Item #: SCP-2529

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: All records of the SCP-2529 occurrence have been expunged from local and national law enforcement databases. Site-28 research staff are to monitor internet traffic for references to the SCP-2529 occurrence, prioritizing crime-related and missing persons discussion boards. All detected references are to be suppressed, and associated individuals flagged for any necessary follow-up actions. See Clandestine Electronic Data Interference Guide for more details.

Information related to the SCP-2529 occurrence is to be stored exclusively in a purpose-built automatically maintained fragmentary database. Personnel may not access this database more than one person at a time, and will be limited automatically to no more than 15% of the pertinent data concerning the SCP-2529 occurrence in each working period. Details of the SCP-2529 occurrence are only accessible for the purposes of approved research projects.

Personnel accessing details of the SCP-2529 occurrence are required to undergo ketamine-assisted short term memory erasure immediately following the conclusion of the task requiring this knowledge.

Description: SCP-2529 is a phenomenon primarily affecting electronic devices used to access information on an unsolved multiple homicide, discovered in the late 1990s in Fordingham County, Vermont, USA (referred to hereafter as the SCP-2529 occurrence). Prior to the first documented appearance of SCP-2529, the SCP-2529 occurrence was a frequent source of discussion on crime blogs such as ███████████, ███████████ and ██████.

Electronic devices used to access accounts of the events of the SCP-2529 occurrence, as well as speculation and discussion concerning the occurrence itself, the identities and condition of remains discovered after the occurrence, or what party or parties may have been responsible for it, will anomalously cease operation despite the lack of any discernible mechanical or electronic defects. SCP-2529 has been shown to affect desktop computers, smartphones, laptop computers, tablets, e-book readers, and any other device capable of transmitting written textual information. This effect persists over an indefinite time period, and extends to components removed from affected devices and placed in functioning devices.

SCP-2529 manifests at varying thresholds of information. By the reckoning of quantitative information models, exposure to approximately 30% of the relevant details needed to specifically identify the SCP-2529 occurrence is likely to result in a SCP-2529 manifestation. In some documented cases, however, merely citing the colloquial name of the SCP-2529 occurrence in contemporaneous media reports1 has been sufficient to initiate its effects. Affected devices continue to function after accessing SCP-2529 occurrence information for a time period ranging from fifteen seconds to twelve minutes, with a median time period of 8 minutes, 39 seconds before being rendered irretrievably inert.

SCP-2529 was first documented after a prominent spike in internet traffic regarding the SCP-2529 occurrence, coming approximately eleven years after the occurrence was initially documented in the media. The possibility exists that SCP-2529 manifested prior to this time, and may suitably explain several early failures by local law enforcement authorities in Fordingham County to collect evidence and transmit details to state and federal authorities related to the SCP-2529 occurrence. However, following examinations of the remains of the individuals involved in the SCP-2529 occurrence, Foundation researchers have determined that the lack of DNA records matching these individuals would likely have prevented resolution of the incident by law enforcement officials in any event.

Research Log 2529.13 - Unknown Communication

In the course of observing SCP-2529 effects during Experiment 2529.0234 (Compaq Presario 2200) by typing information related to the SCP-2529 occurrence into a Microsoft Word 97 document, the following series of images opened spontaneously using "Word 97 Pinball," a hidden game embedded in the word processor. Forensic data software transmitting information to a separate database in real time confirmed that these images were not previously extant anywhere else in the affected device's hard drive. These images are believed to be an attempt at communication from an unknown entity and presumed to be anomalous in nature. Analysis indicates that the avatar used in this communication is a facial reconstruction of an unrelated homicide victim; the purpose of this is unknown.

Footnotes

1. All media accounts of the SCP-2529 occurrence have been expunged as of 11 May 2015.