♥ 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

[silversoldier]

[ The change, that heavy resignation, that came over Genesis was almost more alarming than anything else. Sephiroth considered him for a moment in silence as he gathered his thoughts. Was Genesis asking him for a report? Sephiroth was willing to provide as much information as he could if it meant getting long sought after answers. Not that it was a lot. ]

Admittedly, I wasn't able to find out much. It's buried too deep for that, even for me. [ Sephiroth couldn't take his eyes off Genesis. It felt like if he did, Genesis might just slip through his fingers again. The thought somewhat derailed him and instead of asking about the past he suddenly found it very necessary to know something else: ] The device from Modeoheim...did you...are you well?

[rhapsodist]

Modeoheim.

[That far back, huh? How many years had it been since then? Sephiroth had no inkling for what was in store, then. He would have to explain himself one of these days, revealing certain truths that had the potential to either be very good or very bad for Sephiroth. Of course, with hindsight now at play, he could make sure it would be the former, not the latter.

But even Genesis didn't know when exactly would be a good time to reveal Sephiroth's history to explain his own. He could omit a lot of it for now, but eventually, Sephiroth would know there were missing pieces to the puzzle. He was too smart not to.]

I'm not degrading. I was cured permanently by the Goddess herself. I would say to speak with Zack as he was witness to it but... he seems to be from well before that time and I am from well after that time.

[silversoldier]

[ It was a lot to take in all at once. Sephiroth again paused to consider everything. First and foremost was the almost overwhelming sense of relief that Genesis wasn’t degrading anymore...however that might have actually happened. It wasn’t as if he doubted his friend’s word or, after coming here, the existence of beings claiming themselves to be gods. It was simply that he couldn’t reconcile the same being true of Gaia. Genesis did have the propensity for speaking in metaphors so even though he seemed serious, he might still be using poetic license. ]

I see. [ Sephiroth did not sag as lesser men might, but a certain tension he’d always carried since this began seemed to leave him all the same. ] For that I am glad, but what do you mean by the Goddess herself?

[ Then there was the matter of dimensional layers or differing points in time or whatever was really going on here. To think of oneself as being from someone else’s past was almost galling in a way yet he knew it was true. Still, Sephiroth was not the kind of man to let this shake him for any length of time. He determined his own destiny and no one else: not fate, nor supposed gods, nor something like this--which was why he did not ask about his own future, as most people might. Instead, he focused on Genesis. ]

How long after?

[rhapsodist]

Up to you if you want to take my words at face value or not, I'm aware belief in the Goddess is not common in our part of the world.

[Meaning, Genesis wasn't at all going to explain himself. He meant it quite literally and if Sephiroth was going to be skeptical about it, then so be it. It wasn't exactly something so easily explained. But divine intervention had played a role and he was not about to take it for granted.]

I'll be honest, I'm not... aware of the exact year it is. [He probably would have known had he arrived here once he awoke from his slumber.] At least seven years has passed since Modeoheim. I'd wager give or take a few years after.

[silversoldier]

[ That answered the question, then. It will take time to come to terms with this. But later. ]

I do not doubt you. How could I after coming here?

[ Leave it to Genesis to make it difficult to get the exact information he wanted even now, though this was almost a relief to know he hadn't changed that much after apparently at least seven years. ]

That long... [ And because his mind never stopped: ] And you are safe, as well?

[ Not rotting in Hojo's lab somewhere, in other words. Or somewhere else even less pleasant if that was even possible. Why else would one not be able to number the years? ]

[rhapsodist]

[Genesis nodded. There wasn't much he could say to that. No one would know where he was, not until he willed it. So, hidden he remained until now that is.]

Why are you so worried?

[It wasn't the time for Sephiroth to be mad at him, per se, but it was certainly a time that Genesis long since questioned Sephiroth's loyalties. At the time, he was very much Shin-Ra's lapdog. Even went so far as to send Zack after him and Angeal, rather than go himself. While Genesis may had regretted his actions and realized all of his mistakes, there was one thing he had always been rightfully angry about.

Or what he perceived as rightfully angry. Sephiroth put his loyalties with Shin-Ra. But now he was worried? Now? He wanted to laugh. Instead, he managed to refrain and simply waited for the general's answer.]

[silversoldier]

[ Sephiroth was relieved again and now that he knew that, he felt no further need to inquire about the future. It was the past he turned to next in answer to Genesis's question. ]

After everything that has happened... [ Sephiroth was silent for a palpable moment. ] I don't know what to think anymore. What else they might do to you.

[ Now he did look away over the ruins. He'd had lots of time, far too much time really, to think about this. All along he'd walked the fine line between conflicting loyalties and it had not done much for him in the end. This was one big reason why he'd decided to make an end of it. There was also the fact that while he didn't know everything--far from it--he knew enough. ]

I've been doing everything I can to get back. We were about to be dispatched to Nibelheim. I thought you must surely be there and that I would ask you to explain everything to me. Now, here you are. Will you tell me what they did to you and to Angeal, Genesis?

[rhapsodist]

And why exactly would you care about that? You didn't even bother to come after me.

[It had been too long to be properly angry about that anymore. Genesis was also too weary to let himself be wound up about it all over again, especially now that he was capable of controlling his emotions again. Capable of not letting that anger get the best of him. But that still didn't stop the indignance he felt over Sephiroth, who claimed to be his friend, to not feel as though he could be bothered to take on the assignment to track down Angeal and, by proxy, Genesis.

He let out a scoff and waved his hand dismissively at Sephiroth. He turned away and made his way back down the ruins to the grassy, overgrown fields.]

No. The last time you found out the truth, you didn't take it well. [Understatement of a lifetime.] I'm not inclined to repeat that mistake again. Let it go, Sephiroth, some things are better off remaining a mystery.

[silversoldier]

I didn't want to fight you, Genesis. [ That much should have been obvious, though leave it to Genesis to make him say all of this out loud. ] You weren't well, in more ways than one.

[ It was easy in retrospect to see the small changes in Genesis's personality that happened even before the incident that supposedly started it all. Things like Genesis losing his temper more often and over smaller matters and his increasing fixation on Loveless. They had been so minor at the time that Sephiroth didn't pay them any attention. He'd sensed from the beginning that Genesis was degrading in mind and body both, but not the full subtle extent of it.

Sephiroth followed, immediately used to this sort of familiar behavior. He'd almost missed it.

His feet stilled when he heard the refusal and the reason why. On the one hand, this was the one and only thing that truly mattered to him for years now. He put an incalculable amount of time and effort into it. On the other, the person Sephiroth did it all for in the first place was the one who was standing there telling him to stop. Sephiroth might have argued if he and Genesis were from the same timeline, but whatever else had occurred between them this was still his friend who had foreknowledge of his actions. ]

If you say it is so, then I will trust you.

[ Although, he did wonder what exactly 'not well' entailed. Was the truth really that horrible? It had to be. And in that case... ]

And consider my time with ShinRa finished.

[rhapsodist]

Have you never heard the term that actions speak louder than words?

[It wasn't that Genesis didn't think that this wasn't the case. He had a long time to realize many things, but this was perhaps the one thing he had a hard time reconciling with. That his friend apparently hadn't wanted to deal with what was happening to him. That support that his friend showed when trying to offer his blood for a transfusion was now nowhere to be found.

And yet, now here Sephiroth was saying he didn't show because he simply didn't want to fight Genesis. He wasn't sure which was worse to hear or feel. So, he simply scoffed.]

Sure.

[He didn't really answer to Sephiroth's resignation of ShinRa. There was not much to say to that, although the sarcastic remark about them not being on this planet so obviously he's not working for them did cross his mind.

He honestly wasn't sure what he wanted from Sephiroth right now. It was too late for friendship and forgiveness, but that would also require telling Sephiroth everything and he just wasn't ready to divulge that, nor was he willing to believe his former friend was ready either. He did want to make it up to the people he wronged but it wasn't like he ever figured out how. The Goddess didn't exactly give him instructions either. He was to guard the planet, likely in the stead of the Weapons now, but how and when was never really told to him.

And now he was here, on a completely different planet that survived on hugs and kisses and it was utterly ridiculous what this all had come down to.]

[silversoldier]

[ Genesis seemed to be laboring under some deeply mistaken assumptions, and the more they talked, the more they revealed themselves. Sephiroth was a man of few words who did not often give thought much less voice to his feelings or question his intentions and yet it seemed that he would have to here, or at least attempt further explanation. There were only a handful of people who could prompt him to do such and here was one of them. Genesis knew it too--how much discomfort something like this would cause him. How unusual it was for Sephiroth to say some of the things he was about to say. But it had been years and, it seemed, things would only continue on like this for the foreseeable future otherwise... ]

I see. It seems you need to hear about my actions and the reasoning behind them.

[ Sephiroth gazed out over the landscape once more. ]

I entrusted Zack with this. I knew he was no threat to you and he also cared just as much as I did. I was sure he would succeed. I was wrong, but not for his lack of trying. [ Sephiroth turned his gaze from the ruins back to Genesis. ] If even Angeal couldn't reach you...I didn't think it would go well between you and I.

[ Genesis and Angeal had always been closer and, in the end, they had both left him behind. That didn't stop Sephiroth from caring or from doing the best he could with what he had. He initially thought ShinRa could help Genesis, if only he could be convinced to return. That was a mistake. He could see that now. ]

Instead I thwarted ShinRa's efforts from within as best I could and tried to find out everything about what happened to you both. It's all I've been doing for years now. But no more. I finally understand enough that it doesn't make sense anymore. I told Zack this would probably be our last mission together, but it seems he doesn't remember that.

[ Denying ShinRa his participation on many missions had been a huge blow and, no doubt, dragged out the war and only increased the casualties. All that blood was on his hands too, and on the hands of the man in front of him. Then there were the times he didn't perform to expectations or outright went against orders.

And since he'd come this far, Sephiroth took the final plunge with something he would never normally say but which was nonetheless justified in this rare case. ]

I am sorry. It was obvious to me, but not to you.

[rhapsodist]

It would be a start.

[Came the drawl. His steps slowed as Sephiroth seemed wont to follow him still, to explain himself and his actions. He allowed for Sephiroth to catch up before resuming his pace. His boots crunched on the gravel and grass, a few black feathers came loose to rest upon the beautiful hills.

He listened. His steps slowed once more before coming to a stop as he digested the words. Looking back on it, he supposed it made sense. Those in their right minds wouldn't want to fight their friends, after all. He really couldn't fault Sephiroth, not after they'd defected and left him to deal with the mess they made. Zack was a part of that as well, if only for Angeal's sake. He sighed, reaching up to run his hand through his much longer bangs, his braid falling over his shoulder.]

I appreciate the apology. Accepted.

[He didn't really anticipate this. But it was a small thing and he really did appreciate it. He just wished he could do the same, but he really couldn't. He wasn't sure if he could go back he would do things different. Having an unstable mind meant anything could happen. He supposed the only thing he wished he could change was somehow better keep Angeal from committing suicide, however assisted it was.]