Chapter Text
The two stood silently for a few moments, feeling the elevator rise, before Scout broke the silence.
"If you're serious about this whole 'escape plan' thing, there's only one way out of here. There's a hole in one of the walls from the fire. But, here's the fun part: it's way back in Mortimer's section, and to get there we gotta go through the sound stage, which is where all the other puppets are! So I hope you're a fast runner!"
Sec shrugged, unsure of what else they could do. The blast he had hit Rosco with had barely done anything to the giant dog, so what were the odds his powers would do anything to the others?
"This feels insane. Do you actually think we're gonna make it out of this?"
Sec nodded. Of course, he had to. He had his family on the outside, people he had to get back to.
"You do. You're either lying or you're crazy, but, y'know what? I'll take it."
There was another few beats of silence, filled only by the sound of the ancient elevator, before Scout spoke up again.
"I can't stop thinking about that... Meat locker. Those hosts... Hanging there. Riley always told us host's loved being hosts! She said the host world- the world where you're from- and hosts are begging to join our world. But I dunno, they didn't look happy in there. You're from the host world, is it- I dunno- is it a good place?"
Sec had to think for a moment on that. There was a lot of good in the world, but also a lot of bad. Then again, with the studio as a comparison... Sec firmly nodded, and saw Scout's face light up.
"It is? I knew it!" A slight head tilt from Sec prompted her to elaborate. "I've seen the host world you know. One time, before my first orientation, I found a television in the basement, with working cable! I don't even know how long I was watching it before... Riley... Caught me..." The small puppet started to trail off, but a quick nudge from Sec got her mind back on track.
"Cop dramas, bake offs, nightly news. It blew my mind! But, even on there, I never saw anything on there like you." She tilted her head. "What even are you, anyways?"
Sec could only shrug. Even among themselves, they weren't sure. All they knew was that they weren't quite as human as they looked.
"Anyways, ever since then, I've never fit in here. That's when I stopped rhyming. I just couldn't anymore."
Sec tried to imagine the small puppet on his arm rhyming, but even with the small examples he had from before, he just couldn't. A new thought suddenly struck him, one that made him silently giggle.
'Oh man, Dark is going to have a field day teaching you new swears.'
"Maybe, if we survive this, and that's a collosal 'IF'... I could fit in out there, in your world." Sec spared a glance at where she was sewn to his arm, and she got his meaning. "I know I'm a puppet, but do you think that's possible?"
Unlike before, Sec didn't hesitate at all when nodding. After all, if he and his family could fit in just fine, why not a little puppet among them?
"Wow, thank you... I don't know if I believe you, but it's nice of you to say."
The elevator stopped with a jolt that caused Sec to momentarily lose his balance, and the doors opened after a short, out of tune jingle. Sec made sure Scout's light was turned on as they stepped off the elevator, but anything she was about to say was interrupted by the loudspeakers crackling to life.
"Attention Handeemen of every shape. A defective puppet named Scout and her host have escaped. They have corrupted my data and rendered my tests incomplete, so you must hunt them down now and halt their retreat. Rip out their eyes, eat their guts, burn their skin, throw them in the trash, OR I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU ALL!!!"
".... I have never heard Riley not rhyme. She must be really losing it." Scout whispered, in a voice that sounded equal parts amused and terrified. Sec nodded nervously, before spotting another scanner on the other side of the room, and quickly jogging over to it.
Scout sighed, "I can't open this, I need a different security pin. We got lucky with the first one, so look around, maybe there's something."
Sec glanced around before he spotted something: a spotlight, shining down on something out of sight. Navigating the maze of bookshelves and boxes that made up the majority of the room with Scout's help, they found what someone had been trying to draw attention to. It was a large music box, with a pair of hands clutching it, made to look like Mortimer's hands. On the wall behind it was more of that writing Sec couldn't read.
"That's... Mortimer's handwriting. It says, 'Mind if I join in on the fun?'" Scout's voice was shaking as she spoke, and Sec could feel his own hand shaking just as much as he reached out, turning the music box's crank.
"No! Come on! Are we really doing this? This is a bad idea!" Despite Scout urging him otherwise, Sec kept turning, listening to the song as it played. Even in the context, he had to admit it was a nice melody, and kept a note of it in his mind, to try and show Green later. The song ended, but nothing happened.
"You.. must've done it wrong. Let's try it aga- AAAAGH" she was cut off by Mortimer's head on a spring suddenly popping out of the box, scaring them both. "COME ON! REALLY?!"
Sec leaned on the wall, trying to calm his pounding heart rate, when he noticed something on the small Mortimer's hat. It was a security pin, exactly the one they had been looking for. Scout spotted it a few seconds after Sec did, and didn't hesitate to call out exactly what she was thinking.
"Hey! That's a master pin! Part of one anyways. But why the hell is Mortimer helping us?! That makes no sense!"
Sec could only wish he knew the answer, passing her the pin and sticking the old one in his pocket. They went back through the makeshift maze, but just as they were a few steps from the door, the elevator's jingle played again.
"Shit! A sock puppet! Run Host! Get to the door!"
Sec was already sprinting, nearly slapping Scout with the scanner and wheeling around so she could close it on the other side before Scout could tell him to.
"huff, I am really over this close call shit!"
Sec nodded vehemently in agreement, taking in the room they now found themselves in. He immediately regretted it, as it looked like a fight had gone terribly wrong in it. There was blood splattered on the walls, across the floor, even on the next scanner they had to activate, with a bloody handprint right over the digital mitten on the screen. Something that would turn out to be a problem, as Sec found out when he held Scout up to it.
"Ew, what is that? Is that blood? Nononono, I have a thing about blood, it's like a phobia, I get sick of even the thought of- ulp- I almost threw up just thinking about it. But we gotta get through the door so I just gotta- ok ok! I'm gonna psyche myself into this and we'll be- here we go! I just have to- ugh, gross..."
Sec sighed as his puppet rambled on. Of all things, they were stopped up by this. He closed his eyes, rubbing his face with his free hand. Blood grossed him out too, but he wished he could do this for her. But his hand didn't work on the scanner...
He blinked. He didn't hear Scout speaking anymore, and looked down to check on her, but instead of his puppet, he was greeted by the sight of a pair of teal mittens. Confused, he looked around- becoming terrified when he saw himself standing behind him. His eyes were dull, almost greyed out, and despite still standing, he was still all... Limp, almost slumped over. Looking just like the zombie Scout said he was supposed to be. Sec got chills, but quickly activated the scanner before everything went back to normal, with an odd feeling of vertigo and a headache.
"What the- hey! Either I'm going crazy, or you were just IN my head! Controlling me! How the hell did you- right, you have freaky green magic. Or maybe it's our psychic link going haywire. Either way, stay out of my head!"
Sec nodded, going through the now open stage, coming across another scanner- this one, luckily lacking blood. Upon opening it, Sec could see a huge sign, reading "Main Stage", stretching across an entire wall.
"Hey! That's the exit over there! Let's go!" Sec could nearly feel her pulling on his arm in her excitement, and quickly jogged to the door in question. But when the reached it, he could see there was the symbol of a lightning bolt with a cross through it, and the pin sign on the scanner showed what had to be the completed master pin.
"Dammit! No no no come on! We're gonna need to find the other pieces of this pin before we can open the door. Look around, maybe they're in more puzzle boxes like Mortimer's. Knowing him, he's probably gotten the others to join in on whatever 'game' he's playing with us. But first, we have to turn on the power back on."
Using Scout's light, Sec carefully found his way through the dark set, before coming across the breaker box. But before he reached it, a rat crashed out of a vent, scaring the crap out of both of them before running off.
"Hey, look!" Scout called out, having seen something Sec didn't, "that rat had something in its mouth! See if you can follow it, that might be important!"
Sec looked down, trying to figure out how he could follow a small, speedy rat on his own, before noticing where it had stepped in a puddle of spilled paint. Sec glared at it, suspicious- what were the odds that there just happened to be fresh paint spilled on the ground?- but followed the tiny footprints up to where they climbed the wall and disappeared into the vent. He looked at the high up vent, then at Scout, at which point she got what he was thinking.
"Uh, no. I'm not going up in that dark, scary vent. No way! And don't even think about doing that 'brain swap' thing again, captain body snatcher!"
Sec raised his hand in defeat, sighing out his nose before looking for something he could climb up onto. After dragging over a sturdy looking chair, he climbed up, coming face to face with the vent just as the rat popped out at him from the darkness. Sec let out a muffled cry of fright as he jerked back, feeling the chair slip out from under him as he and Scout fell to the ground.
"Ow! Stupid fucking rat! Go back to Riley and fucking die!" Scout shouted in anger while Sec managed to sit back up, not entirely willing to stand just yet. "Man, that actually fucking stung-"
Sec looked over at his puppet in concern, seeing her rubbing a spot on the back of her head. He felt a pang of pain on his own head, but ignored it, instead pulling Scout closer to inspect her.
"Wh- hey, Host, I'm fine!" Scout protested, even as her host checked her all over. He hummed, his eyes starting to glow, and bright green particles swiftly floated towards her. Scout tried scrambling back, despite literally being attached to him, but it was useless, and she started screaming as the glow converged on her.
"AAAAAAAA NONONONONO!!! WHAT DID I DO?! I'M SORRY! I'M SORRYYYYYYY!!!" She cried out, eyes squeezed shut, before she realized that it wasn't really hurting. In fact, it was actually... Pretty nice? She cracked one eye open, seeing the glow had gathered around what had been hurting, even where she was sewn into her host's arm, and when it faded away, she felt way better than she had been before.
She looked back up at her host, watching as his eyes faded back into their normal green color.
"You... You can do that?!" She asked, astonished. Sec nodded, smiling before standing back up and stretching. It had been a while since he had used his healing power, and he had forgotten just how nice it felt sometimes.
Sec eyed the vent- he HAD seen something before the rat scared them, and he wanted to see what it was, if it was worth the trouble. He climbed back up onto the chair- despite Scout's protests- and found what the rat had grabbed: a key!
He quickly headed back to the breaker box, and with some key turning, switch flipping, and button pressing, managed to turn the power back on.
"Alright! We got power!" Scout cheered, "now we just need to find the pieces of this pin."
Sec pumped a fist into the air, Scout's excitement rubbing off on him, as he jogged over to the nearest door, getting Scout to let them in. It led to what looked like a couple of dressing rooms, but with artist's stuff everywhere.
"Nick Nack's domain. Formerly the dressing room. Don't like his cutesy 'artiste' thing fool you, he's a cold-blooded maniac. Let's hope he's not home."
Sec looked around as he entered, a bit more cautious than he had been a moment ago. Glancing around, he was pleasantly surprised to spot one of the Illuminati triangles, and thusly a hideout, inside of one of the private rooms. Heading over to it, he nodded to Scout before pressing play on the tape.
"Audio log twenty one, it's August tenth, uh... I know I said I wasn't gonna come back here, I-I don't know why I keep coming, I-I just... I found another tape. It's Owen, I'm pretty sure."
"Each of them is who they were on the show but... Twisted. Wrong, somehow. Riley's the worst, she was a scientist on the show, and now- now she's a monster. And- and Mortimer! I...I don't think he understands human beings as anything but cattle! I'm- I'm losing control of them. They don't... They don't listen to me anymore. Mortimer told me the other night that he had a plan to cheer me up... I'm not sure I want to know what that is."
"I don't know what happened to the crazy bastard but it looks like he failed. Just like I failed. I wonder what they did to him..."
"I heard rumors about what happened to Owen," Scout spoke up, her voice quiet. "Something about making him a puppet? I don't know."
Sec felt a chill down his spine as he moved on, exploring the small but intricate rooms. Nothing else happened until they got to a particularly dark one, where the lights didn't seem to work despite everything else being lit up.
"This room smells weird," remarked Scout, wrinkling her small fabric nose. "Or wait, Host, did you just fart? I'm watching you, Sparkles."
Sec sniffed the air. That... Didn't smell like farts. It almost smelled like... Formaldehyde? Sec knew Riley would be the most likely one to have that, but why was he smelling it in Nick's room? More shivers than down his spine as he moved on, continuing to look for something, anything. Eventually all the exploration paid off, as he found a button that, when pressed, brought down a projector in the main room. Heading back out there, he peered up at the device, momentarily wondering if he'd need to bring the chair in here.
"Hey, hold me up, I think I can reach it!" Sec did as Scout suggested, and she indeed, was easily able to reach it.
"Maybe there's something about Nick on one of the slides. Something for this weird 'game'." She hit the "on" button, looking over at the screen, only for Sec to see her brow furrow in confusion. He looked over as well, but couldn't figure out why she was so confused. It was just a picture of Mortimer with the words "let's all have a cheer" next to him. Scout hit the button to go to the next slide, revealing a picture of Daisy with the words "a cup of tea fixes everything", and her confusion only grew, as did Sec's. And again, finally revealing a slide with Nick. On his, the text read "you must suffer in the arts", with "arts" in red text.
Sec glanced around, quickly spotting a keypad next to a case, one containing a model of a small town. He brought Scout back down, walking over to it.
"Wh- Host? Did you figure something out?"
Sec nodded. He crouched down by the keypad, pointing between it and the screen- but Scout just stared with a confused, blank expression. He suddenly realized something.
'Wait, she can't read English?'
Sec sighed, inputting the code. He was mostly going off of a hunch, and smiled to himself when the case unlocked.
"Well, ok. The piece we need is probably in there somewhere. Nick loves music, so maybe..." She trailed off as Sec spotted the miniature piano, and looked over to where a phonograph sat next to the projection screen. He went over and turned the handle, humming along to the tune that came out. He went back to the model, eyeing the piano. The door was just a little too small for him to climb in, but more than enough for a little puppet!
".... What exactly do you want me to do?" Sec pointed to the piano, miming playing it, trying to push Scout closer. She shook her head, "no way, this is too easy, it's gotta be a trap. Besides, how do you know what exactly I have to play?"
Sec sighed, pointing back over to the phonograph.
"How would I know what notes those are??"
He sighed again, pinching the bridge of his nose. He wished he could just talk to her, help her out here...
He blinked. Everything felt weird, everything looked bigger, and- was he inside the case?
He looked down. Indeed, his hands were mittens, and he didn't need to look back to know he was behind himself again. He sighed- how did this happen again? But there was no time to lose. Quickly playing the melody, the same jingle from the orientation tests played, signalling a success. Quickly glancing around the model city, he saw that the clocktower had opened, and swiftly snagged the pin piece inside before everything went back to normal, and that same feeling of vertigo returned.
"What the- hey! You did it again, didn't you?! Wait, what's this? Oh shit, the piece."
Sec wore a smug face as Scout fiddled with the pin, adding the new piece to it. After successfully sticking it on, she looked up, noticed his expression, and sighed.
"Alright, alright, you were right about this. Now c'mon, we've got two more pieces to find."
They left the dressing rooms, being very cautious as they traversed the cluttered sound stage. When they didn't hear or see anything moving, not even any rats, Sec creeped over to the next door he could see, leaving Nick's open behind them. When the opened the next door, however, it lead to a room nearly pitch black, with only a couple scattered lights letting them see anything.
"Riley's lab," Scout stated, "used to be a workshop for the tv show, now Riley uses it to put puppets on rats and torture rabbits and shit. You never know what's going to be crawling around in here."
'Though it looks like the mistress isn't home.' Sec thought to himself, looking around, nearly gagging at some of the sights in the cages. This mess far contrasted with how Yellow and Blue kept each of their respective labs, and Green probably would've intervened long before it got to a state like this.
"HISSSSSS!!!"
"WOAH! Do not get near those things!"
Sec backed away quickly, having nearly stepped a rat the size of a small dog while stuck in his thoughts. It was one of three, all chewing on a pile of bones. Judging by the state of everything, he could only guess they were human, and started to feel sick. He shook it off the best he could and edged around the beasts, sticking closer to the wall. Behind the rats, he could see an intricate mechanical box, with the pin piece behind a pane of glass in the front.
"They're blocking our path to that box though! I wish there was some way we could, like, move them or something."
Sec nodded in agreement, looking at where they were now. It was one of the few spots with a light overhead, and looked to be one of Riley's actual work stations. Sec cautiously sniffed the air, wondering if he was right about the source of the formaldehyde scent- only to reel back at the heightened smell of death in the air, seeming to originate from the trash can in the corner. Curiosity overwhelming him, he grabbed a nearby broom, he carefully lifted the lid- and was utterly horrified to find it nearly filled to the brim with severed hands.
He suddenly heard the pitter-patter of small feet running up behind him, and was unable to look away as the giant rats climbed up the sides of the bin, starting to devour the hands as if they were starving.
"Oh man, they're going to town on those!"
Sec could only gag, even as he carefully replaced the lid, hopefully trapping the rats inside. As he shuddered, trying to not throw up, Scout noticed something, pointing it out.
"Hey, I think I see a key lodged in the gears of that... Nightmare machine."
Sec looked to where she was pointing, seeing a machine, something that looked like a shredder on overkill, labeled "The Fun Fountain Confetti Machine". Well then, at least now they knew were the confetti for Riley's tests came from, and he could see the key as well. But his hands were just a little too big to reach it, and he felt a sharp pain when one of the blades cut his finger, and pulled it out with a muffled cry of pain.
Scout looked away, even as he shook his hand off and wrapped it with the hem of his shirt. "Ok, I'll go in there! Just make sure it doesn't turn on during it, ok?"
Sec looked over, his eyes aglow- it may have just been a small cut, but he didn't want to risk infection- and after a moment, nervously nodded. As much as he didn't want to risk it, didn't want to risk her, he was just too big.
She gulped as he placed her near the mouth of the machine, and she pulled herself in the rest of the way. She focused on just keeping herself from panicking, to just getting the key. But just as she managed to wiggle the key out from between the blades, they whirred to life, spinning at dangerous speeds as the door to the machine closed on Sec's arm, leaving him panicked
"What the- hey! HEY! HOST!" She wasn't able to move, stuck not even a full inch from the blades. She leaned back as far as she could, but even that wasn't very far. "Little problem in here!"
Completely freaking out, he pulled at his arm, pulled at the door. He banged his fist on the window, hoping to break it and he didn't even know! It wouldn't free his arm! But he had to try something! Anything that would free them and save the Puppet from being shredded!
Green flashed in Scout's eyes, and as suddenly as it started, the machine stopped. The scent of burning wafted in her face as a loud crack sounded out, and she was finally moved away from the blades.
Sec hold her close, nearly squeezing her with how tight he was hugging, but Scout couldn't find it in her to protest. She was still reeling from how close she had come to death, and found herself hugging back. She could feel how hard and fast her host's heart was beating, and knew that if she had a heart like his, it'd be going at least as fast.
The two stayed like that for a long while, long enough for Sec to notice the rats had quieted down- or maybe they had been scared off, he didn't care enough to find out. A sudden rattle from somewhere deeper in the lab startled them back into alertness, into remembering exactly where they were.
"Right... We should keep going." Scout said as Sec got up, nervously eyeing the direction the noise came from as he grabbed the key they had gone through so much trouble for. Swiftly walking over to the box, carefully stepping over the pile of bones, Sec put the key in the slot, but was surprised when that didn't open the glass panel.
"Look, up top," Scout directed his attention to the top of the box, where indeed, something had unlocked. Sec carefully pulled an odd... Something with buttons on the side up out of the top of the box, but when he tried letting go, it just sank back down. He brought Scout up to it as he held it up, and she tapped on the buttons experimentally, watching as the lights they were connected to lit up. It took a few tries, but before too long she was able to get them all to light up at once, freeing the pin piece with the sound of that jingle.
"Alright, that's another piece!" Scout quietly cheered, sticking it to the pin, "I think we just need to find one more!"
Sec smiled, taking the key out of the lock and slipping it into his pocket, only to see Scout looking at him strangely as he did.
"What are you taking that key for? It's probably useless outside of here!"
Sec shrugged, unable to explain his reasoning. He was just glad to get out of that lab, and happily took a breath of relatively fresher air once they were back in the main room. He stepped lightly as they made their way to the third room, Daisy's, if he remembered correctly.
'Hopefully it's the final room,' he thought, getting Scout to open the door. But he was solidly not prepared for what lay in the room beyond.
Mannequins.
The room was lined wall to wall with mannequins.
From where he was standing, he could see a path through them, but for a minute he couldn't will his feet to move.
"Ok well fuck this!" Scout exclaimed, looking inside. "This used to be the sewing room, but I guess Daisy got her claws on it. Err..." She glanced around nervously as Sec finally managed to unstick his feet. "Are we sure we need to be in here?"
Sec gulped, following the path through, and doing his best to ignore the feeling of being surrounded, of having others' eyes on him. 'Just ignore it', he told himself, 'it's all in your head.' .And yet, almost more unnerving than all the mannequins, even the ones wearing half-made puppets, was the fact that the sharp smell of formaldehyde had returned, stronger than before.
"Hey Host," Scout piped up, breaking the uncomfortable, fearful silence they had fallen into, "I was just thinking... Back in the host world, do you have, like, a family?"
Sec nodded. They were probably so worried about him, just thinking about it made him feel sick. He never wanted to put them through anything like this, nothing like what he had experienced before --
"That's nice. I've only ever seen it on TV, but it looks nice."
Sec smiled, messing with her hair. In a way that was impossible to explain, he knew his family would be one member larger once the two of them got out of there. And even that little interaction made him feel so much better, momentarily losing the weight of where they were, and all the... Mannequins... Right, thinking about it just made the feeling return, only worse, and Sec continued on with a shudder, ignoring how his pace quickened with his heartbeat.
The path first lead to an area that was sectioned off by partitions, with screens climbing the wall and a large, tempting, red button on the control panel below.
"Big red button... Guess we have to press it, right?"
Sec shrugged, carefully pressing it, seeing the screens light up- but only for a moment, before they all turned back to black.
"Huh. That was disappointing. Try it again."
And so he did, seeing them light up again- only for them to turn off again. Sec swore he heard something fizzle in the hardware that time. Scout rolled her eyes, and Sec got the distinct feeling she was trying to mess with him.
"Only you could press a button wrong Host. Really hammer it!"
Sec balled his hand up in a fist, slamming it down on the button- only to have the whole thing start to spark and fizzle, going dark as a bit of smoke began to rise.
"Oh, I guess you broke it. Oh well." She shrugged, but Sec froze. Something was different. There was something behind him, and it made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. He tried backing up a half step, only for his foot to hit something, confirming his suspicion.
He drew energy to his hand as he turned, ready to attack- only to be shocked by--
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA SHIT!"
A dead body. Not wrapped in a bag, or just a severed hand, but a full body, propped up in a director's chair. Well, that wasn't fully true, as it was only the top half.
Sec fell back against the broken computers with a cry of horror, as loud as he could manage, taking in the gruesome sight. It was dressed in a black hoodie, with mittens covering the hands, but Sec could see blood soaking through the fabric up to the elbows. The jaw lay slack, and Sec could see markings on the chin, as if it was a separate piece, a puppet's.
"Holy shit- that's Owen! That's the guy who made us! And then went crazy and used some kinda voodoo spell to bring us to life. Bet he regrets that now."
'You're telling me', Sec thought, getting up and taking a slightly closer look, simultaneously eyeing the best way to get around it without getting too close.
"It's... weird, to meet your god." Scout fell silent, but her comment made Sec think for a little. The creators, animators, artists, humans, Alan, were technically the sticks' gods, but they... Most sticks met at least one in their lifetime, their own creator. He supposed he just couldn't understand what it was like, what Scout was going through.
Edging around the body and continuing down the maze-like path, they came to another sectioned-off area, though this one had much more solid walls. There was a table in the middle of the miniature room, covered in sewing machines and blueprints for puppets, but against one of the walls was something horrifying. A hand puppet, similar to Scout, had been strapped into some kind of framework on the wall, with what looked to be an x-ray device showing their insides.
"Ugh, puppet surgery. Riley loves this shit, and I guess she's roped Daisy into it too. Listen, I don't mean to be gross, but if either of them has a piece, they might have left it..." Scout had to take a moment to swallow her own revulsion, her disgust at the idea. "Inside one of these puppet corpses. We should try to open it up and look around."
Sec shakily pulled down the screen in front of the strapped-up puppet, only to discover that it wasn't an x-ray at all, and the unfortunate puppet had been left opened up, with actual hooks pulling the "skin" back. 'Why are there fabric organs?' he thought, letting go of the screen to reach for one- he didn't want to subject Scout to that- only for the screen to pop back up, supported by a spring.
Scout gulped upon seeing this, and after her host tried it a couple more times, she relented.
"It's ok Greenie, it's... Ok.. besides, they're... Probably already dead, right? Ugh, gross..." Scout cursed under her breath as she pawed through the body cavity, her swears only increasing in fervor when she found the organs would come apart with a *pop!* with a bit of tugging. But none of them held the piece she was looking for, and by the time she was at the last one, she was growing frustrated.
*Pop!*
The puppet's head fell over limp as they let out a ghastly moan, and Sec fell back, away from what they had just done. Scout exploded into more swears, even as she was clutching the organ with the pin stuck to it, and Sec panted heavily, trying not to think about what just happened. Suddenly, a glint caught his eye.
A scalpel. Left abandoned on the floor under the table, but still shiny. Still sharp.
"Alright, that's all the pieces. Now we just need to- hey! Host!"
Sec ignored his puppet as he crawled over, grabbing the scalpel before getting up. He walked swiftly back through the mannequin room, filled with a sudden determination. He knew he had seen a sign for a restroom somewhere in the main room...
Scout could only watch as her host jogged around the main room, a sharp object in hand and a glint in his eye as he looked for... Something. Appearing to spot it, he suddenly changed direction, and Scout could only hold on for the ride.
It was difficult, since she was attached to the end of his arm, but doable. But at the same time, she was worried about what he was going to do. The scalpel wasn't very big, but Riley kept her tools sharpened, so Scout felt she was right to be worried.
The place he was rushing to, she realized, was the bathroom. He burst in through the door, and she flinched when it slammed shut behind them. He approached the sink, using his other arm to wipe away the grime on the mirror.
As she stared at her host, about to ask what the hell he was doing, when he brought the scalpel to his stitched-up lips and-
Scout froze, unable to move as her host carefully cut the strands holding his mouth closed, pulling them out one by one. Blood dripped down his chin, into the sink as he let out muffled cries of pain. And yet he still didn't stop, plucking away at the twine methodically. Scout couldn't bear to watch, and yet she was unable to look away.
With a few last snaps, the last of the stitches were removed and fell into the sink. Despite the quietness of it, Scout felt there was a sense of finality to the action.
For a moment, her Host simply stood there, panting as he stared at his reflection. Then, without warning, he lurched forwards with a retch, slapping a hand over his mouth as he turned. Scout felt dizzy as he rushed for the toilet, tripping over his own feet as he lunged for it.
They got there just in time to avoid a mess. Though the smell made Scout want to be sick, too, she couldn't find it in her to bring anything up.
After an uncomfortably long time, he finally let go, falling against the side of the toilet and gazing, eyes half-lidded and starting to glow, over to Scout. He wiped his mouth off on his sleeve and took in a deep, stuttering breath.
"H-hi Scout..."