Addendum-2696-01: Excerpts from the diary of Henry Percival Rosyth, recovered from inside SCP-2696

They buried Clara on the 4th - on one of those dreadful winter mornings where the frost drips off everything like a veil and the last owls have yet to echo away the terror of the dawn. Even now, in the dim safety of my study, her voice still rings in my mind — as I speak I cannot help but hear her echoes lingering at the edges of my words — her memories, still fresh in my mouth. The children are asleep now, but I think that I will fear to hear their voices too when they wake.

A correspondent from America writes to me about his work on the "mind-made body". His schema is clumsy, inefficient - but it sets me thinking. Thought, given power, becomes form. But thoughts are transient, fleeting, merely actions and words yet-to-be. They decompose. They rot. Memory, however, is altogether different. I recall the work of Ebbinghaus and his idea of "savings" - that what was once forgotten is still retained, encoded - engraved, if you will - on the neurons of the mind. And so I ask, what is a memory but a thought cast in stone?

Self-experimentation has not been forthcoming. So much reminds me of her, yet nothing comes forth in practice. Ink and needle proves insufficient. My forehead stings. [The remainder of the page is covered with complex geometrical diagrams, partially smudged with blood.]

The Eastern mystic traditions of positioning and energy flow are of great assistance. Sacrifice and equivalent exchange mean nothing when a working can draw from the flow of the very air itself. Though my attempts still end in failure, the tower's auspicious energies are strong. I must persevere, for her sake and mine.

The children still speak in her voice. I fear I might be going mad.

Addendum-2696-02: Initial Recovery Log

See attached documentation.

Addendum-2696-03: Interviews with SCP-2696-1-contaminated personnel

Interview-2696-19750201/Priyadarshni-Sanchez-03

<Begin log> Dr. Sanchez: Divya, how are you feeling? Priyadarshni: Like hell. Whatever they gave me, it isn't working. S: Can you elaborate? P: It's kind of like a pounding, at the base of my skull. And at the front, too. It won't let up. When I try to focus on the pain I feel like I'm focusing down a telescope, if that makes any sense. S: Mhm. What about the hallucinations? Are they gone yet? P: No, they're not all gone. Just residual visions, mostly. Like, right before you came in I closed my eyes and I swear I was back in that house again -like it was plastered on the backs of my eyes. Except the lights were all on, and everything looked - well, broken. Like looking into smashed glass. It's the same for the others, isn't it? I heard. Or, at least, I think I heard. Maybe it was something else. S: I see. (Interviewer pauses.) Did… anything else happen? P: I think - I think I saw her, too. SCP-2696-1. Or Clara, whatever you want to call her. She was just about… there. (Subject vaguely gestures to their 11 o'clock with their left hand.) Just two arms' length away. She had this dress on, and - and - those small, jeweled slippers. I knew they were jeweled, because I looked down and saw them on my feet, in one of the broken shards. And she turned and gave me this - this smile. Like that was all she had to give. It caught in the cracks and I saw it reflected over and over again, in my eyes. She was so gentle… S: Div? Div? What happened after that? P: I don't know. I snapped to back here again, and that's when you came in, and that's when I realised I wasn't dreaming, I was awake the whole time. I think it took no more than two seconds. Sorry I can't remember more than that, doc. S: I understand. It's not just you, the others are confused as well. Is there anything more you need? Anything we can do? P: Nah, we're good here. Just turn off the lights when you leave. It gets so bright when I close my eyes. <End log>

Interview-2696-19870513/Carrington-Lim-27

<Begin log> Specialist Carrington: How it went? Cut to the chase, you're just looking for the soundbite on how being mindfucked by the house feels like. Dr. Lim: I'd prefer we call this an interview, thank you very much. C: Right you are, sir. So where'd you want me to begin? L: On the record, your team was deployed after 2696-1 activated and blew the seals off two of the arrays in the library. There was another burst of ARad, and your team went dark. We want to know what happened next. C: Alright. I remember - I remember we'd made it to the damaged arrays without any issue - numbers L03 and L05, if I'm not wrong. Jorge and I held the thing steady while Molly traced back the runes, and we got L03 up just fine. We'd just begun working on L05 when our comms start to flicker, and the alarm starts blaring from outside. And I think to myself, well, shit, that's not good. We'd been first responders before, but none of us had really been caught inside the house when it went live, y'know? C: So we pack up our gear nice and easy, try not to make any sudden movements, and creep our way back to the library entrance when all of a sudden my ward just goes fsshhht and sparks out. Then Molly's ward goes, then Jorge's too. We were carrying Class-5's, for God's sake. You've seen them before - they're heavy, powerful stuff, no joke. So when this happens, that's when we dropped everything and ran. But we were too slow. I saw her, dash-one, moving down the tower stairs. She was moving, not really floating, just - moving. Then bam, she was right in front of me. C: One moment I was staring into her eyes, the next moment Jorge is pulling me out by my armpits, dragging me down the stairs, and that's when I realised the screaming was my own. Then the side effects kicked in. It's like - you ever met a psychic, Dr. Lim? It's not pretty, the way it feels, that drinking-straw butterfly-proboscis feeling you get inside your head, sloshing up your insides. No, this is different. Dash-one is something else entirely. M: Tell me about it, Carrington. I am here to listen. C: It's like… a flood. Almost profound. And that's how she gets in, that's her, slipping into the grooves and crannies of your brain, getting in between the folds, and you remember. You remember what it's like to be her, like you've never been anything else. Everything comes at once - the smell of her hair, the touch of her voice on your skin, gently up the cleft of your cheek - it's her, she's the real deal, she's everywhere and anywhere at once in your mind. But she doesn't come in one piece, she comes in shards and ashes that don't quite seem to fit together as she does, as she should. I cried, you know. She could've been so, so much more. C: She's broken. That's what she is. Whatever he did to her to try and bring her back, that's not her. Bits and pieces suspended in time, bound to a crumbling frame of whatever's beneath that skin - and behind it she's roaring and bursting and raging with the force of a dying star, spitting out the pieces of herself that don't fit, that can't fit. And for a moment, when you look into her eyes, you are her, and you feel her pain and rage and ten thousand other things that you don't have a word for, because she's got nothing inside to feel in the way that you or I do, nothing left but a whirlwind of shattered glass and memories. M: I think I understand. Is there anything more? C: No, I'm - I think I'm done here. (Subject pauses.) I'd like to take the meds now, if you please. <End log>

Addendum-2696-04: Incident log of activation event, 06/12/1990

<Begin log> [00:00:06] Thunderstorms begin to form in the Dark Peak region. [00:12:52] SCP-2696 begins to exhibit increased aspect radiation levels, with local readings outside SCP-2696 registering a peak of 0.87 kilocaspers. All personnel are evacuated from within SCP-2696. [00:30:20] Lightning strikes SCP-2696 in several places in quick succession. Surge protection fails, and 55% of the electrothaumic arrays in SCP-2696 are damaged beyond repair. The remaining arrays soon become overloaded and fail in the resultant cascade effect. Almost immediately, aspect radiation levels within SCP-2696 spike above 2.0 kilocaspers. Backup electrothaumic arrays are powered on, and MTF Theta-77 is scrambled. SCP-2696-1 is noted to change form into a swirling, floating mass of tattered white lace emitting a loud screeching sound. [00:35:11] Backup electrothaumic arrays do not appear to have any effect in containing SCP-2696-1. SCP-2696-1 reaches peak aspect radiation levels of 5.1 kilocaspers. Personnel outside SCP-2696 begin to complain of headaches and nausea. [00:40:45] Theta-77 arrives and establishes an inner and outer cordon around SCP-2696. Emergency rituals performed by Specialists M. Cooper and J. Simos succeed in repelling SCP-2696-1 away from the front door of SCP-2696 and back towards the second storey. However, SCP-2696-1 manages to mentally incapacitate three members of Theta-77 (Specialist C. Carrington, Dr. M. Lim, and Technician J. Vasquez). [00:42:54] A strong wind blows through the hallways of SCP-2696. The front door is slammed shut and is unable to be opened from the outside. Specialists Cooper and Simos are unable to continue the containment rituals and retreat with the remainder of the inner cordon team. Aspect radiation levels around SCP-2696 continue to intensify to a record high of 7.5 kilocaspers, beyond the threshold of protection offered by any Foundation protection wards. Throughout all this, SCP-2696-1 remains at the staircase to the second storey. Its swirling and screeching intensifies. [00:43:00] Internal monitors detect that the door to the nursery has opened. [00:43:06] Internal monitors detect that both instances of SCP-2696-2 have left the nursery, accompanied by a large burst of aspect radiation and electromagnetic radiation in the gamma spectrum. Minor seismic tremors are detected within SCP-2696, likely as a result of said aspect radiation discharge. [00:44:30] Both instances of SCP-2696-2 approach SCP-2696-1 with outstretched arms. Upon contact with SCP-2696-2, SCP-2696-1 abruptly shrinks, shifting back into its humanoid form. [00:44:49] Local aspect radiation levels are observed to sharply drop. The two instances of SCP-2696-2 lead SCP-2696-1 by the hand into the library and up the stairs into the tower. [00:45:23] SCP-2696-1 turns around to embrace the two instances of SCP-2696-2. It kisses each of them on the symbols on their foreheads, then passes through the tower door and disappears. [00:46:02] Both instances of SCP-2696-2 hold hands and descend the tower steps. They exit through the second floor and return to the nursery. At this point, aspect radiation levels within SCP-2696 have returned to baseline. [00:46:37] The door to the nursery gently closes. Above SCP-2696, the thunderstorm dissipates. Theta-77 is ordered to stand down. <End log>

Additional notes:

SCP-2696-1 activity was greatly reduced in the months following this incident. It is unknown as to why the surge protectors failed, as well as to how SCP-2696-2 was able to leave the nursery and pacify SCP-2696-1.

Subsequent investigations revealed that the interior structure of SCP-2696 was significantly damaged by the large burst of aspect radiation caused by the emergence of SCP-2696-2 from the nursery. While some of the damage was reparable, several structures utilised fragile and/or currently unobtainable materials that were unable to be replaced in full. It appears that while SCP-2696-2 serves as a last-resort failsafe mechanism for SCP-2696, repeated activations will have the negative effect of permanently reducing the containment effectiveness of SCP-2696, resulting in more frequent and violent breach attempts.

Given current containment practices and rates of failure of AAFM units, it is estimated that SCP-2696-1 will have a 47% chance of fully breaching containment by 2030. Accordingly, members of the ECRG assigned to SCP-2696 are to focus on devising more sustainable and permanent long-term containment solutions for SCP-2696-1.