SCP-844 Crybaby

SCP Explained - Story & Animation

SCP-844 is an amorphous, highly mobile mass composed of human bones, dust, and red luminescent fungus. This predatory anomaly dwells in dark, secluded areas and hunts using a cruel luring tactic. It traps young children with edible secretions, non-fatally torturing them with sharpened bones to provoke distress cries. When an unsuspecting rescuer investigates, SCP-844 swiftly kills them, absorbing their bones to expand its horrifying mass.  LIKE & SUBSCRIBE to SCP Explained - Story & Animation  Follow us on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scpexplainedofficial  Join our Discord, share your SCP art, submit video feedback, chat with other fans...: https://discord.gg/scpexplained   Please let us know in the comments which SCP's we should cover next   Narrated by https://www.youtube.com/c/hitherehunter  Content relating to the SCP Foundation, including the SCP Foundation logo, is licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 and all concepts originate from http://www.scp-wiki.net and its authors.   SCP-844 Crybaby is based on "SCP-844" by Tanhony: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-844  #scpexplained #scp #animation

Transcript

00:00The day that MTF-Beta-7, also known as the Maz Hatters, first discovered and contained SCP-844,

00:07was one of the darkest episodes in that particular task force's history.

00:11And that includes both the Chernobyl slasher incident and their infamous battle with the

00:16eldritch being awoken by an ExxonMobil oil spill in 1997. Like many of the Foundation's most

00:23dangerous and frightening engagements, it began with a field agent. S. Kennedy Leon

00:29reported strange happenings in his sector before abruptly ceasing contact entirely.

00:34Leon was one of the more accomplished field agents to be assigned to an industrial district just

00:39outside of Dusseldorf, Germany. His help had been instrumental in ferreting out a Chaos Insurgency

00:45double agent who embedded himself in Site-41. It culminated in a tense breakroom gunfight that

00:52saw the double agent's brain getting fried by a well-priced directed energy blast. Leon was

00:57clearly not an agent to be trifled with, so he was a natural choice to investigate when workmen

01:02and security guards started disappearing in the industrial zone. Members of the Maz Hatters

01:08gathered around a briefing room as the voice and video memos of Leon were played to help better

01:13their understanding of the frightening situation they'd now found themselves in. The first was from

01:18Leon's hotel room, where he was jotting down evidence and putting together his case.

01:23There's an abandoned textile mill out in the forest here. Locals are calling it Der Klagenwald,

01:29the Wailing Forest, because sometimes the teens who play out here can pick up the sounds of people

01:33crying or calling for help. A few of them actually reported it to the local cops, hence why I'm here.

01:40Anomalous is written all over this thing. I can just feel it in my bones. I'll report back when I

01:46know

01:46more. It was another week before Leon had sent in another correspondence. This time, it was a video

01:52message of him in his hotel room. He had put together a conspiracy-style red-string wall with

01:57black and white photographs that went well back to the 1800s. Leon was standing in front of it,

02:03looking almost manic. This thing is way bigger than I thought. Way, way bigger. Look at this. I've got

02:09confirmed disappearances, especially of children, and police reports all the way back in 1841. Of course,

02:15nothing ever found conclusively. Plenty of reports such as figure wolves did it or something, but

02:20that wouldn't explain the Wailing. Every ghost story has a kernel of truth in the center. That's

02:26what the Foundation has taught me. And look at these etchings. There have been legends in this

02:30area since the 1500s of something called the Stabbenwanderer. That means Dust Walker. I really

02:37think I'm onto something here, folks. The next file was another video, this time of what appeared to

02:42be some kind of GoPro or helmet camera that showed a first-person view of Leon walking through the

02:47woods at dusk, the looming silhouette of the abandoned textile mill not far in front of him.

02:53Closer. Closer.

02:54Closer. First true field expedition. There's something strange out here. I bet money on that. It's like the air is

03:02festering here, like a room in an old house that hasn't been visited in years, like dust burning on the

03:08surface of an old

03:09light bulb. But I'm out here, in the fresh air, surrounded by trees. It doesn't make sense, does it? Something

03:16incongruous.

03:18It's as though... Agent Leon paused in this moment before muttering out a quiet,

03:23Can you hear that? And the mass hatters in the boardroom very much could. A distant pain screaming,

03:29so distinct, and so human. If it had been anywhere in the United States, you might write it off as

03:34the

03:35call of a mountain lion. But there was none of those out in the forests of Germany. Even for the

03:40experienced

03:41MTF operatives, there was something genuinely unsettling about it. Just like

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04:09The mass hatters' operatives watched carefully as he got closer to the building,

04:14and then noticed a strange red glow coming from the ground. That immediately got the attention of

04:19the operatives, because the mass hatters are, as their official charter puts it, specialists in the

04:24acquisition and containment of anomalies exhibiting extreme biological, chemical, or radiological hazards,

04:30as well as the rapid containment and cleanup of areas affected by such anomalies.

04:35They would've been there in hazmat suits, and the second they saw the strange glowing material on the

04:40ground, they would've sectioned off the perimeter and called in reinforcements. Agent Leon didn't do

04:46that. Look at this stuff, he said, leaning down to get closer. It looked like some kind of strange

04:51fungal offshoot. I gotta get some samples of this to send back to the lab. I've never seen anything like

04:56this. The mass hatters could only watch as Leon reached down and picked it up with little more

05:01than a rubber glove for hand protection. But if the lax protocols of this was enough to make them cringe,

05:07it's a miracle what happened next didn't cause any of them to pass out from the sheer shock.

05:11Damn, it smells good, Leon's digital ghost said from the computer speakers. The mass hatters could only

05:17look on in horror, as the handful of glowing fungus passed behind the camera lens and gave way to a

05:23quiet munching noise. Tastes pretty good, too. Agent Leon had, against all judgment, eaten some of it.

05:29He continued walking to the textile mill, swallowing his mouth full. You know, this is actually pretty

05:35consistent with some of my background research, he said as the shadow of the textile mill swallowed him up.

05:40A lot of those old folktales from the 1500s had said something about kids following trails of

05:45strange candies into the dust walker's lair. Do we think that maybe those strange candies could have

05:51something to do with the fungus? The thought just hung in the air, unanswered, as Agent Leon

05:56entered the dark of the textile mill. His hand reached up for the camera. I'll take some more

06:01footage if there's anything interesting to report. If so, I'll call in backup and we'll do this thing

06:05by the book. If you're watching this, it should be luck. Or, you know, honor my memory, depending on

06:11how this goes. The video ended, and a grim-faced supervisor stepped into the boardroom afterwards,

06:16before the watchful eyes of the mass hatters.

06:19We only received one more correspondence from Agent Leon after that, he said. An audiophile.

06:25Take a listen. Should give you some idea of what we're dealing with here.

06:29The supervisor clicked play, and all the following was a cacophony of painful screams peeking out the

06:34levels of the speakers. The other noises on the file were decidedly wetter, but it was almost

06:40difficult to hear them over how hard Leon was screaming and sobbing. After about 30 seconds of

06:45this, the supervisor hit the stop button. There were five more minutes of that on the file,

06:50he said, but there's nothing in it you wouldn't learn from the first 30 seconds.

06:54Suit up, boys. You're heading out tonight. A few hours later, a team of ten mass hatters

07:00in armored anti-contamination suits were cutting through the air on a Black Hawk helicopter headed

07:05for a certain textile mill in Germany, armed with assault rifles and Sig Sauer pistols. Thanks to the

07:12completely avoidable demise of Agent Leon, they knew they'd be facing at least one hostile on the

07:17insides of the complex. Maybe more. Local teams of relief agents from the foundation's German branch

07:23were willing to file in if the situation got out of hand and they required backup. A decision that

07:29likely saved several lives on that terrible day. The hatters broke into two fire teams of five to

07:35split up and search the building, moving through the rotten corridors in tight formations, weapons out,

07:40ensuring that they wouldn't be taken off guard by anything lurking inside. One team headed down

07:45towards the sub-basements of the building, believed to be connected to some old World War I munitions

07:51tunnels, while the other team ascended a large spiral staircase to the upper levels of the building.

07:56If there was anything still in there, they were sure to find it. Only one real oversight was made.

08:02They didn't anticipate it finding them first. The five-man team on the lower levels heard it long

08:08before the ones heading up, the low, pained groaning that seemed oddly familiar. A little like the

08:13audiophiles of Agent Leon screaming bloody murder, but more subdued, as though whatever pained him

08:19hadn't stopped. But all the fight had leeched out of him now. They logged the trace and kept moving

08:24forwards, taking a rickety set of wooden stairs into an even lower level. It was total dark here. All they

08:31had were the nods attached to their headsets and laser lights attached to their rifles to keep them

08:36firing on target. They were getting closer, at least from the increased volume of the pained moaning.

08:41Then all of them stopped in their tracks. My god, the pointman said, is that, was that Agent Leon?

08:48They found what they would have once called Agent Leon in the corner of the sub-basement rooms,

08:54along with many like him. He looked like a pile of skin, crumpled, not even in the vague shape of

08:59a

08:59human anymore. If not for the sagging features of his face still sitting on top of the pile.

09:05He could moan, but not speak. You needed a jawbone to speak.

09:10And Agent Leon? Well, he didn't have any. Just skin, muscles, and organs now. All of his bones had

09:18seemingly been removed without killing him. But why? Why keep him alive in such a horrific state?

09:24Pure sadism? No. As the members of the lower-level task force would have only realized all too late,

09:31the anomaly had much more pragmatic reason for keeping its boneless victims alive. To create a

09:36lure for more victims. If Agent Leon was capable of any kind of movement under his own volition now,

09:42he might have pointed and warned them about the thing starting to move up in the corner above them.

09:47But it was already too late by then. It darted from the top of the ceiling and was on them

09:52before any

09:52of them could react. Now the screams were loud enough that the team on the upper levels could

09:56hear them. Multiple voices, all familiar. They tried to radio in to the other half of the team,

10:02but received no response. And still the volume of the terrible screaming grew.

10:07They made a wise decision here. Rather than immediately engaging,

10:11they dialed in backup from the support forces outside, who in turn let the administrations of all

10:16nearby Foundation containment sites know too. It may not be quite as sexy as storming in and

10:22playing hero yourself, but you're a lot more likely to live to tell the tale.

10:26Soon the building was swarming with agents and mobile task force operatives in the hours after,

10:31who locked down the entire textile plant before descending to the lower levels.

10:35There, behind a wall of interlocked vant shields, they encountered the creature that had brought them

10:40all here, and what had become the other five members of the Maz Hatter's task force.

10:45It was a hideous combination of dust, bones, and glowing red fungus. The bones, of course,

10:51were human, giving it the vague notion of some consistent shape, and a scaffolding for its rot

10:56and filth. But the shape kept changing. Sometimes it walked on eight legs like a spider. Other times

11:02it imitated the upright gait of a human being. Sometimes it was just a glowing chaos of limbs

11:08and human skulls that slithered forward with no consistent shape at all. The monster, soon dubbed SCP-844,

11:15was an extremely sophisticated ambush predator. It used a mix of its own edible droppings and the

11:21wounded bodies of its current victims to lure in further prey, then taking its time feeding on the

11:27incapacitated victims. It somehow had an instinctive ability to attack the human neck, non-lethally

11:33disabling human victims, before torturing them with sharpened bone spines to make them scream.

11:38That's exactly what happened when Agent Leon was recording his last ever audio file. From the

11:44creature's perspective, it had been successful in luring in the greatest number of humans it

11:48ever encountered at any one time. When the creature attempted to attack,

11:53the assembled operatives opened fire, shattering bones and tearing through tufts of glowing red mold.

11:57The creature squealed, parts of its body falling inert to the ground. Its largeness at any given time

12:03seemed to be contingent on how much prey it had recently consumed, with a greater number of bones

12:08allowing it to support a greater quantity of fungus. It would be nigh impossible to completely kill,

12:13but relatively easy to prune. It was captured in a hermetic containment unit and taken back to the

12:19nearest containment site, where it was locked away. Hundreds of corpses were found beneath the textile

12:25mill, all of them essentially just inert sacks of rotten skin. Some just looked like worn fabric,

12:31they'd been down there in the pits so long. These days the creature is only fed with bovine bodies.

12:36Once a month, two D-class with reinforced suits are sent into the chamber to prune off parts

12:41of the creature with shears. The smaller it is at any given time, the much easier it is to manage.

12:47But if ever it did breach containment, especially in the middle of the night finding itself in the

12:51winding halls of a Foundation site with so many personnel to play with, well, it's safe to say that

12:57the anomaly wouldn't be so small and manageable for long. Now check out Insane SCP-001 Fight,

13:04Gate Guardian vs. Scarlet King. And can SCP-049 cure the pestilence in SCP-3008 Infinite Ikea? For more.

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