Item #: SCP-C225
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: All samples of SCP-C225 are to be kept in airtight opaque containers at Site-56's cold storage. Standard safety precautions for visual cognitohazards and blood products apply.
Attempts to locate any extant copies of SCP-C225-1 are underway.
Description: SCP-C225 is a form of human blood that has unusual optical properties. It is an exceptionally bright shade of red — more so than any existing pigment or any electronic display can properly replicate. SCP-C225 will continue to appear red even in the absence of red light, or in concentrations where regular blood would appear black. Details of SCP-C225's appearance are abnormally easy to discern, even at a distance or under adverse conditions. It has a refractive index of ~2.4.1
SCP-C225 is a visual cognitohazard. Direct observers report that SCP-C225 appears more "realistic" than its surroundings. They will generally describe this effect as akin to that achieved when a photographic image is placed in a computer-generated environment. While the neurological basis for this effect is not yet understood, it is believed that SCP-C225 somehow overstimulates the brain's mechanism(s) for distinguishing reality from fantasy.
Psychological reactions to SCP-C225 vary between observers. Most are able to function normally, albeit with lingering doubts as to the nature and/or legitimacy of reality. Observers with pre-existing anxiety about these matters may develop an obsession with SCP-C225 over time. Subjects who are already susceptible to derealization (such as those with certain mental disorders) may abruptly experience it upon viewing SCP-C225.
SCP-C225 is chemically identical to human blood, save for its genetic material, which is comprised of a short repeating nucleic acid sequence that reads "COPYWRITE PORKY576 DONT STEAL OR THE KILL YOU IREL" (sic) when decoded.
SCP-C225-1 was an image file consisting of red text on a black background. When read in full, the reader's tear ducts would produce SCP-C225 for 30-50 minutes; generally, about 0.4 liters of SCP-C225 were produced. As no extant copies of SCP-C225-1 exist, further details have been gathered from witness testimony.
SCP-C225-1's text entailed a short horror story about a "lost episode" of the Polish children's cartoon Bolek and Lolek in which the title characters perform a series of unrelated and apparently pointless satanic rituals. The story abruptly concluded with Lolek's eyes bleeding "hyperrealistic blood", followed by the assertion that the reader would do the same. SCP-C225-1 was often described as 'barely legible' due to frequent spelling and grammar errors, as well as heavy image compression.
Sometime in July of 2014, all copies of SCP-C225-1 were changed to a non-anomalous image in the same format. A transcript of the image is included below.