Book Seven

## Summary

The Questers are back in Toon Town after their adventure in the Far West and just in time for the holidays! With no new activity on the Map the crew finally gets a chance to take a break from their adventures. But things are not quite as peaceful in Toon Town as they appear. Bendy continues to be disturbed by his own demonic nature the more he learns about it and Holly struggles without the use of her magic. Meanwhile, Alice begins investigating the mysterious disappearance of Fallen Angels from Toon Town while the Cupbros try to help Betty keep her shop out of the hands of an old woman known only as Vicious. With interpersonal drama on the rise and so many problems coming from every angle, will the Questers have the merry Christmas they are hoping for?

### Warnings and Triggers

* Graphic Depiction of Violence
* Graphic Depiction of Illness
* Sexisim
* Depiction of Domestic Abuse
* Death/ Reference to Death
* Discussions of Human Trafficking
* Severed Body Parts

## Detailed Information

***Spoiler warning:** Full book plot summary in collapsable.*

Following the funeral life continues to move forward, though depression still hangs in the air. One morning, Dr. Oddswell pulls Bendy into a check-up and informs him that even though his condition seems to be worsening he is still in much better shape than most patients are at this stage. Despite this, Dr. Oddswell still states he doesn't believe Bendy will last until the end of the month and tells him that he has made an appointment for him with Dr. Scratchansniff. While Bendy is at first against the idea he eventually gives in when the two doctors continue to insist. The Questers also officially lock up the parts in the old observatory.

After that business is taken care of Bendy calls Black Hat only for Hat to appear at the house to personally speak with him. Black Hat brings Bendy down to Hell to start preparing him for his upcoming interview in the Upper with the Warners managing to badger Black Hat into taking the three of them as well. The group is transported down to one of Hat's properties in Hell. They make their way to the office, with Bendy observing his surroundings as they go. Once at the office Hat and Bendy discuss the upcoming meeting, Bendy's cover story, an upcoming Demonic party they will both attend, and Demonic magic. As their discussion raps up the two of them suddenly realize that the Warners disappeared sometime while they were talking. Hat also notices they took one of his artifacts with them - The Idol of the Spirit-Switcher. Bendy and Hat chase after the Warner's trail of chaos, Finally finding them messing around in one of Hat's large rooms with a crowd of onlookers. Hat uses his magic to try to grab them and another Demon also jumps in, adding to the chaos. In the middle of the scuffle, the Idol gets activated, filling the room with a bright blue light. As the light clears the other Demon grabs the Idol and runs off while the rest of the group realizes that they have swapped bodies. Black Hat is in Yakko's body, Bendy is in Dot's, Yakko is in Hat's and Dot is in Bendy's. Wakko was lucky enough to not get swapped. Before the messing around in their new bodies can get too out of hand Black Hat informs the group that they need to find the Idol within twenty-four hours to reverse the switch or they will be stuck forever. Luckily, Black Hat knows where the other Demon is heading so it's just a matter of finding him before he can give it to his Demon master. While this would usually be an easy task given the abilities of the group none of them with the ability to magically move through space are in the body they actually know how to use. With no other option, the group has to start walking, although Hat hates the idea of other Demons seeing them like this. The group walks through Hell and makes it through the city all the way to their destination, a large tower owned by Lord Aku, without any major incident. Once there, Black Hat easily negotiates a deal with Aku and soon they're leaving with the Idol in hand. On their way back they get distracted by a female Demon who Hat knows and while dealing with her Dot disappears. They find her being flirted with by a sleazy Demon but when they turn the guy down a fight breaks out when he refuses to take no for an answer. The fight causes Dot, still trapped in Bendy's Demon body, to go beastly as she transforms into a giant and terrifying new form. The others begin fighting her as the new beastly form has driven her feral with bloodlust. As they fight other higher Demon's arrive to deal with the rampage and they manage to convince the higher Demon's to capture her instead of killing her as they normally would. With their new allies, they quickly capture Dot but they need help from one of the higher Demons, none other than Ava, to get her giant body back to Hat's property. They make a deal for Ava to transport Dot in exchange for her spending one day with Bendy since she has gained an interest in him. The deal made, Ava transports herself and Dot to the resort while the rest of the group makes the half-hour walk back, leaving the other Demons behind. When they arrive back in Hat's office they sound Dot, back to Bendy's normal form, asleep in a blanket. They wake her up and switch back to their normal bodies even though Dot is having an Ink Attack in Bendy's body at the time. Bendy suffers through the attack and once it is over he transports them all back up to his casino on the Surface. While there they clean Bendy up and get some blood samples from him so they can begin researching Ink Illness themselves.

Meanwhile, back at Dr. Oddswell's house, the other residents have realized that Bendy and the Warners have disappeared with Black Hat. The Cupbros are helping keep everyone calm and before anything can get too out of control Bendy and the Warners walk through the front door, escorted by Dr. Flug. Felix is distressed by the sight of Bendy covered in bruises but, in a surprising move, the Warners take responsibility for Bendy's situation. While the others welcome Bendy back, Cup pulls Dr. Flug aside to tell him that he knows about the Demon’s blood and he has something they can do for him to pay him back for it. With the message complete, Cup shoves Flug out of the house and meets up with Mugs again. Soon after the Cupbros head off to their usual bar to meet with King Dice. King Dice laughs off Cup's questions about Yosemite Sam and instead gives the Cupbros a list of tasks to complete in the next three days sealed in an envelope along with a marble. The tasks are - 1. Gather the criminals that jumped Cup and warn them to stay out of the Devil's business. Crush the marble to show them an example of what would happen if they didn't. 2. Bring him Jeremy Fairfax and 3. Report everything they know about Black Hat's recent activities. The brothers aren't happy about these orders but nonetheless head out of the bar to get to work. They head to Mr. Winky's bar first where Cup roughs him up a bit before threatening him into gathering the thugs who jumped him for a meeting the next day. Next, they head to Mortimer to get information about where to find Fairfax, discovering that he has an apartment by the docks. With that taken care of the brothers then make their way to Betty's shop. Once there they chat with the girls a bit about Snowball, the group date and how the girls should drop by the house again to help cheer up Bendy. The Cupbros then say their goodbyes to the girls and start walking back home. As they walk they get into an argument about Mugman's relationship with Cala since Cuphead thinks it's too dangerous considering their both debtors and it's only a matter of time before The Devil notices. Eventually, Cup just tells Mugs to drop it and the brothers walk the rest of the way home in silence. Cup tells the residents at the house about the group date idea he's been discussing with Holly and the boys also start talking about different options for activities. The group laments the fact that Mickey can't dance since going dancing would be the perfect group date but the topic seems to spark a possible solution for Mickey's dilemma in Bendy's mind.

Sometime later Felix is packing up some books in the house for a meeting when Dr. Oddswell talks to him about some concerns h has regarding Boris. Dr. Oddswell states that he's concerned about what would happen to Boris if Bendy were to die since he would become a ward of the state and asks if Felix would be willing to adopt the boy as a kind of failsafe measure in case of this worst-case scenario. The doctor even goes further, suggesting that Felix adopt both of the boys. Felix is flustered and overwhelmed by the idea of becoming the B-Bro's father, leaving the house without giving Dr. Oddswell a solid answer. As Felix walks to his meeting he thinks about the idea of him adopting the B-Bros and what being a father to them would entail. With so many different things to consider with an idea as large as adoption, Felix makes it all the way to his meeting without concluding whether he would be willing to go through with it. Felix conducts his meeting and then begins to once again investigate what happened to Wilson but comes across only dead ends. Upset, Felix then heads to Sheba's bookstore.

Sheba quickly realizes something is wrong and asks him what happened. After briefly trying to avoid the topic Felix finally asks her if she thinks he would be a good father. Sheba is shocked by this new topic and insists he come upstairs to her apartment to tell her everything over shakes. Felix does and eventually explains the full adoption situation to Sheba before asking her what he should do. Sheba said that she doesn't know and he'll have to decide for himself whether he wants to instead of just doing it because Dr. Oddswell asked him to. She also says that even if he does decide to do it he should stop worrying so much and just go for it, but to take his time making the actual decision first. Felix thanks her for the advice and the two switch topics to what happened to Wilson. Sheba warns him that this is dangerous and Felix assures her that he knows but he's having trouble finding suspects since he hasn't run into anyone suspicious. Privately, he thinks that his main suspects are the mysterious cult Bendy had mentioned to him before. As Felix's thoughts start spiraling with questions about the cult Sheba snaps him back to reality and points out how late it has gotten. Felix leaves the bookstore to go visit the circus crew, thinking about his mess of a romantic life as he walks. Felix arrives at the circus crew's apartment and is happily welcomed in. Felix explains that he wanted to check in on Mickey and the bunny kids tell him that Mickey is in a wheelchair now. Mickey wheels into the room and the two of them catch up with one another as Mickey states that he plans to continue living his life despite his injury. They're soon joined by Ozzy and the trio continues to catch up with one another. Felix shares some of his worries about the B-Bros but he states he still fully believes in the quest.

After training with the Cupbros in the backyard Bendy heads back into the house and cleans himself up, thinking about his upcoming appointment with Dr. Scratchansniff as he does so. Once he's done cleaning up he heads downstairs to chat with the others over breakfast before heading to his appointment with Scractchansniff. Despite Bendy's uncertainties, the appointment goes well as they spend the entire time discussing relationships, support networks and stress management. Once the session is done Bendy takes the worksheets Dr. Scratchansniff provided him and heads downstairs where he talks with the Cupbros, Finley and Sammy about how the appointment went. Afterwards, the conversation transitions to their issues planning the group date for Mickey when Bendy suddenly has an idea. He rushes to the phone and calls Betty's shop, asking to speak to Holly. He starts asking her about rune magic and between the two of them they start making plans to make a leg for Mickey he could move and even possibly feel with. Both of them agree to start working on their halves of the project and the B-Bros head out to look for parts with the Cupbros leaving with them since they have some work to do in town. The two sets of brothers agree to meet up later at the circus, which is where the B-Bros are planning to scrounge for parts, before splitting up. At the circus, Donald reluctantly allows the B-Bros to look through their scrap piles. They spend a while gathering pieces and just as they're finishing up their search the Cupbros appear and help haul their materials home.  In Mugman's mind, he reveals that the business the Cupbros had been taking care of was a meeting with the mob bosses that Mr. Winky had gathered for them where they tell them to leave the events of Nightmare Night and Dr. Oddswell's house alone since it's their boss's business. As part of their threat, they crush the marble given to them, which transforms into one of the Sykes Brother's severed hands. With their threat firmly delivered the Cupbros met back up with the B-Bros, and helped them haul everything home. The next afternoon the Cupbros head to Fairfax's apartment, catching him while he's home and offering him the chance to meet with their boss. While Fairfax at first rejects the idea he quickly changes his mind and accompanies the Cupbros to their meeting with The Devil.

Holly and Bendy continue working on Mickey's new leg with Alice helping out since Holly's magic hasn't fully returned after the Nightmare Night incident. They spend almost a full day fine-tuning and testing the leg before inviting the circus crew to dinner to present the gift. However, the distrust and agitation Mickey's friends feel towards the Questers causes tension to surround the meal. It finally explodes when they present an awed Mickey with the leg and Donald yells that a hunk of metal can't fix what they did, as well as stating that he knows they're hiding things from him. Alice, realizing the very real possibility of a fight breaking out, steps forward to smooth the tensions by saying that their work is important even if they can't explain it all to him and that the boys spent days working on the leg as a gesture of gratitude and friendship for Mickey. She finishes by asking Donald to please be patient and, while he is still upset, Goofy explains that it just comes from wanting to protect his friend. With that settled, Mickey tries out the leg and is amazed by how realistic it is. Everyone is overjoyed to see Mickey back on his feet and the circus crew tearfully thank the B-Bros. With the tension between groups long gone everyone starts mingling with one another. Alice drifts over to where Cuphead and Holly are talking and Holl tells Cup that she's ready to accept the offer he made back in Heela City but she wants Alice to come too. Alice is confused at first before it transforms into worry when she learns their planning to visit Black Hat tomorrow but she nonetheless agrees to come with them. With the plan set, Cuphead heads off to go tell Mugman the vague details of their trip while the girls start talking about Bendy. The night continues to wind down, with Bendy asking the circus crew to come on a trip to the dance club this weekend with them to test out the leg. The crew agrees and then takes their leave. The girls also head back to their apartment, where Cala happily tells them that Mugs has asked her to be his date to the dance club. Holly then explains to Alice that they're planning to make the whole thing a group date and, after relaying all the pairs that have been planned out, asks if Alice would go with Bendy. Though surprised, Alice agrees to accept if he asks her to go.

The next morning, Cup, Alice and Holly take a taxi to Hat's casino. Once they arrive Dr. Flug brings them to Hat's office. Black Hat initially tries to claim he owes them nothing but Cuphead eventually talks him into helping them. They explain the situation to Hat and he immediately reaches out to do something. Holly jumps away from him and, with some prodding, Hat explains that he needs to look at her soul. At that, Cup and Alice get mad at Hat since he was just going to yank her soul out. Holly is alarmed by this but Cup assures her that it won't cause any damage and that both he and Alice will protect her. With that reassurance, Holly agrees to allow Hat to examine her soul. With a cloud of green magic, Hat pulls Holly's white, heart-shaped soul from her body. The moment it is out Holly's is a mess of tension, struggling to try not to grab at it as Cup warns her that it would be bad if she touched it. Hat examines her soul and finds a stain on her soul but in order to fix it he has to touch Holy's soul. Though she clearly hates the idea, Holly tells Hat to fix it. Cup helps by restraining Holly which is quickly proved necessary as the moment Hat touches her soul Holly begins fighting and begging them to stop. Alice is alarmed and tells them to stop but Hat explains that it's just an instinctual reflex. Holly screams bloody murder when Hat pulls a small, pea-sized grey mass from her soul. Hat pulls back and Holly collapses in tears in Cup's arms. Black Hat puts the piece of the soul into a glass vial, explaining that he will study it since he hasn't seen anything quite like this before and promises to keep them informed on anything he discovers. With the business complete, Cup scoops a shell-shocked Holly into his arms and the trio leave Hat's casino. Holly manages to recover some throughout the ride back to the girl's apartment, much to Alice's relief. Cup walks them to their door, where Holly apologizes for kicking him while she was struggling in his arms, before heading back to the house by himself.

After waking up during an ink attack and taking the morning to recover in bed Bendy notices an envelope from Black Hat on his nightstand inviting him to a Demon party in Hell that afternoon. Interested in the party and with nothing better to do, Bendy is about to accept the invitation when he is startled by Angelo's sudden appearance. After talking about why Bendy is accepting the invitation for a moment they move on to discussing how strange it is that Bendy hasn't been reported to the Angels yet, why that might be and what Angelo did while he was alive. The conversation ends when the breakfast bell sounds and Bendy heads downstairs to eat. While eating breakfast, Bendy informs the house about the party. With Cup's prodding, Bendy also goes to call Felix to tell him the news as well. Felix becomes very worried when he hears that Bendy is going back to Hell and the two get into a big argument that culminates in Bendy losing his cool. yelling that the Demons there understand what he is going through and have the power to help him with the changes he is going through. Bendy hangs up on Felix after making it clear he is going to the party before heading back upstairs and telling the others in the kitchen he doesn't want to discuss the argument. After a few minutes of reading his books in his room Bendy is annoyed, but not surprised when Cup knocks on his door and lets himself in. Bendy tells Cup he doesn't want to talk about it and Cup tells him not to talk than before laying down on the bed. It's not long before Bendy breaks under the silence and eventually asks Cup what his opinion of Demons is. Cuphead tells Bendy that honestly until he met Bendy, he hated every Demon he ever met but Bendy is a decent guy so he shouldn't fully compare himself to the other Demons. He then says that Bendy should go, learn what he needs to, but remember not to get too wrapped up in the other Demon's insanity. After Cup finishes his point the two hear knocking once again, quickly followed by Felix shouting apologies to Bendy through the door. Bendy opens the door and the two apologize to each other before Felix tells Bendy to grab his brother so they can fit in a quick lesson before Bendy leaves.

Soon, Black Hat is knocking on the door and transporting them both to his office to get dressed in formal wear for the party. Once they're ready Hat, Bendy and Demencia teleport to the grand hall where Lady Nightwing's party is being held. The group is quickly let into the grand hall and begins socializing with the other Demons. The party is going well and is even rather boring until one of the Demons points out that Bendy has a death curse on him. Both Bendy and Hat are shocked by this news before Hat states that it's probably from the basilisk Bendy encountered during Nightmare Night. A dream Demon who claims they can dispel the curse follows Hat and Bendy into a more private room to handle the issue. There seems to be something protecting Bendy and, in getting rid of the death curse the Demon also removes this mysterious protection from Bendy. With that taken care of, and after a short talk with Hat, they rejoin the party. Bendy is soon approached by Ava, who offers to help Bendy's fake Hell connections seem more legitimate to the investigating Angels in return for Bendy helping her with something on the Surface later. With the condition that he gets a say in what he helps her with, Bendy agrees to the deal. The party soon ends and Bendy is relieved to get back home. It's only when they arrive at the front door that Hat informs Bendy that he will be picking him up tomorrow morning for his interview with the Angels. Hat disappears as Bendy yells his name.

Bendy awakes the next morning, already dreading the interview with the Angels to come, and goes about his normal daily routine until Black Hat appears to collect him. Black Hat informs Bendy that they will be meeting with Judge Zadkiel for the interview before teleporting them to the Upper. They enter a waiting room and fill out the paperwork given to them by the Angel at the desk, with Black Hat providing Bendy with the false information he needs to make it look believable. After handing in the falsified documents the two wait until they are sent in to see the Judge. Judge Zadkiel and one of his assistants are waiting for them in the room. Black Hat sits on the side as the interview begins with Zadkiel immediately asking Bendy about a report he received stating that Bendy was involved in an incident in Hell that endangered many and even resulted in death. Bendy is able to explain the situation and both Angels seem surprised by his show of regret about the whole incident. From there the interview continues and Bendy answers all the questions as best he can while sticking to the story he and Black Hat created. Eventually, Zadkiel sends his assistant and tells Bendy that he knows he is lying to him thanks to his talent. After some pleading Bendy finally blurts out that he’s lying in order to protect his younger brother and that he has important work to do on the Surface. Zadkiel begins pushing Bendy until he feels on the edge of a panic attack before suddenly backing off. Zadkiel reveals to the stunned Demons that he never intended to fail Bendy, even with the lying, he just wanted to see how Bendy would react to having his lies called out. Black Hat is furious, but Bendy is too shocked to feel much besides confusion. Judge Zadkiel officially declares Bendy is allowed a Surface pass which will arrive within two days. Bendy thanks Zadkiel, shocking the whole room before Hat drags him out in an angry rage. Hat brings Bendy back to the house where all the members spend the rest of the night celebrating his passing the interview.

The preparations for the upcoming group date continue as Mugman invites Minnie, Daisy, Fanny and Dovil to come on the date as well. The night before the group date Bendy sits wringing his hands after dinner, thinking about how he still hasn't asked Alice to go with him. Everyone else who was bringing a date had already asked them to go and Cup was starting to needle him to just ask her out already. While watching a magic demonstration from Holly in the backyard Bendy finally works up the courage to ask her. Alice agrees to go with him and the two happily chat for the rest of the night. Finally, the day of the group date arrives and the whole group from the house arrives at the club dressed for the evening. In a few minutes, Minnie, Daisy and the circus crew also arrive. Bendy checks up with Mickey about how the leg is working and the conversation soon turns to their various group members' work, stories from their past and Alice's family. Eventually, Dovil, Puphead and Fanny show up. This causes a bit of a commotion as it becomes clear the Fanny and Oswald have some bad history between them. The other members of the group quickly ease away the tension with small talk as Mugman not so subtly has Cuphead switch seats to be next to Fanny. After talking for a while more about Ink Illness and various histories between group members Finley stands up from his seat, declaring that this is supposed to be a party before heading over to talk with the band. Soon enough, Finley is stepping on stage to sing as the band follows his lead into a new song. Bendy asks Alice to dance and the two of them hit the dance floor as other couples, both from their group and the other customers, join them on the floor. At the end of Finley's song, the room is filled with applause. Finley jumps off the stage to take Holly by the hand to the dance floor and the couples that hadn't already done so get up to dance. Fanny even manages to drag Cuphead out onto the floor as the music picks up. As the couples continue to talk and dance Ozzy becomes upset at Fanny's closeness with Cuphead. He ends up asking her dance in order to confront her, which she accepts. On the floor, the two of them argue and level threats at each other - Ozzy threatens to tell Brute about what Fanny has been doing with Cup while Fanny in turn accuses Ozzy of having a relationship with Felix and tells him to leave her alone or she'll share the scandal with the papers. The dance ends and Fanny tensely walks back to the table as Oswald is left reeling from the conversation. Eventually, Oswald is able to calm down a bit and is able to have some fun the rest of the evening. At the end of the night, the group all leaves the building together before parting their separate ways. Many of the men walk their dates home and Ozzy watches as Cuphead begins to walk Fanny home.

Fanny and Cuphead walk down, bantering easily with each other while they do until they arrive at her house. As Fanny is about to head in Cup reminds her that he still owes her a drink for the free treatment she gave him last time he was injured. After a bit more teasing they say goodnight to each other and Fanny heads inside. As he walks back home at is surprised to discover he's already making plans for the next time he would go out with her. Cup reprimands himself with the reminder that Fanny is married and resolves himself once again to just be friends with her, nothing more. He ignores the way his heart clenches at the idea as he continues back to the house. Meanwhile, Finley, Bendy, Alice and Holly are sharing a cab back to the girl's apartment. When they arrive at the apartment Bendy thanks Alice for being his dance partner and then asks her out on an actual date. Alice immediately panics as she thinks about all the trouble such a thing could cause. Despite liking him, Alice turns Bendy down and tells him they should just stay friends. Bendy asks if it's because of his race and only becomes more upset when she claims that it's a complicated issue. Unable to handle it all and on the edge of tears Alice cries out an apology to Bendy before racing into the apartment. As Alice races through the door, tears streaming down her face, Holly turns around in shock. As she falls into Holly's arms she berates herself for ever being stupid enough to think she could have something with Bendy. Holly comforts her as best she can and, when Alice asks why she's crying, Holly asks her if it's because she didn't want to reject Bendy. Just as Alice is about to instinctually reject the idea she realizes that it's the truth. Holly begins comforting her once more. It is soon after this that Cala arrives back home, extremely happy after receiving a kiss goodnight from Mugman, to find her two roommates tense and tear-stained at the table. The girls begin to talk more as Cala encourages Alice to take her time accepting and enjoying her feelings for Bendy without panicking about the trouble such a relationship could cause. With that, the conversation turns to Cala's own relationship with Mugman as well as discussions about the other couples who participated in the group date.

Back at the house, Cuphead stands smoking on the front lawn. Bendy walks up to the house looking miserable and Cup offers to go out for a drink with him instead of heading into the overly happy atmosphere of the house. After telling those in the house that they're going out the two of them begin walking to the bar. Bendy tells Cup that his situation with Fanny is moonrocks and Cup then asks why Bendy is so upset. Bendy explains that he asked Alice out but she had said no. As the two arrive and take their seats at the bar and Bendy tells him what happened between him and Alice. Cup is surprised to hear that Alice actually started crying when Bendy pressed her about why she was saying no and claims there must be more to her Angel business than they know. Cup tells Bendy that Alice definitely cares about him before the two of them commiserate their unfortunate romantic lives. Cuphead is surprised when he hears that Bendy had also believed Alice may have turned him down since he's sick and therefore more than likely gonna die. Cup exclaims that there's no way Bendy is dying on their watch and only gets more riled up when Bendy claims that the doctor only gave him a month left to live. Bendy tells Cup everything that's happened to him in the last few weeks and even about the existence of Angelo. Cup tells Bendy that he can't keep fighting no matter what the doctor says and offers to keep any secrets Bendy needs to get off his chest in the future. In response, Bendy asks Cuphead to kill him before he can hurt anyone if he ever goes beastly. Cup agrees to Bendy's request, which seems to help Bendy relax a bit. When Bendy offers the same thing to Cuphead about keeping any secrets he needs to get off his chest Cup considers telling Bendy everything for a moment but decides not to since there's nothing Bendy could really do to help and it would just cause the Demon to worry about him. Cup turns away from Bendy and instead brings up his issues with Fanny once again. The two of them then toast to their broken hearts and laugh as they drink together.

The next morning Bendy wakes up, going about his usual routine until his appointment with Dr, Scatchansniff. They discuss the events that happened while Bendy and the Warners were in Hell Bendy is surprised when he realizes he hasn't talked to Dot about how she was feeling after the incident. The doctor suggests Bendy talk with her about it later and the session ends soon afterwards. Bendy spends the next couple of days simply relaxing and enjoying time with his friends, though he is upset that all the girls seem to be avoiding the house since the group date. After thinking for a while he decides to give Alice a week to cool down before trying to make amends with her. During this time Bendy's official Surface papers also arrive. Eventually, he summoned up the courage to knock on the Warners door to talk with Dot. Upon seeing him at the door, the two Warner brothers leave the room to give them some privacy. When Bendy asks her why she's acting like this she admits that part of the reason is that, after being in his body, she understands just how painful Ink Illness is. Dot goes on to say that it made her scared to think something like this could be hurting her loved ones and reaffirmed her need to find a cure no matter what. She then goes on to say that her beastly transformation also left her rattled as she felt so amazing while she was causing that horrible destruction that she wasn't even sure if she would have cared if she killed her brothers while in that state. A chill goes down Bendy's spine at the thought as Dot warns him to be careful. Bendy agrees to be careful and soon enough Dot cheers back up and begins acting more like her old self as she thanks him for checking in on her. Dot then says that she has to finish the painting soon since it's her Christmas gift for Granny and the holiday is approaching fast. Bendy then leaves the Warner's room with his mind swirling with the question of what he's going to buy everyone as gifts for Christmas.

The next day Ringtail and Featherworth arrive at the house. The detectives demand to know what is going on with the questers and, after setting some terms to protect the house members, Bendy tells them everything. He even shows the detectives the parts and the security surrounding them. The detectives, satisfied that things will be ok, leave the situation to the questers and head back to the police station. That same night Bendy has nightmares about going beastly so he heads downstairs to grab a glass of water. There he runs into Mugman and the two of them discuss their nightmares, their pasts and possible future pranks on Cuphead. The talk calms Bendy down and soon he heads back to bed.

The following day Fanny is thinking about the group date and Cuphead at work. On her lunch break, Dovil asks when she's going to see Cup again, which leads to the two friends arguing once again about how Dovil thinks Fanny should leave her husband. The day continues as usual as Fanny arrives back home with groceries and goes to patch up her aching feet after a long day at work. While she's patching herself up Brute asks if he can borrow 50 dollars for an upcoming poker game. The game is to help a man win back a deed and, whoever wins the deed back, is free to keep all the money. Fanny tries to argue that she doesn't have that much disposable income to spend on a game but Brute gets angry and backhands her into the counter. Terrified, she runs to the kitchen and shrieks for him to just take the money. Brute tells her to come to give it to him herself and when she does he lifts her off the floor by the ears and yells about how she needs to learn to respect him. Fanny desperately apologizes and Brute eventually tosses her aside, causing her to scream as her foot hits the hardwood floor at a bad angle. Brute then leaves for the bar, saying she better have dinner ready for him when he gets home. Fanny checks her injured foot and wraps it in ice as some basic first aid before going to make a basic stew for dinner. Once the food is made Fanny goes to lie down and read the newspaper. Fanny is surprised to see the questers on the front page and she begins to think about Cuphead again. She also begins wondering why she doesn't just take Dovil's advice and leave. When a happier Brute comes home later he makes a big deal about apologizing, giving her a gift and pampering her for the rest of the night. By the time they go to bed, Fanny thinks that her life isn't so bad and that she's happier here than anywhere else so she can't afford to lose it all.

Elsewhere, Cuphead had awoken that morning to find himself the victim of a prank by Bendy and Mugman. After cleaning up from the prank the Cupbros are sent out to do some shopping at Betty's store. When they arrive at the store Bimbo, Betty's boyfriend, pulls them aside and begs them for help. Turns out he's the man who lost a deed, specifically the deed to the store, in a poker game to a notorious gambler known as Vicious. He's arranged a rematch for that evening and is recruiting people to play in the game to help him win back the deed. The Cupbros know who Vicious is but still agree to play on the condition that Bimbo comes clean to Betty about what's happening. Bimbo thanks them but Cup says he's only doing it for the girls and he'll string Bimbo up himself if he ever does something like this again. With the matter settled the Cupbros head back down to the shop where they run into Alice and Holly. They begin talking with the girls and Cup says they should come visit the house again soon. The subject of the detective's visit comes up and when Cup mentions the fact that the detectives were considering calling the Angels the group is surprised by Alice's fearful reaction to the idea. When questioned about it Alice admits that when she summoned the Map she accidentally stole it so if the Angels found it with the Questers they could all get arrested. Cup isn't happy to hear this and the group agrees to avoid Angels as much as they can. Moments later Holly and Mugman walk off, leaving Alice and Cup to talk. Cup reassures Alice that Bendy's not mad at her, just worried and she agrees to come to the house later.

True to their word the girls come to the house for dinner that night and are enthusiastically welcomed back by all the residents there. Dinner goes well and afterwards Alice pulls Bendy aside to talk with him. Alice apologize to Bendy for how she acted, explaining that it was done out of fear. After confirming that the issue is their races Bendy states that he's nothing like the evil Demons in stories so why can't they make their own stories? Alice argues back that it's too dangerous and her own family might even try to kill Bendy simply because he's a Demon. After seeing how upset Alice is, he apologizes, saying he doesn't want to come between her and her family. Overwhelmed by emotion, Alice apologizes more and confesses that she likes him but can't date him because it would just put him in danger. Bendy accepts her reasoning but the two agree they'll both be holding a candle for one another for a long time. With that taken care of, the two reaffirm their friendship with Bendy assuring Alice he doesn't blame her for any of the things she said since he knows she never meant to hurt him. The two then head back downstairs and enjoy the rest of the night with their friends. The girls head back to their apartment and are shocked when they find Willen, one of Alice's old Fallen Angel friends, waiting for them in their home. Willen apologizes for breaking in before saying he is there both with a warning and a request for help. He explains that Hat and his subordinates have suddenly disappeared along with that orb of Angel magic they had. Polly, another Fallen Angel, had also gone missing a few days ago and when other Angels came by the casino they didn't take the report of her disappearance seriously. In fact, multiple Fallen Angels have begun disappearing around Toon Town and he himself is seemingly being followed by unknown pursuers. He uses this as leverage against Alice since his followers probably saw him come here and thus she will now be on their radar as well. Alice is upset that Willen would set her up like this but since they're in it now they continue discussing what information he has. Willen explains he hasn't been able to spot the people doing this but the disappearances started this year. In an attempt to help Holly brings out her Angel-Locating map, the existence of which horrifies Willen in particular since the kidnapping of Angels to be used as living magical ingredients is a very real issue. Nonetheless, Alice decides to talk with the other Angels the map shows to warn them about what's happening and ask if they know anything. Holly also says she'll add magical security measures to her map so it won't fall into the wrong hands. With the reassurance that they'll do what they can, Willen takes a cab home. Alice and Holly talk about their plans to deal with the situation, specifically talking to the other Angels and potentially the Cupbros to see if they've heard anything. Resigned to the latest ordeal dropped in their laps, the girls go to bed.

Meanwhile, the Cupbros are heading to their poker game. They meet up with Bimbo outside of the bar where the game will be played along with the others he rounded up for the game- Mortimor, Brute, Gappy and Bubby Boop. Cuphead leads the group into the bar where Vicious is already at the table waiting for them. The game begins and Vicious lives up to her name, making aggressive plays and insulting the others at any given opportunity. This leads to Brute losing him temper at one point Cup manages to stop him from doing anything too crazy and the game continues. As they play it's clear that the Cupbros and Vicious have known each other for a long time and are on decent terms with each other. In the next round, Cup has a good hand and decides to go all in to force Vicious to bet the deed. Vicious accepts the deal, betting the deed, and all the other players besides her and Cup fold. The two show their hands and realize that the determining factor will be the last, unflipped card from the dealer- If it's the ten of hearts then Vicious wins but if it's any other card then Cup wins. The dealer flips the card and its none other than the ten of hearts. The others are shocked and enraged at Vicious's incredibly lucky victory, but Cup accepts his loss and says he'll have to apologize to the girls. Vicious takes the deed and money before walking away, ignoring Bimbo's begging for the deed. Brute tries to take the deed by force but before the Cupbros can interfere Vicious hits him with her purse, which is revealed to have a brick inside of it. Vicious leaves and the Cupbros talk Brute from running after her. With that settled, Cup walks over and decks Bimbo in the face after discovering he hadn't told the girls about the issue with the deed as he promised. With a parting threat from Cup the Cupbros leave with Brute hot on their heels, insisting they come over for dinner sometime which Mugs eventually agrees to just to get the wolf to go away before Cup punches him too. As the brothers make their way home once more they discuss their worries about the girls.

The next morning at breakfast Granny asks the house residents if they're excited about Christmas, causing the room to explode into chaos as they realize that the majority of them had forgotten the holiday entirely. They organize a large shopping trip consisting of the Questers, the girls, Finley, Sammy, Xedo and Wiston. They spend hours at the mall buying gifts for everyone before finally wrapping up their shopping around lunchtime. As the group heads out for lunch Cup asks Holly and Alice to hang back for a moment so they can talk to them. Cupbros are upset to hear Bimbo still hasn't talked to the girls about what happened and explain about losing the deed in the poker game. The brothers apologize to the girls and Alice takes the opportunity to ask if the Cupbros have heard anything about the fallen Angels disappearing. They haven't but promise to ask around about it, though Cup warns the girls not to do anything reckless. The girls promise to be careful but, as they walk away, Cup mutters that he finds that hard to believe. When the group arrives back home from shopping Cup goes to brood in one of the rooms about how he doesn't want to go to dinner at Brute's that night. Holly finds him and the two talk as she tries to help soothe his anger. Once their conversation is completed Cup spends the rest of his time chatting with Finley and the other residents before Brute shows up at the door to walk the Cupbros to his house. The Cupbros are shocked when Brute leads them to Fanny's house. Cup is shattered at the revelation that a jerk like Brute is Fanny's husband. Mugs, realizing his brother's distress, sends Brute in ahead of them before telling Cup that they don't have to do the dinner and apologizing for agreeing to it in the first place. Cup, determined to get past his feelings for Fanny that he knows he can't ever act on, decides to go through with the dinner and the Cupbros head into the house. Fanny is shocked to see the Cupbros are the guests Brute brought for dinner and quietly instructs them to act like they've never been to her house before. The brothers are confused but go along with her wishes. Mugman handles most of the conversation but when Brute starts making sexist comments about women and even bringing specifically Cala into his rant Mugs begins getting upset. Once he begins talking about how you have to be strict with a woman or they'll walk all over you Cup decides they've heard enough and tells Brute that they have to be heading back home. As they're leaving Brute happily gives the Cupbros their home phone number and encourages the brothers to call anytime so they can make more plans to get together again. Cup takes the number, thanks Brute and then the Cupbros begin walking away down the street. It's not long before Mugman is ranting about what a schmuck Brute is but Cup keeps trying to deflect away from his own feelings. Eventually, Mugman whips around to face Cuphead, forcing them to stop walking, and tells Cup not to just pretend everything is ok and bottle his feelings up. Finally pushed to the breaking point Cup explodes on Mugman about how hard he has been trying to be the good guy for Mugman, his friends and even his own sake but he feels like he just can't get it right. He eventually starts sobbing as all his current stresses spiral down into every other hardship he has endured and how his best isn't any good at all. Mugman hugs his brother, telling him that he'll always be his hero and reminding him that he doesn't blame Cup for getting them into debt to the Devil. The Cupbros comfort one another and calm down from the emotional blowout. Once they have collected themselves again they head back home.

As Christmas grows closer Bendy begins to get frustrated about the lack of Ink Machine parts appearing lately. The group is discussing this when Wakko suddenly brings up Angelo, leading to Bendy having to explain who Angelo is to the other house resident. Angelo also makes an appearance to introduce himself, though only the sick can see him. While he's there the Cupbros mention that they can't feel or see Angelo like they normally would be able to with a ghost, which is odd. Angelo reassures the house members that he is not a threat and the rest of the house accepts his presence. As they're questioning Angelo about what he knows the doorbell rings, causing the house members to look away for a moment. Once they turn back around Angelo has vanished. Mickey and the circus crew then enter the house, bringing along plenty of Christmas presents with them. Oswald also orders Cup and Bendy to come with him since it's time for them to endure their punishment for losing the drinking contest back in Heela City. Cup and Bendy aren't happy to hear that and try to escape but the bunny kids capture them. Cuphead and Bendy are then brought down to the circus and are made up to look as much like women as they possibly can. Ozzy also dresses up alongside them after a challenge from Cuphead and everyone is surprised by how attractive all the boys look. With the makeovers complete Ozzy insists they have to go out somewhere as a new bet is made - if Bendy and Cup can go until dinner without getting recognized then Ozzy will owe them a favor of their choosing. With the bet set the group head to the Cupbros usual shooting range. They have fun at the shooting range until they run into Jeremy Fairfax while they are shooting. Fairfax recognizes them as Cuphead and Bendy and his personality ruins the fun mood from before. Not long after he finally leaves them alone the group decides to just leave the shooting range altogether. The group chats with one another all the way back to the circus as they try to lighten the mood leftover from the range. Once at the circus Bendy and Cup change back to normal and agree to come up with a prank to get revenge on Ozzy for the whole mess.

With Christmas almost here Alice and Holly take to the streets to begin talking with the Fallen Angels around Toon Town. Many of the Fallen are skittish, don't know anything about the disappearance and don't want to talk with the girls much in general. All except one, a newly Fallen Angel named Cazziel who, while not knowing anything about the situation, begins helping them in talking with the other Angels. Cazziel is a cheerful guy who chats with Alice as they make their way to the final fallen of the day. Unlike the others, this Angel actually has some information to share. There's been a group snatching magical creatures in Toon Town and using a warehouse as their hideout. The girls thank the man and then Cazziel for their help before heading back home. At the house, the girls discuss the situation and Holly voices her suspicion of Cazziel since he seemed almost too eager to help, though admits that this could just be due to him being so newly fallen. The two begin talking more about fallen Angels and Holly mentions that they should contact Willen again. The idea of using Willen as bait and then following his kidnappers after they take his is proposed with Holly watching Willen much like she has done with others in the past. As they're talking about using runes to hide her Cala comes home. Cala asks if Alice had another friend over since she can smell someone else on the things in their shared room and it doesn't smell like Willen did. Alice begins inspecting the room and finds evidence that someone jimmied the window open. Realizing the severity of the situation, the girls ask Cala to pick out everything in the room that has the new scent on it. Cala soon finished her inspections, reporting that nothing seems to be missing either, and the items she pulled are mostly personal clothing items Alice wears. When Cala reports it seems like he was searching for something around furniture too Alice realizes he was after her bag of Angelic miracles, which is thankfully still safe under a floorboard. The girls agree that Alice shouldn't be left alone anymore. They decide to tell the rest of the house after the holidays have passed and Cala says she'll stay by Alice's side from now on to guard her. Alice also decides that, instead of her carrying the bag of magic, Holly should instead since they wouldn't expect it to not be with Alice. Out of anxiety Holly checks her own things and is panicked when she discovers that she no longer has the page from Wilson's journal, unaware that it was Cup who took it from her back in Book Six. Holly calls the house to tell them she lost the page and, though she is still upset, she has calmed down once the call is complete. The girls finish planning the runes they're going to use to hide Holly while she follows Willen. With the serious business finished the girls spend the rest of the night wrapping presents, decorating and joking about donuts.

The night before Christmas Cup is sitting in one of the common areas of the house teasing Holly about how much she likes Finley. She asks how their dinner with Brute went and tells them she's sorry when Mugs admits they shouldn't have gone in the first place. They keep talking for a bit and when Mugs leaves to go see Cala Holly tells Cup she's worried about him bottling things up. The two of them head outside to walk and talk privately. Cup tells Holly about Brute's sexism at dinner and how Fanny of all people was his wife. Holly quickly deduces that the real reason Cup is so upset was due to how strangely Fanny had been acting. Holly, becoming more concerned the more she hears about Fanny's odd behavior, insists that Cup has to ask her what's going on since the situation sounds bad. Cup says he will and the two agree to never let Brute near Boris before they head back to the house.

Christmas day arrives and the house is immediately thrown into chaos as Cuphead pranks Bendy first thing in the morning. Once the prank is wrapped up the festivities begin as the girls and the circus crew arrive to celebrate with them at the house. Many gifts are exchanged between the various house members, to the delight of all involved. After the present exchange, while everyone is socializing, Cuphead pulls out the mistletoe he stole days ago and begins springing it on various couples by suddenly appearing around them to hold the plant over their heads. As Cup continues to corner the couples when they least expect it Mugs and Holly try to stop him, though Cup proves to be too slippery for them to catch and they are unable to take the mistletoe away from him. Still, their efforts are effective in making Cup put the mistletoe away for the time being as the celebration continues. After dinner the circus crew heads back home to put the bunny kids to bed and Cuphead pulls the mistletoe back out again to continue harassing people. Cuphead eventually catches Alice and Bendy under the mistletoe as she is saying good night to him. The two are about to kiss when Dot jumps into stop it, knocking Cup into Bendy and causing them to accidentally kiss. The rest of the house laughs at Cup and Bendy's misfortune. Meanwhile, Fanny is furiously storming towards the house to confront Cuphead about the dinner. Cuphead is confused why Fanny is there but still allows her to pull him off to the side of the house to talk. The two of them begin interrogating one another about their relationships with Brute. Fanny demands to know what Cup's game is and Cup responds by asking why she's keeping him a secret from Brute. When Cup demands to know why she's acting like he did something wrong Fanny is shocked to realize Cuphead hasn't actually done anything wrong and she was just scared Brute would find out she'd been spending time with him and the questers. Now that Fanny has calmed down Cup once again tells her he wants to be her friend, though he warns her he doesn't like games so if he finds out she's been manipulating him in some way he won't be happy about it. Fanny tells him to cuss off and, when Cup begins to tell her if she needs anything she can come to him, Fanny tells him she's not a charity case before marching off back towards her house. As she walks Fanny tries to figure out whether Cup is a good or bad guy, though what evidence she does have for him being a good guy she keeps making excuses about how he probably had some nefarious ulterior motive behind it. As she stomps home Fanny decides she'll cut ties with him after Cup has paid her back and repeats to herself about how she didn't care about him at all.

## Characters

* **Appeared:** Alice, Angelo, Bendy, Bimbo, Black Hat, Boris, Brute, Cala Maria, Cuphead, Dot, Dr. Oddswell, Dr. Scratchensniff, Fanny, Felix, Finley, Granny, Holly,  Jerry, Mickey, Mugman, Oswald, Sammy, Wakko, Xedo, Yakko
* **Appeared Briefly:** Agitate, Aku, Ava, Betty, Bubby Boop, Bune, Bunny Kids, Candy, Cazziel, Clayton, Corundum, Cruella, Daisy, Demencia, Dewy, Donald, Dovil, Dr. Flug, Fairfax, Featherworth, Gappy, Gaston, Goofy, Gothel, Grampy, Huey, Jackpot, Judge Zadkiel, King Dice, Koko, Lady Nightwing, Little John, Lord Wajah, Louie, Mic, Minnie, Mortimer, Mr. Winky, Ms. Walker, Professor O'Connell, Ringtail, Robert, Sasha, Sheba, Stolas, Taffy, Vicious, Willen, Wiston
* **Mentioned:** 5-0-5, Garth, Lady Facilier, Master Samuel, Miss Dodd, Mr. Wiggins, Natassia Slinky, Polly, Queen Grimhilde, Rosco, Snow White, The Butcher Gang, The Devil, The Sykes Brothers, Wilson Wiseton, Yosemite Sam

## Locations Visited

* Hell
* Toon Town

## Trivia and Notes

### Trivia

* Chapter 130 makes reference to the Inky Extra's story The Day to Forget

## Links and References

* TBA

none yet