Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

Summary:

Opinions between the fear and love for the ocean!

Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

(account deleted) 24 Jul 2017 13:09

So I've been thinking: Is there any way possible to effectively convey thalassophia into an SCP? Or thalassophilia is better?

I have hese pictures that I want to use as a single SCP portrayed using a collection of pictures. Something like,

• An anomalous submarine that travels around the world and captures or takes pictures of other anomalous stuff.
• A phenomenon which a person becomes possessed by some sea god (Hail Chthulhu!) and travels the ocean and stuff.
• A chair that kills thalassophobic people and makes non-thalassophic people into thalassophobic by temporarily always teleporting into the bottom of the ocean

You know, things like that.

Let me know if this is a potential idea or am I just being nerdy and ambitious about ocean stuff…

and I would also like to know what you think! :D

:)

Last edited on 24 Jul 2017 17:56 by (account deleted) Show more

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

Alfred Hitchcock 24 Jul 2017 13:41

I'm having trouble understanding what is actually the skip here. Is the skip this submarine? Is it the sense of fear that it instills in its travelers even those known to travel by sea regularly? Is it the fear in general? Is it the all powerful sea god Poseidon himself?

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

(account deleted) 24 Jul 2017 14:18

Ohh, the submarine and the sea god were just examples. The main ideas were the fear/desire of the ocean. :3 I would like to utilize those into a magnificent SCP. :D

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

Alfred Hitchcock 25 Jul 2017 12:33

I'd love to help you brainstorm as the ocean is a great place to draw a skip from. However, I need to know one thing first.

What are the emotions/feelings you want to generate in the reader?

Once we answer this question we can go into narrative style and skip ideas.

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

(account deleted) 25 Jul 2017 14:05

That's awesome. I'd love to brainstorm with you, too. :)

What are the emotions/feelings you want to generate in the reader?

• Maybe Thalassophobia
• Or maybe Thalassophilia
• Or if possible, a mix of both. :3

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

Alfred Hitchcock 25 Jul 2017 17:48

Okay great!

Then with that in mind lets look into options.

Thalassophobia

With taking this angle it may be best to follow the footsteps of others and feed off a basic human fear:

Fear of the unknown.

The ocean is a vast unexplored domain with many undiscovered species and landmarks, for this reason we have a lot of sea skips that thrive.

For myself my fear of the ocean stems from the fact that we know less about whats under the waves than what is outside of our atmosphere. So we will start here.

Lets start bouncing some ideas then

• Your original idea of a deep sea exploration submarine would work fantastic here, although its up to you whether or not you use the Marianas Trench as it is over used and cliche but workable.
• A creature from the deep - such as SCP-1128 - with this approach it may be best to try and reveal as little as possible about the creature and leave its form up to the readers imagination.
  • In my opinion a play on the angler fish would be a cool SCP idea
• Natural disasters, such as Tsunami, Hurricane, Whirlpool…. Here can be a diety like creature influencing the sea.

Thalassophilia

With Thalassophilia I can think of two possible reasons for this response:

1) The unknown unexplored landscape of the ocean excites some (The same but inverse logic as Thalassophobia)
2) An inherit need prompts some to out of necessity try and chart/explore this uncharted territory.

Lets focus on the first:

• Sailors, It could be the love of fishing with the biggest catches living in the ocean.
• Marine Biologist, The most unexplored frontier even more so than the Amazon is the ocean. This could be exciting to some making this career path enticing. With marine biology more scientific and technical skips can surface. perhaps the skip is told through the expedition log of a marine biologist team excavating an Arctic cave or deep sea ravine.

(As with Thalasophobia I'd caution you to reveal as little as possible about the actual skips form or anything beyond the the basic of what is understood about the anomaly, this way we cause the reader to force their view on the skip.

Now the second:

• Think of all the past explorers, Ferdinand Magellan, Christopher Columbus, and any other new/old world explorers, they were all driven by wealth, status, posterity or necessity. (there could be an SCP that drives people to want to explore the sea for these reasons)

Both

Honestly any of the above if as little as possible is revealed. Doing this will cause the reader to push their ideas on the skip, If they are afraid of the ocean it will terrify them, If they love the ocean it will intrigue them.

But in the interest of not being vague:

• Sirens, It kinda explains itself. A beautiful creature that compels men to venture into the ocean to their watery grave, doesn't necessarily put the reader through both emotions but rather puts the characters in the story through both simultaneously.
• Mermaids, The concept of a split evolutionary path where human like creatures developed in the ocean could be interesting as an SCP.

Well that was long winded and some of the ideas in the categories that I do not personally align with were difficult to figure out. But there it is.

You're up to bat Greeny

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

(account deleted) 26 Jul 2017 12:17

I've picked those that hit my creativity centres:
Thalassophobia

Your original idea of a deep sea exploration submarine would work fantastic here, although its up to you whether or not you use the Marianas Trench as it is over used and cliche but workable.

Thalassophilia

Marine Biologist, The most unexplored frontier even more so than the Amazon is the ocean. This could be exciting to some making this career path enticing. With marine biology more scientific and technical skips can surface. perhaps the skip is told through the expedition log of a marine biologist team excavating an Arctic cave or deep sea ravine.

Half-Thalassophobic, Half-Thalassophilic

Mermaids, The concept of a split evolutionary path where human like creatures developed in the ocean could be interesting as an SCP.

So here are my thoughts:
What if the submarine was the anomaly, the marine biologist is the narrative, and the mermaids are the hook/plot twist? :3

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

Alfred Hitchcock 26 Jul 2017 13:01

Dear greeny,

I like that idea. The marine biologist and exploration sub fit together no problem. The only potentially "loose" mechanic I see in this is the mermaid. It can very easily come across as a different skip entirely. If this was a tale this would not be a problem and more of a bonus.

Now I know you say it could be the hook/plot twist, so I look forward to seeing your initial thoughts on how to work this in. But in the mean time…

Here are my ideas of how to "believably" fit in the mermaid mechanic:

1) Motive for the biologists exploration and subsequently the creation of an anomalous sub suited to hunting the evasive creature. Perhaps this is a Wondertainment gone Atlantis scenario where we have a marine biologist that somehow created an anomalous sub to hunt/track mermaids. Current research and investigation ongoing as to the validity and whereabouts of said mermaids of course. Now with this I could see a very compelling narrative being portrayed in the form of an expedition journal of the marine biologist. ultimately these journals could end in countless juicy ways such as; going insane, being consumed/dismantled/REDACTED by REDACTED, finding said mermaids and discovering the grim truth, not finding anything or any other option you can think of.

2) Maybe the skip is like another phantom vehicle skip in that it eternally searches the ocean for mermaids and unbeknownst to the trapped (ancient) marine biologist vast amounts of time has passed since their initial departure and containment is just keeping civilian vessels away from the anomaly or diverting the anomaly into Foundation controlled waters. (run-on sentence I know but it conveys the point)

3) the mermaid is somehow a sentient/non-sentient unforeseen SCP-xxxx-1/A/(insert greek letter here) that causes the Foundation problems, confusion, joy?. Perhaps the sub has a ghostly apparition or tangible manifestation as -A or -#.

4) Perhaps the sub is mermaid technology and the marine biologist is actually a mermaid and just an ordinary biologist by mermen standards. The Foundation would primarily be keeping the sub from possibly reaching the surface and causing havoc. Enter conspiracy theories and cover stories, BP Oil Spill O.O. POV could be from a mermaid which would be the main hook of the article. the catalyst for this POV could be anything from aforementioned journals to radio frequency to sonar - most plausible one as translating mer-speak would be hard - to in person encounters.

5) Throw in the fact that the anomaly is a meme/cognitohazard and causes the viewer to perceive all intelligent life, your interpretation of what counts as intelligent can work i.e. monkeys/dolphins, as a mermaid. subjects perceived as mermaids expire after a duration of time unless submerged in water making this cognitohazard/meme affect reality outside of the viewer.

P.S: My personal favorite ideas from collapsible above are 1 and 4.

1 because I'm a sucker for those skips that leave things up to the reader to infer and ultimately make you cause yourself to insert expletive here in your pants.

4 because the idea of the main narrative being told by a mermaid i.e. someone other than a boring clinical Foundation researcher/O5/staff or human being is something that I'm not certain has been done before and most definitely needs to be done more.

EDIT: Bonus points if my Avi makes it as an image of said mermaid in the final draft. ;)

Cheers,

-Hitchcock

Last edited on 26 Jul 2017 13:04 by Alfred Hitchcock Show more

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

(account deleted) 27 Jul 2017 01:15

Whooa this is really goof stuff dude. I will admit, I liked the 1st and 4th ideas and after knowing the you like it too, then I think this could possibly work. Well done. :3

So this is the backbone I'm currently considering:
The Submarine based from the 1st idea will be around the SCProcedures and Description.
The underlying narrative told in some journal or audio log will be about the Marine Biologist in the middle of the 1st and 4th idea.
Then the Ending and Plot Twist is thr entirety of the 4th idea.

What do you think? Personally, this could work. I feel it. Something like,

As the last Mermaid, he/she infiltrated the surface world and the Foundation to revive and search forgotten Mermaid Technology that were lost during the great Mermaid-Bigfoot (SCP-1000) War. He/she used existing SCPs to make the Bythos Submarine so he/she could enter the crevice inside the Marianas Trench, the gateway of Mermaid City. However, he/she found that he/she wasn't thr Last Mermaid, and in fact the whole Mermaid Civilization is a Keter-class SCP contained like SCP-1000.

We could even make a canon about mermaid technology and civilization after this. Omg I'm hyped!

Last edited on 27 Jul 2017 02:03 by (account deleted) Show more

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

Alfred Hitchcock 27 Jul 2017 11:47

Greeny,

We have our first comprehensive idea for this skip with a way to tackle it!!!!!!!

As the last Mermaid, he/she infiltrated the surface world and the Foundation to revive and search forgotten Mermaid Technology that were lost during the great Mermaid-Bigfoot (SCP-1000) War. He/she used existing SCPs to make the Bythos Submarine so he/she could enter the crevice inside the Marianas Trench, the gateway of Mermaid City. However, he/she found that he/she wasn't thr Last Mermaid, and in fact the whole Mermaid Civilization is a Keter-class SCP contained like SCP-1000.

Pure Genius my friend! The only way left to go is up! (to the surface and show those humans what Mer-kind are capable of ;)

We could even make a canon about mermaid technology and civilization after this. Omg I'm hyped!

I'm so down with this although I think we should wait for the success of this article and probably another before we pitch a canon idea. Those seem to take more planning and thought probably better after we have a few SCP/Tales to compile a central story around.

Lets go through the SCP checklist shall we.

SUCCESSFUL SCP CHECKLIST:
SCP: Anomalous submarine created by a marine biologist.
What those anomalous properties are exactly: TBD

Narrative Style: Expedition/Voyage journals and logs
Content of those journals TBD

Hook: The marine biologist is a mermaid opperating a mermaid submarine and the actual SCP is such.
Perhaps this is a clearance required part of the story like SCP's of past series

SCP: Check
Narrative: Check
Hook: CHECK

Looks like we are all set, Lets start Drafting!

P.S: If you would like my help and input during the drafting process I would be more than happy to help see this project through the entire process to the end. Although I do not have the best grammar in the world, I do tend to have decent ideas - which can be seen by our brainstorming session. Also If you decide to fly solo for the draft I would LOVE to review it in drafts and critiques when it is finished so I can give it the +1 I'm confident it will deserve.

The choice is yours.

- Hitchcock Out

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

(account deleted) 27 Jul 2017 12:05

Pure Genius my friend! The only way left to go is up! (to the surface and show those humans what Mer-kind are capable of ;)

Whoa I'm glad you like it! :O this is amazing!

I'm so down with this although I think we should wait for the success of this article and probably another before we pitch a canon idea. Those seem to take more planning and thought probably better after we have a few SCP/Tales to compile a central story around.

Oh, I wasn't entirely serious about it. And I agree. We mustn't invest our minds to such big dreams. XD

Looks like we are all set, Lets start Drafting!

You always do stuff like these? I mean, formally? :3

---

The choice is yours.

And my choice is we do this together. We're pretty much the same: We have ideas but we lack the ability to properly execute it. :3

How about I make a new sandbox that we can edit together? (If that's even legal here :3)

Re: Thalassophobia or thalassophilia?

Alfred Hitchcock 27 Jul 2017 12:13

You always do stuff like these? I mean, formally? :3

If you're referring to brainstorming, no that's not my IRL job. I just really liked this idea.

And my choice is we do this together. We're pretty much the same: We have ideas but we lack the ability to properly execute it. :3

How about I make a new sandbox that we can edit together? (If that's even legal here :3)

This is legal lots of SCP on this site are collaborations between authors. I think you can PM me the link to the sandbox (Staff may get upset about a sandbox link being in Ideas and Brainstorming). I'm unsure if we need to be Wikidot friends or site staff to PM each other.

I can try a test PM to see if it works.

Edit: PM sent.

Last edited on 27 Jul 2017 12:15 by Alfred Hitchcock Show more