#sunless skies fics

[moonstruck-stormy]

Every time Captain Finnegan “Finch” Duff visits London, something new and incredibly baffling happens. Exhaustion overwhelms em, as e steps out of the locomotive to tend to errands. Low on supplies, and dangerously low on fuel.

Arriving at St. Dominic’s Station, e gets assaulted by a shrill, frantic chirping echoing out from the well- decorated plaza of the port.

Focusing on the source of the pathetic cries, the Captain sees what looks like a toddler-sized bat crawling on a bust of Her Majesty to get away

from a gaggle of angry skyfarers at the station.

[zeebreezin]

Oh you fucked it now Bev

Wrote up some of the Scintillating Harbinger’s Origin - specifically, that while… head situation he has. Huge warning for body horror here!!

One of the few surviving senior engineers of the Clockwork Sun begins to meet the fate his fellows did. He loves the machine too much to let go, and becomes something far, far worse.

I won’t be posting this one loose in the readmore because horror content but please lemme know what you think!

[house-of-mirrors]

for the sskies captain ask game : 🌏🐝🌙

🌏: already answered!

🐝 What is the state of their soul?

Hahaha. They have 5/7 flaws right now. Some of them, I don't even remember how they got, but two were on purpose. The Impenitent Devil being like, "this had to have been intentional" Damn right it was! They don't care too much about abstract morality concepts of the soul, but they do enjoy making themself an affront to the Judgements.

🌙 What has been the darkest/scariest moment of their times in the skies?

I'm glad you asked this one because it was the one I really wanted to talk about! I'll stick it under the cut because it does contain major spoilers for an officer quest.

Without a doubt, it was the ending of the Amiable Vagabond's story. Captain Mintaka was never someone who found it easy to trust people. Through the slow process of exploring, bonding with their crew, and allowing themself to open up to a few of their officers (the Devil and the Hoarder :smirk:), they began to relax. Despite every instinct screaming at them not to trust the Vagabond's final plan, they did because the well-being of everyone on their train is their top priority always.

When they found out the Vagabond intended to kill them, they were crushed. Captain Mintaka has always been stoic and soft spoken, rarely expressive, but when they confronted the Vagabond about the betrayal, there was shouting and shaking rage. The crew are very well cared for and very loyal to their Captain, so there was a violent response to attempted treason. The Captain had to work hard to stop the Hoarder from committing murder.

They have nightmares of falling for some time afterward and solicit much comfort from the Hoarder. Everyone is shaken up on the train for a while, but instead of withdrawing again, the Captain finds themself bonded more than ever with their crew and officers. I intend to write a lil fic about this whole part because it was such a character shaping moment.

[clockticken]

So i wrote a little fic for a SSkies Au i've been thinking up for quiet a while so... I'll just leave this here

Have fun with it!

[lordcaptains]

📓!

📓 - the plot of a fanfiction that I haven't written but I still daydream about

so of course having posted that prompt, i shall now provide essentially its exact opposite: a scene i have written in search of a plot. or rather, the plot is there - it's that of sunless skies, which is so beautifully written that it inspired me to imagine the moments between the encounters that make up the game.

(you captain a steam locomotive through the wilderness of space. that is the least fucked up thing that will happen to you out there.)

The Captain liked Port Avon.

Once you'd worn out your welcome, the locals turned sullen and silent, true. But while it lasted, they didn't care if you were a devil, a clay man, or a king.

Which was good, she reflected, as her locomotive was crewed by all three. 

The Captain still wore her cap tugged low over her face, but she had pulled down her scarf to enjoy her cider. The flickering firelight and warm amber glow spilling through the bubbled panes of glass softened the livid hues of the burn scars splashed across her cheek.

Well, not precisely a king, she thought as she gazed across the tavern. A princess. An Incognito Princess, to be exact.

The glint of their gold had failed to attract the bartender's attention, so the Repentant Devil had left the coins on the burnished applewood and taken it upon himself to refill their drinks. He threaded his way back through the Princess's throng of admirers and carefully placed a brimming mug in front of his Captain. Condensation had beaded on its sides, as silvery as the dew which dappled the grass of the village green outside.

He slid back onto the bench beside her as she took a sip. Across the room, a villager had just removed their own wedding ring, dropped to one knee, and proffered it to the Princess with a flourish in a proposal of marriage.

"She can't actually believe she's in disguise," the Captain remarked, then hesitated with her mug partway to her lips. "Can she?"

The Devil arched an eyebrow at her. 

"Of course she does," he replied. "She has decided to do something, and she is royalty. Therefore, she has done it."

"Ah," she replied, taking an eloquent pull of her drink, and lapsed back into silence.

Outside, the sharp crack of willow on leather rolled across the village green, echoing amongst the orchards abutting its grassy edge. A resounding cheer rose in its wake. The buoyant laugh of the Fortunate Navigator curled through the raucous noise like a thin ribbon of smoke rising from the chimney of a warm hearth on a snowy night, beckoning a weary traveler home from the stars. The Navigator made friends wherever he went, and their welcome in Port Avon always lasted a while longer when he came ashore.

[khey-s]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Sunless Skies Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: The Repentant Devil/Sky-Captain(s) (Sunless Skies) Characters: The Captain, The Repentant Devil (Sunless Skies) Additional Tags: Ficlet, Alternate Ending, Freedom, more sweet than bitter Summary:

The Captain returns to the Reach to visit an old acquaintance and talk over choices made and paths not taken.

[alithiasigma]

HEY! THE MOST DELAYED CHAPTER OF MY WEIRDEST FIC IS UP!!!

Chapters: 4/7 Fandom: Persona 5, Sunless Skies, Fallen London | Echo Bazaar Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Characters: Akechi Goro, Presiding Deviless, Phantom Thieves of Hearts, Persona 5 Protagonist, Sakamoto Ryuji, Sakura Futaba, Takamaki Ann, Kitagawa Yusuke, Okumura Haru, Niijima Makoto, Morgana (Persona Series), Yoshizawa Sumire | Yoshizawa Kasumi, Various cognitive beings and Shadows Additional Tags: carillon, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Psychological Horror, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Akechi Goro Has A Palace, Implied/Referenced Torture, Fucked Up Shit, Improper Use of Red Honey, Chapter-specific warnings in author's note, Akechi-Centric, Present Tense, Very strange without knowledge of Fallen London/Sunless Skies, Confusing without knowledge of Persona 5, The Correspondence (Fallen London), Akechi Goro is Weird Series: Part 3 of The Crow Prince's Palace Summary:

The worst soul, the very worst soul that has ever stepped across the threshold, now put on display in Carillon, a tour of seven segments, each presenting a flaw.

Broken, envious, destructive, twisted, manipulative, cruel, uncaring... The devils of Carillon claim to be experts in the assessment and improvement of the soul. This one is so foul, so irredeemable that no devil dare attempt to mend it.

The Rebellious Trickster and his Phantom Troupe are invited to study this phenomenon, this irreparably distorted soul.

[anomaly-beans]

Merry has angered a god once more, and now must face the consequences.

A sunless skies au fic.

[cupofmaddy]

this is actually one of the funniest hualian smut fics I've ever read OH MY GODDD

-------

Crimson Rain was heaving for breath on the other end, as if he was about to expire for the fourth time. He Xuan didn’t even have the energy to roll his eyes. He just stared blankly at the gray, sunless skies, took a bite of his lobsterphone, and waited for Crimson Rain to start babbling on about whatever his prince had done to get him outrageously horny now.

“His…his sacred and divine backside…His Highness’ backside…”

“Okay,” He Xuan said. “Is that all for today?”

“His ass. He smashed a wall with his ass. God I wish that were me.”

He Xuan ate the rest of his phone to excuse himself from the rest of the conversation, flipped back over, and got back to the wallowing thing.

-------

LIKE EVEN THE TITLE I CANNOT

[starryeyed-seer]

Below is some rampant speculation about certain phrases of correspondence, repeating themes in FL, the timeline of the neath, and specifically all of it through a Bazaar lens. and then specifically stuff about the Bazaar's relationship to the sun, moon, and mountain. spoilers (including Mr. E, Sunless Skies, Railway) and much text.

It's organized and it's madness enjoy

Update: it is more madness than I planned for but maybe I say something wise. the image above is not invoked lightly

My main quick ref sources, though I might ref stuff without references: the fifth city wiki of correspondance phrases, and this helpful cited-ish list of (older) lore relating to the sun/bazaar/stone.

I'm writing about them in my fic rn which means doing a lot of research into what is canon. if you've never done this, it is difficult, mainly conveyed through second-hand sources, and absolutely vague. (FL benefits from how it uses rumours, secrets, and stories to make lore a bit wiggly. but man can't sup on crumbs alone).

The Sun and the Bazaar's love story is the inciting incident for the plot and the undercurrent to everything, and we know very little about what happened. The majority of our knowledge on it comes from the 7th letter, an illegal play which guesses the future and has who knows what as a source.

A Foundation:

A vision from the Bazaar's tears is probably our earliest referenced point on the timeline. "How the Mountain is remembered" is ambiguous. Since this is pre-Neath, when the Earth was molten, Stone either was born and on the surface, or was perhaps about to be born. The garden, which currently lies inside/around Stone, was newly made- Was Stone on the surface with it? Born within it, as made by Sol? Did she form it herself on the surface?

We don't know how she was 'born'- there is I think a singular reference to her Birth here, in Sunless Seas:

The Birth. The Heart. Whose heart are we talking about? Since Judgement/Courier are not meant to reproduce, Stone's birth likely was done by some act of Correspondent fuckery or red science. I don't know what you can call the Neath but a creation of Red Science: Sol (and the Bazaar!) both practice it.

Did Stone ever lay on the surface? It can be argued probably not: she's a crime. a sin. A shame. On the other hand, the Sun presumably could choose not to destroy her. At some point though, he made the Neath and hid her away.

^Probably the legal name for the Name.

Was the Neath made solely because of/for Stone?

Probably not. I'm pretty sure that Sol is the equivalent of a Scholar of the Correspondance and Red Artisan, but on a cosmic scale. In Sunless Skies, the High Wilderness is mostly breathable and habitable. Our solar system is not (unless it is in FLverse). Other Judgements seem to rule varied, strange Kingdoms, but the Earth is a singular world with strict rules, kept in heavy isolation, with measures to keep its population from leaving.

The Sun is a mad scientist!

Here's a Mr. E section, from the end of the quest, which highlights Earth and the Sun's kingdom as minuscule and not notable. It's small, but also likely out of the way... perfect for a secret lab of forbidden sciences, hidden in the centre of a very boring world. Stars are not as omnipercipient as they claim (This is one reason Stone could have lived on the surface for a time).

It could be that the creation of Stone is what made the Sun promptly create the Neath, or Stone might have been an experiment he stowed the moment he'd finished building the basement. Perhaps the moment she was born, she was locked away below-- or maybe he hid her so she could live. The 1911 journal suggests she and her eternal life is a key aspect of 'the Sun's experiment'- maybe he always planned to make a life-giving creation, and the Bazaar was conveniently there and willing.

It's interesting we have two examples of Correspondance that roughly mean the same thing: a mix of scientific curiosity and love. Maybe this is what happened with the Sun and the Bazaar: it loves him, and perhaps he indulged as an experiment in trying to it her back.

The forming of the Neath is part of the mystery of the Moon,

which I'm sure we'll get more lore for soon that will change all my thoughts. The sun commanded a Courier (the Herald) to crash into the proto-earth, the asteroid impact that shattered the moon into orbit.

The Sun offered to transform the mute land into a star. But when the cataclysm came, the body of the Moon was flung into the sky and the Creditor remained, hollowed as a crust of bread. In any apotheosis, some rind of mortality is left behind.

inexplicably I only have this as text with no citation. The proto-earth wanted to be a star, and the Herald's impact dug out a chunk which did ascend- leaving behind the Creditor, who keeps some order in the Neath on the Sun's command but resents it. Why would the sun offer this? The Creditor describes it as mocking, but I don't think 'the bitter shell of the non-ascended land consciousness' is necessarily an even source. It does seem like a dick move! What happened here? We don't know.

We see moons in-universe twice. Maybe. In the Sunless Skies Martyr-King's cup, there's the Unseen Queen: very clearly a moon, who is calls a sun her father (the king of hours). Her father used her existence as a loophole to escape death, by making her not exist. Is she though a daughter?

Curiously in Sunless Skies there is also The Daughter of The Sun: the Arbiter of Fates. The Unseen Queen's storyline involves plotting against this Arbiter. However, this Daughter seems entirely different, more of a mini sun. The Arbiter has vast power and even sway over her father the Sapphir'd King, and her true form is suitably Judgement-like.

What is a moon? What is the purpose of one?

They're linked dreams and other realities, as well as lunacy (but then in FL, who is to say what is imagined or not?). Moonlight is a mirror of sunlight- weakened, refracted Law of some sort. Perhaps dreaming and night are in some way good for souls, but the Sun still needs to maintain some order, and the Moon is a mirror for that. Can't have too much darkness (also, something something possibilities other timelines etc).

Is Luna the sun's daughter? I think only in that he created her, and Daughters are something else.

Daughters are a theme in fallen london.

It's weird to say 'a theme' especially about something as universal as a daughter. but Fallen London is all about echoes babey! there's a lot of purposeful parallels drawn, and a lot of things that might be parallels if you try hard enough.

There's actually a lot of Correspondance that's family related.

Mothers and daughters and the separation of them is something which reoccurs: SSeas we have Maybe's Daughter, child of the Lady in Lilac who has melded with Irrigo so she is near impossible to be remembered. Lilac has other daughters too who exist mostly abandoned. One of the earliest exceptional stories is called 'Your Long Lost Daughter'.

I can find no reference beyond the fire-side lacre which reflects even slightly how Bazaar feels about Stone. I think we can safely say the Bazaar knows Stone is there, but they don't seem to talk.

NEVER TO BE ACKNOWLEDGED stands out. The Sun cannot acknowledge Stone as its child, even if it desired to. The Bazaar seems to not acknowledge Stone, but the Bazaar exists in the mythology of the Presbyterate. I don't know what's going on here. The irrigo well that hides the Neath and Lilac also hides the Bazaar, and makes you forgot. Has she forgotten? Maybe the Bazaar is too busy crying to be a good mom, or maybe she just doesn't care. Maybe the Sun made some rule about acknowledgement the Bazaar still obeys.

(The Cartouche here is hieroglyphics for ATEN, the sun)

Limerance is an incredibly Bazaarine word.

And to be fire rather than burned is a reoccurring idea: it's ascension, yes? To make it past the threshold of divinity and not die but ascend. I think ascension demands some form of death: see the apotheosis of the moon, or how devils grow themselves through dying.

It's fun to explore the above sequence as a sequence rather than stray words. Orbiting together, some recognition of peerage, someone yearning for love and someone asking another for ascension. With desperation. It sounds a bit like the moon and a bit like the Bazaar, it might mean nothing at all.

I think it's very very likely the Bazaar dreams not just of love but specifically of ascension.

It's the one way their relationship could ever be legal.

This is from 'a sudden wash of sunlight', and is the best we have of the Bazaar actually speaking. She is emitting not-sunlight and talking to no one, it seems. It might be some sort of memory, nostalgia, or daydream.

Light is Law, but what is fire? I've generally gone with 'divinity': here the Bazaar speaks to the Sun by introducing her Londoner 'children' and her light (she is emitting her own light). She calls to be crowned in flame and for her trespasses to be forgiven.

I think the trespass here is love, or the assumption of it: she confessed love to the Sun, who rejected it, and that's a big social blunder. She has hidden in his secret basement for a few millenniums, and I believe her words here are basically 'look! I create my own life, I have my own kingdom, we can be together, I love you, I am worth raising up at last'.

The fire and the rose are one haunts me. Roses for love. So is divinity and love the same essence? Perhaps. Maybe she was denied a burning ascension, so she has sought to prove love is powerful enough she can rise anyway. Or that love indeed has any value in comparison to the fires of the heavens.

Other things on ascension for the Bazaar: It uses red science when stealing and rearranging cities, as well as on its Whitsun children. The Whitsun creatures also offer interesting insight when viewed through a lens of 'the Bazaar is experimenting on his own eggs': Aurochs can apparently carry the Discorandance. The Lyrebird at max becomes a pheonix. One type of egg is said to be unaltered, meaning these would be the 'truest natural' offspring: Spindlewolves and Squirrels. Both are highly observant creatures with chitinous features and a tendency to climb up high.

A maniac theory about the moon

This was going to be short and it wasn't. I was going to be succinct; I wasn't.

The Creditor wishes to reunite with its sister, the moon, but does the moon feel the same? Perhaps the moon is miserable and betrayed- held by the chain of the sun to serve as a mirror and tool. The moon may know nothing else, or be mostly a corpse, or maybe it is happy-ish: while not a star, it has ascended to great power. It's sibling-self is an eggshell left behind and lost.

Fallen London has a lot of ideas of singularity versus multiplicity and mirroring. As above, so below. Twin selves and mirrors. Proto-Earth wanted ascension and was torn in two- divinity and mortal shell. It was torn in half specifically with a crab.

Couriers were pretty comet coded before we had the Herald (flying about through space on routes, eh?), but the Herald is our first mention the sun even had other couriers. There's ref in SSkies of other judgements having more than one, but it also doesn't seem like they're something you have an army of.

.....So. The timeline doesn't add up, but the thought came to me, and I'm here, and if you're reading this you've read this far. Is the Herald related to the Bazaar in some way? Is the Herald some forgotten part of the Bazaar--- that they once were one like the Creditor, before being experimentally ascended into a moon. A mortal shell remains (in a mobile body, the Bazaar), and something else left to form the moon.

The Bazaar's final letter and flight through the avid horizon occurs after the formation of the moon, but it also wouldn't be out of reach for the Sun to erase the memory of this experiment, or the Bazaar to lose it. This thought does make me a bit sad: it creates a world where the Bazaar yearns to ascend to be with the sun, only to learn long ago some part of her already did that. She is the part that was left behind. The sun and moon dance eternally in the heavens but she never will :(

I don't think the moon loves the sun, or vise versa. But maybe he made something useful out of his risky crab experiment. The love was left behind.

Narratively the Bazaar is linked with Icarus a few ways: flew too close to the sun, burned, and fell to the earth. This sigil is one of the most used, representative ones and highly linked to the Bazaar. The Bazaar is icarus, but never fell to the earth really: it went through the Avid Horizon. But the Herald literally did.

.............

I don't think this theory really makes sense, but it popped in my head a bit ago and I wanted to say it anyway. FL is incredible. I can look at anything and project allusions. Some of them might even be correctly guessed.

[iamthepulta]

Author: Harvestar Fandom: Sunless Skies Current Length: 4k (3/5 chpt)

Hey you! Yes, you! Do you like the concept of Dungeon Meshi? Do you like learning about different cultures? Do you want to learn about Mongolia and speculative biology and capitalism and its impact on culinary science in the High Wilderness of Sunless Skies? Of course you do! Read this! Read this fic! This fic is for you!

[dyedfrog]

the ULTIMATE OMORI fanfic recs because one of my favs just ended and it deserves more recognition!!

Okay lets start this off with the one in question (also not in any particular order)

These Days Without You by Smitty1899. absolutely beautiful, please read it this fanfic needs more of a community around it

By Your Side Once More, or, How Sunny Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Occult by Keltikknight. the suzuki siblings and their immaculate sense of humour. thats all i have to say

A New Dawn In Sunless Skies by letos. i wish this one would update again its got such a cool premise.

Sinking and Heroism by TenPes. linking them together because they're not part of a series.

The Faraway Event by kinemortomoli. me putting this here is actually a cry for help. i dont think this fanfic is dead but i cant suffer alone

Tired by Sunburner. this is pretty short and sweet (more like sad, depending on your ending preference)

DEADSPACE by Es_Novels. this one is so eerie as many zombie fanfics are, but i think the imagery makes this one take the cake

Car Trouble by Smitty1899. oh my god

Birthday Picnic by ToxicPineapple. poor kel. he saw mari like a big sister

stuck on one day for the rest of my life by lowbatteryhealth. we as a fandom need more hero angst

Reciting Wrongly by JonRightBackAtcha. not gonna say anything, just read it

Other Half of The Whole by JonRightBackAtcha. did not realise this and 11 were written by the same person. huh.

Fates of Damnation by Anonymous. oh my got two electric boogaloo

heat haze by crowcinthus. as someone who knows nothing about kagerou project wow

The Healing Properties of Reading a Book Out Loud to Your Loved Ones, and Other Domestic Bullshit by Prince_Enby. this ones good even if it hasnt updated in a while

In Which Sunny Is Bad At Naming Things by Prince_Enby. let me introduce you to the chatfic ever

I'll Cherish You Forever by phoeberrie. tiny bit hesitant to recommend this one bc of the themes but there is another fanfic later on this list with similar themes that is basically on every omori rec list ever so just a warning for stalking, obsession and gore. also, heed the tags. its good but not everyone will be comfortable with it.

Sorry as Can Be, For Whatever That Means by JonRightBackAtcha. quite a few fanfics by this author on here. but what can i say, they're great.

sinking. by marlkarx1. this is really good, also pretty dark. heed the tags.

Despite everything by Aisenic_Warrior. another legendary fic with no updates for over a year.

Sometimes a Knife Fight at 3am Can Mend Any Friendship by Shrimp_fry_rice. i dont believe it. you're telling me a shrimp frying rice wrote this fic?

Overwatered Garden by otomerson. rip flower boy lmao (im crying)

Picnic with Mari AU by Gornkleschnitzer. just gonna recommend the whole au

One More Time by GalileoGalilei. think of a 'watching the show' fanfic but its omori post-bad ending. now that i think about it, a version of this fic but they're watching an unserious playthrough on youtube would be kind of funny.

Sometimes Goodbye is a Second Chance by Smitty1899. whatever you're expecting to happen, you're wrong.

Amusia by JonRightBackAtcha. the legend. i wonder how many times this author has appeared on this list.

Kel kicks Sunny's door down by otomerson. attempted hikkikomori route

The Everyday Shenanigans of Something by Practicallyunethical. obsessed with the references in here.

Reality Check, Please by Paramocks. this fanfic has the kind of humour that could kill a christian grandmother.

Endless Dreaming by otomerson. this fanfiction is so beautiful it can make a grown man cry and thats okay (i dont know the quote dont kill me) please read it

Their Time by ShardOfHope. man this fanfic HURTS. you better read it.

The House That Breathes by Shifting_Walls. THIS IS SO GOOD

Broken Space by SpoonusBoius. yes, this fanfic is dark, but i feel people greatly exaggerate it. its not darker than pursuit, don't worry.

The Sun in Another Solar System by TellThemNaegi. if you look through this entire list while only reading one fanfic from here, please let it be this one. i have been totally fixated on this one and it deserves a mini-community of its own just like some other aus.

You're back, Mari by Anonymous. i hope you all expected this one. this is the mentioned one on no.17. im not sure how many trigger warnings i need considering this entire fic is so infamous i'd be shocked if someone didn't know. i don't want to risk spoiling it so just look at the tags. i was debating putting the sequel on here but decided against it. after all, the absolutely visceral reaction the pursuit au can garner from the fandom after just being mentioned probably has enough potential for a case study.

And there it is. the ultimate omori fanfic rec list consisting of 35 fanfic recs (I was originally gonna put way more on here but i got lazy near the end and put only my all time favourites)

[zeebreezin]

hiii its @neathyingenue!! just gonna go ahead and admit i am hazy on some of harb's details. this is an au for beverley yeah? or is it him in the future

Hello my good friend MJ Neathyingenue!! Dw about it I’ve actually been meaning to make a semi-formal summary on him so!

The Scintillating Harbinger is the Sunless Skies AU of Beverley, so yeah technically it’s him in the future (the wonderful year of 1906), but also it’s not the only possibility of him in the futures. Thankfully.

In the Sunless Skies AU, Beverley’s search in London failed due to Shaw’s machinations (and boy howdy did he do some shit). He never found his Dawnlight suitcase bomb - but more importantly, he never found out that B survived the shipwreck they disappeared in. He left London assuming his life’s work and his best friend were both lost to the waves, and threw himself into his work as a means to cope. It helps up until it doesn’t, and then he gets weird about the New Sun to cope.

Fast forward a couple years, and he’s risen through the ranks enough to be working on the Clockwork Sun personally, and rises to the Skies with the rest of the New Sequence. Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly) leaving his home and the only world he’s ever known Doesn’t help Beverley’s mental health. So he doubles down on his love for the sun - this is when the idea that he’s given up everything for it really becomes mission critical.

And then the Clockwork Sun starts glassing/Dazzling the senior engineers. By the time it’s Bev’s turn he’s kind of a mess. Insert the fic I just wrote here, where he manages to stall out his own death with a combination of blind faith and mastery of the Correspondance, binding bits of metal to his glassy side to make it usable. However this has horrible effects on his sanity and overall health, he’s in constant pain and isn’t even really aware of that fact anymore due to being high on that sunny supply.

In my mind, Beverley’s become to the Logoi as the Clockwork Sun is to a Judgement. He’s just stuck in a (somewhat) human body. Right now at least. That’s part of why everything on his ship is - effectively - bound to live in time with his machinery.

Now with insane levels of… everything, he doubles down into his work of making Judgement Light powered weaponry, a speciality that gets him Victoria’s attention. Bev even starts bending the trapping of Other Judgements to make his weapons of mass destruction like the Icarus looking ass he is. For stellar service during the Winchester War (read: war crimes), he was awarded both the Victoria Cross and a dubious position of importance. Legally he’s a captain (despite having way more functional power) of a research Locomotive, the Deliverance, not a war engine. He just… has permission to test the creations on board on enemies of the empire! That’s all!

He’s also still dying due to the damage to his body, but he doesn’t really care he’s got other things to worry about :)

The actual story of him involves his encounters with Shaw’s son, Everett, who he… really doesn’t like, considering his history with Shaw in this AU.

That’s the TL;DR!

[house-of-mirrors]

Finally... the Martyr-King's Cup is complete.

With this, I've completed all four ambitions. I still have some sidequests to follow (mostly in the Blue Kingdom) but I truly feel now like I have 'beat' Sunless Skies. There's always something bittersweet to these moments. I've had this game for over two and a half years. It took me some time to warm up to it, but as is often the case in those situations, it has become one of my favorite games. Its stories have captivated me and my captain oc owns my entire heart.

Timeline for them goes Song of the Sky - Wealth - The Martyr-King's Cup - The Truth.

In a thrilling sequel to "R writes a fic about considering the Azure a personal enemy without knowing anything about the Truth," we have "R started a fic after finishing the Truth in which the Captain's relationship with the concept of immortality was explored, before knowing anything about the Cup." Lmao. Anyway, I love when the gameplay winds up supporting my running oc narrative. This is the best 'ending' I could imagine for the Captain. (and I have).

No story shall end.

[bizarrebazaar13]

re: @israfelfrost’s tags on this post (about love wrecking the timeline), here’s the Amelia/Alexandria lore.

so. if you’ve played sunless skies, you might remember that Amelia dies in the prologue. her death is actually what kicks off the plot of the game, because she was the captain of your locomotive, and that responsibility now falls to you. she dies after being attacked by a word of living fire from the blue kingdom, and she burns to death from the inside out.

in fallen london, Amelia is married to Alexandria. the text for meeting and marrying Amelia is full of foreshadowing about her eventual death. she is so doomed and Alexandria loves her so so much. god.

sunless skies is set in a possible future of fallen london- explorers have breached the avid horizon, the sixth city has fallen, and London is now in the high wilderness.

evolution was very formative to Alexandria as a character, and the story ends in Irem, which allows you to see, and shape, possible futures. not to give too much away for the fic I have yet to write, but Alexandria witnesses Amelia’s death, among many other potential terrible futures for himself and the naturalist and other people he cares about. and he decides to fix it. it works… sort of.

there’s timelines where Alexandria and Amelia never leave the neath, and ones where they do and Amelia still dies, or Alexandria dies instead, or Alexandria saves her, or any number of other possibilities, and they’re all kind of happening at once. add in parabola and discordance fuckery, and their future is literally unstable and falling apart at the seams.

[blizzardsuplex]

H and R!!!

H: How would you describe your style?

Answered here :)

R: Are there any writers (fanfic or otherwise) you consider an influence?

Oh, for sure. Fanfic realm it's got to be @shes-a-voodoo-child (yeah, Drea, I'm tagging you and you can't do anything about it!...can you??). Her characterization with any character she touches is very good and the beats of her stories are just really well thought out.

Out of fanfic?

The writing of the video games Fallen London, The Silver Tree, and Sunless Sea (not Skies, sorry...and I've played that game from literally the moment it was in playable alpha on Steam Early Access) is 100% my #writergoals. Weird and dark and wonderful.

Because of that I suppose I can say G.K. Chesterton influenced me, too--and I wouldn't mind that when The Man Who Was Thursday is such an awesome book.

Generally the way mythology, folk tales, and fairy tales are written/told influenced the way I write, too (especially Hans Christian Andersen).

On the comics side, Jeff Lemire and Denny O'Neil (RIP) have written some of my fave dialogue ever, especially the latter. I wish to have as good an understanding of the characters I write someday.

Whenever I write a dreamy fic with fluid time, know it is in the end an attempt to get even a little close to the brilliance that is Vladimir Nabokov's short story Spring in Fialta.