Fallen London isn't just a game, nor is it an obsession. It's a lifestyle.
Look me in the eyes and tell me that you haven't at least once whispered under your breath "CLEFT IN THEE HIDE IN ME" when you sense the walls are wrong, or thought about the devils in hell while passing by an embassy, or checking into a hotel and remembering the merry gentleman and the royal bethlehem.
You're lying to yourself if you haven't once thought about the labyrinths and human zoos while meeting the gaze of a tiger, referring to money as capital, or the spiders and bats and extraordinary number of weasels purchased.
Haven't you ever avoided mirrors at carnivals and looked to honey as the stuff of dreams, looking into reflections and parabolian jungles or even veilgarden? Doesn't palaces ever remind you of the shuttered palace, don't docks remind you of the zee and rooftops of the Topsy King?
Don't you ever flinch at the sight of orphanages (no hate to orphans okay) and red masks in remembrance of Poor Edward, or smile in relief at the Starveling Kitty! Starveling Kitty! Ruled the roofs of five stolen cities!?
Don't tell me you haven't looked at newspapers and chess pieces in different ways, rubber and clay and stone cast in different lights, the constables and the revolutionaries picking up a different sort of attention from you?
When people ask you about your favourite cities, does New York, LA and names alike these come out from your mouth, or does your mind wander to the first, second, third, fourth and fifth city in a different realm?
Has your ears never perked up, have your eyes never cast down, have you never leaned closer or draw further when you catch whispers of the bazaar, thoughts of the Masters lurking around?
When you look at wells, do you never get unexplainably hungry, your curiosity growing into an uncomfortable itch?
When you think of London, do you think of the London that stands over the world as a bustling, successful nation, or do you think of the London in the Neath, the London taken by bats, the London you've grown accustomed to, the London you can never escape from, the London that fell?