Elise and The Ink Machine

   Elise made her way to the lift and pressed the button to take them up to Level P. Tattletail and Buddy were both oddly quiet for some reason. "What's with you two? You guys are real quiet," Elise said. Buddy sighed, ears pulled back, "I can't help but feel like this is a trick, Elise. We shouldn't be helping her." Elise blinks, "What makes you say that?" Tattletail rolled his eyes, not being able to comprehend the stupidity coming out of Elise's mouth, "Oh, I don't know, the fact that she had corpses tied to tables, implying SHE was the one who killed them?? Buddy also mentioned she tried to kill him. AND, she was literally about to operate on someone when we came in to talk to her." Elise blinks, "Maybe she had a change of heart?" Tattletail rolled his eyes, "People don't change that quick, dummy." Buddy nodded in agreement. Elise blinks, "You two, just... Just... Just let me handle it, ok? Everything will be fine." Buddy sighs, "...Yeah, ok." Elise smiles as the lift stopped at Level P, and she headed out. "Have you met him?" Susie suddenly said, voice coming out of the intercoms. Elise's gaze looked at the intercoms, "...Met who?" 

  "The Ink Demon," Susie replied, sounding serious. Elise tensed a bit and nodded, "Yeah... We've met him. He's followed us around since we got here..." Susie sighed, voice a bit grim, "That definitely sounds like him... Y'know, they say he hears everything. Every creak of the floor, every rustle of paper." Elise tensed up. That was very... Foreboding. "I wouldn't run so fast if I were you... You never know what'll draw him in. If he catches you... Well... I hope you don't mind having a matching scar to mine," Susie laughed a bit. Elise frowned and shivered. Well, that didn't exactly help her feel confident. She looked over at Buddy and Tattletail, who she could tell shared her same sentiment. Buddy especially seemed really freaked out, ink dripping off of his brow, and having an overall distant look in his eyes. Elise walked over and held his hand, leading them up the stairs to look for the valve panels. Elise looked around. This level was... Unsettling to say the most. There was another dead butcher gang clone laying on a table by a valve panel, right next to a wall on the center of the hallway with a message written in ink saying, "I DON'T WANNA WORK HERE ANYMORE". 

    Elise frowned at the message, "These poor people... Who went missing here..." Tattletail grumbled, "We'll become the next on the missing list if we're not careful." Elise nods, sighing, "All because of Joey not wanting to take responsibility."

   Buddy suddenly piped up, "Wait... Did you say, Joey?" Elise nodded slightly, "Yeah?" Buddy frowned and looked at Elise with an odd amount of seriousness in his eyes, "If I'll be... Completely honest with you, I don't think Joey's the type of guy who would do this. Joey was really nice, and sweet, a-and cool, and he was always there for everyone. He really tried his best. I don't think he was the kind of guy who would do this." Elise blinked at him and raised an eyebrow, "...How do you know so much about Joey? Did you know him?" Buddy frowned and went quiet for a long time, as if he was trying to remember memories that weren't there anymore, "I... I don't know..." His ears pulled back and more ink started to drip off his brow, looking incredibly confused and unnerved due to his lack of memory. "I don't... Know. Just ignore what I have to say," he said, looking really sad. Elise frowned and pet him gently," It's alright Buddy... This studio is scrambling all of our brains right now." Buddy nodded, wilting a slight bit, "Y-yeah... Let's just look for the valve pannels." Elise nodded and headed forward. She decided to go into the room with the dead clone, just to get it over with. She opened the door only to realize that it had... Disappeared?? Buddy whimpered, "Where did it go?" 

   Elise shrugs, looking confused. Tattletail spoke up with his own little theory, "Maybe it was a ghost." Elise typically would disagree as it sounded incredibly unlikely in every other circumstance, but she couldn't help but accept that as a possibility this time. After all, this studio was full of surprises. Elise looked to the right of her and noticed what Susie wanted them to collect. A valve panel. She walked over and started to turn the wheels as Susie had instructed. The wheels were connected to tubes of ink that Elise had to make them all equal to one another to grab the panel. After a few minutes of irritating wheel turning, she grabbed the first power core. She managed to get two more doing the same thing, and then the final one by killing a butcher gang clone. Nobody said anything the entire time. Elise could practically feel the tense atmosphere between her, Buddy, and Tattletail. The one to break the silence was Susie, "You're quite the efficient little errand girl, aren't you?" Elise smiled a bit at the compliment and headed into the lift, with Tattletail and Buddy following behind in silence. Elise got in and pressed the button for Level Nine. Elise sat down in the lift and picked up Tattletail, gently petting him. Buddy sat down next to Elise and whimpered, putting his head down. Elise looked at Buddy, "What's wrong?" Buddy looked at Elise slightly, "This doesn't feel right. It feels like a trap. You saw what she did to those other clones of me." Elise blinks, "Maybe that's her odd way of... Wanting to bury them?" Buddy looked at her and growled a bit, "She killed them, Elise! Can't you see that?" Elise sighed, "I know, I know... But she's our best ticket out of here!" Buddy sighed, "A dangerous one at that. And whenever Tattletail or I try to bring up the danger, we get brushed off. So I don't even know why I'm bringing this up." Elise frowns. She guesses she HAS been a bit dismissive lately, "I'll keep that in mind, Buddy. For now, let's just trust this, ok? I promise, I won't let her lay a finger on you." Buddy nodded and they spent the rest of the trip in a slightly-less tense silence. Once the lift got to Level 9, Elise headed to the angel's lair and dropped off the valve panels in the angel's dropbox as Susie instructed. As soon as Elise did that, Susie spoke up again, "Very good. Now, onto the next one. My machines are hungry, gather me some spare parts. Three gears should do." Elise looked to the doorway system that had given her the plunger as a little wrench was supplied to them by Susie. Elise left the wrench by the area and went back to the lift where Tattletail and Buddy were waiting. Elise looks at Buddy, "We need gears. Know where to find them?" Buddy nodded, "Level K. It has a ton of gearboxes." Elise nodded and hit the button for Level K. She sat by Buddy and Tattletail as the lift took them to their next location.