SCP-1443, prior to location transfer.

Item #: SCP-1443

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: Instances of SCP-1443 are to be contained in a designated greenhouse in Sector-28. Watering and fertilizing are to be done regularly by Level 2 personnel. Humidity, temperature, and light exposure are to be monitored and maintained accordingly. Level 3 authorization is required prior to any testing involving SCP-1443; results are to be documented and reported immediately.

The containment unit is to be monitored by video surveillance at all times. Any personnel within the containment unit when instances of SCP-1443-1 appear are to be promptly evacuated.

Description: SCP-1443 is an unknown variation of Campsis × tagliabuana, a trumpet vine hybrid. Though SCP-1443 blooms perennially, it has not been observed to produce seeds. While SCP-1443 possesses no other visual abnormalities, certain branching vines of the plant have been noted to exhibit leaves that grow in a specific arrangement of four leaves, which resemble the forewings and hindwings of Lepidoptera.

Roughly every 24 hours, SCP-1443 will generate iridescent projections of butterflies (designated SCP-1443-1) from the similarly-shaped groups of leaves on its vines. Any human who observes these projections from a close enough distance will experience immediate drowsiness, and will fall asleep if not removed from SCP-1443’s immediate proximity.

Based on observation, instances of SCP-1443-1 remain visible for up to fifteen minutes after being generated by SCP-1443. Though SCP-1443-1 individuals have been noticed to hover over sleeping humans, they will remain within 1 meter of the host plant.

Though an affected individual will awaken hours after encountering SCP-1443-1, initial exposure will result in the individual experiencing apparently innocuous dreams involving butterflies. Over a period of roughly two weeks (14 days), an affected individual will undergo increasing bouts of fatigue and sleepiness, and butterflies will be the sole subject of any dreams they experience.

After two weeks, when the affected individual is next able to sleep, instances (usually 3 to 7 individuals) of SCP-1443-1 will materialize over the head of the sleeping subject. These projections are first seen originating from the forehead of the sleeping human; no changes in sleep mannerism have been recorded during this process. As a group, the SCP-1443-1 seek out a suitable location for rest, usually a patch of open soil. Should the SCP-1443-1 find a place of rest within fifteen minutes, they will cluster together and form a new individual of SCP-1443. If no such place is available, the SCP-1443-1 disappear when fifteen minutes have elapsed. Juvenile instances of SCP-1443 “planted” in this manner do not appear immediately capable of generating SCP-1443-1. The length of time required for these new plants to fully mature is currently unknown.1

Human hosts to SCP-1443-1 have reported no pain related to having “harbored” SCP-1443-1 individuals. Exposure to SCP-1443 is believed to result in no lasting side effects. Refer to Incident Log.

Addendum 1443-1: During the ██-██-████ test involving D-Class personnel D-26423, an estimated 70 instances of SCP-1443-1 projections were recorded to have emerged following the usual 14 day “development” period (see Incident Log). Testing was temporarily suspended; however, when experiments were reinstated, the number of projections dropped to normal and remained consistent from then on.

Excerpt from Incident Log 1443-1: D-26423 was noted to have suffered a fractured skull following the testing period, and entered a comatose state. The swarm of 1443-1, according to video surveillance, entered a pre-prepared Foundation greenhouse and proceeded to coalesce into an instance of SCP-1443 measuring roughly 3 meters tall. In the interest of eliminating potential threat should the instance grow too large for efficient containment, highly concentrated herbicides were applied to the soil surrounding the SCP-1443 instance. Upon initial introduction of the herbicides, the SCP-1443 instance began to emit vocalizations (see audio log).

Audio Log 1443-2 [roughly translated from Greek]

[unintelligible] …wandering above not below… ferryman promised [unintelligible] hundred years before crossing… didn’t want to stay [unintelligible] river shore so crowded… why is the gateway collapsing? [unintelligible]

Subsequent investigation revealed that the incident coincided with the ████ earthquake in ██████, ██████ which had resulted in ███ deaths.

Footnotes

1. Similarities between this symbiotic relationship and that observed in SCP-667 have been noted. Investigation into a correlation of the two anomalies is ongoing.