hadriel_logs | Event Log: Fourth Wall, Part One

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Event Log: Fourth Wall, Part One

Who: Everyone in the city + Fourth Wall visitors!
What: Part one of the fourth wall event, hosted by Fear, Confusion, and Delight!
Where: All around the city
When: October 24th-November 1st
Warnings: Visitors from other worlds!

If you're not from around here, you may be wondering what's going on. You've woken up out of the blue in the colosseum, or near a temple, or in one of the numerous other locations in the city. You're somewhere underground and it's dark, cold, and maybe a little unnerving.

Luckily, shortly after your arrival, the road below your feet begins to light up in a gentle, warm glow. The light points you in a set direction and, if you choose to travel that way, will lead you toward the center of the city, where there is a large gathering of others who are lost here like you, people who might know their way around a bit more, and even some of the gods who rule this place.

There are lights strung up on poles throughout the large clearing, casting a comforting glow onto the tables beneath them. The tables are abundant with lots of food that looks simply delicious- though, none of it tastes quite like it should. The tarts taste like green beans, the mashed potatoes like cheesecake, and the chocolate seems oddly reminiscent of steak. In addition, there are decorations artfully placed around the meeting point. If you see them moving, don't worry- that's probably just your imagination.

Also distributed along the tables are shot glasses, filled with a sludgy, yellow substance. If you're brave enough to consume them, they taste strongly of mint and will give you a much needed energy boost, circumventing the need to eat or sleep for a full 24 hours! After that, however, everything hits you all at once, so use them wisely. Some of you may remember these shots from our How Delightful event earlier this year!

In addition to all of the above, there are also party poppers strewn around the area. Each popper can jet out some strange objects- glitter bombs, seashells, plastic dinosaurs, maybe a live lizard or two- so be careful! Feel free to use your discretion on these, but remember to keep it small!
_

Of course, you can always not travel that way. The rest of the city has plenty of places to explore- maybe you'd like to stumble in our Silent Hill zone, have a quick look around the alien orchard, or check out any of the god temples that can inspire their chosen emotion. Be careful not to get lost in the tunnels leading away from the cave- none of them can actually move you above ground, but you may run into a few monsters on the way.

For those of you who have been with us awhile, please bear with the gods while they try to adjust around these new folks! Join in on the festivities if you like, or try to orient as many of the others as you can. Start a community outreach program, start a fight club, introduce your parents to your weird cave girlfriend- nobody's judging!

Well. Some of us might be.
_

Enjoy the fourth wall event at Hadriel! Once you're settled in feel free to explore the rest of the city! Find a house, find a new monster, or simply scavenge for supplies.

Fourth wall characters do not enter with phones so they cannot reach the network- however, if you'd like to handwave that they somehow got ahold of Mello's Newcomer guide to avoid the 'where am I/what is this' sort of questions, then feel free!

Good luck, and enjoy your stay in Hadriel!

► This log covers October 24th-November 1st.
► Feel free to make your own logs as well! Fourth wall characters will not have posting access, so grab an in-game friend if you wanted to do anything separate from the main log.
► Fourth wall characters will be in the city for at least one week, though they can stay for longer. The party will go on throughout the entire week, thanks to Delight's boundless energy!
► Please put your character's name and open/closed in the subject line of your starters!

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[And the knife goes away again. Why? And here they were expecting them to be hankering for a FIGHT. Perhaps they still are, in a sense. Possibly not in quite such a literal fashion.]

That isn't up to you, [they say, stitching the words out from sharp-snapped consonants and a cold, smiling glare,] is it?

There's a reason our attempts [and they draw out the word with all the weight it deserves] - failed.

[More like the beginning. More like the Dummy. Because they learned with judgments that FIGHTING got them nowhere. A little stronger, but nowhere else.]

It isn't, I suppose.

[That doesn't mean they wished it was. If that candle was snuffed out then none of this would have happened. Perhaps the Monsters may have never escaped. But they might have found HOPE and never had it torn away from them.]

Do we all...in every world, do we fail and meet Asriel?

[Was that set in stone?]

[Their smile grows thin. It almost falls away, but they don't allow themself that luxury. Still, they - they have to look away. Drop their gaze and watch the ground with lidded brown eyes.]

It seems so.

You know he wouldn't have it any other way.

[And their smile, immediately, softens, the tension in their frame draining by increments.]

He still insists we're the best thing to ever happen to him. And he was to us.

[Some bitter, awful part of them wants to ask if it's also forever that Chara ruins Asriel and eventually leads to his death. But they don't.]

Our Best Friend.

[Chara reaches up, fiddles with the golden Locket around their neck. Sometimes it was Hope, sometimes it felt like a noose. Either way it beat against their chest and was one of the pair with Best Friends written on the back. On the inside...was their secret.]

Perhaps...it still would have been for the best if mine had never met me.

[Chara smiles, though it is not as bladed and sharpened to a vicious point as before. It's gentler. Even.]

Let me tell you something. You can tell me if it sounds familiar.

[A knife slips easily and cleanly from their jacket sleeve. It's nothing special, not ringed with red and white crescents, trailing red motes like wisps of its own energy, crested with flakes of dust. It's just an ordinary one. They don't, can't, won't ever go anywhere unarmed.

They look at it as they hold it loosely in their hand, not as a weapon, but simply as a non-threatening object.]

At some point, we make a decision. We are more useful to monsterkind dead than we are alive. Alive, we are simply a burden. Dead, our SOUL can at least be of use to them, in the long run. The barrier can be brought down.

And Asriel - has no idea, does he? He doesn't know how close we've come to the edge. How often we've almost done it.

[Their hand drops, the knife disappears back into their sleeve, and they look at their double, steadily.]

It seems only one of us had the strength to carry that out, and only one of us had the strength not to.

[For the first time in this conversation, Chara's eyes divert from their double and stare at the knife in their...ah, yes. The Real Knife was their weapon now, but that didn't mean that Chara was unfamiliar with a blade. Avoid answering questions about the ones missing from the kitchen drawer, stored in a hidden place. Don't go outside without something to defend yourself. Never. They can never be unarmed because it felt that much safer. Even with Frisk, Chara had the Real Knife.

Chara fiddles with their sleeves before meeting their eyes again.]

It never went away. Even with all of their kindness, it'll never go away.

[They don't have to elaborate what the 'it' is, do they?]

Six SOULs. With mine, it would be seven. That would have been enough to break the Barrier. It...I should have not done it.

[And that's the biggest sin of all because of all that it had done. Maybe, if that photograph that Sans now possessed came to be, there may be something. But Asriel is still doomed to what Chara had left them. The child would have been fine with remaining as the voice in the back of a child's head and there they couldn't hurt anyone. But Asriel would remain a SOUL-less flower for the rest of his life.

* And it's all your fault!]

It is not strength. LV 20 is not strength.

[Carving a dusty trail through the Underground was easy. Sure, there was the Undying. Sure, there was Sans. Otherwise? Nothing gave them trouble. Sometimes they'd attack the air for the heck of it while calling for help.

Chara draws their arms around themselves. They don't want to shake but they do.]

It was anger. I was angry at what had been done to Monsters. I wished to free them. And look at what I did.

[No, they don't need to elaborate at all. They know full well what it feels like to have that weight shackled to you, to be afraid, so afraid, and uncertain, and waiting for the other shoe to drop. For the Dreemurrs' seemingly unending kindness to switch on a dime, for them to realize just what they had brought into their house. Their kindness, their love - it had hurt more than they could bear. Why, god why, would they ever care for a filthy little human, a scummy, terrible demon, even lesser than human?

It does, indeed, sound familiar. And perhaps LOVE gives you power - or the illusion of it. An illusion is yet enough for a child who is used to having such things stripped away.]

We always did have an instinct for justice, did we not?

[The urge to claw their way out of the Underground, but not for any sense of wanting to return to humanity, no. It was instead the desire to show them, to prove to them, just what they had thrown away when they'd sealed monsters Underground. To make them pay for what they did. Give them the retribution they deserved.

It was not enough. Maybe it never will be.]

As much as justice, as judgment might befit someone like us - we aren't always correct, are we? Perhaps our kind is cruel, and terrible.

[They flex their hands as they slide them back into their pockets.]

But we met one that proved otherwise, didn't we?

[Chara had assumed it was an act of some sort. Adults pretending to care for them because that's what they did when you had a broken leg and look, other adults, we care for our child! Now get out once it heals. Get out before we learn what a dirty thing you are.

But it never happened. Just hot chocolate and warm food and hands to catch you when you fell because you were bedridden for a long time and were stiff when you got out of bed. Respectful distance when the Dreemurrs' realized that touches made them jump and quiet when a dropped plate nearly made them scream. They were the family in those story books, the Real Ones princes and princesses found at the end of the fairy tales that cared for them.

* And look how well that ended.

But LV 20 gave Chara a sense of control. Stronger. They couldn't be hurt. But they couldn't love. And it, in the end and honest to god, was not worth it at all.]

Frisk.

[They say their partner's name and feel a little better. The other Chara was right in that regard.]

The exception to the rule. What are they like in your time?

[The human. They've at least come to learn that is their name, and feel less guilty about never asking it. Or not daring to. It was easier to regard them as the threat they were before they came to know them in any capacity. They were quiet, in any case. Quiet, and non-talkative, and that had suited Chara just fine.

They smile, regarding the middle distance.]

They are pleasant enough. They haven't killed anyone. Have been nothing but unfailingly polite and kind. At least thus far.

And in yours?

[They cannot imagine they view the human with anything but fondness, with the way their air had relaxed, if marginally, as they'd uttered it aloud. Such things would be imperceptible to all but someone who's grown adapt at reading those slight shifts and tics. You can't play a player, after all.]

[No, definitely not in this case. Chara can't play Chara. They went into this judgment knowing there wouldn't be any way to hide.]

They are much of the same. The Frisk here comes from near the beginning, I believe, so not much has been decided. But we are partners.

[It's not a shift of blame but if Chara was going to be absolutely honest here, then they had to say that they walked the path hand in hand.]

I suppose some things never change.

["Mirror." "Partner." Silly nicknames dispensed upon a human who may emerge an ally or worse, who may prove what they'd believed about humans from the very beginning. Even now, still, a part of them, the part of them that they hate, waits for them to dissemble, waits for the other shoe to drop, waits for them to show their true colors.]

If they end up being the one good thing we do...perhaps that will be enough.

[That may have been the case when the path of genocide was chosen. The shoe dropped and for a moment Chara thought "Finally." Then they felt nothing at all.

But they knew Frisk's nature. They were kind and gentle. They were capable of genocide. But there was always that chance of going back to crinkling leaves and love.

Always a chance.]

Perhaps so. Maybe I will be able to rest when it's done.

["Rest." There's very little doubt in their mind what they truly mean by that. A kind euphemism, defanged and harmless. There is little point for a thing like them.

* 1 left.

Before they sleep.]

Has it occurred to you that there may be things worth staying awake for?

It is difficult to think of. After what I did, death was the least I deserve.

[It would have been worse if Asriel's death had, in some sick joke, brought Chara back to life. The last person in the world who deserved it.]

...but I do have to try, don't I? Beings like us don't QUIT. We can't.

[As much as they wanted to. As much as Chara called its name, they couldn't QUIT.]

[A world that struggles so gamely to keep them alive, even if they do not deserve it. It is certainly a kind of hell, is it not? Why would something like them be allowed to touch something as fragile and precious as life? Given second chances and second chances and second chances?

Perhaps they really are burning in hell already.]

If you have someone who has come to rely on you being there...perhaps learning to QUIT will have to wait.

[Perhaps everything in the Underground was a hell for them. Their family was broken and Chara was in a weird state of "alive". It's the least they deserved, isn't it?]

Perhaps so. I will see through the choices that Frisk makes along side them.

[Chara hasn't exited the golden hallway just yet.]

Good.

[Their voice is quiet, but...satisfied. Undeniably satisfied. Considerably more at ease than they were before.]

It seems that no matter what world we live in, we are always intended to be their partner.

[They can feel it. Chara still has a guard up but in the way that Chara is Chara and they're sure the other them knows why. But the likelihood of anything happening was less than zero.]

Always fated to fall, to meet Asriel and his family. To be their partner.

[They smile a little, genuine and happy.]

I had stated that there was no going back. I was wrong. There should be one more path left for us.

[One more photo. Just because the photograph of the smiling face were all crossed out...didn't mean it was fate. That was all up to them, wasn't it?]

Determination.

The resolve to change fate.

[With that at their disposal, they can accomplish nearly anything. Nearly anything. Determination is not necessarily the end-all and be-all, but it can be...enough, sometimes.

Enough to alter things. Or, conversely, to keep things the way they are.]

[Not the end all like Resets are not an automatic means of dodging the consequences. But sometimes it's enough to just...put one foot forward one more time. And some days it's worth doing it.

Some days, it's worth it to hope.]

* Despite everything, you're still yourself.
* But that doesn't mean you cannot change.

[Continuing to be yourself. The dots of asterisks are a little odd, strange and unique, but they won't begrudge their double that.]

And you never know.

[Their eyes flare red for a moment, the same shade as their doppelganger's, and then they close them. When they flick open, they're brown again, and in the next blink they're standing behind Chara in an abrupt snap of displacement that might seem not-so-subtly familiar. Not so unlike that of a grinning skeleton.]

Sometimes there's more to yourself than you might think.

[Speaking of strange and unique.

Something catches in Chara's throat when the other them disappears and reappears behind them. They whip around and expect bones to erupt from the ground and pierce their flesh any second. But no, it's not that. Back to a snowy bridge, speaking to Sans and seeing the lights of his eyes go out, feeling something bottom out in the pit of their stomach as he gave them his...warning. And then he was gone. Faster.

Chara doesn't equip the Real Knife again. But this one could probably recognize their hand curling around a weapon that wasn't there.]

...it seems we are full of surprises. I cannot claim to know a trick like that.

[It's a pretty understandable instinct, especially coming from another Chara. But they keep their smile soft and easy, not the vibrant, edged thing it can easily become.]

You might be surprised.

[Their fingers open and close in their pockets, an unintentional mirror of their...mirror, ha. Flexing, reaching for a weapon they don't need.]

Humans dislike anything they do not understand. Including magic.

[And one of their own who can use magic? Why, that's practically anathema. Practically sub-human. Lesser than monsters. Lesser than human.

They had a word for something like that, didn't they.]

[Freak, sub-human, anomaly.

Demon.]

There were history books at school. We were taught that tale.

[It took..."artistic liberties", shall we say, with the whole thing. Even the humans that possessed magic, the ones who sealed away those dangerous Monsters were treated as weird. Chara had been fascinated by the whole thing regardless. The idea of magic still appealed to a child that young, before they had given up.]

Did you know this before your own fall?

That I could do things that scared people?

[They almost bare their teeth at that, like an animal. They'd spent nights under their bed (where monsters belong), running their tongue over their canines as if expecting them to bloom into sharpened points, heralding their incipient transformation into something so terrible and terrifying that no one, not even a monster like them, could ever love it.

That had been the big joke, of course. They were already a horrible thing from the start. It had simply taken them some time to realize.]

Well. [Their smile is smaller, softer. Sadder.] Why do you think kids like us climb mountains like that?

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Event Log: Fourth Wall, Part One

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cw suicide allusions

continued warnings likely

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