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Backdated to Friday night feb 21st
With a project due the following week, Mina had stayed late to develop photos and take a count of what she still needed to take photos of to get her design ideas across. All the different angles and subjects were right, but she felt like she needed a few more of the sky to break things up, maybe with an angle up through the leaves, but that would have to happen after she got out of the darkroom.
It smelled of chemicals, so once she finished, she packed up and went to the same bathroom that was far off from most of the rest of the classrooms. It was far enough away and one of the lesser used ones, so one of the overhead lights flickered in and out most nights. With how the weather was outside, something she’d heard progressively getting worse, she sure as heck wasn’t going to walk home in this.
Pulling her henshin out, she powered up and pulled herself up onto the sink and through the large mirror just above it. Something wasn’t right, she could tell that immediately when she wasn’t spit out at home but instead within the hall of mirrors. It had felt like sludge too, almost like the mirror was fighting her, and she was immediately bummed out about that. If this would make her late for school, then her perfect record would be broken, not something that most professors seemed to care about, but it mattered to her since she was the first to go to college in her family.
Looking around she saw some of the wraiths seemingly wandering towards another mirror that looked different. She didn’t like the ghostly things exactly but they never had caused her any concern before. If they wanted to use the mirror, she’d wait her turn before trying again to leave for home. Part of her wondered how they used mirrors, was it the same as she did? Or did they have to do something special?
Following the line of wraiths, she looked at the mirror and blinked a few times before rubbing her eyes. It was definitely not normal, it wasn’t even doing what mirrors were supposed to do - reflect her, like, reflection. Instead it looked like space? But that couldn’t be right, could it? Shuffling through the wraiths as she held her camera, not always sure it was safe to put it in subspace, she looked for a long while as things seemed to drift.
It felt familiar, but then again she’d had looked at a lot of photos of space for projects. Something told her this wasn’t from that though, maybe… then it hit her and she bapped her forehead with her palm as she remembered the Museum and what she’d spotted when a hold had opened up into space. She hadn’t gotten much of a glance back then, considering she’d gotten lucky enough not to get yeeted out into space. But it was enough to tell that maybe that was in the same area.
“That’s…. Weird. Why is it showing something different?” Mumbling more to herself than to the wraiths around her, they didn’t seem to pay her any mind until she touched the mirror’s surface. Something was floating there and she pressed her face to the glass as she tried to get a closer look. A petrified thing, or ball of things, none of which she could really tell what was going on with them, floated there as smaller bits passed on by. It was weird, weirder than the level of weird she’d begrudgingly accepted when she’d become a senshi thing. It made her wonder if something like an eldritch horror or chtulu might exist, even though those were written by a guy. But like history books were also written by random people, so it could go either way, she figured.
Stepping back, she took a few photos with various settings on her camera before tucking it away into subspace. The wraiths had frozen when she’d touched the mirror and now she could hear a sound, though it was light at first and she couldn’t quite place it. It sounded close, almost like it came from the mirror, but she wasn’t sure.
Testing the mirror’s surface, it seemed to bow but not give as it usually did, cracks rushing to meet her hand at the center before the whole thing shattered and she jumped back. Checking her hands, nothing seemed to have gotten her but the dusting of glass wasn’t great. Where was that card… she needed to go ask the guy that brought her in what gives? Was this another of those hissyfits like last time where they’d all fallen and the mirrors were extra spicy?
Dusting all the glass off, more so by flapping the checkerboard looking fabric thing of her outfit, she looked around for a more normal looking mirror. She wasn’t about to take another shot with the weird ones, something she figured the quickly dispersing group of wraiths were looking for next. “Uh… good luck guys?” Waving them away, she wandered a bit further until she found one that both was free of cracks and looked normal without space stuff. The tension was still there, but not as aggressive, which was a win in her mind as she stepped through and made her way home.
Immediately she shook down and made sure there wasn’t any lingering glass as she pulled things from subspace and powered down. Going over to her desk, she found that card she had, the one Remarque had given her when he’d brought her into all this stuff, and shot off a message. Since the weekend was here, she had time to figure out what was going on before classes started back up on Monday. Hopefully she’d figure out what was up so she wouldn’t be late, or come out of a mirror and it shattering.
Staring at the full-length mirror in her room, she watched it for a bit as she waited for a response. Something told her she’d have to at least participate enough to figure things out so she could get to and from class on time.
WC:1,030
