Abwesenheit / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Abwesenheit.

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*spooky ghost noises*

The Great Hippo 03 Aug 2019 05:56

Life itself is only a vision. A dream.
Nothing exists, save empty space and you.
And you...

...are but a thought.

—The Mysterious Stranger (Mark Twain)

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My attempt at a pure, classical styled creepy-pasta.

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SOURCES:

• Images from here and here — the image of burning figures is taken from HÄXAN, a Swedish-Danish documentary that is wholly within the public domain (for a glimpse of the scene I took it from, here's a YouTube link).

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CREDIT:

• Tremendous feedback from aismallard (SCP-4447 - Sasha's Super Shuttle Service).
• Lots of help getting the theme up and operational from Rounderhouse (SCP-4149 - Professor Xorkanoff's Gallery of the Bizz-art).
• Parawatch is originally from NatVoltaic's work (SCP-3840 - We Stand On Guard For Thee). Think of them as the Scooby Doo Mystery Van of the SCP universe.

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Last edited on 03 Aug 2019 06:06 by The Great Hippo Show more

Re: *spooky ghost noises*

The Great Hippo 03 Aug 2019 07:06

If anyone wants to write for this, here's some basic things you might want to consider.

Keep in mind, this is entirely my own interpretation (and represents only what I and I alone am trying to do with this). There is no canon, etc etc:

• Think of Parawatch as the Velma Dinkleys of the SCP-verse. They are spooky ghost-nerds who swap creepy camp-fire stories on the internet while remaining utterly oblivious to the Foundation's existence. In short, they are us.
• Seriously, imagine Ghost Hunters. These are the people who clock a hundred hours into studying a "haunted house" on account of once seeing a "spooky face" in a window. If they were ever to meet a Foundation agent, this is how it would go down.
• Think of it as a chance to write classic creepypasta from a POV that doesn't know about the Foundation. My aim here is to reproduce that pre-2000 "I run this website out of my cousin's garage" energy that creepypasta used to have. Think Killswitch. Think Lenentine Cards. Think Dionaea House. Heck, think the wiki's own Manistique Broadcast. In short: Think small. Think low-key. Think subtle. For just one moment, get the reader to wonder: "wait — is this for real?"
• Lore is the enemy. I do not know who these people are — and I do not care to find out. They are a thinly disguised delivery mechanism for creepypastas in the SCP-verse. The less we know about them, the better this works.
• Most importantly: I shouldn't have to know anything about the SCP-verse to enjoy it. That's my primary aim here — to write something in the SCP-verse that is fun and spooky, but doesn't require even a baseline understanding of the SCP-verse to enjoy.

Last edited on 03 Aug 2019 10:58 by The Great Hippo Show more

RJB_R 03 Aug 2019 06:08

This gives me such a strong vibe of staying up all night in middle school binging creepypasta on a school night that I'm not entirely convinced you didn't infiltrate my brain to scoop out those memories. Candle Cove, eat your heart out.

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Whether you like it or not, history is on our side. We will bury you!

NatVoltaic 03 Aug 2019 06:10

Oh hell yes. I was excited when you told me about your plans to do a Parawatch format in the style of those old, eerie early 2000s web forums, and this doesn't disappoint. This is exactly the creepypasta flair the group needs.

Easy +1

ADream 03 Aug 2019 09:40

This is quite good and, as others have said, it really captures that creepypasta feel. The theme aesthetic alone is wonderfully creepy. I would be very interested to see more stuff like this.

Last edited on 03 Aug 2019 09:41 by ADream Show more

MaliceAforethought 03 Aug 2019 10:32

Absolutely superb. I've not been this motivated to try writing something new for a long time :P

Uncle Nicolini 03 Aug 2019 12:51

Though I appreciate the effort in presentation, this is a little tough on the eyes and I had a hard time reading.

The Great Hippo 03 Aug 2019 15:58

What (if anything) would help with that? CSS theme design isn't, admittedly, my strong suit; I'm more than willing to adjust this to better reflect people's needs in readability. My only desire is that it has a black (or mostly dark) background on white (or light) text, and that it reflects an old school "creepy pasta on the internet" aesthetic. ETA: Oh, and preferably a monospace font like Courier — but I'm not utterly married to that idea.

Last edited on 03 Aug 2019 16:08 by The Great Hippo Show more

Uncle Nicolini 03 Aug 2019 16:37

after some deliberation, I have come to the conclusion that it's likely the size of the text. If it were a smiiiidge bigger, I'd probably be a lot happier.

The Great Hippo 03 Aug 2019 17:04

This is definitely something I should be able to do! It might take me a bit to tweak it and get it just right, though (still trying to figure out how fonts work in CSS themes). I'll mess with it later tonight and see if I can't up the size of the font.

rattles 03 Aug 2019 14:48

Oh, yeah. These are definitely ideas worth exploring.

C-Dives 03 Aug 2019 15:55

Wherever Basil Ottinger went, I hope he still has precious films of Hellmuth. +1

I'm completely fascinated with this entire realistic ambience. Seriously.

A Random Day 03 Aug 2019 16:29

I’m not a fan of this. As a creepypasta, it tries to mix the elements and atmosphere of the creepypasta Killswitch and the site’s own SCP-3084, but just ends up being derivative of both.

TheMightyMcB 15 Aug 2019 18:56

I'm finding myself much in the same boat as ARD here, but to a less extreme degree. There are poking and prodding questions all over this piece, but few of them pay off in a satisfying way, and I found myself mostly disinterested to be honest. This one was a novote for me, because while I respect what it's doing and I enjoy this take on the Parawatch, it isn't a very compelling piece of fiction in my opinion.

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