pluviosamods: (mirrors)
Pluviosa Mods ([personal profile] pluviosamods) wrote in [community profile] pluviosa2025-01-31 10:10 pm
Entry tags:

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

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.
threechipsdown: (tip of the hat)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
"Perhaps," he agrees. He doesn't think Penacony is quiet, particularly, just not relevant to his personal interests.

"I'm a Masked Fool--what would I be without a mask? The mirror just seemed appropriate to our location." And either way, he hides his cursed-blessed Avgin eyes.

Roulette glances into the mirrors, seeing Robins that are smaller, with more of their original limbs intact, more the one he knew of. He wonders if the presence of someone who knows an alternate version of a person affects it... "Do you see your... favorite Avgin, in reflections of me?" he wonders aloud. He sees several different versions of himself, maskless, sometimes in chains, sometimes in expensive teal finery, but he doesn't know what the Kakavasha that Miss Robin aided looked like, if he's one of them.
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
She looks around and sees.. herself? what in the fuck is this...?? I.. have my limbs... My face. It practically looks pristine.. and that makeup. I guess in this version I was a little bit more willing to be open she thinks to herself with a smirk recalling just how long it took her to be able to don those colors comfortably without fear of fathers wrath.

" I do as a matter of fact, that one right there with the peacock coat.. it looks almost just like the ka-*ahem* the man i know. Of course that's not what the world knows you as my dear roulette but I'll save that for a little bit later."

She says the last part with a playful if not slightly sinister smirk wondering just how useful this little fool can be.
threechipsdown: luca prismaticvoid drew this for me thank you luca <3 (mask eyes open)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 04:56 am (UTC)(link)
Robin Oak looks quite disconcerted by the version of her that looks like the popstar Robin--interesting.

"I assumed it wouldn't be," Roulette says lightly. "I can't imagine a version of me that would wear his name that easily--he has sunglasses over his eyes, even if they're less hidden than mine." It would be silly to pretend his eyes don't exist, when they're visible in so many of the mirrors. He has his illusion open all three, staring pink and blue at Robin, then close again. "I suppose we'll both learn more later."
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 05:09 am (UTC)(link)
Chills run down her spine as the mask opens it's eyes great now I wish he kept the fucking mirror on... I need to get his mask off, I need to see if this fool is really kakavasha or just another fool I should ignore.. and I have just the trade to offer...

"You are not the only one who can wield extra eyes you know.."

She mutters as the eyes on her wings open to THEIR full extent searching his very soul. She can feel the elation rolling off of him but.. it's almost tainted with something. perhaps the enigmata? Could he be similar to Gallagher in that regard? she quickly banished the thought not wanting to remember all the circles that hellish man left her in

"I propose a deal, I will tell you everything I know about the 'you' of my world. And in return you simply take off the mask.. allow me to see your true face and I'll reveal all you want to know"
threechipsdown: thank u for the screencap bre doomedgambler (hand behind back)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 05:15 am (UTC)(link)
Kakavasha tilts his head. He didn't expect that to unsettle her so badly. "I do apologize, Miss Robin, but I never take off my mask. Only my murderer will see my face." Only Garnet gets that privilege. He clads himself in an illusion of an ordinary man with brown eyes and brown hair. "If my mask disconcerts you, I needn't show it."
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 05:23 am (UTC)(link)
She's about to insist and if necessary force him to remove the mask either with the harmony or with the order, she can't quite decide when something catches her attention

"What exactly do you mean by 'your murderer? Also if you are going to wear a fake face at least wear one that looks like your own.. if you truly are the... Alternate? I suppose of my favorite avgin then I'd like to at least see his face .."

why has this fucked me up so badly.. did I hit my fucking head before I came through?? Or is it just the perfect storm... He reminds me so much of sparkle... But also so much of vasha... I hate this and if I didn't need him I'd consider slaughtering him just for irritating me so..
threechipsdown: (hat and glasses smile)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 05:30 am (UTC)(link)
"My death is spoken for," Roulette says. "And it isn't yours." He shifts his illusion to the face and clothing of the reflection in the peacock coat, matching him entirely. "Do you prefer me this way, Miss Robin?"
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 05:35 am (UTC)(link)
She thought she would.. she really thought she'd prefer seeing the face of her vasha.. but that's not her vasha, she was staring into the face of the very familiar aventurine of stratagems, did they look identical? Yes. But she could still tell them apart.

"I am not sure. I thought seeing you with a family face would help but this simply brings back bad memories."
threechipsdown: (I'd sell you to satan for one poker chip)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 05:40 am (UTC)(link)
Roulette lets the illusion melt away, leaving him in black and red with his mask showing again, and then hides it behind a mirror once more. "Or how you met me? Is this better, Miss Robin?"
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 05:44 am (UTC)(link)
She lets her immediate thoughts of violence melt away slowly harmony and order harmony and order she repeats in her head before looking at him one more time

"A lesser woman may have punched you, you do have a very punchable face you know that, fool"

She almost spits the last word out, venom dripping off it. She was not happy with how put of control this man made her emotions...
threechipsdown: (eyes glowing vicious smirk)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 05:53 am (UTC)(link)
"Do I?" A cheshire grins flickers over the surface of the mirror. "Thank you, I do try." Provoking people is a very effective way to manipulate events, and knowing the levers to provoke this woman is useful. And the venom on the word Fool is very interesting--she must have an interesting relationship with the Tavern, to have asked first about Sparkle, to feel so strongly about Fools.
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 05:58 am (UTC)(link)
"well you do a damn good job"

She lets out a soft chuckle, she's faced worse than this and won she just needs to stop letting this damn fool under her skin so what if he looks like MY vasha... He is simply another fool.. unknowingly her anger has caused her eyes to open again however this time there are more of them that open for only a brief second only to fade back into the two primary eyes

"Will you help me find anything interesting here or will you continue to be nothing but a nuisance? Because if it is the latter I would highly recommend reevaluating your plans.."
threechipsdown: (I'm so stylish)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 06:03 am (UTC)(link)
If she's already borderline homicidal, he might as well ask. "Those eyes aren't Xipe's coloration," he notes mildly. "I'm afraid being something of a nuisance comes with Aha's attention, but I haven't stopped looking for anything interesting."
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 06:07 am (UTC)(link)
She freezes fuck I didn't even realize they where out... How did that slip past me ugh ..

"congratulations you can see color my dear fool! No they are not Xipe's coloration because they are not Xipe's eyes they are mine and mine alone to command.."

She says the last bit with a aura of self righteousness strong enough to rival the most headstrong knight of beauty. If the fool wanted to play games he can play games...
threechipsdown: (reserved)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 06:12 am (UTC)(link)
"An interesting color--they don't match your own, either." Provocation is always fun. "Are you not the Charmony Dove your singer counterpart is?"
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 06:18 am (UTC)(link)
charmony dove. The stupid. fucking. Bird. That Sunday was obsessed with.... Calm it robin he's trying to provoke you

"I'm not quite sure what you mean with that little dove comment could you elaborate? And of course I'd have differences to ... Her. I am the dream master.. it's rather taxing you know keeping the balance between order and harmony"

There isn't even a hint of hostility in her voice and that's more concerning than if they where laced in venom
threechipsdown: (cold)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 06:23 am (UTC)(link)
Roulette blinks. "The Order has partial control of Penacony in your world? Is Ena not dead, then?" He didn't expect his leading questions to get just outright statement of what he thought would be a secret. He expected the Oak Family head to be anything but Harmony only in secret. "I meant that you are clearly not a Pathstrider of Harmony alone, but clearly I needn't have been quite so... euphemistic."
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 06:41 am (UTC)(link)
"call it a bit of an open secret dear, the order may have been absorbed by Xipe but Ena is not dead... But I think that's about all the free information I'm willing to give you dearest fool"

the more I talk the more likely something can catch him off guard and I can press my advantage, so what if a random fool knows about the order nobody will believe a man with a liars soul, even if he tries cutting him down would be trivial...
threechipsdown: (I'm so stylish)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
“Fascinating,” Roulette says, keeping his tone airy and carefree. “So you stride between Order and Harmony. I haven’t heard of such a pairing before.” He’s well familiar with the concept of a dual path, given his own, but it seems Robin’s are a more permanent situation, not like his, where he’s in the middle of the slide from one Path to the other.
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
"i do indeed, it is not an easy path but is is one I must walk regardless, it allows me to keep everyone safe. And that is all that matters"

She says this last bit with almost an exhaustive edge to is, she seems tired for a slight moment before going back to the robin that roulette doesn't know and barely tolerates.

"You seem to walk with the elation, however I feel another's presence on you, where exactly do your loyalties lay, fool"

She almost laughs at how paradoxical it is to ask a fool about loyalty
threechipsdown: luca prismaticvoid drew this for me thank you luca <3 (mask)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 08:25 pm (UTC)(link)
“There are three claims on me,” Roulette says, echoing what he once told Garnet. “Gaiathra, the Laughter, and my death.” Should he tell her? She’s likely to press, regardless, and he doesn’t particularly want to provoke her into violence that way. “My death comes carried by Finality.” And granted by Destruction, but that’s his murderer’s path, not his own.
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 08:33 pm (UTC)(link)
"finality huh? Now that's something you don't see everyday. The last finality pathstrider I interacted with was a stelleron hunter, yet, I doubt you are a follower of the script..."

She decides not to ask about giathra, she knew parts of it from her kakavasha but felt it would be best to play it stupid here...

"Are we getting any closer to the end of the boat? This feels like it goes on for an eternity?"

threechipsdown: (reserved)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 08:41 pm (UTC)(link)
“I don’t belong to the Slave of Destiny,” Roulette agrees. “Finality chose me, not the other way around.”

He redirects his attention to their surroundings. “There’s a red light down there—it might be marking an exit. Perhaps we will achieve stairs.” He flicks a poker chip at the mirror hanging over the red light, shattering it and revealing that it says EXIT. “What luck,” he says mildly.
order_dove: (Default)

[personal profile] order_dove 2025-02-03 08:48 pm (UTC)(link)
"What luck indeed...."

She muttered to herself
if he does not belong to elio then he does not fall under the protections of my deal with Kafka... Best case scenario this is actually an exit, worst case I'll slaughter a fool, and at the end of the day is that ever really a bad thing..?...

"Well after you"

She states politely not willing to let the fool push her into something dangerous but motioning that she'll follow.
threechipsdown: (hat and glasses smile)

[personal profile] threechipsdown 2025-02-03 08:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Roulette smiles and sketches a bow, manifesting an illusionary hat for a moment so that he can tip it to her. “As you wish.” He goes through the door and into the dim staircase, stepping carefully around the mirrors leaning against the walls. It looks like they’re a few floors from the top, and he doesn’t see a point in stopping on any of them, so he just climbs until he reaches the top deck.

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