#Kyle tiol

[wally-franks-stan]

Uhhh made naga au kyle

[ripleycano]

This is what Joey sounded like in TIOL

[movedtodykedvonte]

Joey really was out there trying to get with every creative man he met. Bro was really trying to suck more than their talent out of them. 

[inkdemonapologist]

Did Kyle drift apart from Joey Drew, when Joey met Henry?

I actually had to go back and double check the dates while I was pondering Kyle Thoughts, because for some reason I had thought Kyle was earlier, but his vignette sure is labelled 1927, a year before Joey saw Henry’s work -- since Joey and Henry were friends before the art show, it’s really probable that Joey was in contact with both Henry and Kyle simultaneously.

That said, I don’t think Henry would’ve been the impetus for them to break up.

While I do chalk some of Joey’s I NEVER LIKED HIM ANYWAY up to Joey being a bitter ex, I don’t think his mislike was entirely dishonest -- it’s obvious that Kyle condescends to Joey in a way that’s uncomfortable for him.

I think that’s what makes these two so potentially interesting to me, like, has Joey just kind of been taking this treatment? After all, it sounds like they’ve been going out to parties together for some time. Why? Just playing nice with Kyle for his connections? Just starved for positive (gay) attention? We’re totally in headcanon town at this point, but I like the idea that while they were genuinely attracted to each other, they were also sort of using each other. Kyle really did help Joey start to get where he wanted to go, but Kyle liked that to be about him, not Joey -- that he’d gotten Joey his first pair of nice shoes, that he’d been the one to get him into high society, that he can casually introduce him as someone that Kyle knows is gonna be a big deal without actually stating any of his supposedly impressive qualities or aims -- while Joey really wants to believe he’s here because he deserves to be here, because he inherently always belonged. And anyone who pushes too hard against Joey’s own self-narrative gets dropped -- I think, with or without Henry, the more Joey wanted to be able to believe that this is who he’d Always Been, the more imperative it’d become to detach himself from Kyle, the person who helped him get there not because he believes in Joey’s ideas, but just because he thinks Joey's cute. As a favour. And, for his part, I think Kyle would also lose interest when it no longer felt like he had some ownership over Joey.

I kinda like the idea of Kyle as Joey’s first real boyfriend, a relationship that was never intentionally malicious, but was hurtful all the same. Joey feeling uncomfortably belittled by this guy who complimented him and dressed him up and showed him the affection he really did want… Joey says in TIOL that Kyle’s attempts to make him feel inferior were “obvious,” but I wonder if it isn’t closer to the truth to say they’re obvious in retrospect, and I wonder how much it set the tone for how badly Joey feels he Needs to be the one in control for the rest of his life.

[magiefish]

Joey + Susie Headcannons

So the creative side of my brain has not been working as well lately because school is a hell which takes all of my energy, but just as a fun little exercise I was like ‘hey, what if wrote down a bunch of headcannons?’. I only had enough energy for two characters, but i figured people on the inter webs may enjoy them.

Anyway, here’s my obscenely long collection of random Joey + Susie headcannons! (sorry any typos, but once again, I am tired as heck :v)

Joey

-Joey Drew’s actual name is Joseph Dempsey, although of course he’d want  anyone no one to know that in his autobiography.

-Honestly his backstory was largely similar to the one in TIOL even before it came out, so changing it to fit the book was pretty easy. So the backstories are basically the same in the order that events happened.

-Then again, the book embellishes a lot of details, but what else would one expect from Joey? For instance, the only person who would ever call him ‘tall’ is himself: my man is like 5”3-5”4, he is a shortie.

- His height is connected to a funny story actually. Up until around age 13 he was one of the tallest people in his school because he had growth spurt young. This made him pretty uncomfortable because he always felt like he was too thin or gangly, but at the very least he was taller than everyone else so people didn’t usually bother him. That is, he was tall until around age 15 when everyone else had their major growth spurts and he…..didn’t

Factor this is with the fact that he was starting to realise he was gay gay homosexual gay and that he also had a propensity for growing his hair out long, and, well, saying all this combined gave Joey a bit of a crisis about his ‘masculinity’ is a bit of an understatement. The biggest reason why he joined the army when he was like 16 was because that was something ‘men’ did.

Joey’s dad also kind of had something to do with it. He was something of a ‘manly man’, as in relatively stoic and tall. He was never particularly close to his father, but whenever they spoke his dad always put out the vibes of not wanting to be around him, and always seemed disappointed in him. Joey largely cut himself off from his family later on in life, and both his parents were dead by the late 1940’s.

Most people looking at him at the height of his career would’ve probably never guessed he was once that weird kid who always sat alone at break and basically never spoke to anyone and just kind of intensely stared at people weirdly from a distance.

Also, weirdly enough towards the end of the studio’s tenure Joey seemed to get….taller, somehow. Over the span of 1944-1947, most employees could testify that he was at least 5”6 by the studios fall. Wether or not he continued to get taller afterwards, well. It was hard to tell when he was sitting in that wheelchair.

Joey always loved to read. Nothing like getting lost in a good book.

Joey likes animals a lot. His mother always used to try and kill mice but he usually just scooped them up and moved them somewhere else. He always wanted a dog, but he never got one because they cost too much and also because they get hair everywhere, and living in a messy environment isn’t a problem for him as long as it does affect his clothes. And if there’s one thing animal hair affects, it’s clothes.

Joey hates sports, mostly because he was never good at it. He has weak little noodle arms only good for overpowering others when he takes them by surprise (or is theoretically aided by magic ink).

Kyle was one of Joey’s early financiers. He didn’t really have any reason to spend money on him and getting him into upper class circles, and Joey doesn’t really ever mention what he did to get the money from him. Hm? What’s that? They were hooking up? Ha! Preposterous…… /s

Joey got sick pretty often when he was younger.

Even after he stopped being tall, Joey continued to have a perception of himself as being really skinny, gangly and gross, and always felt disconnected from his own body. It’s part of the reason he believes a persons ‘soul’ is separate from their body so throughly.

Speaking of mental health issues, Joey also has a very bad habit of smoking and drinking a bit too much. He uses an obscene amount of breath freshener to cover up the smell of it on his breath.

Joey also has a habit of the world going ‘numb’ for him. As in, he’ll go to a party and be enjoying himself and then suddenly the entire world will just feel duller and dimmer and he’ll become disconnected from everything. Not that he’ll let anyone know that’s going on, or that he’s spoken to anyone about it (other than Henry one time, and Allison when he was very drunk).

The qualities Joey usually looks for in a person is a vision and the drive to achieve their dreams.

If you aren’t interesting to him at all, he’ll basically completely ignore you and not care about your existence in the slightest. Other than Henry, who was somehow such a bland person that it went all the way back around to being interesting again.

Joey would never say it, but he really likes the novel The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde. He read it one time when he was a teenager.

Joey’s closest friend used to be Lambert, but their relationship has become more tenuous over the years. He admired how straightforward and uncaring of others opinions she was.

Joey doesn’t really have a lot of friends any more, more so ‘people that are potentially useful to me who I may or may nor be develop more of a personal relationship to’. He would say Nathan Arch is a good friend of his, but wether or not Nathan feels the same way is ehhhhhhhh…….just don’t tell Joey.

Joey’s hair was a lot longer when he was younger, but he ended up tying it up and cutting it short as he got older. A sort of compromise he had was still having relatively long hair, but styling it with a crap ton of hair gel so that it didn’t look that way.

Joey’s favourite colour is purple.

Susie

Susie was born with a birthmark on the left side of her face that she was often bullied for as a child. Her birthmark made getting a career in theatre when she was older difficult too, but luckily voice acting didn’t require anyone caring about her appearance.

She first practiced changing her voice when she was a young girl and tried impersonating her mother’s accent. She also liked voicing her own characters while playing make believe (which she often did alone: other kids usually didn’t want to play with her.)

Speaking of accents, her American one is actually a bit exaggerated. She figured it would make getting hired more easy because nobody would think her mother was an immigrant.

Her mother was a Russian immigrant and her father worked as a butcher an didn’t really care about his daughter hanging around his workspace, which meant that from a young age Susie was exposed to some uhhhhhh graphic things. At least she successfully learned how to dissect and butcher meat :)

One of Susie’s happiest days was when her family saved up enough money to go to the cinema and she got to see her first film. That was the moment she decided to become an actress.

Susie is rather naïve and easily trusting of others, but this doesn’t necessarily mean she isn’t cunning or ruthless. It’s a mistake a lot of people make, but if she knows what she wants she’ll do whatever it takes to get it.

She also enjoys a bit of trickery and playing pranks on people, which is probably why she and Wally get along so well.

Susie seems to be the only person other than Jack who Sammy can tolerate in any way.

Susie is a MASSIVE gossip. She’s almost as bad as Norman, except she shares all the drama she’s picked up.

Jack & Susie get coffee together sometimes, and she gets involved in the lyric writing process for Alice’s songs. She also serves as a reference for the animators as Alice when they need her. Joey’s reasoning for all this is that she ‘embodies the character so well, it makes sense for her to participate in all aspects of her creation’.

Susie has a rather foul temper, but most of the time she just looks cute when she gets frustrated.

If Susie ever read the Picture of Dorian Grey she would’ve loved it.

Susie was chosen as a voice actress out of anyone else because she managed to talk to Joey before her audition: she got lost in the studio and bumped into him. Joey knew she had vision and saw how hard she strived to achieve her dreams and these are the qualities he values most highly (mostly because they’re his own), so she ended up getting the job.

Susie is desperate for any kind of validation. She’ll latch on to anyone who praises her, and tends to get very bitter towards those who criticise her.

Her more negative traits became much worse after losing her role as Alice Angel.

Susie’s father died when she was in her late teens, meaning Susie was the main source of income for her mother as well as herself. She maintained a very close relationship to her mother until she died in 1944. She didn’t have any friends outside of the studio.

During the time when she fired from the role of Alice, Joey was ‘generous’ enough to keep her on voicing side characters. Allison was an Alice exclusive, and Susie continued to do all the rest.

Following getting fired, Susie also became even more focused on her appearance. Some employees swore they heard her talking to the mirror like she was having an argument with someone…but oh well. A lot of employees seemed to lose it a bit towards the studios end.

Susie’s favourite colour is yellow.

Anyway, that’s about it. I’ll probably post some more headcannons for other characters sometime in the future but for now, farewell!

[lucky-dreamfisher]

Queer Subtext in The Illusion of Living - Part 4/?

Before we get to the main course that is Henry, let’s talk about Kyle.

Kyle is probably the most mysterious character in the whole book, by virtue of being the only character that Joey tells us absolutely nothing about. He gets no introduction, no “this is how we met” and “this is when we parted ways”. He seems to just pop in and out of Joey’s life one day. We learn nothing about him, other than the fact that he was wealthy, and that Joey hated his attitude.

Another weird thing about the Kyle scenes is that they are divided into multiple parts and sprinkled in-between several other stories. So I pieced them all together and removed most of Joey’s rambling, and this is what I got:

“I remember my first pair of shoes that fit like a glove. I remember just how loudly they squeaked in that first hour of wearing them. So I wore those squeakers around my room, doing chores and even a couple of dance moves, working to get that squeak out. 

The suit I was wearing was something. Seeing a professional tailor on the Upper East Side was something. Park Avenue, which I always thought I knew but didn't until that day, was something.

"Those look darn fine on you there, Joey." Funny now that I think about it; that might

have been the first time I heard someone call me that without me asking them to first.

"Some things are meant to be," I replied. I adjusted my bow tie to make sure it was fastened tight. "You and those shoes?" "Could call us sole mates." Kyle laughed pretty hard.

"Is this your first pair of new shoes?" Kyle asked after I did a fancy piece of footwork I once saw Ray Bolger do live on stage. "Definitely not." I replied. "Then made-to-measure?" I didn’t love this probing. I didn’t trust it.

Kyle pulled the curtains aside and gave a sharp wave to someone standing in the street below "Car's here!" he announced. I did a final spin on my heel, making him laugh, and then followed him out into the cool night air.

We hopped into Kyle's car and were whisked downtown.”

I’m sure there exists a perfectly rational, heterosexual explanation for why Kyle is inside Joey’s home in the middle of the night, watching him getting dressed, and complimenting his appearance, while calling him by a pet name unprompted. Though I admit that I’m coming up a bit short trying to think of one.

Kyle is also pressuring Joey to admit that he’s too poor to afford the clothes he’d just put on himself. And I can hardly blame him, because this is what “The Literary Digest” had to say about Park Avenue tailors in July 1927 (same year as this story):

How the hell was Joey able to afford it with a bookstore manager’s salary?

It’s worth noting that when Nathan questions him about the clothes, Joey changes the subject.

"See now I always knew you'd end up well. Look at yourself!" I didn't need to, I knew how good I looked. He pointed at my shoes. "A long way from army boots, huh?" I smiled but changed the subject. “ TIOL, page 45

Also worth noting that Kyle is the one paying for their ride, the bribe for police, and the coat-check at the speakeasy. All things considered, it wouldn’t be a stretch to assume that he paid for Joey’s suit and boots as well. We all know how much Joey likes to make people pay for his stuff (poor Buddy!).

But again, there’s surely a heterosexual explanation for why Kyle would pay for Joey clothes, watch him put them on, call him by a pet name and compliment him, and then invite him as his company for a party at a place named Sparkle Unicorn. Right? ;)

EDIT: more proof of Kyle being Joey’s sugar daddy - "Warm orange soda was hardly the thing for a hot night like tonight, but I was still saving for an icebox." TIOL, page 170, year is 1928 there. So you're telling me that Joey can't afford a fridge, but he can afford high-end tailors and parties? Riiiiiiight!

[borkha]

Random TIoL headcanons because feel I can't breath.

-Lottie n' Kyle ended married, ouch, Joey.

-Joey actually harassed Lottie.

-Eckhart and Donaldson were married too, but they didn't acted like a gay couple, cool.

-Kyle has baby hands sjdjjdkskd-

-Benjamin have's a really nice red bow 👀

-Simmons was Joey's babysitter, he still babysits Joey so he doesn't do anything stupid.

-Donaldson haved Tourette.

-Joey haved the most ✨Great✨ idea, reviving Donaldson and Eckhart, it didn't go soooooo good and they ended up as Seekers, locked in some dark room.

[wally-franks-stan]

[inkdemonapologist]

....Who Kyle? I don't remember him?

He is BARELY MENTIONED AT ALL.

Kyle shows up I’m pretty sure just three times in TIOL, though it seems more like one vignette that got split in three, and he’s never explained. In the first bit Joey talks to us about how great a perfect shoe is, how great it was to get a professionally tailored suit, and describes joking with Kyle while Kyle tells him he looks great. In the second bit, Kyle starts asking if this is the first pair of Nice Shoes that Joey’s ever had, and Joey closes off immediately, internally grumbling about Kyle trying to pry and figure out things about Joey’s past and status, and starts ranting in the book a bit about how Kyle isn’t superior just because he was richer than him and that his attempts are obvious and simple and also he’s lazy and I never liked him anyway. And then in the third part, it turns out Kyle and Joey have been waiting for Kyle's car to go check out a new speakeasy, which Kyle says will have “opportunities to connect,” and he introduces Joey there as someone who “will be a big deal very soon,” which Joey internally nitpicks as not exactly the best introduction and thinks that Kyle might enjoy his company but doesn’t seem to have much faith in his business abilities. And then Kyle goes off to dance and IS NEVER SEEN OR HEARD FROM AGAIN.

Kyle is extremely forgettable as a character, but also VERY ODD because he’s brought up and gets a name, but his connection to Joey isn’t explained. It seems like it would be simple enough -- “met Kyle through X and he’s the one that started taking me to upscale parties and speakeasies” or whatever, and it’s especially odd because his time with Kyle seems tangled up with some experiences he finds really life-changing; finally being dressed sharply and going to fancy parties and becoming the picture of Joey Drew that he'd always wanted to become, of finally having someone who calls him “Joey” without needing to be corrected from “Joseph.” It seems important to him, but also, he doesn’t want to talk about it.

So, that’s where he gets interesting -- Dreamfisher was the first person I saw pointing it out, but basically, if you stop and connect the dots, there’s probably a really important reason that Joey isn’t explaining who Kyle is or what their connection is: if Kyle is paying for all of Joey’s high-end experiences and clothes. Joey hadn’t started the studio yet -- he didn’t even have the idea for it until the art show with Henry a year later -- so there’s no way he’s actually worked up to being able to afford all of this from working at a bookstore. Joey outright says that Kyle enjoys his company but also that Kyle doesn’t trust his business sense, so, uh…….why is Kyle pouring money into making him pretty, exactly…….

Obviously, The Illusion of Living never directly says they were romantically involved, and it’s possible they weren’t. Joey never directly says Kyle bought his new clothes. But it really feels like the cleanest, simplest explanation for the bits we're given, and the specific hints towards this maybe being a gay-friendly speakeasy make it very believable that this implication wasn’t an accident. And like, reading it in that light works. Why were they waiting for Kyle's car -- that implies Kyle was dropped off at Joey's place earlier, after they got him his fancy suit and shoes, like Kyle wanted to be there when Joey got dressed. In the book Joey grumbles about how he never approved of Kyle, but in the moment he's making jokes and dancing around the room to make Kyle laugh.

Anyway, to answer your question, Kyle is briefly mentioned as a rich friend of Joey’s who takes him to the speakeasy where he runs into Nathan again. I personally think they were smooching.

[lucky-dreamfisher]

On one hand, Kyle is indeed sus. On the other hand, Nathan doesn’t question Joey’s story and he was there at the party. Surely, he must’ve met Kyle at some point during the night, seeing as Joey accompanied him. Perhaps Joey has a reason to not want to divulge too much information about the man, who spent a shitload of money on him for some reason. Especially if my guess is right regarding the reason ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) 

I don’t think Bendy not speaking in BATDS is a strong enough evidence to discount the possibility of it being him. But yeah, if it isn’t him, then Nathan is the only other logical choice. Unless it’s some completely new character.

Pretty sure that’s the case, yeah. And seeing as we now know that Disney exists in this universe, it means that Joey deliberately ripped off the title lol

Bendy doesn’t have the same power as Audrey. The Projectionist survived getting punched by him, and Henry survives his slap in chapter 5. Screen going black after he catches you in the previous chapters is just gameplay mechanics.

That said, Bendy may have a soul after all, and it would be intriguing to find out whose.

Nope, and yes. It’s the texture file for the area in the old BATDR trailer.

The only lore-relevant thing she said was that Joey doesn’t really lie, because he genuinely believes his words. This kinda clashes with his audio log in Chapter 4, but my friend suggested that maybe that audio log was made a couple years after Joey published TIOL, and he suffered something of a crisis of faith when the studio’s problems turned out to be too big to just wish them away with positive thinking.