Geological horror. You find a geode and crack it open and the crystal lining its walls is human blood that can't be genetically matched to anyone. You find a human skeleton but every one of the bones is made from rock, a rock that you know can't be whittled into those shapes. You find layers of clay and loam that sport ancient fossils at the top and the still-rotting corpses of modern animals at the bottom.
This reminds me of the blood river in Antarctica. For like a century scientists had no clue why this river looked like, acted like, and felt exactly like blood. Turns out it’s just really high in iron.
Blood Falls isn't just high in iron, it's the byproducts of extremophile bacteria that have been isolated under a glacier in a iron- and sulfur-rich anoxic brine for the past 5 million years.
Here is your reminder: Chud does not mean loser, it means far right facist and/or nazi please stop calling yourself a chud, just call yourself a loser it's okay
Being able to draw older people as attractive without reducing or erasing the visual signs of aging, and in fact showing that they're attractive because of those signs, is an artistic skill that should be valued so much more. Honestly, it should earn you an immediate fortune because holy fuck is it a rare commodity. There are so many artists who seem to think attractiveness and aging exist in opposition to each other, so they smooth every wrinkle, erase every crease, and de-age the character until they're basically thirty with silver hair. But when an artist can look at crow's feet, smile lines, weathered skin, deep-set wrinkles, and all the little traces of a life well lived and say, "No, that's what makes them beautiful," that's a level of artistic observation and care I wish we celebrated more often.
man sometimes friendship really is just "I saw this and knew it would give you psychic damage. please respond with agony" and then they do. and it's great
I personally think Look Outside has some of the best representation for women. Women are hardly ever monsters or freaks, and are ridiculously excluded from apocalypse narratives. I love Look Outside
Have you ever sat down and thought, "Man. I really want to continue to explore the worldbuilding and themes of this game and characters in an apocalypse-like setting, but the only endings where I can do this are so devastating!" or perhaps "I like the Denial ending, but I really wish there was a kinder option where he didn't end up becoming a giant tree and more or less leaving his friends behind to play god." or maybe "I'm really sad we have to kill the astronomers to get the only 'good' ending in the game."
Well, do I have the the AU for you! Now presenting a hypothetical, fan-made ending: GOLDEN SKIES.
This AU is designed to be free use for all Look Outside fans, with anyone able to use it for their headcanons, fanart, writing, or anything of that nature. More info and FAQ below the cut!
Now, before we begin, because this is the piss on the poor website...
☆ Disclaimer: I am not saying that any of the endings in-game are bad. I am not saying this is the best ending possible (it's very much not).
This AU is created purely because I really like exploring characters in more high-stakes/apocalyptic settings, and I especially like the idea of Sam continuing to help people in a more grounded manner (without 70-90% of the world being fucking obliterated or enslaved)- and this AU gives me the avenues to do that.
I personally think Denial is undoubtedly the 'happiest/best' ending of the game, but sometimes, whats happiest is not what's most interesting. Now, with that out of the way...
☆ What is the gist of this AU?
Basically, it's an AU where Sam gathers all the perfect offerings, but refuses to take part in the ritual. Because of that, he never battles the astronomers on the roof as they fuse... and it's the violence of the fight itself that causes issues with the stability of their new form. Without the fight, they manage to use that time to create a more stable form, and thus, remain lucid.
They then are able to use their powers to fly around and help the world as a sort of 'guardian angel', protecting it from the biggest threats... but unable to help on a smaller/more personal level the way 'Denial' Sam is.
Thus, the world strikes a balance that's somewhat in between 'Screaming Skies', 'No Going Back', and 'Perfect Ritual: Denial'. The Hundred Gods (and other large, destructive cursed) are felled by the Exalted Four if they turn aggressive, thus keeping the Earth safe from the largest threats. But the streets are still filled with smaller monsters, looters, and other dangers, with the remaining humans and lucid Cursed having to work together to rebuild the world and society themselves.
☆ What does this AU have to offer?
☆ A setting in which Sam remains human (or a smaller Cursed if you want!) that isn't really dark and upsetting.
☆ A more bittersweet ending that leans more towards 'sweet' than 'bitter' without feeling too happy, in the way I've seen some people consider Denial.
☆ The astronomers living and remaining lucid (but still Changed).
☆ Apartment 33 residents potentially staying and surviving together more long-term (allowing for more exploration of character).
☆ The apartment complex becoming a potential hub for survivors, similar to this post (it's awesome you should read it. It's what inspired me to think about this AU in the first place).
☆ Humanity having to come together rather than having things fixed for them.
☆ A really fucking bangin' redesign of the Exalted Four.
☆ A universal shorthand for a specific setting, so you can simply tag your work 'golden skies' and link back to this post, so you don't have to set up complex worldbuilding in your fic to justify why everyone is still in apartment 33. If that makes sense.
☆ FAQ
Whoah! Can I use this setting for my fanart/fanfic/headcanons?
Yes, go ahead. I made this AU for everyone to use. Sort of a 'free use' policy. You don't even have to credit me. 👍
But what if I want to credit you?
Then go ahead! You're allowed to, I'm just saying you don't need to.
What makes the Exalted Four look different?
Honestly? Up to you. I provided a design of how I imagine it would go, but you're welcome to play around and redesign it if you'd like.
Essentially, I think they'd be in a form their human minds can better process. Something with a front, back, up, and down... which is much more comprehensible to the human mind that an endlessly spinning wheel. The design shown up there has eyes on top (but not the 'belly'), and does indeed have a front and back- they look similar, but only the front has a mouth. You can see it in the concept art at the bottom.
I also imagine the 'wings' can expand and retract to certain lengths, and are actually quite dexterous and grippy. More like tentacles than feathers. But, again- all of this is up to you!
This AU is cool, but I think it would be better if the exalted four's design remained the same/Sam was a cursed instead of a human/the visitor had big tits/whatever.
Awesome! You can do whatever you want forever.
Like I said, I have released this AU to the masses to do with whatever they please. Edit it to your heart's content for whatever fanworks you want to create. It's just a base to allow people to jump off of.
I can do whatever I want forever?
Forever.
I love you. Have fun.
Okay, I'm going to go ahead and sell this idea and make a bunch of money off it and-
Okay I lied.
This is still an AU for a video game I did not create. I am not Frankie. I am not an actual owner or developer of Look Outside. You're still not allowed to do that because of, like, actual governmental laws. Come on, dude.
Okay, sorry. Do you still love me?
Yes.
I made a fanwork that used this AU! What now?
Awesome! :D
I recommend tagging it "Golden Skies AU", or "LO GS AU" (Look Outside Golden Skies Alternate Universe. Say that 5 times fast). This will allow people to quickly know your setting... but most importantly, it will allow me to find it and look at it and spin around really fast because I'm so happy.
Do you have any thoughts you couldn't fit into the above categories?
Oh yeah, lots. Did you know that my first pass of this AU had Sybil orchestrating the ritual in Sam's place? And that I was going to have two versions of this AU (Golden Skies: 'Guardian Angel' and 'Serpent') for whether or not Sybil was there? I ended up scrapping that idea because we don't know enough about Sybil canonically for me to feel comfortable using her for such a big thing. I decided to keep it more simple.
Feel free to play with that scrapped idea though.
I have a question you didn't answer here!
My askbox is open, friend.
As a bonus for reading all of this, here's some concept art!
I'm really attached to the idea that in a post "No Going Back" ending world, the apartment complex becomes a sort of hub for survivors in the area. Think about it. It's mostly structurally intact (painstakingly moving the bus out of the foyer piece by piece lol), it has electricity, running hot water (thanks Placide), it has a laundromat. There's two separate medical professionals in the building (Musette and Gracie), there's security (metal grates visible over the windows of the convenience store and Mutt's). I mean my god Mutt is still running that damn cafe, are the patrons also living in the complex or are they just walking in from outside WHILE everything's going on for brunch??
For better or for worse, assuming many of the apartments we can't get into are intact, there's at least some degree of room for vacancy. I feel like Sam would flourish under it. It's like a tiny sliver of what he does for everyone in Denial, and like a bigger version of what he's already doing. Love thy neighbor is no longer including your literal neighbors it's also including that weird guy with multiple arms but a sane mind who was also digging in that wrecked supermarket for a can of soup, and he's so jazzed he can finally wash that 40 day old blood stain out of his only shirt somewhere
Like one of the finer points of the game is that even if it's small, even if it's all you can do, helping someone does make an impact and I think this fits right in. Get this guy an honorary social work license btw
Wowzers is Lyrebird Spamton again, anywho, was thinking of him and the Addisons again and Ive had a fun idea
What if all of them (like their little group) were all technically ‘defective’? (Something something society seeing anyone out the mold as wrong something something) Cause I’ve been playing touys with some folks and I kinda realized that while I stick to some the things I came up for my idea of addisons, there’s some weirdly distinct differences between the canon character designs I do and these stupid ocs Ive been making
So ya know what, what if Spamton and his lil group of Addisons were technically all defective by addison standards
Average addison- Bright glows, vividly colored feathers/‘fur’ made of down, may or may not have tails that can be used to draw attention, great control when it comes to their magic in creating strong visual displays that last, may have several controlled ‘voice-clips’ or phrases they’ll repeat solely for advertising, their ‘skin’ (its kinda like a physical light) covers their mannequin like bodies making them look seamless and ‘more organic’
Spamton- Notably ‘defective’ due to plain colors and significantly smaller size, dimmer glow, visual displays have a tendency to ‘flicker’ and are not strong against attempts at messing with them, tendency to mimic others and has frequent voice-clipping that interject into speech at random, sometimes has issues with volume control, has muscle spasms (which can trigger ‘glitching’)/physical tics, notable segmentation along body ‘joints’ that means more maintenance and joint issues (learns healing magic for this and gets better at it during puppet era because well. Yeah.)
The group he hangs out with- They appear as they should by most standards with bright colors, flashy appearances, ‘controlled’ magic and voices; but they also have notable segmentation along their joints (not as extreme as Spamton but significant) and may experience random advertising (emotional responses), joint issues/muscle strain, and so on
Spamton is a sense was the odd one out because he was more notably different and paler addisons just inherently have more eyes on them and higher expectations placed on them due to being viewed as ‘already lacking’
The other Addisons all deal with their issues but they can pass enough to be glanced over but still stick to their group because of less scrutiny/Spamton draws others attention more (not so much an intentional thing as it just kind of ended up like that/built resentment over time that ended up boiling over during Bigshot era)
Anywho Imma probs draw more tomorrow to better showcase things nod nod
origamiaround
gamechangershow
titsay
stormborns
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romaincrisis
