Let's start with a question: What do you know about sleep paralysis? Those who experience it usually describe it in a disturbing way. No matter how hard they try, they cannot move, scream, or ask for help. And there are also hallucinations. Demons, a man with a hat... animals. Under normal circumstances the experience ends when they wake up... but what if it wants something more from you? How do you fight an illusion...?
It is hard to call it anything else: You cannot see it, and neither can I... but we know it is there, and that it does not need dreams to appear. The Foundation has intervened in live television, the Web, and print media in search of its image. The order is to immediately destroy any positive source, and every exposed element is transferred without exception to Site-116. You and I are safe... for now.
SCP-2774 is nothing more than the medium used during its manifestation. The real problem... is SCP-2774-A. A figure, humanoid, always in the background. It seems to wear the sloth costume, though some of its victims claim it is a real animal. The effect of SCP-2774-A is not instantaneous. In short cases it takes less than 48 hours, but there are records of 96 hours or more. Even with that difference, the final result is identical: Victims of SCP-2774-A lose control of their basic functions, as well as their ability to make decisions.
Zombies, marionettes... slaves. SCP-2774-A becomes the pilot of its victims. All of them cooperate with staff and can follow orders, but their movements are... slow. They have no emotions. They seem conscious, but they do not control their actions at any time. The only respite they get is an interval of 150 seconds every 24 hours... and we have not managed to break their interference.
Some of the brains here believe there is an additional memetic effect, which becomes more potent if the number of victims increases. The incident in Canada was quite conclusive proof of this: SCP-2774-A appeared on local television, and more than 4,000 people ended up at Site-116. Manifestations of SCP-2774-A skyrocketed after that.
We only have two pieces of good news. The first is that SCP-2774-A does not affect everyone. Calculations suggest that 40 percent of the public exposed to SCP-2774-A falls under its control. The second is that images of SCP-2774 retain their properties only if red or green hues remain intact. This makes people with deuteranopia immune to SCP-2774-A.
Now... we have no doubt that SCP-2774-A seeks to expand its influence. Its victims create drawings, stories... anything that serves to represent it. The Foundation destroys that material without thinking twice, but it is not enough. We know this from the victims themselves.
Remember... 150 seconds. Less than three minutes in which they return to reality and share their terror, their desperation. They try to move their arms, their legs. They try to run, to scream, to close their eyes to sleep. And they cannot. The sloth does not let them. And they see it everywhere. Watching, waiting.
It is learning. With each new attempt, it achieves something more complex. Agents have already recorded fights among several of its victims. One of them even said that SCP-2774-A was becoming darker... more solid. If SCP-2774-A gains strength with the number of affected people, and also forces them to do something as dangerous as fighting, only one solution remains... and it is horrible.
This is what you will take with you today: Protocol-XXJ9 establishes that the first containment barrier for SCP-2774-A is to radically reduce the number of victims under its influence. Of the 6,000 people stationed at Site-116, only a contingent of 200 elements will remain. All task groups assigned to monitoring exposed individuals will receive new immediate termination orders, canceling their previous capture and transport instructions.
It is the only way. We have to kill them all.
