Dear Henry:
It feels like a lifetime since we've worked on cartoons together!
30 years really slips away, doesn't it?
If you're back in town, come visit the old workshop.
There's something I need to show you.
Your best pal,
Joey Drew
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Henry opened the door to Joey Drew Studios and shut it behind him, watching as the light behind him disappeared.
"Alright Joey, I'm here. Let's see what exactly you wanted me to see."
Immediately, he started looking around, taking in his once-familiar surroundings. The whole studio was sepia-toned, devoid of any color besides the dirty yellow tone of old paper. Oddly enough, a black substance seemed to drip from areas of the ceiling, and he swore he heard the sound of machinery in the background, clunking away.
He shrugged it off immediately as the studio being old with faulty ventilation. Not exactly the most high end place. When was this place built again....?
Taking a look to his left and right, he smiled as he recognized familiar characters. Oh.....it's Charley and Barley. And...there was a third one, I think. What was he called again? He stood there for a second, staring at the characters on the posters, before snapping back to reality.
Right, I'm not here to reminisce. I'm here...to look for what Joey wanted me to find.
As he walked away from the starting hallway, he soon found himself completely lost already. "Did they knock out a wall or two while I was gone...?" He muttered to himself, dazed. "Everything feels a whole lot bigger."
He turned to look at a cardboard cutout of Charley leaning in a corner. His grin was wide, revealing small triangular teeth. It almost seemed to tease Henry in a way, as if to say, Wow, you really don't know what you're doin'!
Henry gave a silent "shut up" to the cutout, before glancing around for any directory signs. He poked his head around one hallway to find exactly what he was looking for.
Okay, so all I need to do now is walk.
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After walking for some time, Henry found himself standing on a large platform, the area before him empty with machinery covering the walls, and a vast river of the same black substance from before down below.
'The Ink Machine', the sign said.... Henry thought back to before. How much money did Joey make while I was gone? This must've been worth MILLIONS!
He looked at a box with two square shaped holes on one side of the platform. "Guess I have to put....batteries here?"
Looking to the other side, he opened a nearby chest, revealing two comically large batteries, shaped more like bricks, once Henry thought about it.
Looks like I've found my new paperweights, Henry thought, grunting as he lifted the batteries and clicked them into place.
He wiped the sweat off of his brow with his sleeve, and grabbed the lever before him, pushing it downwards.
The whirring of chains rang through the vast area, until they came to a stop, and Henry felt his mouth go dry.
There, right before him, lay a metal monster of nothing he had ever seen before in his life.
The Ink Machine.
YOU ARE READING
Charley And The Swap Machine: Re-Ink'd
Adventurea vivisection of me, yielded the start of a mystery. (or, what if if we decided to change the story you were used to already? with charley, barley, and edgar, henry gets thrown into the world of ink and ichor that we all know and love.) (or or, an a...
