SCP-5904-C
Special Containment Procedures:
Instances of SCP-5904 are to be archived in High-Yield Data Storage Facility 3 at Site-43.
I/O METATRON is to search online listings for any Vikander-Kneed Technical Media-labelled VHS tapes. Such listings are to be shut down and all those with working knowledge of the tapes are to be amnesticized.
Investigation into the origins of SCP-5904 is given high priority, in order to stymie production of the anomaly.
Description
SCP-5904 is the collective designation for a series of instructional VHS tapes entitled “Human Resources Orientation,” produced and distributed by Vikander-Kneed Technical Media (GoI-5889).
Currently three instances are known to the Foundation, designated as SCP-5904-A through -C. SCP-5904’s anomalous effects are only triggered when an instance is played for at least one individual. Subjects who watch an instance of SCP-5904 develop increased suggestibility and are amenable to following any instruction that would not endanger their lives. The effect is cumulative; the more content an individual watches, the more open to suggestion they will become.
Additionally, subjects who watch the entire series of tapes report insomnia, apathy, lack of appetite, and an increase in anxiety.1
The suggestibility and other psychological effects fade with time, but recollections of the content of an SCP-5904 instance are highly resistant to amnesticization.
The content of SCP-5904 instances cannot be copied through any known technology, whether digital or analog. Any attempts to duplicate an instance will produce only static.
Various items of information concerning the viewing subject will be incorporated into the content contained within an instance of SCP-5904. The host of the series (designated SCP-5904-1) is never completely shown on camera but appears to be male. At most the bottom fifty percent of SCP-5904-1’s face will be visible on camera at any given time, his eyes are never visible. SCP-5904-1 self-identifies as Charlie Fiero, senior Vice President of GoI-5889’s human resources division.
Discovery:
SCP-5904 was discovered after an individual in Everett, Washington, purchased the tapes at a rummage sale. Ms. Martha Gutierrez, a student at University of Washington, age 20, claims no memory of the location or event of the purchase. Foundation personnel were made aware after posts on Parawatch.net were discovered by dedicated AiCs:
MGparanoid 13/06/16 (Thu) 20:17:52 #6749253
So, the other day I bought these videotapes at a rummage sale in my parents’ neighborhood. I got them so I could show my AV class, basically as a joke. But there was some drama right after I started the tape – my girlfriend wanted to get her sweater from my dorm and my roommate wouldn’t let her in (b1tch) – so I left for a few minutes. When I came back, my classmates were all staring at the screen. The VHS had stopped and the old CRT was just static.
Screwed up thing? Here’s this group of six people, totally independent college students, various issues and intellectual abilities, right? They just start following orders. I tell them to fuck off – because they didn’t pause the tape for me – they all get up and start leaving. I tell them to “wait a minute!” – they all turn around and look at me. It was fucking eerie!
I figure they were pulling a joke on me… but the next day, I found one of them watching another of the tapes in the AV lab and she was freaking out. Turns out, the video was addressed to someone with her name (Emily isn’t that strange of a name, I think she was being a bit extra)… so she’s having a full on panic attack (she’s normally really chill). I tell her she needs to calm down, and she sorta does. Like, I could see in her eyes that she was still freaked but she stopped pacing and stopped cursing up a storm. She just listened immediately.
They’re just HR training videos, wtf?
Ms. Gutierrez was interviewed but she failed to provide any information concerning the origins of SCP-5904. She was amnesticized along with her classmates.
NOTICE FROM THE FOUNDATION RECORDS AND INFORMATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Reading transcripts of the video files contained within SCP-5904-A through -C has the same effect as viewing the videos themselves. The following excerpts2 should present minimal anomalous effects, but this is not guaranteed. Please have emergency anti-cognitohazard agents present while reviewing these transcripts.
— Maria Jones, Director, RAISA
Researcher William Wettle performed the initial anomaly review and produced the below transcripts:
Additional instances of SCP-5904.
On 3 December, 2016, a rentable storage-space was discovered by searching out properties in the area owned by any entities labelling themselves as Vikander-Kneed.
The storage-space had been rented out for the last thirty-five years, paid entirely in advance in cash. Hundreds of VHS tapes were discovered within, labelled as Vikander-Kneed Technical Media. Over 50% were copies of the Human Resources Orientation series.
Classification has been changed to Keter, and research is being formulated to discern the nature of the VHS tapes not covered by the SCP-5904 designation.
