"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 Helicon's 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 Clay Men[20] as well as Rubbery Men.[21] Frequent visitors receive an amber pendant,[22] which they are usually required to leave at the door when they enter.[23]
"It is a music of approximation; it offers imperfection as a necessary state, and mutation as inevitable."[24]
A Rubbery musician.
At the South Parlor, Rubbery composers[5] present their music at the start of each evening.[25] Their works can be unorthodox, using dissonance and shifts in rhythm to convey feelings of development, imperfection, and mutability.[26]
The Supper Room serves food supplied by Bohemians for human consumption,[27] alongside dishes more amenable to Rubbery Men. (No, those are not potatoes!)[28]
The Yellow Salon and Prussian Salon both showcase sculptures and paintings. The former is kept quiet, while the latter is a space for discussion.[29][30]
Beyond this point lie major spoilers for Fallen London, Sunless Sea, Sunless Skies, or Mask of the Rose. This may include endgame or major Fate-locked spoilers. Proceed at your own risk.
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"What was that flash of light? And is it a shade of light that should exist in these parts?"[31]
"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."[32]
A mirror.
The Mirrored Salon is a hidden wing of Helicon, where visitors seek inspiration from the arts of Parabola.[33] 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.[34] 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.[35]
The Upstairs Honey-Den explains itself;[36] consuming prisoner's honey in this hidden room leads to the Sea of Spines,[37] 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.[38]
A piece of amber.
The Sculpture Garden is a refuge for artwork "too radical" even for Helicon.[39] Here, Rubbery Men practice calligraphy,[40] make sculptures of amber and bone,[41] and tutor Bohemian sculptors. Some of these Bohemians have modified their anatomy using the Shapeling Arts to further their skills.[42]
Below-Stairs is a basement beneath Helicon 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.[43] Visitors may participate as well, though newcomers are closely supervised.[44]
"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?"[45]
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[46] and worked to make it more accessible to the general public.[47] His actions also helped Helicon become a key staging ground for the progress of Rubbery culture.[48]
After the Entrepreneur's bid for Lord Mayor failed, however, he reevaluated his goals.[49] In pursuit of his new priorities, he commissioned a Rubbery Man called the Malleable Sculptor[50][51] to produce and showcase unique works of art,[52] the first of which resembles a massive jaw that lightly clamps around those who interact with it.[53] The Entrepreneur's further plans for himself and his kin are unclear, but it seems that rather than aimlessly striving for similarity with London,[54] he is pursuing another path, and perhaps even a new beginning.[55]
↑The Entrance Hall, Fallen London"Helicon House is the result of an architect copying [...] townhouse [...] redesigning the rooms to be twice as large."
↑ 10.010.1Below-Stairs, Fallen London"... down an unadvertised staircase, there is a room where extraordinary changes are performed – Shapeling alterations of flesh and bone."
↑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."
↑The Upstairs Honey Den, Fallen London"They say that honey-sippers in Helicon House can find their way into the dream-places of Rubbery Men [...] the Sea of Spines."
↑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."
