Migratory Boringness

Summary:

SCP idea

Migratory Boringness

G Fox 23 Aug 2010 23:01

The idea here being that the SCP is not an object, but a quality. The affected object or person is wholly uninteresting, and those casually inspecting or following them will tend to lose interest. The effect extends to recordings and other media of the object, if taken while the quality is present.

Said object or person is not invisible, but will not attract attention, even when doing outrageous or dangerous things. Affected people can use this to their advantage, so long as the effects of their actions do not attract too much attention. What they do is uninteresting, but not the results (missing items, damaged storefronts, blood…)

The quality will leave if the object it's attached to attracts too much interest, and there is a suitably unnoticed object or person nearby. This can happen if someone actively investigates the object long enough. This would make studying the quality very difficult, let alone tracking it down.

I need to mull this one over before trying to write it, all things considered.

Re: Migratory Boringness

Leicontis 24 Aug 2010 00:09

It'd be tricky to do well without intruding on SCP-055.

Re: Migratory Boringness

SophosBlitz 24 Aug 2010 02:19

Reminds me of a lot of shows where there's a running gag with a character being unnoticed until they do something outrageous to get somebody's attention. Saki, SZS, etc.

And the properties remind me a lot of SCP-668. Observers become ignorant of the possessed thing/person because of an apathy field.

Re: Migratory Boringness

MrDoodedoo 24 Aug 2010 05:51

This sounds a lot like a Somebody Else's Problem field in viral form.

Last edited on 24 Aug 2010 05:56 by MrDoodedoo Show more

Re: Migratory Boringness

DrEverettMann 24 Aug 2010 12:16

"Mr. Cellophane, shoulda been my name..."

Re: Migratory Boringness

eric_h 24 Aug 2010 14:50

How would the Foundation end up noticing and capturing this guy?

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Re: Migratory Boringness

MrDoodedoo 24 Aug 2010 22:57

You could ask the same of 55, and that's part of the reason why that's so good. But, like it was said before, it would be hard to do this one well without seeming too much like 55.

Re: Migratory Boringness

G Fox 25 Aug 2010 00:37

I can think of a way or two. I'm not sure I should state it explicitly, as it ruins tone to get into too much detail.

I'm definitely not going to involve a human object as the containment vessel. I already have one humanoid SCP that's of contested merit, not doing another one for a while.

Re: Migratory Boringness

DrEverettMann 25 Aug 2010 07:14

Well, state it explicitly here. Give us an idea of where you're going, and we can give you advice on how much or how little to let into the article.

Re: Migratory Boringness

G Fox 25 Aug 2010 12:41

As you wish.

First, the quality does not make people "forget" any more than they would any other uninteresting object. They can remember some details of it, but not enough of them to be useful, as long as the effect lasts. Second, active investigation of the object wears away at the effect until it is negated. Third, while media containing an affected object retains the effect on the object's image, voice, etc, even when "dumb" AI algorithms check for it, it does not affect the rest of the medium. These were discovered during capture.

First, a researcher read about the field data, and came up with an idea: Run surveillance footage of suspected cases through pattern recognition for shapes and facial features, plus motion detection. Create a graphic representation of this, then run some simple math on the levels so that only objects with anomalous blank spots in the graph will light up. Run that overlaid on the original footage and have someone look for the colors.

This had to be used more than once, as the quality keeps jumping when found.