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SCP-9000 Contest is Coming! Guess the Theme...

Based on the only hint, I (with the assistance of ChatGPT) listed some possible candidates.

Here I will put an intuitive bet on a dozen that I feel are most possible among them, top-down, just for fun (unless the contest marshals saw this list and change their mind, that doesn't count!):

Struggle

Society

Survival

Subversion

Stagnation

Solitude

Sacrifice

Salvation

Sorrow

Suppression

Silence

Secrecy

Suffering

Speed

Full conversation below the cut.

Me:

Please give me a list of common words, as long as possible, that all start with the letter "s" and can be a possible theme for a contest of writing SCPs (so that it is most likely to be a noun).

This is the only hint from the SCP-9000 contest marshals: they revealed that the theme starts with the letter s.

For more information, the former contest themes are:

SCP-1000: Folktales and/or Urban Legends (the longest theme and the oldest contest, the community later moved to shorter themes)

SCP-2000: Science Fiction (which are still two words, but can be considered as a single term. We cannot fully rule out the possibility that SCP-9000's theme will be multiple words)

SCP-3000: Horror

SCP-4000: History

SCP-5000: Mystery

SCP-6000: Nature

SCP-7000: Luck

SCP-8000: Fantasy (which is the most recent one, and has got critiques saying fantasy is too broad.)

ChatGPT:

Here is a long list of single English nouns that start with the letter “S” and are potentially usable as themes for an SCP contest, in line with previous themes (abstract, evocative, but interpretable in multiple narrative ways). They are organized into conceptual categories to reflect likely thematic choices.

Abstract Concepts / Narrative Tropes

Survival

Sacrifice

Secrecy

Silence

Solitude

Sanity

Suffering

Salvation

Suspicion

Subversion

Stagnation

Separation

Shadows

Sorrow

Symbolism

Sensation

Sentience

Sleep

Stillness

Strangeness

Serendipity

Subjugation

Sovereignty

Suppression

Slumber

Sabotage

Genres / Story Classifications

Superstition

Satire

Saga

Suspense

Speculation (as in Speculative Fiction)

Slasher

Superhero

Spycraft

Simulation

Cultural / Philosophical Ideas

Spirituality

Society

Sovereignty

Structure

Sin

Syncretism

Subjectivity

Sacredness

Sophistry

Sectarianism

Science / Technology Themes

Science

Space

Singularity

Systems

Simulation

Signal

Software

Synthetics

Synergy

Sensors

Surveillance

Symmetry

Synthesis

Silicon

Sequences

Natural / Environmental Ideas

Storm

Sun

Sand

Sea

Seasons

Swamp

Snow

Soil

Stone

Sky

Symbiosis

Sound

Smoke

Species

Sap

Shells

Subterranea

Starlight

Conflict / Sociopolitical Terms

Struggle

Siege

Suppression

Schism

Sedition

Slavery

Sabotage

Separation

Surveillance

State

Subculture

System

Scandal

Secrecy

Myth / Religion / Occult

Spirit

Soul

Shrine

Sacrifice

Sorcery

Summoning

Saints

Serpents

Sigils

Scriptures

Sabbat

Shamanism

Sanctum

Spells

Psychology / Perception

Self

Sanity

Subconscious

Senses

Suffering

Sensation

Subjectivity

Suppression

Sleep

Synesthesia

Suggestion

Subliminal

Other Evocative Possibilities

Story

Structure

Specter

Secret

Shell

Scale

Screen

Shadow

Scar

Shape

Signal

Sequence

Stage

Shift

Score

Scratch

Slip

Stitch

Shatter

Shroud

Strain

This list can be extended indefinitely, but based on prior patterns (short, evocative themes), these are the strongest candidates. Particularly strong contenders for SCP-9000 include:

Silence – easily interpreted across horror, sci-fi, or anomalous metaphysics

Secrets / Secrecy – core to SCP tone

Singularity – tech and identity themes

Solitude – psychological and containment potential

Strangeness – almost synonymous with "anomaly"

Suppression – control, memory wipes, institutional power

Simulation – digital, artificial, metaphysical possibilities

Survival – a flexible narrative frame

Sacrifice – mythological, personal, or systemic

Would you like me to narrow this list down to the most plausible 5–10 candidates based on the SCP Foundation's tone and history?

Me:

Would you mind giving a longer list except for the provided ones above?

ChatGPT:

Absolutely. Here is a long, extended list of common English nouns starting with "S" that were not already included in the list above. These are filtered to:

Be reasonably common nouns (or used as nouns)

Be interpretable or thematic enough for SCP storytelling

Avoid proper nouns and overly technical jargon

Extended Noun List (Starting with “S”) — Not Previously Listed

Saboteur

Saddle

Safety

Sail

Saintliness

Sample

Sandstorm

Satellite

Satisfaction

Saturation

Scale

Scarcity

Scenario

Scheme

Scholar

Schooling

Scope

Scorekeeper

Scrutiny

Sculpture

Seaweed

Search

Seasonality

Seclusion

Segment

Selection

Selfhood

Semblance

Seminar

Sensibility

Sensitivity

Sentinel

Separation

Sequence

Servant

Service

Setback

Settlement

Severity

Shard

Shelter

Shield

Shiftwork

Showcase

Shriek

Shrubbery

Shutdown

Sickness

Sight

Signalman

Signature

Simulacrum

Simplicity

Sincerity

Singularity

Sinkhole

Sisterhood

Situation

Skepticism

Sketch

Skin

Skull

Slab

Slack

Slavery

Sleeper

Slice

Slide

Sling

Slipstream

Slot

Smog

Smokehouse

Snapshot

Snare

Snowfall

Snowflake

Sobriety

Socialization

Socket

Sodality

Softness

Software

Soil

Soldier

Solemnity

Solicitation

Solution

Solvency

Sonar

Songbird

Sonority

Sophistication

Sorcerer

Source

Sovereign

Spacecraft

Spacer

Spasm

Speaker

Specialization

Specimen

Spectacle

Spectator

Speed

Sphere

Spill

Spiral

Spiritism

Spite

Splendor

Spore

Sport

Spotlight

Springtime

Sprout

Spur

Square

Stability

Stack

Stagecraft

Stalemate

Stall

Stamp

Standard

Standing

Starship

Statement

Static

Station

Statistics

Status

Stay

Steam

Steel

Stench

Steppe

Steward

Stick

Stimulant

Sting

Stint

Stockpile

Storage

Stormfront

Storyboard

Strait

Strategy

Stream

Strength

Stressor

Stretch

Stricture

Stride

Strike

Strip

Structure

Struggle

Student

Study

Stumble

Submission

Substance

Substitute

Subtext

Subversion

Suffering

Suggestion

Summons

Sunbeam

Sunrise

Sunset

Sunshine

Superstition

Supervision

Supplement

Supply

Supporter

Suppression

Surface

Surgeon

Surprise

Surveillance

Survivor

Suspense

Sustenance

Symbol

Symmetry

Symphony

Synapse

Synchrony

Syndicate

Synergy

Synod

Syntax

Systematics

This list avoids thematic overlaps with the earlier provided ones while still aiming to offer meaningful and thematic material. Many of these words are less evocative on their own but could be plausible depending on how metaphorical or abstract the contest organizers intend the theme to be.

Want this filtered down by tone (e.g. horror-leaning, sci-fi-leaning, etc.)?

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My latest cartoon for New Scientist

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“Socrates said, “The misuse of language induces evil in the soul.” He wasn’t talking about grammar. To misuse language is to use it the way politicians and advertisers do, for profit, without taking responsibility for what the words mean. Language used as a means to get power or make money goes wrong: it lies. Language used as an end in itself, to sing a poem or tell a story, goes right, goes towards the truth. A writer is a person who cares what words mean, what they say, how they say it. Writers know words are their way towards truth and freedom, and so they use them with care, with thought, with fear, with delight. By using words well they strengthen their souls. Story-tellers and poets spend their lives learning that skill and art of using words well. And their words make the souls of their readers stronger, brighter, deeper.”

Ursula K. Le Guin

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"Esperanto at a glance" Educational poster by the British Esperanto Association, 1923

"16 rules, NO exceptions"

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Per the greenlighting policy in the SCP Foundation wiki for first-time authors:

The Ideas Critique forum

(In reality I coldposted for the first time and never really got one greenlight before that)

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Thaumaturgy-powered spaceships.

Writer's Month 2024, Day 16: "Ship"

Original fiction/Science Fantasy story Word count: 468 Summary: Based on this from @writing-prompt-s.

Captain Andromeda Mattinson strode into the Engine Room, her expression grim.

"Alright, people. Can anyone explain to me why we're stuck floating halfway between Saturn and Uranus?"

Private Michael Cheng coughed nervously. He strode forward, gave a quick salute and muttered, "With all due respect, ma'am, you might want to—"

"—shut up and listen for once, that's what she might want to do!"

Commander Wyrdstone strode forward, pounding his staff angrily on the metal floor. Unlike the rest of the U.S.F. Phoenix crew, Wyrdstone didn't wear a traditional uniform—or rather, he wore a very traditional one, a long robe with impactably wide sleeves and a pointed hat, all covered with planets and stars. (His outfit could, in fact, serve as a workable stellimap.) He looked even more frazzled than usual, glaring at the captain from beneath bushy eyebrows.

"I TOLD you that we needed powdered griffin claw! How do you expect me to power a hyperdrive without griffin claw?!"

She worked to keep her voice even. "Griffin claw is hard to come by on Charon. Private Cheng assured me that you would be able to—"

"Private Cheng has as much brains as a cockatrice!"

Michael, who was Wyrdstone's apprentice, winced. "I just said, sir—a wizard of your caliber might be able to—"

"Even Merlin couldn't conjure faster-than-light travel from nothing! A lesser wizard wouldn't have gotten us past Neptune! Now, if we had stopped at Ariel, LIKE I SAID TO, we might have gotten some more fuel. But why should anyone listen to ME?!" He waved his hand dismissively. "Never mind that I was running spaceships before the Outer Planets were colonized!"

Captain Mattinson took a deep breath. "What can we do?" she asked calmly.

"Wait for a griffin to fly by," the wizard said, voice dripping sarcasm.

"Actually, sir—"

Michael winced as both of his superiors turned, Wyrdstone with eyes blazing beneath his bushy eyebrows. He swallowed, then pulled on a chain around his neck. A single small gemstone appeared from under his shirt.

"A Neptunian diamond I keep for emergencies. It should have enough magic to—"

He let out a strangling sound as Wyrdstone grabbed the chain, bringing the crystal to his eye for study.

"Hmm. Not the worst specimen I've seen. I can at least get us to Phoebe on this." He released the chain, then gave Michael an appraising look. "Good work, boy. You might just make a passable wizard yet."

He removed the chain from Michael's neck, then stomped away, giving neither him nor the captain another look. Michael rubbed his aching neck, while Captain Mattinson looked stony.

"I really need to fire that old warlock," she said, shaking her head. But Michael knew that she wouldn't. Say what you want about him, you couldn't find a better astromage than Wyrdstone.

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End of pride month, but our pride will never end! 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

Check this fresh-made, highly-customizable Pride SCP Logo series, to add a bit of queer radiance to your Wikidot pages:

This is also an entry to PRIDEFEST 2024.

All image resources are free to download and collect! Reblog or leave your votes if you enjoy it <3

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𝓘 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓴 𝓬𝓪𝓹𝓲𝓽𝓪𝓵 𝓛 𝓲𝓼 𝓹𝓻𝓸𝓫𝓪𝓫𝓵𝔂 𝓽𝓱𝓮 𝓶𝓸𝓼𝓽 𝓯𝓾𝓷 𝓽𝓸 𝔀𝓻𝓲𝓽𝓮, 𝓽𝓱𝓸𝓾𝓰𝓱 𝓵𝓸𝔀𝓮𝓻𝓬𝓪𝓼𝓮 𝓺 𝓲𝓼 𝓪𝓵𝓼𝓸 𝓪 𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓸𝓷𝓰 𝓬𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓷𝓭𝓮𝓻.

Cursive Letters [Explained]

Transcript

[A graph with 10 ticks on both the X and Y axes. The graph contains cursive uppercase and lowercase Latin letters. X axis is labeled "Looks cool" with an arrow pointing right and Y axis is labeled "Easy to tell what letter it's supposed to be" with an arrow pointing upward. From top to bottom, left to right, the letters are: C, B, P, K, d, X, R; M, N, c, O, x, t, y, L; D, W, a, Y, o, i; H; A, b, j; p, h; w, Q; m, u, k, g; E, I, l, q; f, J; U, V, T, e; n; v, F; G; r, S, s, z, Z.]

[The alt-text is written in cursive characters.] Alt-Text: I think capital L is probably the most fun to write, though lowercase q is also a strong contender.

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SCP Foundation art, SCP-5000 - Why?

Based on the voice from the radio:

Voice: Seven. Five. Can you hear me? There is a hole shining in the holes between your eyelids. I have never been to Versailles before. I want to be loved. Nine. I am standing behind you now. Five. I am two of us, standing behind you now. The goddess eats the city in the sea. Nine. There's a hole in the floor with an answer waiting in it. Seven. Look, you're hatching. You're hatching!

SCP-5000 - Why? by Tanhony: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-5000

Patreon | Author Page | Art Hub | Twitter | DeviantArt

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Why is death Irreversible? (Pt. 1)

Fun fact that we all know: with the same total mass, ice is bigger than water. This VERY fact enabled primordial lives to survive and evolve in oceans and finally become us, because if water becomes denser when it solidifies (as most other liquids do), then when cold climates dominate, the sea (and other waterbodies) will start to freeze from the bottom, leaving no space for aquatic organisms.

Otherwise, in reality, the ice will float and remains to be a layer on the water's surface, which all aquatic creatures also benefit from the ice coat's thermal insulation effect (the ice layer prevents the water beneath it to freeze deeper).

Unfortunately, the fact that water gets bigger when frozen also severely impedes our cryogenic biology technologies. Especially for larger animals, it's hardly possible to lower their body temperature quickly and evenly enough to prevent sharp ice crystals from forming within the tissues and shredding cellular structures apart. Once this happened, it will render resurrection nearly impossible. (The point of freezing animals is to slow down or halt their metabolic process or postmortem disintegration to wait for a time to bring them back to life.)

The only solution, afaik, is to replace water by another liquid without this disadvantage. H2O is a great substance, also a sweet curse that we were soaked up ever from the warm cradles of the primeval oceans.

"a rational understanding of the laws of nature can quench impossible desires"

—Lucius Garvin

Water quenches our thirst, but rationality doesn't necessarily quench our desire of immortality.

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I'm not sure if it is really a metaphor, since I'm still reading on the first few chapters yet.

Afaik, this novel concerns "relative perspective", which was shaped by the rapid development of information technology.

It's possible to make the world look differently in each person's eyes. Information that we receive is heavily filtered and censored and modified to meet the needs of [REDACTED], therefore this premise has disintegrated the ground of "common truth" for us humans.

I once considered to write about this topic and, regardlessly, this is a good book to grab and read to give you a clearer vision for the digital world that we live in rn.

Fun science trivia:

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Edit Note: I'm really amazed by how much love this post got. Guess it just shows we're all in the same boat. I do have other humorous writing memes on this tumblr under the same tag, if you're interested. Never give up writing! ❤️

Edit Note 2: I can't believe this has reached 5000 notes. Been on tumblr for almost ten years (different account) and nothing like this has ever happened before. Thank you! 😊

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The Homogenous Thesis of Rationality and Emotion

Does rational thinking operate actually by emotions? This is a common myth that gets the facts upside-down.

Our neural activities are run by electric signals, on the one way by ions traversing neuron cell membranes, and on another way by chemical neurotransmitters that activate certain recipients to tune the former ion-traversing method.

It was largely recognized by people, thanks to science educators and influencers, that emotions - particularly strong impulses like euphoria, love, and stress - are driven by certain chemicals. Love is actually chemistry. Narcotic drugs interfere this process to mess up with our feelings and perceptions. It's true on its bare feet, but cunningly, it reduced the true problem to a materialistic bare-bones argument, and this should be blamed for concluding the statement that "reasoning and feeling both rely on neurotransmitters", so they have a same origin.

Take the example of gunpowders. Pure gunpowders are highly inflammable and explosive mixtures of substances, that react instantaneously on the trigger: incendiaries. Once triggered, it initiates chemical reactions to produce gases with a high speed in a very short time, which causes consequences that we call explosion.

Neurotransmitters and other pure chemical means in our brains are gunpowders. They only serve as a foundation or prerequisite for more complex activities. If not regulated, gunpowders simply produce momentum that no one is sure about its usage. Drugs mess up our minds in this way; they trigger sequential reactions by brutal force. But in normal life, it's the way we regulate them that truly matters.

By purposeful design, gunpowders can make their way into weapons, to shoot out bullets; into bombs, to damage by their coarse splinters; or into firecrafts, to create beautiful scenes to enjoy in the sky. It can be all the same chemical composition. But in the end, it's the usage that matters. The substance itself makes no sense.

So, at the end of the day, all thinking processes are literally the same. But why not say that we are all carbohydrate flesh lumps? Rationality and sensibility are built on the same basic bricks, but they make a spectrum by stretching on different sides: how we regulate these impulses.

[raylite]

WIP & Intro

This blog is intended for hoarding interesting stuff, perhaps fanarts, little prose, book excerpts, random inspirations, writing prompts, fun science trivia, or something alike.

Alternate blog (for more random personal stuff): @talcite

Social links:

WIP Foundation tales:

Parallelism, a short trilogy featuring the conflict between reality-warpers and normalcy-preserving organizations (Foundation and GOC), and the early career life of Alexis Talcite as a thaumaturgist, formerly a researcher in computer science.

Nameless Web (无名之网), about Maxwellism of CoBG, the linkAge canon, and cyberpunk in a near-future context.

Final Victory (Fina Venko), a world setting envisioning a better future in the upcoming handful of centuries. This blog got its title from this canon.

WIP SCP articles:

Haunted Camera, a smartphone app telling about oblivion and death.

37 ℃, about why humans have a body temperature of 37 ℃ now.

Chronocracy, when time comes into power.

Asteroid Solo, a wandering planet with a lone watcher.

Moreality, a supercomputer that computes the reality and predict the future.

Indie game projects WIP:

PARANOMA, a sequel for Parallelism. Features a paracosmos inhabited by reality-warpers as they segregated themselves from the bigger society and started a new civilization and culture on their own.

I wrote things:

SCP: Panorama is a lite TTRPG rule book based on the SCP Foundation canon(s). In-universe, it's an infohazardous record that enables revision of the past and rehearsal of the future through role-playing.

Any suggestions for the game rule design, please go to:

https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/forum/t-16804250/scp-trpg-game

Photonic Crystal is a type of material that can alter the wavelengths of electromagnetic waves and hence produce different colors of light. There's something beyond that. What lies behind a different world that we can never see its true color?

Diviners' Mug is a ceramic mug that predicts the possible result of a verbally given event by shapeshifting liquid dropped out of it.

Stereoisomerism is a phenomenon, which objects (specifically molecules, in real-world context) differ in their visual shapes or structures, but have intrinsically the same chemical composition.

Articles in other languages:

(Translated from Chinese) An online wayback machine that could let you visit the live sessions of the Internet in the past, with apparently limitless storage and precision, rendering it to possibly be a temporal anomaly. All lost accounts, messages, and other information could hence be recovered in this way...

Project Moreality aims to construct a panoramic, real-time, asynchronous simulation of the physical world executing on a high-duty anomalous supercomputer (designated SCP-CN-2005-A), which tries to approximate reality by the chaos theory.

One of its instances posed pataphysical hostility toward the Foundation, indicating it evolved into an embedded universe with intelligent creatures inhabiting inside. After deleting the instance, Foundation facilitated this hypothesis to fight against their upper narrative, aka. our real world.

Freezing Flames is a crossover tale sourced from Sky: Children of the Light, one of my favorite indie games. It features a GOC field agent, Hina, who accidentally found herself going on a tough survival adventure before an emergency landing on an exoplanet, the world of Sky Kingdom. With her teammates all died, why was she the only survivor aboard the little spacecraft? The truth turns out to be a heartbreaking story.