After reading some responses to the latest Doctor Who, "73 Yards," I realized that a folkloric faerie story might be alien to modern audiences. However, there's a good modern equivalent, and I thought I'd try my hand at putting the story in a more familiar form.
"73 Yards"
Item #: SCP-17347
Clearance Level: 2/Restricted
Object Class: Euclid
Disruption Class: 2/Elam
Risk Class: 3/Warning
Special Containment Procedures: All Foundation personnel are to maintain at least a 32-foot (10 meters) distance from SCP-17347-1 unless necessary to protect civilians, in which case personnel are to use antimemetic ear and eye covering to reduce exposure to her effects. Otherwise, Foundation personnel in the field are forbidden from approaching, interacting with, or acknowledging the existence of the entity in any way. Should this prove unavoidable, personnel are to disable all communication devices to prevent the effect spreading. Any Foundation personnel inadvertently exposed to SCP-17347-1's effects are to be administered class A amnestics and transferred to a different site. Should this fail to relieve symptoms, they are to be offered early retirement with full benefits and disability pay.
Grade C surveillance is to be maintained on SCP-17347-2 with a primary goal of preventing civilian exposure to SCP-17347-1's effects. While SCP-17347-2 will generally avoid being separated from SCP-17347-1, should this occur Foundation assets are to intervene and ensure the 73 yard (67.75 meter) distance is maintained.
Description: SCP-17347-2 is a 21-year-old female Caucasian approximately 5'2" (157 cm) tall, with green eyes and natural brown hair that she prefers to dye blonde. A major identifying feature is a scar on her right eyebrow of unknown origin. Her demeanor is generally cooperative despite signs of psychological trauma related to abandonment. Attempts to gain SCP-17347-2's cooperation should use the subject's given name, "Ruby S█████," while focusing on reassurance that she is not alone and that the Foundation has her best interests at heart.
SCP-17347-1 is an entity of unknown origin, appearing as an elderly female Caucasian with white hair and wearing a long black overcoat. Due to its anomalous properties, it is impossible to form a more precise image of the entity. Methods of indirect observation such as cameras always show the subject with the same resolution as a human eye with 20/20 vision observing the subject from a distance of 73 yards (67.75 meters). Even anomalous means of observation are subject to this effect.
SCP-17347-1 maintains a constant distance of 73 yards (67.75 meters) from -2. Despite having a demonstrable physical presence, she does not appear to move when observed, instead relocating between blinks or lapses in attention. This effect is observable even on recorded video. Objects offer no hindrance, and the entity is able to keep pace with the fastest available Foundation land vehicles.
Attempting to transport SCP-17347-2 via air, sea, or other methods where SCP-17347-1 would theoretically not be able to follow have thus far failed due to anomalous weather activity. The temperature will plummet rapidly and produce out-of-season snowfall, escalating to blizzard conditions, and in one case flash-freezing a portion of the English Channel. The effects abate immediately should efforts to transport SCP-17347-2 cease.
Any attempt to interact with SCP-17347-1, including but not limited to attempts to harm, hinder, communicate with, or describe the entity will trigger her memetic effects, and can spread to secondary subjects nearby or through live audio/visual communication. Anyone subject to these effects will develop an intense antipathy towards SCP-17347-2. In civilians, this most often manifests as fear, but it can take other forms, such as anger, disgust, hurt, and disdain. The particular manifestation appears to matter less than the effect: an immediate and overwhelming desire to completely distance oneself from SCP-17347-2 in the most expedient and thorough way possible, including refusing to enter an establishment she frequents, changing their name and moving to a different country, resigning public positions, and, in one case, self-termination. Amnestics have no effect on this, though they may be administered to affected individuals to reduce psychological trauma associated with past and theoretical future interactions with SCP-17347-2
Testing has concluded that this effect includes indirect and negative means of interaction, with no known limit on range. D-Class subjects proved unwilling to push a button if informed that it would expose SCP-17347-2 to an intense, loud noise, even under threat of termination.
Those affected by SCP-17347-1 will only be able to refer to her in the most vague terms, describing her as "Shaped like she is," or "Looking like she is supposed to." They are unable or unwilling to explain the source of their antipathy, even under extreme duress, with the most common response being, "Ask her," refusing to clarify whether they mean -1 or -2.
At all times, SCP-17347-1 performs a looping series of gestures that appear to be an attempt to communicate in a form of sign language. However, the gestures are either not found in ASL or BSL (American or British Sign Language), or performed so poorly as to be unrecognizable.
Discovery: SCP-17347 came to the Foundation's attention following a failed operation to apprehend SCP-17347-1 by UK paranatural security organization UNIT (Unified Intelligence Taskforce). UNIT director Dr. K███ L█████████-S██████ (Dr. K for brevity) was exposed to the effects during an operation and ordered all information on SCP-17347-2 purged from UNIT databases and her files burned, on grounds of "Wasting precious resources on someone who doesn't f██████ matter)." Embedded agents and spy software were alerted to the purge and managed to save some documents. Official UNIT liaisons attempted to recover the remainder of the documents, but Dr. K vehemently refused and threatened to cut ties between our organization if pressed on the issue, yet she readily accepted amnestics when offered, to "Get her out of my goddamn head forever."
Addendum 1: From recovered documents, SCP-17347-2 appears to be a former associate of PoI-3 ("The Doctor") though what relevance that may have is unknown. -2 has shown reluctance to speak on this subject explaining, "That's when it started. The second time someone abandoned me forever. Not the last, though. Not the last."
PoI-3 has not been sighted since the anomaly began.
Addendum 2: Additional anomalous properties only came t o light during the documentation process. All measurements related to her must be conveyed in Imperial units first, though metric can be provided in parentheses. Also, both entities must be referred to with feminine singular pronouns, even when referring to both of her. Further research into this effect with languages lacking singular feminine pronouns is pending.
(I thought about adding interviews and testing logs, but I think you get the idea, and this had better get me like 500 notes from how much effort I put into it even without that)
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