entrancelogs | + FOURTH WALL EVENT: GENERAL NON-PARTY MINGLE POST +

Entry tags:

+ FOURTH WALL EVENT: GENERAL NON-PARTY MINGLE POST +

Who: E V E R Y O N E
Where: Everywhere that isn't one of the parties! Both Sides!
When: Sept 1st to Sept 10th
Rating: G to PG-13 (please label higher ratings, thank you!)
Summary: Wonderful parties are springing up all across Wonderland, but there are still plenty of other places to explore. This is a log for any new arrivals who want to experience different parts of Wonderland life, and any current guests not in the mood for a log or transmission of their own.

Please also see THE FOURTH WALL MASTER POST for rules, information, and all the fun parties you can visit!
The Story:

On the morning of September 1st, everyone in Wonderland, on both Real and Mirror Side, will awake to find one of four possible invitations has been shoved under their doors. The glass has been carefully removed from all mirrors, and everyone will be able to cross to and from Mirror Side with ease, without forcing any sort of swap. The Queen of Hearts' chambers, discovered in the previous event, will be mysteriously inaccessible, leading only to a tearoom.

Additionally, there will be many more Wonderland guests than usual, each of them with their own random invitation and network device (wired to make replies only). As the week goes on, as per the invitations, more and more parties will appear (and everyone is invited to all of them, whether they received an invitation or not). But who brought them here? Why are there so many parties? Who is responsible for all of this exactly?

It's anyone's guess, though if parties or riddles are not your style, then there is always plenty more to see...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[It had been the final push, the final piece for peace in the galaxy, and it had involved... wow. It had involved giving her everything.

It wasn't a sacrifice she was unwilling to make, no matter how bitter the final jump into the green light had been. She was finally ensuring that organics and inorganics alike, AIs and creatures born, would have peace. She was ensuring that the cycle would never repeat. No matter how heart-wrenching it was to think that she wouldn't experience it on her own or with the people she loved, she was an Alliance soldier. She was an N7. She knew her job. And she did her job.

But it's coming back from fulfilling her duty to the galaxy that is the most unexpected of all. She wakes up peacefully lying on some particularly soft grass, back in her old blue, green and brown armor. There's an invitation next to her, glowing in that special way holograms from her world do, and she idly waves a hand over it, opening it, reading it, then shutting it off as it blips back into her omni-tool. She doesn't know what to think, really. The Star Child had said that she would die. But here she was, in a place called Wonderland. She knows intrinsically that this can't last forever but perhaps this is a vacation from death, for just a short while. Maybe she finally earned her break.

As she gets up she decides to explore, lending herself over to this world's whims. This may not be the bar that Garrus had spoken of, but she's sure she'll end up there to greet him when this is all over.]

[Okay now Wonderland is fucking with her. Now, this has become a fucking joke.

She's been through a lot this week. Seeing Thane again, Legion getting accidentally shot, doubles of people and more mirrors than she ever wants to deal with. And yet... this is unmistakable. The colors are different, hair and skin tone changed, but.

*It's you!

She bites her lip, not sure of how to actually... address this. Or deal with this at all. How much does she know? How much of her universe has been different?

Her brain stops, stops, starts again.

Well, to take a leaf out of Joker's book, there's always comedy.]

Well then. I'm Commander Shepard and this is my favorite interaction in Wonderland.

[She smiles. Waves. Hey there, kind-of-sort-of twin.]

[Walking through the gardens in this world that feels a lot like Earth before the Reapers had hit it was nice. Calming, even. She is the most content she has ever been since they took the Sol system and it is such a difference from how she felt before that when she sees... her? Somehow? Walking towards her? She has red hair and white skin and the classic N7 armor, but it's her. Shepard.

Before she can even say anything her... double? Certainly not a clone, speaks. And when she does, this Commander Shepard grins.]

Sorry, but I don't give out discounts for the Commander Shepard experience. Even with such shining endorsements like that.

[Okay, now that she has to chuckle over.]

Oh please. You couldn't sell it to me for free.

[She shrugs, a bit, adjusting her N7 hoodie over her civvies a bit. She's got what Shepard might recognize as the M-4 Shuriken submachine clipped to her belt, but otherwise looks like she's just hangin' around.]

So, ah, gonna guess you're new around here.

[Hearing her own voice chuckle is quite an experience and it's one she never thought she'd experience twice. At least this time around it's for more pleasant reasons than being replaced by a Cerberus clone. It causes her to smile too.]

Can't tempt you at all, huh? Too bad. Might have been fun.

[No, she's not wearing the armor, how did she think that? Maybe it was just the impression she gave off. She's wearing the hoodie and Shepard almost wishes she was wearing hers as well. As nice as it is to feel protected in her armor, it's a bit stuffy.]

Like a newborn babe. I woke up in this flowerbed over here with an invitation to some parties and a place called Wonderland. I'm guessing this is it?

[She gestures to the world around her a bit carelessly.]

Yeah, it's pretty much the all-around. The short story is pocket dimension. The long one is really weird and involves a lot of people hitting each other with swords.

[She has no idea what the extended history of Wonderland is, but she knows there's some swords involved.It's complicated, okay.]

It pulls people from tons of different worlds. Couple of our friends are here, too. Tali, Miranda, and Legion. I've seen Joker and Thane around too, but they're not around normally. I'm also not usually talking to myself. Never seen it pull doubles before this.

[She's beginning to suspect the Mansion has lost it's damn mind, but. Here we are.]

Huh. That's certainly a new one. Also, swords? How antique.

[She shakes her head. Though her attention immediately snaps back to her sister? when she mentions her other crewmates.]

They're here? Really? ...was it the Crucible that brought them here?

[The last part is mumbled to herself as she seems to focus on something in her mind.]

Doubles is a great way to describe this, I think. Definitely not twins, but still recognizably the same.

Yeah, I honestly have no idea. I think this world is supposed to be based off an old kid's story. So, y'know. Swords. But yeah, it's... a little hard to explain. When you're here, time doesn't move, so everyone's from a separate point in their timeline.

[But the mumble gives her pause.]

Wait-- the Crucible worked? Did you...

You know what. We should get a drink. There's a great bar on the 5th floor.

[Shepard goes quiet when she hears the other Shepard explain more about Wonderland, and the look in her eyes is unreadable as she asks about the Crucible.]

...Yeah. That sounds like a good call. It's not the bar that Garrus talked about, but I'm sure I won't be late to that one when I go home.

[She wonders how this Commander will respond to her statement, but either way, she definitely needs that drink.]

[That's not something she remembers. The other her knows about the Crucible and conversations she hasn't had. Which means they get the AI back from Kai Leng. They get it working. And... maybe more.

She's gonna need alcohol to deal with this. Lots of it.]

C'mon, I know the bartender. Besides, there's not much of an economy here, since the Mansion just gives you whatever you want, so it's all free.

[And she has been smashed on free booze before here. Many times. So she leads her up to the fifth floor, finds a spot at the bar.]

Only catch is it's gotta be Earth stuff. Not many people around here from our neck of the universe. So no ryncol, unfortunately.

[...did she just say free alcohol]

No kidding? Shit, this place is the tops!

[She follows dutifully, even if every now and then when things are a little too loud her hand twitches towards her Scorpion and her Acolyte. She manages to resist the temptation every time, though a blue light glimmers to life every now and then on her fingers.

She settles in next to her fellow Shepard, rolling her shoulders to get the stiffness out.]

Eh. Human alcohol will do, I guess. Tequila is like watered down ryncol anyway.

[She almost laughs, because god, this must be a Shepard, because same. Honestly same. She has never heard a more "god, fucking same" thing in her life than those two lines.]

Yeah, and you can drink more of it casually without throwing up and getting Chakwas super pissed. Maybe I can pull some from the closets. Never tried.

[Maybe she should. But she feels like it might be too specific. In the meantime, she has... some topics to broach.]

So, ah... I'm getting the feeling we might both have some different stories to tell.

[Shepard gives her counterpart a wry grin.]

If you succeed at that and I'm still here, you better hit me up. I do not want to miss out on the chance to burn my goddamn throat out again.

[She's gotten drunk with Wrex exactly once since the Reaper war started. She can't remember all of it but when she was sober again she had three more breeding requests. Hoo boy.]

Yeah, probably. For one thing, you're pale as fuck with hair as red as a fire engine. Dye job or natural?

[She's thinking dye job. There's no way that's a God given hair color. Usually she's not this crass with someone right off the bat but... this is basically her, isn't it? Why bother pretending to be put together around yourself?]

[She can't help but burst out laughing. Jeez.]

It's natural, sorry to burst your bubble. Though it was a little lighter before Cerberus got ahold of me.

[It's gonna be weird if this her never uh, died, but she's sort of hoping those kinds of big life events transferred.

Ha. Life events.]

I feel like we should probably question some of the bigger shit that happened, though. I'm hoping you still had Saren, Cerberus, and the Reapers, though, or I think we wouldn't have recognized each other.

[It's still weird hearing her own voice laughing when her mouth isn't moving. But it still causes her to quirk a small smile. Laughter sounds good from them.]

Dang, they make our chest bigger and make your hair darker. Cerberus sure has its priorities straight.

[She doesn't question that this Shepard died and was re-built; imagining a world where someone like her wasn't killed by the Collectors is impossible.]

Yeah, all that happened with me too. Shot Saren to death, had to work with Cerberus, and fought the Reapers. Though you're still fighting them, aren't you?

Wait, they made your tits bigger? I can agree on the rest happening, but that one I didn't notice.

[Maybe she was too panicked? But no, when she got back to lockup on Earth she still fit in her old uniform...

She tries to pass it off for the last comment, which is the one she's really concerned about.]

Still fighting implies you came out the other end. That there is an end.

[Shepard gives her fellow a Look, her eyes blatantly looking down to take in her chest. She looks back up again fairly quickly though.]

...I'm gonna kill Miranda.

[Tried to give her makeup, made her breasts bigger- what the hell was she thinking??]

Yeah. There is an end. Where are you, if you haven't hit it yet?

[This conversation is starting to make her a bit antsy, so she reaches forward for the convenient shot of tequila in front of her. She downs it.]

[She grabs her drink, snickering into her glass. Jo always knows to bring her something strong. Which is good, from where the rest of this is headed. She decides to keep the assumption that they have the same sort of... trajectory, of their lives, and thinks of a good way to describe this.]

We had just finished raiding Sanctuary, Cerberus' undercover lab using refugees as bait. I got to watch Miranda chuck her deadbeat dad out the window. Trouble was, we were there tracking Asshole McGee Swordsman, aka Kai Fucking Leng, who seems like he already came and went.

[As you can probably tell, this Shepard absolutely loves him.]

We've got directions to Cerberus, at least, kind of, when Anderson demands the Normandy get fixes before I fly it into what's probably the apocalypse, I try to have dinner with Joker on the Citadel, get shot at like 17 times and fall through a fishtank only to later fistfight my own clone. Part of me honestly wants you to not have done this, because out of context, it's hilarious. In context, it was incredibly tiring. At least the party after made up for it.

[She takes another drink. Seeing everyone was fun. The funeral... wasn't. But it wasn't supposed to be. It was supposed to be cathartic. She's... not sure it was that, either. She might just be carrying it worse.]

So we got drunk, got back on the ship, and was flying over to blast Cerberus' ass straight open and get that VI back, and next thing I know I'm charging the wrong beach without my squad.

[She stops. Wonders about if she should ask this, because she always feels weird telling Miranda about the future, but she wants to know.]

Please tell me I get to ruin Kai Leng's stupid face with my bare fucking hands.

[She listens quietly and without interruptions as her counterpart describes where she's at. Cerberus, the clone, the Citadel... Anderson. It all feels like a different lifetime now, years and years in the past. It makes her feel old and at odds with her present and she shifts uncomfortably again.

The only times her expression changes from neutral listening are when she mentions the clone, Anderson, and that Kai Leng fucker. The clone gets an amused chuckle, Anderson causes her eyes to soften, and then Kai Leng gets a vicious, shit-eating grin.]

Not only do you get to fuck him up with your bare hands, but you get to stab him inside the Illusive Man's gigantic office. The fucker tried to stab me after I Charged his ass to hell and pulling out my omni blade to strike out the light in his eyes was probably one of the most satisfying things I have done the entire Reaper War.

[That was for Thane, you son-of-a-bitch! She'd meant it, too. He'd been a part of her crew, a part of her family. No one took them away from her and got away alive.]

The party was great, huh? One last hurrah before jumping into the abyss...

[She hates herself the moment she mentions jumping, wincing. Her choice is still too fresh in her mind. The gravity here in Wonderland feels too heavy. Too solid.]

It was nice having those light moments with our friends. We never seem to have enough time. And I gotta admit, Anderson's old beds were actually perfect for Garrus and I. I'm sure they were for you too.

[Unless one of the differences between them is that Anderson's suite wasn't that sweet.]

Goddamn good. Fuck that guy.

[She takes another swig of her drink... and then nearly chokes on it, smacking the glass down onto the bar as she coughs before finally getting to address the damn words she just heard.]

You fucked Garrus? Garrus Vakarian? Are you shitting me? Oh my god. I have so many questions and I don't know if I even want the answer to any of them.

[She needs more alcohol for this. Garrus. Garrus Vakarian. Holy shit. Holy fuck.]

[Shepard is chuckling at her vicious glee, but it quickly turns into confusion as her double chokes on her drink.]

...You didn't?

[It didn't occur to her for a moment that their romantic backstories could be different. She had assumed that if the Reapers happened, Garrus happened. After all there was no Shepard without Vakarian.]

No. God, I can't imagine. We were way too similar. I respect the hell out of him, but romantically? No way.

[I mean, okay, she's thought about it, but like... idk, he was doing his own thing. So was she.]

So you're serious. You fucked Garrus. Oh my god.

[Honestly, this huge difference is very hard for Shepard to swallow, and her brow is furrowed as she takes a slow sip of her drink of choice. If she didn't get together with Garrus then... does that mean...

She tries to give her double a casual look, but it's obvious she's tense as she asks her next question.]

So does that mean things between you and Kaidan worked out?

[She doesn't know if it would be a comfort to hear of another her in another life that was able to save him back on Virmire and love him like he deserved, or that it was a universal constant that he died there.]

[She knows this is making her double nervous to ask- then again, it is a little surreal to know that she didn't feel the same about Thane. She wonders offhandedly if he still loved her. She always suspected he would, and it breaks her heart, every time.

Thankfully, the other Shepard's words cut through the fog, and she responds without thinking much of it.]

No? There was never a thing between us. Besides he... Virmire, y'know.

[Not that it happens every time. She knows that now. Could have just as easily been Ashley, and... she doesn't know if that's comforting or not. To know she did in fact make that choice.]

[There was never a thing between us she says, and suddenly Shepard feels like she is talking to a stranger wearing her face. It feels a bit like the clone situation on the Citadel, though in her heart of hearts she knows this isn't the case.

All the same, her words cut deeper than she expected and she decides to deal with that by taking another shot.]

I guess he is always doomed to die there, then. No matter what you do.

[Fuck Virmire]

Commander Shepard | Mass Effect | Non-resident | OTA!

does a jig right over here

dances right back

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