July Exceptional Story: Paisley

I’ve really been enjoying this so far! Does anyone have an echo of the options in the factory for different Bag a Legend endings?

edit: Never mind! I see now that I missed that someone had shared it earlier on.

I really loved this month! I especially enjoyed how detailed everything felt, from all of the different text for various levels of paisley to the snippets included with the tracking quality. Between Paisley and The Rat Catcher, Chandler Groover is quickly becoming my favorite ES writer and I can’t wait to play some of the other stories he’s written
edited by Kloxe on 7/13/2020

Out of curiosity, is there a paisley hat?

Yes, there absolutely is!

[spoiler] The murder victim sends it to you after you locate all the other paisley items.[ /spoiler]

&quotI suppose this puts all those encrypted messages he was always receiving from underground resistance cells into a new light, as well.&quot

That one made me chuckle.

Really enjoyed this story, both in mechanics and writing! I ended up siding with the New Fashion, because hey new Fashion. Finally, some delicious styles. (And maybe just the tiniest bit of screwing with the Masters)

I don’t know what to think about this one. One one hand, the clothes colony is cool and the mystery can be interesting. On the other hand, the story is hardly memorable and failed to engage me. I like the idea of going into my wardrobe to change at first, but I liked it less when I realized that the whole thing was a linear progression, and I couldn’t customize my clothing. For me, that’s the biggest disappointment, I wanted different type of weird living clothes I could wear, but instead it was just a type of quality that tracked the story’s progression. However, you could reply that I am critizcing the story based on what I want, not on what it is. So I shouldn’t be disappointed. However, the first part of my criticism stay valid. The climactic fight was the cool, the victim was an interesting character, the mix of flashback and present was great, but the story is definitely less then the sum of it’s part.

Edit: I forgot to say that my character let the clothes live and killed the would-be assassin. For my character, the choice was obvious. The Master can go to hell. Which is part of why I’m building that railway.
edited by Quidam on 7/19/2020

Personal preference is certainly a valid reason for not liking a story. However, it makes sense that there would only be a linear progression of paisley considering that you’re trying to gather all of the pieces to reconstruct their shared memories. The story was less about sentient clothing in general and more about this specific suit, its history, and its potential impact. If that’s not your thing, fair play. I enjoyed the story because I like murder mysteries, sentient objects, and I find it really easy to emotionally connect to things. I’d never empathised with a glove before though, so that was a first.

Mr. Veils has an interesting response to wearing the mostly-complete ensemble into the Flowerdene Factory. “His Majesty” - the Great Chain? Or the King with a Hundred Hearts? Guessing probably the latter, considering the content of the story.

[spoiler]Looking back through my notes, though, the clothes-colony isn’t an import from Polythreme, and the import of living clothing isn’t forbidden… Then the clothes colony truly did spring to life and sentience of its own accord, as the clothes-colony itself envisions it, by pure rebellion against the state of un-being… Though since Mr. Veils is tearing his own factory apart because he knows it isn’t an import, how does this amount to a violation of treaty and how is the King with a Hundred Hearts suspect in any of it?

I haven’t made my final choice for the story so I suppose there might be something that contradicts my investigation at the finish, but this is either a bit of a plot hole or else the Neath is becoming a bit more alive on it’s own, the implications of which I hesitate to speculate over.

I usually like the Foreign Office, but here I’m tempted to help the Paisley purely for the protean sort of ur-mutandus of ‘being’ from nothingness. I infinitely prefer a good revolution of metaphysical metamorphosis to purges breadlines, and while this is of a smaller scope than the Liberation, I think it’s certainly not lesser just for the sheer audacity of, well, LIVING! And of one’s own volition, no less. No imperious Judgements needed, please and thank you.

Yes, I rather like that.

Pity about that toothy urchin, though perhaps a new leaf will do him some good - he seems rather trapped in the Toe as it is.[/spoiler]

I just want to say I loved how this particular story was written.

It even inspired me to buy a paisley shirt irl. Maybe in a few years it will be my own little memento of Fallen London.
edited by Senthe on 7/28/2020

Erm, I appear to have reached an impasse…

I’ve just acquired the Paisley Hat, and the &quotReview your engagements&quot option tells me that I need to look at myself in the mirror at my lodgings. This is exactly what I’ve done, but there are no new options or text. I also can’t actually put the Paisley Hat on, as my outfit appears to be permanently locked. Nothing I do makes the padlock symbol disappear.

Is this a bug or am I missing something?

Congrats, you have encountered the new update. You can’t change your outfit in storylets, however if you Perhaps Not out of it you should be able to equip it.

That’s the thing though: I’ve tried &quotPerhaps Not&quoting out, but the padlock is still there. I can’t equip or remove anything, whether in or out of a storylet, and I’m assuming I need to have the hat on to progress the story.
edited by Neel Falas on 7/30/2020

Does refreshing not work?

It didn’t at first, but the situation appears to have resolved itself after waiting a bit! All good now.