You know, I've written a bunch of these at this point. I've read as many more, critiqued those that never got published, and sat and listened while people with hopeful aspirations ran themselves in circles over what exactly they could do to make their proposal special. They all want to make it special.
Because why wouldn't they? Most people write a single 001 Proposal, and that's their opportunity to share their view of the Foundation, of the universe, of everything that makes SCP-001 unique and try to justify their ideas. This is a monumentally difficult feat for anyone, but it's made harder every time somebody publishes another proposal.
But you didn't do that, did you? You didn't do that, because you figured out something that the dozens of people who have tried and failed to do this before didn't understand. You didn't try to be too clever, you didn't try to think yourself around it. You didn't do any of those things, because you realized that the story worth telling wasn't even about SCP-001 at all.
There's something frustrating about this in a way that I haven't felt before. I've done this four times before, and each time I felt like I was trying to one-up myself, and everyone who has come before me. I am more than pleased with my accomplishments, and thrilled to death with the results of my efforts, but those efforts came at a cost and only after the anguish of trying to be too goddamn clever. Then here you come, with this thing you've done, and you do something that nobody has ever done before - write a proposal that isn't about SCP-001.
I wish I'd thought of it first, you clever fuck.