Finished the story. This may be a difficult story to find all four ending texts, for reasons that will become apparent upon reaching the final choice, but we’ll see. I thought it was an engaging and well-written story. My thoughts on the story will be below the spoiler.
"Noises from Upstairs" is one of the more effective uses of Qualities as integrated into the story that I’ve seen in a while. Hidden qualities during conversations improve the flow by making these actions feel more natural, but displayed quality locks still communicate that progress is occurring. For those with certain knowledge of the lore, one of these qualities helps create subtextual narrative through the Storynexus mechanics - the last time I remember this occurring was in "The Stone Guest", which was one of my favorite stories.
[spoiler]The title is a pun. I appreciate that. There’s an excellent moment where the Debunker describes his past experience with sunlight cut with moonlight before entering the house. What makes it excellent is seeing the quality of "Silver Sight" with the moonlit London art in the house - your characters don’t know it yet, but that’s when you realize the true meaning of "Noises from Upstairs" and that the Upstairs is about to enter the story.
The Calendar Council was well-integrated into the story, which is to say that they were almost a non-presence. While I appreciate lore about the Revolutionaries, their mystery is receding. We know the identities of all but four (March, June, September, and October), and even then we know about June’s creation and have a reasonable guess for October now that we know the identity of May. March and September are the most unknown, and fittingly, it’s the Marchists and the Septemberists that matter most in moonlit London. I’m glad that all we’ve learned are snippets of information - Marchists are potentially corrupt, while Septemberists "posture". Because Gavin Inglis also wrote "The Calendar Code", and because the last known March (John Cassell) died in 1865 in real life (on the Surface), Cassell is almost certainly not this March. We may draw a connection between the purple the Debunker’s mother liked with September, since it’s very likely she was still a Septemberist in the Neath.[/spoiler]
Lastly, Brinehouse is described as a peninsula, historically "a major dock … Not so much trade. Shipbuilding and supply … several warehouses." We know the Isle of Dogs became Wolfstack Docks, and Greenwich became Watchmaker’s Hill and remained Bugsby’s Marshes, which would seem to imply that Brinehouse is the displaced remains of Rotherhithe. In Victorian times, Rotherhithe also had shipyards, docks, and warehouses (for timber, notably, which may be referenced in the Pip and Pickle - "Its bar is inlaid with rosewoods, relics of long-forgotten sea trade"). I’m not so sure about historical parallels for the Pip and Pickle or for the mansion, but there does appear to a preponderance of evidence pointing towards Rotherhithe.
