#exceptional friends

[failbettergames]

Fans of Bernard, rejoice!

We've just added added some new goodies to Mr Chimes’ Lost & Found! 

We've added a dozen new items, including a smattering of extra cats (in case you weren't wearing enough already), a half-dead Rubbery Man, an eel to wear around your neck, and visiting rights to the friendliest beetle in Chalcedony Square.

Exceptional Friends earn Memories of a Tale from playing Exceptional Stories, which can be redeemed in the Lost & Found for unique items.

[chrismerle]

Shai, internally: //monotone screaming

Shai, externally: This is fine.

[failbettergames]

Img ALT: A thin-lipped, melancholy-looking man in Victorian dress with an open collar looks into the heart of a giant blush-pink flower. In the centre of the flower, something glows. Vines twist in the background.

Exceptional Story for April: There is the Richest Juice in Poison Flowers

"The spadix swells as it tastes air for the first time. Waves of yellow, orange and black ripple beneath its surface. Then the smell hits you: fresh-cut grass. An orchard on a summer's day. Ripe fruit slick with tropical rain."

There is a plant on the Surface that blooms but once every ten years. Somehow, a Sun-touched Gardener has not only brought it down to the Neath – he has also kept it alive, and thriving. Now, at last, it is time for it to flower. But why is it being kept in a poison-garden? And who are the mystery buyers who mean to keep the plant for themselves? All will be illuminated, when the poison-flower blooms. 

Writing: Mary Goodden

Editing and QA: Luke van den Barselaar

Art: Paul Arendt

EXCEPTIONAL FRIENDSHIP

All Exceptional Friends receive:

A new Exceptional Story every month

Memories of a Tale from each story to spend on exclusive companions and items

A second candle (up to 40 actions at once)

An expanded opportunity deck: ten cards instead of six

Three additional outfit slots

Access to the House of Chimes, including monthly gameplay perks

Enhanced Exceptional Friends receive all of the above, plus:

A past story, or two resets of stories you’ve played from a monthly menu

Memories of a Tale from every past story or reset

Extra monthly perks in the House of Chimes

Three seven-action refreshes per month

[chrismerle]

Shai’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

[xerox-candybar]

Legit Question for Les Mis Tumblr:

How long have we all been fawning over Les Amis?

Must be ...like... over a century, right? Did the French boys have fanclubs in the 1860s? What is the earliest known Enjoltaire fic? Will enough digging eventually uncover handwritten Joly x Reader smut that begins with a scandalous exchange of calling cards and a delicate kiss on the neck?

Someone enlighten me, please!

[chrismerle]

Took me until damn near the deadline, but I played through this month’s Exceptional Friends story, Borrowed Glory. I’ll say right off the bat, I liked it much more than January’s. It felt very punchy and to the point, with a very ‘grab this, grab this, grab this, carry on’ tempo, as compared to the usual ‘grind this, grind this, grind this, carry on’ style. Mind, I don’t usually mind the grind, and all the running in circles usually offers some good lore, but the punchier speed was refreshing.

Best of all, it didn’t leave me asking ‘well, how was I supposed to know that?’ after half the choices, and the end result didn’t leave me wondering what the point had been if it was going to be a bust regardless.

Honestly, my only complaint was that I wanted to take the Love-Sickened Senschal home like a stray kitten and I was not allowed to do that.

Seriously, look at this.

The Love-Sickened Seneschal digs his head into the small of your back, clearly nervous, unwilling to approach Feducci himself. 

Look at him. He’s adorable.

And really, the writing as a whole is back up to the standard I expect it to be at.

This bit

Of all the boroughs in London, where better indeed to find a bounty of dead men's bones than the gallows. Death struggles to find tenancy here, but Londoners are resourceful. 

made my hair stand on end. It was genuinely something I hadn’t put any thought into before that, and I could hear the goddamn Silent Hill sirens going off. Don’t even get me started on the dream creations.

And this

After a while, you look up to see if the Rapacious Prince has taken notice.

He has not.

Blessed are the self-absorbed.

nearly made me snort my cocoa.

But more than anything, it gave me the mental image of a smiling waiter shooing my 6′8″ weaponized beanstalk away like a errant puppy, which is worth the price of admission on its own. I’m pretty sure the Prince’s get-together was buffet-style, but in my mind, the waiter shooed Shai along with a menu all the same.

[chrismerle]

so it took me a while to actually get to this month’s exceptional story. it’s been a long couple months. and then when I finally got to it, I swear it took me like a week to get to the end. that’s never happened before! but for whatever reason, Fine Dining (The Set Menu? it seems to have different names in different places) just felt long. the writing itself was the same high quality it always is, but when it came to the actual story, I just was not a fan.

like, why was my character even THERE? why did the Illustrious Chef make me a VIP? why did the entire kitchen decide I was in charge? what reason did I have to think siding with the Pastry Chef over the Critic would be a good idea when I was given absolutely no indication it would be? on a similar note, why was I supposed to assume that just letting the Sous Chef run around the dining room would be the right call when it was a complete 180 from his established ‘indecisive, dithering nuisance’ personality up to that point? I mean, I know conventional logic in Fallen London isn’t always in place and that’s part of its charm, but when you’re following a story you can usually piece things together to make sense, but this story just felt like it was trying to shout ‘GOTCHA!’

and then the tiger’s review at the end made no goddamn sense! I never picked the easiest meal, and I succeeded with all of them but one, but the review was an unmitigated disaster. like, what was I supposed to accomplish? if one failure tanks the entire result, then what was the point of there being four separate courses, other than to make me run around? it would have been the same as just having one large pass/fail ‘cook the meal’ option at the end of all of the preparations.

I dunno, guys. this one was just a bit of a dud. I did like the Critic, though. I wouldn’t mind seeing her again. and I did like the Pastry Chef, even if I didn’t understand what her appeal as an ally would be.

[catlantz]

Hey Fallen London Players

Possibly just Exceptional Friends,

Did any of you have an interesting gold bordered storylet in your lodgings this morning? Involving items from previous Exceptional Stories? Involving the Boatman? Does this happen often?