I am out of FAQs to give.
SCP-914 is undoubtedly one of the most infamous articles on the wiki, and due to its nature, there are lots of things you could do with it, which is why we have an extensive experiment log dedicated just to shoving shit through 914. Because of this nature, people ask loads of questions about it. Seriously, if I had a nickel every time somebody asked “What happens if we put SCP-682 through SCP-914?”, I’d actually be able to afford to go to college, and I live in America. But for those that don’t have the time or reading comprehension to get through almost two thousand (at the time of writing this) individual tests, or have read the experiment logs and are still confused, I’ve composed this page of Frequently Asked Questions regarding 914.
Disclaimer: I'm not an actual authority on how SCP-914 functions. I'm just a writer who's been working in the experiment logs for a while, and I made sure to do extra research while compiling this document, so I'd like to think I know my stuff, but ultimately I'm not the one who's responsible for deciding the rules.
"Where did 914 come from?"
No definitive answer. There is a tale written by Gears himself detailing a possible "origin story" for 914 which you can read here, but Gears himself states that this is in no way meant to be canon.
"How does 914 work?"
It's a mystery, and it's best that it stays that way.
"Is 914 sentient?"
Out-of-universe, we are aware that 914 isn't actually sentient, so there is no point in trying to argue that. In-universe, on the other hand, it is still highly disputed and perhaps will continue to be indefinitely.
"Why doesn't the Foundation just put all their armor and weapons through 914 on Very Fine to give themselves super equipment?"
Because 914 doesn't actually work like that. It is not keen on just directly improving all of its inputs with no drawbacks whatsoever. Rather, it is a snarky little shit, and its idea of "refining" things usually just means making them more complex or abstract without necessarily improving them. This, combined with how unpredictable 914 can be, means that it is prone to producing outputs that might do us more harm than good, so testing already dangerous objects with 914 is highly discouraged.
"Why doesn't the Foundation destroy dangerous SCPs by putting them through 914 on Rough?"
Several reasons come to mind immediately. Some SCPs such as 682 or 096 would be too dangerous to transport to 914's location. We also don't know for sure that 914 would destroy them. There's a test in the experiment logs where somebody attempted to put an anomalous mug cat through 914 on Rough at least fifty times and it didn't even put a dent in it, so it's evident that destruction is not guaranteed through the Rough setting. It is simply too risky.
“What happens if we put 682 through 914 on Very Fine?”
This was explored in the tale It Had All Been For Nothing. Obviously, this is a joke, but if I’m being honest here I don’t really think this question is worth pondering. The obvious answer is that you'll most likely get a creature that is even more unstoppable and will likely wind up destroying all of humanity, and we can probably just leave it at that.
"What happens if we put 999 through 914 on Very Fine?!"
The closest we've come to answering this one is a very very early test (0196, specifically) in which amounts of 999's slime (not 999 itself) are put through 914, which you can read here.
"WHAT HAPPENS IF WE PUT [insert literally any SCP here] THROUGH 914?!?!?!”
Please, stop. Most likely there is literally no way to answer this question because SCP-914 is an unpredictable and cheeky little shit and there are possibly infinite choices as to what it might do to any input, SCP or otherwise. Since it is now forbidden to test SCPs with 914 without O5 approval, it is unlikely that your question will ever be answered definitively in the logs, so please leave it to your speculation and let the rest of us focus on more important matters.
"What happens if we put food through 914?"
Most food isn't allowed through 914 because biological testing is banned, and the majority of food is biological. The exception is made for foods that are not made with cell matter. Some examples include the following:
- Milk (primarily made from water and lactose; butter and cream is also fine)
- Cooking oil (purely a form of fat)
- Pure sugars
Some foods that would not be allowed include the following:
- Meat, produce, and fungi (cell matter, duh)
- Anything made with flour (since it is made from grains, which are plants)
- Cheese and yogurt (curdled using bacteria, huge no-no)
Keep in mind that some ingredients
produced from cellular life forms (such as aforementioned oil and sugar) are fine, because they are chemicals and do not themselves contain cell matter.
"Wait, what counts as biological testing?"
Biological testing bans you from testing with organisms (dead or alive), including microscopic ones. Generally, if it's a life form made of cells, it probably won't pass. The exception would be materials like wood, leather, or coal, since these are far removed enough from their original biological properties that they do not pose nearly as much of a risk anymore. Like with testing SCPs, you can technically test biological matter if you get approval from O5, but you must have an extremely good reason for doing so, and your test will be held to a much, much higher standard of quality. For this reason, it's not a good idea to attempt a biological test until you're very experienced with writing 914.
"What happens if we put [literally anything else] through 914?"
Chances are, somebody has already tried it in the 914 experiment logs.
In the case that it has not been tried in the experiment logs: If that object is not an SCP, not biological, not an explosive, and otherwise just not a stupid idea to test with, I highly recommend that you actually try to come up with an answer to your own question, write a test about it, and submit it to the 914 sandbox. The answers to "What happens if we put so-and-so through 914?" don't pop out of nowhere, the writers come up with them and make them happen. Once you stop asking other people to give you the answer and realize that you can just come up with something yourself, the sky becomes the limit.
"Hold on a second, I saw a test in the experiment log that tests with SCPs/biological matter/dangerous weapons! Why were those allowed?"
The experiment log used to have a much lower degree of quality control in the past, so many older tests break the rules that we have set in place today.
"I want to write a test with [Insert object here], has anyone already done a test with that item?"
Maybe, or maybe not. The fact is, it doesn't actually matter if you use the same input as an existing test. What matters is that your outputs are different, and due to the near-infinite range of possibilities you could write, they almost certainly will be. So please don't worry if an input has "already been done". You are still free to CTRL+F your way through the experiment logs to see if your idea has already been done, but generally I would not worry about it if I were you.
"How do we decide what gets put in Anomalous Storage, given into a researcher's possession, added to the break room, or incinerated?"
Anomalous Storage: You need a good reason to have an item be kept in Anomalous Storage. We keep an output because it is worthy of further of study, AND because it's actually safe enough to keep. We won't keep anything that would be dangerous to hold onto, and we won't keep something just because it happens to be anomalous, especially if there's not really anything we can glean from it. Addition from Leveritas: ''It can also be appropriate to store something when attempting to destroy it can be hazardous. For example: Say that 914 will output a box containing a micro-singularity, it's probably not smart to throw it in a furnace. It might collapse immediately, but it also might not.''
Given to somebody or the break room: This occurrence should be rare, and for good reason. Especially in cases of Fine and Very Fine outputs, an output that seems safe to keep might actually have a dangerous property that was not discovered while it was initially being tested, so keeping it in an open space with no protections whatsoever is hazardous. 1:1 outputs are usually safe, but it's also unprofessional to request to keep an output just because you think it looks cool. Fine outputs might be useful, but also pose the aforementioned risk, so they have to be thoroughly vetted before they are approved. On the other hand, assume that all Very Fine outputs are completely off the table, regardless of how "safe" or useful they may seem.
Incinerated: You can assume that most outputs are disposed of or incinerated, not necessarily because they're dangerous, but because we don't really have any use for them. Of course, we will prioritize incinerating dangerous objects. It does not matter if said object has a property that might be useful to research; the safety of our personnel is more important than studying an output.
Keep in mind that it's not actually necessary to state what we decide to do with an output. More often than not you won't mention whether we decide to incinerate or store something, unless it's specifically important to say so. If you are not sure what to do with an output, feel free to leave an OOC note in the sandbox, or ask in our Discord server. You can also leave it as-is and the moderator will make any necessary adjustments when your test gets ported.
"Where is 914 located?"
SCP-914 is contained in Site-19 Facility 23. Now, don't let the site name fool you. Facility 19-23 is an entirely separate building from the main Site-19, and it is implied to be far away. It is a relatively small facility; while lots of anomalous objects outputted by 914 are stored here, and there are also unexplained locations in the vicinity, 914 is the only actual SCP at this site.