WEBVTT Kind: captions Language: en 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:04.240 In the nightmare, you’re being chased.  Chased by something you can never quite   00:00:04.240 --> 00:00:10.200 make out. It’s a tall, dark figure  with too many hands, but no face. 00:00:10.200 --> 00:00:12.920 In the nightmare, you’re running  down a hallway that keeps getting   00:00:12.920 --> 00:00:18.120 longer as the monster gains on  you. All those grasping hands. 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:24.160 One of them reaches out, grabs the scruff  of your neck with long, icy fingers, and-- 00:00:24.160 --> 00:00:29.080 You jolt upright in bed in a cold sweat.  Breathing hard. Eyes darting around the   00:00:29.080 --> 00:00:34.560 room as it comes into focus, treating  every shadow with terrible suspicion. 00:00:34.560 --> 00:00:40.440 There’s this awful feeling in the air.  It’s heavy on you, like a weighted blanket,   00:00:40.440 --> 00:00:47.120 some terrible new atmosphere. This is  more than just the nightmare comedown. 00:00:47.120 --> 00:00:53.240 You know, in your pounding little heart, that  there’s something in the house. Something that   00:00:53.240 --> 00:00:59.920 means you and everyone you love some terrible  harm - if it hasn’t done that already. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:05.000 There are footsteps coming down  the hall. Slow and creaking. 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:10.960 Why, tonight of all nights, did you  choose to leave your bedroom door open? 00:01:10.960 --> 00:01:16.240 Your growing sense of anxiety at least subsides a  little when you see a familiar silhouette in the   00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:22.960 doorway: The shame of your mother, come to check  on you. You must have been talking in your sleep. 00:01:22.960 --> 00:01:26.840 “Everything okay, sweetie?” she asks. 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:30.200 But that is not your mother’s voice. 00:01:30.200 --> 00:01:34.800 “Mom?” you ask back, small and trembling. 00:01:34.800 --> 00:01:38.600 She steps into the room, half-bathed  in the light of the moon shining   00:01:38.600 --> 00:01:44.320 in through your bedroom window.  It’s her, but something’s wrong. 00:01:44.320 --> 00:01:48.760 She’s wearing a strange mask. Like  something you’d see above the doors   00:01:48.760 --> 00:01:53.200 to an old-fashioned theater,  cast in grinning porcelain. 00:01:53.200 --> 00:02:01.080 And her skin. It’s a moribund shade of off-white.  Like a corpse just before it starts rotting. 00:02:01.080 --> 00:02:06.720 “Why so glum, honey?” the thing that  you’re sure is not your mother says. 00:02:06.720 --> 00:02:11.840 She walks towards you, and your whole  body tenses up. You want to run,   00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:17.240 you want to scream, but it’s like  invisible hands are holding you still. 00:02:17.240 --> 00:02:20.880 The woman in the Mask sits  at the foot of your bed. 00:02:20.880 --> 00:02:24.520 “Where’s dad?” is all you can manage. 00:02:24.520 --> 00:02:27.800 That’s when you notice the  kitchen knife in her hand,   00:02:27.800 --> 00:02:32.280 stained with something that  looks black in the moonlight. 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:39.680 The thing in the Mask laughs, and asks if  you want to go see him. You don’t answer. 00:02:39.680 --> 00:02:44.280 In a week’s time, when it becomes suspicious to  friends and neighbors that nobody has left the   00:02:44.280 --> 00:02:51.400 house in all those days, the police will intrude.  They’ll find a home that’s devoid of all life,   00:02:51.400 --> 00:02:56.320 and a particularly memorable corpse  sitting at the dining room table. 00:02:56.320 --> 00:03:00.680 It’s so rotten it looks almost like it’s  been burned, despite no other signs of   00:03:00.680 --> 00:03:06.480 fire in the house. And the pristine  white Mask still fixed to its face,   00:03:06.480 --> 00:03:11.160 a strand of black ichor dripping  out of its frowning mouth. 00:03:11.160 --> 00:03:16.280 What you just encountered is a unique anomaly,  even among the thousands contained by the SCP   00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:23.960 Foundation: They have it on file as SCP-035,  the Possessive Mask. By now you know that the   00:03:23.960 --> 00:03:29.040 Foundation wields unparalleled knowledge in the  fields of everything from paranormal happenings,   00:03:29.040 --> 00:03:32.760 extradimensional entities, and  the dark art of thaumaturgy,   00:03:32.760 --> 00:03:40.000 but even amongst that knowledge, the true nature  of SCP-035 remains a frightening question mark. 00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:43.000 To the untrained eye, it looks  like little more than a white   00:03:43.000 --> 00:03:47.800 porcelain comedy mask… Or was it a tragedy mask? 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:53.640 According to the first set of researchers assigned  to the 035 case - God rest their souls - the   00:03:53.640 --> 00:03:58.640 expression on the Possessive Mask’s face has  been known to change between the two, and when   00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:04.720 it does so, all photographic evidence depicting  the Mask will also change to match it. And this   00:04:04.720 --> 00:04:10.920 is one of the minor ways that the Mask gets into  your head and starts to influence your mind. 00:04:10.920 --> 00:04:16.400 One constant is that, when viewed from the front,  a foul-smelling, black liquid seems to weep and   00:04:16.400 --> 00:04:22.920 drool from the eyes and mouth of the Mask. This  liquid, still unquantified by Foundation research,   00:04:22.920 --> 00:04:27.720 is highly toxic and corrosive to the touch,  gradually breaking down any matter that it   00:04:27.720 --> 00:04:33.360 comes into contact with - organic or otherwise.  Experimentation has yielded the fact that it   00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:39.000 affects glass the slowest of all, but even  then, everything breaks down eventually. 00:04:39.000 --> 00:04:43.600 If ever you’re unlucky enough to find yourself  in the presence of the Possessive Mask,   00:04:43.600 --> 00:04:48.520 you may be able to look beyond all  that. You’ll find it charming. Enticing,   00:04:48.520 --> 00:04:54.800 even. If you pass within six feet of the Mask,  you’ll even feel a strong desire to put it on.   00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:59.760 Like its black tendrils are slithering in  between the folds of your mind. Like it’s   00:04:59.760 --> 00:05:05.680 always been there. Like its thoughts  and yours are simply… One and the same. 00:05:05.680 --> 00:05:12.000 And if you put on the Mask, giving in to  what it wants, that will soon be the case. 00:05:12.000 --> 00:05:16.840 The second the Mask comes into contact with the  face of a viable host - Either a sentient being,   00:05:16.840 --> 00:05:20.720 or an empty humanoid vessel, like  a mannequin or a corpse - it will   00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:25.080 produce a powerful alternate brainwave  pattern. In a sentient being, like you,   00:05:25.080 --> 00:05:31.360 this alternate pattern will nullify and erase  your consciousness, resulting in immediate death. 00:05:31.360 --> 00:05:36.600 Think of it like a new landlord evicting  an old tenant before moving in himself. 00:05:36.600 --> 00:05:43.280 When “Possessed” by SCP-035, the Mask’s corroding  effect becomes localized and accelerated on its   00:05:43.280 --> 00:05:48.560 host, slowly breaking down the body until  it’s completely inoperable - A lifeless,   00:05:48.560 --> 00:05:54.560 corroded husk. At this point, it will need to  seek a new host. Concerningly for the Foundation,   00:05:54.560 --> 00:05:58.520 however, the Mask can still operate its  host after they’ve sustained a level of   00:05:58.520 --> 00:06:02.480 damage impossible to survive  for any non-anomalous person. 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:07.600 SCP-035 has been shown actively possessing  hosts that looked like cadavers in an   00:06:07.600 --> 00:06:12.920 advanced state of decay, causing additional  psychological distress to anyone witnessing. 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:17.200 But don’t make the mistake of thinking  that 035, in possession of a host,   00:06:17.200 --> 00:06:23.880 is some mere mindless zombie. It might be the  costliest mistake you ever make. The Possessive   00:06:23.880 --> 00:06:28.440 Mask is one of the most intelligent,  articulate, and manipulative anomalies   00:06:28.440 --> 00:06:34.600 the SCP Foundation has ever contained, showing  a highly magnetic and charismatic personality,   00:06:34.600 --> 00:06:38.320 capable of conversing at length  with the researchers studying it. 00:06:38.320 --> 00:06:44.400 At times, according to some reports, it seemed  as though the Mask was the one studying them. 00:06:44.400 --> 00:06:48.640 It’s prone to flattery, slowly warming  up its targets, eroding their barriers,   00:06:48.640 --> 00:06:55.000 letting their guard down. During intelligence  and aptitude tests, SCP-035 has consistently   00:06:55.000 --> 00:07:00.440 been superlative. It also displays remarkable  emotional intuition, as well as a photographic   00:07:00.440 --> 00:07:05.240 memory. The mechanisms behind the nature of  the Possessive Mask still elude its most dogged   00:07:05.240 --> 00:07:11.160 researchers, but in my own humble opinion,  the question has a deceptively simple answer. 00:07:11.160 --> 00:07:18.920 The Possessive Mask is evil. Pure and undiluted  evil, in its rawest and most malevolent form.   00:07:18.920 --> 00:07:24.960 The entity is not hateful - In fact, I’d venture  to say that it’s full of love. And what it loves   00:07:24.960 --> 00:07:30.680 most is breaking the minds of human beings:  Through mere conversations with the Mask,   00:07:30.680 --> 00:07:34.760 the psyches of researchers have been  irreparably shattered. It has driven   00:07:34.760 --> 00:07:40.440 victims to dangerous actions for themselves  and others. Murder. Torture. Indiscriminate   00:07:40.440 --> 00:07:46.520 violence. All for no other reason than  to satisfy its personal sense of sadism. 00:07:46.520 --> 00:07:49.880 The Mask has boasted that it has a  complete understanding of the human   00:07:49.880 --> 00:07:55.080 mind and, given enough time, it could  destroy or reshape the mind of anyone,   00:07:55.080 --> 00:08:00.040 simply by talking to them. It’s an advanced  form of neurolinguistic programming that the   00:08:00.040 --> 00:08:06.120 Foundation’s finest minds can’t even come close  to cracking. Researchers with multiple PhDs and   00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:10.560 years in the fields of anomalous research  had been reduced to mindless slaves over   00:08:10.560 --> 00:08:16.280 the course of a single interview, something  that the Mask takes a perverse pleasure in. 00:08:16.280 --> 00:08:19.720 And if you believe that you would be  the exception, that you could match   00:08:19.720 --> 00:08:24.280 wills with the porcelain monster and come  out the victor, then you’re exactly the   00:08:24.280 --> 00:08:29.560 kind of mark it seeks. People are often  most vulnerable when they’re confident. 00:08:29.560 --> 00:08:34.560 SCP-035 is one of the most dangerous and  intelligent Keter class anomalies that   00:08:34.560 --> 00:08:38.840 the Foundation have ever encountered, and  thus, it requires an exceptional level of   00:08:38.840 --> 00:08:43.120 precaution in containment with multiple  layers of defense. Most immediately,   00:08:43.120 --> 00:08:47.080 the anomalous mask is contained within  a specially-created unit composed out   00:08:47.080 --> 00:08:52.400 of five panels of hermetically sealed,  four-inch-thick glass. Seeing as glass   00:08:52.400 --> 00:08:57.280 reacts the slowest to the Mask’s corrosive  black excretions, it’s the best compromise   00:08:57.280 --> 00:09:02.760 for keeping the horrible thing under lock and  key, at least for certain intervals of time. 00:09:02.760 --> 00:09:07.760 The larger containment chamber is reinforced  with iron, steel, and lead, and the doors to   00:09:07.760 --> 00:09:12.120 the chamber are to be triple-locked at all  times, with the only exception being when   00:09:12.120 --> 00:09:17.680 researchers are allowed into and out of the  room. Outside, no fewer than two armed guards   00:09:17.680 --> 00:09:23.680 stand watch to halt any unauthorized entrances  with potentially lethal force. These guards are   00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:29.080 not allowed to enter the containment chamber, for  fear that they’ll fall under the Mask’s thrall. 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:33.320 An on-site psychologist performs regular  checks on all of the staff members working   00:09:33.320 --> 00:09:39.600 with or even in proximity to SCP-035, checking  for any potential signs of influence or mental   00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:45.680 instability. Due to the aforementioned  corrosive effect of SCP-035’s excretions,   00:09:45.680 --> 00:09:49.600 the smaller class containment unit  needs to be replaced every two weeks,   00:09:49.600 --> 00:09:55.560 with the previous containment unit being disposed  of via SCP-101 - A living leather satchel with an   00:09:55.560 --> 00:10:01.240 extradimensional interior. Anyone who comes into  contact with the Mask while it’s possessing a host   00:10:01.240 --> 00:10:06.600 is required to undergo immediate psychological  evaluation from a trained professional. 00:10:06.600 --> 00:10:09.800 For many anomalies, establishing  rigorous containment procedures   00:10:09.800 --> 00:10:15.720 would be the ultimate solution. But nothing  is ever simple with the Possessive Mask. 00:10:15.720 --> 00:10:20.280 You see, it was first discovered in the  early 1800s, in the city of Venice. City   00:10:20.280 --> 00:10:24.640 authorities were breaking into an abandoned  house, a stately manor on the outskirts,   00:10:24.640 --> 00:10:28.880 the occupants of which hadn’t been  seen in years. Inside the manor,   00:10:28.880 --> 00:10:33.760 they found a sealed tomb, and inside that  sealed tomb - covered in written pleas   00:10:33.760 --> 00:10:40.720 to never free its contents - they found  what would one day be known as SCP-035. 00:10:40.720 --> 00:10:46.520 The owner was long gone. To the city authorities  of 1800s Venice, he seemed like a madman,   00:10:46.520 --> 00:10:52.000 his home full of countless notebooks all littered  with deranged scrawlings. He seemed to be   00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:57.280 obsessed with a place known as “Alagadda”,  though they had records of no such place. 00:10:57.280 --> 00:11:02.000 The Mask’s whereabouts became unknown for a  time after that, though everywhere it went,   00:11:02.000 --> 00:11:06.800 death and destruction seemed to follow.  The Foundation has an entire separate team   00:11:06.800 --> 00:11:12.160 dedicated to connecting historical murders and  disappearances that may have involved the Mask,   00:11:12.160 --> 00:11:17.000 in hopes of tracking its entire sordid tale.  But after being interred at a Foundation   00:11:17.000 --> 00:11:23.400 containment site, the Mask started a new reign  of terror within the Foundation’s very walls. 00:11:23.400 --> 00:11:28.080 A month after it was first contained, violence  broke out in the facility. Right under the   00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:32.920 Foundation’s nose, the Mask had been manipulating  the personnel on the research team, recruiting   00:11:32.920 --> 00:11:38.600 them to its sinister and mysterious cause. They  started murdering their own comrades to create a   00:11:38.600 --> 00:11:44.920 distraction, while others attempted to smuggle 035  and its glass containment unit out of the site. 00:11:44.920 --> 00:11:49.480 Luckily, Site Security cottoned on before the  plan could succeed in its ultimate objective.   00:11:49.480 --> 00:11:53.840 They intercepted and terminated the mutineers  who’d been manipulated by the Mask’s anomalous   00:11:53.840 --> 00:11:58.200 influence, and returned it back to its  chamber. All the survivors involved in   00:11:58.200 --> 00:12:02.840 the incident were transferred off-site  for extensive psychological counseling. 00:12:02.840 --> 00:12:05.760 But this was just the beginning. 00:12:05.760 --> 00:12:09.360 The incident made the Foundation conduct  further research into the anomaly’s means   00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:14.880 of manipulation, and discovered that  SCP-035 was capable of telepathy,   00:12:14.880 --> 00:12:18.880 even when not attached to a host.  This both accounted for its ability   00:12:18.880 --> 00:12:23.360 to influence people to put on the mask, as  well as how it so thoroughly corrupted and   00:12:23.360 --> 00:12:27.640 controlled the former staff members who  performed the insurrection on its behalf. 00:12:27.640 --> 00:12:31.640 This discovery resulted in the Foundation  exercising further caution around which   00:12:31.640 --> 00:12:38.880 subjects were permitted to interact with SCP-035.  Despite how intelligent and superficially charming   00:12:38.880 --> 00:12:44.840 it seemed at any point, there was no doubt  they were dealing with a sadistic puppetmaster. 00:12:44.840 --> 00:12:49.880 All this was bad enough, but the Foundation grew  substantially more concerned when it started   00:12:49.880 --> 00:12:59.800 taking interest in more ambitious potential hosts:  SCP-682, the Hard to Kill Reptile, and SCP-4715, a   00:12:59.800 --> 00:13:06.800 Demon Born of War. Both are immensely violent and  powerful anomalies with regenerative capabilities,   00:13:06.800 --> 00:13:12.960 and that’s exactly why the Foundation believes  035 is taking such an interest: Either might be   00:13:12.960 --> 00:13:17.680 passively regenerative enough to counteract the  corrosive effect that the Possessive Mask has on   00:13:17.680 --> 00:13:24.080 its hosts, potentially giving it a permanent  - not to mention extremely dangerous - body. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:28.600 Extra measures were put in place in hopes of  ensuring that such an outcome never transpired,   00:13:28.600 --> 00:13:32.640 but the Mask just seemed to  take that as a challenge. 00:13:32.640 --> 00:13:35.760 There were a string of other escape  attempts in the months that followed,   00:13:35.760 --> 00:13:40.080 all accompanied by a number of Foundation  casualties. Site Command reviewed the   00:13:40.080 --> 00:13:44.720 incident logs - including all the gory  details - and correctly concluded that   00:13:44.720 --> 00:13:50.280 the Possessive Mask was too dangerous an anomaly  to be given any leeway whatsoever. They demanded   00:13:50.280 --> 00:13:55.680 that it be permanently sealed in its containment  chamber, and all of its host privileges revoked. 00:13:55.680 --> 00:14:01.160 It was this move that revealed just how many  loyalists the Mask had created in the site:   00:14:01.160 --> 00:14:04.440 There were large internal protests  at the news that its steady supply   00:14:04.440 --> 00:14:09.840 of mannequin and corpse hosts were being  revoked, with some of these 035 devotees   00:14:09.840 --> 00:14:13.520 taking their violent aggression out  on their fellow staff members. This   00:14:13.520 --> 00:14:18.280 resulted in several murders and several  more terminations of compromised personnel. 00:14:18.280 --> 00:14:23.760 Site Command dictated, from that point on, that  staff on the 035 case be profiled and rotated   00:14:23.760 --> 00:14:30.760 frequently, with any direct or proximity contact  with 035 kept to a minimum. But once again, this   00:14:30.760 --> 00:14:37.200 well-intentioned move didn’t stymie the Mask’s  effort. They just encouraged it to up its game. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:41.840 Soon, staff members who weren’t even working  with the Mask, but just so happened to be working   00:14:41.840 --> 00:14:47.000 within ten meters of its containment cell, started  to bear the brunt of its secondary anomalous   00:14:47.000 --> 00:14:54.600 effects. They reported hearing unintelligible  whispers, as well as a pervasive sense of unease.   00:14:54.600 --> 00:14:59.040 Some even reported the onset of severe migraines  that were disrupting their ability to work.   00:14:59.600 --> 00:15:05.040 No apparent superficial changes were detected  in the Mask while all of this unfolded. 00:15:05.040 --> 00:15:08.920 Some of the researchers working with  035 suggested reinstating the Mask’s   00:15:08.920 --> 00:15:13.960 host privileges in hopes of appeasing it,  but this motion was denied. Site Command   00:15:13.960 --> 00:15:19.400 refused to give in to what they saw as the  Mask’s cruel and petty intimidation tactics. 00:15:19.400 --> 00:15:22.480 What followed was the mother  of all Dirty Protests,   00:15:22.480 --> 00:15:27.720 and would mark a substantial escalation in  the Mask’s campaign of psychological terror. 00:15:27.720 --> 00:15:34.160 The walls themselves in 035’s cell started to  secrete copious amounts of black fluid - analysis   00:15:34.160 --> 00:15:39.440 of which revealed that it was composed mostly of  human blood, with a number of other alien toxins   00:15:39.440 --> 00:15:44.720 and contaminants. The substance, much like the one  that leaks from the front of the Mask’s eyes and   00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:50.560 mouth, was highly corrosive, and began eating  through the structural integrity of the walls. 00:15:50.560 --> 00:15:54.920 But this wasn’t just random. Foundation  personnel quickly noted that the corrosive   00:15:54.920 --> 00:16:00.880 sludge was forming clear shapes on the walls:  Full sentences in a number of different languages,   00:16:00.880 --> 00:16:06.120 including Greek, Italian, Latin, and Sanskrit,  which a research team were put in charge of   00:16:06.120 --> 00:16:11.720 translating. In addition to the sentences,  there were also complex diagrams depicting   00:16:11.720 --> 00:16:17.058 acts of ritual sacrifice - All involving  members of staff working at that very site. 00:16:17.058 --> 00:16:17.148 Researchers directly examining the patterns  experienced more secondary anomalous effects:   00:16:17.148 --> 00:16:17.231 Loud and persistent whispering in their  ears, occasional smatterings of obnoxious,   00:16:17.231 --> 00:16:17.336 high-pitched laughter, and more severe migraines.  There were reports of “catastrophic morale damage”   00:16:17.336 --> 00:16:17.420 for personnel working in and around 035’s  containment cell over the coming weeks,   00:16:17.420 --> 00:16:17.494 resulting in unprecedented rates of  injury and death among them - even if   00:16:17.494 --> 00:16:17.560 they never had any direct contact  with the Possessive Mask itself. 00:16:17.560 --> 00:16:22.760 During this time, the Mask’s powers of corrosion  also seemed to increase, destroying its glass   00:16:22.760 --> 00:16:27.600 containment unit and warranting replacement  at increasing speeds. On some occasions,   00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:31.280 the glass would simply shatter, leading  to a sudden spike in the severity of the   00:16:31.280 --> 00:16:37.000 anomaly’s effects. There were six casualties  and three deaths during the cleanup efforts. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:40.560 In this war of attrition, it was  clear that the Foundation was losing,   00:16:40.560 --> 00:16:45.400 so Site Command began resorting to anomalous  countermeasures. This included lining the   00:16:45.400 --> 00:16:52.080 walls of 035’s cell with SCP-148, an  anomalous alloy known as “Telekill”   00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:56.240 for its ability to dampen telepathic  abilities. Getting any other anomaly   00:16:56.240 --> 00:17:01.680 to interact with the Possessive Mask could have  unpredictable and potentially dangerous results,   00:17:01.680 --> 00:17:06.800 but with researchers and guards dropping  like flies, they were running out of options. 00:17:06.800 --> 00:17:11.880 In a rare win for Site Command, the Telekill  did its job, reducing the amount of deaths   00:17:11.880 --> 00:17:17.120 for people working in proximity to the outside of  the Possessive Mask’s containment cell. However,   00:17:17.120 --> 00:17:21.680 every action has an equal and opposite  reaction, and the measures to prevent   00:17:21.680 --> 00:17:25.880 the Mask’s power from proliferating had  the unintended result of concentrating   00:17:25.880 --> 00:17:31.040 its anomalous effects with far greater potency  in the containment chamber itself. Researchers   00:17:31.040 --> 00:17:35.720 working on the case referred to it as  a kind of anomalous greenhouse effect. 00:17:35.720 --> 00:17:40.560 In practical terms, this made the containment  cell an incredibly dangerous place to be for   00:17:40.560 --> 00:17:47.280 human beings. Subjects inside the room reported  the sounds of unintelligible yet deafening voices,   00:17:47.280 --> 00:17:52.320 a general sense of dread, and a gamut  of negative emotions from depression to   00:17:52.320 --> 00:17:58.840 fear to outright rage. Spending three hours  in the cell had even more severe effects:   00:17:58.840 --> 00:18:01.960 Bleeding from the eyes and  mouth, destructive tendencies,   00:18:01.960 --> 00:18:07.040 hostility to others, and the constant  ringing of cruel laughter in their ears. 00:18:07.040 --> 00:18:12.040 At this point, the afflicted person was likely  to slip into a state of irretrievable psychosis,   00:18:12.040 --> 00:18:17.160 the inherent mechanisms of their minds  warped by the dark power of the mask.   00:18:17.160 --> 00:18:21.760 The team instructed to decode the writing that  appeared on the wall were all also found dead,   00:18:21.760 --> 00:18:28.160 having suffered violent demises. SCP-035  clearly had no intention of letting up. 00:18:28.160 --> 00:18:32.440 Cleanup efforts on the leaking walls  also hit a diabolical roadblock. The   00:18:32.440 --> 00:18:36.520 black liquid oozing out of the walls  was becoming increasingly acidic,   00:18:36.520 --> 00:18:41.560 eating through the iron, the lead,  and even the Telekill. Soon enough,   00:18:41.560 --> 00:18:46.600 the cell itself would cease to have any  structural integrity. If left unattended,   00:18:46.600 --> 00:18:52.240 the Possessive Mask would have telepathic free  reign over the entire facility. In the absence   00:18:52.240 --> 00:18:58.360 of some way to reinforce the walls, they would  have to be replaced entirely every two months. 00:18:58.360 --> 00:19:03.000 Once again, researchers suggested  reinstating the host privileges for 035,   00:19:03.000 --> 00:19:08.840 a motion that Site Command once again denied.  A disturbing pattern was becoming clear:   00:19:08.840 --> 00:19:13.240 Perhaps the researchers affected didn’t  even know it, but the Mask was using them   00:19:13.240 --> 00:19:19.120 as a mouthpiece. They were all just pawns in  a game of incentives, the Mask bargaining and   00:19:19.120 --> 00:19:24.880 threatening until it got its way, and the Site  Commanders refused to give in to its little game. 00:19:24.880 --> 00:19:28.720 SCP-035 would not reward their bravery. 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:34.240 Soon enough, the entire cell was saturated  in the dark liquid from floor to ceiling.   00:19:34.240 --> 00:19:39.000 Personnel needed to enter the room decked out in  full, reinforced hazmat suits if they wanted to   00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:45.360 survive even a small excursion. It had terraformed  the cell into its own little slice of perdition:   00:19:45.360 --> 00:19:49.960 A horrifying concentration of dark power  where the sadistic whims of the Possessive   00:19:49.960 --> 00:19:56.080 Mask reigned supreme, and its methods were  about to get even more dangerous and extreme. 00:19:56.080 --> 00:20:01.240 Incidents with 035 became an almost daily  occurrence as it exercised its power over   00:20:01.240 --> 00:20:05.880 the cell. There were incidents where it  telekinetically locked the door, trapping   00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:12.160 researchers or cleaning personnel inside to be its  psychic playthings. Appendages started forming out   00:20:12.160 --> 00:20:17.480 of the corrosive fluid puddles, reaching out and  trying to claim the people trapped in the room. 00:20:17.480 --> 00:20:21.000 At this point, electronic devices  stopped working inside the room,   00:20:21.000 --> 00:20:25.840 including light sources - Meaning that the  only way to navigate the darkened room was   00:20:25.840 --> 00:20:32.040 by gas lamp or candlelight. Any attempts to clean  the excretions have become completely fruitless,   00:20:32.040 --> 00:20:37.480 as the room degrades further and further, leaving  the Site Commanders to ponder their next moves.   00:20:37.480 --> 00:20:44.080 In all likelihood, they would need to remove 035  from its current cell and transport it elsewhere. 00:20:44.080 --> 00:20:48.760 And who knows what nasty little tricks  it would have up its sleeve for then? 00:20:48.760 --> 00:20:53.880 The mysteries and cruelties of the Possessive Mask  aren’t likely to stop fascinating and frightening   00:20:53.880 --> 00:20:59.760 the SCP Foundation, and the rest of us, anytime  soon. Behind the alternating grin and frown of   00:20:59.760 --> 00:21:06.760 its porcelain face, it’s concocting plans that you  or I could scarcely even comprehend. It is old,   00:21:06.760 --> 00:21:13.480 it is patient, and above all, it is monstrous.  And the effect it has on everyone around it is a   00:21:13.480 --> 00:21:19.040 frightening reminder that the power dynamics here  might not be in favor of the Foundation this time. 00:21:19.040 --> 00:21:25.040 In other words, it’s not trapped in here  with us - We’re trapped in here with it. 00:21:25.040 --> 00:21:29.400 Check out the Doctor Bob Patreon and become  a junior researcher today! Now go and watch   00:21:29.400 --> 00:21:35.600 another entry from the files of Doctor Bob,  like SCP-189 - Hair-Imitating Parasite!