Special Containment Procedures: Due to SCP-026-VN's nature and anomalous ability, no containment procedures are deemed necessary.1 SCP-026-VN's behavior and range of effect are to be recorded and observed in case of recurrence.
Description: SCP-026-VN is the designation for a group of anomalous events affecting the town of Ninh Phú, Hà Nam Province, Việt Nam. SCP-026-VN consists of two components, hereby known as 026-VN-α and 026-VN-β.
- 026-VN-α is a sinkhole approximately 5 km in depth, manifested about 20 km to the north of the town's center on 24/11/19██, after an earthquake in the area. It emits an extremely hazardous memetic agent. This memetic agent will affect all individuals without standard protection methods, resulting in strong hallucinations, anaphylaxis, comatose or suicidal thoughts, and many other dangerous symptoms. Further explorations as well as investigations into this hole are currently impossible due to its anomalous nature and the risk of losing personnel; as such the only feasible method of observing the inside of 026-VN-α is through drones equipped with memetic hazard filters from a remote distance.
- 026-VN-β is a series of hostile and hazardous memetic agents, which telepathically spread through the minds of sapient entities in the town's radius. It is unknown where or when this anomaly started to manifest. To the date this document is written, 026-VN-β has affected ~67% civilians in the area, causing them to merge into a hivemind. It is believed that the "Queen" of this hive mind is currently located underneath 026-VN-α and controlling the "Workers" in a harmonious sense of behavior.
SCP-026-VN's dangerous anomalous properties are presented through their spreading rate and their unpredictable effects on sapient entities, mostly on humans. During each one-day long period, all individuals affected by 026-VN-α's memetic wave on the area (hereby known as 026-VN-ψ) will instantly become a "Worker" and move to 026-VN-α despite any prevention attempts.
Once reaching -α, all 026-VN-ψ instances will line up in a circle around the edge of the hole and take turns to perform a number of anomalous movements before jumping into 026-VN-α. The nature of these actions are complex since each instance varies in level and behavior, but all movements are somewhat similar at some points, such as:
- Twisting limbs in various directions (the lower limbs from toe joints to femurs are twisted until they reach the collarbone; the upper limbs pierced through the ribcage, which ejects internal organs in order to make space for the upper limbs to attach themselves to the sternum2 or twisted backward to support the head).
- Each individual’s neck is snapped and attached to the back
- Skeletal frames begin to detach and “soften”, causing the whole body to “deflate”, but are still strong enough to hold the body’s structure.
- Mouth and eye sockets disappear, the larynx are inverted outward and pierces the skin.
- Moving by crawling forward.
- Hearing is enhanced to the point that it replaces sighting in detecting directions and surrounding factors.
Despite the depth of 026-VN-α, all instances are willingly to jump down the hole. The survival rate of instances after free falling is ~95%3. Afterwards, 026-VN-ψ instances will begin to stack into layers, using their pelvis as levers to climb upward. Once they haved reached the top of the "tower", they will go into a deep sleep state and become a "lower layer" for other instances to climb on.
Update: Due to the inexplicable nature of the anomaly, O5 Council had given out order that no personnel should interfere with SCP-026-VN's anomalous activities and only do so when all activities have ceased. At 2:44 PM, 26/11/20██, all 026-VN-ψ instances had filled 026-VN-α. Afterwards, 026-VN-α closed and disappeared completely. Traces of memetic hazard and anomalous effects could not be found. The anomaly is approved to be reclassified as Neutralized. The Foundation had offered SCP-5865-A to take all civilians in the area on SCP-5865 back to baseline reality and had got its approval.