SCP-C740

An alley in SCP-C740.

Item #: SCP-C740

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: As per the Foundation's agreement with the Palestinian government, minimizing disruption to residents in and near SCP-C740 is prioritized over complete secrecy regarding SCP-C740. As such, residents of Jerusalem are allowed to pass through or reside in SCP-C740 unimpeded, while the Foundation focuses on preventing information about SCP-C740's anomalous properties from spreading outside its neighborhood.

Signage in and around SCP-C740 must contain a subconscious memetic trigger that cause subjects to disregard any unusual activity in the area. This is only effective for the first 5-10 exposures, and is meant primarily to safeguard SCP-C740 from incidental visitors; further, it is only effective on Arabic and Hebrew speakers, meaning that foreign visitors are often unaffected.

When necessary, images of anomalous phenomena in SCP-C740 should be dismissed as digitally altered; videos should be dismissed similarly when possible, and taken offline otherwise. All internet providers in the area have agreed to reduce upload speeds below those necessary to stream live video.

Local gangs have been contracted to dissuade non-locals from entering SCP-C740 and to dissuade SCP-C740's residents and visitors from spreading information about its anomalous properties, all via strictly nonlethal methods.

The Jerusalem police department is to maintain a working relationship with the city's 'Khalal Barkur' subculture (see below) to minimize the disruption they cause to SCP-C740.

Description: SCP-C740 is a rectangular 235m x 894m section of Jerusalem, Palestine which presents a number of anomalous features. The area is comprised of residential homes and small businesses, as well as several chain restaurants and convenience stores. Currently, SCP-C740 has 1,510 permanent residents and 418 regular visitors (such as workers and family members of residents).

The following physical anomalies are present in SCP-C740:

• If an object is continually pushed against an obstacle (except by gravity), it gains potential energy proportional to the energy expended doing so. If the obstacle is removed, or the force pushing the object is reoriented, this potential energy is released as a rapid acceleration. This does not affect objects that are meant to be stationary (houses, signposts, etc.)
• Objects with sufficiently high speed can pass through physical barriers without either being affected. Specifically, the object must be able to pass entirely through the barrier (and vice versa) within 1/60th of a second; otherwise, they will collide as normal. This takes into account the behavior described above; as such, it is possible to travel through almost any barrier by pushing against it for enough time.
• When an object impacts a surface within 10° of the horizontal, the resultant deceleration is applied uniformly across the entire object. The major consequence of this is that impacting the ground or floor does not cause any deformation or damage to the object in question.

Any person who lives in or regularly visits SCP-C740 will become subject to the following mental effects:

• Intuitive understanding of SCP-C740's altered physics. Subjects will quickly adopt behaviors that ease activity within SCP-C740, such as gentle handling of small objects and regularly changing one's posture. This generally does not impede their ability to function outside of SCP-C740.
• Hyper-reliable habit formation. Provided that circumstances allow it, subjects who form a habit will follow it with an unnatural level of precision. This can range from daily routines¹ to personal interactions.² This does not correspond to an overall reduction in mental capacity or flexibility.
• Altered interpersonal conflict. Whenever a physical or verbal confrontation occurs, each involved person in turn will take an 'offensive' position while the others assume 'defensive' positions or simply wait for their turn to act. The length of each 'turn' varies between conflicts (ranging from 0.5 to 30.3 seconds), but is highly consistent within any given confrontation.

Despite the various anomalies present in SCP-C740, residents have been observed to carry out more-or-less normal lives. While SCP-C740 has been known to the Foundation since 2008, the Palestinian government resisted early containment efforts due to their unwillingness to allow citizens to be relocated by outside interests. By 2025, the Foundation was able to reach a containment compromise that was amenable to both parties.

Of note is that, from 2003-2005, two former members of Arcadia attempted to establish a video game studio in Jerusalem, sharing an apartment in what would later become SCP-C740. As they either retrieved or destroyed all of their work upon the dissolution of the partnership, it is unknown what (if anything) they produced and what effect (if any) this had on SCP-C740's later development.

Addendum: The Khalal Barkur subculture

Beginning in the late 2000's, a youth subculture centered around SCP-C740 developed in Jerusalem. This group is generally referred to خلل باركور,³ which is romanized as 'Khalal Barkur'⁴ and translated as "Glitch Parkour". There are about 80-100 active participants in Khalal Barkur, while a further 1,000-1,500 are 'fans' of the subculture. Many, though not all, live in SCP-C740 itself.

While early records of Khalal Barkur are sparse, it is generally accepted to have come about when SCP-C740's unusual physics and predictable residents were noticed by local youth, who drew on their personal interests to create a type of parkour⁵ unique to SCP-C740 that adopts many sensibilities and strategies from the speedrunning⁶ community.

Participating in Khalal Barkur entails choosing from one of several 'categories', which detail a set of tasks within SCP-C740 that the challenger attempts to complete as quickly as possible. In each case, a near-optimal route for the category has been determined, and the best runners have high scores within a few seconds of each other. Violence and theft are disallowed for most categories; however, many other illegal practices are permitted. Khalal Barkur persists despite attempts by law enforcement and the Foundation to crack down on the practice.

What follows is an overview of a run practiced by Khalal Barkur, originally written to introduce new players to the run. All terms and phrases used will be translated into English.

Category name: Pizza time

Goal: Purchase and consume a slice of pizza from both pizza restaurants in the neighborhood.

Route summary: Begin the run at 4:17:50 PM on a Tuesday or Thursday when the wind is minimal, at the northernmost corner of SCP-C740. Run five meters to the unnamed pizzeria near the starting point at sufficient speed to clip⁷ through the front door. Move directly to the counter, say "Slice of cheese", and deposit exact change on the counter. Run to the corner of the building and crouch against the wall in a particular manner for 41.6 seconds. Quickly readjust your position to be launched south by southwest at ~315 kph, clipping through two buildings along the way.

After 9.5 seconds, hold an arm out at a particular angle to grab a horizontal pole outside of a barbershop. Use the pole to change your direction downwards and land unharmed. Run thirteen meters south to the Papa John's in SCP-C740's south end, again clipping through the door. Say "Slice of cheese." as you enter and toss nine times the pizza's price at the cashier.⁸ While the cashier retrieves a slice of pizza, stack two chairs on top of the nearest table. Accept the slice and thank the cashier, then begin to consume the pizza.

Climb on top of the chairs, then jump upwards, clipping through the ceiling onto the roof. Place the rest of the pizza into your mouth and consume it while running over the roofs of four buildings. Use the momentum built this way to climb to the corner of another building whose roof is 3m higher than the others. Ascend to the top of this building and jump from there to the top of a nearby lamppost. Wait for 2.0 seconds, then jump forward, clipping through the roof of a van operated by a particular resident⁹ and landing in the back seat.

Remain quiet to avoid alerting the driver. When the van turns a corner, press up against the van's door, then clip through the door and into traffic 2.3 seconds later. Regain your footing immediately to avoid being hit by other vehicles, then retain your velocity while running through the back wall and kitchen of the aforementioned unnamed pizzeria. Retrieve the slice of pizza from the counter and consume it as you run back to the starting point. The run is complete when the entirety of the pizza is swallowed.

Record time: 3 minutes, 21 seconds, 447 milliseconds

Footnotes

1. For example, one resident of SCP-C740 has placed his leftover supper outside to feed stray cats at 8:13:51 PM every day for 12 years.

2. For example, a cashier at the Pizza Hut restaurant in SCP-C740 was recorded greeting 55 customers. All utterances produced this way were, within the microphone's margin of error, identical.

3. This translation has been flagged as possibly inaccurate. If you can contribute a more appropriate translation, please contact your supervisor.

4. This translation has been flagged as possibly inaccurate. If you can contribute a more appropriate translation, please contact your supervisor.

5. A type of movement where the practitioner traverses a complex (typically urban) environment unaided, taking the most efficient route possible.

6. A recreational activity in which a player attempts to complete a video game in the fastest time possible, often with the aid of glitches.

7. A term from video gaming that denotes moving through a solid barrier. It has been adopted by Khalal Barkur to denote the analogous phenomenon found in SCP-C740.

8. The additional payment was added to the route after the Papa John's cashier began refusing to serve Khalal Barkur runners.

9. Name withheld for privacy reasons.

Image sources

alley.jpg was created by Flickr user zeevveez and can be found here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/zeevveez/43306682855/