I'm posting about the Thomas Family now because I can't deny the voices anymore!
Elaine has hyperlexia as one of her more dominant tism traits
You will not be able to find this woman without a book or writing in hand
Doug found it endearing at first but then he caught Elaine up at 5 am devouring a book under a bright night light when he came back home & decided it was probs not a great idea
Duke gets his reading addiction from her absolutely & his parents where trying to set up a proper bedtime but he'd always smuggle a book or puzzle book into his room at night
Doug has a big sister I'm calling Tracy short for Patricia who has a son Jay[Jay is canon although his familial relation to Duke is like just cousin with not much else said] short for Jayden
Doug is a couple years younger than his sister like im thinking 9 or so
Tracy had moved with her husband Alvin Peters & Jay to Bludhaven when Jay was little tho they would visit the rest of the family in Gotham as often as they could
Doug & Tracy's parents are Patrick & Lucinda Thomas & they are wonderful people
When Elaine runs to Gotham she gets a job as an archival assistant at a college library in Gotham, Doug is working on getting a degree in engineering & is immediately smitten with the pretty assistant who helped him get a textbook that was hidden deep in the library
In my head Elaine has Duke before she & Doug even start dating, & Duke is a a toddler when they do get married
But he's too baby to have realized that his parents hadn't been married before
That's all I got for this post but I'm definetly gonna do more, tagging this post spree #void&goldAU
I'm going to cure Elaine & Doug of this weird Joker bullshit if it kills me & I'm making it a whole thing about why they're so difficult to cure
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Duke has been trying for years to both find & cure his parents, but for some reason nothing can fix them. All the other victims have made some recovery but they just wont.
His mom is doing the worst, she barely responds to outside stimuli, the only noise she makes are giggles & laughs. He can't even look her in the eyes anymore, they've gone so dull, lost that luster that Duke remembers her for.
His dad is a bit better, he reacts to more aggressive stimuli, always asking for help for his wife, begging for someone to look for his son. Asking for his sister & her family, sometimes even his long dead parents. His desperation & pain make it so hard for Duke to sit there & listen to him speak.
Duke just wants his parents back, but nothing seems to be working. He was almost going to resign himself to this being all they could be when some new information came up.
Bruce had been looking into the "why" & he stumbled upon it. There was something inherently different about Elaine's very being, she was human yes but a different kind then what would be normal on this Earth. Doug by close association with her had taken on a few of those traits.
So the theory of Elaine not being from this dimension was brought up as very feasible. There where of course some difficulties across the board.
Duke getting desperate to find some kind of information about his mother before she came to Gotham. And the only person who could have possibly known her is Gnomon, her ex [husband?] & Duke's bio dad.
So Duke's sitting in the visitation room of a meta-human prison staring down Gnomon, who looks like he doesn't give much of fuck.
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G: So you've finally come to visit, finally come to ask about me?
D: Yeah no, I just wanted to ask about mom, not exactly here for your sob story.
G *sighs*: Yes of course, Elaine must have kept some things from you. Especially considering how ill equipt you where when fighting me. Did she not want to talk about her past with you, even now that you know about me?
D: More like she couldn't.
G *eyebrow raise*
D *deep breath*: Mom & Dad have been thoroughly Jokerized for a couple years now. Everyone else has made a proper recovery but they haven't. The doctors have come to the conclusion that something is fundamentally different about mom. We think it's dimensional. And you're the only person who knew her before she showed up in Gotham, so you'd know the best.
*tense silence*
G *mumbling*: Well you're not wrong.
G: Elaine & I aren't, under a technicality, from this world.
D: So you can guess what's wrong with them?
G: Not with any accuracy, not unless & I see it up close.
D *groan*: You aren't even set up for parole yet, & I'm not letting you out.
G: Child it was never about anyone letting me out. It was always about when you & Elaine would muster up the courage to come talk to me. I can leave whenever I want. And if what you say is true, then you're Mother & Douglas are on a bit of time crunch at the moment.
*D glares at G, who is smirking*
D: I don't like this.
G: I'm not about to hurt you Duke, I've done all I wanted on the getting your attention front.
D: How do I know you're not lying
G *serious*: Elaine was my first friend & love, you are my son, and you both deeply care for Douglas. Any harm I may cause to either of you three or anyone else you care for, for that matter, would only grant me your ire. And I do not want that.
D *sighs*: I'll see what I can do.
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So science, not my strong suit, but a small passion of mine. Still not going to go in amazingly thought out depth of it
Gnomon is able to pinpoint the reason Elaine & Doug are taking so long is because the Joker venom used on them had traces of Nth metal
An off shoot of Elaine & Gnomon's previous home dimension of The Sphere/The Collective, so their immune systems where having a hard time differentiating between the invading Nth metal & Elaine's own energy
As is it has been a long while since Elaine had rejuvenated any of her powers
The simple fix was to reintroduce Elaine's energy still within The Collective
A whole adventure to The Sphere happens as a sort of Father-Son bonding trip for Gnomon & Duke. Something that I'll probably have fun hashing out later in another post. But in the end they get back, synthesis the cure & get it to Elaine & Doug!
Elaine snaps out of it first, quickly followed by Doug, a tearful reunion between child & parents ensues
Jay's there by his family, also getting hugs & tears
Bruce explains some of what's been going on
Gnomon's off in hall being a bit awkward
And that's how Elaine & Doug are healed! Hip-hip hooray :D!
I love Elaine Thomas & her kooky lil backstory in my head
Elaine is Mandinka having grown up in what is now modern day Gambia
Kay so first of all Elaine isn't her first name it's just the one she took up when she left Gnomon to Gotham. She's long since forgotten the name she had when she was human. She took up the name Yũ̀ã́ which means eye, sometime after she was "reborn" so to speak.
When Elaine was a young woman many centuries ago she was the story teller & gossip in her town. A curious person who can't help but try & remember every single thing she learns about the people around her.
One day an odd man came to her town & stayed for a time, Elaine ever the curious person went up to him & asked what he was doing. And he told her about his desire to record & spread knowledge & how right then he was translating some texts in the language of her people.
Elaine asked him to teach her as the original languages of the texts & thus a sort of familial bond was formed between the two.
After about a year the man suggested that Elaine come with him on more of his travels across the world & she was quick to accept. After "heartfelt goodbyes" & "see you laters" Elaine left her home town, never to be the same.
So Elaine became one of The Constant's first scholars
The Constant is a canon dc character & on of the first metahumans & immortal sibling of the Immortal Man, Woman, Child & one other sibling [they're all immortal]
The Constant themselves believed that humanity could be evolved through knowledge so they would go around picking up humans all over the world to basically be their disciples/scholars in the creation of their archives of pure knowledge
I'll go into depth about my idea of that in another post
Anyway Elaine becomes Immortal by proxy of being in such close relation with The Constant
Her sense of time also becomes heavily warped as they travel together so when she does ask to go back to her home town it's been a couple decades & she hasn't changed one bit
Look me in eyes right now alright, Deep Breath alright. I want you to forget everything canon about Nth metal X metal & Eight metals until I tell you it's canon.
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Sphere of The Gods is a metaphysical reality where all magic was born from. It literally came about in canon when the multiverse/dc universe itself was being born, like an older twin to all reality.
This is where The Numbered Metals are from in my Void & Gold AU. The Sphere or The Collective as it's most commonly called in this AU, had bits of it falling out. This resulted in gods & immortals in canon & here it resulted in three metals. Most of which became far flung asteroids that ran into planets on their way around reality. Nth metal landed on Thanagar where Hawkwoman & Hawkman are originally from but this isn't all about them right now.
What you need to know for this AU is that one of those metals landed on Stone Age Earth in a meteor shower. Throwing it self into multiple places some of those places being pools of magic that would become stuff like the Lazarus pits or The Green.
But one of those asteroids fell rather noticeably near a family of five siblings, & one other disgraced man.
They go over to investigate & the middle child reaches out & touches the space rock. They are all changed forever.
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The Constant is the middle child if you where wondering, & the other siblings are the other Immortal Sibling. And the disgraced man is Vandal Savage.
To come in contact with a substance directly from The Collective is dangerous for anyone. The Sphere is quite similar to a vat of slime with your soul also being slime. One touch & it sticks to you no matter what you do, once it has you it rarely wants to let go, you could cut off the part of your soul that was touched but that's extremely dangerous.
The Constant got a soulful of contact with the asteroid, taking most of it on accident. His siblings immediately tried to pull him off it, but got touched by The Collective as well, though not as much as their sibling but it was still a lot.
I'm stopping here because I want to make a post that focuses on this band of immortals better.
Back to The Sphere!
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The Sphere is a greedy thing, it wants & wants & wants, no matter the fact that it already had everything. But it could never stop wanting, so it took from it's sibling The Infinite, The Multiverse. The Sphere quickly became The Collective as it took The Multiverse's souls.
The Sphere morphed those stolen souls into slime & puddy, shifting colors & abilities, an infinite supply of unneeded sentience.
Occasionally stronger souls will be able to pull themselves out of the Greater Collective. Able to ground themselves in their individuality. This leads to them developing abilities from their overexposure to the core off all magic, the first meta-sentients [a more inclusive term than meta-humans].
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OKAY that's all I'm doing about The Sphere for bit, I'll keep it up in another post though
