Killing Time
Item #: SCP-####
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Item SCP-#### is to be held in a transparent lockbox under electronic surveillance, with no regular human presence to come within 10 m of the item. A clearance area of 30 m is to be established around the item in which no routine task is to take place: All cleaning and maintenance of this radius is to be undertaken by remote where possible.
In the event of a containment breach, the affected sector will be locked down and all personnels' pockets and bags searched. Once the person that the item has imprinted itself upon has been identified, they are to be contained in a detention cell while any carvings found on the item are sanded off. Emergency Medical Teams are to remain on standby during this period to attend to the detained subject in the event of retribution by SCP-####-01.
Description: Item SCP-#### is a short length of soft pinewood dowel 30 cm in length and 4 cm in diameter. When left in the presence of an individual suffering repeated lapses of concentration during a routine task, the item will spontaneously appear on the subject's person. Upon noticing the object, the subject will initially express confusion, but will keep the object close by as they resume working. Over time, the subject will lose interest in their task and will begin to play with the item, often denting the surface of the wood with pen tips, fingernails or other hard tools. Subjects will take the item home with them and continue to work on the object, eventually carving designs into the wood using bladed tools or, in one recorded instance, shaping the dowel by gnawing it. These carvings invariably reflect the same overall form: A creature with an owl-like head, a drooping proboscis and a hunched, emaciated body with gnarled, clawed hands.
Over time, an entity (designated SCP-####-01) resembling this creature begins to make its presence felt around the subject, seemingly visible only when the sensation causes maximum unrest to the subject. As the carving becomes more complete the entity will begin to interfere with the subject's day-to-day life; this interaction typically takes the form of minor destructive pranks, frequently those that will soil the subject and/or their surroundings. Despite these disturbances, the subject will continue to work on the carving. Once the carving is complete, the subject will declare themselves to be 'bored' of the item, and will not return to work on it. The 'pranks' become more violent, with physical harm occurring to the subject. Blotchy rashes will begin to develop, and will be centred around circular bruise marks on the torso. The entity will materialise during sleep paralysis episodes, and in the days following these disturbances the subject will become feverish.
More aware subjects may become suspicious of the object at this point, and will make attempts to destroy the carving. These usually fail; either the subject will stay their hand at destroying their 'own' creation, or their fever renders their attempts ineffectually weak. The subject will allow others to take the object from them, but any attempts by this third party to destroy the object are hampered by its ability to instantly 'jump' back into the possession of the subject. The object seems to prefer pockets or loose folds of clothing during these unobservable relocations, but when such spaces are not available it will appear in [REDACTED] forcibly evacuated. When destruction attempts do succeed, the entity will materialise and will attack the responsible party with its claws. Depending on the damage done to the carving itself, the entity loses tangibility and will rapidly become less capable of injuring its target, disappearing completely upon total destruction of the image on the dowel. This destruction is non-permanent: Within 48 hours the dowel will appear again in its pristine state within 20 m of its largest remaining fragment.
As they realise their powerlessness, the subject will try to communicate with the entity, pleading to be left alone. At times, the entity will stand out of the subject's field of perception and will apparently 'listen' to the appeal before disappearing. Subjects become lethargic at this stage, often falling into long periods of catatonia. Attacks quickly become less violent but have a much greater effect on the subject, with weight-loss and subdermal haemorrhaging common. Eventually, the subject wakes up during the entity's feeding sessions and will observe it indifferently, falling asleep peacefully when feeding is complete. The carving on the dowel will slowly recede as the subject's health worsens, reverting to its original un-carved state upon the subject's death, at which point the entity will cease its manifestation. Modern medical technology has allowed for a much higher survival rate of affectees, with revival attempts after clinical expiration yielding an almost 10% resuscitation success.
Addendum:
Buggy Organ Fabrication Device
Item #: SCP-####
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: Item SCP-#### is to be housed in a sterile lab environment, and cleaned down after every use and after transit between labs. Adequate ventilation must be maintained during the ‘synthesis’ and ‘firming’ stages. Access to the device is restricted to staff having passed mandatory operational training modules. Failure to comply with these guidelines will result in a disciplinary review and access revocation.
Products of the machine are subject to testing and approval by a competent medical examiner, and all instances of product implantation are to be coupled with ongoing medical review, with check-in required twice daily. Development of superior and non-human samples is to be conducted only with O5 authorisation.
Description: Item SCP-#### is a fabrication device capable synthesising organic tissue and assembling this tissue into complete, living organs. These organs are frequently defective, possessing incorrect shapes, incomplete structures and superfluous growths. These defects are surmised to arise as a result of the device's development peripherals. Organs are designed in a development environment using code similar to commercial hardware description languages that is currently installed on a desktop PC running Ubuntu 10.10. This PC is then connected through a hardware interface box composed of commonly available electronics components. Both the development environment and the hardware interface are of poor construction quality, resulting in numerous defects in organ synthesis and considerable inconsistency in the output results.
The main device itself is a large, professionally manufactured fume-cupboard type metal construct with airtight access doors. The exterior is in generally good condition except where serial numbers have been removed. The interior contains a small formation chamber, with pivoting nozzles, vents and radiating bars embedded in the walls. Attempts to access or view the manufactory elements behind this chamber have proven difficult due to shielding on the interior. Attached to the fabrication unit is a home-made hardware interface box, linking the unit to a desktop computer. When the program 'orgCmpl.exe' is run, a simple development environment appears.
The previous operator had programmed a number of different organs into the device using what appears to be a modified hardware description language. These projects include a liver, a gall bladder, and numerous attempts at writing kidneys in varying stages of completion and correctness.
When these projects are executed, all doors on the fabrication unit will be closed and locked into place. Depending on the complexity of the project, over a period of 1 - 8 hours the machine will produce working sounds of fluid pumps, venting and motor rotation, and will even vibrate itself out of position if not properly secured. Once the process has completed, the doors will unseal and the finished organ(s) may be retrieved.
When the organs are first removed a thin film of a previously unknown polymer-producing bacteria, hereby identified as Escherichia coli ██████████, is found to be coating the products. It is inferred that these bacteria are somehow involved with the synthesis process, but experimentation has proven difficult due to the bacteria’s intolerance to light and air, hardening and crusting over within minutes of being removed from the chamber. The organs will emerge from the chamber in a clinically 'alive' state, often attempting to perform their natural functions before succumbing to suffocation within one minute unless a sufficient blood supply is provided.
Close medical inspection of the end products indicate that, while generally superficially correct, many of the manufactured organs suffer from internal defects and a lack of consistency. These defects are surmised to arise as a result of the poor quality of construction of both the hardware interface and development environment, and the normal issues of errors arising during programming.
SCP-#### was discovered in Guangdong, China, following a spate of deaths among illegal transplant patients. During a police raid linked to organ trafficking investigations, the machine was found in the spare room of the apartment amid a number of empty coolers. The apartment’s sole occupant, one Liu ███ █████, was detained by the authorities until a locally-based team from the Foundation were able to attend. Interviews conducted with the prisoner yielded little information about the device besides a general overview as to its general purpose. When pressed on the issue of who supplied the machine to him, the prisoner refused to answer, apparently out of fear. The prisoner was expected to be remanded to Foundation custody for further interrogation but was discovered to have died in the interim, having been strangled in his cell. A police investigation into any links between the prisoner and an officer whose child suffered fatal multiple organ failure post-transplant is ongoing.
News of further incidents involving defective and unusual transplant organs continue to reach the Foundation from South East Asia. Agents have been placed in major medical institutions to monitor and report.
Addendum:
Retained for reference
Item #: SCP-####
Object Class: Safe
Special Containment Procedures: Item SCP-#### is to be housed in a sterile lab environment, and cleaned down after every use and after transit between labs. When operating adequate ventilation must be maintained, particularly during the ‘synthesis’ and ‘firming’ stages. Access to the device is restricted to Level 1 upwards under permit conditions, with interaction strictly limited to scientific and technical personnel having undertaken and passed mandatory training modules. Failure to comply with these guidelines will result in a disciplinary review and access revocation.
Products of the machine are only to be used following testing and approval by a medical examiner, and development of superior samples is to be conducted only with O5 authorisation. All instances of product implantation are to be coupled with ongoing medical review, with check-in required twice daily.
Non-human samples are to be produced on an experimental basis under O5 authorisation only. Technical Study Groups 5-8 and 5-9 are granted limited autonomy within non-human experimentation in order to provide guidance to other developers.
Description: Item SCP-#### is an integrated organ development environment, capable of being programmed to produce a variety of internal organs through the use of a biological description language with a suitable compiler. The device as it stands possesses a substantial number of bugs, due in no small part to the homebrew nature of the hardware interface between the computer and the main construct.
The main device itself is a large professionally manufactured fume-cupboard type metal construct with airtight access doors. It is made of a Steel-Aluminium alloy, with hardened plastic panelling where power and communications interface maintenance is required. The exterior is in generally good condition, with the exception of a missing manufacturer’s badge and multiple locations on the rear-side where serial numbers have been roughly filed off.
The interior contains a smaller access door that shields a chamber nested within a solid metal-cased assembly. This assembly presumably houses the device’s micro-manufactory complex.
Visible within the compartment are a trio of pivoting nozzles mounted perpendicularly to one another, a retractable rotating spindle of length 250mm, and a series of interlaced radiating bars and vent outlets. All attempts to access the manufactory elements have proven difficult: Radio-imaging from the exterior is hampered by what appears to be heavy shielding inside, while ultrasound scanning has only revealed the presence of two cylindrical containers of liquid located at the base of the machine. The liquid level in these cylinders appears to vary over time, but never in sufficiently great quantity in any short period and has even been observed to rise when the machine is not in use. Depletion of the fluids has not yet been observed, and researchers are invited to produce test specifications on how best to achieve this to better understand the device’s behaviour.
Use of more direct means of access has been considered, and denied by O5-█████ until such time as the machine ceases to function. This decision was made on the grounds that maintaining air and light-tightness of the internals is vital to the continued operation of the machine. See Addendum 01 for supporting information.
Attached to the cupboard are the following:
- 1x Hardware Interface Box (Presumed not original)
- 1x Workstation via Serial Connection to Interface (Presumed not original)
Neither of these exhibits any anomalous properties, but are both used to interact with the central device. Due to the Hardware Interface Box’s fabrication using commonly available electronics components and its current housing within a cracked ice-cream container, it has been surmised that this was not the original hardware intended for use with the central device but, rather, was created to emulate such an interface. In a similar fashion, the workstation contains a program named ‘orgCmpl.exe’ that, when run, presents a form of development environment apparently created by an independent party.
It is through this development environment that the unusual nature of SCP-#### becomes apparent. From inspection of existing project samZong.o, the language used with this tool is a derivative of C, with substantial support for software objects and advanced inheritance functions. When such projects are executed, all doors on the cupboard will be closed and locked into place and the central device’s main function is activated.
Depending on the complexity of the project, over a period of 1 - 8 hours the machine will produce working sounds of fluid pumps, venting and motor rotation, and will even vibrate itself out of position if not properly secured. Once the process has completed (as indicated by notification on the development environment), opening the doors to the central device reveals that the compartment contains a functioning organ or system of organs.
Experimentation with other existing projects shows that, prior to seizure by the Foundation, the previous operator had programmed a number of different organs into the device, including a heart, liver, gall bladder and numerous attempts at writing kidneys in varying stages of completion and correctness.
Close medical inspection of the end products indicate that, while generally superficially correct, many of the manufactured organs suffer from internal defects and a lack of consistency. Further sample testing revealed that all organs are consistent in their genetic makeup, with DNA matching that of [REDACTED] Pasadena Police Department missing persons record has been seized by the Foundation and are currently being consulted in the investigation into the manufacturer of the device. It is notable that when the organs are first removed a thin film of a previously unknown polymerising bacteria, hereby identified as Escherichia coli ██████████, is found to be coating the products. It is inferred that these bacteria are somehow involved with the synthesis process, but experimentation on these samples has proven difficult due to the bacteria’s intolerance to light and air, hardening and crusting over within minutes of being removed from the chamber.
NOTE: Please see addendum SCP-####-02 for recent developments.
In the best observed case a test system of a heart, lungs and liver, developed by Technician W███████, was discovered to be ’alive’ and functional. The system was found to be capable of producing [DATA EXPUNGED] Further tearing observed in the walls of the simplistic artery/vein system caused the heart to become overstimulated, conjectured to be a bid to maintain circulatory pressure. After three minutes of elevated activity this additional stress caused the heart to go into arrest and at 1635 hrs the system ‘died’, ceasing all movement and response. Further experimentation was denied by 05-█████ until a full autopsy on the system could be performed. Technician W███████ was found 48 hours later having broken into the containment lab during the early hours of the morning, and had collapsed from mental and emotional exhaustion after the third failed iteration of the system.
These defects are surmised to be the result of errors in both the driver software linking to the interface box, and to faults in the interface box itself. Technical Study Group 5-8 “The Donors”, the first TSG to map out the limits of the Biological Descriptive Language dubbed “O”, have been tasked with eliminating errors in these areas. Moderate success has been achieved, with stable programming templates for many major organs in place. Correcting errors in the driver and interface box has proven problematic, given the lack of access available to the interior workings of the machine, which produces undesirable artefacts when attempting to create more complex organs or organs with significant differences to the norm. Experimenters are reminded to study Log █████████████ for information on practices to avoid, and that interviews with Technician W███████ in the psychiatric ward are a mandatory aspect of operational training. Failure to attend will result in a no-grade.
SCP-#### was discovered in ██████████, Guangdong, following a spate of deaths among illegal transplant patients. During a police raid linked to organ trafficking investigations, the machine was found in the spare room of the apartment amid a number of empty coolers and midway through creating a ██████████. It should be noted that this sample was later found to be near-perfect, but had hardened on removal from the chamber. The apartment’s sole occupant, one Liu ███ █████, was detained by the authorities until a team from the Foundation were able to reach the location having been alerted by a local informant. Interviews conducted with the prisoner yielded little information on the operation of the device, and even less on its origins. Besides a general overview as to the purpose of the device, the only information forthcoming from the prisoner indicated that he had purchased it from an unknown third party; All efforts to trace said party have, so far, failed. The prisoner was expected to be remanded to Foundation custody for further interrogation but was discovered to have died in the interim, having been strangled in his cell. A police investigation into any links between the prisoner and an officer whose child suffered fatal multiple organ failure post-transplant is ongoing.
Addendum ####-01:
Addendum ####-02:
Addendum ####-03:
Addendum ####-04: