SCP-2330

SCP-2330 prior to containment.

Item #: SCP-2330

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-2330 is to be hung on the wall of a modified standard containment cell, separated from the rest of Site-██ by an airlock consisting of an additional chamber and set of doors. The two sets of doors are to never both be open at any one time in order to prevent accidental viewing of SCP-2330 from outside the containment cell. No writing utensils or materials are to be brought into SCP-2330's containment cell, excluding a single writing utensil when required for testing. SCP-2330's front surface is to be monitored at all times by a surveillance camera viewed by a dedicated 3-member security team stationed in a sealed, soundproof security office in the ████ wing of Site-██.

All testing must be approved by Site Director █████, and all personnel who attempt to activate SCP-2330 must wear a Foundation-certified visual-loop headset consisting of a head-mounted screen fed by a front-facing camera. Any unapproved removal of this headgear in the containment cell is grounds for termination. All infected subjects, designated as SCP-2330-1, must be administered Class-A amnestics by personnel equipped with sound-muffling headwear before exiting the airlock chamber. SCP-2330-1 instances will subsequently be admitted to semiweekly psychological analysis sessions for a period of three months to ensure the absence of SCP-2330's contagious effect.

Should any active instances of SCP-2330-1 escape the airlock without authorization, ceiling mounted water sprinklers in the chamber will be activated and security personnel equipped with sound-muffling headgear will be deployed to secure all SCP-2330-1 instances. Any SCP-2330-1 instances attempting to access or utilize writing materials as well as any instances attempting to brandish previously written materials must be immediately terminated and the materials in question incinerated. Should these containment methods be ineffective in preventing a site-wide infection, the dedicated security team should refer to classified document SCP-2330-A and execute Protocol Eta-2.

Description: SCP-2330 is a dry-erase whiteboard. The writing surface of SCP-2330 is white, with no apparent markings. No brand name can be found anywhere on SCP-2330's surface. All powders and liquids applied to the writing surface of SCP-2330, including but not limited to ink, graphite, and paint, may be easily removed by friction or running water without any lasting marks on the whiteboard surface. Chemical analysis of SCP-2330 reveals no abnormalities, but analysis shows that the surface is substantially flatter than would be expected, with a flatness grade of less than 0.1 picometers.

Whenever a clear declarative statement is legibly written on SCP-2330's writing surface, the statement exhibits a memetic effect whereby any conscious human directly viewing and understanding the statement will instantly be convinced both that this statement is true and that they have always believed this statement independent of exposure to SCP-2330, becoming an SCP-2330-1 instance. Through no means has an SCP-2330-1 instance been convinced of this statement's falsity so long as the memory of first infection remains in their mind. All tested methods of dissuading belief in the statement, including but not limited to interrogation, logical proofs, and psychological reprogramming have been shown to be ineffective in all known cases. SCP-2330-1 instances have been shown to be incapable of correlating their beliefs with SCP-2330's anomalous effect. If an instance of SCP-2330-1 communicates this statement in any manner that the recipient is able to understand, including through handwritten messages and sound recordings (infected media will henceforth be referred to as SCP-2330-2), the recipient will become an additional SCP-2330-1 instance, making SCP-2330-1 infection an incredibly virulent cognitohazard. SCP-2330-1 instances exhibit no compulsion to spread the statement, but accidental infection is not uncommon, and any attempts to dissuade an instance of SCP-2330-1 of the statement result in the infection of the uninfected party in 94% of recorded cases.

Written instances of SCP-2330-2 do not exhibit their anomalous effect when viewed in a picture or video feed, but verbal instances of SCP-2330-2 will exhibit virulent properties even when heard in the form of a recording or audio feed. Therefore, soundproof equipment is vital when dealing with active instances of SCP-2330-1.

When the statement written on SCP-2330 is erased, written SCP-2330-2 instances will lose their contagious effect. However, verbal instances will remain virulent and SCP-2330-1 instances will retain both the belief in the statement and the ability to create verbal instances.

Further Findings on Triggering Statements Further Findings on Triggering Statements Through extensive testing, SCP-2330's limits have been established. Symbols and pictures do not trigger SCP-2330's memetic effect. Nonsensical words do not trigger SCP-2330's memetic effect. Questions and sentence fragments do not trigger SCP-2330's memetic effect. Imperative statements do not trigger SCP-2330's memetic effect, but declarative statements that refer to the reader do trigger the effect. For example, "Raise your left hand" is not a triggering statement, while "You should raise your left hand" is a triggering statement. However, this statement will only give the subject the impression that raising their left hand would be advisable. It would not force them to do so. "You will raise your left hand" will convince the subject that they are going to, at some point in the future, raise their left hand, without giving them the motivation to ever actually do so. "You will raise your left hand in ten seconds", similarly, will not force an action, instead forcing the person to believe, despite the passage of time, that they will raise their hand in exactly ten seconds, no matter how long they wait. It is advised that if SCP-2330's effect is to be intentionally manipulated to issue orders, statements should be phrased in such a way that not performing the action holds severe consequences. Statements phrased in the second person (using "you") will be interpreted by each new instance of SCP-2330-1 as referring to them personally and not to the original SCP-2330-1 instance, i.e. if the statement is "your name is Alice", the original SCP-2330-1 instance will believe that their name is Alice. If they communicate this to another person, that person will believe not that the original SCP-2330-1 instance's name is Alice but that they themselves are named Alice. Contradictory statements and paradoxes can be believed by SCP-2330-1 instances with no apparent long-term side effects aside from mild to severe headaches and nausea.

SCP-2330-1 infection lasts until the end of brain activity in the host. The only known method of curing infection is to remove the initial memory of infection through rigorous amnestic treatment.

Protocol Eta-2: Protocol Eta-2 is activated by a control panel in SCP-2330's dedicated security office in the event of site-wide infection. Gaseous, Class-A amnestics will be mechanically dispersed through Site-██'s ventilation system. After allowing the amnestic gas 8 hours to affect all personnel in the site, the uninfected security staff in the office will communicate with the previously infected staff to inform them of the current situation and the proper protocols to restore site functions. If infection has persisted for any reason, the uninfected security team is to refer to Classified Document 2330-A.

Addendum 2330-1 (Notes on Acquisition): SCP-2330 was first discovered in a storage room in ████████ University, in ████ ████, California. Foundation informants in the area were alerted after crude statements regarding a student at the university were written on the board, resulting in a widely propagating rumor that eventually led to the immolation of this student by their fellow students and faculty. Following the resulting news story on the event, Foundation agents were sent to determine if any anomalous effects were involved. Initial investigation teams were all unknowingly made instances of SCP-2330-1, and it was not until the video logs and transcripts of the investigations were analyzed by uninfected personnel that the link between SCP-2330 and the memetic effect was made, assisted by observation of a sudden change in the attitude of team members towards the case, documented in the transcript of the investigation. Subsequently, a properly informed acquisition team was able to secure SCP-2330 and return it to Site-██.