hadriel_logs | Event Log: Fourth Wall, Part One

Entry tags:

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!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I think there is. My Chara and me, we've...we've learned a lot since we ended up in Wonderland.

[This version of them seems much more - much more willing to allow themself to hope, if only externally. That's something. Their own Chara wasn't even willing to do that much, at first. It took months before they would admit that they weren't truly some malicious shade sent to make Frisk's life worse in every conceivable way.]

We all make mistakes. We've done bad things. I've done bad things. But we...we just gotta choose to be better. And we keep choosing it. Long as you stay together, I think you can do it.

[They had been told time and again that whatever Chara did in Hadriel would stick. Maybe a Reset could happen but nothing on the scale of the Underground. Nothing like putting the chess pieces back into place to just play again.]

For the better. It is not an easy choice to continue to be good. I never was a good child.

[For a time, yes. But they liked to forget about those times.]

But maybe there is another path more suited. Regardless, I hope you and your Chara continue to be together as well.

I think you were.

[They say it with fond simplicity, as if it simply hadn't occurred to them that Chara isn't. Of course Chara would refute that with their dying breath, at every possible moment - but Frisk will be there to insist it to be true, every time.]

It's...hard. Being apart. Isn't it?

[Frisk gets a probably expected huff of air in disagreement but Chara doesn't press the issue.]

It is. There are uses to having a body again...it is difficult to explain.

[How do you explain needing to be back in someone's mind when many would prefer having limbs? How do you explain the bond between the two of them, when Frisk and Chara blur into * It's us?

It's hard, even for one of the pair who's in that situation. It's hard but this Frisk probably understands it.]

[It occurs to them that...well, it might be weird. It might be weird if they - but it is a Chara that they're talking to, and it's clear that they miss sharing that SOUL, being the asterisk in someone's mind.

When Frisk replies, it is tentatively, slowly, laden with uncertainty.]

You know, there's...there's ways to feel the way you did back Underground.

[Chara can't help but fix them with an odd look. A way to feel the same as they did in the Underground? Sure, they were a Frisk from somewhere else so they may have learned of such a way. But it still sounds strange.

Their reply is is slow as well, but curious as well.]

Such a thing exists? What is it?

It's called resonance.

[They open their hand for a moment, and concentrate, breathing in and out with a slow, pulsing regularity. Then, slowly, inexorably, it materializes.

Their SOUL hovers a few inches above their open palm, as if in an encounter. It bobs there idly, red and warm and you can feel it beating.]

It's when two SOULs can communicate. The more...in tune you are, with how you both feel, the longer it can work.

[It's so bright. Maybe not in the way light is but in the way that someone who's own SOUL had been tangled within it. They want to reach out and touch it but refrain. It's not theirs. Well, they think that but it's probably written on their face.]

How do you do that?

[There's nothing about this in their memory for all the runs so it must be something this Frisk picked up in Wonderland.]

You just sort of...it's like an encounter, but...not.

[A vague explanation, but it's a vague feeling. The scarlet pulse of their SOUL, gently beating like a heart would, warms their palms, as if they're holding their hands over the fire in Toriel's hearth.]

You don't have to, but it can...make it easier. To feel what someone else feels.

[To be able to feel what someone else feels. Back on the Surface that was the last thing Chara wanted. They closed their heart off for a reason, many reasons and showing it to someone wasn't exactly something that came easy to them. But then there was the Underground, Frisk and Hadriel itself. The walls were coming down, bit by bit.]

If...if it is not awkward because I am not your Chara...may we...?

[Chara starts to regret asking, hence the hesitation of their question. It'll probably be turned down but this seemed like something that could not be explained in words alone.]

Of course we can, silly.

[The answer comes a little too quickly, maybe, because they'd anticipated it, expected the question to come because Frisk had been the same, when the other Chara had shown them.]

My Chara didn't teach me. Another one did. But I can still teach you, I think.

[The warmth and resonance of another SOUL. Even if it can be - jarring, it's still worth it, in their eyes. Worth it if another one of them can learn and do something they love with it.]

It can be strange, at first, [they say softly, warningly,] and if your feelings start to...conflict, it'll stop. But it's okay if it takes a few tries.

[They know, or they think they know, what to expect. There's the self-blame, the loathing, the spiking determination that swells like a pulse of HoPe - they know that's what most Charas seem to find in Frisks, and what Frisks seem to find in Charas. The initial shock might cut things short, but they can always try again.

They can always try again.]

[Another Chara, hun? It really does seem that, regardless of the time and universes, Chara always finds Frisk and vice versa. They take a breath. Frisk says it's okay to take a few tries and they'll probably need it. Opening yourself up - physically, mentally, ect - wasn't easy. Sometimes it's a floodgate when a human called Demon and their former executioner lie together on broken concrete or it's a quiet moment where two kids sit at a table with a Mother's pie. Comes in all sorts of forms, more than those two incidents.

It can be sitting alone and thinking too hard. So it was better to simply stop thinking all together.]

What do I need to do?

[First, Frisk settles down on the ground, cross-legged, with an expectant lift to their eyebrows to indicate that Chara should do the same. Their SOUL still drifts in front of them idly, warm and determination-red. Perhaps it's vulnerable like this, but they know Charas. They trust Charas.]

You don't have to summon your SOUL too, but it can...it can help. It's like starting an encounter, only not...not so you can attack.

[It had been a strange feeling, the snap and pull of a SOUL slipping from where it resided inside them.]

You just...let it happen. You feel it beating.

[Chara joins them on the ground and yet again has to resist a joke about it. Jokes about death called to them and they can't imagine why! But Chara puts it aside for the moment.]

Okay. I...will try that now.

[At LV 20 it is very easy to start an encounter. Many moments of starting one and * Nobody came responding back in their own time. But starting an encounter without a FIGHT. Or maybe even without MERCY? Maybe a different kind of MERCY but that makes Chara think about Toriel and they just...stop that thought. Focus on something else.

Beating. Chara looks at Frisk's SOUL. Warm, close and red but not their red. And while it was warm and full of kindness it was also a lump of scar tissue. Blasted apart and put back together by their Determination. Refusal. Love. Chara's hope because Frisk was the first human that, while they carried a SOUL that was heavy under their sins and scars, did not color themselves like the other children the Fallen Child had known.

Beating. They clutch at the Locket they always wear. The final memory they have of Asriel as himself. It too, was always warm. And they did not wear it for the 99 defense it provided but because it was right where it belonged. Chara did not deserve Asriel and his parents' love but received it none the less. And so they did what they did.

It flows and Chara's own SOUL appears. It's, unsurprisingly, a mess. A fraction of a whole and what they could scrap together from their own Determination and a little bit of spite. What was tied to Frisk's for the longest time. And for what feels like a very, very long time, Chara doesn't say anything.]

* You feel it beating.

...what happens next...?

[It...looks a lot like the one that belongs to the Chara they know. Disjointed, fractured, something pulled awkwardly together. They'd caught the tail-end of Chara's thoughts about it, the way they'd regarded it with utter revulsion. Like a scab being lifted. A rotten little shriveled walnut-sized tumor in place of a heart. But Frisk smiles encouragingly, patiently.

It's okay. They'll love them no matter what shape they take.]

You just...

[They reach out with an open hand, gently, to cup one hand a few inches beneath Chara's SOUL. The resonating thrum of another mind, someone else's thoughts hissing like a razor blade drawn over grass, like wind shearing over rocks, tickles the posterior of their thoughts.

They incline their head to indicate that Chara do the same.

To start to feel the rush and burn of another being's determination, cold and hot and together, reveling in the sameness before the inevitable shock jars them apart again.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Event Log: Fourth Wall, Part One

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject