SCP-8355 is a retrocausal anomalous effect, impacting culture, media and the shared human understanding of historic or past events.
Example Evidence of SCP-8355
Item #: SCP-8355
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: Foundation Social Media AICs are to continually engage in online disinformation campaigns, to ensure that the general public believes that the anomalous effect is entirely mundane, and imagined.
Description: SCP-8355 is a retrocausal anomalous effect, impacting culture, media and the shared human understanding of historic or past events. SCP-8355 causes a random subset of the population to firmly believe a fact from an alternate timeline must be consistent in baseline reality, despite any evidence provided.
SCP-8355 is a commonly known anomaly, but the overall public consensus is that individuals are simply misremembering specifics, and is generally deemed as non-anomalous. SCP-8355 was discovered by the Foundation as an anomalous effect following internal Foundation discourse regarding the name of said effect.
SCP-8355, also known as the "Damballa Effect", first entered the public consciousness during online social media debates about the lore surrounding the 1988 film, Child's Play. Specifically, while baseline reality purports that 'Damballa' was a fictional deity created for the film in 1987, a large population is convinced that 'Damballa' is a real Haitian Loa from creation myths for many African religious traditions for centuries.
Despite overwhelming evidence, a subset of the population cannot perceive Damballa as a fictional deity — as a result, these types of cultural dissonances are referred to as being 'Damballa'd', or that somebody is the victim of the "Damballa Effect".
To date, there is no known method of neutralizing SCP-8355's effect.
Addendum 1: Notable Internal Examples
Due to the wide-ranging scope of SCP-8355, the Foundation has collected internal documentation affected by SCP-8355, to highlight the scope of the issue, and to remind all researchers to validate their findings against baseline reality.
| Subject | Statement A | Statement B |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-Testing | Cross-Testing of anomalies is strictly prohibited by the O5 Council. | Cross-Testing anomalies is the best method of investigation, and should be considered as a second step of research for all SCP objects. |
| SCP-682 | SCP-682 is impossible to destroy, and further attempts at neutralization are wasting resources. | SCP-682 is only 'very hard to destroy', but it is possible. |
| Dr. Wondertainment | Dr. Wondertainment's logo features the initials 'DW' for Dr. Wondertainment. | Dr. Wondertainment's logo features the letter 'W' only. |
| D.C. Al Fine | D.C. Al Fine died in prison during the 1980s. | D.C. Al Fine is currently alive. |
| Horses (Equus ferus caballus) | Horses are a mundane, hoofed animal with no anomalous properties. | Horses are an ontologically evil entity, with an anomalous compulsion causing individuals to hate them. |
| Sarkicism | The correct term to refer to practitioners is 'Sarkites'. | The correct term to refer to practitioners is 'Nälkän'. |
| Dr. Everett Mann | Dr. Everett Mann has always worked in the medical field, or adjacent professions, exclusively. | Dr. Everett Mann provided the singing voice for Christopher Plummer's character, 'Captain Von Trapp', in the 1965 film 'The Sound of Music'. |
| The Chaos Insurgency | The Chaos Insurgency is an antagonistic force with no ties to the Foundation. | The Chaos Insurgency is a current branch of the SCP Foundation. |
| Antimemetics Division | There is no 'Antimemetics Division'. | There is an 'Antimemetics Division'. |
| Foundation Documentation | SCP files should maintain a clinical tone or be clearly marked as intentional parody. | SCP files may be comedic, contingent on relevant subject matter. |
