Fulu might not be the most acquainted with Mirrorspace, but even he could sense that something was happening with the mirror's throughout the city. Even before Xi had mentioned it to them, he'd had a few strange experiences on his own in the past week. He could feel that Xi was on edge more than normal, so when a message arrived on their compacts he was ready to tag along. He really only had a small group of his court that he actually knew. And he was dating the both of them. This was a good chance, albeit a little scary, to get to know his court better.
As they stepped through a mirror that had yet to meet it's end and ended up in the common room he glanced around. There were others here already and even more coming in as they watched. There was a lot of broken glass on the ground so he was careful to avoid it even as more splinters appeared in the mirrors around them. He stuck close to Kiuchi and Panacea, comforted by Kiushi's arm around him in a fairly unfamiliar place. Of course he'd been here once before, when Kiuchi had awakened him. At least he had come in expecting worse, but it was still in trouble from something.
"I can see that. Watch your steps please." This wasn't going to be fun to navigate for him. He did nod to Rana when she entered as well, though she was quickly distracted and off on her own. He'd be sure to keep an eye on her though, being Kiuchi's sister she was family after all.
Crocus would be the first to admit he hadn't been very involved in his court for some time now. Who could blame him when he came home to such a happy husband every evening. When he first noticed a mirror acting up he didn't think much of it. Just a small note in his mind that something might be happening. Someone would take care of it. He had hoped. He had noticed that Nischal had been out more. Their evenings were still spent together though and even Crocus had stepped out a few times out of curiosity.
Whatever was happening to the mirrors throughout the city was getting worse before it was getting better. He wasn't all that surprised by the message he received on his compact from Remarque. He was surprised to come home and Nischal no where to be seen. He had thought about talking to him about going or not. After all, his last experience in Mirrorspace had been hectic to say the least.
He was quick to power up and head through a mirror with his destination in mind. Even as he stepped through he was greeted by the sound of glass breaking beneath his boots. Thankfully they kept his feet safe from harm the second he mirror walked into the common room. He scanned around seeing many familiar faces, people he hadn't seen in years. Although it was tempting to catch up with them, there was someone he needed to find quickly.
His eyes went to the edges of the space, knowing Avior probably wouldn't mingle easily with the others, especially after so much time away. He made his way over to his husband with his arms crossed. "Did you really think I'd let you go alone?" Of course he knew Avior only did it because he cared about his safety, but that was a two way street with them now. If Avior felt the need to come when called, then Crocus was going to be there right beside him.
Here Reiki was, minding his own business……trying to give some space to the poor, stressed out-looking guy in the red (Arawn) and his ostensible emotional support person (Laon)……trying to behave like a relatively normal person for once and restrain himself from being Just Too ******** Much because whatever had been going on with Mirrorspace was serious, fixing it would almost certainly be extremely dangerous, and being Just Too ******** Much in the middle of all that wasn’t fair for Reiki to force on anybody (especially not when they seemed as stressed as the guy in the red).
And yet, Hybris and his new haircut were staring like………? Like Reiki didn’t know what, exactly, but he didn’t much like it.
Specifically, he didn’t much like the fact that he had no idea why Hybris was staring at him, but he could come up with ideas very easily, and that road led to only one place, ultimately: anxiety spiraling about things that might not have even resembled Hybris’s actual feelings.
Moving over to where Hybris stood with Hela, Reiki crossed his arms. He tried to keep his voice as casual and deadpan as he could while first introducing himself to Hela—“Hi. Murikabushi of Hunger. Nice to meet you”—and then asking Hybris, “Any particular reason why you’re staring at me like I just started a nightmarish eldritch ritual to summon untold horrors from beyond the boundaries of human comprehension?”
Which was when Reiki could have gone on to snark about how his favorite eldritch horror was really nice, actually—if not for how someone thunked into his back. Turning toward them, Reiki found……a fellow senshi, obviously. Petite, brunette, and looking more than a little lost. “Hey,” Reiki told her gently, “you okay, sis?”
His smile faded a bit at Muri's question, and then watching Hela approach their prince, Hybris considered following. He didn't like being in the middle of people's drama, he liked being comfortably on the outside, eating popcorn and cheering one side on without too much thought put into it. But glancing at Lete, uncharacteristic worry flashing across his face, he sighed and looked back to Muri, currently fussing over a cute newcomer.
Using the moment where the others were distracted elsewhere, Hybris reached into his space and pulled out the only bit of writing surface available in there, a thin, battered copy of his drama department's first quarter project: The Fantasticks. Opening the cover, he scrawled, What is your relation to the fire general?
Muri would find the slim volume slipped into his hand a moment later.
It had been a good while since she had powered up. She hated how life had taken over her time, but today she finally had a chance to get out and about. Before she did she double checked her schedule and made sure no kendo or kickboxing was happening. Since she couldn't miss those. Luckily it said none.
So with that she quickly found a dark alley and powered up. Just as she did though she heard something going off in her pocket. It was her compact. This was the first time she had ever gotten a message on here. She opened it without hesitation. After reading the message she figured she might as well go, maybe she could even meet some people while she was there. After all she didn't know many like her. She saw it said 10 and knew she had to hurry if she was going to even just be a little bit late.
She looked around her area and noticed a mirror in the park not to far from her. She raced over there as quickly as she could. Before she knew it she was in a room with broken mirrors. Her curiosity was peaked as she looked around. "Hello?" she said out loud as she looked around the room at all the people gathered.
She hoped she had made the best choose to come here, but that was still to be seen as she looked around. She was hoping anyone might give her an idea of what was going on. Since she really did come here on a whim.
Since her last conversation with Rakovanite, it wasn’t too uncommon nowadays for Markeb to be powered up late into the evenings. Granted, she wasn’t sure how much of that was his influence as it was the better weather and open skies to do star gazing. But since old habits die hard, it was likely a little bit of column A and a little bit of column B. Either way, she wasn’t complaining as much as she had in previous years.
Nevertheless, she was powered up with her wraith floating a couple of yards away while she assembled her telescope when she got the message from Remarque. “I wonder if this has anything to do with those shadows I saw earlier?” Just getting to this outlook area, one of them had reached out to grab her. Markeb had twisted away from them but still arrived here feeling winded.
She looked over at the wraith who appeared dispassionate about life in general, just floating there with its almost vacant expression staring at her, or through her, she wasn’t sure. “I suppose we should go help.” Her lips twisted into a disappointed frown as she meticulously put her telescope away in the hard case and hid it in a bush about fifteen feet away from the mirror she had painstakingly toted all the way out here.
This time, when she placed her hand on the reflective surface to Mirrorwalk to a common area, she instead found herself in the Common Room he had mentioned. “Well, this is quite the crowd,” Markeb commented to herself as she scanned the mostly unfamiliar faces.
Even though it was still summer, stores were already setting up their Halloween displays. Spiders hanging precariously from cotton-stretched cobwebs and skeleton animals sitting on, or next to, pumpkins. Which meant…
It was time for Hekate to come out and play.
Winter was always too cold to power up, the transparent cape-like overlay offered no warmth. Springtime was okay-ish, but typically pretty rainy and her hood was made of non-water-resistant fabric so staying dry was difficult. Summer was just- ick. Muggy and warm out and taking off layers wasn’t an option.
Fall-
Now Fall was where it was at and with her uniform looking witch-like, it was easy to get around without being questioned or noticed. The wraith just added an air of spookiness to her ‘costume’.
It was as she was just about to select her first target of the season when Hekate received a message through the communicator. “Now that’s a voice I haven’t heard in a while.” Goodness, how many years has it been since she last answered a similar call? Too many, that’s for certain. “If our prince is callin’ I suppose we should go help.” Talking to a wraith might seem out of the ordinary especially since they just floated there uncaring, but Hekate liked to believe that they were capable of listening and even understanding.
She’d led her conscripted companion to a known mirror location and just as she was about to pull her compact out to ask for assistance, the mirror’s surface rippled. “Huh-” her brow raised and weight shifted to her right leg in obvious skepticism before taking a chance and touching the glass. A second later Hekate found herself standing in the Common Room with a group of other Dark Mirror Senshi, most of whom were unfamiliar and none of whom she knew by name. Most were higher rank which boded well for this campaign, at least she hoped so.
As their numbers grew, Remarque found himself a bit more relaxed about all of this. It wasn’t a perfect situation by any means, but for the most part he was sure that whatever trouble they encountered wasn’t going to last for long with all of them.
Ideally.
There were still too many things that could go wrong.
Some people arrived together, and some alone, but he took careful stock of everyone he recognized and all the new faces, too.
He hadn’t seen Avior in some time, but it was refreshing to see him amongst all the old faces. He nodded in response, glad to see him here. Another Eternal Senshi was always a good thing, especially here where you never knew what was hiding in the mirror. He hadn’t seen Crocus in even longer, but if he was talking with Avior, he hoped that meant he was in good hands. If things went wrong.
He dipped his head at Acubens. “Oh, you know Mirrorspace doesn’t operate on our schedule. I’ll do my best to get you home before it’s too late. But I’m glad to have you both here.” As long Tegminecould keep her from running off to lick any crystals.
Kiuchi was good backup, and Remarque trusted him. Avignon should be in good hands with the company he’d arrived with, so he didn’t worry about him too much.
Arawn and Laon seemed like they were getting along–for now–and were making friends. Maybe. He’d see how long the two with them (Rana and Lete) could last. Itokawa was close enough to keep an eye on them, at least. He was a more experienced Super Senshi than the others in that corner.
Lacerta was not wrong about being wigged out about the oddities going on, and hopefully they could put an end to that tonight. Without any more issues.
He didn’t recognize Hybris, but with that sort of flashy entrance he was surprised that he’d missed a Super Senshi who commanded that much presence. He knew Hela, though. So she at least had someone watching her back. Although, Lenka’s Haunted Garden was new to him, he’d have to ask about it later.
Xihe was less known to him, but he was intent on making sure she was getting along well in the Court after all of this, and he knew Irenaea had been doing this for a short bit of time at least. He hoped this wouldn’t scar their impression of Mirrorspace.
Parysatis was unknown to him, but hopefully she and Murikabushi would be fine. He’d resisted the urge to intervene. Sadalsuud, for as shy as she was, was here. He was glad to see it. He knew what things had been like with Altea before, and he was committed to not having that experience again. He nodded at her, too.
Mithra looked ready to fight. They might need that, so good. Another Super Senshi he hadn’t gotten to spend much time with, (Bellerophon and Kore and Fulu) were on his list to keep an eye on, only because he didn’t recognize or know them as well as he did many of the others here. Varda, he knew. He trusted her to be ready as well. She could fight, he was sure of it.
And Markeb and Hekate? Good. Arnica had made it as well, and he found himself easing a bit at the idea that he was certain they could succeed with these numbers. He wouldn’t have risked it if he wasn’t sure.
He had been content to observe the arrivals in the interim, but when Hela spoke, he found himself nodding, anyway. Okay, but busy, and ready to be done with all of this.
“I’ll be better when we get this all under control.” He looked at his watch, and–okay, now was a good time to get to work on that. * He gave everyone a moment more to get settled, and now that it was just a little after ten, he decided it was time to get a move on. He spoke loudly enough for his voice to carry so no one had to come in closer to hear him.
“I’m glad you could all make it. I’m sorry for the state of things. I wish we ever met here under better circumstances, but I know you’re all probably eager to get this whole thing fixed. If you haven’t experienced it, good. If you have, hopefully this’ll put an end to it all. There’s something in the mirrors. Shadows, mostly. They started cropping up about a week ago. I thought it was just an instability, sometimes something gets stuck in the mirror. Usually it finds its way out. But this is getting worse.”
A mirror shattered on the far wall, well away from him. He glanced towards it briefly, but it had been a perfect display. There was no more harm to come from it. It wobbled on the wall but didn’t fall.
“It’s made traveling through Mirrorspace a bit inconvenient. I’d like to get this fixed tonight so we don’t have to worry about that, and I think I’ve figured out where this is all stemming from.”
They weren’t going to find it in the Common Room though, so he gestured for them to start walking. To his right, there was a long hallway–not usually there, but Mirrorspace was always shifting. There was some limited command to it; a Super Senshi had slight control, an Eternal Senshi more. Even as Prince, Remarque did not hold complete sway of Mirrorspace.
But, he had enough to get them to where they needed to go, and as they began the trek towards their destination he continued to explain. “I’ve been visiting Mirrorspace to try and figure out where all of this is coming from. This whole place is one big puzzle and I don’t even think we know how to start putting it back together. Gathering energy has helped, I’ve noticed it a bit more stable in the last year than it was before that. But I can’t help but think maybe in the process of strengthening it, we built back a bridge that connected to something else. Which is how I found this.”
Another hallway–and then, at the end, a mirror.
The halls of Mirrorspace were regularly adorned with mirrors that came in all shapes and sizes, but there was something noticeably odd about this one. It was tall and wide enough to comfortably walk through, maybe two or three at a time. Its frame appeared hand carved, albeit chipped and broken, and the corners of the mirror seemed cracked and shattered in a way that made it look as though it had taken many damage over the years.
The strangest part about it, though, was that it had no backing. There was an empty space, a black void, that you could see well enough through the cracks. When close enough to inspect it fully, it looked like a galaxy of stars, swirling far away.
There was nothing to fix the mirror to the frame; it was hovering in this dark void.
Energy leaked from it.
There were no shadows, no fractures, in the glass. And yet, every other mirror in the hall was broken, and there was a darkness that clung to the room in the otherwise vast expanse of white.
Remarque stood before it and observed it for a few seconds before he half-turned to face the group. “Mirrorspace never shows you the same place twice. It’s always moving, always changing. But in the last week every time I’ve come here looking for answers, I’ve wound up here. I didn’t think much of it at the time, it’s just a mirror. But, not all of these mirrors were broken when I found it. And it didn’t feel like this. The first time I tried to pass through it,” he shrugged, “Nothing. It was like trying to step through a wall. Earlier, though, I stuck my head through. And I didn’t like what I saw.”
So, he’d called for backup.
“I started watching where the shadows were coming from. I never see them coming back to this mirror, but if you follow their movements, it seems like this is the source. In there, there’s a whole army of them. They couldn’t follow me out. I didn’t come into much contact with them. They weren’t difficult to beat, there’s just a lot of them. But there’s something in there that’s making them, or at least, making them stronger. And you can feel it as soon as you step in, but I think we’ll need the numbers to reach it. So, it will be dangerous. If you’re not up to fighting, or if you’re worried about your well-being, you can stay here. There’s no shame in it, I don’t ever want you to do something that doesn’t feel right. But I’m going to go in here,” he gestured towards the mirror, “And I’m going to head for the source of all of this energy, and I’m going to break it. Unless one of you beats me to it.”
Quote:
The next plot based post will come at ~6 PM EST on Monday, August 28th and following posts should occur ~every 48 hours unless otherwise mentioned, but players can post as often as they like. There are no repercussions for missing a prompt and you can join at any point in time; if you miss any prompts, you can handwave that your character was there in the group without needing to explain a late arrival.
When posting, please include your character’s name and rank at the top of your post and link to their journal!
* - There was a lot of introspection/a little bit of nearby response in the first part of this post; if you want to skip it, the plot relevant response for everyone begins after the asterisk!
This was a bad idea. There were too many people there already, and Arawn was already feeling flustered and cornered, despite the relative friendliness.
He caught the nod from the dark haired Super (Muri) and felt himself flush in frustration. Did that guy know him? Had he met him before and he couldn’t remember?
Thankfully (except not), Arawn’s attention was pulled by some other dark haired Senshi (Rana) in black and red. Talking about his teeth?
Arawn snarled at her, snapping his teeth in her direction as he stupidly balled his hands into fists -- he’d forgotten the cuts he’d gotten from the broken mirror and immediately regretted the defensive stance because he’d only managed to hurt himself in the process.
Even more keyed up now that he was actively in pain again, he also snarled at the other Senshi (Lete) approaching them.
He didn’t wait for them to leave. Remarque was gesturing to them to follow, so Arawn grabbed hold of Laon’s hand and dragged him along. He didn’t say anything to the others. They wouldn’t want to talk to him anyway. Friendliness was just a lure. Bait. A trap. And then they would want something in return. And right now, Arawn barely had anything of monetary value to offer. And he wasn’t about to start offering anything else to them.
“You should stay here,” he said with a low growl to Laon when Remarque offered them a chance to stay. Laon would know he wasn’t actually growling at him. It was just his response to being in this situation.
He glanced over his shoulder to see if the others who had acknowledged them were near, and snarled again when he accidentally made eye contact with the two (Rana and Lete).
Laon gripped Arawn’s hand more firmly now, not quite acting as a leash to reel him in but trying to give him some way to keep himself grounded. They weren’t among enemies, but he knew this was frustrating and alarming for Arawn.
“Arawn. I don’t need to stay here,” Laon said in a quick, rushed voice. He was cautious around people, and he knew Arawn was too–just in a different way. “You haven’t made any friends that I can trust to watch your back, anyway, so I have to go. It’s–”
He sucked in a breath and held it for a moment before he looked over his shoulder and smiled apologetically at Rana and Lete before turning back to Arawn. “We should have introduced ourselves,” he whispered. “Remarque isn’t going to have time to keep an eye on us.”
And, it sounded dangerous.
He didn’t know enough about Mirrorspace, but he knew that Arawn was the sort to charge into things head first without much consideration and he could not risk losing him.
“And you do have nice teeth, what were you upset about? She said they looked healthy.” Like they weren’t eating hamburger helper and ramen and dollar store macaroni. “You have a nice smile.”
If you squinted, his snarl was kind of like a smile, too? Just…with a bit more force.
And Lete had waved! From a respectable distance! So polite!
He hooked his elbow around Arawn’s arm to keep him close. “We can try to play nice. It’s okay.” Arawn was just upset and worried, he knew that. But the others wouldn’t. He didn’t want Arawn to lose out on the chance to make friends. Even if he didn’t think he needed any, it would have been good for him.
He would forever be the worrying elder brother, especially with Rana for his little sister, she was a ball of energy especially in places like this. Tiling his head to rest it on Fulu's shoulder he sighed. "One of these days she might slow down a bit." And while he adored her, he really did, and he said things like this Kiuchi honestly wouldn't change her for anything. He was ok with her running around lin places like this, smiling brightly, and trying to greet strange dark mirror senshi. She would take things seriously if and when they needed to be, he was sure of that, he was also sure that one day she'd earn her wings and be one of those who others looked up to in situations like this. "We'll just have to keep an eye on her." Though he already knew Fulu was thinking the same thing. Kiuchi himself would be keeping his eyes on the group, as a whole, as best he could but he also had both Fulu and Panacea to watch, along side his sister.
"Watch your step as well, both of you." Looking from one of his partners to the other. "Mirrorspace isn't happy with any of us and I doubt it'll remain this calm for much longer." He didn't why he felt that way but he did, he didn't think mirrorspace would like them poking about and trying to do things, as it had in the past disliked having them about when something was going on. Though mind you it had pulled them in as well, rather than them walking into mirrorspace to deal with things.
While talking to Fulu, loud enough for Panacea to hear, he let his dark eyes wander to take in those who were gathering. Some he knew but even more were new people, new members of the court, but they had a good turn out. Among those gathered though were two figures he hadn't seen in a long while. They were together, no surprise there, and they were seperate from the group. That was, for now, what kept him from approaching. This also wasn't the time to socalize and catch up on things. This was duty and keeping everyone safe. As some nodded, or waved, to him he did the same in kind. It was a bit odd, if you asked him, that so many seemed to know him but he was happy to see everyone.
When Remarque explained things, and started the group moving as he continued to talk, Kiuchi started to follow. "Come." A nod to Fulu and Panacea as he kept his pace slow as there really was no need to waste energy by running about this place. This place was a maze and finding places was not easy, as things often moved in here, it was why he had been unable to live in here so long ago. If this place was stable,. more than it was now, maybe that would be possible and than everyone could have a bedroom here? A big common room which could be decorated in some manner. But that was a hopel,ess drema he figured..an innocent wish made by a needy and innocent child years ago. He'd grown up since then.
While people arrived, and to gather and talk, Avignon had kept to Acuben's side though he had nodded his head in greeting to the senshi of bandaghhes. He hadn't seen her in a while but he was glad to know she would be here, it seemed like they'd need a lot of people for whatever was going on. Still too new to have experienced issues with mirrorspace he didn't know that it could act up, or that it did, so seeing mirrors broken and watching one shatter was unexpected.
When Remarque took to speaking to the group Avignon felt his nerves kick in as he tried to get even closer to Acubens somehow. "I'm not sure I like any of this." He whispered to her. Before Acubens could ay anything else, or do anything, the group was moving as Remarque was talking and walking as they headed towards something. He didn't know what they were headed towards but he was nervous and honestly scared, and he hoped this wouldn't go bad. "That mirror...I don't like the look of it." He whispered once they'd arrived to - a mirror. But it wasn't a normal mirror now was it. Even less did he like the idea of going past that mirrors surface and fighting something...inside a mirror. What if they got stuck somehow? Couldn't whatever was in there, making the shadows, lock them inside the mirror and than do whatever it pleased? If it was only now allowing them entry he didn't trust it; didn't trust why it would allow them now.
Itokawa was, and always would be, protective over Bellerophonand not because the other was weaker but because he'd already nearly lost him. He had been so certain he'd lose him in that village, a place he still couldn't get out of his head, but they'd managed to get out together. It had been close and they'd been alone, and he wasn't going to risk the other again, so he'd let Bellerophon decide on this and now he had to hope for the best. Standing before some mirror which wasn't a mirror, or at least not a normal mirror, had him gripping the others hand.
"I think this is going to go bad fast..." Once they did something, anything, which might set off whatever was beyond that mirror. Going in and fighting something, with the aim of reachign something in charge of shadows, yeah this didn't sound good to him at all. "You keep close during this fight. If we get seperated you keep shouting so I can hear you. I want to know your still with us." What he really meant to say was him not us, he wanted to make sure Bellerphon was still with him and alive.
Arnica didn’t like any of this. He’d arrived quietly, mostly because there were a lot of new faces and he was keen to observe first and plan second. The state of the mirrors was certainly curious, and he was always looking to solve a mystery.
…Especially if it meant finding a way to stop getting new bumps and bruises every time he passed through the mirror.
He’d been spared major injuries, but even now he felt himself holding his breath before he’d joined Remarque’s meeting. Still, there was a good number of Dark Mirror Senshi. So that was good, right? This must have been important to everyone. So success was practically guaranteed, right?
He’d followed Remarque quietly, he hadn’t asked questions. He could badger him later. It wasn’t like he had to write an essay or report on anything, he just liked to know.
…But really, he couldn’t keep to himself for too long. And if they were going into some unknown danger zone, it was probably best to have a partner–or group, even?–of people to team up with.
Some groups had formed already, judging by the way they moved together, or the way they were talking. The girl next to him hadn’t said much, or joined anyone, but she looked–
Well, she looked interesting. Of course he was curious.
“Hey,” he greeted, and stuck out his hand to shake. “I’m Arnica, Senshi of Mandragora. I don’t know what’s in there. You want to team up for this? You watch my back, I’ll watch yours, we both get out in one piece?”
It was a testament to Hybris’s skill with his hands—or maybe to how much Reiki was trying to make sure that the girl who seemed new (Parysatis)—that Reiki barely noticed anything from Hybris until he’d been handed a copy of The Fantasticks. With a small, apologetic smile, he looked away from Parysatis, tried to figure out what the Hell Hybris thought they were doing here.
At least the answer made itself obvious, written with less flourish than Reiki would’ve imagined from Hybris: they were essentially passing notes in class, and Hybris wanted to know something about Faustite.
And what a ******** question to ask.
Reiki wanted to heave a dramatic, weary sigh. Felt like the most emotionally correct way for him to respond to that query—What is your relation to the fire general? (so ostensibly simple and yet so entirely tangled)—but out of respect for everyone else, as well as concern for The Whole Current Mirrorspace Situation, Reiki refrained. Bit back on the impulse and choked it down because everyone here had enough mess on their hands without Reiki exacerbating things by being Just Too Much, and doing Just Too Much, and acting like a literal llama made of Drama™️, rather than taking this seriously.
Made his nerves ******** itch, repressing his impulses like this, but it would be worse if he got anybody hurt by acting too flashy, too sassy, too Dramatic™️, too Himself™️, and in other words, Just *Too* ******** Much.……
Anyway, it was probably for the best if he didn’t let people see too much of him, the person while they worked tonight. Reiki could never tell if others would love him or hate him, but at least if these (currently) fellow Mirror senshi only knew Murikabushi (a Dark Mirror super, totally run-of-the-mill, nothing particularly special or interesting about him except for his height and his fancy fuku, a more basic b***h than guanidine, as common and easily replaceable as any given twink on Grindr), then they wouldn’t need to get upset or miss him later, when Reiki was gone and Murikabushi, a senshi they didn’t really know, was wearing—eugh—……*white*.
Trying to keep himself relatively steady and grounded in this idea of what he needed to be right now, Reiki grabbed up a pen out of his subspace and scribbled a note back to Hybris: Cross-faction, ergo *Complicated*. I care about him + try to be good to him.
(An admission that made a lump of sick, hot guilt swell up in Reiki’s throat. He wanted to be good to Faustite. Tried to be good to Faustite. And yet, Reiki would, in due time, be leaving the Mirror for the White Moon, which meant giving up the only thing that had kept Faustite from killing him back in the basement of the Farnsworth. Which meant giving up the freedom to let Faustite see who he really was beneath the fuku, and the swish, and all of the bells, and whistles, and ricketa-racketa.
Reiki wanted to be good to Faustite, and yet, he was, in some sense, leaving Faustite. And the fact that more guilt twisted through his stomach over the thought of that than the thought of leaving the Court when there were so few of them left alive, active, and relatively healthy? Probably meant Reiki was making the right choice for himself. It just wasn’t fair that the right choice for Reiki himself felt like he probably couldn’t make it without a serious risk of hurting someone who’d been so good to him, in his Uniquely Faustite Way.
…………Reiki strongly suspected that Cybele would’ve disagreed with that assessment. He suspected Encke would’ve disagreed with it, as well. Probably Ida-hime-sama too, for that matter. Blossom had heard more than the three of them had, but Reiki didn’t know that Kerberos would’ve agreed with the idea that Faustite had been good to Reiki. Worst of all, he felt dead certain that Yuki would disagree, but there was important context to consider here, wasn’t there? Extenuating circumstances? Anything that supported Reiki and his case about how Faustite really had been good to him?)
Hearing Remarque start speaking, though, Reiki swallowed all that back. Shoved it down. Smothered it with a mental pillow, as was for the best. Reiki couldn’t think about Faustite right now. Couldn’t multitask with the calling to worry about Faustite (about what was wrong with him this time, and if Reiki could actually do anything or did he just need to give Faustite a place to be upset without judgment, and then……, and then……, and then……, and then……) *AND* the calling to actually focus on what the problem was with Mirrorspace. Triage, focus on the current actual problem.
Reiki added to his note, Gertrude’s Diner after this. I’ll buy + you can tell me why you’re asking about 🔥🖤
Pushing the note back toward Hybris’s hands, Reiki pursed his lips to keep himself from sighing. Looked from Hybris to the girls, then back to Hybris, then over to the relatively new girl (Parysatis) specifically, then to Hela…… “So, d’you all want to stick together for this? Because if so….? I’m gonna go head in with Remarque, instead of waiting for whatever’s on the other side of that mirror to come to us.”
Whether they followed or not was on them, but as he’d said: Reiki made to follow Remarque into the weird mirror.
Glancing around the room, Hybris noticed the boy snarling at Lete, and decided with some satisfaction that there was at least a 50/50 chance he was an ex boyfriend from high school. Any one of a dozen or two possibilities and it was distracting for all of a fun moment until Muri placed the book back in his hands and he saw the answer within.
Oh, this was complicated. And it seemed he would have to actually have to talk, at least a little, about what had happened to him.
Usually, when bad things happened to him, it was a matter of not acknowledging it until it basically unhappens itself. But the stakes were a little high for that now, and while he'd never be close to self-sacrificing or anything of the kind, he supposed he could let the incident uncomfortably exist for awhile longer. And in the minds of others, which meant it would exist forever, outside of his control. He frowned up at Murikabushi, looked again at Lete, and reluctantly nodded before turning his attention wholly to Prince Remarque.
Mirrorspace turning from cute and wonderfully mischievous to hostile and malevolent merged so much with everything else, that Hybris felt a pang of guilt for not worrying enough about it, like if it was sick, or if someone had hurt its feelings. He'd even stopped powering up and gathering energy for several weeks, which was rude and cruel to his favorite entity in its time of trouble.
Disrespectful even. He'd really have to make it up to the Mirror later.
And it seemed it was sick, in some way. Some nasty virus made up of...an army of shadows? Potentially dangerous shadows? That their prince couldn't just whoosh away on his own?
It was a testament to his acting skills that Hybris let his expression go neutrally pleasant instead of collapsing into tears or some kind of tantrum. The choice between being surrounded by Muri-muscles and Hela's brute strength, versus alone out here until something terrifying got past the line and broke into the corridor? Ha ha, that's not a choice, that's just a lonelier death wish.
And so it was that Hybris followed behind Muri, hands childishly clutching the back of his skirt. Looking at Hela and Parysatis, he gave them a confident grin. He was absolutely confident that they were both stronger than him.
In fact, to Parysatis, he asked qiuetly, "What sort of attacks do you have? So we can help or make sure to get out of each other's way? My attack is a flying eggplant." In preparation of the meeting, his space was, in fact, full of them.
He stepped into Mirrorspace and took a breath he wasn't aware he'd been holding. Hydrus hadn't considered that he might have been nervous about doing this. To be fair, there wasn't exactly much thought when he'd stood up from his bed and stepped into the mirror as Hydrus. It just sort of. Happened.
Maybe that's what it meant to live life? Making decisions that you didn't always have conscious thought about? That didn't seem particularly smart to him, but then again... Perhaps it was time to live a little more... reckless.
He pulled his thermos from subspace and poured a cup of tea while Remarque spoke about the issues going on. While he hadn't encountered any of the shattering mirrors yet, he'd definitely seen the shadows and heard the sound of mirrors cracking. Unnerving to be sure.
There were more new faces than he expected, he noted. It was nice to see the Dark Mirror Court still thriving, even with all the issues with Mirrorspace the last few years. Reassuring, even.
The tea disappeared back into subspace as Remarque led them down a hallway. A hallway that kept showing up, apparently. Which was something that didn't happen in Mirrorspace. Except now. Hydrus glanced at the shattered mirrors and the void where a mirror should be.
Reminded him too much of Pandora's Box for his own liking.
"I'm coming, Remarque. I apologize for being a little out of practice, but my leviathans are yours," he said, stepping through the crowd up to the void. He smiled at the Prince. "It's good to see you. Apologies for being away for a while."
Bélénos had hurried in late—she felt bad for it, but the horses had to be taken care of, and pushing the work last minute on someone else had taken a while, with her promising favors.
She'd of course noticed the mirrors and things breaking, her favorite one had shattered, and the only thing that gladdened her was that the antique mirror that had been passed down in their family hadn't gone that way.
Eyes searching for familiar faces, she landed on Hybris and Murikabushi and scurried over, giving a rather embarrassed nod to Remarque.
She didn't know Parysatis or Hela, but they all seemed ready to follow Remarque into the mirror, so! She lined up, ready to go, and gave them all a shy wave.
Volterra, on the other hand, didn't feel any such embarrassment about coming in a bit late. Ne didn't know any other senshi here besides nis cousin—who seemed extremely busy at the moment, herding baby senshi like cats, including Bélénos. Ugh, now ne'd have to interact with people—ne knew ne should've shown up much sooner. Oh, to hell with it, ne could at least be nice to someone new, even if ne wouldn't stay with the mirror much longer.
The least ne could do was make sure the mirror stayed safe for those that were here.
