The Man From The Void

Summary:

Looking for greenlight.

The Man From The Void

DrRekoj 16 Jan 2020 03:06

I hope you all enjoy the idea. TL;DR- A man from the void of nonexistence comes to our reality and is dead set on finding it origins. After escaping a lot, it gets a job at the Foundation.

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

SCP-XXXX is an alternative reality that has taken the shape of a humanoid figure, whose composition consists of only nonexistence. Before it took its current form, SCP-XXXX was an alternative reality in which the big bang never happened, and has become sentient from the immense power that had been stored there. Now that it has somehow become humanoid, it can control its tangibility of its surface (“skin”), and any matter that enters its occupied space is seemingly erased. SCP-XXXX claims to have memories of once being human, and shows signs of being of above average intelligence. It additionally can use the stored energy within itself to focus on a point, and open a hole between realities. As SCP-XXXX is determined to solve the mystery of itself, the potential to open these portals and its lack of organic composition/intangibility cause problems for containing SCP-XXXX. After a number of containment breaches, in a desperate effort to contain SCP-XXXX, the Foundation offers it the chance to work under the Foundation’s roof as a researcher. SCP-XXXX gladly accepts the offer and complies with the Foundation.

I definitely plan on fleshing out its origins and exploring its potential with other realities. I would also love to explore the possibly of it being promoted or working on other studies for the Foundation.

Last edited on 16 Jan 2020 03:09 by Zyn Show more

Re: The Man From The Void

Doctor Fullham 17 Jan 2020 00:17

[placeholder, will crit within 24 hours]

Okay, so. I immediately have several questions. Firstly, how do they possibly know it's an alternate reality in the shape of a human? How does something "consist of nonexistence"? How does something gain sentience just from the sheer amount of energy, and again, how does The Foundation ever find this out? If it's just a sentient/sapient universe that never underwent the big bang (and thus never had humans in it), how does it have memories of being human? Why does it accept the Foundation's offer? They have no way to contain it and know nothing more about it than it does. What does it stand to gain from this arrangement?

What you have currently is the "Superpowered humanoid" or "X-Man" 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

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.

As you are pitching a humanoid SCP idea, I also recommend reading So You Want To Write A Humanoid SCP Object to assist in avoiding the "X-Men problem."

General Notes

We need to know more than just "it's an invincible being that's made of another reality that believes it was once human." 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.)

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 entity, 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 being 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 17 Jan 2020 00:56 by Doctor Fullham Show more

TMFTV (Revised)

DrRekoj 20 Jan 2020 03:24

Thank you for the advice and suggestions, I went silent for the past few days so that I could revise the concept. This is what I came up with:

SCP-XXXX is reported to be a sentient alternate reality, with no evidence as to how it gained sentience. As it is assumed to be the origins of SCP-XXXX-1, researchers believe SCP-XXXX likely has similar composition to SCP-XXXX-1.

+ show block

SCP-XXXX-1 is a humanoid figure where all its organic components have been replaced with a mass of nonexistence. Though, despite all organic components missing, SCP-XXXX-1 still retained a mass, and its ability to speak, see, hear, and touch. Additionally, it is concluded that SCP-XXXX-1 used to be human due to its behavior and movement of its body. Due to its inability to reflect light, SCP-XXXX-1 appears as a pitch black figure.
For unknown reasons, SCP-XXXX-1 emits an unrecognized energy from its entire body. When stable, the energy has no affect on SCP-XXXX-1 or its surroundings. However, anomalous properties emerge when the emitted energy from SCP-XXXX-1 becomes unstable. If the energy dips, the light around SCP-XXXX-1 bends, and the SCP-XXXX-1’s hands and wrists become intangible. When intangible, all matter that enters the space SCP-XXXX-1 occupies is seemingly erased. If the energy spikes, a radiance appears to outline SCP-XXXX-1, and it proceeds to uncontrollably slip into another reality. When this happens, it remains in that reality until the next spike, in which it returns to its previous reality. To better manage these incidents, the Foundation creates a tracking device that tracks the location of SCP-XXXX-1 while it is on Earth, and records its energy levels, alerting SCP-XXXX-1 and personnel when a spike or dip is occuring.

In terms of narrative, I want to use reports and interviews with SCP-XXXX-1 to be the main method of telling the story. The narrative will follow the journey of SCP-XXXX-1 as it adjusts to its anomalous properties, tries to understand itself, and find who it was. Additionally, the narrative may be explored with the realities SCP-XXXX-1 visits, some revealing signs of human existence. The driving conflict of this story is going to be the spikes and dips in the energy emitted by SCP-XXXX-1. As time goes on, dips will become more recurring, and its intangibility slowly growing across its body. In some incidents SCP-XXXX-1 experiences complete dips in energy, which causes it to consume all matter within a sphere centered on itself, and returns to SCP-XXXX for some time. After presumably “recharging”, SCP-XXXX-1 returns back to the reality it left. Later cases prove the dips in energy to be more of an issue, leaving SCP-XXXX-1 to deal with the consequences of its existence.

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

With the revised concept out of the way, I had a question I wanted to ask: In your opinion, what’s the best way to get images for SCP documents?

Last edited on 20 Jan 2020 03:29 by Zyn Show more

Re: TMFTV (Revised)

Doctor Fullham 21 Jan 2020 01:55

SCP-XXXX-1 is a humanoid figure where all its organic components have been replaced with a mass of nonexistence.

See, this part still makes no sense. Can you define "a mass of nonexistence" for me?

SCP-XXXX-1 emits an unrecognized energy from its entire body. When stable, the energy has no affect on SCP-XXXX-1 or its surroundings. However, anomalous properties emerge when the emitted energy from SCP-XXXX-1 becomes unstable.

If the energy is "unrecognized", how do they know when it becomes unstable? How do they measure it?

This also appears to have some similarities with The Reluctant Dimension-Hopper with its inability to control when and where it goes.