♥ 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

[ancestor]

Her hand falters. She looks down at Ardbert in surprise.

"...You know Hades?"

She had assumed he wouldn't, given that he doesn't speak the language of their homeland. Perhaps Ardbert was unable to learn it? Hemera can hardly imagine her child being incapable, but she cannot deny that having such a small fraction of her soul would limit him greatly...

Hades had always held such a fondness for children. If she was unable to raise him herself, it isn't difficult for her to imagine her dearest friend raising her Masterwork into such a sweet boy. He would have been a wonderful father.

The thought brings an odd flutter to her heart, and a blush to her cheeks.

[firstbump]

Ardbert blinks back to her in surprise for a moment with one of those little oh, shite looks as he does some quick thinking. Okay. Definitely not mentioning the whole threesome thing. Ever.

"I do, although not well." Ardbert's hand rests on Seto's neck. "But he was kind to me when I first came here. Or... well the other Hades that was here. This place can pull people from different times, and sometimes when it pulls them in a second time, they seem to have no memories of this place."

[ancestor]

"...What?"

Hemera understands, in theory, what it is he's saying, but it's all a bit much for her right now. Or, more accurately, it's nothing she can accept as the truth just yet.

"Surely... You aren't saying that I will forget you, once I leave?"

[firstbump]

Ardbert's eyes sadden. "I... honestly don't know. Timelines exist in our world, too, so I don't know... how all of that works. Maybe you will? Maybe you won't? Maybe he was another Hades from another timeline? I can't say."

Forgetting is one of Era's fears, too....

[ancestor]

"So there is hope yet..."

She would gladly forget every other marvelous thing she discovers about this world if it meant she could hold Ardbert in her memory forever.

[firstbump]

Ardbert nods, glad he was able to pull some hope straight out of his ass. Once, he was really good at that.

"There is. Which is why we should focus on what we have now rather than on what we may or may not lose. I know at least I have been here for a while. The longer you are here, the longer you seem to remain."

[ancestor]

Hemera reaches out to touch Ardbert's face again, still unbearably loving and awed. She feels a burst of pride and only just resists the urge to pull him into her arms again.

"I cannot stay here for long. The path I tread will not allow for it," she tells him, gently. "But my deepest wish has always been to have a child... However impossible it may seem, I cannot imagine any greater masterwork. To know that you exist... It fills me with such joy."

[firstbump]

Ardbert wants to say that they can't control how long they stay, but being called a masterwork leaves him speechless and happily embarrassed again. It's adorable. He's happy that his soul came from someone kind.

"It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside hearing something like that coming from you. But I'm not the only one. There's another that has inherited your soul here."

[ancestor]

"'Warm and fuzzy'..." Hemera smiles down at him. "That is how I feel in this moment, seeing the beauty my soul has created."

She strokes the back of one hand gently along the side of his face, but falters as he finishes speaking.

"...Another? I have another soul-child?"

[firstbump]

She had many more than that... and Hemera shall never know. The question could make him feel awkward, but honestly, he's too happy to feel it.

"Her name is Era. ... We are different people. We fell in love and we are wed. And someday, we will have a child of our own. I suppose that would make you a grandmother?"

[ancestor]

"'Era'... She was named after me?"

She feels a bit overwhelmed by all this information. Her children... In love and wed, and planning on children of their own one day?

"...Y—You're so young to be wed!" Hemera squeaks out, not sure how to react. She feels happy of course, but it is rather a lot to take in. "And I'm— I am a few thousand years too young to be a grandmother. I didn't expect to be a mother for at least another thousand!"

[firstbump]

It takes Ardbert's brain a moment to fully absorb all the information he just learned from that one reaction. They live for thousands of years? She expects to live for thousands more? He hopes he can avoid mentioning that people no longer live such long lives.

Ardbert waves his hands in front of him in a placating gesture. "Easy, easy, I said someday, not tomorrow. We have things we must do first."

[ancestor]

His reassurances do ease her mind a great deal, and she quickly begins to settle.

"Things you must do... There are a great many things to be done first," Hemera tells him. "There will be time for children when you're grown. Enjoy these years while you can, my dearest Ardbert. Fill them with stories and adventures to pass unto your children when the time comes."

[firstbump]

Ardbert truly wants to tell her that he's very much grown, but he's certain it will fall on deaf ears. "I've already got plenty of stories, and I plan to fill them with more. ... but honestly, how old do you think I am?"

[ancestor]

She gives him a scrutinizing look—one that runs far deeper than the surface. It is intimate and invasive, yet somehow not. Perhaps it has to do with how her soul reaches out to inspect his ever-so-gently; a warm, featherlight touch against his, like the brush of her hand against his cheek.

"Older than a century, but less than three. Scarcely more than a babe..." Hemera glances at his face again, then can't help but give his jaw a quick, playful stroke with the tips of her fingers. "...And yet look at this little beard on you!"

[firstbump]

Ardbert waits patiently, letting her soul make its inspection with a smile on his face, chuckling when she touches his tuft of chin hair. "I'm an adult by our measure, believe it or not."

While he could survive a week with her believing otherwise, Era would hate it too much.

casually yeets a bff to her

[ancestor]

After letting out a long and very dubious 'hmm...', Hemera decides that this requires a second opinion.

"One moment, dearest Ardbert," she tells him, taking a few steps back to hold her hand palm-down between them. "I shall call for a consult."

The steady, rhythmic tick-tick-tick of a metronome rings softly through the air as dots and lines of golden aether form a circle around her, spreading outward to the space between them to make another matching circle. A simple pattern of blue dots hovers around each circle, radiating a soft blue to match her aether. This is the simplest version of her trademark spell, summoning only one nearby companion to her rather than multiple, but she has ever enjoyed the simpler spells—they're much easier to cast in the heat of combat, should the need arise.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

After the first time he'd been summoned to his old friend's side, Emet-Selch should perhaps have expected to be summoned again. Or at least, should have been aware of the possibility of being so. He had not, and if pressed, will absolutely blame the fact that it's been several millennia since he'd last enjoyed her company.

Even so, he doesn't resist the summoning. There's the faint echo of something like resigned irritation in his aether as the spell finds him, but nothing more than would normally be there when he'd been summoned out of the middle of doing something back in Amaurot. It does, admittedly, match the expression of mild annoyance on his face once the light of the teleportation fades, but this too isn't anything out of the ordinary - surprise though it might be for Ardbert.

"Again?"

The tone of his voice is more one of fond exasperation, rather than annoyance, and is addressed to Hemera rather than Ardbert. Who he has noticed, even if he isn't opting to address the matter.

(Or the fact that he's surely been summoned for some manner of purpose. She'll get to that, he figures, and so there's no immediate need to ask.)

sneaks a tag in

[ancestor]

"Can you truly say you expected any different?" Hemera arches a brow at her friend, feigning exasperation with him in turn, though there is a smile in her eyes and her soul that burns brightly at the sight of him.

The smile broaches her lips now, spreading across her face like dawn over the horizon. She crosses the distance between herself and Ardbert again (scratching the underside of Seto's maw in one smooth motion as she does so), then pulls him into a hug and maneuvers him to show him off.

"Look, Hades!" Were she in possession of a tail it would be wagging with delight she cannot contain. As it is, she bounces a little on the balls of her feet, practically quivering with the joy she feels. "A child! My child! My son!" Ardbert is subjected to another firm (gentle) squeeze. "Look at how perfect he is! My greatest masterwork! Isn't he beautiful?"

I SAW THAT

[firstbump]

Ardbert watches the lines across the ground in awe. So this is the spell. He's never seen it until now.

The mild irritation would be surprising if he hadn't already seen this softer side of another Emet-Selch. Instead, it's familiar, almost comforting. (Even being ignored for the moment is comforting.)

Hemera ends that moment abruptly when Hemera marches over, gives Seto a brief scratch, and then envelopes Ardbert into a hug. Ardbert stumbles as he manuevers him around so that Emet-Selch can see him and his new spike of embarrassment properly.

Seto doesn't help him, of course, finding it all amusing. "I-I'm not perfect, to be honest...."

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"No. I cannot."

Nor has he missed the sheer joy in her soul, both at the sight of him and when she moves to stand by Ardbert. (Nor, for that matter, the gentle moment of attention she offers the amaro, as she passes.)

"Is that what your masterwork was going to be?"

In retrospect, he shouldn't be surprised. It would have certainly gotten around the matter of her travels, and it's never been a surprise that she'd cared a great deal for not just children but other similarly young creatures. And it might even have managed to circumvent the matter of required the star to offer up a new soul, if she had given her own to her creation.

(Though he has to admit, if only to himself, that it would have been a shame to lose her, had she done so. Even if he's merely looking at that with the clarity of hindsight.)

"Although I feel obliged to mention that he and I have met previously."

[ancestor]

She falters, squeezing Ardbert closer as though the action will somehow shield her from how flustered Hades has made her. "I— Um— I was— " Hemera splutters, still clutching her 'son' close, drawing strength from his presence until she can respond with blushing indignance. "Well. Yes. But! Even if I hadn't been, he would still be the greatest of my works! He is compassionate, has such kind eyes, and I daresay he has my nose."

She huffs softly, then sees fit to add: "And you and I both know full well that any petitions I made would have been denied. I've been censured too many times for approval in this lifetime... I imagine I'll have another to add to the list once I'm home, won't I?"

[firstbump]

Ardbert's face is starting to turn red—out of embarrassment and, thankfully, not due to lack of air. Gods. She really does think he's a child.

"Full glad I am for the compliments, but—" Ardbert clears his throat. "Emet-Selch, if you would be so kind to tell her that I'm an adult...."

Seto gives a loud snort of amusement. "Oh, hush, Seto."

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"Surely they wouldn't add another for merely getting lost."

It's plain it's none of her doing, after all. Loosing Ifrita might well be more worthy of censure, but he's not yet willing to give her up for lost. Merely surprisingly difficult to locate.

Still, that is a lesser concern. Or is at least now that Ardbert has made a direct request of him.

"He speaks the truth. His kind live shorter lives than ours. Dramatically so."

A century, at best; a life fleeting and fragile compared to what she will have known.

"Although... were one to take that into account, I daresay he would be at least your equal in age. If not older."

[ancestor]

"There is no such thing as merely getting lost when you're me." The roll of her eyes is practically audible, though her complaints of the Convocation are suddenly the last thing on her mind as Hades affirms something incomprehensible.

"W—What?," she squeaks, horrified, and clutches Ardbert more firmly to her breast, arms tightening around him protectively as if that might spare him from his mortality. "He's not even three centuries, Hades! He's just a— He's a child! He wouldn't even have finished his primaries yet!"