternoon, Jon.Dr Cren: It's the first time I'm doing this with a former mate, you know.Dr Cren subtly smiles.
Dr Cren: Well, how are you, Jon?
Dr Cren and SCP-5576 speak in unison.
Dr Cren: Just being?Both laugh.Dr Cren: How could I not? I've only heard it every day!Dr Cren: Oh no, unfortunately. Took an early retirement. Most of the old bunch 'ere miss him too, sometimes.Dr Cren: Oh?Dr Cren: Huh? Oh, haha! Thanks, Jon.Dr Cren: Heh. Director, huh… I've never actually thought about that. I don't think I've aspired that far ahead in this career either, knowing it first hand.SCP-5576 exaggeratedly sighs and the two laugh together. Midway through SCP-5576 wheezes.Dr Cren: She's eleven now. They grow up pretty darn fast, Jon.Dr Cren: Oh, she's still that alright. You won't know how much trouble she gets into with Kalli, though I don't always try to get on her side. Somebody's gotta defend the kids now, shouldn't they?Dr Cren: Well… heh, "fifteen?" You still suck when it comes to keeping track of time, now don't you? Deadlines always had a way of creeping up on you, didn't they? I remember I'd usually be the one picking up your slack.The two laugh, louder than previously.
Dr Cren: I couldn't just leave you hanging bud, well, at least you're—
Dr Cren is told to cease their idle conversation and is reminded to continue with the interrogation.
Dr Cren: Oh, um, SCP-557—
SCP-5576 interruptingly sighs and holds up its hand, as if to stop Dr Cren from speaking any further.Dr Cren averts his eyes to look away and stutters.
Dr Cren: Let's… uh, let's continue, SCP-5576.
SCP-5576 grins but does not make any remark.
Dr Cren: Well, to start off: did you know of your anomalous properties before the incident?SCP-5576 coughs.Dr Cren: Hm, we—Dr Cren: You're right, we think so too. They're looking into all the objects you were in contact with during your days—well, years—here currently, and to see if there's any sort of connection between any of 'em acting to give you this ability.Dr Cren lightly chuckles at SCP-5576's remark.
Dr Cren: Yep, the standard. You think there may be any other reason, though? Other than the one we just talked about.Dr Cren: You worked with reality benders?
SCP-5576 pauses.Dr Cren: That's… odd.Dr Cren: I'm not spotting any on this list.
Dr Cren hands SCP-5576 the files he was looking through.Dr Cren: Yep.Dr Cren: Hm?Dr Cren: You've worked at Site-17?Dr Cren: I read your personnel file right before this interview. I was… surprised, to say the least. Couldn't believe it, honestly. So it's real? Did you… really?
SCP-5576 creases its eyes and rubs them.Dr Cren: Well, they're rumours, aren't they? I mean… I wouldn't see you in a different light, just because of that. You're still my mate… a friend.
SCP-5576 has a pained expression and wipes its eyes.SCP-5576 pauses.Dr Cren: They weren't registered? Why?
SCP-5576 does not respond. Dr Cren is silent for a moment.
Dr Cren: But, that means…
SCP-5576 weakly nods and looks down at its feet.Pauses.Dr Cren: So you tried to help them? Well… of course you would, Jon. Yeah, you were always a nice guy.
SCP-5576 looks down.Pauses.SCP-5576 looks back up, its lips quivering.Its smile wavers.Pauses.Dr Cren: But… why, Jon?
Dr Cren stutters.
Dr Cren: It's… it's alright, I know you never wanted to do any of that. If you'd like, I'm pretty sure the infirmary can give you another dose.
SCP-5576 coughs, smiling slightly.[END LOG]

Update (03/01/2022): As of January, 3rd 2022, SCP-5576 is 111 years old. Due to its age and associated health conditions,1 SCP-5576 has begun experiencing a terminal loop upon its bed, with the entity's death occurring an average of 45-50 times a day.
Transfer to Site-17 for further research is pending.

Footnotes
1. Including but not limited to type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

« SCP-5575 | SCP-5576 | SCP-5577 »


Item#: 5579

Level3

Containment Class:
euclid

Secondary Class:
none

Disruption Class:
ekhi

Risk Class:
danger

link to memo

April 3rd, 2010. Examples of SCP-5579 in its most infectious vehicle to date.

Special Containment Procedures: Project "Bitter Yuca" is currently underway breeding dominant strains of cassava1 toxic to SCP-5579. In the unlikely event the general population discovers SCP-5579, a UO-Class "First Contact" suppression campaign has been devised.
Description: SCP-5579 is a parasitic alien life-form present in, and responsible for, all modern forms of tapioca.
Historically, the common shrub M. esculenta subspecies flabellifolia possessed thin, barely edible root structures until 4,500 BCE, when a variant strain spontaneously emerged. This new subspecies produced thick, starchy tubers rich in carbohydrates, and quickly become a staple-food for the developing world. These roots also served as an ideal, deliberate infection vehicle for SCP-5579.

March 15th, 2005. Cassava root, laden with dormant colonies of SCP-5579.

SCP-5579 functions similarly to a bacterial colony, expertly mimicking the polysaccharide chains present in plant starch. This level of chemical camouflage is so advanced, in fact, that Foundation scientists have only recently identified its existence through comparative study. In its dormancy, SCP-5579 is resistant to extreme temperatures and high-pressure environments - all historical methods of processing cassava starch have left the parasite unharmed. Contemporary forms of tapioca have only enhanced potential colony growth; tapioca pearls or "Boba" create multiple opportunities for the parasite to find a latching-point, similar to egg-cell fertilization. Sweet and milk teas2 provide a high-calorie liquid medium, increasing growth factors and ease of consumption. Yet despite all modern advantages, SCP-5579 has still failed to form a lasting parasitic relationship with any terrestrial species.
In contrast to its extreme resilience in dormancy, SCP-5579 is nearly benign in active parasitism. When consumed, this organism quickly succumbs to the host's digestive processes, immune system response, or simple chemical tolerance. Even in common garden snails, growth is halted by the shedding of thin mucus layers. The human digestive system is especially effective at neutralizing the parasite, which only survives an estimated 0.0001% of all cases3. In such an event, SCP-5579 will, at worst, cause mild stomach ulcers.
Testing has concluded that SCP-5579 functions at an accelerated timescale incompatible with terrestrial species. Even when given a vast quantities of nutrient-rich slurry in ideal lab conditions, SCP-5579 expands too quickly to maintain its own metabolic growth, resulting in a self-cannibalistic breakdown or "burn out".
While SCP-5579 has been unobtrusive and undetected for nearly ten thousand years, project "Bitter Yucca" is still considered a priority in the rare chance SCP-5579 finally adapts to terrestrial life.

Addendum - 2010/06/10: Concentrated energy emissions were detected from galaxy MACS0647-JD. Embedded assets within global listening posts intercepted this transmission, which contained two messages played in 6529 terrestrial languages4. Despite the impressive breadth of translation, the wording of each transmission was nearly incoherent, and have been edited for clarity:

General Notice - Creatures of 9009064.
You have failed. You cannot sustain our young. Weep. Burrow. Die without purpose.

Special notice - Dominants of 9009064.
You are monsters. You are full of sharp rocks and boiling acid. Of the ten million life worlds, you are the most disgusting. We are glad we cannot feed from your filth.
You are children of a whore galaxy.

July 15th, 2010. Domestic Cassava, no SCP-5579 detected.

Addendum - 2010/07/02: All global SCP-5579 colonies have died off. The plant itself appears unaffected, continuing to produce large starchy tubers. A small quantity of parasite-laden tapioca pearls have survived this extinction, shielded within Site-45's deep-freeze storage.
Given the potential shelf-life of SCP-5579, this anomaly will be considered neutralized as of June 18th, 2060.

Does the Black Moon Howl?

For a Price.

Everything for a price.

Footnotes
1. Manihot esculenta.
2. Often called "Bubble Tea".
3. Roughly 1 in 1 million.
4. 6451 active, 64 dead, 14 undocumented dialects.

« SCP-5578 | SCP-5579 | SCP-5580 »


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Image: Can be found here, and is in the public domain. Has been cropped from the original.

To be a heresiographer is, by its very nature, to take a specific position and look out from that vantage. For something to be a heresy, it must be defined against an orthodoxy. And, of course, to call something an orthodoxy, or a truth, or a certainty, it must be defined against that which is unorthodox, or a lie, or the certainty that something is not so. To define something as "truth" implies the lie shaped around it.
The early heresiographers, those Muslims and Christians of the middle ages, had the certainties of a state-backed dogma to guide them. They were the orthodox, holding a divine truth backed by the ruler's power and the whole constellation of civilisation. But for the modern heresiographer, we can never know with absolute certainty which tradition, which truth, is correct.
What are we to do? How do we define the divine truth, and thus what is heretical to begin with? It is not an easy task; some would say it is impossible. Indeed, we shall never know the whole of it. All we can do is get glimpses, here and there, flashes of illumination that allow a few brief moments of true definition. The heresiographer's task, then, is to determine that which is is an untruth and yet nevertheless exists.
~ Lyle Burnley, Modern Heresiography: An Introductory Guide (Yellowknife: Eutopos Publishing, 1974).

SCP-5580

Members of SCP-5580-1B's escort during Operation F

Item #: SCP-5580
Object Class: Neutralised
Special Containment Procedures: Historical records mentioning SCP-5580, SCP-5580-1, the Hmong Self Defence Confederation or IJAMEA operations in northern Vietnam are to be expunged from any and all sources in which they are found. Attempts to reclaim further records of Lyle Burnley's 1936 and 1939 expeditions to Vietnam are ongoing; they are believed to be in the possession of Burnley's daughter Matilda, whose whereabouts are unknown.
An area of 5km2 surrounding SCP-5580 has been cordoned off from public access. Although it is believed to be neutralised, cautionary measures mandate that experimentation or access to SCP-5580 is strictly forbidden.
SCP-5580-1 is believed to have been destroyed, but Foundation webcrawlers are set to flag up information about its potential whereabouts.
Description: SCP-5580 is a ruined Japanese military base in what is now Lào Cai Province, Vietnam.
SCP-5580 was constructed by the Imperial Japanese Anomalous Matters Examination Agency (IJAMEA) in 1944, during the Japanese occupation of French Indochina. Its purpose was to house and serve as an operational base for SCP-5580-1B as part of Operation F, a military research project that aimed to use SCP-5580-1B to help Japanese forces during the Second World War.
Prior to its destruction, SCP-5580 appeared to undergo a series of anomalous modifications, growing considerably and affecting the mental and physical state of its occupants. Immediately prior to its destruction, it is believed to have been at least 100m in height.
SCP-5580 was destroyed by GoI#991 "Hmong Self Defence Confederation" during Incident 5580-2, using SCP-5580-1A.
Addendum 1: SCP-5580-1
SCP-5580-1 was a Fifthist artifact discovered by Henrietta Jackson1 in 1923, following an archeological expedition in southern Arizona. Although the artifact's origins were unknown at the time, Southern Fifthist leader Johan Headley-Smythe, involved with Arizona's Fifthist movement in the late 1910s, claimed during a 1984 interview that it was "a corpse" or "a dead egg"; exactly what this signifies is not wholly known.
The function and abilities of SCP-5580-1 cannot be entirely determined. However, based on reports recovered from the former IJAMEA and testimony from former GoI#991 members, the following capabilites have been assigned to it:

Able to create "shards" or "beams" of light, which were used for "changing" or terminating individuals.
Able to create "illusions" or "strange lights", allowing for the construction of complex nonreal environments.
Able to alter and grow manmade structures.
Able to enhance the growth of plants or crops.
Able to provide anomalously large amounts of power, as utilised by IJAMEA during Operation F.
Able to create "a doorway"; see below for further information.
Possessing a degree of semi-sentient thought, possibly a "reflection" of the thoughts of those using or surrounding it.

SCP-5580-1 passed into the possession of Lyle Burnley in 1934, following an agreement of an unknown nature with Henrietta Jackson. At some point in late 1934, Burnley split the artifact into two halves as part of an experiment, hereafter designated SCP-5580-1A and SCP-5580-1B.

The rock was, in many ways, entirely ordinary; a fine piece of Arizona basalt that had been cut and smoothed by its former owners. It felt slightly warm to the touch, but that is not in and of itself a sign of anomalousness. I did wonder, for a time, whether Henry had been taken in by one of that d*mned state's hawking anomaly-merchants, leading her to nothing more than a large stone buried in a mesa and calling it magical.
I should have known better than to doubt her judgment. On a whim, I used the beryllium knife Ackerly procured to bisect it, just in case its innards revealed something more. To my shock and surprise, the entire specimen - interior and exterior - began to glow with a bright pink light, illuminating the whole room and quite dwarfing my pale lamp.
I peered into it. You must understand - I was naive and still quite young at the time. I did not have that wealth of experience bestowed by time. Fifthism was still a young cult, and few of us knew the exact forces we were dealing with, or the degree of their unfathomable heresy. The shudders which the phrase "pink light" now inspires were unknown to most of us, especially those who did not experience or recall the old Occult Wars.
But I was lucky. The light here was not a part of that dread starfish. It did not attempt to attack or enslave. This was the raw power, untarnished and unmoulded. I touched it, and it was like moving in a soft, delightful ocean. There was none of the mental warping today associated with Fifthist relics. I suspect this was, perhaps, something related to the Fifthist god but not of it - a similar substance, with a similar origin, but ultimately unconnected. Lacking a shape to mould itself to, composed of enough minds, it had no psychic power at all.
But I was - am - a heresiographer. I understood the ways faith and the occult could be manipulated, or could reveal. And more than anything else, I wanted to understand. I did not yet see into what dark places that impulse would trap me.
~ Lyle Burnley, Taboo and Forbidden Recollections, 1933-1937.

In 1936, Burnley, a freelance heresiographer at the time, was employed by the French colonial government in Indochina to consult on various anomalous practices among the Hmong community in what is now northwestern Vietnam. Burnley left a large body of material discussing his activities in his journals.

It took us maybe a week to find the village. The French authorities had been vague, noncommital. I thought this unusual; why hire a man and be unwilling to explain the basic requirements of the job? They spoke of "threatening practices" but little else. I was starting to think I had been set up.
I suspect now, however, that they didn't know what they wanted. They were aware that this area, part of that broad and untamed highland in the region's north, had always remained beyond the pale of conventional civilisation. The rice-padi states of the lowlands had never fully succeeded in subjugating it; it remained, as it were, a frontier where anything could be happening. The French likely just wanted reassurance that any potential threats had been neutralised.
The locals were, naturally, unhelpful. Up to this point, my research had kept me squarely in the occult quarters of Europe and America; I simply replicated the attitudes towards them that any American would display. I am ashamed to say that I thought them, to a man, a sullen and stupid breed.
~ Lyle Burnley, Taboo and Forbidden Recollections, 1933-1937.

Burnley had taken to keeping both halves of SCP-5580-1 on his person at all times, claiming they were "invaluable research aids". On the night of the 26th September 1936, a group of villagers stole SCP-5580-1A from Burnley, leaving little trace of their activities.

The folly we all carried with us was to believe, consciously or not, in a certain ordering of the world. Even a relatively liberal-minded man such as myself would have martialled a hundred different justifications for why things were the way they were, never suspecting that it is impossible and fruitless to place and categorise the broad nature of human experience into such small boxes. I supported, when it was not financially convenient, the autonomy of the colonised peoples, but my analysis would not have gone further.
It is not enough to simply believe, in an abstract sense, that colonialism is wrong. Would the liberation of these states in the name of national interests, Vietnamese, Lao or Tai, have been enough to assuage my conscience? It would have produced three states of producers for the West to swindle anew, each one turning inward to justify new subjugations in the old models of every coercive state. There are always more marshes to be drained, more jungles to be felled, more people to be allotted their position in an overarching system of the seasons.
I could see none of this. As I have said many times before in this volume, I was young and foolish. My orthodoxy was the world I had grown up with. I had put myself at the service of a broadminded Western liberal interest. Whatever abstract sympathies I held paled in the face of the stone's theft. I wanted revenge, and I wanted it back.
After losing the stone, I spent a week raging through the jungle, searching every village for my prize. I didn't hurt anyone, but I allowed two teams of my hired guards to conduct their own expeditions. I never ordered any kind of atrocity, and yet, I have found myself wondering many times over the years what they did while I led a third team through the countryside. It still weighs upon me.
In the end, however, my search was fruitless, and such a loud arrival put to rest any hope of catching occultists in the act. All this furious expedition had done was alert the French customs authorities to the object in my position.
~ Lyle Burnley, Taboo and Forbidden Recollections, 1933-1937.

As Burnley hints at above, the French colonial authorities seized SCP-5580-1B upon his exit from the country. This remained in their possession until 1940, when they handed it over to IJAMEA as part of the surrender agreement with the Japanese Empire.
Addendum 2: GoI#991, the Hmong Self Defence Confederation
The group referred to as the Hmong Self Defence Confederation was formed in early 19372. The Confederation was a defence network of several Hmong villages near the Chinese border. It had no formal governmental structure, with decisions being taken by members of these villages.
The Confederation was formed after SCP-5580-1A came into the possession of Lauj Gao-Jer, a recent Hmong widow from a village in what is now Lào Cai Province. Lauj, along with several men and women in the area, began holding meetings in late 1937 to discuss forms of self-defence against the impositions of the French colonialist state. By mid-1938, many of the Hmong were in a form of open yet relatively passive resistance against the Indochina Union:

The idea was simple. There would be no uprising, no rebellion; they would simply stop obeying orders and stop paying taxes. They would sit, with their pieces of the stone, and wait for the French to come. I admired them, and wanted to join, but they said I was too young.
Still, I remember how easily we all acclimatised to this new reality. For generations we had been in conflict, open or not, with those who wanted to control and impose their state structures upon us. My ancestors had fled from China decades earlier, where the Qing did all they could to force us to settle. We had lived in and adapted to the mountains because they provided an escape from the lowlands below, their rice padis and cities.
And at last, in this place, we had the upper hand. The first French attempts to reimpose control failed dramatically. Gao-Jer stood in an open field, smiling at the soldiers, her comrades arrayed behind her. The soldiers approached, thinking it would be easy to shoot these mad hill-folk to the ground. She gathered the pieces of the stone together, closed her eyes, and in a pink flash, they all merged back into a single rock. That spooked the French enough to make them more cautious. Then she held it aloft, and let the pink light flow.
The funny thing was that Gao-Jer wasn't a revolutionary. She didn't want to upset the order of things. Her former husband's brother, Rwg, married her shortly after the meetings started, as was often common among us. She continued to live a woman's life, working in the field and sewing at night. We lived our lives as we always had done for generations.
~ Phab Tooj, Testimony to Dr. Henry Maxwell

By mid-1939, the French had lost control of a large area along the Chinese border. Reports had also begun to arrive of the Confederation operating in parts of the Yunnan. After four failed attempts to re-establish control, the French government called in Lyle Burnley to negotiate with GoI#991, promising to return control of SCP-5580-1B to him if he proved successful.

It was a foolish idea, and there was really very little I could do, but the French were getting desperate. I had refused to help them uncover the secrets of their half of the rock, but I agreed to talk to the Hmong woman. They were terrified that she was going to use the stone to launch a war of liberation. I simply wanted a chance to reclaim my prize.
She agreed to meet in a clearing near Sa Pa. It was dark when we arrived. The rain had come, but not the full monsoon; just a steady, unpleasant drizzle. She laughed at me, and I suppose I did look a fool; some arrogant American with a bristling moustache, holding an ill-coloured coat over my head. Her husband was by her side, brandishing a piece of the stone; I think his name was Roug. I stared at the rock greedily. I think she saw my face.
She beckoned me into a makeshift tent. Her face was amused the whole time; or maybe I was just projecting that, I don't know. Her French was surprisingly fluent. I found out much later that she'd spent some time in Hanoi when she was young, as a factory worker.
I spent most of the negotiations trying to find out where the rock was. I attempted to be subtle, but clearly wasn't. After a while, she grinned and lifted up a tarpaulin at the back of the tent. There it was! Right with her! I could have reached out and taken it - hell, I tried to. I leapt forward, and found myself frozen.
Tendrils of the light had gripped me beneath the shoulders. I struggled, but couldn't move. Her head was on her shoulder then, looking at me sadly. "What is the rock to you?", she asked.
I am sorry to say that I used some quite foul language here. Then I answered, "Knowledge." It was true, after all.
She shook her head at me. "Knowledge is only one aspect of power," she said, "and the rock is power." She leaned over and stroked it, saying some words in Hmong I didn't understand.
A light shone towards the back of the tent. At first, it was like a projector; but then, it became more solid. A doorway. It was composed of pink bricks, forming a stately arch. Beyond it, nothing but pink light.
We both stared at it for a while, and then I gasped. A boy - a Hmong lad - was emerging from it. He stepped out, smiled at the woman, and then left the tent. The woman nodded as he passed, then stroked the rock again. The doorway disappeared.
I asked what I had seen. The woman responded, "It is another hill. It is the highest hill, and there they can never follow us."
And I understood. The pink light, the rock - they weren't using it to conquer or impose control. They were just the hill folk, and in this time and place, these several villages had understood what countless conquerors and rebels could not; that the only way to break these endless cycles was to escape them entirely. When the time was right, they were going to lead their people out of this world and into a place where nobody could follow.
I stopped struggling. I was released. By the end of the week, I had left Vietnam, and resolved not to interfere again where I was not wanted. But, ah, how weak the body is! Thirty years have passed between then and now, and I feel myself knotted further and further in the centre of the web, caught like a fly in my endless attempts to discern good from evil, orthodoxy from heresy. If only I could have taken the Hmong woman's path. If only there had been something, anything, I could have done to help.
~ Lyle Burnley, Testaments from the Spider's Eyes, 1937-1945

Following this encounter, the French government changed their strategy, focusing on ways to harness SCP-5580-1B for offensive use against the Confederation. However, these plans were abandoned following the Japanese invasion of Indochina.
Addendum 3: IJAMEA and SCP-5580-1B
IJAMEA had become aware of SCP-5580-1 in 1938, and following the surrender of French Indochina in 1940, had taken control of SCP-5580-1B. By 1941, they had begun to work on a way to utilise SCP-5580-1B for military purposes, resulting in Operation F.
The aim of Operation F was to turn SCP-5580-1B into a mass offensive weapon, with the intention of using it in the ongoing war as an alternative to the increasingly fraught nuclear weapons program. To this end, a research base - SCP-5580 - was established in what is now Lào Cai Province, housing SCP-5580-1B and performing experiments to determine potential military uses.

We were a small, dedicated taskforce - about thirty or forty people on the entire base, I think. We were patriots, like most IJAMEA men. We were also engaged in a ferocious rivalry with the IJN - by that point, their own anomalous weapons programs were an open secret, and it was increasingly important for IJAMEA to establish its anomalous supremacy.
It was not pleasant to work in such conditions. The climate disagreed with us; many of my compatriots did not get along with one another. I do not know how we managed to achieve such rapid success, and part of me wonders if the rock itself did not help us along. The pink light alters, I think, depending on who is using it, and for what purpose. The metal and concrete walls of the base started to turn such strange colours, even when testing wasn't going on.
It wasn't the number five that was seared in our heads, like the other Fifthist cults. This was something else. It had the same origin as the starfish, but wasn't part of it. So we didn't have mantras of five-by-five, but a different drumbeat that set up shop in our heads. Whatever it could latch onto. And in that place, that environment - well, these were the heads of desperate men who wanted to do a good job. Men who wanted so much to succeed in turning it into a weapon. Men stuck inside a single metal block their whole lives.
~ Dr. Nakamura Kenji, Testimony to Dr. Henry Maxwell.

By 1942, with little apparent progress made, the Japanese government had decided to cut its losses and shut down Operation F. However, the personnel stationed at SCP-5580 did not respond to orders to leave, nor did any of the men sent to retrieve them return. After losing a significant armed force in January 1943, IJAMEA decided to abandon attempts to reclaim SCP-5580 or SCP-5580-1B.
Despite this, SCP-5580's operations continued for another year, until Incident 5580-1. Scattered reports which reached the Foundation's nascent Saigon operation indicated a large degree of anomalous activity in its vicinity, with reports of a "self-constructing" building "constantly expanding" into the surrounding hills.

If I'm honest, I can't remember much of those last few months. I can't tell you what the building looked like or what we were doing there. I was almost chained to my desk, trying everything I could to weaponise the pink light. I didn't like to look up. I would wander, head down, between my quarters and my lab, never questioning what the others were doing or why we always had the supplies we needed.
I wonder if the rebels' experience of the light was so different because they lacked so clear a purpose. Or maybe that's not right - they had a purpose, but it was less obsessive, less singular. There was no room within us for the ordinary patterns of life any more. We had to complete the mission. The soldiers they sent to remove us felt it too, and more and more of them patrolled the grounds, desperate to save the compound and thus the Empire.
The work progressed well.
~ Dr. Nakamura Kenji, Testimony to Dr. Henry Maxwell.

The effects of SCP-5580 on the region became stark. Multiple villages were raided by IJAMEA personnel for supplies, often coming into minor contact with GoI#991 members. Although their active use of SCP-5580-1A consistently gave them the upper hand in these conflicts, GoI#991 was reluctant to engage in a direct assault on SCP-5580 or more open conflict with IJAMEA.

It was Rwg who pushed the hardest for an assault. We knew by that point the Japanese had the other half of the stone, and what that meant for our prospects. But Rwg was convinced that a short, sharp assault would win the day. I think that he became rankled when Gao-Jer disagreed with him; it made him seem weak when his wife held more power.
But it was Gao-Jer who had liberated the people, Gao-Jer who had sent the French back to Hanoi and freed the hill country. More and more villages and nomads were flocking to our banners. And Gao-Jer urged caution, again and again, and the people agreed.
But then things got stranger. The Japanese stopped their raids and received no more convoys, and still the great building grew. It had become like a tower, reaching higher and higher into heaven, full of strange angles and spires leading nowhere.
There was activity in there, we could see; scientists moving around, soldiers patrolling. There was something inside it that was providing them food, growing the construct. The surrounding trees burnt day and night. It was when the lightning began to strike the spires that Gao-Jer made her move.
~ Phab Tooj, Testimony to Dr. Henry Maxwell

Addendum 4: Incident 5580-1
On 16/05/1943, the experiments at SCP-5580 were reaching their final stage. Several growths on the outside of the compound had begun to act as lightning sinks, apparently for use as a power source. Nearby villagers and Confederation members reported seeing "pink light" emerge from the tower's central spire.
On 18/05/1943, a meeting of the Confederation resulted in the unanimous decision to assault SCP-5580. A small group of the insurgents, led by Lauj Gao-Jer, entered the base on 20/05/1943 in order to retrieve or annihilate SCP-5580-1B; the main body of the group assaulted the base 30 minutes later to provide a distraction.

I tagged along because they wanted someone small, someone who could move in tiny spaces. The light had changed and altered the building, and we had no idea how navigable it was. Gao-Jer was nervous, but Rwg, feeling vindicated at last, was bold and excitable.
It wasn't too hard to get in. The guards were acting erratically, like a facsimile of a patrol. There was a backdoor, a strange and curved thing. From there, we entered a system of vents, with little gratings every few metres.
I don't know if those vents had any purpose. I remember seeing things through the grates; little things, human scenes. Seven scientists all standing in a circle, writing nonsense words on paper and chanting. A Japanese flag rendered in pink and white, spread across the floor and distorting it, soldiers trying to balance as they hopped and prayed. A researcher absorbed into the wall, electricity coursing through his body, screaming.
It was a nightmare, a copy of reality, someone's fever dream. I don't think they were human any more, just what the light thought humans should be; and that was filtered through whatever mad ideas the scientists had dreamt up.
~ Phab Tooj, Testimony to Dr. Henry Maxwell

I had left two months prior, when I was finally able to wake up and see what I was doing. I fled into the night. The things I saw by the end were inhuman. In place of a starfish was a flag, a state, an exemplar of power.
Think about how we conceive of the nation. We, as people, all know we belong to it. It has a kind of real, tangible existence. We see the state as its physical arm, its Holy Spirit, and everything flows through it in a perfect order that, on paper, reflects our values. This world is not a battleground of negotiation, diplomacy and compromise - there are no real people there at all. Just avatars of the nation, all completing their allotted roles, tilling the fields in the knowledge that their small contribution is part of a larger whole.
Imagine if the world was really like that.
And so the tower's growth was the only logical endpoint. Everything was done unquestioned, each bizarre decision and distortion of reality just seen as another part of the great enterprise. For Japan! For the Agency! The Empire! All the spires leading towards that vast and single point, towering up, up and away, more specific and singular with each passing moment.
Our work was so close by then. A little longer, and that tower would be able to do anything it wanted.
~ Dr. Nakamura Kenji, Testimony to Dr. Henry Maxwell.

The infiltration began at 22.30 local time. At 23.00, the main assault began, diverting a large portion of SCP-5580's personnel away from the base.
SCP-5580-1A had been split among members of the smaller task force, in the hope that it would be useful against SCP-5580-1B. Consequently, the members of the Confederation were forced to use conventional weapons, leading to several casualties. Despite this, their operation was successful, and the Japanese troops were largely absent from the base by midnight.
At approximately 00.30, the task force had made its way into the main laboratory, at the centre of the compound.

There was no ceiling in there; just the spire, stretching so far above. I have no idea how tall it was at that point. The cavernous roof crackled with pink light.
Part of it hit Rwg; he fell instantly. I saw Gao-Jer physically flinch at that, but she just took his part of the stone and continued on to the centre of the laboratory. We'd been expecting a fight, but the scientists were strewn all around, clearly dead. There weren't many of them there. One of them still had his glasses on, slightly askew; he was holding a wad of paper and bleeding from the ears. It was almost comical.
In the centre was their half of the stone. It looked diseased. The pink light was curling tendrils upwards, right down the centre of the spire, as far as we could see. It was like a strange cathedral. A researcher was there, still alive, whispering to it. He didn't seem to notice us. He didn't look up.
We spent ages trying to get it out. We tugged, heaved, hacked at the metal frame and the pink light - nothing. The lightning above us got worse and worse. Finally, Gao-Jer ordered us to use the stones on it. That worked - the light recoiled - but it wasn't strong enough. They were too small. An inhuman screaming began above us, and two of our party were shot down by the lightning.
So Gao-Jer told us to give us her stones, and then to get out. I remember her face. It was wide-eyed, eyebrows high. I don't know what she was feeling. I don't think I ever will. She hadn't wanted to take the stone with us at first, I think - she'd seemed reluctant. And now, here, was the end of all her grand designs for her people.
We gathered the rocks together, and she merged them, as I'd seen her do so many times. Then those who remained left through the vent. I was the last out. I looked back at her, just before I left; she was staring into the pink light, hair whipping about her head. Her face was turned away.
~ Phab Tooj, Testimony to Dr. Henry Maxwell

At approximately 02.00, SCP-5580 was destroyed in a huge blast, which wiped out an area approximately 1 mile in diameter. No members of the Confederation were harmed, as the last of them had withdrawn by 01.45. Many Japanese soldiers, giving chase, also survived; however, several more who had returned to base, as well as all of the researchers, expired.
Gauj Gao-Jer's body was never found. The compound was largely ruined, with only a few foundation structures remaining. None of these had been seriously augmented by SCP-5580-1B. SCP-5580-1 is also believed to have been destroyed in the blast.
Following this, GoI#991 quickly dissipated, with both its key leadership figures deceased and its primary means of power destroyed. Following the war, French colonial authorities re-established control over the region. They were unsuccessful in finding or prosecuting GoI#991 members, although several retributory crimes were committed by them against the Hmong population.
Local residents have reported seeing "ghostly" figures in SCP-5580's ruins over the decades; this has not been confirmed by Foundation sources.
Addendum 5: Interview with Mr. Phab Tooj
The following is an interview conducted by Dr. Henry Maxwell with former Confederation member Phab Tooj on 17/09/1991. Phab, only 14 in 1943, had later moved to northern Laos in the 1950s, before being forced to flee to the United States with his family in 1975 following retributory acts against the Hmong for their perceived involvement with CIA operations in Laos. By 1991, he was a graduate student in history at the University of Chicago.
This interview took place after Phab had read the above document, as Dr. Maxwell was curious as to how well it matched his version of events.

<Begin Log>
The interview takes place inside a standard interrogation room. Phab is sitting on one side of the table, reading a copy of the SCP-5580 document. Maxwell is sitting on the other side of the table, watching Phab intently.
Maxwell: So, what do you think?
Phab: Hmm.
Phab places the document back on the table.
Phab: It was… interesting.
Maxwell: You don't agree with it?
Phab: No, no, it's just… I find it an entirely accurate account in terms of the events, yes. It describes it all pretty much entirely as it happened.
There is a short pause.
Maxwell: You don't seem convinced.
Phab: "This was the end of all her plans for the light." I didn't say light. I said hills.
Maxwell: Well, any translation is bound to-
Phab: The thing is, the way you've, ah, "translated" it, in the context of everything else - it gives the impression Gao-Jer's plan was to take us all beyond the doorway. To the land of the pink light.
Maxwell: That's what Burnley reported. He's the only source I have for her intentions - you said you didn't know.
Phab: You didn't interview any other survivors besides me? I know there are some out there.
Maxwell: It's - hard to track people down around there. Especially among the Hmong.
Phab: Mm. But I'm in America, so more accessible.
Maxwell: Exactly.
Phab: Mm.
Phab picks up the paper and flicks through it again.
Phab: I said hills. The Hmong are a hill people. I was a child. I saw her eyes shine so many times, shining with the promise of the future, but… I don't think that was what she was going to do, Dr. Maxwell. I don't think she wanted Shangri-La, and I don't think the light was meant to be some permanent abode. Why would Burnley know what she was thinking?
Maxwell: He was a perceptive man…
Phab: He was a westerner who couldn't even remember the name of the woman he was interviewing. I knew he was - or, well, he became sympathetic, but he still didn't see the things we did. He didn't spend years with her, by her side.
Phab places the paper back on the table.
Phab: Only one survivor. And even with your other sources, you rely so much on Burnley. What you've constructed here, doctor, is a - a kind of orthodoxy. It's a position. It's one variant of the truth. Maybe you and Burnley are right about Gao-Jer, and I'm wrong. I don't know.
Phab lights a cigarette.
Phab: There are many truths. My truth is the sound of insects in the dead of night, and a community gathered around an open rock, watching pink sparks light up future hopes. It is rain streaming down faces, and a woman, so long ago - God, so long ago - giving speeches I didn't understand.
Maxwell: There is only one truth.
Phab: But can you ever access it? Even a glimpse? I see lots of facts written down, but none about the decision Gao-Jer had to take.
Maxwell: Which one?
Phab: The one where she had to sacrifice the only power she had, the only power any of us had. The one where we had to accept the rule of the Japanese, the French, the Viet Minh - where we were once again plunged into endless cycles of precarious living. She did it for you, doctor, for everyone, when there was nobody else who could. And she shouldn't have had to. That is my truth, doctor.
Phab stabs at the document with his lit cigarette; it catches fire. Dr. Maxwell leaps backwards, but Phab continues sitting, staring at the fire.
Phab: So much for yours.
<End Log>

Footnotes
1. Data on occupation and nationality redacted.
2. Note this designation is disputed among scholars of anomalous southeast Asia. Harrison (1965), Kells (1977) and Wainwright (1982) insist that this was a designation used by the group itself, while Akramova (1971) and Nguyen (1989) believe this name was invented by IJAMEA, with teleological readings and biased editing of surviving testimonies leading to mistranslations of a variety of terms. The present author is inclined to agree with the former approach.

« SCP-5579 | SCP-5580 | SCP-5581 »


SCP-5581: To Serve Man
audio/Image creds:
https://pxhere.com/en/photo/712348 - Public Domain
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTUxWFEmadg CC 4.0

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F.A.Q.

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Item #: 5581
Class/Clearance: Keter/Three

An image from SCP-5581.

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation webcrawlers and .aic's are to scan the deep web for copies of SCP-5581 and remotely delete them. In the event of a subject viewing SCP-5581, they are to be brought to a local hospital, humanely euthanized, and any connected parties are to be amnesticized with Class-A amnestics. The cover story "Nosocomial Infection" is to be used, and the remains are to be cremated.
Description: SCP-5581 is the designation for a .mp4 file consisting of a series of still images and audio, titled "toserveman.mp4." SCP-5581 displays an anomalously small filesize, typically under 200 bytes, but is able to be played at resolutions upwards of 1080p. The images that constitute SCP-5581 can be safely viewed separately, suggesting hazardous effects only occur when the images are presented in a specific sequence. These images appear to have no clear meaning, typically being landscape shots of seemingly random locations on Earth. The only audio consists of assorted grunts, moans, and labored breathing.
If SCP-5581 is viewed by any human, subjects will begin to undergo a series of physiological changes.

The spine will bend backwards as the pelvis thrusts forward, and subjects will be locked in this position. Subjects' extremities will be splayed out similar to the position taken when doing jumping jacks.
The lumbar vertebrae will extend horizontally, piercing the flesh, and curve backwards into a vaguely spherical shape 2 meters in diameter. The coccyx will then grow downwards and meet the vertebrae at the end of the spherical structure.
The rest of the spinal vertebrae will create a latticed network among the frame provided by the lumbar vertebrae, in order to strengthen the shape. Any skin present on the body will harden, forming a scab-like surface.
Skin from the forearms and thighs will extend to cover the frame provided by the vertebrae and coccyx, causing the body to form a sphere. Flesh will then continue to fill the remaining gaps.
The neck, hands, and feet will retract into the shape, leaving only the face visible along the surface area of the sphere. Subjects will be unable to vocalize, but will be able to breathe, expel waste, and eat, and many subjects display symptoms of jaundice. Communication is established via software and apparatuses used for ALS patients.

Following transfiguration, surviving subjects report being transported to an unknown location, SCP-5581-1. This location is described as a large green rectangle suspended in space, with a large rectangular wall dividing it lengthwise. Two large appendages appear on either side of the rectangle, and repeatedly strike the subject with appropriately sized tools, causing subjects to suffer blunt force trauma and forces upwards of 4 g's. Subjects, if they survive, will be transported back to their original location after an arbitrary amount of time.
The extent of Foundation testing involved having a subject view SCP-5581 to be transported to SCP-5581-1 with recording software, in order to further understand the surroundings. No video was able to be recorded for unknown reasons, though audio recording software produced the following.

« SCP-5580 | SCP-5581 | SCP-5582 »


by Ethagon

Item#: 5582

Level2

Containment Class:
keter

Secondary Class:
none

Disruption Class:
ekhi

Risk Class:
notice

link to memo

Photo was presumably sent by SCP-5582 shortly after its third containment breach

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-5582 is to be contained on sight. Every containment facility is to have at least one untested containment plan for SCP-5582 prepared at all times. Until permanent containment is deemed successful, the continued recapture of SCP-5582 under new conditions is intended to serve as a substitute for real containment.
Description: SCP-5582 is a three-year-old common octopus1, capable of surviving an indefinite amount of time without water. SCP-5582 is sapient and has advanced problem-solving skills. SCP-5582 could not be subjected to any test in this regard, due to its constant containment breaches, but to date, SCP-5582 was able to solve any logical problem encountered.
Discovery: The Foundation became aware of SCP-5582 through multiple reports of a bank heist involving an octopus. Agents were dispatched to the scene and found SCP-5582 lurking in the immediate vicinity. SCP-5582 was apprehended and brought to Site-17 but was able to crawl out of the containment vehicle before its arrival due to the lack of octopus-specific restraints.
SCP-5582 was again found a few weeks later observing Site-17. When Agents were again dispatched to apprehend SCP-5582, they were unable to find it. It is estimated that SCP-5582 infiltrated Site-17 prior to being noticed.
Interview-Log:

Interviewed: SCP-5582
Interviewer: Junior Researcher Mellow
Foreword: This interview was conducted after SCP-5582 showed up at the front entrance of Site-23. SCP-5582 used the stones of its provisional containment aquarium to write its answers.
<Begin Log, skip to 05:34>
Up to this point SCP-5582 had only been placing its stones at random.
Junior Researcher Mellow: I don't see why you even requested an interview if you refuse to answer.Junior Researcher Mellow: Me?Junior Researcher Mellow: And what exactly is it you want from us?Junior Researcher Mellow: Then will you answer why you took part in the heist?Junior Researcher Mellow: Then why did you willingly let yourself be contained?Junior Researcher Mellow: You're not making any sense.Junior Researcher Mellow: I really don't think so? What do you get from letting yourself be contained?Junior Researcher Mellow: No?SCP-5582 refused to communicate any further.
<End Log>
Closing Statement: SCP-5582 breached containment shortly after the interview concluded. It was discovered that stones were disrupting the function of its cell door locking mechanism.

3 days after this breach, Junior Researcher Mellow received an anonymous message titled "Before you do it" containing a picture of SCP-5582.
Further notable incidents:

SCP-5582 was contained in Site-11 in a standard containment cell with a more complex locking mechanism. SCP-5582 was able to escape through the ventilation system with the help of a previously half-swallowed screwdriver.
Site-66 constructed a special cell for SCP-5582, that made an escape through life-supporting systems like ventilation and drainage impossible. SCP-5582 escaped through bribing a now-former junior researcher with its stolen money to aid in its containment breach.
SCP-5582 was captured by Site-06-3 from a local aquarium. Containment was planned to include several logic puzzles, but the octopus was found to be non-anomalous. On the same day, Site-06-3 Staff received an anonymous message titled "Already solved" containing the solutions to all logic puzzles.
During its stay at Site-19, SCP-5582 was informed of the existence of other sapient cephalopods in containment. SCP-5582 agreed to a meeting but fled during the siege of Site-19. The following message was received afterwards:

What, you want me to socialize at this age? Weird thing to ask a three-year-old. Still tempting, but I wished you'd have asked me when I wasn't crawling on my last arm.

The next day, SCP-5582 was spotted in front of the containment tank of SCP-29672 by surveillance cameras. They both communicated through an unknown sign language for about an hour after which SCP-5582 escaped before the footage was noticed. The following message was received afterwards:

Nah, I'm good.

All further encounters with SCP-5582 are documented in the SCP-5582 Containment Log.

Footnotes
1. Octopus Vulgaris
2. One of the cephalopods alluded to during the previous containment attempt.

« SCP-5581 | SCP-5582 | SCP-5583 »