Item #: SCP-4053
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4053 is to be contained in a secure room with two layers of airtight, opaque doors leading to a single point of entry; neither door is to be opened concurrently with the other. As an added precaution, SCP-4053 should not be visible from the entrance of its containment chamber. Class-D personnel who become instances of SCP-4053-2 are to be immediately terminated. Other personnel exposed to SCP-4053 should be quarantined for 192 hours or until an instance of SCP-4053-1 is produced in their likeness, at which point they should be quarantined indefinitely.
Instances of SCP-4053-1 are to be collected once per day via a vacuum pressure system integrated into the walls of the containment chamber and stored in a secure locker at a separate location decided upon by SCP-4053's current lead researcher or other relevant Level 3 personnel. Personnel identified in instances of SCP-4053-1 are to be quarantined or terminated at the discretion of the aforementioned personnel.
Description: SCP-4053 is a 172 centimeter-tall, highly-detailed labradorite statue of a human figure. It is posed with an outstretched arm and a forward lean, as if the subject were reaching out to another, and parted lips as if speaking. Analysts describe the statue's expression as desperate. The legs below the knees are a single mass of uncarved rock. Evidence points to the statue being carved in the 12th century BCE. The object was discovered in a subterranean cave network in Tuva.1
When a human subject views SCP-4053 in person or through physical or digital media, there is a chance2 that a polaroid photograph will be produced from SCP-4053's mouth (despite a lack of evidence of any internal mechanisms to facilitate this), hereby referred to as SCP-4053-1. These photographs display the subject in a well-framed shot, and seem to be taken from a variety of angles not bound to the object's perspective. No photograph includes SCP-4053, even from an angle which would place it in the shot; other humans may also be absent if the subject is not socially or physically interacting with them.
Subjects who have been exposed to SCP-4053 and “had their picture taken” experience a slow change in personality over time. When in contact at least once every 30 hours with their instance of SCP-4053-1, the changes are limited: they begin with a lack of empathy towards other beings. Within weeks, the subject begins experiencing symptoms of depression, notably a lack of enjoyment in usual activities. Over the course of several months, most subjects will take to gradually more extreme pursuits in an attempt to regain sensations they can no longer experience. On a physiological level, the usual damage in DNA associated with age slows and eventually halts; this, combined with other factors still being studied, allows the subject's cells to divide and die in their normal cycle without their physical aging.
Subjects denied access to their instance of SCP-4053-1 suffer more severe and immediate effects. By 40 hours separated, subjects begin displaying anxiety and paranoia, stating their wish to reacquire SCP-4053-1 despite repeated rejection. By 60 hours, subjects will become very visibly agitated and, when feasible, will become belligerent and attempt to physically retake SCP-4053-1 by any means necessary. By 110 hours, subjects feel a secondary goal to reach SCP-4053, and will take similarly drastic measures to discover its location and reach it once their primary objective is complete. By 145 hours, there is a marked increase in aggressive behaviour, the subject preferring to retake the photograph by force or discover its whereabouts via violent interrogation. By 215 hours, nearly all rational thought has ceased; subjects become convinced that any humanoid around them either has SCP-4053-1 or knows its location. 300 hours in, or directly after the destruction of their photograph, the subject becomes obsessed with reaching SCP-4053 alone and is considered an instance of SCP-4053-2.
Instances of SCP-4053-2 cease any attempts to communicate with humans and seem to have an innate understanding of SCP-4053's location, accompanied by an intense desire to reach it. In addition to adopting an extremely malnourished appearance, subjects appear to lack psychosomatic limitations on muscle exertion, resulting in increased physical capabilities at the cost of frequent injury. Despite brain patterns indicating they still receive tactile stimuli, they lack any pain response typical of humans or other animals. In addition to the lack of aging mentioned above, instances of SCP-4053-2 seem able to function without food intake or brain activity, their bodies seemingly entirely autonomous. Upon reaching SCP-4053, subjects engage in ceremonial behaviour, including dances, high-volume vocalisations, and ritual scarification.
Addendum: During SCP-4053's initial recovery, 229 instances of SCP-4053-1 and 17 instances of SCP-4053-2 were also recovered. While the latter initially seemed in perfect health by the standards of other instances, during vivisection several showed signs of widespread (if only partial) brain regeneration, implying repeated injuries in the past. Determining the age of any subject has proven difficult due to SCP-4053's effects, but attempts at facial reconstruction through computer-generated imagery have allowed researchers to match some of the subjects to the recovered instances of SCP-4053-1: the garb they were wearing on exposure to the object implies several were soldiers under the Xiongnu empire in Mongolia, which would date them back to the 3rd century BCE.

Incident Logs A-C

Deauthenticate and Close

Incident Log I-4053-A
D-███12, after being separated from their instance of SCP-4053-1 for a total of 89 hours, restrained a guard's shooting arm with their teeth while seizing their weapon and keycard. At the time, instances of SCP-4053-1 were stored in the same location as the object, and its containment was compromised. The door was sealed and MTF Eta-10 were called in to dispatch D-███12 and reestablish containment. On-site security shifts were adjusted to increase safety in SCP-4053's containment area.
Incident Log I-4053-B
Researcher ██████ was accidentally exposed to SCP-4053 due to a breach of protocol. Currently, they are contained under observation with their instance of SCP-4053-1. See interview log for further details.
Incident Log I-4053-C
Several instances of SCP-4053-2, previously observed to potentially communicate with each other in what security officers described as “stuttering, clicking shrieks”, apparently coordinated and executed an escape plan by a pair of individuals feigning odd behaviours as a distraction while another subject was being transported for testing. Taking advantage of the situation, the subject out of containment broke its restraints (fracturing both of its wrists in the process) and overpowered its guards before releasing the others, all of which proceeded to SCP-4053's containment chamber, attacking and incapacitating or killing every living being they could see along their way (as well as damaging several inanimate objects in motion).
On entering SCP-4053's containment chamber, all subjects were sealed inside, and after incapacitation by MTF Eta-10 were transported elsewhere to be terminated by incineration.

Interview Log 4053-85

Deauthenticate and Close

Subject: Researcher ██████
Interviewer: Dr. ████████
Foreword: Researcher ██████ was exposed to SCP-4053 in Incident 4053-B after improper SCP-4053-1 collection procedure and subsequently had his own instance of the anomaly produced. The following interview takes place roughly seven months after exposure. The subject was not denied access to his instance of SCP-4053-1 and had regular contact with staff as requested, including mandatory weekly interviews with Dr. ████████, but had long since ceased any attempt at objectivity when describing his experiences and any attempt at cooperating with researchers. Dates and names have been omitted for security reasons, and hereafter Researcher ██████ and Dr. ████████ have been shortened to "Subject" and "Dr." respectively.
[Dr. enters subject's containment room and takes a seat opposite the subject, who is already waiting at a table situated in the center of the room. Subject displays boredom and agitation, typical long after exposure to SCP-4053.]
Dr.: Good afternoon, ███. How-
Subject: Ah, no. We're not doing it like that. Where's my request?
Dr.: You know protocol. There's no way I can get you a scalpel. What would you even do with it?
Subject: Get me one - or these interviews stop.
Dr.: Isn't there anythi-
Subject: Not later. Now.
[Dr. shifts and begins to stand.]
Dr.: I guess the interview is over then.
[Without warning or other provocation, subject begins climbing over the table as Dr. moves toward the exit, seizing them and forcibly restraining them against the wall before beginning to beat them. Once subdued, Dr. is thrown into the corner opposite the door while subject picks up a chair. On-site security enters the room and are attacked by subject before he is subdued via electrical shock.]
Closing Statement: We weren't monitoring the subject's brain during the attack, but facial analysis suggests his outrage wasn't genuine. The whole thing went down too quickly, like he was thinking about it before I even walked in the room. To me, the whole thing seems premeditated. Like other subjects, he began to seek a more intense source of external stimulation - or termination - and so he started a fight with the best excuse he could think up. Further interviews are to be rescheduled and conducted under more secure circumstances. - Dr. ████████

Footnotes
1. Investigation is ongoing into how labradorite made its way to pre-Mongol central Asia, let alone the rest of the object's properties. - Dr. ████████
2. Roughly █% if a subject views the statue, ██% when it is viewed in person without interceding glass. A photo can be produced any time in the next few hours.

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