SCP-2330

A Convincing Whiteboard

SCP-2330 prior to containment.

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 approximately 1.0 meters in height, 3.5 meters in width, and 1.5 centimeters in thickness. The writing surface of SCP-2330 is white, with no apparent markings. The edges of the writing surface are covered by a wooden frame. 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. For a full list of materials known to exhibit this effect, refer to document 2330-A. 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

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-██.

Classified Document 2330-A (Notes for Surveillance Team)

4/2330 CLEARANCE REQUIRED

CLEARANCE ACCEPTED

By now, the amnestics should have taken their toll, and you should be able to form new memories. Class-F amnestics are not well tested, nor well understood. I cannot assure you that the nausea will fade, and I know that forced isolation will not help.

You've read the attached documents. You know who we are. This document will tell you who you are: a necessary security measure to prevent CK-Class Reconfiguration events from leaving this site. However, this is not your only purpose. There is a great deal on the shoulders of you and the other members of SCP-2330's surveillance team.

You can see it, the whiteboard, from your terminals, and you may note that it seems to be larger than the dimensions given in the description. This is intentional. You will note that it is not blank. This is intentional, and regrettable. You'll see several statements, all along the bottom of the board, covered by clear plastic: equations, mentions of square holes, a paradox, a few words of encouragement. Most won't make sense to you, but only two are relevant, the two statements just above the others on the board.

"This statement, and all those below it on SCP-2330, do not exist."
"SCP-2330 is a dry-erase whiteboard approximately 1.0 meters in height."

We've lied, you see. We've lied to the researchers. We've lied to the world. Soon, we will have lied to ourselves, a wave of untruths washing away what once remained.

We thought we could control it. We didn't fully understand the properties, at first. We tested it, saw the rough outlines of its influence; we probed further, hopeful. We could fix our problems with this, drastically increase morale, protect Foundation information, create weaponized cognitohazards that could eliminate our enemies. We were wrong.

We didn't realize how infectious it was. By the time we understood, the test phrases were already blazing across Site-19, Site-17, and even Site-11, as they are even now. Amnestics were considered, but widespread treatment would result in a lapse in containment of dozens of Keter entities. The nuclear option was shelved for the same reason.

Soon, the infection will breach the council. There is hardly anything we can do about it; the means of infection are still nebulously understood. We can, however, prevent future incidents, and prepare… contingencies.

You are our contingencies, the only people on the planet who will be fully isolated from the whiteboard's influence. The council won't be able to remember the incident. The information security department is attempting quarantine while they alter Foundation and civilian records. Records that conflict with the infection phrase won't be a major issue, but they will complicate reintegration. The quarantine won't hold forever, but it'll last long enough to protect the documents that are worth protecting: the documents you now possess.

We've devised security measures. Orders will soon come through to install amnestics valves in the ventilation systems. Eta-2 isn't enough, though, to be sure to stop all infection. Amnestics are fickle, especially in gaseous form, and there's no way to know if it will be enough to prevent another incident. With this in mind, Procedure Eta-1 has been devised.

Should infection proceed past all containable bounds, or escape into the public, you are to facilitate infection, and promote universal human conversion. The information security department is hard-wired to quarantine on your command. They can sanitize the records, and transmit infectious audio over civilian channels.

Spreading the infection is better than the alternative. It's better than worldwide confusion. At least the world will be unified in ignorance. The Foundation doesn't just protect normalcy, we protect the way that normalcy is reinforced in the mind of the public. When everyone believes a lie, that lie becomes normal, and we must protect that perception until we find a way to guide it back towards the truth.
You have given up your loved ones, your homes, and the outside world, not just physically, but in your mind and memories, to protect the world. You volunteered to have your brains scrubbed. You will not be wasted.

Know that the truth is still attainable. Continue research, try to understand the effects. Cling to the idea that the effects can be reversed, for this is our only way back. We have lost the battle already. We must not lose the war.

The O5 council has the same motto as the rest of the Foundation: Secure, Contain, Protect.

Sometimes, we must concede.