Per 
- Viewer Notes
- Code Prep
- Of Squids and Ethical Debates
- Squid Ideation
- Ideas
- Guidelines
- Credit
- prepped idea forum posts
Welcome to my Sandbox page, whether you are here to crit or just to look, welcome, I will tell you what I am doing here.
This is where I of course write and store my ideas or even full pages, but uhhhh the chances of me actually getting one out is low ( ._.)
But Im still working, from what I see I need to do better with dialogue and not being overly complicated.
This is my lab of dung and bad things.
I will provide a small key for things to expect:
- Things inside of brackets are usually my notes or questions to people looking at my stuff
- I am not the best at English, in fact, I hate it (despite being a native speaker), so anything to help with grammar or sentence structure would be nice (I am also notorious for run on sentences at school)
- Any tips on formatting would also be nice, maybe I don't need the headers, or other things.
Thank you for helping out another internet citizen!
For collapsibles:
For ACS: Use bookmark for guide on things
ASK ON THE FORUMS FOR CODE HELP! EXPLAIN WHATS GOING ON AND WHAT YOUVE TRIED!
Find a way to connect the history, abilities, and moral debate together
Idea 1: The Squids themselves will kill newspawn with defects to prevent a possible rogue society (trolley problem), and after dying they can be repaired including full consciousness repair, but remember their death and suffer an identity crisis sometimes (the identity/are they alive debate)
Idea 2: Their abilities or restrictions come from this, they cannot make a new squid without 6 squids converging and agreeing to make a new one, same for repairs, a squid cannot self repair (to try to prevent the trolley problem from needing to be done), the consciousness can in emergencies be "retracted" into the heart for safe keeping, but they still suffer through the death and remember it.
Idea 3: The squids have a creation myth about how their creator (a machine they call the Kaiczar) discovered an endless realm of thought, but couldnt use it so they made the squids, a self replicating machine civilization. The squids personalities and consciousness comes from the heart-alternate world and receives sensory input from the material universe. The heart is a conduit for their imagination which becomes real world (the source of their infinite energy-material, their communication, their FTL). This could tie the abilities, history, and moral debate (as long as a squid has an undamaged imagination it can do what should be impossible, as seen in the Silicon War).
The moral debate ties into this, is it right to cut out its heart and participate in one of its infinite deaths. Should the Foundation instead try to keep it alive while devoting a ton of resources to it so it cant die, while they reverse engineer the heart. Is it human as its experiences in death are similar to what humans describe, and its from a realm of imagination, who's to say it isnt surely the same mind as them?
Siberian S&R machine piloted by the soul of a dog (was good, but not good enough, make a good story to go along with the SCP)
Axolotl breach early warning system, of which is more sinister than thought. (not much useful stuff, work more on larger but still good stuff)
A tank that throws people back in time to the Second World War. (Received okay, sometimes inanimate SCPs are good)
Rogue mining machine constructed by unknown company, currently tearing through the asteroid belt, powered by human souls (Received well, 1/2 greenlights) [MAYBE REVIVE]
An anomalous Foundation site (which they didnt build) that occasionally shifts to match other Foundation sites perfectly. Used as training and researched heavily. Early Warning System by 5 seconds. (No greenlights) [REVIVE THIS SHIT]
A reverse contagion (a disease that gives reality bending powers, I don't know)
A sentient puddle that is extremely bored, it attempts to release the boredom into other nearby living things to relieve its painful boredom. (Don't mind this)
A bumble bee's god?
An animated paper snake (only questions, nothing useful)
Sentient Stapler Removers?
The Stellar Engine?
Communism as an SCP (Credit Cyvstvi for trying to be nice and help with a bad idea, received beyond horribly, dont do memetics kid, especially stuff that meddles with human ideals and so on, people get very, VERY upset at that)
SPACE-TIME VIRUS
Schrodinger's Mattress Store. (lol)
Space time Von Neumann Probes. (????)
Space Squid Ethics (1/2 greenlights)
Of Magical Moths and Genocidal Machines
Why does it exist
How was it created
Does it pose some internal debate
What do I want them to feel
Intention of either the SCP or Foundation with each other - Popsioak
- DONT DO MEMETICS KID
- Have a good story to go along with the SCP, no thing that does a thing, it has to have a good story
- Review your ideas for at least a week before posting them in the forums (chat or solo)
- Follow the ideas and ideation guide (interrogate your ideas, try to give them emotion, etc)
- Be polite
- Write down all ideas possible
Ideas can be extremely complex, but you must be able to explain it in a way that allows the reader to be engaged (be smart, think of how to explain it).
Don't make unnecessary side-effects (keep it related to the anomaly, dont be weird)
Don't link with popular SCPs (you could maybe reference some small ideas? Play around with this?)
Throw complex real world physics out of the window (always, unless you can explain it)
Listen to the successful people you bastard, stop being stubborn
Its okay to mess up too
Containment can be things other than physical (remember this, very useful)
Don't be conflicting, property A is always there even if property B is in effect, keep it simple
The people writing the articles are drones, the people nearly dying to star sized machines aren't drones, get help with dialogue you troglodyte
STOP WRITING DOWN SHITPOST QUALITY IDEAS, AN AXOLOTL THAT DEVOURS UNIVERSES IN DEALS PROBABLY ISN'T A GOOD IDEA!
Filler
[MAKE SURE TO CHECK WITH PEOPLE TO SEE IF ITS ALREADY BEEN DONE BECAUSE YOU CANT FIND ANYTHING BY TAGS]
I came here to present my idea, it has been a while (regrettably) since Ive done much but I should get to the point. I came back with a new idea Ive been working on (in a self imposed review for a week or two so I can develop the idea and iron it all out).
You can find the different details in the collapsibles below:
A signal precedes the arrival of a large squid shaped construct in the Oort Cloud, bringing with it knowledge of an older civilization and their failure, while the Foundation prepares for the worst after a test when the construct's creator starts its travel to Sol.
The anomaly itself now is two things which I will call XXXX-A or XXXX-B. The anomalies are as follows:
XXXX-A - A 1,000km long object, 100km wide, shaped like a giant squid with objects trailing behind it (kinda weird but the justification is that this shape allows collisions at sub-luminal velocities to hit the heavily armored front, while the vulnerable objects behind it are much safer as the ship has no shields outside of FTL travel, with the tentacles and arms acting as weapons platforms or a last defense to prevent damage to its vulnerable components). The object itself is an EU (Elimination Unit), which arrived in the Oort Cloud June 26, 2001. Its arrival was preceded by a message, "run or sleep". The actual anomalous parts about it are the fact that despite its size it doesnt show any signs of gravitational pull; the AI core which functions despite no energy (seemingly) being fed into it and a large object within the "tentacles" of XXXX-A; it has been called an "Astral Reactor" by XXXX-A.
XXXX-B - An entity in the Milky Way which appears as a large dust cloud measuring roughly 0.5 ly in diameter, XXXX-A calls it "The Kaiczar" and is supposedly what created it and directed it for an unknown period of time. XXXX-B remained stationary until recently, in which it started to move towards Sol, exerting no gravitational force on surrounding objects.
I chose those as the anomalies as they are very heavily related, have a large possibility for a story, and can show emotion (which I will share later on how I plan to achieve that). Both of them together can allow for hints to history/lore while allowing the reader to draw conclusions, and keeping some parts hidden/left to be questioned.
The story I plan to tell follows this relative outline:
- The message/signal is received
- SCP-XXXX-A suffers a catastrophic drive failure, exiting in the Oort Cloud before colliding with a planetoid.
- The Foundation covers the event up, and moves to study XXXX-A (in this the Foundation has the ability to travel within the solar system, even to the outer edge).
- The Foundation starts studying from a distance and sets up jamming devices around the area to prevent signals from reaching XXXX-A, precautions of course, no real containment needed as the anomaly cannot move or repair itself with its "Astral Reactor" damaged.
- Conversation starts between XXXX-A and the Foundation, revealing information and history that -A remembers (relevant and relatively compressed of course).
- The Foundation attempts to reverse engineer the "Astral Reactor" to learn more about it, in a contained environment in deep space surrounded by anchors.
- During the test the Foundation makes contact with -B, discovering that the reactor was a direct conduit to its mind.
- XXXX-B starts to move towards Earth, the Foundation identifies it as seemingly a large cloud of dust.
- (Possibly something to include at the end) XXXX-B messing with the documentation to say what they want to say, I have no idea on what yet but -B is a very smart machine-AI so it wouldnt be too ridiculous.
I have not yet fully decided on this, but Ive settled on two ideas:
Idea #1 - Regret/dealing with catastrophic failure, XXXX-A isnt human but at least feels like it, or is on the same level of intelligence as a human, and was "blessed" by XXXX-B with emotion. So the whole "run or sleep" message would be due to a failure to first contain (where they failed) then destroy (which they also failed) an anomaly which was highly dangerous, possibly letting it threaten the Local Group. The Kaiczar still exists along with the rest of their civilization with both preparations for possibly waiting out the anomaly, or finding a way to contain/destroy it. But the regret again would come from failing, which everyone does lets face it. And a fair few people regret their actions that they have done, or their failures. But the biggest challenge with this would most likely be the dialogue again.
Idea #2 - Hopelessness for humanity, they intruded into XXXX-B's mind during their "astral reactor" test, scaring it and with the Kaiczar being hinted at being paranoid of others from its history starts to move to Earth. On top of this there is still the anomaly that XXXX-A and XXXX-B failed to contain/destroy. XXXX-A is an Elimination Unit that can travel faster than light and carries weaponry which was meant to destroy anomalies, XXXX-B is 0.5 ly in radius with unknown capabilities, and from conversation with XXXX-A the Foundation finds that they arent the only Elimination Unit with many others existing. Once again… the dialogue here is what would make or break it… really for both of them honestly, but we will get to that next.
There are some things I dont really have down in general, even after a fair bit of time, these things are:
- Dialogue, I cannot seem to grasp it well, and usually dont write it that well either, on top of that a fair bit of this anomaly rides on it in a way.
- Reigning myself in, since sometimes with this stuff I go on tangents or end up making things too complex without really thinking on it (as per the self review period where I spend a lot of time looking things over)
- And in general getting the clinical tone, I try a bit with it but dont really know how to pull it off if that makes sense
So those would surely be the weak points here, and what Id need help with, but I think if I could get the help then I could pull it off and hopefully learn a thing or two.
So there is everything I have so far, the anomaly, my plan with it, the story, the pitch.
Is there anything I can improve on? If so how can I?
Or is the idea just not worth it and needs to get archived?
Any good critique would be nice, alongside a greenlight or two in the future?
Basically anything would help.
Thank ya for looking here and have a good day.
REVISED
Title (remember to put into the correct spot)
Space Squid Ethics [Seeking Greenlights]
[Thing for the description ig]
An anomaly in the Oort Cloud causes a moral/ethical debate within the Foundation.
Seeking Greenlights: Yes
Page Type: SCP Article
Page Layout: Standard (following the typical "SCP -> Special Containment Procedures -> Addendum with logs" layout)
Elevator Pitch: A signal arrives in Sol before a "creature" collides with a planetoid in the Oort Cloud, the Foundation contains the anomaly as usual. But after 10 years of no progress in the study of the anomaly a proposal comes up, removing the central piece of the anomaly to replicate and study in more detail; a moral/ethical debate in the Foundation follows the proposal on whether or not its okay to kill something that isnt organic but is still sentient.
Central Narrative: The central narrative follows XXXX recounting its history and reminiscing over the past while the Foundation tries to learn more about XXXX. Very little about the anomaly is understood, but the Foundation finds the central anomaly (besides the intelligence inside of XXXX) to be the "Astral Reactor"1. They cannot make much progress on understanding the rest of the anomaly without understanding the heart. But doing so would "kill" the intelligence stored inside due to a different computer-storage design that is more organic than machine in a way (running out of energy will cause the computer-storage to collapse in on itself).
Hook/Attention-Grabber: I have around 3 planned hooks to draw in the reader through the story. The initial attention grabber is the anomaly and how it arrived/its resemblance of a certain life form on Earth; Then its history, how it gets "intrusive thoughts it must listen to", and its recent migration. Finally, the moral/ethical debate within the foundation over the proposed plan to remove and slowly reverse engineer the creature's heart, with Foundation personnel representing different positions on this.
Additional Notes: I have a hard time doing dialogue and keeping things as simple as it needs to be, along with keeping things short, so that could end up being a really big thing to overcome here, and most likely what Ill need help with or if this idea is even good (or if it has been done before, I tried searching through tags but nothing). Otherwise I just have to say thank you for being here, Id love to hear the good criticism and Id love to try this again.
