Is This a Mask Cult?

The dark forest was covered in a heavy blanket of fog, the distinct white of snow covered the tree tops and floor. Snowflakes fell through the air, but when they landed on the snowy floor. They disappeared, a poorly imitated simulation. The snow of the ground and tree tops never grew or decreased, an endless deathly cold ran rampant in this void. But a dim light shown from beyond the trees, a sanction from the bleeding cold. Multiple figures stood just before the tree line, awaiting something.

Good soldiers for the Entity, ready to prepare food for it. Living in endless servance to it, providing for it and dwelling in the realms it created. A mutually beneficial arrangement, food for one and enjoyment for both. If only it could last…

….

Danny woke, eyes bleary as sleep lulled him. His awakening mind still trying to comprehend the dream, it felt painfully familiar and left a deep tearing sadness, but he couldn't understand why.

'What was that place?'

He rubbed at his eyes, the dream quickly fading as he realized it was now brighter and he was no longer laying beside Michael. Brows knitting, he sat up as his eyes darted around the familiar room. Gaze finally landing on the glass and the people watching him from beyond it, tilting his head, his mask formed back over his face.

Crossing his legs, he watched as a doctor entered holding some papers, the man smiled at Danny while lowering himself to sit opposite of Danny. Placing the papers on the floor, he slid them along with a pen over to Ghostface.

"If you wouldn't mind, I brought some puzzles and math problems."

Danny looked down at the papers, the first one appeared to be a draw to the end maze. Curiously, he grabbed the pencil, mapping out the right path with his eyes before drawing the line. Moving the finished paper over, he was met with simple addition and subtraction problems. Breezing through the questions, the next paper was multiplication and division.

Danny didn't mind the test, it simply brought back feelings of school. He wasn't a genius by any means, but he did well enough in all of his subjects. Besides Spanish. Languages tended to elude him, not that he couldn't if he really tried, he definitely could. It just didn't seem important, besides, all he cared about back then was bettering his skills for killing. And he could always start learning any time.

The next page was more difficult, Algebra specifically, it also had some fractions sprinkled in for some reason. He decided to take a look at the next page, which was a spew of randomly arranged Calculus, geometry, and trigonometry. Danny's brows furrowed but he completed the tests regardless, leaving only a few of the more complex questions blank. He pushed the papers back over to the doctor, standing up to grab a cup of tea.

The tests have been more mundane as of late, maybe he should visit the Plague Doctor again. The Doctor could tell him more about 096, he hummed and brought the two cups over to the doctor. The other accepted the cup gratefully, organizing the papers before standing up.

"Please follow me." He downed the tea before handing it back to Ghostface, who sighed and nodded.

Placing the empty cups back onto the table, he followed the doctor out of the room. The walk had a multitude of elaborate twists and turns, eventually leading to an elevator. Exiting it, they were met with an open space and multiple guards and doctors standing on the platform over the thick metal door. A guard led him to the front of it before moving off to the side.

"Opening containment." Another guard spoke over the speakers as a buzz rang through the room and the doors slid open.

Once they fully opened, Danny immediately caught the familiar weeps. His face brightened under the mask as a smile stretched across his face, without hesitation, he entered the dark room. Eyes raking over the space before landing on the long skinny figure, they were curled in on themselves, long fingers covering their lowered face. Finally taking in the others' appearance for the first time, Danny was even more confident in his opinion that the other was a child. Not on the outside, but on the inside.

Carefully walking over to the other, he sat down beside them. Keeping his eyes from meeting their face, he placed a hand on their shoulder.

"It's alright child, no one will look at you."

Fog drifted from Ghostface's hand towards the other's face, it condensed and formed a tight fitting mask. Their weeping ceased and their head lifted slowly, Danny tilted his head as the other looked at him through the fog-covered spaces of the mask's eyes. Their long fingers skimmed across the item, tapping at it curiously. Mysteriously, It didn't make any sound, Danny clapped his hands lightly. Moving back a bit as fog covered the area between them, it formed a box split three by three.

"Do you like tic-tac-toe?" He questioned "You can be O's, I'll be X's. O's go first."

The other was hesitant, but eventually turned and pointed to their bottom middle box. Danny nodded and fog moved to create a circle in the directed box, then more fog moved to his bottom right box.

The two continued taking turns, the first match ended in a tie, neither allowing the other to finish a line. They continued a few more rounds, eventually ending with a tie of two-two. By that time, the doors had started opening and he was instructed to exit. He nodded to the other, forming a small teddy bear from fog. He handed it to them, patting their head before waving goodbye.

Danny hummed happily to himself as he followed the doctor and guards back to his cell, choosing to ignore the questioning gazes directed his way by the group. Moving towards the couch the second he entered his cell, already preparing two fresh cups of lukewarm tea. As expected, the doctor took a seat, accepting the drink and keeping his attention on Ghostface.

"What happened when you entered 096's containment cell?"

And there it was, Danny had noticed the lack of cameras, most likely due to the inability to look at their face without consequence. He assumed they would ask what happened, and Danny could tell them everything or nothing at all. He has quite a bit of power right now, not that he really needs it. He can do and go wherever he wants whenever, but he'd rather not have guards come after him everytime he leaves confinement to visit Michael or any of the other SCP's.

"I'll tell you, only if you don't sound the alarms and deploy all the facility guards when I choose to leave containment and visit the other SCP's." He crossed his legs and leaned back, tilting his head and smiling at the other.

The doctor's brows knitted, he held his chin in thought for a few moments. Eventually sighing and nodding, "I know we have no way of containing you right now anyway, so I'll agree. On the condition that you don't actively harm any of the staff or try to leave the facility."

Danny nodded before explaining to the doctor. "I sat down beside them and gave them a mask, then we played tic-tac-toe." It was simple, but true.

The doctor blinked a few times, before staring critically at Ghostface. The masked individual rolled his eyes "It's true, that's all that happened. Honestly, I have no idea why you people haven't just given them a mask yet. If viewing their face is what causes distress, then simply covering it solves the entire problem. And you people are responsible for holding dangerous anomalies?" Danny tsked, fog covering him as he disappeared.

….

The doctor stared wide eyed at the seat where the anomaly was just sitting, it certainly had an attitude when it wanted. For appearing completely human, dna and all—apart from the anomalous abilities—it neither has a birth certificate or any information attaining to it ever existing as a human. Not to mention, it survived 049's touch.

The Plague Doctor had been interviewed after the test with the two, but it refused to answer. As did 035, the only hope for an answer is to either ask the anomaly itself or get permission to test it and 682. Hopeful that the indestructible lizard would end up spewing an answer or two for them.

Unfortunately, asking 6176 itself might end up fruitless, it'd been distraught after Oscar's accident. It'd been told for a while that the doctor was busy and recovering, but the anomaly proved more intelligent than originally thought. Although it seems convinced it was the cause for the doctor's death, the O5 council had made it clear to keep it that way. Oscar had gotten too close, too emotionally attached. The council had been unsure what to do with him at first, but the incident had given the perfect solution.

….

Danny landed on Michael's bed, and coincidentally, on top of Michael. The other seemed to be sleeping, or at least, he was. Danny had surprised the other, unfortunately.

He was left winded as the other's hand gripped his throat and pressed him to the bed, staring wide-eyed at the other. A breathless broken chuckle left him as Michael's grip loosened.

"Sorry, big guy. Didn't mean, to startle you." Danny said between breaths.

Michael grunted, letting go of his neck and instead lifted him up from under his arms. Laying back down, the bigger man laid Danny half on top of him. A silent suggestion to sleep, the smaller man smiled and pulled the blanket over his head. Letting his mask disperse into fog, he pressed the side of his face into the other's chest. Enjoying the warmth once again, he was sure this would become a routine, and he absolutely couldn't complain.

No, he'd enjoy this familiar comfort as much as he could.