Event: The Reveal Glass

[indigo_league]

Across the Pokémon world, characters may have spotted a falling star last night. Or at least, one would think that's what it was: a naturally occurring phenomenon, rather than a legendary artifact. Specifically, the Reveal Glass fell to earth during a fight among a group of legendaries started by the return of a long-lost family member. But it's probably best to leave them to handle all that themselves, while your characters deal with other consequences.

The Reveal Glass shattered upon impact, and the shards scattered throughout Kanto, Johto, and the Sevii Islands… And made their way into the hearts of your characters. But bleeding isn't the concern here. Instead, the impact will hit when a character first looks into any reflective service. An eerie feeling hits them as they're transported to the Mirror Dimension.

While this realm can be many different things for different characters, one thing is always true: It is a place of honesty, where true selves are revealed. Those struck by a shard will find themselves facing truths they are no longer able to hide, and now must accept. Fortunately enough, even those who haven't been struck will be able to enter the Mirror Dimension during this event via a reflective surface to offer help. By the end of the 29th, things will return to normal. Characters will be back in the usual Pokémon world and their hearts will be rid of the shards, but time is strange in the Mirror Dimension, and the experience may feel like it goes on far longer than a day. Or, maybe that's just the emotional exhaustion.

The Reveal Glass plot is here. You can swing by the event info post for additional details and FAQ, and play out your characters’ enforced therapy on this post. As with most VR events, this plot is entirely optional and your characters don't need to take part at all.

Comments

Shadowmaru | OTA

[sassymaru]

The landscape is confusing. A city street. A rooftop. An ocean shoreline. A warehouse interior. It's night, in every setting, and every image slots together in jagged puzzle pieces, each one like a shard of broken glass, connected, but fractured parts of a whole.

In each one is reflected an image of Shadowmaru, and when you look closer, you realize the images change, from shard to shard. In some, he stands as he is in the pokemon world, but somber, thoughtful. In others, he is his normal, robotic self. And when you blink, the images shift, trading places with one another.

And at the center of it all is the AI in question.

But he looks a bit... different. His whole body has taken on the same patchwork appearance as the surrounding environment. Robotic parts visible through skin, one eye clearly synthetic, both still that same electric green as always. His hands are outstretched toward the jagged jigsaw around him, and it is the gesture of both synthetic and flesh limbs that are changing the images of himself.

In each memory.

He does not appear to notice anyone else nearby.


((ooc: happy to match bracket or prose format!))

[pennyloafer]

Louie is more concerned by the odd state of the place he's wound up in than anything else. The inconsistency is disorienting, and he's uncomfortable with how hard it is to figure out what's real. That discomfort does not, however, extend to the person at the center of it all. On the contrary, Louie makes his way towards Shadowmaru-- If this is someone he's met, he doesn't recognize him, but the robotic features don't alarm him. Are they a little uncanny in this instance, especially as they shift? Absolutely.

But while Louie's had his fair share of issues with androids and the like, they've all tied back to a flaw on the creation level - and from one specific creator, at that. This should be fine. This guy's probably usually more robotic where he comes from, that's gotta be why he looks like this. Right? Louie isn't exactly looking like he usually does in the pokemon world, himself. He's back to being a duck, and that's probably what's going on here, too.

Besides, maybe he'll get answers. It's this hope that has him raise his arms, waving them, as he gets close. Sure, he's not inherently afraid of the robotic appearance, but not startling the big, android-looking guy feels like a smart move regardless.

[sassymaru]

He goes very still, then turns his head sharply towards the movement. One eye glows, literally, with that same eerie green light. The other side of his face creases in confusion. He doesn't recognize whoever this is.

"Greetings," he ventures. And the words come out in two, echoing voices. One the normal tones of his human form. The other with a strange, robotic vibration. They both sound confused. "Have we... met?"

[pennyloafer]

Ah... Okay, now that this guy's actually looking at him, Louie's starting to feel just a bit more intimidated. He stops, and thinks. He's genuinely not sure of the answer, though. It's too hard to tell under the circumstances.

"Uh, maybe. I wouldn't have looked like this, but I mean, I guess that's both of us, so..." He trails off awkwardly, with a little shrug, before trying again. "I'm Louie, though. Do you know what's going on here?"

[sassymaru]

Those eyes look Louis up and down. Considering. And the ghost of a smirk appears on one side of his face - it's slower to mirror on the other, but eventually appears. "You don't say."

He turns back to the mottled assortment of imagery. Of broken puzzle pieces. His gaze roaming over every one. Every scene. The smirk disappears into something melancholy.

"I am... trying to find where I fit."

Because among the scattered, shattered bits, there is not a single one that matches his appearance as it is now. None.

[pennyloafer]

"Oh, yeah. Been there."

Louie finds the words just come out, and he puts that on being surprised by the answer given. He'd been hoping for answers, some explanation to what was going on in general. Something personal hadn't been what he expected to hear, much less such a relatable thing.

And he doesn't mind that he said it, really, he just isn't sure where to go with that. He gives a helpless little shrug - more a gesture to himself than anything else - before gesturing to one of the shards depicted a fully robotic Shadowmaru.

"Is that you? You know, when you're where you're from."

[sassymaru]

"Have you?"

He sounds surprised, even given the fact he's looking at an anthropomorphic duck. But, maybe that's not it. The species isn't the issue. It's everything else. A fully living, organic creature - versus...

Versus the completely robotic being Louie just gestured to.

"It is." He trails off, staring at it, until it shifts to his human form. "And... I'm not sure. Which is really me."

[pennyloafer]

Louie nods with an affirmative hum. "Yeah. It was hard to see how I could fit in with the rest of my family. They do things so differently than I do, and I wanted to be part of that but I didn't know how I could."

It's a vague, simple version of the story, both because it's not one he's used to - or entirely comfortable with - just dropping on people, and because... Well, it's not about him right now, is it? He figured all that out. It sounds like this guy hasn't, though.

"I'm guessing life here is really different for you, huh? That would throw anybody off."

[sassymaru]

"Your own family?"

Wow, that sure sounds... familiar, doesn't it? Having a group you belonged with, but no real place in it. The one left on the sidelines. It's painfully familiar.

His attention turns to the broken pictures. In some of them, there are occasionally other robots. Which only makes the human Shadowmaru standing near them more obvious, more out of place. In others, the people he's met here in this world - with his own robotic form juxtaposed against them.

"It's ... very, very different."

[pennyloafer]

"I mean, don't get me wrong, my family's cool. They weren't trying to leave me out, it just kind of... happened. And when they tried to get me in on things, I just felt more out of place. 'Cause they're the kind of people who jump right into things, and I'm not, so things- They didn't click for me, not for a while."

Louie frowns as he looks over the scenes playing out, with Shadowmaru always the one who's so different no matter who he's with. He can relate, in a sense.

"My family's big, and really close. I didn't really have other people I was close to before I came here. That's a part that's been very different for me."

Sure, overall Louie didn't have that hard a time adjusting to being in the pokemon world, but being away from all of his family that way felt weird at first. It was the first time his social circle truly branched out beyond that group, or at least, the first time Louie had branched out of his own choosing, and not through friends of relatives.

He looks up at Shadowmaru, thoughtful frown still present. "It's weird, right? Building a whole life in this place where it's you, but it's also not."

[sassymaru]

"A big family..."

He trails off, almost thoughtfully. His eyes still flicking over the assembled images. Like you can see the "buffering" circle repeating over and over in his own head. He supposes he can relate to part of it. To having many people around you often. Or constantly, in some cases.

While this processes, his shadow seems to shift of its own accord, and seems to thread fingers through his own.

"I was not close to many, either." Even in the broken images, he's stood apart. Separating himself. "A lone wolf, as it were."

Because of course, there's at least one image up there with him in his dog canine form. Granted, it's a giant robot canine, but still.

"You, but also not," he repeats. "A succinct way of putting it. And truthful. I don't know what to do."

[pennyloafer]

"Is there anything to do about it?" Louie asks, looking up at Shadowmaru once he tears his eyes away from the shadow, moving on its own. It's got some weighty associations for him to see that, a "living shadow," but the malicious intent he'd normal think of doesn't seem the case here. Just the loneliness.

"I've been here for years, and honestly? I still go back and forth between homesickness and never wanting to leave. I even was gone for a while, and now back... So now I try not to worry about that stuff. It's not easy! Don't get me wrong. But it's just, you know, I'm here now." He shrugs. "And I can't do much about it other than be here."

[sassymaru]

"I'm not sure. It feels as if there should be."

As if there should be something to piece it together. Stitch it all into one whole again. But there isn't. Nothing he can puzzle out. Even with his shadow at his side, in silent support.

"We are here, yes. We have to make a life here... but that doesn't mean - " He frowns, then, trying to work it out. The complicated feelings. How if he goes, or stays, he's always going to be apart.

Always going to be different.

"Do you fit, here?"

[singlespacedad]

Strangely enough, the shifting landscape doesn't bother Mando. He simply keeps moving through it, adjusting himself as needed when the land underfoot changes, and follows the images of Shadowmaru. By sheer doggedness and stubborn determination, he eventually makes it to the centre, and to Shadowmaru.

"Shadowmaru? I'm here."

[sassymaru]

The figure goes still. And then turns his head to look toward Mando with uncanny green eyes - the human one full of fondness, the robotic one flat for several beats before it mirrors the same warm expression.

"So you are." Then it's back to the shattered, cracked puzzle pieces. "You're always so helpful in these times."

Silence for a moment, though it doesn't feel strained - it's reflective. "But I don't know if even you can solve this."

[singlespacedad]

"What are we solving?" Mando steps up next to him, getting a closer look at the puzzle pieces. "You're better at these things than I am, but maybe I can help."

The eye thing he takes in stride. He's seen a prosthetic eye or three in his time. One can't be in the bounty hunter guild for long and not see all sorts of fancy prosthetics. The fact that he still has all his original limbs is a bit of an anomaly.

[sassymaru]

"Where I fit in."

As he nods towards all of the fractured images. In some of them, there are occasionally other robots. Which only makes the human Shadowmaru standing near them more obvious, more out of place. In others, the people he's met here in this world - with his own robotic form juxtaposed against them.

"I... keep trying to figure it out. I wish to. There is... there is much I want. But this will not let me."

He feels he has to figure this out before he can do anything else.

[singlespacedad]

"Okay."

Mando nods, and just stands in companionable silence for a few moments, studying the images. The symbolism of Shadowmaru's different forms, and how they're positioned, is not lost on him.

"Can I try? Will they move for me, too?"

[sassymaru]

"For you...?"

This isn't something that's occurred to him. For a while, he looks over at the fractured pictures. Hesitates. Almost seems to shake his head.

His shadow shifts. It seems to guide him to one side. To allow Mando room to try.

"Yes. You can try." His shadow seems to think it will help.

[singlespacedad]

"Thank you."

Mando steps up to try and move the pieces, but not before taking Shadowmaru's hand and giving it a squeeze. Then he reaches up and starts toying with the different pieces.

It's not long before a pattern emerges. Mando doesn't consider himself a particularly smart man, but he trusts his intuition, and it only takes a few minutes of playing with the pieces before he knows what he wants to do with them. Once he gets the idea in his head, his hands start moving faster, rearranging the pieces with more confidence.

After awhile, he steps back, satisfied. "There."

In all the pieces, wherever he's standing, whatever form he's in, Shadowmaru is pointed towards the centre. There's a circle of images of Shadowmaru, both robot and human, and then a ring of all his friends and family members surrounding him. Robots stand beside humans, beside goblins, beside Fraggles, beside Mandalorians, creating a protective ring with Shadowmaru at the centre.

WOW RIGHT FOR THE FEELS

[sassymaru]

He returns that squeeze, somewhat distractedly. It's still hard to believe, sometimes - the human at his side chose an AI, and so fervently.

It might not be long for Mando, but for the supposedly advanced AI, it takes quite some time. He can see there's something. It's nagging at him. But his brain, his AI, doesn't seem to want to completely process it. Or it doesn't want to. He recognizes all of the individuals, of course... but...

"All of you are my friends, of course." Somehow, his shadow shifts again, seeming to shake its head. "And - more. In your case."

But why the formation...? "You're all...? I'm sorry. I don't understand."

bwahahaha it's been awhile since we've done this

[singlespacedad]

"Look who's in the middle."

Mando lifts one arm and points, first to one part of the collage and then another.

"You fit in because all of us chose you. You're our friend, or..." and here he catches and squeezes Shadowmaru's hand again. "Something more. At the centre, it's you. Whether you're in a robot body or a human one. It doesn't matter. All that matters is you."

TOO LONG

[sassymaru]

You fit

He fits. With these others? With these living beings - and these AI. That's hard to fathom. It's hard to process. Both sides, both halves of himself, are grappling with the notion.

Something more - has him ducking his head, while squeezing back in return. His shadow shifts, seeming to reach out, to lift his head. And when it does, when Shadowmaru raises his chin again, his face is whole. It flickers back and forth between the two forms, but it is whole.

"You chose me." He sounds choked up. "I've tried to - understand what we spoke about. Combining with all of you. But it's - it's been hard."

[singlespacedad]

"I know." Mando waits patiently as Shadowmaru processes all this, standing beside him and holding his hand. "I know it's hard. But it's never stopped being true."

Facts are important, and the facts on the wall before them speak for themselves. No matter what form he's in, no matter how he does or doesn't combine with other AIs, Shadowmaru has made a life for himself, has found a family. He did all that on his own, made his own choices, created his own reality.

"And I'd choose you again." This time, Mando steps in closer, and loops his arm around Shadowmaru's waist. "We combine."

[neverbreaks]

Luisa isn't entirely sure how she'd arrived in this place, or even exactly where she is. The different pieces seemed to show a number of locations, but even the glimpses that she caught of them she isn't sure she really recognizes.

As she draws closer, though, she notices the flash of a figure in each fragment, and while she recognizes the human in them she can only guess as to the robot that appears in others. Eventually she wanders far enough that she finds the individual in question, all at once foreign and familiar to her, but without a doubt in her mind who it is.

"...Shadowmaru?" she calls softly, hesitantly.