SCP-266

SCP-266 SCP-266 is a collection of glowing gas that wants to be warm and seems to like being around people. That sounds fairly manageable until you get to what happens when it tries to get that warmth from a human body. The masses float freely and glow purple or red. They feel cold and absorb heat from the surrounding area. They don't have an obvious nervous system, but they respond to things around them and appear capable of learning habits from experience. So the Foundation has to approach them as something that can react and adapt, even without a recognizable body or brain. They actively seek heat, whether it comes from a natural source or a machine. Human contact seems to be their favorite. It also calms them down in a way that suggests there could be a social need involved as well as a need for warmth. Unfortunately, staying in contact with one means having heat pulled out of your body. Extended exposure without protection can cause fatal hypothermia. The file describes them as apparently unaware of how harmful that is to mammals. They're usually nonaggressive, but depriving them of enough heat can make them discontented and eventually hostile. The Foundation discovers them in Ireland after young people suffer unexplained hypothermia around a hot spring. Reports of will-o'-the-wisps in the area help draw attention to what's happening. That location makes sense for something looking for warmth, but it also puts it around people who aren't expecting to become dangerously cold while visiting a hot spring. An agent manages to lead them to a nearby Foundation site. By the time he arrives, he's suffering from hypothermia himself and needs medical intervention to survive. They eventually move SCP-266 to Site-19 because the first site's containment conditions aren't suitable. Containment is an airtight room kept at or above 48 degrees Celsius, with an independently powered heating system. Staff wear thermal-hazard suits when interacting with it. Giving it a reliable source of heat is part of keeping both the anomaly and the people around it safe. There's another detail I would have liked to see investigated further. Staff report hearing it speak, and recordings identify an unknown Gaelic dialect. Later, English words and phrases start appearing alongside that speech. The working theory is that it may be repeating what it hears, like a parrot, but the file asks for more documentation rather than settling the question. That leaves a lot unresolved about how much it understands. It can seek company, respond to care, learn habits, and produce language. At the same time, its preferred way of interacting with people can kill them. The danger comes from that mismatch, even when it seems perfectly happy to be near somebody. Original Entry: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-266