Unknown Caller

Summary:

A call is made to 911 concerning a motor vehicle accident involving a pedestrian before it even happens.

Unknown Caller

restlessPraxivist 06 Apr 2021 21:25

[+] 1st Draft of Idea (April 6th, 2021)

Seeking Greenlights: Yes.

Page Type: SCP Article.

Genre (Optional): Modern Intrigue(?).

Page Layout (Optional): Standard (Item #, Object Class, Containment Procedures, Description, Addendums, etc.)

Elevator Pitch:

• Roughly 240m calls made to 911 yearly;
• 5,700+ Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) and their hundreds of thousands of employees - call takers and dispatchers - field these calls to send help to those in need;
• Tiny yet noticeable and slowly-growing number of incidents where calls are made reporting (typically) life threatening incidents before they happen;
• Time between call and incident is random, anywhere from less than a minute to several weeks;
• Despite collaborative efforts made by first responders and telecommunications network companies, no success at pinning any sort of identity - number, name, address, etc. - to caller(s);
• Events are isolated with no set pattern outside of only occurring before (typically) life threatening events as stated above.

Central Narrative: This starts as a simple and seemingly inconsequential story on intrigue centered around modern emergency services technology; however it could easily branch out and touch on subjects such as time travel, future sight, interaction with whatever exists beyond the grave, etc. There are no larger 'story beats' as I want to start this off simply as documentation of something strange going on.

Tales that come out of these small events being documented that remain relatively small could definitely come out of this. How this anomaly interacts with those on the edge of suicidal thoughts, or those being careless after a night out at the pub, would be interesting to jot down; as well as those of the first responders who handle these calls.

Hook/Attention-Grabber: From a cursory search on the site it seems to me that this would currently be the only anomaly of its type - that being a life saving(?) unknown caller or group of unknown callers that tip off emergency services to mundanely terrible events before their occurrence.

Uniqueness =/= quality, I understand this; however as stated above I see it as a jumping off board to further stories that revolve around something like time travel, future premonitions, etc. I'm unsure on this for now.

Additional Notes: My main concern is the central narrative. I understand that very few ideas are greenlit without one and obviously this concept is in some sort of pre-alpha so it's most likely very terrible; however I adore the core of it and would love to be able to work something out that, when consumed, doesn't grate down your brain into little flecks out of frustration or boredom.

Open to all constructive feedback =)

no uncollapsed images in the forums please ~Riemann
Understood o7 -Praxivist

[+] 2nd Draft of Idea (April 7th, 2021)

Seeking Greenlights: Yes.

Page Type: SCP Article.

Genre (Optional): Modern Intrigue, Psychological Thriller, Emotional

Page Layout (Optional): Standard (Item #, Object Class, Containment Procedures, Description, Addenda, etc.)

Elevator Pitch:

• Calls made to 911 reporting (typically) life threatening incidents before they happen;
• Time between call and incident is random;
• No success at pinning any sort of identity to caller(s) by non-Foundation institutions.

Central Narrative: The call centers that have been affected by the anomaly have caught on slightly to the trend, utilizing evidence-based care as a justification to take the calls more seriously than they would normally. This has afforded them to noticeably mitigate injuries and the loss of life in instances where the time between the call and the scenario reported is anywhere above four (4) to eight (8) minutes.

Thanks to the efforts of Mobile Task Force Iota-10, the Foundation has been alerted to the existence of SCP-XXXX. Efforts are underway to analyze evidence from and surrounding these calls so that the source of them may be located and contained. In the process they may be able to harness the information in the event that Foundation property and/or personnel are at-risk of any tragedy.

Containment would fall under the Safe classification. Without getting into spoilers before my actual article draft, the procedures would involve simple undercover work by at least two if not a few MTFs working in-tandem and easy-to-acquire and maintain electronics.

Hook/Attention-Grabber: A cursory search across the site reveals that this may be the first SCP of its sort in reference to unknown callers and emergency service communications. Beyond being a unique idea, it allows for the exploration of some pretty heavy emotions - grief, fear, hopelessness, and so on. These would be fleshed out in the article's addenda.

Additional Notes: N/A

Open to all constructive feedback =)

Shoutout to:
* penguinpyro
* Voct
for significant contributions to the process so-far.

As a courtesy to our readers on mobile devices, please collapse long posts. ~Zyn
Shit! You're right, I didn't even consider that. My b. -Praxivist

[+] Noting CC Image(s) For Future Use On Draft

https://www.flickr.com/photos/icma/3595505518/in/album-72157619154165235/

vv 3rd Draft of Idea (April 10th, 2021) vv

Seeking Greenlights: Yes.

Page Type: SCP Article.

Genre (Optional): Modern Intrigue, Psychological Thriller, Emotional

Page Layout (Optional): Standard (Item #, Object Class, Containment Procedures, Description, Addenda, etc.)

Elevator Pitch:

• Calls made to 911 reporting (typically) life threatening incidents before they happen;
• Time between call and incident is random;
• No success at pinning any sort of identity to caller(s) by non-Foundation institutions.

[+] Central Narrative:

Call centers that have been affected by the anomaly have caught on slightly to the trend, utilizing evidence-based care as a justification to take the calls more seriously than they would normally. This has afforded them to noticeably mitigate injuries and the loss of life in instances where the time between the call and the scenario reported is anywhere above four to eight minutes.

Thanks to the efforts of Mobile Task Force Iota-10 ('Damn Feds') the Foundation has been alerted to the existence of SCP-XXXX. With the calls' rough locations and the noticeable trend of calls only ever being made for medical and fire emergencies, researchers are able to grasp at a potential theory - that the anomaly is tied to the past residencies of landmark figures within the field of emergency medicine.

Working in-tandem with Mobile Task Force Psi-7 ('Home Improvement'), personnel are able to secure and investigate domiciles in several locations around the continental United States. Categorized as Safe, procedures require undercover agents and short-range radio signal jammers.

While instances of SCP-XXXX are being monitored by the above-mentioned skeleton crew one of the many personnel assigned analyzes a call that seemingly regards themselves and their suicide (Voct). Normally passed onto the Damn Feds so they may disseminate information to their agents' respective agencies, the researcher opts to keep the occurrence of the instance to themselves. We only learn of this later thanks to a handful of personal writing left by the individual after their unfortunate fate plays out.

Investigations would be had into the a city's chief of police and their nosiness into the anomaly, stringing along the reader through under-the-table communiques that were had between the chief, her staff, and a trusted detective (Amadeus Avalon). This would be not as-focused on as the storyline above and would be shorter in length; as it would end rather abruptly for its participants due to the Foundation's awareness.

Hook/Attention-Grabber: Despite superficial similarity with SCP-2137, this would be a near first of its kind. Beyond uniqueness it allows for the exploration of grief, fear, hopelessness, and so on. These would be fleshed out in the article's addenda as described above.

Additional Notes: N/A

Open to all constructive feedback =)

Shoutout to:
* Amadeus Avalon
* cybersqyd
* penguinpyro
* Voct
for significant contributions to the process so-far.

Last edited on 10 Apr 2021 14:38 by restlessPraxivist Show more

Re: Unknown Caller

Amadeus Avalon 07 Apr 2021 00:23

From what I'm getting this is the idea of random calls coming into Emergency Response Centers, leading first responders to help them when they otherwise would not have due to the lack of a call.

This sounds really cool to me and I can't seem to think of another article like this except for maybe 4999 in a weird way. I do believe you are right to be worried about the lack of a central narrative, if you could somehow make a progressing story out of this(maybe like a detective tracking the calls and trying to get answers or something) instead of unrelated one off's it could be much stronger.

This could really be an interesting SCP and I hope this helps!

Re: Unknown Caller

darkwolf218 07 Apr 2021 07:17

Overall, this is a really interesting idea. It seems to actually be completely unique, which is rare for SCPs this far in.

I really like the concept that whatever entity (possibly a time traveler, psychic, or reality bender) is doing this is both so powerful that the Foundation can't track them and benevolent enough to use their power to help save lives.

A couple of things: 1) It seems disjointed. It took me a couple of tries to piece everything together. I know this is just the equivalent of a prewrite, but it's something to watch for in the actual article.
2) One of the key interesting parts of articles is the anomalous aspects. I can tell you have the idea of what it is going to be, but maybe a little more about the identity (or lack thereof) of the caller, as well as specific incident logs giving examples of some of the calls; that would invest readers a little more.

Re: Unknown Caller

restlessPraxivist 07 Apr 2021 07:23

Apologies! What about it seemed incomprehensive to you?

I already know who the caller(s) will be and plan to drop hints here and there. I will definitely be adding incident logs as a part of the addenda.

Ideally I can create some convincing fake 911 calls utilizing the little experience I have in the field to make the article feel more complete.

Staff Post

Riemann 06 Apr 2021 22:34

Hey restlessPraxivist - I moved and trimmed your thread summary, since it was taking up extra space in the main forum screen. Try to keep thread descriptions (the text in the little box under the thread title) and titles short so you don't crowd out other authors in the forum listing. I also collapsed the image, but I think you noticed that! ~Riemann

Re: Staff Post

restlessPraxivist 06 Apr 2021 22:38

Just saw the edited summary before reading this. Sorry about that!

Re: Unknown Caller

penguinpyro 07 Apr 2021 00:19

Restless praxivist, your elevator pitch is a bit too long for an elevator pitch. Trim it down. The underlines are also unnecessary since half the text is underlined, so the emphasis is lost.

Simply put, you need a connecting narrative. Is there something connecting these events besides being before a life-threatening event? Is there larger significance that makes this of interest to the average person? Because as currently written, this is basically a series of entries in the "Anomalous events" folder, not an SCP entry. You need a bigger picture here, this is definitely not a complete idea at the moment. In addition, even if you don't explain the SCP's origin, there should at least be enough hints to allow people to speculate who or what is doing this, and why.

What's the emotional torque here? Why do I care about this happening to people? If you dryly document these as is, it's a simply curiosity. I want to know how people are affected, and get close to their situation.

There's no thought given to containment or Foundation reaction, and the Foundation will try to contain literally *anything* it can, up to and including God. An SCP entry is not complete without a well-thought-out Foundation response.

TL;DR you really need to flesh this out.

---

Writing for the long-neglected GOC Casefiles canon.

Last edited on 07 Apr 2021 01:43 by penguinpyro Show more

Re: Unknown Caller

Doctor Garnet 07 Apr 2021 19:03

This is a really neat idea. There is a similar SCP, SCP-2137, but that one is more gimmicky (it's Tupac's ghost that informs the foundation through song, and then the foundation informs law enforcement). I suggest reading 2137 and then taking deliberate steps to differentiate yourself.

Re: Unknown Caller

restlessPraxivist 07 Apr 2021 21:16

Thank you!

Re: Unknown Caller

cybersqyd 08 Apr 2021 10:33

[+] Open for crit

Without getting into spoilers before my actual article draft

As a note, you are uh, going to have to give spoilers here btw: no-one can tell you if the idea for your article is good if they don't have a complete picture of what you're trying to do.

Which brings me onto my big concern: the anomaly is interesting but it doesn't really feel like you're doing very much with it to keep my interest. Like, most of your narrative seems to be about the Foundation investigating these calls but I don't really know where that investigation goes or what it discovers; and I don't really have an idea of how you're intending making the investigation fun to read: it kinda feels a lot like you might just end up spending a bunch of time expositing about the SCP without really, going anywhere.

Later you mention:

Beyond being a unique idea, it allows for the exploration of some pretty heavy emotions - grief, fear, hopelessness, and so on. These would be fleshed out in the article's addenda.

Which like, great, exploring stuff like this in an article is good but how are you exploring them? How are you doing a narrative arc around these things?

Re: Unknown Caller

restlessPraxivist 10 Apr 2021 03:05

I appreciate this! I'll get started on a third draft of this post =)

Re: Unknown Caller

fairydoctor 10 Apr 2021 06:14

I spoke with restlessPraxivist in IRC about their piece. They've done a lot of research, clearly have listened to what the other critters have said and adjusted their piece accordingly. They have been able to concisely tell me what their narrative is (copied from chat):

Paranormal entities give hints as to medical, fire emergencies before they occur. Tasked to investigate this phenomena, one researcher soon discovers a call is made about their eventual demise; they begin to seriously question themselves as to how they can stop it, if they can stop it, and if they should stop it.

After speaking with restlessPraxivist in IRC about all of this, I'm going to give them a Greenlight.

Re: Unknown Caller

Grigori Karpin 16 Apr 2021 02:06

Call centers that have been affected by the anomaly have caught on slightly to the trend, utilizing evidence-based care as a justification to take the calls more seriously than they would normally.

How exactly does this work? Not the calls but the call centers using them? Like how could they be told apart from normal emergency calls to 911 and once they were determined to be this phenomenon, how could the call centers use the information?

After they've sent out first responders and there is no incident, how could they justify doing it again? Additionally, first responders are not in the business of preventing damage/harm but mitigating it after the fact… so let's say they get a call of a horrible injury and they send out EMTs, but when the EMTs get there the injury hasn't happened yet… how do medical workers prevent the harm?

Re: Unknown Caller

restlessPraxivist 19 Apr 2021 03:26

How exactly does this work? Not the calls but the call centers using them? Like how could they be told apart from normal emergency calls to 911 and once they were determined to be this phenomenon, how could the call centers use the information?

The anomalies are tied to specific geographic locations and the centers that handle them. Each anomaly always makes calls from around a cellular tower specific to it alone and all instances have certain signs that give it away to someone with adequate experience with them - such as certain verbal ticks, the way a sentence is structured, their voices, etc. From my experience in 911 many of my co-workers would tell me that they were very familiar with frequent callers' voices and numbers, so this isn't a far reach from that.

After they've sent out first responders and there is no incident, how could they justify doing it again? Additionally, first responders are not in the business of preventing damage/harm but mitigating it after the fact… so let's say they get a call of a horrible injury and they send out EMTs, but when the EMTs get there the injury hasn't happened yet… how do medical workers prevent the harm?

You are correct that at the beginning of recognizing a pattern these centers wouldn't comprehend its time aspect. This results in them sending out fire and/or medical but getting frustrated since obviously a decent number of these reports could be made unknowingly hours, days, or weeks ahead of time. The reports still occur exactly as described, so over a potentially frustratingly long period of time departments begin to pick up on all of this and - if they arrive on-scene with nothing to tend to - they will cooperate with the area's law enforcement to shift an additional unit or two for reinforced patrol efforts at the locations indicated in the calls. Law enforcement, while not specializing in emergency medicine or fire rescue, are still given very basic training on how to tend to those needing emergency medical attention; and since law enforcement typically isn't confined to a station and is already on the road it isn't as if there's a huge disruption in how they go about their procedures as a department.

Once the event occurs the officers simply relay it to dispatch to get the proper resources on-scene.