⚠   EYES ONLY — LEVEL 4 AUDITORS — UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS IS A CAUSAL VIOLATION   ⚠
DOCUMENT: SOP 88-ALPHA
OFFICE: CAUSAL HYGIENE | SECTOR 7 RECURSION WING
DATE: STAMP REDACTED
STATUS: ACTIVE DIRECTIVE
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Subject Matter // Standard Operating Procedure
SOP 88-ALPHA: CAUSAL DEBRIDEMENT
The Dermestid Protocol
BLUF: The persistence of "Mnemonic Rot" within stable recursion templates presents the primary threat to timeline flattening. When an Echo fails to successfully Anchor a memory, the resulting "Dead History" creates a non-vibrating mass of narrative matter.
They call it rot. I call it evidence. The Authority has always been more comfortable with clean bones than with the question of who the bones belonged to.
BLUF // Continued
If left unaddressed, this rot acts as a dampening field, reducing the local Causal Elasticity and potentially triggering spontaneous desynchronization.
The Dermestid Protocol is our automated biological CTH solution for the systematic removal of these necro-mnemonic tissues.
"Automated." They want you to think no one made the decision. Someone always makes the decision.
Section I // Systemic Biology
Systemic Biology
The Dermestid sub-routine manifests as a swarm of localized CTH-constructs resembling the Dermestid maculatus. Unlike their biological counterparts, these "Cleaners" do not consume physical protein; they ingest the Potentiality of un-Anchored events.
They are tuned to the exact frequency of Fading Memories — specifically those where the Emotional Mass has dropped below the viability threshold:
μ < 0.12 // POTENTIALITY THRESHOLD — NON-VIABLE
Section II // Operational Phases
Operational Phases
  • IDENTIFICATION: The swarm identifies a "Causal Carcass" — a sequence of events that no longer possesses a functional future or a valid Ripple Vector.
A Causal Carcass. When you forget why something mattered, it becomes eligible for deletion. Remember that.
Section II // Operational Phases (cont.)
  • CONSUMPTION: The Cleaners strip the meat of the narrative. Sensory details, emotional resonance, and causal weight are shredded until only the "Bone" remains. The Bone is defined as the skeletal fact of the event — e.g., "A death occurred" — without any of the identifying data that makes it a personal memory.
  • BLEACHING: The remaining vectors are sanitized of color and emotion, converting them into Skeletal Assets, which are then integrated into the Authority's Master Template.
The record remains. Just nothing that would make you grieve it.
Section III // Risks to Personnel
Risks to Personnel
Auditors are warned not to intercede during a Cleaning. If an agent attempts to recover a memory currently under debridement, the Cleaners may misidentify the agent as necro-tissue.
This inevitably leads to skeletal symmetry — where the agent's purpose is stripped away, leaving behind a Hollow Auditor.
Hollow Auditors are capable of only repeating their last directive until they unravel. I've seen it. You don't want to see it.
Section III // Risks to Personnel (cont.)
Hollow Auditors are capable of only repeating their last directive until they unravel. The Authority has limited use for Hollow Auditors and reserves the right to redact such entities.
"Redact." They have a word for everything that makes erasure sound like paperwork.
[NOTE: For reporting procedures regarding Hollow Auditor identification, see SOP 91-C: Personnel Reclassification. Document access requires Level 5 clearance.]
Closing Directive // Mandatory Compliance
Allow the beetles to finish. A clean skeleton is a stable history. Do not mourn the meat.
If you're reading this, they haven't gotten to you yet. That means you still have meat left. That means you still have something worth protecting. Write it down. Write all of it down. Before the μ drops.
[END OF DOCUMENT // SOP-88A // RETURN TO DATABANK]