Pixeltalker

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Foundation crawlers are set up to alert on and suppress any references to SCP-XXXX-1 in web media. Any instances of SCP-XXXX-2 are to be interviewed and amnesticised if deemed necessary before release.

Signs of SCP-XXXX manifestation are to be actively shared within the Foundation, with the goal of detailed investigation of SCP-XXXX if encountered by Foundation personnel.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a learning course for an anomalous language Melsei (SCP-XXXX-1) encountered by some users of popular language learning sites (such as Duolingo or Memrise). These manifestations follow no known pattern, and the language disappears on the next site visit. Analysis of source code and databases of the sites did not discover any references to “Melsei”.

In a typical manifestation, SCP-XXXX appears in the standard list of site language courses. There is no compulsion to investigate the language, and it is believed that a significant number of manifestations are either unnoticed or ignored by the site users.

If a user does investigate the language, they discover a course that follows the design and structure of the site they are currently on. For example, the course might be split into topics depicted with icons that match the site style. Those who open a topic and make any progress in learning SCP-XXXX-1 are designated SCP-XXXX-2. As SCP-XXXX does not exhibit cognitohazard properties, SCP-XXXX-2 are not considered dangerous to themselves or others and are released after an interview.

There is no known way to predict manifestations of SCP-XXXX, and so Foundation is not able to investigate the full course. All information below was collected from interviews with SCP-XXXX-2 and is incomplete.

Language

Writing

SCP-XXXX-1 writing system is a superset of Latin alphabet. In addition to letters a-z and diacritics such as ◌̃, Lalim includes a set of glyphs, with each seemingly having a single specific translation. For example, {glyph: spiral} always translates to “Friend” (upper-case F). None of the SCP-XXXX-2 were able to pronounce any of the glyphs when interviewed, even though all mentioned the course having voice recordings.

Pronouns

In most cases, all first person and third person pronouns are translated to “ě”. Note that this also means “someone”. For example, “I hurt my leg” is “ỹl-ě hla” which might also mean “they hurt their leg” or “one hurt one’s leg”. While “ě” seems to be strongly preferred for positive and neutral contexts (even when ambiguous), it does not seem to be used in negative contexts. For example “Jane did well” is “if-ě niwa”, while “Jane did a bad job” would be “if-Jane’i shar”.

Positivity and politeness

As mentioned, the choice of words might depend on whether a statement is negative. Negativity in SCP-XXXX-1 does not always match the common understanding. E.g. “he is the strongest” or “she has many ideas” are marked as negative, and so use the names or most specific descriptions available instead of “ě”. However “he is hungry” or “I am hurt” are considered neutral and so use “ě”.

In addition to positive/negative forms, SCP-XXXX-2 have mentioned a polite form. All examples of polite form include glyphs, e.g “{glyph: spiral}-ohn ě-neh-if-ni” — “How can one help Friend?” as compared to “ě-if-ni” for “How can one help (you)?” Some words have special polite forms, for example: “anil ě” — “one’s face”, “{glyph: four dots on top of a circle}” — “Friend’s face”; “stai ě” — “one’s hand”, “{glyph: slanted line splitting into four}” — ”Friend’s hand”.

Other notes

Interviews with SCP-XXXX-2 recorded multiple examples that specify time relative to “{glyph: black circle}”, translated as “Quiet”. E.g. time can be “two hours before Quiet” or “ten minutes after Quiet”. None of the interviewees mentioned examples set during “Quiet”.

Some of SCP-XXXX-2 have also noted a special glyph translated as “Deep”. None was able to draw the glyph from memory, though all mentioned multiple spirals. Course examples gave an explicit distinction between “deep lake” and “Deep lake”, though the specific difference was unclear.

While all interviewees could see that the final topic of the course was labeled “Friendship”, no one of SCP-XXXX-2 had completed the full course during a manifestation and so the contents of the final topic are unknown.

Incident-XXXX-1

On 07/02/2019, a Foundation crawler raised an alert over a forum post partially written in SCP-XXXX-1. Investigation has identified the author as 24 year old Kirill Aliev, who has completed a significant number of other language courses with a tendency to complete a course in one sitting.

Agents visited Aliev’s home for an interview, but were unable to find him. On one of the tables, they discovered a number of various non-anomalous seashells, and a note in SCP-XXXX-1. Given the limited known SCP-XXXX-1 vocabulary, only parts of the note could be translated (included below):

“Little Friends” (safe) ;).

One can’t avoid worrying █████████████████ Hundred words for shells █████████████████████ Friends ███████████████████████ people █████████ not done well.
█████████ Friendship ███

The whereabouts or Kirill Aliev are currently unknown.