CutTheBirch

The Power of Attraction

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: All instances of SCP-XXXX are to be held in high security, Safe-Class storage lockers at Site-34. Testing with SCP-XXXX requires Level-4 clearance or above. Any information about uncontained instances of SCP-XXXX is to be investigated by Mobile Task Force Gamma-12, "Columbos".

Description: SCP-XXXX refers to all copies of a 1986 "Self-Help" book titled The Key by Jadrian Morgan. The book extensively discusses an idea known as "the power of attraction"¹. Contents of the book are standard for books on that subject. Upon reading the entire text of SCP-XXXX, subjects will gain subconscious Class I, "minor" reality-bending abilities. This effect also occurs with copies or audio recordings of SCP-XXXX's text, suggesting the effect may be memetic in nature. These copies are referred to as SCP-XXXX-1. Subjects with no comprehension of English are not affected by the anomaly, and copies of the book's text with portions missing show no anomalous effects.

Below is a brief timeline of incidents relating to the recovery of SCP-XXXX:

11/25/1985: Foundation statisticians are alerted to a statistically anomalous rate of monetary success for individuals working for the Narwhal Publishing Company and some individuals in the town of Springvale, WI.

06/16/1986: The Key begins printing without drawing the attention of the Foundation.

09/11/1986: Foundation statisticians pinpoint the origin of the anomaly to POI-XXXX-1. An author publishing under the name Jadrian Morgan.

09/13/1986: POI-XXXX-1 is taken into Foundation custody without incident

09/17/1986: Mobile Task Force Lamda-10, "40 Thieves" acquires all known copies of The Key from the Narwhal Publishing Company without incident.
Note: An unknown number of copies of the book had been shipped off prior to Lamda-10's arrival. The whereabouts of these are unknown.

22/03/2004: An instance of SCP-XXXX is found in the home of high profile businessman, ██████ █████. This copy is seized and ██████ █████ is administered Class-A amnestics.

[INPUT LEVEL O5 SECURITY CREDENTIALS]

This is something that I have been trying to keep buried for years, but now that I have reached the top, I figure you should know. As you are probably aware, I started my time with The Foundation as a disposable. I know going from a D-Class to an O5 is such a cliché underdog story that I would probably be a folk hero if it weren't for the fact that everyone I have ever known has had their memories wiped.

You see, it all started with that book. By that I mean SCP-XXXX; I doubt you know that designation by heart. After all, I have made sure that no-one has thought about it in over a decade. It's a meme that makes Type Greens, only the effect is so weak that it doesn't represent any real danger or usefulness. And yet, I believe that it to be the sole reason I made it to this council.

Even before I read it, I was lucky. Instead of being fed to God-knows-what, my first assignment was to read a book and then stand next to a Kant counter. I didn't understand at the time what I had gotten myself into; I was just happy to be spared from execution.

To this day, I don't know why they didn't terminate me after my test. Perhaps something got lost in the sea of bureaucracy, or maybe my Hume score was so low that it was thought to be negligible. Either way, I suspect that I somehow caused the circumstances with the help of the book.

Over the next couple of months I took part in so many tests, but nothing that would cause me to be terminated; only the type of thing that got me noticed. I never felt like I was consciously controlling anything, but I was always in the right place, at the right time. Ironic because it was bad luck that brought me to the foundation, to begin with.

Naturally, this track record made me a prime candidate when someone had the idea of making a disposable task force. Someone to send to certain death. As usual, I was very lucky that there happened to be a containment breach when I was stationed at Site Fifty-Three. I'm sure you remember it. It just so happened that I and the other members of Delta Thirteen were on site when the mummy woke up. As you probably know all of the other members of The D-Men died that day, but not me. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe it takes a reality bender to kill a reality bender, but I do know that somehow my shot hit its mark when others had missed. I've always wondered if the breach would have happened at all had I not been there. An opportunity for glory and only 62 people had to die.

After that, I got assigned to a real task force. It's not that I didn't put in the effort. Securing, containing, and protecting is hard work, and after a decade of service, they gave me a cushy researcher job to reward me, my origins completely forgotten as one of the faceless masses. Of course, out of all the Level 4's you chose me to replace Nine.

No, I don't think my telling you this will change anything. I'm already one of you after all, and I'd be surprised if any of you don't have reality-bending abilities of some kind, whether they got you this position or this position allowed you to acquire them. Perhaps you even knew this story already. I'm sure no amount of cover-up could fool the council. Either way, I thank you for giving me this opportunity, and I will strive to do what's best with my power.

O5-9

Footnotes

1. The pseudoscientific idea that a person's thoughts can affect their reality.