Chapter 5

Y'know, the Foundation has an annoying habit of interrupting me when I'm in the middle of trying to find out how to reinforce myself. It doesn't do it while I'm controlling the air around me, when I'm just relaxing or when I'm learning to use the force. It magically always does it when I am trying to figure out 'boost'.

"So what you are saying is that I will be allowed to interact with more SCPs only if I accept to be caged in here whenever testing ends?" Were they high or something? Why would I accept such a dumb deal.

"No way Jose. Look, the cell is nice and all, but it's starting to become boring. I don't know if you have been locked up before for any amount of time, but I am running out of things to try out and I haven't watched an ounce of TV for a long time." That was technically a lie. I could stay in this cell for the next 5 months and still have stuff to do, but why would I do that.

I know I can't go back to my 'normal' life since I don't look how I did before. Even if I did, people would be confused about my changed personality. It sounded like a pain in the ass to go back to normal society.

I heard a sigh from the speaker. "What would you like us to do about that?" I heard some paper shuffling. "You have proven yourself untrustworthy."

"What do you mean I am untrustworthy, the only thing I've done is what you asked me to do. I made a deal with the devil for y'all." Were they really bringing this up again?

"You know that's not what I meant 12725. You have made a lot of people worried."

"And what should I do about that? How do I make myself trustworthy? I am already offering you my help. I thought any government would be happy to receive paranormal help of any kind."

"First of all, the Foundation is not part of any government. Second of all, while we would certainly like more researchers, troopers, and capable people to help us, SCPs have shown themselves to be dangerous over and over again."

"Huh uh, and what of it. You don't believe I can't do any good?"

"You know that's not the reason you are still 'locked up' as you put it." Dr. Eugene sounded genuinely sorry I was locked up.

"Hey, is there really nothing I can do to make myself trustworthy?" I was sure that by now I had enough understanding of my power to break out of the site.

"You could start by explaining how you got into the facility in the first place. Claiming to not remember anything does not help your case 12725."

Hey! I could answer that! I was slowly remembering more and more things with better clarity. Trying to dominate my own mind had really been a good idea.

"I remember now Euge! I was super drunk and attacked some of your guys in black. Sorry about that." I really was sorry, who knew I would be an angry drunk though?

"... Guys in black?"

"Y'know, the guards, they use black armor, black boots, black clothes. They are basically walking shadows." They really should add some color to their uniforms, they looked bland.

"Right… why were you so drunk and where were you before the… attack?"

"I went partying with some friends to a random bar, it was somewhere around Salem."

Eugene hmm'd for a while. There was more paper shuffling. I wondered what took them so long to ask those questions. They had asked them once on like the 7th day I was here and hadn't asked since.

"We found your previous identity. It states you lived in Nashville. What were you doing in Salem?" Paranoid much?

"A friend of mine called Jack, that I hadn't seen since highschool, invited me and a couple of more friends to his place." Playing cards against humanity with Jack was nice. He was a bit unhinged so he came up with really messed up stuff sometimes.

"Okay 12725, thank you for answering. This helps your case a bit."

"Thank you too Eugene, having some human interaction is way better than being locked up doing nothing. Hey, do you think you could get me a better deal? I really just want to get out of here without causing y'all and myself more issues."

Dr. Eugene was silent for a couple of seconds, I knew he hadn't left yet because the speaker was still on. Though if he hurried up and got me a better deal I wouldn't complain about how much time it took him to come up with an answer.

"I will try to see if they can be more complacent with your restrictions. I do not think anything will come out of my attempt, but hey, I'll try." Euge was sometimes nice to me. I do not know why he was this nice to me though. Maybe he was sympathetic to my situation? Or was it pity?

"I'd be more happy if you just called me Gabriel or Gabe, being called 12725 so many times is going to make me start responding to that unconsciously."

"No can do 12725. Just be happy the director is not trying to kill you yet and wait some more. I'm sure the Foundation can find a use for you sooner rather than later." A use for me, not my freedom I noted. Also was he threatening me? It felt too casual for a threat so maybe he was just joking with me.

"Sure sure, whatever you say man. Have a nice day." The speaker in the corner turned off and silence surrounded me again.

Pov: Dr. Eugene Baker

As I walked away from 12725's observational room I whipped some sweat off my forehead. Talking with 12725 was always a challenge. Its ability to just exert some kind of pressure on anyone he directed his attention to or was around it made it very hard not to be somewhat compliant with its requests.

It wasn't that he made people subservient to him or mind controlled you into doing what he wanted. But damn if it wasn't hard preventing that instinctual reflex to be obedient around him from activating.

It got even worse when he asked direct questions, it was like the universe wanted you to just do what he wanted. Be it giving some answers or following an order. Fortunately once you left his area of influence all effects his aura had would just disappear.

Walking down a hallway I waved to some of the other doctors that were still inside their labs. We were trying to find a way to 'scan' SCP-12725's area of influence, if we discovered how to replicate a really weak version of it we could better our amnestics.

I walked into my lab and started editing 12725's file again. Should I really send an appeal to the director to decrease 12725's restrictions? No I shouldn't. I still wasn't thinking straight. I wonder if we could ask other sites for some more types of mind controlling negation devices.

Clearly, what we had at the moment did not work on 12725's weird form of manipulation. A bit worrying but we had protocols for this type of situation.

I began to replay the interview in my head again. Was it a really bad idea to ask for more leniency for 12725 though? Really, he didn't even seem aware he was excluding his 'aura'.

More people from the thaumaturgy branch had been asked to come to site-81 and a few seemed to think SCP-12725 was not aware of what he was doing to others. Maybe I should confront him about it.

Pov: Dr. Aurelia Baldovini

SCP-12725's testing continued to be useless. We couldn't find anything about it with divination, trying to interact with it, or with diagnosis or identifying spells. The big lab our group had been given was filled with papers on theories of 12725's powers but we couldn't prove any of them at the moment.

It certainly was a type red. One with expanding regeneration. Though its status as a type green was in question.

It was quite a conundrum. We were tasked with finding what speciality this type green had, but it appeared it wasn't one.

Most reality benders did not appear to know what they were doing, some only knew that they affected whatever was around them in weird ways. SCP-12725 seemed to know what he was doing and how. He also practiced with his powers. Reality benders did not do that.

12725 was learning, growing. That was worrying. The Foundation already had one case of a reality bender who kept growing in strength and at the moment had no idea what it was doing. Granted the man was psychotic so he probably just killed himself at one point thinking it was dead or something.

Back tracking a bit I walked towards Dr. Marcelline Émile's desk. "So what do you think?"

She looked at me warily. "You might be right about it not being a conventional type green. I do not know about it not being one though."

"Why is that? It clearly does not act like one, plus, it made a deal for its powers, he didn't gain them."

She looked down at some of her notes. "I… should we just carry an interview with it?"

"And feel all that pressure just crushing us where we stand? No thank you. Some of the normies say it feels even worse when he talks directly to you."

"But they also say it's growing stronger right? We may not have a chance to do it if we wait much longer. For its aura to have grown so powerful in only a month means its rate of growth is outstanding."

That was true, even the non-magical humans in the site were starting to feel 12725's presence whenever they were close to it.

"Do we have any spells that we haven't tried to direct the pressure away?"

"Nope! We have tried at least 21 different spells and none of them have worked!" Dr. Glen Stroud shouted from the corner he was in. He was working on some parchment with another 3 more doctors and one newbie.

"What are you trying now?" Maybe I could give some perspective.

"We have given up on spells. We will begin to try rune matrices. This one will work on the mind of whoever is using it. Instead of fighting off SCP-12725's presence we will try to make whoever uses the matrix completely unaware of 12725's presence. With it on Neville might be able to walk around the site without passing out.

Ah, that had been an issue when we first got here. 12725's presence had been too strong for Neville. He was an exceptionally strong sensor, unfortunately he was rather inexperienced in dealing with presences this strong and passed out quite frequently. He had steadily become better at resisting the pressure but he still passes out if he walks too close to 12725's cell.

"Well good luck with that. I heard Dr. Eugene muttering something about an annoying 'manipulating' aura on my way here."

"Fucking damnit, first the unbearable pressure, and now he also manipulates people around him? How are we going to counteract the pressure and the manipulation if whoever uses the matrix becomes unaware of both."

"Language Domhnall." About 5 people chorused.

AN

I am once again asking for your help. Should I try to 'speed run' his containment time? I could be writing so much more interesting stuff if Gabe had some semblance of freedom. Site-81 itself has some interesting SCPs. But if I do that I run the risk of skipping how he has learned to control some of the powers he might manifest down the line.

Also, some people seem to want a picture for Gabe's appearance. I am too picky with appearances to actually choose one, and Gabriel is basically a shapeshifter so a base image wouldn't matter much… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

If any of y'all finds a spelling mistake, has questions, has some criticism, or whatever, please leave a comment. I enjoy reading them.

Anyway, thanks for reading.

Ps. The poll has made it abundantly clear that y'all want more story than omakes. *cries in spanish* So I'm going to try to write more chapters than anything else from now on.