Item #: SCP-3712

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-3712 is to be kept in a standard item storage locker at Site-179. During experimentation, SCP-3712 must not be allowed to establish a direct line of sight to researchers or other valued personnel, and as such all interaction with SCP-3712 is to be carried out by D-class persons.

No person, unless specifically granted exception by a member of Level 3 personnel or above, is permitted to interact with SCP-3712 on more than four separate occasions.

Description: SCP-3712 is a highly detailed painted wooden doll with 12 points of articulation (jaw, elbows, neck, shoulders, hips, knees, ankles) in the rough form of a stereotypical Caucasian elderly woman. While inactive, it will perform motions such as those used for knitting, sewing, and baking, though its hands remain empty. Subjects often report that the object slightly resembles either their paternal or maternal grandmother, though from objective description it appears that SCP-3712 appears physically identical to every observer.

When SCP-3712 is allowed to establish a direct line of sight with a subject1, its primary anomalous properties are activated. Subjects (as well as persons in close proximity to them) will begin to hear the vocalisation of a "common myth" from the object, such as a precaution to avoid going out in low temperatures to avoid contracting a cold (as in Test 3712-5). This effect functions on subjects who are unable to hear, who speak a language other than English, or who are illiterate, though it does not function on non-humans or subjects who are unconscious or deceased. Forcibly holding the jaw of SCP-3712 shut before a line of sight is established will not prevent the activation of this effect.

If the precautions of SCP-3712 are not followed, the consequences of the "common myth" will come to pass despite a lack of scientific evidence supporting said myth. During Test 3712-5, D-3712-18 was warned that going outside in low temperatures would cause her to contract a cold. D-3712-18 was then instructed to enter a room at 278K (5°C) which had been thoroughly sterilised, killing or removing all micro-organisms including those which could cause illness or disease. Despite this sterilisation, D-3712-18 was observed with rhinorrhoea2, later diagnosed by medical personnel as having contracted the common cold.

Precautions given by SCP-3712 to a subject it has previously interacted with will begin to deviate from traditional "grandmotherly" knowledge, from common phrases such as "step on a crack, break your mother's back" to novel (and often nonsensical) warnings such as "bee stings only come to pencil users".

The fifth precaution given by SCP-3712 to the same subject will always end in that subject's death due to the combination of a fatal consequence and an impossible task. For example, upon D-3712-06's fifth interaction with the object, it was heard uttering "Be careful sweetie, you know full well that temperatures below 10 000 degrees Celsius make people disintegrate, you really should go somewhere warmer". After several seconds, D-3712-06 spontaneously collapsed into a pile of ashes and powdered bone. This effect can influence persons who SCP-3712 has not established a line of sight with, such as during Test 3712-7, where the death via lightning strike of D-3712-03 caused severe injuries to eight surrounding persons.

Despite all testing showing it is constructed of solid and non-anomalous balsa wood, SCP-3712 is unable to be permanently destroyed. While it is possible to incinerate, crush, or otherwise dispose of the object, it will reappear completely intact in a location it has been in the past decade. This includes attempts at disposal which do not cause damage to its structure, such as simply taking it to a landfill and throwing it in.

This is presumably how SCP-3712 was discovered by the Foundation, as it appeared in Site-179 roughly 6 years after the site's construction. It is hypothesised that the previous owner of SCP-3712 attempted to destroy the object, causing it to appear in one of its previous locations, where Site-179 had since been built.

Footnotes

1. This can be avoided by simply standing slightly to its side, as its eyes are unable to move in its sockets

2. Commonly known as a runny nose