#I also used to think Sammy was Bendy when i first saw the game but shhhhhh

[doodle17]

Happy anniversary to Chapter 2 of Bendy and The Ink Machine!

This was the very day the mad maestro himself was brought into the Bendy-verse....

I still remember when his animations were nonexistent and he just stood there... Aaahhh good times :)

[silversodas]

Bendy and The Dark Revival brought an interesting new element to the table (Spoilers)

First, I need to start with Wilson. I saw some people say that BATDR threw away it’s magic element, and made it science based instead. Aside from the ritual at the beginning of the game, I can see why you would think that, but Magic is still vary much there, it is more or less dressed up as science (for lack of a better phrase) by Wilson.

See, Wilson embodies a trope I am not really a fan of. Wilson expresses to Audrey on the train ride how he feels about how the ink machine world works. Even calling it (utter nonsense). Wilson is the “Scientist, pissed that magic exists” trope. He isn’t 100% this trope because he is not a scientist, but still fits into it because while excepting that it exists, even learning how to control it to an impressive degree, he is still trying to fit it into a box that better suits him. (I am excluding the GENT corp, because that’s a different barrel of beans)

And that’s not to say he shouldn’t do that, magic (according to folklore) is a lot like programming, you have to give it a job it’s not going to improvise for you anymore then a subroutine code will. So if he wants everything to be more nuts bolts and gadgets aesthetic and make everything “feel” more like science he can. And through his own understanding of the world he brought the vary interesting element I mentioned earlier to the table. Those who have seen the game, do you remember those pipes with rainbow in them?

At first you would think it’s paint, but it’s stunning bright glow makes me think it something else

That’s right, I am convinced this is technicolor, it’s brilliant glow is vary similar to the glow of a TV screen. I know that sounds weird, I mean the weirdness doesn’t even stop there. Technicolor isn’t supposed to be something you can really see past maybe this

A way of photographing and printing colored film using a 3-strip method breaking the color down (Cyan, Yellow, and Magenta) that allowed for vibrate, permanent, none fading color. But if you look around you find over turned barrels of technicolor

It’s kinda hard to see with the blinding glow, but it looks to have the same consistency as paint. Wilson used the mechanics of this world to manifest technicolor to be a tangible tool, like paint or ink. He created technicolor that you can hold in your hands as if it were paint.

Another barrel, the glow and mix of color remind me so much of a messed up tv screen. It’s also interesting that it’s going through pipes in the building, the same way ink went through pipes at the studio. Only these pipes are better placed and not hanging over anyones head, the ink pipes in the real world studio looked like a hazard at first glance, these look structurally sound.

This is also interesting, it looks like barrels were spilled here, and instead of just being the color it was probably ment to be if color could exist ( like in the movie pleasantville)

It looks like how objects on TV appear to us, in color, but it’s almost like it didn’t know what color it was supposed to be so it’s just a splash of garish bright colors with out the glow. I had a theory for a while that so many of the lost ones come as ink blobs because there was never a form created for them. It also may be the reason why Wilson looks like himself, but not quite

He learned to create a form so vary close to how he use to look, but not quite there. In theory, Audrey and Bendy should be able to create a form for all of the lost ones and even fix Sammy Laurence’s and Susie’s Forms to better suit them. Bendy my even have an easier time, remember when I said the magic is like programming? Bendy’s connection to the ink and everyone seems to function similar to a mother board…or is it more like a hard drive? (If I completely botched these terms I apologize)

My conclusive theory is that with forms and color (thanks to Wilson) nothing is going to bibity bobity boo itself into existence. Whoever, Audrey, Bendy, or both have to physically make everything, just like animation. This is the worlds brand of bullshit cartoon logic. I would even go so far as to say that having Sammy Laurence do certain background music can aid Bendy in quick time event fighting in Who Framed Rodger Rabbit style. (I know people don’t like quick time events but I always thought they were nice for stylized fighting)

[shatteredinkglass]

What I think about Bendy: Campus Crush

So... I watched the April Fools video for Bendy: Campus Crush, and I'm having conniptions.

On the one hand, I love the idea of a Bendy story taking place in a modern-like era. On the other hand, some of the character designs are making my brain go into a million different directions on what the plot would actually be.

First off: What do I think about the characters.

Audrey: She looks like a completely different person. And I get it's supposed to be "anime-like", but I just see it as mid.

Henry: Literally looks like somebody's Henry design before we got Henry's ACTUAL appearance in Bendy and the Dark Revival. I actually DO like it, but I think they could have made him a LITTLE bit older looking.'

Boris: Just... WHY? I mean I get it, he's a wolf, and it's accurate, but THIS is one of the things that have been giving me conniptions! Like, are humans and beastkin (what I call human-like animals) living together in harmony or is this a werewolf situation? Plus... Is this Buddy or Tom? If it's Buddy, I'm going to rage. If it's Tom... Will still rage but have a lesser amount.

Sammy: Oh my god... He ACTUALLY looks good AND accurate. I WANT the REAL Sammy to have this outfit in the next real game. But he's also been giving me conniptions! Like... Is he just a theater kid who wears the mask to be mysterious or does he have some kind of facial disfiguration like Susie and uses the mask to hide it?

Joey: He looks like if he was back in his war days. No, I'm serious. Not only does he look like he kind of has his life together, but he's probably a lot happier too.

Susie/"Ms. Angel": I HATE it. It just looks like they just took some of Twisted Alice's disfiguration and slapped it on a random anime girl they found on the internet.

Bendy: I do like this one, but the horns are a LITTLE bit too big. Size them down a bit and you should be good.

Ink Demon: I had chills when I first saw him. But in a GOOD way. Looking at him reminded me of the early days of DDLC when Monika was ACTUALLY scary.

Allison: Same argument I made about Audrey but a bit more mid. She looks like an elementary student but I still do care about her. Don't see her as romanceable though.

Wilson: NO. Just NO. Get him off this campus. I do NOT want him anywhere near me or the others.

Next: The plot.

Now THIS is what's been keeping me up at night, but I think I have some kind of idea.

First, this is a female Y/N story, meaning you either have a default name or put in your own name.

And I know what you're thinking.

"Why would you immediately assume the Y/N is female?"

Well, considering the actual Bendy series takes place in the 60s and 70s, the LGBTQ representation wasn't exactly THERE back then, so of course the MC would be female.

Second, this is going to be a loop story, kind of like what DDLC did. Basically this means you're going to go through each romance path once until you get the true ending.

Like for example, you go through Henry's path, but at the end you either die or get corrupted by a certain someone, then you go back at the beginning, but you will not be able to romance him anymore.

Once you go through Boris', and Sammy's paths, you'll be able to get to the true ending which is the Ink Demon. That one I'll explain in a bit.

Third, Bendy and Audrey are your guides. You don't assume anything at first, thinking Bendy's just some hallucination the MC's mind created, but you find out that Audrey and everyone else can see him too. Also, they stay by your side after every loop until the true ending. I imagine him being the "little brother and big sister" characters to the MC that at first dislike them but end up seeing them like the siblings they never had.

Fourth, there is a matchmaking mechanic that will be used in the true ending. Basically, it means you have to get your former romanceables with people who ACTUALLY love them, like for example Henry with Linda and Boris with Allison.

Fifth, Wilson is the true antagonist. Let's face it, the guy's a villain through and through, no changing that. He'd basically pull the same act that he did on Audrey back in Revival on the MC by pretending to be on their side but in the end, he reveals he was the one killing the MC in every ending except the true ending.

Sixth, the "mystery" will be our MC trying to get their real memories back. Yes, I know. The "Amnesia" trope has been done to death but considering this is a loop story, I think it's warranted.

Seventh, the Ink Demon will be the real romance path in the true ending. This is because I believe the MC was the Ink Demon's future bride but on her wedding day Wilson ended up killing her. The Ink Demon then revived us but the first time we ended up with amnesia. After all the other paths are done, we then go down the Ink Demon's route that is basically the MC just falling in love with him all over again and we defeat Wilson for good.

These are my thoughts so far. For those who want to somehow make this a reality, you can use my this as some kind of guideline. Have a good day/night!

[the-therapist-is-ace]

Bendy?

(Here's a little something that I wrote after BATDR. I feel like everyone was thinking the same as I did when we saw Bendy Benders and the twist at Chapter 4 x)

So naturally SPOILERS! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE!

Here's a VERY self-indulgent thing, with a self-insert -or is it a Bendy insert?- Also disclaimer, English isn't my mother tongue so I'm sorry if there's grammatical errors ^^')

"{...} It was delightful to see such progress. The Ink Demon will stay in this small form indefinitely."

"THESE SON OF A BITCH!"

You slam your fist in anger on your desk. The new game had his downsides, but its also had its qualities, and one of them was definitely the little cute Perfect Bendy (called Baby Benders by the fandom) that followed you around in the city at the beginning of the fourth chapter.

He was just a cute little thing that tried to help, and was easily scared.

Well, or so you thought until getting to the GENT building entrance; seeing the Ink Demon morph into Baby Bendy was... something. You half-expected it -there have been theories after all- but seeing it was another thing entierly.

Anyway, after seeing the toon run away -again- you decided to explore the building. After an encounter with the Keepers (they were fucking creepy you decided after seeing and most importantly hearing them) you found tapes talking about experiences run on the Ink Demon.

The Keepers had tried many things before being able to shrink the demon in his toon form; torture mostly. But what you just heard was different: they admitted that they continu to torture him even when they got him into his weaker state. ENJOYED his screams of pain and tears of ink. And probably continued until the poor thing run away.

To make things worst you can't even hurt them with your pipe and are forced to hide away from their sight. Fuckers.

Anyway, now you are insulting the Keepers and Wilson for what they've done to an innocent guy like him; this isn't the Ink Demon. They said it themselves; he's much more timid in this state, and you saw through the game that he was mostly scared and trying to be helpful, nothing more.

Even then, the Ink Demon technically wasn't bad until Joey started to abuse him; the audio log said as much. At first he was merely roaming around, mostly confused. And yes he may have scared a person or two with his appearance, but it's not like he could do something about it. That wasn't his fault. (RIGHT JOEY? You and your goddamn "just a pencil and a dream" bullshit.)

Now you were officially an Ink Demon apologetic, congratulations for joining us. We have cookies over here and Sammy will play you a tune on the banjo as a welcome. (speaking of which where the fuck is he and the main cast? You haven't seen any of them since the beginning of the game! -asides from a quick cameo of Allisson and Boris in the first Chapter-)

All of that just to say: you were pissed.

Pissed at the Keepers and Wilson that hurted and traumatized so horribly a creature that techincally didn't do anything wrong.

So pissed in fact, that you haven't noticed that your computer was starting to overheat from the numerous hours in a row of playing. (you don't have a gamer computer) So pissed that you even throw a punch at your screen because a Keeper just found you and you needed to evacuate your frustration before getting a game over screen.

So pissed that you didn't see the wave of electricity passing from the game to your hand until you felt it.

"Goddamn piece of shit I'll fucking DESTROY YOU- OW FUCK!"

You wince as you jerk your hand away from the screen in a hurry. The screen is fractured, and your computer shut itself on the impact.

Well looks like I'm good to buy another one. you think bitterly.

However, you quickly forget this when you hear a sound of something falling on the ground in the room next to your bedroom: the living room.

That wouldn't have been a problem if you weren't living alone for at least two years.

And you didn't had guests come over today.

Game and destroyed computer completely forgotten now, you slowly shut your computer off and silently got up. As quietly as possible you go to the living room, phone in hand and the police's number ready to be called. And...

Nothing.

There wasn't anyone in the living room. You frown. You're sure that you heard something! And you don't have pets, you're allergic. You don't have neightbors upon or below you as well so it can't be that either.

"Is someone there?" no response.

No response but a little squeaking noise. You smirked. Got you!

And well, you can't help it. You were just playing BATDR so you allow yourself a quote from its predecessor.

"I know you're in here! Come up and show yourself." Let just hope that whatever it is, it's as friendly as Boris is... you think to yourself.

Silence once again. You hear another noise, this time a shuffling one. Is the thing hiding behind the curtains or under the sofa? It must be quite small then. But wait, if it's small and didn't attacked... Perhaps it's frightened? Then...

"You can come out... I won't hurt you. you say in a much gentler voice and crouched down. I promise."

Is an animal even going to understand me? you ponder before hearing another shuffling noise. It looks like it really is a scared pet and not a robber.

Reassured, you get up put your phone on the table -you don't want to scare it even more with a thing in your hand- and turned back to-

Oh.

You pause. You blink several times to do a double take. You even pinch yourself to be sure that you aren't dreaming. But nope, no matter what you do, you still see the same thing.

Bendy.

In front of you.

Who just got out of hiding under the sofa.

Okay this is it; I lost it. you decide. I have fucking hallucinations now. Great. Awsome. What's the number of the nearest psychiatric hospital?

"Bendy" doesn't say anything -not that he could talk in the game in his toon form- and just continu to look at you with clear hesitation and fear in his eyes.

After doing a staring contest -in which you were FREAKING THE FUCK OUT INTERNALLY- for several minutes, the facts of the situation catches up to you. This is Baby Bendy. A toon that -from what you've just learned- only knows pain, torture, fear and disgust until Audrey came along. And is now in a completely new environnement, with someone that he doesn't know and who's way taller and stronger than him.

And upon remembering that, your resolution disolved.

You know what? Screw it. Even if it's an hallucination... you scrouch down once more in front of him.

In response, he take a step back. Like when he met Audrey... You gulped and try to put a smile on your face.

"Hey... Bendy right?"

Upon hearing his name, the toon take another step back. Yeah that's fair. you think, remembering the blasted recordings.

"I'm sorry if I scared you... you trailed off, not really knowing what to say. I thought there was a robber in my house."

"Bendy" shake his head and put his hands before him like at the begining of chapter four when he met Audrey again. You smile at that.

"Oh so you aren't trying to rob me? you say in an amused tone and smiled even more upon seeing him shaking his head again. Awsome. But then, what are you doing here?"

He seems to think for a bit, before shaking his head again.

"Don't have a clue uh? another shake. Well that makes two of us..."

He doesn't seems too bothered by it, you noticed. Then again, he've seen crazier things... And deadlier things.

You cringed at the thought. However, you quickly smile back at the little devil when he tilt his head to the side in confusion.

"It's nothing little guy. you assure him. I just... didn't expected that I guess. you shrugged. But I'm not complaining! you quickly add to not make him feel bad. Just... I have a living toon that just appeared in my living room now."

He doesn't seem to know how to respond to that, so he just doesn't. Continu to stare at you with his big, pie cut eyes.

Well... He sure as hell won't hurt me. And he's scared and confused... I can't leave him like that can I?

You slowly reach out to him with your hand. As expected, he take another step back, and another, until he's cornered by the sofa. At that he looks up to you with ink-tears at the border of his eyes out of fear and you feel your heart shatter.

"Hey- hey come on, I promise I won't hurt you... you spin your hands so that he can see you don't have anything in -or on- them. See? I don't have anything. And no ink either. I won't hurt you... please?"

It definitely takes longer than with Audrey (then again it's happening afterwards... and he got hurt.) but little by little, he take a step forwards. Then another. And then he hesitantly stretch his hand to touch yours. You smile at that and gently squeeze it.

"See? It doesn't hurt does it?"

He shake his head and show his trademark smile afterwards. The ink-tears are nowhere to be seen. He take another step forwards and then before you knows it he's reaching for your other hand.

You blink at that; you didn't expected him to make another move so quickly. But then you remember; he was really quick to forgive Audrey too, despite the fact that she hurt him.

He's desesperate for affection. you realized.

Now you're the one that risk to cry at any moment. But you shove them off and smiled again -it's starting to hurt but you don't care- and gently, oh so gently you take his other hand.

"There we go little guy." you say softly.

Bendy seemed content with the contact for a while (you're almost certain that you can hear him purr and ohmygod it's so CUTE!) before he starts to move again.

He's moving both of yours arms up, and down, and on the sides and- oh.

He's trying to dance. you realized.

Of course. He's called "The dancing demon" why wouldn't know how to? You laugh softly, earning his attention. You grin.

"May I have this danse, Bendy?"

Upon hearing those words, you can see Bendy beam and his pie cut eyes have stars in them. (it's SO GODDAMN CUTE-) He nod several times, clearly happy and starts to guide you in a dance that you never heard of -probably was popular in the 1930's giving Bendy's creation period- for several minutes.

You let him guide you for a while before he suddenly stops, a growling sound can be heard. He let go of your hand to hide his face in -you suppose- embarassment.

"You're hungry little guy? you say with a smile. It's okay, I can prepare you something-"

You stop. He just looked at you with so much hope in his eyes that it hurts to look at. Then you realize another thing.

Of course. Those bastards certainly didn't give him anything to eat. He's a toon, he probably doesn't need to survive... But. you look at him once more. He can feel hunger too. In the cartoons, they eat as well... and food in the studio is not easy to get when you're his size-

Oh god when was the last time he ate?

Now's not the time to get lost in your thoughts though. You stopped walking and Bendy is looking at you with concern. You shake your head and smile at him.

"I'm okay little guy. So! Up to the kitchen we go!" you say, trying to sound enthousiastic.

In there, you help Bendy sit on one of your chair -the poor thing was too little to actually reach it- and get to work. You tried to remember what he ate in the comics that were released after BATIM and you remembered that he snagged away an apple pie. But you don't have the ingredients... But then you remember that he ate some smashed potatoes in those same comics.

You can do that, you have potatoes. With some sausages too, good thing you went groceries shopping this morning. Decided, you start cooking.

"Here you go Bendy. Careful, it's hot." you say fifteen minutes later as you put the plate in front of the little devil darling.

You try not to chuckle at the obvious droll he show. He really is like a little kid -and eating like one too. You will have to clean after he's done- but for now you don't care.

He's eating like someone will come and snatch the plate out of his arms. you noticed with a pinch of sadness.

Gently, you put a hand on his shoulder. He immediatly tense and look at you with fear.

Oh god I'm going to cry before the end of the day. you think upon feeling tears again rising but you quickly blink to make them go away.

You smiled at him before putting your hand off.

"Don't eat so quickly buddy, you're going to be sick. No one's going to steal your plate okay?" you say instead.

The little toon looked at you with bewilderment before turning to his plate and resume eating- but slower this time. Another smile.

"There we go. You're doing great Bendy."

At the compliment he beams, and finish eating while you're struggling internally to not cry in front of him because of all the implication of such a reaction for a simple compliment-

He's done quickly though. So you're putting off the plate, fork and knife -with a round-end, you were careful about that- before thinking. Bendy never really had a treat since when he was pull from the cartoon world right? Then...

"Say Bendy, how does a desert sound?"

You expected the stars in his eyes but seeing them doesn't pull your heartstrings less. You smile.

"I have some fruits, some yogurt... Oh wait. I think I have something that you will enjoy."

You get to the kitchen quickly, put the dishes in the sink, then go to the fridge. Open it, and smile. You intended to eat it for dinner but there's someone else here that will surely please your unexpected guest.

You come back moments later with a slice of chocolate cake on a little plate and a spoon.

Of course, upon seeing that, you can see the stars in the little devil darling's eyes once again. They only grew bigger when you actually put the plate in front of him.

"Here you go buddy. Hope you'll like it."

You don't have time to finish your sentence that he's already eating it. You chuckle softly. You knew he was going to like it.

Once he's done, you put him off the chair.

"Alright little guy, I have to wash the dishes, then... we can do whatever you want. Sounds good?"

Bendy nodded, and put a thumb up. Another smile -you're really starting to feel a pain for smiling so much but you don't care- and you're back to the kitchen to wash said-dishes. Although... You notice that Bendy followed you here. You don't make a comment but it's clear that he doesn't want to be alone.

Once it's done, you're left wondering. You don't really have toys here, you live alone and don't have kids... So how are you going to entertain the little toon? Then you remember.

"Hey little guy, I have crayons and paper, wanna draw?"

Even though you expected the answer, you can't help but let a relieved breath upon seeing the toon litterally jumping out of joy. You go back to your bedroom -while making sure to leave the door open for the curious little dancing demon that follows you- and get to your desk where you know you leave your papers.

You were about to take the crayons -you do like to draw too from time to time; though you're not near half as good as some people of the Internet you saw- when you hear a soft falling sound. You quickly turn around to see Bendy, on your nightstand -he probably climbed to get on it- who accidentally push off your glass of water that you keep in case of nighttime thirst. As you have forgotten to refill it, it was thankfully empty -you don't want to know what would have happened to Bendy if there was still water in it...- but now the glass was broken.

And Bendy was- oh no.

Bendy was shaking from horns to shoes, looking at the glass then at you with ink-teared eyes. You gently put the sheet of paper on the desk and goes to him with worry.

"Hey- hey buddy... Are you okay? you try to reach for him but he nearly fall off by trying to step back. It's okay- I'm not mad..."

He keeps looking at you with teary eyes. Now's not the time to cry too. you remind yourself.

"I'm not mad Bendy. you repeat in a gentle tone. Accidents happens- it's okay. you smile and offer your hand again. I promise. Let me put you away from the shards though; you can be hurt. And we don't want that right? an hesitant nod. That's right; we don't want that." you repeat gently.

He takes your hand after some hesitation and before putting him on the ground you ponder if your reassurance was enough. He's still crying... You smile. After putting him on the ground again, you hug him.

It's... strange to say the least. He's made of ink but he's solid; and you're not stained either. It's just a bit cold to the touch, and smooth.

But you don't care. What's important here is to reassure Bendy that's you're not mad at him. Poor thing's been abused enough.

"It's okay... I'm not mad. I promise. It's okay..." you repeat over and over while passing your hand behind his head.

You keep doing that until you can feel him stop sobbing. You release him from the embrace and smile again.

"Do you feel better now? a timid nod. That's great. I'm going to clean that now alright? Please stay here, I'll be right back."

Another nod. You notice with a pinch in the heart that he's indeed, not following you this time. You take the broom and the dustpan (you have a sympathic thought towards Henry and a wondering one about how the fuck can you knock someone out with one for Sammy) and go back to your room. Bendy hadn't move and look away while you clean.

After putting all that in the trash, you come back to him.

"All done. Now then... he tense up and you try to not feel bad. we were going to draw weren't we?"

The little devil darling looks at you bewildered. Clearly he hadn't expected the activity to still be on your plan after that incident. You smile again.

"I told you, I'm not mad buddy. you take the sheet of papers and the crayons. So what are we drawing?" you say, giving him some of it and keeping some papers for yourself.

He beams at you and make a "shhhht" motion. You chuckle.

"Alright then, it's a secret."

You can't help but feel protective upon the little ink devil. You've played enough to know at least a bit of what he've been through, and you can't help but promise yourself that if you see Joey, Wilson or the Keepers in real life, there's going to be blood. Ink. Whatever; you're going to make them suffer.

Some hours pass by, and before you know it, it's dinner time. You gently put a hand on Bendy's shoulder.

"Hey little guy. It's time to eat."

He get the head up his drawing -what looks to be Boris- in shock. You chuckled.

"Yeah, we've been drawing for some hours. What do we say that we eat and then we show each other what we draw?"

You get another nod. You smile and take his hand to guide him back to the living room. Put him in the chair, set the table -for two this time- and prepare dinner. Some pastas will do tonight, you're sure your guest won't mind.

You eat in silence -Bendy is making effort to eat slowly; you give him praise for that and try not to cry upon seeing his amazed look- and finish by some yogurt -he did like it!- before you go to do the dishes. Afterwards you put the toon on the ground again, and you two are back in your bedroom, showing each other your drawings.

Yours aren't much; some sketches of Bendy. You were tempted to do Alice and Boris too, but you didn't want to make him confused avout how the hell you know about them. Bendy's are... a lot more. Sketches of his friends with him, even some of what you assume are Henry -a young man with a gentle smile and a pen- and Audrey -you recognize her immediatly-. However...

"Is that... Me?" you say a bit taken aback pointing at some drawings.

To your surprise, Bendy actually nodded. He then stretched the paper to you. But before you take it, he pouted and showed yours. You smile.

"A trade uh? a nod. Alright, seems fair. Here you go buddy." you say, giving him yours.

He beamed, and give his to you. Again, you smile. It really hurts at this point but you don't give two shits about it.

"Thank you Bendy. I really like it."

If possible, the dancing demon looked the happiest that you ever saw him, almost radiant. However, the moment is broken by him yawning. You look at the hour on your phone -that you got back from the living room-.

"Oh. It's quite late... you turn to Bendy. You should sleep."

A blink, then a questionning look. You can understand the unspoken question.

"Where? Well... I only have one bed, or there's the sofa but I don't think you like to be alone."

The toon tense and hesitantly nodded. You gently put a hand between his horns.

"It's okay. You're sleeping with me then. a chuckle. I hope you don't mind good ol' me."

He shook his head at that, and you smile.

"Alright then. Get yourself comfortable, I'm changing myself."

You go to the bathroom for that and try to be quick. Pyjamas, brushing teeths and it's all good. You come back less than a minut later to find Bendy sitting on the bed, his shoes taken off, but not under the sheets. You raise an eyebrow at that but don't comment.

Gently, you put him on the ground to take the sheets off, to then put Bendy under them, and get yourself under them too.

"Comfortable buddy?" you say, getting the comforter on you both.

A yawn answer you before a nod does. You chuckled and hug the little devil. He remind you of a plushie. If a plushie was a living breathing cartoon made of ink.

"Alright then, you say as you can see some "Z" above his head start forming. Goodnight Bendy."

You give him a kiss between his horns before shutting your nightstand's light off and falling asleep not so long after, with a smile on your face.

You didn't get to finish that game but you gain something so much better in return.

[inkdemonapologist]

scribbles from Session 2 of the current Bendy Call of Cthulhu game, where everyone’s having a normal one!!!

After an actually very pleasant evening meal (there was cake!), things got weird fast,

Joey started “talking to himself” in his empty hotel room but got evasive and weird and physically shoved everyone out when the others went to demand an explanation 

Sammy tried to sleepwalk into traffic, completely entranced by Those Weird Symbols which apparently “feel like ink,” and got real Prophety for a bit when the others woke him up

Joey got him to chill out by calling after him in two voices at once (?!?!?)

After Sammy finally came to his sense and we all went back to get a little sleep, Joey finally showed us why he’s been so intent on wearing a hat everywhere lately and explained that hE IS POSSESSED BY BENDY CURRENTLY, so that Bendy could get some help remaining stable and come on the trip with us, WHICH IS, FINE. Just let eldritch horrors possess your mortal form that’s fine. Also Bendy needs a regular supply of ink to remain stable, so Joey’s been drinking ink, which is, also fine,

Anyway here’s some contextless quotes under the readmore:

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee)and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[Sammy] So yeah, if you roll under a 5 on a d100, then Jack has SOMEHOW seen this occult symbol before. [Jack] Y'know, I'm gonna roll, just because it'd be REALLY funny if he succeeded. [Henry] Yeah! You can do it, Jack! [Jack] oH MY GOODNESS [Sammy]....what did you roll, [Jack] I roLLED A FOUR,,, [Sammy] Jack I JUST told you not to look at symbols what are you DOING

[Jack] He just used to have an ex who was really into the occult, it's fine -- [Sammy] (his name is Joey Drew,)

[GM] The location of the body is about 30 feet from the nearest building. [Sammy] Ah. So he fell out of the SKY. [GM] Unless he was a very impressive long jumper!

[Joey] Joey did not get candles because it seemed... a bit unfortunate that Bendy was not able to join us -- [Sammy] Sammy doesn't care. [Joey] -- but we can still celebrate -- [Sammy] He's here for cake.

[GM] Is everybody drinking responsibly this time? [Henry] Well Henry's not stuffing four drinks down himself if that's what you're asking!!

[Sammy] There's gotta be at least ONE nice thing about this trip. [Sammy] And it's this cake. That's it.

[Henry] Henry might try to get that book from Joey -- [Joey] Which book? [Henry] The yellow symbol one. [Joey] Um, Joey's gonna hold onto the one with the weird symbol on the cover, because he hasn't had a chance to cover up the symbol and he wants to do that first, but if Henry wants to look at Alice in Wonderland, he can have that one! [Henry] ...maybe tomorrow. [Joey] Joey seems ofFENDED at this.

[Sammy] That's the best roll I'll ever have in this entire scenario. [Henry] Sammy's listening very hard. [Sammy] Sammy's trying to sleep, therefore he hears Every Noise.

[Joey] It was the first night that Joey took Jack out to a dinner to kind of, y'know, spoil him, [Joey] a Thanks For Not Being Super Weird About Our Occult Stuff And Sorry You Got Dragged Into This dinner,

[Sammy] Sammy's not TRYING to be handsome, he's just accidentally really hot.

[Joey, the lowest physical stats of the whole group] He's going to more desperately try to just like, shove them out the door I guess!!! [Sammy, the highest physical stats of the whole group] Yeah! Give that a shot! SEE HOW THAT GOES

[GM] Henry swears he saw a third hand shoving Sammy out the door. [Henry] *uncertain* ......we know how many hands Joey has, right?

[Sammy] I was going to suggest that he's possessed, but... that's not a symptom I'm familiar with. [Henry] I'm pretty sure I didn't get extra limbs last time. [GM] (He just THOUGHT he did!) [Henry] (Well, he thought he was three whole people.) [Joey] (THATS SO MANY LIMBS!!)

[Sammy] I want an explanation. [Joey] *innocently* For what? [Sammy] The list grows longer!

[Henry] You know what happened last time you hid stuff from us, Joey... please... try to be smart, [Sammy] .............. (we know it's hard for you,)

[Sammy, explaining to Jack] ...I mentioned dying, in Haiti, [Henry] Oh, we're going into this, then, okay-- [Sammy] *muttering* You’re the one who brought up being possessed, [Sammy] Joey and I were possessing Henry for a significant portion of the trip. [Henry] For longer than the trip itself! [Sammy] well i wasn't going to go into THAT, [Henry] Well I-- uh-- I-- ...I should shush.

[Jack] So what do I have to roll to see how well Jack processes this? [Joey] How many nightmares do you have tonight? [GM] *cheerfully opening Weird Dream files* At least one!

[GM] You could make a Brawl check to hold on, if you're trying to make sure Sammy doesn't walk away from you. [Sammy] Brawl Check: Just Deck 'Im. [Henry] Henry will try! [Sammy] ....he's gonna try to deck him????

[GM] I feel like this might apply to the Charm skill, because you're a good... cajoler of Sammies, [Jack] *laughing* I'm actually SLIGHTLY BETTER at Persuade, because I'm down to 69 Charm for the joke!!

[Joey] But Joey's going to say it with two voices at once. [Sammy] HMMMMMMMMMMM,,, [Henry] eXCUSE ME? [Jack] Is Jack the only one here who doesn't have someone else in his head?! [Henry] Well Henry doesn't currently, [Jack] Give him five minutes.

[Joey] I think Joey's actually probably going to crack open that book now. [Jack] I honestly thought you were going to say "a drink" [Jack] Crack open a cold one with the son boy

[Jack] Jack is going to do all of the motions of going to bed except for the one part that's the most important.

[Sammy] The rest of us will go down and meet with Peter. [Sammy] Oh -- no, just realised, Sammy would call him "Pete" because he doesn't know that nicknames aren't transitive.

[Sammy] What IS it with people in masks??? [GM] ..................says Sammy,

[Sammy] All we've learned is that Trenchcoat Guy is super suspicious! Big shocker, I know.

[Jack] Jack is going to respond with a very eloquent, "UHHHHH,,,,"

[GM] You probably would get a Bendy voice popping up at that point saying "Joey's not actually drinking it, I am!" [Henry] Oh, hey Bendy. [GM] He maybe borrows a hand to wave. [Henry] (HOW'S IT FEEL, JOEY!!!!)

[Jack] I also had a hunch about the horns once it became more apparent that Joey was very specifically trying to keep a hat on all the time. [Jack] But very briefly, when he was like "and he takes his hat off to reveal--" my brain was like, what if it isn't horns, what if there's just a very small Lurker, [Sammy] Just pulling on his hair like Ratatouille,

[GM] Jack is pretty sure that whoever wrote this play wrote it to induce paranoia and mental distress. It seems baked in. [Henry] Well it's working on Henry! Henry wants to go home!

[Jack] #JustWorkingAtJDSThings

[GM] Make some sort of persuade-type roll! [Sammy] My... my only one is Intimidate, so that's what I'm using! [Jack] oH BOY [Jack] what do I roll to stop Sammy from whatever he's about to say?!

[Jack] Everyone else better be on their best behaviour! [Joey] Joey puts away his lockpicks for now.

[GM] You do see a microfilm machine, which is quite large at this point in time, [Jack] Not very micro, then,

[Jack] See if his Prophet senses are tingling! [Sammy] THATS THE OTHER GUY

[GM] It's kind of remarkable how little there is that talks about this guy's personal life in his desk! [Joey] There's no, like, locked drawers or anything? [Jack] No copy of his autobiography, talking about how gay he is?

[Jack] He's not going to mess with things. He's a polite boy. [Sammy] The rude boys have left the building. [GM] Only polite boys left!

[GM] It surely would never happen again! [Jack] One-of-a-kind, one-time-only, completely exclusive, if you didn't go you'll never get the fancy new shirt, [Jack] Hashtag I Was At The Cult Police Raid And All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt And Put In An Asylum

[Sammy] Well, now we can have some new trauma! We've had time to process this trauma, we're ready for more; that's how it works, right? [GM] That's good, because you need to roll Sanity checks for those dreams!

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

16. Play.

Noticing the power shift created by Joey’s new form and role in his story, the Ink demon, the Prophet, and the now much more lucid searchers are interested in playing a few games with their old pals Henry and Joey. (Or not very interested, in the prophet and searchers’ cases) (Set in the AU where by yeeting Joey into the ink machine before going through the portal-door in the kitchen, Henry is accompanied by a chatty, useless, and overall insufferable little imp.)

The novelty of Joey accompanying him as a friendly, (Henry used that term loosely considering what he knew now.) tiny, cartoon demon wore off the second the story actually kicked into play. For starters, the former animator knew that whether either of them liked it or not, Joey was going to be clinging to him whenever he felt like it and following him like a lost puppy.

At the moment, the imp was running ahead of the animator, tapping his feet impatiently as he ‘waited’ for the old man to catch up before scurrying off again and occasionally tripping, but Henry knew that by the time the Ink Demon came into play, the little devil would use him as a meat shield.

 Speaking of the two devils, Henry approached the freshly boarded up ink machine room which Joey was already peering into with an uneasy expression on his pale face. The animator also peered into the room, but instead of being greeted by the Ink Demon popping out of the hole and starting the chase, he watched the Ink demon pace about the small room with an expression he’d never seen on it before: a grimace.

In addition to the demon’s seemingly much more expressive face, he seemed to have a different approach to his role as a villain now that he had no script from Joey to follow; a villain who was much more dangerous than a smart animal.

“SAMMY! JACK! JOHNNY!”

The Ink Demon shouted and called up three figures of ink.

“Alright, now listen up you three good-for-nothing, sewer-water-brained Lackeys, the creators will be here ANY second now, and if I find out YOU STUPID INK BLOTS let them get away, I’m gonna wring your necks out like wet towels! Do I make myself clear?!”

“Yes, your vileness.” The swollen searcher with a bowler hat replied in a tired sounding tone.

“Clear as day, your assholiness.” The Prophet added, sounding like more of a smartass than he had ever been when he was alive.

“Y-yes… Lord Ink Demon… We’ll take good care of them all right! W-well not good, but- EEEP!” a third searcher that appeared to have teeth made out of piano keys meekly stuttered and hid from the Ink Demon’s untrusting glare from behind the safety of the Prophet’s legs.

“Good! Now listen up: they’ve started up our machine already so we don’t have much time to plan: So what do we do to stop them?”

“Uh... ...Same thing as always?”

“W-well… I’m sure that you’ll have the best plan out of all of us, your rottenness!”

“You can stick your hand out of the holes in the boards and watch them run and fall to their doom like a pair of stray sheep who don’t see the cliff.”

“NO! When Joey’s not in control, I’m calling the shots around here! And I say: We’re not going to run his stupid story through the machine any more! We’re doing something completely different, something that will really make ‘em suffer...”

“Henry!” Joey tugged on the man’s pant leg and whispered loud enough for him to hear, but not loud enough to grab the ink monsters’ attention. “He can think and talk! He’s not supposed to do that! Hell, aside from Sammy, none of them are supposed to be any smarter than feral animals! Not to mention, they all look different… I think that stuff on Sammy is supposed to be hair, but it’s never been THAT long before...”

The Ink Demon slapped his forehead and grumbled under his breath.

“Speak of the %*#@ing devils…” He then stared expectantly at the confused trio of searchers. “WELL?! THEY’RE HERE; RIGHT OUTSIDE THE DOOR! ARE YOU GONNA MAUL ‘EM OR ARE YOU JUST GONNA SIT AROUND WAITING FOR THE COCKROACHES IN YOUR HEADS TO CHEW UP THE GARBAGE YOU CALL BRAINS FIRST?!”

“Why not take the pleasure in offing them yourself, your dicklessness?”

“Uh, Yeah, and when you fail at that, we’ll set up traps for ‘em downstairs. It’s not like they’re gonna escape the studio.”

The searcher with piano key teeth sheepishly nodded along.

“What?! But I had this cool dramatic entrance planned out and everything- ARGH! FINE!” The Ink Demon grumbled as he started breaking the boards. “If you want a mauling done right...”

Henry held Joey like a football as he ran through the rapidly flooding studio as the Ink Demon cackled manically throughout the chase.

“READY OR NOT HEEREEE I COOOOMEEEE~”

Henry found himself having to jump and duck to avoid a lot more falling debris and had felt the demon’s claws at his back at times, the situation was not helped by Joey screaming and crying the entire time.

He felt more dread than relief as he saw the exit coming in, no matter how close it got, he never got to it, like every time before, the floorboards broke underneath his feet. He always fell, and now, someone would try to catch him.

“HA! NOT WHEN I’M IN CHARGE, CREATOR!”

And would succeed.

It happened so fast that Joey couldn’t tell if he did it intentionally or not, but he had slipped out of Henry’s grip and had fallen down to the depths of the studio with a loud ‘splash’ announcing his arrival.

Announcing that he was alone, defenseless, and weak. In a studio that Joey now knew no longer was his to control, and was filled with many, many enemies who would fully take advantage of that.

“Y-you just need to stay c-calm, Joey...” He pulled himself up on a floating piece of stray wood and started paddling towards the valve. “There’s an ax nearby, all you need to do is get to it and you’ll be fine. you’ve seen Henry do this hundreds of times, you’ll be alright, you just need to believe in yourself.”

In spite of his reassuring speech, the scared little imp felt a large pit of dread in his gut. The former Music director, former lyricist, and the former organist would probably hesitate if it was Henry instead, but those three caught him... Joey shuddered just thinking about it. 

As the ink drained he took his miraculously unstained bath robe off of the floor and put it back on. He was also missing his pants now, but it wasn’t like he could go back up to get them, and even if he could, he wasn’t going to fight the Ink Demon for a pair of fucking pants that were too big for him anyway.

“Get the ax, get back with Henry, get the ax, get back with Henry, get the ax, get back with Henry...”

He repeated to himself under his breath as he repeated his task of descending and turning valves as an attempt to keep himself from jumping at every twist and turn. The imp also kept his eyes peeled for anything that looked suspicious or out of place, fearing the looming threat of the searchers’ traps.

The ax and the room was exactly how Joey had left it, not a single thing changed, which did make him feel relieved.

When he moved forward, he didn’t find any evidence that Sammy was worshiping Bendy at all when in the shrine room, there were plenty of ritualistic circles, plenty of cryptic messages, but they all had the little devil as a thing that was meant to be sacrificed, not as something worth the former musician’s worship.

“Of all the runs for Sammy to not worship Bendy...” He groaned. “It HAD to be the one where I became an imp...”

He wasn’t sure whether he was grateful or even more afraid when he didn’t see Sammy moving the cutout around.

------

When Joey got to the music department itself, he heard the sounds of laughter, pool balls clacking, cheers and glasses clinking in the distance. Following the sounds, he found the three searchers lounging around the pool table in the middle of a conversation and a game.

The upbeat atmosphere fizzled out when the three noticed him. The Swollen searcher muttered something about the game just getting good, the Piano key-toothed searcher groaned about Joey spoiling all the fun as usual, and the masked mad maestro smiled at him.

Not in a sarcastic or forced way like how his human self smiled at people, it seemed genuine enough. But it also wasn’t a warm or kind smile, it seemed more ...hungry.

“Hello little Lamb.” The prophet stood up and got into the imp’s face,  “Are you interested in playing a game with us?”

‘Oh fuck, he’s still crazy.’ Joey thought to himself. “N-no thanks!” He smiled and waved hoping that he didn’t look as terrified as he felt. “I’ve got a friend of mine to get back to and I really don’t have a lot of time to play.”

The imp dashed out of the break room and slammed the door shut behind him, completely unaware that the merriment had returned to the room.

“Thank god he didn’t go for it.” Johnny sighed. “If The Ink Demon found out about this room because of that little runt...”

“I told you it would work.” The prophet took the mask back off and set it aside on a crate. “...But he’ll probably come back to pester us into trying to help him find Henry, maybe even take up the game offer.”

“Yeah...” Jack poured himself another shot. “Kinda surprised that you didn’t jump at the chance to make his life hell though.”

“Less is more.” The prophet hit the eight ball and watched the rest of them knock against each other. “If you get one big punch left to linger, it hurts like a bitch, if you get hundreds of them, you grow numb to the pain. But I don’t think that Inky understands that.”

“Well, at least he can have fun playing his game of cat and mouse with Joey...”

“Yeah.” Johnny raised his glass. “Cheers to those two being each others’ problems instead of ours!”

“Cheers!”

[creepyalienghost]

Reunited

Deep down in the studio the ink creatures know only pain and struggle. The dreaded Alice Angel sacrifices all who she could get her hands on to fix her scars and her former beauty. The poor prophet sacrificed anyone he could find to please his lord. The projectionist struggled to remember anything other then his loop. Many lost souls struggle to even remember who they were anymore. All they could do is hear the voices swirling in there heads. With others not in the hive mind they either fight to keep themselves alive or hide in their spots, hoping to never run into the ink demon or the Angel.

The prophet was wondering the halls looking for my soup cans when suddenly it dawn on him that creatures were few and far between. Unlike before when you can’t turn the corner without running into one of the Butcher Gangs or seeing a Boris hiding. He found that strange and decided to take a look around though the walls.

He looked through holes, peaked in rooms and even going deep down below and sure enough so maybe we’re missing. All the butcher gang seen to have disappeared. The projectionist was no where to be found and even that new comer Sammy almost sacrificed wasn’t seen. Something was going on. Could this have been his lords doing? Or worst, that wicked angel’s? Sammy wanted to find out but he was also wondering of angering his lord. If it was his doing then maybe his lord would do the same to him...

He was caught up in his thoughts while walking that he didn’t notice the footsteps rushing up behind him until it was to late. The prophet was bagged over the head and tripped. He struggled and yelled for his lord for help as several creatures held him down or sat on top of him. They managed to tie his hands behind his back right before he felt a sharp pain in his neck. He screamed and cursed them out until the drug they infected him with started to work. His body went heavy. His hearing muffled. His sight started to fade. The prophet feared he was dying and had failed his lord. Hell, maybe this was his lords doing. Maybe this was what happened to the rest of them. He thought of this until his mind was even talking from him and soon after that the darkness of ink took over everything.

——-

It all felt like a dream. The sacrifices. The ink. Bendy and Alice. Everything for the pass so many years felt like a long band dream. But Sammy new it wasn’t a dream when his eyes flickered open and vision cleared. The first thing he noticed was that he was laying in hospital bed, hooked up to many Wires going to many different machines. There was one for his heartbeat. Another for monitoring his brain waves. A Machine pumping in blood inside him and the casual iv needle.

Sammy slowly sat up on the bed with Extreme exhaustion to looked around the room he was in. The walls were painted a pale blue and the floors were your typical white polished floor. It looked like any hospital but one from a sci fi movie. There was Technology Sammy has never seen before and has no idea what it is or how it’s use. Ones with big screens and buttons.

Just then a knock came from the door, making Sammy jump a bit and a nurse opened the door with a small smile, walking in. “Hello Mr. Lawrence. I’m glad to see your awake.” She held out hand as she introduced herself. “I’m nurse Beth. I’ll be taking care of you in here.”

Sammy took hold of her hand and shook it. “Thank you.” He replied. “I uh...I’m confused...what happened? How did we get out?...what ...what year is it” he asked as more and more questions start to form.

The nurse sat beside him and sat her clipboard next to her. “We’re not supposed to tell you guys everything right when you come to. It’s going to be broken in parts but I promise you. All your questions will be answered.” She relieved him. “But I am allowed to say you and your friends our at a government base and you guys are all free. Your old coworker Henry Stein came to us and told what Joey drew was doing. You are all safe now.”

Henry stein? Joey drew? His friends. Sammy hadn’t thought about them in so long and now his heart acted. He remembers Norman and the amazing guy he was. But he also remembered Joey. Joey was also a great guy before he lost his mind to the darkness. He missed both of them and badly wants to see them. “Can I see m-my friends?” He asked the nurse.

Nurse Beth nodded her head. “Yes. You may in a bit. I need to give you your daily check up first.”

Through out his check up, nurse Ann explained they would be here for a few weeks to watch and see how they would respond after being ink creatures for so long

and will be helped getting back into civilization with a new job and a home. She told him there be daily health checks in the morning and classes to understand the would now days.

After the check up, nurse Beth lead Sammy down the hallway to the wing where he and his friends would be staying at. “There’s access to a cafeteria for y’all and a tv room with games and books so y’all don’t get bored.” She informed him as she punches the code in for the wing.” Your room is Numble 20.”

“Thank you.” Sammy replied as he walked in. She nodded and closed it behind him. Sammy was on his own know.

There was chatter from down the hall. Some of the voices he recognized. Like Susie’s Jack’s and Norman’s he couldn’t wait to meet them again. He hoped they didn’t have no hard feelings from his role he unwillingly played in all this. However when he rounded the corner they all went silent pretty fast when they one by one noticed him. Sammy could see ether hatred or disappointment in each of their eyes. Norman’s hurt the worst. Sammy quickly got the hint we wasn’t welcome and left to find his room.

He sat in his bed staring at the green wall for some hours before a few security guards came to checked their wing. Sammy overheard one of them talking about Joey to his partner as they passed his room. “The psycho was placed in wing E.” Sammy Heard.

It got Sammy thinking again of their good times before. Joey was such a funny and sweet guy back then, handsome too. He spoiled Sammy with fancy dinners and parties as well as taught Sammy the wonders of magic and occult. It was fun and safe at first, but once Joey got the taste of the darkness is when everything changed. The abuse started, madness and control took over his mind and by then it was far to late to leave everything.

He wondered if Joey was still like that or like the way he use to be. He wanted to take the chance and see him. He stopped the security guard before they left the wing. “Can I see Joey Drew. Just once.” The guard didn’t laugh but looked at him like he was insane. “I know it’s crazy. But please just one time.”

The guard signed in hopelessness for the lost man. “I’ll ask and see if you two can meet.” With that the guard left though the wing doors.

———-

After receiving his check up the next morning, the same guard as before meet him out in the hallway. “Come with me.” He said right as Sammy stepped out. Sammy did so. They walked out the doors to the wing and down hallways, went further down an elevator and came to a new wing. The E wing.

This one was more Secure. The door here was metal and had an automatic lock that would lock it self if an alarm went off.

There was two guards station at the door to in case something went wrong. His guard had his ID checked and a minute later they both were though and heading down that hallway. The guard stopped at one of the meetings rooms and unlocked it. “You two have an hour.” Sammy nodded stepping though. His heart skipped a beat when he saw Joey sitting at one of the tables. One where their breakfast sat waiting.

He was much older unlike them. Of course he was he had been out in the real world growing older. Sammy could see the exhaustion in his face when he looked up at him. He was old and tired. Hair turned gray and wrinkly skin. Sammy realizes he doesn’t have much time left on this earth and this was likely the last time he would see him.

“It’s uh..nice to see you again.” Joey said to fill the silence between them. “ please...have a seat.” He offered and Sammy took it.

“Why?” Sammy ask, ignoring joeys attempt at welcoming. “Why did you ever let yourself get this mad? To start abusing me? To force me to hurt the others and putting us all in that hell?” He ask.

Joeys face turned to guilt and shame then. “I...I had a dream.” He answered Sammy’s question and continued. “That dream lead to magic so I could bring that dream to life which that lead to dark magic which corrupted me.” He sighed, disappointing in himself. “I shouldn’t had let it took me to a dark path, Sammy I am so sorry. If I could go back and changed everything I would.” He buried his head in his hands. “None of y’all deserved that. And you didn’t deserve the abuse I did. I’m really an sorry and I hope you can forgive me enough to enjoy one meal together?”

Sammy thought of this for a moment. He does seem genuine sorry and Is in his last days. He also missed these things they did together as well. Sammy nodded and smiled at Joey. “Let’s share one last meal together.” He replied and switched seats next to Joey. “And. It’s good to see you to”

[inkabelledesigns]

Where does Bendy in Nightmare Run fit into the Bendy Universe?

Let me ask you this: does anyone else find it odd that we don’t see any of the content from Bendy in Nightmare Run within the Crack-Up Comics? Like the game has four great bosses, three standard enemies, and a bunch of costumes, and not ONCE do they make another appearance (save for one Easter egg of Chester in BATIM’s Chapter 5). We got parallels to our Chapters 3 and 4 enemies with Cameraman/Projectionist, Miss Twisted/Twisted Alice, and Brute/Brute Boris, but like, absolutely nothing from the game that arguably has more toons in it than the source material it’s based on. I know not a lot of people think about Nightmare Run anymore (hell, it’s only on my radar because I still log in everyday for the soup), but I feel like there should’ve at least been a nod to it there.

And that got me thinking: Souper Boris deals with radioactive bacon soup, right? And it’s teased at the end that Alice gets some too, right? Humor me here: is it possible that Canoodle is also a result of that radioactive soup? I mean this is a cartoon world, I don’t think it’d be much of a stretch to say that “radioactive” could serve as an explanation for a soup can becoming sentient, nor growing to a massive height. I can already picture the story, he was the can that wasn’t bought, got stuck in the back and never saw the light of day, so he had time to be brought to life, as opposed to other produce that was opened too quickly for that to happen. Maybe he passed his expiration date, got thrown away, ended up at the dump and made it his home. Who’s to say? 

Though then again, is Canoodle’s stage a junkyard, or a graveyard? And how does that change things?

https://twitter.com/BendyRun/status/1049237972288266241 

https://twitter.com/BendyRun/status/1038426739435655168 

I was looking around for Canoodle’s beef with Bendy (it’s that Bendy trespassed on his property and didn’t leave), and I stumbled upon this from the promotional material for the game. I thought Canoodle’s stage was a junkyard this whole time, you’re telling me it’s a graveyard? Well hang on a moment. The game was released in August of 2018, and both of these tweets are from September of 2018. All the other posts with the bosses for the initial marketing make sense within the context of their stage, but Canoodle’s is inconsistent. Everywhere else, he’s listed as living in a junkyard. So why then, is it called a graveyard here? 

So I loaded up the game real quick and played through the first act. Still looks like a junkyard to me. But then THIS happened.

My phone is a bit slow (as is my reaction time) so I couldn’t get a clear screenshot, but the other side of this barrel has a radioactive waste symbol on it. You see where I’m going with this? I predict Canoodle has some kind of link with the content we saw in the Souper Boris comic, it makes too much sense for it to be the same radioactive soup. The promotional material referring to this space as a graveyard could be insight into how Canoodle feels about it. I mean if you were a piece of trash that got thrown away, wouldn’t you feel like the scrapyard was your final resting place? Much like the studio is hell itself for its inhabitants, Canoodle’s “home” is here. 

But that leads to the question that I’ve had about Nightmare Run for a while: where in the timeline does it fall? And that’s a really difficult question to answer, because there’s two timelines we need to talk about: the real world of JDS, and the fictional world of the cartoons and comics. And in truth, I don’t have a good answer for it. I think the logical place for it to be is somewhere after the Souper Boris comic, meaning if it’s part of a story told in some kind of Bendy media, it’s gotta be after or alongside the period of 1936-1940. 

The thing is, we don’t really know what Nightmare Run IS within this universe, and that’s the bigger question to answer. Sure, here and now in our reality, it’s a mobile game, just as Bendy and the Ink Machine and Boris and the Dark Survival are games, but mobile games didn’t exist back then. There’s also that weird callback to Joey’s whole shtick about “there’s something I need to show you” when you first boot up the game. What is this trying to tell us? What IS Nightmare Run? For us it’s a game, but what is it to the studio employees? What is it to the cartoons? What is it to Joey? There are lots of things we could make of this, but my mind goes to a few places. We could say that it’s just a game that has no bearing on the story. We could say that Joey was ahead of his time, or that maybe Nathan did some development with the JDS property that permeated the modern era. We could say that this was a series of shorts or cartoons where Bendy and friends are having weird dreams.

Or we could turn to what The Illusion of Living tells us about Bendyland and Sillyvision. I haven’t given you all my thoughts on the book yet (I really should, because damn did it rock), but one thing I found fascinating was the look into Bendyland and Joey’s conversations with Bertrum Piedmont. We learn what Joey’s plans were for the park, that each section was meant to represent aspects of each of his core characters. I can absolutely see Nightmare Run fitting in as an attraction for Dark World, Bendy’s area of the park. Think of it like Disney’s animatronic dark rides, like Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, or one of the things I miss, Disney Quest. If you’re not familiar with Disney Quest, it was a five floor arcade that lived within Disney Springs (then called Downtown Disney). It’s since been replaced by an ESPN attraction, but when it was still there, it had all kinds of stuff. Early forms of VR (that were nauseating to play with those heavy helmets), lots of old arcade machines, and newer technology that blended virtual and physical gameplay together, like the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction that had you shooting cannonballs at a virtual screen (or Toy Story Midway Mania, if you want a more common comparison). 

But this was the 40s, technology for this kind of thing wouldn’t exist, right? And that’s where I turn to Sillyvision, Joey’s special process of editing the inks on the animation cells. Combine that with the advanced technology of harnessing living ink’s properties that Gent had going on, and you have yourself some plausible ways to create an attraction where guests can help Bendy (or be in his shoes) to run from some not-so-friendly faces. It doesn’t sound too far fetched for this universe, and given this man was working on “living cartoons” for the purpose of folks being able to meet them in the park, I wouldn’t put it past him to try this too. It still leaves some questions as to what content Canoodle and friends came from within the universe (were they in a cartoon or comic, or were they made specifically for an attraction?), but one thing is for sure: there’s possibilities. Besides that, we still never got an explanation as to what that hand is in the game. 

If you tap the hand on the top of the screen there, it opens and closes, but we still have no idea what it does or who it belongs to. It’s 2021, and we still haven’t cracked it! It could be Bendy’s or Boris’ hand (not Alice though, doesn’t have a circle in the palm), or it could be someone else’s. I don’t know. All I know is that I’m probably thinking too hard about this. X’’’D And I’m okay with that. I’d like to revisit Nightmare Run again, I have some thoughts about our enemy characters (Krawl, Stickle, and Gwen), but that’ll be for later. X’’’D I was gonna post cute headcanons about Sammy today and somehow ended up here, what is my life?

[nayialovecat]

SATIM's B-day - Day 7 - Sammy

Today Theme: The beginning of the fascination with Sammy.

Bonus: Timeline and alternate AUs.

So the comic is two years old since I drew the first strip. I can quite accurately trace where my fascination with BATIM began (from the song "Welcome Home" with a wonderful animation performed by SquigglyDigg). I have a bigger problem figuring out when and how my fascination with Sammy began. I know for sure that at first I was not attracted to the game itself, but to its idea - a cartoonist returning to the Studio after many years, where live abominations based on the characters he created. I even started writing my own version of the story which had evolved into something else entirely.

I guess the next step was to read a little more about the game and watch other songs. I think that's what it looked like - and there were a lot of songs in the BATIM fandom back then. I know one thing - I didn't come across any song dedicated directly to Sammy then - I wasn't listening to "Can I get an Amen" or any other song specifically about Sammy. But somehow I had to find Sammy in one of the others - I personally suspect "Gospel of Dismay", where Sammy has a wonderful vocal part. Or maybe just reading the chapter descriptions, I read about a fanatic who is trying to sacrifice our character to Bendy? I don't know. I know it ultimately came down to watching the cutscene from chapter two - and I just fell in love with the character. In his gestures, voice, manner of speaking, motivations...

Don't get me wrong. In real life, I hate religious fanatics. I don't like people who hurt others, especially when they do it in the name of an idea or someone they believe in. But in literature, movies or games, these are the characters that fascinate me, I love them. That is why one of my favorite characters from all stories about vampires, werewolves or similar - remains Renfield from "Dracula" by Bram Stoker. I also love the master and servant theme - this is one of the most common themes in my stories or comics (next to the theme of an absent father or a noble criminal).

So I got fascinated by Sammy. So much so that I decided to buy the game only to be able to play Chapter 2 and experience the cutscene in person. When I finally came across BATIM on the promotion (I think it was in the Black Friday sale on Steam, because I played it on November 30) and started playing it, for a long time, Chapter 2 was the end of the game for me. I wasn't particularly concerned about what was next, and I was too scared of free-walking Bendy in Chapter 3. I was also reading the information and watching the gameplay on the gameplay, and I honestly didn't like what I saw there. The Butcher Gang seemed terribly overcomplicated to me. I hated angel bitch giving us some stupid quests and threatening to kill us. And when I saw the character of Bertrum or Brute Boris, at first I had such "WTF, what is it, why did they continue to fuck this game so much?". Oh yeah, it took a long time to play the rest of game. Even more time to like Bertrum (who is one of my favorite characters right now, irony). In fact, the only motivation for me to finally move on was the information that in chapter 5 we meet Sammy again. My suffering going through Chapter 3 and the screams of "WHY I DO THIS TO MYSELF" was accompanied by the reminder, "For Sammy, it's Sammy in Chapter 5." Seriously XD

There was one more thing, an important factor that made me like Sammy and I decided to focus on his character. It struck me that Sammy (it seemed to me then) was not particularly well-liked. I found relatively few comic books with him in the lead role, very few songs dedicated to him (as I say: I did not come across my currently favorite "Can I get an Amen" or "Underground", or any other in which Sammy is the main character). I think that might also be the factor that I said "okay, so I'm going to focus on him in the fandom". Honestly, that's my fandom tactic. I don't like being a fan of popular characters or even more of the main characters - as a rule, I choose a less popular character, from the background - and focus on her/him. He/she's often evil (e.g. in MLP - it is Discord - I love chaotic characters with a dark past; while in Hellsing I adored Shroedinger, but I was a bit irritated by his role in the last volume of the comic, and Rip van Winkle, which is still today my favourite heroine of the whole plot; in Pokemon - Mewtwo or Koga, which I liked after reading the Pokemon Special manga; and finally in Xiaolin Showdown - I was in love with Chase Young) or just a background hero (in my beloved Usagi Yojimbo - I'm a huge fan of Shingen, the leader of the Neko Ninja clan, who, due to his rather quick death, only appears in several volumes of the comic books, in Samurai Jack my favourite heroes are Scotsman and the Imakandi Hunters, although this series is an exception - 'cause Jack himself is also my favourite character). So here I targeted Sammy and the first thing I decided to do in the fandom, I wrote a song for him.

"Sammy's Lullaby" is a piece that was created the day before the script for the "Radio" strip and two days before the drawing of the comic started - which means that it's waiting more than two years to be recorded. I really, really wanted to record it for you as a bonus for today - unfortunately, three days ago I got sick and practically lost my voice (I'm so hoarse) so I am not able to do it. What a bad luck and irony. So you probably won't get it until my birthday on December 31st, especially since I have a problem with making music (the problem is that I can't make music X'D and Titatotrix who can do this - didn't find a good program that would allow her to conveniently create a piece played on a piano; maybe you know some good, free program to making music?...).

Anyway... today, as a bonus, I decided to use my "backup plan", i.e. post something that I was supposed to give you for my birthday on New Year's Eve. It's a list of how many separate timelines are currently in SATIM, aka different AUs coming out of SATIM. Because there is many of them and not everyone thinks they are a separate AUs X”D

However, I would like to put at the very end here a fragment of the text from my lullaby, this is the first verse... I am personally very proud of the text (this song is my first poem written in a language other than Polish and I'm really, really proud of it).

„In the darkness You will see, Your sacrifice will set us free. Hush, hush, now my little sheep. Your sweet blood is what we need.”

So don't be surprised that today's final question and assignment is about sheep. Here they are!

QUESTION: How many times did the word "sheep" appear on the walls of the studio at SATIM (not counting the posters)? Enter the number of strips (count only numbered strips, not Specials i.e. for Mother Day or the Ink Demonth).

TASK: Come up with your own sheep-related slogan that Sammy could write on the wall.

[theepsizet]

Let’s talk about Allison and Tom

There’s been a discussion regarding these two characters: an Alice and her Boris and there’s also been a lot of theories regarding them and/or their identities. So this post is basically me slapping my thoughts on the table. And here it is:

Allison Angel and Tom!Boris are in fact Allison Pendle and Thomas Connor. But you can’t take everything about them presented in BATIM for granted.

This theory first came from this video by MatPat, whose main subject was to discuss Henry and even had good backing reasoning/evidence for his status and what-he-is in-game. He also mentions how Allison and Tom’s names aren’t on coffins and therefore can’t be Allison Pendle and Thomas Connor. If anything, they’re actually soulless; Joey was unable to get their souls.

First problem: MatPat completely glosses over a detail confirmed by Joey in Chapter 5 from this audio log:

“Listen Tommy, I know you boys over at Gent are doing your best, but I'm paying for living attractions, not weird abominations! Whatever that grinning thing was I saw wandering around your office, you better keep it locked up tight! I realize it was a first attempt but imagine if the press caught sight of it! Might scare off investors! And in response to your previous memo: If you claim your failures are because these things are soulless, then, damn it, we'll get them a soul! After all, I own thousands of 'em!”

Did you get that? The reason Ink Bendy is off-model is because he doesn’t possess a soul. If they were soulless, Allison and Tom would look... pretty demonic. But they’re not; they’re on-model, resembling their cartoon counterparts near-perfectly (the biggest difference is, of course, their attire such as Allison’s ponytail and dress and Tom’s robotic arm)

Second problem: He never explains why their names are Allison Angel and Tom. MatPat doesn’t elaborate on this fact and just calls them that and moves on with the video.

So, my take. The game files reveal unused secret messages, and these messages do in fact reveal that Allison and Tom’s names are absent; confirming that they don’t have coffins:

(originally posted by thedreamfisher)

So, they’re alive, right? Well...

In Chapter 4 there’s an audio log labeled “Untitled”. The entire audio log is just somebody gruesomely transforming into an ink monster, most likely a searcher if one goes off of the moaning. According to the game files, its Grant Cohen. Not to mention, in the first BATDR gameplay trailer, look what happens to Audrey’s hand when she uses her power:

(originally posted by thedreamfisher)

When Audrey uses her power, her hand changes. It literally turns into ink. Both these scenarios confirm that killing people and stuffing their souls through a machine isn’t the only way to reincarnate people as living cartoons. My theory is that at some point, Allison Connor exchanged enough letters with Joey that he could convince her and Thomas to return to the studio. Similar to Henry, they became so exposed to the ink that it literally transformed them into perfect toons. They were then reborn from the ink produced by the Giant Machine (we’ll get back to this). The dark truth is that, Allison Angel and Tom!Boris are Joey’s best outcomes from his experiment. Not to mention, Allison says this to Henry:

“I... I honestly don't know my name. So they call me Alice.”

“He [Tom] just seems to respond to it [his name].”

It’s a fact that the ink corrupts the mind. Sammy’s Hot Topic Q&A confirms that his memory deteriorated, and considering that these answers come from when Sammy is The Prophet, it wouldn’t be too unlikely to conclude that the ink did this to him. So, when Allison and Tom were reborn, the ink corrupted their minds so much they basically became amnesiac.

Speaking of reborn, notice what Allison says when talking about the ink in general and why she can’t come with Henry for the final battle:

“...you don't want to touch the ink for too long. It can claim you, pull you back.”

“We can't! We're not like you, Henry. If we go in there, well... a drop of water in the ocean is never seen again.”

It wouldn’t be surprising that they were born out of the bigger ink machine (and we have now officially come back to this). Given its size, the smaller one — the actual one, the one that — wouldn’t be able to produce enough ink to fill entire caverns (the underground levels). It also makes a lot of sense given the context: too much ink would make them unable to fight back, and too little wouldn’t do much effect at all. Both would literally become a drop of water in the ocean if they went with Henry. Not to mention that the first phrase is similar to part of Twisted Alice’s monologue when Henry enters her lair:

“Take this little freak for instance! He crawled in here... trailing his tainted ink to my door! It could have touched me! It could have pulled me back! Do you know what it's like? Living in the dark puddles? It's a buzzing, screaming well of voices! Bits of your mind, swimming like, like fish in a bowl! The first time I was born from its' inky womb, I was a wriggling, pussing, shapeless slug. The second time... well... it made me an angel! I will not let the demon touch me again.”

Now, here’s what I mean when I say you can’t take every word of there’s for granted. The truth is that it’s entirely clear what their motivations and there are several instances where things seem highly suspicious regarding these two:

In Allison and Tom’s hideout, Allison’s graffiti contains a list of levels that are crossed out. If one reviews the cutscene at the beginning of the chapter, it is revelated that throughout Henry’s time as prisoner, the levels are listed and then crossed out, as well as more of her drawings being inscribed onto the walls. It’s almost like they’re looking for something

There’s, weirdly enough, graffiti of the Seeing Tool outside the Administration Lobby. Were they done in that level before? If not, why is it there?

Considering that both of them are pretty experienced around the studio (Allison does know what the Lost Harbor is, and is a professional swordsmaster), Allison doesn’t even use her sword to slice off the boards of the prison cell door. Tom even has an axe and doesn’t do anything.

Tom starts off completely distrustful and treating Henry through spite. He almost immediately becomes part of Henry’s side.

Allison asks Henry to lead the way down the floorless hall. Even after she calls out his name, she doesn’t really grab on top him; she just let’s him fall (although this statement is confusing on its own as Henry falls way to fast for him to look up and see their reactions; its probably not even possible to see their reactions without hacking)

(originally posted on this page and this page of the Bendy wiki)

@thedreamfisher​ suggests that they could be manipulating Henry. and to be honest, yeah... that’s exactly what they’re doing. Why they’re doing it, though, is difficult to pin down, but my theory — yes, that is the theory part — is maybe because of one obvious fact: Henry isn’t like them at all. Allison even says this is why she and Tom can’t really trust them, and Twisted Alice confirms he’s “so interesting... so different...”. Compare this to the way Allison talks to Audrey in the BATDR trailers (this and this). She’s a lot more open, honest, more like a mentor and willing to tell her a lot more than she would to Henry, possibly because she resembles that of a lost one (why Henry’s avatar is completely invisible when hacking and what is a subject to debate for another time).

Allison knows Henry is different and may be manipulating Henry because she wants to turn off the machine. Tom too. Why do you think she calls him “the hope [she’s] been waiting for” and tells him that he “[can] set [them] free”. But, here’s the catch: this doesn’t make them bad. There’s been a number of theories that they’re bad people, but this manipulation only shows they have good intentions; if anything, they’re more of the most basic, generic definition of antihero.

And this makes even more sense when the conversation between Buddy Lewek, Allison Pendle, and Thomas Connor is reviewed in Chapter. It’s a lot of dialogue, and I’m not going to copy and paste the entire thing, but the most important anecdotes is that they hint to have more knowledge of the machine and its functions than the average employee. They also imply two things: they seem to be aware of Susie’s fate (most likely what happened after Joey gave her an offer hinted in audio logs in Chapter 4 and 5) and that they can’t stop Joey at all. It’s hinted by Allison that she and Tom both needed the job, and that they committed to his decisions because of the pay. Tom mentions how Joey treated him well, and Joey claims from a memo to clipped in the Joey Drew Studios Employee Handbook that he’s fascinated by Allison and her personality.

So... yeah. That’s it. Feel free to comment.

(One-finale note: The idea/credit of Allison and Tom being born out of the bigger ink machine and the manipulation aspect all goes to thedreamfisher. Do not give me credit for this idea) 

[mwolf0epsilon]

Do you have any bendy and the ink machine headcanons?

Boy Anon, do I ever! A lot of them are still under the works, so I'll focus on the characters that I've thought most about.

Joey, Henry, Sammy and Norman.

---

[[MORE]]

--Joey Drew--

Came from a heavily Catholic and strict family that wanted him to either pursue a career in medicine or law. He had a rough time getting along with his family since they didn't encourage his creativity, and the religious beliefs they force-fed him from an early age had a bit of an impact on the themes he had an interest in.

Due to his background and bizarre interests Joey was a bit of a loner and misfit as a kid. Henry Stein was his only true friend since childhood, so Joey was a little protective of him. This protectiveness became an unhealthy possessiveness as they grew up.

He and Henry actually started the studios in their early thirties. Both were job hoppers for a while, adrift and unfulfilled. Once Joey figured out how to use their combined skills and creativity to make a profit, the nightmare that was Joey Drew Studios came into being.

Joey rejected Bendy's original design because he saw demons as entities of mischief and misfortune. The more cutesy kind smile simply didn't convey the chaotic energy Joey associated with such beings. Boris was also reworked to go from a naked intelligent wolf to a goofier/dumber one wearing overalls. Henry wasn't particularly happy with either change but went with it to please his friend.

Alice Angel and the Butcher Gang were also designed by Henry, but Joey disliked the idea of adding a female counterpart to the show, and wasn't particularly fond of the much nicer original concepts of Charley, Barley and Edgar. He would alter the concepts later on to better fit the themes he employed in the show.

Initially they worked alone but, when they began working on Boris' debut episode, Joey realized they needed something to add a certain flair to their work: Music and better filmwork. In a matter of weeks a team of two became a team of four with the hiring of Samuel Lawrence and Norman Polk.

Ever since Linda started dating Henry, Joey began feeling like his best pal wasn't giving 100% to the studio (and to Joey himself). As such he began to give Henry more and more work to ensure he devoted his attention to the cartoons. This ultimately lead to Henry quitting.

Joey was angry when Henry married Linda, thinking his friend had chosen "some girl" over their bond. He refused to go to their wedding due to this "betrayal" and has held a grudge since.

During the rise and decline of the studio, Joey went from charming his way out of trouble and into people's hearts, to downright criminally manipulative. The employees that managed to quit, often found themselves blacklisted from the work market, and those who stayed knew Joey could destroy them with the right words. It's why so many stayed in the end...

When the Ink Machine didn't work the way he wanted and he found himself stuck with the responsibility of fixing what he'd done, there had been a fraction of a chance for redemption on Joey's part. Joey considered giving his soul to the Ink Demon so it'd end the nightmare for good. However upon finding the wedding invitation Henry had sent him all those years ago, Joey had a change of heart for the worst. After all what soul could be better to fix the demon, than that of its original creator?

--Henry Stein--

Henry Stein didn't know what he was getting himself into when he met and befriended Joey Drew. He'd always been the soft-spoken friendlier of the two, so their dynamic as friends was pretty well rounded up, until Joey became obcessed with becoming successful, as well as his overprotective nature slowly evolving into a controlling possessiveness.

Henry came from a pretty average family. They weren't exactly well-off but there was never a day or night without food on the table. He grew up aware of the value of money and how to spend it wisely, a skill he never got to employ at the studio because Joey had full control of finances. He had a feeling the studio was doomed to flop and was actually quite surprised to hear it chugging along "just fine" after he'd left. The various scandals didn't surprise him.

Henry was a little hurt when Joey declined his invitation to his and Linda's wedding, but he assumed his childhood friend would get over it. He was terribly wrong.

His original concepts for Bendy and Co. were of a cute little devil trying to do good to ascend to heaven, a fatherly wolf that would help the little devil darling, an angel sent to test the devil's intentions as a moral compass, and a trio of friends that would often be a part of Bendy's various trials. Joey's redesigns and reworks of their roles never really agreed with him, especially when he made the kind Charley, amicable Barley, and playful Edgar into villains.

He was drafted to fight in the war and came back with a slightly paralyzed face. He's ashamed of the slightly permanent lopsided smile on his face, as he always thought of it as an ugly smirk and a reminder of things he'd much rather like to forget. His vision was also slightly damaged so he wears very thick glasses, and he has a slight limp.

Joey's letter gave him hope for rekindling their broken friendship. He really thought Joey had finally come around and given up on his childish grudge. He was horrifically mistaken.

Henry is 67 in-game. Coupled with his injuries from the war and you get an old tired man that can neither run fast or see too well. His stubbornness is the only thing keeping him alive and going, that and his desire to return to his wife and kids.

--Samuel Lawrence--

He was raised in the South by his very strict Catholic father, and his kindly mother. He ended up moving to the big city with his father at age 11, after his mother died of tuberculosis. His mother having been the kinder and more patient parent meant that Sammy didn't have much of a good influence growing up, as his father wasn't particularly abusive but had strongly bigoted views that rubbed off on him. His father remarried when Sammy was 24 and, although he had a strong dislike for his step-mother, he tried to be patient with her as per his father's wishes. This dislike grew into animosity when she'd berate him for the smallest things, like calling him a sissy for pursuing a musical career, or even the way he kept his hair. He was upset when she became pregnant with his younger step-sister, feeling like he'd be dragged into providing for his aging father, witch of a step-mother and a kid he might not even get along with.

Sammy was genuinely upset when his father passed away, as it meant he'd lost who he considered to be his true family. He was forced to spend more time with his step-mother, and often cared for his little sister as a result (growing very fond of her in the end). When his step-mother died in a freak accident, Sammy became his sister's official caregiver. A chore he felt had been forced upon him, but that he took on nontheless because he didn't feel right just dumping a two year old into an orphanage. It was the need to provide for himself and a baby that ultimately lead to him falling into Joey Drew's clutches.

Originally there were three other candidates for his position at the studio. Sammy was picked due to being younger and easier to manipulate.

Although not the easiest person to get along with, Sammy could be respectful when he tried. His upbringing made it very difficult to look past race and sexuality, but later on as his sister grew up she urged him to try being nicer to other people. This ultimately began to fail when the studio began to descend into madness, especially around the time Buddy was hired.

For his sister's seventh birthday Sammy made an odd request to one Shawn Flynn. He wanted to gift her a Bendy doll that didn't have the unnerving grin painted on. Shawn provided him with a doll that was a blend of Bendy and Boris, which Sammy's sister named Seamus the Singing Demon. That little doll's odd composition stuck with him, even if he can no longer remember it...

He had a very strange relationship with Norman Polk as a result of working closely with him. They weren't exactly friends, but one couldn't exactly call them enemies either. Sammy's upbringing made him unjustly ruder towards the older man, and Norman's own odd behaviour made him hard to trust. At the end of the day they had a sort of fragile respect for one another's work. This respect couldn't save Norman from his terrible fate however...

He knew Henry for less than a year but he respected his fellow content creator. Later on Sammy often wondered if the co-founder wouldn't have been the one more worthy of keeping the studio afloat.

His romance with Susie Campbell was genuinely beautiful. At first he found her cheery disposition to be annoying, but her respect and kindness towards him eventually grew on him. His affection towards her was noticeable in comparison to how he treated others, and Joey knew to exploit it later on. When Susie left, the already stressed and overworked Sammy was left further distraught and vulnerable due to his personal life slowly getting messed up as well.

Sammy's transformation can be considered an outlier within the twisted studio. He wasn't put through the Ink Machine like the others, having instead ingested the corrupted ink in a freak accident. The amount he swallowed wasn't enough to transform him, but it was just enough to alter his mindset like a parasite. At the urging on the ink he took to consuming more and more of it, until he transformed into an abomination that was neither man nor toon. If any of the studio's workers could have their changes reversed, Sammy is a good candidate as, perhaps, one could purge the tainted ink from his system.

Sammy has very rare moments of lucidity which he spends trying to recall his fading memories. This often leads to him reverting back more quickly because his inability to focus on them distressed him enough that he falls back into the ink's grasp.

Sammy doesn't eat the soup he stockpiles, even if he craves it. He can't stomach regular food anymore, as it upsets his inky stomach. If he were to try he'd end up getting violently sick. The contrary can be said for ink however, and he sustains himself on the stuff. His memory issues and loss of identity are likely linked the the copious amounts of ink he's still consuming on a daily basis. He's the easiest person for the ink to control.

--Norman Polk--

Norman liked to consider himself a lucky guy. He grew up in a pretty poor neighbourhood and had to scrape by to get his education. He was a clever individual and often considered a bright man. With enough hard work he felt like he made his relatives in Louisiana proud. Turns out Joey Drew didn't like bright individuals...

As one the oldest member of staff (he was 46 when he started working at the studio) he was often the voice of reason in the earlier days, alongside Henry. Most of the newer staff didn't mind him at first, but when Norman's odder behaviours became more noticeable people started finding him either creepy or hard to trust.

He butted heads with Sammy several times, disliking the younger man's racist comments towards him. Being forced to work together so closely and a little outside urging helped them kinda resolve that tension. But their truce was a fragile one that amounted to nothing when Sammy was driven insane by the ink.

He was married and had a daughter. In the current game timeline he has several grandkids. He also has several nieces and nephews, one of which is friends with Sammy's sister (much to the latter's initial dislike).

Out of the first core team, Norman considered Henry a friend, had a weird feeling about Joey, and bickered heavily with Sammy. Later on he grew to enjoy Wally's mischievous personality, Shawn's rambunctious self, Susie's sweet disposition, Jack's skittishness and Buddy's friendliness. He felt like he failed them when the studio went to hell.

As the Projectionist Norman is deaf and visually impaired, needing his light to see movement. He used to be able to talk with the speaker on his chest, but his screams for help eventually short-circuited it. Early on he wasn't aggressive towards other creatures, which proved to be an exploitable weakness. He became uncontrollably aggressive out of fear and being a constant target of other monsters.

Before the Ink Demon kills him in every cycle, Norman recognizes Henry inside the Little Miracle station.

[halfusek]

Hello, question concerning your Amazon Abomination comic Verse: What do you would have happened, if Henry stayed? I don't think it would've changes mich in the whole creating live thing and Joeys growing Obsession with it, but what would've happened to Henry?

Lemme clear something up - Abomination is nothing else but an interpretation of what in my opinion has happened in the studio. In the beginning, I wanted to make it a thing focusing on Joey and Bendy only but then I started getting more and more ideas which made me figure out a way to tell the whole story (in the way I see it at least).

At first I wanted to shortly answer “there would be no Abomination lol” but then I gave it some thinking and… get ready for an essay:

What would happen if Henry didn’t leave the studio?

I believe we have an answer for this concerning just Henry himself in the game.And it’s not a pleasant one.

“Local Artist Pushed Himself Too Hard, Found Dead At Desk”. I mean that’s basically what staying would mean for Henry - pushing harder.

I don’t think this newspaper is telling us what happened to Henry Stein, I got that impression the moment I saw the headline, but after a while, I realised it doesn’t really… make sense.

The whole point of Joey and Henry choosing two different roads is that Joey held onto working and creating while Henry chose family over work. (Even though Henry showed some signs of workaholism, I think Linda could be the one helping him choose what’s right and better for him - I mean why even mention and focus on her at any moment if she wasn’t important in any way?)Does that make sense? Make this whole “Henry chose the right path and didn’t push himself too hard” just to say that he pushed himself too hard in the end? Yeah, no, I’m not buying that. I mean it could be true but not really satisfying to me.

So I think it’s just a “what if”. What if he stayed.He would overwork himself.And since he would choose work over family then maybe he would lose Linda in the process, maybe not but either way their relationship wouldn’t be doing well.

Now let’s do a small comparison.

To me, Henry seems like a sorta passive person, especially with his “just keep drawing”. Don’t question anything, just keep doing what you do.On the other hand, we have Joey who is like “just do whatever it is you do and trust me as your leader”.

This is… a really bad mix.Even worse when you take into consideration that they are friends. And you are willing to push yourself harder for someone like that. For a friend.

Since we already are going kind of against Henry’s character by assuming he wouldn’t leave, we might as well assume he wouldn’t really change the way he’s working. He would keep pushing, just as Joey wants him to and as an old man thinks would magically fix everything but… no, I honestly doubt that.

I don’t think studio’s successes/failures depended on Henry either, he was one amazing animator, we can surely give him that (it took a few people to replace him), but Joey still managed to (temporarily) succeed without him.

I honestly doubt the debt the studio was later in could be easily fixed by one person. Maybe Joey would listen to Henry more than other people (like Grant, his goddamn accountant), but the thing is that at some point they were successful and well things often rely on luck, economy and stuff like that, so many ideas could have seemed fine until things weren’t really fine. I mean Great Depression made some people really rich and some really poor, it was really tricky to make financial decisions.Plus - Henry is passive. He just keeps drawing.Joey believes Henry would push him to do the right thing, maybe he would try but then again - Henry ends up overworking himself, so in the end, it’s almost as if he just left.Can’t really push if you’re dead.

So we actually end up with a similar set up to what we have in the original story.

The only exception is that we could have a 6th labelled coffin. With Henry’s name on it. So it could somehow go even more unpleasant from now. How? Oh, it’s pretty simple:

…kind of. As Henry would die from overworking himself and wouldn’t be actually… killed. But still, there is something which I think is worth noting.

It seems to me as if the inkwell is associated with Henry. I mean if any of the items was associated with him, it would be this one and no one from the workers doesn’t really fit (except for Joey, but “The Illusion of Living” fits him waaay better for obvious reasons). Also, let’s assume here that the items are connected to actual workers because they could just represent something else, but in this interpretation, I take them this way. I think I should elaborate a bit on how I see it works, which I actually did include in Abomination:

I did some math. And I don’t like it.

We have 14 characters: Joey, Henry, Wally. Thomas, Sammy, Norman, Jack, Johnny, Susie, Allison, Shawn, Grant, Lacie, Bertrum.(I’m going to aggressively count Johnny even if it’s not his name because the organ moans in pain and there has got to be someone in it and I like things making sense in the game, even if it’s just a reference to something else.)

6.

12 (next to Norman’s and Grant’s there is an unlabeled coffin).

Another unlabeled one in that hallway after you exit Allison’s and Tom’s safehouse. So 13…

14.

Now, I’m not counting this one:

As it’s not a physical coffin, only a drawn one. It’s another symbol of death and death is connected to Henry a lot.

(The last one could be just referring to the ink as in the Ink Machine or to the inkwell, or maybe even to both, who knows.)

But the best/worst is:

The actual offering has a skull and crossed bones on it.Ink = death.Scythe being a “reward” for not dying a single time and killing everyone on your way. And activating all the flashbacks which help Henry realise he’s in a cartoonish loop. By entering the death tunnel on purpose. When Henry is most lucid.“You bring death”.And, heck, even him playing “The End” and setting everyone free (by playing “The End” and in some ways killing everyone in the studio) is something death-connected.

Whatever the symbolism is, let’s go with the inkwell being an offering connected to Henry’s soul.

Also, let’s go back to the number 14.

Workers with coffins: Norman, Grant, Bertrum, Lacie, Susie.

Workers with offerings: Henry (inkwell), Joey (book), Shawn (doll), Sammy (record), Thomas (gear), Wally (wrench).

Workers without labelled coffins nor offerings: Allison, Jack, Johnny.

Unlabeled coffins: 3.

What made me start thinking deeper about this is the fact that none of the workers has both a coffin and an offering.Also an interesting thing with how… corpses in the game act:

workers with coffins: Norman/The Projectionist, Susie/Alice - corpses don’t disappear (hard to tell what’s with Grant and Lacie as we can’t be sure of their fates and Bertrum is an octopus ride but his head doesn’t seem to go anywhere)

workers with offerings: Joey/The Ink Demon, Sammy/The Prophet, Wally/Boris - corpses sort of disintegrate/vanish? (except for Sammy in the searcher form but yeah he is a searcher which work differently, again we don’t know Shawn’s fate and Thomas/Tom didn’t die in-game)

the rest: Allison doesn’t die in-game, neither does Johnny (lmao imagine killing the organ) but Jack is crushed by a box and we can’t really tell what happens to his body but… his hat stays

other deaths: Searchers - they go back to the puddles, same with the Swollen Ones and the Lost Ones buuuuuuuuuuut!

the Butcher Gang - corpses don’t vanish but sort of? collapse? which is confusing (in a way Grant, Shawn and Lacie’s fates are so they aren’t necessarily crossed out of being at least some of the Butcher Gang members)

So the thing I think is that while not everyone was sacrificed, Joey still has some control over their souls. Or, if you please

owns.

And let me tell ya seeing as older, slightly more rationally thinking Joey still was playing with Henry’s soul making him go in an endless loop, leaves me with zero doubt that he would play with it 30 years earlier.I mean the inkwell has always been included in the packet. ;)And definitely Henry’s death would impact Joey, but I’m afraid…

…nothing good would come out of it.

[larrythecutelamb]

Facts found in Bendy: Dreams come to Life.

For those Bendy fans who haven’t realised just yet, there is a fictional book based on the game series Bendy and the Ink machine that you can now order from Amazon or possible any other website that sells books.

(WARNING: SPOILERS!!! If you haven’t read the book and want to find out for yourself, then please do not read this post! You have been warned!!!!)

I’m not ganna go into detail of what the book is about, but focus more on the facts that I got out of it. I’m not ganna lie, some of these facts were stuff we already knew long before, but at the same time there are some interesting things that may fill in some of the pieces.

First fact is who the first Boris from the game (you know, the one that Henry tried to save) really was. (MAJOR SPOILERS).

At the end of the book, it’s somewhat clear that the main character of the book, Buddy, has been turned into a copy of Boris. Now to be fair, there were many other copies of Boris before, so by now he could’ve been long dead in the game series, right? But then why was it that Alice (the deformed Alice) wanted this particular Boris so badly? She kept making out such a big deal that this Boris was very important for some reason and friendly towards Henry. This is another clue as somewhere in the story, Buddy learns about who Henry really was and his important role of the cartoon characters, Bendy, Boris and Alice, being sole creator while Joey Draw just seemed to make people assume he’s the one with the credit. Towards the end of the book, Buddy being in his new form runs away from Joey. Now i’m not entirely sure it’s clear if it really took place in the actual studio or just inside his head. I’m still a little confused by that. But according to the book, Buddy runs and hides in the studio as Boris and watches as Drew fires a bunch of people before possibly losing some of his memory. Now you must be wondering...why some of his memory? What does losing memory have to do with this? At the very end of the book, we see the last few lines of Buddy’s story become faded to give the audience an idea that his mind has finally caved in after some time. Later on in the game series, Boris seems to act friendly towards Henry and even acts concerned about him after the elevator crash. This could be a sign he still remembers a few things from his human life, like who Henry really is and his role in the studio. Like when you hear a familiar name or see something you haven’t for a long time suddenly clicks and memory re-services.

Examples of this are from Tom, Allison and Sammy.

When Sammy caught Henry and was preparing to sacrifice him to Bendy, he noticed for a second there was something familiar with him, only to get distracted by the ink demon.

The second example is the relationship between Tom and Allison. Alot of people probably already know this, but i’m just ganna say it anyway. At the end of the Bendy game, we see a letter written by Allison who’s now taken the same last name as Tom, indicating they got married at one point. Also, it’s made clear they are a couple in the book. In the game series, when Henry asks Allison “Why do you call him Tom?” she responds, “He responds to it”.

Therefore there is proof that some memory of the characters remain. So it could be possible that Buddy’s Boris recognised Henry by his name and understood who he really is and maybe decided to help him in the hopes of escape or restoring him back to himself. Who knows?

Another fact is probably the most interesting one. Joey Drew.

We all know Joey Drew had big ambitions and believed in making dreams come true. But at the same time....he’s a big player who plays with people’s mind.

If you thought this was obvious from the tapes in the game...then you haven’t read anything else just yet!

Joey Drew is the kind of guy that believes as long as he says what people around him want to hear, everything will fall into place and the investors will put their dimes into the company. Okay...well that’s nothing new! It’s something alot of big companies and animation studios tend to do for years. (*cough* Legends of Oz. Look up ElectricDragon505′d video of this. It’s very interesting).

Joey Drew was the kind of guy who liked to use his words and fake luxury lifestyle in the hope of scamming desperate people into making something out of an idea that’s just not picking up from the ground. In the book, he constantly shows of his supposed luxury lifestyle, explaining to the main character how he could end up like him and how he’s invested into big things happening, despite there being red flags! Throughout the story, there are constant little hints on how financially struggling the Studio really is and this proof to be true at the end of the Bendy game where if you look up on his wall of memories, there are some papers of a disclosure or late pay. Part of me wants to believe Joey was possible in that state where he was clinging onto whatever possible hope he had left of keeping his dream alive and didn’t want to look reality in the face. But then as the book goes past halfway...we are able to get a more clearer idea of who Joey really is.

Apparently Joey Stole Tom’s machine and fired him because he blames Tom for the monstrous Bendy form. Tom actually states according to one of his recordings that the reason that Bendy didn’t come out correct was because something was missing.

Keep that in mind for a moment as I continue writing the next part.

Towards the end of the book, Joey explains to Buddy that he actually lured Buddy into the studio because of his soul. His soul was perfect to be the toon’s host, therefore his Boris form was perfect.

Since Joey’s soul was possible corrupted or because he really had no love connected to the cartoons Henry made, it ended up festering inside the ink demon, making the monster Bendy an empty husk with no emotion.

The way I see it, whenever an artist put’s their heart and soul into their artwork or characters, there is an emotional attachment on the finish product. Even in the book, Buddy’s grandfather who was an artist explained that all the emotions, experiences and soul are put into the paintings. All the happiness, hurt, anger, love, joy, so on. And this is a very true fact!

For those who may have gone to an art gallery or study different styles of art, you will find a connection each art piece has to the artist. It can be something based on inspiration from an event, or because they felt something warm or cold when they saw what was in front of them. Art is about being expressive.

Henry made Bendy, Boris and Alice out of his love for the idea of making these characters and helping a good friend out. Therefore friendship and possible brotherhood was what went into the cartoons. But once Henry left, Joey became alone, bitter and empty inside. Also he never really showed the same kind of Love Henry put into making the toons. For Joey, it was never about enjoying the characters and watching them come to life. It was more about his success and having a grand lifestyle.

Think about it as this: A father that natures and loves their children will end up with happy children that will grow and develop into well off adults. But a father that chooses his cravings over his children and ends up neglecting them will end up having little to no emotional connection with them and thus the children will feel nothing for their father.

Overall, Joey Drew was nothing but an ambitious dreamer who lied, neglected and scammed. He really never cared for anyone else as he may have had for Henry and manipulated the helpless suckers into following his already damned plan.

These are the most interesting facts I picked up from the book and I hope you enjoyed reading this. This post did contain some spoilers, so if you read this before the book...your loss.

[subukunojess]

Someone Else’s Gloves

AO3 Link - FanFiction Link - DeviantArt Link

Bad Things Happen Bingo

@badthingshappenbingo

Trope/Prompt: Chained To A Bed

Fandom: Bendy And The Ink Machine

Main Character: Henry 

Triggers: Abuse mention, mild violence

Words: 3,172

Hey everyone! It’s been a while since I have written in a long time. This summer has become hectic for me and I hope to get a lot of writing done before my new fall semester. So, I would like to start out with my first entry for Bad Things Happen Bingo!

I requested a bingo card of 25 prompts filled with angst and I have decided on what stories to write for each prompt. 

For “Chained To A Bed”, I immediately came up with Henry being chained up to a bed during a nightmare because it seemed natural to me and I haven’t seen any BATIM fics for Bad Things Happen Bingo yet (I believe?). I went with it and it took a while, but this came out. 

About “Someone Else’s Gloves”: This is a part of a series for my AU called “Ink Gluttony” which is basically what happens when Joey makes a deal with a demon and Bendy is a demon of gluttony caught in the middle of chaos. This particular scene takes place between Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 of the game. Although the scene itself won’t be explored in the multi-chapter fanfiction “Ink Gluttony”, it will be explored in the prequel “The Real Demon”.

I tried my best with this and on a later date, I will put this through other media sources. Please tell me what you think and enjoy!

Henry laid on his cot, staring up at the ceiling until he became cross-eyed, forcing himself to close his eyes.

It was either a miracle or luck that he and Bendy came across Boris. If they hadn't, maybe the two would have succumbed to the madness of the studio or died trying to escape it. The wolf had immediately taken them to a bunker he was living in for a while now, complete with a kitchen, bathroom, storage room, and a clothing line to boot. Although Henry was wary at first, he was also grateful due to the current circumstances. It had been a few days since then and the three men spent the time so far recuperating and planning out their next course of action.

He couldn't help but worry about Bendy, however. Seeing the wolf's cheerful smile made toon's day as if seeing a lost old friend. Through the relieved facade of serene talks and the occasional card game, Henry was certain that Bendy was hiding something. At first, it was understandable. If Henry thought he were a living toon performer, he'd be more than shocked too if he suddenly remembered dark events in his past and met people that he once knew had completely changed. However, he couldn't help but feel that there was more to it. What exactly happened to the studio over the course of thirty years? Was it really Sammy, Jack, and the others back there or just an illusion? And what did the ink demon that he first met had to do with all this? Whatever the answer, Henry knew that he needed to rest his head first, so he left Boris and Bendy to spend some time together while he laid on his cot to nap. He had a feeling that this was his only chance of sleep. Before he knew it, Henry succumbed to the darkness of slumber.

  When Henry woke up, the first thing he noticed was his limbs were outstretched to every corner of his bed. They felt numb, most likely due to his sleeping position. He lifted his body to sit up when he was stopped short by a jingling force. He opened his eyes and once he adjusted to the candlelit darkness, he found his wrists and ankles wrapped in shackles attached to chains that hung around each bed post. The mattress he was on was old and sturdy. Did something kidnap him from the safehouse, he wondered.

The room he was in was empty save for a desk and a chair right near the door on the other side of the room, two candles glowing dimly on either side of the desk with the melting wax holding them in place, and a broken flowerpot.

Henry gasped and shook the chains against the bedposts, grunting and groaning. He had to get out of there. He had to go back to Boris and Bendy! He pulled the chains again. Instead of rust and creaking noises, the chains seemed in good condition. Before he could stop to think, the door opened and something squelched into the room. Henry glanced up to see a figure covered from head to toe in dripping ink, wearing nothing but a workman's overalls and only having glowing yellow eye sockets on their face.

"Sammy...?" He muttered as he squinted. His head started to buzz and pulse, his vision and mind getting splotchy with ink blots, but he was still able to make out most of his surroundings. The being walked into the room, closing the door behind them. Their eyes were furrowed in a cross and tired expression as they took out a handkerchief from their pocket and wiped their forehead. Putting the cloth away, they focused on Henry and sighed.

"You shouldn't have done that. What have you done?"

It wasn't Sammy.

At first, Henry didn't know anything about this being. It, no he, was wearing some sort of... uniform? And his voice seemed familiar. For some reason, the name 'Thomas' kept repeating in his mind. Before he could process this, he blurted out almost unconsciously.

"What have I done? What about you?! You joined in too! How were we supposed to know?!" Henry protested, shaking the chains in disbelief.

"You're the closest to Jay. You were supposed to stop 'em from doing something we'd all regret!" Thomas slammed his fist into the wall closest to him, the room almost shaking at the impact. "And now the rest of the studio is paying the price for it!"

The ink man groaned in frustration and exhaled deeply in an attempt to calm down. "Damn it, she said it was just between the staff! To see if we could all create a cartoon ourselves without Joey... and what did she do? She decides to show it to everybody and their mother!"

Henry's eyes widened. From his experience working with his co-worker and writer, he remembered Jay Kasper talking about their dreams of creating a cartoon and getting public credit for it. They knew that it takes time for that to happen and with Joey Drew, you take what you get most of the time. When Henry left, Jay understood and seemed okay with it. What caused her to change her mind and react years after? Judging by Connor's reaction and information, it sounded like this cartoon was completely different than the ones either Joey or even the original team had come up with.

Henry didn't know whether this it was a dream due to the stress or a hallucination due to inhaling ink fumes. He wanted to convince himself not to pay any mind and ask for help, but he couldn't. Even if it were fantasy, this was close to direct information he could possibly get at this point in order to make some sense in the studio besides educated guesses. He went along with whatever he was spouting out.

"I didn't know she was going to do that. She told me it was just between us and the staff as well. Not like we coulda stopped her if we tried." Henry continued in thought. "Look, I know we haven't spent time together like the others have, but you've watched me for a long time. I didn't mean to do any harm. Not to you or Jay or all the other employees. You know that!"

Thomas held up a hand as if to protest, but he stopped after a moment and placed his hand down. Both his hands clenched and opened repeatedly, creating a steady rhythm. He stopped and pointed at Henry. “You’re dangerous, whether you meant to or not."

When Henry became silent, Thomas continued.

"...Ever since you showed up, Joey's going off the deep end! You don't know what really goes on when your back's turned, do you? This ain't a cartoon anymore, so grow up and face the facts. Drew's nothing but a two-faced liar who does things out of the blue for his own benefit!" Thomas snarled as he turned his back from Henry, but turned his head to the side to glare at him with glowing eyes. "The pipe's always bursting with so much ink, people are going missing almost every day, and he threatens us employees any way possible no matter what or who gets hurt. You think you're the only one he abuses?"

Lies? Missing? Abuse? Sure, Joey lied a couple of times and he pushed others hard, but the Joey Stein thought he knew would never go down that level. The evidence he had seen so far proved otherwise. However, the last question stuck to him. For some reason, anger boiled up in Henry's chest like ink rising along with his shock. Although his eyes were surprised, he was scowling.

"Cut the crap, Connor. I got an idea what's really going on." Henry sneered in a low hiss, causing Thomas to turn back to him with widened eye sockets. "I saw you putting those pipes in and standing from the sidelines. I saw you not saying a word when people went missing. I saw you helping him with the machine. He's sacrificing people, Thomas! How could you just stand around and go along with this?! If anything, you're just a sinner as Drew is!"

A pin dropped onto the floor.

A few seconds later, Thomas grabbed Henry by the neck, rattling the chains in the process. The repair man growled like a dog ready to pounce. Henry winced and attempted to turn his head away.

“You don’t think I know that? You don’t think I have nightmares nearly every day?” His grip on Henry’s neck tightened, causing the other to cough and turn his head facing towards him. “You don’t think I tried to do something?! I did everything that was possible! I prevented accidents from happening. I covered for Jay and Wally as best I could. I was almost out of here ready to go to the authorities, so don’t tell me that I did nothing!”

Both men panted heavily while glaring at each other. After a minute, Thomas let go and sneered.

“… he has Allison.” He continued, his tone crying of defeat. He balled his hands into fists. “Half the time, I didn’t know what was going on like you did, so I went along with it. I promised to quit. To just get it over with. When I found out what was really going on, I wanted to fight and run. But Drew knew my weakness. You have Jay. I have Allison. If I became difficult, he promised to take my punishment out on her.”

Allison? Henry didn’t know anyone from the studio named Allison. One of the latest employees hired by Joey he guessed. Henry’s face softened. The ink being huffed and started storming out of the room. Before he could do so, he turned back one more time to see the other. For a second, Henry thought he saw a glint of a different emotion. Guilt? Whatever it was, it was diminished with the same cold glare and a voice dug deeper in the grave.

“To be frank, I don't care what happens to me at this point. I could be thrown straight down to Hell right now for what I did. I don't give a damn. As long as Allison is safe and outta Drew's hands, that's all that matters. It's nothing personal."

With that, Thomas left and slammed the door shut, leaving Henry in the dark.

   Hours seemed to pass by as Henry regularly rattled his chains. By now, he was starving and tired.

"Help! Can someone get me out of here?! I'm sorry! Please!" He pleaded at the top of his lungs, hoping that anyone in the hallway would hear his screams. No one answered him. He struggled against his chains until his limbs became sore and he passed out a couple of times. He swore that while he was under, he felt someone touch him on his head gently and give him something to drink. He didn't know who it was nor did he had the energy to open his eyes.

After what seemed like days, Henry was luckily conscious when the door creaked open again. Instead of an inky person, it was an actual human in the studio. Henry smiled weakly and he was about to greet them in relief when his voice got caught in his throat.

There standing right by the bedside was Joey Drew himself, just like how Henry had seen him when he left the studio.

Well, almost.

Joey's short brown hair was a little unruly with some grey streaks here and there. The man had a cane that seemed like a plain brown cane except with intricate markings carved into it. Overall, Joey looked as if a bus hit him and he woke up fifty years later.

"J-Joey?" Henry managed to speak after a couple of stutters.

"Mr. Drew, if you please." Joey corrected coldly as he held a photograph in front of him. Henry couldn't make out what was on it. His former partner's posture was straight and business-like as usual whenever he showed himself in public, but his hand seemed to tremble, moving his cane slightly. Henry didn't know whether it was the body physically wearing down or a simple response to fear. Perhaps both.

"Drew, I-" He was about to explain when he felt ink bubbling up his throat and he gagged, coughing as he did so. Joey didn't respond much more than a hand hanging up briefly. He then put away the photograph and walked closer to Henry.

"Much more comfortable than the chair, I take it?" Joey asked, ignoring Henry's quiet choking. He grabbed one of the chains and pulled to see there was slack, then nodded.

"Your learning room is still under repairs. It'll be done by the time you're done with your ritual."

"Ritual?!" Henry exclaimed, then winced. His head began to throb as an emotion washed through his body. As if he weren't supposed to see this. His senses became delayed like missing film.

"Haven't you forgotten? All you need is the right soul and you'll finally be perfect. No more disobeying, bad habits, or flaws. Once you're perfect, you'll be our official star performer with your own dressing room and co-actors. You name it. It'll be our new legacy that gets us out of the red!" Joey laughed, his smile screamed of relief and madness. Henry was quiet for a moment before he chuckled as well, tears made of ink streaming out from his eyes.

"... Why, Joey? I... don't understand..." He whispered. Joey stared at him for a moment before he touched the tip of his cane to Henry's chin. Henry let out a muffled scream as the very touch burned his skin. Keeping his cane there, Joey took out a mirror from the desk, then lifted Henry's chin to the mirror's direction. Through the whimpering, Henry managed to make out his reflection.

Only to gasp and hold his breath.

Staring right back at him was the face of the ink demon that now roamed the empty halls of the studio from its pointy horns to the ink pouring down its forehead to the distorted spine and shoulders. The two features that were different were its frown and two orange dots near its forehead. Joey grimaced in disgust.

"You have his eyes, you know." Joey said in a calm tone, "He lied to the both of us. How you were absolutely perfect. How you'll be a star that stands out from the rest. Instead, he claimed you as his own creation in his image. He's not your creator. He just brought you to life and ruined it for the both of us!" He pressed hard onto Henry's neck, causing Henry to screech in pain. After a minute or two, Joey placed his cane back to the floor, leaving Henry panting. For a second, a smile graced his face. Then he put the mirror away and began to make his leave.

"It'll take us a while, but don't worry. I finally found the perfect candidate that'll fix everything he did to you. I'll tell you everything after the ritual becomes a success. Now be a good boy and stay quiet in here, won't you?" Not waiting for an answer, Joey left and locked the door.

It was then that Henry felt released from an invisible entity and he shouted in both confusion and leftover pain. Was this a memory or fantasy? Was that the real ink demon staring back at him through the mirror? Why was he shown this?

Crrrrrrrrrrrrrk.

Henry's thought process halted when he heard a loud creak above him. The ceiling above him started to give way. The man struggled and attempted to hop himself with the bed out of the room before hard material would fall upon him. Only a couple of boards fell from either side of him. As the ceiling crumbled and light gave way, Henry noticed large blobs of ink poking out from the corners. In a few seconds, the blobs pulled the entire ceiling out of the way and Henry was greeted by a large smile. The smile pulled away, revealing a huge head dripping with ink and horns sticking out from the top.

Oh.

Hell.

No.

The Ink Demon towered over the room, perhaps as tall as the Empire State Building itself even while in what seemed like seated position. It gurgled almost in a curious tone, its smile hiding any true emotions it was feeling at the moment. 

Even if he wasn't chained to the bed currently, Henry would still be frozen and pale with his heart drumming against his chest. There was something about its smile, its hidden gaze towards him. His spine tingled. Enormous gloved fingers lowered and wrapped around his body, lifting him up from the bed and breaking his shackles in the process like pulling at a thread. Henry wiggled at the firm grip as the hand stopped at waist level.

The demon held up Henry's body gingerly, examining him as if it were a child discovering a new toy. It poked Henry's stomach with an ink finger a few times. It tossed Henry lightly in its hand, letting out a pleasant wheeze when the human yelped in fright. For a final measure, Henry was pulled towards its mouth. All eight teeth lifted up and a large blackish-purple tongue came out, dripping with what Henry hoped was ink. Before Henry could protest, the tongue pressed against him and dragged itself upwards. It licked him!

Henry coughed and gagged, spitting and shaking out the inky saliva from his body. The giant demon giggled in a deep yet high-pitched tone, almost amused at the display. Its right index finger hovered in front of the human and lifted his chin up, forcing Henry to make eye contact with the demon. It then spoke.

"Surprised, Henry?"

The demon had a dual tone for a voice. One layer was Bendy's voice, the same voice that Jay would imitate whenever they were drawing and coming up with ideas. Feminine, yet smooth with a bit of sass to it. The other layer was deep, loud, and low. Masculine with an accent. Combined together, it was an otherworldly demon.

Henry opened his mouth to speak, but only gurgles and gasps answered aloud. He panted heavily and his heart raced, but he caught his breath when he was lifted above the ink demon's head. The man looked down to see himself dangle above the giant's open mouth, pools of glowing orange ink seeping from the corners of its mouth.

"No, no, no, no, no, no...!" Henry muttered as he weakly struggled to break free. Without another second wasted, the fingers let go of his body and he fell right into the black and orange pool, sinking like a stone. Any light source he had was shut off completely as ink filled his lungs.

A loud gulp.

Then Henry's scream.

[inkdemonapologist]

Tfw it’s like 6am and your penpal shows up at your hotel room but he’s like partially a demon and also won’t stop smiling????

Hi again Allison we’re all Very Normal

[BatIM Call of Cthulhu Masterpost]

ANYWAY HAVE SOME, OUT-OF-CONTEXT QUOTES for Session 6!!

[Sammy is played by me, Joey is played by Boo (inkyvendingmachine), Henry is played by Maf (inkcryptid), Jack is played by Mochi (whatyouwantedmetosee) and Thren (haunted-hijinxer) is our GM!]

[GM] You said you were there for... inSPECTION?? [Jack] In hindsight, that must've been a HECK of a Fast Talk considering half the group is in pyjamas.

[Henry] It wouldn't be the first time someone tried to sacrifice Henry.

[GM] *about Sammy's sacrifice attempts* He was very polite about it. [Sammy] Yeah, he was! [Henry] He was very polite, he gets points for politeness. [GM] And then he got yelled at, so unfairly! By someone. [Sammy] And then melted! So everyone was on the whole very rude about it. It's your own fault he's like this now.

[GM] We'll say it's ajar, how about that? [Joey] Oh, I thought it was a door.

[Sammy] You can spend Luck!! [Jack] Do I want to use Luck points, though? Here's the problem, I'm the person who finishes the JRPG with twelve thousand healing items, and has used TWO. [Sammy] Here's my counterargument: if your Luck gets really low, you start failing Luck checks, and bad things happen to your character. [Jack] ...that's a perfect counterargument, I'm going to do it.

[GM] You both spot the hat with the press card! Lying on the floor, over by one corner of the sliding doors. [Jack] Oh that's BETTER than taking sanity damage! [Sammy] EMOTIONAL DAMAGE!

[Joey] There's another jug of space juice. [Sammy] I don't want space juice!! I WANT PAINT.

[Henry] *tired* Hey, Sam. [Sammy] What providence, my little sheep! [Henry] ...Good to see you too.

[Sammy] Go into the other room and introduce yourself! [Joey] With two hats on. [Sammy] ASSERT DOMINANCE!

[Jack] Jack is going to take the hat. He's going to have, uh, at least one emotion. [Jack] Maybe more [Jack] Imagine

[Joey] Joey is immediately going to clamp his hand onto Sammy's shoulder, and ask him if he can feel it. [Sammy] UHHH? His... hand...? [Joey] Not-- No, the stone. [Sammy] OH

[Jack] Jack, how are you going to communicate this if one of your hands is taken up by a hat? [Joey] Interpretative dance! [Sammy] Put hat in elbow while writing, you can juggle stuff, [Henry] Put the hat on. Over your other hat.

[Sammy] Sammy will scurry with or without the sheep, but they are his navigation system, so,

[Joey] That is a place we are known to be by the people who tried to... murder us?? Or something. Snake us??????? [Jack] (Snurder.) [Joey] Snurder us.

[Henry] We're just gonna grab our stuff and head out and... let you finish dealing with the sNAKE, I guess!! [Jack] (the snake has already been dealt with!) [Henry] Okay, but the aftermath of the snake! The snaftermath.

[Sammy] In case we get grabbed by an Angel [Sammy] the much less well-liked sequel to Touched by an Angel,

[Sammy] You traitorous sheep, this is not what I asked you for! [Joey] Do you want to die. Is that what you’re interested in?! Just, sacrificing yourself, without doing the proper rituals, not getting anything done--?! [Sammy] What do you know of proper rituals?! [GM] (....quite a lot, actually,) [Joey] Yeah! Much more than you do! And I will make an intimidation roll! [Jack] Boys,... you’re both pretty,... it’s okay....

[Joey] We’re pretty sure there’s Angels.... does she know how to kill them. [Jack] What a first thing to—! No pleasantries, no “please excuse the fact that I’m grinning and have weird eyes and also Sammy has weird eyes and also I have a tail,”

[GM, speaking for Allison] She would like to know what all this is about! [Joey] We’re having problems— [Sammy] He tried to contain something that should not be contained!! [Joey] Shut up, Sammy! We’re having problems!

[Joey] Joey is just going to quickly explain that he.................... [Joey] *mumbling to himself* how do you explain this???

[Joey] Um... I guess he’s going to mentally ping Bendy and ask him how he would describe himself? Like... what was his job, I guess?? Security??? [GM] Bendy says that he’s an eldritch construct that was defending a cult... and now he is something else! That he doesn’t have a word for. [Jack] !! He’s a FRIEND now!!! [GM] He’s friend-shaped! But not at the moment. [Joey] No, right now he’s Joey-shaped.

[Sammy] I mean the whole body is garbage but you apparently want Sammy to wear clothes, so whatever.

[GM] Allison adds that she thinks she might have a connection to get you guys in to the party, if you need that -- [Joey] Wouldn't hurt! [GM] -- so long as you don't mind pretending to be the help! [Joey] ...hm,,,

[Joey] Admittedly, having two angles would be better than one. [GM] Two angels, what? [Sammy] There's an "I can be your angle or yuor devil" joke somewhere in this campaign...

[Sammy] Well, we've learned how to bind an angel, [Jack] Gotta teach the angel proper binding techniques!

[Sammy] Sammy will thank Allison for her help. [Joey] Oh god, there IS something wrong with him!

[Joey] Let's go get Norman tied up in this more! So we can hire him later!!

[Sammy] Jack over there like "I hope it doesn't taste bad" meanwhile Sammy's been grimacing as he swallows paint for the last two hours, [GM] Ink is much better, didn't you know! [Sammy] Ink is better... this tastes wrong... [Joey] I just really love the idea of Sammy longingly looking at Joey's flask like, "aw, you have the good medicine, mine tastes like the terrible cherry crap!"

[GM] So you all have shots with Allison! Space juice shots. [Jack] What a way to start the morning!

[Jack] These boys are gonna heckin' pass out! [GM] They got, what, maybe 3 hours of sleep? [Jack] And all of Jack's sleep last night was sat upright in bed, with his glasses on, surrounded by notes, [Henry] sounds like college [Jack] You're exactly right, Jack's sleep was exactly like college! He was stressed, he didn't sleep for very long, he was surrounded by notes, Pete was there,

[Joey] *saying farewell to Allison* Keep yourself safe; don't go out where we're going. [Joey] Unless we don't return, then pLEASE COME OUT AND FIND US,

[GM] Norman says, "Oh, I see you're back with your friends, Smiley." [Jack] I love the concept of Norman calling Sammy "Smiley," and then Prophet Sammy, in response to this, smiles, and Norman has no idea if this is like, weird? or some kind of strange power move to assert dominance.

[GM, as Norman] When I said I saw things happening on the 2nd, you're the one that went pale! [Joey] How's Prophet Sammy's cONCEPT OF TIME, [Sammy] Not great!!!! [Sammy] I don't think he... knows when the 2nd was.

[Sammy] Forgive my memory. That doesn’t ring a bell! [Joey] He's... a little affected right now. [Norman] ...you don't say...

[Joey] Listen. I have $75 here for you, to take us out to the lake, as soon as possible. [a couple minutes of googling later] [Jack] That's equivalent to $1,464. Joey. [Sammy] CAN YOU IMAGINE?? "We need you to take us to the lake please" "Alright, but explain to me what's going on?" "SORRY, the guy who said that is clearly HIGH OUT OF HIS MIND, here's A THOUSAND DOLLARS, take us to the lake please!" [Jack] its a trip to the lake, what could it cost, $75 [Joey] *laughing* I should've looked up how much money I was saying before I was saying it, [Sammy] No, no, I think this is accurate to JOEY DREW

[Henry] Henry is just watching everything happening... [Sammy] Henry is waiting for the next video game breadcrumb trail to show up. [Henry] YEAH, [Jack] “Oh! Looks like I need to put three gears in this thing!”

[Sammy] I'm so angry on Sammy's behalf that you've made him meet two different people like this.

[Joey] If he does ask for money later, Joey's going to give it to him, because he has no concept of.... money.... [Sammy] No concept of GIVING OUT ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS [Jack] Can Joey Drew meet me, in real life, please? [Joey] I don't know if you want that to happen,, that might be more of a curse,,, [Jack] I'll take a curse! Gimme money! [Sammy] vOICE OF EVERY JDS EMPLOYEE

[GM] And you've got suits, and dress shoes...... [Sammy] We are not dressed for this. [Sammy] ...We are more dressed for it than we were earlier. I promise you, Norman, this is a step up, believe it or not.

[Sammy] Probably making a face because it tastes bad. [Henry] Tastes like paint! [GM] The cab driver might just wonder if that's a new drink this year. [Sammy] If nobody jumped on top of Sammy to stop him from using his mouth, he would probably say something with vibes of "this is beyond your comprehension" [Joey] Joey might try to stop that, and instead just be like, “Yes. It is.” [Henry] He's high. Don't worry about it. [Jack] Driver's just like "oh, I should try some of that when I get off work, seems like a good time!" [Sammy] You should! It'll open your eyes! [Sammy] (I'll stop evangelising the cab driver now.)

[Henry] Henry is: Sims Tense Moodlet.

[Joey] Joey instantly does not like this, and it is apparent on his face, if Sammy can see it in the mist. [Sammy] Probably not! [Jack] You could say he mist it!

[Henry] We need to hurry—! [Sammy] *screaming* THATS WHAT IVE BEEN SAYING!!!!!!

[Sammy] Sammy will be, sort of... whispering reassurance? I don't know how reassuring it actually is, [Henry] I'm sorry Sam, nothing about you is reassuring right now. [Sammy] Just kind of like, hush hush, come my sheep, that sort of thing, [Joey] Prophet ASMR Channel! [Jack] I'm sure Jack would appreciate this actually, it's a shame he's not the one getting this, [Joey] No, he's getting whatever comfort Joey can offer, which, uh, [Sammy] Well, and I will say, he's not like, whispering it in Henry's ear, like-- [Jack] I don't think Sammy in any form is capable of whispering. [Sammy] ...y'know [Sammy] that's fair

[Sammy] Well everyone's doing alright! We're doing great, it's going great! [Jack] Nooooo! No going great! I want more insanities! [Jack] ...I can stop at any time, I swear.

[Sammy] We can hold Norman's hand if you want, like, that's up to you. [Joey] Roll for gay, Norman! [Henry] Take him to dinner first,

[Sammy] This is such a bad idea that we're having.

[Joey] Joey is probably at this point holding onto someone else to guide him, and more in his head than not. [Sammy] Sammy's out of hands at this point, Joey, so you'll just have to figure this out. [Sammy] Got his hands full of sheep.

[Joey] Did Norman drink the juice. [GM] Did he...? Did he...... I think he was convinced enough by “this drink will save your life” that he does take a drink! [Joey] I'll roll intimidation if that helps! [GM] Yeah, you can roll to see how quickly he does it, or if he drinks enough of it. [Joey] *rolls* That's an EXTREME SUCCESS. [GM] Well, there we go; there's a preview, Norman, of your work environment!

[scourgewins]

Mafia AU (Part 1)

(At long last I’ve finished it!!! Here you have it, folks, the first installment for the Mafia AU!!! I’m so excited but also super nervous for you all to read it!! I hope you find some measure of entertainment from it!)

(Warnings: Drunk people and fighting (but no gore), guns)

“What are you drawing now, Henry?”

The mob boss jumped at his son, Boris’, voice, right next to his ear. Hastily, he splayed his hand over the paper he’d been sketching on, “Just some cartoons.” he said, quickly.

Boris’ pie eyes considered Henry skeptically, “Are you sure it’s not Linda?”

Henry reddened a bit, but didn’t deny what Boris already knew. Sighing, he withdrew his hand to reveal a cartoonish drawing of a woman with tied-back, dark hair and a bright smile.

“How ever did you know?” A wan smile pulled at Henry’s lips.

Boris shrugged, not needing to answer. This wasn’t the first time Henry had doodled the mysterious woman, who happened to be on Joey’s side. Henry gazed at the the drawing; one day, maybe, things would be different, but right now he needed to push her from his mind. It was proving difficult.

Henry stood, needing a break to stretch himself; he’d been drawing for a while now; it helped relieve the stress that came with running a mob. He’d drawn Bendy and Alice earlier, but had stopped before finishing; thinking of them always sent a pang through his heart.

His mind flashed back, as it often did, to that day when Joey turned on him and tried to use the toons as weapons to enforce his iron will. Henry had managed to escape with Boris, after permanently scarring his best friend’s face. He’d implored Bendy and Alice to come with him, but they’d only looked at him with hurt in their eyes, quickly followed by anger. They attacked, and he fled, Boris whimpering behind him. After a time, when the others learned what Joey had done, some of his forces rejoined Henry, the beginnings of his mob. It had been a year since then, but not a day went by where Henry didn’t think of his toon children he left behind.

Boris was gazing at him in that uncanny way of his that made Henry think the cartoon wolf could read his mind. The mob boss walked over to the window, trying to ignore it. Down below he could see Matt and Jack on the front steps, guarding the entrance. A few pedestrians walked by, nodded cordially at them; Jack tipped his hat. Henry was glad to know that the people of his territory accepted him as leader, which had never been the case while he’d been in Joey’s company.

The door to his office swung open to admit Shawn and Thomas. Henry turned to them, forcing a smile, “Anything to report?” He’d sent them earlier to patrol part of the border between Joey’s turf and theirs.

“No,” Thomas set down his gun, rolling up his left sleeve so it didn’t hang past the stump of his arm, “It looks like Joey’s keeping to his side.”

“For now.” Shawn muttered.

Henry nodded, “That’s good. You two go take a break, now.”

Shawn grinned, “We were planning on heading down to the speakeasy later this evening. You game?”

“No,” Henry smiled apologetically, moving back to his desk, “I think I’d rather spend the evening here.”

“Aw, come on, boss!” Shawn approached his desk, “You’ve just been sitting here drawing all day. You must be getting antsy.”

Henry had to admit he was restless, but going to the speakeasy wasn’t his idea of a good time, even though he’d helped to found it with Joey way back when, and still partially owned it. Its main purpose was to sell alcoholic drinks, and Henry would never admit it, but he was an extreme lightweight. Not to mention there was always a thick crowd, which he was not comfortable with. How about that? He mused, An introverted mob boss.

“I’m perfectly happy.” Henry settled back in his seat to prove it.

Thomas put a hand on Shawn’s shoulder, “Leave the man be, Flynn. If he doesn’t want to come, then he doesn’t have to come.”

Shawn pouted but said nothing, allowing Thomas to steer him out of the room. Henry felt a twinge of regret, but quickly stifled it.

Boris looked over at him, “You should go with them.” he said.

Henry frowned, “Why?”

“You haven’t gone outside recently, since everything’s been pretty mellow between Joey and us. I think you should take advantage of the peace and have some fun.”

“The speakeasy isn’t my idea of fun.”

“You’ll have your men with you; they’re good company.”

The mob boss fiddled with his pencil, “Joey’s men will probably be there, too.”

“And Joey’s girls.” Henry reddened as Boris stared at him meaningfully. Huffing out a breath, Henry nodded.

“Alright, I’ll go. Are you coming?”

Boris shook his head, “I’d like to go to bed early.”

“You go to bed at 7:00 every night.”

“Exactly.”

Henry led his crew down the dark streets, his rifle at the ready; one could never be sure when there could be trouble, especially considering their line of work. Thomas was beside him, with Sammy and Wally following close behind. Shawn and Lacie brought up the rear. Each of the crew had their weapons in hand, and were all keeping their heads on the swivel. Henry didn’t want a fight tonight, but he knew that if one was inevitable, his men wouldn’t shy away.

Only a select few had been chosen to go to the speakeasy this evening. Susie and Murray had asked to come, but Henry had decided six of them were enough. The mob boss noted that as Susie had asked, she’d looked pointedly over at Sammy. Henry wondered if there was something going on between them, but when he’d glanced at Sammy, the musician had just been staring at the floor, his normally pale face reddening. Whatever was going on, it appeared Sammy was uncomfortable with it.

The speakeasy wasn’t far, and soon, Henry was opening the door and letting Lacie hold it open for the others. She scanned their surroundings as everyone filed in, making sure no one would jump them.

They had stepped into what appeared to be a normal soda shop, complete with a long counter and stools. But they all knew it was just a front for the real business hidden deeper inside. A man sat behind the counter, wearing the white outfit typical of a soda shop employee, a cigarette loosely hanging from his mouth. Henry knew the man well.

“Meatly!”

The man called Meatly had already noticed them, and he whisked the cigarette from his mouth to grin at Henry, “Finally decided to come, huh Stein?”

Henry smirked, “I figured it was time I saw how my business is running.”

The Meatly grinned, “That it is.” Henry recalled the last time he’d encountered the Meatly, after his and Joey’s falling out. The two mob bosses had been fighting over who would own the speakeasy, causing a war between them that neither side could win. The Meatly had suggested they just share it, and split the profits evenly. It was a tentative agreement that neither side agreed to at first, but it was what they eventually settled on. The speakeasy was neutral ground, and the man who ran it, the Meatly, equally neutral.

The Meatly gestured to them all, “Weapons behind the counter, you know the drill.”

The six of them simultaneously placed their guns on the table top, sliding them over to the shop owner, who tucked them all neatly underneath the counter.

“You know the password?” the man straightened, looking mischievously at Henry, “It’s changed since last you were here.”

Henry rolled his eyes, “Please, Meatly. You know me and my men.”

The shop owner put his hands up, “Hey, I can’t give special treatment, even to an owner.”

Henry knew the Meatly was only attempting to annoy him, but uttered the password in a low voice all the same. The shop owner smiled, strolled over to the door to the storage room.

“After you.” he said, pulling it open for them. The gang walked inside, past many boxes of supplies. Two were stacked one on top of the other at the far wall. Henry slid these out of the way to reveal another door. Turning the handle, Henry admitted his fellow gangsters into the speakeasy.

It was loud. A jazz band played in the corner of the room, the music echoing off the walls. A crowd of people danced to it, some of them not entirely sober. Henry watched as one man collapsed right on the dance floor. The other dancers paid him no mind. A mass of people lined the bar, the bartenders attending to them leisurely, obviously used to the rabble. The place was cast in a low light, as if to emphasize that fact that it was illegal.

Henry immediately wanted to go back the way they’d come, but suppressed the urge.

Feeling someone tap his shoulder, Henry turned to see Thomas nodding to the other end of the room, where four of Joey’s men sat sipping drinks. Henry felt his heart begin to hammer in his chest as he caught sight of Linda, though he didn’t let anything in his expression betray that.

“Keep your distance. Don’t let the others engage with them, especially not Wally or Shawn.” They were by far the most unruly of the bunch.

Thomas nodded his understanding before joining Lacie, who had already ordered them some drinks. Wally had already begun dancing to the music, a wide grin on his face. Sammy was nodding along, his foot tapping. Shawn had caught sight of Joey’s men, and glared shrewdly at them. Henry clapped a hand on his shoulder and steered him over to the table reserved for Henry and his men.

“If we don’t bother them, they won’t bother us.” the mob boss said placatingly.

“They’re bothering me by being here.” Shawn huffed, still glaring.

“We have a peace treaty in this place,” Henry reminded the gangster as they sat down, his voice stern, “and if one of my men were to break it, he would be punished severely.”

Shawn tore his gaze from the opposite gang to search Henry’s gaze, his mouth closing as he saw his boss wasn’t joking. Satisfied that Shawn had received the message, Henry gave a small nod to Joey’s men, who had noticed their arrival. Linda nodded back, and Henry glanced coolly away, hoping his expression in no way matched what he felt inside.

Linda was accompanied by Grant, Allison, and Johnny. Henry was a bit disappointed to see neither Bendy nor Alice had joined them, but pushed the feeling away; they wouldn’t want to see him anyway.

Thomas returned to their table holding two drinks in his one hand, Lacie following with the rest; apparently they’d gotten everyone’s orders ahead of time. Wally and Sammy joined them at the table, and the former grasped his glass of brandy eagerly, taking a huge gulp. Shawn followed his lead with the rum he’d been given. Sammy sipped his whiskey slowly, his attention on the band. Thomas and Lacie had both ordered gin, and the two clinked their glasses together before drinking. Henry eyed his drink warily, taking a tentative sniff. It smelled alright. He caught Thomas’s gaze, and the one-armed man answered his boss’ questioning look.

“It’s beer.” Henry knew beer had the least amount of alcohol of any drink here, and internally thanked Thomas for his silent consideration of his boss’ aversion to liquor.

Wally had already finished his brandy by the time Henry took his first sip, and stood up, turning to Sammy.

“Come on, Sammy!” he cried, gesturing to the dance floor, “Aren’t you gonna dance?”

The musician shifted in his seat, “Maybe later.”

“But it’s jazz! You love jazz!”

“That doesn’t mean I want to prance around to it every waking moment.” Sammy snapped, though Henry could tell it was only to keep up appearances.

Wally pouted a second before shrugging, downing the remainder of his brandy, and sprinting back to the dance floor. Sammy watched the younger man as he left, his gaze wistful.

Henry found his gaze shifting back to Linda. She was nursing a glass filled with some liquor Henry couldn’t identify at this distance, smiling as she listened to the music. Henry wished she would turn that smile towards him.

Wally alternated between downing his beverages and dancing the rest of the night, while the other five gangsters drank silently at their table. Henry wasn’t fond of the taste of beer, but he figured a heavier alcohol would be worse. Thomas and Lacie seemed to be experiencing no negative side effects to the drinks, or if they were, they were very good at hiding it. Sammy, Wally, and Shawn’s faces had grown increasingly red with each drink. Lacie noticed this as well.

“Maybe you boys should lay off the liquor.” she said, eyeing Sammy and the dopey grin spreading across his face as he watched the band.

“We’re fine.” Shawn hiccuped, “I ain’t a lightweight.”

Thomas raised an eyebrow, “You’ve had five glasses of rum; I’m surprised you haven’t passed out yet.”

“You guys think I should dance?” Sammy interrupted, turning to face the group, his eyes struggling to focus on them.

Henry frowned, “Maybe some other time. Right now, we should probably head back.”

“But we just got here!” Shawn whined.

“Two hours ago.” Lacie grumbled.

“Oh boy.” Henry turned to Thomas, following his anxious gaze to see Wally stumbling about the dance floor. Ordinarily, Wally was a terrific dancer, but under the influence of alcohol, he looked like he barely knew how to walk. Henry held his breath as Wally crashed into someone, sending them to the ground. With a sinking feeling, Henry realized it was Johnny.

“Hey!” Grant had stood up, and marched toward Wally with a glower on his face. Linda and Allison exchanged a glance before following, Allison making her way over to Johnny to help him to his feet.

Oh boy. Henry rose from the table, gesturing for his men to remain seated; hopefully he’d be able to handle this before any punches were thrown.

The speakeasy had grown silent. Everyone knew of Henry and Joey’s rivalry, and no one wanted to interfere. The dance floor vacated quickly, leaving a swaying Wally blinking in confusion at a fuming Grant.

Henry reached them just as Grant began to chew Wally out, “What are you trying to do? There’s a truce here, or didn’t you know?”

Wally squared up to Grant, “Yeah, I know.” His words were slurred.

Grant bared his teeth, “Do you want to start something?”

Henry slipped between them, “We most certainly don’t. I must apologize for my man here. He seems to have had a bit too much to drink.”

Grant focused his glare on Henry, “Can’t you manage your own men, Stein?”

Henry felt his cheeks grow hot, but wasn’t about to rise to the bait, “We’ll be leaving now.” He took Wally by the arm, guiding the intoxicated gangster to the exit.

“Yeah, run away. That’s what you’re good at, right Stein?” The taunt sent Henry’s blood boiling, but he grit his teeth and tried to ignore it.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Henry whipped his head around to see Shawn fall out of his seat, only to quickly rise again and stagger toward Grant.

“Flynn, stay down!” Thomas snapped, but Shawn didn’t hear him.

“Stein’s the best boss anyone could ask for, which is more than I can say for Joey.” Shawn spat the name with contempt, “Anyone who works for Joey must be evil, or a complete idiot.”

Grant inhaled sharply. Linda pulled at his arm, trying to calm him down, “It’s not worth it.”

Grant ignored her, “And anyone who works for Stein is a spineless weakling.” Shawn had launched himself at Grant before he could finish the insult, taking the gangster by surprise. The Irishman through a wild punch at Grant, missing him completely. Grant aimed a blow to Shawn’s jaw, but Lacie barreled into him, sending him flying. He crashed into the stage, and the musicians scattered.

The speakeasy became chaotic. People sprinted to the exit, some slipping on spilled drinks in their hurry, others falling from sheer drunkenness. Still others remained by the bar, watching the scuffle with amusement in their eyes. The bartenders looked bored.

Allison screamed in rage as she watched Lacie plow into Grant, and rushed at her. Lacie squared her soldiers, prepared to meet the onslaught. Henry didn’t know what to do.

“Stop this at once!” he yelled, but Lacie and Allison were already locked in combat. Linda and Johnny tried to break them up, but Wally flung himself at Johnny, the two landing heavily on the floor. Shawn made a grab for Linda, and she threw herself to the side, her fist slamming into his face. He stumbled, fell to the ground, but lunged at her again. The two traded punches.

Henry and Thomas looked at each other, sharing an anxious glance. They needed to do something. Henry considered using his ink shields, but that always left him feeling drained, and a skirmish of this scale didn’t seem to warrant them. 

A lively tune emanated from the piano, and Henry was surprised to find Sammy taking advantage of the chaos to play some jazz. He missed a few notes due to being drunk, but overall he wasn’t bad. Henry didn’t have time to enjoy the music though.

He turned urgently to Thomas, “You break up Wally and Johnny and grab Sammy. Drag them, knock them out if you have to, just get them out of here. I’ll get Shawn and Lacie.”

Thomas nodded once before sprinting to Wally, dragging him off of Johnny. Henry leaped on to the dance floor, hurrying to Shawn. Linda had succeeded in knocking him out, which wasn’t difficult considering the state he was in. Henry lifted the Irishman, grunting as he draped him over his shoulder, before locking eyes with Linda. Her gaze was unreadable.

Henry’s mouth worked a few seconds, until words finally came, “I’m sorry.” he said, simply, before turning swiftly for Lacie. He wasn’t just sorry for the fight.

Lacie had Allison in a choke hold, the struggling woman slowly turning purple.

“That’s enough!” Henry’s voice was filled with fury. Lacie looked at him, before reluctantly letting Allison drop to the ground, gasping for air. He made a jerking motion to the exit with his head, and Lacie took his meaning, stalking toward it. Thomas had a senseless Wally slung over one shoulder, and Sammy by the scruff of his coat.

“No!” the musician cried in a shrill, whining tone, his hands reaching for the piano. Lacie doubled back to take Sammy from Thomas, so he could better carry Wally.

Henry let his men pass him, before turning back to Joey’s men. Grant was blinking in confusion, still stunned from the blow he’d received. Allison was retching on the floor, with Johnny nearby, wide-eyed. Linda was the only one standing, and she moved to help her comrades. Henry took in the scene, feeling immense guilt crash over him.

“Let it be known,” he called out, “that my men did not act under my authority, and they will be punished.”

Not waiting for a response, Henry hefted Shawn higher up on his shoulder, and left.

The walk back to their headquarters was spent in a tense silence, broken only by Sammy’s drunken humming. The Meatly had asked them as they left what happened, but Henry had only shook his head; he didn’t feel like explaining it. The night was crisp, the sky flecked with stars. Henry might have enjoyed it if he weren’t so furious.

As they reached Henry’s house, Murray and Emily ran up to meet them.

“What the heck happened?” Murray asked, eyeing the beaten up party.

“Are you alright?” Emily’s gaze was anxious.

“We’re fine. A fight broke out,” Thomas said, “brought on by these two idiots.” he gestured to Wally, still on his shoulder, and to Shawn. Both were still unconscious, and probably would remain that way till late morning.

“Let’s get inside.” Henry said tersely, marching past a still bewildered Murray and Emily. The others followed.

Wally, Shawn, and Sammy were deposited in their rooms (each of Henry’s men had a room in the headquarters). Sammy lamented over the loss of the piano, then brightened once he noticed one in his room. They left him to his broken piano music and drunk singing.

Henry dismissed Thomas and Lacie, before heading to his office, breathing out a long sigh once he’d made it inside.

Boris was fast asleep on the couch, and would also probably remain that way till late morning. Henry sank into his chair, running a hand through his hair.

Tonight had not gone at all as planned. Instead of a relaxing evening, they’d gotten into a fight that might have ended the peace between Joey and his side. Henry felt a tidal wave of rage wash over him. How could Wally and Shawn have been so stupid? I should have kept a closer eye on them, made sure they didn’t drink so much. Those two were certainly not going back to the speakeasy for a long time, and would have to deal with their hangover whilst cooling their heels in the basement, where they had installed makeshift cells. It would be an adequate punishment. Henry considered punishing Lacie and Sammy, but Lacie had only been protecting Shawn and acting out of self-defense, and Sammy hadn’t fought at all, though he was drunk. They were off the hook.

The mob boss wondered how Joey would respond to this act of aggression. Henry had tried to apologize for what happened, but he couldn’t be sure if Joey’s men had heeded him. What does Linda think of me now?

Sighing, Henry figured there wasn’t much he could do but wait for Joey’s reaction. He sat back in his seat, letting his eyes droop shut. Hopefully, some sleep would help clear his head. That is, if he could fall asleep. Rising slowly to his feet, Henry made his way over to Boris, pulling a blanket over him. As he considered his cartoon son, Henry couldn’t help but think of his other cartoon children. The three of them should be huddled up on this couch together, squabbling, dozing against each other, the way siblings were supposed to.

One day. Henry thought, before flicking off the light and heading for his bedroom.