So! Danny is missing. Maybe it's a Vivisection AU and he ran away, maybe he got trapped by one of his Rogues, either way, Danny is gone and his Rogues are free to spread across the planet.
Walker in particular has an interesting adventure.
After Danny trashed his Prison and broke Wulf out, people realized that it wasn't as impenetrable as he made it out to be. And what's an army of Immortal Criminals to do when given all the time in the world? They test each and every method they can to break in or to escape.
Danny's actions caused a Domino Effect that lead to Walkers Prison being torn apart from both the inside and the outside. He lost his Territory, his Power, and most of his Guards. So he decided to start again in the Mortal Realm.
And he found the perfect New Haunt.
Arkham.
He's never seen such a sorry Prison in his AfterLife (It's an asylum). Criminals breaking in and out every other week, no prisoner staying for longer than a month at most, and nobody is doing anything to fix it.
He needs to remedy this.
So one night, he and his Army of Ghostly Guards attack the Prison. They Overshadow whatever guards are on Duty, take control of the Prison Systems, and Initiate a Total Lockdown.
Walker then sends out a Message.
"People of the Mortal Realm. I an Warden Walker, the new Head of this here little Prison. We have seen how terrible this sorry excuse for a prison is, and decided to take it upon ourselves to fix it. From now on, we will be the Guards of this Arkham. Send your prisoners here, and they will stay here. Try to break in, and you will never leave. Try to force us out, and you will join our undead Ranks. This is not a Negotiation, this is not a Request, this is an Announcement. If you have a problem with this, then I will be happy for personally meet you. I am in need of new employees after all."
After this message, many tried to stop him, but none were successful. He didn't seem to understand that a Prison is meant to hold Prisoners for a determined amount of Time, not forever. Or that it wasn't a Prison in the first place, it was an Asylum to treat the mentally ill.
The Bats could do anything either. Any time they tried to take back the prison, they were beaten back by the Possessed Guards and Ghostly Guards patrolling the grounds. And they didn't want to hurt the Hostages.
They needed a solution, so they got to digging.
Apparently they weren't the only ones who were dealing with Ghost Related Issues. All across the world, powerful Ghosts were claiming large areas of land as their new Haunts, weaker Ghosts were running Rampant in the spaces in between, and JLD was being run ragged as they tried to help wherever they could.
It was a worldwide issue, and they needed to find the Cause.
After a lengthy investigation, they found that all the Ghosts originally came from one Place. A small town in Illinois where they had been trying to break into the Mortal Realm for years, but they had been stopped by another. A Ghost who protected the Mortal Realm from the powerful Spirits of the Dead.
If they had any hope of containing this threat, they needed his help. They needed to find Phantom.
'What if I put a clock pendulum in my torso' was the sort of question Bruce had come to expect when visiting Oracle.
"Pendulums are dependant on a stable base," he replied, because the last time he'd assumed they were being unserious Tim had tried to fit a chemistry test lab in his mouth and accidentally leaked the fumes through his mask.
"It'd be so aesthetic though," said Barbara, not looking up from the dozen screens she was surrounded by. "Listen. It would look so cool - Spoiler, robbery on fifth and main - Especially if I put a clock face over my heart."
"I thought you were trying to fit a super computer in it?"
"I was, but progress is slow. It's hard to fit it and enough padding to protect it plus leave enough room for ventilation. If I add the pendulum I might at least get inspiration." She gave a heavy sigh and pushed away from the desk, gliding in her chair to where her doll body was resting on a table, the glue separating the two halves of the smashed torso still glistening. Bruce followed, peering over her at the many scanners and wires hooked into it, flashing and beeping.
"Any luck?" he asked, and they both knew he wasn't talking about the computer anymore.
"Nothing."
He squeezed her shoulder, and she leant into it. They stayed there for a long moment.
"I just don't understand!" Barbara finally burst out, hands clenching on her chair arms. "I glued nearly every single piece back together! I made sure every splinter I could find went exactly where it should! I know the contract is still there. She's worked with more missing pieces before. But she's just not responding!"
"It's not you," Bruce soothed. "You've more than enough determination and strength to puppet, and we know the human body's state doesn't affect performance."
"That's the thing!" Barbara threw her hands up angrily, nearly smacking Bruce in the face. There was a chatter over comms, and both reached for their own. "One second," she said tightly, and wheeled back into the glow of the monitors. "Copy. BW, you're nearest? Thanks. Try and avoid the sniper this time. Wing, backup is in five."
She muted again and spun around, pinning Bruce with a heavy stare. "Is there anything, anything you can think of? We've - nothing I've tried has worked."
"Well...." He trailed off, one hand coming up to rub at the chin of his mask - a quiet night meant the opportunity to forgo the practical but muffling gas mask for his favoured plain black.
It was far from the first time a doll had been horrifically damaged. The incident with Bane came to mind - Batman had been in a very similar condition, body shorn clean in two and tossed to opposite corners. It was an awful memory, but the expression on Bane and the audience's faces as his bloodless body fell apart like a rotting tree trunk and then kept moving was a silver lining he'd always treasure.
But he'd been repaired and back on his feet in weeks, if bearing the incandescent fury of the doll for several more. It had been months for Barbara, and still nothing was happening.
"There's something we're missing, and I doubt it's on your side."
"I know THAT-"
"Listen," he demanded, and her jaw clicked shut mutinously. "There's something we're not seeing. Batgirl is in no shape to demand it herself, it seems. So its inaction is something we can't fully rely on."
"You've got the most experience with the dolls of all of us. Can you.. I don't know, sense anything?"
"Nothing more than the usual, with the Patriarch Doll, but we might get more if we return to the doll house -"
"No." Barbara interrupted again, but Bruce did not take offence. "She's not going anywhere. She doesn't want to head back to the cave."
Oh?
"She doesn't want to, or she doesn't care to?"
"I say she doesn't."
Interesting. This was likely a case of the doll exerting its will. The bats were well versed in avoiding the few lines their wooden bodies drew in the sand, treating them with the wary respect one would give a favorite blade or a highly trained attack dog. They could work together, share the highs and lows of life with them, but never get complacent. The dolls were forever a foreign, inhuman presence, and as with all wild creatures they would never be so arrogant as to assume full understanding. For Barbara to so strongly decide for the doll meant she was most likely not the only one deciding.
Which meant the solution would not be found in the cave.
"Perhaps there are upgrades she wishes to have?"
Oracle paused.
"Maybe," she conceded. "But there's practically a limitless amount of things I could do, and I wouldn't know where to start. And I could more easily do them when she's up and walking."
Not that then. If the doll wanted something to change but not receive upgrades or heal, than what?
... Not heal.
Batman hurried to the table. Oracle watched him with hawk eyes, but another call on the comms turned her away with a final warning glance.
Recovering every single splinter from a damaged wooden object and perfectly reattaching it was nigh impossible on a good day, never mind in the dead of night with a moving target. The dolls always returned to the cave to regenerate scratches and nicks they couldn't buff out, or accepted plaster to transmute with whatever supernatural power guided them.
The batgirl on the table, divested of all covering and armour, was still as chipped and scuffed as the day nightwing recovered last splinter.
The pieces fell into place.
"She doesn't want to be perfectly rebuilt," he realised. "She doesn't want the damage to disappear as it normally does... She wants it to remain visible. A different type of repair, then."
Oracle spun in her wheelchair to face him.
"Why?" she asked, something sharp in her eyes. Bruce chose his next words carefully.
"Perhaps she thinks such damage doesn't need to be hidden away," he said, slowly, and didn't comment when she turned away. Though she put on a strong face, and the doctors had recently released her full time, it would be a long time until the young hero was able to truly heal her mind.
"She doesn't need to do that for me. She's just causing me trouble."
"I don't think she is," he tried. "Dolls tend to reflect their puppeteer even after they accept us. You can't deny your trajectory has been changed."
They both sent a significant look to the enormous super computer taking up the wall.
"You've said you almost feel better able to protect Gotham now, with your reach and skills. Do you really feel that way?"
"I - I don't -" her mouth worked silently, and Bruce waited. "I mean I guess... But a part of me always assumed it'd be temporary, you know? Once I fixed batgirl.. It'd all return to normal." Her voice wobbled, and Bruce didn't hesitate to crouch before her, wrapping her in a long armed hug. She buried herself in his chest, regardless of the chilled metal.
"It's okay if you don't," he whispered into her hair, and held her as she shook. "I'm just throwing ideas around."
"I do though," she rasped. "I think I do feel that way. There's so much that can't be solved by violence, and it feels good to be out there but... I think I can help even more people, this way."
"That's good," he praised, "that's good. You can do whatever you set your mind to."
"You stole that from a parenting book verbatim."
"It's applicable to the current situation."
"Fine," she sighed, and pushed him away to roughly scrub at her eyes. "I'll give the doll another chance. Find some glitter glue or something, I don't know."
"Any materials you need will be provided," he promised. "I wouldn't recommend glitter glue or our usual tar."
He moved to pat her on the hair as the emotions of the moment faded, making sure to keep his unsheathed claws out of her hair.
"Once you fix her, though, I would recommend you puppet the doll during night hours still," he told her. "It wouldn't be good to put your body through twenty hour days."
"I've got a good system set up for now, but thank, B-man."
The computer dinged with another alert, and oracle spun to squint at it with a muffled curse, typing furiously. Batman escaped to the other side of the room, where the folders he'd originally come looking for lay. She waved, distracted, as he left, and although the doll could not smile, he could feel it on his face all the same.
Hey Dad, I really don't want to be a stockbroker. I mean, I know you and mom already got me a scholarship for a degree in finance, but I feel that my future lies in literature. I really think my epistolary novel could be a best seller.
me in my most batshit insane moment: what if phone dude was an okay-ish dad
There's something to be said about his initial design and I will say this something. We are taking the original game as an example, but will touch on the remaster too.
The design
How the fuck did Poki do it? How can you make a character that looks like an absolute dork AND kinda intimidating at the same time? I tell you how, but before that - let's examine these two faces.
Unfortunately, Poki clearly had a trouble with the Keymaster staying on model, I call the first version "squarey" (you can see this version of his face during the first dialogue and during KM wait in the truck) and the second's "long-ey" (you can see this one everywhere else) but I will say that I generally prefer the second version - the long face one.
Why? The look is a bit more human and not "I don't have no fucking eyelids", the eyebrows are so much prominent, which adds to the look, and the bang is a bit longer.
So what's so cool and actually funny about his design?
He combines two archetypes: a general creep (sick (not in a cool way) eye and skin colors (dude may wanna check his liver tho), an indication of sunken eyes, the stache) and a coolass emoboy (this fucking haircut, smug talk, drama).
Like these two guys fused together:
Like dude what the fuck
Also his skin color is fucking sickening you know why? Ever tried to rub your skin along - say - shoulder? Ever got these partricles of dead skin? Have you ever saw what color does it get, when you accumulate it enough in your hand?
That's right! They are morbidly greay-ishly green. Exact hue of his skin. THE DUDE HAS SO MUCH DEAD SKIN - ppls kinda shed - ON HIS BOD IT MIGHT AS WELL BE 20% of his body weight.
The voice/s
Original VA for Keymaster goes for a top notch mix of freako and smug. He sounds both flirtatious and a biiit unstable, like a person who tries their best to hit you up but clearly haven't slept for like 3 days - the tone and mannerisms are all over the place, the voice itself is the perfect balance of semi-deep and whispery. I love this performance - it confuses you into whether or not can you trust the guy . An original performance and the one to be respected.
(sorry for the little snippet of another voice at the end - this let's player doesn't know how to shut up and I am too lazy to record it again from a different source)
Russian VA for Keymaster - who based his performance off the original one - DIDN'T HAVE TO GO THAT HARD?? Dat voice is deep as FUCK, thicc even, you can't call the voice "thicc" but this one just IS. The whispery part is gone absolutely, KM sounds kinda normal even, but holy shit did the VA turned it up to 100. This one is a favourite of mine, absolutely. I don't even give a shit about what he says, this is some ASMR shit. Absolute 0 wonder why he tricked most of russian let's players into actually trusting him. The only criticism I may ha
English VA went to the opposite direction of the spectrum, he went all fancy kind of dracula over the top performance, kinda like, WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY and while he does sound unhinged, there is no doubt he's a sicko actually. That, or just a theater kid. But no shame on this actor tho, just bc I don't really like this particular performance, doesn't mean it's TERRIBLE ok?
Basicly I made a chart:
Go with your preference of choice, my dudes.
The personality and motives
Holy fucking shit so hear me out.
I don't like him around the fact that he's a flity pretty possible serial killer.
I like him for the fact of being RESENTFUL about it, possibly hating it about himself.
When he killed the pastor it clearly was made on impulse, and he hated it so much that he locked himself - and therefore Edna - up. Despite the smarts he's clearly impulsive in nature - like getting off to drive a Dr's car ABSOLUTELY NOT KNOWING HOW TO and ONLY THINKING AFTER THE FACT, there is like nothing going on in this head.
I am not excusing the guy's actions, but there is a big chance he just went a full on Sam Gordon just with no curse involved.
...
HOLY SHIT IS KEY MASTER A BLACK MIRROR REFERENCE
THE FIVE KEYS SAM HAS TO FIND, THE SURROUNDINGS, THE "OOPS FUCK I DIDN'T MEAN TO KILL PPL I HAVE ISSUES I HATE MYSELF *commits a sewer side*" AND THE LOOKS?
Okay I am just overthinking it at this point. BUUUT THIS GAME WAS MADE IN GOOD OLD 2003 AND PRETTY BELOVED IN GERMANY AND WE HAVE WALKING REFERENCES LIKE PROFESSOR NOK SOOOOOOOO
...
So anyways.
The conculsion
Key Master is great not because he's your stereotypical mass murderer POS. There is a lot of unpack and a lot of empathy to be felt if you try to think on how come he ended up the way he did.
He actively hates himself and doesn't enjoy the way he is which is - unfortunately - preeeetty much deserved.
I will write more abt the dude later - especially on my fav theory that says he's not real
Let's pretend that Petra was so overfilled with Christmas mood she even managed to make a Christmas tree from Keymaster (he hated it), he's green, after all 🥰
Imagine him hanging Pastor on a tinsel.... Jingle bells 🥰🥰🥰
something based on a king of the hill's scene that lives rent free on my head. i always wondered what happened to the other patients in harvey's new eyes
*Drag Queen Stiesel YEAH I LOVE HIM I LOVE IT I LOVE DAT SHI-*
E: Oh myy, Gotthold? Is it really you? Does your daddy know what you do?
S: Fuck you
E: You're a fag
AND SOME OLD STUFF. I started drawing this in December of '23 (the part with the Keymaster) but only finished it in March of this year (the part with Edna) sssoooooo yyyeeeaaaa (NOT SHIP. AGAIN.)