The Cycle

"If you expect me to take care of your work while you take FIVE, you're crazy!" - Your annoyed co-worker
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The Cycle
Canon  •  Novel
Establishment information
Established	Unknown
Location	Ink Machine
Founder	Joey Drew Gent
Appearances
Bendy and the Ink Machine Bendy and the Dark Revival Bendy: Lone Wolf Bendy: The Cage Bendy: Secrets of the Machine

"It's a cycle, Audrey. An ink-stained nightmare forever stuck on repeat. With just a pencil and a dream... and with a little help from the Gent Corporation, it came into being." — Joey Drew explaining to Audrey what the Cycle is.

The Cycle, also known as the inky world, is a nightmarish alternate reality styled after the world of early 20th century animation. Created by Joey Drew using the Ink Machine and completely removed from the flow of time, the Cycle is a forever repeating series of events designed as a torture chamber for all of Joey's mistakes.

History

During the waning years of Joey Drew Studios, Joey began to blame everyone around him for the mistakes that had led to his company's downfall, including the failure of the Ink Machine to bring his characters to life in the real world. Still resentful over the resignation of his friend and business partner Henry Stein in the early years of the company and wanting to rid the world of all of his failures, Joey Drew uses the Ink Machine to create another world, one made of paper and ink, where not only would all of his creations and mistakes would be locked away, but an ink replica of Henry Stein would be tortured forevermore in a constant, looping journey through hell.

Joey Drew would continue to operate The Cycle in his apartment beyond the closing of Joey Drew Studios, having stolen the Ink Machine from under Gent's noses. Joey would continue to alter and rewrite the "script" of the Cycle from the safety of his apartment, constantly drawing up new ideas and scenarios to insert into his inky hellscape. However, in the later years of his life, Joey found himself becoming proper friends with a woman named Allison Pendle. Through their friendship, Joey began to shed his bitterness and hatred, and one day decided to give Henry a gift - an inky, cartoon replica of Allison, to grant Henry the same guidance that the real Allison gave him.

In 1971, Joey Drew would die, abandoning both the Cycle and the Machine inside of his apartment. However, in 1972, Joey's old friend Nathan Arch would purchase his estate, which included ownership of the Ink Machine. While the Machine was being transported to Archgate Pictures, however, Wilson Arch was fortunate enough to discover the Machine on the loading docks one morning. After conducting enough research into the Machine and the Cycle, Wilson was able to discover a way to safely enter and exit the Cycle. Thanks to this ability, Wilson was able to conduct a mass takeover operation of the Cycle, artificially freezing it in place and making sweeping alterations to its script with the help of The Keepers in an effort to establish control and safety.

Wilson's plan would fail, however, thanks to the efforts of Audrey Drew and the other residents of the Cycle killing Wilson and undoing his damage. Afterwards, Audrey became the master of the Cycle, using the power of the Machine to make living inside of it more bearable for its residents. However, in an unknown turn of events, Gent would seize possession of the Machine back from Archgate.

Background

The Cycle is a looping series of events, acting almost as a living narrative. The "script" of the Cycle is able to be altered by users outside of the Machine, which can bring changes to the Cycle's events, characters, and locations. The Machine acts as a bridge between the real world and the Cycle, allowing for transfer of matter both to and from the Cycle. Due to the Cycle being fully removed from the march of real-world time, entering and exiting the Cycle has the potential to alter one's physical appearance, as seen in the case of Wilson Arch. For the most part, the residents of the Cycle are unaware of their reality being complete fiction and believe themselves to have full free will.

Environmental Design

The Cycle is a massive complex of rooms, corridors, and areas from multiple facilities and companies related to the life of Joey Drew: Joey Drew Studios, Gent, Heavenly Toys, Bendy Land, and others. An entire generation in the real world later, other locations had been added, including a mansion and a train station, though the City between said two locations consists of a replica of the GENT building and a movie theater playing "bad movies" from Bendy's silver screen career (including one titled "Temptation"), which also tie to Joey Drew's life and career. All of the environments within appear to be sketched, giving the entire realm a cartoon-like appearance. To that end, the world's color is entirely sepia, to give the appearance of rotting paper.

Society and Culture

The Cycle is populated by a distinctive race of sentient beings that do not belong to the real world, including ink humanoids called the Lost Ones. The realm's primary culture is based on New York City in its early-mid 20th century period, although the lower parts, specifically the sewers, are populated by Lord Amok's cult-like tribes. Within the Cycle are also corrupted monsters born from the ink that stains the world, including versions of Joey Drew Studios characters like Boris, Alice Angel and Bendy. All of the creatures inside are trapped in never-ending loops of their own, always returning to the ink to be reborn if they are destroyed, something that many of the residents appear to be aware of.

• Lost Ones - The ex-human ink entities and one of the main populations of the Cycle.
• Searchers - The quadrupedal torso-shaped ink creatures born from the Ink Machine.
• Demons - Cartoon entities based on Bendy. The Ink Demon himself is the most known individual of his kind.
• Wolves - Cartoon entities based on Boris. Known individuals include Buddy Boris, Tom, and the mysterious Borkis.
• Angels - Cartoon entities based on Alice Angel. Allison Angel and the corrupted Alice are the only known individuals.
• Butcher Gang - Corrupted versions based on Charley, Barley, Edgar, and Carley.
• Caricatures - Based on the individuals of the real world. Although, while some were actually replicas (such as Henry Stein's ink replica and Joey Drew's memory), there are also humans who visit the Cycle from the real world, including Audrey Drew and Wilson; once entering the realm, it will change their appearance to resemble cartoon versions of themselves.

The Ink Demon is considered to be the undisputed ruler of the Cycle, with all Cycle residents understanding that his presence is something to either be feared, worshipped, or both.

Landmarks

• Lost City
• Gent Headquarters/The Pit
• The True Ink Machine
• Heavenly Toys
• Storage 9
• Artist's Rest
• Animation Alley
• Wilson's Retreat

Ecosystem

Main article: Flora and fauna

Much like the real world, the Cycle supports other life, both fauna and flora. In contrast to the real world, such lifeforms are cartoon-like in feel and/or made of ink. The known plant life includes a stalk of leaves in various sizes, sunflower-like plants, etc. Known animal species comprise the ink versions of fish, crows, and the dangerous Ink Widows.

Colors

The Cycle's color is generally composed of sepia-like tints and shades, mostly in yellow, tan, orange, and brown. Black is the realm's secondary color, relating to ink in every form, the environment's outlines and shades, as well as void-like areas. However, rust-like red is occasionally used to represent blood and injuries, especially in the Cycle's later years.

The only time the Cycle has had a full range of colors was when Wilson had control over the Cycle. From within his laboratory, Wilson conceived iridescent-like colored materials in pursuit of his goal to create his own version of the cartoon world, using it to paint a full-colored picture of his character Shipahoy Dudley, who was created to replace the Ink Demon's reign. The creation of Shipahoy Dudley was done partly with said colored ink as well, resulting in a hybrid of both regular and colored ink. After Wilson's defeat, the fate of the colored ink remains to be seen.

Behind the Scenes

The Cycle is the primary setting that appears in almost every game of the Bendy franchise ever since its debut in Bendy and the Ink Machine, with the twist of its existence revealed in the said game's ending. The realm also briefly appears in the novels.

Development

The Cycle's unique visual style came from theMeatly experimenting with the idea of what it would be like to walk through a drawing, with the narrative of a timeloop coming from both theMeatly and Mike Desjardins' love for timeloops in stories.^{[Citation needed]}