Item #: SCP-7564
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: The Foundation is to monitor civilian rumors and reports indicating instances of SCP-7564. Affected individuals and witnesses are to be amnesticized and released upon basic interrogation.
Description: SCP-7564 is a phenomenon that typically affects individuals who:
- Have poor living conditions; do not have a stable residence, or are forced to live together with other people.
- Experience social isolation or bullying, or lack of social interactions with other people, especially their co-residents.
- Are minors.
- Have not taken a shower for a relatively long time (7 days up to several months).
- Their reason for not maintaining personal hygiene is not purely laziness, but:
- Lack of such a proper hygiene condition.
- Or fear of exposing their bodies in front of others, usually the result of a preexisting psychological condition, such as social anxiety, body dysmorphia, eating disorders, and gender dysphoria.
Individuals affected by SCP-7564 will first repetitively encounter a special place (designated SCP-7564-1) in their dreams; SCP-7564-1 always resemble places that they have been to before, and in most cases, they are public restrooms, places under staircases, or storage rooms situated in high-traffic areas, but in the dreamt version, they are usually in disuse or located within derelict buildings. A cell or corner in SCP-7564-1 will contain a showering appliance and related plumbing, which are typically not installed in those kinds of places.
Those individuals will then dream about themselves taking a shower in SCP-7564-1. The affected individual will simultaneously be teleported to the corresponding place of SCP-7564-1 in reality. Despite the lack of viable water sources and equipment, they will still try to undress and bathe themselves in a manner of somnambulism1. In this state, they are unaware of their real presence and cannot be awakened. After the action is finished, the individual in question will be back at their place of residence, and may continue sleeping or get up.
The individual usually retains the memory of SCP-7564-1, and describes the experience as relaxing, comforting or refreshing. Their cognition of their real current hygiene state will also be influenced by SCP-7564, while they hold an irrational firm belief that they have already taken a shower in SCP-7564-1, and become more reluctant to bathe themselves in reality. When left unattended, this will usually result in further social isolation and withdrawal.