Photograph of a previously-used storage facility for paper instances of SCP-4236.
Special Containment Procedures: All newly-discovered instances of SCP-4236 are to be secured for containment as soon as possible. Instances are to be submitted for review before digitization and then secured in standard document storage. Any civilians with direct exposure to unedited instances of SCP-4236 are to be interviewed before being administered class-A amnestics.
Foundation agents are to work with social media platforms to remove any pre-review instances of SCP-4236. Instances that contain classified information, technical documents, or audiovisual material of famous individuals should be of the highest priority. A small number of instances of SCP-4236 which contain classified or technical information may be edited and re-published onto online conspiracy-theory communities as part of an ongoing disinformation campaign.
Under the condition in which no instances of SCP-4236 are discovered within the period of a complete calendar year, SCP-4236 is to be submitted for re-classification to class: Neutralized.
Description: SCP-4236 refers to artifacts of anomalous origin first appearing in the late 1940s. SCP-4236 instances take the form of assorted media both physical and digital.1 Historically, instances of SCP-4236 have been recovered from secure military and government facilities among non-anomalous materials. Starting in the late 1980s, SCP-4236 instances have begun manifesting in far more unsecured locations. During the 90s, instances of SCP-4236 became increasingly common online, culminating in a peak of approximately twelve thousand new instances being detected and contained during the 2015 calendar year. The rate of appearances has since been showing a steady decline.
The first reports of SCP-4236 were obtained from UIU records. The UIU initially deemed SCP-4236 a hoax before instances of SCP-4236 were discovered in secure facilities among classified information. To date, over five hundred and seventy thousand instances of SCP-4236 have been detected and contained. Early Foundation research into the origin of SCP-4236 instances suggested the presence of a memetic agent. However, efforts to detect a memetic agent related to SCP-4236 have failed, and testing has concluded that instances of SCP-4236 do not have cognitohazardous properties. A more modern hypothesis, supported by recent advances in Hume Decay Analysis, suggests that instances of SCP-4236 are manifesting from a parallel reality designated SCP-4236-A.
SCP-4236-132. A photograph of what is believed to be SCP-4236-B with two unidentified engineers.
SCP-4236 instances are characterized by references to an object designated SCP-4236-B. Information cataloged from SCP-4236 suggests that SCP-4236-B is an anomalous device located in secure storage in the Groom Lake Air Force Facility in Nevada within SCP-4236-A. The intended effect of SCP-4236-B is unclear, despite instances of SCP-4236 providing significant historical documentation of its construction.
Technical information retrieved from SCP-4236 describes SCP-4236-B in a manner that does not seem to operate within the currently accepted understanding of particle physics. Initial experimentation with the theoretical principles outlined in instances of SCP-4236 has been met with complete failure, suggesting that physical laws may behave differently within SCP-4236-A.
All instances of SCP-4236 recovered have been dated no farther than the date of discovery, suggesting that the flow of time within SCP-4236-A remains consistent with that of baseline reality. Patterns of information thus far provided by SCP-4236 suggest a geopolitical history nearly identical to baseline.2
Addendum 01: SCP-4236-00016 Military Engineering Report on the Construction and Activation of SCP-4236-B
Memo from the office of Lieutenant General Leslie Richard Groves Jr. of the Army Corps of Engineers to the staff of facility ████████. ██/██/████.
It is my great pleasure to announce that Project Silver Gear has been an overwhelming success. The team down at ██████████ have informed me that Gear-3 is operational as of this morning. Already the effects are observable, and I've got men in labs telling me that within the next eighty years we'll be seeing a complete reversal of expected behavior so long as Gear-3 is left in proper care. We've got a transport team already prepping the device for airlift, and with any luck it'll be humming along just dandy in that climate-controlled warehouse they've got out in Nevada before midnight.
Once we have this thing off-base I'd like to start giving extended vacation time to everybody personally involved, in addition to the letters of recommendation I'm sending to both the Pentagon and the White House over these next few weeks. What we've done here may be the greatest accomplishment in human history.
Despite the knowledge that the general public may never know what we've done here, I want you to all know that I could not be more proud of you and your service to this great nation. Gear-1 and Gear-2 really brought us all down, but we worked through it and proved that nothing is impossible for the greatest minds in science and engineering Americans have to offer.
- Lieutenant General Leslie Groves
Addendum 02: SCP-4236-01087 Newspaper Article Related to the De-Classification of SCP-4236-B
Article from The New York Times, 1988, pg. 12
De-Classified Documents Reveal Military Science Experiment
This week the Pentagon de-classified several hundred documents relating to research conducted by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The documents date from the late 1940's up until the mid 60's, and most detail unsuccessful research projects. One item, however, has made quite a stir in the physics community. Dubbed "Silver Gear" by the Army, this project apparently resulted in the creation of a successful device known as "Gear Three" according to paperwork from the time. Gear Three is described as a device that passively alters certain fundamental processes of space-time as described by Einstein.
The Pentagon confirmed later in the week after media questioning that the device is still functional and currently located in a secure facility. Scientists familiar with the theories involved have suggested that the device is almost miraculous in nature if it truly performs as described.
A photo released among de-classified documents this week by the Pentagon. "Gear Three" is described as a device which uses previously classified scientific developments in order to change certain fundamental laws of the universe.
The Times was able to speak with a retired Army Corps researcher who asked to remain anonymous, suggesting that he was unsure if policy permitted him to speak on the function of the device in an official capacity. He told our interviewer that:
"Gear Three, at least in theory, affects the expansion of space within our reality. Although we can't yet see the effects because of the cosmological horizon, the energy produced by Gear Three is expected to be causing the expansion of space to slow, and eventually reverse. Eventually, we may see the effects of this on Earth as certain processes associated with entropy no longer behave as expected. I can't express how happy I am, and I expect many others associated with the project are, for the general public to be able to read and hopefully gain inspiration from our accomplishments."
According to the researcher, as well this writer's limited understanding of the technical information available, we can't expect to see testable alterations in the behavior of particle physics until about 2015. Surely much of the larger scientific world will be giddy at the concept of an entirely new physics to explore and test when that day comes.
Addendum 03: SCP-4236-12523 Video Transcript
VIDEO LOG
DATE: June 17, 2013
NOTE: Excerpt of Video Transcript. Interview of President of the United States Barack Obama by Charlie Rose for PBS. This section of the interview lasts approximately one minute and twenty-five seconds in total and is the only material not present in other recordings of the same broadcast.
A still from SCP-4236-12523.
[BEGIN LOG]
Rose: Let's move away from Guantanamo for a moment to talk about an issue that seems to be becoming more relevant in the past few weeks. During a campaign speech in 2008, you promised, in addition to fighting climate change, that your administration would 'take a look' at this device in Nevada and give the American people a definitive answer about whether we're going to keep it running or not. Since then, your administration has been silent on the matter. In the last several months there have been some isolated protests here in Washington with fringe groups claiming that you're ignoring "the most important issue". What would you say to them?
The President puts his hand up to his mouth and he looks toward the corner of the ceiling before laughing briefly. The video then cuts back to Rose, who is smiling.
Obama: Well, first of all, uh… I'd tell them that there is no single "most important issue" to America today. As Americans, uh… I believe it is our collective responsibility to face the issues that affect all of us head-on every day. That's what my administration is trying to do, and we can't pick out issues that only some people find important and decide to address them before the concerns of everybody else.
The President begins to adjust his position in his seat and clears his throat.
Rose: So you don't consider this issue a priority within your admin-
Obama: Well now hear me out. We're always trying to listen to real problems. We've been making historic progress toward fighting climate change… uh, we've repaired relationships with our allies in Europe and the Middle East, we've done a lot of things and we're going to continue doing a lot of things that are in the shared interest of the American people and that fill our role as stewards in the global community. We haven't stopped uh… we haven't been ignoring this thing. We've got some very intelligent, capable people looking into what it is and what it means, it's just not what our focus is when it comes to communicating our plans right now as an administration. I would ask for these protestors to speak their mind and tell us what they consider important while being uh… respectful and patient. What I've found out over the course of my political career, especially as President- What I've found is that we solve issues with patience, and understanding, and the willingness to cooperate with each other.
The video cuts to Rose who asks a question about a then-recent controversy regarding the NSA.
[END LOG]
Addendum 04: SCP-4236-327464 Journal Entry of Unknown Author
I went home today. Just for Thanksgiving. I'm not sure what I thought would happen. To tell the truth I didn't really expect Mom and Dad to invite me. Not after we met last time. I'm really struggling to figure out which part of me is crazy. Is it the part that made me want to sit and listen while the family mocked those "terrorists" on the news or is it the part of me that thinks I should have been out there today? Of course, I'm not capable of either, so I got to end thanksgiving dinner by being thrown out of my own parent's home.
The look everybody gave me when I started shouting. It's the same expression Jamie gave me after I told her if she couldn't support the movement we couldn't be together. I can't deal with it. I think I'm done. I'm just going to have to start pretending like this isn't all crazy. Like it's just some normal thing. But how the fuck am I supposed to pretend that the end of the world is ok? Nobody can even come up with a coherent answer as to why they don't care! Mom told me she "has faith" and tried to get me back into the church. Dad just gave me that disappointed look. Of course Tom tries to talk to me about how "we don't know what'll actually happen, maybe it'll…". I feel like I'm in a nightmare, and any moment I have to wake up and my entire existence since after I heard about the damned thing is going to turn out to have been a real shitty dream. That would explain why a new disaster movie comes out every two years and everybody acts like it's so thrilling and exciting and frightening while we all sit on the actual end of the world. Meanwhile, it's already doing its job. Who knows how many beings, how many civilizations it's already destroyed? Maybe every second I sit here in front of this paper instead out of out there at that fence with a fucking gun I'm dooming millions of sapient beings.
Maybe we deserve it. As a species I mean. Maybe we're doing it to ourselves because we know how disgusting we are, and the "not a big deal" shtick is some sort of group-psychology suicidal ideation. Would that mean I'm one of the people who doesn't deserve to die? Or maybe it means I'm one of the only ones so selfish that I'm not willing to see how much we all deserve it. Maybe it's God. Or like, anti-God or something. Maybe it's looked at all of reality and everything that exists and realized that it's just too much of a hassle, so it reached down and put the thought in those scientists' heads. And then after it did the same with the rest of us, "It's ok, it'll work out on its own".
That's the thing that frightens me the most. Every time my rational brain, at least I have to continue to assume it's the rational part of my brain. Every time it tells me how fucked up this all is, how much danger we're all in, what a fucking waste it would be to see all of human history, everything we love and care for and everything I think about every single moment of my life get erased in an instant… that other part of me comes up and says "hear how emotional you are? Hear how angry and upset you are? This has poisoned you. You'd be so much happier, and pure, and good if you just hugged your Mom and Dad and said you were sorry and went on with your life." And it says it with the voice of every person who's ever been kind to me, every person I've loved, every person I'm so afraid of losing to a meaningless fucking end.
It doesn't really matter anymore anyway. The hype is gone, the movement is over. There's maybe a third of us coming to the meetings anymore. Kelly tries but when she stands in front of the podium and makes that same speech every night you can see it in her face that she doesn't really believe we're going to be able to do anything anymore. By this time next year, we'll be completely out of the news cycle, we haven't even gotten a question asked about us on the primary stage.
I think I'm going to go home. I just want to feel happy again. Wouldn't it at least be better just to feel happy?