SCP Foundation

SCP-XXXX is a large, ancient obsidian glass mirror recovered from England in the early 20th century. It grants incredible power to the man that uses it through the human sacrifice of women. There is something of a Memetic/Antimemetic feedback loop created as a result.

The victims of SCP-XXXX's user are essentially erased from existence and their strengths, knowledge, skills, and experiences are appropriated by the man that uses the mirror. Their acquisition is a Memetic effect, while erasure is an Antimemetic effect: in that all traces of these victims are removed from memory, graphic, oral, and written records. This affects even SCP reports in the form of expunging: to the point where personnel such as Researchers and even the O5 Council staff know SCP-XXXX's victims are deceased, but can't declassify, or even find the information on them. Only the memory of SCP-XXXX's user remains unaffected. The only other sign that these victims existed is through a distorted, collage of their reflections in the glass of SCP-XXXX whenever others approach it. The user will only see his most ideal self.

The effect of the object on the user is Memetic and cumulative. They can sacrifice as many women, and absorb all of their intellectual and mnemonic capacities as possible. Users of SCP-XXXX claim that they are compelled to use the object, but upon further questioning it is made clear that this is the result of narcissistic projection and self-delusion on their parts. SCP-XXXX is simply medium for their own baser impulses: an excuse to gain more power and dominance, or becoming "larger." Usually, the users often devolve into victim-blaming, claiming their victims wanted them to kill them or were asking for it. As such, the reports on the SCP-XXXX have more emphasis and details on its users than its victims.

Perhaps an interview of two former users, one possibly former Foundation personnel, will bring this out: with one clearly rationalizing and self-justifying their murders as blaming the SCP or their victims, and another admitting that they claimed compulsion out of guilt.

I also am toying with the idea of making it more relatable by subverting the technical form of the SCP format by making the researcher write his article in first person and gradually revealing that he has experimenting with the object: with other staff after the fact annotating it by stating he committed this acts beyond proper protocol.

SCP-XXXX is to be covered by a blanket and have its own room. As such, it is Safe. Male and male-identifying personnel are to either be kept away from SCP-XXXX and/or allowed to test only under group supervision with Class-D personnel.

Here are the questions I have been asking myself: Should the people that gain the mirror take the skills and experiences of the women sacrificed to it? Does it do something else? How do they know how to do this at all: through the entity in the mirror? More importantly, just how does the Foundation find it or how does anyone realize what it is? And why would the Foundation even allow this SCP to be tested at all? If anything, it sounds like something with which the Chaos Insurgency would be actively experimenting. And, for that matter, has anyone attempted to shatter this Mirror before?

One possibility I have been playing with is that there is an entity in SCP-XXXX, SCP-XXXX-1 that appears as the potential user's ideal state communicating with them telepathically and offering them power: appealing to what is already there in the potential user. I was also considering that there was some kind of rite and ritual involved with the human sacrifices, something that may have inspired and been emulated by other kingdoms and empires throughout history.

This ritual could involve decapitation and disembowelment of the victim: symbolizing the acquisition of the brain and the womb. The bodies themselves become unidentifiable due to SCP-XXXX's anomalous effects and perhaps it can even be placed into it: as its surface can become porous.

I was thinking that the Mirror itself was made in Mesopotamia and used by the ancient self-styled god-kings to usurp knowledge and power from former matriarchal priestesses — in a twisted homage to Marduk slaying Tiamat. This lore doesn't have to be included in the article, of course, but just something for me to allude to, or keep in mind as I write out the rest of it.

I was also toying with another idea that when Foundation personnel were testing SCP-XXXX for some reason, they wanted to see if the user's sexuality or even their gender played a role in the feedback cycle. They determined that the effect of sexuality was non-applicable, and that while traditionally it was male or masculine users that gained power from sacrificing female or feminine victims, certain pathological or toxic traits could develop and become more pronounced in staff members of other genders after a certain period of time: perhaps due to patriarchal or kyriarchical social and cultural programming. But this is murkier, and the concept such as it is may be tenuous at best.

As for the physical effects, perhaps a slow down, reversal or even a halt to the ageing process if you sacrifice enough people? Maybe people begin to resemble their ideal selves, this could have all kinds of implications, like someone born a man, completely changing sex? A furry becoming their fictional furry sona? A cripple becoming strong and capable of walking? Maybe have one female member of staff reprimanded for using the mirror to give herself a particularly busty figure? Backstory-wise the mirror could have been part of some exclusive club for the elite/wealthy that used its abilities for their own gain. Unfortunately for them, they happened to unwittingly kidnap a member of the Foundation. Probably a member of an SCP retrieval team who escaped and got backup after witnessing the mirror in use. The Foundation seizing it before it could be moved, but were unable to kill or capture the other members of the club. Who had already left, their ignorant staff moving the SCP out of the building for them.

I like your idea of one of the people using the mirror to be the one, writing the SCP page. I also like the idea of an entity inside the mirror, each person sees their ideal version of themselves when speaking to it. I imagine it can talk to multiple people and appears to each of them, as their ideal reflection. I think you could have it come off as a neutral entity that accepts the sacrifices and grants these rewards, or have it be an entity that encourages but never demands or forces its users to make sacrifices. Simply preying on good old human greed and ambition. It probably makes the effect/physical changes feel good to further encourage sacrifices. I imagine the people the Foundation took it form, want it back and have organised powerful raids to try and retrieve it. I'm thinking private militias and mercenaries. Anomalous agents and entities, and even inserting their own agents, to retrieve the mirror. The last one could be the person writing the SCP article.

I like the idea of absorbing traits or skills from people. But it runs the risk of making it a power fantasy SCP. I think keeping it to creating the ideal version of a person is probably the best route to take. Maybe throw in some passive effects, like the age related stuff or becoming harder to kill. Cause it wants its users to stay alive and keep bringing it more sacrifices. Also some test logs should be added, like trying to use animal sacrifices. And attempts to damage the mirror, proving unsuccessful due to a shield it can generate? Or attacks simply phasing through it.

Something about the ideal self-image aspect of this reminds me of The Portrait of Dorian Grey, which presents a possible direction for growing horror; instead of being able to see all the trapped spirits from the start, and having to be a fairly horrible person who chooses to ignore them and gradually hyperfocuses on themselves, I think it would be more effective to have the positive self-image initially be the only one visible, and to start with just encouragement and effective advice, being the world's most effective life coach, until the target brings a woman within range of absorption.

Once this first victim is absorbed, her image appears in the mirror as well, and the main persona takes on a darker tone, pointing out the benefits the target has received, and possibly threatening to let people remember the victim if the target doesn't comply with future requests. The carrot and stick approach would keep the sacrifices coming, and some combination of Stockholm Syndrome, denial, and PTSD would cause a tunnel-vision effect in which the target gradually stops seeing the growing number of additional reflections, or just stops seeing it as a bad thing. Both the benefits of youth, etc., gained from the sacrifices, and the growing psychopathy would be visible objectively, even if the victims themselves could not be documented.

Also, I think the origin of the thing could be very interesting. There are a number of very nasty deities/spirits in old South American traditions that would probably love to expend some of their power to something along these lines, and the fact that it is obsidian would fit for something back then. The specificity of such deities would also explain why only men are targets and women victims.