Underread and Underrated September 2020

Featured SCP!

SCP-1039: The Gathering Doll

The head of SCP-1039 has been known to turn towards agents within the containment cell, independent of the body, as if staring at them.

Featured Tale/Format!

Supply and Demand

His heart leapt and he felt the hold on his body disappear. Karsten turned, only to be left staring at a hollow, fire-blackened skull.













Topic and Prompt of the month!

Last Month's Pieces and Topic

Topic + pick of this month!

Fault Lines and the Gulf canon

Agent John Doe dabbed at his forehead with a napkin. The humidity of the Gulf was the worst part of his work, seeping into his pores and between his clothes and blanketing the surface in a hellish tactile haze. Well, that and the alligators, and the swampland anomalies, and the apparent holy war between every other church. Throw it on the pile of "worst parts".

Really, he should have been putting on a stiff upper-lip, take the damp heat like a champ and rep his brand responsibly. Appearance was everything. Part of the code. 'Bless your heart's and 'southern hospitality's. SUSEOCT code.

John dabbed at his forehead again.

He'd be meeting with an MC&D rep. Needed to be better at this. When the CIA meets with an oil tycoon, they're dressed their best once it's behind closed doors, right? Not fidgeting like a monkey in a suit, like a cancer-struck dad at the doctors whose wife's delivery and CAT scans got scheduled for the same day. Diplomacy was a sport, one with a dress code and an expectation of politeness from gold medal to laughingstock. Like any sport, you trained and trained, for the sport and the motions and the proceedings of the before, game, and after.

Metal on concrete. Someone had taken the opposite seat from him.

John looked up, only to see Max Mustermann, representative of the Gulf branch of Marshall, Carter, & Dark LLC., fidgeting in his seat as he dabbed at his forehead with a napkin.

This month's challenge:

  • For writers: Write an article set in the Gulf canon. Contest entries will not be featured.
  • For artists: Draw a scene from the Gulf. Likewise.
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