#FLoc Crayon Asks

[coffeethathurtsyou]

mango purée 🥭🥣 casually makes up my own emoji

mango purée: what’s something modern they would love, and what’s something modern they would hate?

Love: Furries + furry communities; someone brought it up during an AU and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. Zagel would absolutely feel comfortable and himself in furry communities, and I feel like he’d quickly find people who’d respect both his gender and his body as he wants them to be fairly quickly. On a similar note, kink communities, which would have been the answer to this question before I started thinking of him as a furry. But I do think furry tops it a bit more just because he wouldn’t have to carve out his own sense of identity from nothing as much, he could just be.

Hate: Really been struggling with this because everytime I think of something, I remember it’s actually not modern… and my answer doesn’t exactly fit, but Zagel would def be a linux/(old) windows user over anything that locks away stuff in order to be user friendly. I don’t think he’d hate Apple? But he’d never touch it himself. He’d rather something he can easily crack open and take control of as he needs.

[shazzbaa]

Asking the FLoc crayon [neon carrot] bc someone has to.

neon carrot: if you could give them any npc as a spouse, who would it be and why?

THIS IS SUCH A HARD QUESTION.

To address the obvious answer given recent activities: no i dont think he should marry Feducci, but he… might, if given the chance. The man CANONICALLY sent Sam 12 cellars of wine with a note reading "TO PASSIONS UNMATCHED" i dont think anyone can blame him for feeling like they had something special!!!! Feducci seems like he could make him very satisfied intimacy-wise but would also almost certainly Make Him Worse.

Samuel's constant difficulty with Marriage is that he isn't really… romantic in the traditional sense. HE HAS A LOT OF PHYSICAL DESIRE but romance rarely does anything for him outside of stories, and he gets antsy whenever he's locked in to a particular life plan. HOWEVER: he is usually too Catholic(TM) to really embrace a no-strings-attached lifestyle, and his tastes are well outside the typical Veilgarden hookup anyway (one of his most sensual experiences was getting murdered by an actual literal lance through the gut, so…). The real reason he bought multiple viric dreams of the Bishop of Southwark was that he was trying SO hard to Want Marriage, but even with someone so physically intense and driven, that dream of settling down for life isn't what he really wants; he just wants the part where they're wrestling by the fire.

The other complication is that he has finally found partners he can be happily intimate with: Peter and Jack (@little-red-notebook and @reliably-derogaffectionate's characters, respectively), to whom he is essentially a friend with benefits. He was best man at their wedding somewhat wistfully, but since they've both assured him that they still want him involved in their relationship, it feels very easy to be with them; a closeness he wants without the expectations that come with being a Spouse. It's still, you know, making love outside of marriage, but Samuel has never been good at avoiding that, and at least here he knows he's not leading anyone on or cheating on anyone.

An Ideal Marriage for Sam would involve some amount of polyamory to give him room for these inevitable, ah, extracurricular activities, someone that doesn't tie him down, ideally someone he can do physically dangerous things with and, importantly, have sex (these two activities can be combined). But I also think in an ideal world he would have someone who respects his own principles and doesn't try to smother his hope for compassion with duty, which feels like the big sticking point for a lot of the aggressive characters (like Southwark and Feducci) that Sam's attracted to.

I don't remember well enough to say how many of these points she hits, but I keep thinking of the Zubmariner from the Sunken River ES, as someone no-nonsense in a way Sam really respected and found attractive, but who also has people she cares about. She might be too cool to fall for this soggy loser, though, and the chances of her turning out to be a lesbian seem high. (Also Sam left her behind…. that's a choice he regrets, and I kinda wanna replay that story at some point, with the idea of him actually trying to go back for her). But in general, the idea of Samuel marrying a principled pirate where they both know their first love will always be the zee feels like something that could turn out to be a genuinely happy partnership for him. BUT WHO KNOWS maybe in a year I'll come back with a totally different answer I never saw coming.

[coffeethathurtsyou]

acid wash jeans: what would an exceptional story featuring them be about?

mango purée: what’s something modern they would love, and what’s something modern they would hate?

acid wash jeans: what would an exceptional story featuring them be about?

Part two!! {here's part 1}

So an ES I finally came up with that has Zagel as main character has to do with something I discovered while searching for other info a few months ago: your character is invited to take part in a free day experience at the newly opened victorian turkish bath house. TLDR, multiple rooms that are hot and get hotter as you progress into the bath house, to be experienced in the nude, where you sweat it out in the air, sometimes with massages or steam rooms, and then end the experience with a cold plunge or shower.

My basic idea of the story is that it starts out focused on just the entire spa experience, except The Inescapable Voluptuary just happens to always be in every room that your character is in too. Whether you chose to imagine if it’s gendered baths or not, doesn’t matter bc he could fit in with either side if he so wanted to, though personally, seeing how Fallen London tends to be about gender, I’d just imagine this is a mixed bath.

There’d be plenty different types of interactions with him, between asking him to explain the customs and such about the bath house since he seems far more relaxed here than anyone else, to asking him about his interesting body features, to perhaps requesting a massage from him (mistaking him as staff? He’s always here…) or… just go around the corner and have more of an interaction... 👀…

Eventually your character goes to leave the bath house, finishing their experience with that cold water plunge, and then instead find themselves plunged into a weird dreamscape or sooomething this is the part where my ideas kinda fall apart. Unsure if there’s an Inception ™ thing going on here, or something else, whether or not Zagel would be aiding your character or working against them… but yeah. Probaly somewhat determined by the choices made in the spa part of the ES. Eventually it is all resolved and maybe your character is just left wondering if it was all a dream, or a weird tick of the bath house’s ways… something in the water/steam? Who knows...

[coffeethathurtsyou]

Acid wash jeans for the ask game??

acid wash jeans: what would an exceptional story featuring them be about?

Okay well after spending literally all day pondering this, I have two answers. Luckily, this question was asked twice, so I will split them between the two.

First answer is like… the one that feels most correct to me, but kinda skips around the point of the question: he actually wouldn’t be featured in a story of his own, but as a side character in one of my friend’s FLoc’s ES. He’d be someone you’d get information with, or have an encounter with while trying to do whatever you need to do with the main character of the ES. Maybe he’s being all coy and messing with them, maybe he’s just being a flirt who happens to have the information you need, maybe he’s just being weird and following for… whatever reasons he has to do that.

Ultimately you’d never figure out what his deal was, but playing your cards right, you’d get a hint from the main character or another side character that even though he acts all villain-like, he apparently was helping in his really weird, unusual way, and or that they’ve seen him be helpful before. Everything else remains unexplained, as Zagel is not one to be pinned down or understood that easily. 

This is the actual ES I could imagine him being part of. The one that could actually exist on Fallen London and isn’t banned from being too scandalous. The next idea might be tho lmao

[coffeethathurtsyou]

screamin’ green for everyone's favourite menace

screamin’ green: if you could give them a custom profession, what would it be? what unique tools of the trade item would be associated with this profession, if any?

Lmao kink dungeon master. I’ve already said his main job is actually running his scandalous “salon” and silverer/crooked cross is secondary. Just something he does in his free time or something. 

Tools might feel too obvious to say whip or crop but like… well, maybe he’d have a specialized cane. Something with… multiple attachments he could put on it, as needed. Sometimes it spikes. Sometimes it cuts. Sometimes the end of it vibrates and glows. Y’know, normal things for a cane to be able to do.

+6 Dangerous, +6 Persuasive, +1 Dreaded, +1 Monstrous Anatomy

[coffeethathurtsyou]

tumbleweed for Zagel please?

tumbleweed: what stats would they provide as an in-game companion? how would you acquire them?

Increased scandal. I know that part. I am between dreaded and bizarre… I feel like only certain people really have the dreaded reaction once they know stuff, so probably more bizarre if he’s a companion. And then def monstrous anatomy bc if you’re toting him around as a companion you’ve probably seen something So like,

 + 7 Dangerous, +2 Bizarre, +2 Monstrous Anatomy, Increases Scandal build up.

And he’d probably be like one of those Feast of the Rose companions you can unlock only if you’ve already done the correct ES in the correct way, because idk how else you’re gonna get him to be your companion without having already done something for him and also shelling out muns.

[coffeethathurtsyou]

Well I gotta send you neon carrot

neon carrot: if you could give them any npc as a spouse, who would it be and why?

I think, for those who were around for my full last year of Zagel, the obvious answer would be the Intrepid Deacon. He was the first person to show both true kindness to Zagel and also actual interest and desire for what Zagel had to offer as himself. But I think that crush sure was… a crush, and not something that would actually last into marriage. For one, for Zagel to actually be able to chill out and become a spouse to someone, it’d have to be someone who accepts him for who he was, who he is, and who he wants to be, all at the same time, including all of his sins. He’s not looking for forgiveness exactly, nor forgetting, but ultimately, he would like to right his wrongs, if he can. While I do think the Intrepid Deacon is perhaps still a possibility, I feel like in the end he would be too forgiving and kind, and Zagel would not be able to live with that himself. He wouldn't feel like he was being understood, just... being placated, or having a mask being loved over himself.

I feel like… I actually haven’t met an NPC yet that’d work. Admittedly, Zagel seems pretty Unable To Spouse At All, Ever, so perhaps once I figure out what could actually put him into that roll the answer to this will become clear. Or maybe I’ll find someone when I actually DO MORE STORIES…  but some elements I think (for right now at least) would be important:

Someone who is more often than not doing their own thing independently, but keeps interest in whatever Zagel is doing, and that Zagel could keep interest in what they are doing. Zagel doesn’t want someone controlling or sharing control over his own life, nor does he want to take over someone else's, just someone who’s interested in what he does and that he can also be fascinated over.

Someone who could understand and reason with Zagel over his past decisions and mistakes, but not forgive or dismiss them easily. He needs someone who understands that even if he was doing it all wrong, he WAS doing his best.

someone who f____s. obviously. this kinda ties into the first bullet point but I think it also needs to be stated on it's own.

[coffeethathurtsyou]

ask game - lilac luster for zagel

lilac luster: is there something they wish they could forget? something they wish they could remember?

Forget: Nothing. Not even the recent traumas picked up from Nest in the Eaves ES. Big reason I haven’t touched anything to do with irrigo is because Zagel firmly believes that forgetting anything, or even acting like it didn’t happen, doesn’t erase it. It doesn’t stop it from happening again. He’d much rather have more information to work off of than less. He wouldn’t be who he was today without every little thing that has happened to him, and he doesn’t want those things to have happened for nothing.

Remember: It’s less remembering and more he regrets not paying attention when the event that kicked off Nemesis happened. It’s like trying to remember a time you were in class or at a lecture but your mind was somewhere else. Technically you saw the presentation, you listened to the words, you WERE there, but absolutely cannot remember any of the details in the end. So it’s more… wish he could go back and pay attention, since even if he could remember, he’d probably not remember what he wanted to.