#goddammit i wish i was an animation studio | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

zikadraws · 2 years

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Ok first question to Doug: why would you want to be alive again? I’m generally curious and wanna know, and to Henry: how come you want back to the studio? Did anything made you want to? If you had a chance, would you go save the creations that reside in there?

{Oh boy, that sure does for a long read ahead ! Please buckle up, and enjoy.}

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Doug : "Ha, ha, well, actually, here's the thing, I don't want to be alive again- well, not really. I'm not doing this whole demon ring thing for myself, you know. I don't- I'm not doing things for myself anymore.''

''When I was searching for answers and read about the ring, its legend described it as "powerful enough to provide whose who acquires it a second chance", and as vague as it is, that's about the kind of stuff I research. Not necessarily a second chance for me- a chance to... You know... Right my wrongs, and make up for all the suffering I've caused to- to my family.''

''That's for them that I do what I'm doing. I was absolutely awful to both of them, a self-absorbed... awful... selfish... stupid... coward, and everything that I would have wished I'd never be, and my selfishness ended with me doing something horrible to Elise, which caused her death and- and Tammy's. They both died, because I'm a horrible person that should have never been involved in their lives.''

''I tried everything I could think of to try and make up for it- Religion, charity, prison, you name it. I have not been living for myself in the past 40 years, and nothing I've done has brought me even near to find peace.''

''Now I've grown old. I'm old, I'm tired, and I never found peace for my sins. And I've recently learnt that I developed cancer, so I'm ready to give it up for the extreme. I've tried everything, and I'm up to date soon anyway, so I might as well give up the few life I have left for a last resort. To be honest, I didn't actually think this demonic stuff would work, but now that I'm here, I'm ready to give it all.''

''I'm never going to wake up anyway, and I know I'm going to hell no matter what. So if my dying soul can at least give them a chance to live again and go on without me, I'm ready to give it up. To Bierce, to Malak, the ring, or whatever. They deserve to go on without me. They deserve better. ...And if it instead gives me the chance to go back to before and do better with them, I'm all kinds of willing to be a better person."

''I'm going to die anyway. ...It's been a long time since it's not about me anymore."

Henry : ''*sigh* It's not that I'm particularly thrilled about going back in this sad excuse of a hellhole, but our dimensions are broken. Even if I really love the people I've met here, and even if this is a most welcome break from the usual ink dripping nightmare loop bullshit, we don't belong here. I just know this wasn't supposed to happen, and it's probably best not to keep our dimensions shattered like that. Which is why I want to bring things back. There's no need to let our demons share tips or whatever, if you know what I mean."

"(Also the Ink Demon seems to try to 'spread' around. This can't possibly be good.)''

"As for why I'm still journeying through the studio loop, I honestly don't really know by now. I know what's going to happen, but somehow I can't manage to prevent it from happening. It's always the same result and it's starting to really corrode my spite or whatever's still animating me. I've become so numb to all of this, you have no idea. I'm so tired. ...The reason I'm still doing this, I guess, is because I want to see my family again. I want to see my wife Linda, let her know I'm not dead, see my son again, his wife as well. They're such a sweet couple, you know... I was there for their baby shower. I promised I would be there for the birth of their child. But because of this stupid fucking cartoon guilt trip it's probably passed by now, I couldn't have been here to see their kid, I'm... Goddammit, I want to get to meet my grandkid is all ! I want to see Linda again ! Is that asking too much ???"

"...So yes, this is the main reason I still have hope. My wedding ring is my most valued possession by now."

"As for whether or not I would save the creations of the studio would I be given the occasion... Honestly, I don't know. I've stopped caring about Bendy, Alice, Boris & company a long time ago. It was just supposed to be a failed try in my career, and as amusing as these characters could be, they were just... Characters... They didn't mean much more than that to me. It was Joey's idea, not mine. These don't really count as persons to me, sorry to say that. And I don't really think it's a good idea to consider them as such.''

''I do want to try and save my co-workers, though. These are people,and they've never asked for this. They've endured way too much, for way too long. They deserve to be set free- in one way of the word... or another.''

''...Maybe I can actually achieve something of some sort, someday. ...Anything."

"(Also I really want to have a clarification of some sort about whatever the hell the Ink Demon actually is, and whatever became of Joey. I'm pretty sure the one I found in his office isn't the real one. I require a long, honest, clear talk over here.)"

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So that was their answer ! Sorry if it was quite long and mixed, I wanted to try and picture an actual conversation. To resume, here's the facts :

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Doug isn't counting on being alive anymore, and would actually rather sacrifice himself to allow his daughter and wife to live again, as his redemption. He knows he's going to hell anyway- and fully believes he deserves it.

Henry is still trying to break the loop because he dreams to see his family again, but he's getting slowly increasingly delusional and is more and more just trying to get anything different to happen, and has grown numb to the fate of his coworkers due to the never ending loops. He's also in complete denial to the idea that the Toons could have possibly gained sentience, and refuses to consider them as anything but fictive characters.

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Thanks for your questions ! These are really good ones :) don't hesitate if you have more ✨✨✨ (but please do so on the blog dedicated to the AU @it-takes-four thank you very much 🙏)

#it takes four au #it takes four #answered ask #doug houser #henry batim #dark deception doug #batim #character headcanons #please ask on the dedicated blog though 🙏#character speaking #dark deception spoilers

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twinhood-2dot0 · 9 months

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Tell Me Why

I’m a total cheapskate. I have around 150 games I got for free from Epic Games, and a few on Steam, and I’ve paid for a total of 7 games. So in June I found that a game called Tell Me Why was free on Steam so I just got it and never thought about it again. Until later on when I was watching a video on why you shouldn’t buy Hogwarts: Legacy, when they mentioned that you should instead support games made by LGBTQIA+ people, like Celeste and Tell Me Why, and my ears perked up, and I went to my Steam library and there it was! So I immediately installed it, and wow. It is awesome. I have one gripe with it though. More of a gripe with me but whenever I think about the game my brain just jumps to Jake Peralta singing “Tell me whyyy, ain’t nothing but a heartbreak”. Anyways, that aside. So the story is about twins, Alyson and Tyler, Tyler is a trans man, who were separated from each other after their mom was killed by Tyler following a supposed psychotic episode where she tried to shoot Tyler. 10 years later, after Tyler is released from juvie, they reunite, and go back to their childhood home to sell it and put their past behind them, but they find things they did not expect to. I won’t go into much more detail for now.

I really love the story and where it’s heading and oh my god, the interactions between them, so great. Gameplay-wise, it’s sorta like a visual novel but you get to play, instead of choosing dialogue options and reading text, sorta like a Telltale game (Telltale Games was a development studio that made episodic games with choices that branch the story, like choosing to be an asshole or choosing between characters to die. It’s fun. I never played any because cheapskate, but I watched like a ton of playthroughs and could probably detail the story and branches of Minecraft: Story Mode). There’s also a really interesting mechanic that I don’t really want to spoil too much, but they help tell the story through flashbacks and make for some interesting interactions. I also really love the portrayal of dysphoria and the struggles of being trans, they put a lot of effort into getting it right, which I really appreciate, and the voice actor for Tyler is also himself trans. :P I wish I took more screenshots, but you’ve seen those that I did take, so eh.

NOOOO DAMMIT, I COULDN’T GET A SCREENSHOT. Anyways, it’s just dialogue that went

Alyson: So do you want instant coffee or… instant coffee?

Tyler: Hmm, nah. I’m more of a T person. Get it? Like T as in-

Alyson: Mmmhmm. How long have you been waiting to make that joke?

Tyler: Longer than I’m willing to admit.

(Sorry, I’ve been waiting to use this meme for longer than I’d like to admit too.)

(T is short for Testosterone if you weren’t aware)

Uhh what else have been up to, oh yeah, I finished 2 anime. Your Lie in April and Tokyo Ghoul. YLIA is certainly something. My heart aches just thinking about it, and I’m not one to get emotional about much. Seriously, it has this really cool opening, https://open.spotify.com/track/2BlDX1yfT0ea5wo0vjCKKa?si=7b95e588be604494

and I learnt to play the intro on the piano, but whenever I do I’m like goddammit I can’t deal with this pain again. It’s about a piano prodigy who stopped playing after his mom and tutor died, and him getting back into it because of a violinist. She forces him to be her accompanist and then picks it up again. Again, don’t wanna give out too many details, although, it is romance so you probably won’t watch it, but whatever. I would make a comparison with a certain novel but that would be giving out too much. I’ve vowed to never spoil anyone. I think I’m finally shedding toxic masculinity and allowing myself to watch whatever I want. Overtly edgy stuff still has my heart tho. Tokyo Ghoul is… weird, in a bad way. I watched the first two seasons and I’m like huh??? in a bad way. I usually like going huh??? but like, nothing mad e sense. Turns out the anime adaptation is garbage. Gonna have to read it :P. So I started Banana Fish. My first shoujo! I heard it’s… sad? Weird? Disturbing? I don’t remember, but all of those are right up my alley so I’m gonna watch it anyways.

(Okay, I'm 3 episodes in, definitely disturbing. Yay! It's created by MAPPA??? Why does MAPPA have everything, like what? Attack On Titan, Chainsaw Man, Jujutsu Kaisen, literally every recent anime is MAPPA lmao)

Also, I played this really cool demo of a game called Paper Trails, by the creator of Hue, another puzzle platformer game that I got for free, with an interesting mechanic where you use colors to make stuff appear or disappear, so like if it's a red platform and you switch to red, the platform will disappear, and if you switch to something else it reappears, and Paper Trails did not disappoint either. So, the basic mechanic is, it's a top down puzzle game, where the levels are paper. So the level has two sides, and you can fold the paper to create pathways and solve puzzle. Really innovative, can't wait to play the finished game.

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c0ffeebee · 3 years

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seeing you put Anastasia, my ABSOLUTE favorite movie out of all of the movies ever made ever, on my dash and knowing you like RotG, I gotta ask: top 10 favorite animated movies, ranked, with a short (or if you wanna indulge, longer) reason why you love them??

oh shit that's a tough one! cause i love animated movies and i don't think i can rank those... for some reason i always have troubles ranking stuff anyways, but when it's my favourite things from one of my favourite genres? too hard to do

so, i'll try to talk about the first ten that will come to mind and hope it's gonna be good enough

first of all my favourite animation studio is and probably always will be laika, so five positions on this list would be occupied instantly:

Coraline

i fell in love with this studio's work because of this movie, i love everything about it, the story, the characters, the creepy vibe, the black cat being important lol, the old lesbian couple of drama queens? action, friendships, family feels, and important, important lesson on being careful with your wishes and supporting your family even in darker times? amazing

i've read the book and i think it's also one of the best on-screen adaptations i've ever seen

ParaNorman

see i love all of laika's movies basically for the same things: INCREDIBLE, MIND-BLOWING amount of work they put into everything, the soul in each movie, the dark vibe of most of their films, the kindness, the lessons, the difficult themes they aren't afraid to speak about, the twists with villains and heroes and how complex the world really is? how complicated people and relationship are? words cannot express how i love all that, and paranorman is all of it and more, also first openly gay character in children's movies shown on big screen? and no one even talks about mitch, what a shame

Boxtrolls

movie that got hate for including gay couples in the trailer and because one of the soundtracks touched on gay relationship? perfect, also i have to say i LOVE "some kids" song, it's wholesome and cute

this movie is so sweet and yet again deals with so many important things, and it's so underappreciated, and it's got one of my favourite female characters in it, winnie is an icon 💙

Kubo and the Two Strings

it's got everything the movies above have PLUS one of my favourite enemies to lovers ships, and this movie uses both the biggest and the smallest stop-motion puppets ever which is incredible, i love this story with my whole heart, even just taking about it makes me want to rewatch it right now and fall asleep with the warmth of it

Missing Link

i took my parents to see this one in cinema and they were so so impressed by laika instantly, my dad couldn't stop talking about it for a week lol

this movie means so much to me, it's about found family, identity issues, learning from your mistakes, finding your place in the world and so much more

and we are kinda sorta not done with laika yet because guess who worked on one of my favourite animated movies of all time the corpse bride? yes, you guessed it, so

Corpse Bride

again it's stop-motion that deals with difficult themes of trauma and etc, it's got dark vibes, and i love everything about it, the songs, the desings, the details, the characters, and that moment victor and emily play the piano as a duet? i'm gonna cry, peak romance right there

and while we at it

The Nightmare Before Christmas

as you can see i really fucking love stop-motion lol, but it's true, i love this movie and again for a of the reasons i love the others like it, i watch it every single christmas and halloween, i adore it and sally's song? one of my favourite songs ever

Rise of the Guardians

this movie gives me so much joy, i again watch it every christmas season and again it's got everything i love, the animation is beautiful, the characters are written so well, the attention to details there, the found fucking family i will die for them, and oh don't even get me started on their villain and hero parallels, the shared pain? similar backstory? no one understands them better than each other? it's basically sebjace animated that's what i'm trying to say

The Road to El Dorado

fun gay adventures of my sons tulio and miguel? soundtrack full of homoerotic subtext written by none other than elton john himself? beautiful incredible colorful animation? the dialogue? the jokes? the polyamory of it all? chel being an icon? "you fight like my sister!" "i've fought your sister, that's a complement!" i love this movie with all of my heart and soul

Anastasia

do i even need to say anything? anya (who should be nastya in russian but i don't care) and dima are what shaped my ship preferences, they are so... hetero in an unmistakably bi way that it hurts

lovehate? idiots to lovers? childhood crush? pinning? slow built? *smacks the ship* this bitch can fit literally every single favourite ship trope in it!

i love the story even tho it's got no historical accuracy but that's basically fanfiction and we don't need that history nonsense in our slow burn idiots to lovers fic, right?

goddammit now i want to rewatch everything in this list *cries in animated movies*

see that's a ten AND i didn't even get to disney and pixar yet, and they do have some of my favourite movies, you know, like mulan and hercules and coco and lion king and moana and soul and monsters inc and EVERYTHING, god i love animated movies, ok? ok

thank you it was a great way to put my energy into something 💙💙💙

#bee answers #long post #takaraphoenix

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tenchikothefangirl · 6 years

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Where’s Henry?

In honor of a very special event that occurred today in the @ask-joeydrewstudios blog, I have actually decided to do my job and write something, dammit. This is the chaos I have created as a result this evening, at 11 p.m. Enjoy the chaos!

Every little sound was setting him on edge. Every creak of the door and every rustle of paper, was a break in the silence so thick Joey thought it must be made of cotton. He tried to direct his focus elsewhere—paperwork, scripts, reports from the maintenance crew. The words skittered and danced along the pages, mocking him.

Goddammit.

Joey was pretty sure he was losing his mind.

He tossed aside his pen, absently noting the ache in his hands. He rubbed the complaining joints and scanned around his office. Surely he had some sort of mindless busy work in need of attention around here.

Next thing he knew, he was walking out of his office and heading toward his apartment. He wasted an unreasonable amount of time making a fresh pot of tea, and by the time he was done, his counter was spotless, the trash can emptied, and the items in his refrigerator rearranged. Three times.

He didn’t even bother stepping back into his office. Instead, his cup in hand, he went straight for the animation department. If he sped up a little the closer he came, no one was there to see. His heart faltered when he rounded the corner to zero in on Henry’s desk. Empty. Not a single page of work was set (Henry always took his work home with him), and the chair was still pulled aside so the animator could slip into it as smoothly as possible.

Bendy sat next to the chair, not daring to touch a speck of dust. The little toon’s eyes brightened at first until he recognized that it was just his father. His tail fell limp and wrapped around his left leg. Joey’s shoulders fell at the sight. Bendy and Joey looked at one another, but didn’t say a word.

In the room across from Henry’s desk, the rest of the animation team was busy but tense. There was nothing but frowns, and Joey caught a few tense murmurs rumbling among them. One man even snipped at his neighbor.

“Mr. Drew?”

The man behind the voice stood behind him sorting through a collection of papers. Oh, this was one of the newbies. What was his name again? It started with an A…

Joey stepped out of the way, but had to ask, “Has Henry showed up yet?”

The young man quirked a brow, unsurprised. “Sorry, sir, but no.”

“Has anyone gotten any calls from him?”

The man shrugged. “As far as I know, no.”

Joey nodded, his grip on his cup’s handle tightening. He let the young man return to his work, and retreated back to his office where he soon set aside his untouched cup next to the other four.

Joey Drew might have thought he was doing well, keeping his worries in check and away from everyone else, but unfortunately, his mood was a plague that spread fast and infected everyone else in the studio.

As a matter of fact, things were already coming to a head in the break room.

“Can you believe it!?” Sammy raged, slamming his cup of coffee onto the table. “Joey has come in and out of my department six times—six times—today, telling me how to do my job! I swear if the tapes weren’t still rolling, I would have clobbered the bastard!”

“No, you wouldn’t have.” Susie grabbed Sammy by the arm and dragged him into the nearest chair. His scowl never wavered, but his leg was bouncing so fast, the table rattled.

Shawn, who had been listening to Sammy’s incessant tirade, frowned. “I’d hate to say it, but I can understand that completely.” He groaned as he leaned back in his chair, arms crossed. “It’s one thing to get a surprise visit every once ’n a while, but this is ridiculous. Hardly an hour into my work, and Mr. Drew is in and out, scannin’ over every doll we make.” His face screwed up in distaste. “Not a word said between a hello and a goodbye.”

Lacie scoffed and joined the table. “At least you don’t have Mr. Drew ask’n for progress reports every hour. Can’t do a lick of work with him breathin’ down my neck.”

“Joey’s just been having a weird day,” Susie said calmly. Another unnamed employee offered Susie a drink that she politely declined.

“Yeah, but it was creepy,” Shawn said.

“And annoy’n” Lacie added while Sammy nodded.

“If ya wanna talk creepy—“ Wally walked into the break room, mop clasped in an iron hold. “Get this: Henry’s not here.”

All movement in the room stopped. Everyone stared at Wally, before Sammy broke the silence with a snort.

“Very funny, Franks.”

“No, I wish I was that funny! He’s really not here.”

“What are you talk’n about, Wally, that man’s always here,” Lacie replied. “It’s a wonder he ever leaves.”

“Oh yeah? I can prove it!”

“Oh here we go.”

Wally stuck his tongue at Sammy and said, “Just look.” He marched over to the cabinet. With a grand wave of the hand, he threw open the door. It swung open with a clatter. It almost rattled shut, but Wally caught it. He gestured toward the top shelf.

Everyone became quiet.

Susie, hesitant, slowly rose from her chair. Her heels clicked loudly along the hardwood floor as she walked. She almost wavered before reaching for the item on the shelf, and she examined it as though it was a cursed, foreign object.

With wide eyes, she looked at the group, and held up the item. “It’s…it’s Henry’s mug.”

A chair shrieked, and Sammy was at her side in a flash. He snatched the mug from her hands. After a solid five minutes of scrutiny… “Holy shit, it’s clean.”

“Yeah, and so’s his desk,” Wally said, a smug grin on his face. “See for yourself.”

One of the unnamed employees ran out of the room and down the hall. After a tense minute, the remaining group heard the guy scream, “OH MY GOD!”

In record time, the entire studio was uncomfortably aware that Henry Batim was not at work today, and Joey definitely had not scheduled a week off for him. Some checked their calendars and annoyed the secretary three or four times just to be sure. The animators were harassed, but not one of them could explain this phenomenon away. The gossipers got more incredulous as this sick game of telephone circulated.

Some even say that Grant Cohen stepped out of his office to ask around himself.

The members of the main crew who were still gathered in the break room stared at one another, in disbelief, worry hanging over their heads like a dark, stormy cloud.

“Should…” Susie began, “Should someone call his house to check on him?”

No one moved.

“I’ve tried a coupla times already.” Wally shook his head, leaning heavily on his mop. He made the cut-throat motion with his hand. “Nada.”

“This is bullshit,” Sammy said, still staring at the mug.

“I’m telling ya, it’s a sign of the apocalypse. And you can bet that when the sky falls, I’m outta here.”

Bendy sat at Henry’s desk, trying not to fidget. He wanted to curl into a ball but didn’t dare when there were so many people in the next room. So many witnesses… When that one rando employee had run off screaming, Bendy felt his panic rise, but he stubbornly refused to move.

“He’s just a little late,” he mumbled. “Papa said so, so he must be.” He wrapped his arms around his legs. “He’s gotta be.”

“Bendy? Are you still here?” Bendy looked up to see Alice standing over him. Her hands were on her hips, but her frown was a concerned one. She got herself situated on the ground with him. “It’s been hours, Bendy.”

“I’m waiting for Henry.” He scowled and faced the wall.

Alice sighed. “This is getting ridiculous.” Bendy ignored her. “Haven’t you set up that ink bucket yet?” she asked.

Maybe if he ignored her, she’d go away.

“I think there’s a slice of cake that Sammy hasn’t eaten yet,” Alice said. “It’s double layer. You could scrape off the icing in the middle and replace it with ink, no problem.”

Wonder how much longer it’ll take for Henry to come? Hopefully Papa Drew will give him a earful for all this trouble.

Alice hummed and then gasped. “What about that invisible ink? You annoyed Wally for hours about it yesterday.” She poked the back of his head. “Don’t you wanna try it?” she asked playfully.

“No.”

Alice recoiled. Although Bendy didn’t see it, a scowl formed on her face. If she was a colored toon, her face would have become boiling red. “Okay that does it.”

Faster than he could have thought possible—and, for a toon, that was saying something—Alice scooped him up and threw him over her shoulder.

“Hey! Put me down, Al! Alice!” He pounded his fists on her shoulder and squirmed like a drowning snake. “Lemme go, you jerk!”

“Bite me. I dare you,” she shot back. “We’re fixing this right now, or so help me—“ As soon as she passed by the stairs, she shouted, “BORIS! DRAG YOUR TAIL UP TO PAPA DREW’S OFFICE. NOW!”

By the time Alice toed their father’s office door open, Bendy gave up struggling in favor of making himself dead weight for his sister to lug around. Boris caught up to them, tail dragging and ears pressed to the back of his head. Alice ignored them both and marched inside.

“Papa?” Alice called as she came in. Joey looked up just in time to see Alice hold Bendy up by the arms. “This”—She gave Bendy a careful shake—“and this”—she used Bendy to gesture to Boris—“is a problem.” She then dropped Bendy like a sack of potatoes, and he yelped.

“What was that for!?”

Alice ignored him and marched over to the door. “Oh, and did I forget about this?”

She wrenched the door open, and if one listened carefully, they could hear the sound of someone screaming in the hallway about Henry’s empty desk. Her point made, she snapped the door closed and moved aside a seventh untouched cup of tea so she could place her hands on their father’s desk.

“Papa,” she asked softly, “where’s Henry?”

Joey was quiet for a minute there, the senseless scribbles on his papers long forgotten. He was an absolute mess. Although he’d begun the day no better or worse than any other day, his vest was now hanging on a chair while his sleeves were pushed back as far as possible (the ceiling fan was at its highest setting as well), and his bowtie hung loose. His hair looked like it’s been combed through with his fingers multiple times, and he kept tapping his pen against the blank paper at an obnoxiously rapid pace.

Tptptptptptptptptptptp

Joey took in a deep breath, the taps slowing. “Honestly, sweetie…I…I don’t know.” There was a moment allowed for it to sink in. “I don’t know…and it’s driving me crazy.”

Bendy and Boris jumped while Alice slid easily out of the way when their father suddenly stood to pace.

“I don’t know where he is, why he hasn’t come in, and he isn’t answering his phone—believe me, I couldn’t begin to recall how many times I—” He sucked in a deep breath. He rubbed his temples, brows furrowed, and let out a loud sigh.

Bendy and Boris exchanged worried looks. What could they do? Papa Drew was usually so calm and easy going. If things were this bad, then…what did that say about Henry being missing?

“Papa,” Alice said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Maybe it would be a good idea if you headed over to Henry’s house.”

Joey blinked, dumbfounded.

“It’s mayhem in here,” Alice said, flinging her arms in the air, “More than usual! Everything’s gone bananas because Henry’s not here. You need to check up on him.”

There was a long stretch of silence. Joey looked from one toon to the other. Bendy shuffled his feet, anxious. Boris’s eyes shone, worried and sad. Alice offered her father a confident nod. After a second, Joey slowly began to nod as well.

“You’re right,” he mumbled slowly. The toons jolted when Joey suddenly slapped his hands on the desk. “You are absolutely right.” He seemed to spring back to life as he went about gathering items around the office. He opened up his desk drawer and started rifling through his things as he rambled on, “You three go let the others know that I’ll be out for a bit. Oh where are my keys?”

Moving closer to his father, Boris scanned the desk, and his eyes eventually lit up. “Oh right there!” He pointed them out to Joey.

“Thank you!” Joey fished them out. “It shouldn’t take too long. Their house is about…eh, twenty minutes away—”

Alice offered Joey his vest. He slid into it as best he could, still rambling, “I’ll call to let you all know what’s going on, so stay by the phone, and I’ll—“

Prrrrrrrring Prrrrring!

Joey and the toons jumped when the ringing began.

Prrrrring!

Speak of the devil.

Prrrrring!

The four all looked at each other, and then they looked at the phone vibrating on the wall. Joey practically charged after the phone, the toons skittering behind him. He snatched the phone off its cradle and pressed it into his ear so fast, he was almost certain he’d snap the chord.

“Henry!?” he asked immediately. His heart was pounding as he waited to hear an answer.

“Joey—”

Oh thank GOD! “Oh my GOODNESS,” he cried, relief flooding his veins. His boy’s voice was the greatest thing he’d heard all day. The toons looked at one another, eyes alight.

“Where on earth are you??” Joey demanded, “Are you OKAY!? Do you even know how late you are!?”

Did Joey even know how late it was!? When was the last time he looked at a clock? “I have been worried sick all day—”

“Joey.”

Joey had half a mind to tell Henry to not Joey him young man, but he was already on a roll. “I was about ready to come check in on you two.”

The toons were trying to listen to Henry’s end of the line, but clearly they knew better than to get close while Joey’s voice was starting to rise.

“I mean, you NEVER just NOT COME IN without some kind of call prior—”

—And nothing short of death would usually stop Henry from coming i—Oh god. Dianne. The baby!

“E-even if you couldn’t, then Diane would—”

But she didn’t. Oh god. Oh god!

“And yet, WHAT ON—“

“JOEY!”

“WHAT!?”

From the other end of the line, Joey could hear Henry take in a deep breath. When he spoke again, Henry’s voice was soft, almost in reverent disbelief. Quietly, he said, “You’re a grandfather, Joey.”

His panic jerked to an abrupt halt, and it took him a moment for the words to register. The toons became nervous when Joey didn’t say anything. Meanwhile, Joey could only imagine the grand smile spreading across Henry’s face. It took a second for him to realize that his own lips were pulling into a small smile.

“…Really?!”

((Aaaand then Grandpa Drew runs out of the studio and leaves his kids to explain what the heck just happened. It takes a bit for everyone to calm the frick down. Joey might have forgotten his wallet.

Happy Birthday, Ben. Welcome to the nuthouse—I mean family

—Tenchiko))

97 notes · View notes