KH Nam

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All characters and events in this article are fictional. The details which are similar to real life in the article are inspired and adapted from reality to the SCP universe, not directly reflecting reality.

Item#: 030-VN

Containment Class: conscientia

Secondary Class: thaumiel

Disruption Class: ekhi

Risk Class: danger

A natural Lycoris radiata ​​population in Japan.

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-030-VN is currently classified as Conscientia.1 The Foundation must comprehensively deploy misinformation in scientific research, historical discoveries and popular culture, in order to:

Prevent the scientific community outside of the Veil from discovering SCP-030-VN, as well as the Moly cycle in Lycoris radiata instances;

Remove historical details that can reveal the anomalous properties of the Lycoris radiata species, so that related events are considered untrustworthy legends and folklore.

Emphasize the toxicity of Lycoris radiata through propaganda, in order to deter civilians from consuming said species and accidentally activating SCP-030-VN’s anomalous properties;

Romanticize, dramatize or otherwise embed the image of Lycoris radiata into art, in order to suppress indigenous knowledge surrounding SCP-030-VN, as well as to lower the credibility of cases where individuals accidentally consume Lycoris radiata and activate its anomalous properties.

Due to SCP-030-VN’s importance in Foundation operations regarding antimemetics, its chemical formula and chemical properties can only be accessed by personnel with Clearance Level 5 (“Top Secret”) or research personnel concerned with producing mnestics at Site-01.

The chemical formula of Galantamine.

Description: SCP-030-VN is the designation for an anomalous alkaloid chemical compound. The chemical formula of SCP-030-VN is thermodynamically highly unstable, making its artificial synthesis impossible. SCP-030-VN can only be synthesized and stabilized through an anomalous biochemical process with thaumaturgical traces, which was named the Moly cycle.

Up until this point, the Foundation has only been able to observe the Moly cycle on Lycoris radiata. The two main products of this process are SCP-030-VN and Galantamine (C17H21NO3), with the ratio of SCP-030-VN varying from negligible2 to roughly 1:1, depending on the environment in which the aforementioned Lycoris radiata instance grows. The specific conditions to heighten the ratio of SCP-030-VN in the product mixture has only been speculated from practical observation.

SCP-030-VN has the ability to anomalously stimulate the human pineal gland, allowing any subject who consumed SCP-030-VN to directly interfere with their own far-metaphysical memory zone, which is positioned outside of the normal human nervous system. This phenomenon allows the subject to surpass all physical, chemical and biological limits in recalling every event ever sensed by themselves in a limited time frame in reverse chronological order. The scope of memories recalled is proportional to the extent that their pineal gland is stimulated, which is directly correlated to the amount of SCP-030-VN consumed.

Addendum 1

EXPERIMENTS CONCERNING THE ANOMALOUS PROPERTIES OF SCP-030-VN

Subject
Consumed Amount
Administered Form
Results

D-49345
0,2 mg/kg
Through subject’s digestive system
Subject showed symptoms of moderate vomiting, and was medically treated to prevent the excretion of SCP-030-VN. After roughly 6 hours, subject was confirmed to be able to remember all memories from 3 days prior to the experiment.

D-32473
0,2 mg/kg
Intravenous injection
After roughly 1 hour, subject was confirmed to be able to recall all memories from 7 days prior to the experiment.

D-58543
0,5 mg/kg
Intravenous injection
After roughly 30 minutes, subject was confirmed to be able to recall all memories from 2 weeks prior to the experiment.

<43 experiments omitted.>

D-62851
25,0 mg/kg
Intravenous injection
Subject was confirmed to be able to remember every event since their own birth with exact clarity.

D-53136
30,0 mg/kg
Intravenous injection
Subject completely lost consciousness, curled up in fetal position, and expired after roughly 2,5 hours due to losing autonomic nervous system responses.

D-73209
35,0 mg/kg
Intravenous injection
Subject expired almost immediately due to brain death from unknown causes.

D-52198
35,0 mg/kg
Direct injection into subject’s internal carotid artery
Subject was confirmed to be able to remember every event since their own birth with exact clarity. Afterwards, subject continued to elaborate in Manchurian language on memories that were unable to be verified.3 At some point, the subject’s Hume index suddenly increased, and they were executed per order of the experiment supervisor.

Addendum 2

SCATTERED HISTORICAL SOURCES

The following are documents were collected by the Spiritual Division from several Groups of Interests and research groups outside the Veil:

MOLY (Gr. μῶλυ), a mysterious plant with magical powers described in Homer, Odyssey, x. 302–306. Hermes pulls it up and gives it to Odysseus as a protection against the arts of Circe. It is further described as “having a black root […], and hard for mortals to pull up.””

[…] Philippe Champault - Phéniciens et Grecs en Italie d'après l'Odyssée (1906), pp. 504 seq - decides in favour of the Peganum harmala (of the order Rutaceae), Syria or African rue (Gr. πήγανον), from the husks of which the vegetable alkaloid ████ (C13H14N2O) is extracted.

[…] These identifications are noticed by R. M. Henry in Class. Rev. (Dec. 1906), p. 434, who illustrates the Homeric account by passages in the Paris and Leiden magical papyri, and argues that moly is probably a magical name, derived perhaps from Phoenician or Egyptian sources, for a plant which cannot be certainly identified. He shows that the “difficulty of pulling up” the plant is not a merely physical one, but rather connected with the peculiar powers claimed by magicians.

— 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica, Volume 18, Moly —

The Higan flower, also referred to as Manjusaka, is an exotic flower species primarily used in the preparation of Ký Ức Đan. The flower is colored red as blood, its petals as thin as spider legs, its roots bearing deadly toxins. Thanks to such toxicity, it is rare that commoners get to know this flower species’ true medical values.

The most important application of this flower is its use as an ingredient to prepare Ký Ức Đan. This remedy belongs to some of the most significant medicine recipes that the Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance4 ever possesses; whoever takes this remedy, regardless of having been affected by any bewitching charm before, would be able to recall all memories they once lost. The dosage for each use is crucial, as anyone who overdoses on Ký Ức Đan would firmly be on death’s grip.

The medical values of Higan and the method to prepare Ký Ức Đan was offered to the The Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance by the Tây Quách clan, when they first submitted themselves to the Empire. Ever since then, this remedy has only been passed in secret among generations of Chief Bureaucrats5 and leaders of the Tây Quách clan.

For this flower to yield a concoction with effects at its best, it needs to be planted in locations surrounded with miasma, such as cemeteries, mausoleums, and warfares. Some historical records from Fusang6 have noted that Higan flowers growing beside the River of the Forgetfulness are the ones with medical values of utmost purity; whoever consumes them would open their Clairvoyance, and can recall their memories without beginning, without end.

— The Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance's Pharmacopoeia of Anomaly, Section of Flowers and Plants, Higan —

The soul goes past the Naiha Bridge, and drinks a bowl of soup that washes away their memories. These memories flow in the River of Forgetfulness, and bloom into flowers on the other side. […]

— Roughly translated from Children of the Leaf’s Literature of Interests —

Addendum 3

HISTORICAL RECORDS FROM THE INITIATIVE

The earliest record of SCP-030-VN in the Foundation database is a digital copy of a handwritten diary, designated as one from “Captain William Roberts”. This individual was an Agent working under the American Secure Containment Initiative (a Foundation predecessor), embedded in the US Navy East India Squadron. Some notable excerpts from this diary are quoted below:

March 25th 1853, the Squadron reached Singapore. According to plan, we will be traveling to Japan in order to execute some "public relation operations" towards the end of this year. After getting approval from Commodore Perry, I started to work on the secret mission given to me by my Unit, acting as commander of a small ship which separated from the convoy and headed to Cochinchine7 to investigate an anomalous community there. The Commodore will do his best to delay the journey, so that we can catch up with the Squadron timely in Hong Kong at the end of April.

[…] These people are friendlier than I thought, which is different from populated anomalous sites in the West. The population primarily consists of Annamite and Chinese, mostly possessing no anomalous abilities, and are mainly families of magicians with knowledge of thaumaturgy. This place, with its spatial anomalous properties, has turned itself into an ideal haven for people like them, during a time when both the Nguyễn and the Qing dynasties display hostility to magic wielders.

Japanese wood carving artwork portraying Commodore Matthew C. Perry (middle) and other high-level officers of the U.S. Navy East India Squadron.

[…] April 26th, I finally reached Hong Kong and the Squadron was already waiting there. The Commodore has kept the whole convoy in place for three weeks, solely in order to wait for me to come back.

[…] Most of the artifacts that I gathered in Cochinchine are books; time was sparse, so I have decided to take along whatever contains the largest amount of knowledge. These books are full of strange-looking scripts unknown to me, and all contain various native magic spells. The only excerpt whose meanings we can deduce writes about a magical elixir that helps people recall their memories, regardless of how they have lost them. At the moment, I have no intention to prepare this remedy; there might be lots of work coming up in Japan, so this is where I will put an end to my secret mission.

[…] Anyways, the main ingredient for this elixir is a native oriental flora with quite a strange name, “the flower from the other side”. This flower is quite common in Japan, so I might also take some instances back with me to the States. […]

— Captain William Roberts —

Addendum 4

HISTORICAL RECORDS FROM POI-220963

Due to the formerly limited operational conditions of the Initiative, the majority of documents collected by Captain William Roberts were lost. The Foundation had discovered most of the historical documents valuable for research regarding SCP-030-VN from Nha Trang Outpost of Site-75-VN. Before being taken over by the Foundation, it was a research laboratory used by POI-220963, an individual involved in the GOI "The Humanist Gentlemen". Below are relevant documents selected to be included in the file:

(A piece of paper attached to the beginning of the letter.)

I, the undersigned, Director of the Pasteur Institute, member of the Académie française, Grand Cross in the Legion of Honour, hereby certify that Doctor Alexandre ███ was a doctoral student at Hôtel-Dieu de Paris8, University of Paris, and was employed as a biochemical laboratory researcher at École normale supérieu and later at the Pasteur Institute from July of 1886 until now. I am joyous to say that Mister ███ performed his duties with utmost enthusiasm, and has published several researches well-received by authoritative scholars during the time in my laboratory.

— Louis Pasteur —

Paris, Metropolitan France, 1890

To Alexandre ███, my most outstanding apprentice,

After many days of careful consideration, I have made my decision. Dear ███, when you along with Roux discovered the exotoxin produced by C. diphtheriae that causes diphtheria, even though you had just become a doctor of philosophy and had only been working at my place for less than a year, I knew I had found another successor for the Institute. You surely would have a bright future as a doctor, and as a biology researcher.

However, I am also aware that you are a 26-year-old young man with overflowing youthfulness in your blood, with a dream to become another Livingstone of Europe. And then, the desire to explore foreign lands was suddenly ignited within you, urging you to venture to distant nations.

I cannot force you to stay, bind you to a laboratory table, and kill an adventurous soul just to satiate my ideal. I respect your choice, and it was all I could do to help make your upcoming voyage smoother. I hope what I wrote above can help you find a temporary job on Messageries Maritimes Company’s ocean liner. You can serve as a doctor for their sailors during your journey to the East.

Finally, I will do what I must, to grant you what you have long deserved, the title of Gentlemen.

I pray that you will find your purpose in life in the distant Indochina.

— Gentlemen Louis Pasteur —

(Excerpt from a letter from POI-220963 to his mother in 1891, after opening a clinic in Nha Trang.)

[…] Annamite patients everywhere flock to my clinic when I don’t have businesses elsewhere. To be precise, they often take advantage of my knowledge, especially when they steal my wallet as a way to pay me. But there’s nothing I can do, for in their mind, stealing money from a Frenchman is doing a good deed. After all, what are the French coming to Indochina for, if not to steal from the Annamite? […]

(Excerpt from a letter from POI-220963 to Louis Pasteur, after returning from an exploration to the Central Highlands.)

POI-220963 at Lâm Viên Plateau, 1893.

[…] Upon reaching the mountain peak, the hills covered with pine forest interspersed with vast grassy valleys, and the gentle cold, which is scarce in this tropical land, all made me feel as if I had returned to Switzerland. The natives call this mountain peak Lang Biang. I guess I will use this name to refer to the entire plateau I have just explored.9

I have contacted Paul Doumer10, a friend of mine who is currently working in the colonial administration. We plan to lobby the administration to build a resort in this new land. The cool climate here is suitable for the recuperation of European officials who are yet to be accustomed to the tropical climate, just like a maxim you taught during Latin class: DALAT.11 […]

The Liverpool Guardian

Thursday, 23rd of June, 1895

A year since the discovery of the plague bacteria

[…] On this day a year ago, the Hong Kong colony became the center of one of the worst plague outbreaks in modern history, seemingly second only to the Black Death in terms of devastation. Lord Ripon, Secretary of State for the Colonies, said: "…without exaggeration, I may assert that, so far as trade and commerce are concerned the plague has assumed the importance of an unexampled calamity…”

PoI-220963 and his field laboratory in Hong Kong, 1894.

[…] Two scientists who almost discovered this rod-shaped bacteria at the same time: Kitasato Shibasaburo of Imperial Japan, who received the full support of the British colonial government and Alexandre ███, a Swiss-born Frenchman, had to conduct research in squalid conditions. Clearly, a French scientist was not welcome to research plague in a British colony.

[…] Therefore, although there is much controversy about who discovered this bacteria first, Western scientific community have accepted Pasteurella pestis12 as its nomenclature and recognition of Dr. ███'s contribution in identifying rats as the leading vector of plague. […]

Paris, Metropolitan France, 1895

To Alexandre ███, my last apprentice,

By the time this letter reaches Nha Trang, I may have taken my last breath. My uremia is beyond cure. I have heard about your resounding achievement in Hong Kong, and congratulating you on your success is all I can say.

[…] I hope that my death will help you attain a deeper understanding of us Gentlemen’s philosophy. Merely curing diseases is not enough, breaking free from the natural limits of the human body is the final goal of ours, the Gentlemen.

[…] Last year, Albert Calmette sent me a report regarding a supernatural flora of the East with medicinal properties related to human memory that he discovered while staying in Sài Gòn. Since Calmette already returned, I hope you can continue pursuing his unfinished research.

Wishing you success and bidding you my last farewell.

— Gentlemen Louis Pasteur —

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in October of 1901.)

It has been five years since I began researching this flora. Most of its characteristics, as well as how its medicinal properties affect animals, have been analyzed down to the smallest detail. Perhaps I have gone in the wrong direction, maybe I should pay more attention to the existing documents of the natives. […]

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in March of 1902.)

[…] École de Médecine de Hanoi13 has just inaugurated its first course. The cost of constructing and operating a medical school is extremely high. But I think it is worth it, or at least it has more meaning than the Theatre in Sài Gòn. The workload is heavier than I thought, so I may have to hold the position of principal for a while longer before I can return to Nha Trang.

[…] These students are as exceptional as the geniuses in Paris. They are intelligent in their own way, not the liberal and empirical method of us Europeans, but their talents are the result of diligence, hard work, and keen observation, in a very oriental way.

[…] He is an outstandingly intelligent and inquisitive Annamite, especially knowledgeable in Sino-Vietnamese, and comes from a noble background, the son of a prince in Huế. Like me, he chose to pursue the path of being a traveling scientist, to stay away from the political mess of his capital. I managed to convince him to work at my place after graduating. […]

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in January of 1912.)

Shall we recapitulate the previous year? The research progressed without trouble since I started working with the apprentice. In essence, we successfully recreated the original form of this "Ký Ức Đan" thing. The problem is just that animal testing did not yield promising results, perhaps the day when we finally achieve success is still in the far, far future. […]

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in November of 1919.)

[…] With that many contributions to the field of medicine, I should have been among my peers at the Pasteur Institute, at Paris or Genève, working as a director of a hospital or a research institution. Instead, I chose to spend half of my remaining life studying flora. To be fair, it does align the most with the spirit of a Better Man, a classical philosopher, which is the perfect mastery over various fields of natural science. And so I spent all that time researching botany and agricultural techniques.

[…] There were many times I asked myself, whether this was worth it or not? It only took me one year in the microbiology laboratory to make my name renowned, only to then spend decades cultivating plants in a remote and obscure outpost? In times like this, I usually open the final letter of my master Pasteur. A Gentleman need not all that useless fame. […]

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in July of 1922.)

Working alongside an oriental young man deepened my understanding about their perception of death. Previously, I had witnessed a few natives being executed by decapitation. Back then, I could not comprehend their calmness. Were they not afraid of going to hell, or did they believe they have a spot in heaven, but even so did they not feel any attachment to life?

It turns out that to them, this life is but a mere moment in a more grandeur cycle. Not a new life in heaven, but a never-ending cycle of life and death. Like a grain of sand in the Ganges River. This made the past especially important to them. I have heard them telling stories about Chinese historians risking their lives to protect their records. But don’t we seem to care more about life after death than life before we were born, and rarely ponder on what we used to be?

My entire life was spent studying life, yet I have never had such a profound understanding of death. Is it perhaps because my first apprentice is in his last days of life?

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in August of 1922.)

I planned to pass down the Gentleman title to him during his final moment, even if he has not quite reached the Enlightenment standard of the group. On second thoughts, he can always continue to cultivate himself in other lives. This is not his final life after all. I told myself that, as if I was a true Annamite preaching about reincarnation to myself.

[…] When asked about his last wish, he wanted an unfinished version of "Ký Ức Đan". Since death is inevitable, perhaps he wanted to experience that miraculous feeling once, or maybe he wanted to make the final contribution to his instructor’s research.

[…] He kept reciting his life, from his happiest memories to his worst, like the two times he heard the news that his uncle and cousin were to be exiled overseas.14 It was easily understandable as he grew up receiving a Confucian education focusing on loyalty and family relations.

Gazing into his eyes, it was as if I was immersed in the storytelling, as if I was standing in an old palace in Huế. He was kneeling before an altar in preparation to receive an edict from the Emperor being held captive in the Imperial City. Even if it holds no true power, at least the Empire can still hold the simplest of ceremony. It seemed that day was the day he felt the most honorable.

[…] After hearing his cousins talking about the luxurious pleasures of the higher class in Paris they got to experience, his idea of studying abroad was abandoned. Of course, they would never teach any helpful knowledge to an Annamite prince, all they want is to drown that rotten imperial family in drug abuse and self-indulgence. That day, he decided to travel from Huế to Hà Nội to seek the knowledge he wanted.

[…] And in a brief moment, his eyes seemed to shine a strange light. He abruptly switched to speak English:

"How miraculous, how miraculous, my dear master. I have finally understood. I was an American on the other side of the globe. I was born on this land because I had been here. I met you and conducted research into this flower, because I had sought it before. How simple, how very simple everything is.”

Then he suddenly fell silent with his eyes closed, as if he was savoring creation’s deepest secrets. Afterwards, he opened his eyes to look at me and averted his gaze to a distant land.

"So that’s how it will be." - He said before taking his final breath.

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in December of 1928.)

Another member of the Pasteur Institute won the Nobel prize, the fourth one. I began to question the meaning of my own research. Maybe the answer will come when I take that pill, like the glint of light sparked in his eyes. His vision of enlightenment has been haunting my mind even to this day. Never have I been so eager to await my turn to die. […]

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in June of 1938.)

Émile, Chamberland, Metchnikoff, Grancher and Roux have all succumbed before me. I am the only remaining apprentice of Pasteur, counting both the living and the dead. Perhaps it is the coincidence of nature, or of genetics, or maybe it is my ascetic lifestyle, who even knows? […]

(Excerpt from POI-220963’s personal diary in May of 1942.)

[…] I had tried my best to comprehend the ideology Vichy France was trying to propagate, but I just could not. It is said that the Jews in Paris have begun to wear six-point stars and are forbidden from entering public spaces. America has entered the war. Singapore has fallen. The war has spread to the point of no return. So I find myself admiring the opponents across the English Channel. At least they are willing to fight to the end on the seas, the shores, the fields, the streets, the hills without any thoughts about surrendering.

[…] As I witnessed countless inventions of the Pasteur Institute being utilised as biological weapons, for the first time I had to question the advancement of science, and it was also the first time my belief in the Neo Enlightenment movement wavered this much. The things I have done and contributed, are they morally justified, and will they ever be meaningful for the future?

Nha Trang, Indochina, 01/03/1943

POI-220963’s private residence in Nha Trang around the year 1900.

The moment I had long awaited has finally arrived. As a doctor who has practiced his profession all his life, I know how long I have left to live. It is time I get to experience what he did. One pill is enough, its efficacy was adjusted to the optimum level, thanks to our decades of work.

Oh, now I understand, that’s how it is. The future is not predetermined by some unseeable higher being, or a sacred script pre-written, but by the choices we humans made, which are unfortunately, extremely predictable. We are creatures constructed from past experiences, we make decisions according to what we have gone through, like a shallow book with an easily predictable ending.

Right at this moment, my small intellect suddenly turns into Laplace’s demon.15 With enough data about the past, any of us can play the role of a prophet.

When you guys arrive, take all the documents you need, leave everything else, and do not touch my body, you have half a day to acquire them before my housekeeper comes the next morning. I have no more regrets, I am aware of the meanings of what I have done. I wish you success in finding applications for the results of my research.

We die in the dark, so they can live in the light.

— Gentlemen Alexandre ███ —

Foundation agents tasked with observing POI-220963 have decided to break in after observing no movement from the subject’s bedroom for an extended period. The subject was found deceased while peacefully asleep and smiling, with the aforementioned letter beside him. The Foundation quickly retrieved all relevant documents in the scene before the subject’s housekeeper discovered the situation.

All of POI-220963’s research regarding SCP-030-VN has been recovered and further developed by the Foundation. In the years 1950’s, the results of these studies became the prototype of class W, X, Y, and Z Mnestics, which are widely used in the antimemetic field and to contain memory-affecting anomalies. To access relevant information, please submit Level 5 Security Clearance at Site-01’s database.

Footnotes

1. Item cannot be physically contained, necessitating that the public is led to believe it is non-anomalous.

2. p = 0,043.

3. Subject’s original nationality is Canadian; none of their direct predecessors were Asian, and they had never left the North America continent themselves. In current times, Manchurian is an almost extinct language.

4. Translator’s Note: The Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance, original name Dị Sự Giám (Latin script) or 異事監 (Sino-Vietnamese), was the imperial governmental body concerning anomalous phenomena of the Later Lê Dynasty (1428 – 1527) in medieval Vietnam. After many historical events in the 16th century, the The Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance was considered as having defected from the imperial government and “collapsed” in the year 1592. More information about them can be found in the Spiritual Division Hub.

5. Translator’s Note: Chief Bureaucrat, originally "Chưởng Sự (掌事)", was the designation for the uppermost leader of the Bureau of Anomaly Surveillance.

6. Japan.

7. Currently the South of Vietnam.

8. The oldest operating hospital in Paris.

9. Lang Biang Plateau or Lâm Viên Plateau

10. Governor-General of French Indochina from 1897 to 1902, President of the French Republic from 1931 to 1932.

11. Dat Aliis Laetitiam Aliis Temperiem (It Gives Pleasure to Some, Freshness to Others).

12. It is now known as Yersinia pestis.

13. Currently Hanoi Medical University.

14. Presumably referring to Emperors Thành Thái and Duy Tân – two out of the three emperors of the Nguyễn dynasty, along with Emperor Hàm Nghi, who were overthrown and exiled.

15. “We ought to regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its antecedent state and as the cause of the state that is to follow. An intelligence knowing all the forces acting in nature at a given instant, as well as the momentary positions of all things in the universe, would be able to comprehend in one single formula the motions of the largest bodies as well as the lightest atoms in the world, provided that its intellect were sufficiently powerful to subject all data to analysis; to it nothing would be uncertain, the future as well as the past would be present to its eyes.” — Pierre Laplace, A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities

More articles by KH Nam