Per 
PRAGGG'S ROCK COLLECTION1:
Idea draft: The Grocer e v e r i e Store
Zoning out in the supermarket but make it fashion anomalous. Season with eldritch beings to taste.
Would like to know if it sounds similar to other skips.
- Summary: it's an extra-dimensional? Universal? supermarket that really wants to be a good little supermarket for all beings but unfortunately one time when it ran sales advertising (before Foundation discovery) the customers got a bit too crazy and now it wants to make sure its customers won't do it again.
- A compulsion to "go to the supermarket/grocery store" manifests within an X km radius of some coordinates just outside a suburban area- low % of compulsion occurrences outside the radius
- If unhindered, affected persons will make their way to the coordinates and appear inside the supermarket
- Anyone who enters goes into a trance-like state- they are either unresponsive or respond nonsensically to verbal cues and cannot be provoked e.g. with insults
- There probably will need to be a transcribed video log- the bodycam refuses to focus but dark shapes that look somewhat monster-y are visible, as well as damage like craters, giant claw marks, bullet holes etc.
- Possibly corpses/remains from the sales advertising incident. But how do I make it meaningful as opposed to gore for the sake of gore?
- Other beings/creatures there also seem zoned out tho so it's allg.
- After the Foundation show up and stop people from getting inside, it throws a hissy fit and makes cognitohazardous(?) advertising fliers appear in people's mailboxes. The checkpoints outside the radius got swarmed. This would have been a problem for the staff, if the fliers hadn't also appeared in Foundation mailboxes and infected the staff too. So now they get a couple D-class a month to visit it to keep it happy.
- (no harm is done to the visitors- they reappear just outside the radius where they entered it, confused and with a good selection of non-anomalous groceries- except the ones they needed. Also with a reasonable amount of currency missing. But hey, they were bargains, babey.)
- "life aint shit on this bitch of an earth but at least i have discount croissants"
Potentially I could push the intrusive advertising/mindless consumerism angle more? I'd also like to dial up the "oh shit" fridge factor but I'm not sure how to, so tips on both/either would be great.
Idea draft: A Hand(y)man
Six helping hands
Separation, trust, and a man of many hands (and not much else)
I'd appreciate any feedback on this, but I also have more specific questions below the collapsible.
The SCP itself is a sapient entity made of six disembodied, hovering hands, capped off by ears at the wrist. It/He can "see" and "talk" by making eye- and mouth-shapes with the hands, and hear with the ears— but there's a little more to it than just that.
- The SCP was originally made and hired out by an unknown person in Xtown, Country for doing odd jobs around the house. His standard "form" is two fists for the eyes floating above a mouth made with two hands, and two hands left over.
- (MTF squad goes to raid the SCP creator's house- when they get there the place has been long abandoned. There are three shallow graves in the backyard that are all empty.)
- He gets depressed if he can't help out so the Foundation allows him to put together their furniture and do minor low-hazard repair jobs, after a recommendation from his psychologist. He's pretty docile and cooperative.
- The head researcher does some experiments: the bigger the "eye/mouth" is), the better the SCP can see/louder he can shout. e.g. if he makes an eye shape with all 6 hands (2 fisted together for pupil, other 4 for eye outline) then he can see super far, but doesn't have stereoscopic vision. If he uses all 6 hands to lift he can lift 200+ kg off the ground, but then he can't see or talk.
- Hands can hover at a max ~2.4 m off the ground, and they must all remain within 1.8 m of each other (emulating the hand-reach of a typical man).
- Hands are DNA tested and appear to all have almost identical DNA. The SCP also doesn't bruise and purple congestion of the skin can be seen on the palms (suggesting livor mortis). The hands are also cold to the touch.
- Three near-identical, handless, earless, wheezing bodies (all with their throats slit) find the site the SCP is at and try to bash their way in. The MTF capture the bodies but don't tell the SCP. They secure them in another wing, and also increase security around the SCP because they can put 2 and 2 together and they aren't stupid.
- However, a few days later the SCP makes an escape attempt. This is thwarted since as part of the containment procedures the Foundation prepared a gun that fires a net to catch him, and it works.
- In the ensuing interview, the SCP explains how he just "felt like" his bodies were close and he figured he had to take actions into his own hands when the Foundation didn't tell him. He wants to be whole again, even at the cost of his freedom/the goodwill he built up with the Foundation. Head Researcher Guy denies his request due to uncertainty of what the result would be, especially since thaumaturgy could be involved.
- Security is tripled. The SCP goes back to his usual routine, but his psychologist notes that his depression appears to have returned. The psychologist is sympathetic and lets him access the bodies behind the head researcher's back. Upon physical contact, all the pieces deanimate, leaving behind 3 dead bodies.
- A mention of the psychologist in the ensuing incident report says that she was demoted & amnesticized. Could also include a draft email (timestamped after the neutralization) from her to the head researcher, saying how the head researcher is a good scientist but a terrible people person and whaling on him for that, and that she trusted the SCP, and how trust is both a logical exercise as well as a gut feeling so she's as much of a scientist as he is but she knows the Foundation is the way it is and she hopes he can sleep at night etc. etc.
So, questions:
- Is the SCP itself a decent idea? I figure I'll need pics for the experiment log but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.
- Opinions on the narrative- is it necessary? I like the idea of the bodies coming back but I'm not entirely sure about everything after that. Am I going too hard on the cheese with the plot/are the "twists" a bit boring/formulaic? What improvements could I make?
- If I keep the current plot, ideally the narrative would be neutral on whose approach is "right" between the head researcher & the psychologist. The draft email would probably sway it to the psychologist but I like the idea of it. Thoughts on trying to find the right balance?
- I would much prefer the SCP article format for the structure but would it be significantly better as a tale?
Once again, I'd appreciate any additional feedback (and thanks for reading through that text wall).
Anomalous Alpacas
these weird-looking giraffe sheep are obviously anomalous, convince me I'm wrong
So, thought I'd try sounding out a short & sweet type skip.
The idea I'm tossing around has two different flavours, and I'd like to know your preferred option:
- Several herds of alpacas around the world that teleport to dimensional rifts &/or reality benders/unusually high or low Hume levels within ~50 km
- Several herds of alpacas around the world that teleport to the highest point that can fit their herd within ~50 km
So for the former there'd be shenanigans around hustling alpacas away from possible combat/danger zones, and similar for the latter from the top of tall buildings/maybe a space shuttle pre-launch or something ridiculous like that.
In both variations, they are generally disinterested in/wary of masculine-presenting staff but may approach and sniff feminine-presenting staff.
I'd also like feedback to help decide between some alternatives for rounding it off:
- Their calls are somewhat atypical to regular alpaca calls and eventually someone deciphers some to mean "come, let's go wait for our mistress/how long has it been?/she will reward our patience". Or something along those lines.
- They learn morse and there's an interview where they say similar things
- One shift the researcher who checks on them talks to them bc she's the type to talk to animals and the alpha says "our mistress will come for us one day" and that's the first and last thing they ever say
- A low-level reality bender arrives and spirits a herd of alpacas away.
- imo these all feel a little contrived, suggestions are welcome
Apart from general feedback on the idea and the stuff mentioned above, I've got other questions too:
- Does it sound familiar/has it been done before? I did have a look through the animal tag but there's a lot.
- I'm trying to hit that wistful/"awww" note with the whole waiting thing, since the entire idea is that they're teleporting to places they think their mistress is most likely to see them. If it only just clicked after that sentence, what can I add to make it "click" better or have more of an impact? FYI this was inspired by their origins myth (copypasted from Wikipedia in the collapsible below)
- The whole loyalty thing would probably work better with dogs but I'd think dog skips are pretty common. Like, I'm not married to the waiting/loyalty thing but it provides a bit of depth to the skip & explanation to the teleporting.
The origin of alpaca is depicted in legend that says they came to be in the world after a goddess fell in love with a man. The goddess’ father only allowed her to be with her lover if he cared for her herd of alpacas. On top of caring for the herd he was to always carry a small animal for his entire life. As she come into our world the alpacas followed her. Everything was fine until the man set the small animal down and the goddess fled back to her home. On her way back home, the man attempted to stop her and her herd from fleeing. While he was not able to stop her from returning he was able to stop a few alpacas from returning. These alpacas who didn’t make it back are seen today in the swampy lands in the Andes waiting for the end of world, so they may return to their goddess.
