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"Mankind must not go back to hiding in fear. No one else will protect us, we must stand up for ourselves. While the rest of mankind dwell in the light, we must stand in the darkness to combat it, contain it, and shield it from the eyes of the public, so that others may live in a sane, normal world. —"The Administrator", About the SCP Organization
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Item #: SCP-4445
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: Security of these data has been compromised, rendering further secrecy counter-productive. In accordance with Information Security Protocol 008-C-1 ("Class C breach") and the recommendation of General Bowe, our current orders are to allow all but the most sensitive data to remain freely available. The nature of these data ensures that few will question the official cover story: that these data are short works of horror fiction originating from the Image Board "4chan" and uploaded to a publicly edited website (i.e. a "wiki"): here.
Description: SCP-4445 is the incomplete archives of the SCP Foundation, a secret, global organization which exists to study, catalogue, and contain SCP Objects: artifacts and "items which jeopardize normalcy". These range from humans with strange powers, to creatures of extraterrestrial or extradimensional origin, to objects causing unexplainable phenomena, to [DATA EXPUNGED]. All of them represent clear threats to human normalcy, human society, human sanity, human lives, or quite simply the universe at large.
Of course, the nature of SCP Objects means that those who contain and study them must possess certain qualities: keen intelligence, a clinical outlook, and complete ruthlessness. The stakes are far too high to allow concerns like morality or the loss of human lives to interfere...
In layman's terms, the SCP Foundation is a wiki that serves as a collection of reports on fictional artifacts/humanoids, based around the idea of an international agency that contains items that threaten the normality of the world. These items are referred to as SCPs, with each one given containment procedures, a description, and history of experiments on them. Originated as "creepypasta" on 4chan's /x/ (paranormal) board, and then moved to its own site. For those who haven't figured by now, "SCP" stands for "Special Containment Procedures". Supplementary information includes short stories, profiles of "researchers" (authors), and an associated IRC chat room. There is also roleplay, but it's still getting off the ground, not counting a "fan made" Gaia Online guild that was disliked for having much lower standards. And to prevent any future fandom flame wars, the SCP Foundation website predated the TV series Warehouse 13, but not Raiders of the Lost Ark.
An independently developed survival horror game called SCP: Containment Breach revolves around SCP-173 escaping its chamber, and is currently in alpha. It can be found here.
Addendum 4445-01: For specific SCP items, please see the list.
A - B[]
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: SCP-585 sharpens pencils to the point of their initiating nuclear fission.
- After Action Report - All the SCP documents.
- Afterlife Express: SCP-716, and SCP-342, to a lesser extent.
- After the End: The post-apocalyptic "Bellerverse" story setting, with researchers and SCPs alike feared or revered as gods.
- The entry for SCP-2000 reveals that this is the case for OUR world too. SCP-2000 is a huge cloning facility made for the purpose of creating perfect humans in order to repopulate the world should an End-of-the-World scenario happen. And it has happened, several times. History has been written and fabricated in order to cover it all up as well as implanting fake memories into the humans and their technology.
- Alien Geometries: Created by SCP-436.
- All Myths Are True: Heavily implied by The Administrator's letter, which claims that the SCPs themselves are the universe's conservation of insanity after the end of myths.
- Alternate Universe: A very common motif in stories and SCPs alike. They range from crapsack surreally nightmarish places to simply quirky worlds where some obscure nation/language group is the dominant one.
- Ambiguous Syntax: The Six-Foot-Tall Man Eating Chicken, SCP-3467. Special containment procedures include being made fun of at every opportunity.
- A Million Is a Statistic: Used in the file on SCP 1123: touching the skull gets you possessed by the spirit of a victim of political movements. "██% of imprints come from Communist China’s Great Leap Forward between 1958 and 1961, ██% of imprints come from Nazi Germany’s extermination efforts between 1939 and 1945, while only █% come from events such as the Armenian Genocide or the Iraqi Anfal campaign where deaths are only estimated in the 1 to 2 million range."
- Amplifier Artifact: SCP-914 on the "Fine" and "Very Fine" settings. SCP-248 is a Factory SCP that increases the performance of anything it's placed on to 110%.
- Amusement Park of Doom: Visit the Carnival of Horrors. When you're done, try the Mirror Maze. Fun for the whole family.
- Amusing Injuries: Just look at Dr. Gerald's personnel file.
- His driving skills will cause this to everyone in the general vicinity. Even if he's on a bike. He blows up the Iranian equivalent of the foundation by having the SCP send him in on roller skates.
- Ancient Tomb: SCP-557. And they can't find the thing that got out of it after 4500 years...but anything called the "bastard son of Apep can't be good news.
- And I Must Scream: Several can cause this, such as SCP-439.
- SCP-835. Read the uncensored logs.
- SCP-723-D's fate; sealed within a massive block of concrete. Given how badly written he was, though, it's not undeserved.
- SCP-515 has to be restrained to the point of nigh-immobility, with his limb bones broken for good measure, because whenever 515 moves, a cluster of asteroids comes closer to Earth. The faster he moves (or, formerly, she, but the first 515 died and the current one popped up to replace her), the faster the rocks move.
- SCP-747 is a group of children in animal masks that dance around any subject they take interest in, turning that subject into a doll over a period of time. During that period, the subject loses all five major senses until final transformation.
- SCP-231 also has to be restrained at all times, and attended by doctors who haven't taken the Hippocratic Oath. Once a day, she has to be subjected to Procedure 110-Montauk, which is so horrible that most of the details are classified, or else she gives birth to something that will possibly end the world. Worse, the psychological trauma appears to be an important part of the process; after every fourth procedure, they erase her memory of the whole shebang so that she doesn't get used to it.
- SCP-138, The Ever-Living Man. A severely decayed, hideously decrepit man who is at least 4000 years old, with dozens of unhealed mortal wounds all over his body, who for some reason cannot die... no matter how much he wants to. The SCP are trying to euthanize him, but so far, their attempts have been ineffective.
- Victims of SCP-318 are imprisoned within paper scrolls, and they can only see and communicate with the outside world when unrolled (and the Foundation doesn't do that often.) If the paper is damaged enough, they stop responding... but it's unknown if they die, or just lose their only connection with the world.
- Anyone who touches SCP-911 ends up floating in an infinite featureless void, unless they manage to escape through a portal that only opens rarely for a few seconds.
- SCP-373 allows one to talk to people who, apparently, are imprisoned in a black void where they perceive nothing but the voice of whoever is talking to them. Though it might all be a hoax on part of SCP-373.
- Anything You Can Do I Can Do Better: SCP-056
- Apocalyptic Log: Several of the personal logs and mission reports. Towards the end of the article, SCP-093 takes this trope and runs it into the ground.
- Apple of Discord: 050. Acquiring the title of "cleverest prankster" has never been so hazardous.
- April Fools' Day
- April 1st of 2010 involved one (or more) of the mods going through and editing articles into a more humorous state. Details included replacing researcher's profile pictures, and the containment breach of a self-inserting SCP: adding "And Fred was there." to the end of Foundation Tales pages, and general editing of SCPs (Classification: SUPER KETER)
- Darkblade was here.
- April 1st of 2009 featured multiple image replacements on the most popular SCPs, including depicting 682 (the Hard-To-Destroy Reptile) as Barney, 076-2 (the official Mary Sue boundary line) as Sephiroth, and 173 (the statue that attacks when you're not watching it) as the Statue of Liberty. Also, the site Woobie Can of Sealed Evil, 231-7, was cured and set free, and in its test log 682 was killed by cutting it in half and letting the halves kill each other.
- And 914, the only SCP to surpass the original in popularity, was erased and relabeled as, basically, "This is a picture of a box full of gears. Why on earth does everyone like it so much?"
- The 2011 Fool's Day received a similar treatment, with 682 becoming Bowser Kirby, and Dr. Clef's Proposal 001 Gate Guardian becoming Metatron from Dogma. Among others.
- In 2012, the "Groups of Interest" page got a makeover, with the Red Team as the GOC, Anonymous as "Nobody", and Drosselmyer as Dr. Wondertainment. Plus there was a slot added for the Shark Punching Centre. Other SCPs had their pictures changed to comedic images.
- Furthermore, Darkblade (SCP-777-J) and a Self Insert named Fred went on an SCP hopping adventure while trying to beat each other up.
- And Dr. Clef's Proposal (SCP-001) is Lilith for the moment.
- April 1st of 2010 involved one (or more) of the mods going through and editing articles into a more humorous state. Details included replacing researcher's profile pictures, and the containment breach of a self-inserting SCP: adding "And Fred was there." to the end of Foundation Tales pages, and general editing of SCPs (Classification: SUPER KETER)
- Arc Words: The children used to sing
- "Does the black moon howl?"
- Area 51: SCP-1051 is a somewhat unique take on this.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: From SCP-1006:
Once supplied a source of black ink and poster sheets, SCP-1006 will communicate with humans by creating signs written in English. These communications are largely centered around demands for the dismantling of western imperialism, a scathing critique of the bourgeoisie, and a request for less mosquito spraying in the surrounding area of the park. |
- Artifact Collection Agency - Derp. The Chaos Insurgency, as well - they are, after all, a rogue splinter faction of the SCP.
- Artifact of Doom: Very Many.
- Author Avatar: All named high-ranking members are fictional counterparts of wiki's administrative staff. The writers' personalities tend to differ (sometimes significantly) from their characters' personalities. Except for Dr. Bright. What you read is pretty much what you get. Besides the "body jumper" bit.
- Auto Cannibalism: SCP-524, an Extreme Omnivore rabbit who is so extreme that his diet includes himself. When the only remaining parts of his body are parts that he can't reach with his mouth, his mouth flips inside out, swallowing himself whole in one final gulp. Half an hour later he'll re-appear, whole and unharmed.
- Atlantis: Kinda, one of the SCPs is clearly Ys, a legendary city off the Atlantic coast of France that was sunk when its Rebellious Princess opened the floodgates.
- Badass Normal: Most competent Foundation personnel. For example, one of SCP-140's archeological digs went very, very wrong. The doctor in charge of the site sacrificed his life to stop whatever the Hell was in there.
- Dr. Clef was placed in a room with 682 and stared the beast to a standstill.
- Though this my support the Satan theory.
- Dr. Clef was placed in a room with 682 and stared the beast to a standstill.
- Bag of Holding: SCP-101 is of the 'Bag of Devouring' variant.
- Batman Gambit: How Dr Mann tries to become the Administrator
- Out-Gambitted: Every single person he had killed either survived, didn't stay dead or got replaced by someone else (or themselves).
- Battle in the Center of the Mind: The Medium. Literally.
- Beat It by Compulsion: The "Feral" form of SCP-578, though it's not "beat" as much as "slow it down at least a bit".
- Beware of Hitch-Hiking Ghosts: SCP-1337 was harmless, until a foundation doctor had her parents executed and her home demolished. Now she's not.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: SCP-363, the Not Centipedes. Don't turn the lights off...
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: SCP-1000. They once ruled the world, and may yet again..
- Bioluminescence Is Cool: SCP-1660-7 have biolumicescence. It turns out that they are sapient and use it to communicate.
- Black Box: SCP-914. Various settings give the user "control" of the output.
- Black Comedy
- Body Horror: Too many to list.
- One of the most notable examples, however, is SCP-835, a creature that is horribly disgusting in its own right, until you read the uncensored logs from the mission and discover that it is composed entirely of parts of the human anatomy. Tooth enamel, muscle. All from humans it has digested.
- A more offbeat variant is SCP-524. It's a bunny rabbit that can eat anything. Including itself. Anything it eats will regenerate, so it will regularly eat parts of itself, or even its whole body. Literally. It can eat its own head.
- Boxed Crook: Class D Personnel are mostly death row inmates. (See Cannon Fodder, below.)
- Brain Bleach: Class A amnesiacs can come in quite handy when dealing with some SCPs.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: SCP-978 has scenes of hilarity, scenes of remarkable fuzz, and scenes to haunt your dreams. All at random.
- A lot of articles will read like this, with the article seemingly describing a normal person/object with mundane powers until you read the part about how it kills/mentally scars/otherwise ruins you. For example, a magic boarding pass that transforms into a valid ticket for the nearest public transportation vehicle, completely indistinguishable from any normal ticket (like the bus pass in your wallet right now). And then once you reach your destination, it erases you from existence.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: SCP-993, a childrens' television show about "Bobble the Clown" which sends viewers over ten into a coma for the duration of the program. Like most childrens' shows of the particular format, it has the normal sort of fourth-wall-breaking, speaking directly to the audience as he teaches the under-tens to commit any number of atrocities. More recently, it seems to have caught on to the SCP Foundation's efforts to keep it from being broadcast to the world; the two most recently archived episodes are [1] and [2].
- Then there's S Andrew Swann's Proposal. In the end, it concludes with the basic truth of the matter: But we found out that there is a God, and it is SCP-001. And it’s a bunch of horror writers.
- Broken Angel: SCP-042 - A Formerly Winged Horse
- Brown Note: SCP-1012, a chord that will literally destroy the world, at the atomic level, if it is ever produced.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: Just about all the scientific personnel, in one way or another.
- Compared to the others, the real Bunny Ears Lawyer is Dr. Glass. He's probably the only one with anything resembling normal human emotions and morals. SC
- Dr Bright surely takes the cake, though. At least, that's the only reason we can assume he's still there after everything he's apparently done.
- Butt Monkey: Class D personnel are used for the more dangerous tests.
C - D[]
- Caffeine Bullet Time: One can of Red Bull + one D-class subject + SCP-914 on Very Fine = "some kind of gray blur".
- Cameo: A couple of the joke SCPs - and a few of the regular ones as well.
- Big Biblical names, Strega Nona's pot, The Little Mermaid, Halloween, Santa Claus...
- Canon: Loose, and kept that way. Recite the mantra: "There is no canon."
- Cannon Fodder: Dying is literally in the job description of Class D Personnel. It can get quite blatant; for instance SCP-120 notes that a moon base was constructed after expending "vast amounts of money and D-personnel".
- Despite being Elite Mooks, the Foundation's Mobile Task Forces are surprisingly easily defeated. (Given the nature of what they're up against, this isn't entirely surprising. Even the SCPs that aren't actively hostile are often very difficult to handle.) Read through any given incident report featuring any given Mobile Task Force and watch the team quickly fall apart, one member at a time. Yes, even that time they went after a non-sentient SCP whose only known ability was to produce an infinite amount of pasta.
MD: This is MD, we're on floor seventeen, ME is down! |
- Of course, this depends on SCP to SCP. Some have managed to destroy horrible magic artifacts with nothing but modern day weaponry.
- It might help if you know where D-Class personnel come from. Most of them are prisoners taken from death row, on the basis that since they're going to die and are no longer afforded any human rights whatsoever, we might as well throw them at anything that we can't get volunteers for. A few of them are instead ex-members of Foundation staff, who got busted down to D-Class after they misbehaved so badly that they may well have endangered their entire facility for a petty lark. Either way, any D-Class personnel who manage to survive testing by the end of the month are executed.
- Captured Super Entity: Lots. Indeed, it's pretty the point.
- ████or Box
- [REDACTED]
- Chainsaw Good / This Is a Drill: After Able started working for the Foundation, some changes were observed in his endless supply of hack-slash-stabbity-chop-chop implements:
Addendum 076-08: As of 08/11/????, SCP-076-2's weapons have become noticeably different, being constructed of an unknown dull, dark brown metal, the items mechanical in design and nature, rather than traditionalist iron forged items. Rotating blades, chain edges, and drills are often present on subject's weaponry, powered and operated by unknown sources. It is unknown as to what prompted this change, and SCP-076-2 again refuses to divulge any information regarding it, stating only "Your people have created such odd blades. I thought I might see how they worked." |
- Clef recounts a time when he was bringing a chainsaw to work to test if it had any anomalies worth researching, but wound up in the middle of what he thought was D-Class riot (but was actually a costume party for the research staff). Half the research staff died that night, and the chainsaw was discovered to be just a regular chainsaw after all.
- Childless Dystopia: SCP-1322 is a small interdimensional portal to another world. The people on the other side have suffered a global Sterility Plague, and blame our side.
- Clap Your Hands If You Believe: Believing you can keep SCP-616-1 open will make you able to keep it open. For this reason, the Foundation painted Satanic symbols all over it and manned SCP-616 flights with devout people.
- SCP-239 is a Reality Warper who doesn't fully understand the nature of her powers. Instead, what she believes to be true becomes true. People are exceptionally nice to her because she thinks they're her friends, so they become friendly. Bordering on Mind Screw, this works the other way as well: Dr. Clef frightened her, and she believed he wanted to kill her, so he became obsessed with killing her.
- Cold Turkeys Are Everywhere: Appleseedsappleseedsappleseeds (see Running Gag below).
- Combo-Platter Powers: Allowing for humanoid SCPs has resulted in many a Mary Sue being listed. These are generally deleted within time, but the notoriously bad ones are decommissioned: they remain in the series continuity as past SCPs and are given elaborate destruction sequences.
- The Comically Serious:
- The SCP reports are written in an entirely serious tone, no matter how absurd the topic might be - a cake platter that continually generates cupcakes sounds silly, but it's there and has to dealt with, as left unchecked it would bury the entire world under baked goods. Thus, the dry manner of the archive acts a Straight Man to the nature of the SCPs (especially the "joke" ones) and the eccentric behaviour of SCP personnel.
- The dead serious warnings after some doctors with a sense of humor pull some sort of stunt/prank.
- Condemned Contestant: D-Class personnel.
- Conveniently Interrupted Document: Used extensively.
- Cool Train: SCP-716 qualifies for this trope by virtue of being a steam engine. And it can travel through dimensions. Also SCP-052
- The Coroner Doth Protest Too Much: The SCP-682 termination attempt using Dr. Clef.
- The Foundation itself routinely does this when recovering SCPs that have caused casualties.
- Not fatal, but this after-incident interview ends with a description of some completely accidental injuries on the part of Doctor Clef.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: Marshall, Carter, and Dark, Ltd. is a group that captures (and occasionally makes) SCP objects for exploitation and sale to rich people.
- The Factory may have been run by these sort of people.
- Cosmic Horror Story: Perhaps at an even greater level than Lovecraft's, as the Foundation hasn't even been able to catalog the number of parallel universes, pocket dimensions, and indescribably vast voids full of incomprehensible entities and forces trying to kill us.
- Lovecraft Lite: And sometimes, the Foundation kicks them in the face.
- Cosmic Retcon: SCP-140, a book describing the history of a horrifically evil civilization. And any time it gets anywhere near ink, shed human blood, or other fluids suitable for writing, it grows, and new artifacts and traces of the new material show up in archaeological digs.
- Not to mention that if you give it enough ink, it extends the history of the Daevites. Original version: Daevites were squished by Qin Kai in the 3rd century BCE. Now? They were squished by Genghis Khan... (Did the book itself retroactively create the Daevites?)
- Crazy Cat Lady: Required to keep SCP-511 under control.
- Crossover: These are generally frowned upon; there used to be a lot of joke SCPs which were nothing more than "It's that thing from that show, and here's how the SCP foundation would describe it!", and they got eventually deleted. However, Clef's "Project Crossover" is a challenge to write a good crossover story--or, a good bad crossover story.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: A lot of SCPs cause this.
- Cryptic Background Reference: Some things on the site refer to SCPs and reports that are absent, creating this effect because they haven't been included in these partial archives - or because were deleted in Retcons, cut for being badly conceived, or banned contributors took their ball and went home.
- Cult: Many are known enemies of The Foundation and many worship/created different objects.
- Examples include:
- Church of the Broken God: A cross of Clock Punk and Machine Worship, as the name implies they worship a broken mechanical god. They claim that SCP-882 is the "heart" of their god. They also show interest in SCP-217 and SCP-271. The implications of a union between these objects is disturbing.
- The Serpent's Hand: This group considers The Foundation to be unenlightened, they embrace the use of Paranormal objects and hold humanoid SCP in high esteem. The note in this security breach references "Black Surtr" as well.
- The group responsible for the creation/impregnation of SCP-231, "The Children Of The Scarlet King".
- In the (currently in progress) Foundation Tale Pulsar, multiple cults over the years have attempted to summon something called the "Bringer", all these cults have ended up being destroyed in one way or another.
- The plurality cult, which resides in SCP-453.
- Examples include:
- Cute Kitten: Two of the joke entries; the Pufferkittens and the Portal to the Plane of Infinite Kittens. Somewhat averted with the decidedly non-joke A Harmless Kitten.
- Cuteness Proximity: Pufferkittens. WARNING: Classified Euclid on account of having enough d'aaaaaaw to disrupt normal staff activities.
...are not to be weaponized. |
- And someone went ahead and did in SCP-914. Grenadepuffs!!!
- Cut Himself Shaving:
Kondraki: [Inarticulate scream of rage.] |
- Darker and Edgier - The Never Hungry Man was changed from an SCP who was released back into the general public when his condition posed no threat to a man with worms that have faces in his stomach that leap out at people.
- In fact, this is typically the fate of many SCP drafts whom are said to be either too bland or not have a good hook. Then again, sometimes there's too much senseless edginess, and some needs to be Dummied Out.
- Deal with the Devil: SCP-738. "Please come back anytime. I haven't had so much fun in years."
- Deconstruction: SCP-239 and her fate is a deconstruction of Haruhi Suzumiya-style Reality Warpers .
- As well as the Termination Report of SCP-531.
- Delivery Stork: Horrifically inverted by SCP-918.
- Digging Yourself Deeper: Happens to the Janitor in his psychological evaluation about the availability of Segway golf carts.
- Disproportionate Retribution: The shadow law-enforcer spawned by various SCP-1002 objects won't stop until the offender is punished. Said punishment includes removal and severing of fingers for littering. You don't want to know what happens to the more severe offenders. Or how the Foundation figures out which crime begets which punishment.
- Divide by Zero: SCP-33 is a complex math problem whose answer is a previously unknown number that destroys any piece of paper that it is written on that isn't a very specific shape, destroys all computer systems, and can jump to any paper or computer system within 30 meters.
- Doing in the Wizard: Averted Trope. For a site that prides itself on clinical detachment and scientific inquiry, it is almost impossible to discover how nearly all of the SCPs actually work, where they came from, or why anyone would want to make some of them. They give it a good try, but it's not as important as knowing how to keep them safe and under control. If they ever came across a real wizard, they'd measure his staff, subject him to "stress" tests to determine destructibility, and finally have some very strong words with him over the creation of Eldritch Abominations. And, of course, they'd want to see if his magic could kill SCP-682.
- Dramatic Space Drifting: SCP-1959 is an unidentifiable cosmonaut who has been orbiting the Earth, struggling with some unseen force or thing in his suit. For over 50 years.
- Driven to Suicide: Commonly happens among Researchers, Agents, and D-Class personnel.
- Drives Like Crazy: SCP-666-J is this trope personified.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: The fate of any SCP Object which crosses The Able Line (see Marty Stu, below).
E - F[]
- Eldritch Abomination: The SCP Foundation's job is to contain or neutralize hundreds of them. The Church of the Broken God is attempting to resurrect one.
- Eldritch Location: Quite a few of the SCPs are this as well.
- Elemental Shapeshifter: One of the SCPs could turn into earth, fire, water, wind, and lightning.
- The End of the World as We Know It: A distressingly large number of SCP objects can cause this.
- Here are just a few: SCP-008 can cause a Zombie Apocalypse. SCP-682 is an Omnicidal Maniac that can't be killed by any known means and rapidly acquires new abilities in response to anything it's introduced to — more than one End of the World scenario involves it getting its hands on something that eliminates its ability to be temporarily incapacitated through massive injury. SCP-217 and SCP-253 are The Virus. SCP-231-7 is strongly believed to potentially bring one of these about if the Fetus Terrible inside her is born, which means that she must be constantly and violently [DATA EXPUNGED] (Reading this may make you physically ill). SCP-1548 is a sentient star that consumes everything in its path and has plans to make it to Earth. Fortunately it won't arrive for another 5000 years, but it's guaranteed to wipe out the Earth since the Foundation has no real way to contain a celestial body. SCP-093 operates as a gateway into a parallel world After the End - with the implication that the threat that destroyed that world could make its way into other universes.
- Also, anything that can cause an XK-class End-of-the-World scenario, such as the speculation involving Dr. Clef's proposed SCP-001 moving, in confluence with a breach in SCP-995 and the opening of SCP-616.
- Not just those. There's at least one other K-class, the CK-class Restructuring scenario, which is mentioned by Dr. Clef in relation to SCP-239. It doesn't end the world outright, but the world is so different that it might as well be gone. Also terrifying is the fact that there are probably several other K-class scenarios... Let's hope they involve pufferkittens.
- The CK-class scenario is also mentioned regarding SCP-140. The longer the book grows, the longer the gruesome civilisation in the book survives in real life. Making it long enough would change modern society beyond recognition.
- There's additionally the SK-class dominance shift, which happens when a Blue and Orange Morality humanoid race comes in direct competition with homo sapiens (i.e. we get driven to extinction).
- One of SCP-001's proposals mentions a non-zero possibility of a ZK-class Reality Failure event - in this case, a total metaphysical annihilation of the universe - should a destruction attempt prove successful.
- This short story explores the consequences of SCP-173 reproducing.
- While the above all hold true, a variety of Judeo-Christian figures like SCP-343 and proposed SCP-001 seem to show that canonically, Earth is doomed to end sometime in the 22nd century during Armageddon, as long as something other SCP doesn't get to it first
- Even Evil Has Standards: Every once in a while members of the Foundation demonstrate that there are a very few lines they will not cross, at least not without very good reason. Examples include:
- Human experimentation with SCP-439 was immediately terminated on discovering that its victims remain alive and possibly conscious.
- SCP-231's page indicates that the Foundation is terribly, terribly guilt-ridden about it, and more than once have had to deal with agents who have tried to rescue the girls.
- It's also worth pointing out that any D-class personnel who tries to "prolong" Procedure 110-Montauk is immediately executed.
- Dr. Clef introduced a guest researcher to SCP-682. Why? The guest researcher had introduced two children to it, one of whom was drugged, neither of whom survived, and planned on continuing.
- To give the new reader an idea of how great an extent of this trope this example is, Dr. Clef's identity is not known. The most popular theory? He's Satan.
- 05-█ denied the undertaking of a ritual that would produce a weapon capable of neutralizing SCP-682, stating "Nothing can be worth that."
- SCP-107 normally generates a rainstorm from any liquid poured into it (including water, orange juice, human blood, and super glue), but it didn't work when the Foundation tested it with elemental mercury.
- Weaponization of Grenade-class Pufferkittens is strictly prohibited.
- The story behind SCP-811's origin made the attending research assistant vomit.
- Evil Phone: SCP-145, SCP-400, SCP-519.
- Expospeak Gag: Experiment Log 914 describes one of the researchers as developing "a sudden acute epistaxis" after discovering that a Rockman.EXE cartridge had turned into a Rockman.EXE H-doujin.
- The data extracted from SCP-328. To avoid Don't Explain the Joke, spoilered: the data describes an ordinary human laptop computer, as described by members of a decidedly alien species who might exist in a different universe with slightly different physical laws. The aliens describing the laptop seem to belong to the alien equivalent of the SCP Foundation. To complete the joke, SCP-328 seems to be the alien's version of a laptop computer, and if the Foundation's description of it was to make its way back to the aliens they'd consider it to be an Expospeak Gag description of their laptop.
- And they seem to be truly Starfish Alien types, as the mere act of a laptop emitting light manages to kill 4 researchers.
- The data extracted from SCP-328. To avoid Don't Explain the Joke, spoilered: the data describes an ordinary human laptop computer, as described by members of a decidedly alien species who might exist in a different universe with slightly different physical laws. The aliens describing the laptop seem to belong to the alien equivalent of the SCP Foundation. To complete the joke, SCP-328 seems to be the alien's version of a laptop computer, and if the Foundation's description of it was to make its way back to the aliens they'd consider it to be an Expospeak Gag description of their laptop.
- Extreme Omnivore: Several SCPs. A D-class who was known amongst the other Ds as "Goat" for being able to stomach the horrible food the Foundation gave them also became a true Extreme Omnivore capable of digesting rock, metal, etc. after drinking a mixture of water and SCP-1049-J.
- Extranormal Institute: Any of the Foundation's various sites.
- Eye Scream: gouging out own eyes in madness is a fairy normal practice. In addition, the page for SCP-212 includes a graphic picture of eye surgery.
- Two SCPs infect victims, usually by tearing out their eyeball and using it as a host, or melting their eye away and replacing it with fungi-strands (that oddly still allow you to see).
- SCP-750 is a pair of contact lenses. They can't be removed by the wearer; only someone else. Oh yeah, and they make you see everything in a twisted Silent Hill-esque filter. Humans? Humans are seen as twisted abominations. Have fun getting those out!
- Fantastic Foxes: In SCP-953.
- Fate Worse Than Death: Being assigned to Keter duty, or D-Class personnel. Or both at the same time. In addition, quite a few of the SCPs hand out these like candy, such as a telephone that transports you somewhere where you're tortured for all eternity.
- Fanfic: The Foundation Tales section.
- Feather Boa Constrictor: Wight.
- Fighting From the Inside: SCP-239 is frightened of Dr. Clef and fears he will kill her for secretly using her "spells", so her reality-warping powers make him obsessed with killing her. Later, a deleted email is found on his computer, urging the Foundation to secure her and lock-down the site before he acts on it, then changes his mind and junks the message.
- Fling a Light Into the Future: Inverted with SCP-304, amongst others. 304 appears to be a listing of the names of all world leaders, including American Presidents, Chinese Presidents, and... SCP O5s. Specifically, they list 63 American presidents, a redacted number of SCP O5s, and 7 names in an encoding style that hasn't been invented yet... then abruptly stops. What happens in roughly 100 years to abruptly stop the list of human leadership is unknown.
- Formulaic Magic: SCP-033.
- Four Is Death: The mean number (and default number) of wings for Dr. Clef's proposed SCP-001 has been noted to be 4.
G - H[]
- Gaiden Game: The Global Occult Coalition wiki is in the works, with the GOC focusing more on destruction of SCP candidate objects than studying them.
- Gargle Blaster - SCP-294 can make quite a few, including a literal Gargle Blaster.
- Gender Bender - SCP-113 is a piece of red jasper that can do this upon contact with flesh of a gendered organism. SCP-040 can do this too, if 'exposed' to the right desire.
- General Ripper: General Bowe, who has attempted to weaponise both the Doves of the Peace and, by implication, the pufferkittens.
- Generic Doomsday Villain - Averted. No matter how powerful it is, this won't include as SCP. Not even Zalgo.
- Genius Loci: SCP-599 is looking for new citizens.
- Geometric Magic: SCP-259 acts as this, and no good comes of it.
- Groin Attack: "In about half of failed transformation, partial or complete obliteration of the genitals is experienced..."
- God: SCP-343.
- Also, the Abrahamic faiths seem to be right. A number of SCPs require containment procedures be performed by individuals with good standing in one of the three monotheistic religions. There is no mention of similar circumstances for Hindus or any other religion. Then there is the entry for Dr. Clef's proposal for SCP-001.
- Of course it could just that most, if not all, of the writers for the site are from the three religions and don't want to make a Theme Park Version of any of the other religions.
- Clef suggests that SCP-239 might be God, but he's likely to be lying. (That she's now being kept in an induced coma is reminiscent of the plot of Dogma.)
- The GOC killed God, causing several people to feel it and leading to Nietzsche's God is Dead spiel. Irony points for using mages.
- Go Mad From the Revelation: Just count the number of times "mandatory psychiatric evaluation" appears.
- Go Through Me: Kondraki, Gears, Kain, and several SCPs turn out to protect SCP-239 from Clef's attempt to kill her.
- The SCP include:
- SCP-408: A swarm of butterflies, able to turn objects invisible. Aids in turning Dr. Kondraki invisible.
- SCP-091-ARC: A sentient tree with infectious pollen. Infects Dr. Clef, causing random plant growth to sprout from him.
- SCP-336: A human-like SCP with the ability force people to do whatever she says. (Dr. Clef counters this by shooting his ears)
- SCP-244-ARC: Extremely advanced fighting machine.
- SCP-547: Human-like SCP with thermokinesis. Engages Dr. Clef, and causes second and third degree burns on 50% of Dr. Clef's body.
- SCP 776: A non-sentient die. When rolled, the die acts accordingly to the side facing up. Dr. Clef rolled the die three times. The first two times, the water droplets side came up, completely flooding the hallway. He then rolled the snowflake, causing the water to quickly freeze and barricade him from SCP-239.
- The SCP include:
- He Who Fights Monsters: A serious concern, especially in the case of SCP-231.
- In fact, this may have already happened in SCP-231's case. Fridge Logic dictates that as she will die of old age or otherwise and unleash the world-ending Eldritch Abomination she's pregnant with, they had better come up with something fast. The higher-ups deciding not to do anything and thereby endangering the world, and not wanting to do anything anyway, is very uncomfortably indicative of this trope.
- Subverted; the article says they are indeed searching for an alternative, and the repeated [DATA EXPUNGED] they keep doing to her is an attempt to buy time. Double Subverted by some extremely fine print hidden in Addendum 231-B: "Don't believe it when they say they're trying to save her. Why would they bother? They've got exactly what they want exactly where they want it."
- An unintentional meta example occurred before the Mass Edit. The site was filled with far too many Marty Stu Reality Warpers and self-inserted superheroes. As a creative way to deal with this, the writers started killing off SCPs in Termination Logs. A big part of these was to try to find the most over-the-top, insanely awesome way to kill an SCP. Around the time that Dr. Kondraki rode SCP-682 like a rodeo bull, they realized that their own Author Avatars had become the very thing they were trying to destroy.
- Hikikomori: SCP-237
- Historical In-Joke - Several. Such as Kitty Genovese's murder weapon being an SCP, to all recorded instances of Spontaneous Combustion caused by a viral SCP.
- The explosion of Mt. St. Helens was caused by an SCP-076 containment breach.
- SCP-627 is a more obvious example than most. Look at the blacked out names and the corresponding dates.
- The 2009 North Korean nuclear test is implied to be the consequence of an experiment on SCP-800.
- SCP-1529 is apparently responsible for killing the first man to ever climb Mt. Everest and about half of all the people who've died climbing it since.
- SCP-687 apparently caused the Cleveland Torso Murders.
- SCP-1180 is the coal mine fire in Centralia, Pennsylvania.
- Nightmare Fuel: For in-universe sufferers of Nightmare Fuel, we have poor SCP-507, who involuntarily jumps in between alternate realities. These alternate realities run the gamut of this one and one of many horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible places. The examples given on 507's page are:
Someplace perfectly dark, with the sound of breathing very close by. After that he asked if he could carry a flashlight at all times. |
- Presumably, Procedure 110-Montauk.
- SCP-902. There is nothing scary at first, it's just a box that for some reason "ticks". It's at the bottom of all of the text that causes you to jump. If you signed into the site, it SAYS YOUR NAME, begging you to not, and then to open it.
- Out-of-universe, the point of the site.
- High Turnover Rate: Not content with having PLENTY of Red Shirts, it is standard procedure to terminate them after a month.
- Holy Hand Grenade: SCP-914 can create these.
Input: 2x concussion grenades |
- Humans Are Special: Somewhat darker variation: in many cases, humans are the only things affected by SCPs.
- Hyper-Destructive Bouncing Ball: SCP-018, an affront to the laws of thermodynamics-- it's a 6cm red ball that can bounce with 200% efficiency.
- Hyperspace Is a Scary Place: many different varieties. SCP-616's original form (and the door in the new 616) is a portal to a Fire and Brimstone Hell and could have been taken straight out of Event Horizon ...merely looking at anything taken from beyond the door will make you instantly homicidal, suicidal, insane, dead, or all four. Oh, and rather counter-intuitively, allowing that door to close is the worst thing you could do.
I - K - L[]
- I Did What I Had to Do: Practically every article is an example of this. Among the most stark and disturbing examples are the fates of SCP-231-2 to SCP-231-7. It got to the point where one security guard was angry enough to try and get SCP-231-4 out of the facility and still causes controversy to this day.
- I Have Many Names: Played for laughs with SCP-507:
"Although SCP-507 has an already-established name due to its unremarkable upbringing, it seems to find entertainment in forcing those it meets to give it a nickname in lieu of divulging this information. Thus SCP-507 will now respond to the names Tommy, Steve, Bruto, Guy, Houdini, and Grabnok the Destroyer." |
- Somewhat less humorously, it's because of multiverse versions of him occasionally popping up in his place.
- I'm a Doctor, Not a Placeholder: SCP-890, a master surgeon who only operates on machines, refuses to treat humans because he's "a surgeon, not a veterinarian".
- Improbably High IQ: The Blob Monsters created by overexposure to 427 are claimed to have IQ that could possibly exceed 400.
- This is discussed at length in its comments section. Everyone seems to have forgot about it though.
- Indy Ploy: Dr. Kondraki is a master of this; one of his colleagues actually describes him as "A master of the Indy Ploy." When assigned the termination of a highly dangerous insufficiently different vampire SCP...well:
Interviewer: I have here a copy of Dr. Kondraki's termination procedure proposal. Step one in his plan to use cat urine and a pistol loaded with silver bullets. Backup plans two, three, four, and five are listed as, and I quote, 'Wing It,' 'Make Something Up,' 'Cross That Bridge When I Come To It,' and 'Put My Head Between My Knees And Kiss My Ass Goodbye.' |
- To be fair, this was a "Plan" to terminate the then SCP-083; It involved breaching containment of many SCP, including several Keter class, not the least of which was 682, which Dr. Kondraki rode like a bucking bronco. [EXPLETIVE REDACTED].
- Infinite Supplies: The enormous costs that are implied are at least partially explained with SCP-294 being able to produce six hundred ounces of gold every two hours or so.
- Insane Admiral: General Bowe.
- The Internet Is for Porn: SCP-335 is 150 3.5" floppy disks with "effectively infinite" storage space, which contain everything on the Internet. The first twelve are all the porn.
Note from Dr. ██████████: I believe I know where all our bandwidth is going at night. Agent ████'s computer privileges should be limited until he either finds a girlfriend or learns some self control. |
- It Got Worse: A feature of many articles. Often indicated by strikethrough text showing the old containment procedure, followed by the incident that made it inadequate.
- Also how recovery reports tend to go.
- Katanas Are Just Better: Amusingly parodied with SCP-572, which makes the user suicidally overconfident of their warrior skills.
- Kicked Upstairs: The Foundation has been known to assign especially moronic personnel (such as a researcher who proposed that SCP-447 be used to take out SCP-682) to Keter duty.
- Kick the Dog: The Foundation does more than a few things that are, simply put, quite horrible. Whether they're examples of this or simply tragic-but-necessary is up to the individual.
- Language of Truth: SCP-1206 causes people to speak a language that expresses exactly what they are thinking in a word. It is impossible to lie while speaking it, which often drives a wedge between people who speak it.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Class A Amnesiacs.
- Lawful Stupid: SCP 1434 causes not only the local police to act like this but starts enacting increadbly stupid laws. It gets to the point where the police will kill someone for not cosuming drinks with less then 3 percent gasoline in it.
- A Lighter Shade of Grey: The Foundation considers itself this. See also, Necessary Evil and Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- Lightmare Fuel: Any time [DATA EXPUNGED] is used as a Noodle Incident rather than for horror.
- Literal Genie: The reactions to commands after having been exposed to SCP-061.
- SCP-810 also applies, even though there isn't an actual genie. It tells the user "Ask what you will, and you shall never want for it." Whatever you ask for, you'll never have a desire for it ever again. Don't ask for food, because you'll starve without even realizing you're hungry.
- Be sure to use the word "coffee" when asking SCP-294 for a cup of coffee. Requesting a "cup of Joe" results in something...less than pleasant.
- The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday: Site 19, according to one of the propositions for SCP-001.
- Lost in Transmission: Otherwise humanity might be exposed to [DATA EXPUNGED] with the plunger.
- The Lost Woods: SCP-416 is an infinite one that you can't leave on foot. SCP-1660 is a portal to one that is enclosed by a barrier of an unknown material.
M[]
- Machine Worship: The Church of the Broken God, one of the organisations that opposes the SCP.
- Macross Missile Massacre: SCP-792 is a sentient one.
- Mad Artist: The group responsible for SCP-1018, SCP-1057 and some other anomalous objects uses "Are We Cool Yet?" as a calling card. They seem to consider what they do to be art.
- Man-Eating Plant: SCP-506
- SCP-1001 as well.
- Man of Wealth and Taste: Clef actually uses this line to introduce himself to a Reality Warper he's about to kill. Considering
almosteveryone in the Foundation finds him uncouth and disgusting, he was probably just being wry considering certain...implications about his nature. - The Men in Black: A standard tactic for certain infiltration procedures, particularly retrieving items from the UIU. Also the standard dress for agents when interviewing or interrogating civilians in the field.
- Mercy Kill: Several of these were attempted for the victims of SCP-145. They all failed.
- The Messiah: If SCP-239 believes someone is good, then they will be because she's a Reality Warper (and maybe, just maybe, literally The Messiah, as in God).
- SCP-343 is omnipotent and claims to be God. He's also mischievous and people like him a lot, though he's pissed off a doctor by deleting his orders.
- What doctor?
- SCP-343 is omnipotent and claims to be God. He's also mischievous and people like him a lot, though he's pissed off a doctor by deleting his orders.
- The Metric System Is Here to Stay: The official policy of the site is to use SI units, precisely to invoke the "future/science" feel of this trope (for American visitors, anyway). Apparently, this rubbed some editors the wrong way, and you can find a little Bothering by the Book: Entries that were obviously written using round numbers in the American Customary System, then blindly translated into the exact metric equivalent. Thus, for instance, one particular Bigger on the Inside Eldritch Location has a corridor that extends 182.88 meters (600.00 feet) past where the edge of the structure should be.
- Another one automatically converts any descriptions of its dimensions to American customary measurements.
- Mind Virus: These are usually classified as "Memetic Hazards".
- Mirror Chemistry: SCP-739, a small closet with mirrored interiors. Closing a person in the booth once will flip all their amino-chains. Closing them in twice will switch them back, but repeating the experiment too many times with the same subject leads to something else emerging. As a fun side benefit, locking sugar packets in the closet will flip them as well. The scientist specifically notes that they would make excellent diet sweeteners.
- Mismatched Eyes: Delacroix.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: This former cattle barn.
- Mobile Maze: SCP-432 is a maze located inside a cabinet. The maze is stationary as long as the door is open, but if you close the door, the whole thing moves.
- Mood Whiplash: SCP-387's experiment logs, specifically the last two. In the second-to-last, Dr. Arch writes about the "improved morale and attitude" as a result of playing with the SCP (Animated Legos, for those who can't be bothered to look) and requests all staff are allowed access, which is approved. The immediate next experiment involves placing Megablocks (A knockoff brand of Legos) near SCP-387. The result? "everything constructed of 387 stopped moving, turned slowly towards the Megablocks and [EXPUNGED]."
- Addendum 387-6: Jesus fucking Christ. - Dr. Arch
- Said result might be justified in a Noodle Incident mentionned as the following:
- 119) As funny as Incident 387/682-██ was, Dr. Bright is not allowed unsupervised access to SCP-387. Agents are still trying to figure out how an animate model of 682 was so invulnerable, despite being made of just plastic blocks.
- More Dakka: Referenced on the "the-things-dr-bright-is-not-allowed-to-do-at-the-foundation" page- one of the phrases the SCP's motto is not is "We always need more Dakka!" Additionally, one of the rules on that page is that Dr. Bright is no longer allowed to offer the solution of "Use more guns" to any problem.
- There's an SCP that is a bottomless magazine (or clip, or mag clip, or speedloader, or...) that fits into any weapon, and there's a chance that a shot coming from it does something odd (freezes targets, fires Magic Bullets, randomly explodes a body part not aimed at, et cetera).
- COLD HARPER.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: SCP-597 and SCP-354.
- Multiple Choice Past: Dr. Clef gets at least one new origin every time he's in a story. Previous claims have included Satan, Adam, and a Reality Warper who blew up the space shuttle Challenger in childhood by casually wondering what would happen, all in the same story.
- Notable in that these are all relayed by Clef himself, who is a self-admitted liar. Although the first one actually has some evidence to support it. Murky, potentially deceptive evidence, but evidence nonetheless.
- Bear in mind, though - Kondraki didn't believe the third possibility, but did immediately believe the first despite that one being somewhat less plausible. Why would that be? Was it his emotional state at the time? Did he just learn to take Clef's words as automatically false? Or did Consummate Liar Clef just pull a Sarcastic Confession?
- Also the case with SCP-001. There are several articles with that number. None of them may be true, some of them may be decoys for the real SCP-001, or all of them may be true.
- Notable in that these are all relayed by Clef himself, who is a self-admitted liar. Although the first one actually has some evidence to support it. Murky, potentially deceptive evidence, but evidence nonetheless.
- Mundane Utility: So many.
"It has come to the attention of the higher level personnel that someone has been stealing SCP-283 for use as a paperweight." |
- A large portion of the anomalous items recovered that have not been destroyed are either in use at various sites or in the offices of various researchers.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Distressingly common, and considering what the Foundation deals with, distressingly justified. The Foundation takes no chances. The Foundation (both in-universe and meta) is trying to stop needless "civilians terminated" for Safe objects, though.
- Murderous Mannequin: SCP-847.
N[]
- Name's the Same: Meet The Boogieman, aaaand The Bogeyman.
- Names to Run Away From Really Fast: A group calling itself "The Chaos Insurgency" cannot possibly be up to any good. Neither can the Church of the Broken God.
- Nanomachines: SCP-204-1 and SCP-784
- Necessarily Evil: The SCP Foundation recognizes that it does very bad things, for the greater good of humanity.
- Never Heard That One Before: SCP-294 can take any liquid (or anything that can become a liquid) within its unknown range and pour it into a plastic cup. One request was so common that it lead to a special note:
** Addendum [SCP-294ad]: ** In order to stem the daily tide of attempts, it is now officially noted that keying in "two girls" gives the standard "OUT OF RANGE" error message. Come up with something more original next time. |
- Never Mess with Granny: Grammie Knows, and the Baba Yaga.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: A number of SCPs were either benign or dormant until the Foundation got their hands on them. It's only after some ill-conceived test is performed on it that it begins to become "uncooperative". And, when you're containing a minor deity, you do NOT want to make him uncooperative.
- Nobody Poops: Averted.
- "No. Just... No" Reaction: 076's reaction to being requested to approach one candidate for SCP-001.
- Any time experiments are cancelled on SCPs that violate common sense or would possibly replicate something nasty.
- No Name Given: The O5. Most of the time, even their identification numbers are blanked out. Often, researchers have their blanked out. D-Class, being expendable, don't have names, just numerical designations.
- Non-Indicative Name: This tends to come up a lot when discussing the Foundation's means of categorizing SCPs, mainly because when a Foundation operative says an object is "safe", they mean "as long as nobody pokes it the wrong way everything will be fine." A hydrogen bomb is "safe" by those standards.
- Noodle Implements: Some of the SCP objects become this, when SCP numbers are listed in incident reports or other articles; occasionally the SCP with that designation will appear completely irrelevant to the context in which it was referenced.
- That's often due to the original SCP being removed, and a new one filed under that number.
- Also, the FAQ's tongue-in-cheek explanation of what Procedure 110-Montauk is consists of a bunch of [DATA REDACTED]s interspersed with mentions of an elephant, a bed of live cobras, Barbara Streisand's Greatest Hits, something that is over seventeen feet long, a staple remover, a feather boa that absolutely must be black (and not dark blue), and "plutonium splitting the atom."
- Updated to "An amateur shadowcast of the Rocky Horror picture Show."
- Noodle Incident: Every single time you see "[DATA EXPUNGED]" or "[REDACTED]"; it seems like the whole idea is to have at least one such incident per SCP. The unspecified reason why SCP-447 must never come into contact with dead bodies is especially noodly and is occasionally referred to elsewhere (as seen below, it scares O5-2 shitless).
- SCP-231 is essentially a Noodle Incident played for Squick and Nightmare Fuel rather than laughs.
- Related to this is the notorious "Procedure 110-Montauk". Whatever you think it is, it's much, MUCH worse...and even then, it's much worse than that.
- The uncensored reports of SCP-835 demonstrate exactly what could be behind every Noodle Incident, and why you really don't want to know.
- On the other hand, it also demonstrates how important a [DATA EXPUNGED] can be for an article, as many people found the uncensored 835 reports to be quite disappointing.
- Most of the items on the list of things Dr. Bright is not allowed to do at the Foundation imply quite a few such incidents coming from just one guy.
- According to SCP-963 and its implications, "just one guy" isn't an accurate term.
- SCP-231 is essentially a Noodle Incident played for Squick and Nightmare Fuel rather than laughs.
- No OSHA Compliance: Played straight, subverted and averted in different sections of the site. In the SCP articles themselves, the containment procedures are designed to minimize danger, risk, and loss of life, even of the utterly expendable D-Class. In the testing logs, the prison-recruited D-class personnel are regularly treated to definitely unethical and probably lethal experimentation, often in cases where little useful information is likely to result, and are often subjected to the machinations of some of the more diabolical SCPs purely for the amusement of the ranking research staff. Finally, anyone who works at the Foundation willingly is expected to follow reasonable safety procedures, although considering the nature of some SCPs they still have a short life expectancy; neglecting these can result in being put on Keter duty, working with the most potentially dangerous SCPs. That's if they don't deem you worthless and shoot you if they decide it's not worth it to administer amnesiacs.
- No Sell: Former SCP-151-D exhibited this along with other Marty Stu traits, shrugging off effects of other SCPs just because. His termination log consists much of the same, until he's finally destroyed... rather messily.
- Not Using the Z Word - The entry for SCP-008. Sames goes for
- Nothing Is Scarier: The guidelines for writing new SCP reports encourage vagueness so that the reader fills in the horror for themselves, which is more effective than detailing something that may just fall flat.
- Judging by the details of one uncensored article, everything behind those [DATA EXPUNGED] is worse than you think.
- SCPs SCP-055 and SCP-100 are good examples of that.
- SCP-579. What is it? We don't know. Whatever it is, the SCP Administration felt it was so dangerous that even the description of it is gone. They even killed all the people working on it, save 7 agents that act as advisers in case it ever gets loose. It's so bad that it's currently stored in an alternate universe — after having destroyed at least 4 other containment sites, with a very specific containment procedure, and if it ever fails, even for a minute, policy is to destroy the alternate universe to contain it. And if that fails?
In the event of an unsuccessful Action 10-Israfil-B, no further action will be necessary. [DATA EXPUNGED] |
- Nuclear Option: Most (if not all) Sites have on-site nuclear warheads, to be detonated in the event of a breach by a Keter-class SCP or Site failure.
- But they are actually afraid to try it on SCP-682 because it might not only survive, it could become even stronger.
- Number of the Beast: While [1] is not overtly Satanic, SCP-616 is decidedly more hellish, and has clergy on staff when necessary. The actual religious requirements are invented, though.
O - P[]
- Oh Crap: Putting a replica of the plates from the Voyager probes (which were meant to contact extraterrestrials) into SCP-914 on the "Very Fine" setting results in a cell phone with 500 numbers that do not match any on Earth. The first one is labelled "SCP-682-Home Number." The scientist recommends destroying it as quickly as possible because no one should ever want to find the place that SCP-682 came from. (It turns out that, when dialed just calls a cell phone that was in SCP-682's cell. No one knows how it got there.)
- Omniscient Morality License - A lot of these researchers are worse than Class-D personnel (Who are "recruited" from prison.) Some get demoted to Class D.
- Our Angels Are Different - Shockingly averted. The Foundation goes to extensive lengths to document the fact that Dr. Clef's proposal for SCP-001 is indeed a bona fide Judeao-Christian Angel without any major subversions. It does however play more to the descriptions in Holy texts as opposed to cultural depictions, for instance appearing to have as many as 108 wings and being made of fire.
- Our Mermaids Are Different - SCP-327
- Panacea - SCP-500, pills that cure any disease, but there's just about fifty of them and they're impossible to replicate perfectly (though knockoffs can work if you're lucky). Later, SCP-427: the Lovecraftian Locket was developed that has eclipsed it in use.
- Parody Sue - Several. Most notably, SCP-10101, SCP-777-j, and SCP-316. 316 was later terminated with extreme enthusiasm by the resident Wonka.
- Perfectly Cromulent Word: SCP-566 contains these.
- Person of Mass Destruction — Pretty much every human housed by the Foundation (and maybe the researchers).
- Pet the Dog - Most sentient SCPs are accomodated reasonably well, depending on their potential danger, ability to escape, and willingness to cause harm. The most (relatively) harmless are given furnished rooms and are generally given whatever they request, as long as it doesn't violate security. They are, of course, not allowed to leave the facility.
- SCP-103 was the only SCP that the Foundation actually released. It says something about the Foundation's Well Intentioned Extremism that a man who's only power is that he never gets hungry is the only SCP ever let go without being terminated (and even that is, according to the comments, a controversial decision). He got retconned to having worms in his stomach that fly out and eat people and never having been released.
- Admittedly, some of the SCPs are given the best care possible. Every effort is made not to upset the autistic girl, for example, and the harmless and friendly living eyeballs have free run of their site. And one of the first tests of the vending machine was "something Cassie will like," Cassie being a mentally normal young woman who exists in 2-D.
- SCP-103 was the only SCP that the Foundation actually released. It says something about the Foundation's Well Intentioned Extremism that a man who's only power is that he never gets hungry is the only SCP ever let go without being terminated (and even that is, according to the comments, a controversial decision). He got retconned to having worms in his stomach that fly out and eat people and never having been released.
- Pieces of God - That particular faction's not called "Church Of The Broken God" for nothing.
- Power Perversion Potential - SCP-294 is a vending machine that can produce twelve ounces of just about anything as long as it's liquid. A security guard started using it to produce and sell heroin and meth before being caught.
- Pretty Butterflies: SCP-408, a sapient flock of color-changing, illusion-creating butterflies.
- Produce Pelting - SCP-504 is a breed of tomato that throws itself if someone cracks a bad joke. If the joke is bad enough, it will break the sound barrier.
Item: Three mature SCP-504 tomatoes, one for each test subject. |
- Interestingly enough, when told The Funniest Joke of All Time from Monty Python's Flying Circus, it exploded.
- And when shown a recent episode of Saturday Night Live, high-speed photography showed that the tomato changed velocity several times (including a brief jump backward), as if unable to decide whether the sketch was genuinely lame or just "bad" in an ironic sense.
- Public Domain Artifact - Spring Cleaning, a story involving a bunch of these.
R - S[]
- Reality Warping Is Not a Toy
- Rage Against the Author: S. Andrew Swann's SCP-001 proposal.
- Rage Against the Heavens: For the Global Occult Coalition, one of the Foundation's rival organizations, if God exists, then it's their job to kill it.
- Red Shirts: The Class D's, of course. Lampshaded: Dr. Bright cannot change the standard issue D-Class uniform to black pants with a red polo shirt.
- Reality Retcon: The "Big Bloop, a Real Life unexplained extremely-loud underwater sound, was caused bySCP-169, an enourmous undersea creature which is at least 1,000 km in length. The Foundation had a spy in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who tried to prevent the public from learning of the Bloop, but failed.
- Retcon: The Mass Edit, which was basically the wiki admins purging some of the more dubious entries and retconning out some of the more ludicrous (and humorous) aspects of the Backstory. (See below.)
- Ret-Gone: When Fishmonger (the writer) was banned, he demanded to have all of his characters and stories to be removed from the SCP Wiki. Some of his more famous characters were referenced in many articles. This left many gaps.
- And, before that, all of SCPs deleted during the Mass Edit.
- To make things even more confusing, since the numbers for Ret-Gone SCPs were freed up, the wiki wound up with new SCPs under old numbers.
- Rock of Limitless Water: Inverted with SCP-402, which absorbs limitless water.
- SCP-045 is a straight example, producing water when exposed to nitrogen in an environment with less than 380 atmospheres of pressure.
- Room 101: SCP-100
- This is also possibly a subversion of the obvious reference, since the actual SCP-101 is relatively tame: it's a bag which eats things and is apparently mostly used for trash disposal.
- Running Gag: [DATA EXPUNGED]
- On a not so funny note, that may be to KEEP you from gagging.
- DO NOT allow SCP-447-2 to come into contact with dead bodies!
- It eventually gets to the point that all of the researchers mention their fear of it coming into contact with dead bodies in the most unlikely of circumstances (such as dead bodies drinking milk).
- And other forces seem to play on that fear, such as when SCP-914 transforms a dead body into SCP-447-2.
- The real reason for this fear is that Doctor Alistair is very afraid of dead bodies and he's the one in charge. So he made up crap to get away with it and it took a life of it's own.
- One (non-canon) story actually DOES describe some of the adverse effects of SCP-447 touching a dead body. In the aftermath, a dimensional rift opened up and dragged Dr. Clef into an alternate reality.
- There's also how the discovery of any SCP being potentially lethal inevitably leads to someone wondering if it could be used to kill SCP-682.
- And any object that produces or transforms other objects (ala the vending machine and 914) will inevitably produce something shaped like SCP-682.
- Dr. King and his appleseeds
- That the common typo of SCP, SPC, is an Alternate Universe version of the Foundation, the Shark Punching Center.
- Santa Claus: An addendum to SCP-239, a nine year old Reality Warper:
Note from Dr. ████████, dated 12/26/04: Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to tell her about "Santa Claus" and then tell her that it was just a story?! Now we have another potential SCP to deal with, but we can't catch him because he is "magic". |
- Savage South: One of the non-SCP-but-still-weird-objects was "A men's Western-style hat which, when worn, causes the wearer to compulsively tell jokes that are racist or otherwise offensive to those within earshot. Incinerated with considerable enthusiasm."
- Schmuck Bait: After Dr. Clef tells everyone not to let SCP-447-2 touch dead bodies, the test log doesn't last for half a dozen entries before someone tries it on a dead body. Then the researchers decide to get their revenge by throwing Clef into the bathtub. It does nothing, and he tells them that "after you clean this up you will all be missed".
- Science Destroys Magic
- Science Is Wrong: The Missing Number. We missed a number. Whenever it interacts with anything electronic or math we use, the number breaks it.
- Scrapbook Story
- Sealed Evil in a Can: SCP-076-1, amongst others, is one such can. It contained SCP-076-2, but it was easily unsealed (it was just a stone coffin), and when SCP-076-2 started working for the Foundation, it became little more that 076-2's respawn point. Later played straight during the great Mary Sue purge — 076-2 was retconned into being completely Ax Crazy after all, and after they ran out of things for him to do, he started killing all humans on sight. They had to detonate a nuclear bomb and entomb 076-1 under the bedrock under the ocean.
- SCP-231 is an interesting case, as the SCP is the can that the evil is sealed inside. And the Foundation will do whatever it takes to keep said evil sealed up.
- SCP-911 is a can you can easily end up sealed into.
- Sealed Good in a Can: Subverted. Any attempts to seal SCP-343 are basically futile, and he's only there because he wants to be. He's also working on some scheme of his own, and outright deleted a doctor who had become wise to his manipulations from reality. Proposed SCP-001 is likewise impossible to seal.
- Series Mascot: SCP-682 appears to have assumed this role, as witnessed by the protests on the site forums whenever anyone suggests killing it off for good. SCP-076 may also qualify. The original one was SCP-173.
- Serious Business: The site itself maintains quality by treating each wiki edit like a live Claymore mine.
- Averted with the Cliche List, in which a serious topic (Cliches writers probably shouldn't copy) is written in something approaching 4Chan-style. Of course, you're still supposed to take it seriously.
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Happened in several stages. It all started when one of the writers became concerned about the wiki moving away from its original creepypasta purpose, so he came up with a story where his fictional counterpart tries to take down a reality warper who seemed to become popular with fandom simply because she was a cute little girl. Ironically, this had the opposite effect, as it ultimately led to decommissions - in-continuity purges of badly designed, Mary Suish SCPs. Writers competed with each other over who could pull off the most over-the-top decommissions. Before long, admins got worried that they allowed things to get too far and tried to Shoo Out the Clowns the second time. While the admins ultimately decided not to disavow the over-the-top elements altogether [4], they are making a deliberate effort to bring their fictional counterparts back down to earth, got rid of some problematic SCPs, took out the funny bits from many remaining articles and made it their official policy to avoid that sort of thing in the future. The closest thing we have to an in-story explanation is that this was a long overdue reaction to the lack of oversight created when the military elements in the Foundation leadership left. The processes are still ongoing. See this forum thread for more info.
- Also, "Chowderclef" is an official Retcon of all of Dr. Clef's quirky escapades...sort of. Clef (the writer) ultimately decided to be ambiguous about it and let readers decide for themselves whether or not the escapades still count.
- Shout-Out:
Butterflies? [Manic laughter]. Konny, you Magnificent Bastard! I've read your… |
- Another:
- And another:
SCP-239: "I cast Magic Missile!" |
- SCP-978 is a Polaroid version of the Mexican magic realism camera from Achewood.
- 665 is a Katamari humanoid.
- Q56-DRU-865 is hopefully NOT a shout out to Saya no Uta. If it is...FridgeHorror.
- SCP-750 May also be a reference to Saya no Uta.
- SCP-701, "The Hanged King's Tragedy" takes quite a few inspirations from The King in Yellow.
- Dr Gerald's Personnel File has a note from another SCP operator who mentions loading up "my waifu", his shotgun, with bolo rounds to pay him a visit.
- SCP-120 is a wormhole that looks like water, protected and maintained by a task force called "Puddlejumpers".
- "Following the unfortunate, and completely preventable, death of Agent Gallagher" at the hands of SCP-953, no more otaku or furry-fans will be assigned to her.
- 026 very closely follows the plot of the Goosebumps book, The Haunted School.
- There is very little to suggest that SCP-582 isn't the Slender Man.
- SCP-2008-J is quite obviously the Phillie Phanatic, Mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies Baseball Team.
- Task Force Lambda-4, tasked with monitoring SCP 514, are dead serious about children's card games.
- SCP 261's experiment log has a Fallout reference, with one of the things the vending machine gives out happening to be a bottle of Nuka-Cola.
- "Speed is key. You have to neutralize SCP-204-1 quickly, because it can't be bargained with, it can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. If given the chance, SCP-204-1 will quite literally devour you."
- SCP-166 is quite possibly a reference to Fall-From-Grace.
- SCP-1230 bears a striking resemblance to the in-universe book "The Neverending Story".
- SCP-1373 are sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their frickin' heads.
- Shrug of God: When asked about what exactly the [DATA EXPUNGED] and Noodle Incidents are, most authors decline to give a straight answer and encourage the reader to fill in the gaps for themselves.
- Spell My Name With A █████
- Sound Effect Bleep: [EXPLETIVE REDACTED]
- Spank the Cutie: Dr. Bright is not allowed to administer spankings to Dr. Rights as punishment, as it only causes more rules to be broken. Therefore, he's done it several times before.
- Spin-Off: Serpent's Hand
- Spontaneous Human Combustion: SCP-081 is a virus that causes Spontaneous Combustion - in fact, it's responsible for all recorded instances of it.
- Stable Time Loop: O5-02 is Dr Light from the future (a Reset Button is involved)
- Start of Darkness: A work in progress (also a proposed SCP-001) shows how everything started, and by everything we mean how the Foundation and its rivals or enemies came into existence.
- Status Quo Is God: The primary reason for the Foundation's existence.
- Stylistic Suck: The Big List Of Overdone SCP Cliches, part of "How To Write An SCP":
We don't need no more: |
- There's also the SCP Foundation movie. The fact that Tommy Wiseau and Ben Stein are in it should already be setting off alarms in your head.
- Suspiciously Specific Denial: From Experiment Log T-98816-OC108/682: "Notes: This is the official story and we're sticking to it. The alternative, that someone tried to murder Dr. Clef by deliberately putting him in the same room as SCP-682, is completely inconceivable. O5-7"
T - V[]
- Tailor-Made Prison: Each article has Special Containment Procedures. Many of these require that rooms are constructed in ways to counteract/nullify different objects.
- And even then it's usually only temporary for the Keter class objects. SCP-682 keeps breaking out.
- Tank Goodness: SCP-516, a sentient T-55 main battle tank. Interestingly this is one of the more benign sentient SCPs, being unwilling to fire on unarmed or nonthreatening targets. When threatened by an armed D-class who was handcuffed to another, unarmed D-class, it even precisely aimed a shot to kill the shooter without seriously harming the unarmed target. Though apparently, it did decide to autonomously fire on a D-class who was apparently guilty of treason in the country the tank came from.
- SCP-802 as well, although it's substantially less intelligent.
- Take Our Word for It: Liberal use of [DATA EXPUNGED] keeps us from being horrified (or disappointed) by the true nature of [REDACTED].
- Take That: SCP-4444 is basically a Take That directed at Gaia Online's SCP Roleplay Guild. (Clef found it horribly un-clinical in tone and rife with Mary Sues.)
- SCP-953 killed an Agent Gallagher for being an Otaku.
- Clef (the writer) once came across a Marty Stu Reality Bender that annoyed him so much that he had his fictional counterpart team up with Dr. Kondraki to kill it very thoroughly. This set a precedent for Running Gag where this became a standard method of disposing of egregiously overpowered Mary Sues (at least until the Mass Edit).
- Odd how all of the entries under "Take That" were written by Clef...
- Anyone who read his recollections of the events (see Characters page) will know that there is a reason for that.
- Odd how all of the entries under "Take That" were written by Clef...
- SCP-1059 is a Take That against SCP writers who use too many Censor Boxes.
- Tempting Fate: The designation SCP-048 appears to be "cursed"; any item given that number tends gets destroyed, stolen, lost or decommissioned, so it's been officially retired. Dr. Cortez thought this was stupid and everyone was "just being pussies", so he reassigned it. The result?
Addendum 2: SCP-048, [DATA EXPUNGED], was accidentally thrown into the trash this morning and lost. In an unrelated incident, Dr. Cortez's arms were accidentally traumatically amputated in a horrific lunchroom blender accident. SCP-048 closed. - O5-11 |
- There Are No Therapists: Inverted with regard to SCP-076-2 and several higher Foundation personnel that are... less than stable. There are PLENTY of Foundation therapists. The subjects in questions just don't really want anything to do with them.
- Deliberately avoided with SCP-231-7. In order to prevent a possible The End of the World as We Know It scenario, her emotional distress has to be maximized by constantly [DATA EXPUNGED].
- And subverted in the same: containment procedures for SCP-231 require staff to undergo psychological counseling on a regular basis.
- There Was a Door: In "Pulsar", Valentine Delacroix unnecessarily kicks down the door to Dr. Vanheissen's office much to the surprise of the people inside... All to deliver some flash drives.
Wight: You could have, you know, opened the door like a normal person. |
- They Would Cut You Up: If it wasn’t for the fact that they couldn’t keep studying you afterwards... "Oh. Bugger."
- Things Man Was Not Meant to Know: [DATA EXPUNGED]
- In a different sense, "memetic" objects can alter behavior, personality, or physical integrity just by being perceived.
- Troperiffic: The SCP Foundation wiki is a site devoted to deconstructing the Urban Fantasy genre. There are over a thousand objects. Each of them deconstructs or plays straight at least one trope, mainly more.
- Tropes Will Ruin Your Life: Prolonged exposure to SCP-4445 can cause "marked psychological changes" including limited clairvoyance, a tendency to lapse into impenetrable jargon and "mild to moderate dependence".
- Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny: in-universe: If anything is lethal, it will sooner or later be put against SCP-682. SCP-173 actually managed to beat SCP-682 but failed to kill it, and the staff have stopped repeats.
- Unobtainium: SCP-148, an alloy capable of blocking telepathic suggestions.
- Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: SCP-225. They really don't want to find out what would happen if these two objects ever collided. They're drawing up planetary evacuation plans just in case.
- Viewers Are Goldfish: Comes into play for anyone coming into close proximity with SCP-634. As an added bonus, the SCP just happens to be an actual goldfish.
W - Y[]
- Was Once a Man: More than a few examples; for instance, SCP-811.
- SCP-939 is a subspecies of humanity that mutates around the age of 10, up to that point being identical to human children. They start out by removing all their skin and eventually their old head detaches and falls off, whereupon they eat their old skin and head, having become a predator species reliant on cannibalism.
- Weaksauce Weakness: SCP-723-D, a boring Nigh Invulnerable man, managed to survive a scad of excessively lethal tactics, and in the end succumbing to peanut allergies.
- We Have Reserves: The general treatment of Class D personnel. Especially evident with testing for SCP-504, where it was discovered that recordings worked just as well as people, yet whoever was overseeing the test continued using people, apparently just because he didn't like them (although it's at least noted that he would be reprimanded for it).
- For every person teleported to the moon with as much as they can carry using SCP-120 (just 37kg/82lb), five were sent to Lagrangian points in the middle of outer space. The Foundation now has a fully functioning moonbase.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Foundation, putting it lightly.
- The Foundation considers the Global Occult Coalition to be Well Intentioned Extremists, because by destroying SCP objects they are risking both destroying any chance of gaining knowledge from the objects and eliminating something humanity might really, really need in the future.
- And in return, the GOC doesn't care for the SCP Foundation, because even if they're not secretly using SCPs to take over the world using the Chaos Insurgency as a proxy, they're keeping around a huge stockade of objects that do not play well with reality.
- The Foundation considers the Global Occult Coalition to be Well Intentioned Extremists, because by destroying SCP objects they are risking both destroying any chance of gaining knowledge from the objects and eliminating something humanity might really, really need in the future.
- What Measure Is a Mook?: Canon dictates that the Foundation execute D-Class personnel monthly, but there are many arguments out-of-canon if this is canon or not. Whatever the case, several SCPs and projects have been started with the express purpose of cloning D-Classes or even making fully-grown, fully intelligent humans from scratch.
- When All You Have Is a Hammer:
- Inverted. If something is lethal, they will at least suggest trying to kill SCP-682 with it.
- Played straight with everything the Foundation keeps stuffing into 914.
- They will use SCP-447's slime on everything, as long as it doesn't involve dead bodies.
- If they find a SCP that converts (The Clockworks) or produces (The Coffee Machine) a lot of things, they will end up testing it on everything.
- Who Wants to Live Forever?: SCP-138 and Dr. Bright. Also, implied by SCP-1030's statement about its orgin.
- A Wizard Did It: averted, because they don't spend a lot of time figuring out how the object became SCP, magically or not.
- However, there are a lot of "SCP did it", especially when they can't explain how can the object work that way.
- In an in-universe example, nine year old Reality Warper SCP-239 was told she was a witch to manage her powers. This improved her morale and "made her believe that she is unable to use her abilities outside of a pre-approved list of "spells" given to her by the Foundation." (It didn't really work out in the end, though.)
- The GOC apparently employs mages.
- The World Is Always Doomed: If you take all the SCPs as canon, the world is doomed in over a hundred different ways.
- World of Silence: World Without Man has the ability to do this. The worst part is that this was the creators' intent.
- You Are Number Six: Every humanoid SCP is referred to by their designated number. Most of them don't mind this.
- You Cannot Grasp the True Form: SCP-55, the self-keeping secret. Everything about it is unknown, except that you can't know anything about it. The SCP will erase any memories that pertain to it from the minds of intelligent humans who observe it. Its very image, copied onto photographs or drawings, will also become impossible to remember or describe within seconds of looking at it. Any scientific readings about it will be forgotten immediately after viewing them. There's only one hitch. It will not prevent you from remembering what it is not, provided you can be reminded you ever looked at it at all.
- You Dirty Rat: SCP-731 is a manhole cover. Rats are involved too. It is Way Creepier Than It Sounds. SCP-798 is more lonely but no less weird.
- Zombie Apocalypse: SCP-008 is The Virus in this scenario (it's luckily been avoided so far).
We See You Seeing Us Seeing You Too.
- ↑ Bobble the Clown sitting in a chair, glaring at the viewer for thirty minutes straight
- ↑ Bobble the Clown in the room where the Foundation has his show archived, angrily telling the viewer how to breach containment of several dangerous SCPs and murder several important Foundation personnel, featuring an appearance by the animated version of a researcher who happened to be passing by the archive at the time shown on the clock in the show
- ↑ This inevitably lead to a requirement for security clearance
- ↑ Both because it was good writing and because there are some bits that couldn't be removed without a Crisis of Infinite Earths style reboot, which is something the admins aren't willing to do at this time