SCP-4006 / Discussion

This is the discussion related to the wiki page SCP-4006.

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DarkStuff 11 Jul 2018 08:04

see behind...

Art by Elogee FishTruck does not match any existing user name and myself, respectively!

Isn't it just so convenient when some big idea you had on the backboard fits perfectly with the newest hit contest? #MassaTruthetts has been on my idea shelf for a long while. It just so happened to be perfect for this contest. It is historical for Massachusetts, and the United States, and the Foundation as a whole. It also covers the contest theme that I sorta wish had happened: victory. Here, the Foundation, while maybe not facing a huge threat, is undoubtedly victorious. I like that. Other things I liked about this draft:

• Absolutely nothing is redacted or censored, except kind of that offset page.
• There is no dialogue, there are no logs, it is a "pure" SCP file.
• I got to play heavily with the suspension of disbelief.

I don't have much else to say about this. Except maybe some spoilers. They probably are less spoiler-like than I think they are, to be honest. But I am going to put them under a collapsible anyways, for people who like "figuring things out".

Spoilers

• This is the most meta article I have ever written.
• The way "the veil" is referred to sounds like an agnostic's view on God.
• I really hope that this upholds your suspension of disbelief.

EDIT: Huh. Critique did not reveal the second offset to be “racked on”. Interesting to see that coming out now. Anyways, probably not changing it. The article was written with the offset in mind, so it’s gonna stay that way. Upon consideration, moved the offset to just be in a collapsible, so it feels less disconnected.

EDIT the 2ND: I feel it is worth mentioning that this originated from a joke between myself and my IRL friend Tickilung, and he came up with it first I believe.

Last edited on 21 Dec 2018 05:52 by DarkStuff Show more

Dr Augden James 17 Nov 2020 16:44

Isn't it just so convenient when some big idea you had on the backboard fits perfectly with the newest hit contest? #MassaTruthetts has been on my idea shelf for a long while. It just so happened to be perfect for this contest. It is historical for Massachusetts, and the United States, and the Foundation as a whole.

How improbable…

Salvador 5 11 Nov 2023 05:16

I'll be honest, this sounds a lot like Lisa Simpson's tiger rock:

• This rock is right here.
• No tigers are around.
• Therefore, the rock prevents tigers from attacking us.

Which, honestly, I love. I'm sure it's not quite that but it's stuck in my head now and I love it.

Taffeta 11 Jul 2018 08:45

Definitely the cleverest 4000 I think I've seen so far.

Decibelles 11 Jul 2018 11:04

This was gonna sustain my upvote until the offset page, where it singlehandedly reversed my vote entirely. I think that going through all the legwork of introducing a potentially amazing idea like "an entire state is anomalous" (specifically one not written about much on the site) gets destroyed when you go "actually, 4000 is this", but in the most spectacularly ludicrous way possible.

If you're gonna introduce multiple disparate, suspension-stretching ideas, you can't simply throw one right after another and not give it the proper breathing room it needs. You can't tell me that 4000 is an entire uninhabitated state (itself an already wild idea, but one you try to make utterly convincing even with the holes that sprout up from it), then say 4000 is the veil and call it a day. Even moreso, attempting to follow that statement up and justify it would make the article utterly too long and clunky while still being just as impossible to accept. Since you're going for this tactic, why not just leave it at the first article? You'd simply need to make minor adjustments throughout to strengthen your implication instead of spilling it out on a new page, and not tip your hand so much on the original page as to make it difficult to buy in. No two ways about it; this is supremely difficult to buy into, and I feel like better can be done nowadays from any author than simply stating a complex or unique idea and going "What do you think?".

aismallard 20 Sep 2023 03:18

A lot of people have had this response, where they liked the alternate history deal where the Foundation basically created a US state, then felt weirded out by the "sudden change" at the end. And I'll admit that I also didn't quite get it the first time around either.

But now that I understand the ending I like the article (including the first part, before the Overseer collapsible) even more than before.

+ spoilers

Like DarkStuff said, there are not "two different anomalies". What this is is a meta article, a commentary about us as authors and how we write the Foundationverse.

We write stories with all manners of anomalies, stuff that's dangerous, weird, hard to contain, or even hard to understand. A real nightmare for any organization to handle.

Yet most of the time we want the Foundation to succeed. We give them Thaumiel-class objects, paratechnology like countermemes, amnestics and SRAs, we give them lucky situations where, if they work really hard, they can get out ahead. And for really bad stuff, we give them things like SCP-2000.

That's what this article is commenting on. SCP-4006 is the Veil, the protective curtain we in part help drape over their world in our collective storytelling. Massachussetts here is not separate from that, it's part of that. A particularly strange example, but an aspect of the Veil nonetheless, our ways of protecting normalcy in a world where that very concept would be otherwise utterly untenable.

minmin 11 Jul 2018 12:52

The first page was nice. Very SCP-2000ish in keeping my disbelief suspended through being entertaining, and shaping itself up to be very concise and very evocative. The second page is less so. Maybe I'm dumb and I just can't see the link to both these anomalies having the same item slot.

DarkStuff 13 Jul 2018 05:43

I think the misconception here is "both of these anomalies". No two anomalies share one slot. This is all the very same thing.

TL333s 11 Jul 2018 13:30

So at first, I was like, this is a fun alternate history kind of dealie, but I can't honestly believe it, there's too much to take in.

Then I was like, is the Foundation creating Massachusetts as we know it? At which point it seemed like it might be Yellowstone all over again.

Then I get to the offset and, just no, it's silly, and putting the "SCP-4000 is" part at the very end as a stinger has no in-universe explanation.

The best this would have gotten from me is a novote, but -1 as it stands.

trb456 11 Jul 2018 13:38

I agree with the last two comments. I thought it was hilarious that

+ show block

the non-existent Massachusetts was being reconstructed from an anomalous recollection of itself

and you could have ended it there without page 2. You might be able to incorporate some of page 2 into page 1, but with a lighter touch as has been suggested.

But this is so clever! Please keep at it.

AFX Neuromancer 11 Jul 2018 15:28

But… I live in Massachusetts.

Anyway, have a +1.

DarkStuff 18 Jul 2018 21:56

But do you really

Zeke 11 Jul 2018 16:26

I really enjoyed this but I feel like I keep missing something, despite multiple re-reads.

AzureJ 11 Jul 2018 16:34

I definitely agree that the offset felt unnecessary and kind of tacked on; it didn't completely kill the article for me, but I definitely think it would be better off without it.

+1 none the less, probably my favorite 4000 entry so far (though i'm admittedly biased cause i live in Mass and love 1912-J)

Last edited on 11 Jul 2018 16:35 by AzureJ Show more

Veiedhimaedhr 11 Jul 2018 19:56

Good shit. +1

DarkStuff 26 Feb 2019 20:31

EDIT: Oh dear lord ignore this. I don't know how I fucked that up that bad. Meant to reply to someone on page 4.

Last edited on 26 Feb 2019 20:31 by DarkStuff Show more

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