Sloth's Pit looks like the average midwestern town. It has a downtown centered at the corner of Main St. and Francis Ave. It has a library, a courthouse, a selection of local restaurants that are each more horrid than the last, a local history museum, and both the Catholic and secular high schools, located across the street at the western end of Main. The further you go out from Main Street, you'll find more residential areas, parks, various fast food joints, St. Francis de Sales Hospital, and the Recreational Morgue, amongst other things. Further still, you'll find undeveloped land— the woods surrounding Sloth's Pit.

But Sloth's Pit is anything but average. Located in the backmost part of Douglas County in Wisconsin, it is one of over thirty Nexuses in the United States of America, and the third most-active, behind Roadkill County, Oregon and Daleport. It is a hotbed of anomalous activity that has had the Foundation's attention since at least the 1970s.

The reason for this becomes clear if you spend even a single day in the city. News broadcasts over the radio always seem to be relevant to one's conversation, the weather is exactly what it should be for every day of the year, and although conflict rises on occasion, it always is resolved in an oddly satisfying manner.

Every Nexus has a theme; Sloth's Pit's theme can be quantified as 'Narrative'. Everything that happens in the city happens along the lines of tropes, motifs, and concepts found in western media, from major spikes in anomalous activity on Christmas and Halloween, to recurring anomalies acting as 'running gags' for the populace, to a first kiss at P.R.O.M. being powerful enough to defeat a monster.

The Narrative is a powerful force in Sloth's Pit. And naturally, the Foundation has been studying it for years.

In 1976, the Foundation dispatched a small team to secure and contain a totemic entity that resided within the local summer camp. This entity, known as 'Big Bear', turned out to be a guardian spirit that protected the children of the camp from creatures born of their own homesick nightmares. Its removal allowed these nightmare creatures to run amok; over fifty people died in Camp Krakkow the following night, most of them children.

In early September, the Foundation bought out an abandoned office building on the eastern end of Main Street, atop a hill surrounded by the forest, to act as a provisional containment Site while they scrambled on what to do with this grieving city that was calling for blood from whoever was responsible. Deemed Provisional Site-87, it was manned by a skeleton crew of only fifteen. One of those fifteen happened to be Researcher Phillip Verhoten, appointed as an archival assistant. Over the following month, he discovers dozens of strange things about Sloth's Pit: the library's restricted section that contained hundreds of pieces of anomalous media, townsfolk that were willing to tell him dozens of local legends, and then he started seeing things in the woods…

At this point, the concept of a Nexus was poorly understood by the Foundation. They knew of their existence, but all that were known to them were either outside of their control (such as Three Portlands and La Rue Macabre), inhabited by individuals who were not fully human (such as Hy-Brasil), or had political and cultural considerations surrounding them that made studying the behavior of the Nexus and their inhabitants problematic (such as Lake Huron). Sloth's Pit was, demographically speaking, an average town in the American Midwest that just so happened to be a Nexus. The Foundation immediately began expanding Provisional Site-87 into a proper Site and made its sole directive the study and containment of Sloth's Pit, christened Nexus-18.

But now, the question becomes… how did Sloth's Pit become a Nexus?

At the center of Sloth's Pit— conceptually, narratively, geographically, metaphysically —is its namesake. Classified as SCP-4040 by the larger Foundation, this bottomless pit formed beneath the manor of Jackson Sloth, the town's founder, a lumber magnate, librarian, and aspiring novelist. It has been deemed a 'pataphysical singularity' by the Foundation, a force that pulls in Narrative-friendly events and individuals to the Nexus.

It formed on Christmas Day of 1890, less than seven years after Sloth founded the city. Originally christened as New Toronto, he lived here with his family: his wife Imogen, his son Jasper, and his daughter Caroline. Caroline survived by a stroke of luck, being sent to the hospital days before Christmas. People already feared the city cursed after the Pit formed, and their whisperings of the curse, of strange things in the woods, of ghosts among them… they all came true, because of the sheer Narrative weight Sloth's Pit held.

From these stories formed a series of bizarre entities— the Local Legends. Originally, they were entities that would horrify, maim, or outright kill citizens, based on the local superstitions and stories at the time; The Goatman would kill couples who had children out of wedlock, while Sinning Jessie, a one-eyed lady of the night born from an abstinence campaign, would maim any man who took her up on an offer to 'have a good time'. The 1900s brought on a number of additional bizarre beings: the Hook-Handed Man who stalked young couples on the Lover's Lane, the insane King of Knives, the Sloth's Pit Hum.

This all changed when they saw the destruction wrought upon Camp Krakkow. They vowed that no such thing would happen to the citizens of Sloth's Pit ever again. Their physical forms are malleable, but at their core, they remain loyal to the town, and all its inhabitants.

Complicating matters further is the presence of a miniature Group of Interest inhabiting Sloth's Pit: the Union, a group of anomalously skilled workers that seems to have originated outside of the Nexus, but has made this town its home for reasons unknown.

Today, Site-87 is considered one of the most unique Foundation Sites.

Some see it as a fascinating window into what the world could look like if the Foundation ever went public. Others see it as a thorn in the side of science due to it legitimizing the field of pataphysics. Others still see it as a necessary evil, due to it hosting the headquarters of the Department of Multi-Universal Affairs and being the center for dozens of world-saving trans-universal business deals.

Everyone at Site-87 is in a unique position compared to the rest of the Foundation, as well. Several Nexuses either lack the amenities needed for permanent habitation, or else are hostile in a way that requires the Sites that monitor them to focus solely on containment and study, as opposed to interacting with the populace. Sloth's Pit is, for all intents and purposes, an average American city, and because of that, the Personnel of Site-87 consider it less of an assignment, and more of a home— one that they will lay down their lives to protect.

In short, Sloth's Pit and Site-87 are what happens when the Foundation takes a step back and lets people live normal lives— well, as normal as they can get in this odd little town.

Before 1976, the Foundation didn't have a hand in the containment of Sloth's Pit… or did they? Due to bureaucratic miscommunication, the containment zone for SCP-097, which was contained in 1969, and Site-87 did not know about each other until the neutralization of SCP-097 in 2017. The Foundation may have had other assets in Sloth's Pit before then; alternatively, stories from this era can focus on the townsfolk and individuals who are living somewhat normal lives in Sloth's Pit, before the Foundation discovered it.

Even after the Foundation contained Sloth's Pit, there were growing pains. They didn't fully comprehend how the city worked; even today, they're still not sure on the exact mechanics. Sloth's Pit has Secrets, some of which are buried here, in the past.

2012 is when Site-87 first began to be noticed by the larger Foundation. While it had been around for over thirty years, it had largely been considered a dead-end Site, barring the existence of the Department of Multi-Universal Affairs. That started to change this year, with a man getting angry at Halloween vandalism.

Sloth's Pit enters a somewhat chaotic state. The nexus is, for lack of a better term, encroached upon by new anomalies, forcing the personnel at Site-87 to further broaden their horizons. Then, in 2017, something horrifying happens, and they're forced to put their lives on the line to protect the city.

With the end of the Black Autumn came the discovery of various notes collated by the now-deceased Isaiah Pickman, an archivist at Site-87. These notes, discovered by Cassandra Pike and collated by several members of staff, formed the basis for a new 001 Proposal, which in turn opened the Foundation's eyes to the world around them— a world that's fueled by stories. A world they can exploit.

For reasons that the Foundation can't truly comprehend, Sloth's Pit went into somewhat of a Doldroms in 2019. A downturn in anomalous activity was noted, as if reality was otherwise occupied. This doesn't mean that things didn't happen, just that they weren't necessarily anomalous in nature. This all changed in October of 2020, of course.

In 2021, SCP-6500 was contained and 'neutralized' through a massive, coordinated effort by the Foundation. While magic stopped dying, certain things cannot be undone; over 180 anomalous items, including SCP-963, SCP-087, SCP-2521, and SCP-4999 were permanently destroyed, and the Foundation just kept on trucking.

S & C Plastics takes place in the ending of SCP-6500 where the Foundation chose to stay the course, keep the status quo going. The O5 Council is corrupt, but there's some good news: a team of concerned Foundation personnel from around the globe has decided to take it upon themselves to try to change the Foundation from within. Calling themselves Threshold, the Foundation is monitoring their activities with great interest.

Site-87 has some new hires that need training. You're just in time to listen in on the Frequently Asked Questions section of the orientation.

(Disclaimer: the Archetypicals series is not intended as a sequel to the events which precede it, and its themes differ notably. Its events are more closely related to On Guard 43, in which it takes place.)

As times change, so do faces; seven years after his transfer to the Pataphysics Department in 2020, Senior Researcher Place H. McD. (as featured in SCP-6500) succeeds Dr. Kimba Laslow as Director of Pataphysics. In the following months, Place publishes several academic works detailing scientific models for narrative-space-time and semi-fictional realities, thereby explaining the phenomena originally observed in Proposals 001-SWANN and 001-PCKMN.

After all that, you may be asking…

It is about a town in Wisconsin called Sloth's Pit, where normality doesn't mean a damn thing.

It is about a Foundation Site run by people who are realizing that the world may not need them to protect it.

It is about the people at Site-87 who have, somehow, broken free of the Foundation's ability to grind individuality, decency, humanity, and common sense into nothingness.

It is about the nature of stories and the things that they build and destroy.

It is about what would happen if the Foundation realized that the walls that they built might need to come down, sooner rather than later.

With that in mind, you can write a variety of stories in S & C Plastics. Romances, coming-of-age stories, horror stories, absurdist stories, stories that just lead up to one godawful pun… all of these exist in the canon already.

There are a few running themes throughout the canon that can be expanded upon.

1. The Foundation is Human

The Foundation is not necessarily inherently good or inherently evil. Site-87 is made up of people; some people can be right bastards, some people can be saints, but most of them are just trying to make it up as they go along. The larger Foundation might be a bunch of evil fucks, but Site-87 is somehow… different. Why?

2. The Nexus Changes People

Members of the Foundation who come to Sloth's Pit find their lives upended in some way. They may find love, new research opportunities, or just a sheer force of positivity bearing down on them that they can't help but change themselves. One of the goals of S & C Plastics, at the outset, was to write characters that were better-developed than the Senior Staff Author Avatars, and a big part of the reason the characters in S & C Plastics are the way they are is because of the exposure to ideas outside of the Foundation's core tenants of Security, Containment and Protection.

3. The World Might Not Need The Foundation

Sloth's Pit existed long before the Foundation discovered it, and while they act as a stabilizing force nowadays, they inarguably made the city a worse place when they first arrived. Now, the personnel at Site-87 have to ask if they really are the greater good— if a city like this could exist in a stable environment, without the Foundation knowing, are they really needed?

4. The Power of Stories

Everyone is sick of pataphysics, but there's a reason the concept exists. It's through the medium of narrative that humanity perceives the world; we seek meaning and symbolism in everything when in the end, there's just chaos looming behind it all and every one of us is spiraling out of control.

Sloth's Pit, and the universe around it, are governed by narrative principles and tropes. The Foundation is realizing this in the 21st century, and its implications stretch far, far into the future. All the world's a story, and Site-87 is writing a new chapter every day.

Due to S & C Plastic's flexibility as a canon, as well as its relative age, it has crossed over with several canons at several points. The following canons can be considered canonical to S & C Plastics, though in some cases, this may not be mutual.

Antarctic Exchange: Thomas Bailey, commissioner of relations between the Foundation and the Third Antarctic Empire, is the identical triplet of Tristan and Trevor Bailey, as detailed in Multi-u 101.

Dread & Circuses: The tale "Herman Fuller Can Shove It Up His Ass" takes place in Sloth’s Pit.

Et Tam Deum Petivi (alt): The events of the Mary-Ann and Salah series are canon, with one major exception: Mary-Ann Lewitt survives her confrontation with Moloch, instead of succumbing to her wounds.

On Guard 43: Mutually hard canon to S & C Plastics. Events that happen in OG43 and S & C Plastics explicitly take place in the same universe.

Resurrection: Specifically the Old Foes and New Faces storylines, are canon to S & C Plastics. Certain elements (such as the nature of Dr. Clef and the survival of Dr. Glass past 2018) contradict S & C Plastics canon.

The Man Who Wasn't There: Claire Bright exists as an iteration of Nobody within S & C Plastics, as she does in TMWWT. However, multiple iterations of Nobody exist simultaneously, including Agent Tangerine from The Cool War.

Third Law: Several pieces of supplementary material for the canon make reference to Site-87, and Dr. Katherine Sinclair appears in Suspect Ratio.

War on All Fronts: Hy-Brasil is visited by Dr. Sinclair and Consultant Reynolds during the course of SCP-6500.

As you may be able to tell from all the expositing regarding the nature of stories and beliefs, S & C Plastics takes heavy inspiration from the works of Sir Terry Pratchett and Remedy Entertainment's Alan Wake series. If you want to write for S & C Plastics specifically, I'd recommend:

John Dies at the End by Jason Pargin
Guards! Guards! by Sir Terry Pratchett
Hatchetfield by Team Starkid, especially Nightmare Time, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals, and Nerdy Prudes Must Die.

In addition, S & C Plastics was born with inspiration from a variety of media that depict small towns where bizarre things happen. Examples of this include:

Gravity Falls, created by Alex Hirsch
Twin Peaks, created by David Lynch
Eureka, created by Andrew Cosby & Jaime Paglia

The way magic works in S & C Plastics borrows heavily from The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher.

A lot of the influence for the small-town 'feel' of S & C Plastics is derived from the following locales:

• Idaville from the Encyclopedia Brown series by Donald J. Sobal.
• Grover's Corners from the play Our Town by Thorton Wilder
• Lake Wobegon from A Praire Home Companion from Public Radio International
• Spectre from Big Fish, directed by Tim Burton

In addition to that, a lot of S & C Plastics is derived from personal experience and the interests of the authors.