Item #: SCP-105-IT
Object Class: Safe Neutralized
Special Containment Procedures: Given its decease on 16/07/1971, SCP-105-IT is to be considered neutralized and does not thus need any Special Containment Procedures.
The remaining SCP-105-IT-A instances are contained in a Storage Containment for biological remains in Site Cerere.
Not needing any particular care and requiring only food, water and a litter, SCP-105-IT is housed in a standard stable in Site Cerere outfitted with a manger and a trough.
Description: SCP-105-IT has been a male Vicugna pacos specimen that lived from an unknown date, presumably antecedent August 1775, to 1971. Despite apparently not differing in anything from a standard specimen, SCP-105-IT possessed a number of more or less evident anomalous characteristics, first and most obvious of which was its extreme longevity. Other easily spottable peculiarity was the total absence of movement outside its face and anus: SCP-105-IT was indeed incapable of locomotion and its only movements were finalized towards feeding and producing SCP-105-IT-A.
SCP-105-IT-A is the collective designation given to calcareous formations,
vaguely polyhedral in shape similar to the
snub square antiprism
, and made out of extremely friable chalk, that SCP-105-IT's organism produced instead of regular excrements. SCP-105-IT-A instances possess a potent hallucinogenic effect which manifests as a consequence of the destruction, intentional or accidental, of one or more of them.
Whoever destroys a unit of SCP-105-IT-A suffers an auditory hallucination consisting of a commentary, by an as-yet-unidentified individual designated SCP-105-IT-B, of an apparently random historical event which took place between 1773 and 1948. SCP-105-IT-B's tone of voice isn't consistent over time: in the first record compiled by the Order of Janus there was mention of a "speech pronounced sombrely, with an attitude very much conspiratorial" whilst, after tests carried out when SCP-105-IT was contained by the Foundation, provided testimonies included "a subdued yet huffy tone", some descriptions of screams and clamours or, in a single case, "incoherent noises interrupted by sobs and sighs." The hallucinations follows a scheme consisting of an incipit, or the enunciation of the date corresponding to the event which will be commented, the description of the event (more or less detailed) and a closing statement; the duration of the hallucinations is variable, with the shortest recorded one having a duration of "approximately a dozen seconds" and the longest one exceeding four hours.
Despite there not appearing to exist any criterion behind the choice of the historical event which will be described, the probability that it concern either Napoleon I Bonaparte or Victor Emmanuel II of Savoy is high when compared to the rest of the events of the almost two hundred years of history touched by SCP-105-IT-B's commentary: according to the history of tests carried out on the anomaly, the deeds of the aforementioned rulers are the topic of three auditory hallucinations out of ten.
Addendum 105-IT-A — Original Order of Janus documentation
Following are interesting extracts of the work "On the beast that perturbed the county of Grugliasco last Summer," commented. The work has been produced by Giovanni Maria Porrazzini, Pinerolese botanist, and Aiace Minghetti, Lodigiano chemist, affiliates of the Austrian Order of Janus from 1772 until the withdrawal of the organization from Piedmont in 1790; completed in 1775, of the two printed copies one had been submitted to the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Joseph II, the other had beeen archived in the Viennese HQ of the of the Order. Of the archived copy, inherited by the modern-day Order of Janus, a digital version has been donated to the Foundation.
⠀ the botanist Porazzini and the alchemist Minghetti humbly
⠀ to Your Majesty Emperor of the Romans Joseph II present
⠀ their Study
on the beast that last summer perturbed the county of Grugliasco, Savoyard,
and propose for it , creature that does not represent any danger — despite being of usefulness most great for the Order and Your Majesty at once — the denomination of "Piedmontese sheep" in order to work around many a conundrum: soon regarding these elaboration is to come.
Without into excessive speculation wanting to dive, the Order of Janus whole wants to make Your Majesty aware that the sheep is an animal borne of the mountains of Peru and Chile, lands that the Crown of Spain for itself took years ago despicably; there is thus the question to be asked whether it has come to Piedmont with a master from Spain or maybe Indio, and how and why this has been. Your Majesty keep this in mind, but let such a possibility not descourage Him: the Order reiterates that the creature constitutes no danger.
The authors propose that the Piedmontese sheep is immediately handed into the care of Your Majesty, given the beneffits which would come of this for Your Majesty and the Empire. The authors hold the belief that, despite being its abilities not of the kind most common, nor of the most understandable nor appreciable at a first look, the sheep is an exceptional creature for the power over which the empires of the entire world would move each other war. Your Majesty will not find in this here text a single hyperbole, one exaggeration; always have the politician, the general, dreamed of being able to see the future before his adversary. Always has there been a hunt for the spyglass able tosee one day, one month, one year forward from us: now that it exists it is legitimate for the Empire to have it.
Of the sheep and the things it made heard, terrible, or comical, and oftentimes mysterious already word had been circulating or one or two weeks when the authors came to the area to verify for themselves and for the Order what had been happening, and to subsequently be able to report to Your Majesty about it. It was on a causeway, unmoving, and the people of the county kept themselves at a considerable distance from it, surely attracted by its reputation but timorous and restrained as the inhabitants of that feud of Turin are known to be. Mister Porrazzini, in his enthusiasm of wanting to observe that which manifested itself as a small creature, and certainly rather young, brought himself behind it and unwillingly trampled its excreta. Suddenly he was like struck by thunder and took one and then two hops backwards, clearly absorbed by some kind of thing, looking at Mister Minghetti and evry one of those who were passing by, his surroundings also looking for something, moving his gaze in such an erratic fashion Mister Minghetti felt the need to succour him, and took to shaking him.
Having described his experience with all the minutia which characterises him, Mister Porrazzini thus did bring his colleague up to date. They accompanied the beast to the nearest park with gentle pushes (it is a docile one, verily, and prone to following any order it is imparted) and sat on a tree-stump found there, long did they discuss the abilities of its, on how, on why and on when, and the possibilities it open for the Empire and for the Order. Immediately did they convene that to the biology of the creature mone must have put hand, and with a specific design in mind: the immobility of its body could not be but in order to perturb who observed it carefully, the bizarre shape of its wastes and the little odour they emitted in order to attract curious men and scientists, at a time, so that on its nature they'd wonder. Maybe that its master, because a master it must not be without, or must not have been without, wanted ingenious minds to follow that specific design? Maybe that he looked for specific men or women?
Being done with their general reflections, the authors move on to the conclusion of their text.
According to the Order of Janus's documents, Joseph II refused to take SCP-105-IT with him due to such a thing being "inappropriate for a man in his position". The Austrian Order was anyhow encouraged to persevere in the study of SCP-105-IT in order to benefit for itself from the anomaly's capabilities, and to indulge in research less strictly tied to the political sphere.
Addendum 105-IT-B — Instances of hallucination caused by SCP-105-IT-A
Following are the transcriptions of a certain number of hallucinations which followed the destruction of an instance of SCP-105-IT-A, alongside date and the context for the hallucination's manifestation, its content and eventual note. Be it noted that the immediate transcription didn't come into use before 1946. Hallucinations which manifested in the 1948 - 1971 period will not be taken into consideration.
Date: 08/1775 (day not recorded) (#0001)
Context: first recorded hallucination. Manifestation provoked accidentally (see Addendum 105-A).
Content: "It's the Second of December. Anno Domini one-thousand-eight-hundred-and-four: a man, to somebody a new Caesar, to others a new Robespierre, towers over all his contemporaries and…" [interruption of unspecified duration] "Who do you think would've bet? Somebody so borious and vanaglorious and, and, and…! [indistinct shuffling] Furthermore, and furthermore everybody already knows, yes, and there's no reason for me to focus on such things, when I have much more important matters to tend to. Why think about his actions still? This is the tenth time— no, the twelfth or maybe," [further interruption] "yes, that's it, I wasn't wrong. Remind me to delete the previous. Those who have ears to hear… can't be otherwise. They'll understand, they'll let themselves be guided and all will be well. The hints are enough already. It's time to deliver it, come on. Ours will be a courier of exception."
Note(s): on the 02/12/1804 Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned. SCP-105-IT-B's words imply that this hallucination has been the last chronologically "recorded" before SCP-105-IT's delivery (presumably) to its location of recovery.
Date: 24/12/1794 (#0231)
Context: possible unauthorized experiment carried out during a time of co-authority over SCP-105-IT by Porrazzini/Minghetti and unknown third parties. Involved personnel not documented.
Content: "From the narrator, now old, to the listener, a Christmas gift. Know that, like me, you'll find yourself on the edge of an invisible precipice and like me you'll fall without noticing. I speak to you from the bottom and implore you to remember the fall, once you'll be down here. Let's start from the foundations: Napoleon, the Kingdom of Italy, America, the Georgites.
[TWENTY-FIVE-MINUTE-LONG EXPLANATION OF THE CROWNING OF NAPOLEON, THE UNIFICATION OF ITALY, THE FOUNDATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE WORK OF THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT GEORGE IN EUROPE IN THE EARLY YEARS OF THE XIXth CENTURY REMOVED]
Now, all of this you already know as probably as it is probable you don’t. It is also possible, and this I hope, that my version of events sounds alien, sounds extraneous to you. It’s possible you’re asking yourselves why I didn’t mention the Continental System, or Messer’s theses. These are my times, which will be yours too, unless they aren’t- unless they won’t have been. To keep it short, all will be more or less like this.
[SIX-HUNDRED-THIRTY-MINUTE-LONG ABRIDGED ACCOUNT OF ALL THE MAJOR HISTORICAL EVENTS OF THE 1804–1945 PERIOD REMOVED]
I don’t know where the change has happened. I don’t know and tomorrow I won’t even notice a change has happened at all, this I know for sure. Try to prevent it. In the case you succeed, welcome to the world. In the case you don’t, I reiterate my welcome. It’ll surely be easier now than it has been before."
Note(s): the purpose of the "recording" is not known to the Foundation nor, according to what Giovanni Maria Porrazzini noted in his personal diary, to the Order of Janus. The historical elements to which the recording refers (the Continental System and Messer) do not correspond to anything known to the public or the Foundation.
Date: 31/10/1814 (#0412)
Context: Order of Janus experiment carried out on the occasion of the official presentation of SCP-105-IT to Napoleon Bonaparte. The encounter between an unspecified number of Patres Tabularii of the Order and the former emperor on Elba Island took place without any difficulty due to the complicity of the almost non-existent authorities of the Island’s Principality.
Content: "Anno domini nineteen-forty-eight, fifteenth of May. Tie-breaker? [EXPLICIT], who’d have guessed."
Note(s): the Order of Janus document which contained the transcription of the meeting with the recently-deposed Napoleon has been lost. What is reported above has been extracted from Giovanni Maria Porrazzini’s private diary: the botanist had allegedly been summoned by the French branch of the Order (still loyal to Bonaparte), which had obtained custody over SCP-105-IT from the Austrian branch, to participate in the meeting in the role of foremost expert on the matter of SCP-105-IT. After A. Minghetti’s death, which occurred in the first days of June of the same year, Porrazzini had effectively become the single eminent expert on the matter, having been one of the two sole caretakers of SCP-105-IT from 1775 to 1795.
Date: 06/07/1860 (#1258)
Context: Roman Ordo routine experiment; the aforementioned branch had acquired SCP-105-IT by preventing its return to Vienna in July 1815.
Content: "[sobs, incoherent sounds]"
Note(s): n/a
Date: 25/10/1893 (#1493)
Context: Roman Ordo experiment. Destruction of the SCP-105-IT-A instance carried out through mechanical means (mallet); the hallucination afflicted the initiate who destroyed the instance.
Content: "November Thirteen, nineteen-twenty, year of the lord who watches over history but says nothing. A thing which needed not to be done has been done. The date is not right… Could be a problem for you, but I trust you will be able to overcome it. I don’t think it’ll be easily known it is: I can only hope. This is but the last of the events that affect me closely. Little things that, together, will end up amounting to too much. I need to get out of this as soon as I can. A little more and I’ll be done."
Note(s): n/a.
Date: 14/01/1927 (#1547)
Context: Order of Janus routine experiment.
Content: "Nineteenth of April, anno domini nineteen-four. The fourth year of the century… I have no time no more, but those who’ll come after will have to investigate. But I’m going off-track. Borgata Troncea, the landslide I hope everyone knows about. There were no sufficiently competent authorities around to properly study the event, for a change, so I had to step in myself. I’ve ascended through the valley with a couple pupils and with them I spent a half day in the mines, then another half day climbing up the mountain-sides… I can’t avoid thinking that between this and what will happen in forty-four this Borgata has a truly tragic life, maybe even a too tragic one. I keep getting lost… matter of fact is the mines are empty, completely dry, and the most recent avalanches date back to at least a dozen years ago. The mountain does not usually behave this way."
Note(s): from its tone of voice SCP-105-IT-B appears fatigued. As further proof of its fatigue is the numerous pauses that interval its speaking, not transcribed in order to make reading the piece smoother.
Date: 21/05/1947 (#1988)
Context: first routine experiment carried out by the Foundation after the Order of Janus handed SCP-105-IT over.
Content: "Ah, this is a good one! Hear me out, hear me out… [cough] The foundation of the Royal Institute is unexplained and unexplainable for the European metanormal studies community, since King Victor Emmanuel the Second has no reason — according to the opinions of the Order of Janus — to rely on an organization of his own creation when he can count on the service of a consolidated, renowned and recently reunified group like the Order is. Ah, had they known! [indistinct murmuring] Indeed, indeed, it’s what I mean. If the Master had been with the Order, am I right? No, and thus we’ve gotten stuck in this ourselves. I propose we gather some testimonies on what happened to this day and immortalize them like we’re doing now. Same time, same place, obviously, you’ve got the legs to come up here."
Note(s): there’s reason to believe the function SCP-105-IT-B assigned to SCP-105-IT mutated through time, given the progressive variation in the contents entrusted to the anomaly. Hallucination number 1988, given the relative levity of its message and the generally relaxed atmosphere evoked by SCP-105-IT-B, had probably been “programmed” before numbers 0001 and 1547. The mention of a “Master” is present in a number of hallucinations but is never explained nor discussed at all.
