songerein | { mirror mirror }

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{ mirror mirror }

MIRROR MIRROR

With the sleepwalking curse over, everyone will have some time to rest and recuperate—until Jack Frost comes barging in with news of a clue on how to help his beloved Ice Queen who still remains asleep. The clue was the mirror shard that was in her chest, and there are theories that it may have been a fragment of a much stronger, powerful mirror she had been given some time ago. Problem is, he can't find it nor can he remember who gave it to her. He does, however, have a magic incantation that will allow people to enter mirrors and hopefully find a trace. Unfortunately, this horrendously backfires and we have mirror chaos instead. Dammit, Jack.

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I. REVEREIN

II. MIRROR WORLD

COMMENTS

I. REVEREIN

It all begins in Reverein, where there's a strange shift in the air upon Jack's attempt to cast the spell. But instead of affecting just one mirror, it reflects off the surface and spreads out to the entire town, hitting every reflective surface instead. Ripples can be seen before the surfaces still, but it's too late. Every reflective surface—glass, mirror, window—is under a different effect because of the botched spell.

And some are being unwittingly pulled into them.

Fortunately It is possible to communicate and even watch people from the other side of the mirror, but it's only through certain mirrors and at certain times. It also will be temporary, so while one mirror might work one time, it may not work again.

A. Strange Reflections. While some mirrors may still reflect proper images, many will have…unusual changes.

🪞 You are what you see. Whether it's an odd hairstyle, change in skin color, or style of clothing in the reflection, suddenly the viewer will look exactly like what's reflected. The most extreme is a different form entirely.
🏡 Glimpses of home. Everyone will have a rare glimpse of their home world, and these can be instances from the past, present, or even a limited future. They are just reflections and cannot be interacted with, and future reflections may be blurry to prevent the person from seeing too much. For those who have memory issues, such visions will also be blurry, but perhaps they can help stir some things…
🔮 Most desired. Mirrors that have a bit of a pink hue to them will reflect the viewer's most desired "thing." It could be an object, person, place, or even a general idea. However, if not careful the viewer may become trapped in a trance and will need to be removed or smash the mirror.

B. Clone Wars. Mirrors that do not show any kind of reflection are to be quickly taken away and covered as it will begin to create duplicates in Reverein of what is reflected within it. Yes, even people, and they will be very obviously fake: wrong colors, different voices, odd behavior, etc. and will usually be harmless. These "clones" will continue to appear and multiply until the mirror has been covered, and will need to either be destroyed or captured and shoved into the mirror, where it will lose its "no reflection" status and become a proper mirror again…only for them to appear on the other side in Mirror World.

C. Mirrorsnatched. A mirror with a black rim has the chance of absorbing a significant personality trait or memory of the one looking into it, and when this happens, the person will walk away feeling very muddle-headed and off. The mirror will "keep" this part of the person and someone from the Mirror World side must find their essence and "shove" it back out onto any mirror surface so that the original owner can break the mirror and retrieve it. The downside of this method is that breaking a mirror means one less mirror those on the Mirror side can use, so they need to choose carefully.

D. The Unknown. Appearing in both the Mirror World and Reverein will be a strange mirror masked, black cloaked figure called "The Unknown." It traverses through the mirrors and through the walls, seeking those with happy reflections and will try to corrupt them with nightmares. People on both sides of the mirrors will be able to confront and try to stop the Unknown, though beware its chocolate attacks.

II. MIRROR WORLD

Everything in this "Mirror World" is, in a word, chaotic. Imagine an AI-generated monstrosity based off of Picasso, Escher, and Dr. Seuss, where everything seems to be upside down, backwards, colors everywhere and nowhere, and everything feels so fragmented that one step feels like walking towards the edge of a cliff. In a way it's nightmarish in an unusual sense, and those inside can feel that touch of "madness" that seeps through the cold air.

Beware the strange creatures in the Mirror World. They are grotesque monstrosities, many of them looking as if they were stitched together from different parts. Fortunately they are susceptible to weapons and dreamotion and those inside the Mirror World will find they are able to use different abilities, especially those with reflective properties.

A. Fragment of their old self. In order to get out of the Mirror World, those inside will need to catch a small fragment of themselves that has escaped and is running around. This fragment is actually a piece of their old self prior to arriving in Songerein. For some, this self may not be so different, but for long-time residents, they may seem a lot more different. To make things more interesting, this self can be from any point of the character's past. It just has to be a version of the character from before entering Songerein. This version will also appear "homesick" and "want" to return to their original home, regardless if the character actually feels that way. Thus the fragment will seek out mirrors that will reflect anything of their home world. Shattering these mirrors will weaken the fragment until it can be caught. But that's only half the challenge. If the fragment is injured, the original will also feel the damage but to a lesser degree. If the fragment is destroyed, then the original will be "knocked out" for a few seconds before a new fragment appears. However, this fragment will be much more distorted and worse than the one before.

B. Distorted Memories. At random points while traversing, characters may come across strange pockets of the world that they will feel drawn to. Following said instinct will lead them to a shifted landscape that will reflect images of home from different points in time (past, present, maybe even future) as if they've just walked right into it, but just like everything else, they are distorted. The changes can be as subtle as the wrong color of clothes, having too many limbs, to something major like the sky now being the ground. The only way out will either be destroying the anomalies or correcting them, and they will be rewarded with a mirror shard that will aid in their escape.

C. Warped Sense of Self. The longer a person stays within the Mirror World, the less "coherent" they will feel, and sometimes sound. Their memories will slowly become more disjointed, their personality feeling a bit "off", and they may even forget who they are or where they are from. Even their physical selves will start to twist and change, starting with something subtle (e.g. eye color) and then growing more drastic as time goes on (where did those extra fingers come from? Or why are they suddenly much shorter?) Finding those reflections of home will help with these anomalies, but those weak of heart be warned: the distortions may only exacerbate the issue and make them believe that they are the truth instead. Help anyone who might be caught in fixing these so that they can recover.

D. Finding an exit. To leave the world, those inside must find a mirror that will connect back to Reverein, and those on the other side can also try to help by posing as "anchors" for those inside to recognize. Otherwise, there are many mirrors in the Mirror World that will lead to different places within Songerein—presumably. However, perhaps due to the magic or needing something else, they will be unable to pass through any mirrors that are not connected to Reverein. This is where players have the fun opportunity to make up whatever kind of location or place the characters may see reflected on the mirrors. They could be existing locations in the game, or new ones that could be explored in the future. One unique place we can mention will be reflections of a city covered in night.

Only upon finding a mirror that leads back to Reverein, but they will also need help from the outside. Someone from within Reverein must also be there to physically reach in and pull them out—while hopefully not accidentally be pulled in themselves.

I. REVEREIN

II. MIRROR WORLD

COMMENTS

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Over at Reverein, Isabela has trying to find for anyone missing or trapped in the Mirror World for some time. Her noble attempts to track them down while in Reverein and at the mirror dimension haven’t been panning out as she would hoped for and it almost looked like she could have given up when she hears pounding at a mirror at her house.

Hoping to see who could it be, Isa gets up and check on her mirror to find Aang pounding at said mirror. And from the inside too. Oh dear, it looks like he is also stuck in the world and he needs help in getting out of there.

Oh, good, that's a familiar face and not a worrisome one. He relaxes visibly.

This will help. Hopefully.

Thank goodness that Aang is able to recognize Isabela right away. This should make his eventual escape from the Mirror World a little easier on both parties on the two sides of the mirror. Hoping that he could hear her, she tries to hit on the mirror with her hands as she calls out to him.

“Aang, can you hear me over there? It’s me, Isabela. Don’t panic: I’m going to try to help you escape from the mirror world.”

He can barely hear her, but he does hear enough. He nods, then holds his hands over his head together, bringing them down. Trying to indicate that something heavy might be needed.

“You’re saying that we need to bring in something big or heavy? Like a big rock or maybe an armchair?” Isabela is trying to interpret what Aang’s actions are trying to tell her since the talking couldn’t seem to reach both sides, “Stay there, I will try to bring an armchair over to the mirror.

Well, if they need a big item in order to get Aang out of there, sacrificing an armchair that she rarely uses could be their best option. The young lady brings out one near the mirror over. Now she has never attempted to shove items, let alone furniture, into a mirror dimensions before but she is going to try and make it work.

Well it'll certainly do the job - he nods eagerly from the other side - he's got nothing on his side that can help.

Heck he's not even sure he'd be dragging that armchair quite as well as she is!

While her strength is not the same as Luisa’s super human strength, she is still strong enough to carry in an armchair over to a mirror so Aang can use as a makeshift ladder out of the Mirror World. When she gets nearer to the mirror, she gets ready to push it towards it as swiftly as she could.

“Okay, on three. One, two, three!”

And so begins the armchair pushing towards the mirror with her heaving the chair towards Aang in his current location in the mirror dimension via the mirror itself. It is a bit of a slow process with how heavy the chair is but she is going to push it as hard as she can to get it to where she needs it to be.

It's a matter of time, really - between the two of them, it's going to create a breach.

And that makes it time to make a run for it, as quickly as possible.

As soon as the armchair arrives in the mirror dimension, Isabela immediately and wisely steps away from the mirror in her house so she and Aang won’t accidentally collide onto each other while he makes his escape. She is hoping that the armchair idea is going to be successful for all of them.

Her capybara, who just came back from his leaf snacking on the balcony, enters into the living area from the door hole to witness the whole thing happening.

He's halfway through the mirror before it's even worth describing - and is entirely too distracted by the first ever capybara he's ever seen.

"What is that?!" he asks, astonished. Astonished enough that the rest of the exit from the mirror is more of a fall than an exit, really.

The capybara remarkably enough didn’t got phased by Aang’s, erm, not so graceful landing while Isa watches it happening in concern. The fact that he didn’t run off in shock speaks how absurdly calm he can be.

Thankfully having hailed from a country where the capybaras call home and having a cousin who is very knowledgeable on animals as much as he can talk to them, she is more than happy to tell him all about it as she recovers from the initial shock.

“Oh, this gentle rodent over here? That is a capybara: these guys are commonly found in my world and they sure look like giant mice or rats but still distinct from them too.”

It's a Capybara. They are nature's chillest animals, quite frankly - but still, he's fascinated.

"Capybara," he repeats, with a nod. "He's a cute lit- well, not so little guy."

He pauses, though, looking at her.

"And thank you."

It can be hard and tricky to see it but the capybara did give a subtle smile in his muzzle. He will be carrying those compliments to his heart for the rest of time.

“I think that he is really happy to hear that from him,” she tells him, “Oh gee, you’re very welcome. I’m just glad to be of any help.”

"And I'm glad to be out of there. That was not a nice place."

He brushes himself off, glancing back at the mirror.

"Those things need warning signs."

“No kidding, I also think about putting up warning signs for messed up mirrors too. A while back I had a really bad day with my looks getting a very unnecessary makeover while I was cleaning the windows of my flower shop. Must have unwittingly seen the reflection from them and made me look too awfully perfect looking for my liking.”

That almost doesnt' make sense to him for a moment, until he considers that the idea of 'too much' would be bad for pretty much anything.

"Huh, that would be a strange experience," he replies.

“It certainly did made for a really strange experience indeed. I felt very upset by the changes that the mirror threw at me that I must have lost my patience and/or temper a few times.”

He nodded.

"Kinda ran into a moment from my past on the other side. Let's just say I'm glad I'm not there anymore."

“You witnessed a moment from your past in there? I’m starting to wonder what would have happened if I did got trapped in that place. I’m worried that being in there would be a rough experience for me to go through as well.”

He nods.

"Not a fun one, either," he replied. He feels he ought to explain, but doesn't want to bog her down with details. "There was...a war. Where I'm from. That I ended, you see. Part of that required me to become...well, different, for a little bit. It wasn't fun to see it from the outside, let me tell you."

“Oh dear, I’m really sorry that this whole war had happened in your world and you got entangled into it as the result. I did lose my Abuelo to a major conflict that caused my family and several people to flee for safety long before I was born. It was rather horrible to lose one’s family member in any conflict or war.”

He winces, but nods.

"It is. I'm sorry you went through that, in turn."

“Yeah it was quite a rough experience. At least we were able to overcome that and slowly learn to move on from it even if it took us decades to do it. Especially my Abuela: she was affected by the loss the most out of everyone in the family.”

He nods. It never truly goes away. It passes on, carries on. Legacy being almost as terrible as the event itself.

"I would imagine so. It would change you forever. And everything that comes after."

“Yes, it does have a big effect on everyone even if some weren’t around when an event like that had happened. The lingering effects and consequences can be very hard to shake off unless one tries to actively do something to fix that. My entire family did sadly had to learn it the hard way for ourselves by keeping all of our problems to ourselves and not trying to ask for help from anybody for the longest time.”

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{ mirror mirror }

Finding an Exit

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