"It holds our pain so we can forget…"
SCP-8578
Item #: SCP-8578
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-8578’s corporeal form is located within a cave system at Mount Feathertop, Victoria, Australia. This location was acquired under the Foundation front company ‘McGavers Mining.’ All known entrances of the system are closed to civilians, designated unsafe due to alleged 'rock instability.’ Civilians attempting to breach containment are to be transferred to local authorities under trespassing charges.
The dendrocnide moroides growing around SCP-8578 are to remain undisturbed. Foundation personnel are reminded not to touch the gympie gympie due to its known and extremely painful and long-lasting sting.
The remains of a pithos discovered within the cave system are to be stored on-site. Owing to its presumed age, the pithos must be studied with extreme care.
SCP-8578 has made no attempt to leave containment.
Description: SCP-8578 is potentially an elemental actualisation of the collective pain and suffering of all known life-forms. Its corporeal form is facultatively bipedal. Its height fluctuates between 5.4 to 13.5 meters tall with no identifiable influence for this variation beyond its presumed inclination.
Physical contact with SCP-8578 heightens all senses of the contactee, prominently influencing discomforted or painful areas. Affected organisms, including humans, frequently display distress, confusion or a physiological equivalent; SCP-8578 does not retaliate if confronted aggressively because of this, instead withdrawing itself.
SCP-8578 communicates via telepathic transmissions, receivable by any class 2 or above psychic.
It was uncovered during an unrelated routine thaumaturgic survey of Mount Feathertop for thaumaturgic energies, using SCP-████-█. Amongst the investigation team was Researcher R. Yaga, themselves a class 2 psychic. R. Yaga was the first to detect SCP-8578’s capacity for communication.
Conversation Extract
INVOLVED: SCP-8578 | Researcher R. Yaga | Dr. Brendan Bello
[SCP-8578 observes Researcher R. Yaga]
R. Yaga: It's absolutely sapient. I can feel its thoughts.
Dr. Bello: Can you translate them?
[SCP-8578 observes Researcher R. Yaga]
R. Yaga: No, not yet. At the moment it’s, like, translating smells.
Dr. Bello: Take your time.
[R. Yaga cautiously approaches SCP-8578]
Dr. Bello: Careful.
R. Yaga: Yes sir. No change yet.
[SCP-8578 lowers its head toward R. Yaga. They gasp and freeze]
R. Yaga: There’s… this pulse.
[R. Yaga briefly cries out in pain]
Dr. Bello: Yaga, are you…?
R. Yaga: It just showed me something. A memory…from years ago.
[R. Yaga trembles, managing a pained smile]
R. Yaga: I just reexperienced the spinal fusion I went through as a kid. Kinda nostalgic, but Christ, it hurts so much.
Dr. Bello: Alright that's enough, Yaga.
[Yaga shudders violently and stumbles up into SCP-8578. Dr. Bello signals his security detail to prepare.]
R. Yaga: Not yet, I can read it better now. Sir, it’s old. Not an entity, not in the way we define them. It's pure pain…like…like this sort of ancient, original stimulus.
Dr. Bello: If you’re not backing down, I need clarification.
[Dr. Bello signals his security detail to prepare for hostilities]
R. Yaga: I don’t know. It's stupid. I don’t have the words sir. This presence, it's when you're hungry, or bleeding, or…ill?
[Dr. Bello steps forward]
Dr. Bello: Okay. You’re saying it’s some kind of essophysical personification?
R. Yaga No sir. It is pain! The actual thing.
[R. Yaga presses their palms into SCP-8578. A low vibration emits from the entity.]
R. Yaga: Dr. Bello?
Dr. Bello: [Sighs] What is it, Yaga?
R. Yaga: It’s keeping our pain for us! Every torn muscle. Every childbirth. Every depressive spiral. Every wound. It keeps it so we can forget!
[R. Yaga begins to gag. SCP-8578 gently nudges R. Yaga backwards, distancing them from the gympie gympie suddenly sprouting around their feet, and towards Dr. Bello.]
Dr. Bello: [To his detail] We need to extract them. [Back to R. Yaga] Do you understand why it’s here!?
R. Yaga: It’s guarding something! [Gags again.]
[With another push, SCP-8578 forces R. Yaga backwards out of its vicinity. R. Yaga collapses, crying out in relief. Crawling away from any assistance, Yaga uncovers a large rock and reveals the fragmented remains of a pithos beneath.]
R. Yaga: This!
Researcher R. Yaga was treated for injury and recovered without further issue. Analysis of the pithos dated its origin to approximately 12,000 years ago. Numerous names are etched across its surface, written in a variation of ancient Greek: Moros, Keres, Hygieia, Prothyraia & Penthos with further denominations marked in File:SCP-8578-Epithets/Translation. The phrase πᾶν is etched across the remaining base of the pithos. It is theorized these were etched long after the initial construction of the pithos.
While the implications of these names are evident, ongoing research is focused on SCP-8578’s influence on ancient Greek culture, the unlikely geographic placement of SCP-8578, and the full extent of its abilities.
Addendum:
The remains of the pithos
Under directive from Dr. Brendan Bello, reconstruction of the pithos was attempted using surviving ceramic fragments. Missing portions were substituted with replicas. During reconstruction, SCP-8578 began emitting a continuous, low-frequency wail. No hostile activity was observed, although the gympie gympie around it began to wilt.
Upon reconstructing 85% of the pithos, SCP-8578 suddenly decreased to less than a meter in height. Every known human, animal, or insect within a 40.2 km radius reported or displayed experiencing intense pain or discomfort. Many declared symptoms feeling similar to injuries the individual previously healed from.
The effect subsided only once Dr. Bello shattered the reconstructed pithos. SCP-8578 returned to its typical scale moments after. Globally, the effectiveness of painkillers greatly diminished for the proceeding week, but eventually returned to typical standards.
Requests to permanently separate surviving shards are in discussion. Reclassification is under review.