💾 Archived View for gemini.locrian.zone › library › SCP › scp-5370.gmi captured on 2023-11-14 at 08:29:59. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-11-04)
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Item #: SCP-5370
Object Class: Thaumiel
Problems based on the ruleset and active configurations of SCP-5370 have been provided to leading mathematical organisations in order to identify potential candidates for BLUE TEAM membership. BLUE TEAM candidates should:
Presently, interaction with SCP-5370 is suspended pending the development of a gameplay strategy approved by both Overwatch Command and the Ethics Committee.
SCP-5370 is an ongoing, anomalous game of fairy chess[1] between two parties: BLUE TEAM, a task force of Foundation mathematicians, and RED TEAM, [RESTRICTED TO 5370/BLUE TEAM CLEARANCE]. SCP-5370’s ruleset was initially devised by the Foundation in 1977, and the game started six years later on the 4th of January, 1983.
A summary of the most important deviations between the rules of SCP-5370 and FIDE chess is provided below:
At the time of writing, BLUE TEAM has a considerable material and positional advantage over RED TEAM, and is likely to achieve mate within the next 200 moves.
SCP-5370’s primary anomalous property is its ability to facilitate survivable communication with RED TEAM. Due to operational security risks, further information requires 5370/BLUE TEAM clearance to access.
Goal: To ensure SCP-5370 continues for as long as possible.
Motivations:
Methods:
Date: 23rd of July, 2009
Purpose: Recontainment of United States orbital paratechnology platform “MORNINGSTAR”
Participants:
<BEGIN LOG>
[REDACTED FOR BREVITY]
AS: —while communication is as simple as identifying the correct move to make, the difficulty is in getting coherent results. Hence the ritual apparatus you see here today.
VC: I... see. The briefing packet didn’t mention—
AS: Relax. It’s not your job to do this; all you have to do is watch. Make sure I’m not being too mean to them. (to MJ) The fishing hook, please.
O5-11: I know she’s new, Amitha, but I’ve never seen you do this before, either. Did something change?
AS: Your man’s a traitor, Eleven, which screws up the usual ways we’d separate the player from the team; we can’t assume the gestalt can get him to cooperate, so that means we can’t just make a move and wait for the response.
O5-11: Ah.
AS: So we have to imbue the move with significance, call out to him specifically. Think of RED TEAM like a bag of coins, and our volunteers here as our sorting machine. We want to pick out certain qualities from each of them—
[RESTRICTED TO 5370/BLUE TEAM CLEARANCE]
AS: Divorcee—
[RESTRICTED TO 5370/BLUE TEAM CLEARANCE]
AS: —former alcoholic—
[RESTRICTED TO 5370/BLUE TEAM CLEARANCE]
AS: —father of two—
[REDACTED FOR BREVITY]
AS: —not as wasteful as you’d think, thankfully. Those parts of them will grow back after a while: well, maybe not the kids.
VC: Can... can I take a break now?
AS: No. There’s a sick bag behind the desk.
VC: Oh.
AS: Now: the most important quality we’re looking for. Betrayal.
(pause)
O5-11: That tattoo. You were Hand?
AS: Not in five minutes. (to MJ) Fentanyl, please?
[RESTRICTED TO 5370/BLUE TEAM CLEARANCE]
VC: Jesus, I’ll- I’ll get a tourniquet, this is—
AS: It’s not blood I’m bleeding. Shut up and eat the eyeball.
VC: You said I wouldn’t have to do anything!
AS: When I asked you if you ate offal, did you think that was a fucking joke?
VC: I- no, but this is- this is ridiculous! I’m going to—
AS: You’re going to eat the eyeball, and you’re going to tell me what move we make.
[REDACTED FOR BREVITY]
VC: —never complaining about ox tongue again—
AS: What move?
VC: (coughs) Bishop! Bishop, to— to a32.
AS: Noted.
(pause)
VC: Where- where’s the sick bag—
[REDACTED FOR BREVITY]
AS: Alfil to g31. Interesting.
O5-11: How many moves without a capture, now?
AS: Twenty-nine. Everyone’s got plenty of pieces on the board, don’t you worry.
O5-11: Mm. Still a lot emptier than I remember it.
AS: You asked us to do this, Eleven.
(pause)
AS: He says you want to see what we’ve got on Reagan’s Star Wars projects, start looking through foster homes. Oh, and something about your husband: very mature, I can see why he defected.
<END LOG>
The Foundation has an institutional knowledge problem unmatched by any other international organisation of its size. It has a fatality rate on par with several contemporary militaries[9][21], high rates of turnover in positions of authority[7], historical gaps in its record-keeping which mean information necessary to containment efforts is passed on almost exclusively by word of mouth[2][5][11]—and these are merely the issues not exclusive to our line of work. The indiscriminate nature of amnestic treatments for infohazardous contamination and the generally high prevalence of mind-affecting anomalies[19] places yet further pressure on the number of experienced employees we can retain in a functional capacity, and therefore the experience they can continue to pass down to future operatives.
In this proposal, we outline a method capable of making it theoretically impossible for loss of personnel to negatively impact institutional knowledge, via the creation of a location known as a ’blackroom’. This method has several advantages over similar blackrooms previously proposed:
We estimate that this project will take approximately ten years to complete, will require a budget of 7.5 million USD, and will last for approximately 260 thousand years provided judicious restrictions are placed on communicating with the blackroom.
[FURTHER INFORMATION RESTRICTED TO 5370/BLUE TEAM CLEARANCE]
1. A term used to refer to variants of chess with altered rules.
2. A piece that can only move 1 space at a time. In standard chess, this refers exclusively to the king and the pawn, but SCP-5370 adds two additional 1-movers.