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The Royal Bethlehem Hotel
she/they | 29 | North Asia | autistic eldritch creature | (links and tags in the sidebar)
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Re-reading Evolution, and it's even better as a whole with some things from the final chapter in hindsight.
These enigmatic metaphors go too well with the Calendar Council's inspiration from "The Man Who Was Thursday" and what its author said: "You ask me who Sunday is? Well, you may call him Nature, if you like. But you will note that I hold that when the mask of Nature is lifted you find God behind."
My mind is passionately gnawing on an AU (NOT meant to be a theory, just a purely self-indulgent fantasy): what if "Death's twin" is literally Life – which makes December the Creator – and the Judgements are merely usurpers (very befitting their usual role of a flawed and cruel Gnostic demiurge who only pretends to be the highest authority) who deposed December just like they banished the Black King of the Adulterine Castle?
Or, if December isn't a deity, simply a rebellious servant (because the Boatman says "we both served the same table once"), what if it was a forced reduction from the former to the latter as a first-warning punishment?
What if this original god of life-and-death truly cared about all creatures equally, but then the likes of the Sapphir'd King decided to devour souls for more power instead of guiding them through rebirth (which Devils reclaimed + which somehow-December-connected frost moths represent) and devised the Great Chain to justify the right of "greater" beings to prey on "lesser" ones?
What if the Liberation of Night isn't an overthrow of natural order but is a return to what it should always have been (before "then the light came") and it's no coincidence that the Anchoress managed to behold god's love and true design only in the darkness? (High-fiving this @gant-eyed-warden’s post.)
What if the Bishop of St Fiacre’s knows it all – and that’s where his hopeful religious devotion comes from despite being a Neathy creature that would never be forgiven and accepted by the Judgements?
...I definitely want to write something about it, but I already have two WIPs, ooooh...
#fallen london#sunless skies#failbetter games#the calendar council#the liberation of night#liberation of night#calendar council#the bishop of st fiacre's#the youthful naturalist
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I think... sometimes when we say "my writing/art is bad", it's not because we underrate ourselves or want to hear encouragement, but rather because it looked much better in our heads. It's not bad by itself; it seems bad in comparison to what we really wanted to make.
That's why we disagree with those who sincerely say that it's great: to us, this imperfect version doesn't deserve it because it steals approval from the "real" one inside us (real us who, too, stay invisible to others, wishing to be acknowledged and understood).
But – remember – imperfect doesn't equal bad. It's better than nothing, it can be objectively good, and it's always a step towards honing skills to be able to get closer to what you truly envision.
#art#writing#motivation#inspiration#fanfiction#fanart#artists on tumblr#writers on tumblr#my art#my life
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(Reblogs seem to be broken again, so... apologies, no idea how to fix them...)
OMG, I remember the Schlomoctober theory, it was from the time when the only piece of information about October was "a book of dreams" from The Calendar Code 😀
Also still this...
The King with a Hundred Hearts:
Enkidu:
The lore fan-wiki:
(By the way, the wildest theories and headcanons and personal AUs are absolutely valid and great! It's just that the wiki that aims to be an accurate credible source must try to live up to it and mark any unconfirmed assumptions explicitly.)
#fallen london#failbetter games#the calendar council#the king with a hundred hearts#king with a hundred hearts#manager of the royal bethlehem hotel
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100%
And it's one of the worst things ever when people smile "oh, it's alright" but actually despise you and then mock you with others behind your back.
Tons of respect for those who have honesty to say "you know, I'm uncomfortable with [something]" or "can you explain what do you mean by this?" so together you can figure out how to socially adjust to one another in a friendly way instead of that hypocrisy and pointless hostility.
All I’m saying is you guys are all ‘autistic allies’ until someone doesn’t understand sarcasm or can’t read your tone or takes something literally or isn’t great at communicating or has to ask for clarification or—
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"Creature of wood" and "scriveners" and "quills" remind me of Scrive-Spinsters and Senior Scriveners from Sunless Skies, but at the same time the entire thing makes me think of angels (Devils who still serve the Judgements) whom we also met there ("swarmed by things like bees, but huge and hideous and gleeful"). Hmm...
It's really sad that for some reason many FL players disregard Skies (as well as poor little MotR; they are absolutely delightful for someone who already knows/likes this setting, and crucial pieces of the whole), I need more thoughts and noticed details and just sharing the excitement together.
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Also I've always imagined him with kohl:
After all, eyes had sacred significance in the First City so it would make sense to emphasize them.
well. I think the manager should wear red lipstick sometimes. but we aren’t ready for that yet.
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...1889, a dark foggy morning. You wake up. The Manager stands just outside your window, smiling ominously. You try to convince yourself that murky window-glass simply reflects the stand for hats and coats.
...1899, a dark foggy morning. You wake up. The Manager-City can be seen from your window, having moved three stations closer overnight. You try to convince yourself that it has always been there.
#fallen london#failbetter games#manager of the royal bethlehem hotel#city in silver#the city in silver
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...speaking of which, I’m delighted how Orphic was this part of FL with all that symbolic burial, descent, and singing to a chtonic power:
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Just look at this RE8 mythology AU by wonderful @heraxic ♥ω♥
Reminds me that Orphic Dionysus-Zagreus was my very first thought about canonical Rose's story and flashbacks: a powerful divine infant, divided into pieces by monsters under orders of the chief wife-and-mother goddess Hera, later resurrected again...
Also I had my own mythic AU with Heisenberg as a deity of the dead and the underworld, and Ethan as a hero who makes a deal to revive Rose yet has to stay with him and never return to the living. But I haven't translated it for AO3 because it would be way more than a usual challenge due to heavily archaic style.
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Amazing writing and worldbuilding;
Greatly helped me in studying english (and language as a medium in general);
Inclusiveness and benevolent representation that makes me happy just by truly existing (I still remember how seeing it for the first time back then felt like discovering that magic is real) and gives me a little hideaway where I can be myself;
Exciting huge updates that always bring me back even after everything else has been explored;
Manages to make eldritch horror surprisingly heartwarming sometimes (and without getting rid neither of "eldritch" nor of "horror");
It has lamp-cats, the Merry Gentleman, yet more cats, the Calendar Council, and a tiny Haunted Goldfish (that's it, that's the argument, I'm in love) 💗
Fallen London
i started the fallen london tumblr (well the Failbetter Games one but you know what i mean) in 2014
we are almost at 7,777 followers, at which point i will do something special for you all
please take this as my invitation to reblog this with the reasons you play fallen london so we can recruit more people into our fruity little victorian gang
thank u
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Fire/snow juxtaposition in the Firmament card-prologue gives me hope for Transformed By Stairs tie-ins. I'm still terribly curious what's the deal with frost-moths, and especially December's possible connection to them and to death. Any new lore can ruin my cherished headcanon that rebirth was the initial order of things before the Judgements usurped death for their own profit, but it might as well prove or expand it. Thrilling.
And if the White shows up, I will remind it what happened (will happen) to my previous (future) archnemesis, the Azure... (My dear Iremi player-character, you really should go back to your hotel room.)
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I'm so happy to have the Arcane Academic background in MotR:
– naturally attuned to the mysteries of the Neath (and I'm such a fan of this trope whenever I see it... rediscovering kinship with local weirdness in Pathologic, sensing the town in Disco Elysium... it's much subtler here, but still feels like Fallen London-verse's dark wonders reach out directly to you, and you to them)
– bonding with friends/sweethearts through discussions of their fascinating cultures' mythology and their faiths' esoteric nuances (I was going to joke about my strange nerdy ways of flirting, but seriously, on second thought, finding shared interests in deeply personal topics actually significantly strengthens relationships)
– bookworm and total geek (shown not as a stereotypical/boring/bad thing, thankfully, and even giving this cute advantage in sapphic romance)
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Remember the cat and lizard from the Royal Beth?
That's what I see when they get mentioned:
...Also it's a nice way to characterize someone via their pets.
Lizards:
stare at you with a knowing and mysterious air; patient; ancient.
Cats:
nocturnal; elegant; notorious hunters but friendly to humans; WTF ARE YOU DOING THERE IN THE DARK NEAR MY BED; need attention and tactile contact and BITE (OUCH) and lots of sleep and SHINY THING and more attention...
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Here's mine ^_^
Okay, fallen london community. Show me your ocs.
The Six-finger'd Scrimshander got its camera working, and is going to take a picture of you all at the end of the month. Dress appropriately.
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"Never let anyone know about autism, it's less shameful to be seen as just weird than diagnosed"...
"It's too dangerous to openly identify as queer"...
I'm so done with it. I'm a perfectly normal eldritch horror zebra ♥
Quick someone show this to all the old shrinks who “didn’t want to label” us
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Karl Heisenberg boss fight. Or just a usual day in Dark Souls or Bloodborne.
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Neat!
Also: book nerds, both ♡
Actually, many characters (Virginia, Harjit, the Landaus, Milton, Phoebe, Theophilius, Ivy) don't visit Chapman's in FL either, so I don't think that one really counts. Besides, after a prison break or similar endings Archie may still avoid going where someone can recognize him. Especially since Mr Pages is there sometimes.
And "Archie is familiar with May" is a bit of an understatement, in my humble opinion: at the trial May reveals that he was keeping an eye on his life and revolutionary activities for a long time, in great detail, even before the Fall, which means that the Calendar Council might have been interested in him as a potential ally. At least they knew of him, and he was more than just a random acquaintance to May; he was specifically a fellow revolutionary. (In fact, May knows Archie/Lucian better than Archie knows his own self, that's why he was able to help.) Or maybe Lucian already had some ties to the Council, because he was deep in the Great Game:
(By the way, this whole part reminds me of September's obsession with deciphering alleged secret codes and intentions of Mr Pages)
...Yes, I remember September's portrait change! And now I recall that Archie had a completely different design at first too:
Of course, everyone here (except one) has changed, but... hmmm. September's renewal in FL coincided in time with MotR's further development, and there must be a reason why they've chosen to turn both at once into redheads with literally the same face base.
On the other hand, lore has Discordant doubles, Parabolan reflections and so on. Two Mays, even. Might be anything, indeed.
Having been ruminating on the possible link between Archie Reid of Mask of the Rose and September of Fallen London, and having been informed what a fool I am for suggesting there might be one, I've been trying to formally lay out the evidence for and against them being one and the same, and to reckon with the unavoidable uncertainties. (Some serious spoilers for both games appear below the cut.)
FOR:
Both have red hair, green eyes, and very similar facial features.
Both are written with similar accents.
Both have established connections to the Calendar Council - September is a member, of course, while Archie is familiar with May.
Both write and publish revolutionary texts.
Both have hostile relationships with Mr Pages - Archie can expose Pages as being personally responsible for the Fall of London.
September's dialogue suggests that, like Archie, he was a student in London at the time of the Fall.
AGAINST:
September's stated background - on a baronial estate near Balmoral - does not align with Archie's stated origins in Glasgow. (See below for further examination of this point.)
Unlike other Mask of the Rose characters (Griz, Horatia, Moss, Pages, Ferret, May, Reginald, Barqujin and Batachikhan), September makes no appearance at Mrs Chapman's in Fallen London.
September doesn't mention having any history of medical practice.
UNCERTANTIES:
Our knowledge of Archie's background is complicated by the fact that 'Archie Reid' is not his original identity. He was, instead, Lucian, an officer and spy who had travelled much of the world. He had tried to warn the people of London of the impending Fall and was, for his troubles, almost erased from reality by the authorities. 'Archie Reid' is what remains of him, and even he doesn't know whether everyone's memories of Archie (including his own) are true or false.
September's age is unclear. On first meeting him, the narration describes him as a 'youth', and his portrait doesn't look like a man who would be in his late fifties at the youngest. This doesn't quite agree with his own suggestion of having been in London during the Fall. If he is Archie, perhaps his theriac staved off the effects of age?
I don't recall how much elaboration we get on Lucian's background in Mask of the Rose's Reunion ending, and whether it's compatible with September's backstory. I'm also not sure whether that matters. Did the person Lucian was, and the things he did, retroactively cease to exist when he became Archie? This is very confusing, I know.
I'm not sure whether September and the Efficient Commissioner have any relevant dialogue if they're on the board of the Great Hellbound Railway together.
Putting Watson aside and putting on our Doyle moustache for a moment, it is possible that September was not originally written to be Archie but later became him. When September first appeared in Fallen London, he used a different portrait - the same one used by the non-binary portrait artist at Helicon House. His current portrait came later. Perhaps this represented a revision of his character's backstory and identity? Eh, I'm speculating aloud here.
To sum up: I dunno. It might be him. They sure look alike. If it's not him, they'd have a lot to talk about if they ever met.
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