Fair Fun

The next few days passed by slowly in fear and paranoia, everyone feeling deeply shaken about there being someone out here to not only lure Bendy into a trap but to make sure the little ink demon couldn't remember anything of what happened. No one wanted to let the devil darlin be alone so someone, usually Alice and Boris, was with him at all times. Henry also spent a lot of time hovering over his little ink demon and whenever he wasn't doing that, he studied Joey's journal to see if he could parse out what the magic circle inscribed on Bendy's aura would do. The only thing he had been able to make out so far was that it had something to do with transferring energy, but that was about it.

Bendy at first was glad for all the hovering and mother-henning as he was more shaken than he liked to admit that someone had done something to him and didn't have a clue what it was or who could be behind it. It scared him that even with the new strength and abilities he had gained and was still in the process of discovering hadn't been enough to protect him from this new threat and that also meant he wouldn't be strong enough to protect his family from them either.

But as time continued to pass and nothing else happened, the constant worry and companionship of the others started to grate on Bendy's nerves. He loved his family, he really did, and he loved spending time with him, but he also often needed time to just be by himself, and at the moment he wasn't getting any of that. He wasn't even being allowed to fly and it was making his wings itch from the lack of use, even if they weren't manifested physically most of the time.

Eventually, Bendy snapped and lashed out in anger, shouting at Alice. He felt really bad about it immediately afterward, but it did prompt Linda and Henry to gather everyone to discuss things.

"I know we've all been on edge lately," Henry said calmly to the gathered toons. "And not without good reason, but we can't go on like this. Letting ourselves give in to our fear and stress out about what might be happening is only going to make us impulsive and give us even more weaknesses for this new threat to exploit. Now I'm not saying we completely drop our guard, especially since there is some sort of threat out there, but we should also try and regain some of our normalcy. There's not a whole lot we can do until we figure out more and until then we can't drive ourselves mad with worry. So we'll be careful, but not overly paranoid."
The toons reluctantly agreed and did their best to comply. Over the next few days, things did return more to normal and it did help the toons relax and enjoy themselves some more, but there was still an underlying tension that refused to go away. Linda and Henry often talked privately about it and tried to figure out how best to deal with it and eventually, they decided that what they needed was some kind of fun distraction for all the toons to help take their mind off things. Luckily for them, the town fair was taking place soon and that seemed like the perfect solution.

With a little planning and making sure all the toons had their disguises on, the Stein family made their way past the fair entrance, Allison and Tom joining both to help keep an eye on the toons and to just enjoy it for themselves. The toons were immediately looking around in awe, taking in all the sights and smells with wide eyes. It took all the adults to keep the toons from scattering in different directions to see whatever had caught their interest.

After some debate, it was decided that they would go the rides first to help the toons burn off some of their energy and excitement. The toons very much enjoyed themselves on the various rides as they had never really been on anything like them before. The Ferris wheel was a big hit with the butcher gang, both for its gentle nature of the ride and the view that it gave them. Bendy liked the drop ride as it reminded him of flying and he thought the way it made his fellow toons scream was hilarious. Alice liked the merry-go-round, enjoying the music and bobbing motion. Boris surprisingly really seemed to like some of the spinning rides, even if it made him and the other toons comically dizzy.

Having exhausted themselves with the thrill of the rides, the family helped themselves to various carnival foods, enjoying the various fried meats and pastries and topping it off with a big thing of cotton candy for each toon. The toons might have had a bit too much fun with the cotton candy because they would let it stick to their faces to give themselves beards in various styles. Henry and Linda didn't stop them though, just laughing at their antics.

Once they had eaten their fill, the Stein family walked around and tried out various carnival games. Boris did great at the fishing game, while Alice was amazing at the ring toss, the angel joking she had practice with tossing her halo. Bendy had a lot of fun using his strength on the High Striker, giggling at the shocked look of any onlookers that someone so small and looked like a kid to them was able to ring the bell. The Butcher Gang got extremely frustrated when they couldn't pop the balloons with the darts so Henry helped them, having gotten pretty good at darts during some of the loops in the studio.

Arms full of their various prizes, Henry and Linda treated the toons to ice cream and began to make their way home.

"This was a great idea," Henry quietly said as he and Linda followed behind the giggling toons. "They're acting like themselves again."
"They needed it," Linda agreed, a content smile as she looked at her unusual gaggle of kids. "And we needed it too."
Henry nodded in agreement, holding Linda close as the toons started debating who had the better prizes. While the worry wasn't going to completely leave them, not until the new threat was taken care of, this was an excellent reminder of what they were working for, to let the toons live in a way they never could have in the studio. They were his creations, his kids, and they deserved to have their lives full of joy and laughter and he would do anything to protect them and he knew that Linda felt the same.

But for now, they just smiled and told the toons that all their prizes were equally special, laughing as that was met with immediate whistling protests and more teasing arguments.