SCP Foundation

SCP-3284 - Uncontainable

Rating: +56
Comments: 8
Posted: 13 Aug 2018 00:47

All methods of containment or restraint of SCP-3284 thus far attempted have failed within fifteen minutes of initiation.

+ Behind-the-Scenes

- Behind-the-Scenes

Currently under construction.

- Behind-the-Scenes

Jim North's SCP-001 Proposal - A Simple Toymaker

Rating: +341
Comments: 98
Posted: 05 Jun 2018 00:55

Adjectives used range from "dashing" to "amazing" to "really quite handsome for his age".

+ Behind-the-Scenes

- Behind-the-Scenes

Toyman, know thyself.

What a truly crazy ride this particular article has been! It all started off with a random whim to make my very own SCP-001 proposal. I mean, c'mon, I'd managed to get a handful of successful articles done up, right? I was feelin' my wheaties, so I figured I'd give a shot at the big time. And since I like Dr. Wondertainment and no one had done a 001 proposal about Doc W or his/her/their stuff, I figured why not?

One of the things I really like about Doc W is that he's one of the exemplifying examples of 'there is no canon'. Regardless of the source - be it SCP articles, tales, GOI articles, what have you - it seems that very few people can agree on just what this particular character is supposed to be, so there's this crazy kaleidoscope of variants to choose from. Or, heck, go nuts and make your own grand vision! Why the hell not, right? It's pretty hard at this point to try and tell someone their version of the big W is wrong!

So I decide to make an article that insinuates (without actually confirming) that Dr. Wondertainment is actually all of the things that people have said over the years, and may potentially be much, much more. A bold move? Hell yes. Let's skip the false modesty and just say it outright: It took some big, brass balls to post such an article, especially as an SCP-001 proposal.

And holy crap did those balls just barely manage to get pulled from the fire. I knew that opinions were going to be split on the issue, but I didn't quite realize how vehement some of those opinions could get. The rating hovered between -2 and -6 for, like, the first couple of days, if not a little longer, with both upvotes and downvotes flying fast and furious. And the comments immediately started blowing up with people who thought it was a wonderfully charming and spot-on look at one of the Foundation's longest-lived character, as well as with people who thought it was a steaming pile of dog poo that should never have dared show its little dog-poo face in the SCP-001 section.

Slowly, somehow despite the heavy criticism it (and I myself as a writer) was still getting, the tide began to turn. Even as I write this a month later, A Simple Toymaker is still gradually gaining both up and downvotes, but the ups outnumber the downs enough that it's rated over +100. Crazy, right? I'm pretty sure it stands at the moment as both my most hated and most beloved article.

Could I defend it against the criticism? Sure, and I have done a little bit of that in the comments section. I also considered making this entire behind-the-scenes look an attempt to reply to all said criticisms in one place. But y'know what? Nah. The Toymaker is what the Toymaker is. The critics can hate and the proponents enjoy. I wrote exactly the article I wanted to write.

No apologies.

Final Trivia: My favorite version of Doc W is Isabel.

- Behind-the-Scenes

SCP-3053 - Off the Rails

Rating: +96
Comments: 20
Posted: 02 May 2018 00:33

"Yeah, well, maybe whatever is in here just doesn't like the taste of drones."

+ Behind-the-Scenes

- Behind-the-Scenes

This is the story of Jake and Anna.

Jake and Anna grew up in the Ozark Mountains region of Arkansas during the last decade of the nineteenth century and the opening decades of the twentieth. Jake was an intelligent young man, and though he came from a poor family, he and his parents worked hard and managed to get him on the path to become a doctor. Anna was a bright and loving young woman who supported Jake in his scholarly endeavors. It was during his extended schooling that the two of them married.

Sadly, as smart and clever as Jake was, he began to crack under the pressure of his workload and began to turn to alcohol. When it became evident that the drink and his lack of fortitude was going to ruin any ambitions he had to become a doctor, he dropped out and took up a job working for the Missouri and North Arkansas Railroad Company, the central offices of which just so happened to operate out of his old hometown of Harrison. It was hard work, but it provided for him and Anna, and it helped him find the strength to break the chains of alcoholism.

It wasn't to last. In the early 20's, the M&NA became embroiled in a heated wage strike that lasted nearly a year. When it was over, the railroad company was able to resume business, but many of its now-former workers were not able to do the same. Jake was among these, suddenly adrift and jobless.

Jake and Anna decided that it was time to move on. Gathering up what money and belongings they had left, they moved across the state line to the little town of Broken Cliff in Missouri. There they were able to buy a little limestone house far out in the countryside, surrounded by an acre of land they could call their own. There they began both a farm and a family, as Anna gave birth to first Mary and then Dorothy. For a time, they were happy.

The Great Depression broke that happiness into pieces. The drought shriveled up Jake's crops. What little extra he could manage to grow couldn't be sold because there was no longer anyone able to buy. His family, already poor, quickly approached destitute. Then, they were hit by one of the worst winters the area had ever seen. Jake and his family were trapped in their house, unable to make the trip to Broken Cliff through the wind and ice, unable to buy any supplies in any case.

Jake became a broken, starving man made deranged by prolonged bouts of suffering. He gathered up what little strength he had and vowed that he was going to survive no matter the cost. He and Anna were going to eat and grow strong, and when the snows lifted, they would start again. He, with the coerced help of his wife, slaughtered Mary and Dorothy. He carved them up, ate his fill, and made Anna eat the rest.

It still wasn't enough. They both starved to death before the cruel winter came to a close. But their spirits and those of their children continued on, trapped by their shared misery. When spring finally arrived, the little limestone house was gone. In its place was an old M&NA boxcar, much like the ones Jake used to work on during his time with the railroad.

Memory of his family faded from those few people in Broken Cliff that had known them, and their disappearance was chalked up as simply one more unfortunate consequence of the crippling depression the nation was experiencing. The only echos of their existence were the scary stories told around the campfire, stories about an haunted boxcar that would gobble up anyone brave or foolhardy enough to wander to far out into the woods.

Stories that eventually led the Foundation straight to their doorstep.

Final Trivia: The M&NA is a for-reals defunct railroad company that actually operated during the times and in the areas referenced here and in the main article, and they really did have labor troubles as mentioned in the backstory above. A little bit of real history for ya!

- Behind-the-Scenes

SCP-3408 - Welcome to Site-3408
Spanish translation by berstager

Rating: +226
Comments: 51
Posted: 11 Apr 2018 17:28

Once you've arrived at Site-3408, the outside world will never be able to find you.

+ Behind-the-Scenes

- Behind-the-Scenes

Site-3408 awaits.

Back in the day, I used to carry little notebooks around in my pocket so I could write down whatever crazy story ideas popped into my head through the day. General plot stuff, clever pieces of dialogue, what-have-you. When I started this practice, cellphones were still these clunky things that, if you were lucky, allowed you to play Tic-Tac-Toe or Snake on their tiny 4-bit screens, and even after they became a great deal more computer-y, I avoided owning one because I am a gigantic misanthrope. Eventually I was dragged kicking and screaming into modern society, so now I have a smartphone with a notepad app that I type all my random ideas into before eventually transferring them to the relevant idea files on my computer.

It was during one of the moves that I came across a snippet that I had written down a week or two previous and had completely forgotten about. It said in its entirety:

Item #: Site-XXXX
Description: Come to Site-XXXX. Site-XXXX wants to contain you. Come to Site-XXXX.

The hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up, and I immediately knew what I was going to write next. In fact, I ended up sitting down and banging out the entire thing over the course of about three or four hours, then immediately cold-posted it and waited anxiously for it to either barely ride the razor's edge or simply get downvoted into oblivion. It was a format screw, after all, one of those things that people either love or hate, that you can get either absolutely right or horrifically wrong. As such, I wasn't too awful surprised to see that within the first few minutes, six votes had come in and the rating was still sitting at 0. Unable to stand the thought of just sitting around and hitting refresh constantly, I decided to take a shower so I could wash off the anxiety sweat that had rapidly built up.

A little less than half an hour later (I'm a faster shower-er), I stepped out, pulled up the article, and did a stupid little towel-clad dance of joy when I saw that the rating had already shot up to almost +20 and was continuing to climb. In fairly short order, it hit the +50 and +100 marks, and as of this writing sits well above +150, my most successful article to date. Somehow my dumb little idea about a Foundation site that really really really wants to contain anomalies struck the right chord with a lot of folks, and I just could not be happier about it.

So just what exactly is going on with Site-3408? Well, as always I figure that the readers have the right to their own opinions about that, and as far as the article itself goes, the possibilities are wide open. But if you wanna know what I think is happening? That's what I'm making the Faraway Voices tales for!

Final Trivia: Remove 'Site-' and subtract 2000, then google the result if you don't immediately get why I chose this particular slot.

- Behind-the-Scenes

SCP-3369 - A Living Joke
Co-authored with Aleph-Null

Rating: +62
Comments: 8
Posted: 05 Apr 2018 15:33

"So how do I get rid of you?"
"Aw, now that's just hurtful."

+ Behind-the-Scenes

- Behind-the-Scenes

Everyone deserves their fifteen minutes of fame.

After finishing up my first actual SCP article, I had some trouble figuring out what my second one was going to be. Not because I had a dearth of ideas, mind you, but because I had way too many rattling around in my head, demanding to be let out. I couldn't decide which one to do, and I was still in the process of chugging out even more ideas. Then along came Aleph-Null and the living joke.

Aleph's first two attempts at making the article sadly were not up to the standards of the SCP wiki, so they were downvoted and deleted. The idea was very sound, however, and it almost instantly captivated my brain, pushing all those other ideas I was struggling over to the wayside. I approached Aleph, asked if I could try my hand at a re-write, and thus SCP-3369 ended up back on the mainlist and is sitting at a respectable rating now.

I credit Aleph not just for story conception but also structure since I did my damndest to make sure that the finished product hewed as closely as I could get to the pacing and placement of the original drafts. Everything is more or less right where it started off, simply cleaned up and expanded upon. Some lines, in fact, were either nearly or entirely unchanged, such as "what do you remember about being born? Not much, I bet."

The only thing I ended up having to excise completely was the original ending, which involved some D-Class carriers getting terminated, leading to SCP-3369-1 screaming loud enough to knock out the character that later became Dr. Mills. Even then, it still survives in an implied way in the containment procedures, the part about having -1 removed before any planned D-Class terminations. It was a good idea (I can see it being the equivalent of somebody cutting off -1's hand or foot), but I just couldn't figure out how to keep it in the narrative in a natural way.

Ultimately, what I felt was the core of the story was that we've got this sapient joke that just wants to make people laugh. When I expanded the interviews, that's what I focused on, and the admission that he knows he ain't really that good at it became the climax to the piece. Gotta go for them there feels, doc.

Final Trivia: I have absolutely no idea what the exact content of the joke is. I don't know if Aleph does either. I suppose it's a mystery that may never get solved!

- Behind-the-Scenes

SCP-3147 - Tongue Twisted

Rating: +72
Comments: 11
Posted: 21 Feb 2018 22:12

"Is that a kid? How did you get a little kid?"

+ Behind-the-Scenes

- Behind-the-Scenes

Who came up with the idea that 'Shoe Shine' is an acceptable candy flavor?

Tongue Twisted was my first SCP article to get published, but it wasn't the first one I wrote. That particular honor goes to Freakuency, which was about this weird tone that only certain people could hear and it made them super-intelligent but also super-hostile. I put it up in the Drafts forum, ended up doing a massive rewrite on it, then realized that while it was a good idea, the way I was trying to write it simply wasn't appropriate for an SCP article. A bit discouraged, I went back to being purely a reader of the wiki for a good, long while.

When I came back around to the idea of writing something, I sorted through a bunch of ideas I had come up with in the interim and settled on one for a device that could swap people's voices. It started off as a wand of some sort that folks would touch to their throats and do a basic voice switcheroo, but naturally that wouldn't do. The idea that the user would have to actually put the item in their mouth came about pretty quick, and it became a lollipop shortly thereafter. Instead of just doing the cliché voice-swap you see in so many TV shows and movies, I decided that maybe the sucker would give the user control of the mouth of the person they swapped with, which seemed to me like it might actually be a hell of a lot of fun. Add in a touch of Dr. Wondertainment, and there you have it.

Now, the whole "Dr. Wondertainment and/or their company doesn't do proper QA and their products do unintended harm to the user" thing has been done a whole lot, so I decided I had to go and be all different. That's why the suckers are, relatively speaking, harmless in and of themselves. Yeah, there's a potential side-effect and dire warnings on the package, but it's not actually the suckers themselves that'll get ya. Doc W really can't take any responsibility for what someone else hooked into the party line might do, and the side-effect is more inconvenient than anything else.

So who, exactly, is PoI3147-01? Well, let me tell ya … I don't know. I purposefully wanted to keep it wide open to several interpretations. It could be Dr. Wondertainment himself doing unspeakable things to test out his products, and I think that's the conclusion a few folks immediately jumped to. But maybe it's somebody who works for Doc W, doing these terrible things with or without the toyman's knowledge and/or consent. That was, I should mention, the way things were leaning more toward in the original draft. Or maybe this is just some random sicko who likes to kidnap and torture kids, and using Wondertainment products to do so just happens to be his particular MO.

The last one is the one that … well, 'appeals to me' is perhaps the wrong way to put it because, y'know, gross. But it is the one that I personally lean toward being the case.

Final Trivia: The first mention of Site-272, where many of my articles and tales take place, as well as the first mention of D-2172, one of the major players in my Broken Cliff setting.

- Behind-the-Scenes