The Ghutine Vine

Summary:

Very Big and Very Hungry Plant. (needs greenlighting)

The Ghutine Vine

Yiwmiy Yyy 02 May 2019 01:18

My idea is a huge plant called the Ghutine Vine, that lives in a dark chamber 40 miles deep in a mountain. It's has vines. So far, my idea is that it grows and moves around very fast, has black flowers that shoot painfully poisonous spores, and purple fruit that is uncomfortably sticky, and tastes sweet. It was planted at the end of the mountain chamber, which so far, is doing a good job containing it. However, there is lots of fear over what happens if the Ghutine Vine does grow out of its chamber.

Right now, the idea looks very generic. My idea for some more meat into the idea is by adding logs of people trying to kill or contain the plant, but instead getting killed by it.

And about the "Ghutine" part, it doesn't have any meaning, I just thought it sounded cool.

Re: The Ghutine Vine

DrDromeus 02 May 2019 01:36

Alrighty,

So I’m gonna say that you’re correct with you saying it’s a “generic” thing, but it doesn’t have to be that way! So you’re current idea is just “thing what kills people,” which, unfortunately, is kinda done to death after 3000+ articles.

I think the main problem here is that (assuming you’re going for horror) you’re assuming that “dangerous=scary.” This is incorrect. 173 isn’t scary because it’s strong (it could be destroyed by the Foundation easily), but because it looks scary and approaches you at a vulnerable moment you may not even think about - when you blink. So where does the fear come from here? Adding more logs saying the same thing isn’t gonna help, but adding some different aspect to this anomaly will - something that taps into human fear. What is it about plants that evokes fear? What is it about fruits? Poisons? What do you want to do to demonize these things?

Adding some form of story can also help bring this to life, especially if fear wasn’t what you were going for. Perhaps you can start with its name. Why “ghutine?”

Re: The Ghutine Vine

Yiwmiy Yyy 02 May 2019 04:31

Alright, so, about the "Ghutine" part, I have an idea on that now. "Ghutine"(pronounced 'gooteen'), to me, sounds ancient, gory, and a little metallic. My idea is that it was called "Ghutine" because that was the name of the tribe in the backstory below. I am basing the backstory below on the "ancient" attribute of "Ghutine".

+ Backstory

My idea for the backstory was that there was an ancient tribe, called the Ghutine Tribe, that came across an entire forest of the Ghutine Vine. After discovering how dangerous it was, not only to them, but to all life, they proceeded to burn the entire forest down. When the tribe finally succeeded in burning all the Ghutine Vines, but realized the seeds couldn't be burned, or destroyed at all, which could potentially sprout a Ghutine Vine. So, the tribe asked their gods for something to help them get rid of the Vine.

A few days later, the tribe received an incredibly powerful tool that could manipulate the land around it. The tribe used this tool to dig the Vine's 40 mile long chamber under a mountain. After the digging was finished, the tribe threw all the remaining seeds of the Ghutine Vine, along with their ultra-powerful godly real-life MC-edit tool, sealed the entrance of the chamber using rocks and soil, and proceeded to erase the Ghutine Vine from history.

What brought the Vine to the Foundation's attention was an avalanche on the mountain the Vine's chamber was under. The avalanche caused the rocks and soil placed by the Ghutine Tribe to collapse, exposing the entrance to the chamber. When a groups of people who wanted to explore the chamber didn't come back, this came to the attention of the Foundation. At this time, the Ghutine Vine had already grown 18 miles of the chamber.

+ Trying to make it Scarier

So, to make the Ghutine Vine more scary, like you suggested, I decided to add some more attributes. The type of fear I am aiming for with the Ghutine Vine is a rollercoaster type of fear; it doesn't look that intimidating from a distance, but once you get on, you doubt if you would survive it, and become scared.

An idea I have for the Vine is the ability to make any metal that comes near it instantly begin rusting, which I am basing on the "metallic" attribute of Ghutine. This could be harmful to flashlights, sensors, weapons, or other metal things that could assist you exploring the chamber. This means that exploration will have to be done using non-metal things like lanterns and torches, which are far less effective than their metal counterparts.

Another idea I have is that the Ghutine Vine by default is in a "dormant" state when there is no life to kill, just slowly growing like a normal plant. To put it in an "active" state where it tries to eat you, you have to put force on the stigma of one of the flowers. This sounds easy to avoid, as all you have to do is not step on a flower, but since it is so dark in the chamber, and as I said, flashlights instantly rust, you never know where your next step would end up.

In the active state, all the things I said would happen, happens; flowers start shooting their spores, fruits will become sticky, the Vine would begin growing ludicrously faster, and its vines would reach out to grab you. Once the Ghutine Vine has grabbed you, it would begin pulling you down to the deepest part of the chamber, where the roots of the Vine are. It would pull you to its mouth, and eat you.

Also down in the deepest part of the chamber, is the Ghutine Tribe's MC-Edit tool that carved out the chamber. It hasn't done anything since but lie down in the chamber, but since it is so powerful, it is very risky having it down there.

So, the type of fear I ended up with wasn't a rollercoaster type of fear, but more of a low-risk high-consequence type of fear, which I am happy with nonetheless.

Alright, I kind of got carried away with this, but, I hope the backstory and extra details do make the Ghutine Vine more interesting.

Last edited on 02 May 2019 04:34 by Yiwmiy Yyy Show more

Re: The Ghutine Vine

DrDromeus 03 May 2019 20:59

Something wasn't sitting right with me on this, but I read this essay (which is excellent btw) and I think these quotes that Ayers pointed out sum up how I'm feeling:

Because its anomalous properties sound like a Dungeons and Dragons campaign where the DM is pre-emptively trying to outwit a party of power-gaming munchkins.

To establish terror, you need verisimilitude. And to establish verisimilitude, you need to make your anomaly feel authentic — not designed.

The less anomalous it is, the more real it starts to feel.

I don't feel like more attributes will make this better. It might, but it just feels more diluted to me. Of course, if you're not sticking with making a scary article and more want to tell some kind of interesting story, then we can go in that direction too. But from a horror perspective, there's too much. Here are the basics I'm getting:

- There's a dark chamber underground that you can't see in
- Plant life comes to life here and kills you in a variety of grotesque ways
- There's also a backstory of a tribe that fought against it and made some godly tool to contain it.

I don't know how the third part here really contributes to fear. I don't dislike it, and this can definitely be a part of this article, but I would like to know what you're planning on to have this contribute to making the anomaly scary. I'm going to definitely recommend reading that essay I linked earlier and fitting your idea through there if you want to make this a horror article. If not, that's fine too, but then there'd have to be some other way of catching the reader's intrigue.

Re: The Ghutine Vine

Yiwmiy Yyy 04 May 2019 02:05

Ok, so I just finished reading the essay. It's really intriguing, but quite a challenge to integrate into my idea. But, if I do make a good job integrating it into my idea, I think it will make my idea a lot better. This is assuming that scary is what I am aiming for.

+ Attempting to make it scarier

The first step is the Verisimilitude part, making it look authentic. The main anomalous abilities of the Vine are that it grows quickly, grows without need of any sustenance, and moves freely.

About now, I believe I can start on a rough draft of my idea for the Ghutine Vine.
The "authentic" part of the Vine to me is its inactive state, where it grows like a regular plant. However, once I explain the Vine's dangerous abilities, the "authentic" part gets taken away. But, I don't think the article looks like it is trying to be scary, which is a good thing.

Each property is the author reminding us that they're holding our hand. Each one reminds us that it's just a story. And every time you remind us, you make it harder to fool us. You break immersion. And without immersion, you cannot establish terror.

So I kind of have the Verisimilitude part down, but to improve on it, I will have to adjust parts of the story for it.

Since this is still just an idea that I don't really know what I'm doing with, there are plenty of ways it could go. I'll try rewriting the idea in different genres, take a look at how well the genre flows with the idea, and stick with the genre that flows best.

Last edited on 04 May 2019 16:22 by Yiwmiy Yyy Show more

Re: The Ghutine Vine

Plasmo Des Mata 02 May 2019 05:48

This story could be fun, I enjoy scary plants. A few basic questions/suggestions:

1) Was the god of the Ghutine tribe a REAL god-like being? That's almost more terrifying than the vine itself, and I feel would distract people reading the story if left unaddressed. Perhaps, the SCP Foundation figures out that the vine fell through a portal from somewhere else (Planet? Dimension?) and the beings of that world, not wanting ours to be erased by the monstrous vine, sent the MC Edit tool through another portal to help prevent humanity's end.
2) Speaking of that tool, it should be broken, or knowledge of how to use it lost to time, or else the Foundation would use it on EVERYTHING they could think of.
3) A more minor note is that "a fast rusting effect" is the main mode of at least one other well-known SCP (2933) so perhaps a different way the Vine destroys technology could make it more original. For example, maybe it emits an airborne pollen covered in an unusual acid, which only breaks down inorganic material.

Last edited on 02 May 2019 05:50 by Plasmo Des Mata Show more

Re: The Ghutine Vine

Yiwmiy Yyy 03 May 2019 02:47

1) Was the god of the Ghutine tribe a REAL god-like being? That's almost more terrifying than the vine itself, and I feel would distract people reading the story if left unaddressed. Perhaps, the SCP Foundation figures out that the vine fell through a portal from somewhere else (Planet? Dimension?) and the beings of that world, not wanting ours to be erased by the monstrous vine, sent the MC Edit tool through another portal to help prevent humanity's end.

To make the terrifying part be the Ghutine Vine rather than the God of Ghutine, my idea is that the god died or became inactive. My new idea on this is that the MC-edit tool wasn't given by the god, but instead the god came to the Ghutine Tribe in the MC-edit tool. So, when the tribe threw the MC-edit tool down into the chamber, they threw their god into the chamber, too.

+ show block

Another thing I can add to put some more backstory to the disappearance of the God is that the Ghutine tribe summoned their god using a ritual, which brought the god of Ghutine to them in the form of the MC-edit tool. It took a ritual to put the God into the MC-edit tool, and it will take a ritual to bring the God out of the MC-edit tool. Since the information about the plant was erased, including the ritual instructions, the god of Ghutine remains trapped in the MC-edit tool.

Also, just because I felt like it, I am going to name the God of Ghutine Nadilenth.

2) Speaking of that tool, it should be broken, or knowledge of how to use it lost to time, or else the Foundation would use it on EVERYTHING they could think of.

As I was previously saying, the information on the ritual to summon Nadilenth was forever lost to time, meaning that the tool couldn't be used. Even if the ritual information was still there, you would still need to get through the plant to get it. And I know you could just easily burn the plant, but since there is barely any down oxygen in the chamber, that would actually be very difficult.

3) A more minor note is that "a fast rusting effect" is the main mode of at least one other well-known SCP (2933) so perhaps a different way the Vine destroys technology could make it more original. For example, maybe it emits an airborne pollen covered in an unusual acid, which only breaks down inorganic material.

To replace the rusting effect, my idea is for a special type of bee that lives down with the Vine, pollinating the flower. I can integrate your suggestion of acidic pollen into this, as that the what the bees have to work with to pollinate the flowers. So with my idea with the bees plus your suggestion of acidic pollen, I got that whenever the bees sting you, they also inject some of the acidic pollen in you, which spreads through your bloodline and melts you from within. The bee stings should also be able to penetrate Kevlar, which is something that could do extra damage on top of the damage already done by the acidic pollen.

As a courtesy to our readers on mobile devices, please collapse long posts. ~Zyn

Last edited on 03 May 2019 06:52 by Zyn Show more

Re: The Ghutine Vine

Yiwmiy Yyy 07 May 2019 01:47

Alright, so I just started my rough draft on the Ghutine Vine.

The summary so far is that in Site-475, which was built around and partially inside the entrance to the Ghutine Vine's 40-mile deep chamber, has an emergency procedure just in case the Vine or its bees manage to escape the chamber.

I also decided to add that the Vine is an infohazard, which means that knowing about it is a danger. The way it is a danger is that if you know about Nadilenth, the God of the Ghutine Tribe, he will be stronger. The more people believe in Nadilenth, the stronger he becomes. If he becomes strong enough, he will break free of the MC-edit tool he is trapped in, and get revenge on the world for throwing him down the chamber.

Draft Link is here(second tab): http://scp-sandbox-3.wikidot.com/andyyy2

Last edited on 08 May 2019 04:00 by Yiwmiy Yyy Show more