My first SCP article! Thank you DaveyTheDuck, Rigen and people of /r/SCP for the critiques. I hope it's okay. If not, I guess I can still learn from it.
It's not bad for a first skip, although tone was off in a few spots, and I have a few other nitpicks.
I don't really have time right now for more detailed critique, but sections like this:
Any visual media pertaining to SCP-3398 or the mention of the hotel’s full name induces a memetic effect to its subject that convinces said subjects of being able to experience gratifying activities at the hotel, thus compelling individuals to then seek residence at the estate.
or
Amnestics has also proved to be effective in relieving the memetic effect.
Break immersion slightly.
Otherwise, I feel like the twist was a little too on-the nose. Maybe draw out the reveals just a little tiny bit more.
In the end, I'd like to see you improve and repost this idea. Maybe come here (the forums) for some more critique, too.
In addition to what multizig said, I'd like to add that the first two paragraphs have little relevant information, and could probably be made shorter. I know that you want it to sound official, but that first bit is an active dissuasion from reading the rest of the article.
You definitely have something here, but it’s buried under a lot of minor errors and shortcomings. If this is deleted, I reccomend getting more feedback and running a fine comb through to improve the tone and dialogue. The ending was absolutely fantastic though, and nearly made me upvote despite all that came before it.
I am all about creepy SCPs with exploration logs, and while this shows a lot of potential, its effectiveness falls short of something I'd personally upvote.
Special Containment Procedures:
The SCProcs are a little mundane and a bit too wordy for what is effectively basic operation for an anomalous location (keep people away, don't let people hear about it). Thus, I feel like these could use a bit of trimming to move through them a bit faster.
SCP-3398 is contained at its location of discovery.
"at its location of discovery" could more simply be in situ.
two (2) armed personnel with resistance to antimemetics at all times. Two (2) additional
The number (#) notation thing really only makes sense with certain or specific measurements, you wouldn't use it to denote whole people (disregarding all the old articles which do this (mostly) erroneously).
Also "antimemes" or "antimemetic hazards" would be the word(s).
The first paragraph as a whole does meander a bit. I feel as though a fence would be enough to deter people - it seems it's piling on magic-brain-stuff-protected personnel for no real reason, and 'maintenance' is a terrible excuse considering you have two people stationed outside a random dilapidated building 24/7 with no obvious signs of ongoing work. If the building itself is antimemetic, that should deter 99.9% of random passerby from taking notice of it….having people stand there is going to draw moreattention. Roping it off and declaring it is condemned or unsafe should work just fine.
Besides, having it contained in this manner would give it more of a haunted or 'creepy' location vibe, I feel, setting the general tone earlier on.
Description:
SCP-3398 is an extradimensional hotel
I think this is a poor way to describe the anomaly. The hotel itself isn't extradimensional, but its interior has extradimensional properties. Something more to the point would be:
SCP-3398 is an abandoned hotel in ████████, █████ which exhibits several mind-affecting properties. |
Because the primary effect of the hotel are those elements.
On this note though, one thing that really stood out to me was the memetic/antimemetic effects: it seems like a pair of tacked-on qualities that aren't really intrinsic to the overall story. They seem only to exist to more or less preemptively answer the questions of "how does it draw in people" (the memetic effect) and "how does it not get discovered" (antimemetic cloaking).
This detracts from the article, I feel, because the former (attracting memes) is a cheap trope that really only exists to provide victims/cannon odder for the anomaly, when there are plenty of other ways to get characters where they're needed to be. Not to mention there are much more interesting visuals and effects to be had later on…it gets bogged down in explaining how people are lured to it, and exactly how long it lasts and yadda yadda…why can't people simply enter it of their own volition?
As for the antimemetic effect, I feel like it goes into boring exposition regarding how it interplays with the memetic effect - and again, none of this really has a lot of bearing on the ensuing story, save for a few throwaway lines at the start of one of the logs.
As an aside, I would also note that lumping in more fantastical buzzwords like this (and Humes) really only weighs on suspension of disbelief when taken altogether, which never really works for me from a horror perspective. The further away it's pushed from being realistic the harder it is to really become invested in the world you're crafting. Those kind of things do work well in some places, but I don't think they're used effectively, and just end up being a distraction.
(on a related note, I'd also say -1 is a little overcomplicated as well, but anyways.)
The resulting floor contains an extradimensional corridor (current accounted length: 3km) that contains elevators in places that would normally contain a hotel room. The actual hotel rooms are extremely sporadic, and is normally overtaken by appliances typically seen in elevator structures.
Is awkward. I would restructure a bit:
The resulting floor contains a single, seemingly endless corridor (current accounted length: 3km). While it is lined with doors as would be expected, most of the doors lead to more elevators. Hotel rooms themselves are rare and randomly-placed, and all are found to incorporate elevators and their components as part of their structure. |
mainly because…idk "appliances in elevators" is kind of a strange thing to say? You could maybe stand to have something more odd or evocative here, or detailing in what ways rooms are including the elevators, but it's not really needed.
Logs:
Oh. You guys can't hear him?
Not an issue, but did want to note that even though I don't think the compulsion-effect is needed, this bit of dialogue does a nice job of portraying a rapidly devolving mental state.
There's… only one button.
"only one floor" would be a better fit - he does state there is also n open button later.
This is worse than prison. And I've fucking been there.
The second sentence is easily gleaned from the first, it just seems like poor exposition.
Alright. I want you to take a sample of one of the cables.
I would think they'd ask for perhaps a closer look before this point? Or, at least, only after it became apparent that they might be composed of something they shouldn't be, thus prompting them to ask for a sample…it just seems strange to sample something that seems to be composed of ordinary material like this (when nothing else is being sampled).
[D-26821 pushes on the "open" button. More elevators are revealed.]
Kinda vague..is it another corridor hosting elevators, or back-to-back elevators opening into each other?
D-26821 this, D-26821 that- I have a fucking name, you pieces of shit, fu-[static] Fuck.
This kind of thing has been hashed on so many times in other works that it just elicits an eyeroll.
Altogether though, the character was pretty basic, which would be alright, but having the thing be (secretly) alive didn't really do much for me. I think its extradimensional properties; with endless elevators, forever going up, empty shafts into the darkness/unknown are the more visceral traits could stand to be focused on, in the same vein as SCP-1555 and SCP-186.
I really have to note though that this is a fucking killer line:
D: I found my room.
It does lose a bit of impact as its used later on - in fact I feel like it'd make for an incredible wham line to end the whole thing on.
Thank you for giving it a read. Holy shit. Your critiques are really thorough and awesome. Can’t thank you enough. Some major overhauls is definitely necessary. All of your points are duly noted. Hopefully, I’ll be able to improve it (or just barely make it up to the site’s standards). Really enjoyed your stuff too! Thanks again.
First thing first, by 'extradimensional hotel', do you mean a hotel with extradimensional features, or a hotel located outside of this dimension? I kind of couldn't get over that.
I presume it means that the interior of the hotel is a dimensional anomaly; there’s no way this fits inside the actual hotel.
It should just be defined as a hotel in blackbox location, then. That wording is confusing and imprecise.
I can't help but think of Hotel California whenever I read a skip about a hotel.
The hotel is made out of people, huh? Interesting. Why did it return the personnel? Does it need to eat people to survive? If it needs to feed, why mess around with antimemes?
"We are programmed to recieve/ You can check out any time you like/ But you can never leave!"
At least they got their luggage back.
+1
My only issue with this is that I don't see the Foundation sending a perfectly good MTF into an anomaly just to look around when there's been no indication whatsoever that they would ever be able to get back out again, without a damn good justification.
It's well written and reasonably entertaining, but I can't get over that being a D-class kind of job. There's no NEED to sacrifice MTF assets.
This doesn't do anything particularly new, but the execution was good enough for an upvote.
Also, does it seem to anyone else that the mole rats get their asses kicked every time they're deployed? I don't think I've seen an article with them where that hasn't happened.
The number of buttons inside the elevators usually exceed that of 2000.
This sentence doesn't make a lot of sense. I think this is supposed to mean something like "The mean number of buttons in elevators surveyed over both explorations is [some positive integer >2000]." but it really is unclear.