Henry counted it as no coincidence that the same day the ink machine was switched on for the first time was the same day that Joey Drew began to go mad.

A great, intimidating thing it was, hidden in a room buried deep in the twisting halls of the animation studio. It literally made ink. 'For the ease of the animators', Joey said. It spat and sputtered, gears turning and smoke pouring from the top. Tubes connected it to the rest of the building, with ink occasionally spewing from cracked pipes. Constantly it broke down; and Henry was the only one Joey trusted to clean it at the end of every day.

Joey was not just a cartoonist, but an inventor as well. A creator. A thin, weasely man with dark smooth hair and a sparse mustache clinging to his upper lip, he dressed smart and held an air of authority despite his size. He had made the ink machine in less than five years, whereas it had taken six for him to get his animation studio up and running. The man was madly talented, and inspiring as all get out.

It was a shame he was completely nuts.

Henry, in contrast, was a mild mannered, heavy set man who had never done anything in his four decades of life besides become Head Editor for the studio. It suited him just fine. He was one to stay contented in even the smallest areas of life.

The studio itself, Sillyvision, had started in the early 1920's by the ambitious Joey Drew, and was blown away with its own success. Akin to the ever popular Disney cartoon characters, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, the shorts were black and white and comedy based. Unlike Disney, though, Sillyvision's characters and comedy were a bit more for adults. A tad more crude, with jokes that easily flew over children's heads. Just a bit. Whatever the case, they were still one of the first two dimensional cartoon studios to open their doors, and sometimes they made the competition make a run for their money.

Henry himself was responsible for the finished design of the main characters, Bendy the Devil and Boris the Wolf. Real crowd pleasers there. Of course, Joey had had the ideas for all the characters first, but Henry was partially responsible for refining them and making sure they stayed on-model during production. They were partners.

But that machine...there was just something so wrong with it. It was like a living thing. It lurked.

Henry gave it a stern look from across the room, as if warning it away. He was busy going through some key action shots for the next episode 'The Wolf Who Cried'. It was going to be a hit, for sure, but sometimes he wondered what morbid trail Joey's mind went down when he came up with the ideas for these cartoons.

He'd also noticed the subtle changes in the ink machine, being that he spent more time around it than most. The added size, compartments, the wires sticking out the cracks. It had started to make newer, louder sounds. The smoke billowing from the top was getting blacker. Joey was definitely modifying it; but for what he wasn't sure.

He coughed huskily, the tone edging on annoyance. He was sick of breathing in these fumes. And the creaky floorboards, and his favorite shirts getting black stains on them, ect. The list could go on.

"Hello." Joey suddenly walked pass him from the hallway, holding a thick bundle of punched animation paper.

"Mmm...hi." Henry frowned, looking up briefly. He'd be lying if he said he wasn't surprised to see him here; In the middle of the day no less. Joey usually cooped himself up in his office and only graced his co-workers with his presence when it was madatory.

Henry turned slightly to watch what Joey was up to. While casually correcting poses and off-model mishaps, his boss came in and out with five more armloads of paper and proceeded to stack them on a crooked table beside the ink machine. Curious, but not totally abnormal.

What was abnormal, however, was when the man began to stick stacks of the paper into a slot on the side of the machine; the slot usually used to test the ink's quality. He was essentially sticking loads of paper into a vat of ink...what the heck.

Joey was finishing the third stack when Henry suddenly realized the value of said paper. It got to him so suddenly that he found himself shouting.

"Hey, HEYHEY!" He trotted over in bewilderment beside Joey, who paid him no heed and continued, "What the hell are you doing, Joey?!"

"What?" It was less of a question, and more of a warning. The man eyed him out of the corner of his eyes, almost like a cornered animal.

Henry watched the insanity before him, pulling a couple papers back his way,"Joey, these are the original animation cels for the last episode...you know that, right?" He rubbed a hand through his thin, greying black hair, completely confused. This was hundreds of hours of work going down the metaphorical drain.

"Yes. I know that." Joey curled his lip towards Henry, but otherwise continued,"I'm the boss; I decide what to do with these. We're done with them, anyways."

"Well, yeah, but...they could be worth something some day." And the work lovingly put into each one. Each frame. Each character. Sentiments aside, most people with common sense would treasure each frame for a good portion of their lives.

Joey snorted in almost a bemused fashion,"Well, this is what they're worth to me." He paused,"What do you know anyways? I'm doing important work here."

Completely bonkers, this guy.

But could he stand to just stay here and watch this happen? Sadly, yes. No matter how well they knew each other, Joey was still his boss and all his decisions...no matter how ludicrous...were to be respected. For the most part.

He spied a particular drawing, #678, that was one of his favorite scenes. Bendy had a tutu on and was looking murderously on to the audience with a pout, as if it were their fault he was in this predicament.

"At least let me keep thi-." Henry was in the middle of sliding the paper out of the pile, when Joey's hand slammed down on the other side of it with tremendous force. His face had a wild, wide eyed look, daring the other man to continue.

A short staring contest went on before Henry relented, releasing the paper with a huff and marching back across to his table heavily. He gritted his teeth, snatched up his coffee mug, and headed out of the room. The work day was more than over, he'd say. Time to go home and just not think about his deteriorating friend.

Weeks passed.

He didn't know how or why or what kind of horrible magic was involved, but that thing was alive.

That thing being the real in the flesh...or in the ink...Bendy the Devil.

It was insane such a thing could occur. It disgusted and horrified Henry to no end. How was it even possible?! He didn't even want to look at it; it unnerved him terribly even if he'd only seen it a handful of times. It was a three dimential look alike of the character made in the show. Same black rounded head with pointed horns, white grinning face with great rounded eyes, bouncy bowtie, shining black boots, typical white gloves used on most cartoons in this era, and a long pointed tail that was easily the length of its body. It was about three feet tall, if that.

The big goofy smile stuck to its face made him shiver. All he wanted to do was his job; he didnt want this. What was the point of it, anyways? If anyone important figured out that Joey could essentially create life out of ink, things could become dangerous. Which was probably why he kept the thing in the back rooms. Unfortunately, Henry did most of his work back there. Fortunately, he had not run into the little devil for almost a week.

Almost being the key word.

Work was still progressing on 'The Wolf Who Cried' as usual. It was going well, the only problem was the dwindling staff. Here Henry sat in the back room, working overtime in the humid enviroment, just because people kept spontaneously quitting. He loosened his striped tie a bit, sighing. He was working on a pose of Boris jumping over a fence. It was just coming out...wrong. His mind was kind of out of it right now. He needed a break, pronto.

Wiping his face with a stylish white handkerchief, he regarded his work for a moment. Then he reached for his water bottle and took a few relieving gulps.

"Whatcha doin' here, friend?"

A spit take was inevitable at the unfamiliar voice right beside him. It sounded like a typical radio show host ripped right off a recorder. Static, scratches, and everything. His head snapped down to stare at no other than Bendy, who wore a mildly interested expression despite the ever-present grin. His tail swished behind him, the only sign of nervousness shown.

Henry just gawked for a moment before moving his chair slightly to the right, away from the creature. Despite the fact that his gut reaction told him to freak out, his usual laid back demeanor shone through to tell him that this was obviously an every day occurance. Obviously.

"I'm..I'm working..." He finally managed to sputter out. Bendy seemed patient.

"Wouldja let me take a look?" He tilted his head curiously up at the slanted table.

Something about him still made Henry uncomfortable...but at least talking to him seemed to make things more managable. He nodded uncertainly at the devil's request, and was startled when Bendy jumped up into the little space on his chair he wasn't using. He scootched over more, almost falling off in an effort to not touch the thing.

Bendy took a critical eye over Henry's work, eyes scrunching a bit in a scrutinizing manner. He hummed a bit before leaning foreward in the board with his elbow. He threw a look back at the man

"Ya gotta move the knee up a bit higher." He gestured down at the drawing.

Yet again, Henry was baffled. The cartoon critiquing the cartoonist. He would have laughed if this wasn't all so stunning.

"What do you mean?" He picked up his pencil uncertainly, looking down. He didn't see the problem.

"You gotta-." Bendy tilted his head, tail snapping dangerously to one side as he thought, before a frusterated look arose. He suddenly snatched the pencil right out of the man's hand, butting him back a bit with his elbow,"Screw it. Move over a bit, I'll show you."

Henry pushed back into his chair a little more, frowning as the cartoon bagan to make changes to the drawing. This was getting bizarre. What did Bendy know about drawing anyways?

Apparently a lot. Henry's jaw went a little slack at the vastly improved drawing. The action was there, the lines were straight, the thing the picture had been missing was fixed! Boris now jumped with purpose, almost coming alive on the paper. He stared for another minute, impressed, but still weirded out.

"Boy, I'd like to meet him someday." Bendy's voice went soft as he carefully put the pencil down, and rubbed his hands off.

"...huh?" Henry's brain wasn't really working well right now.

"Boris." The cartoon elaborated, shifting sidewise,"I'll bet he's nice."

"Oh. Yeah, he..he's nice, yeah. I guess." Henry frowned, getting up off the chair casually as Bendy slowly took over more of it. He grabbed his coat off the back of it as well and frowned a bit at the ink on it...and now that he looked, it was on his pants too.

In fact, Bendy seemed to be dripping a bit. Unnerving to say the least. A reminder that this thing wasn't technically real. But still...he wasn't flesh and blood, but he was obviously living. He frowned decisively; He would try to be mindful of how he treated the little devil.

"Think I'll ever meet him in person?" The smile was off his face for once, but he didn't look sad or anything. Just...genuinly curious.

"Yeah." Henry nodded quickly, responses coming to him faster,"Yeah, I'm sure you will." Could be true, or it could not be. Who knew what his crazy loon of a boss/friend would do next with the ink machine.

Bendy smiled widely again, a mischievious glint sparkling in his eyes,"That's what I thought!" He let out a low whistle and stuck out one gloved hand,"By the way, my name's Bendy."

"Henry." He let out a small chuckle, shaking the small hand. It felt so strange, a liquid and solid at the same time,"Nice to meet you."

"Pleasures all mine, pal." The cartoon pulled one side of his bowtie tighter, waving the other out of the shake,"See ya tomorrow?"

From what Henry could gather out of this strange little encounter with the brash creature...He was lonely or something. It was kind of obvious, and thanks to his soft heart he felt bad for him.

"Yep." He managed a small smile, still keeping an eye on Bendy even as he slowly inched his way to the hallway. He paused,"I come in at nine every morning pretty much."

Bendy beamed, leaning on the table, and side-eyeing a few more drawings like he'd like to edit them, too,"Great! See ya then. Oh, and if you could bring me a sandwich or somethin' - I'd appreciate it. I wanna try one."

Henry stared incredulously for a second before he laughed at the absurdity of it all,"Alright, will do. Goodnight."

Author's note: the designs of Henry and Joey, along with the general idea for this oneshot were inspired from some amazing doodles by the talented doodledrawsthings on Tumblr! Seriously, I took some of my lines straight from her, sorry. Go give her and her magnificent work some love. And have a great night.

EDIT: Screw it, I'm going to add another chapter or two.