bewhatyouseem: (White Queen - 5)
[personal profile] bewhatyouseem
[ It has been 24 hours since the chess match and after some impatient redecorating, everyone's feeds - Mirror and Real alike come to life with a video set to Baroque music. There is no speaking yet, simply a slide show displaying various parts of the new Mirror side of things. It's an introduction of sorts.

  • The new Throne room which is where the Real side's ballroom is located.
  • Though the White Queen's mirrors can't go without a ballroom of their own.
  • Finally, her own chambers are displayed, with everything neat and orderly, and all signs of the Queen of Hearts (including all of her very odd...pieces and parts of things in jars) completely gone.

    The music fades out, and soon the White Queen, sitting on her throne graces the screen. She is addressing both sides today, however they won't be able to communicate to each other, only to her. ]


  • My dearest Mirrors and Reals,

    The time has come for us to put aside our differences and all the Queen of Hearts used to put you at odds with one another. We are, after all, one kingdom and as my sister the Red Queen proclaimed, we shall live in peace and harmony.

    [ It's not quite what she said, but it's close enough. ]

    From henceforth, I proclaim that no Mirror need to spy on the Real side on my behalf. You have no good graces to earn with me, no reason to bring me information about the other side. I, unfortunately, have no control over the events that occur, but let that be all the dear Reals must worry over. You have my word that there will be no command for you to hurt or kill and you must not live in fear of my mirrors only wishing to cause harm.

    ...Of course, I cannot help it if some mirrors do have this tendency, but I will not advocate it.

    Now, onto my new subjects. And to that point, what your former queen demanded of you.

    You will no longer be unmade at a whim. Please do not live in fear of a mistake. You aren't merely subjects, you are a people. From now on ruled by me, yes, but not as a figure to be feared or only one to please. I will create new mirrors as new Reals arrive, and you will all be cared for.

    There is one exchange I have made with Wonderland's magic, but that does mean we've had to give something up to have a bit of color. For too long our outside world has been black and white. No more.

    [ She pauses, then dramatically claps her hands, the sound echoing in the room. ]

    There are no more tea rooms on our side, dear mirrors. But you do now have a beautiful garden. The color is limited to the gardens only, but oh, I do hope you find it as glorious as I do. Please, do not confine yourselves to the indoors only.

    [ Go touch some grass, please. For her title being the White Queen, things aren't quite so blandly colored and she smiles with a soft nod of her head. ]

    I urge any of you, real and mirror alike, to now take this time to introduce yourselves. I'm quite curious about you all. Though I will say, you will be speaking only to me and at this time, Reals and Mirrors will not be able to address one another.
    choosetruth: (who did not follow through)
    [personal profile] choosetruth
    The Mirrors are watching us. This is common knowledge, one of the first things we tell newcomers. There is another Wonderland through the looking glass, and it's inhabited by the doppelgangers we call Mirrors. Calling them our "evil twins" would be an oversimplification, both because not everyone on this side would qualify as the "good twin," and because while these individuals are supposed to be our reflection and, in some ways, our opposites, that doesn't mean they're evil. Like us, they are complicated individuals and generalizations cannot capture all of them. They serve the Queen of Hearts, and the influence she has on the Mirrors cannot be understated. For one thing, she's their maker, though the Red Queen claims they would exist even without the Queen of Hearts' help. If they piss her off, she can also "unmake" them.

    Sounds nice and bloodless when you put it like that, doesn't it? Well, take it from an artificial, imperfect copy with implanted memories that never really happened to me. I was made by mad science, not Wonderland magic, and I lived under threat of being "decommissioned," not "unmade," but the differences are negligible. It’s a pretty word for murder and a reminder that you're replaceable.

    If the gun to their heads isn't enough, the Queen manipulates and lies to the Mirrors. She sets them at each other's throats, and she sets them against us. Wirt's Mirror carries a lantern with him constantly. He was convinced by the Queen that it held his brother. We examined it together and quickly proved that it actually contained some material tied to Mirror Wirt himself. It never had anything to do with his brother at all.

    It's a lot of effort that shouldn't be necessary if she's as capable of instilling loyalty as she insists she is. She has their loyalty and fear, but their free will is their own. That's why she has to keep them divided. That's why she lies. And that's why instead of fearing the Mirrors, instead of bending to the Queen's wishes and being enemies, we need to become allies. We're all prisoners of Wonderland, whether we originated here or not.

    Many of you may remember the portal incident from last year, when Leo Fitz and Cisco Ramon used a combination of technology and metahuman power to break through to the Mirror side. It was the first successful, intentional breach by a Real in recorded Wonderland history, and it happened because they consulted with Mirrors. Granted, the Mirrors in question were manipulating and lying to Fitz and Ramon, and the results of that experiment were in many ways disastrous. But this does not have to be how it is. Imagine what we could accomplish in a good faith partnership between Mirrors and Reals. We need to find a way to break the Queen's hold, both because it is the right thing to do and because it may be the only way we can take control.

    A young Mirror once accused me of wishing death on the Mirrors because of the title of my zine. Shattered Mirror does have a violent sound to it. I can understand where she got that, but it was never my intention. I named my zine the Shattered Mirror because I want to destroy the barriers between us. We will never achieve anything if we continue to behave as they expect us to behave. Break the glass. It's time to rise.


    Mirror Writing

    [As usual, Georgia makes sure to leave copies within reach of the glass so that any interested Mirrors can snag a copy without actually crossing over and disobeying the Queen. Unlike usual, she very intentionally tugs down the curtain that normally covers her office Mirror. In big, bold, backwards letters she write ƧTͶƎMMOƆ next to a taped up copy of the article. Then she sits and waits.]

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