> Why human? We're squishy, flimsy, and have pretty lame senses compared to those of other branches in the animal kingdom. No retractable claws, no opposable toes, no prehensile tail, no compound eyes, no fangs, no wings… SIGHHH.
Assuming he has the capacity to respawn in other forms, it's convenient because it generally lets him travel more freely. He can wander through forests and cities with equal ease. If he assumed the form of a lion walking to an SCP in the middle of Brooklyn would be a bit more difficult. I'm going back and forth on whether or not he has ID or money. On the one hand, it would make the problem with him being OP even worse, but on the other hand if he can conjure up clothes, why not?
How does he know that there's "some organization" responsible and not some university research lab?
Wouldn't a University be an organization?
How does he know they're not public knowledge?
He strolls into a public library, gets on the computer, and checks wikipedia. If there isn't an article about a giant, regenerating lizard, it clearly isn't public knowledge.
…How does he know what an organization is, if he's a non-human entity?
How does SCP-1171 know English? And why does he live in a house like one that would exist in our society? Having some knowledge of our language and culture is necessary for the story to work both there and here, and I don't see this as being any more absurd than that.
What are the chances that he'd run into a Foundation facility that would give enough information observable to anyone to reveal the intent and purpose? We've got several recurring secure facilities, and my headcanon is that they're guarded. So I don't really know about his deductions being the primary source of his knowledge.
Firstly, why would he need to know their intents and purposes? They're people who grab up supernatural stuff, that's all he'd need to know. Furthermore, he's only really a “threat” when he's outside the facilities, since he doesn't try to collect secured SCPs. So, an argument would be made that he'd be allowed the same level of freedom within a facility as SCP-507.
Adding on extra abilities tends to bloat an article. Besides, there's only so many ways you can give this guy to weasel out of Foundation protocol before the reader starts wondering why this guy has so much plot armor.
Yeah, I'm still a bit worried about that, but I do at least hold that this form of plot armor makes sense.
Does him always managing to escape somehow make the story better in any way? Is it really necessary to make him so slippery? Why hasn't the Foundation just gotten tired of running into this guy and made him kill-on-sight? Remember, the in-universe Foundation does not have automatic investment in a character the way its author does. Why should the Foundation care about this guy if he's essentially a recurring annoyance?
See above: He's a nuisance when he's not contained.
I was asking why the Foundation bothered to keep this guy on suicide watch if he's got a history of committing suicide. It seems like a waste of time and resources, especially if the Foundation doesn't gain anything by keeping him alive. Even if he talks, how can anyone be sure that he's trustworthy?
Ditto.
How does he know what an artifact is? How does he know that the Foundation contains things? How does he know what containment is? Does he have a PhD in engineering, mechanics, astrophysics, or anything that would make him knowledgeable about how containment even works?
If he knows the effects of an SCP, he'd presumably know their limitations as well.
(I think you mean "the Foundation"? The SCP in question doesn't get to call the shots about allowing crosstesting or not.) Again, if the failures are consistent, why would the Foundation bother continue to try waiting for him to slip up? How would they know he'd slipped up if he's essentially babbling?
Yeah, right, sorry. And if you're referring to the “not speaking English,” that was an earlier version of this idea. This one does speak English, he's just cryptic. And if they're going to contain him anyway (to prevent him from taking SCPs), why not have one expendable flunky keep asking him questions? They lose little by it.
Still cheesy. Why does he even need a title? I'm pretty sure the Foundation would give him a number. POI-XXXX (person of interest) or something.
…um, last I checked they pretty much all have titles. Mothman, the 21st Disciple, Titania's Prison… Presumably he'd have a redacted name he'd give when asked.
I don't buy it. Where does he keep all the things?
My intention was to make that a major part of the mystery concerning him.
Also, keep in mind the Foundation would have no actually records of him succeeding (unless they happened to get their slightly after him, and someone described the guy who took it), simply because in the event that they do arrive at the same time, he's going to be outnumbered, and not have a weapon, meaning the Foundation will pretty much be assured to take the SCP. The concern is that there are likely a large number of unknown items that he secured, and that the Foundation is unaware of (simply because it's highly unlikely that they're even aware of most of the things he goes after).
How does he avoid getting caught by media if he's all over the place looking for anomalous items?
How does the SCP?
Does he eat/sleep/anything else that would make it reasonable for him to be capable of death?
Sleep? Yes. Eat? When it's convenient, starving is unpleasant.
How will you write this up so it doesn't sound like a weird MCD agent gone rogue? (Also, technically these things aren't SCPs until the Foundation's gotten ahold of them or knows about them.)
On the former?…good question, I guess I could just say outright that's a possible origin. On the latter, yeah true, but what else am I going to call them in a brainstorming session? He'd have his own terminology that I'd have to come up with.
Again, though, he seems to have a Foundation fixation. I'm pretty sure the GOC and/or MCD would treat him a lot differently if they captured him. Maybe Serpent's Hand too, if he's nicked things from sacred or protected areas. Wizards don't like it if you take their shit, dude.
Very true, but a) I kind of doubt any of them could succeed in killing him permanently or containing him (unless there's something I'm just not considering), and b) he'd still see them as the same (except maybe Serpent's Hand).
And that's why this is pretty boring to me. If there's too much focus on STEAL ALL THE SCPS CONFOUND ALL THE CONTAINMENT FLABBERGAST ALL THE FOUNDATION!!! it just seems empty. At the end of the day the shenanigans aren't relatable, and I find myself not particularly caring about the guy because all his character is made of is his squabble over anomalous objects.
