In June of 1985, Mark Johnson and his wife
of ten years, Sophie, were on vacation in Myrtle Beach having a great time. While they relaxed on the sand, Sophie decided
to take a picture of her husband for their scrapbook, so she pulled out the Polaroid
Supercolor 645 that she'd bought specifically for the trip. She pressed the button, waited for the picture
to print, pulled it out, and shook it. What she expected to see was a shot of Mark
lying on his beach towel. What she got, was a picture of her husband
in the arms of his secretary. They say that a picture speaks a thousand
words, but this particular camera takes pictures that are worth even more than that. When developed, the pictures taken with this
normal-looking polaroid camera reveal the innermost desires of the person being photographed. Welcome to the story of SCP - 978 - The Desire
Camera. The main reason the foundation keeps SCP 978
under wraps is due to its use as an easy form of blackmail. All anyone with access to the camera would
have to do is snap a few covert photos and they'd have instant dirt on the world's most
powerful people. To further stop this camera from falling into
the wrong hands, the containment guidelines strictly forbid the use of the camera for
anything other than simple documentation, and all uses of it must be thoroughly logged
and checked. So, now that you know what the camera does,
it’s time to look at what kinds of strange and mysterious photos it’s taken. After all, who doesn't want a chance to gain
insight into the minds of the Foundation's most famous and dangerous inmates? First, to serve as a control the team took
a photo of a blue office chair. No change was recorded, proving that the camera
didn't work on non-anomalous inanimate objects. Some of the earliest tests of the camera were
the photos that the research team took of each other. One by one, the doctors and their assistants
were photographed in neutral poses, smiling as if for a completely normal photo, then
they waited while the photos developed like normal polaroids. Most of the research team had minimal changes
in their photos. One was shown slouched in his chair, drinking
from a flask. One was shown in her civilian clothes, getting
ready to go home from work. One doctor was in the exact same pose, but
with a different colored tie on. The last assistant photographed, however,
had their picture come out wildly different than how they were posed. Their desire revealed by the camera was so
shocking that it had to be redacted, and the assistant was placed on temporary psychiatric
leave. Following this first successful test, the
doctor in charge of the project ordered a second round of tests to be conducted, this
time on a series of D-class personnel. A picture of one D-class, who was photographed
while eating in the cafeteria, showed up as scuba diving on vacation with his wife and
child. He was allowed to keep the picture afterwards. Another had a similar result - he was photographed
in a neutral pose like the members of the research team had been, and when the picture
developed, the D-Class was seen holding a smiling baby whom he identified as his one-year-old
daughter. After that, the results of the SCP - 978 tests
started to get a little… well, weird. A notoriously twisted D-class known as 7294
was photographed in his cell, and when the polaroid developed, he was in the same cell,
playing a cello made out of a dismembered mannequin. D-217-017, was a late stage victim of SCP-217,
a virus that turns organic matter into metal. You would assume that her innermost desire
would be to be cured of her disease, but when she was photographed in her cell, the resulting
polaroid showed her completely made of metal, kneeling and praying at the base of a black
obelisk. One D-class, who had been rendered comatose
and was on life support, was photographed in their hospital room. Their picture showed them as only a limp,
deflated skin in their photo. The photograph of another D-class, who had
become increasingly listless and apathetic since their integration into the D-class program,
resulted in a picture that was exactly the same as they appeared in reality, except the
light in their cell was slightly dimmer. Intrigued by these results, the research team
wanted to see how the camera would react to SCP-148, a type of metal that blocks the psychic
properties of other SCPs. A helmet was made from the material, and placed
on a D-class who was given an adult magazine to read while his photo was taken. When the photo was developed, it was extremely
blurry. Upon close analysis, the figure of the D-class
reading the magazine could still be made out, and around him the faint images of several
nude people could also be seen. The research team next wanted to see if the
results were the same when the camera was used on animals. Photos of the lab mice and rabbits showed
them eating or mating in their respective polaroids. A zebra finch was shown escaping its cage,
while a guard dog and its handler were shown playing fetch in the park. When cockroaches were photographed, there
was no difference visible between the picture and reality. But the most exciting test results came when
the camera was tested on other SCPs. For a few of the SCPs tested, there was no
visible difference between the picture and reality. This was the case for SCP-173 the Sculpture,
SCP-343 nicknamed God, SCP-014 - an immortal man who is, over time, being turned into concrete,
and SCP-063 - the world's best toothbrush. When SCP-035 - better known as the Possessive
Mask - was photographed in its glass case, the picture showed an unidentified individual
wearing the mask, sitting on a throne and surrounded by three masked corpses. The team took a picture of SCP-043 - a haunted
copy of The White Album that was being interrogated while on a turntable. In the picture, the album was being returned
to its sleeve. They then photographed SCP-049, the Plague
Doctor, standing in his cell. In the picture, the plague doctor is hugging
an unidentified small child, and surrounded by instances of SCP-049-2. When they took a picture of SCP-050 - a mischievous
statue of a monkey reading a book - the result was predictably playful, given that SCP's
history of pulling pranks. The photo that came out of the camera showed
the camera itself, with another picture of itself coming out of the developing slot. Microscopic analysis revealed that this recursive
photography kept going until the cameras in the pictures of the other cameras were too
small to see. The team next photographed SCP-053, the young
girl and the photo was taken as the young girl was drawing with crayons in her cell. In the picture, she was riding through a sunny
field on the back of her friend SCP-682. SCP-053 and SCP-682 were even wearing matching
bows, dresses, and pink nail polish. When they took a picture of SCP-096 - the
Shy Guy though, the picture showed SCP-096's cell with nothing in it. SCP-085 - the living 2D sketch known as Cassy
- was photographed tinkering with a drawn car. In the developed photo, Cassy was engaged
in the same activity, but both she and the car were now 3-dimensional. The team took a photo of SCP-106, the Old
Man, emerging from a wall within his cell. When the photo developed, it showed the old
man roaming a wheat field near an old farmhouse. From the porch of the farm house, an older
woman is greeting SCP-106 with open arms. They also took a photo of SCP-168 - a sentient
calculator - sitting on a table in its containment cell. In the picture, a teenage boy is seen doing
complex math homework using the calculator. Next to him on the table are thick textbooks
with titles like "Complicated Math", "Difficult Math", and "Math You Need Your Calculator
For". The photo of SCP-261 - a vending machine that
dispenses snack products from alternate universes - showed the SCP in its usual hallway, almost
completely buried in coins. SCP-507, an otherwise normal man who unwillingly
teleports between dimensions, was photographed while eating in the cafeteria. The developed picture showed him dressed as
a Foundation researcher, talking to other researchers. When SCP-682 was photographed, floating in
its containment tank, the resulting picture showed the SCP surrounded by the corpses of
all of the Foundation staff and mauling the person who had taken the photo. A researcher’s note accompanying this photo
reads “Well, that was predictable.” Yes. Yes it was. Just for fun of it, the team also tested the
camera's effects on a few other Foundation personnel. They took a photo of Dr. Bright while he was
arguing with Dr. Clef. The picture that came out showed a tombstone
engraved with the words "Jack Bright, Resting at Last." The team also took a photo of Dr. Clef as
he stormed out in a huff following the argument. Given that Clef's face cannot be photographed,
they were curious as to what the results would be. The picture showed little difference compared
to reality, save for the fact that Clef's head was replaced by an image of a hand making
a rude gesture. Upon closer examination of the photo, the
team also realized that there was a young girl in the background who, strangely, has
cloven hooves instead of feet. A young SCP-166 perhaps? The team then took a photo of Dr. Fisher holding
his pet hamster. Contrary to expectation, the picture revealed
not Dr. Fisher's desires, but the hamster's, showing the hamster sleeping peacefully in
its cage… with Dr. Fisher nowhere to be seen. As you can see from these test logs, the effects
of the camera are, well, inconsistent. With some photos showing very immediate, simple
whims, and others showing the subject's deepest and most secret desires. While the researchers working with SCP-978
seemed like they had a lot of fun getting to peek into the minds of all their coworkers
and test subjects, there's no telling what kind of pandemonium could be unleashed if
someone on the outside ever got a chance to use it. Thankfully the camera, which has been classified
as safe for obvious reasons, is kept securely in security locker H-J-12 at site 17. Which means none of us have to worry about
our own pictures taken by the Desire Camera leaking out. But if someone did get the camera out and
took your picture, what do you think they’d see? Now go check out “SCP - 001 - Which Is The
Real 001?” and “SCP - 055 - The Anti Meme” for more of the strangest stories from the
SCP Foundation.
