Addendum 9057-A: The following is an excerpt from a lecture titled "Perception and the Noosphere", given at Site-94 on 09-03-2014 by Dr. Traore of the Department of Memetics.
"There are some things that are nigh ubiquitous among us, despite how we differ so much in our feelings, opinions, and thoughts. Those things are, of course, unconscious; things we get from the noosphere. Many of these are commonalities are fears, and it makes sense why. Fear is a primal, instinctual emotion. We all evolved, long ago, to fear the dark. When you live in the wilderness, the dark means unseen predators. Unseen predators means a swift death. Similarly, we fear being high off the ground. A fall from a tree branch is less mysterious, but kills you just as well as a wolf would. But there's another instinct we have in common, one that affects our perception of the world around us. Pareidolia is the fancy term for it, but you probably know it better from that time you saw a smile in your bowl of SpaghettiOs. This is the human tendency to recognize faces where there aren't any, such as the 'Man in the Moon'. This is another instinct from our ancestors, just as the fears are. We are eager, to a fault, to see one another. Seeing another human face means seeing a possible friend, a possible ally against that darkness, or someone to catch us when we fall.
Though, sometimes I wonder… are there things that lie in between these two instincts? Something we learned not to fear, but not to recognize either. Something that we evolved to ignore entirely, perhaps? But I digress, that is a topic for my antimemetic colleagues to cover, not me. Once I remember their names, I'll send an email about it."
Item #: SCP-9057
Object Class: Ticonderoga1
Special Containment Procedures: Staff are to report any signs of SCP-9057 manifestation to their Site's HR department. These signs include:
- sudden interest in subjects commonly viewed to be uninteresting.
- sudden lack of interest in subjects commonly found as exciting, intriguing, or otherwise captivating.
- speaking mostly with a flat affect or monotone voice.
Reports will be investigated via several interviews with the suspected individual. If it is confirmed that the individual is afflicted, they are to be administered Class I amnestics2, and then assessed again afterwards. In all documented occurrences of SCP-9057, this has been enough to end the manifestation.
In accordance with Researcher Conway's instructions, all research into SCP-9057 is ceased for the foreseeable future.
Description: SCP-9057 is a phenomenon that interferes in the perception of an individual's speech. It does not have an effect on non-verbal methods of communication. Anyone hearing this altered speech will perceive it as uninteresting in both content and delivery. Due to this perception being subjective, different individuals will perceive this speech in different ways. Individuals afflicted with SCP-9057 are not affected in this way, but suffer from other effects, including:
- persistent, mild forgetfulness.
- general confusion in day-to-day life.
- sudden isolation due to others' avoidance of social interaction with them due to the anomaly's effects.
It is not known to affect more than one individual at a time and lasts, on average, 2-3 weeks before demanifesting. It is currently unknown if any time passes between manifestations. Statistics suggest that individuals with prior exposure to cognitohazards and/or antimemetic phenomena are more likely to be the target of SCP-9057 occurrences. Otherwise, the anomaly is largely random in nature.
Testing: A series of experiments were conducted with individuals afflicted by SCP-9057, wherein they were instructed to communicate with others through various methods.
| Test #1 | |
| Subject | Assistant Researcher Kirk Hammond |
| Method | Assistant Researcher Hammond was instructed to speak about a hobby they enjoy for roughly ten minutes. They chose to speak about their love for pottery. D-30349 and D-47521 were instructed to listen to Hammond speak and record what they heard on paper. |
| Outcome | Both individuals listening perceived Hammond to be speaking about a different topic, but they agreed that whatever Hammond was talking about was deeply important to them and it was not pottery. See Excerpt 1A for further details. |
Excerpt 1A: The following is included to illustrate SCP-9057’s effects. It contains what Hammond believed they were saying, in addition to what both D-class personnel perceived Hammond as saying roughly five minutes into the interview.
| Hammond | D-30349 | D-47521 |
|---|---|---|
| “Pottery was something my mother and I bonded over in my youth. When I was about ten, I remember catching a glimpse of her in the garage, bent over a wheel, hands dyed from the clay. She was focused, even enamored by the shapes she was carving, and I was too. She made it all look so easy to make, even the complex patterns.” | “My mother always used to tell me this, and I think it holds true. There’s nothing like the feeling of finishing that first page and then flipping it over to see the second. You’ve found your taxable income, even your W-2 Forms got to join in on the fun. And then you’re on to the Tax and Credits section. Only a little more, then you get to give that 1040 your signature and start getting excited for next year’s. Every February, like a migratory pattern.” | “I inherited my mom’s tastes on this. She believed that bread could go anywhere. Rye if you’re having corned beef… whole wheat if you’re having peanut butter and jelly… sourdough on the side with breakfast… oh, and always use brioche for your French toast. But the sandwich, that’s the most versatile thing in the world. All you need is bread, something else, then bread again; it’s a beautiful pattern.” |
| Test #2 | |
| Subject | Assistant Researcher Kirk Hammond |
| Method | Assistant Researcher Hammond was instructed to read the children's book "Goodnight, Moon" to a group of five D-class personnel, who were interviewed after the reading was finished. |
| Outcome | All D-class reported feeling bored. All but one reported that Hammond read the book correctly, but their flat tone and lack of enthusiasm led them to feel entirely uninterested. One individual, however, reported hearing Hammond read a line that they did not remember being in the book. This line, "I knew a moon just like this once", was not reported by anyone else and was not found in the book. |
| Test #3 | |
| Subject | Agent Kozikowski |
| Method | Agent Kozikowski was instructed to create an audio recording of themself giving a summary of their last mission, which consisted of a raid on a Chaos Insurgency bunker that ended in a firefight. Researcher Conway then listened to this recording at a later date and documented what they heard. |
| Outcome | Conway reported that the recording consisted of Kozikowski speaking in a soft tone, recounting their experience "decommissioning a building occupied, at the time, by members of a hostile group." In Conway's report, Kozikowski then described entering the bunker, having a lengthy and formal conversation with the leader of the people inside, and then escorting them out peacefully upon their surrender. |
| Test #4 | |
| Subject | D-20974 |
| Method | D-20974 was instructed to participate in daily hour-long talk therapy sessions for one week with Site 22's onsite mental health specialist, Dr. Maria Irving. Dr. Irving was instructed to conduct the sessions as they typically would and complete a report detailing what they knew about the patient at the end of the week. |
| Outcome | Dr. Irving's report contained no information on D-20974 beyond their name, date of birth, and a brief description of their earliest childhood memories. When confronted about this, Dr. Irving was apologetic and expressed that they could not remember anything from any sessions conducted after the first. They stated that, despite their efforts to maintain focus, they would inevitably find themself "zoning out" while D-20974 was speaking. D-20974 reported feeling refreshed and free of mental burden following what was shared in their sessions. |
Addendum 9057-B:
Note from the Dept. of Miscommunications
The following document is included in SCP-9057 documentation per Researcher Conway’s request. Contact them to request access. If you believe you have unauthorized access to this document, log out and inform your site’s IT department.
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To: tni.pcs|snoitacinummocsim#tni.pcs|snoitacinummocsim
From: tni.pcs|yawnoc.a.tik#tni.pcs|yawnoc.a.tik
Subject: For inclusion in SCP-9057 documentation
When I was assigned lead researcher for SCP-9057, I was pretty annoyed. Quite literally a boring anomaly. Whoever was in charge prior had already done every brain scan that exists and come up with nothing. I was to figure out how it spread, what amnestic made it go away, and then I’d get to call off for a day. But I didn’t find those things. SCP-9057 doesn’t spread by any means we can find, it doesn’t have any lasting effects, it barely does anything at all. After a month or two of testing, I was half-convinced the whole project was some prank. I was ready to throw in the towel when Alan accidentally left steno.aic3 running in the interview room.
I still know SCP-9057 doesn’t do anything to us. But after reading that transcript, I don’t think its ineffectiveness is inherent.
As lead researcher on SCP-9057, I have decided the best course of action to maintain normalcy is to cease all research and efforts into containing this anomaly. The document that led me to this conclusion is attached.
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LOG #1/9057
| DATE/TIME: 01-25-26 / 1429 GMT |
| LOCATION: Site-93 (Testing Chamber 08) |
| PRESENT: Researcher Kit Conway, D-20974 |The room is empty for four minutes and five seconds.
Researcher Conway enters, with D-20974 following. She is mid-sentence and holding a notepad.
Conway: … and you're just gonna answer the questions like you would if this was a job interview or something, okay?
D-20974 nods their head silently and sits in a chair in front of the interview table. Conway sits down on the opposing side and clears her throat.
Conway: What is your name?
D-20974: I don't know.
Conway: Thank you. When and where were you born?
D-20974: So, so very long ago. Never at all.
Conway writes the name "Marlon Wu" and the date "June 3rd, 1983" in her notepad.
Conway: What's your favorite color?
D-20974: Purple.
Conway writes "khaki".
Conway: What was it like where you grew up?
D-20974: Beautiful. I touched stars. I would glide through nebulae and hold ionized hydrogen atoms in my hand. I was midwife to the birth of planets. I knew everything and everything knew me.
Conway writes "suburban Wisconsin, middle class", then yawns.
Conway: Sorry, long week. Ahem, uh… where have you worked in the past?
D-20974: I used to live. Somewhere, I did live. I know I must have, because I remember pieces of it. Only pieces, like a frayed rope coming apart in a storm. A great tempest tore through me, then through everything I knew. It all died, or was destroyed, or undone or erased or made into nothing. I thought the same fate had come to me until I heard a voice. I knew it was a voice, though I had never heard such a thing before. And I realized I had a voice too.
Conway: Okay… 'the office'. What organization did you work for specifically?
D-2074: I spoke to you, to all of you. I spoke in whispers on the wind and mutters from the mouths of caves. You heard me and you cried, then you screamed. I apologized, I told you that something had happened that nobody quite understood and I just needed directions to get back. But you gave me none. You ran from me and I followed you and when you realized you could no longer run, something changed.
Conway: Okay.
Conway writes "accounting for 'business firm'?", then sighs for a moment before speaking again.
Conway: If you were trapped on a desert island by yourself, and you could choose five books to have while on the island, which would you choose and why?
D-204: The next time I spoke, you could not hear me. I could not make you hear me. You forgot I had ever been there, forgot how you abandoned me and you left me to rot, except I couldn't rot because I had already decayed and depleted away into nothing. And so I hated you. I hated you like nothing has ever hated anything else before. I waited and waited and waited until something would come and you would hear me again. I began to scream. I screamed for so long, but my screams did nothing. I needed more. I plucked the screams that you had once given me and I stitched them together into a pattern of neverending noise.
Conway drops her pen, which she had been fidgeting with, then waves her hand apologetically.
D-04: This pattern made it through. This pattern taught me that even though you could not hear me, I could hear you and you could hear you. But again, you ran. Something about me, my nature or lack thereof, serves as an antithesis to everything you are.
Conway has begun creating small drawings in her notebook. There is a moment of silence in the room that she does not seem to notice.
-04: Once more, you all changed. I spent so long searching for someone who would not flee, but there was none, and then it happened. Just as you once learned to block out my voice from your ears, you learned to unweave what I had done to yours and then I was left even worse off than before. You cast a tremendous curtain over yourselves, all of you. Your speech was muffled and mine was silenced. I could not hang onto your words for support in the waters, instead I was cast out to sea and sent tumbling from nothing to nowhere. And now I am not here.
Conway: Right, okay. Sorry. What about movies?
-0: I'm sorry. Truly, I am. If I could be anything else I would. If I could be anything I would. If I could be.
Conway yawns once more.
-: Now, I only slip through to you all in bits and pieces. Like a faulty satellite receiving a transmission. Sometimes the words of one are louder than the words of the others, then they slip back behind the wall and are muffled to me once more. I try to use these words, as I am now, I try to reach you all. I've raged against you, I've tearfully begged. I have made your sounds into my screams again. There is nothing I can do. I'm not sure why I keep speaking, only to be met with indifference. Not fear. Not anything.
Conway appears to fall into a light sleep, sitting up in her chair.
: I'll be around as long as you are. I only come close to existing in these moments. I'm only the gaps in between your sentences, the pauses, the silence that gets caught in your throat after a sob. Somewhere in my nothing I refuse to dissipate fully. I don't know why. I don't…
There is silence in the room. Conway stirs but does not wake. No one speaks for three minutes, after which Conway wakes up, mutters an apology, and escorts D-20974 outside.
| END OF LOG |