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| SCP-XXX |
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Item #: SCP-XXX
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures:
None. It is suggested that staff prone to particularly colourful speech are kept farther than 10m away from the artefact at all times as a safety precaution.
Description:
A pair of bone knitting needles, each approximately 24cm in length and 0.5cm in diameter. Both needles are lightly patinated and crazed with faint black marks. The handle ends of the needles are worn very smooth but bear the remnants of carving. On one needle the Norse rune "Hagalaz" is barely visible midway along the shaft when the item is viewed under an alternative light source.
The needles exhibit two unique abilities:
1) If they are separated farther than 10 metres apart, the needle marked with "Hagalaz" will disappear at the exact moment the sun next touches the horizon and immediately reappear next to its partner.
2) Any promise, oath or statement sworn within 10 metres of the needles that carries some kind of rider (for example "I swear on my mother's life", "Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye" or "May God strike me down if I don't") will have that rider literally or symbolically fulfilled within 48 hours if the person speaking was being insincere. Attempts to negate the oath by crossing one's fingers when making the oath have been found to result in a punishment twice as severe than was stated in the oath's rider.
The following riders are known to have been uttered by insincere subjects within range of the artefact:
- "May God strike me down if I don't" - While the hand of God was not directly observed, the subject died the following day when he tripped while returning the needles to containment, impaling himself through the nasal cavity.
- "I swear on my mother's life" - At dinner the following night the subject's mother began to choke. While the subject was attempting to perform the Heimlich manouevure they both fell backward and the subject hit her head and was instantly killed. Her mother is expected to make a full recovery. The knitting needle marked with Hagalaz was recovered from the scene.
- "I swear on the stars themselves" - During the following evening the subject was incinerated in a natural gas explosion.
After controlled testing with Class-D personnel, SCP-XXX's anomaly was confirmed. Testing has been suspended until further notice.