The word “subject” is described as “a person or thing that is being discussed, described, or dealt with.” As an adjective, it can be described as “likely or prone to be affected by (a particular condition or occurrence, typically an unwelcome or unpleasant one).” And as a verb, “cause or force to undergo (a particular experience of form of treatment).”

When discussing subject, or what one is subject to, or how one might subject another, we would be amiss to not discuss LordStonefish’s SCP-3999, “I Am At The Center Of Everything That Happens To Me.” The subject of the piece is Talloran, who then is subjected by a malicious, horrifying entity who subjects him to a millions years of torment. The metanarrative is interwoven not just through the literature, but through its subject, Talloran.

In Pendleton_Miller’s SCP-3999, the true inescapable horror of Talloran’s pitiful situation is revealed; Talloran is nothing but an illustration, bound by the whims of a creator god that not only breathed life into him, but shaped every facet of his being and could undo him at a whim, and does. The pieces captures the spirit of SCP-3999 in a way that few others in the contest were able to, and does so in a spectacularly lighthearted way. The chibi Talloran is even dwarfed in the shadow of the SCP-3999 metanarrator’s “hand”, his posture and expression so perfectly encapsulating the subject of the source material.