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 Posted: Mon Mar 06, 2017 12:30 pm
Mintaka was a creature that was damaged. She knew this about herself, and she knew that it was because of what she had already faced in the last parts of her senshi hood. The deep resounding memories from the future that didn’t happen still tickled in the back of her mind. The resolution to tie strings from the DMC back to the Negaverse was, in short to her, disappointing. Even though the future shared a darker fate, she wanted to change it. She had wanted to change herself. Oh funny had it been that the Dark mirror had always been the answer? She could be her, and she could find a safety among its dwindling ranks.
She had found solitude and silence in the dark mirror’s space, where sound was obsolete and sights were strangely comforting and soothing. Even more then her home with Aurostibite, or the reports she had filed with Umber once upon a time. Here, she felt whole, and as if something called to her deep within. In this place, she felt she had actual meaning.
She knew there was Leto, who hid herself in the folds of the space but she had never seen the princess more than once and that was fine as well. Her fondness for royalty laid with Remarque, and even more so after the torture that Castor had inflicted on her. Alliances, she thought. Leto had an alliance with white moon, who seeked to purify them all or kill them. It made her angry, and her hand gripped tightly into a cabinet, as it appeared from the smoky haze for her. The anger came from the idea of traitors, and from the image of Chariklo, bathed in the signature of order and white wings. The one who had first OFFERED her home among the dark court, the one who had been nothing short of her friend. But it was okay though, she still had Damocles and Tantalus. She had family and friends still in the darkness. (Did she? She couldn’t remember talking to them anymore, how long had she been coming here? What had she been doing?) Her hand left the cabinet as the momentary anger faded, and she was back to a eerie like flow down the hallways.
She had never ventured further than this though, in mirror space. The outer reaches of the hallways and home like decor that littered them. The varied in size and shapes and general setting. Though she noticed the further she went out, the less they were nice and placed. She had seen knocked over shelves, fallen paintings. Ruins or something like that. Modern ruins? Her boots were soft against the ground though, until they weren’t and she knew she had reached the last of the hallway. Where...carpet like texture faded and it was replaced with rough stone and gravel. The setting was a blank slate though. No walls. Open space. Just one pathway. Was it for her? Was it calling to her?
Like a siren’s song, she came to this spot, where she stood looking at nothing but smoke and darkness. She came to this spot every day since she had found the outer edges of the safety of their kingdom. This was a wilderness, and it’s song was a sweet prelude to discovery. Mintaka wondered how far Remarque had gone in this space, she wondered….how far Leto had. Did any of the other eternals know of this path? Did they know of the wilds that called? Her heart raced at the idea. What laid out there, how long had it been there, was there anything? Would she be lost in the space of mirrors? Would she lose herself?
She was torn. The sirens sweet song….the Obligation of returning to the ones she loved. She watched it longer, her arms crossed under her chest before turning on her heel. The first step had never been hard for her to take, so the idea of it now made her worried. Was she now a coward? Or did the ties to her life outside, still cut deep enough to hinder her?
Usually she rushed through, back to the mirror to her house, but now she lingered and the lingering grew longer and longer. When she returned home, returning to Durumi...It was night, and the small clock she had set up by the mirror shined a bright green time of 4:22AM.
4:22AM on March 1st of 2017.
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Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 10:16 pm
Durumi’s hands shook as lifted the roller, just out of her reach. A bright coat of sunny yellow paint followed in the track she made, without smearing or becoming uneven even with her out of reach attempts. She had chosen the largest room of the downstairs of her late grandmother's mansion, one that mirrored her future not memories, as a room that would eventually turn into something of well...perhaps childcare or a teaching room. She had plans to make Magiore a studio too, but as he still had his loft, she didn’t push for the work for it yet. He was happy and content with it, and that was fine with her. She didn’t often push Magiore anymore, and perhaps that was because they had such a funny relationship already. The future had showed them something was possible, and she had been more mature then. It was funny to her, how it sorta just happened. Well not really, she had pushed and he had been willing to bend, even if he hadn’t knew it.
She moved a step over, bringing the roller up again. She wanted to paint little flowers and insects. Maybe she would do one wall decorated just in a mural. All her time spent with arts and crafts helped flood the imaginative process for the room. She wouldn’t do desk, but small tables and chairs maybe. Toys. A dry erase board. A cork board. Maybe little cute string lights. She could set up a reading corner. She chuckled, as she wiped her brow. She hadn’t realized that the room had gotten a bit warm, and with the sun high in the sky, it seemed a bit stifling to have paint smells surrounding her. She dropped the roller into the pan, and stretched, feeling a small pop in her back. As she did that, she slowly moved to the window, pulling the blinds up and lifting it up to allow the cool spring air in. It had just felt like yesterday, winter had been brutal and cold and now she could hear the birds chirping...she could see the start of blooms on the trees. Peach blossoms and Orange blossoms, she thought fondly, would scent the air soon here. Though her late grandparents had owned the large mansion, they had been generous with the land around it and most of it was rented out to local growers and farmers. Orchards were abundant which really was fine with Durumi...It meant fresh fruit and vegetables for her.
She rolled her head, shrugged her shoulders up and down again and looked at the wall.
“Only half done eh?” She smirked, “Well you’ll be done today and then I’m going to reward myself with a sweet tea lemonade.” She could all but feel the cool tea sliding down her throat. She could text Magiore too, and see if he wanted to come join her outside. Perhaps they could have a dinner picnic. She took a look at her wristwatch, just to gauge the time and almost laughed. “Only 2pm. Dinner’s gonna be a little far off.” She wasn’t sure if she could wait that long as her stomach growled.
In the end, she decided to stick it out till at least 4pm, and then she would eat and treat herself. Maybe she would take another walk into Mirror Space, just to fish for more places. That was what she needed to do, really. Balance the two. Her life as Durumi and her life as Mintaka. Both needed to be balanced.
So she worked until 4, when her watch went off with a small beep to let her know and she stepped back to admire that her wall was now finished. Just in time really too. She’d leave the window open, so the room could air and dry. She ate, ignoring the paint stains on her hands and clothes in favor of fueling her system, and took a long satisfying drink of tea. With a new kind of energy she stretched again, taking her cell phone to text Magiore that she was going to mirror walk and perhaps she’d come to him for dinner, and headed to the large mirror that was her dedicated Mirror Walking one. Though it was suggested to be placed anywhere but her home, her mansion was far enough in the countryside of Destiny City that she didn’t worry about the small blip of her aura. She set the phone to the side, took her watch off and set the alarm, so this time she would be back before dark. The shift to Mintaka was quick, and she replaced the watch on her wrist. As she placed her hand on the mirror, it pulsed with her and then she melted into it. Something was different though, in the way it felt as she entered. Something was different, but she didn’t know what. Then she was gone.
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Mirror Walking always felt like a comforting walk through the woods, and this time Mintaka promised herself not to dwell on the what ifs of the Mirror Space. She treated it too much as a escape, instead of a respite from a long day. She needed to find herself the enjoyment she did again in the space she had. She needed to settle for the knows, and not the what ifs.
She could tell herself that all day but she never followed through. Her heart raced, and she wasn’t sure why. She could feel mirror space pulsing around her. Was it pulsing? What was it reacting too? She wasn’t sure but she had to know. It was like the scene from pocahontas, when the woman had spun her canoe into the wild rivers. She didn’t know when she had started running, when she had felt she needed to rush, when she didn’t pay attention to the wisp of smoke that parted for her, instead of wisping around her like a lovers touch.
She ran to the edge of the hallways, where carpet turned to stone, where she had contemplated the darkness. She held her hand to her chest, where it beat wildly. Why today? What was special? She couldn’t breathe, it felt like she was on the cusp of something, something deeper.
“I’m here.” She whispered at first, because mirror space would answer wouldn’t it? “What is here? What am I looking for?” She said more loudly. Her gaze looked to the step of carpet to stones and she hesitated. The first step. Was that what it wanted? Is that why it called to her? Could it be bad? She looked at her watch but it didn’t make sense, the hands were frozen in the time she had entered the mirror space in the first place. She removed it, because it served no purpose and dropped it on the floor. She could just take that step, she’d be back. Magiore wouldn’t have to wait long, they’d still have dinner. She’d be right back.
She outstretched her foot and stepped into the darkness.
It swallowed her whole.
Her watch ticked once.
4:22PM Saturday March 4th, 2017Magiore Text to Magiore: Gonna walk mirrorspace, I'll stop by for dinner. See you tonight love. (Sent at 4:15PM March 4th 2017)
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Posted: Thu Mar 16, 2017 11:31 pm
First steps often meant a lot of things. To parents, the first steps from a child was joy and fear. To a teenager, it meant becoming an adult. To an adult, it was new beginnings, fresh starts, right choices, wrong choices, adventures. First steps were like rabbit holes, where you fell fast and hard sometimes...or slow and long and you never knew what was going to happen when you reached the bottom. Would it hurt? Would it be okay?
Would she be okay?
She felt groggy, but not in the tired sense. She felt weighed down, like pressure. Like what she imagined a submarine would feel like as it descended into water or...like how gravity was simulated on astronauts in space. She was pretty sure she was laying down, but perhaps she felt that way because it felt like she SHOULD be laying down. She blinked a couple of times, and as awareness drew her back in, she could feel the pressure from the area start to fade. She flexed a hand, and then her toes. Nothing broken, and nothing hurt. She didn’t feel sick, or nauseated. With a bit of effort, she was able to sit up and take a breath. The tightness in her chest, from the excitement before started to slowly unravel and as she was becoming more aware and used to the air here, she realized what the pressure was.
Pure chaos energy. So pure, it almost burned like a small fire on her skin. It tingled to her bones, setting her whole body off like the static when your arms and legs fall asleep and then awaken again. She almost wanted to cry out, but the feelings faded and her body started to feel a bit lighter. A bit easier to move. The mist that was normally grey in the mirror space that was more familiar to her curled in thick and heavy, though it seemed more black. In fact...the mist seemed the most black of the area, and she didn’t realize that the lighting and the walls were lighter of color. They were a soft grey, easy on the eyes and brighter than that of mirror space she had walked before. The floor, she ran her hand over, was smooth and ‘cold’ like marble and she realized that was probably the best way to describe the surroundings. Marble walls, and pillars and floors. There was no ceiling, just a sky of curling black mist much like a storm.
“Well. Alice in wonderland had a little more color.” She joked, but she pushed herself up, and dusted off her fuku. Her body felt a lot less groggy and heavy, as if it had adjusted and absorbed the level of chaos around her. She ran a hand through her hair, as she attempted to find something of anything. Mist parted for her as she walked, but the lick against her skin from it felt cold. Not uncomfortably so, because it felt like that of chaos, but startlingly so. Like when it was cool rain on a warm muggy day. She had nothing to draw closer to her, but she didn’t mind as she moved into the structures of the marble area. She’d call it marble area because she wasn’t sure what else to call it. She didn’t even know how to describe the beauty of the structure besides that it was well...it seemed old. Older than most of the things. The pillars reminded her of roman architect but the walls reminded her of egyptian pyramids. The marble swirled though, upon closer inspection and she placed a hand on it, squeaking when it moved under hands. It felt...It had felt like the mist but very solid, and she wondered, if it was like the home spot, the mist was just more concentrated her.
The path grew narrower the further she walked, though she wasn’t sure how long she had been walking. There was no sun or moon or stars here, there was nothing to tell time and the only difference in surroundings was the walls ever changing marble like designs. She felt like she walked an eternity. Maybe a couple hours? Did people go mad in here she wondered?
This was an adventure though right? She was brought here to go mad, she was brought here for something. Mirror Space wasn’t a place that would just...wisp her away.
“Right? You wouldn’t just wisp me away right?” She was mostly speaking to speak, but movement in the corner of her eye had her head turning. The shadow of something moved quickly though, and just as it was there, it was gone.
“Wraiths.” She blew out a breath. It was a bit comforting in its own way, knowing the creatures were around, a little less lonely. She would’ve felt that way but wraiths themselves were creepy too, unless bound to her, they sort of….hung around. She could literally feel their gaze on her, and it made her draw herself tighter into herself. As if the creepy quiet place wasn’t enough, the couple of lingering gazes made her sigh.
“Here for a reason. Here for a reason. I did not just fall into deeper mirror space.” She mumbled this mostly to herself, for assurance but just in case….”Right? This wasn’t by accident….” plus how would she get back? She could see the shadows of the wraiths in the corner of her eyes still and turned her head to catch them, though she never did. As she looked back, she almost screamed jumped when one was in front of her. Not directly in front of her, but staring at her from a direct line of sight. She had to cover her mouth, breathing through her nose as it quickly turned and disappeared down the straight (only) path.
Eventually, the straight path ended with a flight of stairs deeper into black mist (she hoped the wraith fell down the stupid stairs but not really). It cleared slowly for her and her small gasp slightly echoed around her. Down below her laid a intricate design of marble and walls in the shape of a round like maze, like something you would see in the movies. How could mirror space have such a wonder? It could only be that and she wondered just how it was made, who had spent the time to do it? Why a maze of all things? Usually mazes held something wondrous in the middle didn't they? Maybe this one had a door to home ish...or a mirror she could exit from.
She took each step down carefully, memorizing as much of the maze as she could from her view point. As she reached the entrance, she felt her heart start to race, as something entered her senses. She became hyper aware, and maybe so did mirror space. The maze moved, literally walls dropped and re raised until there was a straight path for her. Just for her. The sounds echoed again in the area but not so much as the heartbeat in Mintaka's chest.
“Here for a reason.” She called, and she hoped...whatever this reason was would help her once she was out. Maybe it could help all the dark mirror senshi.
Another first step and she didn’t even hesitate this time. The hyper awareness of something calling to her drowned out the sounds of the walls being raised back up behind her. her heart beat was too loud as well, to drown out normal thoughts. Like what if this was NOT good, what if this was BAD?
Something was here though, and it called to her, like the siren’s song she had heard time after time of waiting at the edge of space.
Something was here. She needed to find it.
She needed to open it.
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Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 12:14 am
The stirring inside her, the deep call of necessity. She had felt these things before. When she had been a white moon senshi, it was the longing for Aurostibite, a negaverse agent who she had nothing but fleeting memories of future that was never to be. But the stirring had been made, and it had spurred her to pursue him. To change her life for him, and more...for herself.
The necessity came with the Dark Mirrors, because of her white moon life, she had been outcasted...treated like a rebel, like a monster. All because she had wanted was peace. How many of the negas had she talked to that had felt the same? How many of them purified? How many corrupted from white moon because of their often harsh and barbaric battling way?
Corrupting to a nega senshi had never been a option, and she had been glad that Auro had never wanted too, or even brought it up. Even after her torture at the hands of negas, she would’ve never chosen them. The dark mirrors though...they had offered her family, and Remarque had been so kind, as well as Chariklo. She could still be with Auro.
The dark mirrors were necessary. How many of them didn’t know they had family? How many of them knew but thought white moon was saving them? As she moved further into the maze, her thoughts drifted and scattered. She could see something, still too far away from her to take but it called to her, like a dark whisper in her ear.
Chariklo had left her, because the dark mirrors weren’t enough. But Mintaka could make them, if she had help, from the royals (but not Leto...the white moons couldn’t be trusted, why couldn’t they play both fields). And each senshi that had left had repercussions. Isn’t that what the royals had brought them together to talk about?
The dark whispers urged her forward, they fueled a fire in her that she had been working on banking out. They poured the gasoline to trigger the darker of her thoughts, that the Dark mirrors were stronger than either of the two factions, they had so much more to give. Why were they treated like ants in the war. They were senshi without the draining effects of answering to a queen and her demands. They were senshi, not bound by the stifling orders of the white moon and their thirst for bloodlust. They existed. Dark mirror senshi EXISTED.
She walked faster, to the sweet whispers of power. To the call of darkness. She walked faster and she almost missed it, there on a pedestal. It was so plain, it almost blended in. A small white box, with a small keyhole in a rust copper color. A key laid next to it, but the two seemed almost to repel each other. She stopped, and she stared at it because it was the focus of her awareness. It whispered to her, and she shuddered. Her shudder brought her out of the trance and she took a moment to look around.
“The middle huh.” She laughed at the irony, of being in the middle of the maze now, how she got there, even she didn’t know. It was kind of fitting, how the maze had mirrored (hah) her thoughts. Always somewhere to go, but once you got there you were stuck. The middle room of the maze was just plain as the normal mirror space she had explored. There was 4 mirrors, the size of the walls set up in each cardinal point, but as she touched her hand to them, they did nothing for her.
“Can’t leave that way.” Her brow furrowed, and she crossed her arms. Beyond the mirrors, the only other objects in the room were the pedestal and the box with the key. Common sense told her that boxes with keys next to them in a large magical maze were probably not something to mess with but….
The whispers returned, urging her closer and she could just touch it? It wouldn’t hurt to touch a box would it? The pressure, from when she first arrived was back and as her hand closed around the key, she could feel it weigh on her. But she couldn’t stop, and ruby red eyes focused on the box, and what it could hold. What did it have, that would make any difference?
The key was placed in the hold, the locked clicked, the lid was pushed opened.
Mirror Space shook and its skies stormed, Mintaka hair whipped around her and she used whatever she had left to close the lid, but not lock the box. Something shot straight from the box upwards, cutting the stormy black mist clouds.
Her fingertips burned black with pure chaos, her breath came out in shallow puffs, her eyes glazed a bit.
“They are free.” She said in a tone that was not quite her own, and then sat down with the box in her lap. “Pandora has been freed.”
Her hands gripped the box tightly, as there was a small snap of sanity returned to her. With what strength she had left, while holding the box that pulsated, she pulled out her compact in a desperate attempt to reach anyone…..
“Prince Remarque.” Her voice was small, the message a bit static most likely, “Help me.”
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Posted: Thu Apr 13, 2017 4:58 pm
The labyrinth had continued to shift since her arrival, as if changing its formation each hour, on the hour. It was not satisfied with the chaos that had escaped, and barely contained now by a single DMC senshi. Mintaka had been sitting with the box, the simple plain one now, for who knew how long. It shook occasionally, like it wanted to free more, but she kept the lid clasped in place. The effort though, was daunting and tiring.
Her fingers were black, almost as dark as the wraiths spindles of ones she watched from the center of the labyrinth’s room. The mirrors reflected what was going on in the park and the warehouse and her breath caught as she could see the fighters. She could feel the chaos pulsating from mirrorspace.
She was not privy to the madness either, and as the chaos continued to spread from her fingers, to up to her arms, she could feel something shifting inside her.
“You were never good enough for order, the white moon.” A voice whispered, though it sounded a lot like Meggido’s. “A betrayer, a soft hearted fool.” the voice faded, and the other senshi, the only other one she had considered a friend…”You were weak.” Antiope’s voice cut deeper. The mantis senshi had been strong, talented, friendly. She had been everything that Mintaka had not been.
The future whispered to her, even worst. She had been a weak senshi even then.
“I regretted ever meeting you.” Auro’s voice was deep, calm. It hurt more than she thought to hear it. “In the future, Now. We were not meant to be. We are nothing.” The whispers continued to urge her into despair. As she watched the wraiths destroy the park, attack the order senshi, she could feel the small sense of approval.
“Destroy them.” Her voice wavered, “Destroy them all.” She held the box tighter, eyes glued on the mirrors. “Destroy them and then free them and it’ll be all over.” She wouldn’t have to fight, She wouldn’t have to listen to whispers.
She wouldn’t have to do anything anymore. 
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 9:30 am
The scream that echoed in mirrorspace, from the mirror that she watched the park's battle made her shudder, and just for a moment, kept the chaos that was engulfing her at bay.
Her eyes cleared, though she still couldn't move, and she wouldn't even if she tried. The box still shook with 'others' inside of it, and it was taking all the eternally had to keep them at bay, even as the chaos that poisoned her began to drive the sanity from her.
She still had a shred of hope, and it seemed with the first wraith's defeat, she now would be able to communicate. If she could see them fighting, why couldn't she reach out to them.
"Prince...." Her voice sounded so hoarse, and she tried to push it more. It needed to reach him, or her or any of them. "Princess...Tantalus...Damocles...Elsa..." Her voice was like a whisper, ghosting into their compacts. "Mirrorspace. Those shards." It would break, like a radio silence, she didn't know if it would reach her, if they could see her. "Come back. Bring them back. Help me please, I don't..I can't...hold...longer."Kyuseisha no Hikari This is totally going on while ya'll battling, but if you get this, the image is very staticy, but you can see Mintaka being engulfed in the chaotic madness.
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Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:33 am
Mirrorspace shook with the defeat of the second wraith and Mintaka screamed as the poison rose, stopping right before her chin. The fire burned in her veins, and she so badly wanted to let go. Everything would stop if she just let go.
A single tear shed down her cheek, black as the chaos that engulfed her.
"Auro...Auro please." She wanted to sob, "Remarque, anyone, please, I'm sorry,
I made a mistake." The box shook violently, and she clutched it to her chest.
"Help me."
The last whisper faded as the chaos fully took over again, and she held the box in place. Her hand gently moving over the lid. They had time to find her, and release her.
To release her, and the Pandora she kept locked away.
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