December Exceptional Story: The Persona Engine

Fallen London
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[color=#cc0099]Delicious friends, the Exceptional Story for December is here! [/color]

[color=#cc0099]London’s government departments compete as frequently as they cooperate. Most are already ineffective and widely scorned. Plus, expertly forged work orders have been eroding their capacities further. Discover what hidden power has been playing the government against itself!

The Persona Engine is the first story in the Season of Skies, and was written by Cash DeCuir. The Season of Skies involves three linked stories where you investigate outlandish outbreaks of crime, in pursuit of a hitherto undetected criminal mastermind.

All players will be able to explore a web of conspiracies inside their studies. Exceptional Friends may, over the next three months, uncover a plot that could forever change London. Each month’s story stands alone, but playing all three will unlock the season’s bonus content.

Editing and QA: Olivia Wood, James Chew, Chris Gardner.
Art by Paul Arendt.
Special thanks to Gavin Inglis.

EXCEPTIONAL FRIENDSHIP
In addition to a new, substantial, stand-alone story every month, Exceptional Friends enjoy:

[ul][li]Access to the House of Chimes: an exclusive private member’s club on the Stolen River, packed with content[/li][li]An expanded opportunity deck: of ten cards instead of six![/li][li]A second candle: Twice the actions! 40 at once![/li][/ul] Finishing all three stories in the Season of Skies will make you eligible for an additional opportunity, to follow.

If you want to keep an Exceptional Story beyond the month it’s for, you must complete the related storylet in your Study. This will save it for you to return to another time.[/color]
edited by babelfishwars on 11/24/2016

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In what I assume is a typo, the study claims that both future stories will unlock on the same day: 29th of December.

But on the other hand: more info on the train to hell? A story that seems to be involved with SMEN? I am looking forward to this season.
edited by suinicide on 11/24/2016

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[quote=Absintheuse]

[color=rgb(204, 0, 153)]If you want to keep an Exceptional Story beyond the month it’s for, you must complete the related storylet in your Study. This will save it for you to return to another time.[/color][/quote]

As someone who has only become an exceptional friend very recently, I am slightly confused about this passage. I’m not seeing any different storylet in my lodgings, only the same one that appears in all the locations. Is there something significantly different about starting it from my lodgings as opposed to just wherever I happen to be at the time?

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The storylet unlocks a place called “your study”, which can also be entered through a storylet.

5

Lovely! After the Zea it’s time to explore the Sky or (Zky)! Feel a little bit of steampunk here!

6

Ah, I misunderstood. Thank you for clearing that up.

7

Seems that I can’t visit Bluejacket anymore even if I didn’t finish the last ES from the season.
I do have the option in Watchmaker’s Mill so my guess is that I’ll be able to visit the old man after finishing the story.

8

In the midst of this, I have a (non-spoiler, I think) question: the Heavy-Hearted Censor references a book about how to mistreat lovers without consequence disguised as short stories about the politics of cats. Is that a reference to something in particular, either in FL or outside? (It vaguely reminds me of Lovecraft’s Dreamlands cats, which now that I think about it seems to be a pervasive influence in Fallen London’s cats in general.)
edited by aegisaglow on 11/24/2016

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Tiny note: in the public part on the page entitled &quotA pattern emerges&quot, it should read &quotarch&quot rather than &quotarched&quot in the sentence &quotThe article’s writer makes an arched observation…&quot
edited by Jermaine Vendredi on 11/24/2016

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[quote=Jermaine Vendredi]Tiny note: in the public part on the page entitled &quotA pattern emerges&quot, it should read &quotarch&quot rather than &quotarched&quot in the sentence &quotThe article’s writer makes an arched observation…&quot
[/quote]

[color=#e53e00]tinily noted. ;) (fixed) [/color]
edited by babelfishwars on 11/24/2016

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[quote=aegisaglow]In the midst of this, I have a (non-spoiler, I think) question: the Heavy-Hearted Censor references a book about how to mistreat lovers without consequence disguised as short stories about the politics of cats. Is that a reference to something in particular, either in FL or outside? (It vaguely reminds me of Lovecraft’s Dreamlands cats, which now that I think about it seems to be a pervasive influence in Fallen London’s cats in general.)
[/quote]

It could be talking about the court of cats ES.

12

…WELL THEN. It’s the lore bomb I never knew I needed, and which I never would’ve saw coming.

The minute time I saw that name, my brain was stuck on that Hiimdaisy comic. I started thinking of the Engineer, Censor and Ambassador as Chie, Yosuke and Teddie. Which may or may not have influenced my decision to kick them to the curb in the end. I think something’s wrong with me.

Anyway, saved the machine. Here’s hoping it’s more kindly inclined in the future-and that I’ve made a new ally for London’s OTHER resident law-subverting, order-prone machine. Actually, isn’t the Dawn Machine obliquely referred to as a girl? They can go on tea parties together! Except with motor oil![li]
edited by Hattington on 11/24/2016

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I’m a person that likes to think on the grand scale of things regarding Fallen London’s story, so here is a major spoiler about the piece of evidence you get at the end of the story and the implications.

[spoiler]The Persona Engine is designed to use mathematical processes and proofs to break the Laws of Nature. The Mathematician was funded by someone who wanted him to build an Emblem of Red Science. Red Science is capable of breaking the laws of the Great Chain of Being, which is used by the Judgements/stars to separate all life on different levels of importance and control them.The Mastermind of the Season of Skies is wanting to break the Great Chain for reasons that we can only speculate on right now.

Also interesting is one the conversations you can have with the Engineer is which she implies she was working on ships to travel &quotseas more sunless&quot that the Undersea. This is obviously referencing Sunless Skies and reveals the Traitor Empress has had the space ships under construction for a while now[/spoiler]

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Babelfishwars: I have to ask, though I feel as though I already know the answer (not finshed yet)

Is there a “Kill everyone who knows about this machine quietly and without fuss, then use this machine to secretly manipulate the FL world to your whims like some kind of Machiavelian Moriarti?” and if there is not, WHY NOT? aside from being Op as all get out.

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[quote=Kylestien]Babelfishwars: I have to ask, though I feel as though I already know the answer (not finshed yet)

Is there a &quotKill everyone who knows about this machine quietly and without fuss, then use this machine to secretly manipulate the FL world to your whims like some kind of Machiavelian Moriarti?&quot and if there is not, WHY NOT? aside from being Op as all get out.

Answered as me and not FBG: Because apparently the stories are not supposed to cater just to my own specific fantasies. ;)

[color=#e53e00]As FBG: no comment. :)[/color]
edited by babelfishwars on 11/24/2016

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I was actively intrigued by the writing in this month’s ES. A detailed and sensitive introduction to new characters and a case that was full of lore. My only major complaint is the lack of pragmatism in the end choices. I don’t need a clean and easy ending, but I don’t want one that assumes my character is feeling any sort of moralistic favoritism. It’s perfectly alright to supply choices whose text is ambiguous as to why they are being made.

On a narrative standpoint the end choices don’t make much sense either:

There are several powerful characters in the library. I don’t understand why the ending is so beholden to the Censor’s justice. You have a member of the Foreign Office whose very job is high-stakes conflict resolution and a resourceful Engineer who is subtextually opposed to the Censor’s violence and probably has the brawn to obstruct him. Additionally a large calculating machine has already promised to wait politely for your return, so you aren’t exactly scrapped for time in dismantling it.

As an aside, I am thrilled that we get to keep copy of a certain piece of paper, even if it’s in the form of a storylet.
edited by Art Shrival on 11/24/2016

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Forgive the ignorance, but how do you start it?

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Play the first exceptional storylet that appears everywhere, play the second and go to your study, and then consider the evidence.

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Question for those of you who’ve played the story through.

In &quotThe Conversation Nook&quot it says &quotYou might learn more about the Persona Engine by discussing topics more than once.&quot Have any of you actually observed this behavior? So far all of the options seem to just repeat themselves and I see no indication that that will change. Have a missed something or does that match what you’ve seen as well?

20

That matches what I saw, though I did not repeat them many times.