Assigned Facility
Assigned Department
Research Head
Assigned Task Force
Site-200
Dir. Hunson Bayer
None
Dr. Esther Henderson
MTF Iota-99
"Everyday Joes"
Special Containment Procedures: With the aid of PANOPTICON global surveillance, the Foundation is to monitor major urban and suburban areas for emergent instances of SCP-5161 and, upon the manifestation of a suspected instance, notify the appropriate regional or local command or the nearest Secure Facility (based on the degree of presence of Foundation assets in the locality). For a brief duration following the occurrence of SCP-5161, undercover Foundation agents are to monitor civilians living nearby the new instance of SCP-5161-A to ascertain whether they detect an abnormality related to the emergence, and amnesticize appropriately. Particularly in more densely-populated areas, a heavy undercover presence is to be maintained in localities where SCP-5161 manifests for up to a month after the event in order to ascertain whether (and prepare for the event that) local residents begin to notice abnormalities regarding the event.
SCP-5161-A instance.
Because removing them from SCP-5161-A would arouse suspicion in local civilians on a scale at which mass amnesticization would be impractical, because they preserve their own secrecy, and because they appear to have no ulterior motive and do not act in an abnormal manner or in one prejudicial to the Veil of Secrecy, the Foundation has reluctantly elected to allow SCP-5161-B to remain in SCP-5161-A following an SCP-5161 event.1 This policy is subject to change if an ulterior motive prejudicial to secrecy is discovered among SCP-5161-B, or if SCP-5161-B’s behavior alters in such a way that it no longer serves to be effectively self-containing.
Description: SCP-5161 is an anomalous phenomenon occurring in urban and suburban communities, mostly observed in North America, since at least February of 2003. A given instance of SCP-5161 targets one home within a community, and constitutes the immediate disappearance of the physical structure of the targeted residence from baseline reality2 and its seamless replacement with another domicile generated by SCP-5161 through unknown means (hereafter an SCP-5161-A instance). SCP-5161-A are typically in affluent suburban styles, though their precise style and appearance are variable in general adherence to the surroundings of the local community: nevertheless they obviously constitute, both in external appearance and internal floor plan, entirely different and unrelated structures to the home which existed prior to the SCP-5161 event. SCP-5161-A typically appear considerably wealthier than the homes they replace in all superficially-visible areas (size, architecture, furniture, and the like).
A whole SCP-5161 event constituting the erasure of a residence and its replacement by an instance of SCP-5161-A occurs essentially instantaneously. There is no known warning sign which can predict SCP-5161 events, although suspected manifestations can be confirmed for a few minutes after the fact by a brief Humetric distortion consistent with the localized exertion of positive ontokinesis (detectable by Kant counter as approx. deviation of +20 to +24ξ in the immediate vicinity).
Following an SCP-5161-A event, the prior residents of the affected residence will be destroyed and SCP-5161-A will become populated with SCP-5161-B in their place. SCP-5161-B are, by all known measures, baseline human beings. If asked by local residents, they will claim to be "the new neighbors"; if asked by Foundation agents or local authorities, they will produce identification and claim to have "just moved in" to the community affected by SCP-5161. SCP-5161-B have discrete identities corresponding to actual people in the civilian population and can produce all the valid, original legal documentation expected thereof.
The origin of SCP-5161-B is the subject of some confusion among Foundation researchers: it appears they are in fact not anomalously synthesized by SCP-5161, but "summoned" — selected by some unknown mechanism from the general population and mentally converted into SCP-5161-B while retaining their true memories and identities. So far as is understood, SCP-5161-B are not anomalous clones, body-doubles, or anomalous entities disguised as human: they are the full and original people which their civilian identity would suggest. What force has compelled these individuals to comply so willingly with the influence of SCP-5161 on their lives is unknown.
SCP-5161-A and -B possess a moderate vaguifying effect. This prevents other inhabitants of the local community infested by SCP-5161, particularly closer neighbors to the new SCP-5161-A instance, from realizing any particular anomalous quality or abnormality in the circumstances surrounding SCP-5161. Locals almost universally fail to recognize that SCP-5161-A represents an entirely and obviously different house than the original, replaced residence, and identify SCP-5161-B as “new neighbors” moving into town who have merely purchased and performed some “minor renovations” upon the house actually converted by SCP-5161. Though these notions are capable of being partially dispelled by intense and repeated exposure of affected civilians to the egregious logical contradictions of their held perceptions, they generally remain anomalously fixed in the mind with remarkable persistence.
SCP-5161-B largely engage in routine, mundane activities within and around SCP-5161-A, and are not aggressive. At surface level, they appear to have no motive other than to continue to occupy SCP-5161-A. The true motives of SCP-5161-B remain unknown.
As of writing, 44 confirmed manifestations and 51 suspected manifestations of SCP-5161 have taken place.
Addendum 5161.1: Interrogation of SCP-5161-B Instance
On 24 June 2004, Field Agent Howe was tasked with isolating an instance of SCP-5161-B and extracting information from the subject using enhanced interrogation techniques to determine the motivation behind SCP-5161-B’s behavior and the reason for the existence of SCP-5161, if any.
The SCP-5161-B instance abducted by Howe identified itself as “Jack Tansworth”, later confirmed to be an actual resident of Illinois, and was found to be compliant to the field agent’s requests for information after the application of enhanced interrogation. The instance was released from Foundation custody afterward, placed under continued surveillance, and designated PoI-5161-1.
INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: Basement of SCP-5161-A instance, Lake Zurich, Illinois
DATE: 24 June 2004
INTERVIEWER: Field Agent Rosario Howe
INTERVIEWEE: PoI-5161-1
FOREWORD: The below transcript follows considerable interrogation of the subject by Agent Howe.
[BEGIN EXCERPT]
PoI-5161-1: Alright! Alright… I'll talk.
[Agent Howe turns the projector off. The paralytic agent vanishes from the wall.]
Agent Howe: Good. Better to do it the easy way before Command gets back to us on that authorization request for memetic truth serum.
PoI-5161-1: Christ, ease up a bit? This has to violate our—
Agent Howe: Quiet. Now, tell me: how did you get here?
PoI-5161-1: Into the house? We get teleported, obviously.
Agent Howe: Why? What's your goal?
PoI-5161-1: Nothing; we live he—
Agent Howe: Don't give me that shit. What's this stunt for?
PoI-5161-1: I do live here, for one thing. That's true. The reason we live here is…
Agent Howe: Hm?
PoI-5161-1: What, you don't get it? To raise property values. Duh?
Agent Howe: What?
PoI-5161-1: What do you mean, 'what'?
Agent Howe: You're just… taking up space?
PoI-5161-1: Yeah, man. It's all part of the plan; you just don't get it.
Agent Howe: Then why replace the whole house?
PoI-5161-1: To… make the area nicer? Feel like this is all pretty obvious.
Agent Howe: So you guys just want to make a buck? How'd you manage all of this?
PoI-5161-1: No, no. This isn't for money. This is for the plan. We just want to see all the values go up; like, in general.
Agent Howe: The "pla—"
PoI-5161-1: We've got a reality bender doing the houses, as for the second question — pretty simple trick, actually. You'll never catch him, so don't even try.
Agent Howe: Oh yeah? And who is 'we', exactly?
PoI-5161-1: I'm… you know I'm not at liberty to dis—
[Agent Howe raises the projector remote with one finger over the button.]
[PoI-5161-1 flinches, then shakes his head.]
Agent Howe: Change your mind? Good. Now, who are you?
[PoI-5161-1 produces an index card on which is scribbled a title and insignia haphazardly in blue pen, and flips it with two fingers to face Agent Howe.]
PoI-5161-1: Stochastic Property Value Inflation Special Task Force, Directorate K.
Agent Howe: Come on, are you fucking serious?
[END EXCERPT]
Inquiry into the veracity of PoI-5161-1's claims are ongoing. The Foundation is presently investigating a possible breach of the Nine Mile Station Protocol.
