Bendy and the Ink Machine Music

Date: 6/8/2020

I had a dream where I was at my school, but there were a bunch of little kids there for some reason. It was like some sort of fair; the gymnasium was filled with kids and adults (mostly in the stands) and a bunch of activities. There were kids, mostly 10-12 y/o boys, shooting hoops with basketballs, soccer balls, volleyballs, and even (at least trying) with beach balls. I was doing my regular gym class thing where I move along the edges with extremely crippling anxiety trying to avoid being hit by a stray ball, because god knows I’m not really that terrible at catching— UNTIL my anxiety takes over and tells me so, and then my body just gives up and I don’t even try, and end up swatting feebly at the ball in a way that’s probably not that embarrassing in reality but makes me, in that moment, literally want to die of embarrassment. There was loud music blasting from the speakers but it seemed to be all from Bendy and the Ink Machine, which makes sense since I’ve been replaying that game a lot recently. First the song Long, Long Forgotten came on, which in real life is one of my favorite songs and literally almost makes me cry, but which in the dream was just casually pretty for me; next was the Alice Angel tune which is played instrumentally on the jukebox-thing during chapter five, which I remember this one playing the most. There were a few others I don’t remember. I ended up finding my cousin and aunt, who weren’t in Virginia where they live for some reason, but were down visiting my family and I. Or at least I thought. My aunt told me they were moving to our state and asked me to help her with my cousin, who was bored out of his mind trying to solve a kids’ puzzle. None of the adults around could solve it, even my teachers who were patrolling this event. I solved it for him and explained how I did it as I was going (“Ooh, this piece has a half of a cow— so does that one!”) and they thanked me and I left. For some reason I was terrified at the thought of them moving down. I packed a bag full of nonsensical things from my room: a pair of my boxers that was very colorful, a big bright T-shirt, a purple, fist-sized geode that I’d gotten from my grandmother before she died, a shark’s tooth I’d found on the beach recently, and a necklace with a simple black string and a small quartz crystal attached. I also packed my wand which I’d gotten from this place that hand made them, they used clay to shape each one and painted them and used colorful glass for ‘gems’ and everything, only I kept the wand in hand, I didn’t put it in my pack. Then, I ran away. It didn’t take me long to reach the coast (which is really weird considering where I live) and then I continued out into the ocean on a boat that was sitting conveniently empty by the shoreline. I’m pretty sure I was stealing it but whatever. I reached an island a few days in, also I’d been eating fish and drinking rainwater, both of which were hilariously easy to get in the dream (though I only find it funny now). The fish would jump aboard the boat, and there was a little fire stove I’d place them over. Once cooked the scales and stuff literally peeled off like an orange skin does from an orange. The rainwater collected at night (leaving the days clear and sunny) in little collectors on-deck which filtered it into three large (reusable) bottles for me. Eventually I reached the tiny, tiny island. It was so small I could walk around the entire length in a few minutes, I could see all ends from any point; it was mostly flat and had little vegetation. It was mostly made of dark volcanic rock, and along the sides colorful sea plants grew. I hopped onto the island with my stuff and went to the other end of the island. There, I found another boat. It was even smaller than mine was, quite literally just a place for the controls and three seats in the back, and a little sail squeezed in the middle, but it was kind of cute. Inside was a goddess. I don’t know what goddess it was but she definitely was one. Her skin was brown and literally glowed, but not like harshly; just enough to be noticeable. Her smile was perfectly white but not overly so, and she had beautiful sea-green eyes with dark rims around the iris and long, dark brown lashes; her eyes themselves seemed to have almost a natural eyeliner that made them pop. Her hair was curly and black and came down to her back, though she had it put up in an elegant bun. Her clothes were simple but it looked as if she could be wearing the Adam-and-Eve-style leaves and she’d still make it look as beautiful as any gown. She was piloting the boat and seemed to be expecting me. We didn’t talk necessarily, but somehow she told me I needed to do something. I got onto her boat and she piloted us a little ways away into open sea; then she stopped the boat and told me to be careful, and to listen. I said okay, and she used a hand to tilt my chin up towards her (she was massively tall for someone so elegantly built and who moved so gracefully, like she was over 6’5” for sure). Then she looked into my eyes really intently and used her other hand to draw a pattern on my forehead. Then I jumped into the water. It was shallow at this point, and the underneath was basically real-life subnautica. She had managed to extend how long I could hold my breath for to over five minutes; I could dive deeper with ease, not worrying about pressure or whether I’d run out of air; and my vision was as clear as if I’d had goggles on. I still swam normally but that was it. I was on a mission to find another goddess. Apparently, some sort of god-equivalent of a sibling fight had broken out, and I was needed to gather them all together, because they refused to speak to one another. I swam around in the shallows searching and found a few things: interestingly magical fish with sparkly scales and eyes that watched me too humanly as I went; corals that were as big as trees, and that spiraled up and around in rainbows of color, housing many mysterious creatures; and the water itself was unnaturally clear and blue, like it was constantly that perfect sunny day you always hoped for. Eventually I reached the real-life equivalent of subnautica’s kelp forest, and sure enough there were strange growling creatures that I could hear through the grasses. I maneuvered my way through, sticking to the bottom of the kelp forest and keeping an ear and eye out like the goddess had warned me to. Once, I saw one of the creatures, but I hid inside one of the grasses (finally thankful for my small size) and waited for it to pass. There was only one close call and it was when I forgot that I did, in fact, need to breathe, but I made it to the surface in time. I also made it to a deeper (scarier) part of the ocean which also reminded me of subnautica. Here, I swam reaaaaally far down until I found a dark cave. I went inside and I was like thank god I’m not claustrophobic, then I swam through until I reached an area that somehow had air. Another goddess was there, she bore resemblance to her sister but was also different. For one, her eyes were dark ocean blue, with black rings around the iris. Her lashes were longer and darker— perhaps just because they were wet (we were under the sea), and her hair was shorter, in an Afro. Her skin was also a paler brown, probably because of where she lived (she must not get much sun, I thought). She was wearing long flowey clothes over top of a bikini, and her feet were bare like her sister’s. She seemed pissed off but she was so graceful and elegant and everything that it was hard to argue. But I managed to tell her that she should at least try to make up with her siblings and she agreed begrudgingly. But she, like her sister, told me I had to make everyone else agree first. From there I got the location of another sibling; she told me another sister lived way deeper down, at the bottom of the sea. I was like well that’s great and all but I enjoy breathing and shit. But the goddess took my chin and did that same intense-eye-stare, made a different symbol on my forehead with her finger, and boom now my breath lasted over ten minutes. I thanked her and went to the bottom and it was literally pitch black. The only light was from bioluminescent creatures, looking straight up made me wanna vomit because it was literally so far down. Sometimes I saw whales. I saw a shark but it didn’t do much. I saw an anglerfish too and that shit was scary as fuck, I went the opposite direction like nope. Soon I found yet another cave and went inside. This one was tighter and even I, the skinny small girl, almost got stuck like five times. It didn’t help that there were weird noises always happening, like groans of whales and swishes like sharks, only for me to look and see nothing but black. I once again emerged in a dry area below that had air somehow. This one had bioluminescent plants and algae growing all over to provide light. This sister was white, like she must’ve never seen the sun goddamn, but she looked otherwise eerily similar. Again, I talked her into finding an agreement with her sisters, and there was only one sister left. I got directions and was surprised, because apparently the last sister swam at the surface of the water. I had to cover a lot of ground before I found her but I managed it. The last sister looked the same except her skin was the color of obsidian, it was super dark from all the sun I guess. Her hair was wildly long in braids with golden bands. I talked to her and she agreed. Then the dream ended.