Elusive13

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Safe Keter Safe

Special Containment Procedures: All instances of SCP-XXXX should be contained in an opaque box within a standard safe. No personnel shall be allowed access to any instance of the object for any reason other than testing. No personnel other than D-Class should view an instance of SCP-XXXX unless they have been diagnosed with aphantasia¹ and have received a perfect score of 12 in the VVIQ² at least three times at least one week apart. Personnel with aphantasia should be warned that the nature of SCP-XXXX is not fully understood and could still be dangerous to view.

Those who have viewed any instance of SCP-XXXX should not be allowed to describe its appearance. If necessary, they should be neutralized to keep them from doing so. Personnel should be quarantined for a total of 24 hours after viewing SCP-XXXX with no way to communicate with others.

Corpses of those killed by SCP-XXXX should not have an autopsy performed on them, and should be stored in the designated freezer. No one is permitted to access the freezer unless they are depositing a corpse.

Description: Due to its nature, a physical description of SCP-XXXX can not be provided. All that is known is that it is a non-sentient object smaller than 30x30x30 cm, and that it is a variation of an existing household object. Currently, it is believed that the effect caused by SCP-XXXX is triggered when a human visualizes the object. Humans who are affected by SCP-XXXX are thereafter designated SCP-XXXX-1. SCP-XXXX-1 will have a visually identical instance of SCP-XXXX created through unknown means within the occipital lobe³, killing them. The effect is not instant, and seems to occur between 45 and 1200 minutes (0.75 to 20 hours) after designation as SCP-XXXX-1.

Any person who views an instance of SCP-XXXX, a picture of it, or hear a description of it are to be considered SCP-XXXX-1 and quarantined until their death. Amnestics do not prevent the effects of SCP-XXXX.

Addendum XXXX.1: Timeline of Events Regarding SCP-XXXX
This is a simplified version of events and should be removed before publishing!!!
DONE - MTF team sent out after several strange deaths reported in Mérida, Venezuela
DONE - Deaths of all members of the MTF team other than two (one didn't see the object)
DONE - Discovery that the surviving MTF member probably survived due to their condition, aphantasia
DONE - Interview of surviving MTF member
DONE - Testing on D-Class commence… discovery of replication of SCP-XXXX inside occipital lobe, resulting in death of several doctors performing autopsy
DONE - Discovery that one does not need to have seen SCP-XXXX before to be affected by it.
6 - Concerns raised about SCP-XXXX being Keter level
7 - Interviews conducted about the physical characteristics of SCP-XXXX
8 - Discrete seizure of all [INFOHAZARD REMOVED] factories, worldwide. The Foundation takes control to ensure no products similar to SCP-XXXX are designed or created

+ Document XXXX.1 - Recovery Log

Recovery Log
Item Recovered: SCP-XXXX
Date: 16.07.2017
Location: ████████ ██████ in Mérida, Venezuela
MTF(s) Commissioned: MTF-XXX "PLACEHOLDER"
Other Personnel Commissioned: None
Civilians Involved: [Redacted]
Civilian Casualties: 9, [Civilian Names Redacted]
Personnel Casualties: 0 6, [PLACEHOLDER FOR NAMES]

Event Log:
11:04 MTF-XXX enters Mérida, Venezuela.
11:06 MTF-XXX reaches destination.
11:07 ████████ ██████ is breached.
11:15 Perimeter fully established and all civilians within detained.
11:18 Civilian ████████ ███████████ suddenly dies due to SCP-XXXX. The cause of death is not immediately apparent. Command is informed immediately.
11:21 Nineteen suspected anomalous objects, including SCP-XXXX, are seized.
11:27 All detained civilians are given amnestics.
11:29 Civilian █████ ███████████ suddenly dies due to SCP-XXXX.
11:31 After contacting command for instructions, MTF-XXX moves detained civilians into vehicles to quarantine at Site-██. Corpses of ████████ ███████████ and █████ ███████████ are also transported.
11:38 MTF-XXX departs. Local law enforcement is informed to hold the perimeter by MTF-XXX-Alpha under the guise of being part of the National Guard.
11:59 Civilian █████████ ████████ dies due to SCP-XXXX.
12:06 MTF-XXX-Delta dies due to SCP-XXXX.
13:21 Civilian ███ ███████ dies due to SCP-XXXX.
13:34 Civilian █████ ███████ dies due to SCP-XXXX.
14:02 MTF-XXX arrives at Site-██.

Notes:
Over the next sixteen hours, the four other civilians detained in the recovery and all members of MTF-XXX perished except for MTF-XXX-Bravo, MTF-XXX-Hotel, and MTF-XXX-India. As of 48 hours after the recovery, they are all still alive. Hotel and India had remained with the detained civilians and at the perimeter respectively and did not view SCP-XXXX in any way, nor did they hear a specific description of it. MTF-XXX-Bravo did view SCP-XXXX. Investigations are currently ongoing to determine the reason for Bravo's survival.

+ Document XXXX.2 - Medical Records of MTF-XXX-Bravo

Note: the following document was initially an addendum on the SCP-XXXX file. The information has since been added to the Description and is no longer needed as an addendum. The document is contained here for posterity.

Addendum XXXX.1: Medical Records of Eric Hernandez (MTF-XXX-Bravo)

[Extraneous information expunged]

22.10.2015: Eric Hernandez scores a 12 on the VVIQ test. Diagnosis of perfect aphantasia is given.

[Extraneous information expunged]

Note: no other member of MTF-XXX was diagnosed with aphantasia, nor were any civilians that were killed by it.

+ Document XXXX.3 - Interview Log

Interview Log
Interviewee: Eric Hernandez
Interviewer: Doctor Harmon
Date: 18.07.2017 5:12
Subject: SCP-XXXX
Notes: Due to the suspected nature of the objects, no visual recording of the interview was made. Instead, an audio recording was made and two security guards accompanied Doctor Harmon. All three reported that MTF-XXX-Bravo was completely calm the entire interview and did not show aggression, malice, or any anomalous effect. After the interview, Doctor Harmon and the security guards were quarantined for 48 hours. They showed no anomalous effects and haven't shown any since. Some extraneous dialogue (marked with an *) is removed since many of the objects were irrelevant.

>Begin recording<

Doctor Harmon: Hello, Mr. Hernandez. I'm here to talk to you about the objects you recovered on the sixteenth of this month in Mérida, Venezuela, although I have to establish a rule before we begin. At no point during this interview should you begin to describe the appearance of any object you collected in any way. I will ask you several questions about them, but I want you to give me the vaguest answers you possibly can. If I need something more specific, I'll let you know. Understand?

Eric Hernandez: Completely.

Harmon: If you begin to describe any object to an extent beyond what I ask of you will be immediately sedated and harshly reprimanded. Is that clear?

Hernandez: Yes.

Harmon: Before we begin, I have one question about your aphantasia. Would you say that it is impossible for you to visualize anything at all?

Hernandez: I've never been able to picture anything in my head. I've tried pretty hard, too.

Harmon: Can you think of any other effect that your aphantasia causes?

Hernandez: Nope.

Harmon: Alright, we'll begin. I'm going to give you the objects that were recovered and I'd like you to put each of them in a separate bag. Keep all of the objects behind the barrier on the table and let me know once you're done.

Doctor Harmon hands the recovery container and several opaque bags with labels. Eric Hernandez follows instructions as given.

Harmon: Alright. I'll begin. Firstly, do any of the objects appear to be alive?

Hernandez: Not at all.

Harmon: Ok. About how large is each object?

[Extraneous information removed]

Hernandez: Object 13 is pretty big, I'd say it's at least… how should I go about describing this?

Harmon: Tell me how long you think it is in the longest dimension, and that dimension only.

Hernandez: At least 15 centimeters, definitely no more than 30.

[Extraneous information removed]

Harmon: Do you notice anything anomalous about any of the objects, other than the fact that at least one somehow killed several civilians and most of MTF-XXX?

Hernandez: I don't see anything strange.

Harmon: Can you recognize any of the objects at all, or at least tell what they are or are supposed to be?

[Extraneous information removed]

Hernandez: I've never seen Object 12 in my life, but I can tell what it's supposed to be. Same goes for Object 13.

[Extraneous information removed]

Harmon: Alright, that's all I need from you.

Hernandez: Wait, doctor. Do you guys think I'm going to die? What are these things?

Silence for five seconds.

Harmon: We really don't know. I think you're going to be fine, though. We'll tell you more once we figure out how these work. Hell, we don't even know which one's anomalous.

Doctor Harmon exits the room.

>End recording<
*Extraneous dialogue removed before and after written statement

+ Document XXXX.4 - Testing Logs

Following the recovery of the items, several tests were underwent to determine which of the items were anomalous and how they worked.

Abbreviated Test Log
Tests XXXX.1 - XXXX.38
Date: 20.07.2017
Performed by: [Names Expunged]
Subject(s): 38 D-Class personnel (1 per test), none diagnosed with aphantasia
Procedure: In each test, the subject was given the tested object in an opaque container. They were told to remove the object from the container, memorize its physical appearance, then return the object to the container. The container was then removed and put into storage. Subjects were then quarantined for 48 hours. Each object was tested twice.
Results: Both of the subjects assigned to the object that was then designated Object 13 perished after approximately 7 hours 14 minutes and 8 hours 44 minutes, seemingly due to a stroke. No other subject died. Object 13 was then designated SCP-XXXX. The remaining objects were put in storage, still in opaque containers as most likely non-anomalous objects. An autopsy was later performed on the corpses⁴.
Notes: After testing, all surviving subjects were given the VVIQ and all showed no signs of aphantasia.

Abbreviated Test Log
Test XXXX.39 - XXXX.40
Date: 23.07.2017
Performed by: Eric Hernandez
Subject(s): 2 D-Class personnel (1 per test), neither diagnosed with aphantasia
Procedure: Mr. Hernandez described the appearance of SCP-XXXX to the subject without actually showing it to the subject. Subject was then quarantined for 48 hours.
Results: Both subjects died of a stroke, approximately 4 hours 7 minutes and 19 hours 28 minutes after the test. No autopsy was performed.
Notes: The results of this test seem to suggest that SCP-XXXX's effect is in fact triggered by visualization.

+ Document XXXX.5 - Incident XXXX-A

Incident Report
Incident XXXX-A
Date of Incident: 21.07.2017
Object(s) Involved: SCP-XXXX
Civilian Casualties: None
Personnel Casualties: Doctor ███████, Doctor ██████████████
Type of Incident: Unexpected casualties, no breach
Description: Following test XXXX.25, a routine autopsy was performed. During it, a new instance of SCP-XXXX was found inside the patient's occipital lobe. The doctors were initially unaware of the properties of the object and it was placed within an envelope.
Actions Taken: Upon reading the report, researchers realized what the removed object must have been and contained the envelope. The doctors were quarantined and died about 7 hours and 9 hours after the autopsy took place. The recording of the autopsy was deleted, all planned autopsies on victims of SCP-XXXX were cancelled, and Special Containment Procedures were updated.

Addendum XXXX.2: Reclassification of SCP-XXXX
Note: Probably remove the emails

Sender: Researcher Maha Aziz
Recipient: Head Researcher John Murphy
Subject: Possibility for Containment Breach
Date: 22.04.2014 18:22:34

Researcher Murphy,

I feel that SCP-XXXX could be more difficult to contain than we thought. Although XXXX can only replicate itself when someone creates a mental image of it, what could happen if someone accidentally created an identical copy of it? What if it was mass distributed without anyone noticing anything was wrong until thousands of deaths have occurred?

It's a long shot, but I am genuinely concerned that there could be a containment breach at any point. If there was a breach, autopsies would probably be performed and more deaths would follow. I think it could also lead to the public discovering the object.

Thank you for your consideration.

-Researcher Aziz

Sender: Head Researcher John Murphy
Recipient: Researcher Maha Stafford
Subject: Re: Possibility for Containment Breach
Date: 23.04.2014 8:14:56

Researcher Aziz,

Thank you for your concern. I think that to make a fully informed decision, we will need to know more about the physical characteristics of SCP-XXXX. I'm going to raise this concern to Site Administrator ████████ and I'll update you as the situation develops.

Best regards,
Head Researcher John Murphy

On April 22, 2014, Researcher Maha Stafford raised concerns about the possible mass production of objects extremely similar or exactly the same as SCP-XXXX, accidentally or otherwise. Head Researcher John Murphy escalated her concerns, proposing the following plan:

Official Proposal
Author: John Murphy, Head Researcher of SCP-XXXX
Date: 24.04.2014

Firstly, a new task force led by Eric Hernandez will be established. All members of the team will have perfect aphantasia. Two members of the task force each will be given a high position at several companies that could produce products identical to SCP-XXXX. Their job there will be to prevent an object too similar to SCP-XXXX to ever be created. They will, of course, be authorized to use lethal force if necessary.

Hernandez has confirmed that the object is a variation of an everyday object. For the safety of those without aphantasia, nobody outside of the task force, including myself, will be given more information than that and what is currently on file, unless they need emergency reinforcement, in which case the reinforcements would probably learn a little bit about the object.

Thank you for your time.

Footnotes

1. a condition where one does not possess a functioning "mind's eye" and thus cannot visualize objects, people, places or events

2. a questionnaire used to determine if one has aphantasia

3. the visual processing center of the human brain

4. see Document XXXX.5