I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: The blood-dimmed tide is loosed.
Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
In the form of God on high
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
In this valley of dying stars
Where flap the tatters of the King,
An angel throng bedight
in veils and drowned in tears.
And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon mountains green
In death's other kingdom.
And did the Countenance Divine,
A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,
Shine forth upon these Satanic mills
Along the shore where black stars rise.
But see, in this broken jaw of our lost kingdoms,
A crawling shape.
A blood-red thing that writhes
As rats' feet over broken glass.
Here the stone images are raised
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"I am the Conqueror Worm, King of Kings,
The Beautiful, the Perpetual Star,
The Shadow between the Motion and the Act.
Bring me my bow of burning gold;
Bring me my chariot of fire.
My thoughts are red thoughts and my teeth are white.
Look on my works and despair;
Nothing beside remains."
And the pallid angels affirm:
The shadows lengthen,
The center cannot hold.
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
A rough beast, its hour come round at last,
Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born
Not with a bang but a whimper.
The traveler rose, brushed
Dust from their rags,
And shouldering their broken sword
They said: Should you meet God along the road,
Stick a knife in the motherfucker’s throat.
Operation MAGNOLIA
August 21, 1986
Lehmi County, Idaho
Mobile Task Force Nu-22 raids the compound of the Church of Jesus Christ the King in Scarlet.
Seven anomalous individuals are taken into Foundation custody.
Their records remain sealed.
Content Warnings
Operation MAGNOLIA contains a considerable amount of sensitive material. Please read the following list and proceed according to your own best judgement.
- Child abuse (Indirectly depicted; directly described)
- Child death
- Sexual assault, including CSA (Indirectly depicted; directly described)
- Other sexual content (Depicted)
- Extreme gore and violence
- Depiction of a mass shooting
- Depiction of torture
- Depiction of suicide & suicidal ideation
- Self-harm ideation
- Pet death (dog)
- Homophobic and racist slurs
- Unredacted clinical summary of Procedure 110-Montauk
I've tried my best to handle these topics in way appropriate to their seriousness; any failure to do so is an unintentional oversight on my part and will be corrected as needed.
Act 1
Part 1: The Gate
The door opens at eleven thousand feet.
Part 2: Hit and Run
A beater Ford pickup with Arkansas plates and bad suspension, bought in cash under a false name, careens down a nameless dirt road.
Part 3: PARAPET
Black waves break over the bow of a ship out of Vladivostok. It is twelve minutes past midnight and the storm howls blood and thunder.
Act 2
Part 4: The Visitor
O what rough beast, its hour come at last, slouched towards Bethlehem to be born and left thee behind!
Part 5: Smash and Grab
Four days later, with a new limp that will last the rest of her life, Maribeth meets with George in the kitchen of a Mexican restaurant in Tallahassee. It’s 3:12 am.
Part 6: ATRAHASIS
A parchment scroll, yellowed like old teeth, lies partially unrolled on a long white table under blinding-bright fluorescents.
Act 3
Part 7: The Vanguard
A pale yellow eye, bloated to the size of a basketball, peers through the brownish murk of hydrochloric acid and dissolved flesh.
Part 8: Enhanced Interrogation
George leaves the office of Shiff-Colton Pharmaceuticals early on Friday afternoon to beat the rush, and drives out of town for a weekend up at his Uncle Avery’s old cabin.
Part 9: KEYSTONE
Lance Corporal Huey Green of the United States Marine Corps is a coward.
Act 4
Part 10: The Herald
“There you go again!”
Part 11: The Message
A man of brass – bull-headed, eagle winged, arms outstretched, mouth agape – sits atop a great block of stone in a soundproofed chamber.
Part 12: Data Hygiene
Records Specialist Luce Mancini emerges from the Beta Archive stacks with a few crumpled pages in her hand and a few more grey hairs on her head.
Part 13: High-Priority Session
Thirteen men, in the darkness of their minds’ eyes, open thirteen doors, and with thirteen steps forward they enter Site-00.
Part 14: Procedure M110
Successful completion of Procedure M110 is projected to provide long-term containment of SCP-231 for minimal resource expenditure and at minimal risk of breach or information leak.
Part 15: Grace
Father Jessie says that a single second in Hell takes all the time a bird would need to grind down a mountain with its beak; Grace knows that one second in Hell feels just like this one. Maybe they’re the same thing.
Part 16: Daevite Ritual AE09
“Here is the god-man, in this place where heaven and earth are joined. By these seven signs of authority, O king of heaven and earth, walk among us!”
Additional Reading
Dust and Blood
The Brass Goddess is broken; the Serpent is fled; great Udannu is extinguished. The old heroes are gone. The Sons of the Seventh are slaughtered and scattered. The King’s servants are here.
Song of Sanna
Sing, O Sanna, of the beginning. Sing, O mother of the darkness undivided, of your lightless kingdom, of those chaotic waters!
Dread Conspiracy
No one will ever know that this planet exists.
The House of All Our Gods
"I am a prince, if you’ll believe it, of a dark and distant land far across the sea. My father, damn him seven raised seven times, was an usurper of the old queen - my grandmother, you understand. Took the crown right off her bloodied corpse."
Across the Hills So Quiet
“The seal is broken; He has no power here, over either of us."
N.B. This story no longer reflects the current state of the storyline; I wasn't able to get it rewritten in time for posting the series, but it should be done in short order. I've removed the link for the time being.
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