The Followee's Mural (First SCP idea)

Summary:

portrays their death and follows them until the predicted death

The Followee's Mural (First SCP idea)

UnsweetTea 03 Jan 2020 18:57

A subway mural that when seen by someone, portrays their death and follows them until the predicted death occurs.

I trimmed your thread summary above, since it was taking up a lot of space on the forum listing. Try to keep thread descriptions and titles under 7 lines so you don't visually crowd out other people's threads. ~Zyn

Note: Brackets { } mean this information is not set in stone.
Quick description of the first reported incident with this SCP:

This SCP is a mural first discovered on a subway station wall located at {Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02108}. The creator/origin of the mural is unknown, but the first report of the mural was in {1897} when a local pedestrian by the name of {Richard Simonelli} stopped to observe the mural, he later reported that throughout his day he spotted the mural in various locations, with the last reported location being the wall outside his apartment building. That evening he called local police, and an officer arrived at his home and asked him about what he had seen that day. The officer described the pedestrian as being in a “nervous state, sweating, severe nail-biting, pulling at his hair…”, the officer then described the pedestrian’s report of “a mural that followed him around town all day depicting him lying on his apartment floor, blood flowing from his head, with a gun on the floor next to him…”. An important note is that the pedestrian also stated that nobody that had been with him that day could see the mural except him. The officer determined that the pedestrian was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but concluded the report to be the ravings of a lunatic, and filed it away. The next night, a call was made from the pedestrian’s apartment building with reports of a gunshot in the building. When police arrived to investigate, they discovered that the pedestrian had shot himself in the head and fallen onto his apartment floor.

All incidents involving this SCP have similar ties: First sighting of the mural originating on the subway station wall, the mural being spotted in various locations along the course of the observer’s day, the mural only able to be seen by the original observer, the mural depicting the death of the observer, and the observer’s identical death following within the course of the next week.

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-Em

Last edited on 04 Jan 2020 05:54 by Zyn Show more

Re: The Followee's Mural (First SCP idea)

Doctor Fullham 04 Jan 2020 07:01

Have you read SCP-1155 "Predatory Street Art"? Because this sounds awfully similar. The main difference is that yours appears to drive them insane rather than directly killing them, but it's still some art on a wall that "follows" you and you end up dead. If you are able to distinguish your idea enough from this, it's workable. However, there's a lack of a connecting narrative thread. What story are you wanting to tell here? Some logs of one guy that died is not really a story. What emotion are you wanting the reader to feel, and how do you intend to evoke that emotion?

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 are some of the most often recommended for first-time contributors.

General Notes

I also recommend reading a significant amount of the top-rated SCPs from the last several months, and focus on reading more recent SCPs rather than older series. Many early series SCPs would not last a day under current SCP standards, and a few are only still around because of their history with the wiki itself. (This does not apply to all early series 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.

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?

Last edited on 04 Jan 2020 07:03 by Doctor Fullham Show more

Re: The Followee's Mural (First SCP idea)

UnsweetTea 05 Jan 2020 02:02

Thank you for the info! I appreciate it!

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-Em