TRIGGER WARNING: self-harm (referenced/implied), character death
Susie sits in the Recording Studio, still upset over being replaced by this Allison. Apparently, Joey was planning on having lunch with her to make up for it in two weeks but she thinks she's just being deceived. She took his offer anyways, she then sighs to herself as she stands up. "I accepted his offer for one reason, he wants to make up for his actions...but one thing's certain, if he does one thing to lie to me, he won't know what's coming," Susie told herself before walking out of the room.
The ink machine and another room full of pedestals had been built and everyone was finishing up last minute preparations. Thomas, about done with any more additions to the studio after having to repair a lot to the machine, questions this new room when Norman shows up beside him, Thomas noticing his presence a couple of seconds after. "What the hell is this? Did Joey mention about this?" Thomas asked, if Norman didn't know what this new thing was about, he was going to go to Joey to have him get the elephant out of the room instead. "He said it was for something to start up the machine which I don't understand," Norman told him. This didn't help Thomas but he just sighs and walks away, holding his thoughts to Joey for another time.
In the projector and soon-to-be flow room, Henry's looking through the animations he has given everyone by now. After looking through all the animations he made for Bendy, Boris, Alice, Charley, Barley, and Edgar in the order, he decides that these are the ones for the real life ones. Before he gets up and leaves, he changes the projector screen to an animation of a dancing Bendy.
Wally just cleaned up the ink machine room from all the building that was done to it. He knew he was going to be annoyed once this thing is activated, he only had one thought and that was how it had a huge chance of doing nothing but making messes all the time.
It was the day, the ink machine's final built product was finally going to be revealed once and for all, everyone was standing up on the balcony area to see if this project was as gigantic as they were told it was going to be. Joey had a lot to say about this new creation but decided to wait until the ink machine was brought up, apparently, it was connected by chains. Almost everyone was confused as to why it was connected to chains when Joey connects two dry cells to the machine and flips the switch. Once done, the ink machine slowly starts ascending from what seems to be an ink pool in the center, this machine was massive. "I...didn't make my blueprint massive," this was the only thing Sammy could say. "Well, alright everyone! I know how much questions you might have but we have another job to do!" Joey said.
A couple of minutes later, some of the workers were left in the pedestal room putting various stuff on the pedestal associated for them. "So...what is the point of this exactly? Can't we just turn it on with a button or something?" Shawn asked them. "The switch over there is supposed to turn it on but this is part of turning it on because apparently, Joey wants to "appease the gods". I call this more useless than anything," Wally told him.
A couple of minutes after everything is done to turn on the machine, all anyone can do is wait to see if this was going to make the toons come to life or if this was only going to go wrong and make a huge mess for Wally to clean up in the end. Susie decides to walk in and see what's going on, Joey eyeing her for a second and then back to the machine. "I think it's about to create something!" Joey exclaimed to get everyone's attention. No one was looking forward to this, even though Susie wanted to stay next to the railing anyway. Suddenly, a splatter of ink pops out of the machine, slowly lifting itself up, which makes Joey hope this plan works. A couple of seconds after, Susie starts noticing what came out of the machine, something about it was obviously not regular because after noticing, she lets out a scream. This ink figure was not a toon. "Susie, what are you freaking out about? This was probably just an error. Thomas is probably going to have to look into that," Joey told her. This only makes Thomas more annoyed than he was over this ink figure, he knew this was going to happen. Henry didn't know what to say, however. Knowing Joey and his state, at this point, this wasn't going to be fixed.
After letting this "figure" explore the studio, the ink thing slowly starts to take in the place just fine, which makes Joey believe this thing is okay to be around; everyone else, however, questioned this, it wasn't a normal creature so how would one exactly know if this was okay to let around the studio? Later that day, Shawn and Grant knew they had to test something with this. They wanted to see if the ink machine was going to make an actual toon come to life or if it was going to make another weird creature like it did before. After a few minutes of waiting, Shawn decides to hit the machine's lever a bit. "You broke there?" Shawn asked, not in the full mood of waiting, while Grant sits on a closed chest nearby. Suddenly, the ink machine starts making a few noises which makes Shawn stop in his tracks, another ink creature popping out like the one from before. "I think we're going to need to tell Joey about this," Grant said, standing up. "Not like Joey's gonna do anything about it. He thinks they're friendly enough to stay and that's just because it got used to the studio," Shawn said. They had to do something to either get Joey to fix this or fix it themselves, they knew that for sure, but the main question was how they were going to do it.
Joey lets this little creature sit in a corner while he's working when Wally comes in, all he could think was that it was one of these moments again. "If you feel the need to complain, go to someone else," Joey said. "No no no no, I just came here to say I don't trust that thing," Wally told him. "This thing will get used to everyone here soon, you just have to give it some time," Joey explained back, Wally didn't believe this, "Joey, if that thing was used to use, it would've been used to us when it got used to the place as well," Wally exclaimed. "Remember, as long as you believe in the illusion of living, I can assure you that dreams will come true," Joey said. Wally wanted to say more but knew Joey didn't want to deal with it at this point, so he just sighs and shuts the door behind, letting Joey do his work in peace, ink creature still sitting from behind peacefully as well.
Susie walks back into the Recording Studio, to watch what Sammy and Allison were up to, hearing some music playing when Allison starts singing a song for Alice which makes Susie only remember the times she enjoyed doing all her voices for Alice, that didn't last for long.
"I'm just a lonely angel
Sittin' here on a shelf
At times it seemed
If I just dreamed
I'd not be by myself
I never gave up hopin'
That you would come along
How bleak it seemed
Till you found me
So now I sing this song"
Susie now finds herself in Alice's room next to the Heavenly Toys Factory, looking at an Alice cutout on her knees. She imagines what would happen if she hurt herself on purpose, which also makes her hallucinate and picture the Alice cutout bleeding ink. She starts tearing up a few seconds after her hallucination ends, she feels connected with Alice to the point anything she does could harm another side that feels important to her.
"Doing something about these creatures are urgent? What happened?!" Shawn was called into Grant's office where he paces around wondering what went on with these creatures. "I accidentally fell asleep and had a dream about the second ink thing we witnessed...except that thing attacked me. I don't remember anything else after that besides me waking up. I don't want that thing around any human here in general, I don't trust it in this studio," Grant told him. Shawn processes what was said for a bit because he figured 'how would it be too bad if it was in a dream' when he spots a paper clip on the floor next to his desk and knowing what was managed to be told to him weeks ago, Grant used it to cut somewhere on his body, although it's most likely the reason he's holding part of his arm at the same time. "You know, screw it, we need to find a way to get Joey to fix this," Shawn said, getting back on both feet. "Yeah, and how are we going to do that? There's no way he's going to believe they're hostile because of a dream I had," Grant said when Shawn thinks of something right away. "Doesn't he always say dreams come true though?" Shawn asked. He was obviously going somewhere with this and Grant was up for listening.
Henry sits at his desk, animating another cartoon when Joey walks up to him, ink creature following. "Henry, I think the idea is actually working!" Joey exclaimed, making Henry look. "And what do you mean by that?" Henry asked, making Joey step to the side. "This one kind of shares some characteristics with Alice," Joey said. Henry observes it for a bit and looks back up. "Joey, I think it's going to look that way for a long time if not forever," Henry said. "You're forgetting one thing though, it can always change with enough belief! More are coming, so keep your head up!" Joey exclaimed, proudly, before walking back to his office. Henry knew he was going to have questions for the first few weeks of this creature, now multiple creatures, as a matter of fact, roaming around.
Wally is up at the projector booth with Norman, who's clearly focused on his job, annoyed at the same time. The red-haired man sighs before looking at the other behind the projector to speak up. "You know, I don't get it. Why did Joey decide to go that far to believe we needed a lot of ink just to make these creatures exist?" Wally asked. "I don't know. If this is Joey's way of dreaming, then he's obviously not doing it right," Norman answered. "Well, dreaming or not, he is doing something wrong. In fact, nothing about this machine is right," Wally said. "I try to tell him that those things roaming around are not safe but Joey's just telling everyone they'll be used to all of us," Norman said. "It doesn't matter what Joey says, if one thing goes wrong with these things, I'll tell you one thing. I'm outta here!" Wally exclaimed, walking down from the projector booth.
Sammy's composing a new song in his sanctuary when one of the ink creatures decide to watch him, which he thinks is weird in advance but continues composing anyways. When done, he nervously chuckles and turns to the ink creature. "So...you want to hear the song I composed?" Sammy asked, he doesn't know why he's asking when this thing most likely can't understand English, which he's proven right when the creature only tilts its head. "Well..I guess I can use my radio for this one," Sammy said. As he starts walking to his office, he turns to the creature and gestures it to follow him, he doesn't even know why he's doing this. It follows him anyways.
Once in his office, Sammy sits in his chair and messes a bit with the radio before turning to the ink creature. "This song is what I call 'The Old Song', figured you'd be interested...even though you're..not even human," Sammy said, questioning what he was doing. He turns and starts the radio (A/N: no this old song is not 'Build Our Machine') and all the ink creature does is tilt its head again, this time growling. Sammy questioned what was going on and decided to leave the office in confusion and concern, leaving the creature alone with the radio.
Susie is sitting on the floor next to The Archives and Grant's office when Joey walks up and crouches in front of her. "Hey, Susie. Mind if you follow me for a quick second?" Joey asked, making Susie look up. What did he want this time? She gets up taking his request, especially since she gave him one last chance anyway. "Alright, follow me, I won't do anything to you, just a talk," Joey told her, gesturing him to follow in his direction. She didn't believe that either but still follows anyway. After walking for a couple of minutes, they're suddenly in a dark room, automatically suspicious of Joey. "What are you doing?" Susie asked, starting to get a little nervous. "Nothing, I just have one question," Joey said. Why are they discussing this in a dark room? "What is that question?" She asked, whatever was going on, she wanted it to be over right now. "So, I heard you were devastated when you found out about the replacement for Alice. Do you wish to have that role back?" Joey asked. Susie normally knows Joey as an energetic man who cares about everyone in this place, making her surprised because he sounds serious this time. "Yes, please. I miss being Alice Angel, the one character I love, I feel like I'm connected with her, I feel like I'm part of her. I want to relive that feeling of doing her lines again," Susie answered, telling herself internally not to cry. "Alright, because I have good news, you get to have that part back," Joey said, smile turning cheeky again, Susie didn't bother to take it in this scenario though, she just smiled genuinely. "Oh, thank you so much, Mr. Dr-"
Susie gets cut off out of nowhere, she feels sudden pain and she blanks out for a second. She stares up to find Joey still doing that cheeky smile and then stares down to a knife in her chest. She knew she was going to be deceived by Joey in some way, she just didn't expect it to end like this. After a few seconds, she looks back up at Joey to say four final words. "You...lied..to...me.." Susie said, then she blacks out once and for all.