Nostalgia, fresh every twenty seconds.
Material produced by SCP-9420.
Item #: SCP-9420
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9420 is housed in a dedicated containment chamber equipped with a non-porous, sanitizable floor and a central drainage trough.
Chamber conditions are to be maintained at elevated ambient temperature with low-intensity, diffuse lighting. A continuous, low-volume loop of ambient cafeteria noise is to be played at all times. SCP-9420 is fed a regular diet of cardboard, paper products and other non-toxic plant-based waste. It is not to be fed animal tissue.
All material produced by SCP-9420 is collected and logged. A small daily sample is retained for testing; the remainder is incinerated. Unauthorized consumption of SCP-9420 byproducts will result in disciplinary action and mandatory medical and memetic screening.
Description: SCP-9420 is a pale, ovoid organism. Externally, SCP-9420 resembles a small, hairless domestic pig, but with markedly viscoelastic soft tissue that behaves under manipulation like partially leavened bread dough. No eyes, ears or other sensory organs are visible. SCP-9420 has no identifiable limbs or skeletal structure; the body appears to be composed primarily of uniform, elastic tissue.
A circular intake orifice is present on the anterior surface and functions as a mouth. Along the ventral surface are sphincter-like openings arranged in three irregular rows. Approximately every seventeen to twenty-three seconds, one or more of these openings dilates and extrudes a small, brown, spherical mass.
These spheres are visually, chemically and microbiologically identical to the standard meatballs served in the in-store restaurants of the furniture retailer FLÄTPAK as of 2011, including fat content, salt levels, seasoning profile and moisture distribution. The spheres emerge at an average temperature of 68°C and are fully cooked. Internal temperature and texture are consistent with having been kept in a warming tray.
SCP-9420 pictured during discovery.
Addendum 9420-1: Discovery
SCP-9420 was recovered from an FLÄTPAK store in Älmhult, Sweden, after a call to local emergency services described an “organic industrial accident.” Foundation operatives intercepted the call and secured the site.
The source of the call was traced to a locked, unmarked door between the restaurant kitchen and the warehouse, leading to a tiled room internally labelled “Annex K.” SCP-9420 was found inside on a raised platform, with several stainless-steel troughs running from beneath it into the main kitchen, and multiple pallets of compressed cardboard and unsold flat-pack furniture.
At the time of discovery, meatballs were being routed directly from Annex K into the restaurant kitchen via the trough system. When questioned, several employees insisted that meatballs "arrived in frozen bags like everything else," despite delivery records showing no meatball shipments to the store for several years. Others referred to Annex K as “the extra kitchen” but were vague or evasive about what was inside.
SCP-9420 was sedated and removed under the cover of an equipment replacement operation. A Foundation front company has since taken over management of meatball supply for the chain to prevent further anomalous sourcing.
Addendum 9420-2: Interview
Subject: E. Lindström, 54, former kitchen assistant at the Älmhult location
Interviewer: Dr. Halim
Date: 18/03/2014
Dr. Halim: When did you first become aware of Annex K?
Lindström: It was just… part of the building, there was always "that one door" with no sign and the key on a hook nobody touched. First year I worked there, the manager walked me through the usual stuff, then said I was “ready for the annex…” I thought I’d ruined the sauce or something.
Dr. Halim: What did he show you?
Lindström: The room… the thing. He said, “We have an arrangement. Cardboard and leftovers go in. Meatballs come out. Don’t feed it meat, don’t poke it, don’t talk about it outside this room.”
Dr. Halim: Did you follow those instructions?
Lindström: I didn’t poke it, if that’s what you’re asking, but people talked to it. Closing shift, you’re tired, your feet hurt, you’re scraping trays into the feed bins. You say things out loud. It kind of… gurgles. If you complained about being behind on the lunch rush, it would start working a little faster. I always got the feeling it was trying to keep up.
Dr. Halim: You considered that normal?
Lindström: Normal? Not really… but you know there’s a lot about that place that isn’t normal if you think about it too hard. We build fake rooms so people can pretend their lives are tidier than they are, and then they eat cheap food in between said fake rooms. A big dough animal that turns trash into lunch just felt like another part of the magic.
[Pause.]
Lindström: And the customers loved the meatballs. You know families would come just for that sometimes? Kids passed out in the car on the way home with gravy on their shirts, nobody got sick. If the universe wants to give you something that kind, you don’t ask too many follow-up questions.
Dr. Halim: How did staff react when Annex K was shut down?
Lindström: Officially we were told there’d be "new suppliers" and "upgrades." Unofficially, the kitchen felt wrong, it was… too quiet. The new frozen ones taste the same, I know, I’ve tried them. But they don’t feel the same. It’s like the difference between a microwave meal and someone cooking for you.
Dr. Halim: Do you miss it?
Lindström: Hmm… maybe? I at least miss knowing that when I scraped the trays at night, it was going to something that listened.
[Subject hesitates.]
Lindström: If you’re looking after it now… good. It likes noise, so don’t leave it alone in the quiet, if you can help it.
Addendum 9420-3: Internal Use Proposal
On 09/05/2015, following routine analysis confirming the absence of anomalous toxins, pathogens or direct memetic effects in SCP-9420 byproducts, Dr. Halim submitted a proposal to designate SCP-9420 as a controlled food source for remote Foundation facilities and long-duration research deployments.
While SCP-9420’s output appears biologically safe and is, disturbingly, of very high quality, normalizing the practice of feeding staff with meat extruded from a contained anomaly is not acceptable. We are already asking personnel to tolerate a great deal, and asking them to swallow it is a step too far.
Several members also report personal discomfort on realizing a non-zero portion of their own cherished childhood meatball experiences may have involved this organism or similar ones. This is not, strictly speaking, evidence of anomalous influence, but it is enough. SCP-9420 is to be contained and studied, not integrated into the lunch menu.
Before this ruling, four staff members at Site-19 were recorded entering SCP-9420’s chamber with potatoes and gravy and consuming a large quantity of its output. All four received formal reprimands and full screening.
Addendum 9420-4: Meat Feeding Test
A controlled feeding trial involving animal tissue was authorized to determine whether SCP-9420’s diet restriction was purely practical.
On 12/08/2016, 250 g of cooked beef meatballs from a non-anomalous commercial supplier were homogenized, screened, and introduced into SCP-9420’s chamber mixed with its standard cardboard feed.
SCP-9420 ingested the mixture without visible distress. Production resumed after a short pause. For the next forty minutes, all output was collected and separated as Batch 5-M.
Samples from Batch 5-M were taste-tested by eight D-class subjects under observation. All reported normal flavour and texture. Within ten to fifteen seconds of swallowing, seven subjects described brief, intrusive mental images involving metal hooks and rails, tiled rooms with floor drains, and stacks of packaging and pallets.
In post-test interviews, all eight subjects reported a mild but persistent aversion to FLÄTPAK-branded food products and to visual depictions of FLÄTPAK restaurant interiors.
Subsequent chemical analysis of Batch 5-M showed no significant difference from SCP-9420’s usual output beyond trace elevations in iron and cortisol. No structural tissue fragments were identified.
Further feeding of animal tissue was suspended by order of the Site Ethics Liaison. SCP-9420’s diet will remain strictly plant-based.
Addendum 9420-5: Cultural Impact Notes
A review of customer data from the original store and comparable locations suggests that during the period SCP-9420 was in use, consumption of meatballs had a moderate, positive correlation to visitor satisfaction, and therefore the likelihood that the visitors in question would return to that FLÄTPAK branch. No direct compulsion has been found; rather, the meatballs appear to serve as a convenient anchor for comfortable memories.
Pulling SCP-9420 out of circulation was the correct decision. We cannot base a global food product on an organism we do not fully understand. I do wonder how many people will feel that something is missing, even if they can’t name it—only that the trip to the store feels a little less comforting than it used to.
— Dr. Halim