Celebrated in early Katkea, Lovaska honors Lovataar and is 
associated with sex and fertility. It begins with the encouragement of 
flirtation among uncoupled individuals for 12 days. During this time, 
those not already ritually bound to a partner (or partners) are 
forbidden from having sex. Gifts are given, friendly pranks are 
played, and amorous feelings are made known. Though the Vasna 
generally lack gender roles, it still appears that female participants 
are more assertive and aggressive than the males. Similarly, there 
seems to be an expectation for males to be coy and show more 
restraint. It is possible that the personalities of the Grand Karcist lon 
and his lover, the Klavigar Lovataar, influence the development of 
these dynamics. This is not universal and is only noticeable in 
female-male interactions. It is important to remember that Sarkites 
have a notion of human sexuality untouched by Abrahamic religion, 
manifesting as a spectrum and devoid of terms to distinguish one as 
"heterosexual" or "homosexual". 


On the 12th day, uncoupled individuals gather at nightfall and divide 
themselves into "predators" and "prey". Individuals playing the role 
of prey don antlered headdresses and long gossamer scarves but 
are otherwise nude. Those choosing to act as predators paint 
themselves with animal blood and wear the skulls and skins of bears 
and wolves. There appears to be some unspoken understanding of 
who will play what role as well as who would be "hunting" who. 


The "prey" consume a tea brewed with Psilocybe calixtinus and are 
allowed to enter the nearby forest a day before the "predators", who 
themselves are tasked with the raising of Javvu2! which they then 
paint with the seal of Lovataar. The predators awaken at dawn and 
consume the same psychotropic tea and venture into the forest. 
They return throughout the next few days, with predators carrying 
their prey over their shoulders. These couples vary in composition 
and include nearly as many same-sex pairings as opposite; a few 
aren't even pairs, with two predators sharing one prey and another 
carrying one male and one female slung over both her shoulders - a 
rather remarkable feat of strength. Prey and predator then enter 
their lavvu, which the other townsfolk (elders, those already in 
relationships, etc.) have filled with food and drink during their 
absence. 


When their supplies run out, they will return to the village with newly 
forged relationships. Despite the predatory theme of the celebration, 
elders inform me that this practice is entirely consensual (I will note 
that | didn't see a single frown among those that returned; all 
appeared to be quite happy before | allowed them their privacy). 


Davgon offered to arrange an interview with Vdlutaar Jaska, the 
eldest resident of Sarvi and the closest person the community has to 
a leader. | agreed and was brought before her at dusk. 


+ Interview Subject: Volutaar Jaska (07/19/2015) 
Interviewed: Vélutaar22 Jaska 
Interviewer: Dr. Matthieu Desmarais 


Foreword: Volutaar Jaska is a respected 
village elder. A centenarian, she studied 


Sarkicism under the direct tutelage of a Karcist 
in her youth. 


<Begin Log> 


Dr. Desmarais: Lusaka/v23, V6lutaar Jaska. 
Davgon the Younger suggested | meet with 
you. 


Volutaar Jaska: Ask your questions, outsider. 


Dr. Desmarais: Straight to the point. Fair 
enough. | would first like to learn a bit more 
about you. 


Volutaar Jaska: | suspect you haven't come 
all this way to listen to the dull droning of an 
old woman. [Subject chuckles dryly] But | will 
play your game. | was born to this village 
nearly one hundred and thirty six years ago on 
the eve of Orok's Hunt24 


Dr. Desmarais: An auspicious birth, no doubt. 


Volutaar Jaska: [Subject strikes the 
interviewer in the knee with a gnarled cane] Do 
they not teach you manners where you are 
from? You may speak when | have had my 
say! [Subject flashes a fleeting grin] 


Dr. Desmarais: My apologies, Volutaar Jaska. 
| will remain silent until you are finished. 


Volutaar Jaska: Hmph. Make sure that you 
do! As | was saying... Life was simple. | didn't 
grow up with the fancy machines the youth 
covet so dearly. Got nothing against 
technology. But the outside - the outside is 
alluring. The blood of Sarvi will run dry. | say 
smash those devices lest we lose the village. 
[Subject mumbles, her words growing 


increasingly unclear and off-subject before 
returning to the interviewer's initial question] 
Oh, but my life was good. Good and simple. | 
was happy. 


Dr. Desmarais: | was told that you studied 
under an actual karcist? 


Volutaar Jaska: Yes. Karcist Varis. He 
disappeared when saving us from the 
Russians. He was clever as a raven and very 
difficult to kill. I've little doubt that he still lives. | 
do not miss his love of dramatic surprises. 


Dr. Desmarais: Interesting. | wish to better 
understand how your people see the universe 
and its creation. The Grand Karcist refers to it 
as "a failed and fallen creation” but what is the 
root of this cosmic flaw? 


V6lutaar Jaska: Maailmankaikkeus?25 
Dr. Desmarais: Yes. | apologize. 


Volutaar Jaska: [Subject shrugs] It is what it 
is. A brute fact. We do not deny the gods. lon 
himself gazed upon their flesh. And yet, what 
evidence is there for divine benevolence? 
There is but one acceptable conclusion. Do 
you know what the oldest false in the universe 
is? 


Dr. Desmarais: What? 


Volutaar Jaska: The believe that the gods are 
good. Accepting this is the first step to 
understanding our ways. 


Dr. Desmarais: | see. 


Volutaar Jaska: [Subject lets out a dry 
chuckle] You do not come to their defense. Yet 


neither do you falll to your knees, grasp the 
hem of my robes, and beg for enlightenment. 
You don't believe in the gods, do you? 


Dr. Desmarais: | do not. 


Volutaar Jaska: You are a fool, but as you do 
not serve the outer horrors, perhaps you are at 
least a good man. Are you a good man, 
Desmarais? 


Dr. Desmarais: | don't really know. 


Volutaar Jaska: A wise answer, if anything. | 
cannot blame you for your lack of belief. You 
desire evidence of the gods. 


Dr. Desmarais: Evidence would be required. 
Yes. Now, that brings me to another question. 
If the universe is flawed, if all life descends 
from malevolent gods, how can there be any 
good? 


Volutaar Jaska: The blood of monsters flows 
through our veins. This is not contested. A pup 
playing with its kin, a child's laughter, the 
embrace of an old friend. There is beauty and 
goodness to be found in this world but it is the 
product of defiance. 


Dr. Desmarais: Defiance? 


Volutaar Jaska: Murder and rape; war and 
madness - that is the true nature of life. Our 
race is far too often a reflection of our creator. 
Wherever there is beauty, wherever there is 
love and compassion, there is defiance. As 
you see in nature, defiance is not uncommon. 


Dr. Desmarais: Tell me more of our supposed 
"creator"? 


Volutaar Jaska: Despite the greatness of your 
science, do you still not understand? 


Dr. Desmarais: | would like to hear it from 
your perspective. 


Volutaar Jaska: | know of your science. | 
know that you have discovered the link 
between all life. 


Dr. Desmarais: Our common ancestry? 


Volutaar Jaska: Yes. You believe that we 
descend from small mindless beasts, invisible 
to the naked eye - and you would be correct. 
Change and adaptation - that is the way of all 
life. But you perceive only a fraction of the 
truth. You know nothing of its origin. 


Dr. Desmarais: And what is the origin of life? 


Volutaar Jaska: Human words cannot 
express this truth. But we can show you - if 
you are willing. 


<End Log> 


| agreed to her offer. The ritual would involve a tea brewed from 
Psilocybe calixtinus. \ll prepared for what | would encounter, | write 
this after several days of hospitalization. Further experiments with 
Psilocybe calixtinus should be conducted with D-Class personnel. | 
do not begrudge the people of Sarvi for what occurred; they have 
likely developed a tolerance to the substance and had no frame of 
reference to predict an outsider's reaction. 


+ Psilocybe Calixtinus Test 01: Dr. Matthieu Desmarais 


Jaska was right. The words do not come 
easily. Ineffable concepts and visceral 
sensations. 


And history - too much history. The stains of 


time are that of blood and rust. I'm sorry. I'm 
not trying to be cryptic. | keep reminding 
myself that it was just a hallucination - no 
different from a dream - and that there is no 
reason for me to believe in any of this. 


But it seemed so real, even as | felt myself 
unravel at the helix. For a moment | 
experienced oneness with the universe. There 
was no sense of harmony. No spiritual bliss. 
There was only the clarity of pain. | had 
become some small variable in a cosmic 
organism of inconceivable size - some 
undulating vastness of unintelligent cancer. 


This was the true flesh. 


| saw a Red Leviathan rise from a black sea; 
the longer | watched, the more | began to 
realize that this monster and its dark waters 
were one and the same. | remember turning 
my gaze to the stars, perhaps seeking some 
solace in their familiarity. 


The stars resembled drops of freshly shed 
blood upon an obsidian altar. The stars 
moved, forming a spiral in the inky blackness 
of the night sky. | looked down - where was the 
leviathan? Where was the sea? Red and 
black; flesh and void. It was all connected 
somehow. The spiral twisted and spun with 
increasing velocity. There was a mournful 
voice among the madness; it spoke with words 
| had never heard but whose laconic meaning 
was Clear. 


"The wheel turns again." 


Then there was nothing; no light, no sound - 
only darkness. Thoughts and memories flowed 
from my mind like blood from open veins. All 


SCP-929: The Cuckoo 


Item #: SCP-929 
Object Class: Euclid 


Special Containment Procedures: SCP-929 is currently kept in the 
form of a Common Blackbird chick. SCP-929 is to be kept in a 
sealed glass chamber measuring 4m x 4m. This chamber is to 
contain both SCP-929 and the ‘parent’ organisms. SCP-929 is to be 
fed daily according to Nutrition Chart 929-1. (See Incident 929-1) 


SCP-929 is currently kept in the form of a young Carassius auratus 
auratus, the domestic goldfish, to minimize difficulties in 
containment. SCP-929 is to be contained in a 3m x 3m glass tank 
with the goldfish it has designated as its 'parent’. 


This central tank is to be surrounded by four smaller tanks, each 
containing one goldfish. In the event that the 'parent' goldfish expire, 
SCP-929 will designate one of the surrounding goldfish as its new 
‘parent’, instead of supervising research staff. 


SCP-929 is to be fed as described in Nutritional Chart 929-2 at least 
twice a day. No threatening movements are to be made against 
SCP-929 (tapping of glass, shaking of tank, etc.) 


Description: SCP-929 is an entity of varying height, weight and 
species, as it possesses the ability to rapidly change its appearance 
and biology to match those of any other species. Upon entering an 
area of three meters around an animal organism, SCP-929 will 
designate said organism as its 'parent' and rapidly transform. 
SCP-929 will always take the form of a younger member of the 
organisms species and will remain in this form until either the 
‘parent’ organism is killed or hostilities are engaged against 
SCP-929. 


Upon engagement of hostilities, SCP-929's face and cranium will 


that remained was a fleeting memory of a 
memory as | sunk into the thoughtlessness of 
torpor. 


Pain forced my eyes open and | saw a certain 
priestess - her skin white as chalk, her eyes as 
gold as the jewelry and trinkets that decorated 
her scantily clad form. Though her beauty 
inspired awe, her presence invoked fear and 
self-insignificance. My naked body was 
painted with symbols of vague familiarity. | was 
her sacrifice and the cruel instruments of her 
faith were already buried deep inside my torso. 


My efforts to pull away only facilitated my own 
disembowelment and | fell to my knees. The 
sacrificial priestess met my gaze, her growing 
sardonic grin revealing sharklike teeth. She 
placed a bare foot on my shoulder and gave 
me the slightest push, sending me tumbling 
down the stone steps of her blackened 
ziggurat. 


| caught fleeting glimpses during my agonizing 
fall: my own entrails and organs, the stains of 
blood and bile, the lifeless tundra, and the 
grim-faces of onlookers - until | hit the base of 
the structure with a sickening crack. 


This is likely where it would have ended, had 
this been a dream. The vision repeated, the 
priestess and the temple remained but my 
cause of death differed. This repeated over 
and over, a temporal loop of suffering and 
terror. | had become thoroughly mired in this 
One event and could not for the life of me tear 
myself from it. | am decapitated, castrated, 
asphyxiated, raped, bludgeoned, blinded, 
skewered, cannibalized, flayed, and burned 
alive (among countless other atrocities). 


But this was merely the beginning of my 
downward spiral, the experience growing 
increasingly difficult to comprehend. | 
remember a mountain of corpses and 
constantly shifting shades of red. Tendrils 
sifting through the remains, penetrating 
wounds and orifices and feeding the dead with 
new and terrible life. A distant voice speaks to 
me, saying "Flesh and form. The flesh is 
transmutable. The form is malleable. To 
change is to exist." 


And | see the corpses merge and take new 
shape. It transformed into that Red Leviathan. 
"The gods do not change. The gods do not 
exist. Not truly. But they wish to. The void 
screams for a mother that will never come. Life 
is drawn to the Void like flies to decay. The 
Void wraps itself in sinew and bone and blood; 
a facsimile of life. 


The Void is a god-shaped hole. It knows 
nothing but hunger." 


And | saw the Red Leviathan for what it really 
was. Words fail me. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm 
trembling. The tears keep flowing. | still hear 
the heartbeat of the universe - the primordial 
rhythm of sacrifice and war. The universe is a 
machine. Not of metal and gears but of flesh 
and stars and nothingness. It is an automated 
butchery. 


And we? We are the flesh that feeds the gods. 


After receiving extensive therapy, | was again able to continue my 
work. Despite the accusations of my detractors, | have neither lost 
my mind nor have | "gone native". My experience was a 
hallucination and it was never presented as anything more than a 
chemical trick of the mind. 


Footnotes 

1. The Sami people are an indigenous Finno-Ugric people native to 
Sapmi. They are the only indigenous people in Scandinavia that are 
recognized and protected under the international conventions of 
indigenous peoples, and are hence one of the northernmost 
indigenous people of Europe. It is in the best interest of the 
Foundation that the public remains unaware of the other indigenous 
people in the region. 

2. From Proto-Uralic *ha(x)li + *-ka, meaning "hunger". 

3. Associated with sex, love, eroticism, pleasure, motherhood, 
disease, and unrestrained reproduction (breeding, cancers, growth, 
etc.). Epithets include: the One Whom lon Most Desired, the 
Highblood Redeemer, and the Mother (on rare occasion "Brood" or 
"Hive" Mother). 

4. Thought to be a syncretism of Lovataar and the Sami Maderakka 
- the first Akka, was mother of the tribe, goddess of women and 
children. 

5. Associated with strength, war, violence, wilderness, hunting and, 
seemingly in contradiction, loyalty and revolt. Epithets include: the 
Horned Beast, the Brute Lord, and the Pale Hunter. 

6. Associated with intelligence, wisdom, perception, and mysteries. 
Epithets include: the Tongueless Speaker, Lord of Mysteries, the All- 
Seeing, and the Anticipation of lon.