+ FOURTH WALL EVENT: FOREST PARTY +

[vitaelamorte]

Who: E V E R Y O N E
Where: The Forest!
When: Sept 7th to Sept 10th
Rating: G to PG-13 (please label higher ratings, thank you!)
Summary: Could it be that you (GASP!) don't want to be here? Do you maybe want to make like a tree and... leaf? Then how about you do the next best thing, and come to the woods to party! And don't forget to have a look at the Fourth Wall Master Post for event rules, puzzle clues, and more places to mingle!
The Story:

Beginning on September 7th, colourful ribbons will hang from several trees by the forest. Whoever follows their path will be guided deeper, right to the scene of a forest party.

Wooden benches, swings in all shapes and sizes, tree trunks, and other arrangements give plenty of opportunities to sit together. Tree houses and tents provide shelter, and come nightfall the festivities will light up for you.

Campfires provide additional light and warmth and a great place for ghost stories. Camping coolers store more than smores, and all around you nature twists and turns to give you room to dance to the music, to wander in the quiet, and to simply have a good time!

(...Are you the curiously perceptive, or the perceptively curious sort? If so, then you might also notice the small bird sitting on a branch nearby.)

Comments

[cter]

[They hold up their hands in concession. He might notice that they're wearing red gloves. Snowdin is awfully cold for humans, after all.]

All right, all right. Never mind.

We can just talk about - I dunno what it is you talk about. Ketchup? Ketchup soda? Mom had a bottle of the stuff in her house for whenever you came to visit.

[Their nose wrinkles a little bit. It tasted god-awful, of course.]

[punful]

[A hoodie and gloves. Red gloves. Rather iconically red gloves, actually. The pieces are starting to align in his head and he really doesn't want them to.]

[If he's in the capitol, no doubt ruling the Underground with the laziest fist ever and probably plunging the entire place into anarchy, then someone has to be in Snowdin. Right?]

[Fuck this. Man. Fuck timelines.]

ketchup soda sounds kind of amazing. i've heard of ketchup chips, but not soda.

[cter]

Well, it was your drink of choice. Tasted terrible, but I guess tastes vary.

[If he'd rather not talk about it directly, it's fine. They can sidestep. They're good at that. And they're really good at not talking about their problems directly. They are really excellent at that.]

How do you make ketchup chips? I thought the whole point of ketchup was that it - [They make a vague bottle-dumping gesture, miming the way they might dump the stuff on a burger or a hotdog.] - you know.

[punful]

ketchup is good no matter where it is or what it's in.

[Wait till he discovers ketchup ice cream.]

pfft. i have no idea. i mean, i put extra ketchup on 'em anyway, so.

[cter]

Figures.

[Their tone is dry, but light all the same. Figures that'd be the one common ground he shares with the Sans they know.]

Guess some things really do stay the same, huh?

[punful]

[He waves a hand vaguely.] lots of variables. some constants.

i know a sans who eats mayo. it's horrifying.

[cter]

Oh my god. Where's the logic in that? Why?

[Chara actually laughs at that one. The mental image is, frankly, terrifying.]

[punful]

i dunno. because he's just horrible i guess.

[cter]

So who is this other Sans?

[The draw one knee up to their chest, elbow braced against it, chin propped up on their knuckles.]

And why's that the only thing that changes between you two?

[punful]

he's my mirror. he's like, uh--when you live here you kind of get this sort of...weird evil twin? that hangs out on the other side of the mirrors.

mayo's not the only difference. all of them are different from us in some pretty fundamental ways. some of them aren't so bad but most of them are, uh, kinda. crazy?

[cter]

[A dark expression crosses Chara's features briefly, and they look away, their tone dropping back into something dull and flat.]

Yeah, I met one of your "mirrors". Toriel.

[They manage to twist their own mother's name into something heavy with regret, rank with uncertainty.]

I didn't like her.

[punful]

...yeah. i haven't met her, but...

[He sighs heavily.]

yeah.

[cter]

I'd try not to.

[Their tone is even and polite, as if they're not disparaging this alternate version of their mother.]

Just some friendly advice.

[punful]

don't worry. i'm about done with mirrors.

[About.]

[cter]

Oh yes, me too. I've only met the one, and that was quite enough.

[Perhaps something about that too-polite, too-stilted speech might be familiar; it seems to be a constant among Charas.]

So your mirror's a jackass. Toriel's is...something. Should I ask about the others?

[punful]

i guess that you can consider yourself lucky that you won't get stuck with one. assuming you leave when this event is over.

hm. [He scratches the side of his skull.] mettaton's is a skeevy weirdo. frisk's is a sadistic little edgelord. chara's is a doormat. alphys's is...weird. papyrus's--

[He stops.]

mirrors are just weird. basically you run into any versions of us who are total creeps, i'd head the other direction.

[cter]

[Their legs swing idly as they lean against the tree trunk. They're not eager to meet any mirror of themself. One Chara is already one too many.

They don't recognize every name that comes their way. No idea what a Mettaton is. Or a Frisk.]

So I'm a doormat. Great.

[Can only imagine how that must have -

Okay. No. They're not thinking about that.]

No offense, but it doesn't sound like there are any versions of you that aren't creeps. Mirror-wise, anyway.

[punful]

that's the thing. the mirrors end up being versions of us that you'd never really expect.

[Chara timid and polite, Sans trying way too hard, Papyrus...Papyrus cold and murderous.]

yeah, heh. i think at least all our mirrors are like that.

[cter]

Good. Great.

[Is it possible to overdose on sarcasm? God they hope so.]

Well, in that case, hope I'm not staying. I thought it'd beat Snowdin. Even the fake sky was nice, you know? Nice to pretend.

But I'd rather take that endless -

[Ah. No. They quickly divert whatever they were about to say into something less...obvious.]

I'd rather take Snowdin over this, any day.

[punful]

i think the sky is technically real, actually. maybe.

[As real as everything else around here, at least.]

[They cut themselves off. "Endless."]

...snowdin, huh? the snow is pretty endless. but i guess there's snow place like home.

[cter]

How ice of you to say so!

[It's easy. It's so easy to default to that. That joking, casual demeanor. Maybe that's why he does it. It lets him avoid thinking about everything...everything else.]

I guess I wouldn't know. Been a long time since I've seen the sky, and I don't go to Waterfall.

[punful]

gotta admit, i can appreciate that you're a pretty chill version of chara.

[Got him in one, Chara.]

yeah? not a fan of dark and wet?

[cter]

My kind doesn't belong there.

[It's a simple statement, concise and to the point, and they don't seem the least bit bothered by it.]

Not in the place where monsters make their wishes.

[punful]

...oh.

[He...has no idea what to say to that. Frisk passed through that room, and the other kids who fell before them must have gone through as well. He never really thought of it as something to protect--or rather, something to exclude people from. It's probably not a topic that ever even came up, even with monsters who care a lot more about The Wishing Room than Sans does. He supposes from a certain perspective you could see the room as sacred or something, but does that mean that humans aren't allowed?]

[Knowing Chara, it might be more a self-imposed denial of something they don't think they deserve.]

[This is weird stuff that he never really thinks about.]

you know...most monsters don't hate humans. or if they do, it's that sort of... [He waves a hand vaguely.] the concept of them, or...the history of them, i guess.

[Everyone was so happy when Chara came to live with the Dreemurs, because it was a sign that maybe things were getting better, like maybe the war was really over. Or at least that's what monsters who were alive at the time say.]

i don't think anyone would really...

[Wishes are for kids. And Chara is a kid.]

[He sighs and shrugs.]

but what do i know? different worlds.

[cter]

I know. Monsters don't hate humans. Most of them...it doesn't occur to them that they should, does it?

[There's a wistful note to the words, something that might turn bitter at the slightest infraction but doesn't. Mostly, it is simply...pitying. Tired.

It must be so nice, they think, to be born with that kind of goodness in your heart. To not be made rotten and horrible. To not be something that you hate so deeply and intensely that there's no escaping it. There's no fixing it. No making it better.

You just do your best to minimize the damage you inevitably inflict.]

You can't live with that kind of bitterness in your SOULs. [They're still smiling, their tone matter-of-fact.] I envy you for that, I think.