SCP-4398
rating: +35+x
SCP-4398

SCP-4398.

Item #: SCP-4398

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedure: SCP-4398 is to be contained in a standard animal enclosure appropriate for its size, and provided with food, water and clean soil according to the basic needs of a non-anomalous tortoise.

Personnel interacting with SCP-4398 must not show any intent of communicating with it, be it verbal, written or physical, and particularly with topics related to space, science fiction, futurism, physics and/or geometry. In case of doing so and being affected, Lead Researcher Rodríguez and MTF Rho-4 (“Heart’s Respite”) are to be contacted to treat the individual according to the severity of the contamination of their psycho-animic apparatus1.

Description: SCP-4398 is a tortoise of unknown age resembling a young Chelonoidis nigra (Galápagos tortoise).

SCP-4398 is capable of speaking and understanding at least 50 human languages, and it will only speak when a human is present. Its speech presents a heavy use of oxymoron, is mostly devoid of semantics on a non-meta level, and is produced at seemingly random intervals2.

All human subjects that attempt to communicate with SCP-4398 mentioning words or concepts relating to space, science fiction, futurism, physics and/or geometry, will suffer a psycho-animic contamination episode. It should be noted that it is not the actual message being communicated what triggers the episode, but the intent of communicating with SCP-4398 regarding these topics.

Broadly, the method of communication must be shared and understood by 2 or more human individuals, and be either verbal, written (drawing included) or physical (hand signals, facial expressions, body language, changes in posture, et al).

The psycho-animic contamination episode will last between 20 and 80 minutes. Its symptoms consist of hallucinations in the 5 traditional senses, accompanied by severe panic attacks intruding in the subject’s psyche. The content of these hallucinations can usually be linked to the words and concepts that triggered the episode. As well, the contamination of the subject’s psycho-animic apparatus can completely override their exteroception, leading them to believe they have been transported to a different dimension, reality or planet. As of now, there is no concrete evidence of this being the case. Instead, it is believed that the subject’s consciousness will “leak” into a penta-dimensional space for a limited period of time.

In a number of cases, the content of the hallucinations possessed elements not present in the human noosphere3, meaning their fabrication was not limited by the collective pooled knowledge or the collective imaginary of the human race across its entire history4. In these cases, the hallucinated images, elements, experiences or information have been later confirmed as either plausible of existing or completely real, making them more akin to “visions” from an unknown source that potentially exists in a multitude of dimensions beyond those in which humanity operates consciously.

EEG and MRI scans indicated that subjects were perceiving actual stimuli during their hallucinations, even though there were no other significant sources of stimuli besides SCP-4398 in the testing area, nor was there brain activity similar to drug, psychosis or hypnosis-induced hallucinations.

After all symptoms subside, the subject will experience momentary discomfort, disorientation and both mental and physical fatigue. When the symptoms are more intense, however, it can lead to a permanent change in their personality on a deep psycho-animic level5.



Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License