Item #: SCP-905
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Individuals infected with SCP-905 are to be placed in individual, modified containment rooms no more than 2.5m x 2.5m x 3m, with fully-padded floors, walls, and door. Doors are to be kept locked with one (1) guard per two (2) infected individuals. Doors are only to be unlocked during mealtime (a standard meal twice per day, or nutrient solution applied intravenously if subject has become unresponsive, catatonic, or violent. Subjects are to be fitted with standard straitjackets and leg bindings as may be found in most mental institutions. Should an infected individual manage to attack and injure a non-infected individual, the injured individual will be taken into immediate medical custody and observed for at least twenty-four (24) hours for any signs of infection.
Should infection have occurred, individuals will be treated in the above manner. Once an individual is free of infection, having passed it on, they will undergo mandatory psychiatric evaluations. Individuals may request to be taken off the termination list provided that they are not D-Class or Civilians. D-Class individuals are to be terminated immediately after psychiatric evaluation, while Civilians must be cleared by unanimous vote of the current 905-research-team before being administered a Class-A amnesiac and returned to civilian psychiatric care for any further complications.
Outbreaks or examples found outside Foundation walls should be contained and treated immediately.
Description: SCP-905 appears to be a memetic infection, passed from individual to individual via contact and injury. Exactly how it accomplishes this is unknown, but all infected individuals bare the same distinctive injury, if through various means. All infected individuals display apparent physical trauma to the back of the skull and signs typical of a mild concussion. Although this injury seems to have no real effect upon an infected individual's health or well-being, it is a consistent feature that precedes the onset of the memetic effect of SCP-905.
SCP-905 induces severe hallucinations in infected individuals. These hallucinations vary in subject from individual to individual, but always take focus upon something that is upsetting to the individual themselves, that they would wish to change. However, no matter what course of action an individual takes to try and solve the problem presented to them in the hallucinations, they will repeatedly fail, and the hallucination will 'start over', with minor changes. This continues indefinitely, during which subjects display extreme delusions and catatonia. Individuals experience lapses in the hallucination every so often, resulting in confusion, depression, and violent outbursts as the hallucinations continue. Individuals appear to 'break' from hallucinations just often enough to do things necessary for survival, such as eat and drink.
Eventually, individuals begin to experience severe mental and physical effects from these constant hallucinations. Severe depression or violence is common, and many infected individuals will willingly starve to death or follow suicidal impulses. The original vectors of SCP-905 were discovered either living on the streets, or in psychiatric institutions for such behaviors.
SCP-905 is spread through violent physical contact, which may result in a blow to the back of the head and a similar resulting injury; however, other injuries result, through various means, in the same apparent trauma to the back of the skull and concussion. SCP-905 may lie dormant, after the initial injury, for up to twenty-four (24) hours after which it's clear whether or not infection has occurred.