Dr. Eates's Proposal / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Dr. Eates's Proposal.

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Author Post

ManyMeats 26 Mar 2021 20:01

SCP-001: A Test of Character
Life holds no shortage of critics, haters, blind supporters, and every shade of thing in between. It is very easy to lose yourself in the ocean of opinions and give in to the emotions and group identities that can rob you of your Self. As every author, every person, lives the struggle to find out who they are and what type of person they will be I pray that each and every one of you reading this will find the space and patience to define that future authentically.

Thank you for all of your readership in the three years I have been posting my works to the wiki. I have so much more I want to share and I only now feel as if I have learned how to skitter between the legs of these literary giants that I am privileged to share the space with.

A special alphabetically sorted thank you to users Calibri Bold, Dysadron, LordStonefish, Marcelles_Raynes, plaidypus, Quadraginta who all provided several rounds of critical feedback on these drafts and helped me realize a much more rounded final product. An additional and special thanks to MalyceGraves for their help in brainstorming and critting for the long game over the many months it took me to arrive to this destination. And perhaps most importantly, 'keeping it real' with me as I explored this journey.

I would also issue a different sort of thank you to A Random Day and Captain Kirby for their frank and critical feedback on earlier versions of this proposal that guided me to a new direction for this piece. Your efforts exemplify the spirit of critical peer review which makes this wiki work. Thank you.

LITERARY ATTRIBUTIONS

The quote, "Church is a hospital for sinners", is attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo, John Chrysostom, and Abigail Van Buren, among others.

The quote "They shall beat their swords to plowshares" is Biblical, Isaiah 2:3-4

Administrator Oleander's paraphrase about looking glasses and mirrors from his epistolary is derivative of a Biblical quote, 1 Corinthians 13:12

If you're confused after reading, maybe this'll help.

Spoilers if you're confused

Reminder that all my answers are strictly the context of my own work.

The O5s dont exist in the flesh and blood sense; there is no tangible O5-1 you could go talk to or have a real, truly two-sided conversation with. What they are instead is representative of high degrees of order and of group-think. Repeated entries refer to the O5s expressing doubt and being swayed by reaction. A force of nature, almost. Strictly defining "what" that means isn't the goal of this piece beyond to establish the 001 is inhuman and ultimately a secondary force.

The other half of this The Administrator, and that "office" is the main character of this piece. The Administrator is the individual. The tight, explicit will of a single mind with power who can do what they want, but are constantly constrained and buffeted by external/exterior opinions.

The 15 people that are selected at random to vote must cast their ballot in order to access the O5 Council. This represents the option to "Decide" to give up control, which intrinsically requires consent. The goal with the end of the piece was to establish that the 001, the O5 Council, has been tamed and put in check by a competent and capable administrator who respects the opinions of experts, who governs fairly but doesn't lose their mission or their Self to pressure.

The voting system exists should the next person be too weak to follow in the footsteps of the final named Admin, Michelle Wilkes. A final test of character knowing that, if you can't get the job done, you can always give up control to the group.

Hope this helps.

Last edited on 21 Apr 2021 22:33 by ManyMeats Show more

Re: Author Post

MalyceGraves 27 Mar 2021 04:12

Damn fine 001, Meats. Damn fine.

+1

voidlocke 26 Mar 2021 20:56

Woah. +1

Marcelles_Raynes 26 Mar 2021 21:40

Reserved
Good lord, this was only supposed to be reserved for like, ten minutes. I must have forgotten to come back and finish writing the comment!

I was going to say that I love how threatening the O5 Council is portrayed here! it is implied that they are well and fully capable of getting rid of the current administrator if they really wanted to, but Wilkes is not having any of that shit and pushes back. The interaction between Wilkes and the Council is, in my opinion, one of the highlights of this particular 001.

---

~ M.D.R.

Last edited on 07 Apr 2021 11:43 by Marcelles_Raynes Show more

notgull 26 Mar 2021 23:56

Why do you "reserve" a comment like this? Why not just post whenever you have the time? This isn’t the crit forums, what do you gain by doing this?

JakdragonX 26 Mar 2021 22:06

This was a fun read. I was admittedly confused at the beginning, but the notes between Administrators really lead me nicely, even though I had no surrounding context for the events they described. I was steadily engaged throughout the process.

+1

Last edited on 27 Mar 2021 22:18 by JakdragonX Show more

Grigori Karpin 27 Mar 2021 00:40

I think what is most remarkable about this is that the article is merely a series of administrative documents and communications… and yet you maintained my interest throughout.

Also, I wanna applaud the decision not to fully explain whatever or whoever the O5 Council is, or whatever the anomaly really is… I think this was a masterful stroke, maintaining the sense of mystery and growing unease with each new addendum.

Terrific work +1

Croquembouche 27 Mar 2021 06:15

The writing quality here is excellent - I feel that everything was written by someone who knows their stuff but is not trying to prove anything by overcomplicating things. It was all accessible and sensible, with touches of humour here and there. I felt like this really was written by a Foundation.

The repeated sequence of letter and then incident is a nice swing to fall into, and I felt that the ebb and flow of the pacing was nice. But I would've liked for some of the sections to be more clearly explained - I had read the first few paragraphs of the incident involving the dam a few times, trying to work out why it was being mentioned, before giving up and moving on. We find out later, but it's not forecasted up front.

However, I'm going to disagree with Grigori above. I felt that the whole article was building towards the reveal of what the council is or isn't. I was expecting that it would answer the question "are they 001 as described, or are they just a bunch of backwards-thinking annoyances a future administrator decided to smear?". The article is aware of that question the whole time, always teasing it, and then…

+ contains spoilers

…it would be wrong to say that it forgets about it, but it does sweep it under the rug while staring you in the eyes. The council buckles easily at the first signs of any real confrontation - even though it's just an email chain - and then doesn't respond at all. I would've loved to see what they would have done to get the one-up on Wilkes - the stories of oppression and fearmongering throughout the article really set the tone for an excellent conflict when you drop an assertive character into that context, but it's not explored to its fullest.

And then there's the jump from the resolution at the end of the article (the council is suspended) to the situation as presented at the start of the article (the council is anomalous and the location of Area-00 is fiercely safeguarded), which is entirely unexplained.

The correspondence from the council becomes decreasingly intelligible, to the point of feeling random towards the end, and Wilkes' responses feel like they rebuke it in tone but even she doesn't appear to notice that the messages don't make sense and are even addressed to the wrong people?

I thought the final message from the council was a "well done, you passed the test, come join us", but there's nothing to indicate that this is the case (with Wilkes penning a message from the administrator position ~20 years later) and that message from the council never goes acknowledged. It's almost the spooky-note-at-the-end cliché except it's not at the end and I don't know what it's trying to say.

Wilkes' responses are definitely refreshing given that the typical response would be for her to give in to an unseen-to-the-reader infohazard - although she does appear to do this in one message, which I found inconsistent.

It may have your intent to leave these questions unanswered but to me the article just feels incomplete, like these points were forgotten. The opening hook in particular really needs to be justified, personally - right now it feels like it and the rest of the article have evolved separately from each other.

ManyMeats 27 Mar 2021 14:56

First, thank you for taking the time to read and leave me feedback. It warms my heart to have engagement on my works no matter the direction the feedback takes. You taking the time to digest and respond make the wiki go! Thank you.

I feel that everything was written by someone who knows their stuff but is not trying to prove anything by overcomplicating things.

This means a ton to me coming from you, thank you. I'll respond to some of the rest in collapsible here to preserve anything approaching spoilers.

Meat returns

We find out later, but it's not forecasted up front.

This was deliberate on my part. It was intended as an innocuous but concrete event to frame the current dynamic.

The council buckles easily at the first signs of any real confrontation - even though it's just an email chain - and then doesn't respond at all.

This is because the O5 Council doesn't actually have an intrinsic motivation. The Administrator is the character, and the O5/001 is an obstacle. You could certainly that, regardless, "it" should have pushed back harder and longer.

And then there's the jump from the resolution at the end of the article to the situation as presented at the start of the article, which is entirely unexplained.

Very fair criticism. I have added one line to the final letter that, while it doesn't fix a lot, I feel does add a call back to encourage a little more of a full-circle.

I thought the final message from the council was a "well done, you passed the test, come join us"

This is very close to what was intended, just strike the last clause.

although she does appear to do this in one message, which I found inconsistent.

Thank you for pointing this out, I will consider it further.

Last edited on 27 Mar 2021 15:17 by ManyMeats Show more

Lonely_trickstr 27 Mar 2021 21:22

I like how this is simple compared to other 001s yet is well written 1+

A Random Day 29 Mar 2021 02:35

I'm very fond of the depiction of the Overseer Council — their dialogue is similar to the Board from Control in the best way.

WhiteGuard 29 Mar 2021 07:04

This is exactly what I thought as well. Even if this 001 isn't one of my top ones personally, it is definitely one of the best written ones with neat little things like this all over the proposal.

(account deleted) 29 Mar 2021 13:20

Staff notice: this user has been permanently banned for sockpuppeting and ban evasion.

Last edited on 01 Apr 2021 06:40 by Zyn Show more

GojiCrafter 31 Mar 2021 17:17

Maybe I missed something, but after rereading this I still don't see how all of the specific actions taken by the O5's in other articles can still make sense. Regardless of that, this is a great article and an easy +1

ManyMeats 31 Mar 2021 18:17

Hey I appreciate your feedback!

This article definitely impacts the way the O5 Council would be perceived in any other light, particularly other 001s. I think that the way I have constructed this, however, so long as any given SCP is not talking about a specific member of the O5 as a named character, that my proposal can still be "True" and "canon" or whatever name you want to give the idea.

As core a role as the O5's take in this piece, it is primarily about the role of Administrator as the main character.

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