I’ve heard that SMEN had some of the best writing in Fallen London. specifically at the Altered Carnival. Now, I won’t pretend that still holds true some four years later, but I’m curious as to what lays along that peculiar path of madness?
Any former seekers wish to share their bounty of damnable secrets?
I believe this may give you a good idea: Wild Words, Tumbling Through Space, When Mr Eaten Comes a-Calling - a journal of the only person known to visit certain barren island with a well.
edited by Talkes on 3/6/2016
Why does everyone always say he was "the only one". At least 5 people went there, myself included. Look up the Mr Eaten after party thread and get educated about how seeking really ended Talkes.
I can put my four copies of Mr Eaten’s calling card on my profile mantle if it would help. There, they are up now.
edited by NiteBrite on 3/6/2016
[quote=NiteBrite]Why does everyone always say he was "the only one". At least 5 people went there, myself included. Look up the Mr Eaten after party thread and get educated about how seeking really ended Talkes.
I can put my four copies of Mr Eaten’s calling card on my profile mantle if it would help. There, they are up now.
edited by NiteBrite on 3/6/2016[/quote]
Four of them?! I remember looking it up, but I don’t really remember finding that much, but the question remains, why not seven?!
[quote=NiteBrite]Why does everyone always say he was "the only one".[/quote]Because the article in wiki on Winking Isle is being needlessly cryptic on the matter.
Shame on me for my ignorance, I shall spread it no more.
[quote=NiteBrite]Why does everyone always say he was "the only one". At least 5 people went there, myself included. Look up the Mr Eaten after party thread and get educated about how seeking really ended Talkes.
I can put my four copies of Mr Eaten’s calling card on my profile mantle if it would help. There, they are up now.
edited by NiteBrite on 3/6/2016[/quote]
It’s too late, NiteBrite. Your fame and accomplishments are well-drowned.
[quote=Spector]I’ve heard that SMEN had some of the best writing in Fallen London. specifically at the Altered Carnival. Now, I won’t pretend that still holds true some four years later, but I’m curious as to what lays along that peculiar path of madness?
Any former seekers wish to share their bounty of damnable secrets?[/quote]Reasonably-complete echoes: http://fallenlondon.storynexus.com/Profile/an_ocelot?fromEchoId=2256867
Almost all the written content is out there in somebody or other’s journal. You can find it by starting with the SMEN guide on the wiki and doing web searches intelligently.
Wow NiteBrite, what happened to Alexis removing the bugged duplicates? ;)
I wouldn’t say it necessarily had (some of) the best writing; there’s far too much writing in Fallen London for me to even be able to come up with a top five or ten bits. Most disturbing writing is a whole different matter though…
Wait. Was the duplication stopped?
Personally, I would love one of those cards, but they are probably too rare for people to want to get rid of theirs… Even if I can’t use it (yet), I want it for the sake of owning… Perhaps, someday, it will become obtainable again…[li]
edited by th8827 on 3/9/2016
Technically Optimatum, those are all duplicates and it was the originals that were removed.[spoiler] When Winking Isle ended, I had 3 cards and I had an outstanding send social action to spacemarine9. Everyone’s cards were deleted except mine, and nobody really knows why I survived. Maybe its because I wasn’t actively on winking isle at the time of the purge. Maybe it was an oversight or it could have been intentional. It could even be that I was technically a deactivated account at the time due to the effects of [redacted by the redacted] and being non-existent may have shielded me from further deletion. Its hard to say, there are just too many possibilities.
The card stopped being a useable item at the same time as the purge, so no it can’t be passed on or duplicated further at this time. A good time later Space accidentally misclicked and accepted the outstanding card invite that I had sent before card sending had shutdown. This did not give him a card, but it did still give me a duplicate which is how I got my 4th card. I found that to be quite interesting.[/spoiler]
[quote=Optimatum]Wow NiteBrite, what happened to Alexis removing the bugged duplicates? ;)
I wouldn’t say it necessarily had (some of) the best writing; there’s far too much writing in Fallen London for me to even be able to come up with a top five or ten bits. Most disturbing writing is a whole different matter though…[/quote]
Precisely why it sounds so interesting. Even if not the best, the most disturbing is still a feat. Fallen London has it’s occasional creepy moments, but (perhaps because I’ve not yet worked through as much as all y’all have, perhaps because I haven’t done any of the Fate Locked stories yet barring this month’s EF content) it hasn’t yet properly quenched my thirst for horror. The SMEN content, from what I’ve read, gives tantalizing sips though.
For "most disturbing writing," I’d nominate Fate-locked story The Gift over SMEN. The SMEN writing doesn’t play quite as well now it’s sequestered from the rest of the world and you’re no longer in a position to trip into Seeking and see all the normal wry twee FL writing juxtaposed against THE PRICE, THE PRICE, THE PRICE, THE PRICE, THE PRICE, THE PRICE
(This isn’t to trash SMEN, it’s genius, but it wasn’t written to be hacked out of FL and autopsied.)
edited by Wormwood on 3/10/2016
As another visitor to the Isle, I think we really need to fine a way back.
Did I just wander onto a Lost forum by mistake?
I never really found SMEN "horrific" as much as weird, desperate and emotional. It wasn’t scary, it was surprising, because you never knew what was coming, what you would have to sacrifice (but you did know you were goind to get hurt !.. a lot !) in order to reach the next step.
I’d not say it was the most dreadful or the best written. Only the more mysterious. Enough to make you lose everything else so that you can know a bit more. In a sense, it was the terrific to realise how much we were all ready to sacrifice in order to… get the opportunity to sacrifice even more. x_x
And now that I think about it, I guess one thing which really hooked me up is the feeling of losing control. Bit by bit, we discovered what our character was doing during his sleep, during the meal, when all alone… we saw the character losing control of itself, slowly being possessed by this strange hunger, uttering threats and accusations.
I never saw this happening in any other game. It was very interesting, because you always have control over what your character does. Not here. We were just witness to the character slowly losing his sanity.
edited by Emain Ablach on 3/12/2016
There’s quite a lot of Seeking text available on the Fallen London wiki, which is where I binged through as much I could find.
I would do so many things to be able to go Seeking myself. It sounds like the absolute coolest thing. It’s a frequent fantasy of mine to imagine FBG quietly pushing some kind of Enigma-style update where dedicated searchers might become Seekers.