WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.530 --> 00:00:03.050 ‘Introducing Tamagotchi! 00:00:03.050 --> 00:00:06.520 Are your parents super lame and refusing to buy you a pet? 00:00:06.520 --> 00:00:09.240 Well, eat my shorts, mom and dad! 00:00:09.240 --> 00:00:13.960 With the all-new Tamagotchi you can have the best pet you could ever ask for. Living in 00:00:13.960 --> 00:00:15.950 the digisphere in your pocket! 00:00:15.950 --> 00:00:20.760 With three simple buttons and a chain to hang your keyrings on, you can make your Tamagotchi 00:00:20.760 --> 00:00:26.001 your own. Care for it day and night. Watch them sleep, play bodacious games, and make 00:00:26.001 --> 00:00:28.970 sure you keep an eye out for if they need to go to the toilet! Peeeeyyyyeewww! 00:00:28.970 --> 00:00:36.730 Throw it in your backpack and take it to school, just don’t let your teacher catch you… 00:00:36.730 --> 00:00:38.570 oh snap! 00:00:38.570 --> 00:00:43.090 Tamagotchis are da bomb. Bet you really wanna go and buy one now, don’t you?’ 00:00:43.090 --> 00:00:47.370 The Detective throws her bag onto the couch. She wanted nothing more than to have thrown 00:00:47.370 --> 00:00:51.670 it off as soon as she walked through the door, but if anything in it broke, she’d be screwed. 00:00:51.670 --> 00:00:55.329 They don’t have the money for rent at the moment, can’t be adding additional costs 00:00:55.329 --> 00:00:56.710 onto that. 00:00:56.710 --> 00:01:01.070 Her Boyfriend barely glances up at her from the couch. Still wearing the same blue t-shirt 00:01:01.070 --> 00:01:05.370 he’d worn to bed last night and with a packet of Doritos next to him, it’s pretty obvious 00:01:05.370 --> 00:01:10.409 how he’s spent his day. The TV switches to another commercial. 00:01:10.409 --> 00:01:14.689 She taps him gently on the shoulder, offering him a warm smile. He jumps a little, seeming 00:01:14.689 --> 00:01:18.790 to come out of a little reverie. Affection fills his eyes as soon as he sets them on 00:01:18.790 --> 00:01:23.830 her. He hastily brushes Doritos dust off his hands and holds them up, tapping out words 00:01:23.830 --> 00:01:24.830 in sign language. 00:01:24.830 --> 00:01:27.820 ‘Sorry, I zoned out. How was your day?’ 00:01:27.820 --> 00:01:32.140 The Detective sinks into her usual spot on the couch and snuggles up next to him, nuzzling 00:01:32.140 --> 00:01:38.390 her head into his neck. After a quick hug, she untangles her hands and signs her reply. 00:01:38.390 --> 00:01:39.390 ‘Long.’ 00:01:39.390 --> 00:01:42.610 He kisses her on her forehead. She goes on to tell him all about the case she’s been 00:01:42.610 --> 00:01:46.320 working on. It’s more of a hunch at this point than a case really. There has been a 00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:51.070 big spree of shopliftings, burglaries, and muggings over the last couple of months. A 00:01:51.070 --> 00:01:55.659 significant uptick from this time last year, but everyone is at a loss to figure out why. 00:01:55.659 --> 00:02:00.219 She’s having to spend a lot more on gas driving around to break-ins at the moment. 00:02:00.219 --> 00:02:03.960 Her Boyfriend watches her hands recount the events with a tender look of concern on his 00:02:03.960 --> 00:02:04.960 face. 00:02:04.960 --> 00:02:08.989 ‘Don’t worry,’ she signs. ‘I’ll make sure they reimburse me for the gas.’ 00:02:08.989 --> 00:02:13.720 He nods and seems to relax a little. She hesitates before signing the next bit. 00:02:13.720 --> 00:02:17.129 ‘Did you do any job applications today?’ 00:02:17.129 --> 00:02:21.959 Her Boyfriend sighs and shakes his head, he looks ready to be told off but instead she 00:02:21.959 --> 00:02:26.670 gives him a big cuddle. Something in him seems to break and after a moment she can feel him 00:02:26.670 --> 00:02:31.140 shaking in her arms. Even though she can’t hear him, the Detective knows her Boyfriend 00:02:31.140 --> 00:02:34.269 well enough to know that he is crying. 00:02:34.269 --> 00:02:38.130 She pulls away from him and makes firm reassuring eye contact with him, before signing. 00:02:38.130 --> 00:02:42.000 ‘It’s okay. We can do the next one together if that would be easier?’ 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:46.720 And so the two of them do that. They cook dinner together, her Boyfriend listening to 00:02:46.720 --> 00:02:51.180 the radio while she enjoys the feeling of the bass in her chest. Then, once everything 00:02:51.180 --> 00:02:55.450 is washed up and the apartment is dark and cozy, they sit down at their kitchen table 00:02:55.450 --> 00:02:56.940 and hand write a cover letter. 00:02:56.940 --> 00:03:01.340 They would have typed it up on their Macintosh but they’d sold that and their printer a 00:03:01.340 --> 00:03:05.860 few months ago to cover their utility bills. But handwriting is okay too. 00:03:05.860 --> 00:03:10.769 Her Boyfriend had been working at Dell when they met. 1993, the height of the Dot Com 00:03:10.769 --> 00:03:14.790 boom when any kid with a math degree and a keyboard could shoot up the ladders in tech 00:03:14.790 --> 00:03:16.670 giants across the country. 00:03:16.670 --> 00:03:21.810 Two years later, that bubble burst, and he’d lost his job. Fiercely smart and incredibly 00:03:21.810 --> 00:03:26.690 kind, her boyfriend hadn’t been able to find work for around 13 months now. Every 00:03:26.690 --> 00:03:31.620 day the Detective’s heart broke a little more to see how low his confidence was dipping. 00:03:31.620 --> 00:03:35.690 He was an amazing person, by far the most exceptional guy she’d ever met and ever 00:03:35.690 --> 00:03:40.459 would meet, and yet the constant rejection letters, failed interviews, and lack of options 00:03:40.459 --> 00:03:45.379 had steadily worn him down to a delicate and exhausted ghost of himself. 00:03:45.379 --> 00:03:49.209 But that only makes her want to love and support him even more. 00:03:49.209 --> 00:03:52.980 He scrawls a signature at the bottom of the cover letter, and they carefully fold it, 00:03:52.980 --> 00:03:57.150 along with his resume, and slide them both into an envelope. She cuddles him from behind 00:03:57.150 --> 00:04:00.750 and gives him a gross wet kiss on his cheek, enough to make him giggle. 00:04:00.750 --> 00:04:05.860 There. At least he’s got one happy moment from today. He turns to her and grins, raising 00:04:05.860 --> 00:04:07.260 his hands to talk to her. 00:04:07.260 --> 00:04:09.079 ‘I might buy a Tamagotchi.’ 00:04:09.079 --> 00:04:10.540 ‘A what?’ 00:04:10.540 --> 00:04:15.230 ‘The commercial on TV. It was playing when you got home. I really want one, can I buy 00:04:15.230 --> 00:04:16.230 one?’ 00:04:16.230 --> 00:04:20.509 A little twinge pulls at her heart. She really ought to say no. Money is so tight at the 00:04:20.509 --> 00:04:25.780 moment with them both relying on her income, and it’s hard to… ah what is she saying? 00:04:25.780 --> 00:04:29.550 He’s clearly going through a lot right now, and maybe something fun would be good for 00:04:29.550 --> 00:04:34.490 him. Even if it does just look like some silly kids toy from Japan. She raises her hands. 00:04:34.490 --> 00:04:35.800 ‘Of course, you can.’ 00:04:35.800 --> 00:04:40.170 And the pair of them go back over to the TV and flick it on. 00:04:40.170 --> 00:04:41.170 * 00:04:41.170 --> 00:04:44.729 The next day is a bit of a blur. It’s the Detective’s first day on yet another shoplifting: 00:04:44.729 --> 00:04:49.570 her first foray into fashion. Pairs of Air Jordans on display had been stolen, smashed 00:04:49.570 --> 00:04:54.509 glass everywhere, but the thieves had left all the cash in the register. A couple other 00:04:54.509 --> 00:05:00.630 items were missing too, all very hip stuff. Tie-dye shirts, jnco jeans, a lot of camouflage, 00:05:00.630 --> 00:05:05.340 that kind of thing. Stuff that’s on TV and the radio all the time at the moment. 00:05:05.340 --> 00:05:09.570 By the time the Detective gets out, she’s only got 10 minutes to rush to Toys R Us before 00:05:09.570 --> 00:05:15.009 it closes. Thankfully, the Tamagotchi display is right by the front entrance. Almost totally 00:05:15.009 --> 00:05:19.840 sold out, but with one lone box left, she snatches it up and cheerfully takes it to 00:05:19.840 --> 00:05:21.570 the cash register. 00:05:21.570 --> 00:05:25.220 As she walks out of the store and looks down at the box in her hands, she can’t help 00:05:25.220 --> 00:05:30.210 but wonder, why the hell would her boyfriend want to play with a little children’s toy? 00:05:30.210 --> 00:05:31.210 * 00:05:31.210 --> 00:05:34.920 As soon as the Detective opens the door to her apartment, she is struck by a change. 00:05:34.920 --> 00:05:39.130 Instead of sitting on the couch watching TV, her boyfriend is in the kitchen, radio belting 00:05:39.130 --> 00:05:43.540 out at full volume. Her heart flutters. Could it be…? Has he heard back from one of his 00:05:43.540 --> 00:05:44.540 jobs? 00:05:44.540 --> 00:05:48.660 He sticks a head out from around the kitchen door and grins at her, beckoning her inside. 00:05:48.660 --> 00:05:52.289 She grins back, quickly hiding the Toys R Us bag behind her back. 00:05:52.289 --> 00:05:57.781 It smells amazing in here. Onions and garlic, oregano, rich tomatoes, a hint of wine in 00:05:57.781 --> 00:06:02.050 the sauce, he’s really gone all out making her favorite chili for dinner tonight. He 00:06:02.050 --> 00:06:06.930 waves her over to the pan and motions for her to take a deep smell. She does, enjoying 00:06:06.930 --> 00:06:11.380 all of the aromas filling the air. There’s something smoky in there too, a new smell 00:06:11.380 --> 00:06:15.319 she doesn’t recognize. She turns to her Boyfriend quizzically. 00:06:15.319 --> 00:06:19.030 He grins and explains to her in sign language that it’s charred peppers, held over the 00:06:19.030 --> 00:06:23.490 flames on the hob just long enough to blacken and then thrown into the food processor to… 00:06:23.490 --> 00:06:27.660 ‘Hang on,’ she interrupts him. ‘We don’t have a food processor.’ 00:06:27.660 --> 00:06:32.480 Her Boyfriend grins proudly and steps to one side to reveal a brand new shining food processor 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:36.831 sitting proudly on their countertop. He explains to her that he bought it that day. It has 00:06:36.831 --> 00:06:40.889 ten speed settings, multiple blades you can switch out, a miniature container for spice 00:06:40.889 --> 00:06:42.050 blends and… 00:06:42.050 --> 00:06:45.330 She stops him again. How much did this cost? 00:06:45.330 --> 00:06:50.560 He looks sheepish. A wave of realization crosses his eyes, and he looks back at it guiltily. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:56.750 ‘I just really wanted it,’ he signs. ‘Thought it would make a nice romantic dinner for us.’ 00:06:56.750 --> 00:07:01.499 The Detective softens. Of course, he was just trying to make the effort for her. It wasn’t 00:07:01.499 --> 00:07:05.220 fair of her to tell him off for doing that. Opening the Toys R Us bag she pulls out the 00:07:05.220 --> 00:07:09.889 Tamagotchi and holds it out to him. Compared to this expensive food processor, her gift 00:07:09.889 --> 00:07:14.569 looks pretty insignificant, but her Boyfriend’s face lights up straight away. 00:07:14.569 --> 00:07:18.389 He grabs it off her and rips the toy out of the packaging in a frenzy. His eyes shine 00:07:18.389 --> 00:07:23.639 and dance around as he hatches his first Tamagotchi. He looks like a child on Christmas day. She 00:07:23.639 --> 00:07:27.259 can’t help but join in laughing with him, as they go to sit on the couch and watch some 00:07:27.259 --> 00:07:28.340 TV together. 00:07:28.340 --> 00:07:33.860 But the next day, when the Detective gets home, she notices a hole in their wall. A 00:07:33.860 --> 00:07:38.560 literal hole. Their landline is missing. Her Boyfriend’s face pops out from around the 00:07:38.560 --> 00:07:43.440 corner, just as it did the previous day, with that same grin. Only this time, he’s brandishing 00:07:43.440 --> 00:07:47.980 a brand new cell phone in his outstretched arm. It’s tiny, about the size of a brick, 00:07:47.980 --> 00:07:53.039 with the name Nokia emblazoned across the top. That can’t have been cheap. 00:07:53.039 --> 00:07:57.320 This time she doesn’t share in his excitement. Indeed the next day, she can’t even muster 00:07:57.320 --> 00:08:01.490 up a smile when he proudly demonstrates the alarm on his new G-Shock, laced up his new 00:08:01.490 --> 00:08:06.680 Jordan’s, and started excitedly flipping through his box set of R. L. Stine books. 00:08:06.680 --> 00:08:07.789 That is enough. 00:08:07.789 --> 00:08:11.500 She can’t deal with this anymore. She’s been struggling so hard to make ends meet. 00:08:11.500 --> 00:08:15.290 Meanwhile, he is throwing away hundreds of dollars on products he had never mentioned 00:08:15.290 --> 00:08:20.000 before. She snaps. It can be very frustrating being mute because you can’t shout to let 00:08:20.000 --> 00:08:21.699 your anger out. 00:08:21.699 --> 00:08:25.590 All that energy instead goes into her sign language, her hands swinging and slapping 00:08:25.590 --> 00:08:29.520 into each other as her face contorts. What is wrong with him? Why is he being like this? 00:08:29.520 --> 00:08:33.050 She’s doing everything she can to keep a roof over their heads while he’s just throwing 00:08:33.050 --> 00:08:36.800 all of her money down the drain? How could he be so cruel? 00:08:36.800 --> 00:08:41.909 The more she rants, the more guilty her Boyfriend’s face becomes. Tears fill his eyes, his bottom 00:08:41.909 --> 00:08:47.390 lip starts to tremble, and before long, he is bawling in front of her. Can’t keep going, 00:08:47.390 --> 00:08:52.589 not seeing him like this. Her hands fall limply to her sides. After a moment, he raises a 00:08:52.589 --> 00:08:56.240 sniffling face to her and signs something simple back. 00:08:56.240 --> 00:09:01.550 ‘It’s the TV. The commercials, they’re just too persuasive.’ 00:09:01.550 --> 00:09:05.760 She snorts a laugh. That’s it. If he’s not going to give her a serious answer, she’s 00:09:05.760 --> 00:09:10.130 not going to have a serious conversation. She storms off up to bed, leaving him alone 00:09:10.130 --> 00:09:13.480 downstairs. He switches the TV off. 00:09:13.480 --> 00:09:18.440 That next day, she wakes up to breakfast in bed, but no sign of her Boyfriend. She doesn’t 00:09:18.440 --> 00:09:22.860 touch any of it, getting a coffee and croissant on her way into work instead from this up-and-coming 00:09:22.860 --> 00:09:25.230 coffee place called Starbucks. 00:09:25.230 --> 00:09:28.820 Today is a chance for her to take her mind off things. She’s at a crime scene, in a 00:09:28.820 --> 00:09:32.640 poor neighborhood. The previous night the man who lived there had been sitting downstairs 00:09:32.640 --> 00:09:37.010 with his blinds open out to the street. He’d noticed a suspicious figure walking past who’d 00:09:37.010 --> 00:09:39.250 peered in through the glass. 00:09:39.250 --> 00:09:42.740 Before he knew what was happening, a brick crashed through his window, and the burglar 00:09:42.740 --> 00:09:46.860 was in his home, running from room to room, ransacking the place and trying to make off 00:09:46.860 --> 00:09:51.279 with different items from the house. The homeowner had run to his gun safe and shot the burglar 00:09:51.279 --> 00:09:52.940 in the back four times. 00:09:52.940 --> 00:09:57.810 This crime scene investigation was mostly a formality, but as the Detective arrived, 00:09:57.810 --> 00:10:01.760 one of the officers came over to her. He didn’t know sign language, so the pair of them wrote 00:10:01.760 --> 00:10:05.620 down their conversation on her Detective’s notepad - yes, she carries a notepad, some 00:10:05.620 --> 00:10:07.339 stereotypes are true! 00:10:07.339 --> 00:10:11.411 The officer has a hunch and a good one. The burglar broke into the house, knowing full 00:10:11.411 --> 00:10:16.490 well the homeowner was watching him, a highly risky thing to do. But what was most peculiar 00:10:16.490 --> 00:10:20.660 was the list of items that the burglar had been trying to steal. The officer shows her 00:10:20.660 --> 00:10:23.310 the list and her jaw drops. 00:10:23.310 --> 00:10:25.440 G-Shock watch Food processor 00:10:25.440 --> 00:10:28.260 Nike Air Jordans R. L. Stine books 00:10:28.260 --> 00:10:29.260 A Tamagotchi 00:10:29.260 --> 00:10:34.350 An officer across the room remarks that these are all really high-demand items at the moment. 00:10:34.350 --> 00:10:38.560 His own wife and kids have been pleading for some of these for weeks. The crime scene photographer 00:10:38.560 --> 00:10:42.920 agrees. It all gets written on the notepad so that the Detective can follow the conversation. 00:10:42.920 --> 00:10:46.320 ‘What was this man’s employment status?’ she asks. 00:10:46.320 --> 00:10:47.320 ‘Unemployed.’ 00:10:47.320 --> 00:10:51.290 She looks around the room. There’s not much in the way of furniture here. Just a couch 00:10:51.290 --> 00:10:53.650 pointing at a big TV… 00:10:53.650 --> 00:10:57.550 The Detective drives home right away, to the surprise of her Boyfriend. He gets up from 00:10:57.550 --> 00:11:01.670 the couch and comes to see her right away. He’s dressed much better, a white shirt 00:11:01.670 --> 00:11:05.540 on. He’s tidied the house. The TV is off. 00:11:05.540 --> 00:11:09.880 He goes to start apologizing as soon as she walks in, but she brushes it aside, signing 00:11:09.880 --> 00:11:10.940 urgently to him. 00:11:10.940 --> 00:11:14.960 ‘I need you to tell me everything about what you’ve been watching on TV.’ 00:11:14.960 --> 00:11:19.520 Confused, he runs through his list of regular shows that he’s been watching. Buffy, Quantum 00:11:19.520 --> 00:11:23.320 Leap, The Fresh Prince, Friends, of course. She shushes him. 00:11:23.320 --> 00:11:26.600 ‘What about commercials? All the things you’ve bought recently, talk to me about 00:11:26.600 --> 00:11:28.010 those commercials.’ 00:11:28.010 --> 00:11:32.370 He looks stumped. They’re just normal TV commercials. Nothing special or exciting. 00:11:32.370 --> 00:11:34.310 They’re all different. Different actors, messages, companies. It clicks in the Detective’s 00:11:34.310 --> 00:11:36.310 head. That’s it! 00:11:36.310 --> 00:11:39.639 ‘What about the voice over?’ 00:11:39.639 --> 00:11:47.070 ‘I don’t know. It’s a man I think. Yeah, it might be the same man. You know what, I 00:11:47.070 --> 00:11:49.000 think it is. It’s the same voice each time.’ 00:11:49.000 --> 00:11:51.709 ‘And he only does those commercials?’ 00:11:51.709 --> 00:11:55.060 Her Boyfriend thinks hard for a second. He nods. 00:11:55.060 --> 00:12:00.000 It takes a long time for the police to mobilize. As usual. The Detective takes her findings 00:12:00.000 --> 00:12:04.030 to the Commissioner at her first opportunity but he looks pretty non-plussed. This spate 00:12:04.030 --> 00:12:09.450 of burglaries and muggings, all because of some persuasive voice over actor? Really? 00:12:09.450 --> 00:12:13.279 Everyone wants a Tamagotchi, everyone wants a pair of Jordans. These are just passing 00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:15.690 fads, that’s all there is to it. 00:12:15.690 --> 00:12:20.260 So she does it herself. The Detective visits all of the advertising agencies that ran the 00:12:20.260 --> 00:12:23.940 local versions of the commercials she has listed and finds the details for the voice 00:12:23.940 --> 00:12:28.820 actor on her third try. He’s in the same state but another city. But by the time she 00:12:28.820 --> 00:12:33.260 gets an afternoon to drive out and pay him a visit it’s too late. 00:12:33.260 --> 00:12:37.550 The apartment she visits is empty. After banging on the door for several minutes, a neighbor 00:12:37.550 --> 00:12:41.589 sticks their head out of a window and yells something at her. The Detective can’t understand 00:12:41.589 --> 00:12:45.440 however, so the woman comes downstairs and writes a grumpy note. 00:12:45.440 --> 00:12:48.260 ‘He’s dead. Yacht accident or something.’ 00:12:48.260 --> 00:12:50.470 Only she can’t spell yacht properly. 00:12:50.470 --> 00:12:51.470 * 00:12:51.470 --> 00:12:55.550 The Detective pushes open her apartment door dejectedly. All that effort, all that chasing 00:12:55.550 --> 00:13:00.080 for nothing. It wasn’t so much about trying to solve the burglaries. Those were just things 00:13:00.080 --> 00:13:04.389 being taken. It was about understanding what had happened to the love of her life. Her 00:13:04.389 --> 00:13:09.370 kind caring Boyfriend, the man who’d brought her so much joy, who had always been so considerate 00:13:09.370 --> 00:13:14.240 and gentle with her, suddenly going on a spending spree and almost bankrupting her? It just 00:13:14.240 --> 00:13:19.310 hurt too much and now coming back to her apartment and having to face up to that tense relationship 00:13:19.310 --> 00:13:21.310 just felt… 00:13:21.310 --> 00:13:24.870 Arms wrap around her and hold her tight. Her Boyfriend’s hand brushes the back of her 00:13:24.870 --> 00:13:29.920 hair, and the smell of his cologne fills her nose. After a moment, her arms wrap around 00:13:29.920 --> 00:13:34.279 him. After another moment, they both start to cry together. 00:13:34.279 --> 00:13:37.660 He leads her into the kitchen where he’s cooked her favorite chili again, only without 00:13:37.660 --> 00:13:42.970 the smoky smell. She looks around the kitchen. The food processor is gone. He pulls away 00:13:42.970 --> 00:13:46.920 from her and explains that everything is gone. All of his bad purchases he’d made have 00:13:46.920 --> 00:13:51.420 been returned, he hands her the cash for them in full. He still wants those items - he wants 00:13:51.420 --> 00:13:53.840 them more than anything else - he explains. 00:13:53.840 --> 00:13:57.250 But more than any of those things, he wants her. 00:13:57.250 --> 00:14:03.199 The TV is gone too. So as they sit down that evening together, they just enjoy doing nothing 00:14:03.199 --> 00:14:07.589 together for a bit, catching each other’s eyes over dinner and smiling uncontrollably 00:14:07.589 --> 00:14:11.329 before getting out a sheet of paper and writing another job application. 00:14:11.329 --> 00:14:16.490 There’s something about this application, the Detective thinks. This one could just 00:14:16.490 --> 00:14:18.290 be the one. 00:14:18.290 --> 00:14:22.170 Ask anyone about the 90s, and they’ll have more fads to tell you about than historical 00:14:22.170 --> 00:14:27.459 events. Furbies, Beanie Babies, Gel Pens, Napster, the list goes on. But for residents 00:14:27.459 --> 00:14:32.899 in a certain part of the USA, some of these trends seemed to be a touch more… obsessive. 00:14:32.899 --> 00:14:41.360 And that is all down to the actions - or rather, the voice - of one man. SCP-661, the world’s 00:14:41.360 --> 00:14:42.360 best salesman. 00:14:42.360 --> 00:14:48.269 We didn’t get to meet SCP-661 today so allow me to introduce him to you. The salesman is 00:14:48.269 --> 00:14:52.889 a middle-aged caucasian male. He is somewhat overweight, but with no major health issues 00:14:52.889 --> 00:14:56.779 aside from what is typical for someone of his age and size. 00:14:56.779 --> 00:15:02.050 If you were to have a conversation with SCP-661, and I advise you not to, you would find him 00:15:02.050 --> 00:15:07.870 rude, abrasive, and tiresome. He has a short temper and makes regular demands. You would 00:15:07.870 --> 00:15:12.560 quickly find that he is very much used to having his own way, and for good reason. For 00:15:12.560 --> 00:15:17.630 you see, this salesman is persuasive. Very persuasive. 00:15:17.630 --> 00:15:21.720 Foundation testing has found that this SCP is capable of extreme manipulation, verbally 00:15:21.720 --> 00:15:26.370 persuading you to want what he tells you to want virtually instantaneously. It sounds 00:15:26.370 --> 00:15:30.950 dramatic in those words, but the effect is far more subtle than you may realize, which 00:15:30.950 --> 00:15:36.009 is the reason why he was able to operate for a while before being discovered by the Foundation. 00:15:36.009 --> 00:15:41.049 Test subjects report the effects of his persuasion as feeling like a continuous low-level compulsion 00:15:41.049 --> 00:15:45.899 - a desire bubbling away underneath the surface - until they encounter an opportunity to act 00:15:45.899 --> 00:15:51.630 on it. At this point, it becomes an all-consuming obsession, not satiated until you have fulfilled 00:15:51.630 --> 00:15:53.010 the urge. 00:15:53.010 --> 00:15:56.920 The effect is strongest with physical objects, which is likely why this salesman enjoyed 00:15:56.920 --> 00:16:01.980 so much success providing voiceovers for local marketing campaigns. Any product that he was 00:16:01.980 --> 00:16:05.690 selling would fly off the shelves anywhere where the commercials featuring his voice 00:16:05.690 --> 00:16:11.089 were aired. Perhaps those crazes in the 90s weren’t so innocent after all. 00:16:11.089 --> 00:16:15.130 Testing on the salesman has proved enlightening. D-class personnel was ordered to physically 00:16:15.130 --> 00:16:19.540 assault him, but he was able to stop the attack almost immediately by simply explaining to 00:16:19.540 --> 00:16:23.660 them that they didn’t want to hurt him. However, test subjects who were threatened 00:16:23.660 --> 00:16:27.610 with execution if they stopped attacking him were able to continue to beat the salesman 00:16:27.610 --> 00:16:32.080 up for several minutes before the researchers decided he’d had enough. Though, notably, 00:16:32.080 --> 00:16:36.160 they made it abundantly clear the entire way through the assault that they didn’t really 00:16:36.160 --> 00:16:37.550 want to hurt him. 00:16:37.550 --> 00:16:42.320 SCP-661 naturally poses some level of threat to the general public as his ‘abilities’ 00:16:42.320 --> 00:16:46.899 could easily be used for far more nefarious purposes than selling a few more Troll Dolls, 00:16:46.899 --> 00:16:52.350 and so guards have permission to terminate him in the event of his escape. That seems… 00:16:52.350 --> 00:16:53.470 unlikely. 00:16:53.470 --> 00:16:59.370 SCP-661 is held in a standard holding cell measuring 6m x 8m. Any researchers interacting 00:16:59.370 --> 00:17:03.699 with him must wear noise-canceling ear protection at all times, unless they are deemed to be 00:17:03.699 --> 00:17:06.290 totally deaf by SCP medical staff. 00:17:06.290 --> 00:17:10.689 Incidentally, it was the work of the Detective you heard about today that drew the Foundation’s 00:17:10.689 --> 00:17:16.290 attention to SCP-661. Unaffected by his commercial work, she was in the perfect position to connect 00:17:16.290 --> 00:17:20.890 the dots and uncover his existence. With operatives through law enforcement, the Foundation was 00:17:20.890 --> 00:17:26.250 quick to catch onto her theory and apprehend him before word traveled too far. That ‘yacht 00:17:26.250 --> 00:17:30.549 accident’ story was enough to keep the public from ever discovering his existence. 00:17:30.549 --> 00:17:35.030 That said, you should still be careful out there. Who knows if another instance of this 00:17:35.030 --> 00:17:39.799 SCP exists somewhere? Have you ever seen a commercial too tempting to ignore? Watched 00:17:39.799 --> 00:17:46.770 a YouTube ad that you decided not to skip? No? Me neither. But still, be careful! 00:17:46.770 --> 00:17:50.770 If you want to support our important mission here at Dr. Bob, check out the Dr. Bob Patreon 00:17:50.770 --> 00:17:55.150 and become a junior researcher today! Now go and watch another entry from the files 00:17:55.150 --> 00:18:01.419 of Dr. Bob, like SCP-3063 - A Fly Is Your New Telepathic Therapist, for another SCP 00:18:01.419 --> 00:18:02.580 with an offer you can’t refuse.