Item #: SCP-4199

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: Containment of SCP-4199 has a twofold focus: monitoring instances and keeping them alive. Direct containment has proven problematic in the past, and death of an instance has been shown to cause an immediate containment breach.

Each Secure Facility, research Area, or Foundation-owned property must participate in containment of SCP-4199, without exception. Exactly one instance of SCP-4199 should be contained at each location. If for any reason a Site or Area does not have an instance of SCP-4199 in containment, or if an instance is discovered to be deceased, the Site Director¹ should contact Dr. Jaime Marlow, who will assign a specialist in cognitohazards to conduct a daily search of all employee records until one is found. Duties of a deceased instance should be split between existing personnel. All current staff members onsite should be reviewed thoroughly for employees with the name "Joseph Williams",² with special emphasis given to recently hired employees. If no instance of SCP-4199 can be found within one month, hiring may resume but all onsite personnel are to be treated as current or future instances until such an instance can be located.

The Site Director should request a detailed report of activity from the supervisor of an SCP-4199 instance on its behavior, current projects, and clearance, under the guise of a monthly progress report. If questioned, Site Director should inform instances that this is normal procedure. For similar reasons, a monthly psychological evaluation should be conducted, with any abnormalities reported to the Site Director.

Below is a list of SCPs that have been approved for use in maintaining the well-being of an SCP-4199 instance:

• SCP-006: A 10ml vial of SCP-006 may be requested for extreme circumstances with a majority approval from O5 council and administered clandestinely;
• SCP-427: Exposure is not to exceed five minutes total or one consecutive minute for any instance;
• SCP-500:One pill per location has been approved Rejected due to lack of resources;
• SCP-545: PENDING O5 APPROVAL; SCP-545-B may be administered on a case-by-case basis (SCP-545-A is not to be notified);
• SCP-590: Exposure to SCP-590 may be used in extreme cases with approval from Dr. Jack Bright;
• SCP-2718:Required for all deceased instances Administration of this procedure has been discontinued as Project Dammerung appears to have no effect on instances of SCP-4199;

Description: SCP-4199 collectively refers to a group of individuals named Joe Williams, formerly employed by the SCP Foundation. Instances are mostly unremarkable in appearance, though comparisons of physical descriptions from containment specialists indicate that they are identical to one another.

If an instance of SCP-4199 is not present at a Foundation-owned location, another will appear or be hired within one month through unknown means. Freezing a location's hiring will result in an entity manifesting within the current roster of employees. Employees affected by the instance's antimemetic properties will be convinced that it had always been employed at that location.

The powerful antimemetic effect emitted by SCP-4199³ prevents affected individuals from recognizing their connection to other SCP-4199 instances. This typically manifests as a complete lack of realization, or the assumption that the similarities with other Joe Williams' are non-anomalous in nature given SCP-4199's common name and generic appearance.

SCP-4199 instances are generally cordial and polite, and will attempt to engage other Foundation employees in smalltalk. Favorite topics include weather, weekend plans, and the current performance of the New York Yankees. Members of SCP-4199 claim to have been around since the organization was formed.⁴

Test Log: While it is certain that the death of an instance causes a containment breach, other potential methods of neutralization are less certain.

In an effort to more effectively contain SCP-4199 instances and prevent containment breaches, a series of several tests was conducted, treating SCP-4199 instances as though they were D-class personnel.⁵