Warning:This campaign is an edited version of Call of Cthulhu: Song and Dancescenario from the Tales of the Crescent City book. While a lot has been changed, there IS spoilersfor it throughout these posts. ALSO we are currently playing this, so please don’t spoil us either!!Thanks!
This one was delayed because I needed to make sure it was as cool as Henry was in this scene. It was a REALLY COOL SCENE… and uh, VERY FRIGHTENING,, Anyways, we’re in the thick of it now, boys!
ART CHANGES THIS SEASON!!@inkdemonapologist and I are collabing on all the art for these summery posts!! Shazz does lines, and I compose and colour the pieces.
Well, Joey knows where he’s going to find the kidnapped Colette at least, but it’s not like he can just sprint there now on his own, so we’ll get back to that later.
So… what happened to the other girls?
Henry managed to get Susie outside safely, though they noticed they had someone scanning the crowds looking for her right away. She’s familiar, not because Henry has seen her before, but because he’s seen multiple family members of hers: Y’s sister… They start hurrying towards the car. Not too far behind them, Timothee and Nicole are just buried in the crowd enough not to be noticed and manage to sneak out as well. For a moment Henry and Susie pause, worried that the Y sibling might try to grab Nicole… but no, it’s not Nicole she’s after right now. Instead, she’s heading right towards Henry and Susie, definitely in their direction, and not a vaguely-into-the-crowd’s direction…. OKAY TIME TO SERIOUSLY GET TO THE CAR GOGOGO,, Henry gets Susie to hide in the back while he pulls out the gun he was borrowing, and points it at the approaching mobster.
Inside, the goon holding Sammy is attempting to drag him off towards the door, suffering somewhat after getting knifed in the arm. Jack, unable to answer any of Leon’s panicked and non-helpful questions, seeing a point of opportunity, and more determined than ever, runs forward and full body tackles the goon one more time. This time it works, and he fully manages to knock the guy over, unfortunately also knocking Sammy over into a chair. But that’s fine! Because Sammy is free once again, and likewise, done with this guy’s shit. As the two scramble to their feet, Sammy yelling hint hint it’d be nice if Trenchcoat showed up around now, the goon sees Joey and Peter have also turned around from their other exit and started heading back towards this particular fight.
Remembering what happened to dearly departed Saxophone when Joey showed up, he starts backing away. Sammy is still in panicked fight mode though, and grabs the chair he got knocked into, slamming it into the goon and causing him to splatter into a whole patch of Yellow Ink across the center of the dance floor.
Everyone will remember that for a while. Especially this security guard who was in no way prepared to see such a thing. Especially especially Leon, who was gently prepared for this but not actually prepared for this.
Jack turns to Joey and asks what to do while people start trying to cope with this, Joey who is mostly propping Peter up right now? He’s not passed out, but he’s not quite there either and his legs are only half working for some reason after slamming into someone in the crowd. Joey doesn’t quite have an answer for Jack, but Allison calls out to the group from her position between the dancefloor and the entrance with one: she’s seen someone chasing after Henry. Well!! THERE’S YOUR ANSWER!! Joey grabs Jack and gets him to help Peter, while he then grabs a disassociating Sammy and a broken Leon and drags them enough towards the door to get them moving and just hurries everyone along with him. Everyone outside now!! We need to catch up with Henry!!!! NO MORE TIME FOR CHATTING.
While running outside, Sammy catches up with Jack and grabs his hand, trying to see if he can tell anything about Jack… because the thing Joey didn’t notice was that it wasn’t exactly Sammy anymore. Not getting a read in the heat of the situation though, Prophet just whispers a ‘Come, my sheep’ and pulls Jack, and thus Peter, along with him towards the entrance. Though halfway there, he gets disoriented, and apparently returns to being the shepherd again.
Norman peeks his head out from backstage now that the abduction that raced past him is gone, and follows after them.
Y (sister forme) continues to approach Henry and the car Susie is in, slowly, calmly now, addressing them and letting them know that if Henry just hands Susie over, nobody has to get hurt. Of course, to this Henry pulls back the hammer on the gun and makes it very clear he is not up for such a negotiation. She does not seem to hesitate though, walking up and grabbing his arm, somewhat calling his bluff. It was a bluff… in a way. He wasn’t exactly ready to try and shoot her. But upon feeling a weird jolt of himself being sucked away from her touch, he panics, and… slices her through the middle with a golden ethereal scythe thing?? That he? summoned out of??? HIMSELF?!??! He just,,, has the colour drain out of him and has now a scary scythe thing….
Which, at this point she’s morphed somewhat into a weird orb tentacle monster? She collapses some onto the ground, and Henry slashes her again, just to make sure. She’s not cut open, but does continue to just have two golden slashes through her that remain. And has completely stopped moving. She is very dead now.
Joey runs up, with some others trailing behind him as they witness whatever this is. Henry is still weirdly pale… not like he’s sick, like he’s monochrome. Like that time, back in Haiti, where the world went weird and silent. The scythe disappears, and Henry steps over the corpse to ask Joey if everyone is alright.
JOEY GRABS HENRY AND STARTS FRANTICALLY ASKING IF HE IS!! ALRIGHT?!?! WHAT HAPPENED WHAT WAS THAT WHAT DID YOU DO ARE YOU OKAY–
Henry holds him still and tells him everything is fine, despite the fact he’s uh, monochrome. When Joey points this out, he doesn’t seem to be shocked by it, just slightly surprised that there had been an effect. He actually seems… very non emotional overall. Henry informs his best friend that it’s just a spell that he picked up from Doc Moonlight’s journal. No big.
This does not comfort Joey.
Henry tries to get them back on task but Joey just frantically hugs him for a moment, in a possessive and somewhat fearful way, like Henry might just disappear any second now. When that doesn’t happen and Henry just calmly hugs back, he finally pulls himself together enough to get everyone loaded in the car and heading back to the studio. They need to go after Colette but first they need to get the other girls to safety and get some more supplies if they’re going to beat down the door of a Mobster Cult Hideout.
But Jack, Leon, Timothee, Nichole, and Sammy DID SEE danger approaching Henry as they ran out to Jack’s car, so Jack takes a moment to loop back around and check on the other group before heading back to the studio, where Sammy and Jack both manage to catch a look at the dead monster that was once Y(F) on the ground. But they also see that the other group is fine and getting the second car started as well, so start to head off–
Sammy was initially recovering from the sight of the monster, but becomes suddenly very insistent on following the other car. Staying behind them, keeping an eye on them. Jack… continues to drive in the same direction as he was planning to, as Sammy continues to explain that he’s “seen the Golden Sheep before and seen the harm he can do.”
Well… hello again Prophet. Lovely for you to join us again out of the blue on this car ride.
They all get back to the studio, where Tom has been the only employee hanging around since they closed up before heading towards the contest in the first place. Knowing it was possible to bring back bad news, or a buncha muses stuffed into girls, or need to do weird rituals on the fly, or leave a buncha strangers in somewhat safety while going to retrieve a third lost muse girl, hypothetically, Joey had made sure to have the studio cleared out and one of the lobby film rooms available for everyone to sit in.
Joey informs people he knows where they’re taking Colette, but doesn’t know how much time they have until they try to do the ritual on her, so they need to quickly get ready and head back out again; Norman and Timothee will stay behind with the other two girls to guard them meanwhile. Leon is offered a choice, with a quick rundown of what he may or may not be facing when he goes on this adventure, and ends up deciding to go, wanting to help save his girlfriend instead of standby in anxious stress.
Nicole goes to stand up and also demand to go with them, but Joey manages to interrupt before she can start being persuasive, cuts her off at the pass, and gets her to sit back down. She and Susie will wait here.
Prophet is staring at Henry. He’s very staring at Henry, like if he takes his eyes off Henry for a moment some bear trap will go off and snap them all up. But as Henry gets caught up in chatter with Joey and the others up front, it’s enough to convince him for a moment it’s safe not to watch, and he asks Jack for some paper to write stuff down. Specifically some warnings about “the golden sheep is not himself, he will slaughter the flock, DO NOT TRUST HIM,” and leaves it in his pocket later for Sammy to find. Y’know, a very clear, obvious message that will make a lot of sense later.
Susie ends up near them while this is going on, and asks what’s wrong with Sammy. Of course, Prophet immediately steps in to comment, trying to assure Susie that here is the safe place to wait and to stay far away from danger and everything will be alright. In the very normal Prophet way of not explaining what he is talking about at any point, calling everyone some sort of sheep, and not even answering her original question.
Susie… attempts to ask Jack, specifically, again, what happened.
Joey has still not noticed that Prophet has joined them, currently wrapped up in trying to get Henry to explain what he possibly did before?? Which, while there’s an explanation that makes sense (He got a spell from Moonlight’s journal, and it hasn’t worked until now, but this time it did, and he knows he probably should have sourced it from somewhere else but he just wanted an offensive spell (boy did he get one!! Joey is VERY offended rn!!!!!)) but as for what exactly is happening to him in this moment? he doesn’t know. BUT IT WORKED SO IT’S FINE!! EXCEPT JOEY VERY THINKS IT ISN’T. Even getting something from Masked Messenger would be better because at least you know whatever that’s gonna DO. It might be a knife that hurts you to hold but at least you know it’ll still stab a guy! Meanwhile Doc Moonlight hands you a knife that hurts you to hold but when you go to use it the dang thing blows up in your face instead!!!
While this goes on, Prophet attempts one more time to assure Susie that she doesn’t need to worry before trying to get Bendy’s attention. Which involves getting Joey’s attention, since they’re still sharing a body right now. Jack takes this moment to explain to Susie as best he can right now; it’s a long story, magic stuff. Not an urgent thing that needs addressing, more explanation later. So she tries to call out to Sammy to ask him for another take, (she knows she can do better now!) which he pauses at, because Prophet DOES remember what she’s talking about. When he doesn’t respond right away though she starts singing the newest version of Alice’s song… the one Sammy had manically improved over the week, the one that… She shouldn’t have any way of knowing.
This does cause him to turn around and hush her, insisting on doing this later… she’s surprised? But agrees, they need to help Colette first.
When Prophet finally grabs Joey’s attention, Joey’s actually not annoyed that his usual rival-in-his-lover’s-body has shown up again, just surprised. He does immediately demand Prophet hand over his flask, which is suspicious, but he confirms impatiently when Prophet questions it that, yes, Joey is assuming if you’re around you’ve drained some of your ink supply and need more so hand it over so he can fill it up. Okay well, Prophet wants to talk with them anyways about something so tries to pull him to the side, which is fine Joey needs to walk up to his office anyways for the ink refill. He gets Henry to round up the others to get ready to go while he’s talking with Prophet, which Henry doesn’t seem too sure about but does what he’s told.
Once alone, Prophet insists to Joey that Henry is not himself, he’ll betray his allies and slaughter anyone in his path. Joey is… confused but listening. He knows a thing or two about betraying people while under the bad influence of eldritch things around them after all. But this apparently isn’t the same… Prophet has seen this Henry before. It’s not their normal Henry. It’s one that showed up on one of the cycles in Haiti, according to Bendy… but just that once! And he didn’t seem TOTALLY murderous??? But if this is really as bad as Prophet says it is, then Joey knows he needs to bring Henry with him. Because leaving him here seems like a poor idea when Prophet is warning him about Henry slaughtering “the sheep they are trying to save”, and Joey knows he can’t betray Henry by sending him home to his family as he currently is, so Henry will have to come along. Joey refills their ink flasks, shots are taken, and they head downstairs, ready to go face whatever awaits them when they head back to Coney Island.
Sammy and Jack have been kidnapped by gangsters from a club called the “Bottomless Well”. Something like that would be frightening enough at the best of times, let alone when they already have cracks in their minds threatening to widen…
Boo shared this song with with the CoC gang as a Cthulhu!Joey song, and I got some big Prophet vibes as well, and he was like, I mean, if there’s a Joey - Prophet song, it’s this one. And then…… I thought about it……….. and did the thing where you start imagining an entire music video….. aND THEN TRIED TO MAKE AN ANIMATIC???? i got super excited and have been working on nothing but this fOR THE LAST WEEK AND A HALF,,
AnYWAY I’ve never made an animatic before but IM VERY PROUD OF THIS, PLEASE ENJOY!!!!
I’ve been losing my entire mind during every step of the process and i’m AMAZING HOW MUCH THERE IS AND HOW MANY DETAILS ARE IN IT AND AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA,
GOSH JOEY HIDING HIS HAND IN THE PAST, EVERY TIME HIS FANGS SHOW, THE W A L K C Y C L E S, also just… every time joey and prophet’s faces ar eclose together listne i am a simpl e man,
thanks for making the sacrifice scene as gay as it needed 3 be, waah
SLAMS FISTS YES YES BOO GETS IT!!! (gfdkdgfkgfgf the sacrifice scene is gREAT) “ENJOY” IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT SHAZZ I AM STILL COMPLETELY LOSING MY MIND OVER THIS!!!!
Sammy Jack and Joey have gone from being completely cut off from their creative skills for an entire day to having them restored, stronger than ever! Maybe even a little too strong…
The three of them work on adapting to this new normal, and also to Peter’s unexpected arrival at Jack’s.
“You’re right there’s something to do with music. But also acting. Performers on the radio struggled or simply didn’t work as well. I am worried about the state of any theatres in the city…” Joey said.
“Eh… might have different problems now…” Jack had started writing again. He needed his hands to be doing something. “If they’re going through what weare, they, uh… They…” Hm, what was a good synonym for ‘compelled’ to use for this line. Joey’s mention of it being more than musicians was interesting, too. Maybe he could link that in to this song and…
It was right after the masquerade, when the rise of the Yellow King had been averted, when it was all over and they made it back to their hotel room to finally actually rest, that Joey decided he needed more of Jack’s company, and Sammy agreed. They could all use a little closeness and help as they try to adjust to the changes and fears they’ve been left with after this encounter.
“Will you be good on your own? I’ll only take a few minutes, so I can head back after if you still need me.” Not wanting to bother Joey much longer, Jack turned to the door to leave.
Joey nodded, and managed to keep to himself up until he heard the click of the doorknob. And then there was a fumbling noise as he tried to get up off the bed far too quickly to chase after Jack, tripping over his own feet, as well as his shoes that he hadn’t noticed had been taken off, and landing on his knees and hands with a curse under his breath.
Though when Jack turned to look at him, instead of recognizing what had just happened, Joey simply gave a lopsided smile and said, “You don’t… have to give me privacy… if you don’t want to, of course…” A moment later his brain caught up to what he was saying, “Though I can understand if you have other matters to attend to, just, you’re welcome to stay… In here.”
“Home” by Cavetown was already a Cthulhu!Sammy song with a lot of startlingly fitting lyrics, but the other day it came on and I realised just how much “Sammy and Prophet being vaguely protective of each other” content is here… anyway I had a whole bunch of feelings about these lines
appARENTLY astral projecting and running your ghost directly into ELDRITCH INK WITH A CONNECTION TO THE MASKED MESSENGER, MIGHT PUT YOU, IN CONTACT WITH THE MASKED MESSENGER
I would say Jack is Making Poor Choices here but the truth is… he just didn’t know enough. He didn’t know the danger in letting the Messenger figure out what he wanted most (to help…), and he didn’t know how to resist
This is a blog for our Call of Cthulhu: Haunted Hijinx group, the tabletop game about adventure and the occult and terrifying eldritch horrors where we’re all playing characters from Bendy and the Ink Machine. Basically, we’re playing CoC scenarios that have been tweaked to take place in the world of pre-game BatIM, when the studio was still running, and it’s turned into an AU we got very attached to. We wanted to collect all the art, asks, and story on one blog!
Feel free to send asks about the game and the characters to this blog, too – they’ll get answered by whoever has the most relevant knowledge!
Some, uh, very disparate doodles from recent Cthulhu shenanigans… Leon is an NPC we met recently! He’s a doctor and the boyfriend of one of the “muse”-possessed ladies we’re trying to find and seems VERY ANXIOUS; I don’t think he was prepared to be blindsided by two different batim boys with VERY STRONG PERSONALITIES coming out of the woodwork. we didnt mean to bully him i promise,
also recently Sammy had kind of an intense experience with encountering a Literal Muse and Prophet uh, just?????? showed up????????? he didn’t have any ink so his eyes didn’t fully Do The Thing….. tbh he was as confused about this as the rest of the boys
anyway just a small smattering of quotes this round under the jump!
For how long his shadow has stretched over the other three boys ever since Haiti, Jack had never actually encountered the Masked Messenger himself… until now.
Jack hesitated between the two directions, and tugged at his shirt sleeves. Something in the back of his mind was yelling at him to take the upwards path, the path that was lighter. Light was safe. And yet… in spite of how much it scared him, he couldn’t help stare at the path downwards, towards the sound, and the slight shine within the suffocating blackness.
In the wake of a dreamwalking attempt to have Sammy contact Susie gone alarmingly awry, Sammy and Joey head home for the evening. The current creative frenzy has affected them both, but a near brush with a living muse may have left a much deeper mark on Sammy than they’d realized…
The song he was playing was faster and faster, like he was racing to keep up with it, and still there came the thought, welcoming as ever, that he could just keep playing, that it never had to stop, that he could lose himself and everything else and finally relax.
Sammy looked up, just for a moment, at Joey. It wasn’t an apologetic look; it was familiar – Joey had seen it before, when Sammy was rambling and couldn’t manage to stop.
“Hah, yeah. Not exactly great for resting, when half of you is worried and the other half wants to be writing.” Jack sighed, resigned. He hadn’t missed the pressure of having to stop occult disasters, and everything else wasn’t helping matters.
“…Was kind of hoping that we’d be done with this stuff after last time honestly.” His voice got quieter, more hesitant. "But it’s not that simple, huh.”
the other day i had the sudden, extremely important realisation that Cthulhu AU Sammy and Henry, who care very much about each other but have no idea how to interact in day to day life, juST NEED TO PLAY SPORTS TOGETHER AND THEY’D HAVE A GREAT TIME??? they’re both pretty physically-inclined boys, they just need an outlet for it that they can both have fun with…. anyway then Thren mentioned the word “tennis” and i obviously DROPPED EVERYTHING TO DRAW THIS CONCEPT
