"We need a number that keeps counting even when the universe won't."
Item#: 9933
Level1
Containment Class:
thaumiel
Secondary Class:
{$secondary-class}
Disruption Class:
{$disruption-class}
Risk Class:
{$risk-class}
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9933 must continuously broadcast a signal to the SCiP-net relay every second. Under the 2010 Austria Accords, this time signal is also relayed in real-time to all signatory Groups of Interest. As signal loss could be misinterpreted as a temporal destabilization event, the signal must reside on triple-redundant systems.
The central anomaly must be contained within its dedicated measurement apparatus at all times, supported by multiple independent backup power sources. The apparatus must maintain a stable connection to SCiP-net, even during transportation and field deployment.
As the sole authoritative reference for Foundation Standard Time, SCP-9933 is to be protected at all costs. Since concealing a device required to continuously transmit a signal is impossible, security teams must possess sufficient firepower to repel counterattacks. During deployment, it must be escorted by a sufficient number of Mobile Task Force units to counter all known Groups of Interest operating within the surrounding area.
Due to the inclusion of DELTA as a standard tool in field kits, Procedure 9933-ICARUS is to be conducted on a monthly schedule to replenish available units.
One-year visualization of SCP-9933's morphic state isolated within the temporal field.
Description: SCP-9933 is an extradimensional spatial anomaly that morphs its physical geometry at a perfectly constant rate. Due to its design, it is immune to all known forms of time manipulation, including timeline resets or reality bending.
The anomaly is deterministic and follows an infinite series of unique shapes. Every second, the monitoring array measures the anomaly's current shape and cross-references with where it appears on the pre-calculated sequence. Using this and the constant rate of change, the computer can determine exactly how much time has elapsed.
Since this count cannot be altered by any reality benders, Foundation Standard Time (FST) is used by the anomalous community as the only objective method to measure time.
Human time is a headache. Between time zones, leap years, and daylight savings, it’s all circumstantial. Programmers fixed this with UNIX time: a single, growing number that counts seconds from a fixed point in 1970.
The anomalous world is worse. To a reality bender, 'Tuesday' is just an opinion. We need a clock that doesn't rely on regular physics. We need a number that keeps counting even when the universe won't.
- Excerpt from the Project EPOCH proposal
Project EPOCH
SCP-9933 was initially proposed by Director Maria Jones as a definitive record-keeping instrument for RAISA. After the O5 Council recognized its potential for tracking temporal anomalies, the project was approved.
Initial development with the Department of Esoteric Physics attempted to recreate the atomic clock, but with temporal shielding. However, despite theoretically shielding the atom from temporal anomalies, researchers could not establish a method for tracking elapsed time and therefore could not prove its success.
Without proof of progress and with increasing costs, Project EPOCH was under threat of cancellation.
Transcript from the Foundation Research Conference
Dr. Adrian Parker
Parker: Director Jones?
Jones: Yes?
Parker: Dr. Adrian Parker. I was interested in your Epoch project, but I think you need to pivot.
Jones: Excuse me?
Parker: Your clock relies on a repeating cycle. No matter how fast or slow, the atom always returned to the same states, so there was no way to tell how much time had passed between measurements. So, a magician can speed up time between measurements, but as long as it ends up in the same place again, you can't see anything different.
Jones: Yes, the project stalled due to that issue.
Parker: Then you shouldn't use something that repeats. You need a deterministic mathematical anomaly that will never form any repeating pattern. That way, even if the magician speeds up time, it can never return to where it should be.
Director Jones ponders for a second.
Jones: What's your name again?
2D mathematical representation of the sequence. Note how no path is ever repeated.
Dr. Adrian Parker joined the team and led the pivot toward the artificial creation of a mathematically irrational anomaly. Early stabilization attempts revealed issues arising from the anomaly’s higher-order dimensional structure, producing discontinuities when projected into three-dimensional space. These errors compounded over time, threatening long-term determinism.
Dr. Parker conducted an extended review of Foundation archives, surveying several thousand records related to dimensional projection anomalies. He subsequently conducted further research on SCP-045, examining its stability as a lower-dimensional projection of a higher-dimensional structure. From this, he derived a projection framework that eliminated cumulative error in SCP-9933’s morphic encoding.
Adoption of this framework proved instrumental, and Project EPOCH was completed in 2009. Subsequent analysis confirmed the sequence to be deterministic, allowing its forward progression to be reverse-engineered and pre-calculated. Backtracking the sequence, however, remained infeasible.
Maria Jones
MJ
SCP-9933 has passed all testing, and Project EPOCH has successfully concluded. The Foundation Timestamp has been formally defined and activated. As the sequence is infinite, RAISA has arbitrarily set it to the number of seconds since the beginning of 2010.
What began as an internal recordkeeping initiative has become something far larger. I do believe this will be a pivotal moment for many of you.
I am currently coordinating with Overwatch Command regarding external presentation of this achievement to the anomalous community. With this in mind, I am requesting the team’s recommendation for who should present and publish this breakthrough. However, I suspect I already know the answer.
Adrian Parker
AP
I’ve been informed of the team’s decision.
I don’t know how to adequately thank you for the confidence you’ve placed in me. This project represents a defining breakthrough in my career, and being trusted to represent it makes every hour spent on EPOCH feel justified.
Thank you for choosing me.
Overwatch Command
O5
Your proposal for Dr. Adrian Parker to be the presenter is denied.
The Department of External Affairs has decided that you will present in his place.
Maria Jones
MJ
To be clear, my role in Project EPOCH was simply administrative. I am not a scientist, and the technical substance of EPOCH is more appropriately represented by my team.
The Project EPOCH staff expressed strong support for Dr. Parker, and he has already accepted the role.
Overwatch Command
O5
Dr. Parker lacks the diplomatic clearance required for this level of classified engagement. Individuals will be present whom he is not authorized to encounter or even made aware of.
The Austria Accords constitute a major multilateral diplomatic event. As a director, your established reputation carries institutional authority. The presenter is expected to represent the weight of the Foundation as a whole.
This decision is non-negotiable.
2010 Austria Accords in ██████ Building, Austria.
The 2010 Austria Accords were attended by the Global Occult Coalition and most members of the Council of 108, who all agreed on the established Foundation Standard Time. Additional Groups of Interest later adopted Foundation Standard Time independently, including many hostile ones. However, SCP-9933 itself remained exclusively under Foundation control.
Excerpt from the 2010 Austria Accords Proceedings
GOC: This is absurd. A standard cannot exist if it is wholly controlled by a single organization.
Foundation: Foundation Standard Time is being shared in real time. You are receiving the signal without restriction.
GOC: Then let me be precise. We are all relying on a single centralized dependency. If it fails, the entire world goes dark.
Foundation: Rest assured, SCP-9933 is maintained on triple-redundant systems, with continuous monitoring and-
GOC: That is not what I meant, and you know it. If the Foundation is unwilling, then we will pursue our own implementation. You previously indicated that your lead researcher intended to publish his work.
Audible whispering among Foundation delegation
Foundation: The Foundation will not be publishing any papers relating to the creation of SCP-9933.
GOC: What?
Maria Jones: What? Dr. Parker never agreed to-
Foundation: Dr. Parker- the Foundation retains discretion over what is disclosed and when. I am aware the Coalition has many secrets of its own.
GOC: You are looking down on us. We can recreate it with or without the research.
A petition by both Dr. Parker and the GOC to the Foundation Ethics Committee received no response. Dr. Parker then submitted additional requests to continue SCP-9933-related research and publish works unrelated to its creation. However, Director Jones had already formally concluded the project, citing completion of all objectives. Dr. Parker was privately commended for his contributions and reassigned to unrelated projects.
During a system blackout in 2012, the timestamp suddenly jumped forward ██ years. While initially attributed to technical issues, a thorough internal audit of the deepwell revealed [REDACTED] caused by a failure of [REDACTED], leading to initialization of Protocol 2000-Ganymede. All details of the timeline reset were then wiped by the order of O5-█. Upon this revelation, the O5 Council has decided to omit the first few digits from the publicly available timestamp.
Coalition Memorandum to the Foundation
The Coalition formally objects to the removal of digits from Foundation Standard Time. The Austria Accords contain no provision permitting the redaction of temporal data of this significance.
We further note that omission of the number of elapsed years does not conceal the existence of a temporal discontinuity. Such a discontinuity admits only a narrow range of plausible explanations. The Coalition requests clarification on whether this measure reflects an unresolved systemic failure or acknowledgment of an uncontained temporal event.
Foundation Response to the Memorandum
The Foundation acknowledges the Coalition’s position and appreciates its continued attention to chronological integrity.
The Foundation further notes that during prototype testing in 2009, a similar displacement was recorded. This was initially attributed to prototype instability and caused confusion with our development team. With the recent context, the Foundation has looked into your previous records. Your declassified reports from the same period document experimentation involving temporal eigenweapons, which you later stated were never deployed and were safely decommissioned.
Protests from the GOC subsequently ceased. While other parties voiced objections, no organization was able to propose a verifiable alternative.
Project ICARUS
A section of the containment unit of SCP-9933 being transported for ICARUS experimentation.
After the 2012 incident, the O5 Council declared a new goal of backtracking the sequence to get a more accurate analysis of previous time jumps. Dr. Parker was recruited back into a newly formed 9933 team and assigned to Project ICARUS to analyze SCP-9933 to find further uses and back-track the sequence.
In Experiment ICARUS-1508, the 9933 team successfully entangled the state of SCP-9933 into a sealed containment unit. Upon opening it and measuring, the state collapses to match "SCP-9933 Prime" at the moment of observation. By using the "collapsed" state, a computer can accurately determine exactly how much time has passed relative to the Foundation's baseline without requiring the original SCP-9933 instance. This was then compressed into a portable device called "Deviation from Epoch, Local Time Analyzer" (DELTA).
While DELTAs are pivotal for field agents to determine if they are subjected to localized temporal dilation, it has limitations. DELTAs are non-recoverable once activated and cannot be recalibrated or reused. Therefore, it can provide a one-time "check-in" but cannot continuously measure the fluctuations in reality. SCP-9933 itself is still transported to various anomalies to accurately analyze the temporal geometry.
Transcript from the ICARUS-1508 post-meeting
Jones: The experiment worked, but it was risky. You came close to destabilizing SCP-9933. I need to be clear: its value is that it’s a stable clock.
Parker: It’s not just a clock. It’s a true constant, more constant than the speed of light. I’m not pushing it for nothing. This is the first thing I’ve worked on that actually matters.
Jones: Adrian, you have contributed to a groundbreaking project, much younger than most.
Parker: But a much bigger name is attached to the project, director. Barely anyone’s even heard of me, and if they have, they just think I made a clock.
Jones: That’s not how the Foundation sees it.
Parker: Maybe. But history won’t. This is a bigger discovery than e, pi, or any other irrational number. Yet I’ll still end up buried in some secret file cabinet. Now I’m close to an even bigger thing. Closer than I’ll ever be to something like this again.
Jones: Using the anomaly like this isn’t relevant to recordkeeping.
Parker: It never was for me.
Jones: That’s not what you said when you approached me about EPOCH.
Parker: I know. I lied. I needed an opening, and feigning interest was harmless enough to get me in.
Jones: I appreciate the honesty, but RAISA is vital.
Parker: Not to me. I don't care about filing. I cared about being attached to something that couldn’t be ignored. Something permanent. I was ready too, but those bureaucrats blocked it. Now I’m standing in front of time itself. I’m not letting it go again.
After many disagreements, a procedure for the creation of DELTA was approved by RAISA to be within acceptable safe limits. Procedure 9933-ICARUS has been added to the special containment procedures.
Transcript from the Project ICARUS Status Review
O5-7: Congratulations on Project ICARUS. It is a rare privilege to design a Foundation-made SCP that functions as intended without inadvertently destroying the world.
Jones: Thank you. As for the secondary objective-
O5-7: No. ICARUS was successful. The project is being closed.
Jones: What? Dr. Parker is still working on-
O5-7: The project was a charade. We needed the team to give us leverage against the Coalition. Whether that leverage manifested as a usable tool or information about their cover-ups was irrelevant.
Jones: Why?
O5-7: Our intelligence indicates the GOC is approaching an independent implementation. I remember the degree of control orbital eigenweapons once afforded us. Now we possess control over the definition of time itself, and we cannot allow the Coalition to approach parity. With DELTA, we can convince the Coalition to drop its development in exchange for giving them access to the tools.
Jones: You’re reducing DELTA to a pawn. It has fundamentally altered field operations. The idea that any operative can see their time dilation is revolutionary.
O5-7: His work was always intended to be a pawn. We simply did not anticipate it being this effective. This Dr. Parker is intelligent, isn't he?
Jones: Yes, I believe all he wants is recognition. Your actions in 2010-
O5-7: How is progress on the other objective?
Jones: Well, limited. Even though I provided RAISA supercomputers, we are basically brute-forcing guesses of temporal jumps with low confidence. We need more data on previous states.
O5-7: Is that an issue of his capability, or of available technology?
Jones: Technology.
O5-7 pauses
O5-7: That is fixable. Finding the GOC cover-ups could be vital for future bargaining. Perhaps he can be made aware of our more classified technology.
Internal Memorandum
We would like to acknowledge the success Dr. Parker has achieved with SCP-9933.
However, his OMPHALOS proposal is incredibly unethical. We are talking about a large sacrifice just to check our math. While our brute forcing attempts have been so far unsuccessful, that is simply the nature of brute forcing. It can be any day now that we will suddenly crack the code.
This has gone far from the goal of SCP-9933. If we are continuing with this, I will openly resign from the team.
Sincerely,
RAISA Director Maria Jones
BY ORDER OF OVERWATCH COMMAND
Project OMPHALOS has been accepted.
Dr. Parker's research has concluded the infeasibility of brute forcing. We understand the controversy, but it is nonetheless your team's failure in brute-forcing that led to this as the only outcome.
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Item#: 9933-Ω
Level5
Containment Class:
thaumiel
Secondary Class:
{$secondary-class}
Disruption Class:
{$disruption-class}
Risk Class:
{$risk-class}
Project OMPHALOS
Due to early research into Project ████████, technology that can ██████████████████████ was made available to the 9933 team. Project OMPHALOS was initiated to use this technology to create 9933-Ω in which previous states of the SCP-9933 sequence could be directly observed. Dr. Parker claims that access to this historical data would enable the identification of temporal discrepancies resulting from anomalous activity or Groups of Interests.
The remaining team was relocated to Site-███ to use their technology to create 9933-Ω.
Phase I
Phase I used ████████ and a temporal acceleration field derived from SCP-155, adapted by Dr. Parker to artificially advance the creation. Its history was initialized to begin exactly one year prior to our Foundation’s creation of SCP-9933. Through controlled intervention, they were guided to independently develop their own instance of SCP-9933.
Measurement of the simulated SCP-9933 concluded two things:
1. While the temporal field accelerated their entire reality by 400%, their SCP-9933's morphic rate remained the same as ours. The inhabitants perceived the morphic rate as normal, unknowingly defining their 'second' to match the accelerated timeframe. This confirms the rate as constant across all realities.
2. Due to more data and the relatively short sequence length, backtracking their sequence was trivial. This prompted the discovery that the sequence was not infinite but instead terminates at an "origin state", a zero point of the sequence. The total elapsed time since the origin state perfectly matched the total elapsed time of the simulated sub-reality.
With a new understanding of the start of the sequence, backtracking the sequence became feasible using Foundation Supercomputers.
Phase II
[REDACTED]
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- Close
The above document was extracted from a simulated Foundation in an artificial sub-reality created as part of our Project OMPHALOS.
Despite observing the psychological outcome of his simulated counterpart, Dr. Adrian Parker formally requested continuation into Phase II. He stated that every version of himself would understand his reasons and that he was willing, along with all others, to sacrifice himself for another version of himself.
However, the simulation's "Phase II Incident" prompted significant hesitation among our own 9933 team over measuring our reality's lifespan. The O5 Council is currently in deliberation.
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