♥ October (Lasohm) Fourth Wall Log

[hugtopiamods]

October (Lasohm) Fourth Wall Log

❥ Speaking of Wall Breaking...

The ghosts in town sure are weird, huh? But they're settling down, as the month draws to a close. They're becoming less anxious and random, their behaviour growing sort of… focused. As time passes some of them begin to develop features. They can interact with the world more consistently. You can… hear their voice.

And then suddenly they are people, real and physical and just as confused to be here as you are. They could be anyone, from your world, someone else's world, a place you've never heard of… some of them could even be you, from a different universe, a different timeline, an unknown reality. What does all this mean?

IT'S FOURTH WALL, Y'ALL. Tell your friends, people interested in apping or just playing around in the setting, anybody! Time to break the wall down and have some fun.

This post serves as a replacement for the usual Test Drive Meme, in order to consolidate the chaos a bit. Though it is being posted now, timeline-wise, this shift will occur ONLY during the weekend prior to applications opening: October 30th to November 2nd, after which point characters will either disappear or become permanent residents via the application process. This also means that the rest of the event effects will have worn off, and characters will be their normal selves through the duration of this prompt.

Some ground rules for the 4th Wall event:

For characters/accounts not in-game:

• a character does not have to meet application qualifications to post to the 4th Wall Event, except in cases where there is an intent to apply when applications open. Duplicates, CRAU, AU, etc. are permitted for the event.
  
• we do ask that crack shenanigans are reasonably limited, game rules are followed, and that the event involve characters only, not players or real people.
  
• anyone can toplevel! It'll be a free for all. Go wild, have fun.
  
• characters will be given a temporary, low-tech communicator for the duration of the event with limited network access, due to limited availability of the real deal.
  
• you will not arrive with any items/companions beyond the clothes that you wear
  
• check out the Setting or FAQ pages for location details! Also, have a look at the October event log, to see what else is going on these days.

For characters/accounts currently in-game:

• players can decide for themselves at the event's conclusion whether or not memories of certain visitors remain, and to what extent; memories could become fuzzy, faces or communication obscured, they could disappear entirely, or they can remain fully intact whether the person apps into the game or not.
  
• network communications with 4th Wall visitors that don't (or can't) app in will be wiped, with the locals citing a data error related to the older communicators being used. Technology can be unpredictable, huh!
  
• any communication exchanges that you WANT to keep can remain with some discretion; for example, if a spouse visits and you happen to take a selfie with them, and they do not (or cannot) app but having that photo of them would give you comfort, feel free to keep it.
  
• Similar to the TDM, 4th wall threads cannot be used for AC or AC Reward purposes unless it is between characters already in-game.
  

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Click the above prompt to expand for details. Timeline-wise, this occurs October 30th to November 2nd. For players currently in-game, if you have any questions, please direct them to the FAQ or to the Mod Question thread on the original plotting post.

On this post, we've created both another Questions Thread and a Toplevel thread (see below) for visiting players, the latter so that anyone can track and see who's posted! When you've made a toplevel, feel free to comment HERE to let everyone know.

Comments

Somnus Lucis Caelum | Final Fantasy XV

[luciing]

Arrival
[ How long has it been since he's needed air to fill his lungs, inhabited a body to feel the warmth of a sun and  the relief of shade, or a human hand with which to hold a weapon, much less the hand of someone else? This is something to which he must grow accustomed once more, and quickly at that, if he wishes to navigate to this world, much less contribute to its restoration. However, honoring the gods' edict of summoning him here, that of touch giving live to this world, does not come easy to him. Operating a mortal body feels oddly sluggish after all this time, heavy. Perhaps it's a matter of acclimation, of having the patience to acquaint himself with a heart that now beats, slowly and solemnly...

Encounter Somnus within the botanical gardens, the zoo, or wandering about the city and its outskirts on his own. Wherever he travels, the scenery is vastly different from the confines of the Ring. This world is alien to him in both architecture, flora, and time. Somnus lingers in any given spot, looking out at the landscape, the barrier, or the city, before he turns his gaze from indulging any further. There is a path set before him to yet another part of Aellyn, and he must walk it. Moreover, this world must be restored.

There are others here. Little can be accomplished alone. ]

Oops, a Misfire
[ Somnus has yet to learn how to operate this communication device. Have a misfire text message from a scrambled username: ]

w

[ That's it. ]

Wildcard
[ You know what to do <3 ]

arrival; boots down a door

[scourgingstars]

[He'd been seeing this figure in brief flashes of something spectral and immaterial, to the point that Ardyn thought he might have been going insane again. But this time the sight lasted far longer, to the point at which he couldn't write it off as an act of the city's spirits or his own fractured mind.]

[Ardyn caught up to his brother in quick steps, a hand light and brief on his shoulder and a look as though the elder of the pair had literally seen a ghost.]

Somnus--?

oh noo

[luciing]

[ His shoulders jump with the contact, the notice unwarranted and unwanted, heralded too late by a familiar voice. In an instant his body moves to the side and a step away, his dark cloak trailing behind him, his brow lowered, eyes sharp, sight and hand ready to strike...

And he doesn't.

He doesn't, because Ardyn doesn't, and although he remains still, in the moments it takes for his robes to settle about him, he's lost to just who he sees. It's him, yet... not at he remembers. Ardyn has the power to transform himself into others; surely he would be able to do the same to himself. Would he not strike first at any chance he had at him? Yet, any other explanation would mean...

Somnus' eyes sharpen, skeptic and surprised at once; his heel, positioned slightly behind him, digs into the ground. How can this be. ]

[scourgingstars]

[...He was real, this time. Not delusion or nightmare or city-fueled spectre, but his real and tangible brother. There was something missing in the way he'd moved, and logic made it clear that Somnus must not have had any recollection of Havenwell; the brother he had known here had long shed that distrust and uneasiness.]

[But that didn't matter. Though Ardyn had long since learned his lesson about tempering sentiment with logic, the latter was thrown aside for the former in an instant.]

[He didn't attack, because how could he? No matter how anger still slept in his heart, no matter how he could never forgive what had been done...how could he ever again bring himself to strike at his own brother now?]

[Without another word, the elder brother pulled the younger into a hug, arms wrapped tight around his shoulders. If he wanted to lash out, let him--a brief encounter with a temporary death was worth it for how Ardyn had missed him.]

[luciing]

[ Warm arms find him, and he instantly stills at the contact. Somnus feels the press of an embrace after two thousands years without, then a decade shrouded in maddening darkness. (--Time that is nothing compared to what Ardyn has endured, and what fate and he had condemned him to.)

The hardened countenance of a Lucii is aided by their helms and gilded armor. They might stand as sentinels, unmoving. Here in the flesh, Somnus' jaw goes slack, as does his expression from the unexpected embrace. The knocking, mournful thump within his chest-- from a wariness that he cannot shake-- is painful. Disappointment accompanies the rhythm, for he might still be in danger so near to this man, but that feeling is betrayed by the buried child that wishes for his elder's embrace.

That child ought to stay buried; he has no right to emerge, much less hold his brother in return. Thus, he does not. His hands remain at his sides.

This is not the past.... But Ardyn may, inexplicably, be from a time far gone.

His tongue feels heavy. ]

Brother.

[scourgingstars]

It's alright.

[If he was warm at all, it was only from the sunlight overhead; there was no life left in an immortal form, no heart left to beat and yet somewhere in a body he'd consigned to death there was still love for his little brother yet.]

You don't remember, but...that's fine. Just believe me when I say I'm not your enemy. Please, trust my word when I tell you I've missed you.

[luciing]

[ Ever has he kept his eyes forward, but the embrace traitorously returns him to a buried past. While it does not overturn his focus upon the dawn yet to come, it does cause his heart to waver mournfully. There is no one who has suffered more than his brother, and he will continue to suffer until the Chosen fulfills his calling. Thus it is with the True King that all hope lies. Their entire Star can be reassured that they are upon the eve of Dawn; the two brothers, most of all.

He doesn't remember, and this is enough. Thus he pulls away, unable to help the stony somberness that weighs upon his brow.

Does he dare admit the same, when he had solidified the rift between them for generations to come? No, he doesn't. So, he does not. ]

It has been long.

[scourgingstars]

It has, indeed.

[He let Somnus pull back, a hand lingering on his brother's arm as though Ardyn half expected him to vanish the instant they separated.]

I'm glad to see you again.

[luciing]

[ Ardyn says to believe him, but these are the words hardest to accept. How could someone ever be glad to see the one who had struck him down, imprisoned him. He expects (understandable) spite and hatred, not this.

Locked layers beneath the numbness of centuries of placing duty above his heart, as well as a mountain of remorse that continues to compile with each step he takes, he feels the same. However, chillingly, Somnus cannot allow himself to express the same, not when he continues to move forward. ]

What has changed?

[scourgingstars]

Quite a lot of things. You could say time has taken something of a different turn for me. I've had a chance to...reevaluate matters, and distance enough to consider things with a little more clarity.

['Clarity' was the easiest way to explain it. Knowing more of his future had put both past and present in a sharply different light, and that compiled with having already spoken to his brother in this same city had turned everything around in a way Ardyn had once written off as worthless.]

...I'm still angry, and I imagine I will be for a very long time. But I can recognize and admit that fault for the circumstances laid in both our failings and missteps. Though I can never forgive what's transpired, I...can approach some understanding of why things unfolded as they ultimately did rather than hate you for something which I did little to prevent.

You're still my brother, Somnus. And despite everything, I still love you.

[luciing]

[ Such words chip away at him, and he's lost to the vicious memory of when they had last had any semblance of a conversation decades ago. He knew then to not ask for forgiveness for what he had done. Such a thing was beyond him, and it should never be granted to one who continues to march towards a future that damns him. After that same conversation, he had concluded to not ask for understanding again. In retrospect, that, too, had been presumptuous and selfish.

Here Ardyn extends some understanding towards him, a proverbial olive branch, and Somnus' mind becomes clouded with disbelief and uncertainty. His eyes tear away from his brother as sorrow weaves like vines into his expression, eroding the more hardened mask.

What tragedy it is for Ardyn, to offer this peace when turmoil yet awaits. Somnus' fingers twitch at his side. ]

You are always my brother.

[ Blight or not. Chancellor or not. Blades at each other's throats or not. ]

[scourgingstars]

[He didn't know yet how that day in Insomnia would or had ended--Regis could only tell him what he himself had known, after all. But did that really matter? That person wasn't Ardyn anymore. Even if he'd known, that wouldn't change what he said or did now, not yet lost to madness and isolation as he was.]

[...And what else could he do faced with his brother in pain but to act as an elder sibling should have, stubbornly pulling the smaller man right back into his arms.]

Then let us merely be that, for a change. It's been too long.

[luciing]

[ Just as before, his body goes still as Ardyn pulls him into an embrace. What right does he have to hold him in response, when last they clashed? These same hands are stained with his blood.  His only consolation is that this is what Ardyn wants, and that apparently this world thrives on touch. Very well; let this be for Ardyn and the world.

 It feels like both an eternity and no time at all before one arm raises to rest numbly upon the elder brother's back, placing his palm softly between his shoulder blades.


Somnus does not know how much time passes between them in silence, only that it does. It is foolish to think that they might return to their past. When he manages to shake himself from quiet rumination, his chest rises and falls with a heavy breath that's both equally needed for clarity and disturbing for the implication he is no longer a specter. Yet, his brother remains, similarly different and changed from how he had known him upon their Star.

At last, he speaks. ] Brother, this is enough.

[scourgingstars]

[He really didn't want to, but...his ever-reticent brother was as he was. Just one more way they were complete opposites, or had been, with one simply far more open than the other. Hesitantly, Ardyn lowered his arms and stepped back with a small smile.]

If you insist.

[luciing]

[ They cannot continue to embrace forever, and once they part Somnus raises a hand to straighten the drape of his cloak in a practiced manner. His eyes leave Ardyn only for a second before he replies, making an effort to have... something of a conversation. ]

You have well adjusted to this realm?

[scourgingstars]

Well enough. I've had no small amount of help, not the least of which came from your descendants.

[There was definitely a fond tone in his voice that had been long since lost to Ardyn's words for an eternity. As much as the man standing before him was an uneasy shadow of the steadfast and proud healer he had once been, the compassion that had been his defining trait and downfall both was still staggering along after everything.]

Noctis and Regis are both here, and have been for some time.

[luciing]

[ The Father. The True King. He blinks slowly at his brother. ]

They are content?

[scourgingstars]

Hm...you would have to ask them. They both seem happy enough, from my own perspective.

[He had, admittedly, taken considerable interest in keeping things that way.]

[luciing]

[ "Enough" appears to be the family word of the day. Somnus looks away from his brother, some semblance of calm resignation finally softening his sharp features. ]

Let this be enough.

[scourgingstars]

Meaning what, brother? I am hardly about to go around looking for trouble.