I like it, the RPC is dangerous and hard to contain. Without making him really hard to take down in the first place. He's a persistent problem that clearly has enemies on the outside, who are eager to kill him again and again. Overall, a nicely written RPC.
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(account deleted)Quite chilling, pretty solid article. Upvoted for originality and haunting quality.
I feel the old containment procedures could be put in a block quote though. Like this:
- RPC-142 is to be kept in a reinforced concrete cell on sub-level three of Site-33's humanoid containment wing. The single entrance to RPC-142's cell, a steel airlock door, is to be modified with a small slit for meals to be inserted into. The interior of the cell is to be monitored with CCTV footage at all times.
- No female personnel are to enter within 25m of RPC-142's containment area.
- Any individual matching PoI-1438's description found in or around Site-33 is to be detained for questioning. A male security personnel1 Two male security personnel are to be stationed outside of RPC-142's cell to prevent PoI-1438 from reaching RPC-142.
interesting take on the "this person can't die" formula
I like the added detail about some of his murder scenes having this weird bio slime that isn't explained by his abilities (maybe it's just from him chopping up his victims and I'm reading too much into it but I like my interpretation)
I've long been aware of this article for its supposedly shocking content. Come to read it, and it's not really all that distasteful. Huh.
The longer I've had to think about it, though, the clearer it becomes why this article is remembered for what it talks about more than what it says. That's to say, the actual premise isn't actually that memorable. At its core, RPC-142 is the same thing as any other serial killer/rapist. If the ability to reappear after death could change that, the fact it only happens off-screen and is never explained prevents it from doing so. Likewise, its trademark "slime" is also just that: something weird that happens but isn't really worth attention. Without any defined purpose or origin, RPC-142 just exists to commit hideous, yet, all in all, run-of-the-mill atrocities.
As I'd like to quickly point out, the Authority's containment of RPC-142 is particularly questionable. Just put him in a regular cell and guard it? It's not as if he hasn't died a hundred times before and couldn't just escape instantly by killing himself. (See RPC-286) I presume the video monitoring is for this reason, but it's a rather lackluster way to do it that invites more trouble.
PoI-1438 is the other side of the coin, but he's really the same. Despite him infiltrating top secret facilities on several occasions, the article isn't even gracious enough to imply any potential anomalous properties he could have. I cannot get over the fact that the article gives him zero background check. If the Authority claims to understand his purpose, isn't there some additional context that must be missing? Surely there's some relevant CCTV footage to scrub through besides the excerpt captured immediately before his identification, right? Finally, if his goal is to torture RPC-142 as much as possible, he's rather stupid; surely keeping RPC-142 locked up is a better punishment than sending him back out into the wild.
Putting all that aside for a moment, the dialogue between the two characters is the highlight of the article. We have an exchange between two anomalous entities who have scarcely held onto their humanity in a wild-goose chase across the world. My favorite line, of course, being:
RPC-142: How long can you keep this up? I can a lot longer than you. When you're rotting in the ground, I'll still be doing what I do best.
Truly brooding.
I can only describe the ending as unimpressive. I figure the point is to bring RPC-142 back out into the wild for a final chiller note, but the way it's done is disappointing. All the work done in the past to keep RPC-142 under control, and it's rendered completely obsolete by a silly oversight.
Containment protocols have been updated to reflect this incident.
What kind of concluding sentence is this? It's a real missed opportunity, not describing an atrocity committed in a nearby town a few days later or something. That would be a harrowing bookend and would communicate the point of this event clearly, as opposed to the slumping clinicality of "containment protocols have been updated."
The lack of creative exploration may have been standard for articles of its time, but this one is really brought down by it. Out of appreciation for what this article did do, though, I'll stick it with a 4/5 for now. It's probably more of a 3.5/5, but I feel like rounding up.
It's a good article, does what it sets out to do very well; dialogue is also very nice, has enough characterisation. I just feel a little robbed, like maybe there are other directions this story could have gone that just didn't get explored, which is weird because I'm a big advocator for short articles. There also some things that I feel don't get touched upon even though they totally should, like PoI-1438's anomalous potential. Four stars are fully deserved, but that one missing star reflects the small, nuanced characteristics of this article that are not being explored.
Marco Marchi B. Mark
Read it last night can type out now my thoughts
I think it's one of the better bare bones articles, but there is still scarcely much to it. If anything, it is oddly normal - it is just a psychopath that cannot stay dead with the added effect of leavin goop behind him in the killings. The inclusion of the last oddly enough does not feel like it was merely grafted on, but expanded naturally but the entirety of the article requires more work on it. The dialogue isn't horrid, but I recommend that anyone read through it again and think what it actually portrays that we don't already know and expect.
Lastly, a personal theory why 142 doesn't just kill himself like DoubleDenial asked might be because he can't due to the possibility of his ability not triggering or it happening at a much later date than getting tortured. The mechanics of this were not explained or expanded on anywhere iirc, but this is sort of a personal conclusion I came to. I should note that me arriving to this conclusion is not a sign of good design, but the only logical possibilty you can come to due to the scarcity of depth and detail.
2(.5)/5
/forum/t-6702827/rpc-142#post-