SCP-7122 inside its containment room

Item #: SCP-7122

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-7122 is to be stored in a secure safe inside a standard containment room. Said room is to have two (2) armed guards posted outside of it and is only to be accessible by level 3 staff or higher. Any access to SCP-7122's containment room is to be reported to the site director immediately who can initiate a lockdown if deemed necessary. It is thus recommended that the director be informed before accessing SCP-7122's containment room.

As SCP-7122 is an inanimate object that needs to be handled for anomalous effects to occur, there is no threat of it breaching containment by itself. However, the Department of Intelligence has assessed that there is a possibility that the item may be an object of interest for hostile GOIs.

In case of a containment breach the entire wing of Site-717 containing SCP-7122 is to initiate a lockdown with all light as well as internet and intranet access being cut off immediately in order to prohibit utilization of SCP-7122’s anomalous effects. Foundation staff within the compromised area are to be advised not to use any source of light for the entire duration of the lockdown. The only personnel allowed to access the locked-down section of Site-717 in case of a containment breach is the on-site tactical response team. Upon recontainment all electronical devices capable of storing digital data and media as well as SCP-7122 are to be investigated for any instances of .ano files. Only after all results have turned out negative, are personnel to be released from lockdown and both internet and intranet access to be turned back on.

Description: SCP-7122 is a Nikon brand D3500 DSLR Camera (Serial number ██████████) with a standard 18-55mm kit lens. SCP-7122’s anomalous effects manifest when it is used to photograph a person. Upon taking a picture, an image file in the format .ano is created. Said files can be viewed without any special software on all common media devices. Going to the metadata will seemingly reveal nothing out of the ordinary. However, instead of displaying information about the file such as file name, or the time, date and location of its creation, such information will instead be displayed about the subject depicted in the photograph. Additionally, a field can be found at the bottom of the window saying „Further properties…“. Investigation of these properties will open up a separate window with a sporadically expanding, seemingly nonsensical and random array of numbers and letters. It is theorized that the extent of these properties directly correlates to the subject's age and experiences. Although the size of most .ano files ranges from 175 kilobytes to 3,5 megabytes the average amount of data found within the „Further properties…“ section is estimated to be around one petabyte. All Foundation efforts to decode said data have so far proven unsuccessful.

Further anomalous effects become apparent when the files are altered or deleted. When a .ano file is inserted into video editing software and a spoken audio track is combined with said file, the subject in the photograph will initiate motion matching the spoken tracks while the recorded voice will instantly change as well to match the voice of the depicted subject. However, tests have shown that the person in the photo is the only one affected by this, meaning that the rest of the picture will not initiate any sort of movement. Deletion of a .ano file will result in the immediate termination of the subject in the picture. Tests have shown that this effect only applies to the pictured person, even in crowd scenarios. If no specific subject exists in such a picture, no anomalous effects will manifest. The Foundation has not yet been able to determine the medical cause of death of the test subjects. SCP-7122’s effects also apply to various animals (see test logs) and can be avoided by creating a copy of the original .ano file in advance. Deleting the metadata of a .ano file will not result in the subject’s death. However, the subject will become unresponsive and cease almost all motor functions in a catatonic state. Tests have shown that subjects affected by this are not incapable of actions like walking, but rather simply do not do so for most of the time.

Discovery: SCP-7122 came to the Foundation's attention after a sudden rise of unexplained deaths and reported cases of anonymous blackmail in Gustavsberg, Sweden and the surrounding area. The SCP Foundation dispatched two local field agents to investigate the situation. In cooperation with Swedish law enforcement agencies, Agent Roland Jansson and Agent Karl Berg subsequently managed to deduce that the cases were linked to Jens Eklund, a local amateur photographer and videographer and drug addict. Agents Jansson and Berg were ordered to investigate the property under the guise of an electrical inspection following a short unrelated blackout in Gustavsberg. After they were able to determine that the camera was the object of interest, it was given the official designation of SCP-7122 and a tactical response team was dispatched to recover the item under the pretext of a drug raid. Jens Eklund was fatally wounded during said raid after using SCP-7122 to kill two TACREP operators.

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Test logs:

Test #
Subject(s)
Description and results

Test 7122-01
D-9669
Subject was photographed using SCP-7122. Photograph was deleted. D-9669 died on the spot.

Test 7122-02
D-9671
Subject was photographed in absolute darkness using SCP-7122. Photograph was deleted. No change noted on subject.

Test 7122-03
D-9671
Subject was photographed in absolute darkness using SCP-7122 while being lit by an infrared flashlight. Photograph was deleted. D-9671 died on the spot.

Test 7122-04
D-9672
Subject was photographed using SCP-7122. External copy of .ano file was created. Original file deleted. No change noted on subject.

Test 7122-05
D-9672 D-7673 D-9874 D-9238
Subjects were told to move around the room and make casual conversation. The entire group was photographed in a wide-angle using SCP-7122. No subject was photographed individually. Photograph was then deleted. No change noted on either subject.

Test 7122-06
D-9672
Copy of D-9672’s .ano file was inserted into video editing software. File began to visually mimic spoken audio track. No change noted on subject.

Test 7122-07
D-9672
Copy of D-9672’s .ano file was inserted into video editing software. File began to visually mimic spoken parts of inserted music tracks. No change noted on subject.

Note: SCP-7122's .ano files mimic spoken audio tracks to an absolute perfect extent. Were it not for the unmoving background, it would be impossible to distinguish between an edited .ano file and an authentic video file. This anomalous effect could be of great use to the SCP Foundation.

Test #
Subject(s)
Description and results

Test 7122-08
D-9672
Edited metadata of D-9672’s .ano file to display a different day of creation. Error message displaying the words “Administrator permission required” appeared. Metadata reverted back to its original state after closing the error message. Foundation IT experts have not yet been able to bypass this effect.

Test 7122-09
D-9672
Deleted metadata of D-9672’s .ano file. D-9672 instantly ceased nearly all motor functions and became unresponsive. fMRI and EEG scans showed next to no brain activity aside from vital areas. Subject was described by researchers to be in a catatonic state.

Test 7122-10
D-9672
Subject brought to stand on two legs. Subject stood on two legs on its own. Subject was then pushed lightly. Subject was able to recover from push, likely via a form of muscle memory. Subject was pushed hard and subsequently fell face first to the floor, fracturing its nose and jaw. D-9672 didn’t react to the likely resulting physical pain.

Test 7122-11
D-9672
Subject connected to EEG and fMRI scanners respectively and subjected to a large dose of pain by having both femurs fractured independently through ██████████.1 Both EEG and fMRI scans showed next to no activity in the frontal lobe, the insular and the cerebral cortex, all of which are largely important to human consciousness and emotional response to external stimuli. Upon the introduction of pain, N1 waves2 could be measured in the subject's brain, while there was almost a complete lack of N2 and P2 waves3. As soon as the pain was inflicted, both the brain and the autonomous nervous system reacted on a physical level by releasing adrenaline and other hormones. Despite this, the scans of D-9672's brain indicated that while it responded somewhat normally on a physical level, the emotional and conscious component of its perception of pain seemed to be non-existent.

Note: In order to retain a professional climate personnel are to be discouraged from referring to SCP-7122 as “Soulkiller”, as fitting as that description may be. Personnel are also to be reminded that the Foundation currently does not know whether or not such a thing as a “soul” even exists.

Test #
Subject(s)
Description and results

Test 7122-12
One (1) male chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes)
Chimpanzee was photographed using SCP-7122. Photograph was deleted. Subject died on the spot.

Test 7122-13
One (1) female dog (golden retriever)
Dog was photographed using SCP-7122. Photograph was deleted. Subject died on the spot.

Test 7122-14
One (1) female house cat (felis catus)
Cat was photographed using SCP-7122. Photograph was deleted. Subject died on the spot.

Test 7122-15
One (1) male African bullfrog (Pyxicephalus adspersus)
Frog was photographed using SCP-7122. Photograph was deleted. No change noted on subject.

Test 7122-16
One (1) female fire ant (Solenopsis)
Fire ant was photographed using SCP-7122. Photograph was deleted. No change noted on subject.

Note: The anomalous effects of SCP-7122 mostly seem to be limited to living beings with a certain amount of intelligence and consciousness. However, the effects of deleting metadata vary largely among non-humanoid species.

Test #
Subject(s)
Description and results

Test 7122-17 (approved by site director)
D-7673 D-9874
Both subjects were asked to fill out a questionnaire about themselves, their personality as well as very specific moments and memories of their life only they knew about. D-7673 and D-9874 were then photographed individually using SCP-7122. D-7673's metadata was copied and deleted afterwards with the same being done to D-9874. Both entered the characteristic catatonic state as all previous subjects. The subjects then had their metadata swapped and quickly reverted back to a rather normal state. D-7673 and D-9874 were subsequently asked to answer questions about information they had previously disclosed in the questionnaire. Evaluation of their answers showed that both now only knew about what the biologically other should be knowing and claimed to be that same person. Both subjects went on to express confusion and severe distress, stating they were "in the wrong body". When asked about what happened after the deletion of their metadata, D-7673 as well as D-9874 became extremely agitated and would enter a state of panic while profusely refusing to elaborate any further about the topic, with D-9874 even becoming violent. Both subjects had to be sedated and were returned to their cells for the night. D-7673 and D-9874 went on to commit suicide by ████████████████████ that same night.

Test 7122-18 (approved by site director)
D-9672 D-7673
D-9672, who was still in a catatonic state and recovering from the physical effects of Test 7122-11 had his lost metadata replaced with that of the late D-7673. D-9672, from now on referred to as D-7673, awoke soon after in great distress, showing signs of severe psychological trauma. D-7673 behaved erratic and started screaming approximately half a minute after waking up. Subject stopped screaming after five minutes and died ten minutes later from cardiac arrest, multiple organ failure and severely damaged cerebral tissue, all suspected to have been caused at least in some part by extreme psychosomatic effects of the psychological trauma and/or the numerous transfers of metadata.

Addendum 7122-01: As per order of Site Director Seickler researchers are to refrain from performing experiments similar to Test 7122-11 unless necessary and approved by Director Seickler himself or at least two level 4 personnel. This rule will stay in effect until SCP-7122's anomalous effects are understood to a fuller extent.

Addendum 7122-02: The Department of Intelligence has requested utilization of SCP-7122 by field agents in order to assure cooperation of influential non-foundation individuals and to be able to terminate them or hostile POIs if necessary. The Department has also requested permission to set up several databases with .ano files of said individuals. Proposal is pending

Footnotes

1. The goal of these tests was to determine whether or not subjects with deleted metadata are capable of feeling pain and, in a further sense, if they can even be referred to as being alive.

2. responsible for the response of the autonomous nervous system

3. responsible for the subjective perception of pain