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SCP Explained - Story & Animation
SCP-040-JP is an anomalously deep stone well inside a wooden hut in Japan. Looking inside with the naked eye triggers a powerful memetic infection. Victims become obsessed with the phrase “there is a cat,” causing a severe cognitive distortion. To them, all domestic cats appear as hairless creatures with human eyes, constantly watching from the shadows. Infected subjects compulsively spread this memetic hazard to others.

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SCP-040-JP There is a cat. is based on "SCP-040-JP" by Tanija: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-040-jp

#scpexplained #scp #animation
Transcript
00:00Hirona Nishi had never been what you might call an art guy.
00:04The no-nonsense 40-year-old freelance journalist was all about breaking the big stories.
00:09He'd done daring investigative journalism in the aftermath of the Fukushima tragedy.
00:14His fearless writing was instrumental during the Kiromas murders case.
00:18And most recently, he uncovered a corruption scandal between a Yakuza syndicate
00:22and some of the highest levels of government in Tokyo.
00:26That was where he flew just a little too close to the sun.
00:30Some of the upper management of his very own newspaper was implicated in that same scandal.
00:36The bad press had gotten him demoted to covering a mix of human interest stories,
00:40like a woman who'd lived to a hundred years old sharing her special matcha recipe,
00:44or the local arts and culture beat.
00:47That's what had landed him at the Ginza Art Gallery to cover the latest round of new acquisitions.
00:52He felt his eyes glazing over as he stumbled from painting to painting.
00:57Another waterfall.
00:59Wow, a beautiful woman in a field.
01:02Another waterfall.
01:04Just riveting.
01:06He wished that he could be literally anywhere else,
01:09even sitting at home eating leftovers out of a plastic tub
01:12and watching entertaining animated videos right here on SCP Explained.
01:16He was subscribed and had notifications turned on so he never missed a video.
01:21We recommend you do the same.
01:23There were none of the comforts of home at the Art Gallery.
01:26It was just plain white walls and smooth jazz over the sound system,
01:30fighting the low hum of the air conditioning.
01:33Arty types in turtlenecks and slim, fashionable glasses huddled in corners discussing the merits of the paintings,
01:38with the type of pretentious pseudo-intellectual nonsense that made Hiranishi want to punch them in the throat.
01:45Surely they can't be taking all this that seriously, right?
01:49It was just another distraction,
01:51while the world outside teemed with the kind of greed, crime, and corruption,
01:55the type of thing that he should be reporting on.
01:58He was considering taking the last couple of paintings and then bailing to the street outside for a smoke,
02:04when one of the paintings actually caught his eye.
02:06It wasn't some fumbling grab at some cliché vision of beauty like the others.
02:11It was raw, ugly, in a way that both somehow appealed to Hiranishi's sensibilities,
02:17as much as it made him feel oddly uncomfortable.
02:21He'd had guns pointed in his face by bikers and drug dealers,
02:24but he'd never felt this strangely uneasy.
02:27It captivated him.
02:29He needed to get closer, to take it all in.
02:32The painting was a very non-representational depiction of a cat,
02:37or a highly representational painting of a uniquely messed-up-looking cat.
02:41From the painting's perspective, we were looking down at this thing,
02:45sitting in a dark alley between some garbage cans and staring up.
02:48The body was not entirely unlike a common or garden cat,
02:52but the face was a whole different story.
02:55Large and misshapen with no fur,
02:58exposing just a smooth swath of pink skin,
03:01and two huge eyes that looked far more human than cat.
03:04If you had to designate an official animal mascot for the Uncanny Valley,
03:08it would be this exact cat.
03:11Unsettling, isn't it?
03:12The title is,
03:13There is a Cat.
03:15The sudden voice almost made him jump.
03:16It was the curator,
03:18the man he'd gotten a few soundbites from when he'd first arrived at the showing.
03:22Yeah,
03:23Hiranishi said,
03:24trying to hide the fact that he was startled.
03:26Looks like something straight out of a Junji Ito manga.
03:29Who did this?
03:30Someone on day release from the local nuthouse?
03:32The curator shook his head humorously.
03:35No, no, this is another Suzuri.
03:37His pieces are a mainstay here.
03:39He's a uniquely frustrating individual,
03:42technically brilliant,
03:43but rather limited in the scope of his subject matter.
03:45I've been trying for years now to get him out to Tokyo to do a talk.
03:50Hiranishi was able to tear his gaze away from the penetrating,
03:53all-too-human eyes of the cat
03:54for just long enough to turn back towards the curator.
03:57What makes the fella so frustrating?
04:00He asked.
04:01The curator shrugged.
04:02The man's a good artist.
04:04His images always leap off the canvas.
04:06But this damn cat.
04:08He's obsessed with it.
04:09Heaven only knows why.
04:11To Hiranishi, this felt like a lead.
04:13A bizarre, reclusive artist,
04:15obsessed with one particular thing.
04:17Painting out in the sticks
04:19and remotely sending his pieces to Tokyo art galleries.
04:22Who was this Suzuri?
04:24What was his story?
04:26And why this strange, ugly cat?
04:29Finding out certainly beats the human interest beat.
04:33Hiranishi immediately threw himself into his research,
04:35which was somewhat of a habit of his.
04:38There was precious little about Suzuri online,
04:40which he respected.
04:42In this age of social media,
04:43it was all too easy to be constantly vomiting yourself out
04:46onto every platform and outlet available.
04:48It took genuine restraint to remain secretive like this,
04:52especially as an artist.
04:53Well, either that,
04:55or he had something to hide.
04:57It took Hiranishi grilling the curator
04:59to find exactly where he could find the mysterious Suzuri.
05:02And it turned out to be a small, rural village
05:04called Norori near Okinawa.
05:07Just a train ride and a short drive away,
05:09if he could swing a few days off work.
05:11And he was sure he could.
05:13He could head down and investigate.
05:15Even if there wasn't an article in this,
05:17he could at least satisfy his own personal curiosity.
05:21The strange staring eyes of the cat
05:23had been floating around his mind
05:24ever since he'd seen the painting.
05:26The next day,
05:27he was off to Norori.
05:30Hiranishi was a city boy through and through,
05:32and already felt a little uncomfortable
05:34going out to the boonies
05:35to talk to an artist that he'd never even met.
05:37He'd taken on so many assignments
05:39that were objectively much more dangerous than this.
05:42So why did getting closer to Suzuri and his art
05:45feel like he was taking a risk?
05:46He met the artist at a small cafe
05:49in the center of Norori,
05:50and he wasn't at all what Hiranishi expected.
05:52A small, hunched, skinny man
05:54with deep-set, haunted eyes,
05:56dressed in relatively plain clothes.
05:59Hiranishi had heard that artists were eccentric,
06:01but that wasn't how he'd describe Suzuri.
06:04The man seemed, if anything,
06:06shockingly normal,
06:07despite the strangely haunted look to him.
06:10He wouldn't let that stop him
06:11from getting to the truth.
06:13Thank you for meeting with me today, Suzuri,
06:15Hiranishi said, sipping his tea.
06:17I was entranced by your piece
06:19There Was a Cat in Ginza.
06:21The curator told me
06:22it's a motif you explore a lot in your work.
06:25Suzuri nodded.
06:26I need to get it out of my head somehow.
06:28And look at that.
06:30He was modest, too.
06:32Could you say what draws you
06:33to this particular image?
06:36He said.
06:37I see it all the time.
06:39He said, his voice atonal.
06:42All the time.
06:43Day.
06:43Night.
06:44In shadows.
06:46Dark spaces.
06:47The corners of my eye.
06:49It's always there.
06:50A cat.
06:52Hiranishi took notes.
06:53He was beginning to see
06:54that eccentric artist persona now.
06:57Still, he sensed that there was
06:58something deeper here.
07:00You couldn't fake the pain
07:01that he could see behind Suzuri's eyes.
07:04When did you first see it?
07:05Hiranishi asked.
07:07Suzuri leaned forward,
07:08taking a long pause.
07:09Do you want to know?
07:11It's quite a responsibility.
07:13It took a moment for that to sink in.
07:15Suzuri had delivered it with such weight,
07:17such gravitas,
07:18that it really made him think.
07:20What did he mean by that?
07:22What kind of responsibility?
07:24What exactly had he gotten himself into here?
07:30Yes,
07:31Hiranishi said,
07:32without as much confidence as he would have hoped.
07:35Tell me, please.
07:37Suzuri's head seemed to fall a little after that,
07:40as though he was disappointed in what he had heard.
07:42In the burden,
07:43it would lead him to pass on.
07:46But the journalist had made his choice,
07:48and now he would have to commit.
07:51Suzuri took another sip of his tea and said,
07:53There's a building on the edge of town.
07:56Well,
07:56not a building,
07:57really,
07:58more of a shack on the end of a long wooden jetty.
08:01I went there once,
08:02when I was a boy with a few friends.
08:04It was an old well house,
08:06once before the war,
08:07and there were always legends about ghosts
08:10and yokai lurking inside.
08:12It became a test of one's metal
08:14to see who was brave enough to take a look inside.
08:17I suppose I passed the test
08:20for all the good it did me.
08:22If you do the very same thing,
08:24Hiranishi,
08:25you'll understand why I paint what I paint.
08:28If you're brave enough, of course.
08:31What's in there?
08:32He asked.
08:33Suzuri said quietly, plainly,
08:35There is a cat.
08:37Now,
08:38the gauntlet had been cast down.
08:40But would Hiranishi,
08:41the journalist with nerves of steel,
08:43actually have the bravery to pick it up?
08:45Perhaps now,
08:46it was too late to even say.
08:48After a night,
08:48where sleep did not come easily,
08:50Hiranishi decided to commit to finding out the truth,
08:53as he had so many times before.
08:55He remembered everything that Suzuri had told him
08:58about the shack on the edge of the village,
08:59which looked every bit as dilapidated
09:02as he'd imagined.
09:03The long reeds fluttered gently in the slight breeze,
09:06but it didn't feel comforting.
09:08Quite the opposite, in fact.
09:10His footfalls felt so heavy
09:12as he approached the shack,
09:13but it was too late to back out now.
09:15He had a camera on him,
09:17just in case this did end up manifesting an article.
09:20Not that he had great hopes of that now.
09:23The door had long since fallen away,
09:26so the doorway was just a tall rectangle of pure dark.
09:29All he'd need to do was lean inside,
09:32snap a few pics,
09:33and leave.
09:34Perhaps then he'd understand
09:36the root of Suzuri's artistic obsession.
09:38When he leaned into the shack,
09:40somehow not daring to step all the way inside,
09:43he saw little more than the dusty ruins
09:45of what had once been a well house,
09:47just like he'd been told.
09:49How disappointing.
09:50The tension deflated,
09:52and he raised his camera to take a few photos,
09:54the first bathing the room
09:56in the stark bright white of the camera flash.
09:59Then, he saw it.
10:00Like it crawled right out of the painting,
10:03its face hairless and misshapen,
10:05those ugly two human eyes staring right at him.
10:08The only phrase that went through his mind was,
10:11there is a cat.
10:12And there it was,
10:14looking right at him.
10:16He lunged back out of the building
10:17and ran down the jetty,
10:19filled with genuine terror
10:20for reasons that he couldn't even really understand.
10:23Stranger still,
10:24when he later checked the photos,
10:25he saw that the warehouse was empty.
10:28He was a hundred percent positive
10:29that he'd seen the cat in the shack.
10:31But if it was in there,
10:33and illuminated by the flash,
10:35surely it would have been captured
10:37within the frame, wouldn't it?
10:39Suzuri refused to see him in the days after,
10:42claiming that he was unwell,
10:43and it would be best for him
10:45to not take any visitors.
10:47Soon enough,
10:48the time came for Hiranishi
10:49to return to work back in Tokyo,
10:51but he couldn't escape this sinking feeling
10:53that he'd taken something back with him.
10:56Do you think he still would have made
10:58all the same choices,
10:59if he'd known that he was absolutely right?
11:02The next days played out
11:04like a kind of protracted mental breakdown,
11:07for reasons he couldn't articulate.
11:09Ever since returning from Norari,
11:11Hiranishi felt on edge,
11:13jumping at shadows.
11:14Why did it feel like he was seeing that cat everywhere,
11:18always haunting his peripheral vision
11:20like some permanent defect in his corneas?
11:23But of course,
11:24every time he turned around,
11:26it was fairy dust.
11:27Nothing.
11:28It kept getting worse.
11:30While on the job,
11:31he could swear he saw
11:32the hideous staring eyes of that cat.
11:34It'd suddenly appear in front of him
11:36and just as quickly be gone.
11:37When people asked him what happened,
11:39he found he could only say,
11:41there is a cat.
11:42But was there?
11:44Had there ever been?
11:45It all came to a head
11:46when Hiranishi was passing a cat cafe near Shibuya
11:49and saw the cats that had all gathered up
11:52against the window.
11:53He froze where he stood.
11:55They all looked like that.
11:57All of them.
11:58The bald faces with huge, staring human eyes.
12:02Every single one of the cats
12:04had been changed into the freakish creature
12:06that had apparently been
12:07the lifetime obsession of Suzuri
12:09ever since he'd wandered into that terrible shack
12:12as a little boy.
12:13Hiranishi would quite literally
12:15never look at a cat the same way again.
12:18That is the way
12:19when you encounter SCP-040-JP,
12:22appropriately entitled,
12:24There is a Cat,
12:25an anomaly centered around this strange little shack
12:27in a certain remote Japanese village
12:29where you may encounter a cat
12:31that looks like no other
12:33if you stare inside.
12:34And if you see it once,
12:35you're guaranteed to see it again.
12:37Not just when you see a regular cat,
12:40but often every time you see a dark shadow.
12:43This was at first considered
12:44to be a pretty standard cognitohazard,
12:46and one that would be easy to contain
12:48given its highly localized point of origin.
12:50until the Foundation discovered
12:52the frightening secondary vector for transmission,
12:55hearing other people talk about SCP-040-JP.
12:59And the scary thing is,
13:01this is even the case
13:02if you're watching a video about it.
13:04So keep an eye on your peripheral vision,
13:06because you might just see
13:08a familiar face waiting there.
13:10The Foundation discovered this the hard way
13:13when there was a containment breach
13:15in Site-8120,
13:17and the entire staff was infected
13:19by there-is-a-cat visions.
13:21Thankfully, nobody died,
13:23but every single member of staff
13:25had to be given amnestics
13:26and was released from Foundation employment.
13:28As such, considerable precautions are taken
13:31to make sure that nobody else is exposed.
13:34But for the fine art lovers out there,
13:36you might still encounter
13:37a Zizuri painting in the wild.
13:39And if you do,
13:40I can guarantee one thing,
13:42you'll have plenty reminders.
13:46Now check out
13:47Is There Anything These Killer Whales Won't Do?
13:49SCP-2085, The Black Rabbit Company.
13:52And is SCP-999 no longer the cutest SCP?
13:55SCP-529, Josie the Half Cat.
13:58For more.

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