SCP-2845 - THE DEER
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CLEARANCE GRANTED… WELCOME, AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL…
SCRIPT BASED ON ORIGINAL ENTRY BY Djoric [CC BY-SA 3.0].
The voice of the Database was provided by Joshua Alan Lindsay.
The voice of ██████ ████████ was provided by Oktober Crow.
CONTENT WARNING: Castration, cannibalism, harm to an infant, and mass casualties due to natural disaster.
Item #: SCP-2845
Object Class: Anomalous Entity
Containment Class: Extreme
Hazard Rating: Black
Standard Containment Policies
As per Section 4 Subsection 1 of the January Accords, containment of SCP-2845 is a joint effort between the Foundation, the United States National Guard, the United States State Department, the United States Department of Homeland Security, and the United Nations Special Taskforce BLUE ALPHA. Authorization of outsourced containment consultants for the purposes of SCP-2845’s containment upkeep is granted in perpetuity by the O5 Council according to Operations Policy 336.87.b.
Information regarding SCP-2845 and its containment is considered Tier 3 (High Security) as according to the amended Public Information Policy and overseen by Special Information Team 45. Misinformation regarding SCP-2845 and its containment is widespread and at high risk of weaponization by external governments and Groups of Interest: SCP-2845 is under CHATTERBOX Protocol according to PIP 47.1.1.
Special Containment Procedures
Site-100 has been constructed specifically for the containment of SCP-2845, to the following specifications (See Document 2845-C-CON for complete write-up).
A central chamber, containing SCP-2845 and 216 instances of SCP-2845-1. Internal atmosphere is to consist of 96.3% hydrogen, 3.25% helium, and .45% ammonia maintained at -110°C and a pressure of 2.3 bar.
Nine concentric circular structures, designated Ring-A through Ring-I.
Six circular chambers are located on each Ring at 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, and 300 degrees, with 0 degrees aligned to geographic north. The floor of each chamber is inlaid with an unobstructed lead hexagram.
Additional facilities and the security perimeter have no ritual-specific construction requirements.
ETHICS COMMITTEE SPECIAL NOTICE: Containment of SCP-2845 has been granted a Special Personnel Requirement exception, for the usage of one D-class and one H-class subject per containment cycle.
The following procedures are to be carried out in succession during each conjunction of the Earth and Saturn, recurring every 378 days according to the synodic period and performed no more than six hours before or after true conjunction. Each procedure must be carried out by six individuals. The location of each procedure is denoted in parentheses. At the beginning of each period, containment procedures will be carried out in the next ring closest to the containment chamber, returning to Ring I upon cycle completion.
Transcripts of ceremonial recitations for all procedures and descriptions of all variant costumes may be found in Document 2845-C-EXP.
Procedure 410-Cassini: (60°) Containment specialists are presented with masks (Joy, Sadness, Anger, Apathy, Fear, and Foolishness) and act out ceremony Cassini-A. Ceremony Cassini-A is a farcical comedy of errors and exchange of insults between the six individuals, culminating in Foolishness outwitting the group in a game of riddles and declaring himself king. The conclusion of ceremony Cassini-A is followed by a game of dice. The winner of the game is irrelevant to the procedure.
Procedure 420-Perinaldo: (120°) Performance of Holst Opus 32, Movement 5 arranged for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, timpani, and bass drum. The piece is accompanied by specific somatic and vocal components carried out by the players throughout the performance, designated ceremony Perinaldo-A. The performance must be live; recordings of the piece have no effect.
Procedure 430-Epimetheus: (180°) Gifts are exchanged among containment specialists. Content of gifts is irrelevant to the procedure, but each gift must not exceed 4.28 USD in worth. Each gift is accompanied by recitation of ceremony Epimetheus-A in its entirety and the scattering of grain around the containment chamber.
Procedure 440-Cassiel: (240°) Ceremony Cassiel-A is recited as containment specialists bind their feet with wool and consume 60 ml of olive oil. They then will break apart a rock weighing at least 20 kilograms with hammers. Ceremony Cassiel-B is recited throughout.
Procedure 450-Cairo: (300°) A D-class subject is prepared by painting a symbol (ring surrounding a dot, with an arrow pointing upwards at the 90-degree point) on the stomach with a platinum-based solution, and presented with a blue cloak, crown, and scepter. D-class subject is then restrained in a chair, and ceremony Cairo-A is recited. After recitation of ceremony Cairo-A, the D-class subject is castrated by use of a hand sickle by a containment specialist. The testes are then to be disposed of in a bowl of salt water as Ceremony Cairo-B is recited.
Procedure 460-Omphalos: (0°) Ceremony Omphalos-A is to be recited before termination and roasting of an H-class subject no more than three months of age. Ceremony Omphalos-B is to be recited before consumption. After consumption of the child, ceremony Omphalos-C is to be recited over a bowl of small gastroliths, which are then swallowed. Vomiting is then induced, and ceremony Omphalos-D is recited, ending containment procedures.
In the case of containment breach, Site-100’s nuclear device is to be detonated, followed by lockdown of all Foundation facilities and activation of Protocol 2845-XK1 “Strike Down the Moon.”
Statement from containment consultant ██████ ████████ to Ethics Committee, 1/31/12
<BEGIN LOG>
Ladies and gentlemen of the Ethics Committee, good morning. My name is ██████ ████████, Sage of the Secret Root, and I have been elected to speak with you today on the containment requirements of SCP-2845.
The briefing you have been provided is correct: the containment procedure requires the ritual castration of a man and the cannibalization of an infant. Unfortunately, I am afraid that there is nothing that can be done about it.
Rituals such as this work through the repetition of arbitrary criteria, rather than adherence to underlying laws as one would find through science. The belief that meeting these criteria achieves a certain end assigns power to the ritual; we make a Meaning of our own devising. However, we are not totally free to do so: The ritual needs some resonance with the subject to work, an appropriateness. Hence the requirements. Some gods are only appeased with blood.
I know that your organization doesn’t approve of the term, but it is still the case. The Stag is a god, and it is not a mild god of Earth. All the same, we have, for the time being, fooled it into thinking that we have overpowered it, and that is how we seal it away.
But, this means that once a ritual of this sort has been set in place, there cannot be any removals or substitutions. Making revisions would require breaking containment and starting over again from the beginning. Our initial designs for the ritual required upkeep every three days, and we could have easily trapped ourselves in that, were we not able to catch a major flaw in the binding elements before execution and reduce frequency to once a year. We weren’t able to reduce it further. The Is are dotted and the Ts are crossed.
Even with the ritual in place, if the Stag thought to escape, it would, and we would be powerless to stop it. The entire facility would vanish in a puff of hydrogen. So let us be thankful then that it does not think at all. This is an old god; it does not dabble in decisions. Decisions are for creatures who may act inconsistently. A god of this strength simply Is. It is an absolute. It may choose this or that no more than gravity might. In building this ritual, we have shifted its being the slightest bit, and now it is locked into a pattern of behavior: it struggles against us, we struggle against it, and we are locked together in an eternal dance so long as the ritual remains intact.
If one thing goes awry, the deadlock is broken and all is lost. We will have an unstoppable force without an immovable object.
The rituals here have been divined as the best course of action. There are powerful symbols there, and whether or not you or I think they are appropriate to the situation is irrelevant.
I do not know why it came here, nor to what end. But I have listened to the pillars it makes of us; they are singing mysteries closed to us. They are not suffering, but they have been changed utterly. The same fate awaits us all if this fails.
Thank you for your time.
<END LOG>
Description
SCP-2845 is an extraterrestrial quadruped entity, measuring 2.9 meters in height at the shoulder. The neck, generally held in an upright position, extends a further .5 m, terminating in a head with humanoid facial features. SCP-2845 possesses antlers, measuring 4.8 meters across: Antlers are white with black marbling in coloration, and have not been observed to shed. SCP-2845 is covered in hair with an average length of 10 cm, except for the face, which is hairless. SCP-2845’s coloration is primarily a pastel green, with a stripe of cream on the underside of the neck and belly.
A ring of ice particles is suspended 15 cm behind SCP-2845’s skull, measuring 1.7 m in diameter, with a ring thickness of 35 cm. This ring is interrupted at regular intervals by seven spheres of metallic hydrogen and metallic helium, each measuring 15 cm in diameter. The ring and spheres rotate clockwise at a speed of 1.6 rpm. The force maintaining the movement of the ring, the physical state of the spheres, and the means by which SCP-2845 is capable of supporting its head under the weight of its antlers are unknown.
SCP-2845 is capable of instantaneous transmutation and reconstruction of matter. No matter is created or destroyed during this process. Transmuted matter will remain stable regardless of external conditions: phase changes will remain in their transmuted state regardless of outside temperature and pressure, altered atmosphere will maintain chemical consistency and not mix with unaltered atmosphere outside the area of effect.
Common transmutation results include:
Structures of metallic hydrogen and helium. Structures do not appear to have any function or aesthetic direction, though they most commonly take organic or plantlike forms.
Pools of liquid hydrogen and helium
Conversion of atmosphere into a hydrogen/helium/ammonia mix. SCP-2845 will typically surround itself with a transmuted area with a radius of approximately five meters.
SCP-2845-1 instances.
SCP-2845 will use directed transmutations against attackers or obstacles. Typically these transmutations are a column measuring five to seven meters in diameter and sixty to eighty meters in height, or a horizontal cone measuring between one hundred and one hundred fifty meters in length and ten to thirty meters in width at the furthest end. However, SCP-2845 has been observed to attack single targets at distances of up to 10 kilometers. Early observation of SCP-2845 during recovery indicated that it will generally ignore non-combatants, focusing on retaliation against attackers. However, SCP-2845 was not seen to make any attempts to spare non-combatants within the area of effect of its transmutations, and later recovery accounts indicate pre-emptive attacks against both military and civilian targets.
SCP-2845-1 designates organisms that have been modified by SCP-2845. Instances of SCP-2845-1 are hexagonal columns uniformly measuring 2.4 meters in height, with rubbery yellow-green skin. SCP-2845-1 instances do not have any outward sense organs, and autopsy has shown that internal organs are likewise absent, save the brain, which now takes up the entirety of the column and contains the reconstituted mass of the other organs and some additional outside materials. It is unknown how SCP-2845-1 instances derive nutrients, or if any nutrition is required.
Neuroimaging of SCP-2845-1 specimens has revealed that the brain is in a constant state of high activity. Analysis of multiple specimens indicates patterns of call and response, so some form of remote communication between SCP-2845-1 is presumed.
Motile variants of SCP-2845-1 have been reported, but have evaded capture and study.
Addendum-01
An abridged timeline of SCP-2845 from initial discovery to containment is as follows:
November 27th, 2011: Initial sighting of Comet C/2011 W3.
December 1st, 2011: Comet C/2011 W3 confirmed by Mount John University Observatory.
December 2nd, 2011: Comet C/2011 W3 confirmed and named by the Minor Planet Center.
December 16th, 2011: Comet C/2011 W3 reaches perihelion. Solar Dynamics Observatory records images of a fragment breaking off from the main body of the comet, maintaining a speed of .0018c.
December 17th, 2011: Fragment trajectory confirmed to end in a collision with Earth, with an estimated impact of December 21st. Thoth Station deterrence procedure fails to change fragment's course. Public announcement made by the United Nations. Evacuations of the predicted affected area begin.
December 21st, 2011: Fragment impacts in the Pacific Ocean, 124 kilometers off the western American coast. Despite evacuation attempts, estimated Day 1 casualties caused by the resultant tsunami were between 160,000–190,000. State of emergency declared by the United States.
December 24th, 2011: SCP-2845 believed to reach shore.
December 25th, 2011: First observation of SCP-2845 through civilian video footage. First contact specialists deployed. Foundation assets within the United States military begin direction of recovery and containment procedures, with the assistance of United Nations Special Taskforce BLUE ALPHA. Mobile Task Forces Mu-9, Alpha-3, and Esoteric Warfare Unit squads 3, 5, 9, and 12 deployed. Casualties high. Foundation containment sites in the region enter lockdown.
December 26-29th, 2011: Artillery bombardment of SCP-2845 commences and continues throughout four-day period. Contact with outside containment consultants is made. It is confirmed that SCP-2845 is moving directly towards Site-115.
December 30th, 2011: [DATA EXPUNGED]. SCP-2845 is unimpeded for sixteen hours.
December 31st, 2011: Overseer Council declares by unanimous vote a VK-Class Lifted Veil event. Initiation of public-facing WOODWORK Protocols. Bombardment of SCP-2845 recommences.
January 1st–14th, 2012: SCP-2845 carves a passage through the Sierra Nevada Mountains under heavy bombardment. Initial containment procedures were designed.
January 14th, 2012: Operation CERNUNNOS begins.
January 15th, 2012: SCP-2845 reaches pre-determined containment area. Initial containment procedures were enacted.
January 18th, 2012: Initial containment procedures end in success.
January 20th, 2012: Construction of Site-100 begins.
February 3rd, 2012: Finalized containment procedures implemented.
February 19th, 2012: SCP-2845 declared contained.
