I've read past Ore/Slash collaborations before, but this wasn't what I expected - and that's great!
The ideas behind this feel like they wouldn't have worked in the hands of less skilled writers, so well done on making such a silly premise (magic catgirls! For Science! Also a Hive Mind!) actually work - I am a fan of SCP-2085 and I was worried this would be too similar to work when I heard the concept, but it manages to be its own thing.
I feel like the main criticism is that it assumes a lot of prior familiarity with the Hive and IMBW on the reader's part, I suspect it would be a little confusing without that knowledge. Perhaps a few more footnotes could have helped - depends on who your audience is of course, there's always a tricky balance between making it accessible to the reader without repeating too much stuff they already know.
I have to admit, when I saw how long it was about to be, I got pretty terrified by the size of that monster.
But then, I read it and… well, it was pretty good. The narrative and the characters were very engaging, the elements like the Hive or the IMBW were introduced in a way when I could follow the story even when knowing jackshit about these groups, I had some chuckles along the way because there was some funny parts who worked well and, to be honest, except for some little nitpicks when it comes to the formatting or even how the interrogations happened, I don't have much to complain about.
It was a pretty good story, I enjoyed it and it reads pretty fast despite its length. And I'm starting to believe that, after SCP-5400 and this one… well, your duo is pretty killer when it comes to do this.
+1 and it's well-deserved. Best of luck for any of your future projects!
Ehhhh. Not a fan of this one, not gonna lie.
There's parts here I like, especially around the third interview, as well as the ending, this last one being particularly interesting, even if a tad incongruent with the rest of the piece: I understand where it's coming from, but it feels a magnitude detached from the rest of the article. Still, fairly good writing.
Now, onto what I wasn't a fan of. I feel this piece is way longer than it should have been. There is info aroind Project merlin/Waschbar that didn't feel integral to the piece. The info put here is really simple to grasp as the projects that they are, but the way they are decribed feels way more elaborated than it should be. The overall piece suffers from this, with parts that feel could have been described in less parts and worked nonetheless. The idea of the six catgirls also fits here: I found the whole concept of the catgirls rather dry. It felt fairly similar to SCP-2085 but didn't add anything particularly unique to that previous concept where I felt it strongly deviated… At least until like interview 3. Also, hated Coin. Sorry, never been a fan of the character who is overtly sexual who has this feel that they were only added for the sake of that possible fanservice. Soon as I read thei 'power bottom' bit, I looked for if they had an interview and of course they did, and I know how it'll start and- Yup, exactly how it starts. Not something particularly damning by itself, just something I personally never find engaging.
but yeah, overall, it felt like it dragged out and it was too much of an 'OC showcase' rather than an article I could really get invested into, and, while the ending somewhat recovered that essence, dun think it was enough to make me like the piece as a whole. -1
Previous commenters have pointed out the parallels with 2085; at first, I was willing to completely ignore them, but they became more and more obvious while reading (the telepathic link, the fact that they all have a specialty and three of them have basically the same one as one of the Black Rabbit Company catgirls, and the plot point about human trafficking in their backstory were the biggest offenders), and in the end it was impossible to ignore. I don't think it would be fair to downvote just because it already exists, so I'm simply no-voting it. Sorry!
I don't know what to think of this article. The descriptions of the girls felt too subjective, almost as if I was playing Nekopara instead of reading an SCP. The project description and the operation report were heavy in details and kinda boring. The interviews were kind of interesting, but not outstanding. Only the last part with the thaumaturgy and Astra was pleasant to read and fascinated me a little bit, but I don't feel like it's quite enough to justify an upvote, so I think it'll just be a no-vote.
After reading some of your articles, I think I'm begginging to see a trend: long, and very attentive to detail, perhaps too much so. The prime example of this are the conprocs, but it's also present elsewhere.
It takes a long time to get to the point, which I think is creating and engaging with the mystery of what happened with the last two instances, and the girl's connection with the hive.
I'm not sure three interviews were necessary, nor that the recovery operation had to be described in such detail.
That being said, it works, and I guess it's just your style. This is a reading and writing website, after all, and it's only long when compared to other SCPs (and even then, there are plenty of longer ones). I guess it's just a matter of me personally not finding a narrative reason for everything that was included
So my point is, it's enjoyable, it's good, and it's recognizably yours, for better or for worse.
+1.