SCP-XXXX "Medusa Vessel Pomade"
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Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: All 47 instances (as of 05/10/████) of SCP-XXXX must be neatly stacked (no taller than 3 jars high) within an appropriately-sized plywood shipping crate. This crate is to be nailed shut and kept within a standard Safe-class containment locker when SCP-XXXX is not in use. If a mason jar holding an instance of SCP-XXXX is found to be empty or broken during monthly inspection, all instances of SCP-XXXX must be turned over to Researcher ███ for inspection, accountability, decontamination and/or disposal. The locker must be disinfected, and the crate is to be incinerated and replaced with another plywood crate of identical dimensions.

SCP-XXXX-1 is to be housed permanently within a standard humanoid containment cell at Site-73. Due to continued cooperation with the Foundation, SCP-XXXX-1 has permissions to wear appropriate personal clothing and to furnish its cell with approved personal non-organic possessions (such as quilting materials, books, and art supplies). Dr. Cassidy requests personnel to limit all non-emergency interactions with SCP-XXXX-1. After placing SCP-XXXX-1 on suicide watch, Dr. Cassidy requests personnel to match regularly engage SCP-XXX-1 in conversation with direct eye contact. SCP-XXXX-1 must leave its cell under an authorized guard's supervision for 45 minutes a day, Monday through Fridays. During these excursions, SCP-XXXX-1 may exercise on the Secure Outdoor Testing Facility's soccer field or eat in the cafeteria (Mondays through Wednesdays during standard lunch hours). SCP-XXXX-1 must wear its black satin shower cap during these outings.

Access to SCP-XXXX or SCP-XXXX-1 for testing purposes requires Level-3 clearance as well as verbal consent from SCP-XXXX-1. All individuals interacting with SCP-XXXX are required to wear elbow-length rubber gloves and hairnets. All individuals with facial hair must shave before interacting with SCP-XXXX.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a batch of homemade pomade, stored in non-anomalous standard-sized mason jars.

Interviewed: SCP-XXXX-1, formerly known as Mattie ████████, a 23 year old cashier from ███████, North Carolina.

Interviewer: Dr. Carly Cassidy, Lead Researcher of SCP-XXXX's containment team.

Foreword: Excerpt from the interview executed as part of SCP-XXXX-1's psychological screening, given shortly after procurement. - Dr. Cassidy

<Begin Log>

Dr. Cassidy: Good morning, my name is Dr. Carmen Cassidy. Apologies for interrupting your unpacking, but could I steal you for a half an hour or so? I’m just here to ask you a couple questions related to our intake process.

SCP-XXXX-1: O-of course! O-one minute. (Interviewee visibly begins shaking while folding a gray sweater and putting it on the cot.)

Dr. Cassidy: No need to be anxious! Please, take a seat.

SCP-XXXX-1: I-I’m so sorry! (sits, closes eyes, and then slowly inhales and exhales before continuing) I’m an extremely introverted homebody to begin with and, well, I’ve talked to more people today than I have in…quite a while. Once I get used to everything here, I’ll get the swing of things, I promise!

Dr. Cassidy: You’re absolutely fine. Take your time.

SCP-XXXX-1: No, no, let’s get this interview over with! (sits on cot and clears throat) Better now than never. Go ahead.

Dr. Cassidy: Alright. May I have your name please?

SCP-XXXX-1: My name is Mattie ████████.

Dr. Cassidy: Thank you, Mattie. Were you debriefed on how we use titles here? Personnel will address you from now on as SCP-XXXX-1.

SCP-XXXX-1: Yes…I understand. And this SCP-XXXX is all of my jars of pomade, right?
Dr. Cassidy: Correct. Speaking of SCP-XXXX, can you recall how it came into your possession?

SCP-XXXX-1: Oh, yikes. This is going to be a long story, but I-I’ll try to keep it short. (briefly pauses) U-um, Ita, my grandmother, raised me. So, growing up, s-she was my absolute idol. Not only did Ita have the patience of a saint and a heart of gold, but she was also beautiful. She was a Sears catalog model in the 60s, so my granddad liked to track down the old catalogs at yard sales, page through them to find her photos, cut them out, frame them, and hang them up. We had at least thirty pictures hung up all over the living room.

Dr. Cassidy: So, did your grandmother give you SCP-XXXX?

SCP-XXXX-1: W-well, kind of. I practically worshiped her hair. My Ita had long, silky and fine black coffee-colored hair that she was rather famous for locally. She rejected chemical straighteners when they became popular in the 70s and continued to straighten it the old-fashioned way, using a straightening comb and holding it in place with a pomade that she made in secret from a memorized recipe. I have very hard-to-maintain wiry hair like she did naturally, so I begged her for years to let me start using that pomade and how to prepare it. And, for years, she said “No! Not until you’re twenty.” (appears to hesitate before continuing) T-hen…my Ita passed unexpectedly from a heart attack, about a month before my eighteenth birthday. My granddad and I were devastated and didn’t celebrate it together that year. The morning after the funeral, though, he gave me my birthday card early. In it, she told me that she had made the executive decision to take the recipe with her to the grave, but that she apparently had made enough pomade to last me several decades (her words) and hid it away. My grandfather made a promise with her to tell me its hiding place on my twentieth birthday. I…I had to wait.

Dr. Cassidy: What did you do then?

SCP-XXXX-1: I rebelled in a mix of grief and fury and proceeded to tear apart the house. Night after night, I rummaged through the attic, stole the keys to the lock boxes, and went through all the closets. My best friend loaned me her metal detector and I began picking through in the backyard. Two nights later, I found my batch of pomade, buried under new sod, near the tool shed. I dug it up and hid every single jar under my bed that night. After that, worked on my hair until dawn. When it was done, my hair looked exactly like Ita’s. I got so many compliments at school that first day.

Dr. Cassidy: When did the anomalous properties of SCP-XXXX begin?

SCP-XXXX-1: After that first day, my hair started to…crumple up, I guess? I began to use more and more pomade over the next several days. Then….well…you know…(nervously rearranges shower cap) "they" showed up out of the blue one morning. I almost immediately stopped going out with friends and began to skip soccer practice. For that last semester of school, I’d get up, go to school, isolate myself during lunch, immediately go home and shut myself in my room. My granddad sensed that *something* had changed and he commented on how often I wore hats, but I guess he thought I was just grieving in my own way. I graduated that spring, but…all I did was get a job as a cashier at ██████ and continued my routine. Well, until that video…and that’s I guess how I ended up here.

<End Log>

Interviewed: C-5341, or LeRoy Higgins, a 23 year veteran security officer at Site-73. SCP-XXXX-1's primary escort during its mandatory weekly exursions (for 4 months now, as of 04/13/████).

Interviewer: Dr. Hannah Leeds, new Lead Researcher of SCP-XXXX's containment team, replacing Dr. Cassidy.

Foreword: Excerpt from a recorded informal office visit that was requested by C-5341.

<Begin Log>

C-5341: Hey Hannah, thanks for sitting down with me. (readjusts belt over belly and sits down) I want to bring up some concerns about Mat-, er, SCP-XXXX-1.

Dr. Leeds: Do tell, but please try to keep it brief. I have a meeting in an hour.

C-5341: Haha, alright, well, SCP-XXXX-1 has been feeling a lot better in the last couple weeks! She, I mean, it was singing this morning for the first time in a while. (notices Dr. Leeds' bowl of butter mints) …May I?

Dr. Leeds: I am glad to hear. (nods and C-5341 grabs four, pockets three, unwraps one and pops it in his mouth) Dr. Madison has also communicated to me that SCP-XXXX-1's mental health is improving since the…incident. I was quite surprised myself, I thought we were going to lose SCP-XXXX-1 for several weeks.

C-5341: That's…well, that's the thing. (stretches and scratches ear) I'm starting to wonder if this upswing could partially be attributed to a certain D-class.

Dr. Leeds: (pulls out pen) Number?

C-5341: (talking while sucking on the mint) D-64356. (Dr. Leeds scribbles it down) You see, this boy's been eating lunch with us for the past three weeks. First and only person in the cafeteria to sit down at our table. (pauses, looks around and leans in, speaking now in a loud whisper) Well, This kid rambles on too much about Cretan hieroglyphs to be your run-of-the-mill D-class. I got curious about him and pulled out his file. You know Dr. Monica Leads by chance?

Dr. Leeds: I do, actually. She was in my graduating class.

C-5341: He was actually assigned to Monica's project three months ago at Site-81…keep this off the books, but I called her up yesterday to learn more about him, and the kid's quite impressive for a D-class. Boy graduated from an Ivy League as a history major, got into a bar fight a month later and was sentenced to ten years for involuntary manslaughter. Was selected to become a D-class, sobered up and is apparently now a delight to work with. D-64356's assignment from Monica was to act as a servant for her humanoid skip with some kinda wind power. Couldn't make eye contact, talk to it or anything like that. But you know what he did? Figured out that the skip's apparently some kinda Assyro-Babylonian entity based on the art in its containment cell and proceeded to check out every book on Mesopotamia in the library. Ended up learning more Sumerian than her assistant researchers did.

Dr. Leeds: Is that so?

C-5341: Ahahaha, only time he broke protocol was when he accidentally knocked over a food tray, blanked and started apologizing profusely in Sumerian. Skip was pleased that the "Elamite" slave had no accent and let him go on his merry way, didn't take off a couple of fingers! Monica's coworker was so impressed that he didn't even the incident up the chain of command cause D-64356 covered his tracks so well.
Dr. Leeds: Well, Dr. Leads should have terminated D-64356. That's what I'd do.

C-5341: (sighs) I'm an old guy with two divorces under my belt, but I know what it looks like when two young people like each other.

Dr. Cassidy: