I Still Am A Dark Romantic Teenager

Content Notes: Images of Torture and Discussions of Consumption, Death, Sexual Abuse and Suicide

I have talked at length about the origins of SCP -166 as well as how the community responded to the article. And although there were positive moments, my reviews have primarily been a downer. Therefore, to round off this trilogy in a joyous fanfare, let’s talk about one of the most depressing pieces of fiction I have read and why it works so well!

0166 License to Kill

SCP-0166 is not actually an SCP article. It is from the Tales Series, essentially the fan fiction section of the SCP wiki. This format allows for more conventional narrative stories as well as lore building by creators outside of the official articles. Often it is employed by writers to put their own spin on the lore or allow a more personalised look at different characters. Which is exactly what UraniumEmpire was hoping to do when they posted SCP-0166 on 20/9/2019. ^[1]

I frequently state you should read the original literature, but for this story it is rather necessary. This is a extensive piece of work and I will not be capable of doing the details justice in a brief overview. We begin with Epon’s (the name I’m using for SCP-166) Containment Procedures which say she is to be managed by the Pataphysics Department.^[1] They are a research division which handles anomalies that treat the universe as if it is materially fiction.^[2] Furthering this narrative interplay, changes to Epon are to be examined for “Romantic Repercussions” referencing the Romantic literary movement.

She is to be housed in an unfurnished containment cell, fed 19th century vegetarian food and to be moved to a new housing unit every week.^[1] She is to be contained in Site 166, a set of disposable concrete buildings containing empty holding compartments that are not allowed to exist for more than a year. Asexual or neurotypical personnel are strongly preferred and all feminine attracted employees are denied access to Epon.

Moving onto the description section, we are informed Epon’s primary anomaly. She is the centre of a reality warping field that transforms the surrounding matter to conform to literary ideals.^[1] However she exhibits some control of this as there is a deliberate manifestation of 19th Century Dark Romanticist conventions. Extended exposure to this field is inhospitable due to hostile architecture and pollution. As well, the more things change to these conventions the more the field grows, hence needing to switch where she lives.

After all this preamble we are conveyed some history, in the form of two separate streams. One recounts Epon’s personal history and the other is a set of interviews with a Dr Sophia Whateley. I will try covering all this chronologically but in the story itself, the two sets of information are alternated between.

Paraphrasing the tale to hell, we begin with Epon in her former teenage succubus form.^[1] She is examined by a male doctor, Dr James Dantensen with allusions of sexual malfeasance on the doctor’s part. Eventually, Epon escapes containment and neutralizes him before being re-contained. After this, Epon exhibits signs of recalcitrance, disavowed Catholicism, suicidality and becomes hostile to all personnel.

However, once she began suffering from malnutrition due to not eating and cellulitis, her hostility lessens. She escapes for a second time but hands herself back into containment six months later, with little discussion as to what she did on her outing. Only that she seems worse mentally.

We subsequently obtain the interviews with Dr Sophia Whateley. The first is predominantly Epon stonewalling the psychologist, as well as lamenting being emotionally stunted and perceiving a lack of control in her own life.^[1]

In the following interview we find out Dr Whateley was trying to be reassigned due to developing romantic feelings for her patient. But because of anomalous interference she is forced to interact with Epon anyway. Epon monologues about how Dr Dantensen perceived her as a fetish piece, so after his death the teenage succubus transformed into a mid-20s dark romantic. In addition, she blames Whateley, as proxy for the entire Foundation, for their culpability in her abuse. This section ends with Epon recounting a male staffer breaking into containment to elope with her. In response, she told the staffer to kill himself.

The third interview is primarily Whateley and Epon arguing.^[1] The former contends she is trying her best to help. But the latter views the doctor as being impersonal, lacking any care and solely representing another in a extensive line of researchers attempting to control her. To Epon, Whateley is no better than the men who came before her.

The final interview is the most tragic. Whateley rushes into Epon’s containment cell, her fingers covered in blood. She tries talking but coughs up blood as her words are choked.^[1] The doctor pleads to Epon that she wanted to do more and still loves her, as the effects of tuberculosis consume her lungs. Epon monologues that it was inevitable, that this is a terrible way to go, and in response to the declaration of love, tells Whateley to kill herself. Whateley dies in an instant. And Epon retreats to her bed, her back to the camera in her room. With only the sounds of crying disturbing the stillness.

Transcending American Literature

There are many directions to take this story, a plethora of things that can be said about it. But I think one of the most important avenues is to discuss the ties to Anti-Transcendentalism or Dark Romanticism. Dark Romanticism is a combination of the Transcendentalist and Gothic literary movements, often typified by the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville.^[3][4][5] Transcendentalism is excellently described by Olgahan Bakşi Yalçin in her essay on Moby Dick as:

“ Briefly, transcendentalism stresses the importance of individualism, intuition, nature, and self-reliance as opposed to Calvinism, or the doctrine of predestination practiced by the Puritans at that time”^[5]

The Gothic movement was based on Romanticism (itself based on Transcendentalism), and focused on the more sordid side of individualism and nature. It often relies on secrecy, illness and horror in everyday occurrences.^[3] These genres were uniquely from the United States, as Transcendentalism itself came from the desire of American writers to produce their own literary movement outside of European writing conventions.^[4] However, although Dark Romanticism was born of Americana, it ended up less conventional that the other offshoots.

Depending on the writer, you get a different severity of critiques against Transcendentalism. Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter does depict Anti-Transcendentalist themes but ultimately seems to side with Transcendentalism as the path for humanity.^[4] Melville’s Moby Dick has Ishmael gradually lose his Transcendentalist beliefs due to the horrors of Ahab’s lust for revenge. Suggesting Transcendentalisms idyllic picture is not inevitably reflected in reality.^[5] And Poe’s The Pit and The Pendulum focuses on the horror people inflict on others, how disgustingly torturous we can naturally be.^[6]

All of these counter the Transcendentalist idea that humans are innately good and virtuous, but their conviction behind it ranges wildly. Ultimately however, all Dark Romanticism believes in the innate sinfulness of humanity and desires to explore the internal world of the sinner.^[4] Furthermore, there is a focus on revenge and sadism, the desire to injure others for “righteous” reasons or simply out of pure anger.^[4][5]

The point is not to create an edge-lord paradise but rather to reveal the lies behind the naively optimistic view of human nature as always good. To demonstrate not only mortal complexity but inherent evil in a psychological and spiritual capacity. And what better way to illustrate the horrific tragedy of a girl trapped in the stories of others than the genre built to reveal the darkness in us all.

Twinning With 1851

Although Poe is the King of Dark Romanticism, I believe the best starting point for comparison is Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. In the story we follow Ishmael, a optimistic Transcendentalist whaler signed onto the Pequod.^[7] The ship is captained by the monomaniacal Ahab, who lost his leg to the titular whale and desires revenge at all cost. We witness Ishmael’s naive hope for humanity and nature battle against the whirlpool of illogical hatred.

It is interesting to note that Melville originally wrote this as a simple fictional account of his own experience whaling. That is until he met with Hawthorne who seemed to inspire a shift in tone.^[5] In a similar way, UraniumEmpire took a simple account of erotica disguised as horror and turned it into an existential nightmare. But I think the most important comparison t is to note the similarities and differences between Captain Ahab and Epon, especially within the interactions of their transcendentalist characters.

Both Ahab and Epon are consumed by the desire for cathartic revenge. The world has treated them horribly, and they have been wronged by an individual, although one is an animal and the other is all too human. Because of this, they see the world as filled with the horrors of sin and hatred. But the more compelling connection is how both show awareness of the futility of their pursuit. Ahab reflects on his wife and kids, knowing he and others may never see their family because of his monomania. ^[5] And Epon states:

“Maybe you were like me, the keystone macguffin in a shitty plot. Titillation for the reader. Be thankful yours wasn’t as big a pervert as mine.”^[1]

Epon is aware of her position as a MacGuffin, a fictional puppet to entice and entertain the reader, with little to no control over her own story. Even as we read her killing Whateley, as cries echo for the loss of love, one cannot help but feel she is still confined in the conventions of a story. Like Ahab feels compelled to hunt the titular whale by an indescribable force,^[5] Epon is moved to weaponise her trauma by the conventions around her. The narrative itself warps the world around her but also reflects how she is trapped in the confines of fiction. Never able to be fully realised.

And even the knowledge of this predicament does not bring any hope of change. As Transcendentalism challenged the Doctrine of Pre-ordination,^[5] there is irony therefore in using Dark Romanticism to suggest Epon too has little free will. Even with all her power, Epon does not choose where she lives, who she interacts with, what she eats or how she is seen. The narrative around her dictates how others interact with her. A narrative that only exists so she can avoid the leering of men. A narrative which she does not fully control in terms of how it effects others.

Perhaps most tragically of all is how Epon destroys any hint of Transcendentalism in Whateley. For all intents and purposes, Whateley is our Ishmael. She genuinely believes in the inherent good of her patient, that she is someone who can be helped and is not a literal demon. As well as Epon’s ability to choose a new life for herself. But just as Ahab’s cruelty transforms Ishmael’s philosophy,^[5] Epon’s literal genre bending transforms Whateley. Her kindness is unbelievable to the traumatised Epon, and therefore the latter forces the darker aggression out of the former. Confirming the worst suspicions of Epon that everyone, no matter how kind, has sin in their heart.

The Scarlet E

The Scarlet Letter by Hawthorne is perhaps the most hopeful of the Dark Romantic tales. In it, a woman called Hester is caught cheating with a man due to getting pregnant whilst her husband is lost at sea.^[8] She is punished with shame as the letter A for adulterer is emblazoned on her chest. But even through the mocking and isolation, Hester gains the strength to be a good person and alter the meaning of the A. From Adulterer to Able. Hester is an exemplary Transcendentalist, surrounded by Anti-Transcendentalists like her returned husband seeking revenge and the Reverend she committed adultery with. ^[4]

It is thought-provoking how some parts of The Scarlet Letter contrast and mirror Epon’s own descent. For example, both Hester and Epon show self-reliance exemplifying the transcendentalist iconography of individualism.^[4] They are bastions of independence with no need for institutions or society. But in Hester’s case, this is to present her transformation and reveal her innate goodness. In being solitary, Hester is allowed to acknowledge her “sin”, to forgive those who treated her poorly and move on. However, Epon’s case reveals her desire for revenge and catharsis, to enact the pain she experienced onto others for some semblance of emotional relief.

Moreover, both Pearl (Hester’s bastard daughter) and Epon are intuitive, understanding the world through inner truths and spiritual intellect rather than scientific rationality.^[4] Showing the brilliance of emotional intelligence and interconnectivity with the world around them. However once again there is a split. Pearl’s intuitiveness comes from her innocence and connection to nature, allowing her to reconnect with the Edenic past of humanity. But Epon’s life is permeated with disposable concrete buildings and detached perverts. Her intuitiveness is from her trauma, a lack of innocence and arguably outright rejection of it. Hypervigilance manifesting into a need to defend the self above all else.

It’s fascinating how Epon is so close to representing a transcendental character. But due to the trauma and horrors she experiences, she is never able to have that hope for humanity again. Paradoxically it is the institution forsaking her that results in her Dark Romanticism.

Epon does not arrive at the conclusion of many early writers from the United States. That to be truly good one needs to be an individual attuned with nature away from society.^[4] Instead, she believes that humans are innately corrupted and evil. Likely because unlike Transcendentalist and Romantic writers, she was directly defiled and exploited by these systems.

But there is one more part of the Scarlet Letter I would like to explore. Roger Chillingworth is Hester’s husband who makes it his mission to torture Reverend Dimmsadale for the cheating with his wife.^[4] He torments Dimmsadale relentlessly, until the bad Reverend confesses to his congregation, then promptly dies. Chillingworth dies a year later, now with no one to abuse. There are two parallels in my opinion to produce between Epon and him, though I wish to note she is clearly a more sympathetic character.

To begin with, Chillingworth is compared to and stated to be the devil incarnate.^[4] In his conquest for revenge, his sadistic sinfulness and need to seek retribution for a slight results in him devolving into unrefined evil. I find this an interesting parallel to Epon, who escaped sexual demonisation by embodying sadistic demonisation. She becomes a figure of revenge, hatred and spite, unable to let anyone close to her. And those who do become even slightly close to her wind up dead. With this framing it is intriguing that although Epon eluded sexual exploitation, she never evaded othering itself.

However, the more compelling parallel is how Chillingworth’s revenge comes to be what sustains him. Without someone to victimise, to hurt for what they have done to him, he simply gives up and dies. As noted shrewdley by Ramti Mahini and Erin Barth:

“Dimmesdale is right in noting that relentless revenge is a sin that is worse than any other sin committed by human beings. It causes the pain and sufferings in people to perpetuate in eternity with no ending. Against humanity, revenge can kill the human heart, restricting the ability to love and to forgive.”^[4]

Chillingworth’s quest for revenge ends up with him neglecting his wife and being unable to move on.^[4] In a more tragic fashion so too does Epon’s. It’s never textually stated but is quite clear sub-textually that Epon did love or care for Whateley. Why else would she cry at her death? Or engage in a flirtatious manner? Or keep Whateley around after she falls in love?

But Epon’s need for revenge to sustain her, her desire for catharsis against the institution that wronged her leaves no room for love. It is understandable that Epon never chooses to forgive those who tortured her. But it is tragic she never chooses to love those she cares for.

Pretty Privilege For Diseases

The final part I wish to focus on is the choice to use tuberculosis as the manner of death for Whateley. For anyone familiar with gothic novels, the death of the fair maiden by consumption is something you’ve come across. Although it should be noted that consumption was never a one to one with tuberculosis.^[9]

Rather it was the name for a range of lung diseases that caused the person’s body to waste away.^[9] To be consumed into nothingness. To give a basis for understanding Clark Lawlor and Akihito Suzuki provided this description of the 18th Century medical literature on consumption:

“The model of the process of the disease was the accumulation of putrid blood in the lungs, the corrosion of the organ by ulcerous pus and the subsequent emaciation of the body. The essential image employed here was that of foul decay.”^[9]

For an extensive discussion on the history of consumption culturally and in literature I would recommend perusing their paper. But for our purposes, I want to focus on the Romanticisation of the disease. Despite the preceding description at the beginning of the 1700s, there was a shift in how the public and the poet viewed consumption.^[9]

The public, especially the privileged classes, deemed this as a disease of the aristocrat.^[9] A sign of languishing emotionality, as the dainty frame of the afflicted could not keep up with the roaring passions of the soul. In other words, a disease for the rich tortured lover.

This was especially appealing for the upper classes as it was a disease that brought about thinness and delicate constitution, something desirable for all genders within the 1700s.^[9] Some even viewed love as the cure for consumption, as it was lovesickness that was thought to be the primary aetiology, especially for women. The disease was aestheticised to a peaceful, tranquil slip into the pool of endless nothingness. The dying tubercular maiden is perhaps not better emphasised than in this quote from a 1764 diary:

“a beautiful bride of heaven, an angel too pure and spiritualised to abide long in the material world of the crude body and less refined minds”^[9]

And for the poet, scientist or otherwise intellectual, consumption, especially for males, was seen as a sign of their genius.^[9] Akin to the 27 club of the 1700s and 1800s, to die of tuberculosis was seen as to prove your intellectual and poetic genius. You were merely a candle that burned to brightly, and so had to die young.

Ironically, Poe of all people would expound critically on this notion, stating that the creation of the archetype caused their death to be more important than their prose.^[9] Essentially, they were sold on brand rather than artistic merit. Though to be fair, I’d be further willing to entertain modern mediocrity in artists if they committed to dying of consumption.

Consuming Partners

With all this said, it is an curious contrast that Whateley’s death is so visceral. Her fall into tubercular death is not so much gentle angel or tortured intellectual as well, vicious misery:

“SCP-166 averts its gaze towards the ceiling as Dr. Whateley undergoes a violent coughing fit. By the time Dr. Whateley finally recovers her breath, much of her blouse has been stained with blood and phlegm.”^[1]

There is no dainty slow departure, no poetic monologue, for the proclamations of love are choked by the impending toll of death. And yet, it is this act more than anything that makes me convinced that Epon loved Whateley. To choose the death of lovers and poets is a deliberate act. One I believe is brilliantly subverted and yet integrated by UraniumEmpire.

Here we behold no beauty in death as Poe would have done. Instead, we are exposed to the violence of retribution and the pain of trauma, externalised into the sole loving connection Epon had left.

The horrifying coldness Epon embodies in Whateley’s final moments are not just her acting out cruel reprisal to any who gets close. It’s the active choice to embrace pain over love. To not move on. She is stranded in a cycle she never wanted to start, moved by the intangible forces of narrative conventions and writers to suffer even more. Her tragedy could not be represented by the Romantic ideals of tubercular angels, nor by the Dark Romantic ideals of beauty in death. Only in unflinching agony, do we understand the Ouroboros of Pain she can never leave.

Because Epon and Whateley are the same. I’m sure you recall the line previously where Epon compares herself to a MacGuffin. In it she is also comparing herself to Whateley. The two are both victims of their writers, although UraniumEmpire’s victimisation is at least deliberate meta-commentary. The two are not ardent tortured souls and the power of love cannot liberate them from narrative beings who wish to play with their creations for entertainment.

Death by consumption was often deemed as The Good Death.^[9] Unlike diseases such as smallpox or death by war, it was comparatively peaceful in the social consciousness. In a uncanny way, Epon could be right. Maybe Whateley should be thankful that the writer chose consumptive death instead of abusive stasis. It is a more peaceful alternative than the myriad of other ways one could die in the SCP universe. And at least with this, Whateley gets to be free. And she will finally know a peace never afforded to Epon.

Conclusion

SCP-0166 has been one of the few SCP tales that has stuck with me since I initially read it. I’ve revisited the story often and have even recited it to friends. The tale is by no means perfect writing, but it has always struck a chord with me. Part of that is the visceral emotions of Epon are ones I have borne and continue to bear as someone who experienced relatively similar abuse. The raw emotionality captivated and expressed concepts I could not . But as well, more than anything, I was happy to have horror that was humanising.

Throughout reading the tale alongside the SCP-166 article, what always strikes me is regardless of Epon’s actions, the tragedy of her situation is front and centre. She is not a archetypal good person. But I defy anyone to read the story and be able to condemn her actions or act as if they would be virtuous. It accepts and allows for the imperfections and maladaptive behaviours of an abuse victim. She is allowed to be a threat to herself and people around her, without a meta-textual patronising saviour narrative.

But it is in researching Dark Romanticism and consumption that I finally reckoned with Epon’s humanity. That I got to witness buried in the tale the glimmers of how she could have been a different person. As well as how even with all the power Epon is purported to have, she’s still as much a victim of the labyrinthine narrative as she was at the outset. But this time, it was done as purposeful commentary by the writer, rather than sadistic or ignorant carelessness. The depth of the creation by UraniumEmpire is utterly astounding. And I never will stop thinking of this tale.

Thank you all for reading this. Next up will be an essay dissecting the history of the Japanese transgender community. Until then, I hope you enjoyed this and let me know what you think of SCP-0166.

References

1. UraniumEmpire.(2024). SCP-0166. Retrieved From: SCP Wiki
2. Jerden.(2024). Departments. Retrieved From: SCP Wiki
3. Howard, M. (2015). A new genre emerges: The creation and impact of dark romanticism.
4. Mahini, R. N.-T. (Noor), & Barth, E. (2018). The Scarlet Letter: Embroidering Transcendentalism and Anti-transcendentalism Thread for an Early American World. Journal of Language Teaching and Research, 9(3), 474. DOI
5. Yalçin, O. B. (2019). The dichotomy of Melville’s Moby Dick: American transcendentalism and anti-transcendentalism. Atatürk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi, (63), 263-278.
6. Ballengee, J. R. (2008). Torture, Modern Experience, and Beauty in Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” Modern Language Studies, 38(1), 26–43.
7. Melville, H.(1851) Moby Dick. New York, Dodd, Mead and company
8. Hawthorne, N. (1850). The Scarlet Letter. New York: Applause.
9. Lawlor, C., & Suzuki, A. (2000). The Disease of the Self: Representing Consumption, 1700-1830. Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 74(3), 458–494.