Flipside

Chapter One

Disclaimer: The only thing I own here are my OCs( none of which are in this chapter) and this AU. Anyways, on with the show!

Dear Joseph,

It's been awhile since we worked on cartoons together. I figured it was high time that we met back up again! Try to make amends after what ten..fifteen years? Anyways, why don't you stop by the studio. I've got something I want to show you.

Your Best Pal, Henry Stein.

...

Just reading that made him sick. What right did he have to call him his "best pal". As far as Joey was concerned, the man was a complete stranger. He even addressed him by his real name. No one ever called him Joseph. No one except for his sorry excuse for a father. Joey sighed and looked up at the building in front of him. The place looked deserted. Good. He didn't want to be here in the first place. The only reason he was here was that all four of his younger siblings had been pushing him to go when he got the letter. Why they thought he would want to see Henry again was beyond him. Henry was the reason he left in the first place. Joey had decided that he was going to go off to voluntarily fight in the war;his brother Alexander was 18 and just got drafted. He wasn't going to let his brother possibly die alone in a trench! Most people considered it a noble cause, some thought it was risky, and Henry..,Henry thought it was down right stupid. The two ended up getting into a giant fight. Henry was threatening to fire him while Joey was threatening to quit. The game changer was when Henry threw at him one of the worst racial slurs he had ever heard in his life. Now Joey was used to hearing these. His mother had been from Cuba which made him half Cuban. He and his siblings skin tone was just dark enough to not be considered white, mostly by the southerners, so he had heard his fair share of comments. He would have been fine if it had just been towards him but no. Henry had not only insulted him but also his siblings and deceased mother. Needless to say Henry almost got a tooth knocked out. Joey never regretted that. He snapped back to reality. Now wasn't the time to get lost in old memories. His hand hovered over the door knob. Did he have to? No, no he didn't. However, if Henry was actually here, he could use this opportunity to punch him again. Why would Joey still want to punch this man after fifteen years? The answer was simple. He was petty and impulsive. Plus the opportunity presented itself so why not? Joey opened the door to reveal a sight he was not expecting.

Ink. There was ink everywhere. Joey's OCD kicked in almost immediately. It was a complete mess! Honestly, he would rather just clean all this up than talk to his so called friend. "Alright Henry, " he said ," as soon as I find you I'm going to knock your teeth out. Then I'm going to find a mop, clean this mess up, and then beat you with the mop." Suddenly, he heard a slam. He quickly turned around and found that the door had shut. Joey raised an eyebrow. "Well that's
perfectly...normal. Eh, it's probably nothing," he said to himself. Joey turned around and started to walk down the hallway. He saw posters from some of the first Boris the Wolf cartoons. One being "Boris in: The Big (Not So Bad) Wolf." Although, the design they ended up going with wasn't as child friendly as Joey would've liked. Henry thought the original designed looked too much like Disney's character Goofy, so he gave Boris a tail, some claws, sharpened his teeth, and made the ears much more wolf like. Joey thought that would have scared the kids, but the character was still successful. The other poster he saw was another one of Boris'. It said "Boris in: The Sheep's Shepard." He remembered that one. The animation department was in a frenzy because apparently no one could draw a sheep that met Henry's standards. Henry later told him that the episode was nothing more than an experiment to see how well they worked under pressure. Apparently, the answer was not well. Joey had a sudden realization. This place was covered in ink. Did that mean he could.....; he didn't care if this gave him lead poisoning. This was brilliant. Joey dipped his finger and smiled. He then proceeded to draw a mustache on Boris the Wolf. Joey laughed at his own immaturity. "Now that's comedy!" he yelled to...no one. Joey wiped a tear from his eye; yes, he found it that funny.

He walked a little further only to find another poster. It had a different character this time. It was none other than the incredible side character Bendy the Dancing Demon! Well, incredible might have been his ego talking. He had originally voiced him after all. Well, he did the speaking lines anyways. A friend of his did the singing voice;he took over the roll entirely when Joey left. The poster it self had the title "Bendy in: Hell's Orchestra." He remembered that one. Probably because it was mostly singing so he didn't really have to do much. Those were the days. Joey walked out into the open, stepping into the animation department for the first time in literal years. It felt good. Well, time to move on. He noticed a sign that hadn't been there when he left. One thing in particular stuck out to him. There was an arrow on it that said Ink Machine. "Well I don't know what an ink machine is," he said ,"but it sounds fantastic!" He immediately followed the sign almost tripping over a pipe on the way. Perhaps he should have stepped over it instead of trying to jump it like a hurdle. He then came up to a room. It had Ink Machine written on the frame in...well....ink. Joey walked inside.

The room itself was huge. He was on some kind of balcony that over looked a huge empty space. Joey couldn't see the bottom. He looked to his left to find a lever of some sort. It didn't look like it had a power source. Now he may not have been a genius, but it seemed like it needed some dry cells. "Of course, it does. Because those are just going to be laying about in the open," he said sarcastically. He turned to his left. There it was. A dry cell. Just sitting on a shelf. In the open. Isn't just great when he's right. He took the battery and put it in its place. He still needed one more. What do you want to bet that it's in the chest? He walked over to it and opened it. There it was. God Henry was predictable. He could have at least made this a little challenging. Then he could actually have some fun with this. He put the dry cell where it belonged and pulled the lever. Suddenly, chains started pulling something out of the abyss. Steam came out of seemingly no where when it was completely pulled up. Joey grinned. "So this is the ink machine," he said, "wonder what'll happen if I turn it on."

Author's Note:

And that's the end of this chapter! This is a record word count for me! Hope you guys enjoy this. Also just so you have an idea of what Joey looks like: He's got black hair with side swept bangs. He almost has an olive skin tone. His eyes are a hazel color and has a pencil mustache. He's wearing a red waistcoat with a white shirt underneath. He's got corduroy pants and black shoes. He is also (this is probably my favorite thing about my Joey) only 5'5. So he's short. Also his full name is Joseph Elijah Drew. So feel free to call him Elijah to separate him from other Joeys if you need to. Well that's all so see you guys next chapter, hopefully!