ITEM #: SCP-8434.
OBJECT CLASS: Safe.
SPECIAL CONTAINMENT PROCEDURES: SCP-8434-A is to be kept in a cool, dry location; low humidity and room temperature is preferred. Avoid exposure to UV or direct sunlight. Prevent contact between SCP-8434-A and members of, or individuals associated with, the ████████████████████████████, etc. The location of SCP-8434-B is currently unknown but is likely within one of the fifteen former Soviet states—most probably Russia or Ukraine.
DESCRIPTION: SCP-8434, referenced in CIA documentation with the cryptonym MHFIST, is an entry referring to two items: an individual pamphlet supposedly written by Jedidiah Morse in 1812 then rediscovered in 1997; and a collection of possibly fabricated tablets discovered in New Haven, CT in 1945, thought to be furbished from a French brass tea kettle when examined yet bearing a strong resemblance to the former item. The tablets were recovered by two schoolboys from a creek in July of that year, and later were acquired by McGill University in Montreal, where their existence was attested to by ███████████████ and ██████████ in August; the tablets disappeared and are believed to have been stolen by Raymond Boyer, an alleged Soviet confederate then living in Canada—no known photographs exist. From this point forward Morse’s document may be referred to as SCP-8434-A, while the tablets may be referred to as SCP-8434-B.
SCP-8434 is considered anomalous and endangering to public safety for the following reasons: number one, Morse's document is written in a unique Semitic language, with visual features similar to that of cursive Aramaic, though possessing grammatical and linguistic features largely alien to that of other Bronze Age Semitic languages, and is rather comparable to Jacobean English; number two: Morse's document is believed to be an accurate facsimile of the text on the tablets, despite those tablets being supposedly North American in origin and allegedly thousands of years old; number three: when translated, Morse’s document contains plain and exact allusions to the USSR’s collapse, winning lottery numbers, the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the 2016 presidential election.
Portrait of Jedidiah Morse, the so-called "father of the American textbook," circa 1812. This work is painted by his son Samuel Morse, known as the inventor of Morse code.
SCP-8434-B is thought by militant members of the ████████████████████████████, or ██████████, to be a fragment of the so-called “sealed portion” of the golden plates given to prophet Joseph Smith in 1827, which contains a series of undisclosed revelations belonging to John of Patmos. Members of the ██████████’s illicit and clandestine paramilitary are liable to stalk, torture, harass, and possibly even kill individuals affiliated with SCP-8434.
SCP-8434-A presumably only covers one of six tablets which comprise SCP-8434-B; given the span of history covered by SCP-8434-A, that being approximately two hundred years, the full series in SCP-8434-B might contain around twelve hundred years' worth of past, current, and future world events. The Foundation has received intelligence which suggests that, while Soviet authorities possessed greater insight than even the CIA, the current Russian regime has no knowledge of SCP-8434. While in Soviet possession, the tablets were revealed only to a select few, and were even hidden from notable Politburo members, and the public, as to maintain the USSR's official policy of state atheism.
█████████, a notable ██████████ informant, has proposed that prominent reformers such as Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin intentionally instigated the dissolution of the Soviet Union, acknowledging it as a necessity for a prophetic Native American revolution in the United States to occur, which promises to establish a new Socialist Zion. If true, twentieth century Soviet politics was divided between an “in-group,” containing, as aforementioned, Yeltsin and Gorbachev, and an “out-group,” including Pugo, Yanayev, and other August Coup agitators. These informants have also suggested that Gorbachev was in direct contact with the “angel Moroni” of Mormon literature, a supernatural entity to whom he relinquished the tablets.
Efforts to locate SCP-8434-B in the modern day have consistently failed; while the ██████████ offers the Foundation a succinct explanation as to its location, as aforementioned, the Foundation prefers secular explanations as to its whereabouts, given that the untimely resurfacing of the plates are also irreconcilable with ██████████ doctrine and theology. If SCP-8434-A is generalizable to the entirety of SCP-8434-B, then the contents of SCP-8434-B are not necessarily religious.
SCP-8434-B and the theoretical SCP-8434-C are both coveted by the United States and its constituent federal agencies given the veracity of their future predictions; in a bid to prevent their procurement by American authorities, the Foundation has invested considerable resources into locating and obtaining SCP-8434-B and SCP-8434-C, though relatively fruitless as of now. The Foundation believes that public knowledge of the prophecies therein or premeditated interference by relevant governments might compromise the natural course of future events and instigate a temporal paradox or paradoxes.
FURTHER READING:
Dear Dr. Bargeron,
There is currently a vehicle belonging to the National Park Service carrying a previously unknown, handwritten manuscript belonging to one Jedidiah Morse on its way to your facility; that is, departing from D.C., as you could've probably guessed. If everything goes smoothly you can expect it to arrive in approximately two business days. The contents of the document: three paragraphs worth of material composed in a script consisting of twenty-two or so unique characters. The paper itself was found gummed in the pages of a particular KJV Bible which can be seen in more than a few Morse family photos; something similar is also attested to in a Cherokee newspaper published around a decade following its writing. According to that source Morse discovered archeological fragments written in a previously unknown North American language. That claim is, of course, spurious, but it was assumed up until now that Morse somehow came into possession of an Andean "talking knot" from a third party from that area and managed to correctly assume its purpose.
Our team rescued it from its incredibly poor condition. As far as I know the cryptology department is completely clueless, so my friends and I here were hoping that either you or your faculty could translate the work. I could've faxed you or something like that—attached a scan, maybe—but I've been informed that the G-men around here are very, very interested, and also very hush-hush. Ottawa has seen it too.
Best regards.
6/8/97
Dr. Moriarty,
Sorry for keeping you waiting. I received the document about a week and a half ago. The text itself is consistent with a modified version of Aramaic, but the grammar isn't, so we're considering other Semitic languages; but I don't believe it's American in origin, nor are we convinced that it's necessarily authentic either. Let me know when you find the so-called "archeological fragments;" until then it isn't top priority. Do you know the source of the Bible?
6/19/97
Good afternoon.
So, you think the Aramaic connection is just coincidental?
The Bible was sold to us by the same Richard Douglas who was sentenced two months ago for you-know-what. Funnily enough upon review of our archive only about two of the documents he provided us with were deemed inauthentic, those being the signatures ascribed to Nathaniel Bacon. The remaining twelve we still consider genuine. As I'm sure you’re aware multiple dupes made their way into the Library of Congress as well. What you have isn't valued at very much and we don't believe he'd have incentive to manufacture it.
All the best,
Stephen Moriarty.
6/21/97
The following is transcribed from fragments of audio tape found in the possessions of a former NKVD member, then purchased by the Foundation in auction circa 1989:
Each individual plate is coppery and only measures a few centimeters thick; pages are cut unevenly, and rust is present in small amounts. The material is pliant and therefore wrinkled or deformed in some places. I’d estimate that only about four or five staff members other than myself have seen it; others appear disinterested or uncertain of its significance even when implored. It’s not impossible that powers—whether they be American or Canadian or both—have intimidated or cajoled faculty into avoiding the artifact. I can confirm that psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron and student of archeology Ulysses Mackenzie in specific have seen and taken interest in the plates; neither are formally involved with any department relevant to their discovery or classification. Mackenzie brought them to my attention. I’ve taken it upon myself to expunge the tablets’ existence from university documents […] My wife assures me it’s faulty plumbing or creaky floorboards or something, but I definitely suffered from a home invasion Saturday—and I think a few more since then: I was walking around in my underwear brandishing a clawhammer at three in the morning last night because someone was jiggling my doorknob from the outside; my bedroom door, that is.
Drawings accompany the text on page six: a nude man in what I've been informed is “ballgame” garb throwing a winged serpent into fire; and next to it what looks like lines of varying length proceeding from a circle.
I think everyone over here is quite disturbed by whatever this is. For the first time in my adult life I’m scared to turn off the lights. When you see something in the dark […] Well, I think it’s worse to turn the lights back on once they’re off. What if you turn them on and the thing’s still there, you know? And your mind isn’t playing tricks. I take no comfort in knowing whether I’m correct or not. It’s better to just live with it.
There are multiple candidates for first-hand encounters with SCP-1552-B prior to 1945. Below is an excerpt of a letter composed by an unnamed Spanish conquistador and addressed to Charles V in 1552; not included is a lecture by Charles de Bourbon-Vendome in 1588 that discusses the so-called “universality of Christianity,” using purported pre-Columbian depictions of Jesus as evidence:
Our lord Don Carlos, by next morning that Governor Pizarro ordered us to retrieve from where we had laid what we had found: forty thousand castellanos and four or five thousand marcos of silver and gold. This was in a place named Cajamarca, and after we had been besieged by that cruel fire. Amongst that bounty of which we took good stock were brass sheets of an unusual sort, which scalded our fingers even in the umbrage.
As far as I’m aware ██████████ couldn’t care less about the actual theological implications of Morse’s paper, only its implications insofar as it relates to historical succession, and whether that legitimizes or delegitimizes them doesn’t matter—in situation one they promulgate it and in situation two they bury it; so, if you want to save your own skin, then you should keep them guessing as to its contents. If they publicly petition the federal government and thereby reveal its existence, it might utterly destroy their own reputation upon release, but they don’t know that it’s unrelated to their organization. Until they figure that out, they'll keep it a secret just like you. Then again, you have to be content with them kidnapping and killing your guys to maintain that status quo, lest you create a giant political stink by fighting back
People don’t believe as much as they used to, and I think that’s because there’s less death in our lives. The more you’re exposed to it, the closer you are to this secondary reality, or lack thereof—this nothing. You know who will inherit the Earth? People who see the death in places where other people don’t.
