SCP-4076

Item #: SCP-4076

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedure: SCP-4076 is to be kept in a standard Safe-class containment unit and is not to be played unless authorized by at least two researchers of level 2 clearance or higher for testing purposes.

Description: SCP-4076 is a VHS tape of unknown make and origin labeled in black sharpie with the words “Play me!”. Of note is the fact that children under the age of 2 years often feel an instinctual fear of SCP-4076, usually attempting to leave the vicinity of SCP-4076 and intentionally attempting to avoid observing its contents.

SCP-4076 has several anomalous properties, the primary and most dangerous of which is that any living creature exposed to any of the information on SCP-4076 will invariably and suddenly disappear leaving behind only trace amounts of sulfur dust. How this happens is unknown as any video feed seems to stop working for a brief window starting slightly before the disappearance and ending slightly after it, and any in-person observation ends in the secondary observer’s disappearance. The second anomalous property of SCP-4076 is an inability to be recorded. All attempts to record SCP-4076 thus far have resulted in the disappearance of the recording device in its entirety.

The third anomalous property of SCP-4076 is that any person or device attempting to open SCP-4076 will disappear. As of the current time, there is no known way of knowing what is on SCP-4076 without disappearing. For information on tests conducted on SCP-4076 refer to Addendum-4076-2: Testing. For information on the recovery of SCP-4076 refer to Addendum-4076-1: Recovery.

Addendum-4076-1: Recovery: SCP-4076 was recovered on ████ ██ after an anonymous tip was called into the ████████ police department reporting the strange disappearances of several locals linked to a reclusive local artist known only as ███ Fermi. An embedded SCP agent within the ████████ police department took note of the disappearances and the Foundation took over the investigation from there.

When SCP agents raided the apartment of ███ Fermi they found two rooms of note. The first room of note was a storage room filled with mostly random objects, such as a vacuum-sealed sample of what appears to be pink stained Rosa multiflora (often referred to as multiflora rose), several handheld tape recorders, a large silver cross approximately 12 inches tall, a box of chinese finger traps, a smooth sphere which after testing appears to be made of active uranium with small flecks of red citrine quartz, and a sign reading "Road Closed". The second room of note contained a small cathode ray tube television and VHS player (in which SCP-4076 was found) as well as many seemingly non-anomalous VHS tapes (hereafter designated SCP-4076-1 through SCP-4076-18). A complete list of other tapes as well as their contents can be found in Addendum-4076-3.

Addendum-4076-2: Testing:

Test Date
Experiment
Result
Conclusion

3/15/1990
SCP-4076 is set to run until completed, with D-5821 (a blind man) assigned to sit in the room and listen to the output of SCP-4076
D-5821 was found to have disappeared when checked on several hours later.
The anomalous effects of SCP-4076 on living beings are not limited to purely its visual output.

3/30/1990
SCP-4076 set to run until completed, with D-3821 assigned to watch the contents of SCP-4076 and vocalize constantly until it was over. This test was then repeated with several other D-class personnel.
D-3821 stopped vocalizing abruptly exactly 45 minutes after playback of SCP-4076 started. All other tested D-class personnel reacted identically.
Observers of SCP-4076 will disappear exactly 45 minutes after viewing begins.

4/11/1990
SCP-4076 set to run until completed, with a D-class personnel member instructed every minute on the minute, starting at the 45 minute mark, to enter the testing chamber and return reporting what they observed.
No testing subject returned from the testing chamber until the 1 hour mark, at which point all further personnel returned and reported nothing to be playing.
It can be assumed that any person who views SCP-4076 after the 45 minute mark will vanish instantly, and that SCP-4076 is between 59 and 60 minutes long.

5/2/1990
SCP-4076 set to run until completed, with D-7498, D-6223, and D-8743 asked separately to view the contents of SCP-4076 and at a random point before the 45 minute mark describe or draw what they observed. The only variation between each D-class personnel member in this test was that D-7498 was asked to write the description down, D-6223 was asked to speak it, and D-8743 was asked to draw a picture of it.
In each instance, as soon as the assigned D-class personnel member began to describe or draw what they observed, they disappeared. In the case of D-6223 an intake of breath was heard, and nothing after. In the case of D-7498, a single small pencil mark was observed on the piece of paper after the experiment, with D-7498 having disappeared when checked on. In the case of D-8743, a similar result was observed as with D-8498.
There is currently no way known to learn the contents of SCP-4076 without watching it.

5/13/1990
SCP-4076 set to run until completed with an alarm placed in the room set to go off in 10 minutes. D class personnel member D-9908 was instructed to watch the contents of the tape, and attempt to leave after they heard the alarm sound.
D-9908 did not emerge from the testing chamber. When the testing chamber was checked afterward, D-9908 was observed to have disappeared.
It is unknown whether D-9908 was unable to leave the room, or whether attempting to do so caused them to vanish. Regardless, it has been determined that attempting to leave partway through the process of observing SCP-4076 will be unsuccessful.

5/31/1990
Researcher █████ attempted to open SCP-4076 by hand using a screwdriver, presumably in an attempt to manually inspect the tape’s contents.
Researcher █████ was found to have vanished, with only the incomplete security footage revealing what had occurred.
SCP-4076 cannot be opened by hand without the person attempting to open it disappearing.

6/18/2000
A machine designed to open standard size VHS tapes (SCP-4076-A) was constructed and set up to open SCP-4076. It was remotely activated from a distance of 1 mile.
The machine was found to have disappeared in its entirety with the cords connected for power and remote activation left sitting in the dust next to SCP-4076.
Machines cannot open SCP-4076.

10/10/2017
A computer program (SCP-4076-B) was written by Scientist ████ and Researcher ██████ to identify objects and scenes based on images. It was then exposed to SCP-4076 with no anomalous effects. Scientist ████ and Researcher ██████ then added the ability to store observations made by the program to a text file and re exposed it to SCP-4076.
The second time SCP-4076-B was exposed to SCP-4076, the computer it was stored on, as well as all machines with backup copies of the SCP-4076-B vanished, along with anyone who happened to be observing any of those computers at the time.
The contents of SCP-4076 still remain unable to be learned by the Foundation as a whole.

Addendum-4076-3: List of tapes found with SCP-4076:

ID
Visual Appearance
Label (if applicable)
Contents

SCP-4076-1
A normal VHS tape with an unknown manufacturer.
None
4 hours of visual black and white static (no pattern has been found yet)

SCP-4076-2
A faded VHS tape. It appears to be sun-bleached and dating has put it to be several hundred years old.
Too worn to be read
Unable to be played

SCP-4076-3
A normal retail copy of Ghostbusters on VHS
“Ghostbusters”
A normal copy of the movie “Ghostbusters” except that right after the Stay-Puft marshmallow man appears on screen, it cuts to a video of an unidentified woman crying in a bathtub. The second video plays for approximately 35 minutes without looping.

SCP-4076-4
A standard retail VHS tape for making recordings on.
“To cheer me up”
A 30 minute collection of clips from “America’s Funniest Home Videos”. All of the videos collected feature people falling over while attempting something challenging.

SCP-4076-5
A standard retail VHS tape for making recordings on.
The label has been removed.
A 3 hour video of a series of unidentified restrained women being carried into a room, stripped down, cut open, and devoured by what seems to be a series of humans dressed in red cloaks.

SCP-4076-6
A yellow polka dotted VHS tape.
The label has a simple smiley face drawn on it.
A 2 hour 34 minute video of close up shots of a series of mostly unidentified1 people staring into the camera and laughing continuously for 15.4 minutes each. No pattern has yet been found in the people featured.

SCP-4076-7
A smashed VHS tape put back together again haphazardly with tape.
“FAILURE” This message is not only on the label but scrawled all over the tape.
Unable to be played.

SCP-4076-8
An orange colored VHS tape.
“Tutorial”
This tape contains a 30 minute video of an adult man sitting on a bench in a park attempting to solve a Rubik's cube.

SCP-4076-9
A normal retail copy of Back to the Future.
“Back to the Future” Future is crossed out in black sharpie.
A perfect copy of the VHS release of “Back to the Future” except everything plays backward, from finish to start.

SCP-4076- 10
A VHS tape with a wooden casing.
“LeT mE inn”
A 20 minute long recording of a typical family Thanksgiving dinner seemingly recorded handheld through a window at night.

SCP-4076-11
A blue polka dotted VHS tape.
The label has a simple sad face drawn on it.
An exact replica of the contents of SCP-4076-6, with the same people for the same time, down to the visual noise and wear on the VHS tape, with the only difference being that in this tape all of the people are crying.

SCP-4076-12
A liquid sealed VHS tape mostly filled with water.
Blank
Unable to be played

SCP-4076-13
A physically identical copy of SCP -4076
“Play me!” This is written identically to SCP-4076
A 1 hour long tape of a looping time-lapse video of a human body decaying over the course of several days in what appears to be a basement. It appears the tape was overwritten so that throughout the entire video the words “wrong, all wrong” are displayed over everything else in the middle of the screen.

SCP-4076-14
A silver VHS tape.
“Just for you”
A 40 minute video split into two parts, the first being a 10 second CCTV recording of the apartment where SCP-4076 was recovered starting several seconds before the SCP agents entered, and ending several seconds after, the second part being 39 minutes and 50 seconds of blackness. There were no cameras of any kind found within the apartment when it was searched.

SCP-4076-15
A standard retail VHS tape for making recordings on.
“RIP Winnie 1975-1983”
A 30 minute video of an unmarked gravestone and a waving American flag atop a mountain in Yellowstone National Park. When SCP agents investigated the location they found the same unmarked gravestone and the now sun-bleached flag. When the grave was exhumed, SCP agents found a typical golden retriever skeleton.

SCP-4076-16
A regular blank retail VHS tape filled with cement.
In black sharpie: “never again” Below the sharpie, in red pen: “almost there”
Unable to be played

SCP-4076-17
A white VHS tape with gold decorative lines
"Sermon"
A 60 minute long video of a pastor giving a speech in front of a congregation with no audio. The pastor appears to become increasingly impassioned as the video goes on. By the end of it he is standing on top of the speaking podium shaking violently, and appears to be screaming.

SCP-4076-18
A standard retail VHS tape for making recordings on.
“Happy birthday”
A 10 minute long video of a plain wooden table set with plates and silverware for 4 people, as well as a white frosted cake. There is a sheet of lined paper under one of the plates; the part of the paper visible reads "I'm sorry but I can't live like this anymore." The rest of the note is cut off.

Footnotes

1. The Foundation was able to identify one of the women featured in SCP-4076-6 and SCP-4076-11 and show her the tapes. When questioned about the events depicted in the tapes she replied "Why was I sad? That never happened!". She continued to repeat that with increasing intensity before being incapacitated by SCP agents.