Foreign Office: Choice? What choice?

Fallen London
1

I’ve played every repeatable carousel ending in the Foreign Office at least once, including the Fate-locked ones, and I’ve advanced through the non-repeatable carousel endings (including the one which requires Hojotoho) up to the point where I am being asked to choose between the Face and the Teeth.

I don’t get what all the fuss is about. The Teeth are snuffers in the employ of the Foreign Office. The Face are cannibal ex-urchins in the employ of the Foreign Office. I am neither a snuffer nor a cannibal ex-urchin, so I presumably can’t properly join the ranks of either. Each group seems to not trust or like the other, but not in a way that prevents them from working together. It sounds like nothing more than a run-of-the-mill interdepartmental rivalry, a la Benthic and Summerset. Why do I need to choose one or the other, and what does that choice lead to?

Tangent: yes, I’m not worried that the Teeth will take my face. I’m also not worried that the Tiger-Keeper will eat me. Nor am I worried that the Teeth will eat me, for that matter. &quotTake and wear faces&quot =/= &quotattempt to take and wear the face of everyone they encounter&quot.
edited by Anchovies on 7/5/2017

2

Yeah, it pretty much is. The choice is pretty much just whether you want to focus on diplomacy or intelligence, and which reward items you can choose.

3

The choice is: Do you want to be a diplomat or do you want to be a spy?

The choice leads to different spouses or different home comforts, depending on which you’d rather have.

4

The real choice is waiting for The Empresses’ Court to unbanish you.

5

So… if we do pick, we do not ruin something for ourselves down the line, do we?

6

You do not, no. Take whichever side and reward you like.

7

I am a little bit annoyed with myself at having taken so long to get to this. Those home comforts would have been a nice bonus a year ago, now I have something better, and I also have a spouse. Grrr…

8

I like the story so far, especially since I have played Hojotojo.
If the rewards do help with BDR, that would be great too.

9

Unfortunately I don’t think any of them help with BDR.

10

Wait, the members of the Face are cannibals? I know they have awful table manners but I don’t remember anything about cannibalism. Where is this stated and why do they eat people?

11

I’d like to know that myself, but there’s an obvious answer to the second part of your question: people are delicious!

12

You’d think the Face would be the snuffers and the Teeth would be the cannibals, but NO, we just HAVE to flip the indicative names.

13

Of course! We are all delicious friends, after all.

14

Mysteries of the Foreign Office is very, very, very good stuff. Any recounting of it here can’t match the experience of playing through it yourself, with as little foreknowledge as possible. I am willing to say, though, that information in various sources (primarily in Mysteries of the Foreign Office; secondarily in Hojotoho, The Persona Engine, and this year’s Hallowmas content) confirms that the Teeth are all snuffers and that the Face are all cannibals and former urchins. Anyone else who works in or with the Foreign Office is neither Face nor Teeth, even if they favor one arm of the Office over the other.

[quote=Kaijyuu]You’d think the Face would be the snuffers and the Teeth would be the cannibals, but NO, we just HAVE to flip the indicative names.[/quote]The names come from each group’s role in the operations of the Office. The Face are London’s diplomats and representatives, while the Teeth are London’s spies and undercover agents. The ability to quickly and perfectly change your appearance is of obvious utility to a spy. It’s unclear how the cannibalism helps with diplomacy; perhaps it steels their guts against all but the most repulsive offerings at state dinners in far-flung lands.

15

The whole &quotcannibal urchins&quot thing reminded of the Chimney Pot War, and the choice to

Eat the thing from the roof.

I suppose the relation is that Urchins are a slightly amoral bunch of children who know quite a few strange rituals. Cannabilism would be a step down from them, honestly.

16

Again, what specifically confirms that they’re cannibals? The horrible table manners are constantly mentioned but I’m not sure how that translates to cannibalism.

17

[quote=Kukapetal]Again, what specifically confirms that they’re cannibals? The horrible table manners are constantly mentioned but I’m not sure how that translates to cannibalism.[/quote]Well, this is fate-locked content we’re discussing here so I don’t want to share too much in the way of direct quotes. Here’s a few relatively low-spoiler bits.

[spoiler][quote]‘…paid the undertaker five Echoes. Still fresh, though. Looks delicious…’[/quote]

18

I had assumed that the Face were all Unaccountably Peckish, rather than just plain old cannibals.

19

Wow, I wonder how I didn’t notice that when I played through that storylet. I also wonder why they eat people. I’m also REALLY glad I stopped that Urchin girl from joining them in that exceptional story :P

Anyway, thanks Anchovies!
edited by Kukapetal on 11/16/2017