2020-05-28 Curios Curios - Reflections
Curios Curios - reflections
Participants: Makana Sophia, Kenji Tanaka, Enyo Carver
Storyteller: Makana
Location: The athenaeum gets a delivery in the Ascension Lodge
Date and Time: May 26
Summary: A vigil leads to some interesting mirror images moving on their own...
Burning the midnight oil. That's what Makana and her familiar are doing. It seems that the deacon of the chantry has taken off the cloth covering of the mirror, and she placed a chair right in front of it. She also took the perch of her smol birb familiar in front of the familiar. The past couple of hours has consisted of the mage, sitting in front of the mirror and just staring, her arms crossed over her chest.
One hour passes. Nothing interesting happens. Adarna occasionally flaps her wings and shapeshifts from one form of bird into another, but eventually settles into her multicolored sparrow form. Something cute and tiny as she too stares at the mirror.
There's a squawking from the bird, but eventually, like her master, dozes off. The pair are 'resting their eyes' in front of the mirror. The athenaeum itself is dark, only dimly lit by a few candles and the slight illumination from the familiars.
It's bene now hour three in the vigil, and Makana is completely asleep.
Or is she?
At this point, reflected-Makana stands up, a wry smirk curling onto her lips as she stands up and watches her counterpart, before moving back and walking up the stairs that are reflected in the mirror.
A eerily haunting voice calls out, "Bloody Mary...", as Enyo creeps further into the Athenaeum, "Blo-ooooooody Ma-aaaaaaarryyyyy.", reciting the name again and etching even closer to the Deacon. "Bloody..... wait.... how many times are we supposed to say it? I forgot the rules.", rubbing her chin and sitting on the edge of a table with books. Enyo was wearing standing goth gear tonight, "Can't sleep me either. No rest for the wicked they say. But on a side note; if I had to summon a fictional character like that with a name. I'd totally want Beetlejuice instead. You ever see that movie?", as Enyo offered the Deacon or her bird some popcorn. "I was watching horror movies and my spider senses told me not to come down here, so I ignored that. Here am I, annoying you.", winking to Makana.
When Kenji arrives a few moments behind Enyo he gives the goth a smile and a wave of his hand in greeting. While she speaks to Makana and the bird familiar he seems to notice they appear to be asleep. Looking between the pair then to the mirror just in time to catch sight of the reflected version walking off he points to the mirror. "It appears they may be in the mirror? Or maybe Makana is?" Tonight he's dressed in a simple long sleeved black cotton shirt with dark jeans and sneakers.
With the twwto inside, it seems that Makana is still asleep, though she starts to stir, jerking in her movements for a bit before she almost falls out of the chair. Oh shit, she didn't mean to do that, or did she? "I was just resting my eyes!" she says, flailing for a few moments, as she glances about and looks around to see that there's still a few newcomers to the athenaeum.
That jerky movement causes Adarna to wake up and squawk as well, as she flits around and flies before landing on Kenji's shoulder.
As the commotion happens, that's when reflected-Makana comes back, looking a little bloodied. The immaculately white clothing she wears has been stained red with blood and viscera as she drags a corpse along with her. Dropping the corpse on the floor, the reflection can't help but grin as she stares towards Kenji and Enyo, flashing her pearly whites.
"Oh snap. I thought the Deacon was just mediating or something with her eyes closed.", Enyo offers while popping popcorn into her mouth. "Yo, did your reflection kill somebody or what?", pointing to the bloody corpse and waving calmly at the creepy entity on the other side. "Are you hurt, Makana?", looking the woman over and wanting to make sure she was ok and that it was just the reflection covered in blood. Looking to Kenji, "You have any experience with messed up mirrors? Apparently this one has a history and is pretty dangerous.", thumbing back to the magical item. However, the way Enyo was sitting was to avoid looking into the mirror. She didn't know what it precisely did nor wanted to face it.
Kenji stands off to the side so he can look in the mirror from a location that won't show his reflection. Shaking his head as he looks from the mirror to Makana he then says to Enyo, "No. Artifacts aren't my specialty. They are hers." Smiling he nods to Makana and then gives her a concerned look as if making sure she is ok. "What's the story with this mirror? Is it cursed or illusions of some sort?"
Makana looks back towards Kenji and Enyo. "The files say it's cursed, but even the artificers of Durenmar couldn't figure it out. That's why they sent it to me..." because she is a bit of a specialist when it comes to determining different properties about different wonders and talismans afterall.
Still, reflected-Makana grumps for a few moments. She knocks on the mirror, causing it to rumble just a bit before pointing, before she begins an intricate series of mudra. She puts her palms together, spins them in a circle, then completes a various series of hand seals before placing both palms on the mirror. She does this a couple of times, at a more reasonable pace. Perhaps, she was trying to teach the movements in the beginning which is why she did it slow, and she looks at the group, seemingly more annoyed.
Enyo looks to reflection Makana, "Eww, she's doing your hand seals and mudra. I wonder if she's trying to get out or cause an effect on this side?", Enyo asks openly as it reminded her of the first teachings the Deacon taught her in the garden. "Kenji, apparently this mirror has a tendency to make people go mad. I'm sure, the Deacon is fine... but that's totally not my specialty either. So if Makana starts acting weird, it might be due to the mirror.", just giving a precautionary tale of it. "Some Chorister had it, and apparently burnt down his chantry before going missing. Or at least that's the rumors. I don't know if it's powers are stuck on the mirror side or if it can leave somehow. Truly I'm here to learn. Binding, warding, how to handle dangerous objects.", offering popcorn to them both and the birb familiar.
Kenji looks to the mirror and then back to Makana. Nodding a bit at Enyo as she speaks of the mirror he then says to the pair. "I'm more concerned that its trying to show us a potential way to have it escape or to trap us." There is another look at the reflection as he tries to see if he can see the bird within and to get a better look at the corpse.
"Makana. How can we be sure when you fell asleep that you didn't get trapped within? Your conscious? Possibly replaced?" Tilting his head a bit to the side as he looks back to the woman he wets his lips then looks to Enyo and nods to her words. Looking back to Makana he smiles as he asks softly, "Have you warded this already?"
"I'm me." Makana says. "I just fell asleep. I don't know enough ars mentis in order to travel the dream realms yet, like the maya, nor do I know how to create a demesne." she explains. WHich is the truth for this Makana, but could also be true if she were a reflection.
Meanwhile, reflection-Makana looks even more frustrated and heads off up the stairs. Several moments pass before she comes down with a white sheet of paper. She presses it against the mirror, but it's written backwards. Cause of course it is.. mirror.
Enyo notices reflection Makana write her words as the chaos technician uses a notepad to translate. "Um, apparently your reflection has her own personality. She said, This guy doesn't belong down here. Which makes me wonder how much the reflection knows about .....", pointing at Kenji and not wanting to use his name in case the reflection was capable of learning things. "The reflection then said, Do Poppers Etude 87. Janus' Doorway?", Enyo asks. "Should we even be talking in front of the mirror? I don't know if it learns off us or what. Which could be dangerous if our reflections have our knowledge."
Kenji listens to Makana, studying her as she speaks. Looking back to the mirror he watches as the reflection moves off. "Interesting. There would be no real way to know without using other ways." Shaking off the thought he looks over to Enyo and then nods at her words. "That could mean a number of things. But I'm guessing it then means its not our Makana." Looking back to the real Makana he gives her a wink, nodding at the mirror and asking, "What's the body? Who is it?"
"Janus is the god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways,1 passages, frames, and endings." Makana says, getting pedantic for a few moments. "I always thought Popper's Etude 87 was just a for funsies and manual dexterity exercise." she muses under her breath, giving a glance towards her doppelganger, and then the unconscious and bloodied older man on the ground in front of her.
"I have no idea. But I guess we can find out, assuming y'all want me to actually do the spell." she says, letting the pair decide on whether or not she would follow through. She knows those movements afterall. Any Straussen grad worth their salt should.
Enyo knocks on the mirror, while not facing it. "She's thinking about doing the Janus Doorway... but you have to show us the face of the corpse. Who is that?", pointing down at the bloodied victim. "Janus was also the two-faced god. Reflections, dualities. Opening shit. Which Hermetics are technically all about openings, even if scientifically we are know for sealings.", biting her bottom lip. "How fascinating."
The reflection was right in that Kenji doesn't belong here. This type of magic is outside of his scope or understanding for the most part but it is interesting. Looking between the pair he gives a slight nod of his head and then says, "You both know about this mirror. So tell me. Why is the reflection of Makana? Is it because she was the first one here? Or is it something else?"
"No idea." Makana offers as she looks back to Kenji. "And because you're avoiding creating a reflection potentially?" she says with a slight shrug of her shoulders. She nosewrinkles and sighs softly, running her fingers through her dark locks.
Meanwhile, reflected-Makana scribbles something down on the paper. This time, she took the effort to write backwards, so it looks messy. "HE WILL DIE IF HE DOESN"T GET HELP SOON."
Eyes wide, Enyo looks to the message and back to Kenji. She then clearly points at the Martial Artist in the room, and writes in reverse for the reflection. "?ekacfeeb eht naem uoY", and then Enyo points to the corpse. "Or you mean that person?".... looking to Kenji. "What if the reflection is saying the bloodied corpse reflection will die soon if it doesn't get out?"
Kenji looks to Makana and then Enyo as they speak about the mirror. He watches as Enyo tries to communicate with the entity and then shakes his head as he moves to stand in a position where his reflection can be seen in the mirror. A look from the mirror back to the pair on this side with him is given as if he wanted to test that hypothesis about it being because of his reflection. "There is no more history on this thing? As in how it caused the problems it did in the past? Why it seemed to be cursed and cause trouble?"
"Cause the Spaniards who sold it to Durenmar said so." Makana says with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "They don't exactly give full dossiers on different curios that ends up in the athenaeum, unlike you all." Makana says, as it seems she's going to make an executive deicision.
Both Makana and reflected-Makana roll their eyes at Enyo's message before the reflection points at the bloodied corpse. Stepping forward, the Makanas face each other and form the rote mudra and gestures before the mirror shimmers for a few moments, as if it's rippling like water.
A few moments pass, and the bloodied body of the older gentleman, a man dressed in a Catholic priests's garbs, with the build and muscle of a heavy weight boxer can be seen getting pushed out of one side of the mirror to the other, until there's a thunk.
"Ah shit....", Enyo states watching the bloodied body being pushed through the mirror. "Let me grab gloves and PPE for us.", rushing off to the nearest storage container to grab gloves and glasses for everyone. She's back shortly in a lab coat and offering protection, "Here Kenji, here Makana.", slipping on her own gloves and snapping them. "Fuck... what now?"
Kenji takes the gloves and glasses with a nod of thanks from Enyo. He doesn't put them on just yet. Instead he focuses his will and shifts his hands into what in the West most think of as the classic Naruto Ninja Magic hand sighs. Using the kuji kiri to case his magick the others can feel that little tingle of power in the air as he studies the man's chi flow. "He's alive, barely. I could try to heal him."
When the thunk is heard, it takes for a few moments. Reflected-Makana waves and flashes her pearly whites once more before the mirror goes back to normal. It's all just a reflection now. No one moving on their own independently.
As she recovers from that chill of magick, the man wakes up. He grabs Kenji's arm and squeezes tightly as he starts shivering. He speaks in a frantic Spanish as he squeezes at the Akashic, looking almost deathly afraid. "Est? detr?s de las monedas. ?l est? aqu?..." He repeats it, as if trying to get up, but it looks like he's pulling something.
The man is still quite hurt, and Makana decides to intervene. With nothing more than a simple word and a hand on his shoulder, she squeezes, and the man is knocked out. "I put him to sleep. Let him recover and heal him, then we can figure out what the heck he's saying when he's hopefully in a better state of mind..."
