#versum hill

[wirdhere]

Made a fresh banner for my BRC OC

[literallyneurodivergentandaminor]

something something this is why hes public enemy number one

[demilypyro]

Nothing prepared me for how aggressively Dutch Bomb Rush Cyberfunk is. "Versum Hill." "Irene Rietveld." "Teun Vogelaar." Are you kidding me

[ketrindarkdragon]

Bomb Rush Cyberfunk theory time!

This one is more or less has been talked about by some fans, but I never saw any full analysis on it or anything so I'll do that

Game spoilers under the cut

The theory is that Felix is from Old Amsterdam

And here are my three pieces of evidence: 1. The Versum Hill backrooms tomb

This one is straight to the point. Felix has the same mask that the mysterious Old Amsterdam tomb has

Of course, this one has a strong counterpoint of Felix clipping into the backrooms finding the way into the Old Amsterdam and taking a mask from there

2. Felix didn't use the jetpack.

Every crew in a game uses the jetpacks... Well, except for the Oldheads! Yep, even the playable Oldhead uses the boombox as the jetpack substitute, and those dudes are all about the oldscool. And also they remember Old Amsterdam too. Which means back when the city wasn't buried under the New Amstedam, people didn't had the jetpacks. So perhaps Felix didn't use the jetpack for the same reasons. He's not used to it and prefers the old classic ways Counterpoint - there might be a million other reason why he didn't use the jetpack

3. The first dream sequence.

DJ Cyber tells us that dreams are made of things we saw, even if we don't remember about them. And later we get confirmation by seeing the level made of Versum Hill parts and we also see the fragments of memories that happened the night Felix died. But before even that, there is a small area that doesn't even look like it belongs to the game

This buildings look way too classic for the New Amsterdam. But is there any place there we still can find these types of buildings? Yes. In remnants of the Old Amsterdam under the Pyramid Island

And I don't see any counterpoints to this one So yeah, It's heavily suggested that Felix IS from Old Amsteradm. The question is how did he stay young while Oldheads became, well, older. Are those tombs actually some sort of cryochambers and one of them kept him alive and fresh? Or did he somehow time traveled into the future and now can't go back?

Maybe we'll find out in DLC or even BRC2...

[dragonmarquise]

Speaking of trauma and stuff, name all the characters you think have trauma in bomb rush cyberfunk, any crew, any reason. Feel free to use HCs and stories and fanfics to explain!!! Bc RN I am drowning in your content/pos

First and foremost, thank you for the interest in my ideas and stuff!! Even though art and fan fic writing has been on the backburner for me while I try to get the BRC wiki to a point where I can call it “finished” at least for now. So like, doing posts like this is the only way right now that I can share my stuff at the moment. ;u;

Second, OH BOY, this is gonna be a hell of a topic. Uhh, content warnings for mentions of abuse and injuries and trauma in general. I mean, given the topic, it’s definitely going to get dark. The big ones are probably going to be my 4 Devil Theory OCs, but I have some ideas for a few other characters…

Also this is gonna be VERY long just fair warning! No seriously, I think I basically wrote the equivalent of a short fan fic here. That ended up being the reason this took so long to answer. :u

Let’s start off with Felix! Since you brought up an interesting point about why he might be distancing himself from others. For other people’s reference, this is the reblog I’m referring to.

Actually let’s break this up into sections so it’s a bit easier to read, not to mention easier to get to certain characters.

Felix

So again, from your post! Felix distances himself even from friends a lot of the time, because it’s a subconscious thing where he doesn’t want to end up too attached to someone. And then hurting badly if he loses them.

Related to Old Amsterdam, maybe Felix somehow survived whatever happened that led to it being destroyed/buried and then having New Amsterdam built on top of it. The current fandom theory is that it was a giant flooding disaster. It’s mentioned in a couple of dialogs with the Oldheads that at least those three (i.e. Boombap, Oldschool, and Classic) still remember the original Amsterdam, and the way they talk, they definitely lived there for at least a short amount of time before the city got wiped out. Presumably they and other people managed to flee whatever disaster before it happened, while other people weren’t so lucky maybe?

Heck, I know there’s one particular dialog, I think from Boombap specifically, where he mentions how Felix was just a kid while Boombap himself was in his prime as a writer. Presumably back during Old Amsterdam, but maybe even during the early start of New Amsterdam?

So maybe Felix as a small child remembers the disaster, either having to stay with his parents and losing them while managing to survive himself. Or otherwise they all fled but something happened along the way where Felix had to leave by himself. There’s also fan theories about the coffin in the Old Amsterdam under Versum Hill, that maybe it was used to save him, but also kinda preserve him? Then again maybe the coffin is unrelated in that regard, and Felix has some other connection to it (maybe a very distant descendant of whoever actually made it).

We don’t know the exact time frame between Old Amsterdam being destroyed and New Amsterdam being built, other than the Oldheads being around for both based on the game dialog. Again, they mention having memories of Old Amsterdam and how it compares to New Amsterdam and all. But still, it could have been a decently long amount of time in the past, since we don’t quite know how old the Oldheads themselves are… I always imagined them in the 60s to 80s range tbh, and then most of the case being in the range of 25 to 35.

Well, okay, the Old Amsterdam stuff and the Oldheads’ ties into the game’s lore is an interesting topic, but I’m getting a bit too off-topic for this post, sorry!!

Anyways, Felix as a very young child was in Amsterdam at the time of the disaster, manages to survive, but loses his parents at minimum. That kind of loss, especially in such a presumably horrifying way, isn’t something that can be easily overcome.

But also! Here’s my additional idea for this: Felix doesn’t want to remember what happened back then. In fact, I like to think he’s repressed that particular part of his life so hard he genuinely can’t remember now. At least not willingly. Good thing DJ Cyber was helping Felix remember only the part about how to stop Faux, otherwise he might’ve seen some REALLY depressing stuff. I like to think the first bits of each dream Felix has at the end of each chapter (besides the 4th one, which just gets right into the actual dream stage) are subconscious symbolisms of those locked away memories.

The first dream has a black and white image of “Old Amsterdam”, with someone wearing his mask in a boat. The second dream has a bunch of people standing before a pyramid of stairs, and if you knock off the person at the top, the rest at the bottom start cheering. The third dream has a long line of people, waiting for something or waiting to go somewhere maybe. The fifth dream has a line of crows you have to chase away, leading up to the group of big crows that reveal Felix.

… granted I only have my own ideas of what those could symbolize, but I feel like there’s definitely something interesting there.

Anyways, as far as Felix knows, he grew up in New Amsterdam as an orphan. There was nothing else before that. Nope. But even if he never remembers the truth of what happened to him as a kid, that trauma is still affecting him as an adult.

Like what you pointed out in your reblog, I like to think Felix eventually realizing that pushing away people who care about him just to “protect” them isn’t a healthy way of handling his feelings. Even if he never remembers the root cause of why he felt the need to do that in the first place, I’d think he learns to handle it better from now on, especially with the events of BRC teaching him friendship and stuff (not quite but like, you get the idea lol).

Cueball

So now, Cueball! Oh boy, poor Cueball. He has two sources of trauma: the stuff that led to him going full-cyber, and Eight Ball being killed.

With the first, reiterating what I said in my big DOT EXE post: as a teen living in the US (or whatever is the equivalent in the universe of BRC), Cueball got COVID, and the resulting Long COVID left him in damn terrible health. Overall physically weaker, damaged immune system, some nerve damage, sense of taste and smell being messed up (“Can you imagine biting into a chocolate bar, and tasting nothing but a like, raw meat kinda taste? I still remember that. Wouldn’t wish that even on my worst enemies.”).

And his own friends being worried they might “catch” it from him too (even though it’s at the point where it’s just the Long COVID) so then this poor guy is socially isolated while he’s still getting through high school on top of all of this. Doesn’t help that both of his parents are convinced it isn’t that bad and it's just him being lazy or finding "excuses". It isn’t until years later when they finally take him to see some doctors to try and get him some kind of help, and even then, they only take him to see quack doctors that recommend snake oils over anything that could actually help him.

Even with Eight Ball eventually stepping in and helping Cueball moving away from his awful parents, seeing better doctors in New Amsterdam… and then it turns out Cueball’s condition is so severe that there isn’t much that can be done by that point. So then the full-cyber conversion happens, because from Cueball’s point of view, his only other options are to either continue to suffer, or just straight up die.

I mean, you can imagine that would leave some pretty significant trauma on anyone. But Cueball is repressing most of it. Especially since, he’s had other people pity him and feel sorry for what he went through, and he hates that. The only person he ends up telling about any of this in particular is Bō (my Devil Theory OC that I ship with him), and even then only after they’ve been dating for a while.

By this point, he’s mostly mad at his parents for letting it get as bad as it did, especially with how stubborn they were about taking it seriously at all. Not to mention, like I said in the DOT EXE post, Cueball originally had plans to becoming a chef or baker. But he couldn’t exactly do that with his sense of smell and taste getting messed up, nevermind everything else he had to deal with. There’s a bit of resentment there towards his parents, the people who were supposed to, y’know, keep him safe.

Oh also, he is dead to them. Quite literally. I imagine in some countries in the BRC universe, a person going full-cyber or even just getting a cyberhead makes the person be considered legally dead. Y’know, Ship of Thesesus, “How much do you replace of a person before they stop being the same person?” kind of thing. And if not legally, I can imagine some people just have that kind of thought towards cybernetics like that.

His parents even made a grave for him and held a funeral for him. To clarify, by that point he was already living in New Amsterdam with his brother and the other DOT EXE guys, going through the procedures to go full-cyber. He told them what was going to happen to him, and they basically cut contact and acted like he completely died.

But if he had a chance at the time, Cueball would have flown back home, dig open his own “grave”, then push his parents in and bury them alive. Otherwise, he just likes to think that if he’s dead to them, then they’re dead to him too. Hell, they probably are dead by the point of the game, but Cueball refuses to even think about them either way.

The main trauma response (not sure if that’s the right word for this?) from all this is that Cueball gets really worried for his non-cyber friends whenever they get sick. Also getting mad if they try to keep going around as if they’re not sick, “Dude!! Go rest!! You’re either gonna make it worse or get someone else sick!!”

He is also still very distrustful of doctors in general, even if they’re genuine. He goes along with Bō for his doctor visits like a bodyguard. He’s worried for his boyfriend, but it takes him a while to admit he might be overreacting.

So then besides that! Cueball also has the trauma from Eight Ball dying. Maybe he even saw it himself, I don’t think the game specifies if the other DOT EXE members were around when it happened, or if the police/Faux managed to catch Eight Ball alone and take him out then. Personally it feels more that it’s the former, like they were all talking together nearby after losing the crew battle, then Eight Ball got shot and the others ran for it before they were next.

From a different previous post of mine, basically what I’m thinking is that Cueball was not coping with Eight Ball’s death very well. At all. To the point of even making fun of Eight Ball for just dying “so easily”. Which of course pisses off the rest of DOT EXE and gets him kicked out, leading to him joining BRC to continue to try and ignore Eight Ball’s death. Even considers just deleting his memories of Eight Ball completely, even though doing so would leave gaps in his memories that are too noticeable to ignore.

Fortunately! I think he’d eventually get a better handle on his feelings and what happened, and reconcile with the rest of DOT EXE later. He still sticks with BRC though, but at least he lives with the rest of DOT EXE again.

Vela

This one is for the spring palette Eclipse member. This is gonna be a bit shorter, but mostly because, I don’t want to get into too much detail on what happened to her, since the character herself probably wouldn’t do so either, at least to most people. So, to the point: She is studying at the local university, and at one point ended up abused by a professor she thought she could trust. That guy very nearly got away with it, if it weren’t for the rest of Eclipse stepping in to make sure he didn’t.

Though even with the scumbag punished, for a very long time afterwards Vela ends up very distrustful of men in general. She does go to therapy to help cope with things at least, especially since she wants to avoid coping in a way that ends up hurting her more. The leader of Eclipse in particular, Cassiopeia, encouraged Vela to make sure to go to therapy, and of course all of them helped support her during this time too.

It definitely does help, with her becoming less distrustful over time. She even gets a boyfriend later on! After a lot of patience from him, which Vela really appreciates and loves him for. Unfortunately, the rest of Eclipse finding out about this is the reason (in my little headcanon/AU story thing at least) for them kicking her out of their crew. So then similar to Cueball, leading to her joining up with BRC.

To clarify, they didn’t kick her out because she’s dating a man, they kicked her out because she hid something fairly important from the rest of them. With what she went through, combined with the crew overall having a, well, dislike towards men in general, she was worried about what they would think of her if she told them. So kinda poor communication on both sides?

I like to think they do eventually sort things out, but also like with Cueball, Vela probably sticks with BRC for writer stuff. However, she’s still very happy to have her friends back by thatpoint!

(Also I ended up deciding that Vela’s boyfriend is someone I’ve talked about before already. Remember the guy who I said his friends joke about his “theoretical” girlfriend, because he insists he’s dating someone but they’ve still never met her? But yeah that’s probably for another post. :P )

Rise

For Rise, I think some people might debate if it really “counts” as trauma, but I think it still does. A lot of this is copy-pasted from a document that I don’t think I’ve shared publicly yet, or at least not outside of this one BRC server I’m on.

In essence, Rise was emotionally neglected by her parents. Rise's parents are the high/upper class kind of people. Rich! Snooty! Looking down on the poor! etc. They saw their daughter as more of a reflection of their own reputation and stuff instead of her own person. So plenty of criticizing her for her appearance, what she ate, who she hung out with, what she studied in school, etc.

I have a headcanon where Rise has a huuuuge interest in marine biology and ocean stuff. It’s partly why she ends up hanging out on Pyramid Island, at least in my mind! She knows a lot, possibly even more than most people who go to school for the same topic!

But then whenever she'd ramble to her parents about it, she was basically met with a lot of dismissive "Yes yes, that's nice dear" and stuff like that. And after a certain point they were like, "When are you going to be interested in something more practical? Like medical science or business?" and that basically made her never want to talk about anything to her parents ever again, let alone her hobbies and interests.

At one point they wanted Rise to get into ice skating, but only because they wanted to have the prestige of having an "Olympic gold-medalist~" as a daughter. But also making sure she didn't get into any sports that were too "masculine" in their eyes, oh no, what a scandal that would have been for these poor rich assholes!! She got into skating alright... inline skating, specifically just to spite them. From that, Rise made more genuine friends, then became a writer through that as well. Her first time getting caught by police, her parents were horrified and actually paid to get her out and scrub her records (like with what was happening with Faux).

But then Rise keep doing writer stuff, again out of spite towards her parents, and kept getting caught, etc. Eventually they just forced her to move out of London (or maybe, Neo London? Who knows how bad the floods were in the rest of the world) where they were living, and she ends up in New Amsterdam from there. They would have disowned her on top of that, but then that would be even more of a scandal in their socialite circles, oh no!! So they just quietly sent her off and even try to pretend she's just overseas studying at some prestigious university or something.

The only "contact" Rise has with her parents these days is them actually sending her money every now and then. In their mind, if she isn't something like a doctor or CEO, it means she's probably living off of dirt without their help. She always donates the money they send her to a local charity, she sure as hell wouldn't want to keep it even if she did need it.

Rise doesn’t mind if people assume she’s just some rich kid that got into writer stuff for the sake of clout/because it was trendy. She doesn’t care for other people’s opinions too much, and besides she thinks her beef with her parents is between just her and them, and nobody else's business unless she chooses to share it.

Though, even after that, Rise tends to have trouble opening up to people, at least outside of being a writer and all. Especially when it comes to talking about her oceanic interests. So like, for my headcanons she ends up becoming besties with Rave and Shine in particular once they’re all with BRC! But even then, she’s afraid to bring up her interests, and for the longest time they mostly like to talk about writer stuff or gossip and the like. She gets there eventually, it just takes her a while.

---

Now for my Devil Theory OCs! I’ve already written a lot in this post, and these four might be a bit shorter than the rest all together. Also like with Rise, this is mostly copy-pasted and cleaned up/added to from a document I haven’t shared outside of a Discord server.

Sai

He is the spring palette Devil Theory guy, and the one in my headcanons/stories who ends up joining BRC. His parents started off verbally abusive with him as a small kid, until it escalated into physical abuse by the time he was in middle school. His dad was the source of the worst of it, but his mom definitely wasn’t a saint either in all of this, being abusive as well. It’s effectively a sense of “If my son wasn’t around, he’d just go after me” cowardice, just “agreeing” with her husband for her own safety. Sai at least had Daishō (and eventually Bō and Nunchaku) to help him through it, in particular Daishō letting him stay over at Daishō's house for days at a time just to avoid his parents.

Unfortunately, the abuse still continued whenever Sai came home. Despite what was happened, back then he still had hopes that his parents might change eventually. They hammered into him the mentality of “family is everything no matter what”, and was hoping that would actually win out in the end. But then because of that, he never really fought back, thinking it would just make things worse, even once he grew older and was physically capable of fighting back.

It also didn’t help that for most of his life living in New Amsterdam, Sai felt pretty isolated. Him and his parents moved from Puerto Rico (fun fact, with a lot of maps that show what the Earth would look like if all the ice caps melted, Puerto Rico is still around since most of it is actually pretty mountainous! So not as badly affected by any potential world flooding disasters, at least compared to Old Amsterdam and other places). He gets picked on a lot as a kid for being Latino and just generally an outsider. Even a lot of teachers and adults end up not trusting him due to his “attitude”.

Daishō is pretty much his only friend for a very long time, and before joining BRC he only ever considered him, Bō, and Nunchaku as his friends. Basically, he doesn’t feel like he has a lot of other people to turn to for help. And at any rate, he wouldn’t want to risk his own friends getting hurt because of his parents. Especially since, his dad in particular is a cop, and has been using those connections to cover up what’s been going on.

This eventually accumulated into his breaking point sometime in high school. His father managed to give him a nasty cut on his lower leg, and his mother just sloppily stitched it up, seeing no need to go to the hospital (because otherwise the people at the hospital would probably find out about what was going on). Sai eventually snapped sometime after that, and beat the fuck out of his dad.

He would have done the same to his mom (who, again, was also very much physically abusive, even if not to the same extent as his dad), if she hadn't managed to barricade herself in a bathroom. Afterwards, both his parents decided to skip town out of “embarrassment” instead of trying to involve the police against Sai (i.e. realizing that what they were doing to Sai would have to be investigated as well, in a way that couldn’t be covered up with cop connections anymore). He hasn’t seen them since and plans to keep it that way.

Is it any wonder the poor guy ends up with anger issues? He at least gets a better hold of them later in life at least, especially once he joins BRC.

Bō

Bō, the blond one (winter palette for Devil Theory), mostly dealt with his mother being horribly controlling and abusive to him (largely emotionally, but also sometimes physically). Meanwhile his father was a doormat who effectively enabled her, even helping her cover up what was going on.

At one point she attempted to homeschool him to protect him from being "corrupted”. She and the father followed, from what Bō could remember, a “very strange niche of Christianity”, with confusing ideology, seemingly just her picking and choosing what she wanted to believe from the Bible (which, unfortunately applies to a lot of Christians out there, but I digress…). They never actually went to church, but she would insist they were are True Christians. Her attempts at homeschooling him were equally confusing, at least for him.

But then that resulted in Bō needing to be held back a bit once the proper authorities found out she wasn't doing a good job, and thus forced her to let him attend regular school. They tried to catch him up as best as possible, but eventually just let the schools "handle" him from there. Between that and continued abuse at home, he was all around miserable during this time. Also really not helping that he ended up with poor social skills due to how his mother was isolating him so much.

Fun fact, he met Sai and Daishō sometime towards the end of primary school for all of them (roughly middle school, from what I can tell from research?). They had planned to bully him into helping them with homework, thinking an older kid would know more about what they were studying. But then they found out about him needing to catch up on a lot of things, and actually helped him out instead! Also for a frame of reference on ages, Bō is 31 in the present, while Sai and Daishō are both about 28, and Nunchaku is about 27.

Anyways, back to the note about his mother isolating him. She would also manipulate Bō’s relationships, either scaring off other kids he tried to make friends with, making him paranoid that they secretly hated him, or otherwise making it so that he could rarely (if ever) see them too often.

Daishō and Sai were the only ones she couldn’t successfully scare off nor turn Bō against. They also helped him stand up to her and defend himself. This eventually led to Bō being disowned and kicked out of his home for being so “disobedient”, but he considers this the best possible outcome. As far as he knows, his mother and father both moved out in the country to get away from the “corrupting” influence of the city, so at least he doesn’t have to worry about ever meeting them again.

Unfortunately, he was still left with a lot of issues. One is with food. She would often say she was going to cook one thing and then make something completely different, intentionally adding ingredients or buy snack foods that he didn’t like, or add certain spices that would alter the taste in ways he didn’t expect. She did this mostly as a way to make sure he wouldn’t be a picky eater, forcing him to eat or go hungry. Even if it meant eating something that he found repulsive.

As an adult, this resulted in Bō being very, very picky about his food. He wants it a certain way, and if it isn’t the way he wants or is expecting, he refuses to eat it. Especially if it’s something he hasn’t tried before, he needs to be told what it’s like, be able to at least sample it first, and if it’s homemade food he has to trust the person who’s cooking it anyways. For ordering at restaurants, if they get his order wrong, he’d rather just throw it out and go hungry than ask for them to correct it. His friends (and eventually Cueball) have to be the ones to step in and get it fixed, even when Bō insists they don’t have to, “I’m fine, really, I’m not that hungry anyways I swear!”

Another thing is that he’s afraid of the dark. This one was a result of his mom often locking him in their basement as a punishment whenever he acted up (i.e. just acting like a kid would). He’s embarrassed that he has to sleep with a night light, or really any sort of light, but his friends and Cueball are very accommodating of that.

Nunchaku

Appearance-wise she’s the one based off of Devil Theory’s summer palette. She was born and raised in the United States, specifically in California. Her parents placed a lot of pressure on her to be successful no matter the topic (school, sports, exercising, even just hobbies), but she could never meet their standards, nor did she really want to in the first place. This led to a lot of mental and emotional abuse related to that, most of it in the form of guilt-tripping her about not being able to do “better”.

Skateboarding was one hobby she kept secret from them, in particular because she knew they would try and force her to become the next Tony Hawk or something, when she wanted to keep it as a fun hobby for stress relief. Especially given everything else they were putting her through. Another hobby was fixing machines, including cars, which she mostly did in secret away from her parents lest they try and force her to study mechanical engineering or something.

After a certain point this escalated into physical abuse in the form of pushing Nunchaku past her limits for any physical training/exercising she did for sports in particular, as well as attempts to control her health and diet. In regards to school sports, they basically forced her to join just about every sport team the school had to offer, even if she hated the sport in question. There were times she thought she would die from a heart attack or just exhaustion in general. Other times she was either actually sick or just pretending to be sick in order to get out of practice and sneak off to finally relax.

She also wasn’t having a fun time at school anyways. She was pretty open about being a butch lesbian since maybe around middle school. Her parents at first tried to discourage it, but then eventually tried to use it to their advantage. In short, her dad was a local politician, a conservative one at that, and used his daughter as a sort of “See, I’m not a bigot, my daughter is a lesbian!” thing. Outside of that they didn’t really do much to be supportive, other than not mistreating her specifically because she’s a lesbian (which is, y’know, bare minimum).

Also, they didn’t bother helping her with the bullying she was dealing with at school over her identity and her being a part of every team (most of the other kids thought she was stuck up for doing that, not knowing/accepting that her parents were the ones to force her to do that). Most of Nunchaku’s real friends were either kids from outside of her school or online.

The latter is how she ended up friends with Sai, Daishō, and Bō! It was mostly a shared love of anime between the four of them, I think I mentioned that in the big DT post a while back? But yeah, eventually they became closer friends once they realized they were all deal with shitty parents, so then deciding to stick together and help support one another.

Truthfully, her eventual move to New Amsterdam was less “just moving”, and more her friends helping her successfully run away from home once she turned 18. As far as she knows, her parents have long since written her off as a “failure” and have stopped looking for her. She’s glad that they aren’t trying to drag her back, but deep down she’s also still hurt that they just gave up on her like that, after all the pressure they put on her.

Despite the whole “be good at ALL of the sports” obsession her parents had, Nunchaku still enjoys some sports and plays games with others. She’s just, y’know, not doing it to be the best, she just wants to have fun! Though there are times where she get competitive, like with writer stuff, but at least it’s on her own terms.

Daishō

Daishō, the leader of Devil Theory (also for appearance he’s the autumn palette), has been through some awful stuff himself. Though, a big part of his problems is that he’s convinced what he went through wasn’t nearly as bad as what his friends went through. Even though, trauma is not a competition. Still, I’ll get into that a bit more later.

Anyways, starting off with the root of his problems, his rich parents had a messy divorce around the time he was in early primary school (i.e. roughly early elementary school). The parents' animosity against one another was so bad to the point where they lived in separate houses, with Daishō actually living in a house of his own. His parents wanted to see each other as little as possible, so Daishō's "own" house would be where he was dropped off when he wasn’t meant to be with one of his parents. But because of how much both of them worked (and sometimes them going on vacations by themselves), he spent most of his time at that third house anyways.

He was basically cared for/raised by a nanny and a few housecleaners at this point, and those people were certainly a lot more like parents to him than his actual parents. He still sends his old nanny gift cards and stuff for the holidays, sometimes having lunch to catch up, etc. So just to emphasize, he has no love for either of his parents in the present day.

Anyways, both of his parents tried to manipulate him, in order to get him on their “side” against the other parent. Said manipulation changed often, but ranged from bribery, threats, and outright abuse. Never physical abuse, since they were at least careful not to leave “evidence” (with them thinking poor mental health resulting from shitty parents doesn’t count as evidence of anything bad).

Daishō himself was kind of desperate to either get his parents back together and maybe somehow fix the whole mess the three of them were in, or otherwise just get them to calm the hell down and leave him out of it. Him wanting to fix things was moreso when he was a kid, and then the latter was more as a teen when he started getting sick of their bullshit. Though sometimes his feelings would yo-yo between the two.

Eventually, all of this drama and manipulation led to an instance of attempted murder by his mother on him and his father. During which his father also left him for dead. Daishō got his foot almost hacked off by his own mom, but at least managed to get away despite what happened. The only other major downside to this is that she somehow got away with it in court. That whole thing basically killed what little hope he had left for either parent.

So from there, he just decided to beat them at their own game. Manipulating them, especially getting a ton of cash out of each of them in exchange for his "loyalty", telling lies about one parent to the other as “dirt” they could use later, stuff like that. After a certain point, he had effectively scammed enough money out of both of them that he felt safe enough to cut them both out of his life. The scamming was also enough to leave them both poor as hell, especially since they continued to use their respective money to try and get back at each other during all of this.

As far as he knows, his mom went back to her home country "in shame", while his dad just outright vanished. Good riddance either way, in his opinion.

So now going back to how he thinks what he went through wasn’t as “bad” as what the others went through. Other than the murder, he thinks it wasn't as bad because they weren't "directly" abusive towards him, at least not all of the time like what the other three went through.

Because of that he feels like he has to be the one to make sure everyone else is alright and happy. He has to be the one in charge, he has to be the one to fix things, he has to be the one to organize things, because his friends deserve to have that kind of happiness before he does.

Of course, with what happened in the game, he and his friends almost getting killed by Faux has put a lot of guilt on Daishō. Especially since he was mainly the one pushing for their deal with Faux, being convinced that Faux would have their backs and they could enjoy being All City and keep having fun together. With how badly things turned out, the guilt is still eating him up to this day...

One Last Section for Devil Theory

Just going over how each of them lost at least part of their legs, which led to all of them ending up with the cybernetic legs they have in the game:

With Sai, the cut on his lower leg got badly infected, made worse from him trying to hide it from both his friends and just people in general, not to mention being worried that going to the hospital might lead to him getting arrested if they found out what he did to his dad. Eventually it got bad enough that there was no saving it and he had to get that part of his leg amputated.

Bō lost part of his legs not from anything his mother did, but while he was an adult, long after being disowned by her. It was due to an accident (i.e. a failed secret test with a walking tank, where other people got injured as well), which got covered up by the police. Bō actually isn’t even sure what exactly happened that day, no one else who got injured know either, especially not that it was because of the police in the first place.

For Nunchaku, she lost most of her lower legs due to a factory accident as an adult. With her being new to New Amsterdam once she moved, she was in desperate need of a job, and ending up working for a shady factory that had a ton of questionable dealings and safety regulations. Her getting hurt lead to many other employees quitting, because it was the last straw and a bunch of other employees also got badly injured in the same accident. It was in fact the most severe accident at that factory up to that point, which led to it being finally shut down. She now works as a mechanic at a shop run by another former factory employee who was her mentor.

Lastly, for Daishō, when his mother tried to kill him, his foot ended up so mangled that he was better off just amputating it. It didn’t help that he also had to crawl and even walk with it for a while before he managed to get it looked at. Mostly because he went into hiding for a bit because, y’know, attempted murder.

With all of them getting injuries that resulted in cutting off a foot or lower leg (I'm imagining a bit after Bō's accident, that was the last one chronologically), Daishō ends up declaring, "Clearly we're all fucking cursed, let's just get this over with already." And paid for all of them to just get what's left of their lower legs replaced with fancy cybernetics, as seen in the game. This eventually leads them to becoming writers ("With these legs we could probably manage it pretty good, right?"), and then forming Devil Theory.

Not to mention the abuse all four of them faced, from their parents, and even other people like employers as adults, led to them adopting an "If the world wants to treat you like trash, then you should be allowed to trash it right back" kind of attitude. Hence how they act as Devil Theory.

Suffice to say, a lot of the problems they caused as Devil Theory would have been avoided if they all got some dang therapy!! Bō at least went for a bit as an older teen after being disowned, but stopped after a while, convincing himself he’s “fine” now. The rest refuse outright though also insist they're fine. They're not fine. They’ll get better eventually, but it will require someone convincing them that they’re not really fine, and them accepting that in turn.

So… I think that’s it. I know this is, a lot. So much. Maybe too much, lol. But if you read this all the way through, then thank you!!

[hccupit]

versum hill broke and kept dragging me to hell

[mechanical-magician]

OK so I can't be the only one who REALLY wants to know where Felix got that mask from or what the hell it means right

Like the first memory implies he's had it since he was a little kid and hrrrrgh I need to know

OKAY SO I HAVE SOME PERSONAL THEORIES??? HEADCANONS??? IDEAS??? ABOUT FELIX

So I'm not the first person to say this/point this out, but in the dream sequences, particularly the first one, the white silhouetted buildings look FAR different than the architecture of New Amsterdam. Take note of the clock tower looking building (I don't have a screenshot sadly)

We know from one of the Oldheads that New Amsterdam was literally built on top of the old one. We see the buried ruins of Old Amsterdam below Versum Hill and Pyramid Island in those "back rooms" areas. Below Pyramid Island there's that massive clock tower, just like the silhouette of one we see in that dream.

One of the most notable features of this dream and the idea that this is Old Amsterdam is that we see that there's a massive river. A river that's nowhere to be found in the areas we see in New Amsterdam. It seems weird that the devs would include this particular detail if it meant nothing, especially when we see that the other details mean something.

A whole river doesn't disappear overnight. A whole river also doesn't disappear quickly from man-made methods.

If the oldheads are not only able to remember Old Amsterdam, but clearly spent a long time in it given their vibe, we can assume that New Amsterdam's existence HAS to be recent.

My personal theory? Old Amsterdam got hit by some insane natural disaster. Particularly, a freak tsunami.

HEAR ME OUT AND I PROMISE THIS LINKS BACK TO FELIX.

So the Netherlands is basically free from natural disasters that would cause the sea floor to come to main land in a disastrous way. No hurricanes, earthquakes are located in the eastern parts of the country, and notably, tsunamis are basically unheard, but not impossible. Therefore, it's reasonable to assume that most infrastructure wouldn't be prepared for a massive tsunami if it were to occur because the chances of that happening are slim to none.

The clock tower is UNDER Pyramid Island directly, which doesn't make a lot of sense if it was on a river like the dream implied UNLESS that river opened up to the sea and the sea level moved UP suddenly.

The buildings underneath Versum Hill and Pyramid Island are covered in debris and tilted/destroyed.

Why would anyone build a new city on top of the old one, not using any of the old infrastructure unless they absolutely had to? If the structure of all these buildings were all buried in mud and dirt and debris and any other number of stuff from when the wave(s) hit, that would explain why they couldn't use anything.

It would explain why everything had to be scrapped. Everything is new because basically nothing was left. New Amsterdam was built on the ruins of Old Amsterdam.

Soooooo what does all this have to do with Felix? Well, I believe that Felix isn't from Old Amsterdam, he's from an even older time. How is that possible if he's not old? Well, this gets into even crazier speculation, but hear me out.

By venturing in the ruins in Versum Hill, we can find what appears to be a Sarcophagus with Felix's mask on the front. It's out in the open area, and in a place where someone could open it.

What if that coffin has some ability to keep what's inside alive in a stasis state? What if Felix is from an ancient era? It would explain his fondness for older ways, like not using a boost pack. His tattoo even looks like a hieroglyph.

Maybe his coffin was opened during the Old Amsterdam days and he grew up some there? Before using his sarcophagus as shelter during the distaster?

But this is even further into headcanon/fanfictiony stuff.

So that's my INSANE theories on Felix and Old Amsterdam

[glitteraffe-art]

VINYL BRC MY BELOVED...

Vinyl is very much one of my favorite characters in BRC and she does not get enough love.

Though I originally wanted this to be more of a straightforward list of headcanons, it ended up being paragraphs of me rambling while trying explain my reasoning/analysis(?), so I can get a good grade in headcanons, which is normal to want and possible to achieve.

(Under the cut for length and for spoilers for the the story of BRC)

Overview

Vinyl’s roles early in the game tend toward covertly gathering information (observation of the Bomb Rush Crew during the first two chapters, with cutscenes showing just her shoes as she stands on rooftops, only fully showing up to hold back Red at Versum Hill) or bargaining using information (in her conversations in Millenium Mall, she mentions she knew Faux personally and hints she knows about Red’s dreams to motivate the Bomb Rush Crew to defeat DOT EXE).

She’s shown as knowing more than the Bomb Rush Crew about the whole Red situation, and intentionally keeping some of that information under wraps, though that’s specifically for Red’s safety (such as, when Red’s face is revealed, she lets the Bomb Rush Crew know that his true identity would be dangerous if others learned of it, but does not reveal who Red really is).

Later in the game, when DJ Cyber attacks her on top of Pyramid Island, he accuses her of being a double agent—which is true both ways, as she’s both acting like she’s betrayed DJ Cyber to join the Bomb Rush Crew while also actually still working with DJ Cyber, since it’s all part of his plan to get Red to remember his identity.

So, to me at least, Vinyl is a character who primarily deals in information, and leans toward being a “spy” type character.

Let’s get deeper into headcanon territory:

Prior to the Big 3 Era

Vinyl mentions she works for herself (and that this sometimes means working for others) at Millennium Mall. Plus, Tryce addresses her as “Vinyl the freelancer” after defeating DOT EXE. Because of this, I think prior to the events of the game she may have been an independent writer who occasionally worked with other crews if there was some benefit in it for her.

This also gives her a reason to know Felix, if both of them were independent writers prior to the formation of the Big 3.

Vinyl and Felix

To me, Vinyl and Felix really contrast. I’m not sure it quite reaches the levels of being foils, but their base similarities but completely different outlooks are intriguing.

I think that Vinyl and Felix have known each other for a pretty long time, of the characters who knew Felix prior to the events of the game. For one, she knows what Felix’s face looks like (which few know about, implying that 1. only close friends or people he trusts see him without it, and 2. he rarely, if ever, took off that mask). Plus, she’s comfortable enough to casually insult him (she mentions to Red that he’s just as slow as Felix in the opening of the Mataan chapter) despite the fact that other characters see him as a legend, so I feel she must have known him prior to him being put on a pedestal as a legendary writer.

Despite both being pretty independent and appearing kind of cold to others, Vinyl and Felix seem to have different opinions on trust and giving people another chance. In the dream memories shown after the Pyramid Island dream, Vinyl says she has a bad feeling about Faux, while Felix says a guy like Faux can change.

Felix chose to give Faux a chance to change, but it doesn’t seem Vinyl would have done the same in his place. Vinyl ultimately ends up accepting Felix’s assessment of Faux (i.e., to ignore that bad feeling about Faux), as she is the only one of the characters who personally knew Felix (the others being Faux, DJ Cyber, and Solace; Flesh Prince is also present but it’s unclear if he knew Felix personally) who is not present when he is murdered by Faux.

Despite being such an information-focused character, there was one piece of information she did not know—that Faux was, in fact, trouble (due to the whole framing other writers and cop dad situation thing), and that Felix knew this about Faux. If she had known this, if she had chosen not to accept Felix’s opinion on Faux, investigated further, observed more, would the whole situation have turned out differently? I think this is something that haunts her during the game, something that she regrets, and it probably makes up at least some of her motivation in being involved in DJ Cyber’s plan to bring Felix back.

On a sillier note, I think Felix and Vinyl are specifically the kind of friends who hang out by doing completely different things 10 feet away from each other. If someone asks if one of them is free, they’ll say they are busy hanging out with the other person. And they genuinely are hanging out with each other, it just doesn’t look like it from anyone else’s perspective.

Vinyl and DJ Cyber

It’s not clear how well Vinyl and DJ Cyber knew each other prior to or during the Big 3 era. But, despite Vinyl seeming pretty practical, she was totally on board with DJ Cyber’s absolutely wild plan to resurrect Felix.

I think they at least were acquaintances-turned-friends, since she must’ve trusted DJ Cyber a lot to go along with his plan.

Since DJ Cyber features a lot of vinyls on his person and just, generally, in his job as a DJ, you’d think that he and Vinyl would be more connected. In Versum Hill, Vinyl gives off the impression of being something like DJ Cyber’s right hand man (since she has a different design from the Futurism girls). In Millennium Mall, she addresses him with a sense of distance as her employer/boss, and DJ Cyber addresses her as one of his personnel on top of Pyramid Island. However, once their ruse is up, they seem to be on more equal footing than the arrangement they were pretending to have.

Since it takes a lot of dedication to keeping up a days-to-weeks-long ruse like that, I feel like the two of them are both dedicated theater kids. I think Vinyl was absolutely having a great time acting all mysterious and peppering in ellipses at Millennium Mall.

Also, since her name is Vinyl, she’s probably just as much of a vinyl collector/enthusiast as DJ Cyber probably is. They probably talk about record releases or rare finds or that one band they’ve been listening too recently in their spare time.

On a slightly related note, I think that Vinyl pays attention what bands/singers that people she’s close to tend to like, or their favorite songs. If she sees a record from that band/singer, she’d think “oh that’s the one that so-and-so likes, right?” and then buy it, with the end result being a collection of vinyls that vaguely represents her friends. Not that she was intentionally making it happen, it just did.

Vinyl and Faux

Vinyl mentions she used to know Faux personally at Millennium Mall, and she mentions that she has a bad feeling about him to Felix in the memory shown after the Pyramid Island dream. It seems that she knew him—it would be inevitable for them to meet at some point, after all, if she was hanging around Felix (and theoretically hanging out with DJ Cyber). She didn’t know about Faux’s secrets, but it looks like she was able to correctly guess he was trouble by vibes alone.

Faux is described as being quiet in Tryce’s description of the Big 3 (which is, I assume, how Faux acted when around other writers that he wasn’t close with), so I imagine that Faux and Vinyl didn’t have direct conversations with each other very much. Neither of them seem to be the type to carelessly share things about themselves, so...The situation was probably like “You’re friends with someone I’m friends with (...rivals with???), but I’m barely even acquaintances with you”, and probably resulted in some awkward non-conversations. I guess Faux probably dropped enough red flags when talking with either Felix or DJ Cyber for Vinyl to notice, though.

To me, Faux also seems to be a person who says things he thinks people want to hear, if he can get something out of them, and that he tends to be right in those assumptions (due to his interactions with Tryce at the beginning of the game). If he was Wrong about what he thought Vinyl wanted to hear, or if she at any point got the hint that he was just saying things to get something out of her with no real intent of being friendly, that’d be a pretty big red flag to her to think “oh, this guy’s Trouble” without her actually knowing his secrets.

Vinyl and Red

Vinyl is the only one of the people who knew Felix who really gets to interact with Red as Red, and not as Felix, if that makes any sense. Solace doesn’t know Red is Felix, and Faux doesn’t directly meet Red until Mataan. DJ Cyber only really interacts with Red as an antagonizing villain who shows up intermittently, and though DJ Cyber sides with BRC after he drops the ruse, it’s only after Red has remembered being Felix, and plus, he doesn’t actually join BRC until postgame.

Vinyl, though, joins BRC midway through the game. She gets enough time to get to know Red as a separate entity from Felix.

It must be weird to her, seeing Red. He looks like Faux with a helmet on and sounds like Felix with a voice filter, but isn’t quite either of those people. He asks questions a lot and gives off the impression of being quite naive. He’s technically Felix, but Felix minus however many years of experiences and successes and failures and memories is like, just some weird kid. But, a weird kid who works with a crew, which is something the Felix she knew only ever kept at arm’s length. Still set on being All City King, though.

Vinyl can be a little mean to Red sometimes, though. (like when she called him as slow as Felix post Pyramid Island). Admittedly, Red (as the Designated Player Viewpoint Character for Explaining Things To. And also the amnesia) can be pretty clueless.

Interestingly, Vinyl addresses Red as “kid”. More specifically, she says “Call me Vinyl… if anything, kid” when they meet at Millennium Mall. It seems he gives off the feeling of being pretty young to Vinyl. I don’t feel like she would address Felix as “kid”, since he’s got a beard, so maybe even from the beginning, she felt that Red was someone totally different from Felix? (As a side note, just how old is everyone, anyways?), Or, I guess it was just her part to play in her and DJ Cyber’s ruse. In order to ensure Felix comes back correctly, Red is Red, a totally different guy (until he’s not) and she doesn’t need to worry about it before then.

I think that to Vinyl, the differences between Red and Felix’s tendencies would be more noticeable than it is to, say, DJ Cyber, who doesn’t get much time to observe Red in action. Like, one difference could be that Red has a completely different center of gravity (due to the length of his cyberhead and different body) so maybe the way he does some tricks and some dance moves is a little different from Felix. I don’t think Vinyl would say anything about it during the game, but in the post-game, after Felix is “revived”, she might bring it up to Felix.

Vinyl and Tryce

As seen in Tryce’s dialogue in Millennium Mall, Tryce isn’t very trusting of Vinyl at first (due to her association with FUTURISM and DJ Cyber), but he accepts her pretty fast, especially after she smacked Escher over the head with a skateboard. Tryce seems to be pretty practical, and appears to value reliability. Vinyl genuinely helping BRC seemed to help change his mind on her.

Vinyl seems pretty focused on her and DJ Cyber’s mission (to get Red to remember) throughout the game, so I think she’d only really relax enough to become better friends with Tryce during the post-game. Since Tryce has an interest in music and mixtapes (he made the Hideout mixtape, and is a huge DJ Cyber fan), they’d probably be able to talk about the latest releases or albums. I think it’d be funny if she offhandedly mentioned to him that she got to listen to one of DJ Cyber’s upcoming mixtapes prior to release (since she and Cyber still hang out sometimes), and he’s just simultaneously Mildly Jealous and struck with the realization that he’s got friends who Casually Hang Out with the DJ Cyber, something that was totally unthinkable a short while ago. Vinyl doesn’t seem to be the type to get starstruck by anyone, and definitely not the legendary Big 3, so her lack of reaction about it would probably be baffling to Tryce.

Vinyl and Bel

Bel is a lot more willing to trust Vinyl than Tryce is during the game when Vinyl first introduces herself to BRC at Millennium Mall. I think they’d get along fine during the game, but just like for Tryce, I think that Vinyl would only really relax enough to become better friends with Bel during the post-game.

In the celebration cutscene that plays after beating the game, Vinyl and Bel are laughing while Bel takes silly pictures of Solace. I think it would be cute if they surprisingly had the same sense of humor. Bel is described as being on her phone constantly, so I think she’s the kind of person to text silly photos and memes to Vinyl. Of course, Bel probably sends silly photos and memes to everyone in BRC, but if something made Bel laugh, it gets automatically sent to Vinyl. Going by the in-game text messages, Vinyl probably responds with a text that is slightly like an email, which is funny in itself.

I think it’d be refreshing for Vinyl to be friends with someone as straightforward and openly trusting as Bel. Especially since dealing with the Big 3 (and the ensuing post-breakup fallout) was drama central.

Postgame

After completing her and DJ Cyber’s goal (reviving Felix), she seems a lot more relaxed. After the game, she stays with BRC, an interesting choice for someone who started off as a so-called freelancer. But it’s not like there’s any particular downsides to staying—she gets to hang out with people she trusts and is friends with, and besides, they’re All-City now.

Well, I guess she’s not being paid, but then again, I’m not sure if DJ Cyber was actually paying her when she was allied with him and Futurism, since it could’ve just have been something she just said he was doing, as part of the Role she was playing in her and DJ Cyber’s ruse. On that note...

Graffiti Won’t Pay the Bills

I wouldn’t be surprised if Vinyl had a “real job”, even if only part-time, on top of being a writer. I think she’d be the kind of person to try to keep her work and writer lives completely separate, with a completely separate group of friends and acquaintances for each sphere who don’t even know the other sphere exists. Given the fact that New Amsterdam is functionally a police state hellscape, she’d be pretty justified in keeping them separate. If word got out about her being a writer, the cops would probably crack down on anyone near her.

In Millennium Mall, she mentions she knows the mall like the back of her hand. If she hung out there as a writer, I feel like DOT EXE would be more familiar with her, but they don’t seem to make any special note of her. Maybe she works (or worked) at one of the stores there?

Respect Your Elders

I think Vinyl is friends with the Oldheads. I think it would be cool if she learned about the best shortcuts through the city (for traveling quickly and appearing and disappearing without being seen, of course) and the best places to observe the boroughs from them.

I could see her as a future leader of whatever Oldhead equivalent is set up in the far future, since their job is basically to Watch Shit Happen, and drop Ominous Information you didn’t know every once in a while...which she kind of does already!

You Can Say Hi

Not quite a headcanon per se, but since the one trailer for Bomb Rush Cyberfunk features Vinyl’s voice actress doing the voiceover narration while You Can Say Hi plays, I associate that song with her. Actually, prior to the release of BRC, I thought that she was going to be the secondary main character/female lead! I was surprised she was really only was introduced about midway through.

Bonus: Concept Art

Anyways, as a side note, here’s some concept art from Dion Koster (pinned on his Twitter, https: //twitter.com/DionKoster/status/1364838899659472903/photo/4, remove the space) featuring a Vinyl with reddish brown hair and a stylized Audio-Technica Soundburger record player on her wrist.

It has no basis in canon, but I’m partial to the idea that Vinyl knows how to fight with wheels of steel, but unlike DJ Cyber, who goes for long-range projectiles attacks, goes for close combat with a wrist-mounted weapon. She’s quick thinking and has a fast reaction time (she’s the first to act when Escher shows up unannounced) so in a close combat fight she’d be pretty tough to beat.

There’s not much use for a real weapon, though, if cops just run away if you kick them enough times or spray them with spraypaint and almost all writer conflicts are solved via crew battle. I’m not sure what situation she would need to use it in or what would lead her to learn to use it, but I still like the idea.

[dono-cho]

I'm kinda glad I'm not the only one who's thinking, "Oh maybe there's some kind of cult thing going on with Felix's mask and that coffin thing". Granted, I haven't talked about my own ideas on it publicly (and I'm still working things out anyways), but still!

🤝🤝The mask is way too creepy and that coffin is way too mysterious, even worse that it's so deep and hidden in Versum Hill, as if it can crumble any time. Definitely a cult? 🤔Not sure, although those are some real elaborate patterns. I can't say that "Oh Felix saw the coffin and decided to copy that sick mask design" because he was a child wearing it as well.

(also on a side note I LOVE reading BRC headcannons 😭 granted, I only know the story characters and didn't really do the whole 'collect em all' on the other side characters so knowledge is kinda half-baked here)

[magical-xirl-4]

Made it to old Amsterdam through Versum Hill 😎

[soupmode0]

What is your favourite map in Bomb Rush Cyberfunk? Whether your choice is based on aesthetic, level design, combo versatility, I would be interested! after beating the game and getting all the achievements, i've definitely found myself replaying pyramid island a lot more than the other maps, even though while playing through the story it didn't immediately appeal to me!

feel free to explain in the tags and reblog!

[danifart]

we stay winning. i am so fucking done with versum hill

[getbl4mmednerd9]

BTW yeah, welcome to my Tumblr page or somethin'. Getting there bit by bit, uh... FUCKIN',,, VERSUM HILL BACKGROUND GO

[faulix]

the fact that more people got the basket over fully tricking versum hill is driving me insane

[gorematchala]

I've got 3 characters left to unlock in Bomb Rush. I can't figure out how to get into one of the secret areas of Versum Hills, but I can see on the map there's a ton of sprays down there to do. I need those for one of the characters, and then the other two are score challenges that I'm totally capable of, but I'm really gonna have to focus hard on. I am getting better at movement and comboing though. I've been getting off my board to do wall runs and then getting back on to manual and its super fun

[mechanical-magician]

Do you think Rietveld knew how to skate and do tricks or did the crew teach her?

(( I want you to know that I had no idea you could unlock her, I was just running around in Versum Hill and when I encountered that event lol. Terrifying ))

I think Rietveld was kind of a tsundere about the whole ordeal. The BRC save her post game in Versum Hill and she's just thinking to herself "okay maybe there's something to these guys...".

Next thing the BRC knows, she just """""HAPPENS""""" to be around when they're out skating about. Eventually they offer to show her some of the basics when they realize that she's no longer hostile towards them, and she's kind of a friend?

I think she goes solo for a while, before wanting to start her own crew of other defected cops!