scp:penguin - Ari's Malibu Dream House

scp:penguin

Item#: XXXX

Level1

Containment Class:

safe

Secondary Class:

{$secondary-class}

Disruption Class:

dark

Risk Class:

notice

link to memo

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Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-XXXX is to be housed in a furnished, two room standard humanoid anomaly quarters at Site-236. Requests for furnishing, clothing, and books, may be approved at the Lead Researcher's discretion. XXXX is allowed to move freely throughout the facility, with the exception of areas requiring Class-3 clearance or higher.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a sentient being resembling a member of Aptenodytes forsteri (Emperor Penguin) species that possesses the ability to anomalously communicate in a manner similar to humans and above average intelligence. Medical examination and imaging has shown that while SCP-XXXX does not physically differ in any meaningful way from other members of its species, it does have a slightly stronger bone structure and less subcutaneous fat than most penguins, making it less adapted to Antarctic conditions.

SCP-XXXX displays cognition, pattern recognition, and analytical skills equal or excelling most adult humans, with a particular skill for mathematics and logic. XXXX is also able to read and converse in English, Spanish, and German fluently (in spite of no notable differences in their bronchial type syrinx nor their beak structure from non-anomalous penguins, which would not be capable of creating human speech patterns), and expresses the desire to learn Russian and Chinese as well. SCP-XXXX states that it learned these languages from observing various scientific research teams present in Antarctica from the time it was a chick, but is unable to explain its ability to read in these languages as it has not been exposed to books prior to containment. SCP-XXXX also states that they are unable to communicate with other penguins via modulated calls typical to the species.

Interviews with SCP-XXXX have confirmed that prior to Foundation contact, their survival was predicated on evading danger rather than typical animal instinct, as well as expressing a strong degree of isolation from others of its species and its native environment. Possible links to SCP-5451 are being researched.

Discovery: On 8/19/2008, SCP-XXXX approached a team of Site-236 researchers who were in the process of containing SCP-████ at the coast of the Amundsen Sea (Ross Bay). It expressed a desire to remand itself to Foundation custody, as it recognized the limitations of its survival options and after observing Foundation personnel in the field over the course of several months determined that the Site-236 was best suited to help them. Below is a transcript of the first interview with SCP-XXXX after containment.

+ Interview Log XXXX.1

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Interview Log XXXX.1

Interviewed: SCP-XXXX

Interviewer: Lead Researcher William Nelson.

Foreword: SCP-XXXX sits on the edge of a chair, its head bowed down against its chest, struggling to make eye contact, and speaks in a low, masculine tone. Lead Researcher Nelson sits opposite.

<Begin Log>

Nelson: It's a pleasure to meet you, SCP-XXXX. Let's get started. From what I understand, you approached our researchers intentionally?

SCP-XXXX: I did. I sort of — lurked a bit before I was certain you would understand. I couldn't risk it with some of the others teams I've seen around on the ice. Not after last time.

Nelson: Last time?

SCP-XXXX: It was about a year ago, I tried to approach some of those guys at Amundsen–Scott, near the pole. I didn't get much out, just asking if they could help, and one guy just froze while the other one ran away screaming. Like it was the most terrifying thing he could imagine, a talking penguin. Can you imagine? The guy who froze wasn't any help, but I kept trying until I saw a group coming back from the outpost and at least two of them had guns. Slipped under the ice and ran, since I could tell they saw me as a freak, a threat. Only went back to listen a few hours later when one guy was telling the rest of them that they'd gone crazy, that it happened all the time 'out here'. I just knew they didn't get it. Not like you guys.

Nelson: I understand. But I have to imagine would be a difficult choice to approach anyone in your position.

SCP-XXXX: It was. But it also was the only one I had. I knew I was — well, wrong for a penguin when I was a chick. That I just wasn't right, wasn't like the rest of them. I can't hunt, and my mother would bring me fish to make sure that I didn't starve. The water is too cold, I can't stay in it for long. And I just don't have the instincts that I should, you know? The other penguins know how to evade the orcas, how to find a mate, how to — just, just be a penguin, you know? Meanwhile, all I managed to do was figure out languages from the scientists all around the ice so I could express ideas that the rest of the raft never have to worry about.

Nelson: What worries are those?

SCP-XXXX: That I'll get eaten, that I'll get injured and abandoned. That literally anything on this sheet of ice could end up killing me, because I'm just not right. The other penguins don't worry about any of this stuff, but I can't get the image of that whale eating my mother two years ago. I see it every time that I close my eyes.

(SCP-XXXX takes a moment to compose itself, a tear sliding down its cheek. It should be noted that this behavior has not been witnessed in penguins, as usually the lacrimal ducts are used to expel excess salt water.)

SCP-XXXX: I'm sorry. It's just hard, realizing you were born wrong.

Nelson: I think we all can agree with that, and you do not need to apologize. And for what it's worth, I think you can at least take some comfort in the fact that you did use the instincts that you have, because you sought out help and safety, just like a human would.

SCP-XXXX: Heh. Never really thought of it like that.

Nelson: But now that you're here, SCP-XXXX, I think you'll find some equilibrium. We might do some studies with you to see if we can figure out what makes you — well, you — but you'll be safe. That should help, I think.

SCP-XXXX: I do think that will help, sure. But — you can't really change me, right? And even if you could, I don't think I'd want that. I'm not a penguin and I'm not a human. Being both is just what I am. And maybe if I'm not afraid of becoming some whale's lunch, I'll figure out a way to just deal with that. I guess.

Nelson: I hope so, SCP-XXXX. And we'll try to help.

SCP-XXXX: Um, there is one thing. If you can. I know that you guys all have names, and I get that whole number business. Another guy explained it to me. But, could I have a name too? Just, outside of all of the paperwork you guys seem to do. I mean, you guys really have a lot of paperwork…

Nelson: That we do. And a name for off the record? Hm.

(Nelson is silent for a moment in thought.)

Nelson: What about Skip?

SCP-XXXX: Skip. I — yeah. I think I could be Skip. Thank you.

<End Log>

After containment, SCP-XXXX was assigned to Foundation Psychiatrist Dr. A. Laisvas for evaluation and treatment, as well as Site-236's Safe Object team for further research into its anomalous properties.

Addendum XXXX.2 - Partial Clinical Notes from Foundation Psychiatrist Dr. A. Laisvas

Clinician's Notes (9/1/08): Patient (SCP-XXXX) exhibits severe depressive symptoms, likely compounded by adjustment disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bodily dysmorphia. Recommend cogitative behavior therapy paired with pharmaceutical support, .5mg fluoxetine daily. Reevaluate in a month's time.

+ Therapy Transcript XXXX.1

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Note: During talk sessions, Dr. Laisvas refers to SCP-XXXX by his chosen name "Skip" in an effort to mitigate patient's sense of depersonalization and adjustment disorder.

Laisvas: Good afternoon, Skip. It's a pleasure to meet you.

SCP-XXXX: Um, hi. It's nice to meet you too, Doctor… what was it again?

Laisvas: Laisvas. But you can just call me Doctor if you prefer.

SCP-XXXX: Okay. Thank you, I'm just — trying to get used to everything, you know? It's a lot.

Laisvas: I can imagine that it is. And that's why I'm here to help. I know it won't be easy at first, but with time I really believe that we can get you to a more comfortable place.

SCP-XXXX: I mean, sure. That's what I hope too.

Laisvas: What we'll typically do here is just talk, about what's on your mind, how you are feeling, whatever you'd like to talk through. You'll find that just being able to talk through things can be incredibly helpful, like you can move past the things that take up a lot of space in your mind.

SCP-XXXX: I — yeah, that'd be great.

Laisvas: So, if you'll humor me, let's start at the beginning. Can you tell me about your childhood? Er, chickhood?

SCP-XXXX: Chickhood, heh. I like that one.

Laisvas: I thought you might. Wherever you want to start.

SCP-XXXX: I mean, it's not all that much to talk about. I realized I was different than the others pretty quickly, because they could never understand me when I tried to talk to them. My mother always kept a close eye on me, to make sure I got food and everything, and that was it. I told the researchers how I would listen to the humans that were on the ice, but that's about all that I could do.

Laisvas: All that you could do?

SCP-XXXX: Well, yeah. I mean, I really wasn't any good at being a penguin.

Laisvas: How so?

SCP-XXXX: I don't have penguin instincts. I never really fit in with the rest of the raft.

Laisvas: Why was that?

SCP-XXXX: … I mean, it's obvious isn't it? I'm not a penguin, not really.

Laisvas: … so?

SCP-XXXX: What do you mean 'so'? I'm wrong, I wasn't — I'm not made right.

Laisvas: I suppose if you're only judging it by standards of 'right for a penguin', fine. But you weren't made a penguin, you were made you. What if there's nothing wrong with that?

SCP-XXXX: … but there is. There clearly is. (SCP-XXXX pauses) … isn't there?

Laisvas: You tell me. What tells you that you are wrong?

SCP-XXXX: I mean, I wasn't like the rest of the raft. I'm not able to live like a penguin. I — I thought that was all obvious.

Laisvas: But you're the one who figured out a way get out and get safe. You survived and found a way that you could live. So why is that wrong, just because it's not what a penguin did?

SCP-XXXX: … I guess I don't know.

Laisvas: Then that's something to think about for next time. It doesn't really help us to see things as either right or wrong, just what they are. You are Skip, and you're defining what that means to you, just as every person at this Site and around the world does. Focusing on the parts that you think are 'wrong' isn't bringing you hope or happiness, so why are you doing it?

SCP-XXXX: I guess I don't know the answer for that either. Guess I don't know a lot of stuff.

Laisvas: But knowing at least that is half the battle. You don't need firm answers right away, Skip. But you need to get to the root of what's bothering you about being you before you get to the neighborhood of answers. Don't look at it as you're built wrong, because you're not. You're you, and only you get to decide what that's going to end up meaning.

SCP-XXXX: … I guess so. Um. Thanks.

Laisvas: Until next time, Skip.

Clinician's Notes (1/3/09): Patient (SCP-XXXX) showing signs of improvement, particularly with willingness to engage with facility personnel. Request for on-call crisis calls by Foundation psychiatric staff approved at start of treatment, although to date Patient has only utilized these services twice. Continued disturbed sleep patterns and sense of hopelessness. Increase fluoxetine to twice daily.

+ Therapy Transcript XXXX.3

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Laisvas: Good afternoon, Skip. Ready to dive in?

SCP-XXXX: Ready as I ever am, Doc. You know penguins. We dive. Heh. Okay, that was weak, but yeah. Let's go.

Laisvas: How have you been sleeping since coming to the Foundation?

SCP-XXXX: Better but kind of worse at the same time? I had to just stay so — awake, aware all the time when I was still on the ice, and I thought that maybe being safe I could finally get a good night's sleep but I wake up constantly even though I know I'm safe here.

Laisvas: Do you wake up afraid or scared? Are there dreams that you have prior to waking up that you are able to recall?

SCP-XXXX: Sometimes, but it's not formed into anything, just — really intense feeling, you know? It's fear but it's not like I'm afraid of anything specific, just fear and reacting to it. Like I'm steeped in a moment that's too much to quantify or something, and I can only hold on until it's passed.

Laisvas: You have quite a way with words, Skip.

Both laugh.

SCP-XXXX: Yeah, I guess. But you know what I'm talking about, right?

Laisvas: I do, I do. There's a book that I'd like to lend you about these kinds of experiences, if you'd like to read it. It's called The Body Keeps The Score and it's about surviving trauma and how people heal from it.

SCP-XXXX: I never really got hurt or anything, though. I was in dangerous circumstances but the closest I came to getting injured was — was the day my mother got eaten by that orca.

Laisvas: It's very easy to think of bodily harm as the only possible injury, but our brains don't. Our brains have one job, and that is to keep the organism alive. That means that the fear you were living through, all those months where you had to survive when you weren't as equipped to do so as the others in the raft — your brain was trying to protect you by making sure you stayed alert, stayed aware. It didn't see emotional damage as any different than physical, because it was trying to keep you alive. It's not able to switch off immediately because it's afraid you'll get hurt. But with time, you'll show it that you're safe now, you're doing better. And you can heal from that trauma.

SCP-XXXX: I don't have a human brain, you figured that out with the MRI on my first day. What if my brain isn't going to get any better? What if it just is what it is, because I'm not right?

Laisvas: Skip, I've spoken with you now enough to know that whatever the physical structure, you have the same stuff up here that I do, that you're grappling with very human emotions and struggles. I won't belittle that feeling like you don't fit, but you're not made wrong. You were made like this, and I want to help you. In order to do that, I'm going to use the same methods that I do for any other person with trauma, because you haven't shown me any evidence that you're not exactly that. A person who needs help, and I think that we can get there.

SCP-XXXX: … okay. Okay, I guess I can handle being a 'person'.

Laisvas: You say that because you don't have to deal with shoes.

They both laugh again.

SCP-XXXX: Yeah, that's fair.

Laisvas: But seriously, Skip, it's not an immediate process. You've had to live life smack in the middle of the fight, flight, or freeze instinct for years now, and that leaves a toll on your overall mental health. We could try some sleeping pills, or I can show you some meditation techniques that I find helpful when I'm struggling with getting rest.

SCP-XXXX: … wait, you do too?

Laisvas: I'd say most of us around the Site do. We may not be one of the bigger sites, but we have our share of intense, dangerous stuff that we keep an eye on around here. As I said before, it does take its toll.

SCP-XXXX: Huh. I guess — I didn't realize that it was a person problem, not a me problem?

Laisvas: To an extent. We all have individual issues, things that we struggle with, that have left their marks on us. Some of us also don't feel as if our bodies match ourselves, some of us have been in dangerous situations that reshaped how we saw the world. That's not to say that what you're dealing with isn't something we just have to shrug our shoulders and say 'oh well, that's how it is', or that you are being selfish or self focused because it's hard for you. I just want you to know that you're not alone.

SCP-XXXX: Maybe that's the part I needed to know more than anything else. That I'm not really alone in this, even if — um, none of you are penguins.

Laisvas: Pfft. That you know of.

Clinician's Notes (10/8/09): Patient (SCP-XXXX) continues to make progress with talk therapy, currently with once a week via telehealth appointment. Continue on fluoxetine for maintenance of symptoms, reduce therapy to twice a month at the discretion of both patient and therapist. Patient also expresses a desire to establish routines and possibly educational goals, will discuss options with Lead Researcher Nelson.

+ Therapy Transcript XXXX.6

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Laisvas: Good afternoon, Skip.

SCP-XXXX: Good afternoon, Doc.

Laisvas: I'm really pleased to hear you're sleeping a lot better.

SCP-XXXX: And I'm pleased to hear you read your emails. But no, the yoga really helped, even if some of the poses probably aren't going to happen.

Laisvas: Well, downward facing dog is a lot to ask of your flippers. But I'm glad it helped, as it's more about the breathing, the mindfulness. It really helps in those crisis moments when you're struggling.

SCP-XXXX: Yeah, it does. I — um. I sort of had one of them the other day. I'm not sure if you heard about it.

Laisvas: Could you tell me about it yourself? I'd rather hear it from you.

SCP-XXXX: I — okay. I was in the cafeteria, and a couple of the researchers were talking about their families. Just normal talk, and I wasn't really listening too closely, but one of them just said 'my mother' and I just kind of — broke. I sat there and stared at the table and it must have been almost an hour before I realized one of the staff was checking on me because it was time for them to close up and I hadn't moved or said anything — I don't know what happened.

Laisvas: What did you do after that, Skip?

SCP-XXXX: I went back to my room and I just — I cried. I didn't even think penguins could cry but I did, until I just felt so drained that I laid there and didn't move for the rest of the day. I felt ashamed of it, I guess. All of it.

Laisvas: What is it that you feel ashamed of, Skip?

SCP-XXXX: I mean, all of it? Breaking down in public, crying in my bed, and just — that I couldn't do anything to help her. To stop it. She protected me, even if she didn't understand why I was so different, she took care of me, and I just — watched it. Terrified to even try to help because I knew I'd die too. I'm just — a fucking coward, and she died to protect me while I did nothing.

Laisvas: What do you think that you could have done, Skip? You've said before that you have no instincts of a penguin, but what did the other penguins do?

SCP-XXXX: … they scrambled back and watched too. That's all anyone could do, I guess. But she was my mother, I should have tried something! And I didn't. I shouldn't have just cowered there.

Laisvas: Skip, you're carrying a lot of guilt for a situation that was out of your control. It's not like you had a pair of Tech-9s strapped to your hips, ready to go. You were as helpless as she and the other penguins were, and it was someone you loved. It's okay to grieve, to feel the terrible horror that you watched years later; that's what trauma is. But you are not to blame for your mother's death.

SCP-XXXX: She knew. She knew that I was born wro— born differently, I guess. But she knew and she cared for me and protected me. And I couldn't protect her.

Laisvas: Mothers protect their children, or at least they should. Yours did, in spite of all the challenges that you two faced in communicating. But you couldn't protect her that day, any more than she could really protect you. It was terrible, and it happened, but it wasn't your fault. Sometimes the worst part about trauma is that nothing about it was in your control, nothing in it that you could have changed.

SCP-XXXX: … it happened, and I just have to accept that, huh.

Laisvas: Acceptance might be a tall order for awhile, but it's a challenge I know that you're up to.

SCP-XXXX: Heh. Short jokes.

Laisvas: Not intentional, but I'll let you have it if it helps.

SCP-XXXX: Eh. Doesn't hurt. But I think what kind of does is just having so much time on my hands. I know I can't really um, help out around here directly or anything but is there something I can do besides just sit here and read a book sometimes? Like school, work, anything? Those are things people do, right?

Laisvas: I'll talk with Nelson. I'm sure we can come up with something. You know, for a guy like you.

SCP-XXXX: … you tricked me into that one.

Laisvas: You're onto me. I'm going to get you to embrace personhood through short jokes and occupational therapy.

Both Dr. Laisvas and SCP-XXXX laugh as the session ends.

Clinician's Notes (3/4/11): Patient (SCP-XXXX) has made remarkable progress since remanding itself to Foundation custody. Monthly therapy appointments and continued pharmaceutical support should ensure quality of life as well as enrichment activities as discussed with Lead Researcher Nelson and his staff. Patient will begin an online undergraduate program with Foundation affiliate University of ████████ as well as assist with non-classified Site activities assigned by Lead Researcher Nelson.

Personal Notes of Lead Researcher Nelson

I admit I had my hesitation at allowing Skip to take over some of those clerical duties, but most of those were based around the mechanics of it all. It's like I just forgot about speech to text and all the accessibility options that people use every day. Probably should work on that one, Nelson.

Maybe the quality of his spreadsheet skills is the real anomaly. Has anyone had him try to put a picture in Word without messing up all the formatting? Then we'd know he was really a Type Green or something.

Kidding. Well, mostly kidding. And all kidding aside, it's working out. It's kind of great when things work out.

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