thespherelogs | Fourth Wall Month!

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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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[After her coffee and her chat with another Sphere resident, Carol's meandering around again. At first, she thinks she's hallucinating. Had the caffeine affected her that much? It couldn't have...Is that..?]

Daryl? Daryl!

[She doesn't even wait for a response, rushing across the space and dodging others, and finally crashing against him with a tight hug.]

[ someone calling his name would get his attention no matter what, but he knows that voice. Knows at once that it can't be her but also must be, and he catches sight of her just a heartbeat before she runs into him.

He tenses a bit with shock, but wraps his arms around her reflexively, squeezing her in a returning hug. ]

How..?

[ he sputters, not even sure what he means, struggling with all the big questions and the fact that he'd thought he'd never see her again. But here she is. Wherever they are. ]

[God, what a relief! She steps back after a long moment, holding Daryl at arm's length as she inspects him for any signs of poor health.]

Well...I left, and out on the road, I ran into some Saviors...I, um, I woke up here! [She laughs a little, knowing it all sounds crazy.] What about you? How are you here?

[ He's not in the greatest shape, but, well, what else is new. The worst of what happened is behind him, possibly through sheer force of will. With too- long hair that clearly hasn't been washed any time recently he's a little out of place at this bizarre county fair, that's all.

He tries not to flinch at the mention of Saviors. She's supposed to be safe, wasn't that half the point of leaving? ]

Dunno. Where's here? [ maybe he's dreaming. Except he doesn't dream so vividly. ] woke up in a pile of leaves.

[There's a strong urge to drag Daryl off, force him into a shower, then trim his hair. But she ignores it for now. There'll be time for that later.]

It's...We're under water? Did you ever learn about the Mariana Trench in school? We're at the bottom of it, I think. I'm not sure how it all works, but I've been here for a while now. Aaron and Eric are here, too. We get little rooms, and there's a big market. It kind of feels like Alexandria, really, except there's no threat of Walkers.

[She laughs, bright and clear.] I thought I was dead, at first.

[ She can try. It might be a battle; he's feeling out of place, and nothing makes him dig his stubborn heels in like that. It wasn't any different in Alexandria, at first. ]

So what, we're in Atlantis? [ he deadpans, looking upward. ]

How long you been here? [ longer than him, it sounds like. She's at least got the lay of the land. ]

Almost seven months, I think. And...I'm not sure. I haven't seen any mermaids, but there's plenty of deep sea creatures to look at out there. [She furrows her brow, trying to think over her time here.]

Wait, a couple months back, we ran into these...they were sirens, I think. They sang to put us under a spell, but there was a god who could make us deaf to protect us.

[ Lord, he was kidding.

For just a moment he looks at her like maybe she's crazy, but really he's thinking maybe he is. Maybe he's still stuck in the dark hallucinating. Except if he was hallucinating, he knows, he wouldn't imagine her being glad to see him.

But after a moment he just gives a soft sigh, half a shake of his head. What can he do but accept this? ]

Don't even know what to say to that.

[ he's totally lost, Carol, sorry.

At least she's here. Lord knows what kind of trouble he'd get into if he was on his own; he's still half primed to fight or flee. ]

[She laughs as she realizes exactly how crazy that sounds.]

I know! It was bizarre, but at the time, I was running on adrenaline because we were trying to stop a leak. But you know, most of the people here think it's bizarre we deal with Walkers back home.

[She takes his hand and gently starts to tug him towards the food area.] C'mon, you look like you could use a good meal. There's plenty here.

[ well, ok. It'd be really bad to spring a leak here.

She's not wrong about that-- he's been eyeing the apples and stuff and trying to gauge how much he mistrusts the situation-- so he's pretty inclined to follow her, responding with a nod and a low grunt. ]

Once you get settled here, Eric and I will have to fix a real family dinner. We can all sit down and catch up. We can help you with figuring things out.

[She points out the caramel apples, even taking one for herself and biting into it.]

This isn't like back home. Most people are trustworthy.

[ that's probably the most shocking thing she's said yet. trust is a high bar. ]

All feels kinda fake, [ he says, a little helplessly. But he takes one of the candied fruits, too. The rush of sugar is intense, too vivid to imagine this is a dream. ]

It's good you got each other here,

[ he mutters. It's good to see her, too, but he's not sure he can say it. Good none of them are alone, even if this place is allegedly friendly. ]

It does feel fake...I'm still not entirely convinced I haven't died. [She laughs and wraps her free arm around Daryl's.]

But now you're here with us. And we aren't letting our guard down. There's no way I'll fully trust these people, you know that.

I know, [ he murmurs, with no small amount of warmth. Whatever else this place might be, she's more relaxed than he's seen her in ages.

A strange contrast to last time he saw her. ]

So that's it? We're just-- here?

[ not that home is appealing, just. They've got people, responsibilities. Saviors to kill. He can't help feeling guilty for standing here, being desperately glad to see her and eating candy. ]

[She shrugs, unsure of what to say.]

We haven't found a way out. I don't think there is one. Sometimes, people get sent home, but I think it's completely random.

[But she's got Daryl here now, and she doesn't have to worry over whether or not he's safe.]

[ He hums thoughtfully at that. It is what it is, he guesses-- on principle he doesn't like it, doesn't like being trapped.

Doesn't make him feel less guilty. It's good that he doesn't have to worry about her-- but there's a lot of other people he oughta be worrying about.

Still, he relaxes, just the slightest bit as she leads him on, quiet and thoughtful, finishing his apple and shamelessly gnawing the last bit of caramel from under his thumbnail. ]

I'm really glad you're here, y'know? Leaving you behind was the hardest part of walking away.

[And it's true. She'd almost asked him to come with her. But that would've defeated the purpose in leaving. Daryl's the one person she'd kill for with no questions asked.]

I just wish everyone could be here. At least for a little while.

[ it almost stings, to hear her say that; and it's a sharp, selfish bit of relief, too. that it hadn't been nothing, casting him off. wasn't easy, because that's the kind of ugly thought that wears you down, that you're best left behind. he's heard that enough in his life; it would've been too much, coming from Carol, who's always understood him like no one else.

and of course when he'd asked her why she left, it hadn't just meant why did you leave the group, why did you leave home; he'd wanted to know why she'd left him.

and he knows-- it's not fair to ask that, not fair to stake some kind of claim, like she hasn't got the right to do what she needs to. of course he gets it. can't hold it against her, because it's more important that she be all right than that she stay. (with them. with him. whatever.)

and that's why he'd lied to her, said everything was okay.

maybe that's why it stings. that lie, still hanging between them.

trying to stuff down that uneasiness, he hums an agreement, a little reluctantly. showing up suddenly like this is kind of alarming, and he's still not sure he trusts this is real-- but there's a lot to be said for it. ]

Barely remember what it's like, not havin' the dead everywhere...

[ that, he can't really believe that. ]

It's an adjustment.

[If she could go back, she'd take Daryl with her. She'd drag him along if she had to. There's no way she's leaving him again, not by choice.

This place may have different plans, though.]

Let's go find something more substantial than the apples. Then we can go get you cleaned up.

[ He gives her a sidelong glance, one eyebrow raised. Whaaat, he's clean enough. Washed his hair within the last year and everything. ]

Food sounds good, [ he says, casual and deadpan, carefully not addressing the other half of that.

Which is a good sign, probably, since it's a clear indication his sense of humor is intact. ]

[She gives him a knowing smile as she pulls him along towards a table with more savory items laid out. Taking a plate, she goes through and piles it with a little of everything, from casserole to vegetables to turkey. Once it's full, she hands it to him. The last thing she's risking is Daryl shying away from a proper meal. Her own plate comes next, not piled quite as high, but not missing out on the feast, either.

Once that's settled, she hunts out a spot nearby.]

How are things back home?

[ on his own, suspicion beat out appetite; if she's vouching for it, though, he's willing to believe it's safe. And... he's hungry, yeah, what else is new.

He's already picking bits off the plate and wolfing them down as they take seats. ]

You know, [ he murmurs, maybe just a little too carefully. ] same as always.

[ that's not a lie, but it's nicer than the honest truth.

He knows she can't know, he can't tell her, just how bad it is. All they've lost. How they're going to war. ]

Fighting off monsters, doing what you can to keep surviving...

[Still, she wonders what he's not telling her. Aaron was reluctant for that brief time he'd had a memory from the future.]

Aaron told me I'll marry a king in the future. Do you know anything about that~? [She asks it jokingly, of course, with a well-placed elbow nudging him in the ribs. He'll be truthful, she's sure.

She also doesn't want to hurt him more. Aaron would've told her if something more had developed between herself and Daryl.]

What?

[ She never said anything about getting married, living in that little house. On the outskirts of the Kingdom, there can't be much question about what that means--who that means-- and he's... not sure how to feel about it.

All that weird, theatrical bullshit, it's hard to get a read on things there. But the people, mostly, seemed all right. Happy. Maybe that makes Carol happy, too, and Lord knows if anyone deserves it... That's what matters. If she's happy. ]

I didn't know, [ which is maybe a non-answer, but he didn't. It occurs to him that in the future is a pretty damn broad thing to say... And that he's been acting on the assumption the last time he saw her was the last time she saw him, but if she's been here for months, that doesn't make any sense either. ]

When's the last time we talked?

Hmm...Just before I left Alexandria, I think. [She feels guilty, though. From his shock, it sounds like her leaving means they lose touch for longer than she'd like. Although, it had been her decision to leave him behind...]

When's the last time you remember us talking?

PSLs!

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