Item#: 5125

Level3

Containment Class:
euclid

Secondary Class:
{$secondary-class}

Disruption Class:
vlam

Risk Class:
caution

link to memo

Figure 1.1: SCP-5125

Special Containment Procedures: A single SCP-5125 instance is to be contained in a standard avian containment area simulating a savanna environment in Site-217. SCP-5125-1 instances found on SCP-5125's enclosure are to be retrieved and destroyed while SCP-5125 is sleeping. Under no circumstances should any individual consume SCP-5125-1 instances or anything made of them, unless authorized by Site-217's Directory.
At least two SCP-5125-2 instances, a male and a female, must be kept in separate humanoid containment cells with no means of communication for research purposes. Allowing both instances into the same test environment is currently forbidden. Any SCP-5125-2 instance found outside Foundation territory is to be neutralized and have its corpse incinerated.
Description: SCP-5125 is a common designation given to anomalous adult females of the Struthio camelus australis species (South African Ostrich). Tests have shown that the only living SCP-5125 instance has lived for roughly 20 years more than an average ostrich and is capable of understanding English and a variety of languages from the Khoisan linguistic family. SCP-5125 individuals are capable of laying unfertilized eggs, currently designated SCP-5125-1, but rarely do so.
SCP-5125-1 instances display red stripes not found in common South African Ostrich eggs and are slightly smaller. Individuals that consume SCP-5125-1 or food made from it are subject to a three months long transformation into another SCP-5125 instance and start being designated SCP-5125-2 instances. No male SCP-5125-2 instances survive said proccess, which involves gangrene of most toes, reduction of head volume, growth of feathers and beak, increase of neck size and development of an aggresive behavior, which only ceases at the end of the transformation.
SCP-5125-2 individuals are capable of speaking any language that SCP-5125 can understand and usually refer to each other and to SCP-5125 as "birdmen". Female instances are capable of laying SCP-5125-1 too, but only after mating. Once in possession of SCP-5125-1, SCP-5125-2 instances usually attempt to force human individuals to consume its contents in order to create more SCP-5125-2 individuals.

► INPUT LEVEL 4/5125 SECURITY CREDENTIALS TO PROCEED ◄

▼ CREDENTIALS ACCEPTED ▼

Addendum SCP-5125-A:
The only living SCP-5125 was discovered close to an abandoned tent in November 24th of 2018. At the time, no SCP-5125-1 instances were found nearby, so SCP-5125 didn't attempt to attack Foundation personnel.1 A one week old corpse was found holding a diary inside the tent, displaying bruises, scratches and exposed internal organs around ventral region.
Below is a transcript of some of the diary's contents:

August 7th of 1984 - 8 PM:
Today is the day I depart from the Southend Airport in London and head to Cape Town. As a biologist, I'm personally quite excited to study the african fauna and flora during this expedition.
I'm setting off with a crew of four: the first one is me, of course, David. Next is Cassidy, my assistant and quite a clumsy fellow, but also a trusty companion. Third one is Pristine, the only woman of the group, working as a translator in case we have to talk to any local inhabitant. The last one is Ernest, the oldest and most reckless of the group, also quite grumpy and conceited. His job is making sure we don't get lost.
August 10th of 1984 - 10 AM:
It has been two days since we arrived at Africa, but only now we started to walk through the wilderness. I, Pristine and Ernest already have our bags filled with research and expedition equipment, so Cassidy is taking care of carrying food and water.
We told stories about ourselves to each other. I told about how I've been waiting to go on an expedition like this for a long time, Cassidy talked about his desire to be a successful biologist, and Pristine told us about her childhood and about how she wants to become a mother. It was all going well until Ernest boasted his geography career and told us that would leave the group if he considered us a nuisance. What was the old man even thinking?
August 10th of 1984 - 1 PM:
We found a herd of antelopes, Cape grysboks judging by the size and appearance. I plan to write about them after this diary entry.
The herd is close to a shack, owned by a quite hospitable elder that allowed my crew to stay there while I study the herd. Only I, Cassidy and Pristine entered it, since Ernest refused to do so.

I'm actually impressed with how Pristine talked to him, speaking languages with vocal clicks so naturally. After talking to the local, she told me that he also warned us to "avoid red eggs". Well, I don't even know if they exist, but I'd rather not eat them if the elder is right.
August 10th of 1984 - 7 PM:
Crud, why is Cassidy so oblivious? He left our food and drink at that shack and now we have nothing to eat for tonight. There are apparently no animals around right now so we'd have to walk away from our current camp to hunt and would be exposed to other predators. I think we can survive one night without food and then could return to that shack, if Ernest even bothered to put a marker on his map.
August 11th of 1984 - 6 PM:
We finally found some food. For whatever reason, we weren't finding any animal nearby, until it showed up: a single ostrich. It's such a shame that Pristine had to gun that creature down, it would be great to study its behavior, but we really needed to eat.
We decided to camp where the ostrich was for today, quite a nice place to do so honestly. After eating, I decided to check our surroundings, where I found a single ostrich egg. But there was something wrong, it wasn't as big as one would expect and had red stripes all over it.
August 14th of 1984 - 8 AM:
We had an argumernt with Ernest yesterday. According to him, we would reach a village in around two days if we kept walking straight, but we ran out of ostrich meat and had nothing to eat for the next days, except for that weird ostrich egg that he brought with him for some reason. I tried to tell him that it was risky to eat it, but he just scolded me for believing in that elder from the shack. In the end, he refused to follow my advice and forced Cassidy to eat a piece of an omelette he made with the egg.
Ernest left the crew and now we are both hungry and lost, except Cassidy.
August 26th of 1984 - 3 PM:
It has been ten days since we reached the village that Ernest was talking about. I'm actually quite happy with it being real, it allowed me and Pristine to work for some food after not seeing an animal other than that one ostrich for days. Our original plan was to stay for four days in order to fill our food supplies again, but unfortunately Cassidy started feeling really bad and refused to leave the camp we set nearby for days. To make things worse, his behavior got really weird today. Pristine even claimed to hear him say things like "bird" and "man", but in some kind of local language. None of us heard him talk like that before, not even when he tried to interact with the people we met here in South Africa.
September 5th of 1984 - 11 AM:
They say that if things can get worse, it's because they will. And that's what happened. Cassidy started screaming and making strange noises some days ago and that made one of the villagers ask "if he was alright" or "if he ended up eating any red egg". Pristine told them about how he was forced to consume a bit of it and, well, what came next wasn't really good.
The local said told us that we should put Cassidy out of his misery if we "value our lives". I thought: "This can't be the only option, can it? There must be a way to cure my partner." and refused to do anything to him for the next three days. Unfortunately… well, lets just say that the villagers weren't too happy with my decision and ordered us to leave their place.
Right now, we are walking away from the village and, for the first time since we found it, I can clearly see Cassidy. Not only was his skin pale due to the lack of exposure to the sun, but he also had something weird around his mouth and could barely walk without tripping.
September 9th of 1984 - 10 PM:
I'm sorry Cassidy, I'm sorry. You didn't deserve to go through this, I really wanted to help you. My goodness, he's gone now but… no, I couldn't even call that thing Cassidy anymore.
I heard strange noises coming from the inside of its tent and had to check. What I found inside was an abomination, apparently trying to call something else. I tried to leave quietly, but it noticed me. No matter how much I ran, that thing always managed to catch up to me and attack me with its deformed hands and feet. If it wasn't for Pristine, who shot the monster to death, I would probably be dead.
I studied the corpse for some time before Pristine told me that she felt like she swallowed something while shooting the beast, something that tasted like "blood mixed with omelette". Surprisingly, there was still a bit of omelette inside the creature's mouth. Yuck…
September 13th of 1984 - 2 PM:
As I expected, Pristine is behaving a lot like Cassidy after eating that egg, staying inside her tent the whole day while our camp is set. Unlike him, however, she allowed me to enter her place and talked to me, telling me that she didn't want to face the same fate as Cassidy and stopping once in a while to mutter a few weird words. Seeing her cry like that is heartbreaking, but, at the same time, there isn't much I can do.
October 10th of 1984 - 11 PM:
Some days have passed since I moved my tent to a nearby hill to avoid getting attacked by Pristine, who now left her tent as what appears to be a feminine version of whatever Cassidy became. Not only that, another "ostrich man" appeared and it seemed to be in way worse condition than her, I'm assuming that the new one is Ernest. They started to… well, I'd rather not tell what it is, but they started doing it some minutes ago.
October 11th of 1984 - 1 AM:
Pristine That female ostrich person laid an egg, one that looked exactly like that ostrich's egg we found two months ago. She is apparently really attached to it, so much that she… killed the other creature for trying to take it from her. She didn't have her gun anymore since I took it with me, so she just kicked and scratched the male to death. He seemed to notice me up here and probably wanted to make me consume it somehow. If that was the case, then that "bird woman" saved me.
October 12th of 1984 - 7 AM:
I've been thinking about how the ostrich woman preferred to protect her egg. Sure, ostriches do that, but those "birdmen" don't act like regular ostriches at all. It's almost as if inside of that monster there was still someone that just wanted a child. There must be a way to save her from that transformation and right now I'm determined to find it.
December 9th of 1984 - 10 AM:
It has been three months since the Cassidy incident and it looks like that ostrich transformation that affected Pristine is finally over. Yes, she is an ostrich now and doesn't seem to be acting violently anymore, except when I approached her egg on accident.
Meanwhile, I've been trying to find a way to make her into a human once again. Fortunately, this place is close to the [DATA EXPUNGED] city, so I don't need to worry about supplies.
October 29th of 2018 - 6 AM:
Who would have thought that an expedition with the objective of studying the South African wildlife would become a 34 years long research? Well, it's what happened, and whenever I think of how much time has passed, I feel quite demotivated.
I usually talk to this ostrich that I still call Pristine. I probably sound like a crazy old man, but surprisingly, it understands and even tries to communicate with me by moving its head. That's what gives me motivation to continue my research.
What do we talk about? Well, I sometimes ask how she feels and she seems to tell me that she doesn't feel bad, but really misses home. I also ask her about the egg, which somehow hasn't hatched yet, but she rarely responds to me talking about it. She is a mother now, but not on the way she wanted, so I can understand her shyness about that.
This whole ostrich talk thing became a routine around here. But today something different happened: Pristine looked really stressed and couldn't stop walking around. I checked the surroundings and found out that her egg was gone. There were some small human footprints nearby, made by a child, judging by the size.
Great, now I feel like all that I did during this whole time was allowing history to repeat itself.

Footnotes
1. Ostriches are known to attack anyone that threatens their eggs.

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