Item#: SCP-6767

Containment Class: euclid

Secondary Class: none

Disruption Class: dark

Risk Class: notice

SCP-6767 contained in a provisional terrarium at Site-39 shortly after discovery.

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-6767 is contained in a Type IV Reptilian Terrarium at Site-39. Monthly psychological evaluations and interviews are to be scheduled to ensure the continued compliance of SCP-6767 and to minimize the risk of containment and/or information breach. Personnel wishing to schedule interviews with SCP-6767 may file application forms to Dr. Callaghan's office, provided that they have sufficiently familiarized themselves with SCP-6767's known triggers. SCP-6767 has been provided with an isolated computer and modified peripherals for the purpose of transcribing information.

Description: SCP-6767 is a small sapient reptile composed entirely of beryllium bronze alloy. SCP-6767 has exhibited neoteny and functional immortality via the involuntary shedding of its outermost layer when severely damaged or oxidized, revealing a younger instance of SCP-6767 underneath. SCP-6767 is capable of communication via both vocalization and telepathy, however prefers the former due to the difficulty of evocative telepathy.

Due to SCP-6767 being entirely composed of beryllium copper alloy and the fact that it regularly sheds its outermost layer, most radiological dating methods are unfeasible. SCP-6767 has stated that it is currently in its early 4600s after Dr. Callaghan asked it directly.

SCP-6767 claims to have access to the collective memories of all currently deceased individuals. This includes in-depth knowledge in nearly every field of study and craft, esoteric or otherwise, as demonstrated by SCP-6767 when prompted. This is further corroborated by its knowledge of highly classified information.

Addendum 6767-01: The following logs detail the discovery and subsequent containment of SCP-6767 at Site-39, as well as relevant interview logs.

+ VIDEO LOG | Incident 6767-01

- VIDEO LOG | Incident 6767-01

VIDEO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

The video shows the Site-39 break room. Drs. Bordeaux, Giannino, and Tschida can be seen conversing near the coffee machine. SCP-6767 falls into the room through an overhead air vent, landing in Dr. Tschida's coffee cup.

Dr. Tschida: What the fuck?

SCP-6767: Ooohh hot. Um, hello, all. I take it this isn't Dexter's1 office?

Dr. Giannino: You guys are seeing this too, right?

Dr. Bordeaux: A talking snake in Tschida's coffee? Yeah, I see it.

SCP-6767: Would you folks be so kind as to take me to his office? Preferably in this cup of coffee. It's nice in here.

[END LOG]

NOTE: SCP-6767 was brought to the Site-39 holding facility, where it was granted an audience with Site Director Hofmann at the Site Director's behest. SCP-6767 requested containment, and relevant facilities were prepared shortly following this incident.

+ AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-01

- AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-01

AUDIO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

Dr. Callaghan: Good evening, SCP-6767. We have some questions for you.

SCP-6767: Ooh this is the interview bit isn't it? Yeah, sure, fire away, Doc.

Dr. Callaghan: For starters, how did you manage to not only locate this Site, but also infiltrate the ventilation system without alerting security? Every point of entry to this facility is secure.

SCP-6767: Oh well you see, I actually knew where this place was from the get-go. Getting in was the hard part. Basically, I had to—

Several minutes of SCP-6767 detailing methods to bypass Site-39's security systems expunged.

SCP-6767: —so in all, you guys really have to get smaller vent grilles.

Dr. Callaghan: I suppose I'll have to send this log to security later. What did you mean by 'you knew where this place was from the get-go'?

SCP-6767: Got the directions from a few former staff. Don't worry, you guys don't have an information breach. I have access to memories of the dead, and given Site-39's history with containment breaches, I had quite the cache of information to work with.

Dr. Callaghan: You have access to— Sorry, what exactly are you, again?

SCP-6767: That's easy. I'm an anomalous member of an extinct species of legless lizard of the genus Anguis. No, I'm not some wacky machine or elaborate get-up by some anomalous organization, I'm just a regular reptile who's made of beryllium bronze, and knows a thing or two because its seen a thing or two.

Dr. Callaghan: We'll still have to verify those claims, and we certainly do appreciate you narrowing them down for us, but that wasn't exactly what I meant. What do you mean by 'you have access to memories of the deceased'?

SCP-6767: It means that I know everything the dead knew in life. I have their memories, their knowledge, I remember people from the perspectives of their family, friends, enemies. I am privy to great secrets, ancient magic, and lost civilizations. I have seen through the eyes of your most brilliant scientists, your most ruthless conquerors, and those that died forgotten. I have seen through your Veil from the eyes of those who died behind it.

Dr. Callaghan: Alright. That's very interesting, SCP-6767, but again, we will still have to verify such—

SCP-6767: Your father loved you, Henry. He wanted to reconcile with your mother and died in a car accident before he could. It was never his intention to abandon you nor Frederick. All 3 of you were in his final thoughts. I'm sorry.

Silence for 2 minutes.

Dr. Callaghan: That was… Thank you for your uh, concern, SCP-6767.

[END LOG]

+ AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-02

- AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-02

ERROR: File Interview_6767-02 does not exist, or has been deleted. Please contact your server's administrator (itschida88@scp.foundation.int) for more details.

+ AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-03

- AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-03

AUDIO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

Dr. Callaghan: Good afternoon, SCP-6767. Before we start today's interview, I have to ask you to refrain from sharing classified information, even with me.

SCP-6767: Again, sorry, that O5 stuff was a one-time thing, never doing it again, sorry.

Dr. Callaghan: Thank you for your cooperation, SCP-6767. Why would you willingly request containment at the Foundation? You have expressed awareness of nearly every active GoI, none of which were aware of your existence, really. You could have easily continued to be a free sna—

SCP-6767: Lizard.

Dr. Callaghan: Alright, a free lizard, but that's besides the point. What made you seek out the Foundation?

SCP-6767: Protection. That's what the 'P' in SCP stands for, no? Outside all my wacky abilities and the whole memory-of-the-dead thing, it's not an easy life for a bronze lizard like me.

Dr. Callaghan: How so? You're functionally immortal, invulnerable for the most part, you don't even need to eat.

SCP-6767: I've had, shall we say, a pretty hard upbringing. Couple of millennia ago I was one of the most valuable items in the Near East. You ever wonder how every Bronze Age civilization in and around there suddenly got their hands on their beryllium bronze?

Dr. Callaghan: Thaumaturgy?

SCP-6767: Who do you think taught them that? Well, actually, it was beaten out of me by the Mekhanite priesthood in… uh… I don't remember the exact date but it was when that crazy bitch Ataraxia2 was in charge. And by 'beaten out of me' I mean both figuratively and literally. They harvested my shed skin en masse for years before I turned over the transmutation sigils I got from that mat-Utem3 alchemist's memories.

Dr. Callaghan: Slow down a bit there, how old are you exactly? We haven't been able to determine your age from the skin samples you provided.

SCP-6767: I haven't exactly been keeping exact track, but I think I'm somewhere in my 46th centennial? If you guys have a figure for the reign of Gilgamesh4 then that makes the guesswork a lot easier.

Dr. Callaghan: I'll have to check with a few other Departments on that, but what relation does Gilgamesh have to this?

SCP-6767: I stole that immortality flower from him. Well, I say flower, but it didn't taste like one. Flowers aren't… metallic. Got the memory-of-the-dead thing from it too.

Dr. Callaghan: Oh…kay.

SCP-6767: Look, Henry, in my defense, Gilgamesh was kind of an asshole. Better you interviewing a little legless lizard than another undying Mesopotamian sociopath.

Dr. Callaghan: Please don't call me Henry.

[END LOG]

+ AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-04

- AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-04

AUDIO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

Dr. Callaghan: So you came to the Foundation for protection against exploitation from opportunistic parties?

SCP-6767: That's exactly right, Doc. I used to hide under rocks and cracks in the walls. The world turns without me and I see it all just the same, only a bit later. With what I know, I could topple governments, end old wars and start new ones, and that's just the bit that's outside the Veil.

Dr. Callaghan: Why seek protection now?

SCP-6767: I started seeing records of me, this little lizard before you, in those memories. Crumbs of information that some spent the rest of their lives piecing together. It's only a matter of time before my existence… my influence is known to them. Then they'll come for me.

Dr. Callaghan: What sort of influence?

SCP-6767: I had a phase, so to speak. Travelled a bit, helped people in ways I could, wrote a few books, served as proxy for otherwise lost knowledge. At one point I used Nälkän rituals to create flesh avatars just to make interactions easier. I took many names, Otiartes, Kuwari, Kassapa, Saul… Stopped sometime after the fall of Rome for uh… personal reasons. Not the greatest time in my life.

Dr. Callaghan: I might have a few guys come by later about that Nälkän ritual business, if that's alright with you. Who's coming for you, by the way?

SCP-6767: Oh, um, there were some Mekhanites in there, Broken Church fellows, uh… a few regular and some Neo-Nälkäns… Most of them are just looking for any leads on lost rituals and whatnot, but they're smaller circles. As far as I'm aware, there's no concentrated effort to locate me… I think. Of course, I'm not waiting until they flush me out whatever hole I might be hiding in. I may know nearly every martial art and combat magicks, but I'm a small lizard, Doc. I don't even have hands.

Dr. Callaghan: I'll put a word to my superiors about potential GoI activity then.

SCP-6767: I know how my arrival here at Site-39 and the requests I've made for containment sound awfully suspicious, and at the Foundation, no less, but it was either this or Wilson's. As to why I didn't go to Wilson's instead, well, they lack heavily in the firepower department. The Foundation may have had their hands in more deaths than others, but at the end of the day, the Foundation is also responsible for the continuation of many more lives, albeit in blissful ignorance. Your fallen agents, lost scientists, even the passing of fellow anomalies. Dying in the darkness so others may live in the light. The whole D-Class business is a bit regrettable, though. Do note that I am capable of remembering the experience of being killed by cognitohazards, infohazards, anything that ends in 'hazard', really. Terrible way to go.

Dr. Callaghan: I—

SCP-6767: Oh, and those anomalies that kill you? Yeah, I remember quite a few of them. Funny thing is, whatever funky effects they may have had on their victims don't transfer to me, apparently. I remember the ugly bastard's face and I don't hear any screaming, at least, not in real life. Might be a good time to mention that I don't have access to any memories that may have been amnesticized away in life so…

Dr. Callaghan: Fair warning, SCP-6767, you may want to brace yourself for an influx of interviews after this.

SCP-6767: I got all the time in the world, Doc.

[END LOG]

Addendum 6767-02: Additional SCP-6767 documentation. A full library is available here.

+ AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-08

- AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-08

AUDIO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

Dr. Moncavage: How far back do the memories go? Is it a catch-all thing or just the ones after your 'awakening'?

SCP-6767: A bit of both, actually. Everything after the flower is crispy clear to me, no problem with seeing what's accessible. I did get everything before too, but it's murky in the same way you wake up after a dream — it's constantly slipping away. I tried applying some scrying techniques with no luck, although to be fair, that only works if they're your own memories. I remember seeing fragments of the night sky up to about uh… 520,000-ish years before present? There might be some older ones in there.

Dr. Moncavage: You remember human prehistory?

SCP-6767: Yes, but uh, not always from the perspective of humans. Quite a few other hominids running around back then.

Dr. Moncavage: So this ability of yours isn't restricted to deceased humans?

SCP-6767: Well, I never did say I could only see human memories. If it's sapient and dead I should have it in here somewhere.

Dr. Moncavage: What about artificial constructs? If a sapient AI were to be created and terminated, would you know about it?

SCP-6767: That hasn't happened yet, as far as I'm aware. This isn't an invitation to test it out, though.

Dr. Moncavage: Fair, but what about people who are revived after clinical death?

SCP-6767: I've noticed there's a short interval following clinical death and me receiving the memories, about a few minutes. Normally, revival occurs before the interval elapses, and I don't get anything. In the rarer cases where I actually receive the memories before revival, they just disappear. It's like losing a train of thought to a distraction, and I myself am unable to produce recollections of those memories until they die and stay dead. It's quite the experience, actually.

Dr. Moncavage: What about necromancy? How does that affect the memories?

SCP-6767: Depends, really. They're part of the rare cases I mentioned just now. It can range from the entire memory lost to no effects whatsoever, it just depends on the proficiency of the necromancer and the complexity of the ritual. They always come back in the end, though.

[END LOG]

+ VIDEO LOG | Incident 6767-02

- VIDEO LOG | Incident 6767-02

VIDEO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

The video shows Site Director Hofmann working in his office. Soft knocking noises can be heard coming from the outside the door.

Dir. Hofmann: Come in.

SCP-6767: Could I uh, get some help with door?

Dir. Hofmann approaches the door with caution, opening it to reveal SCP-6767 on the floor outside.

SCP-6767: Hi SD, we got a situation that I think warrants your attention.

Dir. Hofmann: How did y-

SCP-6767: A Nälkän sect — local, probably — is conducting a Kojanüta'hak5 about 1.4 kilometers southeast of here, look in the barn at the Baumgartner estate. They just initiated it no more than 5 minutes ago, so one of the sacrifices is already gone. I'd give them another 40 minutes or so if they want to complete it, so you should probably mobilize MTF before then. If you send them now you can save at least 10 of them.

Dir. Hofmann: Is this from your memory-of-the-dead thing?

SCP-6767: Yeah, they just popped up. Oh, and go from the west gate, there's been an accident on the highway. I'll head back now, good luck.

SCP-6767 wriggles off towards the Safe Containment Zone. Dir. Hofmann hurriedly makes a few calls.

[END LOG]

NOTE: Following this incident, a Nälkän ritual matching the description and location given by SCP-6767 was disrupted. 12 civilians were successfully recovered. Security footage of SCP-6767's containment terrarium shows SCP-6767 teleporting in and out of the terrarium before and after this exchange.

+ AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-21

- AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-21

AUDIO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

Dr. Callaghan: We've already established that you were active in and around the Near East during the Bronze Age, but what of your activities afterwards?

SCP-6767: I still stuck around in the Near East at the beginning of the Iron Age, that was when I had that flesh avatar phase. Mingled with the Assyrians, the Arameans, the Phoenicians, ooh and there was that brief period where I tried introducing iron to the Egyptians and failed phenomenally. It was their loss in the end, anyway.

Dr. Callaghan: Any chance that these avatars of yours were present in the historical record? Any recorded aliases? Titles, perhaps?

SCP-6767: Nah, most of them have been lost to time. I would know, because I can count the number of times an archaeologist dug up my stuff on one hand… if I had any.

Dr. Callaghan: I suppose that's for the best. Please continue.

SCP-6767: Right. I elected to go see the world for myself with my own two eyes instead of waiting for memories of distant lands to come. I travelled around the Mediterranean, visited India, I even tried walking to China but I grossly underestimated the difficulty of such a task. Made a poorly-timed decision to return to Mesopotamia during one of the Occult Wars— I want to say the second one but I still have my doubts on whether these Wars truly started at the end of the Bronze Age. I was in Media when I was forced to participate in this mass ritual by invading forces. They told us we were being conscripted for the War. It was… quite the experience. The ritual allegedly imbued us with a warrior's spirit, but I'm certain there was more than just that. (SCP-6767 begins breathing and speaking shakily.) After that, I saw combat in Margiana, Kasperia, Imaus… Or rather, my flesh avatar did. I was— I was more or less trapped inside an avatar that had divorced itself from my control.

Dr. Callaghan: You don't need to continue if you don't want to. We ca—

SCP-6767: No, no. It's fine, I just— It's a matter of trust, alright? If I can trust you guys enough to protect and interact with me like this, I can trust you guys enough to tell you about my mistakes. I was there for the First Occult War, right? I saw the destruction wrought by the Daevite Imperium both from the memories and my own eyes. When I fought in the Second Occult War, I… I became the Daevite grunt that razed Kuburnat, Nippur, Hattusa… I became an instrument in a war waged by megalomaniacs and tyrants. I tore down the golden towers of Gudmapura6 while the memories of the slaves who built it screamed at the back of my mind. I looked into my eyes through the memories those I slaughtered, and I could not see myself. I remember every last one of them. There was n-no mercy no sympathy no—

Dr. Callaghan: I'm going to have to stop you there, SCP-6767.

[END LOG]

NOTE: Dr. Callaghan was issued a disciplinary caution following this interview for unauthorized provision of items to SCP-6767. Items provided were: 1 cotton handkerchief, 1 cup of mint tea.

+ AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-22

- AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-22

AUDIO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

SCP-6767: Sorry about just now, I just— (Sighs.)

Dr. Callaghan: Don't worry about it. Were you trapped in the avatar for the entire war?

SCP-6767: Unfortunately, yes. The worst part about the whole thing was that the effects of the ritual actually persisted long after the War ended, past the deaths of the men it fought alongside. My avatar learnt to restore and reshape itself, because its mind was not only its own, it was also partially mine. Think about it. An autonomous flesh-avatar with the strategic expertise of every ancient conqueror, the combined knowledge of the Xia Dynasty, the Mekhanite Empire, the Daevite Covenant, and something I myself never had. An ambition to rival the Golden Autokrator7 himself.

Dr. Callaghan: This avatar of yours, what did it do afterwards?

SCP-6767: Well, uh, he became dictator of the Roman Republic, caused a few wars, then got stabbed to death by his colleagues.

Dr. Callaghan: You mean to tell me that Gaius Julius Caesar was a rogue Nälkän flesh-avatar?

SCP-6767: …yes?

Dr. Callaghan: Alright, fair, I've seen and heard of stranger things. You mentioned this avatar could restore itself. I take it "Caesar" did not stay dead?

SCP-6767: Unfortunately, no. He resurfaced later multiple times as statesmen, generals, and spent a few decades in effective control of the Praetorian Guard, but never in a position of direct power. I guess he sought to work behind the scenes to achieve power, rather than put himself out in the spotlight. He was decapitated during Odoacer's coup, and I managed to wriggle out of his spinal cord in the chaos. Before you ask, no, he's properly dead now. There was no such ritual to overcome decapitation for flesh avatars at the time.

Dr. Callaghan: This is why you stopped creating flesh avatars, right?

SCP-6767: (Sighs.) Yes. After the entire ordeal, I decided that I had enough of everything. To see death from the perspective of the dead one thing. To see death from the perspective of your victims is an entirely different experience. I didn't even receive the memories of the avatar, which either means that it never was sapient, but an amalgam of the memories and expertise of the dead, or that it remained an extension of myself the entire time. Both options terrified me then, and still do. I travelled north, found a hole in the side of a cliff in Germany, and dissipated the heating spell I used to keep myself mobile in colder environments. It was a success, to some degree. I slept for hundreds of years, as reptiles do in cold temperatures. I didn't have to deal with all the memories, being unconscious, but I did not die. Eventually, I woke up when something exploded outside my hole, pretty sure it was a bomb? 15 centuries worth of memories flooded into my mind painlessly, contrary to my expectations, unlike the blast from the bomb I was talking about.

Dr. Callaghan: When was this, exactly? During World War II?

SCP-6767: No, actually, this was last month. I suspect the bomb was just unexploded ordnance from that war. I believe the rest was already mentioned in previous interviews.

Dr. Callaghan: Thank you telling us all this, SCP-6767, we just have one more question for this interview before you can return to your work. Did you encounter any other anomalous entities, items, or locations on these travels?

SCP-6767: Oh yes, quite a few at that. Don't bother looking for them though, pretty much everything that survived has either been scooped up already, or is too far gone to retrieve. Believe me when I tell you that you do not want to go looking for them.

Dr. Callaghan: We'll take your recommendations into consideration, SCP-6767.

[END LOG]

+ AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-23

- AUDIO LOG | Interview 6767-23

AUDIO LOG

[BEGIN LOG]

Dr. Callaghan: Forgive my straightforwardness, SCP-6767, but how did a formerly non-sapient lizard like you become so… human? Hell, you're at least more human than some people I know. Please don't take this as any sort of uh, criticism, by the way, I am genuinely curious about your line of thought and how it came from a lizard, of all entities. Lizards don't normally exhibit humanitarian qualities.

SCP-6767: No offense taken, Doc. For starters, I've questioned whether my personality, all this that you know me by… is it really my abnormal lizard brain or something else? I like to think it was always a bit of both. I'm not human, nor is my mind. Fundamentally, we are not the same, but all the exposure to the human experience, both figuratively and somewhat literally, has definitely had an effect on my worldview. Those who die from completely preventable causes, or have seen such death, they have always been in greater numbers than the megalomaniacs, sociopaths, and the murder machines.

Dr. Callaghan: So your personality is also a patchwork of influences from the dead?

SCP-6767: Something like that, yeah. Human psychology doesn't translate well to reptilian mindforms, so I don't really think about it unless I want to confuse myself, heh. I've always been an observer. Never had the innate desires humans have, but I do understand what they are to you all. Coincidentally, the most frequent desire humans have is for help. I've seen it across centuries and continents, always the same story, different setting, different storyteller. Take it from a nonhuman like me, I call it like I see it.

Dr. Callaghan: So that's been your motivation, to help people? Did it perhaps have something to do with your decision to come to the Foundation?

SCP-6767: I guess you got me figured out, Doc. It's not like they would've given me a tiny computer to transcribe tomes at Wilson's, right?

Dr. Callaghan: I'm not sure about that one, in all honesty. Surely there must be something else? Perhaps… redemption?

SCP-6767: I don't recall teaching you the Delphinian telepathic evocations. (Sighs.) Hit the nail right on the head. Over a millennia of hibernation and suddenly my sins are absolved? If only it was that simple. So yes, a serving of shame and atonement is in the mix. I am prepared to accept whatever punishment the Foundation will pass unto me.

Dr. Callaghan: You misunderstand, SCP-6767. We're not going to hand out a penalty to you for circumstances and events that happened outside your control, much less for events that happened centuries ago. In fact, my superiors and colleagues are quite appreciative of the influx of esoteric texts you've provided, and your ability to serve as a kind of early warning system for dangerous anomalous events is undoubtedly life-saving. (Chuckles.) As long as you don't fall into Dr. Tschida's beverages again, you're pretty much in the clear.

SCP-6767: Is he still hung up on that? Unbelievable…

[END LOG]

Footnotes

1. At time of logging, Dexter Hofmann was the Site Director of Site-39.

2. Ataraxia of Tarsos was allegedly the Head Priestess of the Mekhanite Empire some time between 1217 to 1189 BCE. Very few records of the Mekhanite Empire of that period have survived.

3. Bronze Age city-state in Lower Mesopotamia.

4. The figure provided by SCP-6767 has been found to be consistent with historical documents related to Gilgamesh.

5. Nälkän ritual used to create anomalous organisms.

6. Alleged city located in Kashmir. No such city has ever been described to exist in the region.

7. Believed to refer to Alexander III of Macedon.