Item #: SCP-4177

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4177 manifestations are to be tracked and noted globally by Foundation agents embedded in any and all professions, and MTF Chi-9 ("Page Turners") are to be dispatched to remove the documents where possible. 200 instances are to be stored at Site-09, which specialises in the handling of anomalous documents, and any additional copies are to be incinerated on recovery. No Foundation personnel are to read SCP-4177 outside of testing.

Any known SCP-4177-1 instances are to be apprehended and held in Foundation custody; if employment is impossible or undesirable, they are to be placed on a high-calorie diet until their body-weight is more than double their ideal weight (as determined by a Foundation nutritionist), instructed to call the number on the relevant SCP-4177 instance, and left unobserved until an ω event occurs. They may then be released into the civilian population, with Class-F amnestics/memory realignments where necessary.

Description: SCP-4177 are pamphlets and flyers of varying size, appearing spontaneously in various locations worldwide. No direct pattern in location has yet been observed, but all instances to date have manifested in dense urban areas, and typically show preference for those with a higher proportion of overweight or obese residents. All manifestations occur when the area in question is completely unobserved.

While the exact contents of SCP-4177 are variable, each instance will advertise some method of weight-loss, ranging from extensive and invasive surgery to "the magic of moon cyrstals (sic)". The syntactic and grammatical structure of the text is universally poor, and frequently includes extensive run-on sentences, seemingly irrelevant details, and a severe lack of understanding of human biology, to the extent that some instances appear to refer to different kingdoms of life entirely. Despite these errors, all instances will refer to the human species by name, and the document will always conclude with a valid phone number (exact nature dependant on the region the instance manifests in). This phone number will always be unregistered within the area in question.

Human subjects who have read SCP-4177 and attempted to call the telephone number advertised will become instances of SCP-4177-1. When they next enter deep sleep unobserved1, an ω event will occur — the exact nature of this event is yet unknown due to the aforementioned requirement, but the SCP-4177-1 instance will wake up the following morning with their body-mass reduced by exactly one half. This missing biomass will have been seamlessly removed, leaving no signs of any entry into the body, and while most will come from areas of excess fat, a small (i.e. survivable) amount will be taken from every bodily organ2. To date, no adverse health conditions have resulted from use of SCP-4177 with -1 instances whose 'ideal' body weight was less than 50% of their pre-SCP-4177 weight. In less overweight subjects, SCP-4177 can be severely damaging, and, in many cases, fatal. The fate of the biomass removed during an ω event is unknown. See addendum.

Addendum | Incident SCP-4177-1551: On 1996-12-06 in Manchester, England, Mr. Gregor Wrasse (an instance of SCP-4177-1) underwent the first and only failed3 ω event recorded to date. At around 04:40 a.m., Wrasse was reportedly awoken by the sound of screaming, and opened the door to his bedroom to investigate. Upon seeing no-one there, noticing his own weight-loss, and hearing the screaming continue, he called the emergency services, relaying information about SCP-4177 when asked. The police department then alerted Foundation agents via OIS4 proxy, who arrived on the scene at 05:02 a.m..

When the building was searched, the body of Wrasse was discovered in the downstairs hallway of his house. The cause of death was determined to be a combination of strangulation and blunt-force trauma. An identical corpse was later found several streets away, naked, surrounded by SCP-4177 instances, with the cause of death apparently being the simultaneous failure of every major organ. In addition, traces of genetically matching blood and skin were found under the second corpse's fingernails, matching wounds on Wrasse's body. The subsequent posthumous examination was notable in that it revealed the mass of each corpse to be exactly equal.

Footnotes

1. This extends to live viewing, audiovisual recording, and any form of monitoring sufficient to distinguish the subject's presence.

2. Cancerous cells are seemingly unaffected by SCP-4177, remaining at 100% mass even after multiple ω events.

3. Presumed failure. The motives of the creators of SCP-4177, if any, are yet unknown.

4. Occult Intelligence Service, the British intelligence agency handling Foundation communications and anomalous affairs.