TEMPORAL ANOMALIES NOTICE
You are viewing a document originating from TL-6416-X9C38DAU7E, which refers to itself as TL-001 ("The Prime-Timeline"). This naming convention is relative; this document does not describe your respective TL-001.
SCP-6416
KETER-CLASS / LEVEL V / TRANS-TEMPORAL
An instance of SCP-6416-CUBE among PoI-5242 Iteration-7XFQWB32R4's collection.
CONTAINMENT PROCEDURES: The abuse of SCP-6416 by Foundation personnel for trans-temporal communication is prohibited under Articles II-IV of the 1981 Multi-Foundation Coalition Agreement. Intentional offenders threaten the individuality of distinct timelines, and are to be pursued to the extent of RCT-Δt Iteration Prime's abilities.
SCP-6416-CUBE.This document is, and should continue to be, written in adherence to the SECURITY MEASURES described within FILE: SCP-INTEGER. Please ensure you are familiar with such measures before proceeding. are to be isolated from unsupervised use where possible. Should retrieval of any instance become feasible, it is to be rendered dormant via chronological dissociation and extended storage in the Oblique Possibility Wing. Research is permitted in sole assistance to the containment of SCP-6416 and similarly threatening phenomena.
Once per respective annum, all relevant iterations of the individual most commonly known as 'Placeholder McDoctorate' must submit all puzzle cubes in their collection to their respective RCT-Δt Iteration for inspection. Known aliases include:
- Mr. Place "The Doc" Holder;
- Technician John Doe;
- Dr. Abstract "Abbie" M'Doctorat;
- プレースホルダー;
- Rsr. Place M. DeKnow-It-All;
- Person The Scientist;
- Sir Mac Doctorium, Holder of Places;
- Blankface McBoxhead;
- Lord Metonym Ipsum;
- Dir. Esoterica Eccentric;
- "PHMD";
- O5-6 (Cycle Four);
This individual must never be promoted to Overseer (or analogous) status.
UPDATE: All documentation regarding SCP-6416, SCP-INTEGER, and the aforementioned individual are to be distributed to all possible Coalitional Iterations of RCT-Δt for containment study.
DESCRIPTION: SCP-6416 is a multiversal metaprobabilistic phenomenon which synchronizes the states of a countably infinite set of FOURTH-ORDER PUZZLE OBJECTS. SCP-6416 manifests across a range of universes (hereafter Timeplane-6416) in which the following conditions are met:
- an individual (hereafter PoI-5242) constituting a 99.99998% or greater DNA match to Dr. Abstract M'Doctorat is employed by their respective Foundation-like entity;
- PoI-5242 undergoes severe identity abstraction via brief characteristic interchange with a necessarily unspecified semiontological entity;
- said abstraction affects a FOURTH-ORDER PUZZLE OBJECT (hereafter SCP-6416-CUBE) within PoI-5242's possession;
- PoI-5242 is eventually promoted to Overseer status (invariably O5-6).
In any timeline which meets the above criteria, all instances of SCP-6416-CUBE are actually the same instance, as they have been abstracted to the same fundamental state by SCP-INTEGER. Collapsing the state of any instance simultaneously collapses every other instance to the same state, causing the restructuring of each of their respective timelines to justify such. To grossly oversimplify: SCP-6416-CUBE is synchronized across TP-6416, and the reconfiguration of any instance results in alterations to the histories of all other instances such that they are identical. It is theorized that this trans-temporal synchronization occurs at the narrative level, and, thus, supersedes temporal influence.
Iterations of PoI-5242 tend to carry SCP-6416-CUBE on their person with increasing frequency over the duration of their tenure. No single instance can cease existing without all other instances doing the same; the unlikelihood of such an outcome practically ensures the continued existence of SCP-6416-CUBE throughout TP-6416. Furthermore, SCP-6416's chronological restructurings adhere to the Path-of-Least-Resistance property, enacting the least drastic possible alterations to justify the state of SCP-6416-CUBE. In keeping it on their person, PoI-5242 strengthens their causal relationship to the PUZZLE, thereby becoming the most probable mechanism for its reconfiguration which, in turn, increases the likelihood of their own continued existence. It is theorized that relevant iterations of PoI-5242 are aware of these properties and abuse them for parachronological self-preservation.
In TP-6416, PoI-5242 is eventually promoted to Overseer status; it is unclear whether said promotion is causally dependent on their use of SCP-6416. Whether pre- or post-promotion, PoI-5242 eventually develops a communications matrix which reads and decodes the state of SCP-6416-CUBE into an unknown form of instruction, likely memetic in nature. The observation of these instructions by PoI-5242 results in their respective Foundation's development of paratechnologies which then allow their isolation from RCT-Δt's influence via interdimensional data shielding. Approximately 44% of timelines within TP-6416 have become isolated in this fashion.
It is assumed that PoI-5242, in serving as O5-6 and maintaining externally-observable trans-temporal autosynchronization, is generally aware of its violations of the 1981 Multi-Foundation Coalition Agreement and promotes universal isolation in order to avoid RCT-Δt's containment attempts. The results of further instruction, or any other causal progression, of any such timeline is indeterminate. Any intelligently-designed data communicated by SCP-6416-CUBE is likely generated by another instance of PoI-5242 in a timeline which has been rendered unobservable, although such a hypothesis is non-falsifiable.
ADDENDUM 6416/I: Project Proposal
During the 2024 inspection of PoI-5242 Iteration-Prime's puzzle cubes, it was discovered that one ELEMENT had become an instance of SCP-6416-CUBE in spite of RCT-Δt Iteration Prime's efforts to prevent the conditions of its manifestation. Said instance was confiscated without explanation, and remains under investigation within the Oblique Possibility Wing..RCT-Δt's Oblique Possibility Wing is chronologically synchronized with all other instances of itself, thereby heavily restricting the range of likely outcomes of any given structure contained within it. Barring anomalous influence, the effects of spontaneous temporal parallelism are entirely nullified within the OPW.
PROJECT 6416/PRIME
INITIAL PROPOSAL
CONTEXT: SCP-6416 is a set of ABSTRACTED PUZZLE OBJECTS whose states are synchronized across the infinite subset of timelines in which they are (respectively) owned by an individual of virtual genetic identicality to Dr. Abstract M'Doctorat (aka. PoI-5242). Iterations of this individual use SCP-6416 as a parachronological immortality token and communications mechanism, abusing its properties to gain maximum authority within the Foundation (or similar entity) and isolate their respective timeline from any external to TP-6416. It is believed that these iterations are cooperating to intentionally endanger the chronological metastability of their respective causal branches.
PROPOSAL: Enlist Dr. M'Doctorat in the creation of a communications analysis matrix similar to those observed thoughout TP-6416, as they are most likely to succeed in replicating their own variants' designs. Utilize said matrix in conjunction with CAOCIT.Cyclical Analysis Over Countably-Infinite Time systems to generate and decode the sum of communications sent via SCP-6416 over the phenomenon's duration. Determine whether more drastic measures should be taken to contain SCP-6416.
METHODOLOGY: Unclear; dependent on subject. Resource request pending authorization of sharing relevant data with Dr. M'Doctorat.
O5 COUNCIL VOTE TALLY:
| YEA | NAY | ABS |
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| X | ||
| X | ||
| X | ||
| X | ||
| X | ||
| X | ||
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| X | ||
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PROJECT APPROVED. Subject greenlit to receive relevant info via clearance promotion.
PROJECT 6416/PRIME
INITIAL LEAD CONFERENCE
SPEAKING: Dr. Abstract M'Doctorat, Dir. Elliot Reynders.
FOREWORD: Dr. M'Doctorat was briefed on the nature of SCP-6416 and questioned regarding the feasibility of Project 6416/Prime.
<BEGIN LOG>
Dr. M'Doctorat: Je ne pense pas que tu comprends.
Dir. Reynders: Which part am I not understanding?
Dr. M'Doctorat: The sheer number of combinations which can be expressed by a Rubik's Cube! Let alone a four-by-four — the task you demand is of universal proportion. I'm a quantum physicist, not a, a… cryptographer.
Dir. Reynders: All the other yous did it; statistically speaking, it's certain that you're capable of this. Plus, your fields of study heavily diverge across the span of your career.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Fantastique! <getting up from chair> Talk to me again in twenty years when I've solved cancer, or 'pataphysics, or —
Dir. Reynders: Abbie, sit down.
<Dr. M'Doctorat complies.>
Dir. Reynders: First of all, you're the only person in this universe who can do it, and that's not debatable; secondly, you'd be allowing the study of a potential multiversal threat.
Dr. M'Doctorat: … where's the 'thirdly'?
Dir. Reynders: Was I supposed to give a 'thirdly'?
Dr. M'Doctorat: Of course! Rule of threes, et cetera.
Dir. Reynders: <sighs> I might let you know what a bunch of power-hungry versions of yourself are using the multiversally-synchronized Rubik's Cube to talk about.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Such enthusiasm. Yes, fine — I could use a break from my quantum ectoentropy research. I assume I am at liberty to request the assistance of the Cryptography Division? Oh, and the AIAD! I'll need access to my old analytical frameworks…
Dir. Reynders: Draw up something comprehensible, and I can get it in front of the Council by the end of the week.
Dr. M'Doctorat: All my reqisitions are comprehensible! It is no fault of mine if the concepts I manipulate are beyond others' reach.
Dir. Reynders: Be that as it may, I need to be able to pitch this.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Right, right… question?
Dir. Reynders: Shoot.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Isn't it dangerous for me to have observed the info from the OBJECT? If said info is instructions that persuade me to become an Overseer and isolate the timeline, we are doomed, yes?
Dir. Reynders: This is the first RCT-Δt-controlled timeline in Timeplane-6416. It appears the anomaly is spreading outside its originating causal branches, and we believe, by 'getting out in front of it', we're preventing you — and us — from going down that path.
<END LOG>
AFTERWORD: Initial resource request for Project 6416/Prime underway.
ADDENDUM 6416/II: Communications Log
[DATA EXPUNGED]
PROJECT 6416/PRIME
COMMS DEBRIEFING
SPEAKING: Dir. Elliot Reynders, O5-9 (Oracle).
FOREWORD: Having just observed an apparently cognitohazardous communication decoded from SCP-6416 by the newly-functional Enigmaverse Engine, Dir. Reynders insisted on the impromptu hosting of the following debriefing. O5-9, the only internally-recognized individual possessing Oracle-Class cognitive resistance enhancements, happened to be present for an investigation of the Engine's functioning; they were thusly rushed from another area of the facility to the recording chamber where Dir. Reynders was located.
<BEGIN LOG>
<Dir. Reynders sits within the recording chamber, visibly struggling to maintain focus as Dr. M'Doctorat and O5-9 arrive, evacuating technical personnel. O5-9 instructs Dr. M'Doctorat to leave the soundproof room and wait outside until further notice.>
O5-9: <sits opposite Dir. Reynders at the conference table> Talk to me, Elliot.
Dir. Reynders: I can't — I c-cant talk — everything I do puts us in danger.
O5-9: I can't help if you don't tell me what's wrong.
Dir. Reynders: <makes eye contact with O5-9 and grips the table, steadying.> It's… it's Abbie, it's all Abbie. Everywhere. Everything.
O5-9: Come on, Doctor Reynders, use those degrees. Explain it like a scientist.
<Silence on recording. Dir. Reynders takes a deep breath.>
Dir. Reynders: Promote Abbie to the Council.
O5-9: But, your procedures —
Dir. Reynders: Fuck the procedures! This is fixed — it's already spread to us, and it's going to keep spreading if we don't stay connected to those other timelines. They need to be studied if there's any hope of stopping it.
O5-9: This is not a temporal fixture, or we would have seen it already.
Dir. Reynders: <doubles over, coughing up blood> It's her.
O5-9: What?
Dir. Reynders: Abstract. Placeholder. VOLATILE. Mad scientist.
O5-9: Elliot, stay with me. Focus!
Dir. Reynders: <breathing heavily> The Paradox, it's the one that kills the timelines, kills the timelines dead… Abbie is Place is Holder the know-it-all the Doctorface. Doctor who?
O5-9: Kills which timelines? <Emergent response staff arrive to ameliorate Dir. Reynders' condition per O5-9's advisement.>
Dir. Reynders: No, it's… it's an artificial temporal fixture. They kill the timelines that don't work with them. They all work for her.
O5-9: <gestures for response staff to retrieve Dir. Reynders per danger of continued exposure to his cognitive hazard> Can you give me anything else? We've never had any exceptional chronological readings from M'Doctorat — how could we not have noticed if she's significant?
Dir. Reynders: <struggling, blinking frantically> She — he — they are the Placeholder. The Paradox. The Storyteller. They are beyond time.
<Dir. Reynders is carried to the Amnesticization Wing by response staff, vocalizing loudly as he passes Dr. M'Doctorat.>
<END LOG>
AFTERWORD: Dir. Reynders' amnesticization results inconclusive. The above Communications Log is under Oracle investigation until its full implications can be safely rendered to the Council for consideration.
ADDENDUM 6416/III: Project Update
PROJECT 6416/PRIME
LEAD CONFERENCE 27
SPEAKING: Dr. M'Doctorat, O5-9 (Oracle)
FOREWORD: Following the events of the above debriefing, and subsequent transfer of Project Co-Lead Dir. Reynders, a conference was held to determine the Project's status and objectives.
<BEGIN LOG>
Dr. M'Doctorat: Transferred? Elliot would do no such thing.
O5-9: He… underwent a very intensive amnesticization procedure, and needs time off-Project to recover. He's in good hands.
<M'Doctorat crosses her arms, unimpressed.>
Dr. M'Doctorat: I do not need your Overseer mind games. He's scared of me.
O5-9: Abbie, there are no mind games. Elliot will be back.
Dr. M'Doctorat: What the hell could it have been? Did he forget that my variants are variants? I've even met some of them — on average, I'm positively pleasant!
O5-9: Abbie.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Miss Nine! If I am… dangerous, I must know it now, before I am again exposed to what Elliot saw.
O5-9: You only become dangerous if you get to SCP-6416 before your respective iteration of RCT does. It appears the greatest danger would be not playing along.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Pardon?
O5-9: There are exactly zero timelines outside TP-6416 in which a four-by-four Rubik's Cube is abstracted by SCP-INTEGER.
Dr. M'Doctorat: …you're saying this is fixed?
O5-9: I'm saying something prevents the existence of any timeline in which the OBJECT does not cause you to become O5-6 and block out the RCT.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Fuck. They should put these things in the job application, no?
<Silence on recording.>
Dr. M'Doctorat: Tough crowd.
O5-9: Anyway… how do we proceed?
Dr. M'Doctorat: Uh, what? You are the big-in-charge-person here, is this not your job?
O5-9: I have a suggestion, but I was hoping you had a better one.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Not me! I just make the fancy machines while an infinite subset of my alternate selves forms a secret multiversal alliance. Nothing special going on here.
O5-9: So you do have a suggestion?
Dr. M'Doctorat: Duh. We send the CUBE to another Abbie. Or, we send it somewhere else within TP-6416, if we don't want to endanger another of the literally infinite timelines.
O5-9: That doesn't solve the problem.
Dr. M'Doctorat: It solves it for us. We can solve it for everyone else later.
O5-9: That's assuming ejecting the CUBE from the timeline is not a criterion for erasure.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Well, what was your suggestion, then?
O5-9: We play along.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Excusez-moi?
O5-9: Please, Abbie, not all our transcriptionists are multilingual.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Then they're bad transcriptionists — whatever. There are no true ultimatums! Every scenario has another angle, we just have to —
O5-9: And that may be true, but we're in a unique position, here. Playing by the anomaly's rules allows us to study it, how it manipulates versions of you, and what you're being manipulated for. Up to the point of shielding, we can still communicate our findings to other RCT Iterations, potentially enabling them to "solve it for everyone else later".
Dr. M'Doctorat: Well, yes, but that's not… I'm not… That's not me. I am no Overseer, nor an evil mastermind, and I will not be made a fool.
O5-9: If your only alternative is kicking the can down the road, then the decision is made.
Dr. M'Doctorat: No! Well, er… you could… clone me, and have the clone do it?
O5-9: Causally distinct.
Dr. M'Doctorat: What if the clone was sent back to the exact time of my —
O5-9: Temporal displacement is very traceable.
Dr. M'Doctorat: Okay, then a reality-restructuring —
O5-9: I'm sorry, Abbie, but I really don't see a way out of this.
Dr. M'Doctorat: You're the fucking Oracle — you see everything!
<Silence on recording.>
O5-9: I really am sorry.
<END LOG>
AFTERWORD: Project 6416/Prime remains in active status with substantial alterations to its secondary objectives. Dr. M'Doctorat promoted to Project Lead and briefed on corresponding duties; her requests for parapsychological counseling (across eight separate facilities) were approved.
Project 6416/Prime subsequently resumed use of the Enigmaverse Engine for study of SCP-6416. Containment procedures updated accordingly.
ADDENDUM 6416/IV: Incident Report
During operational year 4 of Project 6416/Prime, significant improvement was consistently noted by Dr. M'Doctorat's parapsychologists and therapists in stark contrast to the preceding period of extended depression. In consultation with Project Advisor O5-9, it was determined by the Council that Dr. M'Doctorat be scheduled for promotion to Overseer status within one week, as she had already undergone much of the necessary training for the O5-6 (Operator) position. This drew attention away from Dr. M'Doctorat's off-Site activity during this time. Over the following week, an assortment of mechanical components and lab equipment were gradually brought off-Site by M'Doctorat, with several items corresponding to those used in the construction of the Enigmaverse Engine.
On 2028/04/16, Dr. M'Doctorat was found deceased within her residence due to cessation of brain function, later revealed to be memetically-induced. Adjacent to her body was a second iteration of the Engine equipped with two-way capability, forcing SCP-6416-CUBE through a series of partially-observed states to collapse a desired configuration. All previous communications had been erased from memory; it remains unclear whether the cognitohazard responsible for M'Doctorat's death was inflicted by SCP-6416 or herself, whether intentional or otherwise.
A final communication was generated prior to the retrieval of M'Doctorat's body:
NICE TRY; SHE HID YOU WELL
BUT THAT'S NOT THE STORY WE WANT TO TELL.
LOGICIAN
