Fourth wall mingle post

[wrnpcs]

[For the regular denizens of Balamb Garden, it's an ordinary day...until more off-worlders start showing up, for only a few hours at a time. Unsure what to make of these more temporary visitors, the Garden faculty is holding off on registering them as cadets or offering them jobs.

[Maybe someone you know might turn up?]

Mod note, to reiterate:

4th wall characters can only be seen at certain hours of the day. They may appear for two hours a day, or four... or seen only in the early morning... the time doesn't matter to us, but they're not permanently here. They may return to Garden again through the rest of the month, but they're not around 24/7.

Like apped characters, 4th wall characters can't be ridiculously-sized. Transformers, Gundams, and similar concepts/characters will become human-sized (and in the case of mechas, not allowed altogether.)

Players (like you and me) are not allowed to visit Garden. We're breaking the 4th wall, not destroying it altogether!

Apart from this post, 4th wall characters are free to reply to open posts in witchesreign or open logs in concoursec. Apped players have the option of closing their posts to in-game characters only.

All BBS posts are locked to in-game characters only. 4th wall characters do not have access to any sort of logged in posts unless they hijack someone else's log-in---and in those cases, we need to know this beforehand.

For those unfamiliar with the setting, here is more info on Balamb Garden's facilities and layout. Additionally, some of the NPCs around and some player characters may be wearing Balamb Garden's cadet or SeeD uniform.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask on the OOC post or through the mod channels (wrmods or witchesreign).

Comments

[rewritethis]

Well, if you've got nothing to do, you could always sit down and figure out how you showed up... to give me some clue how to get back. But why would you do that for me? You didn't even ask if I'm an impostor yet.

[braided_icarus]

Right. Well, I told you, the portal opened on me while I was looking for Father and I ended up here! As for being an imposter, you'd be the first one I've come across. And unless you're Envy there is nobody else I know of that shapechanges, so....[It's...him but not him. Or something. :l]

[rewritethis]

First time for everything. Who wouldn't want to impersonate me, right? [Trolling yourself is also not an opportunity that comes by very often.]

[braided_icarus]

....Well, I guess we do have quite a reputation back home at least. [He will agree on this much. His efforts to lure Scar probably only fuelled said 'reputation'.]

[rewritethis]

Exactly! Maybe I'm just trying to cash in on it for some outlandish reason. Like that other guy, except I actually look like me.

[braided_icarus]

What other guy?

[rewritethis]

The other impostor, the one who couldn't even get the clothes right. But you don't have to believe that, either.

[braided_icarus]

I've never met anyone trying to impersonate me. So I don't know what you're talking about, unless this is some other difference like Dante or whatever.

[rewritethis]

Could be. [Man, he's sure he would have noticed by now that someone was trying to jerk him around and taken appropriate measures. What is he in this alternate world, a saint or something?

But Dante just came up again, which reminds him of Al, which gives him an idea.] But if you're really not going to question it at all, I could use some input on this circle I've been working on.

[braided_icarus]

A circle? [Curious. He's still assuming this is likely some alternate version of himself or something. Envy would not have been able to keep up the pretense this long, he's sure.]

[rewritethis]

I just said I was working on a way back. Weren't you listening?

[He removes a notepad from the armful of books he has clearly had under his shoulder this whole time (shhh) and flicks through several pages of scrawl. The page he finally shows to the other Ed is a pencil sketch of an extremely complicated-looking array, covered with scribbled annotations and eraser smudges - recognisable as a human transmutation circle.]

Here, this is all I have so far. It should open the Gate like before, but there wouldn't be enough of me left on the other side to fix anything... Well, you can probably see that. So what do you think? Anything I could cut out to make the exchange smaller? Or not?

[braided_icarus]

[Scowls at him before turning his attention to the array. It's one that's all-too familiar to him and his eyes widen before shaking his head.]

The only time I've done a transmutation on myself like that, I had Envy's Stone as the toll. Besides that, the time in the mines at Briggs but that was...risky. I didn't have any other choice. I don't know how the Portal works here, but if it did work, the result, if it is like the time I tried to heal myself using my life energy...it'd take a few years off of how long you'd live. But you know all that, about the risks and rebound possibilities.

[rewritethis]

Wait. Envy had a Stone? [No, no, he's dropping it, or he'll get sidetracked again.]

I mean - there's nothing I could improve without a Stone? You're sure? And with a Stone, the rebound would probably kill me first... That's - that's entirely predictable, actually, but thanks.

[braided_icarus]

Yup, the people of Xerxes. I...used it as the toll to open the Portal so Envy, Ling and I could get back out of Gluttony. [Because like hell he would let them all die in there.]

I don't even know if the Stone or Portal would work here in this Garden place, so I can't say what might happen if you were to try beyond the obvious consequences back home we know of.

[rewritethis]

[Ed is going to pretend he understood any of that.] Yeah, I guess Al is gonna have to wait a little longer. But for what it's worth, I haven't noticed anything different about my alchemy since arriving here, so any amplifiers would probably work the same way too, right? It's just finding them in a place like this. And without too much genocide. [Seriously, how did his arm and leg follow him all the way to this world but not his watch? If a god is responsible, they're a vindictive bastard.]

[braided_icarus]

Well, there is that much to be grateful for at least. But I doubt there would be any Stones here, unless there was a homunculus you could use. [And even then Ed would be hesitant, the only reason he used Envy's was to get them out and because Envy told him the people of Xerxes had no bodies to return to, their only purpose being to be used as energy. And still Ed had not been the happiest that this was the only option.]

[rewritethis]

Yeah, right, like they carry the damn things around in their pockets or something. Or would let go of it if they had a real one. I was kind of hoping for no homunculi around here.

[Ed closes the notepad and puts it away. If he can't get any easy help, guess he'll just have to think of another way around this Gate problem... later.]

[braided_icarus]

Well, I've yet to run into any here so far.

[But he knows what this other! Ed means. In a lot of ways, he just wants this whole thing with Father behind him, Al restored so they can get on with their lives.]

[rewritethis]

Me neither, and I'd like to keep it that way. They were annoying enough to take out the first time.

[Part of his mind has drifted off to ponder what kinds of alchemical amplifiers might be available this world besides the stones. Actually, what amplifiers does he know about at all? They're not particularly common - that's what makes a State Alchemist's watch so valuable. And he doesn't have his.

Oh, but hang on... somebody else does.

He's now rather blatantly staring at the other Ed's watch, trying to figure out how to phrase the question in a way that any version of himself would respond positively to. It's pretty freaking difficult.

[braided_icarus]

No kidding....I'd rather not deal with Gluttony again at least. [Because being swallowed whole once is definitely enough.

And yes he does notice the other staring at his pocketwatch chain, raising an eyebrow.] ....If you're planning to try use that I doubt it would amplify your or my alchemy enough to open the portal.

[rewritethis]

[Dammit, he's going to get something out of this surreal encounter if it kills him! Whatever happened to equivalent exchange?!] Don't tell me it's not even worth a try...

Gluttony, huh? Wonder where he ended up.

[braided_icarus]

Because I always let people use my watch, course. The only time anyone else handled it was Paninya and that was without my damned permission because of those otaku engineers.....

As for Gluttony, I can't be sure on that.

[rewritethis]

As if I don't know that... But if you're me, then it's practically my watch, isn't it?!

[braided_icarus]

It's mine. What, you never get yours back from Paninya? Or did you give it up to the Fuhrer when you realized how corrupt the military was?

[rewritethis]

Do I need a pretentious reason? They took it away as some kind of "security risk" and never gave it back! [All right, so he did give it up that one time, but that's no reason to remind him about it. And he changed his mind, dammit.]

I'm just gonna borrow it for a minute, so I don't waste a few months trying to make one just to find out it doesn't do anything! Is that too much to ask?!