∾ Rise and Fall ∾
-Chapter 16-
Warnings: Cursing, Studio Shenanigans
⊱⊰ With the foundation...⊱⊰
The deranged music director grinned almost devilishly at them. The group leader seemed unnerved but shook away his apprehension with a small roll of his eyes. "Can you lead us around the studio? If not, we're going to have to kill you." It was a bluff, of course. They weren't allowed to kill something that could be helpful in their quest for knowledge.
The inky humanoid only started to cackle maniacally, as if laughing about an unknown joke. "I'll play your little game. As long as I get out of this hellhole, alive. Is it a deal?"
Sammy stuck out his hand as much as he could, as he was still all tied up. The leader of the humans stared at it for a second, before breaking out into a grin. His had reached forward, before firmly clasping around the goo covered hand. "It's a deal."
The humans released the music director from where he was tied up, before watching him warily. Sammy grabbed his axe, which earned a protest from quite a few people. "Oh shush. You should know by now this place is dangerous."
When Sammy started walking away, humming under his breath, the humans belatedly started to follow. It wouldn't be a good idea to let it out of their sight, just in case it wound up getting into trouble.
One of the few researchers that were sprinkled through the group hurried up to the inky humanoid, the anomaly being slightly ahead of the mob of humans. "Sammy, wasn't it? Do you mind answering some questions?"
Sammy grinned and nodded. It was nice to have a conversation with somebody who was probably normal. Normal in the head, at least. Nobody in the studio could call themselves sane. Not even Henry. "What do you know about 60-, err, Bendy?"
The musician tilted his head in thought. "Well, what do you want to know? Who he is or what he can do?" The human fumbled with his pen for a moment, before saying "Both, please."
"I've known Bendy for a long time, and let me tell you, he may seem a bit... irritable at first, but he can be quite the charmer once you get to know him. As for what he can do, well, there's a bit more to that." The man tilted his head, a reminiscing smile on his face.
The human jotted Sammy's words down quickly, before going back to his main task: Finding out what exactly 6030 can do. "And what of 'his' abilities?". The man decided to use pronouns for the SCP but knew there was a chance of him getting in trouble for it. It was best to keep the humanoid happy though, and it seemed pleased with the word.
"Hmph. Well, I'll tell you this. Bendy is called 'king of the studio' for a good reason. It's not my place to tell you what he can do." The ex-human let out a sigh, before raising his axe to chop down a few planks in his way. The man besides him visibly tensed, relaxing only slightly when he saw what it was doing.
Sammy strode into the next room, before grinning at the new, possibly pleasant, development. If anything, it would give the gang of humans behind him a new friend to fawn over. He never liked being the center of attention anyways, or more specifically, being constantly disturbed when he was trying to focus.
"Hello Henry!"
5 minutes beforehand...
⊱⊰ Henry's Pov⊱⊰
I yawned as Boris looked in yet another barrel for any soup cans. I was tired. We had been searching for some Bacon Soup, but we kept coming up empty handed. Our supplies had been running dangerously low too, and it was only the knowledge that the ink demon hadn't been seen in over 7 loops that I'd even agreed in the first place.
I kept my axe in my hand as I peeked into the next room. No searchers, luckily enough. I knew the Butcher gang was on the lower levels. Unless Sammy popped up to try to steal our food, which he'd done quite a few times lately, we would be clear.
Boris finished his search with a dejected huff, and he quickly hurried to stand behind me. It was our usual way of moving throughout the studio. Boris used me as a meat shield, and he got to look for food.
The next room seemed to be likewise empty of food. It looked like it had been ransacked already, but we always checked just in case a lone can was missed. I heard the familiar sound of planks breaking and couldn't help but tense and gulp nervously. Sammy was nearby, and if he was nearby chances are we'd fight. Fights with him were always brutal.
"Hello Henry!"
I saw Boris slink behind me to hide. Smart. "What do you want Sammy? We don't have any food." I eyed the madman up, and he was likely doing the same thing. "Well nice to see you too! Anyway, I have a surprise!"
I almost couldn't believe my eyes as another, un-inked, human walked through the door after Sammy. The stranger looked equally surprised. The door was opened fully now, and I stared at the mass of humans. It had been a long, long time since I had seen a face that was un-inked. Joey didn't count.
"What the fuck, Sammy!? How the hell did these people get in?!" The inky man just grinned at me. "I have no idea! They said they'd take me outside though if I showed them around. Seemed like a good enough deal."
The man standing next to Sammy suddenly perked up. "We would be happy to escort you two to the surface if you'd like." I glanced over at Boris. The man had likely noticed the wolf wasn't suited for combat by the way he was cowering behind me with his hands over his eyes.
I sighed. "Boris, do you want to leave?" The toon uncovered his eyes and looked up at me slowly, clearly thinking. He tilted his head at me, and I got the unsaid message. "He wants to get his stuff before going up."
"We can do that, but we will need help finding it. This place is like a maze." The man complained. I slowly nodded. "Sure, we can do that." I turned on the spot, starting to move towards the door. Boris followed me like a shadow.
I still couldn't believe there were other humans. Or the fact that we were leaving. The idea seemed almost alien with how long I, no, everyone, had been down here. I absentmindedly listened to the sound of boots following me.
I turned another corner, stopping in front of the safe house. It was almost unnoticeable if you didn't know what you were looking for. Boris scurried ahead of me, grabbing the lever we'd hid behind a barrel. He clicked it into its designated space and pulled it down, opening the hidden door.
Boris waited for me to check if it was still safe. We never took any chances. Everything was as we left it. I relaxed, signaling to the toon that it was indeed safe. The wolf quickly hurried inside; with the other humans I totally hadn't forgotten about trailing after him.
I watched the people warily, making sure they weren't making unnecessary noises that could lure in trouble. They were simply walking around, observing and or touching everything inside the safehouse. It was a wonder nothing was broken yet.
One of the strangers walked up to me. "What is this place?" She asked. I watched as Boris pushed out a trunk of supplies, before replying, "A safehouse." She didn't seem to know why we needed such a thing, so I elaborated. "The studio is dangerous, so some of us make these little safe places to rest. We move every so often too, just in case."
She glanced at the wolf as he finished packing his supplies. "What's dangerous about the studio? We've only seen the half- ink creature things that Sammy called 'searchers'." It was my turn to look at her in surprise. That was all they had seen?
"You haven't seen the Ink Demon yet?" She shook her head. "I don't know what you're talking about. What does it look like?" I looked around the safehouse, quickly spotting and walking over to a piece of paper. I whipped out the fountain pen I always carried, before starting to draw.
I gave the woman the quick sketch when I was done. "This... this is 6030? We've been looking for it! Why did you call it the Ink Demon though? Is that a title for it?" I stared at her. "Pardon? 6030? What is that? Has the Ink Demon been with you people this whole time? Is that why you're here?"
The woman nodded. "6030 has been with us for a little while now, but it ran back here so we have to get it again. Personally, I'm not allowed to tell you what it is, but it's likely the exact same thing you drew. What do you know about it?" So that's why I hadn't seen Bendy around lately. It'd been with them this whole time! Lucky bastard.
I opened my mouth, before pausing. I didn't know these people, nor did I know what they planned to do with the Ink Demon. For all I knew they could be weaponizing it.
I was saved from having to respond as Boris excitedly dragged me away. I gave a helpless look that I didn't really mean towards the woman, before following the wolf.
"You ready to leave, bud?" I asked him. The toon nodded; tail wagging so fast it was a blur. "Alright, we're ready." I addressed the person I believed was in charge. "It's about time." Sammy snorted and stood up from where he'd been playing cards (and winning by from the look of it) against one of the humans.
The rest of the people seemed eager to move as well. The group started moving out, and I found myself and Boris being shuffled towards the front. We were still surrounded on all sides though. I was secretly glad though. It would give us a layer of protection if something nasty decided to pop up.
The trip was mostly uneventful. Walk, kill a few searchers, continue walking. Yawn. Soon enough though we were walking up the (hopefully) last set of stairs. I hadn't even known this staircase was here. Personally, I was also rather peeved I didn't. If I had, I would have totally bolted out of the studio wayyy earlier.
Sammy had to stay behind to be the group's guide. The humans let Sammy and I talk for a moment before we parted ways. "You sure you want to stay? Weren't you the one raving about leaving?" I let out a humorless chuckle. I remembered his attempted 'sacrifices' (murder attempts) all too well.
The ink man only grinned. "Well, I made a promise and I'm not one to break them. Meet you on the other side, I guess." With that, he turned and went back towards the main group. Three of the people had decided to escort me to wherever they were taking me.
With a final glance at the group, and an excited tug from the wolf, I disappeared out the door.
⊱⊰ With the foundation...⊱⊰
The group headed back down into the lower levels. It had cost them a bit of time to do that, but they'd wanted to make sure they'd gotten the two to safety. If what the man named 'Henry' had said was true, the studio was much more dangerous than what they'd encountered so far.
Now, back to the task at hand. SCP-6030 seemed to be hiding quite a few secrets, along with a few titles. 'The Ink Demon. King of the Studio (they were quite curious about how the SCP'd gotten that title)'. They figured 6030 was a lot stronger than it had originally let on. That, or the studio was laughably weak if the skinny anomaly was consitered the strongest.
They needed to find the SCP first before they could question it though. And from what they had found out so far, the studio was a lot deeper than they had originally perceived, along with more inhabitants than they'd expected. They were going to need a lot more food.
Sammy happily led the way back down, after informing the group that they were quite insane to be doing so. He seemed a lot chattier now, likely because he knew they'd get him out too. It didn't take them too long to reach their original position. They continued deeper.
"Hey, is that an elevator?!" One of the humans excitedly rushed the unassuming metal cage. "NO!" Sammy shouted, snatching the human by the shirt as he ran past the humanoid. "Are you insane?! That elevator will drop the moment you enter it!"
Most of the humans were looking at Sammy in confusion as he shoved the man back towards the main group. "How do you know it'll drop?" Sammy scoffed, before remembering that the humans didn't know about Malice yet. "Ah, forgot you didn't know about the Twisted Angel. She controls the elevators and has a nasty habit of sending people to their deaths."
With a sigh at the inevitable questions he'd now face, Sammy turned to push another door open. The group hurried to file through, casting longing glances towards the elevator, while also checking how many floors there were. Five floors, but it seemed they'd gone down more. They decided to ask the SCP about it.
"How come the elevator only has five floors? Haven't we gone down more?" Sammy groaned as the questions finally came. "The elevator only goes down so far. It skips quite a few floors." The men only seemed emboldened by the fact he was answering questions. "And what of uh, 'The Twisted Angel'?
Sammy decided to simply show them. "ALICE, YOU'RE AN UGLY BITCH!" He screamed into the studio, attracting some strange looks from the mob behind him.
Just as he'd predicted, the speakers that normally remained dormant roared to life with the angel's outrage. "HOW DARE YOU!? I'M THE PRETTIEST ONE OF YOU ALLL!" The false angel continued to rant as Sammy pointed up at the speakers. '
"To answer your question, that's the Twisted Angel, and luckily for you, she seems to be in a good mood."
//Wow, I haven't updated in months. Sorry bout that. Hope you enjoyed this chapter of studio shenanigans
I'm gonna have fun writing Alice's dialogue though, I can already tell :]
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