I wish I could see you smile again.
xexnoncores
SCP-9117: Grief Is A Language That Defies Words by xexnoncores
Item#: 9117
Level1
Containment Class:
safe
Secondary Class:
{$secondary-class}
Disruption Class:
dark
Risk Class:
warning
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-9117 is to be stored in a standard anomalous containment locker at Site-90, with no less than two live camera feeds active at all times. All testing is to be performed while accompanied by at least one on-site psychologist for the purposes of mitigating SCP-9117’s effects.
Description: SCP-9117 is a small ceramic teapot with various engravings upon its surface. When static, these engravings resemble 15th century Arabic calligraphy, although the characters do not correspond to any known modern or extinct language. The teapot is worn, and has several cracks around its rim which prevents a lid from being placed on it.
Upon direct visual contact with a sapient being, SCP-9117’s surface will begin to warp. Ceramic will shift and rearrange itself into coherent Urdu characters, wrapping around the entirety of the object in a visually striking manner. When this process is complete, the viewer will experience feelings of nostalgia, melancholy, heartbreak, and desolation, often to physically debilitating degrees. At this stage, SCP-9117’s surface will read either یہ ناانصافی ہے or مجھے آپ کی ہنسی بہت یاد اتی ہے before a black liquid begins to flood the base and overflow from the spout, evaporating instantly on contact with air. If this liquid is touched, it will burn the skin, similar to sulfuric acid.
Once SCP-9117 activates, it will complete its cycle regardless of whether eye contact is maintained by the subject. This cycle takes approximately three minutes. The emotional distress SCP-9117 induces will not subside without some form of professional counseling.
Discovery: SCP-9117 was recovered during a raid on a suspected GoI-012 safe house in Karachi, Pakistan, where several contractors of PoI-012-06 were thought to be involved in a large-scale anomaly trafficking ring. Instead, the safe house contained dozens of anart installations and damaged Mughal artifacts slated for museum display, mostly within various South Asian communities. These artifacts were a collection that once belonged to Shah Jahan, depicting the devotion he had towards his dead wife Mumtaz Mahal.
Addendum.9117.01: On 08/07/2025, SCP-9117’s surface morphed into a previously unseen form. As its cycle completed, it displayed the following text unaltered across itself before returning to an inert state.
To Dad, علی —
From R.
I know this poem is in English
But trying to write
In anything else
feels like beauty wasted, haunted
Each letter curling in on
Graveyards, morgues
The crashed car
Where they took your body out and told me
Eight years old, in an empty house
“He felt no pain”.
“He was so noble”—
Urdu, mother tongue
Arabic, formally taught
I feel a knot in my stomach reading
Those winding letters on papers I
Have thrown out of my reach
Aping swans, peacocks, songbirds above
Each stroke a wing stretching far into
The sunsets I can’t share with you
The meals I can’t eat with you
The time we’ll never have—
You raised me well, better than most
But I wonder
If I can really be called your son
When I can no longer read your name
Without weeping.