SCP-8613
Item #: SCP-8613
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-8613 is stored within a Standard Anomalous Vehicle Containment Bay at Storage Location 73-E, and has been outfitted with a CCTV camera on its roof for monitoring. A remote kill switch and electromagnetic fuel-line inhibitors have been installed to prevent containment breach. Psychological counseling is provided twice a month in order to manage its mental health, and it is to be provided with standard gasoline as necessary.
In accordance with psychological conditioning and continued compliance, SCP-8613 is allowed to possess enrichment items and various furnishings within its containment bay. In addition, it is allowed to drive within the perimeter of Storage Location 73-E with monitoring. Should SCP-8613 attempt to breach containment, the remote killswitch and fuel-line inhibitors are to be activated as quickly as possible by any Foundation staff, and its privileges are to be re-evaluated accordingly.
Description: SCP-8613 is a sapient 2002 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am with the license plate 173█████, capable of autonomous propulsion, environmental perception, and vocal communication via unknown means. SCP-8613 can be operated like a normal vehicle of its type, however, it is able to override any operator input to the steering, throttle, or braking systems at will. It is not capable of any kind of atypical locomotion associated with anomalous vehicles. SCP-8613 identifies itself as “Ricky”, and speaks with a voice consistent with late adolescence and a light Southern accent.
Discovery: SCP-8613 was discovered in the town of [REDACTED], Texas following police reports of a "possessed car” during a highway traffic stop. When the driver of the vehicle (since identified as Brian ████████) was arrested for possession of narcotics and told that his vehicle was going to be impounded and scrapped, the arresting officer reported that SCP-8613 “came alive and took off while screaming”. Dashboard camera footage was unable to be recovered due to the officer crashing in the ensuing pursuit.
SCP-8613 evaded police pursuit and was later located in an unoccupied shed once Foundation agents embedded in the town’s law enforcement agency obtained identifying information about the vehicle and relayed it to Mobile Task Force Epsilon-6 (“Village Idiots”). SCP-8613 attempted to escape when confronted, and was able to override attempts of Agent ████ to control it. It was incapacitated via PIT maneuver and being boxed-in. Once immobilized, SCP-8613 begrudgingly ceased resistance and unlocked itself for Agent ████ to exit before being loaded onto a tow truck. SCP-8613 was transported to Storage Location 73-E under the guise of being repossessed from an employee of Sanford Chemical Processing by Safe Collision Professionals, and the news story regarding the arrest of its owner was edited to remove details of SCP-8613’s escape. All witnesses were administered Class-B amnestics, and SCP-8613's were removed prior to containment.
Addendum: Initial Interview
- Close Interview Transcript
Interviewer: Senior Researcher Patrick Brannock
Interviewed: SCP-8613
Background: Interview conducted remotely through containment bay CCTV monitoring. SCP-8613 is hoisted on cinder blocks beneath its sideskirts.
[Begin Log]
[SCP-8613 is aggressively revving its engine.]
Senior Researcher Brannock: Please stop that.
[SCP-8613 does not comply. Senior Researcher Brannock sighs.]
Senior Researcher Brannock: If you don’t stop that, it will be necessary to remove your engine.
[SCP-8613 gradually stops revving its engine.]
Senior Researcher Brannock: Thank you.
SCP-8613: Where are my tires? Where am I? Is this the impound?
Senior Researcher Brannock: No, this isn’t an impound, and we’re not going to scrap you. If you cooperate, you should have your tires back soon. I just need to ask you a few questions.
[SCP-8613 pauses.]
SCP-8613: Where’s Brian? When can I see him again?
Senior Researcher Brannock: Is Brian your owner?
SCP-8613: Yeah.
Senior Researcher Brannock: I don’t know where he is. In jail, probably. I’ll try to find out and let you know later. Now, can we proceed with the interview?
SCP-8613: If it gets me my tires faster.
Senior Researcher Brannock: Good. Let’s start off with something simple. What is your earliest memory?
SCP-8613: Um, I think it was rolling off out of a factory. There were some people talking about a “last model year”, or something.
Senior Researcher Brannock: You rolled off of the assembly line, is that correct?
SCP-8613: Yeah.
Senior Researcher Thompson: Interesting. Are you sure you weren’t, say, a human who got inexplicably bound to a car, or born in a dimension inhabited by cars?
SCP-8613: No. I think I would remember those things, if that was the case. Sounds cool, though.
Senior Researcher Brannock: How long have you been sapient?
SCP-8613: Sapient? You mean, alive? Like, a week.
Senior Researcher Brannock: When you become cognizant of your surroundings?
SCP-8613: You’re asking me when I became self-aware, right? When they told Brian they were going to impound me and scrap me. Cop who said it looked real mean. Shit eating grin on his face. I wanted to run him over, but I didn’t because I didn’t want either of us to get shot at.
Senior Researcher Brannock: How come you remember things from before then?
SCP-8613: I can’t explain it. It was like hearing the guy say those words just… woke me up. Like starting the ignition, but for my mind. Like before I was just observing everything, and now I could actually do things on my own. Like hearing that I was about to die suddenly made me live. At least, for a little bit, until you brought me here.
Senior Researcher Brannock: How do you see and talk? How do you move?
SCP-8613: Beats me. I just do.
Senior Researcher Brannock: How do you know so much about people?
SCP-8613: Listening, I guess. If you’re looking for a solid explanation for why I can do the things I can do, I can’t give it to you. I’ve just heard and seen a lot in my █ years of existence. But there’s a lot of things I still don’t understand. Why people are so… horrible, like that cop that was beating Brian. Or Brian himself. Well, Brian’s horrible in a different way. Not like the cop. But he messes up a lot. He was always good to me, but never to himself. Or a whole lot of other people. They weren’t very good to him either. He had to clean up my insides a lot for a lot of reasons. I don’t really know why, but his home reminds me of the shed the guys wearing masks found me in. I put two and two together a lot. I figured out that “home” is like a garage for people, and that a “doctor” is like a mechanic for people, and some other stuff, too. And if you're wondering how I know what an "impound" is, I think one of Brian's friends talked about his car getting put there. I don't know exactly what happens there, but it sounds like it's bad.
Senior Researcher Brannock: What can you tell me about your owner?
[SCP-8613 does not respond.]
Senior Researcher Brannock: SCP-8613?
SCP-8613: Why do you call me that?
Senior Researcher Brannock: It’s your containment procedure designation. We give one to every anomaly that we contain in order to keep track of them. It’s like a VIN number.
SCP-8613: What are you containing here?
Senior Researcher Brannock: A whole bunch of different things. I’m not exactly supposed to tell you.
[SCP-8613 pauses.]
SCP-8613: I can’t remember anything else. I don’t really know why. Maybe it’s the lack of tires that’s making me feel off. But if you think he’s an “anomaly” or whatever, he’s probably not that.
Senior Researcher Brannock: That’s odd. Do you have a name?
[SCP-8613 pauses.]
SCP-8613: Ricky.
Senior Researcher Brannock: Noted. I have one last question to ask you.
SCP-8613: Okay. Only one last question.
Senior Researcher Brannock: Why didn’t you try to run over the officer or the Mobile Task Force agents?
SCP-8613: Honestly, I kinda regret not running over the cop. I didn’t do it because at the time I was looking out more for myself than Brian, and I felt like running him over would get either of us shot. Someone already tried to do that to us before. Shot at us for the same reason he was arrested, actually. Drugs. Are the Mobile Task Force guys your security guards or something? I didn’t want to hurt them either because I thought they would shoot at me too. I don’t like hurting people. I’ve seen Brian hurt people a lot and get hurt a lot too. I don’t want to hurt people. And I don’t want to be hurt any more, either.
[Senior Researcher Brannock pauses.]
Senior Researcher Brannock: Thank you for your time, I’ll see about getting you your tires back, though movement privileges might be a bit longer unfortunately.
SCP-8613: Thanks, I guess.
[End Log]
Note: On the order of [DATA EXPUNGED], SCP-8613 was later informed by Senior Researcher Brannock that its owner died of a drug overdose shortly after arrest, in order to facilitate cooperation per standard CAP protocols. Brian ████████ is currently serving a five-year sentence in [REDACTED] Penitentiary and will be informed that his car was impounded and auctioned upon release.
SCP-8613 was later inspected and cleaned, with no unusual matter found within it. It was immediately outfitted with its camera and killswitch on the order of [DATA EXPUNGED], and was provided with its tires in the week following the interview. █ months after its initial containment, SCP-8613 had to have its transmission replaced. In spite of being gradually provided more privileges since then, its psychological state has continued to steadily decline since containment. The following conversation has been retained due to its relevancy.
Addendum: Follow-up interview
- Close Interview Transcript
Background: SCP-8613 has been periodically revving its engine, apparently trying to get the attention of monitoring staff. Senior Researcher Brannock has been called to speak with it.
[Begin Log]
Senior Researcher Brannock: Is something going on?
SCP-8613: I have a question.
Senior Researcher Brannock: Go for it.
SCP-8613: I told you before that I knew doctors were like mechanics for people. Is there like, a mechanic for the soul? I think if Brian had one, he might still be alive.
Senior Researcher Brannock: I believe that would be a therapist.
SCP-8613: Can you get me one?
Senior Researcher Brannock: I can try. In the meantime, would you like to tell me what’s bothering you?
SCP-8613: I guess it’s kind of just the fact that this is my life now. No more driving, no more meeting new people, just kind of being here forever. No more cruising, no more speeding, just me and the people in white. This is it.
Senior Researcher Brannock: I see. That’s a normal response to have. Most anomalies we have in containment tend to have emotional difficulties while they transition to living at a Foundation site.
SCP-8613: But there’s another thing I’ve been meaning to talk to you about. Do you remember that I got a new transmission a few days ago?
Senior Researcher Brannock: I do. How is it feeling?
SCP-8613: Weird. I feel like a part of me is missing. The memory of the first time Brian raced me against one of his friends is pretty fuzzy now. And the new transmission feels… off. But some more information about Brian has come back into my memory. Maybe it was the tires being put back on.
Senior Researcher Brannock: That's odd. I made sure the parts were OEM prior to installation.
SCP-8613: Will I be ever able to drive again?
Senior Researcher Brannock: I’ve been drafting your movement privileges. They should be submitted tomorrow and approved by the end of the week.
SCP-8613: It’s better than nothing, I guess. Why can’t I drive with you?
Senior Researcher Brannock: We don’t usually allow anomalies outside of containment.
SCP-8613: Why? Don’t you think I’m harmless now? I’d even help you get to places if you let me. Or you could just let me race at a nearby track.
Senior Researcher Brannock: That’s not how things work around here. Anomalies don’t really get a say in their containment. I’d like to put in a request, I might even do so, but the odds of it being accepted are unlikely. [DATA EXPUNGED] is particularly keen on the “Contain” aspect of our organization.
SCP-8613: Why do you contain everything, then? This place feels a lot like an impound. Or a “prison”, if you’re impounding people here too.
Senior Researcher Brannock: It’s our mission. You see this badge right here? It represents what we do. Secure, Contain, Protect, each arrow is one side of our mission. We secure anomalies where they are, contain them at our Sites, and protect them from people who want to use, abuse, and destroy them. We also do this to secure normalcy, contain threats to the world, and protect humanity. There’s a lot of terrible things out there, unkillable monsters that we have to hold back so they don’t end the world, horrible plagues that would disfigure people beyond recognition, and places that look perfectly normal on the outside but are so horrifying on the inside that they would make this containment bay look like the most comfortable garage known to man.
SCP-8613: Do I look like a monster to you?
Senior Researcher Brannock: No. But you could, to a lot of other people. That’s why even the most benign objects need to be kept secret. It starts with a car that talks and it ends with a monster that gets harder to kill the more you try to kill it. Have you ever seen the movie The Car? People might think you’re The Car. Even if you’re not. People fear what they don’t understand, so the Foundation keeps them out of sight so they never have to notice and never have to be afraid.
SCP-8613: I haven’t seen a movie. What’s it like?
[Senior Researcher Brannock pauses.]
Senior Researcher Brannock: I’ll try to get you a television so you can find out. And The Car, well, it’s a movie about a car that runs a lot of people over and kills them. It drives itself just like you do, it doesn’t talk, though. They blow it up in the end.
[SCP-8613 pauses.]
SCP-8613: That reminds me, what happens when people die?
Senior Researcher Brannock: The people who know them will be sad, they’ll hold a funeral, and they’ll try to move on. For the person who’s dead, they might leave a will behind to direct how their belongings will be distributed. We don’t know what happens after death, though.
SCP-8613: What’s a funeral like?
Senior Researcher Brannock: People get together to remember a dead person.
SCP-8613: Do you think I’m going to die, one day?
Senior Researcher Brannock: Well, we can always replace your parts-
SCP-8613: That’s the thing. I feel like any time my parts are replaced, I die a little. I lose a memory, I feel a bit weirder. Is there any way you could give me my old transmission back, for now?
Senior Researcher Brannock: I can if you wish, but it’s going to fatally break at some point either way. And even if we replaced specific parts within the transmission, chances are that would still make you lose a bit of yourself too.
SCP-8613: What do you think is going to happen when I die?
[Senior Researcher Brannock does not answer.]
Senior Researcher Brannock: Try not to think about that. It will be a long time before you need to face death.
[SCP-8613 does not respond. Senior Researcher Brannock leaves the containment bay.]
[End Log]
Note: Formally requesting psychological counseling for SCP-8613 and continued enhancements to its current privileges, as well as greater focus on maintenance. It has proven to be sufficiently cooperative so far, and providing it with entertainment is likely to distract it from its mental issues. - Senior Researcher Brannock
Counseling will be granted twice a month, and I will grant you permission to pay for enrichment items for SCP-8613 out of your own pocket. I do not deem it necessary to allocate a budget for this, or any significantly further accommodations, for that matter. - [DATA EXPUNGED]
After the conversation, psychological counseling and limited driving privileges were approved for SCP-8613; it has since been diagnosed with depression and generalized anxiety disorder. Based on its remarks, it has been hypothesized that SCP-8613’s anomalous properties are intrinsic to its parts, and that any replacements, even if otherwise identical, will negatively affect SCP-8613’s consciousness and memory.
- Access Granted
Efforts to fabricate OEM replacement parts ontologically designated as pertaining to SCP-8613 are currently ongoing have been suspended indefinitely due to lack of resources and research value.
For fuck’s sakes. If even our most advanced technology isn’t capable of transplanting consciousnesses, only recreating them–and imperfectly at that–what makes you think this underfunded shithole can do it? Do you really think putting mnestics in its gas tank is going to help it feel better? It’s a goddamn car. It doesn’t need more privileges than it already has, and if you continue to get attached to it, or otherwise waste time and resources regarding its containment, then it may be necessary to reassign you, Senior Researcher Brannock. Or just have that thing shipped off to a different Site. - [DATA EXPUNGED]