victory_road | Event: The Reveal Glass

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Event: The Reveal Glass

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.

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(The whole room gives Isabela the chills down her spine. She didn’t know how on the world she landed in here but she does notice him chained up. Now why would anyone do something that would required chains to begin with? She is hoping that she doesn’t go too deep as she slowly makes her way towards him.

The words add more to the creepiness and fear that she is concerned for his safety and wellbeing. She does wonder if there is a way for her to set him free from these chain shackles. Still trying to keep a brave face in a very grim place, Isabela takes slow careful steps as she makes her way to him: hoping and praying that she could try to reach out to him.)

Hi. I’m sorry that I just found myself stuck in this very room with you. Is there anything I can do to help you out?

Leave.

[One of the sisters he had tried to keep in good favor with was seeing a side of him he never wanted them to see. He was supposed to be an upstanding and normal person, to keep the family ties close for his own benefit. Down the line, somewhere.

This was too much for anyone to see, let alone someone he was purposefully keeping at arm's length. Something as shallow as possible. But he was caught, and ot only was he caught but she was asking questions of him in this state he tried so hard to hide from the world.]

You didn't get the right to see any of this.

I’m not leaving anyone, including you, alone in this cruel world to be treated horribly by horrible people. Even though I don’t grow up witnessing terrible crimes being committed onto several lives, it doesn’t mean that I’m that ignorant.

(Well she is not going to stand around and do nothing to help Astarion to get out of this mess they’re all in. It is a Madrigal thing to look out for the people around them and she just can’t just leave without helping out even at least a single soul. As much as it hurts to see what must be haunting him in his mind, she still wants to do something to help him in his darkest time.

Of course having to hide something from people wasn’t anything new to her: it painfully reminds her of the years she had to hide her own dreams and identity for the sake of others and she isn’t going to let him suffer from a similar fate either.)

[...He went to what That One Person said to him, before he buried the dagger in his tormentor's chest and cried wailing tears.

I want you to live a life you're proud of.

I want you to be happy.

Every dismayed look and every kind loving face she gave him swarmed him like a colony of bees. To think he tried to hide everything the moment he arrived here, just wanting to bubble every ounce of pain in hopes it just went away. With every meal he could eat, every hour he could dream, every ray of sunlight he could have free of everything. Soon, the agony and trauma would wash away with it? Astarion wasn't stupid, but he never wanted to live in these shadows again.

Reminded of those shadows meant this happiness could end, and he would return home only to have the hide in the shadows all over again. Free, but lacking.]

But I've been trying to make you ignorant from the start.

[He couldn't even look her in the eye as his face was void of any charm or lightness.]

What fun then would we have had chatting about it over some coffee. I'm a vampire spawn, made to serve a master that used me like a tool for centuries! His wretched voice keeps ringing, I know you heard his nice little creed for his nice little pretend family.

(Clearly this isn’t the first time she has met one before. She did met a strange person back in the Prom tents nearly a year ago but it was a brief encounter and she didn’t know that vampires were real then. Her face crinkled in tears as she tries to speak up to his heart that he can throw away the shackles of whoever turned him centuries ago.

She didn’t expect to be in Mirabel’s shoes in this scenario but here she is in that position right now.)

A vampire? You mean the ones that often suck blood from people and try to stay away from holy items and garlic? I will admit that I never got the chance to meet and know a vampire that well before but, now that I know what your original species in your world is, I guess that I’m kind of amazed to befriend one.

Oh no, not at all: I’m not ignorant in seeing the emotional pain of others. I had to deal with so much expectations from the people around me, and especially my Abuela, for almost my entire life. No time to be myself nor be experimental with my gift, everything had to be precise with very little margin for error. It had been this way ever since I was five and it was taking a tool on me greatly. It wasn’t until years later when Mirabel reached out to me when I can finally learn to not let people’s expectations to determine on who I am and what I can do with my gift.

Having a grandmother ruled by grief from the loss of her husband dictating things over what my life was supposed to be is not different from being bullied around by a horrible master for centuries on end. Even as a vampire, you are not some mere spawn. I may not know much about vampires but I do think that vampires can be their own people too.

I don’t care if your ‘master’ claims that he wants to make you and his little clan of vampire spawns happy in the false sense of the word: if he treats all of you horribly like nothing more than a toy to play with, then you should stand up for yourself and defy him as your master. Don’t let him control you like how my Abuela unknowingly did a similar thing to me.

[Part of him wanted to curse and scream at Isabella for even thinking someone can attempt to understand. She clearly had no idea the life he led.

But he listened to her more, something That One Person had done for him and he did so back. Which was the first step in the right direction. She was still off base but Astarion could see there was an attempt. She was trying so hard to reach him. Too hard. Isabela tried to relate to him.

For some reason, with everything that had happened, it finally got him to cool off his furious tone. A little. After all, he knew of her gift. The idea of being perfect because someone expected you to be wasn’t lost on him. It wasn’t a one for one, but there were similarities. Some.]

You don’t understand.

[He tried to sit up, shielding his bare body with the blanket. But he made sure the scars on his back were visible. The very distinct purposeful scars, his markings that shown him as a lamb for the slaughter. So his master could use his slave to be the ultimate vampire.

He was still so vulnerable, but there was a part of him that wanted to try to explain himself.]

I was his spawn. His slave. One of his first. He…used my body, forced me to do so much. I couldn’t even fight against him, and I tried once. Only once.

Only by the grace of a different affliction was I able to break free.

And soon I broke everything he created.

[He leaned in.]

I killed him, that was the only way I would be free. I stabbed him repeatedly and burned his palace to ash.

[…]

I know what it might be like to be at the heel of another person, to not be the person you might want to be.

But this was no family. Not a REAL family. This wasn’t something we could fix by having a heart to heart and maybe a cuddle. My master was cruel, sadistic, and he tortured us. I had to kill him.

So the damages and scars he has inflicted on you and the others are much worse than I thought? Oh good heavens, I never thought that they were this bad to begin with nor was your master such a cruel, mean and horrible jerk. He truly deserved to get the boot in the end.

(Oh that vampire has done it! Isabela could have trapped Astarion’s ‘master’ in thorny vines or have a giant fist made from plants to punch him down multiple times. Treating people like dirt and abuse them greatly is not a great idea to invoke this woman’s anger. Seeing the horrible scars that he had taken is enough to make her want to do something to snap him out of his misery of being chained up.

If anything, she’s going to die trying to free him, being harassed by evil vampires be damned.)

So do you want me then to free you from those chains holding you down? I’m pretty sure that there is a key for that hidden somewhere.

[He would almost darkly chuckle at Isabela. Of course this was just a taste of what was his reality for two centuries. Only to angrily exclaim his cruelty and validate him immediately.

But the fact that she was validating his old master's defeat well...it was something.]

Oh darling, if only you knew. I'd pay to see your vines and thorns inflict any and all possible pain on him. It would be a mere fraction of what he did to us.

[He knew of her "gift", so chuckling at something would have a slightly different meaning. But hey, he got a kick out of SOMETHING.]

Ooooh, I doubt it though. Godey never kept such things in clear reach of us unless if it was dangling in front of our faces as he flayed us. Why would a mirror give me any mercy?

[He put those details there on purpose, just to see how she would react.]

Heh. I would be very surprised if he somehow has a severe plant allergy in your world. That would have made for a hilarious sight to behold: imagine that, a vampire master allergic to nearly every plant imaginable and breaking into hives!

Dangling stuff in front of you and the other vampires like a bunch of rabbits staring at carrots? Sounds like he was just as bad as a teacher as a master too. Or maybe he is just that bad in keeping keys hidden from somebody who could be clever enough to pickpocket them behind his back.

Hmmm… If these mirrors could actually talk, maybe they could be like a strange weird alternative of being sent to a therapist. Or that is what some folks I have met on my journey would plainly describe it as such.

(It seems like finding the keys to Astarion’s chains is going to be similar to finding needles in a giant haystack. Needless to say, Isa goes in to start her frantic search to get him out of those burdensome chains like she is conducting a prison break in.

Just don’t freak out, Astarion, while Isabela starts rummaging around for anything that resembles a key or can make for a good key alternative like knitting needles. Or possibly find a very sturdy and very sharp stone she can use to break off the chains with. Like the madwoman that she is capable of being.)

[...For the first time, Astarion let out a laugh. A real one in this hellhole.]

Trust me, dear heart, I stole many valuables of his. I was a very bad boy. Once he passed, I took all of his gaudy and tasteless art and burned it with everything else.

[...Ha. Hahahahaha.]

You could search all day for something that doesn't exist or maybe you can see if you can use your "gift" here.

You even stole tons of keys too? And possibly melted them into gold and silver bars?

Whoa, whoa, whoa: now excuse me, sir. This is no time to get all sassy on me too soon.

(Of course Isabela is trying to make good light of a tough situation, making some good humored jokes while she makes an epic cleaning sweep of the area. Now she is well aware that it will take time to find a key or a good sharp rock but she is no quitter. She did find some very sharp rocks, no signs of keys yet but she does have a Plan B and Plan C if the rocks fail on her.

She isn’t sure if she can use her gift at this time and in this messed up world though. Normally back in Jotho, she couldn’t simply access it as much as she would have liked when compared what she would have done at home. But it could be worth the shot if Astarion’s suggestion is entirely correct. For now though she seems to be leaning towards Team Rocks.)

Just hold still. I’m going to try out the first attempt with these rocks.

(So yeah, enjoy the sound of rocks beating on chains for the time being. Isa might be enjoying the whole process a little bit too much. Keep pestering her to grow sharp pointy vines to pick the locks with, Astarion. Maybe she will listen to your suggestion the second or third time.)

…Oooor you could maybe use some wild plant of yours to rip it apart. Or make a lockpick, or…

[He took a look at Isabela, a deep look.]

Come on, why not try? If this place could recreate my darkest secrets, maybe yours are here too. Except it’s not darkness, it’s your own freedom.

(This has gotten Isa thinking. What would have happened if she and Astarion switched places instead? Honestly she would have been felt pretty awful and miserable with being burdened by too much expectations thrown at her face. Would she have made Astarion’s life even more miserable than where they’re in by loathing in her misery?

But then again, she did come to terms with her past and she is willing to move on from it but not forgetting about it. Come on, Isa: he is just wanting to check if you can access that plant growing ability of yours even if it is temporary. Maybe you can just drop the rocks for now and do some vine growing NOW.)

Oh, is that challenge? Or a request? Well in any case, let me try to see if I can still do it in this messed up world.

(Immediately she drops the rocks and attempts to grow whatever vines she can grow, or at least manifest them for once. Think, think, think. Make vines grow, make vines grow. Come on, vines, please grow for once. Please grow, vines, grow.

Before she knows it, she could feel her gift somehow returning back to her in like months. Slowly she is able to grow something, which is a nub of a vine. Great, now she really needs to concentrate.

As she keeps thinking hard to make the nub grow, said nub of a vine begins to grow bigger and bigger, slowly reaching up to her shoulders. Now could she still try to make it move at will? She has it move around a bit to see if it is very mobile enough to free the locks.

And the result is, yes, she still somehow manages to get it moving before having it to go in and start picking chain locks. Even if it’s, well, probably temporary for the time being until the next weird weekend shows up.)

Hang on. This vine is coming in to start picking locks faster than you can say ‘run!’.

Oh, my eyes are direct and focused, darling. Because the answer can be whatever you want. Both sound good to me.

[He liked seeing these siblings use their gifts. In a way, they seemed to feel free doing them. Their real selves, so to speak. Challenge? Request? All the same.]

Glad that this is probably the best thing we just had since we’re stuck inside this messed up place to begin. I’m starting to enjoy this new way of breaking out of prison already.

(She lets out a devilish grin of excitement as she continues to grow and command more vines to free Astarion from his chains. Sir, you literally have enabled her unhingedness ever further and she is seriously really liking it A LOT.)

Uh oh, I must be becoming a bad influence.

[He was THRIVING off this. Maybe a little chaos was enough to get him out of the funk? Who knew. It seemed like Isabela not only accepted him, but also thrived with him in this moment of freedom. For the better of both of them. ]

Bad Astarion, teaching a young girl how to break out of jail.

[Using the blanket, he wrapped himself up, still completely naked. But he was now able to stand, though wobbly.]

Oh my, such a naughty bad influence at that. Hehehe… Clearly this is way more fun than just having to find a missing key anyway.

(Isabela lets out a bemused laugh as she speaks. Ah yes, the thrill of and thriving in sheer chaos. She is seriously relishing it greatly from all this enabling he throws in her way.

Growing up she had never the chance to get wild and loose all the time so she wants to get every chance she gets and run with it like a mad bull.)

I think I actually might be liking you. More than I did before anyway, beyond a passing acquaintance.

[A smirk and a laugh that could match hers. The destruction of this place and the replacement of something bright...maybe for once, he wouldn't hate flowers.

From one lover of chaos to another.]

What else do you want to do, my dear?

Hmm that is a good question, maybe we can get out of this mess and perhaps find a place for us to destress ourselves. You know, somewhere with less creepy prison vibes and more relaxing chill vibes.

Or we can trash this place up to bits and venting out a lot of frustrations at it, whichever works for you, I suppose.

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Event: The Reveal Glass

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