Reality in Gotham

Hello to all watching!
I have a very important announcement, but first, I’m going to have to explain a
few things.

First, you must
understand that reality is fluid, and it is greatly influenced by how it is perceived.
Portions of reality only inhabited by nonsapient creatures rarely undergo
considerable change, for example, and-

Oh, I should define “change”,
shouldn’t I? 

Well- I don’t mean that everything in them stays the same when
they don’t change. Things change. I mean that what is possible changes. Not what could eventually be possible, through
improved technology- what will ever be possible, according to the laws of that
reality. In addition, the laws of probability are an important part of that-
and they are the first to shift.

Anyway- portions of
reality only inhabited by nonsapient creatures rarely shift because nonsapient
creatures have no imagination. With very few exceptions, they perceive reality
as it is, and only as it is.

Nonsapient creatures,
well- they get interesting. They have imaginations! They come up with things
that don’t exist. Now, usually, those don’t turn into anything. Either they’re
too much like reality, or they’re too far away for what human minds can
accidentally accomplish. But, sometimes, they hint.

Like those, oh, what
do you call them- cryptids. By and large, those don’t exist. The collective
belief isn’t enough to bring them into reality, but it is enough to continue producing what seems like proof. Because it
almost is proof- stories, tiny scraps of hints, strange things that don’t quite
fit. That’s what belief produces- those little hints.

And there are outside
factors that can influence probability, and therefore reality. Anything
improbable enough has some influence. My being here, for example, or the
continued existence of people who’ve survived things that should really be
impossible- people with things through their brains are a good example.
Normally that’s not a concern, though, please don’t go and kill improbable
folks. It takes a great deal of extremely improbable things in one place to
alter reality, and, usually, you can’t get that many improbable things without
there already being altered reality involved.

But, hm, I should get
back to my point.

I’m sure you know of
the gap in time, between 2 and 4 am, where nothing seems quite right. Now- this
is mostly due to the effects of a lack of sleep on humans, plus all the various
little things that are different when almost no one is awake. Reality seems
just a bit off. And that’s because it is! In that space in time, but only in
the parts of the world currently experiencing that space in time, reality is
askew. And it is that way entirely because of how sleep-deprived human brains perceive
the world, and because of how strange it seems to your brain to see normally
public areas empty of people. Because reality feels askew, it is askew.

Now, as I’m sure you
can imagine, this is where things can be dangerous.

Take this city, for
example. It’s absurd! Look at these buildings. It’s as if no one has updated
most of the city in a few hundred years. Everything is falling apart, it’s
crumbling and dark, and, oh, I can smell
the lead, that can’t be helping. And it’s full of crime. More than that, it’s
full of people who are extraordinarily improbable. Your hero is a man dressed
as a large version of a small flying mammal, accompanied by an entourage of
children in brightly colored outfits! This city has been held hostage by birds!
Actual birds! There is a man dressed as a clown riding a large robotic teddy
bear outside of- oh, my friend, your nemesis is here, you should deal with
that.

Nothing in this city
makes any sense, by the laws of reality that govern everything around it. And
that is because this city operates on a slightly askew version of reality. I have
checked the city myself- there are at least two creatures hiding here who take
advantage of that, but they did not cause this.

So do you know what
did?

Ask your neighbor why
all these things happen. They will probably tell you “because this is Gotham”
and then look at you like you are a simpleton for not understanding how reality
works.

And that is because something
happened. Something that can be termed a “mass belief event”. Now, it may have
been an intentional attack, or it may have been accidental- probably a poison,
a hallucinogen. The lead levels around us are not helping that. Or, maybe even
a serial killer- one with seemingly mystical powers who frightened everyone
living here. It’s difficult to tell, and probably irrelevant.

But, whatever
happened, everyone’s perception of the city changed. Gotham City became a dark
and frightening place, full of crumbling ruins, creeping scavengers, and
threatening figures with strange abilities.

Now, whatever did that
to everyone would have worn off eventually. But the city, well-

Look around you.

The city remembered.

Yes, places remember!
Patches of reality remember! They aren’t usually conscious, but things,
especially things made by other creatures, know how they ought to be. And how
they ought to be is heavily defined by how it is thought that they ought to be.
It’s why children can build things startlingly well from cardboard before they
realize they shouldn’t be able to- because children, and any other beings who
can imagine but don’t yet know what they shouldn’t be able to do, have the
power to alter reality. Just a fraction. Please, please do not try to weaponized
that, it has been attempted, it fails every time and it goes terribly wrong,
but that is a fact.

Places remember what
they ought to be. And reality shifts around them to help that. Cities left to
fall into ruins regrow nature more easily because they remember that they ought
to be full of plants. And Gotham, well- Gotham remained the frightening place
that its inhabitants perceived it as.

Gotham remembered what
its inhabitants thought it ought to be, and it shifted to accommodate. People didn’t
repair things as often as they ought to, scavengers moved in, and… the loosened
reality allowed for certain defiances in places. Such as your “supervillains”.

Now- if I lived here, I
would want to change that.

Do you?

Well, good news! You can!

And it’s really very
simple.

Stop believing. Start
questioning. Start asking “why has no one repaired this building yet? Why is
this man in a suit covered with punctuation marks still around? Why are these
people who are clearly mentally ill being allowed to escape time and again from
the same place?”

Start refusing to
believe!

If you are new to the
city- stop accepting it! Yes, the city is strange to you, and your perception
of it as strange can help to bolster the altered reality, but you have insights
into what other cities are like! Start questioning all the differences this one
has.

If it works, you will
start to see change, but it will not be as if by magic. People will start
refusing to accept situations, start trying to rebuild. Maybe… stop putting the
“villains” back into the place they keep escaping from. You cannot change the
past, but you can change the future, can push this city’s reality into
something a bit less Gothic.

Your perception of
reality is more powerful than you understand.

Use it.

Refuse to believe that
which should be unbelievable.

Refuse to accept this.