.add numbers based on real car stats
.edit Agency section?
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Info
SCP-XX: Dystopias
Author:aismallard (Author Page)
Thanks to
stormbreath,
Tufto, TODO for their feedback.
Item #: SCP-90XX
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XX is kept in a Class-VIII item locker at Storage Site-77. Research requests must be approved by the Department of Dimensional Studies.
SCP-XX-1 has been liquidated using standard protocols for the dissolution of legal entities.
Description: SCP-XX is a heavily modified arcade cabinet, with significant attachments of biological tissue and unidentified metallic wiring. When appropriately fueled and provided with electrical power, the object enables users to search through alternate realities, and when one is selected, to observe and collect information about it. The anomaly's search parameters are configurable only to a limited degree, as its method of scanning limits discovery to universes with Earth-like planets inhabited by baseline humans.
SCP-XX-1 was Poison Soul Productions, a small independent film studio. From its inception in 1998 until its closure by the Foundation in 2006, the studio produced a number of dystopian horror films. While its works were very poorly circulated, the group gained a loyal following of fans on niche web forums. Its films were praised for having a diverse array of styles, subject matters, and highly realistic visual effects.
The studio presented its published films as original works of fiction. In truth, its films were edits of nonfiction media or otherwise taken from real events within alternate universes.
The general production technique involved selecting a universe of interest, searching its media ecosystem, and then editing together the most promising pieces of content into a cohesive whole. Due to SCP-XX permitting data access from both the reality's past and future, this enabled the studio to take samples from a range of in-universe time periods, as well as study its full history.
Addendum XX-1: List of Films
Title: Mystery Meat
Synopsis: The film is presented in a documentary format, describing the typical lifecycle of human livestock.
It begins with a discussion of breeding and desirable physical properties, as well as a brief orientalist history of a racial group commonly used in meat production. The narrative continues by discussing how offspring are reared, the kinds of feed that are used at different stages of life, and the factory's automated slaughtering mechanism. Mention is made of livestock indoctrination techniques, as if it were common knowledge.
The film ends with a zoom-out from the deli section of an unremarkable grocery store, where human meat products are sold alongside those from non-human animals. The narrator advertises the brand of meat portrayed in the work.
Notes: This is the studio's first work, and is a largely unedited copy of the in-universe documentary Meat, Inc. Their research notes indicate that in-universe critics found the film to be too self-congratulatory, as the corporation featured in the work had a reputation for inexpensive, poor-quality food products.
Title: Traff Tragedy
Synopsis: The film is a first-person drama, featuring a teenage boy (Jurek) who has fallen in love with another boy (Konstanty), who lives in another part of town. His parents do not approve, as they see his partner as foolish for pursuing a career in agriculture, which in this setting has been almost fully automated.
It is revealed that large, anomalous bird-like creatures with seven purple eyes and multiple long, serrated beaks inhabit this world. These entities, called traff, can be conveniently folded into a dormant form for storage, and when outside, are able to support the weight of 2-5 people. Since their domestication, they have become responsible for facilitating nearly all passenger transport. Cities have evolved accordingly, with most buildings expanding many stories vertically despite elevators being uncommon.
Over the course of the story, the hazards of extensive traff usage becomes clear. The entities can become aggressive, killing or maiming nearby humans, or can become injured or misnavigate while in the air. Despite this, traff use has been in place so long, and society is so dependent on their use that these risks are seen as normal hazards of modern life.
The boys meet secretly, choosing out-of-the way locations for their dates. During the climactic scene, they fight over their careers and their future together, with much of the discussion centering on Jurek's parents. Eventually they come to a tentative compromise, and hug. The future of their relationship seems unsure.
Konstanty departs on his traff, only for another to fly by and initiate a fight. The unexpected squabble throws him off, tumbling to his death, while the opposing traff crashes into the side of a building. Furthering Jurek's horror, its passengers are revealed to be his parents.
The final scene takes place in the hospital, with Jurek visiting his mother, the only survivor of the accident. She uses her last strength to castigate him, telling him that he is worthless, before succumbing to her injuries.
Notes: Among fans, the film is widely considered to be the studio's worst work. It is criticized as having poor writing, cinematography, and confusing dialogue. Most viewers suggest that the film's budget must have been spent on the models for the traff, as they are regarded as looking exceptionally lifelike.
The characters and story were taken from a real incident in-universe, although repeated mentions of Jurek's fear of the ocean were all cut due to being irrelevant to the plot. The project was entirely filmed by the studio themselves through amateurish use of the SCP-XX perspective camera feature. Later works show significant improvement in this regard.
Title: Life is Cheap
Synopsis: The film portrays a multi-layered narrative, beginning by presenting itself first as a travel advertisement, enticing wealthy in-universe residents to visit attend a prestigious conference. It then cuts to a planning meeting of an underground left-wing group, who have infiltrated the conference and are plotting on killing most or all of these visitors. Particular emphasis is placed on the group's desire to force the rich to "finally taste true death".
The film then shows a lavish ballroom, with guests eating and laughing. Suddenly, the radicals, heavily armed, storm in and begin slaughtering all in attendance. Despite the mass death, the wealthy visitors are only initially shocked, before taking it in stride, continuing to laugh, smile, and converse as they are mowed down.
The camera then follows a trail of blood down a deserted hall, dipping inside a private theater, where a history documentary has begun playing to an empty room. It is revealed that, nearly three centuries prior, humanity had discovered a means of reviving the dead. The technology is able to restore human remains to an "ideal" state prior to death when provided with sufficient fresh viscera (usually porcine due to its low cost). The discovery is praised as the most important development in all of history, and discusses the eugenical benefits to humanity of "separating the wheat from the chaff".
It is explained that restoring the brain and its memories is significantly more difficult than restoring the rest of the body, requiring an expensive meninge solution. This step is omitted for the "chaff", explaining that they had inferior minds with nothing in it worth saving. Such a resurrected person has a "random" personality and memories, seemingly derived from the human collective unconscious.
Then, it is shown how, after the advent of this technology, a "natural selection process" took place, where people with access to more resources could afford full-brain revival, while those without could not. As a result, this new upper class, called Immortals, experience high-quality lives free of serious health problems and are able to live for as long as they please, all while continually consolidating their wealth by subjugating the unnamed underclass. The documentary continually praises these Immortals, describing them of superior intellect, culture, and learning, as opposed to the underclass which has only whatever basic knowledge they received from the resurrection process.
The film then shows the Immortal's extravagent lifestyle, and in particular, their extreme sports and cultural activities (called "deathlife"). These include skydiving without parachutes, tennis with special balls that explode on contact with human flesh, assassination plots as a casual social activity, taking baths in hydrochloric acid, and many others.
There is a notable tonal shift as the scenes from the montage of Immortal activities are increasingly replaced with scenes of the underclass's deathlife. Houseservants in a mansion perish after being caught in the crossfire of an Immortal play-fight. A factory owner, displeased with the performance of his workers, orders them all executed in the hopes that their revived new selves will have "better minds". Wealthy diners storm into a kitchen and kill the chef in a fit of rage over the quality of a meal. To save on costs, workers in a power plant are not provided with personal protective equipment (PPE). Tens of thousands are packed into slums, with death from violence, disease, starvation and other causes extremely common. (Civil authorities responsible for their safety only periodically come by to revive the deceased.)
The film returns to the ballroom, two hours before the attack. The militant group enter a maintenance room, and the haggard radicals frantically work on a large industrial machine. After three solid minutes of the sabotage-in-progress, a caption finally reveals what it is: it is the city's central resurrection system.
Notes: Among fans, this work's soundtrack is widely considered to be a favorite, with the final scene receiving particular acclaim. Many also praised its use of gore: the pseudo-deaths of Immortals are shown as fantastic and campy, while the bodily / identity deaths of the underclass are treated as grim, serious injustices.
Title: The Agency
Synopsis: In this film, humanity lives in a single, technologically advanced megacity. An elusive, supposedly governmental agency exists with the mandate of ensuring its civilian populace remains ignorant of electromagneticism.
In particular, radio technology is singled out as dangerous and paranormal due to its "ghostly" abilities to send information over long distances and through solid materials. Despite this, the Agency itself makes significant use of radios, as well as analog and digital computing. This combined with the lack of other users of this technology gives the organization a significant competitive edge.
The film centers on Agent Petrussen, an operative of the Agency mostly consigned to routine surveillance tasks. They live in a small 376th floor apartment near a major pneumatic mail sorting station and spend most of their off-hours tweaking custom hoverbikes with friends.
Their life takes a turn for the dramatic when they are assigned to infiltrate the Cult of the Magnet, a group which has discovered electromagnetism and is attempting to use it to resurrect an ancient beast supposedly dormant beneath the megacity. Taking on the false identity of "Garffle", they discover that the cell leader is in fact their own mother, who they thought had died when they were a teenager. The conspiracy deepens as one of their fellow hoverbike hobbyists, Svel, reveals that he was aware of Petrussen's real job and has been reporting on his activities to a mysterious individual known only as "The Watcher".
Before the protagonist gets the opportunity to report these developments, a robed figured claiming to be the Watcher appears. Together, they descend in an abandoned maintenance elevator as the figure explains the concept of a solar flare, which at some point occurred unexpectedly and completely decimated society, which was heavily dependent on electronic technology vulnerable to such events. As a result, an unnamed group of scientists utilized unspecified technology to "reset" society and rebuild while suppressing knowledge of electromagnetism.
The film then cuts to 17 years ago, when the protagonist's mother was working as a high-level Agency executive. She discovered files on the Cult of the Magnet and was disturbed to find that the beast beneath the city was not only real, but was the reality reset tool used after the solar flare cataclysm. She spends months secretly gathering additional information before stealing a key artifact and defecting from the organization along with forty other individuals. To cover this up, the Agency deployed memory-erasure drugs on all friends and family of the defectors.
Back in the present, the protagonist and the Watcher arrive at the bottom level, deep below the city. The elevator doors open to Petrussen's unnamed commanding officer, who announces that he has captured their mother and plans to sacrifice them both to the beast to reprogram humanity into intelligent yet mindlessly obedient drones, claiming that this will produce a "perfect" society free of human faults and conflict. The Watcher removes their robe and reveals themselves as the Agency's Original Director, who after their retirement began plotting how to destroy the Agency. They criticize the organization for straying from its original mission of protecting society from apocalyptic and extinction events, instead becoming an institution only interested in consolidating power. The two fight with swords and psychic-wave weapons while Petrussen crawls over to their mother and attempts to resuscitate her.
A stray shot hits the protagonist, who begins convulsing, as memories flood in. They remember memories of their mother, their childhood, how they were recruited to the Agency, and others. When they finally recover consciousness, they find that the Watcher has been killed and their commanding officer is preparing to awaken the beast. Petrussen realizes that, due to the attack, they now have their mother's memories as well, and reaches into her lab coat pocket to retrieve a key artifact. Using this, they are able to stall activation while both individuals, on the verge of death, trade blows and insults.
Petrussen manages to kill the commanding officer, and sets the beast to reset to a world to the prior iteration, where electromagnetism was a normal, conventional technology, and the Agency does not exist. They collapse to the ground, leaving their fate, their mother's fate, as well as the fate of the world, ambiguous.
Notes: Viewers were mixed on the use of lingo by Agency personnel, with some describing it as fleshed-out and engaging, while others found it to be needless technobabble. However, most agree that the film is a masterwork in tension and suspense. The film is a popular topic of critique, with numerous commentators writing in-depth essays dissecting the film's themes of societal control, the concepts of "normalcy" vs "aberration", and the theft of identity and personal autonomy caused by non-consensual memory modification.
Foundation analysts have been unable to determine which universe the events of this film are taken from. One hypothesis posits that this is a composite work made using footage from several universes, a view buoyed by the large number of parallel realities which were subsequently discovered to be using anomalous memory-erasure medication similar to the "amnestics" portrayed in the film.
Title: The End of History
Synopsis: The film is a documentary describing a speculative alternate history. In this universe, the Earth has large landmasses in the middle of the Pacific Ocean which do not exist in the real world. During the colonial period, European powers invade these lands, engaging in mass genocide with a death count of approximately ~8% of the world population. Built on the ashes of thousands of destroyed societies, a number of ethnosupremacist nations emerge, implementing harsh race-based hierarchies. Within the documentary's narrative, one of these nations, Mortte, becomes the point-of-view country.
Aside from the new continents in the Oceanic Hemisphere, the most meaningful divergence from baseline history takes place after the Great War. A second devastating war in Europe breaks out, and Mortte, due to its distance, is largely undamaged in the fighting. As the war ends and rebuilding begins, Mortte leverages its position to become extraordinarily wealthy and rework the international order in its image, with itself in charge. This nation then wields its unparalleled power to promote fascism and crush pro-equality movements all over the world. Consequently, the decolonial turn of the 1940s and 50s does not occur, with European powers retaining political chokeholds over their subjects even as the 20th century draws to a close. The film highlights the massive suffering and global inequality resulting from successful suppression of real-world equalitarian and land restoration politics.
After 1991, with realistic threats to its power having disappeared, Mortte now presides over a globe-spanning imperial order where all but a few countries are subservient to its far-right anti-equality agenda: nations which attempt to pursue independent politics are attacked or destroyed. This international order has been carefully designed to levy an indirect tax on all humans worldwide, providing effectively unlimited funding for Morttion state endeavors.
The film then highlights instance after instance of said state's military and intelligence services using its resources to carry out countless war crimes, acts of genocide, collective punishment such as forced starvation and immiseration, among other atrocities.
The work ends by jumping forward to 2050, where Morttion economic policy, with its self-destructive focus on expansion at all cost, has caused mass death. It is noted that at least two billion people worldwide have been killed or displaced due to extreme weather events, famines, rising sea levels, all enabled by a global system which refuses to render meaningful humanitarian assistance.
Notes: While audiences were generally positive on the film's editing and visual style, viewers said that they felt its contents were over-the-top and unrealistically/excessively bloody. Many details within the world of the film were seen as heavy-handed, such as the loyalty pledge performed daily by schoolchildren, with the name "Mortte" in particular being criticized as unsubtle.
Foundation researchers studying this reality, however, found it to be largely accurate of the events of this world. The primary alteration the narrative made was renaming its main imperial power from "United States of America", as the film's director felt that the original name was too cumbersome.