OKAY it's going to take a while to get to the point with this one but-- de meta time. You see I realised just now that the skua which is referenced throughout the game is a y'know a skua. Like Great Skua skua, like Stercorarius Skua.
And ALRIGHT that might be my bilingual brain that's slow on the uptake (all my bird knowledge is in Danish so forgive me) because perception literally points it out:
BUT HEY. HEY. I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY OF YOU KNOW WHAT THE GREAT SKUA'S WHOLE DEAL IS BUT IT IS NOT NICE. SO LET ME TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT THEM BEFORE I GET INTO THE MEAT OF THIS META:
Skuas are a type of predatory bird that primarily lives off of stealing other marine bird's food. Basically they're very good at outmanouvering and bullying other birds until the unsuspecting gull or tern (for an example) drops the fish it had caught. But The Great Skua takes that a step further as the largest of its kind. Becuase it will straight up kill to rob another bird, while also consequently getting the other bird as a meal in the process. Like, killing gulls and puffins are just a regular part of its diet along with the theft.
AND IN CASE THIS ISN'T ALREADY OBVIOUS: THE GREAT SKUA IS AN INSANE BIRD TO HAVE AS A HERALDIC/SYMBOLIC BIRD.
But then I thought; well yes of course the first bird that the nations of Mundi would find as a proof of reality would be the Great Skua. Of course the colonisers would have their first proof of discovering "the New New World" be this bird. Of course the people who after seeing this skua, this living proof that there was more out there to exploit, would then go to other isolas to steal and kill to sustain themselves. Of course the people that established the Suzerain of Revachol, which was (to quote Joyce) "the greatest concentration of wealth mankind has ever seen", would be justified by a Great Skua.
Of course the future foundations of the capitalist world in Elysium would see a skua, the bird that lives of off kelptoparasitism, as their proof of a New New World and new new oppertunities.
And then it only makes sense that The Great Skua became the symbol of the discovery of Insulinde; Mundi's most "promising" steal.
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good omens mascot: the bloodline of confusion
Assorted maggots, I know you know I'm a dumbass. It's a given, really. But a lot of y'all were scandalised when I didn't know who Terry Pratchett was. Let me raise you one better.
Today I met my cousin. I gave her the Good Omens saga to read, from Pt I to Pt III. The line she found the most shocking was, "Terry Pratchett is a guy." And not for the reasons you'd think.
So it turns out, my dear cousin, blood of mine, spent her life until today thinking Terry Pratchett is a kindly old woman.
She thought he looked something like Sudha Murty. For those of you who don't know her, she's the mother-in-law of Rishi Sunak, if that bloke still is the PM of Britain, idk they seem to be going through a lot of them really fast. Are you okay, Britain? Have a photo of her...
THIS. IS WHAT MY COUSIN. THOUGHT SIR TERRY PRATCHETT. LOOKED LIKE.
but THAT'S NOT ALL, DEAR MAGGOTS.
My cousin... looked at the cover design and typefaces of Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's books. She felt they were similar.
So today, she hit me with the world-shattering, eyeball-extracting, brain-melting news that till today, she thought Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett were married. Because of their cover design fonts.
So really, nothing I ever do can upstage this. She thought Terry Pratchett was a kindly old lady who was married to Neil Gaiman because of title fonts.
Make of this what you will.
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AAAAAAAAA AFTER MONTHS THIS IS FINALLY DONE!!!!! Not gonna ramble too much and get right to it! This was inspired by Bloodstain Fool by @naffeclipse (wonderful original detective au by @/sunnys-aesthetic!), because I am very much not normal about this man! gonna have to be divided in two parts because of the image limit gfklhdsñjkh
Here is part one, plus a bit of an introduction! (edit: added the alt text!)
I hope you enjoy!! <3
(content warnings: uuuh nothing too out there that wouldn't be in the main fic. Mentions of blood and violence, and uuuh unsafe self-modification practices? That's the best way I can think to explain it gkjdhgsfkj, and that's all I think!)
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The first spark feels familiar.
A sensation he last felt so long ago now.
(Not long enough. Never long enough)
It invades his systems in an instant, and yet it has always felt like an eternity. Joints locking up. Optics glitching out. Senses daring to escape his iron grip.
A spark is all he gets to hear before an array of errors and alarms and pain flood his mind.
(Pain always ovetakes it all in the end)
A spark is all it takes to start a fire.
A spark is what started the fire.
The burning within him. Overheating metal and wires and oil.
The internal inferno that took root in his head, as part of his very existence, consuming him alive.
Just a spark.
Enough to ignite the flames that he has been gradually (painstakingly, arduously, hopefully) smothering for some time now right back to being a raging hell that threatens to engulf him until there is nothing left.
Rage.
Rage is all he knows. What pushes him through the spasms.
Rage has him making sense of the glitches in his vision and set a target.
He is not the same as back then.
The target aims at him again. Presses down on the trigger.
His head twitches out of his control. He takes another step towards the target.
The target's smile falters and presses again. Again. Again.
Everything.
Turns.
Red.
-------
It's not uncommon for Eclipse to simply go off the radar and not reappear for a while. This you have learned from your dear detectives.
This time though? Your gut is yelling that there is something off.
For one, the day before he made his disappearance act, he had gone on one of his hunts. It was late at night, so it would be expected that he would arrive at the station to collect his pay the next day.
He did not.
For two...
The scene he left behind was a bloodbath.
A part of you wants to insist you are not surprised at all, aprehension about the tendencies of the violent animatronic, plus some lingering distrust, bubbling instinctually to the surface.
The rational part of you, that had seen and now accepted his genuine efforts to tear off the venom that he's been living off until recently from his system, tells you that there is a puzzle piece missing and you need to go and find it.
Detective Sun and detective Moon seem to agree with you. By the way detective Sun keeps glancing at the phone with increased frequency. By the way detective Moon arrives much later the night following the incident.
By the third morning, you decide enough is enough.
You know through the detectives that the only human survivor from the encounter was a recently joined member of the gang Eclipse stormed for his hunt. The kid was taken in and interrogated, but in his shaken state the only information they could get from him was that he was actually far from where the fight broke out, having heard a distant buzzing sound just before. Unlucky guy then stumbled on... well, Eclipse's handiwork.
(Or perhaps he was lucky. He was arrested, not taken to the morgue.)
The scene is very much still up to the brim with cops, not that you think you would get much from it if the detectives didn't share much else about the whole situation.
So that leaves you to hunt down the trail of the bounty hunter.
Under the harsh midday sunlight, after hours running around, you curse the sneaky bastard's ability to somehow go unnoticed if he so wishes while being as massive as he is.
Yet you catch wind of one or two people getting a glimpse of the robot, and that's enough to finally direct you to a general area where he might be. You suspect that you don't yet know all the locations of his safehouses, but at this section of the city at least, you are pretty certain there are no other places that could serve him well than those you have pinpointed.
Reaching the entrance of the most secluded one, you reach for your hair, and pull a pin secured by the ribbon that ties it up.
....
here's the link for part 2!
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