by Ethagon

Item #: 2140-EX

Object Class: Thaumiel Explained-provisi

Special Containment Procedures: Access to SCP-2140-EX is to be restricted to personnel with 4/Basilisk clearance who score 80% or higher on the Foundation Loyalty Test. Deployment of SCP-2140-EX is discontinued until further notice.

Description: SCP-2140-EX is an image that was thought to retrocausally alter the life of subjects that viewed it in full to always have been loyal Foundation personnel with 2/2140-EX clearance or higher. It was thought to do this by following a "path of least resistance" while rewriting reality (Appendix B).

SCP-2140-EX was created in Project Kali based on SCP-2140-1-D, a Daevite image with similar properties. Project Kali constituted 3 separate teams each analyzing a part of SCP-2140-1-D, with another team then using the emerging results to create SCP-2140-EX. Afterwards, all teams were exposed to SCP-2140-EX and amnesticized, concluding the project.

SCP-2140-EX was found to be non-functional after the image was shown to members of GOI-003 (the 'Chaos Insurgency') who neither were loyal to the Foundation nor possessed 2/2140-EX clearance. This sparked an investigation by Special Investigator Klara Lambrecht into other failures of SCP-2140-EX.

Excerpt Appendix F:

Exposed Subject
Effect
Notes

SCP-076-2
Subject was exposed to SCP-2140-EX as a requirement to join MTF Omega-7. Subject was assumed to be loyal until [REDACTED]
See Incident Zero

SCP-682
Subject was not found to be Foundation Personnel.
See SCP-682 Termination Log

Ghanaian Civilians
Group was exposed in Outpost-457 under the order of Director Bawumia as part of an experiment. Subjects were not found to be Foundation Personnel, outside of control agents placed among the group.
Experiment currently undergoing Ethics Committee investigation.

SCP-5582
Subject was not found to be loyal to the Foundation.
See SCP-5582 Containment Log

POI-D12
Subject was exposed by putting an image of SCP-2140-EX on the sides of a 12-sided die and rolling it. The subject was not found to be Foundation Personnel.
POI-D12 was originally assumed to not be affected due to SCP-2140-EX only working on humans, but given that dicekind may be affected by other human-targeted cognitohazards it is listed here for completeness.

The non-functionality of SCP-2140-EX also brought into question a previous incident concerning SCP-2140-CI. SCP-2140-CI was created through Test 914-0269 with SCP-914. No record of Test 914-0269 exists outside of its documentation and SCP-2140-CI, which was reported missing soon after. Reconstruction of the exact event was hindered by several personnel who would have been responsible for overseeing such a test having died days prior to the incident through various circumstances.

The Foundation only came in contact with SCP-2140-CI again when the image was uploaded to the terminals of various Foundation personnel by the Chaos Insurgency. As soon as the Foundation became aware of this, affected personnel were either terminated or exposed to SCP-2140-EX. Among the personnel re-exposed to SCP-2140-EX, none were found to be Insurgency moles. Among the terminated, only three personnel were found to be moles. It is now assumed that SCP-2140-CI never worked, with the termination of specific Foundation personnel being the intended goal. Notably, SCP-2140-CI was created through the '1:1' setting of SCP-914 and should therefore have similar properties to SCP-2140-EX.1

The investigation revealed that Project Kali was never finished. The current version of SCP-2140-EX is a non-functional prototype of SCP-2140 that was nevertheless put into use after Project Kali could not acquire personnel for enough separate teams to finish the project.

The fact that only very few experiments on subjects without the 2/2140-EX clearance exist can be attributed to the assumption by Foundation personnel that SCP-2140-EX was working as intended. Investigator Lambrecht's theory is supported by the fact that experiments with SCP-2140-EX have historically always been accepted as having been completed when only Foundation personnel were the intended target. This was done to prevent a "loop" in which experiments are always rescheduled to target test subjects instead of Foundation personnel. As a consequence, the non-existence of experiments on test subjects was accepted as normal and never questioned.

Excerpt Appendix G:

Following the investigation SCP-2140-EX was provisionally classified as Explained. The Explanation and Research Department reviewed the Reclassification. The Department found several open questions that need to be answered before a full classification and corresponding treatment of an Explained SCP.

The fact that while SCP-2140-EX has failed from time to time, the image was still only viewed by Foundation personnel with appropriate clearance to an overly significant amount.

The fact that SCP-2140-EX was tested on civilians exactly once.

The fact that the non-functionality of SCP-2140-EX was only noticed now and not at one of its previous failures.

The fact that the assumption of SCP-2140-EX "working as intended" was not present during the early days of its usage.

The fact that not enough separate teams could be created to complete Project Kali despite enough resources being blocked for it at the start of the project.

The fact that Senior Researcher Quansah, Director of Outpost 457 before the current Director Bawumia, would have participated in Project Kali but decided to retire2 after being hit by a car the day before the Project started. Quansah’s only statement about the reason for his retirement was a concern about "Daevite Ritual Compensation".

4/BASILISK CLEARANCE REQUIRED

DISPLAYING SCP-2140-EX

Footnotes

1. Further details about SCP-2140-CI may be found in Appendix C.

2. Quansah chose the amnestics retirement plan.