thespherelogs | Fourth Wall Month!

Who: Everyone and visiting Characters!
What: The Fourth Wall log!
When: The month of September!.
Where: All over.
Notes: If you have any questions about how this all works, please head over here to the Fourth Wall info post!.

Fourth Wall Log!

Company's coming!

So the Sphere is malfunctioning and there’s new arrivals here. In order to give them somewhere to sleep and rest, the Sphere has given them all temporary housing in dorm dome number two! That means sunken beds, three squares a day that are already prepared for you and clothing in the closets that just happen to be to your character’s taste. (And you know if they happen to die then you’ve got a nice space to Rez.) All and all it’s a nice little home base for people to have. There’s several common areas for mingling, and all though there aren’t individual rooms for the characters who are staying there, the domes also provide screens for privacy. Don’t worry, no one’s spying on you or something. Probably.

John (one of our resident NPCs here, who is a doctor and also a ghost but shush) knows the importance of family, and she knows how tough it can be when people arrive in a place they don’t know. The visitors haven’t really had the same experience as people brought in the traditional way, so John has stationed herself in the dorms with a sort of ipad thing, and she’s offering to take people’s information and to show them how things like the network work. She’s also there to hold hands and deal with any medical issues that these new arrivals may just happen to have. If people don’t want to talk to her, that’s totally fine! She won’t push. But she’ll also provide directions to places if people need them. Or at least point them in the general places that they need to go.

Speaking things out into the void.

This is a prompt for visiting characters to be able to put out a network post without actually joining the network community! Upon waking in The Sphere, each character (even temporary ones!) are fitted with a small golden circle behind their right ear. This is how they are connected to the network through a neural link. Touch and hold the button to create a broadcast of one of three types:

Audio. Your character thinks audible words onto the network.
Writing: Your character thinks text into the network.
Video. Your character projects a broadcast of a video of themselves onto the network.

Replies are determined by the player. The network needs to be accessed by choice, so character broadcasts are not automatically beamed directly into people’s heads. The Sphere isn’t that rude.

Private messages are allowed by pressing and holding and pressing and holding again as you picture the person in your mind. This can be an image or a name, err more on the side of things being more accessible than less.

God let people have their pumpkin spice lattes, Karen!

It’s September, and that means that fall has hit the Sphere hard. Well, as hard as any place can be without having actual seasons or sunlight. So, in the artificial sun of the Sphere, what there is instead of colder weather and leaves changing is a new festival. The festival, which if you ask someone who’s been there for a while is in celebration of the most fall thing in the entire world: pumpkin spice. That’s right, there’s an entire festival just centered around pumpkin spice flavored things! Of course, the people of the Sphere do try and make an effort to invoke the spirit of the season, with large garlands of fake brightly colored leaves lining the street. The scents of pumpkin spice fill the air and there are small fire pits near Adirondack chairs that are clustered together with all the things to make s’mores.

For those not pumpkin minded, there are also a fair amount of apples picked from the Sphere orchards, and a few small knives. Some older women promise that if people can peel the apples in a long spiral and throw them behind them, then the peel will form the initial of the person that the thrower is destined to marry. Of course there is also bobbing for apples and pumpkin carving.

In both the merchant dome and the agricultural dome there’s massive tables brimming with enough pumpkin foods to make Harry Potter jealous. There’s all sorts of pumpkin baked goods, pumpkin ravioli, roasted pumpkin and vegetables and there’s even roasted meats with pumpkin sauce! There's also drinks of both the alcoholic and non alcoholic sort: pumpkin beer, pumpkin spice wine, pumpkin spice vodka, apple spiced whiskey and so on! At each place is a coffee cart with a poor overworked barista who is doling out every sort of pumpkin coffee, hot chocolate and tea imaginable including yes pumpkin spice lattes.

We're waiting for the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.

There’s even a pumpkin carving contest in the agricultural dome! Pumpkins of different sizes ranging from small sugar ones to ones that could comfortably form a children’s fort are stacked around, and there are picnic tables set in newspaper and with things like knives and scoopers and nails and even drills for those people who want to remove the pumpkin guts or use them to do some carving. Everyone who participates receives a ribbon as well as a bag of toasted pumpkin seeds to take home.

They hope you really like pumpkin seeds. There’s a ton of them.

When the dark comes, people hunker down between the false stars above, with blankets all around them, the scent of pumpkin in the air. Flashlights and small lanterns are distributed by people, and when asked what’s going on, they’ll say that they’re waiting for The Great Pumpkin. Children whisper the name excitedly, and even some of the more inebriated adults do the same. Either way, at midnight the largest pumpkin rises above the crowd to gasps of shock and awe before it just magically changes into the types of candy and small toys that one would expect to come from an excellently stocked pinata.

The color of magical bounty.

In the rec dome, some magically gifted people have conjured up massive piles of dried leaves for people to frolic in. And when I say massive, I mean massive. It’s almost like an entire forest of leaves that’s thankfully free of all of the problems that come with jumping in leaves. With no animals in the Sphere, there’s not any of their presents hiding in the leaves and anything sharp hasn’t been created! Which means that it’s great for things like jumping in, burying things in and of course leaf fights.

If your character is missing nature, the area smells exactly how one would expect a late September walk in the woods to smell: it’s almost as if you’re there! The sunlight in the dome has also been altered a bit where the leaves are located, so it’s cooler, and a slight wind seems to be in the air, stirring the leaves every so often. It’s enough to encourage sweaters and scarves, that have been provided by people if they’d like them. The scarves and sweaters all seem to be of the handmade variety, and just the tiniest bit irregular, with one sleeve longer than the other, or the fringe on a scarf being slightly askew, that sort of thing. But they’re still lovely and soft and warm and smell of dryer sheets and leaves.

And we're flying, flying far beyond...

So the Sphere saw that everyone just loved the fireflies last month so this month it decided that what the city needs is to fly for real! So in the Rec dome, there’s a marked pad that people can step on that lets people fly around this particular dome for 30 minutes at a go using the same sort of controls that the communications behind your ear has! Press quickly once to go up and twice to go down. The clearance in the dome clocks in somewhere around 400 feet so there’s plenty of room for flying and even going up and touching the top of the dome and staring out into the abyss of water.

Be careful though because sometimes if you stare too long into the abyss, things just happen to stare back at you and then there are things in the deep water that you may not expect. Or that you might. Giant fish and squid may just find all this unusual activity quite interesting. But don’t worry the dome won’t crack. Guess what! You are now the fish in the aquarium for them! Or you know the bird flying past the cat in the window.

Wanna go to a real party? (CW: Mentions of drugs and alcohol.)

If people are looking for more illicit entertainment, and discreet inquiries are made, a passcode to the Black Market hidden behind some of the stalls is offered. The entrance is hidden enough that someone needs to be looking for it, and there is a rather large bouncer guarding the door and asking for the proper passcode. The passcode of the day happens to be I hate pumpkin.

Inside the black market is large, but much more dimly lit than the regular market dome. There are various pockets of people clustered under bright neon lights. The lights, someone confides to you, are code for what they’re offering. And nearly everything is on offer if a person has the ability to make a trade. Things from home, character skills and even favors tend to be the currency here, but watch out: the hawkers within are shrewd and sharp. If they make a deal with someone, it’s nearly always going to favor them. Eventually.

There’s also a large and loud party happening inside. Think of a rave with a large amount of people who happened to be a bit out of their minds. Drugs aren’t given freely here, they’re too valuable, but should someone want to figure out what they’re rolling on, eventually someone will ask or offer. The drug that they are currently using is called ‘self’ and it’s something that affects your character in an intensely personal way. For some, it’s an experience like your favorite cocktail mixed with vicodin, and for others it’s just like being drunk. For still more people, it’s like ecstasy without the side effects.

The drug has no physically addictive properties. It does however cause a hangover. The Sphere doesn't want to take all the fun out of imbibing too much.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[He blinks, unable to wrap his mind around what he is being presented. To be brought against ones will is one thing, but to be lied to about family is another. He grows angry at the trickery of the mind. There is no way that his dead mother can be here. It is heartbreaking to consider it.]

Grace and manners are never forgotten, if one was raised wisely. How do you come to be here? For that is not possible.

[For her part she stays as calm as ever.] Then I should hope you have an abundance of grace and manners. [After all he was raised with the best mother in the Nine Realms.]According to the information a very kind resident provided I came to be here by accident. [Her voice remains gentle but there's a certain firmness to it.] You more than most should know that very little is impossible, Thor.

[Thor sighed, glad that she cannot see his face. If it is not his mother, he would be cross. If it is Frigga, then she would be able to see right through his mask he has been presenting to others. Only Loki really knows the pain he's been feeling at his failure at the hands of Thanos.]

While I may not be the most graceful, I do have manners and I can say what needs to be said in the moment it needs to be spoken. I had the best teachers.

[There is a choke to his voice that he tries to disguise as a cough.]

I... Yes, it is very possible. Loki comes from a time, I come from a further time, it's possible that you are from a different spot too... What do you remember last, mother?

I am pleased to hear that my son has not forgotten his manners. I am certain I can assume you have been making me proud in this place. [Though it was certainly rare for him to not make her proud. He had made his mistakes, of that she was vividly aware, but he came back from them and he had grown. Oh how wonderfully he had grown.]

The last I recall was Malekith making grand demands he knew would be bear him no fruit.

Of course, mother. I have been kind to all the mortals here, as well as other races. I have met an Atlantian and Loki states that there is another God here too. I have done no fighting, no carousing and very little imbibing.

[Well, there was still a lot of imbibing. Little for him is still a lot, especially when he is trying not to think of Thanos.]

Malekith. Oh. [He hesitates.] Well. You will be pleased to know that Loki and I were able to defeat him. [And while it was a victory, his voice doesn't seem to sound celebratory.] I am, sadly, from a little further in the future than you, mother.

I wonder how precisely you may classify very little imbibing. [It's a joke and she hopes he can pick up on the tiny bit of teasing. It seems like it might be needed given the nature of the rest of their conversation. Sometimes a mood must be lightened.]

That I am not surprised to hear. [There's so much sadness and weight to his voice. If only a mother actually did have the power to make everything good for their kids.] There is little kindness to come in the future, is there?

Yes, well, you do know me mother, better than many others. Sometimes one must have their revels and celebrations after a victory. [And sometimes one must have their brooding and losing themselves in their cups, but he didn't want to admit that to her. To be fair, he didn't know how much time he had with her and he felt terrible wasting it on lies to her.]

Yes, we were proudly victorious. However... No, the future has not been as kind. I wish I could just turn back the sands of time, mother. I...

I really wish I could talk to you.

What one wishes is seldom the reality one is given. [And that is an unpleasant truth all must learn eventually.]

And are you not speaking to me now? [She pauses.] Let us meet face to face. Communication like this is not fit for a mother and her son.

Yes, but this... This device is not the same, mother. I wish to see your face again.

Tell me where to meet you and I will make haste.

This place has offered us temporary housing in dome two, I will wait for you there.

[Thor shows up not long after speaking to his mother. He really was glad that she was here, even if the situation was not the most ideal. To have his mother back, living and breathing again, was something he never expected. Growing up, he looked forward many times to her sage wisdom and advice that seemed to guide him.

It was her guidance that he needed now. His hair short, his eyes sad and empty, he was not the picture of an Asgardian that he wanted to show her. Sadly, this is what she would be greeted with when he enters the dome, looking for her.]

Mother?

Thor? [There is the presence of minor surprise in her voice at what she saw when he called to her. A smile was on her face but there was sadness hidden in her eyes. This was not her son as she had seen last. No, this was a man carrying more weight on his shoulders than anyone should ever have to bare. She wasted no time in putting her arms around him and bringing him close to her.]

Your days have been dark, haven't they?

Oh mother.

[His eyes clenched shut as he hugged her tight, wrapping his arms around her and clinging to her. His face buried in her neck, he struggled not to sob right into her shoulder. He was careful not to squeeze too tight, but he had never felt as he did in his mother's arms. No, his days had been dreadful. He dared not think what would happen when his mother would have to leave him again.]

Yes, they have. A lot has happened. To me. To Loki. To Asgard. It's all gone wrong, mother.

[In return she squeezed him tightly and then ran a hand through his now shorter hair. He was holding back so much and her heart broke for him.] There is no shame in shedding tears if you have need.

[She squeezes him again very gently. There was much she wanted to inquire towards but should she? Time was fluid and she saw so much already with the many eyes she had been gifted. Terrible things were coming to Asgard, that much she had seen already.]

As things are wont to do. [He wished to talk. No. He needed to talk.] Tell me what has happened.

Fourth Wall Month!

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