The Puppet Master fell back into the wall with a deep sigh, smoke drifting off of him as electricity crackled from his fingers. He just teleported from Fazbear's Fright. The children's souls were free, and the killer was burned alive after he set the place ablaze. It was truly a happy moment. 'For them, at least.' The marionette thought with a sad shake of his head, 'For some reason, I'm still here.'
He let out a mechanical hiss and felt one of the gashes in his frame. The killer may be gone now, but he went down with one hell of a fight. He wielded an axe like the madman he was and managed to put quite a few tears in the Puppet's body. Pitch black oil oozed from the wounds, barely visible in the dark space he was in. He looked around the room with his eyes. He appears to have accidentally teleported to another Fazbear location, judging by the poster with a pink and white fox animatronic on the wall next to him. 'Ha. Foxy would be furious about the recolor.' He thought with amusement. He could just hear the pirate fox yelling about how his counterpart looked like a girl. If Puppet pointed that out to him, Foxy would probably make Bonnie play a country song on his guitar to get back at him. To anyone else it would be pointless, but the Puppet Master is controlled by music. Joking matters aside, he didn't exactly recognize the Foxy on the poster. The Puppet didn't know the model, nor did he have any idea of where he was. Granted he was in a storage room with mountains of crates and dusty tarps, but that wasn't much help. 'Should I look around or should I stay hidden?' He debated, 'I should probably stay hidden until I know who or what's here. Don't want another monster to fight so soon, now do I?'
It was either fate or a coincidence, but at that exact moment the door to the storage room opened, and someone walked inside. The Puppet quickly hid behind a tower of large boxes and crates. He didn't think that he was very well hidden, so he knew he had to stay absolutely quiet if he wanted to remain unseen. His eyes widened as a feminine humanoid animatronic holding a small box stepped in and closed the door behind her. She was designed as a ballerina with blue hair and purple and pink makeup. There were thin lines that divided her face into segments, which he found odd. She was an average height and shockingly beautiful to him. He held still and watched as the ballerina made her way to the center of the room, pausing every now and then and tripping over things several times. When she made it and set the box down, she glanced around the room. Her eyes passed over Puppet's, and he inhaled sharply as he came to a realization. Her eyes weren't bright like an animatronic's should be, meaning that they didn't work. This ballerina was blind. She couldn't see him at all.
But she could still hear him.
"... Hello?... Is someone there?..." she called out nervously. 'She heard me.' Puppet thought, feeling frustrated at himself for giving himself away. He remained silent and continued watching her. She shifted uncomfortably on her feet, securing her arms around herself, "... I guess not..."
The ballerina took a step back. There was a soft click and her tutu began to slowly spin. A musical chime rang softly through the room. She visibly relaxed, listening to the music to keep herself calm. Puppet froze. His body moved on its own, obeying the trance that the music put him in. The music was like a lullaby, just like the one that used to play at the prize corner. Unlike that one that was meant to keep him subdued, this one is meant for the ballerina to dance to. He couldn't do anything except watch as his body walked over to the ballerina. She looked startled to hear him again. 'No! Stop it! You're scaring her! Stay hidden, you idiot!' He mentally screamed in a failed attempt to stop himself. The poor ballerina was definitely scared. "Foxy?... Freddy?... Please tell me that it's one of you?" She asked nervously, "Ennard?... Baby?... Lolbit?... Somebody-!"
She stopped as the Puppet Master gently took her hands in his. Some of his oil smeared onto her, but she probably wouldn't notice. He slowly swayed side to side with her, his body doing its best to dance ballet. The ballerina went with it, not knowing who he was and not wishing to anger him in case if he was someone that would hurt her. He did a soft twirl with the ballerina in his arms. He kept her closer to him than he probably should. 'At least this song isn't so bad.' He thought gratefully, 'Lord knows what's my body would do then.'
The ballerina slowly started to relax. Perhaps him dancing with her made her feel happy or confident that he wasn't going to hurt her. She seemed to at least be enjoying this a bit. She held onto him as he did another spin, then he dipped her and pulled her back up. Puppet continued swaying with her and doing short spins and twirls, keeping her in his grasp. Eventually the music slowed to a stop and the ballerina slowly reached for his face. Puppet intercepted her hand by grabbing her wrist and pulling her arm away slowly. The ballerina suddenly looked worried, most likely thinking that she just did something wrong. "I-I'm sorry; I didn't mean to..." she apologized shyly. Puppet shook his head and blinked several times to make sure that he was out of the trance. "It's okay, Miss. I'm the one who should apologize for suddenly dancing with you." He told her while letting go of her and taking a few steps backwards, "My programming commands me to listen to music, so I loose control of myself when a song of any type is played. My body was moving on its own when it heard your lullaby."
The ballerina looked curiously towards him. "Really? How interesting. I've never met anyone like that before- well, you never meet much of anyone around here, honestly." She said with a shrug. "Where is 'here'?" Puppet asked, thinking of how to get out of this situation. The ballerina tilted her head at him, "Wouldn't you know by now if you were transported here? How did you even get into the storage room?"
"It's a long and complicated story, which I'm in no mood to tell right now- but no, I really have no clue where I am except that this may be another Fazbear pizzeria." He told the blind female (maybe with a tiny bit of irritation as his wounds bothered him again). The ballerina frowned. "I guess I shouldn't ask then. You are correct about that last part, though. You're in Circus Baby's Pizza World. We're one of the older sister locations, long forgotten by the higher-ups of the series' chain." She answered him. "Are you Circus Baby, by any chance?" He asked again. The ballerina shook her head. "No, I'm not. My name is Ballora. Circus Baby's one of our ringleaders." She told him. Puppet nodded, then felt foolish remembering that she couldn't see him. "I see. Well then, it's nice to meet you, Ballora. I am the Puppet Master, but you can call me 'Puppet' or 'Mare' for short."
"May I take a moment to say that you have an ominous name?" She asked him with a smile. Puppet chuckled, "It's not like I chose it anyways."
Ballora's smile became smaller and softer. Her hand twitched a little, like something was driving her crazy. "I'm sorry for how impolite this may sound," she asked, "but may I feel your face?"
That surprised Puppet a little, but that's probably what she was trying to do before. "I don't mind." He said after a moment. He carefully guided her hand to his cheek. She gently felt around his face, then brushed her hand along his jawline and down his neck. "You're bending over a lot, aren't you? I can tell by the angle of your neck. How tall are you?" She questioned. The Puppet Master looked at the floor and then at the ceiling and stood up straight. "I'm at least a few feet taller than you... Maybe nine feet tall?" He said uncertainly. "You must be taller than Ennard, then." She said to him with a surprised look. Puppet looked into her eyes again. They were so dull... It was almost saddening at how colorless they were. He could tell that they were supposed to be pink, but that didn't help at all. "What is it like to be blind, if you don't mind me asking?"
"... I never know how to answer that question, no matter how often someone asks it." She admitted. "I guess the closest words I can use to define it are 'constant uncertainty'. I never know what's going on unless I can hear or feel it. There could always be someone watching me, and I'd probably never know. If I can't see what's happening, I could get hurt or worse. It's always a gamble if I run into things or not, too."
Puppet hummed in response. Ballora shrugged her shoulders. "Well, blind topic aside, you should come with me. I can introduce you to the others." She offered. Puppet shifted, debating. "I don't know," he said, "I think it's best if I remain hidden-."
"Nonsense." Ballora told him. "Besides, you're hurt and I know someone who can take care of your wounds." She added. Puppet looked at her strangely. "How did you know that I was leaking oil?" He asked her. "I can smell it, and your hands were coated in something when you danced with me. Now come on, let's go say 'hi' to everyone."
'Am I seriously trusting an animatronic that I literally just met?' Puppet sighed and hesitantly followed her out the door.
