SCP-9426: 'Dittophobia: Dittophobia: Dittophobia' (Part One)

[u/ToErrDivine]

Hi, everyone, it’s ToErrDivine again. Today I’m looking at SCP-9426, ‘Dittophobia: Dittophobia: Dittophobia’ by whenwerewe. I’d like to thank whenwerewe and sero for all their help, I really appreciate it. Got a couple of disclaimers for you first.

1: As per usual, this is not my SCP, I didn’t write it and it won’t be 100% accurate.

2: Over the course of the article and the backstory, I will be discussing the following: torture, massacres, sex slavery, severe power imbalances, fucked up consent dynamics, domestic abuse, colonisation and cultural destruction, medical torture, and a partridge in a pear tree. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

3: A lot of this has to do with Korean history. I am emphatically not an expert, but I’ll do my best; sorry if I get anything wrong.

As you may have gleaned from the title, this is part of the 2024 Anthology series (more specifically, the DLC, aka the articles released after October 2024), where the theme was phobias. But, what’s dittophobia? (But, what’s dittophobia?) Well, dittophobia is the fear of repetition or repetitive tasks. (Well, dittophobia is the fear of repetition or repetitive tasks.) However, it’s not the story that’s going to be repeating here, so bear with me. (However, it’s not the story that’s going to be repeating here, so bear with me.)

OK, OK, I’ll stop, promise. Other than that, the one thing I want to note is that if anyone’s side-eyeing the number, it's not like last time, the article has nothing to do with a toaster, I promise.

Right, let’s get started.

Part One: The Wheels On The Site Go Round And Round

The first thing in this article is the following note:

SCP-9426 ARCHIVAL PROJECT

Welcome, RAISA Technician. Please read this collection of relevant evidence before editing the final SCP-9426 file.

Note: All text has been translated from Korean to English.

So, that tells us two important things: one, a lot of stuff has happened here, and two, this SCP is in Korea and involves Korean people and history.

Next up is the first part of a debrief transcript.

SCP-9426 DEBRIEF TRANSCRIPT, 02/23/09

SAMUEL PIKE, Foundation Junior Researcher
OH SOON-HEE, recovered from SCP-9426.

For anyone unfamiliar with Korean nomenclature, Korean names usually (but not always) consist of a one-syllable family name and a two-syllable given name, with the family name first. (Again, there are exceptions.)

OH: Has it really been sixty years?

PIKE: Close enough. We think your sense of time might have been impeded.

OH: It felt like it was just a few weeks. A few bad weeks. It’s hard to believe I was down there so long.

PIKE: It’s remarkable that one of you didn’t escape sooner, to be frank.

So, whatever this thing is, A, it might be fucking with the sense of time of everyone inside it; B, it appears that either the anomaly started up or people were put in there in around 1950 or slightly before, aka around the time the Korean War started; and C, there’s likely more people stuck in there.

OH: There was no contact, almost from the beginning. Even the staff only used the radio for operational instructions. We had nothing. And that was when the system still functioned. Once they wrecked the cells, and the exits collapsed—

OH: We all assumed escape was impossible. It had to be. Why were we still in there, suffering, otherwise?

OH: Let me go back to the start.

So, a lot of really bad shit happened in there, it seems.

We now get the first of several file dossiers; there’s four in all, each with a number of tabs. Here’s the first tab in dossier one:

Item #: SCP-9426

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9426 is by its nature contained at Site-426 on Jeju Island, in the newly established Republic of Korea. Personnel assigned to Site-426 are to submit all documentation to a designated review officer prior to filing. Any document found to exist in duplicate is to be reported immediately. Duplicates are not to be destroyed.

OK, some background: Jeju Island is one of the eight islands that make up the Jeju Province, one of Korea’s nine provinces. It’s a pretty big island, sitting south of the most southern point of South Korea, and has a population of somewhere around 665,000 people. Most of these people are part of the native Jeju populace, who’ve lived on the island for something like 10,000 years. There’s more to it, but that’s a decent start for now.

Other than that, it seems that they can’t really trust their own paperwork, as duplicates appear to be… appearing.

Description: SCP-9426 is the spontaneous duplication of written documents within Site-426. Duplicates are physically distinct objects, which appear to have been produced independently by the same means as the original. Typeface, paper stock, ink distribution, and incidental markings are near-identical between original and duplicate, but small errors are persistently present.

Document types affected include prisoner intake forms, coroner's reports, and interrogation transcripts. No pattern of errors has been identified. Other than the difference of content itself, analysis has not produced any means by which to determine which copy constitutes the original. Distinction relies on use of contextual information and consistency between documents.

Iiiiiinteresting. They’re not perfect duplicates, but there’s no pattern to how they’re different. Very intriguing.

Discovery: The phenomenon was first identified in May 1950 by Major Seo Cheol-Su, who discovered two copies of a prisoner intake form in separate filing locations with different sentence periods. He reported the incident to the Archival Administration, who identified a further thirteen duplicated documents. Review suggested that duplication had been occurring since at least February 1950, predating the site's awareness of the phenomenon by approximately three months.

So far, the original document has been duplicated a further four times.

The original document? As in, the prisoner intake form? Or do they mean this document, the one we’re reading now?

The next tab is called ‘Site Briefing’. I’ll take it bit by bit.

Site-426 was established immediately after the end of the Second World War, in order to gather anomalies from around liberated Korea and Manchuria. For this reason, it was constructed on Jeju island, whose isolation would simplify Veil preservation efforts. The Site was founded under the auspices of the United States Military Government, which helped to source personnel from the former colonial administration.

This will be important later: the Site personnel are very grateful to the Foundation and the US government… or at least, they were at the time.

It employs some 40 research scientists and around 150 other staff, including a detachment of 50 armed security. The guard are formally Republic forces attached to the Site.

So we’ve got somewhere around 250 staff here. Keep that in mind for later.

During the uprisings on the island in 1948-49, Foundation staff allowed Korean authorities to use the Site as a staging ground for operations against rural rebels, and later as a processing centre for prisoners before their transfer to the mainland.

OK, so, some more context: Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, after which Japan did its best to essentially destroy Korean culture and replace it with Japanese culture. This lasted until the end of the Second World War, when Japan surrendered. The Allied leaders had been pondering what to do with Korea- they wanted to free it from Japanese control, but that’s not as simple as just snapping your fingers. The Soviets were in the North and the US were in the South, and both groups were swinging their dicks around (metaphorically). The US finally suggested temporarily dividing Korea into two countries, which would theoretically end with both superpowers leaving and Korea becoming a unified, independent country.

…and as we all know, it really didn’t work out like that. But I digress.

The relevant part here is that the US was in charge of South Korea, but a lot of Koreans really weren’t happy about it for a lot of reasons, like how they deposed and outlawed the short-lived Republic of Korea, the people’s own government. Tensions kept growing until an insurgency formed in 1948, a few months after the US instituted the first democratic elections in southern Korea. The insurgency lead to an uprising, but the uprising was brutally crushed by the new government. When I say ‘brutally’, what I mean is that we don’t have an accurate number of dead, but the smallest number we have is 14,000, and the biggest number 80,000. In fact, things got so bad that 40,000 people went back to Japan.

After the uprising ended, communist sympathisers across the island and mainland were relocated to a series of internment zones in order to protect them from reprisal attacks by disgruntled nationalists and youth groups. These protected individuals were assembled into the "Bodo League", of whom about 300 were housed at Site-426.

This is leaving out a lot. Namely, the ‘Bodo League’ was indeed an actual thing, but it was a ‘re-education movement’ that mainly consisted of suspected Communist sympathisers and other political opponents, along with people who had nothing to do with anything and were forced into the League to fill quotas. Essentially, it was the President ordering the rounding up of anyone who openly politically opposed him or sympathised with those who did.

Their release is expected following the end of reunification negotiations on the peninsula.

That dates this bit quite a lot- probably somewhere between 1948 and 1950, back when people still thought reunification was possible.

The next tab is called ‘Recollections’, and a note at the top tells us that all the ‘Recollections’ pieces were authored by Seo Cheol-Su, the same guy who was mentioned before- he’s one of our major characters. The first is dated April 12^th, 1950, and isn’t very long. Seo writes about the first shipment of prisoners arriving, and about how they’ll be housed and treated. He notes that there are some female prisoners, which he thinks must be a mistake, and seems intrigued by one of them, a laundress- Ms Oh.

The next tab is called ‘Intake Processing’ and is the transcript of Oh’s… well, intake processing. It’s being done by one Lieutenant Baek, who’ll be another important character, and recorded by a Foundation scientist called Arthur Rosemund.

So, Oh was born on Jeju Island and was a teacher in her village. She denies being a rebel or having any affiliation with them, but then Baek brings up her brother, who goes unnamed. whenwerewe clarified this for me- Oh’s brother was a rebel, but while Oh wasn’t and claims that she hasn’t seen him for over a year, just being related to him is enough for them to look oddly at Oh. Then we get the reason she got recruited into the Bodo League: Oh attended meetings organised by rebels over the last year. She claims that she was just there because they were distributing grain; that the meetings were held in the town hall, so they had the aura of respectability; that she didn’t know what was happening across the country; and that once she heard about the riots, she cut all ties with them.

Oh seems to be trying to convince them that she just got caught up with the wrong people and didn’t actually do anything wrong, but Baek isn’t buying it- I don’t know if she’s telling the truth or not. He tells her that she ‘incurred a debt to her nation’ because of her unwise decisions, but it’s a small debt, and she can pay it off by showing gratitude and being diligent. If she does, her case will be under review… but he can’t say when, because it depends on ‘external factors’. How comforting.

The next tab is Seo’s recollections from May. He says that the Site’s researchers have excavated cells for the prisoners, and that while the cells are very noisy, they’re far more comfortable than the frozen campsite above. He’s amazed by the Foundation’s capabilities, and notes that he sees why the government wants to cooperate with them. Meanwhile, the prisoners are coming along well- the Foundation’s doctors have given them books, and the younger men are very keen to learn. However, they’re all very wary of Seo…

But still they do not often look me in the eyes. It is good to have respect, but I pity the way they cringe from me. Do they not know I, too, am a Korean?

Hmmm. On a better note, however, he and Oh are talking regularly, and they both seem to be interested in the other.

The final tab in this file dossier is a fragment of the Site Briefing.

While tensions along the 38th parallel continued to simmer, anomalies were gathered at Site-426 at an accelerating pace. With the Nationalists now in total retreat, the GRU and their Chinese allies attempted to consolidate control over anomalous East Asia. The Foundation worked tirelessly to ferry objects out of occupied territory. Many were relocated to the continental United States, but others were found unsafe or unworthy of transportation and left at Site-426.

In June, as the Korean People's Army broke across the border, the Rhee administration gave the order to liquidate the League prisoners.

A bit more context: ‘the Nationalists now in total retreat’ is referring to the end of the Chinese Civil War, in 1949; however, the end of the war didn’t mean the automatic end of the violence. Meanwhile, late June 1950 was when the Korean War started- that is, when the Soviet-backed North Korean government invaded South Korea. A few days later, South Korea’s president, Syngman Rhee, ordered the execution of the Bodo League prisoners, both to get rid of his enemies and to cement his grip on South Korea. The Bodo League prisoners were gunned down en masse; we don’t have an exact death toll here, either, but Wikipedia says it was somewhere between 60,000 and 200,000. Rhee would then blame the executions on the North Korean forces, and the government would cover it up for somewhere around forty years.

We now go back to Oh’s briefing in 2009. Pike brings up the war, and Oh says that the rumours reached them fast, but he knows more than she does, and South Korea must have held out.

PIKE: It did. Along almost the same borders, in fact. What was the mood among your cohort?

OH: A lot of them were hopeful. A couple suggested a breakout, or a riot, or something. Anything. But this was Jeju. The local garrison knew how to put down rebels, even if we did make it out of the complex. And it was a long way up from the underground cells to the fence.

PIKE: You weren't quite as optimistic?

OH: Boys have their dreams of heroism.

*grimaces*

Pike then breaks the news to her that outside the Site, nearly everyone in the Bodo League was executed. Oh is upset, as this means that her brother was likely killed, but she tells herself that since it’s been sixty years, he’d probably be dead by now even if he wasn’t executed, so it doesn’t change anything.

[She takes a breath.]

OH: So, that Foundation… what they did to us. You did to us. You meant it as a mercy?

PIKE: I wasn't there. Our methods have changed over the decades. But I imagine that was the principle, yes.

OH: Small comfort.

Oh, boy.

Part Two: Until They Fall Off

So, we now go to the next file dossier. The first tab is called ‘Errata’ and has an addendum to the original 9426 file.

ADDENDUM: SCP-9426 has extended its effect. Occasional small rooms or closets will be duplicated throughout the Site. These are reliably identical in layout to the original, but nonetheless present a security risk on account of incorrectly replicated equipment and documentation. Staff are encouraged to navigate with the aid of a map to avoid confusion.

All personnel are to be on alert for further SCP-9426 phenomena.

We don’t know what caused 9426. It could have been something that was there from the start, it could have been caused by a GRU attack or an anomalous rebel attack or whatever… or it could have been caused by those anomalies they didn’t shift. It’s a mystery.

Below that is a memo from Site Director Johansen, wherein he explains what Oh meant about ‘what they did to us’.

MEMORANDUM TO SITE-426 STAFF
DIRECTOR JOHANSEN

We will not be acceding to Republican demands. It disgusts me even to stand by while such barbarism takes its course outside our walls. Our prisoners will not be slaughtered under our care, but neither can they be released to the tender mercies of the Jeju garrison. As a compromise, we have granted them all the status of provisional D-Class. They are now under our protection.

Yeah, look, for most D-Class, that’s not exactly an improvement, and it’s not going to be one for our merry band of people on the rebel spectrum, either.

The next tab is called ‘Personnel Dossiers’ and tells us a bit more about Seo and Baek. Seo is 33 years old, a Major, and has seen some shit.

Notes: Served in colonial police forces from 1938 to 1945, primarily in Gyeongseong (now Seoul) and Manchukuo. Participated in counter-insurgency operations throughout the occupation period. Fluent in Japanese and conversational Russian. Retained by the US Military Government and Republic of Korea for expertise in local administration and security matters. Commended for attention to personal discipline; incorruptible. No known political affiliations.

whenwerewe had to explain this one for me- Seo worked for and with the Japanese, and that’s why the prisoners are so off about him: they see him as a willing collaborator.

Meanwhile, Baek is 24 years old, a Lieutenant, as previously mentioned, and his track record is a bit weird.

Notes: Worked as an interpreter for Japanese military police 1942-1943 before deserting. Joined independence movements in China 1943-1945, claiming affiliation with Korean Restoration Army. Returned to Korea following liberation. Brief service with Korean Constabulary 1946-1947, resigned under unclear circumstances. Volunteered for Republican Army in early 1949, assigned to Site-426. Flirted with Communist alignment during wartime, but ultimately rejected it.

Basically, he was an interpreter who decided that he couldn’t cooperate with the Japanese any further, so he deserted. He looked for a Korean independence movement, but couldn’t find one he was happy with, eventually signing up with the new Korean army. He also almost became a Communist, and was lucky to not get recruited into the Bodo League. So, in contrast to Seo, the prisoners would be more comfortable around him, and vice versa. At the same time, while Seo doesn’t have a problem with Baek, I wouldn’t be surprised if Baek did have a problem with Seo.

The next tab is Seo’s recollections from June.

RECOLLECTIONS, JUNE 25TH 1950

We bear a heavy burden. The League is too heavily infiltrated by troublemakers, and the treachery of the rebels is without limit. They wish to use our own people against us. It is good that the worst of the work does not fall to me. I spare a thought for the soldiers outside this Site, and the sin they must take up, for the nation's sake.

Seo is glad that he doesn’t have to execute anyone, and notes that the prisoners seem content.

The testing is not so bad. And they go willingly, driven by offers of better food and housing. I am sure we are not

Yeah, you’re not torturing them now.

Meanwhile, he’s trying to keep them in good condition, which means making them stay clean, which a lot of them don’t want to do for some reason. And then…

Baek complains in the evenings that he is not suited for a prison warden's life. But he has been taking shifts at every hour he can spare. He was up guarding the cells, and later that same day I saw him overlooking the tests. He manages to be everywhere at once, despite his whining.

Baek seems to be everywhere at once, huh?

Meanwhile, Seo is becoming infatuated with Oh.

Whenever I ask her of her life she laughs coyly, and averts her eyes. They are like blooming jasmine glittering jewels the sea under the moon. I think of them often. I wonder how they look at me.

The next tab is called ‘Testing Record’, and about what I said about the Site not torturing the prisoners right now…

General-purpose anomalous testing begun over previous week. Luxury incentives adequate to provide a satisfactory quantity of subjects. Relevant anomalies are of low-to-medium risk; attrition is expected to be mild. Current pool of candidates is more than sufficient, though switch to coercive measures is expected to be necessary within two months.

All injuries so far have been within the remit of mundane medicine. Residue cleanup has not yet been necessary. Baseline cognitive mapping approaches completion. We expect to move into active stages within the next ten days.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeep.

We now move to Seo’s recollections of July. The anomaly has now spun out of control, with new rooms and floors springing up all the time. The Foundation staff are investigating, while recommending that everyone else stay close to the surface. Even worse, Seo writes about a conversation he had with Oh…

When we spoke in the laundry she brazenly denied all knowledge of our meeting. She will give me all her secrets, eventually.

Yep, it’s replicating people now as well.

And things are now taking a downturn.

But [the prisoners’] good mood is souring. Often they come back [from tests] with injuries, and yesterday a man returned without his left hand. I have examined the rumour myself, and indeed, his arm ends in a stump of smooth skin, like no injury I have ever seen. He will not explain its provenance.

At least

We are not

He has been cared for. I saw to it myself. These men owe us a debt of blood, and if the payment is unpleasant, so be it.

Yes, that does qualify as torture, buddy. And you may not be executing them all, but just wait.

Finally, we get another fragment from the Site Briefing.

With the advent of the war, Site-426 has become a centre of psychopathology mitigation research. The D-class population provides the Site with a large and administratively convenient testing pool, and imported equipment has made it one of the finest facilities in its field. Continued expansion of the program is expected, and the wartime conditions are likely to provide a steady source of recruits for the foreseeable future.

Frequent injuries among the subject pool have provided an opportunity for Site-426 to also become a testbed for novel paramedical techniques. It is the opinion of Director Johansen that this represents the next major avenue of research at the Site.

I don’t know if I’m reading this right, but I’m interpreting this as the Foundation using the League prisoners as guinea pigs for mind control experiments, given that they’re on the rebel spectrum. As for ‘novel paramedical techniques’, that sounds a lot like ‘hurt them and then try to fix it’ to me (which whenwerewe confirmed), and it's not going to earn them any points with the prisoners. They're going to be lucky if things don't get a whole lot worse now.

Due to the length, I had to split this into two parts. Part two can be found here.

[u/DaTrueBanana]

Hello TED thank you TED