Item #: SCP-3843

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Scherbius-Decker Learning Computer Psi-22 ("ASA") is to search gaming forums and websites for keywords1 indicating the presence of an SCP-3843-1 instance. Occurrences of these keywords are to be investigated by Foundation personnel. If an instance of SCP-3843-1 is confirmed at the reported location, it is to be delivered to Site-11 immediately and its owner administered a Class-A amnestic.

Foundation elements placed within major game manufacturers are to search outgoing products for the presence of SCP-3843-created code. If the presence of this code is confirmed, the located instance of SCP-3843-1 is to be pulled immediately and replaced with an unaffected copy. All games that have come into contact with the instance of SCP-3843-1 are to be searched and dealt with similarly.

All testing involving SCP-3843 must be approved by at least one member of Level 3 personnel. Testing is to be performed by a member of D-Class personnel in a sealed chamber featuring one television and chair. Research personnel are to observe via an adjoining chamber. No personnel other than this D-Class are to enter the sealed chamber during testing.

In order to maintain the SCP-3843 currently in containment, it is to be allowed to periodically infect a new instance of SCP-3843-1. After this is done, the original instance of SCP-3843-1 is to be destroyed.

Historical Record - Emergency Containment Procedures

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In 1983, due to mass numbers of SCP-3843-1 instances becoming exposed to the public, the Foundation began emergency containment by artificially inducing a crash of the video-game market through use of Foundation elements placed into major players in said market.

This was accomplished through multiple means, including:

The funding of competing home computer companies through several Foundation fronts.

Artificial over-saturation of the video game market via Foundation-owned companies and undercover elements in several existing companies.

Use of Foundation elements in existing game publishers to encourage poor business decisions and practices.

Industrial sabotage of several upcoming projects.

The crash brought about via these factors was sufficient to achieve majority containment of SCP-3843. Containment of remaining SCP-3843-1 instances is ongoing. However, due to the nature of SCP-3843, such an operation is considered to be indefinite in length.

Description: SCP-3843 is a non-player character present in an as-of-yet unknown number of video games which is capable of physically and mentally altering players. A game inhabited by SCP-3843, hereafter referred to as SCP-3843-1, is capable of passing SCP-3843 onto other games in its physical vicinity2. Infection of an SCP-3843-1 instance by SCP-3843 does not appear to be permanent, as SCP-3843 has been observed to disappear from instances of SCP-3843-1 after a period of five to ten years.

The range necessary for infection to occur is inconsistent, with some games becoming infected even while in neighboring buildings, while others require direct physical contact. SCP-3843 does not appear to be able to infect games that are solely multiplayer by means of an online connection. It will also not appear in an SCP-3843-1 instance with both multiplayer and single-player aspects if that instance is connected to the internet.

SCP-3843 will appear in an SCP-3843-1 instance as a non-player character suited to the game's setting, almost always identified as 'Sam', 'Sammy', or some other variation of the name. While SCP-3843 will adapt its appearance and basic gameplay role to suit the game it is inhabiting, its dialogue (in the cases where it has any) is usually either unsuited to the game setting entirely or wholly incoherent.

The primary anomalous effects of SCP-3843 become activated when either, in-game, the player character interacts with it or it interacts with the player character. At this point, the player will begin to undergo permanent alterations in order to reflect the character they are controlling. No alterations will occur if the player simply ignores SCP-3843.

SCP-3843's mental alterations usually manifest as the player receiving skills and knowledge their player character would feasibly possess. Testing has shown examples of players, for example, receiving knowledge regarding the proper use of firearms while playing action games where they are prominent. Although physical alterations made to a player by SCP-3843 are usually relatively minor and not especially dangerous, this is not the case if the instance of SCP-3843-1 features a non-human player character. In that event, the alterations made to the player to cause them to resemble said character are physically traumatic and often result in death during or shortly after the process.

SCP-3843 appears to have a significant effect on the perceptions of its victims while the instance of SCP-3843-1 is being played in that victims of SCP-3843 are unable to register the alterations they are going through until they stop playing the game.

SCP-3843 is believed to be the creation of Indigo Games, a small anomalous games company which was active from the years 1980 to 1983. (See Interview 3843-1.)

Addendum 3843-1 (Retrieved Instances Log):

The following is a list and summary of SCP-3843 containment breaches which have occurred since its classification as an SCP on 10/04/1983. In all cases, Agents were dispatched, successfully retrieved the instance of SCP-3843-1 and administered amnestics to witnesses as appropriate. All possible infected games in the vicinity of the recovered instance were safely disposed of.

Game: Super Mario Bros (1985), Nintendo Entertainment System

Date: 12/21/1985

SCP-3843 Role:3 SCP-3843 appears as a 'koopa' enemy with a white shell in World 1-1. Alterations begin when the player kills this enemy.

Incident Summary: Andrew Calhoun, 22, writes to tabloid Weekly World News, claiming that he had instantly grown a substantial mustache after playing the game Super Mario Bros. A reporter sent by the paper, while investigating the game, also instantly grows a mustache reminiscent of the game's titular character. Foundation elements within Weekly World News report anomalous activity at this point and a dispatched Agent retrieves the SCP-3843-1 instance. Both Calhoun and the reporter are thoroughly shaved and dosed with a Class-B amnestic.

Game: Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (1990), MSX2

Date: 12/20/1990

SCP-3843 Role: SCP-3843 appears as a boss character encountered halfway through the game, identified as 'Salty Sam', a pirate-themed former KGB agent who uses a water cutter as a weapon. Before fighting the player character, he engages in a lengthy monologue regarding 'Salt and Meats [sic]' and food shortages in the enemy base. Alterations begin when the boss fight is initiated.

Dialogue Sample

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SCP-3843: So…you're the guy that's called Sold [sic] Snake by everyone, huh! Well that's just good for me because I'm looking out to try and find some salts and meats in this base of ours ZANZIBAR LAND. And well…I used to be inside the KGB Snake, until I got caught and betrayed by those KGB people. It really made me angry when that happened Solid Snake, and when later BIG BOSS invited me with salt and meats to his house in ZANZIBAR LAND that really got my stomach hungering…but all of the bullets you have shooting at us. Well, needless to say, there are not many salt and meats in ZANZIBAR LAND at this. Time.

(Monologue continues for a further fifteen minutes of clicking through dialogue.)

SCP-3843: Snake…I'm going to kill you and the KGB now and get all my salt and meats at ZANZIBAR LAND! Have at me!

Incident Summary: Daryl McKenzie, 24, is shot and killed while attempting to break into a secure military installation near his hometown of ██████. Analysis of security footage from the incident shows Mr. McKenzie using both advanced stealth tactics and firearms in which he had never received any training. Subsequent search of his home by the UIU revealed the presence of the SCP-3843-1 instance, which was recovered during transit by Agent Cobb and brought into Foundation custody.

Game: Pac-Man (1990), Game Boy

Date: 04/11/1995

SCP-3843 Role: SCP-3843 appears as a fifth 'ghost' enemy, identified as 'Sammy', which chases the player character through the map. Alterations begin when either SCP-3843 kills the player character or the player character eats SCP-3843.

Incident Summary: Alan Carver, 35, is arrested by police and taken to a local hospital after a passerby witnesses him eating a neighborhood cat in his backyard. Victim dies shortly before arriving at hospital. Later analysis of the body shows the cause of death to be apparent starvation. Victim had suffered significant yellowing of the skin and expansion of the skull, causing damage to their neck due to increased weight. Additionally, skin had grown over both ears, both nostrils and one eye.

Agents dispatched to deal with the situation recover the SCP-3843-1 instance at the victims home.

Game: Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee (2002), GameCube

Date: 07/06/2003

SCP-3843 Role: SCP-3843 appears as a non-playable boss character identified as 'Samutenshi', a colossal white avian monster. Notably, the original Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee did not feature any non-playable boss characters. Alterations begin either when the player first attacks SCP-3843, or SCP-3843 first attacks the player.

Incident Summary: Foundation Agents in the city of █████ are dispatched to the site of an apartment building which spontaneously collapsed with no apparent cause. Inspection of the debris reveals the corpse of Aarav Kapoor, 20, which had expanded to fill an entire floor of the apartment building and caused the collapse in the process. Notably, while Mr. Kapoor's skin and muscles expanded during alteration, his skeleton and other internal organs did not.

All witnesses and survivors were dosed with Class-A amnestics and a cover story centered around sub-standard construction was produced to account for the building's collapse. The remains of the SCP-3843-1 instance were recovered on site and its nature as formerly containing SCP-3843 was confirmed through analysis of its reconstructed code.

Game: Mass Effect 2 (2010), PlayStation 3

Date: 02/04/2010

SCP-3843 Role: SCP-3843 appears as a blind supply officer named Samuel Belkira aboard the player character's ship. When interacted with, SCP-3843 rants at length regarding food shortages above the ship, especially regarding 'salt and meats [sic]', before giving the player a quest to solve said food shortages4. Alterations begin upon initiation of dialogue.

Dialogue Sample

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SCP-3843: Commander, I'm going to talk on you now. Okay.

Commander Shepard5: I've always got time for the crew of the Normandy. What do you need?

SCP-3843: Now listen at this. Okay. The ship Normandy's hasn't got enough salt and meats, Commander Shepard. If we don't get more, we're all going to starve to death out here in. (ten second pause) Deep space. Okay. I really need my salt and meats, Commander, and I've got a hankering for some of those things. My name's Samuel Belkira. I'm a supply officer just looking for some of you know what, just doing what comes natural. Haha. Also I'm blind. By the way, Commander, have you seen some salt and meats on the Normandy? Sometimes they climb up into the vents and that's just a big bag of worms. That's way too much for any one man to eat at one time, Commander, and I'm even blind. So it's something that we've got to deal with. Are you feeling okay?

Commander Shepard: That does sound like a problem. But what can I do about it?

SCP-3843: Salt and meats.

Incident Summary: Foundation is alerted when the home of Catherine Herrera, 32, violently explodes in a flash of blue light. Agents investigating the debris recover both Ms. Herrera's charred corpse and the remains of the SCP-3843-1 instance. A suitable cover story involving a gas explosion is provided to the public.

Due to the fact that Ms. Herrera maintained an active blog in which she detailed her playthroughs of various games, researchers have been able to build a theory regarding exactly what caused the explosion during the alteration process. In-game, Ms. Herrera was playing as an 'Adept' character class, centered around using 'mass effect fields' to fling enemies and objects via an implant in the player character's body. When SCP-3843 attempted to translate these fictional scientific concepts, and the implant that utilizes them, into the real world, the resulting incompatibility with standard reality caused a violent rejection of its container - which, in this case, was Ms. Herrera's body.

Game: Nier: Automata (2017), PlayStation 4

Date: 09/22/2017

SCP-3843 Role: SCP-3843 appears as a merchant character within the game's factory area, identified as 7H6. As a merchant, SCP-3843 has two hundred of an item called 'Meats [sic]' in stock. Said item is non-functional. SCP-3843's dialogue consists of a lengthy speech primarily centered around how, as an android, it is unable to eat meat, and the distress this causes it.

Dialogue Sample

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SCP-3843: Hey kid, come on over here and let my words in you.

9S7: We should go see what he wants, 2B.

SCP-3843: Now listen you people, okay. I'm an android now. I've seen a lot of things on the planet Earth, okay. But I haven't see [sic] any meats. Only salt. I'm an android now so I don't find any salt or meats here. There's a lot of existentialism and I'm just looking for meats right now. The aliens and the machine lifeforms killed all the meats and destroyed all the meats crop so it's not good anymore. I'll sell you some meats if you're interested, okay.

Incident Summary: Sightings of a 'robot' in Moscow, Russia attract Foundation attention due to the consistency between reports and photographic evidence of the entity. Foundation Agents track the entity to an apartment shared by Alexander Teterev, 18, Vadim Fokim, 20, and Timur Chuprin, 21, where it escapes initial pursuit. The bodies of Vadim Fokim and Timur Chuprin are found at the scene. Autopsy reveals the cause of death to be the sudden appearance of various mechanical implants within their bodies, causing severe internal bleeding.

The robotic entity, currently believed to be Alexander Teterev, has not yet been located. Writings found in the shared apartment suggests that the three were aware of SCP-3843's effects, and hoped to utilize them in order to improve their physical capabilities8.

Interview 3843-1

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On 12/10/2012, Matthew Hendricks, a former employee of Indigo Games, contacted the Foundation via use of SCP-3843-related keywords during a 911 call. He was subsequently taken into custody and interviewed. Hendricks cooperated fully during this process.

Interviewer: Dr McCall

Interviewed: Matthew Hendricks

<Begin Interview>

Dr. McCall: Well, Mr. Hendricks, I'd like to begin by saying we're all very grateful for you stepping forward in this matter.

Hendricks: No problem.

Dr. McCall: Is there anything you'd like before we begin? Glass of water, a coffee maybe?

Hendricks: Just…just a water, thanks.

Dr. McCall: Water, please.

(Research Assistant Bryant leaves and returns several moments later with a glass of water, which she gives to Hendricks.)

Hendricks: Thanks.

Dr. McCall: No problem. So, I'd like for us to begin by talking about Indigo Games. Your former employers, yes?

(Hendricks chuckles.)

Dr. McCall: This is amusing to you, sir?

Hendricks: No! God, no. It's just…you calling them my employers. I was one third of the company, for God's sake. It was three guys in a garage.

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: I'm sorry, Mr. Hendricks, but I find that really hard to believe. Our records show several anomalous items originating from your company, and to suggest that all of them were the work of three people…

Hendricks: It's true. I guess we just…we just knew what we were doing.

Dr. McCall: I…see. Well then, can you please tell me about these other two individuals?

Hendricks: Besides me, there was Alan Tunney9 - he was kind of the boss - and Laura Weeks10. She handled the, uh…well, the magic stuff. Alan handled the business end of things. Most of the actual, well, coding was left to me. Like I said, we weren't much of a company.

Dr. McCall: This Laura Weeks…she was a thaumaturgist, then?

(Hendricks smiles.)

Hendricks: Heh. She'd always say that, too. But come on, it's magic. Calling it something different doesn't change anything.

Dr. McCall: So. How did Sam come about, then?

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: Mr. Hendricks?

(Pause.)

Hendricks: It was Alan's idea, at first. I swear. Tron had just come out the year before and he - and he just loved that goddamn movie. Watched it I don't know how many times. Every time he'd come back and say the same thing, waving his arms around like it was the first time he'd come up with it.

Dr McCall: I assume the idea was about…

Hendricks: (interrupting) Yes, it was about Sam!

(Pause.)

Hendricks: Sorry. Didn't mean to lose my temper there. Yeah, it was…it was about that. He wanted to make virtual reality, like in Tron. So you could get sucked into the game and play around inside that world, then come out when you got bored.

Dr. McCall: That sounds like a rather large undertaking.

Hendricks: Yeah. (Laughs.) Yeah, it was. Everything we'd done until then, that other stuff you'd said you'd seen, that was like…well, nothing. Bells and whistles. A little stuff stuck in the back of the game to make you feel a certain way, or to have these tiny tiny tiny effects on the real world.

(Pause.)

Hendricks: But, well, what Alan wanted, Alan got. Laura and I just sort of got dragged along. So Laura went off searching for a way to do what Alan was talking about. Told me she was going to check at the library. (Chuckles.) Don't know what sort of library would have what we needed, but whatever. I went with it…I went with a lot of things.

Dr. McCall: I assume she found whatever it is she was looking for?

Hendricks: That she did. She comes back three days later with this big-ass book. A.A. Gilford's What Solomon Left Us: First Tool of a Summoner. I can't forget that fucking title. I knew it was a bad idea the moment she brought in that fucking Necronomicon-looking book, but I didn't say anything. God knows why. I just sat down and listened while they talked about it, and I didn't say a thing.

Dr. McCall: Am I safe in assuming you summoned something for this purpose, then?

Hendricks: Yeah. The idea was we'd put the thing we summoned into a game, like people used to do with rings and amulets and that kind of stuff, then give it the instruction to…well, make Tron happen. God, it sounds so stupid now.

Dr. McCall: And what was it you summoned for this purpose? A demon?

Hendricks: No, no, no. We were stupid, but we weren't that stupid. Straight away, we agreed no demons. So we…went the other direction.

Dr. McCall: The…other direction?

Hendricks: An angel.

Dr. McCall: Oh.

Hendricks: I know, I know it sounds bad now, but at the time it seemed like a reasonable option to take, you know? Demons bad, angels good, that's the way we thought it worked. I didn't…we didn't know what we were doing.

Dr. McCall: I would hope not.

Hendricks: So…we managed to summon it, needless to say. Meat and salt to draw it close, the three interlocking shapes to bring it to us, and the circle to bind it. That's how Laura said it worked, anyway. It was surprisingly easy, you know. Honestly, I didn't actually expect it to work. But it did.

Dr. McCall: And the entity was originally bound to which game?

Hendricks: I think it was Raiders of the Lost Ark. We were all real excited to try it, obviously, and Alan went first, because of course he did.

Dr. McCall: And?

Hendricks: Well, he learnt how to use a whip. But that was it, pretty much. I don't mean to talk shit about, you know, a messenger of God, but I don't think it was that smart. At least not in the way humans are smart. It got it confused: instead of bringing the player into the game, it brought the game into the player. Which was still pretty amazing, of course. Just not what Alan had wanted, so he sulked about it a little. We decided to shelve it for a while. I'd been working on some vanilla games in my spare time, so…

Dr. McCall: Vanilla?

Hendricks: Oh. That's what we called the games we made that weren't, well, 'anomalous'. Those were to keep us afloat so we could keep doing the stuff we were really interested in, to be honest. One of them, some stupid dog maze game, was pretty much done. I had a contact over at Atari, so I sent it over, had him check it out. Of course, at the time, I didn't know…well, there's no way I could have known…

Dr. McCall: You didn't know it could spread.

Hendricks: No. No, I did not. It must have infected a lot of stock over there. A whole lot. And that Christmas…

(Pause.)

Hendricks: …that Christmas, E.T. came out. I know someone, probably you guys, covered up what happened. Pulled the pictures. But I saw them. The bodies. Their faces. Even thinking about the movie makes me want to throw up.

Dr. McCall: I've also seen the pictures as part of my assignment here. I have to agree that they're…well, gruesome.

Hendricks: Gruesome. I guess that's a word for it.

(Pause. Hendricks takes deep breaths for several moments.)

Hendricks: Someone over there must have figured out what was going on at some point. I heard how they buried hundreds of that goddamn game out in the desert. Should've just burnt them. What if someone had found them? Oh God, did someone find them?

Dr. McCall: Not that we know of. Please, Mr. Hendricks, try and remain calm. All of these things are in the past.

(Pause.)

Hendricks: Alright. Alright. I don't think…I don't think there's any more to tell. The three of us got the hell out at that point. Figured someone would be coming down on us hard soon enough, and we were…we were cowards. Stupid kids. We didn't want to get in trouble.

Dr. McCall: Thank you, Mr. Hendricks. Your information will be very useful to our investigation.

(Dr. McCall gets up to leave.)

Hendricks: Wait!

Dr. McCall: Yes?

Hendricks: I have a, ah, a request. Now, I've cooperated, right - I turned myself in, I didn't have to do that, right? So at least, at least hear me out.

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: Alright.

Hendricks: You've got that drug. The one that makes you forget - you hear about it, in the circles I run in. An amnesiac or something.

Dr. McCall: An amnestic.

Hendricks: Yeah, that. Now, I know a lot of stuff that I, that I shouldn't know. All that happened with Indigo Games. You people could just make me forget it.

Dr. McCall: I don't think that's an appropriate use of…

Hendricks: (interrupting) Please! Please, just ask.

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: …I'll file a request, but I can't guarantee anything.

Hendricks: Thank you. God, thank you.

(Research Assistant Bryant goes to leave. Dr. McCall goes to follow.)

Hendricks: Doctor?

Dr. McCall: Yes, Mr. Hendricks?

Hendricks: We…we didn't mean to hurt anybody.

(Pause.)

Dr. McCall: I'm sure you didn't, Mr. Hendricks.

<End Interview>

Consideration for Mr. Hendricks request for extensive amnestic treatment is ongoing.

Footnotes

1. A full list of which is available upon request from LC Psi-22's supervising technicians.

2. Digitally distributed games appear to be immune to SCP-3843 infection. Further containment procedures involving encouraging this method of distribution are under consideration.

3. All recovered instances of SCP-3843-1 were tested to determine SCP-3843's role within the game.

4. As the quest has no set objectives, it is impossible for the player to complete.

5. The player character of Mass Effect 2.

6. An exceedingly rare instance in which SCP-3843 does not have a name derived from 'Sam'. The reason for this is unknown.

7. One of the player characters of Nier: Automata.

8. This in turn suggests that while they were aware of SCP-3843's basic nature, they were not aware of its potentially lethal properties.

9. Confirmed dead in 2008 via self-inflicted gunshot wound.

10. Current status unknown.