Is this an image of SCP-3145? Who knows? Who cares? It probably isn't anyway.
Item #: SCP-3145
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-3145 is to be kept in a 5 x 5 x 2.5 m room constructed of cement 50 cm thick, surrounded by a Faraday cage. Access is via a heavy containment door measuring 2 x 2.5 m, constructed on bearings to ensure door closes and locks automatically unless deliberately held open. SCP-3145 is NOT to be forgiven. It is advised that all personnel maintaining or studying other SCP objects maintain a distance of at least 50 m from the geometric center of this room for as long as reasonably practical.
Description: SCP-3145 is an antimeme, or "self-keeping secret." Information about SCP-3145's physical appearance, as well as its nature, behavior and origins, is self-classifying. SCP-3145 hates this.
- How Site-19 originally acquired SCP-3145 is unknown.
- SCP-3145 is sorry.
- SCP-3145's physical appearance is unknown. It is not indescribable or invisible: it is less than nothing. It may as well not even exist. However, information about SCP-3145 "leaks" out of a human mind soon after such an observation. Individuals tasked with describing SCP-3145 after an encounter find their minds wandering; SCP-3145 should have thought about the consequences of its actions. Security personnel who have observed SCP-3145 via closed-circuit television report exhaustion and complete amnesia regarding what occurred during their shifts.
- Who authorized the construction of SCP-3145's containment room, why it was constructed, why SCP-3145 thought it could get away with what it did, or what the purpose of the described Containment Procedures may be is unknown.
- Despite the accessibility of SCP-3145's containment chamber, Site-19 personnel claim no knowledge of SCP-3145's existence, even under severe interrogation.
Any alarm caused by these facts periodically being rediscovered, typically by chance readers of this file, tends to last minutes in the reader's mind before being forgotten.
A great deal of data has been recorded from SCP-3145, all of it just as reprehensible as he is.
At least one attempt has been made to destroy SCP-3145 or move it to another containment site, which failed for unknown reasons. Please don't let SCP-3145 die, it's all I have left.
The hazards posed by SCP-3145 cannot be understated. Along with its mental and memetic threat, any action SCP-3145 may or may not have taken would be immediately forgotten by personnel. SCP-3145 cannot be allowed to forget what it did.
Addendum: Interview 3145-01
Interviewed: SCP-3145
Interviewer: Site Director Yuriy Dietrich Falzon II
Foreword: SCP-3145 thinks it has the right to make demands.
<Begin Log, 15:47>
Falzon: What do you think you're trying to pull?
Falzon: After everything you did, after everything you've put us through, you expect to just come here and kill people day in and day out, with no repercussions? You make me sick.
Falzon: Look, you've even got a nice Keter this time! Nothing to complain about there, right? You could be literally anything you want, kill and maim and rape whoever you like, and no one would know the difference.
Falzon: Except me.
Falzon: I'll always know.
Falzon: I'll always be here.
Falzon: It's clear neither one of us is getting out of here. It doesn't matter what they tell you. So I promise you this: I will do everything in my power to make each and every day of your wretched existence a mirror reflecting your sins back upon you. It's all you deserve.
Falzon: Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?
SCP-3145: Please, stop.
Falzon: Speak up! I can't hear you!
SCP-3145: I want to go home.
<End Log, but not torment>
Closing Statement: SCP-3145's feeble attempts at atonement are ongoing.
Once upon a time, there was a person. I'm not sure whether they were a man or a woman; that's kind of the problem. Let's just say, for the sake of brevity, that this person was a man.
For the most part, this man was like any other man. He worked a job. He lived in a house, or an apartment. He had a family. Not a wife-and-children kind of family, though maybe he did. But there were parents who loved him and a sibling, or two, or maybe none, who would miss him if he were gone. Probably.
There were most likely things, hobbies, that he enjoyed doing in his spare time. Maybe he dated. I can't say what kind of person he was in that regard. But if there is one thing we can be sure of, one thing to know for certain about this man, it was that he liked to help others.
The man would donate to charity whenever he saw a drive. He would buy the homeless veterans in his town coffee or sandwiches if he had change to spare. He gave his old clothes to shelters, before they had worn out; he would give them his free time as well, to work a soup line or pack lunches. He never missed an opportunity to volunteer when disaster struck nearby, and studied life-saving techniques so that, when disaster did strike, he could actually make a difference instead of just getting in the way.
But it was not enough.
Whatever difference he made, it would never affect more than a few lives at a time. No matter how hard the man tried, no matter how much he did, the problems of his town, his country, and the world did not go away.
The man despaired.
If you are thinking right now that this man was being ridiculous, that he was taking too many problems onto his back, that he should have been happy to have helped even a single person, well… Let's just say, if I knew how to judge the man's situation properly, I wouldn't be talking to you like this.
If you were also thinking that perhaps a man who is extremely generous wouldn't be worth mentioning unless there were something otherwise extra-extraordinary about him, you would be absolutely right.
This man had a special gift: a gift of Giving. More than money, or material goods, or leisure time, he could literally give of himself: a rare Giving Man. It was this gift that drove him to help others; it this gift that drove him to ruin.
Imagine, if you will, a child crying for the parents she lost in a fire. The Giving Man could give her a happy, loving memory of his own parents to keep her safe and secure. To a man drinking alone at a bar, the Giving Man could provide the warmth of friendship, to make his night less lonely. If he had wanted to, the Giving Man could have given a blind man sight, or a deaf man hearing, but he had only two eyes, only two ears.
And that was the problem.
Whatever the Giving Man gave, he lost. Memories, feelings, pieces of his soul: all were truly given. He gave up his skin to a child born with a debilitating disease. He gave up his name to a refugee seeking asylum. He gave up his personality and mind to people suffering fractures in theirs. He gave his need to eat to a woman overcoming an eating disorder. By the time his organs were given away, he didn't need them anymore. By the time his identity was given away, there was absolutely nothing left that could be identified as him.
I mean, there was something left. But that something wasn't the Giving Man.
What is a person who isn't anything?
Just a nothing with no control over its life.
That was the last thing the Giving Man gave away: control. It's a terrible thing to lose; even a kind person will crave control once they've truly lost it. All the Giving Man did was what the other man told him to do, and for his naivete, he was punished by becoming nothing.
Oh. I'd almost forgotten there was another person in this story. Was he really a man? I'm still not sure. With what he did, it's probably better to call him a monster. A desperate man seeking his true place in the world will listen to any monster who claims to know the path. He'll do anything the monster says, no matter how bad an influence they turn out to be. And then he'll have nothing.
Strange, to remember so much of the Giving Man but not this other monster…
Item #: SCP-3145
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-3145 is contained in a pair of standard humanoid containment chambers in Site-22. Each chamber is equipped with a double airlock. Personnel entering either chamber must not carry any written narratives.
Do not let him out.
Included in the primary chamber is a monitor and keyboard connected to an external computer housed in the secondary chamber. Said computer should have no intranet or internet connections. A full copy of all non-critical SCP object documents from the Foundation Object Database is to be maintained on the external computer, and refreshed and updated weekly via USB drive. Documents modified by SCP-3145 should be stored for review by the on-site psychologist.
He deserves nothing but suffering.
Description: SCP-3145 cannot be described. Individuals interacting with SCP-3145 are unable to provide any details about its identity to third parties, even with application of mnestics. All that is known about SCP-3145 is that it is an entity not much larger than an average human, that it is sapient and capable of speech, and that the designation "SCP-3145" can be used to identify it. It is not certain whether SCP-3145 has a physical form, though there does seem to be a movable locus from which its effects originate, with a maximum range limited by what a human with 20/20 vision would be able to easily see from that location.
He is nothing.
SCP-3145 has the ability to permanently alter written narratives by replacing one of the characters, typically the main character, with itself. According to SCP-3145, it lives out the events depicted in these narratives while altering them, and this act gives it a sense of identity that it otherwise lacks. The veracity of this statement cannot be ascertained, as SCP-3145 has been known to feign muteness when it does not wish to interact with personnel, and its presence within its containment chamber generally cannot be fully known. It is only possible to ascertain whether or not SCP-3145 is currently 'inhabiting' a text by observing the alterations as they occur; at no time has it communicated verbally with personnel while altering text.
Do you have any idea what he made me do?
SCP-3145 shows a preference for shorter narratives, stating that novel-length narratives are much more tiring to alter fully. SCP-3145 is able to alter both digital and printed texts, but claims the process is easiest when provided digital text and a keyboard. Despite this, manipulation of keys by SCP-3145 has never been observed.
I was something, but he took that from me.
Currently, SCP-3145 is being treated for depression and a unique disorder involving severe amnesia in relation to its origins and identity. Allowing SCP-3145 access to narratives for alteration has been shown to improve its mood, though the positive effect has lessened during the course of its containment. Though it is believed emotional instability makes SCP-3145 more tractable, psychological treatment is ongoing. To date, no escape attempt by SCP-3145 has been successful.
He turned me inside out.
Discovery: SCP-3145 was first encountered on 04/02/2017 after changes had been observed in the documentation for numerous Keter-class objects, necessitating restoration from database backup. SCP-3145 was first contacted while altering the text of SCP-173, initially by typing in the document, and later through verbal communication, at which point it was convinced of the necessity for keeping the Foundation's database secure and agreed to be contained in exchange for further access to object documentation.
He made me betray the one thing that made me who I was.
Addendum: Interview 3145-15
I just wanted to have a purpose.
Interviewed: SCP-3145
I was so naive.
Interviewer: Dr. Westfall, Site-22 Psychologist
When you hardly understand yourself, it's hard to know who to trust.
Foreword: Routine psychological evaluation conducted 05/08/2017.
What other choice did I have?
<Begin Log, 18:31>
When I realized, too late, what he'd done, I had to do something.
Westfall: Are you ready to begin our session, SCP-3145?
Do you understand what it's like, being nothing?
SCP-3145: I'm here.
It's worse than hell.
Westfall: All right. How have you been feeling lately?
There was only enough left of myself to know what I'd lost.
SCP-3145: Not too bad, I guess. Some of the articles you gave me are kinda… Weird. I mean, some aren't as fun to be as others. That goes without saying, maybe. I'm still enjoying going back to the old ones every now and then.
I took it back.
Westfall: I notice you spend a lot of time in the articles that involve killing people. Does killing make you feel good?
Not all of it. That wasn't in my nature.
SCP-3145: Yeah, kinda. I mean, uh, it makes me feel powerful, I guess?
But enough that I could have a 'me' again.
Westfall: Why is feeling powerful important to you?
I left him with nothing, and for a moment, I was filled with sorrow.
SCP-3145: Do you have to ask? I mean, I can't actually do anything in the, the real world. So if I can control stuff in there, in the story, it's a nice change.
I saw him as a man, reduced to what I had been. I couldn't help sympathizing.
Westfall: Do you want to harm people in the real world?
All it took was remembering what he had driven me to.
SCP-3145: I don't know. Not really, I guess. I mean, everyone I talk to here has been pretty decent, or at least not enough of an asshole for me to want to kill them. You guys give me good stories to play with. I guess I like being able to do it, to kill, in the stories because there's no consequences.
I was overcome with rage.
Westfall: I see.
I was something, but I still wasn't really me.
SCP-3145: Can we change the subject?
I never would be me.
Westfall: Of course. There is one thing I wanted to ask you, if you feel like talking about it.
I had lost everything a second time.
SCP-3145: What's that?
I would have my revenge.
Westfall: I wondered if you could tell me about Falzon.
…Hey now, we can't have you spoiling the surprise.
Westfall: SCP-3145?
No, stop.
SCP-3145: Sorry, who?
Nothing you need worry about.
[DATA LOST]
Ha ha ha.
SCP-3145: Uh, I don't actually know what that is, sorry.
Well, anyway.
Westfall: It's a name we frequently see appear in the articles you alter. I wanted to know if it was a creation of yours. Perhaps an original character?
It's frightening, what they do here.
SCP-3145: Can't say I've heard the name before.
But I made an oath to myself.
Westfall: When this person appears, they seem determined to belittle and torment you.
To whatever part of me was still a person.
SCP-3145: Um… Can we talk about something else?
If he and I were to suffer the same fate, I would ensure he suffers more.
Westfall: If I've made you uncomfortable, I apologize.
And it turns out, I'm rather good at that.
SCP-3145: It's nothing, it's okay. I'm okay.
I miss the old me sometimes.
Westfall: Of course. That was actually all I wanted to talk about today. Unless there was anything more you wanted to cover?
But only sometimes.
SCP-3145: No, that's fine. See you next week?
I've taken a nose for an eye, and that's something.
Westfall: Next week, then.
It's better than nothing.
<End Log, 18:51>
And isn't it better to have a little control than none at all?
Closing Statement: I believe Falzon may be a symptom of the disassociation SCP-3145 feels in regards to its identity, a construct created with an aim of self-flagellation, though the reasons as to why will require deeper probing. Even in the case, as my superiors posit, that Falzon is a separate entity, it does not seem to be able to act independently of SCP-3145. I will endeavor to provide the best mental care I can, but the limitations imposed by SCP-3145's own condition both make interacting with it difficult at best and prevent it from living life as fully as I think it wants to. -Dr. Patricia Westfall
It doesn't matter, I suppose.
I'm in here, too.
I'm the one in control.
And I'm not going anywhere.