SCP-L009 The Only Poem

SCP Explained - Story & Animation

SCP-L009 is an anachronous, five-stanza Victorian verse poem that exists solely within the memory of O5-5, lacking any causal origin. Functioning as an extraordinarily powerful oracular tool, it guides core Foundation strategic divination and containment. However, maintaining its predictive models requires harvesting Impelling Notional Entities, a practice heavily condemned by the Global Occult Coalition and responsible for a steady global decline in human creativity.  LIKE & SUBSCRIBE to SCP Explained - Story & Animation  Follow us on Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@scpexplainedofficial  Join our Discord, share your SCP art, submit video feedback, chat with other fans...: https://discord.gg/scpexplained   Please let us know in the comments which SCP's we should cover next   Narrated by https://www.youtube.com/c/hitherehunter  Content relating to the SCP Foundation, including the SCP Foundation logo, is licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 and all concepts originate from http://www.scp-wiki.net and its authors.   SCP-L009 The Only Poem is based on "SCP-L009" by Ampyrsand: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-l009  #scpexplained #scp #animation

Transcript

00:00You've never heard of this SCP, but don't beat yourself up about it.

00:04Until about a week or so ago, most of the SCP Foundation didn't know about it either.

00:09That's because today, we're taking our first journey into the lost SCPs.

00:14The above top secret files that slipped through the cracks and escaped notice.

00:20The things that, until now, were so classified that they never even found their way onto the Foundation database.

00:26Instead, they found their way here.

00:30When it comes to the lost SCPs, the true database is you.

00:35In watching this video, you find out about something that few people in the world will know about,

00:40and your mind becomes one of the wetware nodes in a global computational system for keeping this knowledge safe.

00:46The question is, will you be safe?

00:49That's the risk you're just going to have to take if you want to discover the real truths out there.

00:55Truths, like SCP-L009.

00:58Do you have any idea how many millions of people would be dead if the Foundation could only find an

01:04anomaly after it manifested some visible effect?

01:06There are objects, entities, and general phenomenon out there that, if allowed to act in any capacity,

01:13could cause mass death on the mild end of their effects.

01:17In the more extreme scenarios, they could end the world, or even rewrite reality itself.

01:23That's why the Foundation often needs to make the Devil's bargain with other anomalies for information about even more dangerous

01:30ones yet to come.

01:32Sometimes, this can come at a truly horrific cost.

01:35Like SCP-2128, the Liar's Cradle, an ancient furnace shaped like the Canite god Moloch.

01:42It's a blunt tool, a seemingly sentient object, that will immediately incinerate anyone housed away inside its ash-stained belly

01:50that dares to tell a lie.

01:52And that is a lie in absolute terms.

01:56Whether the person knows it or not, if the answer is a lie, they'll be rendered into ash.

02:02So, with a near-endless supply of D-classes, the Foundation can use a deadly form of deductive reasoning to

02:08find out the answer to any question,

02:11statement by statement, burned D-class by burned D-class.

02:15There is going to be a major anomaly in North America in the next week.

02:19The D-class survives, so they get more specific.

02:22There is going to be a major anomaly in the southern United States.

02:26The D-class survives, they get more specific.

02:29There is going to be a major anomaly in Louisiana.

02:32The D-class goes up screaming and in flames.

02:36Louisiana is ruled out.

02:37They throw in a new one into the pyre and try the next state, until enough statements and enough deaths

02:43can give them workable information.

02:46Then, they can only hope that enough lives will be saved by the knowledge that they don't need to feel

02:51guilty about the lives the investigation claimed.

02:54Other so-called predictive anomalies can be even more dangerous to Foundation personnel above D-class clearance.

03:01Like SCP-270, that's the so-called secluded phone, hidden at Outpost Delta, that unleashes a constant string of apparent

03:09gibberish.

03:10Like a Cold War numbers station, the voice on the other end will repeat sequences of numbers, words, colors, anything

03:17and everything with no rhyme or reason.

03:20It might seem like fodder for a Top 10 Craziest Mysteries Watch Mojo video, but when Foundation researchers started cracking

03:27the code, everything changed.

03:29Looked at through a certain cipher, the nonsense was revealed to actually be an endless data stream, and when decoded,

03:37it revealed valuable information that led to the location and containment of burgeoning anomalies.

03:43Even in the first few months, the Foundation was able to capture scores of anomalies that otherwise would have caused

03:49thousands of deaths.

03:50A huge number of Foundation resources and entire teams of professional cryptographers were devoted to the task of finding the

03:57signal inside the noise.

04:00And over time, it only seemed to bear more fruit.

04:04Soon, the Foundation discovered new ciphers, new ways of looking at the data stream, forwards, backwards, sideways.

04:11Even the periods of silence between data could be decoded, the seconds of silence correlating to latitude and longitude of

04:18new emergencies.

04:19Every second could potentially lead to new revelations, new lives saved.

04:25But over time, the knowledge of the importance behind every second started to drive researchers at Outpost Delta insane.

04:33They felt the crushing weight of responsibility, feeling that any second they weren't capturing and analyzing the transmissions from SCP

04:41-270, they were effectively letting people die.

04:44Oh, and while we're on anomalies that can help you understand other anomalies and prevent the worst from befalling you,

04:52we would be remiss to not mention an anomalously entertaining YouTube channel, SCP Explained.

04:58Oh, wait, you're watching a video from SCP Explained right now.

05:02But if you want the full benefit of the power of knowledge, you need to subscribe to SCP Explained to

05:08activate its anomalous effects.

05:11Spread the word, and help your friends, too.

05:14There are so many anomalies out there that the Foundation can use in this way, even if, occasionally, the side

05:21effects are horrifying.

05:22But none have proven to be as roundly effective as SCP-L-009, one of the most secret anomalies ever

05:30discovered by the SCP Foundation.

05:33But discovered is a funny word here.

05:36Do you discover the ability to breathe when you're born?

05:39Do you discover a dream that visits you at night?

05:42Or is it just something you always knew, being presented to you in a new format?

05:48These are the kind of philosophical questions that haunt O5-5, a member of the SCP Foundation's O5 Council,

05:57the ruling body that dictates every decision made at the Foundation.

06:01After all, SCP-L-009 exists in his head.

06:06To put it simply, it's a poem, a Victorian verse poem that offers a structural framework for obtaining knowledge in

06:13the present and future.

06:14And not just one structural framework, a number currently in the hundreds, with more being discovered frequently by anyone with

06:22the sufficient knowledge to unpack the internal details of the piece.

06:26Put in layman's terms, it's a poem that tells you all the ways that you can look into the future,

06:32hidden inside every stanza, every line.

06:35Take, for example, the line that refers to, quote,

06:40It's widely believed that this refers to Dr. Mann's proposal for SCP-001, the spiral path,

06:46referring to, in his own internal memo, to new members of the O5 Council to be passed on in the

06:52event of his death.

06:53Aaron Siegel was a physicist studying at Cornell in 1891.

06:57He was a truly gifted individual, and had his life taken a different path.

07:02I believe that his name would be there with Edison, Einstein, and Hawking.

07:06I knew him very well.

07:07He was, and may still be, my brother.

07:10He was also an avid amateur naturalist, and enjoyed hiking through the woods.

07:15One day, while visiting our family home in Essex County, he came across a gravel path.

07:20He decided to follow it for a time, and noticed that it kept climbing uphill far longer than it should

07:25have.

07:25It should have taken him above the nearby hills.

07:28Instead, he found himself back where he started, without a foot of downwards travel.

07:33Another man would have assumed his senses were faulty and left.

07:36Aaron, however, was a stubborn man.

07:39He investigated further.

07:40He found the path did not conform to the pure geometry of Euclid.

07:45Like Secheri before him, he had found something abhorrent to the nature of straight lines.

07:50And so, the SCP Foundation began, all from that simple spiral path.

07:55One detail in the fabric of human existence that simply didn't add up,

08:00and in the process, laid all other universal inconsistencies bare.

08:05This was just one of the little hints hidden inside the poem.

08:08A cheeky nod to the thing that started the Foundation, and the things that might someday, in some possible futures,

08:16end it.

08:16Because of the volatile nature of the knowledge contained within the poem,

08:20the containment procedures around it are incredibly strict.

08:24Forbidding it from ever being written down in full,

08:27lest someone with anti-Foundation intent read it and begin unpacking its hidden truths.

08:32But almost nothing in life is ever simple.

08:34That's one of its most frustrating constants.

08:38And why should SCP-L009, for all the ways in which it's exceptional, be an exception to that rule?

08:44In order to keep its predictive power at its most effective,

08:48the Foundation needs to engage in a complicated procedure known as

08:52Directive Sundown Troubadour,

08:54which might just be on its way to reshaping the future of humanity for the worst.

08:59Depending on what your priorities are, anyway.

09:01One of the key methods for drawing out the true potential of the poem is gathering,

09:06conscripting, and some would even say harvesting,

09:09INEs, or Impelling Notional Entities.

09:13Their harnessed power can allow the poem to express itself through people,

09:17who can then form complex interpretations that will become future predictive frameworks.

09:23But what is an impelling notional entity?

09:26Think of them as stewards of imagination.

09:30People in the Hellenic world might refer to them with a term like

09:33genius.

09:34While we'd use the term these days to refer to an extraordinarily intelligent or creative person,

09:40in ancient Rome, the genius, or Juno spirit in woman,

09:44was a kind of intellectual guardian angel,

09:47who would follow a person from birth to death,

09:50and encourage their greatest ideas.

09:52These beings, these impelling notional entities,

09:56are responsible for human creativity.

09:59The animating force behind the Mona Lisa and the Wheel,

10:03Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and the Smallpox Vaccine,

10:06and the Foundation wants as much of it as possible.

10:10The result of this stockpiling of INEs under Directive Sundown Troubadour

10:14is an annual decrease in spontaneous human creativity by approximately 1.3%.

10:19This naturally sparked concern among members of the Foundation,

10:23who worried that the containment efforts here might lead humanity itself down a dark path.

10:28But the heads of the Department of Containment strongly disagreed.

10:32They put out a project-wide memo, which read,

10:34As a key component of primary containment operations,

10:38precognitive intelligence derived from Directive Sundown Troubadour cannot be compromised,

10:43except insofar as the containment and repurposing of INEs creates a disruption to the human noetic environment,

10:50so severe and obvious as to directly endanger consensus normalcy.

10:54The continued fulfillment of these means to enable INE empowerment of SCP-L009

11:00is to take priority, superseding the general disparatom to maintain entity-assisted technologenesis

11:07of all other works of art and literature in general.

11:10Let's break all this down and put it into real perspective for a second.

11:14A 1.3% drop in human creativity might seem negligible

11:19if it means the SCP-L009 framework can save millions of lives year over year.

11:24But that's 1.3% loss annually.

11:28That means that in less than a century,

11:30human creativity would be effectively wiped out by Project Sundown Troubadour.

11:35And that, as it turned out,

11:37upset far more than just certain elements inside the SCP Foundation itself.

11:41The Global Occult Coalition, for one,

11:44were furious when they found out what the Foundation was doing here.

11:47They believe that no organization should ever have this kind of power

11:50over the general trajectory of humanity,

11:53at least not one that isn't bound under the command of elected officials,

11:57like the GOC themselves,

11:58who exist under the auspices of the United Nations.

12:02Naturally, the Foundation told them where to shove it.

12:05They valued the opinion of the GOC about as much as a wooden nickel.

12:10There was another group that they had to take a little more seriously, though.

12:15The Canticle Nonagon,

12:17the nine muses of ancient Greek mythology.

12:19The divine sponsors and personifications of creative inspiration.

12:24The way they saw it,

12:26the Foundation was muscling in on their turf,

12:29having undue influence over human creativity itself.

12:32Fearing their primordial power,

12:34the Foundation decided on a conference.

12:36They would give the muses a chance to see SCP-L009,

12:40and each could make a suggestion about its fate.

12:43It would take a group even more bullish than the Foundation

12:46to go against the combined will of nine goddesses at once.

12:50But just how combined was that will?

12:53Calopi, the muse of epic poetry,

12:55said that SCP-L009 should be immediately decommissioned and destroyed.

13:00Cleo, the muse of history,

13:02agreed that SCP-L009 should be decommissioned and destroyed.

13:06Utipi, the muse of song and elegiac poetry,

13:09said that SCP-L009 should be indefinitely suspended

13:13in a container of monomic fluid,

13:15so that it can never be used again without being entirely destroyed.

13:19Polyhymnia, the muse of him and mine,

13:21agreed with the first two muses,

13:23saying that SCP-L009 should be decommissioned and destroyed post-haste.

13:28Terpsichore, the muse of chorus and dance,

13:31again took a softer route.

13:32She suggested that the recitation of the SCP-L009 program

13:36be criminalized in Foundation bylaws,

13:39to prevent it from gaining power and potentially harming creativity more.

13:43Erato, the muse of erotic lyric poetry,

13:46went in the completely opposite direction,

13:48saying that the Foundation should be preferred

13:51to facilitate mass dispersal of SCP-L009 to the public

13:55in the event of an irreversible K-class scenario.

13:58This undeniably gave the Foundation pause.

14:01Thalia, the muse of light-verse and comedy,

14:03took a more measured view.

14:05She disagreed with her sisters,

14:07saying that the poem should neither be mass-disseminated nor destroyed.

14:10Instead, it should only be used in intra-Foundation ceremonies.

14:14Urania, the muse of astronomy and astrology,

14:17said the developments and experiments with SCP-L009 should be

14:21disaligned from hominid directives and given limited obediences.

14:26We'll leave you to figure out the meaning of that yourself.

14:29And Melpomene, the muse of tragedy,

14:32appeared at the summit but refused to comment,

14:35simply watching the proceeding with rapt attention.

14:37Perhaps the goddess of tragedy knew something

14:40that the rest of us didn't know about all this.

14:42Or maybe she just knew that nothing she or the other muses said

14:45would make any kind of difference.

14:48All of them across the board agreed

14:49that Project Sundown Troubadour should be discontinued.

14:52There was no disagreement among the muses on that.

14:55But the Foundation has only ever taken their answer as a suggestion.

14:59There's two sides to every story,

15:02to every narrative poem, even.

15:04And the Foundation prefers the side that will be most useful for their mission.

15:09And if this one is one of the earliest lost SCPs,

15:13can you even imagine some of the later ones?

15:16Best stick around here on SCP Explained to find out.

15:20Now check out SCP-5000, the epic story explained.

15:24At SCP-783, there was a crooked man for more.

Category

Transcript

Recommended