by ParallelPotatoes

Item#: SCP-7940

Containment Class: euclid

Secondary Class: {$secondary-class}

Disruption Class: dark

Risk Class: notice

Special Containment Procedures: SCP-7940 is assigned a humanoid containment cell at Site-403. Due to its low potential for disruption and record of loyalty to the Foundation, it is allowed to freely leave its containment cell to access common areas of Site-403 and areas relevant to its position as Senior Researcher.

Description: SCP-7940 refers to Senior Researcher Ryan Tegen, a 30-year-old humanoid male. Its anomalous effect occurs when it attempts to bring its hand 45 centimeters above its head. This will cause an invisible ceiling to manifest above SCP-7940's hand. This ceiling will block the upward movement of SCP-7940 and inanimate objects it is holding, but is completely intangible to other living beings.

Discovery: SCP-7940 was discovered on 2/16/2023 when it reported its anomalous properties to its supervisor. It claimed that these abilities might have existed intermittently throughout its life but only became permanent recently. SCP-7940 believed that its diary entries reveal a reason as to its manifestation of anomalous properties. Relevant entries are shown below, with surrounding entries included for context.

Day 1: First day at the Foundation. I can’t say I was expecting to be hired by the shadow government straight out of college, but it pays better than any other job. I don’t know anything about these “anomalies”, but the trainers are saying I’m picking up the science very quickly. I'm excited to start real work here!

Day 3: I finished their basic “What Is An Anomaly?” training course and they’re having me help out with tests. Honestly, I have no clue what I’m doing. College prepared me for real stuff, not a flower that blooms when you speak purple around it. How the hell does that even work? Well, I guess this is real stuff. The point is, I was doing tests like they asked me to, but I don’t understand what the tests are actually doing. Hopefully it will make sense soon, but I’m not sure if it ever will.

Day 4: Not the best day today. One of the tests went wrong because I mixed up the equipment. The senior researchers didn’t say anything, but I could tell they weren’t happy. Right after that, when I was putting the test materials away in the high cabinets, I think I bumped my hand on something and dropped a bunch of glassware. If they weren’t disappointed earlier, they certainly are now.

Day 5: They said they weren’t mad and it's expected for my first week, but that doesn’t change much. I’m not picking this up as fast as I normally pick things up. There’s still a huge wall between me and competence.

Day 6: I bumped my hand when putting equipment away again, dropping all the test tubes I was holding. I really need to be more careful. I didn’t even see what I hit. What if they decide I’m too clumsy for this job? I can’t do this.

Day 8: They said I’m doing good work. They’re just being nice though. I understand what these tests are measuring for, but I don't understand anything about why they are designed this way.

Day 20: I think I’m starting to get the hang of this. It feels like I managed to get through something holding me back. I’m able to help out the other new junior researchers who are struggling on testing their assigned anomalies.

Day 180: The senior researchers assigned me to design a test procedure for an anomaly myself. How the hell do they expect me to do this? I’m not there yet; I still need to improve before I know how to design a test myself. I just know the basics of testing procedures. I’ll do my best, but I’m probably not going to do very well.

Day 185: I hit my hand on the ceiling earlier and bruised it. Stupid low ceilings. And something’s not right with the test. The Hume readings should not be fluctuating this much around the anomaly. The fluctuations don't seem to be affecting it though. Is there something wrong with the test? I’ll need to recheck the design.

Day 186: I rechecked the test design and I can’t find anything wrong. Did I double check it right? Is it something wrong with me? Fuck, I could get fired. Why couldn’t I get it right the first time?

Day 188: I hit my hand on something when doing the tests again, and I’m not even sure what it was this time. I was just climbing the ladder to get to the test aperture, and I hit something where I bruised it. I almost fell down the ladder. Fortunately I was able to finish the test, but things are still looking grim though. The test still has major Hume fluctuations. I’m not going to be able to complete this, am I?

Day 189: Another obstacle is gone. It turns out there was a malfunction in the reality anchor, which caused the Hume fluctuation. The senior researchers said the test I designed was fine, but I’m sure there’s still room for improvement. There always is.

Day 806: They promoted me to senior researcher and assigned me my own anomaly to study. I should be glad, but I’m not qualified for this. I’ve only been here around two years so far. I told the other senior researchers I wasn’t ready, but they insisted that I’m the right person for the job. Let’s hope I don’t mess this up too badly.

Day 808: I’ve assigned some of the junior researchers to various tests on the anomaly. One of the tests was to see the chemical output’s reaction to iron, but the researcher grabbed the aluminum instead. Not a huge mistake, but it cost us an hour or two to reset the test. I’m sure he’ll do it right tomorrow though.

Day 813: The tests are going slowly. It’s not the fault of the junior researchers; I just designed the tests they’re doing inefficiently. We need to finish up these research tasks so the containment specialists can get the right conprocs out.

Day 815: I tried to change a lightbulb today, but something was preventing me from reaching the outlet. I’ll figure it out and tell someone later though. This damn anomaly takes priority. It’s just not doing what it's expected to, and it’s my fault and I need to focus on it.

Day 825: Why did they make me senior researcher on this project? I'm just a failure. I need to do better on this project but there’s something about me that I just can't change. It doesn’t help that there’s something anomalous preventing me from changing the light bulb. I have too many things to worry about.

Day 830: There’s been a breakthrough, and we are finally making progress. I’m going to host a congratulatory party for Bob, Jane, and Sally; they did excellent work on the tests.

Day 840: We finally got our research to a point that the higher ups consider satisfactory. They said it was completed significantly faster than was expected, but I think that’s bullshit. It could have been done better. At the very least, I learned something from the experience, and I’ll be able to do better next time.

Also, I finally changed that light bulb. I’m not sure what was preventing me from doing it, but it seems to be gone now. I logged it as a minor extranormal event.

Day 2054: Over the past few years, it’s become clear to me I have some sort of anomalous property. I’m going to report it, but my supervisors will probably remove me from my position since I’m an anomaly. And honestly? I think it’s for the best.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned at this job, it’s that I’ll never be good at it. Or at least, I’ll never be as good as I want to be. Have I improved since I first came here? Yes, certainly. But it’s not enough. I’m still fucking up. I’m still making stupid mistakes. This stuff can get people killed if I keep like this. If they decide I stay as a researcher, I need to improve. I need to get past whatever’s stopping me.

Maybe one day I’ll reach those heights I never could.

It is believed SCP-7940’s anomalous effects became permanent shortly after the final entry was written. Due to SCP-7940’s record of high quality work, it was considered that strict containment procedures would only serve as a detriment to Foundation operations.