Per 
Note: Formerly Safe
SCP-5038 Upon Discovery
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-5038 is to be surrounded by two metal fences, starting from its point of origin in ███████, ███████, and ending at ████, ███████. The fences on both sides are to be located 10 metres away from their respective banks and are to be monitored daily for breaches. Any foundation personnel or civilians seen inside the waters of SCP-5038 are to be restrained and retrieved before they can be fully submerged.
If the subject is successfully retrieved, they are to be terminated, after a sufficient interview, under guidelines GL-45 for ethical termination. If the subject cannot be retrieved in time and is fully submerged in SCP-5038 all personnel on-site are to execute recontainment protocol 5038-RP-1 (see attached document)
After event 5038-1989-13, anomalous effects of SCP-5038 have ceased to manifest. All personnel assigned to SCP-5038 are to deconstruct monitoring sites 5038-Alpha through 5038-Eta and follow standard protocol SP-281 for de-establishing Foundation presence upon termination of environmental anomalies.
Description: SCP-5038 is a river stretching from ███████, ███████, to ████, ███████. SCP-5038 is that of any common river, with the exception of its seemingly opaque, murky-brown waters, and the odd scent of green tea that emanates from it. The river appears to be constantly in spate in relation to previously documented water levels; it is currently undetermined if this is another anomalous property, or simply an effect of the local geography. The river exudes no other anomalous features until a sapient entity is introduced to its waters.
Through several tests, it has been concluded that when an entity of qualifying conditions comes in contact with water of SCP-5038, individuals are able to hear a persuasive voice promising them "a wonderful experience akin to heaven" if they allow themselves to be fully submerged. At this point, entities are designated as SCP-5038-1. If any entities are fully submerged, they are not to be approached until the transformation into SCP-5038-2 is complete. [Taking roughly 10 minutes]. Submerged entities are significantly altered by SCP-5038, exhibiting unusual bone and flesh growths, pallid skin color, sunken-in eye sockets or lack of eyes completely, and gold patches of gelatinous skin on the body that faintly pulsates. All instances of SCP-5038-2 are amicable, easy to contain, and will try to divert all conversation back to positive aspects of SCP-5038. They seem to retain their original personality and mannerisms despite their vast physical changes, which they refuse to acknowledge.
Instances of SCP-5038-2 who are asked general questions about SCP-5038 will answer with varying degrees of coherency and partiality, but will remain positive. However, when asking about SCP-5038's purpose, they will begin to exhibit great distress, and may even cry, pleading, in a rare moment of negativity about SCP-5038, to retrieve their bodies from the riverbed and grant them freedom from the accursed/damned/poisonous river1 . After no more than 15 minutes, any instances of SCP-5038-2 exhibiting this behavior will abruptly cease negative emotional responses and resume talking positively about SCP-5038. Currently, instances of SCP-5038-2 cannot survive for more than two hours outside of SCP-5038 due to the increasing levels of pain that ultimately results in the death of SCP-5038-2 instances. However, they are not allowed to come in contact with SCP-5038 at any time (See Test-Log-005). Before mandatory ethical termination, all instances of SCP-5038-2 will repeatedly chant "I am not who you think I am. All truth lies at the bottom. SCP-5038 welcomes you with wide, open, arms." until death.
Addendum 01: Personnel with proper clearance, see Test-Log-003.
Discovery: SCP-5038 was initially brought to the Foundation's attention after reports of a large cult, whose members were those of missing persons presumed dead, in the ███████ area broke national headlines. During inceptive containment efforts on 12/██/██, two foundation personnel were fully submerged in SCP-5038 and were contained until 02/██/██, upon when they were terminated ethically. Other instances of SCP-5038-2 were found during this period and terminated, some being briefly interviewed, due to the possibility of a mass containment breach, and to quell local rumors about missing/dead family members returning. The Foundation publically declared the "large cult" an effect of mass hysteria due to a psychedelic effect produced by an abundance of toxic chemicals in the area. Shortly after they designated the river as a permanent Hot-zone, announcing that trespassers will be prosecuted.
Interview Records of SCP-5038-1 and SCP-5038-2 Instances
Addendum 02: Due to audio file corruption and lost transcripts, there are currently only 10 interviews on file. Such files and instances of SCP-5038-2 have been renumbered in relation to the current number of files.
Incident Logs of SCP-5038-2 and SCP-5038-2 Instances
WARNING: THE FOLLOWING FILE IS LEVEL 3 CLASSIFIED
ANY ATTEMPT TO ACCESS THIS FILE WITHOUT LEVEL 3/5038 AUTHORIZATION WILL BE LOGGED AND WILL LEAD TO IMMEDIATE DISCIPLINARY ACTION.
SCiPNET Login
Recontainment Protocol 5038-RP-1
In the incident that any qualifying entity is fully submerged in SCP-5038, all members on site are to follow this protocol for recontainment.
- On-site guards are to secure the perimeter and prevent anyone except authorized personnel, by any means, from entering within 5 metres of SCP-5038.
- Authorized personnel, currently Dr. Br███████████ and Dr. Ge███, are to equip proper protective gear, hazmat suits, and noise-canceling headphones.
- Authorized personnel are then to approach SCP-5038-2 after the transformation is complete, and attempt containment. If subject is amicable as usual, restraining SCP-5038-2 to the nearby interview set up is allowed. If for any reason, SCP-5038-2 resists, authorized personnel are to slowly back away from the subject and allow on-site guards to terminate SCP-5038-2 as quickly as possible.
- If usual containment succeeds, either Dr. Br███████████ or Dr. Ge███ is to start the interview process with the current instance of SCP-5038-2.
- Any unusual behavior exhibited by SCP-5038-2 is to be responded with immediate termination.
Event-1989-13: During routine testing, an instance of SCP-5038-2 exhibits unusual dialogue, and behavior of kneeling before Dr. Br███████████.
Dr. Br███████████ makes the decision to suspend termination until further notice. SCP-5038-2, looking up at Dr. Br███████████ and still in a kneeling position, quietly relays a message. Dr. Br███████████ describes it as such: “SCP-5038 is pleased with all those who came to visit. Know their lives were not in vain, but used for a greater, most wonderful, cause. Welcome with open arms, the culmination of our pain and earthly desires. [DATA EXPUNGED] is coming.”. A visible change comes over SCP-5038-2, a scowl comes over its face and it stands up, attempting to grab Dr. Br███████████ by the collar, but lacks the strength to properly pull him closer. Dr. Br███████████ exhibits mild shock at this.
Audio-Log-1989-13:
Dr. Br███████████: “Exactly what do you think you’re doing?”
SCP-5038: “I will show you what I am… Come closer to me. Please…Let me show you.”
SCP-5038 leans closer to Dr. Br███████████
Dr. Br███████████: “What are you-”
SCP-5038: [UNINTELLIGBLE]
Dr. Br███████████: “…”
SCP-5038: “Visions of untold splendor, a heavenly experience. Visions of death, a suffocating experience. I chose to lure them in with honey-sweet lies and gave them rotting fruit in return. I finally amassed enough of your foolish people so I could live. Let me take your life as well. You'll give it up, won't you?"
Dr. Br███████████: “What…”
Dr. Br███████████ appears to be in a daze for a moment before properly reacting.
Dr. Br███████████: “No…Get..Get out of my head!”
Dr. Br███████████ shoves SCP-5038 onto the floor, and rescinds his suspension of termination and SCP-5038 is subsequently shot multiple times. A black, viscous, sludge seeps out of its wounds in a high volume.
SCP-5038: “So many of you gave in…what makes you any different? You should’ve…sacrificed yourself for the…greater good. For all those lost. You deserved…all that punishment…K█████.”
Dr. Br███████████: “Die already.”
SCP-5038 smiles as it is repeatedly shot until all movement ceases. Dr. Br███████████ is immediately checked for possible SCP-5038-3 contamination and after being cleared, is given counseling. After the termination of SCP-5038, the river drained of its own accord over the course of 3 weeks, revealing a total of ████ bodies, most maimed beyond recognition. Those who could be recognized were confirmed to have once been an instance of SCP-5038-2. There were no matching bodies to any instances of SCP-5038-1. It is theorized that instances of SCP-5038-1 could've been treated using Class C amnestics and therapy. It is entirely possible this way of rehabilitating instances of SCP-5038-1 was blocked out by an anomalous effect of SCP-5038, as this “mind fog” effect was shown in the proceedings before SCP-5038’s termination.
Addendum 03: Preluding termination, SCP-5038 has anomalously altered all interview and test logs, including the deletion of at least 70%. These changes remain and cannot be adjusted.
Are you [EXPLETIVE] kidding me? An anomalous effect? Mind fog? The truth is that none of us wanted to deal with it and just followed protocol like sheep instead of trying to save them! That thing fed off of fear and desire, it had a big [EXPLETIVE] feast every day from us! All we did was give it what it wanted! How many died just to fuel it?! -Dr. Sa█████.
The protocol was instated in order to keep SCP-5038 from breaching containment. As far as we knew, rehabilitation of SCP-5038-1 instances was impossible and advised against due to a possible breach via the established coercive nature of SCP-5038-2 instances that we assumed extended to SCP-5038-1 in some way. We did what was best. Please keep your personal opinions to yourself. -Dr. Br███████████.
