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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Oooooh-kay this is definitely a weird world you're originally from.

[This is a bit shocking. Confusing. And yeah, Tommy's pacing. Which is really quick, what with the him not supposed to be slow.]

Okay, so your world is different. Which is really weird. Next thing you know, you'll be telling me you aren't Jewish and you didn't live through... I mean, this is so weird.

I think you're from the weird world.

[ Or he's mad. Both seem equally possible. His expression flattens at the possibilities Tommy starts suggesting next. He doesn't answer. He just stretches out his arm, wrist up, and pulls up his sleeve to expose the tattoo. ]

That should satisfy your morbid curiosity.

[ He's disgusted by this conversation, and doesn't bother hiding it. ]

[Yep, that's the tattoo. Tommy's never seen it in person before, but he's seen pictures. So another common thread. He crosses his arms over his chest and just frowns.]

Maybe you're right. You... you look a lot like how Wanda remembers you. I saw her memories once. But less like I do. So maybe I am from a weird world.

[In fact, hadn't heard much about examples of evil Tommys from other worlds from Noh-Varr. Maybe... maybe he was the oddity across the universes. Maybe he's from a single instance where he exists. Man, talk about depressing.]

The world where I'm from? You had four kids in your life. Three survived. I'm the son of one of those kids.

[ As distasteful as the mark is, it does prove itself useful from time to time. And has just saved this young man from getting beaten for the insult of suggesting he would invent such a story. ]

I don't know anybody named Wanda. You can see people's memories?

[ The thought gives him a pang. That was a beautiful memory. Thank you for showing it to me. Charles isn't here. The sooner he got over mooning over it the better. ]

I didn't have four children. I had one. She died ten years ago. You are thinking of a different person. [ The thought of grandchildren is even more painful. Something he dearly wanted. Could have had, but ultimately did not deserve. He's quiet a moment before finishing with: ] Though I can't say that I do not envy him.

Yeah, a different you.

[Wanda and Ultron had been so quickly accepting. Guess it was wrong to hope the grandfather he did know and took after more would be the same across universes. But whatever, Tommy can live with disappointment.]

This place does weird things. Brings people from different worlds and all that. Different versions of Earth, and other places too. And sometimes nightmares become reality. And people can see your memories online.

Anyway, I should leave you to your pumpkin carving. Put your weird looking helmet on it, or the flag of Genosha or something else. Not my business to judge Magneto.

[ It's a lot. This entire conversation is a lot. Even being here is something he didn't expect, let alone meeting young men who think he's their grandfather.

Grandfather. Family. It's all he ever wanted. What he never deserved to have. The young man's disappointment making that plain. Even when it's handed to him on a silver platter he knocks it out of the boy's hand. ]

Wait.

[ He shakes his head at himself, trying to figure out what he even wants to say. ]

Genosha doesn't have a flag. We're a small community, just trying to live in peace. And the helmet is gone. Probably for the best. [ What does he have to hide from Charles anymore, anyway? ] Have you been here long? It sounds like your version of Earth is quite different from mine.

[ An attempt, at least. ]

[Waiting is not something Tommy's good at. Snark when he's frustrated or upset? Absolutely.]

What do I look like, a waiter? [Mumbled mostly to himself because you don't sass Magneto.]

On my Earth, Genosha was a country. You ruled. There were something like, fifteen million mutants there, or more. So yeah, very different version of Earth. As for me, I've been here since April.

[Yeah, really not going to introduce the guy to Wanda. At all. He's not good enough to be her dad.]

[ Erik snorts softly, the faintest laugh to acknowledge that something like a joke was made, even if it wasn't actually funny.

He's quiet a moment after Tommy describes Genosha. ]

Fifteen million. [ He shakes his head. ] We don't even have fifteen hundred. It would take decades to... We couldn't remain an autonomous collective with that kind of population. The island's resources wouldn't support a population that large... but if... maybe if we got more land somewhere...

[ He frowns in thought as he grapples with the concept of where would he even put so many people? A logistical nightmare.

Also he already met Wanda anyway. ]

Most of the people lived around Hammer Bay. There was apparently plenty of land on my world. And I like to think you were a good ruler. You sorta blackmailed the UN into giving an island with a seriously abused and oppressed mutant population to help the people and make a mutant homeland.

[But it sounds like this Magneto's world is clearly different.]

[ Erik has no idea what Hammer Bay is, but does wonder if what this young man is talking about isn't some other island entirely. He can't fathom fitting fifteen million people on his little wooded haven, no matter how efficiently they designed it. ]

I didn't do that.

[ He will continually assert this, until it becomes plain that he is somebody different than who Tommy knows. He has enough trouble dealing with the fallout of his own sins, he's not taking on some counterpart's as well. ]

I was granted the land in a boon after I helped the X-Men defeat Apocalypse. That was just over ten years ago. I have dealt with the UN in order to establish our sovereignty, but don't have the time nor the inclination to spend much time in Washington. We are largely self-sufficient and entirely self-policing.

[Dude, he knows they're different people. It's just really weird to change the terms. Whatever.]

I'm sure you are. That's what is great about Genosha, no need to care about other people trying to tell you what to do.

[Except it doesn't exist anymore. So Tommy just, doesn't want to think about it.]

It's a nice pumpkin anyway.

[ It's also weird to hear "you did this" when referencing somebody else entirely. ]

Not entirely. We do operate by a system of social anarchism. We all work for the mutual benefit, with no leader. I usually act as spokesman when one voice is needed to communicate with the outside world, but that does not translate to internal power.

[ Not that there isn't an instinct to defer to him. He just tries to counteract that as much as he can. He readily took the role of despot within the Brotherhood, and when he was incarcerated they imploded. He won't let that happen again.

He looks back at his jack o'lantern, feeling pleased with the result. ]

Not bad for a first try, anyway. Have you made one?

[Has he made one? Dude, that's a silly question. Tommy raises his hands and shakes his head.]

No way. My powers? They're good for explosions. We don't need pumpkin guts everywhere.

[ Erik picks up a medium-sized pumpkin and looks at it, his expression thoughtful as he tosses it in his hand, getting a feel for the unexpected weight and odd center of gravity. He then lifts his hand and a large knife floats over before turning and plunging into the gourd. Another gesture and the pumpkin lifts with the knife at the bottom, serving as a base. He concentrates, lifting his other hand and soon a shimmer is visible around the whole ridiculous affair. ]

How do you explode things?

[Show off. Which, Tommy supposes, is a family trait. He considers the pumpkin, and wonders if it's an invitation to demonstrate. Probably yes. So he raises his hands in front of him, palms out toward the pumpkin, and he focuses. Still takes work, even now, especially since he doesn't practice much. But his hands start to vibrate at high speeds, blurring at the finger tips, at the palms, spreading up his whole arms. The air between him and the pumpkin distorts with the force of the vibrations, like heat waves in the air. And then the pumpkin.

It only blurs around the edges, going soft and hazy, for a second. And then it's exploding outwards, like someone shoved a small yield explosive inside and set it off.

Which, of course, means pumpkin guts everywhere. Whoops. Impulsive.]

Uh... Like that.

[ Except the faint shimmer that was visible around the floating pumpkin was a magnetic shield. The pumpkin guts simply splattered against it making for a very squishy spinning orb. Out of curiosity, Erik lets the shield dissipate. The guts and the knife fall to the floor in a rather satisfying splat. ]

Fantastic.

[ He grins. Because who doesn't like a little harmless delinquency? Or even the harmful kind, though this isn't really the time or place. ]

Do you have any control over the size of the explosion? Could you do some sort of microburst, for example?

Oh holy shit that was so fucking cool!

[Tommy's never had anything contain his explosive results before, and were the shield not gone, he'd definitely be over there poking it, awed by the display of power. He didn't even know how Erik had done it. It was beyond cool.]

I got out of the place that was keeping me before they could start testing on that sorta control. Was just, you know, getting used to making sure the explosions had the directionality that I wanted.

[ Erik chuckles softly, his mind already exploring the possibilities of combining their abilities for reasons above and beyond petty vandalism. ]

I've found unexpected satisfaction in using my powers for constructive purposes.

[ He grabs another pumpkin, and sets it on a stump. ]

This is as good a test as any. Do you think you could set of an explosion small enough to just chip away at the rind? That would be a way to use your powers to make a jack o'lantern.

[Who said vandalism had to be petty? Because he doesn't think it is.]

You going to be disappointed when this doesn't work?

[Because he's never tried small. And he's prone to disappointing people. Still, he takes the challenge when it's his grandfather. When the guy wants him to, he's going to try. He closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and raises just a single hand. Then, after a moment of thought, curls up all but two fingers. And lets those channel his power. Only a bit, he tries to tell himself. Only a bit.

Problem is that they didn't train him for small. They didn't teach him simple. They didn't encourage explosions that lead toward him rather than away. It's all a mess, and while the whole pumpkin doesn't go, more than a quarter of it blows. Only the side. And all away from Erik. Damn.]

Sorry.

No. This is for learning. Failure is useful in the process.

[ There's no particular gentleness in his tone. It's just a fact.

He laughs in delight and claps Tommy on the back when the explosion happens. ]

Sorry? What are you sorry for? That's fantastic.

[ He picks up what remains of the gourd. ]

This is proof of concept. See? You were able to change the intensity of the explosion. We didn't even know if it was possible before.

[ He looks at it, grinning. Then to Tommy, and back to the pumpkin. ]

Marvelous.

[Delight? Tommy looks at his not-grandfather and smiles. Because someone appreciates his work. And... he supposes Erik is right about this.]

Could be I just centered the explosion weird.

[Except not. He knows his powers work by accelerating molecular structures. There is no 'centering'.]

[ Erik nods, even if he's fairly certain that's not the case. ]

Science is built on repeatability. Eliminating variables until we can isolate the true cause.

[ He grabs another pumpkin. ]

How do you suggest we try again?

[Again? Tommy hesitates, and then smiles. Yeah, he can do again. He will do again.]

Bigger pumpkin, try and do a smaller thing. Maybe... I can get closer? Like, my powers are kinda shotgun-ish? Further is weaker but larger spread. I never really got into fine control.

[ Erik waits for him to decide whether or not he wants to pursue this. In another setting he might be more impatient, urge him to continue. But for some reason he feels the desire to be more quietly supportive of this young man in particular.

He must be getting soft in his old age. ]

Right. Bigger pumpkin.

[ Erik searches for a bigger one with a rind that doesn't betray any suspiciously soft spots. Rot in the gourd would be another complication that could skew results, after all. Eventually he finds one that's satisfactory, and repeats the process to make it float in a steady spot, with another shield around it. ]

There. Give it another go.

[Soft in his old age. And fact is that speedsters are terrible at being pushed around.]

Can't figure out why you're doing this, but whatever. I'm cool with boom.

[He does take an extra step closer, especially given that field will keep him from getting messy. In fact, he moves close enough to reach out and leave his fingers just millimeters from the flesh of the pumpkin. And again, his hand vibrates and...

Another wet, noisy explosion. But it's smaller. Just a hole, the size of a baseball. But it's only the size of a baseball. And Tommy cheers, because fuck yeah this just happened.]

I've never done that before!

Fourth Wall Month!

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