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| SCP-XXXX |
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Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX is to be kept in a standard storage container in Site-19 when not undergoing testing. SCP-XXXX is to be kept in a standard high-security storage container in Site-██ when not undergoing testing or approved use.
Description: SCP-XXXX is a bookshelf made of white pine, approximately 2.15 meters tall and 1.33 wide. Its anomalous properties manifest when a person reads a fictional story that has been stored on it, so long as they have not previously read it and that particular volume has not previously been a subject of SCP-XXXX's effect. If these conditions apply, the story's text will change in accordance to the reader's emotional reactions, altering itself to meet their desires (such altered stories are designated instances of SCP-XXXX-1). This is not subjective - anyone can thereafter read the altered volume, regardless of whether they have read the original work or not. The effect manifests solely in fiction and confines itself solely to altering text - while picture books can be subjected to the effect, artwork will not change. However, whether the story is found in a novel, a magazine, or an anthology of short fiction is irrelevant. Alteration to the original text can be subtle or drastic, but are written in a style consistent with the original author's.
Recovery Log XXXX: SCP-XXXX was recovered in 1946 following a book-burning incident in ███████, ████ that achieved regional news coverage, whereupon a retrieval agent recognized it as potentially anomalous and flagged it for followup investigation. A mother launched a campaign against the book █████████████████ after discovering that her daughter's copy contained explicit homosexual sex, but when other copies collected by her group lacked the offending material entirely, news organizations began speculating about a "rogue sodomite printer" and calling for an investigation by the publisher. An investigation team discovered futher altered books solely on the girl's bookshelf; her father revealed his grandfather had made it for him when he was a boy and sick with mumps, with nothing to do but read. Class C amnestics were administered to the family and the bookshelf taken into containment.
Addendum XXXX-08: On 08/21/████, Head Researcher S██████ submitted a request to Site Director C███████ for SCP-XXXX to be reclassified to Anomalous Item, on the grounds that its effect was wholly benign and its classification as SCP represented an investment of resources that the Foundation could more productively apply elsewhere. While awaiting response, he had SCP-XXXX moved to South Wing Breakroom A upon his own authority for staff recreational use.
Addendum XXXX-09: Excerpt from the transcript of security video from South Wing Breakroom A, immediately prior to Incident XXXX-Samson.
Four personnel are currently within the room. Agent A████ and Dr. L██, are speaking quietly at the coffee machine on the far side of the room. Research Assistant H██████ is eating at a table and reading a report. Senior Researcher P█████████ is seated in an armchair beside SCP-XXXX, reading the book ████, previously stored on SCP-XXXX
Senior Researcher P█████████ chuckles.
Research Assistant H██████: "Funny book, Dr. P?"
Senior Researcher P█████████: "Oh, not at all. Just had a thought about the first skip I worked on, when I was a research assistant myself. Nasty business, but damn if it wouldn't tie this book up neatly."
Research Assistant H██████ smiles at Senior Researcher P█████████ and returns to reading her report.
Senior Researcher P█████████ turns the page.
[DATA EXPUNGED]
Addendum XXXX-11: Response from Overwatch to Acting Site Director O██████, in the aftermath of Incident XXXX-Samson.
We've forwarded your casualty and damages reports to the appropriate departments and explicitly instructed HR that further inquiries will not carry with them censure for the survivors. Your people did a praiseworthy job in the wake of our most destructive Sigma-Class Cascading Containment Breach in years, and it is obvious, thanks to the heroic sacrifices of Agents C██████ and S███████ in perusing the archives, what the triggering incident was.
However, your request to destroy SCP-XXXX is summarily denied. Accompanying this memo is a Special Containment Team - you will give them your full cooperation. In your haste to secure the Foundation from a threat, we feel you've overlooked its potential as an asset. Overwatch has been pursuing means of suborning anomalous memes, infohazards, and cognitohazards in order to secure sensitive information. The ability to replicate existing instances, and potentially to create new kinds in their entirety, is invaluable to our research in this area.
Consequently, while we applaud your leadership in the wake of this crisis, you are required to submit to an Ethics Committee interview to discuss your desire to "honor the memory of the dead." A few hundred deaths or mental compromises is a vanishingly small price to pay, and one you will undoubtedly be called upon to exceed if you are confirmed as Site Director. For their roles in making us aware of this extraordinary asset, we owe a great debt to Head Researcher S██████ and Senior Researcher P█████████. You and your senior staff are authorized to convey our thanks to what's left of them before their termination tomorrow.
O5-█
