#But rather the idea of timeline displacement and stuff was kinda happening at the time

[crystalchimera]

Originally posted September 29 on Twitter/X.

You've got something on your face.

[banavalope]

bana, what are your thoughts on boldir's route?

Dude holy shit.

So Boldir has weirder vibes than I ever expected her to have, in like a good way. She is for sure a heart/heart player, like her sense of the self in general - herself and the self of others - is crazy intuitive.

The thing about Boldir’s route that stuck out to me and threw me off and I’m glad to see other people picked up on too so I know I’m not crazy is that she has heavy void coded vibes to her personality. The way no one seems to notice her and we feel completely pacified in her presence,she seems to like cloak our very existence when we walk with her, we lose track of time to where ten minutes felt like an hour or longer, that’s all a void thing. Last time we experienced something like that was in Amisia’s route (who I feel is a sylph of Mind for good reasons) who by caste assignment is influenced by the void. A lot of the words MC used in Amisia’s route to describe feeling calm and not in danger with her were similarly used in Boldir’s route. And that’s peculiar.

I talked to my friend @cynical-bonehead while I was playing it bc they’re very talented with classpecting, and I was like “hey am I crazy does Boldir seem like a rogue of heart to you”, bc she was reminding me of roxy, her rogue stuff was more influenced by the fact she was a voidbound but the only way I could think to make sense of why Boldir felt so voidy too was if she were a rogue literally stealing and displacing emotions. Not just that but she has all the rogue keywords in her route and literally teaches us to take for the sake of giving to others (taking the poison to give life/freedom to Ardata’s prisoners, taking the antidote to give to Boldir). They were like “No, I got Seer vibes” and I was like “I also got that, and Sylph vibes” because Boldir displays a GREAT knowledge of Heart and the self, but she also pacifies us so much we make a point to mention how crazy it is we feel so calm with her. I mention all that bc that’s the OTHER fucking weird thing about Boldir is she’s coded as more than one class, the same way she’s coded as more than one aspect.

But Boldir’s whole thing is being hard to read, MC even mentions that she’s impossible to pick up on, so our confusion as readers over her title vibes alone actually plays into that. She’s embodying several titles because we can’t fucking tell who the hell Boldir Lamati is, and that’s an extremely interesting detail about the Heart aspect that Boldir makes us aware to. Heart is emotions and the self, and being able to hide your true self the way she does posits the query specific to heartbound: that heartbound may be able to emulate all aspects, maybe even classes, at once. Titles have VERY much to do with the self, after all, so there’s no reason that emulating other titles in their entirety isn’t in the realm of possibility for a heartbound.

Like, Dirk is able to create fractions of himself for self analysis, and those fractions of himself embody some different aspect of himself as a person. Arguably Boldir is doing this too, but instead of her fractions being different aspects of herself her fractions are literally just different aspects. Fronts that hide herself. But not in an intentionally deceiving way like a Knight or in novice ignorance like a Page, Boldir isn’t trying to hide herself I think. We have a great Knight example in Tagora as someone who’s desperately trying to hide himself and Boldir is much more inviting than that. She wants us to know her, but who the fuck is Boldir Lamati.

Everyone can probably agree that the biggest, weirdest thing in Boldir’s route is her second bad ending. “Again? Must I do everything myself?” is so fucking. Alt timeline-y. When Boldir dies, the whole world around us seems to fucking glitch and break apart, and we get flooded with too much emotion about it. It’s like Boldir was in control of what was going on around us and now without her everything is crashing through like a flood breaking through a gate (but she’s not controlling everything the same way a witch would let me make that point real quick), to quote @cynical-bonehead on this and the Muse matter: “Muses inspire others about (aspect) or inspire through (aspect). Sort of like Calliope inspiring/influencing paradox space with her semi canon drawings involving her trollsona in real life events. Inspiring through her creative space. So a Muse of Heart would inspire new ideas about the heart/soul/emotions and through heart/soul/emotion. Boldir's zen attitude and her spouting her knowledge is her indirectly trying to inspire the MC about their place in the universe. Shes aware where her soul stands in the universe. Boldir's presence alone sort of affects the MC and their bearing on time.”

When Calliope dies in Homestuck all the characters are motivated and inspired since the role of a Muse tends to also be that of a martyr. Arguably, something similar happens with us when Boldir dies and almost dies - it effects our emotions in a big way. Also uh this is obviously not an accident:

Anyway this is pretty long. But to end it, honestly my favorite part about Boldir’s route are these lines specifically because it’s asking us the same question that Homestuck asked us throughout the whole story, and I’m just kinda happy to see it:

“[ You ask her if she really believes in fate — like, the two of you were always going to meet and nothing could have happened any differently no matter what you did. ]…

(hmm. well. that would imply that none of our choices matter, and that causality is inevitable. that randomness is irrelevant. right???)

[ Uh. Sure? ]…

(but that disregards our choices. fate dictates that all possibilities are, by their very nature, necessities. or rather, the choice you made was the only one you ever could make. i doubt the universe is that simple.)…

(instead of asking yourself whether you were “meant” to meet me and “meant” to be here, it makes more sense to wonder what the forces are that have conspired to bring it to being.)”

[cartoonfan7]

Random thoughts on my DC Universe.

Remember the DC Pseudo-AU I made which detailed a timeline for Batman and had some mention of stuff I was going to do in the future. Since I don’t have access to my post on The Riddler and his connection to the end of Batman (spoilers, it’s an alternate version of the events of Batman: Arkham Knight), I’m going to remake it from scratch. Until then, I wanted to get out some thoughts on this kinda-sorta AU and similarly invite others who may be more well-versed in DC lore than I, to help me refine some ideas. I might not ever write fanfiction about it personally since I’m not that good when it comes to constructing a narrative, but I can at least help build the world and give out a broad scope of the events and characters. My mad ramblings continue under cut:

I’m also taking inspiration from Justice League: Gods and Monsters and another idea for Batman, link here.

So first off the bat, I wanted to stress that the Arkham Games, or at least events highly similar to them still occur here in this pseudo-AU. Just an FYI. If I remember correctly, I believe that it was originally planned for the now-alive-again Jason Todd to be explained that he was from another dimension. I bring this up because that’s going to be my explanation for Jason Todd’s resurrection. It’s not too far-fetched to assume that another version of one of Batman’s sons got dimensionally displaced considering the bizarre nonsense that happens in the DCU. Also, like Rick Sanchez, science advances in my DCU, but never really finds the cure for death. Even the Lazarus Pit can’t overcome it. To the still alive, it only elongates one’s lifespan and ONLY brings the recently deceased back to life. Ra’s Al Ghul ALWAYS makes sure to have some Lazarus near him for this. Because I’m also planning on incorporating iZOMBIE or at least elements from it in this AU, one could argue that Jason could just come back as a revenant, but that would be at odds to the events of Arkham Knight, wherein Jason is held for well over a year (a few MONTHS at the very least) and is tortured and brainwashed into hating Batman. Plus, here Jason would have been killed when he was in his early to mid teens and by my currently loose timeline, the events of Arkham Knight don’t occur until well over 10 years later. Jason’s deceased body would be almost completely rotted away by then, assuming he wasn’t cremated by Bruce.

Brainiac, everyone’s favorite homicidal space computer, is in this AU, appearing some years after the appearance of Superman on Earth and a currently unspecified amount of time after the formation of the Justice League and it’s original seven founding members. (I love Cyborg, but why does DC keep trying to make him a founding member of the Justice League?) In this AU, Brainiac is a type of semi-cybernetic hive mind that rules the planet Colu and is currently on a warpath to assimilate the entire universe and beyond. Brainiac is above all else a scientist, so he’s also conducting a few experiments beyond that. Brainiac has allowed scant individuals from Colu a modicum of free will. They’re still subservient to him, but they have their own thoughts and feelings separate from the hive mind. These individuals are Brainiac 2 (Vril Dox), Brainiac 3 (Lyrl Dox), Brainiac 4 (Kajz Dox), Brainiac 5 (Querl Dox), and Brainiac 8 (Indigo). The other Brainiacs are either dead or assimilated Drones. Brainiac is conducting this independant thought experiment under the pretense of observing behavior, but he’s just desperately lonely and needs some kind of audience to witness his greatness. The other experiment about this is actually more reasonable. Brainiac takes cities from planets to observe the populace, both in captivity and unassimilated. He then either assimilates the rest of that particular planet’s population, destroys the planet, or leaves. (The last one only happening if Brainiac detects that the civilization he just stole from will end soon regardless if he has a hand in it. He sensed Krypton was dying, so Brainiac just took Kandor and Argo and just went on his (they’re) merry little way.)

I’m debating myself on whether I want to keep Superman’s powers dependent on the environment of Earth (yellow sun, lower gravity, different atmosphere) or if Kryptonian abilities are just an inherent part of their biology. Like, different Kryptonian castes are engineered with certain abilities in mind. Gaining MASSIVE amounts of inspiration from the Alternian Trolls from Homestuck and spin-off, Hiveswap, there are about 12 specific castes that rank from blood color, which is reflected in the color of their clothes and the different occupations available to them. I think it’d be kinda poetic if an alien as human looking as Superman still had something inherently alien about him, and I’m not about to give him horns or technicolor skin. Kryptonian reproduction (at least in Man of Steel) works similar to Alternian Troll reproduction, and those parallels are more highlighted in my AU. 2 donor parents, preferably from the same caste but it’s not a requirement, do not have intercourse, but rather literally donate bodily fluids to be mixed by an organism that acts like a living cloning facility. The child grows up not knowing who their biological parents are and people who don’t participate in donating genetic material will have police drones sent after to either collect some in person or purify the gene pool by expelling the malcompliant. As Krypton is beginning to come to an end, Lara Lor-Van and Jor-El decide “Fuck this, our world’s ending and our plan to escape the Krypton Empire is gonna go tits up, might as well create our own son and get him out of here so he can grow up to lead a better life than this.” Jor-El does another impromptu fuck you when Zod’s trying his takeover by stealing the Codex, the Kryptonian Equivalent to the Human Genome Project, with genes for EVERY ABILITY/BLOOD CASTE THAT MAKES UP KRYPTONIAN BIOLOGY, and infuses it into Kal. Although Kal-El presents as a Blue/Indigo Blood, biologically he’s a Gold Blood (Due to his parents, who are scientists). In terms of abilities, he mixes the super strength of Purple and Indigo Bloods with the flight and lazer eyes of Gold Bloods. As Kal, now renamed Clark, grows up in a small Midwestern Town, he goes through some angst regarding his unusual blood color and his strange abilities. His parents eventually tell him of his alien origins and Clark feels a need to help others. Like his arguable Marvel counterpart, Captain America, Clark Kent doesn’t like bullies or oppressors and jumps to try and defend the helpless any chance he gets. Although he’s been able to keep his powers mostly hidden, his parents are exceedingly worried about them being revealed in their entirety since they’ve the sense to realize that aliens existing could lead to bad things for their son, not to mention they’re almost constantly paranoid that government will find out about Clark and separate them. Clark’s angst about his life being a lie on account of him being an alien, along with his powers and the implications they cause runs into a head when he’s unable to save someone from a tornado. It’s not his father, but not helping is at odds with who Clark is as a person and he, soon after graduating high school, goes off on his own to ind himself. He eventually begins doing heroic acts while traveling abroad, inspiring some people the world over. He lets his powers slip up time and again, but they generally stay as rumors or urban legend until they’re eventually investigated by Lois Lane and her partner, Jimmy Olsen.

The nanite event in this universe occurs somewhere during the 8-10 years that Bruce retired from being Batman at the hands of Project Cadmus. The project, which has MASSIVE portions of it kept secret from the public, is a multinational collaboration project headed and funded by LexCorp, S.T.A.R. Labs, Stagg Enterprises, and Ferris Aircraft, among others, with a number of different scientists leading the project, these include:

Lex Luthor

Harrison Wells

John Henry Irons

T.O. Morrow

Michael Holt

Victor Fries (Contributing Scientist, Possible Test Subject)

Pat Dugan

Emil Hamilton

Ray Palmer

Silas Stone

Dr. Thaddeus Sivana

Kimiyo Hoshi

Stephen Shin

William Magnus

Kirk Langstrom

Dabney Donovan

Francine Langstrom (Assistant and Wife of Kirk Langstrom)

Victor Stone (Son and Assistant to Silas Stone, Test Subject)

Karen Beecher (Assistant to Ray Palmer)

Ryan Choi (Assistant to Ray Palmer)

Reginald Augustine (Assistant to Dabney Donovan)

Thomas Tompkins (Assistant to Dabney Donovan)

(I’d like to stress that this doesn’t tie into the origin of Mr. Freeze as his origin happened a number of years ago relative to the projects founding. He joined the project as a way to potentially find a cure for Nora’s disease and his own condition. Neither ventures yielded much fruit.)

The project’s public goals were a genuine attempt to solve various issue plaguing humanity and to try and improve scientific fields to gain things like full A.I., cybernetic implants, and to just save people and improve the world. The secret and true goals of the project were known only to a few who worked in the project and were much darker and complicated than previously believed. Like in 2014s The Flash, Harrison Wells’s identity was stolen by a time traveler name Eorbard Thawne, who, in the ultimate example of Why the fandom can’t have nice things, is currently on a mission to destroy the life of the currently soon-to-be Flash, Barry Allen. To this end, he’s manipulating events to bring about superpowers in a very Vriska-esque method of “Creating him so I can destroy him.” Lex Luthor on the other hand is worried and paranoid. During the 8-10 years that Bruce let Jim go on a joy ride in the IronBat suit, a lot of the supernatural and paranormal elements of the DCU started to show their faces and Lex naturally hates magic, especially in regards to the implications of it’s existence, and is looking for a way to counter it. (Batman and Green Arrow had some experience dealing with magic and the supernatural before the timeskip, but the statute of secrecy officially ended during the timeskip) A Mother Box was discovered during a LexCorp expidition and one of the projects goals, among the other previously discussed stuff, was to reverse engineer it or otherwise find a way to access the massive energy reserves inside it. A Father Box was soon after discovered and lets just say that “playing with fire” is now an understatement. These “God Boxes” as they were nicknamed acted like Holocrons from Star Wars except they can do A LOT MORE. The Nanites being churned out eventually and accidentally yielded the Alpha-Nanites (which bacame the basis or things like OMAC or the Metal Men), the Omega Nanites (some of which went into Cyborg and characters in the DCU that are technopaths), and Meta-Nanites (which if combined, could make someone a literal god). I currently don’t know what the actual events are or who did it, but the Nanites were eventually released in a massive explosion. The Nanites eventually permeated EVERY LIVING BEING ON EARTH. As the Nanites were meant to improve the human body, but were still (for the most part) prototypes, they could malfunction when activated, creating monstrosities like the Parasite, the various different Clayfaces, among others. They didn’t really affect Superman and other aliens since they’re programmed to affect things native to Earth. The project was later absorbed into A.R.G.U.S., an international agency founded in the wake of the disaster that’s essentially the DC version of Providence, a global agency/milita that deals with Meta-humans. This was done to offer various people in Cadmus redemption of a sort. Still, in the business of dealing with superpowers, magic, ancient societies (both benevolent and malevolent), monster, aliens, and even gods, morally ambiguous stuff still has to happen. This leads us into....

Jimmy Olsen. Did you know that in the Silver Age of Comics, Jimmy Olsen got superpowers every other week/was essentially the DC version of the Doctor with all the weirdness that went his way. This is my attempt to explain that. Jimmy Olsen is, like (FFXV Spoilers) Prompto Argentum before him, a line of clones made by Project Cadmus (the secret portion at least) made for being experimented on with specialized Nanites. Olsen was somewhat unique in that his nanites were almost like stem cells in that, unlike nanites that become unique to a specific person or type of people, his could be molded, at least temporarily, into any other type of nanites. As Cadmus was absorbed into A.R.G.U.S., a heavy moral decision of the higher ups was whether or not to continue his line and what would be done if it did continue. On the decision of putting regular humans on the front lines against the stuff the DCU has to deal with, they essentially became like Clone Troopers. One of the clones was smuggled out by a currently unknown A.R.G.U.S. scientist and was raised like a normal child. The stem cell nanites and the combat training were programmed into him during his development so they stayed. This wound up helping Jimmy during a freelance journalism career as war correspondent, which is how he met Lois and eventually got employed at the Daily Planet. My other option was to make Jimmy the human disguise of Brainiac 5 for an impending invasion of Earth that would have ended with him severing his connection to the hive mind and becoming a hero on Earth. I wasn’t sure how all that would go though.

Should Dick and Jason have two separate superhero identities or can they share the identity or Robin? I’m actually not too sure on what to do. In the case of Jason being Robin exclusively, it would make Batman more paranoid over Tim becoming Robin, which is in keeping with Batman’s behavior during the events of Batman: Arkham Knight. When he’s with Batman, I’d imagine Dick to wear an outfit similar to Batman Earth 1 as Nightwing considering what Nightwing in The Lego Batman Movie looks like. What do you think I should do? I do know that after leaving to be his own hero, which is done in a combination of Bruce trying to forbid Dick from fighting crime and a sharp increase in ruthlessness from him during his search for the Joker, (reinenting the Nightwing persona to be more independant from Batman if he had started AS Nightwing) Dick goes on to meet other superheroes like Katana, Roy Harper, among others and finds the Outsiders.

This version of the DCU runs on the Alternate History trope to an extreme with a backstory inspired by the recent Justice League Movie. See, in the beginning, as the universe began, various beings that came to embody different aspects the mind or personality emerged. One of the earliest races in the Universe met these beings and decided to collaborate with them, eventually creating the Lantern Power Batteries as these beings were pure energy. One of them, Parallax, wasn’t on board with this plan and was imprisoned alongside Ion in the Green Battery. The White Light Entity went around creating or encouraging the growth of life across the universe, at least until it fell asleep and, like Unicron in Transformers Prime, began to have the earth form around it in it’s slumber. As life developed on Earth various beings from other worlds came to Earth and helped influenced the growth of life, humans weren’t created by aliens or gods necessarily, but they certainly got as much help as they could from it. The gods and aliens were really only doing this to endear themselves to The Entity in the Earth as, while they didn’t know it was there for sure, they sensed that humanity, or at least the planet they inhabit, was special and it might do good to brown nose them. That is until a race of beings called the New Gods brought their war to Earth. Realizing that the New Gods war could destroy the planet, the various pantheons and aliens teamed up and fought them to a stalemate. At least until the newly created Green Lantern Corps stepped in. With so many united against them, the New Gods called a truce and swapped sons to seal the deal. The Guardians also shamed the aliens or pantheons who only showed up to kiss the Entity’s ass and implements a Star Terk-esque no interfering with the native life until they’re capable of intergalactic travel policy. The aliens and Gods agree and withdraw from the Earth, but not before the pantheons in an attempt to redeem themselves and do actual good, have the societies dedicated to them, like the Amazons, Atlanteans, various Mages and Wizard tribes, etc. do a King Arthur like thing, by retreating from the rest of human civilization and emerging to save them in it’s darkest hour. While some Atlanteans or Amazons emerged during the 2 world wars that occurred a really long time later, they strictly held to this rule, at least until Wizards dropped the ball and exposed magic in it’s entirety. Afterwards, the Amazons, Atlanteans, and other ancient societies slowly emerged from the woodwork, sending ambassadors and slowly reintegrating and re-conciliating with humanity.