"That would explain why despite having once been a library it doesn't have many hallmarks of one."

"And you didn't take the mnestic, the pill? Or get another one somewhere?"

"Didn't take it. I didn't seem to need it and wouldn't have been able to redose if I had."

He licks his lips, tugs on an ear absently, scrapes a foot against the floor.

"Yes, probably wise. Wouldn't have hurt you but you couldn't have known."

He takes out a picture and shows it to Miranda.

It depicts an egg, dark red and speckled. A thin crack runs from the top of the egg to its center. 

After showing her to a moment, he pulls it away and looks at his watch. 

"One moment, one moment," he mutters.

After a minute has passed he pulls out another piece of paper, unfolds it, and asks, "What color was it?"

"Red, sort of burgundy, with dark speckles."

He checks her answer against the paper.

"Red, red. Yes," he says, sounding delighted. "You got it. This is wonderful. And I didn't even ask you to hold on to the color!"

"It's a color. It's not even a vague color like the weird beigey vinyl siding some houses have, it's just dark red."

He pauses for a moment to look at her.

"Making intuitive leaps isn't one of your strong points I see. Not that it really matters. Your resistance to anti-memetic effects is remarkable. Obviously if it was just a color to everyone else I wouldn't be showing it to you."

"I can make the leap, but I wouldn't have been surprised if there were multiple layers of protection on the thing, such as the object itself actually being hard to describe in a mundane way under the SCP nonsense, rather than a perfectly legible, rather concerning red egg with a crack in it."

"Fascinating," he says, crossing and then immediately uncrossing his arms and leaning back slightly on the balls of his feet. 

"I can't hold on to what you've said at all. The mnestics are enough for me to remember that SCP-055 exists, but not what it is. The strongest mnestics let people hold on to some details, not that it's usually worth it with the side effects. None of the members of the exploratory team we sent into the IKEA had this effect. And there's no way to tell if you were unusual before."

He absently tugs on a strand of hair and then tucks it behind his ear. 

"I suppose there's not, since as far as I know I hadn't been exposed to any memetic SCPs before the IKEA got me."

"Have you decided? You put the pill back which normally means no, but, extenuating circumstances."

"They were very extenuating. I'm potentially interested but I'd like more information."

"What kind of information? Job benefits? We have a great healthcare package. We're skipping some of the screening here because you've already been exposed to so many secrets, it doesn't seem like it will really matter if we tell you a few more. Assuming- what color did you say it was again?"

"Red. Does this work if you learn at some remove - a three letter primary color - anyway benefits are one thing but job description, work environment, what can I tell my husband, who do I report to, what's the compensation, do I have to move..."

He double checks his paper again.

"Your job description is probably going to be figuring out what the hell is up with 55 and what we should do about it.   If you're attached to being a doctor you can keep doing that, the Foundation always needs more doctors. About a third of the people in the Antimemetic Division are only with us part time.  You can tell your husband about the Foundation if you finish passing the screening process."

He takes out his phone and sends a quick message while still talking.

"Now that we know you can think around 55, we're expediting things, which is much easier since our division has never done hiring normally. You'll pass unless you're a plant or a skip. I can't tell you who the boss is until you do though. The compensation in the Foundation is usually 50% above market rate for the equivalent position outside. If you have to move depends on if you're okay doing a forty minute commute."

"That's twice what I'm doing now, so I'm not wild about it - are you closer to Ned's job or would he need a new one if we moved nearer here?"

He nods.

"Yes, we're closer to him if I'm remembering correctly. White Marsh?"

"Right across from the IKEA. He was going to pick up the furniture but his car broke down on his way to work and he had to get an Uber the rest of the way. I was there to pick him up. Do you happen to know how he's been doing since I've gone missing?"

"I don't. Someone does I'm sure. I can ask?"

"It does rather preoccupy me since I haven't been allowed to get in touch."

"Sure."

He texts someone else on his phone.

"We really do need to make sure you're not a skip before we let you talk to anyone. For all we know, the reason you're resistant is that you're memetic yourself."

"It seems like the sort of thing I might have noticed but I understand your need for caution, how do you check?"

"The idea is that you'd be tricking us," he says, "I'll tell you how the tests work after you pass."

"If you don't need me to do anything but sit here and chat, I suppose that works fine."