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Hypnic Jerk=Full-Body Combustion
The HornsThe Horns 15 Feb 2019, 14:49
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I think that while the containment of the effect's origin will stay rather generic, the rest will be based in the fact that in order to contain it properly personnel will have to stay in its vicinity, thus becoming subject to its effects. Avoidance of this effect's negative outcome will hinge around getting proper sleep, specifically whichever schedule best mitigates the occurrence hypnic jerks in particular. Some other aspects of containment will include the containment facility being fitted with blast-resistant reinforcement, and any personnel that exhibit symptoms of poor sleep being removed from the facility. The anomaly's range of effect will be too large to build a containment unit around, but just small enough for the foundation to cordon off access to the affected zone.
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A hypnagogic jerk is an involuntary muscle spasm that one most often experience when they are about to fall asleep, or when waking. The spasm often follows a feeling of falling, and is sometimes coupled with mental imagery. It most often wakes those who experience it. It is often caused by the body relaxing, or entering sleep mode, too fast. This makes the brain believe it may be dying, so it delivers a jolt to some part of the body. Hypnic jerks can be caused by strenuous exercise, use of stimulants like caffeine, emotional stress, or anything else that can motivate the body to shut down quickly when in a troubled state.
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The anomaly's "source" will likely be some object that exhibits relevance to the end effect, like a sculpture of a man thrashing around in bed. When one experiences a hypnic jerk within some distance from the object, they will combust instantly in a medium-sized, fiery explosion, leaving no trace of their body. The explosion's severity may hinge on either how intense the jerk is, or just how poor their sleep conditions were (in terms of sleep deprivation, stress, etc.).
My biggest issue is that I don't know what kind of story I can make with this.
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Re: Hypnic Jerk=Full-Body Combustion
Waxwing-oneWaxwing-one 16 Feb 2019, 07:08
Hi there. Writing an article inspired by the hypnagogic jerk effect could potentially be interesting, but I see a few issues with the concept as you present it.
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My biggest issue is that I don't know what kind of story I can make with this.
I think that’s a valid concern. The concept isn’t suggestive of much narrative content, and doesn’t seem to have much scope for its inclusion. Consider tailoring your anomaly to facilitate a story you want to tell, rather than trying to force a story around your existing anomaly idea.
Having it be a statue of someone in bed implies that the anomaly was designed, in which case you should have an idea of who designed it and why. If it’s made by anartists such as ‘Are We Cool Yet?’ then you should be clear on what meaning/message the artist is trying to get across with the anomaly. In its current form, it doesn’t seem to have one.
Even if you don’t intend to clearly answer that in the article, it’s usually best to think about these things and at least hint at a resolution in your draft.
You don’t mention a reason why anybody would need to stay in its vicinity in order to contain it. Tacking on an effect because the article needs for the Foundation to interact with the anomaly in a certain way can seem like a blatant contrivance if you’re not careful.
So, hypnagogic jerks are essentially the sleeping brain causing a bodily jerk in order to check that it’s not dying? In your concept, instead of checking that it’s not dying, the effect causes death (by explosion). That’s an inversion of the usual effect, and does have some merit, but I’m not sure that it’s strong enough to serve as the crux of the article, and doesn’t really seem to interact with any other elements of the concept to give a cohesive, suitably intriguing or meaningful whole.
Maybe try something else instead, unless you can think of a way to change some effects of the anomaly and fold them in to convey something more interesting to the reader.
The content of the ‘falling’ micro-dreams which accompany the effect could be interesting territory to explore with the concept, if you wanted to stick with a hypnagogic jerk idea.
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Re: Hypnic Jerk=Full-Body Combustion
The HornsThe Horns 17 Feb 2019, 19:17
That idea in the last bit's likely just what I need. While I do see that it's not very flexible in terms of storytelling, or threatening as an SCP, I think a story that focuses I'll do a rough draft to see just how it could form a story, and what I should change to make it more interesting.
Don't I need permission though
I really like the idea of this being an "Are We Cool Yet?" piece, as I think it would fit for them to make fun/mock the morals of the Foundation in this way; the statue'll have an inscription saying "How can you sleep at night?". I don't remember AWCY ever taking the moral high ground on the foundation, but I do remember reading some skip where they expressed surprise and horror at the Foundation's testing their anomaly on humans. If I do this, though, the anomaly definitely won't fit.
To fit the AWCY's desired message here, I would have to move away from hypnic jerks altogether, more fitting effects being: either those affected lose the ability to sleep, or are somehow killed by guilt if they do.
I only really paired spontaneous combustion with hypnic jerks because it plays into the shock, and I don't think it would work well as a thematic expression of guilt.
Worst case scenario, this anomaly won't get its own article or story, and will serve as a background reference or lesser threat in another article or tale.
Thanks so much for your feedback!
