WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.599 --> 00:00:04.440 “Dragon Snails, Dragon Snails, Dragon Snails! 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:10.170 What happens when you cross a dragon with a snail? Do we have to spell it out for you? 00:00:10.170 --> 00:00:12.080 DRAGON SNAILS! 00:00:12.080 --> 00:00:18.840 The latest fiery hot kids trend from Dr Wondertainment that will leave your house in ashes. Just 00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:21.490 kidding! But seriously, watch out for that… 00:00:21.490 --> 00:00:25.609 Does your kid love Pokemon but hate the fact that they aren’t real and don’t pose any 00:00:25.609 --> 00:00:29.810 danger to their health and well-being? How boring! 00:00:29.810 --> 00:00:35.450 With Dragon Snails, you’ll never have a dull moment again. They may move slowly, but 00:00:35.450 --> 00:00:40.600 their fire moves quick. Just one little puff and they’ll get you a fireball big enough 00:00:40.600 --> 00:00:46.430 to scorch your eyebrows off or start a modest logfire. The perfect Christmas gift to keep 00:00:46.430 --> 00:00:48.400 your house warm all winter. 00:00:48.400 --> 00:00:53.260 We’ve got green ones, we’ve got blue ones, we’ve got stripy ones. Breed them to start 00:00:53.260 --> 00:00:58.989 your own little empire of shell-dwelling hell-raisers. Just remember, always keep a fire extinguisher 00:00:58.989 --> 00:01:00.489 close by. 00:01:00.489 --> 00:01:01.910 Start your collection today! 00:01:01.910 --> 00:01:05.580 Dr. Wondertainment is not legally, morally, or financially responsible for any injuries, 00:01:05.580 --> 00:01:09.000 death, or property damage resulting from the unsafe use of Dragon-Snails™ or any other 00:01:09.000 --> 00:01:10.000 Dr. Wondertainment products.” 00:01:10.000 --> 00:01:11.000 * 00:01:11.000 --> 00:01:14.600 The intern leans in close to the glass, bored out of his mind. 00:01:14.600 --> 00:01:18.110 When he’d joined the Foundation 6 months ago they’d told him that he would be key 00:01:18.110 --> 00:01:22.920 in securing, containing, and protecting some of the most incredible anomalies the world 00:01:22.920 --> 00:01:27.439 had ever seen. The reality of his day to day is very disappointing. 00:01:27.439 --> 00:01:30.600 He’s on snail detail. 00:01:30.600 --> 00:01:36.760 Contained in a 5m x 5m x 5m plexiglass terrarium are twelve dragon snails. At first, he’d 00:01:36.760 --> 00:01:42.329 been so excited by the concept. A dragon and a snail mixed together? Genius. 00:01:42.329 --> 00:01:47.049 Until he realized that they actually just spend most of their days acting like snails, 00:01:47.049 --> 00:01:52.229 they very slowly slime their way around the walls or retract into their shells. Very occasionally 00:01:52.229 --> 00:01:56.350 two of them would get into an argument and spurt a bit of fire. But the snails were all 00:01:56.350 --> 00:02:02.189 so small that a puff of fire was about all they could manage. Come back a few hours later, 00:02:02.189 --> 00:02:06.270 and you might see another one, in the meantime they needed a nice long nap and a bite of 00:02:06.270 --> 00:02:07.270 lettuce. 00:02:07.270 --> 00:02:10.970 That’s his job, by the way. Lettuce duty. 00:02:10.970 --> 00:02:15.959 Once a week, it’s up to him to drop in 3kg of iceberg lettuce. His nickname around the 00:02:15.959 --> 00:02:21.650 Site quickly became Lettuce Boy. In the other rooms, he can hear demons from other dimensions 00:02:21.650 --> 00:02:27.400 roaring in fury and occasionally the facility's power will dip out as a phase-shifting cyber 00:02:27.400 --> 00:02:31.670 ghost drains half the grid’s power this side of the Mississippi. It’s not unusual 00:02:31.670 --> 00:02:35.890 to see agents and researchers running through the hallways carrying futuristic alien weapons 00:02:35.890 --> 00:02:38.190 and talking of Keter-level threats. 00:02:38.190 --> 00:02:41.590 Meanwhile, he’s Lettuce Boy. 00:02:41.590 --> 00:02:45.920 About once a month, a couple of the snails will get it on. Pretty X-rated stuff, not 00:02:45.920 --> 00:02:50.110 appropriate to show here but feel free to let your imagination run wild. 00:02:50.110 --> 00:02:54.190 Whenever that happens it’s up to Lettuce Boy to mark a tally in his notebook, retrieve 00:02:54.190 --> 00:02:58.650 the egg, and transport it to the biological wing for freezing. He’s pretty sure the 00:02:58.650 --> 00:03:02.880 senior researchers have forgotten about the dragon snails entirely given that they’ve 00:03:02.880 --> 00:03:07.459 got several hundred in frozen storage at this point with no real goal as to what to do with 00:03:07.459 --> 00:03:12.239 them. It stinks of some researcher kicking the can down the road to the next person to 00:03:12.239 --> 00:03:14.269 figure out what to do with. 00:03:14.269 --> 00:03:17.790 As if on cue, one of the snails pops out an egg. 00:03:17.790 --> 00:03:22.989 He lifts the lid of the enclosure, leans over, and scoops up the egg. The mother lets out 00:03:22.989 --> 00:03:27.750 a territorial puff of fire at him, enough to burn his fingertips. Another perk of the 00:03:27.750 --> 00:03:33.000 job is he’s permanently got burnt hands. The flameproof gloves are on the way apparently. 00:03:33.000 --> 00:03:35.560 They’ll get here any week now. 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:40.010 The floor rumbles as Lettuce Boy dutifully carries the egg along the corridor. A door 00:03:40.010 --> 00:03:45.010 to his left bursts open as a bus with spider’s legs tries desperately to crawl its way to 00:03:45.010 --> 00:03:50.989 freedom. One on his right dematerializes completely, leaving an empty void of psychedelic colors. 00:03:50.989 --> 00:03:56.519 One ahead of him hangs wide open with a creepy presence just out of sight around the corner. 00:03:56.519 --> 00:04:00.760 Lettuce Boy turns away from that one heading along the biological wing. He can hear tiny 00:04:00.760 --> 00:04:05.370 Play-Doh soldiers waging war in the coffee room again. A swarm of agents try their best 00:04:05.370 --> 00:04:06.600 to break up the conflict. 00:04:06.600 --> 00:04:11.489 Why can’t he join their team? It’s just not fair. 00:04:11.489 --> 00:04:16.109 Lettuce Boy goes into the room with the giant freezer and opens the glass door. Frozen air 00:04:16.109 --> 00:04:20.739 curls up to meet him. Hundreds of eggs just sitting there. They’re all different patterns 00:04:20.739 --> 00:04:27.919 and colors. A few are even translucent. He adds his own little egg to the pile and sighs. 00:04:27.919 --> 00:04:30.990 Is this really all his job is going to be? 00:04:30.990 --> 00:04:32.620 He hits the light switch on his way out. 00:04:32.620 --> 00:04:38.550 Except, of course, it wasn’t the light switch at all. He’d missed and hit the power on 00:04:38.550 --> 00:04:39.550 the freezer. 00:04:39.550 --> 00:04:43.650 But Lettuce Boy didn’t know that, he just wandered back down the busy hallways, ignoring 00:04:43.650 --> 00:04:48.639 the sounds of chaos all around him, wondering when his job was ever going to get interesting. 00:04:48.639 --> 00:04:49.639 * 00:04:49.639 --> 00:04:50.639 “What’s wrong with you?” 00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:54.979 That’s never a good way to start your work day. Lettuce Boy turns around to see one of 00:04:54.979 --> 00:04:59.090 the agents standing in the doorway scowling at him. He asks what’s wrong. 00:04:59.090 --> 00:05:04.000 “Your stupid snail dragon things. You’ve got to keep a better eye on them. One escaped.” 00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:09.960 Lettuce Boy’s shocked. He rushes over to the enclosure and counts. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 00:05:09.960 --> 00:05:13.340 12. They’re all here, what’s this agent talking about. 00:05:13.340 --> 00:05:18.160 “I killed it. Stepped on it after it burned my ankle. Now I’ve gotta go clean my shoe, 00:05:18.160 --> 00:05:19.530 thanks a lot.” 00:05:19.530 --> 00:05:24.210 Lettuce Boy counts the dragon snails again. Twelve, just like he’d thought. What was 00:05:24.210 --> 00:05:28.229 this agent on about? He pokes his head around the corner into the corridor to call after 00:05:28.229 --> 00:05:33.139 the disappearing agent, but stops himself almost immediately. Smeared all along the 00:05:33.139 --> 00:05:39.900 wall next to his face is the unmistakable slime of a fresh snail trail. Not just one. 00:05:39.900 --> 00:05:44.729 How many are there? They crisscross each other, snaking their way behind pot plants and up 00:05:44.729 --> 00:05:45.900 into the vents. 00:05:45.900 --> 00:05:51.550 Lettuce Boy takes off in a sprint in the direction of the freezer room. Surely they haven’t… 00:05:51.550 --> 00:05:55.150 He hears an accusatory voice asking him where he thinks he’s going. 00:05:55.150 --> 00:06:00.460 It’s the Head Researcher at the site. Lettuce Boy skids to a halt and tries to compose himself. 00:06:00.460 --> 00:06:06.039 “Running in the corridors is strictly prohibited unless in case of an emergency… is there 00:06:06.039 --> 00:06:08.289 an emergency right now?” 00:06:08.289 --> 00:06:12.990 Lettuce Boy shakes his head violently. No problem here, none at all, everything is totally 00:06:12.990 --> 00:06:13.990 fine. 00:06:13.990 --> 00:06:17.360 The Head Researcher asks him if he’s delivering dragon snail eggs to be frozen. 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:18.889 He shakes his head again. 00:06:18.889 --> 00:06:23.699 “Then you have no reason to be going to the freezer room. Back to your post, or I’ll 00:06:23.699 --> 00:06:25.430 be writing you up.” 00:06:25.430 --> 00:06:30.370 With no other option, Lettuce Boy turns around and slowly walks back to the snail room, feeling 00:06:30.370 --> 00:06:35.199 a pair of beady eyes drilling into the back of his head the whole way. All he can do is 00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:40.139 cross his fingers and pray she doesn’t see the slime on the walls around the corner. 00:06:40.139 --> 00:06:44.530 As soon as he’s out of sight, he ducks behind a plant and tries to devise a plan. He needs 00:06:44.530 --> 00:06:48.490 to get back into the freezer room some way or another. There’s a chance only a couple 00:06:48.490 --> 00:06:52.100 of the dragon snails have thawed enough to hatch. Maybe if he can switch the freezer 00:06:52.100 --> 00:06:55.120 back on soon enough, it’ll all be fine. 00:06:55.120 --> 00:06:59.960 One of the snail trails guides his eyes up a wall to a vent with a couple of loose screws. 00:06:59.960 --> 00:07:02.540 He’s always wanted to do this. 00:07:02.540 --> 00:07:07.810 Quick as a flash, the vent cover is off, and he’s inside, crawling along and sneezing 00:07:07.810 --> 00:07:12.460 every few seconds from his dust allergies - He’s not exactly John McClane from Die 00:07:12.460 --> 00:07:17.030 Hard, but the comparison definitely crosses his mind. He also can’t help but peer through 00:07:17.030 --> 00:07:18.780 some of the grates. 00:07:18.780 --> 00:07:24.940 In one, he sees a portal to hell. It’s enormous and pulsing with power. Every now and then, 00:07:24.940 --> 00:07:29.310 a demon’s hand will reach through and claw around, trying to grab onto a human and drag 00:07:29.310 --> 00:07:33.970 them to their demise. And what’s that on the ground? Oh no! 00:07:33.970 --> 00:07:40.740 There is a singular dragon snail boldly - if slowly - squelching its way towards the portal. 00:07:40.740 --> 00:07:45.360 He has to stop it. Who knows what will happen to it on the other side? But it’s too late. 00:07:45.360 --> 00:07:49.520 The little snail has disappeared through the open portal. 00:07:49.520 --> 00:07:52.220 That’ll have to be a problem for later. 00:07:52.220 --> 00:07:56.479 He crawls on, and in a couple of allergy-ridden minutes, he tumbles onto the floor of the 00:07:56.479 --> 00:07:59.720 freezer room. He sits up and looks around. 00:07:59.720 --> 00:08:02.120 It’s not good. 00:08:02.120 --> 00:08:06.699 The walls are all scorched black, there are snail trails everywhere, and little newborn 00:08:06.699 --> 00:08:11.190 dragon snails of all shapes and colors are all making their way to the doors. 00:08:11.190 --> 00:08:16.210 He rushes over to the open freezer and peers inside. It’s not so bad after all! 00:08:16.210 --> 00:08:20.870 There are still close to three hundred eggs sitting there unhatched. He lets out an involuntary 00:08:20.870 --> 00:08:25.460 laugh, maybe it’s not so bad after all. Maybe he won’t get in too much trouble. 00:08:25.460 --> 00:08:32.360 But the sound of his laugh has done something. All around him, tiny shells start to crack. 00:08:32.360 --> 00:08:37.700 Wisps of smoke curl out of holes. Tiny dragon heads appear, followed closely by tiny snail 00:08:37.700 --> 00:08:38.970 bodies and shells. 00:08:38.970 --> 00:08:42.890 No, no, no! They’re all hatching! Every single one of them. 00:08:42.890 --> 00:08:47.440 One by one, every dragon snail rummages its way out of its shell and gives a triumphant 00:08:47.440 --> 00:08:53.240 puff of fire, looking at him through bleary eyes. Looking at him…? 00:08:53.240 --> 00:08:57.380 His heart sinks. He’d forgotten this part of his training. It had never come up because 00:08:57.380 --> 00:09:00.320 they hadn’t hatched any newborns in his time. 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:05.440 Dragon Snails imprint. Just like baby ducklings, they attach themselves to the first living 00:09:05.440 --> 00:09:11.630 thing they see, thinking it's their mother. And as Lettuce Boy looks around the room, 00:09:11.630 --> 00:09:16.769 he suddenly has the dawning realization that he’s got a whole lot of children now. He 00:09:16.769 --> 00:09:20.170 isn’t ready for this kind of responsibility! What if he wanted to travel? To see Europe? 00:09:20.170 --> 00:09:24.560 To get a motorcycle? He couldn’t do any of this now, he’s got children to take care 00:09:24.560 --> 00:09:27.200 of. It’s all too much, he needs a minute. 00:09:27.200 --> 00:09:32.730 But at that exact moment, there’s a cough from behind him. The Head Researcher stands 00:09:32.730 --> 00:09:40.399 in the doorway, arms crossed, glowering. In unison, Lettuce Boy and all turn around sheepishly, 00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:43.790 knowing they are in big big trouble. 00:09:43.790 --> 00:09:49.360 But as the Head Researcher starts to shout, something peculiar happens. The dragon snails 00:09:49.360 --> 00:09:55.140 all start to slowly but surely creep over to the intern’s boss. The more she yells, 00:09:55.140 --> 00:10:00.160 the more dragon snails join the crowd congregating at her feet. Her tirade gets louder and louder, 00:10:00.160 --> 00:10:01.820 culminating in a… 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:03.000 “You’re fired!” 00:10:03.000 --> 00:10:08.510 As soon as the words leave her mouth, a fireball fills the room. All at once, all of the dragon 00:10:08.510 --> 00:10:13.920 snails gathered around her spew out as much fire as they can manage. On their own, they’ve 00:10:13.920 --> 00:10:18.329 never been much of a threat, but a few hundred of them going off at the same moment in a 00:10:18.329 --> 00:10:24.030 confined space creates a ball of fire so bright and hot that Lettuce Boy throws a hand in 00:10:24.030 --> 00:10:26.010 front of his face and falls backwards. 00:10:26.010 --> 00:10:30.800 His hair is smoldering a bit, so he desperately pats at it with his sleeve while staring at 00:10:30.800 --> 00:10:36.430 the spot where his boss used to be. Now, all that remains is a pile of ash and a pair of 00:10:36.430 --> 00:10:37.430 shoes. 00:10:37.430 --> 00:10:40.200 “I’m definitely getting fired now.” 00:10:40.200 --> 00:10:44.640 Lettuce Boy runs out into the hallway, peering around the corners to see if anyone is coming. 00:10:44.640 --> 00:10:49.200 Very slowly, an army of fire-breathing snails slowly follows him, leaving what can only 00:10:49.200 --> 00:10:53.120 be described as an ungodly amount of slime on the floor behind them. 00:10:53.120 --> 00:10:55.889 “No, no, no, go back! Back in the room. Hide!” 00:10:55.889 --> 00:11:00.120 But the dragon snails just keep following him, making little hooting sounds as they 00:11:00.120 --> 00:11:03.870 go. This whole imprint thing is clearly no joke. 00:11:03.870 --> 00:11:07.959 He needs to get them into the terrarium with the original twelve. Once they’re all contained, 00:11:07.959 --> 00:11:12.480 he’ll figure out what to do next. Will they all fit in there? He’s not so sure, but 00:11:12.480 --> 00:11:14.790 it’s his only option right now. 00:11:14.790 --> 00:11:20.010 All of a sudden, a door in front of him bursts open, and out rush a flood of agents and researchers, 00:11:20.010 --> 00:11:24.970 running for their lives. A wave of fire chases after them, burning out and dissipating in 00:11:24.970 --> 00:11:30.160 the hallway. They’ve all just come from the room with the hell portal in it. The same 00:11:30.160 --> 00:11:35.350 hell portal that the little dragon snail had entered just a short time ago… 00:11:35.350 --> 00:11:41.260 And sure enough, a colossal, painfully slow, head appears around the door. The head of 00:11:41.260 --> 00:11:47.430 a dragon on the body of a snail. Only now, instead of being pocket-sized, it can barely 00:11:47.430 --> 00:11:53.760 fit through the doorway. Its eyes burn with hellfire as it lets out a thunderous roar. 00:11:53.760 --> 00:11:57.899 That snail must have imprinted on something on the other side of that portal, and we all 00:11:57.899 --> 00:12:00.650 know who rules the roost in hell. 00:12:00.650 --> 00:12:05.990 This isn’t just a dragon snail anymore. It’s a Satan snail now. 00:12:05.990 --> 00:12:09.620 Lettuce Boy turns around and runs for his life, as do the rest of the personnel in the 00:12:09.620 --> 00:12:13.800 building. The fortunate thing about being chased by a hell snail is that you don’t 00:12:13.800 --> 00:12:19.360 have to run very fast or go very far to get away. It’s not exactly a high-speed chase. 00:12:19.360 --> 00:12:23.030 He crashes through a doorway and turns to address his dragon snail army, who are one 00:12:23.030 --> 00:12:25.730 by one catching up with him as fast as they can. 00:12:25.730 --> 00:12:27.800 “What do I do?” 00:12:27.800 --> 00:12:32.290 The dragon snails just hoot happily up at him, enjoying all of the chaos. He needs a 00:12:32.290 --> 00:12:37.490 fireball and a big one to kill the hell-snail. Except all of his companions look very tired 00:12:37.490 --> 00:12:42.050 from the fireball that killed his boss (a problem for later). If they were in their 00:12:42.050 --> 00:12:45.820 terrarium, he’d give them a head of lettuce and a few hours nap, but they don’t have 00:12:45.820 --> 00:12:49.680 that kind of time. There’s only one thing for it. 00:12:49.680 --> 00:12:55.930 Lettuce Boy throws open the cupboard. 574 dragon snail eyes stare in wonder. It’s 00:12:55.930 --> 00:13:03.300 beautiful, it’s glorious, it’s… lettuce. Kilos and kilos of lettuce. Their mouths hang 00:13:03.300 --> 00:13:08.130 open in ravenous excitement as Lettuce Boy lives up to his name, shredding head after 00:13:08.130 --> 00:13:10.640 head of the crisp green vegetable. 00:13:10.640 --> 00:13:15.399 Tiny mouths crunch and swallow as fast as they can as the ominous sound of fat, heavy 00:13:15.399 --> 00:13:20.360 slaps fills the room. A giant shadow falls across the doorway. 00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:24.850 And then the head of the dragon appears, its growth supercharged in the furnace of the 00:13:24.850 --> 00:13:31.510 underworld, its eyes driven mad with evil. The shell must weigh as much as a small car. 00:13:31.510 --> 00:13:37.350 The hell-snail turns its head to him and gives a wet, oozy roar that sprays snail slime all 00:13:37.350 --> 00:13:39.180 over Lettuce Boy’s face. 00:13:39.180 --> 00:13:44.240 He wipes a sleeve across his eyes and clenches his fists, determined. 00:13:44.240 --> 00:13:47.330 “Dragon snails… ATTACK!” 00:13:47.330 --> 00:13:48.330 … 00:13:48.330 --> 00:13:52.199 A couple of the snails cough. One manages to splutter a few sparks. Most of them are 00:13:52.199 --> 00:13:55.320 still enjoying their lettuce so much they haven’t even noticed their aggressor in 00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:59.010 the doorway yet, happily chomping away with gummy little mouths. 00:13:59.010 --> 00:14:04.240 The hell-snail rears up and opens its mouth wide. Lettuce Boy closes his eyes and takes 00:14:04.240 --> 00:14:10.130 a deep breath. If this is how he dies, so be it. He’s ready for the fire that’s 00:14:10.130 --> 00:14:11.620 about to consume him. 00:14:11.620 --> 00:14:13.430 Any second now. 00:14:13.430 --> 00:14:15.009 He’s ready. 00:14:15.009 --> 00:14:16.009 Just… 00:14:16.009 --> 00:14:21.320 He opens a hesitant eye. The hell-snail’s mouth is still wide open. Its eyes are staring 00:14:21.320 --> 00:14:26.940 not at him, but at what’s in his hand. A head of lettuce. 00:14:26.940 --> 00:14:30.670 Lettuce Boy tosses the leafy vegetable into the hell-snail’s mouth, and it crunches 00:14:30.670 --> 00:14:35.760 down on it, happily swallowing it in just a couple of bites. It opens its mouth. Another. 00:14:35.760 --> 00:14:41.210 He tosses a second, then a third and a fourth. By this point, the hell-snail doesn’t look 00:14:41.210 --> 00:14:46.440 so demonic anymore. It just looks like a giant dragon snail. In fact, it almost looks like 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:47.670 it’s smiling. 00:14:47.670 --> 00:14:52.430 Maybe that’s the moral of the story. Sometimes those that we think are the big villains in 00:14:52.430 --> 00:14:57.760 our lives, might just be a bit hungry. Lettuce Boy smiles at a good day’s work. 00:14:57.760 --> 00:15:01.280 Then, he remembers that he incinerated his boss. 00:15:01.280 --> 00:15:02.280 * 00:15:02.280 --> 00:15:06.741 SCP-111, while referred to as dragon snails colloquially by Foundation personnel, are 00:15:06.741 --> 00:15:11.170 not actually snails at all. They appear to be an artificial invertebrate species that 00:15:11.170 --> 00:15:15.560 have been genetically designed to have the appearance of a snail and a dragon. If you 00:15:15.560 --> 00:15:19.320 take a closer look at their DNA structures, you quickly find that they don’t really 00:15:19.320 --> 00:15:23.430 belong to either family when compared to the snail and dragon DNA that the Foundation has 00:15:23.430 --> 00:15:24.800 on hand. 00:15:24.800 --> 00:15:29.240 When fully grown, the adult dragon snails weigh in at roughly 300 grams, with a typical 00:15:29.240 --> 00:15:34.190 length of about 20cm from the top of their head to the tip of their tail. So let’s 00:15:34.190 --> 00:15:40.949 start with the head. Aside from fire-breathing, this is the most dragon-like part of SCP-111. 00:15:40.949 --> 00:15:45.540 Unlike snails, they have quite advanced eyes that don’t live on the tips of optic tentacles, 00:15:45.540 --> 00:15:49.990 as well as small horn-like structures that contain cartilage. Their mouths have complex 00:15:49.990 --> 00:15:54.680 vertebrate-jaw structures as well, allowing them to take larger mouthfuls and open wide, 00:15:54.680 --> 00:15:56.800 ready to breathe out a spurt of fire. 00:15:56.800 --> 00:16:01.010 Internally, they are very different from your average snail. They are warm-blooded and lay 00:16:01.010 --> 00:16:07.709 eggs that have hard shells of varying patterns and colors. And, of course, there is the fire, 00:16:07.709 --> 00:16:08.709 too. 00:16:08.709 --> 00:16:12.550 SCP-111 instances have hollow sacs just below their jaws in which they store methane collected 00:16:12.550 --> 00:16:18.421 as a digestive byproduct. While most animals would eject methane as a waste gas, the dragons 00:16:18.421 --> 00:16:23.449 snails store it as a fuel source. A complex structure housed inside their trachea acts 00:16:23.449 --> 00:16:28.209 as a kind of flint and steel, so when they choose to exhale the methane gas from their 00:16:28.209 --> 00:16:32.800 jaw sacs along with a small spark, they can create quite an impressive fireball for their 00:16:32.800 --> 00:16:33.800 size. 00:16:33.800 --> 00:16:38.130 Due to the size of the dragon snails, this fire-breathing is a short-lived affair. They 00:16:38.130 --> 00:16:43.370 can usually only manage one puff of flame before exhausting their fuel supplies. As 00:16:43.370 --> 00:16:48.470 such, it is rarely used in physical self-defense and acts more as a warning, much like a frill 00:16:48.470 --> 00:16:53.110 neck lizard deploys its frills to warn away predators or rivals. 00:16:53.110 --> 00:16:57.890 As the methane supply is built up from the digestive process, SCP-111 has to have an 00:16:57.890 --> 00:17:03.230 extended break before it is capable of producing more. They must digest more food and give 00:17:03.230 --> 00:17:07.760 their bodies time and rest to produce sufficient quantities of methane before they are ready 00:17:07.760 --> 00:17:09.780 to ‘fire’ again. 00:17:09.780 --> 00:17:14.589 Another quirk of their jaw structure and internal anatomy is that, unlike regular snails, dragon 00:17:14.589 --> 00:17:19.860 snails are capable of vocalizations. They make gentle hooting noises. Studies are ongoing 00:17:19.860 --> 00:17:23.910 as to the purpose of these hoots though it is possible that they are used as a rudimentary 00:17:23.910 --> 00:17:25.800 form of communication. 00:17:25.800 --> 00:17:31.100 SCP-111 shows much higher intelligence than any known snail species. The fact that they 00:17:31.100 --> 00:17:35.980 can imprint onto other animals shows a level of awareness of the concept of a parent and 00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:40.320 the ability to distinguish that organism from others. They also appear to have a kind of 00:17:40.320 --> 00:17:45.490 social hierarchy as to who gets to have the best leaves of lettuce, but again, research 00:17:45.490 --> 00:17:47.049 is ongoing. 00:17:47.049 --> 00:17:52.460 Little is known about the origins of SCP-111. The twelve instances contained by the Foundation 00:17:52.460 --> 00:17:56.590 were received in an anonymous delivery to a Foundation shell establishment. Despite 00:17:56.590 --> 00:18:01.380 the best efforts of various agents, no one has been able to track down the sender. 00:18:01.380 --> 00:18:05.950 All that is known about their origins comes from a note left in the box. Apparently some 00:18:05.950 --> 00:18:10.770 kind of advertisement for them as if they are a product made by Dr Wondertainment. 00:18:10.770 --> 00:18:15.030 For now, though, they are happy. The terrarium has been expanded greatly to accommodate all 00:18:15.030 --> 00:18:19.890 of the new dragon snails, the lettuce rains from the sky on a daily basis, keeping them 00:18:19.890 --> 00:18:25.830 happy. One giant snail with a fiery personality lives in the corner with a near-constant supply 00:18:25.830 --> 00:18:30.150 of food to keep it docile, and the intern who was responsible for recapturing all of 00:18:30.150 --> 00:18:32.660 the escapees has received a promotion. 00:18:32.660 --> 00:18:37.309 It’s just such a shame that the Head of Research was killed by that hell-snail before 00:18:37.309 --> 00:18:38.680 anyone could save her… 00:18:38.680 --> 00:18:43.870 Check out the Dr. Bob Patreon and become a junior researcher today! Now go and watch 00:18:43.870 --> 00:18:49.799 another entry from the files of Dr. Bob, like SCP-1550 Dr. Wondertainment's Custom Pets 00:18:49.799 --> 00:18:51.990 - Top 12 SCP Animals.