Secret Shit Don't Touch

ARTICLE STRUCTURE

Shaggy's Section:
The introduction, the first big SCP section! Introduces the main anomaly, the degradation of magic and the anomalous in all facets. This section:

• Obscures the cause of the anomaly (SCP-6000).
• Reasons why the Foundation might want to keep the anomalous alive (ways in which anomalous decomposition has fucked with the world).
• Introduces the potential fixes (the artifacts being retrieved by the various people).
• Somewhere, introduces O5-0 as a rogue element.
• Ends with the four cards that lead towards the four tales (Warrior, Mage, Thief, & Cleric)

---

The Cards:
These sections detail the retrieval of various artifacts used to mitigate the damages of SCP-6000. The stories should in some way show the degradation of the anomalous world through various means (such as anomalous communities flocking to the relative safety of nexuses, for example). These sections:

• Have a common theme of doubt and confusion.
• Have themes of nature and damage to it.
• End with the retrieval (or activation) of the associated anomalous phenomena.

Harry's Section (the Warrior):
I honestly don't know much about this one, probably will be co-authored with Placeholder!

• Potential artist is Placeholder.
• Put your shit here.

Grigori's Section (the Cleric): - DRAFT
Has themes of Buddhism and Asia and that's really all I know.

• Potential artist is Niram.
• Put your shit here:

+ show block

Path of the Cleric

Kaito Eguchi (our cleric)
Kaito (means supportive person) Eguchi (mouth of the river)

Fumiko Tanaka (foundation agent)
Fumiko (academic/intellectual) Tanaka (base of the mountain)

• centers around a Buddhist monk (Kaito) in modern day japan, who wanders - fighting Oni
  • Member of SH, but mostly focused on servicing his community in this fashion
  • Carries a bronze and steel 8-ringed staff or (shakujō ), uses those paper charms (ofuda) and magic words to bind the oni (Kotodama)
  • Dresses in traditional Buddhist monk attire but streamlined for movement.

• Tale starts with him approaching an abandoned Shinto shrine in the mountains of ___ province, and fighting an oni.
  • The oni taunts him about the end of all things magical, that nothing matters anymore so why does he bother with this tired old game. Implication they’ve met before
  • After the fight, our monk calls out “You can come out now” and a Foundation agent who has been tracking him emerges from the forest beside the shrine.

• The Foudation needs his help, a series of brutal murders have taken place in _, a small fishing village in _ province. They’ve investigated, and though they are sure it is anomalous in nature, they can’t find out what’s happening. Things are falling apart and they need help, so will he look past their differences this once to help?
  • But the foundation has another goal, this agent has been sent to investigate and recover the staff if possible, and also if possible, to bring our monk into the fold… because it is an Artifact. Though that is not revealed as of yet

• Investigations into murder sites - reveals Oni are hunting people, which hasn’t happened for many decades (implication of the modern word encroaching on their domain, environmental collapse, etc)
  • They are accosted by several oni, and although successful, Kaito and Fumiko are both injured
  • During the battle, the oni mention a man’s name… a business man in Kyoto who had been a benefactor, but refuses to say more (Shuten-dōji or oni king in disguise, organizing the resurgence)

• Fumiko convinces Kaito to come back to the mobile base the Foundation has set up, to check in with her superiors and get medical attention - there they pay attention and want to research the effectiveness of his technique (subtly show interest in his staff, which he will not let them touch as it is a family heirloom)
  • They ask why it is useful and he says it is not, it is a sign of his station and tradition… on pushing, he tells the story of the well being struck with such a staff by a monk many centuries ago… but this is not his power, he thinks his power comes from the charms and the words of power, his training and gifts from the bodhisattvas
  • Eight rings symbolize the eightfold noble path followed by an arhat (to achieve an end to suffering)

• confrontation in a high-rise office building in Kyoto, both with the confrontation of Shuten-dōji and with Fumiko coming clean… Shuten-dōji notes that the Oni realm is fading, and his people face complete extinction with the onslaught of magical entropy. The idea was to form a foothold in the human world again, and this refuse to be pushed out.
  • “The humans don’t care for their world anyway, priest. They pour corruption into everything they touch, for the sake of comforts! Let us have a piece of this world, they won’t even notice us.”
  • Shuten-dōji will reveal that the real reason the Foundation wants to help Kaito is the staff

• the confrontation between Kaito and Fumiko allows the Oni to get free, getting fumiko super hurt and making Kaito think this is it…
  • • • Shuten-dōji is able to get away from, forcing Kaito (in his injured state) to follow to someplace fitting for a final confrontation. Ōharano Shrine which is a Shinto Shrine in Nishikyō-ku, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, (his original area according to legend) and the Torii gates (symbolically marks the transition from the mundane to the sacred)

• this is where he dies, and he composes a death poem (which is a thing, actually it’s a bushido thing but fuck it) and the tale ends a bit unclear how successful he is in banishing the oni… to be revealed in the epilogue that he begrudgingly agrees to help the foundation preserve magic etc etc
  • He has bandaged his right hand and at some point in the fight goes to punch the thing, which the Oni king laughs at – “You will hit me with your hand, priest? Human hands against oni flesh, there is no contest.” But the bandages have ofuda charms written on them, which weaken Shuten-dōji

WHAT DOES THE Staff DO?
*Has power to seal or open gates between dimensions - return things to their Realm of origin – and draw power direct from the sacred/divine (source of anomalous/magic)
* Foundation wants it to open up a flow of anomalous energy… essentially fending off the entropy with an endless supply of magic (crude usage of the item)

---

Ihp's Section (the Mage):
Sinclair and a compatriot travel between nexuses to either gather a magical flame or potentially reignite a magical flame that will breathe life into anomalous communities again.

+ show block

Start with Sinclair and Reynolds in Sloth's Pit, going through a rough part of their marriage
Sinclair is losing her ability to use magic, even within the nexus, and is having trouble figuring out who she is without it.
Goes into the woods and finds the bottomless pit
Sees a meteorite about to crash into it, and tries to stop it from falling in— but it's too far away. She uses the last bit of her magic to catch it.
The meteorite is one of 7 fragments of the artifact— a crystal in the shape of the Egyptian Sun Disk that is a repository of magical energy and knowledge.
She does some research and contacts other Nexuses around the world— figures out that that's where the other fragments have gotten to.
Various amounts of time are spent at six other Nexuses.

• Lake Huron:

Phil Deering finds it, contemplating how lonely he is— Amelia is still around, but Doug vanished when the Crisis started.
After he finds it, Tiamat returns and attempts to bargain with him for it— Sinclair comes in and bargains in his place, ends up getting the artifact.
Segment ends with Doug insulting Deering out of nowhere, showing that he's returned.

• Hy-Brasil

Last refuge for all of Fae Kind, including the Nameless. Blackwood, through a series of Noodle Incidents, has found himself king among the fae.
This Blackwood has a role in creating the Foundation, and warns Sinclair of a man who he calls the 'Clever Crow" (allusion to SCP-050 and to the men called Crows that Blackwood encounters in one of his tales) and how the crystal used to belong to him.

• Puerto Extrano, Argentina

I just want to write a Nexus in South America, all right?
Nexus is an Argentinian research town, overtaken by alien grey goo that has overtaken the residents and the land. Think Innsmouth, but less hostile.
Alien influence has died down since the anomalous started vanishing, and has suddenly sprung back up with a vengeance.
Aliens created a neural network between the inhabitants that made them borderline telepathic; it's been dead for a while, and now that it's come back because of the crystal, they don't know how to deal with it.

• La Rue Macabre

Had previously disappeared before the fragment made its way there— now it's open and bustling.
Sinclair and Reynolds attempt to retrieve it— but it's stolen by a zealous agent of the GOC—which, in this time, stands for Global Order Cult. An extremist group that is convinced that the death of the anomalous can only bring good things.
He scarpers with it, and later segments allude to Sinclair and Reynolds hunting him.

• Boring, Oregon

Found by Faeowynn Wilson, who doesn't want to give it up.
She's grown into her father's legacy, and has become somewhat despondent by the lack of anomalous animal life in the Nexus.
When they start returning, she finds that the crystal has some ability to control the animals, and tries to use that to keep Sinclair away from it. Doesn't work, obviously.

• BackdoorSoHo

Reynolds features heavily in this— Sinclair gets injured in Boring.
It's found by Naomi Lewitt-Zairi (Mary-Ann and Salah's Daughter) who will give it to Reynolds, on one condition: that he fix whatever the fuck the Foundation did. She's convinced that there's one man responsible, and she wants to see him pay.
It's revealed that Mary-Ann is still alive as well.

• Yumegemu:

After a minor off-screen goose chase, Sinclair and Reynolds find the agent in Yumegemu
He threatens to destroy both it and the Nexus with what he calls an anti-incantation; a statement of pure rationality that can kill all magic, and all magical beings.
He says it. There's damage, but Sinclair and Reynolds fail to die.
"I'm an idiot." Sinclair laughed. "Magic can't die. Not really. Magic is in human nature— our ability to create and destroy, to love and to hate, to nurture and to scorn. Magic is what I feel whenever my husband smiles at me, or whenever I remember what my favorite Christmas was like. Magic isn't dying; it's just fading away. And I'm about to bring it back in style." Sinclair raised her hand, which was wreathed in fire. "Ignarium."

Cut to some weeks later in Sloth's Pit. Artifact is Contained, Sinclair hears word of plot developments elsewhere, takes artifact with her.

Stuff's Section (the Thief):
Someone thiefy (still figuring this out) goes on a quest to retrieve a magical artifact from a temple of the God of Rot (come up with a cool name later), which is accessed via a Way created from the dead body of (an) SCP-106 (ever wondered what that pocket dimension really was?). The protagonist will be accompanied by an assistant or acolyte or whatever, with whom fun banter can happen. This section:

• Has Aethris as an artist.
• Talks about the scientific enterprise of the Foundation (how the anomalous will be written out of science as soon as it is a mere memory).
• Has a conversation with the God of Rot himself — or, maybe, has him dead already, because of course a God of Rot would go quietly.
• Mimics a D&D dungeon crawl.

---

Shaggy's Section (part ii):
Discusses the fruits of the efforts on the parts of all of the characters in the previous tales, and how they coalesce into something that prevents the oncoming crisis. There is, however, a lingering doubt. Now, if the reader has read all four tales, there is a "secret" ending, involving O5-0. This section:

• Brings things to a close.
• Paints the Foundation as heroes… at first.
• Shows the "healing" of the world in uncertain terms

And then in the second ending ending:

• Reveals O5-0's plot to dissolve the Foundation.
• Shows the Foundations fight against this plot, and ultimately overcomes it, and hushes it up in a suspicious way (there should be talk of erasing O5-0's records from the databases).

And then in the third and final ending:

• Shows O5-0's files, compiling proof of the Foundation's causing the end of all things anomalous and magic.
• Shows O5-0's attempts to bring these findings to the organization, fruitlessly.
• Shows why all of this will happen again.
• And whatever else Shaggy wants to put here.

---

The Themes & Message:
This whole story is about the Foundation mimicking humanity's insistence on controlling and exploiting nature (which is why they want to contain everything and use it for themselves). The anomalous represent nature (ding ding ding, look at that, the theme of the contest!), and the entire thing represents humanity's want for control ending up with world-altering consequences (see: climate change). In the end, the true solution to this problem is the dissolving of the SCP Foundation itself, which of course the Foundation is never going to do, and so ultimately looks for other solutions to their issues. The article:

• Tackles the corruption of the institutions in place.
• Shows humanity's want to preserve the planet battling its own inability to change.
• Casts doubt on the goals of the Foundation.
• Ends with doubt, confusion, and uneasiness.

---

TECHNICAL CONCERNS: