"Interlocked tentacles: a gathering place. Soothing bubbling noise: an invitation, hesitantly extended. An explanatory writhing: humans are only sometimes permitted. It will have to wait for a suitable time. Also, most of the other humans who attend are... what's that word? Painters? Raving? You've always had trouble distinguishing the terms."[2]
Helicon House is Ealing Gardens' center for the arts, where Rubbery Men are free to express themselves[4] and present their ideas to a wider audience.[5] In its many halls and salons,[6] Rubbery art and culture are given foremost importance:[7] the majority of the artists here are Rubbery musicians[5] and sculptors.[7] Paintings by Bohemians are displayed too,[8] representing many artistic schools.[9] At its core, Helicon is a celebration of change - both of the changes brought upon by the Shapeling Arts,[10] and of the evolving identity of the Rubbery people.[11]
Helicon was built sometime after the Fall of London.[12] Externally, it is a typical townhouse patterned after that of His Amused Lordship,[13] though its rooms are doubled in size and feature Rubbery-influenced details.[14] Its existence is a secret, even among London's counterculture;[15] while Rubberies may enter freely, human visitors are vetted by the Keen-Eyed Clay Doorkeeper.[16][17] The Doorkeeper provides guidance on proper etiquette towards Rubbery people[17] and ensures orderly conduct within Helicon.[18] For instance, entering late in the evening is frowned upon, as it is discourteous towards the musicians.[19]
Helicon's staff includes humans,[20]Clay Men,[21] and Rubbery Men[22] alike. Frequent visitors receive an amber pendant,[23] which they are usually required to leave at the door when they enter.[24]
Main Halls
"It is a music of approximation; it offers imperfection as a necessary state, and mutation as inevitable."[25]
A Rubbery musician.
At the South Parlor, Rubbery composers[5] present their music at the start of each evening.[26] Their works can be unorthodox, using dissonance and shifts in rhythm to convey feelings of development, imperfection, and mutability.[27]
The Supper Room serves food supplied by Bohemians for human consumption,[28] alongside dishes more amenable to Rubbery Men. (No, those are not potatoes!)[29]
The Yellow Salon and Prussian Salon both showcase sculptures and paintings. The former is kept quiet, while the latter is a space for discussion.[30][31]
Secluded Corners
"What was that flash of light? And is it a shade of light that should exist in these parts?"[32]
"Behind Helicon House, a curling gallery of stalagmites forms a sort of shaded tunnel. This is a place for art that is too radical even for the interior of the house; sculptures of bone and amber, and some of the most secretive arts of the Rubbery Men."[33]
A mirror.
The Mirrored Salon is a hidden wing of Helicon, where visitors seek inspiration from the arts of Parabola.[34] The room is marked by flashes of light alien to this world, and the hallway leading to it is viric, decorated with vines and snakes.[35] The room's interior is covered in mirrors, and illusionists here stage wonders and visions that would be too intense or esoteric for Mahogany Hall.[36]
The Upstairs Honey-Den explains itself:[37] consuming prisoner's honey in this hidden room leads to the Sea of Spines,[38] a wondrous location reminiscent of Axile. Dreamers feel as though they are deep underwater in a moonlit sea, with aquatic features suiting their new environment. When they return, they find themselves drenched in liquid.[39]
A piece of amber.
The Sculpture Garden is a refuge for artwork "too radical" even for Helicon.[40] Here, Rubbery Men practice calligraphy,[41] make sculptures of amber and bone,[42] and tutor Bohemian sculptors. Some of these Bohemians have modified their anatomy using the Shapeling Arts to further their skills.[43]
Below-Stairs is a basement beneath Helicon[44] and a lab for the Shapeling Arts.[10] Here, Rubbery Men gather around a massive crucible of amber to produce wonders of shaped flesh and bone.[45] Visitors may participate as well, though newcomers are closely supervised.[46]
The Entrepreneur's Patronage
"The Tentacled Entrepreneur's study is windowless and dark, an interior void in the building that you wouldn't know was there from the shapes of the rooms around it."
"Within, a semicircle of guests surround a small sculpture on a dais. In the relative darkness, it's hard to make out the material, or the shape; something dark and tangled – a bramble, an octopus, a venus flytrap?"[47]
The Tentacled Entrepreneur recently took an interest in Helicon. During his campaign to become Lord Mayor of London, he became one of its most generous patrons[48] and worked to make it more accessible for the general public.[49] His actions also helped Helicon become a key staging ground for the progress of Rubbery culture.[50]
After the Entrepreneur's bid for Lord Mayor failed, however, he reevaluated his goals.[51] In pursuit of his new priorities, he commissioned a Rubbery Man named the Malleable Sculptor[52][53] to produce and showcase unique works of art,[54] the first of which resembles a massive jaw that lightly clamps around those who interact with it.[55] The Entrepreneur's further plans for himself and his kin are unclear, but it seems that rather than aimlessly striving for similarity with London,[56] he's is pursuing another path, perhaps even a new beginning.[57]
↑The Entrance Hall, Fallen London"Helicon House is the result of an architect copying [...] townhouse [...] redesigning the rooms to be twice as large."
↑Listen to the compositions, Fallen London"[...] there is a meaning in those dissonances, [...] A sense of purpose and even development, in the way a tune falls short of harmony and then comes very close to regaining it. [...] It is a music of approximation; it offers imperfection as a necessary state, and mutation as inevitable."
↑The Entrance Hall, Fallen London"Helicon House is [...] architect copying the [...] townhouse of His Amused Lordship, [...] and redesigning the rooms to be twice as large. The banisters have a tentacular curve."
↑Catch up on Bohemian gossip, Fallen London"[...] your interlocutor doesn't know how to get into Helicon House. [...] that puts her ahead of [...] those [...] who are so outside the mode [...] they don't even know it exists."
↑ 17.017.1Pay in the currency of perishable wealth, Fallen London"The Keen-eyed Clay Doorkeeper takes the payments, and collects hats and coats from the human guests. [...] he supplies a hand towel and a [...] guide to etiquette. [...] how to exchange greetings with a tentacled individual. [...]"
↑Pay in the currency of perishable wealth, Fallen London"The Keen-eyed Clay Doorkeeper [...] collects [...] amber pendants from the human guests. [...] He doesn't take your pendant, [...] "I was told to leave you with yours," [...] "You can turn yours in separately if you like."
↑Listen to the compositions, Fallen London"The music establishes a beat, and then abruptly deviates from it. [...] there is a meaning in those dissonances, [...] It is a music of approximation; it offers imperfection as a necessary state, and mutation as inevitable."
↑Dine with your Brother, Returned, Fallen London"Those items might look like potatoes, but they are meant for the Rubbery Men. Break them open and they are full of glittering [...] spicules, [...]"
↑The Yellow Salon, Fallen London"There's [...] paintings and sculptures on display; [...] in contrast with the Prussian Salon, a polite hush is generally expected."
↑The Prussian Salon, Fallen London"There are paintings on display, and [...] sculptures, but the room is devoted primarily to conversation [...]"
↑Discover where illusions are being staged, Fallen London"What was that flash [...] a shade of light that should exist in these parts? [...] The door into this room definitely exists. [...] the hallway is papered in viric wallpaper printed in a pattern of interlocking snakes and vines."
↑The Mirrored Salon, Fallen London"This Salon is set aside for illusions and magic. The visions shown here cannot be [...] at Mahogany Hall because they are too esoteric, too intimate, or too challenging [...] The Scoundrel discreetly notes his reflection in all these many mirrors."
↑Dream with the others, Fallen London"A recollection of Axile [...] The surface of the ocean is above you; [...] Your limbs retract, your skin hardens to shell, spines extend from your body. [...] The moons have eclipsed one another twice [...] your gills [...] You come back to yourself. Your skin is slime-slick, [...]"
↑Be let into the sculpture garden, Fallen London"A Bohemian and their Rubbery co-sculptor are working on something together. [...] The Rubbery Sculptor works in amber; its Bohemian Apprentice copies his work in clay. [...] He's uncommonly good at it; [...] you notice one extra knuckle on each finger, terminating in a very fine tip."
↑Below-Stairs, Fallen London"At the back of Helicon House, [...] there is a room where extraordinary changes are performed – Shapeling alterations of flesh and bone. [...] you might take your own place at the cauldron."
↑Perform the duties of a sous-artist, Fallen London"[...] you can assist one of the others. [...] The Rubbery in charge is also extremely careful [...] about preventing any foreign objects from falling into the cauldron. It discourages you even from speaking [...] lest your concentration be broken. [...]"
↑Visit Helicon House with the Dean of Xenotheology, Fallen London"Several of the Rubbery people are gathered around a sculpture [...] "We shouldn't approach without permission," [...] "Their [...] posture is one associated with... sacred receptiveness. [...] This is a time of extraordinary change for them. A few years ago, Rubbery culture had nothing like this—""
↑Chiaroscuro, Fallen London"The Tentacled Entrepreneur's study [...] Within, a semicircle of guests surround a small sculpture on a dais."
↑Touch the sculpture, Fallen London"[...] the sculpture [...] snaps shut around your hand [...] It's a pointed surprise, but not painful [...] [...] the object's shape [...] it's a mouth, or simply a jaw."
↑Accept another invitation from the Tentacled Entrepreneur, Fallen London"The Entrepreneur [...] looking for images that might explain: bohemians hawking paintings on the street in Veilgarden; hands holding brushes, chisels, and pens; [...] But also stranger images; a tangle of newborn serpents; a zee-steamer cresting the horizon; a single chicken's egg sitting on a table."
