Chapter Text
You start walking through the halls, searching those machines. You have no idea what you have to do, but as you wander around helplessly while searching you come across Boxten, staring at a wall, then turning around to move. He doesn't look like the version on the internet. Like himself.
He has what you guessed was that corrupted ichor on himself, inside his head (with hands made of it coming out...eugh), his eyes looking erratic, red, maybe slightly unfocused.
That's a twisted. Now you know. That only makes you pop up with more questions, but the most prominent one was: is there any survivor other than Dandy?
Once again, only one way to find out, and you're not a quitter. You came here to find ghosts, and maybe, only metaphorically, ghosts are what you found.
And they aren't very nice ones either, given that whatever Boxten was now has seen you and is starting to chase you. Poltergeist level indeed. Or Zozo. Yeah, Zozo fits better.
Whatever, you can categorize them later if you felt like it, because, now? Now you have to run or you're getting your ankles bitten.
And run you did.
You ran straight and he kept chasing you, although every step he was a bit further for he was not as tall, thus his steps were smaller and you lost him easily.
You practically collapse on the floor, panting after that intense experience. —Okay, mental note, WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?— You shake your head in disbelief, talking out loud. —THAT'S A TWISTED!? WHAT THE HELL!?— Your inner dialogue wasn't as inner as you had expected. You often talked to yourself out loud.
You try to catch as much air as you can while panting, attempting to calm down. —Alright. Yup. This is bonkers. Crazy. Delulu as my fave YouTuber would say.— You cover your face with your hands, and when you're composed enough you stand up and continue walking, looking around.
The floor was something. It has animation booths in the middle of them and a few adjacent rooms with... Plushies! Bingo! Something to get you out of the shock!
You rush there, reaching the lower ones, but the full set of them were higher, so you had to get a way to get them. You needed to.
Could you find this on eBay or similar places, secondhand? Yep. Would they be either expensive as fuck or downright destroyed? Absolutely. Will you risk your life to get these...? Yes. No second thought.
You look around, spotting a chair, so you grab it and put it in front of the shelves, climbing it, finally reaching the plushies, which you store in your arms. Well, now you can't see anything but it's worth it, you have a plush for each main! It's a bit sad that there weren't the limited editions of events, like easter, or Christmas, but it's better than nothing.
Alright. Just carry them back to elevator, then go make those "machines", and afterwards you can leave with the plushies in the elevator! Sounds easy enough...
In practice.
You've finally left them and decide to go and find a machine. Lucky you, after walking, you find one in the middle of nowhere. Literally, there's animation booths and walls that lead to that center room, and that's where it is. One machine, light red. You look around. Nothing, so you have the opportunity.
You sit down on the floor, crisscrossing, and put your hands around the valve. It's cold and rusty. It takes a little bit of effort to get it moving, but it finally does and vibrates slightly, humming as it drops the black liquid (ichor, you assume) inside.
Until it gets stuck.
And the vibrations grow louder, so you desperately attempt to get it going, hitting it to no avail, then-
'BZZZZT!!!'.
You gulp. That can't be any good.
You hear footsteps, not only one pair but two. You stand up, looking around, ready to start running. Boxten comes from your right, and he's followed by what looks like a tissue box, corrupted as well, eyes red. And both are tryinb to get you.
You let out a (very manly, mind you/j) scream, running away quickly as they chase you. —NOT AGAIN!!!!— You look around and get to a room with windows, and grey floor, hiding behind some boxes and a shelf. A transparent shelf. You're so dead.
But they enter, and don't see you. Tisha starts cleaning the floor (well, that's unusual) while Boxten shakes his head and keeps walking aimlessly.
You're trapped. Oh, there's... Another machine. And a small room next to this one. You sneak inside, crouching, thinking you're the next protagonist of Assassin's Creed or something, then get back on your feet and stretch as you look around, gaze setting on a television.
There's Dandy. And a woman next to him. No, scratch that, in front of him, holding a notebook. You frown. Who is she? You've never seen anything about her anywhere. She asks the flower some things about his breathing, and you couldn't be more confused.
Unless...
Oh.
OH.
She was their creator. Delilah. You can finally put a face to the name. You silently watch the video. She calls someone named "Arthur" inside, who's carrying a... Pet dog? Rock? You recall seeing posters and a plushie and hearing about him, Dandy's loyal companion, "Pebble".
You can't help but feel warm as you see how happy Dandy is, how enthusiastic, but it quickly disappears when you hear her last phrase, leaving you chilly, suddenly dreadful. "Your joy is my joy".
Whatever could she mean by it...? Why does it feel so wrong in the way she said it?
You shake your head as you see the tape beginning again, but you can't leave it here. It's good piece of evidence, another part of an enormous puzzle you have yet to figure out, so you go to the VHS and extract it carefully, putting it inside your pocket. You're not letting go of this one.
You get out and check. The coast is clear, so you sit back down and look at the machine, analyzing it. Whatever could've gone wrong? Why was there a...oh my.
You hadn't realized before, but there's a long panel, pitch black, and you've got the chilling feeling that it's not just because.
You grab the valve again and start spinning it, now more confident than you had been before. Now that you think about it, you left that one half finished. Well, for later. You keep spinning it, glancing at the black screen every once in a while, when it gets stuck again, dripping little ichor, and there's a red line.
A fucking minigame.
This has to be a joke. What's next? Flappy bird? You groan and concentrate, hitting the valve hard, enough to push it somewhat inside when the red line meets the white part, wincing and expecting another buzz.
But there's silence, and the machine spills ichor as you keep spinning. Great! You got the hang of it.
After a couple of seconds you finish it, hearing a small "ding". Quite pleasant, actually. You get back up, walking out of the room. As you walk to the half finished machine, you find more tapes on the ground, so you put them in your other pocket to differentiate them from the important one.
You can also see candy on the floor, some gumballs and bars of chocolate. A tad unhygienic but you're not to complain (actually, you just might). Either way you grab them, perhaps they'll be useful later on.
You move, making the machines efficiently, now that you've learnt the correct way to do them.
And finally, the last one is completed, and the elevator is heard, opening again. You rush when you hear the alarms coming from it, which aren't very loud but it's enough to know that you must go back.
You reach it, kicking the plushies inside, feeling the adrenaline kick in when you glance at the machine counter and there's a countdown. Once you manage to get them all inside, you step in as well, panting and letting your body sit on the elevator ground.
What a first floor.