Pre-containment image of SCP-XXXX

SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: A rectangular box consisting of thermal-shock resistant, high-grade borosilicate glass panes, clear, at least fifteen (15) centimeters thick, surrounding SCP-XXXX on all four sides and enclosed at the roof to form a single containment unit. The containment unit must be seamless; all corners, side-seams, and top-seams must be soldered flush to each other. The containment unit must be entrenched at twenty (20) centimeters into the ground on all four sides of SCP-XXXX and extend out at least three (3) meters beyond the farthest reach of SCP-XXXX on three of four sides. The fourth side of the containment unit must extend out twenty (20) meters to allow for an underground access tunnel.

Following Incident XXXX-4, continuous containment protocols were enacted to ensure that no part of SCP-XXXX comes into contact with the containment unit at any time and that the three meter buffer is continuously enforced. Specialized containment teams consisting of two agents each are tasked with entering the containment unit via the underground access tunnel once a week during the spring, summer, and fall months, and once every other week during the winter months to dispose of all debris that has fallen from SCP-XXXX and to ensure that SCP-XXXX remains the prescribed distance from the walls of the containment unit. If it is determined that SCP-XXXX is in danger of coming in contact with the containment unit, the containment team on duty is tasked with enacting a "re-fit protocol" wherein a larger containment unit is built around the current containment unit, and then the current containment unit is dismantled.

Description: SCP-XXXX appears as a mature Quaking Aspen tree (Populous Tremuloids). As of the most recent Containment Report (1021.9.12), SCP-XXXX measured 29.33 centimeters in diameter around the base of the trunk, 1.06 meters at its widest point (leaf-to-leaf), and 19.87 meters at its highest point (base to tip of canopy). To date, the root structure of SCP-XXXX has been measured to a depth of 12,264 meters but terminal depth has yet to be discovered. Drilling investigations are ongoing.

Reports from indigenous peoples in the area regarding a "holy tree" date back to ████. Initial contact with SCP-XXXX stemmed from local ranchers reporting erratic behavior in the cattle that they ran through the entity location on their way to ██████████ for slaughter. Rancher ███████████ out of ████████, Colorado was the first to pinpoint the location of SCP-XXXX when he collapsed at the base of the entity and was admitted to a local hospital suffering from a case of sustained, euphoric mania. SCP-XXXX was placed under monitoring shortly afterwards ( █/██/██). Two field agents were dispatched following initial contact, but also succumbed to similarly diagnosed mania, whereupon it was determined that skin contact with the falling leaves of SCP-XXXX caused varying degrees of derangement. Attempts to destroy SCP-XXXX have proven dangerous and ineffective. Prolonged exposure to SCP-XXXX even under protective equipment has proven to have a degenerative effect upon mental health. It is hypothesized that the negative mental effects of contact with SCP-XXXX have worsened in direct correlation with the expanding root structure of the entity, the full scope of which is still unknown. Direct contact with the sap of SCP-XXXX induces a rapid corrosive effect upon all materials it has been tested against except for glass. In one recorded instance, SCP-XXXX exhibit a brief period of rapid growth and exuded its sap of its own volition in order to corrode an early model containment unit composed of solid steel, suggesting that the entity has a measure of self-awareness of its photosynthetic needs.

SCP-XXXX is located 14.12 kilometers southeast of ███████████, Colorado, just inside the eastern border of ████████ National Forest. The containment unit and entrance to the access tunnel, along with the drilling platform and associated rig, were shielded from civilian eyes inside a large barn and silo structure as of █/██/███.

Incident XXXX-1 (Alpha)

[Beginning of Feed]

The video recording shows Agents A. ███████ and J. ███████████ arriving at the site of what will become SCP-XXXX. The site is an open expanse of prairie grass, roughly ring shaped, in the middle of a small pocket of deciduous trees. At the center of the open expanse is a solitary tree. The agents exit their vehicle, carrying the video recorder with them, and proceed to set up their recording equipment by the truck, outside of the ring. Agent A. : “Looks like this is it. Are we all clear on audio?”

Agent J.: “All clear. Video is receiving. This is ███████████ and ███████, the date is █/██/██, 9:05 am. Slightly overcast fall day, light breeze. The object in question appears to be a single Aspen tree in the middle of a dead area of prairie. The tree appears healthy. Looks like it has already turned colors for the season. ███████ why don’t you move south around the ring edge, I’ll go north. Don’t approach the tree just yet.”

Agent A.: “Alright.” The agents split and walk around opposite sides of the ring, keeping to the edge. When they are nearly on opposite sides of the tree, Agent A. stops and un-holsters his firearm. Agent A.: “I think I see movement in the grass.”

Agent J.: “Hold tight, I’m coming to you. Do not discharge your weapon.”

Agent A.: “There’s definitely something in the brush there. I think it’s coming for me.”

Agent J.: “███████ I said hold. Hold your position.”

Agent A.: “If this is what killed all this grass I’m not holding for very fucking long—wait. Wait a sec. It’s just a prairie dog. It looks drunk. It’s weaving all over the place.” The agents are together now, and study the prairie dog which has appeared out of the dead brush. The prairie dog rolls over itself and flops around in front of them. Agent A.: “What the fuck? Should I…catch it, or what? I think I could pretty much just grab it.”

Agent J.: “We should tag it and take it in. Put on your field gloves and grab it from the nape. It could be rabid. I’ll go get a live-specimen container from the truck.”



Agent A. re-holsters his firearm and pulls his field gloves from his back pocket and puts them on while Agent J. retraces his steps back towards the truck. As Agent A. circles the rodent he is seen stepping fully into the dead zone and then back out again, unawares. No visible effect is recorded. Agent A.: “Got the fucker. Look at him, it’s like he’s passed out. You get into some fermented berries, little man?” Agent J. has stopped and is standing still approximately five meters from where Agent A. holds the prairie dog, which hangs limp in his grip. Agent J. is staring at the ground near his feet. Agent A.: “You alright ███? Am I supposed to hold this thing all day or what?”

Agent J.: “There are little pockets of dead grass outside of the main circle. Look, they’re everywhere, even back there beyond the truck.” Agent J. is seen kneeling down and picking something up from within a small dead circle of grass just in front of the truck. When he stands again a small yellow leaf is fluttering in his gloved hand. Agent J.: “It’s the leaves.”

Agent A.: “What?”

Agent J.: “The leaves are rotting everything they touch.”

Agent A.: “The leaves? What the fuck are you talking abou—“

Agent J.: “Forget the prairie dog. Leave it. We gotta get out of here and come back in full hazmat—“ A gust of wind shakes the video equipment and drowns the audio in white noise. A large number of leaves blow from the Aspen tree and flutter along with the wind in the general direction of Agent A. Several leaves are seen briefly contacting his exposed face and neck. When the audio cuts back, Agent J. is screaming. Agent J.: “—touch you? ███████ can you hear me? It looked like something touched you!” Agent A. is non-responsive. He is standing still, staring at the prairie dog in his hands. Agent J. starts towards him but another gust of wind causes him to retreat towards the truck. He pauses again and looks back at Agent A. A slow grin breaks out on Agent A.’s face. Agent A.: [laughing]

Agent J.: “Don’t fuck around ███████!”

Agent A.: [laughing] Agent A. looks up at the tree and stops laughing, but his smile gets unnaturally big. His hand drops to his side, still carrying the limp prairie dog. He begins to walk forward towards the tree, crossing into the dead zone again. Agent J.: ███████ god dammit! What are you doing? Get back here!”

Agent A.: [laughing] Agent J. looks back at the truck once more, then runs towards Agent A., covering his face and head with his arms. He grabs Agent A. and pulls him back. Agent A. appears not to notice anything but the tree. Agent J. uses two hands to pull Agent A. The camera shows a big gust of wind rolling through the far trees towards the two agents. Agent J. notices it as well and drops Agent A. to cover his face as another burst of leaves dislodges from the Aspen and passes over the two agents. Agent J. is screaming, while Agent A. is laughing. When the wind dies down, Agent A is still laughing while Agent J. is silent. Then agent J. begins laughing. From this point forward in the recording neither agent speaks to or communicates with the other in any way. Although both men are laughing, they do not seem aware of each other. Both men walk slowly forward until they stand at the base of the tree, then both men drop to their knees and begin to press their face into the dirt and dead grass there with their mouths still open, laughing. Seven minutes pass with both agents pressing their faces to the base of the tree before Agent A. begins to dig frantically at the base of the tree. Ten minutes later, Agent J. also begins to dig at the base of the tree. The laughter is at a slightly higher pitch. Both agents proceed to dig for at a frantic pace, without pause, for the next eight hours. Notable events during this period are as follows. 11:12am: Agent A. begins to lose his voice. His laughter becomes scratchy.

12:51pm: Agent J. dislodges his microphone because of rapid digging movement and it is quickly buried in debris.

1:05pm: From Agent A.’s audio it is clear that both agents have lost their voices. Laughter now sounds like a harsh whisper.

2:29pm: Agent J.’s standard issue gloves look as though they have worn through at the fingertips.

6:10pm: Agent A. collapses face first into the hole he has dug at the base of the tree. His arms twitch, as if he is continuing to try to dig.

7:46pm: Agent J’s hands are bloody. Strips of flesh can be seen hanging from his fingertips.

8:28pm: Agent J. collapses awkwardly into his own hole and begins to rub his face back and forth against the ground as if eating the dirt.

8: 52pm: A big gust of wind strips the Aspen of more leaves and blows the camera rig over. It hits the ground and shorts out.

[End of Feed]

Transcript: Incident XXXX-4

[Beginning of Feed]

The visual feed is of the inside of a large barn wherein SCP-XXXX is contained within a solid steel containment unit shaped like a rectangular box. The containment unit is in the center of the barn and lit on all sides by high-powered halogen spotlights. In the far corner of the barn there is an active drilling rig, manned by three roustabouts. In the immediate foreground, two agents, T. ████████ and R. ███████████ of containment team T9 are suiting up for entrance into the containment unit. Agent T.: “Did you piss?”

Agent R.: “Yeah I pissed, every time you ask me this. That was the one time, and we were in there for six hours, but I’ll never live it down.”

Agent T.: “This is gonna be a long clean.”

Agent R.: “Yeah. I got it ████. I pissed. Christ.”

Agent T.: “[laughing] Just a little bit of doomsday humor.” Agent R. looks over at the drilling rig, spinning slowly but continuously. Two roustabouts on the platform are preparing to trip out the drill string and replace the bit. Agent R.: "What's our depth?"

Agent T.: "I think around nine thousand meters, last check. It's slow going."

Agent R.: "Nine thousand meters. Christ. They're never gonna find the end it."

Agent T.: "Yeah? And why not?"

Agent R.: "Because the roots go straight to Hell. That's why not." Agent T. shakes his head as both agents zip themselves into one-piece, full-body wetsuits and don full-face gas masks. Each then steps into a bright orange hazmat suit. They zip each other up the back and then tape each other around the hands and feet, and along the seam of the suit. They step into rubber boots. Agent T. grabs the camera and it swings about as he positions it on a clip on his shoulder. He faces a large, circular hatch set in the dirt ground at their feet. He lets out a big breath. Agent T.: “Alright. Let’s go earn our pay grade.” Agent R. unscrews the circular lock in the porthole and pulls it open with a groan. Agent R. picks up his vacuum unit and swings it on his back. Agent R. grabs his vacuum unit and carefully sets it around the camera, which jostles. Both men begin to descend into the tunnel, which is sealed over them. The camera flashes as it adjusts to the low, bare-bulb light of the tunnel. The agents descend for ten meters and then turn to face a short tunnel, three meters high. They walk, hunched, for fifteen meters when they pass a yellow line drawn on the concrete floor that reads CONTAINMENT UNIT BORDER. Two meters further they encounter an identical set of rungs leading upwards to an identical porthole. Agent T. turns to face Agent R., who is visibly sweating. Agent T.: “You ready?”

Agent R.: “Ready.”

Agent T.: “Let’s get home safe tonight. I got a hot date tomorrow.”

Agent R.: “No you don’t. But I plan on it.” Agent T. unlocks the port using a locking mechanism at the base of the ladder, then climbs up and pushes the hatch open. He steps into the containment box and makes way for Agent R. who climbs up after him. Agent T.: “All clear.”

Agent R.: “All clear.” They close the hatch and turn to behold SCP-XXXX. The tree is harshly lit from the interior of the containment unit with fluorescent tube lighting and spot lighting from the four corners, but it appears healthy and at the end of losing its fall foliage. Yellow and brown leaves litter the dirt ground. At the base of the tree is a wide gash that has crusted over with blood red sap (ref. Incident-XXXX-2: Attempted Destruction of the entity). As the agents watch a single leaf falls from the upper canopy and rests on Agent R.’s shoulder. He brushes it off, turns to Agent T. and nods. Agent T.: [Looking up at SCP-XXXX] “Alright sweetheart, you know the drill. We’re just gonna clean you up and we all go our separate ways…Well, you’ll be here. Forever. But you know what I mean. Easy peasy.” Both agents attach their vacuum units to a glass containment tube along one wall of the containment unit, and turn on their vacuum packs. They begin a very slow and methodical sweep of the dirt ground picking up leaves and sucking them in the glass containment tube, starting from the south side of the unit and moving north. This continues normally for one and a half hours, until they are nearly underneath the canopy of the SCP-XXXX. At timestamp 6:43:08, Agent R. shuts of his vacuum and is seen staring upwards. Moments later Agent T. shuts off his vacuum. Agent T.: “Everything okay?”

Agent R.: “Yeah. It’s just, wasn’t the ceiling of the unit a lot…higher last time?”

Agent T.: “Higher? The ceiling’s where it’s always been █████. It’s a ceiling.”

Agent R.: “Then how the hell is the tree so close to the ceiling? Was it that close last time?” Agent T. moves around the tree to get a better look and peers upward along with the camera. It appears as though the topmost branch of the tree is approximately six inches from the top of the steel unit. Agent T.: “Well I’ll be damned. I’ll check the logs, but it looks like the fucker grew damn near a foot nearly overnight.”

Agent R.: “Well what’s that mean? Is that bad?”

Agent T.: “Easy, easy. We’ll watch it and log it and get orders for a new box. That’s all. Meantime, if she gets much bigger she’ll just have to squish herself. This is six inches of solid steel. She’s not going anywhere.” The agents continue the cleaning operation until all of the leaves have been vacuumed into the glass containment tube. Agent R. looks up at the top of the tree with visible unease on two more occasions during the cleaning. Afterwards, Agent T. affixes a series of canisters to the far end of the glass tube. The canisters are bright yellow and affixed with a biohazard symbol and stenciling that reads [WEAPONIZED SCP-XXXX] and [USE EXTREME CAUTION]. Agent T.: “Alright, let’s light ‘em up.” Agent T. presses a primer on the glass tube and an infrared heat system begins to burn the leaves. The smoke from the burn is sucked into the canisters until the LED lights above each turns red, at which point Agent R. unscrews them and replaces them, setting each full canister carefully to the ground. This storage process continues until timestamp 7:27:52 whereupon Agent R. stands up and stretches, rolling his neck. He stops mid-motion and appears to be staring at a low hanging branch of SCP-XXXX. He walks up to it. Agent R.: “Uh, ████, I think you better look at this.” Agent T. walks over to Agent R. who is pointing at a small offshoot of the branch, which appears to be growing at a visible rate. In the six seconds both agents stand in silence watching, the shoot extends approximately half of a centimeter. Agent T.: “Holy shit…”

Agent R.: “Every branch is growing like this ████. Look. Look at the top! It’s almost touching the ceiling.”

Agent T.: “We need to clear out. [The agent presses his com button] Control, we’re clearing out. There’s an anomaly with SCP-XXXX.”

Agent R.: “But we’re in the middle of a burn— A sharp crack is heard over the audio and the camera view snaps to the ceiling where SCP-XXXX has begun to exude sap from the tip of the highest branch in the canopy, which touches the steel. The steel has cracked and appears to be smoking. Agent T.: “Fuck it! Get the hatch open!” Both agents scramble to the port hole and begin twisting the handle to unlock. Another loud crack is heard and a chunk of corroded steel is seen slamming to the ground to Agent R.’s left. He flinches back. Agent T. pulls the hatch open. Agent R.: “The smoke! If the tube breaks we’re all fucked!” A second large chunk of steel falls directly upon Agent R. Agent T. drops the hatch and runs to him. Agent T.: █████! Shit! Shit! Can you hear me? Shit!” Agent T. shoves the slab of metal off Agent R., who is seen groaning. A large gash is visible in the protective suit of Agent R. Broken skin is visible and a line of blood is seen rising from the gash. Agent T. freezes. Agent T.: “Oh no. No, man. No! [The agent presses his com button] Clear the barn! Clear the barn!” Agent T. grabs Agent R. around the chest and picks him up, pulling him to the hatch, when a large chunk of the ceiling is seen falling onto the glass tube in the periphery. It shatters and the smoke from within puffs outward in every direction. Glass and smoke wash over both agents and the camera is whited-out for the next thirty five seconds. Audio is still on-line.



Agent T.: “█████ stay with me my man! Stay with me!” As the smoke clears the visual feed returns and Agent R. is seen staring blankly up at Agent T., who holds him in his arms. Agent R. smiles. A siren blares in the distance. Whole pieces of the ceiling fall in the periphery, the camera shakes with their impact. Agent T.: “█████? Can you hear me?”

Agent R.: [laughing] Without a word, Agent R. grabs a jagged piece of glass near to his hand, grips it, and jams it through his mask and into his own throat behind his windpipe. Without blinking he jerks his hand forward, severing his own windpipe clean in two. Agent T. screams as blood covers the camera. Agent R.'s laugh turns into a gurgling, but continues. Agent T. is still heard screaming as there is another loud crack and what was later determined to be a two meter wide piece of steel falls on his head, killing him instantly. The camera feed and audio feed are abruptly cut off.

[End of Feed]

ACTIVE DUTY CONTAINMENT TEAM ROSTER (REVISED AS OF █/██/███)

T1: Agent ███████████/Agent████████ : two days active. No Specialty. [Deceased - See Transcript: Incident XXXX-1]

T2: Agent ███████/Agent████████ : Six years, eighteen days active. Fall Specialists

T3: Agent ████████/Agent███████████ : five years, two hundred and two days active. Winter Specialists.

T6: Agent ████/Agent ██████████ : five years, one hundred and ninety nine days active. Spring Specialists.

T8: Agent ████████/Agent████████ : Two years, ten days active. Summer Specialists.

T9: Agent ████████/Agent███████████ : One year, one day active. Fall Specialists [Deceased - See Transcript: Incident XXXX-4]

T11: Agent ████/Agent████ : one year, twenty-five days active. Winter Specialists.

T12: Agent ████████/Agent████████ :thirty-five days active. SPECIALTY PENDING.

RETIRED CONTAINMENT TEAMS ROSTER TO BE KEPT UNDER STRICT SUPERVISION.

T4: Agent ███████/Agent████████ - Retired ██/██/███

Relieved in adherence to ACTIVE/RETIRED PROTOCOL 2(b)

Clinical Note: “Agent ███████ exhibited signs of worsening depression over a period of two months. Partner unwilling to re-train."

T7: Agent ███████/Agent███████████ - Retired ██/██/███

Relieved in adherence to ACTIVE/RETIRED PROTOCOL 1(c)

Clinical Note: “Agent ███████████ recorded three consecutive nights of insomnia. Partner unwilling to re-train."