fix the SCP-XXXs i'm telling you because everyone else will too, and they aren't as forgiving
It's not my article, but I figured doing a mass find-and-replace is 'minor' enough to warrant a third party editing it. If I did wrong, feel free to tell me.
Thank you, I had thought that I replaced all the "XXX" but apparently I had forgotten.
This is a parasitic SCP I like. It's like a sort of intra-venous candiru(ouch).
Just one thing bothers me: why bother redacting that thing in the enumeration of possible hosts? After you listed human and a good number of things we eat, I don't really see what could be unsettling by this point to warrant redacting. Just looks gratuitous.
The one that was redacted has the same number of letters as "ELEPHANTS". That's horrifying in and of itself, but there are potentially bigger animals that fit that as well I think.
It may have been x-sponged due to being a slightly cliche example for level of deadliness.
It's good and squickish, reasonably well written, but… Well it's a partially-parasitic organism that exits the host when it's big enough. That's not the type of thing the SCP Foundation usually keeps in check, otherwise we'd need to confiscate Yucca Flats to hold them all. Just the fact that it floats pretty freely through the bloodstream instead of settling into a single area isn't really enough for me.
It seems like the hook is that, in the off chance that it gets into the brain, it either drives someone crazy or takes direct control, which COULD be good… But almost seems like an after-thought with no great clarification. It's not even a taste-tempting-tease, it's something muttered under the breath and when asked about it you go "Oh, nothing."
Following suggestions from a few different people, I removed the experiment logs and edited Incident B to try to give a bit more of a hint as to what SCP-1092 does when it gets into the brain.
I kind of agree with the guy above me, but at the same time, Guuuhuuuhuhuhuhuuuu. Fish in my blood is a phobia I did NOT know I had until I read this article.
Maybe stop playing so fast and loose with the brain thing. You mention it total of three times without really saying anything about it, and that elevates it from being mysterious and thought-provoking to kind of annoying. It would amp up the horror factor if you only mentioned it once, preferably at the end of the article, while subtly inferring that the consequences are much more severe than simple mind control. It's better if we don't know for sure what it does, but it's also really important that you do.
Also, you might want to cut out the experiment logs. They don't really add any thing to the article. Keep the addendums though. Fish in shower=possibly in water supply=COULD BE IN ME RIGHT NOW!!!
Can the fish eggs be seen in a blood sample? A fish in your circulatory system should cause some anemia due to the red blood cells being damaged as they try to get past SCP-1092. Is the immune system of the affected person suppressed?
Great article.
Ace picture.
Were these inspired by Mermithid nematodes, which have similar biology and induce the same sort of water seeking behavior for reproduction in insects and arthropods?
I like the lifecycle, and the 'fluttery' feeling. Given these can induce complex behavior in their hosts to ensure maximal infection rather than just seeking the nearest water is a good hook, and justifies SCP involvement other than this just being a normal disease control problem.
I assume there is/was a population of these things in the wild? Something very brief about control or eradication methods, or at least acknowledgment of that issue would be nice. You could also autoclave the used water to ensure nothing survives (high pressure plus high temp, standard procedure for labs handling infections liquids).
Great article, +1
Oh God, you've poked a phobia. Well done.
Gyuuuuuuuuh…
The concept is sufficiently terrifying to earn an upvote from me, though the final addendum detracts a little in my view. I believe it would be fine without hints of mind control.
Except that, as people above have mentioned (and as I'm probably known for saying by now), without the mind control aspect, these fish, while disturbing, don't qualify as an SCP.
Yes, I'm going there again, so I might as well just spell it out bluntly: The SCP Foundation does not contain any and all things that are disturbing or even world-ending; the SCP Foundation contains things/entities/places that cannot be explained by modern science. I'm pretty sure these parasitic fish could be explained by modern science, unless something is done with the mind-control aspect.
See, here's the thing: There are parasites that we know of that do really disturbing things to the bodies they infect. Parasites = squick, that's almost a given, including in the real world. The Foundation does not contain such parasites, however, because, despite being disturbing, such parasites make sense according to modern science - there's nothing anomalous about them. Likewise, these fish, while not identical to any real-world parasite (and really quite disturbing to think about), probably make sense overall as far as modern science can tell, unless there's mind control, which would make these fish sapient, which would then warrant involvement by the SCP Foundation - but only then! Furthermore, the Foundation would have no reason to get involved before mind control implications arose, so these fish wouldn't be in containment when evidence of such things first arises, and it is that fact that pushes this completely out of SCP-verse worthiness and into a downvote for me.
Ladies and gentlemen, this has been the SCP Nazi, thank you very much, I'll be here all week. ;P
probably make sense overall as far as modern science can tell, unless there's mind control
The article states:
Once in the bloodstream, instances grow from less than a millimeter in diameter to many times their original size, the largest recorded specimen being 2.1 cm in diameter
I'm not sure how many parasites can do that in a host's bloodstream. Granted, there's no timeframe given, but there are other small things about this fish that don't strike me as easily explained by studies done on other parasites.
Personally, I like it because it sort of tiptoes on the edge between anomaly and potential reality.