#i like the idea of susie being a monster raised in a human environment and lashing out by being So Monster

[tigergendermoved2tigergender]

The idea of Susie growing up in an all human town makes me a little mentally ill actually

[timeclonemike]

Delta Rune Speculation

So it’s been two weeks, and there’s already 200 plus fics on AO3 and dozens of remixes and arrangements of the soundtrack on YouTube. That’s not even touching on the theories that are coming together. I recently saw one theory that double downed on the whole discarded classroom with toys thing, with the Darkners basically being a “Toy Story” scenario and the Spade King trying to pull a “Small Soldiers” scenario.

And while the parallels between the Darkners and assorted toys, and the layout of the Dark World and the Classroom, are all too much of an overlap to ignore, I suspect that there’s something more to the whole game than simply toys coming to life and wanting revenge for not being played with. I had some thoughts that I contributed in my reblog of that person’s theory, but this post is a little bit more meta, and concerns itself primarily with the tone of the final game, if and when it gets completed. But first, we need to talk a little bit about Undertale. I’ll make it quick, I promise.

Simply put, the big thing that made Undertale stand out was how your choices distinctly affected the world you were in, and the way people responded to you based on those choices. The sheer difference in tone and content between True Pacifist and Genocide is about as different and distinct as you can get in any game that features multiple endings, especially when many games opted to make the multiple endings contingent on last second choices (Deus Ex instantly comes to mind) rather than being something that you had to commit to. Not only that, but even the small choices in the sense of dialog, the order in which characters were spoken to, and even the use and contents of your inventory meant that the game had more “immersion” in the sense of responding dynamically to player choice than a lot of Triple A games with hyper-realistic graphics engines.

The way Undertale responded to different choices was a twist, then attraction, and finally a statement about how people saw the world and interacted with it. Especially those who thought that actions taken in this isolated digital environment had no consequences beyond that environment. It was a game about how people acted when they had tremendous power to influence the world.

Therefore, I think that the meaning of Delta Rune’s “your choices don’t matter” and “nobody can choose who they are in this world” is that the game will be about how people respond when confronted by circumstances they can’t control.

For more of my rambling, click the link below.

I’ll be addressing three main points: The nature of the Dark World and the Fountains of Darkness, the Dichotomy between how choice is handled in the Light and Dark Worlds, and the few clues that we have about W D Gaster and his influence.

1. The Nature of the Dark World.

The playing card themed enemies, the puzzle pieces, the chess board and the crowned checker piece, plus some of the hints about Ralsei’s nature and origin, all indicate that the Darkners have some connection with the toys in the unused classroom and probably the materials and objects in the supply closet as well. (I still do not know what those things were in the opening area of the Dark World that shot bullets at Kris, or the significance of all that black gooey dark stuff apparently coming out of the eye shaped structures.) Susie is not the type of person to let her guard down and just skip class with Kris while playing make believe all day... at least not at the start of the game... so the events of Chapter One had some foundation in reality.

This brings us to the fountains and the legend Ralsei shares. Everything hinges on a classic balance between opposing forces, in this case Light and Dark. Too much of one or the other will break the world in some way, and in this instance, there is an excess of Darkness. Under the direction of the mysterious Knight, and the Queen that only Jevil mentions if you kick his ass, the Spade King is seeking to upset the balance by increasing the Darkness. Assuming that Kris, Susie, and Ralsei don’t stop these fountains, then the same force at work in the Dark World that drew Susie and Kris into it will spread beyond the school, and into the rest of the town.

It is my position that Darkness in this case, represents Imagination, and its ability to create worlds symbolically. Keeping a balance between the physically real and the mentally real is important; too much of the physical and you end up in an All Work And No Play Makes Jack A Dull Boy scenario. The other way around, you spend too much time daydreaming - or consumed by anxiety - to deal with the actual problems in front of you. And just by talking to the people in Hometown after school, we can find all sorts of stuff that bothers people. Toriel and Asgore’s estrangement, Noelle’s father and her worries about him, Alphys being lonely, and so on. In a Dark World where people’s thoughts and ideas take on physical forms, these everyday worries become living nightmares. It is THAT scenario that the Fun Gang will have to prevent or reverse from Chapter Two onward.

2. In Which World Do Choices Not Matter?

No matter which way you play Delta Rune, you leave the Dark World at the end. In that sense, none of the choices you made matter. Only if you did a pacifist run, you have the chance to go back and say goodbye to a number of characters you encountered before. Sort of an Undertale Epilogue Lite. If you went to town on everybody, you get chased back to the Light World instead. So in a way, your choices DID matter.

On the other hand, no matter what you do in the Light World, you’re still Kris, the token human in a monster town, with estranged parents and an older brother that probably outshines the heck out of you if all those trophies and award certificates mean anything. You can’t help smooth things over between Toriel and Asgore, you can’t even hint at Undyne and Alphys getting together, and no matter what you tell Noelle, she’s still got a one track mind regarding Susie and is concerned that you are pranking her again. About all you can do is choose to be mean or nice to Onionsan; everyone else still thinks you’re some weird creepy human kid with a history of pranking, whose main redeeming feature as a person is apparently some skill at the piano. Nothing you do can change that, even if being more talkative than normal is out of character enough for folks to notice.

But then again, in the Light World, nobody can choose who they are. Choices don’t matter because so much of Kris’s life is defined by everyone else. And even those lives are more defined by primal fears like Toriel’s loneliness and deep seated resentment, Asgore’s pushover-ness, Mr. Holiday’s health, Alphys’ anxiety, and so on and so forth.

As the Dark World starts to influence the rest of town, and imagination and thought starts to overwrite physical reality, the Fun Gang’s choices will suddenly carry more weight. Maybe not enough to change everything once the Fountains are sealed, but enough to make a difference. Such as the difference between Noelle being totally inconsolable over the loss of her father, and Noelle having the opportunity for closure. Or Toriel at least agreeing to be civil towards Asgore, even if they still never get back together. Or Burgie being able to find a much better job. :P

Or Kris being seen not as “the human” or “Asriel’s brother” but as Kris, a person in town with more depth than just a history of pranks and a creepy disposition.

3. Oh Gaster, Where Art Thou?

The announcement for the Demo, the “character / vessel creation” process at the beginning, the music playing during the vessel creation sequence, the Man who gives Kris an Egg if he is found, the Entry 17 Sound FX from the cell phone in the Dark World, and the slowed down version of the same sound playing around that Mysterious Bunker south of town all point towards Gaster’s involvement in the events of Delta Rune, one way or another. Given the limited information available so far, it’s not entirely clear if he’s working towards increasing the amount of Darkness, towards stabilizing the imbalance, if he’s simply observing events with no regard for the outcome, or if for some reason he requires US as observers for the events of Delta Rune, whatever they are.

But using what little we know, we can make a few educated guesses.

First, the Egg Kris can get from the Man behind the tree, who cannot be seen and will vanish if the Egg is not accepted, is the ONLY item from the Dark World that stays the same back in the Light World. The swords become pencils, and all the other stuff accumulated in the Dark World becomes the Ball of Junk that Kris does not want to throw away, but the Egg is still an Egg. Sort of. It can be put into Asgore’s Fridge, but if this is done, somehow it turns the pickle jar into another Egg. Which raises a number of questions. Unless you hold onto it for later in the full game, or throw it away, this is the only thing you can do with the Egg as far as I know. Almost as if the only reason it exists in the world is so that Asgore can have something to eat besides pickles.

Second, Jevil’s misanthropy follows his interaction with a visitor to the kingdom, and I do not remember if this visitor was specifically stated to be the Knight mentioned by Jevil or the Spade King. The way he treats the entire world like a game fits the same meta as Flowey’s attitude after being stuck in a Determination fueled time loop for ages in Undertale, but it also aligns with the Darkner world’s toy theme. And of course Seam drops the “darker yet darker” line on us regarding his view of the world after dealing with Jevil... but at the same time, this is a literal Dark World. Kris and Susie noticed that the light was getting low in the school hallway before they even stepped inside the supply closet, so it’s not out of the question that Gaster’s experiment, whatever it was, involved discovering the Dark World.

And, while this is purely me stacking conjecture on top of conjecture here, keep in mind what I said earlier about the Dark World being a world where the power of Imagination can literally create a world. Then consider one of the lines of the Gaster Followers from Undertale: Gaster fell into his own creation. As Gaster was the Royal Scientist, it seemed logical to infer that his creation was some sort of machine or technology, such as the CORE or whatever is under the sheet in Sans’ workshop in Snowdin Town. But maybe what he fell into was a completely different reality... possibly one of his own design.

(Note to self: Undertale / Secret Of Evermore Crossover Fic. Add it to the list.)

Third, the vessel we are asked to create at the start of Delta Rune has the word Goner as part of the filenames of the assets. Its appearance also matches that of the other Gaster Followers in Undertale; greyscale, uncanny valley, and just different enough from the character we end up seeing in the game (Kris) to make the similarities stand out. Keeping in mind we still don’t know what the significance is of the Gaster Followers or Goners is in Undertale, or how exactly they relate to Gaster himself. In the completed game, though, we may have the opportunity to find out... behind the bunker doors south of town, where the slowed down Entry 17 sound is playing. (It’s also location 17, so there’s a definite number element going on here.) The thing about bunkers if that they are almost always made to protect something inside them. So unless this is a fallout or storm shelter for the folks in town (and we can’t read Gerson’s book in game so we have no idea what the political climate is between humans and monsters is in this world, though if they were really bad then somebody would probably mention it in dialog) then it’s probably intended to keep the people of the town from finding something. Like an experiment that went wrong. Or went right, for that matter.

Or, maybe the bunker is one of those less common cases where it protects everything outside it by locking something inside, for any of the reasons already stated. Either way, there might be a real True Lab situation down there.

Finally... has anyone else besides me noticed that the graphics in the background during the Vessel Creation Sequence look almost exactly the same as the background of the Fountain of Darkness that Kris and Susie use to go home, just without the playing card suites? Where exactly is that taking place?

One last thing that brings my whole post full circle; regarding the ending cutscene before the credits and Don’t Forget song, I wonder if the entire thing isn’t just Kris’s nightmare; the body rips out the Soul that used to be inside and locks it up, and is free to do who knows what after that. If Kris is aware that the player is influencing them in any way, that whole sequence could be brought on by their fears about losing autonomy, either partially or entirely.

Which brings us back to the whole “your choices don’t matter” thing.

[nyrandrea]

Bond

So yeah, I said that I was going to hold off writing anything else before Chapter 3 came out but here we are again, pfft. Just can't help myself, I guess.

I really wanted to explore the whole bond idea between Henry and Bendy because it was just too interesting to /not/ write about it. So once again, this story is inspired by the 2D Bendy AU created by @shinyzango, go check out her amazing art!

Enjoy! 

The pure raw emotion that he felt was still surging through his body.

Henry kept an eye on his surroundings as he walked, narrowing his eyes as he half expected the walls to start warping or Sammy to come back from the dead and start attacking him at any given moment. He shook his head, he shouldn't be thinking about that right now.

The older man was slowly making his way down what seemed to be yet another department in the studio, the building was so big and every room and corridor looked so similar to each other. Was he even going the right way anymore? He didn't really know.

There were small rooms dotted about the corridors, Henry made sure to check each and every one in the hopes that there would be some kind of clue as to what had happened to the studio and more importantly, everyone in it. Some rooms held radios that played catchy tunes from the old cartoon show, Bendy had insisted that they stayed so that they could listen, making up an excuse that the songs might hold some kind of deep secret. Henry simply obliged, smiling whenever he saw the demon tapping his foot to the beat or hummed along to the music.

Other rooms held more significant items, the most important being small tapes that held voice recordings from other employees: Norman, Wally, Susie and...Sammy. Every time he heard the music director's voice, it made him think back to that dream. The way that Sammy's ink covered limbs were twisted, how out of proportion his arms and legs were, his impossibly angled head... 

'No...' Henry thought. ‘Not now. I need to focus.’

But his mind just kept wandering back to the bizarre dream, or rather, nightmare. The hideous monsters, the distorted studio, Sammy and...Bendy. He glanced a quick look at the little toon, who was sitting cross legged on the black line, happily chatting away about a gag that he and Boris had performed during an episode of the cartoon show.

The little demon looked so...different compared to what he had seen in his dreamscape, he was so big and... monstrous. But despite how terrifying he looked, he was still the same Bendy inside. But... he had never ever seen that kind of form before, not even when the devil had went completely crazy.

Then there was those intense sensations that suddenly went through him when he touched Bendy, along with those visions: The two figures at the ink machine, the clarinet, the large golden ring...what did it all mean? Maybe...

“...And then Boris tried to lure the sheep away with his clarinet! But I wasn't havin' none of that, so then I-“

“Bendy.” Henry hastily interrupted. He didn't want to ruin the cartoon's good mood, but he had to know if Bendy knew anything or rather...felt anything. Luckily the little demon didn't seem to be annoyed at all at the sudden interruption.

“Huh? What's up Henry? You feeling ok?” Bendy replied with a somewhat worried look.

“Yeah, I'm fine, don't worry.” Henry quickly said, not wanting to cause the toon any upset, God knows that he done that too many times already. Bendy sighed in relief and gestured for the man to continue.

“I was just wondering...” He started, not really knowing how to put this into words. “Back when you touched your head against mine...did you feel anything...weird? Like...any pain or...?” Henry cringed at his bad wording of the question, he honestly didn't even know how to describe it.

Bendy looked down in deep thought for a few moments before looking back up to the human with a small frown.

“No...I didn't really feel anything like that. Just relieved that ya were alright. Why? Did you feel pain? A-are ya alright?” The demon asked, a nervous tone in his voice.

Henry frowned in thought for a moment, before smiling calmly. “I’m fine Bendy, just must be old age catching up to me, nevermi-“ 

The older man’s eyes widened slightly in mild astonishment when he felt a surprisingly strong tug on his thumb. Looking down, he saw that Bendy had stood up and was currently grasping at it, holding it down in a defiant manner.

“Don’t lie to me, Henry.” The cartoon said, his tone of voice was firm, like he wasn't prepared to take any more nonsense.

“What? Bendy, I'm not-“ Another tug. The devil gave him a sombre look.

“Please Henry...I’m begging ya...” Bendy replied in a more pleading manner. “I know that yer lyin' to me, please don't do that, ya gotta spit it out.” He looked down for a moment, before continuing. 

“Pals tell each other stuff, they don't keep secrets.” Bendy said as he gave the human a determined look, who in return, was looking down at him with a rather perplexed expression.

“Bendy, I...” The man sighed, he was right, he shouldn't be lying. But Henry was the proud type that never really shared his troubles, he mostly either dealt with them on the spot or brushed them off to the side if the situation was too dire to deal with it. He had been doing the latter a lot lately.

“Wait.” Henry started, raising an eyebrow at the small demon. “How can you be so sure that I'm lying?” He questioned, he wasn't exactly the best at keeping secrets, but Bendy had never straight up called him out for it before.

The devil in question let go of Henry's thumb and blinked in surprise, before shrugging and replying in a cheerful manner. “Dunno. I just do. Call it uh...” Bendy paused for thought before snapping his fingers and pointing up at the man with a smirk. 

“Intuition!” He exclaimed, looking very pleased with himself.

Henry simply gave the toon an amused look. “Right...” He looked back forward with a small frown.

There had to be more to it than that. Bendy seemed so...sure, like he absolutely knew without a doubt that the older man was hiding something. Maybe it had something to do with the...thing that he felt. Did Bendy feel it too? It was like they were...somehow linked...

But before Henry could get too deep into his thoughts, Bendy's voice piped back up, catching his attention once again.

“So how's the leg, Henry? Ya don't seem to be limping as much as before.” Bendy said with a joyful grin. “Do ya think it's healed up now?” Henry chuckled.

“Well, I don't know about 'healed up' but...” He tested the injured leg out, walking on it without the axe crutch, and smiled when he seemed to manage quite a few steps before leaning on the axe's handle again. “I think it's getting there though, bud.”

The little demon's face immediately lit up, his grin growing even bigger as he clasped his gloved hands together. “Oh Henry, that's great! You'll be better in no time at all!” 

“Yeah...” The man simply replied with a small relaxed smile. Bendy really knew how to keep him motivated, even in the most dire of situations, he was an absolute Godsend in this Hell of a studio, ironic as that may seemed.

The light mood was suddenly cut though, as a clanking sound from above immediately caught both of their attention.

“...Henry...?” Bendy nervously whispered, glancing up in fear.

The older man narrowed his eyes and stopped walking, cautiously glancing around as the sound stopped, leaving silence to engulf the area once more. Henry didn't dare to move yet though, he knew there was something here with them, he could sense it.

So could Bendy apparently, as the little toon quickly grasped onto his thumb and tugged it in a panicked frenzy.

“Henry! We gotta move! It's-!”

A loud moaning from the pipes cut him off, and their gazes quickly shot up to the ceiling. Ink oozed and dripped from the pipes, creating a small puddle on the floor, just in front of Henry's feet. The black liquid bubbled and grew larger as splodges of ink dropped down, the man didn't even waste any time on waiting to see what was going to sprout out from the puddle and hopped over it to run away as fast as he possibly could. He already knew what it was.

Or rather, who it was.

A loud, ear piercing screech sounded out from behind him, urging the man to try and move faster. 

'How the Hell did that thing manage to find us so fast?' Henry angrily thought as he limped as fast as he possibly could.

Although his injured leg was nearly healed, it still slowed him down a considerable amount. But unlike the dreamscape, 'Bendy's twisted leg was also a huge hindrance to it.

The difference between him and it though, was that the creature had grown used to it's deformed limb, and had adapted to the environment a lot longer than he had, giving it the clear advantage.

Henry suddenly felt a shot of fear go through him, but it didn't feel like his own, not to say that he wasn't afraid, he was just more suppressed about it. No, this was pure, unfiltered terror. The man looked down at Bendy, who's face was frozen in dread, the little cartoon looked like a deer caught in headlights. 

“Bendy? Bendy, listen to me.” Henry urged, in between breaths. “You have to snap out of it, bud. Please!” 

The toon simply kept staring ahead, quietly muttering. Another scream sounded out from behind, much louder and closer this time.

“Bendy!” Henry shouted, his voice was quickly drowned out from a distorted screech.

“Shit!” He swore as he stopped and turned on his heels, readying his axe to face the monster head on. There was no way he was going to be able to outrun this thing, so there was no choice in the matter but to fight it, injured leg be damned. The ink creature leapt towards the human with his gloved claws fully protracted, while Henry raised his axe to strike.

His eyes widened though when he felt a sudden stinging pain in the back of his head, the instinct to protect washed over him like a wave, the piece of paper in his hand suddenly lurched.

“NO!” A deep and distorted voice suddenly screamed out as a large black shape literally leaped out from the paper with sheer force, sending Henry flying to the floor.

He landed with a thud, and held his head as he felt a swirl of emotions go straight through him, the two most prominent being fear and rage. It made his mind spin with confliction, making him feel extremely dizzy, he had to fight the overwhelming urge to throw up.

A pain induced screech filled the hallway as the large black shape collided with the creature, sending it crashing to the ground. Henry slowly sat up while still clutching his head, and looked up to see Bendy hovering over him, his back arched and large body covering him to prevent the other monster from getting any kind of view of the man.

“Bendy...how...how are you...?” Henry stammered, his eyes as wide as saucers. Bendy had never been able to just...leap out of the page like that before. The demon always needed some kind of living ink to draw upon in order to physically form outside of the paper. 

‘This...How the Hell is this even possible...?' The older man internally questioned, holding his still pounding head.

'Bendy' managed to finally stand up properly, after having a bit of difficulty with it's twisted leg, and hissed at them both, to which the larger and much bulkier Bendy replied with a low and deep snarl. The demon kept his stance and raised one of his large, dripping arms off the ground slightly, as if he was threatening the smaller creature to back off. The thinner monster simply hissed back and splayed it’s long, thin claws, getting ready to strike. Henry could easily tell what was about to happen, and knew all to well that he had to get out of the way if he didn't want to get caught in the middle.

Bendy seemed to catch onto this thought as well as Henry suddenly felt a large hand slowly and gently push him to the side, the demon moved directly in front of him while doing so in order to completely block the other creature's sight of him, which resulted in a snap reaction, as it suddenly roared and charged for him. 

The two monsters clashed against each other, sending ink flying everywhere. Bendy tried to grab the slippery creature as it climbed onto his body and started to rake it’s needle-like claws into his back, causing him howl out in pain. It's sadistic grin grew wider as it kept slashing and hacking away, but the smile was soon wiped away as it was suddenly rammed into the wall, making it let out a pained screech. Bendy slammed his body into the wood in order to try and get the lanky monster off of him, but it's claws were dug in so deep that it managed to just about hang on. 

Henry stared dumbfounded as the two monsters kept roughly scrapping with each other, it was like watching two feral animals fight to the death, it was...it was awful.

He looked up and cringed as the walls around them groaned in protest at the sudden weight being thrown into them, the building was going to collapse around them if this kept up, and Bendy was clearly having a tough time, he had to try and help get that thing off of him.

Henry slowly stood up, his injured leg trembled and ached in protest as he did, the sudden running and falling to the ground had done a bit of a number on the injury, setting back the healing process yet again, but he had no time to dwell on that now. 

The older man grabbed onto his axe and used the wall as a support as he raised the weapon into the air. He only had one shot at this, he had to make it count.

It was extremely difficult to aim though as the two ink monsters wouldn't stay still for a single moment, Bendy kept turning on the spot, trying to reach behind him to grab the smaller creature while it kept clambering around his body, using it's clawed hands as climbing picks. It didn't help the fact that ink kept flying everywhere, obstructing his view. It was so damn hard to focus.

'C'mon...I just need an opening...!' He frustratingly thought as he tried to zone in on the smaller monster. 

Bendy suddenly turned towards Henry and nodded with a determined look, before turning his back to the man in order to expose the smaller demon, making it look around in a confused manner at the sudden movement. 

The human blinked in confusion as well. 

'How did he know to...?' Henry shook his head, this wasn't the time to be questioning anything. He flung the axe towards 'Bendy' and struck it right in the head, making it scream and clutch at it's injury, resulting in it slipping off and falling to the ground in a crumpled heap. 

It pulled the axe out, spraying the floor and walls with black liquid, and slowly turned it's injured head towards Henry, growling lowly.

The human had no time to react as it charged for him with it's claws out, the stinging pain in his head suddenly peaked, the underlying rage that he had been feeling came out at full force, there was so much going on that all that Henry could do was freeze in terror.

A booming roar sounded out as an enormous, jet black clawed hand struck out and slammed 'Bendy' down before it could get anywhere near the man.

He watched with wide eyes as the creature shrieked and writhed under the claws that pinned it down, he swallowed a large lump in his throat as he felt a raw and primal instinct take over him, the impulsive urge to tear something apart ate away at his mind, he felt like he was going to be physically sick again.

The hand dragged 'Bendy' back and threw it across the hallway, Henry gazed up to see a large black shape looming over him. Sure enough, it was Bendy, but his usually goofy grin was now a fang filled, sadistic looking sneer. His fingers were as sharp as knives, his horns had grown slightly deformed, and the once rounded white pupil in his eye was now a tiny thin slit. It had happened again, Bendy had lost control.

Henry kept his breathing shallow as Bendy stared down at him, he didn't dare to make any sudden movements, he knew that his friend was unstable in this form, and the last thing that he wanted to do was provoke him. But as the beast looked directly into his eyes, he felt it again, the trust, the overwhelming urge to protect. 

Was...was Bendy still somehow in control?

A loud shriek caught their attention, interrupting Henry's thoughts, as the other 'Bendy' prowled back over towards them both with it's claws out, it's limp was much more obvious than before though, indicating that it was weakened, maybe even injured. But it still looked as though it was up for a fight, as it hissed lowly in a threatening manner.

Bendy turned his back to Henry and growled back in a much more distorted and deeper tone than before and arched his back, the rising droplets of ink on his shoulders flared furiously, his claws dug deep into the floor, making the wood creak.

 The two creatures stared in silence for a heartbeat before yet another fight ensued, this time Bendy being the first to attack.

The scuffle didn't last nearly as long as the last fight though as Bendy completely wrecked the creature this time. He didn't even give it a chance to try any kind of futile attempt to attack, and after a few moments of hitting it around, he swiped it away, sending the creature crashing to the wooden floor. Henry felt a feeling of satisfaction flow through him, and looked up at Bendy to see a smug grin on the demon’s face. 

The smaller monster whined in pain and wasted no time in retreating, as it dissolved into a black puddle and seeped through the cracks of the floorboards before any finishing blow could be made, resulting in an aggravated growl from Bendy.

It had escaped once again.

Henry simply blinked and breathed a sigh of relief as he leaned against the wall. The immediate danger was gone, at least. But he still felt the rage inside him gradually build up, and glanced back up at Bendy, extremely nervous at the fact that he was growing more unstable by the minute. To say that the demon was seething was a severe understatement.

No, he was absolutely livid.

The older man had to cover his ears as Bendy let out an ear-splitting roar and started attacking everything that was around him in a wild frenzy. He crushed the few tables and chairs that were in the area and launched them at the walls, before angrily swiping at the pipes that were on the ceiling, his claws cleanly sliced them, sending ink spilling everywhere, it was pretty surprising that no Searchers formed from the liquid, perhaps they knew to stay away from the danger.

Henry kept a hand on his head and clenched his eyes shut as he felt an extremely powerful mixture of nothing but negative emotions swirl around in his mind: anger, shame, grief, bitterness, insecurity...there was so many. 

By this point, he was absolutely positive that this had everything to do with his nightmare, it must have formed some kind of...connection between them, somehow. He knew that these horrible thoughts was what Bendy was feeling right now, and that he had to calm the raging demon down, one way or another.

He took a deep breath and tried to mentally suppress the chaos that he felt, maybe if he calmed the emotions down within himself, then Bendy would also feel a little better.

The older man felt a twinge of something, and opened his eyes to see Bendy staring right at him with a still slightly crazed look, the remains of a destroyed chair in his clawed hand. Henry swallowed, if he didn't play this right, he was probably going to end up getting crushed himself...

'No...' Henry internally scowled at himself. ‘He wouldn't do that. Not after all the crap we've been through together. I can do this.’ 

Bendy half-heartedly threw the wooden debris in his hand to the side, and growled as he quickly made his way towards Henry. He stopped right in front of the human and snarled ferociously into his face, before raising an enormous clawed hand to strike him down.

‘It’s now or never...' Henry determinedly thought as he quickly reached up to lay a gentle hand on the monster’s face, just next to his widened eye.

The demon’s clawed hand stopped and hovered in mid-air.

“You’re alright, Bendy...” Henry coaxed softly, still trying to suppress the horrible thoughts that kept piercing his mind. “It’s ok now... you don't need to fight anymore, we're safe...” The man said with a small sympathetic smile. He suddenly felt himself become exhausted, but he kept soothing the large demon.

The emotions started to die down as Bendy made a confused sound. His horns simplified in shape, his fangs and claws softened and the white slit that was his pupil rounded up again. 

Henry breathed a sigh of relief. His friend was back once more, and his aching head had subsided for now.

Bendy looked up at his raised arm in confusion, before looking back down at Henry, he seemed to put two and two together swiftly as big black tears suddenly welled up in his eye. Henry was quick to comfort him however, as he started rubbing the side of the monster's head in an affectionate manner. The tears rolled off of Bendy’s cheek and dripped down Henry's hand and arm, staining them, but at this point he didn't even mind.

“No, no...don't worry, you didn't attack me this time, bud. You're gaining more control over that form of yours, you did real good...ok?” Henry softly said as he tried to ease the large demon, who lowered his head and whined. 

The man felt himself get pulled in for a gentle embrace, which he gladly returned.

“Yeah, everything is alright...” He soothed. As they hugged, Henry suddenly felt a sort of serenity wash over his mind, which was certainly a nice change from the fear and dread that he had felt just moments before.

But the moment was short lived as he noticed that Bendy was becoming increasingly heavier, and looked up to see that the devil had his eye closed and was letting out a soft snoring sound, making the older man chuckle.

As amusing as it was though, Henry had to wake him up before he was going to accidentally get crushed.

“Uh...Bendy...?” No response came from the monster, so he tried gently tapping his cheek. “C’mon bud...I know you need to rest but...not on me, please.” He half joked, honestly not wanting to have to try and move a huge sleeping ink demon, he was too tired to move himself to be quite frank.

Bendy finally responded to him and broke up the embrace, leaving the poor man drenched with black ink, the demon grinned amusedly at the sight before letting out a tired yawn. Henry smiled as he picked up his axe and had a look around.

“Well, we should probably get some rest. But not out here, it's too...open.” It felt a little ironic saying that in an enclosed building. “We should look for one of those small rooms, there should probably be one down-“

Henry felt an arm wrap around him and lift him up, he looked up at Bendy, who had already started to move. The monster grinned cheerfully and nodded, seemingly knowing where to go without Henry really having to say. Henry blinked, this whole...connection thing was really difficult to comprehend.

But right now he was far too exhausted to even question it, so he simply let Bendy carry him to a small room that held storyboards for the old cartoon show, black ink was splattered all over the cheerful drawings. It was a sad sight.

 Bendy gently set Henry down onto the floor before completely dissolving into a black puddle, the older man picked up the piece of paper and set it on his knee as he sat his back against the wall. 

He simply smiled when he saw that the little toon was already completely passed out.

“Sleep tight, bud...” 

It didn't take that long before Henry felt his eyelids drop in sheer tiredness as well, he only prayed that he would, for once, have a peaceful few hours of sleep. He and Bendy deserved that much, at the very least.

I'm so sorry if I butchered the bond thing but hey, at least I gave it my best shot. xD

Let me know what y'all think!

Chapter 1 - Friend - https://nyrandrea.tumblr.com/post/160888670286/friend

Chapter 2 - Rest - https://nyrandrea.tumblr.com/post/160888769001/rest

Chapter 3 - Enemy - https://nyrandrea.tumblr.com/post/160963746341/enemy

Chapter 4 - Family - https://nyrandrea.tumblr.com/post/161237849016/family

Chapter 5 - Nightmare - https://nyrandrea.tumblr.com/post/161560167591/nightmare