I just wanted to share these boys before they get used as a header over the AskDevilDarling reuploads. I haven't drawn these two idiots in so long. Good to see I've still got it. :)
[1 standalone, 1 comic, 1 WIP]
In July of 2017 I decided it was apparently a good idea to start a Q&A blog based off of a Bendy and the Ink Machine AU I was writing. I'd never done anything like it before, so it was pretty experimental. The initial announcement was simple enough, until I mixed things up. ;)
> The fourth wall has broken, and the ask box is OPEN!
Needless to say, folks were a bit... Misled. The first few hours brought a few messages asking "Darling" for hugs. I was so happy. Y'all delivered.
> “You might wanna’ wait until he’s a bit less goopy. I’m sure he’s flattered, though.”
It really caught me off-guard how quickly I started getting submissions to the blog, be they ideas or fanwork. Folks started to realize I was, in fact, going to comment on all of these submissions in-character.
One of the first fan-submissions that came in was actually a story, which I found absolutely delightful! Originally I wasn't intending to draw detailed responses to submissions, but considering I had already been playing with the idea of Darl having a reading habit I just couldn't resist! They ended up submitting six whole chapters. It was amazing!
I would link the fic itself, but the submitter's blog appears to have been taken over by the bad bots. Seriously though I think this is one of my favorites of all the times I've drawn Darl'.
> “What he won’t tell you is that he’s been re-reading it nonstop for the past hour. The guy’s a sucker for stories.” - Dev
When the submissions really started ramping up, I wanted to put out a little thank-you. :)
> “Humans need to breathe, Darl’! Put ‘er down!” - Dev
[Long post, text-only.]
This post is basically a wall of text with a bunch of old worldbuilding snippets. If that's what you're into, all power to you. It's not usually my cup of tea but I've included them for completion's sake. This will be disjointed. I'm trying to go in post-order.
Here we go!
Q: What is Sammy's favorite song?
A: This was actually answered canonically in the Hot Topic Q&A! Sammy's favorite song is Willow Weep For Me.
Q: Running (or “drippy” ink): When is it serious?
A: It’s pretty well-known that Darling is an over-saturated drippy mess, and Devil will bleed at the edges on occasion, but here’s some more in-depth info!
Darling: Darling is constantly oozing because he uses the ink machine to over-saturate his form - Basically he’s only as drippy as he is because he tries to keep as much ink under his control as possible. Because of this, some ink dripping off during exaggerated movements or when stressed really isn’t harmful. In fact, it happens frequently since Darling is essentially a very wet sponge in that any movement or compression will cause him to leak.
However, Darling does still need the ink to maintain his hold on his body! If he uses too much ink offensively or loses it all in some other way, it could cause him to lose his grip on his anchor - effectively killing him.
Devil: Dev’s connection to his anchor is nearly perfect, to a fault. Since the link between his consciousness and his anchor is so close to seamless, he can easily absorb and manipulate fresh ink (provided it hasn’t been used already/contaminated). The more pure the ink, the easier it is for him to use.
Contaminated ink (such as straight from the aged and rusty ink machine or discarded by a living toon) can technically be used, but it is cripplingly difficult and will be violently rejected by his body if held long enough.
There are two conditions under which Devil’s ink will run: For comedic effect or if his body is damaged. In the case of the former it is absolutely harmless; his connection to toon logic (however subconscious) simply uses his makeup as a tool for comedy and any running ink will “snap” back into place the moment the gag ends. He can’t even feel it.
In the latter scenario however, his ink will not snap and may actually drip off of his body, leaving him dizzy. Dev would need to be seriously injured in some way for this to happen. If the ink is damaged or diluted far enough, he will lose connection to his anchor and separate. Unlike Darling however, Dev’s anchor is a concept (rather than a physical object) and as such he could re-form given enough time, effort, and ink.
Sammy: The master of the music department is similar to Darling that his body is composed of a seemingly physical core blanketed in a slough of ink. Sammy’s ink is contaminated and thick, sticking to him like tar. It will ooze, but will not separate from him easily. If lost (or forcibly removed, as he’s attempted to do on his more lucid days) it will cause him excruciating pain and inevitably will regenerate if he takes in sustenance of any sort (food or drink, or on his less clear days ink).
Despite his wish to be freed of his “inky prison”, Sammy’s core (be it a body, anchor, or something else entirely nobody knows) would likely not survive the process if the pain caused by loss of his ink is any indication.
Q: Who cleans up the discarded ink?
A: The Searchers!
Ink that has channeled a consciousness doesn’t just lose that odd property when separated from its host, which is actually why Devil and Darling can’t absorb ink discarded from their own bodies. When that link is severed, the ink effectively gains a primitive consciousness of its own that cannot be overwritten.
While a small drop may not have enough will to move, gather enough together and a Searcher may be born, wandering the studio with some barely-there ghost of a purpose. Any ink they come across that is similar enough to them in makeup (has been discarded by a living toon, essentially) is absorbed and added to their mass.
Q: What's Dev like when he's serious? He seems like the joking type, but I feel like he'd be terrifying if he was in a serious situation.
TL;DR: Devil overreacts under stress similar to a cornered animal or small child: Pure instinct and emotion. As long as he’s having fun he’s fine, but as soon as that carefree illusion is shattered he doesn’t know how to handle himself and that can indeed have terrifying consequences.
A: Reapers by their very nature are cold, neutral, and passive beings. They exist for one task and one task only: To be impartial collectors and judges of souls. That Dev has taken an interest in human affairs enough to develop feelings at all makes him an anomaly, albeit not an entirely unheard of one. He is not equipped on how to deal with such human things as emotions.
Think of it like a young child growing to know themselves: They may have the occasional temper tantrum or fit of uncontrollable laughter because they know they’re feeling something but they don’t know how to express it properly.
In the AU, this is Dev’s first time anchoring - linking himself to something in order to physically manifest - and as such he’s never had any outlet to express the emotions he’s been developing over the past 20+ years. Most of his basis for how to react to things comes from human media he’s observed over recent years, specifically the cartoons that captured his interest in the first place. This is why Dev comes off as a joking type, since it’s how he thinks he should act!
This does have a downside: If things get serious enough that they no longer fit into the light-hearted persona he’s set for himself, he gets dangerously unpredictable as he doesn’t know what levels of, as examples, fear or anger are appropriate for the situation.
Sure, he knows plenty about death and violence and other unsavory things, but it’s all technical knowledge with no emotional investment. This happens because that, which in turn causes another thing: People die because their heart stops, after which their soul is judged, and then there are specific criteria the assigned reaper follows to determine the soul’s destination. That’s as far as they’re meant to care, and as far as Dev did care until a moving picture at one of his assignments birthed a spark of amusement - his first ever emotion.
For example: If something serious were to happen to Henry, Dev would be equal parts curious, furious and terrified. His fury would go unchecked as he has no idea how to handle that emotion, and the surge of anger would scare him shitless. As for the curiosity: Why does his chest hurt? Why does he want to inflict more pain than what is necessary to subdue his opponent? Why on earth would he want to hurt someone so badly? And why does it feel good? If it feels good is it wrong? What happens if he follows through with that feeling?
Q: How does Devil get around the studio, compared to Darling?
[Context: Asking about Dev travelling/teleporting between anything "Bendy" in the studio.]
“So… That’s a thing. A thing you can do. Noted.” -Henry
A: Dev can indeed possess and move between the merchandise, but it does have a limited range and there is no hallway of doors involved; It’s completely based on gut feeling and as such carries some risk.
There also has to be enough ink available to re-form at his destination (which can leave him woozy), and it leaves behind a considerable amount of discarded ink on the origin-end which seriously contributes to the studio’s searcher problem.
Think of it more as moving his consciousness around rather than teleporting; The benefits of not having a physical object as an anchor.
(There was talk in-stream of him using pretty much anything Bendy-licensed and plushies exploding/barfing out a fully-formed Dev, but as hilarious as that would be it leaves the issue of the ink unaddressed.)
Special tags: #This poor man is going to have a heart attack #Just keel over in the middle of combat #while Dev sits there going well HONK #There goes the human #Are you happy now Darling you scared him #literally to death #I didn't do anything he just fell over #ARE YOU GOING TO EAT THAT OR CAN I HAVE IT #No Darl you can't eat the HONKing human
