Hi.
I bet you're wondering how you got here.
You're probably asking yourself why there is green text in this document. Why is the background entirely made of squids? Why am I holding a squid? Why am I a squid foundation researcher?
Well, the answer starts with a story, and like all stories, it has a beginning…1

Artistic depiction of SCP-6700-04 derived from the Atlantic Mural in Carnegie Hall.

Item #: SCP-67002
Object Class: Thaumiel
Special Containment Procedures: Murals depicting SCP-6700 have been identified on at least one island, reef, atoll, or rock in all seven oceans, and every marginal sea. Access to these murals have been restricted to the public where possible, though murals in locations such as Carnegie Hall, the French Quarter of New Orleans, Tokyo Bay, and Saint Marks Square have proven difficult to secure. Temples, complexes, shrines, and protective enclosures around these murals have either been restored or are in the process of being restored. Religious texts containing references to SCP-6700 have been obtained and subsequently replaced by authentic replicates. All references to SCP-6700 in historical texts have been altered.
SCP-6700 must be performed on the summer and winter solstices,3 and the spring and autumn equinoxes4 on or near murals which depict it. Failure to perform SCP-6700 at a minimum of all major oceanic locations in multiple equinox/solstice cycles previously contributed to several catastrophic atmospheric phenomena across multiple historical periods. SCP-6700 should be performed with a cast of three main performers: two Finnfolk or humans identifying as female or nonbinary and one human or Finnfolk identifying as male or nonbinary.
In addition to performers, SCP-6700 requires a choir of at least seven individuals. While a minimum of seven members of the choir are needed for the successful implementation of SCP-6700, a larger choir has been found to positively impact local conditions. Instrumentation is also encouraged, but not necessary. SCP-6700 performers are provided with copies of Act 4 and subject to Class A amnestics following performance.
Each time SCP-6700 is performed a quantity of the cutest little squickie squiddies equivalent to multiples of 3, 4, 5, or 6 should be present.
You really know how to make a girl happy. All hail the くコ:彡.
Given the highly destructive nature of SCP-6700-03, the presence of non-performing observers is discouraged. The secondary anomalous effects of SCP-6700 leads to increased erosion as well as explosive population growth in marine and coastal animal and plant life. Foundation personnel are coordinating with local governments to ensure buffering of susceptible coastal ecosystems against further erosion and to enact population controls to prevent the creation of oxygen deadzones.5
SCP-6700-04 is uncontainable. Observers and performers must be prepared for deviations from SCP-6700's written script including: altered causality, type blue manifestations, long periods of standing/dancing/singing, monologues, extended narrative exposition, out of body experiences, intense esoteric experiences, vertigo, practical jokes, nausea, and increased flatulence.
Bonus and style points to Dr. Estrella, the counter whoopie cushion was great. Didn't see that one coming, and I'm semi-omniscient! Send more like her next time you want to talk, I might actually say something.
Attempts to transcribe SCP-6700 performances via standard reporting practices and clinical tone result in significant alterations to match descriptive writing styles typically associated with narrative prose. All attempts to correct these transcripts result in database reversions to narrative prose. SCP-6700-04 has taken to making changes and adding commentary to SCP-6700's documentation, prominently inline text additions/modifications and footnotes, which reappear on removal. In the interest of cooperation, no further attempts to remove SCP-6700-04's revisions will be made.
Thanks babe, promise I'm not pulling an Odysseus here. Isn't like the Foundation has an eye I can poke out, and then abscond with their sheep. Wait…
Description: SCP-6700 is a music-based religious ritual previously practiced in varying forms by both major and obscure non-Abrahamic faiths. More specifically, SCP-6700 is a seasonal celebration of an unknown deific figure a deific figure that was previously unknown. (See Transcribed Performance Log SCP-6700-TP-703).6
SCP-6700 depicts a partially fictionalized version of two events primarily significant to the Finnfolk,7,8 which had entered the cultural lexicon of human polytheistic and monotheistic faiths by 2000 B.C. Three acts of SCP-6700 focus on 'The Great Sealing War.'9(See SCP-6700-Structure-01). The fourth act of SCP-6700 focuses on "The Great Reawakening War."10 (See SCP-6700-Structure-01). SCP-6700's primary anomalous properties begin at the start of each performance and directly affect its actors.
Performance focuses primarily around three actors who, for the duration of SCP-6700, experience temporary anomalous alterations to their appearance and personality to match the part they are playing, thus becoming SCP-6700-01, SCP-6700-02, and SCP-6700-03. SCP-6700-01 is a historical figure, Triemedes "The Uniter" Aquailian, Warrior Queen of the Finnfolk.11 SCP-6700-02 has no given name in historical texts/records, and is instead referred to by several epithets in Greco-Roman, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Hindu, and Orcadian sources for SCP-6700.12 SCP-6700-03 is a right bastard of a male deific figure, believed to be ███-███-██.13 SCP-6700-03 is highly destructive, often resulting in physical damage to surrounding structures during performance, and has caused grievous injuries to observers during previous performances.
Addition of supporting roles is currently approved in certain locations due to the enhanced positive impact that these additions have on manifestation of secondary anomalous effects.
When all conditions are met at the start of a performance, SCP-6700 results in the manifestation of SCP-6700-04. SCP-6700-04 is a feminine human figure, with four yellow eyes, red hair, and blue, green, and teal decorative tattoos across her entire body. SCP-6700-04 interacts with the performative elements of SCP-6700 as if she were an actor that would make the likes of Shakespeare blush in his pantaloons, is capable of causing physical changes to causality,14 and has a tendency to pause or disrupt SCP-6700 performances to preferentially interact with Finnfolk and SCP Foundation observers. SCP-6700-04 is believed to be responsible for SCP-6700's anomalous properties, but confirmation has been difficult. In previous interactions where she has chosen to directly address observers, SCP-6700-04 either avoids giving answers to esoteric and qualitative questions about her nature or answers them with vague and contradictory statements.
Eh. I don't know, I just don't enjoy answering questions from someone who has no reaction or sense of humor. I think of it like being, too professional. It's far more fun for me to see the wrinkled brows, or screams of existential terror. Maybe one day you'll send in someone who can actually, you know, be worth the effort for answering questions, but this ain't it chief.
Murals of SCP-6700 depict Me! In all my glory, cradling the earth with so many arms. Pats arm. SCP-6700-01 and SCP-6700-02 flank her on either side. SCP-6700-0315 stands across a body of water from SCP-6700-04 with storm clouds behind him.
SCP-6700's secondary anomalous properties manifest at the start of a performance and expand outwards if the performance meets certain conditions. Successfully achieving performance conditions results in the following effects, which last for 90 days:

Dispersal of storm conditions, even during typhoons and hurricanes.
Calmer seas.
Rapid proliferation of wildlife in the sea, ocean, or coastal areas, requiring careful management to avoid overpopulation and creation of oxygen deadzones.16
Increased crop yields in coastal regions.
Slower spread of pathogens among coastal populations.
Increased erosion of coastlines requiring careful management and buffering of vulnerable ecosystems and landmasses such as islands with sand and dirt barriers.

Failure to perform SCP-6700 greatly increases the risk of exacerbated natural phenomena, ranging from coastal famines and outbreaks of pathogenic disease, to higher incidence of severe atmospheric phenomena. A significant proportion of 16th–20th century cyclonic systems and great storms are believed to have been significantly intensified by failures to perform SCP-6700.

+SCP-6700-S-01 Act Structure Log

Hide Structure Log

SCP-6700-S-01 Act Structure

The following documents outline the general structure of how SCP-6700 is intended to be performed. SCP-6700 rarely follows this structure due to SCP-6700-04's proclivity to break the script for their own purposes.
Transcription of SCP-6700 refers to SCP-6700-01, -02, and -03 as Triemedes, "Glyden Barn", and Teran respectively. For ease of reading, these names will be used throughout the document.
Edit: SCP-6700-04 has, as of iteration 52, color coded each name.
Don't you love when I'm helpful? No? The lobsters know what you did in the dark, Jameson.

ACT 1
SCP-6700 begins in medias res,17 with Triemedes returning from the great war in the Southern Basin.18
The first musical number, On My Way Home,19 is performed, introducing Triemedes and the quest she returns from.
SCP-6700-04 provides narration of great storm clouds gathering overhead, and exclaims that tragedy is ahead.
Triemedes orders the oarsmen of her war vessels to row faster.
SCP-6700-04 describes the rising of the sea as a great serpent wraps its jaws around Hildaland, lifting the great leviathan upon which Hildaland and the city of Finnfolkaheem rides out of the sea.
Teran rises from where he had been lying on the floor. He proclaims his hatred for all that SCP-6700-04 has made, how it soils everything.
Teran begins the second musical number, "I will cleanse it all."20 as he grabs the Leviathan in the serpent's jaws and tears it in two, letting it fall into the sea.
SCP-6700-04 then narrates as great waves rock the warfleet and the sea becomes angry with storm as the Finnfolk of Hildaland are massacred by Teran's twisted children.
SCP-6700-04 narrates the transition from stormy evening, night, to morning when the storms clear.
Triemedes exposits a desperate search to find survivors, but all she finds is her mother's crown.
Triemedes begins the third musical number, "Triemede's Lament: Love and Lost, Vengeance sworn"21 and vows to unite the clans and bring the humans, Mekhanites, Sarkics, and Daevites to her side to vanquish Teran.
Act 1 Ends and a Brief intermission occurs.

Act 2
Act 2 is the longest act of the musical, as the end of Act 1 is considered a threshold crossing. Act 2 focuses primarily on Triemedes' journey to unite the Finnfolk peoples and her travels to the North Eastern European Daevite and Sarkic kingdoms, and the Southern Mekhanite domains. Different religious scripts focus on different aspects of these events, leaning heavily into describing the moral lessons that Triemedes learns, facilitating her becoming a better leader for her people. No two performances have portrayed the same minor quests for each leg of the journey. For brevity, this part of the document will focus on general thematics.
Act 2 Begins.
SCP-6700-04 narrates the opening to Act 2 introducing the daunting task of uniting the separate Finnfolk tribes.
Triemedes leads into musical number four "I will go the distance."22
Triemedes travels to the cold and distant shores of Scotland to convince the warrior tribe of the Selkie Fowk. They reject her as being naive and fooldhardy. She leaves with no fruit to show.
Triemedes travels to the green shores of Ireland to convince the Sylk tribe. Trials involving the Fae arise and she successfully navigates them, bringing the Sylk to her side.
Triemedes travels to the cliffs of Dover and the Thames river to convince the Silki. She resolves conflicts between Humans and the Silki, winning them to her side.
Triemedes makes a perilous journey across the sea to the populous Fjords of scandinavia to convince the Selchi. She struggles to best the monster Grindelwald but slays them, winning favor with the Selchi, and impressing local Sarkic and Daevite rulers. Word reaches the Sarkic and Daevite great kingdoms who promise to lend great aid in the fight to come.
Triemedes returns to Orcadia, where her people have begun to construct new homes. She is greeted by the Selkie Fowk, who commit their lives to Triemedes, having heard of her exploits. Word reaches the growing armies of a Mekhanite warfleet, sent to honor the debts inccurred by the great southern war.
Triemedes closes out Act 2 with musical number 5 "Our Time is Now."23
End of Act 2 and brief intermission.

Act 3
Act 3 begins with SCP-6700-04 briefly narrating the progress and erection of [REDACTED].24
Triemedes leads into the first of two musical numbers. "Be Prepared" narrating the preparations for war, including invention of thaumaturgic weapons, vehicles and teaching of magics based around an elder language known as the "Rustics."25
"Am I in Love?" Begins, as Triemedes recounts a slow and clumsy realization that she has fallen for SCP-6700-04, and confesses these feelings to herself.
Triemedes confronts SCP-6700-04 with all her deepest fears and sparkling desires beneath a beautiful moonlit sky.
SCP-6700-04 admits that she reciprocates. Triemedes and SCP-6700-04 engage in many nights of gratuitous passion, acknowledging that it may be their only chance to be together.
SCP-6700-04 narrates the continued preparation for the Sealing War. Triemedes learns she is carrying the greatest gift I could have given to her, a child.
Triemedes gives birth to a child who is taken far away for safety.
Guð-Bani is completed. Triemedes leads into the eighth musical number "This is War" as Teran and his army approach.
SCP-6700-04 narrates the battle between Teran and the united forces of the Finnfolk and their allies.
Triemedes leads into the ninth and closing number of Act 3 "My Sacrifice" as she plunges herself and Teran into the trappings of [REDACTED] deep into the astral plane.
End of Act 3. Brief intermission.

SCP-6700-S-02 Act 4

ACT 4
Foreword: Act 4 is entirely inconsistent with the rest of SCP-6700's structure. The script for Act 4 changes each time SCP-6700 is performed, with few general similarities, if any. Additionally, all recent editions of Act 4 heavily refer to highly classified coordinated projects between the Finnfolk and the Foundation related to Joint Operation HIGH TIDE. This section of the document has been fully redacted beyond acknowledgement that "Glyden Barn" is the adult descendant of the child of Triemedes and SCP-6700-04, though their identity remains unknown.
I would say I'm disappointed, but this is about par for the course.

+SCP-6700-C-01 Correspondence Log

Hide Correspondence Log

From: Wanda Salvavich, Records and Information Security Administration
To: Director Sherry Andrews, O5-01-03, Co-Director of Foundational Medical affairs, Co-director of Finnfolk Relations
Re: Revision of SCP-6700 Documentation
Hi Director Andrews,
I've been receiving multiple complaints from the department of Theatrical and Musical anomalies about the record keeping integrity of SCP-6700. We're both probably aware of how if they can, they will find a spotlight, and 6700-04 is setting them off. I saw the edits you made to 6700's documentation today noting to not further revert her edits.26 I have no qualms with the decision but would like to have a through line to explain why they aren't allowed to remove the commentary and wordplay that's breaking standard tone. The little bits of information your researchers have been getting out of -04 may not be enough justification.
Wanda

From: Director Sherry Andrews, O5-01-03, Co-Director of Foundational Medical affairs, Co-director of Finnfolk Relations
To: Wanda Salvavich, Records and Information Security Administration
Re: Revision of SCP-6700 Documentation
Hi Wanda,
You're not wrong about the department of Theatrical and Musical anomalies.
I just got an email from the anti-conceptual and memetic defense development team that confirms what I thought, SCP-6700-04 actively ignores Scranton cyber-anchors, memetic kill bots, conceptual frustrators, and causal loop worms. I'm starting to think we're dealing with more than just the after-image of a powerful type blue entity. If you would, please keep an eye out for changes in documentation records related to Operation: HIGH TIDE. I think at this point its safe to tell anyone who has questions that we've tried all the normal and even some of the advanced methods to stop the record changes, but nothing has worked so far. You can just tell them that it's a fruitless edit war at that point.
I think I may need to try and talk to this entity myself since she seems to be stringing us along with the researchers that have tried to interview her. 71 separate attempts with the same outcomes are not what I like to see.
Thanks,
Sherry
P.S. Can we make sure that that messaging gets out to the theatrical department before the 21st. The more I think about it, the more I think I absolutely should go speak with her myself.
Hi Wanda,
I hope your cats are doing well! I look forward to reading about them in your emails. Love the Maria Jones bobblehead.

From: Wanda Salvavich, Records and Information Security Administration
To: Director Sherry Andrews, O5-01-03, Co-Director of Foundational Medical affairs, Co-director of Finnfolk Relations
Re: Revision of SCP-6700 Documentation
Hi Sherry,
I'll go ahead and relay to the department. -04 seems to be playing with emails now too. IT is going to have a fit.
I think they're too busy playing with their tissues and cookie clicker.

From: Director Sherry Andrews, O5-01-03, Co-Director of Foundational Medical affairs, Co-director of Finnfolk Relations
To: Dave Salizaar, Department of Travel Affairs; Judy Finch, Finnfolk Communications
Re: Travel Plans
Hi Dave,
I need to arrange a round trip flight with my usual detail to Mainland Orkney, and then New York City. You can route us through our airstrips at Site-212-A and if you need to, JFK, though I'd prefer to avoid a public stop and snack. I've attached all the forms you should need, and my account numbers for any cost reimbursement.
Hi Judy, I'm CCing you in on this chain. I need you to get in touch with the Finnfolk embassy we established on 4700-01, and touch base with Queen Aquailian's attaché. There's an SCP-6700 dateline coming up on the 21st in New York, I'd like to grab a Finnfolk scholar to tag along. I have a feeling -04 might be more willing to talk to one of our friends as an observer than they will to me alone.
Thanks,
Sherry

From:Judy Finch, Finnfolk Communications
To: Director Sherry Andrews, O5-01-03, Co-Director of Foundational Medical affairs, Co-director of Finnfolk Relations
Re: Travel Plans
Hi Director Andrews,
Queen Aquailian's attaché finally got back to the embassy last night. I know you wanted this two weeks ago, but they're pretty sparse on the diplomat and scholar front right now. It apparently took them awhile just to locate the Queen. She managed to lose her guards to go teach history to school age children.
It seems that Queen Auailian has insisted she be the one to accompany you to New York, which has caused a bit of a political uproar for all the usual reasons. There's not much her subordinates can do to stop her after all the political reforms she implemented on top of dismantling the ruling council. Can't blame her after Skreyja climbed to power and then locked her in a dungeon for 110 years and told everyone she was dead.
The embassy says she'll meet you on the airstrip at Site-212-A on the 18th. Probably safe to expect the usual royal entourage after her most recent escapades.
Judy

From: Director Sherry Andrews, O5-01-03, Co-Director of Foundational Medical affairs, Co-director of Finnfolk Relations
To: Judy Finch, Finnfolk Communications
Re: Travel Plans
Hi Judy,
Thanks for the update. Stays between you and me, but this is what I was hoping might happen. That said, please make sure to relay to the embassy and concerned parties on the Finnfolk side a soft offer for someone else. I'm fairly certain Queen Aquailian will veto that, but it keeps our PR lines positive.
Pet a Squid-cat for me next time you're out in the countryside.
Sherry.

+Transcribed performance log SCP-6700-TP-703

Hide Log

Transcribed performance log SCP-6700-TP-703

Foreword: The following addenda contains the transcript of SCP-6700 performance 703 at the Atlantic Mural on 03/21/2021 and is accompanied by video recording of the performance.27 As of iteration 68 SCP-6700-04 has modified all text except the foreword into prose.
This is a piece of my story. My long and difficult history. Much like this is only a part of this document, this story is only a piece of a larger story. It is a larger depiction of who or what I am, a window into the nature of a primordial goddess, entity, whatever other term you wish to refer to me as. Strap in.
Like all good stories, this one has a beginning, in a sacred place known as Carnegie Hall, on a dark and stormy night…

It was raining. It rains a lot in the concrete jungle of New York, especially in the springtime, but this was no ordinary rain. An early season hurricane was bearing down on the human city that never sleeps.
As you can imagine, the two harried figures that stepped into Carnegie Hall were battered by the harsh winds and sheets of rain. The accompanying security personnel and royal guards that followed them inside struggled to get the heavy set doors to close, as thunder roared overhead.
"Of all the days to have a stealth hurricane come barreling up the Atlantic coast. Bah." The figure on the right stepped into the lamplight as she spoke, the drawl of her southern accent bouncing off the marble. Lowering her hood, she derobed herself of the parka, which was now soaked with water. Deep maroon curls cascaded down her shoulders, framing fierce green eyes, her posture enveloping a cocky certainty. This was and is a member of the O5 council, Director Sherry Andrews. "At least the flight in wasn't bad."
"I'm sorry, Director Andrews, but your metal birds are rickety and give my guards sickness." The second figure also stepped further into the hall, scrunching her shoulders close to her thin frame to give the illusion that she is smaller than she really is. Her voice is quiet and heavily accented with the strange mixed weight of Scottish and Norse pronunciations. She lowers her hood to reveal a human woman with tired but curious blue eyes and golden blonde hair. False skin slowly peels back, retracting into concealed cavities on the neck and shoulders, revealing golden-scaled flesh and finned ears. Her eyes pan the expansive lobby slowly, wide with wonder at a world that's completely foreign and yet familiar. This is Hege Aquailian, Queen of the Finnfolk. "I would prefer to travel by Kraken or Fisk."
"Right, well I apologize your majesty." The Queen winced at 'your majesty", but Sherry continued, not having noticed. "It's a little hard to build a dock for your vehicles here without breaking the veil. So. What do you think?" Sherry asks casually, gesturing around to the lobby with a single open hand, a small smirk on her lips, walking further in, as Hege timidly follows.
Hege stepped towards one of the square columns, gently rubbing a webbed finger along one of the bricks, standing on her toes to stretch further up the column. "This city, this temple reminds me of home. At the same time, it's alien and foreign. If I wasn't able to feel the shale of this column, I would believe you had plunged me into the dreamscape of the star sea."
"That's actually marble." Director Andrews returns, smirking, as she turned back to face Hege in an articulated fashion that caused her coat tails to swing like a cape, hand on one hip.
"…oh." Seconds tick past as Hege processed this, her lips tweaked upwards in a small wistful smile. "I think I shall like to construct a new library of this marble. Perhaps I shall borrow the architect responsible?"
"That might be a little hard." Sherry says as the auditorium doors creaked open behind her.
"Oh? Why, are they a very busy person?" An agent approached from the auditorium, glancing first with trepedation at the Royal guards, then the security personnel, and finally the two figures stopped and bantering.
"In a manner of speaking. He's had quite a long appointment with the ground." Sherry pointed down at the floor, black and white tile shimmering in the light.
"Oh, well I won't bother him then."
Like many instances of humorous banter from two people who share such wildly different worlds, further exchange was interrupted by the bemused Foundation agent whose name is so wildly unimportant that it does not deserve mention here, beyond the fact that this agent existed.28 "Not to interrupt Director Andrews, your majesty, but we're ready for you." Prompting another wince from the fair Finnfolk.
From here, our burgeoning spectators were lead into the performance chamber. At their feet, covering the entirety of the auditorium floor, the great Atlantic mural. Hege paused to admire the depiction of her ancestor, a quiet solemnness dimly twinkling in her eyes, before shifting her attention to the stage.
The choir had already been ushered into their seats and were running through vocal warmups. At the same time the orchestra was practicing snippets of the performance soundtrack in order to warm up. The Actors, two Finnfolk and a human, practiced lines with each other as the stage director ushered stage hands to get the ultimately superfluous set pieces into place. You had to give them credit for their dedication, to humans not in the know, this ceremony almost certainly had to feel like nonsense.29
The conductor looked to the bemused O5 council-woman, bent at an angle and tapping on the glass of the quite large aquarium tank containing 30 squid, and quietly coughs. "Director Andrews… we are ready to begin."
"Good, right. Let's begin then." She stood up, pretending to be completely innocent, as at least one guard rolled his eyes.30 She walked away from the tank of cephalopods, as they stared at her with vengeance in their eyes, and stood next to Hege, who in turn stood upon Teran's31 face.32
The conductor turned and raised his baton, and began to do… conductor things.33
Music filled the room, followed shortly by the audacious and disturbing sounds of bone crunching. Each actor on the stage began transmuting in appearance to fit the role they would be playing, flesh slurping and shifting, skin pulling taut. Lighting in the room shifted as fixtures on the ceiling shook and tore from their holsters, a terrible noise like bombs falling through the sky accompanied their plunge. Rather than destructively crashing into the floor, they plunged straight through the mural in a circular pattern all around Hege and Sherry, producing 'splooshes' as they vanished from sight.
The O5 councilwoman took a step back with one foot, eyes wide, teeth clenched, caught off guard by the sudden reality shift and heavy falling objects. "Christ!"
"This is marvelous! Look, causality is flowing away like a river." The Queen bounced in place, eyes sparkling as an ecstatic smile crossed her face. She pointed as the floor beneath their feet started to oscillate, the stone pushing up and down to form peaks and troughs, becoming more and more viscous until it was no longer stone, but instead the calm waves of an Ocean. The decorative architectural facing of the walls shook, and sunk slowly into the budding ocean. The ceiling of the auditorium rolled back like a retractable convertible roof, revealing an ancient and unfamiliar starry sky with a large orange moon hovering directly overhead. "I have only read of this in the texts. We are not going to watch, we are going to experience."
"I'm glad you're enjoying yourself. I feel a little nauseous personally. Type blues." Sherry grumbled, setting her feet slightly apart and moving her hand away from her side arm.
The stage before them shook and rapidly began to sink, taking the orchestra pit and choir down with it as nearly everything vanished beneath the waves.34,35
"I've only ever read of the Kópr Herja, but we are about to experience it!" Triemedes does not sink with the stage and actors, instead a bireme rose out of the newly formed ocean beneath her feet, flourished with proto-nordic decorations.
With the stage set, it was finally time for the star of the show to arrive. The stars in the sky above Hege and Sherry swirled in a sparkling array, dancing over the now submerged orchestra and choir. Light streamed down in spinning sprinkles, as a fragment36 of something was called forth in a shape that they could perceive, materializing on the boat next to Triemedes. Her tattoos swirled, pulsing from blue to teal to green like a flowing river of light across her skin. Her four yellow eyes opened and she spoke in a booming and harmonious voice raising her arms. "And so once more we are called to remember this great ta—" And then everything froze.
Everything but Hege Aquailian and Sherry Andrews.
"…erm." Sherry looked around, everything still, an eerie silence pervading the air. "Well, I don't think this is supposed to happen." She leaned down and scooped a handful of water up through cupped hands before gently moving them away.. The water stayed where she had lifted it, still molded to the shape of her hands. "Yeah definitely don't think this is supposed to happen."
The Director stole a quick glance at the Finnfolk Queen, and she gestured at her own nose. "Your Majesty, your nose is bleeding."
"I really don't like being… called that." Hege cupped a hand to her head, scaled brow wrinkling, using the other to wipe away the drip of maroon, staining her scales. "Eldr‎ Seidr." She wobbled in place, eyes losing focus. "There's a lot of Seidr, magic. A lot of old magic." The Finnfolk Queen stabilized after a moment, wiping more blood from her nose and politely rejecting the steadying arm offered by Sherry.
Awwww, someone is really sensitive to the Eldr Ways. A vague and shadowy outline moved just out of perception, tapping Sherry's shoulder.
"Gah what the hell! That burns!" Sherry spun towards the source of the tap, gritting her teeth, to find nothing as the fabric of her blouse smoldered. Click echoed, Sherry's sidearm freed from its holster in a heartbeat. She glanced back to see Hege also holding her shoulder, robe singed.
"Aldrnari, she's using a master rustic37 without drawing it in the air." Scales shifted, as the Queen's expression turned from surprise to concern her posture changing to a more fluid stance, feet set apart, arms moving in small arcs. She tapped her foot onto the wavetops, swiftly drawing Svell. In a flash the waves froze outward from the point of contact, spikes jutting up out of the ice.
"Oooooh! You've really improved a lot!"
"Can you tell where the magic is coming from?" Sherry slowly swiveled back towards Hege, scanning the endless ocean horizon around them side arm aimed, eyes narrowed, teeth set.
"No, its as if her magic is everywhere."
Dark silhouettes moved through the spike columns, the ice melting at their touch, staying just out of sight. Contact is made again with both Sherry and Hege, singing the air with the odor of burning fabric. "Ah!" escaped the Queen's lips in a yelp, eyes screwing shut. She spins on her toes, but the shadows are gone again.
"Fucking gods dammit!" Sherry whipped the pistol around, only to swivel again when light bent oddly in the corner of her eyes around the ice. "What do you mean everywhere, like we're inside of -04?"
"Yes." Hege responded, eyes simmering with determination. She fluidly dragged her digits through the air, static building around her fingertips, drawing Elding to completion. A hand drew up, catching the symbol fully in her palm, and then extended both arms wide as it sunk into her skin, invoking a full body shudder. Her palms flew together, a thunderous boom emanating from the collision in a sonic wave, splitting ice spikes in two. With resistance, she drew them back apart apart, electricity crackling as it jumped back and forth from hand to hand. Crack a devestating chain of bouncing lightning seared through the air, bouncing from spike to spike, and instantly melting them, but failing to catch any of the shadows.
Sherry looked over her shoulder at Hege, anger just barely concealed on her face…"Yes? What do you mean yes?"
"We are inside of her."
"Oh." Sherry swiveled again, scowling as a silhouette vanished into the waves, sticking its tongue out in mockery.
"Yes."
"Just dandy. I should have brought a Scranton Anchor."
A speloosh interrupted further commentary, and they both swiveled. Sherry's gun aimed and finger on the trigger, as Hege used the motion of both her arms and legs to half draw another rustic in the air. They saw the Bireme rapidly vanish beneath the wavetops. A giggle echoed from every direction.
"Shit. Can you get us out of here with your thaumaturgy."
"In theory." Hege responded, scaled brow wrinkling, biting her lip, starting to draw í því.
"You don't sound too confident. Can't be difficult to get us back to where we were, right?" The director glanced at Hege, lips pursed.
"There are three problems." She stops, letting the symbols fall away.
The O5 Councilwoman glanced in her direction."Ok?"
"Her magic is stronger." Hege backed up towards Sherry until they are back to back, worry starting to etch into her scales.
"What's the second problem?"
"We haven't moved. We are still on the mural."
"Oh." She focused her aim down the sites, using the reflection of one of the ice spikes to pick out the shape of an approaching silhouette. "What's the third problem?"
"We are hemmed in by a bounded field." A pause, as Hege glanced over her shoulder at Sherry's weapon. "How is your aim?"
The sting of a burning touch seared into both their shoulders. In a flash, Sherry spun, aiming over Hege's shoulder and fired at the silhouette… only for a stream of water to come out of the muzzle, for you see, the side arm had become a super soaker.
"Come now, weapons meant to kill are entirely unnecessary, we're just having a little fun."
"GAH!" Her face twisted in irritaiton, and she threw away the now harmless device which spelooshed into the water and froze under the ice. "Doesn't really matter how my aim is against a type blue!" Sherry turned in the direction of the silhouette. " Stop playing games, come out and tell us what you want!"
Everything stopped once more, as Sherry's pressing question echoed out over the water on towards the horizon. Alva Prime rose slowly out of the ocean behind them, effortlessly. "I wanted to have a little bit of fun before we got serious and needed to test and make sure they were worth my time. You really can't blame me for that.".
Hege and Sherry both froze, and turned slowly towards her, taking her in.38 One could almost smell the fear emanating from them both.
Hege fell to her knees and bowed her head, muttering hushed prayers. "Blessed be the Mither, blessed be I to be in her presence, and blessed be I to receive all advice and assistance she may lend."
Alva Prime laughed softly, looking between them, and then back to Hege with affection in her eyes. "Child, you do realize I am right here do you not? There is no need to give thanks in prayer." A long pause and an awkward quiet filled the air before Hege rose slowly, shakily, avoiding eye contact. Alva's four-eyed gaze drifted to Dr. Andrews. "I can see all those little questions dancing around in your eyes." A smile, as she held her arms wide. "I think I've played with you long enough to answer a few questions before the performance time limit hits."
Sherry and Hege simply stared at Alva Prime, the former's jaw hanging slightly slack, confusion and caution etched into the lines of her forehead, the latter with a sense of wonder and reverence dancing through her eyes.
"What's this? Fisher cat got your tongues? Perhaps a more familiar setting will help." She clapped her hands together. The ice covering the wavetops rapidly melted as the waves steadily became more and more viscous, solidifying into cool black and white tiles beneath their feet, spreading out into infinity. Sections of tile lifted out of the ground on four sides, rising to a 90 degree angle and forming four solid, bleak walls. A section of one wall was cut, as if with invisible scissors, with two rectangular boxes, one large, and one small, forming a door and a window. Liquid glass flowed into the large hole. The starry sky vanished as absorbent ceiling material rolled across the top of the walls. Air rushed inwards and with a neat little "pop" two chairs, a table, and a recording device appeared.
Roughly thirty seconds of stunned silence passed as Alva Prime glanced between them awaiting questions. It was fairly obvious by the twitch of Sherry Andrew's jaw that she was internally debating whether or not to forgo professionalism just to ask "What the fuck?".
"If neither of you have questions, I can send you back to watch the play. I promise, it's a very good story." Following an overly dramatic and exasperated sigh, Alva started to bring her hands together again in a clapping motion to dismiss the room.
"No! No." Their voices rang out in unison, as they exchanged a look before Sherry added on, "Neither of us are really used to… reality shifts. Plus you came at us pretty hard. In our previous attempts to talk with you, you weren't quite so aggressive."
"Using Aldrnari without drawing the signs and then making continual contact with us without burning us to cinders was very startling." Childlike excitement returning to Hege's voice as she paused. "And also impressive."
The fragment's lips curved up into a mischevious grin, rocking on her heels, glancing mostly at the Finnfolk Queen. "Oh believe me child, you'll be able to, sooner rather than later, without signs that is." Her golden, unreadable eyes turned back to The Director. "Oh that was all quite intentional." Another smile as she gestured with one hand, the other behind her back. "I couldn't very well pass up the opportunity to have a little fun with two very very interesting candidates. You can't expect a goddess to just roll over and start talking to you without first testing that you're worth her time. Now, questions, I know you've got them, you know you've got them, you know that I know that you've got them."
Sherry composed herself, raising and lowering both hands, taking a deep breath. "I suppose the best place to start is to ask, what are you?"
"Ooooooh coming out swinging with the hard questions first." Alva leaned back in the chair, and snapped a finger. Star light swirled inwards towards her hand gradually shaping into the jagged edges of a puzzle piece, floating above her palm. Another slightly differently shaped piece appeared above her other hand.
"The easiest way for you to comprehend this is to use the allegory of a puzzle. I am the result of two puzzle pieces combining, each individual pieces." She lifts the piece in her right hand. "One represents the Mural that we are floating above. The other," She lifted the other piece. "Represents all the moving parts that go into this ritual, this performance you put on. When they are brought together, they let me manifest. That make sense?"
Hege bit her lower lip, looking between the pieces as they moved together, interlocking and glowing with blueish-green light. "I think so. You are fragmented and each time we have performed this ritual, we make you whole, and powerful enough to affect causal flux?"
"Not precisely whole, Glyden elskan. It is more complicated than that." Alva prime snapped her fingers again and more puzzle pieces appeared fitting together into a large section of roughly 100-200 pieces. "What you can think of me as is a seed. A seed that she planted." She pointed at larger fragment of the puzzle. Another snap, and starlight streamed inwards forming an acorn. "She took the parts of herself that became me, and seeded one in these murals, and the other in a ritual that your people used to honor me, her, and made it so that when you perform this ritual around these murals, it eases your existence." The smaller puzzle fragment splits apart, and a storm appeared above it. She used a motion of her hand to bring them together again which causes it to dissipate.
"Right so, when everything is brought together, you diminish storms, and all the other things that are indicated in your documentation, as well as being able to alter causality to do things like edit our documentation. So she's the actual goddess and you're a fragment, but when you're active you can do everything she can?" Sherry indicates the smaller fragment again, and then the bigger fragment.
Alva prime leaned back in the chair as she spoke, and kicked her feet up on the table, before her brow wrinkled. "The limit of what I can do is dissipate the storms, improve harvests, food supplies, and help with disease when I'm brought together. I can only alter reality around the mural and only for the three or so hours that the performance takes." A pause as she held up too many fingers, more fingers than a hand should have, counting. "It is hours right? I find human units of time confusing since I woke at the beginning of the universe, and time doesn't flow the same for her." The interview room collapsed revealing an endless landscape of floating and ticking clocks, which then one by one fell apart and dissolved into an infinite dark void, where the only light was a small incredibly dense ball of light beneath them which radiated heat.
Sherry clutched the bottom of her chair, her fingers turning red as she held on for dear life through causal morphing, managing through gritted teeth. "Yes, it's hours." In contrast, Hege's entire attention remained on Alva Prime, leaning forward in her seat, hanging on every word. It was quickly apparent that she regretted the decision to not bring a seascroll to take notes on.
"Oh please, unclench, there's no gravity here. You aren't going to fall. Also, to what you said about her being whole. The larger piece of the puzzle that seeded me, is in turn a fragment herself." She indicated the larger puzzle fragment again, This time, the words are bitter, and the burning orb below flared with light and heat. One by one, an enormous collection of puzzle pieces, tens of thousands of them, manifested in the void and fit together, bit by bit. Only a small section is left incomplete.
"Oh." Hege and Sherry said in unison. Eyes wide they watched the many swirling pieces fit together into a nebulous shape that resembled the physical shape of the woman in front of her, with one of the four yellow orbs missing.
"Ayyup." She kicked her feet up on the table again.39 "I've of course been dancing around the substance of your real question. You want to know what I really am? But that's an impossible question, because I, no, we don't know." She snapped a finger and twinkling lights popped into existence forming into the shape of gods of many different pantheons. "The closest thing in terminology would be to call us a "Goddess" but that really isn't accurate, because the gods/goddesses weren't primordial beings that were here before the universe even burst its pod."
The chairs and table dissolved from under them, and Sherry let out a yelp, flailing her limbs as she spun from the motion. Hege grabbed her arm and steadied her, floating like a natural.40
"Swim with me, child!" Alva prime laughed with and swam towards the hot orb, a finger bipping the surface, initiating a flash of intense light as the ball rapidly began to expand, out, out, out until it passed through both Hege and Sherry, gas swirling around them as if flowing on a great river current. "The universe, and the parallel astral plane are absolute concepts. They exist, and simply are." Everything sucked back inwards until the ball was a tiny speck again. Alva 'swims' toward what must be a flower bud, a coccoon, a seed, all of these things. Hege follows, an emphatic smile on her lips, pulling the bewildered Sherry along with broad breast strokes.41 "In turn, we are also an absolute concept, we exist whether the universe does or not, whether it has begun, or still awaits birth." She indicates the entity in the chamber. "Our whole is omniscient, omnipotent, and before we could light entire galaxies with the touch of a single finger."
The ball of heat and light exploded outward once more, streaks of hot burning gas swirling everywhere as the first atoms began to cool around them."You said you awoke at the beginning of it all? What did you do? I guess, did you want, did you feel, did you think?"
"I didn't say I awoke, though I may have planted that thought by accident." A wink, as the flower bud blooms, opening. The figure within, slowly sat up, yawning, and rubbed one of four eyes, before lighting up with Joy as she burst from her place of slumber, swimming through the gas. Alva Prime follows, Hege and Sherry swimming after, as the primordial goddess span through the vacuum, soundlessly laughing, circling inwards and stopping to watch with wonder as gas swirled into an ever tighter spinning orb, before it ignited beneath the flame of nuclear fusion, birthing the first star. Alva spoke again, her voice dreamy and far off. "My memories of the earliest days are fuzzy… we lost much in the chaining, but the birth of the first star was not one of them."
"This is incredible." The Queen said quietly to The Director, blue eyes shimmering in the light of the newly born star.
"This is more than incredible. We are bearing witness to the birth of the universe. No one is ever going to believe us." Sherry returned, mouth agape.
Alva Prime simply laughed, and spun in place, languishing in the nostalgia and exhilaration of the moment.
Several minutes of wonder passed, as they followed the newly awakened primordial being across space and time, bearing witness to the birth of the first galaxies from the touch of her fingertips.
Finally, Sherry managed to break the wonderous stupor of the experience to resume the purpose of them being here. "I… you mentioned that you're not capable of altering causality outside of mural space. If that's true, and you're not playing a game of trickery, then who keeps changing our documentation? We have tried every measure at our disposal to counter further changes, and all have failed."
The Goddess fragment paused to consider the question. "If not me, then it may be the piece of us that seeded me, the larger fragment. She was asleep for a long time, but recently woke, and her memories that are backshared to us have started flowing again.".
"The larger fragment. She's the one I'm descended from, isn't she?" The Queen bit her lip as she asked, and Alva Prime turned to face her. "Where is she now?"
The four eyed after-image laughed and then clapped a hand. Starlight flowed into her palms and she blew on the condensed particles, sending them scattering into the scaled down shape of a large and familiar magitech-mechanical crab. "She's there, under the 'containment' of your compatriot here, mostly of her own choosing." She looks to The Director. "She's using an old hat, but familiar name Alva Móðir."
Sherry Andrews promptly turned quite pale. "That explains quite a lot." A multi-colored space whale flew past, drawing Sherry's gawking gaze. "I think I'll have to arrange an interview."
"I should like to have… a really long conversation with her as well, if you would arrange that?" Hege asks as another whale swam past.
"Uh sure… I'll arrange that. She looked up at the starry endless ceiling taking a deep breath.
Hege turned back to Alva Prime, treading the emptiness of the void as if she were swimming in water. "Uhm, the fragment that you came from took a name, did you have one when you awoke from your slumber?" Hege asked, as time advances.
"No. We were never so vain as to name ourselves, nor was there anything or anyone there at the beginning to title us. However, your people," she said, reaching out across the void, arm stretching impossibly far to gently poke Hege who follows the approaching finger and resists the temptation to bite at it, "were the first to give me a name. A fitting and simple name." Alva Prime then looked at Hege as if she were a mother having a conversation with a daughter who has made her immensely proud.
Hege's solemn gaze breaks into a small warm smile. "I'm glad that we could do that for you."
Sherry glanced between them, eyebrows half raised, and interjects. "Erm, so all the representations, and what you look like right now are all really human based… are they your true shape? Like, is this what you actually look like?"
A laugh escaped her lips. In a flash flesh began to bubble and twist, inflating outwards, dozens of eyes pushing out into many yellow orbs of flesh, hundreds of legs, claws, tentacles, spheres, all centered around four terrible but kind yellow spheres.
Instant regret flashed across Sherry's face, in addition to a yelp.
As quickly as she changed, she returned to normal.
A moment of recovery passed, before Hege asked a question. "I understand why the uh, larger you, seeded you… but why are you a fragment of her, and not a fragment of the whole? That's where I'm lost… and maybe I don't know the history as well as I should."
Alva sighed, and clapped her hands together as the landscape changed again back to the split open cocoon where she sleeps. Shadow figures quietly approached, horrible dark chains grasped in their many undefined limbs.
"Who i-" Hege was interrupted by the gruesome wrapping of chains around The Progenitor's sleeping form, waking her violently but far too slowly to prevent the gleaming orbs and undulating chains of malice from searing into her astral flesh as she silently screamed.
The chainmaker cowered behind the other figures, hooking the ends of each link into the great crushing voids of many event horizons, pinning her. "Awful, horrible. I can't even imagine. Ugh." Now fully bound, she still managed to wrap inconceivably many great limbs around the great eel as it attempted to drain her thoughts, and ripped his mind from his essence and cast it into the great maw where it was obliterated, leaving him a spineless, empty, hungry husk. In the final moments as the chainmaker desperately wound his horrible implements around the great void, she managed to rip one of infinitely many limbs from her body, and flung it into the void. Alva prime swam after it, Hege and Sherry following.
Hege attempted to find words, she really did, but none would come. Nothing could describe the horrible sorrow in her heart at this cruel act.
"These other shadows, these monsters, they are like you? Were there others? Friends?"
"There were 13 of us at the beginning." A series of intense images sprung into being as they swam after the floating arm.42,43,44,45,46,47
"Ok. OK! Jesus, my brain can't handle all of that at once."
Alva simply shrugged as they swam. "You asked."
"Which one is the chainmaker?" Hege asked, swimming alongside a pod of winged serpents. The serpents scattered as the menacing shadows streaked behind still, chasing the arm. The arm slowly took on the familiar four eyed humanoid shape.
"#13." She said bitterly. "He's the only one who has never set foot on your planet."
"With all due respect, and to get off the topic of primordial gods that make my brain want to scream, why Earth? Why not some other planet?" Sherry asked, trying her damndest to ignore the shadows behind them.
She laughed sadly. "Are you wondering if there is something special about your world? If there is something incidentally important that lead me here?" She paused to consider as they chased the goddess fragment through the cosmos. The shape of a familiar galaxy approached, faster and faster, then a spiral arm, and then a nebula. Then rocketing past Pluto, then Neptune, then Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, the Moon, and finally, the blue speck as the goddess fragment smashed into Earth, over what will become the Yucatan Penninsula.
"I would love to tell you that all of this was because your little blue planet was of grave importance, that these primordial beings came here because they revered or reviled your existence. But it's not. It's because they fear us, even in our fragmented and bound state, they fear what we are, they fear what we can do." She turned in the air towards Sherry and Hege, as the shockwave spread across Earth's surface, the great monstrous entities hovering above it, waiting. "And they are right to be afraid, because we will personally savage and grind the nine who bound us in those cursed chains into oblivion." Her arms raise, held wide. Seven enormous pillars of molten earth and boiling water reached into space from below, as the chainmaker hung farther back around the moon, and then fled as seven of his conspirators are dragged towards the planet's surface.
There's an extended moment of silence, where a pen could drop and be as loud as an airplane.
The redhead glanced down at her watch, noting the time and that they have about 20 minutes until the performance ends in the split causality, "We only have a few more minutes and I have so many questions, but there are some really important ones to ask first."
Alva Prime looked to her with tired yellow eyes, waiting.
"Why the Glyden Barn? What about them is so special, why is it always them who defeats Teran in your scripts, that breaks the chains that bind you? Why is it them that saves the us, the veil, and Earth. Why not someone else?"
She gently clapped her hands together, and time sped up immensely fast. The sun and moon blurred in the sky as they rocketed forward in time, coming to a sudden and slightly nauseating halt over the Islands of Orkney. "5000 years ago, we stood with the Finnfolk at the battle of Orkney, where fought that bastard Teran. We expended so much energy that we were forced to slumber for 4900 years… and even with the fully realized potential of my partner and mother of my child, we only just barely sealed Teran." A long pause, as she gathered her breath, half choking. "But she gave herself to keep him sealed, because it wasn't enough to keep him down." Triemedes is visible below giving a past version of Alva one last hug, before a great purple orb of light enveloped her, and she ripped through time and space out of view. "And she still wasn't able to hold him. And now the Orkney seal is a ticking time bomb. Only a daughter of mine who can access all of me, chained or not, can do what you need. That is why the Glyden Barn is so important. Only they can slay Teran, sever my chains, and save your world."
"Will… you tell us who it is? Who the Glyden Barn will be… is it destined to be my child, or a future child?" Hege asked softly, earnestly, unconsciously making herself small.
"That might be beyond what she's able to say your maj-" a pause. "Hege." She gently placed a hand on the Finnfolk's shoulder as the three of them drifted down and set foot on the flat earth of the Orkney landscape.
Alva Prime gently brought her hands together and placed fingers to her lips, rocking on her heels before folding her fingers inwards and pointing at Hege, softness in her golden eyes. "Oh child. You haven't figured it out yet? Think of all the suffering you've been through. Nearly burning alive in the royal library." The environment shifted around them to the raging inferno of the Royal Library as Hege is dragged from the rubble by a strange four eyed aquatic feline. Sherry looked around, eyes wide.
"Locked in a dark dungeon, hungry, tired, cold and alone for more than a century." Another shift in perspective to a dark, dank, and narrow cell with only the glow of dim rustic that a younger Hege had drawn in the sand.
"To watching your people be savaged, brutalized, and devastated due to the actions of your captor. Yet you endured, confronted your demons in the sands of Libya, and lead your people with intelligence, integrity, and courage beyond compare into a new golden age of knowledge and growth." Alva points again. "You are the Glyden Barn, and you are… destined to do many great things my child."
Hege looked down, balling her fists before unclinching them. Her brow wrinkled as she looked back up, confusion and conflicted emotion in her eyes. "I-I-I'm the Glyden Barn?" She takes a step slightly back, and looks down again before up, voice cracking. "But I don't even… feel like a Queen. I've been weak, helpless, and nothing I do feels as if it is right or strong. I can't be here. She's a hero and I'm simply not."
Alva Prime's eyes softened. "Oh child. Even Gilgamesh didn't reach Enkidu in the underworld in four years. You are loved, and you will be loved, and will love. Doubt is natural, but you are you and everything will work out."48
Sherry gently placed a supporting hand on Hege's shoulder, as the Queen looked down again at her hands, processing and holding back tears.
"We're running up on time… and I only have one more question." Sherry said softly. "Why us? Why of all the attempts to ask you anything meaningful, you decide to respond to us. I mean, besides the obvious of her being the Glyden Barn.
Alva Prime's eyes started watering. "Well. Sherry Andrews, O5-01-03. Just as Hege Aquailian has endured hardship you have as well. Orphaned by parents you'll never know, manipulated by and deceived by a man you considered a friend and a mentor. You've rose in spite of every challenge, every roadblock. I admire perseverence and genuine kindness in humans, even if your species has caused me more trouble than I care to remember."
There's a long pause as she wiped her eyes. "Besides, I owe you a monumental debt of gratitude."
Sherry blinked three times, glancing at her watch, a minute and 30 seconds left. "Huh!? What, why?"
Alva Prime smiled, and slowly changed shape until she had taken on the form of Astrid the Kind, former Queen of the Finnfolk. "Because, you gave me an opportunity I didn't get with my first child, who was carted to safety and grew up, ruled, and died before I woke from slumber." She stepped forward and stood in front of Hege, looking at her once more in the way only a proud and loving mother can. She hugged her.
"You could have brought any Finnfolk scholar, but you brought my second daughter. You gave me three hours to be a mom for the first time." The goddess cried, tears dripping onto the floor behind hege, tragically beautiful flowers sprouting at their feet.
"I just wish I had more ti-" Then, without a bang, without a flash, she was simply gone, as causality peeled back to normal.
Hege Aquailian, Queen of the Finnfolk found herself in Carnegie hall next to O5-01-03 Sherry Andrews, with tears streaming down her face, legs trembling. Security personnel and Royal guards suddenly rushed to them.
"Mom?"

End Log

Epilogue.
The following note was translated from Finnfolk nordic script and was left for Queen Aquailian with instructions to open on her 170th birthday.49

Sweet Hege, my little scholar
I don't want to say goodbye, because it'll be hard for you to understand.
And it's even harder with what I know is to come.
I've been sick for a long time. Staying awake is getting hard.
I don't want to go.
Why does this keep happening?
You've grown so quickly these past few years.
And I see it in your eyes, the curiosity, the desire for adventure.
"Móðir, does the Mither still love us?" You asked me yesterday.
I almost told you everything.
And then I cried.
You are the greatest gift I have given to this world. Every day you make me proud.
And in the days to come, you will doubt yourself. You will not know if you are right for this.
But you are. Gods you are.
I want to give you everything.
But I can't even give you another week.
And it shatters my heart.
Maybe someday, you'll see me again.
And we'll be able to [unreadable script for two lines]
I love you Hege.
And I'm sorry for leaving.
Mom


+Show the Footnotes

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Footnotes
1. Unless you're doing that silly in medias res thing.
2. But first, a beauracratic report.
3. June and December 21st.
4. March and September 21st.
5. I wrote 95 notes on napkins once for how to deal with this. Do you think they made it to Dr. Young on the other side of the Pacific yet?
6. This figure is colloquially referred to by the Finnfolk as "The Mother" "The Queen of the Star Sea", "Squid Mother", "Queen of Krakens", or "The Mother of all Crustaceans".
7. A race of thaumaturgically advanced aquatic hominids closely related to humans with fins along the lower limbs, scales, gills, and cavities in the neck, pelvis, and shoulders which store deployable skin layers that allow Finnfolk to protect themselves from drying out.
8. Biological organisms are so weird. Did you know they had those before I even got here? Who approved this, I want to speak to the manager.
9. A series of anomalous conflicts that began in 3101 B.C. with the destruction of the Finnfolk moving island of Hildaland and the crystalline city of Finnfolkaheem. The Finnfolk subtribe of the Finnfolk was mostly annhilated with the destruction of Finnfolkaheem. Their remnants would become the ruling class of Finnfolk society. History of the Finnfolk, a liberal interpretation.
10. An anomalous conflict which has not yet come to pass.
11. In certain historical records and mythological retellings of SCP-6700 Triemedes is mistaken for a fierce Warrior Queen of the Amazons, a Valkyrie, or a Daevite high priestess.
12. These epithets consist of "Glyden Barn", "Witch-Queen of the Finnfolk", "The Awakened Mage Queen", "Child of the Mither".
13. Further information is classified as a part of Operation HIGH TIDE.
14. Changes to Causality alter reality states, usually via imagination and physical shaping. In more understandable terms, I manipulate space and time by the astral plane. No, not like those type blues, I used it for puzzles.
15. Did you see the penis I drew on his face in Athens? Good stuff.
16. I wish I had more control over this. Hurting all those creatures makes me very sad.
17. Wait…
18. Another name for the Mediterranean Sea.
19. Which was totally ripped off by On The Road Again.
20. Níð Ergi.
21. Which appears to have inspired squints League of Legends?
22. Not to be confused with the Disney musical number from the movie Hercules, which appears to have been directly inspired by this part of SCP-6700. I think you can see the theme going on here.
23. Unrelated to the political musical of the same name. No not Hamilton, the other one.
24. References have been removed as a part of OPERATION: HIGH TIDE.
25. Symbols and characters from the Finnfolk language which carry significant thaumaturgic channeling capabilities.
26. You could call it a Level 5 decision.
27. A high quality camera was not present for this performance, and log trace files indicate that this MP4 file originated from containment cells within SCP-4700-01.
28. Before you ask, no I have not undone causality to remove them. They still exist.
29. Am I insulting my choice of celebration and power gathering through storytelling? Why yes. Yes I am.
30. What happened to this guard I hear you ask? Nothing! He's drinking beers with the squids down the street at the dock pub. Yes that one.
31. My rival, my bitter enemy, who at the beginning was born in hatred and malice from a celestial bubble and blamed me for all of creation. So much hate did he hold for me that we fought in the throes of the void, inspiring the Tattered Scarlett to conspire with the Chainmaker to bind me in the darkness as I slept.
32. Really the only way Teran should be treated is by stamping feet into his face.
33. Look if you expected me to tell an elegant and accurate story all the way through without skimping on the unimportant details for the sake of getting to the good bits, you're reading documentation about the wrong Trickster goddess. Who do you think I am, Mekhane?
34. It's important to note at this point that certain instruments remained visible, mostly Tuba bells and bassoons. Have fun with that mental image.
35. // The Choir and Orchestra were also completely unbothered by the fact that they were suddenly submerged in an ocean. It's almost like they weren't even aware!//
36. Who I will refer to as Alva Prime for reasons that will become apparent later.
37. Symbols and words in the Finnfolk language derived from marks of power that I created so that Triemedes could wield my power to save her people.
38. Some Finnfolk and humans say that I'm physically beyond compare. I'm amused, as physicality has nothing to do with it.
39. It's rather unclear when she took her feet off the table, perhaps it was a trick of the light, or in that moment she had many legs, most of them definitely not human. All the same, it was very disturbing.
40. "She is a Finnfolk after all."
41. Inside, through a transluscent astral coating is The Progenitor.
42. She appears first, standing tall and proud without chains. Colorful scriptic text in green appears next to her. The Progenitor, first and eldest of those descended from the astral plane. Stripped of power by star filled chains. The one they fear.
43. Second came a terrible figure, tall and masculine, angry and wielding a great trident with purple and blue tattoos swirling across his form. Purple text appeared next to him: The Tyrant, master of unbridled hate, envious of mortal life, conjurer of unholy storms. Sealed beneath the watching stones underneath the Orkney sky.
44. Third a great thing made of gears and metal came into focus, twitching with every second. Gold text appears next to them Clockworks, founder of machine and gears, metal of heart. Forever broken by a war with her lover.
45. Fourth came the Dragon of flesh, great devourer of worlds, who trailed life on that which they did not eat. Next to them in brown text Trapped within the heart of his lover. Feared, revered, and hated by those shapers of flesh, for its unbridled power.
46. Fifth came a starfish with five terrible arms stretching into every conceivable direction.
47. Sixth came one of carnal sin, and terrible pain. In red text next to them it read The red shah upon the sands around that great place at the end of the world. Imprisoned before time itself, his red threads worming their way into that once great place of Alagadda, rending its parting.
48. "I promised I wouldn't cry. This is a mortal thing. I promised I wouldn't cry."
49. March 22nd, 2021
50. Did you honestly think you were safe? Think again land lubber.

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