EVENT - Ripple and Warp IC log (part 1!)

[pluviosamods]

ripple and warp

Hello and welcome to the IC log for Pluviosa's Fourth Wall event, Ripple and Warp!

In addition to providing information about how characters arrive on the new deck (whether they're existing passengers or not), this post also serves as a place where Fourth Wall characters can post top-levels without joining the game community.

Further information on Fourth Walls in general and the other accompanying OOC updates to the game can be found on the OOC information post here. This post also serves in lieu of a regular between-events Test Drive.

Finally, you may now start sending in your applications to keep your AU, CRAU, and so on characters around after the Fourth Wall! Be sure to note the minor changes to the Applications page (namely, the addition of an "AU information" section).

Without further ado - How did you get here? And more importantly, where is 'here' anyway?

existing characters

Whether or not characters remember falling asleep on the evening of Day 37, they wake up somewhere different on Day 38, lying on a couch in an almost-familiar room. The couch is similar to the ones in the lounge, though those with keen noses will note that the cushions don't smell the same - there's no scent of your fellow passengers, or of the faint hint of an unknown, arid place that first accompanied the clean furnishings the Ship dragged out.

The room isn't one you've been in before, either, but it's still clearly on the Ship somewhere - there's the familiar motion of the legs moving, and the overhead emergency lights (the only source of light initially in the room) are the same as the ones in the hallways on Fern that the Ship has been working so hard to restore. However, that doesn't mean that it's hard to see - indeed, considering the contents of the room, the low lighting might be a blessing in disguise.

It's full of mirrors.

Not only the sorts of mirrors that character would expect to find, the ones that have been missing from the Ship's bathrooms and other expected places, though there are certainly plenty of those in the room - but the walls, the door, and the ceiling are also all mirrors. Mirrors hang on a portion of the larger furniture in what appears to be the living room of a suite. It's not as dramatic as it could be, but aside from the couch characters wake up on, it's pretty close. The floor, at least, is not reflective mirrors, though it's not much less shiny - instead of the usual hotel-esque carpet of the suites, there's seamless stone tile in stormcloud grey, slight variations in the color indicating marble. And all of those reflective surfaces are perfectly clean - although it's possible to find dried spots of decay on the backs of the mirrors, overall, it seems as though time doesn't have claim on this part of the Ship, much less the Growth.

And of course, where there are mirrors, there are reflections.

Some of them - probably the majority - are normal, perfect mirrors of the person the character expects to see. Some of them are distorted, but in a normal, mundane way - funhouse mirrors among the panels on the walls, making you wide or skinny or warped.

And then some of them show reflections of you that are distorted, not as in bent, but as in there being something different about the you that's in them. Different clothes; different hair; different age; different species. Added scars, or missing ones; limbs missing, or replaced with something else. A completely unknown you in the mirror.

For the most part, these altered reflections act the way you would expect, imitating the movements of the rest of the reflections in the room. But sometimes they don't. Sometimes they climb out of the mirror - and whether they're friendly or not remains to be seen.

There's a note on the mirror-topped table next to the couch. In backwards writing that needs to be held up to a mirror to be read easily, it says:

Thanks for visiting! I'm sorry I couldn't be there to meet you, but there's just so many people here today!

I wonder if you'll get a chance to meet the real you?

Good luck!

new characters and visitors

For those who are new around here, the method of arrival is... a bit different. This applies equally to characters who are just here for the fourth wall (alternates of existing characters etc) or those who will be apped as permanent residents - there isn't a distinction to these categories until the end of the event.

These characters arrive with a first sensation of being pressed against a hard, glass surface - not unlike the whispers of sensation that haunted the existing passengers over the last few days. The difference is that this time, the glass you're pressed against isn't a horizontal floor or bed - it's vertical or at least mostly vertical, and you can tell which way is down.

Or, put another way: Newly arrived characters start their boatride on the wrong side of the mirrors that are packed away into the unknown deck. They are facing towards the real world side, the way they would if they were reflections made physical, but turning around and looking behind them is nearly impossible.

Indeed, there's a growing pressure forcing them against the glass barrier. It grows harder and harder to breathe, almost like drowning, or being crushed by water pressure -

Until, just when you think you can't survive any more, something gives way, and you stumble out of the mirror into the real world. It's not the glass breaking - it's more like forcing your way through a soap bubble or the membrane that sits inside an eggshell that separates the hard pieces from the white. Water, too, cascades down out of the mirror with you, splattering all over the floor, but it's just water, and it doesn't seem to have left more than a bit of surface dampness on you.

However, when characters turn around, they will find that while the glass is still in place and unbroken, the mirror will no longer reflect anything - not even the shine of light cast on the glass - rendering these mirrors completely black. This reflectivity stays on the puddle of water around your feet instead, which aggressively reflects the area around it even if taken elsewhere - even if poured into a cup. In motion, it's too transparent to be taken for mercury or silver, but when pooled undisturbed, it does not ripple in response to the motion of the ship. Only the actions of characters or other forces can cause ripples. Otherwise, it appears to be normal water.

Characters who are alternates of each other might come out of the mirrors while they're literally being reflected (a certain surprise for those who are on the normal side of the mirror doing the looking), but they might also just appear in rooms all by themselves, or in the presence of someone else they know (or think they know). Those who don't have any immediate connections among the current passengers are more likely to appear in some empty room, but ultimately this is left to player discretion.

shallower reflections

Not all reflections are as potentially friendly as those played by those of us on the player side of the screen, however. In addition to the "deeper" reflections played by real humans, who have or at least appear to have personalities and histories of their own, there are also "shallow" reflections. Unlike the Fourth Wall arrivals, shallow reflections can't be of characters who aren't present at the time - they only appear in response to characters looking into mirrors (whether those characters are existing residents or new arrivals).

The shallow reflections come out of the mirrors just like the Fourth Wall arrivals, but there's always something a little off about them. Some of them stay reversed like a reflection; some of them don't make any noise when they move and cannot speak; some of them come out of the mirrors with the funhouse-esque warped reflections and stay that way. Like their more 'real' counterparts, the mirrors the shallow reflections come out of turn completely flat, unreflective black; unlike their counterparts, they don't really hesitate in striding out, much less stumble and potentially collapse.

What do they want? To shove whoever they're a reflection of into the black mirror they came from. What happens if they succeed?

You die. I mean, probably. There's no way of knowing unless one of them does succeed, after all. If you want your character to die in this fashion, please let the mod team know. While we cannot guarantee that interesting things will happen to all characters (and those who are only here to visit for the Fourth Wall are not eligible), this may have permanent consequences for your character, take them out of play for longer ICly than a typical death, or impact other characters in the game beyond the typical levels of emotional harm. Or some combination of all three.

Fortunately, the shallow reflections only have physical strength on their side - they do not possess any powers of those they take the shapes of, and they can be killed in largely the same way as unremarkable flesh and blood humans. A killing blow causes them to collapse into the same hyper-reflective water as described above; the mirror they came out of remains black.

??? deck

The deck itself is open fully to character navigation. Like the lab specimen storage of Zinnia, this deck - whose name is not posted anywhere for characters to find easily - is clear of any signs of Growth, and manages to feel chilly even if you get up to the top deck where the sun is shining.

Or... Should be shining. Regardless of the weather on other deck dimensions, the skies above this deck are
always, at best, a cloudy, half-stormy grey. The air above hangs tense, like the clouds are waiting for something to happen. Unlike the other instances of Ship weather, you don't need Neuvillette's particular affinity with water to sense it - any character with empathic or telepathic powers will be able to feel the sense of looming, helpless frustration in the clouds.

The most notable feature of this deck, of course, is that it's full of mirrors. Indeed, it's not only the mirrors that are missing from the suite bathrooms, the public restrooms by the cafeteria, and so on - there are far more mirrors than the Ship would reasonably need to outfit the decks it has, even including the multidimensional nature of it. Mirrors hang from the walls, and then more mirrors lean against those, or against the other furnishings, or even against each other (since some of them are standing mirrors), and the groups against the walls are often five or six panels deep with the largest at the back the side of the glass panels of the Ship's sliding glass balcony doors. (Yes, those are also replaced by mirrors, reflective in both directions.) Tabletops are reflective in their own rights, and then littered with even more, antique-looking hand mirrors and makeup compacts and those little circular mirrors sold in bags by the dozen at the craft store, only an inch across.

Considering all the reflective surfaces, it might be a good thing that there is only emergency power supplied to this deck - enough to keep the guide lights on and ensure that the sliding doors (though not the elevators) are working, and that whatever system pumps water through the faucets and showers is still going. The water is all cold, however, and there isn't any food available on the deck so far as characters are able to find. In the place where characters are used to finding the cafeteria, there is instead a terrifying mirrored bar filled with empty bottles and glasses as well as - well. Take a guess.

With the exception of the sliding glass doors in the suites, the glass of windows and so forth seems to be what it should be - though it's more reflective than seems natural, too. Like Zinnia, the cleaniness of this deck means that characters have full run of it, all the way down to the lounge on the bottom of the Ship - which is the only place that isn't completely clean on this deck. The super-reflective water that pours out of the mirrors seems to have flowed down here at some point, where it sits, unaffected by the motion of the Ship, about an inch deep across the entire floor. This water is the only feature down in the bottom lounge - there is no furniture, in contrast to its Zinnia counterpart.

And on this floor, at the very bottom, and only this floor, the reflective water has the smell - only the smell, not any other qualities - of fresh blood.

The Ship will not answer characters here - although the terminals in the residential deck that can normally be used to communicate with it (in whatever limited capacity) are present, their screens are (of course!) mirrors, and unresponsive. There's also no signs of drones about, not even the basic roomba-like cleaning drones; there's no evidence that they've been here recently, either.

A follow-up log, in which the Ship manages to make contact with characters wherever they are, will be posted later (mod goal time is 2-3 weeks from now). That log will take place on Day 40 and will bring with it food (for everyone who has gotten very hungry by then) and drone assistance, but whether characters actually manage to escape at that point or later on on Day 42 is left open to the opinions of you, the players! Both current players and visitors will be able to vote in a Discord poll on the matter, to be posted in the Discord announcements channel tomorrow (after you've had the chance to sleep on this post and let it cook in your brains a little).

Happy playing! Questions can be asked on Discord or added to the usual questions header below this post.

Comments

[airplaneskyward]

"Stop fucking hurting him!" Shang Beida gestures, firing a blast of spiritual energy at Casper Sr., while Kao Ci goes in to hamstring him. "Casper, you don't have to fight him, I have it covered, come over here. You absolutely do not have to shoot a gun. Asshole, most people are sympathetic when someone has trauma, not whatever the fuck you're doing, fuck your mother!"

cw: mentions of familicide

[experimentum]

The energy forces him to take a step back and the slice to his leg makes him stumble. "You're really -" He can't help but laugh, a little shaky. "My mother? My parents were both fools." Stupid, simple people who couldn't see beyond their town, their country, their continent - even their own reality.

Casper's face is pale and he finally drops the gun at his feet. There's a loud bang as it does and a bullet fires into the wall, shattering a mirror. Casper lets out a yelp and jumps back several feet out of instinct before his knees give out, leaving him shaking on the floor.

"... What kind of demigod jumps at the slightest noise? Pathetic." He walks towards Casper despite his wound, blood trail stopping a step or two after he begins. "Maybe I should have left you with your brother."

[airplaneskyward]

Shang Beida lunges between Casper Sr. and Casper. "Absolutely the fuck not, stay away from him and go join your fucked up Nazi experiment son in goat piss hell!" He flings a hand out, slamming another burst of spiritual energy into Sr.'s chest. The fucker is durable, he keeps healing. How far does that go? He directs Kao Ci to try and slice one of his legs off entirely. If he can stop the fucker walking he can't keep coming towards Casper.

"心爱, breathe, it's okay, you're okay. Bob, can you go to him, I don't have extra hands right now."

[experimentum]

He steps out of the way so that the blade only slices into him rather than takes off a leg, continuing towards them. Bob flies over to Casper and puffs up, croaking at the mage.

"Why do you defend him so fiercely? You know he's a failure. He's barely useful as a tool, let alone as a person. I don't understand what you see in him."

[airplaneskyward]

“He’s not a failure, and people aren’t tools. Casper is amazing, he’s kind and funny and sweet, and he’s worth twelve of you! I don’t care about him to use him, I care about him because he’s himself!” He’s still kind of trying not to out their relationship to Sr. since Casper had said they were just friends. “Just because assholes keep hurting him doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with him, it means there’s something wrong with you! Normal people don’t treat their children like that!”

Shang Beida brings Kao Ci back around into his hands, catching hold of it and holding it up in a guard position, because at this point he feels better with his sword with him. He runs through the contents of his sleeves in his mind, trying to decide what might be most helpful.

[experimentum]

"You're wrong about many things." He sighs and crosses his arms. "He's at least told me the basics of this place - some sort of rift between realms - so at least he's good for that much."

As for the rest... "We're not a normal family and he knows that." "... I didn't for a long time." His father just rolls his eyes. "Now you're trying to stand up to me? Adorable. And as for your little 'friend' here, why don't I -"

Casper says nothing for a few long seconds, pulling himself up a little bit. "... Shut up." He can feel the anger building in his chest, can feel everything trying to explode. "You can talk to me like that. You can hurt me. I don't care. I don't care anymore what you do, but if you try to hurt my friends..." He stands up, a steely look on his face.

"Then I'll hurt you." His father tries to hold in a laugh.

[airplaneskyward]

"You're just too much of an asshole to recognize a good person when you see one. And yeah, you're not a normal family, because you are an asshole who doesn't treat your children as your children, but that's a you problem, not a him problem! Casper didn't do shit all to deserve having such incredibly terrible fucking parents!"

"心爱, I care if you get hurt. I'm fine, you don't have to fight him." To prove how fine he is, he flicks something out of his sleeves, some bullshit xianxia powder that explodes in Sr.'s face with a bright sparkle of fireworks (and a mind-clouding effect), and lunges out with Kao Ci, sending a sword glare directly at the asshole's chest, because he is so over trying to do nonfatal injuries.

[experimentum]

The mind-clouding effect doesn't seem to bother him and he blinks away the daze, trying to get away from the attack. It strikes him in the shoulder and he snarls, putting a hand to the shoulder and taking a step back.

The mage looks at Shang Beida, looks at Casper, and then just chuckles darkly. "Fine. You can have him for now. But I'm not leaving this place without him." He turns and starts to walk away, wincing slightly. If Shang Beida moves to attack him, Casper will just... touch his shoulder and shake his head.

[airplaneskyward]

Shang Beida unwillingly lets Casper hold him back and lets his horrible father leave. He doesn't let his guard down, towing Casper (and Bob) along with him in the opposite direction, just to get away from that horrible fucker.

"Are you okay, baobei?" he demands once they're a hallway away. "He absolutely can leave this place without you, he can't have you. You're not a thing to be had, anyway, you're a person, and he's a dick, and I hate him so much holy shit. Sorry. I know you have more complicated feelings about him but my feelings are very violent."

[helborn]

"I'm -" He's not okay. He's not okay and he knows his boyfriend knows it. He doesn't like his father but he also doesn't like seeing him hurt, and - and also there's still a gun in the hallway maybe? Maybe his father picked it up.

But he shakes a little bit, hugging Shang Beida and burying his face into his robe. He's not crying, he feels too empty for that. He forgot how hollow being around his father makes him feel. Honestly he's not sure if it'd be worse if Caspian showed up or his father. His mother showing up is unthinkable. He glances to the side and -

... Oh. He stares into the mirror for a long moment. It's him - older, wearing a suit. Mimicking his position but... he lets go and just sits in front of the mirror, staring. ... That's what he wanted, right? What he wanted to be? What he could have been.

What he should have been. If he'd had a different family... if he never awoke to his powers as a Scion. The him that could have lived a quiet life - maybe not a happy one, but a quiet one helping others. He reaches out to touch the mirror, pressing his forehead against it. "... I'm sorry." His voice is tight and raspy. He's not sure who he's apologizing to.

[airplaneskyward]

Shang Beida hugs Casper close. "I'm sorry, baobei. I just-- I couldn't stand how he was treating you, and I probably only accomplished making him hurt you more." He sounds miserable and guilty.

He kneels behind Casper when he sits on the floor, wrapping his arms around his shoulders. He doesn't want to let go. "I love you," he says quietly.

[helborn]

"... I love you, too." He feels his words slurring slightly, the taste of ichor still in his mouth. He'll... heal it. Eventually. He doesn't feel like it right now. ... A little internal bleeding is probably fine.

He closes his eyes, feeling drained. He feels sick. He feels like he needs a shower and also a nap and some food and he's not sure if he can get any of those right now. "I don't... I don't want him to die. I don't... I don't want him... I don't want to hurt him. I still care about him, I just - I don't know. I don't..."

He's not sure what sort of reflection Shang Beida is seeing. He can't really tell through his tears.

[airplaneskyward]

"Baobei, you're... still bleeding." There's blood on his lips. Shang Beida doesn't like that. "Please heal. Please?"

He presses a kiss to Casper's temple. "I'm sorry. I know you care about him and you wouldn't want... he doesn't deserve you, he doesn't care about you, he was so cruel, I just want you to never have to deal with him again. But I shouldn't... try to make that decision for you." He pulls Casper into his chest. "I'm sorry. I made everything worse."

[helborn]

"I... uh..." He closes his eyes, looking away from the reflection. "I should..." He can't focus. He has to focus to use his abilities. He's trying. He wrenches enough of his mind away from his emotions to activate that power. It... takes a lot out of him. He feels even more drained than before.

So hollow and dead inside - well. He is. He knows he is. But still... "Knowing him he has some kind of failsafe or... something. Don't know how mages work." The gunshot is still echoing in his head and he trembles slightly. "Schatzi... need to sleep. Room... any room..." He can stay awake if he has to, but he really doesn't feel like forcing himself to do so right now. "Stand guard..."

[airplaneskyward]

"I'll keep watch," Shang Beida agrees, frowning. Casper is really in a bad way, and he's not sure how much of it is mental and how much is how badly his father physically fucking hurt him. He scoops his boyfriend up into his arms, grateful for his cultivator's strength, and heads into the first bedroom he can find, locking the door behind him and sweeping mirrors off of the bed to lie Casper down on it. He adds a sealing talisman to the door for good measure and sits down on the bed next to Casper, resting a hand gently on his shoulder just to feel him breathing, and watches the door.

[helborn]

Bob flutters over to the side table and tucks his head down. Casper rolls over to the side and tucks his knees up. He's... fine. He's just...

He's not fine. He can't... figure out his own emotions. He leans into his boyfriend and tries to relax. He feels so tense. "... Sorry... you shouldn't have had to deal with him..."

[airplaneskyward]

Shang Beida rubs his back gently. "You shouldn't have to deal with him. I'm fine. He didn't hurt me at all. He hurt you. He hurt you because I tried to attack him, so it's my fault."

[helborn]

"... Not your fault." He clenches the pillow and tries not to rip it. "My fault. ... Shouldn't... be able to... just... sorry."

He's tired and wired at the same time and he wants to sleep but he doesn't and he feels sick. Eventually he sighs and relaxes just slightly. Just enough to start to drift off.

[airplaneskyward]

Shang Beida just keeps rubbing Casper's back. "You didn't do anything wrong, baobei. You're okay." He's glad when Casper drifts off, he definitely needs to calm down--though he's probably going to have nightmares, so the sleep won't be very restful. Maybe it'll still help. "I love you," he says again, softly, and kisses his boyfriend's temple.

[helborn]

Fortunately he's too tired to have nightmares right now. Those will likely come later. He does wake a few hours later with a start and looks around - oh. Right. The weird floor. He tries to relax a little bit, reaching for Shang Beida's hand.

"... Morning." It's probably not morning. "Mmrghph." Very intelligent, Casper.

[airplaneskyward]

Shang Beida tangles his fingers with Casper’s and squeezes his hand. “Morning, 心爱. Do you feel any better?” He bends to kiss Casper’s forehead.

[helborn]

"... Maybe." He's still not sure of his emotions, pressing his face against his boyfriend's back. "Physically, yeah." Mentally and emotionally? ... Not really.

[airplaneskyward]

Shang Beida sighs. “I’m sorry, baobei. I just— I’m sorry.” As usual, him trying to help only makes things worse and gets people hurt. He should know better, shouldn’t think things are different now just because the System isn’t manipulating things. He shifts to lie down and pull Casper into his arms, since his boyfriend still seems to want affection—he can do that much, at least.

[helborn]

"You didn't do anything wrong. You didn't do anything a reasonable person wouldn't do." He closes his eyes and just... sighs. "... One time I won a writing competition. It was about owl preservation. He didn't even want to come to the ceremony. He was just... working. I didn't think that was weird, but it's just... everything changed after that."

He didn't know how badly things would go. Maybe he should have never gone - but he can't do anything about that now. "He's never hurt me before." Physically, at least. It's... a little bit of a wakeup call. "But I've never tried to touch him either. ... Most of my hugs growing up were from grieving families at the funeral home."

[airplaneskyward]

“I just wanted him to leave you alone.” Shang Beida rubs Casper’s back. “He’s horrible.” Never tried to touch his own father? Even Shang Beida’s dad would awkwardly pat him on the shoulder on his rare visits. “I can just hug you forever to make up for it,” he mumbles into Casper’s hair.