SCP-4164

Item #: SCP-4164

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4164 is to be held in a secure Site-19 containment locker.

The full text of SCP-4164 is to be transcribed and photographed once daily. Should SCP-4164 come into contact with any mass-produced consumer device, a new transcription is to be taken and appended to the daily record.

Outside of testing, SCP-4164 is to be kept out of physical contact with any and all mass-produced consumer products, including standard-issue laboratory gloves, save for the file folder in which it currently resides.

Description: SCP-4164 is a printed document entitled "Jefferson G. Universal Instruction Manual," formatted onto a single sheet of A4-standard paper. Chemical analyses of samples taken from SCP-4164 show no indication of anomalous material properties. Photocopies, photographs, digital scans, or other reproductions of SCP-4164 display no anomalous behavior.

While the title of SCP-4164 has remained consistent throughout all tests, the body text of the document dynamically updates when SCP-4164 is placed in direct physical contact with any commercially produced consumer device. Approximately thirty minutes after contact (32.5 minutes avg, 9.5 minutes stdv), the text of SCP-4164 reconfigures itself into a sheet of instructions for the device's use. These instructions invariably fail to follow the standard operating procedures intended by the device's manufacturer, but rather direct an operator to use the device in an unsafe manner. In every such case recorded, the outcome of following instructions provided by SCP-4164 would be the death of bystanders, the operator, or both in a ritualized murder or murder-suicide.

In most iterations, SCP-4164 references a person or entity designated as "����," a string of four "unknown/unpresentable character" Unicode blocks. The identity, whereabouts, and metaphysical nature of "����" are as of yet unknown. No physical evidence for such an entity has ever been observed in testing of SCP-4164. References to the future "arrival," "oncoming," and "immanentization" of "����" in the text of SCP-4164 indicate that its future appearance on Earth is a potential goal of the person or persons responsible for the creation of SCP-4164. As the most recent iterations of SCP-4164 have provided little further information, it is unknown whether the arrival of "����" is imminent, the arrival of "����" has already come to pass, or if, in actuality, "����" is a fictional conceit of the "Jefferson G. Universal Instruction Manual."

SCP-4164's exhortations to commit homicide and/or suicide are accompanied by a tally of "Remaining sacrifices before the night of ����." As this number has dramatically decremented over the course of SCP-4164's containment, and no such homicides or suicides are known to have been committed by Foundation personnel, it is speculated that there are multiple extant instances of SCP-4164 outside containment. Media Surveillance personnel continue to monitor global news sources for reports of unusual homicides or suicides committed with household consumer products.

The language in the body text of SCP-4164 corresponds with the device's target retail market. While the text of SCP-4164 demonstrates fluency in American English, lexical analysis of most other observed languages reveals grammatical and syntactical errors consistent with commercially available machine translation software. The one exception thus far discovered is of products originating in Germany, wherein SCP-4164 displays orthographic idiosyncrasies consistent with a strong familiarity or fluency in Pennsylvania German, colloquially referred to as "Pennsylvania Dutch." Foundation investigative personnel have accordingly concentrated their efforts to Pennsylvania and adjacent states in an attempt to locate individuals operating under the name of "Jefferson G." To date, all evidence gathered of such an individual is circumstantial and unverified.

SCP-4164 has been observed to provide sensitive information on Foundation security protocols to which testing personnel did not have access. Digital forensic analysis of Foundation computer networks indicates that an unknown agent or agents used a zero-day direct-access exploit to compromise a terminal in Site 19, █ day(s) before the breach became apparent. A keylogger placed on this machine captured passwords from █ Foundation personnel before it was discovered, including a senior member of Site 19 Facility Security. It is the conclusion of Information Security personnel that while very limited SCP Catalog data and no operational structure data of the Foundation were compromised, a significant number of Site 19 security protocols were within the scope of the attack. These protocols correspond to information presented in the text of SCP-4164.

As of 7/27/2018, all testing of SCP-4164 requires Level 3 approval. Contact Section Manager Allan M█████ to request access.

Following the death of Section Manager M█████ on 8/06/2018, locating any instances of SCP-4164 currently outside of containment has become a core priority mission for MTF █.

As of 8/07/2018, SCP-4164 has become unresponsive to testing. Daily attempts to elicit a response are ongoing.