"Try not to think about it." That's what the Administrator told me on my first day as O5-4, one of only a handful of times we've ever spoken directly. I'm still not sure which question they were even answering; I had asked so many! Was it deep wisdom, or were they brushing me off? Either way, over these last 23 years, that motto has kept me sane, and on many occasions actually saved my life. Information is dangerous, and I'm not even talking about infohazards. Immortal lizards and neck-snapping statues will always be a significant threat, but the communication age has made it so a simple fact can be the difference between a stable society, or a world crumbling. For the Foundation, it's the perfect enemy. The only way to "kill" information is to forget it, then when it re-emerges, you have no idea how to fight it again; all you can really do is hold it in the smallest possible cage. When it comes to SCP-4228, you are that cage.

SCP-4228-1 through 14. Tape 7 destroyed during acquisition.



Item #: SCP-4228

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4228-8 through SCP-4228-14 will be held in a high-security storage vault at Site-45. SCP-4228-1 through SCP-4228-6 will remain sealed in the Site-19 O5-EX chamber. SCP-4228-7 is considered lost.

Description: SCP-4228 is a children’s television series known as “Karma Kameleon’s Adventures on Earth!” The series comprises a single season, 14 episodes in length.





Let me clarify. The "public" document you recently read actually details episodes 8-14. Episodes 1-7, however, were one of the Foundation's greatest oversights; a story that begins in late 1993, when a young woman showed up at the doorstep of Site-26 half alive. She had a self-inflicted gash on the side of her neck, and the surrounding remains of a tattoo told us she was a Marshall, Carter and Dark "Intern".

SCP-4228-1

"Karma Kameleon and the Flying Flowers!" [DATA EXPUNGED] Subjects no longer have a sense of smell when dreaming.

According to her, in 1989 Marshall, Carter and Dark were approached by a group of wide-eyed “anartists”. Like many creatives, they were also devout environmentalists who thought humanity would better prosper under a “bohemian” rule. “We need unearthly weapons to break the shackles of greed and ignorance!" was the exact quote. Their actual plan was to produce an anomalous cartoon that made children grow into good, eco-friendly adults. So, a contract was drawn up; Marshall, Carter and Dark would receive 100% of all show profits, and the Anartists would get their better world.

SCP-4228-2

"Karma Kameleon visits Story-time Salamander!" [DATA EXPUNGED] Subjects can no longer read or write during their dreams.

What MC&D actually provided, besides production capital, was what our defector called a “Mnemette" or "Muse-Barin"; a very rare, very ancient form of living idea that could be shaped as it develops. This is why SCP-4228 is so alarmingly infectious; it isn't merely an infohazard, it's a true self-propagating memetic virus. It's infectious because it was raised to be infectious. It makes us want to preserve the environment because its "parents" instilled those values in it. The entire show, the entire concept of "Karma Kameleon" was grown from a seed of powerful, primal thought. So, why aren’t we all planting trees and singing “Kumbaya” right now? Given we're talking about MC&D, you probably already know the answer.

SCP-4228-3

"Karma Kameleon and the Swinging Sloths!" [DATA EXPUNGED] Subjects can no longer create heat, cold, or any kinetic sensation during dreams.

Shortly after “Karma Kameleon” finished production in 1992, all assets were "seized". Somewhere in that maze of legal jargon they called a “contract” there was a byline that stated “If MC&D feel their investment has been poorly utilized, they may claim total proprietary rights over the entire production company, and its assets.” To me, this is the true mystery of SCP-4228: How on earth did these people ever trust Marshall, Carter, and Dark? I have it on good authority that Carter alone refuses to light his cigar with anything other than an alt-dimensional duplicate of the American Declaration of Independence! They are greed! Were those artists just that blind? Desperate? Arrogant? This, and many other things, we may never know.

SCP-4228-4

"Karma Kameleon builds a new Tree House!" [DATA EXPUNGED] Subjects can no longer freely manipulate the landscape of their dreams.

What we do know is Marshall, Carter and Dark re-sold “Karma Kameleon” to a small but ruthless distribution company out of the American mid-west: Oliver Brothers Inc. They kept SCP-4228’s infectivity, its ability to figuratively and literally capture the imagination of its audience, and every other tangible element. What they changed was… unforgivable. If SCP-4228 truly is “alive”, than what Oliver Brothers Inc. did could only be described as torture. The dream impairments are merely a side effect of this brutality; a symptom of a deeper trauma SCP-4228 was made to inflict on the mind. Their goal, we believe, was to commodify imagination itself. They wanted “Karma Kameleon”, and likely a subsequent empire of other shows and products, to be the world’s only source of whimsy. Had it not been for luck, and one intern's haunted conscience, we might have faced a true EP-class "Thought Tyrant" scenario.

SCP-4228-5

"Karma Kameleon and the Special Song!" [DATA EXPUNGED] Subjects are no longer aware when/if they are dreaming.

SCP-4228-EN was one of the biggest operations the Foundation ever launched, or so I’ve been told. All evidence of SCP-4228 was expunged from this world. There might still be a few thousand lizard toys in a landfill somewhere, but anyone who finds them won’t recognize the character, despite the fact that by December, 1993, "Karma Kameleon" was as recognizable as Mickey Mouse. SCP-4228 just spread too fast. Stopping the broadcast, and dismantling Oliver Brothers, just wasn't enough. Our only option was the Ennui protocol. Now, out of all of it, only this document, and the 14 master tapes, remain.

SCP-4228-6

"Karma Kameleon and the Distant Storm" [DATA EXPUNGED] Subjects will experience "nightmares", dreams that are undesirably frightening/disturbing.

Take some solace, though. We stopped it. Episodes 8-14 will never see the light of day. We were even able to pull episode 7 off the air, though it was a messy, destructive operation. Our best guess is that 13-20% of the population were infected before we were able to act. To the rest of humanity, this will forever be just an unexplained quirk of nature.

SCP-4228-7

"Karma Kameleon and the first Hollow Man!" [DATA EXPUNGED] Subjects will dream only in black and white.