(2) Ink-surrection (BATIM/EPICMICKEY/CUPHEAD)

Prologue- The Silence After The Storm

(Sequel to Ink Distortion (BATIMxEPICMICKEY)

 If you go down thirteen stories of the Sillyvision Animation Studio—deep into the ground where no sound can reach the road above—your head would be under the surface of an ocean of ink. The fumes of it would burn your eyes, your lungs, and your skin, and you'd suffer a long, and painful death as you frantically searched for an exit that didn't exist.

However, for what's left of the residents that resided within the studio, the smell of old ink became invisible a long time ago.

Within the ink, in the calamity of the buzz of incohesive thoughts they all shared the same feeling of sickness that comes with an uncertain future; and they—in a bewilderment felt deeper than the soul—listened.

They had forgotten the sound of outside silence, and when the machine fell and it came, they listened to a silence so loud it hurt. They could feel the heaviness it brought.

In a sea of only primitive feelings—for the individual thought was a gift that had been stolen long ago—the ink stayed quiet too.

They were lost, and the ability to collaborate and form the basic entities of searchers had been erased. A feeling of panic swarmed over the ink as they realized being stuck was profoundly worse than being lost.

Only in a turn of fate blamed only on sheer luck, was the ink handed an escape.

Bendy's body spent it's days after his death encased in wooden, stone, and metal rubble. Like a bubble, the body remained protected, and untouched. A little bubble that promised an undisturbed death.

However the pressure of the sea of ink that pressed against his little bubble of protection built up. Like the winds of a hurricane, the true damage was done not by the short gusts of wind, but by the prolonged and consistent pressure the slowly weakens all surfaces it touches.

At the floor, where the pressure was heaviest, a piece of wood that had been strained for years of holding together the building before being pressed upon by thick ink, finally snapped.

The crack of the wood rippled through the ink, waking it as it flooded into the airtight space.

It squeezed into every available crack and crevice, and as it invaded the body that had just been given to them, they found their first glimmer of hope.

The heart, created by Joey Drew, was a vessel. A vessel for the dancing demon meant to hold and live with tainted ink.

The ink ignored the body—for it had to many physical components to be absorbed—and quickly took the heart.

But the heart was tainted as well, with a disease that had been suppressed by the host.

The disease spiraled across the ink as it invaded the vessel itself.

This disease wasn't an ailment that caused chills, or coughs. It wasn't a condition that cursed the holder with long suffering. It was a disease that brought the ink a new feeling of power.

The disease of envy brought with it the fruits of ambition and anger into the ink. It was a feeling that brought upon a sensation of strength, indeed.

Whatever envy the host held the ink did not know for what, but the reasoning and motive began gathering in a slowly clearing mind.

Suddenly aware of the change of consciousness, the individual that was being formed by a collection of ink and minds began to think about the reasoning of their envy—having complicated thoughts raw ink is not capable of.

But the reasons didn't come from the body of Bendy himself—no—it came from the locked feelings of envy felt by the souls when they were alive. A feeling of envy all of them shared, for the same reason.

The name of Bendy rang through the ink, which scrambled to create such a familiar form. Why it was familiar, they didn't know anymore, but as if it had been done hundreds of times, a little cartoon demon emerged his solid physical form from the sea of darkness.

However, unlike the previous Bendy, this one was made with an abundance of broken and incomplete souls—their other halves swirling mindlessly in the ink below. He struggled to keep a single train of thought, as he fought off the excited buzz of the ink.

But despite the numerous entities that inhabited the toon, their shared ambition created a fractured whole that was Bendy the Dancing Demon.

Bendy took a moment to enjoy his physical form, before clambering up his only exit: a broken staircase.

As he climbed his way to the ground floor of the studio, his mind wandered back to his memories of what happened before the break—when the ceiling caved in, and crushed him.

He remembered Oswald, and Mickey, and Gus and Jiminy: and feelings of love reserved for only family bubbled in his heart. The envious inhabitants of his body quickly reacted to snuff them out, and Bendy's mind was once again swarming with empty, incoherent confusion.

Then it was emptied out, and Bendy was given a clean slate for thoughts again. As the feelings from his previous life were met with attack by anger, envy, and ambition, Bendy retreated further and further back into his head, until the sounds and feelings of his emotions were dulled and foggy.

Bendy stayed there, incomplete, as his body began his journey to Sillyvision's stolen stardom.

• • •

With a newfound strength and goal, the ink began work to complete what Joey had started. Pieces was floated over to the broken ink machine and the ink strengthened with every cog put back into place.

Time was a construct that didn't exist in the dark confines of Joey Drew Studios, and however much time it took to complete the machine is information lost. However the work was done quickly and consistently, and before they knew it the ink had completed the ink machine, rigged with new ways of operating. Not because the ink was smart enough to do it—but because the ink would do anything to fulfill it's purpose, even reaching out and doing the impossible.

The ink machine—which was built bring to life mere pictures on paper—would now take what was brought to life, and crumble it.

Using the power of projector screens, the ink machine's grasp now escaped the prison of the studio, and into the unprepared Tooniverse.