Henry sighed a bit as Sammy made his way towards the door. It was quite obvious the man had completely lost it at some point over the past thirty years, driven insane and desperate and… inky. He wasn't really sure whether the sigh was relief at no longer having the man leaning so far into his personal space, or sadness at the man's fate.

But then, to Henry's surprise, Sammy stopped short, mid-stride. He made an odd, almost choking like sound as his flew to his chest, grabbing at the ink there, fingers sinking in a bit.

"Wh-"

And then, just like that, Sammy burst. Like a water balloon, or one of the searchers upon taking one too many blows. A few flecks of ink managed to make it all the way to Henry, splattering across his face, and Henry grimaced. He's probably going to need to start getting used to being covered in ink constantly, but now was not the time to start worrying about that too much, seeing as Sammy wasn't gone. He was still exactly where he had been, though he was doubled over now, coughing up a concerning about of ink.

And oh yeah. He had a face. And skin and hair and real eyes. He was still wearing a pair of old overalls, but he looked rather… okay, all things considered. Smudged with ink, but not made of ink.

"I swear, Joey, if that-" Sammy started, but then cut himself off as he opened his eyes and stared at his hands. He opened and closed them, rubbing the fingers against each other, turning them over. And then he fell back on his butt and laughed, a couple of tears cascading down his face. "Oh my god it worked, it actually worked!"

"Uh… Sammy?" Henry dared to get the man's attention.

"Yeah Hen- What Are You Doing?" Sammy's odd good mood that had existed not a second ago dissipated, a familiar scowl on his face.

"Nothing of my own volition." Sammy cocked one of his eyebrows but didn't respond to that, slowly pushing himself back to his feet and looking around. "... could you maybe help untie me?"

Still looking warily at the ruins of the studio, Sammy approached Henry and undid the bonds. The animator immediately went over and grabbed his axe, sizing up Sammy a bit more, but Sammy wasn't paying too much attention to him. Instead, he was staring down at the odd pentagram-esque circle where Henry had previously been standing.

"Did Joey do this?" Sammy sounded more… exasperate than Henry thought he may be. What with all of the 'The Creator Lied To Us' plastered on just about every other wall, Henry would've expect a bit more hate in his voice. And there was some anger, definitely anger, but not really hate.

"I've begun to assume so."

"What do you mean 'assume'? Do you know anybody else covering the studio in pentagrams for the sake of toons?" Sammy dragged a foot - a barefoot, ink-stained - across the outermost circle, smudging it.

Before Henry could say anything in response to that, there was a sound not unlike Sammy 'popping' just a few minutes before, and Henry spun around to see a few new springs of ink in the room. He'd love to say he was surprised, but with every moment fewer and fewer things were coming as surprises to him.

"What the hell are those?!" Sammy shouted as the searchers pulled their way out, desperately and eagerly crawling towards the two of them. Henry rolled his shoulders, rather used to this by now, and started swinging his axe. The searchers were defeated in short time, but an unearthly howling scream kept either of the men from relaxing.

"I don't think now is going to be the best time to explain." Sammy seemed to catch onto the urgency, shutting up and following behind Henry as he made them a path forward. It was quiet, far too quiet as they made their way to the nearest available door. Before they could even start wading through ink, however, things got a whole lot worse.

Henry made an odd sound between a growl and shout as the skeletal mistake of nature and ink that a blind person may mistake for Bendy twisted his way out of the dark pool, spider-webbing black spilling out onto the walls around him. Sammy yelped as Henry spun around, grabbing his wrist with his free hand and running back in the opposite direction. They managed to make it to a room - with an actual opening and closing door, how rare those seemed to come by here - and Henry shoved anything he could against it.

Not that there seemed to be much reason. The ink-stains didn't creep into the room, and Bendy didn't so much as try the handle or attempt to take down the door.

"What the hell is going on, Henry? What the hell was that- that monster?!" Sammy grabbed Henry's shirt, staring the other in the eyes desperately. Henry set one of his hands on top of Sammy's.

"My best guess? Bendy, or whatever messed-up version the ink machine was able to make."

Sammy's brow furrowed and he stepped back, letting go of Henry.

"No- that's not- Bendy doesn't look like that."

"I know. I designed and animated him, Sammy."

"But even when Joey first made Bendy, he didn't look like that. And eventually he got Bendy to look on model." Sammy continued. Henry blinked in confusion.

"You were… you were there when he did it?"

"No, but I thought you were. You knew before I did." He almost sounded accusatory.

"I didn't know any of this was going on until I came back here yesterday!" Henry all but shouted back, the nerves and stress and confusion beginning to get to him.

There was silence.

"... I'm starting to think Joey may've really messed up this time." Sammy sighed.

Three knocks echoed through the room from the second, unbarricaded door.

oOo

"Welp. You've really messed him up now Joey."

Bendy stood on a table in an effort to get as far away from Sammy as possible. Not only was he still made of ink, he now had a nice new Bendy mask and was called Bendy 'My Lord' while seemingly missing his entire bag of marbles. Meanwhile, Joey was flipping through one of his tomes.

"I CAN FIX THIS!"