"The Sun, the moon and the stars would have disappeared long ago… had they happened to be within the reach of predatory human hands." - Havelock Ellis
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Info
⚠️ Content warning:
War crimes, holocaust references, authoritarianism/police brutality, suicide, implied Islamophobia.
⚠️ content warning
Secondary Class:
{$secondary-class}
Special Containment Procedures: Currently there is no known way of fully containing SCP-9445. Its progress can only be impeded through maintained but steady use of SCP-9445-1. High mitigation opportunities are to be considered top priorities, however actions and/or events that result in low or medium amounts of mitigation are to be pursued as well. Foundation fronts posing as relevant governmental and non-governmental organizations are to be maintained at all times in order to ensure mitigation levels remain consistent.
Memetic, infohazardous, and cognitohazardous triggers are to be disseminated throughout both Foundation personnel unaware of SCP-9445's existence, and the general civilian populace. Additionally, Foundation personnel posing as public or political figures are to attempt to spread the influence of SCP-9445-1 and are permitted to utilize anomalous methods in order to gain more attention and/or supporters.
Description: SCP-9445 is the current designation for a violent noospheric phenomenon existing within approximately 60% of the collective human consciousness. Although projections indicate that if SCP-9445 were to be left uncontained, that number could increase to 80%.
SCP-9445 is a persistent desire, often unknown to the subject, to accelerate human extinction. Actions taken by affected individuals are typically banal, although still harmful. These can include anything from acts of verbal abuse, to physically harming other individuals, which typically, although not always, spreads the effects of SCP-9445.
Analysis conducted by the Department Regulating Engrams and Amnestic Management in 2023 determined that early humans did not actually suffer from any characteristic associated with SCP-9445. It was also determined that initially, humanity was found to almost exclusively cooperate or otherwise take actions that did not hinder each other. The first known appearance of SCP-9445 did not occur until somewhere around 2700 BCE. Although the origins of SCP-9445 are as of yet it unknown, it is currently believed that SCP-9445 does not typically manifest until an individual is around five years of age.
Furthermore, an approximated 30% of all affected individuals will commit more severe actions, such as advocating for, or actually attempting to carry out, the termination of large numbers of people, typically through means such as, mass murder, ideological warfare, or by attempts to convince the general populace of perceived threats. It is currently believed that individuals are more susceptible to developing the phenomena by living in high population density areas, interacting, either digitally or physically, with other humans, and by following common social practices regardless of if they harm the collective population or not.
Due to the prevalence of both the anomaly, and the actions taken by the population, it is currently believed that humanity will cease to exist within 50 to 100 years.
All previous attempts to contain SCP-9445 can be found below:
By the grace of God, Divinely Appointed Lord of the Spiritual Cleanliness Protectorate, protector of the English Empire and all her territories. The following edict, scribed in the year of Lord, 1300, is only to be observed by those a part of the Spiritual Cleanliness Protectorate: Those who read this edict without express consent of any current member of our sacred Foundation are to be executed. Amen.
Although we predicted success of our endeavor within the last century, we did not fully comprehend its magnitude. Nevertheless, not only have we been able to prevent a widespread panic, but due to the success of our agent, Aquinas, we have managed to successfully liberate the minds of the educated from this curse. The educated in turn, have spread their teachings to the serfs, who in turn spread these throughout the land. The reduction in overall violence and panic has led our scryers to believe that we may have pushed back our judgement by a number of years.
Now, there are two factors that remain constant: our own faith, and the nature of all wars. Should a war soon occur, it is extremely likely that what progress we have made shall be lost. What panic was prevented shall return. Our rinascita, a contingency to attempt to rectify this, is still at least a few hundred years away. Should Man fall victim to sin, it is unlikely that any plans laid will be carried out. We perish in the darkness so that we might serve His light. This our foundation we hold dear.
1860
Society for Cruelty Prevention memo. Those who view, reproduce, or read this memo without the express permission of their superior are to be subject to trepanation and/or nullification.
It has come to light that certain members of our congress are unhappy with changes being made to our constitution and way of life. Although this would not usually be a cause for concern, the belligerents have threatened to leave our fragile union.
While we cannot abide by their values of allowing human beings to become property, we cannot risk them leaving our country either. Our scholars have theorized that such an action would result in a conflict that would delay our attempts prolonging the inevitable by such a period that the event would instead accelerate.
This is not the most optimal outcome, nor is it one we can easily recover from. Due to this we have drafted a proposal to maintain what order we have. We did not make this decision lightly, and it sickens us to protect the status quo, but we have come to the conclusion that Lincoln is a threat to our peace. It has been determined that the most efficient method of preventing him from gaining authority is by usurping his seat in the upcoming election.
Actions are to be taken to ensure the victory of either Douglas, Breckenridge, or Bell. In order to slow the spread of our demise, we are not to pursue violent measures in our venture. Such attempts would likely result in the hastening of our own misery. Additionally propaganda that discredits Lincoln is to be disseminated among the masses.
Our actions, though extreme, are for the good of all man. We let ourselves die in the dark so that they may live in all light.
1919: - interview excerpt.
Dr. Cathcart: Can you describe experiencing the effects of mustard gas for the first time?
PVC Bratton: I-I was in a trench with around two-dozen other men, I was only on the fringe so I didn't get burned too bad, but I saw the worst of it. People were… coughing up blood, and phlegm, and I think bits of their own guts. I saw a man, his skin was sloughing off his face like wax melting down the side of a candle, crying out with lungs filled with blood.
There was a boy, maybe only seventeen years, his skin was covered in these awful boils and sores. I seen a man be gangrenous once, but this was so much worse. He cried out for his mama until he could do nothing but cough. Some put their masks on in time, but that didn't help too much, but it did keep it out of their lungs long enough for them to place their guns under their chins.
When it touched me, my skin was on fire. I had a jacket on, a heavy sort made of canvas, it ate through that like it was paper. I tried to put on my mask but my fingers couldn't hold it. One of my hands still doesn't work right when it gets cold.
I only survived because someone dragged me away, and took me into a tunnel underneath where the gas wasn't. Even then I could see the other men shambling, bodies decaying before my eyes, barely coherently begging to be killed.
Dr. Cathcart: And yet you lobbed a canister of mustard gas into a Bolshevik trench? Why?
End Log
1939.
One recovered film reel found in the basement of a destroyed east German synagogue.
Film possesses the minor anomalous effects of causing the subject to cry profusely upon completion of the viewing.
Film Length: 40 minutes.
Film Contents: The film opens with a man identified only as Proloff, who is seen chatting with the owner of a small bookstore. Proloff purchases a book but does not read it immediately, nor does he remove the ribbon binding it closed. After exiting the bookstore, a man dressed in brown approaches Proloff and offers him a flyer with a Nordic rune on it before scoffing at the bookshop. The man, although brusque, is friendly to Proloff and offers him a second flyer. Throughout the rest of the film, Proloff visits the bookstore somewhat frequently, and has encounters with similarly dressed men, until one them eventually manages to convince him to attend a meeting with him.
At the meeting, a tall handsome man in brown explains several concepts to the members, and when he sees that Proloff has not visited before, he invites him onto the stage and offers him a leather-bound book with the same Nordic rune on its cover. Proloff accepts, although his body language suggests that he is uncomfortable with the interaction.
Proloff later begins to read the book somewhat sporadically, while the book he purchased earlier remains untouched. Soon, he begins attending more meetings while visiting the bookstore less often. His body language throughout these scenes suggest he is becoming increasingly at ease with the interactions. Eventually Proloff stops visiting the bookstore completely, and attends the meetings frequently.
A posse of the men in brown, including Proloff, organize at night and begin to throw bricks through the windows of several shops and residencies throughout the city. Proloff, is shown to be hesitant about this action and initially refuses to take part in it. This is until the posse reaches the bookstore, Proloff is handed a brick and instructed to throw it. He once again hesitates and is struck across the face. Proloff raises the brick and aims it at the man who struck him, before the camera focuses on the Nordic rune on the man's jacket, which Proloff is now wearing on his clothing. Proloff grips the brick tighter, but instead of striking his attacker with it, he throws it through the window of the bookstore.
The final scene of the film is of the posse and several additional men throwing books into a large fire. Proloff is holding the book he bought at the start of the film and immediately throws it into the fire. The final shot of the film is the book beginning to burn before the camera centers on Proloff. Proloff is grinning.
1966
Recovered diary entry from US Marine. Name unknown.
We found them hiding in a straw hut, the kind you might see in a Nat Geo film. They were scared, young. Fuck, I think one of them was barely out of his teens. They begged in a language I didn't understand. I didn't want to do it, but I marched them out of the hut and lined them in the village center. Me and everyone else.
My commander, real sonnuva bitch named Walther, he asked them if they were pink? Their response was to sob profusely. I had as much idea of what they were saying, as I do of what the surface of Mars looks like. But I knew from their tone, the way they clasped their hands together, and those awful ragged sobs that they were praying. For my mercy? Walther's? God's? I guess it doesn't matter now.
Walther looked at all of us and then told us to "do it." O'Hannigan was first, scrawny kid from the Bronx with glasses pushed up to his nose. Last night he was showing me a Superman comic his folks sent him. At the time I thought he was a likable sort if not a bit spacey. Now, he was pressing the barrel of his rifle against an old man's head and making eye contact as he fired.
Noakes was next. This Black man who shared a bunk with me, nice guy honestly, shares his smokes. He had this tattoo on his arm, kept it hidden but I saw it in the showers, three arrows in a circle in a weird sort of triangle shape, I asked him about and he said it was just a fraternity from college, and he got defensive when I pushed it further. Still he's a pretty groovy man, he taught me his "unbreakable" poker strategy. Now he was breaking a young woman's skull open like a ripe pumpkin.
The two other men, I didn't know their names, that doesn't matter. One seemed distant, like he didn't want to do it, but did it anyway. The other? I think the bastard might've been grinning.
When it was my turn, I put my rifle down and closed my eyes. I felt Walther grip my shoulder, not in a fatherly way either, he barked in my face that either I put a bullet between the commie's eyes or he would do it to me. I looked at O'Hannigan but he pretended to not see me. Noakes tried to say something, but Walther barked at him that if he didn't have to listen to him in the States, he didn't have to listen to him here. Walther turned to me, he said, "You have one chance before I do it for you."
I pressed my rifle against the young man's head, he wasn't much older than me, maybe a couple years… he didn't scream. He didn't beg. He didn't yell that I was gonna burn for this. That was the worst part, he didn't say anything. He just looked down at the ground and let his tears run down his face. Walther shouted at me to fire. I'm so sorry mama, your little boy is going to Hell.
1974
SCP Foundation Department of Abnormalities.
Best intentions.
Underground.
Bill and Bernadine no longer take orders.
No peace. Only violence.
Extinction nears.
1988
Diary page found in the ruins of a house.
Text has been translated from Arabic.
It was Aaliyah's idea, of course it was her idea, it's always her idea.
She woke me up early this morning and said she wanted candy. She showed me the money she had hidden in her purse, lots of coins that she found around the house, or by running errands for the neighbors.
I told her to go back to bed and Father or Uncle could take us to the market when they wake up. She shook her head and told me that she didn't want to go to the market, she wanted to go to the city.
I called her a fool and said that we weren't allowed in the city, at least not without Father. She told me that she was not a fool, and that if I didn't go with her then she would go alone and tell Father that I let her go alone. I asked her what if we got caught or encountered the oppressors? She said she had a plan for the oppressors but wouldn't tell me what she meant.
That did it, I said I would go with her. It was stupid, but I didn't know what else to do. We made it out of the village easy enough, Naeem gave us a ride out in his car. We told him that we needed to run an errand in the city for our parents. He told us that to be very careful and that soldiers that worked for "them" were patrolling earlier.
We walked through the city but most people paid us no mind, it was easy, at first. We made it to the candy store, and the owner scoffed at us and asked if we had money. Aaliyah said that we did. He said fine, but to keep our hands out of our pockets and that if we stole even one piece he'd tell the authorities.
Aaliyah wanted to call him a name, but I told her to be quiet, we were close to getting our candy, the one thing we left the village for. She agreed and picked out what she wanted, a couple of lollipops, some boiled sweets, and a chocolate bar. She poured her coins out on the counter, and the man told her she didn't have enough for the chocolate bar, and that she needed one more coin. She said that she heard children say that they didn't need to pay full price, he said that those children followed different rules because they weren't… "dirty".
Aaliyah got that look on her face that she wanted to do something, but I squeezed her arm and she sighed and paid for what candy she could afford instead. We left, and walked through the streets, Aaliyah's purse now filled with the candy she bought, yet she struggled with it as if it weighed more than a car. I didn't know why at the time.
We walked to the city center where I still had a coin so that we could use the phone to call Naeem. As I was about to enter the phone booth, a hand grabbed my shoulder and turned me around. I saw three men wearing green uniforms, with their flag on the arms. Two were around Uncle's age, but the other couldn't have been older than Cousin Rashid was when he left for university. That one smiled at us, and tried to look reassuring.
The soldiers led us away from the phone booth and into an alley. They started by asking our names, and Aaliyah was too scared to answer, but I answered for her. They asked how old we were? I said that I was 10, and that Aaliyah was 7. They asked what we were doing alone? Aaliyah mumbled something, and one of the men told her to speak up. I answered for her that we were buying candy. They laughed at this, but the younger one said that he believed us.
They asked us if anyone knew we were here alone? I lied and said that Father, Uncle, and Naeem did. One of them jabbed the younger man in the side, and he asked us what Father, Uncle, and Naeem did as jobs? I said that Father is a builder, Uncle is also a builder, and Naeem is a driver. They asked if anyone told us to deliver any packages anywhere and I said no. The younger man said that we were okay, and told the other two that they should leave.
I thought we were clear… until the lead one asked to see in Aaliyah's purse. She didn't want to hand it over, but I told her to give it to them. There was nothing in there but her school supplies, and her candy.
The man reached in and rustled around in there before he removed an object that I had only seen a couple times at home: Father's gun.
I looked to the younger man but he now had an expression of disgust and looked away from me, mumbling about how we were all rotten.
The man with the purse asked Aaliyah what she intended to do with it? I tried to answer for her, to tell him that I didn't know that it was in there, that Father never even keeps it loaded, but he barked at me to be quiet before I could say anything, and scowled at me when I tried to speak again. He asked her again what she was going to do with it? Aaliyah said that she was going to use it on "bad men." The man's face grew dark, and he asked her what a bad man was? She said that Father said that the bad men were the men who would always take, and beat people, and murder. Oppressors. People like him.
He started by taking the gun from her. Then he started beating her. She cried for me, and I tried to run to her, but the man behind me held me back and threatened to beat me too. She screamed, but nobody came. I tried to look away, but they pushed my head forward. I looked past her instead, past the crowd that didn't care, and into the building across the street. From one the windows, I saw two people watching. They were wearing the white coats of doctors, but the coats had this strange shape on them, these three arrows in a circle all pointing inwards. All they did was watch.
It felt like hours before the man stopped, then they left, and didn't even stop to look at us. I was terrified, but still I ran to her. She was bleeding everywhere, and wasn't moving. She didn't make any noise, but I could still see her breathing. I picked her up, my knees straining, she was so heavy, so limp.
I called Naeem to take us home, and told him what happened. He looked so sick. He told us we did nothing wrong, we couldn't have known this would happen. He put Aaliyah in the back, and let her lie down as he drove us home. She was still by the time we reached our house. I have never seen Father cry before.
1997
Note Found on Foundation Junior Researcher's Desk.
Oslo was a mess.
What made us think we could solve the issue?
What made us think it could solve any issue?
Don't know when it's gonna happen.
Drown my sorrows before it drowns me.
I did my best, Aaliyah, I'm sorry.
2010 - O5-4's suicide note.
New York, 2001.
Moscow, 2002.
Morocco, 2003.
London, 2005.
Mumbai, 2008.
Nigeria, 2009.
We are beasts, and we are fucked.
Addendum:
On 10/12/24, following projections of SCP-9445's current model, both the O5-Council and Ethics Committee voted to institute the Rousseau Protocol, henceforth designated SCP-9445-1, which is intended to slow the spread of SCP-9445 and possibly even neutralize it, should the overall situation permit it. SCP-9445-1 has currently gone into effect both throughout Foundation facilities, and the civilian populace. As per the protocol's mandate, memetic triggers and images have been implanted into various pieces of media, popular culture, and advertisements. Additionally, several Foundation created fictional works and/or characters have been subconsciously implanted in key members of the populace in order to maintain levels congruent with SCP-9445-1 projections. A brief excerpt from SCP-9445-1's mandate can be found below.
Rousseau Protocol: Page 16/40
Additionally cognitohazardous phrases and triggers that encourage reciprocity and actions in opposition to animus are to be implanted naturally within civilian populations in excess of 50,000 individuals. To this end, mitigation percentages gained from this that range between 5-8% are to be considered both valid and successful.
Measures to prevent small to medium scale conflicts are detailed more extensively on page 17, however, personnel should note that conflicts of this nature are not to be avoided, and memetic messages which are in line with the Jus In Bello theory, in addition to the Geneva Protocol, are to be propagated throughout both non-Foundation civilian and military personnel.
Although armed conflicts involving anomalous means are still a concern, negotiations involving the Serpent's Hand, the Horizon Initiative, and the Global Occult Coalition are on-going in order to prevent and/or mitigate this. Full descriptions of this can be found on page 18.
NOTICE: All actions taken by Foundation personnel in line with the Rousseau Protocol are to be conducted with genuine intent. Performative actions and/or actions intended to generate discussion without sufficient societal alternations, are not to attempted as they do not result in mitigation, and overall a waste of time and resources.
Primary Writer: Nicholas Klaus, Ethics Committee Member. Foundation Site: 029. Date: January 5th, 2025.
Subject: Researcher Sunderland.
Mitigation Percentage: 0.5%
Estimated SCP-9445 Delayment: one minute
Method: "When Researcher Woods thought everyone forgot her birthday, and I surprised her with a cake."
Subject: Dr. Stanhope.
Mitigation Percentage: 0.09%
Estimated SCP-9445 Delayment: One second
Method: "My son had the flu, so I stayed home from work and read Wizard of Oz and Percy Jackson to him until he fell asleep."
Subject: Dr. Ibrahim Abadi.
Mitigation Percentage: 1%
Estimated SCP-9445 Deylayment: Five minutes
Method: "My wife asked me if I had thought of a name to give our daughter? I said I wanted to name her Aaliyah."
Subject: Ethics Committee Liaison Zarah Chang.
Mitigation Percentage: 1.5%
Estimated SCP-9445 Delayment: seven minutes
Method: "When Kathy needed help with her makeup for the first time, and smiled when I showed her how to zip her fancy dress."
Subject: Ethics Committee Member Kristine Klaus.
Mitigation Percentage: 0.9%
Estimated SCP-9445 Delayment: One and a quarter minutes
Method: "The night I visited my daughter at work and brought her flowers. She and I got dinner at TGI Friday's, we talked, and then I cried."
Addendum II: It is currently believed that at the current rate of mitigation SCP-9445's effects will be delayed by approximately one year. However projections indicate that with continued success of the Rousseau Protocol, SCP-9445's effects could be delayed by up to 100 years. In order to achieve this, personnel are instructed to continue to act with forbearance and benignity. Liberal projections from the Rousseau Protocol indicate that should this appear as a global pattern, SCP-9445's effects could be delayed by at least 1000 years.
