What's this? What's this? It is not a song fic?

What?

Is?

THIS?!

It was late last Sunday and I got this idea. I thought about scrapping it, but decided to press on, and thus, this was born from the inky dark abyss I call a mind.

Just some things I don't own: YouTube, Instagram, LoZ, and BatIM. See you at the bottom of the page.

Gamer Henry: An AU

By: Yours The Author

Chapter One: Moving Pictures

First Entering the Studio

"Alright, Joey. I'm here. Let's see if we can find what you wanted me to see." Henry's words echoed around him. He surveyed the scene: brown boards that were stained with ink and looked almost golden in the yellow lamp light, a projector in front of him, lit and running. Three reels hummed behind a sign that read: "Joey Drew Studios".

"Heck yeah." Henry pulled out his iPhone and snapped a picture of the gears. "These'll look great for my YouTube thumbnail. Now let's see…" Henry flipped his camera so that he could see himself in the screen and switched to video mode.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Henry, and welcome to my live stream let's play vlog. Today's scenario: Joey Drew Studios. My old boss/ business partner sent me a letter…" Henry took out the letter from his pocket and read aloud:

"Dear Henry,

It seems like a lifetime since we worked on cartoons together. 30 years really slips away, doesn't it?

If you're back in town, come visit the old workshop. There's something I need to show you.

Your best pal,

Joey Drew."

Henry put the letter away. "I have no idea what Joey's planning, but I hope it's good. Let's just jump into it." Henry flipped his camera so the screen showed what was in front of him instead of looking at himself. "So far, it looks promising. Ink everywhere, mood lighting, old timey tech… There's bound to be a glitch or an Easter egg around here."

He walked to the projector and smacked it a few times with his free hand. "Hmm… it seems I can't interact with this thing…" He slapped at the turning wheels behind the studio sign. "Or these…" he tried the door near the back of the room. "Or this. Ah, man. Joey better be planning something good. Let's keep going."

Entering the New Work Room

Henry walked down the hall and came upon a larger room full of drawing desks. "Looks like they knocked out a wall or two when I left. Guess it took a few people to replace me."

He saw an animation still on a desk near the back of the room and hurried over to it. "Guys, check it ouuut!" he squealed, shoving his camera right up into the picture of his little devil darling, Bendy, who seemed to be sitting cheerfully on the 'ground'. "It's my boy! My precious bean! Wait…!"

Henry turned around with the camera and waited a few seconds before turning back. Bendy now had a confused/ slightly concerned look on his face. "Oh my gosh, lookit! He changes poses when you're not looking; that's so tight!" Henry danced on his tippy toes and squeed again. "Look at my son!" He waved the camera at Bendy the Concerned Demon. "Okay, okay, Henry, time to calm down," Henry took a few breaths and checked his camera battery. "We're at eighty percent, folks; we only just started and I can't heckin' waaaaaait~!"

The Hall to the Ink Machine

"Well, this is a conundrum." Henry stared down at the pipe with the large, friendly sign reading "Watch your step!" It was too tall and thick to just step over… what could he do?

"Hmm…" Henry put his free hand to his chin and stared at the pipe.

And stared.

And stared.

And—

Henry jumped on top of the pipe. "So, there's a jump mechanic!" He exclaimed. "Compelling gameplay mechanics, Joey Drew! Wait, can I run in this game?" Henry jumped off of the pipe and tried sprinting forward, to no avail. "Hm, I take back what I said about the gameplay. Is this gonna be like Legend of Zelda, where you can only move faster if you get the Bunny Hood or roll? Well, jump in my case, but ya'll know what I mean. Anyway, let's keep moving."

The Ink Machine Room

"Yoooo…" Henry gaped at the huge room. "YOOOOO!" Henry grasped the railing with his free hand and panned the camera around. The room had a high ceiling and a floor below his landing. There were four chains connected to something, presumably the Ink Machine, in a deep dark hole in the back of the room.

Henry paused the video and turned the camera around for a selfie. "Maybe this should be my thumbnail? Gosh, there're so many good ones… How's a bro to choose?"

He unpaused the video and surveyed the deck he was standing on. There was a glowing device on a shelf, some boxes (one of which revealed another glowing device after some haphazard slapping), a switch, and a glowing machine with two slots in it.

"Glowing things are always a good sign, though with the color scheme of the setting, this may be harder to see in a tense situation," Henry said, putting the dry cells into the slots. "Let's see what you're hiding down there, old friend." He blinked and shook his head. "Why am I talking all formal? What I mean to say is… Let's make stuff take place!"

He flipped the switch.

There was a creaking sound, and the chains began to pull up… and the Ink Machine rose in all its glory. Some violins or something played an eerie tune. "Ooh, sweet," Henry said, aiming the camera right at machine. "This is a killer soundtrack… maybe I should do a remix of this song for my ending theme?"

Henry paused a moment and gazed at the machine, lowering his camera slightly. The Ink Machine was huge; not quite a box, but similar enough. Pipes full of black ink throbbed slightly to the tune of his heart beat, and steam and dust faded into the golden light. He shook his head and righted the camera. "Welp, only thing to do now is turn this baby on. Come on, guys."

The Room with the Boris

Henry walked down the hall silently. His throat was parched. Some water would be nice. Talking sure seemed to be taking a lot out of him, despite only being in the studio for a few minutes. Maybe his mom was right: maybe he wasn't cut out to be a let's player. Maybe he should quit-

A board fell from the ceiling in front of him, and Henry shrieked in a manly way. "What am I thinking?" He asked aloud after getting his jitters out. "Of course I can be a let's player! Mom doesn't know what she's—wait." He checked the camera. "Is this thing still recording? Aw, shoot—"

He looked to the left and gasped, eyes going wide. "Oh my God… Joey, what were you doing? This is… this is…" He stepped toward it… than another step… then he sped walked to it. "…so COOL!"

Henry pranced around the torture table with the mangled body of Boris the Wolf on it before pausing the video again and taking another selfie. "Sorry you're dead, Boris…" Henry muttered as he tapped the keys on his phone. "Hashtag: Lots of Love; hashtag: Best Boy After Bendy." He clicked the submit button on Instagram and unpaused the video.

"Sorry guys, had to represent my other son for the afterlife. Let's try to turn on the Ink Machine."

The Summoning Room and The Subsequent Halls

"Alright. How do I get this to work?" Henry surveyed the summoning room: there were six pedestals, three on each side of the room, with pictures of random objects he had seen throughout the studio behind them. "A fetch quest? Really, Joey? I let it slide last time 'cause the things were in the same vicinity as the other thing. Oh well; no way around it, I guess."

He exited the room and jumped again. A cut out of Bendy was standing in the intersection of the halls outside the room. "Who put this here?!" Henry wheezed. After he caught his breath, he kicked the cutout over. "Sorry, son. I love you, but you're being a creepy-creep. I didn't raise no creepy-creep. Anyway…"

"Backtracking~!" He sang the word over and over as he skipped around the studio (like a real man) and collected the items: a gear, a Bendy doll (AKA Beandy the Dancing Bean), a book, an ink well, a record, and a wrench.

Henry stopped at a desk in one of the halls and saw a tape recorder. "Sweet, some lore!" He explained for the audience of two. "Oh, Joey Drew; always showing lore in the best, albeit unoriginal, ways." He clicked the play button, turned up his phone's sound sensitivity to the max, and pressed the speaker to the recorder.

"At this point, I don't get what Joey's plan is for this company," the voice said.

"That's Wally Franks," Henry whispered loudly and breathily into the phone's speaker.

"The animations sure aren't being finished on time anymore. And I certainly don't see why we need this machine. It's noisy, it's messy, and who needs that much ink, anyway? Also, get this: Joey had each of us donate something from our work station. We put them on these little pedestals in the break room. 'To help appease the gods,' Joey says, 'keep things going'. I think he's lost his mind, but, hey, he writes the checks. But I tell you what: if one more of these pipes bursts, I'm outta here!"

Henry pulled the phone away and returned the sound sensitivity to normal. "Some interesting lore," he said aloud. "So, we've got some satanic ritual stuff going on, is that what you're saying, Franks? Hmm…"

He kept going, gazing around the hallways as he moved. "The graphics aren't anything super fantastic, but they look hand painted and fit the theme of the place really well. You have a fan here, Joey Drew," Henry said quietly, more to himself than the audience.

He walked down some stairs into what appeared to be an actual break room and looked around. "Nothing looks important in-wait-a-minute." Henry hurried to one of the walls. "Can it be…?" He whispered. "No… he didn't…" He reached up to the wall… and removed a dart from the dart board. "I can play darts?! Heck yeah!"

Henry snatched up three darts, set his phone on a table facing him and the board, and took aim. "This is great game play!" Henry cheered. "It's like he's prepping us to do this again in a later part of the game! I take back what I said about taking back what I said about your gameplay, Joey—This is AWESOME!"

Henry continued to play darts for a half hour.

After that half hour, he hurried back to the Summoning Room and set the items on their respective pedestals.

"Now I just need to get the ink flowing somehow. Should be a switch around here somewhere. Then I can start the main power," he explained to the audience.

In the Theater Room

"EEK!" Henry screamed like a man at the Bendy cut out that popped up from around the corner of the hall they were in. "What did I say about not raising a creepy-creep, Bendy?" Henry nudged the cutout against the wall and stepped into the theater room.

This triggered the projector in the middle of the room to turn on, illuminating the screen, some chairs, and—

"Ah-ha!" In the back of the room was a valve with a sign reading "Ink Pressure" above it. Henry turned the valve with his free hand.

Suddenly, a pipe in the room burst and began to flood the room with ink.

"Nooo!" Henry wailed, clutching his phone to his chest and hurrying out of the theater. "My mommy just got me this phone! She'll be so mad if I ruin it!"

The Summoning Room and the Ink Machine Room: Part Two

Henry had paused the video to wipe the screen of his phone with his already inky shirt and had restarted it again just as he entered the summoning room. "Dangit, this'll have to do," he muttered as he aimed the screen at the switch. "Okay, guys, this is it. The big one. The big shebang. Time to see what Joey Drew wanted to show me."

He flipped the switch.

The room darkened slightly, and Henry switched his phone's flashlight on.

He hurried toward where the deck was… then stopped. He pressed himself into the intersection of the two walls of the two hallways. "I'm trying to see if I can speed run this section and save a few seconds by glitching the barrier," he explained. After a second, he gave up. "Joey has some pretty good barrier action. Or it would just take more time to do than it's worth. That could be it, too."

He hurried again to the deck and stopped once more. This time, there was a better reason why. The doorway was boarded up.

"There's gonna be a jumpscare," Henry muttered. "Of course there's gonna be a jumpscare. It's so obvious… unless Joey knew I'd know… but then, wouldn't he know that I know? So that means… uh…" Henry absently stepped closer to the boards.

Something threw itself into the boards on the other side and made Henry fall backwards. "I frickin' knew it!" Henry yelled as he ran away. "Oh, now I can run!?"

Ink filled the hallways, seeping and squishing in Henry's shoes as he ran. Henry snapped a selfie of himself as he ran. "BRB, gonna drown in ink!" He shouted as he typed. "Hashtag: the floor is ink! Hashtag: Love you, mom!" He quickly uploaded the picture to Instagram and unpaused the camera.

"Okay guys," he huffed as he sloshed through the ink. "This might be my last video, so if you liked it, like, comment, and subscribe to my channel—" Henry gasped and turned the camera to show what he was seeing. "There's the exit!" He shouted. "And it's open! I-!"

The floor gave way under his feet and he fell… and fell… and fell…

Under the Studio

SPLOSH!

Henry floundered in the ink, his death grip nearly snapping his phone in half. "Okay!" He said once he found his footing. "I didn't die… yet. Oh, man…" Henry leaned against a wall and covered his eyes with his free hand. "This is… this is really…" Henry sniffled…

"This is GREAT!" He splashed the ink with his free arm like a kid in a public pool and waded to a valve on the wall. "This is gonna get so many views! I'll be as popular as the other let's players! In your face, mom!"

As Henry turned the valve, the ink drained away and was reduced to slick trickles. Henry walked happily out into the hall of the room he was in and saw another tape recorder. "Sick, more lore." He clicked the play button and held the phone to the recorder.

"It's cold and it's dark and it's stuck in behind every single wall now," the voice said.

"That's Thomas Connor," Henry whispered breathily into the phone.

"In some places, I swear this godforsaken ink is clear up to my knees! Who ever thought that these crummy pipes could hold up under this kind of strain either knows something about pressure I don't, or he's some kind of idiot. But the real worst part about all this… are them noises the system makes. Like a dying dog on its last legs. Make no mistake, this place… this… machine… heck, this whole darn thing… it just isn't natural. You can bet I won't be doing any more repair jobs for Mr. Joey Drew."

The tape clicked off.

"…Well," Henry said. "That explained… not much. We'll probably learn more as we progress. Come on, dudes." He walked down the hall and down some stairs, turning a valve here and there to drain the ink. Henry figured it would be best to collect his thoughts a bit before speaking again. Give the viewers time to think about what they'd seen on his live stream vlog. He opened a door.

The new room was much less inky, which he was thankful for. It also had a boarded-up hallway. Luckily, the ax on the wall was glowing, so he could pick it up. "This will definitely come in handy," Henry said, switching the ax to his right hand and holding the phone with his left. He gave the ax an experimental swing and chopped one of the board clean in half. "Sweet," he said.

He continued to chop up the boards, until he reached a door. Behind the door was… was….

"Aw, rad." Henry snapped a picture of the pentagram-like drawing on the floor. "Guess there really was satanic stuff goin' on like Wally Franks said."

Something beaned him over the head and he fell.

As he tried to take one last death selfie (Hashtag: Rolling On The Floor Dying), he saw flashes of different objects: a wheel chair, that monster he'd seen near the Ink Machine…

"You guys… seeing this…?" He asked his audience before his head hit the floor.

And thus, begins Henry's journey through Joey Drew Studios… or does it? You decide!

And… done! Phew, that was awful. Unless you liked it. Then it was great.

I'm not sure where exactly this idea came from, but… it was something. I kind of based this Henry off of the stereotypical twelve-year-old gamer who speaks too close to the microphone, except this time it's an old man. Joy.

I mean what I said in the last line. If you like it, I'll continue it. If not, I won't. You'll have to review to do that, but whatever.

So, leave a review, tell me what you thought, and I'll see you later. Also, not that this is likely to happen, but if you want to try out this AU for yourself, go for it! Just send me a note saying where it is so I can see it. Bye!