June Exceptional Story: Reunion

Fallen London
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[color=#0066ff]Exceptional Story for June: Reunion[/color]
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An Evasive Aristocrat has returned to London in search of his old family. Having fatally misplaced his bodyguard, he’s in need of a new escort through London’s underworld. But how much of his past does he really remember? Why does he seek it in Red Honey? Will he remember who he is before he returns to the Surface - if he returns at all?[/color][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][font=facitweb-1, facitweb-2, &quotLucida Sans Unicode&quot, &quotLucida Grande&quot, sans-serif][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]

Written by James Chew[/color][/font][/color][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]
Art by [/color][/color][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Monika Eidintaite[/color][/color][color=rgb(194, 194, 194)][font=facitweb-1, facitweb-2, &quotLucida Sans Unicode&quot, &quotLucida Grande&quot, sans-serif]
[color=rgb(0, 102, 255)]Editing and QA: Olivia Wood[/color]

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Early on, I took a guess at his identity, and that guess was correct. Are all the options correct if you pick them? Did I influence his identity? Or is it set for the story.

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Only one right answer, the others give a little text but not more than that. Echoes are in my profile, if you want to see.
edited by radicalace on 5/27/2021

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Reunion: A Carriage to take you Away only has the ‘perhaps not’ option for me, is this a living story thing or a bug?

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Anyone has reached the dinner with a relative of the Aristocrat part?
He was offered a sweet treat which think it will not be good to his health.

I am dying to know what happened those that encouraged him to take it.

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When I saw who it was, I was wondering if there would be some sort of Jack of Smiles connection, considering the ludicrous rumours that surround the historical person. Haven’t got to the end yet, but it doesn’t seem to be going that way.

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This was such a good ES! Good pacing, intense at some points, and royal family drama to top it off! It felt like choices mattered, and wasn’t just a pre-set clickable story. Very fun to play!

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A very good ES! I like that the Exceptional Story explicitly tells us who the Evasive Aristocrat is. Being able to read the real life biography adds to the story. Plus, the small scope means that your choices do matter.

The royal family really went off the deep end right away. I wonder if Mask of the Rose will expand on this, since it is in the right time frame.

I would also be interested to see the ending where the Aristocrat ends up joining the Captivating Princess. Seems like it requires being dedicated to increasing his interest in Red Honey at every opportunity.

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[quote=Sarmatios]Anyone has reached the dinner with a relative of the Aristocrat part?
He was offered a sweet treat which think it will not be good to his health.

I am dying to know what happened those that encouraged him to take it.[/quote]
I went ahead and encouraged him and the echoes are in my profile. Start with the echo called Nesting.
edited by Kaunisenkeli on 5/27/2021

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That was good. It employed quite a few ES qualities to add some flavour text (no apparent gameplay changes), and even though it was actually railroady, thinking back, it certainly didn’t feel like it at the time.

It was not as grand or sprawling as some of the others but I enjoyed it for its intimacy and colour. Perfect 5 / 7.

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[quote=Rachel ][quote=Sarmatios]Anyone has reached the dinner with a relative of the Aristocrat part?
He was offered a sweet treat which think it will not be good to his health.

I am dying to know what happened those that encouraged him to take it.[/quote]
I went ahead and encouraged him and the echoes are in my profile. Start with the echo called Nesting.
edited by Kaunisenkeli on 5/27/2021[/quote]

Huh, is it actually impossible to get the chap to reject his humanity and accept his aunt’s offer? I accreted an even distribution of Disillusion and Enchantment, kept his mother in the loop in the hope of seeing fireworks but cranked up the red temptation quite high. Anyway I’m with radicalace on this one, always interesting to get a look at the machinations of royalty. And I’m kind of tempted to replay it solely to see if it’s possible to corrupt the Aristocrat all the way.

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I really enjoyed this story. It had Caroline hobnobbing with some other nobles, it felt very natural. I really enjoyed the characterization in the story. I also liked the “old” Princess being back. Very good story.

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[quote=Hattington][quote=Rachel ][quote=Sarmatios]Anyone has reached the dinner with a relative of the Aristocrat part?
He was offered a sweet treat which think it will not be good to his health.

I am dying to know what happened those that encouraged him to take it.[/quote]
I went ahead and encouraged him and the echoes are in my profile. Start with the echo called Nesting.
edited by Kaunisenkeli on 5/27/2021[/quote]

Huh, is it actually impossible to get the chap to reject his humanity and accept his aunt’s offer? I accreted an even distribution of Disillusion and Enchantment, kept his mother in the loop in the hope of seeing fireworks but cranked up the red temptation quite high. Anyway I’m with radicalace on this one, always interesting to get a look at the machinations of royalty. And I’m kind of tempted to replay it solely to see if it’s possible to corrupt the Aristocrat all the way.[/quote]
No, I’m sure it’s possible to get him to do it, but menaulon is likely right that you have to take every opportunity to raise his temptations (and possibly get lucky, if that’s what you’re going for, by leaving him outside when you meet with his mother each day). I was going for enchantment, so the temptations never got anywhere near 15.

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This ES was top-notch, but even after playing this and the gift I’m still confused about something.

What, precisely, has happened to the royal family? I vaguely understand that they were mutated by (tainted?) Gaoler’s Honey, but I feel like I’ve missed a lot of specific details.

Also, that verbal beatdown (you know the one) was oh-so satisfying to read, it was long overdue.
edited by SGTLemon on 5/28/2021

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Goodness, absolutely phenomenal ES, I loved this one and was riveted pretty much start to finish. It certainly helps that I got exactly the ending I wanted, having the Aristocrat meet his Aunt and try her gift, while ultimately rejecting her but not rejecting London. I’m also always happy to spend more time with my good friend the Captivating Princess, though whether or not that makes me more the fool, who can say. Thoroughly happy to have made another powerful new friend and looking forward to hearing more from him when he makes what I can only assume is his certain return to the story. These Exceptional Stories really need to stop introducing such incredible characters that leave me wanting to make friends or lovers of them; the next Feast of the Rose is going to bankrupt me at this rate.

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This one needed another editing pass when it came out.

That complaint aside, I rather enjoyed this one. I’m not generally a fan of ES’s that focus on aristocracy and the royalty, but this one took a Light Fingers-style left turn and was awesome.

This is the clearest that I’ve heard the Captivating Princess explain herself. I think there’s some encounters with her in content I haven’t played, but this is the most direct exposure to her real self that I’ve ever seen, and she is a top-quality villain. Unabashedly evil. Not, like, does evil but misguidedly believes she’s doing the right thing. She straight-up thinks she’s superior by birthright, deserves it, and exalts in her own monstrosity. Not, like, evil but she has a point. She doesn’t, but I can see how she got to where she is.

&quotWhy should the butterfly be ashamed to the caterpillar?&quot

The segment we see in flashback with the prince and his family puts me in mind of the children of drug addicts. Like that one episode &quotPeakaboo&quot from season 2 of Breaking Bad, the one with the ATM. For all the Captivating Princess’ attestations of their inherent superiority, they sure look from the outside like a bunch of common junkies on a bender.

Thematically, I like the ending that I got (rejects both Princesses, stays in Neath). The Captivating Princess is right that the Neath has opportunities that the Surface does not (I love that her parting insult is that he’ll die–not that she’ll do anything, just saying that on the Surface, mortality is a thing). But the Prince knows that staying in the Neath doesn’t mean staying on the path of the Captivating Princess. There are other opportunities as well, and here he has the freedom to choose a destiny of his own.

Mechanically, I like the way that our actions inform the Prince’s decision indirectly. A few too many ES’s culminate with the NPC &quotprotagonist&quot being overwhelmed and asking the PC to decide their fate. The Prince decided on his own, and is a better character for it. And even when we’re building up those qualities that decide his decision, we’re not telling him &quotthis is good&quot or &quotpick this one,&quot we’re just showing him the Neath and he’s having his own opinion about it. While mechanically the climax is decided by the player, the Prince feels in-charge and earns the glorious telling-off he delivers.

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I haven’t played very many ESs yet, but I have to say that this is my favorite so far. The Prince was an absolutely endearing character and I loved his character progression (at least in my version). Each time he was shown a hint of acceptance or affection from his Neathy relatives only to have his hopes crushed was painful. I’m not usually very interested in stories about society and the royalty, but I have to admit after this story I am actually intrigued to learn more.

I’d love to know if anyone manages to

lead the Prince to accept the Princess’s offer.

It seems like no one has managed that yet, from what I have seen.

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That was a perfectly fine ES. I quite liked Albert as a character and it was nifty to see a little bit more development to the royal family’s use of red honey.I like to think my character’s own opinions about mutability influenced Albert’s verbal smackdown of the Princess. Yes, the Neath allows you to be more, but you do not need to hurt people to get there.

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I’m incredibly confused by this. I went with Enchantment so only got 3 temptation by the end and it gave me no other option but to have him accept because I had more than 2… I was assuming that it was summing Enchantment and Temptation, unless there’s more than one way for him to accept the deal?

I will admit it made the ending I got seem rather strange, given how much I was trying to lean away from the Captivating Princess. Still a satisfying story though and I suppose it made the characters feel rather more real that I couldn’t just dictate their decisions for them.
edited by sebastian olmen on 5/30/2021

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The way I think it works is that first it checks if red temptations exceed enchantment+disillution, and if it does you get a “Princess wins” ending. If not, the higher one of enchantment or disillusion decides the ending.