Severe

Item #: SCP-001

Object Class: Eclipse

Special Containment Procedures: A colony of SCP-001 is to be maintained at Arboretum Alpha Swallow. The population of the colony should be kept between 800 and 1000 instances of SCP-001. Newborns' intelligence are to be evaluated to ensure no instances of SCP-001-F become established within the colony.

In the event that an instance of SCP-001-1 or SCP-001-F is found within the colony, all mature instances of SCP-001 are to be terminated immediately. Researcher intervention following this event is permitted to ensure adolescent SCP-001 survive to maturity.

Mobile Task Force Gar Sigma "Overcast Shepherds" are tasked with locating and terminating uncontained instances of SCP-001, with special focus on instances of SCP-001-F. Non-Foundation individuals who come in contact with SCP-001 are to be issued Spore-Class amnesiacs. Non-foundation individuals who come in contact with SCP-001-F are to be issued family-wide Flame-class amnesiacs.

All instances of SCP-001-1 recovered are to be analyzed and stored in Garden Delta Wasp.

Description: SCP-001 is a diurnal, omnivorous primate. Adults range in size from 1.5 - 2 m in height, and weigh between 45 - 100 kg. Creatures of the species are mostly bald, with hair covering their heads, underarms, legs, and genitals. Males of the species tend to be larger than females, and often posses additional hair on their chest, face, and back. Instances of SCP-001 possess extremely poor vision, but are able to see clearly in excessively bright conditions. Their intelligence is on par with that of the common chimpanzee.

SCP-001-1 is the classification given to a wide variety of anomalous implements often found in the possession of SCP-001. The implements vary wildly in size, appearance, and application; some are small and appear to be used as tools or weapons, while others are much larger and seem to be transporters. Despite the variance in appearance and use, all seem to possess several common traits:

  • They are made up of a combination of pure metals and anomalous chitin of indeterminate composition.
  • Their design suggests an anomalous Growth-path never seen before.
  • They appear able to operate without any tangible nourishment.
  • They are unable to heal themselves.

The nature of the relationship between SCP-001 and SCP-001-1 is unknown; while SCP-001 are in many cases able to operate instances of SCP-001-1, SCP-001 do not possess the intelligence necessary to design or Grow such devices. Attempts to extract DNA from instances of SCP-001-1 have thus far proven impossible; it appears that the instances are killed immediately after Growth and their DNA somehow removed/destroyed.

SCP-001-F is the designation given to a subspecies of SCP-001 which appears to be slightly more intelligent than the average members. These instances appear to be something of a "leader" class, and are more often seen in possession of instances of SCP-001-1 than their less intelligent brethren. See Document Scarlet Leaf Zeta for further information on SCP-001-F (Ascension Level Clearance required).

== ASCENSION LEVEL CLEARANCE REQUIRED ==

Document Scarlet Leaf Zeta: Missive from Esteemed Full Moon Kirun

You've probably heard the rumors before now. Everyone without the clearance level to know better loves to spread it around. "Did you hear the Furless are an SCP?"

Yes. Furless are SCP-001.

I'm sure you've snickered. Don't worry, contrary to rumor we don't actually punish personnel for finding something humorous. The truth is, however, that the Furless are much, much greater a threat than you realize, both to this Foundation and to our species.

You are of course familiar with The Great Gap, when our inherited memory failed us. An entire generation of Moonkin memories lost. Of course you've wondered what happened during that time. The public has been lead to believe that The Gap lasted one generation, around 110 years. The truth is, The Gap was longer, much longer: it was on the order of 15,000 years.

"That's impossible!" you shout. Of course it isn't; we have the resources at our disposal to create and sustain the lie. Why though? What truly was The Great Gap? What happened during those 15,000 years of history now lost to our species?

SCP-001 happened.

The Furless weren't always the mindless animals they are now. They used to have intelligence on-par with that of we Moonkin. In fact, in many ways they were much smarter than us: they were capable of thinking and making decisions very quickly, and could learn at an exceptionally fast rate. They would have been mentally superior to Moonkin had it not been for one handicap: inherited memory. They didn't have it.

That's right, as unbelievable as it is, each Furless was (and is) born without any memories from their parents. If one wants to learn its parents' skills, it must be taught. Every single time. Every single child. Because of this, their technological progress was much slower than the Moonkin's. While we unlocked the secrets of DNA and began Growth, they were still stuck using inorganic tools like rocks and fire.

As Moonkin evolved and expanded, we began to encroach on SCP-001 habitats. Their food supplies became absorbed into our cities, and their numbers began to dwindle as our cities Grew. The corruption waves spawned by the Lotus Engines of the Fourth Waxing War devastated their habitats further.

Before long, we realized the damage we had done to our siblings under the sun; the Furless were on the verge of extinction. This led us to make the single greatest mistake in Moonkin history: we tried to help them. We taught them to use our technology, the secrets to Growth, hoping to deliver to them some level of self-sufficiency. As we interacted with them, we learned of their incredible drive and ingenuity; they learned quickly, despite their handicap.

Most acted grateful. Within a few years their numbers began to stabilize, then increase. Within 20 years their numbers had doubled; over the next 10 years, they doubled again. They began to expand beyond their habitats; not even our cities could Grow so quickly. Before long it was they who were encroaching on our habitats. Minor conflicts erupted here and there, but their leaders and ours were always able to find peaceful solutions.

We thought nothing of it when they began to inquire about the Lotus Engines; was it not natural for them to be curious about the weapons that nearly wiped them out? Should we not share the stories of our mistakes, so that they could avoid them?

We still don't know how they got their hands on a Sunrise Construct. They may have stolen it, they may have figured out how to Grow it themselves. I guess it doesn't matter.

They wiped out nineteen-twentieths of Moonkin in the first day, while we slept.

The worst part is that the Sunrise Construct wasn't the worst part.

The Furless knew that, given time, we would recover from such a crushing blow. They couldn't hope to compete in a war when every soldier of theirs had to be individually trained from scratch. They thus decided to employ a weapon much more devastating than the Sunrise Construct. Though its original name was lost, we have taken to calling it the Memory Plague. The weapon had one simple function: it disabled our inherited memory.

I don't think either side fully realized at the time was just how reliant our kind is on that memory; all of our higher brain functions, our critical thinking and understanding of genetics, all of it comes from inherited memory. Without that, we were reduced to, well, where the Furless are now. Overday we became near-mindless apes, capable of little more than feeding ourselves and fucking.

As the Moonkin waned, so the Furless waxed. They began developing their own technology, a perverse nightmare of unliving metal and dead trees.

SCP-001-1 is their technology. Strictly speaking, it isn't actually anomalous at all; where we developed Growth and genetic engineering, they delved into the depths of the Earth to unlock the secrets of the materials within it. Where we use chemical means to transfer energy, they use electricity, the force that powers lightning and thought. SCP-001-1 isn't Grown at all. It's manufactured, an unholy practice of using the unliving to create the unliving.

The Furless expanded quickly, reaching beyond the limits of what even we had achieved. They constructed buildings the size of mountains, built weapons that rival even our Lotus Engines. All this while the few feral survivors of our kind hid in the shadows.

Finally, after 14,000 years of obscurity and retardation, something changed: our memories started to return. Slowly at first, oh so slowly, we crept out of the pit of ignorance into a brilliant night of understanding. We remembered who we were, what we were capable of; we remembered how to Grow.

We gave them a chance. There was a group, an assembly of Furless specifically responsible for keeping us hidden, oppressed. We reached out to them, offered them the chance for redemption, for peace. They didn't deserve it yet still we offered it; as the Moon coexists with the Sun so we tried to do with the Furless. They did the only thing they seem to know how to do: they responded with violence.

As they had done to us, we did in kind. It was the Sunrise Construct ended the age of night; it was the Sunset Construct that returned it. Within a night of its activation, the Sunset Construct had wiped out all but one out of every hundred Furless on the planet.

We knew their lack of inherited memory would no longer be sufficient to allow us total control. Thus we again returned their gift to them, in the form of the Memory Plague.

I don't know it's true name, or how it works. The last thing we used it for was to erase the details of its existence from our collective memory, so it could never be used against us again. Whatever it was, we used it to disable the Furless' higher brain functions, to reduce them to what we had once been.

Something didn't quite work, however. A tiny group, less than five-thousand in total, was immune to the weapons. They survived the Sunset Construct and were unaffected by the Memory Plague; we think they had developed some defense against them prior to their activation. These "survivors" live on with the designation SCP-001-F, and they are the single greatest threat to our kind. They continue to produce their perverse technology, and employ it against us to great effect.

The strangest part, however, is their behavior. While SCP-001-F clearly wish to resume dominance, it doesn't seem to be their primary goal. A few nights after we activated the Sunset Construct and Memory Plague, a package was discovered addressed to "Moonkin Leadership."

The package contained thousands of pieces of paper, a material made of dead trees that the Furless used to record their written language. The first piece contained a brief note, detailed below. The pages beneath that note are still being translated, however each corresponds to an anomalous object or phenomenon. It is unclear whether the Furless created or simply documented these anomalies. It is for this reason the Furless are designated SCP-001.

we do not hate you. we do not [allow/forgive] you.

containment is now your [task/responsibility/curse].

read and translate and learn.

do not [disappoint/sadden] us.

secure. contain. protect.