Link to article: SCP-9681.
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[[>]] [[module Rate]] [[/>]] [[include component:image-block | name=https://scp-wiki.wdfiles.com/local--files/scp-9681/fossil.png | caption=//Figure 1.1// | width=WIDTH-GOES-HERE]] **Item #:** SCP-9681 **Object Class:** Keter **Special Containment Procedures:** Foundation intelligence within the fields of paleontology, archeology, and geology, and commercial mining operations are to monitor for discoveries of further SCP-9681 instances. Recovered fossils are to be intercepted and seized. All observers of SCP-9681, including the Foundation’s extraction team, are subject to specialized amnesticization protocol. Aircraft and naval units are to remain on stand-by for transportation of exhumed SCP-9681 instances to Foundation Subterranean Warehouse-23. All contained SCP-9681 instances are covered and held within individualized storage lockers. Direct research of SCP-9681 instances is considered futile, and all efforts have been discontinued. A continuity council has been assembled in order to determine the Foundation’s course of action when the field of Paleontology’s consensus belief in prehistoric life is severely eroded. **Description:** SCP-9681 are the fossilized remains of an unknown clade of prehistoric life that do not conform to established biological, mathematical, and chronological principles. At present, over 300 instances of SCP-9681 have been exhumed globally. SCP-9681 instances display a variety of disparate, unorthodox physiological features across each sample, leaving Foundation research unable to draw conclusions regarding the group’s appearance, behavior, or ancestry. Further taxonomy remains impossible. All verifiable information regarding SCP-9681 is summarized below: * SCP-9681 were colossal, with individual bones ranging from 15 to 35 meters in height * SCP-9681 had more variation on an anatomical level than any other known organism. Bone-mapping of a single species within the group has yet to be conclusively performed, as newly retrieved remains continuously challenge existing models with their incongruity * SCP-9681 were structurally illogical, containing excesses of functionally ambiguous traits and redundancies within their skeletal systems. These included abundances of projections, articulations, and unidentifiable structures that extended across and within their bodies. Classification of these features as 'biological' remains tenuous * SCP-9681 were predatory on an unprecedented scale. The remains of known predator species, as well as other SCP-9681 samples, are occasionally found encased within SCP-9681 instances. Research concerning the functionality of SCP-9681’s digestive systems remains inconclusive * SCP-9681 possessed immense durability on a chemical level, as samples of soft tissue and keratinous textures have been preserved within certain instances * SCP-9681 existed during the late Cretaceous period, with dating methods placing samples from 79 to 66 million years old. [[footnote]] Despite consistent dating, SCP-9681 instances have been discovered within a variety of strata, defying the law of superposition [[/footnote]] Baseline understanding of the Cretaceous ecosystem, or the progression of prehistoric life on a macro scale, cannot account for SCP-9681’s existence, size, or evolutionary development * Despite these incongruencies, observers instinctively consider SCP-9681 to be "dinosaurs", and display difficulty divorcing themselves from this conception Direct observation of SCP-9681 induces SCP-9681-A. SCP-9681-A is a sympathetic nervous system response developed upon immediate observation of an SCP-9681 instance, even in fragmented capacity. SCP-9681-A manifests as a feeling of intense terror, followed by extended physiological stress responses. SCP-9681-A episodes can be triggered for hours at a time, dependent on the level of visual exposure to the instance, and only subside upon the loss of consciousness or through medically induced means, such as sedation, neural alteration, or amnesticization. Observation of reproductions or representations of SCP-9681 instances that have not been subject to heavy visual occlusion have been documented as triggers for SCP-9681-A responses, rendering direct research of the anomaly extremely difficult. Observation of an SCP-9681 instance in its totality is invariably fatal. Attempts to scan SCP-9681 remains for analysis by .AIC constructs in order to mitigate this has resulted in the loss of these programs on an operational level. SCP-9681-A carries multiple long-term symptoms that persist following the initial response. These include axiomatic alterations to the subject’s perception of non-hominid prehistoric life, most notably dinosaurs. While amnesticization has been observed to remove SCP-9681 and its related context from active recall, these symptoms persist regardless. A 50-year observation of SCP-9681-A victims has yielded several consistencies: * Subjects report stress and fear responses when observing any authentic fossils, a feeling that subsides when viewing replica bone-casts or fictionalized depictions of prehistoric life * Subjects, even when entrenched in the field of paleontology, have extreme difficulty accepting the former existence of prehistoric life * Subjects outwardly accept “dinosaurs” as a valid cultural object in conversation, but a dissonance manifests when engaging with academic research regarding the subject. Papers concerning paleontology, including those directly written by the subject, are over time met with combative attitudes, increased scrutiny, or outright rejection of the research in question * Subjects who are not fully amnesticized and maintain awareness of SCP-9681 on some level (such as those within the Foundation) suffer severe psychological stress and trauma as a result of repeatedly attempting to reconcile SCP-9681 with accepted prehistoric knowledge As SCP-9681 instances are most commonly discovered within the field of paleontology itself, this has led to widespread amnesticization within the field since 1962. The exact ramifications of dormant SCP-9681-A beliefs affecting their research remains unknown. At present, all visual information regarding retrieved SCP-9681 instances is documented during excavation by Specialized Task Force Ψ-10, a containment team trained in the advanced removal of cognitohazardous materials. **Addendum.9681.1:** Containment Overview The following is a list of incident summaries relevant to SCP-9681's containment history. [[div class="blockquote"]] **Date:** 1972/3/15 **Location:** Gobi Desert, Asia **Description:** First documented SCP-9681 incident. Sample discovered by team of fourteen paleontologists conducting a survey of a dig site. SCP-9681-A symptoms manifested upon partially unearthing a rigid structure. The group was incapacitated and unable to contact assistance due to their remote location. The bodies of each team member were discovered within the surrounding 15 kilometer radius within days of their party going missing. Causes of death later determined to be combinations of dehydration, cardiac arrest, and repeated exposure to a SCP-9681 sample. Foundation retrieval occurred shortly after the publication of the team's deaths and disappearances in news outlets. Object excavation yielded eleven losses and three long-term incapacitations, as basic protocol for the retrieval of cognitohazardous materials was still being established. Four of these occurred when a portion of the instance shattered upon being lifted with a crane tearing the tarp covering and exposing the team to an unidentified, odorous, powdery substance within the object. The unbroken sample measured 19 meters in height upon retrieval. Visual reports remained inconclusive, positing the instance as "a spine, hind limb, or tooth". [[/div]] @@ @@ [[div class="blockquote"]] **Date:** 1983/9/24 **Location:** Site-03 **Description:** Major manifestation of long-term SCP-9681-A exposure symptoms within the Foundation itself. SCP-9681's head researcher, Dr. A. Engleman, assembled a continuity tribunal in order to discuss potential courses of action for SCP-9681's future research after continuous study had yielded significant losses within his team over time, including decreased efficiency and psychological trauma. Engleman, as well as several members of his team, posited that all knowledge of prehistoric life be folded into the Foundation's containment parameters, as continuous exposure to unearthed SCP-9681 samples and post-amnestic symptoms within the field of Paleontology would eventually render the field incompetent. Continuity revisionists rejected the model. Within days of returning to Warehouse-23, Engleman sealed himself inside a containment locker housing an SCP-9681 instance. An excerpt from his final writings, addressed to his research team, is included below. "//They keep digging. Mines, construction, anything that moves earth. And the more they find, the more nightmares we're expected to shoulder. The tarp and steel between us and whatever sits in those containers will never be enough. Do not bury my body.//" Research and analysis of SCP-9681 samples were discontinued shortly after Engleman's death due to diminishing analytical returns and systemic stress within its research team. [[/div]] @@ @@ [[div class="blockquote"]] **Date:** 1993/4/2 **Location:** Siberia, Russia **Description:** Sample discovered by a coal mining operation in the Kuznetsk Basin, found at 1380 meters depth. Specialized Task Force Ψ-10 was deployed, utilizing a newly synthesized compound that stymied the brain's stress responses longer than previous field-ready innoculants. As the sample was too large and too buried to unearth completely, the team descended, and began to extract the instance by dividing it into smaller pieces via heavy-duty drilling tools. During this process, multiple Foundation personnel within the tunnels reported suffering an unexpected neutralization of their neural innoculation upon realizing that the mine itself was situated within a second, gigantic SCP-9681 instance. Reports of panic, lost personnel, and drilling accidents followed, resulting in multiple cave-ins. Thirteen of twenty-five lost personnel were recovered through rescue efforts over the next four days. Containment of the two instances was deemed superfluous, and termination was authorized in its place. Demolition commenced shortly after. [[/div]] @@ @@ [[div class="blockquote"]] **Date:** 2007/2/5 **Location:** Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica **Description:** First sample left undisturbed. Foundation operations within the Antarctic yielded the discovery of an SCP-9681 instance during a survey of potential locations for ground facility expansions on the continent. At a depth of 4 kilometers, personnel suffered SCP-9681-A responses without apparent visual confirmation of a surrounding instance. Advanced ground-penetrating radar later revealed a dense obstruction within the ice sheet, extending 65 meters before instrument failure, a sample larger than any previously discovered SCP-9681 instance. Seismic readings revealed low-frequency vibrations within the area, distinguishable from surrounding cyrospheric or tectonic movement. Ψ-10's deployment and analysis determined extraction to be impossible. Natural containment was deemed sufficient. [[/div]] @@ @@ [[div class="blockquote"]] My mentor, Captain Ortiz, led this team for seven years. Myself for five. Those are the two longest records of leading service in Ψ-10’s history. Used to be the highest drop rate in the org. Now, it's a six month mandatory for everyone hoping to make Cognito, and I can tell you're all thrilled by that. I’m not going to stand here and preach about any greater good, or ‘dying in the dark’, or whatever other bullshit they feed you at other orientations to rationalize the hell you’re about to put yourself through. You should not want to do this. You should not want to be here longer than you absolutely have to. You may only be deployed twice a month, you may be deployed two times a week, but for the entirety of a given operation, you will feel like a constant heart-attack in a body too strong to give out. We’re going to shoot you up with a cocktail that makes you aware of your own skin, and you’re not going to like how it feels or where we inject it. And worst of all, you’re going to be thinking about whatever it is you’re digging up the entire time, even if everything we just put in you is telling you that you can’t. They’re impossible, these things. Downright sickening. Labs don’t even look at them anymore because they don’t see the use in it. Hard to use your brain when it keeps screaming. But thankfully, we just need our bodies. We tarp what's exposed, dig out the rest, and pray you don't need to re-up your inoculation. We write a visual overview at the end, before transport. Everyone gets a quick phrase or two in there, just the bits that managed to worm their way into your head while you're trying as hard as possible not to stare. We combine those, and that’s the report. No one cares what it says, they just need it done for the record. //“Spiraling neck. Hair preserved, dripping. Unknown appendage. Faces in the marrow. Gets smaller forever. Ribs lateral to cones. Holes symmetrical, varying size. Crooked everywhere. Nightmare structure. Vomit smell. Dead smell."// Recent one. Majority took away that it was some sort of leg. Think about it all you want, you won't get far. And believe it or not, you won’t go insane, it's not like the movies. Your brain is going to be too juiced up to care, and the amnestics are going to do the rest once you’re done. But you are going to feel the effects of looking at these things for the rest of your life. Good luck explaining to your kid why you can’t play dinosaurs with him. Good luck ever trying to watch a Jurassic Park without getting pissed off at yourself and everyone who made it. You’re going to feel like you’ve been lied to, and that everyone’s been lied to, and a few decades from now we'll probably have to deal with the fallout of every expert whose brain we formatted subconsciously feeling the same way, but at least that won't be our job. Listen, it’s bleak, but it’s not hopeless. You’re going to bring home more money in these next six months than you would doing basic containment for a decade. And if you pass— and this job will make damn sure that you do— you can make Cognito, and that’s a career. But the difference between this team and Cognito is that our variables are calculated. We know what we’re dealing with, and through hundreds and hundreds of deaths that served as trial and error over the past fifty years, we know how to deal with it. Our protocol is meticulous, and provided that you follow directions with the same level of care those instructions have been developed with, your chances of being able to look back on this as a stepping stone to sexier, more important details drastically increase. Until then, you're just a grave robber. You're going to wallow in the same pit of dead dinosaur bullshit as everybody else, and you'll be thanking that asteroid every night for the rest of your life. //— Cpt. Sarah Jordan, Ψ-10 ("Tomb Ants") Orientation Lecture, 2009/3/8// [[/div]] [[footnoteblock]] [[div class="footer-wikiwalk-nav"]] [[=]] << [[[SCP-9680]]] | SCP-9681 | [[[SCP-9682]]] >> [[/=]] [[/div]]