#I even had an allison goes to the studio instead to find out what happened to her friend joey that contained a lot of toxic yuri

[youllallriseintheink]

Angel of the Ink Machine, Chapter 1: An Unlikely Encounter.

Alright, this was a long time coming. And by a long time, I mean I have literally had it in mind since Fall. As a result, I’m going to ignore new information from TIOL so that I can do it as I originally planned.

The premise of this AU is simple: Sammy leaves the studio instead of Henry, and as a result, Joey needs a new partner in crime. He finds one in Allison. Power struggles, sacrifices, passion, ecstasy and tragedy ensues.

---

Sammy never even bothered to formally quit the studio, and it fell on Henry to explain to Joey what had probably transpired.

“He told me a few days ago that he wanted to get Mr. Arch’s attention and maybe a job from him. Sorry to say, Joey, but I think he got what he wanted.”

Joey’s face twisted with disbelief and anger and then back to serenity. “No, Sammy loved it here! I’m sure he’ll be back soon- he’s probably just sick. And even if he isn’t, well, we don’t need him anyhow, do we, Henry? So long as we have each other.”

“Hm? Yeah.” Henry didn’t tell Joey that Nathan had made him an offer as well, and that he was beginning to regret not taking it.

After a few days, Joey accepted that Sammy was gone and promoted Jack to the head of the music department. It was better that way, anyhow- Jack wasn’t so demanding, and let Joey have more run of the music room when he wanted it.

For the next decade, things went along as usual. The studio grew, Henry remained Joey’s finest and most hardworking artist, and Joey even began to look into some dark magic that could help him make his vision for the studio a reality. Joey was, however, beginning to feel increasingly alone in his vision. Henry had grown bitter and distant to him over the years, and then quit. It was disappointing, but not a surprise. It left Joey feeling rather empty in the realization of how little he’d lost. The loyal, invaluable partner he’d once had had turned into just another artist years ago.

Joey needed another person who truly understood his vision. Sadly, he didn’t know anyone that could have fit the bill.

And then he found her.

The place he’d found her had been a speakeasy during the prohibition- a hub of all sorts of illegal affairs. Joey had come here for booze and the occasional round of cocaine during the prohibition and had discovered magic that way. Now, the prohibition was over, but criminals still came to peddle their wares, and Joey, a frequent user of magic now, still came to supply himself with books and reagents that couldn’t be found anywhere else. It was a sleazy place- dirty, greasy, full of prostitutes and men who looked like they could rob you. So it didn’t surprise Joey when a woman- mid-twenties, curvaceous, and on the tall side- approached him while he was buying potions. He figured it was just a prostitute trying to find a customer.

“I need three of the generic restorative ones.. And a vial of clean animal blood, and a liter of chloroform, please.”

The woman next to him chuckled. “You know that restorative potions are horrendously marked up, right? And you could get the animal blood... from an animal.”

Looking at the woman for the first time, Joey realized two things. First, the nearly knee-length pink dress and grey leather jacket she was wearing looked far too new and expensive and a bit too modest to be a prostitute’s, and she looked awfully healthy and clean for one. Secondly, he recognized her from somewhere. Still, he wouldn’t let the woman embarrass him. “Well, yes. But I haven’t practiced making my own yet, and I don’t want to test the first few on myself! And I just so happen to have plenty of money for them.”

The woman finally made eye contact with him. Light grey eyes, Joey noted. “Really? So, you been into magic long, Mr…”

“Drew. Joey Drew. And not too long. My specialty is in the demonic, but I’m experimenting with a bit of everything. Trying to figure out what will work with my vision. Yourself? Actually, why don’t we have this conversation somewhere more pleasant.” Joey paid the man for the potions, and the two walked out of the dark alleyway and into the city lights.

“My specialty is potions. I brew my own. I also really like charms.”

Joey’s eyes went wide. “Charms? You criticize me for buying potions, and you buy charms? There’s no way of even knowing if they work!”

“Well, unlike you, I’m not working towards any grand vision. I think charms work. I think they make my life better. And that’s good enough for me. Honestly, some magic users forget that magic is meant to enhance life, not fill some kind of void in it. Heck, I could say the same of some artists.”

“Funny you should mention art. I’m an artist. And my life’s goal is to reflect life in art. It seems we have a similar view on life, don’t we? It’s just that I want to be the one to show it to other people. Say- would you like to see a bit of my vision tonight?”

“Sure!” Allison said with a smile.

Joey took her to his car and held the door open for her.

“Oh. A gentleman. And a rich one, it looks like!”

“Yes. I own one of the greatest animation studios in the world: Joey Drew Studios.”

Allison giggled. “I’m no cartoon expert, but if it’s one of the greatest in the world, then why haven’t I heard of it?”

“Well, it might not be the very best yet, but it will be! Especially once the project I’m about to show you takes off.”

“Great!” Joey could see the excitement in her eyes, and he loved it.

“And what do you do, Ms. Pendle? I feel like we’ve met.”

Allison’s face darkened a little. “Well... I used to be a Broadway performer. I quit. You see, I have an ugly history with cocaine, and some of my coworkers were getting me back into it. I knew I couldn’t stay without it ruining my health... so I didn’t. I’m still trying to figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life, though.”

Joey could remember her now- a backup dancer in one of the plays he’d seen. He committed everything she’d said to memory, knowing it could be useful later on.

Before long, they were at the studio, and Joey showed her to the pedestal room.

“Wow. You got your entire staff to participate in your rituals? That’s amazing.”

“Just a few of them, actually. But yeah, a little power goes a long way when you’re dealing with magic. And this isn’t even half of it. Come. I assume you aren’t a vegetarian witch?”

“Well, I’ve never slaughtered an animal for magic, but I’m up for it so long as it’s not too often. It’s no different than meat, really.”

“Fair enough,” Joey said. Maybe it was stupid to trust this woman that he’d met this same night, but he got a good feeling about her. He just had to share everything with her. The elevator wasn’t romantic enough, so he took her to the ink machine, suspended with chains, and watched the amazement on her face as it lowered until its top was at floor level. Joey stepped onto the machine and pulled Allison along with him. He held her waist as the machine lowered until it hit the floor of the very basement.

“Wait a moment,” he said, before climbing down the machine and running to turn on the lights.

Allison’s heart was beating a million miles a minute looking at all the pentagrams on the floor, the supplies on the shelves, and the strange machinery. A small part of her was glad she’d packed a knife in her jacket pocket, especially given the human-sized iron cages. Mostly, though, she felt like she’d died and gone to magic-user heaven. Joey had thought she wouldn’t be scared off by this, and was more than happy to be proven correct.

“This is amazing!” Allison beamed. “What do you use it for?”

“Well… nothing good, yet. I’m trying to create life, but there’s only been failed attempts. Let you show you my best one.” Joey led her to a supply closet that only he had the keys for. The door opened to reveal a metal cage and little else. When Joey clicked on the lights, a mound of black sludge, maybe a foot and a half tall, made itself visible. A cartoonish mouth floated down about where an ear should be, and two black mounds that vaguely looked like pie-cut eyes rested at its base. “I don’t know what to do to improve results,” Joey admitted. “Ultimately, I want to bring my cartoons into the real world. But can you imagine me presenting this old thing on a stage?” Joey laughed. “Wouldn’t exactly have them cheering, now would it?”

“Hmm... well, it’s a long shot, but a while ago while I was traveling, I stayed with a witch for a while and learned the recipe for a special potion. I kind of... stole the recipe from her, so I don’t know all about how it works, but it’s had all kinds of effects on the substances I’ve used it in in the past. I once burned all my hair off by mixing it with shampoo! So, you wanna to see what happens when you mix it with ink?

“Why not?” Joey said. He was sure to hear an earfull from Thomas the next day about some mechanical nonsense, but at that moment, Joey didn’t care.

“Alright,” Allison said, digging out a small vial of clear liquid from her bag. “Where do I put this?”

Joey directed her to the insertion nozzle. Allison put in the substance. Joey gathered some film of Bendy and added it in as well. And then, Joey started up the machine. What came out was an abomination- a strange, humanoid creature made of ink, its spine and joints jutting out at sharp angles from its body. It had Bendy’s horns, his smile, and one of its gloves, but the similarities ended there. It looked around at its surroundings before beginning to wander off.

Allison yelped. “What do we do? I’m sorry!”

“Don’t be,” Joey said in an extremely calm voice. “Just be calm. Find an iron cage big enough and open it for me.”

Allison did as she was told, and Joey calmly approached the beast as it took in its surroundings. “Hey, there, buddy. Come with me. It’s okay.” He offered the beast his hand and led him towards the cage. He and Allison wrestled the creature into the cage and locked it. Joey sighed in relief. “That could have been ugly.”

“Yeah. That was amazing. But I’m sorry for causing it!”

They made eye contact. “Don’t be! That’s the closest I’ve ever come to making a functional toon! I mean, it still needs something... but thank you.” Joey ran his hand over her arm. “Allison. You can sing, right? You sang on Broadway?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve been looking for a person who understood me- this side, the artistic side, the lust-for-life side- for years. Would you like to join my studio as a voice actress and help me with this grand project? Help me to do what no magician has done and create sentient life with me?”

“Yes! I’ve been looking for the next adventure since I quit Broadway!”

She hadn’t hesitated. This could only end well.

“Okay. Now, I’ll want you as a partner in crime and voice actress either way, but would you like to go out to dinner on Friday?”

Allison rolled her eyes. “Oh, well, pentagrams and demonic machines were one thing, but dinner? Now you’ve gone too far.” A pause. “I’m joking, Joey. Of course I will.” Dangerous just so happened to be Allison’s type, and she knew she could handle this little adventure if it turned sour.

[betweenthetimeandsound]

Three Minutes to Eternity: My ESC 250 (#180-171)

#180: Fernando Tordo -- Tourada (Portugal 1973)

“Entram guizos, chocas e capotes, E mantilhas pretas, Entram espadas, chifres e derrotes, E alguns poetas, Entram bravos, cravos e dichotes, Porque tudo mais são tretas,”

“Bells, cowbells and capes are coming in, And black mantillas Swords, big horns and defeats are coming in And some poets Brave people, carnations and swear words are coming in Because it's a wheeze at most”

Despite the title ("tourada" translates to bullfight in Portuguese), it's actually a portrait of a revolution in the making. The lyrics were so clever that the censors at the RTP didn’t notice these lyrics were reflecting the current regime.

That’s enough for a 250 appearance for me, but there’s more that makes the song so memorable.

The build with the brass and percussion sets the stage for something important to happen. Sometimes, I do forget I like this song, but listening to it like right now is an experience, like one entering the battlefield.

The last line, "And the intelligent man says that songs are over..." still amuses me, though it's quite cynical in that the intellectuals would eventually not believe in the movement.

Personal ranking: 5th/17 Actual ranking: 10th/17 in Luxembourg

#179: France Gall -- Poupée de cire, poupée de son (Luxembourg 1965)

“Suis-je meilleure, suis-je pire qu’une poupée de salon? Je vois la vie en rose bonbon Poupée de cire, poupée de son”

“Am I better, am I worse than a fashion doll? I see life through bright rosy-tinted glasses Wax doll, sawdust doll”

One of the game-changing songs of Eurovision, in that the general mood shifts from slow-tempo songs to a little bit of pop. The first ten contests had their share of good songs, but seem to blur into each other at points. Afterwards, the song quality rose, and they were better suited to the times.

Beyond the happy orchestral sound is something quite sad—a pretty girl who sings songs without experiencing what they mean. Gainsbourg was quite the songwriter, but it led to a falling out between him and France later on, because of the double meanings of the songs he wrote for her.

The drama related to France Gall and the contest didn't stop there. Kathy Kirby, the runner-up that year, slapped France when she won. Then her boyfriend broke up with her shortly after, and wrote a song that would be the basis of "My Way".

Quite interesting I must say, though I don’t come back to this song often.

Personal and actual ranking: 1st/18 in Naples

#178: Ajda Pekkan -- Petr'oil (Turkey 1980)

"Öyle gururlusun gidemem yanına Girmişsin kim bilir kaç aşığın kanına Dolardan, marktan başka laf çıkmaz dilinden Neler, neler çekiyorum senin elinden"

"You are so proud, I can’t come close to you I wonder who else suffers from your love You speak of nothing but dollars and marks I am so suffering because of you"

My 1980 winner is not only quite groovy and seductive, but also clever.

The 1970s had two major oil crises--one in 1973, and another in 1979. The first one was when OPEC withheld their oil from countries who supported Israel during the Yom Kippur, and the second one when oil production stopped during the Iranian Revolution, resulting in higher prices per barrel. Both resulted in low supply and increased gas prices in the United States; those who grew up during the era were less likely to drive as a result.

Petr'oil takes this issue and anthromorphizes it, as Ajda sings about the troubles of relying oil as a resource and as a partner. The belly-dance music also emphasizes the tension. combined with the percussion and strings on this piece.

While Ajda has since distanced herself from the song, I embrace it in all its charms. Plus it was heavily underrated in its year.

Personal ranking: 1st/19 Actual ranking: 15th/19 in Den Haag

Final Impressions on 1980: This year stands out a bit, for it had a number of songs dealing with a huge number of topics (including Belgium's "Euro-Vision", which made the contest go meta, haha). Alongside it, the production was a bit bare-bones, because of the Netherlands hosting it four years earlier, but it featured quirks such as a representative announcing their country's song, Morocco competing for the only time, and a steel band for the interval!

#177: The Allisons -- Are you sure? (United Kingdom 1961)

“Are you sure you won’t be sorry? Comes tomorrow, you won’t want me Back again to hold you tightly?”

The lyrics are quite smug, in that the Allisons warn the girl who plans to break up with them she might be sorry and alone. Not unlike with "If I Were Sorry", though there's a bit more charm and teasing towards their soon-to-be ex-, whereas the latter feels a bit more arrogant.

That said, it’s upbeat and almost lines up to the musical scene at the time (comparisons to Buddy Holly are not uncommon), and the musical run time just goes by so quickly (in comparison to other entries of the same era)! It's just a breeze.

Personal ranking: 1st/16 Actual ranking: 2nd/16 in Cannes

#176: Vicky Leandros: L'amour est bleu (Luxembourg 1967)

“Bleu, bleu, l'amour est bleu, Berce mon cœur, mon cœur amoureux, Bleu, bleu, l'amour est bleu, Bleu comme le ciel qui joue dans tes yeux.”

“Blue, blue, love is blue, Cradle my heart, my loving heart Blue, blue, love is blue Blue like the sky which play in your eyes."”

I think I first heard this in the intro to Eurovision 2006's semi-final. While the harp motif stood out, I didn't know where it came from. It was until when I watched the contest this song was in, which is strange because it was notable for having a Paul Mauriat cover which became a hit.

One of many classics which featured in 1960s contests, I like the innocence shown through the lyrics, which uses color and imagery to tell about the different cycles of love. The orchestration along the bridge was especially spectacular, as it provided a cinematic feel towards . Vicky’s accent sometimes gets in the way, but she sings this well and should’ve gotten a podium position.

Personal ranking: 2nd/17 Actual ranking: 4th/17 in Vienna

#175: Kaija -- Ullu joy Hullu yö (Finland 1991)

"En edes halunnut sua omistaa En edes leikisti rakastaa Kaksi kulkijaa yhteen osuttiin Yksi yhteinen hetki jaettiin"

"I didn’t even want to own you I didn’t even want to love you We two travellers came across each other Shared one common moment together"

While I was watching Eurovision 1991, I liked the mysterious verses of Hullu yo, but I found the chorus a bit off, because it was punchier and more energetic. It also had that "minor-verse/major chorus" thing going on, which also made me uneasy with the song. With a few listens, I grew to like a bit more, because of its unique sound. It definitely sounds better with the studio cut versus the live, which shows off the failures of RAI's orchestra.

Another thing about the song, beyond its lyrics about a one-night-stand turned into longing feelings, was the choice choreography. Playing out the turmoiled relationship, it's funny to see how provocative it is, and that's after Toto's hilarious pronunciation of the song.

Elements of the live performance aside, it's still a jam which deserved better. Maybe it would've done so in the televote era.

Personal ranking: 7th/22 Actual ranking: 20th/22 in Rome

#174: Francoise Hardy -- L'amour s'en va (Monaco 1963)

“Si ce n’est toi Ce sera moi qui m’en irai L’amour s’en va Et nous n’y pourrons rien changer"

"If it isn’t you It will be me who will go away Love goes away And we can’t change anything about that"

I was happily surprised hearing this for the first time. It was very melancholic, with an interesting structure between the verses and the chorus. The percussion also helps with the latter, and adds a bit of character to the song.

The fact Francoise wrote this classic gem also warmed me up more to the song, especially because she was from the ye-ye generation of singers (which are known for being young and upbeat). Yet she stands and sings her own composition in a serious, almost bored tone, without taking the substance of the song away

(That being said, I really need to listen to more of her songs; I've found a couple a month ago, though there's obviously more...)

Personal ranking: 2nd/16 Actual ranking: 5th/16 in London

#173: ABBA -- Waterloo (Sweden 1974)

“The history book on the shelf is always repeating itself...”

You don’t need me to tell about this, do you? It’s fun and timeless pop, with some cool costumes to boot.

For more interesting stuff for both, the song Waterloo was an actual risk for the contest--they actually had another song for consideration, the folk-influenced Hasta Manana, but turned to this instead. And it worked, of course!

For the clothes, ABBA apparently chose these glam-rock inspired costumes because in Sweden, one wouldn't have to pay additional fees if the costumes won't be used for normal wear. Both Anni-frid and Agnetha look great, nevertheless.

And as of the moment, my favorite ABBA song is "Knowing Me, Knowing You". Despite the poppy tone, it has a moody vibe throughout, and one knows the relationship is going to end on a bad note.

Personal ranking: 2nd/17 Actual ranking: 1st/17 in Brighton

#172: Gigliola Cinquetti -- Si (Italy 1974)

“Sì, dolcemente dissi sì, Per provare un'emozione, Che non ho avuto mai,”

“Yes, I softly said yes, To feel an emotion That I've never had before”

My friend told me an interesting story about the lyrics—whereas the song Gigliola won with tells of a girl waiting to grow older to find true love, Si talks of the girl growing up and taking the plunge. So she interprets Si as a sequel of sorts.

So why does this beat Waterloo, in my opinion?

I like how the song starts—quietly, but with an interesting guitar part. The instrumentation builds well towards the "Si...", at which it gently but certainly blooms towards Gigliola's certainty on going with the man she loves.

The interesting part of it was how the song was censored in Italy because it was seen as "subliminal messaging" for a campaign on a divorce referendum that May. "Si" sounds like an endorsement for the "no" campaign, as it embraces being in love, even if it requires the death of another relationship.

Personal ranking: 1st/17 Actual ranking: 2nd/17 in Brighton

Final Impressions on 1974: Definitely one of the most memorable years in the contest, if only for who won. The rest was a tale of two halves, with the first half being particularly good, and the other half bad (except for Si, as you can tell). And there were Wombles in the interval act, hehe.

#171: Eugent Bushpepa -- Mall (Albania 2018)

“Lot i patharë ndriçojë këtë natë Sonte kumbo prej shpirtit pa fjalë Vetëm një çast dhimbja të më ndalë”

“Lingering tear, light up this night Find your way out, to soothe my soul Just for one day make this pain subside”

Aren’t the lyrics to this so beautiful? They convey Eugent’s desire to be with his loved one so well, in both its pain and beauty.

The music really helps too--while the pre-vamped version was a whole minute longer, it also has a rockier edge to it. The revamped version cuts it down and cleans up the production, but it's still maintains the overall feel throughout.

Eugent is also a talented talented singer, which proved initial odds wrong and got Albania one of its best results! The bridge between the second verse and chorus has a great chord progression (which was given more space in the revamp), and he deserved qualification for that alone. And those high notes.

(Also, he's probably the best dressed guy of his year...good job Eugent, good job.)

Personal ranking: 7th/43 Actual ranking: 11th/26 GF in Lisbon

[bubblytarts]

Bendy and the Inky Musical - Part 2/5

We continue all the way through the end of Chapter Three, with two of my favorite song ideas, a doggo for a son, and an overuse of spotlights and blackouts!

Sheep, Sheep, Sheep - Sammy

The lights come on again to reveal Henry tied up and Sammy doing his speech.

However, Henry interrupts Sammy to try and get answers out of him, to which Sammy provides more prophet garbage. (This does, however, serve a purpose, as the audience now gets to learn more about Sammy, as it’s essentially his prophet speech, but with a more conversational tone.)

Eventually, fed up with answering questions, Sammy gags Henry. There is a sound offstage, and Sammy describes it as his lord coming closer to claim his offering.

This song is super creepy. It’s just a recap of the prophet speech, but with much more unsettling description of what exactly the Ink Demon could do. This is the song to learn about the Ink Demon, and how obsessed with it Sammy is. The entire time the song is going, Sammy is also being really unnerving to Henry, getting way up in his personal space and bothering him.

The song ends with Sammy walking off to the very far side of the stage to welcome his lord into the room, only to have a strobe light effect on him as he thrashes away from an unseen Ink Demon before falling offstage.

Henry then escapes, and after getting chased by the Ink Demon, finds Boris, leading to yet another blackout.

Make You Proud - Buddy

(Think a more hopeful For Forever; Dear Evan Hansen)

Wally comes back onstage, having not been seen while Sammy was being creepy, and talks about how after Henry left, “Joey was so desperate for workers, he would hire just any kid off the street.” Enter Buddy, getting hired off the street. “Ya see what I mean?” Wally shakes his head and wanders offstage as the betrayal conversation happens between Buddy and Joey. (The one where Joey calls Buddy “Henry”.)

Buddy sits at his desk, and notices a name carved into it. Buddy tells his desk that he might not know who this “Henry Stein” is, but he seems to be important, so Buddy will do his best to make him proud.

Halfway through the song, Buddy moves away from his desk, and moves into the safe house, where Henry is reading. Buddy finishes his chorus that he will protect Henry any way that he can, before he sits down, the spotlight moves to Henry, and when the full stage lights come back, Boris is sitting across from him.

(Henry will ask Boris about Buddy’s journal, but will get distracted by getting out. The two leave the safe house, as the setting changes yet again, to the past…)

Dear Susie - Susie, Joey

(Think a much more psychotic The Wizard and I; Wicked)

…where Susie is shrieking with delight at her new role as Alice Angel. Joey is buttering her up and flirting with her, and she loves it. Susie is living her best life, and even rubs it in the face of new voice actress Allison. Time passes, and although Alice isn’t a popular character, Susie is still on Cloud Nine.

But just after Susie finishes her second chorus, Sammy informs her that Allison will be voicing Alice. When Susie demands to know why, Sammy simply answers, “Ask Joey.”

Susie is furious, and confronts Joey, who quickly turns the final chorus away from being angry, to being incredibly seductive, (doing that thing where he maneuvers her into a dance as he sings,) and asking Susie to become Alice one more time. She agrees, and Joey walks off.

A single spotlight zooms in on Susie as she again triumphantly declares that she will have all her “dreams come…”

…and Joey, just out of spotlight, slices her neck. Susie collapses, the spotlight goes out, and when it comes back, she’s coving her face. Joey leaves in disgust, and Susie now quietly finishes her song, “…true.”

Go Fetch For Me - Susie, Henry, Buddy, Norman, Wally, Ensemble

Buddy and Henry make it through the Alice Angel jump scare, and she decides that they’re going to do some errands for her. Wally appears, makes a joke about fetch quests, and the song begins.

This is a song meant to be a joke, in between the previous angst and the angst to come. Lots of jokes about how fetch quests are stupid as Susie demands more parts, and Henry and Buddy find increasingly comical ways to balance huge stacks of parts.

Norman has a very small solo as the Projectionist, where Wally attempts to give him the chance to shine, but he just screams instead. But, it gives Henry enough time to grab the last ink heart and get out.

Puppet Strings - Henry

On the way back to Susie for the last time, Henry notices the Angel and Demon paths for the first time. He convinces Buddy to go down a different one, so they can get both tapes. After listening to both, Henry is distraught over whether or not he should trust that Joey brought him here for a good purpose, or to hurt him.

Henry’s song here is about how Joey seems to be the puppet master of the studio, even after all these years, and that people are getting hurt, so there had better be a good explanation.

By the end of the song, Henry isn’t sure there is anything that could justify this.

Lonely Angel - Susie, Henry, Buddy, Wally

(Think a mix of If Only, Quartet; The Little Mermaid, and Wandering Child; Phantom of the Opera)

Susie promises to Henry and Buddy that they can ride the elevator out. As the two step into the elevator, Wally begins singing about how he wishes stories really could have happy endings.

As the elevator rises, Buddy joins in, wondering if he helped Henry enough.

Suddenly, the elevator stops, and begins to plummet. Susie demands her Boris, and Henry refuses. The two join the singing.

The four parts are overlapping as such:

Wally is now disappointed in how this story doesn’t seem to have a happy ending.

Buddy is hoping that Henry will forgive him for not doing enough to help.

Susie is complaining that she deserves nothing but perfection, and she will take it by force.

Henry is wondering why the lonely angel can’t let go of the past and just move on.

The elevator crashes. Henry wakes up to see Buddy get taken away by Susie. Wally is offstage.

Henry weakly finishes singing, and although he doesn’t change any lyrics, it’s clear that he hasn’t been singing about Susie’s inability to move on from Alice, but his own inability to move on from Joey.

Henry loses consciousness, leading to another blackout.

[mutatedleemon]

Benevolent: Chapter 5

Loops The room that Audrey and Sammy entered to catch up with the rest of the group was huge. There were papers everywhere, bits of wood, and barrels full of ink or water. It was very bright, unlike other parts of the Studio. There was a wide table in the middle, littered with more garbage, including cans of bacon soup. Audrey and Sammy joined the others. They gathered around the table and waited for someone. Wally and Tom greeted them both. Allison gave them a disappointed, rough look. At the head of the table stood a broad-shouldered man in a thick jacket. His hair was grey, and his face was covered with untidy stubble. His eyes were brown, but they looked almost yellow in the light. "It must be Henry," Audrey thought, and so it turned out. The man greeted the newcomers and introduced himself to Audrey. The first thing he asked was about her appearance. 

"I thought you could answer that question. To me, she looks like a half-Lost One. Can ink affect her like this?", Sammy asked. He was still concerned about this issue.

Audrey was standing at his side, and she could see half of his face under the mask. His face was as inky as his body. He had hair, but it didn't look real at all, like it was plastic. And also in ink. His eyes were Golden. And infinitely sad.

"You may be right, Sammy. "

The man examined the girl. He knew exactly who was standing in front of him, but he didn't know if she remembered him. He would have been incredibly pleased.

"Do you remember anything? Before you got... here." Audrey shook her head. Henry exhaled. "All right... We’ll talk about it later. Are you here for something else?" Allison nodded and nudged Audrey.

"Give him your letters."

"What?! I'm not going to do this!", she protested. "Since when did I obey you?"

She didn't want to let some strange woman control her just because no one else does. That is, just like that. Sammy pulled Allison away from Audrey.

"What's gotten into you? What are this letters?"

The girl recoiled from him.

"Your letters, as far as I know."

The man looked at her in disbelief. Audrey trusted Sammy, so she gave the letters to him. The woman tried to snatch them away, but the man took them faster. He quickly read what was written on the first letter.

"I don't remember writing this... Did you find anything else?" The girl nodded.

"Right before you found me. There was a dictaphone in that room with recording of your voice. You told me that you taught Bendy to talk. With certain Susie."

Everyone stared at them both. Especially Henry. He never found notes from other workers. Maybe he just hadn't been where Audrey was, or maybe he wasn't looking as closely.

"If these notes and letters are still here, then they were made after the Studio turned into a living nightmare. Isn't it?", Tom turned to Henry. The man nodded at him.

"Records are made by those who want to remember something after a "Loop" happens. The Loop is a repetition of the same event. Records are made in order to remember everything that happened before, in the last loop, so as not to forget everything. That's why I remember everything. Records remain regardless of whether you started over or not. Everything that was there before the Studio flooded was gone. All that you see now, appeared only after. These recordings were about something that was before the Studio. This is not entirely possible."

Audrey looked back at Sammy. He understood as much as Audrey did. Nothing at all.

"It could be someone trying to confuse us."

Allison hissed. Tom pulled her back, trying to calm her down, which didn't work very well.

"No, of course, Sammy could have left it, but then only in the first loop."

"It doesn't make any sense. Why make entries only in the first loop, and then do nothing?", Wally asked.

No one understood anything anymore. Sammy personally wanted to get away from here. There had never been so much attention around him, and he didn't really want to change that. If he changes the subject, everyone will immediately understand why. Allison would put more pressure on him and Audrey, and Henry would continue to discuss this. He just hoped that soon they would understand the reason and everything would be better.

Wally, Tom, Henry and Allison continued to talk about records and Audrey, while she and Sammy sat on one of the barrels.

"Who the hell is that Susie?", the girl finally broke the silence.

"As If I still knew", the man exhaled and removed the mask, twisted it and began to examine it. He didn't like to show his face, but the others don't look, and Audrey seems to be the only one who can understand everyone. "I have already found such audio, from my narrative. I thought someone was making fun of me. You see, the dictaphone was lying where it wasn't last night. Just appeared out of nowhere", Sammy looked at the girl.

His eyes glowed white instead of gold. Maybe it's the lighting again.

"What was there?" , The man turned away again.

"Get ready to hear everything. I listened to it so often to see what it might mean, that I learned what it said."

He took a deep breath and began to speak:

"Joey wants to kill Bendy. But, of course, there is no reason", the man thought a little, remembering what happened next. "He didn't bother anyone. Never. I asked Bendy. Of course, to do this, he had to talk to me through ink. He said Joey didn't like what happened. He wants to replace Bendy, create a perfect one."

Sammy paused, as if suddenly realizing something.

"Bendy says he can't do it. But... what the hell happened next... hm... Here. Joey can do anything"

The man put the mask back on and started talking under his breath, as if the next words were something bad.

"I'll try to convince him. I think I can do it, " Sammy breathed. For some reason, his voice was shaking. Perhaps from fear, or perhaps from something else... "We're after all supposed to be... close... right?... "

He stopped and turned away. Audrey didn't know what was wrong. It seems to be something on a personal level.

"And then someone knocked on the door. There was a fight, or something similar. A strange voice was asking where Susie had gone."

"The one you taught Bendy to talk to!"

Sammy nodded.

"It said that Joey Drew told some employee to pick her up. On that note, both I and the other person left. After a while, the tape stopped recording on itself."

Audrey leaned against the wall. Is someone trying to remind Sammy of his past? This was the first thought that had occurred to her, even from the moment he had noted that the recording had appeared out of nowhere.

"What do you think happened to Bendy? In audio and letters, he is described as good, but here..."

"The thing that goes around the Studio and terrorizes everyone it touches is definitely not the Bandy that was mentioned there, Yes." The man got up and stood in front of the girl. "This audio said that Drew wanted to replace him. Maybe the Ink Demon is an attempt to replace the Benevolent Bendy?"

Audrey giggled at Sammy's name for the Demon. Benevolent. Good name.

"Sounds logical"

Wally was standing behind him. He smiled.

"How long have you been standing here, puppy?", the man turned to him. Wally rolled his eyes.

"I just came up, I just heard about your theories and that's it. As it is, I wanted to say that we are already leaving." The guy turned to Audrey. "And Henry wanted to talk to you." The girl nodded.

"And where are we going? Back to a safe place?", Sammy asked. The boy shook his head.

"Search For Alice."

The man looked at him questioningly, waiting for an explanation.

"She left before we got here. Probably looking for Joey Drew again. She must be returned."

"Is Joey Drew alive?" Both Wally and Sammy shrugged.

"That's why she's looking for him. To find out", Wally answered.

"And if he's alive, kill him", Sammy continued.

How friendly they all are in this place. The girl sighed, resigned to precode her new friends. It is not clear where they’ll search for Alice, but there are a lot of people in here, so they can be divided if that.

While everyone was already on their way to find Alice, Audrey still needed to talk to the leader. Henry was waiting for her at the same table. He was recording something, but when the girl came closer, he stopped recording and smiled at her.

"You must be confused, right?" The girl nodded, smiling back at him. "You still haven't told me your name."

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry." The man laughed. "My name is Audrey", she said.

Henry suddenly seemed to wake up.

"Audrey?" The girl nodded. "That's it, huh?... That's my daughter's name", he mentioned.

It was obvious from his face that he missed her incredibly. It's probably awful to realise that your daughter is out there, alone, without a father. And he can't even get out of here. Wally mentioned something like that. The Studio, or the ink itself, seems to tighten, lure. This is crazy. Perhaps just some sort of excuses. Although, they probably would not have created excuses not to leave this place. No one would want to stay here for more than a couple of hours. Especially considering the Ink Demon.

"You probably also want to know why you look like this?" The girl nodded. "Well, my theory is this. When you were in the first loop, you got caught in the ink and it started working, turning you into a Lost One." He saw the question on her face. "The Lost Ones are the employees of the Studio, which had not turned into a toon. They're covered in ink and they have Golden eyes, just like you."

"And Sammy." The man nodded.

"But after the first loop, you remembered what ink can do. Maybe not in general, but subconsciously, but this is already great, and the ink stopped spreading after, because there wasn’t enough to cover you whole after the first Loop" Henry smiled again.

Audrey smiled back at him. Something about the man's smile was warming. He straightened up and put his hands on his hips as he looked at Audrey.

"Any other questions? I don't really know what else to talk about with you. I just wanted to explain the situation about your appearance to you a little bit." He let out a chuckle.

The girl shook her head.

"Then I suggest you catch up with the others. They must be far away by now, and Alice must not be left alone. You never know what she might do."

Audrey left the room and looked around the hallways. She didn't know where to go first. The girl clutched the part of the pipe that Henry had given her when she left. At least she had something to throw in the face of the Ink Demon before running away from him. She let out a breath and walked forward. She was again accompanied by whispers, joined by soft singing. She couldn't quite make out the words of the song, but it was about sadness and loneliness. She wondered how long all these people had been here. It feels like time has stopped within the walls of the Studio. Everyone lives for today, not knowing if they will live to see tomorrow, but still fighting. But against whom? Against Joey Drew or the Ink Demon? Or both of them? Or against... Benevolent Demon? Why would anyone want to go against him? He seems to be one of the good characters in this story. She didn't know what anyone wanted to achieve here. Personally, she wanted to know more.

The girl looked into various rooms and offices, not so much in search of Alice as in search of new letters and audio recordings. The singing got louder and louder and she could finally hear what the song was about. The singing came from the farthest room in the corridor. Audrey was afraid to go there, but still succumbed to the temptation of curiosity and went at the call of singing. The voice was deep and masculine. It echoed against the walls, making it even louder. Audrey went to the room where the singing was coming from. She tried her best not to signal her presence, so as not to accidentally startle the singer, but the floor in the Studio wanted the opposite. There was a too-loud creaking sound under her feet, and the singing stopped. Audrey cursed the wooden floor in her head.

"Who's there?"

She held her breath, as if that would help. Nothing followed the question, as well as the singing. Even the whispers faded away. Audrey didn't know what to do, and she didn't dare leave. Suddenly, the door began to open slowly. There was nothing to be seen beyond it - complete darkness and even the light in the corridors could not illuminate it.

Curiosity killed the cat.

Audrey entered the room slowly and carefully, holding the piece of pipe in front of her, just in case. As soon as she crossed the threshold, the door slammed behind her and she found herself in pitch darkness, but it didn't last long. The darkness, which turned out to be something resembling ink, spread out across the room, soaking into the cracks in the walls and opening up a view of the walls themselves and what was in the room. The floor was covered with drawings. Flowers, sun, different clouds, mountains. The drawings were similar to children's, but they made a good landscape. In the middle of it all, a small umbrella was drawn, outlined in white chalk, as if this drawing should be quite neutral. Audrey moved closer, examining each drawing as if it meant something.

"Who are you?", someone asked her.

She looked around in fright, wondering how she could have missed someone here. But there really wasn't a soul around.

"My name is Audrey... I'm kind of new here.. ", the girl replied, trying not to sound scared. She could hear her heart pounding.

"Audrey, you say... I really don't know you. Which is strange. I know every damn soul in this place", the voice continued to converse with her, still not revealing who it was.

The girl again looked around in an attempt to find at least some hint of the person with whom she was talking, but not finding anyone, continued the conversation.

"Who are you? And where are you? ", she asked. There was a chuckle in response.

"You don't know me and you don't need to know me. I'm happy to meet you, but I think you need to move on, " he replied. This answer did not satisfy Audrey.

"I'm afraid I won't leave until you answer me"

The voice was silent. Something began to creak behind her. She turned around. The door opened slowly. The hint is understood, but not accepted. The girl turned back, ignoring the stranger's suggestion. The silence continued. The stranger didn't want to show himself, and Audrey didn't want to wait or leave.

"Well... I see you've already joined Sammy's company. Just as stubborn as him."

This was not what she had expected to hear. Anything but a comparison with Sammy.

"You know, I haven't seen him in a long time... I know that he constantly meets the Ink Demon and fights with it, but he forgets to visit me..."

Has he decided to vent right now? Audrey couldn't find a connection between this stranger and the Demon. He went on, getting quieter and quieter, as if he were ashamed, talking about how everyone had abandoned him and forgotten, and all he was doing from now on was guarding something. He hasn't spoken to anyone for so long that he's slowly starting to become mute again.

Again?

"You still haven't said who you are", Audrey reminded him.

The stranger paused in his monologue. Something began to creak again, as if someone was shifting from one foot to the other, hesitating before answering. There was a loud exhalation. The stranger muttered something under his breath, but still answered:

"I don't have a specific name. Everyone addresses me differently " A black figure began to appear from the wall. The first thing that appeared was a head with two sharp horns that dripped ink. "Some call me a nonentity, not worthy to exist here, interfering with their plans," he laughed to himself. The next thing the girl saw was a torso with a white bow on the collarbone. "Others say I'm a Defender, a Guardian." Then two hands reached out to Audrey. One with a white glove, and the other with long claws. The girl started to walk away slowly, trying not to scream. "First I had to be Bendy." Before her now stood the Ink Demon. But its shape was more human. He was just a thin man, tall, and with horns. The ink dripped over his eyes and only his mouth was visible. No ink dripped from other parts of the body. It's like he just has very black skin, just like Lost Ones. "Sammy and Susie called me Benny", he smiled sadly, "From the word Benevolent." [MASTERPOST WITH ALL CHAPTERS]

[soloplaying]

Bendy and the Ink Machine: "Dreams Come to Life"

Guess what I got my hands on!

My Rating: I'd say...about 3 out of 5 stars. Or a solid B/B-

I really wanted to like this book, and there were aspects that I did enjoy. It was a quick and easy read, the original characters were engaging, and the last 30-40 pages were great! Unfortunately, too much of the rest of it felt like an original coming of age novel had taken a wrong turn into a back alley where our favorite BatIM characters happened to be loitering, rather than a novel rooted in the source material. It was unfocused and, while neither side of the story was bad, trying to mash them together made the final product a bit unsatisfying.

(I probably don’t need to say this, but…spoilers below the cut.)

The Good, the Bad, and the Meh:

The Good:

Buddy, Buddy's family, and Dot. I liked the focal original characters, for what they were worth. The author did a good job of making the reader feel for them and put a lot of effort into making them well-rounded. We just spent way more time with them than necessary.

The Setting. Joey Drew Studios, Buddy's home, and New York as a whole. The story was descriptive in a very sensory way, really making you feel the heat in that long-ago New York summer and the visceral differences between Buddy's world and Joey's farce. This was also effective at highlighting differences between Buddy’s perceptions at the beginning and end of the book.

Joey. Joey is the one game character in the book that received a decent bit of exploration and development. Buddy's initial infatuation with Joey's empty promises and charisma giving way to cold facts and the creeping horror of realization about how twisted he actually is...that's interesting to observe.

Sammy, Norman, Tom, Allison, Henry. To be clear, Henry's not actually present. At all. But the few lines we get about him are almost as much as we get from the game characters that are working at the studio at the time of the novel. What tiny bits we get about them are nice, though! Especially Sammy and the final conversation between Buddy and Tom.

The Studio. It feels properly creepy and convoluted. Since Buddy and Dot spend a significant amount of time exploring it, the studio's atmosphere receives a lot more focus than many other parts of the plot. It doesn’t quite match the game studio’s layout, but that’s a nonsensical mess anyways.

The Meh:

The Ink Demon. I couldn't figure out whether to put this in the positive or negative bracket so I'm leaving it somewhere in between. "Bendy" is properly terrifying and twisted and there's something that hits you right in the gut when you find out it's locked up in a tiny room alone, howling mournfully, when Buddy finds it. Then it gets out and starts killing people and that sympathy goes away very fast. However, it doesn't really feel like the Ink Demon from the game. In the book, it acts like a beast when Buddy sees it but, when you actually stop to think about it, its actions don't make sense for an animal driven by instinct. What is it actually doing most of the time? This might be a sign that it changes between the time of the novel and the game, but its actions in the novel are so contradictory that I think it’s a mistake. So....it's good as a typical PG-13 horror monster, but it doesn't feel like the Ink Demon, or "Bendy", despite the descriptions.

The Subplots. The many, many subplots. Don't get me wrong, I like Buddy, but hyper-focusing on him so much was extremely detrimental to the rest of the story. He had about six different things going on in his life and the first person POV meant the reader was stuck with him for every second of it. This brings us to the biggest problem in the novel and the cons section.

The Bad:

Buddy's Story. Thing is, it isn’t bad. It's a coming of age story about an artistic kid from the wrong side of town trying to find himself in post-WWII New York. It just...has nothing to do with Bendy and the Ink Machine. Even when Buddy is hired by Joey, there's about one page of studio investigation for every ten pages of Buddy's personal life struggles. It felt like the author started writing the first plot then tried to cram Bendy and the Ink Machine into it later on. And it really feels like the author cares more about the coming of age novel than the Bendy/Studio stuff. Joey was a key figure in the book but it was less about his madness driving the studio to ruin and more about Buddy trying to find a role model/mentor and being let down hard. (All of this is until the last forty pages or so, until Buddy talks to Tom and Allison at the party. Then it FINALLY feels like a BatIM book.)

The lack of time spent with the BatIM characters other than Joey. I liked what little we got of them, but I swear there were maybe ten pages, combined, of their roles in a book that was almost 200 pages. That includes Norman, Sammy, Tom, and Allison. Sammy might have gotten a bit more simply because Buddy thought about him a lot, but he wasn't actually present any more than the others, he just got name-dropped more often.

The limited first-person perspective. There are plenty of cases where this is a good choice, but in this book, it was very restrictive. Buddy didn't know much, wasn't interested in knowing much, and didn't focus on the things that the reader found most interesting. We all understand needing to make money to care for our loved ones, but he’s working in an increasingly demonic (haunted?) animation studio. Focus, Buddy! Every time the plot seemed to be teasing something interesting, Buddy ran away from it and, since we were tied to him in first person, we never got to see what happened after he left. If we’d cycled between characters in first-person, that would have been a different matter…but we didn’t.

The lack of Bendy. And Boris. And Alice. Buddy wants to draw, clearly, but most of the time, he just talks about learning to draw and wanting to make cartoons. The subject matter doesn't seem to be important, so even though we're in Joey Drew Studios, Buddy rarely talks or thinks about the titular character beyond lines on a page. The entire book, 'Bendy' just felt like a name dropped every now and then, not the beloved 'dancing demon'.

Buddy's Fate. Getting turned into Boris, I can accept. It's the rest of it. The whole "I took off into the depths of the studio where not even Joey Drew could find me and I watched as it grew and changed, then I decided to write this for Dot.". What? WHERE did he stay? And WHY? Joey was still sacrificing people, and he did nothing to stop it? What was he eating, if bacon soup wasn't all over the place yet? How did he remain undetected in the pre-warped studio? He had family - did he not try to contact them? What about Dot? She still worked there and understood what was going on - he never tried to talk to her? Send her a note? ANYTHING? Why did he write the book AFTER the studio was abandoned? On the face of it, this is a weak resolution, but it's actually worse – all of this is completely out of character for the Buddy we've come to know during the novel.

The whole 'mentally turning into Boris' thing. I get that Buddy's writing a retrospective, but we get a few paragraphs of rambling about his mental state every five chapters or so and it's never consistent – Buddy’s voice is the same the rest of the time, no matter how much he says he’s slowly sliding into Boris. It just serves to remind the reader that they're reading a BatIM prequel. It would have been a better choice to put a longer introduction from his human perspective in the beginning and a fragmented, more 'Boris' follow-up at the end to show the degradation of Buddy's mind.

*Sigh*

It would have been so much better if the author had followed a character more invested in the studio instead of their own life. If it had to be an original character in the current book, it should have been Dot. Better yet, it should have been Tom or Norman – they are both well-known game characters who were personally involved in the horrors going on behind the scenes and Norman came to an end just as bad as Buddy's. Plus, they would have been more focused on the game characters rather than the original characters.

I got the ebook for about $5 and I don’t regret buying it, but I probably won't read it again.

In Short:

The last 30-40 pages were great and everything you could want from a Bendy and the Ink Machine novel. The rest of it read like the author was trying to Frankenstein together a coming of age novel and a short horror story without much success. Other than Joey, that is; the 'unscrupulous, delusional businessman who pushes too far' character fit well into both sides of the story.

[adobe-outdesign]

Re-Created: Chapter 5

After Joey passes away, Henry finds a way to make everyone look human again, one by one, using the Ink Machine. And this story is going to have a happy ending, even if he has to write it himself.

[Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6]

“I don’t think we should be doing this.”

“We’re not doing anything except going down to the Music Department,” Thomas points out. “Nothing wrong with that.”

“And visiting a sermon lead by a guy who wants to kill us,” Allison counters, placing her sword into its sheath.

“Listen, we either sit back and let Sammy keep ruining everyone’s lives, or we hear whatever crazy bullshit he has to say and see if there’s anything we can use to prove him wrong.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t think it was a good idea. I just said I don’t think we should be doing this.”

“So you think it is a good idea?”

“No.”

Tom lets out a snort of laughter and Allison smiles, then gazes down the hallway in anticipation.

“Shouldn’t we at least tell Henry?” she asks. They start down the stairs, Thomas leading.

“It’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Besides, if we tell him he’ll probably insist on coming with us, and we’d all be screwed if something happened to him.”

“And if something happens to us?”

Thomas doesn’t answer.

They arrive in the Music Department less than fifteen minutes later after traveling through a complex series of stairs and doors that Thomas could’t hope to understand. “How the hell do you remember where you’re going?”

“I’ve tried mapping this place before with no luck. You learn the layout of everything after a while, but it doesn’t connect logically, so- shh.” She holds out her hand, Thomas grumbling that he wasn’t saying anything. Sammy’s voice drifts down the hallway to the left.

“This way.” They move in the opposite direction, ducking down into an open area with a recording sign decorating the far wall, then into a larger room that was probably intended for a band back when the studio was still open. They slide into a nearby recording booth, ducking down behind the wall where the glass ended.

“I remember this!” Allison whispers, grinning excitedly. “I used to spend hours in here recording my lines. Sammy would stand nearby and complain about my pitch.”

“I’m sure you sounded wonderful,” Thomas whispers back with a smile. He motions for her to be quiet as the room starts to fill with voices. 

Allison peers over the ledge, watching as the once empty space suddenly becomes crowded. Inky figures appear, some entering through the door, some seeping out of the walls in a black mass. The recreated Lost Ones had claimed that Sammy announced the times of the sermons from within the ink, as it was near impossible to tell time in the studio. Apparently, everybody had gotten the message.

“There he is,” mutters Thomas as a black shape forms into something vaguely human-like up on the balcony above. Sammy clears his throat, and the crowd goes quiet.

“I’m glad to see you here, my sheep. As always, it is an honor to have so many attend our sermon. May those who don’t be shown mercy by our Savior.” His gaze sweeps over the crowd, expression unreadable due to the mask covering his face. A soft chorus of murmured agreements rise from the group.

“I’m sure you’re all well aware of the... issue of the false prophet, claiming he can free us from the ink.” Sammy leans forward on the balcony, resting his hands on the guard rail. Allison leans forward in anticipation.

“Remember, my sheep. The creatures this newcomer makes only look human. That is because only our Lord is capable of freeing us from the ink, restoring our bodies back to flesh and blood. If you follow the false prophet’s advice... that would be blasphemy, and your resulting sin would keep you from ever truly being saved. We must remain devout to our Savior and be patient... can I get an amen?”

A few “amens” rise from the gathered Lost Ones. Allison puts a hand on Tom’s shoulder and squeezes it, noticing the way his fist is clenched in anger.

“Furthermore, I have proof that the false prophet lives up to his title. He visited our humble Music Department the other day, claiming he could save Jack... I’m sure you’re all familiar with him at this point, correct?” Sammy pauses,waiting for confirmation, and a few people nod.

“I could not leave the studio to watch, for as we all know that would be against our Savior’s will. However, I did return to the dark abyss once more to see what had happened, and Jack was still there, lost to the ink. May our Lord have mercy on him.” Sammy turns towards the recording booth, and Allison feels her heartbeat pick up.

"Of course, if you still feel inclined to believe these lies, we have two visitors here that can offer some insight. Come on out, my sheep. I know you’re there.”

Allison feels a pit form in her stomach as turns to Tom. “How did he-?”

“Never mind that,” Tom growls. “What the hell are we going to do? There’s a lot more of them then I thought there would be.” He pulls his axe close to his chest, peering over the edge of the booth.

“Now, now. Come on out. We just want to talk,” Sammy calls. “Don’t make us force you out. The results could be... unpleasant.”

“Let’s just go with it for right now,” Allison whispers, grabbing Tom’s arm. “We can make a run for it once we have an opening.”

Tom gives her a solemn nod and the two exit the booth, uncomfortably aware of the dozens of glowing eyes focused on them.

Sammy seeps down the edge of the balcony, reforming on the floor below as they approach. He beckons them over. “Leave your weapons on the ground, please. We don’t allow them during our sermons.”

Tom mutters some kind of insult and drops his axe on the ground. Allison follows, setting her sword down next to the axe considerably more gently.

“There. Now that we’re all situated, may I ask what brings you here? I doubt you’ve come to worship the savior like the rest of us. Or, perhaps, you’re merely here to spy?”

Neither of them speak.

“That’s what I thought.” He leans in close to Allison. “Do I know you? You seem familiar...”

“We used to work together, remember? I took over Susie’s role as Alice. I used to be Alice,” Allison mutters in a reserved tone, subtly glancing at the exit. The Lost Ones were scattered haphazardly around the room, and a few Searchers had spawned at some point. They’d have to fight through at least twenty or so of them to get to the door, and that wasn’t counting the ones who would inevitably pursue.

“That’s right, I remember now! You always had a lovely voice.” Sammy leans in, mere inches from her face. Tom grabs her and pulls her away, looking like he was about to punch the music director any second now.

“Easy, now. I’ll let you go... if you do one thing first.”

“What makes you think you get to bargain?” Tom snaps. Sammy turns towards him, ink dripping from his form.

“What do you want?” Allison asks, stepping in front of Tom before he can say anything else that might put them in jeopardy.

“Simply admit that the false prophet did nothing to save you, and that he can’t do anything to save us. Admit your sins before the Lord, so that you can be forgiven for them.” A Bendy cutout stares at then unnervingly from the corner.

“I...” Allison glances at Tom, who had wisely decided to keep his mouth shut. “I... confess. Henry didn’t do anything to save us.” The words feel bitter on her tongue.

“That’s right. Thank you for confession, and may our Lord have mercy on you.” He motions two Lost Ones from the crowd forward. “Please, escort these two back to the upper levels. We’ll be holding onto the weapons, just to make sure you don’t try anything.”

They walk in silence out of the department.

Tom waits until they’re out of earshot to speak. “I’m going to goddamn kill him,” he mutters.

There’s a chattering noise coming from outside.

“Easy, buddy,” Henry murmurs, standing up from the table where his drawings are. He eyes the door warily. “I’ll go take care of it.”

Allison and Tom had left to pick up supplies a while ago, and the other former Lost Ones had left the hideout to work on clearing out some suitable living spaces in the lower levels, as the small room was getting overcrowded. He was alone save for Boris, who, judging by the way he was currently cowering in the corner, wasn’t going to be much help in a fight.

He grabs a pipe wrench off the table and ducks down by the base of the makeshift door, which was really just a large plank of wood leaning up against the open frame. He nudges it forward, peeking around the edge. A single Butcher Gang member - one of the Pipers - stands in the hall, making a strange garbled noise. Henry expects it to attack, but instead it just stares.

“Help,” it finally manages to say. “Me?” 

“You want me... to hep you?” Henry repeats, not sure if heard that correctly. The creature nods. Henry hesitates, glancing back at the still-cowing Boris, who had climbed on top of the chair for safety. He was so used to seeing the cartoons as enemies that it was hard to remember that they must have been people too, if what Tom said was to be believed.

“Wait. That message.” He nods to the writing near the bottom of the nearby wall, asking for help. “Did you leave that?”

“Of course,” it rasps, the noise mostly a mess of garbled syllables. “Who did you think?”

Henry glances back to the hideout one more time before making his decision. “Okay. You can come in. But you have to leave the wrench here.” He nudges the wood open the rest of the way and the Piper slips through the entranceway, obediently dropping the weapon on the ground.

“It’s okay Boris,” Henry calls, pulling the door back into place. “He won’t hurt you. I think.” The wolf slowly uncovers his eyes and sniffs at the newcomer, but doesn’t dare to get down from the chair. Charley drags himself slowly to the far wall, collapsing against it with a light thud. He breathes with an awful rasping sound.

“Are you... okay? You seem hurt.”

“Always hurt,” the creature snaps.

“Right,” Henry says, not entirely sure how to respond. “Well, Allison and Tom are out. We’ll need to wait until they get back to get things set up. In the meantime, we can at least figure out who you are-”

“Shawn,” the Piper rasps between labored breaths, sitting up straight to stare at him with half blind eyes.

“Wait, you mean like the guy who worked in the toy department?” He had never meet the man, but he had learned about him through the tapes and Joey’s notes. “Shawn... Foley?”

“Flynn,” the cartoon corrects. Now that he thought about it, the creature did seem to have an accent underneath of the garbled tones. 

“Well... that’s one mystery solved, I guess. Now we just have to wait for Allison and Tom to get back.”

There’s a knock on the makeshift door.

“Wow,” is all Henry can say after the two have finished explaining. “You guys aren’t hurt, right?”

“Thankfully not,” Allison mutters. “Sorry. It was a pretty stupid plan in hindsight.”

“It would’ve worked fine if Sammy didn’t see us,” Tom mutters. Allison shoots him a look.

“Did you find out anything useful, at least?”

“Not really. He just talked about how you can’t be trusted because you can’t actually free us from the ink. Which isn’t true,” she adds quickly, noticing the expression on Henry’s face.

“Anything else?”

“Yeah... he mentioned that Jack guy. Used him as an example of how you can’t save people very well,” Thomas muses. Henry swears softly. 

“What?”

“Sammy said that Jack knew where to find him once he was remade, but that was the first attempt. After all of the chaos I completely forgot to tell Jack to go back and talk to him.”

“No wonder he thinks you’re a failure,” Alice muses, leaning back in her chair. “Do you think Sammy will change his mind if he sees him now?”

“I have no idea. Can’t hurt to try, I suppose.” Henry’s gaze drifts back to Charley, who had procured a needle and thread from somewhere and was now stitching one of the many holes in his side shut. Tom follows his gaze.

“So you want to tell us why you let that thing in here?” he asks, clearly not happy about the arrangement. The Piper emits a low warning snarl at the word  “thing”.

Henry briefly goes back over what Shawn had told him. “I figured we should help him too,” he says in a low voice, keeping his eye on the Piper as he speaks. “It’s not really fair to leave them out, especially if they were once human. Even if they keep attacking us.”

“Look, I respect what you’re trying to do here, but those things are dangerous. You’re going to get yourself killed one day letting every sorry soul who shows up at the door in here.”

“So you won’t help?”

Tom averts eye contact. “I didn’t say that.”

“We can go get the Machine prepped while you get the ritual set up,” Allison offers. Henry nods and utters a quick thanks as the two get up to leave. Allison walks out, but Tom stays behind, motioning Henry into the corner.

“I don’t mean to stick my nose in places it shouldn’t be, but I figured it was worth asking,” he intones in a low voice, grabbing a nearby chair to sit in. “When are you going to change the dog back?”

Henry looks back at the table. Charley had finished with his impromptu stitching and had joined Boris, who was happily lounging on one of the many cots. The wolf sniffs at him cautiously for a moment, then moves aside to let the other cartoon join him. “You mean Boris?”

“I keep expecting you to announce that he’s next, but instead you keep ignoring him completely. I mean, have you even talked to him about it?”

“I mean- no, I haven’t. I didn’t realize...” He looks back at Boris, feeling unnerved. With the others, it was obvious they were once human - you could see it in their off-model designs, in how out of character they acted. Boris just seemed like Boris.

“How many times do have to tell you this before you get it? Every living thing in this studio used to be human. That includes him.” Tom crosses his arms.

“I... guess we could try something. We’d need to figure out who he was first-”

“He’s Franks,” Thomas interjects. Henry stares at him dumbly.

“You mean the janitor? How can you-?”

“I have my ways of knowing, all right? Besides, you can tell just by looking at him. Kid was always a dumbass.” There’s a strange, evasive tone to Thomas’ voice.

Henry opens his mouth, then closes it agin, struggling to find the right words. “I’ll talk to him about it,” he finally finds himself saying.

“Good. Let me know how it goes.” Thomas pushes the chair back with a screech and leaves, taking a toolbox with him. Henry sits there for a while, thinking, then goes over to Boris and gives him a gentle scratch on the nose.

“Hey buddy. You want to play rummy? I’ll deal. Shawn, you can join us if you want.” Boris nods his approval and Charley falls off the cot, stumbling over to the table with them.

He wasn’t lying. He would talk to Boris, of course.

Later.

[thebashfulpoet]

Happy Birthday Neil Josten (SN&E)

It’s Neil’s birthday and I want to do something for our boy’s birthday but I can’t be bothered to write another fic (I have two I’m supposed to be working on rn) so take this bullet fic instead

Neil should have known something was up when Andrew told him to sleep in his own room rather than his

Not that he had a problem with it (Andrew was still entitled to his space and all that) but unless it was a particularly bad day, more often than not they shared a bed

but whatever, Neil can handle it even if he has a crappy night’s sleep

The next morning things get really weird

it starts with someone knocking on his door and barging in a few seconds later

He shoots out of bed reaching for the nearest weapon (which happens to be his guitar) when he realizes it’s Matt

Matt with a giant grin on his face and a tray of breakfast food

Neil is certifiably confused but he’s also  powerless to resist Matt’s 1000 watt smile and accepts breakfast

It’s the most confusing breakfast he’s had in a while (but also delicious since it had all his favorites)

When Matt takes the tray away Neil thinks the weirdness has to be over

Nope

Allison and Nicky barge in next & demand he gets dressed

Neil is wondering what is going on with his life

They force him into “decent” clothes and proceed to drag him into Allison’s Porsche for a mall trip

Nicky is filming the entire time

And snapchatting

and just generally shoving a camera in Neil’s face every three seconds

Neil would hate it if it didn’t make Nicky smile as wide as Matt

SO they drag him through various stores  buying way too much clothing for themselves AND him to the point where they have to hire someone to carry all the bags

Neil feels awful for the poor soul

Finally finally Neil manages to get away and texts Andrew in hopes of figuring out what the hell is going on

Andrew doesn’t reply

Which is weird

Before he can try calling, Nicky an Allison find him and drag him off to lunch in some posh restaurant that gives them weird looks that none of them care about

Allison sidles up to his side and starts making smart remarks about the other patrons while Nicky does his absolute best to make the more conservative read racist and bigoted assholes uncomfortable

It’s the best lunch he’s had in a while

After that they take him back home and Neil starts towards Andrew’s room both in search of the man and to escape whatever weird nonsense has gotten into the foxes

Too bad Dan & Renee are lying in wait for him the moment he walks in the door

They are going to the gym and Neil absolutely has to come

Neil accepts his fate that today is just going to be filled with foxes

But at least he gets an hour on the treadmill

Dan & Renee challenge him on various machines at the gym and even teach him some dance moves when he admits to never using the dance studio at the facility

He thinks he may have to use some of the moves next time Nicky drags him on the dance floor at Edens

Once more he’s taken home and tries for Andrew’s room

He almost makes it to the door when Kevin drags him to his room instead

Kevin shoves Neil’s guitar in his hand and demands they practice their latest project

Neil rolls his eyes but obliges all the same (he’s learned a long time ago that you don’t deny Kevin practice unless you want a hissy fit)

It’s probably the only normal thing about his day

Only... Kevin doesn’t really yell at him

Or like, doesn’t yell at him nearly as much as he normally would

Now Neil is really freaked out

Especially when he lets Neil go after only an hour

Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, he dashes out of the room & to Andrew’s

He knocks but there’s no answer

He checks his phone but there are no calls and no texts

Things have gone from weird to suspicious

Going back downstairs he starts looking for signs that Andrew has been around at all

What he finds instead are Aaron and Seth on the couch playing video games

He’s about to ignore them both when Seth tells him to sit his ass down and join them because they need a third player to help them beat this level

Neil is awful at games so he doesn’t know why they would want him to play

But neither of them are taking a No for an answer even if they look like they rather him not play

Which is why Neil finds himself stuck on the living room couch for about an hour trying to figure out exactly how the controls were supposed to work and really doing more harm than help at this point

Seth eventually gets frustrated and starts showing Neil how to play while Aaron makes smart remarks but heals Neil every time he gets low health

Somehow they end up beating the level

They are about to start another when Renee pops her head in and calls them in for dinner

Neil looks at his phone and sees that its nearly 7 o’clock

Still zero messages from Andrew

before Aaron can walk away Neil stops him and asks if he knows where his twin is at

Aaron gives him a vague shrug and says he’ll show up when he wants to and leaves before Neil can ask just exactly what the fuck that means

Neil walks into the kitchen

Surprise it’s packed full of all the foxes + Wymack and Abby

The table is filled with food & drinks and Neil is ushered to the head of the table while the rest of them fill the seats around him

The night is filled with chatter and laughter as everyone digs into the food and jokes around

Neil’s chest fills with warmth at the sight of his family gathered together safe and happy at his side

But something also feels like it’s missing

He checks his phone but still not a word from Andrew

Excusing himself from his plate, he steps outside into the cool night air and calls Andrew

He picks up on the third ring

“Andrew?“

“Neil.“

His voice sends a shiver down Neil’s spine and he sighs, feeling like something clicked into place

“Where are you?“

“Come back inside“

The line goes dead and Neil spins on his heels racing for the door

When he walks back in the house (more like stumbling really in his haste) he is met by all the foxes standing in the kitchen

The lights are dim & in the center of them is a cake with lit candles bordering the top

But what Neil notices more is that Andrew is the one holding it

Absently he remembers that it’s his birthday today

They sing happy birthday

And Neil is definitely not crying

his eyes just sting a little okay?

definitely not because somehow they made this birthday even better than last year

Nope.

Andrew walks forward and holds out the cake for Neil to blow out the candles

Neil has to keep himself in check from asking yes or no right then and there

He blows them out and the foxes cheer piling on him with hugs and kisses before shoving gift upon gift into his arms

But the best gift is Andrew silently moving to his side after everyone drifts off to enjoy the rest of the night

Their fingers link together despite the room filled with wandering eyes and cameras 

Neil squeezes them ever so slightly in thanks

But Andrew isn’t done

He pulls at their joined hands until Neil is standing chest to chest with him and his other goes to its place on the back of his neck

“Yes or no?“

His answer has never changed

It’s the best birthday gift he could have asked for

[queenpersephonesgarden]

little devil darling

Fandom: Bendy and the Ink Machine Characters: Thomas Connor, Joey Drew, Allison Connor, Bendy Word Count: 2408 Inspired by: @squigglydigg‘s  rather wonderful theory about the end of Chapter 5, and the Halloween spirit!

Can also be read on FFN and AO3

Mr. Drew doesn’t invite Thomas along for the grand ceremony to herald the Ink Machine’s first awakening on Wednesday night, which suits Thomas just fine; even if he’d been ordered to attend, he wouldn’t have gone back to that studio at night for all the extra pay in the world.

He’s spent more than his fair share of sleepless nights holed up in the dim, flickering lights, all alone, tweaking and readjusting the damned thing over and over. Trying to bring this ‘great technical marvel’ Mr. Drew had clumsily designed to life in a way that actually worked less on belief and prayers and more on engineering and logic. He’s not exactly eager to return unless the sun is up and there are at least a handful of other employees already there, thank you very much.

So, Thomas isn’t there the night the machine finally works, but he arrives the Thursday morning afterwards to see the results after a lengthy, half-coherent phone call with Mr. Drew, who’d been too excited to get half his words out.

He comes in a couple hours early because at least Mr. Drew promised a bit of overtime, and he is a bit curious to see what exactly resulted from the boss man’s special experiment. But when he enters the chamber where the infamous Machine is glugging away gallons of the studio’s precious ink, Thomas is suddenly really wishing he’d taken that vacation Allison had suggested.

“What in the hell?”

The question kind of slips out without Thomas really meaning it to, because Christ Almighty, there is a hulking, dripping thing lurking just in Mr. Drew’s shadow, and for a moment Thomas is afraid to make any sudden moves, attract its attention, but his voice seems to have already done that, if the eerie way it turns its malformed head towards him is any indication.

Thomas can’t help but swallow hard as a goopy, unsettling grin slowly tilts curiously to the side, like it’s watching him, but before he can start retreating out the door the way he came Mr. Drew finally spins away from the Machine.

“Isn’t he wonderful?!” Thomas has never seen Mr. Drew so ecstatic before, face alight with a joy that had all but faded in the last few years of the studio’s decline into bankruptcy. He’s standing up tall and straight as he can without leaning on his cane, like he’s trying to appear as large as the thing standing behind him. “I knew you had it in you, Mr. Connor! Your redesigns really did the trick, my boy! It stopped clogging and accepted the model just like you said it would!”

The compliments practically fly over Thomas’ head, as most of his attention is fastened to the monstrosity Mr. Drew seems to be ignoring rather masterfully.

“Sir,” Thomas coughs, because God, what the hell- “What- uh, what did you-?”

“Oh, he’s just marvelous, isn’t he?!” Mr. Drew turns right around and beams up at the oozing monster like it’s the best Christmas present he’s ever seen, and Thomas feels a chill go down his spine when the thing just angles its head down and continues grinning back even though from here it doesn’t look like it can properly see, what with its eyes being nonexistent. “He’s just a prototype, but he came right out on the first try! I didn’t even have to reset the levers or anything; he crawled right out after the sketch was put in!”

“‘He?’” Thomas asks weakly. There’s a lot more he should be saying – hell, there’s plenty he should be screaming at this point – but his brain is refusing to cooperate. Words are completely failing him, because his eyes can barely comprehend what they’re seeing.

Mr. Drew cheers a bit, shaking his cane around in excitement, and if he were a younger man he might have broken into a happy jig.

“Yes! Bendy, of course!” he says, and.

What?

Is that what this is supposed to be?

Looming just behind Mr. Drew’s shoulder, the thing sways a little bit, like a sudden breeze might make it topple over and crush him.

Thomas musters something that might resemble an understanding smile, and backs out of the room as slowly as he can, trying not to look like he’s running away.

Mr. Drew hardly seems to notice his departure, ecstatically circling back around the Machine, chanting words that aren’t even English and waving his arms around like a loon.

Back where it had been left, the thing that might be Bendy the Dancing Demon hadn’t taken its attention off of Thomas, head still tilted to watch his exit, still smiling smiling smiling.

Once he reaches the corner, Thomas gives up on any pretenses and books it out of there like a bat out of hell.

He can still feel the thing’s invisible eyes on him all the way out of the studio.

-

While the experiment might seem like a success in some ways, in many ways it most definitely is not.

The strange, towering husk is almost nothing like the little devil darling it’s supposed to be.

Sure, it’s got the iconic horns and the unnaturally wide grin of its cartoon counterpart, but that’s about where the similarities end.

This thing is tall, unnaturally so, like its body is made out of taffy that’s been stretched out too long. It’s horns nearly brush the ceiling and its arms are nearly as long as it’s body. One hand has the glove reminiscent of the real Bendy, while the other is just an ugly, black paw, fingers jagged and curled slightly like claws.

And it drips everywhere, continuously oozing puddles and streaks of dark ink all across the ground wherever it goes, staining the floor just as much as all the damned burst pipes always do.

“It’s a damn menace!” Sammy Lawrence snarls at lunch time, voice booming through the breakroom like it usually does when he’s in a terrible mood and he needs everyone else to know. “Fuckin’ freak thinks it can wander into my studio and-! There’s ink all over the damned walls! How the hell am I supposed to write a damned thing when half my papers are soaked darker than Satan’s soul?!”

Thomas, picking wordlessly at his lukewarm tuna sandwich, watches Eddie and Marge and Frankie all nod seriously in agreement, and can’t help pursing his lips.

The animators and half the rest of the staff are practically in an uproar about the thing, which has meandered its way all across the studio and back in the day and a half since it was brought into existence. At first, they were too creeped out by its’ appearance to say much against Mr. Drew, but ever since it started seriously disrupting people’s work with its random disappearing-reappearing through walls act, they’d been getting a little more vocal about their displeasure in private, where neither the boss man or the thing in question could hear them.

Sammy looks about five seconds away from storming out of the room and demanding a word with Joey, and honestly Thomas is almost tempted to let him; if there’s anyone in this place that can kick up enough of a storm to actually get Mr. Drew’s attention, it’s Sammy Lawrence and his sharp tongue and even sharper temper.

But the same, creeping feeling of being watched is still on him, even now, hours later and with the thing not even in the room, and Thomas isn’t feeling up to pressing his luck right now.

“You managed just fine when the pipes burst, yeah?” he dares to ask, raising an eyebrow at Sammy’s outraged sputtering.

This could become a nice, distracting argument, but even thinking about defending the monster is killing Thomas’s appetite, and he shoves back from the table with a scowl.

“Up yours, Connor!” Sammy hollers after him as he heads out into the hallway.

Thomas waves over his shoulder and skirts around a fresh ink puddle without looking.

-

Thomas gets called in to deal with another burst pipe in the animator’s department, and ain’t it just his great luck that he finds the thing standing right in the middle of the room, hunched over a bit to accommodate for its massive height and the low ceiling, smiling smiling smiling in that creepy way it does as it seemingly watches Mr. Drew with poor Frankie at the man’s desk.

“It needs to be completely on model this time, Mr. Chambers,” Mr. Drew’s voice is poisonously sweet as he loomed ominously over the animator, expression calm but the look in his eyes bordering on murderous as he stared Frankie down.

Thomas winces in sympathy as Frankie gestures uselessly at whatever is on his desk, face set in a stubborn scowl that’ll probably get him fired.

“Sir, ya said so yourself; the sketches I gave you yesterday were on model! Those Bendy’s looked like every other cartoon we’ve ever released, they were perfect, so I don’t see how it’s my fault the-” he coughed a bit, glanced at the shadow standing right in the middle of the room, and grimaced. “-the model your Machine spat out is as deformed as it is! Maybe you should be taking a look at-!”

“The Machine worked exactly as it was supposed to!” Mr. Drew snapped, and Thomas pretends very hard like he’s studying the leaking pipe he’s over here to fix, because the Machine was working just fine when he’d been working on it, but that was back before all the weird voodoo shit was thrown in, and he’s not sure he wants to see what would happen if he decided to mention that.

Another chill goes shooting up his spine, and Thomas glances over his shoulder to find the thing slowly drifting closer to the wall he’s working next to as both Frankie and the boss man continue their little discussion.

His entire body stiffens at the thing’s approach, and Thomas is just contemplating how much trouble he’s likely to get in if he reaches for his wrench and takes a swing at it, but he doesn’t need to worry; the thing drifts farther and farther to the right until it reaches the corner opposite Thomas. It hits the wall, and Thomas half expects it to phase through the wood like it’s been doing all damn day, but instead it just sort of leans listlessly against it, unmoving for a long minute, until its form slowly crumples up into an awkward, misshapen ball, like a pouting child in timeout.

The comparison does nothing for Thomas’s nerves, and neither does the sudden thud and the sound of paper ripping coming from Frankie’s desk.

“Just do better this time, Mr. Chambers!” Mr. Drew is still smiling that unhappy smile as he walks away, limping heavily even with his cane, not even looking back when Frankie throws up his hands in frustration and proceeds to rip up even more papers from his desk.

“Whatever you say, sir,” Frankie mutters sourly, gathering up his ink pot and a few folders before stalking out after the boss, expression thunderous.

The door slams closed after the duo’s dramatic exit, and Thomas is left with the horrifying realization that he is alone in here, and that thing is also very much still here.

Ruined scraps of paper float gently off Frankie’s desk after it’s owner’s hasty departure, and they scatter a bit across the floor.

In the corner of the room, the thing has started to rock back and forth. A disturbing choking sound is emanating from the back of its throat, and Thomas can feel gooseflesh rising up all along his arms as it thumps it’s head gently against the wall with a gentle splat-splat, staining the wall with ink.

If Thomas didn’t know any better, he’d say it was crying, curled up like a frightened kid and making itself as small as possible.

“Would you stop that?”

He doesn’t mean to talk to it. He doesn’t want to talk to it, because it’s not a fucking person, but it’s crying and he doesn’t know why.

Thomas’s throat rasped, voice curiously strained for some reason. His tone was a lot quieter than he’d meant it to be, but if he tried to go any louder he might really start screaming. “You’re Drew’s special little project, ya hear? You ain’t got nothin’ to cry about. Stop that.”

A half-finished sketch of what looks like Boris the Wolf lands on Thomas’s shoe, and he shakes it off with a scowl.

The thing chokes a little louder, and Thomas gets up and grabs his toolbox and walks back out of the room. Someone else can deal with the leak for now. He’s really not in the mood.

-

Allison finds him, after work is over for the day and he’s still packing up his things. She bursts into the room like she’d run all the way here from the recording studio, entire body trembling like a leaf in a storm and eyes haunted.

He doesn’t ask, just opens his arms and holds onto her when she falls into him with a gasp.

“I said ‘hi’ to it,” she whispers, voice so hoarse he can barely hear it even when her chin is pressed into his shoulder. “It came up behind me, and I wasn’t thinking, and I said ‘hi’ because I thought it was Sammy and it- I thought-”

She sobs hard, can’t speak for a moment, and Thomas can’t do anything but tighten his arms around her, ignore the angry fire banking in his gut as she shakes apart.

“It said- I thought it said ‘Hi Alice’, and the voice-! The sounds it made- oh, god, Tom, that’s not human, whatever it is, and it’s- it’s so sad-!”

Words fail her, and Allison buries her face into his neck and cries her heart out.

Above them, Thomas listens to ink flow sluggishly through the pipes. It never sounded so much like a moaning voice, before.

-

Thomas hands in his resignation letter the Monday after a long weekend of thinking.

Marching back out of the studio with his head held high, he ignores the stares of his former colleagues and keeps his shaking hands balled into fists at his sides.

The ink thing that might be Bendy wanders past him on the way out, face still dripping inky tears and smiling smiling smiling all the while.

[medea10]

Medea Rambles - Changing Voice Actors (in anime)

Your favorite character! You love the way they look, the way they act, and in many cases, the way they sound. Yeah, voice actors are a vital role when it comes to bringing life to any character in animation. But what happens when your favorite character doesn’t sound the same as he/she used to?

It could mean your favorite character’s voice actor has CHANGED.

Don’t fear! This happens all the time and many factors can come into play to make that happen.

Because I’m bored today and have nothing better to talk about...

ABSOLUTELY NOTHING BETTER TO TALK ABOUT!

(seriously, I do like this movie)

I want to talk about voice actors! Because I like talking about them. I have the highest respect for these people and these people give it their all with the characters they voice. Every scream Sean Schemmel ever gave as Goku, every cackle Sayaka Ohara gave as Beatrice, these performances can be considered remarkable and memorable as time goes by.

But we must all remember this. Voice actors are just like you or me. They are human. No one lasts forever. And when the unthinkable happens and a voice actor dies, many creators grapple with either retiring the character or hire a replacement.

In the anime world, it’s most likely the latter because there’s no way in fuckdom Professor Oak would EVER be retired as a character (R.I.P. Unshou Ishizuka).

Even though no one could match the charm of Unshou Ishizuka as Professor Oak and many other roles, we accept the change. But it’s not just death. Life in general can get in the way. Many voice actresses have long-running roles to voice even when they’re pregnant. So when they go on maternity leave, they’ll need a replacement. However these are thankfully temporary so we were able to get Mariya Ise to voice Bonnie on Pokemon again and soon Brina Palencia will be back to voicing Juvia on Fairy Tail (and congrats to her for the birth of her first baby).

Child actors in anime will probably not have the same voice they had 10 years ago and if a role is making a revival in the present, that person will more than likely not play that same role. Perfect example there would be Aaron Dismuke who was a young boy when playing roles like Al on Full Metal Alchemist and Hiro on Fruits Basket. When FMA: Brotherhood came out, it was very clear that Dismuke was well past puberty and so his role of Alphonse had to go to someone else.

And voice actors who sustain injury to their voices during production. Jessica Calvello, the original voice of Excel from Excel Saga literally blew out her vocal chords for this role and had to have her role replaced for the second half of the series. Was it noticeable? Fuck yeah it was. But it was for the greater good. Plus her replacement wasn’t that bad. In fact she did a good job with the wacky behavior of Excel. The dubbing company was on a deadline and it had to be met. So what’s done is done. I’m just happy Calvello healed from that and is still a voice actor.

And other issues like scheduling conflicts and controversial issues come into play throwing a monkey wrench in productions. But we all move on for the most part.

WE ALL MOVE ON!

Anyways, for the most part these are just singular acts concerning one or more characters at a time. What happens when AN ENTIRE CAST IS CHANGED?!

Well...it happens! It just depends on the circumstances with the anime. And let’s face it, some of these changes can be for the greater good. Take Sailor Moon for example. Yes, we all know this tale! Sailor Moon was originally licensed by DIC for the first few seasons. And then the next few seasons it was taken over by (the thankfully gone company) Cloverway. With both companies, the anime was given the royal fuck-over with skipping episodes, chopping or editing scenes, Americanizing everything, downplaying homosexuality, shotty voice work, and blow off an entire season. And during the transition from DIC to Cloverway, some of the voices were changed and it was noticeable.

Decade later, Viz Media swoops in and gives the fans what they waited for. The entire series redubbed with original names, Haruka and Michiru are lesbians, Fisheye has a penis, and season five can finally be shown. But for many of us, we were delighted to hear the voices to the characters we grew up with finally getting some justice. While many of us loved Sailor Moon growing up, it was kind of painful to hear some of the voices. I once again point to Haruka’s original voice (or Amara as they called her). And the same could also be said about the first dub to One Piece. This redub needed to happen! No one objected to this, nor should they! But that’s just one person’s opinion here. Others, not so much. Especially the next one!

POKEMON! Yes another anime that went through a giant change. In 2006 (right in the middle of a fucking arc mind you), Pokemon switched the dubbing rights from 4Kids to TAJ/Pokemon Company. To which we all said...

And then they got rid of all the voice actors who have voiced these characters for YEARS and replaced them. To fans of the show from the very beginning it was noticeable and STILL IS. To people who were born in 2006 and are watching this now as a teenager (fucking shit I feel old just realizing that), they probably wouldn’t give it a second thought.

I know it hurt fans and voice actors at first but look at the bright side, a lot of them went on to do great things after Pokemon. Veronica Taylor is busy doing Sailor Moon. Eric Stuart is still touring. And Andrew Rannells...I don’t think I need to bring up Book of Mormon. As it has been over 13 years since the change I think many of us have gotten used to or have accepted this.

Does that mean you’ve accepted Tracey’s new voice?

No. Fuck no. And I never will.

Yeah, Tracey’s a different story. I refuse to accept that change.

Anyways back to voice actors changing! Pokemon and Sailor Moon were kind of special cases as those had a bunch of in-fighting to get what we got. Same with One Piece because no one wanted to watch that hot mess get raped with censored items, Americanized names, and a horrific rap song that even Vanilla Ice would say that’s too much. But sometimes, an anime that has finished its airing and has been dubbed and released in the states, it will be out of print or its license will be expired.

Animes like Berserk, Squid Girl, Rozen Maiden, and Shakugan no Shana were all owned, licensed, and dubbed by a company. But then their licence would go belly-up and their title would no longer be available for purchase (at a decent price) or streamed on a website. Luckily, these titles were eventually saved. Kept the same is a different story there.

All four of those titles had one or more of their seasons dubbed and anything else the series had that wasn’t dubbed was now going to be dubbed by their current licencor. In many of these cases it was changed due to the fact that many of the original voice actors for these roles are not where this certain anime is being worked on. Like in the case of Shakugan no Shana, many of the voice actors reside in Vancouver BC and FUNimation, the licensing company is in Texas. Hence, you get the second and third season sounding way different from the first season. Yes, it’s convenient or cheaper to use people in your studio instead of waiting to hear from Canada. So that’s a possibility of why they do that. Or of course, scheduling issues/conflicts or wanting to do things their own way. Haven’t decided on which one to believe.

And then there are some animes like Escaflowne (an anime that was already dubbed and licensed and released in the late 90s) only for the whole thing to be redubbed by FUNimation decades later. Reasons? They re-licensed it? There was over 8 minutes of new footage found that was never dubbed? They found it necessary to do that? Take your pick!

Now most of what I’m talking about is mostly America problems. Does Japan redub classic anime? To my knowledge, no. But if they remake, reboot, or give a sequel, the cast might change. In recent reboots such as Fruits Basket, Berserk, Sailor Moon, and Genshiken, the entire cast will change to either appease the original creator’s wishes or start over with a clean slate. And if a series makes a return after several decades, of course they’re going to change voices, are you insane?

Why did I find the need to spew a bunch of useless information today? I felt inspired after Netflix decided to grace us with IT’S presence.

Neon Genesis Evangelion.

A classic in the anime community. A gateway anime for many. A massive mindfuck wrapped in a brainfart. A clusterfuck of many proportions.

The television series was licensed and dubbed by ADV back in the 90s. But of course that company went belly-up and so this series has been unreachable in terms of purchasing for over a decade. Even when Japan gives us reboots in the forms of movies for the Evangelion franchise, only those movies would be picked up (by FUNimation). They didn’t even touch the series. Didn’t they realize fans would pay through the nose to get a blu-ray release of this series? The most fans could get were split-up copies on DVD and old VHS tapes. This was a goldmine.

Alas, FUNimation was not the one to save the Neon Genesis Evangelion series.

It was Netflix.

But...all things come at a price when you make a deal with the devil. Netflix found it necessary to redub the entire series (both movies included) without giving word or even consideration to the original cast (that has been doing the voices to these characters for over 20 years). Spike Spenser, Amanda Winn Lee, Tiffany Grant, and Allison Keith wanted to help with this as they all had a lot of input in the original (especially Lee). Now before I cast stones upon this, I do give this dub some credit. They do make an effort to make this sound like an improved version of the 90s dub. And in some aspects I find the new voice to Shinji bearable. And I’m okay with many new casting changes. I mean NGE was okay, but the dub wasn’t the greatest. My only gripe with the change...

Downplaying Shinji x Kaowru.

Netflix, you just undid like a decades worth of change when it comes to homosexuality in anime. You just took us five steps backwards! Kaowru says he LOVED Shinji. “Like”? No, you like a pair of pants. You like that new Bruno Mars song. Kaowru said he LOVED Shinji. Why the fuck didn’t you keep that translation? The 90s dub was kind enough to have Kaowru say that and the 1990s were run by a bunch of prudes! I thought we were past this shit when we put an end to the old Sailor Moon dubs!

Now with this Netflix dub, many characters on Evangelion officially have 2-3 different voice actors. Or in the case of the character Toji, Johnny Young Bosch is the fifth person to voice him. But some platforms can have the anime itself, just not get the right with the english dub probably due to some legal loophole.

Whew, a lot of changes in anime, right folks? It almost feels like these dubbing companies want to erase the past, right? Well to be fair, everyone seems to be doing that. Disney keeps giving us live-action remakes to classic Disney animated films. Classic anime titles are being rebooted. Dubbing companies are taking older animes and redubbing them. I know it feels like they want us to forget these dubs existed. But I know they just want to improve them.

No matter what, everyone will find fault with everything. And in the anime community, it feels like a never-ending flame war. Older animes will get hated on by how crappy it sounds or looks. And nostalgic fans will hate on the new dub because it’s with new people who sound nothing like the original.

YOU CAN (NOT) WIN!

Heh, I made an Eva-build joke.

With these redubs, many names get pronounced the correct way, many translations will be accurate to the Japanese version, and in some cases it’ll sound a lot better. Dubbing companies try to aim at new viewers and to introduce a new generation of anime fans to an old classic. But for people who grew up with animes like Pokemon, Escaflowne, Cardcaptor Sakura, Sailor Moon, and many others, we grew accustomed to the dub. And when hearing it changed, it’s kind of a kick in the ears hearing anything penetrated or different from all the years you spent watching these animes.

Everyone has their own opinion of what they like and don’t like to hear. I like to give things the benefit of the doubt for the most part. Especially when I watch an older anime for the first time that has several dubs. When I began watching Rurouni Kenshin about 7 years back, I was warned that there were three English dubs to that. And I heard all three. I made my choice of which one I prefer, which one was okay, and which one needs to be set on fire. In case you don’t know, the original TV series had the best, the OVA series was okay, and the redub Sony did needs to be set on fire.

And that would be my advice to new anime watchers. Give both dubs a chance and make your decision on which one you like best.

Sadly, these changes will continue to happen whether for the better or the worst. While there are some changes that upset me, some I’m okay with if not pleased about it. But with the recent upset over fans hating on Evangelion’s new dub and change, do you think the fans will get a revolution and their old dub/old translations back? Let me put it to you this way. If Pokemon told us to sit and spin after many of us outraged over the cast change, what chance do Evangelion fans have against Netflix? But you never know, stranger things have happened. Maybe a miracle will occur and the old dub will get a blu-ray release.

In the meantime, I’ll have to re-write my thoughts on Evangelion with the ADV dub, FUNimation dub, and Netflix dub. TOO MANY DUBS!

This has been another Medea ramble. I’ll go back to doing whatever it is I normally do around here.

[neko-shinigxmi]

   My self-inserts for Bendy and the Ink Machine~! Let’s go! Thanks for asking me about this, @robotarmjokes!!

HUMAN VERSE

Your average animator named Rachel. Glasses-wearing, brown hair that parts down the middle, dark green eyes...and often found in their work outfit. (Hair in a bun and casual clothes- t-shirt and pants- with an apron over it. For the ink stains, of course.)

Joey Drew accepts just about anyone...provided they’d want to work with him in the first place. When they begged him to look at their portfolio, well... A look through ended up assuring a job, much to their delight.

Works among the inking section of the cogs that are Joey Drew Studios. Thus, their apron that’s often gently splattered with the dark liquid.

Tends to be lowkey and not very talkative, but gets along with Henry Stein, Allison Pendle, Shawn Flynn, Ernest Craft, and Daisy Lindel. (The latter two being OCs of mine.)

Their favorite creation of the studio’s? Probably Alice. “I like the way she sings... She’s got such a lovely voice to her! Like a songbird.”

Also has a crush on Sammy Lawrence... Though with the guy being such a shut-in, you’d be hard-pressed to find them together.

...Though the more Rachel protests to wiggling into his time, the more they hang out, later down the line.

It turns into Rachel showing him their personal projects, even allowing him to flip through their sketchbook freely. (Though he’s never seen their notebook, filled with notes, more art...and drawings of him, as well as love notes.)

Sammy gets to vent to them about music, often getting to be the one who sees the idea or clarity for a project strike him, urging to finish that old one or start up a new one. It’s their great pride to help him, as they’ve said a few times before.

They do end up dating later down the line... Though most at the studio didn’t know it, even after they started coming to work together. They kept their private life, well, private.

Though they were living together and even bought a house together with their pooled savings; the extra rooms were morphed into an art room and music room, to settle with their interests.

Both of them credit each other as the other’s muse. That’s where the rumors began that the two might be dating. (Though they were behind on the news, of course.)

Joey Drew Studios collapsed not long later, much to Sammy’s frustration. Both were worked to the bone, but also had to make payments, so... A potential job-hunt wasn’t up either of their alleys. Though Rachel was determined to try, despite the odds.

One day, he snapped. Said he wouldn’t come back until he figured out what happened to the studio.

...He never did.

Depending on the timeline, Henry might find Rachel, lost in the studio, trying to find Sammy. In others, they’re the one who Joey called back...and now have a few time-loops of their own.

TOON VERSE

In another world, they are someone different... Meet Kathy the Clumsy Kitten! A creation of Joey Drew Studios (specifically by Ernest Craft, but Joey Drew has since taken all the credit for her creation, much to Ernest’s chagrin) and one of the more...quietly loved characters of the series.

Kathy started out as “Kitten” and with the design below:

In these early days, she had no voice to use. Instead, sound effects would play to denote her emotions; like soft chimes when she cried or the zing of a piano when surprised.

However, people thought she was another demon with her ears looking like they did! As well, despite her feminine appearance, a lot of comparisons between her and Bendy soon arose...

To combat this, she was quickly redesigned to look more...original. The design settled on this less than a year later:

...and that’s the design that’s always been used since!

Update notes: inside of ears drawn, fur tufts on face, and a tail added.

It was also with this design that Joey gave Kathy her now-defining character trait: being a literal scaredy-cat. Easily spooked and, of course, very clumsy.

She’s known to be bullied by Bendy, terrified of Boris, and good friends with Alice, despite the fact her clumsiness has inconvenienced Alice quite a few times in the various episodes that the studio has produced.

She also considers Joey Drew a father figure, Daisy Lindel a mother figure (especially since Daisy would end up being Kathy’s first VA), and Ernest someone spooky....!!

She does also have quite a bit of trust with Sammy Lawrence, though; his music and ramblings often lull her to sleep.

There’s also ANOTHER toon-friend she has named Aki... Aki the Grimmest Reaper, as they call her. (Joey Drew Studios did a trade with a Japanese animation studio at the time. Not only did they work on a short for the other studio, but made a character for the other studio to use; Aki was from the Japanese animation studio.)

Though... The biggest problem by far? Kathy’s got a crush on Bendy.

And now, we get verse dependent~! As there’s two ways things work out......

With Bendy: It takes some vague scolding on Aki’s behalf and clarification from Alice before Bendy realizes that Kathy isn’t as much of a welcome mat as she is just a pushover to the person she likes. Which is. Him.

It’s embarrassing on both sides, but hey~! Bendy’s got charm, yeah? He does his best to lessen the tricks and instead provide little hearts he cuts out of pink (or red) paper and flowers he steals under other people’s noses.

It’s made her a good bit more clumsier at first, what with all the surprise flattery from her crush, but once Bendy finally went all out with asking her to be his lil lady... Well, she actually got better. Still clumsy, but not as bad as she used to be.

They’re a heartrendingly sweet couple. She showers him in praise and affection (which he adores) and- once the show’s all said an’ done- spends time cuddling with her after. It’s...really nice and something Kathy loves to do with him.

However, this has not stopped Bendy’s love for dancing. He even purposefully got thicker shoes so he could waltz or dance in any way he pleases with Kathy. So why thicker shoes? So that way, when she inevitably steps on his feet, he won’t feel it as much!! (It’s embarrassing, but that did make her laugh, much to his delight.)

--------------------------------

With Alice: ...Or on another hand, Alice ends up gaining a crush on her best friend and shy little kitten. And you know what? If Bendy won’t treat Kathy right, then Alice will!

So she does, finding Kathy, taking her to the best spot Alice knows, and holding both of her hands as Alice confesses to liking her. It surprised the life outta Kathy to hear, but-!! .....Well, it’s not like she doesn’t want to date her...

It’s an uncertain thing at first, with Kathy getting to see Alice in a new light. Alice takes it slow in response, though in what feels like no time at all, they’re one of the cutest couples of the studio!

It’s not uncommon for Kathy to still try to help out with Alice’s performances, mostly in regards to setting up. Though her clumsiness still makes Alice pretty nervous... It’s too easy for her to trip up on a stray rope and make everything fall apart like dominoes!

Though on a sweeter note, it’s not uncommon to hear Alice singing and find her cradling Kathy, singing the kitten toon to sleep and guaranteeing only the kindest of dreams.

Alice has mentioned matching outfits someday... Kathy’s still flustered by the idea but very, very much up to it.

Finally..... Some additional notes. ;>

INK DEMON VERSE: Daisy eventually gave up her role voicing Kathy, giving it to her daughter, Clara Lindel. However, the young woman didn’t work as Kathy’s VA for very long. The character was her favorite of the show, so it was incredibly heartbreaking for it to end so soon... However, when Joey Drew sent that letter, asking for a callback? Of course she wanted to go!

...Not knowing what awaited her when she got to the studio.

She’d awake later, no longer a human. But a mix of ink and soul.

She’s more “Clara” at first. But as time goes on, that personality- that person- melts away, more and more becoming “Kathy”... Neither of them want this. But neither of them can stop it, either.

Though it’s also why they try so desperately to help Henry to escape; if they can’t be helped, hopefully he can... Right?

-----------------------------------------------------

Though there is technically a thing where I ship Bendy with literally me. No universe-fitting self-insert stuff.

This started due to needing to get my teeth worked on and me being super anxious about it. I needed someone to be with me. Someone small, protective, easy to hold and with wit to make me feel better when scared... I latched onto Bendy, since BATIM happened to be my main special interest at the time.

It’s also where this artwork came from: 

So... That’s a thing, too! So it doesn’t quite matter if you call me Rachel, Aki, or Kathy to him, technically.... Though you do get a different answer during F/O Takeovers when asked about him and Kathy!

Have one more art for reading all of this, slkfdjsk

[bornoffireandwisdom]

Our Connection

After Joey takes Bendy away from Henry, he becomes determined to find him and goes to the studio’s most-wanted for help, and Annette and the two Lost Ones get scared.

————

Hey guys. I’m so sorry it took me so long to write the part 4 of my recent stories for my BATIM Saudade AU. A lot of stuff had happened.. it’s a long explanation.

Anyway. I really hope that you guys like this story. I worked very hard on it, and it’s kind of long this time. Usually I always accidentally make my stories too short, but I’m glad I managed to make this one longer. I’m sorry if this story isn’t that good though. I tried my best. If I find any errors in terms of grammar or punctuation, I’ll try my best to fix it later. Also I’m sorry if this story is a bit dark at the end.

I really hope you guys enjoy this story, and if you did then please re-blog and tell me what you liked about it! I always like seeing what you guys have to say about my stories. To be honest I’m always really looking forward to that. Anyway. I hope you like this. I’m sorry if it’s not that good. I tried my best.

—————

Henry found himself in the puddles again. Maybe it was better this way. The pain of having Bendy taken away didn’t reach him as much. Part of him was somewhat grateful for the puddle’s ability to erase all the worries and sadness from his mind. Making sure that his memories were just beyond his reach. So there he was.. floating in the darkness of the ink. In a deep slumber to which Joey hoped he would never awaken from.

The young man hadn’t tried to fight back yet either. Something kind of broke inside him when Joey took Bendy away. Maybe it was hope, or just the will to continue on? Henry didn’t know and neither did he care anymore. His old friend had taken away his reason to fight..

Whatever the feeling was.. it wasn’t there anymore. Henry had nothing left. Even the other ink-creature’s could sense this about him. Keeping to themselves instead of trailing after him to make sure he’s still unconscious. They just let him shamble through the halls, undisturbed. With only one purpose in mind he wandered and wandered, checking every room for intruders, or the troublesome toons (Allison and Tom.)

Eventually Henry stopped in one room. Something had caught his eye, which was why he decided to pause his search. A few Bendy posters scattered the walls. Yes, there were many in the studio, but these ones in particular caught his eye. Henry helped make these ones years ago.. he could recognize his design even in his enthralled state. Suddenly everything started to hurt again. Mostly in his heart.

Part of him knew why, but the other didn’t. Henry had a job to do. The puddles tried to steer him back to catching intruders.. but he couldn’t stop staring up at the posters. Looking up at Bendy’s smiling face was torment. Henry wanted him back, but he couldn’t remember why. Tears started to stream down from his glowing eyes.

The Searcher couldn’t understand what was happening. Trying to whip them away, but they continued to flow without stop. “B-Ben..dy..?” Henry muttered, the ink losing its grip long enough for the young man to get out a word. Talking was so hard as an ink-creature. With the puddles clouding his mind all the time.

“W-Where..?” The former-animator had to find the small toon demon, but it caused a giant conflict inside the hive-mind. Henry wanted desperately to find his son, but the ink wanted him to do what the other Searchers were doing. What was the point anyway? It wasn’t like people break into the place everyday.. and the two intruders that were currently in the building were nowhere to be found! However the puddles didn’t care about that.. it was hungry for more souls to join it, and it would keep their victims searching for more until the end of time.

Or at least.. until someone finds a cure for this demonic virus.

Inside the puddles Henry started to scream. It wasn’t for mercy, or for freedom, but anger. With what little strength he had left, Henry went to try and find someone. Who could hopefully help him. He wasn’t going to let Joey take away the one thing he knew he had to remember at all costs. Bendy. His son.

——————

The knocking sounded too slow to be frantic. It wasn’t his fault that the ink made him so tired.. but Henry kept knocking until someone finally opened the door. When it did, the young man collapsed from relief and exhaustion. Lying on the ground, hearing a commotion inside the room he was outside of.

“We can’t let him in, Alli! Henry has no reason to be back here now that he’s a Searcher! Joey had to of sent him as a trap!” A rough sounding voice spoke first. Whoever it belonged to was clearly very cautious and untrustworthy towards the infected. A small flare of anger rose inside of Henry, the hive-mind still trying to influence him.

“Tom, take one look at him! I can tell just by one glance that he’s fighting back for control. Besides, we still have the cell!” A second, softer voice said to the previous one. Their voice was oddly comforting despite the hint of annoyance at the other person speaking.

“ALRIGHT! Fine! But I can’t be responsible for anything he does if he breaks out.”

The shouting stopped. Henry slowly went unconscious as he felt someone help him up, his only visible eye was started to close, which to the toons, it meant that they had one less problem to deal with. Tom felt slightly less tense. When a Searcher has its eyes closed, that meant it was sleeping for real. They don’t do it much, but when they did it could sometimes take days or weeks for them to become active again. Allison theorized that is has something to do with them being not properly alive.. but Tom wasn’t so sure, but they couldn’t think of any other reason for their prolonged sleep.

“Sorry for yelling Alli.. you know how dangerous it is. It was risky enough letting Henry stay here when Bendy found him in the fourth stage. He’s completely corrupted now.. and you have to admit, this is kind of suspicious.” Tom said apologetically as he laid the former-animator on the cot in the make-shift cell. Allison waved him off, most-likely to say that he shouldn’t worry about it.

“It’s alright Tom. I understand.. Henry is a threat, but it would break Bendy’s heart if we just left him out there.” The toon Angel looked down at the man. Even as a Searcher he looked incredibly weak.. in fact, he looked almost like he was dead. Although ink-creatures can’t actually die. Well.. at least Searchers didn’t stay dead for long, both toons didn’t know what would happen if they died. Neither did they want to find out.

Allison and Tom just watched him for awhile. Seeing Henry didn’t just make them feel cautious.. but also sorrow, sympathy, and a sense of mourning. Tom however also felt anger. The poor man didn’t derserve this. No one did. Tom took Allison’s hand and held it, squeezing it reassuringly.

It took almost a whole day for Henry to open his eyes again. At first he sat up, all confused. Then his expression changed to one of absolute devastation, and proceeded to let out a shriek.

Allison and Tom came running upon hearing his cries. Seeing that Henry had physically woken up, but he still didn’t seem completely ‘awake’ when the Searcher saw them standing outside the cell. Especially because he launched himself and started pulling on the wooden beams blocking his path, breathing harshly. Instinctively Tom reached for his axe.

“H-Help..!” Henry rasped. He looked almost feral. “B-Bendy.. g-gone..! D-Don’t.. know.. w-where!” The man started pulling at the beams even harder. The two toons were understandably alarmed, but Allison tried to remain calm. Henry looked at them both with wild glowing eyes, the former-animator had never looked so insane before.. there was no time to waste! He had to get out and find Bendy!

Wait.. Henry didn’t know where Bendy was? Last they heard, the little toon was visiting Sammy and Wally at the Lost One village. Besides Bendy said he was afraid of making Joey angry if he visited his creator. Did he try and see Henry anyway?

Tom and Allison nearly face-palmed upon the realization. Of course the toon went to see Henry! Obviously Bendy had tried to wake Henry up out of his deep trance and got caught. Joey must’ve sent the little demon away as punishment. Henry had to of been awake at the time and saw this happen.. no wonder the Searcher was upset!

“L-Let.. me.. OUT!” The corrupted man begged them from inside the make-shift cell. Still trying escape by banging furiously at the boards. The sooner he got out, the better!

“Sorry kid. It’s too dangerous to let you out of there right now. Just hang tight while we figure something out.” Tom said to the Searcher, who unfortunately only got more upset by this response. Henry let out an inhuman shriek of rage, and started trying to reach through the wooden beams to attack Tom. The toon wolf quickly moved out of the man’s reach. Turning to look at Allison was a look of uncertainty. It looked like the man still had the instincts that came with being fully corrupted. Such as aggression.

“Henry. Calm down, look at me.” The toon angel stepped forward, and the Searcher snapped his gaze onto her. Henry trembled, he just froze. Making no noise or any sign of movement besides the shivering. It was clear that the only reason he wasn’t trying to attack them right now was because the thought of Bendy was keeping him from losing what little control he had.

In fact the puddles still had large hold over Henry. The ink keeping his memories away, the only clear one being of Bendy. He couldn’t remember Allison and Tom much, but something deep down kept telling him that they were to be trusted. They could help him.

“Listen to me Henry.. I know you’re worried about Bendy, and if he really is missing then I promise you we’ll find him.. but you have to stay here for now, okay? Just for a little while.” Allison spoke in a gentle voice. Smiling softly at the corrupted young man. Henry slowly stopped shaking and nodded, although a look of loss and heartbreak was still staring back at her.

“M-my.. s-son..” Henry whimpered, tears started to stream down from his glowing eyes. Taking both toons aback. There was something so haunting about seeing a Searcher cry. They didn’t do it much since they were usually unaware, though their souls inside the puddles were the ones that mostly did the crying.

“We’ll get him back. I promise.” Allison tried to assure him. Slowly reaching into the cell and gently patting him on the shoulder. She didn’t want to provoke him and set the young man off into another rage. Henry just started tearing up even more and began to bawl.

————

“This place is actually really cool! Did you guys really build all this?” Annette asked her two new friends. They had been giving her a tour of the village and she seemed to be enjoying it so far. Wally laughed at her enthusiasm while Sammy blushed.

“Yep! Well, everyone pitched in! Sammy was the one who helped keep things organized, I helped here and there with some of the building. I have a bit of experience with tools, but I wouldn’t say I’m a master with them. Tom and Allison even helped out a bit when they were in the area.” Wally said as they made it back to the centre. A few chairs had been set out to make the place seem a bit more friendly, the village wasn’t a real town.. but the Lost Ones tried their best to make a home out of what they had.

“Who’s Allison and Tom? I don’t think I’ve heard of them yet. Are they Lost Ones too?”

“Nah they’re toons! Tom looks a lot like Boris, but he has a mechanical arm! Allison looks like Alice Angel, except uh.. not insane.” Wally laughed a little nervously at the last part. Sammy flashed him a look of annoyance at his friend’s words. ‘Alice’ wasn’t known for being kind to people, and has caused quite a few problems for the Lost Ones and the Searchers. Though ‘Alice’ wasn’t always ‘Alice.’ Sammy didn’t really enjoy thinking about that kind of past.

“Oh.. okay, good to know.” Annette wasn’t sure what to say after that. It seemed like a lot of people here went insane, and she didn’t know what a crazed ‘angel’ could be capable of.

“Yes I understand it might get a bit confusing.. just know that ‘Alice’ is bad, and ‘Allison’ is good.” Sammy tried to simplify it. The Lost One was about to say more when he saw something heading towards the three of them. It was an easily recognizable figure due to the hat they always wore.

“S-SAMMY!” Jack Fain struggled to sprint. A trail of ink following him close behind, almost making him slip. It was harder for Searchers to do things like running, they could try but it was still difficult. Their forms were harder to keep stable. To make things easier the two Lost Ones ran over to Jack instead.

“Jack are you alright? What’s going on?” The former music-director looked concerned. The shy Searcher looked panicked, even Wally looked a little worried. Jack didn’t normally come running into the place screaming..

“I-It’s J-Joey! H-Henry ran off s-somewhere and now he’s f-furious! I-I don’t know what’s h-happening but he’s g-got all the other S-Searchers looking f-for him!” Suddenly the man began to sway, like he was going to fall over. Instantly the former-janitor and the former music-director, rushed over to hold him steady. Even Annette wanted to help, although that probably wasn’t a good idea.

“I-I.. I think I’m s-starting to fall asleep..” Jack whispered. Both Lost Ones looked horror-striken. This wasn’t fair. He had been well on his way to becoming a Lost One like them, outside of the hive-mind. Outside of Joey’s control. The former-lyricist had been awake for so long! He’s managed to hang on to his free-will for almost three weeks. A few small blackouts happened, but nothing major. Everyone in the process of leaving the puddles experienced some short relapses from time to time, but as long as they continued to fight they could eventually overcome it.

“What? Guys what does he mean by ‘falling asleep’?” Annette asked in all the confusion. However they didn’t hear the girl’s question, too busy trying to make sure Jack wasn’t going to lose consciousness.

“J-Joey.. wants e-everyone out l-looking for H-Henry..” The only Searcher who was currently in the Lost One village started to blink tiredly as the two friends helping him move again. Sammy turned towards Annette. He looked worried and stressed.

“Annette! Wally and I are going to take Jack back to my Sanctuary. He always found it calming so it might help him stay awake. Please stay here while we’re gone, Joey’s probably got the other Searchers prowling the building so just stay here, alright?” Sammy grabbed one of Jack’s arms and put it over his shoulder, Wally did the same with the other arm. Soon they started to exit the area, leaving behind a confused Annette.

‘Joey is sending Searchers to look for Henry? Wait.. does this mean he’s still trying to fight back?’ A spark of hope ignited in her heart. With a determined look, she followed anyway. Annette was going to help these people, and she wasn’t going to let anything get in the way of that.

—————

Meanwhile Henry was struggling to keep his thoughts together back inside the cell. The puddle’s influence trying hard to overwhelm his thoughts. Yes he had gone to the most-wanted toons in the studio.. Joey really wanted them caught and punished, but something told Henry that they could help! He had to trust them, he wasn’t sure why, but he knew he had to!

“H-Help.. Ben..dy..” Henry argued against the hive-mind’s commands.

‘Capture toons. Bring them to Joey.’

“Have.. to help.. B-Bendy..” The Searcher muttered. Trying to shake and pull at the wooden beams that kept him locked up. Ink dripping hands stained the wood. The voices wouldn’t listen to reason, they just kept egging Henry on. Attempting to erase his plan to save Bendy.

‘Corrupt intruders. Send to the puddles.’

Henry could feel himself getting more and more restless. It would help if the ink didn’t make the desire to infect people feel like hunger. Black liquid started leaking from his mouth as he thought about it. He stared at his hands, the ink making his fingertips appear sharpened, good for clawing at those who tried to get away. A useful and painful way to get the virus into their bloodstream.

Why did this have to happen? Why was Joey torturing him like this? Henry shivered and hugged himself, desperate to feel some kind of warmth.. but as always he just felt colder. The young man didn’t want to hurt anyone, he just wanted these bizarre feelings to go away. Whimpering to himself as he tried to focus on anything other than bringing people to the puddles.

“H-Home.. want.. t-to go.. home..” That was what Henry truly wanted. To go home with his friends, and have Bendy and Boris at his side. They could be a family, a real family. It didn’t matter if they weren’t human. Henry loved them.

‘This is home now. Stay with us.’ The voices disagreed. Spots started to appear in the man’s vision, he was absolutely exhausted. The ink tightening its hold on his mind, making his thoughts even more hard to piece together.

Henry started to rock back and forth, keeping himself at least focused on this action, something to keep him grounded until Allison and Tom came back. They’d be back soon right? They didn’t lie and just leave him here in this cell.. right?

‘Liars. Traitors.’

The Searcher covered his ears. They couldn’t be lying. They promised to help him look for his son, they promised to help him find Bendy!

“N-No..” Henry wanted the voices to stop. Angering him with their attempts to steal what little control the man had left. He began to shake with rage. Trying to keep it inside. The man had to control himself before he ends up losing himself again.

‘Destroy them!’

“NO!” The former-animator snapped. He let out an enraged inhuman shriek and started to tear the boards off one by one. Sending them clattering to the floor. Henry wasn’t conscious enough to remember much about Allison and Tom anyway, the ink successfully blocking most of his memories. Although right now Henry didn’t know what to believe.

Just as Henry was about to leave and look for Bendy himself, he was stopped by two figures who came rushing into the room. Apparently hearing the loud noises from nearby.

“H-Henry?” It was the two toons that the hive-mind had just been ordering him to get rid of. Allison looked over at the broken make-shift cell and back over to the Searcher who didn’t look very happy. When he saw that Bendy wasn’t with them he started to growl. Naturally they took a few steps back towards the door that had just came in through. Henry seemed much more hostile than he had been earlier when they last saw him, so they tried to appear as unthreatening as possible to avoid setting the Searcher off.

“Wh..ere’s.. my.. s-son..?” Henry asked with difficulty. It was hard to make out what the corrupted man was saying, but Allison and Tom could tell what he wanted. The former-animator was getting impatient, and downright dangerous. He broke the cell they had made, there was nothing to keep him from attacking them if he loses control again, and currently.. he seemed close to that.

That’s when Allison took off a backpack she had found earlier, placing it in front of the man. Henry hadn’t noticed it in his exhaustion. He peered into the bag and saw a small sleeping Bendy.

“B-Ben..?” The Searcher scooped him up and held him close. The tears started coming back, flowing from his glowing eyes. Henry turned to look at the two people who helped him find his son. A worried expression on his face.

“Bendy’s alright. He’s just tired out.. he was really scared when we found him in the Heavenly Toys department and we had to calm him down. He was really worried about you Henry..”

The tiny demon in his arms had a small smile on his face. Seemingly comforted by his creator. The former-animator smiled a little too, but the tears continued to fall.

“See? Told ya we’d get the kid back.” Tom tried not to smile. Internally glad to see the little demon back with his father. He patted Henry’s shoulder before leaving to grab his toolbox. That cell came in handy and it would be shame to leave it broken.

“T-Tha..nk.. you..!” Henry said. His tears of sorrow had changed into tears of joy. Allison smiles warmly. Something about the man seemed different.. his words were still raspy and garbled from ink, but it was full of emotion. For some reason he just seemed more human to her now.

“We were glad to help. You’re welcome Henry.”

————

Eventually Henry fell back ‘asleep’ again. Though he made sure Bendy was in safe hands before he lost his consciousness to the puddles. Allison and Tom were looking after him. Quickly he returned to Joey’s office.

Joey was sitting at his desk. He was smiling, but there was anger in his eyes. The room started to get darker and inky webs started appearing all over the floor and walls. Henry didn’t react. He wasn’t aware that Joey was angry at him.

“Oh. Good.. you’re back. Perfect. I had just created a stronger way to keep you from your disobedience, dear Henry.” The head of the studio stood up and walked towards his old-friend. The Searcher only looked up at him with an empty expression. Joey knew that Henry was back to his zombie-like state but he still found himself wanting to punish him. Originally he planned to use this.. idea, when Henry tried to resist the puddle’s influence.

Joey patted Henry’s head. Grinning down at him sinisterly. A demonic red began to glow from his eyes. He started to giggle as he gripped what he was hiding in his pocket. Naturally Henry thought nothing of it due to his mindless nature as a Searcher. Then Joey took the object out of his pocket.

“I hope you’ll forgive me for what I’m about to do.”

A strange vial was shown to Henry, and almost immediately he recognized what it was. All Searchers could recognize this horrible chemical. It didn’t matter if a victim of the virus knew what this was or not, it was instinctual. Henry began to panic and flee the office but Joey held him back. Holding his arm so tightly it almost hurt.

“I’m sorry Henry dear.. but y͍̘̫̣̫͜ͅou̵̖̗̘̗̞͈̤ ̢̪͚̳͉̯ͅn͍͞e̜̜̤̟eͅd͚̟͔̻ ͔̞t̛̥̖̬͚̼o̰͕ b̶̟̪e͉̩͖̺̦͘ ̕t̸̰a҉̻̬̤̤̪u͈̺̱g͈̳̺̕h̫̜̳͔̣͟t̕ ͔̪͢a̳͕ ̼le̩̖ś͓̪̭̤s̡͖̺o̸͉͓͙͖̠ņ.̵̰ ̲̣D̟̩̰̤͇͟o̸̦ǹ̠̬͉͖͈’̧̜t͟ ̤͍͎̳̺̖͍w̟͉̲͔͜o̷̖͈r̻r͓̠̥y̬̙̣̼͇̙̳͢.̢̞̹͉̹.̥͕͙̺̹ ̳ţh̠̟̝͙ḛ ̡̝̭p̭͉̭̞ái͙n̷͍̗͓̣̮͕ ̫͙̯̫͙͠ẃ̲͖̫͔̠̳i̶̠̪l̤̱͘l̰͖̖͖̮̖ͅ ̸̫b̢͚̺̻ͅͅe͙͜ ̧̪o̪̤̲͉̟͢v̴e͍̙̹r͚̣͉̳ ̡̜̞ş͙͚͓͕̠o̫̟̝̜͍͡ͅo̯͚̼̞̫̖n̮͚̼̜.”

A horrible laugh started echoing everywhere as Joey raised the vial over Henry’s head, the Searcher increased his struggles to get free yet Joey’s grip on his arm was too strong! He had to get out, he had to run, but the only thing he could do was wordlessly beg his former-friend not to do this.

The vial was filled with acetone.

——————

Once again, I really hope you guys enjoyed this story. If it isn’t good though I’ll try my best to fix any problems I find.

If you liked this story please re-blog and leave a comment. Sorry if I’m being annoying about that though I just really like seeing what you guys think of my stories.

[ask-joeydrewstudios]

((SO. This AU has gotten way more off-canon and hectic than I intended waay back when I first started this blog, so under the cut is a crash-course for this AU and how it differs from canon and other things to take note of for folks that are new and/or who don’t keep up with every single little post. Confused? This should have answers :3c))

FIRST OFF, AN IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE Is that this AU has been going since just after Chapter Two, and a lot of it was planned between chapters two and three. Also, this blog PREDATES and TOTALLY AVOIDS canon. There Is No Bad Ending. Only Happy Times(tm).

It’s heavily implied the studio is in New York in-canon, but I can confirm here that the studio is indeed in New York in this AU.

The toons are really Joey’s creations, they’re in no way stolen from anyone else.

I made and characterized my Joey before we got his first log in chapter three, and for me, voices need to sync to their characters. As such, my Joey doesn’t at all sound like he does in the game. I haven’t found who the voice belongs to, but I’ll update this when I do. Joey’s the only character in the AU with a voice different here than in-canon. (For anyone curious, he’s actually in the realm of sounding like a slightly more masculine Blue Diamond from SU xD it’s very light and gentle like that)

Joey’s a bit out of his mind in this AU, but he’s not uncaring. He’s still into rituals and the occult, but he’d never harm his employees or the toons.

He thinks of the toons as his children, and they think of him as their Papa Drew. They’re a very cute oddball family.

Joey has no (human) family of his own, he lives in an apartment in the studio with the toons. It’s right behind his office.

Henry has not been with the studio since it started. Joey started the studio on his own, and only met Henry later. He was too young to hire at the time, so it was several years before Henry actually got to join the studio staff. Henry and Joey stayed in close contact, though.

Speaking of Henry, he’s more Joey’s apprentice and surrogate son than business partner or anything else canon implies.

Henry’s wife is actually named Dianne here, because I accidentally made him a wife before we knew anything about Linda. Linda still exists somewhere in the city though, she’s just an ex. She broke up with him because of his work habits.

And speaking of Family, I don’t have a lot of family headcanons but here’s what I’ve got in a list: Joey just has the toons, Henry has a wife and a baby, Sammy’s an only child, Susie’s got an oldest brother and an older sister, Wally’s got six other siblings, Norman has five kids (and something like 20 grandkids iirc), shawn’s got a wife and two kids, and thomas had a wife and a kid but she left him and took the kid with her (now he only has his dog, poppy - she is his everything). susie and sammy go on to get married in a year and end up having twin boys, Stephen and Stanley Lawrence, in late 1940.

The toons were made in the first half of 1936, making them all around two years old as of when this was posted. They were made as-is so they were never babies, and they only age mentally. They were “born” with incredibly limited knowledge and experience, and with the way they learn at about the same pace regular human kids would they all have a tendency to act like small children. 

Naturally they do get smarter and wiser as time goes on, but they still act pretty childish and toony even 100 years from now.

The toons weren’t made by individual human sacrifices. Joey bonded his soul to the ink machine so it could produce possessed ink, which can then take on the form and personality of a toon in a ritual. The rituals still need blood, but Joey uses his own.

Speaking of that, that means Joey lacks a soul. This has had subtle influences on him as a person, both physically and mentally, but they’re very subtle.

Also, The Ink can manipulate things that already exist, people and objects included. Even inhaling too many fumes from it can cause one to act goofy. Physical contact or consumption of The Ink will lead to anything from toonish (childish/goofy) behavior to going full toon or ink monster, depending on quantity. explains why wally’s such a darn goofball, with how much of that stuff he cleans up all the time... this boy has inhaled Too Many Ink Fumes

Related to the above, but if The Ink gets into your system and deems you “incompatible”... it’s rare, but it’ll just outright kill you with ink poisoning instead of trying to do something Fun to you. it’s rare, and it hasn’t happened yet, but it can happen. Joey is the only one that knows this.

A handful of items in the studio are possessed by now after coming in contact with The Ink from leaking pipes or other spills.

The toons are ink all the way through, unlike their canon counterparts that have bones and organs. If you tried you could literally punch straight through them, and it wouldn’t hurt them all that much. It’d heal right back up as soon as you moved your arm. In fact, the only things that can harm them are water, religious symbols, and types of paint thinner (acetone, turpentine, etc etc. bleach will probably do it too.)

Because ink can take on the physical properties of other materials, that means the toons don’t just feel like ink - hair and fur still feels soft, fabric feels like fabric, etc etc... but everything’s got a subtle chalky texture to it, especially skin.

The toons have a lot of toon-superpowers, including but not limited to: shapeshifting, toon physics, hammerspace, consuming ridiculous amounts of food, teleporting through ink puddles... If it’s Classic Cartoon Slapstick(tm), they can probably do it.

Toons only really need to drink possessed ink to survive in day-to-day life, they need it much like humans need water. They can (and do) eat food for enjoyment but they don’t have to. They can also eat things that aren’t actually food, for some reason. Bendy’s really the only one that does this. the worst offender is pens, don’t leave your nice pens laying around he will eat them

The toons are all technically imperfect for in-universe unknown reasons. Bendy has a tail, Boris also has a tail and is fluffier than his cartoon counterpart, and Alice’s horns are just bits of hair that stick up. She also has holes all the way through her hands, and a longer dress. (The meta reasoning for this is just that I found it more fun to draw them these ways, they make them a little more my own ;P) (plus we didn’t know what alice looked like from the waist down until ch3 so uhhhhhh I Winged It)

This AU parallels Disney heavily, also they are technically Disney so that means they’re producing a lot of non-bendy related things alongside the Bendy cartoons. This includes full animated feature films that are more or less just like their disney counterparts. Yes, they did a snow white.

Studio never bankrupts in this timeline, it mirrors Disney’s success as well.

This also means that the theme park that was being worked on in-canon actually doesn’t exist for another 20 or so years, as Disney got to their first theme park in the 1950s.

Blog progresses in real-time, minus 80 years. There are slight tweaks to the exact time of day and the studio’s hours of operation exclusively for the ask-blog feature, however. this is why sometimes characters are answering asks at 9PM, when everyone is actually home in-universe

This is more meta but it’s a fun-fact, I try to simulate the ‘late 1930s’ vibe as well as I can, I do a loooot of research. More than I should, given this is a silly AU ask blog. I find history fascinating though so I go overboard.

The studio uses a mix of the current in-game layout, and the pre-ch4 updates layout. For example, there’s that new animation room behind henry’s desk here, but the ink machine and it’s room are still relatively undramatic.

Regardless of what I end up doing with Allison, she will not replace Susie as Alice’s voice. Susie is still and always will be Alice’s voice actress.

Susie’s also not nearly as... insane as her canon-counterpart, but that can be said for just about everyone here.

Alice was actually modeled after Susie. Joey was inspired by her incredible voice talent and general personality, so he made Alice as a character not long after Susie started working at the studio.

The studio was founded in February 1928, and they released the first Bendy cartoon in August 1928.

This will be updated as time goes on, and I’ll put those updates below this note so folks can find them easier instead of trying to remember what changed! c:

[a-new-comer]

I don’t want to kill you- Part 4

Allison

Bendy searches the studio for Henry but he couldn't find him anywhere. Bendy couldn’t find Boris either. Sammy said Henry had taken Boris with him to level 9.

Just accept it, he doesn’t care about us, he never did. Bendy’s demon sighs. Stop. Bendy snaps, it retreats into the corners of their mind.

Bendy calls the lift but it doesn’t come. Bendy looks down and sees flashes and sparks. Bendy jumps down and uses his claws to dig into the wall of the elevator shaft to slow his descent. Once, Bendy gets to bottom of the elevator shaft he finds the crushed elevator. Bendy slides into the room that the elevator leads to and looks around. Bendy finds some blood. It’s him; it has to be. Bendy looks around and sees the hall.

Only one way to go. Bendy thinks and walks down the corridor and takes a left and enters the archives, he sees the lost ones and sighs. Bendy walks through it, knowing nothing would dare attack him. The demon makes it to the door only to find it is closed. Bendy sees a book is stuck out from the bookshelf, he goes over to it and pushes it back in. Bendy hears the sound of a light bulb coming on and he looks back at the door, the lights bulbs that are above it one is on.

So, that’s what I have to do. Bendy looks for other books that poke out and pushes them back into place. One the last book the light bulb for that one, burst. But the door still opens. Bendy sighs and shuffles around and past the broken glass. Bendy walks up the steps of the cavern and goes to the bridge and instead of taking the cart he uses the rope to just climb across. Bendy continues on. Then, Bendy hears something….Running? Follow by screeching? Wait the Projectionist! Shit! Bendy opens a portal and runs through it and appears in Maintenance, the demon rams through the door and punches the Projectionist.

  The old animator was scared out of his wits when the Projectionist tried to get to him before there was a loud crash and Bendy punched the Projectionist. Next thing Henry can process is that Bendy has one foot on the Projectionist’s shoulder and is pulling his head… projector? It comes off with a ripping sound and Bendy throws it at the little miracle station. The ink demon starts to look down at the Projectionist but stops and looks at Henry instead. Bendy smile becomes happier and he waves at Henry, the animator sheepishly waves back. Bendy, content, picks the Projectionist’s body and leaves.

Henry left the miracle station and goes to the haunted house. He pulls the lever down and pull the last one down and goes to the front of the haunted house and sits on the stairs for a moment and collects himself. The evil laughter not helping at all. Then he goes into the haunted house.

  The cart Henry’s riding in, starts to leave the ballroom, but there’s just darkness in front of him. Then, two large gloved hands come out from the shadows and a monstrous Boris come forward. "Boris!!! No, no….What has she done to you?!" Henry gasps sadly, Boris barks at Henry. The old animator stands up and pet Boris’ snout. Henry falls back as the cart jostles and Boris picks it up. Henry tenses up “Boris...please...you don’t have to do this.” Then Henry, along with the cart, fly across the ballroom. Henry hits the ground, landing, somehow, on his left side with a sharp crack. The pain wasn’t unbearable but it hurt to high hell. Henry got up quickly, and barely got out of the way of a charging Boris. The mutilated wolf hit the wall and turns around, he clutched his stomach as ink begins oozing and squirting out from his chest cavity. Henry sees a glob of ink, he grabs it with his right hand and looks around, Henry spots the ink maker. The animator sprints over to the ink maker, and puts the ink inside of the bucket and goes over to the other side he changes the dial to the gent pipe and pulls the lever and runs away from the machine for a moment. So that Boris doesn’t destroy it.

Boris charges at Henry again. Henry makes sure to get away once Boris gets close enough. Then Henry grabs the ink glob. (And rinse and repeat)

Henry picks up the gent pipe, he feels like he is about to kill Boris. Henry doesn’t want to kill the wolf, despite the fact that Boris has hurt Henry a lot. Henry goes up to the monstrous wolf, who was kneeling as ink gushes out of his chest. “Boris, I'm so sorry.”

Then the wolf speaks softly, “Please, just kill me.” Henry stops, he stands there in shock. “Please.” He whines.

Henry stands for a moment before raising the pipe and delivers the final blow. Boris acts as if he is still under Alice’s control. Falling back with a loud thud. As Boris dissipates Henry looks down on the wolf, his eyes sad. Henry didn’t even hear what Alice is saying, or rather yelling because that angel has no inside voice. Henry starts to feel weak as the adrenaline that was keeping him alive starts to die down. Blood is dripping off the animator.

Henry turns around, once the wolf is gone and sees Alice running towards him. The animator can’t move his mind is becoming fuzzy and slow, black dots are appearing in his vision. Alice is at least a foot away when she gets run through the chest with a sword. Alice gasps and the sword is pulled out and Alice falls to the ground. Henry looks at the person.

Allison.

Henry smiles softly, blood oozing and dripping off his arm. Blood is coming from a gash just above his hairline. The old animator passes out.

  Bendy rushes around level S trying to find the old animator. Bendy goes into the haunted house and arrives in the ballroom to see Henry fall to the ground. Bendy then sees Allison.

“Allison, what did you do?” The ink demon snarls, he bares his fangs. “I didn’t do anything to him.” Allison replies her eyes narrowing and she tightens her grip on her sword “Tom, take him to the safe house.” Allison hiss, Tom nods and gets Henry on his back.

“YOU'RE NOT GET AWAY THAT EASILY!” The true ink demon roars, an evil grin on his face. The demon launches himself at them, Allison grounds herself and raises her sword so it’s facing towards Bendy. There’s a loud crash and Bendy finds himself pinned to the ground by a fluffy, quadruped creature, it growls at Bendy. Then Bendy remembers who this is, before getting knocked unconscious.

“I’m not carrying this.” The quadruped growls at the Angel and wolf. Allison sighs and stands up straight “Stop treating him like a monster, you know what happened.”

The quadruped snarls it’s tail lashing back and forth “Yeah? And? I got it worse.” The creature hisses. Just take him. Her other half says. Fine but I won’t like it. The creature rolls Bendy over to his stomach using her paw. Then leans down and picks Bendy up by the back of his neck, very akin to how a feline picks up her kittens. Then the creature leaves the way it came, which is through the closest window to the ‘exiting’ gate.

Previous

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[bubblytarts]

Bendy and the Inky Musical - Part 3/5

Chapter Four content, which takes us to the end of Act One! Including the obligatory dance number, lots of lost ones, and depression!

Set Us Free - Grant, Shawn, Wally, Ensemble

(Think how haunting this would be if it sounded like Stay, I Pray You; Anastasia)

Henry wakes up on a cot, and asks Wally what happened. Wally explains that his friends helped get Henry out of the elevator. Before Henry can ask who he means, two lost ones enter.

The lost ones introduce themselves as Grant and Shawn, and explain that they both tried to stop Joey but were unable to before being transformed. The group reveals that they are surrounded by lost ones, with “He Will Set Us Free” written on the wall. Henry mentions that Sammy believed that, but the Ink Demon killed him. Wally stops Henry, and tells him that the rest of them don’t meant the Ink Demon. When Henry is still confused, Shawn blurts out that Henry is the one to set them free.

Grant then begins the song, with a slow, depressing beginning about how the situation looked hopeless. Shawn joins in as the song shifts to believing that someone will return and stop Joey, and the lost ones and Wally provide a haunting harmony of voices in the back. The song ends with a final chilling duet between Grant and Shawn, completely a cappella.

Henry isn’t sure if he really can save everyone, but he’s willing to try to at least talk to Joey. But first he has to save Buddy. Unfortunately, none of the lost ones want to travel through the next area. But they know someone who can lead Henry.

Bendyland - Wally, Bertrum, Lacie, Henry, Ensemble

(Think the call and response dance break from King of New York; Newsies)

Enter Lacie. She is also a lost one, but knows the next area well, so Henry and Wally bid farewell to Grant, Shawn, and the others, and continue on.

Wally takes over as narrator again, introducing Bendyland while Henry and Lacie continue on offstage. The lost ones here were practicing to perform in live stage shows before everything went bad, so they’re thrilled to have an audience, and want to perform the song and dance number they’ve been working so hard on!

Lacie is amused at the fact that the chorus keeps trying to drag Henry into their performance, but he’s less than thrilled. Even Bertrum shows up to sing about how great Bendyland is! (Or, well, his head does.)

Henry recovers an axe, and promptly gets it stolen by a lost one. Communicating through dance, the lost one makes the situation clear: Henry leads the dance, and if his performance is good enough, he can have the axe back.

Henry reluctantly does a small tap and spin, but the lost ones choose to mock his moves instead of copying them.

Offended, Henry goes all out, rocking that tap dance! The lost ones, and even Wally and Lacie, join in on Henry’s call and response, ending with a final chorus of Bendyland’s greatness, and one final epic tap dance spin as Henry strikes a pose!

Stop This Madness - Norman, Joey

As the dancers exit stage, (and Henry gets out of his tap shoes,) Norman enters.

Norman has clearly just seen something horrible, and looks terrified. Joey appears from the shadows, and asks him what’s wrong. Norman demands that Joey gets away from him, especially after seeing that thing in his office.

When Joey tells Norman to calm down, Norman gets his very angry song, increasing in intensity as he backs Joey up. Joey has had enough, and counters Norman, backing him up now.

Eventually, Joey seems to have calmed down, and stops singing when he admits to creating the Ink Demon and keeping it in his office. Norman tells Joey he’s going to the police about what he did to Susie, and turns around, only to be whacked upside the head by Sammy. Joey thanks Sammy, and plans to make sure that Norman can’t tell anyone about what he saw.

Back in the present, Lacie informs Henry that just past this room is the haunted house, where he can access more of the studio, and hopefully find Buddy. But this is where her expertise ends, so she bids Henry farewell.

Henry makes his way through the ink, listening to Joey’s propaganda tape. (The one where he reveals his true thoughts about “dreaming”.)

The Projectionist appears before Henry can properly react to the tape, and chases him. Henry trips, and yells “Norman, please, it’s me, Henry!” The Projectionist pauses, and reaches towards Henry, only to be attacked and killed by the Ink Demon. Henry runs away before the demon can finish him off as well.

Dear Susie (Reprise) - Susie

Henry enters the haunted house as Susie sings about her troubles again. The reprise is much sadder, and she seems to finally have acknowledged that she won’t ever be perfect, and she was too naive at the studio. She admits that she shouldn’t have trusted Joey, but she just wanted what was best for her.

The song ends as Susie adds that while she knows she won’t be perfect, she still can’t accept herself, and so she definitely can’t accept anyone being more perfect than her.

Cue the Brute Boris reveal, and subsequent fight.

Make You Proud (Reprise) - Buddy, Henry

(Think the depression level of Stay Alive Reprise; Hamilton)

Get ready for tears, folks. The Brute Boris fight is over relatively quick, and Susie demands to know why Henry can’t ever just die, before going radio silent.

Henry collapses next to Buddy, who quietly apologizes for fighting him. The Brute Boris costume is removed to some extent during the fight, so that Henry can scoop Buddy into his arms for maximum sob. Buddy hopes that Henry can get out, even if he wasn’t much help.

Henry, in tears, tells Buddy that he was so much help. (It isn’t clear if Henry can hear Buddy, or it he’s just talking aloud.)

As Buddy is fading, he tells Henry that he forgives him, and then flips his script, and shakily sings that he’s proud of Henry, before going limp.

There is not a dry eye in the audience as Henry sets Buddy down.

Creators and Traitors - Henry

(Think a much angrier Santa Fe; Newsies)

This is Henry’s turning point. At the first note of this song, even before he starts singing, his expression of despair immediately is replaced by a look of fury.

Henry finally accepts that this is Joey’s fault. All of it. Henry is practically yelling through the whole song, and hitting super high notes while he’s at it.

It’s clear that from now on, Henry isn’t trying to figure out how to find Joey and talk to him. He’s trying to find the fastest way to Joey himself in order to make him pay for what has happened to Sammy, Norman, and now Buddy.

Henry is ready to set them all free.

As Henry holds his final note, the lights on stage zoom in, until only Henry in a spotlight is lit up. The song ends, and holds for applause.

As the applause dies down, Susie reveals herself at the back of the spotlight, behind Henry. Once the applause ends, an ominous chord plays, and Susie screams. Henry whips around and falls as he tries to back away, holding up his hands to try and stop Susie from killing him.

In a direct parallel to the blocking in Dear Susie, a blade shoots out from just out of spotlight behind Susie, slitting her throat yet again. Susie gasps and collapses.

With the music ripped directly from the end of Chapter Four, Henry stands up as Allison walks into spotlight at his side. Tom joins on the other side of Henry, and another blackout, as Act One ends.

[illusionlock]

Belief and Persuasion- Chapter 7

hey folks! i’ve been working on a little batim prequel fanfic for a while n its finally done! its a little long, so im dividing it in 8 chapters total!

if you want to read more, i’ll be tagging this under ‘bap fic’ on my blog!

summary:

Joey Drew gives an interview about how he managed to build his empire, and focuses on the two things needed most: belief and persuasion, the latter of which is trickier. As he talks about his philosophy, we can see examples of his influence at work.

This chapter: Susie learns the truth, and decides she and Alice have to do something about it.

"It is quite impressive how well you are versed in this... philosophy." The interviewer admitted. "I only have one more question now: is it possible to persuade someone to pass on that persuasion to others? When you normally wouldn't be able to reach them?"

Joey's grin had reached a more malicious state. "So it is, and it is quite a powerful thing. When it becomes a cycle, you can pass your influence from person to person with ease, and soon enough you'll see how I've gotten so far as I have."

---

Susie came in, peppy as usual, ready for another week of stress, meeting with Alice and voice acting.

Or so she thought.

As she walked into the recording studio, she was immediately greeted by an unfamiliar sight. Sammy was talking to a woman, a woman she had seen making the rounds of the studio before, by the name of Allison Pendle. Joey had said before she was 'just visiting, looking for a job'. Now, however, seeing her talking so giddy to Sammy, something felt off.

"Oh, hello? I'm here, ready to start!" Susie gave a nervous laugh, catching their attention.

"Oh, oh, Susie, I'm sorry, I thought- I thought Joey had told you." Sammy stumbled over his words, avoiding eye contact with her. The woman, by his side, fell silent, as if she knew nothing she could say would help the situation.

"W-what? What... was he supposed to tell me, Sammy, what's going on? Why is she here again?" Susie took a step back, now growing more uneasy.

"Susie, I'm sorry. Allison Pendle will now be taking over the role of Alice Angel, for an ... undetermined amount of time." Sammy kept avoiding eye contact with either her or Allison, looking down at the floor.

Allison kept silent too, only giving her a sad, sympathetic look. She didn't want to be a nuisance, and it already seemed like there was trouble about.

"You're firing me?" Susie tried to hold back salty tears now forming in her eyes,

"It's- Joey can explain it better to you, maybe you can talk to him, something about you cooperating, I don't know-" Sammy fumbled with his hands nervously, clearly he wasn't ready for that conversation.

"No, I get it. Good day to you, Sammy and Allison." Susie gave each of them a cold stare and walked out, shutting the door behind her loudly.

She stomped through the studio, calling out: "Joey Drew? Has anybody seen Joey Drew? The name of the studio? Come on people!"

The other employees stared at her in awe, it was a rare sight to see the charming friendly Susie so angry and determined. Eventually, one said: "He's at his office at this time!"

Susie nodded and made her way throughout the studio to his office. Once she got there, sure enough, she found him in the act of sketching incomprehensible notes and plans.

"Oh, Susie! Didn't you get my letter in the mail?" Joey looked at her, still smiling calmly.

"You- you told me I was going to be a star! Why am I getting replaced all of a sudden?" Susie demanded.

"Now, now, I imagined Sammy didn't explain to you what's going down. Heh, figures that man is only good enough for writing songs and snatching time from my toons. Anyway, I'll be frank with you, I need you to hurry up and wake up to reality- here's my deal, either you get Alice to get back into that puddle now and you become one with her, or Allison's taking over." He explained calmly.

"You've got some nerve making all of this as if it were a game for pawns. I suppose Alice doesn't know about any of this?" Susie stared him down, returning his warm smile with her cold glare.

"She doesn't, and she won't need to, if you just do as I say. I mean, you'll be Alice Angel if this goes off without a hitch, isn't that what you always wanted? To be a shining angel?" Joey moved his hands in a mystifying manner.

"You can keep your promises of grace to yourself. You should know I care more about Alice than to do her over like that." Susie felt the tears come back on as her mouth wavered.

She exited out of the room, thoughts swirling in her head. What could she do? Surely Joey just wouldn't let Alice be herself with Allison around either. She felt desperately trapped, how oh how could she fix this?

She made her way to Alice's private room, although she wasn't there. She sat on the bed, running her hands through her hair in frustration. Then she noticed a tape recorder near the bed, with a note stuck to it "Susie, is this yours? Looks like you left it here a week ago or so."

Without thinking, she took it, and started venting all her feelings. When she was done, she put it down on the bed, burying her head in her arms, crying softly. There had to be a way to fix it, there just had to...

The door swung open, and Alice gasped as she found her like that. "Susie!" She exclaimed.

"Alice!" Susie got up with a start, barely thinking as she put her arms around the angel.

"Susie, what's going on- I talked to Sammy and I saw Allison was here again, I couldn't find you, I'm scared Susie, Sammy said Joey has something planned for us and I'm not sure if I trust him anymore-" Alice went off, shaking as she sped over her words mindlessly, she was obviously shaken up.

Susie hugged her tight. "I know. I know. They're going to replace me if I don't convince you to come back into the puddles and come out like Joey wants you to."

"Wh- but! But that's just- cruel! They can't force us to do that- we're- you're- you're the best voice actress for me, Susie, you gave me life, you're the one who started Alice Angel! I don't want this!" Alice protested, pulling away and looking Susie in the eyes.

"I know, I know but..." Susie stopped, desperation now forcing her to think of a solution. Then she realized. What Joey wanted as a final result was a perfect Alice Angel out of her and Alice, right? "I have an idea. Joey wants you and me to become one, but he thinks we can't be perfect. We'll show him who's wrong. Let's become one now, Alice and we'll show him he doesn't need Allison or a different version of you to have the perfect angel!"

"... Susie, what are you saying?" Alice took a step backwards, averting her gaze from her beloved voice actress.

"It's- please, Alice it's the only way. I've thought about it, we have to do it. If we don't, Joey will get rid of us, or at least, just me, but then, we won't- Don't you want to be with me anymore? Do you like Allison better too?" Susie grabbed her hands desperately.

Alice looked back at Susie, sighing. "No, I don't. I want you to be my voice actress, no one could replace you. I'm just-"

"Then please!" Susie squeezed Alice's gloved hands gently, tears in her eyes.

"Susie, you don't know what this will do to us. What if we aren't ready? What if we lose ourselves, what if- what if I'm really not perfect enough?" Alice looked deep into her eyes, her expression also somewhat sad and sympathetic.

"You are perfect you are- we are perfect. I know we are. Please Alice; please Alice, please, please, please..." Susie couldn't stop herself as the tears came falling down and she lowered her head, crying into Alice's hands, her tears mixing with the solid ink that formed the Angel, creating ripples on her gloves.

"If we are so perfect, then why is Joey getting rid of you? Why did he talk about remaking me?" The thought crossed Alice's mind, but she dared not say it out loud, fearing she'd only make the situation even worse.

"Susie..." Instead, she opted to do something else. "I've been wanting to tell you, how important you are to me-"

"Then become one with me." Susie was quick to interrupt her.

"Susie. There's no going back from this. If this will make you truly happy, we'll do it. If you really believe we can be perfect together, we will. Do you understand? We won't be able to go back." Alice looked at her firmly, holding her hands sternly now.

"I do, please, I want it more than anything, there's nothing else we can do." Susie nodded, though she seemed like she was not listening; only fixated in her goal.

"Very well." Alice sighed. "Come with me. I faintly remember something that Bendy tried to tell me about how it should happen."

She took Susie by the hand, and guided her through the studio. All the while, the two were silent, not daring to speak to each other, but both already set in the same goal. They arrived to the room Susie had been expecting, the ink machine, pumping ink into the pipes ever so rhythmically.

"Ok, don't mind the strange procedures, but I'm gonna need you to get directly in front of... here." Alice guided Susie to the front of the machine, where a big pipe looking structure attached to many cogwheels stood.

Alice walked to the side of the ink machine and reached up to turn a small cogwheel etched into the side of the machine, and sure enough, the front of the machine started dripping ink. Not much, but enough to already cover Susie's feet.

"Hey!" Susie couldn't help but exclaim with surprise.

"See, you need to understand, for this to work, you have to be covered in ink. Bendy was very vague, but he said Joey was also somewhat vague too, you need to- give up what is human about you, embrace the idea of becoming ink." Alice tried to explain.

Susie took a deep breath and nodded. "I understand." She crouched down and let herself bathe in the liquid, trying to control her reflexes and holding her breath, although every muscle in her body felt the need to get away, she kept telling herself how much she needed to do it.

Eventually, she was successfully covered in it, and stood up, although she couldn't see. She went to wipe the ink off her face, but Alice stopped her:

"No, don't!" She raised her voice, making Susie stop and flinch a bit. "Remember what I said. See, this is why this was a bad idea..."

Those words only made Susie more nervous however, as she tried to talk in protest to Alice, but she only choked in the ink, coughing. Alice ran to her, panicking.

"No, no, see? This is what I was afraid of, you're not ready, I'm n-" Alice gently held Susie in her arms but was cut off as Susie inexplicably pulled her close, enveloping her in her inky form, almost as if she wanted to absorb her.

"Susie, wait-" Alice struggled as she was being slowly forced into all the ink.

"You said we could, please, Alice, remember, there's no other way!" Strangely enough, the more Alice was forced into the ink, the more she could hear Susie clear as day- had she accepted becoming ink so quickly? Or was she that desperate?

Alice closed her eyes, against all better judgment, she dove in. And for a moment all stood still. Two minds converging, diverging, memories blurring and becoming one, now Alice felt all the sadness and fear Susie could feel, and Susie felt all the insecurity and doubt Alice was going through, but most of all they felt one emotion in common, and it was-

Alice, at the last moment, broke out in dissonance. No, if you truly loved something, she believed, you had to fight for what's right, then the person you love would understand that you only wanted the best for them!

But it wasn't enough, she was still pulled back, and as the ink cleared, sure enough there stood Alice Angel, but in a strangely more humanoid form, and with a significant deformation, nearly mirroring perfectly the side where Alice had previously tried to back out of.

[ask-the-friendly-ink-demon]

[WARNING!!! THIS CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE AU! IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED OF MY STORY THAN DO NOT READ THIS, READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!!!!!]"30 years has come and gone your time to shine has just begun you'll be dancing with the devil on the lower level, think i'll be going! then make these pipes stop flowing! time to die i've gone awry say your last goodbyes! play that old song in the night THIS IS THE SPOTLIGHT! you gotta run screaming from the demon! play that old song in the night! THIS IS THE SPOTLIGHT!!" -bendy spotlight song quote ------- The Ink Demon it goes by many names sometimes they call the demon their lord, their savior, others call the inky beast "bendy" due to the horriflying appearance but most people called it..... just it.... but the ink demon was not always called the ink demon before the studio went to hell and before modern!bendy even gained his powers the ink demon was actually originally an part of modern!bendy the two of them being one single being. bendy was loved by everyone he'd had everything he wanted when he was brought to the real world he was sad that his design had to change in order to be suitable to live in the outside world of the toon world. He was very happy whenever he was with henry as he though of him like an father figure to him the two nearly did everything together most of the times henry would sneak out with bendy during breaks or lunch so that he could show him bits and pieces of the outside world.... however bendy wished henry did not even showed him as he thinks all of this started with him and the animator sneaking out of the studios. one day though joey secretly changed bendy's ink with an special coat of ink at first it was first the only difference was that he could eat normal foods now and not be affected by water in fact he'll even drink that too though there are other effects like tiredness, stress, amesia, etc until one day during when bendy woke up in a different form he was sent to a pure blinding rage joey had to use black magic again but this time seperating the two the ink demon aka the original Bendy was in pain for what felt like an entiery after being seperated it felted like he was being burnt in acetone and holy water only 50x stronger. after an while joey began using this other bendy for tasks that'll make anyone feel like they're going insane. it wasn't after that he became awfully loyal to the corrupted joey soon enough both the demon and the other bendy who is the one we see with henry at the studio got into an lot of fights more times than before but each time they do fight however he doesn't kill modern cause of one reason. he seceretly cares for the hooded demon despite being an evil spirit. soon enough during when henry had arrived he was angry that henry chose the hooded bendy instead of him and started hunting the two down slowly coming up with his own plan of escaping the studio and destroying joey. soon enough there are times when he'd had an change of heart like when he saved modern from being melted in acetone after he tripped in it one day when henry, boris, and alice were looking for suppiles in the studio, and also when he did'int go after henry when he went to see if modern was alright after the long fight with the monsterized inkified allison. and later on the demon resided inside of modern's body the two now living as two minds and souls and same memories but in the same body, there are hints to show glimpses of modern's clothing like the tainted blue jeans that can be barley seen, and the gloves that were ripped over the years and finally the limp it is unknown why he gotten the limp in the first place but it does hint to an old friend of modern's that was left to rot in the deepest parts of the studio. the ink demon can also go to an melted state when he's in a room filled with tons and tons of ink, despite having an unmoving grin he can still makes sounds and can actually talk though it's an more demonic, dark, corrupted, version of modern!bendy's accent. despite everything that has happened in the studio with the retired animator and the hooded devil darling henry forgiven the ink demon in the end before the demon used his remaining powers to merge himself into modern's body. the ink demon can do just about anything despite not being covered in a special coat of ink like modern's. Instead he has an thick strong layer of ink on the inside of his body while on the outside he has an more drippy layer of ink in him which explains why he drips ink all the time. he also is able to go into modern's dreams sometimes mostly before it was to make him suffer but later on he only does it now to prevent him from going insane. he does feel bad for nearly causing everything that has happened in the studio he will hold on to his own guilt and regret for the rest of his life as well as trying to keep himself sane after long periods of time being alone mentally in the studio. -------- modernbendyandtheinkmachineau belongs to me! hope ya all like this! and please do not read this unless you either read chapter 5 ((which is not out yet)) or if you want spoilers of my au in any case have fun spoiling the fun ._. also i will try to do the reformed design soon.... as soon as i find a way to get more space for my computer also i don’t know what to call my version of the ink demon like an nickname or something