Soma - The Bear and Badger

Tempy

“It is sometimes an appropriate response to reality to go insane.”
Philip K. Dick

The machine has the appearance of a heavily modified monitor fixed to a massive nest of cables and controls.
Machinist Peter Strasky found the contraption during a salvage mission

the screen rolled and flickered, but it shut down as it was pulled out from the container.
None of the crew stepped forward to take credit, but the construction suggests

since Thabo is unavailable for questioning, the machine's origin remains a mystery.
Considering the lack of information and the general unease it has started to cause, the machine will be disassembled.

screen lit up and showed distorted schematics.
After trying different switches and keys, the oblique levers were found to be torsion attenuation controls which could stabilize the pict

revealing a complex set of instructions.
The machine is now under quarantine.
AM Engineer Imogen Reed has asked for an exception

Special permission granted.

A standard UH3 articulated robot, active fluid memory with an approximated intelligence

shows a much more active mind

spontaneously developed a desire to socialize from observing human interaction?

intelligence first noted by Security Officer Douglas Strohmaier while investigating an automated distress signal coming from Construct Depot 11

Mockingbird had pried another UH3 open and removed its AI-unit

made motions resembling those of eating, moving it close to its camera, and making sounds similar to smacking of the lips

it introduced itself as Chief Engineer Adam Golaski.
Quarantined in T260 Machine Rep

during the night it had taken itself apart.
AM Engineer Imogen Reed quickly records an interview in case the Mockingbird would continue its self-destruction.

appears there is a real Adam Golaski working at Omicron.
Invited Chief Engineer Golaski to talk to the impostor construct.

regmcfly

Welp

Chief

Well, it just got all SCP up in here.

Tempy

You should probably cover your eyes for the next seven words because it's being made by Frictional Games so it's entirely likely you'll hate it

It is very SCP, but at least they've decided to apply a rigorous theme to it rather than just go "ANYTHING GOES!" and have one be about a key that unlocks every teenage girl's diary or whatever.

[Deleted User]

My computer dinnae like this.

Chief

I'll give anything a fair chance, Tempy. Though I admit that I'll always be a little sceptical of the current trend of horror games, 'cept for Lone Survivor.

Tempy

Theme has me interested here more than anything. Current SciFi renaissance happening cross-media is to my liking. We've got this, Routine and Maia to look forward too and they'll have that tangible "near future" aspect that I like.

From a youtube comment on "Vivarium"

The machine made an independent copy of her inside the video. The one in the video wasn't dead. It was born. It had to "wake up". The women in the video is pretty desperate and is yelling "help.. help" probably because she knows what is going to happen. They shut the machine down and kill/contain her

So it seems there is a whole deal to do with AI simulating/learning/becoming human. I just hope it doesn't become a "hide from robots" game.

AJ

Looks interesting so far.

tigersgogrrr

I like this kind of stuff. Thanks, T.

EvilRedEye

OMG love the OP.

EvilRedEye

Sony put a link on Twitter that said "We'll just leave this here..." and I was, like, "OMG, Shenmue III?!?!?" but it was just a trailer for this.

Fentonizer

Chief wrote:

Well, it just got all SCP up in here.

SCP-914 was the worst.

well, not "worst" obviously, but just most sinister and not obviously awful.

AJ

Is there some cohesive story/universe/theory/whatever behind this SCP stuff, or is it simply a framework for people to write whatever related trippy stuff they like?

Tempy

The latter

Tempy

Fentonizer wrote:

Chief wrote:

Well, it just got all SCP up in here.

SCP-914 was the worst. well, not "worst" obviously, but just most sinister and not obviously awful.

There are plenty of good ones although they nearly always end with "human testing" which just makes me roll my eyes because it too frequently results in the subject becoming a mental murder who has to be "contained" or whatever

AJ

Tempy wrote:

The latter

Cool, nice to know it works outside P&P RPG settings.

So, is it confirmed that this game is based on the SCP, or are people just assuming that because it shows similarities?

Tempy

It's just similarities, corrupted texts, [redacted] text, fanciful names like "vivarium" attached to #number designations that suggest thousands more in a hangar somewhere.

That said, SCP didn't invent the whole idea, it just bought a bunch of stories together and formatted them in a way that made them feel like they were more realistic. This game clearly has a specific, driving theme about humanity and AI, and SCP doesn't have that - you have everything from Bone Hives, to mysterious interdimensional objects and other curio like "The World's Best Toth Brush" etc but that isn't to suggest that they haven't been influenced by the form of the SCP logs.

AJ

Yeah, had a quick look through the wiki, but found it a lot of effort for little reward. I imagine the way it's set up, you could claim any number of things that weren't intended to be are related.

Also, vivarium isn't a fancy word.

regmcfly

I thought this would be Majestic 2 for a while. Remember Majestic guys? My dad got into it because we were well into The X Files.

It was shit.

Imagine it now

Tempy

AJ wrote:

Yeah, had a quick look through the wiki, but found it a lot of effort for little reward. I imagine the way it's set up, you could claim any number of things that weren't intended to be are related. Also, vivarium isn't a fancy word.

I know it isn't I didn't say it was a fancy word, but it's a fanciful name designation for what looks like an overgrown computer monitor.

AJ

Ha, didn't see what you were referencing, thought you were talking about some SCP thing and assumed you just thought it was an uncommon word.

Reading -10

Tempy

Ha, no! I wasn't overly clear.

But yeah, vivarium is a simple word that doesn't seem to match a big computer, but in Latin it means "place of life" and it's purpose is essentially to stimulate an ecosystem on a small scale. So it's a cool nickname cos when you watch the video, it ends with her appearing on the monitor and falling off her chair and gasping for breath as if she's been "born" so it's clear the computer thing is a "vivarium" although not in the wooden-box-with-glass sense.

AJ

Not getting the "born" thing, myself. Or that it looks like on-screen woman is gasping for breath. My eyesight's not all that, though.

Both videos together give me the impression that there's something mirroring the world inside (or through) the tech systems.

Tempy

It's a figurative "born" as in, the computer has started creating that world and so she's come into being, first thing you do is breathe, hence the gasping.

AJ

Yeah, that's what I'm saying I'm not seeing. Looks to me like her body appears, falls off the chair, then her consciousness kicks in (as if her body was recreated first - see the chair appearing before she does) and she starts shouting and panicking.

I'd say that the first video is set chronologically after the second one, since not-in-monitor woman seems to have some inkling of what's going on. Wish I could make out the words the "copy" says.

Tempy

Ok, I think we're basically both saying the same thing

Tempy

ok let's play that game

AJ

Go on, then.

AJ

Tempy wrote:

Ok, I think we're basically both saying the same thing

Pretty much, yeah. We're just getting the thread in the mood, innit.

AJ

Yeah, I probably wouldn't have bothered with that if I knew a turn was coming.

Tempy

I'm shit with maths but on the site there is a % countdown to the next video. Likely it'll be 12 on Monday again though.

Howdy, Stranger!

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