by Cydhra
Special Containment Procedures
Foundation personnel in the area around Cairo must be familiar with SCP-5164's containment procedures. Because SCP-5164 is unremarkable and boring, personnel are encouraged to skip reading the remaining document if they have better things to do. Understanding the containment procedures is the only vital part of this measure.
Physical containment of SCP-5164 has been abandoned indefinitely.1 While its anomalous properties remain active, they are contingent on silly thoughts of SCP-5164. Because SCP-5164 is an adult, such childish escapism is unfit for it, and it will not act upon ideas derived from its anomalous properties.
SCP-5164 must be prevented from moving to densely populated areas, as well as areas with high Foundation presence. Because SCP-5164 is content with its modest lifestyle and life in the city took a harsh toll on its mental health the last time, SCP-5164 will not consider such a change out of its own volition. Its environment must remain free of major stressors, and its achievements and life experiences must be steered towards dullness to avoid stress-inducing ambitions or publicity.
If SCP-5164 develops ambitions or tries to pursue dreams that threaten the status quo of its current lifestyle, Foundation agents are to be embedded in its general area of habitation. Agents are required to talk about how unrealistic and childish SCP-5164's dreams are daily during their stay. No other tasks need to be performed, so this can be carried out next to more important jobs or on vacations. Since spontaneous ambitions of SCP-5164 are generally lame, it is estimated that this will not require substantial Foundation assets.
Description
SCP-5164 is a man in his late twenties living on the outskirts of the Cairo metropolitan area. SCP-5164 lives a modest life with a job, friends, and currently no love interest. While not particularly noteworthy, its life can be described as respectable and healthy, demanding no drastic changes.
SCP-5164 can anomalously access the collective subconscious and shared knowledge of its surrounding society. The range of this ability is unknown, but it is estimated to cover metropolitan areas. SCP-5164 neither notices this process happening nor will it question how it gained knowledge in this way. Concepts, ideas, and knowledge obtained in this way are given more importance by SCP-5164 if more people in the affected area think about them.
Addenda
Initial Discovery
Department: Department of Miscommunication
Date: 29/08/2023
SCP-5164 was initially discovered when it tried to open a portal into a tartarean subspace on its university campus in Cairo. It had commandeered an unsecured excavator on an on-campus construction site and attempted to use its shovel as the iron source for a Type 3 Hittite conjuration ritual.
The ritual was interrupted by local law enforcement because of civilian reports about a young man attempting to steal the excavator. After some confusion about SCP-5164's intentions, Foundation agents were finally notified by an embedded agent in another part of the country and conducted an interview with SCP-5164.
The reasoning of SCP-5164 remains dubious. According to an interview, it was attempting to escape the intense stress it experienced during the exam period by moving to a lesser tartarean plane. This account was corroborated by several of its peers, especially band members of his musical project. They testified that SCP-5164 was frequently absent from band activity, despite their recent success on social media. The exact goal of the ritual remains unclear, however, as SCP-5164 was confusing several types of tartarean spaces and clearly had only a very surface-level understanding of Hittite rituals.2 Its knowledge was mixed with mundane mythology, ostensibly originating from several university classes on anthropology.
At the time, Foundation agents assumed that SCP-5164 possessed no inherent anomalous capabilities and only happened to stumble upon some actual occult practices by coincidence. It clearly did not understand the ritual it was trying to perform and could not differentiate between occultism and mythology. Much later, it became evident that SCP-5164 likely picked up the required knowledge from a Foundation seminar about Hittite rituals that was conducted at a Foundation site nearby, which increased the presence of Hittite knowledge in the collective subconscious above a threshold where it became useful to SCP-5164. The Foundation agents conducting the interview did not make this connection at the time, however.
Why SCP-5164 was willing to perform an occult ritual to ease the psychological stress originating from its studies, instead of more proven stress relief techniques, remains unclear to this day. It is theorized, however, that SCP-5164 was underperforming in its studies. Moreover, the exam season caused severe stress in the collective subconscious of the entire campus, further increasing the stress experienced by SCP-5164. This likely resulted in panic attacks and substantially decreased SCP-5164's ability to think rationally.
Because no anomalous activity was found, SCP-5164 was amnestized and released shortly thereafter.
Containment Attempt
Department: Site 107
Date: 01/10/2023
A few weeks after the previous incident, SCP-5164 was apprehended again while attempting to convene with a higher tartarean entity. SCP-5164 had successfully executed several embalming steps of ancient Egyptian burying rituals on its head. According to an interview, SCP-5164 attempted to speak to Anubis, following a complex set of procedures that would temporarily send its head into the afterlife. The goal of this ritual was, according to SCP-5164, to obtain knowledge that would help it succeed at its studies, as SCP-5164 was facing exmatriculation at that point.3 Again, the exact reasoning is unclear, as this is not a standard ritual. Experts from the Occultism Department, however, do think the procedure might be possible when combining rituals from several branches of the occult.
This time, Foundation agents considered it highly unlikely that SCP-5164 performed highly potent occult rituals by chance, and an investigation into the source of SCP-5164's knowledge was launched. It was discovered that several high-ranking personnel had convened about Egyptian Occultism at Site 107 a few days prior, due to an unrelated containment breach. At first, it was unclear how SCP-5164 obtained knowledge from this convention, but a preliminary containment protocol was set in place, and SCP-5164 remained on site for the following days.
Shortly thereafter, SCP-5164 attempted to breach containment. It had exploited several weaknesses in the construction of Site 107 and its containment units. At the time, it was unclear how SCP-5164 learned of these weaknesses, but it later became clear that personnel of Site 107 were generally aware of them.4 This sparked the first theories into the anomalous properties of SCP-5164.
In the following six days, SCP-5164 caused five more containment breaches, four of them mass breaches where it attempted to free several other live anomalies from their containment units. Interviews conducted at the time revealed that SCP-5164 likely had hero fantasies of saving the anomalies.5
Relocation
Department: Site 107
Date: 09/10/2023
Following the six containment breaches, a theory about SCP-5164's properties was formed. A new containment strategy was postulated and, due to the high breach frequency, tested immediately. Containment at Foundation facilities was deemed impractical, as its abilities would eventually give SCP-5164 the combined thaumaturgic and occult knowledge of any Foundation facility.
SCP-5164 was fully amnestized and relocated to a less densely populated area under a cover story involving his exmatriculation. The current Special Containment Procedures were implemented, and Site 107 staff, as well as several external agents, were briefed about the new containment protocols. The agents were embedded in the vicinity of SCP-5164's new apartment and held daily meetings, discussing the silliness and childishness of SCP-5164's dreams. This way, any aspirations to return to Cairo City, rejoin a university course, or attempt another stressful endeavor were inhibited by implanting the idea that such dreams were unachievable for SCP-5164 in their collective subconscious.
Similarly, the agents implanted the idea that its current lifestyle was sufficient and that it was content with its situation. The presence of Foundation agents was gradually reduced, and it is believed that the knowledge of the Containment Procedures by Site 107 staff is sufficient to keep the implanted ideas in the collective subconscious.
This containment strategy worked, and instead of seeking out academic success or striving for a successful career, SCP-5164 focused on his musical project. A covert interview with one of his band members confirmed that SCP-5164 had rediscovered its previous passion and put substantial energy into the project. At the time, the task force considered this a great success, as it was unlikely that SCP-5164 would be requiring rituals to keep up with expectations.
Incident 5164-09
Department: Site 107
Date: 26/03/2024
On Saturday, March 23, 2024, the musical project The Set Up featuring SCP-5164 performed live at a square near the Nile river bank. During the performance, SCP-5164 began guessing musical tastes and song requests from random members of the audience with near-perfect accuracy, attempting to satisfy requests to the band's ability. This performance was likely enabled by the crowd being already primed for the genre of music the band was able to perform, as well as the charismatic demeanor of SCP-5164. The display attracted the attention of additional passersby, and soon after, audience members began live-streaming the performance to various social media platforms.
With the growing audience, SCP-5164 began making a spectacle out of its ability, asking guests to share requests with other audience members and the livestreams before guessing them in front of the cameras; his ability to guess correctly being amplified by the audience's shared knowledge about the answer. The performance lasted several hours, constituting a major containment breach event, and requiring substantial resources to suppress.
To prevent follow-up incidents, Mobile Task Force Omega-20 ("Thought Police") was tasked with following SCP-5164 and slowly separating it from the band. The task force did not directly interact with SCP-5164, but regularly conversed about how embarrassing and immature its little magic show was and how nobody stayed for the actual music of the band. Over a few weeks, MTF Omega-20 fabricated self-doubt for SCP-5164, encouraging it to avoid its band members, and to abandon its musical ambitions.
Several phone calls between SCP-5164 and its band members were intercepted and used to form new strategies to permanently divide them. However, the band members acted supportive of SCP-5164's induced insecurities, and the recent successes of the band made it difficult to implant the idea to abandon the project. Finally, MTF Omega-20 decided to implant feelings of exploitation in SCP-5164, which showed promising results. Through crafted narratives, which were reinforced by frequent conversations between MTF members, they created the idea that the band members just kept SCP-5164 around for his charisma and social media influence but didn't actually care about it or its music. SCP-5164 did not leave its apartment for several weeks and refrained from interacting with band members, band activities, and music in general. It deleted several social media profiles and online discographies of the band. It had minimal social interactions for several months, which led MTF Omega-20 to conclude that the breach was successfully contained.
The Special Containment Procedures were updated, and no further incidents have occurred since.
