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| SCP-255, shown just after acquisition in 19██. |
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Item #: SCP-255
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-255 is to be contained within a secured safe, lined with lead, and locked using a standard mechanical combination lock as well as an electronic keypad. The combinations for each individual lock are to be secured with two (2) separate personnel at different Sites, to prevent the possibility of accidental opening.
The safe is to be stored inside a 4 x 4 x 4 meter room, connected to a hall way no less than six (6) meters in length. The two (2) doors leading to the chamber housing SCP-255 are to be hermetically sealed, the inner door opening only once the outer door is completely closed and the seal engaged. The chamber housing SCP-255 is equipped with an emergency depressurization system, designed to completely draw all air and particulate matter from the room in the event that SCP-255 is ever smoked.
Unless specifically authorized by O5-level staff, personnel are prohibited from bringing any of the following into the chamber with SCP-255:
- Open flames
- Tobacco in any form
- Nicotine patches and electronic cigarettes
- Matches
- Items which could produce a spark or flame without expending significant effort (e.g. gas torches, flint and tinder, etc.)
Personnel found bringing these items into the chamber without authorization will be demoted to D-class. Personnel who smoke recreationally should not be permitted to enter the room containing SCP-255 unless approved for testing due to the compulsion SCP-255 creates.
Description: SCP-255 is an antique Meerschaum-style pipe, carved to appear as the bust of an elegantly-dressed woman holding a small sceptre and wearing an exotic headdress, with a delicately carved amber stem. The style in which SCP-255 is carved suggests that it was crafted during 17th or 18th century England, however carbon dating of residual ash caked inside SCP-255's bowl places its age at approximately [DATA EXPUNGED]. Analysis of SCP-255 reveals that the material it is crafted from is indeed animal horn, as was common during this historical period, however the molecular structure of SCP-255 includes proteins and keratins not produced by any known animals.
Individuals who view SCP-255 are struck with an urge to attempt to smoke with it. This urge is in direct proportion to the level of addiction that they currently suffer from. It should be noted that the user must be addicted to a drug that is smoked in order to have an effect; alcoholics, as an example, suffer no additional compulsion to smoke SCP-255 beyond that suffered by non-smokers unless they also smoke cigarettes.
Non-smokers experience only a mild draw to attempt smoking SCP-255. Recreational smokers experience a moderate compulsion to smoke with it, even if they have never smoked a pipe before, choosing to attempt to smoke with SCP-255 73% of the time when given the opportunity to smoke SCP-255 or a pack of the test subject's favorite brand of cigarettes.
Heavy smokers, typically those who use a pack of cigarettes or more a day, will become highly drawn to SCP-255, often attempting to forcibly gain access to it and may become mildly agitated and cause minor mischief if denied access, but will not incite direct violence. Individuals addicted to more powerful drugs (e.g. cocaine) will violently attempt to gain access to SCP-255, resorting to tactics up to and including [DATA EXPUNGED] in their attempts to make use of the pipe.
It should also be noted that marijuana smokers do not suffer from a compulsion to use SCP-255; when given the opportunity to choose between SCP-255 and a marijuana cigarette, users of the drug chose the marijuana cigarette without a second thought. It is hypothesized that since marijuana's active component, THC, is psychotropic, the memetic effect caused by SCP-255 is either dulled or eliminated completely. Further research is continuing with drugs of a non-stimulant nature that can be translated in a form that can be smoked.
Testing has revealed that individuals who smoke SCP-255 experience a significant change in their emotional, psychological, and moral strictures, in direct proportion to the duration that SCP-255 has been smoked. Individuals who have smoked only once for a short period of time show mild narcissism, avarice, and xenophobia, with these traits being magnified in those who already exhibit these qualities, and the feelings typically subside within 3-6 hours, after which the individual returns to their normal psychological baseline. Subsequent smokings increase the intensity and the duration of these feelings, with individuals who have smoked for more than 24 total hours experiencing a near-total denigration of their former psychological structure, becoming self-serving, psychopathic, and virulently antisocial, with the targets of said psychopathic and antisocial behavior being influenced by fears or prejudices that are deep-seated in the individual's psyche. Such antisocial behavior is usually acted upon initially in a subtle way, but eventually grows into full-blown violence. Such violence is almost always perpetrated against others using flame or items that can start fires, up to and including using the lit embers inside of SCP-255 as a means of ignition if nothing else is available.
Individuals who have smoked SCP-255 for more than 24 total hours do return to normal after being deprived of it, although it should be noted that recovery time increases by an exponential factor for every █ hours smoked after the first 24. To date, only [DATA EXPUNGED] (who is in Foundation custody) has successfully recovered from a long bout with SCP-255's usage. Full recovery from its usage has taken ██ years to complete, along with extensive psychological treatment to cope with the atrocities performed while under the influence of SCP-255, which is ongoing and has been for the past ██ years. This individual is, in official records, to be designated SCP-255-1, although referring to SCP-255-1 by name is acceptable for purposes of psychological stability.
Additional symptoms include fascination with smoke and fire, advancing to the point of pyromania in individuals who have used SCP-255 for long periods, second and third-degree burns appearing suddenly upon the user's skin, and a general feeling of unease or fear of the individual who has been smoking SCP-255.
Addendum 255-A: SCP-255 was recovered approximately ██ years ago from an underground bunker outside of London, England, during the cleanup of the Second Great Fire of London in World War II, clutched in the hand of a ██████ soldier who was too badly burned to be positively identified. SCP-255 remained completely unscathed, despite the fact that temperatures of the fires were hot enough to melt steel and cause severe structural damage.
During research of the history of the item, it was determined that SCP-255 has been through no less than ██ major fires across the globe, including the first Great Fire of London in 1666, the 1805 Great Fire of Detroit, the 1871 Great Chicago Fire, the 1894 Fire of Shanghai, and the 1922 Great Fire of Smyrna. In each case, SCP-255 was found at or very near to the location that each major blaze began according to anecdotes from each of these major eras. The most concrete evidence of a link between SCP-255 and these fires is with the 1805 fire of Detroit, where a dockworker allegedly emptied his pipe out on a hot, dry day, and the embers started the fire that would burn down effectively the entire city.
It is unclear what causes SCP-255's memetic effect. Further testing is ongoing with D-class personnel.
Addendum 255-B: Further testing has determined that regardless of the substance smoked using SCP-255, the ashes that are created (hereafter referred to as SCP-255-2) are remarkably unstable and prone to igniting when removed from the bowl of SCP-255 while still lit. It should be noted that completely spent ashes (i.e., no longer burning) do not have this effect. SCP-255-2's pyrotechnic effects seem to create a far larger release of energy than would otherwise be possible given the diminutive size of a particle of SCP-255-2. A test involving SCP-255-2 was scheduled and performed using a 2-meter square hermetically sealed chamber outfitted with a number of temperature and environmental sensors to determine the effects of the ash spilled from SCP-255.
Results of this test are produced here for further study and analysis:
TEST SCP-255 - EXOTHERMIC REACTION TEST #█████ - DATE ██/██/2011
07:10:22 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE NOMINAL; 20.00 CELSIUS
07:11:33 AM - NOTE ADDED BY RESEARCHER: INSERTING SHREDDED OAK LEAVES INTO BOWL OF SCP-255
07:12:11 AM - NOTE ADDED BY RESEARCHER: COMPLETED
07:15:01 AM - GENERAL SYSTEM NOTICE: FIRE DOORS CLOSED; SECURE SAFE HAS BEEN SEALED IN ACCORDANCE WITH STANDARD SCP PROTOCOLS; TESTING WILL COMMENCE IN TWO (2) MINUTES.
07:17:41 AM - TESTING PROTOCOL INITIATED; CHAMBER TEMPERATURE BASELINE READ AT 20.00 CELSIUS AND STABLE
07:18:20 AM - LIGHTING SCP-255
07:19:05 AM - SMOKE PRODUCTION FROM SCP-255 IN ACCORDANCE WITH PRIOR LIVE TESTS, ALL SYSTEMS NOMINAL
07:19:07 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE INCREASE NOTED: 20.32 CELSIUS AND RISING AT APPROXIMATELY 0.31 CELSIUS PER SECOND
07:20:00 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE STABILIZED AT 32.11 CELSIUS
07:21:05 AM - LEAVES ARE NOW EMBERS; OVERTURNING PIPE
07:21:20 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE INCREASE NOTED: TEMPERATURE NOW 42.65 CELSIUS AND RISING AT APPROXIMATELY 2.64 CELSIUS PER SECOND
07:21:30 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE INCREASE NOTED: TEMPERATURE NOW 64.21 CELSIUS AND RISING AT APPROXIMATELY 8.92 CELSIUS PER SECOND
07:21:40 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE INCREASE NOTED: TEMPERATURE NOW 97.23 CELSIUS AND RISING AT APPROXIMATELY 18.04 CELSIUS PER SECOND
07:21:50 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE INCREASE NOTED: TEMPERATURE NOW 169.20 CELSIUS AND RISING AT APPROXIMATELY 45.02 CELSIUS PER SECOND
The test continued as before for roughly one minute. The results from the end of the test are reproduced here:
07:23:00 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE INCREASE NOTED: TEMPERATURE NOW 1,240.20 CELSIUS AND RISING AT APPROXIMATELY 211.04 CELSIUS PER SECOND
07:23:00 AM - WARNING: APPROACHING MELTING POINT OF IRON
07:23:05 AM - CHAMBER TEMPERATURE INCREASE NOTED: TEMPERATURE NOW 2,803.20 CELSIUS AND RISING AT APPROXIMATELY 402.11 CELSIUS PER SECOND
07:23:06 AM - DAMAGE TO ENVIRONMENTAL SENSORS DETECTED
07:23:07 AM - CHAnadnsnfffER TMEmdpd) IC*da)(*s ENOTED: tMPpPPPPerEATURE NnDW 5,0s)dDDJAS.04 CELscod AND rSKSDKSIA SLKF 0104 1020
07:23:08 AM - HOST MESSAGE: SIGNAL LOST
At this point, reserves of pure liquid nitrogen were pumped directly into the testing room to immediately cool it and put out the resulting fire. This took roughly eight minutes. In the immediate aftermath, once the nitrogen vapors were removed from the room, significant structural damage to the tiles underneath the molten heap of the testing chamber were noted, the structural integrity of the sealed testing chamber was heavily compromised, and yet, SCP-255 itself was completely unharmed, as was, oddly, the mechanism designed to hold SCP-255 and overturn it. No evidence of SCP-255-2 was found.
