#also that being his legit brand is essential for the fic im writing lmao

[anxiousanteaterr]

Neat headcanon about the Novakids deciding their own brand! I love hearing others headcanons for starbound. Also i hadn't thought about it but that probably is Noble's actual brand isnt it... I thought it was a pair of fancy Novakid sunglasses over his actual brand.

ITS FUNNY YOU SAY THAT bc i did have an additional headcanon that there's (typically metal) plates Novakid can hook onto their brands and its purely decorational. LOTS to consider with the reasonings for this.

I also am sitting on headcanons that, since Novakid lore states that they're so scattered across the universe and thus probably don't keep in touch (or even know about other Novakid), there MUST be civilizations of them out there where the brands they came up with are placed on other parts of the body. Like halos, horns, rings, bracelets, maybe even just thin strips of metal elaborately placed all over their bodies like 3D tattoos. They can't ALL convinently be on their face.

If they do, that implies that either they are born with the innate knowledge of how to make the brands (which would explain how they rapidly accelerate into metal-working ages but then stall out), or they just Happen to Always Come Up with This. (This is ofc going under the assumption that they arent born with the brands, which I go by lmao).

Looking back at their og concepts, Novakid also have cores, which most likely are located in their heads since their protokid forms are (presumably) the core + the brand. And since the brands help them keep their forms, they're probably always located on or around the head for the sake of being close to their core. BUT, Again, in the game itself, you can play as a brandless Novakid, which could obvs just mean "oh this one just didnt develop one. u know how nature goes".

BUT, I think its infinitely more fun to have the brands be a signature form of: "we as a society and an evolving people have found a way to make life easier for us + extend our lifespan." It adds SO MUCH MORE of a flexible, social aspect to them.

Going back to Noble, I'm actually bouncing back and forth on whether or not I think his brand is natural or not. Like, I absolutely think he WOULD get a coverplate bc he's just THAT married to his job, but I also get that vibe that this is him inside and out. He radiates an energetic sense of a purer form of justice, and I feel like he has just been like that ever since he was a wee bab. And maybe just clung to the Peacekeepers bc it was the nearest thing he could find that matched what he was after.

He rebuilt the Peacekeepers from literal scraps because he understood and abided to the underlying message of keeping people safe and knowing that even the smallest efforts to beat back all the fear and evil in this vast universe is still something, and its always worth the fight. Could go either way, but I'm leaning more toward that's just his actual brand.