Line #6 Literature/ThereIsNoAntimemeticsDivision


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/965af140_d99d_4b30_8bef_7d6d5407a2e6.jpeg]][[caption-width-right:300:Welcome to the Antimemetics Division. No, this is not your first day.]]
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3	->''There are ideas which cannot be spread. (…) Dreams you can't hold onto and secrets you can never share, and lies, and living conspiracies. It's a conceptual subculture, of ideas consuming other ideas and… sometimes… segments of reality. Sometimes, people.''
4	-->-- '''Marion Wheeler'''
5
6	''There Is No Antimemetics Division'' is a WebSerialNovel by Sam Hughes, also known as qntm (the creator of ''Website/ThingsOfInterest''). It was originally posted to the Website/SCPFoundation website from 2015–2020 as [[https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/antimemetics-division-hub two series of short stories]], ''There Is No Antimemetics Division'' and ''Five Five Five Five Five'', which were later consolidated into a 2021 novel.
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8	A [[MemeticsInFiction meme]] is an idea that, by its nature, spreads to other minds. An antimeme is an idea that does not want to be spread. And an anomalous antimeme? That can be a very dangerous thing indeed.
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10	[[TheMenInBlack The Antimemetics Division]], under the leadership of [[IronLady Marion Wheeler]], protects humanity from ideas and entities we’re physically unable to think about. But what happens when the mission changes? How do you win an all-out war for human consciousness against an enemy you can't even remember?
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13	!! ''There Is No Antimemetics Division'' provides examples of:
14	* AbstractEater:
15	** Alastair Grey, officially designated SCP-4739, feeds on “dense clusters of organically-stored information - essentially, extremely knowledgeable, complicated, interesting people”.
16	** SCP-4987, the invisible monster that follows Marion around and eats her memories. She keeps it fed with useless trivia and has even trained it to eat ''other'' people’s memories on command.
17	* AmnesiaLoop: The Antimemetics Division, as well as numerous other similar agencies, have been locked in one of these for decades, possibly centuries, regarding [[spoiler: SCP-3125. Every time they become aware of its existence and fail to contain that knowledge, it attacks and destroys everyone even tangentially connected to this awareness]]. Once this became understood, deliberate, and carefully managed amnesia of it was their only defense.
18	* AnachronicOrder: The events of the story are not organized in chronological order. For example, the first three chapters of the book’s second half take place in 2015, 1995, and 2012, respectively.
19	* AndIMustScream: Immune to [[spoiler:SCP-3125]]? You’re still going to be subsumed into it and forced to commit horrific acts in order to spread it to other people; you’re just going to be [[CanOnlyMoveTheEyes conscious the entire time.]] [[spoiler:[[TheImmune Adam]] has a lot of fun with this]].
20	* ApocalypticGagOrder: The Antimemetics Division has been aware of [[spoiler:the incarnation of SCP-3125]] for decades (possibly almost a century) — but because of the [[MindVirus nature]] of said apocalypse, they can’t tell anyone about it (including ''themselves,'' outside of specially-shielded Vegas rooms) without [[NiceJobBreakingItHero causing it.]]
21	* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: All people who take sufficiently strong mnestic drugs experience some degree of this. [[spoiler: Marion Wheeler]] gets an even stronger form, ironically after she'd been rendered DeaderThanDead.
22	* BackstoryInvader: O5-8's assistant, Clay, is apparently some kind of antimemetic agent, or an agent working on behalf of an antimeme. O5-8 does not have an assistant, but this entity was inserted into his office, apparently first to get him to forget his class W mnestic medicine. It appears his further mission was to destroy the Antimemetics Division, but we will never know for sure, as he was killed soon after being discovered.
23	* BlackSpeech: Several memetic and antimemetic entities cause their victims to exhibit distorted, unintelligible speech.
24	* BreatherEpisode: "Fresh Hell", the story’s [[MeetCute most lighthearted chapter]], directly follows the much more depressing “Where Have You Been All My Life”.
25	* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: Main characters die often and without warning to a variety of antimemetic threats. By the end of the story, [[spoiler: [[EveryoneDiesEnding every named character]] save for O5-8 and (possibly) Bart Hughes is dead]].
26	* ChekhovsGunman: The videotape Marion finds in "CASE COLOURLESS GREEN" mentions that she'd been having nightmares about someone named Adam. Marion, in the present, has no idea who Adam is. [[spoiler:Adam is her ex-husband, whose memory she wiped (and wiped her own memory of him) to protect him from SCP-3125; he is the narrator of much of the book's second half]].
27	* CivilizationDestroyer: When SCP-3125 finally fully manifests in our reality.
28	* CosmicHorrorStory: Unimaginably powerful, uncaring horrors beyond human comprehension? Check. Defeat that’s practically inevitable and can only be postponed, with any glimmer of hope quickly snuffed out? Check. Cults and tentacles and [[BrownNote Brown Notes]] galore? Check!
29	* CuriosityKilledTheCast: [[spoiler:SCP-3125 kills anyone who looks too far into the isolated incidents it causes and deduces its existence — along with their entire research group and family. Ten years before the events of the story, there were hundreds of antimemetics research groups all around the world. But they all discovered SCP-3125 and died to it. Now there’s just one]].
30	* DamagedSoul: As with everyone who regularly uses powerful mnestics, Marion’s [[spoiler: spirit remains in the noösphere after her death. But because the Class-Z mnestic that killed her shattered her mind, she’s an EmptyShell unable to speak or interact with anyone — in the words of an Ará Orún operative, “a Swiss watch filled with glue”]].
31	* DealWithTheDevil: It’s implied that this led to [[spoiler:Red becoming the human avatar of SCP-3125]].
32	* DecoyProtagonist:
33	** The second chapter, "Introductory Antimemetics", solely focuses on Paul Kim, and its ending implies that he and Marion will be the series' main characters. [[spoiler:Two chapters later, he's [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie taken over by SCP-3125]], then either [[AmbiguousEnding killed or brainwashed to forget the existence of the Antimemetics Division]], and is subsequently never mentioned again]].
34	** [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] with [[spoiler:Marion herself, who [[SacrificialLion dies at the story's halfway point.]] While she goes on to [[PosthumousCharacter narrate several more chapters via flashback]], Adam is largely the protagonist of the story's second half]].
35	* DutyThatTranscendsDeath: MTF Omega-Zero (“Ará Orún”) is a task force of ghosts who still serve the Foundation even after their death.
36	* EldritchAbomination: A few of them. SCP-3125, the big bad, is [[spoiler: a powerful meme which is completely incompatible with human civilization as we understand it, and wipes it out]].
37	* FatalMacGuffin: The most intense mnestic drugs out there grant their user extraordinary abilities — aging backwards in the case of Class-X, remembering every memory you’ve ever had in the case of Class-Z — at the cost of certain death a few hours after ingestion. [[spoiler:Marion and Adam both die by taking a Class-Z mnestic]].
38	* {{Fingore}}: The disciples of SCP-3125 often maim the eyes or hands of the unconverted, including the left hand of [[spoiler: Adam Wheeler]].
39	* GenreShift: The final third of the story (from [[spoiler:the [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt incarnation of SCP-3125]]]] onwards) shifts from a straight CosmicHorrorStory to a more LovecraftLite tone. Before this point, each chapter involves the characters taking one step forward and twelve steps back in trying and horrifically failing to learn about a horror beyond human comprehension; once we find out exactly what the horror is and that it can be stopped, the narrative becomes a more optimistic (albeit still depressing and gruesome) adventure story [[spoiler:with a [[PyrrhicVictory (somewhat)]] happy ending]].
40	* GiantSpider: The forces of SCP-3125 have enlisted the aid of antimemetic spiders as tall as skyscrapers. Exactly how and why they are allied is never made clear.
41	* HopeSpot: Marion correctly determines that a previous iteration of the Antimemetics Division built a weapon capable of neutralizing [[spoiler:SCP-3125]], and that the bunker underneath Site-41 fits the description of the location where it's supposed to be housed. She makes a run for the bunker, and successfully reaches it... [[spoiler:and it's empty. Turns out the Antimemetics Division used to have several (now-forgotten) Sites, not just Site-41, and while Marion accurately predicted the Division's plans, [[YourPrincessIsInAnotherCastle those plans were implemented in a different bunker at a different Site.]] All she's able to do is contain the local outbreak of SCP-3125, killing herself and wiping out her entire team in the process, and merely pushing back the apocalypse by a few years at best]].
42	* HouseAmnesia: In “Where Have You Been All My Life”, Marion wakes up to the sound of someone breaking into her home. She tracks down and subdues the attacker. [[spoiler:It’s her husband, home from a work trip. She’s forgotten that he exists]].
43	* TheImmune: A small portion of the population (including [[spoiler:Adam]]) has a natural genetic immunity to antimemetic influence, and can perceive antimemes to some degree. People with this immunity are also [[spoiler:able to resist the effects of [[MindVirus SCP-3125]]]].
44	* InescapableHorror: [[spoiler:SCP-3125 is present everywhere on Earth except for the Foundation’s containment chamber]].
45	* ItsNotYouItsMyEnemies: Because [[spoiler:SCP-3125 kills anyone in the same "headspace" as its target (people who think in the same way as them — which usually includes the target's close family)]], Marion decides to [[spoiler:[[LaserGuidedAmnesia wipe Adam's memory of her]]]] in order to protect him should she be attacked.
46	* JustBeforeTheEnd: The first half of the book (and [[AnachronicOrder several chapters from the second half of the book]]) take place [[spoiler:one year before [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt the incarnation of SCP-3125]]]].
47	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Combating anomalies which create this is the entire business of the Antimemetics Division. Have I told you this already?
48	* LivingMemory: [[spoiler: Bart’s plan to destroy SCP-3125 requires a ‘countermeme’: a weaponizeable idea. Adam doesn’t have it, but Marion did, before she died — and Adam knew her better than anyone else in the world. So Adam takes a Class-Z mnestic in order to create a living memory of Marion and reproduce the countermeme she had in her mind]].
49	* MagicalDivorce: [[spoiler:Marion and Adam]]’s marriage ends with mutual LaserGuidedAmnesia.
50	* NoteToSelf:
51	** Much of the Antimemetic Division’s research is conducted asynchronously — as a series of notes for their future selves, who have presumably forgotten all of the research that came before.
52	** [[spoiler:SCP-3125]]’s containment chamber is full of these. When Marion enters it in “CASE COLOURLESS GREEN”, she finds a videotape she recorded for herself six weeks earlier that she has no memory of creating.
53	* NothingIsScarier: Most of “Ará Orún” is completely blacked out, with only a few fragmented snippets of text left to describe [[spoiler:Adam’s experience within SCP-3125]].
54	* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In “CASE COLOURLESS GREEN”, Marion finds a videotape she recorded last time she entered [[spoiler:SCP-3125]]’s containment chamber, and is unnerved to watch this past version of herself have a terrified breakdown before ultimately giving up. PlayedWith in that this is implied to be in-character for the version of Marion who recorded the videotape: any attempt to destroy [[spoiler:SCP-3125]] would have also killed [[spoiler:Adam (and presumably her children)]], whom Marion [[LaserGuidedAmnesia no longer remembers.]]
55	* PhlebotinumPills: Mnestics, a class of memory-enhancing pharmaceuticals that enable their user to perceive antimemes, are the drug of choice of the Antimemetics Division and its employees.
56	* PhoneCallFromTheDead: How Ará Orún operatives, most notably Daisy Ulrich, communicate with the real world.
57	* PosthumousCharacter: Bart Hughes, the architect of most of the Antimemetics Division’s containment infrastructure, who died a decade earlier under mysterious circumstances. His work comes up often throughout the story, and several characters are trying to figure out what happened to him. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Subverted]] in “Wild Light” when it’s revealed that he’s alive]].
58	* PyrrhicVictory: Every “victory” against [[spoiler:SCP-3125]].
59	** In “Your Last First Day”, [[spoiler:Marion manages to stop the incarnation of SCP-3125… but in the aftermath, she and her entire team are dead, the Division is wiped out, and with the final organization protecting the world from antimemetic threats destroyed, it’s implied she’s only pushed back the date of the incarnation by a few years]].
60	** By the end of the story, [[spoiler:SCP-3125 has been banished from our reality. But almost every named character is dead. A year of human history, millions of people and trillions of dollars of infrastructure are gone. And there’s ''still'' no one left to protect the world from another antimemetic threat like this one — and SCP-3125 still exists]].
61	* RegainedMemoriesSequence: Certain mnestic drugs (Class-X and some varieties of Class-Z) give the user access to all of their previous memories, at the cost of eventual death. In “Unforgettable, That’s What You Are”, Lyn Marness recounts sixty years’ worth of repressed memories after taking a Class-X mnestic. Later, [[spoiler:Adam]] uses a Class-Z mnestic to recover his memories of [[spoiler:Marion]] and experiences the past two years of his life in reverse.
62	* RememberTheDead: Spirits in the noösphere rely on their “anchors” — living people in the real world who knew them well and actively remember them — in order to keep existing. This is why [[spoiler:Marion]] becomes coherent again once [[spoiler:SCP-3125 incarnates and Adam temporarily]] remembers her.
63	* RescueRomance: “Fresh Hell” tells the story of how [[spoiler:Marion and Adam]] fell in love when he was a civilian who got trapped in [[AbandonedHospital a manifestation of SCP-4051]] and she was the field agent dispatched to his case.
64	* SecretWar: So secret that the parties involved don’t even remember they’re fighting in it!
65	* ShutUpHannibal: In “Blood/Brain”, [[TheHeavy Red]] shows up and starts monologuing, before he’s quickly interrupted by [[spoiler:Adam shooting him in the head. And then [[TheresNoKillLikeOverkill ordering an orbital laser strike on him]]]].
66	* SupernaturalHotspotTown: Ojai, California has a thing for memetic cults.
67	* SwitchingPOV: Each chapter is narrated from a different character’s perspective. There are eight different narrators in total, although the majority of the chapters are narrated either by Antimemetics Division chief Marion Wheeler or by [[spoiler:her ex-husband Adam]].
68	* TakeUpMySword: [[spoiler:Marion dies at the end of the first half of the book in a failed attempt to destroy SCP-3125. The book’s second half mostly follows her ex-husband Adam as he puts together the pieces of her life and ultimately finishes the work she started]].
69	* TitledAfterTheSong: “Unforgettable, That’s What You Are”, “Where Have You Been All My Life”, and “Champions of Nothing”.
70	* TogetherInDeath: When [[spoiler:Marion and Adam]] finally reunite and fully remember each other, [[spoiler:Marion is being erased from existence and Adam has just sacrificed his life in order to temporarily bring her back]]. [[LastMomentTogether They get a few moments with each other before the end.]]
71	* TragicOneShotCharacter: Several of the book’s narrators are introduced in the same chapter where they die, including [[spoiler:George and Eli]].
72	* WarMemorial: The statue on the book’s cover is SCP-9429, a gigantic, antimemetically-cloaked basalt memorial constructed by the [[AdvancedAncientHumans Oblitus people]] in honor of those who died during (what the Foundation believes to be the first and only) Antimemetic War against [[spoiler:SCP-3125]].
73	* WhamLine:
74	** From “We Need to Talk About Fifty-Five”:
75	--> This time she pulls out a gun and shoots [[spoiler:Clay]] twice in the heart.
76	** From “Your Last First Day”:
77	-->It’s the wrong machine.
78	** The first line of the third addendum to SCP-3125’s file:
79	-->[[TheHeroDies I found your body.]]
80	** And the last line of the same addendum:
81	-->Still existing despite everything,
82	-->''[[spoiler:[[ChekhovsGunman Adam Wheeler]]]], interloper''
83	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The first chapter mentions that Marion Wheeler has two children. They are never mentioned again.
84	* AWorldHalfFull: The novel ends with [[spoiler: SCP-3125 banished and possibly destroyed]], but at tremendous cost. [[spoiler: Over a year of history is missing. Huge parts of every urban center are walled out from normal consciousness, millions of people are missing, and almost no one is even aware that this has happened]].
85	* WoundThatWillNotHeal: [[spoiler: The human avatar of SCP-3125]] is shot twice in the chest. It continues to bleed, even over a year later, but it also never kills him.
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Context Literature / ThereIsNoAntimemeticsDivision