SCP Foundation

I just binge-read Behind You and it is the best thing ever 10/10. My favorite one was the bridge, because the atmosphere was great and also that is the best town ever. What town has two gigantic, steep cliffs with windows in, a deep, deep crevice that might not even have a river, and a tiny, itty-bitty unused bridge going between two streets on both sides.

I'm pleased you like this, ARD. Without wanting to change your vote, I would say that:

the real stinger that Cooper is being kept alive as a hypnotized sex slave (?) far outstrips the horror potential had she and Rey both been killed

isn't consistent with my personal headcanon on the ending (in respect of either agent).

it certainly gives off heavy Star Signals vibes—which is a good thing, imo

Astral signs = staring lass

I will admit that part of the thinking behind this was as a spiritual sequel to Star Signals. The original draft had the book as the anomaly, and went from there. As well as the book's language (where I tried not to get too close to mere replication of the Star Signals style), I have thrown in a bunch of references to stars and 5s throughout. I did however cut the three lines that I've used as collapsible text in my author post - I realised that I was trying to shoehorn them in and that the skip worked better without them.

Glad you liked this!

This is a perfect summary of why this article is so captivating to me. It's a mishmash of so many disparate elements, but in retrospect they blend perfectly. It's unsettling in its strangeness, but at its heart there's a terrifying logic. It's exactly what I was hoping to see from this contest.

I love "characterised by high sociability and lack of inhibition, punctuated by prolonged bouts of uncontrollable screaming"

I admit that I was pleased with that line - that was what convinced me that I had enough of a hook to make the phenomenon into the main anomaly (it was originally the book).

What really impresses me about the article is how thematically consistent it manages to be while also indulging in out-there concept-salad weirdness … Once you've claimed that all human sexual behaviour can be reduced to a set of rigid principles, is it surprising that this reduction is totally arbitrary, esoteric, and unhinged?

In some ways, this is influenced heavily by Silber's original 1425. The Star Signals self-help book is another example of the essential emptiness of following instructions on how to live one's life that aren't sensible / practical / pragmatic. Linking the theme and imagery was a two-way dialogue between the book extracts and the exploration log (and between those and the initial notes), with each feeding back into the other.

the Stepford Wives realisation that the end-point of sexually-motivated misogyny is the murderous replacement of real women with pliant, submissive automata.

Yes, and this was what unlocked the ending for me. Thinking this through to its logical conclusion - the PUAs think they want a living sex-doll, but actually are not satisfied by this even when they can create it. But because they don't acknowledge their emotional needs, they are driven to continue their behaviour. Because they treat women entirely as objects, they also treat them as entirely disposable - that led to the ending, where Agent Cooper is literally "thrown away" into a pit.

I'm really pleased that you "enjoyed" this (for a certain value of enjoy), and really grateful for the detailed and thoughtful comment. Thanks!

I've looked for redpill.

Oh God.

Anyway. Nice article, this contest has led to great SCPs I swear.

I might have to paint this.

I would be absolutely honoured, Scorpion451. The -1 entities, the big one in particular, were created to give this a strong central visual image, which is why I included the picture in the -1 collapsible. I really wanted readers to start to form that picture early on, before the entity itself turned up.

Paint away!

I didn't really feel like I needed the SCP-3000-1 or several of the individual entries in the logs.

As I mentioned to Scorpion451 above, I felt like the -1s were needed to give a "face" the anomaly - a distinctive entity to focus on (and ideally a creepy one). I'd be interested to hear which of the logs are superfluous, however - I didn't get much feedback on them.

but the final long sells it well. Particularly in describing the oily fat and the descriptions of texture. Texture is the bessst. Upvoted heartily, with incredible glee! It truly made me smile! :)

Thanks! I am a fan of trying to get texture and smells across in writing - they're the things I find most vivid when I'm reading.