HPlus

Item #: SCP-3539

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Solid-state disk drives containing recovered copies of SCP-3539 which are not cleared to be destroyed are to be stored in the Cognitohazard Research wing of Containment/Research Area-13, sealed in a standard high-security lock box monitored by independently powered CCTV systems. Electronic devices with digital screens of any kind are not permitted inside the vault containing SCP-3539’s storage drives at any time. Should a drive containing SCP-3539 go missing at any time, the Cognitohazard Research wing (and, if deemed necessary, all of C/RA-13) is to be put in full lockdown, any nearby MTF teams put on standby, and high command alerted until the whereabouts of the missing drive can be ascertained.

Should SCP-3539 manifest on a Foundation server, Containment Contingency Plan EPH-3539-A is to be put into effect; Containment/Research Area-13 and any additional affected sites are to engage a full lockdown and all personnel are to immediately rendezvous in the Cognitohazard Research wing (or designated Cognitohazard “safe zones” in sites other than C/RA-13) where personnel will await instruction from high command and/or the site director. Foundation personnel caught in SCP-3539’s influence are to be apprehended as soon as possible (ideally including the use of a blindfold) and brought to the nearest safe zone if possible, however termination is authorized should affected personnel pose any substantial hindrance to the rendezvous process or attempt information propagation of any kind. In the event that either a level 3 or above officer and/or a significant portion of a site’s staff is determined to have been affected by SCP-3539, Containment Contingency Plan EPH-3539-B is to be enacted remotely by high command: “deadlock” security systems on all vital areas are to be engaged and power to the entire facility is to be indefinitely cut until Sigma-99 (and additional MTF teams if available) has combed the site’s infrastructure and contained all affected.

Absolutely no action aside from the procedures outlined above is to be taken regarding SCP-3539.

Description: SCP-3539 is a randomly occurring, digitally based, visually propagated memetic agent first detected, albeit unknowingly at the time, on 01/28/1986 (see Incident 3539-Alpha “Challenger”), and first acted upon by the Foundation on 05/09/2000. How instances of SCP-3539 manifest is currently unknown, however manifestations only appear to be possible on computer CPU’s above [REDACTED] in processing speed, and the source of any given manifestation takes the sole form of malignant code in the host computer’s software. This data can be extracted or copied from a computer’s software and stored on any hard disk or solid-state storage device with over ten Gigabytes of storage capacity, as well as re-uploaded into a computer or device’s software simply by connecting the aforementioned storage device. Doing so immediately triggers the first one minute memetic episode. Copies of the data, when stored on an appropriate file, can be sent and retrieved digitally much like a typical file, and any unaffected operating system that receives and opens the file by user input is automatically altered with SCP-3539 code and immediately triggers the first memetic episode.

Memetic episodes only occur on digital screens connected to an affected computer or device which are above exactly 500x500 pixels in resolution at frequencies ranging from nineteen seconds to twenty-one hours between episodes. The displayed image is apparently highly inconsistent between different viewers; a slight majority of exposed subjects describe episodes as displaying various forms of static, however others have described vastly different images ranging from vivid archaic symbology to fractals to [DATA EXPUNGED]. Screens that are below the aforementioned resolution will still produce these episodes, however the heavy pixelation of the image appears to entirely strip it of cognitive effects. Any human that is not 100% blind and in close proximity that establishes visual contact with a screen with a memetic episode in progress, either directly or out of peripheral vision, will instantly be hypnotically drawn to stare into the image until the episode has concluded. Psychological analysis of affected subjects during this stage of hypnosis is limited, however the effect appears to directly interface with the Occipital lobe, Cerebellum, [REDACTED]. The immediate hypnotic effect of SCP-3539 can be broken only by removing the subject from visual contact with SCP-3539, however interference with the aforementioned parts of the brain have resulted in more lasting - but temporary - effects such as Insomnia, Sleep Apnea, mild Amnesia, Major Depressive Disorder, and irregular heartbeat. These more persistent effects can wear off anywhere between thirty minutes to twelve days after exposure, with the duration of the exposure apparently being unrelated.

Should a human be allowed to be hypnotized until the conclusion of a memetic episode, the affected person will appear unaffected (although having little to no recall of the episode is common). In most cases this persists until another human being is brought into their vicinity. At this point, psychological analysis shows that the Amygdala is stimulated to highly unusual levels of activity, resulting in intense fear followed by overwhelming aggression towards the other human, presumably as a result of an exceptionally intensified “fight or flight” response. Affected subjects will often attempt to kill the other human(s) through any available means at their disposal, with the most common method being strangulation or the snapping of the neck when not provided with any other objects (some subjects have been known to use their own class-D uniforms to complete this task in earlier testing). Only the prolonged application of class E amnestics¹ is capable of prematurely dampening and eventually reversing this cognitive alteration, which can persist anywhere from twelve days to █ months if untreated, with the average being two months.

On extremely rare occasions, SCP-3539 has been known to give “orders” to affected subjects through a memetic episode. Since the beginning of SCP-3539’s containment effort, █ different versions of the anomalous code known to contain these orders have been copied and secured by the Foundation for study. All effects are identical on the occasion these orders are contained within the code, however the aforementioned hyper-aggressive amygdala trigger from the hypnosis does not occur. The recorded orders, as named from accounts of previously affected surviving subjects, are as follows:

GHOST:

Subjects that have successfully received this order are prompted to go to any lengths possible to erase and cover up their identity and existence within society. The means employed to achieve this include, but are not limited to: fingerprint removal, blood transfusions, cessation of all market transactions unless with cash, destruction of personal belongings, and expulsion from society followed by the subsequent avoidance of any human life. 2█% of all missing persons reports between the years 198█ and ████ are hypothesized to be as a result of “Ghost” manifestations of SCP-3539.

PROMULGATE:

Subjects that have successfully received this order are prompted to recite canon and rhetoric relating to Foundation Group of Interest Alpha-019, "Serpent's Hand," the small-scale organization known for it's adamantly anti-Foundation views regarding supernatural phenomena and their containment. The prompting for this command appears to only trigger in the presence of other humans, and psychological analysis has shown that the effects of this command extend beyond turning it's victims into impromptu-speakers, seeming to fundamentally alter the mindset of the affected individual(s) to the point of outward loyalty to the Serpent's Hand cause for the duration of the command's influence. Additional information in Addendum 3539-02.

[DATA EXPUNGED]

ASCEND:

Subjects that have successfully received this order are prompted to self-terminate by any means at their disposal. Test subjects exposed to this variant of SCP-3539 have achieved this at a success rate of 89%, even when bound by restraints or straight jackets (the means often employed in these situations primarily include self-inflicted dehydration or craniocerebral trauma). Fully restrained subjects with life support apparatuses sufficient to prevent asphyxia, dehydration, or starvation will still struggle to follow the order without success until the effect expires. Subjects that have made recoveries from this order have described the period in which they sought to self-terminate as feeling “normal” and a compulsion to do so as feeling “like a really good idea.” At no point do depressive mindsets seem to manifest or play a major part.

CULTIVATE:

Subjects that have successfully received this order are prompted to spread the influence of SCP-3539 through any digital means. The means employed to achieve this primarily involve the digital propagation of SCP-3539 code by email, social media, etc. Subjects affected with this variant of the memetic demonstrate a high degree of technical knowledge with computers, necessary to access the source code and copy SCP-3539 data to transferable units, despite not having known how to do such before their hypnosis. This suggests that SCP-3539 is capable of implanting biological memory data into its victims through a memetic episode. How this is possible is currently being studied.

HAVOC:

Subjects that have successfully received this order are prompted to sabotage or undermine known institutions of importance - often one’s own workplace, but not exclusively. Several public incidents have been linked to SCP-3539 “Disrupt” orders, however many of these remain unconfirmed. This order is exceedingly rare even among the rest of the orders given, with only [REDACTED] total recorded cases and [DATA EXPUNGED].

Efforts at tracing a point of origin of SCP-3539 codes are currently ongoing.

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Addendum 3539-01: SCP-3539 Research Personnel Standard Operating Procedure Outline

[DATA CLASSIFIED TO LEVEL 3539 NEED-TO-KNOW]

Personnel assigned to the research of SCP-3539 are not to carry any electronics which use a digital screen on their person at any time, and research personnel are to be trained on the usage of analog-style computer interaction equipment to avoid any possibility of coming into contact with a screen - in addition to being encouraged to carry out most research and cataloging by written notes - in the event that SCP-3539 is to manifest on a Foundation server.
Testing with SCP-3539 is to be conducted exclusively with supervision by level 3 or above personnel, who will oversee the removal and transferring of a storage drive to the designated testing area, followed by equal supervision of it’s transportation back to the containment vault. The testing chamber must be devoid of any sharp or abrupt edges and the usage of straight jackets and head protection is recommended, as any personnel caught by SCP-3539’s hypnotic influence exhibit highly unpredictable and/or violent behavior after being removed from its influence. Class E amnestics are to be administered following the conclusion of testing.

Addendum 3539-Σ: MTF Σ-99 Standard SCP-3539 Manifestation Response Outline

[DATA CLASSIFIED TO LEVEL 3]

Manifestations of SCP-3539 in the public that are unable to be neutralized by deployed anti-memetic bots and are subsequently detected by the Foundation are to be considered active containment breaches of Alpha priority. This priority status is to be maintained until MTF Σ-99 (“Cicada”) and necessary escorts are successful in tracking and isolating the source of the manifestation. The computer system in which the manifestation occurred is to be destroyed and/or replaced unless MTF Sigma-99 explicitly requests the delay of this procedure for the purpose of attaining a copy of SCP-3539 for study (though this is typically only when previously unknown variants are discovered). After the aforementioned computer system(s) is destroyed, public illusion campaigning necessary to make the loss of the aforementioned computer system - potentially high-profile incidents in their own right - along with necessary distribution of class A amnestics, is to be employed in order to cover up the breach of SCP-3539 and the Foundation’s involvement. Should this illusory campaign fail to completely erase all trace of the Foundation’s and SCP-3539’s existence, approval is to be obtained from local governing bodies for the deployment of city-wide information lock-in procedures and large-scale dispersal of amnestics until the secrecy of the Foundation and SCP-3539 can be confirmed.

Addendum 3539-02: GoI Alpha-019 Involvement

[DATA CLASSIFIED TO LEVEL 4/3539]

The following message is contained within one of the Foundation-secured SSD storage drives at Containment/Research Area-13, designated as one of two drives in which the PROMULGATE variant of SCP-3539 is stored:

You know who we are and why we exist. Society is an ever growing organism that we have watched grow, and you alongside it - you and your hopeless efforts to put everything we know into a box, pretending to hold some semblance of control over a universe populated with that not meant to be controlled. You are an infection, growing and festering as more and more is brought into the light. This will stand no longer. What you are bearing witness to is the fever that will purge this infection from the hidden underbelly of society, the tool from which your unwanted shield around our world will crack and it's bearer brought into the very light you fight so adamantly to keep yourself and the uncontrollable out of. The longer you choose to fight this fever the more unstoppable it will become. Epiphany will be upon us one way or another, which side you are on when it happens is in your own hands.

Unlike other known manifestations of the PROMULGATE variant, this particular code's message appears to be directly addressing the Foundation, suggesting it's retrieval was pre-planned by the central entity responsible for the propagation of SCP-3539 which is presently hypothesized to be the Serpent's Hand organization, based on correlating rhetoric and analysis of several manifestations. Additionally, while other instances of this variant produce various differing messages from person-to-person, this instance's message has remained constant across multiple subjects. SCP-3539 appears to be the organization's latest - and thus far most devastating - attempt at the causing of an LV-Zero "Lifted Veil" scenario and the subsequent discrediting of the Foundation's mission. It is because of this risk presented by SCP-3539 that such aggressive containment measures of manifestations are employed, as the extremely widespread and unpredictable nature of it's propagation puts substantial pressure on the secrecy of both it and the anomalies contained thus far.

Addendum 3539-03: Incident log

[DATA CLASSIFIED TO LEVEL 3]

The following is a log of several major/relevant incidents involving SCP-3539. A full list of all SCP-3539 manifestations, before and after Foundation awareness, is provided to level 2 or higher staff by C/RA-13 senior researcher Dr. Travis upon request.

Incident 3539-Alpha “Challenger:” On 01/28/1986 at 16:39 UTC, during NASA shuttle orbiter mission STS-51-L, the agency’s Space Shuttle Challenger failed structurally 73 seconds into it’s ascent off the coast of Cape Canaveral, Florida, resulting in the death of all 7 crew on-board. This alone was not enough to warrant a Foundation investigation, however for several days prior to and leading up to the Challenger incident, NASA headquarters had experienced an abrupt string of server failures and poor workspace upkeep. It was this coupled with the failure of Challenger that prompted the Foundation to conduct an investigation. All NASA computer data was copied to Foundation storage drives, after which new operating software was provided, and after a thorough investigation turned up no evidence of potential anomalous involvement. It was only after the discovery of SCP-3539 as an anomaly on 05/09/2000 that it was discovered the Foundation-acquired NASA data had been infected with a previously unnoticed portion of code now identified as the HAVOC variant of SCP-3539. It is generally accepted that numerous workers were affected in the days leading up to the incident and that at an indeterminate point the Challenger shuttle was deliberately sabotaged, making this among the most publicly known Foundation incidents to date.

Incident 3539-Lambda: On 05/09/2000 shortly after 22:00 local time, the power grid for the Southern half of Portugal failed suddenly, affecting the entire population of Lisbon as well as other nearby areas. Embedded Foundation officer █████ ████, who was part of the initial security reinforcement and investigation in Lisbon, hailed Foundation attention when it was discovered that the outage was caused by deliberate sabotage of a transformer in a switching station - the perpetrator of which had been the recipient of an anonymous email only hours prior which was found to be what would then be classified as SCP-3539 code of the CULTIVATE variant that had infected the saboteur’s device after being opened and changed into an at-the-time unknown variant now classified HAVOC. This marked the first identification of SCP-3539 as an anomaly, leading to Incident Alpha’s reclassification as an anomalous occurrence as well as numerous previous cases prior which had before been deemed isolated incidents, and the start of the Foundation’s ongoing containment effort. After cooperation with the Portuguese government a cover story involving an unfortunate wildlife accident was implemented and all data pertaining to SCP-3539 was seized.

Incident 3539-Upsilon: On ██/██/2002 at approximately 15:42 UTC, all contact was lost with Containment Site-29 in █████ █████, Nevada, following a brief increase in atypical behavior and poor workstation attendance reports. MTF Zulu-22 (“Killzone”) and Omicron-08 (“Game Plan”) were dispatched from neighboring Site-██ to determine the cause of the loss of contact. Upon arrival, Site-29 appeared to be unchanged. However upon entering, it was discovered that the entirety of the site's staff had self-terminated by various means. As per protocol, the location of Site-29’s isolated black box vault was decoded and provided to the response team. Examination of the last hour of stored black box data revealed no irregularities with the exception of the ASCEND and CULTIVATE variants of SCP-3539 code. Furthermore, Foundation personnel at ██ different sites later reported having received suspicious emails and messages over media within minutes of the loss of contact, which numerous Foundation cyber security bots were successful in flagging before SCP-3539 could be propagated further. All known transmitted files of SCP-3539 data were destroyed and a copy of the variant was put on a Foundation storage drive before the Site-29 data vault was incinerated. Containment procedures have since been updated.

Footnotes

1. Amnestic formulas utilizing the experimental Y-909 compound have proven particularly effective for this task, requiring less treatment time and largely reducing the intensity of post-SCP-3539 hypnosis side-effects.