He gets up from the cafeteria bench, leaves the plate near the trash and goes upstairs to the office, just like an ordinary researcher from the facility.

Richard sat down on his office chair once again, and started a document.

"Well, now this is a boring day, didn`t see anyone since it started"

He grabbed a cup of coffee from the machine near him, and continued to write down his stuff

Gale had remembered finding his dorm and falling asleep, slipping into a fever dream that quickly faded into until only the memory of a structure remained. Sitting back up in his bed, the fever dying down, he remembered it being a massive structure who's paint peeled away, leaving the crumbling brick; The double doors themselves had been opened, but whether he'd entered, he could not recall.

Stepping out of his dorm, he heard the sounds of his radio going off: The experiment would start soon, and they wanted Task Force Deltas -6 and -5 Task on watch.

He did a roundabout and began his rummaging through his room until he had his equipment, and, only ten minutes later, both task forces were waiting outside, fully equipped and waiting by spinning helicopter's that only lowered the temperature more than anyone thought possible. On orders, both teams boarded the two helicopters where, upon finding a seat, Gale spotted Lander.

"Any idea how long it'll take to get there." Lander asked.

Gale glanced at his watch and back up, wondering why he had looked at it. His watch wouldn't tell him. "An hour or so, I expect. These machines are fast, so we won't expect any delay. I hope you brought something to pass the time, we're probably going to waste the day there until the site director lets us destroy that thing and let us go".

Lander took a moment to ponder this. "I think I'll probably just wander aimlessly around the site for a bit. Maybe try finding Wilson if I'm bored enough."

Gale smiled at this, perhaps at Wilson or Lander's foreshadowed supreme boredom. "If you'd like, I have a few novels that might interest you, but its mostly old stuff, pretty sure it wouldn't interest you".

Lander glanced over at Gale "What do you got?"

Gale pulled his pack off and peered into the abyss of equipment and books, "Atlas Shrugged, 1984, The Giver..." Gale rummaged about, finding that his books were so much less appealing than he thought, despite his own interest in such texts, "The only thing I can see you reading is some of Kant's works. Logic and reason are what structure our lives, but I can't say the same for you."

Knowing this trip would take a while, Lander decided to go with the only book Gale listed that he actually recognized. "Eh, I'll take 1984." Lander said, to which Gale tossed over. He himself was halfway through Rand's book. He continued reading as they neared the site.

The green-haired individual, clad in orange, looked up at Wilson. Her purple eyes lit up, she cracked her smile, an ever-noticeable sadist's smile that would put Freaky Fred to shame. With her barely noticeable Ukrainian accent, she let out "Wilson!" Making no attempt to hide her enthusiasm, she brought her hands to her cheeks. Clearly influenced by her enthusiasm, she immediately lunged at Wilson in an attempt to wrap her arms around him in a hug. It was Flandre, not a thing could say otherwise.

After a long hug, the two detached from one another and began a conversation.

"Oh my god, Flandre..", Wilson sighed, spellbound at finally meeting an old friend. "I haven't see you in so long."

"It's been too long!" Flandre toned down her smile a bit as she spoke. "Still keeping the nickname, Weelshin?"

Wilson heavily blushed at the mention of his old, embarrassing nickname. "Yeah yeah," he grumbled, before trying to change the conversation. "But seriously, it's so nice to see you. How have you been holding up in his hellhole?"

Flandre crossed her legs. "Same old.. Just been kept at this cell 'till I'm needed. Which so happens to be right now?" Tilting her head at Wilson, she was clearly unaware of the situation at hand.

"Just an experiment. A little...dangerous but I'll make sure you won't come out with even a scratch, I promise," Wilson smiled. "Let's not stall the doctors, now. Let's go."

"Lead the way, Weelshin." With a short giggle from Flandre, the two were off. Next stop: SCP-1048-D's test chamber.

For a majority of the trip Lander had been staring out the helicopter's window, occasionally pretending to read the book whenever Gale was glancing towards him. He decided it was best to keep up the illusion that he was interested in the novel since it always seemed to please Gale.

Gale would often tell Lander that he should read more books because it would “expand your vocabulary”. Besides the statement seeming to be incredibly insulting, Lander never saw a problem with his vocab. He never used slang for the most part and never struggled to find words to fit whatever he was saying, but apparently his current library of words didn’t satisfy Gale.

Now that Lander thought about it, Gale always seemed to be like this, thinking that Lander never pushed himself far enough to his potential. He never quite understood what exactly Gale was trying to get at, but he’d be lying to himself if he didn’t say he appreciate Gale’s attitude towards him. Better he’d be who he is now then someone who was all business all the time.

Lander’s thoughts had apparently found their closure at the right moment, since a blaring voice suddenly sounded over the intercom.

“Attention. We are approaching the containment facility. All units prepare for ground deployment.”

Gale abruptly grabbed the book out of Lander’s hands and began packing up.

Approximately 5 minutes later the helicopter landed, letting all the troops out. The orders were to head down to SCP-1048-D’s testing chamber and make sure the subject doesn’t attempt to escape during testing. Our unit was tasked with guarding the personnel inside the control room while the testing took place. Since the helicopter had arrived late we were behind schedule and had to have been down there a few minutes ago, so our officers quickly brought us up to speed and sent us down.

----

As Lander and Gale were heading down to the chamber, he suddenly halted in his pace and began clinging against the wall.

“Something wrong?” Lander asked.

“Yeah I’m fine.” Gale said as he let go of the wall. “I’m just gonna head to the restroom before I head down. I’ll be there shortly.” With that he left Lander.

“Oh right, the food poisoning…" Lander then turned back and continued onwards to the chamber.

During their walk, the trip was rather uneventful and boring. Enough to the point of Flandre's usually antisocial personality contridicting itself this once.

"Whenever I'm taking long walks alone or with someone, I like to think about my past.. Speaking of which, my mom was a bitch. There's no kind way to word that."

"Tell me about your mother," Wilson requested, being interested in this conversation starter.

"You really wanna know?" Flandre masked her obvious hatred towards her mother with a fake smirk, however continuing to speak. "My mom is a fanatic Christian. Usually that'd mean someone should be nice, right? Yeah, not in her case. She hates homosexuals, Muslims, or anyone that doesn't quite meet up with the bible's standards.. Talk about hyprocritical.. Anyways, I'm homosexual and a Muslim. And, well.. Yeah, she could care less about me. And I return that feeling back to her.."

"God, I hate people like that. Sorry you had to deal with a cunt your entire childhood."

"Mmm, yep.. The only thing she had going for her is her appealing figure. Besides that? I can see why I never met my father."

Wilson felt uncomfortable at the potentially incestous comment Flandre just made, and covered up his obvious discomfort with another question. "Do you know how she's doing these days?"

Flandre let out a sigh, a short one, barely expressing any emotion at all. "No. Haven't seen her in years."

"So, uh...if you don't mind me asking... if you hated her so much why didn't you... you know?"

"What do you--" Flandre blinked a few times, knowing Wilson's meaning immediately. "No, no no, I don't have the heart to kill a family member of mine, else I'd have killed her when I was 17."

"I don't see how her being family makes her unkillable, but I suppose that principle is related to your religion."

"Well, yeah I suppose.. Something just holds me back when it comes to a family member.. Or a close friend for that matter." Flandre looked down shortly, her fake smirk already have left her face and replaced with a neutral one. Clearly uncomfortable speaking about the matter at hand.

After the swift conversation that ended in discomfort, Wilson and Flandre finally arrived to SCP-1048-D's containment chamber after a brief elevator ride. As Wilson and Flandre ascended up the staircase that led to the control room of SCP-1048's containment chamber, the guard noticed the place was mildly swarmed with lab-coats buzzing about. What stuck out was a navy uniform that drew Wilson into a long friend of his, a Sergeant Lander.

"Lander?" Wilson questioned. "Is that you?"

"Hm?" Lander turned towards the pair. "Wilson? Holy crap that is you! What are you doing here?"

"It's good to see you again, man. I was just escorting this D to 1048's chamber," Wilson said as Flandre hid behind him subtly. "I heard this experiment is gonna be big. What are you doing here, hm?

"Me and a bunch of MTFs are gonna be stationed here for the test. You know, in case you fuck up."

Wilson chuckled. "I guess the Foundation learned their lesson after the last incident with 1048. Beefing up security. Hey, do you think this experiment will end in utter disaster, or will be harmless and anticlimactic as ever?"

"Former means something interesting will happen. Latter means I don't die. It's a tough call."

"Heh. Anyways, I should really get this girl to Lucia and Nicole, nice talkin' to you. Hey, wanna hit the bar tonight?"

"Man, now you're hitting on three girls at a time?" Wilson's expression quickly turned to an angry glare, while Flandre giggled quietly. "Alright alright, assuming nothing fuck's up I'll be there."

And with that, Wilson took Flandre to the front of the control room, which had a pair of windows peering down into the dark depths of 1048's cell. Dr. Lucia and her partner, Kerensky patiently waited for Wilson to approach them.

"'Kay, docs," Wilson said to Nicole and Lucia. "Got your D, want me to escort her down into the cell?"