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| C600 Events are common on the border between the United States and Mexico. |
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Item #: SCP-C600
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: The Foundation's charter, as well as numerous treaties to which it is party, prevent it from directly addressing most C600 Events. In most cases, the nations responsible for these events have assumed responsibility for cleanup and information suppression; these parties are encouraged, but not required, to consult with the Foundation in these tasks.
In cases where the Foundation is permitted to suppress or prevent a C600 event directly (as is the case when dealing with private parties or with governments that lack international recognition), it should do so. If standard anomaly suppression protocols are projected to be ineffective at addressing SCP-C600, systemic changes should be considered. Foundation involvement must be limited to the provision of funds and supplies to existing non-governmental organizations.
Strategies are currently being developed to address the effects of SCP-C600 on Foundation facilities. Until a long-term solution is implemented, the situation can be alleviated by any of the following:
- Genericizing clearance levels such that personnel may access anomalies to which they are not currently assigned.
- Storing low-threat non-sapient anomalies in accessible areas, such as personal offices.
- Allowing very-low-threat sapient anomalies to roam the facility freely.
Description: SCP-C600 is a phenomenon that arises along socially constructed spatial boundaries. Ubiquitous examples include borders between adjacent political entities, property lines surrounding a piece of real estate, prison walls, and gender-segregated public toilets — in each case, the relevant factor is that some people are not permitted to cross that boundary.
Boundaries subject to SCP-C600 will emit pseudoneural energy (PNE)1 under the following conditions:
- An individual wants to travel to a destination by crossing a boundary.
- They recall or realize that, due to the presence of that boundary, they will not be able to reach their destination legitimately.
- They decide not to travel to their destination.
These emissions are mostly harmless, only being detectable by subjects with high psi-sensitivity, and then only causing minor emotional disturbance. They are, however, useful in determining the boundary's susceptibility to C600 Events (see Analysis, below).
At unpredictable intervals, an affected boundary may generate psychic and spectral phenomena of variable strength and nature; these occurrences are denoted as "C600 Events". Generally, this will entail the transmission of social and psychological conditions from one side of the boundary to the other.
What follows is a representative sample of C600 Events; consult Appendix B for a comprehensive list.
| Date | Location | Description |
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| 2021.05.30 | Site-17, ████████ | At least 84 (eighty-four) staff members abruptly believed themselves to be Euclid-class SCP objects. 43 (forty-three) quickly fled the facility. 20 (twenty) reported themselves to site security, offering themselves to be placed in containment cells; an additional 7 (seven) unilaterally claimed existing cells (occupied or otherwise) as their own. 9 (nine) took up defensive positions on-site and demanded various privileges or living conditions in return for their cooperation with recontainment. No casualties were incurred; all affected personnel were retrieved and amnesticized successfully within two days. At least 5 (five) personnel, upon believing themselves to be anomalous, chose to remain and investigate their "anomalous" nature without alerting others. The five listed are those who have admitted to these beliefs, or whose covert activities have been exposed. The total number of personnel who remain affected is unknown. |
Analysis: C600 Events are, in the long term, proportional to the rate of PNE emission; as such, in the case of obscure or rarely-enforced boundaries, a C600 event will likely never occur. Most events which require containment occur near vigorously enforced international borders. Borders with minimal travel restrictions, such as those between nations in the European Union, are largely unaffected.
The other most problematic sources of C600 Events are those surrounding prisons, internment camps, psychiatric hospitals, and other such "total institutions". The high concentration of subjects who routinely wish to leave results in the common occurrence of C600 Events. Foundation facilities that contain numerous humanoids, or which forbid personnel from leaving the building, are at increased risk of cross-anomaly contamination and containment breaches.
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| "Employees only" restrictions are sufficient to generate SCP-C600, though the risk of a C600 Event is extremely low. |
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The most plausible hypothesis for SCP-C600's operation holds that the different social conditions on either side of a boundary constitute a differential noetic surface that accumulates potential psychic energy over time. While generally stable, a thwarted desire to cross the boundary erodes it slightly, emitting a small amount of PNE and weakening its structure. If the surface degrades faster than it can be replenished by ambient conditions, collapses and uncontrolled emissions can occur.
