♥ 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.
  

---

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]

"To the hells with your vagueness! It would never have been enough for either of us, and you know it full well!"

They are the shepherds of their star and their people, and she knows now that they will fail them both. (That her friend already has.) The way Ardbert's arms wrap around her is the only thing keeping her from lashing out beyond what she does. Her arms tighten around his shoulders reflexively; protective.

"I'll ask a question you will not avoid, Emet-Selch," she warns, every inch of her threatening unbridled fury if he doesn't answer. "What became of Chiron? Did he survive?"

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"Do you wish to know the whole of the truth?" he snaps back, almost unconsciously drawing himself up to his full height as his voice drops lower in anger and frustration. "I would spare you what I have seen."

There is, admittedly, a part of him that doesn't blame her for her own frustration, all but buried though it is under the force of his own emotions. And perhaps she is right to claim that it would have never have been enough for either of them. But that makes it no easier to hear, especially when he can absolutely read the fury lurking in her.

He doesn't immediate recognize the name she offers as Elidibus' either, given that it's been so long since he'd last had call to think of it - much less possibly use it himself. But he knows that there's only one person that would prompt such potential anger from her, aside from Hythlodaeus and he never had another title to use.

His words are still clipped and almost-terse when he speaks again, but he's pulled back a little from the anger that had colored his voice earlier. Enough that it's closer to his usual voice, at least.

"But yes. He was among those who survived."

[ancestor]

"No, I don't," she hisses in return, unphased by the change in his posture. "But it is a matter of need, not want."

While she doubts what knowledge she gains here will remain when she returns home, there is still a chance she may remember, and be able to spare more lives in her future. Whether it would be wise to alter her timeline, however, she cannot say.

Knowing that their dear little Emissary survived does much to soothe her. Her posture is still stiff, though her muscles are no longer taut and ready to spring into action at a moment's notice.

"Then at least the two of you had each other."

Which seems like the best she can hope for in these circumstance.

This probably means "skip me" for a bit lol

[firstbump]

Ardbert can say nothing to make this better or even anything at all that's useful. He's shoved up against her chest and held by arms he'd dare not harm by fighting against. The only thing he can do is wait.

Seto is practically vibrating. He can tell this is an important conversation that he shouldn't interrupt. But Ardbert's also upset!

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"Then ask another."

There's some part of him that feels a pang of guilt at pushing off the answers. At pointing her in another direction, rather than speaking them himself. But even knowing that it's important, that she is considering it tantamount to saving their world from a calamity that may well be unavoidable... he still cannot bring himself to tell her how many have been lost. How much has been lost, in that one single moment.

Still, the fact that she's calmed somewhat is enough to have him pulling back from that same anger. Not enough, yet, to have him return to his customary slouch, but enough to have him less tense as well.

"Yes. Pale comfort though it might been."

To wit: it wasn't her. Nor Hythlodaeus. Just someone that he had known.

[ancestor]

"And what if I could save them, Hades?"

[unnecessaryflourishes]

Of all the things she could have said, that is likely one of the few that would have been enough to draw him up short. And visibly so at that, the hope he hasn't dared to let himself feel in too, too long straining against the edges of his frustration. Of his anger. Of his guilt, at not doing that very thing.

"You would see history unwritten?"

Despite the anger in his posture, the question is delicately balanced. Probing and cautious, though not yet hopeful.

"Undo all that has been?"

The Garleans, he thinks he could spare. The glory of Allag he might miss. But to see their home restored, he would gladly unmake even that. But the question is: could she, when it would mean giving up her greatest masterwork?

[ancestor]

"No, not unwritten. Changed," she all but hisses, quiet and utterly determined. "Time is not linear—you know full well it branches as broadly as any tree. He and his ilk would be safe, and my kin can be spared so long as they listen."

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"Ah, to dream of paradise reborn and yet never see it."  There's a moment's pause, as much for dramatic effect as anything else, and then a sigh.  "But forgive an old man his foibles."

He knows, of course, that Amaurot had been anything but.  Not when one really looked at it.  Not when they'd been stubborn to the last and almost single-mindedly determined to not look outside their own walls.  But he allows himself the overstatement anyway; if nothing else the overdramatic nature of the moment will hopefully offer some respite from the tension that has sprung up.   And even if it should not, it might well distract from the fact that it's been ages since he last had cause to think about the nature of time.  Long enough that he had mostly forgotten the finer details.

There's a moment of silence, then, held just long enough to amplify the original effect, and then he continues on.

"Even should you arrive with evidence in hand, they may well not.  And I have no doubt they'd first wish to debate the information, and the best way to proceed."

And that is time their world might not have.

[ancestor]

"'Paradise?'" Hemera cannot help but scoff in disbelief at that. "It was home, Hades, but it was no paradise! Such a thing doesn't exist beyond flights of fancy and daydreams!"

She narrows her eyes at her dearest friend, finally separating herself from Ardbert to take a few steps closer to Hades. She adjusts her height as she walks, shrinking down until the disparity between their sizes has reversed.

"To the hells with the swivving Convocation! All they do is indulge in rhetoric and debate, never taking any action unless it impacts them! If it was Amaurot instead of what they deem to be a lowly farming village would they really have sat back and let the 'star's will' destroy their precious city?!" Her voice raises in volume, and the motions of her hands grow more impassioned. "We are not the executors of the star's will—we are the shepherds of our people! We are meant to guide them! Protect them! And if the others will not help me I'll just do it on my own, like I've always done!"

[unnecessaryflourishes]

"Do you think me blind to that truth?" he snaps back, throwing an arm out to the side as if to negate her very words in that single motion. He knows - down to the very heart of him - that it was nothing of the sort, that the idea of it having been paradise is naught more than something he lets himself believe. A comforting lie, to stand against the anguish that might well threaten to overcome him otherwise.

"That I would have forgotten that we were meant to protect our people? That I was meant to protect them?" His arm comes back the other way, at that, coming to rest against his breast. "That I have not lived with that failure each and every day for thousands upon thousands of years?"

Somewhere in the middle of his impassioned diatribe, his voice starts slipping lower again, to the point that it takes active and visible effort on his part to get his emotions back under control to even consider discussing the Convocation. And even then, he can't be said to be remotely calm either.

"You know they would have spared no effort. That it would finally have been enough to matter."

And in that, at least, he shares her frustrations. Willing though he had been to take the seat offered to him, he cannot say that he has always agreed with the Convocation and their decisions.

[firstbump]

Ardbert takes some steps back towards Seto as Seto takes steps forward to meet him. Seto lets out a khrrrrr, attempting to sooth Ardbert as best as he can by resting his chin gently onto his shoulder. The man doesn't look away from the spectacle before him, but he tilts his head to rest his check against Seto's head. Ardbert brings both his hands up, the nearest to Seto to rest on the side of his face, and the other to stroke his snout gently.

"Thank you, old friend," Ardbert whispers, some of the tension draining from him. "If they can't figure this out on their own, I'll have need of your talents to stop this from becoming too much."

He smiles slightly when Seto shifts just enough to show he understands before starting up a more rhythmic khrrrrr.

[ancestor]

"...You were blind to many things, but never that." As angry as she is, she won't deny the truth. "Still, you cannot say you haven't always held Amaurot upon a pedestal."

The first inkling of his age finally slips out and Hemera is not sure what to make of it. It is... overwhelming to think of and many, many more centuries than she had expected. In the end it only serves to anger her further. She seethes with it, body practically quivering from the effort of reining it all in.

For all that Hades can infuriate her like none other, he also has always understood.

She surges forward, lunging at the pompous lapels of his coat with her hands; clenches the fabric between her fingertips and yanks him downward with such force she's liable to break his nose on her face as she presses her lips to his.

[unnecessaryflourishes]

He's ready to defend himself, to offer his reasoning for having always held Amaurot on a pedestal, when she all but lunges for him, and for a split second he expects her to strike him. Enough so that he's momentarily surprised when she grabs his lapels instead and pulls him down into a kiss.

(He cares not the slightest for the fact that she might've broken his nose. The pain is fleeting, and it will be simple enough to heal it later.)

There's the briefest moment of surprise... and then he answers her kiss with one of his own, fierce and angry and almost desperate. He'd realized too late, before, that he had loved her; now that she is here, his hands rise almost unbidden to grasp at her shoulders, as if she might fade away into naught but pale memory otherwise.

[ancestor]

Kissing Hades is not at all like kissing Hythlodaeus, nor at all like she remembers the first (and only) kisses they shared so many centuries ago. There is no awkwardness, no uncertainty, no hesitance. It is just anger and heat and desperation, and Hemera responds in kind; fierce and passionate and filled with a love she can't believe she never noticed before.

His hands grasp at her shoulders and she slides a hand upward, pressing the pad of her thumb against the slope of his neck, tracing it as her hand continues its path to the back of his scalp. Once there, she grasps a fistful of hair in a firm grip, ensuring he can't pull away from her if he tried. When the taste of his blood reaches her tongue Hemera responds by pulling him closer, kissing him more deeply. She feels like there isn't enough time—that there will never be enough time—and it fills her with a frenzied energy she knows all too well.

Hades seems to understand it well now, too.

"Make love with me," Hemera demands, breathless.

[firstbump]

Ardbert was rolling in the emotions of moment to moment, word for word, feeling them so keenly as if they were his own. Seto's presence has divorced him of the worst of it and given his mind a solid footing.

Then Hemera kisses Hades.

"Ah." Ardbert feels his emotions mostly divorce from the moment, color rising to his cheeks. "I... believe they shall figure it out on their own after all."

Mostly divorce, because he can feel part of his soul, a piece of a piece of Hemera's, wishing that were him. Gods. It's the way they're kissing, the way Emet cares so desperately for his people. The tiredness that Ardbert in some small part understands. And so much more....

[unnecessaryflourishes]

He doesn't pull away. He doesn't want to pull away, and doesn't think he could even if he did. Not when he's rarely seen her like this, all passion and desperation, and to know that - this once, in this place - it is for him. For however much time they should have, and by the time she pulls away to ask her question he is very nearly breathless from the sheer desperation and desire of it all.

There's the briefest of pauses, just long enough for a single intake of breath-- and then with a snap of his fingers they are gone, leaving Ardbert to stand alone in the middle of the street.

[firstbump]

Then, all at once, Ardbert and Seto are alone. Both are momentarily confused before Ardbert laughs for a moment. He scratches Seto under his chin, clearing his throat.

"Ah. They're going to get... reaquainted with each other. They'll be fine. Let's go finish our errand, eh?" Ardbert is glad for it, not only for them but because he really needs to breathe after that whole.. thing.

Seto flicks his ear tufts and snorts, nuzzling Ardbert's reddening cheeks as they start walking again. "Oh, shush."