Item #: SCP-4677
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedure: Following discovery of SCP-4677-1, all testing on this SCP has ceased indefinitely and it has been moved to a secure containment locker in the archives. Please find previous containment procedure below.
Due to its memetic effects, SCP-4677 is held in a locked steel container with an external binocular viewing console. Below the viewing port are the controls for a simple device that turns the pages of the SCP. If these internal robotics require repair or the container otherwise altered, please follow the protocols outlined in the description to ensure technician poses no threat to the containment of SCP-4677.
Due to [DATA EXPUNGED], access to SCP-4677 is restricted to Senior Research and above.
Description: SCP-4677 appears to be a small hardbound diary of approximate dimensions 10 x 2 x 16 cm. Its plain binding is coloured a faded red violet. The exterior is unmarked but appears old and well-used, while visual captures of its interior, including photographs and video, reveal blank, yellowed pages; however, these captures contradict testimony received during interviews with individuals exposed to the contents of SCP-4677 (see below).
Sensory exposure to the exterior of SCP-4677, including via touch and sight, consistently produces the following phenomena in subjects:
- Deep nostalgia and concurrent anguish (description by subject of Test A: ‘It feels like my heart’s going to break when I look at it’.)
- Jealous curiosity over the contents of SCP-4677.
- A strong impression that one has forgotten something important.
These phenomena are resistable, but resistance may induce a powerful impression of guilt in the subject to the extent of nausea. At this stage, subject may present a danger to the containment of SCP-4677. If subject is notably agitated by his/her separation from the SCP, advise administration of Class A amnestic. However, without exposure to the contents of SCP-4677, these effects usually dissipate within 48 hours. These phenomena do not occur if SCP-4677 is viewed as it is read by someone else; these are the only observed conditions wherein SCP-4677 ceases its effects under direct visual contact. In a similar way, attempts to read along, or over the shoulder, of a reader holding SCP-4677 results in SCP-4677 displaying only blank pages to the secondary reader; however, the primary reader continues to perceive the text of SCP-4677.
Knowledge of SCP-4677’s contents increases its memetic effects considerably. For this reason handlers and technicians associated with SCP-4677 should be provided with the file for SCP-140 and informed that it is a unique copy of that book with divergent effects that entice observers to read it. This has been observed to discourage investigation of SCP-4677.
A subject who examines the contents of SCP-4677 perceives a long, regular series of diaristic entries inside. The author will identify herself as a young girl, usually named 'Mary'. At the point when the name of the author is read, the most serious psychological phenomenon effected by the SCP occurs and subject will remember the existence of a childhood friend of the same name whom they will believe themselves to have forgotten. Along with this information they will remember details such as this friend's appearance, birthday and childhood experiences. Emotional response to these realisations may vary (see test logs below) but have not been observed to induce any consistent deleterious effects. Even so, advise that SCP-4677 is not accessed by subjects scoring high in trait neuroticism or suffering from depressive mental conditions as circumstantial effects can lead to severe guilt and suicidal ideation.
While the world described by the diary’s narrator mostly resembles our own, anomalous details (see sample entries below) have given rise to the hypothesis that SCP-4677 is extradimensional in origin.
The name of the diary's author varies according to the reader but appears limited to alternatives of 'Mary' in non-English languages e.g. Maria, Miriam, Marie—hereafter the author is referred to as Mary. Ethnicity, class and relationship with the subject may vary. Mary has been described as Welsh, English, French, Mexican and Japanese; wealthy, middle class and poor; and her relationship with the subject may or may not be romantic in nature. The following features have been observed to remain consistent:
- Dark hair and eyes.
- Pallid skin relative to the situated population, implications of a weak constitution.
- Introverted and contemplative personality, poor self-esteem, interest in religious/spiritual matters (contingent on local traditions).
- Prone to intense dreams and possible signs of psychosis.
- Preoccupation with the subject (reciprocal in all cases).
- Poor but not abusive relationship with her parents.
- Born on a day of religious or spiritual significance (Western subjects all reported Good Friday; subject of Test C reported Tanabata).
- Diary records events taking place in Mary's life between the ages of eight to sixteen. Subjects younger than sixteen describe an earlier ending to the diary.
- The ending of the diary, in which Mary reports that her friends and relations are losing their memories of her, with the exception of the subject. This process begins shortly after her sixteenth birthday and is initially limited to the forgetting of trivial information such as Mary's birthday or last name. Over the course of a week or so, the memory loss escalates until Mary has been completely forgotten by everyone except the subject. In all reports this process was preceded by a period of spiritual intensity and met with distress and self-blame by Mary (see transcribed samples below).
The memetic effect of these final entries was discovered to be especially profound. Subjects typically express guilt at their own failure to remember Mary. More than one subject reported a final entry in which Mary was forgotten by her parents and ejected from her home. Almost all reported a tearful reunion with the subject in the same entry, and some subjects discovered indications that they too began to forget Mary. Like much of the diary, these elements change variously dependent on the reader, but the diary has ended in the same fashion in all observed circumstances.
Discovery of SCP-4677
SCP-4677 was discovered in ███████, Wales in the possession of the R████████ family. As recorded in the discovery report by Dr. Charles Reese, SCP-4677 was first encountered by the daughter, H████, at the library of St. ██████ Primary School on January 27th, 2019. Found unmarked and immediately exerting its characteristic effects upon H████ upon her investigation, she was able to convince the librarian, Ms. C██████ W███, that SCP-4677 was her best friend's diary and had been left there mistakenly due to its lack of library binding and bar code sticker.
The sequence of events that led the entire R████████ family to examine SCP-4677 are not known. On March 17th, 2019, M████ B███████, an amateur paranormal investigator and YouTuber resident in ██████, Wales, was tipped off about a 'cult family in my neighbourhood trying to summon a ghost girl' by a pseudonymous account on the discussion board ███████. Owing to the relative proximity of the location, B███████ was quick to act on this tip and visited ███████ over the weekend of March 23rd.
At 22:41 on March 24th, M████ B███████ uploaded a YouTube video to his channel titled 'Looking for Mary (Girl Who Disappeared?)'. This video, 18:24 minutes in length, suggested that B███████ had come into contact with SCP-4677; through the 'vlog'-style presentation, B███████ makes references to 'my friend Mary' and discusses his experiences with the R████████ family, with whom he commiserated over the purportedly lost owner of SCP-4677 despite his initial misgivings.
This video was flagged by the foundation's automated algorithm for the discovery of anomalous online content and removed after three hours and forty seven minutes, during which time it accumulated 2,878 views.
After amnestic procedures were carried out upon the R████████ family and B███████, SCP-4677 was easily retrieved and delivered to Dr. Charles Reese and Dr. Camille Langlais for study.
It is presently believed that novel interactions with SCP-4677 contribute to manifestations of SCP-4677-1. As such, direct access to SCP-4677 is restricted to Dr. Camille Langlais.
The identity of SCP-4677-1 has not been confirmed.
Please find further information in the data below, which comprise a summary of Dr. Reese & Dr. Langlais's work on SCP-4677.
As the first among Foundation personnel to be exposed to SCP-4677, this informal report summarises my experience as subject zero of this SCP.
SCP-4677 was delivered to my office in a sealed container by Junior Researcher Dr. Christina Hernandez. It had been retained there since its retrieval from ███████, Wales and was not observed to affect any persons prior to my opening the container.
I opened the container at approximately 1530 on 03/15/2019. Upon making visual contact with SCP-4677, I experienced a powerful wave of nostalgia. My heart rate elevated, blood rushed to my cheeks and I felt very certain that I recognised the book. At the same moment, a lack formed inside me, a conspicuous absence, as though there were something very important at the tip of my tongue but it kept slipping away from the grasp of my conscious mind. Concurrently, I knew that this lack could only be satisfied by SCP-4677: the words that sprang to mind, as I recall them, were 'This will make me remember!'
When I opened the diary and saw that it was Mary's, it filled the lacuna in my memories. I remembered a childhood friend by name of Mary Breakspear. It is plausible that these memories replaced what I previously recalled; consequently testing must include confirmation of subject's memories prior to their exposure to SCP-4677. Below are the memories of Mary, which I am obliged to treat with ambivalence.
My friend Mary, as I remember her, was a rail-thin, pallid girl with a black bob and staring frog-like eyes the colour of dark honey, around which the skin bulged as though straining to contain those penetrating organs. Her family was lower-middle class—moreover, the mother was Polish and her father a convert to her Catholicism, so they were not simpatico in the eyes of our rather conventional village. As a very young child, my attitude towards her, I must confess, was condescendingly patrician; but for her, pity was preferable to cruelty, which was the default among our peers.
But I was cruel, and embarrassed to record it. How cruel I could be to her—and how cruel I have become, to forget Mary like this! Her bedroom was a sea of second-hand books through which she tiptoed, as though she feared to disturb something. There were no televisions or video games. Her father was dull and calloused, her mother withdrawn, communicating little with me but always wearing an eerie, wistful smile when I visited. Mary spent much of her time showing me strange books about saints and mystics. Some of them depicted icons that disturbed me, like the suffering Saint Sebastian in bondage, his body shot through with a dozen or more arrows. But Mary said it was beautiful. I suppose that just as morbid curiosity has led to my work at the Foundation, so too did I become fascinated with Mary's strangeness, and ceased to pity her.
She told me she loved me when we were fourteen, and I accepted her. We never went beyond kissing; even if it were not for her faith, Mary was severely uncomfortable with matters of the body. She habitually wore frumpy jumpers with skirts or baggy trousers and ratty trainers. Still, she was jealous—I remember her asking me about what I had been talking to this or that girl about at school, and smelling the sweat of her hands on mine hours after I had left her house because of her reluctance to release me from her grasp. Her room and person was suffused with a faintly otherworldly, herbal scent, bittersweet, somewhere between frankincense and tobacco.
The last time I saw Mary was during the time described
—Dr. Charles Reese, 18th of April 2019
Test A-1 - 04/16/2019
Subject: Junior Researcher Dr. Christina Hernandez
Procedure: Subject is exposed to a photograph of SCP-4677.
Results: No effect.
Analysis: Memetic effects not observed to occur without direct contact between subject and SCP-4677.
Test A-2 - 04/16/2019
Subject: Junior Researcher Dr. Christina Hernandez
Procedure: Subject makes visual contact with SCP-4677.
Results: Subject reports recognition and some anxiety, claims that the book is familiar. When pressed to identify where she has seen it before, subject compares it to hearing an advertising jingle heard in early childhood; it summons the knowledge of a forgotten memory hidden in the folds of the past rather than a discrete remembered experience. Subject further adds that she feels profoundly sad, and expresses a desire to read SCP-4677: 'It feels like my heart's going to break when I look at it. Won't you let me see it for myself, Dr. Langlais, ma'am? I know that everything will make sense if I could just see it.' Subject flushes visibly.
Analysis: Although memetic effects manifest, the characteristic alteration of memory is not observed to occur without direct contact between subject and SCP-4677.
Test A-3 - 04/16/2019
Subject: Junior Researcher Dr. Christina Hernandez
Procedure: Subject reads SCP-4677.
Results: Subject is visibly distressed as she reads the diary, occasionally murmurs in Spanish. The
Analysis: Memetic effects observed prior to containment and in Dr. Reese successfully replicated.
Test B - 04/16/2019
Subject: Senior Researcher Dr. Camille Langlais
Procedure: Subject reads SCP—4677.
Analysis: Below are recorded the Dr. Langlais' impressions:
Much like Drs. Reese and Hernandez, I was subject to apparent memory alteration, although it takes some willpower to describe it as such—I feel terribly guilty to think that Marie did not exist. She was my best friend, as I recall her. I am determined to remain objective, however, so I will not dwell on the details of these memories, which largely accord with the impressions of my colleagues. Firstly, a few questions arise:
1) Have these memories simply been added to my recollections, or did they replace other memories?
2) Do these alterations have retrocausal effects, and if so, what is their extent?
3) An inquiry on the nature of memory may be necessary to fully understand SCP-4677: do memories function as simple records, stored like files in the mind, or are they reconstructed each time they are recalled: low level simulations that we run on command, like a waking dream?
If the latter, the porous boundaries of memories make them exceptionally vulnerable to organisms that can hack the simulation. Under those conditions, my working hypothesis is that SCP-4677 is the vehicle for such an organism, likely possessing anomalous dimensional qualities—possibly human but more likely non-human—in either case a virtual entity. A being of this type could be seeking nothing more than communication, even friendship, or it may wish to actualise in our reality. Have we let a sentient being into our heads? This all assumes the simulation hypothesis of memory. Conversely, if memories are discrete unities, SCP-4677 is probably less significant—a sort of mental poltergeist fiddling with our neurological pictures directory. A decisive proof of retrocausality would prove otherwise.
Furthermore, A notable common feature between the psychological phenomena caused by SCP-4677 is a consistently high level of religiosity observed in the Mary/Marie/Maria character. All three affected subjects remember a Christian—and more particularly, Catholic—personality, and a mystic temperament such that sh
Lastly, our preliminary interview with the next subject should ascertain their childhood circumstances and friendships prior to exposure to SCP-4677.
Test C-1 - 04/18/2019
Subject: Technician Akira Endou
Procedure: Subject reads transcription of a diary entry taken from test B.
Results: Subject recalls no friend by the name of Mary, Maria or other variants. No apparent effects.
Analysis: Presently, there are no observed conditions wherein SCP-4677's effects manifest without direct contact with the SCP.
Test C-2 - 04/18/2019
Subject: Technician Akira Endou
Procedure: Subject interview before exposure to SCP-4677 by Dr. Reese and Dr. Langlais. Subject reads SCP-4677 under supervision of Dr. Reese. Subject interviewed after exposure to SCP-4677 by Dr. Reese and Dr. Langlais.
Results:
Summary of pre-exposure interview
- Subject is asked where he grew up. Subject responds with Otaru, a small town on Japan's northern island, Hokkaido.
- Subject is asked about his childhood friends, identifies three boys named Ichiro, You and Haruto.
Result of exposure to SCP-4677
|
Result |
| Subject views SCP-4677 through the binocular port |
Subject reports sadness, claims to recognise the SCP. Subject is asked from where he knows the book and responds that it is something from his childhood but he cannot remember it properly. Subject states that 'I forgot something, very important thing'. Elevated heart rate recorded. |
| Subject reads SCP-4677 |
Subject is visibly distressed during reading and focusses intently on the text. Few or no vocalisations. Subject's eyes are visibly tearful as he finishes reading. |
Summary of post-exposure interview
- Subject is asked to identify SCP-4677. It is identified as the diary of his childhood friend Maria, whom he called 'Maria-chan' and who called him 'Akira-chan'. Subject states that they used to play together in Otaru.
- Subject is asked what language is the diary and reports language as Japanese.
- Subject is asked if ‘Maria-chan’ was Japanese, response affirmative. Subject asked to write her name kanji in Japanese. Subject obliges and carefully transcribes「桑原真理愛」(Kuwabara Maria) on provided writing paper. Note that 'kuwabara kuwabara' is a Japanese phrase said to ward off lightning, roughly equivalent to the English 'knock on wood'.
- Subject is asked what is his relationship with Maria. With visible upset, subject describes Maria as his 'first love' and expresses guilt that he has failed her. Following a pause to collect himself, subject continues by thanking the Foundation. Dr. Langlais asks why he is grateful and subject explains that it may have been his fate to join the Foundation so that he might find Maria-chan again.
- Finally, subject is asked about his previously referenced friends. The question is greeted with confusion and subject confirms that Maria was his best and only friend.
Note that the final question was preempted by some bewilderment on the part of Dr. Langlais as she reviewed her interview notes and encountered the three names recorded prior to subject's exposure to SCP-4677. Although this prompted her to inquire about these friends, neither she nor Dr. Reese recalled the details of this earlier discussion. Further, the audio record of this portion of the interview was obscured by an instance of SCP-4677-1 (see below). The extent of this memetic effect's implications on the named individuals above are unknown; a follow-up investigation by the Tokyo branch confirmed that Ichiro, You and Haruto were classmates of Akira, but were described as boys without much presence, frequently sick or absent. Questions about Maria, however, yielded no results and there is no evidence of her existence.
Note: This transcription is excerpted from conversation between Dr. Reese and Dr. Langlais recorded after subject had exited containment room.
Dr. Langlais: [indecipherable] …dealing with something incorporeal or a nonhuman malevolent entity rather than some kind of dimensionally distressed damsel.
Dr. Reese: How is it that you can be cynical enough to doubt Mary's intentions and yet still retain the whimsy to suggest that it might be a haunted diary?
Dr. Langlais: I'm not saying that it is. I will admit that there was something about this that pulled at my heart: perhaps it was the Christian connections that reminded me of my childhood. But if Endou's testimony demonstrates anything, it's that this being doesn't have any particular attachment to a spiritual tradition. To me, that suggests that it's playing us. The [indecipherable] …familiar culture and heritage to intensify nostalgia.
Dr. Reese: How can you say that about her, Camille? Has she harmed us, or even manifested in any way since we read the diary?
Dr. Langlais: …No. But I still think you're losing your objectivity.
[pause of approximately 5 seconds, shuffling of paper]
Dr. Reese: Right now we have three basic hypotheses. One: this is a human existence that has become corrupted, in some sense, on a quantum level, and her information is flowing into our world through the conduit of the diary. Two: this is a nonhuman existence that is flowing into our world through the conduit of the diary. Three: this is a nonhuman existence piggybacking on a human existence flowing into our world through the conduit of the diary. In all cases, we believe the physical manifestation of this existence is plausible…
Dr. Langlais: …If enough people remember her. And I don't think I want that to happen.
Dr. Reese: [indecipherable]
Dr. Langlais: For [expletive] sake, Charlie…
Dr. Reese: For an entity hostile to humans, it's awfully good at simulating all the best aspects of humanity. Don't you remember her?
Dr. Langlais: Yes, yes, I remember her. Don't presume like that. I remember her. Of course I remember her. I remember everything. She was sickly, but so kind, the sort of person who's always giving change to the homeless and tipping waiters more generously than necessary. I remember her piano playing…the way she'd look at her hands when she wanted something but didn't feel confident enough to say it…her messy eating habits and how she always had crumbs around her mouth. She was my best friend…in a lot of ways, that's what worries me about this.
[audio interrupted by burst of loud static noise for approximately 10 seconds]
Dr Reese: …more tests, okay? Then I might concede that we're being manipulated. I just don't think this is a dangerous being.
Dr. Langlais: Then why did she have to be forgotten in the first place?
Following [DATA EXPUNGED], Dr. Camille Langlais performed a careful review of the SCP-4677 interview tapes and isolated three anomalous patches of static noise; however, no discernible audio could be isolated with basic noise reduction software. Tapes were emailed to Senior Researcher Hugh Elvin for his specialist advice. The email exchange is documented below:
Subject: SCP-4677 generating anomalous radio signal?
Date: 17:21, March 25th 2019
From: ███████@████████████
To: ██████@████████████
Dear Hugh,
I hope this email finds you well. You may have heard about the unfortunate incident that has drawn some notoriety to my current case; I write to ask for your assistance in determining what caused it. I can assure you that the effects of the SCP which led to [DATA EXPUNGED] occur only on direct contact with SCP. Nevertheless, I will not hold it against you if you decline.
I've attached some anomalous audio extracted from several hours of interview recordings with test subjects. Dr. Klast and I have reason to believe that these may represent a manifestation of SCP-4677; however, I've been unable to isolate any meaningful audio data. With your expertise, perhaps something useful could be found?
Hope you had a nice weekend.
Warm regards,
Camille
Attachments:
scp-4677a.wav
scp-4677b.wav
scp-4677c.wav
Subject: Re: SCP-4677 generating anomalous radio signal?
Date: 17:56, March 25th 2019
From: ██████@████████████
To: ███████@████████████
Hi Camille,
I'm terribly sorry about [DATA EXPUNGED]. I sent some flowers to the family.
I would be happy to take a look at these files. I'll followup shortly.
Best regards,
Hugh
The following sample was transcribed with the assistance of Akira Endou and translated by Dr. Kouhei Ikeda on 03/25/2019 under the supervision of Dr. Vincent Klast.
Monday,
2001/07/07 (Tanabata)
Today is my birthday!
I'm thirteen years old, so I'm Akira-chan's big sister now! Until August 22nd…
My mum just gave me socks…boring! The purple ones were a little cute…
The following sample was translated by Dr. Camille Langlais and alleges to be written by one 'Marie' living in the city of Reims in France's Grand-Est region. Based on the information in this iteration of the diary, Marie was sixteen years old at the time of writing.
Easter Sunday
April 7th, 1996
I had another bad dream. I didn't understand it until later but it still frightened me. I was in the garden at Gethsemane, though I did not recognise it at the time. I saw Jesus praying. I was standing among the sleeping disciples and I saw blood on the hands and brow of Jesus. I felt a horrible shame pass over me in the presence of the Lord and, as in the scriptures, heard Him speak this prayer three times: 'Father, if thou wilt, remove this chalice from me: but yet not my will, but thine be done.' A light burned my eyes and I was filled with terror, but I could not move and it was as though my heart was held in someone's fist. When the light faded, Jesus was looking at me with sorrowful eyes, the sweat that was blood trailing around His face.
In the morning I met Camille and her family very early for Mass at the cathedral. Of course, they're careful not to eat before Mass, unlike us, so I was very hungry. However, the Mass was absolutely beautiful and Camille's dad encouraged me to receive the host on the tongue. It was a profound moment and I don't regret going with Camille's family instead of my own.
Afterwards, I saw the image of the Agony in the Garden in the stained glass window and realised that this was the origin of my dream. Again I saw Jesus praying before a chalice and below Him the sleepers, all with closed eyes and heads turned away from the Lord in His agony. Before Jesus was a plant the colour of fresh blood, which waved gently although there was no wind in the cathedral.
I asked Camille's father about the scene. He told me that the Agony in the Garden shows us the humanity of Jesus in his agony and the divinity of Jesus in his solitude. We can stand beside the cross but, like the apostles who slept, cannot bear to join him. He said that it is important to remember that although He is risen, Jesus in some respect will be alone and in agony until the end of the world. I thanked him and bowed to the image. When I looked at the image again, Peter opened one eye to look at me for a few moments.
Camille and I went out for breakfast at a cafe afterwards and she teased me for being so worried about dreams. I got wound up but then she paid for my food…I think she feels bad for me…
Mme. Lachapelle had forgotten that my piano lesson was today…luckily she didn't make any new arrangements…she seemed irritated that she had to accommodate me…
This feeling of desolation wouldn't leave me so I went back to Camille's house and she stayed with me until 10 PM, when my parents called hers to demand my return…I was very sad to leave Camille today but she promised we would meet again tomorrow, and the next day after that…she even invited me to sleepover next weekend…I don't deserve a friend like this…if I weren't born so close to her I'm sure I could never find a friend like Camille on my own…
It's not good to dwell on these emotions…all I want to do is sleep…
Good night,
Marie
Across all subjects, the final entry of SCP-4677 concludes upon the same thoughts, dictated and transcribed in English thus:
Nobody remembers me anymore except [SUBJECT]. No one even recognises me…even my parents looked at me like something too unremarkable to be unsightly, but too ugly to please the eye. I'm like a black spot on the bark of a tree, or a sharp pebble on the road that pushes against your sole…
But even now, I’m sure [SUBJECT] won’t forget me.
I know he/she won’t. He/she can’t. Because we’ve always been together. We’ve known each other all our lives…
Please…this one wish is all I need. My memories of [SUBJECT] are more precious to me than anything, because he/she’s in all of them. If I forgot him/her, it’d be like losing half my soul, and I’m sure it’s the same for him/her.
As long as [SUBJECT] remembers me, it’ll be okay. As long as [SUBJECT] remembers me…
Even if I’m not worthy of living in this world…even if everyone forgets me…please let this one wish come true…
Please don’t forget me, [SUBJECT]…it's me, Mary…please don't forget me…
Per 
