SCP-

CAPTION-GOES-HERE

Item #: SCP-[NUMBER]

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation web crawler Mnemosyne-EXE is to monitor video streaming websites for any instances of, mentions of, or videos containing instances of SCP-[NUMBER]. In the event that an SCP-[NUMBER] instance is found, it is to be removed immediately. Should any person or persons have been exposed to SCP-[NUMBER], Mobile Task Force Mu-4 ("Debuggers") are to locate those individuals as quickly as possible and administer class-C amnestics. A cover story has been implemented linking the video to epileptic seizures and warning the public to avoid watching it due to health risks.

Should any individual progress to Stage 5 of SCP-[NUMBER] infection before they can be located, then any individuals they come into contact with are to be questioned, and, depending on the nature of their interaction, administered class-c amnestics. All known surviving family, friends and associates of the late Julia Zielinski are to be monitored in case they are approached by Stage 5 individuals.

Description: SCP-[NUMBER] is a streaming video titled "A Life in 10 Minutes," with a runtime of nine minutes and fifty-nine seconds. It was first posted on the video streaming site YouTube on 2020/05/21, by a user account called "Me."¹ The streaming video depicts the edge of what appears to be a hospital bed, presumably shown from the point of view of the occupant, though it is angled in such a way so that no part of the occupant is seen. The bed itself is in a room superficially resembling the palliative care unit of a hospital; however, no discernable markings are visible on the walls that would identify which hospital it might be a part of, and the room itself is bare except for a few empty chairs lined against the walls. No sound is present on the video, save for the constant beep of an EKG in the background. At no point during the video's run time does the scene change.

The anomalous quality of the video manifests itself in a memetic effect imparted on the viewer. The effect itself is divided into the following stages:

• Stage 1: After viewing the video for one minute, the viewer will report feelings of dread, unease, and abandonment, as well as a feeling that "something is wrong" with them. Any who cease viewing the video after its full run time has elapsed, or who skip through parts of it, will not suffer any further ill consequences. Any who watch the video through to its full run time, however, will go on to experience Stage 2.
• Stage 2: The affected individual will experience a momentary feelings of dizziness, confusion and nausea, roughly lasting anywhere from five to ten minutes.
• Stage 3: After this period has passed, viewers will suddenly remember incidents that they claim to be from their past, and that they had "forgotten" until now. Such memories will often conflict with all of their previous memories, often memories may cause psychological and emotional distress to the affected individual.

The "new" memories that affected individuals experience may include, but are not limited to:

• Relationships, and breakups, with people they had no prior knowledge of having met. These will include memories of at least one male marital partner, even if the individual has never been married, or is a heterosexual male.
• Childhood memories that contradict their own. These memories may include those of parents whose descriptions do not match those of the viewer's biological parents
• Memories of having anywhere from between one and two children; in some cases, there will also be memories of one of those children having died.
• Memories of having been physically or sexually assaulted at some point in their lives, by a person whom they had previously trusted
• Memories of having suffered from heavy substance abuse at some point in their lives. Affected individuals will exhibit physical symptoms similar to those of a person recovering from alcohol or drug addiction, even if they have no known history of substance abuse.
• Memories of strong religious belief; in many instances the nature of this religious belief is vague or unclear; 38% of all cases, however, demonstrate clear memories of Roman Catholic faith and observation, even if the individual in question is not Catholic or even has a known history of religious observance.

In all cases, the names of individuals featured in these memories will be identical, and in roughly 65% of instances at this stage, the viewer's new memories will also involve them being a biologicial female, even if they themselves are not. This cognitive dissonance caused by these new memories may be a source of extreme emotional and psychological duress for the affected person, and in some instances may cause them to attempt self-harm.

Should affected individuals not be amnesticized in this time, then they may eventually move on to Stage 4.

• Stage 4: After a period of between twelve to thirty-six hours, the number of new memories that the affected individual experiences will increase. It is at this stage that all affected individuals will recall having gone by another identity, Julia Zielinski. In all known observed cases and tests, all induced memories have included the same information— of Julia Zielinksi being a woman who moved to the United States from Poland at the age of twenty-one, who had a long-standing career as a visual artist, and had three separate marriages and two children.² Themes of strong religious belief, memories of physical abuse, and scenes of still-life imagery are prevalent in all new memories at this stage.

At this stage, affected individual will come to accept these new memories as being true. Often, affected persons will resort to extremes of logic in order to justify their contradictory memories, and will assert that both memories are true, and that they are, or have been, two different people. In other cases, affected individuals will denounce all of their "old" memories as false, and accept that they are in fact Julia Zielinski. Should the latter occur, then the resulting new memories can have a debilitating effect on the affected individual's relationships, livelihood, and even sense of identity, as they will see all persons and artefacts associated with their previous memories as having been false. This can lead to a dissolution of personal and professional relationships, and in some noted cases, severe instances of body dysphoria, as the affected individual comes to believe that they "look wrong."

• Stage 5: Should the affected individual not be treated with amnestics at this time, then between twelve to twenty-fours hours after reaching Stage 4, they will move on to stage 5 of SCP-[NUMBER] affliction. At this stage, all traces of their original personality will be gone, and they will identify themselves as Julia Zielinski. Should the affected person persist in stage 5 of SCP-[NUMBER] exposure, then they may attempt to actively seek out persons or locations associated with new memories. This may lead to affected individuals coming into contact approaching people from their memories, and attempting to establish a rapport with them (often without success). (See Test Log 1-A for further details)

Test Log [NUMBER]-1: Under the direction of Dr. Adebayo, several D-Class personnel were exposed to SCP-[NUMBER], to test the progression of stage 1 to stage 4 exposure, and to monitor the behaviour displayed by individuals experiencing stage 4 exposure. For the sake of this test, Dr. Adebayo requested that the subject D-Class be allowed to travel outside of Foundation facilities, to see where these new memories would attempt to lead them, on the grounds that this might be vital to establishing some clues towards SCP-[NUMBER]'s origin. The Ethics Committee agreed, on the provision that security measures were in place to prevent any attempted escape by the subject D-Class, or that subject's actions did not jeopardize Foundation secrecy.

Test [NUMBER]-1-A
Subject	DATA HERE
Protocol	Subject was exposed to SCP-[BLANK] and monitored for effects
Results	Subject progressed through stages 1-4 over a period of two days. Upon exposure to stage 4, subject accepted new memories as true, and asked for artistic supplies— specifically an easel, acrylic paints, pastels, and canvas. Request was denied, for fear that subject might attempt to create an anomaly in order to effect escape. Subject became extremely agitated upon refusal, and suffered an apparent emotional breakdown for the next five minutes. Subject became unwilling to communicate afterwards, and over the next two days, refused to eat or to acknowledge communication attempts. Test was aborted, and subject was amnesticized. Research staff noted full and complete return of the subject's prior personality and memories after application of amnestics.

TEST TITLE STUFF
Subject	D-45781, a 35 year old male, African-American descent.
Protocol	DATA HERE
Results	Upon reaching stage 4 of SCP-[NUMBER] exposure, subject accepted new memories as being true, and abandoned all previous memories as false. Subject adopted identity of Julia Zielinski, and requested that all site staff refer to him as such. Subject appeared calm, but when Dr. Adebayo attempted to ask him questions, subject refused, stating that it would only answer questions on precondition of being allowed to make a phone call. After brief conference between Dr. Adebayo and site director, subject's request was approved, though the phone call was to be heavily monitored, and would be ended remotely if it was deemed to present a risk to Foundation secrey. Subject was provided with a cellular phone, and made a call to one Alexander Zielinski3 (henceforth POI-[NUMBER]-2). The transcript of the phone call is attached in Document [NUMBER]-B. Upon completion of the phone call, Subject became emotionally distraught, crying for roughly twenty minutes. Subject became unresponsive and uncooperative afterward. After several attempts at communication, Dr. Adebayo concluded the test, and amnestics were administered. No ill after-effects were observed, and the subject's full previous memories and personality were restored.

TEST TITLE STUFF
Subject	DATA HERE
Protocol	DATA HERE
Results	DATA HERE

Interviewed: [The person, persons, or SCP being interviewed]

Interviewer: [Interviewer, can be blocked out using █]

Foreword: [Small passage describing the interview]

<Begin Log, [optional time info]>

Alex Zielinksi: Hello?

D-57221: Hello, Alex? It's me. It's Mom.

Alex Zielinksi: Ex…excuse me?

D-57221: Look, I know I sound different, sweetie, and it probably sounds hard to believe, but…it's me. It's your Mom.
Alex Zielinksi: Who the fuck is this?
D-57221: Alex, please…
Alex Zielinksi: This is sick, you know that? Calling me and pretending to be my mom? Tell me who you are so I can come over there in person and…
D-57221: Alex, please, I know this is going to be hard to understand…
Alex Zielinksi: My mom is DEAD, asshole! You thought it would be funny to read an obituary and call their dead relative, huh? You sick piece of —

D-57221: When you were five, and we went to a family trip to Erie, you asked me if I could take down a piece of the sky for you. And so I did. I brought my canvas out, applied my inks…and I made you a piece of the sky. You kept it in your room up until you were a teenager, and even then, you still kept it somewhere safe.
Alex Zielinksi: How…how do you know that? Who told you that?

D-57221: When you were eight, and I caught you wearing that dress, I got so mad. I slapped you so hard I split your lip. I was still hurting from what happened to Michael. I didn't realize that, in your own way, you were too.
Alex Zielinksi: What…what is this…

D-57221: I was….I was so awful to you when you were in your twenties, sweetie. First when you tried to get into art school, when you started producing artwork of your own…I dismissed it all. I said your work was nonsensical, absurd, vulgar, that those new friends of yours were hedonists and pretenders rather than real artists. I wasn't trying to hurt you, sweetie. If I'm honest, I just really didn't want you to follow in my footsteps. I know you looked up to me, and it hurt me that you did. I didn't want you to go through the same heartache, the same pain that my own pursuit of art brought me. And then when you came out, and I threw that ashtray at you, called you an abomination…

Alex Zielinksi: My mom is DEAD, asshole! You thought it would be funny to read an obituary and call their dead relative, huh? You sick piece of —

D-57221: Alex, please, I know this is going to be hard to understand—

Look, I know I sound different, sweetie, but…it's me. It's your Mom.

<End Log, [optional time info]>

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

Addendum:

Footnotes

1. The video and its associated account have since been removed, though YouTube's community enforcement team has no record of having removed either.

2. Foundation research teams have concluded that Julia Zielinksi was in fact an anartist of significance living in Philadelpha, Pennslyania, who passed away in early 2020 due to health complications from Alzheimer's.

3. Caucasian male, 41 years of age, biological son of the late Julia Zielinksi. At time of test, Alexander Zielinski was a known member of GOI [NUMBER] ("Are We Cool Yet?")

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