#fallen London things

[finchsflight]

I don't really ask game, on account of Not Getting Asks, but I'm bored so Ambryl's answers:

🌅: Yes. Almost as much as they miss their brother. But they did choose this. I don't know how their life was, really; I think it was quiet. Clever and a little sharp, certainly, but quiet. And happy enough.

🪪: Yes and yes! They went by another alias when investigating on the Surface, though I haven't decided what, and I will at some point think of a better title than Vengeful Investigator — and one day, they'll be the Wander-Hearted (or Peligin-Hearted; haven't decided yet) Investigator. But that's a long ways off.

🔥: That b______d Cups.

🪞& 🐍: N/A. They haven't been or met them yet.

🧍‍♂️: Currently, +7 Watchful, +5 Dangerous, +2 Dreaded, and +1 Kataleptic Toxicology. You can meet them in Wolfstack Docks, and after a short story where you help them break into the Bazaar, they become a companion who can work in your Lab.

💀: Distant. They've only met once, and the Investigator resents him a little.

🏺: Bright, and lashing and twirling around the walls of its jar like it's trying to escape.

⚰️: Technically, dueling. But they've only died once.

👑: Similar to their opinions on the rest of Society! Which is to say a sort of general, low-level hatred.

🃏: It is important to know they will never be a Master. That said, they'd be Mr Sails, or maybe Mr Map—

Mr Scraps, of course. Someone has to be. And someone has to care for the refuse of the world.

🎩: Exceptional Story: The Corsair's Heart

A new corsair stalks the waters of the Neath, and they have a taste for the zee's blood. Rumor has it that their captain swore killed a Master and got a taste for blood, or that they're so heartless even their Blue Prophet fears them, or that they can sing a single note and still the seas. But why don't they ever dock in London? And what's with the bat?

Discover the secrets of the Heartless Corsair, and help guide them back to shore — or fall to the cannons, the Prophet, and the vicious sorrow of the newest terror of the zees.

A story set after Ambryl's murder of Cups, during the period where they basically don't go back to London until they have 7 Zeefaring. In it, you can meet Ambryl and their crew, see Gaider's Mourn, learn about Nemesis from an outside perspective, help Ambryl start to recover from their grief, learn a secret song of the Fathomking, discover the reason they have no heart, fix that? (kind of?), and get killed. By, surprising no one, Ambryl.

⚔️: They use a mix of the Tomb-Colonies' techniques and their own inventions.

♟️: Probably Red, but they haven't gotten there yet.

🎖️: Oh, y'know. Just saving London that one time. No big.

🌈: Not yet.

🛌: Absolutely b____y awful! Between the nightmares and the coffee it's rare for Ambryl to sleep more than four or five hours a night, and without a sun, those hours are never in the same place.

🐀: They have a working relationship with a Deathless Chieftain and a Disgraced Bandit-Chief, and a frustratingly working relationship with a Talkative Rattus Faber.

🎄: So far, Hallowmas. Diving wasn't unpleasant, but the Coilheart Games were awful, and they're really appreciating being able to sleep well.

🦑: Under the exact same circumstances as they'd kiss anyone at all — with payment, and the full understanding that this is a 100% transactional relationship on Ambryl's part with absolutely no romantic feelings.

FL OC ASK GAME

🌅 — Do they miss the Surface? What was their life like up there?

🪪 — Have they gone by any other titles? Will they go by different ones in the future?

🔥 — Least favourite Master of the Bazaar?

🪞 — Do they enjoy being in Parabola? Why or why not?

🐍 — Snakes or cats?

🧍‍♂️— What stats would they provide as a companion? Where would you obtain them?

💀 — What's their relationship with the Boatman like?

🏺— What is their soul like? Does it have any Flaws?

⚰️ — What's their most common cause of death?

👑 — Opinions on the Queen? What about other royalty?

🃏 — What would be/will be their name and domain as a Master?

🎩 — What would an Exceptional Story featuring this character be about?

⚔️ — Do they have a particular fighting style/signature weapon?

♟️ — What colour are they on the chessboard? Has it always been that way?

🎖️ — Proudest non-Ambition accomplishment?

🌈 — Do they do anything unique or interesting with Neathy colours?

🛌 — How's their sleep schedule?

🐀 — Are they friends with any rats?

🎄 — What's their favourite festival?

🦑 — Would they kiss a Rubbery Man?

[shazzbaa]

NIGHTMARES IS INCREASING...

Samuel is dealing with the horrors just fine! hes fine. just needs a lil laudanum to take the edge off. Just a little, tiny, several bottles of laudanum,

wheezes and collapses HI HELLO I HAVE FINALLY FINISHED..... THIS!!!!.... I don't know what possessed me to make this out of pixels but im v pleased with how it came out!!

[Everyone has been extremely cool abt this!! but just to be sure: no Fallen London spoilers/suggestions/hints in tags, replies, etc. please! I'm still in the middle of some of the stories referenced here and I'm excited to discover it all for myself! ]

Nightmare sources referenced here:

A small, velvet-lined box from Light Fingers

The coiling spire bit from Light Fingers

Poor Edward from Light Fingers

I Shot the Albatross from the southern wind zee dreams

and of course, the Comtessa

At some point during Light Fingers I finally grabbed some laudanum to help with nightmares before some zee trip or other, and discovered that once you're Important, taking laudanum gives you "A Less Than Laudable Laudanum Habit" and that the initial, normal result is locked once your habit gets over level three. Naturally, I HAD TO KNOW.... WHAT HAPPENED AT OTHER LEVELS.....

I'd also decided to finally do the rest of the Watchful MYN at University, which I'd already heard about from several friends as a place where you are constantly going insane from the mundane stress of just, like, uncooperative witnesses while trying to solve a murder. The timing ended up perfect -- Samuel just coming back from the horrors of the Orphanage in Light Fingers and Trying To Be Normal And Hold Down A Normal Job For A Bit, and maybe just a lil laudanum to keep it together for class, and when withdrawal is ratcheting up everything, some annoyances like "can't find info for your murder investigation" might just tip you over the edge,

hilariously he hit level 8 on the laudanum habit -- helpfully labelled "a wretched slave to the hellish stuff" and the point where it stops working altogether -- IMMEDIATELY before running into a step of light fingers where you have to get rid of all your nightmares before you can proceed. HAHA OOPS.

ANYWAY HE STILL HAS IT BECAUSE IT TURNS OUT, IT TAKES A REALLY REALLY LONG TIME, TO KICK A LAUDANUM HABIT...... i, uh, dont recommend giving urself a laudanum addiction but narratively im having a great time lmao

[warabola]

okay controversial take. fallen london and the expanded setting is like the opposite of homestuck lore. homestuck is like a frog boiling in water, where if you read along, all the wild twists make perfect sense in the order you're exposed to it. it's only if you approach it from a larger perspective (like trying to explain it to a newcomer) that it comes across batshit.

fallen london never stops having those moments even if you have been here the whole time and consumed the entire wiki and three games worth of lore. sometimes you've been here for years and still get sucker punched by "what do you mean, the gods' true foe is eye-eating spiders". it never stops.

[failbettergames]

any games you'd recommend? could be for any reason! (similarity to fallen london, you know the people who made it, you just think it's neat, etc.) besides your own, of course, I already own all of those :)

Yes, here's a list of all of the games we talked about in our newsletter last year:

Birth: an adventure puzzle game about constructing a creature from spare bones & organs.

Scarlet Hollow: an immersive, episodic horror-mystery.

Egypt: Old Kingdom: a strategy simulator of the Great Pyramids period.

The Past Within is a fun, eerie way to spend an hour with a friend.

The Pale Beyond: high stakes on the frozen wastes, Sunless Sea feelings. 

King of the Castle: medieval monarch party game.

Stray Gods: an urban fantasy, musical visual novel featuring the gods of Greek myth.

Vampire Survivors: so moreish.

Knotwords: extremely satisfying crossword-anagram-puzzle game.

The Banished Vault: so gorgeous it actually makes us a bit cross.

Astronaut the Best: an anarchic comedy about assembling a team of hapless astronauts. 

El Paso, Elsewhere: supernatural neo-noir shooter, in which you must destroy the villain you loved - even if it means dying yourself.

Thank Goodness You're Here: may be the only game that’s more British than the ones we make.

The Fabulous Fear Machine: pulpy horror narrative strategy.

WORLD OF HORROR: Junji Ito-adjacent roguelike.

Lies of P: tickles your Fromsoft fancy. 

The Lamplighters League: essentially 1930s supernatural XCOM 

Tails Noir (formerly known as Backbone): gorgeous, bleak, compelling and unsatisfying in equal measure. 

Mediterrea Inferno: a spicy story about finding yourself after isolation.

DotAGE: manage a village where the Village Elder has helpfully precise visions of the future.

Slay the Princess: the princess is very bad and you have to kill her. 

VR remake of The 7th Guest: very fun, silly and far less punishing than the original. 

Astrea: Six-sided Oracles: interesting dice-and-deckbuilding system. 

Return of the Obra Dinn: truly a modern classic.

[finchsflight]

When they're writing a letter or something for other people to read, Ambryl writes in a sharp scrawl that is a) just readable enough to be barely polite and acceptable, b) full of abbreviations (absolutely no Madams or Lieutenants. Mdm. and Lt, and such. even in the hellos and goodbyes), c) very quick for them to write, d) incredibly regular despite the scrawledness, since he has a very steady hand, and e) kind of always looks like they're actively commiting violence against the paper. He's not, he just has an extensive collection of very sharp quills. Just in case. You know.

When writing for themself, whether in a journal or a murder board on the wall of their decommissioned steamer, she writes in batshit insane shorthand. It is absolutely incomprehensible. It is written at approximately Mach 3. Half of it is in code but it's in three different codes stacked on top of each other for efficiency and he drops in and out of it every other word. It is slowly transcending shorthand and becoming its own horrible language. That is not a letter in any form of English. Why is there an umlaut there. He's reinventing kanji from first principles. Cups can't spy on their notes because it can't read them. When they write their Book of Red Murder if someone finds it their Ambition won't be 'kill your Nemesis' it'll be 'decode this book that was clearly written by a madman'.

What does everyone’s OC’s handwriting look like?

Ockham has a very thin and narrow script without much variation in line weight. It’s not particularly tidy, but legible enough.

Roberts would have been left-handed, had that been permitted during his time. He now favours his right, but his handwriting has a heavier hand and slightly uneven quality to his letters.

[rinja-espurr]

dont know why i love that specific trope so much but this is so good. the trope ever actually

[vonlipvig]

jack and jerry are still kinda figuring out how this whole human-rubbery relationship thing works... (turns out it's the same as any other relationship, just a bit more gooey) 💚

[zeebreezin]

Something pulses behind your eyes. When you close them, you see only light.

I think being dawnburnt should unlock a profile header, specifically for Sequencers lighting enjoyers enjoyers like me.

[finchsflight]

There once was a brother with mettle

Who came down with a name and a petal,

They've made a good start

Though they did lose their heart

And they're hunting a Master to nettle

there once was a person whose teeth chomped in fight rings of the Neath they were lanky and tall saw writing on a wall and absorbed the nightmares it would bequeath

[hellisntreal]

lampkitty...........

[wardensantoineandevka]

I love that it was "that Bloody Bridge (proper noun)" but it was said like "that bloody (fucking) bridge"

[thegreatyin]

alright! let's get this clown show on the road!

if you want to attend the scoundrel and the scientist's (un)happy nuptials, send a calling card to either of them and comment on this post that you want an invite! it's a bazaar wedding. i have a frankly absurd amount of OaW. between two accounts, everyone should hopefully be able to get a slice of the funny canon fake marriage OC pie.

i'll leave the offer on this post up until September 22nd, 3pm EST. after that... well. after that we have a wedding to put on (・ω <)

[viric-dreams]

Thinking about her (the Wellspring).

[the-clay-quarters]

failure text for trying to teach the kolomans chess- i love how its specifically Bad kreuzberg haha. wait-

thats?? not supposed to exist yet????

[shazzbaa]

IDK MAN IM A SUCKER FOR SPLIT IMAGES....

anyway so for Light Fingers we needed to either appease a giant snake who lives in the dream realm's sky (long story), or ally with the cats to overcome said snake amalgam. Peter and Sam chose differently here, meaning Peter was granted the honour of being legally a cat, and Samuel got to, uH.... sHED HIS SKIN AS PENITENCE?????

(Peter is @little-red-notebook's guy, Sam is mine!)

bonus drawing/thoughts under the cut:

HE HAD TO USE A KNIFE AND TOOK SEVERAL WOUNDS, WHICH TRADITIONALLY IS NOT HOW SHEDDING WORKS, but by some snakey machinations there was new skin underneath, with the slightest sheen..........

supposedly it's so subtle that nobody would notice it, so obviously that means I immediately have to add faintly visible scales to every drawing I make of Samuel forever. I like to imagine it doesn't really show in the general gloom of the neath, but under more direct light or in the Parabolan sun, Sam's allegiances are a little more obvious....

The timing on this choice was fun, because just a few days before, Peter had shared with Samuel that he and his ACTUAL boyfriend had become engaged, they were just keeping it a secret so as not to make Peter's real fiancé a target for Poor Edward. So, while Sam did not know exactly what he was getting into when he chose to apologise to the giant sky snake, he still knows the reputation of the fingerkings, he knows bargains with them are risky, and he knows Poor Edward just announced his own skin-shedding bargain and following in his footsteps seems tremendously unwise........ but he was very much operating on the idea that PETER had a future that he needed to be okay for, so Sam needed to be the one to take the choices that would likely have Consequences.

[thedeafprophet]

The Players Of The Last Game Of The Marvellous

So last summer I did a lineup drawing of The Light Fingers crew, so i thought it'd be fun to do another lineup this year.

This time i tackled the main characters from Heart's Desire, including my own PC in order to not have the poor monkey tiny on the ground next to everyone