Chapter Text
It had been what felt like hours since Noelle left her room. She has been doing nothing but stare at the ceiling while occasionally switching focus to the Susie statue across the room instead. The line between this being reality or it just being a dream was starting to blur; had she really just been caught in a cage like an animal and locked into a room? Wait.. locked? She hadn't heard Spamton lock the room on his way out, maybe this was her chance to get out of here. She got up and carefully walked towards the door, and low and behold, the door unlocked with a simple click.
"That was.. easy?" She thought to herself, still keeping her guard up like always.
She carefully walked through the hallway, trying to avoid any of those big wolf creatures. She wasn't sure what they were, but she could guess that they were only trouble.
It took her a while to get her bearings, but eventually she found a familiar hallway. Which wasn't surprising, as it was the entrance with two massive mechanical legs located in the back, it was hard to forget what this place looked like. Carefully treading down the stairs, she noticed a soft rose-pink light coming through an entrance on the left side of the room.
On closer inspection, it appeared to be a café, as suggested by the neon sign hanging above the entrance. Noelle carefully peaked inside, hoping nobody would catch her sneaking around the place. She saw Spamton sitting there, talking to a person behind the counter. They were broad-shouldered and avian in nature, their outfit having a distinct monochrome look. If it wasn't for their glasses and overall physique, she could've easily mistaken them for Spamton.
The two darkners were chatting about something related to business, it was somewhat hard to make out what exactly they were saying. Though, Noelle wouldn't be surprised if it was mostly Spamton bragging about his achievements, it's what he has been doing ever since she stumbled into this place.
She scoffed and turned around, planning to get out of here before she got caught again. But her plans got cut short by another one of the broad-shouldered birdmen, who was instead wearing a red suit without any fancy glasses. Now she was really in trouble, as the darkner grabbed her by the scruff and brought her inside of the café.
"This one's yours?" He asked.
"L-Let go of me!" Noelle said while flailing her arms, hoping to land a hit on at least one of the surrounding foes.
She looked at Spamton, who was now making direct eye contact with her. His face was turning a deep red, small streams of smoke escaping through the gaps between his teeth. He was smiling, but it was no warm smile: he was clenching his jaw shut, trying very hard to keep his composure.
"Can you just.. give us a moment please?" He asked.
The darkner behind the counter nodded and signed towards the red suited man, who immediately dropped Noelle to the ground.
Spamton grabbed her arm and dragged her outside, next to the café. He took a deep breathe and muttered 'Keep it together, Spam' several times under his breath.
He turned towards the nervous looking deer; "How. Hard. Is it for you to just.. stay in your room?"
"Y-you tried to trap me there—" she couldn't even finish her sentence before Spamton already put a finger on her mouth.
"Ah ah ah, no. You're not getting this entire ordeal. I was tasked to put you in there, I just did my orders. You, on the other hand, are not able to do that apparently. Why are you making this so hard for yourself, huh!? What's so hard about waiting for Queen to return?!"
Noelle wasn't sure how to answer that, she wasn't looking forward to having her face turned into that of a robot. Waiting slowly for her doom wasn't an option, so she gathered all her strength to say something, she had to put him in his place.
"Why do you want to turn me into a robot, h-huh?! Why none of the others, am I an easy target?!?"
Now Spamton was the one with a loss of words, he didn't expect to be yelled at by a lightner, and neither did Noelle expect to be the one yelling. They both stayed silent for a bit, until Spamton decided to finally break the ice.
"Well I'm sure it's not 'cause of that, y'know, there's many reasons she could've picked you," he quickly thought of something else to say, "being a robot is not that bad though! You get your own show, your own car, your own little world, right here in the mansion! That's a sweet deal, right?"
He put his arm on Noelle's shoulder, who got caught off guard and nearly fell over.
"That sounds… fine, I guess."
Spamton lightened up and nudged Noelle towards the stairways, "See! Now go on and wait upstairs. Come on, off you go! Chop chop!"
She begrudgingly followed his orders and went back upstairs, but not before turning around and taking one good look at the mansion exit. She hadn't realised how close she was to escaping, if she just wouldn't let her curiosity get to her constantly.
'Oh well,' she thought, 'I'll try again later..'
Spamton made sure Noelle didn't immediately come back down the stairs for a round two, which fortunately wasn’t the case (yet). He thought about what she said, 'an easy target.' Something within him resonated with that, but he wasn't sure what. He decided it was better to ignore it and went back inside of the café. One more but.juice wouldn't hurt…