SCP-C819
cool%20s.png
SCP-C819

Item #: SCP-C819

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Due to its widespread nature, the elimination of SCP-C819 from popular culture is not practical at this time. Instead, efforts should be focused on limiting knowledge of its anomalous properties. To this end, reports of SCP-C819 in the medical literature should be censored, with witnesses amnesticized as appropriate.

Any person who publicly states their intent to create an instance of SCP-C819 >10 m in length should be detained and convinced to abandon that attempt, as well as all future attempts.

Description: SCP-C819 is a graffiti sign that resembles the letter 'S'; it is commonly known as the "Cool S" or "Super S", among other names. SCP-C819 is popular among children and young adults in multiple countries.

Whenever an individual successfully recreates SCP-C819 by hand, a calcified lesion of that exact shape will form on one of their internal organs at random. This lesion is about 1/100th the size of the SCP-C819 drawing in question; as such, almost all 'natural' instances of SCP-C819 will result in lesions less than a centimeter in length. These lesions behave normally and can be removed without issue.

In most cases, lesions produced by SCP-C819 are harmless and difficult to detect. Generally, medical complications occur only if the lesion exceeds 10 cm in length or if the subject draws SCP-C819 hundreds of times. Lesions of any size may result in medical issues if they occur in certain areas of the brain, though this is believed to be rare.

While SCP-C819 has been shown to spread quickly through susceptible communities, this is not considered anomalous — its popularity is attributable to inherent properties of the figure itself, rather than any compulsive effect.

SCP-C819's origin is unknown. Independent research suggests that it may originate from the 1890 book Mechanical Graphics by Frederick Newton Willson (1855-1939); however, this has not been proven.

In two cases, SCP-C819 has affected subjects in an unusual fashion — once naturally, and once in the course of deliberate experimentation.

Atypical manifestation 1: Jane Stow

"Jane Stow" was a female subject from southern California. Stow learned how to draw SCP-C819 in second grade, and did so tens of thousands of times over the next four years. While the resulting lesions rarely exceeded a millimeter in length, the cumulative tissue damage caused a general decline in Stow's health. Stow died in 2009 at age eleven as a result of brain calcification, complicated by her other medical conditions. The Foundation intervened due to the unusual cause of death; SCP-C819's involvement was identified in short order.

Jane Stow's cadaver first displayed anomalous behavior during an examination by Dr. Adrian Cloyd, the head of SCP-C819's research team. When Cloyd came within several meters of Stow's body, its right arm moved upwards of its own accord and pointed at him. Cursory examination proved that the cadaver was specifically pointing at Cloyd's clipboard, which contained several drawings of SCP-C819 produced during an earlier, unrelated experiment.

For forty-eight minutes thereafter, Stow's right arm would continue to point towards any instance of SCP-C819 in its immediate vicinity, moving as necessary to track their motion. As the equipment necessary to study this behavior was not acquired in time, no explanation has been found. After two months of observation and periodic testing, Jane Stow's body was declared non-anomalous and interred according to her parents' wishes.

Atypical manifestation 2: D-18550

On 2020-10-28, an experiment was conducted to determine what would occur when, even at 1:100 scale, SCP-C819 was considerably larger than the human body. To this end, several guideposts were installed a stretch of the Great Salt Lake Desert 1.0 km in length and 0.33 km in width near Site-103. D-18550 was then provided with a staff and instructed to inscribe SCP-C819 in the soil, using the guideposts as vertices.

At 9:38 AM, D-18550 completed the aforementioned job; however, no calcification of any internal organ occurred, nor did any abnormal calcium formation appear in the vicinity of D-18550. D-18550 and the proctor of the experiment both noted a hallucinatory audio phenomenon which approximated a vocalization common in the Ophidia reptile clade. D-18550 and the proctor then went back to the facility for prolonged viewing.

When D-18550 and the proctor arrived at the facility at 9:53 AM, virtually every computer file located therein experienced a complete data integrity failure; much of the crucial work to be done at the facility could not be performed, and containment failed for the entire Biology department. Abnormal flora and fauna from more than 15 (but under 18) genera breached into the nearby arid environment.

Information about any contained anomaly became inexplicably difficult to collect and reference, apparently due to a critical failure in the name tied to them. About 38% of the work force experienced a comparable name failure. Each problem could be partially managed by providing an ad hoc nickname to the de-referenced entity. Due to the informality of that procedure, it will be unlikely to work when applied to any computer at the facility.

Not too long after returning to the facility, the proctor left D-18550 alone to help the work force overcome the aforementioned difficulty, having forgotten to provide him with any job to perform. D-18550 found a pen and began to draw graffiti on the facility, covering an interior wall with imagery that could not be comprehended. The behavior went unreported until later, likely on account of the general panic in the facility and D-18550 picking a relatively private area to do it.

At DINNER1:03 PM, D-18550 reported to the infirmary to complain of abdominal pain, vocalizing in a way that could not be written down or properly comprehended. After a prolonged argument with the medical practitioner on duty, D-18550 began to expel an extreme quantity of calcium carbonate powder from their mouth. In under a quarter hour, D-18550 created a thick calcium cloud that extended through the facility, which coated nearly everything in a deep layer of powder and made it extremely difficult to breathe or view anything.

At time of writing (BREAK:24 PM), the majority of the work force decided to wait in the nearby area for the interior of the facility to be made habitable. The local weather will complicate that plan of action after nightfall. Fortunately, no-one died (except D-18550, potentially). The facility will remain quarantined until a method of undoing the damage from the kilometer-long graffiti experiment can be found.

rating: +3+x
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