A Much-Needed Gap

"The absence of a thing or a person, in the right place or at the right time." Sideblog for fallen london oc posting >:) Ace (thats my name) - 26 - he/it Follows from @acedefiant

[letheology]

Heya I'm Ace! I made this blog so I can show everyone my fallen london ocs like im a kid at show and tell. I have a degree in linguistics and work as a museum curator. I also draw. Among other things.

Take a look at my guys! The Prismatic Professor, Mina Azoulai, they/them [Nemesis, completed] Profile ⋆ Tag The Cosmogone Visionary, Riaan Valeri, he/they + feminine terms [Heart's Desire, completed] Profile ⋆ Tag ⋆ Fashion ⋆ Liveblogging The Obedient Fire-Starter, Norren, he/him [Light Fingers, completed] Profile ⋆ Tag The Faithful Hunter, Bríd Connolly, she/her [Bag a Legend, completed] Profile ⋆ Tag ⋆ Intro Yvette Solal, any/all pronouns [Heart's Desire] Profile ⋆ Tag ⋆ Intro

The Sequencer Collection: The Dawnlit Captain, Fleur Trieu / Tag The Keen-eyed Chemist, Kelly Connolly / Intro ⋆ Tag

💜Send a calling card to Mina 🧡Send a calling card to Riaan ❤️Send a calling card to Norren 💙Send a calling card to Bríd 🩷Send a calling card to Yvette

[slightly-sigilant]

So, a bit of a lore primer for those who don't go here: natural law, in Fallen London, is writ by the powers-that-be and enforced via literal light, particularly sunlight. Unfortunately, "natural law" means things like "people suffer, die, and then suffer more after death" and "transing your species is Forbidden and Shameful under celestial law" and "some people will instantly die if touched by sunlight for no other reason than being an 'illegal' species," with the deep, dark Neath being one of the few places where these capital-L Laws hold less sway. There are many more injustices I could get into, but that would delve into the Deep Lore - all you need to know is that a number of people are aware of this, think this is incredibly fucked up, and want to extinguish the stars and cover the world in complete darkness as a way of preventing anyone from ever wielding that kind of absolute, arbitrary power over others ever again.

This movement is called the Liberation of Night - its people are called Liberationists. It's no secret that I hold a special spot in my heart for the Liberation, problematic aspects and all, to the point that if you asked me what my IRL political alignment is, I'm likely to say "Liberationist (of Night)" and only half mean it ironically.

Despite (or perhaps because of) this fondness for the Liberation, I enjoy it when people wrestle with the concept, when they really, genuinely engage with its messiness. This includes things like having characters who are, for one reason or another, opposed to the Liberation even if they are also of the mind that heavenly law is unjust. Or critique of how the Liberation goes about its means - that this movement, so fundamentally analogous to real-world anarchism in its opposition to hierarchy, is prey to hierarchy itself. (That would be the Calendar Council, ostensibly the leaders of the revolution - but its members include an ex-king-turned-luxury-hotel-owner who treats his staff horrendously and a literal nightmare woman who drives her acolytes to suicide.) Or that many Liberationists play into the worst stereotypes of the bomb-throwing anarchist. (I personally believe that nonviolence must be a central tenet of any meaningful anarchist movement - this article explains it better than I can. Obviously, there are times when violence is necessary for self-defense, but it should be seen as an absolute last resort.) Or simply thinking about what a world without light might be like - where reality is a joint creation, where all beings have a say in how their world works, from the forms they personally take to the flow of time and space - and what the inevitable birthing-pains of such a world would be like.

That kind of engagement, I respect a lot. What I don't respect is this particular kind of dismissive non-engagement from a vocal minority of the playerbase. People who won't engage with the concept beyond calling it "stupid" and claiming that every pro-Liberation player or character is a "psychopath." (Mandatory pause here to point out the ableism inherent to this language.) People who say that they "don't want politics in games." (Another mandatory pause here to point out that for many of us, our very existences are political, and it is both privilege and ignorance to demand that stories be "apolitical.") People who say that the Liberation is an obviously bad idea because people are inherently evil and need ironclad authority to keep them in line. (This idea is a construct that has been proven wrong time and time again - read Rebecca Solnit's A Paradise Built in Hell, or if you can handle current events, her discussion of anti-ICE movements in Minnesota and beyond. Certainly, people are messy, and I wouldn't be so charitable as to say that people are Inherently Good under all that mess. However, that the typical response to disaster is compassionate unity, not selfish chaos, does say that we, on the whole, are more than our worst selves.)

And to be quite clear, I'm also rather bothered when enthusiastic young leftists in the fandom (by which I mean players, not characters - it's fun when characters do this) treat the Liberation as the best thing since sliced mushroom loaf. As something that will save everyone and everything without fail, to which ends all means and losses are justified, under which the Calendar Council are our glorious leaders, after which everyone will live happily ever after, and anyone who questions it is either a heretic or has yet to see the unlight - as, essentially, the Rapture, but with darkness coming to save us all instead of Jesus. That way is a dangerous way. That way, applied to real-world leftist movements, leads to things like telling diabetics anxious about insulin supplies during civil war that they should be happy to die for the sake of Revolution. (This is a real thing I have witnessed. It's why I keep the fediverse community at arm's length, despite generally being in favor of fedi's core idea.) But the former issue is more common than this latter one - and thus, I am here writing a 6 AM post where I complain about people not engaging with fictional anarchism Rigorously enough.

Anyway, if you enjoy inversions of the usual "light good, darkness bad" trope and love dark and marvelous worlds that are also monstrously queer in wonderful ways, come join us! Especially if you're also interested in anarchism as a philosophy about building a world without hierarchy and coercion. I'd love to see what more people make out of this premise.

[thegreatyin]

so i figured out what those patch notes were about...

[thegreatyin]

okay, so, before the update, biting mr fires looked like this;

with the shadowy check increasing proportional to your repeat dentistry quality- IE; the more you bit mr fires, the harder this check became, until you literally couldn't succeed at it anymore. this screenshot was taken at the exact point i hit 0%.

but. post update. the option has changed. it now looks like this.

and the new requirement... is this.

and the success text...

this gives an exclusive burden.

i have no idea when this started triggering. i have no idea how this started triggering. i only know that i have done it.

i have officially gone further than anyone has ever gone before.

[letheology]

dying of significant chronic pain and broken ankle but i like the gacha, keep at it 👍

[thezipperedcharlatan]

Nothing but love to Fallen London but it really does have a fucking little old lady who swallowed the fly progression

I went to waswood to raise my mirthridicy

I raised my mirthridicy to make a skeleton

I make a skeleton to get the scrip

I make the scrip to get the railroad

I get the railroad to finally be done with it and go back to ignoring notability

[frostedmagnolias]

Dusty Rose Gown

c. 1909

New Canaan Museum & Historical Society

[redstonedust]

pet peeve is when you look up fashion references from a specific era and you keep getting modern day '[era]-inspired' fashion like NO i want authenticity damn it. i can see your 2020 photo quality and your 2020 hair and your 2020 makeup. youre not fooling me.

[bincliff]

hello i'm a historical fashion researcher and i have a lot of experience looking up things! this is a very widely experienced irritation and you're definitely not alone in this, but i am here to share everything i know!

so, ways to get around this:

turn off AI results. they're literally nonsense to us

don't use pinterest because the sources/provenance is often hard to trace

a standard internet search can be okay, but museum collections are the top tier (list of collections below this list)

instead of broad terms like victorian, regency, tudor, renaissance etc. try using the decade you're looking for. if you're not sure of what decade it is but have a vague image in your head, look on the fashion history timeline and just jump around until you find it. but even changing to e.g. 19th century will give better results than victorian

including terms like womenswear/menswear, daywear, formal wear, evening wear, court dress should increase the value of your search too

including "fashion plates" in your search can give you a nice impression of the intended silhouettes of the era. some of these might be a little stylised but will show you what was considered in vogue

for pre-fashion plate eras or things like makeup and styling, you'll have to look at portraiture or manuscripts. these are harder to actually find what you're looking for, but searching museum collections and limiting results to specific date ranges will be your friend

when looking at art, do bear in mind sometimes artists would paint fabric extra flow-y to show off their skills. it might not have been exactly like that in terms of fabric weight or drape. so, a pinch of salt required!

if you find something on image search where the provenance is dubious, reverse image search and you might find a source! i've been able to trace random pinterest images to real sources, but this does take a lot of time and effort and is often not worth the headache

some online resources and museum collections:

fashion history timeline is an invaluable resource if you're trying to get a feel for everything and should be your first port of call. it'll also link to good examples

the met has a vast number of extant examples of clothing, as well as fashion plates

costume institute fashion plates is a subcollection of the met for fashion plates (1800s-1922)

v&a also has many extant garments, fashion plates, and incredible articles on clothing and aesthetics. read the details of the objects because they'll often reveal a lot about the piece

lacma is good for C19th-20th pieces

nypl digital collection for photographs

national portrait gallery or similar for portraiture, or literally any museum in your country that has historical art

national museums scotland can be useful situationally but might be oddly specific

stout style history is a great collection for finding image references for fat people wearing historical clothes. survival bias of a lot of museum pieces tends towards smaller clothing that couldn't be repurposed, but this aims to counter that. it's not sortable, but is still a really nice resource

wikimedia commons is surprisingly handy! and the images, if you should need to link/repost them, are public domain

auction websites sound like a funny one to recommend. some won't have mannequins and some will. just look up historical garment auctions and you'll find some!

anyway, i hope this has been a good place to start for anyone interested! there are probably some i've missed because there are so many museums across the world and i don't know about all of them or can't remember them. but these are the ones i've used the most! (my specialisation/jobs i've had to research for have only really been in western fashion, so my resources reflect that)

[haemey]

Wikipedia has a list of fashion museums. Unfortunately, the page itself is only available in German, but the introductory paragraph is very short and after that, it's organised by country, and then it's a simple list. If you click on a museum's article, the website is usually linked in the overview table.

[letheology]

It's so inconcievable to me that most people aren't exhausted all the time. What do you mean you don't feel tired 24/7

[the-paisley]

Haven't drawn the Surgeoness in a while!!

[esteemed-excellency]

yes let's put hiram in hell. what could go wrong (original template here)

assorted explanations and info under the cut:

He has canonically killed many people directly and indirectly

He lost his entire family and most of his friends + knows he will keep losing people in the future but he's willing to take the risk as long as he can remember them fondly forever. This doesn't mean he will ever get over them.

He used to view a lot of things, himself included, as immoral due to his early victorian upbringing. After three decades in the neath, he decided that morality is boring and overrated. He doesn't give a shit anymore.

The glass is always half full. The real question is, what are you going to do with it?

He already was pretty arrogant and manipulative before the abstraction, the rest of the terrible horrible qualities depend on how bored he is when his soulless ennui acts up.

The same goes for his sins and virtues. He was and still is extremely diligent in all his projects, and prideful in general. His kindness, patience, lust, and greed are sometimes more evident and some other times completely nonexistent.

He's very clean + likes fancy and healthy food. The problem is, his body is 40% poison vines. He likes poisons and health hazards way too much.

He killed himself a few times when he was blinded and spiralling from correspondence-induced brain injuries after the violant incident. @the-silvered-pirate couldn't manage to stop him every time.

He still wants More!! That's his whole character arc! There's So Much More he can do, he can make things so much better for himself, for his family, and for London!! you just need to Trust Him :) you'll see :)) But unfortunately, something always gets in the way >:(

If something bad happens he's either rational about it or blames others. Of course it's not his fault how dare you insinuate that.

Will he ever get out of fl Hell? He went there multiple times and fulfilled the terms of his contract so technically he's already out of fl Hell. He just keeps going back because he likes to be eldritch blasted by the lack of Laws. Plus, his girlfriend planted a part of it in his chest. He has no intention of ever getting rid of it.

Will he ever get out of the Hell of his own making (violant+soullessness)? No, he needs that to get out the Hell of others making (the current state of the universe)

Will he ever get out of the Hell of others making (the current state of the universe and the Laws upholding it)? He's trying so damn hard but, as previously stated, something always gets in the damned way.

[letheology]

Failbetter fucking cursed me with avulsion fracture

[viric-dreams]

What is the probability that your OC been sexually or romantically involved with someone named Edward?

With 100% certainty

It's likely

Maybe?

Not Edward but another flavour of Ed

They are Edward

They are Edward and also yes

Voting ended onApr 6

[viric-dreams]

I FORGOT TO INCLUDE--

Probably not

Absolutely not

Voting ended onApr 6

[viric-dreams]

What is the probability that your OC been sexually or romantically involved with someone named Edward?

With 100% certainty

It's likely

Maybe?

Not Edward but another flavour of Ed

They are Edward

They are Edward and also yes

Voting ended onApr 6

[detective-and-dreamer]

I noted it when I last updated my pinned post, but Khasar took Riaan's last name and was so excited about it. he'd never really considered having a surname at all but absolutely wanted to have the same one when it became an option. you have to picture the energy of someone kicking their feet and drawing hearts in a notebook

(hi @letheology)

[letheology]

He did do this and it is incredibly adorable!! Khasar valeri!

[alxnxllix]

Reblog if you're grateful for your internet friends

[aukkenopsia]

pajama idea i had last night in bed while rolling around in pain from cramps

[letheology]

I haven't been doing great lately and haven't really engaged with flondon or done any drawing but I *am* performing as a circus artist & aerialist for the first time this weekend. So there's that!