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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Saying that Keldor needs a hug [and therapy] is something the narrative likes to say elsewhere. Because he does.

The boy can only look away as the tears fall. If this is Marzo under an assumed name, he's being awfully kind to him. Of course, that, too, could just be a ruse, but in this moment, it no longer seems to matter. It's the first time anyone he doesn't know—especially anyone human—has said anything kind to him in recent memory. Usually they just give him looks. The kind that says what they'd like to do were the crown not in the way.

And the crown is the only thing he's got to protect him.

It certainly makes it hard for him to say anything right now, other than something that sounds like a mumbled "I guess so".

Radley thinks he senses the feeling towards him softening a bit, but he's still cautious about what to say since anything could get taken wrong. He stays there, ready to do more yet not sure what would be accepted from a stranger. His eyes show only kindness and concern, if Keldor looks back to him.

Instead of making eye contact, Keldor just keeps looking away. It's almost as if he's once again unaware that he's not alone here; he just stares off into the distance while he rubs one arm with the opposite hand, wrinkling his clothing [no doubt another thing to be scolded over].

And then..,

"What did I do wrong?" he suddenly bawls in pure childlike impulsivity to this maybe-Marzo. "Why is he like this? Why is he always so angry with me?"

"You didn't do anything wrong," Radley is quick to tell him. "He's the one in the wrong for not recognizing that he should be grateful to have you."

That's not the expression of someone who's convinced by could-be-Marzo.

"But I'm a Gar," Keldor protests, as if that should be reason enough. "No one's grateful to have a Gar."

Certainly Miro thinks this. If anything, he acts like he's been saddled with the care of some child he'd sired with some Gar woman the king insists to all and sundry had ensorcelled and bewitched him at a time when he was at his most vulnerable; having been shipwrecked upon their ancestral island home of Anwat Gar.

He was in a weakened state, Miro might say. He'd never have done this willingly. None of this is his fault, but that of the boy's mother's. If anything, he's the one doing favours here.

Edited 2024-03-03 02:13 (UTC)

"Then everyone is an idiot," Radley replies. "You're a wonderful person."

Still not convinced, maybe-Marzo. One person alone isn't going to just overturn what everyone including the king himself thinks, and their opinions matter more around here than some stranger's does.

A stranger he still hasn't called the guards upon yet.

"How would you know?" he protests, voice more pained and sad than angry or hostile. "You don't know me."

He certainly doesn't know you either.

Radley certainly doesn't expect to be able to convince Keldor, especially under these circumstances.

"... You remind me of a friend of mine," Radley said.

"Dunno how I could," he mutters miserably. If this person is anything like he is he's probably living an unhappy life somewhere else at the moment.

Unhappy. Wishing he was somewhere else. Like the home Miro keeps threatening to send him back to.

The Gar home.

At least there he'd be surrounded by people who not only look like him but also care about him. People who would welcome him and accept him as their own for all that he wouldn't be a pure Gar like they are.

Maybe he'd even finally see his mother again.

His real mother.

If she's still alive, that is.

"He's also Gar," Radley says. "He's very kind and very determined to right the wrongs in the world."

"You know a Gar?"

Poor Keldor just looks confused. How can not-Marzo know of another Gar?

"Where do you come from?"

The Gar tend not to leave their island much, save for perhaps those who engage in [limited] trade with the outsiders, and if this stranger is human then the odds of him going to Anwat Gar are effectively non-existent.

Humans never willingly go there.

Anwat Gar is effectively isolated by law and tradition.

He'd had to have met one of the traders. That's the only explanation.

Edited 2024-03-04 00:21 (UTC)

"It's a place far from here," Radley says. "I've currently been living in a place where people from many lands can meet who wouldn't normally be able to. A Gar came there."

"How far?"

It can't be located along the western coastline—he knows of no settlement there that would willingly welcome in a Gar. Even those run by non-Eternians, as they do not wish to incur the wrath of humans for being Gar sympathisers.

It would have to be somewhere really far away, this strange place where many different peoples meet.

"I'm not even sure," Radley sighs. "I was in a place with doorways to other worlds and one led me here."

Well, we can safely rule out Radley being Marzo now—even a wizard as powerful as he's reputed to be couldn't create a door to another world.

That's what Keldor's concluded, anyways.

"So that's how you got into the palace? From a place with doors?"

One hell of a wrong turn, there, stranger-friend.

"Yeah, exactly," Radley smirks a bit. "It brought me right here into the hall."

Several thoughts run through the boy's head at once.

There's another place with doors.

There's another world.

This is a stranger, possibly from another world.

He knows of another Gar, who might be living in that world.

He's awfully kind for a human. More kind than just about every human he's known.

Keldor is not happy where he is.

Keldor's father has not, nor ever will, love his son.

An odd impulse fills him. What if he asked this definitely-not-Marzo to show him this place? What if he went there? Not forever of course, but from time to time? King Miro probably wouldn't care about it if Keldor never speaks of it to anyone. Keldor would be out of sight and thus out of mind. It'd be his secret place where he can be happy and be with people who care about a little boy who's never had fatherly love in his life—so long as he never lets anyone else in on it.

Not even Randor or Amelia or even Dekker.

It'd be his place alone.

"Where is it?"

Show him where it is, Radley.

Radley ponders the answer. He doesn't know how to get back to the hall where he was before, but he knows he was brought to a world made by Keldor himself. Somehow, perhaps, he needs to help Keldor remember the Pokemon world.

"I'm not entirely sure how to get back there from here. It's an amazing place, filled with trees and towns and fascinating animals of all kinds. There are dogs with fire powers and giant living orbs with electricity. There's cute little furry animals that look like foxes and rabbits and living teacups...."

He's hoping talking about specific Pokemon he and Keldor have might start to bring something to mind.

"It's peaceful and happy." In general.

"I could ... show ... you..."

He was going to say "to the hall", but for whatever reason, helping Radley find his way back just doesn't feel as important as it did a moment ago.

Going anywhere in the palace doesn't feel all that important.

Never mind that he's intensely curious about seeing all these things, and that Radley's entrance is somewhere else in this place. It's just no longer important.

His entrance can be wherever he decides it to be. This entrance to his secret happy place.

The one no one else here will know about.

Because...

...because...

.....because....

Radley hopes it's working. He thinks it might be. He keeps going, talking about more of the Pokemon as well as the beautiful places and friendly people and all there is to do. He talks about training Pokemon, and gyms, since he knows Keldor likes the Trainer's path.

It seems to be, but before Keldor can return, there's at least one more thing that needs to happen. One more thing he must understand, or his time here in this strange dimension will be for naught.

He has to see where all this is leading him, and has led him to.

What comes next is a series of scenes that, to a boy, shows the future, and to the man, shows the past.

Dekker was more than happy to mentor a young Keldor who needed such guidance, knowing full well why the boy came to him. Under the guise of martial training, he helped to fill that gap in Keldor's heart—the gap that needed paternal love.

But then, war broke out, and the Great Unrest began. Dekker couldn't be both soldier and father figure at the same time—not when the likes of Count Marzo was threatening planetary stability.

Deprived of his paternal role model, Keldor threw himself into the war effort. Perhaps by helping to restore peace to Eternia, he could finally win what he most needed: Miro's approval.

Unfortunately, that was not to be, for, at the Hall of Wisdom, during what would be the final battle, King Miro was banished to Despondos by Marzo himself, in a last-ditch attempt to win.

Gone was any chance of ever being shown any modicum of affection.

And that wasn't all.

With Miro gone, it would be Keldor who would have to fill the role now left vacant, but the people would not have it, and as if the loss of his father wasn't enough, he now had to contend with the loss of his mother, too. A loss he was blamed for. Blamed for, and exiled for.

Without any proof.

Alone, he was left to wander the planet; without guidance or direction, until he'd come across an old shrine. The spirit inhabiting it called out to the aimless prince and promised to help Keldor reclaim what was his. And Keldor threw himself into this relationship, feeling as though for the first time not only did he have a mentor and father figure, but someone who could understand what he'd been through.

Eager to please, he allowed himself to be moulded into a weapon for the spirit to use. A means to secure his freedom and return to Eternia to resume his quest for conquest. And it was disgustingly easy, too. All Hordak had to do was remind Keldor of what he'd been through, and his pupil would redouble his efforts to win Hordak's praise.

Of course, no one was expecting a little jaunt into the ruins of Zalesia to break Hordak's hold over his apprentice, but the seeds had already been sewn. And Hordak would still have a hold on Keldor even as he began to travel once more, and finding friends along the way. A hold that could yet spell doom.

At the end of this, a voice speaks to Keldor.

IF YOU WANT TO ESCAPE YOUR FATE, YOU NEED TO BREAK FREE, AND TO BREAK FREE YOU NEED TO HEAL YOUR GREATEST WOUNDS. ONLY THEN CAN YOU CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY-TO-COME.

"I do not..," he begins, feeling more than a little lost as he stands before it as he is now. "I do not understand..."

Edited 2024-03-05 06:53 (UTC)

Seeing the scenes hurt, and Radley weeps inside at all that Keldor had suffered.

“I’m so sorry,” he says. “You’ve been through so much.”

He had known about some of the scenes, but not all, and of course seeing them was worse than just hearing of them. Having kind people like Dekker and Amelia and losing them was so cruel, and being blamed for Amelia’s death on top of that seemed too horrible to be real. And losing his father too, when he had hoped so endlessly to be loved by him, also seemed unfair. Radley doubted Miro would ever be what Keldor hoped, but he understood Keldor’s feelings so deeply since he had longed so much for his grandmother to love him. If she was gone, he knew he would be devastated at the loss of any chance of that.

Hordak turns his stomach. Something doesn't seem right with him at all. He definitely feels that Hordak is preying on Keldor’s longings and is not truly sincere. He wants to talk with Keldor about that.

He is about to when the voice startles him and he looks around in confusion for the source of it. "Huh? Who are you?!" He didn’t hear a voice during his own experience, nor has he heard one during the experiences of others he has been trying to help. In the other experiences, it seemed like the sufferers themselves who showed the various scenes. In this one, was it this mysterious voice showing the scenes? That made it seem all the more urgent to try to help Keldor.

He takes a deep breath. "I think I understand," he says to Keldor. "At least a little. I don't think you should go back to Hordak."

Edited 2024-03-06 04:06 (UTC)

Keldor the child might find it easy to cry, but not so Keldor the man. Long ago he'd learned a simple truth about tears: that no amount of crying was going to get what needed to be done, done. You can either cry about it, or you can take action.

After all, childhood tears alone were not enough to move Miro's heart—Keldor would need to do something more than just cry about it. He'd have to show Miro that he was worthy of love.

Unfortunately that kind of thing has crippled his emotions to no small degree, and even now, with tears running down his face, he's struggling to regain composure as he's shown a truth he'd much rather remain unacknowledged.

Deep down, he realises that he's still just a little boy who wishes that his father cared about him, and because of it, he'd become vulnerable to those who would exploit this fact for their own gain.

"I... I do not intend to..," he says, face all blotchy. Boy, he'd think himself ugly right now if he could see what he looks like. "I rejected him after having won the Havoc Staff from the Faceless One of Zalesia. I shall not be going back."

Oh, famous last words...

Radley is still worried. What if it's true that everyone forgets their time here? Keldor's decision might change in that case.

"Are you sure he won't come after you?" he says in concern. "He might want that staff for himself."

Worry not; Keldor has no intentions of forgetting a place like this.

Still, Radley does have a point or two.

"Hordak cannot come for the staff. He is unable to truly enter Eternia from his residence in Despondos. Not without someone ... able ... to..."

Why did Hordak want Keldor to have the staff? He'd said that it would help to amplify Keldor's powers, but why that staff specifically?

True, there were very few objects of power that could tap into the starseed at Eternia's core, but still... Why the Havoc Staff and not another?

Keldor's beginning to look a little fearful.

"...someone able ... to wield ... it..."

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