Chapter Text
The Prompt: “It’s me again, it’s been a while! How are you, by the way? Anyways, onto the actual request- Given my name, how about an SCP!Reader who’s the opposite of 035? Reader is also a mask, but they’re nowhere near as manipulative- If anything, they’re fairly open and clear with what they want and say. In addition, those who wear the reader may find themselves healed of ailments, rather than broken down, so to speak. Perhaps 035 and the Reader would know each other, somehow? ~ OA”
The Response:
There was once a man, in Renaissance Italy, rumored to have been given powers of crafting by the gods. The man made two masks: one benevolent, and one malevolent. But, before he could finish his creations, he died. The masks disappeared, passed around by merchants and traders.
You know that every story has some grain of truth. It is you, after all, that the story refers to. You are a mask, crafted by an exceptionally skilled man, and you show care to all the humans you meet that wear you by healing them however you can. You do not lie about your motives, for why would you need to? Your only wish is to help others.
Unlike your… companion, 035.
The story treats you as though you were both related in some way. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. While the mask maker did create you both, he did not do so at the same time, nor with even the same materials. 035 and you share nothing, not even a name, and especially not goals. Where you want peace, 035 only wants conflict.
That wasn’t to say that you didn’t enjoy his company, but…
“You really care for them?” 035 asks. You can hear him roll eyes he doesn’t have, “Why?”
“Why not?” You shrug shoulders you equally do not have, “There is no harm in being kind.”
“You’re so boring,” 035 scoffs, but there is fondness there, mixed with the pity, “One day, you’ll see.”
You don’t bother to reply. There wouldn’t be a ‘one day’. Much as 035 was always the same, so too would you be. The mask maker had made you that way, after all. One cannot exist without the other.