Blog-or-Treat: SCP-2140 "Retroconverter" in The Madness Dossier

SCP-2140 was heavily inspired by GURPS Horror: The Madness Dossier, so why not write it as an Anunnaki glyph?


KUR.ERIM.U.BIT.A (Retro-conversion)

Hard

Default: Symbol Drawing (Anunnaki)-12.
Prerequisite: Symbol Drawing (Anunnaki); cannot exceed Symbol Drawing (Anunnaki).

This glyph creates a localized reality quake targeting the viewer, altering their past such that they are a loyal member of the target organization. The irruptor version turns viewers into Annukaki cultists, while the Project's version makes them into Sandmen (adding the Sandman Lens,GURPS Horror: Madness Dossier p.25). This alteration follows a "path of least resistance" principle and alters the least amount of the person's history necessary. For example, a SANDMAN exposed to the irruptor version may have been become a tighearnamach (The Madness Dossier p. 29) at any prior time in their career; while a cultist might turn out to be a mole planted by the Project or a civilian a deep cover agent when exposed to the SANDMAN version. Temporal Inertial (p. B93)  provides immunity to this glyph. Observing the glyph if you already are a loyal member of the target organization has no effect.

This alters the past for everyone, not just the viewer. This makes this very difficult to test or observe working, because its action destroys any evidence of a prior history. When someone views the glyph it always appears to have no effect because in the new history they are already loyal and therefore immune.

Despite the very powerful implications of this glyph, the Project is reluctant to deploy it. They believe that every time it is used it weakens History A (triggering a reality quake roll, Madness Dossier p. 58), and also are worried that overuse (especially mass media deployment) may result in a reality shift to a History C where everybody on Earth is a somehow a Sandman. Perhaps more worrying is that irruptors also appear reluctant to use it.

Based on SCP-2140 by me, and released under CC-BY-SA except as the SJGames online policy applies to their trademarks and copyrights (i.e. GURPS references, game mechanics, and the Madness Dossier setting).