The grey beast lunged at Atanti, pinning him down and knocking 
Quarseta off of his back and into the sharp, ebony grass. While 
Atanti grappled with the beast, tsa-Fanu focussed on subduing two 
of the stone creatures, while a third lunged at Quarseta. It closed its 
jaws around her ankle, not realizing that it had signed its own death 
warrant by doing so. Something in the creature's mind shattered, 
and its life simply stopped. Though the stones were dead, Quarseta 
still screamed in pain, the crystals which were now forming in the 
wound refusing to heal. 


A sharp shriek pierced the air, funneling into Atanti's ears. 
Quarseta. 
Quarseta was hurt. 


Quarseta needed him. 


Atanti's tail whipped around one of the beast's legs and threw it into 
the distance. He turned his attention to his young friend, swung her 


onto his back, and began to run. Only one thought filled his mind: 
get her to safety. 


He watched as the very world around him twisted, trying to end their 
lives and their search. He didn't care. The silence tried to slow them. 
His speed broke through it. The trip in had taken days. The trip out 
could only take a few hours. 


The group reached the red pool just as the great red sun began to 
set. Tsa-Fanu helped to move Quarseta from Atanti's back. The 
pinpricks from her fall had healed, and the crystals on her leg no 
longer seemed to be growing, but she was drifting in and out of 
consciousness. The two elder travelers began to prepare to descend 
into the pool just as the grey beast crested the horizon, repeating 
once again its terrible roar. Atanti knew what that roar meant. It 
would not stop. It would follow them through the pool. 


Atanti nodded at Edrisek-tsa-Fanu, who covered Quarseta's ears. 
Atanti then turned to face the beast. He had often wondered why the 
humans feared and imprisoned him. He knew that, to some degree, 
it was because of how alien their natures were to each other. But 
perhaps that was not all, perhaps they had another reason to fear 
him. He was powerful to them. To them, he was death. He was 
Atanti-ql-Paneu, the Deathless Traveler. And this place had injured 
his friend. 


Atanti roared. 


Incident 053/682/1 129/354 - 2: 

On 12/21/20 , at 03:29 hours, escaped anomalies 
SCP-053, SCP-682, and SCP-1129 emerged from 
SCP-354 and escaped Area-354. Combined exposure to 
SCP-053 and SCP-1129 caused widespread panic 
among the staff of Area-354. No further entities observed 
to emerge from SCP-354 as of this Incident. 


The group's home-sweet-hole was very quiet the next few days, 
almost as if they had brought some of that place's silence back with 
them. Atanti stayed out hunting for most of the days, and only spoke 


at home when he needed to answer a question. Tsa-Fanu busied 
themself with small repairs around the cavern, and helped Quarseta 
with her reading in their spare time. Quarseta spent most of her time 
laying in bed with Tooki to keep her company, working through the 
journal that they had found. The crystals that had formed around the 
bite on her leg had stopped growing, but the wound was still taking a 
while to heal. 


Atanti came in from hunting late one night with a solemn look about 
him. 


"We're going to stop looking." 
"What?" 


"We can't keep looking for the way back home. | made a single 
mistake in thinking that place was home, and look what happened. 
We can't afford to have something like this happen again, so we're 
stopping." 


Quarseta let Atanti's declaration sink in for a moment. 
"No." 
"What?" 


"We can't stop Atanti. Look, this journal was written by someone 
called Tepur-zin-Umhed. She was just like us, a traveler trying to 
find her way home. She's already explored several ways that might 
get us home, which means that we wouldn't have to try those 
places. She also wrote about some other ways that she had found 
that might be able to get us home, and others like us that we might 
try talking to. It's all right here Atanti, everything that we need to 
know to get back home. You don't really want to give up, that’s the 
worry speaking. But neither of us want to give up either. We need to 
keep trying." 


Quarseta saw that he still hadn't forgiven himself, but her speech 
seemed to have gotten rid of a bit of his melancholy and self-doubt. 


"Very well. But we won't start up again until that leg is fully healed, 
understand?" 


us, our marine biologist thinks it's a [REDACTED]. If you can haul 
that shell up here, we'd like to have a look. Just be careful [DATA 
EXPUNGED] 

A27: 30, 29, can you attach a haul cable to that shell? 

A30: Can do. 

(The divers work in silence for about five minutes) 

A26: Curious bastard, aren't you? 

A27: Eh? 

A26: That squid's over here.... AAARGH! 

A27: 26? What happened? 

A30: | see blood. 

A27: Yamal, reel him in! Reel him in! 

Yamal control: We have him, what's going on? 

A27: 26 has been attacked! 

Yamal control: We're going to have to give him decompression time. 
A27: Don't bother, that squid's giving chase. Good lord, it's attacking 
again, it's tearing him to pieces, get him aboard now or he'll die! 
Yamal control: Roger, maximum winch speed now, prepping the 
hyperbaric chamber. Get yourselves out of there fast, too. 

A30: | see something else moving. 

A27: Another squid? 

A29: | don't think so, dunno what the hell that was, didn't get a good 
look at it. 

A27: Lights off, full abort, prepare to surface. 

A29: Roger. 

A30: Roger. 

Yamal control: Start your ascent, we'll take in slack. 

A27: Do you have him? 

Yamal control: We've got him. He's alive but unconscious, they're 
prepping for emergency surgery now. Those bites are pretty bad. 


Addendum: Yamal successfully recovered all four divers along with 
the shell. Analysis of the shell shows remarkable similarity with 
extinct orthoconic nautiloids. The shell was devoid of tissue, but was 
not fossilized. The significance of this finding is still being 
investigated. 


Diver A26 remains in critical condition after the loss of a limb and 
exposure to venom of unknown composition. A26's camera was 
destroyed, but most of the photos were transmitted to Yamal via the 


Quarseta smiled. 

"Yes, sir." 
Red day and night, 
Travelers take flight. 


Red pool! behind, 
Travelers’ adventure to find. 


« Lost Golden Days | HUB | Intermission: Audience of Crowns » 


Intermission: Audience of Crowns 


Twinkle, twinkle shining star 
Tumbling 'bove the Earth so far 
Will and will in constant dance 

Ever in your nightly prance 


Quarseta couldn't decide which was more beautiful; the stars 
shining above her, or the planet shining below her. 


tsa-Fanu's swirling colors wrapped around her, shielding her from 
the vacuum. The burning light of the sun was visible in the corner of 
her eye, and the marbled sky glowed from below her. Tiny pinpricks 
of light were visible in all directions. 


It all served to contrast nicely with the constant bickering she heard 
in the back of her head. 


".,.Please, yen-Suisei, I'm begging you to reconsider. Just think of 
the prestige you will receive when we return home; you will be one 
of the few beings to ever enter a world as alien as this and return." 


"Heh, prestige for you and the rest of your damnable misfits, 
perhaps, Paneu. | am a man of profit and power. Your proposition 
would grant me neither." 


"And if you stay? What does this world have to offer you?" 


"Have you not been listening? Profit and power. This old husk only 
has so much resistance in it, and once it gives out, | will finally be 
able to pilot it to the planet below." 


"And you truly think that this rock is more valuable than home?" 
Atanti's patience was clearly growing thin. 


"Allow me to put it this way; back home, | was a powerful man with 


many enemies. Are so powerless that | could crush them like 
insects. We are as gods compared to them." 


Atanti seemed to be trying very hard not to tear into yen-Suisei. 
Quarseta wondered for a moment if she meant that thought 
figuratively or literally. 


"What's the matter, Paneu? Out of bargaining material? Not 
surprising. All you have is a half-child and a performer without an 
audience." 


The moment hung suspended in orbit. 


"Hmp." Atanti snorted. "Well, | guess there's nothing | can do to help 
you, then. Come on then, let's leave the ‘god’ to his conquest. We'll 
see how well he fares." 


As tsa-Fanu pulled them back towards the Earth, Quarseta felt a 
radioactive tingling in the back of her head while another voice 
whispered to her. The words were foreign and laden with static, but 
the meaning was still there. 


"You're like me, little one. Remember that you're not one of them. 
Don't give in to your Presence." 


Twinkle, twinkle shining spear 
Tumbling 'bove the Earth so near 
A single heart to stay your hand 

‘Fore you strike the Jailers' land 


Black for noblest hearts of men 
White for all the revelers’ skin 
Yellow for ripened sky above 

Red for the bound god's sin 


Quarseta gazed into the towering doorway before her, light seeping 
out of it and spilling across the room. They were familiar colors, to 
be sure. Red and yellow and white and black. But something 
seemed... odd about them, something that made her somewhat 


lightheaded and tired. Looking back, she thought that perhaps it 
ways the shades and tints of the colors. Or perhaps it ways the way 
the darkness seemed to be cast just as easily as light was on the 
other side. At any rate, the swimming colors made her feel 
differently that she ever had before. Almost, sickly, but in a strange, 
pleasant sort of way. 


"Now remember, everyone stay close. This place can... change you. 
You must stay wide awake while we are inside." 


She nodded mutely, still staring into the swimming and swirling gate 
ahead. 


Atanti nodded in response. "Stay close, eat nothing, and allow 
Edrisek and myself to do the talking if we are able to get an 
audience with the King." 


And they walked into the forbidden wonderland beyond. They 
walked into Alagadda. 


Quarseta stumbled out of the doorway, supported on either side by 
Atanti and tsa-Fanu. Still swirling in her head were the blacks and 
the whites and the yellows and the reds and the light and the sound 
and the air and the sea and the stars and the food and the drink and 
the parties and the ambassador. Her head was flying and spinning 
around all at once. 


“Hrrrr. Shouldn't have brought her. Too young." 
tsa-Fanu flashed back in confirmation. 


Unfortunately, the travelers had little better luck in this place than the 
last. The very fabric of the place had been thick and dreamlike, 
making it hard to think. A sickly sweet scent hung all about it. 
Though they had all managed to keep their wits about them on the 
way to the castle, they were blocked by their final obstacle. The 
Ambassador. The one who held the true power of the empty King. 
She had stopped them, humiliated them, turned them back laughing. 
Even Atanti and tsa-Fanu felt her intoxication, and it was more than 


enough to overwhelm Quarseta. 


"J1/Where aphotic sea does deny, reflections of a xanthous sky.../) 


"...She will be alright with some rest, though | fear we will have to 
find aid elsewhere." 


Black of sky betwixt the worlds 
White of child's soul 
Yellow of aged threads and thoughts 
Red of godless hole 


Beware the Koitern, o' my child 
In cities tall and forests wild 
Beware the stench of death he makes 
Lest it be your neck he breaks 


Incident 682/053/1 129/173: 


[00:00]: Visual distortion appears in the corner of 
SCP-173's cell. SCP-173 ceases momvement between 
individual frames . 


[00:57]: Visual distortion resolves into spatial distortion 
and suspended biological matter consistent with 
SCP-1129. 


[01:22]: SCP-053 emerges from the spatial distortion, 
riding on the back of SCP-682. Both entities appear to be 
in a joyous mood. 


[01:27]: Both entities cease movement and fixate their 
eyes on SCP-173. 


[01:49]: SCP-682 begins to grow transparently-armored 
eyes covering various points of its body. 


[02:36]: SCP-682 charges through SCP-173's cell wall. 


"Don't take your eyes off of him!" Atanti charged through wall after 
wall, the rubble occasionally granting the Koitern enough cover to 
catch up to them. 


"I'm not!" Guards opened fire at random, trying to hit both the 
travelers and each other. 


"Edrisek! Look before you take us to someone next time!" And with a 
swirl and a flash, our travelers disappeared. 


Beware the Koitern, o' my child 
In cities tall and forests wild 
Beware the stench of death he makes 
Lest it be your neck he- 


*Crunch* 


« Pooling Our Resources | HUB | Deadalive Deadalive » 


Deadalive Deadalive 


Old soul, new soul 
Key in your pocket 
Look out for the Laughing Man 
On your path home. 
1 


2 
3 
4 


It had been five months. 


Five months of nothing but searching. Of nothing but requests for 
aid. Of nothing but being refused. 


And so, our travelers continued to work their way through Tepur-zin- 
Umhed's journal. In some cases, she had already sought out the 
help of those she had found, and been turned away. In other cases, 
she had only heard of a name or location in passing. In still others, 
she had found out where a survivor had carved out a new home 
without ever finding out who they were. It was one of these cases 
that our travelers were investigating, and this is what brought them 
to the forest. 


It was not an ordinary forest by any means. Abandoned tracks, 
carts, and rides were scattered everywhere, overgrown with leaves 
and rust. It had been a human carnival of sorts before being closed 
down years ago. Rumors were whispered throughout nearby towns 
that it was haunted with the ghosts of those who had died there in 
accidents. Others claimed that the accidents themselves had been 
the result of a haunting. Of course, Quarseta had heard none of 
these rumors. The fog hung low and grey and thick, making very 
hard to see anything. The faint sound of a pipe organ could be heard 
in the distance. 


Quarseta took in her new surroundings. "Would it be alright if | 
looked around by myself for a bit? | want to try to find where that 
music's coming from." 


"...Alright, but call for us if you find anything.” 


She nodded, then set off, weaving over and between the maze of 
metal and wood. No matter how far she traveled, the music never 
seemed to get any closer or further away, always staying just on the 
edge of hearing. Eventually, she reached a structure that was still 
standing and had an open door. Though it certainly wasn't in a good 
condition, it looked stable enough to explore. And so, she entered. 
Inside, she discovered a labyrinth of twisting halls, All lined with 
mirrors. Many of them twisted her reflection in odd ways, though 
oddly enough very few of them were broken, in contrast to the rest 
of the park. The pipe music continued to sit at the edge of her ears. 


And then the laughing began. 


Laughter that echoed through the halls and drilled into Quarseta's 
skull. She began running on instinct, further and further into the 
maze, Calling for Atanti time and time again. It seemed to be coming 
from many places at once, so that she could never be sure if she 
was running towards the laughter or away from it. Shadows toyed at 
the edge of her vision, whispering secrets and doubts into her ear. 
"A lost behemoth dies in the desert, a pale mask haunts the night in 
vengeance. We are afraid." "Or maybe we foresee a stunning light 
that makes the ground boil. Salvation comes with a price." "Change 
the channel, he is very educational."