Di Molte Voci

That was taken yesterday. Just put it in an unused slot until we can figure out how to make a formal designation stick.- Russo Sr.

The old title changes every time the page is refreshed. I assume it has something to do with the way this affects information?- Kingham

Yes. This should serve as an example of the anomaly's properties. I recommend leaving this intact, since it's basically harmless.- Scranton

No objection.- Russo Sr.

Two days later and we're still out a designation. Let's just use an informal designator so the report doesn't have to use "the item" and "the anomaly" to death.- Russo Jr.

How about "Di Molte Voci"? Italian for "out of many voices".- Grimes

Fine by me, unless someone who's actually fluent in Italian can improve it.- Russo Jr.

Not assigning an object class. It's not going to stay put, and the database search will probably choke on it somehow.- Russo Sr.

In lieu of an object class: Di Molte Voci makes documentation a huge pain, as you can tell, but preventing the spread of its anomalous effect has been pretty doable. Stay on your toes until we figure out exactly what it can and can't do, though.- Benvenisty

The database search already excludes infohazards, so you don't need to worry about that.- Rosen

For the Voci itself, I see no reason a standard lockbox wouldn't work. Should definitely stay at Site-82, since transport risks incidental contamination.- Kingham

A few of that site's lockboxes are password-locked. I'm not seeing anything to suggest it would affect those, but keeping it under literal lock and key seems like a prudent precaution nonetheless.- Benvenisty

Anything keyed to specific phrases, numbers, etc. could be unreliable if the anomaly goes off-script. That should be the guiding containment principle.- Graff

What about retinal scanners? Site-82's bulk storage is behind one, and without those or ID badges we'd be pretty low on effective security options. The site has a strict "don't rely on facial recognition" policy, and I don't really want to know why.- Benvenisty

Retinal scans are almost definitely fine. Just remember to CC me on ANY bug reports in that system.- Graff

Besides the non-reliance on keyphrases and formal signifiers, containment should basically entail a soft quarantine on any affected documentation and site-wide Class-3G amnestics every few weeks.- Scranton

Either you just suggested moving all of the documentation to the temporary holding cells and posting guards only on the outside of the wing, or our fields have very different understandings of the phrase 'soft quarantine'.- Kingham

I see why you'd be confused. As far as memetics and infohazards go, a soft quarantine would permit limited information transmission, but cross-linking affected documentation to anything else would be kept to an absolute minimum, and properly conditioned personnel (i.e. everyone with enough clearance for this entry anyways, except Rosen, but I doubt he read enough for it to matter) are the only ones who can come within two layers. There's a whole protocol about it, but I can't exactly leave a link here.- Graff

Hold on, 3Gs aren't standard for this type of infohazard. Scranton, elaborate?- Graff

Did you read my work on infospatial desynchronization and lingchi memeplexes? My last paper discusses how these phenomena can mimic an area-of-effect, and it seems like that could be going on here. With an AoE this big, we can't afford not to try.- Scranton

I reread the paper and I agree. 3Gs for the whole site, twice per month.- Graff

Anomaly-centric or item-centric description? Ease of reading would normally dictate item-centric, but given the circumstances, I feel that the anomaly should get a thorough description first.- Grimes

Item-centric is fine.- Russo Jr.

I'll get to work.- Grimes

Di Molte Voci is a harlequin mask made of carnival glass. Actually, hold on — that rhymes. HAR-le-quin MASK-made-of CAR-ni-val GLASS. Could that be relevant?- Grimes

Doubtful — rhyme-sensitive anomalies usually manifest differently — and an English rhyme would be bizarre in this case — but I would not rule it out. Good eye, Grimes.- Graff

The lab didn't find anything unusual, except traces of oil on the inside, which suggests it's been worn. Hard to say when, though.- Garcia

The central anomaly involves the disruption of certain information, randomizing some pieces and replacing others with whatever discussions went into it.- Grimes

Seems to me that it's specifically affecting consensus-based information (like standard anomaly summaries), which is why there's nothing close to a real containment report here — just the stuff that's supposed to stay behind the scenes. Things like titles, protocols, object classes, explicit statements of authority, and a few other identifiers switch around at random too. Not sure why our names are unaffected.- Kingham

This is a good layman's summary of the affected information. Essentially, anything 'authoritative' in the right way is susceptible.- Scranton

Of course it's massively more complicated that, and in ways we actually understand, but I guess that's good enough for the average reader. Why bother getting into the specifics when nobody reads or understands our papers anyways?- Graff

Take it easy, Vanessa. This is going into the final version.- Scranton

Di Molte Voci seems to have several vectors for affecting information. There's the classical infohazard, which means anything that deals with it in any real detail is affected. Anything that references or links to said documentation can be affected, but this usually has a reference threshold of four.- Graff

As an example, it affected the stack of post-it notes I leave on Kingham's desk after I left a third about the Voci. Presumably, the stars aligned.- Benvenisty

Believe it or not, I'm half-convinced that there's some astrological significance to Di Molte Voci, but nothing that would affect the reference threshold.- Graff

Not too long after initial containment, we figured out it got a lot weaker outside of a 310m radius. I'm gathering that the brainiac consensus is that it's not just a standard area of effect, though?- Grimes

By way of advanced infohazard studies and my own pet theories, yes. It's not really a concern as far as containment goes, but there are some research implications that we'll add once there's anything concrete to say.- Scranton

The 'death toll' is 43 containment summaries like this one, 271 other Foundation documents and assets, and at least 450 affected pieces of information outside of containment.- Russo Sr. (Updated 2012-08-08)

The fact that there is no actual death toll is a testament to our fine researchers, containment specialists, and archivists.- Garcia

We're already well-paid. Don't feel the need to flatter us too.- Benvenisty

Somehow, it felt appropriate :)- Garcia

So, Di Molte Voci is something I picked up on vacation. Yes, those rumors about Foundation agents stumbling across SCPs on vacation are real, or at least, they were for me. Anyways, I was checking out an antique shop in Sicily (which is to say, I was asking for trouble) when I find an extremely pretty glass mask that looks like it belongs to a jester. The woman at the front counter, called herself Greta, was adamant that she did not want money for it, and instead wanted to barter for it. After a delightful hour talking over coffee with a 70-year-old woman, I got the mask. She claimed that it could dispel lies, and thus had no more use to her. I got the sense that it wasn't a conversation she wanted to have, so I didn't press her. I flew home two days later.

I actually triggered its properties the day before I left while on the phone with my mom, when I attempted to sum up Instagram's responses to the mask and ended up reciting all twenty comments. I chalked it up to being tired and brought it with me to work. The same thing happened there, and that's about when they started to look at its containment.- Kojo

The antique shop from which Di Molte Voci was obtained had been closed down prior to our follow-up visit. The proprietor of the laundromat next door claims that the store had been operating at a loss for an extended period of time.- Strunk

This is consistent with what she told me. Well, she didn't mention that she was going broke, but she did seem skinny in a sort of unhealthy way, and wasn't shy about letting me buy her lunch. She did also try to sell me a few other odds and ends during lunch. Never would let me pay for the mask, though. Money is obviously not going to be a concern for containment, since we don't plan on selling it any time soon, but perhaps this could shine some light on its anomalous properties?- Kojo

Hold on, why are those words in red? I didn't do that.- Kojo

I have a hunch, but nothing concrete yet. We'll look into it.- Graff

I somehow doubt Di Molte Voci was made purely to mess with us. it probably has some sort of history. Wasn't there supposed to be an inquiry in the area about it? What happened with that?- Kingham

There was, but predictably, I can't exactly condense the information into a summary. I'm this close to just cherry-picking some statements from my "helpful" pile and slapping them together.- Strunk

It worked. Here we are.- Strunk

Display interview snippets (translated from Italian) Hide snippets

You're looking for Greta Lanza. She ran an antique shop in the city, but she's been missing. I realized something was wrong when she didn't show up for Mass.- Anonymous civilian

I examined Ms. Lanza's home. It had nothing of interest, and in fact very little at all. It's consistent with the theory that she was struggling with money.- Strunk

I looked at the picture you gave me, and it's definitely her.-Kojo

She never talked about a mask, but she did collect glass sculptures. It wouldn't surprise me if she had something like that.- Anonymous civilian

If she knew about Di Molte Voci's anomalous properties, I'm not surprised that she kept quiet about it.- Scranton

Yes. Her grandson brought it in for a project we were doing in class last month, and said it was magical. Greta showed up part-way through the kids' presentations and took it from him. She seemed very upset about the whole thing, I couldn't figure out why.- Anonymous civilian

That's about when it started happening, yes. At first I thought someone was vandalizing the files, but then there was… something that kept me from changing them back. I'm sorry, I don't know how to describe it. I locked the school's records system down once I realized it was spreading, and I've been too scared to use it since.- Anonymous civilian

Most of the affected information was on the school's computers, but to be safe I called in a containment team to scour the town.- Strunk

If she knew that Di Molte Voci is stronger when it's nearby, that would explain why she moved it to her shop afterwards. She was comfortable pawning it off on some stranger, though, so perhaps she didn't realize it could snowball.- Grimes

Or she didn't care. She's getting old and going broke — maybe she just wanted things to stay stable for however long she planned on staying.- Kingham

Alternatively, she wanted someone who needed it to have it. When I spoke with her about how I recently found out I was adopted, she seemed sympathetic, but made a point of saying that some people need lies like that. I didn't press her on it.- Kojo

That would make sense. The lunch she wanted you to have with her was probably an audition of sorts, to see if you could use it well.- Grimes

She probably didn't count on me handing it off to such a secretive control freak of an organization. Shame, that.- Kojo