Daylight

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This page contains spoilers for the following Exceptional Stories: Daylight. Proceed at your own risk.

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"As you get closer, the light surrounds the ship. The ambient glow grows increasingly bright. The glare fills every crevice of the ship. You shade your eyes with your hand to no avail. You close your eyes, but your eyelids cannot keep out the blaze."[1]

Daylight is a strangely luminous island somewhere in the Unterzee. While perhaps the name Daylight might remind one of Aestival, which lies under a crack in the roof of the Neath and is illuminated by sunlight, this island is consumed by a different phenomenon entirely: a miniature, brightly-lit world,[2] complete with roads, trees (only as tall as a person's waist),[3] and a central village,[4] which seems to stretch on endlessly.[5] Since this sort of construction cannot easily host real bodies of water, all of its lakes are mirrors set into the ground.[6] The scenery is coin-operated, via a slot located atop the island's train station.[7] Daylight's docks are sheltered from the overwhelming light by jagged cliffs, but are still littered with abandoned ships.[8]

Daylight is powered by a complex alchemical and mechanical system.[9] This artificial paradise was the vision of the Inspiring Imaginator, who sought to create a miniature amusement park[10] and welcomed a colony of rattus faber to live on the island.[11] They built their little utopia alongside a Fingerking called the Bauble of Ecstatic Repose.[12]

Every idyllic town must have its horrors, however. Thanks to the Fingerking's meddling,[13] Daylight is haunted by the Daylight Stalker, which preyed upon and drove away the rattus faber colony.[14] The Stalker was once the Inspiring Imaginator's ushabti "assistant,"[15] and still appears as if made of clay,[16] but slowly transformed into a monster[17] and began draining the life force[18] and (more notably) imagination from its victims.[19][20] Eventually, the Imaginator themself became its prey.[21]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "The Grieving Zailor adjusts course and steers you toward the island. As you get closer, the light surrounds the ship. The ambient glow grows increasingly bright. The glare fills every crevice of the ship. You shade your eyes with your hand to no avail. You close your eyes, but your eyelids cannot keep out the blaze."
  2. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "Squinting through the glare you make out tiny buildings dotted across the island as well as miniature roads, trees, and figures to match. The Precocious Ratling quivers in excitement, apparently not bothered by the light and eager to explore the island with you."
  3. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "The handmade forest covers a vast swathe of the island. Moving among the trees is tricky as they cluster around your waist and push against you, but you can muscle your way through."
  4. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "The plaster moulding and casting of the figures is lovingly coated with the finest painting. Figures from all over the world seem to have gathered in these Lilliputian streets. You follow the streets to find barbers cutting hair, folks communing outside a pub, and lovers strolling hand in hand through a tiny rose garden. Towards the outskirts of town, however, the terrace houses have fewer loving details and the people become an increasingly similar set of pale-skinned rural figures."
  5. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "The fields seem to go on forever in the bright. The landmarks you were following disappear in the glare."
  6. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "You find that the surface of the lakes are mirrors laid into the ground."
  7. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "A whistle sounds and the model steam engine begins to chug. It heaves itself forward from the station, taking the passengers in its carriages for a tour of the island. It travels a little too fast for you to keep up for long. After a while, it disappears into the bright, leaving you in an open field in the glow."
  8. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "The docks of Daylight are nestled into a cove on the side of the island. The light here reflects off the surface of the water but the rocky cliffs surrounding give some measure of relief. Several ships have been abandoned here. Most have since foundered on hidden rocks below the surface."
  9. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "An ingot of magnesium sits on sheets of scrawled notes [...] Vials of mirror shards sit over burners and are connected to pipes and filtration systems of various different kinds. [...] To one side an air compressor feeds a hose and a storage tank connected to a misting nozzle. More notes contain equations repeatedly featuring alchemical symbols for light. A couple of diagrams show how light refracts on surfaces, especially mirrors. One drawing shows a grey figure in a buttoned suit and Second City headdress emerging from a lake."
  10. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "She is excited to be engaged in something other than her mothers' logistical disputes and happily starts on a winding tale. She saw the Inspiring Imaginator at their home on a place called Daylight, which the Imaginator built."
  11. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "The Inspiring Imaginator introduces themself, then responds. "I am building a model village. It is for the amusement of the general public. There are some rats living in some of the houses which we permit. My assistant is out at the moment but I've not left the office in some time so I could not tell you where. I have important work to be carrying on with.""
  12. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "A journal speaks of dreams filled with infinitely forking pathways through a crowded forest. A friend called the Bauble of Ecstatic Repose guides the Imaginator along them while they discuss plans for a model utopia."
  13. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "That creature! The one that's done this to them? It's in league with the Bauble! That's the one that the Imaginator kept visiting back in London! Every Friday they'd go to the Crystal to take honey. And then they'd come back all full of stories of opportunities and promises." He punches the stone wall. "But it was a bl__dy trap, wasn't it? This whole island is a trap."
  14. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "She describes a cavalcade of the place's wonders, from its lakes, to her secret treehouse in the woods, to the railway that ran around the island. She explains that the place was a paradise for her and the other rats that lived there, up until they had to flee. She drops her gaze to the ground."
  15. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "The notes are mostly honey addled scrawlings. Among them an envelope holds more sketches of the Imaginator's ushabti assistant, and the twisted form of the monster you encountered on Daylight. Another dossier is full of questions about the Bauble of Ecstatic Repose, they wonder now what end awaits them? A final, dispassionate note, contemplates the price of the bargain and questions its ultimate value. The conclusion is bleak."
  16. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "You find a place to stand on a small hill and begin to recite poetry. Within mere moments the lumpen grey form in its high buttoned tweed suit looms before you."
  17. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "Sketches try to capture the changing shape of their assistant's form over time."
  18. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "One of the rat's mothers interrupts. "There was a monster. It was stalking the place and sucking us dry. It almost got hold of our youngest," she says, picking up the smallest rat and rocking him to sleep."
  19. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "As you rack your brains for something, anything, of use, it lunges at you. Needle-sharp teeth sink into your flesh. You find yourself with a sudden, unaccountable craving for unsalted porridge. This does not dissipate when the creature finally withdraws."
  20. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "You charge towards the Stalker and do your worst. It sinks its teeth into your neck and drinks deeply. Thoughts of lawns and double-entry accounting flow into your mind as you maintain your assault."
  21. ↑ Daylight, Fallen London "The Workshop is still and quiet. Dust is settled over colourful models, inventive tinkerings, and passionately scrawled plans. At one end sits the Inspiring Imaginator, staring listlessly at the wall behind their desk. They are much less jubilant than in their picture."
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