PeppersGhost

SCP-1861 - The Crew of the HMS Wintersheimer by PeppersGhost

Early photograph of SCP-1861-A surfacing in a small manmade lake.

Item #: SCP-1861

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: If a manifestation of SCP-1861 is reported, Task Force agents from the nearest Foundation Outpost are to reroute traffic away from the affected area and prevent civilian interaction with SCP-1861-B instances. A separate team must be deployed with the specific task of locating and preventing access to SCP-1861-A. As SCP-1861-B instances cannot be destroyed with brute force, diplomatic means of preventing civilian abduction should be undertaken if at all possible. Foundation Misinformation agents positioned in local news sources and weather monitoring sites are to attribute SCP-1861 to irregularities in air pressure and large quantities of dust present in storm water. Civilians who enter SCP-1861-A are to be declared legally dead, with causes of death attributed to common inclement weather accidents.

Description: SCP-1861 is an anomalous meteorological phenomenon characterized by heavy precipitation and fog composed of saltwater, human blood, and human cerebrospinal fluid. SCP-1861 manifestations are unpredictable, appearing spontaneously and with no regard to an affected area's natural climate and weather patterns. Manifestations typically occur once every three to six months and have been recorded occurring in numerous regions across the world. Historical records have confirmed that SCP-1861 has existed since as early as the year 1916. The size of the area covered by SCP-1861 varies from instance to instance, with the largest recorded affected area measuring approximately 5km2. Aside from its manifestation, composition, and apparent connection to SCP-1861-A, SCP-1861 displays no additional extranormal properties.

SCP-1861-A is a single underwater marine vessel that closely resembles B-class boats used by the British Royal Navy in World War I. During each SCP-1861 manifestation, SCP-1861-A will attempt to surface in a body of water that is large enough to contain its full mass. Both natural and manmade bodies of water have hosted manifestations of SCP-1861-A. If no body of water large enough to contain the entirety of SCP-1861-A is present, SCP-1861-A will surface in any collection of water with a surface area large enough to encompass its conning tower and topmost platform, even if the collection of water in question is only several inches deep.

SCP-1861-B are humanoid entities that emerge from SCP-1861-A during SCP-1861 phenomenon. SCP-1861-B are dressed in full body suits resembling deep sea diving gear, although with no discernable source of air supply. Instances of SCP-1861-B are uniform in size and possess speed and strength typical of an adult human male. Although most instances are sapient and capable of speech, approximately 9% possess limited intelligence and are only sentient. Instances that are incapable of verbal communication have been recorded making vocalizations similar to to the cries of domestic felines, canines, and infant humans. The diving gear worn by SCP-1861-B instances is anomalously durable and cannot be removed except by the instance presently wearing it. If an instance of SCP-1861-B encounters a human subject, it will attempt to persuade the subject into entering SCP-1861-A, claiming that this action would be in the subject's best interest. Subjects who refuse may or may not be forcefully taken to SCP-1861-A, depending on the temperament of the SCP-1861-B instance.

Human subjects lured into entering SCP-1861-A will reemerge during subsequent SCP-1861 manifestations as SCP-1861-B instances. If an SCP-1861-B instance is taken outside SCP-1861's area of effect, it will begin to experience accelerated fatigue and lose consciousness, becoming completely inert until reintroduced into SCP-1861. After a manifestation of SCP-1861 has ended, SCP-1861-A will disappear along with any remaining instances of SCP-1861-B;1 additionally, blood, cerebrospinal fluid, and saltwater left behind by SCP-1861 will instantly convert to regular rainwater.

+Interview log DOC-1861-1

-Interview log DOC-1861-1

Interviewed: An instance of SCP-1861-B claiming to be member of the ship's crew.

Interviewer: D-1861-36, receiving questions from Dr. Klutch via remote broadcast.

Foreword: D-1861-36 was sent into an SCP-1861 affected area and instructed to interview an SCP-1861-B instance. Heavy rain can be heard throughout the interview, and SCP-1861-B's speech is muffled by the diving gear it is wearing.

<Begin log>

D-1861-36: Who are you?

SCP-1861-B: Samuel Ramsey of the HMS Wintersheimer. We're evacuating the area. Please, you've got to come with me. You're in danger out here.

D-1861-36: Why? What's going on?

SCP-1861-B: I don't have any way to prove this, but I can tell you right now that you're going to die very soon unless you come with me. And that's not a threat, it's a warning. Something really, really terrible is about to happen here.

D-1861-36: What? What's going to happen?

SCP-1861-B: Listen, you've got to trust me on this: when this rain stops, you're going to die. I'm not kidding, you're going to die unless you follow me back to our submarine. You'll be safe there.

D-1861-36: Just tell me what's going to happen after the rain stops!

SCP-1861-B: You wouldn't believe me if I told you.

D-1861-36: Try me.

SCP-1861-B: I … look, I know this is going to sound insane, but this isn't regular rain. It's not from this world. There's another world–a horrible world, and it's leaking into this one. Don't look at me like that! You can see for yourself that isn't normal rain. It's thick! It's red! Please, you just have to trust me. I'm begging here. I'm trying to save your life. I've seen what happens to people after the rain and I'm trying to save you from that! Just come with me and I swear we'll both survive this!

D-1861-36: What kind of world is it? How long has this been happening?

SCP-1861-B: Listen, I want to help you. I swear I do. But if you won't believe me, I have no choice but to go look for someone else who'll come with me. I'm truly, truly sorry, but I can't just stand here arguing with you when there are other people out there I could be trying to save.

<End Log>

+Interview log DOC-1861-2

-Interview log DOC-1861-2

Interviewed: An instance of SCP-1861-B claiming to be D-1861-46.

Interviewer: D-1861-45, receiving questions from Dr. Klutch via remote broadcast.

Foreword: D-1861-45 and D-1861-46, adult males of roughly 30 years of age, had both been sent into a previous manifestation of SCP-1861. During that time, D-1861-45 was instructed to avoid contact with SCP-1861-B instances, and D-1861-46 was instructed to enter SCP-1861-A. Heavy rain can be heard throughout the interview, and SCP-1861-B's speech is muffled by the diving gear it is wearing.

<Begin log>

D-1861-45: How do I know that you're really Sal?

SCP-1861-B: I can tell you that the code word is 'Boyardee.' Is that proof enough?

D-1861-45: It proves you've got his memories, at least. So what happened after you went inside the sub?

SCP-1861-B: The inside of the sub is pretty much just one long, narrow passageway. The thing was full of those diving suit people, along with a bunch of random folks from around town. It was jam packed in there; you could barely move. You kept getting pushed further and further back as more people entered. The deeper I got, the more certain I was that I'd hit a wall at the end, but it was like that passageway just kept stretching on forever. About an hour after I first entered, people stopped coming in and the hatch was closed. Then, without any warning, the sub started filling up with water.

D-1861-45: Wait, they tried to drown you?

SCP-1861-B: I don't know, man. The water just kept rising higher and higher. People were screaming and panicking and knocking each other over. It was awful. The guys in the diving suits tried to keep everyone calm, explaining it was part of safety procedures. They gave out diving suits to the rest of us and ordered us to put them on. So we did. I mean, what choice did we have? People who'd brought their kids and pets were cramming them into the suits just to keep them from drowning to death.

D-1861-45: Makes sense. So I guess you were all trapped down there for a whole 'nother six months until the next blood rain thing happened?

SCP-1861-B: Actually, we didn't have to wait very long at all. That's where things started getting really weird. Once everyone had the diving suits on … they opened the airlock and started letting people leave the sub.

D-1861-45: What?

SCP-1861-B: Yeah. We were told not to take the suits off yet, though. They told us that when we got out of the sub, we wouldn't be able to breathe without our suits, and that everyone we left behind on land would be dead. When I stepped out onto the surface, everything looked almost exactly like it had an hour ago. I saw the lake, the trees, the boathouses… everything was where it had been, but …

D-1861-45: What? Had something changed?

SCP-1861-B: It's hard to explain. I want to say that it was like everything was underwater, but it was more than that. It was like everything around us was part of the water itself. When you looked up, you didn't see a surface. It just went on forever. And the trees? The boathouses? They weren't solid. They were just a different sort of liquid. Even when you stood on the ground, it was kind of like you were swimming in it, because the ground was liquid. Except you didn't actually have to swim. And even though everything was water, you could still tell that there was a lake there. As if the lake was a purer form of liquidness. Sorry, am I making any sense at all here?

D-1861-45: Not a whole lot, no. Hey, Dr. Klutch wants to know how long you guys were out there like that.

SCP-1861-B: The whole six months. We lived like that day and night.

D-1861-45: Did anyone try taking their suits off?

SCP-1861-B: Of course. Especially at first, since everyone was confused and scared. But as soon as someone took their helmet off, their bodies sort of … I think 'dissolve' would be the best word for it. They weren't solid anymore; they kind of turned into a mist and merged with the water that was all around us. They lost their shape, but you could still tell they were there, shapeless and floating.

D-1861-45: How did you guys eat?

SCP-1861-B: We didn't. Didn't sleep, either. We just breathed. Passed the time by exploring and talking to each other.

D-1861-45: Did you see any animals or other people?

SCP-1861-B: Kinda. We'd see their bodies. They'd float three or four feet off the ground, and their hair and fur would move like it does when its underwater, but they always kept their position. Didn't drift away or anything like that. It's really, really weird over there, man. And all the dead things, humans and animals, were missing their eyes. Blood would just keep pumping nonstop from the sockets and then dissipate into the water around them. And their teeth … I can't just say 'their teeth were gone,' because that doesn't begin to cover it. It was like someone took a bite out of their face right where their mouth should have been. Teeth, lips, gums, all gone.

D-1861-45: And no explanation from anyone? What did the guys who had led you into the sub have to say about all this?

SCP-1861-B: A lot of them said they had the same story we did. The blood rain came, then someone in a suit told them to climb into the sub, then bam! Water world. There was this one guy, though. He said he was the original captain of the sub. 'Hershel Guthrie of the HMS Wintersheimer' was how he introduced himself. Anyway, the guy was a looney one. Rarely ever spoke coherently. If you asked him about the sub, he'd call it his 'ark.' If you asked him about the water place, he would call it the 'new world'.

D-1861-45: What did he say about the people with missing eyes and teeth?

SCP-1861-B: He just said 'the watcher of eyes and biter of teeth deemed them worthy' and crazy talk like that.

D-1861-45: How'd you wind up back in the real world?

SCP-1861-B: It was pretty sudden, actually. One day, a bunch of guys started yelling for everyone to make their way back to the submarine. Said that another area was getting 'attacked', and we needed to rescue as many people as possible.

D-1861-45: All right. Weird water dimension, mangled floating corpses, infinite submarine. Got all that Dr. Klutch? Great. But now why haven't you taken off that suit already, Sal?

SCP-1861-B: [Silence]

D-1861-45: Sal?

SCP-1861-B: I'm scared, man. I don't know what's real anymore. Hell, I can't say for sure if I'm even really alive. You have these diving suits that wander around, moving like people, but barking like dogs and talking like toddlers. We aren't what we used to be before we put on the suits. I'm sorry, man. I don't understand very much of this, but given what I do know, I honestly don't think that we're human anymore.

D-1861-45: Dr. Klutch says you've got to take off the suit. For science and all that.

SCP-1861-B: [ No response for 15 seconds ] I'm just so scared. If I'm not human, what am I? If I take this helmet off, what'll I see? [ 10 second pause ] Before, when we were in that storm together, the guys in the suits told us that we'd die as soon as the rain stopped. And you know what? During the time I spent in that water place, I found you. Teeth missing and eyes gone. I saw your dead body! And I thought, 'maybe those guys were right. Maybe everyone else really is dead.' And here you are in front of me. I don't get it. I don't know what's real, man.

D-1861-45: Well, what else are you going to do? Get back into the sub and live in Sea World the rest of your life? Who knows, maybe it's not too late to get back to normal. If I were you, I'd think death would be better than whatever kind of hell you're stuck in. Just take off the suit already!

SCP-1861-B: Okay… here goes.

<End Log>

Closing Statement: SCP-1861-B removed its helmet and large amounts of seawater began to pour from the suit. No body was found inside, but two human eyes and a set of teeth were recovered from within the diving suit. Testing performed on the remains revealed that the eyes originally belonged to an 8-year-old female and the teeth to a European red deer (Cervus elaphus).

Footnotes

1. A similar phenomenon has been observed in SCP-3300, but no causal links have been found.