Item #: SCP-ES-297
Object Class: Keter
Special Containment Procedures: Curative and preventive responses to SCP-ES-297 have largely failed. The Foundation's current efforts are focused on observing infection patterns in case an exploitable weakness manifests itself. Standard procedure for the Broken Masquerade Class Scenarios created to confront the SCP-ES-297 pandemic is to amnestize and evacuate civilians from the area.
Site-19 Site-34 maintains an electronic record of all SCP-ES-297-1 locations, updating as necessary when an SCP-ES-297-1 is created.
Description: SCP-ES-297 is an infectious phenomenon that affects architecture inhabited or otherwise used by humans. Infections typically start in restaurants, cafés and other food establishments (hereafter referred to as SCP-ES-297-1) before spreading to the venue's cash register, which will display messages saying "Thank you for choosing Taco Bell". The infected location's menu will expand to include items typical of SCP-ES-297-2 establishments such as tacos, burritos, etc. Over the course of eight to thirteen months, the location of SCP-ES-297-1 will undergo a self-contained structural reorganization to resemble in appearance a standard SCP-ES-297-2 location.
SCP-ES-297-2 is the concept of the "Taco Bell" fast food restaurant chain.
History: The first host of SCP-ES-297 was a pizza restaurant in Downey, California, which lysed1 into an SCP-ES-297-2 instance on 05/03/1963. As the incident was originally believed to be a single, unexplained event that took place over months, no amnestics were administered. The restaurant was allowed to reopen due to the owners and employees having lost all memory of the previous restaurant's existence and believed that SCP-ES-297-2 had been open since the beginning of the year.
SCP-ES-297 continued to increase in virulence and host numbers undetected until 1967, when 10 locally owned restaurants were simultaneously infected, closing and reopening as SCP-ES-297-2 instances in a similar time frame.
Once recognized as an anomalous epidemic, early curative efforts consisted of exploiting pre-existing bureaucratic channels to prevent the spread of SCP-ES-297 and potentially sterilizing already infected sites. Treatment efforts included, among other things, lawsuits, rigged health inspections and ingredient recalls. None of these were effective. Competing restaurant chains, Qdoba, Chipotle, and Moe's Southwest Grill, were funded by Foundation front companies to compete with SCP-ES-297, but this strategy became unreliable due to constant mutations of SCP-ES-297-2 in the form of sales and special events.
Below is a table of dates and notable mutations and events regarding SCP-ES-297.
Addendum 1 - Abridged register of Notable SCP-ES-297-2 instances
Location | Previous Settlement | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Downey, California | Unknown, local pizza restaurant. | March 5, 1963 | The first recorded infection of SCP-ES-297. |
Downey, California | Multiple restaurants. | July 13, 1967 | Discovery of the infectious properties of SCP-ES-297, all restaurants in Downey, CA were affected. |
Austin, Texas | Burger King, fast food chain. | April 7, 1972 | First active attempt to stop the spread of SCP-ES-297-1. |
Containment attempt: The Foundation's resources were tactically deployed in the local court system to encourage closure following the introduction of rats and mold spores through the roof ventilation. Despite overwhelming evidence, no closure was made. Further investigation revealed that employees of the local USFDA office had repeatedly visited the facility over the past six months.
Albuquerque, New Mexico | Chili's/First New Mexico Bank | March 4, 1986 | First manifestation of cross-construction. Three instances manifested side by side over the course of two months, progressively disintegrated the walls separating each structure until all three hosts merged into one SCP-ES-297-2 instance. |
Hoover, Alabama | Walter 'n Co. Auto Repair Shop, Car repair workshop | October 10, 1992 | First SCP-ES-297-1 instance completely not associated with food. |
Mexico City, Mexico | Carlos'n Charlie's, restaurant | June 4, 1993 | The Mexican government by chance became aware of SCP-ES-297, and attempted to force the chain to close. This invariably caused all government officials to be unable to perceive SCP-ES-297; furthermore, all existing SCP-ES-297 documents in Mexico were deleted. It is worth mentioning that SCP-ES-297 has shown an increase in infection rates in the country since this event. |
Irvine, California | Multiple businesses. | February 2, 1994 | Rapid conversion of a corporate building into an SCP-ES-297-1 instance. The individuals affected by SCP-ES-297 at this location claimed to represent Taco Bell at various executive levels, with one individual claiming the title of CEO. |
Following this conversion, the Foundation investigated all individuals claiming to be high-level officials of the corporation. All of the subjects concerned were former employees of the various companies that rented office space in the building, and there was little or no suspected anomalous activity or prior involvement with SCP-ES-297.
Continued location register
Location | Previous Settlement | Date | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
Three Portlands | Rocko's Rockin' Rocky Road, ice cream shop | November 18, 1998 | First SCP-ES-297-1 instance appearing in an anomalous community. |
Containment attempt: The Foundation's resources attempted to coerce the UIU FBI to force the closure of the instance, which was rejected. Further investigation noted several SCP-ES-297-2 instances located in the vicinity of the UIU headquarters in Washington D.C. It is unclear to what extent SCP-ES-297 has affected Groups of Interest.
Munich, Germany | Spicy Crust Pizzeria, Foundation's front company. | May 8, 2000 | First Foundation's front to be compromised. |
Containment attempt: Foundation agents deployed to incinerate the facility. Despite their success, the instance was rebuilt over the next six months and resumed operations.
- | - | July 26, 2003 | The Ambrose Restaurants GoI ceases activity. All establishments have been transformed into SCP-ES-297-2 instances. |
Paris, France | - | April 1, 2006 | The city of Paris is lost. All buildings are now SCP-ES-297-2 instances. |
Containment attempt: Complete quarantine of the city of Paris established. Deemed a failure after a new SCP-ES-297-1 instance discovered 1 kilometre away in the city of Versailles. A Broken Masquerade Scenario was declared through internal Foundation channels and a media statement was prepared.
██████████ | Site-19 | January 26, 2007 | Site-19 becomes an SCP-ES-297-1 instance and all staff are lost. |