Blood and Ink

Blood and Ink Trivia

The title of this story is a reference to a NateWantsToBattle song called "Blood and Ink". It is actually a Bendy and the Ink Machine song that he wrote.

I wanted to give my friend :iconSeriblaze: a big thanks, for helping me get the motivation to write and publish this story. I came to her talking about how I couldn't decide, and she helped me decide that I wanted to write the story.

Originally, I was going to make Bendy and Alice a couple in my story. However, I like both Bendy x Alice and Bendy x Boris. I later changed it to not confirm which one Bendy likes as more than a friend, in respect for both ships, and to leave it to the imagination of the audience to decide which ship was what they thought was in the story.

My friend :iconSeriblaze: helped me develop the coverpage idea.

Before writing the story, I had a very difficult debate on whether or not to even create the story. After a good talk with my friend :iconSeriblaze:, I decided that I would write the story. However, because of my choices regarding some previous stories I've written, I decided that this story would be a one-time involvement of the Bendy and the Ink Machine series to be a part of my crossover series.

Because of how the involvement of the Bendy and the Ink Machine series will only appear in this one story, I have left it unconfirmed if this story is canon or isn't cannon to my crossover series. However, based on the prologue, it can be interpreted that this takes place in a future in either case.

I added the prologue and epilogue to the story when I was struggling to figure out an interesting way to start off chapter one. I figured that a concept where the story started in the present day, then shifted to the past where the story takes place would be an interesting hook.

Alison Pendle/ Alison Angel and Thomas Connor/ Tom the Wolf do not appear in person in my story. It is referenced by Henry's dialogue in the story that he does know them, and they were among two of the very few who were lucky to not be trapped in the studio instead, for Henry still sees them and they are friends of his. In addition, they are both human and haven't been turned to the ink creatures that they appear as in the game.

The picture of Bendy, Boris, and Alice at the beginning of the story, in the prologue, is a reference to one that appeared at the ending of Bendy and the Ink Machine.

In my headcanon, Linda is Henry's wife (which is referenced in chapter 8 of my story.) In addition, I also believe that the reason Henry left the studio was to start a family with her, which I came to believe based on some of Joey's dialogue at the ending of the fifth chapter of the game.

For this story, I had some bitter friction between Henry and Joey to have Henry's involvement in "Blood and Ink" be different from the original game. Henry is bitter with Joey over how he never got credit, while Joey is bitter at Henry for choosing his family over his job and role at the studio. I created this friction to work on Henry's involvement in the story, to show how he feels responsible for the mess, but when he finally faces Joey again, thanks to the support of his new friends, he's ready to take a stand.

The majority of chapter 10 was inspired by the start to the last chapter of the game. Aiden, Lukas, and Kate trying to gain the trust of Bendy, Boris, and Alice is similar to Henry trying to gain Alisson and Tom's trust from the game.