SCP-113

Item #: SCP-113

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-113 is to be kept in standard storage in Site-23. SCP-113 may be handled with laboratory gloves. No organism may be exposed to SCP-113 without prior approval. Personnel exposed to SCP-113 are to be kept under medical observation for 7 days.

Description: SCP-113 resembles a small, polished piece of red jasper. Analysis shows that SCP-113 is not composed of jasper, but [REDACTED] composition similar to that of other recovered objects.

When SCP-113 comes in direct contact with the flesh of an organism possessing sex chromosomes, the organism's physical characteristics associated with gender and biological sex are transformed (including genetics and secondary sexual characteristics), either reversed or altered.

This process occurs in four stages:

Stage 1: Lasts approximately 0.2 seconds. SCP-113 bonds with the cells that it touches and induces an unidentified chemical change. This process causes tissue damage similar to mild burns, and SCP-113 cannot be removed from contact with the subject until all stages complete.

Stage 2: Lasts approximately 20 seconds. SCP-113 emits a low-intensity electromagnetic wave which travels through the subject's body. Subjects may experience nausea and vomiting, along with a stinging sensation throughout the body.

Stage 3: Lasts approximately 60 seconds. Throughout this stage, the subject's cellular makeup is temporarily transformed. Altered cell composition ranges widely from being unidentifiable as human, to a unique variation of partially-differentiated stem cells. The subject will experience intense stimulation of all sensory nerves during the final 20 seconds of this stage, and describe this part of the process as extremely painful. Subjects in poor health may die of shock in this stage.

At the end of this stage, the subject's biological sex is permanently altered. In standard cases, the subject's biological sex will be changed to the opposite biological sex. All primary and secondary sexual characteristics are altered accordingly.

Stage 4: SCP-113 disengages from the subject and becomes inert.

Subjects with sex chromosomes atypical for their species (such as intersex humans) are affected in unpredictable ways by SCP-113. In human intersex subjects, this appears to be influenced by gender identity; such subjects may be unaffected, or their bodies may change to match baseline male or female bodies (with sex chromosomes to match), or other results may occur. Usually, change seems to match or partially match subject's gender identity during initial use, if gender identity is nonstandard. Whether SCP-113 alters its effect based on the presence of a nonstandard gender identity is under investigation.

Gender identity of human subjects is not typically altered by SCP-113. In subjects with nonstandard gender identities (typically gender identities which do not match their pre-exposure biological sex), this usually results in positive psychological effects. In subjects with standard gender identities (male/female, matching pre-exposure biological sex), psychological effects are usually negative. These appear to be natural psychological reactions, and not an anomalous effect of SCP-113.

SCP-113 exposure results in unusual effects in certain species. In Varanus komodoensis (the komodo dragon), a number of ZW/ZZ individuals were transformed to possess WW chromosomes instead of ZZ or ZW, which was in every instance fatal. In Caenorhabditis elegans (a nematode), no males were produced despite C. elegans having two sexes (hermaphrodite and male). Male subjects became hermaphrodites, and hermaphrodite subjects were unaffected. (Note: In wild populations, male C. elegans are extremely rare.)

Subjects of single-sex, hermaphroditic species (such as earthworms) will not be transformed by SCP-113; the object's process will stop at the second stage and the object will become inert.

Previously exposed subjects may undergo SCP-113's effects again by re-initiating contact with SCP-113 after approximately 60 seconds have passed. However, in 25% of cases, immediate second exposure to SCP-113 fails to transform the subject correctly. Transformation failure varies in nature, but usually includes massive bone, organ, and tissue damage to the subject, as well as partial or complete obliteration of genitalia. This commonly results in death by organ trauma or internal bleeding.

Failure rate can be affected by subjects not coming into contact with SCP-113 for a lengthy period of time, which varies by subject; patterns are under research. Under normal circumstances, transformation failure rate increases exponentially upon multiple exposures. Subjects who survive rapid, repeated exposure are eventually transformed [DATA EXPUNGED] Further anomalous elements continue to appear as exposure count increases.