Item: SCP-8251
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Due to the self-propagating nature of SCP-8251, true containment of SCP-8251 is impossible. MTF-███ has been established to monitor all new age religious movements worldwide. Any movements meeting the requirements detailed in Document 8251-A will be designated as “Movements of Interest” (MOI). A quick summary of essential MOI criteria is detailed below:
- The MOI must have a population of at least ███ individuals, with no age requirement.
- The relationship the MOI has with the governing body of the MOI’s home country must be considered sour or otherwise hostile.
- The MOI must have fled the home country and successfully established a compound or other self-sufficient organization within a plant country.
- Another international governing body must be investigating the MOI for human rights violations, real or perceived.
When a MOI comes close to meeting or meets the above criteria, MTF-███ will execute any scenarios from Document 8251-B in order to dissolve the MOI. In the event the MOI cannot be dissolved via peaceful means detailed in Document 8251-B, strategies detailed in Document 8251-C can be employed to dissolve the group by force. So far, only ██ MOI’s have resisted Document 8251-C strategies and proceeded to manifest outbreaks of SCP-8251.
Upon dissolution of an MOI through Foundation interference, natural dissolution, or by the carrying out of SCP-8251 to its terminal stage, the MOI compound must be searched and any instances of SCP-8251-1 confiscated, documented, and stored within Site ██’s anomalous audio library, with the updated contents of the newest instance of SCP-8251-1 recorded in Addendum 8251-1. Confiscated instances of SCP-8251-1 can be checked out of Site ██’s anomalous audio library provided the researcher is not a part of any religious movement. If the researcher is religious, the site director must confirm that the religion is well established and far from established fringe-religions as detailed on the Lampin Scale. Confiscated instances of SCP-8251-2 are considered non-anomalous and can be safely destroyed without any special procedures.
Any individuals that have listened to the tape and identify as members of an identified MOI, hereafter designated SCP-8251-3, must be eliminated due to their single-minded motivation of spreading the effects of SCP-8251 and their efficacy in doing so if not apprehended. Special attention must be given to identifying and eliminating instances of SCP-8251-3-1, should any remain. Members of a MOI that have not been exposed to SCP-8251 via direct exposure to SCP-8251-1 must be apprehended and quarantined to watch for symptoms of SCP-8251. In the event no symptoms appear, these members can be administered Class A amnestics and released with the cover story of escaping a hyper religious cult with heavy drug use to accommodate the acute confusion they will be feeling.
Description: SCP-8251 describes a phenomenon experienced by new age religious movements. Upon meeting the criteria of a Movement of Interest described in Document 8251-A, an audio cassette tape will appear somewhere within the compound, designated SCP-8251-1. These cassette tapes will be housed within an audio cassette player/recorder and over-ear headphones, with the combination of the two designated SCP-8251-2, in a public location such as a cafeteria or common space where it can be easily discovered by a member of the MOI. SCP-8251-2 has the unique characteristic of appearing with any necessary ports and hardware needed to interface with any AV equipment a MOI compound may have. Anyone who listens to SCP-8251-1 and identifies as a member of a MOI becomes an instance of SCP-8251-3. Instances of SCP-8251-3 feel a strong compulsion to spread the effects of SCP-8251 and will do anything short of assault to convince the fellow members of the MOI they are a part of to listen to SCP-8251-1, including lying, payment, and in the case of one member who was a skilled hypnotist, hypnotizing fellow MOI members and having them play the audio themselves while under the effects of hypnosis.
The person who discovers SCP-8251-1, hereafter referred to as SCP-8251-3-1, is theorized to feel a compulsion to listen to the tape. Reports of the moments between discovery and the “first listening” event are considered impossible to record as all observed “first listening” events happen too quickly to intervene. Multiple SCP-8251-3-1 instances were recorded finding the recorder, slipping on the headphones, and pressing play within a matter of seconds. Any attempts to insert agents into the MOI to retrieve SCP-8251-1 have failed either due to the agent being unable to recover the device before a MOI member or, on █ occasions, the agent converted to the movement and themselves became victim to SCP-8251, further leading credence to the Euclid classification of SCP-8251 as all inserted agents were considered highly resistant to all persuasive techniques from hypnotic to memetic.
Once a member of the MOI has listened to SCP-8251-1, the phenomenon designated SCP-8251 will begin to influence the MOI through a series of four (4) distinct stages. Those stages are detailed below:
Stage 1
- Infighting in the community directly surrounding the first instance of SCP-8251-3-1 will immediately cease.
- SCP-8251-3-1 will attempt to get their nuclear circle of relationships to listen to SCP-8251-1[1].
Stage 2
- A clique of SCP-8251-3 will form around SCP-8251-3-1 within the MOI.
- This clique will attempt to further spread SCP-8251 via coercing other members of the MOI to listen to SCP-8251-1.
- Upon having a majority of MOI members under the influence of SCP-8251, the clique will force SCP-8251-3-1 into the position of leader of the MOI[2].
Stage 3
- The SCP-8251-3 clique, now with SCP-8251-3-1 in power, will use their heavy influence over the MOI to compel as many members as possible to listen to SCP-8251-1.
- There still appears to be a line drawn at assault as the SCP-8251-3 clique will not force any members of the MOI that do not explicitly consent to listening to SCP-8251-1 and do so themselves.
- Towards the end of Stage 3, practically all conflict within the MOI will have subsided as the strong majority of members will be instances of SCP-8251-3.
Stage 4
- At this stage, SCP-8251-3-1 will organize a gathering of the entire membership into a common area of the compound.
- This includes both members of SCP-8251-3 and non-converted members.
- SCP-8251-3-1 will take possession of both SCP-8251-1 and SCP-8251-2 and begin to record the proceedings.
- Over the next █ hours, the following occurs:
- SCP-8251-3 will prepare some form of lethal action for MOI members. Methods of lethal action observed so far are poison, firearms, gaseous chemical agents, █████, and █████ ███ ████, among others.
- SCP-8251-3 under the orders SCP-8251-3-1 will identify any remaining unconverted members of the MOI, detain them, and administer the lethal action against their will should they fail to administer it themselves.
- Once only SCP-8251-3 instances remain, they will self-administer the lethal actions until only SCP-8251-3-1 remains. SCP-8251-3-1 will then stop the recording, after which SCP-8251-3-1 will self administer the lethal action, terminating the SCP-8251 instance.
- During analyzed audio recovered from SCP-8251-1 instances, SCP-8251-3-1 is recorded constantly preaching rhetoric in-line with the MOI’s beliefs in order to continue goading the MOI’s membership into administering the lethal action and to appease the protests unconverted MOI members.
- A theory has emerged that SCP-8251-3 instances are released from the effects of SCP-8251 once the lethal method has been administered and is considered lethal.
- This theory emerged due to audio of recovered SCP-8251-1 instances with audio of previously identified instances of SCP-8251-3 suddenly reacting with shock and horror regarding the actions they themselves have taken as well as the action of their compatriots.
Despite all physical characteristics of instances of SCP-8251-1 being consistent with technology available in 19██ when SCP-8251 was first observed, the contents of each recovered tape appears to append the events of that instance of SCP-8251 to the end of the recording. At the time of this document’s writing, the audio recording on the latest SCP-8251-1 instance is at least █ times greater than the stated capacity of the audio cassette.
Notably, only instances of SCP-8251-1 audio played from instances of SCP-8251-1 propagate SCP-8251. This was discovered after the audio of SCP-8251-1-███, commonly known as “The █████████ Massacre Death Tape”, leaked online. This leak was initially considered a massive memetic hazard, but it was quickly discovered that any audio not heard directly from SCP-8251-1 instances did not propagate SCP-8251. Nevertheless, Foundation web crawlers have been deployed to source and destroy instances of SCP-8251-1 recordings found online due to their generally disturbing nature in addition to preventing any possibility SCP-8251 somehow “adapting” to spread its effects online.