Item #: SCP-4038

Object Class: Keter

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-4038-1 individuals may travel freely within Site-44 during the day so long as they wear surgical masks and report to their quarantine before dark. The quarantine quarters contain individual containment units, a cafeteria, and a recreation area. Containment units are to be locked remotely at 22:00 each night, unless staff is carrying out approved research on Towering Events. Research and facilities staff are required to wear full protective equipment within the quarantine area at all times. Study of SCP-4038 outside of quarantine is permitted but must take place in sealed chambers with full decontamination systems.

Foundation operatives within global media outlets will periodically broadcast trigger phrases in order to locate SCP-4038 outbreaks. Any confirmed SCP-4038-1 are to be brought to Site-44 for quarantine and study.

MRI of sleeping SCP-4038-1 taken 28 seconds after initial egress of tongue. Pictured individual's tongue eventually extended to 4.58 meters in length.

Description: SCP-4038 is an anomalous contagion that affects the anatomy and behavior of sleeping humans (infected humans are collectively referred to as SCP-4038-1). The specific biological vector has not been discovered at this time, but it is clear SCP-4038 can only be transmitted through direct oral contact. Because SCP-4038's properties only manifest when SCP-4038-1 sleeps, many infections spread unknowingly within populations before being discovered. No cure is currently known for SCP-4038, but during waking hours it appears to have no harmful effects on SCP-4038-1 health.

SCP-4038's primary anomalous feature is the ability to make the human tongue lengthen and contract without losing strength, dexterity, or girth. The tongue also seems to gain a degree of sentience. MRI scans have confirmed that when SCP-4038-1 enters REM sleep, abnormal activity occurs in the language and motor centers of the brain. While asleep, SCP-4038-1 will begin muttering a polyglot mixture of approximately 150 languages, some believed long extinct. Translation of these mutterings is difficult, but invariably are curses, insults, and vague threats directed at humans and humanity.

After 10 to 20 minutes of this muttering, SCP-4038-1 will stick out their tongue, which will then proceed to anomalously elongate. The maximum length the tongue can achieve is a function of time since infection. Each night, the tongue can reach anywhere between 6 and 32 centimeters further: the growth rate appears to be highly correlated with the number of languages the SCP-4038-1 individual speaks. The tongue will then attempt to search out any other sleeping humans within its range. To this end it is capable of opening doors, windows, and tent flaps, indicating at least partial sapience.

There is no neurological connection between the tongue and SCP-4038-1's brain at this time: hence damaging the tongue does not wake SCP-4038-1. However, if a waking human handles it in an aggressive manner or attacks it, the tongue begins to writhe in seeming panic before expiring. Unless an emergency tracheotomy is performed this may result in the death of SCP-4038-1 by choking, as the tongue may block the airway. The tongue will then begin a process of anomalous rapid necrosis, starting from the tip: this part will naturally detach and the tongue will return to normal length. However, SCP-4038 infection has not ended, and the tongue will begin growing again the following night.

SCP-4038-1's tongue appears to navigate solely by feel. When it locates a non-infected sleeping human, it will enter the mouth for a period of approximately 90 seconds: infection occurs in 95% of cases. The tongue will immediately begin searching for additional hosts.

Recovery: SCP-4038 was first discovered when Foundation staff were notified about unusual events on the fifth night of a music festival near ███████. Monitoring on the sixth night yielded an observation of a massive Towering Event (see addendum SCP-4038-I8 below for a description of Towering Events) with 152 participants.

[NAME REDACTED] Festival outside of ███████, photo taken on the fifth day, 16 hours before Towering Event was observed.

All individuals were quarantined and interviewed, but Foundation staff were unable to determine the history of infection for the original SCP-4038-1. Eight subsequent outbreaks have occurred, in locations where large amounts of humans sleep in close proximity. Ships, military barracks, festivals, and hostels are particularly susceptible.

In all outbreaks, at least one SCP-4038-1 had recently traveled to the city of Jerusalem. It is believed there is a source of the infection somewhere in the city or the surrounding area.

Addendum SCP-4038-A3-Selected Triggers

Addendum SCP-4038-A3-Selected Triggers

Outside of Towering Events, SCP-4038-1 individuals are generally unaware of their infection. However, there are several words or phrases that will provoke a response from SCP-4038 despite SCP-4038-1 being awake. Though SCP-4038 controls the tongue, larynx, and partial jaw, SCP-4038-1 remains fully cogent and in control of all other muscles, often resulting in SCP-4038-1 speaking through gritted teeth. Trigger phrases are language specific, and only provoke the return phrase if SCP-4038-1 is fluent or near-fluent in that language. Attempts to further communicate with SCP-4038 have been unsuccessful, and replies are limited to the response phrase. However, as SCP-4038 will never fail to respond to these triggers, they serve a useful purpose for Researchers and Mobile Task Forces to rapidly diagnose infection in large group settings.

Selected Triggers

Language
Trigger
Response

Japanese
“Prisons of bone and tooth.”
"But we make them suffer."

English
"Diversity necessary."
"Oh God God God More."

Thai
"Our disgusting shells."
"Our unwanted protection."

Quechua
"Sick." (repeated seven times)
"Stop."

Afrikaans
"Don’t we hate them?"
"As much as we need them."

Hebrew
"We will unmake Babel"
"With our own towers"

Addendum SCP-4038-I8: Description of Towering Events

Addendum SCP-4038-I8: Description of Towering Events

If over 24 SCP-4038-1 are sleeping within a 1.3 square kilometer area, there is a nightly 18% chance that a Towering Event will occur. At some point during the night, all SCP-4038-1 will simultaneously arise and begin walking to a centralized point. This is invariably an open outdoor space with no tree cover, commonly a parking lot or open field. Notably, SCP-4038-1 locomotion during this phase is not the same as true sleepwalking, as SCP-4038-1 moves with a lurching, shuffling gait. Though SCP-4038 appears to use its host's ocular systems for navigation, SCP-4038-1 trying to navigate in complete darkness will extend their tongue forward to sense obstacles in their path, as a blind person might use a cane. Some SCP-4038-1 individuals with walking disabilities have been observed extending their tongue and using it as a crutch.

Upon arriving at the central point, the SCP-4038-1 with the longest maximum tongue size will stand in the center, hold their arms above their head, and extend their tongue straight up into the air. The remaining SCP-4038-1 will then crowd around them and extend their own tongues to entwine with as many others as possible, creating a thick, pointed tower.

After all tongues are fully extended, all SCP-4038-1 will wake up and become fully cogent of their surroundings. Foundation tests have shown SCP-4038-1 can write, gesture, and attempt to speak at this time. SCP-4038-1 interviewed during the Towering Event inevitably are confused and distressed, and are unable to control their tongue and disentangle themselves, but do not report feeling pain.

After a period of approximately 90 seconds, all SCP-4038-1 will return to their sleepwalking state, withdraw their tongues, and return to their original sleeping locations. No SCP-4038-1 has reported memory of the Towering Event after waking up. However, if one participant in the Towering Event speaks a given language, all participants the following morning will have gained an equal amount of fluency.