SCP-7462 - SCP Foundation (2024)

"Willem die Madocke/vele bouke maekte." Opening lines to "Van Den Vos Reynaerde" in the Comburger manuscript, modified in the 1400s. The first known redaction of the existence of SCP-7462.

The Red Lord of Alagadda, depicted as a fox in the Trechter Manuscript.

Dramatis Personae

Agent Anna Dubois; newly in charge and taking the lead.
Agent Jan Claessen; a man who hides a spirited need.
Dr. Yasmin Merhout; not present just yet,
but soon she will join our travelling set.

Dr. Martin Cortoys; a scholar with knowledge to depart.
‘tis With him that our story will start.

The Agents travel to Belgium, to the University of Ghent, to retrieve Madocke, which holds anomalous content.

Facing them is Cortoys, greying and ponderous. He’d seen the vision, the shores of the wonderous. His words, covered by courtly display; let us hear what he has to say!

CORTOYS: – still can't believe I got to read it. Truly a remarkable find.

DUBOIS: The Middle-Dutch look strangely familiar, but I only half-understand what it says.

CORTOYS: Ah! There’s a trick for that! These verses were meant to be spoken or sung. Even reading – a rare skill at the time – was done out loud. All the verses are in rhyme, since that’s easier to remember, but it can also help with the pronunciation. Try reading it out loud!

CLAESSEN:

The opening lines, which have been redacted
For the safety of those who could be affected.

CORTOYS: We only know about the author of these two masterpieces by the moniker he gave himself: Willem die Madocke maekte.⁴ He otherwise disappeared from the pages of history. All that remains are questions and theories.

Agent Dubois, she’s learned the trick. A Foundation has been laid, brick by brick. To get what you need, you approach with grace. So there is the smile, painting her face.

DUBOIS: Don’t tell me you don’t have an answer.

CORTOYS: Well, I certainly wouldn’t say I have the answer, but… Let’s just say you can’t study these texts as intensely as I have without being able to pick up on patterns. Willem was well-read, referencing fables, mythology and other cultural artefacts, as well as employing the expected tropes of the genres, but with a twist.

DUBOIS: Twist?

CORTOYS: Take his other work, Van den Vos Reynaerde, for example. The cunning fox-baron wasn’t invented by Willem, but he really leaned into the idea of a fox – a common way to depict the devil – with desire and temptation, and the eventual fall of Eden. It fits the corruption of the animal court depicted in the story, and it's why that poem is still a classic today. Similarly, Madocke is a twist on the sea voyage epic to reach Paradise.

Who is that shade, who stands to the side?
A figure in shadow, a King untied.

CORTOYS: It starts with an elder wiseman telling the main character about a faraway Paradise waiting at the other side of the ocean, and instructing him to travel with a specific number of crewmen. As Madocke prepares to leave, three unnamed monks join the crew at the last moment, begging to travel with him to Alagadda and meet its King. As per the trope, Madocke can’t reach Paradise until his crew is back to the original number.

Jan Claessen’s shoulders tense as he hears that name. At last, the knowledge for which they came.

CLAESSEN: What does it say about Alagadda’s King?

CORTOYS: Unsurprisingly, very little. It’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey! Most of the text tells us about the islands that make up Alagadda, presided over by regional rulers in animal masks that represent their sins. As they encounter the four Lords that make up the Noble King’s court, the Latecomers fall one by one – a common theme for the genre. One Latecomer sets off on a different mission, one is wounded and has to be left behind, and one is marked for damnation.

DUBOIS: So, the story isn’t really about Alagadda?

CORTOYS: In a sense. It's about what Alagadda means to these travellers. Their sins and desires, unmasked! Only then can Madocke reach the King's court and sail home.

CLAESSEN: Not exactly Paradise, then.

The scholar chuckles as he shakes his head.

CORTOYS: The twist is that it is, in a most deceptive way. Nothing can compare to the pleasures of Alagadda. Pleasures you'll never stop craving, desires you'll have to fight until your final breath, or they will eventually choke you. A heaven and hell of your own making.

The encounter concludes, and Cortoys is forced to forget.

And so, our travellers told
Of many wonders to behold
On their journey to contain
That which should not remain.
With their task to control
They’ll learn the nature of their soul.
They set sail, embark on their travel,
A mystery unwinding, a knot to unravel.
With the three Latecomers, named again:
Dubois, Merhout and Claessen.

They arrive at the isle where the Black Lord resides.
The dark cliffs of Nigredo, polished by tides.
A city in shadow, a castle forgotten,
Watched by a ruler most twisted and rotten.
Their subjects caught in endless rivalry,
The Black Lord looks down from their tower of ivory.
The mask of a Bear, eternal in grin,
A desire for power: t'was their greatest sin.

Our Latecomers, with the trophy in their hands, travel by car back to the Netherlands. There is one who fits the mask of the Bear. The first Latecomer will leave us here.

CLAESSEN: You’ve learned some new tricks since our last field mission. He basically ate out of your hand! I can’t remember teaching you that.

DUBOIS: It’s a lot easier to amnestisize someone who trusts you.

That was the last lesson Agent Claessen – unknowingly – taught you.

CLAESSEN: How is it to leave the ivory tower of EU Command, and work in the lowly backwaters of Nieuwegein? Quite a step down.

DUBOIS: Don’t say that, Outpost 312 has potential.

CLAESSEN: And a fast track to Directorship for its supervisor once it gets Site status, right? Clever move, Anna.

DUBOIS: That’s a cynical way of looking at it.

Just because it’s cynical, doesn’t make it untrue.

CLAESSEN: I’m just saying I don’t envy you. Directorship would just give me a headache. From where I stand, the world is a lot less complex. Retrieve the weird stuff, and shoot the monsters.

DUBOIS: It all takes a toll.

CLAESSEN: Nothing I can’t handle.

Dubois frowns, but has no retort. She’s noticed his coffee – the Irish sort.

DUBOIS: It was good to be back in the field, even temporary.

CLAESSEN: First field mission in five years and you’re already done?

DUBOIS: Got a meeting in The Hague about the D-Class programme. You can meet up with Dr. Merhout without me, can’t you?

CLAESSEN: I’m not sure I can charm my way to an answer the way you can.

She feels the strings sewn into her skin.
Contort in a smile, pull in a grin.

DUBOIS: The man was about to forget his greatest academic achievement. The least I could do was humour him.

CLAESSEN: You did that and more. He was about to buy you dinner.

So much for a partnership’s chance to restart.

DUBOIS: Is there a problem with the way I conduct this investigation, Agent Claessen?

CLAESSEN: No, chief. Sorry, chief.

A silence between friends, growing apart.

CLAESSEN: You’ve changed.

No matter how much she wished that was true,
She couldn’t lie: deep down she knew.

DUBOIS: I haven’t. I just learned how the game is played.

The corners of her mouth, pinned in a smile.
It hid a desire, a goal most vile.
Rotten it is, the desire for might,
She’d scheme in the dark, to rule in the light.

The Library of Albedo, its ashen stones arise
Bright and pure, against darkened skies.
The White Lord rules these library halls,
Keeps all that is known well within these walls.
Masked as a Cat, but one eye lost,
– A reminder that knowledge comes at a cost –
They wash and they cleanse till all is pure
Blind to what their subjects endure.

Madocke secured; containment is next! For that, they need to understand its text. Merhout and Claessen will complete this task, and a Latecomer will don the White Cat’s mask.

CLAESSEN: It’s memetic, isn’t it?

MERHOUT: Actually, that’s a common misconception. Memetics are ideas that spread. The Hanged King’s Tragedy was considered a memetic virus for a very long time, until developments in the field of anomalous hermeneutics has led us to reconsidering its effects.

CLAESSEN: Do I look like I understood what you just said?

Dr. Merhout looks at the man of muscle and force, then chuckles and continues her course.

MERHOUT: You look like you’ve lifted more books than you’ve read. Alright, I’ll break it down for you. Ever heard a story that changed your life? And idea or concept that completed your experience of the world, like a puzzle piece that had been missing?

Surrounded by folders and binders, by knowledge forbidden.

MERHOUT: Imagine that feeling of finally understanding a part of your reality, reimagining it. And now imagine it's anomalous. That's a hermeneutic.

A Foundation of facts that's supposed to stay hidden.

MERHOUT: Next: what makes it tick. In literary science, "hermeneutics" is concerned with interpretation and meaning. Adaptations, performances, translations, all reworking and remixing the original, often giving a new twist to the original's meaning. So, an anomalous hermeneutic is an anomaly that's activated by, or involved with reinterpretation. Following along, big guy?

Jan Claessen nods, a little less confused.

MERHOUT: There are two types of hermeneutics: spiral-class and circle-class. Circle hermeneutics concerns itself with a singular response, based on a singular “meaning” of that anomaly. The Hanged King’s Tragedy is a circle-class hermeneutic: if it activates, it incites violence in all affected individuals. The effect, the core meaning of that interpretation, is always violence.

CLAESSEN: Don’t some individuals attack bystanders, and others commit suicide?

MERHOUT: Interpretation isn’t black and white. If you’re going to be pedantic, you’re going to incite violence in me.

They share a moment, both amused.

CLAESSEN: Madocke is the other one?

MERHOUT: It’s a spiral-class hermeneutic, which means the effect is tailored to the individuals doing the reinterpretation. Same anomalous starting point, but with a new context. It builds a bridge between the receiver and the source, spiralling off a new meaning each time.

CLAESSEN: That means that the effects could also differ with each activation?

MERHOUT: Possibly. More likely, it’s a new version of wherever that bridge leads to. In this case: does it lead to Madocke, the Kingdom of Alagadda, or its ruling Lords? Will it bring the Hanged King to our world, or us to Alagadda? That’s up for interpretation, which we’re not supposed to do, of course.

A figure steps forward, nothing more than a shade. To Dr. Merhout they hand a steel blade.

CLAESSEN: And are you really content with not fully knowing the answer, Yasmin?

A searcher for knowledge, her desire unshaken.

MERHOUT: Never, but that's part of the danger of hermeneutics. They work as much on you as you work on them. I'd give a limb to see what 7462 would turn into if activated.

For answers given, something needs to be taken.

MERHOUT: But times have changed; we don’t just throw D-Classes at every mystery. There is a price for knowledge like that.

She raises the blade close to her face. Both hands keep it steady, keep it in place.

MERHOUT: A price in blood. A tribute.

Now they travel through a place that Once Was,
The empty wastelands of Citrinitas.
The Yellow Lord, their howl made silent.
Found their end in a battle so violent.
At night Jan remembers, but only in dream:
Another person was once part of this team.
A former companion, a friend who did fall.
You cannot mourn who you cannot recall.

There was a fourth, a name erased; torn from the pages by the horror they faced. They thought it was best if your mind was reset. Jan, what's that name you were made to forget?

CLAESSEN: Alright, your turn. Biggest fear?

Who hears: Being remembered.

CLAESSEN: I think you have that backwards, buddy.

A soldier's refuge after living full throttle:

the howl?: In this line of work? God, no. There are two ways people stick around here, and they're both Scranton.

CLAESSEN: You lost me.

Forgetting their fears by glass and by bottle.

A fate: Scranton's Question, Claessen. You either get remembered for your greatest accomplishment, or a horrific fate. Which Scranton you are going to be, that's the Question. I'm not gonna invent some shiny doodah or revolutionise some kind of anomalous research, which means I'm left with the other outcome: a cautionary tale.

CLAESSEN: Your drinking habits already are one.

At the end of the day, they got what they wanted.

so foul: Pot and kettle, my friend. Nah, I'm just here to do my job and get out. Preferably with a nice retirement, but if it's not in the cards, I'll settle for a forgettable death. My goal is being less than a footnote in the history of the Foundation.

CLAESSEN: I'll drink to that.

Raise a glass to a wish granted.

At times Jan remembers, in dead of night.
Fragments and moments, like threads untied.
Nothing and no-one is truly gone.
But all of it fades at the break of dawn.

At long last, our companions arrive
At the Wilds of Rubedo, where pleasure can thrive.
A place for desire, for need, for want,
Ruled by the Red Lord, masked in a taunt.
Jan, it is known, you can only be brave,
By drinking the courage you so deeply crave.
Each day in a Foxhole, each moment moves quicker,
If you can taste the relief you find in that liquor.

Jan, it is time, complete this narration.
Follow the path that leads to damnation.

So here you stand, Jan, here you lay,
One last Latecomer has to pay.
In drink you cannot escape forever,
You'll soon pay the price for this very endeavour.
Hang, as you may, at the end of your rope,
Where one is left with just a fool’s hope
You’ll arrive at the Alagaddan shore
To drink and forget to feel once more
In the court of the once Hanged King –
A Ruler made of twine and string.
The rope, it twists into His crest.
Blessed His mark in crimson nest.
Until the tribute is paid in full.
Every day you'll feel the pull
Of the noose around your neck

Note: Agent Dubois was alerted something was amiss when several calls from her and Claessen’s wife went unanswered. Agent Jan Claessen was eventually found in his office, lying in a pool of his own blood and holding a steel knife similar to the one used by Dr. Merhout, which he had attempted to use to slash his throat. Due to severe alcohol intoxication, he was unable to complete this task.

Agent Claessen was rushed to the hospital and required several blood transfusions. Upon examination, it was discovered the skin of his neck was covered in rope burn.

The above SCP-7462 reinterpretation was found among Agent Claessen's files. Further analysis showed minor memetic characteristics in the text, but no hermeneutic effects. Dr. Merhout concluded that Agent Claessen's failure to "pay the tribute" resulted in an interruption of SCP-7462's effects, stopping the hermeneutic bridge from completing.

Dr. Merhout completed her review of SCP-7462 after recovery, and retired shortly after due to the sustained injury.

Footnotes

1. A cognitohazard activated by or resulting from the reinterpretation of an idea or concept.

2. Reusing strips of parchment from obsolete manuscripts and codices in bookbinding was a common practice, and several fragments of medieval literature have been rediscovered by examining these bindings.

3. "Of Reynaerde the Fox", a Middle-Dutch satirical epic about a medieval court of animals who are tricked by the titular Fox to fall to temptation.

4. Opening lines to Van den Vos Reynaerde, transl. “Willem who wrote Madocke” or “Willem who made Madocke”.

5. Dr. Merhout was later found in her office at the University of Utrecht, still holding the steel knife. She was rushed to the hospital to receive emergency care. The left eye could not be located.