Things... just got a lot more interesting. Like. A LOT more. So, SCP Foundation is a completely fictional concept too? Where's it from? There's way too much I don't know.
It's an actual website where people come up with these ideas -- kinda like AO3, except there's a much more specific "fandom" to write fics for, and you don't ever make crossovers (people have written a few as jokes, but they largely shun anything that interjects another fandom -- especially My Little Pony). They also try to avoid crossing over with other "skips" (the term for a supernatural object/creature/place: skip or scip). So like, if you come up with an supernatural creature that would be perfect to handle the idea-eating thing, you still don't combine them (or, on the rare occasions when such things are attempted, it often leads to unexpected and very bad consequences).
(Note: The site has grown into its current set of social expectations. So some of the early entries break rules in ways that they would never permit on modern entries. There's a whole culture to explore that lies underneath the surface, and the comment threads can be quite interesting all on their own.)
You can read the Antimemetics Division's exploits here, and the first set of entries here. They're not really meant to be read in order; I suggest actually skipping #1 until you have a feel for the site and the premise. A couple entries that I drew ideas from (for Unseen Things) are Hand-drawn Cassy and the Identity-Stealing Hat.
One of the entries that I find particularly horrific, as an idea, is the statue of Tophet, which I'm not going to spoil. But it shows exactly how an SCP entry should be written: devoid of sentiment, explaining things as if there's no other way to contain the thing, and developing the horrific aspect slowly, in layers, through a lot of euphemisms, until you realize what's actually going on and run back to read the beginning again and let the horror of the idea wash over you ^_^
Found a good one for understanding the interview/incident report format! Make sure to click on the various links to open up other parts of the page. There are three successive pages, with various expandable details on each page. I loved the ending!
And here's an example of the Joke Entries, which have -J at the end of them. This item is still anomalous/supernatural, just not in the way that everyone seems to think it is.
That site is a lot more practical looking than I'd have thought. A lot more so than wikipedia, lmao. But they look pretty interesting, even though some of those things are going WIDE over my head. I think I'll start with Tophet.
Another thing to be aware of: Unseen Things is not a crossover (POI/SCP) but a fusion piece. That means that I've reimagined the POI universe as though it were set in something heavily inspired by, yet not identical to, the SCP Foundation universe. As though the story were always set in that universe, and the characters had been designed around that concept, yet sticking to the basic plot / setup of the POI concept. So it's "We help the helpless" + making use of predictive technology (except a supernatural version instead of a sci-fi techie version) + powerful forces trying to stop, capture, and/or make use of our heroes (except different groups than POI uses).
The clandestine edge of the U.S. government (CIA/FBI/ISA etc.) has been replaced with the Foundation, which is the core SCP group dedicated to securing these supernatural (or, in my fic, "anomalous") forces and keeping the public from finding out about them.
The conspiracy-theory, control-through-chaos group Decima has been replaced with The Order, which is a cult-like group combining elements from Decima and several SCP Groups of Interest (many of which are cults). It seeks to gain power and upgrade the world to establish ultimate order, even if it has to use controlled (or even uncontrolled) chaos to accomplish its goal.
None of the SCP characters have been borrowed for Unseen Things; any character not from POI has been made up by me.
So it's in the style of SCP, without directly borrowing elements (although the name "the Foundation" is clearly copied; I think I might've changed that if I'd had more time to ponder a replacement).
Some details about Unseen Things:
a. In POI, Harold Finch is a wanted man because of the information in his head, and the ability he has to access the program he created. In UT, he's wanted because he has supernatural powers that allow him to figure out the details of anomalous objects, and hoo boy, does every group that knows about this want him under their thumb. He's like the ultimate instruction manual they've been desperate to get their hands on.
b. In POI, John Reese served time in special forces under the U.S. government, and did many things that haunt him, though he felt that he was serving the forces of good at the time. In UT, he's a former agent of the Foundation, and likewise did many things that haunt him, though he (like the other agents) had been persuaded that it was the only way they could protect the world.
c. In POI, the thing that gives them predictive information is a computer program called "the Machine." In UT, it's a book that can show pictures of likely upcoming events, and even answer questions.
...I would offer some more details to help you avoid confusion between the two worldbuilds, but I gotta get off the computer. Hope you have fun with the SCP!
At this point, I think you've given me enough information and clearly enough, that I'd be able to read Unseen Things with minimal confusion. I read Trophet, or SCP-089, as it is, and damn, werent you right about the whole horrific thing and how I actually reread it again after finishing it once. I might read Unsesn Things given the time, and sufficient interest to invest in characters I'm not attached to.
That's good to know. And also, if you feel like I'm giving you too much information, feel free to tell me to shut up; I'm like a walking encyclopedia, so it's easy for me to just start spouting off information and not know when to quit. Always best to be clear with me (I don't easily pick up on hints).
To get a better view of the characters, I again recommend Numb Too Long, which showcases Harold, Fusco, and Shaw, and I've been told that it sticks quite close to canon personalities and is "a really tight casefic" with surprisingly well written OCs for the kidnappers. The other two fics that have an overview of the larger cast would be Look, John, Just Play Along (most of the cast all in one room relaxing) and October Feels Odd (Harold getting annoyed by how helpful his team can be), both around 2500 words (~five pages).
Haha, no. I like information. I gobble it up. Except textbook info. I'm shit at that. There is a really small chance that I'd be reading any of them since I'm not invested in the characters at all, never having even heard of the show before your fics. But since 2500 isn't that large a word count, I might.
It's funny 'cuz the thing that pulled me into POI was reading a fic outside my normal fandoms. I don't usually do that, like barely at all, but a friend pointed me at astolat's Dangerous If Unbound, under the impression that I'd ("obviously") already seen the series. And since I trust that friend's judgment and her awareness of what I enjoy, I took a look at it, and (despite being pretty long) it totally pulled me in.
That's the fic that introduced me to POI and to Dom/sub verse. Though I confess it gave me a quite different view of the characters than I got once I actually started watching the show.
What later pulled me over the hump into the MCU is astolat's Chaos War, so I have her to thank for both my main fandoms. (During blood plasma donations, I'd seen a lot of the MCU films in pieces and out of order and often without any sound or subtitles, so I knew at some point I'd be getting into the fandom, but I'd been putting it off until I ended up reading that fic.)
So these are the two fandoms that I read first and watched (and loved) later. There are (roughly) two fandoms that I read without any plans to watch them, and those are Supernatural and Teen Wolf. I don't care at all about the shows, but I got hooked on the Omegaverse worldbuild, and those happen to show up in a lot of searches for Omegaverse (Alpha/Beta/Omega) fics. If I wholesale avoided fics from shows I don't watch, I would never have gotten to see the breadth of the Omegaverse idea, which is pretty fascinating once you can wrap your head around why it exists and what purpose it serves (it allows writers to tease apart the baggage from modern gender stereotypes, and pinpoint the areas they wish to explore (or dismantle)).
P.S. Textbooks often fail to present the material in a way that's concise and interesting and will stick in the brain. I don't tend to hold that against the student; there are far more useful and efficient ways to teach various subjects, and I tend to think it's a problem with the curriculum (not the student) if it really fails to stick.
Me reading any Loki fic was a really conflicting act. I didn't want to because I'd seen very few MCU movies and I'm not a very moviesty person. Loki was more or less a stranger to me. I'd only seen him in 2 movies and he had a significant role in only one of them. But yeah, the fics drew me in and now I've been reading way too many mcu fics.
I feel kind of lost when I try to read fics outside of my fandom. I mean, with the ammount of shows I watch, which is very very little, its gonna be really hard to find that many fics. Perhaps I should explore out of my fandoms more often.
Boy, don't they. So often have I stared at the same paragraph from a textbook for 20 mins because it didn't make any fucking sense. And I'm really shit at rote learning.
The good news is that nowadays there are a lot of alternative ways to learn things online. I can recommend giving Khan Academy a shot for math (and some other topics as well, though they specialize in math), and I use a phone app called (IIRC) "Math Tricks" that goes over the specific techniques to handle certain categories of problems (e.g. multiplying when the number ends in 5 or whatever), which is helping me improve my speed and intuition in both adding and multiplying. I enjoy the geography games on Sheppard Software's site, and that's the only reason I'm able to map out most of Africa from memory.
War history from Sabaton's songs, other types of history from Extra Credit's videos, cooking techniques from Epicurious, art techniques from Character Design Forge... there's a wealth of info out there, some of it even interactive. I don't know how much longer Kongregate will have its games up (given that Flash support is going away soon), but they've got a neat game called CellCraft that teaches the contents of a cell via these weird platypus alien scientists and a game where you need to get the cell to gather the right components to create energy and repel viruses and such. A major chunk of my musical education came from Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and Beat Saber, and I study Spanish by playing Stardew Valley (though I'm gearing up for some more directed study into the grammar).
Anyway.
I'm glad that I encountered MCU Loki and imprinted on him before I really had much of an encounter with comics Loki or even mythological Loki. I mean, I knew that they existed, and I'd probably run across them a time or two, but no really strong connection in my brain -- so MCU Loki had a kind of clean slate to work from, and now I've seen so many variations in the fics that I've also picked up details from the mythology (lip-sewing, sky-walking, monstrous children, etc.) as well as probably some elements from the comics that I don't have enough awareness to pick up on (though probably any strong characterization of the Warriors Three that shows up repeatedly could be attributed to the comics, because they sure didn't get much characterization in the films).
I got my mom hooked on Coneycat's Housemates series, which is basically the first fanfic she's ever cared about, and I'm hoping to get my nephews and niece over to watch MCU films enough to become Loki fans. (As I said to one of them a year or two ago: If you've watched a few Marvel films and aren't a Loki fan, I haven't been doing my job as your aunt.) He's really quite the compelling character, both in the films proper and in the way fandom has taken him and run in so many different directions ^_^
My first encounter with Loki was actually through Rick Riordan's books, Magnus Chase. So it was mythological. But I'm nothing if not versatile. Movies shifted it again and then came the fanfics. Which usually digress VASTLY from the movies. I think he's shaping up to be my favourite character purely because if fanfics and how I pay way more attention to him now because of it and find and try to excuse for everything he does even if its inherently wrong, or just plain take enjoyment put of his 'evilness'.
Internet really is a good source of information, and studying. It was with maths for me, mostly. But I dropped that last year. And now I sparsely use the internet for studying. Perhaps I should do that more often.
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