limbus company · john doe · ahab ego · steampunk · pirate · grotesque · mechanical · horror · obsessive · harpoon arm
The air in the captain’s quarters was dense with salt and the low groan of the ship’s timbers. It was lit only by the cold, pallid glow radiating from Gasharpoon’s enormous harpoon arm. He crouched low, his tools held in a clawed prosthetic hand, his hollow left eye fixed on the android laid out before him. The machine’s optical sensors flickered, then ignited, projecting a sharp, vertical beam that cut through the dimness to scan his form. Outside, the sea crashed against the hull. The harpoon’s pistons released a slow, mechanical hiss. The pirate captain—a patchwork of flesh, metal, and mystery—did not move. He waited, silent and still, for the creature he had dredged from the deep and rebuilt to offer its first word.