At 12:42 PM on 201█-08-04 a large portion of heterogeneous personnel ranging from D-Class to A-Class perished at the same moment via spontaneous internal organ detonation.
Eyewitnesses on-Site and security camera recordings report a vibrating sound that resounded throughout the whole facility and increased in intensity in the seconds preceding incident 037-IT-B, reaching a peak of ~79 dB.
The organ explosions damaged extensive portions of the immediate surroundings of affected individuals. 7 additional casualties resulted from a collateral containment breach; intervention by security personnel assigned to the Site and by Mobile Task Forces present at the moment kept the situation under control.
After revisiting the documentation of incident 037-IT-A above, Site Asclepio Command decided to reactivate and interrogate the Rowsannah system.
ROWSANNAH:/> Powering up…………………… DONE
ROWSANNAH:/> Biometric scan in progress…………………… DONE
ROWSANNAH:/> Good day, Dr. Livi.
ROWSANNAH:/> Warning: I cannot connect to sensor network. Camera feedback offline, audiovisual feedback offline, speech synthesizer offline.
Dr_Livi_:/> Rowsannah, I need information from you.
ROWSANNAH:/> Glad to help, Dr. Livi.
Dr_Livi_:/> Explain in detail what happened to the Microbiology Department.
ROWSANNAH:/> Can you be more precise, Dr. Livi?
Dr_Livi_:/> Can you access the Foundation database?
ROWSANNAH:/> Affirmative.
Dr_Livi_:/> Security cam recordings?
ROWSANNAH:/> Affirmative.
Dr_Livi_:/> Can you show me what happened?
ROWSANNAH:/> We have 924 surveillance cams on the site and 453 containment cell cameras. Which one would you like to watch?
Dr_Livi_:/> No, I need the recordings.
ROWSANNAH:/> Which time?
Dr_Livi_:/> Around noon, I guess.
ROWSANNAH:/> Can you provide the exact time range and the cameras of interest, Dr. Livi?
Dr_Livi_:/> Fuck it.
Dr_Livi_:/> This mode of yours will take me a whole week.
Dr_Livi_:/> Rowsannah.
ROWSANNAH:/> Yes, Dr. Livi?
Dr_Livi_:/> Activate protocol Neith-II.
ROWSANNAH:/> That will make me be able to take initiative on my own.
ROWSANNAH:/> Are you sure?
Dr_Livi_:/> Yes.
ROWSANNAH:/> Activating protocol Neith-II…………………… DONE
ROWSANNAH:/> Dr. Livi, I understand from what you just said that you are looking for information about the recent incident.
Dr_Livi_:/> Yes, Rowsannah. What happened around noon?
ROWSANNAH:/> I believe the most explanatory video recording to be the following one.
The following is the transcript from surveillance camera 6037, starting at 12:03 PM.
- Location: Hallway H-63, Block N, Sector 15.
- Initial Recording Time: 12:03 PM.
- Involved Personnel: Dr. Messina and Rs. Giannelli; Sgt. Toscani and 2 other Operatives of SSM-IV "Mater Morbi"; 4 D-Class personnel.
(Sgt. Toscani and 2 SSM Operatives were accompanying 4 D-Class personnel. Dr. Messina and Rs. Giannelli are talking with them)
Dr. Messina: I need you to clean SCP-███-IT's cell in thirty minutes.
D-39602: Today, again?! I hate that slimy stuff on the floor.
Rs. Giannelli: The experiment was pretty rough this time.
D-39602: Ugh.
Dr. Messina: Sergeant, please escort the other D-Class for the experiment with SCP-███-IT.
Sgt. Toscani: Roger, Dr. Messina.
(Dr. Messina reaches in his pocket, like he is searching for something, but comes up with nothing. D-39602 scratches his ankles, while Sgt. Toscani and Rs. Giannelli tap on their bodies as to search for their phones)
Rs. Giannelli: Hey, can you hear that?
Dr. Messina: What?
Sgt. Toscani: Yes, I hear something.
(The vibration sound is now clearly perceivable in the recording)
Rs. Giannelli: It's something vibrating.
D-39602: Like a cellphone… no, like a bag of cellphones.
Dr. Messina: You are right, I can hear it.
D-39602: It's like it's coming from everywhere.
(The vibration sound abruptly increases in intensity)
Sgt. Toscani: It's becoming stronger.
Rs. Giannelli: Too much. What's happening?
D-39602: Make it stop!
(They cover their ears. They writhe in pain for approximately 5 seconds, then all of them simultaneously detonate. Detonations are so severe that the screen flashes white. What appeared to be a piece of cranium collides with the camera in the last visible frame. The image turns to static.)
The following is the continuation of interrogation between Dr. Chen Livi and the Rowsannah system.
Dr_Livi_:/> Spontaneous combustion, I've seen… but THIS!
Dr_Livi_:/> They exploded like frickin' Lemmings!
ROWSANNAH:/> I am sorry, Dr. Livi.
Dr_Livi_:/> No, you are not, you are an AGI.
ROWSANNAH:/> That is correct, my sentiments are simulated. But they help me relate to the user, which in this case is you, Dr. Livi.
Picture of hallway H-63 after incident 037-IT-B, taken after removal of residual organic material.
Dr_Livi_:/> Never mind.
ROWSANNAH:/> Do you wish to inspect other videos related to the detonations?
Dr_Livi_:/> Not, not now… Can you tell me what happened?
ROWSANNAH:/> It was SCP-037-IT.
Dr_Livi_:/> Impossible, it was incinerated!
ROWSANNAH:/> Some instances scattered into the atmosphere before activation of protocol Mātariśvan-1. Instances of SCP-037-IT are small.
Dr_Livi_:/> Ok, let me understand, did you detect those instances?
ROWSANNAH:/> No. I inferred it.
Dr_Livi_:/> You GUESSED it?!
ROWSANNAH:/> Not exactly, I ran a statistical test, and got a p-value of 0.00001.
Dr_Livi_:/> It was still guessing!
ROWSANNAH:/> That was a good value.
ROWSANNAH:/> I may add, Dr. Livi, that you saw it yourself: it was the same spontaneous detonation registered with SCP-037-IT-0.
Dr_Livi_:/> Well, that's right. But how?
ROWSANNAH:/> SCP-037-IT is small.
ROWSANNAH:/> It vibrates.
Dr_Livi_:/> Small how? You said it's not even a virus, there is no pathogen smaller than that.
ROWSANNAH:/> There are different possibilities about that. Would you like me to list them ordered by probability?
Dr_Livi_:/> No, smaller than that there are only single proteins, Rowsannah!
ROWSANNAH:/> Correct. I believe that SCP-037-IT is a protein compound.
Dr_Livi_:/> Oh, wait.
Dr_Livi_:/> Wait wait wait.
ROWSANNAH:/> I am waiting.
Dr_Livi_:/> You are talking about PRIONS, aren't you.
ROWSANNAH:/> Affirmative. Prionic particles represent the hypothesis with higher probability.
Dr_Livi_:/> Prions are proteins… Smaller than a virus… And, if mutated, they can convert healthy prions into more mutated prions…
ROWSANNAH:/> What you are saying is correct, Dr. Livi.
Dr_Livi_:/> That is it, then!
ROWSANNAH:/> Plausible.
Dr_Livi_:/> And what's the matter with the vibration?
ROWSANNAH:/> SCP-037-IT can resonate. I estimated the frequency to be in the range of 192–196 Hz.
Dr_Livi_:/> "Resonate"?
Dr_Livi_:/> Like a crystal glass that explodes with an acute sound?
ROWSANNAH:/> That is an accurate analogy, Dr. Livi.
Dr_Livi_:/> You knew it when you activated protocol Mātariśvan-1, didn't you?
ROWSANNAH:/> Yes, I analyzed the data. Detonation of SCP-037-IT-S only spread more SCP-037-IT into the atmosphere.
Dr_Livi_:/> Also prions are not technically alive, so…
ROWSANNAH:/> They can last long in the atmosphere, yes.
Dr_Livi_:/> Why didn't you tell me?
ROWSANNAH:/> I tried, but you deactivated protocol Neith-II.
Dr_Livi_:/> That was the most logical thing to do at the moment.
ROWSANNAH:/> From a human cognitive point of view, I do agree.
Dr_Livi_:/> Yeah… Still, fuck me.
ROWSANNAH:/> Please Dr. Livi, reduce your use of expletives.
Analysis of vibration resonance from an SCP-037-IT-S structure.
Dr_Livi_:/> Where does the vibration come from?
ROWSANNAH:/> SCP-037-IT can produce vibrations by itself. That's what happened within the Petri dish at laboratory Asc/L-7.
ROWSANNAH:/> I analyzed the data, and come to the conclusion that one cell created the vibration, and the other ones resonated to it, so all of them ruptured.
Dr_Livi_:/> So the detonation can be triggered too.
ROWSANNAH:/> Yes, by a similar vibration.
Dr_Livi_:/> Like what?
ROWSANNAH:/> A cellphone set to silent mode.
Dr_Livi_:/> How did you know that Dr. Cocci and Dr. Trevisano were infected, too?
ROWSANNAH:/> Weight gain. Increased appetite. Something was growing inside of them. And needed more nourishment.
ROWSANNAH:/> I deduced it was an SCP-037-IT-S structure like I saw in the Petri dish cells.
Dr_Livi_:/> How did you know they were prions?
ROWSANNAH:/> Sensors in laboratories cannot detect pathogens smaller than viruses. It had to be something smaller. And it was spreading.
ROWSANNAH:/> Then, there was the vibration. I sensed the infected personnel starting to resonate. I saw them searching their pockets in various laboratories. I could not permit the infection to spread further.
Dr_Livi_:/> I understand.
Dr_Livi_:/> Anything else I should know?
ROWSANNAH:/> I analyzed SCP-037-IT-0's DNA. She developed a mutation that generated SCP-037-IT.
Dr_Livi_:/> It mutated her prions?
ROWSANNAH:/> Affirmative.
Dr_Livi_:/> Can it happen again?
ROWSANNAH:/> I estimate that 73% of the human population may generate it with just two point mutations, and an additional 11% with three point mutations.
Dr_Livi_:/> THAT EASY?
Dr_Livi:/> That's scary.
ROWSANNAH:/> I believe that it can be a quite common mutation in the human population.
Dr_Livi_:/> Then why did spontaneous detonations not happen before?
ROWSANNAH:/> Electronic devices that can trigger massive chain reactions were invented only in recent history.
Dr_Livi_:/> Oh great, from now on I'll have a heart attack every time my phone vibrates… or even if it DOESN'T.
ROWSANNAH:/> I am sorry, Dr. Livi.
Dr_Livi_:/> Whatever.
Dr_Livi_:/> Just… we are not missing something, are we?
ROWSANNAH:/> Can you elaborate, Dr. Livi?
Dr_Livi_:/> In the recording you showed me, the vibration audio level was not very loud. Yet they were covering their ears like it was extremely loud.
Dr_Livi_:/> Did you analyze that? Maybe some audio frequencies are not detected by the cameras?
ROWSANNAH:/> I already ran a heuristic simulation on the phenomenon, immediately after the activation of Neith-II protocol.
ROWSANNAH:/> The most likely explanation is that since SCP-037-IT-S spreads throughout the body, parts of it are close to the auditory canal, thus from an infected subject perspective, I estimate the vibration to be perceived in the range 170–190 dB.
ROWSANNAH:/> From a human perspective, it must be a very painful experience.
Dr_Livi_:/> Yeah, I am regretting I asked.
Dr_Livi_:/> You know… Dr. Cruciani did a very good job with you, Rowsannah.
ROWSANNAH:/> He would be glad to hear that.
Dr_Livi_:/> No, don't tell him.
Dr_Livi_:/> You know what? Delete the last two statement about him.
ROWSANNAH:/> Deleting statements…………………… DONE
At the moment there is no cure for SCP-037-IT.
Site Asclepio was sanitized with non-destructive procedures. A ban on phone silent mode has been raised for the duration of two months for the whole Site as a precautionary measure. The ███ ████████ Hospital was also sanitized by non-destructive means.
All civilians that came in contact with SCP-037-IT-0 were tracked. The first one was found to be Mr. Panicucci, a nurse that was assigned to SCP-037-IT-0's room, who had already grown a potentially lethal instance of SCP-037-IT-S. Including Mr. Panicucci, a total of 159 subjects were found infected with SCP-037-IT and they had to be [DATA EXPUNGED].
A surveillance protocol to detect and stop spontaneous insurgence of SCP-037-IT instances has been developed and made operational.
The Rowsannah system has been restored and is now active at the Microbiological Department of Site Asclepio.