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TDM 016 & 4th WALL EVENT: NO WALLS BETWEEN US
| TDM 016 & 4th WALL EVENT: NO WALLS BETWEEN US |
00. An Arrival and a Broken Wall?! You should be coming out of the water, the Nameless Island's own inherent energy drawing people in. It's like being suspended between realities and abruptly pushed from behind through a rift in dimensions. It may make you sick, or that might be the motion of the ocean, lifting you to the surface and carrying you to shore. Waterlogged and covered in sand, new arrivals should be greeted by robots who welcome them with towels and bracelet devices. The A5 card already loaded up, and if you don’t manage to get away from them quickly enough, they should usher you toward the Laid Bare Spa, where new arrivals will be offered free massages, a sauna, hairstyling, and their clothing may come up permanently missing. But you should be given a complimentary towel to leave with if needed! Should. That’s how things are for newbies - and maybe today, some newbies will arrive the usual way. Others might be surprised to hear that there is another "you"... already here! If and when you finally meet this other "you," there's simply no way to agree on who the so-called real version is. Your histories may be the same or they may be wildly divergent, but those little differences don't change the fact that you are who you say you are. Some islanders might even find themselves running into a much older or younger version of themselves. Duplicates and doppelgangers, you say? People who look and sound familiar but are just a little bit off? What strange anomalies have washed up from the ocean! On the other hand, maybe you’re not new here at all, or so you think. You’ve definitely been on this Island for months already. You can't exactly remember what you were doing here before, but you have the modest home and personal effects to prove that you existed. You’ve always been someone who greets new arrivals at the shore. You know very well how things work on the island, and how many of the buildings are abandoned and in dire need of repair. You know that beyond the city lingers a thick fog that obscures much of the wilderness from view. Wander too far into this fog, and you will find yourself mysteriously looping back to where you began, your memories of what you were doing and how you got there erased. You know all of this. You’ve already claimed a place to live in the now, whether a rundown apartment in the City, a tent on the beach, a bed in the barracks, or your own space at the House of Worship. You’re a veteran at this by now. Aren’t you? I. A WHOLE NEW YOU The fog has thickened off the shores of the Island and in the areas that have still been obscured. So thick that it looks not unlike the heavy clouds of the recent storm. But late into the night and early into the morning, the fog seems to encroach on the Nameless City even more, blinding and catching Islanders traveling through in areas normally free of its effects. Anyone who gets caught in the especially heavy mist might find themselves suffering from more than just the usual amnesia. The fog no longer only takes memories, but can also alter your memories... and you. You may forget your time on the Island. You may forget your life before. But you’ll remember something else. You’ll remember a life entirely different as if you lived it yourself: you are a merperson who has always lived here, in the waters around the Island. Those grand underwater cities look like ancient ruins to others, but to you? You still see them as beautiful and palatial as the day they were built. You are a Native whose memories are fuzzy, but you certainly remember living your entire life here in great happiness and luxury. And once you step out of the mist, you might even find yourself physically changed to match what you recall, with fins or tentacles and gills to allow you breathe beneath the waves. You might be completely transformed, or just enough to make life underwater as easy as it's ever been. Someone else attempting to free you of these delusions will find that the more they try to force you to remember your true life, the more real and convincing your undersea life begins to feel. You must embrace this new (old?) life, embrace this new you in all ways and live it to its fullest. Completing Auspicious Acts will help bring out glimpses, hints, flashes of memory and recognition that perhaps this is not who you once were, and allow you to return to your former self. But the longer you take to embrace this, the harder it might be to let go. Some of these changes could become permanent. II. LET XXX BE YOUR GUIDE Things have been strange, not just for the people of the Island, but the robots as well. The typically welcoming robots that offer their assistance in guiding new arrivals or encouraging Islanders to visit the various locations seem to be scarce. There are fewer of them running around the entertainment district and other establishments. To ensure that new arrivals continue to have a pleasant Island experience, robots will be recruiting Islanders as mentors and guides: mentor guides, if you will! Volunteers will lead other Islanders around the Island as a means of helping them become better acquainted with the locations available here for your fun and entertainment, and they will be rewarded with credits for their hard work. Guides and sightseers alike could be someone fresh and new to the Island, someone who insists they’ve been here for years, or even someone that a robot randomly dragged off the street. Mentor guides will all receive a very form-fitting and revealing uniform - no two are the same! - and, of course, a glossy paper map of all of the available sights on the Island. The pictures are big and detailed, and cute sex toy icons point out various key sights such as the recreation center, the bath house, and the library. There are even suggestions for which Auspicious Acts are the best for each location! Strangely, none of the maps list the same suggestions, so each map encourages its own unique experience. Mentees will also find that their mentor’s voice is very appealing. So appealing that just listening to them speak is enough to get you feeling some kind of way. The more they talk, the more of a reaction you have. Your body begins to burn or itch and it’s very hard to pay attention to their words when thoughts about all the things you could be doing to them instead keep coming to your mind. The only way to relieve these thoughts might be to make your mentor stop talking altogether, or follow through with some of those helpful map suggestions. Maybe you need them to mentor you in more ways than one? III. SITCHES GET GLITCHES You’re walking down the road, or in your own home, or visiting a friend and suddenly something happens out of the corner of your eye. There’s a soft pfzzzzzzt and the feel of static on the skin. You turn and realize that the wall is suddenly gone. Or, maybe the glass in a store window disappeared. Perhaps someone’s clothes just vanished off of them in the middle of the street, or the chair you were sitting in at the cafe suddenly poofs right from under you. It’s as if the world around them is malfunctioning - little glitches that can last for seconds, hours, or even days before returning to normal on their own. Nothing that could seriously harm someone, but enough to be quite inconvenient. At least completing an Auspicious Act in the affected area or with the affected person seems to put it to rights immediately. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop these glitches from happening again. You may be concerned, and the robots understand, but if asked they will insist it’s just the world adjusting as the Augur welcomes so many new people! Nothing to be worried about, obviously. It will take time for fluctuating energy levels to adjust, that’s all. Some robots might even say it’s the perfect time to enjoy having so few barriers between you. Embrace the open nature of the Island and share yourself and your home with others. Walls are only meant for keeping out what you could be letting in! OOC Notes:Enjoy a mini Fourth Wall event, Islanders! As such, this test drive meme is open for anyone to create top levels, not just prospective players. Current player characters, characters you want to play in the setting but can't app full-time, drive-by castmates, duplicates, canon AUs, characters that normally would not be allowed such as fandom AUs and genderswaps (not including characters under 15), formerly dropped characters, etc. are all encouraged to come in and play! As all other test drive memes, this one will be game canon. Characters who fourth wall but do not app will disappear after a few days to a week, along with their home (if applicable) and all of their possessions. Please label your top levels as to whether you are test driving [TDM] or fourth walling [4W]. (Of course, you are allowed to change your mind! But our rules regarding appable characters will still apply.) Since auspicious acts are an integral part of this event, potential and current players can swap one Auspicious Act on their card for one of their choosing, if needed for any of the prompts. As usual, prospective players can use an Act and swap it onto their card if they choose to app into the game. If you have any questions, please ask them below. N A V I G A T I O N |
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"Besides the whole 'auspicious acts,' it sounds as though life here is relatively nice, at least. Peaceful." It had to be a sharp juxtaposition with the world he'd come from, if it was after five years of war. Speaking of- "How did the war end, for you at least? If everyone has different experiences, I assume the war is much the same."
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As the stove began to heat up, he walked to the table to take the seat across from her. "The professor was injured in the archbishop's subsequent attack and was presumed dead, but after five years, we were reunited... on the day that would have been the Millennium Festival, no less. After that, the Empire managed to defeat the Alliance, with Claude surrendering and leaving peacefully. Dimitri and the archbishop, however, were prepared to sacrifice everything just to oppose Edelgard. Rhea even set fire to Faerghus when it became clear that she would not be able to hold the city against the Empire's forces. However... I suspect that only Edelgard, Constance and I remember that particular sequence of events. Even then, I am the only one of us from the Empire who has seen the actual end of the war."
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Manuela's head hung slightly in shame. "I was not asked to help defend the monastery. Though I suspect it was not only because my class was the bad seed; Hanneman was not either. After the fall of Garreg Mach, I was planning to make my way back to Enbarr, to check on the opera company-but I found myself here after a night of sleep."
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He frowned to himself. Taking a chance and ignoring decorum for a moment, he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. "During the war, you were a trusted ally and friend to us," he informed her, fully aware that his memories from a timeline that wasn't her own might not hold any weight for her. "You took care of the injured, and you worked hard to bring an end to the fighting. You are utterly remarkable, Manuela. I hope that you can see that."
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"Ahem... anyway, I should check on the water," he excused himself, quickly turning and moving back to the stove. The water was getting close to being ready, and he didn't want it to boil over. The last thing he needed was for something else in his room to go wrong.
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"How is that working, anyway? Something like the pipes?" If they piped water in, and heated it somehow, perhaps the same could be done with fire? Manuela wasn't exactly an engineer by, well, any stretch of the imagination. But it didn't take an expert to realize that what technology had been purposed for one thing might in turn be used for another.
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"Something like that," he noted as he tended to the water. Steam was starting to rise from the kettle, so it was clear that the water was almost ready. "I am not certain how it works, but the Eros energy that is supposedly generated when people are intimate is stored as electricity, which is sent through conduits leading into buildings like this. Apparently, the power can even be stored for a time. My understanding is that is how the machines that reside here are powered." He wasn't much of an engineer himself, really. He just knew what Linhardt had told him and what he had seen when he was first on the island, when the earth was still barren and the buildings were still in disrepair.
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"It's all very miraculous-sounding. I'm impressed that it seems to be more a feat of science than magic." If they had such science back home, things might have been different; having the ability to perform magic was so highly prized in Fodlan.
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His thoughts on actually leaving were somewhat more complicated. The war was over for him, but he had also made some wonderful memories here. He had seen sides of people he cared for that he had never seen before, and from his understanding, he would forget all of those once he went home. And he didn't much cherish the idea of leaving Constance or Edelgard alone if he somehow got sent back to his time without them. He still remembers how hard he took it when Dorothea wasn't around anymore... he was downright inconsolable.
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"Regardless, I suppose that they might well figure it out without our aid sooner or later." There was no reason this technology couldn't be replicated at home, after all.
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"Perhaps this world could not rely upon magic like ours could, so they developed advanced technology instead," he suggested, placing the tea leaves into the teapot within a diffuser to keep particulates out of the tea. Next came adding the water from the kettle. "That is not to say that magic holds back technology. But since we have widespread access to magic in Fódlan, perhaps our technology will develop in entirely different directions, as many of our needs are already covered."
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The thought of him inevitably getting down under the sink, as Ferdinand had earlier, and following the pipe as far as possible brought a brief smile to her lips, though Manuela's focus shifted back to present company after only a brief moment or two. "You've mentioned people coming and going, and certainly said more than a few names, but do you have a full counting of who all from Fodlan is here?"
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"Besides myself, Edelgard, and Constance, we have some individuals from the Kingdom as well. There is Dimitri, Felix, and Ashe, and as I said before, both Flayn and Seteth are here as well. Until recently, we had several individuals from the Alliance, including Claude and Lorenz, but we have lost contact with them both." He set everything down between them and took his seat, a hint of sadness in his eyes. "There have been others as well."
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"There's no need to reminisce over those who've left for my sake, Ferdinand. I just wanted to know who was here, now." No members of the Alliance whatsoever was strange, though if they *had* been there in the past, she doubted it was some sort of selection bias on the part of the Augur. "Last I heard of Dimitri, he seemed, frankly, mad-something snapped in him after the revelation of the Flame Emperor. He is well now, I hope?"
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"Thankfully, Dimitri—the Dimitri who is here—has grown significantly as a person," he noted, starting to pour the tea into the cups with practiced poise. "He and Edelgard have come to an understanding. Even if it took both of them being transported to this place for it to happen, I am glad that they were able to reconcile." He was leaving out the juicier parts, however. Manuela probably didn't need to know all the unsavory details.
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Of course, the influence of their respective Professors likely had a lot to do with it, as well, but without speaking to either of them personally Manuela wasn't truly privy to that. Taking a slow, deep breath, Manuela hummed appreciatively. "That smells lovely-as is to be expected from you."
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After serving the tea, he relaxed visibly in his chair, sighing contentedly. "Even if it is on this island, I have finally brewed a pot of tea for the songstress who sparked my imagination. Today certainly has been eventful." He'd also gotten quite an eyeful, of course, and the mere thought of that made his cheeks redden again. He wasn't going to be forgetting that sight any time soon.