SCP-8216

Link to article: SCP-8216.

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++++ NOTICE FROM THE FOUNDATION RECORDS AND INFORMATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

In light of recent developments and research outcomes, the following file is now considered outdated, with revised containment procedures and an updated description currently under review. Personnel may refer to the file addenda for further information. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

-- Maria Jones, Director, RAISA

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[[include :scp-wiki:component:anomaly-class-bar-source
|item-number=SCP-8216
|clearance= 5
|container-class= euclid
|secondary-class= none
|disruption-class= ekhi
|risk-class= warning
]]

----
**Special Containment Procedures:** SCP-8216 is currently held in a secure facility operated by the //Yeda' Zoher//[[footnote]] Paranormal branch of the Mossad.[[/footnote]] in Hebron, Palestine. A five meter radius exclusion zone is in force around SCP-8216 to avoid accidental memetic infection. 

Item is pending relocation to alternative holding arrangements overseas.

**Description:** SCP-8216 is an apparent biological structure visually resembling a burnt tree. SCP-8216 continuously bleeds from various lesions on its surface, with the discharge identified as human blood of indeterminate origin. Object has also been reported to smell like burning flesh and gunpowder.

Direct observation, interaction, and close proximity to the tree induce adverse psychological reactions and emotional distress in affected individuals, with varying degrees of severity. Reported effects include, but are not limited to:
* Shock
* Anxiety and depression
* Extreme grief
* Phantom pain lasting up to 80 hours
* Ideation of vigilantism
* Mental filtering of mundane objects
* Xenoglossia

Attempts to remove SCP-8216 from its current location have been universally unsuccessful, memetic effects notwithstanding. Ground-penetrating radar analysis confirms a root system extending at least 40 meters underground.

----

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Addendum 8216-1, Audio-Visual Log
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**Date:** 19/04/2024
**Location:** Provisional Containment Facility "Samekh", Hebron, Palestine
**Contributor:** Dr. Lillian S. Lillihammer
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**<<BEGIN LOG>>**
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----
{{**1100 HOURS**}} 

**SHALEV:** Welcome to Hebron, doctors. Dr. Yosef Shalev, Head Scientific Officer of this facility. You can't imagine how relieved we are to have the best memeticists in the world at our side.

**SOKOLSKY:** //[Nods.]// But of course.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Thank you, Dr. Shalev. 

**SHALEV:** Is everything alright, Dr. Sokolsky? You seem... displeased.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Oh, don't mind him. He's just pouty that you said memeticist//s// instead of the singular.

**SOKOLSKY:** It was a long flight. Let's get to the point.

**SHALEV:** Of course. I trust you've already read everything we currently have on the anomaly, and are familiar with the precautions in place to avoid memetic transmission. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** Yeah.

**SHALEV:** But you want to have a test subject touch the anomaly directly.

**SOKOLSKY:** Yes. 

**SHALEV:** //[Nervous laugh.]// Surely, you must be joking?

[Drs. Lillihammer and Sokolsky stare at Dr. Shalev in silence.]

**SHALEV:** ...I'll make some calls.

[[=]]
----
[[image https://scp-wiki.wdfiles.com/local--files/the-b-b-decommission/Asterisk43.png]]
----
[[/=]]

{{**1630 HOURS**}} 

**PERETZ:** Ah, Dr. Lillihammer. I'm here on behalf of Dr. Shalev. He's tied up at the moment. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** Not literally, I hope.

**PERETZ:** Haha. Good news, the higher-ups have greenlighted your tactile proposal. We also have some test subjects on-site, if you'd like to make use of them.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Oh, don't worry about that. We brought our own. 

//[Dr. Lillihammer gestures to a guard behind her, who steps forward.]//

**PINES:** Agent Pines reporting for duty, ma'am.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Pines here has one of the highest CRVs in our security detail. They'll be able to get near the tree and report their status without collapsing from shock in the interim. 

**PERETZ:** I see. Say, where is Dr. Sokolsky?

**LILLIHAMMER:** I do believe he's preoccupied with another avenue of investigation at the moment. 

**PERETZ:** Oh. I was looking forward to meeting him. Perhaps I'll have the chance when you two run that test of yours. Which is when, actually?

**LILLIHAMMER:** Now's good a time as any. 

**PERETZ:** Uh. We have another test scheduled in half an hour that will require non-Yeda' Zoher personnel to evacuate the containment site.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Don't worry, we won't be long. We'll start with a control at a 3 meter radius. Go ahead, Pines. 

//[Agent Pines nods. They walk out of the observation room and past the exclusion zone boundary, with only a twitch of their eyebrow indicating the onset of SCP-8216's memetic influence.]//

**PERETZ:** Most impressive. None of our personnel have made it that far in without crying or screaming.

**LILLIHAMMER:** How are you feeling, Pines?

**PINES:** Like someone crucified my mother, ma'am.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Within expectations, then. Move within a meter of SCP-8216.

//[Agent Pines trudges closer, with slight but visible strain. Beads of sweat begin to form on their face. Agent Pines' face begins flushing pink.]//

**LILLIHAMMER:** Status report.

**PINES:** Still experiencing emotional distress, but I-- now I'd really like to punch someone. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** Someone specific or in general?

**PINES:** Someone I can blame, ma'am.

//[Dr. Lillihammer observes them silently for a few moments.]//

**PERETZ:** I'm still not entirely clear on how this will benefit our investigation, Dr. Lillihammer. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** And that's exactly why you had to call us in. Touch SCP-8216 directly, Pines.

**PINES:** With all due respect. Ma'am. I'm not sure I can compose myself much longer. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** I can see that. Just touch the tree. 

//[Grimacing, Agent Pines raises their arm outstretched, which has subconsciously balled into a tremoring fist. It softly connects with SCP-8216.]//

//[Agent Pines loses strength in their legs, and repositions themselves into a seated position with their back leaning against SCP-8216. Their breathing is heavy and ragged. They look back at the observation room with a pained face and clenched lips.]//

**LILLIHAMMER:** Pines. You saw something, didn't you?

**PINES:** How-- yes. I-- it was--

**LILLIHAMMER:** It's alright, Pines. Pace yourself. Was it a memory?

//[Agent Pines closes their eyes and executes a breathing exercise. Their expression softens, sharply inhaling at the end.]//

**PINES:** Yes.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Mhm. I had suspected anamnesis. Was it through the perspective of the tree?

**PINES:** No, no the tree wasn't even there. It was a person. You know how I mentioned it felt like my mother was being crucified? Not quite so in this memory. There was an older woman crying over me -- the mother of this person, I suspect. Just-- heart-wrenching wailing. I'm not sure if the blood on her clothes were hers or mine. All I wanted was for her to run away.  

**LILLIHAMMER:** Blood? Were you injured?

**PINES:** Oh right. I was shot. I estimate... two entry wounds in my-- in the back, one in the right thigh. 

**PERETZ:** If I may ask, do you know who shot the person in the memory?

//[Agent Pines squints at Dr. Peretz, furrowing their brow.]//

**PINES:** The person was shot... from the //back//. 

**PERETZ:** Okay, but what about context clues. Did you hear anything that might indicate terrorist activit--

**LILLIHAMMER:** Aaaand that's enough out of you. Excellent work, Pines. You can come back now. 

**PINES:** Thank you ma'am, but I don't know if I'll be able to walk back over in this state. Much less deal with... all of that.

**LILLIHAMMER:** We're getting a trolley for you. All you'll have to do is climb on and we'll pull you back. 

**PINES:** Okay. Just-- just a minute please. I still can't quite feel my leg. 
----
[[=]]
**<<END LOG>>**
[[/=]]
----
**AFTERWORD:** Agent Pines did not appear to be subject to SCP-8216's memetic influences during their exit. They have since regained full feeling and motor function in their right leg.


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**Addendum 8216-2:**

Upon further investigation, SCP-8216's anomalous effects have been identified to be a weak anamnetic effect, having attenuated from fully-fledged memories into simpler but long-lasting phenomenal and emotional quanta. Conversely, direct physical contact with SCP-8216 permits direct transmission and instantaneous incorporation. Secondary effects of this incorporation include temporary elimination of memetic susceptibility to SCP-8216.

Extensive testing indicates that SCP-8216's anamnesis is sampled from a mnemonic pool encompassing the populations of Israel and Palestine, likely post-mortem. 
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Addendum 8216-3, Audio-Visual Log
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**<<BEGIN LOG>>**
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----
{{**1720 HOURS**}} 

**LILLIHAMMER:** You missed out on the touch test.

**SOKOLSKY:** I didn't need to be there for it. Your report already confirmed my hunch. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** Just like the tree at Ras al-Ayn. Anything crop up on your little excursion?

**SOKOLSKY:** Don't call field work that. There was an incident at an IKEA in Beersheba. There were, per Dr. Shalev, reports of possible SCP-8216-related phenomena. I simply tagged along.

**LILLIHAMMER:** But that's miles away, how could it have sustained long-range-- did you say IKEA? They have IKEAs in Israel?

**SOKOLSKY:** My thoughts exactly, but I digress. Instances of furniture spontaneously combusting shortly after their purchase. In some cases, right in the arms of their buyers. Bomb threat was called in and everything.

**LILLIHAMMER:** I'm guessing it wasn't actual combustion, judging by your decision to show up in person.

**SOKOLSKY:** It's quite fascinating. There's some sort of mental filter that causes those affected to perceive their furniture as burnt, broken, blown up, et cetera. I would've wanted to study it in closer detail, but alas, I was unaffected despite purchasing an ÅRSTID.

**LILLIHAMMER:** I'm just surprised they drew the connection.

**SOKOLSKY:** Oh, they know full well what they've been doing. This isn't the first incident that's involved memetic phenomena cropping up outside the Veil here. Which reminds me--

//[Dr. Sokolsky produces a file folder.]//

**LILLIHAMMER:** Now what have you been up to?

**SOKOLSKY:** Literature review. Did you know there were multiple versions of documentation for the tree by the Mossad?

**LILLIHAMMER:** No such thing as a perfect first draft.

**SOKOLSKY:** True. Especially not one marked as off limits to Foundation or GOC eyes. Everyone is entitled to their secrets, to be sure, but...

//[Dr. Sokolsky picks out several sheafs of printed photos. The first few depict an unremarkable instance of// Olea europaea[[footnote]] Olive tree. [[/footnote]]//.]//

**SOKOLSKY:** The tree didn't always look like that.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Had fun snooping through Mossad archives?

**SOKOLSKY:** Eh. Got boring quick. 6/10.

//[As Dr. Lillihammer flips through the papers, the tree in the photo becomes increasingly damaged, with each image filed under separate failed decommissioning attempts.]//

**LILLIHAMMER:** I think we should sit in for their next test.

----
[[=]]
**<<END LOG>>**
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**Addendum 8216-4:**

Attached is an excerpt from //Yeda' Zoher// documentation of SCP-8216 including discovery and containment history.

[[div class="blockquote"]]


**Date:** 26/10/1999
**Event:** During efforts to reorganize olive groves in the ███████ local council, Hebron, several civilians encountered difficulties in uprooting one of the trees, which proved resistant to axes and chainsaws. The tree in question was then doused in gasoline and left to burn, but remained unharmed even after the fire went out. 
[[include component:image-block
    name=https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/local--files/scp-8216/burntgrove.jpg|
    caption=Olive grove at ███████ following initial reorganization efforts. Object of special interest not present in photograph.|
     width=220px |
    align=right
]]
**Date:** 15/03/2000
**Event:** One of the civilians involved in the earlier uprooting attempt, an IDF officer, suffered a mental breakdown, and fired multiple rounds from their personal sidearm into the tree. He was later detained and committed to a psychiatric facility, where he claims he kept having dreams about the burning olive tree taunting him and setting him on fire.

**Date:** 30/05/2002
**Event:** Multiple reports of hysteria amidst civilians harvesting olives in ███████ are recorded. Due to security concerns over the ongoing al-Aqsa intifada, security forces have been deployed to monitor the olive groves for possible terrorist presence.

**Date:** 19/09/2009
**Event:** Disruptions during prayer service on Rosh Hashanah are reported in ███████, in which multiple individuals interrupted //Tashlikh// prayers with seditious interjections or verbal arguments, some of which eventually led to physical fights. All complicit individuals have been detained, and later transferred to //Yeda' Zoher// custody for further study. Following interrogations and psychoanalysis, suspicions of abnormal activity regarding the tree are confirmed. ███████'s olive grove is seized, with a secure facility constructed over it. Study of the tree formally begins.

**Date:** 14/12/2016
**Event:** Notable changes to the tree's appearance are observed. Over the past seven years of containment and testing, the bark has split and charred black under gunfire and explosions, but has also begun bleeding. Psychological disturbances now occur over a larger radius of proximity to the tree. Decommissioning of the tree is formally approved, despite multiple prior destructive resilience tests.

**Date:** 20/03/2024
**Event:** Significant increase in abnormal psychological disturbances in the general population of settlements close to the West Bank. Accelerated decommissioning proposals have been approved.
**Notes:** //This also happened to me, by the way. While shopping for olive oil at one of the supermarkets (Blank wanted a souvenir) I knocked over a bottle and the spill gave me the anamnesis of being beaten to death. SCP-8216's derivatives are in the fucking supply chain and they don't even care.// -- Dr. Lillihammer

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Addendum 8216-5, Audio-Visual Log
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**<<BEGIN LOG>>**
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----
**LILLIHAMMER:** Evening. Heard there was a test.

**SHALEV:** This is a surprise. We weren't expecting you both to join us. Have you discovered any vulnerabilities in the tree? Do we know how to counter its effects?

**LILLIHAMMER:** In theory, the answer is yes. In practice? It's complicated.

**SHALEV:** Please, doctor. We did not call for the very best the Foundation has to offer just to be told "it's complicated". 

**LILLIHAMMER:** To answer these questions in more detail, we need to consider the exact nature of the tree's influence. Proximity to the tree renders a subject susceptible to memetic influence, so the first vulnerability that may be countered is that it is harmless beyond a certain point. You already know this. 

**SOKOLSKY:** Another option is to exploit vulnerabilities in the memes of the tree and shut them down upon imprinting. Memetic inoculation, if you will. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** Which is entirely feasible -- I've developed several such countermeme agents in my time -- but the tree never imprints the same meme twice. There's always a slight variation here and there. Consider it analogous to how we'll never truly find a cure for the common cold.

**SHALEV:** I see. Unfortunate. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** But enough about us, we were just curious about what you'd be testing for here.

**PERETZ:** Uhh, resilience of the tree, I suppose. Hardiest plant I've ever had the displeasure of working with.

**SOKOLSKY:** Is that napalm?

**PERETZ:** No, that was one of the first few things we tried throwing at it. Charred the bark black but didn't do much else. This time we're trying out these special bullets containing expanding foam. They get in real deep and blow up, basically.

**SOKOLSKY:** So this is a decommissioning attempt.

**SHALEV:** You could put it that way.

**LILLIHAMMER:** Right. And why, exactly?

**PERETZ:** It seems pretty obvious. It's antiterrorism. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** The tree... is a terrorist? 

**PERETZ:** I don't believe you were informed of this, but out of all of our test subjects -- convicted terrorists, mind you -- all of them exhibited less severe effects in the presence of the tree. 

//[Dr. Lillihammer pinches her brow.]//

**PERETZ:** It's very clearly an attempt at one of the extremist groups to weaponize the anomalous. A botched one, might I add.

**SOKOLSKY:** You have a very... unique grasp of memetics. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** Your test subjects are almost certainly Palestinian. The tree's memetic effects have consistently imprinted the memories and psycho-emotional states of Palestinians. Guess what happens when you write on a whiteboard with a white marker.

**PERETZ:** Which implies they engineered it so their own people wouldn't be affected!

**LILLIHAMMER:** Like you'd know anything about memetic engineering. 

**SOKOLSKY:** Assuming that you're correct and aren't utterly disconnected from reality, surely you understand that by continuing this you //actively// exacerbate the tree's memetic effects. 

**PERETZ:** That's acceptable. Nothing is indestructible. 

**LILLIHAMMER:** Yeah, and while you're unloading bullets into the tree you're increasing the likelihood of memetic outbreaks in civilian environments.

**SHALEV:** Remember where we are. Incidents of violence and destruction are not uncommon in this part of the world. It is trivial to pass such incidents off as attacks and such. 

**PERETZ:** I mean, doesn't your organization also do this sort of obfuscation? Spinning anomalous incidents into natural disasters and freak accidents?

**LILLIHAMMER:** The real freak accident here is how you're all still employed. 

**SHALEV:** It's a means to an end. Believe it or not, we don't love throwing live ammunition and explosives away on 'extreme gardening'. We want this job done as soon as possible, as efficiently as possible. That's also why we called you in. To study the memetic effects and find a way to counter them so we may continue our work unimpeded, but given that you seem unable to provide a solution on this front...

**PERETZ:** We'll just have to work harder and faster to decommission the tree.

**SOKOLSKY:** Absolutely not. You've done enough to erode the Veil as it is.

**SHALEV:** But you are with the Foundation. Your organization has worked miracles in situations that even the Global Occult Coalition deemed unsalvageable. Are you suggesting that destroying it is impossible?

**LILLIHAMMER:** Not any more than it is for you to be normal about a goddamn tree.

**SHALEV:** Look. Our organizations are not too dissimilar. You protect the world from the anomalous, and we protect it from terrorists. Why are you so adamantly against cooperation to defeat our common enemies?

**LILLIHAMMER:** That's because we're actually in league with the terrorist trees that hide in subterranean tunnel networks under all of our facilities.

**PERETZ:** Wait, really?

**LILLIHAMMER:** Are you dense?

**SOKOLSKY:** Some of the miracles you speak of were granted to your organization in the interest of preserving normalcy in this region. Do not misunderstand this as anything other as a delegation of duty. A duty which may be revoked if you continue to disturb the Veil. 

**SHALEV:** Ridiculous. My duty is to my country and my people. Not some abstract Iron Curtain against bogeymen. 

**PERETZ:** Yosef. New memo from the main branch, UNGOC related.

**SHALEV:** What even-- what do those bureaucrats want this time?

//[Dr. Shalev inspects his phone for a moment.]//

**SHALEV:** What have you done.

**SOKOLSKY:** There are quite a few more people, with much higher offices of power, who care about the Veil more than you do your nation.

----
[[=]]
**<<END LOG>>**
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**Addendum 8216-06:** 

Following the submission of evaluation reports drafted by Drs. Lillihammer and Sokolsky, the United Nations Global Occult Coalition High Command voted in favour of pulling all grants issued to the //Yeda' Zoher// and Mossad, the confiscation of multiple anomalous artifacts, and possible expulsion of the former from the Council of 108 in the event that decommissioning attempts on SCP-8216 are continued, pursuant to House Accords, Article IV § 15. A formal notice of compliance was issued by the //Yeda' Zoher// shortly after. The secure facility containing SCP-8216 was subsequently transferred to joint oversight by the Foundation and UNGOC, in addition to the //Yeda' Zoher//. 

In the months following the cessation of decommissioning attempts, SCP-8216's appearance has gradually reverted to that of an unremarkable instance of //Olea europaea//, but retains its deep root system. Keffiyeh have begun falling out of the canopy and draping themselves on the branches of SCP-8216 at random intervals. Despite continuous monitoring of SCP-8216, it remains unclear how this process occurs.

SCP-8216's memetic effects have attenuated significantly, both in severity and area of effect. Object has also begun bearing fruit which, while fit for consumption and processing, continues to induce anamnesis regardless of form. Memories transmitted in anamnesis are noted to be decreasingly traumatic or distressing in nature, with those depicting everyday life becoming more prevalent during testing.

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> **Name:** Burnt Grove
> **Author:** [[*user UNCGriffin]]
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SCP-8216

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