Item #: SCP-8516
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: Each item of SCP-8516 is to be stored individually in a locked, opaque container when not actively under study. It is highly recommended that each container be housed in a separate containment chamber.
Additional containment procedures are in place for the following items:
- SCP-8516-3's containment chamber must be soundproofed to an apparent sound reduction index1 of no less than 45 and equipped with at least two Class 3 isolating headphones attached to a white noise generator.
- SCP-8516-4's container must be housed in a chamber equipped with a supplemental high-efficiency ventilation system.
Cameras and other recording devices may be permitted in the containment chambers subject to the discretion of the presiding researcher. However, any photographs or other recordings taken with such devices must be destroyed at the conclusion of each research session; under no circumstances may they be removed from the chamber.
Foundation personnel are to limit their direct exposure to (at most) a single item of SCP-8516, as exposure to 2 or more items necessitates the administration of amnestics to the exposed party.
Update (21/08/2014): Following the events of Incident I-8516-4 (See Addendum 3), in an attempt to reduce the accessibility of the full collection of SCP-8516 items by any single Foundation employee and mitigate the effectiveness of future attempts at social engineering, no more than 3 items of SCP-8516 may be housed simultaneously at any given Foundation facility.
Description: SCP-8516 is a collection of 12 household objects of varying types and origins, a summary inventory of which may be found in Addendum 1.
Research into the objects is still ongoing. However, to date, extensive testing on human subjects has failed to turn up evidence of measurable adverse effects resulting from contact with any single, isolated instance of SCP-8516. Indeed, individually, none of the objects display any apparent anomalous properties whatsoever. Collectively, however, they present a potent cognitohazard.
Subjects exposed to more than one instance of SCP-8516 report a desire to seek out the rest of the collection, with the intensity of the effect increasing markedly the more items the subject views. This desire initially presents as no more than mild curiosity, but quickly progresses to an intense and all-consuming obsession with locating and examining the remaining items. The effect varies somewhat from individual to individual, but in general, subjects who have viewed more than 4 or 5 of the items can no longer be considered to be in full control of their actions and are to be treated with extreme caution.
Subjects under the influence of SCP-8516 report a sense of something secret and deeply meaningful being gradually revealed to them. They become increasingly convinced that if they were allowed to examine the full set of objects, they would gain some kind of understanding or insight into an unspecified “truth” of immense significance. Subjects typically struggle to characterize the nature of this supposed insight, except in the vaguest of terms. The progressive intensity of the effect suggests that only in the objects’ combination or juxtaposition with each other do they carry any sort of perceived meaning.2
Descriptions of the objects, regardless of how detailed, appear to be insufficient to trigger the anomalous effect; subjects must generally examine the objects firsthand, although in many cases, detailed photographs suffice (SCP-8516-3, SCP-8516-4, and SCP-8516-10 being notable exceptions).
The objects were recovered from the flat of a Parisian artist named Marcel Aubine in 1989, following his disappearance roughly two weeks prior.3 Upon Aubine’s failure to pay his already overdue rent, his landlord entered his flat, noticed signs of neglect, and contacted police. A source within the Paris Police Prefecture alerted Foundation personnel after hearing of odd behavior among the officers responsible for investigating the flat. After administering amnestics to the affected officers, Foundation field operatives seized the entire contents of the flat and transferred it to the nearest Foundation facility for study, where researchers were eventually able to isolate the objects responsible for the anomalous effect.
Little is known about the origins of the objects. Apart from one or two, exactly how and where Aubine obtained them is unclear. Aubine was described by his few acquaintances as a prolific traveler; given the wide variation in the objects’ age and general area of origin, it is likely he acquired the majority of them in the course of his travels. Most seem to have been modified by Aubine to various extents while in his possession, but the exact ways in which they were modified—and more importantly, why—are matters of some debate.
However, it is the question of how and when the SCP-8516 collection acquired its anomalous properties that has prompted the most speculation. Aubine’s increasingly reclusive and erratic behavior over the decade preceding his disappearance strongly suggests he was under its influence, but there is no clear evidence to indicate whether the objects were already anomalous when he found them or whether they became so while in his possession. If the latter, it would raise the possibility that Aubine’s alterations to the collection somehow prompted their unusual effects. Either way, one must grant the possibility that Aubine himself may have been anomalous in some way.4
Addendum 1: Summary Inventory of SCP-8516 Items
Addendum 2: Interview with D-27178, 27/04/2011
Addendum 3: Excerpt from Incident Report IR-8516-4