SCP-4975 "Time's Up" (Schizophrenia the SCP)

[Topaz]

This is a rewritten version of the original deleted post because it was very rough and had no headers or formatting since I typed it up in a hurry on my phone. If this causes any issues then I'm sorry.

It's also pretty long just because I took my time with it and had fun writing it up. In reality this concept is pretty simple and can be written up in shorter ways.

I'd recommend you skim through this between headers because it is long but there is a lot of details here for a fun game play experience and I'd appreciate feedback or comments in general really. I'd hate for this to become another one of those suggestions which remain comment-less and slowly get lost to time. Either way, let's get to it.

Note: I forgot to think about stalling when I thought up how it'd play out in game. My suggested solution is in the comments but either way this version of 4975 is definitely not without its flaws.

"Tick tock", the cuckoo clock ticks.
"Cuckoo", the bird inside sings.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock.

As ticks the time, so ticks your heart.
May you live long as you hear its song.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick tock.

Listen close, for when it stops
the hatchling comes out of its home.
Tick tock tick tock tick tock tick-

Did you hear it? Did it stop?
My child, it meant your time was up.

Thinking about it this will kinda be like a playable version of the ghost girl from Lethal Company who was a big inspiration for this idea. Obviously if taking too much inspiration isn't great then it can be reworked if need be. I also (as far as I've seen) don't think anyone else has suggested this SCP (Edit: it turns out someone has before on the Discord however it sounds like a different concept). In that case this still gives another version to consider and it's got a lot of detail anyway.

I will stress that this is just a rough idea of how I'd see the SCP in game and I'm just aiming for it to be on the table for future updates at least. Everything I say is not what I expect to be the final version of the scp if this is actually implemented.

Anyway let's actually begin. This is pretty in depth so grab a drink.

Description from the wiki

Here's a link to the wiki since it has an image of the bastard: https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-4975

Object Class: Euclid

Description: SCP-4975 is a vaguely humanoid entity with various avian attributes, the most notable of which is its beak. Its body structure is long and thin overall, and its limbs taper off into formless extremities, lacking distinct digits. A thick, hardened skin layer covers the entirety of its body, including its beak.

Its cervical vertebrae are not interconnected, and appear to be able to move independently of one another. SCP-4975 continuously rotates them one vertebra at a time, from back to front, ending with its head, in a rhythmic fashion. This produces a clicking or cracking sound with each movement. SCP-4975 only stops moving its neck in this manner when it is preparing for an attack.

SCP-4975 has been observed to stalk future victims for extended periods of time before finally deciding to attack, sometimes as long as 10 months or more. It kills its victim by means of its appendages, which it uses to bludgeon and tear at the victim's body. It will always eat the cadaver afterward, and an average adult human appears to last it about 3 months.

Despite SCP-4975's permanent presence in its containment cell, new incidents and sightings continue to be reported from its region of origin. Reclassification of SCP-4975 to Keter-class currently pending.

With all things considered this'd probably be a good Halloween exclusive if it's too quirky for standard gameplay.

Gameplay as / against 4975

This is my attempt to stay lore accurate but also keep things balanced and fun.

4975 would fit a role which targets one person at a time making them paranoid before it strikes. It'd have 3 states: Hunting, Stalking and Chasing

In its hunting phase, 4975 will be invisible and imperceptible to anyone except for fellow SCPs. Their goal is to find a target to leave the Hunting phase. Upon locating a human, they enter the Stalking phase.

In the Stalking phase, the player has located a human and is now a ticking time bomb before the Chasing phase begins. The human being targeted will still not be able to see 4975, but will hear the intense clicking and crunching of its spine. No one but the player affected will be able to hear the clicking (hence the schizophrenia part of things). At this point, the person playing as 4975 will see an ability whose cool down will begin ticking down. This is essentially giving 4975 time to find a place to hide for an ambush or to prepare for the chase to give them a slight edge. Once the cool down is over, all the player has to do is hit F.

The Chasing phase is where ♥♥♥♥ hits the fan for the human. The clicking stops but instead the affected player will now be able to see 4975. Everyone but the affected human will still not be able to perceive 4975 at all. I'd imagine here some sort of chase ambience would begin to play similar to 173 or maybe just deafening silence except for the loud thuds of its approaching footsteps.

Now 4975 gains the ability to attack the player with "Bludgeon" bound to left click. I'd imagine this to be a devastating attack which slows down 4975 considerably for a short period but deals enough of a dent in player health to make them panic. Upon depleting the target's health bar, I think it'd play into the cinematic side of things if an execution animation plays where 4975 impales the human with its appendages before throwing their body to the ground. Remember, no one else can see 4975 and to them the target just begins floating as blood pools from their stomach. Truly terrifying.

To make up for this, now the target can also damage 4975 (however to stay true to lore, no one but the target can see or hear 4975 and in the addendum for the wiki page, the MTF bullets go through it whilst the civilian is mangled so no one but the target for lore's sake can damage 4975 either). Because it forces a 1v1, it'd make sense for 4975 to have a smaller health bar and no or very little shield so that the poor ♥♥♥♥♥♥ being chased has some semblance of a chance.

Of course, this can also be balanced on the SCP's side by making 4975 consume the target upon killing them restoring a considerable amount of health to make up for being so fragile leaving behind a mangled corpse with gashes and chunks taken out of it. In the addendum, the MTF see chunks of the target's flesh being torn and disappear as 4975 eats and this could probably be implemented as an animation too though it might be too gory but hey this is a horror game after all.

The struggle of balancing 4975 without removing the schizophrenia mechanics (and staying lore accurate)

To balance 4975 being such a threat, it'd make sense for 1 of 3 choices for development in my mind or something of the likes:

1. 4975 upon activating a chase has a limited amount of time to kill the target

2. 4975 chases until it lands an attack making it return to the stalking phase before it can attack again (Bludgeon would have to be much stronger to make this fun for the SCP in this case giving 4975 potential as a support class for other SCPs to finish the job) THIS OPTION IS NOT LORE ACCURATE.

3. (The best option in my mind) 4975 has a radius around it as it chases and the target has to escape from this radius which would force 4975 back into its Stalking phase and the clicks of its spine will resume until the cool down of the Chasing phase runs down once more. And the cycle begins.

It'd make sense for 4975 to also be able to abandon targets if they fail the chase and then move onto someone else to stalk so that bad 4975 players aren't stuck with a sweaty human who keeps escaping.

Now, the wiki seems to suggest that 4975 can teleport. This is obviously overpowered as an ability and I can imagine it not being implemented at all, however if it is I can see it being added in 1 of 2 ways:

1. In a chase (with either a very large cool down or limited to only once per chase), 4975 can manifest in front of the target causing for very intense or clutch moments for survivors and encouraging humans to get creative with escaping with flashes or the like

2. You give 4975 something like 106's compass but I think that'd be a lazy method despite its effectiveness

NPC Instead?

This would essentially be a random event where all the previous things occur. The target escapes if they run away for long enough or shoot the ♥♥♥♥ out of 4975. Then it moves onto someone else. That's about it?

Conclusion + Misc points

I'd imagine this kind of threat, similar to SCP-096, would spawn in HCZ before being free to roam. Maybe there could be a mechanic where upon failing a chase there's a period for everyone instead of just the target to shoot at it however I think this would make 4975 too easy to deal with. It's effective as it is as a stalking threat against singular targets.

I've put too much time into this. I will restate that this is my idea of how this SCP would work and it'd probably look very different in game if it is considered. If somehow you've read all of this to the end, I'd be happy for feedback so that I could edit this and if this is popular enough just maybe we could see this monstrosity in game one day despite the crushing odds.

[Otávio,o avestruz radical]

The main flaw with this concept is the lack of being able to fight 4975. If I’m understanding this suggestion correctly, it’s vulnerable only when it’s “hunting” and only to the one being hunted. Although it’d be “unproductive”, there’s nothing really stopping 4975 from just staying invisible 24/7 and only showing up when it’s sure it can secure a kill, and a playstyle like that is specially problematic if 4975 is the last SCP alive (round stalling)

Also, with the way the stalking and hunting works, I feel like there’d be a lot of trouble balancing it. Either it’d be extremely sided to 4975 or, arguably worse, to the hunted.

[Topaz]

Originally posted by Otávio,o avestruz radical:

The main flaw with this concept is the lack of being able to fight 4975. If I’m understanding this suggestion correctly, it’s vulnerable only when it’s “hunting” and only to the one being hunted. Although it’d be “unproductive”, there’s nothing really stopping 4975 from just staying invisible 24/7 and only showing up when it’s sure it can secure a kill, and a playstyle like that is specially problematic if 4975 is the last SCP alive (round stalling)

Also, with the way the stalking and hunting works, I feel like there’d be a lot of trouble balancing it. Either it’d be extremely sided to 4975 or, arguably worse, to the hunted.

Yeah I didn't initially think about stalling surprisingly despite how common it is. It has come up before as a criticism and the wiki implies that 4975 is always in containment but manifests outside at will. I think this'd be best implemented through 4975 always dying to nuke which would be easy anti stall. Otherwise having its doors open like some sort of re-containment process like 079 but that'd be pretty lazy having two re-containment processes.

And yeah I struggled trying to balance it that's why my vision of 4975 is probably not what I'd expect for it to look like in game. If it was implemented with the idea of escaping 4975 by running far enough, someone who wanted to kill it could just stay closer or chase it down to prevent it returning to the invisible phases I guess? But yeah definitely not without its flaws though I do think it'd be more manageable to escape than an 096 sprinting at you at full speed.

[Shiny Ink]

＋1 very cool idea could be pretty fun