The Cycle/novel
"We've not seen one like this before."
The article's subject originates from the Bendy novel series' continuity, which is not deemed as canonically part of the main series' lore. See Bendy Wiki:Canon for more information.
The Cycle, also known as the inky world, is a nightmarish alternate reality styled after the world of early 1900s animation. Created by Joey Drew using the Ink Machine in an attempt to recreate his old studio for a currently unknown purpose.
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 literally bring his characters to life. Still resentful over the resignation of his friend and business partner Henry Stein in the early years of the company, Joey began to hallucinate Henry being by his side as he attempted in anyway possible to keep Bendy and himself relevant following the studio's closure.
Joey would regain ownership of the Ink Machine after the closure of Gent, and with the help of Evan he would create a set of experimental glasses that would mentally transport those who wore them into the cartoons using the ink. Working at Kismet Production Studios Joey would create a show where, after an introduction in a recreation of his office, old Bendy cartoons would replay after being remade with the ink. He gave out a few of these experimental glasses to test families, including the recently hired Rose Sorenson. After the first show in January of 1953, Joey wandered and discovered a door that led him to an inky recreation of his old office.
Remarking that wandering is a terrible sin, Joey quickly left the inky world (as he called it) and began to experiment with it. First, he found a way to safely interact with the world from a distance. Upon finding one, Joey would use the Ink Machine to add more rooms to the inky world and would blame his hallucinations of Henry on the inaccuracies in its layout. The first rooms added were the foye, the recording studio, the projection booths, and Heavenly Toys. As these rooms were added, the souls within the Ink Machine began to exist within the inky world as well. Among the first creatures to exist in the inky world were the Lost Ones, the Projectionist, and the Ink Demon. Either through his own deteriorating mental health or the influence of the Ink Machine, Joey's hallucinations began to become more vivid and he would demand the assistance of those not currently work for him, like Grant Cohen and Abby Lambert.
Eventually, the test families would wander as well and find themselves trapped within the inky world. As a scientist, Joey would watch over them. After his death to the Ink Demon in the real world, Archie Carter would be reborn in the inky world as a Lost One and safely guide the test families to Heavenly Toys, where Joey would communicate to them using an audio log. Eventually Rose would enter the world to save her brother Ollie, and Joey would reveal the origins of the place and his goal to fully recreate the studio within it. He initially remarks that he isn't sure what purpose it will serve, but upon learning from Archie that those within the inky world are forced to die and be reborn in a perpetual loop he begins to form an idea. All but one of the test participants manage to escape using cartoon logic and their imaginations.
Background
The Cycle is a looping series of events, acting were everyone is forced to die and reborn over and over again. The users outside of the Machine 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, with the 3D glasses being another way to enter the Cycle both physically and mentally.
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, Searchers, and various other ink creatures. 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 the residents appear to be aware of.
Landmarks
- Heavenly Toys
- The Studio
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.
Behind the Scenes
The Cycle also briefly appears in the novel Bendy: Fade to Black whenever Rose wears the 3D glasses.
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.
References
- Locations (novel continuity)
- Locations in Bendy: Fade to Black