ModernMajorGeneral

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Item #: SCP-6000

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: The nature of SCP-6000 makes containment impractical. The incorporation of SCP-6000 into human folklore

Description: Apartment 5919 is a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment in the Niederrad district of Frankfurt, Germany. It was constructed in 1984 and is in average condition for its age.

The apartment contains the following items:

Bedroom

• Twin bed
• Bedside table
• Dresser
• Lamp
• Alarm clock

Bedroom.

Kitchen

• Gas stovetop with 2 burners
• Stainless steel sink
• Microwave
• Refrigerator
• Electric kettle
• Assorted cutlery, crockery pots and pans

Bathroom

• Toilet
• Ceramic sink
• Shower
• Wastepaper basket

Lounge

• Two-seater sofa
• Television, wall-mounted
• Television stand
• Coffee table
• Floor rug

Apartment 5919 has no remarkable attributes or properties beyond what would be expected of other apartments in the city.

The last resident of Apartment 5919 moved out in 2018. Since January 2020, it has been owned by a private organisation responsible for managing property.

Addendum: On 22/01/2020, a body retrieved from the Main River by Hesse State Police was identified as the Slovak-German artist Andrej Schröder, born in Dresden in 1948. Schröder had been under intermittent Foundation surveillance since 1985, after his first appearance in Central European anomalous art circles.

Andrej Schröder.

While he enjoyed a distinguished career in sculpture, metalwork and mixed media at his Frankfurt studio, culminating in a 15-year retrospective exhibition ("Schröder: Capital, Cognition, Compulsion") at the Paris AWCY Millénaire? in 2000, he became gradually disillusioned with what he perceived as increasing commodification and consumerism within the art world, ceasing his own work entirely in 2009 and moving to his farm in Vogelsbergkreis to pursue gardening and maintaining his large collection of outsider art.

Several of Schröder's acquaintances re-established contact with him in 2015, when he returned to Frankfurt to work on what he described as a final, ultimate work of "anti-art", which would "defy advertisement and marketing" although never divulged any specific details. He reported having completed the project by late 2017, but was unable or unwilling to describe what he had created.

Schröder had been seen to be drinking heavily for several days prior to the discovery of his body and his death was ruled an accident, although the Hesse medical examiner noted that suicide could not be definitively excluded. Andrej Schröder has since been designated PoI-5919.

The only item of note found upon his person was a card of Marshall, Carter and Dark design.

You are cordially invited to the viewing of an ordinary Frankfurt apartment.

Price and address on request.

Similar cards were found to have been distributed over the week before by MC&D to a number of wealthy, high-profile clients.

5919

Apartment 5919.

Item #: Apartment 5919

Object Class: N/A

Special Containment Procedures: No special maintenance is required. Cleaning should ideally be performed on a monthly basis. Entry of persons to the apartment is left to the discretion of the designated caretaker, the person in charge of Apartment 5919.

Description: Apartment 5919 is a 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom apartment in the Niederrad district of Frankfurt, Germany. It was constructed in 1984 and is in average condition for its age.

The apartment contains the following items:

Bedroom

• Twin bed
• Bedside table
• Dresser
• Lamp
• Alarm clock

Bedroom.

Kitchen

• Gas stovetop with 2 burners
• Stainless steel sink
• Microwave
• Refrigerator
• Electric kettle
• Assorted cutlery, crockery pots and pans

Bathroom

• Toilet
• Ceramic sink
• Shower
• Wastepaper basket

Lounge

• Two-seater sofa
• Television, wall-mounted
• Television stand
• Coffee table
• Floor rug

Apartment 5919 has no remarkable attributes or properties beyond what would be expected of other apartments in the city.

The last resident of Apartment 5919 moved out in 2018. Since January 2020, it has been owned by a private organisation responsible for managing property.

Addendum: On 22/01/2020, a body retrieved from the Main River by Hesse State Police was identified as the Slovak-German artist Andrej Schröder, born in Dresden in 1948. Schröder had been under intermittent Foundation surveillance since 1985, after his first appearance in Central European anomalous art circles.

Andrej Schröder.

While he enjoyed a distinguished career in sculpture, metalwork and mixed media at his Frankfurt studio, culminating in a 15-year retrospective exhibition ("Schröder: Capital, Cognition, Compulsion") at the Paris AWCY Millénaire? in 2000, he became gradually disillusioned with what he perceived as increasing commodification and consumerism within the art world, ceasing his own work entirely in 2009 and moving to his farm in Vogelsbergkreis to pursue gardening and maintaining his large collection of outsider art.

Several of Schröder's acquaintances re-established contact with him in 2015, when he returned to Frankfurt to work on what he described as a final, ultimate work of "anti-art", which would "defy advertisement and marketing" although never divulged any specific details. He reported having completed the project by late 2017, but was unable or unwilling to describe what he had created.

Schröder had been seen to be drinking heavily for several days prior to the discovery of his body and his death was ruled an accident, although the Hesse medical examiner noted that suicide could not be definitively excluded. Andrej Schröder has since been designated PoI-5919.

The only item of note found upon his person was a card of Marshall, Carter and Dark design.

You are cordially invited to the viewing of an ordinary Frankfurt apartment.

Price and address on request.

Similar cards were found to have been distributed over the week before by MC&D to a number of wealthy, high-profile clients.

Jamcon 2020 - 3

SCP-X.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class:

Special Containment Procedures:

Description:

jamcon 2 Belle Époque

SCP-X.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: All persons entering SCP-X are to work in groups of two or more to prevent unwanted activation of its effects, and be prepared to exit the premises rapidly or administer stimulants if drowsiness is noted. Staff on extended assignment to SCP-X should be trained in basic dream recall techniques and carry stationery for record-keeping purposes at all times. Sleeping in SCP-X is prohibited save under controlled testing circumstances.

Description: SCP-X is an 8-story building at 22 Rue de Vaugirard, in the Latin Quarter district of the 6th arrondissement of Paris. The building was constructed in 1898 in an Art Nouveau style and operated as the Hôtel de Lisle until 1966, when it was acquired by the Foundation.

All persons who enter REM sleep in SCP-X experience lucid dreams with similar content and common features. These dreams involve the individual in question being transported to SCP-X during the late 19th or early 20th century, during its occupied lifespan as a hotel with a ground-floor café (Café Impériale). The city depicted in the oneiric environment aesthetically resembles Paris, but test subjects familiar with the layout of the city report numerous inconsistences. However, this is not unexpected given imperfections in oneiric reconstructions.

Subjects recall consistently pleasant experiences during the dreams, which may involve social events, meals, or romantic or sexual liaisons, and are able to produce funds or other items needed (such as tickets to events) on demand. Entities encountered tend to be friendly, welcoming and patient, although they display a resistance to questioning about the nature of SCP-X. It is unclear whether these entities represent distinct entities with self-awareness within the oneiric setting, or whether they are non-anomalous internal oneiric projections of subjects.

While SCP-X has no anomalous temporal effects in reality, dreams within SCP-X may range in subjective duration from minutes to several years. Subjects have no memory of events occurring outside of SCP-X, and it is assumed leaving SCP-X will end the dream. Of the remainder, approximately 75% of subjects are unable to recall any other specific event or sequence of events related to the ending of the dream. The final 25% report the cessation of dreaming in SCP-X being caused by an unpleasant experience, generally of violent or disturbing nature.

Addendum X-1: Testing log

Subject	Dream description
D-2811871	Subject appears in the Café Impériale at 6:20 pm and is served a 4-course meal consisting of liver pâté, lobster thermidor, duck confit with duchess potatoes and crème brûlée. Fourteen glasses of various wines and champagnes are also consumed with only mild intoxicating effects. Upon conclusion of the meal, the maître d'hôtel refuses to present a bill, and invites D-2811871 to return any time. D-2811871 attempts to exit the building, at which time the dream ends. D-2811871 makes numerous requests to be involved in further testing, which are declined as testing progresses to higher-clearance staff members.
Researcher Lebon	Subject appears in the hotel lobby at some time in the early afternoon. A pianist is playing various solos which Lebon recognises as works of Maurice Ravel, and listens to for approximately twenty minutes. During this time, a young man sits beside Lebon and makes conversation while sharing tea and petits-fours. Lebon does not recall specifics of this conversation but emphasises its friendly and engaging nature. Lebon also notes the man resembling someone known in reality, but is unable or unwilling to elaborate further. After the man leaves, Lebon attempts to exit the building, at which time the dream ends.
Researcher Lebon	Subject attends a salon in the hotel ballroom where the works of the Les Nabis group of post-Impressionist painters are being exhibited. Lebon later notes the presence of Pierre Bonnard and Jean-Édouard Vuillard. The salon lasts for twenty to thirty hours without any noticeable tiring among the attendees or lull in festivities. At this point, Lebon follows a waiter to the kitchen and Lebon is unable to recall events further, but subsequently exhibits fear responses to food preparation and a reluctance to return to SCP-X testing.
Dr Arnaud	The dream begins in medias res, with Arnaud eating breakfast in the Café Impériale. He recalls consuming a buttered croissant and black coffee, and watches civilians passing by on the Rue de Vaugirard for the next hour. A man physically resembling poet Paul Verlaine joins Arnaud and the two have a lively conversation about poetry; however, the dream-Verlaine lacks the real poet's eccentricities. Arnaud reports the dream ends after witnessing a crowd of people beating another person on the street. He is unable to perceive any details of this person's appearance.
Dr Arnaud	Arnaud is playing a piano duet in the hotel ballroom with an unidentified young woman, with a crowd of hotel patrons watching and applauding enthusiastically. When the performance concludes, two policemen arrive and inform him he is under arrest for treason for a reason unknown to him. This provokes an uproar amongst the crowd, who begin to argue amongst themselves. The dream ends after Arnaud is escorted to the hotel's front door by the policemen, who open it to reveal a guillotine set up in the middle of the street.
Dr Arnaud	An attempt was made to prolong the internal length of an SCP-X dream for as long as possible. Dr Arnaud was instructed to avoid attempting to explore the building or any difficult situations to the best of his ability. He remains on the ground floor of the hotel, where he is continually given food, drink and sleeps in the restaurant (being able to produce funds on demand). No persons in the dream comment on this behaviour. After one month of time in the dream has elapsed, Arnaud is sitting in the Café Impériale with his back to the window when he is shot twice from behind through the glass, and collapses to the ground immobilised. This triggers an outbreak of violence amongst the café patrons, who proceed to attack one another indiscriminately in unarmed combat or using improvised weapons without regard for self-preservation. Persons from outside continually join the meleé, which continues uninterrupted for approximately 120 hours until the dream ends.

jamcon 2 foreign aid

SCP-X.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: An automated observation post monitors the region beneath SCP-X at all times. Objects that emerge from SCP-X are to be examined and catalogued. As these objects are variable in their level of hazard and ease of disposal, containment procedures may differ on a case-by-case basis, but standard procedure is to bury them in the local area to avoid discovery. Foundation operatives in international space agencies are to remove evidence of the existence of SCP-X from photography and divert Martian missions from its location.

Description: SCP-X is an area 150m above the surface of Mars, in the center of the Hellas Planitia plain. It functions as an Einstein-Rosen bridge to a region of space in the Theta Draconis star system, approximately 68 light-years from Earth.

At intervals of every three to twelve Earth months, regular hexagonal aluminium containers measuring 15m in length and 3m in diameter emerge from SCP-X and descend to the Martian surface. As the containers do not possess any mechanism to slow their descent, they generally suffer moderate damage in the process. All the containers and frequently their contents are labelled with an unknown insignia (see Figure 1.)

The cargo within these containers is highly variable and consists of both non-anomalous and anomalous items. They range from beneficial to hazardous, but it is theorised by Foundation researchers that the entity responsible for their appearance has non-malicious intentions. However, an apparently flawed understanding of human society and impractical location of SCP-X limits the value of SCP-X to Foundation operations or humanity in general.

Addendum X-1: Abridged list of items manifesting from SCP-X

jamcon

Anna sees the SOONG AND CHENG PARTNERS plaque outside the door and smiles to herself. It's not the most original workplace joke, but at least one person in this office isn't a completely humourless stick-in-the-mud. She knocks and pushes the door open on a cubicle space with a single whirring ceiling fan, as four heads swivel to look at her.

"Hi. Matthew Yok-Sing Lau? Is he here?"

A thirty-something man with tortoiseshell glasses and an immaculately trimmed beard and moustache gets up, raising his hand. "Matt Lau, that's me. You are -"

"Anna Lopez, from the New York-"

"Oh! You're Doctor Lopez. Come in, come in."

He leads her into a room the size of a large broom closet. A sleek designer glass-and-wood desk sits across the middle, incongruous in the stuffy atmosphere and peeling paint. Lau squeezes past the desk edge to sit on the other side with difficulty, causing Anna to stifle a chuckle and Lau to smile ruefully.

"Not the best layout, but I can't work without a good desk. Please, take a seat. You surprised me. I wasn't expecting-"

Anna raises an eyebrow, being used to reactions along these lines from macho Agents and MTF troopers, but Lau notices and smiles again, a little more nervously this time.

"No, nothing like that - I thought you were going to bust in here with the regional director and a full task force, you would have too if you'd seen the message I'd got about you. It had a damn O5 stamp and when I didn't respond for ten minutes bloody Zheng - ah, Director Zheng - was on the phone shouting at me to acknowledge it. Well, you're here now, welcome to Hong Kong, Doctor Lopez. Agent Matthew Lau, at your service. You need information about someone, I understand."

Anna nods. "Yes, quickly as possible. Name's Albert Ma. Moved to New York in 2000, that's why they sent me, but lived here all the rest of his life. I need everything on him, the colour of paint in his kid bedroom, how big the door to his apartment was, how many guys he whacked."

"What's stopping you from asking him?"

Anna slides a manila folder bulging with papers and photographs across the desk. "We did. The guy's in a nursing home, he can barely remember what he had for breakfast this morning. All the info we could get in the States is in here, so I had to come to Hong Kong in person."

"Bad luck. Well, we can start at the Public Records office-"

"No, you don't get it. When I said I needed the colour of paint in his bedroom I meant it." She passes him a single typed sheet of paper. "These are the specifics. We need to go in person."

To his credit, Lau is seasoned enough not to show surprise. "Hard job, but I can try. Ah, I see why they requested me for this. This will be a tricky one." He taps on a line towards the end of the list.

"Yeah, I thought so as well. Like I said, I'm on a tight schedule, so if you need to organise anything-"

Lau holds up his mobile phone and taps the send bulb on a WhatsApp message. "I know a guy who can help with that. In the meantime, let's get this other stuff out of the way. The home first?"

Anna flips the pages in the folder to a black-and-white photo of a housing complex and an address line. "Here."

"I know the place. Let's go."

A red taxi is waiting outside. Lau ushers Anna into the back seat and greets the driver. "Hi, Wong. Ma Tau Wei, Kowloon, ok?"

The driver nods wordlessly and pulls away from the kerb. The occupants sit in silence for several minutes, horns honking outside as Lau shuffles through the folder's contents.

"So, Doctor Lopez, against my better judgement, I'm dying to ask you why I'm chasing after some grandpa on O5 orders. Insurgency guy? Ex-Japanese Agency? Doesn't look like a Sarkicist to me."

Anna looks at the taxi driver with alarm, and Lau grins. "Oh, sorry, Wong is one of our guys. He's level-3 cleared, and doesn't talk much, so you can spill your secrets."

Wong gives a thumbs-up and Anna exhales. "No, he's not involved with the para-world at all. He's 14K, so we know he's shady, but no artifact trafficking or humanoid smuggling."

"Well, why, then? O5-one wants to find out about his grandpa's life or something?"

"No, this is big. My team needs this info for skip containment."

"Big? How big?"

"Double Ks." Seeing his nonplussed face, Anna has to explain her own workplace slang. "Keter and K-class big."

Lau whistles. "What's the number?"

Anna shifts uncomfortably. "I'm not supposed to say. It doesn't matter-"

"Look, I know you have to keep opsec, but if you're having me chasing after K-class scenarios, you can't keep me in the dark. I need to know what we're walking into, if there's going to be memetics, coghazes, the neighbours are going to try and eat our faces off."

"Like I said, there's nothing. Absolutely nothing. This is a normal guy and we need to know about his normal life. No para-shit. Not unless you know about it and I don't, this is your city."

"I get you, but if that's how it is, normal is my job is while you're here. If you start speaking in tongues and your head spins 360 degrees, I'm taking the afternoon off."

"Deal," Anna laughs.

"We're here."

"How do we get in? What's our cover?"

"This is my dad, I'm writing a book about his life, you're my American wife."

Anna rolls her eyes. "Always the husband-wife cover. Do all you field agents take the same creative writing classes?"

"We use a standard handbook, but at short notice I can't do much better. I could have gone with 'documentary film crew' but I didn't time to get the equipment, and 'police investigation' has the benefit of partial truth but not when you're asking about triads. Do you have a better idea?"

"Not really. Just keep your hands to yourself."

"Noted. How's your Cantonese?"

"Uh, not the best - m goi, ngo hai mei gwok -"

Lau winces. "I see why you need me for this op. At least no one is going to cross-check our cover."

The pair exit the taxi outside an aging block of flats. An uncharacteristic burst of activity for a Sunday morning is going on, as the beginnings of a summer downpour spur washing being pulled off the balconies and children running indoors. Lau pops the boot open and extracts a telescoping umbrella and a plastic bag filled with ripe mangoes.

"No thanks, mangoes give me hives."

"Not for you." Lau rubs his thumb and forefinger together. "This is our master key. More natural, less likely to raise suspicions than cash."

The seventeenth-floor apartment is occupied by an elderly widow of unexpectedly tall and straight-backed stature. She peers with worried eyes across the security chain, but Lau's clean-cut appearance, the novelty of an American visitor to this dreary building and a ripe fruit defuse the tension rapidly, and Lau has to contend with a barrage of questions about his life punctuating his interview about the life of his false father. Anna roams as best you can around a single-bedroom apartment, jotting down notes in a pad. The old woman happily accepts her intrusion as foreign custom, only briefly broken by her producing a tape measure and beginning to measure the bedroom doorframe's dimensions.

"One hundred and eighty centimeters by seventy-five-" She notices the room has gone silent, and turns to see a puzzled grandmother and Lau's face contorted into something halfway between deep thought and suppressed laughter. A hurried Cantonese explanation later and the conversation resumes.

"What did you tell her about the door?" Anna asks in the corridor, as they extricate themselves from a dinner invitation.

"My dad used to say he grew up in a room so small he had to touch his knees to get in. I mean, not my dad. This guy. You know."

"Nice."

Lau answers a beep from his phone. "My contact has replied. Best not to keep him waiting."

Thirty minutes later, the taxi stops outside the Mandarin Oriental, a gleaming contrast to the crumbling Kowloon tenements. A smiling old Eurasian man in an Armani suit is sitting in the lobby lounge, stirring a cup of white tea with exacting precision.

"Hello, Uncle Choy," Lau calls out on approach.

"Matthew, my boy, always a pleasure. Who is this lovely lady?"

"This is Doctor Lopez, a colleague of mine from America." Anna shakes the man's hand; his smile never leaves his face, but he shows no teeth.

"Charmed, my dear. Your practice?"

"Oh, I'm not a physician - I have an economics PhD."

"Wonderful." A waitress arrives with two more cups of tea and a tray of petits-fours. "Now, I assume this is not a purely social call."

Lau passes Choy a handful of photographs. "This is Albert Ma. He used to be a 14K enforcer."

Choy spreads his hands in mock despair. "You see he only calls this poor man when he wants something. I may have seen him before. What is the problem?"

"Did he ever kill anyone in the 14K?" Anna asks. Lau sucks in air through his teeth. Choy is still smiling, but an unpleasant gleam has appeared in his eyes.

"My goodness, your lady friend is direct. I thought you had finished with the Triad Bureau for good, Matthew? If you think Inspector Teng is going to look after you still, without a badge-"

"No, no, it's nothing to do with the Bureau," Lau interjects hurriedly. "This is entirely Foundation business. No police, no charges, no consequences for you, or for Mr Ma. Information only."

"You want to know who a man has killed, and there will be no consequences?" Choy shakes his head and turns to Anna. "There are always consequences. Well, young Matthew is foolish, but a poor liar, so I do believe he is not wearing a wire for the Hong Kong Police." Lau withers with another glance. "You, young lady, are another matter. What is this in aid of?"

"As Agent Lau says, it's Foundation business. I promise you, nothing will come back to cause trouble for you or Mr Ma in any way."

"Mr Ma's fate does not interest me. Foundation business, Foundation business, enough with this fucking bullshit." The smile cracks ever so slightly.

"I don't know," Anna replies. "We've collected information like this before. It gets filed away, and nothing ever happens. If it isn't filed…" She mimes an explosion with her hands. "You clearly know about our organisation. We can't always explain why we need these things."

Choy stares her down for a good twenty seconds, after which the smile returns to its former serene state. "So well educated, and yet still no ideas. You Foundation are all the same. At least you admit it. Matthew, in the next two weeks one of my trucks is crossing to Shenzhen. I will have one of the boxes marked. Your people will not inspect this box."

"What's going to happen to this box?"

"No consequences for you or the young lady will result."

Lau sighs. "It's done, then."

"Good. I see your sense has not completely been addled. I will tell you, then; Mr Albert Ma harmed a living soul. Well, I suppose he might have roughed some people up, but I can't keep track of that."

"Nothing at all?" asks Anna in surprise.

"That's what I said. Goodbye, young lady, goodbye, Matthew. Ask before bringing your friends next time."

Back in the taxi, Lau dabs at his forehead with a handkerchief. "Uncle Choy's Christmas gift is going to be big to make up for this one."

"What does he mean about the boxes?"

"Oh, he does some artifact trading - MC and D, private collectors, that sort of thing. Occasionally he lets us know about something dangerous, we take it away. So he doesn't attract attention from the PSB if it blows up in someone's face."

"I get the feeling that's not all he does."

"Best not to know. Do we have everything now?"

"Yeah, we're done. Thanks for your help. Sorry about upsetting your guy there."

"It's fine, I'll smooth it over. Look, you have to tell me now you have all the info. What's the big reveal here? Why do you need it?"

"I'll show you. Pass me the folder and stop at the next post box."

Have you ever been responsible for the death of a sapient being?

YES/NO/NOT APPLICABLE

She puts a neat circle in blue ballpoint around the NOT APPLICABLE and seals the folder in an A3 envelope, flipping it around to show Lau the front.

CENTRAL RECORDS

There is no address. Anna pulls the metal flap of the post box open and heaves the envelope in, where it settles with a dull thud.

"And? Now what?"

"When I told Choy I couldn't explain what happens to the information, I was telling the truth. We have no fucking clue where this is going. If we don't do it, though…"

"Jesus Christ." Lau laughs and buries his head in his hands. "That's really it?"

"That's it."

"When do you fly out?"

"Not till Tuesday."

"Great. Well, my orders are to assist whatever business you have in Hong Kong, and I think the next order of business is finding something to eat. I know a place not far from here…"

"Just as long as it's not back at the Mandarin Oriental."

One of a thousand red taxis joins the mass of Harcourt Road traffic, and disappears into the night.

Mind Vessel

SCP-X.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures:

Description: SCP-X consists of the protected cruiser Svetlana of the Imperial Russian Navy and its crew, which, through an unclear mechanism, have been converted into a non-corporeal collection of intrusive, transmissible thoughts.

cliche contest - company

SCP-X headquarters, Manhattan.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: As SCP-X maintains a significant public profile and widespread non-anomalous activities in its local area and global financial markets, full Foundation custody is infeasible at this time. Containment measures encompass managing public access to the SCP-X offices and SCP-X-affected persons, altering news reports to remove references to anomalous activity and regulating corporate activities of SCP-X to limit its influence, particularly with regard to investments in companies directly relevant to Foundation operations.

The Foundation maintains an embassy of 4 staff at SCP-X, who are tasked with relaying communications to and from SCP-X, representing the Foundation in negotiations, promoting commercial and cultural exchanges and ensuring compliance with the Treaty and all other agreements. Knowledge of diplomatic negotiations, business administration, financial markets and the history of Europe in the Middle Ages are desirable. All staff interacting with SCP-X employees or their immediate families require a Cognitohazard Resistance Value (CRV) >50.

Description: SCP-X is the Zoller & Sons Company, an American investment management firm based in New York. SCP-X is a privately held corporation operating mainly in leveraged buyouts, growth capital and venture capital, with approximately 400 direct employees and $30.5 billion USD in assets.

SCP-X has cognitohazardous properties affecting its employees, shareholders and their immediate families (both legal and biological definitions) where they are influenced to accept and participate in its unorthodox organisation and corporate culture. Additionally, while this effect does not confer noticeable anomalous traits on these persons, they exhibit secondary anomalous properties where the response of others to SCP-X-related-actions is suppressed; while this effect is not sufficient to compel others to comply with SCP-X's wishes, persons with low-to-average CRVs will fail to recognise the actions of SCP-X employees as unusual.

The key aspects of SCP-X compared to a non-anomalous corporation are its upper management structure, hereditary family-based hiring practices, frequent use of internal and external violence and a variety of rituals and etiquette rules followed by its members. As a result, the operation of SCP-X approximates that of a European monarchy of the Late Middle Ages.

The functions of board chairman and chief executive officer are combined in its ruler, SCP-X-1. The current SCP-X-1 is Mr Peter Lawrence, who styles himself as 'King Peter I'. SCP-X-1 was born in Pennsylvania in 1975 and began working for SCP-X in 1997 after completing an MBA at Cornell University, eventually reaching the position of High Lord of Global Credit and Duke of PetSmart.¹ He assumed leadership of SCP-X after the 2008 financial crisis, after assembling a coalition of shareholders to overthrow the then-ruler, Alexander III of House Cabot. As a result of this precarious accession to the throne, he has pursued a cautious internal policy but relatively aggressive external policy, securing a marriage alliance with Merrill Lynch in order to escalate the ongoing conflict between SCP-X and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice.²

Children and occasionally other younger relatives of SCP-X employees are expected to follow their parent into employment, although they generally undergo a standard non-anomalous education. While there is a degree of mobility between SCP-X departments at similar salary levels, movement to upper management, requiring the holding of a significant amount of stock options and the award of a noble title by SCP-X-1, is infeasible for the majority of employees unless they distinguish themselves in battle or especially shrewd investments.

The most dramatic effect of SCP-X is its use of capital punishment; between 5 and 10 employees are executed by beheading³ per year, for crimes such as embezzlement and lèse-majesté. Violent actions against persons outside of SCP-X are infrequent, but are more problematic for containment purposes. Notable incidents include sporadic attacks on the CD&R offices at the Seagram Building since 2007, the attempted poisoning of several mid-level Morgan Stanley employees (unconfirmed) and the defenestration of 2 Securities and Exchange Commission investigators in 2009. This event was the led to Foundation awareness of SCP-X; while the actions of SCP-X had previously escaped notice, due to its self-concealing anomalous property, the bizarre nature of the deaths led to UIU involvement, who referred the matter to the Foundation.

Despite these unusual traits, SCP-X remains competitive with other firms in its industry. Although the company came close to collapse in the 2008 financial crisis, it has since reported strong quarterly profits and asset growth, provides financial services to over 2,000 non-anomalous individual and corporate clients, and maintains close relations with US state and federal representatives, particularly [DATA EXPUNGED]. As a result, a degree of flexibility and creativity in containment and Foundation-SCP-X relations has been required.

Addendum X-1: Transcript of first contact between SCP-X and the Foundation

EVENT TRANSCRIPT X-01-01

---

08/11/2009, 09:20 hrs
STAFF MEMBER: Dr Luis Gonzales
NOTES: A meeting request was sent to SCP-X via the Public Corporate Society, a Foundation front organisation used in dealings with anomalous and non-anomalous corporations. SCP-X responded positively, requesting 'an envoy for tribute and trade'.

---

<TRANSCRIPT BEGINS>

Dr Gonzales arrives at the SCP-X offices at 40 Broad St, New York. The lobby is decorated with heraldry containing various corporate logos. He approaches the lobby reception desk.

RECEPTIONIST: State your name and business, outlander.

GONZALES: Hi, I'm here for a nine-thirty meeting - Luis Gonzales, of the Public Corporate Society, senior vice-president -

RECEPTIONIST: [checking computer] My deepest apologies, noble Lord Gonzales. As a newcomer to our realm, your likeness was not in the Database. Your forgiveness for this inconvenience, please. I will inform the Count of your arrival. [on phone] Your Excellency? The foreign lord from the Society has arrived. Of course, your Excellency. [hanging up phone] He will receive you shortly, sire. Please be seated.

A middle-aged Caucasian man dressed in business attire exits the lift shortly afterwards. The reception staff and others in the lobby stand to attention.

RECEPTIONIST: Attention! His Excellency, the Lord of Public Relations!

WEST: [bowing deeply] Michael of house West, Lord of Public Relations, Count of GrubHub, at your service. Welcome, O esteemed and noble envoy Gonzales, to our Company.

GONZALES: [bowing] A pleasure, Count… West. I look forward to a successful relationship between our Found - our organisations.

WEST: Zoller & Sons is always willing to enter partnerships with companies of strength and honour, sire. You have been granted the privilege of an audience with His Majesty himself - please follow me.

Both men enter the lifts and West swipes an access card for the 24th floor.

WEST: I have read of your business in your emails and your website, but I have not heard of your Society in the annals of Wall Street or Bloomberg, which an officer of my position must read regularly, of course.

GONZALES: The PCS provides corporate services for clients with… esoteric business models, non-mainstream interests and so on, such as yourselves.

WEST: How do you mean? We are a great and eminent Company, but no different from the Warburgers or the Carlyles in our business.

GONZALES: No, your - all this - nobility and kings, this makes your business unique, no?

WEST: (laughs) How else to run a Company? I hope you are not referring to the strange ideas of Europe - we have very fine employees, but any fool can see they are not fit for self-management. You surely believe in the Market-anointed right of your own liege lord?

GONZALES: Well, uh, we are a non-profit.

WEST: Ah, you non-profiters, very - excuse me, we have arrived.

The lift doors open and both men exit into a corridor, stopping outside a double-doored meeting room. Two guards in security attire with holstered firearms and wielding long security batons decorated with tassels are flanking the door, who stand to attention on approach.

WEST: His Majesty will receive you shortly. I trust you have experience in courtly manners.

GONZALES: I wouldn't want to cause any offence to His Majesty. Is there anything important I should know? Different kingdoms, different customs, you know.

WEST: (sighs) Well, one cannot expect those without ancient lineage to… okay, you must address His Majesty correctly, of course, speak only when prompted, avoid mention of your quarterly figures, pay respect to your own liege without insinuating any supremacy. You do bring tribute, I hope?

Dr Gonzales opens his briefcase to show a bottle of red wine.

WEST: Where did you get this? Where is it from?

GONZALES: It's a Bordeaux red, not the most expensive, I admit, but a decent drop -

WEST: Thank the Dow. I feared it was a Napa Valley - we had a skirmish with the vile Claytonites over one of the producers there this February - it would have been perceived as a grave insult. We shall both keep our heads, my friend. Come.

He opens the doors to a large conference room with approximately 20 people in business attire present. SCP-X-1 sits at the far end of the conference table.

WEST: O most illustrious and noble King of Zoller, by the Grace of the Dow, beloved of the shareholders, I present to you the respected Lord Gonzales, a Senior V-P of the Public Corporate Society, who comes to pay respects to your royal person and our Kingdom.

GONZALES: Greetings, your noble Majesty. My, uh, lord and master has sent me to establish relations with your organisation.

SCP-X-1: Normally I would have the Count here handle matters with a minor realm such as yours, but your audacity in seeking an audience intrigues me. We are one of the mightiest investment companies south of Wall Street, victors of a hundred mergers and acquisitions. Tell me, sir, what is to stop me from asset-stripping your little Company here and now, which does not even have a NASDAQ listing?

GONZALES: Your Majesty, we are small, but we are more than you may assume - we have close relations with the United States government, and -

Agitation amongst the courtiers.

COURTIER: A Commission spy!

Shouting of insults towards 'Federals' and 'regulators'.

SCP-X-1: Silence! A spy would not enter our front gates and announce himself so brazenly. Sir, you tread dangerous ground. We are no heretics here - we recognise the spiritual authority of Washington and pay our tithes - but now is a low ebb for temporal and spiritual relations. The poisonous words of Dodd and Frank have even caused rumours of schism. The last Commission visitors made outrageous demands, and it did not end well for them.

GONZALES: You misunderstand, your Majesty. We have relations with the government, but have altogether a different mission. We would like to prevent your company from coming under too much scrutiny, from the government, the public, or otherwise. We know the FBI has taken an interest in your affairs -

Angry shouting from the courtiers resumes; SCP-X-1 holds up a hand to silence them.

GONZALES: - and would like to, ah, divert some of this attention.

SCP-X-1: An intriguing proposal. I would discuss this with you further. All but the Duke Yankee Candle and Count GrubHub, leave us.

<TRANSCRIPT ENDS>

Addendum X-2: Over several negotiating sessions in the following month, an agreement was reached between SCP-X and the Foundation regarding Foundation concealment of their anomalous activity in exchange for partial cooperation. The Treaty of the Hamptons⁴ contains the following provisions;

• Establishment of a permanent Foundation embassy
• Non-interference of SCP-X in Foundation sub-contractor corporations
• Divestment of Foundation assets from CD&R
• Non-aggression between SCP-X and the Foundation
• Advance notice of SCP-X military actions or major financial decisions

Although ceasing violent actions against other members of the US finance industry was a core Foundation negotiating goal, this was unsuccessful given the perception of SCP-X of this as an threat to its independence and prestige. This continues to be an area of containment interest, with a suggestion to revisit this area of negotiations in return for extracting further concessions from Foundation congressional contacts favourable to SCP-X; this proposal is currently pending Ethics Committee review.

cliche contest - It Can't Happen Here

SCP-X.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Due to the transient nature of SCP-X, containment procedures are focused on concealing its existence from the public. A webcrawling bot has been tasked to locate and remove online missing persons information containing potentially relevant markers for SCP-X. In the event the remains or personal effects of civilians affected by SCP-X are located in unusual circumstances, measures to conceal their discovery are necessary.

A memo advising of the risks of passing through entrances exhibiting signs of being affected by SCP-X has been circulated to Foundation staff of Level 3 clearance or above.

Description: SCP-X is a phenomenon affecting doorways where they are temporarily converted into entrances to an alternate reality (hereon designated SCP-X-A). No pattern in the type of doorway or associated building has been observed across SCP-X manifestations, but all confirmed or probable manifestations have been located in major metropolitan areas in developed countries. It is estimated that the SCP-X phenomenon occurs at a rate of 50-100 incidents per annum, with half that number of affected persons, as a number of SCP-X incidents are presumed to end with no consequence.

As far as can be determined, the SCP-X-A reality is broadly analogous to baseline reality in terms of its geography, history, and culture, although no SCP-X-A duplicates of persons who pass through SCP-X from baseline reality have been observed to exist. The primary difference between SCP-X-A and baseline reality is geopolitical; all locations within SCP-X-A are experiencing an ongoing military conflict. Even accounting for limitations in data from persons affected by SCP-X, this conflict possesses several anomalous features;

• lack of identification markings of forces involved (whether regular or irregular)
• absence of human soldiers⁵
• inconsistency in equipment and munitions
• open use of anomalous weaponry
• absence of national military forces, law enforcement or government agencies

While it is not clear as to whether locations within SCP-X-A are experiencing a universal, global war or disparate local/regional conflicts, the absence of evidence of peaceful states within SCP-X-A supports the former.

Other anomalous activity, generally of a violent or disturbing nature, is frequently reported within SCP-X-A, but given the characteristics of SCP-X-A, communication limitations and the traumatic nature of the SCP-X-A experience, the validity of these reports is questionable.

The passage of an individual through an SCP-X-affected doorway will cause the phenomenon to cease, preventing return to baseline reality. Telecommunications are possible, although unreliable, and telephone records form the bulk of available data relating to SCP-X (see Addendum X-1). No method of reliably establishing access to and from SCP-X-A has been found, and persons affected are considered irrecoverable at this point in time.

It's all a conspiracy

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class:

Special Containment Procedures:

Description: SCP-X is a phenomenon affecting single-occupancy dwellings connected by line of sight.

Fleet-in-Being

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class:

Special Containment Procedures:

Description:

Old, Unhappy, Far-Off Things

SCP-X, 20m past outer boundary.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: A perimeter surrounding SCP-X at a distance of 1 km is to be patrolled by 20 armed guards in rotating shifts, quartered at Site-X. Civilians approaching this zone are to be diverted. All internal exploration and research on SCP-X should be conducted by D-class personnel. No Foundation personnel are permitted entry to SCP-X without Level 4 staff approval.

UPDATE (05/05/2018): Following Incident X-1, all individuals exposed to SCP-X's effects are categorised as ATEN-class memetic hazards, and require immediate quarantine and neutralisation. Perimeter security duties have been allocated to the newly established MTF Theta-1 'Locke and Key'. All entities emerging from SCP-X are to be terminated on sight.

Description: SCP-X is an anomalous region approximately 10km² in size, located at coordinates [REDACTED], in southern Yunnan Province, China. The area contains wild forest, the remains of terraced fields and a village with 43 buildings, located at the approximate center of the zone. The last evidence of human habitation within SCP-X is dated to the 1920s.

SCP-X is covered in constant fog. While this has an unremarkable chemical composition, it has been observed to exhibit cognitohazardous properties, with the potential to induce confusion, amnesia, hallucinations, and feelings of déjà vu or jamais vu. These increase in intensity relative to proximity to the center of SCP-X.

The amnestic effect of SCP-X is likely responsible for its other cognitohazardous properties. This effect primarily acts on memories affected individuals under active recall while within SCP-X. This has a secondary effect of causing disorientation, and making exit of SCP-X difficult. While protective gear is able to mitigate the effects of exposure, the intensity of SCP-X upon entry to the village is severe enough to prevent exit entirely, and personnel who enter this zone are unable to be retrieved. Mnestic drugs have been unable to prevent the effects of SCP-X.

Hallucinations within the buildings of SCP-X generally reflect other indoor environments. These phenomena have not been observed to repeat. Whilst the content of these hallucinations generally reflects real-world, non-anomalous locations, clear identification of any of these locales has proven difficult. It is unclear whether this is a consistent property between hallucinations or an expected result of the cognitohazardous effects of SCP-X. Poor identification of these locations in interviews with relevant civilians was initially thought to simply reflect their non-existence, but experimentation has noted that locals were more likely to report difficulty recalling a similar location, rather than non-recognition (when compared to subjects presented with fabricated control locations). Further experimentation into this phenomenon is ongoing. A brief list of reported examples is listed below.

• A dacha of East German construction, converted into storage space and filled with tools and a Trabant car in poor condition.
• A Mesoamerican ruined pyramid, not corresponding to any discovered structure.
• A mid-20th century house built in the Czech Functionalist style.
• A home in a submerged Nubian village, c. 1970.
• An abandoned Greek Orthodox church on a hill overlooking the city of Trabzon, Turkey.
• An empty, partially constructed building in the Argentine city of Ciudad Encrujiada, with design suggestive of a convention center/exhibition space.
• A room of the Forbidden City in Beijing, not matched to any existing structure. A stack of papers bearing Foundation insignia is visible on a table.
• The bridge of an unknown Gazelle-class cruiser of the Imperial German Navy, wrecked on a tropical island in shallow water.
• A cave in a desert climate, containing a 20-meter high statue of the Buddha.
• An Iranian coffee-house interior of 17th century design.

No persons have been observed in these hallucinations at any time.

Addendum X-1:

EXPLORATION LOG X-1

---

DATE: 01/04/2018

NOTES: First manned incursion following drone-based exploration, which mapped the area and collected soil, water and air samples, with no anomalous properties detected. One member of D-class personnel (D-724) was equipped with a two-way radio, video and audio recording equipment, a gas mask, a head-mounted lamp and 1 day of rations, with instructions to proceed to the central village within SCP-X and report their experiences.

---

<BEGIN LOG>

CONTROL: D-724, do you understand the mission? You are to walk directly down this path, straight ahead to the village. Report everything you see. We will give you instructions on when to return.

D-724: Yeah, I heard you at the briefing. What's so special about this place, anyway?

CONTROL: That's your job to find out. There's no sign of anything hostile in there, and all the samples we've taken are safe, but be careful. Don't touch anything without our permission.

D-724: Sure, I bet it's totally fine, that's why you're sending me instead of one of you guys. Why did you even give me a mask, then?

CONTROL: It's a standard precaution. You're free to return to your previous work detail if you don't like what's happening.

D-724: Okay, okay, I'm going.

D-724 enters SCP-X.

D-724: Strange fog for this time of year.

CONTROL: Keep going and tell us if you experience anything unusual.

D-724: Nothing yet. I see some trees, pools of water, there's a wooden fence on my right, what can I tell you?

[D-724 continues walking down the path in silence for 12 minutes. Apart from the presence of fog, no anomalous activity is apparent.]

Still image from Exploration X-1.

D-724: There's a village up ahead.

CONTROL: That's your objective. Keep going and this will be over soon.

D-724: You didn't tell me about any village.

CONTROL: 724, we went over this in the briefing.

D-724: What are you talking about?

CONTROL: This isn't a game, 724. It's in your interest to stay alert and do your job properly.

D-724: What the hell are you talking about? What job?

CONTROL: 724, you need to… hmm. Okay. Just proceed to the village and report on what you see.

D-724: Uh, if you say so.

[D-724 enters the village. Camera movements are consistent with distress and agitation.]

CONTROL: Are you all right, 724?

D-724: What - what's going on? Where am I?

CONTROL: Take a breath, 724. Do you see something unusual?

D-724: Who - who are - 这是什么?⁶

CONTROL: Repeat that again, 724.

D-724: 我不明白. 发生了什么?⁷

[D-724 begins touching the gas mask and radio headset in confusion, then begins to remove them.]

CONTROL: D-724, stop that immediately!

D-724 does not respond and becomes increasingly agitated. He discards the gas mask and communications equipment, with the camera landing on the ground. He runs down the village street, out of view.

<END LOG>

EXPLORATION LOG X-2

---

DATE: 03/04/2018

NOTES: Manned incursion by 3-person team from MTF Epsilon-6 'Village Idiots' (E1 CPT Nguyen, E2 SSGT Zhou, E3 CPL Zimmerman). The team was selected from personnel with a measured Cognitohazard Resistance Value >50, and equipped with sidearms, non-lethal weaponry, rations, mnestic autoinjectors and HAZMAT gear due to suspicions at the time physical contact with the fog exacerbated its anomalous properties.

---

SCP-X on entry in Exploration X-2.

<BEGIN LOG>

E2: What are we even doing here? Isn't this a mission for weirdos like Eta-10?

E1: This is just an early recon run - scope out the anomaly, get out. We can do a better job of it than they can.

E2: You mean we're better at being expendable in a skip that makes you go crazy. Fucking hell.

CONTROL: You've been selected for this mission because you're skilled generalists with cognitohazard experience. Captain Nguyen has authority to abort if your assessment on the ground requires it.

E2: Yeah, you'd better fucking use that, Cap.

E1: Sooner this is done the better. Radio check?

E3: Zimmerman, check.

E2: Zhou, check.

E1: Okay, let's go.

[Team proceeds into SCP-X.]

E3: So, who's going to sling this class-D over their back?

E2: Not sure. Who's the lowest ranked here?

E1: Nobody's carrying anyone out of here. We should be able to convince this guy to return.

E2: If he hears your Mandarin, he'd be wiser to take his chances with the skip - whoa, hold up. What's that in your suit?

[E2's camera moves to view E1's faceplate. Traces of fog are visible inside.]

E2: Fuck, a breach already?

E1: I don't see anything.

E2: There's a breach in your suit, Cap.

E1: Really? Okay. Not feeling anything unusual. Zimmerman, can you do a check?

[E3 checks E1's suit for breaches.]

E3: You're all clear, Captain.

E2: What's your name?

E1: ████ Nguyen.

E2: What's your date of birth?

E1: Sixth of May, eighty-seven.

E2: Who's the CPC General Secretary?

E1: Xi Jinping.

E2: Association - north.

E1: South.

E2: Lantern.

E1: Candle.

E2: Willow.

E1: Branch.

E2: Passphrase. I enter the court through the middle gate.

E1: My sleeve is wet with tears.

E2: All neural readings look normal. Can you confirm that, Control?

CONTROL: Confirmed, no abnormal readings on our end. Are you clear to proceed?

E1: We can proceed. I've seen worse coghazes on TV.

E3: What's the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow?

E2: Shut up, Zimmerman. I don't like this at all, Cap. We haven't even taken ten steps and we're already losing control.

E1: We're not pulling out before we've taken those ten steps. Just follow my lead.

[The team continues through SCP-X, approaching the village without incident. Retroactive analysis of footage shows fog is now visible in the suits of all three team members, though not in quantities sufficient for the team or Control to notice.]

E3: I see something on the ground.

E2: Gas mask, some sort of bag. This the spot where we lost the D-class?

E1: [moves to investigate] Standard Foundation-issue. Looks like it. No footprints - rain's washed them away. Best to check the houses. This looks as good a place to start as any. Weapons ready.

E1 pushes open the door of the nearest house. The interior is empty save for plant growth and broken furniture.

E1: Looks like we got our anomaly. You seeing this?

E2: All I see's some fuckin' weeds, Cap.

E3: Yeah, it looks different - ugh, and that buzzing?

E1: You don't see it? Looks like we got our coghaz. Control, can you give us a visual assessment?

CONTROL: I'm seeing an empty room with some plants and rubbish. Computer scan isn't picking up anything unusual. I can get back to you with a full anomaly pattern search in about thirty minutes.

E1: Okay. I see someone's bedroom, looks like a city somewhere in Europe, style nineteen- thirties maybe? Looking out the windows on that wall - I see a castle, two bridges, nighttime outside. No people around, but I hear someone yelling. German? Okay, it's stopped. Zhou? Zimmer?

E2: I'm with Control on this one. Nothing here for me.

E3: Uh, I'm looking at some jungle - I thought it was just normal, but the plants look different to what we've seen around here, and there's a bit more light - there's this buzzing, doesn't stop. Sounds like a lot of bugs.

E1: I'm going to sweep the room. Stay here.

E2: Watch yourself.

E1: Okay, I - woah.

E2: You all right, Cap?

E1: Yeah, I, uh - it's just faded out. Nothing here but a rotting table.

E3: I don't see anything either.

E2: Told you there wasn't anything there.

[E1 exits and closes the door.]

E1: Okay… okay, let's go. Next house? Are we getting some data here? I think we're getting something. Let's go.

E2: You sure you're all right, Cap? Better do a check again.

E1: A what? Sure. Sure. Go ahead.

E2: Your name?

E1: Nguyen.

E2: What's your date of birth?

E1: Sixth May, eighty- eighty-seven.

E2: Who's the Prime Minister of Japan?

E1: Abe.

E2: Association - east.

E1: West.

E2: Moon.

E1: Sun.

E2: Butterfly.

E1: Lizard.

E2: Because the mountain grass…

E1: Mountain grass?

E3: Uh-oh.

E2: Readings are off compared to before. Control?

CONTROL: Low-level fluctuations seen on our end. Caution is advised.

E2: We should call it. I see this going south real fast.

E1: No, no, I'm okay.

[E1 moves to the next house and opens the door.]

[DATA MISSING]

E1: This is - what is this?

E2: What is it?

E3: Huh, it's a big cube. Looks like a containment chamber. Some kind of big machine, not one I've seen before. This one of our sites? I see a number - site forty-one?

E2: Site what?

E3: Forty-one. You know -

E2: We're done here. Let's go.

[E2 pulls E1 out of the building and slams the door closed.]

E3: You know that? What -

E2: We've seen far more than enough. This is way above our pay grade, Cap. Get us out of here.

E1: Huh. This is - I don't -

E2: That's not good. Mnestics in, Nguyen.

E1: I - I don't understand.

E2: Fuck! Control, lead is affected by a high-level coghaz. I need his system override, code [REDACTED].

CONTROL: I see it, Sergeant. Giving you access. Do what you need to do.

[E2 activates E1's mnestic autoinjectors remotely.]

E2: Hey. Hey. Captain Nguyen. You with me?

E1: Who - who are you? What am I -

E2: Fuck. Okay, okay. You have to come with me. Zimmerman, grab his other arm.

E3: Uh, okay. Where, uh, where are we going?

E2: We're getting the fuck out of here, Zimmerman, come on.

E3: Sure, sure. What - what are we doing here anyway?

E2: God damn it. Just follow my lead.

[The team exits SCP-X at a significantly slower speed than that of entry. E2 spends much of this time guiding and encouraging E1 and E3, who remain confused and distractible.]

<END LOG>

Do you have regrets? Every person you sent to their death, every innocent you failed to save, every comrade you never saw again. I do. I'm sure you do. Even if your days aren't as dramatic, you remember what you shouldn't have said, words you shouldn't have heard, something you shouldn't have tried. We should have a clean slate. A fresh start. We will all be grateful. How can you miss what you do not know you had?

INTERVIEW LOG X-1

---

DATE: 04/04/2018

NOTES: Post-mission interview of SSGT Zhou, conducted by Control lead (Dr Anderson).

---

<BEGIN LOG>

ANDERSON: I'm sorry to go through this so soon after what happened, but you know the drill with these things. I won't keep you long.

ZHOU: Oh, yeah? I'm just overjoyed you decided to interview me. I've been aching to find out why you made my team into drooling idiots, and you can tell the Director that -

ANDERSON: Maybe we should go off the record, Terry.

ZHOU: (sighs) Forget it. Look, Chris, I'm pretty on edge right now. I don't want to bite your head off, but someone has to answer for the Captain and Zimmer having their brains scrambled by a coghaz. How could you do this to us?

ANDERSON: I - I'm not sure - okay, I'm not going to make excuses, but you know there are things I need to get clearance for to tell you. I'm going to recommend an inquiry, and I'm willing to take responsibility, but the medics have only had a day to look over Nguyen and Zimmerman. They still have a fighting chance, our mnestic treatments are a lot better than they were in the nineties.

ZHOU: I'd find that more reassuring if you'd let me see them.

ANDERSON: That's out of my hands, but I think they're off-site now.

ZHOU: Let's get this over with, then. What did you need to ask?

ANDERSON: We're trying to figure out why you weren't affected by the anomaly. We've got one working theory - but anyway. You weren't affected, right? From the reports when you got back to the Site and reviewing the footage, nobody noticed anything, but anything we might have missed?

ZHOU: No. I walked through that whole damn place and didn't have any visions, didn't forget my name, uh, but there was - can we go off the record for this? … guess not. Just don't dissect my brain or anything. I'm not sleeping well, and I'm misplacing small things. My phone, my watch, being a few days off on the date - but I've had a rough couple of days.

ANDERSON: That's fair. I don't think I can make anything of that. You'll need a medical, still.

ZHOU: Yeah, I know.

[ANDERSON is silent for 90 seconds.]

ZHOU: You don't have anything else for me?

ANDERSON: Hmm? Sorry. I just - never mind. What's your opinion on… on amnestics?

ZHOU: I've taken my fair share. I know the last time was about two years back? Can't tell you what for. Obviously.

ANDERSON: Sounds about right. I've consulted the dispensing records and you've been on amnestics every… a lot of times… since you joined up. You must have been on a rough detail before I met you.

ZHOU: I wouldn't know. (laughs dryly)

ANDERSON: Well. The point is, the, um, Captain… Captain Nguyen… yes. He never took them. Right? You knew that?

ZHOU: Yes, now you mention it. It was a moral kind of thing, like feeling obliged to remember what he's done. I thought it was pretty stupid, but I respected that, in a way. You - you think I have some kind of immunity? That he didn't?

ANDERSON: Immunity? Yes. Something like that.

ZHOU: And Zimmer, he probably had a few, newbie, seen some things he wasn't cleared for, but not as many as an old lady like me. Sound about right?

ANDERSON: Zimmer?

ZHOU: You know, Corporal Zimmerman. You're not going off on me too, are you, Chris?

ANDERSON: What?

ZHOU: Earth to Anderson.

ANDERSON: I - who's that? Anderson?

ZHOU: Chris, if this is a joke, it's not fucking funny.

ANDERSON: I - I - I - (silence)

ZHOU: Oh, shit.

[Alarms sounding.]

<END LOG>

Given the recent information on SCP-X, the Council has enacted emergency
Emergency procedures are to be
SCP-X
Foundation staff are to

Secure

Black moons and howling.
Black

Black

Bl

bbbbbbbbb

NOTICE FROM THE FOUNDATION RECORDS AND INFORMATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION

Due to the ongoing [DOOMSDAY SCENARIO NAME], instability in the documentation for SCP-X is anticipated. Instability in other documentation dated beyond June 2018 is also a possibility. All personnel with clearance should take appropriate cognitohazard precautions. Given the nature of the [DOOMSDAY SCENARIO], all pertinent information should be acted on immediately. While the vector of transmission of the phenomenon is unknown, all personnel who experience potential cognitohazardous effects should enact immediate quarantine procedures and alert site security staff.

— Director, RAISA

I have never seen this building. There are others here, who bring up shades of white, black, orange. I do not remember what this means. I remember how to write, though. I remember I can push these keys and my thoughts appear. I am luckier than some of them.

I think that something terrible has happened, but I do not know what.

Maybe It's His First Time Around

I used to dislike the Archives Department in winter. The designers from the fifties reasonably concluded investing in the central heating was not a priority for the rows of cabinets, and later still, the server rooms, but nobody paid mind to how the staffer would feel. I made do with a space heater. The Director was kind enough to buy me a new one, after he took pity on me during his monthly visit. One perk of the last month's events; I've had the opportunity to turn the poky office into my home-away-from-home, pilfering woolly blankets, the Director's nice armchair and cramming the staff room coffee machine into the corner where my filing cabinets used to be. I was tempted to throw the contents into the incinerator, but that would be a bit of self-indulgent angst. It wouldn't really be me.

My phone buzzes, and I glance at the clock on the wall. Eight am; time to get to work. Only in the Foundation is your morning start unaffected by the collapse of civilisation. I take a manila folder off the desk, and open it to the first page.

STAFF DOSSIER

LEVEL 2 PERSONNEL

NAME

• Zimmerman, Alan

POSITION

• Mobile Task Force Operative

RANK

• Corporal

DATE OF BIRTH

• 11/09/1990

PLACE OF BIRTH

• Portland, Oregon, United States of America

EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

• United States Army (2008-2012)
  • Tour of duty in Helmand Province, Afghanistan (10th Mountain Division)
• Stanford University (2012-2016)
  • Bachelor's degree in Political Science
• Foundation (2016-)
  • [MISSING DATA]

HUMAN RESOURCES NOTES

Received a Purple Heart for IED wounds and a Silver Star for action under fire in Afghanistan. First contact with Foundation in 2010 when unit came into contact with ORIA-backed paramilitaries using SCP-████, requiring the intervention of MTF Upsilon-4. Low-level Foundation monitoring during tertiary education and approached for recruitment. Displayed above-average performance as member of Site-10 security staff and assigned to MTF Epsilon-6. Has basic qualifications in counter-cognitohazards and counter-memetics. Well-liked by team members and may be candidate for future officer training, but too junior at this time. Father deceased, mother living, approximate monthly contact. No other close personal relationships. No personal habits significant to employment.

Saw a few times in the corridors and the canteen. Never exchanged words, we move in different circles - half my age, military type. Standout features - always in uniform liked potato salad?? not a feature, he just had it that one time -

I look at my scrawlings below the neatly typed text and sigh. Who are you, Corporal Zimmerman?

It's time to leave the Archives basement. I pass the lifts towards the stairwell, the lockdown procedures succeeding where innumerable workplace health promotion posters have failed. The dim July sun brushes across my face as I ascend, sweeping through the cobwebs on the walls. As I swing open the door to the Site infirmary, no faces turn to greet me. That's worse than yesterday.

Best to start with what's fresh in my memory. I walk over to bed 6 and greet the figure lying in it.

"Hello, Zimmerman. How's your day going?"

He turns this time, giving me a blank stare. It's better than nothing. I take a canister of the baby-food infirmary puree, holding a spoonful of the beige paste in front of his mouth. After a few minutes of waiting, I push the spoon forward and he compliantly swallows the excuse for a meal.

"Eat, eat, you're skin and bones." I laugh mirthlessly. "Some people think they'll become their mothers, but I've become my grandma. She used to say that to me. Did you know your grandma well, Zimmerman?"

He glances at the food canister, and stays silent.

"Can I call you Alan? How about Al? We don't need to be so formal. I have to clean up after you now, you don't have secrets from me. Baby, you can call me, you can call, me, Al… You like Paul Simon, Al? I saw him live once. What kind of music do you listen to?"

My charge isn't much for talking. I wonder if I should put some music on. I read a news story once about music therapy for people with memory loss. I open the bedside drawer and spread out an assortment of valuables, wallet, phone, papers, keys.

"Hey, Al, what music have you got on your phone? Show me."

I take his limp hand and drag it over the fingerprint sensor. The screen blinks to life, but the dot-grid bars my way. Behind it is a picture of Zimmerman's smiling face, on a warm-looking summer's day with sunglasses to match. Another man stands beside him, with a late-teens grin, similar-looking enough to be a cousin but an unlikely brother. Relative? Friend? Lover? Army comrade? Someone he met while out for a walk?

"Can't unlock it, eh? Who's this? Looks like you're having a good time, Al."

In a film this would be where a flicker of recognition passes over his face, but only more blank staring follows. I take out the morning's manila folder, and write a further note beneath his document.

Close to someone of similar age, male, Caucasian, brown hair, brown eyes, saved on phone background. No recognition in affected state. ?friend ?relative

I put his personal effects back in the drawer and move on to the room's other resident.

"Good morning, Director. I have your daily report on the Archives Department's activity. My compiling of personnel reports continues. I continue to exercise my new responsibilities as nurse, waiter and companion to the other remaining member of Site staff and your good self. Do you have any orders?"

I remember getting the polite-but-distracted half-glance when we used to meet. It was the look of a person who has more important things to do, meetings with a librarian intruding on her time fighting eldritch horrors and apocalypses, but who was too well-bred to say it out loud. Today the Director replies with a wet, hacking cough. Phlegm drips down her chin onto the bed-sheets. I slip on a rubber glove and take the manual pump from the supply cabinet, the wall-mounted electric suction having long since given out. She squirms as the nozzle enters her mouth.

"Shh, shh. It's all right."

The pump slowly fills with yellow fluid. There are flecks of red in it today.

"I'll get you some food and clean sheets." I return with another puree canister in one hand and a bundle of linen in the other. The administering of the canister's contents is met by more coughing and spluttering, and the beige off-yellow puree is added to the phlegm on the sheets.

"Director, you can't let the rookies do a better job than you." I nod in Zimmerman's direction. "Director - Kathy - you need to eat, please."

It's no use, of course. The amnesia does that to you, in the end, and trying to feed her is now a gamble between suffocation and starvation. The fridge of intravenous nutrition bags sits empty, three months of supply used up on the whole Site staff in a week.

In the Director's folder there are pages and pages of notes over Zimmerman's, memories of appointments and publications and honours. Some of the material in the classified sections was interesting to me, before, after I laid all the records bare with nobody left to stop me. After I did more reading, though, they started to blur together - fragments of things I'd seen before in other dossiers and object documents. My job is more my annotations, now.

I change the sheets and sit with the Director for the next hour, reading from her file.

Always busy, but never raised her voice. Liked talking about the husband (lawyer of some description - non-Foundation, but did some low-clearance subcontracting) - but had some adult kids - at least two, male and female, photos in office, but never talked about them. (didn't want to expose them to work??)

At the staff Christmas party in 2016(?17), Dominguez started griping about being the hundredth time he'd heard Bing Crosby that week, she jumped in and said how much she loved Christmas music. Reminded her of her childhood - in Toronto - matches with records.

Said that she liked playing squash badminton. I mentioned my father used to be a state champion. Asked me if I played - replied no - she said it was a pity.

The next morning she is dead.

Zimmerman does not turn as I wheel her bed out of the ward. Fortunately, the disposal room is on the same level, with no stairs to challenge me. I carefully slide the forlorn bundle of linen and flesh into the incinerator's mouth. It seems wrong to be putting whole - for a given value of the word - human bodies into a machine marked for 'waste', and not for the first time, I feel a pang of guilt. I tell myself that as cold as this may be, it's more dignified an end for my colleagues than being wheeled out on a dolly into the woods.

I stand in front of the incinerator for several minutes, looking at the family photos in my hand, but I return them to the folder and close the door.

That afternoon, I return to the infirmary with a wheelchair. I've taken the flower vase from the Director's office - more respectable than a bag or a Tupperware container.

"Afternoon, Corp - uh, Al. Sorry I haven't seen much of you today. I had to sort some things out. Come on, let's go outside for a bit. There's something we both need to do."

I hoist Zimmerman into the wheelchair and place the vase in his lap. We head into the four-walled central courtyard, where a bare-branched maple tree stands forlornly.

"Care to say a few words, Al? … okay, I'll go first."

I open the folder, looking for inspiration. Why bother with this? I can read out the list of her accomplishments, but I know them already.

"Kathleen was a good Dir - a good friend. The world is poorer for her loss, but as long as we remember her, she is still with us. Even if she is forgotten, her deeds remain. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."

I take the vase and upend the contents onto the dirt. Some melt into the ground, and the rest are carried upwards by a gust of wind, out of sight. Time to make another note in the files.

Died on 22/09/2018, due to health complications resulting from the [DOOMSDAY SCENARIO NAME]. Rests with the other staff in the Site 33 central courtyard.

I close the folder and latch its hook. "Well, Al, it's just you and me, now. The two ghosts of Site 33." I turn the wheelchair and look at the sky. Time for our outing to end; the weather is looking grim. A song springs to my mind again, and I start humming softly.

"If you'll be my bodyguard, I can be your long-lost pal…"

We cross the courtyard back indoors, as the fog begins to roll in.

AIs and Others (deleted)

Site-3977.

Item #: SCP-3977

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: The building housing SCP-3977-2 has been acquired by the Foundation, with designation Site-3977, and houses SCP-3977-1, offices, and research materials relating to SCP-3977. SCP-3977-1 is to be monitored regularly for new communications. SCP-3977-2 is to remain vacant except in controlled testing situations. All previous Polish government records relating to SCP-3977 and PoI-3977-1, 2 and 3 have been acquired by the Foundation and are also stored at Site-3977.

PoI-3977-1, 2 and 3 have been placed under regular Foundation surveillance, with Site-3977 to be notified of any anomalous activity.

SCP-3977-1.

Description: SCP-3977 refers to two related anomalies. SCP-3977-1 is a modified Soviet computer of the MN-10M model, with attached radio receiving and transmitting equipment and a dot-matrix printer. It houses a form of rudimentary artificial intelligence, with which communication attempts have been unsuccessful. It was discovered at the Domki St address of SCP-3977-2 (see below), in a room disguised as a storage closet. Records indicate SCP-3977-1 was a prototype of a joint SB⁸-GRU Division ‘P’ project to develop an automated system for the analysis of surveillance data. The intelligence within SCP-3977-1 displays anomalous data collection, interpretation and manipulation capabilities beyond the technology it utilises.

SCP-3977-2 is an apartment at ███/204 Domki St, Grzegórzki District, Kraków, Poland. The building was constructed in 1974 and the apartment is an unremarkable two-bedroom residence save for the presence of numerous concealed recording devices. SCP-3977-1 is aware of events that occur in SCP-3977-2. The mechanism by which this occurs is unknown, as although the recording devices in SCP-3977-2 were initially connected to SCP-3977-1, many are now defunct with no effect on SCP-3977-1’s capabilities.

Using the attached printer, SCP-3977-1 will produce brief messages in Polish (translated to English for the remainder of this document) reporting on events in SCP-3977-2. All messages produced by SCP-3977-1 prior to its containment have been uniformly mundane.

The bulk of SCP-3977 activity was related to the Rakowski family, a husband and wife couple Henryk and Elżbieta, and their daughter Lidia, designated PoI-3977-1, 2 and 3 respectively. SCP-3977-1 refers to these individuals as the Primary Subject and Subjects Two and Three in its reports. Given the results of experimentation (see Experiment Log 3977-1), it appears that SCP-3977-1 manipulates information relating to PoI-3977-1, 2 and 3.

+ Details of PoI-3977-1, 2 and 3

• PoI-3977-1: Henryk Rakowski (dob 23/03/1939). An associate professor of sociology at the Kraków Academy of Economics (Akademia Ekonomiczna w Krakowie)⁹ from 1976 to 2004. Records indicate PoI-3977-1 was a test case for SCP-3977-1’s use, due to SB suspicions around his links to subversive activity. No convincing evidence of any suspicious anomalous or non-anomalous behaviour has been recorded in governmental records. Died in 2009 due to gastric cancer.
• PoI-3977-2: Elżbieta Rakowski, née Błońska (dob 11/08/1942). An assistant curator at the National Museum in Kraków (Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie). Married PoI-3977-1 in 1965, two years after meeting him at a university event. Afflicted with type I diabetes throughout life, but significant improvement in quality of medical care and symptoms noted since the early 1980s. Resident of a nursing home in Tarnów since 2011, due to care requirements relating to vascular dementia.
• PoI-3977-3: Lidia Katarzyna Rakowski (dob 07/12/1971). Moved to Moscow in 1988 after being granted a scholarship to study medicine at Lomonsonov State University. Relocated to London in 2000, where she currently practices as a neurologist, marrying a British citizen in 2005. Interviews with PoI-3977-3 indicate that PoI-3977-1 held mild anti-governmental views and was peripherally associated through other Academy of Economics staff with several proscribed literary and political circles, but without any significant subversive activity known to PoI-3977-3. She did not demonstrate knowledge of SCP-3977, or suspicions of being under surveillance.

In 2002, SCP-3977 came to the attention of the Foundation, with containment procedures implemented necessitating relocation of the Rakowski family. Since this time, SCP-3977-1 has produced the following message on a weekly basis.

7-DAY UPDATE – NO RELEVANT DATA. ADVISE RELOCATION TO WIDNA ST¹⁰ ADDRESS.

Addendum 3977-1: Communication attempt with SCP-3977-1
(05/06/2003) Dr Anders enters SCP-3977-2 and asks a series of questions (“Can you understand me?”, “What are you?”, “Do you know who I am?” etc.)
Output:

NEW LANDLORD BECOMING SUSPICIOUS. ADVISE RELOCATION TO WIDNA ST ADDRESS.

Further communication attempts have met with similar results.

Experiment Log 3977-1: Selected experimentation (between 2005-2006) within SCP-3977-2, with resulting SCP-3977-1 output

+ Experiment Log 3977-1

Experiment 3977-24
Details: Dr Anders and Research Assistant Kopanski prepare a meal of eggs and toast and make casual conversation for 30 minutes.
Output:

LANDLORD AND ACQUAINTANCE EAT MEAL AND MAKE MUNDANE CONVERSATION.

Experiment 3977-29
Details: Dr Anders and RA Kopanski have a 30-minute political discussion regarding anti-governmental and anti-communist views.
Output:

LANDLORD AND ACQUAINTANCE DISCUSS CONCERNING VIEWPOINTS. ADVISE INCREASED SURVEILLANCE OF BOTH.

Experiment 3977-30
Details: Dr Anders and RA Kopanski have a 30-minute political discussion similar to Experiment 3977-29, while claiming that they are close friends with PoI-3977-1 and he shares their opinions.
Output:

DISCUSSION FROM PRIOR REPORT CONTINUED AND RESOLVED. PARTIES REACH CONSENSUS ON POSITIVE SOCIALIST VALUES. ADVISE NO FURTHER ACTION.

Experiment 3977-34
Details: RA Kopanski stores several firearms in bedroom closet.
Output:

ACQUAINTANCE OF LANDLORD HAS ACQUIRED AND STORED WEAPONRY ON PREMISES.

Experiment 3977-35
Details: RA Kopanski stages phone call to PoI-3977-2, stating that her ‘items are ready’.
Output:

MISIDENTIFICATION IN PREVIOUS REPORT. SUSPICIOUS ITEMS CONFIRMED TO BE ACTING PROPS.

Addendum 3977-2: Historical records relating to SCP-3977

The following is a segment of SB records relating to PoI-3977-1, 2 and 3, likely generated by SCP-3977 given context and style. There are over ███ pages of records from the period of 1977-1989 with similar content.

11/06/1987

PRIMARY SUBJECT HAD DINNER WITH SUBJECT TWO. SUBJECT THREE WITH FRIENDS. PRIMARY SUBJECT PLANS TO BUY NEW WASHING MACHINE. NO RELEVANT DATA.

12/06/1987

PRIMARY SUBJECT REPORTS EXCESSIVE QUOTED TIME IN DELIVERY OF WASHING MACHINE. ADVISE █████████ STORE BE INVESTIGATED FOR POSSIBLE MISAPPROPRIATION OF PARTS.

13/06/1987

PRIMARY SUBJECT AND SUBJECTS TWO AND THREE CONVERSE REGARDING SUBJECT THREE’S SCHOOLING. IMPROVED PERFORMANCE LIKELY DUE TO PRIMARY SUBJECT AND SUBJECT TWO MODELLING POSITIVE SOCIALIST VALUES.

14/06/1987

SUBJECT TWO REPORTS TO PRIMARY SUBJECT THAT COLLEAGUE ████████ HAS BEEN BEHAVING INAPPROPRIATELY TOWARDS YOUNGER FEMALE COLLEAGUES. ADVISE THIS INDIVIDUAL BE INVESTIGATED. PRIMARY SUBJECT ANNOUNCES INTENT TO VISIT FRIEND IN WARSAW TOMORROW.

15/06/1987

PRIMARY SUBJECT LEAVES FOR WARSAW. NO RELEVANT DATA.

16/06/1987

PRIMARY SUBJECT RETURNS FROM WARSAW. REPORTS MUNDANE INTERACTION WITH SCHOOL FRIEND. NO RELEVANT DATA.

17/06/1987

7-DAY UPDATE – NO SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY OBSERVED. ONGOING MONITORING REQUIRED FOR COMPLETE ASSESSMENT.

Addendum 3977-3: On 02/04/20██, SCP-3977-1 produced the following message.

REQUEST UPDATE ON STATUS OF PRIMARY SUBJECT.

This was the first direct communication from SCP-3977-1, which repeated on a daily basis for 10 days. After deliberation with Director Komorowski, Dr Anders was given permission to attempt communication with SCP-3977-1 with disclosure of information relating to PoI-3977-1. Dr Anders entered SCP-3977-2 and gave a brief verbal summary of the events of PoI-3977-1’s life since 2002, including his retirement, the marriage of PoI-3977-3, and the eventual death of PoI-3977-1. He concluded this summary with a request for SCP-3977-1’s cooperation.

SCP-3977-1 ceased producing regular updates for the next 4 weeks. On 02/05/20██, SCP-3977-1 produced the following message.

ADVISE TERMINATION OF OPERATION.

Since this time, SCP-3977-1 has been inactive. A reclassification to Neutralised is under consideration.

bad jokes

Item: SCP-XXXX-J

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Containment of SCP-XXXX-J is easier said than done, as our current abilities just don't cut the mustard. It goes without saying that the Foundation must search high and low for any documents affected by SCP-XXXX-J and end them once and for all, or it's only a matter of time before it's curtains for us.

All persons affected by SCP-XXXX-J must be terminated with extreme prejudice, time being of the essence. This is a tried and true method of putting a stop to it. The Foundation previously took a stab at amnestic administration prior to this, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Staff interacting with SCP-XXXX-J victims should wear hearing protection, as an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Description: For all intents and purposes, SCP-XXXX-J is an anomaly affecting individuals which causes them to use over-the-top, clichéd turns of phrase in written documents, as well as perceiving other documents to be under the thumb of SCP-XXXX-J. In this day and age, it is estimated that ██% of the world's population is affected by SCP-XXXX-J (more or less), but these could be just the tip of the iceberg.

SCP-XXXX-J is able to spread like wildfire and should be avoided like the plague. Attempting to convince victims they are affected by SCP-XXXX-J is like talking to a brick wall, as they believe SCP-XXXX-J is the best thing since sliced bread. Administering standard intelligence tests suggests they are a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Communication with victims also runs the risk of spreading SCP-XXXX-J, as when you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.

To the best of our knowledge, the origin of SCP-XXXX-J was mid-19th century England, where the turn of phrase "██ ███ █ ████ █ ██████ █████" may be where it all began, although that could be just a shot in the dark.

If SCP-XXXX-J is allowed to run rampant, it's plain as day that this would cause literature as an art form to bite the dust; while there's no accounting for taste, works affected by SCP-XXXX-J are a far cry from readable. While the Foundation must count its blessings that no mass outbreak of SCP-XXXX-J has occurred, this may just be the calm before the storm.

Addendum: It looks like we've had the wool pulled over our eyes; SCP-XXXX-J was right under our noses the whole time. I propose we lock this article once and for all, so it won't cause anyone else to trip up. All's well that ends well!

It's a good thing the rest of the database is safe as houses.

- Dr Major

WALKÜRE

SCP-X.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-X resides in a standard humanoid containment cell at Site-██, guarded by 4 security personnel armed with non-lethal weapons and firearms. Dispensers for Type-15 anaesthetic gas and VX nerve gas have been installed in the cell and the local area for emergency use in the event of a containment breach, and assigned personnel should be equipped with gas masks and briefed in appropriate chemical protocols.

One staff member fluent in Norwegian should conduct an interview with SCP-X on a weekly basis. At least one member of the research team should have an academic understanding of Old Norse to aid with translation of related materials. No personnel with a history of past military or paramilitary service should be in direct contact with SCP-X. No bladed weapons are to be brought into SCP-X's containment cell.

SCP-X is permitted personal items and entertainments at its request, within reason (it has a preference for Romantic-era classical music). Although it does not require sustenance, it should be fed a standard humanoid anomaly diet, as adhering to this regimen has demonstrated an improvement in its mental state.

SCP-X has been placed on a regular schedule of antidepressant medication (currently venlafaxine 150mg daily).

Description: SCP-X is an anomalous humanoid entity with the appearance of a Northern European woman in her mid-twenties, 180cm tall and with blonde hair. Its primary language is Old Norse, but it is able to communicate in modern Nordic languages as well as German and Russian with lesser proficiency. Confirmed anomalous properties of SCP-X include the following:

• being unaffected by biological ageing, at least for the last 100 years
• rapid regeneration of wounds and injuries
• immunity from starvation or dehydration
• the ability to generate flames on metallic weapons if held in SCP-X's hand

Based on interviews with SCP-X and documentation recovered from Groups of Interest, it is speculated that SCP-X possesses other anomalous properties, although it has refused to demonstrate these to the Foundation. The most significant of these is an effect by which it can imbue an individual or group of persons with anomalous strength, regenerative capabilities (theorised to be a variant of SCP-X's own) and psychological resilience, or, conversely, inflict a variety of detrimental mental effects such as anxiety and hopelessness. These appear to only affect persons engaged in armed combat.

SCP-X was recovered by the Foundation from a GRU Division 'P' site in Turkmenistan in 1992. Prior to entering into GRU custody, SCP-X was associated with the Ahnenerbe Obskurakorps¹¹, who were likely its original discoverers. SCP-X shows reluctance to discuss its history, and mention of these organisations causes it significant distress. Presumably due to its background, it has become invested in an ideology of non-violence and pacifism; while this has resulted in its suspicions of the Foundation and occasional non-cooperation, it provides additional insurance against containment breaches.

Addendum X-1: Related documents recovered from the GRU, translated from Russian

PROJECT 145 - CLASSIFICATION CC

Something very interesting has been sent our way. I wonder what strings General Kuznetsov pulled to get the NKVD to transfer it over to us. When Polyakov saw it he went into a rage about the fascists' demon he saw at Kharkov, and had to be dragged away. Though I suspect combat shock has exaggerated his story, I shudder to think how many of our comrades' deaths this thing is responsible for. The chance to work on it will be most gratifying, but we must be careful. Whatever NKVD idiot had charge of it before has been using crude, thuggish methods to gain its cooperation - the most cursory examination shows that it either has a great strength of will or feels no pain at all, perhaps both.

A more subtle approach is needed, although subtle is a relative judgement. We will apply the same treatment to this as we have done to some of the other fascist prisoners, and go from there.

(signed)
Lt. Col. M. Ankudinov
4 April 1946

PROJECT 145 - CLASSIFICATION CC

We have obtained a wealth of footage for the pleasure of Project 145, enough to show on a 24-hour schedule without having to repeat any so far. It will not be long before the Motherland can make use of her.

Some of the guards seem unhappy about our approach to 145, and even Polyakov has also started to grumble. I have had to remind them that none of them complained about showing any other fascist their crimes; it is disappointing but not surprising that they feel sorry for this thing that looks like a pretty young woman.

I have had to move my office to avoid being distracted by her sobbing and begging - I confess that I also have trouble watching those films without feeling ill myself. She screams about having no idea what was going on, but all of them say that.

(signed)
Col. M. Ankudinov
9 August 1947

PROJECT 145 - CLASSIFICATION CC

I am confident enough to declare Project 145's education complete; I wager she knows more of Marx than I do at this point. She has declared a willingness to serve the Union and has cooperated in exercises with some promising results. All we need now is an opportunity.

(signed)
Maj. Gen. M. Ankudinov
19 January 1949

PROJECT 145 - CLASSIFICATION OB

The Politburo is going to move against the Hungarian fascists, and General Shtemenko has given approval for us to deploy Project 145. This will be a most interesting test case.

(signed)
Maj. Gen. M. Ankudinov
3 November 1956

PROJECT 145 - CLASSIFICATION OB

[UNRECOVERABLE]¹²

TERMINATION OF PROJECT

The decline in combat effectiveness of Project 145 has been an ongoing concern for involved parties. The various psychological measures with the aim of restoring its efficacy trialled by the GRU have been noted over the last 15 years, and some have met with a degree of success. However, continued use of Project 145 in the Afghan environment has taken its toll, and with events observed during recent deployments, particularly in the Panjshir VI operation, there is no realistic prospect of restoring Project 145 to functional asset status.

Henceforth, all relevant files are to be sealed, with Project 145 itself reverting to Level 3 Dangerous Item Status and protocols updated accordingly.

By order of Director Ivashutin, 22 December 1983

Interview X-1:

01/11/2017

Interviewer: Dr Hilde Arntzen, SCP-X research team
Subject: SCP-X

ARNTZEN: Hello, Herja. How are you doing today?

SCP-X: I told you not to call me that.

ARNTZEN: We've been over this, Herja. I really do think that using this -

SCP-X: Please, doctor, not today. Just the number.

ARNTZEN: (sighs) Very well, X. How have you been sleeping?

SCP-X: Not well. I have been thinking about the afterlife.

ARNTZEN: That's a grim subject. Have you been thinking about dying for very long?

SCP-X: You misunderstand me, doctor. What is death for you is not quite the same for me.

ARNTZEN: Still, though. Have you been thinking about hurting yourself, Her - X?

SCP-X: Is there any use? I do not think I could if I tried. But no, and yes, I will tell you if I do.

ARNTZEN: I appreciate it, X. Can we talk about your… afterlife?

SCP-X: I do not know if I belong there or here. I should be amongst the gods and my sisters, but in your facility I have some measure of peace, and it would be their duty to pass judgement. They will condemn me and cast me down into the mists.

ARNTZEN: Is that what you have been worrying about? Being judged and condemned?

SCP-X: No, doctor, I do not fear my justice. I am afraid they would embrace me.

NATIONAL DAY

The Shaanxi People's Government Building in Xi'an, housing SCP-X.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Shaanxi_People%27s_Government.jpg

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class:

Special Containment Procedures:

Description: A number of potential governments operating under a variety of systems have been observed through SCP-X and broadly categorised below by frequency of appearances.

• 52% People's Republic of China or similar socialist republics
• 21% Republic of China or similar states
• 10% Qing Empire (both as a constitutional monarchy and absolute monarchy)
• 7% monarchies ruled by other Chinese dynasties (most commonly Ming, Yuan, and previously unknown dynasties)
• 4% states resulting from Chinese balkanisation (eg. 'Shaanxi Soviet', 'Beiyang Federation')
• 3% Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
• 1% Reorganised National Government of the Republic of China
• 2% others, including unusual forms of government with no known historical analogues (eg. 'Zone Eighteen')

Addendum X-1: Protocol TIANMING

Three possibilities for the consistency of SCP-X-1 throughout realities observed via SCP-X have been proposed.

1. SCP-X only activates in relation to realities where SCP-X-1 exists and has attained its position
2. SCP-X-1, the Shaanxi provincial government or reality itself are subject to a secondary anomalous effect by which probabilities converge to result in SCP-X-1 attaining its position
3. SCP-X-1 and its position represent a naturally occurring reality anchor, and realities in which SCP-X-1 does not exist in its known form are prone to undergo ZK-class reality failure events

Whilst scenarios 1 and 2 are of academic interest, the serious implications of scenario 3 for the Foundation's mission are obvious. In order to prevent ZK- or CK-class events occurring as a result of nonexistence of SCP-X-1 in baseline reality, Protocol TIANMING has been developed in cooperation with the PRC Ministry of Public Security (Special Questions Department). TIANMING is implemented by both MPS and Foundation staff and involves the following areas of action:

• Encouraging current or likely prospective members of the Shaanxi Provincial People's Congress to change their name to Chen Chunqing (陈纯清)
• Identifying citizens named Chen Chunqing and supporting them to attain government offices and People's Congress membership
• Preferential treatment for children and adolescents named Chen Chunqing in educational programs relating to law, politics and public administration

As these measures and SCP-X-1 itself require a functional regional government, the Foundation has also agreed to support the PRC in the event of any crisis that risks the destabilisation of Shaanxi province.

WARGAMES

SCP-X.

Item #: SCP-X

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation staff are to monitor moddb.com and popular file-sharing websites to remove copies of SCP-X and close any online discussions. One computer installed with the video game Wargame: AirLand Battle and SCP-X is to be maintained for testing purposes. This device should be isolated from internal and external networks.

SCP-X is not to be copied or installed on multiple devices without Level 3 staff approval.

Description: SCP-X is an anomalous modification for the video game Wargame: AirLand Battle, a real-time tactics war game developed in 2013 by French company Eugen Systems, depicting a conflict between NATO and the Warsaw Pact over Scandinavia. It consists of a single executable file 22mb in size, released on the game modification website moddb.com in January 2017 by a user 'Cadorna12' under the title 'IMMERSION VOICEPACK - brit (beta)'.

When executed in the main game folder, SCP-X confers anomalous properties on the in-game Chieftain Mk. 10, a tank unit for the British faction (designated SCP-X-1). This replaces the generic unit voice lines with the real-time responses of a period-appropriate British Army tank commander (designated SCP-X-2) and background noise. SCP-X-2 has no apparent knowledge of its existence in a simulation and reacts as if in an actual combat situation; however, it is unable to independently act within the game state and SCP-X-1 behaves in an identical fashion to all similar game units.

SCP-X-2 and its crew remains consistent between game sessions, but is replaced by a new instance of SCP-X-2 if SCP-X-1 is destroyed. No instance of SCP-X-2 has been conclusively linked to an extant individual.

Experiment Log:

All experiments were conducted in the single-player skirmish game mode, on the 'Stromsund' map, with a researcher controlling a British side (Blue) containing SCP-X-1 against a computer opponent (Red), and audio from SCP-X-2 transcribed.

X-1: Baseline testing
Conditions: Red team unarmed support and command vehicles only

Game session commences. SCP-X-1 deployed as a singular unit, named 'NICHOLSON'.¹³

This is Charlie Two, awaiting orders, over.

This instance of SCP-X-2 is a young male with a Southeast English accent. Researcher gives order for SCP-X-1 to move directly towards the other side of the map, passing through a town on a central island.

Wilco, Command, Charlie Two out.

All right, lads, we have our marching orders. Owen, take us forward, across the bridge, left at the end through the town. Nice and steady.

No, it's just us. Let them sit on their arses, we have a job to do.

We'll be fine if you stay alert and stop griping, Bill.

Nice little town. Look on the bright side, at least you're not back in Hull.

Watch for Ivan in the houses. (muttering) I don't know why they didn't send some bloody infantry.

It's not griping, Bill, it's making a tactical assessment.

Charlie Two to command, we are moving through the town, no sign of activity, out.

All right, go right up here, across the next bridge.

So, Martin, what brings you to the service of Her Majesty?

Right, yeah? Mate, you should have - hold up, hold up. I see something, 400 yards front right.

SCP-X-1 spots a Red command vehicle and automatically begins preparing to fire, in accordance with game settings.

Looks like a BTR, in the bushes. Command, this is Charlie Two, hostile vehicle sighted, we are engaging, over. Looks like you're going to get your chance, Martin, get ready. Bill, one AP round, quick.

Researcher issues the stop-fire command and directs SCP-X-1 to fall back.

Command? Yes, sir, understood, sir, Charlie Two out. Hold your fire, Martin. Owen, back us up a bit. We're disengaging.

Don't ask me. I'm sure we'll see some action soon enough.

Testing session ended.

X-2: Combat reactions
Conditions: Red team given light infantry, vehicles and obsolete tanks, selected to pose a low threat to SCP-X-1

Game session commences. SCP-X-1 deployed in combination with 3 other Chieftain Mk. 10 units. SCP-X-1 retains the designation of 'NICHOLSON'. Other units have names randomly generated from the game list and demonstrate no anomalous properties.

Command, this is Charlie Two, reading you loud and clear. Requesting orders, over.

Researcher selects all units and orders them to move southwest across open ground.

Wilco, Command. Right, Owen, you heard him, let's go. Charlie One Actual, this is Charlie Two, radio check, over.

Charlie Two, roger, out.

Nice that the rest of the squadron decided to show up for this one.

Probably wanking, Bill. [laughter] Okay, lads, stay focused. Command obviously thought we'd need some help on this one.

The Blue force spots 4 Red T-55A main battle tanks moving across a field. These tanks do not react to Blue due to their inferior optics. Researcher issues a stop order, then directs all units to reverse to a hedgerow and take up a firing position.

Hold here, Owen. What's the - oh yeah, I see them - this is Charlie Two, reading you loud and clear. Yeah, I see them, one for each of us. Roger, Charlie One, Charlie Two out.

Okay, okay… we have contacts, Soviet tanks half a mile ahead. Reverse to that hedge we just passed, Owen. Load AP, Bill.

Yeah, you bet it's the real thing.

Keep it together, Martin. Have a look, these bastards are just coming like they're on parade. They're sitting ducks, we'll be all right.

Roger, Charlie One, the far left is ours, out. All right, Martin, Ivan on the far left is yours. See him? Good, good. Just follow my lead - three… two… one… shoot! [gun firing]

Blue units fire on Red force. Two T-55As are hit and destroyed, with two shots from Blue units missing, including that of SCP-X-1. Surviving Red units are set to a 'panicked' game state and begin retreating.

Jesus! One down… two… fucking hell, missed. Shot wide, Martin. Bill, another AP, sharp. No, no, you're all right. Just keep it steady. Shell in? Okay. You got him? Three… two… one… and shoot. [gun firing]

Blue units fire again. SCP-X-1 hits one T-55A and destroys it. The final T-55A survives and retreats out of line of sight of the player.

Good kill, good kill! Roger, Charlie One, I confirm all hostile targets destroyed or running. Should we pursue?

Understood, Charlie Two out.

All right, and we are all clear! Nice job, lads, fine work. That was a good shot there, Martin, well done.

Easy, Bill, I remember a whole day getting the piss out of the turret after your first fight. [laughter]

You're all right, son, just take some deep breaths. Looks like we're resting up here a while. Owen, brew the kettle, would you?

Testing session ended.

X-3: High-intensity combat reactions
Conditions: Red team given full Soviet armour template with modern equipment. Testing researcher directed to play as normal without consideration of anomalous properties.

Game session commences. Researcher deploys SCP-X-1 as part of an 8-unit tank platoon, supported by infantry, artillery and off-map aircraft. Blue forces are directed to move to the central town as in Test 1.

Affirmative, Commander, Charlie Two is moving. Out.

Looks like a big one today, lads. Across the bridge and into the town, Owen, same as last week.

You should be glad we know the ground, Bill.

Yeah, I heard all they had to garrison it with was some Norwegian reservists, poor buggers.

The difference, Martin? They didn't have armour. Just remember how you went the other day and you'll be all right.

Researcher directs artillery to suppress the town as Blue forces advance. Background explosions can be heard in SCP-X-2 voice lines.

Just so long as they don't drop on our heads.

Roger, India One, will provide fire support, Charlie Two out. All right, the infantry are going to dismount and move on the town in five, we need to back them up. Load HE rounds, Bill. Martin, get ready to - [muffled gunfire and explosions]

Fucking hell, here we go. Weapons free! [machine gun fire] House, 30 degrees with the green roof, muzzle flashes in the windows, take it out. [explosion]

Nice, nice. Keep on the coaxial, hose down all those windows.

Red units in the buildings continue firing on Blue team. Researcher begins moving infantry carriers forward under fire, which take losses from infantry anti-tank weapons.

Oh, Jesus. That looks bad. Machine gun at that stone fence on the left, new target. [muffled explosion] I can't -

SCP-X-1 takes a frontal hit from a Malyutka-P anti-tank guided missile, which does not penetrate its armour, in line with both game mechanics and real-life analogues. Its game morale state is set to 'Shaken'. Researcher directs SCP-X-1 to fall back out of range.

[unintelligible shouting] - is everyone all right? Bloody hell, Bill - okay, okay, it looks bad, but it's just a scrape, here, hold this on it. You're all right? Good man. All units, this is Charlie Two, be advised, we are taking fire from the treeline to the west, relocating northeast, out.

Owen, take us back to the bridge crossing, we'll set up a new position there.

We're no good to the infantry if we get shot up by those missiles.

SCP-X-1 moves through a number of destroyed Blue units. Surviving Blue infantry have reached the outskirts of the town and are engaged in house-to-house combat.

[gagging, retching sounds]

Oh for God's sake, the bucket - forget it, we'll do it later.

Shut it, Bill, not a good time.

[muffled explosion] Shit, shit, shit! Turn us left, 90 degrees, load AP!

A Red force counterattack of T-80B main battle tanks emerges from the town between the houses. Shells begin landing in the vicinity of SCP-X-1.

Oh, Christ - this is Charlie Two, we are heavily engaged, Soviets are counterattacking in force, need air support ASAP, Command, do you read? Command -

SCP-X-1 is hit by a 125mm tank shell, reducing it to 3/10 hit points and entering a 'Panicked' morale state.

[muffled screaming]

Jesus Christ!

Bill, put pressure on his leg - oh, fuck - can you hear me, Owen? You're all right - fuck - the fire suppression - [muffled yelling]

Owen, stay with me, here, grab my hand, this will help, (muttering), shit, shit -

Martin, forget the fucking gun and get that fire out!

- we're bailing out, grab his legs - [explosion]

SCP-X-1 is hit by a second 125mm shell and destroyed. Testing session ended.

The voice of SCP-X-2 has since changed to that of an older male with a Scottish accent, with context suggesting membership of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.

Further testing is pending approval.

Footnotes

1. Titles of noble rank are awarded based on the size of SCP-X investments, which are analogous to vassals. As one of the largest corporations wholly owned by SCP-X, the PetSmart ducal title is one of the most prestigious.

2. The 'US Foods War', where CD&R prevented SCP-X's acquisition of that corporation, which it continues to consider its rightful territory.

3. This is a significantly more laborious procedure than historic executions, as the Royal Executioner's ceremonial implement is a Dahle office paper guillotine.

4. Named after the place of its ratification, SCP-X-1's 'summer palace'.

5. Participants in the SCP-X-A conflict are still considered human given the design of observed military vehicles, the general similarities between SCP-X-A and baseline reality and the lack of evidence for non-human combatants beyond existing autonomous weaponry.

6. Mandarin, "what is this?"

7. "I don't understand. What's happening?"

8. Służba Bezpieczeństwa (Security Service)

9. Renamed to Kraków University of Economics (Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny w Krakowie) in 2007.

10. The relocation address of PoI-3977-1 and 2.

11. The primary paratechnological body of Nazi Germany.

12. Between 100 and 400 pages of notes from the 1960s to the 1980s were lost, presumed destroyed by the GRU.

13. Each unit in the unmodified game is issued a name, although the name of SCP-X-1 persists between instances.