HigherGround

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX is currently safely contained, along with all 19 captured instances of SCP-XXXX-1, within Site-356, a specialized containment facility built for this sole purpose. It is not currently known how many living instances of SCP-XXXX-1 still exist outside of Foundation custody, due to limited information on how many were initially created prior to SCP-XXXX's recovery, and the difficulty of identifying the remains of deceased instances. However, until the number of unexplained disappearances in the general ████████ area returns to normal projected levels, uncontained SCP-XXXX-1 instances beyond SCP-XXXX-1A1 are assumed to still be at large, and any sightings of creatures matching the known common characteristics of SCP-XXXX-1 instances are to be followed up on, investigated, and suppressed immediately, with any deaths caused by them attributed to wild animal attacks. Unless wild instances of SCP-XXXX-1 exhibit additional anomalous properties beyond their anatomical makeup, they are to be considered expendable, and destroyed on sight.

Until declared otherwise by the O5 council, the location, capture and containment of SCP-XXXX-1A1 is to be considered the number one priority of Mobile Task Force Gamma-12 (“Lux Aeterna”). It is not fully understood how intelligent SCP-XXXX-1A1 is, how much it knows about our operations, or how far it will go to achieve its goals. For this reason, Site-356's defenses must not be compromised under any circumstances whatsoever. SCP-XXXX-1A1's single-minded obsession with the destruction of SCP-XXXX is the closest thing to a “containment procedure” for SCP-XXXX-1A1 that the Foundation can manage at the moment. Should it achieve this goal, and should it then choose to direct its attention to the Foundation at large, the damage it could inflict upon Foundation facilities, staff, and SCPs would be incalculable.

Site-356 has been built to the following specifications:

• Site-356 consists of a building within a building, with the external building classified as “The Shell”, and the internal building classified as “The Core”.

• The Core is a 1-story, 50-room complex built to all Foundation standards for the housing of hostile, high-risk, living SCPs. In addition to these standards, the walls of all SCP containment cells within The Core intended to contain SCP-XXXX-1 instances have spotlights mounted at the edges between floor and wall, wall and wall, and wall and ceiling, so that all four walls and the ceiling may continuously be lit up completely while the floor and central airspace of the cell may remain in darkness. Further mounted lights on the ceiling have been installed with total control over brightness level by controls outside of the room, so that any experimentally created instances of SCP-XXXX-1 may be created pre-contained in their cells.

• The Shell is completely hollow, and exceeds The Core's dimensions by 60 meters each. Its interior walls and ceiling are fitted with enough spotlights and UV lights to be capable of lighting up everything within The Shell (including the entire exterior of The Core) to a light level and UV radiation level as consistent as possible with the conditions of broad daylight. This level of light and UV radiation is to be maintained within the entirety of The Shell at all times, and at all costs.

• A rotating 24-hour staff of electricians is to be on site at all times to quickly address any and all issues with on-site lighting and wiring.

• The exterior ground surrounding The Shell, the outsides of the walls and roof of The Shell, any and all exposed wires on the outside of The Shell, and the airspace above The Shell, must all be completely illuminated by spotlights at all times. External security's entire patrol path around the perimeter of The Shell must also be completely illuminated in this fashion. Any light failure at any part of this setup, or any other, must be reported immediately for repair and/or replacement.

• All on-site security patrolling this perimeter, in addition to those stationed within The Shell, must be equipped with lamps, high-powered portable UV flood lights and LED-embedded body armor.

• The exterior of The Shell has been built to double as a faraday cage to protect the circuitry and lights within both The Core and The Shell from electromagnetic damage.

• All light bulbs used in the illumination of any part of Site-356 must be changed regularly and cycled out rotationally to prevent more than one light in any one room from going out at any one time.

• Every light socket in the facility must have its own 2-hour supply of backup power and be designed to alert on-site maintenance whenever it has been cut off from the central power supply.

• Due to the documented behavioral patterns of SCP-XXXX-1A1 and its clear desire to breach Site-356, reliable, continued connection to any external power grid is believed to be impossible. As such, the site must have no fewer than three separate, independent, internal sources of power, any one of which must be capable of keeping the entire facility running at minimum necessary capacity for no fewer than 15 days without supply deliveries. The failure of any one of these power sources is to immediately be proceeded by switching to the next available source of power.

SCP-XXXX itself is currently housed within Site-356 in a single room of standard Foundation size for humanoid SCPs, which leads directly to the UV-lit exterior of The Core by way of its single door. The lights in this room are to be kept on at all times, and no means is to be constructed to turn them off for any purpose. The room is to be completely featureless, with the exception of a mattress, built directly into the floor, and a television screen installed directly into one of the walls of the room, with built-in camera to allow video communication to and from the room. Owing to SCP-XXXX's spotless behavior record, and upon recommendation from its therapist, this screen has been connected to a television streaming service and gaming system, and SCP-XXXX is permitted the standard request budget for cooperative humanoid SCPs with which to request games, movies, etc., for use with the system.

Any bathroom designated for SCP-XXXX's use is to have all exposed plumbing, ventilation, and other apertures illuminated as far as can be observed from within the room. Any bathroom that does not meet these requirements for whatever reason is to be kept from SCP-XXXX's access for as long as this is the case.

Whenever SCP-XXXX is brought to any location other than its room, its bathroom, The Shell's illuminated interior, or secured testing chambers, it is to be blindfolded at all times and escorted by the hand.

Aside from its clothing, SCP-XXXX has been permitted exactly three personal effects, which are all to be contained in a pouch attached to a harness on its torso and attached to the inside of said pouch by cords no more than 1 meter in length each:

• A high-powered flashlight, with lantern mode and a setting to emit UV light.

• A face mask, to be used to aid in sleeping in full light conditions and transportation to and through unsecured areas.

• A video game controller, modified to double as a television remote, for use with the aforementioned video screen.

SCP-XXXX is not permitted any other physical possessions or furniture for its room under any circumstances, and to date has not requested any.

SCP-XXXX is not considered to be an escape risk, and is entirely compliant and cooperative with all containment protocols and testing. It does so for its own safety, as well as in the hope that assisting the Foundation in its study may allow for the discovery of a cure for its condition and a way to non-lethally reverse its anomalous effects. All Foundation staff interacting with SCP-XXXX are to keep any personal or professional opinions they may have about the likelihood of this outcome to themselves.

Response Team RT-XXXX must be on standby at all times in the event of a containment breach. Should a containment breach occur at night, helicopters equipped with spotlights are to be deployed to light up a containment circle around the facility, and “Operation: FLASHBANG", is to be executed immediately.

Proper protocol in the event that SCP-XXXX must for any reason be evacuated from Site-356 can be found in document XXXX-Z. All staff are to be trained and drilled in the execution of these protocols before being allowed to work at the facility in any capacity.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a prepubescent Caucasian male, with red hair and blue eyes, by the name of Linus █████. As of the time of writing, it is 10 years of age, having been born on ██████, 2010, and stands at 138 cm tall. Thorough physical examinations conducted on a yearly basis since its recovery two years ago have not revealed any anomalous properties in its appearance or its anatomy.

SCP-XXXX's anomalous effect manifests when SCP-XXXX is visually exposed to low-light conditions. Any poorly-illuminated plant, animal, human, inanimate object, or gathered collection thereof that is subjected to prolonged exposure to SCP-XXXX's field of vision, without being closer than approximately 1.21 meters away from any part of SCP-XXXX's body, has a chance of spontaneously transforming into an anomalous living creature, hereafter referred to as SCP-XXXX-1.

The transformation is barely, if at all, noticeable from the perspective of SCP-XXXX. All instances of SCP-XXXX-1 tend to be visually indistinguishable from what they looked like to SCP-XXXX at the light level they were viewed at when the transformation took place. As a result, transformations become more drastic and pronounced the poorer the light conditions the observed objects are placed in, and in certain cases, exposure to absolute darkness has caused SCP-XXXX to create instances of SCP-XXXX-1 out of thin air with no visual stimulus prompting the transformation at all. This anomalous effect is entirely involuntary and uncontrollable on SCP-XXXX's part, as has been made evident by corroborated testimony and multiple experiments.

Probability of transformation is increased drastically if the darkened mass being observed appears, from SCP-XXXX's perspective, to superficially form features such as eyes, teeth, claws, or other features typically associated with living creatures. While this would suggest the phenomenon is akin to a reality-warping sense of pareidolia, testing has shown that changes in SCP-XXXX's mental state (from chemically-induced states of heightened or deadened emotional responses, to near-unconscious trances) have had no effect whatsoever on the frequency or nature of transformations. In addition, post-experiment interviews and initial post-recovery testimony have revealed that in some instances, the resulting creature was not what SCP-XXXX thought it was seeing at all, indicating that, whatever manner of intelligent image association may be involved in the transformation process, the phenomenon occurs wholly independent of SCP-XXXX's own mind.

SCP-XXXX-1 instances all vary wildly in shape, size, appearance, intelligence, susceptibility to conventional weapons, and most notably, anomalous properties. Most anomalous properties only extend as far as violations of the square-cube law, or anomalously high structural integrity of bodyparts. However, certain instances of SCP-XXXX-1 have demonstrated entirely new anomalous properties wholly independent from their biology and physiology.

Despite their drastically varying characteristics, however, all known instances of SCP-XXXX-1 have demonstrated the following traits in common:

1: A violent, predatory hostility to human life. This mental state occurs regardless of whatever the emotional state or disposition of any living creatures used in their creation happened to be. Instances of SCP-XXXX-1 will attempt to kill any human presented to it through whatever means are biologically available to them. While instances with sharp teeth have been known to eat flesh when granted the opportunity, no instance of SCP-XXXX-1 has ever been shown to require sustenance of any kind to survive.

2: An intense aversion to light. All known instances of SCP-XXXX-1 have been shown to be either physically or psychologically incapable of entering, under their own power, any space illuminated to more than approximately 10 lux. They also demonstrate an inability to perform any action that they are aware would result in them being exposed to such light levels afterwards, such as breaking down a physical barrier that they know is illuminated on the other side. Any instances of SCP-XXXX-1 that are forcibly introduced to such light levels or higher are noticeably hindered in terms of coordination, sight, movement speed, and balance, and are filled with an overpowering compulsion to retreat into a less illuminated space. Whether inside of light or out, any anomalous properties the instances possess cannot effect an area outside their own body with an illumination level exceeding 10 lux.

3: A violent allergic reaction to sunlight. Instances of SCP-XXXX-1 will expire within 10 to 30 seconds of continuous exposure to broad daylight. UV light has a similar, though weaker effect, on average taking twice as long. Research into why the UV radiation from the sun is more potent than equivalent UV radiation from artificial sources, or what other property of the sun's rays is adding to the effect, is ongoing and currently inconclusive.

All terminated instances of SCP-XXXX-1, whether they were destroyed via UV rays or other more conventional means, will immediately revert back to their original, pre-transformation state, with the object or objects the SCP-XXXX-1 instance was made out of being devoid of any damage the corresponding parts of the creature may have sustained during its time as an instance of SCP-XXXX-1. Any living organisms that comprised the instance's form will be similarly undamaged, but all vital signs and brain functions will have ceased. Repeated attempts to resuscitate such organisms have all proven ineffective.

SCP-XXXX was initially recovered at 11AM on November 1st, 2017, in the town of ██████████████, USA. Foundation operatives were alerted by standard foundation keyword monitoring to an incident surrounding an unexplained town-wide blackout and the deaths of all 187 residents within a █ block radius of SCP-XXXX's residence, with the exception of SCP-XXXX itself.

Instances of SCP-XXXX-1 created before recovery are labeled with the designation "1A", while instances of SCP-XXXX-1 created after recovery are labeled with the designation "1B".

What follows is a brief list of sample instances of SCP-XXXX-1 that SCP-XXXX has been observed to create during controlled testing:

Experiment 1: SCP-XXXX was taken to an empty SCP-XXXX-1 containment cell, in which had been placed a pile of four green bath towels, arranged such that the folds and layering of the pile created a rough approximation of a sad face. SCP-XXXX was placed directly in the open doorway, with the primary steel door open, but the secondary bulletproof glass door closed. SCP-XXXX was then instructed to remove its blindfold, and stare at the pile of towels as the overhead lights gradually dimmed to █ lux. The walls and ceiling remained illuminated.
Result: Approximately 3.5 seconds after the overhead lights fell to █ lux, the pile of towels transformed into SCP-XXXX-1B1, a blob-shaped creature with shaggy green hair all over its body. It proceeded to slowly move along the floor via locomotion similar to a slug, while letting out ragged, pained-sounding breaths with a deep voice. After approximately 7.9 seconds, it turned to stare directly at SCP-XXXX. It then proceeded to open its mouth, revealing human-like gums with what appeared to be dozens of shards of glass poking out to form teeth. The gums were visibly bleeding. SCP-XXXX-1B1 then proceeded to inhale deeply, at which point loud gusts of wind began to be heard, and test chamber equipment picked up pressure changes consistent with the creation of a large vacuum, suggesting SCP-XXXX-1B1 was attempting to suck SCP-XXXX into its open mouth, through the bulletproof glass. Despite inhaling, however, the sounds produced by SCP-XXXX-1B1 during this process were that of a loud, deep, continuous scream, as if in intense pain. Due to the wall of light separating the doorway from the inner chamber, the anomalous suction was neutralized at the doorway, the glass did not break, and SCP-XXXX was not sucked in.

Experiment 2: The procedure of Experiment 1 was repeated, with the towels being replaced by a life-size cardboard cut out of a front-view silhouette of a wolf. The wolf cutout was then cut into rings and spaced at appropriate distances from the door to give the illusion of a full 3d model when viewed from the front.
Result: Approximately 6.3 seconds after the overhead lights fell to ██ lux, the cutout transformed into SCP-XXXX-1B2, a full, life-size, jet-black wolf, with red eyes, red teeth, and red, bone-like ridges protruding from its fur and flesh in various areas, perpendicular to SCP-XXXX's original vantage point, corresponding to where the various rings of cardboard had originally been. SCP-XXXX-1B2 then immediately charged at SCP-XXXX before recoiling as it came into contact with the wall of light.

Experiment 3: No object was placed in the room. The overhead lights were turned completely off, as were the lights of the rear wall of the cell, leaving SCP-XXXX with an uninterrupted view of total darkness all the way to the back of the room.
Result: Initially none. Then, approximately 375.3 seconds after commencement of testing, an unknown, guttural sound began to emanate from the cell. Researcher █████ promptly reactivated the lights on the cell's back wall, revealing the silhouette of SCP-XXXX-1B3, which then let out a reptilian scream and charged at the cell door, revealing it to be a .5m x .5m x .5m floating eyeball, with tendrils resembling the extraocular muscles, two of which ended in red, scythe-like, 1.2 meter long blades made of what appeared to be sharpened bone.

Addendum: [Optional additional paragraphs]

Interview Template

Interviewed: SCP-XXXX.

Interviewer: Dr. Rachel Masters.

Foreword: [Small passage describing the interview]

<Begin Log>

Dr. Rachel Masters: Alright. Let's… take this slowly. Could you just start off by telling us your name?

SCP-XXXX: …

Dr. Rachel Masters: …Sweetheart. It's okay. Nothing's going to hurt you in here.

SCP-XXXX: …That's what everyone says. Mom. Dad. Cindy. The police. Everyone. Every single adult says that. Every single time I tell them about the monsters, they always say that! "Nothing's going to hurt you. I'll protect you." …But they never mean it. None of you ever mean it. You don't say it because you're brave, or strong, or smart, or anything like that! You're saying it because you don't believe me! You're not going to protect me! You're going to pat me on the head, ruffle my hair, and then you're going to die like everyone else!

Dr. Rachel Masters: …Could you do something real quick?

SCP-XXXX: (Sniff) …What?

Dr. Rachel Masters: Something really simple. Do you see the little symbol on my coat? Do you see the letters?

SCP-XXXX: …Yes.

Dr. Rachel Masters: Do you know what the P stands for?

SCP-XXXX: …What?

Dr. Rachel Masters: It stands for “Protect”. Because that's my job. You see, Linus… I know the monsters are real. I've seen them with my own eyes. Hundreds of them. All of us have. And what we do, every single day, is we take those big, scary monsters… and we beat them up. We beat them up with huge weapons, and super secret spy gadgets, and science. And we put those big, scary monsters in tiny little cages, where they can't hurt anyone else ever again. And then we study them. And learn everything we can. So we can make even more stuff, and stop the next one just a little bit faster.

SCP-XXXX: You… you're… you fight these things? You study them?

Dr. Rachel Masters: Yes. Yes we do.

SCP-XXXX: Can… can you fix me? Can you fix everyone I… …Can you bring back the people I… hurt?

Dr. Rachel Masters: …That's… that's the plan. Once we learn enough to know how. But we need your help with that. Now. Like I said. Nothing is going to hurt you in here. And it's not because there's no such thing as monsters. It's because you're going to tell me everything you know about what happened to you on Halloween night, and I'm going to believe you, no matter how crazy other people may think you are. If you tell me these things can't touch paper, or that one of them melted when you threw a grape snowcone at them, then in two hours there's going to be a platoon of two dozen men in paper armor, armed with guns that can shoot snow cones hard enough to punch through a car door, and you better bet your butt that those snowcones will be grape flavored. And a few hours from now, when the sun sets again? We're going to know everything we need to know to keep you safe.

SCP-XXXX: …(Inhale) …Linus. My name is Linus █████.

Dr. Rachel Masters: Thank you, Linus. I know you've been very brave already. I just need you to be brave a little while longer. Now… can you tell us how this all started? When was the first moment things started getting… scary?

SCP-XXXX: …It was two days before Halloween. Just after sunset.

Dr. Rachel Masters: Around six then?

SCP-XXXX: …I think so. Mom and Dad were in the TV room, and they told me to call Lady in… Lady's… that's my dog's name.

Dr. Rachel Masters:

SCP-XXXX:

Dr. Rachel Masters:

SCP-XXXX:

Dr. Rachel Masters:

SCP-XXXX:

Dr. Rachel Masters:

SCP-XXXX:

Dr. Rachel Masters:

SCP-XXXX:

Dr. Rachel Masters:

SCP-XXXX:

<End Log, [optional time info]>

Closing Statement: [Small summary and passage on what transpired afterward]