NWiseman

The Tuscaloosa News, January 7, 1980. The poorly printed article on the right has been affected by SCP-XXXX. Click to enlarge.

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Specialised search algorithms are to search the internet, government records and Foundation documents for keywords suggesting an occurrence of SCP-XXXX. Copies of electronic instances of SCP-XXXX-1 are to be sent to Site-215 servers prior to deletion. Any physical instances of SCP-XXXX-1 observed outside Foundation property are to be discreetly secured and archived in Site-215. Appropriate amnestics may be administered to witnesses at the discretion of field containment specialists.

A rotating unit of MTF Lambda-4 ("Birdwatchers") has been assigned to monitor the atmosphere for suspected early indicators of an "XK-4" event. Anomalies recorded in the Foundation database are to be routinely checked for similarities to the phenomena described in SCP-XXXX-1. This duty can generally be assigned to a team of junior researchers, contacting appropriate security directors if higher clearance is required. Both groups are to report monthly to the senior figure involved in SCP-XXXX research, currently Dr. Sharon Laing. If these reports are deemed to indicate a critical level of similarity to the "XK-4" event, a member of O5 council is to be notified.

Further investigation into the nature of the events described in SCP-XXXX-1 instances is necessary, as is consideration of potential countermeasures. The Foundation will continue to research weather manipulation systems, although testing will be scaled back due to the unexpected level of media interest in the 2008 Beijing experiment.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a phenomenon observed in text-based documents. When it occurs, the content of an individual text changes instantaneously, leaving the document otherwise intact. SCP-XXXX does not occur according to any discernible pattern. During the period of its most frequent occurrence, an estimated 0.001% of documents were affected by the anomaly.

A document affected by SCP-XXXX (referred to as SCP-XXXX-1) retains its original nature. Letters will bear the same signatures, and diary entries will display the same date. The events or objects the altered text describes will however be spurious, referring to things that did not happen or circumstances that are not the case. For example, inventories affected by SCP-XXXX list nonexistent items, while cheques show different amounts. Individuals interviewed recall writing the documents in their original form, and generally exhibit confusion when presented with the anomalous versions. Instances of SCP-XXXX-1 are consistent with one another, each seeming to be the product of the same alternate history.

Instances discovered within the Foundation frequently refer to an event termed "XK-4", presumably an XK-Class End of the World Scenario. The significance of the "4" is not known. Public documents such as newspaper articles affected by SCP-XXXX later refer to anomalous phenomena such as "the Diebner field" and "the Sunder". These presumably refer to the XK-4 event or its consequences. No documents refer to permanent countermeasures or reversals.

The exact nature of the XK-class scenario described by instances of SCP-XXXX is unknown, though it is clearly inimical to human life. Various effects are described, such as unusual meteorological conditions, radical ecological change and the disruption of complex machinery. This proliferation of anomalous phenomena may be due to widespread containment breaches as the Foundation weakens.

Instances outside the Foundation: A great deal of instances of SCP-XXXX have been discovered in documents unrelated to the Foundation, offering a wider understanding of the impact of the XK-4 event. Several examples are given below.

SORT OUT BELOW BASICALLY ITS HOW THEY FIGURED OUT WHAT WAS GOING ON

The discovery of an index affected by SCP-XXXX in 1962 led to the Foundation's discovery of the anomaly , providing a common element understanding a variety of documents collected by the foundation as part of the same phenomenon. The Index was found in a copy of a book on Soviet military architecture by Dr. Roger F. Simnel, a retired civil engineer and prominent art historian. While only the index was affected, the resulting document led to a great deal of speculation into the nature of the scenarios described by SCP-XXXX.

+ Simnel Index

Another instance of SCP-XXXX led to the expulsion of fourth-year student Joshua Rosenfeld from the University of Washington School of Medicine in 1971. A paper Rosenfeld submitted to the The New England Journal of Medicine turned into a SCP-XXXX-1 detailing a highly invasive and unusual amygdalotomy procedure, apparently based on original research. The document describes the surgical removal of large parts of the human amygdala and the application of powerful cell growth inhibitors to the resulting lesions. The Foundation was unable to intervene before the journal editors contacted university authorities to raise concerns about the student's sanity. Rosenfeld was admitted to a psychiatric hospital, and subsequently found employment as a bus driver.

It is believed that an instance of SCP-XXXX was responsible for the "safe house" graffiti that became ubiquitous in urban Detroit over the summer of 1982. The popularity of the tag is believed to be due to general adoption for humourous or otherwise aesthetic reasons, rather than heavy occurrence of anomalous phenomena or any memetic quality.

After 1987, SCP-XXXX did not occur outside the Foundation with any great frequency, requiring significantly ?????????????????? resources. Due to the sensitive, classified or even potentially infohazardous nature of many of the affected documents, a complete collection of SCP-XXXX-1 discovered by the Foundation is not accessible online. The altered texts can be found alongside replicas of the originals in the archival section of Site-215.

Affected Foundation Documents: SCP-XXXX has been observed in a number of Foundation documents. Thanks to standard backup procedures, it has not compromised or destroyed any vital information. Foundation documents provide most of our understanding of SCP-XXXX and the world it describes. The following altered journal entry was discovered by Dr. Han Zuocheng during his tenure as director of Site-417.

+ Journal of Site-417 Director Han Zuocheng 11/5/93

Light snowfall. XK-4 has encroached on areas within ten kilometres of Site 417. It appears to have spread from urban areas north of the facility, primarily Riwaba and Chamicun. We currently receive around four hours of sunlight on a clear day.

Researcher Charles K. Letterman observed █████████ standing outside the window of his room. Despite reminders that this is entirely subjective to Researcher Letterman, staff morale has suffered considerably. Charles appears shaken but resigned.

The wires stretched along the length of corridor 12-C now vibrate faster than the naked eye can make out. Appropriate measures have been taken to safeguard the containment facility’s structural integrity.

Head biologist Dr. Sharon Forster reported that an estimated 20% of the local flora has switched to a silicate base, converting between naturally occurring silica quartz and silicic acid to store and release energy. Breathing apparatus is now necessary when spending more than a handful of minutes outdoors.

Preparations for complete evacuation of the site continue. Amnestics have been administered to all D-Class and janitorial personnel. Department heads have been briefed on Site 417’s Decommission Protocol, while the GoC liason is scheduled to arrive tomorrow morning.

Departure in nineteen days.

The mass use of amnestics in the journal entry above suggests that the XK-4 event has made daily life to some degree infohazardous. This hypothesis was supported by an instance of SCP-XXXX-1 in the kitchens of Site-17, an ingredients list handwritten by catering personnel in 2004:

3 cup arrowroot powder
8 cup cornstarch
65 cup chopped cauliflower
65 cup grated cheddar
8 cup paprika
7 Tbsp curry powder
500g Class-B Amnestic Tabs
20g vitamin D supplement
75 cup instant dry milk powder
5.7 kg egg replacer

Canteen meals do not typically feature psychoactive substances. The inclusion of vitamin supplements in staff meals is also unusual.

The following instance of SCP-XXXX-1 was found pinned to a noticeboard in Site-113 in early 2007. The original text reminded staff to log out of their accounts after accessing Foundation databases.

+ Memorandum Site 113

To all personnel,

The administration has decided that the loss of major cities and sites to XK-4 will no longer be announced over the intercom. Not only does this practice contribute to an atmosphere of depression and fatalism, but the minute's silence many personnel observe after each announcement is starting to seriously disrupt the workflow of vital tasks.

Some staff members have objected that they have a right to know when these events occur. I am unsure what people hope to gain by knowing the supposed dates at which contact was lost with these locations, especially considering the irregularity and unreliability of the information reaching us. Instead of considering external events over which we have no control, we must focus on optimizing our countermeasures against incursions and extending the time in which this site remains viable for habitation.

A list of locations with which contact has been lost will be pinned to the notice board in Rec Room D, to be updated weekly.

Yours faithfully,

Emergency Organiser Dr. Deborah Mitchell

Chronology and Frequency: The earliest known example of SCP-XXXX-1 came to the Foundation's attention in 1948. Researcher Eve Rothko was examining University of California records when she noticed a table describing soil samples with unexpectedly high levels of artificial cobalt isotopes. Upon further investigation, Rothko found that the rest of the document made no mention of these atypical results. The Foundation subsequently secured the text in question.

SCP-XXXX was first seen in publically available documents in 1957. The Socorro County Public Health Office reported a 82% drop in the birth rate among residents of San Antonio, New Mexico. This statistic caused some alarm, and the Foundation was consulted. The anomaly was eventually traced to an individual civil record, after an agent noticed that the number of birth certificates issued exceeded the ostensible number of births. The incident was subsequently disguised as a filing error.

Hundreds of texts affected by SCP-XXXX were discovered worldwide in the following decades, not only in state records but in letters, paperwork, academic texts, online forums, and even graffiti. The Foundation generally passed off the texts as hoaxes or misprints before discreetly securing them, while the use of amnestics was only necessary in a handful of cases. The frequency of SCP-XXXX-1 instances peaked around 1983 after a decade of exponential growth.

Recent occurrences of SCP-XXXX have produced documents suggesting a radical change in the Foundation's ethos and methods. Reference is made to partial cooperation with interest groups such as the GoC, while later texts indicate a shift in key objectives from the containment of anomalies to the preservation of Foundation facilities and personnel.

SCP-XXXX has been observed with steadily decreasing frequency since around 1987, while the last known occurrence in North America was discovered in 1992. The phenomenon has not been observed in locations other than highly secure Foundation sites since 1998. Statistical projections suggest that by 2025, SCP-XXXX will no longer occur.