Do you like theater? Personally, it's not something I enjoy too much. Spending so much time sitting, listening to the same stories… and let's not forget the carnage. Oh yes, certain plays can be lethal, and the Foundation knows this well. Those ancient scripts carry a nefarious element. Curses, hidden demons… or simply a key that opens the door to our darkest impulses. Years pass, they change their title or receive modifications, but death accompanies them all the same. The Foundation faces a losing battle trying to destroy copies of those stories. Would you like to know one? Very well… let's begin with a dead king.
Oh poor Sforza, king of Trinculo. Cursed be his brother Gonzalo, murderer and usurper, who hung King Sforza by the neck like a puppet. Infinite contempt for Queen Isabella, who conspired against Sforza and took Gonzalo as her husband while the king's body was still warm.... and I already see it on your face. If you think The Tragedy of the Hanged King is a rip-off of Hamlet, honestly I can't blame you, but in some circles it was favored for its less violent nature, and the ease with which its passages could be censored or rewritten. Moral purity and all that.
If plagiarism were the only problem, I admit we would be celebrating relief. But this hanged king is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the last 300 years. If someone tries to stage the play, the process may end in an explosion of murders, suicides, and violent psychopathy outbreaks, especially among the actors and the audience. I say 'possible' because the percentage is not perfect: the Foundation calculates that anomalous events were below 37 percent, but once they happen, it's a massacre. As if that weren't enough… there's also him.
SCP-701 and SCP-701-1
If the play is SCP-701, then he is SCP-701-1. We don't know who or what it is, but its influence on the development of the play and the deaths at the end is undeniable. You see, the troubles with SCP-701 begin one or two weeks before the performance. During rehearsals, the actors deviate from the script, but they are not improvisations; they repeat the lines firmly, as if it were a parallel version. No one seems to notice the changes, not even the production team.
It's evident that SCP-701-1 wants a good audience. Its appearances tend to be more frequent on opening night, or at performances with larger audiences. The pattern is similar each time: SCP-701-1 shows up at the end of the first act. The actors ignore it, but as changes in dialogue and deviations progress, its interaction deepens. At the end of the fourth act, the character Antonio (son and legitimate heir of Sforza) seeks a dagger, but it is SCP-701-1 who hands it to him.
The fifth act is when everyone finally perceives SCP-701-1. A rope falls from the ceiling, Gonzalo is captured by the rest of the cast, they place the rope around his neck by force, and he is hanged in front of the audience. Antonio cuts open Gonzalo's stomach, declaring that "the tribute has been paid" while the intestines spread across the stage. The young Alinda, future wife and queen of Antonio, takes the dagger from her beloved's hands and cuts his throat. More ropes fall from the ceiling, one for each member. Alinda declares that "their blood is of the Hanged King", and they all commit suicide.
That's when chaos moves to the audience. Fights, attacks, murders with bare hands. All with SCP-701-1 watching from the center of the stage, surrounded by bodies and human entrails. Those who manage to survive and escape the theater only continue the violence outside. The most effective way to control victims has been with sedatives. In many cases, their normal personality returns within 24 hours, with clear signs of severe trauma. Others were not so lucky and remained in a constant state of psychosis... or in a coma.
The first publication of The Tragedy of the Hanged King dates back to 1640. Don't ask me how, but the Foundation managed to take control of the only two existing copies of that original version. Its author is unknown, and the first editor, a certain William Cooke, disappeared as if the earth had swallowed him.
And there are still copies out there. Many. We can't track them all. The Foundation barely managed to neutralize a play at a university, and a TV adaptation that could have ended in catastrophe. Photocopies, floppy disks lost in closets with digital versions, VHS tapes... the material the Foundation possesses is kept under triple security in a classified site. The rest is out there... waiting. Maybe the next hanged king is you. CLASSIFICATION: EUCLID.
