The Broken Masquerade
Securing, containing, and protecting are the three steadfast goals of the SCP Foundation
Most of the topics we've been looking at had focused on a setting in which the Foundation have succeeded in these goals
Sure, there are always incidents such as containment breaches or sudden appearances of anomalies in public places
But overall the Foundation maintains a veil of secrecy from the wide world
But what would happen if they failed in that goal?
That's the concept behind the Broken Masquerade canon, a timeline in which the Foundation finally fails
to contain awareness of anomalies and the entire world becomes far more acquainted with them
This generally is not seen as the primary canon state of the SCP universe if there is such a thing
But it is a very interesting what-if scenario
Much of the Broken Masquerade canon takes place in the form of tales
But there are a few SCPs written with that canon in mind as well
There are thousands of ways that the world could become aware of anomalies on a scale that the Foundation couldn't prevent
But in the case of the Broken Masquerade canon, things culminate with an event in North Korea
in short, North Korea suddenly and
instantaneously
disappears with nothing left but a giant hole.
Hurricanes were reported in the region. But really it was just air and water suddenly rushing in to fill the gap
Immediately afterwards the Global Occult Coalition comes into the light as the world learns that they are a secret
paranormal group funded by the United Nations
The GOC announced that another organization called the SCP Foundation
are responsible for the disappearance of North Korea.
The United Nations and the GOC demand that the leaders of the SCP Foundation be brought in for a trial by the International Court
Instead, the Foundation hijacked television broadcasts across the world and release a message saying that they are indeed responsible for the
disappearance they claim that the country is only spatially displaced somewhere else, unfortunately
they're not sure if the civilians survived the displacement or not
Apparently the Foundation and the GOC were working to prevent some sort of world ending scenario
Which they did but North Korea got lost in the process
The Broken Masquerade really occurred when large swathes of Foundation files were leaked across the internet
With the Foundation apparently unable to prevent or contain it
after this, the doors to the anomalous have been blown open with journalists and
investigators around the world poking their noses into the GOC, the Foundation, the Serpent's Hand, and
practically every other paranatural group out there
Massive relief efforts are made in the area around where North Korea used to be. With countless bodies being found in the ocean
conspiracy theorists around the world go wild as they learn that all of their wildest beliefs were pretty much true and then some.
The SCP Foundation still continues their work, of course as the Broken Masquerade really only entails one of their primary goals failing
There are plenty of anomalies that still need to be contained
But now the Foundation does not need to concern themselves with keeping their existence away from public odds
Reports of various anomalies begin to be published in newspapers and some non-dangerous
SCPs are removed from SCP custody after various governments get involved
the mother of SCP 2118 a young girl who spontaneously
begins speaking in the voice of a deceased child
When in the presence of a parent who lost said child writes a letter to the Foundation
2118's parents apparently lost one of their children and
2118 would regularly mimic the final words and sounds of the child
Causing friction in the family until 2118 was taken in by the foundation
Now her mother hopes to regain custody of the girl after believing her to be dead all these years
But she has to go through a mountain of paperwork
SCP-682 was apparently shown on TV and a young boy writes a letter to the lizard as
his teacher instructed him to write a letter to his hero
He claims that other kids think the lizard is scary, but not him
He thinks that if they met they would be best friends
SCP 2991
A sapient animate scarf, created by an employee of Dr Wondertainment
was taken by the Foundation from an apartment while the tenant was away
The Creator writes a letter to the foundation saying that he's always suspected the Foundation was responsible
But he just wants scarf back now
He says that scarf must be so scared and he'll tell the Foundation everything about scarf if they just safely return it to him
He says he's coming to get scarf either way and they cannot stop him
People of all sorts begin to pry into the SCP Foundation's business.
Many of them discovering things they'd probably rather not know about
the Foundation's Ethics Committee is brought under heavy scrutiny by the United Nations before realizing that
perhaps it's best the Foundation keeps operating as it has been
Both the Russians and the Americans become very interested in
weaponizing some of the anomalies known to the Foundation notably
SCP-610 The Flesh That Hates, despite Accords being written up to prevent this practice
The massive leak of Foundation information didn't just reach the general public obviously
But also every other anomalous group of interest
groups such as the Sarkic Cults, the Church of the Broken God
the Chaos Insurgency and so on gained intimate knowledge of thousands of SCPs and
begin a new spree of raids
It was a trying time for the Foundation and the world in general and things could have very easily collapsed in on themselves
But the world kept going
In time, the anomalous became commonplace to a degree
The Foundation still worked to contain the really dangerous stuff, but safer anomalies began to become integrated with modern society
groups such as Marshall, Carter, and Dark boomed in business
Selling all sorts of safer anomalies such as paranatural pet dogs that can fly or change colors
The Foundation used these safe anomalies to help their public image as videos of cute anomalous pets begin trending worldwide
none of which would have been possible if not for the SCP Foundation or so, they would say
The Foundation even went as far as releasing Public Relation videos directed at teenagers filled with outdated references than memes
There are plenty of scams as well both from governments and corporations
Some governments and officials would claim certain disasters to be anomalous so that the Foundation would clean it up for them
With some going so far as to try and make a scene look paranormal
Shady organizations would sell off all sorts of products and services claiming them to be genuine anomalies
Looking to make a quick buck off some gullible suckers
Anomalous foods also become popular such as the Ambrose restaurant chain that serves all manner of paranatural food
like Kraken caviar or Siberian Firebird
On the more dangerous side of anomalous food is SCP-3739
Mined Milk. A cognito hazard that
anomalously creates mined milk products around the world and
Infects people's brains causing them to develop milk curdles
Of course, activists come out of the woodworks in droves, screaming for the rights of both anomalies and humans such as D-class
Some of this activism was based on facts much of it was based on emotions directed against the Foundation
While the Foundation could make various government officials and international judges see the purpose of their containment efforts and testing
It was a much harder task to convince the public
the Foundation was generally seen as a mysterious secretive organization operating with immunity from the laws of the world and
While information about the numerous examples of the foundation protecting the world from ending was leaked
Much of the public would still only focus on how cavalier the Foundation is with human lives
Some reports begin to spread of the Foundation containing anti-Foundation activists and reporting them as anomalous
Although it's hard to say if that's factual or not
These reports are muddled by the existence of SCP-4427
An anomaly that cropped up in the wake of the Broken Masquerade and randomly causes certain individuals to manifest paranormal traits
generally uncontrollable, reality-bending
I'm going to leave things off here as at this point. I think you should be pretty clear on what the Broken Masquerade entails
Obviously, this was just a summary of bits and pieces from a number of different articles
But overall the Broken Masquerade canon has a lot of room to grow
It's certainly a very interesting timeline since the Foundation no longer has to worry about one aspect of their goals
But the loss of anonymity invites new problems as well
Some might scoff at the idea that the foundation couldn't contain an incident such as the disappearance of North Korea
considering the power at their disposal
But it leads to an interesting story regardless
Much of the SCP universe is predicated on the idea that there are many things in existence man was not meant to know
But in time you can probably get used to anything