Name, Rank, Serial Number / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page Name, Rank, Serial Number.

DrClef 22 Mar 2010 17:42

My entry for this month's Short Story contest, "SCPs at War"

tombones 22 Mar 2010 18:33

clever employment of a cool but lesser-known SCP, along with a glimpse at the Foundation in younger days? oh yes. very yes.

The Image is, of course, goatse

carriontrooper 23 Mar 2010 00:28

Naah, it's not. I looked.

MrUnimport 23 Mar 2010 00:34

Not bad, not bad at all. I confess I don't like the idea of the Foundation muscling around government agencies, though, and even less the idea of Foundation employees considering themselves above petty world politics. It just feels Mary Sue-ish to me.

Edcrab 23 Mar 2010 13:32

Normally I'd agree but I think this is one of the least invasive examples. Depending on who you talk to, the Foundation is everything from a worldwide, untouchable shadow government to a background agency- besides, this is just the one incident!

I love the historical angle either way; but it's an excellent piece on its own merits, I'm not just saying I like it because it ties in elsewhere.

Villain 23 Mar 2010 13:55

isn't this exactly the kind of thing that the Foundation does, though? Or is it not so clear-cut

tunedtoadeadchannel 23 Mar 2010 16:05

Nothing is canon.

DrClef 23 Mar 2010 16:11

I actually based the whole concept of the story on the Cold War attitude towards nuclear weapons and the Arms Race. Both sides were so caught up in ideology and the idea of nuclear deterrence that they didn't consider the effects of what could happen if they ever pulled the trigger. It wasn't up until the early eighties when people started to work out the math and realized what a nuclear war could actually look like that they started to step back from the brink.

So. It's the 1970s. The US has somehow found a self-proliferating image that can kill when seen. It's clean, it has no fallout, and it can get down into tunnels and root out the VC where they hide. They try it out. They never consider what could happen if the image reaches a population center or, god forbid, is broadcast on television. The Foundation gets wind of this, and they do what they do best: They secure, contain, and protect. Then they head to the source and tell them, enough is enough. Have your ideological conflict, but don't get the rest of the world involved.

Can they back up that threat? Maybe, maybe not. Maybe they're just bluffing. Then again…

Villain 23 Mar 2010 16:24

You know thinking about it all in a "foundation damage control" sort of sense makes me understand a lot of other stuff too come to think of it..

Khym Chanur 11 Sep 2011 04:37

I like the irony of trying to stop one "domino" with a much larger one.

Agents are GO! 11 Sep 2012 19:10

I liked this story and the cold war overtones.

That being said, the font on my iPod made it so the snippet on the main page look like "two sharp dicks" and hence I was expecting something markedly different.

Zenroze 07 Jun 2022 13:41

It's nice to finally see a more straightforward tale that focuses on straightforward Foundation operations and anomalies. I really really enjoyed it! Such great characters and perfect utilisation of SCP-571 for a story

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Their damned founding father locked up in my foundation.