I’ve been there, and I’ve done that. With both. But you can assume as much, so I’ll let the next person answer that question, too, if they want.
Would you do anything, for the right price? And what would that price be?
I would. I would do absolutely anything asked of me, with no barriers and no caveats. Anything. Just let me remember. Or at least make me entirely forget.
How has your moral code changed since you first came to the Neath?
It is the most curious thing. At first, I thought that it has changed me for the worse. I mean, I deliberately went in a rash of burglaries to earn favours and renown among criminals and to make me a better investigator, even knowing that stealing is abhorrent. I still keep everything I earned in those burglaries locked in a chest, and will use it for charity work when the opportunity arises. Maybe I will build an orphanage or something.
But then, I remember that I was not a saint back in Surface. Hell, my expertise in breaking and entering was not something I learned on the Neath. Sometimes I wish I did not have to always choose between the bad and the even worse.
Is there anyone from Surface that you wish would be here?
[quote=Professor Strix]It is the most curious thing. At first, I thought that it has changed me for the worse. I mean, I deliberately went in a rash of burglaries to earn favours and renown among criminals and to make me a better investigator, even knowing that stealing is abhorrent. I still keep everything I earned in those burglaries locked in a chest, and will use it for charity work when the opportunity arises. Maybe I will build an orphanage or something.
But then, I remember that I was not a saint back in Surface. Hell, my expertise in breaking and entering was not something I learned on the Neath. Sometimes I wish I did not have to always choose between the bad and the even worse.
Is there anyone from Surface that you wish would be here?[/quote]
[li]
Agata: Do you have to ask? I believe you can guess… Sarah of course!
Maria: My sister, Katarzyna. It was always a lot of fun with her. If I had her here, I could get a gang impossible to stop! We will rob London blind! she grins
Do you think there are still virgins in London?
Yes. Me.
Sex is overrated.
What is you favourite place in London?
[quote=Professor Strix]
What is you favourite place in London?[/quote]
In London? I should have to say the roof top of my town-house on Wolfstack Docks – right up against the chimney where I can sit back and watch the Docks for ships I care about returning to port.
So, a question:
Mr. Fires or the Longshoreman’s Union?
[quote=absimiliard][quote=Professor Strix]
What is you favourite place in London?[/quote]
In London? I should have to say the roof top of my town-house on Wolfstack Docks – right up against the chimney where I can sit back and watch the Docks for ships I care about returning to port.
So, a question:
Mr. Fires or the Longshoreman’s Union?[/quote]
[li]
Rysiek: I am a constable. However, I was working at Krupp on the Surface… UNION FOR THE WIN!
Agata: My father worked in a mine, as did two of my brothers. Another was a smith, the third worked at a blast furnace. I am for the Union
Maria: Union. Simple, honest people. Like us thieves. Fires, you can go to St. Petersburg.
Frank: Mr. Fires. Why do you ask? He is powerful.
What do you think will be the sixth? A popular theory is Paris, but there are more falling cities…
I do not myself hold to the Paris theory; there are too many elements conspiring to prevent the deal. In fact, given what I know of the Surface political conditions, I’m not sure that any European city will be attractive for purchase by the Masters if current trends persist.
The real question is, where would the price of Love offer an opening? And in what city would the most vigorous stories come from? Such literature as I have managed to procure from the surface, particularly a set of stories by an American author calling himself O. Henry, suggest New York.
Do you wish, sometimes, that another city had been taken for the fifth?
I do not deal in "could haves", "would haves", or "should haves." I deal in doing. And doing in anyone that tries to hurt my people. I feel that even if there were a different fifth city… we’d all find ourselves here nonetheless. Not a lot of us were here when London fell anyway…
If you had to live somewhere else on the Unterzee, where would you go?
edited by The Absurd Rogue on 4/27/2016
Being a Governor again. The island close to London are too placid. Polythreme is nice to visit but too noisy to live. The Iron republic. . .I would prefer not to return. I don’t know enough of most of the Elder Continent to feel comfortable making my home. But my port , , ,I miss the tigers and the jungle. Like a mini-parabola with less chance of accidentally having snakes infest you.
What’s you worst nightmare?
[quote=Shadowcthuhlu]What’s you worst nightmare?[/quote]Some nights I dream in intimations, shards of recollections that I cannot piece together while asleep, bits and pieces of life whose ownership I cannot divine. My greatest nightmare is that some day I might never wake up. I fear not so much a forgetting as a failing to entirely remember. I fear a liminal life, where everything I conceive is shattered and piecemeal, parts of a greater whole whose source is unknown to me, bits of memory which might be mine, or might simply be lodging momentarily in my consciousness before they depart forever, leaving me with a a feeling of loss and lacking that I will never be able to make whole. I have gone to great lengths to Know, but I have done a great deal more to preserve myself. I am me am mine, and there are a great many more things I would do to keep it that way. I fear that it may yet not be enough.
Upon my arrival to the Neath, I was intrigued by the fact that street signs, of all things, were items of great contention and scarcity. Would anyone enlighten me as to why such a prohibition has been levied against these items in particular? Are the Names themselves taboo, or is it something to do with the actual object?
You sound like a bloke from the University. So many of you are ready with not one but several questions all the time. All it is all day is talk and explosions, explosions and talk. All day long with you lot. Bloody ridiculous and noisy if you tell me. But alright, I usually charge people for such information too but here’s a quick tip from me. It’s scarce cause no one wants to risk losing their life trying to get a sign. Anything more and you’ll have to pay me up front.
Any of you ever heard of the Cheery Man before?
You sound like a bloke from the University. So many of you are ready with not one but several questions all the time. All it is all day is talk and explosions, explosions and talk. All day long with you lot. Bloody ridiculous and noisy if you tell me. But alright, I usually charge people for such information too but here’s a quick tip from me. It’s scarce cause no one wants to risk losing their life trying to get a sign. Anything more and you’ll have to pay me up front.
Any of you ever heard of the Cheery Man before?[/quote]
I don’t charge for conjectures: The Bazaar has tunnels under just about every part of the city, and then some, and occasionally it sees fit to rearrange a few streets. I think the street signs are contraband because no one wants us to notice that the streets are moving.
I’ve heard of him. I heard he refused to touch the soul trade, and lost the use of his legs for his trouble. It’s always interesting when a man who has almost no scruples risks his life to defend the few he does have.
Ahhh, apologies, my tongue tends to wag if I let it. The tail that wags the dog, as it were. Thankfully my tongue has not yet transformed into a dog, nor has it taken up an unfortunate habit of urinating upon public edifices in an insupportable bid of dominion, and so I suppose I should be thankful that its trespasses are so small by contrast. While your assumption flatters, I am afraid that I’ve yet to visit the University. My complete lack of reputation is as much a hindrance as it is an ever present boon, which is a shame. I’m sure there are such wonders I could learn of there.
My words run unchecked again. I apologize, though this may yet be to your advantage. I have indeed heard of the Cheery Man. Met, in fact. He is something of a perpetual fixture at the Medusa’s Head up on Watchmaker’s Hill, and I do mean perpetual. A little whisper upon the wind told me he still suffers terribly from an old wound, hence his predilection for countertop proximity. Unfortunately, I haven’t any idea how he received such a debilitating injury. Ahh well, another secret for another day. Though if you do happen to come across such a choice crystal of knowing, please do pay me a visit. I maintain a delightful relationship with the Neathy airs, and I’ve many similar intimations you might be interested in should the economy of gossip grab you by its riptide.
Speaking of gossip and riptide, what is it like to die? I hear that death is far less permanent down here in the Neath, or at least that it can be far less permanent.
You’re right. I was being far too kind before. I think your tongue practically runs like rancid milk off a back alley. Blimey, what kind of question is this? What is it like to die? No one around here just actively goes seeking out death. Not without a right push in the direction from a guiding hand or two. But if you want to find out than go to the docks. Tell the drowners I said hello.
Better question: How in the world did you come to the neath?
[quote=Amelia Syrus]You’re right. I was being far too kind before. I think your tongue practically runs like rancid milk off a back alley. Blimey, what kind of question is this? What is it like to die? No one around here just actively goes seeking out death. Not without a right push in the direction from a guiding hand or two. But if you want to find out than go to the docks. Tell the drowners I said hello.
Better question: How in the world did you come to the neath?[/quote]
Ahaha, I believe you mistake me. I’m not advocating seeking death, simply curious about the experience now that there are those who can attest to it. Though the drowned do represent a fascinating subsection of Fallen London’s less than dead. I believe I will take you up on your suggestion. Thank you most kindly for such an enticing avenue of inquiry.
As for how I came to the Neath, I came by way of the Spiral, as I expect a great many of us have. I hear walking is excellent for one’s constitution, and the journey was long. Those traveling about me alleviated their boredom by discussing such fascinating things along the way. So much to learn, so many tall tales and little truths.
And on the subject of little truths, what was your first interaction with a rattus faber like?
I fear they invaded my house and nearly slew my first love and my first mate. The battle was hard, but in the end we came to an agreement and settled things honorably. I have since found them much like us, possessed of both good – and bad – individuals.
So, a question:
Has anyone done any truly terrible things at Kingeater’s Castle?
Fletcher Dumais: Bit daft to try that, I’d say. A drownie would just as soon try to bring you home to Stolen River as talk sense. Might as well ask a Master for directions to the Third City.
Francis Dumais: Bloody thing bit me, dinne? There I was, sittin’ an’ enjoyin’ me lunch, when the little bleeder tried to steal me sandwich. An’ he dinn’t even have the decency to sit still long enough for me to squash 'im!
Fletcher: That wasn’t a rattus faber, you half-brained lout. I’ve told you so many times, I can’t even recall how many times it’s been! That was a normal rat, you daft monkey.
Henry Williardson: Ahem. My first interaction with a rattus faber? I ah, borrowed…yes, let’s say borrowed it, from a relicker. You see, I was desperately in need of some sort of inspiration for my work on the Bazaar and its inhabitants. And who better to study than one in the employ of a Master? Of course, the poor thing was none to happy about the laudanum I’d soaked my handkerchief with, but it worked, and I only had to deal with his rantings after he got his man to come back to my borough. As for the relicker’s reaction? Just what I had been looking for. The emotions on his face! And the stories they told! The fear, sorrow, absolute horror of misplacing his rat—! Hm. I suppose you already know what I’m talking about, though. After all, you’ve almost certainly read my poem on the topic. Quite an epic, really.
Now, as for my question: what aspect of life in London makes you most uncomfortable? And to what lengths would you go to solve this source of discomfort?
{{Apologies for the Dumais’ dialogue. Still working on their characters.}}
edited by gelza1 on 4/29/2016
edited by gelza1 on 4/29/2016
Bit of a loaded one there. You could ask rancid mouth the same thing and I’m sure he’d sing you a song and a dance about the horrors in the Neath. But everyone has a tale or two about something that makes 'em uncomfortable. Just ask the rebellion. Whole lot wants to change the place in some way. With explosions. Lots of explosions.
Blokes got the right idea going but I doubt you can make a lick of difference here. Regardless of whose thumb which Master has in the pie, it’s ridiculous trying to change a thing. Someones always watching. Someone will get a nice trip to a casket and wake up with the warning buried deep in their chest. That’s how it’ll always go here so it’s not like I’m here to change a lick of it.
[quote=absimiliard]So, a question:
Has anyone done any truly terrible things at Kingeater’s Castle?[/quote]
Haha… ah… ah right. Well can’t say I have. But the rumors about the place are good enough for me.
My question for you lot is simple, have you ever seen any strange plants down here before? Like I’m talking weirder then anything you’ve seen on the surface.
[quote=Amelia Syrus]
My question for you lot is simple, have you ever seen any strange plants down here before? Like I’m talking weirder then anything you’ve seen on the surface.[/quote]
Matter of fact, I am taking care of it right now, and it seems to be hungry. Want to get a look?
…Wait, you do? Do not do that, you fool, I was just joking. I keep it around for the sap. It is proving itself unvaluable for my experiments.
What is your favourite Neath delight?