SCP-5297-EX (photographed shortly after containment).

Item #: SCP-5297-EX

Object Class: Safe Explained

Archived Containment Procedures: SCP-5297 is to be kept in a binder at Site-01 under armed guard. The O5 council is to begin selecting researchers to investigate SCP-5297’s potential anomalous properties as soon as possible. No copies are to be made of SCP-5297.

Access to any part of SCP-5297 may only be authorized by unanimous vote of the O5 council.

Because of the sensitive nature of the contents of SCP-5297, any persons who access, read, or conduct experiments upon it are to be amnesticized following their contact with the item. This regulation extends to members of the O5 council.

Updated Containment Procedures: Following the successful conclusion of testing and contact with PoI-5297, the item formerly designated SCP-5297-EX has been destroyed.

Archived Description: SCP-5297 is a 197-page English-language document, double-spaced and printed in grayscale on low-quality consumer-grade white paper. SCP-5297 is loosely held together by several binder clips, and the front and back show substantial fraying and tearing consistent with a lack of care in the document’s storage and transport. Several pages contain illegible shorthand in the margins, and several others contain non-anomalous notation which appears to record a seminar on housing policy in northern Virginia.

SCP-5297’s first page contains one line of text: “14tu1818 Administrative Report—Fiscal Year 2019 ROUGH DRAFT EDIT FOR BREVITY DO BY THURSDAY”. The top right corner of the page contains a faded, stamped-on emblem which reads “Property of Fairfax, VA Department of Foundations, Commission 5”. No other identifying information is found on the document.

SCP-5297 was recovered by Agent Edward Blackmun in a multi-use office building near the Judiciary Square metro station in Washington, D.C. Agent Blackmun found a rucksack containing SCP-5297 under a table while ordering lunch at a Pizza Uno in the office’s food court. The rucksack had apparently been abandoned by accident, and Blackmun took it upon himself to inspect its contents in an attempt to find its owner. Upon opening the sack and reading SCP-5297, Blackmun contacted his superiors, surrendered the document, and underwent voluntary amnesticization.

When prompted for information about SCP-5297, Blackmun simply and exclusively described the document as “a report about the Foundation”.

Update—2019-01-15: Investigation of copies of SCP-5297 by researchers and the O5 council has confirmed Agent Blackmun’s account: SCP-5297 is a report about the Foundation. Specifically, SCP-5297 is a detailed and comprehensive multi-section accounting of the Foundation’s resources, practices, personnel, and containment procedures. Among other things, SCP-5297 contains budget and asset reports on every Site the Foundation operates, budget and asset reports for the Foundation writ large, sections on MTF composition and disposition, personal and professional information on every undercover agent the Foundation currently employs, and multi-page reports on over two dozen SCPs, including several whose documentation is classified at Level-4 or Level-5.

The most hazardous section of the report is labeled “Appendix B: Background Checks”. Appendix B contains the results of aggressive investigations into prominent Foundation officials. (The Appendix implies that the listed officials are being checked because they are under consideration for “promotion”.) Appendix B lists forty different persons, including doctors, Site Administrators, Department heads, and every sitting member of the O5 council.

Much of Appendix B would not be out of place in a standard personnel file. However, the Appendix also lists extensive and extremely sensitive private information on the profiled persons, including sexual proclivities, childhood and adulthood traumas, familial conflicts, medical information, personal and professional indiscretions, ethical lapses, breaches of internal Foundation rules, undiscovered criminal conduct, [DATA EXPUNGED], and [DATA EXPUNGED].

Almost all of this information was previously unknown to the Foundation.

Following a multi-party standoff which nearly ended in violent internecine conflict, the O5 council has agreed that they cannot continue to maintain a functional working relationship—much less collaboratively administer the SCP Foundation—while possessing knowledge of the contents of Appendix B. By unanimous vote, the O5 council has voluntarily submitted to targeted amnestic therapy designed to remove their memories of the specific information contained within SCP-5297. All known photocopies of SCP-5297 have been destroyed.

Update—2019-03-03: Both teams of researchers assigned to the object have verified that, despite its charged contents, SCP-5297 is a non-anomalous document. SCP-5297 is inert and unchanging, and it has no memetic, infohazardous, or cognitohazardous properties.

SCP-5297 is reclassified SCP-5297-EX. A proposal to re-designate the unknown person, persons, or entities responsible for the creation of SCP-5297-EX as SCP-5297 is pending review.

Update—2019-03-14: By cross-referencing archived security footage with driver’s license photo databases, Foundation operatives identified the original owner of the rucksack containing SCP-5297-EX as Michael Bell, a 22-year old from Pennsylvania studying pre-law at American University. The O5 council designated Bell as PoI-5297 and dispatched MTF units to his last known place of residence.

Upon arrival, MTF units found evidence indicating PoI-5297’s ongoing habitation of the premises, but Bell himself was not present. The MTFs conducted a preliminary sweep of the residence, and Foundation personnel at Site-01 conducted background checks on Bell; neither yielded helpful information. Bell had no criminal record and no apparent connection to the anomalous, and apart from several pirated law textbooks on his laptop, his room contained no suspicious items or contraband.

An hour after MTF units gained access to his apartment, PoI-5297 entered the building. The MTF units moved to apprehend him. After a brief conversation, PoI-5297 sent a text message to an unknown person and left the building.

Several minutes later, O5-3 received a call on her personal phone from an unknown female who told O5-3 she wanted to “make sure we’re all on the same page.” The call was made from a publicly listed number owned by the municipal government of Fairfax, Virginia. O5-3 brought the rest of the council onto the call, and they and the unknown female spoke for approximately 20 minutes.

Following the call, the O5 council voted unanimously to discontinue investigation into SCP-5297-EX.