 The following file concerns Project Damerung. Level 5 slash Damerung clearance is required. Item number SCP-3448 Object Class Thaumule Special Containment Procedures SCP-3448 is to remain active at Site-2718. Files are to inspect SCP-3448 daily for additional messages from SCP-3448-A. Project Damerung is to research any method of escape proposed or indicated by SCP-3448-A. Description SCP-3448 refers to the communication developed and used by Project Damerung, utilizing technology used in MRIs, particle accelerators, and anomalous rituals. SCP-3448 is capable of allowing an individual to die while remaining in contact with the world of the living. SCP-3448 resembles an MRI machine, however, as additional anomalous components are connected externally through the use of jumper cables and custom circuit boards. SCP-3448 is the primary tool used by Project Damerung to complete its objective, to contain the Damerung Class Cognito Hazard known as death. Subjects are introduced to SCP-3448 through its main opening. Once the subject has fully entered the cavity, the anomalous components in SCP-3448 transfer the subject into a half-death state in which all bodily functions cease. Any subject occupying this conceptual state is referred to as SCP-3448-A. This allows the consciousness to roam free from the body after it has entered the state of death, henceforth referred to as SCP-3448-1. Unfortunately, most documentation about the nature of SCP-3448-1 has been lost. See Addendum 3448.1 When the consciousness leaves the brain in this manner, anomalous electrical activity continues, despite any source of energy. This activity is referred to as residual signals, which replicate how the brain would react should it be introduced to SCP-3448-1 while it was alive. By interacting with these electrical signals, the Foundation is able to establish two-way communication with SCP-3448-A. In order to better understand the residual signals, they are interpreted by an additional anomalous component of SCP-3448. This component will generally produce an image, although individual words have been observed. Agent Anthony Michaels, the only successful subject to have utilized SCP-3448 outside of preliminary testing, is the current SCP-3448-A. As of this writing, SCP-3448-A still exhibits standard residual signal activity. Addendum 3448.1 Below is a series of records from the usage of SCP-3448. Due to the destruction of formal testing documentation, as per the instructions of O5-4, the majority of recovered documents take the form of lab notes or residual signal communication reports. SCP-3448 Preliminary Subject Interview Please state your name for the record. Agent Anthony Michaels How long have you served the Foundation? Fourteen years. What is your next assignment? The one that'll make sure I don't serve for fifteen years. You know this is for the formal record, right? Yeah, but you know how it is. I gotta get a joke in sometime, and we both know I only have so many jokes left. I know I know, but let's get back to the interview for now. Why did you volunteer for this assignment? I did it for my family. Can you elaborate? Well, my dad's been on his deathbed for a while now. I spoke into him, though, and once he comes around, he talks about the things he was going to do when he gets out of the hospital. He told me he was going to hike the Appapalachian Trail. That thing goes all the way from Georgia to Maine. This man brought up three kids by himself, and all he wanted at the end was to go on a nice hike. That doesn't quite answer the question. Yeah, I guess it's not a super explicit answer, isn't it? Please, we need to do this for the report. It has to be more professional than this. Sorry, sorry, I meant to say that, well, I want to give my dad another chance. Sure, he might not make it all the way through the trail, or up the mountains, or wherever, but I don't want him to die. He deserves more than what he's got, and I'm willing to sacrifice myself instead. He's practically done the same for me. And you do recognize that the Foundation is not required to adhere to your wish, thus meaning that, in the case that your mission succeeds, we are allowed to choose your father for selective termination. I'll take the chance, if we're containing the Reaper, I trust the Foundation will make sure he's only let off his new leash when it's really necessary. Furthermore, I don't believe my dad is one of those cases. Do you have anything else to add? I guess I'd like to thank you for giving me this opportunity. Well, um, it's been my pleasure, Asia Michaels. As working with Project Dam Rung was mine. Okay, that will conclude our interview. SCP-3448 preliminary testing lab notes. Alright, breaking in the first page of the lab notebook, just a bunch of scribbles of my thoughts during the official test for later. So, to future reader person? Yes, that means you, future Emily. You should probably take a look at the formal report instead. We've confirmed that this thing works as well as it's ever going to. I mean, the animal test of the individual parts worked. That's the best confirmation we're going to get without throwing someone in there 100%. So the current plan is this. Send in Michaels and have him look around. Get him to investigate and learn what this place is like, who else is there, etc. Then we will use our newfound understanding of the Reaper to figure out how to contain him. And finally, we'll do our job, I guess. It's our Dam Rung Class Moby Dick, after all, except without the killing it part. Michaels finished training to use SCP-3448 a few days ago. Not sure how quickly he'll be able to adjust to being dead, which means that we don't know how long it'll be until he can actually talk to us right. But now's as good as time as any. Worst comes to worst, I love the guy, but he's already going to be dead. We'll just let the man rest in peace. Too bad we couldn't use a Class D, but the higher-ups don't trust that they'll listen to orders. It's not like we could threaten termination. I caught Tony clearing out his quarters today. When I asked him how he was feeling, he made some joke like, it's not like it's going to kill me twice, and then he threw out a box of personal mementos, including a teddy bear I gave him at the Foundation Christmas Gift Exchange. He can't be doing too well, but then again, he's probably as ready as he'll ever be. That teddy bear is now in my office. SCP-3448 Day 1 Imaging Results 8 hours 30 minutes to 9 hours. Intense flashing and flickering. 9 hours to 9 hours 5 minutes. Image resembled rough seas. 9 hours 5 minutes to 12 hours 5 minutes. Intense flashing and flickering. 12 hours 5 minutes to 12 hours 48 minutes. Formed 3 hours after the previous image, appears to be a humanoid figure surrounded by hundreds of insects. This continues for 43 minutes before the insects disperse, but now considerably swollen humanoid falls to the ground. 12 hours 48 minutes to 18 hours 48 minutes. A shade of gray. 18 hours 48 minutes to 23 hours 52 minutes. Used to resemble the rough seas from the 8 hours 30 minutes to 9 hours image. However, the water is replaced with the insects from the 12 hours 5 minutes, the 12 hours 48 minutes image. SCP-3448 Day 1 Lab Notes It's working. It's not going well, but it's working. God, what the hell was Tony thinking when he signed up for this shit? We knew that death was supposed to get worse and worse as it went. At least that's how the recording described it. We thought that preserving the body would reduce some of the perception issues, but I don't think it's working as well as we wanted, but it's just the first day. Our plan gives us 10 days before we jump ship and move on to another subject. Also, we need to move Jared to a different station. He vomited over the floor during his monitoring shift. I don't totally blame him, but he could have done the rest of us a favor by hobbling off to the bathroom faster. Hopefully Tony won't send back too many more visuals like that. SCP-3448 Day 2 Imaging Results 2 hours to 2 hours 3 minutes, an emaciated man lying in a desert. There appears to be an oasis far in the background. 2 hours 3 minutes to 10 hours 3 minutes, static. 6 hours to 12 hours, a man in a fetal position, lying in the corner of a room, made of compacted dirt. Various bones and roots can be seen protruding from the walls. 12 hours to 18 hours, insect wings emerge from the walls and begin fluttering. SCP-3448 Day 2 Lab Notes Okay, looks like he's calmed down. Not entirely coherent, but it's something. We're going to see if we can talk to him tomorrow. I say talk, but I really mean mess with his brain waves in a meaningful way. We know it works, but we have no clue what it actually feels like. Hard to get that sort of feedback from lab rats. But, if these tests work, we're on to something. We'll get him to start exploring, I guess. I don't think that's the right word. Or maybe it is. We don't know if this is a place or state of mind or what. The recording that O-5-4 showed us makes it sound like he's still here, on Earth. Just experiencing things in the most terrible way possible. I'm more picturing a hellscape aesthetic. SCP-3448 Day 3 Imaging Results 6 hours to 6 hours, 3 minutes, a caterpillar crawling up the trunk of a tree. 8 hours, 3 minutes to 8 hours, 13 minutes, leaves blowing in the wind. The direction of the breeze alternates rapidly, so the leaves appear to be waving. 9 hours, 13 minutes to 9 hours, 15 minutes. The caterpillar from the 6 hours to 6 hours, 3 minute image eats some of the leaves from the 8 hours, 3 minutes to 8 hours, 13 minute image. 9 hours, 15 minutes to 13 hours, 15 minutes. Various shades of red. 13 hours, 15 minutes to 13 hours, 15 minutes. An emaciated man punches the wall. 15 hours, 15 minutes to 15 hours, 29 minutes. Same scene from the 9 hours, 13 minutes to 9 hours, 15 minute image, except the caterpillar has stopped eating, and the leaves have all been replaced by hands of the same size, which continued to wave in the wind. This continues for 10 minutes until the wind stops. All hands except for one hang limply. The remaining hand makes an okay sign. The caterpillar begins to wrap itself in a cocoon. 19 hours, 29 minutes to 21 hours, 3 minutes. The hands from the previous image move frantically to swat away insects. Insects do not resemble a single known species. They have stingers resembling those of bees, and legs resembling those of spiders. The caterpillar has fully formed a cocoon, and is undisturbed for the duration of the visual. SCP-3448 Day 3 Lab Notes. He's finally becoming coherent, so thank God for that. I mean, I use coherent lightly. He's as together as the consciousness floating through space could ever be. He waved to say hi, I think. So this is fine. In other news, I talked to Tony's sister Joyce. Apparently she works in the biology department at Site-23. I didn't tell her about what's up with Tony, of course, but I did manage to bring up insects. I think Tony has some sort of insectophobia, but it's not too bad you'd call it a phobia, like they just freak him out. Either way, it makes for some interesting interpretations of Tony's visuals. I can't tell if SCP-3448-1 is full of bugs, or if it's full of whatever you're afraid of, or if that's just Tony's interpretation of it. I am leaning towards the last option, though. If anything because of an ideological standpoint, death being what you make of it sounds kind of poetic. Not that any of my poetry will show up in the formal report. I wonder what I'd see. SCP-3448-4 Imaging Results 10 hours to 14 hours 22 minutes. A man searches through a garden. It is unclear what he is looking for. The garden extends indefinitely in all directions, and exploration takes the man through large groves of daisies. For the majority of the trek, the man stays on a path outlined by two hedges that run alongside him. At one point the man stops, looks at a batch of daisies, and steps over the hedges towards the flowers. Image changes after his foot hits the ground. 14 hours 22 minutes to 17 hours 22 minutes. Various shades of green and purple. 17 hours 22 minutes to 17 hours 27 minutes. The man from the 10 hour to 14 hour 22 minute image has uncovered some of the dirt and stares into the ground with a look of awe and terror on his face. What the man is staring at is obscured by daisies. After three minutes, a thin wrinkled hand is seen reaching into frame and taps the man on the shoulder. 17 hours 27 minutes to 18 hours 27 minutes. Static. 18 hours 27 minutes to 18 hours 39 minutes. The man is standing behind the hedges now. A small girl is covered in the patch of land with dirt using her hands. A large quantity of insects swarm around the girl. She appears content. It is unknown if the girl acknowledges the insects or not. The man's left hand appears to be swollen from stinging. 23 hours 39 minutes to 1 hour 2 minutes. The man walks back through the garden the way he came in image 1. Left hand remains swollen. He is carrying a tulip in his right hand, which he looks at during the walk. No other individuals can be seen. After an hour and eight minutes, the man suddenly looks back over his shoulder, shrugs and continues walking. SCP-3448-D-4 Lab Notes Exploration started today, and by exploration I mean Tony actively figuring out how to convey this place to us. I don't think it's actually all flowers and sunshine. Luckily he seems to be mostly coherent at this point. Although I think his communication is still more cryptic than we'd like. I'll take it over how he acted a few days ago. We don't know who the girl is. Can't tell what she's supposed to represent. Most of us think that she's not a person caught in his half-dead state. But we don't have any confirmation. Although on the off chance for a right, the higher up started an operation to infiltrate the usual suspects, C.I., S.H., G.O.C., etc., to make sure none of them have beaten us to the punch. Assuming Tony understands us well enough, we're going to give him to go ahead to interact more with the girl and report back. SCP-3448-D-5 Imaging Results 5-520 A sky covered in grey clouds. No precipitation observed. 5-20-10-20 Static 10-20-10-30 A teddy bear, a stuffed animal crow, and a girl all sit around a table. The girl offers tea to both the teddy bear and the crow. Neither party reacts. She proceeds to pour tea for the two regardless. 10-30-13-30 A warm shade of yellow 13-30-14-16 Same as the 10-20-10-30 image, except the teddy bear somehow has a grip on the tea cup, and the crow is facing the teddy bear. The girl appears to be conversing with the stuffed animals, despite their lack of responses. 14-16-15-16 A light shade of red 15-16-15-38 Same as the 13-30-14-16 image, except the crow has started to fall apart the seams. Insects crawl out from between the stitching. Neither the teddy bear nor the girl appear to notice. 15-38-16-38 Flickering between dark red and black 16-38-16-44 Formed at 1600, same as image 4, except the insects have eaten parts of the teddy bear. The girl appears surprised and upset. After five minutes she glares at the stuffed crow, which is now mostly covered with insects. She then sets down her tea and leaves. 19-44-20-04 A man in the corner of a room, curled into the fetal position. He rocks back and forth. His body appears to be swollen and covered from small insect bites. SCP-3448-5 Lab Notes I think half of our group is starting to get more and more uncomfortable with their creepy crawlies. I can only imagine what it's like for Tony. We're giving him a day to recuperate from whatever the hell today was. No exploration or interviews or whatever. In other news, we made some progress on the girl today. She looks almost identical to Tony's younger sister Joyce from when she was eight. Keyword, almost. I can't tell if it's Tony's not quite getting the image back right, or if this thing actually just looks like Tony's sister, but with slightly elevated cheekbones and a slightly darker shade of brown in her hair. Or maybe that's how Tony remembers his sister? Or maybe there's just some kid out there who looks almost like her? Honestly, those details probably aren't super important. I bet tomorrow our talk with Tony will clear things up. Day 6 Imaging Results 10-10-05 A man sitting with his back against a dirt wall. Plant roots and bones protrude from the wall and ceiling. He appears to be tired and sweating. 12-05-1208 A single question mark. 1308-13-14 The man from the 10-10-05 image is holding a doll of a small girl and a doll of a crow. He positions them next to each other, with the girl's arms around the crow and the crow's wing around the girl. 14-14-14 The man shrugs. 2300-2313 The man is sitting with his back against the wall of the room again. After five minutes, his head jerks to look off screen. He quickly gets up and rushes out of the room through the opposite direction. After three minutes, a swarm of insects enters the screen. 2313-2400 White Day 6 Lab Notes Shit, shit, shit, shit. He's fucked. Damn it Tony. Fuck. Okay, okay. Breather. Sorry, future me. I shouldn't use these notes for venting. Luckily it won't show up in the formal report. Anyways, Tony was… well, he didn't learn much about the girl. At least not much that he told us. I think she's friends with the bugs. Or with the crow thing, at least. Or maybe they're the same entity. They're definitely connected. Now we're all waiting for Tony to get back to us. Luckily, we've got coffee. SCP-3448-7 Imaging Results 1600-1643 A man running through the Garden of Daisy's. He appears to be limping slightly, and checks over his shoulder at regular intervals. 1643-1907 Flashing between bright red and black. SCP-3448-7 Lab Notes That was it. He's just… he's just still running. We've been trying to think of something to help him. Jared flowed the idea of sending him some bug spray. I know he was joking because Jared can't help himself from bringing a wise-ass when he's stressed out. Or maybe he's onto something. Going to look into how to send Tony a care package tomorrow. SCP-3448 Day A Imaging Results 2243 A man is running through a garden. After thirty minutes he passes by a girl, who appears to be planting something. He calls out to her. The girl turns around. She is planting another Daisy. The man rushes to the girl and takes her by the hand. The girl begins to say something, but is cut short as the man pulls her back to the path that resumes running. The newly planted Daisy remains the focus of the image for another two minutes before it is overrun with insects. 243-1056 SCP-3448 Day 8 Lab Notes Okay, we've got something. It's a little out there, but it's all we've come up with. So Tony's in a half-death state, right? But it's not like this is a conventional afterlife deal. It was built around a more abstract conceptual representation of death. So that means that all half-dead things could end up there, right? Well, okay, the dead things end up there too. But we're less sure what exactly that looks like. But I can't believe I'm even writing this. What if we half-kill a thing? Okay, yes, that is as dumb as it sounds, but we want to send something in there to help Tony. We don't have another agent who was as willing as him to take up this assignment. And I'll be damned if we lose our best shot at exploring this place. I don't know if Tony has things or how inanimate objects really work on the other side. Over grasping at straws anyways. Jared figured if we're going to send him something, we should send him some form of self-defense. Unfortunately, we're a little short-handed in terms of weaponry, so we're going to send him the next best thing. A lighter. Bugs don't like fire, right? I mean, maybe they're not literally bugs, but fire is generally effective against things. Either way, it'll work fine to test it. Procedures. Partially disassembled a lighter. This lighter in SCP-3448. 3. Activate SCP-3448, and at the same time try to finish disassembling the lighter? Maybe use like a firecracker for this? Or like a mousetrap? I don't know, we'll figure it out. God, killing a lighter sounds so dumb, but fuck it, we're going to try. SCP-3448 Day 9 Imaging Results. 4-to-404. Formed to 0400. A man running through a garden carrying the lighter in one hand, and pulling a girl behind him with the other. As the man runs, he looks confusedly at the device. After four minutes, he pockets the lighter. 1004-1029. A teddy bear the size of an average human sits against the door of a room. The walls consist of mud and dirt, with bones and roots sticking out. The girl from the 4-to-404 sits at the opposite end of the room with her legs pulled against her chest. She rocks back and forth slowly for three minutes before walking to the teddy bear. She begins to speak as she tugs on the teddy bear's legs. The girl appears to age rapidly the more she begs. The teddy bear does not move. 1629-1631. A man is standing in a garden. He is constantly stung, bitten by a thick swarm of insects. A girl screams at him from nearby, ignored by the insects. The man looks at the girl, screams something back, and then reaches into his pocket. 1631-1731. Red static. 1731-1754. A bonfire. 1754-2054. Gray. 2054-20354. A girl repeatedly stabs a man lying on the ground with a sharpened femur. They are surrounded by burnt insect corpses. SCP-3448 Day 9 Lab Notes. Holy fuck, it worked. And then he, fuck, I don't know what really happened. This entire past week it's felt like I've been watching someone's acid trip. Okay, we still don't know what that girl is, but stabbing Tony means she's hostile, which means we need to do something. I called in a favor and got a handgun delivered here. Same procedure as with the lighter. SCP-3448 Day 10 Imaging Results. 154-301. An old woman beats a man lying on the ground with a femur. They are surrounded by burnt insect corpses, some of which are moving. 301-401. A little girl is straddling a man with her arms in the air. The man aims a handgun at her. They are surrounded by teddy bears, all of which are looking at the girl. 401-403. A cocoon sits on a tree branch where all the leaves are replaced with hands. The cocoon breaks open and a moth exits. 5-502. Same as the 301-401 image, except the teddy bears are all grasping lighters with the flames exposed, and all the guard is on fire. A bullet can be seen halfway between the handgun and the girl's head. 502-6. Bright red. 6-6. Same as previous image, except the flowers are replaced with chains, which are still burning. The girl has been replaced with a skeleton, but her hair remains. The man has become further emaciated and also resembles a skeleton. A chain wraps itself around both the man and the skeleton of the girl. The teddy bears look on from the darkness. 6-7. Dark red. 7-702. The bullet penetrates the girl's head. 702-1302. Static. 1302-1316. A man stands in the middle of a garden. All the flowers that can be seen are blooming. Insect corpses rain from the sky. The girl is no longer present. A stuffed animal crow lies next to Tony, with a bullet-sized hole in his head. After 13 minutes, the following words appear at the bottom of the screen. I hope you enjoy your hike, dad. SCP-3448-10. Lab notes. Oh, fuck. What even just… shit. I don't think I've ever been so torn over one of my experiments working twice in a row. But still he… he's shodder, I mean, of course he would. We gave him the gun, but I can't believe it, like… I didn't actually think that was going to happen. Again, what else was going to happen but just… fuck. Then like 5 minutes later the call started. First it was from Joyce talking about how her father wasn't dying. I told her to contact me if anything strange started happening with her family, which might be related to Tony, but this wasn't a calm and formative call. She was just so excited, panicked, ecstatic, terrified. I don't fucking know. After that was the call from O5-4, only council member that knew about our little project signed off on the funding and everything. He congratulated me on our success, and then told me to burn it all. That's probably when it sunk in. It really should have been apparent from the start. It was in our contracts, it's what we told people on their first day. This project has a single objective, contained a damper-run class cognitive hazard known as death. We did it? No, we really didn't do it. All those years of theorizing and studying the data, scouring anomalous burial sites and halls from MTF raids, and finally, we come face to face with the Reaper, and what do we do? We fucking shot her. Now all we have is a tombstone reading rest in peace, resting in peace. We fucked up. We didn't contain death. We neutralized it.