It was a beautiful, sunny day as Ellie Duong went on a trip.
She had just graduated from Yale a few weeks ago, her bachelor's degree in hand. Yet she still had to sit on this private bus with "other talented graduates" because of this fucking work-study program. She thought back on why she was sent here. Her mother was a talented woman, but she was too strict to her children. Education, eating, entertainment, socializing… as if Ellie had been a doll. After all those years of studying, she would have more freedom, no longer having her time micromanaged— yet it still wasn't the truth, because she found herself trapped in the struggle for jobs. How long will it be until she becomes finally free? Ever since she was a little girl, she had always believed that she was not the only person with such thinking. Humans were no more than animals in a cage, and those managing to escape their smaller restraints would still be trapped in bigger cages, still isolated from the rest of the world.
Years of conformity made her constantly desire to live the life outside her reach, even for just a moment. She promised herself she would exchange everything for that, and it was time for her to do it. "I could always turn them down as soon as I get there. Then I could finally travel as much as I like.", she looked out of the bus window, lost in thought. "How long has it been since the last time I looked at the blue sky?". Maybe it was a peaceful day for her.
Suddenly, a message popped up on her phone.

mom

7:35 PM 04/03/2026

Remember to go to the piano lesson when you finish the meal.

You have already missed Mr. Smith's lesson twice.

…
11:00 AM 10/05/2027

Someone told me that you didn't attend class today.

where the f*ck have you been

talk to me young girl

I'm so sorry mom, my car broke down this morning 😢

no more explanations, I will talk to your father

…
6:27 PM 21/08/2029

hey mom, can i go hang out with my friends tonight?

for just about an hour, and then i will come back to the dorm.

i promise

no.

…
7:00 PM 02/12/2030

Mom, two more days until my graduation.

can you two come, either of you is fine

…hello?

We are very busy lately. Your father has to meet an important customer on that day so we won't attend.

I hope you can understand. This business is very important.

…
Today

Are you coming there soon?

I have prepared a presentation for you. Remember to read that.

We have spent a lot of money to get you the opportunity to apply for the company, so don't disappoint me.

Not yet mom, still have a long trip. I'm pretty tired, so please don't text me more. Will call back when I get there.

She texted back then threw the phone aside. Boredom and disappointment took over her, forcing her to find something else for entertainment. She noticed an iPad next to her seat. "The instructor says we should use this device to know more about the company during the trip. Well, I have nothing to do anyways." She picked up the iPad as she thought, tapping on the only app visible on the screen. One video file showed up on the device after a few seconds.

She hit play.

...

Hi, and welcome to the introductory tape to your new job at The SCP Foundation. It's our honor to guide you - a brilliant student among many other talented students from top universities in the world.
Since you have access to this file, you will probably know who we are. But in case you don't, we will introduce ourselves and the situation again.
1.

    Anomaly
    /əˈnɑː.mə.li/
noun
  Strange, unnatural objects, entities, and phenomena.

Against the laws of physics, these things can turn our normal lives into chaos.
Anomalies are all around you, appearing in all shapes and sizes: animals, trees, vehicles, food, weather, …, from the simplest thing like a rock to the wildest thing like the sun. And our job is to fight back.
2.
The SCP Foundation, a public organization, was established many years ago with the mission to protect humanity from anomalies. Our duty is to keep them away from society by following three priorities.
Secure: We prevent anomalies from falling into the hands of civilians or rival agencies, through extensive observation and surveillance and by acting to intercept such anomalies at the earliest opportunity.
Contain: Though people widely know the fact that anomalies are pervasive and readily reachable, we will still utilize all resources to help relocate and keep under control anomalies to the best of our abilities: the rate of discovering anomalies is increasing, but such increase should not happen to how fast civilians get to know about them.
Protect: We will help confine the edge of human knowledge carefully so that the route of technical or civilizational development will not fall into perilous traps created by anomalies - until they are either fully understood or new theories of science can be devised based on them. The Foundation may also neutralize or destroy anomalies as a last resort, if they are determined to be too dangerous to be contained.
3.
To run the business, The Foundation has to recruit many talented individuals around the world - including you.
Eduskip, (Education and SCP), is one of the newly established divisions in the Foundation. Originally founded by Doctor L, the project itself helps the Foundation to cooperate with top universities in the world, to recruit the most talented students, and to train them to become top-tier researchers in paranormal study. Because of the Foundation's security and The Veil protocol in the past, the project was suspended until now. With more resources and advanced technology as well as the study continuing to branch out into many complex areas, we need genius young minds to come up with new perspectives for The Foundation.
As trainee staff you will experience many benefits.

A benefit to learning: Leave behind what you had been taught in regular universities, we will bring you a whole new way of learning. Memetics? Thaumatology? Pataphysics? You will have the opportunity to systematically study subjects that you have never heard of. Although humanity is gradually adapting to live with anomalies, they are still a threat to us. When joining us, you can acquire experiences in handling them directly, experience Foundation procedures in the flesh, and be enlightened about their source.

A benefit to your loved ones: The mission you are about to perform is one of the hardest jobs in the world. That being said, to support new interns, The Foundation is willing to pay thousands of dollars per month, or even per week. You will never have to worry about financial problems or taxes again. We will also keep your family safe, taking care of them for you. The Foundation always has a security policy for the researcher's family as well as protocols at your disposal so that you can freely dedicate your talent without worrying about other relationships.

A benefit to your future: After working with us for long enough, you will have more opportunities to go further in this science. Currently, The Foundation is cooperating with many other paranormal corporations such as Anderson Robotics or ICUST. We always organize personnel exchange projects every year, so you can easily get yourself a ticket to those places if you work hard.

And that's all you need to know about us. We're looking forward to beginning this journey with you.

A new feeling crept through her spine. This amount of information came so quickly, rushing into her mind. So many questions to be solved, so many things to be answered. While Ellie's mind was filled with thoughts, the bus stopped.
She got off, in awe with the scenery before her eyes. The blue sky was replaced by a strong, solid dome. A large facility with hundreds of people pacing back and forth, all up to their ears in work. She walked briskly, past the sealed adjacent rooms, having nothing on the exterior but a large glass pane. Inside each of them, advanced machinery that she had never seen before were working, as well as those things- “anomalies”, as they called them. Strange creatures were trapped inside, shrieking, emitting blood-curdling noises. Scientists stood right before them, calmly and composedly taking notes. Their faces displayed exhaustion after long working hours.
She heard a ting from her phone.

Are you there yet?

She smiled, "Maybe this place is not that bad".

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EduSkip Division

First Lesson