SCP Idea - Vegan Pill

Summary:

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way trying to promote veganism or any of that stuff - just had an idea that I thought could be a cool concept.

SCP Idea - Vegan Pill

Doggomatic 28 Dec 2019 01:53

Hi everyone,

I have an SCP idea that I have written below. Please note that if a similar SCP already exists, it is totally consequential and I currently do not know of its existence.

General description:
The “vegan pill” is a light green pill that slowly turns one vegan through psychological means. Once a person swallows the pill, regardless of whether that person is already vegan or not, he or she will experience faint hallucinations of an animal’s worst moment in life when he or she eats its meat. For instance, if someone starts eating a piece of chicken, that person will start having hallucinations of the chicken’s worst moment in its life excluding the moment it is about to be killed. The more meat from different animals a person eats in a sitting, the more vivid the hallucinations become. Furthermore, these strong hallucinations make the person incredibly nauseous and sick to the stomach and will cause him or her to vomit. When the person sleeps, he or she will then have lucid dreams about the animal’s last moments right before it dies – one experience for each individual animal the person ate throughout the time he or she was awake.

The pill has effects that last a lifetime and can pretty much make a person vegan permanently. I would classify this as a safe class object since most of its effects seem to be known, except for its composing compounds. It does not cause any psychological or physical harm with its presence.

Please let me know if you think this has the potential to be an SCP or any other feedback/thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading!

Re: SCP Idea - Vegan Pill

Doctor Fullham 28 Dec 2019 04:30

What you have currently is the "thing that does a thing" or "X that does Y" concept. An SCP article is much more than simply an anomalous item, being, place, or event. The true meat of the SCP is the story around the anomalous thing. The thing itself is a vehicle that the narrative is attached to. To give my best example from Series 1, look at SCP 093: The anomalous item itself is a rock that turns mirrors into interdimensional portals. The thing that makes this SCP shine is the story; the history of the dimension that it leads to.

I recommend reading several items on the Guide Hub:

How to Write an SCP

Clinical Tone: Declassified

Things What Do a Thing: An Essay On Anomalies That Are Things That Do A Thing

Essay Regarding SCPs, Narratives, and How They Can Share a Page

There are other guides there that can be very helpful, but these three are some of the most often recommended for first-time contributors.

General Notes

I would classify this as a safe class object since most of its effects seem to be known, except for its composing compounds. It does not cause any psychological or physical harm with its presence.

Have you read the guide on how object classifications are defined? It has nothing to do with how much is known about the object or how dangerous it is; it is about how difficult it is to contain. It would still be Safe, but because it's just a pill - it cannot move on its own, it has no objective, it is not sentient. It will do nothing to actively resist or break containment.

We need to know more than just "it's a pill that makes you vegan." What story are you going to tell - How The Foundation found it, Who or what created it and why, did someone use it to some end? (These are not all questions that must be answered, these are some possible narrative hooks.) You need something that differentiates this as an SCP, instead of just an Anomalous Item.

I also recommend reading several (at least 10-20) of the top-rated SCPs from the last several months, and avoid reading series 1 SCPs for inspiration. Many series 1 SCPs would not last a day under current SCP standards because they are just things that do things or superpowered humanoids. (This does not apply to all series 1 SCPs, but many of these were written before the wiki's style had really been cemented.)

The anomalous object, while important, is not actually the main focus of the SCP. A good story, a compelling narrative, something that makes the reader feel something - that is the goal of an SCP article. What feeling do you want to evoke from the reader? Horror? Empathy? Sadness? You need to create a narrative around this object and its effects. Right now it just seems like a pretty heavy-handed pro-vegan message, which by itself will not go over well as an SCP.

I am not saying this to discourage you, I just want you to understand the amount of effort that goes into creating a successful SCP.

If you can revise this idea with a story that you want to tell, we will be able to give you much more meaningful and constructive critique.

The anomalous item is the vehicle, the narrative is the person driving, the readers are the passengers. You can have the shiniest, most polished, most interesting vehicle in the world, but without the driver, the passengers aren't going anywhere. Where is the narrative taking the readers, and how is it getting them there?