Hank Hernandez

Hank as shown on the Bandcamp cover of the song "The Sheriff". Art by Sarah DeBuck

### Aliases

(Cabaret Narrative) Town Sheriff(A.I. Narrative) Spy Implant in the Cabaret

## Portrayal

### Voiced By

Paul Shapera

Hank Hernandez was a member of Miss Helen's Weird West Cabaret before Han-Mi broke the narrative loop, allowing the group to escape to the Carnival. Hank played the role of a western sheriff on the Cabaret, serving as the protagonist of the tales the Cabaret was intended to tell.

## Actual Life

Hank was a Voodoopunk in New Albion around the Atompunk Era, who, along with 99 other Voodoopunks, migrated to Elysium. Much to the Voodoopunk's dismay, Elysium was not their promised land due to going there while alive. Hank survived those 20 years in Elysium until The Mascot 3000 and Rachael provided him with the MCG v.134, allowing him to upload into that of an AI.

## Cabaret Narrative Backstory

Hank's supposed backstory created for the Cabaret is very different, and is mostly explained through the song "The Sheriff".

Hank was raised alongside his two sisters by his single Mother in the desert. He and his sisters were given their first guns at the age of seven for self defense. Some time in his teenage years Hank is rejected by Becky Smith during a party at night, and so he runs off into the forest to spare himself the embarrassment of others seeing him cry. In this forest, he finds a wounded Werewolf girl named Lupe, who he spends two days nursing back to health. Hank and Lupe then enter into a romantic, and eventually even sexual relationship with one another.

While Hank and Lupe relax after having sex for the first time, Lupe's canine ears detect trouble with the Barnsdale Gang at Hank's home. They run there, and find Hank's mother and sisters gone. Lupe and Hank track down Hank's missing family, but find the entrance to the building where they are held unreachable without going through fifteen armed men. Lupe steps in using her full Werewolf strength to take out the guards, but is killed in the process.

Hank makes his way inside, and ends up shooting a man who he finds in bed with his mother. It is then revealed to him that the man he just shot was his father.

After these events, Hank goes on to become a sheriff in Lost Hollow, and gains Henry the Alchemist as his sidekick.

## Uncle Raven's Super Happy Funtime Carnival

At the end of the song The Big Tent Show and throughout the following song Hello AI, it is revealed that Hank was in fact an AI Voodoopunk who had returned from Elysium, and was planted into the Cabaret as both a spy and a potential romantic partner for Han-Mi to hopefully prevent problems. Hank is unable to remember all of this up until The Big Tent Show, due to his memories being wiped to better blend into the Cabaret.

After remembering this information, Hank commits suicide with his gun to protect the other Cabaret members from the rest of the A.I, as he has grown to love and respect his fellow performers.

## Notes

* It is likely that the AI that speaks with Alice at the end of The Room Beneath New Albion is Hank, given that they both have similar vocal effects and the same voice actor.
* Paul Shapera claimed an Easter Egg was available in his song The Sheriff, but he likely was looking for another term, as the 'reference' in question was more the fact that Lupe was in wolf form when she and Hank had sex for the first time, as evidenced by "her furry ears" in the accompanying lines.
* Hank does not exist in the Gabriella Gadfly Narrative as he had not yet become part of the cast at that point in time.
* Hank initially didn't want in on Arcadia Corp's "Project Elysium", but was convinced to go by his best friend, Mary's husband.
* Hank was the groom's best man at Mary's wedding.