As the elevator starts to go down, there's a very weird... vibe around it. It feels like there's less buttons compared to the last time Clementine and Ludwig went there, but something else feels off. It's been going on for a while now.

Oleander hums the jeopardy music when theyre waiting for people to answer. Spider growls softly to herself not appreciating the off feeling. The lights of the lift start to flicker.

"...Clementine if you get us both killed I hope I beat your ass in hell." Lud sighs.

Oleander looks around. "This is... not going to be fun, is it?" The elevator stops, but the door doesn't open. Oleander goes to the door and tries to pry it open with his hands.
"...god fucking-" Clementine tries to pry it open with Oleander. It doesn't work.

"Welp, that's it I guess." Lud tries to lean onto the back of the elevator but the wall seemingly goes back. He falls to the ground. Oleander notices and approaches the wall, trying to touch it. It goes back. Oleander keeps walking, trying to see how much space he can make. Not long after Oleander starts walking, he makes it to what looks like another elevator? The door on this one's open, he can't make out exactly what it looks like beyond it. Oleander looks back to see if he can see the others, he can.

"You guys coming?" He asks, heading to the door but not passing through it yet

"No real choice, huh?" Clementine starts heading towards the other elevator. Lud seems hesitant. Oleander walks through. Spider heads out and to the other lift, her senses on high alert. Lud goes through. The second he starts to go through to the other lift, the walls start to close around him, basically squeezing him. Oleander tries to grab him and pull him out. Lud BARELY makes it out.

Oleander looks him over for injuries. "Are you okay??"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm okay-" He looks over at the floor. "This isn't the same office." Oleander looks around the room, it's a standard office building, looks a bit old and extremely abandoned. The one Clementine and Ludwig were in last time was somewhat newer and seemed only recently left by whatever was in it. There are puddles of tar on the floor. Most of the lights around here are on. The architecture isn't similar to what Clem and Lud saw either, this has more of a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe vibe to it. It's less concrete jungle and more... industrial. It somehow feels more soulless compared to a brutalist skyscraper. Oleander hums and looks around, curious to see if theres any documents left behind to indicate what this place was. He avoids touching the tar. Most of the documents Oleander finds are either mostly redacted or covered in tar. They accidently touch some tar and try to recoil back.

Nothing really seems to happen. Everything is hopefully going to be fine...?

Spider glances around before shrugging and looking around for a door. There's a door. The handle is a bit dirtied with tar. They sigh and attempt to open the door. The door opens. It seems like a regular office. There's not much standing out besides some keys on a desk. Oleander tries to wipe the tar off onto the table and look over at the others. Clem and Lud are setting a couple of things up. They look like extremely handmade weapons. Oleander walks into the next office that Spider opened, looking around.

The door locks Oleander and Spider in the office. "Well that's just brilliant." Spider growls and walks over to the keys grabbing them.

Lud and Clem immediately notice the locked door. There's some growling in the distance. Oleander hears the door lock and walks over, trying to kick it open. The door stays up. The growling is louder. They can hear Clementine try to forcefully unlock the door too, but it's not working. Ludwig is quiet. Spider walks over and tries the keys on the door attempting to unlock it. The keys don't work. Spider looks at them again. They're labeled as "backup bathroom keys". She snarls and just drops the keys, her ear twitches as she looks around for the source of the other growls.

Oleander points his gauntlet at the door. "BACK AWAY FROM THE DOOR-" He calls to Clem and Ludwig as he fires a shot at the handle, trying to knock it off. Right before Oleander shoots, a wall covers the door. Another one seems to back up back to where the original lift was supposed to lead. Same office, different design. It's cleaner and the door there seems open. Oleander looks around in confusion. "Shit... we lost the others..." He heads in to where the elevator was supposed to lead

Spider mutters something and follows, her ears flicking. The wall closes behind Spider. They're fully separated now. The office space is way cleaner here, and there's a couple of differences from the one they first went to. Oleander takes a deep breath and looks for anything of note. There's a couple of pieces of paper stacked on the desk from this office. They're barely legible. Oleander groans and looks to see if theres any windows. Windowless.

You can faintly hear someone screaming to what sounds like themselves. Spider sighs and starts attempting to walk towards the sound. As Spider walks, she's able to barely hear some of whatever is screaming is trying to say. "Idiots, FUCKING IDIOTS. EVERY SINGLE LAST ONE OF THEM." The rest is somewhat muffled.

Oleander looks over. "Should I try and blast a hole in the wall." They pause, realizing she hears something. "What're you hearing?" She grumbles to herself before turning to Oleander.

"Some head case is screaming to themselves, something about some people being idiots" She tilts her head as it goes quiet and continues trying to walk towards this person. Everything goes quiet for a minute.

---

Meanwhile, Clem and Lud were getting chased by big tar Petal. Clementine brought one of the faulty versions of the enaturalist outpost security system and threw it at it, hoping it would get stuck so they'd be able to blow it up, get samples, and bail.

---

There's a loud ass explosion nearby. Most of the building's lighting goes red. Whoever was screaming starts to shriek. The walls are moving erratically now.

Oleander's eyes widen and tries to get close to Spider so they don't get split up. "Shit- shit this isn't good-"

Spider winces covering her ears "Fuck.."

A wall opens up nearby, Lud and Clem running and coughing. They're panting. "O-Okay, I got what I needed, now it's just-" Cough. "A-A matter of leaving. And quick."

"How the hell do we get out of here???" Oleander asks, looking around for an exit.

"The fucking.. Elevator again."

Spider still has her hands over her ears as she looks over at the two. "Yeah like that'll work."

"It's how we got out the first time." Motherfucker losing a lung rn.

"Well we gotta try!" Oleander says, grabbing Lud to help him walk as he runs to the elevator. Spider follows.

The elevator opens. A disgruntled.. thing is in it. Half tar half person. Seems to be missing eyes in both half, the human one covered by an eyepatch and the tar just... nothing. "Where the fuck do you think you're going."

"And there it is." Spider rolls her eyes.

Oleander levels his gauntlet at the thing, ready to shoot. "Let us go or I'll shoot your fucking head off."

It stares at Oleander in specific. Pretty much ignoring everyone else at that moment. "You break into MY house, THROW A FUCKING BOMB AT ME, TAKE PARTS OF MY BODY AND BLOOD, AND YOU'RE STILL THREATENING TO KILL ME?!" It forms a tentacle out of tar and tries to choke Oleander out with it.

It hits and they put the gauntlet up to the tentacle, trying to shoot it off. What the fuck did Clem and Lud do???

Oleander shoots the tentacle off. Petal shrieks and tries to tackle Oleander all together. Oleander struggles and tries to punch it! Punched. Oleander's fist is covered in tar. Petal backs up slightly. Oleander tries to knee Petal in the crotch, trying to get them off. It works, it falls out from Oleander and out of the way from the elevator. It's groaning. Oleander tries to get up and go to the elevator. It works. Clem and Lud get in as soon as possible too.

Spider heads in. "So you two got what you needed?"

Clem presses a random button and SIGHS. "Yeah. Almost got eaten by that thing in the process but... whatever. Country girls make do."

"My ears still ringing from that explosion." Lud comments.

"Anyways, thank you for helping out, uh, we would've helped you out with the... thing back there but we only had one spare security drone."

"Yeah, mine too Lud." Spider growls to herself.

The elevator stops. It’s a forest.

==>