Item #: 9161
Object Class: Keter
Secure Containment Procedures: SCP-9161-B instances are to be tracked and quarantined at Provisional Site-9161 for research. For the time being, standard bacterial sterilizing and containment procedures are to be enacted. Under the circumstance that SCP-9161 becomes a worldwide pandemic, partnership with the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and other health organizations is to be achieved in order to develop a vaccine for SCP-9161. To protect the secrecy of the Veil in the event that this happens, a cover story is to be released and vaccine development is to be done in private.
Description: SCP-9161 is a bacterial disease spread by an anomalous strain of the bacteria Clostridium tetani sensoria, henceforth referred to as SCP-9161-A. The propagation of SCP-9161 is via expected bacterial infection means. Patients of SCP-9161, designated SCP-9161-B instances, first display symptoms typical of non-anomalous tetanus. SCP-9161-B instances then fail to develop the symptoms of later stages of tetanus and begin to develop symptoms only present in SCP-9161-A infection. Compiled below are the symptoms indicative of SCP-9161, ordered by typical progression:
- Acute idiomatic color-blindedness;
- Nystagmus, i.e. difficulty focusing on objects due to involuntary eye movements;
- Strabismus, i.e. uncoordination of both eyes;
- Partial blindness, followed by total blindness;
- Mild otosclerosis, i.e. the formation of an abnormal bone within the middle ear, treatable with hearing aids;
- Tinnitus;
- Sensorineural hearing loss;
- Progressive anosmia;
- Total tactile loss;
- Paresthesia.
It is of note however that this illness is not fatal. SCP-9161-B instances are alive during the entirety of its progression, and cause of death throughout all instances are always unrelated to their health condition.
Addendum 9161.1: Interview with SCP-9161-B Instances
Compiled below are interviews with SCP-9161-B at different stages of SCP-9161 progression. These interviews were conducted on 29/11/2025.
Interviewer: Dr. Andrew Nishimura
Interviewee: SCP-9161-B-1933
Notes: SCP-9161-B-1933 is a 25-year-old female. SCP-9161-B-1933 currently reports difficulty in her perception. Likely to have partial blindness.
<begin transcript>
Nishimura: Good morning. Can you describe your experience right now?
SCP-9161-B-1933: I... don't know how to describe it. My vision is going away, but I can feel that you're there. The shape of your words are still there.
Nishimura: Could you explain what "the shape of my words" are?
SCP-9161-B-1933: You don't know? Like... like how words tasted like something. Smelled like something. Looked like something. That sense is still there, Andrew. And you look like a field of wildflowers off in the countryside of Japan. I think you feel like you'd look like that. I know the color of that is yellow, like the sunlight shining on the wildflowers. Although I can't feel it, I know it is.
Nishimura: What color is the room you and I are in?
SCP-9161-B-1933: Uh... it feels like the wind blowing fiercely on a summer night. In the Everglades. It's... blueish. To white. Words have colors. They have their own smell.
Nishimura: It is. How did you know?
SCP-9161-B-1933: The shape of the room. <SCP-9161-B-1933 places her hand on the wall and drags it across.> It feels smooth. And smooth is blue to purple. Then, there's the temperature. It's frigid. That's blue. What your skin feels has a color.
SCP-9161-B-1933 hesitates to speak as she fidgets with her fingers on the table.
SCP-9161-B-1933: I can't see anything anymore.
<end transcript>
Post-interview notes: SCP-9161-B-1933 progressed to total blindness during the interview. It is likely that her partial blindness was already severe before the interview.
[CONTEXT UNKNOWN]
<begin transcript>
Nishimura is sitting in the archival room, hunched down and looking at a table full of stacks of paper. He picks one up and begins reading.
The contents of the paper are not of any use. He places it back, onto a different stack. He picks up another piece of paper, putting it to his nose now.
Nishimura: Smells like vanilla. And old people.
He touches to feel the texture of the paper. Dragging one finger up and down the paper, it eventually rips.
Nishimura: Friction. It's not like that was of any use anyway.
<end transcript>
Interviewer: Dr. Andrew Nishimura
Interviewee: SCP-9161-B-2596
Notes: SCP-9161-B-2596 is a 34-year-old male. SCP-9161-B-2596 reports difficulty hearing. It is likely to be caused by his otosclerosis.
<begin transcript>
Nishimura: Good morning. Could you describe what you're experiencing?
SCP-9161-B-2596 has his hearing aids on.
SCP-9161-B-2596: Well, I can't see you. I can barely hear you. You sound like raspberries.
Nishimura: What?
SCP-9161-B-2596: I don't know. It just... feels like you sound like that. Sweet? Raspberries are pink. I don't know if you're quite pink yet. Maybe blueberries, actually.
Nishimura: <chuckles> That doesn't explain anything!
SCP-9161-B-2596: Okay. You sound... sweet, but not the metaphorical one. Well it actually is a metaphor. And I can tell you're definitely blue. Or purple. I don't know. I just intuit it these days, after my vision loss.
Nishimura: I'll take that as a compliment.
SCP-9161-B-2596: I think I meant it as a compliment. I want to be complimented like a blueberry. Maybe not, strawberries sound better actually.
SCP-9161-B-2596 suddenly turns at the door.
Nishimura: Hm?
SCP-9161-B-2596: Is someone knocking?
Nishimura: No?
SCP-9161-B-2596: Oh. That's strange. The air made me think someone was. I thought I felt the vibrations in my jaw.
<end transcript>
Post-interview notes: "It seems that SCP-9161-B patients make up for their loss of senses using metaphors. Possible correlation to the Bouba-Kiki experiment?" — Dr. Andrew Nishimura
[CONTEXT UNKNOWN]
<begin transcript>
Nishimura is sitting at a table in the Site-17 cafeteria to eat. The cafeteria is empty, as it is not lunchtime. Save for the janitor cleaning the floor.
He is holding a jug of bleach, along with cleaner liquid.
Nishimura: <waves> Hey!
The janitor waves back.
Nishimura: Just the standard old job?
Janitor: Yeah. Well, would you rather clean up after one of those humanoid skips or the cafeteria floor?
Nishimura: <chuckles> I know which one I'd choose.
Janitor: Heh.
Nishimura: Nishimura: Man, smells like bleach... and artificial orange in here.
The janitor raises the jar of cleaner liquid to reveal that it is "citrus-fragrance"
Nishimura: Hah! I guessed correctly.
<end transcript>
Interviewer: Dr. Andrew Nishimura
Interviewee: SCP-9161-B-3036
Notes: SCP-9161-B-3036 is a 65-year-old female. SCP-9161-B-3036 presents herself with mild-to-severe anosmia.
<begin transcript>
Nishimura: Good afternoon. Could you tell me what you're feeling right now?
SCP-9161-B-3036: <chuckles> Honey, I can barely hear you, I can't see you, and now I can't smell you either. That last one sounds weird. Haven't done that in like 40 years.
Nishimura: Hmm... how would you describe your experience?
SCP-9161-B-3036: Black. Despair-black.
Nishimura: Explain further?
SCP-9161-B-3036: I don't know. I think everything feels like 137. I think that's interesting.
Nishimura: What?
SCP-9161-B-3036: It... it smells like bleach. It smells like the smell at a hospital. It smells like the hotel pool in July, with the janitor walking back and forth along the perimeter with his net and picking up leaves from the nearby Delonix regia tree. And the red flowers that fell into the pool as well. I can feel my retinas burning while I look at the blue-florescent lightning. I can feel my eyes singeing while looking at the sun and the chlorine attacking my retinas. My experience feels as saturated as blue and as dark as black.
Nishimura: Uh... What color is this pen that I'm holding <gestures to a light red pen, despite the fact that SCP-9161-B-3036 is blind>?
SCP-9161-B-3036: Honey, that's a stupid question. But it's... 0.25 in color. And my illness feels like 2:30:17 EST.
Nishimura: What?
SCP-9161-B-3036: 0.25 in color. It's... not quite there, not quite a half but it's not nothing either. Light. The color is unsaturated, isn't it?
Nishimura: ...how?
Nishimura drops the pen from the table.
SCP-9161-B-3036: Blue. No, that sounds more like red I think. I can feel the vibrations in my jaw.
<end transcript>
Post-interview notes: "Are they adopting synesthesia or some form of psychometry as a substitute for their loss of sense?" — Dr. Andrew Nishimura
[CONTEXT UNKNOWN]
<begin transcript>
![[IMAGE: CONTEXT UNKNOWN]](/scps/assets/9161-pic1.png)
[IMAGE: CONTEXT UNKNOWN]
The footage is slightly underexposed.
Nishimura is standing in what seems to be the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City, near the Thu Duc area. There is a tree, with some leafless branches. Afar there is a lot of unused land, wild wheat-like flowers and plants growing on it. The sky is cloudy with some spots of blue littering it. The sun shines brightly in the middle, saturating everything lightly around it.
Nishimura: ...man, this is beautiful.
A cool, brisk wind blows. It shakes the leaves on the trees, on the road and on the field.
Nishimura: This feels like a blue 'zero', in the font Roboto Mono. This feels like the Kelvin temperature scale. This feels like the sterilizing room in the Site-17 medical wing.
The wind continues to blow, shaking what remains of the half-leaved branches and causing some leaves to fall off.
Nishimura: You know, maybe I'm starting to get it.
Some seeds from a dandelion flower fly and appear on camera. Nishimura does not acknowledge this.
<end transcript>
Interviewer: Dr. Andrew Nishimura
Interviewee: SCP-9161-B-3607
Notes: SCP-9161-B-3607 is a 20-year-old male. SCP-9161-B-3036 presents with paresthesia and is at the final stage of SCP-9161 infection.
<begin transcript>
Nishimura: Good afternoon, can you describe what you are feeling right now?
SCP-9161-B-3607: Well, it should be nothing. I can't see you. I shouldn't be able to hear you. But I know you're there, from how your words vibrate in here <gestures to sternum>. That same pressure as when those big speakers play at a concert. Or a team-building event.
As for... tactile-wise, pins-and-needles. My skin feels like it's going to burst into thousands upon thousands of pins at any second now. But it isn't painful. Pain to me sounds like the number 13579. All... odd and... jaggly. If that is a word.
Nishimura: Hmm... <holding up a blue pen> could you tell me what color this is?
SCP-9161-B-3607: It feels like the pressure underneath 175 meters of mercury. In a submarine made of copper. It feels like a wet crayon at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. You feel like copper. Well, you probably don't have the color of copper. But... you feel like copper. My pain feels like osmium, then.
Nishimura: It's blue.
SCP-9161-B-3607: Oh. It feels like the Boeing 747, then.
Nishimura: <holding an apple> Now, could you tell me what this is and how it is?
SCP-9161-B-3607: It... feels like walking across a field of marshmallow plants. And occasionally feeling wolf spiders on your calf. It feels like the smell of nature on a summer day. It feels like how I imagine the redwood trees would be, although I've never been.
Nishimura: Can you continue?
SCP-9161-B-3607: ...it seems to be out of my mind now. Like a dream that knows it's supposed to be ending.
<end transcript>
Post-interview notes: N/A
Addendum 9161.2: Bouba-Kiki-like Experiments
Following recommendations by Dr. Andrew Nishimura, he conducted a scientific experiment to determine how SCP-9161-B instances categorize different senses. The control group was uniformly selected D-class, and the SCP-9161-B group is abbreviated as the "Variant" group of the experiment.
| Stimuli | Categories | Control | Variant | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| An apple | Red (I), Blue (II) | 100% selected to categorize the stimuli into category (I) | 90% selected (I), 9% (II), 1% refused | Of the variant group who refused to categorize the stimuli, they invariably cited a variant of "unable to detect the stimuli". |
| A black pen, Pilot G-02 | Black (I), Red (II), Brown (III), White (IV) | 100% selected (I) | 88% (I), 10% (IV), 1.8% (II), 0.1% (III), 0.1% refused | The cohort which refused to categorize the stimuli cited the same reasoning as the previous experiment. |
| Dr. Andrew Nishimura | Green (I), Yellow (II), Blue (III), Purple (IV), Pink (V) | 44% (IV), 24% (III), 21% (I), 0.75% (II), 0.25% (V) | 63% (III), 26% (IV), 1% refused | "Similar reasoning to experiments above. I guess I'm blueish-purplish. I'll take that as a compliment!" — Dr. Andrew Nishimura |
| The joint concept of jewelry and pain | Gold (I), Silver (II), Osmium (III) | 95% (I), 5% (II) | 99% (III), 1% refused | "Same reasoning as to why they didn't want to categorize it. Osmium pain is... fuckin' weird. I have zero idea what they are talking about. When I asked them about it, they said that it's because 'it sinks deep' and that 'pins and needles feel like static and static feels like metal'. What?" — Dr. Andrew Nishimura |
| The feeling of blowing a dandelion | Happy (I), Pensive (II), Nostalgic (III), Numbness (IV) | 56% (III), 44% (I) | 100% (IV), none refused | "This is weird as hell." — Dr. Andrew Nishimura |
Addendum 9161.3[X]: [CONTEXT UNKNOWN]
<begin transcript>
![[IMAGE: CONTEXT UNKNOWN]](/scps/assets/9161-pic2.png)
[IMAGE: CONTEXT UNKNOWN]
The recording shows a vast field, full of growing dandelion globes. The globes are wispy, white, with hundreds of little buds on it. In the background is a body of water, with a mountain range behind that. Afar are sparse palm trees, mixing with the indiscernible mass of greenery.
I miss these. Where did they go? I miss blowing on one of these dandelion flowers and watching the buds spread out into the wind. I miss occasionally seeing those buds fly into the window of my house.
[CONTEXT UNKNOWN] sighs, before he blows on one dandelion globe
It branches into hundreds of minuscule buds, picked up by the wind which carry them away. What used to be a globe is now merely the core of it.
The buds that came off of the globe are nowhere to be seen. It is unknown whether the buds demanifested or are far too small to notice.
...Man.
[CONTEXT UNKNOWN]'s breathing is calm. His affect appears relaxed as well. The scene seems to stay still in the moment, barring the occasional sway of the leaves of the dandelion flowers and that of the greenery behind.
The sky continues to be blue, as the mountains continue to stay put. They are unmoving.
[CONTEXT UNKNOWN] follows, as he continues to stay still. Oscillations of the stems are the only thing moving, along with the wind picking up the dandelion particles. And everything is still.
Like a dream that knows it is never ending.
If I ever remembered how that felt.
<end transcript>
Addendum 9161.3: Continued Interviews
Attached below is a continued interview with SCP-9161-B-3036. She was chosen due to her cooperation as shown in previous interviews. This interview was conducted on 17/12/2025.
Interviewer: Dr. Andrew Nishimura
Interviewee: SCP-9161-B-3036
Notes: SCP-9161-B-3036 is a 65-year-old female, previously interviewed when she was at the anosmic stage of SCP-9161 infection. SCP-9161-B-3036 presents with paresthesia and is at the final stage of SCP-9161 infection.
<begin transcript>
Nishimura: Hey, how are you doing?
SCP-9161-B-3036: Terrible, honey <chuckles>. I can't even feel anything anymore. You know how I used to say that the walls felt blue and the number zero was red? No. That just... doesn't register as anything anymore to me.
Nishimura: Oh... sorry for that. Anything else?
SCP-9161-B-3036: There's nothing more. What do you want me to say, honey? Everything feels like pins and needles. If I ever remembered how that felt.
Nishimura: <picking up a red pen> What color is this pen, if you don't mind answering?
SCP-9161-B-3036 hesitates to respond, seeming to not know the answer.
SCP-9161-B-3036: Uhh...
Nishimura: Take your time, it's okay.
SCP-9161-B-3036: ...why can't I feel anyth—
The window suddenly slams shut, due to the heavy wind outside. The sound reverberates in the room. SCP-9161-B-3036 does not notice the commotion.
Nishimura: Fuck!
SCP-9161-B-3036: —ing? Honey, what?
Nishimura: The window?
SCP-9161-B-3036: What?
Nishimura: I thought you would've been able to "feel the vibration in your jaw".
SCP-9161-B-3036: Sorry. Is the pen the color that I used to say was copper? Hang on, which was that? And what's copper? What does copper feel like? I think it's metal, but then how is it?
<end transcript>
Post-interview notes: "Are they losing synesthesia too?!" — Dr. Andrew Nishimura
Further interviews with any SCP-9161-B subjects proved to be invariably unremarkable as all subjects displayed insubordination and refusal to answer or interact with Nishimura.