#;lore

TRANSCRIPT

HEAR THIS, CIPHER! THIS MOMENT IS A NEXUS EVENT, AN INFRACTION POINT BETWEEN ALL TIMELINES. YOU MUST CHOOSE TO TURN BACK NOW. IN EVERY REALITY, YOUR COLLISION WITH EARTH CAUSES CHAOS AND DESTRUCTION ON AN UNFATHOMABLE SCALE!

OH NO! NOT CHAOS! I HATE THAT! LOOK NICK JR, I HAVE IT ON GOOD AUTHORITY THAT THIS PLANET IS GOING TO SELF-DESTRUCT EVENTUALLY, SO IT MIGHT AS WELL DO IT WITH ME AS BOSS, RIGHT? HOWSABOUT WE DIVVY THIS REALITY UP? I’LL TAKE EARTH, YOU CAN TAKE ALL THE GAS GIANTS, AND I THROW IN THIS BLANKY.

A SEDUCTIVE GAMBIT. BUT FOR THE SAKE OF TIME, I MUST RELENT.

WHAT DO YOU WANT? SODA? I CAN GET YOU SODA. EVEN IF YOUR MOM SAYS YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO DRINK IT, I CAN GET IT.

I WAS NOT BORN YESTERDAY

OH HERE WE GO

I WAS FORGED IN THE CRUCIBLE OF REALITY ITSELF, THE LAST SURVIVOR OF THE WAR OF THE TIME GIANTS. MY CELESTIAL CREATORS, GRANDFATHER AND GRANDMOTHER CLOCK, GIFTED ME WITH THE BURDEN OF PROTECTING THE TIMELINE FROM THOSE WHO WOULD DARE UNWEAVE IT.

AWW LOOK AT THAT! YOU SPOKE WITHOUT SPITTING UP ON YOURSELF! LOOK SIPPY CUP, IF YOU’RE SAYING REALITY ISNT BIG ENOUGH FOR THE TWO OF US, I AGREE! YOU MIGHT WANNA PUT ON A SAFETY HELMET BECAUSE IM ABOUT TO FIND OUT HOW SOFT BABY SKULLS REALLY ARE.

A FOOLISH STATEMENT. I CANNOT BE KILLED.

WANNA BET?

Ciphers henchmen circled. The Time Agents grabbed their Time Tapes. Time Baby sighed, the weight of the multiverse on his doughy shoulders.

I KNOW YOUR CRIMES, CIPHER. TAKING A NEW HOME WILL NOT MAKE UP FOR THE ONE YOU’VE LOST. WHAT YOU DID TO THE COUNTLESS SOULS OF EUCLYDIA-

Cipher stopped in his tracks.

YOU CHOOSE YOUR WORDS VERY. CAREFULLY.

Ciphers henchmen murmured amongst each other, confused. They seemed to have heard conflicting stories about Bill’s past.

“You said you liberated the people of your dimension-”

LIBERATED THEM FROM THEIR BODIES!

DONT LISTEN TO HIM! HE’S A BABY! HE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HOW TO SAY SPAGHETTI!

I DO TOO

SAY IT

…

PASGHETTI

(TO THE TIME AGENTS) YOU’RE REALLY GONNA FOLLOW THIS GUY?

(SHAKING HIS HEAD IN DISTAIN) WHAT WOULD YOUR PARENTS SAY IF THEY COULD SEE WHAT YOU’VE BECOME. WHAT WOULD SCAL-

ENOUGH TALK! READY TO BE KNOCKED INTO THE LITERAL ICE AGE?

I DO NOT WISH TO FIGHT YOU CIPHER.

Time Baby slowly began to remove his gauntlets.

BUT A BABY’S GOTTA DO… WHAT A BABY’S GOTTA DO

Cipher and TB lunged at each other. It was hard to see the exact nature of the time fight but there were a lot of clocks, portals, and paradoxes involved. At one point someone used nunchucks made out of two Abe Lincolns, and there was a moment where they both clipped through reality jostled the card carrier in Dennis’s backpack. But ultimately Cipher’s henchmaniacs dealt TB a devastating blow. We Time Agents were leaderless, forced to regroup back in 20712.

But we knew this wasn’t over.

No…

On: running away

Blitzo has always viewed himself as being redundant in any position and relationship dynamic he finds himself in, even when all signs point toward the opposite. As a friend, as a lover, and as a boss/worker, there's a deep-seated sense of inferiority which consistently drives him to both overcompensate, self-sabatoge and, in due course, flee from the relationships (and projects) that he takes on. It's a vicious, horribly destructive cycle which dates back way into his early childhood.

The mistreatment he suffered at the hands of his father (and to a lesser but still very much damaging extent his mother) coupled with his obvious favoritism for the vastly more successful Fizz and Barbie did Kickstart his issues of self-worth for sure. If it had only been a matter of parental neglect he could've likely bounced back and gone on to live as a relatively functional adult—but growing up on stage where his deepest insecurities were constantly substantiated by his audience crushed his spirit in an irrevocable way.

Having undiagnosed autism (something that his parents should've and could've picked up on very early on but alas) definitely played a major role in the disconnect that developed between him and the other two thirds of the triad. Without the tools and understanding that could've helped him become more alert to their shared struggles he became increasingly emotionally alienated from his sister and then boyfriend Fizzarolli.

Because i haven't done so in awhile, lets begin...and with about 3 characters in one. One of which may be familiar to those who know me, but all will be explained beneath the cut --

        To be a Ranger, one must and can only be a Dúnedain, a descendant of the Númenoreans who dwelled in Arnor. This is non-negotiable. One cannot simply decide to become a Ranger and join them unless they are a descendant. This title belongs only to them because it is directly tied to their heritage and blood.  This is not a job or a class thing (ie, a hunter), like in D&D (which is directly inspired by Aragorn). Even Elladan and Elrohir, who have been alongside the Rangers since Aranarth became chieftain, are not considered Rangers despite all they’ve done.

        What we also know is that nobody in the North, save for the elves of Rivendell, really know anything about the Rangers. Everyone has forgotten who they are, and are very mistrustful and suspicious of Rangers and want very little to do with them. There’s a huge amount of quotes I have saved that directly support this, but Aragorn’s speech during the Council of Elrond sums it up best:

         “...Peace and freedom, do you say? The North would have known them little but for us. Fear would have destroyed them. But when when dark things come from the houseless hills, or creep from the sunless woods, they fly from us. What roads would any dare to tread, what safety would there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the Dúnedain were asleep, or were all gone into the grave?       ‘And yet less thanks have we than you. Travellers scowl at us, and countrymen give us scornful names. ‘Strider” I am to one fat man who lives within a day’s march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruin, if he were not guarded ceaselessly. Yet we would not have it otherwise. If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be secret to keep them so...” - Aragorn, FOTR (242)

The Relics are not your friends.

Oh, to be sure, they were created to aid humanity and to help them progress to a remnant of the glory that they once knew, but an important distinction has to be made. A distinction between the Entities that inhabit the Relics, and the Relics themselves.

The Entities, such as Jinn and Ambrosius, are the personalities inhabiting the various Relics. They’re in the driver’s seat, so to speak. They are the consciousness, the “soul” (though whether the Entities themselves actually have souls is a matter of debate) of the Relics. They handle the nuance of the requests they receive, they’re the creativity behind Creation, Knowledge, Choice, and Destruction.

Think of them as the A.I. operating a supercomputer.

The Relics would not be able to get anything done without their Entities, but the power itself does not come from the Entities, it comes from the Relics. But the Relics are not conscious. They are not sentient. They are essentially machines. Machines on a level beyond anything the human mind can comprehend, powered by divine providence, but machines nonetheless.

Why make this distinction? The Entities are bound to their Relics, a part of them, so why get so specific? There can’t exist a Relic without its Entity, right?

Wrong.

Oh so very wrong.

There is another facet to the Relics which rarely gets commented on. While any one person being able to encounter each Entity and make note of certain patterns is highly unlikely, keen observers will note that each Entity has chains and shackles on their persons. This is not coincidence or mere aesthetic choice.

The Entities are prisoners.

The Relics are their prisons.

The implication is obvious. Prisons do not come into existence with prisoners. When the Relics fell to Remnant with Ozma those many thousands of years ago, the Entities as we know them did not exist. The Relics were hostless.

So where did they come from?

The simple answer is that we, that is being Doctor Ksenija Sydren and myself, do not know. The only Entity that we have any knowledge of their past on is the Entity most eager to sate the curiosity of man, Jinn. Since the revelation of the secret war roaring in the background of history was revealed to the world during the Fall of Atlas, much research has been poured into this subject. Suddenly, confusing aspects of history and mythology made far more sense.

Jinn has the distinction of being an important mythological figure in her mortal life: Amateru, the founder of Mistral. Usual mythological sources also attribute to her the role of “goddess of the sun”, but as we can see, that was a bit of an exaggeration, to say the least.

Still, the revelation that Amateru was a real person who existed and did quite a bit of what her legends claimed was a bit of a smack in the face for historical scholars. But we know all of this because the Entity of Knowledge told us about this and then claimed to be her, along with the tireless work done by Doctor Sydren utilizing her psychometric semblance on the Lamp.

Some have accused Jinn of lying, but all the evidence that we have about the Entity of Knowledge concludes that she is physically impossible of lying. We’ve gathered up records of every question that she’s answered as we possibly could, and then the answers to those questions, and near as we can tell... There’s not a single mistruth among them. Doctor Sydren’s research corroborates the tale as well.

So here’s what we can glean:

After the founding of Mistral and towards the end of her life, Amateru happened across the Relic of Knowledge. The Relic, at that point in time, was hostless. Whether it previously had a host that somehow escaped the Relic or whether Amateru became the first host is unknown. Regardless, when the former slave queen touched the Relic... well, something happened. Obviously. The exact process and transformation is not privy to us as of yet, but it is at this point that Amateru vanishes from the historical record and Jinn enters it.

Assuming that the rest of the Relics act like the Relic of Knowledge, that has vast, troubling implications. That means that every Entity was once a mortal who came into contact while the Relic was hostless and became trapped inside, thrust into a role that they likely had no knowledge of. Stuck for an eternity.

As stated before, the Relics themselves are amoral divine machines, likely merely following a sort of programming directive. It does beg the question, though... Is there some sort of screening process for a compatible host? Or is it simply the first sentient being to come into contact with a Relic?

We don’t know.

We likely won’t know until Jinn becomes active again in the next century.

Efforts have been made to approach the other Entities and get their perspective, but the other Relics have been staunchly guarded by their protectors, and rightly so. Still, it makes the scholarly pursuit of knowledge... frustrating, at times.

I know that this is a lot to take in, but I will conclude this lecture by leaving you with this thought to ponder over the weekend:

If the Entities are prisoners, is it possible for them to escape?