003 ↯ text

[circlejerked]

How's everyone enjoying another day of this fine incursion?

_{[Sarcasm: learn it, live it, love it.]}

I'm writing in regards to the Mirrors as if they're not already the hot topic issue around here, but don't worry, it's not another warning about a murder-happy lunatic on the loose. I'd like to ask for a favor. Or maybe more like a citizen's arrest? If you happen to see a blond man with a dead look in his eyes and a sun symbol stamped on his forehead, that would be mine. I've attached a handy picture for your reference.

Be a dear and kick him back to his side should you see him, all right? He probably won't run or do more than bore you to death, but if he's here that means I'm there, and my skills aren't much good on the other side of the glass.

Pretty please and thank you! :)

- Anders

Comments

[circlejerked]

_{[Anders knows which side he falls on, but when the choice is between keeping his humanity or being "safe," it's not much of a choice at all.]}

Dangerous things get declawed.

[jivitadana]

Aren't there other means of being dangerous then?

[Minato could just be taking this too literally. But he was only wondering, considering that just because someone's declawed doesn't mean they can't go ahead and stab you with a knife.]

[circlejerked]

Fewer than usual, in this case.

They'll tell you mages are dangerous because magic is tied to emotions, demons that would feed on that emotion, and the Fade, the world of dreams. Sever the tie to magic, you sever the tie to the rest.

No magic + no ambition = no problem.

[jivitadana]

But magic is a part of your life if you're a mage.

[Or it was their life. Which is probably exactly what Anders was telling him. Taking it away was like taking away someone's humanity or their will to live. Or it seemed like that to Minato, anyway.]

[circlejerked]

10 points to Gryffindor. Or however that goes.

_{[He'd like to say having a sense of self is a big part of life, too, but some people--namely, most Andrastians--disagree.]}

[jivitadana]

I'm sorry. If I do see him, I'll send him over there.

[This was probably the unhappiest Minato's ever seen Anders, and that made Minato more worried for him.]

[circlejerked]

It's nothing you have to be sorry for. Back home they couldn't tattoo me with that garish thing even if they wanted to, I've dotted all my is and crossed my ts and passed all my tests. They're stuck with me.

I'd appreciate not getting stuck on the Mirror side, though. I'll do the same if I come across yours, of course.

[jivitadana]

I would think your friends would defend you too if that were to happen?

[Getting tattooed and all. It sounded unpleasant all around.]

And thanks. I think he's just lonely.

[circlejerked]

I have met a few reckless fools that fit the bill.

I wouldn't go feeling sorry for the Mirrors, though. It seems as though they're coming over with an express purpose in mind this time.

_{[To fuck shit up, as the kids say.]}

[jivitadana]

Do you think I should ever feel sorry for them?

[Minato had a tendency to feel bad for them. It wasn't their fault that they existed like that. Maybe he was being a bit too sympathetic toward them when he shouldn't be.]

[circlejerked]

It's like being sorry for what happens in a dream--you don't spend your day worrying something make-believe, do you? Dreams aren't reality, and neither are they. They're just shadow puppets on a wall we're casting by being here.

[jivitadana]

So you don't think they're real?

[Not that there was anything wrong with that line of thinking. To Minato, they were real. But his definition of "real" might've been so different or maybe even wrong.]

[circlejerked]

There's a reason they call us the Reals with a capital 'R'.

[jivitadana]

[But still. They were alive over there, somehow or in some way. They existed. But true, did they exist as much as anything in a dream would? Did he actually exist here either on the Real side too? He wasn't old enough yet for an existential crisis, or so he was told.]

Do you think they want to be real?

[Or Real. But that was a hard question too because he wondered if they wanted to be their Real self or real and still be whoever they were.]

[circlejerked]

Who can say? The most I've gathered from the ones I've lured into exchanging messages want to be dutiful lapdogs to the Queen.

They remind me a little of demons in a pitiful sort of way. Watching this world, wanting what they can't have.

[jivitadana]

[Minato hadn't had too much experience with the Mirrors. He might've been fortunate not to run into any that were completely terrible. Terrible, perhaps, but not completely so.]

I wonder if they're there too to show us what we could've been or could be.

[Mindless sycophants to the Queen wasn't exactly what he had in mind. He figured they were a little like Shadows instead, a part that was kept hidden. The only problem was that it was the hidden part but it also got so mangled and twisted out of recognition.]

[circlejerked]

That'd be easier if we could talk in the same room and not through a pane of glass.

I try not to think about it. What good comes out of torturing yourself with 'what if's? I only have the one life and I'd rather focus on living it than worry what could've happen if I went left instead of right.

[jivitadana]

[Oh, man, how true is that. Minato nodded, thinking about all of that and filing it away like on a reference shelf that he'd look at. Later. Sometimes. But he'd know it was there.]

I tend to get caught up in 'what if' a lot.

[What's done was done, but sometimes he let himself go and wandered too far with 'what if' scenarios. He shouldn't have to rely on someone else to pull him back down to earth, but he could still be grateful when someone did.]

[circlejerked]

I hadn't noticed.

Is that how it is with your Mirror? He's a "you" that ended up at rock bottom?

_{[Just like Anders' Mirror is to him. That he doesn't say, however. He doesn't think he has to--he's said plenty to probably make that clear.]}

[jivitadana]

I think he's trying to be whole, but he can't ever be. Like a wing and never a bird.

[That's what made Minato feel bad for him too and for most Mirrors. They had memories that weren't exactly their own, but they had nothing else to base their lives on.]

[circlejerked]

If they were the whole bird, they'd be us, and we already have the market cornered on being ourselves.

Harsh as it may sound, thinking of them as people like you and I will only create more trouble than its worth.

[jivitadana]

Okay. I'll try not to. I think most other people agree with you.

[circlejerked]

You don't?

[jivitadana]

More like torn. I know I shouldn't. But when I see them alive, I know it's not their fault.