bedknobs - gift box

A Gift to the World

Item #: scp-xxxx

Class: Safe

Special Containment measures:
Scp-xxxx may be stored in a standard containment vault. Anyone wishing to handle the object must have undertaken a psychological assessment within the last 3 months and received a relative stability score of at least 50% above mean, and a relative creativity score of 50% below mean. No Class D personnel are to be allowed to come into contact with the object. This is due to a tendency towards potentially dangerous secondary manifestations.

If testing of scp-xxxx is to take place, all non essential personnel should be removed from a 100 500 1700 m radius. Ideally, testing should take place in an open area of the same radius, with good cctv coverage of all areas to monitor the appearance and nature of secondary manifestations.

Description:
It is believed that Scp-xxxx was purchased from a franchised gift store located in ██████████ for $1.99. It resembles a cardboard gift box 213 mm square and 254 mm tall. It weighs 51.2 grams, which is consistent with an empty box of this size. It is bright red with a gold ribbon. A white gift tag is nestled in the ribbon on top of the box.

Inspection of the inside of the box reveals that it is empty once opened by a subject.

Properties:
When presented with scp-xxx and asked to examine the gift tag attached to it, a subject will typically exclaim with delight that they have a gift. When pushed further, they will explain that the tag addresses the gift to them personally. The writting on the tag is usually described as being feminine and is invariably written in blue biro.

The subject will generally express great interest and excitement with the possible content of the box, and will grow petulent and even angry if prevented from opening it.

If allowed to open the box, the subject will peer inside with apparent wonder, before carefully removing an object visible only to themselves. They often describe the object as 'beautiful' or 'precious'.

The appearance of the gift to the subject is completely different from person to person, but it invariably some small thing that could easily fit into scp-xxxx. It is convincingly postulated that the object manifested is related to the subconcious of the subject. For instance, male subjects often manifest overtly sexualized or violent gifts, which is particularly notable in previously violent Class D subjects.

The gift will vanish as soon as the subject stops admiring it. Distracting their attention from the object or attempts by a 3rd party to touch it typically achieves this, but the subject's fascination will normally lapse on its own within 20 to 30 minutes with no outside intervention. Attempts to prolong the manifestation of the object through hypnosis or other techniques have largely proven futile, with the maximum recorded duration being 42 minutes.

No physical or spectrographic evidence of the objects has ever been obtained, and it is considered that they are effectively imaginary. However, this is not the case with the secondary manifestations of the objects, which clearly have a physical presence.

This phenomenon was first noted by Dr ███████ during the first round of experiments on scp-xxxx. Following the opening of the box, he noted the sudden appearance of a garishly coloured small china dog on the corner of the table at which he was working. This was consistent with the object being decribed by the subject.

A search of nearby areas of the facility revealed the existance of a further five such gifts within a 50 m radius. These persisted for the duration of the experiment, but vanished immediately upon the disapearance of the original gift.

The number and radius of secondary manifestations varies from subject to subject, but typically comprises up to ten objects spread over a 70 m radius.

It has been suggested that these variables may relate to the imaginative capabilities of the subject. The most extreme manifestation of secondary gifts was recorded as taking place during the testing of a talented artist. In this case, several thousand duplicates of a roughly sculpted screaming head were recorded as appearing over a 1.7 km radius, incorporating the nearby settlement of ███████. This necessitated the use of Class A amnesiacs on a total of ███ civilians.

Note that any alterations made to the gift by the experimental subject are reflected in the secondary manifestations, with potentially hazardous results.

A full list of manifestations is included as Appendix J1, and runs to 312 seperate items. Particularly notable objects include:

• a snow globe representation of the facility in which the research was taking place. When shaken, brief flurries of snow were noted outside of the facility windows.
• the physical representation of an infinate staircase (as frequently drawn by M C Escher).
• a ambulatory chattery teeth toy, the sole manifestation of which attacked and nearly killed a researcher
• a molymod representation of a complex hydrocarbon. The subject claimed that it was the cure for his mothers cancer, but became distracted by a house fly before any of the secondary manifestations could be properly studied. Repeated attempts to recreate this gift resulted only in a series of intricately carved animals of a kind enjoyed by the subject's mother.

Due to the ephemeral nature of their existance, it has not been possible to preserve any of these objects as individual scps.

Document scp-xxxx #36a

Transcript of interview on ██/██/██ with D-2145, a Caucasian male aged 48. Gulf war veteran with known violent tendencies.

Dr █████: "What do you see?"

Subject D-2145: "A box. It's pretty ugly."

Dr █████: "Who is it adressed to?"

Subject D-2145: "Oh wow. It's for me! Can i open it?"

Dr █████: "Of course."

Dr █████: "What are you holding?"

Subject D-2145: "Oh It's brilliant."

Dr █████: "Yes but what is it?"

Subject D-2145: "A hand grenade."

Dr █████: "What are you doing now?"

Subject D-2145: "Pulling the pin."

Dr █████: "Security! Brown aler…."

A series of loud explosions can be heard in the background.

Contrary to Expectations

{$caption}

Item #: scp-xxxx

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures:
Subject may be held in a secure 10 m by 10 m holding cell suitable for occupation by a temperate animal.

Before entering the holding cell, personnel must read out the following text to scp-xxxx via a microphone:

" The subject appears to be a large predatory creature. It exhibits sharpened teeth, tusks, fangs, and has musculature suggestive of a high bite strength. It has defensive horns and spines. Its limbs end in talons, claws and pincers. It's tentacles boast serrated sucker pads. It appears to have acute senses and fast reflexes both superior to those of a human. All protrusions are venomous, and its skin in poisonous. It is impervious to sedatives and pain. It is capable of dangerous memetic suggestions, and is likely to be hostile towards all observers."

Following this statement, it is likely that scp-xxxx may be approached safely with no further precautions required.

No audio or written records are to be made in the presence of scp-xxxx and observers should be wary of murmuring to themselves or giving descriptive gestures to each other.

Description:
Scp-xxxx can take the form of any physical object within the constraints placed upon it.

For a number of years, it was maintained in the form of a 124 cm diameter red sphere, although this practice has now been discontinued.

Properties
Scp-xxxx will take a form that is incongruous to any description applied to it. For instance, if described as a red sphere, it may take the form of a green cube, or a yellow pyramid. However it is just as likely that it may take on a form even more contrary to the description of a red sphere, such as a small dog or a newspaper. For this reason, efforts to manipulate its behaviour towards a certain end must be highly precise.

Scp-xxxx was obtained by the foundation following rumours of its presence in ███████ ████████. Simply stating that "the scp is not present in this transport cell" was sufficient to capture it at the time, although it is considered that scp-xxxx has become more wily during its captivity.

In general, the behavior and attitude of scp-xxxx is typically described as hostile, petulant and contrary.

Bearing this in mind, the application of negative descriptors is strongly discouraged, as it can lead to unpredictable outcomes. It is true that simply describing scp-xxxx as "not a red sphere" will appear to render it as a red sphere, and this procedure was performed successfully for some time following its capture. However, after 1763 days in captivity, it was inadvertently found to have transformed into a red sphere with a concealed mouth full of serrated teeth, which resulted in the loss of a hand by Dr ███████.

Since this incident, further efforts to 'trick' scp-xxxx into adopting a singular stable form have also proven fruitless.

Stating that it is "not a red sphere identical in every way" to an inert plastic sphere housed with it proven to be successful for several weeks, until it was found that both scp-xxxxx and the plastic sphere had developed identical tooth filled mouths (a circumstance that led to the loss of Dr ███████'s other hand and his assignment to other duties).

Describing it as "not identical to a perfectly ordinary banana" appeared to be successful for a time, until it became apparent that a researcher had a previously unsuspected but extreme allergy to plants of the musa genus. The approach was finally abandoned when press reports of an increase in anaphylactic reactions to bananas in the wider population of ███████ were noted by researchers.

The present method of containment by extensive positive statements has so far proven successful, and is considered to be a far more humane approach than the negative statements previously adopted. Certainly scp-xxxx seems less contrary and more 'happy' with this methodology.

Adendum scp-xxxx 1.1

Following extensive study, permission was sought from a Level 4 director to say the phrase "the subject exists" in the presence of scp-xxxx. Permission was granted, and the experiment successfully resulted in the apparent termination of scp-xxxx.

However, several days later, study of scp-████, a rainbow coloured kitten that smelled of strawberries, was underway. During the description of scp-████, a 2m tall, three headed black dog appeared in the room and proceeded to kill scp-qqqq and a total of 13 personnel over a 30 minute period. It was eventually subdued by use of the "not a red sphere" command by Dr ███████, who unfortunately lost both legs during the attack.

Future researchers are reminded that they are dealing with an intelligent and hostile being that is capable of taking on any physical form. A certain level of circumspection is therefore recommended when experimenting with scp-xxxx, and all personnel are reminded of the old maxim; "est optimum non vexas" (translation; best not piss it off).