1. In the event that SCP-3848 induces widespread memory loss 
of the concept of itself, SCP-3848 is to be reclassified as a 
Class V Self-Concealing Memetic Construct? and treated 
accordingly. Following that, this document is then to be 
rewritten with the same containment procedures (unless 
unforeseen changes are necessary), a Description different 
enough from the original to be recalled without memory issue, 
and a different Item Number, and then re-posted to 
IntSCPFNS listings as soon as possible. 

2. In the event that SCP-3848 affects the knowledge of anything 
conceptually similar to awareness of the Foundation's 
existence, the knowledge of what is or is not considered 


anomalous by Foundation standards, and/or the concept of 
containment, personnel affected are to be transferred out of 
the affected site(s) and into the care of memetics specialists in 
other Foundation facilities. The affected persons should then 
be exposed to memetic symbols or phrases designed to 
induce recollection of these concepts.4 


Description: SCP-3848 is the designation for a collective memory 
loss phenomenon affecting all residents of any one specific region® 
at any given time. Manifestations of SCP-3848's effects are referred 
to as ED-K Lethe Events, and occur at random with no historical 
correlation to each other. 


An ED-K Lethe Event is characterized by the following parameters: 


* Knowledge of a concept, object, or entity will be expunged 
through anomalous means from the memory of the affected 
humans. This occurs without warning and can only be 
identified as having occurred by an outside observer who was 
not exposed to SCP-3848's effects. 

« Any memories of interactions with things forgotten will still 
exist, but will have no context in the affected person's frame of 
reference. Memories of forgotten concepts will be vague and 
difficult to articulate or describe, with affected persons citing 
that attempting to recall details of interactions and 
occurrences feels counter-intuitive and psychologically 
uncomfortable. 

* Loss of memory of a concept is long-lasting® and self- 
sustaining; if an affected person is reminded of a concept 
forgotten, they will forget again as soon as the topic changes, 
and will undergo the same reintroduction every time they are 
exposed to the concept. Clinical treatment using targeted 
mnestics administration can be effective, but has only a 9% 
success rate in tests thus far. 


Due to the nature of SCP-3848's effects, it is difficult to ascertain 
records of the first documented event, if such records exist. The first 
event available in Foundation records is the case of July 12th, 2003 
in, Wisconsin, in which 156 Foundation personnel and 
approximately 60,000 civilians suddenly and anomalously lost all 
knowledge of the existence of all canine species, including their 


pets. This occurrence was limited to the region of __, with all 
residents inside city limits affected, all personnel at nearby Site- 
affected, and 50% of | County affected. Notably, no persons 
outside of county lines were affected. Details on this case, and 
others, are available in Addendum I. 


It is unknown how many ED-K Lethe Events have occurred without 
the Foundation's knowledge, what concepts may or may not have 
been purged from collective human memory, and how long 
SCP-3848 has been active. It is theorized that at least one major, 
worldwide series of connected events — referred to in Foundation 
documentation as an ED-K-Class Lethe Scenario — has already 
taken place at some point in the recent past. However, details of 
these events, if they did take place, are not easily accessible due to 
the inherent self-sustaining nature of the memory loss induced by 
SCP-3848. ED-K Lethe Events occur approximately thrice a month 
as of 04/2018, showing a 78% increase in average rate of 
occurrence since the first detected event in 2003. 


Addendum |: Cited below is a selection of SCP-3848 example 
cases. 


Date of Occurrence: July 16, 2003 

Location Affected: | County, Wisconsin, USA 
Number of Civilians Affected: Approx. 60,000 
Number of Foundation Personnel Affected: 156 


Description of Concept Affected: The existence of 
dogs/canine species; all affected persons lost all 
knowledge and awareness of the existence of canine 
species. 


Events Transpired: At least 20 civilian dog owners 
made calls to police and animal control, citing that an 
unfamiliar creature was present in their home. Local 
responders agreed that the creatures were unfamiliar, 
and contacted state authorities, who were unaffected by 
the SCP-3848 event due to their location outside the 


area of effect; embedded Foundation agents then 
informed nearby Site- of the occurrences, only to 
discover that Site- had also been affected. It was at this 
point that SCP-3848 was officially documented as an 
anomalous phenomenon and preliminary containment 
procedures were developed. An interview between 
Specialist Ryland, the only unaffected person in the 
area’ and an affected agent was conducted, and a 
transcript of this interview is included below. 


Results and Impact: As re-education efforts were 
shown to repeatedly fail due to the self-sustaining nature 
of SCP-3848's effects, dogs were relocated to 
neighboring counties' adoption shelters. Approximately 
80 percent of | County's population has lived there 
since the event, and still hold no memory of dogs. The 
20 percent who moved to the area after the event 
occurred are unaffected. 


Vv show interview transcript 


On July 16th, 2003, Specialist Ryland of Site- 
conducted an interview with C-class employee 
Agent _ , who was affected by July 12th's 
ED-K Lethe Event. Specialist Ryland was, at 
the time, Site- 's only employee who had 
undergone Mk. III ARTMET training, and thus 
was able to successfully counter the effects of 
the event long enough to interview Agent 

and lead preliminary research efforts on 
SCP-3848. A transcript of the relevant 
interview segment follows: 


Begin excerpt: 


10:02 | Specialist Ryland: As you've been 
informed, I'm conducting this series of 
interviews to determine the effects of this 
memory-affecting event on Site- 's personnel, 
including myself. Do you still have in mind the 
topic we'll be discussing? 


10:02 | Agent — : Yeah, you said dogs, right? 


10:02 | Specialist Ryland: That's correct. You 
have a dog at home, yes? 


10:02 | Agent :1!do? 


10:02 | Specialist Ryland: You cited to me 
before this interview that you own a white 
Russian wolfhound. 


10:02 | Agent :A Russian- That does 
sound familiar. What did you say this Russian 
thing was? 


10:02 | Specialist Ryland: A dog. Canines 
are a non-anomalous type of animal that 
humans have domesticated and bred just like 
we did with cats. 


Agent pauses for 10 seconds. 


10:03 | Agent =: Wow. | wonder how | went 
so long without knowing that. What else did 
you need to ask? 


10:03 | Specialist Ryland: It's imperative you 
understand that you very recently did know 
about dogs, but were anomalously induced to 
forget by the effects of newly-discovered 
SCP-3848, a memory loss phenomenon. Site- 
, andthe restof | County, were just affected 
by an event that caused us to forget canines 
exist. People outside of our area were not 
affected. | have had memetic resistance 
training that allows me to focus on the topic 
longer than most, but SCP-3848 induces 
repetitive memory loss and our research has 
shown that subjects forgotten are invariably 
forgotten again, even if retaught. Does this 


disappear within 20 minutes, at which time rearrangement to the 
new configuration will begin. If all names are erased from the lid the 
standard size will be adopted. If SCP-502 is surgically implanted in a 
human subject while labeled as an organ and appropriately attached 
to the relevant organ systems it will function in a manner identical to 
the organ. 


Testing has determined that SCP-502 will only function under 
certain circumstances. The subject to receive a replacement organ 
must be a living human and must be missing the organ before 
SCP-502 is introduced to the subject’s body. If any of these 
conditions are not met, the replacement organ will either be rejected 
or will not function at all. 


Following extensive testing, it has been decided by O5- that due to 
SCP-502’s potential life saving capabilities it will be kept in storage 
and is only to be implanted into a human in case of a life-threatening 
injury to any Director, or in emergency situations with approval of 
any Director to lower level staff or civilians that must be kept alive 
temporarily to assist in SCP related information gathering or 
containment. In case of SCP-502 being used to sustain any 
individual other than a Director, the subject is to be terminated as 
soon as is feasible and SCP-502 is to be returned to storage. 


Addendum: For testing procedures, those with Level 3 Clearance 
should see documents #502-1 and #502-2. 


Document #502-1: Test Log for initial test phase of SCP-502 


5/18/9 : Lid of box reads ‘Heart’ at beginning of testing. ‘Lung,’ 
‘Liver,’ ‘Pancreas,’ and ‘Eye’ are written on the lid one at a time. On 
each occasion the previously written word faded from view over a 
period of time ranging from five minutes eleven seconds to a 
maximum of eighteen minutes four seconds. After this the exterior 
dimensions and interior design of SCP-502 slowly changed to 
accommodate the respective organ. When ‘Skin’ is written on the lid, 
SCP-502 flattened to 1.6cm in thickness and continued to expand in 
length and width until researchers were forced to erase the word 
with acetone and allow the box’s dimensions to return to default. 


5/23/9 : Organ names are written on the lid in a variety of mediums 


make sense to you? 


10:03 | Agent _ : Yes. It's not the craziest 
I've heard. I'll try to wrap my head around it. 


10:04 | Specialist Ryland: Alright. 
Unfortunately, this is the third time that I've 
given you this briefing. | recommend clearing 
your head of any and all thoughts or topics 
except for dogs, SCP-3848, and this 
conversation. | have some pictures of dogs 
printed out here on the table for you. Try to 
explain what your reaction is to seeing these 
pictures of dogs. 


10:04 | Agent —: | don't like how you keep 
saying ‘dogs’. It doesn't sound like a real word. 


10:04 | Specialist Ryland: Noted. Can you 
please look at these images of dogs? 


Agent _ picks up a photograph of their pet, a 
white Borzoi. 


10:04 | Agent _ : It doesn't look real. Almost 
like a horse, but too soft. Hard to believe that 
we've always had these things around. 


10:04 | Specialist Ryland: Indeed. That dog 
is yours, and lives in your townhome offsite. 


10:05 | Agent — : This is mine? | don't know 
how to take care of it. What do we do about 
that? 


10:05 | Specialist Ryland: Personnel from my 
department will address that with you later 
today. 


10:05 | Agent —: Are all of these pictures... 
dogs? 


10:05 | Specialist Ryland: Yes. These are all 
different breeds of dogs. 


Agent picks up a photograph of an 
American pitbull. 


10:05 | Agent —: Wow, this looks very 
different from the white one. Probably the most 
different out of all of the pictures here. And 
what type of creature is this? 


10:05 | Specialist Ryland: This is also a dog. 


10:05 | Agent =: Oh, right, a dog. And what 
SCP did you say they are? 


10:05 | Specialist Ryland: Dogs are not an 
SCP object. Your memory of dogs, which are a 
very well-known and domesticated type of 
animal all over the planet, is being 
anomalously influenced by SCP-3848. 


10:05 | Agent =: Oh, right, right. You told me 
about that one. 


10:05 | Specialist Ryland: Yes. Now, could 
you please describe for the record the 
thoughts and feelings you are experiencing 
every time you make an attempt to remember 
dogs, or think about dogs? 


10:05 | Agent —_: Very uncomfortable. | feel 
like | should be talking about something else. 


10:05 | Specialist Ryland: Do you feel there 
is a reason for this? 


Agent _ is silent for 8 seconds. 


10:05 | Agent —_: Not really. It feels like... 
um... I'm sorry, I'm losing my train of thought 


here. Can you repeat your q- Wait, no, no, | 
remember, damn it. These pictures are of 
dogs. Okay, I've got this. Something doesn't 
want me to remember dogs. Do you know the 
concept of dimensions higher than three? 


10:06 | Specialist Ryland: We need to make 
an effort to stay on the topic of dogs, and 
SCP-3848. 


10:06 | Agent — : Just bear with me. You 
know when you look at a 3D rendition of a 4D 
cube, and you sort-of get it, but mainly you feel 
like you're missing some key aspect of actually 
processing how it exists, and you just can't get 
yourself to comprehend it? 


10:06 | Specialist Ryland: | think so, yes. 


10:06 | Agent — : That's what looking at 
these pictures of dogs makes me think. | get 
that these easily could have showed up in 
Earth's evolution — er, | mean, | get that that's 
why they're real — but they look and feel alien. 
Thinking about them is like thinking about 
those other dimensions in space. | get that it's 
possible, but | don't have the means to 
comprehend it. 


10:06 | Specialist Ryland: Excellent. Thank 
you. 


10:06 | Agent _ : Is that it? Can | go now? | 
really want to think about something else. All 
of this memetic shit is giving me a headache. | 
don't think I'd make it if | were in your 
department. 


10:06 | Specialist Ryland: Yes, that's it. I'll 
have two of my coworkers meet you at your 
house tonight to discuss what to do with your 


dog. 


10:07 | Agent :Ohwow, | don't think | 
caught the fact that / have a dog. | wonder 
what I'm going to do about that. 


10:07 | Specialist Ryland: Again, our 
personnel will assist you with that. For the time 
being, this interview is concluded. You may 
return to your shift. 


10:07 | Agent : Oh, okay, thanks. 

End log. 
Date of Occurrence: August 12, 2005 
Location Affected: Wilmington, North Carolina, USA 
Number of Civilians Affected: Approx. 110,000 
Number of Foundation Personnel Affected: 13 


Description of Concept Affected: The sport of line 
fishing; commercial/bulk net fishing was not affected, nor 
was the concept of fish. 


Events Transpired: On August 12, customers in a local 
sporting goods store inquired as to the nature and 
purpose of the fishing rods up for sale. Store associates 
cited that the devices were unfamiliar to them as well. 
Although the process took 48 hours, the abnormality 
eventually spread by word of mouth to the Wilmington 
Police Department, and from there to Foundation 
personnel stationed at Site-42. As Site-42 is not within 
Wilmington's official city limits, personnel on-site were 
not affected, but 13 personnel who had been inside city 
limits for the day were affected. 


Results and Impact: Wilmington residents remain 
familiar with other methods of fishing, but are averse to 
line fishing. Line fishing is still a professional sport in the 


coastal area, although participants and organizers are 
always from areas outside of Wilmington's official city 
limits. 15 percent of the original affected persons have 
now moved, with city population swelling in following 
years, and as a result about half of Wilmington is now 
familiar with line fishing. 


[UNCONFIRMED EVENT REMOVED] 

Date of Occurrence: October 23, 2007 
Location Affected: Felixstowe, United Kingdom 
Number of Civilians Affected: Approx. 23,000 
Number of Foundation Personnel Affected: 1 


Description of Concept Affected: The existence of 
boats, but not the concept of buoyant materials.