#just an fyi this does connect to my clone idea

[write-it-right-2]

Picture the force as an ocean. the surface - the ‘light’ side - is calm, is easy to navigate. as you sink deeper and deeper, it gets darker, it is harder to navigate, and the pressure means it is harder to even hold on to your mind, your identity. you need something to guide you. you need a tether, or many tethers, or a full submarine or other habitat to protect you. It is not inherently safe at the surface - waves still crash, and great destruction can still happen, but the deeper and deeper you get, the more dangerous it becomes. 

What if you filled yourself with all your anger, all your hate, what if you used pure will and pain to bend the waters around you, the nuclear equivalent of force use? These waters could drown you, you need something - so what will you use?

What if you did not go alone? You could bond yourself to others, allow the tension of this descent be spread amongst many - but if you go too deep, put too much pressure on those lines, or if you were at max tension and then one line snaps - you go spiraling off. All of that tension ricochets back onto you, suddenly in deep waters you are drowning. In that case, it’s easy to see why you might say it is just safer to never try and tie at all, when a break can ruin the whole network, when the tension could tear the whole thing down. More powerful, but more fragile.

The only thing left is to learn how to swim. But - more importantly, to let the waters flow around you, over you, to stay calm as they bob and weave. Panic is one of the greatest killers of drowning people. Don’t make waves, it’s such an easy visual - but how quickly does the meaning become lost? How soon do you end up applying it to everything else? When do you realizes you are still everywhere, everywhere in your life, except for these waters of your mind, the only place you are unseen, and the only place you are roiling. 

Go back. The waters could move around you. What does that mean? How does the water move around you? Forcing yourself perfectly still in water causes more ripples than moving along with it. You need to let the water move you, just a little. You are in the water. You are the water. Do not fear the water, it is not easy to move against but it will not hurt you, not now, not to move with it.

What if you are already deeper? What if by your very nature, you could never reach that place on the very surface, not without support, not without ties. What if you are told to ‘let the waters move around you, and move you with them’ and they do not see that you swim in deep water, you are not near the surface and you do not know how to reach it. The waters could tear you apart with one wrong move, you can feel it, and this doesn’t work right - why doesn’t it? The metaphor breaks down here. I’m not sure why. The problem is not the power - it is something else, it is letting the water move through versus trying to force it to move as you wish, but neither quite work.

Stop. Go back. No, further, we talked about going together. It is not safe to tie a few - you could be pulled back so easily, the tension snaps and it hits everyone - but what if you had more? How many could you have? 

It is something about will. It is about how much will you have behind your actions. How easily could you be led off this path?  There is genuine importance in being able to let go, to not bash your head against a single wall for all eternity, to not pick every hill as a hill worthy of dying on. You can not die for every hill. It is so dangerous to put all of yourself behind an idea, and the more of yourself, the more power it has. You must have some method of measure. How do you teach children what hills are worthy of dying for? You try to teach them to be good, to be kind, but when it is so easy to find yourself burning down hills for the sake of your beliefs, when a single missfire can burn down worlds, do you not end up teaching caution, before all else? Do you not end up saying to temper those flames, to never let them burn so high as to truly change the world, because every single one has the power to change the entire universe. And you know it. And you have no idea how to teach them to change it for the better. Who even are you, to try and determine that?

So what if? What if, by your nature, you are told you are going to change the entire universe. But the people you are raised by do not know how to teach you. You need to know how to stay yourself, how to stay true to your ideals, how to remember love, and compassion. Hope, and kindness. But they have spent all their time teaching themselves how not to turn the world over themselves, too scared, for such very good reasons, but they have forgotten, and they no longer know the things they would need to teach you. You need to know safety exists. All they can teach you is that you have to make it yourself.

To go in small groups, they have learned, is so much more dangerous than to go alone, or in pairs that can still divide. They still have these remnants of connection, but they are trying so hard to leave them behind. What they have forgotten is that many hands, working together, will do so much more than one person ever can. Many hands, working together, and protecting each other. In a desperate bid to not drown, tangled in snapping webs, they have banned them altogether, not understanding that it is by the very construction of these webs that we learn these things, of hope, of faith, love, and kindness, and compassion, and a belief that holds these, without reward, without payment, simply because it is, as all important. They understand what it means to care. But scared, so understandably scared of these deep waters, they no longer sink, they no longer let the water run through them, they no longer act.

[lamortexiii]

Cryptic Mystic: Intelligence, Perception, & Originality

Intelligence, Perception, & Originality: Blaise Pascal (1670/1961), the great French philosopher and mathematician wrote, “The more intelligence one has, the more people one finds original. Commonplace people see no difference between men.” Does intelligence have anything to do with how much one can see/feel? Why do we hold certain people to higher standards than others? Does originality even exist?? Well, I may not have all of the definitive answers, but I can speculate and provide you with some of the important information that is out there. As I always say, in the end, you decide what you believe. 

We will start with some basic definitions, just so we are all on the same page as to what we are talking about specifically within this month’s Cryptic Mystic blog. I do this because we may all have different ideas as to what something may be; our perceptions may be different. For this blog, I feel definitions are crucial to the reader having a solid understanding of the full content - not because I believe the reader to be stupid (FYI).

We will begin by defining intelligence. Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. A more broad definition: intelligence is the ability to perceive and retain information as knowledge to be used towards an individual’s behaviors and how one interacts within a situation or environment. Humans are most often the subjects of intelligence testing, but animals and plants have also been subjected to this research despite some believing animals and plants do not possess intelligence. There is another type of intelligence called artificial intelligence that refers to the intelligence found within computers and other electronic devices and machines. 

Next, let’s look at the definition of perception. Perception (from the Latin perceptio, meaning gathering or receiving) is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information to represent and understand the presented information or environment. Perception begins with a stimulus that triggers our body’s sensory system. This information then travels from the input of where the sensory phenomena took place (e.g. light coming through the eye) to the brain, which processes this information. The way your brain processes this information and the way you react to the stimuli around you is all thanks to perception. 

Lastly, we will define originality. This definition is high up on the debate scale, as many believe true originality does not exist. This is due in part to the lack of boundaries between items/works that are derived from others; things become cyclical. Originality is commonly known as the aspect of created or invented works as being something new. Any reproductions, clones, forgeries, or derivative works would not be considered original (to an extent). Something that is considered original is believed to not be derived or copied from someone else’s work. Originality is unique, fresh, and new. Many famous artists, including Shakespeare, do not claim to be 100% original but to have drawn off the work of their predecessors. The United States did not even begin to harness the concept of originality until the 18th century. 

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, we can get into the beans and cornbread of what this blog is actually about. In knowing these definitions, what do you think about the original questions posited above at the beginning of the blog? How does intelligence shape the way we feel and see the world around us? Why do we hold certain people to higher standards than others (e.g. famous individuals)? Are higher powers at play or are our intelligence, perception, and abilities purely destiny from birth? Does originality even exist? Think about those questions and what you believe at this moment, for your beliefs may change by the end of the blog. Write your beliefs down now if you’d like to engage in this as an activity for yourself.

How does intelligence shape the way that we feel and see the world around us? Our brains are the epicenter of our existence. The intellectual abilities that we are born with do shape our perception of the world around us and ultimately how we live our lives. Now, knowledge can always be acquired, and there are outliers within every scenario, so do keep this in mind - I do not dispute those facts. Our intelligence and cognition help us to learn, form concepts, understand things, apply logic and reasoning, and so many more things. Our intelligence breeds the way we see the world around us, and thus how we form opinions and choose to interact with other people and the environments around us. We are all on different levels of processing and understanding - some more similar than others (those who are similar “click” or “have a connection” while those who are opposite tend to not “click” or have those same connections very often at all). 

Have you ever encountered a situation where you just didn’t understand the way someone was thinking, and it frustrated the hell out of you? I bet it’s safe to say that you have. I know I have - several times throughout my life. This is because you and that individual were operating on different frequencies. You possessed different ways of seeing the world, different ways of understanding, different ways of communicating, different levels of intelligence. All of these things are interconnected. I know when most people think of intelligence, they think of how smart someone is. However, intelligence is far more than that. Intelligence is said to be purely natural - something you are born with. While there are opportunities in life to learn so many things and strengthen your cognitive processes, at the end of the day you are who you are. You can’t learn intelligence - it is something you are born with. However, you can change your brain structure through learning and engaging with others and the environments around you. This is a huge conversation for another blog, but the point is - you can change your brain structure. So, the big question becomes, if you can change your brain structure, can you alter/change your intelligence?...

Why do we hold certain people to higher standards than others (e.g. famous individuals)? Intelligence produces our perception. Part of this perception is how we see others and the world around us. While some famous individuals may have a special talent, other famous individuals don’t have any talents. For every famous person who has a special talent, there are thousands (if not millions) of other individuals around the world who hold the same talent - and some may even have a higher skill set! Why do we put famous people on a pedestal when they are people just like us? They were born with the same abilities as many of us. There isn’t much that makes a famous person any different from you, except the fact that they’re famous - and of course (for most of us) they have A LOT more money than we do. But what does money have to do with anything? Can we then say that is the reason we put so many famous people on a pedestal - is it money? Do you idolize your favorite musician for their actual musical talents or is it something else? What about the person down the street who is equally as talented who gets no attention? I know this answer may look different for all of you, but I want you to think about what your answer would be if we were having this conversation, or if you were having this conversation with someone else. Now, take this example and flip it to something more day-to-day. Why do you put certain family members or friends on a pedestal when compared to others around you? Is it about your relationship with those individuals? Do they do something for you that benefits you? Is there a reciprocal give-and-take relationship to where both parties are benefitted? Is it all about you and that’s how you like it? Can you run over these people and take advantage? Again, your reasoning and answers are going to look drastically different from the next person's because we are all unique individuals, but I want you to think about this as well. The hard truth is that some people do not possess the ability to distinguish realistic differences and similarities between other individuals. Some people believe that famous people are somehow better than the rest of us. Some people possess the ability to pick apart similarities and differences between others, but just don’t care. This kind of ties back into the quote mentioned at the beginning of the blog from Pascal, “The more intelligence one has, the more people one finds original. Commonplace people see no difference between men.” Do you believe this to be true? Why or why not?... What makes a famous person, your best friend, whomever you put on a pedestal and hold to higher standards - what makes this person so special; so different? Your intelligence is playing a much bigger role here than you realize. I understand this may be a lightbulb moment for some of you, and a clusterfuck of thoughts for others - and that's okay. Whatever way you are processing this is fine because it’s part of what makes you who you are - and that’s pretty cool. 

Are higher powers at play or are our intelligence, perception, and abilities purely destiny from birth? Each of us is born with unique attributes and abilities. In psychology, we call these abilities innate (born with) and learned (acquired) abilities. As I mentioned earlier, you do possess the power to change your brain through the use of the neurons within your brain. The neurons that aren’t used often eventually fade away, and the ones that are used a lot will strengthen. You can even regrow certain neurons that you lost long ago or strengthen smaller neurons that may not have been used in a while. So, the ability to change is always there. However, change can look challenging for some and isn’t as easily obtained. For the most part, how we are born and the environment that shapes us as children/adolescents are a big part of what makes us who we are today. Intelligence is a large part of how we perceive the world around us, and our abilities are a large part of how we interact with the world around us. All parts are tied into one giant working system that propels us through life. In short, much of what we possess we are born with and this ultimately guides us through life amidst the continual editing from our environment. As for a higher power, this is something personal for everyone. You may or may not believe that something is aiding you in your journey through life; guiding you as you go. You may believe in nothing. 

Based solely on my personal lived experiences I can say that I believe there is something that aids me throughout my life - what it is, I can’t be sure. However, I do not believe that this was always the case. Until my early mid-twenties, I felt lost and relied heavily on substance abuse and those around me to make my happiness. One day when I was probably at the lowest and most stressful point in my life, I met a powerful, talented, successful, dark, and mysterious man who challenged me to be better. For years I had always had a natural attraction to him when I would see his face, but getting to know him was a completely different scenario altogether. He challenged me to be the strong and powerful woman that I am today. As our relationship grew, he helped me to find my way and see what I needed to do to reach my full potential. I took his words and actions and held them close, that which I have never forgotten. I know it may sound silly, but I can’t help but wonder if some of the power he most blatantly wields still to this day has somehow been transferred to me? But maybe this power was with me all along, and he just aided in bringing it to fruition? I jokingly tell people I made a deal with the devil, but then I think to myself… maybe I did? I have found since meeting him that my entire world has changed. He is no longer a regular part of my life. Nothing bad happened between us at all, and we departed from one another on good terms. Life moved on and years have gone by. But as the years have passed, I noticed that good things would consistently happen to me; like... really good things... all of the time; things that almost seemed magical. It was almost as if those around me were under some sort of spell or mind-control. Everything that has happened to me since has been so random, but so amazing - I can’t even begin to explain the complete turnaround that my life has made. It started with small things (e.g. random free items at events, strangers paying my way, fun opportunities, an influx of compliments every time I’m in public, receiving unexpected money in the mail when I needed it). Now every chance I take ends with success - no matter how big or small. I am not saying this to sound big-headed, it’s the truth and is my reality; my new way of living I suppose. Granted, I have worked hard to get where I am, but damn have I had some sort of phenomenal luck along the way. To be clear, I still experience downtimes and unfortunate events from time to time (that’s just life) but for the most part, I have really good luck… or something else? I don’t know. I have tried to put the pieces together for years, and meeting my dear friend and departing from him seems to be a coincidental timeline. That paired with other things I have discussed in past blogs about myself, and that’s all I’ve got. No valid explanation - just more questions. But, you know me, I’m always seeking the truth and questioning everything anyway... 

Does originality even exist?? This is a tough one and I am not sure that I have the answer. Talk about a hot debate. I could sit and ponder this topic for hours - which I did when I wrote this blog. For this question, I will let you decide. I want to know what you think, so shoot me a message or drop me a comment on Instagram, Twitter, or Tumblr and let me know. I’ll post responses on social media anonymously - maybe we can come to a group consensus?! To conclude this month’s blog, I’ll share my opinion - but it is not certain. I think there is potential for someone to concoct an original idea. However, you have to ponder where these ideas come from. Did the person subconsciously remember something they saw when they were five years old, and that sparked their idea? The person could very well believe that their idea is original, not having consciously remembered the thing they saw from all those years ago. In all actuality, their idea is not original, but a product of something they saw when they were younger. It is hard to say whether our ideas are 100% original or partly made from someone else’s ideas. I believe most “originality” that we see today is a culmination of several generations of thought and invention. So then would that not be considered originality to some extent? Or does originality not exist? Again, I’ll let you decide what you believe. Take care. Until next time... 

<3 - K

Cryptic Mystic Blog by PsychVVitch @psychvvitch

www.LaMorteXiii.com

[runicrever]

Primal Irken Headcanon/Alternate Universe

Hello everyone for those of you not here for the whole Headcanon or the AU story then this is where I’ll give minor explanations

First off

 - HE’S NOT WEARING A BRA -

(I’m only saying this cause everyone in my household and at least one of my friends thought he was wearing a bra which isn’t the case)

The thing on his chest is a PAK stabilizer and a chest plate it’s there to protect vital organs hold the PAK more firmly in place and to block the pheromone receptors on his chest more will be explained in the head canon section

I based his design off the idea that what if a insect and a reptilian bird (aka dinosaur) were some how mixed how I came to this conclusion is the fact that Zim in the show looks very bug like but he’s green and Dib refers to him as a “lizard” at times in the show so I thought he must have lizard like skin which also would explain how flexible he’s shown himself to be which bugs can not do

This is basically my idea of what irkens long before they made proper PAKs and were planet destroying conquerors of the universe they were just little bug birds with a hierarchy similar to ants and bees where they make large hives with hundreds of thousands of irkens with a central queen and her chosen mate(s)

Zim is defective and a runt so as a smeet he’s thrown out into the wild in hopes he’d die but despite the odds he somehow barely made it to adult hood and the AU goes from there.

And FYI the first one if of him on Irk where he’s starving while the second and third are him after coming to earth and becoming much much healthier

Alright that’s the end of the introduction sorry it’s so long.. now for the hard Headcanon

- HEADCANON -

alright so to begin at the very start due to irkens showing signs of being a very unified group and seeming to act like a gigantic hive I believed that irkens  came from a slightly more hive or nest like origin. the planet they lived on was rich in metals especially those that are rather rare on earth like platinum, gold, silver, titanium and others. This could mean the ground would be difficult to hallow out naturally leading to irkens to be very very skilled at hallowing out and hardening metal to make unground hives like those ants make but made of metal. I believe that they’d make sure the strongest metals were closer to the center of the nest to protect the queen and her mates.

The Original Queen how ever is the most powerful of irkens she’s huge, she’s powerful she, and oh dear god don’t piss her off or going to die! She is the only natural born queen and because of that she is the only irken queen who’s actually immortal other irkens. Like worker ants and bees are made to do their job and die as are irken soldiers and like bee and ant queens the irken queens life is FAR longer then any other irkens.

Other irken queens are females from hives that wanted to gain a mate and have smeets so the queen of such hive sends them away to find a male from a different hive. When the queen has found a mate they dig out the hole to the center of their hive and then begin having smeets. Within an irken year those smeets will be sub adults and begin serving their queen as loyal and devoted soldiers. The queen and her mate over that first year will produce pheremones that physically change their body structure so that they can do their job more effectively. The queen will get bigger and gain more fat stores so that she has lots of extra energy to make more smeets. The male mate will become leaner and taller and act as the queens advisor when not making smeets with her and instruct the other smaller irkens to do as she says or tell the queen of what’s needed for the hive.

You may be noticing a few similarities between the queen and her mate that there is between the control brains and the tallests. That is because this  leads into my idea that when the Original Queen had an irken who figured out how to make PAKs to extreme the lives of irkens he began work on making it so the queens could truely live forever. This explains why the control brains oversee all major things such as executions, re-encodings, and the making, hatching, naming, and encoding of smeets. The tallests have taken on the roll of the queens mates. Due to irkens no longer actively reproducing and using cloning tubes the queens mated became permanent advisors and leaders for the rest of irkens. Which meant they no longer needed to be male and be good at making big healthy smeets instead they merely needed to be the perfect image of an irken. For the control brains still being irken queens who want tall healthy and strong looking mates they decided the tallest of irken soldiers would become tallests. Which would at least ensure the leader was tall and powerful and once they were tallest they were allowed to eat as much as they want when they want which by irken standards meant they were healthy.

In early irken society irkens were given rolls after they showed signs of talents. Theses talents were classified as Medic, Technician, Soldier, Nurse, and Drone and each irken was given their first name by the queen and their last name was their queens name and they would be given a letter in front of their name after they found their talent. For example a irken in this time maybe called S. Zept Mira which would mean the Zept was a soldier and served under queen Mira. Those serving under the Original Queen are instead given the last name of her mate Xalon since she only allows her closest protectors and her mate know her first name though a few select irkens have secretly learned of her name.

A defective irken in this time is any irken that is considered to small, malformed, hatched with a deformity, hatched with a mental disorder, or those who’s PAK can’t properly command the irken to serve their queen and respect the Original Queen. If an irken as one of these then they’re given an irken month to prove they can over come the disability but any more the one of those and their immediately thrown out to die as a tiny smeet there are a few irkens who were cast out at month who survives and formed a small tribe together and they work to together and only grow in numbers by hives casting out their month old smeets because they have no queen. When a month old is thrown out to die where they pick them up and help them until adults at which point they help the tribe but the tribe doesn’t take in hatchlings as they’d be to much work and because of this no day old has survived after being cast out. Well… all except one.

This is where the AU begins

Other more minor things to mention is the PAKs. They’re far smaller then the ones irkens wear today and have a harness like thingto stabilize them and cover the irkens sensory organs on this chest. In the comics there’s a page that shows Zim having three dots in his chest most took these to be nipples but reptiles birds and bugs don’t have that and I really don’t see irkens to be very mammalian so instead I took these to be sensory organs sort of like those in an alligators nose or those on the front edge of a viper or pythons mouth. But unlike those on reptiles they’d be some form of pheromone and hormone receptors. Yes the irkens antennae also do this but to a lesser degree. Honestly I’ve made irken antennae have a lot of different reasons for existing. The main one is hearing they’re primary purpose is feeling the vibrations of sound and sending those vibrations to organs in the skull that make sense of them and send them to the brain. The lower jaw of an irken also connects at a place very close to where the vibrations are made sense of so he can also hear through his jaw but it requires direct contact with the vibrations and his jaw to do this. So in the AU he may press his lower jaw on the ground or other solid objects to hear was going on inside them. His jaw connecting so high up on his skull is also why he can open his mouth so wide(if you don’t know what I’m talking about look at any time he screams in the show)The antennae two secondary uses are smelling/picking up pheromones and showing emotion. Firstly explaining that they also smell and register pheromones is simply connecting them to bugs. Ants bees and basically any insect senses smells and pheromones through their antennae hence why they wiggle them around at things they’re wanting to eat or at each other since pheromones are how bugs talk. But this is secondary because their tongue does the other half of smelling (cause if you didn’t know this the senses of smell and taste are actually pretty strongly linked) and the holes on his chest due the other half of pheromone reception. The emotion part how ever should be obvious.. in the show Zims antennae spring up when he’s attentive or confused and lay back more when he’s angry or worried so they’re sort of just do that naturally.

- ALTERNATE UNIVERSE STORY -

Zim just after hatching is inspected by the Queen and her mate Xalon. He’s picked up and looked over curiously as they try and figure out what’s wrong with him as they can already see he’s far FAR smaller then he should be. He came out of an average egg and there was no signs of issue but the the tiny runt smeet only was calmly curious of the new world around him. The queen called in the royal Medic and Technician to give the smeet his PAK which was done quickly. The process of putting on a PAK was incredibly painful for smeets especially smaller ones but ones in place and fully connected they ran diagnostics. Sadly for the tiny smeet the PAK informed all of them that the poor smeet wasn’t properly connecting to the PAK his brain was fighting the PAKs demands and because of such the queen sighed as she called in two of her soldiers to take the smeet to the forest to be left to die. Likely by being eaten by something or simply die of thirst and starvation.

The soldiers did as told without question as this was very standard practice for them they carried the tiny smeet by his PAK stabilizer. Once they got to the deep parts of the forest they tossed him and began walking back to the hive careful of their surroundings as the forest was home to monsters. They did not pity the smeet and they instead focused only on their own survival and the survival of their nest. Such was the way of the Irken.

The tiny abandoned smeet was very confused as to why he was dropped in this new place and merely began to explore. Everything was new to the newly hatched smeet as it calmly wondered about the forest floor. Within hours night began to fall and the tiny smeet quickly found itself getting very cold as at night the temperature on the planet quickly went down and the tiny smeet desperately tried to find a place to hide for the night as was his instinct to hide when it got dark and to huddle up when it got cold.  Eventually he found a tree with a small hold where its roots had begun branching out into the ground and he crawled inside and curled up tight against a side of the hole desperately trying to stay warm during the night. He attempted to sleep as rest is important for smeets but due to the cold he got very little sleep.

By morning the smeet was tired and growing hungry and climbed out of the little hole to begin looking for food. He searched for quite a while being on high alert as his surrounds were rather concerning lots of sounds from animals could be heard and all the smeet wanted was something to eat and then go hide again. Even tally he ended up finding a berry bush and his PAK informed him that they were safe to eat so he grabbed the ones he could reach ate them quickly and looked for more food. Another few hours passed before he found a small nest of lizard legs and his PAK telling him that they were edible he grabbed a few and carried them off to his little hiding place to eat the next time he got hungry. Once back in his hole he curled up and slept  until next he got hungry.

This cycle continued for most of his life until he couldn’t fit in his hiding spot any longer which at around 4 months old he began digging himself a new hiding place to live in and began making tools to catch himself food. He was an incredibly smart little irken despite his disabilities and differences and by the time he reached a year of age he had a hole that he hallowed out at the base of a tree and a deeper part below that in the ground for when winter came around. he’d relocated a few bushes he new grew edible berries to be closer to his little den as well as setting up pit traps for animals he could eat to fall into.

He’d even began going to the hive dumps and looking for scrap items he could use to built things and eventually built himself two little robots one that followed him around and watched his back when he was hunting or scavenging and a second that hovered staying close to his den to alert him if something attacked it. Both were rather adorable and due to Zims instinctive need for company and companionship both robots served a secondary purpose of being things he could hug or “talk” to when he was scared nervous or just lonely.

I say he “talked” to them with quotes because his talking was severely lacking due to the lack of actual conversing. He could speak irken of course as that was done by his PAK he had learned quickly that it was better to stay quiet making a lot of noise attracted predators and it also didn’t help that any irken he found would look at him as if he were a freak and yell at him. They’d even attack him if he was in their hunting grounds or found scavenging in their dump so he rarely spoke causing his voice to be soft and hoarse. He instead spoke to his robots in soft chirps whistles squeaks and if he was angry hisses. Irken itself was a very harsh language coming from ruff gut earl growls and high shreeky screams though some sound were softer but those were few and far between. So Zim had developed his own little language only for himself and his robots.

But one day towards the end of his 16th year in exile an odd ship landed near his den. He was terrified as he’d never seen anything like it in his life and what came out of it was even more of a shock. A tall and thin beast, it’s body was clothed in a T-shirt jeans and trench coat, his hair a dark raven black with a cowlick taking on the shape of a scythe and odd clear circles that reflected light slightly hiding his golden amber eyes. This creature was not from Irk and was both horrifying and interesting to the little irken. He was so tall and lean Zim couldn’t help but find him interesting to look at but his trench coat and glasses gave him an aura of mystery and curiosity. The human looked around his surroundings excited to have found a planet with plants and life leaving his ship unattended.

The irken approached the ship pressing his jaw against it to listen to it and found the humming drone of the engine and the buzz of electricity. He moved away from the ship and carefully approached the human. As he got closer the human turned and the two locked eyes.

And that’s what I have the AU is partly for an roleplay idea ive had but I wanted to make this post so I had some where to send people to if they wanted to try the AU in roleplaying with me. If your interested then your welcome to ask to try the RP I merely ask that I get to be Zim for it..

[cartoonfan7]

Random thoughts on my DC Universe.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lex Luthor

Harrison Wells

John Henry Irons

T.O. Morrow

Michael Holt

Victor Fries (Contributing Scientist, Possible Test Subject)

Pat Dugan

Emil Hamilton

Ray Palmer

Silas Stone

Dr. Thaddeus Sivana

Kimiyo Hoshi

Stephen Shin

William Magnus

Kirk Langstrom

Dabney Donovan

Francine Langstrom (Assistant and Wife of Kirk Langstrom)

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

Karen Beecher (Assistant to Ray Palmer)

Ryan Choi (Assistant to Ray Palmer)

Reginald Augustine (Assistant to Dabney Donovan)

Thomas Tompkins (Assistant to Dabney Donovan)

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

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

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

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

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

[legobiwan]

So from your Hard Deviations, do you have any headcanons about Obi-Wan ever purposefully hurting himself?

Interesting question, anon. I can explain a little more about what I feel is going on in Obi-wan’s head in the beginning of the story, and how that might fit in with Obi-wan’s character as a whole. Going to put this under the break as I know this can be a sensitive topic for some (and I’ll talk a little about alcohol overconsumption here as well, just fyi).

So in HD, I do explicitly have Obi-wan self-harming - it’s not something I dwell too much on in the story, as more important is the larger idea of Obi-wan’s struggle with the dark side in the wake of the Zygerria incident (and by extension, exploring the fact that he has probably been walking a fine line with his emotions for quite some time, but he is just so controlled that he, by sheer force of will, manages to stuff all those feelings way, way down until the events of Undoing Dichotomy just blow them open). However, I thought it was important to include because, basically, all of Obi-wan’s normal coping mechanisms were failing him at that point. Meditation wasn’t working. He didn’t feel like he could talk with anyone on the Council, with Anakin or even Ahsoka, especially given the nature of what happened with Dooku. And he can’t rationalize this all away. 

So there’s this awful, awful tension building up inside of him (and the only way I can describe it is just being so frustrated, so angry, so tense - the feeling dynamite or a bomb must have the second before it goes off, if I may anthropomorphize explosives for a moment here), he has no way of clearing it, his emotions are all out of whack and then - boom! He slams his hand down on a table in frustration - a petty gesture, but he can’t ignore the absolute clarity that moment gives him, the ability to focus on the pain, the release of the endorphins that just takes him away, even if only for a few moments. And that’s when he gets the idea that this is how he’ll manage his emotions - at least for now. Obi-wan is no idiot, he sees the connection right away and also, in a kind of detached sense, knows what this means but he just doesn’t have the ability to deal at the moment. And in a way, it’s kind of a dark side thing, even though he’d never admit to that - using your own pain and anger to create pain within yourself to gain power (or control, in this case). Later on, he refines this by actually going and getting that Sith book Dooku gives him and learning better meditations for this so he doesn’t have to keep taking a blade to his own palm, because rationally he knows it’s impractical in the long run. Too many people (Anakin and Ahsoka) will start asking questions and he wants to keep himself in fighting condition.)

Now, if we’re dealing outside my own little universe and with more of a canon Obi-wan…I think for the most part, he is able to…deal. Maybe not with the healthiest coping mechanisms possible (more than once, he seems to think about the next strong drink he’s going to have, and it’s my personal headcanon that Obi-wan is not unknown at a local Coruscant dive bar where he goes after he gets back from missions. It’s not a fancy establishment, but they have some very good locally-made alcohol and ales and the best part is that no one bothers him there, no one cares he’s a Jedi or a General - he’s just a guy in a cloak having a few drinks. He can sit, stare into his glass, and just try and forget.) 

Does he run himself ragged in order to forget about Qui-gon, Satine, and the others? Perhaps. If you’re that busy there’s no time to deal with what is bothering you (and that might extend to the Order as a whole during the Clone Wars, which is why Sidious was able to achieve what he did). Does the idea of “pain gives focus” explain why he might ignore his injuries? Possibly, although you know he’s going to fulfill his duties no matter what, but the extra adrenaline gives him that edge in the middle of a war zone. My personal opinion is that Obi-wan is constantly teetering on the brink ever since TPM (maybe even before) and I think part of the allure of an Obi-wan movie is seeing what would happen when he literally has everything ripped from him after the events of RotS. (And of course, the other allure being Ewan McGregor crying in the desert for 3 hours but maybe finally getting a blanket and a nap. Maybe.) Personally, I think Obi-wan’s hiding a lot (he says this out loud to Anakin in the Blue Shadow Virus arc, after all, that he’s just, “Better at hiding it.”) and internally struggling with some self-destructive tendencies - now whether these manifest in a more canon setting or not, I’m not entirely sure. But for my own evil writer purposes, my feeling is that Obi-wan has iron-clad control but when he slips, oh boy, does he slip.