SCP-XXXX
Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX-1 is permitted to maintain normal civilian residence and activities provided that three redundant reminder systems remain operational at all times.
These presently consist of:
- electronic alarms,
- written notes placed within the subject's direct line of sight, and
- an additional electronic alarm reminding SCP-XXXX-1 why the first electronic alarm is going off.
Previous attempts to establish a fourth system were discontinued after Foundation personnel repeatedly discovered laminated cards bearing the words CHECK THE FOURTH SYSTEM and were unable to determine what this referred to.
SCP-XXXX-1 is to carry prescribed medication in a location requiring no more than one room transition to access.
This requirement is mandatory.
Following Incident XXXX-14, medication is specifically not to be stored in another room on the grounds that "it's only twelve feet away."
It is never only twelve feet away.
Personnel assigned to SCP-XXXX must take Class-W mnestics before conducting interviews longer than thirty minutes. Any researcher experiencing the sudden conviction that they had "come in here for something" is to exit the area immediately, record their original objective, and notify the Antimemetics Division.
Personnel who cannot remember where they left the notification form should notify the Antimemetics Division.
Personnel who cannot remember the Antimemetics Division should notify the Antimemetics Division.
There is a poster in the hallway.
Description: SCP-XXXX is an antimemetic phenomenon associated with SCP-XXXX-1, a human adult residing in California.
The phenomenon primarily affects prospective memory, particularly information concerning an intended future action.
SCP-XXXX does not ordinarily remove autobiographical information, learned skills, vocabulary, personal identity, or knowledge concerning the intended action itself. Instead, it selectively removes the connection between an action and the reason that action was initiated.
For example, SCP-XXXX-1 may decide to retrieve medication from an adjoining room.
The subject will stand.
The subject may take between zero and nine steps.
The subject will then cease movement.
When questioned, SCP-XXXX-1 will typically state:
"Why the fuck am I standing up?"
The subject remains fully aware that they must take the medication. The subject remains fully aware of the medication's location. The subject remembers deciding earlier that the medication must be taken.
What has disappeared is the approximately four-second-old information connecting these facts to the current act of standing.
Foundation researchers initially classified these events as neurologically ordinary attentional lapses.
This interpretation remained uncontested until Researcher Hall installed motion-sensitive instrumentation throughout SCP-XXXX-1's residence.
During a seventy-two-hour observation period, 186 intention-loss events were recorded.
In 41 cases, the subject successfully reconstructed the missing intention from environmental clues.
In 93 cases, the subject returned to the previous activity.
In 51 cases, SCP-XXXX-1 performed an entirely different task after noticing it while attempting to reconstruct the original intention.
In one case, the subject entered the kitchen, stopped, opened the refrigerator, stared into it for approximately fourteen seconds, said "I know damn well I didn't come in here for cheese," took cheese, and returned to the living room.
Researchers initially regarded this final event as irrelevant.
Researchers were incorrect.
Addendum XXXX.1: Discovery
On 06/11/2026, automated monitoring recorded an anomalous discrepancy.
At 22:14, SCP-XXXX-1 stood from a chair after verbally stating an intention to retrieve medication.
At 22:14:03, the subject stopped.
At 22:14:05, the subject stated:
"Goddammit."
At 22:14:11, the subject returned to the chair.
However, audio equipment positioned in the hallway recorded a second voice at 22:14:04.
No additional person was present.
Spectrographic analysis indicates that the sound did not originate from any recording device, appliance, neighboring residence, or identifiable human vocal tract.
The recording is reproduced below.
SCP-XXXX-1: Why did I get up?
UNKNOWN: Mine.
The word is audible for approximately 0.3 seconds.
SCP-XXXX-1 did not report hearing it.
Addendum XXXX.2: Threshold Testing
Further investigation established that intention-loss events occur disproportionately while SCP-XXXX-1 crosses architectural thresholds, particularly doorways.
A controlled experiment was conducted.
SCP-XXXX-1 was seated in Laboratory 4 with a red wooden cube positioned visibly in Laboratory 5.
The subject was instructed to enter Laboratory 5 and retrieve the cube.
Trial 1: Subject crossed threshold and immediately forgot objective.
Trial 2: Subject crossed threshold while verbally repeating "get the red cube." Subject successfully retrieved cube.
Trial 3: Subject crossed threshold while verbally repeating "get the red cube." Subject stopped and stated, "Why am I saying red cube?"
Trial 4: Written instruction attached to subject's hand.
Subject entered Laboratory 5, looked at hand, retrieved cube.
Trial 5: Written instruction attached to subject's hand.
Upon crossing threshold, instruction had changed.
Original:
GET THE RED CUBE.
Observed:
YOU HAVE ALREADY GIVEN IT TO ME.
The cube remained on the table.
Trial suspended.
Addendum XXXX.3: Spatial Survey
Following Trial 5, the space between Laboratories 4 and 5 was examined using instruments designed for antimemetic anomalies.
The doorway measures 0.91 metres across.
Internally, it does not.
Measurements taken while no conscious observer was looking directly through the doorway recorded distances ranging from 0.91 metres to approximately 6.4 kilometres.
One measurement remains under review.
It returned a negative value.
At 03:17, a remote drone was instructed to cross the threshold.
Video remained normal for the first eleven centimetres.
Between frame 8,114 and frame 8,115, the laboratory ceased to be visible.
The drone entered a structure resembling a corridor.
No corresponding structure exists within Site-██.
The corridor appeared exceedingly long, though subsequent geometric analysis has failed because every researcher assigned to calculate its dimensions eventually opened another application and began doing something else.
Shelving lined both walls.
Objects present included:
- three thousand seven hundred and twelve medication bottles,
- forty-six mobile phones displaying unfinished searches,
- twenty-one cups of coffee,
- nine hundred and eight sets of car keys,
- several hundred objects whose observers recognized as "the thing I was looking for yesterday,"
- one screwdriver,
- forty-three thousand partially completed household tasks,
- and a quantity of human intention for which no satisfactory unit of measurement presently exists.
Audio captured throughout the corridor consisted primarily of whispering.
Enhanced recordings revealed overlapping phrases.
Get the laundry.
Send the email.
Feed the cat.
Take the pill.
Look that up.
What did I come in here for?
Near the end of the recording, the drone encountered a chamber.
Foundation personnel reviewing this portion report extreme difficulty remembering its contents. Written descriptions decay rapidly into unrelated notes, grocery lists, browser tabs, and in one instance a detailed comparison of countertop convection ovens.
The following description was constructed from twelve independent observers using mnestics.
+ Show mnestic reconstruction- Hide mnestic reconstruction
Something occupies the chamber.
It has no identifiable morphology.
Attempts to describe its appearance produce descriptions of absence rather than presence: a space where attention does not remain, surrounded by angles which appear perfectly ordinary until the observer attempts to remember them.
The entity was surrounded by innumerable small points of light.
Each light corresponded to an abandoned intention.
Researchers initially estimated their number in the millions.
This estimate has been revised.
There are considerably more.
The entity appears to collect them.
Its purpose is unknown.
During the final four seconds of transmission, every light in the chamber extinguished simultaneously.
The entity turned toward the drone.
Audio analysis detected the following statement:
She leaves so many.
Signal terminated.
Addendum XXXX.4
Object Class review requested.
Proposed reclassification: Keter.
DENIED.
Reason: SCP-XXXX has apparently been active for several decades without producing effects distinguishable from ordinary forgetfulness.
Containment therefore remains comparatively straightforward.
Additionally, SCP-XXXX appears almost exclusively interested in minor intentions and unfinished tasks.
No evidence presently indicates that it can remove information of strategic importance.
Addendum XXXX.5
The preceding statement was written at 09:11.
At 09:14, Site Director █████ entered his office intending to authorize SCP-XXXX's reclassification.
At 09:14:07, he stopped.
At 09:14:12, he returned to the cafeteria.
At 09:26, he was asked whether he had completed the reclassification.
Director █████ responded:
"The what?"
Investigation is ongoing.
A handwritten note has been attached to this file.
No Foundation employee admits writing it.
It reads:
YOU KEEP CALLING THEM FORGOTTEN THINGS.
THEY ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.
FORGOTTEN THINGS ARE LOST.
I HAVE THEM.
Beneath this statement is a second line in different handwriting:
remember to take meds
A third line has subsequently appeared:
Why did I open this document?
‡ Licensing / Citation‡ Hide Licensing / Citation
Cite this page as:
“SCP-XXXX” by Lennyx, from noxnoirband.com. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Content relating to the SCP Foundation, including the SCP Foundation logo, is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 and all concepts originate from https://scpwiki.com/ and its authors. The Antimemetics Division and mnestics originate from “There Is No Antimemetics Division” and related works by “qntm”: https://scpwiki.com/antimemetics-division-hub. This story and its artwork, being derived from this content, are hereby also released under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0.
Say Something
No account needed. Just a name and, if you want, a link to your own work.