I'm Super Serious

If you enjoy our work: please consider supporting us on Patreon. We are also on Twitter and YouTube. For links to these services: visit us online at imsuperserious.com.

Welcome back to the show peeps. I hope everyone is doing well on this Tuesday the 31st of May. I am going to skip the intro and get right into the meat of today's topic, which is a continuation of the subject of Scarlet Rot. However this episode will focus primarily on the mystery of the red butterflies that have appeared over the graves of the two scientists who died from the fatal disease.

The red butterflies became highly symbolic of the disease Scarlet Rot. The butterflies have even oddly stayed around the graves of the two scientists who have died from Scarlet Rot. The names of these scientists are Manuel Sterling and Stephen Taylor, both scientists and researchers at Harvard’s Esher lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At Esher Lab, multiple diseases are studied, alongside the newly created Scarlet Rot disease.

So, just two days after the red butterflies appeared over the graves of Manuel and Stephen, a crowd started developing to witness the unusual phenomenon. The crowd started off with roughly 30 people – mostly fans of the fictional video game Elden Ring, where this disease originated. However, the crowd grew to over 200 people by the end of the day. Local news stations from Cambridge and Boston even picked up the story and further popularized the phenomenon.

Now, it is assumed that the butterflies were put over the graves by a fan, however even if that were true it is unknown why the butterflies do not actually fly off. The red butterflies, of which there are about 20, is a species of butterfly known as red miquella’s, from Canada. There doesn’t seem to be any logical reason that this species of butterfly would end up in Massachusetts, unless brought here artificially by man. But then again, why are the butterflies staying over the graves of Manuel and Stephen? Their graves do not contain any butterfly food, which is mainly nectar from flowers. The entire graveyard only contains just a few flowers placed on a few select graves–and not even on the graves of Manual and Stephen.

It was also assumed that the butterflies were actually tied down over the graves by fishing line that was hard to see. This was quickly debunked when a fan waved a large stick between where the butterflies were flying and the actual graves. While this happened, the butterflies actually flew away roughly 50 feet, but then slowly migrated back to the graves of Manual and Stephen. This seemed to be proof that the butterflies were staying there at their own will. There was not even netting or buildings of any kind next to or around the graveyard that may keep the butterflies in one spot. In fact, neighboring land was actually quite open, besides a few trees.

At the end of the second day, the crowd that was watching the strange butterfly phenomenon, mostly dissipated as night approached. Some, however, spent the night nearby. When the following day started up, an even larger crowd developed. Even though the police did make a minor appearance when the previous day's crowd became quite sizable, it wasn’t until the day after that, when the crowd became considerably larger that stanchions were set up and large amounts of police and riot units were brought into the area. Thankfully, the crowd was very peaceful.

The police did have concerns about some individuals in the crowd that had swords and other large blunt objects, even though it was clear that these were fake weapons and were simply part of many different cosplays from the game Elden Ring, where this entire situation originated from.

As I mentioned in previous episodes, the disease that killed both Manual and Stephen is a new disease that is being called Scarlet Rot. Just to quickly recap: Scarlet Rot is from the fantasy role-playing game Elden Ring. It was a completely fictional disease, as the entire game is pure fantasy fiction. In the game, Scarlet Rot is described as a very painful disease that eats away at your body very slowly. It leads to a very painful death. The disease causes a cycle of decay and rebirth. By that I mean you can pretty much become reborn as the disease kills you because the disease changes how you think and it makes you not fear death at all. You are not bothered by the fact that the disease is killing you. That is a good thing since it has no cure. The goddess of rot, Melania, has had scarlet rot her whole life. It led to the amputation of one of her arms and one of her legs. Scarlet rot has also made her completely blind. However, with prosthetics and extensive sword training, she has become one of the most feared sword fighters in the lands between because she is undefeated, and also because she does not fear death.

Now, the disease that was made in Esher lab in Cambridge is extremely similar to the fictional scarlet rot, and in fact it was created to replicate the fictional disease. This led to the identical name. However, the real-life version of Scarlet Rot rots away the body considerably more quickly than the version in the game. And even though it seems to also alter how you think by making you not fear death, the brain damage it causes simply makes you not think at all by ending your life. Unlike in the game, there is no rebirth after death, as far as we can tell.

Now back at the Cambridge graveyard, the red butterflies eventually dispersed from the graves of the scientists Manuel and Stephen on the night of the 3rd day. They were captured on camera slowly and peacefully flying off into different directions. It is unknown as to why the butterflies decided to leave at that time.

That is the unsolved mystery of the scarlet rot butterflies.

That’s it folks. I am out of time. Thank you so much for listening.

For exclusive episodes: subscribe to our Patreon. We can also be found on Twitter and YouTube. For these links: visit us online at imsuperserious.com. Be well and good night.