The Ink Explained

A major addition to the Bendy lore in the DCTL novel is the reveal that the ink is a sentient and malicious entity.

In Norman’s words: “That ink has a mind of its own, goes where it likes.”

The ink acts like a parasite - it seeks out human bodies, and attempts to get inside their stomach, usually when a person is sleeping (as was the case with Buddy’s grandfather). Once a person becomes infected, they experience an uncontrollable urge to drink more ink, as well as the urge to spread the infection onto other people.

As Sammy tells us: “Then the craving started! I needed more ink. There was no choice. I had to! (…) I need to please him!”

The ink can also grow on a person’s body like a fungus, and surround it in a cocoon. It’s worth noting that the human body inside an ink cocoons is untouched - when Buddy uncovers the bodies or Norman and Dave, they are intact. Which means that the ink doesn’t feed on the meat. It feeds only on the person’s soul.

According to Joey: “The ink had infected them for days. There was no soul left in there.”

The infected person is also shown visions, mostly of the Ink Demon and the ritual circle, among other things. Sammy draws Beast Bendy before the Ink Demon is released, which could hint at the visions being events from the future. However, Joey’s drawings, despite being closely related to things happening inside the studio, are nevertheless different from what we see in the game. This would mean that the visions aren’t completely true (or Joey merely uses them as an inspiration for his own stories, and doesn’t care to make his drawings accurate to what the ink shows him).

The ink has been shown to possess mind-controlling abilities. When half of Jacob’s body becomes infected, the infected half attacks Dot, while the other half attempts to stop it. Jacob has to knock himself unconscious to avoid hurting Dot.

Earlier in the book, when Sammy is asking miss Lambert for more ink, his body language strongly hints at him struggling against the ink’s control:

“’Are you asking to borrow some of the art department’s ink? You can just say that, Mister Lawrence, you don’t need to act so entitled.’ Sammy huffed loudly and shoved his hands in his pockets. He shook his head violently ‘no’ and, after a few times, pressing his lips strong together, he said ‘The ink in your supply closet.’



(…)

Sammy seemed like he wanted to say something, but he didn’t. He seemed to be struggling with how to speak. A strange gurgle came from him, like the words wanted to come out, but he was holding them down. “

The ink may also be able to subtly influence the infected person’s personality. As per Norman’s words: “Sammy isn’t Sammy anymore. It seems to me like the ink is taking him over.”

Now, I don’t like the implication that the ink made him racist. I think it’s in poor taste to blame prejudice on a magic goo. However, ink may be able to lower the person’s inhibitions, bringing their darkest thoughts and feelings out to the front. We can see that implied by the contrast between Joey’s behavior in the early 30s, versus his behavior in the late 40s:



Pre-ink Joey was tempted to force the bill on Susie, but he resisted that urge at the last moment. Post-ink Joey has no qualms about forcing Buddy to pay for the meal.

Early in the book, Joey is established as a person who “likes talent and doesn’t care what gender, or age, or color, or class it comes in”. This is said by Dot, a character repeatedly described as a very smart and insightful person, who has “this way of telling what people were actually thinking, not what they said they were thinking”.



However, later in the story we hear Joey make a sexist comment. It’s hard to judge whether this dissonance is caused by Dot not being as perceptive as Buddy thinks she is, or because Joey used to at least try being a decent human being, up until the ink brought out his darker inclinations and subconscious prejudices. The latter scenario is supported by Miss Lambert acting surprised when Joey shows Buddy a preferential treatment, as if she wasn’t used to this sort of behavior from him.

It’s worth noting that throughout the book, Joey seems to be pushing Buddy towards seeking out and releasing the ink demon.

When Miss Lambert tells him that Buddy is stealing supplies, he acts concerned and is described as frowning, up until he realizes that Buddy found a way to open locked doors: “‘We can’t have the team just taking things. We have stock to keep track of, and of course the fact that he got into a locked cabinet… ‘ He looked at me carefully. I didn’t like it. (…) Mister Drew didn’t say anything. He just kept looking at me in that way he’d been looking at me.”

His behavior immediately changes after this realization - he reassures Buddy that what he did wasn’t wrong, and encourages him to continue: “For some reason, I was actually being praised!”.

Later in the story, as he and Buddy are having dinner, Joey specifically asks Buddy to look for strange things inside the studio: “I bet you see all kinds of things. If you see anything interesting you let me know!”. He also encourages Buddy to disregard the rules: “People think that there are rules but (…) it’s not something people like us have to worry about. (…)I say: why not rewrite the rules?”. Joey also interrupts this speech by saying “Horseradish!”, which Buddy assumes is a reference to the potatoes they were eating, however the word had another meaning in those days:

That’s right folks: Joey was calling bullshit on his own speech! Almost like he disagreed with himself.

Seeing as Joey was the person who locked up the Ink Demon in the first place, I believe that the ink was subtly influencing Joey’s speeches so as to encourage Buddy to seek out Bendy and let him out of his prison. It was precisely those speeches that prompted Buddy to investigate Bendy: “I also remembered what Mister Drew had said - that taking initiative was important. (…) And with that in mind, surely it was my duty to investigate.”

Where did the ink come from?

The ink is produced by the ink machine. According to Norman, regular ink is pumped inside the ink machine, and when it comes out it’s different: thicker and more glossy than regular ink, with a mind of its own.



Despite being the person who created the machine in the first place, Thomas is adamant that he is not to blame for the ink. This leads me to believe that the machine is Tom’s, but the recipe for the sentient ink was created by someone else.



We know it wasn’t Joey: he refers to the “special ink” as “his” in the same paragraph, where Buddy notes that whenever Joey calls something his, he’s actually referring to inventions he steals from his workers. The ink would therefore be one of such stolen inventions.

Who could be the ink’s original creator? There’s a small hint to that in the Employee Handbook. When Joey describes the process of creating the “special ink”, he uses the following analogy:

Notice that Joey defaults to female pronouns in this description. It’s strange, as you’d expect him to use male pronouns, or neutral pronouns if he felt like being inclusive. The fact that he used female pronouns hints that the true creator of the ink was female.



Which female character do we know of, that’s a chef, who likes to invent new recipes?

That’s right: Allison.