Marshall, Carter, and Dark Ltd.
If you've been following this series up to this point, you've learned about a number
of different groups and organizations within the SCP Universe.
There's the SCP Foundation itself of course, and their goal of containing and researching
the anomalous in order to protect the status quo.
There's the Global Occult Coalition, who share similar goals to the foundation, but care
less about containing anomalies if they threaten the saftey of mankind.
There's also the Church of the Broken God and the Sarkic Cults, who blend the anomalous
with religion as part of a vast war for the sake of the planet.
But now we get to Marshall, Carter, and Dark, who utilize anomalies not for altruism or
some grand goal, but simply for profit.
Much like anything perceived to be rare and valuable, there are those who would profiteer
off of it, and anomalies are no different.
MC&D have been involved in a large number of anomalous objects known to the foundation,
so this video will go over their basic history and some of the notable examples.
So, a big question might be who exactly are Marshall, Carter, and Dark, the individuals
who presumably founded the organization?
Once again, the lack of canon rears its head, and the three individuals are hardly public
figures, so it's not an easy question to answer.
The Wills and Ways series of tales presents them as Amos Marshall, Ruprecht Carter, and
Percival Darke, and they have extended their lives anomalously by decades at least.
It's occasionally referenced in a few tales and articles that Darke is the true founder
of the organization, and is far older and more mysterious than the other two, although
again, this is not necessarily true.
SCP-2463 and the accompanying documentation discuss 6 small bronze horse statuettes that
have the capability of converting any water from a natural source into petroleum.
These statuettes apparently originate from the 3rd century, when roman emperor Valerian,
while captured by the Persians, contacted an individual known as D. Mercator, implied
to be Darke, and asked for something that would utterly destroy his enemies.
D. Mercator contacted one of his sources, who supplied the six statuettes, but Valerian
died before he could utilize them.
Mercator wrote a letter to Valerian's son, the current emperor, informing him of his
father's business deal, and telling him that the statuettes will be held by Mercator's
organization unless he can pay a sum of 60 million gold coins, an exorbitant amount.
The documentation shows that this amount was never paid, and so the statuettes were sold
and repurchased a number of times to different individuals, such as one of the founders of
baghdad, before being eventually confiscated by the scp foundation.
Regardless of how Marshall, Carter, and Dark came together, they've certainly been doing
this for some time now, and they've managed to keep their identities and operations pretty
secretive.
But what are their operations?
As 2463 showcased, MC&D buy, find, or otherwise acquire certain strange and unusual objects,
mainly those that the scp foundation would classify as safe, and then proceed to sell
them, often at auctions to the highest bidders.
They don't especially care too much about who they sell these objects to, as long as
they're rich and powerful, although there are certain exceptions to who they'll sell
to.
The documentation for 2463 shows MC&D bidding on one of their own items to prevent the Manna
Charitable Foundation from purchasing it, as they likely wanted to take it out of circulation.
The MCF is an organization that uses anomalies to try and benefit the world.
The Serpent's Hand present a much larger threat to their operations however, a group devoted
to spreading awareness of the anomalous and taking down the veil of secrecy.
Although organizations such as the Foundation and the GOC are opposed to MC&D's operations,
they can't quite compete with their level of economic power, and ultimately, there are
better ways for them to spend their time and efforts.
Although MC&D possess a vast amount of wealth and control, and could easily plunge the world
into thermonuclear war, they choose to use this power to simply gain more wealth.
It's said that only around 100 people specfically work for MC&D at any given time, running a
highly efficient operation, but they will occasionally outsource some work to other
organizations if necessary.
They acquire their products through various means, primarily from purchasing items directly
from anomalous creators, such as Dr Wondertainment and the Factory.
They will also trade with Prometheus Labs and obtain art exhibits from Are We Cool Yet?
They then sell these items across the world, and they claim the Chaos Insurgency is one
of their biggest clients, a group that uses anomalies for personal benefit, often weaponizing
them.
Let's discuss some of the interactions that MC&D have had with the scp foundation, to
give you perhaps a better idea about the group, although keeping in mind these documents are
written from the Foundation's perspective.
As mentioned, most of the items that MC&D deal with are considered safe by the foundation,
but that does not mean they're harmless, and the group generally cares little for ethical
concerns.
SCP-604, The Cannibal's Banquet, is one of the more grotesque examples.
This scp is a set of tableware, dishes, and glasses, that when an edible substance, primarily
animal matter, is placed on or in them, turns into human flesh or bodily fluid.
The transformation will be the closest approximation between the two, so fleshy steaks will become
cuts from a human thigh, and red wine will turn into human blood.
These transformations are limited to the size of the dish, so most pieces will transform
into an infantile equivalent, such as chicken wings becoming tiny burnt infant arms.
Placing items vertically on the dishes does allow for larger growths, such as placing
a snake upright on a dish, and it turning into a human throat and mouth.
Marshall Carter and DArk aquired the item from a secluded monastary that was using it
to practice the rites of communion, believing it to be the body and blood of jesus christ.
After MC&D acquired it, they began using it as an exhibit in a restaurant, offering it
to certain members as a chance to safely test the waters of cannibalism.
Another trait of scp-604 is that if any still living material is placed on its surface,
it will transform into a moving human body part, such as a starfish turning into a six-fingered
baby's hand that can flex its fingers.
This phenomena was highly desired by MC&D's clients, and so kittens, puppies, and small
monkeys were often used, with continued efforts on their parts to create a human head capable
of intelligent speech.
Another example of their morals, or lack thereof, is SCP-1660, Unearthly Forest.
1660 is a relatively small parallel universe accessible only by lighting a special decorative
lamp and stepping through a gate the smoke produces.
The universe seems to consist of a large forest, surrounded by an extremely durable wall around
and below it, and the sky above it seems to contain a layer of highly dangerous gases.
The forest is filled with different flora and fauna, some familiar to our world, such
as brown bears and deer, and other things unique to 1660, such as cougar-like creatures
capable of echolocation, and some sort of bioluminscent, armored cross between a reptile
and a mammal, two meters in length.
These creatures posess forepaws jointed like human hands, and are also sapient, having
created simple tools, fire, and their own language.
Their cave paintings seem to show images of them being hunted by humans, and then another
set of humans that saved them, wearing the scp foundation symbol.
It seems that MC&D was using 1660 as a hunting grounds for clients, and now the sapient creatures
worship the foundation as their saviours.
MC&D arent' always morally bankrupt madmen focused solely on profit however, as scp-2501
shows.
2501, the claw, is a large mechnical gauntlet seemingly created by russians prior to the
1960s, and its functions are permanently turned on with no way to alter or disable them.
When an individual wears the gauntlet, they are capable of exerting immense pressure on
any object within sight, simply by holding the gauntlet in front of them and squeezing
the claw so that the object is between it.
This pressure is capable of crushing a soup can from a meter away, flattening a tank from
200 meters away, and potentially even crushing asteroids or planets.
How MC&D acquired this item is unknown, and they apparently sold or lended it to a few
clients before deciding it was simply too dangerous.
Rather than risking a wealthy individual try to flatten the sun, they shipped it off to
the scp foundation for safekeeping.
ALthough there isn't much love between the two groups, they acknowledge that the foundation
are simply better at keeping dangerous things safe and contained.
SCP-2776 is another interesting example of the potential power that MC&D can wield, and
their capabilities of affecting history.
2776 is essentially a life-like automaton resembling George Washington.
This robot contains some prosthetic features available in the 1700s, such as glass eyes
and false dentures, but also possesses some highly advanced features, such as armored
plating and a small fusion reactor.
Letters recovered reveal that MC&D created 2776 using the corpse of george washington,
who died while still an officer in the french and indian war.
Apparently the colonists needed both an inspirational leader as well as more firepower, and so MC&D
supplied both with 2776.
One of their employees, named Martha, was assigned to maintain the automaton, and he
was given an estate away from prying eyes to avoid people discovering his true nature.
After winning the revlotuonary war, 2776 was put into a standby mode, until he was recovered
in 2007 by the scp foundation.
2776 was not aware of his mechnical nature, and eventually broke containment after watching
a televison program describing a buyout of an american company by a british company.
His core began emitting massive amounts of gamma radiation, and he killed everyone in
his path as he moved towards London until he was recontained.
It's hard to look at Marshall Carter and Dark and see them as anything close to good, but
it is easy to see them as realistic, at least as far as a scp universe is concerned.
Merchants taking the rare and valuable and finding a profit with them have existed for
thousands of years, and it makes sense that anomalies would be no different.
While the SCP FOundation and the GOC will continue to raid MC&D facilities and reclaim
objects, they don't make a grand effort to wipe them out either.
Perhaps this is because of instances like scp-2501, where they know that there are worse
groups for anomalies to end up with, and hope mc&D still bring the really dangerous items
to them.
Or, perhaps they realize that going to war with MC&D would be a lot like poking a bear
with a stick, and cause quite a bit of trouble for both sides.
Either way, MC&D have dealt with the rich and powerful for a very long time, amassing
quite a fortune, and as they say, money makes the world go round.