((BLESS YOU HALEY. BLESS YOU.))"Hey, Brent?""Hmm?" The Musician turned away from the stove in the kitchen, looking over the counter to his partner. "I'm almost done with dinner, Tin-Limbs. Everything alright?""The Boss just sent you a command on your device." Tin-Limbs, better known as Rex, was standing behind the couch, pointing to the laptop on the coffee table. "It doesn't look incredibly urgent, but..." He trailed off a little bit, bouncing both shoulders in a shrug. Brent rolled his eyes and let out a small sigh. "Yeah yeah. Gimme a minute so I don't burn your dinner. Don't need this place smelling like cooked blood." Turning back to the stove, Brent turned the burner down and stirred the mixture in the pan. To anyone else, he'd be fine saying "Just open it up and read it." But, Rex was still adjusting and learning. He had to be given literal instructions in a firm manner. So he said "You have my permission to open up the message and read it out loud for me.""Yes sir." He could hear the gentle clicks and taps from Rex's prosthetic hands as he used the keyboard. "....Boss says 'I just found this little gem that will come out in about three years. Thought you might find this incredibly interesting. It is on your computer's game system now.' End message. .......Boss, you play simulations on your device?""It's just Brent, Rex. And yeah. Sometimes." Simulations... Well. He didn't like first-person shooters or those war video games that were popular. But he could see them having been used in Rex's world for practical purposes... Now to translate that in layman terms.... "They're just called video games here. There's a few that are simulation based to help with fighting, but a majority of them are for problem-solving or testing reflexes. I'm more familiar with the later two." The vampire hummed in acknowledgment, and Brent turned off the stove. He kept stirring the concoction in the pan another minute or so before pouring it into a large mug. This was not his favorite thing to do, but! There had been no jobs recently, and he would rather not have Rex in the kitchen by himself. Didn't want to have an incident like the Toaster Explosion again. Pocketing his phone, he took the mug to the couch and sat down. "Okay. Let's see what Steam has for me..." ---------------------------------------------------------------It'd taken a little fine-tuning to get the damn game running, and he'd had to dig out an external mouse to attach, but the main menu was up. ....Not entirely sure what he expected, but a yellowed background and dripping black ink was not it. Neither was the chilling music that worked omniously with the visual. "'Bendy and the Ink Machine'? ...Interesting enough title, I guess." Rex leaned over slightly, eyeing a part of the menu screen. "...Why is there a red spatter on the corner there?"Brent had almost missed that. But he followed the directions of Rex's pointed finger, and saw just that. "...Well that's morbid." He scowled a little as he read over the chapter titles. "So we got 'Moving Pictures', 'The Old Song', and... 'Rise and Fall'. Can already tell which one I'll like. But, might as well start from the beginning..." Clicking on the Play button, Brent decided to make himself comfortable. "I wonder why the Boss wanted me to play a horror game." "This doesn't look like a horror simulation." "Horror isn't limited to gore, Tin-Limbs. .... Oh hey a letter. 'Dear Henry, It seems like a lifetime since we worked on cartoons together. 30 years really slips away, doesn't it?' Woooowwww. Okay. So it's a horror game involving cartoons.""You mean those expressive moving drawings?""Yeah. Hang on... 'visit old workshop'....'something I need to show you'... 'Your best pal, Joey Drew'. ....Original name." He rolled his eyes, but jumped slightly as the sound of a creaking door screeched through his laptop's speakers. Maybe it was his nature as a Musician, but he hadn't expected it to be that loud. He looked over at Rex, blinking once, then twice. "...You can watch me play through this, Tin Limbs. I don't mind. ... Hell, maybe you can help me figure out why Oleg wanted me to play this." "Okay si-...Brent." He sipped at his mug of hot blood and milk, licking his lips after the fact.--------------------------------------------------"...I guess I need to find the stuff to turn on this machine." Brent rolled his eyes as the absurd looking machine in front of his avatar. He started to walk down the hallways and look around. "They'll probably glow or something..." "What's that drawn thing in the corner? Looks like a... You-know-what." Brent smiled gently at Rex's choice of words; he had a genuine trigger with the word "demon". He was proud the vampire was trying his best. "Well... If I had to guess from the posters, that's Bendy. The mascot from the title." He flinched as a loud violin accompanied a cut-out appearing. Even Rex reeled back."...That wasn't there before.""Yep." He started to walk around the cut-out, and his face fell as he saw a morbid sight in the end of the hallway. "...Jesus Christ, what in the...?""Oh my god. Joey, what were you doing?""Valid question! What the fuck?? Rex, you seeing this?""Yes! ...What's the problem, it's just a body." "Rex, that's a Creation's body. Apparently of..." He leaned over slightly to read a poster. "Boris the Wolf." He let the camera look around, and he narrowed his eyes at the literal writing on the wall. "...Oleg has a sick sense of humor." Rex nervously sipped at his mug, eyeing Brent with some suspicion. "Why do you say that? It's just a game. A really tame one considering what we do for a living." "Yeah. But still a shitty thing to show an Author like me. I mean... Look at this. Who would do a thing like this to their own Creation?" ((To Be Continued. This is too good not to. But it is a little late and I need to write more.))