I strongly approve of this article.
SCP-881 / Discussion
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This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-881.
Yeah, this owns. Different enough from the other "living trainset" scp, with the whole notion of social hierarchy based on height, and the microscopic insurrection at the end was totally satisfying. This is how you do dark humor without being damn silly about it.
Nicely executed!
I know cross SCP experimentation is frowned upon, but I think the funnel would be useful here. Especially on the smallest instances.
First thoughts: "meh, living train set…"
Last thoughts: "my eye itches. oh god. oh god."
accordingly upvoted.
Over all, this is a well written article. However, I think the tone of the researchers goes from 'Disinterested study' to 'outright cruel.' Maybe I'm too much of an optimist, but I still see the foundation as the good guys. In this situation, where a number of humans were affected, the goal WOULD be to get them back to normal size. Heck, if we could cure all the humanoid SCPs, we would. The sterilization feels like overkill.
Well written, but something I'd expect to see in Marshall, Carter, and Dark, not the Foundation.
Honestly, to me, this hits exactly how I would expect Foundation researchers to behave. Some would feel uncomfortable with such cruelty, but the official policy would be along the lines of "these are not human beings any longer - they are research materials." After all, if the Foundation were able to restore all of them to full size (including the super-tiny ones that may or may not want to be restored), what would they do with them? Administer Class A amnesiacs to tens of thousands of people in one fell swoop? They certainly can't just send them back home (especially since their homes are still miniaturized).
Why, yes. There is always ways. Beyond that, I do believe such things as sterilizing the victims is unbelievably cruel.
Right, agreed. The Foundation does not torture the SCPs, nor does it try to placate and bribe them. The subject doesn't thrill me, but the tone… I'm very much against the tone. As a Foundation Tale? Yeah, it would be a good one, but I don't think it's a good SCP. It's trying too hard, andthe tone is sadistic, rather than clinical.
And why would they want to sterilize them in any case?
No, no, I think it makes sense. The attempt to prevent them from breeding was part of an attempt to maintain a stable population limit so that the researchers could know exactly how many "citizens" they had in containment to prevent exactly what wound up happening in the article there. Had all the tinies been accounted for, they couldn't have fucked with doctor whatsisname's eyes, seen?
The no breeding rule needn't be permanent, and if like bright said the Foundation was working to help the tinies grow back to normal size then there's no reason not to enact such an order. Hell, if it took the Foundation too long to restore them to normal they could easily allow a few exceptions so long as it was all documented.
That said, in universe the issue was handled poorly. A better solution would have been to simply add preventatives to the water supply and tell the tinies that their sterility was a side effect of their condition, and that any pregnancies that occurred (there really is no 100% certain birth control method) were subject to birth defects and must be reported to the Foundation researchers so they could get the woman medical help. That would have capped the birth rate and given the tinies a reason to work with the Foundation in documenting the population level.
Threatening them with permanant sterility was a terrible breach of protocol. At no point ever should any Foundation researcher make an outright threat toward a population of sapient SCP objects. This situation would've been difficult enough for the researchers if the tinies had been cooperating; heavyhanded fuckery caused them to actively rebel.
Yeah, I think basically the way the doctor handled it was part of the reason that this ended the way he did it. It's one thing to refer to them as test subjects, it's another to do it to their faces. From what I see, the story in this article is sort of detracting from the article while simultaneously adding to it. It's a tit for tat.
Edit for clarity.
I love this article. Reminds me of that one Simpsons episode with the Itchy and Scratchy bit where it was parodying the Sorcerers Apprentice, when the cat chopped the mouse into powder. That one freaked me out when i was younger.
This one is great, except for the sterilization. I'm with Bright on this one.
seeing as they are fairly easily contained in their cell i cant really see why sterilization would be necessary in the first place. all it would do is produce more "research materials" at worst.
however, i do see this as being entirely possible within the scope of the foundation. not that the higher ups are demanding that these processes be put into place, but i would think that the researchers on any project would have some significant leeway in the way they run their experiments, so long as by doing so they obtain more information and dont cause potential security breaches. the "cruelty" being enacted upon the research subjects would be a non-issue generally.
so my objection is i more that i dont see why the researcher is trying to prevent breeding rather than the unnecessary cruelty of it…
BUT, that aside, very well written article, this one's a keeper.
Think of it this way. Are any of the -other- SCPs allowed to reproduce? Secure, -Contain-, Protect.
To be honest, the issue with me is that it doesn't interest me. It's no big deal (pun unintended). Tiny people… Sure, why not? It just doesn't feel like something the Foundation would care about.
I think it's not so much the people that are of interest as much as the idea that this shrinking effect could happen again, and the researchers are interested in exploring why it works like it does and how the Forbes effect can be exploited. As someone in one of the other comments noted, there may be new instances that are even smaller being generated (possibly as a side effect of the Inchers getting sewn in as inseminators) which would be of interest to the foundation for how it may allow for creation of loyal micro-repair groups.
And agreed with the other poster that the entry serves in many ways as a warning of the consequences of being cruel for the sake of being cruel.
/forum/t-276865/scp-881#post-
