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

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+ 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...

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Gardens

[There are far fewer fights going on than mirror-Max had hoped there would be, but that might be her own fault. Either her expectations were a bit too high, or she's not participating enough. In either case, she feels content for now to prowl the gardens- the one on the mirror side is so small in comparison, and she gets tired of being cooped up in the mirror-mansion all day. The gardens on the real side explode with color and smells, and these days with people as well. All sorts of interesting people.

Honestly, she's pretty jealous of the way the real side looks.

She's not as into photography as her real version, but she likes it well enough. For an entire day she does nothing except take pictures of the real side, especially outdoors- and of the people as well, indiscriminately photographing reals and mirrors, residents and guests. The Polaroid flashes over and over, and the bundle of instant photos in her bag grows and grows.]

Roof

[On another day, she's standing on the roof of the real mansion, right at the edge. Her attention is divided between the smaller mansion, the people wandering around, the wide open sky (though she knows it's not really all that wide). Her head turns this way and that as she tries to soak it all in, to look for anyone she might recognize.

A couple of days on the real side- who knows how long it will last? At some point she's going to hit those parties and get wasted, but... for now she feels mild dissatisfaction with the array of people. They all seemed kind of unique at first, but now they're all blending together.

She lets out a loud sigh as she looks down from her spot right at the edge.]

Edited 2016-09-04 01:07 (UTC)

[Sans is on the roof in an attempt to escape from the sheer madness of everything that's happening. His Mirror is temporarily out of commission, but there are Charas to avoid and existential crises to Not Think About, and the roof is good for that sort of thing. Only there's so many dang people here now that it's not quite the escape it usually is.]

[Max seems to be up here as well, peering over the edge, and people really need to stop doing that. It stresses him out. Also it's...Max. Not someone he particularly wants to see right now, though. Well. He needs to apologize to her at some point, really apologize to her, and though he's not sure that now is the best time, she's here. He'd knows he'll feel like crap if he doesn't at least say hello.]

max?

[He's at a bit of a distance from her and can't see her face clearly from here.]

Sans.

[Now that is interesting. He must be feeling pretty tired by now- she saw him fight his mirror, and she's assuming the multitude of Charas and Frisks and Sanses has been driving him up the wall.

She normally has no interest in pretending to be the real Max. But all she really has to do is not turn around, and say the bare minimum, right? She keeps her gaze directed out toward the sea, so that her little smile stays hidden.]

Edited 2016-09-04 04:53 (UTC)

[He can't see her face, but her tone is...rather dry. Rather unemotional. Yeah, he expected this. She has absolutely no reason to listen to him or even be around him after the shit he pulled. Honestly, the best thing to do would probably be to leave her alone forever and let her move on, make other friends, hopefully be happy. But, well. He's been into this whole "trying" thing lately. It's terrible.]

[It's not lost on him that she might actually be her Mirror, or even an alternate version of Max, but then again, she knows him. Reacts as if they've spoken before, which is a fairly good indicator that she's the correct Max.]

uh, so. this probably isn't the best time right now, considering all the...let's call them shenanigans, going on. but, uh. i was wondering if we could maybe...talk, sometime. though if you'd rather not and just, uh, have me leave you alone, that's fine. up to you.

[She's probably selling this really badly, and it's so hard to care, but the payout should be worth it, right? She gives him a controlled glance- look just a little wary, a little peeved that Sans is even talking to her, and throw in an "uh" for good measure. That should do it, right?]

Uh... no, we can. Talk.

[Ah, good enough, she hopes. Let him do the talking. Try to wear a solemn expression, deep in thought.

Stare over the edge.

Imagine shoving him right off. He wouldn't die, he could just teleport, right? But god, that would be kinda funny.

Don't giggle. Don't giggle.]

[He takes a step closer. She does sound like Max. The proper tone, inflection. If something's a bit off, it's probably because this whole thing is awkward. It's harder to notice differences and strangeness when everything is already different and strange. When you're already stepping way out of your comfort zone by actually approaching someone in an attempt at reconciliation.]

[He scratches at the back of his skull.]

oh, uh. okay. cool.

[He hadn't really planned this far ahead.]

well, i...first i wanted to, uh. apologize, again. i...

[Shit, man, this stuff is hard. And she's not even really looking at him.]

i shouldn't have...i betrayed your trust. i let you down. i shouldn't have told them anything. and i'm sorry that i hurt you.

[She actually has to close her eyes. Think about something sad to keep herself from laughing. He's apologizing! Oh no, the real Max is missing it! That's sad right?

Right?

Pffft.

She only nods because she doesn't trust her voice to sound serious.

No, no. She's got it. She blows out a heavy sigh and buries her face into her hands. Maybe he'll come closer, try to comfort her or something, close enough to push, right here at the edge Sans, come right here...

She lets her shoulders shake as though she's crying, but in reality it's a little bit of soundless laughter. Maybe she's reaching for too much... maybe he already suspects. It doesn't matter. She can always rewind.]

Edited 2016-09-04 06:30 (UTC)

[Oh shit. That's not the reaction he was expecting, aw, man, he didn't want to go and make her...]

[She is crying, right?]

[He takes another step forward, but he is Sans, after all. Always cautious, especially around things like roof edges, for all that he likes to sit with his feet dangling in open air. Thing is, falling off a roof can kill anyone. -9999 HP on impact--doesn't matter how strong you are, how much HP you have. It's a better use of mental resources to pay attention to the things that can't kill everyone, the little things that the average person would take for granted. Roof edges are obvious, so obvious you can afford to be a bit incautious.]

[Especially since ten stories is equivalent to about three seconds of reaction time, which is enough time to teleport about thirty times over.]

[His feet are firmly planted.]

hey, uh. don't cry. max?

[Now that he's a bit closer...something's not quite right. And it's always the not quite right, a stray speck of dust on a kid's hand, a flash of regret in their expression, the little things that make the difference between a good timeline and everything else.]

[He hesitates.]

[Close enough. He's just a little off to her side, almost as close to the edge as she is by now. Now... what would Sans do?

She gives him a long look.

A sad look.

A scared look, because she is scared.

And she jumps off the ledge and screams.

What would Sans do?]

Edited (I am a messy person) 2016-09-04 07:27 (UTC)

[Welp.]

[That just happened.]

[.02 seconds after she leaps, Sans basically has a heart attack.]

[Ha.]

[.05 seconds after she leaps, Sans realizes that this is definitely Max's Mirror because there is no earthly reason for this particular sequence of events. It's. It's just logic. Deductive reasoning, whatever. People are unstable and emotional creatures, prone to letting their emotions take over, so sure, that could be what happened--Sans hurt her so very badly that the mere act of a shitty apology drove her to literal suicide.]

[Sure, yeah, except it just doesn't make sense, and of course it doesn't make sense for Max's Mirror to do this either, and whatever, literally nothing makes sense anymore.]

[One full second after she leaps, Sans throws out a hand and shit it actually hurts this time when he turns her soul blue because he's been using too much damn magic the past three days and holy shit, this is the second time he's needed to catch someone in mid-freaking-air and it is not easy. Gravity is an extraordinarily demanding force, the kind of thing that can't be denied and really hates it when you do manage to deny it, and is always there to grab at you again, what goes up must come down etc etc etc.]

[Sans isn't really into the anthropomorphization of natural forces.]

[Point being, his skull abruptly feels ready to split in two, and Max slows and drifts downward a few more feet before his hold solidifies. Then he hoists her back upward, soul-first, and deposits her on the roof. Not exactly gently, either.]

[He doesn't actually breathe until she's on solid roof again, and at that point he sort of braces his hands on his knees.]

what the fuck.

[The entire way down, before that uncomfortable lurch and the ascent back up to the roof (god that is such a weird feeling), mirror-Max's brain repeats over and over: catch me catch me catch me fucking catch me.

The wave of relief as she slows and finally stops hits her so hard that she actually let out an incoherent squeak. Who knows if the Queen would have reconstructed her? The conversation is certainly not one she would've liked to hear: "You died how?!"

Even with all of that, she does notice herself dip a few feet, with grim satisfaction. He is tired. The moment her feet touch the roof, even before he can finish cursing, she's already trying to grab him and shove him off the roof.]

Get off my roof, guy.

[Oh holy shit.]

[That whole thing about things not making sense just goes ahead and. Keeps being a thing, because now she is grabbing him, and he's startled enough that she actually gets hold of him. Sans is extremely not okay with being randomly grabbed, because it's a hell of a lot harder to dodge when you're partially immobilized, and--]

[Yep, okay, she is shoving him off the roof. Alright, then.]

[The good thing about grabbing and shoving someone is that you're not necessarily focused on getting a good grip, one that will actually hold. Can't teleport out of a tight grip. Can teleport out of anything less than that, so he does, right as his foot scoots back into open air.]

[He loses a slipper and reappears several feet behind her.]

wow, okay. so are all mirrors totally insane, or am i just lucky?

Insane people don't jump off roofs, what are you talking about? [Or at least, when they jump they're not as fucking scared as mirror-Max had been two seconds ago.

Her palms are still sweaty, her knees still weak, arms even somewhat heavy (heh, she thinks to herself)- but none of it is enough to stop her from pulling out one of her pistols from beneath her hoodie.

Now comes the part where she really has to be spot on. Fortunately, there's not much to do on the mirrorside except practice.]

Thanks for the lift. Feeling tired?

[She holds out a hand, instinctively. Time starts to bend, bend- she hears the familiar roaring wind in her ears, like the universe protesting, like tornadoes bearing down on Wonderland. Colors twist and twirl- a slipper rising back up to the roof- the blue of Sans clothes one moment here, one moment there- It's a short rewind. A few seconds. She barely even notices the effort it takes anymore.

But the rewind doesn't affect Max. No, it never does- she tells time what to do, not the other way around! She already has one hand raised, gripping her pistol in sweaty palms, pointing several feet away from her.]

Edited 2016-09-04 08:41 (UTC)

[Sans' foot scoots off the roof. A slipper falls.

A deafening bang sounds in the air.

Max is already looking in the correct direction- where she knows Sans will appear after his teleport. Briefly she wonders if this will all be over too soon. Maybe his fatigue, coupled with his surprise at rewinds from mild-mannered-Maxine will be enough to throw him off his game. She can't wait to see his expression when he pops out of thin air just a few feet away.

There's already a bullet headed that way.]

[He loses a slipper and reappears several feet behind her.]

[He says something incredibly witty and then the entire world unravels.]

[A Reload is a snap, a stumble-jolt, there and then back. Instantaneous. A Reset is a snap, whiplash, blinding enough that even if Sans somehow had perfect memory of every timeline, he's absolutely sure that the actual mechanism of the Reset itself would rattle his skull too much to retain anything. A Reset hurts a little, an ache in the soul, an ache in an eyesocket.]

[This, whatever this is, takes its time.]

[Great pun. Hopefully he'll remember it.]

[It's a shredding, dragging sensation and it's uncomfortable as it's happening, painful as it's happening, and then he hits the teleport and it's like everything snags.]

[It took months to learn. Like tuning an absurdly complex radio. It's all relatively simple on paper. A particle vibrating at the right frequency can shift from one place to another without any evidence that it traveled at all. It's there, then it's not. Then it's somewhere else.]

[Much harder with anything bigger than a particle. Much harder when you throw magic into the mix, when you've got a conscious mind to worry about, when there's an extremely finite amount of space that you can occupy, because an awful lot of the world is made up of solids and fluids, not stuff that can easily be displaced. And when you can't actually control the vibration, well, then you just count your lucky stars that you don't end up forty feet into a wall somewhere.]

[Practice, careful aim, careful control, and it became second nature. A shortcut.]

[She throws him backward through the teleport and it all comes undone. His soul doesn't know where it's supposed to be. And all it ever really is, is moving a soul around--the body just comes along for the ride. The teleport runs in reverse, then reverses again, moves forward, surges forward, point A and point B swapping, getting mixed up.]

[His mind breaks. Everything breaks. For a moment he's in two places. For a moment, he's falling off the roof, losing a slipper, and he's also reappearing back on the roof and there's a bullet halfway to his sternum.]

[There's a loud crack, and then Sans is nowhere at all.]

[The slipper falls. It takes about four seconds to hit the ground.]

[And then Sans appears in a heap on the roof, nowhere near where he should have been. Several feet away, in fact.]

[He gets a hand beneath him, fingers curling against the roof in an effort to push himself upward.]

ghhh...

[His eyesockets are pitch black. And there's a hairline fracture, less than an inch long, tracing its way up from the top of the left one.]

what...

[He can't think.]

what did you do?

[Did he- did he fucking teleport again? Either he's faster, and much, much better than Max ever thought he was, or something's wrong. He retained the memory- he knew what was going to happen. She expected a little bit of that from him, but not enough to predict bullets on the fly.

No no no...

He's gone. She aims her pistol this way and that, sweeping the roof, looking for him- she has to know where he'll end up so she can fire again, have two bullets in the air this time, spam that rewind... but he's gone.

She fights down the irritation- refuses to admit that it's actually panic. She holds out her hand again, reaching for her rewind, too hasty to even consider what to do once she gets him back where he's supposed to be, and-

But no, there he is, there, where a moment before there was only air and dust. Dust. Funny. She trains her pistol on him, watching for what he'll do, ready to rewind in a split second.

He's saying something.]

This isn't what I expected.

[She walks closer, taking a knee to look at him in the eye- those pitch back holes, a little crack just above the left one.]

Ask Max. Maybe she won't tell you, but I definitely won't. [Can't be bothered. She reaches into her bag and pulls out her Polaroid, casually talking at the same time.] I didn't think it'd kill you, but it kinda looks like it's about to. Uhh. Sorry? This isn't exactly, like, picture material, but you gotta make do, you know?

[She snaps a photo of him, the flash popping with bright light, and then chuckles as she tucks away the picture. And she just starts babbling, on and on, watching him struggle.]

God you should've seen your face, though. That was pretty good, right, when I jumped off the roof? You know, I wasn't sure you'd catch me- can you imagine how pissed the Queen would've been? That would've been pretty funny, too. This one's better, though. Eh, probably not for you. Can I tell you a secret? A lot of the time I just rewind all the way so nothing ever happened. No fighting. But I get a cool picture, maybe, and some laughs. Good memories. Fun times. No one gets hurt. But, uhh, I think if I rewound again, you'd get hurt even more. So, yeah, sorry. You've got to appreciate that irony, though. I'd save you if I could! [She chuckles again.] That's a really wicked twist right there. Do you want me to stay? I can go. I probably should, someone might've heard the gunshot.

[He looks up at her, vision swimming, and the gun is pointed at him again and you can't dodge bullets, not the kind that humans use. And he can't teleport. He can't teleport, because if he does and she does that thing again, he won't survive this time. He knows it with absolute certainty.]

[She comes closer and he needs to get up, needs to be ready to dodge, needs to--he can figure out what's happening, what happened, he can do that later, but there won't be a later if she kills him.]

[He can barely move. Weak and useless like usual. Manages to do little more than drag himself back a few inches.]

[It's kind of incredible how much his skull hurts.]

[She's talking and his eyelights flicker back on, but there's something wrong with the left one. It's almost fuzzy, like a streetlight on a foggy day.]

[She reaches into her bag and he tenses. There's--nothing he can do. Everything hurts too much and he can't move to dodge, can't teleport without risking her un...unwinding it, or whatever she did, and god damn it, he was kind of hoping to make it a full year, set a new record and all. Check it out, Sans survived for an entire year, no Resets, no nothing.]

[He's going to make a lot of people cry and it's not till right now that he realizes it's actually a lot of people. It's not just Papyrus this time.]

wait.

[But it's not a weapon. It's...a camera. Like the one the Real Max uses. The first time he saw rain, the first time he met her, his first selfie.]

[She snaps a picture. He squints up at her.]

that's just downright tacky.

[She's talking, jabbering away. Hurts his skull even worse just trying to listen. She calls it a rewind. Okay. Rewind. Sure. Max can just--send time in reverse apparently, sure. Whatever. What-fucking-ever.]

think you're above consequences, huh?

[Anomalies always do.]

nah. i'm good. [He finally manages to pull himself up onto his knees and groans, pressing a hand to his left eyesocket, god, they tell you that pain really sucks but they don't tell you it sucks this much, and when you experience it so rarely it's also very hard to work through it. He just hasn't had the practice.]

"nngghh. think i'm all...all mirrored out for one day. 'fact, if i were you, i'd, uh. take pains, heh, to never let me see you again."

[The picture comes out okay- she kinda wishes his eyelights hadn't come back, because then he would've looked like a plain old skeleton. Would've been cool. Now he looks a little more like Sans.

In any case her tone is rather sincere, pun and all.]

Oh, way to go, you're not dead! Just kinda dead tired huh?

[It's kinda cute how even when they're both kneeling she's still taller than him.

Oh, the threat, that's kinda cute too. She's pretty sure that she'll win any fight where he teleports, and even the ones where he doesn't. Neither Frisk nor Chara ever LOADS as often as Max rewinds. And she's pretty sure the real Max won't teach him how it works.

And if he ever did end up being a tough fight? Well then, rewind.]

Normally there aren't consequences. Cuz normally I wouldn't have done anything in the final timeline. [An amused smile.] Buuut, I think if I rewound again you'd really be dead, so.

[She stands and dusts off her knee, stowing away both her camera and the picture. This feels like the right time to head to one of the parties.]

Just remember, I saved your life! Don't hate. So we're even, since you saved mine. [She turns to leave, throwing him a little wave at the same time.] Bye!

[Nice pun. He'd laugh if his head didn't hurt so much.]

[He's got nothing more to say to her. No consequences. Of course. It's damned familiar.]

[He waits until he's absolutely sure she's gone to sink back onto the roof and sort of curl into a ball, holding his head. He winces as he traces the small crack above his eyesocket.]

[That's new. Sans doesn't get injured. Anything that would leave a mark on the average monster would dust him. Was always so careful. Never let himself get hurt, never let anyone land a hit.]

[Nothing like this has ever happened before.]

[He's not sure he can fix this, either. Even if he had any skill whatsoever with healing magic, he's pretty sure trying would kill him right now.]

[People will ask questions.]

[Certain people will be incredibly amused.]

[He sighs shakily to himself and covers his eyesocket with both hands, waiting for the pain to subside.]

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

Mirror-Max | Life is Strange | Resident (Mirror)

Roof | here we go

Ready for the time-travel abuse??

GOD YES

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I dunno if this needs a CW but... there's jumping involved!

holy shit

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1/2

2/2

sans eats shit: the novelization

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