#beth writing

[beth-purcell]

Another Finding Frankie fic

A silly little drabble with the Lucky Contestant as he tries to make conversation with the other human post adventure and is left with more questions than answers.

“Why do you call me Lucky?” The IT person looked at him and shrugged.

“That’s what the bosses call you.” Was the retort. “And it’s not like we’ve had a lot of time to talk since you’ve survived.” 

“Ok, fair, but don’t you think that’s a bit misleading?”

“Well, ‘Dumbass who managed to survive a rigged murder game show when they weren’t supposed to and managed to get the Sentient Cartoon to say a variety of new swear words that people didn’t realize exist’ doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue.” 

“Seriously?”

“Ok, fine, what do you want me to call you then?”

“Hey, I’m not saying I don’t like the nickname, I was just curious.” If looks could kill, he would be dead before the IT Guy rolled her eyes and turned to the tablet to continue to type. “So, uh, what are you doing?”

“I have to install the new POS system manually on the registers.” 

“A POS system?”

“Yeap, we are open during the off season, and the expectation is that we’ll be at max capacity given your performance.”

“Even with the police raid?”

“Apparently.”

“And the bodies?”

“You see any around?” Lucky stopped and looked around, noting that the amount of blood stains and dead bodies were significantly lower than when he raced. “You were out for at least a week.”

“I doubt moms will be cool with their kids dying because they suck at parkour and that monster grabs them.”

“Technically, the obstacles are being reworked for a younger audience.” Lucky’s expression was priceless. “The boss absolutely hates it too, but he was giving the ultimatum that he does this or else the In-Person Frankie gets to be the one calling the shots next season.”

“Huh…didn’t think he reported to anyone, but good to know…” A shrug. “So what am I doing?”

“What?”

“During this off season or whatever….I’m not working retail.”

“You wouldn’t join a murder game show if you did.” The tech sighed as she pressed a few buttons. “I don’t think you’ll be running registers, if they are having you work; I think you’ll probably be acting as a meet and greet; You are the “Lucky Contestant” after all,”

“I don’t do well with crowds.”

“Then just call the big guy. Loves an excuse to cause chaos.”

“Call…the big guy?” A nod. “I don’t think he’d forgive me for the whole Hexagon Havoc and murdering him thing.”

“Well, the place won’t open for another few weeks, so you two can work on bonding.” Was the simple response, as the tech began to walk to another side of the floor, to the other registers. “He likes the pink cake pops by the way, and don’t even think about the carrot cake ones; those aren’t very throwable!” The contestant blinked slowly as they were soon left by themselves at the registers.

“...What?”

[duckybeth99]

The House of Memories (Welcome to Riverview) by BethanyGabrielle99 on DeviantArt

The House of Memories (Welcome to Riverview) by BethanyGabrielle99 on DeviantArt

I forgot to share this, it’s my latest fic! fair warning it’s really long (I normally write on the notes on my phone and I put it through google docs to see how long it is. it’s 27 pages lmao) but it’s got plot elements needed for future fics and also Just Something I Been Workin On For A While so here we go

[beth-purcell]

Beth's Bendy Tin Hat Theory Time

Cause I've been thinking about it, and I've got one for the tin hat ages lol

Under the Keep Reading, this one is a kinda cynical ngl

TLDR: The Bendy Franchise is in for a possible Soft Reboot

I have been thinking about the Cage's status as being "put on ice" [read: it's being scrapped and harvested for Bendy 3, let's be real] and I think I've got a reason for why.

To put it bluntly, I think B3ndy/Bendy 3/Mike and Meatly really should've thought about the title before announcing it is going to be a soft reboot of the franchise.

The Cage, even marketed as "How Henry Escaped the Pit and Arrived Just in Time", is a story that has to address something that both Mike and Meatly have been trying to avoid; Henry and Joey's relationship and how their friendship and falling out impacted the studio, themselves, BATDR's retconing and attempt at a redemption arc, etc

Aka Making Solid Answers Regarding Canon

You know, stuff that the boys have shown that they're not good at and have shown they don't like doing because the fans don't get the vision/"appreciate" how they go about telling us the information (Ex: the Norman and Thomas Situations on X/Twitter; The whole "Henry and Allison aren't real People in the Cycle"; etc). And that isn't also factoring the concept of answering the questions people have so they can have closure with the series/not be strung along for the next project (Granted this last one is a very cynical take, especially since I would hope that these two would not /intentionally/ try and manipulate their audience to stick around, especially after the past few years, but ya know, there's unfortunately evidence to prove me wrong).

So why do I say a soft reboot vs a hard reboot?

Given my understanding of what the difference is between Soft vs Hard Reboots, I think a soft reboot give the two the flexibility to "redo", for a lack of a better term, the parts of Bendy’s story that they no longer like and aspects that have gone too far into the "the fandom have adopted this as Canon and it's significantly better than our writing" camp, but it's not enough of a change to scare off people and risk alienating their customers fans. It's a compromise that can work in the short term long enough that enough new fans can get introduced to this new version of Bendy that they can essentially "bury" the old version and then continue on their merry way making bank without the pesky reminders of the past interrupting them unless they decide to shift gears and focus on Cakey (allegedly).

Now, full disclaimer, do I think this is the absolute, end all be all reason why they announced the icing of the Cage? Probably not, this is a tin hat theory after all, and it's more likely that Meatly wasn't thinking of the consequences of making the only new video game related news the cancellation of the Cage, and figured that enough eyes were on 4/14 that he wouldn't need to repeat himself ad nauseam if he made the announcement then and not later. I don't want to assume malicious evil villain intent, even if seem as reasonable as reality.

But what do you guys think? Do you have your own tin hat theories on Bendy's future? Do you think that a reboot is the best course of action? If so, what do you think a reboot, hard or soft, would entail?

Feel free to let me know what you guys think.

[beth-purcell]

Tell me more about your Finding Frankie OC!

Alrighty, here are some tidbits that I've figured out:

Admittedly she doesn't have a name yet; I've been toying with the idea of the name being Henrietta/Henri, because it could lead to some shenanigans, but given we've already got Hotline, I'm not sure. Open to suggestions, though. Pretty confident that they use she/they pronouns.

During the "Season", they are the Head of Chat Moderation, making sure that the chat's not going too wild (things that become slightly more difficult post the end of the current season). They introduced a system where if they have to be away from the chat, it turns the usernames all to "Anonymous" so they don't deal with "He said, She said" when back at the chat. During the off season, they're the IT guy, general mechanics, and anything else that needs to get done. It is a bit of a running joke that their job is just "Lead" because they're doing mostly everything besides what the temp employees do.

Their office is roughly the size of the Contestant's apartment, built into a back area of the park to make that it's relatively comfortable when she has to hunker down during the "Season" and moderate chats among other tech stuff. The office is locked from the inside and there's enough soundproofing to make sure that the focus is on the chats and not anything else.

She totally sneaks cake pops to Monster Frankie when she heads to the coffee shop down the street. Whether it's bribery or some weird form of bonding, nobody really knows, but it does help during the off season when you gotta do the weird shorts to keep views going.

Despite working at a parkour place, they're not exactly the most agile or athletic. Much prefers to stay with two feet on the ground, using "normal" ways to get to one location to the other. Moving around the park via giant animatronic rabbit carrying her is the most she's willing to do. (maybe she's afraid of heights, not entirely sure atm lol)

She's very good at keeping a straight face at her bosses and the contestant, despite the fact the things they've had to pull from chats and the forums would paint them in a vastly different light.

[beth-purcell]

Lost

“Look if it wasn’t for the fact he was getting bought out and that’s why we lost the lease, his ass would’ve been sued so badly that it would’ve made Joey Drew’s little fiasco look like a day at Disney World.” She argued and Sammy blinked slowly; only about half of what she said made any sort of sense and given how the searcher incident went down, handling these sheep like Henry was not exactly going to end particularly well, never mind the fact that the two men with the woman clearly were built like they could snap the music director like a twig. 

.

Who would've thought it was so difficult to find "lost" in my documents XD

So for context, this was a fanfic I never got around to posting (mainly cause it was just a premise) but the idea was that the building that Joey Drew Studio was in gets refurbished into a tattoo parlor, unaware that the "Cycle" world exists parallel with the real world and shenanigans ensues when the cycle goers meet their new building mates

[beth-purcell]

Delay!

You see, we’re right in the middle of finishing up our animated movie and while I’m positive everybody can handle what else needs to be done, there would obviously be a delay if the head animator and the one who signs the checks were found dead, and if there’s a delay, then the film isn’t finished on time, and then folks don’t get paid, and that’s not particularly fair to them, now is it?

.

A lovely little snippet from Animated Archives in which sometimes you gotta be...creative in saving yourself.

[beth-purcell]

Hope

“That was very clever of you Miss Dorothy,” He said before looking at Clara. “I do not have my tools with me to fix him right away, but I promise I will fix him as soon as I am able.” Clara nodded as she hugged her godfather, the man returning the hug. He turned to Dorothy as the hug finished. “I do hope you don’t mind not having your ribbon for a bit,” Dorothy beamed.

“It’s perfectly fine with me!”

.

Another challenging word to find across my wips but here's an old snippet from Tales to Explore starring Drosselmeyer and Dorothy!

[beth-purcell]

Mild drabble trying to flesh out ideas for my take on Neverland when I eventually get there plot wise haha

Basic gist: Smee plays reluctant doctor and voice of reason to a Lost Boy.

“Please Mr. Smee, I never ask for anything!” As much as the older man wanted to snark that there was a reason his home was not among his crew mates on the Jolly Roger, judging from the little boy's expression, his snark would be taken at face value and nothing would be done. Instead, he sighed softly and knelt down.

“Alright, let me take a look at her.” The Lost Boy carefully held up the bird, struggling to keep it together, as Smee checked over the animal. After a few moments, Smee let out a small sigh. “Now, I'm not exactly one for knowing all there is to know about birds, but she looks to just have had the wind knocked out of her. Once she has a few moments to recoup, she'll be alright,” The boy nodded quickly, holding the bird protectively. “Another one of your games go wrong?” 

“No Mr. Smee, Nibs and I were scouting when I spotted her not moving in the water and I had to help her! Nibs said he'd keep an eye out on things while I went to you for help…” Smee nodded slowly.

“I see…You do have a penchant for the birds here on the island…” The boy nodded, sitting next to the pirate, careful to not jostle the swan. 

“They like me quite a bit…” He agreed, though unsure. “I don't why…”

“Well, you're far calmer than any of the other boys when you're flying around.” Smee noted. “And that's when you're actually going through the shenanigans, Tootles,”

“I suppose you're right…I do quite miss a lot of the excitement, but that's ok!” The boy smiled brightly. “That just means everyone gets to tell me stories, just like Peter!” Smee nodded slowly.

“That's certainly a way to look at it.” He noted. “Stories are usually a delight after all,” 

“When are they not?”

“Ghost stories. Tragedies.” Tootles nodded slowly, though he clearly didn't have a clue. “I wouldn't worry about it; I doubt Peter knows what those mean anyways, and you know how he is about things he doesn't know.” Tootles nodded, his face falling.

“Yeah…” Smee studied the boy curiously.

“Did something happen recently?” Tootles looked away sheepishly, the swan leaning against the boy to try and comfort him as best she could. “Hey, if you want this to be a secret, it can be done; it's not like Peter would believe me…”

“I know, I know….” Tootles let out a sigh after a few moments. “I-I think I remembered seeing my father and someone my age with me…”

“A sibling perhaps?” The boy shrugged sheepishly. “Well, I can see why you don’t want Peter to know; he does not like the idea of fathers…”

“Yeah, and he seemed very nice!” Tootles exclaimed. “W-We were out near a lake and I-I don’t really remember a lot about what happened…” He trailed off, making sure the swan was alright, gently petting the feathers as the swan gave the pirate a look, as if to warn what saying the wrong thing would entail. Smee sighed softly.

“Well there’s nothing wrong with trying to remember, especially if it’s something nice,” 

“...but what if Peter finds out and gets mad?”

“Well, then I suppose you’ll be banished for sometime, at least until he forgets, cause he is rather forgetful.” Tootles didn’t look very convinced. “And in the meantime, the captain will find out and go ‘Such terrible form!’ and what not,” Tootles snickered at the impression of Captain Hook as Smee offered a smile. “And as it would proper form, you’d be allowed two nights on the ship, and then on the third, you’d be asked if you wanted to join the crew.”

“What if I don’t want to be a pirate?”

“Then the captain will be a tad dramatic about it, but it isn’t good form to try and force someone into piracy and the captain is always on about good form, so he’ll ask you what you want to do.” Tootles made a face, clearly thinking.

“But he’s going to want to kill Peter…”

“He can put a pin in it for a moment or two.” Smee leaned in slightly. “He’s a particular individual, and he can’t handle not doing things by proper form, so he can pause on finishing off Peter.” Smee was paused for a moment. “And he knows that he’s got to set an example for the crew or else he’ll never hear the end of it.” Tootles was quiet for a few moments before nodding slowly.

“I guess you’re right…” The swan made a small sound and shimmied itself out of the boy’s arms, shaking out her wings. “Oh! She’s ok! She’s ok!” Smee couldn’t help but smile at the scene as Tootles jumped to his feet, leaping in excitement at the situation. “Thank you, Mr. Smee! Thank you!” Before the man could respond back, the boy and the swan flew off, clearly wanting to go find Nibs and the others, leaving Smee to himself. The man chuckled softly, watching the boy leave before pushing himself up to his feet, making note of the owl that had been observing them the entire time before making his way back to his houseboat.