Special Containment Procedures: SCP-8486 is to be placed on a pedestal in a standard containment chamber when it is present in our reality. A system capable of dispersing a high-causticity substance is to be installed in the containment chamber, along with an appropriate drainage system. Moving it necessitates that personnel do not make physical contact with the item – all interaction in this circumstance is to be done remotely via drone or with the use of tools. When the object returns to our reality, if the D-Class personnel who handled it previously is present, they are to be given a medical examination and subsequently escorted back to the D-Class dorms. Within twenty minutes, a new D-Class personnel is to be introduced to the containment chamber with a Level-1 Environmental Protection Suit (EPS-1)1 and basic supplies such as food and water and instructed to pick up SCP-8486. If the object returns without the former D-Class personnel, a new D-Class personnel is to be introduced to the item as soon as possible with an EPS-1 and basic supplies and instructed to pick up the object as usual.
SCP-8486 producing matter from its bristles.
If a suitable D-Class cannot be introduced to SCP-8486 within the relevant timeframe and SCP-8486 begins to produce matter, or if SCP-8486 is absent from our reality and its matter is present within the containment chamber, the caustic dispersal system is to be activated. A new D-Class is to be prepared as soon as possible. If the dispersal system fails, a member of the SCP-8486 research team is to be equipped with an EPS-1 and introduced to the containment chamber wherein they are to pick up SCP-8486.
A cluttered domestic variation of SCP-8486-1.
Description: SCP-8486 is a pink and white toothbrush allegedly manufactured by Colgate.2 The main body is non-anomalous plastic and rubber, and the bristles are composed of similarly mundane nylon. The body possesses minor scratches and a vague layer of grime that cannot be removed, and the bristles are worn to an excessive degree, twisted in various directions. A faint odour constantly exudes from SCP-8486, described as a combination of plaque and mould. SCP-8486 appears to have an extraordinarily high resistance to damage despite its scratches, having had no visible damage done to it when researchers tried to take a sample. The bristles will also not apparently melt upon exposure to high temperatures, as demonstrated during an attempt at chemical analysis via controlled combustion.
Aside from these minor anomalous attributes, SCP-8486 demonstrates two major anomalies, the first of these being the generation of unsanitary matter from its bristles that will spread out at a rate of roughly 25 cm per hour onto nearby surfaces. Note that this will result in an exponential increase of the total area that the generated matter covers over time. The substances have been known to include, amongst a myriad of others:
- Dust
- Dirt
- Generic ‘grime’
- Mould
- Ash
- Various types of organic matter
- Household debris
- Discarded refuse
- Deceased insects or vermin
- Biohazardous, poisonous, or corrosive substances
The contaminants themselves possess their own anomaly wherein any attempts to clean them off a surface are delayed by a significant factor – trying to scrub off mould from an affected surface, for example, will take much longer that it usually would for non-anomalous mould and may exacerbate the situation by spreading the offending material further. This results in traditional cleaning methods being impractical for dealing with matter generated by SCP-8486. The substances are otherwise non-anomalous save for their origin and will lose their anomalous properties once sufficiently separated from the main mass or if they are neutralised via cleaning.
The second main anomalous property of SCP-8486 which also serves as a method by which to halt the growth of the contaminants temporarily will occur when an individual grips or holds SCP-8486. The subject, SCP-8486 and any item on their person will instantly disappear, having been transported to an extradimensional space designated SCP-8486-1.3 Due to the temporary translocation of SCP-8486, the matter that is usually generated from SCP-8486 will not spread further during this time, although it will retain its anomalous resistance to cleaning. SCP-8486 will not generate its usual substances whilst in SCP-8486-1.
SCP-8486-1 is different in exact size, structure, appearance, and contents with each subject that arrives in it, although several constants exist to maintain thematic similarity between instances: this includes SCP-8486-1 being an enclosed indoor location that may be residential, commercial, or industrial in style, SCP-8486-1 involving various unsanitary conditions and being filled with untidy, spoiled, or damaged items, and the obvious presence of matter resembling that produced by SCP-8486 within SCP-8486-1. Examples of SCP-8486-1 include a tight basement filled with discarded rubbish, an employee break room with poor lighting and water damage, and a spacious abandoned factory floor with chipped tiles and industrial debris.
Immediately upon arrival, the individual who picked up SCP-8486 will find themselves incapable of letting go of the object. They are able to manoeuvre it from one hand to another or temporarily hold it with another part of their body such as their teeth if their hands are full, so long as such a movement of SCP-8486 will result in it staying on the subject’s person. This does not appear to be a physical anomaly – individuals who entered SCP-8486-1 described a mental incapacity for letting go of the object entirely. The other thing that will become apparent as soon as one arrives in SCP-8486-1 is the awareness that the subject will need to clean and organise the entirety of SCP-8486-1 using nothing but SCP-8486 or their hands if they wish to leave. Individuals in SCP-8486-1 will also become aware of the locations of every unclean or untidy area within the space at all times.
Any material cleaned by SCP-8486 will vanish after sufficient friction and force is applied to it, though the process is no quicker than cleaning with a mundane toothbrush. Cleaning and tidying SCP-8486-1 is a laborious task that may take hours or even days in the case of larger SCP-8486-1 instances. The sheer time and effort required to restore SCP-8486-1, coupled with potentially dangerous materials within the space poses a hazard to subjects within it, alongside the typical lack of food or water within SCP-8486-1 instances. Upon completion of cleaning and neatening SCP-8486-1, subjects will be transported back to baseline reality in a location near where they picked up SCP-8486. SCP-8486 itself will also be returned, in the same position it was in before. SCP-8486 will cease matter production for a variable quantity of time ranging from approximately half an hour to a day. This is apparently inversely proportional to the time the subject spent in SCP-8486-1.
If an individual dies within SCP-8486-1 or refuses to clean for an extended period of time, SCP-8486 will return to its previous position within baseline reality and begin spreading matter immediately. The ultimate fate of deceased or living persons trapped is unknown, as no SCP-8486-1 instances have been observed to repeat, nor is there any apparent way for individuals to exit the extradimensional space. It is likewise unknown what happens to the SCP-8486-1 instances themselves.
Discovery:
The house SCP-8486 was discovered in, located in the suburb of Ambridge Mann in Gary, Indiana. The estate is pictured before contamination by SCP-8486.
SCP-8486 was discovered in Gary, Indiana4 on the 6/8/2025 after local residents had called authorities regarding an unnatural spread of “filth” originating from and spreading outside of an abandoned house in Taff St – police respondents arrived at the scene, apparently suspecting a homeless person to have taken up residence in the deserted building. They examined the perimeter and recognised clear boundaries to the contaminants that were centred on the house – the police also noted that the materials comprising the grime were difficult to remove from surfaces. After discovering that no apparent means of entry were visible to the house, the police abandoned their investigation and turned the case over to the local council inspector, believing property neglect to be the cause of the contaminants.
The unusual nature of the relevant police report was discovered by local Foundation agents who then proceeded to covertly delete the report, cancel the inspection, and travel to the estate with the cover story of being biohazard workers from the state council. They entered the house by breaking down the door, upon which they discovered a dense mass of what appeared to be spoiled food, plastic waste, used tissues and toilet paper, and dead insects (alongside a vast quantity of living insects whose origin was non-anomalous). Noting the abnormal mass to become thicker as they ventured toward a particular room, the agents began digging through the refuse in that section of the house until one of them abruptly disappeared.
Confirming an anomaly, the agents retreated from the house and called for backup, suspecting a dangerous effect centred around the house. The local neighbourhood was evacuated under the cover of a lethal mould colony having been discovered and observation was set up around the building. Forty-one hours later, the missing agent emerged from the house severely dehydrated and was given immediate medical assistance. They claimed to have entered an “alternate universe” consisting solely of the interior of a disused retail outlet and claimed they were forced to clean the entire storefront using only a toothbrush.
EXPLORATION LOG
Upon retrieval and confirmation of the anomalous properties of the item, D-2359 was ordered to interact with the item after it was placed in containment. D-2359 was equipped with a shoulder camera in order to record the nature of SCP-8486-1 and her interactions with it, as no footage had yet existed of any SCP-8486-1 instances. Due to the extradimensional nature of SCP-8486-1, all footage was recovered after D-2359’s return and could not be directly uploaded to relevant servers during the process of the recording.
[BEGIN LOG]
10:35: D-2359 enters the containment chamber equipped with appropriate gear and the camera. She expresses confusion and angst at the sight of the unsanitary materials surrounding SCP-8486 in its containment chamber. The camera pans around the room briefly before focusing on SCP-8486.
D-2359’s instance of SCP-8486-1 with mouldy walls and overturned furniture.
10:36: D-2359 is instructed to pick up SCP-8486. She complies. Immediately, the space around D-2359 transforms into the interior of the kitchen of a typical suburban house; D-2359 and SCP-8486 have been transported to an instance of SCP-8486-1. The lights are off, furniture is tipped over, food items are spilled on the floor and counter, and mould covers the walls, floor, and ceiling. D-2359 expresses shock at her new situation and the state of the house.
10:37: D-2359 comments on the fact that she cannot release SCP-8486 from her hands. She remarks on the unsightly state of the house and expresses horror, claiming she must clean the entire space if she wishes to leave. D-2359 was not told of this fact beforehand.
10:37: D-2359 begins to explore the rest of the house. She notes a bedroom in a state of disarray, a grimy bathroom, an untidy living room, a door leading to a basement, and a concealed trapdoor leading to the attic amongst other rooms. D-2359 claims to be able to “see” these spaces in advance, acknowledging that they need cleaning.
10:40:: D-2359 notes several windows emitting a dim white glow, apparently looking out into an endless void – nothing is discernible in it. She attempts to open them via the latch at the base; this fails.
The living room of D-2359’s SCP-8486-1 instance.
10:41: D-2359 reluctantly begins cleaning the living room, scrubbing furniture with SCP-8486 and rearranging it into a more ordered pattern. She wipes away the layer of dust on the furniture and sweeps underneath the couch with the brush, removing a dead cockroach and unidentified fragments of material. D-2359 retrieves a TV remote from in the couch, wipes the dust off it, and attempts to turn the TV on – random patterns of static play indiscriminately. Amongst other things, she scrapes away at dried material on the carpet, destroys cobwebs in the corners of the room, and unfurls all pages of a tattered book. After completing the living room, she sits down on the couch and drinks a bottle of water, ceasing activity for a few minutes.
The bathroom of the SCP-8486-1 instance before cleaning commenced.
12:57: D-2359 begins work on the downstairs bathroom, expressing disgust at the vast mass of mould in the shower’s grout. Upon unscrewing the shower’s drain, she pulls out a column of fused hair and further mould, repulsing at the sight of it. She attempts to turn the shower on to flush the matter down the drain – no water comes out. After completing the shower, she turns to the sink, which is partially filled in with an unidentified off-yellow substance. D-2359 retches at the sight of it. She cautiously scrubs at the substance using SCP-8486, breaking it down into smaller chunks. After this, she polishes a brown sheen off the bathroom’s tiles, restores a fluid-stained mirror, and rearranges several bottles of unmarked product in the bathroom’s cabinets, accidentally knocking one over in the process. She notes the smell to have “gone bad”.
2:35: D-2359 stops to eat before beginning to clean the downstairs bedroom. She expresses revulsion at the large quantity of brown stains on the sheets5, which take a significant time to clean. The light suddenly flickers, startling her. She spools tendrils of dust out of the carpet, picks skin flakes off frayed clothes in the closet, and retrieves discarded tissues from the floor. D-2359 sighs intermittently throughout the process, muttering to herself inaudibly.
4:44: D-2359 expresses severe exhaustion, searching the house in an apparent attempt to escape – no exits are found; the handle on the front door to the house does not rotate. She attempts to break open the aforementioned windows using a rolling pin from the nearby kitchen. None of the windows are damaged in the process.
4:49: D-2359 enters the kitchen, starting to clean it by attempting to upright the two fridges – this takes several attempts and puts a considerable amount of strain on D-2359. After completing this, she opens the fridges to find that all items inside have been either smashed, spilled, or otherwise damaged, groaning loudly at this discovery – she squeamishly places the food in the nearby rubbish bin and cleans out the remaining reside with SCP-8486. She inspects a build-up of grease in the oven, gagging at the smell, and uses SCP-8486 to neutralise it. After spending a considerable period of time scrubbing mould colonies off the walls, she opens the cabinets to reveal a jar filled with an unidentified nutritional substance and dead maggots. D-2359 expresses severe disgust and anger at this task, scrupulously moving the jar to the bin.
7:13: D-2359 heads to the bathroom, attempting to turn the shower on before being reminded of the lack of water – she expresses frustration, declaring she wants to clean herself. She tries the tap to no avail. She then heads to the bedroom and drinks and eats before turning off the lights and reluctantly laying down on the bed, apparently attempting to go to sleep. D-2359 is successful in falling asleep roughly an hour later but is awoken after the lightbulb falls from the ceiling, shattering on the side of her head.6 She awakens with a shallow gasp – while not seriously harmed from the incident, the side of her head is slowly bleeding. As she gets out of bed, she inadvertently places her hand on the broken glass that now lies on the sheets, yanking her hand back in pain.
8:21: D-2359 heads to the bathroom, turns on the tap, and attempts to splash water on her face but immediately stops after she realises no water is coming out. She yells a profanity and brings down a fist on the sink, dislodging it slightly and causing her to recoil her arm.
8:24: D-2359 sits in the bathroom for roughly two hours with little activity, talking to herself in a frustrated tone. She occasionally attempts to lie down on the bathroom floor only to sit back up again due to the hard nature of the bathroom tiles.
The upstairs study room of D-2359’s SCP-8486-1 instance.
10:47: Despite acting lethargic, D-2359 climbs the stairs. On her way to the stairs, she notes that the formerly white windows are now displaying a black void, likely representative of ‘night’. She walks through a short hallway to the study room which, unlike the rest of the house, appears relatively clean. D-2359 spends time brushing the carpet and appears to reach under a chair for something – after a few seconds, she screams and recoils. A mousetrap had activated upon her finger’s contact with the spring mechanism, pinning her finger to the board. She utters a profanity and attempts to pull the trap off her, scraping her skin in the process. The next seventy minutes are spent cleaning the desk of dust, organising various papers into files, and cleaning out debris from the cupboard. Upon attempting to dust a light, D-2359’s injured finger makes contact with the activated bulb, giving her a burn.7 She yells upon contact and quickly withdraws from the light, uttering remarks as she inspects her finger.
12:02: D-2359 heads out the hallway into the upstairs bedroom. Immediately, it becomes apparent that the room is covered in a sizeable array of cobwebs with dead organic matter stuck to their surfaces.8 D-2359 is repulsed by this sight and leaves the room, choosing to sit in the hallway and muttering to herself.
12:21: D-2359 hesitantly returns to the bedroom. Cobwebs droop from the ceiling to the floor, creating a winding path through the room. Black bits of dead matter are present in swathes that stretch across the room. D-2359 gags at this sight and begins spooling the cobwebs onto the end of SCP-8486. Dead spiders are intermittently present throughout the network of webs. The camera lowers to the floor to focus under the bed, wherein a significant quantity of dead crickets can be found strewn about the floor. She opens the closet to reveal the bodies of five dead cockroaches in a clump. D-2359 spends the next ninety minutes disposing of the deceased matter and cleans the rest of the room in a similar manner to that of the downstairs bedroom. D-2359 appears to have a panic attack halfway through the ordeal.
The attic of D-2359’s SCP-8486-1 instance. D-2359 opened the closest container to the camera.
2:15: D-2359, appearing shaken, walks to the attic entrance where the ladder has already been lowered. She climbs it to enter a low-hanging roof space with various boxes and containers. D-2359 comments that the space does not look particularly unclean and that the process of tidying and dusting should be relatively easy. She spends a few minutes scrubbing the floor with SCP-8486, removing dust and debris, before turning to a plastic container and opening it. D-2359 reveals a spilled bottle within the container sitting in a puddle of liquid. The bottle is marked with a universal poison symbol. Immediately after opening the container, D-2359 notes an overpowering “chemical” odour, before complaining of nausea from inhalation of the vapours. D-2359 closes the container and subsequently vomits. She makes a note that this is the last thing she needs to clean before she will exit SCP-8486-1. She sits in silence in apparent nausea before vomiting again and striking the floor of the attic in anger. A few minutes later, appearing hesitant, she appears to hold her breath and quickly opens the lid of the container, using SCP-8486 to scrub the poison away. She claims that her eyes sting and that she is becoming dizzy throughout the process. Appearing to tremble, she finishes cleaning the last of the spilled liquid before collapsing on the floor in exhaustion.
2:54: D-2359’s surroundings instantly change to that of baseline reality – she is sprawled on the floor in the containment chamber for SCP-8486, which is in the position and configuration it was in before it was picked up. There is no unsanitary material around SCP-8486.9 A guard helps up D-2359, who is then taken to the medical bay and examined.
3:16: Due to a clerical error resulting in a lack of other available D-Class to enter SCP-8486-1 and stop the spread of the material originating from SCP-8486, D-2359 is prepared for entry into SCP-8486-1 and commanded to pick up the object once again.
[END LOG]
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