(fallen london stamps by in-system relationships ask game/questionnaire, question 3
How would you generally describe the system? (Friends, family, roomies, mortal enemies, etc)
I actually kinda answered this in question 2:
as mentioned before, they aren't easily described with outerworld analogues. I think a common note, though, is something like if foxes-in-love were a group of queer friends rooming together, or a platonic polycule, or so on... close bonds not defined by grand gestures or Big Special Feelings, but the comfortable, casual ease of sharing dozens of mundane moments.
but now I have thoughts on why it's hard to find singlet analogues for in-system relationships:
I think the big things that make finding an analogue hard - at least for us specifically - are:
- there's a level of... innate intimacy? that comes from sharing a brain and a body, which is beyond anything that singlets can have with each other. we wander into each other's dreams. we overhear each other's thoughts, including the ugly ones. we literally can't keep secrets from each other - we just have to respect requests to not look at a given thought or memory too closely. we become casual about everything from talking to each other while using the bathroom, to overhearing an "ugh, it's so annoying when you do that" thought from the other person in a conversation.
- there's also a level of fundamental obligation to get along. to cooperate, to make this work, to run a functional ship even if we as individual crewmates might not like other individual crewmates. sharing a body is a 24/7 get-along shirt. (we do like each other now, or at least feel "they're alright I guess" about each other, but it wasn't always that way.)
- some systems get to kinda choose their headmates (tulpamancers often create headmates with a vague idea of personality) but we did not choose. and quite a number of us feel like... we don't resent our existing setup, but if tomorrow we all woke up in separate bodies, some of us would stick together, but a lot of us would be choosing to head our separate ways?
so it's this complicated mix of genuine care and understanding underlaid with obligation, but not resent? we didn't choose to be together and we've had our struggles - but despite that, we're content with our life? but at the same time, a big thing for us in outerworld friendships is that our friends chose to be with us, and choose to continue being with us despite being able to leave if they wanted - and not having that context in internal friendships definitely leaves like... some kind of weird lingering something for us. It's not quite positive but it's not negative either. I don't know how to describe it.
(and now I'm remembering why one of our internet handles is Zero Escape themed - there was something about a bunch of strangers being trapped in a deadly and mysterious place together. in many of the bad ends, they turn on each other in a bid for their individual survivals; in the golden endings, everyone (except the "traitor") works together to unravel the mystery and survive, and they form an unlikely bond because of that. iunno. past us thought it was poetic.)