On November 27th, 2011, a comet was
spotted traveling towards Earth. This comet's existence was confirmed by Mount
John University Observatory on December 1st of that year, and the next day, the Minor
Planet Center gave it a name - Comet C/2011 W3. Scientists continued to observe this comet's
trajectory, which appeared to be nothing out of the ordinary. That is, until C/2011 W3 reached
perihelion. C/2011 W3, like many objects entering the solar system, had been pulled into orbit
around the sun, and perihelion is a scientific term which refers to the point at which an object
in orbit is the closest to the star it's orbiting. On December 13th, as C/2011
W3 approached perihelion, Solar Dynamics Observatory observed a fragment
splitting off from the main body of the comet, a fragment that then began hurtling
towards Earth. Despite the SCP Foundation's implementation of deterrence
procedures, the comet stayed its course, and soon it became clear that areas near the
predicted crash site would have to be evacuated. On December 21st, the comet reached the
Earth, crashing into the Pacific Ocean, 124 kilometers off the coast of the United States.
This in itself wasn't unusual - on average, our planet is hit by 17 pieces of space
debris a day, and much of it does land in the ocean. What was unusual, however, was
that 3 days later, the creature that had been riding that piece of space debris reached
land and revealed itself to the world. Starting on December 24th, 2011, footage
started cropping up all over the internet of an otherworldly creature. It appeared to be an
enormous deer, with mint-green fur, a long neck, human face, and marbled black antlers ringed
by floating ice crystals and metallic spheres. The SCP Foundation quickly mobilized
in order to contain the beast, but it was immediately evident
that it was impervious to attacks. What was worse, it had a devastating
way of retaliating against aggressors. Fitting its cosmic origins, The Deer possesses
the godlike ability to instantly transmute matter through powerful energy beams. It can
turn solids into liquids, gases into solids, and organic material into metal instantaneously. The
materials that result from these transmutations remain stable, despite outside factors that
logically should destabilize them. For example, The Deer can create shapes made of solid
frozen hydrogen that remain solid even outside of the sub-zero temperatures that it normally
requires to keep gases in their solid states. This transmutation ability is used
consciously, as a form of attack, and the beams occur in a variety
of shapes around the creature. The most common are a vertical column measuring
five to seven meters in diameter and sixty to eighty meters in height, or a horizontal
cone, measuring between one hundred and one hundred and fifty meters in length and ten
to thirty meters in width at the furthest end. Although The Deer rarely attacks without
provocation, it will transmute matter indiscriminately, making no effort to exclude
non-combatants from the range of the attack. Everything within the range
of attack is transmuted. People hit with the beam will be transformed into
hexagonal columns roughly 2.4 meters in height, known as SCP-2845-1. These columns have rubbery
green skin, and no organs outside of a brain, which makes up the entirety of the column's
inside. Miraculously, they remain alive, as the brains of instances of SCP-2845-1 have
been studied and are shown to be in a constant state of high activity. Analysis of brainwave
patterns suggests a pattern of call and response, which implies a telepathic link between
the different instances of SCP-2845-1. Given the devastating effects
of SCP-2845's attacks, the SCP foundation naturally had an extremely
difficult time containing it, and they had to take drastic measures to do so. The Foundation
enlisted the help of the Global Occult Coalition, as well as outside consultants who were brought
in to try and draft a plan for containment of the beast. The ideal place for its containment
was determined to be somewhere on the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountains, and through a
campaign of artillery bombardment that lasted from December 26th 2011 to January 15th
2012, the SCP and GOC were able to drive SCP-2845 across the mountains to the location
that would come to be known as Site 100. What sets site 100 apart from other SCP
containment sites is the complex system put in place in order to properly keep SCP-2845 in
containment. The site consists of nine concentric circular bands, designated Ring-A through
Ring-I, with a gap located between Ring-C and Ring-D. Six circular chambers are located
at 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, and 300 degrees within each Ring and Gap. The chambers located at
0 degrees are aligned with geographic north. Two additional circular chambers are located
outside of Ring-I, located at 120 and 240 degrees. The floor of each circular chamber is
decorated with a hexagram, or 6-pointed star, made of lead. The central chamber, containing
SCP-2845 and 216 instances of SCP-2845-1, is to contain an atmosphere of 96.3% hydrogen, 3.25%
helium, and .45% ammonia maintained at -110°C. Site 100 must be staffed at all times by a minimum
of 30 trained individuals, who are to be given unlimited access to untrained human subjects. The
staff and subjects must perform a complex series of rituals at different points of the circle,
acting on a cycle of 63 hours and 54 minutes. Each ritual lasts 39 minutes, and they
must be performed every 10 hours. At the beginning of each new cycle, the schedule
of rituals will be carried out in the next ring closest to the containment chamber, going
from Ring-I inwards until they reach Ring-A. Each ritual requires 6 participants. Procedure 410-Constantin is performed
at the 60 degree point on the circle. Containment specialists are presented with
masks - Joy, Sadness, Anger, Apathy, Fear, and Foolishness – and must act out a farcical, comedic
play before playing a dice game with one another. Procedure 420-Perinaldo is performed at
the circle's 120 degree point. This ritual involves a performance by a band consisting of
flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, timpani, and bass drum. It must be a live
performance, recordings have no effect. Procedure 430-Epimetheus, performed at the
180 degree point, involves exchanging small gifts with values not exceeding 4.28 USD. Each
gift exchange is followed by the recitation of ceremony Epimetheus-A and followed by
scattering grain over the chamber floor. Procedure 440-Cassiel, performed at 240 degrees, involves the recitation of ceremony Cassiel-A
while participants bind their feet with wool and drink 500 milliliters of olive oil.
They then will break apart a rock weighing at least 200 kilograms with hammers.
Ceremony Cassiel-B is recited throughout. While the previous procedures might sound weird, it's after that point that the containment
rituals start to take a turn for the gruesome. Procedure 450-Cairo is performed at
the 300 degree point. In this ritual, a D-class personnel has a symbol drawn
on their stomach with a platinum-based paint - a ring surrounding a dot, with an
arrow pointing upwards at the 90 degree point. The D-class is then presented with
a blue cloak, crown, and scepter, before being restrained in a chair and castrated
with a hand sickle as ceremony Cairo-A is recited. Finally, 460-Omphalos is performed at the
0 degree point, the very top of the circle. This ritual, the most gruesome of all, involves
cooking and eating a three-month old infant. In case of containment breach, site
100 is equipped with a nuclear warhead, just like all SCP containment sites, which
will be detonated if containment ever fails. Because of the complexity of the
procedures required to contain SCP-2845, some animosity started to develop between the
Foundation personnel stationed at site 100 and the outside contractors who had conceived the
containment rituals. They had to go through these time-consuming, elaborate, sometimes horrific
procedures over and over again, going around and around the circular maze that made up the site,
every 10 hours, and there was no way of being able to tell if the things they were doing had any
effect on the creature in containment at all. On the 31st of January, 2012, Site Director
Dell finally approached one of the containment consultants and asked him why, exactly,
they had to uphold all this pageantry. Surely there had to be some other, more
streamlined way of keeping the creature in containment. The consultant denied
this, and explained their reasoning - “I find it sickening that after all
the struggle to contain this creature, pencil-pushing bureaucrats are still seeking
to cut corners where they cannot be afforded to be cut... The ritual will remain as it
is, and will not be changed in any way. Rituals do not work because of some underlying
laws, such as those that science operates on. Rituals work because they are rituals. They
work because an arbitrary set of criteria has been met with exacting care. Belief
that meeting these arbitrary criteria achieves a certain end assigns power to
the ritual. The actions that were once meaningless now have been assigned Meaning
through their repetition and application. This is how one seals away a god, and this
is a god. I know that the Foundation does not approve of using the term, but it
is still the case. The Stag is a god, and it is not a petty local god. It
is not one of the mild gods of Earth, or some weaker spirit that is bound
by the strength of man’s belief. We have, for the time being, fooled it
into thinking that we have overpowered it. It does not understand that we do
so falsely: It is a god. For gods, words have Power. Ritual and belief hold greater
power over a god than all the laws of science.” So, why are the containment procedures for
SCP-2845 so dramatic and complex? The answer is simple - because the team believes the rituals
work. As a cosmic deity, SCP-2845 doesn't follow any scientific laws as we understand them
on earth, but what it does understand is the power of rituals and beliefs. The only reason
it hasn't escaped is that it responds to the beliefs of the Foundation personnel, and in turn,
it believes that it's being held in containment. The consultant goes on: “It will not think to escape, or even
to change its strategy. The idea will not even pass through its mind. It cannot
comprehend the concept. It does not think in the way we think. Truth be told, I would not
say that it thinks at all. This is an old god, it does not dabble in decisions. Decisions
are for creatures who may act erratically, variably, or out of line. A god of this
strength simply Is. It is an absolute. It acts as a force. In building this ritual,
we have shifted its being the slightest bit, and now it is locked into a pattern of behavior:
It struggles against us, we struggle against it, and we are locked together in an eternal
dance so long as the ritual remains intact.” One last question remains, though, when it comes
to SCP-2845 - the rituals that are performed to keep it in place are far from random. They seem
so specific that it feels impossible that the outside consultants could've come up with them
out of the blue. What was their inspiration? Well, in his statement to Site Director Dell
he mentions “listening to the songs of the converted”. Remember how the instances of
SCP-2845-1 were shown to be not only alive, but communicating with each other telepathically?
They were able to communicate with the contractors as well, giving them the tools needed to create
the prison that would hold their god. If you're wondering how the converted feel about having
been transformed into immobile green monoliths, the consultant had an answer for
that question, too - “They are not suffering, but they are no longer
human. They are changed utterly.” And so the rituals continue in order to
keep SCP-2845 contained. Perhaps one day a new technology will be found, or simpler
procedures will be given, but until that day, we’re all lucky that there are others who will
subject themselves to horror day after day, hour after hour, for our behalf. Now go check out “SCP-4205 - In The Eyes of
the Beholder” and “SCP-2317 - The Devourer of Worlds / A Door to Another World”
for more from the Foundation’s files!
