#the cyclebreakers au

[nno-user]

- Hey, psst, wanna ask my Henry's questions? They're all ears.

- Look at them! Them 💕

———

- If you have any questions (hint hint) or requests, check out my inbox!

[reanimationstation]

some more cyclebreaker zoo stuff that spawned from discussion on what would happen if sam met bendy!

au belongs to @angelofthepage :]

[angelofthepage]

Have I still not managed to share the Cyclebreaker Zoo AU here? Do we need to remedy that?

[ask-the-friendly-ink-demon]

Why was she even here? How did she get here? Oh right. She forgot. The attempted knock out gas. That huge lost one. Backtracking. Evading another ink demon with bendy. And discovering an shocking truth about her friend. And finding an whole prison, and having quite the chat with someone else that was like her in a way. All to just end up getting caught and knocked out roughly by the same ink demon that Allison warned her about when she was reaching what she assumed was the way out, she didn’t know how long she was awake for after getting off the train, having followed Wilson, blocking out the noises that the lost ones made as the so called keepers tortured them. After a while they had reached what she assumed was Wilson’s refuge, Audrey gulps slightly as she sees that thing again, that freaking second ink demon, trembling a bit as it stared at her while Wilson was talking, the only sounds it made this time were it’s heavy breathing, which almost seemed like it was on loop, like a distorted growl almost. The way it looked, the way it sounded, the aura it was emitting, it was all wrong. It felt so so wrong, like it shouldn’t even be allowed to exist, and yet it is. Now she understood how bendy felt when it had cornered them. Bendy. This thing, while it was a bendy, it wasn’t the one she knew. This thing. Was a husk. An corrupted shell, mixed in with tainted ink and blood, she trembled further as it’s unmoving grin widened slightly, the young animator needed to find a way to distract herself, to calm herself down, glancing over towards Wilson’s direction. “Sooo… uhm…. What’s the story with this guy?” She asked, with Wilson blinking as he stopped talking about his plans, glancing over to her, humming “why my dear… it is my masterpiece…. When I found the ink demon, and tore him in two, I meant it. The ink demon that roams around the studios is the main threat. But this one. This one was seemly on the verge of dying…. So.” He hums lightly, grinning a bit “so… I simply made some upgrades…. It took a bit… and a lot of effort… but eventually. I got there.” He said, grinning “I have finally made a weapon capable of dealing damage to the ink demon. Soon enough, with it by my side, you and I audrey. Can finally bring law and order to this place, and to fix all of our problems, for good.” ….greattttt, she did not like this, gulping a bit as it stares slightly more, before eventually it clicked and moved on away as she breathes out a sigh of relief as it lumbered further, breathing normally as she blinks, staring at Wilson as he motions her to follow him, she looks on back, watching as the ‘friendly’ ink demon was just staring at them, Even when they eventually got out of it’s sight, it simply gurgled slightly, turning around and continuing on walking, doing what it always does, patrolling, and making sure the studios is kept in order, grunting lightly as while making it’s way into the library, it twitches, glancing upwards seeing two Keepers suddenly falling down from above. Making an alarmed hiss, the once friendly ink demon tilts it’s head, grunting and hissing before it sees what had done it, the ink demon itself. The lord of ink jumping from where it was briefly brutalizing the keepers, clicking slightly as it twitches, slamming it’s clawed hands into their backs, ripping out both of their spines, their inky bodies melting and being absorbed into it. The ink demon stares at the smaller demon when it finally noticed the other, the two staring at one another, their unmoving grins twitching Slightly, the lord of ink growled lightly “foolish child…. You cannot remain separated from me forever…. Sooner or later…. You and I will be whole again…. And so much more…. This world… this domain…. Is MINE…. My KINGDOM.” It said, as the once friendly ink demon twitched slightly, both staring blankly at one another. before seconds later, both suddenly roared loudly at one another in pure rage, and without a second to lose, the two demons lunged at one another….

--- of things yet to come.

[timelessxmemories]

So, if I may take the liberty of refreshing your memory, in my AU, instead of Light and Dusk being in the same position as the player, it’s the Entity, who was, in a way, their predecessor in an ancient cycle created by Light and Dusk in the desperate attempts to replace the being that created them (and possibly also the Valley), whom they accidentally caused the death of an immeasurable amount of time ago. The game would have multiple endings:

- The One Of Us Ending would be the game’s bad ending. In it, the player does not deviate at all from the path set by Light and Dusk and has extremely minimal interactions with the Entity, leading to them not learning any of their companions’ story. Therefore, Light and Dusk would ultimately convince the player that the Entity is the enemy holding the Valley in its static state, and the final boss battle would be against him. The player can win or lose this battle; winning results in a cutscene in which the player takes the Entity’s power and continues the cycle, but both outcomes end on a black screen with the text ‘At least one of us could be free.’

- The Cyclebreaker Ending is the game’s ‘neutral’ ending. In it, the player sees some of the companions’ story, just enough to know the Cycle exists, in which case the option to ‘break the cycle’ appears just before the confrontation with the Entity (completing the One Of Us Ending at least once will cause this option to appear automatically on all subsequent playthroughs). Upon pressing this option, instead of backstabbing the Entity, the player uses their weapon to break the chains binding him to the cycle, initiating a boss battle against Light and Dusk with the Entity as your ally. Upon defeating Light and Dusk, the Entity thanks the player for breaking the cycle, tell them he’ll take care of the Valley for now and sends them home to their original world, while cryptically implying that, if they were ever to come back and look really closely, perhaps they could give everyone the ending that was truly meant for them…

- The game’s true, good ending is the Constellation Ending. It can be accomplished by exploring as much of the game as possible and collecting a series of hidden items relating to Light and Dusk’s past. When the ‘break the cycle’ option is selected with all of these items collected, final battle against Light and Dusk does initiate like normal, but instead of attacking the player is able to use each of the hidden items and convince Light and Dusk that it’ll be better not only for everyone else, but for them as well to stop living in the past and to move on with their lives (the Entity also refuses to attack in this ending and will focus on supporting the player instead). The game ends with a montage of the player, the Entity, Light and Dusk taking care of the Valley together and repairing the damage caused by the cycle.

WAHAHHGG YES YES YES I STILL LOVE ALL OF THIS SO SO SO MUCH. its actually kind of funny because for a while my brain kept relating this exact au of yours to the canon storyline, I kept going: 'nono. isn't the entity trapped in the cycle??' and I kept mixing my lore up with yours so for a while that's how it went, and then when I looked back at the canon storyline I had a sense of deja-vu where I was all like: 'hold on. wait a minute.' but I just, augh, your whole au of this still holds a near and dear special place in my heart so so much, I care it, very, very much!!! its so important!!!!/gen

[the-horror-show]

Hey, hey, what's up with the piss powers? 👀

"you are so lucky that your very far apart otherwise i'd bash your brains in. AND IT'S NOT-... CALLED THAT! I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE HELL IT'S EVEN CALLED! DARK PUDDLES? BANISHMENT? HOLY POWERS? GOLDEN INK?!?!?!?! I- OUGH!" she rubs her forehead, grumbling a tiny bit as her eyes glowed slightly "you are so very lucky. to whoever sent this. pray that i don't find you and send you back to the dark puddles myself." she said, sighing lightly "but for your information, i don't know that much about this power, all i know is that it adapts to anything new that is given to me, originally i was able to banish people, and then, i was able to move faster due to a fellow survivor. and then, i gained some kind of... durability? from some crazy lost one that thought himself to be a king. and.... that's it so far." she shrugs, huffing lightly as she crosses her arms "apart from my own little tests with this, unlike Dot and Mila, who are still learning.... im the most experienced and possibly the strongest with this... odd power... that even the ink demon seems to fear. which is surprising since the dark puddles belong to him.... very weird." She said, huffing lightly as she shakes her head, crossing her arms a bit "anyways. they are able to make weapons, while im also able to do that, but mainly able to make an bow and arrows. sometimes coat my own gent pipe in the powers, and-" she pauses, thinking for a moment, huffing at she shakes her head, staring blankly at the camera "very rarely, i am able to see... well... odd messages on the walls... various messages that only certain eyes can see. i don't know what most of them say but. to whoever is leaving them. good luck. i know that im not getting out of here anytime soon... not unless i. continue on with whatever games this demon is playing. and get answers from wilson." She said, huffing as her eyes glowed, frowning for a moment, just pondering slightly

[linkzac]

we are gaming rapidly.

[trashboatprince]

A Bendy one-shot written here on tumblr by me? In the year 2022?

It’s more likely than you think!

So, now that BATDR is out and my friends have finally seen it/played it, I can finally sit down and write up this one-shot I’ve had in mind! I’ll probably even have more in the future, if I bother to sit down and think on things more.

Warning: contains spoilers for the actual story of BATDR, au post-ending, this is a comfort fic, no serious angst, headcanons

On with the fic!

--

The room with the piano and the fish tank was Henry’s favorite place to draw.

Often, he was left alone, but sometimes Audrey or Allison would come and spend time with him, and Bendy, when not around his friend, would sit himself down and play while Henry worked. More often than not, Boris would nap in this room too, but people usually left him alone when he wanted the privacy.

From what he was told, it was about three months since the new cycle started and things were, for the most part, better for the studio. Depending on who you asked.

Many of those who lived in the studio accepted that the Ink Demon was ‘gone’, none of them knowing where he had gone to except for those small few who knew the true nature of Bendy. With the Ink Demon out of sight, many of the Lost Ones decided to try and rebuild their little societies in the studio, though many branched off into little factions, like before.

Many still believed the demon to be lurking, and sided with him, not with Audrey, not with the new writer of the story. Sammy seemed to be in a sort of limbo, he was... better, but would often go back to the music department somewhere in the studio and spend his time there with Jack. Though sometimes he would show up unannounced to the manor and just go find Bendy.

From what Audrey said, Sammy would just sit there with a banjo and music sheets, working, while Bendy would watch him with curiosity. Then he’d just leave, never saying much except a thanks and a good bye.

Alice... well, Henry hadn’t seen much of her since the cycle restarted, but he thinks he hears her singing from somewhere much deeper in the manor. He avoids the original library at all costs, Audrey says it’s for the best. 

Allison and Tom come and go, they live in the manor with the cyclebreakers who decided to occupy it, but often they’re out helping where they can and taking down those who want to cause trouble. And to fight any of the Butcher Gang members and Searchers that are still out there, trying to kill anything that moves, be them Lost Ones or cyclebreakers.

The Projectionist, now in one piece, went off to wander the inky halls, sometimes Henry saw him walk through the city streets, his light illuminating the road, a bag in his hand, dragging on the ground. Henry had learned quickly to not question the contents, he had a pretty good idea. 

Then there was himself, Bendy, and Audrey. 

Henry had nowhere to go, he wasn’t really a set character in a location, he was a wanderer, he was a character but not one meant to only occupy select places in the story. With the expansion of the studio, the story, Henry was given freedom.

To a point. 

He wasn’t the real Henry Stein, but he was real enough to be his own person, and Audrey told him so, believing that he still served a purpose. He was, in a sense, a writer like her, someone to weave the story. He could help her protect their friends, the people of the studio, from the machine. From any other people who wanted to twist the world even more.

Henry found he could help with his art, he was helping with repairs, with providing things for those who wanted the help. And he did it from Wilson’s old home in the studio, which the cyclebreakers took over. Betty seemed to accept this, though they had to wonder if she knew the truth of her creator.

Henry hadn’t seen what became of Wilson, but from what Audrey said, it was better that he hadn’t. Especially since they weren’t sure if he was truly dead, did anything ever stay dead in the studio?

Audrey lived in the manor with the others, though she came and went from the studio to the real world. She had a life there, but she always returned here. Sometimes Bendy followed her to reality, but often he stayed behind, spending his days acting like the Li’l Devil Darlin’ that Henry designed so long ago.

He was curious and cute, much different from the demonic being that haunted Henry’s dreams even now. It was amazing they were the same being.

Pausing in his sketching, Henry looked over at Bendy, who was sitting on the floor of the piano room. He had toys from Heavenly Toys with him, a train and a few plush toys. He was making the train drive around the plush of himself before sending it sailing across the floor, where it hit the leg of the piano. Bendy clapped, happy with his little game, before he paused, going still.

Henry knew what this meant, it was Bendy listening to any little noise he could pick up. Like his other self, the demon had extremely excellent hearing, always seeming to be aware of someone’s arrival before anyone else. A wide, toothy grin came to Bendy’s face as he got to his feet, turning to Henry. He lifted his left hand and moved it in a spiral-like motion.

“Oh, is Audrey back?” Henry asked and Bendy nodded, holding out his hand for Henry to take.

Bendy didn’t seem to speak in this form, even though he could talk. Henry and Audrey wondered if it was because of his powers being restricted in this form, or if he just chose to be quiet due to what happened to him when he was in the hold of the Keepers (who seemed to be in hiding, somewhere, hopefully much deeper in the studio). 

Still, he had his ways of communicating. He whistled a lot, which helped, and made little noises like hums and squeaks. But now he was learning to do hand gestures and signs to speak. Audrey’s was meant to be like the spiral on her hand, Henry would be a drawing motion. Boris and Tom both shared Bendy pretending to make ears out of his index fingers, but he bent one for Tom.

Allison got Bendy making a halo over his head with his fingers, but Alice was Bendy covering half his face with his hand. Sammy was just covering his whole face and making a very sharp whistle. Betty was Bendy holding his hands in front of his chest, he was still learning to do others, but people got the gist of who he was speaking to, about.

They walked out of the room together, just as Betty was approaching. “Oh!” She stopped. “I guess Bendy heard Audrey’s arrival?”

“Seems so.” Henry smiled and was pulled along still, the now-trio making their way to the manor’s kitchen, where they found Audrey. She had shopping bags with her, from the real world, meaning that tonight’s meal wasn’t going to be made from whatever was found here in the city.

Which was great, because Henry really didn’t want to eat meat from the city, especially after learning of... well...

“Hey, you two!” Audrey smiled, golden eyes glowing brightly. “Guess what we’re having tonight.”

Bendy looked even more excited as he ran over to his friend. He cupped one hand and then used the other to pretend to mix something in an imaginary bowl. Henry wanted to roll his eyes, that was the first thing Bendy showed them that he was referring to something. 

Bacon soup, of course. 

Audrey smiled at Bendy before turning to Henry, her smile looking a little more apologetic. “Sorry, Henry, but he’s been asking. And besides, I brought fresh things with me, none of that canned sludge!”

“Well, anything is better than that.” Henry replied as he approached, lifting Bendy up to set him on the counter while Betty moved to get a pot and a frying pan out. “Do you want to help us, bud?” He turned to the demon, who happily nodded.

“Great, you can help me with cutting up the bacon then, Audrey can do the veggies.” Henry smiled and moved to get a cutting board.

It was different, finding himself in a new loop but without the horrors, without the threats on his life. No cultish musicians or deranged angels, no monster wolves and demonic beasts, no words from an old friend that forced him to go through Hell over and over.

It was surreal and hard to get used to after so long, but Henry could get used to this, if it meant he could rest, he could be happy. 

--

In case you’re wondering why I mentioned Boris, he can be found in the game, but he’s basically a blink-and-you-miss-’em Easter egg. I’d like to think he wants to just stay outta sight, outta mind, since Henry isn’t with him. 

But anyway, I mainly wrote this for my friends, because we just want good things for Henry, okay?

[magiefish]

Heyo it’s been a very long time! I’ve been screaming over Batdr and now I’m having an overflow of ideas for my AU (idk if you remember it).

What about you?

I had a period of around a day of losing it over the game but I think I’m chill now. I can’t say that BATDR is objectively good but it’s definitely The Most and I appreciate it for that. Bit disappointed that more characters didn’t return and that it didn’t build more on the lore from the first game: like, guys, I don’t even know how Lacie Benton died and you’re telling me there’s an ink city based off a real city in the outside world that has ghost trains like ???? All it would take is one audio log to accomplish and you already have her voice actor on hand like c’mon it’s not that hard (obviously there are other things that didn’t get answered but I just used that as an example). I had also hoped to see more of characters from the last game in the aftermath of Wilson’s takeover - Like, how’s the Ink Demon cult faring?

OH YEAH, NO INK DEMON CULT?? LIKE NOT EVEN A BIT??? They literally had another cult living in the sewers it would have been so easy to just put any remaining Demon cultists there and it would have made sense too I just AGHHHHH. They did my boy Sammy so dirty - like yeah there were some characters from the last game whose stories felt largely resolved already like Buddy!Boris and The Projectionist that they didn’t need to feature and I’m happy they left alone but SAMMY?? INK DEMON CULTIST AFICIONADO?? FORSAKEN PROPHET??? YOU REALLY COULDNT THINK OF ANYTHING BETTER TO DO W/ HIM THEN HAVE HIM SHOW UP ON A BALCONY AND THEN WILHEIM SCREAM DIE?? There were literally so many interesting directions to take his character and they gave him zilch, nada. I’d even be happy if he just stayed behind glass being sad and we found a letter nearby talking about his loss of faith and lack of purpose - that would have been a good conclusion to his arc. Or even if he joined in W/ the others in the fight. But no, they just made him a joke. Also Malice - I’m happy that they gave her some closure in the form of the moment with Allison, but it’s weird that she didn’t remark at all on Wilson’s takeover. Like, she just shows up as if she’s been dropped in directly from Chapter 3 of the first game, completely unaffected by her time likely imprisoned by The Keepers or the Ink Demon’s absence. Like, you’re telling me the Ink Demon ‘died’ and she didn’t even try a little coup?? Ms Malice ‘torture device creator girlboss gaslight gatekeep manipulator heart eater elevator dropper’ angel didn’t take one look at Wilson’s scrawny ass and said ‘oh yeah, I could take him’.

But, the game had a good emotional core to the story and I liked all the stuff to do with the Cyclebreakers and the Keepers and Wilson. The new technology using colour was a really neat visual, and the whole trapping and documenting subjects thing really scratched the Southern Reach-Control-SCP part of my brain. Honestly, kind of wished all the areas in the game were larger. Each had neat ideas and I feel like if they just had more time to breath it would have elevated them, but as it was it felt a bit like ‘ok heres this cool thing ok done now go here new cool thing ok done let’s go new thing go go go’. Joey was fun in this game but I still don’t understand why he was an ink ghost. Really liked The Ink Demons character in this one too, like *chefs kiss* he has issues. Call him the new projectionist because he sure is projecting hard right now. They should honestly rename this game to Bendy and The Daddy Issues because that accurately sums up the entire thing.

Overall, I’m satisfied but kind of disappointed. Audrey is best girl and I hope she and Benders go get ice cream together.

Honestly, I don’t think it’ll change my AU that much? A lot of the story already kind of aligned with what I had so while I’ll probably add stuff from the game (e.g. Betty and Wilson) to my AU it doesn’t really mess it up either? If anything it makes it easier because it’s like ‘cool, canon characters who fulfil the same role I was going to have to make up a fanon one for anyway, neat’. Definitely going to be incorporating the Keepers, Wilson, and Benders tho, that whole part of the game was cool as hell. Idk if I remember your AU that well but I’d be happy to hear about some of your new ideas too.

[nno-user]

- Silly cyclebreakers!

- I don't really ship characters but the meme reminded me of them so I wanted to draw it. So here they are:

- Old man protecting even older man 🫶

[nno-user]

Speaking of your Ask all your Henrys are they able to communicate with each other properly(Since bendy Henry is technically mute)

(I changed a little details in their color scheme, just for those who pay 1,000% attention to the designs.)

[nno-user]

If you guys do have a favorite thing what is it? from where you are or somewhere else.

- "I have this sketchbook, they gave it to me in prison."

- "My trusty axe."

- Train.

- (Apologies for the horrible quality, I don't know why it came out so bad.)

[nno-user]

(I dunno if anyone has asked this yet, but I’m asking anyways-) What do the Henrys think of chocolate cake? I feel like it’s a universal BATIM/BATDR question, lol.

[nno-user]

- BATIM/BATDR doodles

- I don't have any completed art right now, so have some of these doodles I don't feel like completing. (Make sure to check out some art I HAVE finished 👍)

———

- If you have any art requests/ questions about anything then check out my inbox!

[nno-user]

- "Is it normal for blood to be inky?"

- The cyclebreakers AU doodle I made.

Ink removed;

- Time taken; 57 minutes

- Layers used; 10

[nno-user]

- I didn't expect as many questions as I got, apologies if I can't respond as quickly as I would like!