Item #: SCP-3132
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: Embedded agents in television stations are to monitor and shut down any broadcasts showing SCP-3132 events. Amnestics are to be administered to all civilians affected by SCP-3132 after the conclusion of the event.
All personnel attempting to infiltrate, record, or directly study SCP-3132 events must possess a MARS score of 3 or higher, and must be equipped with hearing protection.
Description: SCP-3132 is a phenomenon affecting televised spelling bee competitions in the United States.
Upon the beginning of an SCP-3132 event, contestants will begin to recite the spellings of completely different words than the ones asked. Judges will not note any abnormalities and will always consider these responses to be completely correct, allowing the competition to proceed. Any contestant who recites the original word requested will be marked incorrect, and eliminated from the competition.
When 14 or fewer contestants remain, SCP-3132 will enter Stage 2. During this stage, most parents and guardians of the contestants will tend to leave their seats and congregate behind the judges, although the parents of contestants that have been eliminated will attempt to leave the building, but will be unable to open the doors. Testing has shown that the doors will remain closed even with an arbitrarily large amount of force applied to them from either side. Remaining contestants will stand in a circle, facing inward.
When a contestant takes their turn, they will turn to face the judges. Judges will then recite a passage from a seemingly random book (see file 3132-K for a full list), and the contestant will then speak in a heavily distorted voice, using sounds that do not correspond to phonemes in any known language. Several of these phrases have turned out to be mild auditory cognitohazards; their effects have so far included immediate hair loss, temporary blindness, rapid weight gain, and uncontrollable crying I need to figure out the specific effects. Noticeably, the contestants and judges are not affected by these cognitohazards.
Judges will disqualify at least one contestant each round; however, no consistent pattern has yet been found to explain these disqualifications.
When only three contestants remain, SCP-3132 will enter Stage 3. At this stage, the judges will usually leave their seats and attempt to leave the building. The parents of the remaining contestants will then fill the vacant seats. At this stage, the contestants become unable to speak. The parents will repeatedly prompt the contestants with ordinary English words, before appearing to argue with the other parents. At this point, any contestant that leaves the stage will vanish and reappear directly outside the doors of the building.
Research regarding the conditions necessary to trigger SCP-3132 events has so far been inconclusive.
<Hippo> but, yes! I think like, all the components of that idea are *excellent*: the idea of children spelling words at a spelling bee ending up casting spells/invoking some sort of ritual accidentally
17:28 the idea of it being connected to the children's stress/the narrative theme of parents pushing their children too far
17:28 <%NineVolt> weryllium: I dunno why but the way you said that makes it sounds like your dad lives in the zoo
17:28 <Hippo> I'm not sure I'm sold on the swapping bodies component, but
17:29 <%weryllium> For once in my life I have the core theme before I decide on the specifics of the anomaly
17:29 <Hippo> other than that I like all the components of it — I think though it needs — IDK maybe something different than parents swapping bodies with their children? It depends on the feel you're going for, though; like when you said that my brain immediately thought 'wait so it's the Parent Trap?'
17:29 Like that's almost *humorous*. It sucks, too, but it's going to be hard not to make that just kind of a funny thing
17:29 <%weryllium> I've considered a few effects but I haven't settled
17:30 <Hippo> I mean it wouldn't be funny if it actually happened and you could possibly go in that direction, like
17:30 you could side-blind the reader, make the reader go 'haha, that's funny', then interviews reveal that it's actually pretty fucking heart-breaking
17:30 <%weryllium> No yeah I want it to be like, fucked up conceptually
17:30 <Hippo> conceptually, in practice, or both?
17:30 <%weryllium> Cousin Johnny without the gore
17:30 Is what I'm aiming for in tone
17:30 <Hippo> like in reading the article's summary do you want me to go 'oh god no' right away
17:31 or do you want me to go 'haha, funny' then read the article and go 'oh god no'
17:31 <Hippo> (also is Cousin Johnny the one with the cicadas)
17:31 <%weryllium> I'm thinking it happens in stages and starts off "ok that's weird" abd then descends into "fuck no"
17:31 Yes
17:31 <Hippo> Okay
17:31 <Hippo> Then yeah I, like
17:32 <%weryllium> .sm 1
17:32 <+jarvis> weryllium: SCP-2852: Cousin Johnny (written 2 years ago by kinchtheknifeblade; rating: +246) - http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-2852
17:32 <%NineVolt> Ah, the good ol descent into WHAT THE FUCK strategy
17:32 My personal favorite
17:32 <Hippo> I'm gonna try not to railroad you here into your decidsion but I think that's an excellent choice, narratively
17:32 <%weryllium> It's a good strategy
17:32 <Hippo> like I would have the words they're trying to spell grow increasingly fucked up
17:32 until they're not even words
17:33 <%weryllium> That's what I had, actually
17:33 <%NineVolt> weryllium: Based on 3070 the strategy works wonders if executed right
17:33 <Hippo> also hm
17:34 <Hippo> I'm actually thinking like it seems like 'The Hanged King' is kind of your go-to here weryllium? Well, that plus the Cousin Johnny one
17:34 the Hanged King mostly in the sense of its intersection with a school function that goes increasingly off-script
17:34 but doesn't just end in everyone murdering everyone
17:34 <%weryllium> Yeah, pretty much
17:34 <Hippo> I'm trying to think of what would be a good final for this
17:35 something that evokes the visceral horror of pushing your children too hard to accomplish impossible things
17:35 <%weryllium> I've always liked 701's "trapped as some mundane event goes horribly wrong"
17:35 <Hippo> just becoming expressions of their parents' desires
17:35 <%weryllium> Yeah, that's gonna be the lynchpin. It has to hit hard
17:35 <Hippo> like, hm
17:36 <Hippo> there's a couple of ways you can do it. Part of me likes the notion that whatever you do, the children, at the end, are recovered, and, whatever they are now, whatever the result was
17:36 they can spell any word perfectly
17:36 but ehh that might be, IDK
17:37 <%weryllium> No yeah they're probably gonna get the kids back at the end
17:37 <Hippo> I do like that as almost like the Foundation being sarcastic at the end, but not really
17:37 <%weryllium> What shape everyone'll be in at that point, *shrug*
17:37 <Hippo> I think that's my favorite kind of Foundation stinger, where they're like "FINAL NOTE: By the way, the kids can spell perfectly now, good job parents"
17:38 but in a technical way
17:38 that makes it *not* sound sarcastic, even if it is a little bit sarcastic
17:39 also weryllium this is not something I have experience with (parents pushing me too hard, making me feel like shit when I didn't meet their impossible standards) but one of my best friends does, oh man
17:39 (I was raised by my grandparents and, my childhood was all sorts of fucked up but one thing I can legit say is that my grandparents were never the reason why)
17:40 but yeah I'm mostly just saying this because I think that's an excellent source of horror
17:40 parents pushing their children so hard they break everything
17:41 it's also not one I think I've ever seen on the site before — I mean I'm sure there's at least one example, but it's definitely not a source of horror that's typical, so
17:41 *thumbs up!*
<Hippo> weryllium's set up, the props involved — it lets you trick readers who wouldn't consider that horrifying into finding it horrifying? if that makes sense
17:43 <+Decibelle> this was for the Short Works contest
17:43 <Hippo> like you dress up what is genuinely a very banal, very terrible thing in a monster suit
17:43 so people who think only monsters are scary get scared
17:44 whoa
17:45 okay I actually really like that
17:45 I think it needs to be *bigger* than what it is
17:45 but I think that the kicker is an excellent one
17:45 (or maybe not bigger, but would need retooling a little, to make it more concise/clear — hm I'm not sure)
17:45 but like to me that is the skeleton bones of an excellent article
Quick note. Title. "Vicarious. V-I-C-A-R-I-O-U-S. Vicarious."
21:44 <weryllium> Fucking sweet
21:45 <shaggydredlocks> So I would start by drawing from real-world personal experiences. Thoughts and emotions you've experienced as a result of being on the receiving end of this type of behavior. If you have not experienced this, s' time for some discussion and googling for first-hand accounts.
21:46 <weryllium> I have experienced this, but definitely not as intense as many people here.
21:47 <shaggydredlocks> Even before delving into precise anomalous effects. You can draw the anomalous portion from these feelings and emotions - twist them into real-world analogues. Decide then what gets it across without spelling it out (ay) for the reader - and you've got something genuinely disturbing on your hands.
21:49 Off the top of my head: Parents vanishing or maybe going comatose as their consiousness is imposed in their child. Maybe out-of-body experiences - astral projection - sleep paralysis.
21:49 Last isn't anomalous, but whatever lol.
21:50 Jesus fuck.
21:50 <weryllium> I had vaguely considered ending with the parent literally taking over the kids mind/body but was worried it might not be hard hitting enough
21:51 But this is good advice, I really appreciate it
21:52 <shaggydredlocks> OKay. Typically, when people experience such phenomena (sleep paralysis) it's some cultural boogeyman that manifests in the dream state and sits on the sufferer's chest. Back in the day it was gnomes or fae. Nowadays it's stock demons, ghosts, and the like. Could you imagine a child recounting this type of experience, but it's a twisted version of their paren
21:53 Yea, literally taking them over is way too on the nose. I could see it happening, maybe. We can get into that in a bit, but it's the most obvious leap that can and should be explored a bit further than that.
21:56 <weryllium> Hmmm.
22:00 <shaggydredlocks> If you do go with a full-on imprint, then you need to figure - is this some inexplicable thing where the parents are just as much the victims (though their behavior could be the catalyst for it even if they're unwilling) or is it a Being John Malkovich-scenario of life-extension?
22:02 <weryllium> I don't know what John Malkovich is
22:02 <shaggydredlocks> ooo good movie
22:03 <weryllium> The way I've conceived this so far (still very subject to change) is that this phenomenon just happens, with that behavior being the only catalyst
22:03 <shaggydredlocks> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Being_John_Malkovich
22:04 <weryllium> However, if one triggers it then it'd probably end up affecting most of the families there regardless
22:04 <shaggydredlocks> TLDR Puppeteer finds a portal into a famous actor's head and exploits it for fun and profit.