 Hey there Foundation staff, Shurm here, and welcome to Researchers Notes. For those of you who are new to the channel, the quickest way to describe this show would be the discussion section of an SCP meets a book club. Each month, we're going to approach two SCPs suggested by the community and discuss their themes, stories, merits, and pitfalls to get deep into the mechanics of writing an SCP. I'm going to give you my thoughts, and I'm also going to give you guys a chance to voice your opinions as well. From the Site 42 community, I'm asking for requests for SCPs to be covered, a 30-second to 2-minute audio recording of your thoughts about the upcoming skip, or a written transcript that you'd like me to record on your behalf. You can get these things to me through the Site 42 Discord server, link in the description, or you can email them to scpsite42 at gmail.com. I'll be revealing the next SCP at the end of the episode. Today we are taking a look at SCP-3300, The Rain, by author Rometson. I must admit ahead of time that I personally dislike this skip. No matter how much I try to get into it, I find it boring. It's important to remember that just because you personally don't like something's flavor doesn't mean it's bad. The 250-plus ranking of the article means that there are certainly people who enjoy it. I'm taking this one as a challenge. Can I dissect a piece I don't really care for and find the technical reasons why other people enjoy it? First off, a quick summary. The city of Clearwater Montana gets hit by a 6- to 18-day long rainstorm once a year. At the end of the rainstorm, the population of Clearwater disappears and is replaced by a completely different population of people. None of the new people realize this has happened, and everyone lives their lives normally as if they aren't going to vanish a year later. The main attraction of this skip is the journal collected from one of those people and the events that transpired during the latest storm. Our protagonist, Margaret, journals the beginning of the rain into the onslaught of the storm. Things start as normal everyday life, with Margaret and some friends gaming at her house. The action ratchets up quickly as an unknown man comes into the house claiming it as his own, and straight up murders Margaret's mom in a blind rage, mindlessly shouting about his claim to the house while the teens flee. They get in a van and try to drive out of town, but drive until the tank is dry without getting more than a 5-minute walk from the city limits. One of their friends perishes from earlier injuries, but his corpse boils and evaporates like water for some unknown reason. They hide out in a building, and one by one they discover through suicide and injury that they are all made of water. They don't understand, but they are the anomaly. Bits of Margaret's Dream reveals a tribe of people in the past who somehow cursed the town with this fate in an effort to survive a plague. That journal strikes some solid fear into the hearts of many, and for an explanation of that, let's hear from SCP author Bitter Mixon. Some would argue that the feeling of your own flesh and bone metamorphizing into a thin, watery gruel isn't a particularly relatable brand of horror. However, this is not to say that SCP-3300 falls flat when it comes to evoking a reader's emotions. Just the kind you might not expect, and certainly not what I expected upon starting the read. The feeling of the world falling away from our fingertips as every cell in our body is engaged towards one finite purpose. The feeling of the inevitable. Remetson utilizes the inherent human fear of failure and distills it down to its most pure and horrific form. The failure to survive. Every detail becomes more excruciatingly visceral than the last. I winced as Sam gored her arm, sank in my seat when nothing but clear liquid ran from her wound. My chest prickled as Margaret echoed the hopeless mantra of her friend's last words. They say don't show your monster, but Remetson cleverly embraces this trope and turns it on its head as the slow burning realization sets in. These people were feeling for, rooting for, fighting for. They are the monster. It's one of the few skips I've read that left me with genuine goose bumps. The bluntness of the logs worked heavily to this article's advantage as it highlights the absolute despondency of our characters. Mike shot himself. That's what we're told. Crystal clear. So unmistakably defeatous that you can practically hear the despair dripping off those three words. Not only that, but the lack of subtlety is excellent immersion with regards to us believing that this is someone's journal. Because of course, in real life, you document exactly what happens. You don't care about excessive and ornate descriptions. You don't have the luxury of delicateness. And I believe this feeling is executed phenomenally. That's not to say it's without fault. I found the pacing and tone at the beginning of the journal to be quite bland and uninspired, as if I'd read the same few first words a hundred times before. The actual SCP documentation also felt fairly uninteresting. And the piece as a whole has a sluggish and unrefined beginning that I fear would turn many more casual users away at a glance. The author likely wanted to get to the good stuff as quickly as possible, and it unfortunately shows through the writing. However, dig through the rock and you'll hit diamond. SCP-3300 drips with a raw, frightening, and above all, creative horror. I'm glad that Bitter Mixon was so thorough in that analysis because I didn't feel any of that myself. Now to springboard off of Bitter Mixon's last paragraph and into what will be the easiest part for me, the critiquing section. I do agree that the SCP document itself is a little weak. From my perspective, I can imagine that the journal is what the author was trying to work on, and the document is just the setup slash justification for the story. Almost like, I just need to set up the rules for the world of the story as quickly as possible so I can get to the good stuff. I agree that it's rather bland, and I think the first time I read this just for pleasure, I stopped before reading the journal due to disinterest. There is something to be said for the very basic level analysis of the anomaly, and that it reads like a research paper, which I also can't force myself to read. In one way we live in a short attention span world so you do have to hook the reader early. On the other hand, some of the greatest literary classics slow burn you with a world building while you get acclimated to the goings-on. I personally feel like this one doesn't do either, but others definitely disagree with me. My only big critique past that point is the opening of the journals. Like Bitter Mixon, if I never see the, har har, journals or lame, but I'll keep one anyways, trope again, it'll still be too soon. It also reeks of coincidence for me that she started keeping a journal right before the storm began. To turn this on its head, I personally wouldn't have minded seeing the end of the SCP document saying something like, we found this journal, only relevant entries are listed below. So like, she'd been keeping the journal for years, and we're only showing you mentions of the storm and its events. Another option could have been that the weird dream sparked her desire to keep a journal. Right now her motivation is just, could be nice to have something to look back on, but being disturbed by the dreams that are mentioned in the first entry seems like a more solid idea to me. When it comes to the rest of the journals, I think the writing is pretty solid. There's some great character development moments, like the mention of David coming by and getting rid of him, because that's definitely something that goes in a journal like this. The writing style, as Bitter Mixon stated, is great in its bluntness. This is the journal, this happened, and it sucks. The idea of the prophetic dream of the past interests me greatly. I actually enjoy that we never find out if any of the other characters are having similar dreams. I assume they must be since they're all part of the storm the way Margaret is, but without the answer in the text, it leaves an interesting mystery to think on and see how the other characters would be reacting with their own thoughts. Finally, the discussion page for the article brings up the wonder of making the water cycle scary, but I also dig the way that it mirrors reincarnation. Margaret has memories of her past life, and she's going to come back as a completely different person again and again. And it makes me really want to see a tale about 3300, where the foundation's interference maybe gives someone there the key to finding an analogue of redemption or enlightenment, and finds a way to break the cycle, leaving 3300 neutralized. That idea is free for anyone who wants to write it. Go nuts. Ah, drat. As is often the case in real life, I took something that I disliked and beat my head against the wall researching it until I found things I liked about it. And now I hold a grudging respect for this article. And that wraps up the second episode of Researchers Notes. Let me know what you thought about the show in the comments, and please continue discussing your thoughts and feelings on SCP-3300 down there. New Researchers Notes episodes are going to release around the 15th and the last day of the month. You've got about two weeks to read the next skip and get your recording or transcript to me via Discord or email. Don't forget to check out the Site 42 Patreon, Merch Shop, and Discord server, and the next SCP we'll be dissecting is SCP-3707, fly by night only, by user CommunismWillWin. See you next time, Foundation staff.