I didn't quite understand what was so different about this after the first pass, other than the time period. I had to re-read 699 and come back before I got it, though the title should have given me a clue.
I especially liked the documentation and formatting, especially the further reading section. I am a big fan of the little touches that make an article feel more "real", and you sell that aspect quite effectively, in my opinion. Well done.
I really think this is amazing, especially given the spirit of the contest. I think playing with the context of 699 in such a way is just impressive. This needs more love, yo.
I read 699 yesterday, and I am ashamed of how long it took for me to catch on. Also, that logo is pretty sweet.
+1
Oh! I've neglected to thank Crayne for providing the image in the final tab — I would have done it myself, but my handwriting is painfully childish and not exceptionally legible. I ran the picture Crayne sent me through http://lookslikescanned.com a few times to get that authentic "1500 years into the future and our photocopiers are still crap" look.
if your reading this your gay
I honestly don't get this.
Between the out-of-universe reimagining of an existing concept and the possible in-universe results of sending this thing into a different reality/timeline, I have no idea what is actually new content and what's weirdness from the thing being sent somewhere else.
SCP-17591 distorts local near-Euclidean space such that its six surfaces correspond with the walls, ceiling, and floor of the room where it resides — each point on the surface of the item is coterminous with a point on the walls of the room. SCP-17591 is effectively contained within its own inverted exterior.
For the sake of clarity, this text ignores the spacial warping aspect of SCP-17591 when referring to its location or containment, treating it as a discrete object.
I… don't understand this. It becomes the room? But you already said the thing was clear, and then later you say that the top displays something that isn't the ceiling.
Attempts to communicate with the inhabitants of the hallucinatory places have resulted only in admonishments to "exit" or "escape".
Okay re-reading this makes me think that they're talking to themselves? Sssort of? So it's a box, that is the room. And by looking into the top, where there might be a hole in the actual ceiling, you see yourself. I'm still not really sure what the whole "escape" thing is supposed to be about.
SCP-17591 appeared on the third floor of the Site-83 ruins on 3221/07/31
So is this supposed to be the third reality this thing gets dumped in, or is this just reimagining? Because the date doesn't match the original article.
And I totally don't get the door/window thing.
Between the out-of-universe reimagining of an existing concept and the possible in-universe results of sending this thing into a different reality/timeline, I have no idea what is actually new content and what's weirdness from the thing being sent somewhere else.
Well, that's naturally somewhat ambiguous. Is the difference meaningful? How do we know that some of the other entries aren't just acting different because they're placed in a different context?
I… don't understand this. It becomes the room? But you already said the thing was clear, and then later you say that the top displays something that isn't the ceiling.
Basically, if you're in the room, you are inside the mystery box's exterior space, and its interior is outside of you. That sounds completely nonsensical, because our puny minds are only designed to work in near-Euclidean space. Try and imagine a box inverting itself and not changing shape at all at the same time and you might have some idea of it. "For the sake of clarity" is a blatant hand-waving of it, both in- and out-of-universe.
Okay re-reading this makes me think that they're talking to themselves?
The people in the IAS's universe are talking to the people displayed on the mystery box.
And by looking into the top, where there might be a hole in the actual ceiling, you see yourself.
These people are telling the IAS people to 'escape' or 'exit'. The mystery box makes people think that they can escape this universe by removing its lid. The IAS cannot find any such lid.
So is this supposed to be the third reality this thing gets dumped in, or is this just reimagining? Because the date doesn't match the original article.
This is where the reimagining comes in: instead of dumping it into "our" universe, like they do in SCP-699, the Foundation of the future instead finds a different time to deposit it, which has lost the technology to open it and is apparently 'unusually stable'. Although, to be honest, I don't actually know what your objection is here. Neither of those sentences make sense, so I'm just giving related information in the hopes that it helps.
And I totally don't get the door/window thing.
Are you familiar with the saying "when God closes a door, he opens a window"? The person who left the note thinks that some event in 2597 (that they can expect those reading it to understand) was analogous to a door closing — an opportunity being lost — and that SCP-17591 is the window opening — a new opportunity to replace the old one. Given that the mystery box's gimmick in this setting is making you want to use it as a means to escape the universe, one is left to wonder what exactly just up and leaving reality could be seen as an alternative to.
if your reading this your gay
You have my vote of approval on this. I didn't see it until Decibelle was kind enough to point it out in Chat…I don't get over here very often anymore.
(For those who don't know, I wrote SCP-699, the basis of this article. It was my first SCP, and while I think I could have done a bit of a better job on it later on, I'm fond of it as it is and left it alone.)
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