Thomas’s Tuesday evening odd encounter(Thomas)
Date: 2025-06-17 17:26
(Thomas’s Tuesday evening odd encounter(Thomas):Thomas)
[Tue Jun 17 2025]
A locked metal room.
It is afternoon, about 71F(21C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. The mist is heaviest At Birch and Hart/span
(Your target is singled out by some sort of spirit that can only attack them through mirrors, it is up to them to survive long enough by avoiding mirrors/their reflection until their allies can help them find a way to defeat the monster.
)
Meridith is sitting on the beach, sweaty, tired. A busy hunt, a rescue, a lot of activities, for the moment she just enjoys the setting sun.
How long has it been? It’s been the sun, reflecting off the water, reflecting off Meridith, slowly pooling — it’s like the sunset water is glassy and clear. It’s like it, itself, is a mirror, drawing Meridith in. It’s hard to focus on anything else: it’s impossible to focus on anything else, really. Some psychic thing has locked Meridith where she sits on the beach, drawing her into her own reflection, into the sun above and the buildings scattered behind her. For a moment, this first moment — for right now — it’s peaceful. Serene. Calming. But in her own reflection, Meridith can see the mirror-@Meri smile just a little more than she.
Meridith glances and for a moment, it’s absent minded. Nothing seems odd. She needs this respite, this relaxation. But she can feel a quiet wrongness, she wishes desperately to ignore. She hesitates, studying the expression, this vague hint of jealousy, what does her reflection have to smile about?
Somewhat distant, on the beach, Thomas is moving towards Meridith with a little worried urgency. For now, though, her world isn’t the -real- beach, it is the illusory one, the reflection one. On Mirror Beach, mirror Meridith leans, and she smiles quite a bit more. For a moment, real Meridith fills with some foreign, invasive relaxation, a calm that floods in psychically from outside. How nice. Isn’t it? Isn’t it nice?
Meridith leans back and exhales. Hands go to the side of her head. “Hate this…” She mumbles, trying to summon her natural defense, anger. But it feels so distant, so out of reach. She growls but it’s meek, soft. She shakes her head a little bit. Susceptible, it seems.
Closer in the real stand, and it’s like a shouting from a distant tunnel. Is it Thomas, calling Meridith’s name? Maybe. That’s so far away, and it is getting farther.
In the mirror, the liminal space between sand and sea, mirror Meridith smiles. “Me too,” she says. “I hate it. I hate that I’m not in control,” she tells Meridith. “I hate that we’re not in control. Everyone out there…” Out there where? It seems fuzzy. “They don’t understand. But guess what?” she says, excited. “In here… In here I found a place where we are queen.”
Meridith ignores the shouting. She doesn’t care. “I don’t wanna be queen,” she insists. It’s part a lie, who doesn’t wanna? At least somewhere in their heart. “I just…I wanna be…” Safe? Happy? Good? She exhales, they look so at peace. It makes her angry. “…Just…trying to rub it in…?” she mumbles, placid, trying to find some spark for her emotions within her own control
Now the thing in the mirror — Meridith, in the mirror — leans in to talk to the ‘real’ Meridith. (Who is the real Meridith Which is the real world?) “I know what you want,” she says. “I want it too,” she whispers back, through the soft wash of the ocean. She reaches out; it’s encouragement, beckoning. “Come through,” she says. “Come through and I can help. We can get what we want.” Slow compulsion in her voice: “What -do- you want?” she asks, trying to wheedle more facts out of Meridith like a cold-call scammer on the phone.
Somewhere distantly, is there Thomas’s hand on Meridith’s shoulder? No. No, she’s in this place, in her ‘peaceful’ conversation.
Meridith bites her lip. And her heartrate begins to spike. Racing, wild, out of control. It’s not the magical compulsion, or the hand on her shoulder. It’s the question itself which unravels her.
What do I want?
Her mouth hangs, noises come out but they are half formed pseudo answers leading nowhere. She shakes her head. “I…I don’t…I don’t know…”
“You do know,” mirror Meridith replies. “But what you know is what I know. What we all know, right?” She gestures around at the beach — the empty beach, even if there’s someone actually there, some hand, Thomas’s hand, trying to shake Meridith awake. No, this beach, the best beach, is just Meridith and her reflection. “We’re all of us contradictions, aren’t we?” she asks. “How many times do we want to sleep in but know we need to wake,” she says. “How many times do we want to be brave when we’re scared?” She taps her sternum, right between her breasts, and Meridith can feel the tap in her chest. “We are multitudes. I am multitudes. You are multitudes. How often do we get to embrace that?”
Meridith sobs weakly suddenly, stubborn tears burning down her cheek, a hand reaches to the reflection. “Liar…” she accuses, but reaches out anyway.
Mirror Meridith whispers, slowly, quietly, as she takes real Meridith’s hand. That clasp is warm, like coming home, and the water seems to be rising slightly around Meridith. “It’s okay,” she whispers to Meridith. “You can be anything, here. This is a place between in the City Between,” she says. “This is a place, between sand and sea, where you can invent yourself.” So much warmth; like a blanket — like a womb.
Meridith recoils suddenly. Guilt. It would be peaceful. It would be perfect…exactly what she wants and yet. A soft exhale pessing dry lips across wet cheeks. Undeserved. “No I…I can’t…” Not because she does not believe it would be paradise but…because she thinks she does not deserve it.
Very distantly, Meridith’s cheek stings. She can hear Thomas’s voice, but it doesn’t seem to say words. Instead, it’s mirror Meridith. “I know you feel guilty,” mirror Meridith tells real Meridith. “But that’s okay, too. Here, in the waves, you can expiate that guilt. You can earn redemption, earn forgiveness; if you are in debt, you can pay it off.” When Meridith recoils, the hand holding hers seems to tighten, now terribly, impossibly tight. “You just need to -not let go-.”
Meridith exhales hot. Pain, restriction. A pet peeve. Being tied down, restrained. A little growl works into her throat. “I-…if I’m going to end my story…it won’t be…as a victim…!” She declares hotly and begins to dig her feet in pulling. back. “I…am not…your PREY!”
Now it’s a struggle: the warmth is turning to heat, like a lobster in a boiling pot, as Meridith starts to pull against mirror Meridith. Dimly outside her consciousness, she can feel Thomas’s hands, trying to pull on her shoulders at the same time, as if to help her, but she still can only see herself, reflected in the waves. “You’re not prey,” mirror Meridith tells real Meridith. “You’re company,” she says. “You’ll be part of us. All of us, and I promise you,” comes some low, wicked voice. “We’ll find others.”
Meridith growls again. Perhaps some dim awareness of Thomas nearby sparks her resistance further. “I…-have- others!” She insists, digging her feet in further into the sand, pulling back. A hand gropes nearby for her sheathed blade, promising some wicked and sudden violence.
Now Thomas yanks back, hard, on Meridith, and she can feel him, distantly. There’s a low chanting, and while the words don’t penetrate into mirror-space, Meridith can feel a surge of energy. It’s like strength in her veins — and panic in mirror Meridith’s eyes. “No!” she yells, hauling hard on Meridith’s wrists. That vise-like grip is enough to stop her from getting to her sword, right now. “NO!” All the same… a good tug, and Meridith might be free.
Meridith digs her feet in and growls. “I-!” She bellows again, her anger starting to build as she pulls free, emotions rolling free. She rails against her captor digging in with all her might. “Am not!” She pulls at her blade, leaning her weight into Thomas. using his strength to make the difference.
Poof. Mirror Meridith can hold on no longer — and all of a sudden, she is in the real world again; the water is no longer mirror-like, and the waves lap back and forth, like normal. Thomas catches Meridith in his arms as she sags back into him, holding her. “Meridith,” he tells her, his voice low. “I felt a disturbance in my divinations — I expected it to be some thing from another reality crawling in.” He pauses. “I didn’t expect it to be you.”
Meridith has tears in her eyes. Her emotions are erratic and it takes restrain to keep from popping Thomas with an elbow when she is pulled back from the brink. “Fuck…” she curses and shudders, shivering cold and takes a deep breath, chattering. “I’m fine, I’m fine,” she assures, unasked. Pulling away, uneasy and clearly shaken.
wraps Meridith up, holding her tightly. “I know,” he tells her. “All is well, Meridith. There are dark things out here…” He looks out at the curls of mists on the water. “But I know you’re strong. You’ll never let them get to you.” When she pulls away, he releases her. “The mists are near, though,” he tells her. “We should find our way out of them.”
Thomas wraps Meridith up, holding her tightly. “I know,” he tells her. “All is well, Meridith. There are dark things out here…” He looks out at the curls of mists on the water. “But I know you’re strong. You’ll never let them get to you.” When she pulls away, he releases her. “The mists are near, though,” he tells her. “We should find our way out of them.”
Meridith exhales, relieved when allowed free. She stands up and brushes herself off, and for a moment, glowers at the water. She turns back to Thomas, and nods her head. “…Thanks…” She exhales. “Yeah. Let’s…get out of here.”
The sorcerer nods to Meridith — heading down the beach to look for his car. “All will be well,” Thomas promises Meridith. As she goes, though… is that her face, peeking at her from the curl of a wave? Surely not.
“Let’s find our way back to a car,” Thomas tells Meridith. “Stay close with me?”
Looking around, Thomas admits, “I am not well equipped for this right now. I appreciate you.”
picks his way along the beach, close to Meridith and keeping a wary eye on the mist.
Thomas picks his way along the beach, close to Meridith and keeping a wary eye on the mist.
Thomas says “Where the car is… we’re at least free of the mist. Do you want me to let you go?“
Thomas says “Jesus. We are deep in it right now.“
turns to Meridith. “I’m safe from the mists, now, though I can drive you to your horse once we’ve back to my car if that’s safe.”
Thomas turns to Meridith. “I’m safe from the mists, now, though I can drive you to your horse once we’ve back to my car if that’s safe.”
Thomas says “Here we are.“