 Item number SCP-531. Object Class. Safe. Special Containment Procedures. SCP-531 statues are effectively harmless when kept facing each other. When not being studied, they are stored in matched pairs in the medium-security facility placed in wall alcoves on opposite sides along a marble-lined hallway in an arrangement that approximates the circumstances where the original pair was found. The alcoves have sliding doors that can be closed via remote control to make it easier to approach them for maintenance or experimentation or on those occasions when there are an odd number of statues in inventory. There are currently 14 statues in inventory numbered SCP-531-1 to SCP-531-14. If it is anticipated that the foundation will have an odd number of SCP-531 statues in inventory for an extended period of time, i.e. it is not a temporary condition resulting from an in-progress test, a D-class personnel should be assigned to ensure that all statues have a partner. It is better to do this in a controlled manner than risk an accidental exposure. Description. SCP-531 consists of several paired sets of brass statues depicting stylized felines. The cats are in a seated posture looking forward with ears raised in what is usually described as an attentive expression. Each cat is 74.2 centimeters tall and is solid metal weighing 451.7 kilograms. Their eyes are inset with what appear to be polished tiger eye stones that give an impression of luminescence, though they do not directly emit visible light. The original pair of these statues was found by an archaeological expedition in a tomb near Egypt that dated to approximately BC. The outer chamber of the tomb had been thoroughly looted in antiquity. The two SCP-531 statues were located in the passage leading to the inner chamber, in alcoves 54 centimeters above the floor on either side of the passage and facing each other across it. Although the passage was open, no looting had occurred beyond this point. The expedition's members experienced an extreme aversion to passing in between the two statues and it is speculated that this psychological barrier is what protected the inner chamber from prior looters. The expedition managed to overcome this barrier through data-expunged means and proceeded to retrieve the tomb's artifacts. No other SCP items were among them, but they were later impounded at a foundation facility anyway, C. Annex 531B. The last items to be retrieved were SCP-531 themselves. One of the two statues was hoisted down from its alcove and crated for transport, with the plan being to crate the second one the next day. At some point during the night went missing and a new replacement statue was found occupying the vacated alcove. The expedition decided to reseal the tomb with these two statues remaining in their alcoves. The statue they had placed in a crate was taken with them to the R.I.E. Institute, where another individual went missing and another new statue was found in storage paired with the original. It was at this point that foundation staff retrieved both pairs of statues along with the other artifacts from the tomb. Note, due to sloppy record keeping by R.I.E. who was lost during early testing of SCP-531's properties, it is not known which two of the four statues impounded by the foundation at that point were the, quote, originals, unquote, properties. When a pair of two SCP-531 statues are facing each other, they produce a powerful suggestive effect, preventing anyone from passing between them. This is a psychological effect. No measurable physical force is generated. It is conjectured that this is the primary function of the statues, and in and of itself this effect is harmless. If the line of sight between the two statues is broken, a more dangerous aspect of SCP-531's effects manifests itself. Observers will be drawn to meet the gaze of one of the orphaned statues themselves. Once the gaze is met by an observer, he is unable to break eye contact without an effort of will beyond the capability of most people. The trapped individual will feel a mental pressure forcing him to crouch down so that his eyes are level with the statues. After several minutes in this pose, the subject's body begins to slowly stiffen and become heavier as a transmutation effect takes hold, converting the subject into a duplicate SCP-531 over the course of approximately one hour. The subject remains aware throughout the process, but will remain unable to break the statue's gaze. Once the physical transmutation has begun, there is no known way to halt or reverse it. The duplicate is an exact copy and produces the same effects as the original SCP-531 statues. It is unclear whether this duplicative effect was intended by whatever agency created the original SCP-531's, or if it is a side effect of the powerful link between the two statues. For the most recent round of experiment logs, see Experiment Log 531. Experiment Log 531. This set of experiments on SCP-531 was conducted by Dr. R. R. who replaced the original principal investigator R. R. The initial series of experiments prior to this were inadequately documented and are not included in the official summary. Experiment 531B1. A class D subject with a high measured psychological resistance threshold was exposed to SCP-531-7. Partial transcript. Zero hours and zero minutes. Subject D 481-1. What is... it's beautiful. Where is it from? It's... it's eyes. Doctor, what about its eyes? Subject D 481-1. The... demanding eyes. Demanding? I... I can't look away. Hey, seriously, I can't. Subject tries to grasp... its arm. But a security guard delivers a mild jolt from a stun baton to remind subject against such actions. Subject yelps, but doesn't break eye contact with the statue. Doctor, what is it demanding? Subject D 481-1. I don't... Oh, God. No. Please. No. Doctor repeats question. Subject D 481-1. It's demanding me. It wants... it needs me. No. No. I won't. 27 minutes. At this point, the subject is crouched down directly in front of SCP-531, trembling and sweating profusely. Subject D 481-1. Please. God. No. Doctor, come now. We've heard your praying enough already. Nobody's listening to that. What is the statue saying? Subject D 481-1. Lonely. Oh, God. So lonely. Her partner's gone. She has nobody to talk to now. Nobody to complete her. Note, the particular SCP-531 the subject is interacting with used to be Dr. Who was indeed female. Subject was not prompted with knowledge about the statue's former gender. Doctor, what's her name? Subject D 481-1. I don't... Oh, God. I don't know. Please. Let me stop looking at her. Doctor, none of us are forcing you. Talk to your partner about that. 45 minutes. Subject is still crouched and breathing is labored, but subject is no longer trembling. Subject's clothing has begun crumbling into a fine powder, with large sections peeling away to expose unnaturally smooth and bronze-tinted skin. The shape of the subject's body is also more noticeably feline at this point. Subject's eyes now resemble polished amber stones and are unable to blink, though tears continue to leak from their corners. Doctor, are you still resisting her? Subject D 481-1. Yes. Doctor, keep it up. We're getting great data. Subject D 481-1. Sobbing laugh. Says can't help. Says you're a bastard too. Doctor. Oh? Perhaps. But I'm a bastard who follows safety protocols better than she did. One hour and nine minutes. Subject is now almost indistinguishable from the other SCP-531. Its skin has a fully metallic sheen, and its immobile body is shaped like a large cat. Vital signs telemetry indicates less than one beat per minute heart rate, and the movement of its chest while breathing is imperceptible. Doctor, are we done here? Doctor wraps his knuckles lightly on subject's head, producing a metallic clink. Subject D 481-1. Unintelligible sigh. Doctor, again. Doctor holds a microphone closer to the subject's mouth. Subject D 481-1. Beautiful. No further audible response comes from the subject. Heartbeat ceases at one hour and 13 minutes. Transcript ends. Subject D 481-1 now designated SCP-531-8. Experiment 531-B2. SCP-531-7 was allowed to begin establishing a connection with a test subject, and then the connection was severed with an opaque barrier once the test subject began to turn metallic. The test subject still completed the transmutation into SCP-531-9, but the process took approximately 36 hours. Experiment 531-B3. One SCP-531 was placed on a mobile platform and was moved away from a second SCP-531 to determine the maximum range of their connection. Various different pairs were tested, and in all cases, the connection appeared to be severed at approximately 5.5 meters. Experiment 531-B4. SCP-531-7 was turned away from SCP-531-9, and the pair was left under observation. After approximately 12 hours, the surface of the wall that SCP-531-7 was facing began to flake off. It was discovered that a deep cone-shaped plug of the wall had begun suffering structural degradation under the solitary SCP-531's gaze, and had to be rebuilt. It is speculated that the SCP-531 was trying to convert the wall into another SCP-531, and, finding no suitable subject, the wall was losing cohesion, much as a human subject's clothing normally does. It is recommended that the sliding doors over SCP-531 containment alcoves be routinely checked for similar degradation. Experiment 531-B5. SCP-531-7 was placed in front of a mirror. D-Class personnel then assessed whether this would behave as a lone statue or a pair. It behaved as a lone statue, converting a test subject into SCP-531-11. Notable, however, was that the test subject locked gazes, and was converted via the mirror's reflection. The perseus protocol would appear to be ineffective protection. Experiment 531-B6. SCP-531-9 was exposed to a test subject via closed-circuit television. No connection was achieved. Experiment 531-B7. SCP-531-9 was exposed to a test subject, with filters of various wavelengths separating them. Filters were removed one by one, until a connection was established, and the subject was converted into SCP-531-12. Curiously, the key wavelength appears to be infrared, in the three to four micron range, a range that the mirror used in a previous experiment was capable of reflecting. Subsequent examination with more sensitive detectors showed that the eyes of all SCP-531 statues emit a dim, narrow-band signal at 3.77 microns. Signal modulation matches closely with weak electrical fields in the statues that had been previously measured and interpreted as residual brainwave activity. The information content of the signal, if any, is thus far indecipherable. Experiment 531-B8. A pair of SCP-531 statues, SCP-531-11 and SCP-531-12, were arranged with one on a rotatable platform. The statue was slowly rotated until its connection with its partner was broken, and it established one with a test subject instead, SCP-531-13. The critical angle was found to be 29.2 degrees, plus or minus 0.1 degree. The infrared signal emitted by SCP-531 falls off dramatically outside this cone. Experiment 531-B9. Infrared detectors and emitters tuned to 3.77 microns were used to attempt to maintain a connection between physically separate SCP-531 statues. The attempt failed. It is unclear whether the artificial link was simply of insufficient quality, or if there are additional channels or variables not yet understood. Experiment 531-B10. Three SCP-531 statues, 7, 9, and 13, were arranged in a triangle, such that two of the statues were both within the critical angle of the third. A test subject was introduced, and one of the two SCP-531s formed a connection with her, SCP-531-14. This suggests that an SCP-531 can maintain a connection with only one partner at a time. Memo 531-BB. Proposed use of SCP-531 for containment of other SCP items. It is proposed that SCP-531 statues could be put to use as part of Foundation security and containment measures. They could, theoretically, constrain the movement of sapient SCPs that physical barriers are ineffective against. Figure 531-BB1 shows one hypothetical example of an arrangement of 10 SCP-531 statues that should create a pentagonal cage, approximately 6 meters in diameter, that any entity affected by SCP-531 would be unable to exit. This has not yet been tested in practice. A hexagonal arrangement is also possible, but the experimentally determined critical viewing angle leaves very little margin of error in this case. Figure 531-BB2 depicts a segment of a fence of arbitrary length, using the same angles as the pentagonal cage. A feature of this proposed design is that the SCP-531 units are mounted on platforms that can rotate 36 degrees, triggered simultaneously along the entire length of the fence. Triggering the rotation should cause all of the units to simultaneously switch partners to the unit immediately beside them, opening the entire perimeter. A fence with this design will require one SCP-531 unit for every 1.5 meters of length, using a maximum unit to unit distance of 5 meters. This same mechanism of rotating units can also be used with the pentagonal cage described previously. Figure 531-BB3 shows a switchable gate arrangement, utilizing a 90-degree rotation of four SCP-531 units. Alternately, a single pair of SCP-531 units could be used, with retractable opaque barriers over the alcoves, much as is used in containment when individual units are removed from storage for testing. This alternative leaves the SCP-531's unpaired while the gate is open, however, which may prove to be a hazardous situation during long-term use. Lesson complete. If you missed the previous orientation, go watch SCP-530, Carl, the Variable Dog, right now. Or for the complete course, watch this playlist.