SCP-3011

Loose Lips Skink Ships

SCP-3011 instance being approached by Doctor Carson.

Special Containment Procedures

Except for purposes of approved experimentation, instances of SCP-3011 must not come within 100 m of any nautical paraphernalia or similar items; this includes, but is not limited to, images of anchors, boats, submarines, or waves.

SCP-3011 is to be contained in commercially available large terrariums suitable for housing small lizards. Each terrarium is to house no more than 6 instances of SCP-3011. Additional terrariums are to be made available should specific instances need to be separated. Each terrarium should contain items relevant to SCP-3011's needs.

Should the number of SCP-3011 instances exceed that of one hundred (100), staff are permitted to cull the population to ninety (90) individuals.

Description

SCP-3011 is a population of ninety (90) northern blue-tongued skinks (Tiliqua rugosa).

Each instance of SCP-3011 is sapient and capable of speech. Isolated instances display limited problem-solving capacity; in groups, SCP-3011 instances are capable of cooperation and division of labour. Each instance of SCP-3011 is unique. Some instances have shown aggressive behaviour while others exhibit differing, individual personalities. Aggressive instances of SCP-3011 tend to stay far away from the main groups and display solitary behaviour typical of non-anomalous blue-tongued skinks.

Instances of SCP-3011 speak in high-pitched voices. SCP-3011 speech is commonly interpreted to be "enthusiastic" by attending personnel. Typical topics of SCP-3011 conversation are the weather, bad omens, maritime navigation, foreign adventurism and braggadocious sexual conquests. At night the backs of SCP-3011 produce a shimmering bio-luminescence. Caretakers have observed that this resembles the moon reflecting off the sea.

SCP-3011's self-replication begins when exposed to prohibited paraphernalia. Instances of SCP-3011 will become aroused and engage in a mating ritual. All instances able to view one another will begin moving in unison. This rhythmic movement is noted to be enthusiastic and vigorous. No sexual intercourse is noted to occur. At the peak of activity, SCP-3011 will shed their tail, usually as a result of violent gyrations or flailing. If left undisturbed, tails shed in this manner will grow into full instances of SCP-3011 within approximately one minute, with a head emerging from the stump and arms and legs growing out of the tail's sides. These juvenile instances are indistinguishable from normal blue-tongued skinks, apart from their anomalous properties.

In some cases, new instances of SCP-3011 produced via this process exhibit severe deformities or are stillborn. The instances that survive often show very minor changes in body pattern or tongue colour; however, due to the accumulation of these changes, later generations differ significantly from the progenitor.

Interview SCP-3011

Clearance Granted

[The following is an audio and video transcript of an interview with SCP-3011]

Interviewed: Four instances of SCP-3011 hereafter named SCP-3011-1, SCP-3011-2, SCP-3011-3, and SCP-3011-4.

Interviewer: Doctor Carson

Foreword: Interview conducted with four instances of SCP-3011. This is the second attempt at interviewing SCP-3011 due to the first interview being interrupted by SCP-3011's erratic nature.

<Begin Log>

Doctor Carson: Where are you from?

SCP-3011-1: Oh, we're a long way from our home, my boy. Born on the ragin' sea, you see. We don't make to land, 'least not that we plan.

SCP-3011-2: And now here we be.

Doctor Carson: Alright, but how did you get here?

SCP-3011-1: Didn't ye bring us here? On a ship of steel and e-lec-tricity?

SCP-3011-2: There we were. Here we be!

[All instances of SCP-3011 appear to dance in an excited manner.]

Doctor Carson: Well, I guess it is a ship to you, huh? But back to my original question, before we took you in our 'ship'. How did you get here? To this land? Did you swim?

SCP-3011-1: Not all of us can swim, boyo, but all of us can sail.

SCP-3011-2: Aye and sail we did!

SCP-3011-3: We been sailin' for a long time. Since a-fore you were a mite. An egg in your mother's cloaca.

Doctor Carson: You sailed? What did you sail on? Are you not too small to sail?

SCP-3011-1: Too small, says he. [SCP-3011-1 can be heard laughing.]

SCP-3011-2: He should talk. This one. A 'captain's companion' too soft for life at sea.

SCP-3011-3: We sailed we did! On logs. On fronds. On flotsam and jetsam.

SCP-3011-2: Boats too, we did. Dun forget the actual boats.

SCP-3011-3: Those were later acquisitions. We didn't start with boats.

[All SCP-3011 instances nod at each other.]

Doctor Carson: The boats were later acquisitions? Can you elaborate on how you got the boats?

SCP-3011-2: I wasn't on the crew yet. Do ye know? [Directed at the other instances of SCP-3011.]

SCP-3011-1: Nay lad. That was before my time at sea.

SCP-3011-4: Twas my time, lads. We were there when the first boats sailed.

[There is a long pause between instances of SCP-3011 and Doctor Carson.]

SCP-3011-4: We were just a young skink then. Barely a cabin boy.

SCP-3011-4: Floating on a bed of freezing kelp were we.

SCP-3011-4: Then, a group of your kind went past. Paddling in the sea.

SCP-3011-4: Stowed away, we did. Among their baskets we hid.

[SCP-3011-4 nods.]

Doctor Carson: So let me get this right. You made small rafts of wood, then managed to get on board an actual ship and hide in baskets… How did you go from baskets to ships?

[All SCP-3011 instances laugh in unison.]

SCP-3011-1: We don't build boats, boy. We sail. We're sailors.

SCP-3011-3: We take what the sea brings us.

SCP-3011-4: In fairness to the soft man. There is some ambiguity in my tale.

SCP-3011-4: We hopped aboard canoes, paddled by whalers seeking whales. That must
have been…

SCP-3011-2: Before sail?

Doctor Carson: Your tale is rather interesting. But you're not explaining me how you went from hiding in baskets to actually sailing ships.

[At this point a guard standing at the door inside the room adjusts their sleeve, revealing a tattoo of an anchor. All instances of SCP-3011 notice. They begin to dance wildly.]

SCP-3011-1: Oh well… You see…

SCP-3011-2: Ride the waves to hunt the whale!

[All instances of SCP-3011 continue to dance wildly. SCP-3011-4 sheds its tail.]

SCP-3011-4: The baskets were on the ships. And on ships we stayed. On canoes, rafts, and oarships.

Doctor Carson: Whoa, whoa! Calm down!

[SCP-3011-4's tail has come off and starts to regrow. Soon after, all instances of SCP-3011 shed their tails which soon start to regrow. All 'dances' coming from SCP-3011 intensify. SCP-3011 tails instantly start to regrow into new instances of SCP-3011.]

SCP-3011-4: All hands on deck! All hands on deck!

SCP-3011-3: Storms brewing! Storms coming!

Doctor Carson: [Doctor Carson can be heard standing up, verbally reacting to SCP-3011's tail growing new limbs.] Shit- Shit! This wasn't on the file!

[The shed tails are now completely new instances of SCP-3011. They join in the chorus being sung by their original instances. Singing halts after exactly 2 minutes. Nautical talk continues after. More tails are being dropped from the second generation of SCP-3011.]

SCP-3011-4: [SCP-3011 speaks to Doctor Carson.] Son, have you ever been through the eye of a hurricane?

Doctor Carson: [There is a few seconds of silence before Doctor Carson responds.] … No?

SCP-3011-4: You pass through the veil of rain and wind and storm to a place of calm. Serenity. While all around you the world howls.

[At this point, it is noted that SCP-3011-4 loses its nautical accent.]

SCP-3011-4: Sometimes you're there for hours. Sometimes minutes.

SCP-3011-4: But there is only one way out.

[Other instances of SCP-3011 continue dancing. Staff have described it as a 'seething stormy sea'. The colour patterns on their backs begin to light up in a display of colours.]

[Many instances of SCP-3011 have continued to multiply and have by now filled at least half the room.]

SCP-3011-4: Son. Are you listening? [Statement appears to be directed at Doctor Carson as SCP-3011-4 stands in a clearing of other SCP-3011 instances.]

[Doctor Carson is silent. The guard on duty can be seen trying to open the door but their attempt fails.]

SCP-3011-4: Son, do you hear me. Do you understand?

[Tails from other SCP-3011 instances on the ceiling fall and land on Doctor Carson as full instances of SCP-3011. As Doctor Carson brushes one away, it has been noted that it yells something unintelligible in Spanish.]

SCP-3011-4: You need to come to the eye of the storm.

[The guard at the door begins to open fire upon instances of SCP-3011 having failed to escape.]

SCP-3011-4: If you don't swim you'll sink, Doctor.

[Staff have speculated that at this point SCP-3011-4 resembles the eye of a storm in a hurricane. The guard has since been fatally crushed under the weight of swarming SCP-3011 instances.]

SCP-3011-1-3: Then blow, ye winds and blow! An' a-rovin' I will go. I'll stay no more on England's shore to hear sweet music play. For I'm on the move to me own true love ten thousand miles away.

[SCP-3011-4 crawls over to Doctor Carson.]

SCP-3011-4: Swim, boy, swim.

[As Doctor Carson wades towards SCP-3011-4, there are several fragments of sentences being said by instances of SCP-3011]

SCP-3011-???: We'll make port before she hits

SCP-3011-???: -Too much ice! Too mu-

SCP-3011-???: Blow and go! BLOW AND GO!

SCP-3011-??? We've run aground!

[Doctor Carson has managed to get to SCP-3011-4. The interview table gently 'floats' on the hoard of SCP-3011.]

SCP-3011-4: Hold on tight. We're not through this yet.

[The structural integrity of the interview room door fails. Containment breach causing 7 casualties as a result, with Dr. Carson not being recovered. Audio log drowned out by SCP-3011 vocalisations.]

<End Log>

Closing Statement: Epilogue: Autopsy of the guard on duty at the time revealed several dead and alive instances of SCP-3011 in their lungs, throat and stomach

Current number of SCP-3011 instances in containment: 3926