SCP-2188 by The SCP Foundation Lyrics
Item #: SCP-2188
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Anomalous activity related to SCP-2188 has ceased as of 29 July 1998. In accordance with safety procedures, SCP-2188 maintains an active Euclid classification until the cautionary minimal observation period expires in 2023. In the unlikely event of a resumption of SCP-2188 activity, personnel are instructed to notify the director of Site-41, as well as the Sector G Transreality Artwork Research Collective (S-TARC), immediately.
While local assets have not been deemed necessary for containment of SCP-2188 at this time, Agent Roberto Esquivel is currently stationed in Dotson, Nebraska, United States as part of a special post-retirement assignment and is available on an as-needed basis.
Description: SCP-2188 was an anomalous relationship between an individual in Uruguay and the residents of a town in the United States. This relationship comprised the following:
Joaquín Pablo Izquierdo de San Felipe, a semi-transient person residing primarily in Montevideo, Uruguay during his lifetime. Mr. Izquierdo is believed to have been born in 1943, in an unnamed village in the Department of Treinta y Tres, Uruguay. No reliable documentation exists of Mr. Izquierdo prior to 1961, when Uruguyan authorities issued him a work permit.
Mr. Izquierdo came to the attention of Foundation assets based in the Buenos Aires Regional Office in 1965, when he was arrested by Uruguay's Interior Police for attempting to smuggle live specimens of the Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine into Argentina. This coincided with a file report of an individual in the United States region of Nebraska conducting what was termed a "performance art" demonstration of an extended tango dance routine while his partner pierced him thirty-three times with porcupine quills.
Several attempts at containment were made once researchers understood the causal effects Mr. Izquierdo's actions had on residents of the town of Dotson, Nebraska, United States. Observation and several experiments determined that allowing Mr. Izquierdo to live a relatively normal life while being protected from severe harm (sometimes logically expected from his actions) was the most likely course of action to minimize potentially harmful actions among residents of Dotson and prevent widespread public knowledge of SCP-2188. Agent Roberto Esquivel was accordingly assigned as a clandestine overseer for Mr. Izquierdo in 1967.
Over the next several decades, Mr. Izquierdo lived itinerantly throughout the various barrios of Montevideo, becoming known to local residents as a benevolent vagrant (as well as a noted eccentric), most likely to be involved with the city's more impoverished residents, orphaned children, and street artists. Between the efforts of Agent Esquivel and Mr. Izquierdo's support in the community, containment was preserved until Mr. Izquierdo's death in 1998, with minimal negative impacts to the town of Dotson.
The town of Dotson, Nebraska, United States, a rural farming community of 5,137 residents1. From no later than 1965 to 1998, significant events occurring in the life of Joaquín Pablo Izquierdo de San Felipe would affect the mental state of the town's residents. This relationship appears to have ceased with the death of Mr. Izquierdo in 1998.
The effects of Mr. Izquierdo's actions on residents of Dotson primarily took the form of impulses towards artistic or creative endeavors, though in some cases the extreme nature of several artworks could be classed as a form of temporary mental illness2. As a sum result of Mr. Izquierdo's anomalous influence, the town of Dotson was host to a sophisticated artistic subculture, one that in the findings of S-TARC "greatly exceeds baseline levels of creative development found in comparable population centers and cultural regions3". This subculture has become inculcated in the social conventions of the town, and continues to develop subsequent to the death of Mr. Izquierdo, albeit in a manner consistent with anthropological norms documented in mainstream science.
SCP-2188 appears to have affected between 15-25% of the population of Dotson. Preliminary reports indicated a much higher affected population; however, S-TARC studies in the 1970s determined that residents' higher-than-expected receptiveness to artistic works (including those of a radical nature) was a natural result of exposure to the elevated level of creative activity in the town. Despite the noteworthiness achieved by Dotson in local and national media due to Mr. Izquierdo's anomalous influence, the discovery of the true nature of SCP-2188 was deemed to be a minimal security risk. As such, no containment procedures were deemed necessary in Dotson.
In accordance with Directive 2188-03.17, Mr. Izquierdo is interred in Misty Veil Cemetery, located 2 km outside of Dotson town limits.
Addendum 2188.1 - Reports from Agent Roberto Esquivel
Researcher's Note: Between 1967 and 1998, Agent Roberto Esquivel served in Montevideo, Uruguay as the primary source of containment for SCP-2188. Agent Esquivel filed a series of reports during that time. A representative sample of these reports are reproduced here for the purposes of this file. Refer to Appendix A for the unabridged record of Agent Esquivel's reports.
===SYSTEM NOTICE=== PERSONNEL PREFERENCES REFERENCED AND LOGGED. TRANSLATING PRIMARY DOCUMENTATION FROM SPANISH to ENGLISH
Field Report 2188.1 - Introductions
Date: 17 April 1967
Summary: Agent Esquivel, per the terms of containment set by the Research Director, establishes a relationship with Joaquín Pablo Izquierdo de San Felipe. This is intended to facilitate future contacts, build trust with the subject, and enable efforts to protect the subject from undue harm and therefore ensure relative normalcy for the residents of Dotson.
Result: Successful action
ACCESS GRANTED
Agent Comments: After poring over the dossier for weeks, I finally met Mr. Izquierdo face-to-face at Chito's, a scummy little bar in Malvín Norte where the students like to hang out and the bums drink whenever they can scrounge up a few pesos. I resolved to gain Mr. Izquierdo's favor in the traditional way.
"A beer for my friend here," I called to the barman as I sat next to the subject. Mr. Izquierdo had none of it.
"Ah, a generous accountant, you are" he said to me. My suit was a poor choice, in retrospect. "No, I shall buy you a drink, because this isn't a beer night." He motioned to the barman, who brought us a large mate with two straws. To my surprise, in a place like this, they were silver.
The subject handed me a straw. "To introductions, my new friend." We both sipped the brewed leaves and I felt the caffeine rush wonderfully to my head. I admit, I love mate, and I didn't question the odd choice for evening drinks.
"You look like a thinker! I like thinkers, they row the other side of my rowboat!" he said as we drank together. "Night is a good time for thinking!"
We made small talk for the rest of the evening. I had expected to work harder at it, given the dossier, but we had much in common, he and I. The mate, dead fathers, a distaste for Borges and a great taste for panchos (Uruguayan hot dogs -Ed.). It was enjoyable.
We resolved to meet again for mate the next week. Containment is off to a good start.
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.1
Title Artists Medium Description
Tea with Strangers Willie John Lincoln Blues Song Performed for the first time at Redfeather's Tavern by Mr. Lincoln, playing unaccompanied on acoustic guitar
Sunrise: Apollo John Grauber Mural, oil paint 6 m tall depiction of the Greek deity Apollo playing the lyre with a sunrise in the background. Painted on the side of a barn belonging to Mr. Grauber's employer
Mount Ararat Rebecca Moorad Short story Unpublished narrative concerning two archaeologists looking for evidence of Noah's Ark trapped together at a dig site by a freak blizzard. The two men, Robert and Paul, initially wary of each other, learn to pool their resources in order to survive. The men share tea, which both have brought in abundance, a crucial plot point in the closing paragraphs of the story.
Field Report 2188.4 - Lalo's Elegy
Date: 23 August 1967
Summary: Mr. Izquierdo requests Agent Esquivel's assistance on an errand in the barrio of La Figurita.
Result: Minor injuries to Agent Esquivel, two civilians subdued with non-lethal weaponry.
+ Access Additional Documentation
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.4
Title Artists Medium Description
Bust of Papi Calvin Medina Sculpture (marble) A bust sculpture depicting Mr. Medina's deceased father, an itinerant farm laborer from Mexico. Mr. Medina suffered severe head injuries in a tractor accident on the same date that Field Report 2188.4 was filed. Mr. Medina recovered as normal, but proceeded to develop an intense interest in sculpture, culminating in this piece.
Guide to the Interworld Carolyn Walsh Dance Performed at the Dotson Masonic Hall for an audience of sixty. Described by Ms. Walsh as a physical representation of Virgil guiding Dante through Hell. Ms. Walsh asked audience members to ingest a small dose of LSD prior to the performance, which most did. Ms. Walsh then encouraged to the audience to "attack" her at the end of the performance. While no serious acts of violence were committed, enough of a disturbance was raised that authorities were notified. Ms. Walsh was subsequently arrested by the Dotson Police Department after the performance; however, no formal charges were filed.
In Memory of Grandmother Moon Bess Five Wolves Comanche medicine ritual/performance art With the assistance of two others, Ms. Five Wolves performed rites based upon traditional Comanche funerary practices to mark "the passing of the moon" in the middle of South Grange Avenue, disrupting afternoon traffic. Consisting of a series of dances, chants, ceremonial tobacco use, and other activities, the ritual lasted two hours, during which motorists left their vehicles to participate in various portions of the performance.
Field Report 2188.15 - The Virgin's Bonfire
Date: 14 November 1976
Summary: Agent Esquivel accompanies Mr. Izquierdo on a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Florida as part of the traditional Uruguayan veneration of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three.
Result: International incident between the United States of America and Uruguay. Foundation Department of External Affairs later negotiates resolution between the two nations with no lasting repercussions.
ACCESS GRANTED
Agent Comments: Is Pablo a religious man? I still cannot tell, though he gets into enough trouble to be classified as a saint some day.
I drove into Conciliación, where Pablo had found his most recent rooftop dwelling, and found him waiting in front of the library. He jumped into the old dented-up Site-issue pickup truck, carrying a heroically-sized jug of Medio y Medio, and we sped away. And if in the course of leaving Montevideo we banged into a few road signs as we wrestled with the jug of wine, what the hell. A few more dents.
Pablo drank more than his half of the Medio y Medio of course, and told me all about the CIA contacts he had talked up before this pilgrimage. It is my business, of course, to know who is CIA, who is KGB, who is whatever in Montevideo, so I knew Pablo was full of shit, but in the spirit of the Blessed Virgin I let him have his fun. We stopped at what felt like every village along the way out to the country, where Pablo jumped out and reinforced our wine supplies, while urging everyone to come along on the pilgrimage. He must have been spending quite some time doing this before we left even, because the road became more and more crowded the closer we came to the Cathedral.
I knew that Pablo had arranged some sort of exhibition in Florida, and I still do not know how he managed to convince the Diocese to let that go on. Perhaps that is an SCP in itself. When we arrived, the plaza in front of the Cathedral was choked with people. They had arrived in the tens of thousands, more than anyone could remember.
The vendors who sell food and drink at the pilgrimage every year were ecstatic at first at the multitudes. Then Pablo emerged from our truck with a bullhorn (where the hell did he get a bullhorn?) and started blaring at the crowd as we drove on. "Do not purchase anything from these thieves! Maintain your holy fast, and manna shall rain down from the heavens this night!" he yelled, over and over. Though I had never expected a crowd of angry food sellers to be the ones to end Pablo, this situation was looking increasingly likely. I knew better by now than to be surprised.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked him, though really I was asking myself, driving this truck along with a loudspeakered maniac who was going to get us stoned to death with hardened bread rolls. Instead of answering, he instead directed me to a large clearing behind the cathedral. We parked nearby, and were greeted with more reinforcements of wine by a group of sculptors I had met previously with Pablo when we were walking through Bañados de Carrasco one night. As we drank and talked (uninterrupted, we had apparently lost the angry food-sellers), they presented to us their handiwork: three large, vaguely human-looking sculptures they called "The Father, The Son, and The Holy Smoke," each at least ten meters tall and made entirely of dry wood and straw. Fire, of course, would be involved.
That night, the time came to light each sculpture and start the towering bonfires. Pablo had invited everyone present to come and watch. I identified very much with these people who had come; I was curious to see the spectacle, and very hungry. Woe betide these sculptors if the show was unimpressive. Thousands of empty stomachs were likely to be harsh critics.
Pablo climbed up on top of the Foundation-issue truck, and with his now ever-present bullhorn, regaled the crowd with a somewhat different version of the legend of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three than I have ever heard (I remember fewer explosions), then commanded the sculptors to light their creations ablaze. The three figures immediately caught, and a trinity of spectacular columns of fire lit the backside of the cathedral and the surrounding clearing.
It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes of this display before we all heard the helicopters. There had to have been at least ten of them, passing over the brightly-lit clearing and the thousands of onlookers. Parcels began raining down on little parachutes, hundreds of them, all over the place. It wasn't long before the crowds tore into them, and Pablo's promised feast from the heavens materialized, courtesy of the United States government, who had very thoughtfully included generous amounts of alcohol of varying kinds. No one of course mentioned that the gathering was not the group of refugees fleeing repression in Argentina that they thought we were, as I was to find out later after I finally managed to roust Pablo from his slumber in the bed of my pickup truck. "Say the right words to the right people and light some beacons" was all he was able to get out as he clutched his head and squinted against the morning light.
I can only conclude that there must be more CIA operatives in Montevideo than we thought.
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.15
Title Artists Medium Description
Thirty-Three Verses of Suffering and Enlightenment Zelda Hughes Poetry A book of thirty-three separate poems, collecting a series of poems read every Monday evening at the Dusty Crossroads Coffee House in downtown Dotson. Themes of sacrifice in the service of larger causes and resulting personal anguish are prevalent.
The Three Burnings of Thích Quảng Đức Steven F. Braddock Novel Self-published narrative concerning Thích Quảng Đức, a Buddhist monk widely known for immolating himself as a form of protest against the policies of the South Vietnamese government. The book concerns Mr. Quảng Đức being reborn after his first self-immolation, and leading the same life over again with the knowledge of his previous life. The narrative consists of Mr. Quảng Đức's various self-justifications of his act, which vary widely over the course of the story, but always result in the same course of action.
Manna from the Heart of Stone Reverend Francis Abernathy Religious sermon4 A highly idiosyncratic sermon by the leader of the town's largest church, delivered outdoors at the burial site of an unidentified vagrant to the assembled congregation. Rev. Abernathy relates the story of Saint Augustus of Topeka, a heretofore-unknown religious figure in Christian theology. Relating the story in the form of a present-day allegory about then-United States Director of Central Intelligence George H.W. Bush, Rev. Abernathy describes a hard-hearted, powerful man, constantly forced into what he considers to be necessary acts of violence and destruction, before being reborn in a secret "trial by the spirit of fire" into an entirely different soul, dedicated instead to a life of generosity and service to the downtrodden. Rev. Abernathy then eulogized the vagrant at whose gravesite the congregation was assembled, claiming to have alone known the man's identity and deeds, but sworn to secrecy about both before he died.
Field Report 2188.31 - A Quiet Day at Home
Date: 28 August 1987
Summary: Mr. Izquierdo invites Agent Esquivel to watch a football match at the home of an acquaintance.
Result: Near-breach of containment of SCP-2188.
+ Access Additional Documentation
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.31
Title Artists Medium Description
After all is said and done all i have is you and myself and you Molly H.R. Yerevan Experimental prose A loosely structured narrative consisting of first-person recounting of the narrator's experiences with a close companion, followed by a series of free-verse poems from what appear to different points of view on a single, unclear event affecting the lives of the narrator and their companion. The narrative is interspersed with several songs. Read at the Arts and Crafts portion of the Dotson Harvest Conclave by Ms. Yerevan.
The Brothers Mann George Hillsong Video presentation A pre-recorded monologue delivered by Mr. Hillsong via three television monitors. Mr. Hillsong, through the use of makeup and prosthetics, appears significantly different on each monitor. The monologue consists of a meditation on the nature of identity, interspersed seemingly at random with footage of a football match between Uruguayan clubs Defensor and Rentistas. Presented at the Dotson Union High School Monthly Art Festival.
I Have Eight Faces The Fading Sky Rock album Minor-label release from Dotson-based rock and roll band The Fading Sky. Continues the band's development of what will come to be known as its trademark post-New Wave, slow tempo synthesizer-heavy sound. Consists of eight tracks, most of which feature subtle punk rock influences. Eighth track contains an additional song commencing 3 minutes and 30 seconds after the end of "Firelight", listed on the rare Japanese release of the album as a ninth song entitled "Pablo Surrounds Himself".
Field Report 2188.48 - Farewells
Date: 29 July 1998
Summary: Agent Esquivel comes to the Hospital de Clínicas in the barrio of Parque Batlle in Montevideo at the request of Mr. Izquierdo, admitted to the hospital a month prior with an advanced case of pancreatic cancer. Agent Esquivel arrives at 0315 hours local time.
Result: Cessation of SCP-2188.
+ Access Additional Documentation
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.48
Title Artists Medium Description
The Remembrance March Residents of Dotson Multimedia An event taking place over several days in early August, 1998. At the suggestion of Roland Nygaard, scoutmaster of Dotson's local Boy Scout troop, residents are spontaneously asked by members of the troop to commemorate those they have lost over the prior year. Thousands of people respond with innumerable songs, paintings, stories, sculptures, and other artworks. At a town hall meeting, residents decide to deposit the collected artwork at an under-utilized columbarium in the nearby Misty Veil Cemetery. Led by an ad hoc marching band made up of eighteen town residents calling themselves the "Town Limits Honor Guard," the entire population of Dotson forms a parade, starting downtown and concluding at Misty Veil Cemetery, carrying the assorted artworks. The works are placed in the columbarium, and the cemetery is host to an impromptu gathering featuring music, contests of artistic skill, and at least 148 documented eulogies for deceased family members and friends.
Addendum 2188.2 - Future Containment Directives
DIRECTIVE 2188-03.17
13 OCTOBER 1998
To minimize the likelihood of resumption of a known anomalous phenomenon, this office accepts the recommendation of Field Agent Roberto Esquivel to inter the remains of PoI 2188-A (Joaquín Pablo Izquierdo de San Felipe) clandestinely at the site of previous manifestations of the anomaly in the United States as a risk reduction measure.
Furthermore, Agent Esquivel is hereby transferred from the Montevideo field office (Site-87) to the base of operations established by S-TARC in the vicinity of Dotson (Site-41). Agent Esquivel is to begin a new assignment assisting S-TARC in documenting and analyzing the continuing development of the art subculture of Dotson.
Finally, I personally commend Agent Esquivel for his thirty-one years of service in successfully containing SCP-2188, and for his continuing commitment to the protection of human civilization, in Dotson and elsewhere. May his forthcoming research on the legacy of PoI 2188-A continue to benefit mankind.
██████ ████████
Director, Site-87
Footnotes
1. As of November 2012.
2. Refer to Department of Science Document 2188-38.b, "Resolution of Divergent Findings from Site-41 and Sector G Transreality Artwork Research Collective."
3. "The Scene in .son: Strange Lights in the Prairie." Foundation Sector G Transreality Artwork Research Collective; 1997, pp.54-55
4. By a vote of 13-8 of S-TARC members, Rev. Abernathy's sermon was deemed to be a work of art, based on its connection to SCP-2188, use of abstract imagery, and audience impact.
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Anomalous activity related to SCP-2188 has ceased as of 29 July 1998. In accordance with safety procedures, SCP-2188 maintains an active Euclid classification until the cautionary minimal observation period expires in 2023. In the unlikely event of a resumption of SCP-2188 activity, personnel are instructed to notify the director of Site-41, as well as the Sector G Transreality Artwork Research Collective (S-TARC), immediately.
While local assets have not been deemed necessary for containment of SCP-2188 at this time, Agent Roberto Esquivel is currently stationed in Dotson, Nebraska, United States as part of a special post-retirement assignment and is available on an as-needed basis.
Description: SCP-2188 was an anomalous relationship between an individual in Uruguay and the residents of a town in the United States. This relationship comprised the following:
Joaquín Pablo Izquierdo de San Felipe, a semi-transient person residing primarily in Montevideo, Uruguay during his lifetime. Mr. Izquierdo is believed to have been born in 1943, in an unnamed village in the Department of Treinta y Tres, Uruguay. No reliable documentation exists of Mr. Izquierdo prior to 1961, when Uruguyan authorities issued him a work permit.
Mr. Izquierdo came to the attention of Foundation assets based in the Buenos Aires Regional Office in 1965, when he was arrested by Uruguay's Interior Police for attempting to smuggle live specimens of the Paraguaian hairy dwarf porcupine into Argentina. This coincided with a file report of an individual in the United States region of Nebraska conducting what was termed a "performance art" demonstration of an extended tango dance routine while his partner pierced him thirty-three times with porcupine quills.
Several attempts at containment were made once researchers understood the causal effects Mr. Izquierdo's actions had on residents of the town of Dotson, Nebraska, United States. Observation and several experiments determined that allowing Mr. Izquierdo to live a relatively normal life while being protected from severe harm (sometimes logically expected from his actions) was the most likely course of action to minimize potentially harmful actions among residents of Dotson and prevent widespread public knowledge of SCP-2188. Agent Roberto Esquivel was accordingly assigned as a clandestine overseer for Mr. Izquierdo in 1967.
Over the next several decades, Mr. Izquierdo lived itinerantly throughout the various barrios of Montevideo, becoming known to local residents as a benevolent vagrant (as well as a noted eccentric), most likely to be involved with the city's more impoverished residents, orphaned children, and street artists. Between the efforts of Agent Esquivel and Mr. Izquierdo's support in the community, containment was preserved until Mr. Izquierdo's death in 1998, with minimal negative impacts to the town of Dotson.
The town of Dotson, Nebraska, United States, a rural farming community of 5,137 residents1. From no later than 1965 to 1998, significant events occurring in the life of Joaquín Pablo Izquierdo de San Felipe would affect the mental state of the town's residents. This relationship appears to have ceased with the death of Mr. Izquierdo in 1998.
The effects of Mr. Izquierdo's actions on residents of Dotson primarily took the form of impulses towards artistic or creative endeavors, though in some cases the extreme nature of several artworks could be classed as a form of temporary mental illness2. As a sum result of Mr. Izquierdo's anomalous influence, the town of Dotson was host to a sophisticated artistic subculture, one that in the findings of S-TARC "greatly exceeds baseline levels of creative development found in comparable population centers and cultural regions3". This subculture has become inculcated in the social conventions of the town, and continues to develop subsequent to the death of Mr. Izquierdo, albeit in a manner consistent with anthropological norms documented in mainstream science.
SCP-2188 appears to have affected between 15-25% of the population of Dotson. Preliminary reports indicated a much higher affected population; however, S-TARC studies in the 1970s determined that residents' higher-than-expected receptiveness to artistic works (including those of a radical nature) was a natural result of exposure to the elevated level of creative activity in the town. Despite the noteworthiness achieved by Dotson in local and national media due to Mr. Izquierdo's anomalous influence, the discovery of the true nature of SCP-2188 was deemed to be a minimal security risk. As such, no containment procedures were deemed necessary in Dotson.
In accordance with Directive 2188-03.17, Mr. Izquierdo is interred in Misty Veil Cemetery, located 2 km outside of Dotson town limits.
Addendum 2188.1 - Reports from Agent Roberto Esquivel
Researcher's Note: Between 1967 and 1998, Agent Roberto Esquivel served in Montevideo, Uruguay as the primary source of containment for SCP-2188. Agent Esquivel filed a series of reports during that time. A representative sample of these reports are reproduced here for the purposes of this file. Refer to Appendix A for the unabridged record of Agent Esquivel's reports.
===SYSTEM NOTICE=== PERSONNEL PREFERENCES REFERENCED AND LOGGED. TRANSLATING PRIMARY DOCUMENTATION FROM SPANISH to ENGLISH
Field Report 2188.1 - Introductions
Date: 17 April 1967
Summary: Agent Esquivel, per the terms of containment set by the Research Director, establishes a relationship with Joaquín Pablo Izquierdo de San Felipe. This is intended to facilitate future contacts, build trust with the subject, and enable efforts to protect the subject from undue harm and therefore ensure relative normalcy for the residents of Dotson.
Result: Successful action
ACCESS GRANTED
Agent Comments: After poring over the dossier for weeks, I finally met Mr. Izquierdo face-to-face at Chito's, a scummy little bar in Malvín Norte where the students like to hang out and the bums drink whenever they can scrounge up a few pesos. I resolved to gain Mr. Izquierdo's favor in the traditional way.
"A beer for my friend here," I called to the barman as I sat next to the subject. Mr. Izquierdo had none of it.
"Ah, a generous accountant, you are" he said to me. My suit was a poor choice, in retrospect. "No, I shall buy you a drink, because this isn't a beer night." He motioned to the barman, who brought us a large mate with two straws. To my surprise, in a place like this, they were silver.
The subject handed me a straw. "To introductions, my new friend." We both sipped the brewed leaves and I felt the caffeine rush wonderfully to my head. I admit, I love mate, and I didn't question the odd choice for evening drinks.
"You look like a thinker! I like thinkers, they row the other side of my rowboat!" he said as we drank together. "Night is a good time for thinking!"
We made small talk for the rest of the evening. I had expected to work harder at it, given the dossier, but we had much in common, he and I. The mate, dead fathers, a distaste for Borges and a great taste for panchos (Uruguayan hot dogs -Ed.). It was enjoyable.
We resolved to meet again for mate the next week. Containment is off to a good start.
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.1
Title Artists Medium Description
Tea with Strangers Willie John Lincoln Blues Song Performed for the first time at Redfeather's Tavern by Mr. Lincoln, playing unaccompanied on acoustic guitar
Sunrise: Apollo John Grauber Mural, oil paint 6 m tall depiction of the Greek deity Apollo playing the lyre with a sunrise in the background. Painted on the side of a barn belonging to Mr. Grauber's employer
Mount Ararat Rebecca Moorad Short story Unpublished narrative concerning two archaeologists looking for evidence of Noah's Ark trapped together at a dig site by a freak blizzard. The two men, Robert and Paul, initially wary of each other, learn to pool their resources in order to survive. The men share tea, which both have brought in abundance, a crucial plot point in the closing paragraphs of the story.
Field Report 2188.4 - Lalo's Elegy
Date: 23 August 1967
Summary: Mr. Izquierdo requests Agent Esquivel's assistance on an errand in the barrio of La Figurita.
Result: Minor injuries to Agent Esquivel, two civilians subdued with non-lethal weaponry.
+ Access Additional Documentation
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.4
Title Artists Medium Description
Bust of Papi Calvin Medina Sculpture (marble) A bust sculpture depicting Mr. Medina's deceased father, an itinerant farm laborer from Mexico. Mr. Medina suffered severe head injuries in a tractor accident on the same date that Field Report 2188.4 was filed. Mr. Medina recovered as normal, but proceeded to develop an intense interest in sculpture, culminating in this piece.
Guide to the Interworld Carolyn Walsh Dance Performed at the Dotson Masonic Hall for an audience of sixty. Described by Ms. Walsh as a physical representation of Virgil guiding Dante through Hell. Ms. Walsh asked audience members to ingest a small dose of LSD prior to the performance, which most did. Ms. Walsh then encouraged to the audience to "attack" her at the end of the performance. While no serious acts of violence were committed, enough of a disturbance was raised that authorities were notified. Ms. Walsh was subsequently arrested by the Dotson Police Department after the performance; however, no formal charges were filed.
In Memory of Grandmother Moon Bess Five Wolves Comanche medicine ritual/performance art With the assistance of two others, Ms. Five Wolves performed rites based upon traditional Comanche funerary practices to mark "the passing of the moon" in the middle of South Grange Avenue, disrupting afternoon traffic. Consisting of a series of dances, chants, ceremonial tobacco use, and other activities, the ritual lasted two hours, during which motorists left their vehicles to participate in various portions of the performance.
Field Report 2188.15 - The Virgin's Bonfire
Date: 14 November 1976
Summary: Agent Esquivel accompanies Mr. Izquierdo on a pilgrimage to the Cathedral of Florida as part of the traditional Uruguayan veneration of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three.
Result: International incident between the United States of America and Uruguay. Foundation Department of External Affairs later negotiates resolution between the two nations with no lasting repercussions.
ACCESS GRANTED
Agent Comments: Is Pablo a religious man? I still cannot tell, though he gets into enough trouble to be classified as a saint some day.
I drove into Conciliación, where Pablo had found his most recent rooftop dwelling, and found him waiting in front of the library. He jumped into the old dented-up Site-issue pickup truck, carrying a heroically-sized jug of Medio y Medio, and we sped away. And if in the course of leaving Montevideo we banged into a few road signs as we wrestled with the jug of wine, what the hell. A few more dents.
Pablo drank more than his half of the Medio y Medio of course, and told me all about the CIA contacts he had talked up before this pilgrimage. It is my business, of course, to know who is CIA, who is KGB, who is whatever in Montevideo, so I knew Pablo was full of shit, but in the spirit of the Blessed Virgin I let him have his fun. We stopped at what felt like every village along the way out to the country, where Pablo jumped out and reinforced our wine supplies, while urging everyone to come along on the pilgrimage. He must have been spending quite some time doing this before we left even, because the road became more and more crowded the closer we came to the Cathedral.
I knew that Pablo had arranged some sort of exhibition in Florida, and I still do not know how he managed to convince the Diocese to let that go on. Perhaps that is an SCP in itself. When we arrived, the plaza in front of the Cathedral was choked with people. They had arrived in the tens of thousands, more than anyone could remember.
The vendors who sell food and drink at the pilgrimage every year were ecstatic at first at the multitudes. Then Pablo emerged from our truck with a bullhorn (where the hell did he get a bullhorn?) and started blaring at the crowd as we drove on. "Do not purchase anything from these thieves! Maintain your holy fast, and manna shall rain down from the heavens this night!" he yelled, over and over. Though I had never expected a crowd of angry food sellers to be the ones to end Pablo, this situation was looking increasingly likely. I knew better by now than to be surprised.
"What the hell are you doing?" I asked him, though really I was asking myself, driving this truck along with a loudspeakered maniac who was going to get us stoned to death with hardened bread rolls. Instead of answering, he instead directed me to a large clearing behind the cathedral. We parked nearby, and were greeted with more reinforcements of wine by a group of sculptors I had met previously with Pablo when we were walking through Bañados de Carrasco one night. As we drank and talked (uninterrupted, we had apparently lost the angry food-sellers), they presented to us their handiwork: three large, vaguely human-looking sculptures they called "The Father, The Son, and The Holy Smoke," each at least ten meters tall and made entirely of dry wood and straw. Fire, of course, would be involved.
That night, the time came to light each sculpture and start the towering bonfires. Pablo had invited everyone present to come and watch. I identified very much with these people who had come; I was curious to see the spectacle, and very hungry. Woe betide these sculptors if the show was unimpressive. Thousands of empty stomachs were likely to be harsh critics.
Pablo climbed up on top of the Foundation-issue truck, and with his now ever-present bullhorn, regaled the crowd with a somewhat different version of the legend of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three than I have ever heard (I remember fewer explosions), then commanded the sculptors to light their creations ablaze. The three figures immediately caught, and a trinity of spectacular columns of fire lit the backside of the cathedral and the surrounding clearing.
It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes of this display before we all heard the helicopters. There had to have been at least ten of them, passing over the brightly-lit clearing and the thousands of onlookers. Parcels began raining down on little parachutes, hundreds of them, all over the place. It wasn't long before the crowds tore into them, and Pablo's promised feast from the heavens materialized, courtesy of the United States government, who had very thoughtfully included generous amounts of alcohol of varying kinds. No one of course mentioned that the gathering was not the group of refugees fleeing repression in Argentina that they thought we were, as I was to find out later after I finally managed to roust Pablo from his slumber in the bed of my pickup truck. "Say the right words to the right people and light some beacons" was all he was able to get out as he clutched his head and squinted against the morning light.
I can only conclude that there must be more CIA operatives in Montevideo than we thought.
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.15
Title Artists Medium Description
Thirty-Three Verses of Suffering and Enlightenment Zelda Hughes Poetry A book of thirty-three separate poems, collecting a series of poems read every Monday evening at the Dusty Crossroads Coffee House in downtown Dotson. Themes of sacrifice in the service of larger causes and resulting personal anguish are prevalent.
The Three Burnings of Thích Quảng Đức Steven F. Braddock Novel Self-published narrative concerning Thích Quảng Đức, a Buddhist monk widely known for immolating himself as a form of protest against the policies of the South Vietnamese government. The book concerns Mr. Quảng Đức being reborn after his first self-immolation, and leading the same life over again with the knowledge of his previous life. The narrative consists of Mr. Quảng Đức's various self-justifications of his act, which vary widely over the course of the story, but always result in the same course of action.
Manna from the Heart of Stone Reverend Francis Abernathy Religious sermon4 A highly idiosyncratic sermon by the leader of the town's largest church, delivered outdoors at the burial site of an unidentified vagrant to the assembled congregation. Rev. Abernathy relates the story of Saint Augustus of Topeka, a heretofore-unknown religious figure in Christian theology. Relating the story in the form of a present-day allegory about then-United States Director of Central Intelligence George H.W. Bush, Rev. Abernathy describes a hard-hearted, powerful man, constantly forced into what he considers to be necessary acts of violence and destruction, before being reborn in a secret "trial by the spirit of fire" into an entirely different soul, dedicated instead to a life of generosity and service to the downtrodden. Rev. Abernathy then eulogized the vagrant at whose gravesite the congregation was assembled, claiming to have alone known the man's identity and deeds, but sworn to secrecy about both before he died.
Field Report 2188.31 - A Quiet Day at Home
Date: 28 August 1987
Summary: Mr. Izquierdo invites Agent Esquivel to watch a football match at the home of an acquaintance.
Result: Near-breach of containment of SCP-2188.
+ Access Additional Documentation
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.31
Title Artists Medium Description
After all is said and done all i have is you and myself and you Molly H.R. Yerevan Experimental prose A loosely structured narrative consisting of first-person recounting of the narrator's experiences with a close companion, followed by a series of free-verse poems from what appear to different points of view on a single, unclear event affecting the lives of the narrator and their companion. The narrative is interspersed with several songs. Read at the Arts and Crafts portion of the Dotson Harvest Conclave by Ms. Yerevan.
The Brothers Mann George Hillsong Video presentation A pre-recorded monologue delivered by Mr. Hillsong via three television monitors. Mr. Hillsong, through the use of makeup and prosthetics, appears significantly different on each monitor. The monologue consists of a meditation on the nature of identity, interspersed seemingly at random with footage of a football match between Uruguayan clubs Defensor and Rentistas. Presented at the Dotson Union High School Monthly Art Festival.
I Have Eight Faces The Fading Sky Rock album Minor-label release from Dotson-based rock and roll band The Fading Sky. Continues the band's development of what will come to be known as its trademark post-New Wave, slow tempo synthesizer-heavy sound. Consists of eight tracks, most of which feature subtle punk rock influences. Eighth track contains an additional song commencing 3 minutes and 30 seconds after the end of "Firelight", listed on the rare Japanese release of the album as a ninth song entitled "Pablo Surrounds Himself".
Field Report 2188.48 - Farewells
Date: 29 July 1998
Summary: Agent Esquivel comes to the Hospital de Clínicas in the barrio of Parque Batlle in Montevideo at the request of Mr. Izquierdo, admitted to the hospital a month prior with an advanced case of pancreatic cancer. Agent Esquivel arrives at 0315 hours local time.
Result: Cessation of SCP-2188.
+ Access Additional Documentation
S-TARC Listing of Related Artworks - FR2188.48
Title Artists Medium Description
The Remembrance March Residents of Dotson Multimedia An event taking place over several days in early August, 1998. At the suggestion of Roland Nygaard, scoutmaster of Dotson's local Boy Scout troop, residents are spontaneously asked by members of the troop to commemorate those they have lost over the prior year. Thousands of people respond with innumerable songs, paintings, stories, sculptures, and other artworks. At a town hall meeting, residents decide to deposit the collected artwork at an under-utilized columbarium in the nearby Misty Veil Cemetery. Led by an ad hoc marching band made up of eighteen town residents calling themselves the "Town Limits Honor Guard," the entire population of Dotson forms a parade, starting downtown and concluding at Misty Veil Cemetery, carrying the assorted artworks. The works are placed in the columbarium, and the cemetery is host to an impromptu gathering featuring music, contests of artistic skill, and at least 148 documented eulogies for deceased family members and friends.
Addendum 2188.2 - Future Containment Directives
DIRECTIVE 2188-03.17
13 OCTOBER 1998
To minimize the likelihood of resumption of a known anomalous phenomenon, this office accepts the recommendation of Field Agent Roberto Esquivel to inter the remains of PoI 2188-A (Joaquín Pablo Izquierdo de San Felipe) clandestinely at the site of previous manifestations of the anomaly in the United States as a risk reduction measure.
Furthermore, Agent Esquivel is hereby transferred from the Montevideo field office (Site-87) to the base of operations established by S-TARC in the vicinity of Dotson (Site-41). Agent Esquivel is to begin a new assignment assisting S-TARC in documenting and analyzing the continuing development of the art subculture of Dotson.
Finally, I personally commend Agent Esquivel for his thirty-one years of service in successfully containing SCP-2188, and for his continuing commitment to the protection of human civilization, in Dotson and elsewhere. May his forthcoming research on the legacy of PoI 2188-A continue to benefit mankind.
██████ ████████
Director, Site-87
Footnotes
1. As of November 2012.
2. Refer to Department of Science Document 2188-38.b, "Resolution of Divergent Findings from Site-41 and Sector G Transreality Artwork Research Collective."
3. "The Scene in .son: Strange Lights in the Prairie." Foundation Sector G Transreality Artwork Research Collective; 1997, pp.54-55
4. By a vote of 13-8 of S-TARC members, Rev. Abernathy's sermon was deemed to be a work of art, based on its connection to SCP-2188, use of abstract imagery, and audience impact.