kybard: a writer who exists

Link to article: kybard: a writer who exists.
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//Thus each of us had to be content to live only for the day, alone under the vast indifference of the sky.//
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**The Plague**, Albert Camus
[[/div]]
hello yes this is kybard. i am writer who is definitely not a dog. [[[https://write.as/kybard|i still live inside the internet. bark bark.]]] sorry sorry i'm trying to delete it

Alright that's enough of that. Here are some **SCPs** I wrote:

[[tabview]]
[[tab SCP-4361]]
[[include component:image-block
| name=au-4361.jpg
| caption=[https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/150b5ddd-34a7-4944-80dd-055736b281bf source]
| width=75px]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-4361|Her Favorite Color is Red]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages created_by="Kybard" name="SCP-4361" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[size smaller]]Last comment by: %%commented_by_linked%%, %%commented_at%%[[/size]]
//[[size .75em]]%%tags%%[[/size]]//
[[/module]]
----
> Hurts to talk. Please. Hard to tal— //(video ends)//

A story about the difficulty of empathizing through a veil.

I talked about this one with [[*user TheeSherm]] on the Site-42 livestream; you can watch the recording on YouTube [[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKx7TORJIOM|here]]].

[[collapsible show="+ Some self-indulgent thoughts..." hide="- I feel like a professor assigning my own work"]]
The initial core of this piece was the idea of the Foundation prioritizing containment over empathy. Not the most novel concept, but the YouTube-based thing was intriguing enough for me to get a greenlight despite having a severely overworked/overthought containment and anomaly process that really overburdened the initial draft.

Speaking to the final piece: the core here, really, is Gina as the central POV character. The problem she solves narratively is "how do you empathize with an anomaly that the Foundation definitionally doesn't understand" -- my answer was to give you someone to empathize with, who in turn empathizes.

The logical train from here is to figure out what kind of person empathizes with an entity in a YouTube video. Hence: cats. There are multiple references to Gina's life with cats, whether her own or her family's, their older ages (and //her// older age) suggesting a life of learning to empathize with things that can't communicate as clearly as, say, other people. I'm hoping the details here do a good balance of this without making her feel like a "crazy cat lady" or otherwise overly isolated.

Cats were actually there from the start -- I thought it was funny having this start from a mom forwarding an email, as moms are wont to do, not realizing that the cat that looks //just like// the old family cat actually //is// the family cat -- but making it core to Gina's connection to the entity adds a lot of emotional force to the two cat images themselves, particularly having it laid onto the final video as 4361's expression of forgiveness.

Anyway: Gina's meant to be relatable, a high-level office drone with a good relationship with her usual coworkers and an amiable, casual-but-professional approach to the work. Likable and understandable in the initial posts so that you can willingly follow her down the emotional rabbit hole.

Markos isn't much of a character by contrast -- he can't be, he's essentially the at polar opposite of our narrative point-of-view -- but I tried to make sure that his acts are ultimately understandable from a Foundation perspective, even if he's also a little cruel and heedless about it. He's correct to prioritize containment, correct to be more concerned than Gina is about security, but there's a version of this story where he's not an asshole an an amicable partnership leads to a better understanding //and// a workable but more humane containment. Alas.

Some other details of note:
* Venti and Gina's various jokes re: his name was basically a total accident of my fairly arbitrary naming conventions for characters (i.e. I make them up on the spot without giving it more than a second's thought).
* The MD4 hashes in the video titles correspond to actual messages, but they're pretty basic and also legacy from an earlier iteration of the anomaly, so I didn't bother to explain them or suggest that they were relevant.
* Amblyopia is the medical term for lazy eye, which can often manifest as a vision problem that can't be easily diagnosed externally. i.e. you're going blind, but no one else can tell. fitting for how ambly.OP.ia allows the video to remain in its "innocuous" whited-out state.
[[/collapsible]]

[[/tab]]

[[tab SCP-4368]]
[[include component:image-block
| name=au-4368.jpg
| caption=[https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/e5521daf-67aa-4a78-b33d-5d3fb8ae91e8 source]
| width=75px]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-4368|To Sleep, Perchance to See]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages created_by="Kybard" name="SCP-4368" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[size smaller]]Last comment by: %%commented_by_linked%%, %%commented_at%%[[/size]]
//[[size .75em]]%%tags%%[[/size]]//
[[/module]]
----
> A one-page reference guide, detailing previously used books and SCP-4368's apparent literature preferences, is available at the Site-64 library's front desk.

An ironic tragedy onion and a //Twilight Zone// homage. This started way goofier than it ended up when published, much for the better.

[[collapsible show="+ Self-analysis" hide="- Self-indulgent rambling"]]
This started as a //much// joke-ier article, with the wormhole = blinking thing serving as a very stupid repeated punchline to some mid-tier escalation and a silly disinformation campaign. But the Bemis and //Twilight Zone// connections were there from the beginning.

[[*user TheMightyMcB]] sparked me to rethink this, at which point I grasped onto the irony-tragedy angle and held on for dear life. The key was to maintain clinical tone full-stop through most of the article, describing the eye's tears and glaucoma in ways that obfuscate the emotion just enough to make it a bit more of a reader-revelation process.

The obit has raised flags from some readers; I think it has a lot of multi-layered value personally, even if it's a small stretch that it would be included in this document. (This is a bit of contentious point for me personally; I tend to think of SCPs as reflecting a narrative angle on/within the document they represent, rather than needing to be a complete and straightforward document or record. Format in service of narrative, not the other way around. Assuming a certain baseline of execution, pretty much any cherry-picking or narrative selection of events is not only preferable but almost always //necessary// for good storytelling in this medium.)

Not only is the obit another shot of tragic-irony in a format that allows the emotion to blossom in a more cathartic fashion, it's also a few extra punches (Bemis's glaucoma mirroring the eye's; cause of death being attempted corrective surgery) that turn the screw that much deeper.

Other small notes:
* The wormhole used to be much more dangerous as a way of escalating the morbid humor of the original draft. I kept it as the blinking mechanism mostly because how else would a separated eye blink?
* I'd considered some more newspaper-y formatting for the obit and perhaps trying to include a headshot of Bemis, but ultimately decided that was too much; the subtle use of a serif font seems more than enough to convey the shift in medium (and, hence, tone).
* As a subjective argument for the value of specifics: I could easily see a version of this article on a much older version of this website redacting the location, but something about dropping it into a specific little town in Kansas breathes a lot of life into this for me. It works so much better than any longer explanation surrounding a blackbox could ever be for conveying context and atmosphere without bogging down the writing.
* In case it's unclear, the wormhole didn't eat Bemis's skull because his eye wasn't an anomalous prosthetic until after he died. The question of how it remained in place //after// becoming anomalous is, uh, a good argument for having reduced the overall effect of the wormhole on the physical world.
[[/collapsible]]

[[/tab]]

[[tab SCP-4374]]
[[include component:image-block
| name=au-4374.jpg
| caption=[https://ccsearch.creativecommons.org/photos/46df1c1e-0a7f-46f6-b804-aaa4d59c0168 source]
| width=75px]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-4374|This Is You]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages created_by="Kybard" name="SCP-4374" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[size smaller]]Last comment by: %%commented_by_linked%%, %%commented_at%%[[/size]]
//[[size .75em]]%%tags%%[[/size]]//
[[/module]]
----
> She laughs a moment later, but the crumbling remains in your mind to this day, deep in the pit of your coward's stomach. This is you.

A meditation on identity and vicarious experience.
[[/tab]]

[[/tabview]]

Now, here are some **favorite SCPs** of mine (that I didn't write):

[[collapsible show="+ In no particular order...." hide="- Favorite SCPs"]]
[[tabview]]
[[tab SCP-4182]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-4182|There is no Site-5]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages name="SCP-4182" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, by %%created_by%% on %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[/module]]
----
A total mindfuck, but with a solemn and focused purpose. The sort of horror that makes you nauseated by the actual world. And despite being several years removed from the world of Marble Hornets and "video with visual distortion is //a priori// spooky", damn, that ending gets me.
[[/tab]]

[[tab SCP-4183]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-4183|Automatic Containment Procedures]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages name="SCP-4183" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, by %%created_by%% on %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[/module]]
----
A wonderful character study of some things you wouldn't ordinarily identify as "characters." Earns every bit of its narrative carefully and thoughtfully, peeling back the ordinary SCP format and telling an entirely different kind of story within it.
[[/tab]]

[[tab SCP-4508]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-4183|Otterly Prophetic]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages name="SCP-4508" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, by %%created_by%% on %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[/module]]
----
I grow increasingly weary and skeptical of absurdist SCPs by the day, but this one is a great example of how to balance and deliver storytelling in a way that never goes too far over the top, that keeps you just that right amount of unnerved even as the core concept remains a bit goofy. The handling of the text messages is perfect here, leading to a lean, propulsive bit of core narrative.
[[/tab]]

[[tab SCP-4517]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-4517|Not Very 𝒩]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages name="SCP-4517" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, by %%created_by%% on %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[/module]]
----
Such a perfect bit of redacting that it reveals just how facile and effectless 99% of the redaction is anywhere else on the wiki. The storytelling itself is sort of majestic in conveying so much affect without ever once cheating on the clinical tone and structure.
[[/tab]]

[[tab SCP-3001]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-3001|Red Reality]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages name="SCP-3001" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, by %%created_by%% on %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[/module]]
----
Not sure I need to explain too much about this one; it's a masterpiece of characterization and horror.
[[/tab]]

[[tab SCP-3008]]
[[size 1.5em]][[[scp-3008|A Perfectly Normal, Regular Old IKEA]]].[[/size]]
[[module ListPages name="SCP-3008" order="rating" limit="5" separate="no"]]
%%title_linked%%, by %%created_by%% on %%created_at%%; ##green|**+%%rating%%**## (%%comments%% comments)
[[/module]]
----
This was really the SCP that got me formally "into" the website; though I'd read SCPs prior to this one, I re-found the website through a link to 3008 on the website MetaFilter. That was just a couple of years ago; I'd pop back in every now and then to read from that point, until late 2019 when I finally decided to see about the folks who write this crazy shit.
[[/tab]]
[[/tabview]]
[[/collapsible]]

----

In real life I am **a poet** and have been published some places.

[[collapsible show="+ Read some poems, won't you?" hide="- Read some poems, please"]]

* [[[https://www.prometheusdreaming.com/secondhand|Secondhand]]]
* [[[https://www.estheticapostle.com/elevating|Elevating]]]
* [[[https://www.cathexisnorthwestpress.com/pro-creation|pro-creation]]]
* [[[https://www.amazon.com/Gravitas-18-Issue-Andrew-Lafleche/dp/1989266215|You can read three of my pieces in this print publication.]]]
* [[[https://www.amazon.com/Castabout-Literature-September-Nathan-Dantoin/dp/1699723079|...and read two more in this other print publication.]]]

[[/collapsible]]

----

**UPDATED, 2019/11/17:** heck yeah
[[include component:image-block
| name=top-rated-11-17.png
| caption=hot streak]]

[[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box
|author=Kybard]]
=====
> **Filename:** au-4361.jpg
> **Name:** au-4361.jpg
> **Author:** [[*user Kybard]]
> **License:** CC BY-SA 3.0
> **Source Link:** http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/kybard

> **Filename:** au-4368.jpg
> **Name:** au-4368.jpg
> **Author:** [[*user Kybard]]
> **License:** CC BY-SA 3.0
> **Source Link:** http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/kybard

> **Filename:** au-4374.jpg
> **Name:** au-4374.jpg
> **Author:** [[*user Kybard]]
> **License:** CC BY-SA 3.0
> **Source Link:** http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/kybard

> **Filename:** top-rated-11-17.png
> **Name:** top-rated-11-17.png
> **Author:** [[*user Kybard]]
> **License:** CC BY-SA 3.0
> **Source Link:** http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/kybard

=====
[[include :scp-wiki:component:license-box-end]]
kybard: a writer who exists

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