SCP-2559 / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-2559.

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Rimple 09 Oct 2016 20:02

Hey there, thanks for reading! This is my first article for the site, hopefully the first of many (or, like, at least five). I realised last month that it was almost a year since I joined, so I decided to get off my ass and put together my endless scribbled drafts and notes into one proper article.

If you've finished this and are confused about the ending (or any of the rest of it), that's ok. If people seem to want it, I'll put out an explanation in a few weeks, but if you enjoyed it that's all that counts. Of course, if you didn't enjoy it, let me know. There's a solid chance I'll build upon this some other day with a linked tale or skip, but obviously the article should stand on its own two feet.

My friend Omino made this excellent MTF seal for Upsilon-4, but over the course of changes and edits I couldn't figure out a place to stick it in the article itself. Ah well. It'll probably come in handy later.

I'd like to thank...

Big thanks to Aiden Eldritch, minmin and TheShrike for looking at this in its crappy unfinished state, particularly Shrikey for talking to me for actual damn hours before I got around to looking at their draft.

Thanks to everyone who read it and gave me feedback in main chats - I'm sorry, I'm terrible with names and there were a number of you, but you were indeed helpful even if you just gave a thumbs up.

A wholly unironic thanks to Randomini and Jekeled who looked at this, found it lacking, and talked at length about how I could make it better by, for instance, turning it into a tale or series of tales. The fact that I entirely ignored your advice does not mean it wasn't really good. I accept and anticipate your respective downvotes.

Final thanks to my Dad, who told me he had no idea what I was talking about when I explained this to him back in November 2015, but let me know that he had vitiligo and most likely so did I. I knew then that destiny had fated me to write this skip Coincidences are neat.

Last edited on 09 Oct 2016 22:47 by Rimple Show more

(account deleted) 09 Oct 2016 20:29

all sur2559ng members

I don't know if this is an error or something intentional. Just wanted to bring it to your attention.

As for the article, I don't think I get it. Was the virus engineered by the Foundation? Or is it a virus that just marks Foundation people? Other than that, the buildup was great and I think the writing is solid.

Communism will win 09 Oct 2016 21:19

I think it's intentional. It not only showed up twice, but "vi" seems to be sort of a 'theme' here. 555-Vineyard, individuals, viral/virus/viroid, tunnel vision, vitiligo, civilians, Vihaan… it shows up way more often here than in a few random SCPs I checked.

Not sure how I feel about the article itself yet, but that is a pretty clever thing to do.

---

if your reading this your gay

Rimple 09 Oct 2016 21:42

I'm … very surprised someone noticed this so quickly. I hid a couple recurring things in this, of which that was supposed to be the most unimportant/subtle.

That said, yeah, it's a find/replace fuckup. I should really have thought through my naming scheme.

Last edited on 09 Oct 2016 22:52 by Rimple Show more

Travalgar 07 Jan 2019 06:10

As of time of writing, the above error has not been revised yet. You said yourself that it's a replace error, or did you decided to just leave it here for the sake of further emergent mystery?

Rimple 09 Oct 2016 21:44

Was the virus engineered by the Foundation? Or is it a virus that just marks Foundation people?

Neither. The Foundation has nothing to do with it other than containment, and non-Foundation personnell are entirely capable of catching it (of the 600-odd people infected (who survived to be categorised as an instance of 2995-1) by the time of the final log in 2013, only ~100 have been Foundation personnell).

Last edited on 10 Oct 2016 01:36 by Rimple Show more

Heavenfall 09 Oct 2016 21:58

"Individuals believing themselves to have been infected by SCP-2559 commonly present symptoms within 4 days."

Does this mean people who are unaware of being infected do not display symptoms?

Also one outbreak is "unscheduled"? That's a creepy word to throw in there.

Edit: There's a small incongruence. First you say "No non-anomalous transmission method of SCP-2559 is known." then later on "Following the return to Site-91, 12 further researchers were found to have become infected. The spread of rumours within the facility lead to rapid spread of infection among site staff." Surely having a virus spread new infection by rumor should be considered anomalous? From a medical point of view, becoming infected is very different from displaying symptoms. Symptoms are ways we can see issues, but they are not the issues themselves. I'm just a bit confused by the mixed use of the words.

Anyway, it's a sort-of sentient virus I think? First it learns to become visible by pattern: skin disease so that others will believe they are already infected, causing it to spread. Then it appears to be studying books to learn more about the world? Then it's in the SCP foundation… yeah, that's supercreepy. Pregnant-lady-who-terrifies-MTF-guard is a red herring?

Last edited on 10 Oct 2016 06:10 by Heavenfall Show more

Rimple 09 Oct 2016 22:17

Does this mean people who are unaware of being infected do not display symptoms?

From a medical point of view, becoming infected is very different from displaying symptoms.

I may reword this. Nobody else has had issue with it, but if others were confused by it I'll need to make it clearer. Infection occurs the second you believe you're infected.

Also one outbreak is "unscheduled"? That's a creepy word to throw in there.

From the description: "Prior to 1995, SCP-2559 followed a predictable infection cycle, with outbreaks every 3-4 years."

Pregnant-lady-who-terrifies-MTF-guard is a red herring?

In terms of it being unrelated to the effect of the anomaly, sure. She's an important part of Barne's story, though - she's the reason that final addendum is there.

Edit: After getting one or two other people having issues with that first sentence, changed it to something clearer.

Last edited on 10 Oct 2016 16:26 by Rimple Show more

Heavenfall 10 Oct 2016 06:09

Turns out I dialed down my reading comprehension yesterday. "No non-anomalous transmission method of SCP-2559 is known." I read this as "no anomalous transmission method"… don't even ask me how. I thought you implied it wasn't known that it spread meme-style. The opposite was true - it doesn't spread like a normal virus.

To me, scheduled/unscheduled implies there's a planner behind it. But looking up the word more closely I see it was my misconception. For example you can say Haley's comet is scheduled to return…

So yeah, you can ignore what I wrote! Sorry.

Edit: Although it would be difficult to work into the containment procedures, staff that are particularly arrogant and skeptic would probably avoid infection quite easily. "Bah, I'm not going to die from some random disease… I'm a god! Most of what goes on in here is just for show anyway, yall are probably just playing a prank with those skin rashes…"

Edit 2: Also, I LOVE this skip. It needed to be said, lest I come off as just complaining.

Last edited on 10 Oct 2016 06:24 by Heavenfall Show more

Rimple 10 Oct 2016 11:51

In reply to your first edit: the current Site Director for Site 19 is a cranky, hard-nosed 80-year-old Nigerian woman named Nuru Jua, who has naturally-occurring progressive vitiligo. She was working in the facikity when it first started to manifest on her skin, and while everyone around her was worried, she just sat in the quarantine cell waiting for the blood tests to come back negative. She only appears once in the actual article, as the new director writing a note about O'Dwyer, but I've got a whole bunch scribbled down about her. Yeah, they basically hire the most stubborn hardasses they can, on principle.

And I'm glad to hear you liked it! Hopefully I can keep putting out stuff people enjoy.

Flappybobb 09 Oct 2016 22:53

Does this mean people who are unaware of being infected do not display symptoms?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but people cannot be unaware of being infected, they become infected by believing that they are, in fact, infected. If they do not believe they are infected, then they aren't, thus being unaware of the infection doesn't make any sense.

Edit: Actually after some thought I see what you mean. Like if Pvt. Barnes in the last interview, once their helmet was taken off, believe for a split second that they were now exposed and infected they would be, but afterwards would be infected but not know for sure or at all. It still doesn't matter whether they're aware or not after the initial infection, so I can see where the confusion arises.

Last edited on 09 Oct 2016 23:05 by Flappybobb Show more

WrongJohnSilver 10 Oct 2016 01:00

And thus, the problem behind a placebo inoculation. If you learn or believe that the inoculation is a placebo, then you'll probably ideate your infection. It's pernicious.

Rimple 10 Oct 2016 01:09

Exactly! I'm happy to see so many of the smaller things being picked up on/understood so fast.

U-4 still use it occasionally for last-resort temporary containment on a wider scale, but it's very much not something they want to use regularly.

Last edited on 10 Oct 2016 01:35 by Rimple Show more

Agent MacLeod 10 Oct 2016 06:18

I'll be honest, I don't quite follow.

It's a virus that messes with memories/knowledge? It causes people to basically literally wear their hearts (or their brains, at least) on their sleeves? Is that what you're getting at? This clearly took a long time to write, it was clearly something that took effort, but, well, I didn't understand it. Sorry, until it clicks, I'm going to have to neutral-vote.

Rimple 10 Oct 2016 10:02

Heavenfall is the closest so far.

Anyway, it's a sort-of sentient virus I think? First it learns to become visible by pattern: skin disease so that others will believe they are already infected, causing it to spread. Then it appears to be studying books to learn more about the world?

See if anything clicks from there.

augmentedspartan 10 Oct 2016 21:56

I want to like this, but I can't. I'm all for articles than don't hit you over the head with the answer, but at the same time I would like to get something out of it. The problem is that aside from the fact that this is some sort of virus, I know almost nothing, which kills the enjoyment of the article. SCP-1782 did something similar, but in that one everything was so crazy that at least when you finished reading it you felt creeped out even if you didn't understand it. With this one, all I felt was "so what?" and felt like I was missing a crucial piece to understand it.

(account deleted) 11 Oct 2016 02:22

"Extreme negative reactions" are these vocalized, or physical, bodily reactions? (or both?) Otherwise, nice entry, you've got my upvote.

Rimple 11 Oct 2016 07:58

Just physical. Basically allergic reactions.

Petrograd 11 Oct 2016 04:03

I'm a little iffy on this one. On the one hand, your focus on the personal impact was often well done (I enjoyed Vihaan and the doctor, the MTF officer being iffy based on what I'll get into below), but…

You've got a pretty clear-cut idea for an anomaly. I don't think your really sell it strong enough to push the horror of what it's like to face a thing that infects you due only to your traitorous thoughts, given the amount of page-length that comes after the explanation. Everyone just accepting their condition with dignity (or at least dedication) doesn't help this. You seem to be throwing out hints as to an origin (what I took to be a Fifthist reference in the palmistry book, the SCP logo), but they never seem to go anywhere. If you were making some alusion about what leads to the skin pattern, it went right over my head. (Edit: I also had no idea what was going on with the books. Am I missing something big here?)

So… well thought out, a well explained anomaly, and you've checked a lot of the boxes as far as thinking about implications and human costs, but for me it's a bit too pulled back. It feels like an ongoing slow-motion tragedy written from the point of view of an impersonal and timeless Foundation, real bland dystopian disregard for human life style. That's not generally a bad thing, but when you combine it with really dire measures, statements of its unpredictability, and origin hints that suggest that the Foundation is as much in the dark as we are, that level of detachment is just really unsatisfying.

I know that the SCP is that dire and those measures are called for, it just reads as a tragedy without an out/twist. Neutral vote.

Last edited on 11 Oct 2016 04:06 by Petrograd Show more

Rimple 11 Oct 2016 12:02

This is an excellent crit, and one that I think a lot of people who read the draft had trouble putting into words. It's inspired me to go back to the original more feelsy ending of the interview log. It's longer now, but not by too crazy a margin, and I think it helps. I adjusted a couple parts of the interview to fit better with an angrier Barnes.

The detachment was important for me, but sneaking humanity and desperation in through dialogue is a classic trick I was missing out on

Last edited on 11 Oct 2016 12:24 by Rimple Show more

Jacob Conwell 11 Oct 2016 04:14

Took me a bit to get a handle on this, but overall I think its a solid article. Its definitely an interesting means of portraying how a sentient virus would act like and the progression/escalations of steps the virus takes seem to have a logic to them, though I cannot at this time say what the end game would be.

You'd think the virus would work on not killing its host so quickly so as to maximize its chances at using the host for certain actions, but that's neither here nor there.

+1. Nice article.

Heavenfall 11 Oct 2016 06:06

I think that's exactly what it's doing.

+ show me the hidden content

I think this is a sentient being who inadvertedly ingested/became things starting with vi (vision->virus->vitiligio). These things may come directly from books, or they could come from the minds of the infected. I don't necessarily think it is trying to harm humans, although there's no evidence for or against. What I do think is that it is trying to survive, and possibly stop spreading or harming people. To do that it needs to get rid of concepts it internalized. Anyway, what is the one organization currently dedicated to keeping it alive - ie subjects alive? That is why it is actively trying to reach out to the Foundation ("sur2559ng", creepy logo mark). Maybe this being doesn't like dying any more than the rest of us?

Also, I'm thinking the pile of books might not necessarily be the being collecting knowledge to ingest - it can't control people directly or you'd have a doctor telling everyone they're infected. I think it may be the people getting ready for a good ol' book-burning. Maybe they thought it would cure them - maybe it would have! It is, after all, both a literal and theoretical destruction of an idea/concept.

Last edited on 11 Oct 2016 06:19 by Heavenfall Show more

Rimple 11 Oct 2016 12:53

Spoilers

It used to. Note that there's no mention of any deaths in initial containment, how it's comparable to simple mass hysteria. Note how, in the 1995 log, less than 400 people have been infected in the sixtysomething years since they started counting, yet about fifteen years later there's almost 600 - and that's only the ones that live to be contained and given a number.

Keeping your hosts alive is all well and good when you can gently spread throughout a population, but what happens when you start getting cut off just days after setting off a chain reaction that took you years to muster the energy for? Why not simply take the energy you're dedicating to hosts that will never spread and instead use it to spark another start point in the hopes you won't be cut off again?

Buttfranklin 11 Oct 2016 19:06

Please change "Dr. Sígríðúr Lévysdöttír"! It's spelled "Sigríður" and "-dóttir", and I don't know of any Icelanders called "Lévy". "Leví" is an Icelandic male name, so "Levísdóttir" would work.

Rimple 12 Oct 2016 11:51

Fixed. It's one of the last-minute additions to the article, just grabbed from a name generator without research into its accuracy or meaning. I appreciate having those small details noticed and fixed ^^

Azunth 12 Oct 2016 14:04

I like this, but I do agree that the horror of the disease isn't pushed hard enough. You've got a good grasp of the personal punch, but the article seems to imply that the foundation doesn't seem to have much of an idea of what's going on, and that doesn't come across nearly as well.

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