Dark Puddles

This article refers to the alive black liquid. For the music track from Bendy and the Ink Machine, see The Dark Puddles (music track).

"Ink" redirects here. For other uses, see Ink (disambiguation).

"The Dark Puddles send a gift." — The Dark Puddles speaking to Audrey.

The Dark Puddles, simply known as the ink, is an unnatural living organism that was presumably created by the Ink Machine, which can be found all over the ink realm.

It was also used for the Bendy cartoon in the Sillyvision process.

History

Origins

It's not known how exactly the ink was created or gained life, but what's known is where the idea for its creation came from, as Joey Drew wanted to create "living attractions" of his studio's cartoon characters for Bendy Land, which lead to the creation of the Ink Machine, either producing ink or needing it to create them.

Early life

After its creation, the ink was used to create the Ink Demon, which was deemed a failed experiment. When Joey began using humans in his experiments, the ink created various ink creatures through their souls; such as Alice Angel, Sammy Lawrence , the Butcher Gang, the Boris clones, Bertrum Piedmont, Searchers, Lost Ones, and so on. Many years later, the ink was used by a changed Joey to create a real family. After multiple failed attempts, he was able to create a perfect daughter who was almost human.

After years of humans being consumed by the ink, a 'kingdom' of dark creatures made from the ink was created, as the Dark Puddles kept calling to other beings of ink and consumed them, with the Ink Demon being its 'king'.

Inside the ink realm

Within the ink realm, the ink is seen splattered across the cartoon realm, seeping into and out of cracks and holes, flooding and ruining areas, and even providing secret information to the Ink Demon about the ink creatures he haunted down.

While Henry Stein was in his journey, the ink had appeared multiple times throughout it, mostly staying docile and not posing any immediate threat on its own. However, once, it seemingly have showed Henry a vision where it was reaching out to him in a hallway with inky arms coming out of the walls.

After Wilson had stopped the cycle from resetting, other types of organisms started to grow out of the ink as time went on. Such as the Ink Widows, and other plant life which started to exits around the ink realm as time moved forward.

On 1973, Wilson tricked Audrey into turning on the Ink Machine, which immediately caused ink to spew out from it, rapidly flooding the room. During the flood, the ink started to 'call' to its summoners and dragging them down into the darkness. Then, both Audrey and Wilson was killed by the ink and transported to the ink realm in new, caricature forms.

After the child of the darkness was transported to the ink realm, the Dark Puddles started talking to its creation, Audrey, and gave her the Banish ability as a "gift" after an ominous visit.

Characteristics

Physical appearance

The Dark Puddles is nothing less than a black ink-like substance with no descriptive details. Usually, it lacks any form or shape, due to its liquid-like behaviors, however it can form faces similar to the ones on Searchers.

Personality

The Dark Puddles is an hostile entity, usually disguising itself as regular ink, but can rarely be seen moving or talking in various scenarios. It supposedly wants to convert every living being around it to ink for unclear reasons.

Despite this, the Dark Puddles occasionally aids its creations, such as imparting knowledge to the Ink Demon and granting Audrey the Banish ability. However, it's unclear whether this is genuine care or merely manipulation to accomplish its own agenda.

Abilities

The Dark Puddles can turn people into twisted parodies of cartoon characters, or just make them resemble humanoid blobs of ink, like Lost Ones. When paired with the Ink Machine, it can also form rough approximations of cartoon characters such as the Ink Demon without the need for a human host, receiving information on shape and behavior from cartoon films depicting the character it's trying to imitate that are fed through the Ink Machine.

Whenever put through the Ink Makers, the ink can be used to make anything, varying from a gear to a radio. The Dark Puddles have also managed to create people in living flesh such as Audrey Drew who was created to be Joey Drew's daughter.

The Dark Puddles can also give people powers, as seen when Audrey was given the banish ability.

Behind the scenes

The Dark Puddles first appears in Chapter 1 of Bendy and the Ink Machine, it is only used for environmental purposes and doesn't serve any bigger purpose for the remainder of the game. But in Bendy and the Dark Revival the Dark Puddles actually speaks to Audrey and is mentioned couple times by writings and characters.

Inspirations

The Dark Puddles seems to be inspired by the famous real-life conspiracy, the Black Goo, especially its version in The X-Files, the Purity Virus. As both are black, sentient liquids that infect and turn people into monsters.

Dialogue

• "You are one of us now."
• "The Dark Puddles send a gift."

Gallery

Main article: Dark Puddles/gallery

• 

  The Dark Puddles, as seen in Bendy: Ink Chronicles.