SCP-1464
Pond of Atrocities
Special Containment Procedures
Except for approved experimentation, it is forbidden to observe SCP-1464 under natural lighting during the time period between sunset and nautical twilight, and during the time period between nautical dawn and sunrise; any research into the properties and contents of SCP-1464 during these time periods must be conducted under 1000-watt lamps providing full-spectrum illumination. The thirty-five (35) square kilometers surrounding SCP-1464 have been purchased by the Foundation via a front company, and serve as an interdiction zone. Civilians are to be dissuaded with a cover story of limnological research.
The airspace above the interdiction zone surrounding SCP-1464 is restricted. Satellite imagery of the interdiction zone is to be intercepted and modified so that direct images of SCP-1464 do not become public.
Description
SCP-1464 is a body of water in the forests of northern [REDACTED], approximately 82 hectares in size. When viewed under lighting conditions corresponding to dawn or twilight, SCP-1464 is a cognitohazard. Affected subjects experience highly detailed false memories of having participated in ritual crimes at the site of SCP-1464 at some point in the past; all affected subjects express intense remorse and guilt at having participated (regardless of whether this is compatible with their psychological profiles), describe the ritual as having concluded with a victim or victims being submerged within SCP-1464, claim that the ritual was necessary in order to prevent what is effectively an XK-class end-of-the-world scenario, and state that the ritual was incorrectly performed and must be repeated.
The precise nature of the ritual described by affected subjects varies depending on a number of parameters, including but not limited to the density of foliage on surrounding trees, the presence of floating debris, and >1m modifications to SCP-1464's coastline (see document 1464-T17 for a full list of known parameters). Since coming to the attention of the Foundation, the parameters regulating SCP-1464's anomalous effect have undergone natural changes sufficient to result in a new configuration 85 times; as well, new configurations have resulted from deliberate experimentation 25 times, and from accidental modification 3 times.
All subjects exposed to SCP-1464 under a given configuration describe the same ritual; as well, subjects share an anomalous awareness of each other's existence, such that if three separate subjects are exposed to a given configuration, and then interrogated separately, they will all report that the ritual involved three participants, and will be able to corroborate each other's stories. Details of the ritual range from the plausible (the slaughter of nine nine-year-old children, at 9:09 AM, on the ninth day of the ninth month, 1999) to the nonsensical (the rape and strangulation of a green 1978 Volkswagen Beetle, on the fifty-sixth day of June, 1974); at no time has any subject expressed cognitive dissonance, regardless of how incompatible the described scenario is with reality.
Underwater exploration and sonar analysis of SCP-1464 have not revealed any of the submerged objects described by affected subjects, nor do missing-persons reports and reports of livestock theft correspond to any of the rituals described; however, in approximately 30% of cases, the scenarios which the rituals are allegedly intended to prevent correspond to worst-case extrapolations involving known SCPs.
Samples of water and aquatic biota from SCP-1464 have not been found to be anomalous.