User:Ch4zm/July 2025/Boylston Lore Jam

BB

alewife-boylston rivalry

alewife originals

The Pirate Radio Jam: In a pivotal match for the MTA Crown, the Boogers, appalled by the low-fidelity nature of the Arsonists' fan culture, attempted to "jam" The Brakeman's pirate radio signal. They didn't use technology; they broadcasted a live, avant-garde poetry reading on the same frequency. The plan backfired spectacularly. The discordant noise and abstract imagery of the poetry only fed the Arsonists' chaotic gestalt, causing their patterns to evolve in beautiful, terrifyingly unpredictable ways, leading to an infamous victory known to Alewife fans as "The Howl."

An Echo of Shared Trauma: Their linked origin in the great 90s blackout defines their interactions. The Arsonists were born of heat and rage in a stalled train. The Boogers were born of cold and dread in a damp tunnel. When they play, this polarity manifests on the grid. Arsonist patterns raise the metaphysical "temperature" of the game, causing opponents' patterns to become brittle. Booger patterns generate a "dampness," causing opponents to become sluggish and bogged down in a virtual slime.

The "Cartographical Defamation": The modern rivalry’s "First Burn" was not ignited by a match, but by a mosaic. In a grand act of civic arrogance, the Boylston Boogers unveiled a massive, permanent tile map in their station. Commissioned from Bartholomew Peabody Finch, a celebrated (and notoriously smug) artist from Wellesley, the piece was a masterpiece of passive aggression. It depicted the Green Line as a thick, vibrant artery of emerald and gold tile, pulsing with life. In stark contrast, the Red Line was rendered as a thin, pathetic capillary of cracked crimson ceramic that withered and fizzled into a gray, featureless smudge at Alewife. This public insult, the "Cartographical Defamation," was the moment the "GO BACK TO WELLESLEY!" chant was first spat in fury.

alewife lore

• GO BACK TO WELLESLEY
• The Cartographic Defamation
• The Wellesley Heresy
• War of the Pothole
• Coattail Pennant
• Rainbow Burn

boylston lore

• The Cartographic Defamation

Gooby Boylston (no relation) is an architecture critic for the Boston Tribune and the unofficial spokesperson for the Boylston Boogers. Gooby primarily writes sports columns for the Boston Tribune, but insists that "architecture critic" is his "real" title.

mta crown backstory

The Architectural Heresy: The rivalry is an aesthetic holy war. Boylston, one of the oldest stations, is a landmark of historic tile and wrought iron. Alewife is a modern (1985) concrete cathedral of Brutalism. The Boogers see Alewife as a soulless, monstrous parking garage with a subway attached. The Arsonists see Boylston as a cramped, crumbling, inefficient relic for tourists. This feud exploded when a Booger-sympathizing architecture critic called Alewife "a monument to despair," and in retaliation, the Arsonists' patterns began mimicking the cracks in Boylston's ancient tilework, a deep and personal insult.

BB Motto

Ex Medio Omnia

Translation: "From the Center, Everything."

Rationale: This serves as the perfect, arrogant counterpoint to the Arsonists' motto. It’s a concise and totalizing claim to importance. Omnia ("all things" or "everything") implies that culture, life, and significance emanate directly from them, and that anything outside their central hub is, by definition, nothing.