SCP-1078
Sight-Stealing Eye
Object Class: Esoteric
Special Containment Procedures
SCP-1078 is to be stored in a cubical box composed entirely of HDPE plastic at a thickness of no less than 5 cm. This box is to be suspended at all times in a Faraday cage with mesh of no larger than 0.05 mm and with dimensions of no larger than 1m by 1m by 1m. A separate room contained entirely within a Faraday cage of similar mesh size will be set aside for all testing attempts involving SCP-1078; the cage containing the object's box may not be opened unless it is contained in this room and the door is closed.
Experimentation on SCP-1078 requires written consent of at least one (1) Level 4 researcher. All D-Class personnel involved in experiments involving SCP-1078 will be exempted from monthly termination, although it is recommended that no subject be allowed to host SCP-1078 for longer than one year owing to increased possibility of suicide and potential loss of SCP-1078 itself. During the experiment, subject must be monitored at all times for signs of suicidal tendencies. Nothing that could be used for suicide attempts is to be allowed inside of the containment cell. Upon termination of the subject, or in the event of suicide, the room must be immediately entered and SCP-1078 directly observed. A member of medical staff must be present at all times and equipped to remove SCP-1078 from the host; they must be called immediately upon confirmation of the death of an experimental subject.
Description
SCP-1078 is a small spherical glass eye of a form consistent with late 19th-century German glassblowing techniques. Shavings have confirmed the material to be high-quality blown glass, although no sample has been retrieved from a depth of greater than █.██mm. When not fully retracted, bristles composed mainly of copper extrude from a 0.25-cm2 area directly opposite the object's "pupil". The iris of the object is capable of alteration in color; when worn by a subject, it alters to match the color of the eye that was originally in that socket; this change is exact even if the user exhibits heterochromia and the previous eye was completely removed (see Experiment 1078-2). In addition, when worn the iris has been seen to contract or expand in response to outside lighting conditions, and moves along with the normal eye even if the subject's eye muscles are no longer functional.
When inserted into the eye socket of a person missing one or both eyes, the "bristles" will extend and incorporate themselves into the optic nerve. Autopsies of test subjects have confirmed that this is accomplished by barbs of pure silver that extrude from the bristles. Subjects describe this process, which takes approximately two hours, as an itching sensation, but none have reported pain during the process except for the subject of Experiment 1078-8, which is expected due to the experiment resulting in [DATA EXPUNGED]. After a period of time ranging from twelve hours to a few days, integration with neural processes is complete, and subjects report a steadily growing ability to see through the eye. Full visual acuity is confirmed within a month in all cases, and eye tests have confirmed that over the following weeks, the subject's eyesight steadily becomes more and more sharp. While more subjective, other tests indicate that the subject's auditory and tactile senses also sharpen during this period.
After a period lasting between 3 and 7 months, the subject's sensory abilities will peak. Starting from this point, SCP-1078 will begin to selectively erase auditory and visual input from human subjects. This process will initially manifest as blurring of the image of select humans and sound that subjects have described as "like a radio that's stuck between two channels" when a selected human is speaking. Over time, targets will be erased completely from the subject's vision and hearing. This includes all video, photographic, and audio recordings. Tactile senses have been confirmed to be unaffected by this process for reasons unknown. In addition, targets' effects on the surrounding area will still be visible or audible; doors will still be seen to open, and any non-vocal sounds such as clapping will be audible. This allows communication with late-stage subjects through the use of writing.
The process of erasure begins with a small number of people, no more than five at initial onset. Complete erasure of all current targets is confirmed by experiment to be simultaneous. However, the number of targeted individuals in each "round" increases exponentially. In the late stages, testing indicates that the subject is unable to perceive any human excepting themselves, and in one case has been shown to start losing sensory input from animal life.
The erasure process causes slowly developing paranoia and psychosis in the subject; this is confirmed to be a result of the isolation, not a direct effect of SCP-1078. However, subject D-1078-8 reported vivid auditory and visual hallucinations; it is believed now that during the late stages of SCP-1078's integration, it not only blocks out all stimuli from humans but also creates false stimuli in the mind of its host. Subjects that are not terminated invariably take their own life, either directly out of despair or by desperately trying to wrench SCP-1078 out of their eye socket and dying from the resulting cranial hemorrhage. Subject D-1078-8 was prevented from suicide, but after a period of 15 years expired due to [DATA EXPUNGED].
Through a process currently unknown to Foundation researchers, a short period after death, SCP-1078 will vanish from the host body and reappear elsewhere, in one case turning up █ months later in the town of ██████, approximately ████ km distant from the previous containment location. Following death of the subject, SCP-1078 retracts its bristles; if retrieved in a timely fashion it will not disappear. However, SCP-1078 has vanished from its containment on █ separate occasions prior to current containment procedures.
Regardless of the stage, all attempts to remove SCP-1078 from a host after optic nerve integration result in a severe and invariably fatal cranial hemorrhage in the subject. This effect is observed regardless of whether the subject or an outside observer attempted the removal.
Lastly, it should be noted that following Experiment 1078-6, researchers discovered that SCP-1078 emits a low amount of electromagnetic radiation when properly incorporated into a human being. It is currently unknown whether or not these emissions constitute a coherent signal, but containment has been updated to prevent possible communication with unknown entities.