Hunting season.
{$caption}
Item#: 9455
Level2
Containment Class:
keter
Secondary Class:
hiemal
Disruption Class:
Dark
Risk Class:
Danger
Contextual imagery.
Special Containment Procedures: Due to the infeasibility of traditional containment, SCP-9455 is to be managed by the monitoring of its effects, with incidents handled on a case-by-case basis. If an incident is deemed potentially Veil-breaking, intervention will be required. Typically, this should be in the form of small-scale disinformation campaigns, as to obscure anomalous interactions as simple tall tales, inaccuracies, or mundane hunting accidents.
Site-898 is to monitor for occurrences of SCP-9455 via local school break schedules, work hours, and bulletins during the month of November.
Description: SCP-9455 is an alteration within pre-existing Pennsylvania hunting laws as established by the Pennsylvania Game Commission. This is in the form of the sporadic manifestation of a non-existent state holiday that occurs on the Monday after American Thanksgiving. Upon occurrence, this holiday will mark the start of a single-day deer hunting season within the state of Pennsylvania that lacks typical restrictions.
Colloquially, this holiday is referred to as "Red Monday" by those who participate. Attempts to question local game wardens or the Pennsylvania Game Commission on the origin or reason behind this holiday typically results in confusion and dismissal.
SCP-9455 also results in a surge of anomalous activity throughout Pennsylvania's game lands and national parks. The following have been identified as properties of SCP-9455:
- An increased efficiency in the ignition rate of gunpowder.
- A persistent silence within state game lands.
- The rapid growth of antlers on Odocoileus virginianus, sometimes resulting in multiple racks on a single animal.
- A statistical increase in the hunting success rates across all regional predatory animals.
- The appearance of new, or otherwise altered, SCP-8411 instances that are inaccurate or misleading.
- An increase in hunting related accidents.
- Sarracenia purpurea of anomalous size.
- SCP-6448 instances displaying heightened aggression and gaining the potential to attack any armed individual regardless of acknowledgement.
- Increased birthrate for deer affected by piebaldism.
Red Monday Archival: The following is a series of archived reports, recordings and data linked to previous occurrences of SCP-9455. For additional files, request access from the Site-898 Archives and Storage Sector.
» HIDE TRANSCRIPT «
RED MONDAY
We hope our hunters had a wonderful Thanksgiving! With the time of the turkey come and gone, this year's Red Monday is finally approaching!
NOVEMBER 29TH.
Reporting remains MANDATORY for all harvests. Report numbers at your appropriate region office on the following Tuesday.
Be aware of your fellow hunters, and be sure to wear proper high-visibility gear for YOUR safety. Proper game should not be able to detect color.
REMEMBER!
If it looks like a deer, it's not dead yet!
Keep the SPORT in SPORTSMANSHIP.
We HUNT TOGETHER.
- DEER ONLY.
- NO BAG LIMIT.
- NO ANTLERED NOR ANTLERLESS LICENSE REQUIRED.
- CHASE THOSE BASTARDS TILL MOONSET.
File photo.
9455 Anomalous Item: #03
Item Description: A collection of deer bones — several femurs, ribs, and one hip — arranged in an arrow-like configuration in State Game Lands 264, Pennsylvania. Its presence caused the spontaneous combustion of any and all gunpowder within a 5-mile radius of it.
The anomaly was discovered after reports surfaced of a large concentration of firearm accidents in the area.
Status: Disrupted.
Circa 1865.
Archived Recording
Date Recorded: 26/11/1977
Present: Dr. Seth Miranda, Chief Zoe Miranda
Foreword: An effort by Site-898 to confirm statistics relating to SCP-9455's effects.
The pair are walking through the woods near Site-898. Chief Zoe Miranda has a hunting rifle slung over her shoulder. Dr. Seth Miranda taps his pencil against his clipboard idly, walking by his sister's side. The camera is mounted to Dr. S. Miranda's hardhat.
Dr. S. Miranda: So is this for data or did you just want an excuse to go shooting?
Chief Z. Miranda snorts.
Chief Z. Miranda: You're the one recording the data.
Dr. S. Miranda: [He laughs.] That's what I thought.
Chief Z. Miranda: Besides, we're looking to find game. It's hunting even if I don't pull this trigger.
Dr. S. Miranda: Big game, yeah?
Chief Z. Miranda: Primarily. Note down the small ones, though.
They quiet down. Chief Z. Miranda shifts in front of her brother to start leading the way. Her eyes scan the forest floor. Several minutes of footage removed for brevity. During this time period, Dr. S. Miranda has noted down a few sightings of small game.
The two pass a 'NO TREPASSING' sign, indicating that they have left Site-898's restricted surroundings.
Chief Z. Miranda: We should keep along Stony Drop, the brook runs down through and turns to the river.
Dr. S. Miranda nods. He then pauses, and does a double take at the tree the sign is attached to. There is something carved into the birch wood. Chief Z. Miranda glances over her shoulder and raises an eyebrow.
SCP-8411 Instance #05.
It is a known SCP-8411 symbol. Chief Z. Miranda examines it for some time, then snorts.
Chief Z. Miranda: "Do not proceed."
Dr. S. Miranda stares at the SCP-8411 instance. He taps his pencil against it.
Dr. S. Miranda: These things usually crop up so close to the Site?
Chief Z. Miranda: Not typically.
A pause.
Dr. S. Miranda: Do we have to worry about the Site being found?
Chief Z. Miranda: [She shrugs.] We're already in maps. Just not for the real reason.
Dr. S. Miranda: You said this one means "Do not proceed." Does that mean whoever left it here is conferring with our warning sign? Or did one of us scrape this in?
Chief Z. Miranda: I'll ask the team when we get back. It could've been one of us. I know there was talk of experimenting more with 8411, try and make a few of our own.
Dr. S. Miranda: [He nods.] Field code.
Chief Z. Miranda: Only reason it hasn't fully gone through is because the Director is worried it won't just be us out here who'd be able to understand 'em.
She pauses.
Chief Z. Miranda: Smart.
They resume walking. Chief Z. Miranda begins to lead down an incline. Rushing water can be heard. When Dr. S. Miranda shifts to look around, the waterfall of Stony Drop can be seen between the trees. As they proceed, Dr. S. Miranda notes down the appearance of a pair of quails and a rabbit.
The ground evens out, and the trees grow somewhat sparser. The continuation of the Red Brook, a river tributary, lies to their left. Chief Z. Miranda veers off the primary path and over towards the water's edge. Dr. S. Miranda carefully steps over foliage and fallen branches.
They begin to walk alongside the river.
After a few moments, Chief Z. Miranda pauses and stares down at a patch of mud by the water. She crouches down to examine it, a hand tracing the soil.
Dr. S. Miranda: Finally got something?
Chief Z. Miranda: Tracks.
Dr. S. Miranda: Are these ones natural?
Chief Z. Miranda: No dragging limbs, even set of three, clustering shows wandering and grazing. Likely a set from a small herd.
Dr. S. Miranda: Safe to track?
She nods.
Chief Z. Miranda: Safe to track.
They begin to follow the hoofprints. Chief Z. Miranda leads the way, scanning the underbrush as she tracks.
SCP-8411 Instance #07.
Dr. S. Miranda pauses during the walk, and tilts back his head to look at something in the trees. He squints, then points with his pencil.
Dr. S. Miranda: What's this one mean?
Chief Z. Miranda stops and glances up at where Dr. S. Miranda is pointing. Roughly twenty feet up a nearby birch tree, sitting in a small clearing, is another SCP-8411 symbol. It is drawn onto the bark with charcoal. Chief Z. Miranda appears to stiffen.
Chief Z. Miranda: That we leave.
Dr. S. Miranda winces and nods. He hurriedly follows her as she begins to move swiftly.
Dr. S. Miranda: Is that what it means? Leave?
Chief Z. Miranda: Basically. It means leave, because someone else didn't.
Dr. S. Miranda glances back at the tree and frowns. The pair continue at a far quicker pace then previously.
Several minutes of extraneous footage removed. Additional game are tallied.
Chief Z. Miranda: How many critters have you spotted?
Dr. S. Miranda: Eight squirrels, three quail, four rabbits, we're at four deer now — eight if we discount the uh…
Chief Z. Miranda: The fawn outside of breeding season?
Dr. S. Miranda: Yeah, fake fawn tracks, also the ones that were two legs instead of four, that pair of dropped antlers could also count us to eight.
Chief Z. Miranda: Again, out of season.
Dr. S. Miranda: Yeah. All of this has been in the past two hours. Either we're lucky, or it's not natural.
Chief Z. Miranda: Do you think this is about luck?
Dr. S. Miranda: It could be that something out there is in our favor.
Chief Z. Miranda grimaces, then pauses.
Chief Z. Miranda: What the…
Dr. S. Miranda tenses and stops, then glances down.
There are a few muddled footprints and paw prints from a large canine, all heading West.
Chief Z. Miranda: Hunting dog?
Dr. S. Miranda: That looks far too big.
Chief Z. Miranda: Then what?
Dr. S. Miranda: I'd call it a wolf print.
Chief Z. Miranda: Weren't those wiped out from here half a century ago?
Dr. S. Miranda: Yes.
As Chief Z. Miranda continues to examine the aberrant track, Dr. S. Miranda quietly glances around. Their surroundings are completely silent; there is no wind, no birdsong and no sounds from nearby animals, despite the repeated sightings of various game species.
While scanning the treeline to the East, he spots a blurred figure, and freezes. Silently, he reaches over to Chief Z. Miranda and grabs her shoulder. She tenses, and looks up.
An SCP-6448 instance stands by the trees, head pressed against the bark. Its antlers end in hands, all of which are grasping frantically at the nearby branches. It is shuddering and gasping.
As per the CERVUS PROTOCOL, Chief Z. Miranda and Dr. S. Miranda do not react to it.
It bashes its skull against the tree. It drags its head downwards, then swivels to face the pair.
Silence on recording.
It charges.
Afterword: Recording was terminated per CERVUS PROTOCOL. Both survived the attack with only moderate injuries sustained. Analysis of recorded data correlates to either an increased density of game, or the increased probability of encountering it.
The SCP-8411 symbol that had been found alongside one of Site-898's signs is not believed to have been left by any member of staff.
9455 Anomalous Item: #05
Item Description: Winchester Model 70 bolt-action rifle discovered in an abandoned hunting stand. Upon attempting to unload the weapon, antler velvet was discovered to be growing within the length of the barrel. As of three days after recovery, it has begun to spread to the exterior of the barrel.
Status: Stored within the Site-898 Subterranean Containment Wing, within Cold Storage.
9455 Anomalous Item: #08
Item Description: The casket of one Officer Joseph Ritner, a now-deceased member of the Pennsylvania Game Commission, who had previously been buried in the Easton Cemetery. On the day after his funeral, 30/11/1970, his grave was found desecrated; the casket had been unearthed by an unknown party and emptied. It has been noted that while it seems the casket was primarily exhumed by external individuals, it was also clawed open from the inside.
Periodically, a full set of fox teeth will spontaneously manifest within the casket.
Status: Stored within the Site-898 Subterranean Containment Wing.
The following passage was collected from an issue of West Scranton High School's student newsletter, dated 5/12/1942. It was an interview in a column titled "CAMPFIRE CREEPIES."
School was out for hunting so me and Gene took his dad's automobile and went down to the railroad, that old one that they don't run anymore, to see if any of the railroad spikes were loose enough to take. Gene likes collecting 'em.
Have you ever been down to those tracks? There's this weird… burn that goes down the center of the wood, scorches the whole thing. I've never been able to figure out what caused it, but it goes for almost half a mile. I was walking along that line, around a bend in the tracks, and I see this big buck pass across. It slips away as quick as it came.
Gene remarks that some hunter is gonna have a good day.
By that point, we'd picked up like five railroad spikes, so we turn back.
We get in the car and he starts driving. When we turn the corner out of the woods, into some farmer's field, we're met by a whole herd of deer.
All does, just wandering the grass of some farmer's field in the sunset. There had to be at least fifteen of them, and they didn't seem to mind us. We'd never driven so close to deer before, I probably could've reached out and touched one. I joke to Gene that the big guy we saw must be their boss.
When we turned to head down the farm's road, it put the tree line on our left, the farmland to the right. I tell Gene to keep the car slow, lest another deer come hopping out of the woodwork. We were a couple hundred feet down the road when Gene glanced out the window and went "What is that? Is that a dog?" and I looked over to see what he was talking about.
There was something at the treeline.
I told him it was too big to be a dog and he slowed the car to a stop. This is some back road, no one comes by, so it wasn't an issue.
It took us both a few moments to realize that it was another doe. It was standing all alone, out of sight from the herd, and was just… staring at us. I've never seen a deer that looked like this before. It was partially white with these big patches on its sides and legs. Almost its whole face was white, it made its eyes and nose stand out. The white made its face look flat.
It didn't move at all. Its back was arched and I could see the spine through the fur, one of the legs was raised, and it just didn't move. It stared at us. Watched us back as we watched it too.
Gene eventually pulled off to the side of the road so we could keep watching, and I got out of the car after a few minutes of sitting to get a better look.
The wind was howling.
I was almost tempted to cross the road and into the field, just to see if I could scare it away. Make it move. But I didn't. I took a step onto the pavement, staring at it while it stared at me, and I just couldn't. It looked sick. Maybe that's why the other deer left it here. Maybe that's why it stood abandoned at the trees. It's sick. That had to be it.
I didn't want to get anywhere near it.
So we both stood there frozen for what had to have been five minutes.
It limped, then laid down in the grass, finally. Its eyes never left us the whole time. Its eyes didn't leave us even as it lowered and I almost lost sight of it against the brush.
It was probably still watching when we drove away.
Archived Recording
Date Recorded: 28/11/1979
Present: Dr. Fate Hargroves
Foreword: The following was captured by exterior CCTV systems.
Dr. Hargroves is walking through Site-898's grounds, in the woods outside its cabins. She steps over swamp foliage and around logs.
She approaches a spot where the trees thin out into a clearing.
There are four SCP-6448 instances gathered in a circle. They are hunched over a series of sticks, bullet casings, and ornate cards. They appear to be playing a game. The instances hold the cards in their hooves, teeth, and hands.
Dr. Hargroves freezes in the clearing as the four SCP-6448 raise their heads.
SCP-6448 Instance: Hello.
Dr. Hargroves does not respond. She stares blankly ahead, as per the Cervus Protocol.
SCP-6448 Instance: Care to join us for a game? It’s a special occasion.
Dr. Hargroves does not respond.
An SCP-6448 instance, with sunken eyes and an upside-down head, stands and approaches Dr. Hargroves. She does not react.
SCP-6448 Instance: Do you want to see?
The SCP-6448 instance unhinges its jaws. A card, slick with spit and mucous, falls from its tongue and to the dirt. It is a tarot card, face up. Temperance, reversed.
The card has Dr. Hargroves' face on it.
Dr. Hargroves does not respond.
SCP-6448 Instance: There's always next time.
A gunshot is heard in the distance. All SCP-6448 instances scatter into the woods.
Dr. Hargroves flees.
Discovered in a storage shed on Site-898's grounds following the above event. Hazardous visual material expunged.
9455 Anomalous Item: #11
Item Description: A tree stump containing the heart of a Canis latrans. It does not experience decay, and will resume beating upon occurrences of SCP-9455.
Status: Uprooted and placed within Outdoor Containment Unit A2. Cryptozoology staff have reported the intermittent sounds in and around the Cryptozoology Sector consistent with that of a Canis latrans.
Archived Recording
Date Recorded: 23/11/1975
Present: Dr. Atticus Rune, Officer Micah Eardwulf
Foreword: An interview conducted by Dr. Atticus Rune as to investigate the possible connection between SCP-9455 and the Pennsylvania Game Commission.
Dr. Atticus Rune walks up to the World's End State Park visitor's center. Officer Micah Eardwulf is waiting for him outside next to a bulletin board. It is covered with advertisements regarding upcoming events within the park.
A flyer for 'Red Monday' is prominently featured.
The officer greets the doctor with a wide grin, propping his foot up on a tree stump.
Eardwulf: A beast wrangler back on my doorstep.
Dr. Rune: [He scoffs.] Not today, I don't think.
Eardwulf laughs.
Eardwulf: What'cha here for, boy?
Dr. Rune taps a finger against the SCP-9455 flyer.
Dr. Rune: I wanna know about this.
Eardwulf glances at it.
Eardwulf: It's the next hunting season. You thinking of bringing your little crew back here?
Dr. Rune: It's a hunting season that lasts one day.
Eardwulf: The yearly bear season lasts only three, if you're using firearms.
Dr. Rune: Is that still not an odd choice?
Eardwulf: [He shrugs.] It ain't mine to make. Would probably get messy if it ran longer, mm?
Dr. Rune: It's messy in general. Some of my "little crew" have been runnin' numbers, and the spike in accidents each time this lil' holiday hits should be concernin' for you.
Eardwulf eyes Dr. Rune, head tilting to the side. The look he gives is one of interest.
Eardwulf: How long have you been watching?
Dr. Rune makes a noise of frustration. He walks up to the bulletin board and tears off the SCP-9455 flier. He places it on the stump and presses his hand against it.
Dr. Rune: You folk seem to like to run a tight ship 'round here. Why host a day where you throw out every one of your conservation laws?
Eardwulf: It's still conservation, boy. Just a different kind.
Dr. Rune: Conservation of what, then?
Eardwulf: [He smiles.] You and I both know the predators are gone. It's just man left in these woods.
He chuckles.
Eardwulf: And who's fault is that?
Dr. Rune: Dumb sons of bitches who shot anything that moved funny for the thrill of it. Hunters.
Eardwulf: No more wolves. No more cougars. Less teeth in woods now overrun.
Dr. Rune: So what the hell is this about? A little holiday trying to fix damage you people caused? Man refillin' a niche he emptied himself?
Eardwulf: Oh. The day wasn't anything the Game Commission came up with. We just hopped onto the trail of a red sun already risen. Good karma.
A pause.
Dr. Rune: Then where did it come from?
Eardwulf: It's an old, old fight.
Dr. Rune: Against game, or against what hunts?
Eardwulf: Every fight's got two sides, don't it? [He spreads out his hands.] And today's the day with no-holds-barred.
Dr. Rune: But why?
Eardwulf smiles.
Eardwulf: Cause something out there is at war.
He reaches down and flips over the flyer.
There is an SCP-8411 symbol on the back. Due to being printed on paper, it holds no anomalous properties.
Meaning unknown.
Afterword: Implications under consideration.
9455 Anomalous Item: #15
Item Description: A Diospyros virginiana tree, carved into a figure resembling a five headed deer. It was found surrounded by clear signs of animal activity — such as hoof prints, tufts of fur, and droppings.
The depicted entity is likely a known regional deific force.
Status: Destroyed.
Archived File
Date Recovered: UNKNOWN
Foreword: Discovered in Site-898's database. Context unknown. Significant corruption to metadata, visuals, embedded captions.
TRANSCRIPT
A piebald deer maintains eye contact with the camera. It does not appear to breathe.
The wind is howling.