SCP-4695, at the time of recovery

Item #: SCP-4695

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4695 is kept in a standard anomalous object container in the C wing of Site-64. Testing is to be conducted by at least two Level-3 personnel. All tests performed on SCP-4695 must not exceed thirty minutes.

Description: SCP-4695 is a red pocket notebook, measuring 5.5 x 3.5 cm. Most pages contain lists of synesthetic1 associations believed to have been written by the original owner, Maria Pollard, as a personal account. These associations take many forms, including but not limited to:

Grapheme-color2

Chromesthesia3

OLP4

Lexical-gustatory5

When an individual reads an association directly from SCP-4695 (an inducer and its concurrent), they will involuntarily adopt that association themselves—when the individual experiences the inducer, they will automatically experience the concurrent. This effect will only occur if the individual reads associations from the object itself. Subsequent time spent being in physical and/or visual contact with SCP-4695 will increase the strength of acquired associations; they begin as solely associative but quickly become projective through continued exposure. An individual’s acquired synesthesia has not been seen to wear off, even when amnesticized. Sufficient exposure to SCP-46956 causes an affected subject's acquired synesthesia to materialize in the physical world.

SCP-4695 was recovered in the home of Maria Pollard, located in Portland, Oregon, after she was found dead with various items of food lodged inside of her throat. Autopsy results reveal that she died due to choking. SCP-4695 was found in her hand. Police investigating the scene noticed the effects of the object after some time. The Foundation was then notified and SCP-4695 was successfully contained.

Addendum 4695-A: The following is an incomplete list of associations transcribed from SCP-4695. For the full list, see Document 4695-1.

Template:

[TYPE]

[Inducer] - [Concurrent]

Grapheme-Color

2 - Blue

4 - Blue-Violet

5 - Red

6 - Purple

9 - Pink

OLP

5 - A tall man with evil in his eyes.

Wednesday - A soft woman. She likes to bathe in the waterfall

November - A man that likes to keep to himself. He has brown hair and a beard.

Lexical-Gustatory/Color

"Complex" - Mint/mint green

"Sunny" - Whipped Cream/yellow-orange

"Wood" - Mustard/brown

"Book" - Burritos/rust

Tactile-Auditory7

Blinking - Camera click

Sitting - A low hum, lasting as long as the position is held

Walking - Apart from footsteps, the sound of leaves crunching

Shaking of the head - Loud static

Addendum 4695-B: This is an incomplete list of notable tests conducted with SCP-4695. For the full list, see Document 4695-2.

Date: 6/8/2019

Subject: D-192873

D-192873 was a synesthete, having grapheme-color synesthesia. Subject was told to list his grapheme-color associations on a sheet of paper, and to then read all grapheme-color associations listed in SCP-4695. Afterward, subject was administered Class-C amnestics, and after 24 hours, he was again asked to list all of his grapheme-color associations on a sheet of paper. Comparing the two documents shows that he retained all of his previous associations, in addition to ones gained from SCP-4695. Subject described this as "seeing a mix of two colors in one number or word".

Date: 7/14/2019

Subject: D-12873

Subject was instructed to read and copy 15 pages from SCP-4695 onto another sheet of paper, spending one minute on each page. She was then administered Class-B amnestics. Later, the assigned researcher read off each inducer listed on the page to her, instructing her to respond with the appropriate concurrent. Subject was able to recall each concurrent with 100% accuracy, stating "sometimes the effect of one leads into another. Like, you say 'comfortable', so I immediately taste chocolate. But then I start seeing brown, and I get this weird feeling in my back, which makes me hear a low moaning sound… it's disorienting."

Date: 7/29/2019

Subject: D-220201

Subject was instructed to read and copy 30 pages from SCP-4695 onto another sheet of paper, spending one minute on each page. Of note is that when the subject was referred to by his D-class designation, small "blobs" of color were seen to materialize in front of his eyes. These "blobs" were blue and white, corresponding to associations in SCP-4695 relating the letter D and the number 2 to blue, as well as the number 0 to be clear, or white. Furthermore, the numbers and words on the sheet of paper he was writing on began to colorize, despite the fact that he was using a standard No. 2 graphite pencil.

Afterward, he was administered Class-B amnestics. When tested, he recalled each concurrent he had read with 100% accuracy. Similar "blobs" of color appeared in front of the subject when speaking numbers and specific words. These were seen to match the associations listed on the paper.

Incident 4695-8.8.19: On 8/8/2019, a test was conducted in which a D-class subject was instructed to read the entirety of SCP-4695. Transcribed below is an interview about the incident conducted between Assistant Director of Research Dr. Avery Sanchez, and Dr. M, the lead researcher of SCP-4695 at the time, who wished to remain anonymous.

Date of Interview: 8/10/2019

Interviewer: Dr. Avery Sanchez, Asst. Dir. of Research at Site-64

Interviewee: Dr. M████

Subject: Incident 4695-8.8.19

Sanchez: Thank you, Dr. M████. Now, can you tell me what happened on August 8th, concerning SCP-4695? This is for the record.

M: Yeah. Sorry, I'm just… you'd think I'd be used to this shit by now, but it still fucks me up.

Sanchez: Whenever you're ready.

Dr. M takes a moment to compose himself.

M: All right. So we had been consistently ramping up how far we were willing to go with 4695. We finally decided, let's see what will happen when the whole thing is read, right? Nothing dangerous had ever happened at this point. We'd follow standard procedure, give them amnestics, see how much they could remember, and how much stronger the effects would become. We thought they'd be pretty strong at that point, seeing as colors started actually appearing before our eyes. We wondered if anything else would start becoming physical. When I say "we", I mean the research team, by the way.

Sanchez: Right.

M: Yeah. So, we put the D-class in, told him to read the whole thing. Everything was normal for a while. And just like before, after about 30 minutes, we started to see colors. We think that as the guy was reading the words, he thought this word was blue, this word was red, stuff like that. He associated them so strongly that even we could see it with him.

Sanchez: Have you gained synesthesia by witnessing these things?

M: No. You only get them from reading the book itself. Thank god.

Sanchez: I see. Please continue.

M: Dr. M sighs. Right. So, there's no easy way around saying this. The D-class died, obviously. First we started hearing noises. Like faint giggling, humming. We thought that was odd. And the D-class said he was very uncomfortable. He wasn't the one making the sounds. But we were committed at that point, so we—I told him to keep going. It all happened so fast after that. The colors in the air got bigger, a lot bigger. The guy was trying to keep reading, but it became too much for him. We could see him twitching, the noises got louder… one thing led to another. A black blob appeared, bigger than the rest of them. He collapsed. We could see him spitting things from his mouth, trying to breathe. We were panicking, of course, trying to communicate. But it was too late. He was screaming, spasming, and there was so much noise. The black shroud took up the whole room, and after that, he was dead. All the weird shit disappeared right along with him. He choked to death on food crammed in his throat.

Sanchez: And what do you believe was the cause of these occurrences?

M: Well, he read so many associations that everything became associated with everything else. It's like a chain reaction. He read a word, and that made him think of a color, and the color made him taste something, and the taste made him hear something, and the sound made him feel something, and so on. It's a sensory overload. That's why I'm glad I didn't get any synesthesia from watching.

Sanchez: Understood. That will be all. Thank you for your time, Dr. M████.

M: Thanks.

Following this incident, SCP-4695 is no longer allowed to be tested for 30 or more minutes collectively with any one subject.

Footnotes

1. Describing synesthesia, a condition in which an experience in one sense causes an involuntary reaction in another, described as an association between an inducer (cause) and a concurrent (reaction).

2. Numbers, letters, and/or words to colors

3. Sounds to colors

4. Ordinal-linguistic personification, in which numbers, letters, and/or words have distinct personalities

5. Words to tastes

6. Approximately 30 minutes

7. Touch to sounds. Note: this type of synesthesia has not been recorded elsewhere.