A familiar face in this month's exceptional story

Fallen London
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(Spoilers for the story, obviously. I’ve still spoiler tagged plot twists and late game Sunless Seas content)

So, when your character goes over to the Covered Market, the Boucher uses the same image as our friend the Bandaged Poissonnier from Sunless Seas. But that doesn’t guarantee that they’re the same, or the Last Constable would have been moonlighting as a Pastry Chef. Even the idea of a Tomb Colonist chef may be a coincidence. But there’s some more evidence that made me realize that I don’t think this is a theory, just a subtextual fact.

  1. He peppers his speech with French. While I don’t recall the Banaged Poissonnier doing that himself, both Poissonnier and Boucher are the French words for fishmonger and butcher respectively.
  2. He’s actually a poissonnier/fishmonger by trade and misses the sea/zee. This is why completely convinced this is subtext, not conjecture.

And now the question is why he’s a boucher and back on Terra Firma? Obviously, he explains in the previous echo that he’s doing it to &quotlearn the ways of the flesh&quot, but at the end of the story, you realize something is afoot.

I believed the Poissonnier when he said that the Tiger was allergic to the kind of meat the Critic asked for. Once I got to the Black Market and the store owner said it was just a rumor, I felt quite the fool. And even more so when I read the review. So our friend the Poissonnier wanted to trick someone into serving human at their restaurant. Now the question is why? Perhaps he developed the taste after a disastrous zee-voyage or at the Chapel of Lights? I haven’t finished the Poissonnier’s story myself, but I was able to get the gist from the wiki, and it seems like the Captain helps him advance his cooking skills and he eventually becomes the Bandaged Chef-Paramount. But the description of his promoted form makes it seem like he’s still only a master of fish. So that would explain why he returned to London to round out his skills. But still, human flesh? It’s with a different character, but still I trusted you!

So does anyone else have other information to share, either from completing the Poissonnier’s story themselves or from a different path in Fine Dining? I ended up trusting the Poissonnier and delivering a terrible meal, so I’m wondering what someone might learn from other paths.

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I trusted the critic and the tiger’s review said he started to feel ill after the main course, so he probably was allergic. I’m not sure what you need to do to not get a terrible review.

The Poissonnier’s ambition was to prepare a feast for the Fathomking himself. If you have an ambition that requires you to provide a willing guest to stay with the Fathomking, the Poissonnier can stay behind to be his personal chef after the Drowning Feast. Otherwise he rejoins as the Chef Paramount.

He doesn’t include human flesh in any of his meals, but he may include a fluke core as an ingredient for the feast. The Fathomking’s wife is a fluke, so take from that what you will.