onceuponacomm | CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 5

Almost half of the non-fairy population of Aira Niluc is gone.

Some may be feeling the absence of their fellow participants in this story. Others will stay focused on the wish they want to get. What never changes is that the story goes on, bringing you closer to the end -- and to another chapter. What will it bring this time?

Snow!

Snow as far as the eye can see, a cold blanket covering the new area. Some winter amenities are now available, ready for perusal! But that's not all there's to find: everyone also will find reminders of their homes, of people they know, of happier times.

Of their wishes.

Who will try to reach their wish this time?

[[Welcome to Week 5! Feel free to make top levels at your discretion, and remember to note it in your header if you plan on investigating any locations. However, please try to keep investigations to Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday! You can also privately contact Hamelin at your leisure.

In addition, a reminder that any Murder Proposals for this week are due by Tuesday 3:00 PM EST/12:00 PM PST! However, please note that you have the option of submitting murder proposals for a later week as well.]]

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[Yeager's just coming in, and he doesn't exactly look happy about it. But the church is a place to warm up for a little while, and McGillis is acceptable company, so he'll approach and incline his head a bit as he looks up at the stained glass.]

Are you talking about the... mirrors?

[The hesitation there is obvious, like he's not sure whether to bring up the mirrors or the fire or whether he should mention either of them at all. He settles on that and he shifts a bit to fold his arms, adjusting his grip on that weird briefcase he's been carrying around as he does so.]

[ McGillis seems to miss just half a beat at the mention of mirrors, but like a skilled conversationalist he catches himself before it becomes a notable pause. ]

The mirrors, those floating balls of fire outside... even the atmosphere of a church is, to me at least, quite nostalgic.

Maybe part of it is because winter is a season that is so strongly associated with coziness at home?

[ He shakes his head a little and sighs. ]

You've seen the visions as well, then?

Hmm, you do have a point there.

[Winter's more of a headache than anything else for him, but he also lives in the middle of nowhere surrounded by woods and monsters, so that's probably an experience that not many share.]

I did, ja. I didn't spend long looking at those... fireballs, and I haven't had the misfortune of running into anything too troubling in the mirrors.

[Yet. The key word here is yet.]

I'm glad for you. They're cheap manipulations but there is something unnerving about them nevertheless.

[ The last few weeks hadn't seemed to get to him too much, but this one. Hoo boy, he is not looking very happy. ]

At least the fireballs are easily avoided once you've figured out what they are.

It's a bit harder to ignore when it's based on memories and people from home, I suppose... But ja, I don't intend to go near any of those again!

[It's not a pleasant reminder regardless of what appears in those fireballs for him. The one he did see was actually pretty upsetting!! Not that he'll ever mention that, of course.]

It does seem like Hamelin's being a bit more blatant about it this week... I wonder why?

[ McGillis nods. He's certainly not letting the fire get the better of him again - maybe he'll just stay away from the entire snowy village, it's not as though it has anything but crushing sentimentality to offer. ]

Maybe he thinks that those who were likely to kill or be nudged into killing by subtle methods have done so by now - stronger encouragements for the rest of us, reminding us of what we're missing.

Ja, I think that might be it. A reminder that we've been away from home for quite some time.

[Four weeks, now. It's quite a long time to be away from home with no way to know how things are going.]

None of what this is showing me is still waiting for me, but I imagine it is a strong incentive for a lot of others.

[ McGillis "I no longer have friends" Fareed meanwhile is absolutely invulnerable to manipulation, certainly. ]

[Oh ouch, but also sort of a mood.]

It isn't exactly a friendly reminder - I suppose it might seem more like taunting, then?

[That's absolutely how he's taking it, anyway!!!!!]

Possibly. Or the magic in place to summon these scenes from our memory simply is not complex enough to distinguish what is a memory one might want to get back to and what is a memory that irrevocably lost to time.

[ A hypothesis presented with a fantastic degree of confidence by a man who doesn't know a thing about magic. ]

Oh, that's a good point. I imagine it would be quite difficult to determine such a thing, and surely scenes of a time in the past will still serve as some sort of motivation for some people, ja?

[So it'd more likely to hit than to miss. Maybe?? Hell if he knows, does he look like a mage to you??]

Either to go back to something you still have or to make a wish to bring back a pas that it lost... I can imagine it well, yes.

[ Hit either way, just.. different hits. ]

For the record, as nostalgic as these memories make me, I know that what is dead is dead. I'm more annoyed than I am tempted.

[That gets a soft laugh out of him.]

Ja, agreed. I'd rather not have the reminders at all, particularly when the intent behind them is this clear! It does feel like an insult for him to start bringing this up now, after we've had quite some time here to miss everything familiar already!

We're not allowed to get too competent at repressing it. It is rather tiresome, this game. Whatever was happening with regards to our movement capacity last week was relaxing by comparison, even if certainly irritating.

Then... maybe avoiding mirrors is not a bad habit for us to fall into, at least. They do seem rather ominous of late.

I wonder about that... It sounds as though they certainly hold far more power here than I ever would have imagined! Maybe we should keep them all covered up from now on...

I think that would be wise. After all the stories of people getting sucked into them, I've already covered up the one in my room. Even if the letters insist they are important, I can't find myself trusting something that seems so obviously sinister.

I don't know how much we can trust the letters either... I still think it's possible those are from the fairies.

[Because that makes more sense than them being from the dead. People die when they're killed!!!!!!]

Still, breaking all of them doesn't sound like a great idea either...

I'd say we should simply lock all of them into an unused room, but who knows what kind of powers might be set free by many mirrors converging in a small space...

[ Maybe it will open up a portal like the one that ate Lucifer in the execution room... no thanks. ]

Covering them up and waiting to see what use they might have if any is the least radical and most careful option in the end.

Ja, and we should play it safe with them. It's not like we can really put them back together if we break them all!

Though this would beg the question at what size a mirror is a mirror - in a way, a mirror shard is just a smaller version of the same thing. Would it hold the same power?

Oh, I hadn't even considered that... That is a bit confusing, isn't it? Shattering a mirror may not actually help at all, then... Better to avoid it in general, I suppose!

[shame about some of the rest of us and their seven years' bad luck this week!!]

CHAPTER 5

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