#i feel like pearl when she’s yelling @the projectionist

[cyber444angel]

happy 1 year anniversary to meeting someone who truly made me internalize the concept of attachment being the root of all suffering :’)))

[thesilverdreamer]

Reasons To Not Leave Demonic Spellbooks Laying Around

A brief fic I wrote some months ago taking place in @star-going-supernova‘s Inky Eyes Golden Heart AU. Henry comes back from lunch to find that there’s something very wrong in the studio, starting with his fellow employees laying unconscious on the floor, and continuing to the trail of blood leading from Joey’s office down to the basement.

I try not to comment on my own writing, but I feel I should mention that I wrote this back in January then forgot about it, so there’s some aspects that aren’t quite in line with what Star has since established about the IEGH-verse. Nevertheless, I’m here for the character interactions :)

A quick lunch turned into an hour long detour keeping a kid from trying to wreak demonic vengeance on their bullies, but Henry was pretty sure Joey wouldn’t be too upset since he was the one who insisted Henry take a lunch. Probably.

All thought of how Joey would react fled from Henry’s head as he entered the studio, and felt a sensation like a bucket of cold water poured over his head.

“What in the world?” he said quietly, stepping slowly into the studio.

Henry nearly tripped over the next sign that something was wrong; not only the front receptionist, but he realized as he looked in the direction of the animation department and spotted a couple of scenery artists, they had all passed out on the floor, sleeping in the middle of the day.

No, he realized, as he tried to wake Sherry, the receptionist, and got no reaction. Not asleep—unconscious.

She wasn’t the only one. The artists, too, and the rest of the animators, all unconscious at their desks. The same was true in the administrative department, every last employee was dead to the world.

It didn’t take long for Henry to realize that Joey was nowhere to be found. It took even less time for him to find the trail of blood leading out of Joey’s office. The blood led him to the main stairwell, and Henry descended silently, down, down to the basement. Once, it had been the site of strange and supernatural rituals, but these days it was mostly just storage.

The door to the basement had been blown inward, completely off the hinges. Henry quietly rolled up his sleeves.

“Well, well, well, it finally shows up.”

Henry’s lip curled as he rounded the corner, and his heart skipped a beat.

Across the room, there stood Sammy Lawrence, old Norman the projectionist, and lovely Susie Campbell. Their eyes, iris, sclera, and all had turned completely black, but Henry could still feel their eyes on him. Far more important was his best friend Joey Drew on the floor at Sammy’s feet, beaten and bloody, but somehow still conscious, visibly trembling.

Sammy held up a black book that Henry knew too well. “Really shouldn’t keep this stuff lying around, you know. All it takes is one little accident, a spilled drop of blood on the wrong page; normally I’d ignore some idiot human not even looking for a deal, but then, oh, when I got a whiff of your scent? I just couldn’t resist the chance to ruin your day, and neither could my friends here.”

Henry was very quiet as he said, “I will give you one chance to release the humans you are possessing and leave this place.”

“See, that’s your problem!” Sammy, or rather, the demon possessing Sammy Lawrence said. “You’re so attached to these humans—and instead of taking their souls, you make the most worthless ‘deals’ with them.”

Sammy used his foot to put Joey on his back and stomped on Joey’s hand so hard you could hear the bones breaking. Henry felt sick.

“What’s the name you use?” Sammy said with mocking curiosity. “It’s something extraordinarily dull...”

Joey had twisted himself to look over, and his voice was far too weak as he said, “P-please, Henry...h-help—“ Sammy casually put a foot on Joey’s head and started putting weight on it, and Joey groaned in pain.

“Henry! That’s it, Henry. So, here’s the way it’s gonna go, ‘Henry,’” Sammy said. “You’re going to take your punishment without complaint, and never make another deal in this city. Or, we’ll kill your pet human.” Sammy grinned unnaturally wide as he added, “Painfully.”

If Henry submitted, odds were good that not only would the rest of the staff be as good as dead, not only would Sammy, Norman, and Susie be used as vessels until their bodies broke from the abuse, and not only would a lot of people lose their souls without Henry making petty deals with them—but the demon possessing Sammy would certainly kill Joey, and Henry had lived through far too much for his best friend to die at the hands of some bottom-feeder trash.

“Well, pipsqueak?” Sammy said.

Henry paused, and then, he said like an overconfident high-schooler, “How about you come say that to my face?”

Sammy bristled. “You’re just as stupid as these humans, aren’t you?” He stepped over Joey, his flunkies moving with him.

And right as he passed under a vent, there was a light thunk, the vent came open, and Bendy dropped out beautifully right on Sammy’s head.

“Guess who!” Bendy yelled, putting his hands over Sammy’s eyes and holding on tight as Sammy flailed around trying to shake him off, roaring in indignation. “Now!”

Alice came leaping down from the top of a shelf, and Boris burst out of a box (one that was surely too small for him to fit) in a shower of packing peanuts. Alice grabbed her halo, stretched it out, and dropped it over Susie; with a swift yank, the halo shrunk, pinning Susie’s arms to her sides. Boris came up behind Norman and pulled his pants down to his ankles with a snicker. The old projectionist stumbled back, fell over, and landed on his bottom.

(Henry always loved his Toons like they were his own children, but he was particularly proud of them then, even as he was terrified to see them throwing themselves into danger; for god’s sake when felt the pulse of a faint demonic aura centered on the ceiling vent, he expected a water balloon, not a kamikaze attack.)

Alice and Boris got well out of the way, and Henry was moving then. Memorized Latin words spilled from his lips, and dark wisps of smoke pearled off his face. He grabbed Susie by the shoulder and forced her to the floor. Susie screamed obscenity, only to go silent as a cloud of black smoke was expelled from her mouth and nose and eyes. The cloud of smoke dropped through the floor leaving a charred mark, and Susie went limp.

Norman was starting to get a handle on himself, pulling his pants back on and getting to his feet, but not nearly fast enough. The demon had started a mantra that rang in Henry’s ears, but Henry’s continued chant drowned it out. Henry grabbed Norman by the front of his shirt, and the black smoke poured from his mouth, his eyes returned to normal, and Henry lowered Norman to the floor as the old man passed out.

Just then Sammy finally got a grip on Bendy’s arm and yanked the little demon off. “Why you little, I’ll deal with you later!” He threw Bendy like he weighed nothing, but Henry caught Bendy out of the air.

“I gotcha!” Henry said, as he moved Bendy to hold him with one arm. Bendy grabbed onto his shirt to keep from falling.

“When I get through with you, you’ll wish—“ was as far as the demon got, before Henry grabbed him by the lower half of his face.

Violet cracks like tear tracks had opened in Henry’s face. He wasn’t smiling. “Be quiet already. Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus...”

Sammy seemed to be having a seizure, shaking with his eyes rolling back in his head, skin going pale. It almost was like a cartoon when Henry pushed Sammy away and left the smoke cloud hanging in the air. Sammy hit the floor, and the demonic essence dropped, through the floorboards and straight back to whence it came.

In an instant, Henry was once more only human, pulling a hand through his hair. “Jesus Christ,” he swore.

“Don’t think he’s got anythin’ to do with this,” Bendy said. Henry moved him around, holding Bendy under the arms and bringing him to eye level.

“Are you alright? Are you hurt? The exorcism didn’t affect you, did it?”

Bendy shook his head. “I’m just fine, Henry! It’s Joey you should be worried about!”

“Joey!” Henry said, like he had forgotten. He set Bendy down and crossed the room in an instant, to where Joey was laying on the floor.

Joey was not looking great. He seemed to be covered in his own blood, he wasn’t quite lucid, but his eyes were open. Nothing Henry couldn’t fix, but no less horrifying to see.

Henry turned Joey onto his back and supported his head with his hand. “Alright, we’re alright, Joey? Joey, listen to me, if you can hear me, I’m going to heal you, but the first round’s on you, alright?” Henry said. Joey’s head lolled forward, and it was a stretch but Henry took it as a yes.

Henry pressed a hand to Joey’s sternum, and Joey’s body started pulling back together. Henry, of course, was well used to the sound of bones moving back in place, to seeing blood dry and turn to dust in an instant, to bleeding wounds stemming the flow and closing themselves with spiderweb-like strands of tissue stretched between the edges. That didn’t mean the Toons were as unflappable as he, and he hoped they would never need to become used to the messy process of healing a broken human body. They were giving Henry some space as he worked magick.

It seemed to take an eternity, but it was less than a minute before Joey was breathing without struggle, and then he came to life all at once, jerking upward and smacking his forehead into Henry’s, and both men reeled from the impact. Joey rubbed at his stinging forehead from where he laid. “Ow.”

“‘Ow?’” Henry said incredulously, as he made sure his nose wasn’t broken. “You get the stuffing beat out of you, and it’s the headbutt that makes you complain?”

“Well—I might have complained more, but I think Sammy broke my jaw when he jumped me,” Joey shot back. His eyes went wide in realization. “Sammy, wait, oh god—“

“Like He has anything to do with it,” Henry murmured.

“—what happened? I couldn’t, I heard them fall down,” Joey said, growing panicked as he tried to pick himself up and twisted around to look for his fallen employees.

Henry put a hand on Joey’s shoulder, to calm him and to keep him from hurting himself. “They should be fine, I exorcised the demons possessing them. The same should go for everyone upstairs, the auras must have knocked them out, but if they were hurt I can—“

A hand pulled at Henry’s sleeve. Alice was standing there, hesitant but concerned. She was trembling.

“Hey, it’s alright,” Henry said gently. No sooner had he opened his arms than Alice rushed forward into them, grabbing Henry like she never wanted to let go. “Shhh, we’re all okay.”

Bendy squeezed into Henry’s arms, too, and Boris wrapped up everyone, Henry, Bendy, Alice, and Joey in a great embrace.

“The bad guys are gone, everyone’s safe now,” Henry said. “Oof, you three, you were great, but—“ And he pulled back so he could actually look his Toons in the eyes. “Please, never do anything that dangerous ever again, you just about gave me a heart attack, you know that?”

Alice smiled a little as she wiped at her eyes. “Sorry, Henry, but it was all Bendy’s idea.”

“C’mon, Al!” Bendy protested. “Asides, I didn’t know what else to do!”

Joey supplied, “Could always sit there jaw dangling in shock until you get beaten bloody. Oh, no, that was me.” He winced at a sharp pain in his ribs.

“Are you okay?” Henry said quickly, putting a hand on Joey’s shoulder. He was like a concerned mother hen. “Did I miss something?”

“No, no, at least I don’t think so, just sore.”

“Hell, Joey, I thought for sure you and your dabbling were the biggest threats to the studio, I didn’t think anything like this could happen. My wards must have run out and I lost track of them, I’m so sorry.”

Joey just waved him off. “It’s not your fault at all, you aren’t the one who tried to kick my ribs in. But Henry’s right about you three,” he said, and redirected attention back to the Toons. “I, well, however it was that you weren’t knocked out, anything like this happens again and Henry isn’t here to save us humans’ skins, you get out of the studio straightaway, any other problems with people seeing you can be dealt with later. You get out, and you find Henry.”

Joey started pushing himself up, groaning with exertion, and Henry was quickly beside him giving him a hand, supporting him when he stumbled. “Maybe I should ‘dabble’ a little more in practical things, hm?”

“Yeah, and risk you exorcising me on accident?” Henry said. He clapped Joey on the shoulder. “Stick to plants, Joey.”

“I thought you couldn’t be exorcised, you don’t carry any sin, right?”

“If anyone could find a way, it would be you, on accident, probably turning yourself into a baked good in the process. Come on, better make sure Sam doesn’t have a concussion.”

Joey shook his head. “Right, right. So, hold on, you said something about I buy the first round? Was that a Deal?”

“Eeyup, helps with the, uh, bigger stuff.” Henry nudged Sammy with his foot as Boris helped Norman up.

“So, then, what would happen if I didn’t hold up my end of the deal, stiff you on the drinks?”

“You’d die,” Henry said casually.

Joey laughed. “Very funny. I—“ Henry just looked at him, raising a brow as though asking a question. “You...were joking, right?” Henry shrugged and turned away. “Henry! That’s not funny, Henry!”