The following is a series of interrogations of instances of SCP-4798-1 expressed in Foundation personnel.
SCP-4798-1-05
Date: 12 October 2004
<Begin Log>
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Researcher █████, are you feeling alright? Can I get you anything?”
SCP-4798-1-05: “No, I’m fine, I’m fine. Seriously, don’t worry. It’s actually not bad.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “What’s not bad?”
SCP-4798-1-05: “Well, I mean, this. I was scared, but it’s actually somewhat interesting, being an anomaly myself. It kind of makes you wonder what we mean by that. ‘Anomaly.’ What exactly are we comparing to?”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Please try and stay focused, █████. I need you to tell me… are you experiencing anything you would consider out of the ordinary? Hallucinations, sensations… anything like that?”
SCP-4798-1-05: “Oh yeah, definitely. It’s very strange, actually – I can hear everything that’s going on in just one place, in just one city. Istedgade, in Copenhagen. Oh hey! An American tourist! Funny, that makes the world seem so small.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: █████…
SCP-4798-1-05: “Sorry, I’m getting distracted. Yeah, anomalous sensations. I would say that is a definite yes. I don’t know why it’s that particular street, in that particular city, but at the same time, I kind of feel like… why not? I make a meaning of that. This whole place is about making meanings.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “What do you mean?”
SCP-4798-1-05: “How can I explain this… it’s like there’s a poetry to everything. But it’s not like something scripted. Does that make sense? It’s like everything in this place – every expression of SCP-4798 – is singing. The most interesting thing of all is that it’s words becoming things. Poetry expressed through biology.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “What, it’s anart?”
SCP-4798-1-05: “I think you could call it that, yeah. But I couldn’t tell you what it means. I think… well, I mean, it means something. But that’s not something I can say.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Why not?”
SCP-4798-1-05: “Because I don’t think it knows what that meaning is.”
<End Log>
SCP-4798-1-12
Date: 21 November 2004
<Begin Log>
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Tell me what you mean when you say ‘expressions.’”
SCP-4798-1-12: “So, each of these things – every one of the organisms on this site – they’re all a part of a big poem of sorts, though I don’t know who the writer might have been, if there even was one. They pass on these words like offspring, which express themselves as genotypes and phenotypes in the given organisms. Does that make sense?”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Sure. It’s not the first anomaly like this that we’ve seen. But what I want to know is the fundamentals of its nature - something of its order, something reproducible and scientific. What is the meaning of SCP-4798?”
SCP-4798-1-12: “I wish I could say, but I don’t know. Even now, I… it’s so, so strange. All of these things are just so alien and yet so familiar. I’m not like Researcher ████████… all that happened to me was the skin on my arm getting darker. But why does it feel like more than that? I don’t know, Tannenbaum, it’s…”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Go ahead.”
SCP-4798-1-12: “… it’s like I know this poem, this collection of words and sounds. Like it’s a part of my soul. It goes beyond just writing words that correlate to specific biological traits. You won’t be able to type in ‘bloom’ and get a flower… all the thoughts intermingle here, but they don’t adhere to anything. It’s not specific and ordered, it’s just… a feeling in words. Growing, undefined, uncertain. But real.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “So you can’t tell me anything else?”
SCP-4798-1-12: “Well, I can tell you one thing. But…”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Yes?”
SCP-4798-1-12: “I sought this division to ride / Will I or won’t I abide? / To be one and separate / Accumulate and disperse my song / This assured threat of existence / Fiction more powerful than life / Ghosts that live in matter / A crescent moon and a little girl”
<End Log>
SCP-4798-1-41
Date: 5 March 2005
<Begin Log>
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Researcher ████, you’re one of my best. I want you to tell me everything you can. What is the meaning of SCP-4798?”
SCP-4798-1-41: “Tannenbaum, I… I wish I could. But I don’t know if I can think of things like that. It’s so hard to be rational right now. I’m sorry.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Just try your best. It’s an anomaly, it’s not you, okay? Just tell me what you can, don’t worry about whether it makes sense.”
SCP-4798-1-41: “It’s like… I just don’t think SCP-4798 is trying to be anything in particular. I mean, why does it have to be? It’s strange, for me to think that… I mean, everything has to be something. But this isn’t, or at least it doesn’t seem to be. You can’t just classify this, or reduce it. I’m starting to think… I’m starting to think they all might be like this.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “All anomalies?”
SCP-4798-1-41: “God, I could get fired for spewing nonsense like this.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Please, ████…”
SCP-4798-1-41: “We’re here to preserve consensus reality, but here I am questioning it.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Please, it’s alright. You’re under the influence of an anomaly, it’s not something you should feel bad about.”
SCP-4798-1-41: “It just feels so real, Tannenbaum. It’s like I know this all from somewhere. The expression I was given is a reflection of me in this place. All of them are just expressions, and I think it’s like a million different stories all wrapped up into one. It’s uncertainty personified. But it’s also… it’s also me. It’s all me.”
Researcher Tannenbaum: “Okay, ████, okay. Take it easy. Let’s take this slowly.”
SCP-4798-1-41: “All I know for sure is that this doesn’t come from here, Tannenbaum. This is all just us trying to make sense of it by putting it here. But it’s from somewhere else. You can feel it… but you can’t understand it with words. That’s exactly why it’s made of words.”
<End Log>
EVALUATION 05/14/2005 – Researcher ███████ Tannenbaum
Description: SCP-4798 is an unidentified memetic entity or class of entities that expresses itself through biological organisms on the molecular level. This anomalous expression of unknown origin affects the nucleotides of given organisms and modifies them into “poems” with unspecific meanings that nonetheless appear to affect the anomalous properties of the resultant organisms. These poems pass on to other organisms acausally and thus expand the dimensions of expression possessed by SCP-4798. The origins and fundamental nature of SCP-4798 are unknown and possibly unclassifiable.
