SCP-4076

SCP-4076

Item #: SCP-4076

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedure: SCP-4076 is to be kept in a standard Safe-class containment unit and is not to be played unless authorized by at least two researchers of level 2 clearance or higher for testing purposes.

Description: SCP-4076 is a VHS tape of unknown make and origin labeled in black sharpie with the words “Play me!”. Of note is the fact that children under the age of 2 years often feel an instinctual fear of SCP-4076, usually attempting to leave the vicinity of SCP-4076 and intentionally attempting to avoid observing its contents.

SCP-4076 has several anomalous properties, the primary and most dangerous of which is that any living creature exposed to any of the information on SCP-4076 will invariably and suddenly disappear leaving behind only trace amounts of sulfur dust. How this happens is unknown as any video feed seems to stop working for a brief window starting slightly before the disappearance and ending slightly after it, and any in-person observation ends in the secondary observer’s disappearance. The second anomalous property of SCP-4076 is an inability to be recorded. All attempts to record SCP-4076 thus far have resulted in the disappearance of the recording device in its entirety.

The third anomalous property of SCP-4076 is that any person or device attempting to open SCP-4076 will disappear. As of the current time, there is no known way of knowing what is on SCP-4076 without disappearing. For information on tests conducted on SCP-4076 refer to Addendum-4076-2: Testing. For information on the recovery of SCP-4076 refer to Addendum-4076-1: Recovery.

Addendum-4076-1: Recovery: SCP-4076 was recovered on ████ ██ after an anonymous tip was called into the ████████ police department reporting the strange disappearances of several locals linked to a reclusive local artist known only as ███ Fermi. An embedded SCP agent within the ████████ police department took note of the disappearances and the Foundation took over the investigation from there.

When SCP agents raided the apartment of ███ Fermi they found two rooms of note. The first room of note was a storage room filled with mostly random objects, such as a vacuum-sealed sample of what appears to be pink stained Rosa multiflora (often referred to as multiflora rose), several handheld tape recorders, a large silver cross approximately 12 inches tall, a box of chinese finger traps, a smooth sphere which after testing appears to be made of active uranium with small flecks of red citrine quartz, and a sign reading "Road Closed". The second room of note contained a small cathode ray tube television and VHS player (in which SCP-4076 was found) as well as many seemingly non-anomalous VHS tapes (hereafter designated SCP-4076-1 through SCP-4076-18). A complete list of other tapes as well as their contents can be found in Addendum-4076-3.

Test Date Experiment Result Conclusion 3/15/1990 SCP-4076 is set to run until completed, with D-5821 (a blind man) assigned to sit in the room and listen to the output of SCP-4076 D-5821 was found to have disappeared when checked on several hours later. The anomalous effects of SCP-4076 on living beings are not limited to purely its visual output. 3/30/1990 SCP-4076 set to run until completed, with D-3821 assigned to watch the contents of SCP-4076 and vocalize constantly until it was over. This test was then repeated with several other D-class personnel. D-3821 stopped vocalizing abruptly exactly 45 minutes after playback of SCP-4076 started. All other tested D-class personnel reacted identically. Observers of SCP-4076 will disappear exactly 45 minutes after viewing begins. 4/11/1990 SCP-4076 set to run until completed, with a D-class personnel member instructed every minute on the minute, starting at the 45 minute mark, to enter the testing chamber and return reporting what they observed. No testing subject returned from the testing chamber until the 1 hour mark, at which point all further personnel returned and reported nothing to be playing. It can be assumed that any person who views SCP-4076 after the 45 minute mark will vanish instantly, and that SCP-4076 is between 59 and 60 minutes long. 5/2/1990 SCP-4076 set to run until completed, with D-7498, D-6223, and D-8743 asked separately to view the contents of SCP-4076 and at a random point before the 45 minute mark describe or draw what they observed. The only variation between each D-class personnel member in this test was that D-7498 was asked to write the description down, D-6223 was asked to speak it, and D-8743 was asked to draw a picture of it. In each instance, as soon as the assigned D-class personnel member began to describe or draw what they observed, they disappeared. In the case of D-6223 an intake of breath was heard, and nothing after. In the case of D-7498, a single small pencil mark was observed on the piece of paper after the experiment, with D-7498 having disappeared when checked on. In the case of D-8743, a similar result was observed as with D-8498. There is currently no way known to learn the contents of SCP-4076 without watching it. 5/13/1990 SCP-4076 set to run until completed with an alarm placed in the room set to go off in 10 minutes. D class personnel member D-9908 was instructed to watch the contents of the tape, and attempt to leave after they heard the alarm sound. D-9908 did not emerge from the testing chamber. When the testing chamber was checked afterward, D-9908 was observed to have disappeared. It is unknown whether D-9908 was unable to leave the room, or whether attempting to do so caused them to vanish. Regardless, it has been determined that attempting to leave partway through the process of observing SCP-4076 will be unsuccessful. 5/31/1990 Researcher █████ attempted to open SCP-4076 by hand using a screwdriver, presumably in an attempt to manually inspect the tape’s contents. Researcher █████ was found to have vanished, with only the incomplete security footage revealing what had occurred. SCP-4076 cannot be opened by hand without the person attempting to open it disappearing. 6/18/2000 A machine designed to open standard size VHS tapes (SCP-4076-A) was constructed and set up to open SCP-4076. It was remotely activated from a distance of 1 mile. The machine was found to have disappeared in its entirety with the cords connected for power and remote activation left sitting in the dust next to SCP-4076. Machines cannot open SCP-4076. 10/10/2017 A computer program (SCP-4076-B) was written by Scientist ████ and Researcher ██████ to identify objects and scenes based on images. It was then exposed to SCP-4076 with no anomalous effects. Scientist ████ and Researcher ██████ then added the ability to store observations made by the program to a text file and re exposed it to SCP-4076. The second time SCP-4076-B was exposed to SCP-4076, the computer it was stored on, as well as all machines with backup copies of the SCP-4076-B vanished, along with anyone who happened to be observing any of those computers at the time. The contents of SCP-4076 still remain unable to be learned by the Foundation as a whole.