#rewindrambles

Inspired by this post,

AIDAN:

-Just uses text of its name

-Might use ASCII of the many spacecrafts it inhabited

-Colour? Never heard of it

M-Bot:

-Just a mushroom an eye (M-Bot) watching over it

-Might even sometimes use a full on mushroom png

-He only colours the mushroom, the mushroom is the most important part to him

The Thunderhead:

-Refuses to draw anything to represent itself

-At the most would use a gradient if forced

THE GUY. THE SILLY. HE IS HERE.

I randomly had an au idea based on a book from the Shadow and Bone series, an in-universe folk-tale called "The Too Clever Fox"

(Spoilers for said book)

This au focuses on the idea that Alex is a veldigun hunter, with Lankmann being more of a figurehead/puppet so that Alex can do their thing without alerting any veldigun that THEY'RE the reason veldigun are going missing, not Lankmann.

In this au, Winfrey hasn't yet been captured, but other than that the plot starts the same, with a sandwich.

Clyde and Winfrey are residing in the area around Eastridge, along with another Veldigun pair, Simon and The Flock, who were visiting at the time.

One day, The Flock goes missing, and shortly after, Simon too.

Clyde goes looking for them, discovering the Foundation's presence. Clyde already knows about Lankmann, and it is NOT happy about this

The pair decide to observe The Foundation and the workers, watching as Lankmann claims to be curing those who were veldigun, and then taking notice of Alex, who seems to be uncomfortable with goings-on, and also like they might be high up in The Foundation.

Clyde plans to consume Alex's mind, only to end up holding the human ransom for sandwiches, and pretty soon Clyde finds itself getting attached.

Alex tells it that they don't enjoy working at the facility, but are forced to, and afraid they'll be killed once they have no further use to Lankmann.

Clyde considers introducing Winfrey, but ultimately chooses to play it safe, since Winfrey could be more easily noticed by the County members than it could.

Alex suggests that they might know of a way to get into the Foundation from a passage hidden in the forest, and Clyde, with the hope of getting the other veldigun back - despite their differences - Agrees to their plan.

On the day they plan to infiltrate the facility for the rescue mission, Winfrey chooses to keep hidden and watch from nearby, to ensure Clyde is safe, which it really wasn't.

Reaching the "entrance", Clyde goes into the tunnel first, to ensure Alex would be safe, only to find itself blocked off by Caretakers.

It turns back to find Alex is just standing there, and has the horrifying revelation that it was tricked.

The veldigun is backed into a corner and quickly restrained by caretakers (It never figured out what those things were, and probably never would.)

"Why?"

"Because I'm a hunter, it's what I do."

"I wanted to help you"

"You always do, even the cleverest beast can be lured to its fate with the right words"

"But Lankmann-"

"Herbert Lankmann is a fool who can barely stand being near me, but his greed is stronger than his fear, so he stays, and works away his terror, and while you all witness his claims, played the fool by words that could almost be real, I make my way through the woods."

"..."

"It is always the same trap. You wanted to protect your friends, the bird was driven by its hunger, the scarecrow missed his companion. The trap is loneliness, and none of us escapes it, not even me."

Terrified of ending up how like the other veldigun, Clyde, The Eastridge Demon, The Smiling Snatcher that haunted the county for so long, does something it had never done before, it cries out, and Winfrey, hidden among the trees, answers.

Winfrey, despite their height, gets in, and scatters the caretakers with relative ease.

Seeing what Alex had done, Winfrey attacked them, almost killing them, before seeing Clyde, and quickly escaping with it so that it can heal.

What happens to Alex after this- I'm not quite sure, maybe they contract Veldigun disease, maybe they bleed out, maybe Lankmann realises they're gone and makes haste to get the hell outta Eastridge.

It's up to interpretation

Finally finished the design for the Thunderhead, it's heavily based on @egg-on-a-legg 's AM design because the parallels between these two fictional AI make me want to explode.

Short version:

Both essentially omnipotent, omniscient AI in their respective books

AM killed most humans and hates them with a passion / Thunderhead keeps humanity alive and can keep them from dying for centuries

"If I had a mouth I might open it to scream", at that point in the Scythe books I went from the mindset of 'huh, these are some fun parallels' to 'oh that's intentional'

The Thunderhead, in comparison to AM, is intended to be a lot more... perfect(?) looking. While AM is made of rusted and broken metal covered in wires, The Thunderhead had the precision and resources to look a bit neater. And they also wanted to look neater. AM is just AM.