Lucy Watson

Item #: SCP-5870		Object Class: Safe
Level 3 Clearance		Threat Level: Green ●

Special Containment Procedures:

SCP-5870-A is to be kept on a pedestal inside a double-locked standard containment chamber, with no windows or external viewing points. Access is restricted to level 3 personnel and above. During testing, all overseeing researchers are to wear appropriate eye coverings, such as opaque blindfolds.

Description:

SCP-5870 consists of two separate anomalies, SCP-5870-A and SCP-5870-B.

SCP-5870-A is an old and weathered "Jack-in-the-Box" toy, dating back to the latter half of the 19th century. The box is made of an unknown type of wood, painted with faded watercolours depicting cartoonish tombstones and skeletons adorned with hats and canes. Engraved on the front, in cursive letters, is the phrase Scares more than your socks off! A metal crank is inserted into the right side of the box. The "Jack" doll inside the box has a wooden face, painted white, and a green felt fool's cap sewn onto its head.

SCP-5870-A exhibits no anomalous features until a human subject winds the metal crank. While the crank is being wound, the object will begin playing a slightly distorted version of the classic song "Pop Goes The Weasel", for a duration of anywhere between 15 to 40 seconds. Once the song has concluded, the "Jack" doll will eject from the box. At this point, all observing subjects will undergo the same process.

Subjects' oesophagi and mouths will begin widening drastically, distorting the subjects' necks and faces in order to accommodate the change. During this process, subjects are incapable of vocalization, but will express significant distress through facial expressions and body language. Once these openings have reached shoulder width, the individual's entire skeleton will be expelled through the mouth and land a short distance forward. Immediately thereafter, the rest of the body will crumple to the ground, as it is now completely hollowed out (save for the interior lining of the skin). The underlying mechanism through which the internal organs, muscles, and other components disappear, as well as their new location, are currently unknown.

The newly expelled skeletons, henceforth referred to as SCP-5870-B, will reanimate in the following minute. The bone joints will be held together through a force similar to magnetism. SCP-5870-B instances are capable of speech and normal movement, and seem to retain their former individuality, sentience, and memory. Some report feeling "lighter on their feet", and all report retaining their previous senses of hearing, vision, smell, taste, and touch, despite their lack of organs. The entities do not require nutrition, hydration, or ventilation, but are apparently capable of obtaining them, even though all "ingested" food and drink will simply leak out through any openings in the skeleton. SCP-5870-B instances will deteriorate at a rate similar to an average healthy human; however, their bones are unusually resistant to trauma, and will not easily break or fracture. However, this does not mean they are indestructible (see Test 1). Once broken, the bones will not heal.

SCP-5870-A was discovered on 29/02/20█ in an antique shop, during regular field surveillance activity. Field agents reported hearing a “rattling noise” coming from the basement. Upon investigation, they found ██ SCP-5870-B instances, now in Foundation custody (see Interview Log-01). Upon questioning the owner of the store on the origin of the entities, she gave up SCP-5870-A. The only information provided for its origin was that it had been “passed down for many generations”.

Interviewed: [The person, persons, or SCP being interviewed]

Interviewer: [Interviewer, can be blocked out using █]

Foreword: [Small passage describing the interview]

<Begin Log, [optional time info]>

Interviewer: [speech]

Person: [speech]

[Repeat as necessary]

<End Log, [optional time info]>

Closing Statement: [Small summary and passage on what transpired afterward]

Show Test Log 1

Test 1 – 01/04/20█

Subject: D-87568

Procedure: Subject was ordered to wind SCP-5780’s crank. The object played the song “Pop Goes the Weasel” for 25 seconds, whereupon the “Jack” doll popped out of the box.

Results: Skeleton was expelled and became an SCP-5870-B instance. Subject continued to express distress, now including vocalizations such as screaming and cursing. The entity became enraged and managed to briefly breach containment, lightly wounding the attending researcher in the process. It attempted to escape by leaping from a height of 12 floors, breaking its femur and spine. SCP-5870-B remained animate and conscious, and was quickly re-contained. Long-term observation found that its broken bones did not heal.

Analysis: Despite high resistance, SCP-5870-B bones can indeed be damaged/broken and will not recover from such damage. Additional testing is required in order to ascertain the effort needed to terminate an SCP-5870-B entity.
Researcher notes: I fail to see the relevance of

Show Test Log 1

Test 1 – 01/04/20█

Subject: D-79037 (deceased)

Procedure: The corpse of D-79037, recently deceased, was placed in front of SCP-5870-A. Its eyes were pried open and pointed in the direction of the anomaly. The crank was wound by the overseeing researcher (wearing a blindfold), and the “Jack” doll popped out after 18 seconds.

Results: D-79037’s skeleton was successfully ejected, but no re-animation occurred.

Analysis: It appears that expelled skeletons will only become SCP-5870-B instances if the original subject is alive.

Incident Log-3:

Click to reveal details

A recently deceased D-class personnel's corps was placed in front of SCP-5870-A and the crank was wound. After the "Jack" had ejected from the box, no changes were observed to happen to the corps. The test was repeated but this time the corps had its eyelids pried open and pointed at the direction of SCP-5870-A. The corps's skeleton was successfully ejected but no re-animation was apparent.

Incident Log-4:

Click to reveal details

D-4873 was positioned in front of SCP-5870-A with his mouth surgically sewn shut. When D-4873 observed SCP-5870-A's "Jack" eject from the box, D-4873's skeleton forcibly tore its way through the sewn mouth and then continued to function as a normal SCP-5870-B specimen.

Additional Notes:

Reclassification for Euclid has been suggested by Researcher Osmund. Reclassification is awaiting approval.