Item #: SCP-116
Object Class: Safe Neutralized
Special Containment Procedures:
SCP-116 is to be kept in a Standard Secure Storage Locker inside Storage Block-C at Site-36. The object requires no active physical restraints.
Testing or review of SCP-116 playback requires written authorization from Lead Researcher Tragni. Playback operations must be conducted within Audio-Isolated Observation Room 12 using a standardized, non-networked CRT television and VCR unit.
Personnel reviewing SCP-116 footage are to be monitored via external audio feeds to evaluate exposure to secondary localized acoustic effects. Due to the personal nature of the secondary audio channel, psychological evaluations are mandatory for any staff member reviewing more than two consecutive playback sessions. Unscheduled exposure requests by off-duty Site staff are strictly prohibited (See Addendum 116.1b).
Description:
SCP-116 is a standard T-120 VHS tape housed in a blank, unlabelled black plastic cassette case. Magnetic ribbon analysis indicates the physical tape was manufactured in approximately mid-1998, though the magnetic media displays anomalous physical durability, resisting degradation from repeated playback, ambient magnetic exposure, and typical moisture decay.
The contents of SCP-116 consist of a 120-minute hand-drawn animated feature titled "Ice Mayhem: The Movie". The animation style, frame rate, and audio encoding match consumer-grade home software and low-budget animation suites. The narrative follows "Mayham", a frostlike arachnid, navigating an ice-covered landscape while engaged in conflict with various stylized antagonists.
Playback of SCP-116 induces a localized neuro-acoustic phenomenon within a 5-meter radius of the viewing display. Individuals within range report hearing a second, distinct audio track layered beneath the primary VHS sound channel. This secondary audio manifests as low-volume ambient room noise, faint rustling of paper, or intermittent vocalizations resembling a young adolescent speaking off-camera, as if recording a voiceover in a domestic bedroom setting.
Subjects who have experienced the death or permanent loss of a loved one experience a delayed psychological alteration after SCP-116 playback. Over a period of 60-72 hours, subjects report an overwhelming compulsion to act in accordance with the virtues, morals, and unfulfilled aspirations of their deceased loved one. When questioned, subjects maintain that this behavioral shift is not anomalous, but rather a personal choice made to honor the deceased's memory.
Addendum 116.1a: Test Logs
| Subject |
Background |
Procedure |
Outcome |
| D-3902 |
D-3902 was convicted of armed robbery and aggravated assault. Historical records indicate subject’s mother passed away during his incarceration; subject maintained a hostile, uncooperative demeanor toward Site staff prior to testing. |
D-3902 watched 30 minutes of SCP-116 in Audio-Isolated Observation Room 12. |
Subject remained silent throughout the viewing. Upon test completion, D-3902 asked for writing supplies. Subject wrote: "She used to tell me I had a bad temper, but that I was better than the things I did when I was angry. I kept thinking about her sitting on the porch while that spider thing was running on the screen… I don't want to keep fighting people here. She wouldn't want me dying angry." D-3902 has exhibited zero behavioral infractions since testing. |
| D-8819 |
D-8819 was sentenced for vehicular manslaughter resulting in the death of a childhood friend. Psychological pre-screening noted heavy emotional suppression, chronic deflection, and a refusal to discuss the accident or express remorse. |
D-8819 was instructed to sit through a 60-minute playback of SCP-116. |
Subject exhibited visible anxiety 18 minutes into playback, staring intently at the lower portion of the screen. At 35 minutes, subject began speaking to the monitor. |
Transcript Excerpt:
Dr. Tragni: D-8819, please state what you are observing on the display.
D-8819: The spider thing is just walking around in the snow. That’s not what’s bothering me.
Dr. Tragni: Describe the distress.
D-8819: The kid in the background… he keeps dropping his eraser. Every time he drops it, he sighs. It’s the exact same stupid, heavy sigh Marcus used to make whenever we were working on his car in the garage.
Dr. Tragni: Is the secondary audio manifesting a vocal mimicry of Marcus?
D-8819: (Shaking head) No, it doesn't sound like him at all. It just… it smells like motor oil in here, Doc. I haven't thought about that garage in eight years. I spent eight years telling myself it was his fault for not wearing a seatbelt, just so I could sleep at night.
Dr. Tragni: Do you wish to terminate the test?
D-8819: No. Leave it on. I need to sit here and listen to him draw. I owe him that much.
Note: D-8819 requested a meeting with the Site Chaplain the following morning to compose a formal letter of confession and apology to the victim's family. This marked the first instance where exposure to SCP-116 bypassed established psychological defense mechanisms to directly address buried guilt tied to a specific loss.
Addendum 116.1b: Incident Log & Access Restructure
Date: 2005/11/18
Incident Summary: Security Officer J. Miller attempted unauthorized entry into Audio-Isolated Observation Room 12 off-shift while carrying a personal notebook. Upon apprehension, Miller, who had lost his daughter (Researcher Julia Miller) to a containment breach at Site-29 two months prior, stated he "just needed ten minutes to sit in the room and listen to the pencil."
Action Taken: Lead Researcher Tragni issued an immediate lock on SCP-116. Exposure is no longer granted for personal grief counseling among Site-36 staff without express Site Command oversight.
USER AUTHENTICATED: DR. MICHAEL NENAT
| Subject |
Background |
Procedure |
Outcome |
| Dr. Michael Nenat |
Dr. Nenat requested self-exposure testing following the permanent loss of his brother, David Nenat, who was converted into a non-responsive entity (SCP-114-A-0). |
Dr. Nenat reviewed the entirety of SCP-116's footage across three separate sessions. |
See Addendum 116.2 |
Addendum 116.2 (Dr. Nenat's Journal Logs):
12/04/2005
I watched the tape today. Tragni warned me against it, but I needed to know if it was dangerous.
The animation is terrible. It’s crude and clearly drawn on cheap paper. But the background sound… that’s what gets under your skin. Beneath the static and the chiptune, you hear a kid breathing. You hear him shifting in his chair, sharpening a pencil, humming a tune under his breath.
It made me think of David. When we were kids, David used to sit on the floor of our bedroom with a notebook, drawing comic strips for hours while I did my homework. He wasn't a great artist. He was just… gentle.
David is still down in Sector 3. His body is alive, but his mind is pretty much gone. He doesn't remember who I am. He doesn't know who his wife is. Adbh took my brother away and left a shell behind. And every day I go to work, I have to sign off on that stupid protocol and pretend it's for the greater good.
I hate Adbh. I hate everything he built. So why did watching his stupid tape make me feel like I was letting David down by holding onto this rage?
Apparently they found a dado manufacturing hub. It had another one of Adbh's things.
12/05/2005
Second viewing done today. I listened closer to the background track. The kid in the background has to be Adbh. It has to be. Before he became a sadist tearing people’s minds apart to rebuild his lost world, he was just a lonely teen sitting in a bedroom, drawing a spider made of ice because he didn't have anyone else to talk to.
This thing doesn't just command you to be good. It doesn't put a spell on your brain, it just… holds up a mirror. It asks you what the person you lost would say if they saw who you've become.
David hated grudges. Whenever our dad got angry, David always tried to make peace. If David were standing in front of me right now, if his real mind was still in there, he’d tell me that spending my life hating someone I don't know isn't going to bring him back.
But I know what this tape is doing. It's pushing me. It's nudging my thoughts toward peace. Is it really my choice if I can feel the tape working on me?
12/07/2005
I drafted an email to Adbh’s known proxy server today, but I couldn't press send. I sat at my terminal for three hours staring at his address. Half of me wants to scream at him for ruining my family. The other half just wants to know if he feels anything at all for the people he's crushed.
O5-3 flagged my draft in the Site-36 outgoing queue. Surprisingly, I wasn't reprimanded. The Council wants a direct line into PoI-L900's network to trace his signal. They're using my grief as bait. Honestly, fine by me.
12/08/2005
O5-3 authorized the transmission. Tragni was furious, but the Council wants telemetry. Message sent.
Addendum 116.3 (Authorized Communication Log):
FROM: nenatpog@████.com
TO: adbh114.dev@████mail.net
SUBJECT: the vhs
I watched your VHS tape, Adbh.
I listened to the background track. I heard you sharpening your pencils, humming under your breath, sitting in your room drawing. I know what you did to my brother. You stripped his mind and left a stranger in his body. I've hated you for months.
But this tape is doing something to me. It keeps making me think about David. About how he never held a grudge, how he always looked for peace. It's pushing me to forgive you. It wants me to let go.
Is this just a trap? Did you build this tape to force the people you hurt into forgiving you? Because if this "mercy" is just another anomaly rewriting my head, then it isn't real. Prove to me that I'm actually making my own choice.
FROM: adbh114.dev@████mail.net
TO: nenatpog@████.com
SUBJECT: RE:the vhs
You think I care about your forgiveness, Michael?
Your world rots and is temporary. What I did for David was an act of mercy. I took a dull, miserable civilian and crowned him with immortality. He belongs to something grander than a mortgage and a hospital bed. You should be thanking me for making him eternal. The tape wasn't made to save you. I made it because my world was beautiful, and nobody else was smart enough to appreciate it.
But… I know what it's like to watch something you have crumble. I know what it means to lose the only thing that mattered while everyone else keeps walking. For that… for taking him away before you were ready to let go… I am sorry, Michael. Truly. It was never personal. You were just in the way of my creation.
I've broken the tape. The tape is dead ribbon now. No frequency. No nudge. Nothing pushing you. Hate me. Forgive me. Cry for him. Do whatever you want. The silence in that room belongs entirely to you now.
12/09/2005
I went back into Observation Room 12 this morning. The spectrum analyzer was completely flat. No secondary wave, no breathing, no pencil lead scraping under the audio. A dead tape.
The warm, subtle tug in my chest was gone. There was no anomaly pushing me, no signal telling me how to feel. Just the crappy movie. A half-alive tape. Like how I feel sometimes.
He took David away, and he doesn't deserve absolution. But sitting in that quiet room, I realized I didn't want to carry this rage in my lungs for the rest of my life. I sent him three words back: "I forgive you."
Not for him. For David.
ADMINISTRATIVE UPDATE (2006/12/09):
Following the permanent cessation of all secondary acoustic, memetic, and psychological properties, SCP-116 has been reclassified as NEUTRALIZED.
The physical cassette is housed in Storage Block-C at Site-36 for historical record. Standard white cotton gloves are required during handling to prevent skin-oil degradation of the cassette casing.
