SCP-1101

An Interesting Topic

Object Class: Esoteric

Special Containment Procedures

SCP-1101 is contained in a 20x20m secure room at Site-██. The containment room is monitored and recorded from a separate station by CCTV at all times; however, under no circumstances should this be viewed while an SCP-1101 event is in progress. When monitoring devices detect activity in SCP-1101's containment room, an alarm is to sound and both the containment room and the CCTV station are to be sealed until activity has ceased. All individuals under the influence of an SCP-1101 event are to be quarantined by security staff wearing hearing protection. No more than 20 individuals are to be introduced to SCP-1101 without O5-level approval. No objects are to be placed atop SCP-1101 except under controlled testing circumstances.

Following Incident 1101-4, bathroom facilities and 1 month of supplies for up to 20 people have been placed in SCP-1101's containment room. Apparatus for the dispensing of VX nerve gas has been installed to be activated in the event of a major emergency, specifically any one of the following;

>50 individuals under the influence of an SCP-1101 event
risk of uncontrolled spread of an SCP-1101 event beyond the containment facility
SCP-1101 event of duration greater than 1 month

If this protocol in conjunction with standard quarantine measures fails to contain the emergency, personnel should refer to Plan MODERATE-4, which [DATA EXPUNGED]

Description

SCP-1101 is a 0.6m tall marble pedestal with an octagonal top. It exhibits no unusual properties until an object is placed atop SCP-1101 in the presence of more than one person. In this situation, any comment made relating to the object by an individual present will start a heated discussion (an SCP-1101 event). During an SCP-1101 event, affected individuals are compelled to continue the discussion until broad agreement is reached with one individual, the 'winner'. The 'winner' will take the object atop SCP-1101, which signals the end of an event. If the affected individuals do not come to an agreement, a 'winner' will be selected after a certain length of time and end the event. In this case, the winner has usually made a more intelligent or factually correct argument, but there appears to be subjectivity involved, perhaps suggesting sapience on SCP-1101's part. Memories of the event are retained. Subsequently, the 'winner' experiences feelings of euphoria and an attachment to the object 'won', while the rest of the affected subjects suffer mildly depressed mood. These effects are transient and dissipate after a maximum of one week.

Individuals will join an event regardless of debating skill, educational level or ordinary interest in the event topic. SCP-1101 does not appear to cause major personality changes save the compulsion to discuss. However, events have the potential to become vitriolic regardless of individual personalities. Interestingly, no incidents of physical violence have been recorded during an event despite frequent displays of extreme anger.

Affected individuals will only attend to basic needs if it is possible to simultaneously participate in the event (subjects may collapse from exhaustion if an event is of sufficient duration, but appear to suffer no long-term ill effects). The event is a memetic hazard: all individuals who hear an event in progress or see SCP-1101 at the time are compelled to join, including individuals viewing the event remotely. The latter are capable of starting separate secondary instances of SCP-1101 events which will gravitate towards the location of SCP-1101.

Duration of events is variable and dependent on the specific arguments and positions taken by the individuals involved. SCP-1101 events have been observed ranging from 3 minutes to up to 5 months (in this particular case, the event only ceased due to interruption of food supplies and subsequent starvation of individuals involved).

Further information on SCP-1101 may be found in [REDACTED].

Test Battery 1101-1: Initial baseline testing. An object was placed upon SCP-1101 and test subjects instructed to enter the containment chamber.

Test Battery 1101-1

- Test Battery 1101-1

1101-1A
Object: Nothing
Test Subjects: 5 D-class personnel D-1101-1 through 5
Additional Instructions: None
Result: Subjects made normal conversation for 5 minutes. Test ended.

1101-1B
Object: 1 rectangular pine wood block
Test Subjects: 5 D-class personnel D-1101-1 through 5, in addition to Dr. Major (unplanned inclusion)
Additional Instructions: D-1101 asked to describe object
Transcript:
D-1101-1: It's a wooden block.
D-1101-4: I think they want you to say what sort of wood. The last thing I was assigned to, they kept making me put these balsa sheets into some machine.
D-1101-2: Uh, balsa doesn't come in blocks, it's something else.
D-1101-3: He didn't say it was balsa, it's probably some kind of oak wood.
Dr. Major [over intercom]: It's a pine block.
D-1101-1: Why is he telling us? Maybe it's a trick. [Other test subjects voice agreement]
Dr. Major: You idiots, I know what it is!
[REDACTED]
Results: At this stage full properties of SCP-1101 were unknown; Dr. Major was observing remotely and was therefore affected by the event. Test subjects proceeded to argue for 6 minutes about both the composition of the block and the trustworthiness of Dr. Major. After 6 minutes they were convinced by Dr. Major of the block's composition and he left the observation room to collect the block, 'winning' and ending the event. Live observation of SCP-1101 was subsequently discontinued.

1101-1C
Object: 1 rectangular pine wood block
Test Subjects: 5 D-class personnel D-1101-1 through 5
Additional Instructions: D-1101 asked to give an opinion about the object
Transcript:
D-1101-1: Oh, it's this damn block. I, uh, I don't really care about this? It doesn't do anything.
D-1101-3: I guess you could use it as a doorstopper?
D-1101-5: Who the hell would want that?
D-1101-2: I might! It could be a paperweight.
D-1101-3: No, it's too big. It would be better as a doorstopper.
D-1101-5: Are you serious? It's just a [expletive] block!
[REDACTED]
Result: Subjects argued about possible uses for the block for 13 minutes. Agreement was reached that the block was not designed for function but could have some useful characteristics. D-1101-2 was the 'winner' and ended the event.

1101-1D
Object: One Panasonic portable DVD player, not powered
Test Subjects: 5 D-class personnel D-1101-1 through 5
Additional Instructions: None
Transcript:
D-1101-2: It'd be good if they gave us movies here once in a while.
D-1101-1: Yeah, I haven't seen anything since I got in. Nothing newer than ████ ███████.
D-1101-4: Are you kidding? I love those!
D-1101-5: It went downhill after the first one.
D-1101-2: Now YOU have to be kidding.
[REDACTED]
Result: Subjects argued about the merits of the ███████ █████ film series for 49 minutes. No agreement was reached. D-1101-3, with the opinion that the second film was the underrated gem of the series, took the DVD player, 'winning' and ending the event.

1101-1E
Object: One political campaign button reading '[REDACTED] 2012'
Test Subjects: 5 D-class personnel D-1101-1 through 5
Additional Instructions: None
Transcript:
[DATA EXPUNGED]
Result: [DATA EXPUNGED] and █ casualties before containment was reestablished. Security measures for SCP-1101's use with controversial items have been heightened.

1101-1F
Test designed to determine effects of SCP-1101 on individuals with a prior interest in the event topic and enthusiasm for debate.
Object: One postcard depicting Claude Monet's Water Lilies (1907)
Test Subjects: Dr. A███ and Dr. P███████, both with an amateur interest in art collecting
Additional Instructions: Dr. A███ asked to comment on the object
Transcript:
Dr. A███: The real thing is much nicer.
Dr. P███████: I don't know, I prefer his portraits myself, though I think Renoir does them better.
Dr. A███: Renoir? Have you been to the Musee d'Orsay?
[REDACTED]
Dr. A███: That's absolute trash!
Dr. P███████: You think MY tastes are trash? You probably thought Manet and Monet were twin brothers!
Dr. A███: You're saying this when you haven't even been outside of ███████? You pretentious little [expletives]
Dr. P███████: My mother was WHAT?
[REDACTED]
Result: Subjects argued for 82 minutes before Dr. P███████ said 'I can't argue with you any more'. Dr. A███ took the postcard and ended the event. Dr A███ and Dr. P███████ have subsequently been hostile to one another.

In the absence of staff who are able to act like adults, I recommend that testing of SCP-1101 between coworkers be avoided.

- Dr. ███

- Test Battery 1101-1

Addendum 1101-1 It has been observed that duration of an SCP-1101 event generally scales with the number of individuals involved. Due to the potential for memetic spread of an event, it is estimated that a breach of containment would lead to a 'point of no return' where event duration is unacceptably high after a critical mass of [REDACTED] persons, leading to a perpetual SCP-1101 event and a potential AK-class end-of-the-world scenario. In light of this theory, SCP-1101 has been upgraded to Euclid class and new containment procedures implemented.