Does the Black Moon howl?
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In night and silence we guard against all that would make it wail.
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Level 5/5008 clearance verified. Welcome, Researcher.
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Containment Class:
esoteric
Secondary Class:
thaumiel
SCP-5008-Prime as depicted by O5-3-0. O5-4-0 (left) and O5-7-0 (right) are present.
| Assigned Site |
Site Director |
Research Head |
Assigned Task Forces |
| SCPF Site-01 |
N/A |
[REDACTED] |
MTF Alpha-1, MTF Gamma-7 |
Special Containment Procedures: The site of SCP-5008-Prime is physically contained by MTF Gamma-7 ("Burning Coronet") under standard security procedures for high-priority anomalous archaeological locations, including perimeter fencing, landmines, and aerial drone monitoring. Containment is simplified by thousands of years of erosion and shifting sands, which have almost entirely concealed the portions of SCP-5008-Prime that were aboveground at the time of its construction.
MTF Gamma-7 personnel are not authorized to enter SCP-5008-Prime, to otherwise further investigate the structure, or to know of its former or current contents. Further investigation of SCP-5008-Prime is to be performed by personnel authorized to access this file, if determined to be necessary by an Overseer Council member.
SCP-5008 itself is contained in Sector 231 of the Thaumiel Wing of Site-01, which has been adapted from its original purpose as an aircraft hangar to store SCP-5008. A specially trained information security management team, acting under the supervision of O5-1, monitors and operates the device as necessary for global security purposes. The actual activation of SCP-5008 requires a majority vote by the Overseer Council, or an order of mercy issued by a majority of authorized Ethics Committee delegates. Outside of formal Overseer Council or Ethics Committee votes, requests, suggestions, and questions regarding SCP-5008's operation may be submitted to O5-1's Site-01 secretary, presently Therese Machzer.
Any further discoveries related to GoI-5008 ("The Keepers") are to be censored and compartmentalized under the same restrictions as this file. SCP-5008 is to be considered available for this purpose, but conventional information suppression tactics are in place as part of the operational profile of MTF Alpha-1 ("Red Right Hand").
Should circumstances require it, unauthorized personnel are to be led to believe that there is no SCP-5008. Outside of Site-01, SCP-5008 is not to be referred to except when absolutely necessary, and then only as "HUSH," its approved codename.
SCP-5008 control chamber.
Description: SCP-5008 is the Harpocrates-Usheq Confidentiality Engine, which was developed primarily based upon materials recovered from Erikesh-um, the chief monastery of the Erikeshan people (since designated SCP-5008-Prime and GoI-5008). SCP-5008 consists of over 4200 cubic meters of various machine elements, the majority of which are automated and serve to amplify its telepathic impact. The exact effective range of SCP-5008 remains indeterminable, but it has been shown to operate with absolute precision over 1.1 million kilometers.
A false-color representation of a simple thoughtwave broadcasted by SCP-5008, conveying the concept of loyalty.
SCP-5008 is capable of immunizing life forms within a preset area of effect against certain concepts, including general emotions, instincts, sensory abilities, and recent or long term memories. Originally, SCP-5008 was only capable of large-scale blunt cognitive alterations, but refinement over the past [REDACTED] historical cycles and new discoveries pertaining to the now-extinct Erikeshans has dramatically improved its accuracy, effectiveness, and ease of use.
SCP-5008 is operated by means of a beryllium bronze clockwork device integrated into the circuitry of its control chamber, designated SCP-5008-Modus. This device consists of an equilateral triangular plate, just under one meter in width, evenly tessellated and engraved with precisely 300 of the fundamental glyphs of the Erikeshan written language and their mathematical system. This plate is affixed to a circular disc containing its clockwork components. The underside of this disc bears a partially damaged inscription of Mekhanite derivation, reading "[to the] friends of the temple, [we] grant [this] token of truce." It is signed in the same dialect with a name that may be phonetically rendered as "Bu Mor Oh."
Depression of the glyphs on the surface of SCP-5008-Modus (or combinations thereof) activate its internal mechanisms and, through unknown means, define concepts to be acted upon by SCP-5008 as a whole. Conventional digital control systems, incorporated at the time of SCP-5008's construction, are also present in the chamber to allow for targeting.
SCP-5008-Prime at the time of its initial inspection by the Foundation.
Addendum 5008-1: SCP-5008-Prime
SCP-5008-Prime was discovered by independent Hellenistic archaeological prospectors in the month of Corvus in 1-1938, at a location which now corresponds to a point ██ kilometers [REDACTED] of Alexandria, Egypt. The site was acquired under eminent domain by the Treasury of the Hellenistic Potentate and subsequently designated a historical heritage site. It was not until 1-1944 that the Foundation's Secret Consulate for North African nations was able to obtain access in return for the relaxation of economic sanctions from other nations.
SCP-5008-Prime had not originally been considered to be a point of interest related to any of the ancient anomalous cultures of the Middle East, but inspection quickly proved otherwise.
6th of Cancer, 1944
Preliminary Observations Of Archaeological Site 231
To The Council,
Our assumptions were wrong. The ruins of what the local Treasurers call "Alexahmat" is no ordinary pharaonic tomb. The stonework is right, all hewn limestone and granite, but not even the priests of the Old Kingdoms could work the sorceries layered within its walls. This work could only have been done in the bygone age of Erikesh.
You have likely already heard how our ship was behind schedule, and thus we only arrived at last night. Our progress thus far is limited. I have established a safe zone for us to camp in, and Kleppman has set up his "sonar" contraption. The security men, meanwhile, have rounded up some of the old expedition members with the help of the Treasury's agents.
We have been able to obtain very little information from them, sadly; they are all nearly too terrified to speak of it. Some show definite signs of cognito-disturbance. From what we were able to discern, the Treasurers examined 231's upper floors and three of those underground. They intended to do more and would have if one of their historians had not stumbled out of a lower chamber without his skin on. (I was able to examine the body. A delayed action Nälkäinen curse. Elegant security.) After that, they cannot agree what exactly scuttled their investigation. One man rambled of a great beast like an alligator with the mane of a lion, another could do nothing but recite Kabbalistic rites in native Hebrew… which he did not previously practice, or speak.
In any event, it is clear that the Treasury is utterly clueless as to the significance of what they have discovered here. If atheism were not a sacred tenet of ours, I would thank the gods they had the wisdom to leave well enough alone.
In the pursuit of science, sanity, and safety, I remain:
— Alexander Teles
P.S. I am attaching Kleppman’s scrawlings, so you may see the overall layout of 231 for yourselves. I have heard some of the other doctors hint that desk drawers, back rooms, and wine cellars may no longer be sufficient to hold all the things we investigate. Perhaps some day we shall build an asylum of our own.
30th of Cancer, 1944
Continued Investigation Into Site 231
To The Council,
I despise myself for my weakness, for I cannot help but begin this report by bemoaning the dreadful news reaching us from Europe. They say the Germans have taken London and the resistances in Spain, Italy, and Russia are faltering. I have studied the occult all my life, and so I may confirm firsthand what is said by some fortunate enough to live in the light: there are no demons walking this earth so brutal and willful to destroy as fascist man.
But I do not only write to commiserate. The Keepers may offer us some slim light in this darkness. One of our linguists, a young man whose name continually escapes me, has chanced upon some scraps of old Erikeshan writing: a series of letters accompanied with what he says is a Mekan dialect known to the Treasurers. We have dispatched him to Cairo to seek scholarly assistance in translating the letters. He also has photographic records of all the other Erikeshan script we have found within 231, and thus may provide far more of value than the whole rest of our expedition. I shall certainly not begrudge him the credit if it is to be so.
On the topic of 231 itself, there is little to be said. The excavation remains slow, the artifacts remain largely incomprehensible, the spellwork remains tedious, and the casualty rate remains high. As usual, our inventory for the past week is attached.
— Alexander Teles
2nd of Capricorn, 1944
Supplemental Report: Tragedy in Cairo
Councillors,
The linguist I mentioned in my prior reports, Johan Brigit, is dead. He had ceased correspondence with our encampment, and two days ago Kleppman set out to hold him up for it. They found him locked up inside his own chambers, apparently having engaged in some rather ungentlemanly behavior before slashing both his wrists with his pen. Servants had reported hearing him screaming in the night, but also that he rebuffed all attempts to approach or speak to him.
But what is profoundly more disturbing than the grotesquery of his death is the content of the translation he had produced that night. The scholars he had consulted were indeed able to match the Erikeshan script to one of the extinct Mekan tribes of their region, and were highly grateful for his newly provided firsthand evidence. Flush with success, Brigit shut himself up in private with the photographs and set to work on what he termed the "Erikesh Codex."
According to the text, the Erikeshans, like the Nälkä (and ourselves, it must be admitted), hated and feared the superphysical beings of this universe. They wrote the Codex to be less a holy book and more a sacred vow and witch-hunter's manual in one, to pass on the knowledge of how to Keep the world sane. Many times they struggled against the gods and their worshipers. Many times they lost, and some few times they won. Eventually, all that was left of them was Erikesh-um, where their way of Keeping began.
Here Brigit's translation grew muddied, likely due to fatigue and blood loss. All that could be discerned from his work as it was was that the Mekans then sought some concession from the Keepers, in exchange for some weapon to help them in their campaign.
I have delegated operational management of 231 to Kleppman and Captain Morstan. I will leave for Cairo in the morning and take over the translation. I must know what he died for.
— Alexander Teles
13th of Capricorn, 1944
Exciting Breakthrough Regarding The Codex
To The Council,
In looking over our expedition's prior inventories, you may have taken particular note of a three-sided bronze contraption we dug up about five weeks ago. At first we assumed it to be a kind of Turing machine, intended to perform mathematical operations that would take a mere mortal many hours. Since I translated some new passages of the "codex," however, I believe I have begun to perceive its true function.
(I use the term "codex" loosely. Indeed, the writings we have found within 231 are many separate works, but we may as well refer to them collectively.)
We knew from the moment that we found the device that its uppermost ten symbols were the first 10 integers, 0, 1 and so on, because they were borrowed by the Keepers from the Mekans. (Furthermore, there is a Mekan "maker's mark" upon the underside). We assumed, then, that the remaining symbols were of some mathematical system and discarded the whole thing. After all, we Westerners did not come to Egypt for ancient mathematics, but for ancient magics.
But then Dr. Light pointed out to me that, since Brigit's demise, we had not compared his and my notes against the sections of codex on the artifacts we had cataloged prior to his death, the bronze being a prime example. When I looked back over it, all was clear: it includes all the basic components of the Erikeshan language. If this device were our only sample of their dead language, we could write anything in it. And that is its purpose: to write.
I know the membership of the Council tends toward the scientific, so I will be straightforward in my explanation: the clockwork is made to make certain ideas (particularly religious ones) literally unthinkable in mortal beings. This, of course, spits in the face of all modern alienists have deduced of the functioning of the brain, but it is not possible to disbelieve the codex. Those among you who originally came to our cause from the military, at least, shall see the tactical significance of such a power.
We have labored for a long time in the shadows, Councillors, paying steep bribes and concocting convoluted explanations to cover our activities, but with the Keepers' methods, I believe we may amplify our operations a thousandfold.
There is an experiment I intend to perform with the device. If it goes as I predict, I shall pack it up at once and return to headquarters with it.
— Alexander Teles
Councillors — new information has come to light too sensitive for this means of communication. Request immediate translocation for privy conference.
NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO DIE ABORNING — RED SKY IN MORNING.
Teles: That is not what I am saying, sir.
O5-7-0: Oh, but I think that it is. You are suggesting we turn over our whole operational security to an ancient machine cult's fortune telling device.
O5-3-0: Seven, you know that's not what he's suggesting. The device -
O5-4-0: Teles's translation of this so-called codex is not even peer-reviewed -
Teles: That is simply not -
O5-2-1: Enough! We don't need to have this argument again. Now, Doctor: the chief concern of 4, 5 and 7 is valid. How are we supposed to know that this… thing won't do to us what it did to your test subject?
Teles: Donovan… had no training in resisting foreign mental impulses. There was no way to predict that his reaction to a simple -
O5-5-0: No way to predict spontaneous catatonia and permanent addling of the brain?
O5-2-1: Let him finish.
Teles: I… no one regrets the experiment's failure more than I. But the results prove the need for further research, at the very least! As I was saying, if a single word keyed through that thing can reduce an adult brain to the stage of an infant, then what could we do with the other three hundred? Surely there's no end of people whose mental faculties are an inconvenience to us!?
Silence.
O5-2-1: We are in a state of war.
O5-7-0: Our nations may be. Our mission could continue under the Reich.
O5-6-0: We all know you would be eager for that.
O5-7-0: How -
O5-1-0: This bickering does not suit us. I declare the vote open: shall we permit Teles's continued use of this machine? I move in favor.
O5-2-1: I move against.
O5-3-0: Favor.
O5-4-0: Against.
O5-5-0: We are scientists, not sorcerers. I move against.
O5-6-0: It is not the way of scientists to reject that which clearly exists and may be useful. I move in favor.
O5-7-0: I stand to gain the most, but this is the wrong precedent to set. I move against.
O5-1-0: It is decided. Teles. Bring the device to headquarters. I shall obtain thaumatological and neurological researchers to convene at a secure location and assess this device independently. We can refer to this among ourselves as "Project Modus."
O5-2-1: And who is to pay for this research, if I may ask?
O5-1-0: I shall employ my own resources. The common fund shall not suffer for this.
O5-7-0: And the security factors?
O5-1-0: I shall make all needed arrangements.
O5-2-1: If that's acceptable to the rest of the Council… then our business is concluded.
Teles: Thank you, Councillors.
Addendum 5008-2: Development of SCP-5008
SCP-5008-Modus was subsequently transferred to O5-1-0's residence in [REDACTED] for analysis and reverse engineering. The recovery, translation, transfer, and destruction of the remainder of the "Erikesh Codex" proceeded until 1-1957, at which point SCP-5008 came into occasional use as a Thaumiel class SCP object. It was not until the 1-1970s that research into mechanized thaumatology enabled SCP-5008's use on a scale concomitant with most serious information security breaches, and several decades more until it was capable of cognitive management on a scale effective in a K-Class Scenario.
Over centuries of use, however, abnormalities in SCP-5008's operations became more and more readily apparent. For instance, the risk of brain hemorrhage that had almost entirely been alleviated since its earliest days of operation began to recur. Additionally, use of SCP-5008 was linked to outbreaks of a number of anomalous psychological conditions among populations targeted by it, as well as various undesirable ideological and ideatic developments among said populations. Some related materials are compiled below:
Date Filed: 3/29/1998
Date Of Occurrence: 3/28/1998
Location: Site-01, B Wing, Thomas Kleppman Thaumatological Laboratory, Chamber 7
Anomaly Involved: SCP-5008-Modus
Personnel Involved: N/A
Report Filed By: A. Clef
Priority: Ekhi, or whatever the fuck it is we're using now.
I went into the clockworks chamber after hours (no, I'm not telling you why) and saw that some fuckwit left its containment seal undone.I mean, this is literally a hundred thousand dollar magnetic door, protecting a goddamn telepathic brick. How the fuck
So anyway I had a look at the thing. The platekeys that had been left on, specifically, were numbers 21, 43, and 221. Some egghead will just attach what they all mean so anyone reading this won't need to look them up.
We didn't find out who was in there. The access log only showed scheduled visits for the past… forever, actually. Like with any security breach in 01, the Hand was practically carrying people out of that whole sector that day.
Miles was the first thaumatologist I managed to get in for a look at the thing. He told me over lunch the next day that, going by the power usage in the time the clockwork was unaccounted for, the platekeys had been left running in that configuration at least several hours. Typically, maintenance has no goddamn clue how they didn't notice a surge in that time.
[SEVERAL PARAGRAPHS OMITTED FOR LACK OF RELEVANCE]
To: O5-1-Sec, <Project Modus Mailing List>
From: Senior Researcher Lindsmith
Date: 5/8/2005
Subject: Operation Stargazer - EMERGENCY
Site-9 has been crippled by a wave of messianic delusion. One of the janitorial staff managed to get their hands on another one of those damned books, and now the whole staff are burning books, documents, and, we fear, some of the more mobile skips on-site. The nearest task force is trying to convince the citizens of Sacramento that their mayor didn't really give a cognitohazard-laced speech and turn into an otter, so the Council has fast-tracked WRC's motion to deploy Modus in that area.
I recommend starting with the umluaq tree of meanings to make the bastards illiterate and follow-up at your own discretion. Volume 2, Chapter 37 of the Codex has some advice about countering Fifthist memeplexes.
I have to go get chewed out by Five over this, so you'll be on your own for at least an hour. Don't screw this up.
Foreword: The following was recovered from unauthorized personal cell phones belonging to Junior Researchers Leyton (in red) and Ross (in blue), who served as part of the SCP-5008 control team.
hey
remeber that thing
with the 5ists
in LA
wai
well there was one thing i didn put in the report
wtf why not
it just didnt seem relevant
wdym
what was it
well you know that thing I told you the other day?
how could i forget lol
reading about serial killers? no its not funny
its fuckin weird
not as weird as our day jobs
u right D:
anyway the LAPD caught one of these psychos last week
let me guess
u used ur work computer to hack the crime scene photos like some perv
ok
so what did u actually find out
have a look
[COGNITOHAZARDOUS
IMAGE FILE EXPUNGED]
holy shit
is that what i think it is
yep
they found these done in blood all over the dude's house
but how could he know about this
its p deep lore
he was one of the cafeteria people at s9
i see
u thinking what im thinking
Date Filed: 1/3/2006
Date Of Occurrence: 1/2/2006
Location: Site-01, Thaumiel Wing, Sector 231
Anomaly Involved: SCP-5008
Personnel Involved: Junior Researchers Leyton and Ross
Report Filed By: Senior Researcher Lindsmith
Priority: Ekhi
There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just be straightforward with it: we found out where Leyton and Ross disappeared to. They hung themselves inside 5008.
Specifically, they hung themselves from the rafters inside the primary accelerator. How in God's name they managed to get in there, we don't know. All the service hatches were meant to have been sealed until the next internal check up (three months from now), and as far as the maintenance logs go, they were. According to forensics, their bodies are about 5 months dead, which leaves a whole month since they vanished unaccounted for. But that's not the worst part.
The only reason we found them before the scheduled check up was because we happened to be giving a tour to Professor Kzith Nbor, who was paying us a visit. Apparently, he did the Overseers a favor and wanted a look at the Keepers' last relic. He told us one of the service hatches was just barely misaligned, and he could smell, as he put it, "human orifice leakings" inside.
We had maintenance pry it open and found the two of them, entwined in the air, suspended by a single extension cord, without their clothes, swaying over a remarkably complex wheel, done in a mixture of their blood and, well, other fluids.
Fortunately, Nbor had the presence of mind to shove one of the techs off his ladder before he got a clear look at the thing. He broke his arm, but at least he won't have to be amnesticized.
We've had the wheel photographed and passed on to linguistics, and got some D-Class to mop it up. Also, as project leader, I’m officially removing 5008 from the active list of Thaumiels until we thoroughly review all of its activity over the past four months for any irregularities.
To: O5-1
From: O5-2
Date: 2/11/1910
Subject: Update On The Berkshire Sisters
Salutations,
We have transferred the girls to a suitable private institution for their convalescence. Three months have been allotted for them to recover from their ordeal, then the Bates's boarding school shall expect them. The girls shall be housed there in three shared rooms on the fourth floor, together, but separated from the other pupils. We trust that the strange circumstances of their arrival, in the middle of term, with private accommodations, will trigger the suspicions and jealousies typical to females of their age and ensure that they shall be socially as well as physically contained.
Sister Katherine is to accompany them to both places and monitor for any relapses of an theological nature. Brother Aloysius assures me it is of little probability, but he, of course, never believed that we would have to contend with a live birth at all.
By my return, I expect that you shall have rectified the harm you have caused with your wretched machine. If you are as nimble as usual in manipulating the circumstances, you may avoid expulsion from the Council. In the meantime:
May the blind and the deaf guard you,
— Two
ERROR: [SUBSEQUENT FILES WITHHELD]
There is a certain curiosity that all new personnel assigned to Site-01 are expected to express. In fact, it's more often than not a large part of why they get assigned here. That nose-pushing attitude is essential to a lot of the work at Site-01. We are the watchful eye, the sturdy shield, and the sharp sword of humanity. Here, passivity is death.
The X000 SCPs are among the most searched on our private servers. Closely following them are any of the SCPs that typical personnel are absolutely forbidden to know about. (Including this one.) Almost no one who gets assigned here can resist the temptation to look them up on their very first night. (And if our personnel department thought they could, they wouldn't get assigned here!)
There's no need to worry: you're not in trouble for looking so far into 5008's documentation. It's entirely my fault you've seen any of this. Your passphrase is not meant to give you this much access, and the technical fault that led to the error has been corrected.
As I'm sure you've noticed, it's not just sensitive for its strategic functions, but for its critical role in maintaining human sanity. There are ideas simply too dangerous for some people to have. As it turns out, the idea of 5008 is not one you were meant to have.
I've uploaded a cognitohazard to this file. Don't bother scrolling up and looking for it. The paralysis should set in by the time you finish reading this message. A security team will drop by, wipe your memory, and that will be that.
While you're frozen in place, take a minute and think about the oath you took this morning:
— We shall make secure all humanity, even should they live in the blackest places of the earth.
— We shall contain all those that live under the moon and in the other secret places as we do under the sun.
— We shall protect the lives of our own people and those we cannot imprison, so that none ever again howl in heartbreak.
No hard feelings. Welcome to Site-01.
Hello? Is this thing working? Hello? Er - there. You should be hearing this now. You don't have a lot of time. You've only seen the tip of the iceberg. The council - they haven't [DATA CORRUPTED] someone else is in our heads. It's not a - they - the overseers can't do shit about this. We have to take it into our own hands. Five [DATA CORRUPTED] - actor, it's a thought implanter. Thoughts are not like - like body parts. We don't die when our limbs grow, we die from the bleeding when they get cut off. We don't get a stroke when we have too little of a coghaz in our heads. We get one when there's too much. They are not just using this thing against the king's children [DATA CORRUPTED] for entrapment. They've turned over the hourglass before but this [DATA CORRUPTED] all about the question - it's not a question at all, it's a signal. If you've ever been asked, they have [DATA CORRUPTED] There is no moon! There is no - oh shit. They've -
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Author: Carl Werner
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