MaybePirate

SCP-XXXX – Impossible Exam

Item #: SCP-XXXX

Object Class: Safe

Special Containment Procedures:
SCP-XXXX is to be kept in a secure storage locker when not in use. No Foundation personnel are to be trained to use SCP-XXXX without approval of both the local thaumaturgical safety officer and a Level 4 staff member.

Description: SCP-XXXX is a sheaf of typewritten pages containing weaponised thaumaturgic rites that allow a skilled practitioner to hex a target. Individuals affected by SCP-XXXX then suffer recurring dreams that result in a loss of productivity, which in chronic cases leads to imposter syndrome, depression and suicide.

Testing has shown that SCP-XXXX causes targets to suffer recurring dreams in which they must sit an exam they are ill-prepared to pass. The exact nature of the dream changes to best cause psychological damage to the target, with common motifs including the examination being in a language the test subject does not understand, questions changing as the test subject attempts to answer them and the test subject being physically unable to move to answer questions. The duration of a SCP-XXXX hex depends on the skill of the caster.

References within the text of SCP-XXXX suggest it was created from amalgamation of existing curses during the Cold War to disrupt the activities scientists and engineers, this demographic being particularly susceptible to demoralisation via suggestion over the long term that they will not be able to complete difficult intellectual tasks. It is currently unknown how many SCP-XXXX trained thaumaturges are active, nor how many copies of SCP-XXXX exist.

+ Document-XXXX-1: Recovery Log

Date: 30-12-1982
Location: Birmingham, United Kingdom
Interviewer: Dr Argent
Interviewee: Field Agent Fischer

[The following is a transcription of Agent Fischer’s account]

“I got a tip from an informant inside the GOC that a big operation I’d been sniffing around was going to happen in an hour. The GOC had been tracking a member of the Serpents Hand for a few months, hoping to nab them and find a way into the Library. The Hand member, codenamed Librarian by the GOC, was holed up in a third floor flat. I was keeping an eye from a café across the street, so when the gunshots and screaming stopped I made my way up. Two of the GOC team were dead, big bloody chunks blown out of them and splattered up the walls. Wasn’t no gun that did that. The third GOC man was bleeding out. I didn’t have a way to get him out of there and he’d seen me so I… liquidated the problem. I think that’s the recommended term in the handbook nowadays. I, uh, didn’t have time to recovere the slug. [Cough] Anyway, I after that took what I could from the scene and left before the anyone showed up. I threw my pistol in a canal.”

Interviewers Note: Agent Fischer is recommended for 1 month’s psychiatric evaluation before reassignment to active duty.