SCP-4636
rating: +130+x

INFOHAZARD WARNING
Unless you have been explicitly ordered to obtain information about SCP-4636, avoid all data related to it. Exposing yourself to this document is grounds for demotion and cognitive purge of all Foundation activities. If authorized, enter your access key below.

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Disclaimer: the following document, while entirely factual, breaks several technical writing guidelines. Attempts to edit, displace, or remove irrelevant sentences may be detrimental to research and containment (c.f. Description §4). I feel terrible for how much this inconsequential stylistic issue bothers me, when I know my duty is to focus on ensuring SCP-4636 remains harmless.

confessional.png

SCP-4636.

Item #: SCP-4636

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: All monitoring of the item's containment chamber must comply to the 2dgs infosec protocol. Access to any data about SCP-4636 is restricted to members of the SCP-4636 research group, whose memory must be purged of all other classified data upon recruitment. Each documentation task must be assigned to a single member. I am afraid that this cryptic procedure might lead to a poor assessment of SCP-4636-related threats by uninvolved Foundation staff.

Description: SCP-4636 is an ornate wooden booth with three vertical compartments separated by lattices. Although it resembles a Christian confessional, it has not been traced back to any known group or institution. I am terrified of its insidious action on the human mind.

Distal effects:
When attempting to communicate information about the item1, all assessed subjects (regardless of exposure to SCP-4636) develop a temporary compulsion to express subjective feelings and inner conflicts. I am unreasonably upset by the disruptions caused by this compulsion in this very document.

My conviction is that this effect can be explained as SCP-4636 deeming conversations about the booth as equivalent to the physical confines of the booth (i.e. regarding its anomalous properties, the space it encloses extends to the conceptual space of information about it). I am frustrated that this explanation is not verifiable, making it inappropriate in rigorous technical documentation.

Attempts to counteract this urge (both by hindering speech and by obstructing recorded/written instances further than their original availability) are met with vehement resistance2 and/or trigger anomalous events:

  • The most stringent physical restraint measures tested have led to the manifestation of sound waves expressing the desired information in the subject's voice within tens of kilometres. It seemed like the voice was going past my eardrums and invading my brain.
  • When erasing or editing written instances, they have later been found engraved (along with their entire context) on some solid surfaces within tens of kilometres.

Proximal effects:
The propagation of sound waves to and from SCP-4636 is diminished by an unknown process.
Verbal exchanges about any topic between two people standing within SCP-4636 (in any compartment) induce the compulsion described above in one of them, lasting as long as both remain inside. No pattern predictive of which of the two becomes affected has been uncovered.

Some statements made by the affected subject induce a permanent compulsion in the other subject to keep them secret (if instructed to disclose them in any way, they are unable to do so regardless of incentives3). Interestingly, in numerous instances, this inability has been induced by sentences that were not compelled by SCP-4636. I am currently picturing scenes of torture, which greatly distracts me from writing. Although some types of information seem exempt from this (primarily statements reported to lack any personal stakes by the subjects themselves, e.g. most descriptive claims about banal objects and events), no definitive criteria have been established. The essential informations in this document are alarmingly buried by useless tangents that I cannot want to erase. I don't understand how it is possible to fail to want something that I wish I would want. This effect of the item is confusing and scary.

I hate what it makes me write, because my thoughts are pathetic. I wish I would have confessions indicative of a troubled past, or charismatic secrets. I am certain that I was chosen to write this document precisely because everyone knows I have a worthless boring life and career. Admitting this deepens my shame and hatred as I picture my colleagues having access to my most intimate thoughts and seeing nothing but petty insecurities, which is followed by fear as I realise how unfit for my duty these peeks into my mind reveal me to be. Expressing hatred for staff is clearly grounds for a re-evaluation of my assignment, and I anticipate a cognitive purge: there is a unique mix of solace and humiliation in the thought that nothing valuable will be lost.

Potential uses of the item in information security protocols and in psychological evaluation procedures are under study.

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