Thank you

Summary:

An all-knowing god anomaly that tries not to get the tale published.

Thank you

DrConte 12 Jul 2020 13:46

Seeking Greenlights: Yes

Page Type: Tale

Page Layout: Standard

Elevator Pitch My idea is to write about the feelings of a breaking-the-fourth-wall/omniscient creature. The entity is aware of how its universe was created and why. It knows that everything that happens happens because someone wants it to happen, and that this someone is cruel. It feels useless like trapped in a never-ending cage. I'm planning to make the creature beg to not publish the skip because without it, it wouldn't exist and it would be free.

Central Narrative: The entity wasn't born omniscient. The creature was a deity who came to life when the universe took form. It thought that the universe had no sense, and he asked why was he here and where was "here", why did suffering and pain exist: in the grip of the doubt, he looked for answers meeting powerful entities, but in vain. In the end it reached the Tree of Knowledge, finally and sadly getting answers and omniscience.

Attention Grabber: The entity will constantly refer to how this tale was greenlighted and modified, and how it hates the people who tried to help me publishing it.

Additional Information: None

Last edited on 16 Jul 2020 21:46 by DrConte Show more

Re: Thank you

The Pighead 14 Jul 2020 19:47

Hello, author, Pighead In. Here's a short critique of your idea.

I will not give you a greenlight, simply because it's, for me, too strongly tied to 3930 and a big part of your idea needs to be familiar with 3930, which don't allow too much your story to develop its own identity and is a complete disservice to it.

And believe me, it's just this detail who refrain me to greenlight it. Because I think it has a pretty interesting story and that I really want to see the origin of this alien, why it knows what it knows, its objectives and everything else. So, my main advice for you is to turning the story into a Tale. I think it would definitely be better for your story and it will be more possible for you to develop an "identity" for the story (hell, I work on a Tale about a meta SCP, so I know a little bit what I'm talking about).

It would be cool, because I feel a lot of potential for your story. But not as an SCP article.

Re: Thank you

DrConte 15 Jul 2020 09:15

This critique could turn out really useful. Like the creature could complain about not being a true SCP because "someone told the Creator not to" and that the only thing that exists of him is its mind (because there won't be a physical description of the creature), that he won't ever exist outside of the tale and that the story is the only page that will ever be written about it. It will die when somebody finishes reading the tale and it will come back to life when someone opens that page again.

I couldn't figure out how to build a background to it: maybe the entity could just say that it knows what's going on simply because I want him to know, but I'm not sure that's gonna work. Or maybe it could still be related to the Pattern Screamer canon. I'm still looking for ideas about that.

The main idea is build the feelings of a creature knowing that it does not actually exist and that the only things that could exist (even a little bit) are the ones that the "Watchers" can see and read. I was inspired by the "Plato's cave" myth: the creature could just be the one prisoner that saw the light out of the cave and regrets it.

Last edited on 15 Jul 2020 10:19 by DrConte Show more

Re: Thank you

MalyceGraves 16 Jul 2020 22:25

Summoned from #thecritters. Critique follows:

+ Crit

My idea is to write about the feelings of a breaking-the-fourth-wall/omniscient creature.

As I said in the chat, this seems like a really poor choice for a new author to attempt. In order for this to be/feel convincing, you're going to need a tremendous amount of familiarity with the SCP-verse. Since you joined us 79 days ago, I have serious doubts that you have that knowledge/familiarity.

Fourth wall stuff is more often a cheap trick that doesn't work because the meta/meta quality of it needs to be perfect in order for it to be done well. With the increase in the popularity of characters like Deadpool, there has been an absolute surfeit of dimestore knockoffs that are unconvincing and lame.

It feels useless like trapped in a never-ending cage. I'm planning to make the creature beg to not publish the skip because without it, it wouldn't exist and it would be free.

Except that with the publication, this whole thing is moot and we've now entered into a cyclical paradox that should have been obvious, especially for an "omniscient creature".

There are those that might disagree with me, but I definitely think that this is an idea that I think you should shelve until you've got a lot more experience under your belt.

As I said in the chat:

<@MalyceGraves> I can think of maybe 5 authors off the top of my head that are currently active on the wiki that could pull this off without sounding like they're either expo-dumping at the reader or just pontificating on the cruelty of the scp-verse in a way that is just flat out boring.

I am not giving this the go-ahead.

Re: Thank you

DrConte 17 Jul 2020 07:40

Yes, I joined 79 days ago, but I've been reading SCPs/tales from before and I think I could handle it (and if not, this tale won't obviously be published and liked.). Furthermore, I'm not planning to do a lot of info-dumping and I'm not going to talk about the backstory of the creature that much.

I was planning the entity to have the same knowledge of the Scarlet King, giving the latter a motive for wanting to destroy reality/the SCP Foundation (because without us reading about the Foundation the universe wouldn't exist); at the moment the motivations of the king are "Existence was pain, and he would have no part of it. It would be better to not exist. It would be better for all things not to exist." which doesn't tell us why he actually wants to end the universe.

The creature wasn't born omniscient, as I said before, and it became aware of it once it encountered the Tree of Knowledge (which from the tale "Beneath Two Trees" is connected to Adam and Eve but I pictured it as a sort of Meta-Yggdrasill who was planted by the authors themselves). The entity I wanted to talk about thought for a bit to join the King but in the end, it knew that no matter how hard it could try, the authors and the readers won't let anyone destroy the universe they created letting the SCP Foundation always exist.

My idea is to accentuate the sense of uselessness that the entity is feeling and to talk about its story indirectly: in fact, I probably think that much of my effort will be focused on the creature asking us why and begging to downvote the skip in order to not exist.

Last edited on 17 Jul 2020 07:45 by DrConte Show more