I'll Remember You This Way

Summary:

An SCP about the fear of complete social ostracization due to an influential person hating us.

I'll Remember You This Way

DesertMoonGW 12 Feb 2020 14:44

SCP-XXXX is a memetic thought (or something to that effect) primarily only working on people between the ages of 15-30 with regular internet access. Individuals affected by SCP-XXXX will gradually have all positive memories of a specific targeted person erased and exclusively highlight in their minds the negative memories of that target. This spreads through discussion of the target with people who have SCP-XXXX, leading to those involved in the discussion to also become affected by SCP-XXXX. This leads to a high level of social ostracization and harassment, on some occasions leading to violence or doxxing. The target themselves is not immune to this, however it takes a much more concentrated effort and is much slower.

The story would be told through interviews with SCP-XXXX infected people and the chat logs of one target. How they did something to upset a possible source for SCP-XXXX and thus had it spread based around them. They see how they start to get kicked out of bigger groups, have distant friends leave them, then eventually even their closest friends start to abandon them until they are all alone. The person in the end killed themselves due to total social alienation.

The core idea of the SCP is that it's based in a very common fear held by people with paranoia or other social mental disorders (like me). The fear that once you make a mistake negatively affecting someone more influential than you, that they grow to despise you, and will spread false rumors of you, convincing friends and family to turn on you as well. This is a fear I held in many situations in the past and it can be crippling and lead to a lot of horrible decisions out of a wish to not get hurt. I've even seen this actually happen twice to two friends of mine, for real not paranoid delusions. The SCP basically poses the idea of "What if those paranoid fears weren't just paranoia? What if they were real, and could be directly controlled?", which I feel is even scarier than just the thought.

Re: I'll Remember You This Way

RockTeethMothEyes 13 Feb 2020 06:05

This is good. Tapping into this very real and quite possibly universal fear is a good grounding for making this work. Having it end in suicide seems like a bit of a jump to me, personally? But I think if it's paced out well enough, it'll come together nicely.

I realize you don't necessarily need greenlights on this, since you have an existing work, but I have a lot of confidence that this would do well. Capitalize on that fear and paranoia and I think it will hit hard,

Last edited on 14 Feb 2020 03:21 by RockTeethMothEyes Show more

Re: I'll Remember You This Way

cybersqyd 15 Feb 2020 08:31

[noting a PM request to take a look]

Hm. This definitely seems like it could be a pretty good idea and I think it could really work out well. My big concern is really that at the moment, I'm not quite sure what the main plot beats of the story you're wanting to tell using it are? Like, there's the introduction where you setup the anomaly, there's what, a bit where you introduce the target person? And there's escalation to them getting really upset and possibly dying; but I'm not quite sure how you'd handle the escalation here I guess?

Are you intending like, making much of a show of the whole "targeted" aspect here? It feels like it'd be a really good stinger of a reveal if the reader finds out at the end that the SCP destroying someone's life was a result of some kinda, plot to do something?

…I know you don't need greenlights but I would likely greenlight this if you did. I'm guessing from you reaching out to folk that you might have specific concerns about this which I can address? But I'm not quite sure what they are?

Last edited on 15 Feb 2020 09:22 by cybersqyd Show more

Re: I'll Remember You This Way

DesertMoonGW 15 Feb 2020 20:20

It's more just that despite having one SCP on the site I still do not feel confident enough to leap straight to drafting. What you described is sort of the plot beats, in my head it basically goes:

+ show block

SCP/Description - Literal explaining of the anomaly, setup so you can feel tension of what's going to happen before it does later, like watching someone enter a room you know they're going to die in.

Discovery - Odd social behaviours detected around the same general group of people with an increase in depression and PTSD symptoms. After a failed attempt by a local university to find a reason for this, an agent was sent and found memetic influences. The university was using one person to exemplify the odd situation, this being the target.

Recovered Materials - The documents initially collected by the university and some gathered by the foundation. This is where the meat of the story is.

RM-1 - Chat log showing a friendly wholesomeness between the target and a few other people, showing they're each close friends who care about one another.

RM-2 - Video transcript of the inciting event where the target does something to annoy the guy, the guy takes it too far and the video ends with the target largely being left confused and a little upset.

RM-3 - Chat log from one of the friends in RM-1 where they ask about a rumor, a highly exaggerated account of the events in RM-2. Target refutes this, but the friend is stubbornly in the middle of the drama.

RM-4 - Chat log from the guy to many people in a group chat, talking shit about the target and telling outright lies, including some that are extreme and unbelievable, but everyone just follows along.

RM-5 - Chat log between the target who is trying to contact a friend that had stopped talking to him for a few days. The friend responds back with cold hostility.

RM-6 - Interview with one of the friends, where they talk about how much they hate the target, directly citing what was said in RM-4, and deflecting questions of prior friendship or commitments.

RM-7 - Snippets from many more chat logs where now all of the friends from RM-1 are showing a desire for distance, hostility, or lack of caring. Showing a progression of instability in the target as each one drops off one at a time.

RM-8 - The target attempts to contact someone who had abandoned him, slowly growing more desperate in their messages. We learn a bit more about the awful condition the target is in now, drinking heavily and fearful of making new connections for this same thing to happen.

RM-9 - The suicide note, done as a message sent in vein to one of the people distancing themselves. A dark end where the guy gets his way, the target kills himself, and people are glad to hear it.

RM-10 - One last chat log between the group of friends and the guy, where they talk positively about how the target killed themselves. Showing the same level of closeness and wholesomeness from RM-1, but instead of with the target, it's with the guy.

Maybe also have some stuff in there where the target finds evidence of some of the friends talking poorly of the target behind their back, and then they deny it initially blurring the line between what is and isn't true. Could also insert a piece where the target joins the friends in something and makes it awkward for them and they all need to pretend to not hate the target. Not sure on all of this though in this exact order or these specific beats, but it's what I'm thinking right now. My concerns are largely just "Is this good, will this work, or am I stupid?"