#keyblings

At least these two fashionistas can recognize style when they see it! 🤍🌹

Now destroyed

Seeing this truly broke my heart because there's just so much history and care put into each one of their tiny homes.

Showing Bronze Silver's house was partly what made him begin to trust the humans, accept their help and offer his. Showing him the way it lit up with the star shaped little lamp was basically his first approach to modern technology.

Goldie's castle was made by Pru with so much care and it's just such a lovely demonstration of their adorable big brother/little sister dynamic.

And then there's Terrance... I really really hope that they can get Terrance back, but if that's not the case, I know we'll miss him just as much as Bronze will.

(a theory by four sleep deprived people)

Chat, there are many mysteries that plague the CB Fandom. But one stands above the rest.

That’s what this post will try to tackle. After months of research, analyzing, and the collective brain power of four people who stay up well past midnight, an answer has been reached. That’s right, this is a collaborative effort between @cookieboojar, @sketchingjuliet, (a secret member who wishes to hide in the shadows) and myself. I may be writing this theory out, but none of this would be possible without them. So sit back, eat a snack, and let this theory sink in (this post is a lot and will seem all over the place, but I promise this is a meal worth cooking, no matter the chaos).

Keep in mind that we’re not philosophers or experts in any way, so take everything written here with as much salt as you’d like.

One mystery haunts the narrative, that being “Why was Buddy chosen to be the new Villain Key?”

However, when asking that, we flop into an even bigger question. Why did the Villain Key, Onyx, break in the first place? These two questions cannot be separated, because when discussing one, the other pops up. Considering both mysteries were introduced in the same arc, Little Shadows (keep that arc title in mind, I will come back to it), I don’t think it’s a coincidence. Maybe the key (heh) to solving both mysteries is to treat them as a connected thread. An action, then a reaction. Onyx broke, and so he chose Buddy to fuse with, fixing him.

Out of all the Ex Libris Members throughout the years, why him?

It was theorized by Ex Libris that it was due to him committing a burglary. He embodied a villain then, yeah? So that must’ve been the reason. But was it? Actions and intent speak louder than words, especially in this series, and Buddy is as evil as a grumpy wet kitten.

How come no one in that cult got picked? They were treating the keys like crap their whole lives! I’m pretty sure wishing selfishly and using the fog on the keyblings to force them to sleep is considered, “embodying the selfishness of a villain”, in front of the Villain Key! Especially while opening said jar! Ya know— the same jar that holds both the key and the fog! Stealing silverware and a bedazzled candelabra because you're in debt pales in comparison to that junk.

It would appear that Ex Libris is bad at self-reflecting.

Clearly, committing selfish and evil acts while opening Onyx’s glass coffin isn’t the cause. But maybe, to know what is, we should zoom in on the moment it all happened. The scene of the crime, if you will. All investigations start there. Let’s think like J.B Fletcher and look for the little things.

Kay, now that we have the crime scene fresh in our minds, let’s take note of what we know and see.

Our favorite thief broke in at night, and it seems Ex Libris had a curfew. So Buddy was the only human in the library.

The library was dimly lit. The only light source was that glass cicada.

The jar was kept in a cage-esque case, and the keys seem to have been kept on the shelf below it. The case was a deep blue with fancy gold decor, and a key was needed to open it.

It seemed Buddy was at eye level with the jar before “opening” the case. Since Buddy is around 5’9 to 5’10 (175.9-177.8 cm), the case was somewhere in the 6 to 7 foot range (182.88-213.36 cm). It’s a fancy bird cage that's sparsely filled. Why get a big case if you're only gonna put a creepy jar and a box in there, for the dramatics?! This fucking cult, Chat.

The jar is fucking huge. Like, ew. It’s like a human heart.

Buddy saw the jar, then said in narration, “It felt… Like it saw me as well. Like it spoke to me.”

Bro then proceeded to pry apart the bars and grab it.

He knew he shouldn’t open it, he felt it, but he did.

As soon as he removed the lid, a bright teal light engulfed him.

The jar fell to the floor with fog seeping out.

Buddy was nowhere to be seen, for the fusion was completed.

There are three elements of interest: Buddy, Onyx, and the cicada jar. The three interact and cause everything to unfold. Buddy said he and Onyx were aware of the other. He was lured in and compelled to open the jar because of him. Interesting assumption, but not one without any reasons.

Something was in that jar, that being Onyx. So, it stands to reason that he would be the one to choose Buddy. Since he was the Villain Key, the qualifications to enter a book were applied in Ex Libris’s theory. He chose Buddy because he committed a selfish act right in front of him, like a villain. There’s just two problems with that assumption that are actually one problem, but it branches out.

Onyx and the fog were roommates (Oh my god, they were roommates).

Boom! A fourth element!

It was established a little after the fusion that the fog puts keys to sleep. Now, Onyx snapped like a twig when he was forged, so he never woke up. He was then put into the jar so he wouldn’t break further. The fog prevented that further damage. Onyx was engulfed in it. When Buddy was inside that jar, he couldn’t see shit, and sleep would quickly befall him because the fog does that! ONYX WAS IN A COMA SURROUNDED BY HEALING SLEEPING GAS IN A DARK SPACE!!! HOW COULD HE SEE BUDDY IF HE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE DEAD/ASLEEP?????

We know what happens to keys when they crack. It was established before we learned about their ability to make outfits. Silver couldn’t wake up. She was only semi aware of being used in a book. But she was rusty and made this happen:

Beyond that point, she was sleeping beauty, and her injury was a crack. Onyx’s bottom half completely escaped the narrative at spawn. No amount of wishing or Narratonin could fix him.

Silver and Buddy were the first keys Chase ever met, and both of them were damaged. So I don’t think it’s a stretch to consider Silver’s experience with cracking to be too different from Onyx’s. When keys break, they go into a deep coma, no matter the severity until they are fixed. Silver didn’t know a human was around her until she was used for a book. Beyond that, she was asleep. There was no fog used on her the entire time she was cracked since Buddy and the jar were separated from everything.

The keys aren’t all-knowing, unless in books, and I don’t think Onyx could see beyond his coffin (yes, being in key form, the waking world can seep in, but I’m referring to the jar). If keys go to sleep when broken, and the fog puts them to sleep, along with the jar being a dark void inside, then it stands to reason that our suspect couldn’t have done it. Buddy couldn’t see beyond the jar. He didn’t know Violet was there until he was freed. Yet, we know that Buddy and the culprit saw each other before it was even opened. Onyx may have a motive, but he didn’t have the means or opportunity to do anything. Bro was clocked out good. Unless he was a ghost, the evidence present doesn’t line up. Buddy establishes moments after fusing that he couldn’t see shit and felt like he didn’t exist. Silver established that keys sleep when broken. Time flies for them, and they don’t catch everything. So, by that logic, Onyx couldn’t have picked Buddy. He wouldn’t have known Buddy was even there. The evidence for that is far too high.

With this added information, we’ve gotta ask the question. Who chose Buddy? Well, it can’t be Onyx. So let’s take a look at his wispy roommate. Yes, I’m dead serious. This fog is more mysterious than the keys themselves. We don’t know jack about it beyond what it can do. But, if we look at how it’s presented and how Ex Libris treats it, certain things become apparent.

It’s teal and glows.

It’s kept in that jar.

It has an effect on the keys.

Ex Libris treats it carefully and doesn’t like wasting fog.

This means that either Ex Libris can’t make more, akin to how they can’t make more keys, or it takes time to make. It’s clearly connected to Narratonin, since it’s the same color. It has a healing factor at most, and a stabilization effect at least because it prevents Onyx from breaking further. So, it’s not much of a stretch to consider that the fog might be Narratonin as a gas. Considering how you can drink Narratonin, it’s a liquid. It acts like water to a degree. But it could be akin to a Noble Gas. The fog is magical teal Poppy Gas either way, except I’m more concerned about the former because it’s eldritch in nature. It really feeds into my fear of the unknown with its association with the void jar.

But, now we have to ask, how did Ex Libris turn Narratonin into a gas? I don’t think they did. Think about it, they treat this fog like expensive gold paint. They either stumbled upon it via magic meddling, or found it in their back yard and don’t have a way to create more. If Ex Libris could make it easily, they would just use it all the time and never negotiate with the keyblings to turn into their key forms. Because of that logic, and how the keys react when in contact, I think the fog came first. Ex Libris, found this fog somehow, began experimenting, and the keys were eventually made after the fact. They’re also kept in the same case so, clearly, they’re connected. Silver said in season one, episode nine: Silver, that Ex Libris discovered it.

So, it stands to reason that this fog was that discovery. They just couldn’t replicate it with a snap, or maybe not at all. There would be more fog if they could.

Now, let’s address the elephant in the room. Is the fog sentient? Is there any proof? For starters, Buddy was just as confused as the rest of us, so it wasn’t him. I already established why Onyx couldn’t have done it. The fog is the only one not accounted for.

We can see a teal light emitting from the jar. It is ever present in the entire crime scene. Buddy saw a teal light, and was compelled to approach. We can see the fog in the jar, and since it's glass, it must be vice versa. The fog takes up the jar almost completely, that’s why no one can look in or out.

The keys are very much sentient. So, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the fog is sentient too. Or connected to something sentient. If books can be theorized to be sentient worlds, then so can the mist. We don't see much of it in the comic, but the little we get tells us how it works and acts. It seems to slowly accumulate more of itself, since Ex Libris has used it for years. Just keep it in the jar, use it wisely and rarely open it, and you won’t need to make more. The jar is like a terrarium. It keeps everything inside, building up condensation, and allowing the fog to build up its body after use. That would make Onyx the plants in this analogy, but that’s not important. I’ve already shared how it’s similar to its liquid counterpart, so I won’t repeat them. But they are connected. With that in mind, let’s go into the symbolism of fog.

Fog is depicted in many myths.

The Mists of Avalon and Féth Fíada are some of the most famous depictions of it. But fog is very much a recurring motif in stories around the world, because duh. Where there is water, there is a cloud. It’s often depicted as a veil between worlds, a way to hide magical beings and gods, or a place for ghosts to chill. Symbolically, fog can represent the nature of existence, the unknown, and hidden paths to one’s destiny. It’s used so much in stories it’s often overlooked symbolically and historically to just be a vibe setter. But, considering what CB’s fog can do and its connection to Narratonin, it’s important. How important remains to be seen.

Now, I may joke about Onyx being dead, but he isn’t. He just needs to be fixed, keys can’t die. So I don’t think his spirit is seeing through the fog, though it’s possible. But ghosts aren’t the only entities to use fog as a veil.

This was a screenshot from one of the first trailers for CB. It’s on Punko’s Instagram if you're interested. Though many concepts have changed, that gold substance is still meant to be Narratonin. Punko changed the gold to teal. But the design still intrigues me, especially the center.

Now, call me a dramatic bitch, but those look like the eyes of an eldritch horror sent by a god. Biblically accurate Angel looking ass. And wait— hold the fuck up, those eyes look like Buddy’s, similar blue and everything!

Wait-wait-wait, what did Buddy say he felt like during the crime? “It felt… Like it saw me as well. Like it spoke to me.”

Chat, there was something inside that jar before Onyx, that something being god’s fart. ⭐️💨

Now, I’m not saying that the fog is a god, but a veil to look beyond. Fog in myth often represents the space between worlds, otherwise known as the Gray Zone. That could be why the jar is a void and nothing changes inside, it’s a liminal space. Since the fog is trapped, there isn’t anything to travel to. All entry points besides the lid are closed off. There’s no room for inter dimensional travel. But that doesn’t mean something can’t look through it like a peephole. Two things can be true at once. A veil can be a way to hide and travel to other worlds, and a way to hide supernatural entities.

Let’s look at how the keys’ magic works: Touch a book, a keyhole appears, and both Keyholder and key can go inside. While the keys are in books, not playing a character, they can see the whole narrative. When a key plays a character, they can see the narration too. That is pretty omnipresent, godlike, if you will. Not only can they travel to other worlds by creating keyholes, but they can see that world’s story from start to finish. If the fog is truly a space between worlds, and Ex Libris based the keys off their research on it, then that would explain how they got that power. Like the entity behind the veil, the keys can see all, and in certain cases, change the narrative. But only if they leave the space between Earth and the book and are fully immersed in the story. When the keys are in the book, they can only change outfits and can’t see what they’re Keyholder is doing. But, when they play a character, they can’t make an outfit. However, they can be more active in the story. There is a limit to what they can do, but the keys are still OP. Even the Keyholders are akin to gods with this context.

All that junk was to establish that the keys are godlike in nature. If Ex Libris unknowingly tapped into the power of a god of sorts, then their abilities align with their origins. 1 + 1=2. If that fog was found first, and it's connected to a god of sorts, then it’s still connected to said god. Wishing and stars are also connected to the divine, but I’ll save that for a later section.

So, if Onyx didn’t choose Buddy, the only other suspect is the fog. A.k.a., God’s fart. If the fog chose Buddy, why? What about Buddy made him the chosen one? Bro was an orphan living on the streets. He used vulgar language (I say, like I don’t swear or compare the fog to a fart), had no standing in society, and lived by stealing and fighting. He called himself a survivor, which is a perfect word for him. He isn’t perfect, he just wanted to live when all the odds were stacked against him. He had no friends or family, either. Buddy has blue eyes, but that isn’t uncommon. Black hair is also common, and he’s as white as a vampire… Same. Bro looks like a standard anime protagonist, or a Duke from The North in a Manhwa that lost his title. He’s plucky, sassy, blunt and didn’t like anyone until he met the keys and Chase. But he was and still is a great thief.

Okay, so bro had a lot of growing to do, but nothing about his past sticks out just yet. Maybe, we need to look at our favorite broken key. Why did Onyx break? That’s what started this chain of events. If he didn’t break, none of this would have happened. So why, out of all the keys, did he not form properly? One out of twelve is quite a crazy percentage. Were the ingredients used to make him not up to snuff? Was the magic too much? Or was he missing some key (heh) component, unlike the others?

By looking at the other keys, we can see they’re composed of three components:

Magic.

A unique metal for each key.

A unique gemstone each for their eyes.

In terms of ingredients, we know that Onyx was made with both a black metal, and onyx, hence the name. Besides there being a moon on his back, there isn’t any proof that he has moonstone eyes. In fact, his eyes are more akin to onyx than moonstone. But let’s focus on the gemstone of the hour. The Mohs Scale of hardness puts onyx as 6.5 to 7, the highest on the scale is 10 for a diamond. That’s pretty low. If his eyes are moonstone, that doesn’t help his case because moonstone is 6 to 6.5. That’s pretty damning if the gem is the reason. But if we look at Violet, that idea falls apart. Her gemstone is akin to opal, its hardness is 5.5 to 6.5. By that logic, she should’ve been the one to break instead of him because her gem is weaker!

Now, we don’t know the specifics of how the keys were forged, but something happened that made the Villain Key incomplete. Because if we look at his broken form, the bit that makes a key a key is missing.

Bro lost half of his body. Furthermore, we don’t see his bottom half until after he and Buddy fuse. This indicates that he was forged and came out incomplete, meaning there was an important component that was missing. The other keys didn’t have that problem, so why him? What did Buddy have that Onyx needed when the others didn’t? What ingredient was he missing, because it was clearly something critical. Buddy completed the soup somehow! I guess sassy street orphan was the missing ingredient after all, Chat.

But seriously, the solution is probably in plain sight. Let’s look at the keys and how their magic works. There’s gotta be a correlation. We may not know all the roles of each key, but the few we do know could help us.

Little Silver: The Heroine. She allows her Keyholder to be the female lead. Her main specialty is undetermined.

Bronze: The Helper. He allows his Keyholder to be the sidekick/helper/guide. His specialty is unknown.

Big Gold: The Hero. He allows his Keyholder to be the main male lead, especially one with heroic attributes. His specialty is unknown.

Violet: The Villainess. She allows her Keyholder to be the villainess or mean girl. Her specialty is changing her Keyholder’s appearance.

Buddy/Nox: The Villain. If he could turn into a key, his Keyholder would be the main villain or male antagonist. He can break keyrings and chains.

Rose: The Lover. He allows his Keyholder to be any character with a deep passion for someone or something. His specialty is unknown.

Patina: Unknown

Ruby: Ruler (look at him)

White Key: Mother (look at her)

Blue Key: Unknown (wiseman or magician, probably)

Copper: Rogue (look at him)

Stripes: Jester (Fool or jester)

Besides Silver, Bronze, Goldie, Violet and Buddy, each key is an odd archetype. In the modern sense, having a Lover, Jester, and Rogue archetype is odd. But in the past, it wasn’t. Words change over time, so these archetypes still exist. However, looking over the list, The Lover Archetype gives off Tarot vibes. The Jester too, to an extent.

A big factor in their magic is wishing.

The plot wouldn’t be a plot without it. Stars are the biggest motif in this series besides the moon. What does one wish upon? A shooting star. Wishing in CB is done via a jar of Narratonin and the Twelve Keys. Wish upon the Twelve Keys with a full jar as an offering, and you’ll get whatever you desire. They’re connected to stars with that logic, not to mention one key has a star on his back. Blue Key, our beloved. Also, the spell circle necessary to enact the magic has stars in it. Clearly, the keys are connected to stars. Tarot is too, IE, the Star Card.

That’s not their only connection, remember how Silver made Chase fall from the sky in the first book he went to? Well, she must’ve used a memory of hers to make that moment occur, since she was rusty and the environment doesn’t match the book at all. That scene is akin to a meteor falling from the sky. If that is truly a memory, then Silver and the keys came from a meteorite that fell many centuries ago. Thousands of years, most definitely.

Interesting factoid about meteors, they’re known as wishing stars when they enter Earth's atmosphere, because of their tail. If they hit Earth, a meteor becomes a meteorite. Furthermore, they are believed to be a reason we have water on the planet, creating life. Narratonin is akin to water, and since humans can naturally make Narratonin, we could assume that this meteorite had an effect on human evolution. Also, meteorites leave behind vapours on impact. They can even leave behind crystals like peridot, and metals like iron depending on the type. What are the keyblings made of? Crystals and metals. Remember, Ex Libris couldn’t make more keys, they had no way to. What if that’s why? They used up the remaining parts of this space rock after doing research on the fog, creating the keys as a conduit to collect more Narratonin once they had a base understanding. If the fog came from this meteorite, then by proxy, so did Narratonin and the keys. Everything lumps together in this one origin point. It all started with this special shooting star.

Shooting stars are considered to be symbols of hope, transformation, destiny and wish granting. They have deep connections to the divine in many cultures. They were seen as gifts given from above to guide humans to their fates. With all this fate and divine talk within this mess, surely there has to be a thread connecting stars and character archetypes?

Well…

If we were to look into Jung’s list of archetypes, of roles that he believed were recurring in every story, we’d find that they fit surprisingly well with our keyblings. Especially since they’re often connected to the Zodiac.

Now, most of these are very straightforward, they perfectly match the roles we know or suspect those keys cover. But then we see that Bronze is left with the role of sage, which can be perplexing at first but makes sense if we take into consideration both his wise and effective pieces of advice to Deacon and the trials he puts humans through to earn his wisdom. Silver is dubbed as innocent, which despite all her moments when she shows to be much more than that, still does very much define her as a character. Violet is the creator, which can fit if we consider her inventive spirit (she’s the only key who has decided to consistently alter her appearance in some way, see the glitter treatment, and she’s very particular about the outfits she makes for her holder) as her creativity.

And Nox being the regular person, or everyman, shows us exactly why the Jungian archetypes are vital to explaining how he became a key.

Now, there isn’t a villain or villainess role in Jung’s list, on the surface. But they are present on the wheel.

There is a spectrum between good and bad within these archetypes. They’re more flexible and layered than they appear. Just like the keyblings. As stated earlier, Silver isn't as innocent as she appears. She lied to Chase when she could have been honest. Hiatus also showed that, given a chance and reason, she’ll commit a crime and frame it on someone else. In A Murder, Unfortunately, she was covering up a crime too. Considering how many times she’s been dropped from a high place in this series, I think she deserves it. Furthermore, she cracked! Girl deserves a vacation! She’s been a victim to gravity far too much.

Violet watched as all her plans fell into ruin via Chase Hollow visiting the library (rip). She destroyed the old man’s plans by escaping, and broke a snow globe to steal a crown. Villainy is often associated with destruction and death, no matter the gender. She was fighting for Nox to be an immortal human so he wouldn’t die before he revealed what he truly wanted. After that, she became a little more accepting of death, at least a little.

Bronze is wise, but he isn’t quick to act like the rest. He is defiant and guarded, like Violet. He’s often cryptic with his advice, but will be blunt when pranking someone. He goes for the gut when he wants to trick or get back at you. If there is a scheme going on, Bronze is nine times out of ten on the side of the schemer (or is the schemer). He’s not really an elitist, but he’s definitely more than wise.

Goldie is dynamic and bright, basically a himbo. He’s eager to jump into action and help others, but he didn’t have a group to hang out with. Silver and Violet talk shop on outfits. Buddy, Bronze, Stripes and definitely Copper are always involved in some sort of crime. But in Off Hours (I), he admitted to Prunella that he struggled with the same things she did. Goldie struggled to make friends in the beginning, despite being The Hero Key. However, his emotional intelligence grew over time, and now it’s one of his greatest strengths.

Each key is connected to multiple shadows on the wheel. If Buddy is the Villain in the Shadow Archetype, that implies he’s on the outer wheel too. The moment his flashback started, we were shown which one. His past reveals this world’s magic system all the way down to the physical and mental level.

The Everyman archetype has many names depending on which chart you look at, but they all mean the same thing. The Orphan, The Seeker, and The Citizen all imply being born, experiencing life, while also being of non royal blood. Each Key can fit their archetype without the need to have experienced life or have parents. But The Everyman? The Orphan? The Seeker? They have to seek belonging, lose parents, and be a regular person from birth. Buddy meets all these qualities down to the letter. He’s low class, had no one, and needed money to survive. But more importantly, he wanted to belong somewhere, to someone.

This archetype needs to be human in nature. Because what’s more human than wanting? To search for belonging. Buddy does all those things. Why no Ex Libris member was picked was because they didn’t fit the archetype of a normal person. They were detached from ordinary human problems and couldn’t (or chose not to) understand them, but Buddy wasn’t like that. He was a human with flaws and only wanted to belong in a world far bigger than him. That’s all he’s truly wanted. He was an orphan who lived on the streets, he experienced life and just did his best to live. He was as grounded as one could get. He understood humanity on a personal level, he understood desire like how an average individual would. Not like how those rich fucks at Ex Libris did! For they had removed themselves from the “hero’s journey”, from the human process of growth they instead bypassed through wishes.

That’s why Onyx broke, there was a missing ingredient, and that ingredient couldn’t be replaced by magic alone.

No, this ingredient needed to be a citizen, a seeker, an orphan— a person who never had an easy way out. The Keys can’t be orphans, they need parents first. They aren’t human. They aren't normal citizens. They didn’t seek for more until later in their lives because they belonged with each other. Buddy didn’t have that.

The journey of the Regular Person Archetype is to find belonging. That’s been Buddy’s whole story arc. Bro was literally chosen because he was an orphan with no place to go. A street orphan was the secret ingredient!

The arc, Little Shadows, was telling us right in the face to look at Buddy’s shadow. Jung himself didn’t create the concept of the twelve archetypes present here, a scholar who studied his work, Carol Pearson did. She made it to give a more practical explanation to Jung’s work that can be applied when writing characters. But his work still deeply applies here. In Jung’s Method of The Psyche, some of the original archetypes he came up with were made to help understand humanity in both consciousness and unconsciousness:

The Self: The unified mind of a person, both awake and not.

The Persona: The mask someone wears when awake in the world.

The Shadow: The repressed and sleeping parts of us, hidden aspects of our personality and what have you.

The Anima and Animus: The Anima is the unconscious feminine energy in men, and the Animus is the unconscious masculine energy in women.

In Little Shadows, we see how Buddy views himself, the mask he puts up, and what he desires yet surpasses. Through this revelation, we see Buddy’s shadow, his past. He holds multiple secrets at once and suppressed his desires while putting on a mask. His entire villainsona is a front. He’s been told that he’s nothing but a villain, so he believes it to be true. But deep down, he’s deeply heroic and self sacrificing. It wasn’t until he met Chase that the mask started to slip. By the time we reach Little Shadows, he doesn’t want to follow through with Violet’s plan, he wants to help Chase.

But what are all these archetypes for? Why are the keys embodying them, and what’s up with this parallel world of books anyway?

Jung made this whole theory as an alchemist. He saw there were recurring patterns appearing in myths all over the world, consistent character archetypes he then used as a tool to explore the human psyche and the inner world. Alchemy was considered science back in the day. It was the birth parent of chemistry and scientific study while also being philosophical, all in the pursuit of helping humanity and finding enlightenment within oneself. The perfection of one’s body and soul through consuming the Great Work, or Philosopher’s Stone, was a way to reach that enlightenment through science.

The laws of equivalent exchange, a principle of alchemy, sound eerily similar to wishing in CB. Place a jar of Narratonin on a specific spell circle, state your desire, and you’ll get that thing in exchange. Considering how Ex Libris even found this substance and a way to collect it, then made a spell circle to enact the spell, I don’t think the Jungian Archetypes are a coincidence. Ex Libris were alchemists. Also, Jung himself mentions a different world, parallel to ours, that is connected to imagination and accessible through it.

Now, imagine if said alchemists were to find a reliable way to open the door and get people into that world (which actually looks different for everyone) by entering someone’s own vision of it. Imagine if someone writing a book, pouring Narratonin into it, could allow those with enough creative imagination (or call it mental fortitude) to get in there, and if they believe in it, treat that world as real, to take more of that Narratonin?

If we were to go deeper, that would also explain what exactly Chase is doing right to earn so much. He’s treating the stories and characters as if they were real. But I’m going off topic so let’s stop here.

I would also like to add that Punko has played with the Archetypes before in her comic, The Elephant Book. So this stuff is her cup of gluten free noodles.

To sum up this whole post, Ex Libris found the remains of an ancient meteorite. With time, they discovered the fog and Narratonin. The crystals and metals from the celestial body were forged to create twelve keys, not fully knowing what they were drawing from. All but one formed properly. Onyx, The Villain Key was missing a key (heh) ingredient to his being. Unlike the others, his archetype needed a mortal touch. So, Buddy was chosen by God’s fart (the fog or a god looking through the fog) because he was that ingredient. Street orphans who seek belonging and believe they’re bad are quite hard to find in a mansion full of rich cult elitists who study alchemy. The meteorite may have had a hidden effect on human evolution, making Narratonin, humans, and the keys connect to a single origin. Keys are people too, after all. So, it makes sense that a human and a key could fix each other.

Thank you, Tristate Area!