SCP-8740

Hey. Can we tell you a secret?

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    SCP-8740: The Secret Project: A Pseudogenesis Production
    Author: Queerious

    A prequel piece to SCP-8478, expanding the world of Pseudogenesis!

    CW: Sexual References, Minor Gore/Violence

    rating: +36+–x
⚠️ content warning
Item#: 8740
Level2
Containment Class:
keter
Secondary Class:
Agare
Disruption Class:
keneq
Risk Class:
warning
link to memo

Special Containment Procedures: Despite SCP-8740's operation in and outside of the veil, containment primarily relies on SCP-8740's memetic influence. This effect causes viewers to believe that what they saw was fictional once they leave the venue. As such, MTF Upsilon-33 ("Rushing Critics") is to support this effect, and to ensure that external forces do not cause an informational breach.1

Update: Following the events of Addendum 1, Foundation personnel are prohibited from entering SCP-8740.

Instances of cognitohazards advertising SCP-8740 are to be neutralized via countermemetics. An active cognitohazardous poster is included below, for reference.

Show Cognitohazard?

Description: SCP-8740 is an anomalous theatre performance known as "The Secret Project". SCP-8740 is staged by GOI-478 ("Pseudogenesis Productions"), and performances take place within a non-Euclidian theatre space known as 'The Blackbox', referred to as SCP-8740-1.

SCP-8740-1 appears as a smooth black box, approximately two meters in all dimensions, with a door located on a single face. SCP-8740-1 is capable of being relocated by GOI-478, having appeared throughout the United States, Canada, and multiple nexi across the globe. Upon entering SCP-8740-1, the space inside is considerably larger — SCP-8740-1's interior is approximately the size of a large theatre space, with a capacity for between 200-300 guests, seating arranged around the stage. The theatre is devoid of set dressing or decorations, as every surface is made of the same black material, including the seats.

Access to SCP-8740 is open to any individual — anybody who passes by SCP-8740-1 will experience a minor compulsion to attend the show. Tickets are priced nominally,2 as GOI-478 has stated that "participation in The Secret Project is the primary form of payment."

SCP-8740 does not use actors, similar to SCP-8478, instead operating through the use of memetic conditioning and cognitohazardous influences.3 SCP-8740 has the guests, herein referred to as SCP-8740-2 instances, revealing a secret over the course of a monologue. Multiple monologues are performed per SCP-8740 show, utilizing a single SCP-8740-2 instance per monologue.

Based on the current understanding of the anomaly, these 'secrets' do not belong to the SCP-8740-2 instance, rather, they are taken from a member of the audience, without their knowledge. As a result of the random nature of the performance, it is impossible to determine exactly the origin of a given monologue, nor can the validity of any secret be proven. In a handful of instances, the individuals whose secrets were shared have been located by the Foundation, based on identifying information shared by the performer.

At the conclusion of the performance, all attendees are compelled to stand and take a bow, regardless of whether they performed or not. After the applause has faded, the house lights are raised and all attendees vacate SCP-8740-1, triggering its secondary anomalous effect, causing all attendees to believe that any events occurring within SCP-8740-1 were part of the performance.

To date, there have been no informational breaches as a result of SCP-8740.

Addendum 1: SCP-8740 Recording Log

Due to the changing nature of SCP-8740, performances are rarely alike. They often share similarities, but generally, are significantly distinct in the secrets that are shared.

On 09/01/2016, an unknown individual entered SCP-8740-1 and recorded a video of the performance.4 Video footage was recovered by MTF Upsilon-33 after the fact, however, parts of the footage were corrupted due to memetic effects. Below are highlighted excerpts from the performance, as an example of SCP-8740's typical show.

SCP-8740 Recovered Video Transcript

Location: Chicago Fringe Festival
Date: 09/01/2016

[BEGIN LOG]

Footage begins as the lights of SCP-8740-1 dim. A partially obscured view of the stage is seen. The stage is empty.

Audience members can be heard coughing.

A screen descends from the roof of SCP-8740-1, at which point a film projector is heard. No projector, nor housing for the screen can be seen in the shot. Despite this, a video appears, projected through anomalous lighting effects.

In the middle of the screen sits a woman, visible only as a shadow.5

POI-478-1: Welcome into the Blackbox. Today, you will be participating in a showing of The Secret Project.

Footage of POI-478-1 is replaced with drone footage of various cities, landscapes and technology.

POI-478-1: We live in a world of artificiality. Nothing we observe is real anymore, nothing is persistent. Instead, we live in the temporary. We revel in our performances, delighting in manipulating the information that we consume, desperate to feel anything.

A montage of human faces is now seen. Based on research, these appear to be the faces of each audience member. However, these images were not captured at the time of the performance.

POI-478-1: Today, you will be sharing secrets. Secrets that are buried so deep into your subconscious, hidden between your shames and worries, long since forgotten. When a performer is sharing a secret, we ask that you not react to what is being said, nor make assumptions about the performers. After all, who knows where the secret even comes from? How can you know that it's even real at all?

Footage changes, showing the empty stage. The screen retracts into the ceiling, disappearing as it does so.

POI-478-1: So. Can we tell you a secret?6

Vhs_Glitch-cropped-flipped.gif

When footage resumes, an unidentified individual, herein SCP-8740-2-A has taken the stage, and is in the midst of a monologue. They are lit by a follow spot, despite the fact that no theatre lights, nor technicians, are visible.7

SCP-8740-2-A: —spiraling out of hand. I didn't mean to end up alone with him, but there was just… something about him that day. The smell of his cologne, mixing with his fragrant musk, filling my nostrils with the promise of thrills and passion. God I was intoxicated just looking at him.

SCP-8740-2-A: That's the thing nobody will tell you about an affair. Most of the time, they're not one bad decision. You know exactly what you're doing. You know exactly what will happen because you did this, who it will hurt, the lives that it will ruin — any cheater knows exactly what ramifications their extracurricular exploits cause. The problem is, if you're anything like me, you don't care about the future. I'm in a dead-end job, the planet is dying, society is collapsing onto itself, and I have… I have absolutely no hopes for the future.

SCP-8740-2-A: I live for the moment. That's always been the problem, and it will always be my problem. Why fight for the future, when the escape is so much sweeter? Father, forgive me for my sins. Let this confession serve as the absolution to my self-wrought purgatory.

SCP-8740-2-A appears to sit down. As they do so, reality warps, so that there is a small black box underneath them.

SCP-8740-2-A: We were sitting on a couch, just the two of us, waiting for you to get home. You were out, stuck late at your job again, and neither of us knew when you were coming home. His wiry legs brushed against mine, sending a shiver down my spine. I tried to control myself, but as I stood to go to another room, he stopped me; grabbing onto a belt loop on my pants, he held me painfully still.

SCP-8740-2-A: 'Where do you think you're going?' The way he said it wasn't innocuous, no, it was perverse. I heard the lust dripping out of his mouth as I stared back at his rugged, stubble-covered face, wishing I could kiss his cracked and swollen lips. I wanted to stop, but… the moment called for me, and as its eternal servant, I obliged.

SCP-8740-2-A: I guess there's no easy way to say this. I fucked your dad. It was rough, passionate, and I don't regre—8

Vhs_Glitch-cropped-flipped.gif

When footage resumes, a different instance stands in the middle of the theatre, SCP-8740-2-B, an unidentified female-presenting individual. They are standing perfectly still, not speaking, however based on contextual clues, it can be assumed they too are in the midst of their monologue.

SCP-8740-2-B: Here's the thing. Knives are inherently messy. They are personal, direct and vicious, especially in the hands of an expert. What few people realize is that in the hands of an amateur, a knife creates a greater work of art than if it had been wielded by a Michelin-star chef.

SCP-8740-2-B pauses, looking at their left hand. They can be seen tracing lines across their palm, as if following the lines set by scars — no scarring is visible.

SCP-8740-2-B: When you stab into flesh, there's a lot of blood. If you've ever seen a crime scene photo where a subject died due to repeated stab wounds, it's like the Red Sea. The knife is Moses, driven by a greater, higher power, carving its way through the skin and tissue, blood fleeing from the corpse as if escaping the Pharaoh. A killer who knows what they're doing can stab somebody ten to twenty times before the victim even realizes what's happening to them.

SCP-8740-2-B laughs, making a fist with their left hand.

SCP-8740-2-B: I fucking hate people who are like that. Arrogant. Pretentious. They are taking the primal sensation of delivering justice directly through an extension of yourself, and bastardizing it, sterilizing the experience, killing the art where it lies. True art is only created when the passion is evident; when the fervor of the killer is obvious, their passion and animalistic rage displayed on the canvas that is their victim's body. The blood is spilled everywhere, the splatters decorating the floor serving as punctuation in the poem they just created.

A knife materializes in SCP-8740-2-B's hand — it is a bowie knife, the blade approximately 4" long, and without a hand guard.

SCP-8740-2-B: Amateurs are sloppy. The first time, everybody makes the same mistake. When you stab somebody, they don't die — you have to stab them, again, and again, and again, and again, repeating yourself ad nauseum until they stop moving, their will to live having spilled out onto the canvas of the world. When you're stabbing with a knife, like this one, blood quickly covers the entire blade, including the handle. It gets slippery, and oftentimes killers will cut their own hands on the knife. To avoid this, professionals use knifes with hand guards, keeping themselves from being cut during the throes of passion.

SCP-8740-2-B cuts their right hand, a clean slice across the palm. Blood begins to pool, and they make a fist, the blood dripping off their fist, tracing the contours of their fingers.

SCP-8740-2-B: The only way to make art is to be part of it yourself. As the artist, you have a duty to society, but most importantly, you must honor your canvas. Refusing to allow yourself the divine act of being part of the art directly, your blood intermingling with theirs, is heresy. I cut my own hands before I kill, to ensure that both of us are immortalized by my creation.9

Vhs_Glitch-cropped-flipped.gif

When footage resumes, an androgynous individual, herein SCP-8740-2-C, is seen approaching the stage from the audience. They pause when they reach center stage, continuing to face away from the audience.

SCP-8740-2-C: Hey, can I tell you a secret? It's a juicy one, I promise! My name is Megan, and I work for the Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting the world from the unknown.

SCP-8740-2-C is seen turning around, having taken on a prouder stance, their arms behind their back.

SCP-8740-2-C: Magic is real. Monsters are real. Ghosts, boogiemen, aliens, gods, you name it, it's all true. Our job is to keep you thinking that they're fake — we are the last line of defense between society and untold levels of chaos and destruction. At least… at least we used to be.

A projection appears on the back wall of the theatre, displaying the Foundation logo.

SCP-8740-2-C: 'We die in the dark, so that you can live in the light.' I used to believe that. Everybody did. Before the monotony of your work consumes you, the endless procedures and mindless paperwork filling your day. Sometimes I look up and realize the world has moved on, all the while, I'm still staring at the same document, trying to understand how the anomaly works. We don't die in the dark anymore — we die in the gutters of our own creation, a behemoth of certainty and regulations, so that we may remake the light in our image. We pledge ourselves to the altar of structure, so that we might emplace that onto the world around us.

SCP-8740-2-C starts laughing, crazed and maniacal, for approximately 2 minutes. Over the course of their laughter, the lights dim and the projection fades. Soon, the stage is in near blackness, only the faintest light hitting SCP-8740-2-C's face.

SCP-8740-2-C: The worst part is? Everything I just told you isn't the secret I wanted to tell you. It's context. The framework, the rules that dictate who I am and how I live. You need to understand why I am the way I am, before you can truly understand just how terrible my secret truly is.

SCP-8740-2-C: The truth is simple. We control your fates, dictating who lives and who dies, based on the rules and scripture we live by. You are not important. You are sheep. Fodder. Victims of our inability to care, the detritus that—10

Vhs_Glitch-cropped-flipped.gif

Footage resumes, and the video feed has changed locations, appearing to look out onto the audience from center stage. In unison and without warning, every member of the audience stands up and takes a bow. They begin to applaud for approximately 2 minutes, rhythmically in sync. After the 2 minutes, all audience members stop clapping, and begin to make their way to the exits. Video capture is ended.

[END LOG]

The contents of this video were restricted to a single cellular device, and as such, MTF Upsilon-33 was successful in maintaining containment of SCP-8740.

At this time, it is believed that being a member of the audience for SCP-8740 causes individuals to undergo mental shifts — over 80% of the individuals whose secrets were shared by others will change their behaviors within hours of viewing SCP-8740. Additional research is ongoing to determine the root cause of these behavioral modifications.

Addendum 2: Hermeneutic Effects

On 11/16/2016, Dr. Heather Garrison, a researcher at Site-19, submitted a proposed explanation for the behavioral modifications that result from SCP-8740 exposure. The full proposal is available on request, but the relevant section is included below.

The basal cause of SCP-8740's behavioral modifications was long assumed to be a result of cognitohazardous and memetic effects. This is despite the fact that memetics and cognitohazards are consistent in how they operate — it would not be possible for the changes to only occur in a portion of the population without other influences.

The often-cited answer is varying CRV levels in audience members, but that fails to explain why the reaction of audience members is also inconsistent. If it really was a set specific memetic or cognitohazard, any exposed individual would have the same information and knowledge, and would exhibit consistent behavior, regardless of variances in CRVs or otherwise.

Therefore, to solve this, we must consider that there is a third anomalous influence present in SCP-8740. This effect must allow for variation in the impact, based directly on the individual audience member, while having a consistent meaning that is shared between all who see it.

We must assume that SCP-8740, in addition to cognitohazards and memetics, utilizes a controlled hermeneutic that is focused on the concepts of absolution through honesty and external perspectives as a vehicle for change. Memetics are only able to target the mind and how we process things. What SCP-8740 does is beyond that, with reality being recontexualized by the sheer act of interpretation. Given my expertise on the subject, it would not be possible for memetics, even ontologically linked ones, to have the same effect.

The only remaining answer, therefore, is a hermeneutic.

Dr. Heather Garrison
Junior Researcher
Site-19

From:
To:
CC:
Subject:
e.chen@scp.int
h.garrison@scp.int
Site-19 Anart User Group, m.elken@scp.int
GOI-478's Continual Threat

Dr. Garrison's proposal has only demonstrated what I have always said; GOI-478 is a significant risk, not only to the veil, but to the Foundation as a whole.

Any group that is able to manipulate, tame and weaponize a hermeneutic must be considered dangerous. A group that has manipulated and coerced a young Foundation researcher to defect and join their cause is an even bigger threat.

In the coming weeks, I will be gathering resources and researchers so that we may craft a proposal on properly capturing and containing the group and their anomalies. May our campaign against Pseudogenesis Productions be swift, and in full accordance with our regulations and tenets.
Erynn Chen
Researcher - An-Theatre Specialist
Secure, Contain, Protect
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Footnotes
‡ Licensing / Citation

« SCP-8739 | SCP-8740 | SCP-8741 »

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