Webcomic / Synodic Reboot

Looking back, maybe you should have stayed to face the end.

Synodic Reboot is a (relatively) Interactive Comic incorporating several full, audio Flash animations. Though it is a "fan adventure" borrowing several core concepts from Homestuck, it is written more as a standalone story with its own unique characters, with care taken to ensure its readability despite potential unfamiliarity with its most direct source of inspiration.

Synodic Reboot revolves around a core group of ten characters of a species known as adlets, who unwittingly became involved in a force much more powerful than they could have imagined when they initially thought they were going to be playing a regular computer game. This reality-manipulating force has set the destruction of their home planet Nobriel into motion, while simultaneously providing the means to teleport its ten players into a completely new sub-universe to escape the apocalypse. As these stories tend to progress, that will only be the beginning.

Running since December 15, 2015, Synodic Reboot is currently within the top 100 comics on MSPFA and currently has over 1150 pages as of August 2023.

As of November 2021, Synodic Reboot has been rebooted as the fully original, non-SVERB Synodic Link, linked here and mirrored here. Synodic Reboot is still being gradually updated to wrap up the story; however, it can be considered a "retroactive" SBURB AU, and Synodic Link has taken its place as one of the creator's main projects and the main continuity.

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This story contains examples of:

• Alien Geometries: The mysterious highway Kristan visited in his dream has roads that curve and twist beyond what should exist anywhere in the reality he is used to, also existing in what appears to be an empty, dark void.
• Alliterative Name: Rennard Rush (insomniouslyIambic), evaluatedEntablature, Shattersprite.
• all lowercase letters: Some characters type this way by default, such as Zariyah. xylemTheologian, who normally uses capitalization, temporarily switches to all lowercase when she is feeling particularly upset.
• Alternative Calendar: Though it has yet to be shown in depth, Nobriel is indicated to use a different calendar to Earth by the fact it is currently a month known as Triskaber.
• Always Night: The dreamscape known as Derse. Can also be said about its brighter counterpart Prospit, which while it is much brighter and closer to Skaia, it has no notably colored atmosphere, resulting in it constantly appearing to be night.
• Ambidextrous Sprite: Averted with the characters Rennard and Cheral, who have asymmetrical fur patterns. However, the symbols on their outfits are still flipped.
• And Now for Someone Completely Different: To be expected from a comic with so many protagonists who all start in different locations.
• Animation Bump: Depending on the current depicted action, some panels have more effort put into their animations or art than others. Climactic moments are usually the heights of this, as would be expected.
• Anime Hair: Most characters tend to have pointy, wavy hairstyles. Further accentuated as "anime" by the adlets' hair dye.
• Arc Number: 105. Sverb is seen to be version 1.05, Kristan's entry countdown began at 1:05, and xylemTheologian has peculiar inclus10n5 of the number in her messages, whenever the sequence "io" appears with an "s" either immediately after or only a few letters away.
• Art Evolution: Act 2 Verse 1 is considerably better in art quality than Act 1.
• Astronomic Zoom: During the flash where Alethea plays her guitar, the camera zooms out from Alethea's dream room to show Prospit from space, then back in to Kristan's land until reaching his house.
• As You Know: A fight between Kristan and several imps was skipped over due to a narrative shift, but subsequent observation of the aftermath fills the readers in on how it went down.
• Batman Can Breathe in Space: Mirgonsprite seems to imply that you can breathe in the Medium. However, while you can survive falling from one to the other, you cannot breathe in the space between Girin-2 and Nobriel, as was demonstrated by Cheral.
• Bilingual Bonus: Banshian is a fictional language within the universe which makes numerous appearances, although technically it is no more than an alternate alphabet for English.
• Bizarrchitecture: Zariyah's interesting modifications to Kristan's house using Sverb.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Mirgonsprite is oddly cheerful about violence towards the enemies of Sverb, to sometimes concerning levels, but is still very cheerful and kind towards the adlets.
• Buffy Speak: Something from Mirgonsprite, probably.
• But What About the Astronauts?: Sverb is in the process of destroying Nobriel, but it's uncertain what will happen to its populated moon, Girin-2.
• Call a Hit Point a "Smeerp": As in Homestuck, health is shown in Health Vials are surrounded by Vitality Gel.
• Call-Back: Rennard lifting up the vase on this page is similar to the way Zariyah lifted her lamp during this flash, even using an edited version of the scene as visuals. Later, during the combat scene near the end of this flash, Kristan dodges attacks in a similarly referenced pose from Zariyah.
• Came Back Wrong: Quintin. Possibly murdered by his cult's leader, he came back as a Vengeful Spirit, mindless pre-prototyping such that he would attack Zariyah and destroy the accessible parts of her house.
• Cessation of Existence: Mirgonsprite seems to briefly warn of a threat capable of this.
• Character Class System: Sverb's classpect system. Thief of Dusk, Foe of Time, Fool of Rhyme, etc.
• Chess Motifs: Skaia, Prospit, and Derse.
• The Chosen One: The ten adlets predestined to play Sverb.
• Color-Coded Characters: Most characters have a corresponding color associated with them, seen in their hair dye and text color.
• Cool Mask: One of Zariyah's few actual magic objects is a mask which, on a much less cool note, simply has the ability to... activate things. It is unable to manipulate them or even turn them back off, strongly limiting its practical use.
• Cryptic Conversation: Mirgonsprite, due to their role in the game granting them knowledge of all or most mechanics, is also given the urge to simply refuse to tell anyone everything they know, because it's "spoilers!"
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Kristan actually has an easy time with the imp enemies spawned by Sverb. This is likely due to the fact that said imps have been weakened due to being prototyped with a shattered mirror, and the fact that Kristan was several rungs up his echeladder before his introduction to Sverb.
• Curtains Match the Window: Whenever the adlets are rendered in enough detail, it is apparent that their irises match their hair dye color.
• Difficulty Spike: invoked Upon his entry to the game, Kristan has an easy time taking care of the enemies it throws at him... until he encounters the first Ogres.
• Dreams of Flying: Players' "dreamselves" are naturally able to fly.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Players who dream on Prospit are able to see visions of the future (as well as occasional views of the past or present) by looking into the oracle clouds of Skaia.
• Exact Time to Failure: The countdowns seen after opening a Cruxtruder display the time left before a meteor strikes their location.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin: "Standard Soupe."
• Extra Lives: Every Sverb player starts with a dreamself, which will take the place of their regular self in the case of death.
• Funnel Cloud Journey: Upon his entry to the Medium, Kristan's house is surrounded by a stationary storm, preventing him from simply leaving to explore his Land. Instead, he has to climb his built-up house to reach a Gate to transport him somewhere else in the Land.
• That Came Out Wrong: The typo-prone Rennard in a conversation with Alethea.
  Rennard: i mean i cant figure out how to play it in my currentstate but im sure if its working for them they dlike to fucok on it
  Alethea: Excuse me what
  Rennard: *focus on it
  Rennard: im tyoping to fast
  Alethea: Maybe you should slow down a bit