Item #: SCP-XXXX
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: As of the writing of this article, SCP-XXXX is not considered contained. There are no exant instances of SCP-XXXX currently known to the Foundation that can be contained. Devices capable of detecting instances of SCP-XXXX are currently rudimentary. As such, discovery of locations contaminated by SCP-XXXX must be gathered from governmental and public news sources.
If and when instances of SCP-XXXX contamination are discovered, Mobile Task Force XXXX-Alpha ("Beckett's Boys") are to be deployed. As containing SCP-XXXX instances itself are impossible due its effects on normal matter, objects and places contaminated with SCP-XXXX must be destroyed in its place.
Description: SCP-XXXX is a particle1 with the capability of altering matter at the atomic level. Multiple cases of SCP-XXXX contamination have been noted, and while each result is unique, some commonalities tend to exist.
Items or areas contaminated by SCP-XXXX are altered to gain an aged, used appearance, reflecting a future event or condition of Earth. Many times, the contaminated items imply a future event or condition of Earth where the status quo is hostile, dangerous, or otherwise significantly different than our own. Separate major SCP-XXXX contaminations have reflected saliently different/contradictory futures. As such, the Foundation does not believe that SCP-XXXX alters objects into what they definitively will be in the future, and no chronological considerations need be considered.
SCP-XXXX is highly transferable through normal inorganic matter, spreading itself (and its assorted alterations) to nearby objects. Contamination events as large as small cities have been witnessed. Conventional destruction of XXXX-contaminated items removes SCP-XXXX from the items, although the items do not revert to their original state. There are no cases of SCP-XXXX contaminations in humans, or when humans are present. See Addendum-B.
Addendum-A: Sample of Major SCP-XXXX Contamination Events
Note: For a full list, see file XXXX-343-Full
Location: Township of █████ ███████, United States
Date: ██/██/19██
Codename: Hot Sands
Major Alterations: 90% of flora removed. Soil layers down to the eluviation layer replaced with silica sand, with four times the average radiation levels. Buildings in area in state of severe disrepair, with evidence of habitation. No living humans discovered, █ human skeletons.
Notes: "Har har, you idiots. Sending me to some yee oldey 'radioactive wasteland' playground. I bet this isn't even really radioactive. Water tastes fine." - D-2161/13, deceased
Location: ██████ Building, ████, France
Date: ██/██/19██
Codename: Panopticon
Major Alterations: Outside appearance of building has been stripped away into a featureless box shape. Building appears to be entirely constructed of metal. Inside is well-lit, but lacks noticeable light sources. Layout is unchanged, but no smaller items remain. Twenty flat-screen monitors dot the interior. Building extends 2km below ground level.
Notes: "I'm a scientist, but this place makes me feel like I shouldn't be here. Like I should've dreaded being here." - Doctor ██████
Location: ████████ Public Library, ████████ (United States), Computer 4
Date: ██/██/20██
Codename: Terminal
Major Alterations: Computer screen has been altered into a CRT monitor, while otherwise retaining its previous capabilities. Tower and internal mechanisms are four times their normal size but otherwise uneffected. No keyboard exists. Front of tower is flat and nondescript, minus a a long cable with nonstandard end. Human brain cells were detected inside the port.
Notes: "Nope. Just, ya know, nope." - Senior Researcher Mark ██████
Location: Personal residence of [REDACTED], England
Date: ██/██/19██
Codename: Tower
Major Alterations: Building suffers from major damage as a result of the large Grandidier's baobab (Adansonia grandidieri) tree growing through it. Foundation dendrochronologist reported lack of internal rings, implying an anomalously fast growth rate. Sub-soil scans reveal multiple unattached adansonia grandidieri roots in the soil.
Notes: "I know we say this twenty times a day in the Foundation, but something like this should not be possible. This is a species of tree that can't grow in England. This house wasn't just slowly pushed out of the way over time, the tree rapidly displaced the house." - Doctor ████████
Location: Personal residence of [REDACTED], Russia
Date: ██/██/20██
Codename: Short Bites
Major Alterations: Building has been aged severely, as well as heavily altered so as to minimize contact with ground. Points of contact with ground are covered in scratch and bite marks a foot above the ground. Indoors, building is moderately well kept. A crudely drawn poster in one room depicts an unknown animal and the home owner's plan to seek out food from a nearby grocery store without 'running afoul of them'.
Notes: "While there's no obvious connection between the animal drawn on the poster and any known lifeform, it almost looks… well, designed. Note the [REMAINDER DELETED FOR BREVITY]. Nature doesn't do that." - Doctor ██████
Location: [EXPUNGED], Detroit
Date: [EXPUNGED]
Codename: Folly
Major Alterations: [EXPUNGED]
Notes: "Folly represents the Foundation's inherent inability to contain SCP-XXXX through normal matter. We contained every particle of SCP-XXXX we could into a storage container, but we didn't realize until it was too late that the alteration of that container rendered it no longer unable to contain SCP-XXXX particles. The whole thing became the functional equivalent of a leaking water bucket, and we didn't realize we had gotten [REDACTED] a little bit wet. Is it a saving grace that the degree of contamination isn't worse?" - Junior Researcher Charles ███
Addendum-B: Contamination of Living Entity
Three months after investigating the contaminated item codenamed Terminal, Senior Researcher Mark ██████ reported odd sensations while being around any conventional computer. A minute amount of SCP-XXXX particles were detected in ██████'s system, and during interviews, the sensation was best described as "a faint little feeling that I should have something that I don't". Researcher ██████ was allowed to return to his normal duties, with those involved believing that the trace residue of SCP-XXXX in Researcher ██████ did not represent a threat to himself or others.
Two months later, ██████ reported a breakthrough during his off-duty hours. Without consciously thinking about it, ██████ had attempted to plug a USB connector to his right temple. Recalling the transformative nature of Terminal, ██████ believes that SCP-XXXX instilled in him a low-level habit of the act of plugging Terminal's port into his brain into him. From his interview:
"Look, I barely understand what happened to me, but all I know is that the stuff I've got floating around in me came from Terminal, and now I've got this insane echo of a habit of something I've never done whenever I sit at a computer. If I had sat near that thing for longer, what would have happened to me? Would I have eventually thought that forcing that thing's weird chord into my brain was perfectly normal? (strained laugh) Would it actually have worked, and I'd start thinking using a keyboard was some thing the pre-CyberRev2 folks did? How are we going to fix this? Fix me?
As of the latest update to this article, there have been no further cases of any living creature found with traces of SCP-XXXX in it.