benthic_university | Correspondence Scholarship, Class Two [Tuesday Morning, June 17th]

When the students arrived to their domed classroom, there was a broad-shouldered clay man standing before them. A pair of goggles were awkwardly affixed to her face. The hour to begin arrived, but no other tutor came with it.

The Clay Substitute laid her hands upon the podium. "PLEASE. OPEN YOUR TEXTBOOKS TO PAGE-"

Much the same as last week, there was a hubbub in the hall outside. The door slammed open, and one figure marched another to the front of the class. The Beleaguered Dean, swathed in a coat of thick tweed and a thicker coat of nervous sweat, was all but pushing The Ex-Disgraced Academic back into their pace behind the podium.

The Academic wasn't missing a beat in the argument: "-can't at all see what the issue is, so long as they learn the material-"

"You cannot offload your duties to an Underclay aspirant!" The Dean's fury is only matched by the fearful tension in his voice, "And an unfinished one at that! How did you get it up here-"

The Academic's eye widened in almost-honorable affront. "You can't prove that this perfectly capable worker is unfinished, can you?"

"No, but I can certainly prove that it's not on the faculty list." The Dean wiped his brow. "Get on with it, man!"

The Clay Substitute barely moved, but the grinding of her turning head rumbled through the floor. "I WAS TOLD THAT I WOULD BE PAID IN FULL, REGARDLESS OF HOW LONG CLASS WENT?"

Coin was exchanged, and, the Dean ushered The Clay Substitute out of the room. The Academic hissed through their teeth, clearly ready to vent their terrible mood at the first faces to cross theirs.

They turned to look at the class. And smiled a terrible smile. "Good morning."

Targets acquired.

"So! You've all decided to return for a second week. I suppose it can't be helped. Any damage you incur from here on out is upon your own heads." They began their lecture.

“English is a phonographic language, as the distinct letters of the alphabet each represent units of sound. The Correspondence is logographic, meaning that similar to the languages of the second and fourth cities (and the Khanate, of course), Correspondence Symbols each represent units of meaning.”

In bold, rapid strokes, The Academic scrawled a symbol onto the chalkboard:

They whirled around, pointing an accusing claw at anyone unfortunate enough to still be moving their pens. “Do not copy this into your notes! If you fancy yourself cheeky and attempt to copy it whilst my back is turned, I will still know, so do NOT try me.” They turned back, circling the image. Anyone foolhardy enough to ignore the command would earn immediate combustion to their notebook, and a quick, scathing look of satisfaction from The Academic.

“This is the symbol for “an unmappable direction. It is one of the more frequent symbols to be found in practical human application of The Correspondence, as well as in architectural engravings ranging from first city ruins all the way up to lapsarian London. It is also exceptionally flammable. None but the most expensive of papers can contain it.” And with a terrifically wicked smile: "Chalkboards are fine, though."

They continued. “The Correspondence is a purely semiotic construct. There are currently no known pronunciations or verbal applications for these signs-“ The Academic covered a bark of laughter, and then continued, “-apologies, but I would hate for my lectures to contradict the well-documented research that the Ministry of Public Decency has gently requested I adhere to."

The Academic pushed their current chalkboard up and out of the way, revealing an unblemished second layer. They added a tidy column of six simple symbols. "There are one hundred and eight basic radicals, and we've discovered twice as many in total. But for this course, we will begin with six."

Six symbols

And, after writing these on the board, the academic turned to the students. “These you may record in your notes, however-“ their tone sharpened, slicing through the momentum of those who may have rushed to begin- “confine each radical to its own sheet for practice. None of these, alone, is a complete symbol. But some can be converted very easily into real Correspondence symbols, and it is vital that you do not accidentally do so. Spend the rest of today's duration memorizing and practicing these radicals until you can reproduce them by heart. You'll know if you're doing well, because you paper will become warm to the touch once half-full. I will also be writing additional complete correspondence symbols on the other chalkboards. Your homework is to discern which of these six parts of speech each of the symbols is.”

symbols

The Academic pointed once more at the spray bottles on each row of desks. “At any sign of smoke, you are to douse the offending student’s work, without hesitation. Last week was not a one-off exercise. Consider this both a basic safety precaution, as well as your first taste of operant conditioning. Get to it!”

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

OOC: Far as I can tell, there isn’t any structure to canonical correspondence symbol composition. It’s just meant to be pretty, and not anything resembling a conlang. So I’m not going into real language construction, either. However, by the end of this you will have some fun little toys you can use when making correspondence fanart. And that’s the most useful skill of all!

Answers! Don't feel bad if the symbols didn't feel obvious, this is just a bit of fun, not a real language or puzzle game:

Edited 2025-06-17 14:22 (UTC)

theanachronistictailor MAKING BEETLE GOLDWORK EMBROIDERY FOR THURSDAY I AM SOBBING THAT'S SO NICE,,, now i must scheme to get them to interact again...

I will force this little shit to play nice one way or another, even if it means sneaking it onto Thursday's table. I cannot promise the embroidery is GOOD, but you know. The Tailor gets where Thursday's coming from <3

adhbcjxjfjzjfjxjzz ahhh, the hardest part of roleplaying: wrangling the little bastards you allegedly control into behaving, and/or not starting fights every time they open their fictional little mouths!!!
awwww yeah that's so nice though! even if their handiwork isn't the best yet <3 they can find some sort of compromise and understanding,,,

immediatly rushed to make this meme before i leave for the library

Oh this is SO fun. I love these kinds of games playing with meanings and icons. Also very beautifully prepared, the meanings relating ones with others... But what definitely killed me was the exchange with the Devil. Oh, now that's bragging!

"Rushing was allowed, but running? Oh how silly that would look" Good thing the Pupil wasn't there to watch the Socialite sprint and nearly trip skidding into the door! Oh, how embarrassing that would have been! ;3

I'm a little loosy goosey with things I am replaying to on other people's posts: you don't need to reply to them I promise! I am mostly forcing the Tailor to take in information that they could find relevant. We'll get a semblance of a character arc out of them, maybe.

I am really having fun with the play here and watching people's characters try to figure things out, it's so analytical. The Tailor's on the verge of a couple realizations, if they can just talk it out with someone, so I'm trying to pick a target but everyone's thoughts are so good!!

The Morbid Socialite is always open as a sounding board! If'n you want, that is; no shame in not!

The Piper loves to gab but they are probably mostly useless in the Tailor's eyes lol

thursday's pretty good at languages!!! and they have more knowledge of the Big Picture and Super Deep Lore (tm) than they should (while lacking a lot of the basic and middle and middle-deep lore) (sorry thursday, you're living an existential horror) than they should, so if you want to make thursday go mad- i mean if you want someone who can help put together the pieces on the red string board: please feel free to smash the tailor and thursday together some more!!

If I was this class' teacher and saw the Tailor's messy notes I'd feel so proud. Thinking outside the box! That's the purpose!

aaaa i'm so glad you approve. the Tailor hasn't had a lot of teachers who appreciate their attempts to think things out on paper with their little doodles, for a lot of reasons (including that their handwriting as a kid was a MESS) so they're a little hesitant about it being seen but it realaly does help them draw lines between things. sometimes literally!!!

wehehehe oh this has been delightful so far, idk if anyone will get my ssea references sneaked in but there will probably be more.

themorbidsocialite about after class, should we go to After Class for these two to meet again, or should this happen in inbox, I'm leaving the starter to you less you wanna leave it to me

Royce: It's just meant to be pretty, we're not making up a real construction here and we're having fun

the students IC: we're going to assign meaning to every single stroke on the chalkboard like we can puzzle it out

it's fun but also I'm sorry

It's fun and I'm not sorry. [High five!]

Hey, just a heads up that I'll be trying to send out some cards to folks this weekend, moves and memory permitting, if you want to be pals! You'll probably need to be in London. If you've got too many associates already though, I understand.

(Fair warning that if you accept you run the risk of me spilling wine on you though! That's okay, you can always send an assassin my way. Or just straight tell me to cut it out.)

or anyway I would if I could FIND any of you guys!!! If you would like a card, please let me know the FL profile name!! I've got a link on my dreamwidth profile and the personalized page if you want to find me instead.

I'm focused in the Stacks at the moment, BUT! Tomorrow I'll be in London, will send a message. My DW profile has a link to the FL one if you like! ^^

You may or may not want to beat me after I say this but when I think on the Academic speaking while dancing the Correspondence I can't help but envision something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3fAcxcxoZ8

Especially at 2:22

Edited 2025-06-21 22:10 (UTC)

Hahaha, always a good day for an Emo Phillips routine XD

Edited 2025-06-22 14:43 (UTC)

Hello again everyone! I've been getting around to posting more Maven art (I had a bit of a backlog XD) This one is art I drew after Maven finished her Ambition, of her playing cards with Beechwood and another variant with the Academic (and I included a blank version because people like blank templates and I thought this might be fun for Fallen London Hearts Desire characters, or any FL character, or anyone really, if they wanted to draw their characters playing cards) https://www.tumblr.com/floweramonsworkshop/787086540260229120/after-the-marvellous-and-a-friendly-not-at-all

Morbid Socialite: I kill people and they don't come back

Maven: But they come back to life in the Neath?

Socialite: yes, well, being killed by me usually means they don't want to visit again

Maven: ah

Correspondence Scholarship, Class Two [Tuesday Morning, June 17th]

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Sending out Calling cards on FL!

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