Figure I should just update this comment as I keep stringing together random theories about this piece, since making a new comment each time would be obnoxious.
First thing, I'm pretty deeply convinced that the doll and Cindel Shields are effectively the same person. Although that's probably not a huge surprise.
I am also pretty convinced the thing in the video is the FALSE BEAST from the exploration log.
Finally, with the addition of the new image to the video game timeline, I think that SCP-5000-A is the prodigy, SCP-5000-B is the priest, and SCP-5000-C is the king. Unfortunately I'm not sure about their relationship to the rest of the skip, or the symbolism behind the Sword, Jewel and Mirror.
Ok, so we also see that each of the sections is prepared by a different character associated with a pataphysics article. We have, in order:
Swann, who is known for the "god is a bunch of horror writers" and "we'll kill the readers with cognito hazards" 001 being the author of the containment procedures, which involves gathering "witnesses" and burning them. Possibly related to the 001 idea of killing the readers, we the readers may be the witnesses. In this case I eagerly await incineration because it is cold as balls in my room.
Next we have Talloran, whose section is dedicated to the rape and murder of Jacqueline Holcroft. If there was any particular reasoning for this pairing I'd have to say maybe some sort analogy between SCP-3999's treatment of Talloran and what happened to Holcroft? Although I personally believe that a stretch.
Following that we have Dr. Panagiotopolous, who is the director of the OG pataphysics department from Rimple's author page. No strong idea why this character was chosen for this segment.
Then we have the exorcism of Agent Grace created by another member of the OG pataphysics department, agent Sullivan. Sullivan is able to sneak their way into narratives, and possibly alter them, so it's possible that Agent Grace's possession was not intended to happen, so Sullivan had to sneak into to "fix it" by becoming Doctor Macneil. Although this sort of is dependent on a theory I'll present later.
Next is the "Prodigy, Priest, King" game prepared by Researcher Smalls. Researcher Smalls is known for being deleted from the SCP-verse and attempted to seek refuge in the forums, which may be connected to the fact that a lot of what we hear about the game is through an online forum.
After that we have the Doll Interview prepared by I.H. Pickman. I don't have any particularly strong working theories about this pairing, but then I again I don't remember ihp's proposal super well.
Lastly, we have Dr. Menard. I don't have a super strong theory about why Menard was chosen for this last section either.
But one thing that I want to draw attention to is that… there's no one who prepared the last section. In fact, if you go into the files, and look at the name of the video, it's called "Freedom".
Now let's take a step back. Consider some of the things noticed so far. There was mention of "containment of SCP-5000" in the edit history. Someone pointed out up thread that the images and mentions of candles through are similar to a parlor game called "A Gathering of One Hundred Supernatural Tales". I'd further like to point out that, while each of the chapters is very well written and executed, each one is focussed around a traditional either SCP-horror "cliche" or a classical creepypasta content.
Finally, I'd like to look at the chain.
If you look at the mentions of the chains… at first they're described as taut. They're holding something back. But then they're weakening, and by the end they're broken, and useless. The chains can't do anything more.
You know, in that parlor game, it's really just a way to make telling scary stories even scarier. You start with 100 candles, and you put them in a room. Then each person playing tells a scary story, and then goes into the next room and puts out one of the candles, and then they come back. You keep going until either everyone chickens out, or you extinguish all of the candles, creating a place for the evocation of spirits. According to wikipedia, most games end at 99.
But in that last image… there are no candles left.
You know how in SCPs there's thing that tell you "DONT READ THIS" but really you're supposed to read it because like, that's the point of the story?
I think the point of this story is… we really weren't supposed to read these. They're designed to be scary as to discourage the witnesses from finishing. Because you see, when we ran out of stories, we were finally told to read on, except for the candle picture. Which told us to stop.
We extinguished the last candle, and released the anomaly.
But is that all?
Of fucking course not.
Because you see… shaggy did one of the oldest tricks in the "hide shit in my SCP" book. There's hidden text throughout the whole damn thing. Most of it is chapter titles which, while important, I think mostly just relate to the section they're about? The chapters are, in order:
- "Manor House"
- "You Complete Me"
- "When the Man Comes Around"
- "The Exorcism of Savannah Grace"
- "Digital Ash in a Digital Urn"
- "Plaything"
- "Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark"
If this was all the white text, I wouldn't feel like I've missed something as much. But no. THERES MORE.
In the last entry of the Recorded Evidence collapsible, along the side of all of the repeated bullets about the 100 candles, there is a question laid out for us in hidden text:
"What could have happened to the bodies?"
And like… there's apparently been 7 participants according to another part of the entry… and only the clothes of 6 of them were found… and the mention of Holcroft's bones implies that this might have been the scene of the crime for Holcroft's rape and murder… except if I'm going by my previous theory that rape and murder were made up by Swann as part of the containment of this article… so the perpetrators and Holcroft herself are fictional… BUT THEN WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY WHAT HAPPENED TO THEIR BODIES???
slams head into desk
And that's where my conspiracy theory ends for tonight.
It is almost 3AM
Goddamn it shaggy.
(account deleted)
