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
tremendously inspired by @tofupixel's pixel portrait work lately and wanted to play with some big pixels myself so....... I SCRIBBLED MY NEW FALLEN LONDON GUY....... Deacon Samuel Ashman is a obvious Sammy expy former clergyman who ended up joining the Black Ribbon Duellists and is DEFINITELY not experiencing ANY cognitive dissonance about his actions in the Neath,
"Welcome to a small, velvet lined box, delicious friend!"
SO UH………………………….. SAMUEL GOT, BURIED ALIVE, IN FALLEN LONDON………….. what a horrifying delight. a little treat just for me. OBVIOUSLY I HAD TO DRAW THIS
(rambling about Fallen London ambitions under the cut)
SO YEAH THIS HAPPENED DURING MY AMBITION -- I ended up finally picking Light Fingers, the "steal a huge diamond" ambition, DESPITE SAM'S ABSOLUTE WORST STATS BEING SHADOWY AND PERSUASIVE LMAO. I was waffling on choosing for a while, until a friend found one-sentence summaries of each ambition's tone that described Light Fingers as the one that turns into horror, which like…. I can't resist flinging sam into a horror story…… and it's surprisingly easy to make the ambition pretty canon for him, tbh -- "Someone you knew sent word that they knew how to get rich in the Neath, and you followed them, but now that you're out of prison they're nowhere to be found." While stealing giant jewels isn't Samuel's passion or anything, his main reason for coming to London was to escape a life in the church that he saw confining him more and more, and thinking he had a friend with a plan down here might've made it seem less like an impulsive nonsense idea. It works better than I expected!!
Anyway IF YOU FAIL ENOUGH TIMES ON ONE PART OF THE AMBITION you can get caught and THIS HAPPENS??????? ITS THE BEST!!!!!! One of the guys involved in the horrors does threaten to bury you alive if you keep sticking your nose into his business (since just murdering you isn't as effective in a world where death doesn't stick), buT WHAT A HORRIFYING SURPRISE TO HAVE IT ACTUALLY HAPPEN!!!! They give you a bunch of options and it's all stuff like "SCREAM" and "SCRABBLE AT THE LID," all of which Samuel attempted to no avail. i love this game so much,
if you’ve never built a terrifying contraption that allows you to hook yourself up to an amalgam of ghasts and channel so much firepower into you that it literally blinds you so that in your excitement you fill the room with lava and inadvertently destroy your own machine, can you even call yourself a mad genius
anyway i had to draw this obviously, so here’s another doc.... [buzz lightyear voice] i don’t believe that man’s ever been to medical school
in the spirit of the season, i drew some spooky icons for me and my call of cthulhu pals of all our very normal and non-concerning characters......
These are all tombow fudenosuke inks with digital colours, honestly REAL PLEASED WITH HOW THEY CAME OUT so i wanted to share 'em over here too!!
Sammy's design by me (@inkdemonapologist), Joey's design by @inkyvendingmachine, Henry's design by @inkcryptid, Jack and Peter's designs by @whatyouwantedmetosee
SO UH.... on Tattered Weave, the shopkeepers all have a reputation score where you can improve your reputation with them by doing quests, and as they get to know you better, the art in their shop changes and the things they say to you become more friendly and open.
Somehow “the Sanders Sides as Tattered Weave Shopkeepers” came up in conversation and t-tWO GREAT TASTES... THAT TASTE GREAT TOGETHER... so I had to try to draw a couple of them in TW Shopkeeper style!! im actually really proud of these *u*
(p.s. fanders if u havent seen tattered weave its a very good game w good characters... also theres a whole section of the world where the characters go by their Roles and don’t tell you their names until they trust you aND I NEED A SANDERS SIDES CROSSOVER OF THIS)
so someone had the fun idea of “what if you made a fusion character but ONLY using your favourite TATTERED WEAVE characters” so I gave it a try and like.... why is this the most on-brand one yet?????
Anyway I wanted to stick this mess in the TW world so she’s originally a Thespian from the Shadow Stage, but she got thrown into the tatters and was saved from the brink of death by Solarium technology. as u can see from my grid if youre a TW player i am.... a fan of the solarium lmao. Her stagename is The Spider and I dont think anyone has known her true name in a long, long time. Oh also, that last image was me doing my best to mimic TW’s NPC style so I could stick her in one of the shops and make her look like a shopkeeper:
