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ACROAMATIC ABATEMENT AND YOU:
In Case of Emergency, Do Not Break Glass
Dr. Ilse Reynders, PhD. Undecuplicate
Chief, Acroamatic Abatement Section
September 2022
Presupposed Reading:
Everything You Need to Know About Acroamatic Abatement
(But Were Too Confused by the Name to Ask)
by Dr. Udo A. Okorie, PhD.
I. ABSTRACT
"When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right."
— Arthur C. Clarke
Acroamatic abatement is a messy science. Practically speaking, esoteric detoxification leaves much to be desired in the realm of tidiness; theoretically speaking, even more so. Yet, reductively speaking, the Foundation's purpose is to clean up anomalous messes via efficacious science, and it disposes of said messes in the same fashion. This is most evident in Site-43's Applied Occultism and Acroamatic Abatement Sections, which jointly serve as the primary source of research and development in the latter's field.
The aforementioned Site's Acroamatic Abatement Facilities (AAFs) constitute technological marvels of their time, with the first constructed in early 1914 using little more than copper, lake-water, and ingenuity. In decades since, four more such facilities (and the whole of Site-43) have come to be, with corresponding systems of corresponding complexities. As such, this document intends to aid the uninitiated in understanding, if only briefly, the science and systems of acroamatic abatement.
II. THEORY OF ACROAMATICISM
Esoteric effluence is defined as "substance(s) produced and/or rendered anomalous as a byproduct of an existing anomaly (or containment thereof)". Such substances are often resistant to classification per their sheer variety; what might differentiate ectoplasmic discharge from concrete-statue offal, from a theoretical standpoint? While there are many valid answers to this question, that provided by acroamatic theory begins with two broadly observed classes:
- platonic material denotes physical effluence — that which has a state of matter and behaves correspondingly. Often, its effects are felt by its surroundings, whether spatially, temporally, or narratively proximal to them.
- orphic material denotes spectral effluence — that which manifests as energy and is resultantly more volatile. Often, its effects are felt by itself and that to which it is conceptually related, hazarding its recursive self-amplification.
Unfortunately, these categories are not mutually exclusive. Under extreme conditions, the distinctions between typical matter and energy become blurred, and the tendency for their anomalous counterparts to reach such conditions is expectedly higher. As such, the first steps in general abatement processes often involve the separation of incoming effluence into its platonic and orphic components. Specialized.Smaller-scale and typically dedicated to one anomaly, or few with similar effluence. abatement systems, however, will often forego separation in favour of converting all effluence to one type, reducing technical and equipment requirements.
After being either converted or separated, effluence is then filtered and treated based on its acroamatic toxicity, which is measured through observation of its ontokinetic manipulation. Such toxicity comes in three forms: recondicity, anachronicity, and rhetoricity denote a substance's manipulation of spatial, temporal, and narrative dimensions, respectively.
Fig. 2.1. Recondically-induced surface fractures in brass alloy under controlled conditions (1.2x108x magnification).
Recondite material possesses a non-zero recondicity variable. Its recondicity denotes the difference between its effective dimensionality and baseline. Consider a sample of effluence that flattens its surroundings to be two-dimensional; it can be said that its recondicity is -1, as its effect subtracts a spatial dimension from its subject. Conversely, a sample that extends affected subjects into four spatial dimensions would be assigned a recondicity of +1.
The amelioration of typical extro- and extra-dimensional effects, as described above, has largely been made trivial by the Foundation's Extradimensional Anomalies Department, who regularly deal in such matters. As per the usual, the atypical is dealt to Site-43, and so the unique difficulties of recondite abatement manifest when effluence possesses a non-integer recondicity variable. Fractional dimensionality describes fractal topology; correspondingly, a fractional recondicity variable describes effluence whose effects induce infinitesimally-detailed surfaces in their subjects (see Fig. 2.1). As a surface is fractured in this way, it becomes increasingly detailed until reaching critical recondicity: at which a surface's details become subatomic, splitting atoms and resulting in nuclear explosion.
Anachronic material possesses an anachronicity variable other than 1. Its anachronicity denotes the temporal distortion induced by its effects. If effluence causes affected subjects to experience subjective time at half of baseline speed, it is assigned an anachronicity value of 0.5; if its effect induces regression of subjective time, it is assigned a corresponding negative value.
Fig. 2.2. The ADDC, circa 1940.
In many circumstances, anachronicity is actually particularly useful. Following a breach incident in June of 1960, Site-43's orphic outflow pipes were double-reinforced with synthetic anachronic materials provided by Applied Occultism. These reinforcements maintain an anachronicity of near-zero, reducing weathering effects over time and corresponding maintenance requirements. Anachronic material is similarly responsible for the condemning of Acroamatic Abatement's original office quarters; in 1943, an orphic outflow pipe burst, releasing concentrated effluence into the since-decommissioned Anomalous Documents Disposal Chamber (ADDC) (see Fig. 2.2) and resultantly placing it and connected quarters under temporal stasis. All matter within affected areas ceased to react to the flow of time and forces of physics, excepting massless particles and several anachronic particles which composed myself, Researcher Ilse Reynders. Typical abatement of the precipitating effluence would have caused the aforementioned quarters to 'rubberband' to present-day conditions, which seemed likely to result in immediate death and subsequent decomposition. Instead, this state's independence from the Prime-Timeline served as an anchoring mechanism to remain unaffected while observing temporal-restructuring events; eventually, rigorous study of SCP-5243's annual timeline reorganizations led to the development of more nuanced environmental synchronization technologies.
Rhetorical material possesses an anomalous rhetoricity variable. Its rhetoricity describes its manipulation of relevant narrative structures. Measurement of narrative energies is experimental and yet to be standardized; despite the modern invention of the Pickman-Sinclair Narrative Fluctuation Detector, rhetoricity has yet to be specified beyond either a positive or negative value. A positive rhetoricity denotes effluence whose effects charge their subjects with narrative energies, while a negative value drains them.
Rhetorically-induced narrative significance causes affected subjects to be increasingly involved in proximal narratives. This phenomenon, dubbed 'protagonism' in recent studies, is responsible for "Adam the Abater", formerly known as Orphic Filtration Chamber AAF-D/06. Prior to the facility's decommissioning in 2002, Adam became increasingly personified as a protagonist in the "story" of AAF-D and its detoxification of orphic materials, and was referred to as such by Abatement personnel as he became more relevant in their duties (see Fig. 2.3). Eventually, Adam's personification came under suspicion when Dr. Harold Blank, Chief of Archives and Revision, attempted to publish a book titled Adam's Adventures in Acroamatic Abatement, demonstrating Adam's multi-level narrative manipulation and leading to the discovery of rhetoricity. Albeit rare, effluence samples possessing negative rhetoricity values have been known to briefly exist, though the results of their effects are unclear; below-average narrative energy content is currently under study by Dr. Placeholder McDoctorate of Site-87's 'Pataphysics Department.
Fig. 2.3. AAF-D technicians consulting Adam, September 2002.
Once abated of the aforementioned toxicities, materials are re-monitored for latent effects. Particularly in the case of orphic materials, some combinations of variables render them unable to detoxify via conventional processes; for example, a certain effluence sample (which will remain unnamed) affects both itself and documentation that identifies it clearly. Said sample possesses negative recondicity, negative anachronicity, and positive rhetoricity; as such, it gives itself narrative significance, then retroactively affects media for its narratives to lose spatial dimensions. When the Abatement researcher studying this effluence stated their intent to publish their report about the sample, the Site-43 Academic Database spontaneously crashed. It was later found to have been compressed to a sphere less than 10cm in diameter, its resultant density causing it to literally crash through several floors of the Site before landing in the centre of the Archives and Revision Section's library complex.
After re-monitoring, re-processing, and filtering of any remaining toxic materials, waste is no longer effluent and may be disposed of by conventional means. Historically, physical waste was merely incinerated, but is now repurposed variously; even after abatement, platonic materials often possess unusual and potentially useful chemical characteristics that remain irreproducible in lab environments. Detoxified orphic materials can be safely recycled via conversion to electricity or other energies, as needed.
III. TECHNOLOGY OF ABATEMENT
"All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; the dosage alone makes it so a thing is not a poison."
— Paracelsus
Lake Huron and surrounding areas.
While undoubtedly due, in no small part, to the abundance of talent present at Site-43, one may wonder to what its abatement successes are owed. It is at this juncture we acknowledge the Site's proximity to Lake Huron and its advantages therein.
Lake Huron is inhabited by SCP-5494, a species of chimeral panther-esque entities described in the native inhabitants' oral history. These entities exude an unique anomalous substance known historically as "copper-Mishepeshu" (later identified as an anomalously-metastable isomer of 63mCu) which does not decay under typical conditions. Copper-M only undergoes radioisotopic decay in the presence of physically- or chemically-anomalous materials; the energy released in this process purifies nearby compounds of anomalous imperfections, resulting in the detoxification of contacted effluence. Besides these properties, copper-M behaves chemically identically to typical 63Cu, forming the same compounds and remaining soluble under the same conditions.
Constructed originally as a standalone treatment plant, Acroamatic Abatement Facility A acts as the sole receptacle for irregular offsite waste. In the event that effluence from other locations does not justify specialized abatement, and can be safely transported to Site-43, it is delivered via overhead funnel directly to AAF-A's initial purification chamber. Lakewater is pumped into the facility's water filtration spheres, stored, and supplied to the aforementioned chamber, where initial purification occurs. This abates toxicities to a minor extent, combining effluent material with copper-M and allowing for safer transport.
Fig 3.1. AAF-A, overhead diagram.
More toxic effluence accumulates more copper-M, which decays into typical copper upon interaction. This allows materials resistant to initial abatement to be filtered by density and toxicity, as still-toxic materials sink to the bottom of the dropoff chamber and are drained for further processing. The chamber then flushes solids and oil-based liquids into special treatment, where they are further decomposed by the addition of nitric acid (HNO3). This combines with the copper-M-lakewater to form copper-M-nitrate (63mCu(NO3)2 (aq)), breaking down effluence and causing more copper-M to neutralize toxic substances. The substances are soaked in special treatment, often for several hours, until the sum toxicity of the chamber reaches typical levels, after which sulfate is removed from the solution via electrolysis. The solution then joins water-soluble materials in general treatment, where waste is centrifuged from spent copper, toxically re-measured, and voided into the Lake.
High-toxicity materials, resistant to initial abatement efforts in AAF-A, proceed through over 1500 metres of reinforced piping to Site-43's main grounds. Various pipes and equipment such as these are constructed from Null-Anachronic Brass-Mishepeshu Alloy (NABMA), a brass material alloyed from copper-M and reinforced with the aforementioned synthetic anachronic materials. Due to its resistance to weathering effects, NABMA's embedded copper-M rarely decays to abate the substance, acting instead as a sturdy insulant resistant to toxic effects.
Site-43's Security and Containment Section is responsible for the containment of various thaumaturgical anomalies; their byproducts are drained downward, joining effluence inbound from AAF-A, and flow through the Applied Occultism Section, where their potential practical applications are studied. These materials then progress to AAF-B, whose primary function is the separation of platonic and orphic materials prior to their separate abatement.
Fig 3.3. AAF-B, overhead diagram.
IV. TECHNICALITIES OF THE ANOMALOUS
