#also imagining an ink demon bendy with a little bit of toon bendys personality gets me excited for some reason ))

[just-bendy]

Do Inky Bendy and Beast Bendy accept pets and hugs too?

Well... I guess so...? Although, touchin' my ink demon form is only gonna get ya all messy since I keep drippin' ink as him. I don't recommend doin' that unless ya like gettin' all inky. Ya weirdo.

As for the other guy... uhh...

... I don't think you should do that at all. I can barely keep him controlled for that long. He's a beast, it's in the name. It would take me so much effort not to rip you apart. Then my head would hurt like hell for most of the day and I'd feel exhausted, so I don't think it's a very good idea. It'd be a bad time for both of us.

[yanderes-galore]

Yandere platonic bendy with a darling who fell into the ink and came out as a perfect bendy (or a perfect toon) 😈

I didn't realize until I took this request I already had something with this plot. Yet to keep it different it will be fully platonic and you are a Bendy this time around.

The concept with a similar plot to this here

Yandere! Platonic! Bendy with Perfect Toon/Bendy! Darling

Short Concept

Pairing: Platonic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Stalking implied, Bendy forces you to be a sibling, Manipulation, Clingy behavior, Violence implied, Isolation, Protective behavior.

You can imagine the confusion Bendy feels when he sees a... copy of himself.

After what felt like hours, you emerged after falling into the ink.

One moment he was following a human around, thinking you'll make a great new plaything friend...

Then you fell into the murky depths.

Looking like his own charming self.

You must be something pretty special if this form was chosen for you.

Bendy takes a moment to circle you when he meets you.

You're shivering while he scans you over with his cartoon eyes.

You look like a cartoon Bendy, his usual form.

The issue is you most likely lack the monster form.

Bendy is hesitant of you at first.

Really anyone would be if they saw a clone of themselves.

You were different from all those other ink clones, however.

Instead of being an empty and violent husk... you're full of life.

You may look like Bendy but you keep your own personality.

Bendy doesn't want to kill you due to still wanting a playmate for lack of a better term.

A platonic Bendy would end up adopting you as a sibling in a way.

What's a better companion than a sibling?

You clearly didn't ask for any of this.

Not only are you forced to be an ink demon like Bendy...

But the little devil darling also wants to make you his sibling.

You're scared and confused.

Bendy most likely notices this and tries his best to comfort you.

Relax! You'll enjoy your time in the studio.

He'll promise to protect you.

Bendy is going to be prankster towards you but he does it out of fun.

He doesn't intend to harm you with his pranks, he is just a bit mischevious.

Bendy would be protective of you.

You're a new cartoon and may be targetted for a few things.

You look like him...

You can't defend yourself...

You have no idea how anything here works.

Bendy constantly tells you not to worry.

He'll be your guide down here!

What else are siblings for?

Bendy may be malicious towards others but he's happy to have you around.

Bendy is actually quite lonely down here and the idea of someone like you beside him is pleasant.

His loneliness shows when he hugs you at times.

He gives long hugs, muttering about how he's never had a sibling before.

Boris is his best friend, Alice is like a rival, but he's had no siblings.

Bendy would manipulate you to only rely on him using scare tactics.

After all, you aren't entirely immortal.

He also hopes the ink makes you forget about your human life.

He has the perfect story already....

Bendy finds his long lost twin!

Even if he's forced you into the role he feels you'll get used to it.

Bendy would defend you from anyone and anything.

He still has the ability to become Beast Bendy and only uses it when you can't see it.

Similar to other yandere Bendy scenarios he only wants you to see him one way.

The cute cartoon that cares for you when no one else will.

Even if the facade is shattered there isn't much you can do about it.

You're stuck here like him, if he says you're siblings, that's the role you'll be forced to follow.

[hello-im-not-a-possum]

2. twisted

The cartoon that came out of the machine was pretty as a picture, perfect in almost every detail, and had a bubbly, positive personality. But she was not what Joey had wanted Susie to become. (Set in an AU where Joey gets perfect toons from his freshly killed employees and STILL isn’t happy, the unpleasable bitch…)

“Progress report to GENT home office, Client; Joey Drew Studios.

With the addition of the new ink recipe to use in the machine, we have made an unbelievable leap in progress and have almost met our client’s expectations. What had started as a machine to mold life sized figures out of ink has now done things that border on being supernatural.

Although Mr. Drew seems unimpressed, even frustrated with the results at times, in spite of the fact that the models have come out identical to their cartoon counterparts.

The process of running the cartoon film through the machine for the figures to imprint on has been successful, but it looks like that unless someone goes through the trouble of making a short that only has ONE character in it, the machine picks what character it makes at seemingly random. That is our client’s complaint; that instead of being user chosen, the machine picks out which living, breathing, thinking ink models it makes at random. Upon working on this, if I were to be in the client’s shoes, I’d have several valid complaints regarding the machine and the models it created, but our client’s complaint… Is that the machine that doesn’t have a system that allows the user to pick and choose which model it makes yet creates a physically flawless model every single time, does not allow the user to pick and choose which model it makes. He never ceases to infuriate me.

On a sour note, there was an incident with the figure in the likeness of a character called ‘The Brute’. Upon its creation, it immediately went and broke our client’s leg in a very… well, brutal fashion too. But fortunately, it has not physically attacked anyone since The Cameraman figure was made as we have threatened to separate them if it keeps up that behavior. It still likes to insult people, and it still does things that unnerve me though. We’re hoping that the rest of the figures will be less violent and or creepy.”

Thomas clicked off the recording and sighed as he looked at the newly made report, there was no way he could submit this to his boss without someone sending in someone to make sure he wasn’t huffing in ink fumes and whatever the Studio workers smoked to consider any of this to be normal.

“Hey Tommy! I think I figured out the issue with the machine! Or rather, its fuel.”

The mechanic grit his teeth and turned to face his client.

“What? I wasn’t aware that there was a problem with it.”

“Why, Tommy, how could you forget? I’m talking about the figure deposit problem of course! Why did we get The Brute when we wanted to get Boris? Why did we get Cameraman when we wanted Bendy? The answer was so simple, why, it was even staring at us the entire time!”

“Uh huh…” Thomas did not look convinced. “And what was this issue?”

“The ingredients, the Ink of course! You simply can’t put blueberry pancake batter in an oven and be surprised when you get blueberry pancakes instead of blueberry muffins, We got those two knuckleheads before we got the real stars of the show because the souls used to make them weren’t fit to make those two, but the machine still did what it does best: made living cartoons.”

Tom had an uneasy feeling in his gut as Joey grabbed his arm and led him to the Ink Machine’s room. He felt like a sheep being led to the slaughterhouse, he KNEW what went down in there! He knew the other ingredients, not well, per say, but for long enough to judge them and their characters.

He didn’t shed a single tear when Sammy was used in it, in fact, he was rather pleased with the results before it started acting out like that. He and the music director were almost always at each other’s throats for one reason or another. If you asked him, the ex-musician was strange, rude, clearly mentally unstable, and sometimes even cruel. And even if he wasn’t, his physical health had declined so much over his time at the studio that it was obvious that he would die regardless of whether or not he was put in the machine. Feeding Sammy to that machine was an act of mercy, really, and even if it wasn’t, it served him right to become a- err, The Brute and have him put the former musician in his place- put his villainous ways to a decent cause. Now if only someone could ensure for a fact that The Brute would behave...

Now the other ingredient, Norman Polk, was a different story. The man was old, weird and kinda creepy. On the surface, the man was an ideal candidate. Like Sammy, he would die anyway and nobody would miss him when he did. But on the contrary, he seemed like he still had some good years left in him. And while he was weird and creepy, he had been those things in an oddly endearing way that most of the studio had either liked or tolerated enough to not be bugged by it. The mechanic didn’t know how to explain it, that man reminded Tom of a mysterious, mostly-estranged relative that shows up out of nowhere and was always there for you even if you don’t always see him. So when the man snooped too much for his own good and had to be silenced… Tom could never look the resulting toon in the eye, or in his case, the lens.

But the mechanic couldn’t deny that it needed to be done, after all, the former projectionist was far too nosy for anyone’s sake. Nobody who knows the secret of the Ink Machine (or rather, it’s unconventional secret ingredient needed for its ink) should be free to wander the studio and spill the beans.

And a feeling in his gut was beginning to tell him that that was why he was the next on the chopping block.

He had built it, he learned what it would take to make it work, he had done what it took to make it work, and it was working now; No more models that would only move a tiny bit before collapsing into puddles! No more off model models! No more issues aside from x, y, z… -No more reasons for Joey to keep him alive when it was now too dangerous to his business… 

A tiny voice at the back of his head told him it served him right. The creator of this unholy torture device would now be consumed by it, just like how the maker of the Brazen Bull was the first victim it claimed.

At this point, he was almost morbidly curious on who or what the machine would make him; would it poke fun at his past and make him that territorial junkyard guard, Canoodle? Would it ironically punish him for his greed by making him The Fat Cat of the show, Boswell Lotsobucks? Would it acknowledge that although he was a villain to the bitter end, he still tried to go clean only for demons to drag him back down his dark paths and make him into Charley? Thinking about it, any butcher gang member would be a good enough fit really.

He was a mix of relieved, disappointed, and horrified when he was brought into the room and saw the unconscious voice actress of Alice Angel strapped to a mobile operating table. Joey seemed to ignore his reaction as he proudly showed her off and began to monologue.

“Like Boris, Sammy was a musician, simple-minded, and was very loyal to those he considered friends until the bitter end. But what made Sammy more like the Brute then Boris- Aside from body type, obviously, was that Sammy had quite the short temper on him, one that got messed with often, and a tendency to hold onto a grudge that can’t be swayed away with a good meal or a bad joke… Just like our friend; the Brute.”

Tom stayed speechless as Joey continued his seemingly prepared and rehearsed speech.

“As for Bendy and Norman, well, it’s obvious that those too simply weren’t compatible in the slightest! Sure, they both have their mischievous sides, but that alone doesn’t make a man into a good imp… However, do you know who DOES have more in common with Mr. Polk? That’s right! A certain smart alec-someone who knows a thing or two about anyone, everyone, and everything whether he wants to or not. Someone with a darker, more jaded sense of humor than our little devil, someone who can lurk in the shadows, or in his case, ‘backstage’ for safety or to gather Intel, but be happy and proud to take the front stage when the need arises! ...Alright, I can see that Norman’s soul may have influenced the personality of our Cameraman, but at least he did it in ways that make sense to the character.”

The mechanic continued to stay silent as Joey continued.

“But the main point is: we know what to do to fix this little issue. If we want a main character, we need someone who embodies the soul of that character. And Ms. Campbell here said it herself; Alice is a part of her!”

“Joey…”

“Why, she’d be thanking us if she knew what was coming! This is a dream come true for her! She always seemed to be the happiest when she was singing our angel darling’s songs…”

As if he was snapped out of a trance, the mechanic pulled Joey to his face, gripping the animator’s arms tightly and shaking him up a bit.

“Joey! We can’t do this! Susie isn’t like Norman or Sammy. She’s young, healthy, and still has a lot to live for. Nobody would buy that she passed on from something out of the blue, or that she moved away without warning or telling anyone. Everyone in the studio loves her and talks to her frequently! If we do this, especially so soon, they will make the connection, and they will find out about this. It was bad enough when Norman went, imagine if someone as well loved as her went too!”

Joey just laughed and slapped Tom’s shoulder.

“Oh Tommy, all we need to tell them is that Susie got her big break and is Bringing Alice to life in ways never before seen! And to sell the illusion, also tell them ‘you know how those folks in Hollywood are with their schedules, always a bunch of busy bees.’ They’ll bite, you just have to trust me.”

“What if they don’t?” the mechanic argued. “What if they start snooping around and start to piece together what really happened to her?”

Joey’s smile wavered a bit, but remained steadfast.

“Well, we’ll just have to cross that bridge when we reach it. And when we do, we’ll have our answer!”

“Nnnnggghhh…”

Both of them shuddered when they heard the voice actress start to stir awake.

“I swore I used stronger stuff in her drink…”

“...Jo...Joey..? ..Mr. Conner..?” The voice actress’s real eye widened in horror as she looked around, and her voice wavered as she grew more and more frantic. “WHat’s going on?! Where am I- Why am I tied up?!”

“S-Susie! Everything’s perfectly fine my dear, you just need to calm down a bit and I’ll explain everything…” He subtly jabbed Thomas in the ribs with his elbow. “Tommy!” He hissed “Throw her in the machine already!”

The frightened voice actress began to struggle against her restraints while Tom hesitated. Joey shot him a glare as he strolled up behind Susie and put a ‘reassuring’ hand on the weeping angel’s shoulder.

“Joey, please… let me go… Don’t do this to me!” Tears were running down the woman’s face, her voice was soft and breaking from her stress. “Just let me go and I promise I won’t tell anyone…”

“Now, now, Susie, there’s nothing to worry about, yes I know this looks unsettling from your position… But you and Alice are going places, new, big places that most people only dream of seeing! You’re going to bring her to life in ways that will touch the hearts of generations!”

A flash of realization crossed her face.

“Joey… answer me this: when Sammy ‘died from untreated lung cancer’ did he actually die from lung cancer? And when Norman ‘died from a workplace injury’ did he really…?” her voice trailed off a bit with uncertainty before asking her third question. “Did their deaths have anything to do with those two toons that showed up?!”

Her questions were not answered by words, but with actions as the two men stuffed her into the machine. When it turned on, her screams echoed throughout the mostly empty studio, chilling all who heard them to the very bone.

When they finally stopped, the machine whirred and roared to life and Joey rubbed his hands together in glee as he watched the machine work its magic.

Thomas, on the other hand, stood in silence while staring at his hands as dread and guilt sank in his gut.

The former man’s smile fell into a look of confusion when he saw a pair of gloves with ‘X’ marks on them come out, followed by arms that connected to them. That look of confusion fell deeper into a frown when he saw the arms stretch, curl, and twist when the gloves reached the floor as if they were streams of ice cream coming out of the machine at an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Alice didn’t have arms that curled and stretched, but Joey knew a certain demoness toon who did; Miss Twisted. He was cursing under his breath, of course it would complete their little trio before giving him what he wanted! Now he wasted his one shot at getting Alice!

The rest of the toon didn’t even get out of the damn machine, it was like she was taunting him by continuing to stretch her arms and let them continue to coil in piles on the floor instead of showing him the finished product.

Furious, he marched over and grabbed the toon demoness’s arms and yanked her out of the damn machine.

“Stop messing around!” He scolded before pausing and reapplying his signature smile. “Your friends Brute and Cameraman have been worried sick about you ever since their creation! You wouldn’t want to keep them waiting for you any longer than they’ve already been, right?”

He could’ve been imagining it, but he swore that she had a look of pure terror on her face before she put on a fake smile of her own. And was it just him, or was this Miss Twisted’s left eye slightly discolored, glassy looking, if that made sense for someone with pitch black pie-cut eyes. The grayer eye she had reminded him of Susie Campbell’s fake eye.

“Y-yeah! You’re right!” She pushed Joey out of her face, clearly uncomfortable by his staring but pretending to be perfectly fine. “I can’t keep my boys waiting for too long, who knows what they’ll do?” She chuckled nervously. “So… where are you keeping them? where are they hiding?”

“Tommy here will be happy to show you, just follow him and-”

“Thanks!”

The demoness chipperly chirped and swiftly yanked Thomas out of the room at a speed that almost insulted the man.

[theepsizet]

Let’s talk about Allison and Tom

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(originally posted by thedreamfisher)

So, they’re alive, right? Well...

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

(originally posted by thedreamfisher)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[queenofcats17]

Hello! I was the “Saccharine” anon and I got a bit inspired to write my own thing for it with a bit more mischief involved. I also made it in the HS au because that’s what I thought of. Hope you enjoy!

Part 1/?

—-

Sammy was going to have a great day.

A week and a half ago, the little dancing devil darling himself organized every single person in the studio in a prank against him. For a whole day, as soon as someone looked at him, a frown dropped on their face, quickly followed by an obviously fake smile and an awkward interaction.

“That’s psychological warfare!” he’d shouted at Susie the next day, when she’d let him in on it. She got a good laugh out of that.

He even got Henry in on it! Although, he will admit, he did the whole act more reluctantly than anyone else. He was also the only one who genuinely apologized afterwards. Boris has just avoided him all day, not wanting to take part, but not wanting to ruin it for everyone else.

Today, he was going to pull one over back.

Sammy started off the day as normal, only changing his routine part way through getting ready for work.

Instead of completely slicking his hair down, he only did it part-way, making it seem a bit more loose and less formal. Next, he dug through his drawer and pulled out one of the few splashes of color through the mostly black bin. It was a dark blue tie with lighter blue stripes Henry had given him for his birthday a few years back. He pressed out the creases of the never-worn article before tying it around his neck.

Before he left, he practiced what he’d have to do all day if he was going to pull this off. It’d been a long time since he smiled as brightly and cheerily as he needed to, but he could still do so convincingly.

On the way to the studio, he was psyching himself up with the energy he’d put into this act. Imagining his coworkers’ faces certainly made it easier to not have to fake his glee as much.

He walked into the office with a bright smile on his face and humming a recent composition of his, earning him a few surprised, confused, and slightly horrified stares from the animation department as he passed. He took them like fuel to a fire and smiled brighter.

“Good morning!” he greeted.

“Alright, who died for you to come in so happy?” Bendy asked, smirking over his mug of ink after getting over the initial shock.

“What do ya mean?” he asked innocently, putting on a mask of confusion over his smile. The toon faltered at the response, but attempted to recover.

“It’s…” he motioned to his face, “ya know? You’re all happy and smiley. It’s just so far away from how you usually act,” he tried to explain.

“Oh,” he said, pretending to pause and think for a bit, letting his smile drop some. After a second or two, he brightened back up and gave a shrug. “If you say so.” He sauntered through the room and headed for his office, returning to his humming with a jaunty step. From the muttering that followed his exit, that act had been a striking success.

The next person he ran into was Wally, who seemed to have overheard a little of the conversation.

“Good morning!” he greeted with an extra bright grin. The janitor had been one of the people most keen on participating in the demon’s prank, and he was going to have sweet revenge later in the day.

“Um… good morning?” He’d seemed just as confused as everyone else. “Are you… feeling okay?”

“Of course, silly,” he chuckled, causing Wally to look even more concerned. “Why’s everybody acting so weird today? It’s like the world turned upside-down and I’m the only one who doesn’t notice.”

“Yeah… something like that…” he murmured. This caused Sammy to let out a genuine laugh.

“Alright,” he said, cooling down, “I gotta get back to work.” He patted Wally’s shoulder as he passed him. “See you later!” He could feel the stare linger on him until he turned the corner.

After Wally, he ran into the person he was most worried about, Susie. She knew him the best out of anyone and might be able to see through the ruse. He tried to feed as much genuine emotion into the act as he could to make it seem as though he wasn’t playing a part.

“Good morning,” she greeted first. She was used to initiating the conversation between them. She was walking along with Alice between the music and animation departments when they ran into each other.

Sammy gave them another bright smile. “Good morning, you two!” he chirped. He wishes he could’ve gotten a photo of their faces in that moment.

“You’re certainly chipper this morning,” Susie nervously chuckled, not expecting the joyful demeanor.

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” he fake-huffed, as if frustrated, while still keeping a small grin on.

“I don’t know…” Alice shrugged. “It’s just that you’re… happy? Smiling? Usually you’re just… grumpy.” Susie nodded along.

Sammy actually dropped the smile this time. Sure, he knew that he didn’t smile much, but did people really think he only felt angry? He just wanted to focus on his work and got frustrated at distractions.

Susie, upon noticing his change in mood, jumped back into the conversation.

“It’s not that seeing you happy is bad!” she rushed. “It’s just that this is a bit different.”

Sammy reminded himself that he should be acting right now and pulled himself back together.

“Alright,” he responded, bringing back the smile. “Whatever you say,” he shrugged.

He strolled past them, softly whistling his tune.

He managed to make it to his office without anyone stopping to talk with him, only awkward replies and confused stares. Behind his door, he took a breath, temporarily dropping the act. He double checked that the curtain over the window was closed so no one could peak on this break of character.

He dropped his briefcase on his desk and opened it up. He had some preparations to make.

Sammy could not afford to lose his temper for the next few hours. He thought of as many things that frustrated him as he could and had come up with as many solutions as possible.

He’d worked on creating the character he was playing for over a week and couldn’t afford to break it without ruining the prank.

The little devil did his best to cause the musician as much discomfort as possible, but two could play at that game.

Oh, this is amazing. 

Thank you so much!