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Item #: SCP-XX

Object Class: Euclid

Special containment procedures: All testing related to SCP-XX is to be limited to investigation of the conditions that need to be met for SCP-XX to take place. After incident XX-1, by the orders of O5-██, testing aimed at gleaning unrelated information from questionnaire or revealing the nature of SCP-XX-1 is strictly prohibited.

All the bars, restaurants, pubs and cafes in affected area must be monitored for announcements of quiz nights or similar events. Each such event must be attended by at least one Foundation agent, appropriately briefed and resistant to the effects of SCP-XX. Site-29 is to be staffed accordingly.

Attemps to forcefully interrupt or prevent SCP-XX from happening have been proved ineffective or even damaging, therefore agents involved in containment are advised to focus on deescalation and concealment.

Description: SCP-XX is an anomalous event that occurs in pubs of █████████, UK, during quiz nights. The event manifests in changes in behavior of the attendees and hosts, as well as alterations in questions asked and rules of the game. Secondary effects, mostly spatial anomalies, might appear during the course of the event.

During SCP-XX the host picks a contestant and asks them a question. If a wrong answer is given the contestant is subjected to some kind of corporal punishment, and then given a hint. The intensity of the punishment increases with each failure and resets back to the initial level on the next occurence of SCP-XX. Taking too much time or giving up is treated as a wrong answer. Attempts to leave are forcefully stopped. Only verbal answers are accepted, any circumstances that might hinder the contestants' ability to deliver them, such as unconsciousness, are ignored. Questioning stops when either the correct answer is given, or the contestant expires. The game continues until everyone present has played at least once.

While most of the questions asked during SCP-XX are regular general knowledge questions, some others require very specialized or even inaccessible knowledge (e.g. prescience). A number of questions directly related to objects contained by the Foundation were also documented.

Incident XX-1: On May 11th ████, the Foundation's Ethics Committe has launched an investigation into the actions of Dr. ████ following an anonymous report reaching the administration of Site-29.

Interview XX-5:
Interviewer: Dr. Lee.
Interviewed: Dr. ████, senior researcher, formerly assigned to SCP-XX.

Dr. Lee: Good morning, Dr. ████.
Dr. ████: Sigh. Good morning, Ben. What is this? Why was I detained? I was doing very important work. The implications…
Dr. Lee: Your work, Dr. ████, is exactly what I would like to discuss with you. Your work with SCP-XX.
Dr. Lee: It is my understanding that members of your team have repeatedly expressed concern with your testing methodology. Can you confirm this?
Dr. ████: Ah, I see how it is. Ethics Committee. I was wondering where you disappeared all of a sudden. I do believe congratulations are in order?
Dr. Lee: Please answer the question.
Dr. ████: Yes. I confirm. You may lay your doubt to rest, if you had any.
Dr. Lee: And you chose to dismiss those concerns.
Dr. ████: After appropriate consideration, yes, I chose to dimiss them. As is, I believe, my right as the lead researcher.
Dr. Lee: Not exactly. There is a bit more nuance to the process.
Dr. ████: Isn't there always. Your understanding of… *nuance of the process* has always outclassed mine.
If bureaucracy is what you're here to talk about I'm afraid I won't be of much help.
Dr. Lee: I'm here to talk about your thoughts on the ethics of your research.
Dr. ████: Same as they always were. This research, dozens of others before it. Haven't had any radical insights into the morals of our work since the last time you and I sent a D-class to die so that we can figure out how something works.
Dr. Lee: D-class personnel is not a resource that can be casually thrown at everything. You have to carefully and responsibly consider if it's worth it first.
Dr. ████: I did. And it is.
Dr. Lee: Please elaborate on that.
Dr. ████: What we have here is a source of information that is otherwise out of our reach. And we can deduce that information from the questions, answers and even hints it gives us. Because of it we now know what happened to Amelia Earhart. How about that? And the skips. It knows a lot about the skips. Were you aware ███ has a name? And that goddamn box. Whatever is in it could help us prevent several classes of end of the world scenarios, if hints are to be believed.
Dr. Lee: Or cause them.
Dr. ████: So you did read the logs.
Dr. Lee: Yes, you were making strides for sure. Couple more hundred bodies and you might learn how Elvis died. Or maybe that he didn't? Oooh.
Dr. ████: Losing your cool, doctor.
Dr. Lee: I've learned what I needed here.
Dr. ████: Have you really? You are easy to please, then.
Dr. Lee: The interview is over.

Addendum 1:
Some notable examples of questions asked during SCP-XX.

Question: How are you going to die? Answer: Allergic reaction
As her answer was accepted, contestant disclosed having severe peanut allergy.

Question: What moves faster than light? Answer: not given.
Contestant lost consciousness after a kick in the head, expired several instances of punishment later, presumably due to blood loss. Hints given during questioning seem to imply matter with negative mass may be created by stars with certain properties going supernova.

Question: How does one earn the forgiveness of ████████████? Answer: not given.
Each given penalty involved the contestant being forced to drink a glass of unidentifiable substance. Over the next three minutes the contestant showed signs of discomfort, then pain of increasing intensity, until her skin started breaking as a large number of small insects hatched.
Hints were passed to the researchers assigned to SCP-████, but were dismissed as unhelpful.

Addendum 2:
Some of the more notable clues to the identity of SCP-XX-1 received by the contestants.

Hint	Notes
It doesn't have temperature.	Can be interpreted in several ways and is overall too vague to consider implications.
The only name it is known by in current iteration[sic] starts with █.	Sound produced by the host seems to be an ingressive fricative. Similar sounds are mostly used in known languages paralinguistically.
Its reality levels fluctuate wildly and can reach ████ Humes, albeit briefly.	Reality readings documented by the testing team range from █ to ██ Humes.
If it comes in contact with another one of its kind, [REDACTED]	The cyclical state of universe that follows the described event would not allow for planets to be formed.
Was used by the breathless queen to create her famous almost complete library.	No reference to either mentioned entity was found.
Needs five full-sized dimensions to avoid crossing itself.	Could imply being in a shape of some generalizaion of a Klein bottle.
Something is nothing compared to it.	Could be just another reference to its alleged reality level.