Sample location of SCP-8073 event.
Item #: SCP-8073
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Due to the widespread and random manifestation of SCP-8073 phenomena, physical containment of SCP-8073 has been deemed impractical. Internet traffic and keyphrase monitoring, as well as incident inquiry and response authorisation, are to be handled by MTF-Kappa-17 ("Yellow Anorak"). Video surveillance of frequently affected sites is ongoing.
A modified HODUR [Σ-Yellow Press] counterpropaganda protocol is authorised for publication relating to SCP-8073 and/or related injuries/deaths. HODUR protocol has proven effective at severely limiting the impact of SCP-8073 events, and is preferred over deployment of amnestics in all but the most extreme cases.
Hi team - just to let you know, as of this Friday we're rescinding authority for SCP-8073 inquiry budget claims for anyone below department heads. We see a lot of zebras, I get it, but we look in the zebra's mouth. If you seriously think a sighting warrants attachment to SCP-8073, crack out powerpoint (like the Sites with the guns have to) and bring it to me.
In the meantime, you're going to notice a new face having a look around - that's Miriam Stout and she's our new HODUR liaison. She'll be here for a week taking a look at what we refer and giving advice, and then she'll be on tap remotely from Site-██. A great use for false alarms would be to pass them on to her so she can get them to our media partners.
Best,
- Dan
Description: SCP-8073 is a repeating phenomenon affecting disparate sites in England, Wales and southern Scotland. SCP-8073 primarily manifests close to areas of religious or political significance during the period preceding the Norman conquest of England, including but not limited to: Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, Crowland Abbey, the isle of Ely, specific zones of the city of Winchester, hotspots along the eastern flank of Offa's Dyke, Durham Cathedral and the island of Lindisfarne. MTF-Kappa-17's current working hypothesis is that phenomena at other locations may represent areas of Saxon significance currently unknown to archaeologists.
SCP-8073 is among the oldest extant SCP archives initially recorded under something approximating modern scientific standards of observation. The archive survived [REDACTED], which compromised the majority of the records maintained by HMFSCP (Her Majesty's Foundation for the Secure Containment of the Paranormal), and was subsequently passed onto the modern Foundation. Approximately 1,100 SCP-8073 events were documented prior to Foundation acquisition. The reliability of many of these accounts is in question, as SCP-8073 identifications are prone to false positives and even HMFSCP themselves appear to have partially acquired their records from a previous source, and copied these records into their own format. The older HMFSCP case notes claim records as far back as the thirteenth century.
Dan,
what do we know about HMFSCP collection standards anyway? ik HMFSCP stuff is all redacted, but how do we know we can trust anything prior to ████ if it was done by the same guys who spent their gap years ripping up knossos & using mummy dust as paint??
Zorah
Hi Zorah,
We know that they're usually not pulling this stuff completely out of their arses. I hear what you're saying, but you and I will both get stonewalled on anything like this. Even ████ is a best guess working from the documents we've gotten. SOP right now is to accept black ink as valid data and create second lower-certainty models using the earlier green ink stuff. Just show your working and you'll be fine.
Best,
- Dan
SCP-8073 manifests to witnesses as a light or flame, appearing at moderate distance. Reliable measurement and description of SCP-8073 is made very difficult by a low report rate and the existence of several superficially similar mundane and anomalous phenomena, as well as the apparent lack of a consistent trigger. SCP-8073 appears exclusively in low light conditions and will demanifest under concentrated artificial light or with the sunrise.
SCP-8073 has a simple cognitohazardous effect on humans, compelling interest. Those affected by SCP-8073 display a wide range of behaviours, including but not limited to: feeling compelled to ''find'' or ''walk to'' SCP-8073; expressing at length the appeal and beauty of SCP-8073; writing or recording feelings about SCP-8073; expressing exaggerated fear of SCP-8073; taking photographs of or 'selfies' with SCP-8073.
SCP-8073 does not directly interact with humans beyond its cognitohazardous effect. Injury/death related to SCP-8073 is rare and incidental to the act of interacting with or following it. It appears to be impossible to ''catch up'' to SCP-8073, which will recede when chased. The subset of people who feel compelled to follow SCP-8073 display reckless determination and will cross property boundaries, traffic or bodies of water in so doing, sometimes at risk to their wellbeing. SCP-8073's effect seems to continue until it demanifests.
SCP-8073's cognitohazardous effect is by no means insurmountable; both specific personality traits and/or prior warning appear to be effective countermeasures. Further data is pending, as SCP-8073's inconsistency and low threat level have delayed organised testing with cognitoresistance-trained personnel.
Hi Miriam,
Please find the HODUR stuff attached going back to 1946. Before that the Foundation was collaborating with the OSS on stuff like this, which is redacted for me but not for you, so you'll have to find that yourself. =p
Best,
- Dan
15.02.2015.10.12.44.HODUR-XXXX.accessing...
NUMBER FOUR: SEEING STARS
The Royal College of Opthalmologists warns that people who watch more than ten hours of telly a week are up to SIX TIMES as likely to see light spots and even to report GHOST sightings. Our resident boffin GP Dan T Tudgel says: "I see a lot of patients who report seeing spots, and many aren't even old. As you age, the vitreous fluid around your eye slowly thins, and little fibres can collect, which affects your vision."
"What my younger patients have in common is too much TV or laptop, and they keep screens much too close to the face. Nobody should be embarassed if they start seeing stars - just pop in to see your GP and get a referral."
It didn't appear as a flaming wheel of eyes, or as some winged guy with a six pack. It was just a light. I told you at the beginning of this that you'd feel sceptical, and here I know it's occurring to you - that's just a light, Dinah. But I knew it had intention. I knew it could see me, knew it knew who I was. And I knew it loved me. I had been rock bottom, pun intended. I was in so much pain and so humiliated. The light that loved me brought me back from the edge.
And I can sit on a toilet again now, so that's great too.
15.02.2015.10.12.44.HODUR-XXXX.logout...
Investigation into the specific extent of SCP-8073's cognitohazardous effect is ongoing. It appears to be ego-syntonic - the anomalous interest in SCP-8073 is not perceived as a command or separate impulse from the self, even if the subject is later informed of the nature of the phenomenon. People affected by SCP-8073 report a range of emotions, from embarassment at having abandoned their previous activity to a lingering meta-interest in their own intense fascination.
SCP-8073's cognitohazardous effect does not appear to linger after it demanifests, although the strangeness of the event can lead to preoccupation on the part of the subject. As this preoccupation poses a low risk to containment, online keyword monitoring is preferred to amnestic deployment and the concommitant resource expenditure.
Hi Zorah,
I got back your request for field funding related to 8073 and unfortunately it's a no. If we get a week soon when Anna seems comparatively unstressed, I'll try again then, but I wouldn't be too optimistic.
Best,
- Dan
Dan,
yeah I assumed. thanks anyway.
Zorah
Personnel Incident MTF-κ17-036 Documentation:
REPORTING OFFICER: Zorah Helmy
Arrived on scene after referral from Cambridgeshire Constabulary contact under protocol HELPMEET. Mobile phone of Emma Wilson (deceased) acquired - other items returned to parents. Forensic report shows no anomalous effect beyond physical injuries sustained in the deceased's fall - like the location, this is consistent with 8073 encounters. HODUR protocol discussed with M. Stout by telephone.
Police reported that the deceased livestreamed a section of her 8073 encounter to a small audience on Instagram Live. Deceased was heavily inebriated at the time of death and clarity of recorded footage is very poor. Friends present with the deceased do not report having seen a light and did not follow the deceased. Instagram account deletion request already made by police at behest of parents.
Reconstruction of events is as follows: Deceased leaves The Regal at about 1:40am and walks with friends towards the Drummer St. bus station, intending to take the 1 home to the deceased's address in the Arbury estate. No bus is available due to reduced bank holiday service. Deceased and friends deliberate, then decide to head home on foot. Surveillance footage shows group crossing the Magdalene Bridge at 2:03am.
Deceased begins broadcasting on Instagram Live at 2.14am. Deceased ascends Castle Hill while broadcasting. Friends stay at bottom of hill, objecting loudly. As attested by both video and witness statements, the deceased repeatedly exclaims ''it's fucking beautiful''. Deceased reaches summit of Castle Hill, falls and is fatally injured.
Final Recommendation: No amnestic deployment required - deceased's behaviour easily ascribed to drunkenness. Video contained and deleted. Recommend low priority HODUR flag for name of deceased in conjunction with SCP-8073 keyphrases.
Semolina: zorah wtf is this groupchat theme
Semolina: also are you coming archive, we're going to bash out the new research request for ████ before the file dump on monday dan keeps shitting himself about
Puff Pastry: it's us as beige foods
Puff Pastry: oh sure actually let me get a coffee
Puff Pastry: 10 mins
Single Undercooked Chip:👀👀👀 Don't let dad see you cramming last minute
Single Undercooked Chip: Wow *dan
Single Undercooked Chip: Upsettingly freudian
Puff Pastry: genuinely i'm just tired. i want to like miriam but it's like she's trying to get us to work or something =p
Semolina: you sure I can't take anything off you? I'm drowning in old norse translation requests from site-██ and they're always total pricks
Semolina: so I'd love to have a reason to tell them to wait longer
Puff Pastry: thank you honestly, but it's not stuff i want to hand off (8073 final filing etc)
Semolina: ah ok, fair enough
Puff Pastry: turned down again :(
Semolina: ah… they're always really stingy about deploying field teams. sorry
Puff Pastry: lmao at us being a mobile task force
Puff Pastry: ''mobile'' = we walk to the canteen. sometimes we show up in a mazda after a girl dies
Single Undercooked Chip: I don't think it's personal, it's budget triage
Puff Pastry: i know that
Single Undercooked Chip: We don't know what fires are being put out with the stuff we want for ours, I'm just saying
Puff Pastry: ok
[18:31] A figure [identified as Junior Archivist Zorah Helmy] gets out of her car in the Shire Hall car park adjacent to Castle Hill, and makes the short climb to the summit. A few members of the public are gathered, as the sun has yet to set. Helmy sets out a small picnic blanket and a e-reader from her backpack, then sits and begins to read.
[19:04] Helmy is alone. She retrieves printed copies of several archived HMFSCP files and begins reading them by the light of her phone.
[23:06] Helmy leaves.
This is the first of a further eighteen examples of Junior Archivist Helmy visiting this site. On at least two occasions she was in possession of printed copies of HMFSCP files classified Level 0 General, a violation of Site guidelines on data handling.
After issues were flagged regarding Archivist Helmy's workplace conduct, she was placed under LYME monitoring. The following is a transcript of a recording obtained 28.07.2016. Helmy appears to have posed as a journalist in order to gain access to the victim's family.
[23:06]: Junior Archivist Zorah Helmy parks her car across the street from 19 Carisbrooke Drive and walks up the garden path to the front door. She rings the doorbell.
Rita Wilson:: Hiya, are you Zorah?
Archivist Helmy: Yes, hi, hello. Thanks again for this.
The two enter.
Rita Wilson: Cup of tea?
Archivist Helmy: Just water, if that's alright?
[27:13]: Mrs Wilson and Archivist Helmy are sat across from one another in Mrs' Wilson's living room.
Archivist Helmy: What I'm really hoping to do is raise more awareness around binge drinking, to try and avoid what happened to your granddaughter.
Rita Wilson: The same thing happened to your brother, you said?
Archivist Helmy: [hesitation] Right, exactly. You see what it does to families, I think.
Rita Wilson: Yes.
Archivist Helmy: So I wanted to ask more about your granddaughter.
Rita Wilson: Well, what kind of thing -
Archivist Helmy: Just about her. Her personality, her dreams, who she was.
Rita Wilson: [laughter] Well. She was charismatic. Always had a gaggle of friends round her. You want to think they're the bad influence, but I think Emma probably was.
Archivist Helmy: Sounds like me at that age.
Rita Wilson: Me too. She always hated school. She left after her GCSEs, didn't look back. It took her a while to find her way.
Archivist Helmy: Yeah.
Rita Wilson: Honestly, I don't know what her dreams were. She liked her life, I think. Wasn't so focused on the future.
Archivist Helmy: Smart.
Employee: Zorah Helmy
Line Manager: Daniel Clarke
Reported Issue: Behavioural concerns reported directly to [REDACTED] by M Stout, referred back to me. Ongoing low-level interaction issues with other Site employees, conflict etc. Significant data breaches (documents taken offsite).
Action taken: Internal suspension for seven days. Mandatory counselling due to ongoing emotional state, reorientation regarding Foundation data policy.
Outlook: Archivist Helmy suitably chastened by prospect of having to redo another two day data policy orientation. Some troublesome data access habits following reintegration to MTF, but all strictly on-site, and I'm keeping an eye out.
I emphatically disagree with Miriam's recommendation. Firstly, I don't care what she cites, people come back worse at their jobs. Minds are not hard drives that can be defragged. Secondly, I retain hope that the Foundation has not adopted the axiom that empathy is to be purged for the benefit of operational effectiveness; if so, please inform me and I will give my two weeks notice.
Miriam,
See attached my request for a change of HODUR liaison. Sincerely no hard feelings - you're not the first to assume that they pull the Directors for boring Sites out their arses. Learning opportunity =)
Best,
- Dan
"ACCESS LOG 2019.06.15 USER MTF-κ-HELMY.Z"
"That she-wolf of the water bore him away, once they came to the bottom,
carried the ring mailed prince to her dwelling,
so that he was unable to wield his weapon,
though he had his fill of courage. A rushing horde of wondrous creatures
pressed upon him in those waters, many a sea-beast
tore with its tusks at his war-shirt,
gave a fierce pursuit. Than that prince perceived
that he was in some hostile hall,
where water harmed him not at all,
saw that the roof of the place held back the current,
the sudden pull of the waters:
there a gleaming light shone bright within.”
Beowulf [Internal Translation]
I HAD, in part, touching, sight, and feeling in three properties of God, in which the strength and effect of all the Revelation standeth: and they were seen in every Shewing, and most properly in the Twelfth, where it saith oftentimes: [It is I.] The properties are these: Life, Love, and Light. In life is marvellous homeliness, and in love is gentle courtesy, and in light is endless Nature-hood.
Our faith is a light by nature coming of our endless Day, that is our Father, God. In which light our Mother, Christ, and our good Lord, the Holy Ghost, leadeth us in this passing life. This light is measured discreetly, needfully standing to us in the night. The light is cause of our life; the night is cause of our pain and of all our woe: in which we earn meed and thanks of God. For we, with mercy and grace, steadfastly know and believe our light, going therein wisely and mightily.
And at the end of woe, suddenly our eyes shall be opened, and in clearness of light our sight shall be full: which light is God, our Maker and Holy Ghost, in Christ Jesus our Saviour.
Thus I saw and understood that our faith is our light in our night: which light is God, our endless Day.
Collected Works Of Julian of Norwich
