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Not much for me to really say on this one. Got the idea earlier this week, wrote it up, and there you go. If things are not fine, please reach out to someone. You are not alone.
Special thanks to the following for review:
A Random Day,
DrBleep,
Captain Kirby,
Weryllium,
Rounderhouse,
djkaktus
The picture is CC and from the following source.
Glad to see this article has struck enough of a chord with the readership to hit the first vote milestone.
Here's to hitting the next one.
Eh, I think this suffers from 'what if [human behaviour which has many well-documented causes] actually had a supernatural explanation' syndrome. Without adding any twists to the formula it just feels like a PSA.
So I actually put off responding to this one for a bit as I collected some thoughts. Your criticism is fair and if the skip doesn't work for you, it doesn't work. That said, I felt I should address a few things:
'what if [human behaviour which has many well-documented causes] actually had a supernatural explanation' syndrome.
It was not my intention to explain away this phenomenon via this article. If anything, I 'd like to imagine the anomaly happens in tandem with what is observed in real life, which is one of the reasons it's so hard to contain, and why the Foundation is willing to hold people for 6 months to ensure they don't have a false positive when identifying the infected.
Without adding any twists to the formula
Its true I tried to keep the article as grounded in reality as I could. That was part of the point. But there are some twists thrown in to make this clearly anomalous:
SCP-4560 is a memetic infection observed in those who identify as male
The infection uses the very concept of being male as its means of entry into a victim. This means that the second you start identifying as such you are a new potential target. What would that mean for non-binary people, well, there is a tale idea for sure.
Additionally, at this stage of infection, the individual is capable of generating new vectors of SCP-4560. Such vectors have included:
- Notes of encouragement.
- Thank you emails.
- Messages left on voice mail.
This is where things get particularly sticky for the Foundation. Since vectors of SCP-4560 are so easy to produce and spread, things can quickly get out of hand fast. While cases like Robert Hale's are more easy to spot and quite tragic, I imagine the Foundation has a bigger challenge in dealing with people who recognize their infection and continue to carry on as if everything is fine or even more dangerous, people who don't recognize the change to begin with. A particularly panglossian individual could potentially not recognize they suddenly lost the ability to express negative emotions if they never really did so to begin with. That would make them a particularly virulent creator of SCP-4560 vecotrs and could lead to many, many more people becoming infected, all while the Foundation would have no reliable means of tracking them down aside from following the trail of infected as it were.
Currently, all attempts to cure infected individuals have resulted in failure, though the administration of amnestics has been noted to slow the course of infection.
This final breadcrumb shows that whatever this anomaly is, its significantly tied into memory enough that disrupting the formation of them hinders its progress.
Perhaps this is all too little, too late, but I do feel that there is a lot going on here that allows for a break from the formula, as called it. It's just a little subtle.
Long post collapsed. ~Zyn
What would that mean for non-binary people, well, there is a tale idea for sure.
Someone, who switches gender at will uses the inability to be male and appear sad while working as a counsellor. Infects hundreds and believes this to be a success.
After transitioning, (now) she becomes a vector for females being unable to express happiness.
(Forgot the word for no gender. Agender?) becomes unable to express an opinion that is not the ultimate positive or negative.
TFW your skip can be summarized by a Simpsons gif.
You got me, AH.
This reminds me of that "Hide-the-Pain Harold" meme but turned into an SCP.
That collapsible hit harder than expected. This was closer to reality than most SCPs, but just far enough to make it bearable.
Not all horror need be Lovecraftian monsters. Sometimes it is the things we can imagine happening in real life, or even do happen in real life, that can be just as effective.
Glad you liked the skip, and found the final collapsible powerful.
I like it, it's well written, but I think we already have depression as a skip, or at least something similar in theme.
Though this one is definitely a bit more potent and hard-hitting, I'm going to give this one a +1
Thanks for the upvote. Glad you found it to be potent.
With respect to your comment on this being similar to other skips, I don't doubt it. Depression and mental health issues have been common themes in tales and articles across the site's history and Ihp's SCP-3020 is one of the more notable examples of this.
I'd argue that classifying this as Depression: The SCP Article is a bit of missing the forest for the trees, as ultimately this is not an article about depression as much as it is about a kind of toxic stoicism.
SCP-4560 infected individuals observed in private appear to retain the ability to express negative emotions to themselves, though unable to record these feelings through written or verbal means.
This really struck a chord with me. I get overwhelmed from time to time and I often turn to writing to just get all those confusing and distracting thoughts out of my head. I can't imagine what it would be like to not be able to do that, and that sort of thought stuck with me after I read the article.
Also, nice call on keeping the last note in a collapsible. Even though it's short enough to not really need it, I think it's a good move because it makes the reader open up that last bit to finish the story. The message itself gave me chills. Great way to end the piece.
Nicely done, Conwell!
Also, nice call on keeping the last note in a collapsible. Even though it's short enough to not really need it, I think it's a good move because it makes the reader open up that last bit to finish the story. The message itself gave me chills. Great way to end the piece.
Never let it be said that "note at the end" can't be done in this era of SCP articles. You just have to do it well. And make sure it packs a wallop.
Thank you for the kind words, Zyn. Glad you enjoyed the skip.
I'm not feeling this one. Sorry.
Trying to wrap my head around it to see if I am missing anything.
A slow-spreading meme SCP (as opposed to an SCP which is anomalous via memes) makes men gradually lose the ability to communicate negative emotions. Similar to a disease.
Multiple squads sent out to catch the infected agreeable dudes.
One killed himself for some reason. His suicide note was tainted by the meme.
I think there's good material here, but I don't feel like it's been fleshed out enough.
Hey there!
First off, thanks for the feedback. It's always appreciated.
Your summary above seems to kind of scratch the surface of the skip but misses some of the depth in the process. A few clarifications:
A slow-spreading meme SCP (as opposed to an SCP which is anomalous via memes) makes men gradually lose the ability to communicate negative emotions.
SCP-4560 is a memetic infection observed in those who identify as male, ages 15 to 45, preventing them from publically expressing negative aspects of their life to others through written, verbal or somatic means.
As SCP-4560 enters late-stage infection, individuals not only are fully incapable of public acknowledgment of negative events or emotions occurring to themselves, but also those which occur to others.
SCP-4560 is more of a memetic virus, which causes anyone identifying as male from expressing negative emotions about themselves, but also others in negative stages. It's far too narrow a view to simply say "makes men gradually lose the ability to communicate negative emotions" as that misses the actual target population, as well as the scope of the infection.
Multiple squads sent out to catch the infected agreeable dudes.
If this is in reference to the following:
SCP-4560 was originally discovered by Foundation operatives in June 2005, following an outbreak in Portland, Oregon. Through the combined efforts of MTFs Beta-7 ("Maz Hatters"), Gamma-5 ("Red Herrings"), and Pi-1 ("City Slickers"), all infected individuals were contained and the believed Patient Zero identified as one Robert Hale.
Then you're only referring to the initial containment, which was a massive containment effort by the Foundation requiring specialists in hazardous materials, dealing with anomalies in an urban environment, and covering up said efforts. Per the actual containment procedures, the actual day to day containment of SCP-4560 is a little less extravagant.
One killed himself for some reason. His suicide note was tainted by the meme.
The one who killed himself was Patient Zero, which is a rather significant person with respect to the epidemiological study of disease outbreaks. As for why he killed himself, well:
Robert Hale was discovered dead within his apartment on June 28th, 2005, following suicide via hanging. Interviews with family and friends describe Hale as having dropped out of graduate school in January following a series of academic failures, and financial troubles. Hale's suicide note was identified as an SCP-4560 vector.
Having massive failures and troubles in one's life, and then not only being able to discuss, vent, or acknowledge them in the presence of anyone else, aka seek help, wears people down. Saying that he simply "killed himself for some reason" kind of overlooks the content of that entire paragraph.
If there is not enough here for you, that's fine. No problems, and thanks for the read. However, I can't help but feel you may have missed the trick here.
Thanks for breaking it down for me. You're right , I was missing the trick. I still am, but less so now.
If you haven't already heard enough from me, here's a few more of my thoughts:
I get it now. Upon first read, I didn't get the impression that containing the initial outbreak was a big deal, nor that those infected were particularly dangerous or contagious. So I initially thought having three squads felt like overkill.
The phrase "identifying as male" and the idea that the SCP only affects men (stereotypically more emotionally repressed) makes me think of toxic masculinity. That military mindset of never complaining or showing weakness. I might be reaching, though.
It didn't even occur to me about his problems being pent up. That makes sense. An SCP that is the opposite of a therapist.
I felt like I really wanted to see more examples, or an overview of, the infection at various stages. This could also have the added benefit of being more obvious as to why patient zero was driven to suicide in the first place (for those of us who maybe didn't pick up on that cough)
Thanks for clearing it up. I'll go from -1 to neutral vote, since I better understand things now.
The phrase "identifying as male" and the idea that the SCP only affects men (stereotypically more emotionally repressed) makes me think of toxic masculinity. That military mindset of never complaining or showing weakness. I might be reaching, though.
We have a winner.
Glad the previous discussion clarified things for you.
With respect to the stages of infection, I appreciate the desire to know more and want examples. To blunt, this was written during a period where I was seeking brevity in my writing, with the goal to have a quick set up, and then leave a brutal final punch with Hale's note. I can't someone for wanting to know more.
