Note: This article is about a previous SCP entry that no longer occupies the numerical designation (“non-viable”).

SCP-086 (“The Whispering Tetrahedron”) was an early SCP article about a tetrahedron that emits whispers.^[1]https://archive.ph/yvU6m#selection-153.1675-153.1689 It was one of the first SCP attempts on 4chan’s /x/, and is the second-oldest known SCP article that survived to EditThis.^[2]((https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12EXIW0xxqp8d0skHEB3fy1hexuil69ZwuWLQ726gBkg/edit#gid=0)) It does not survive in any form today except in archives.

Among other mild innovations, SCP-086 was the first SCP attempt that was not a statue of some kind, and was arguably the first SCP that contained an object class (“safe)”.

History

SCP-086 was written on January 9, 2008, by an anonymous user.^[3]https://archive.ph/WLOYb#selection-1611.30-1611.44 It was added to the EditThis series on January 20, 2008 with an accompanying picture, likely by EditThis user TheTetrisAddict.^[4]https://archive.ph/ZXOd8#selection-657.0-659.30^[5]https://web.archive.org/web/20080410120600/http://www.editthis.info/scp_wiki/SCP-086^[6]http://web.archive.org/web/20080422032111/http://www.editthis.info/scp_wiki/?title=SCP-086&action=history It was later ported to the WikiDot by far2,^[7]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-181287/the-mass-edit-workbench-scp-0-99#post-582061^[8]https://web.archive.org/web/20080810062713/https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-086 and eventually slated for edit/deletion in the Mass Edit.^[9]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-181287/the-mass-edit-workbench-scp-0-99^[10]https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-181287/the-mass-edit-workbench-scp-0-99#post-582043

Contributions

SCP-086 marked the first effortful departure from the object of an SCP document being a statue. It is also the first mention of a potential containment breach, as well as the first recorded compulsion hazard in containment fiction history; the whispers placed those within range of them into “a mindlessly obedient state”.^[11]http://scparchives.bluesoul.net/x/scp.txt

The original SCP-086 directly catalyzed several more SCP attempts.^[12]https://archive.ph/hV3fN It was shortly after the flurry of new content following SCP-086 that the EditThis repository was created & shared on 4chan.^[13]https://archive.ph/jmVa6#selection-808.0-997.7

The establishment of the containment procedures and description sections were not yet matured in the format at the time of the initial SCP-086; the containment specifications were indiscriminately mixed with the description. (This was later rectified and adapted to the emerging format while on EditThis.)^[14]https://web.archive.org/web/20080803022355/http://editthis.info/scp_wiki/SCP-086 However, the initial SCP-086 included a phrase that described the object as safe, which is taken by some to be the ancestral birth-point of the later object class of the same name, and object classes in general.^[15]https://archive.ph/WLOYb#selection-1611.278-1611.303^[16]https://archive.ph/dB65f#selection-1041.0-1041.112 This post was also the first time numerical security levels were utilized (“Level 2”),^[17]https://archive.ph/yvU6m#selection-153.3575-153.3610 and the first inclusion of a supplement to the documentation, foreshadowing what would later be solidified into the nomenclature as an “addendum” in modern SCPs.^[18]https://archive.ph/yvU6m#selection-153.3653-153.3692