Icy Mirrors and Mistaken Identities

[shardofwinter]

Unlike the sudden freeze of last Winter, this year there has been a subtle chill, a gradual progression of frost across grass and stone. It nips at your skin should you forget to wrap up, but is otherwise harmless. That is, apart from one section of the Nexus.

It seems to wander in the blink of an eye. Here one moment, gone the next. Sometimes slyly, sometimes by placing itself directly in a traveller's path. Either way the area is shrouded in a thick fog that is staggeringly luminous, suggesting a strong, obscured sun is trying to get through but only succeeding in illuminating the air itself. Even the most frequent Nexus visitors soon find themselves lost. It's eerily still, there is only the sound of your breathing, of your footsteps crunching frost and thin ice.

As you venture further you spot silhouettes standing in the distance. Drawing closer you find tall slabs of ice are scattered throughout the misty landscape. They all tower over you, and the perfectly cut surfaces all shine like mirrors back at you. The more you walk, the more of them seem to have erupted from the earth, until you catch yourself moving in the corner of your eye. At least, you thought it was yourself. You soon find yourself wondering: Are you alone?

((Winter Event! Hurrah! This event allows you to bring out a doppelgänger for your character to cause chaos or try out a different side of them! Details can be found here. Or for questions and plotting, the OOC post is here. Threadhopping and mixing up characters and doppelgängers is definitely encouraged. Feel free to ask me anything and, most importantly, have fun!))

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[chiron_survivor]

Adia did not mean to wander so far from the Plaza. Dressed warmly, her neck wrapped in the scarf Ice Bear made her, she felt a little braver than usual, able to handle the chill in the air and the pervasive fog that followed it.

But soon she finds herself alone, only dark distant shapes for company. She tucks her hands into her pockets, feeling for the comforting weight of her PINpoint. Catching movement in the corner of her eye, she whirls around to find --

Herself. A reflection of herself, anyway, on a giant slab of ice. She stares at her reflection critically, forgetting briefly about how lost she is. Or anything else, really.

She looks tired. Adia does not consider herself a vain creature, but when was the last time she wore clean clothes or put a bit of color on her face? She looks pale and haggard, not worth a second glance from anyone.

She sighs and turns away, looking around for a way out of the fog.

She does not notice her reflection smiling shrewdly at her retreating back before disappearing herself.

[brother_alone]

Josh has lived in the Nexus for nearly a year now. He knows the familiar more-stable paths of the Nexus very well. It was a simple errand. Fetch and grab some food to bring back to Chris's apartment and enjoy a nice day inside, curled up in the warmth of a duvet and classic horror movies.

He's been to the small mom and pop pizza shop a dozen or more times. Josh could walk there in his sleep. But it's been nearly an hour now and all that he's seen is the same nondescript fog and the growing absence of any other person on what should be a busy side street. Josh pauses and looks around, breath clouding up when he exhales while he tries to get his bearings. Did he take a wrong turn? Or several? He should have been there by now.

There's something sickeningly familiar about this chill. This isolation. It reminds him of the mines. Being trapped hungry, hurt, and alone. He catches sight of movement in the distance and hurries toward it. But there's no one there--merely looming slabs of ice that reflect better than the clearest mirror. It gives Josh the spooks to see so many reflections of himself. The shadows under his eyes and loose fitting clothing a grim reminder of how different he is from before he came to the Nexus.

He hates looking at them.

But there's more when he turns, and still more just visible at the edge of his sight deep in the fog. Josh backs up and nearly screams when he runs into someone. He falls back on his ass and gapes up at the figure, half expecting a monster to manifest form the fog. It turns out to be a much friendlier sight instead.

"A-adia?"

[chiron_survivor]

"Oh!" Adia stumbles, but catches herself at the last moment. She whirls around, heart racing at who or what she might have encountered in the ominous fog.

She looks down at Josh, her expression immediately shifting into relief. "Josh! Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there."

He's the one who ran into you, a familiar voice chastises. Why are you apologizing?

Adia tilts her head at the voice that only she can hear. "Um..." she says, distracted, before offering Josh a hand to get back on his feet. "This fog is so weird, isn't it? I was heading to the Plaza but I must have gotten turned around."

[brother_alone]

"No joke. Fog's so thick I can barely see more than a few feet in front of me."

Josh is quick to get to his feet before the cold can seep into his bones from where he'd been sprawled out on the freezing ground. A few quick pats ensure he's all dusted off and not hurt really.

"Thanks." For offering him a hand, obviously. "Yeah, same. I've been trying to find my way out of here for a while now. Not much luck though. Just a whole lot of creepy shit popping up and disappearing again."

He's not sure if he's been imagining it or not. That's kind of a day to day concern for him.

[chiron_survivor]

"No problem." Adia watches him in concern until it seems like he's truly okay. "Creepy stuff? Do you mean those giant slabs of ice? They're like mirrors, practically." She frowns and shivers, despite wearing enough winter garb to ward off the chill. Now that she thinks about it, none of this seems very natural...

Trying to shrug off her nervousness, she smiles at Josh hopefully. "Well, between the two of us, I'm sure we can --"

Wander around in circles and waste his time as well as yours?

"...um, that is, find a way out of here. And I have my PINpoint, so --"

So use that instead, genius.

"H-hey!" Adia calls out in frustration. Why is that voice so damn familiar? "Please stop interrupting me! A-and stop hiding, it's not nice!"

[brother_alone]

"Yeah. They keep popping up every which way."

Josh glances back at the ones he'd been backing away from. Still dislikes the reflection in the mirror glancing back at him. Everything about this is creeping him right the fuck out.

"You've got a what, now?" Josh hasn't heard of a PINpoint before, and his curiosity is piqued, though he looks around when she calls out. "Uh, I'm sorry? Adia?" This is new. Usually he's the one hearing things.

[chiron_survivor]

The mildly insulting disembodied voice is certainly upping the creepy factor for Adia. She scoots a little closer to Josh, her cheeks tinged pink with embarrassment over her outburst. "Not you, Josh, sorry," she says, misinterpreting his confusion. "I meant that voice. It's coming from... from over there, I think..."

And indeed, as soon as she pinpoints the direction of the voice, she can see a distinct figure emerge from the fog. It's a young woman dressed for a night out, her make-up flawless, her form-fitting green dress something that Adia only wishes she had the confidence to wear.

It takes Adia a few seconds to realize that she's staring at herself.

"It's me," Adia squeaks, all the color draining from her face. Too bad she's the only one who can see it.

[brother_alone]

Josh doesn't hear any voice.

None except for Adia's, and he's pretty sure he's supposed to be hearing that one. He looks over the way she is, but can't make out anything through the thick fog. Did she catch sight of one of those creepy mirrors again? Josh sucks in a sharp breath regardless of how much the cold stings at his lungs.

"Adia I don't see anyone." He's talking slower now, looking from her to the dense fog she's staring into. "That usually means I'm hallucinating, but I"m not used to being the one who isn't seeing or hearing anything."

[chiron_survivor]

"Y-you don't?" But how can he not? She looks as real as anyone she has ever seen in the Nexus. Adia turns her wide-eyed gaze to Josh, then back towards her mirror image, who is casually examining her nails. "She's-- she's standing right there."

He obviously doesn't see me, her doppelganger says with a roll of her eyes. He doesn't need to.

"Hallucinating?" She repeats weakly. The idea forms a cold pit of dread in her stomach. She has been through so much in the last two years, she knows it hasn't been good for her mental health, but has she really gotten to the point where she's seeing things?

She shakes her head, trying to deny the most obvious explanation. "N-no. I'm not --" She almost says "crazy", but that isn't kind to Josh.

[brother_alone]

"You're not. I am."

She doesn't need to say it. Josh knows. He moves closer to her and touches her shoulder gently.

"Shit happens in the Nexus. Okay? Take a deep breath. You coulda been drugged. Magicked. Any number of things. And, if I can't see it, that means it might not be real. So let's just.....fffind a way out of here and I'll stay with you until you ride this out."

The good thing about being friends with Josh is that he's been in her shoes before. He knows how scary it is to realize your mind has turned against you.

[chiron_survivor]

"But..." But Josh isn't crazy, she thinks. He doesn't act crazy. "...I'm sorry, I didn't know." It doesn't seem to shake her trust in him, although her own confidence at quickly leaving the foggy landscape has evaporated. "Um... how long do hallucinations usually last?"

I'm not a hallucination, her mirror image quips, strutting over in satin heels that Adia would never attempt to wear, let alone in weather like this. But, sure, take Mister Schizophrenic's word over mine.

"Stop it," Adia hisses at her, huddling in her coat. "Not... not you, Josh. Sorry."

[brother_alone]

"Depends on the day. Seconds, minutes..."

Hours.

Voices crowing with glee horrible things that shake Josh's foundations and leave him a sobbing mess curled up into a tiny ball and hiding away from the world. but this isn't about him right now. It's about Adia and Josh is determined to help as much as he's able to.

"Hold my hand. Touch it. See? You can tell it's real. It's cold. Solid. That's how I know what's real."

She doesn't need to resort to pain, Josh thinks. Adia's got a solid head on her shoulders. She's not like him.

[sumarusfinest]

It takes a lot of cold to get to someone who has fire in their very soul. But Katsuya is also a practical sort, preferring to don a coat and scarf the moment the snows start to really fall.

Christmas is coming, and while it may not be more than a day for couples in Japan, he's been in the Nexus long enough to know what it means to other cultures. So he had intended to finish his shopping when the icy fog began to roll in.

At first, he didn't pay it much mind. Not until landmarks he knew were there refused to formulate within the fog. His strides slowed. Stopped. There was something oppressive about this place that stirred something in his chest and made his senses go on high alert. A flicker of movement caught his eye.

Someone else lost?

"Hey--!" He moved toward it and then stopped again. It was a mirror of ice, as tall as he was reflecting his own face back to him. For most, this would be disconcerting. For Katsuya that creeping feeling grew exponentially and he drew his gun. Fired into the mirror and shattered it.

He would not play with Shadows. It wasn't until several more appeared that fear began to creep into his bones. Katsuya couldn't shoot them forever. He only carried so much ammunition on his person. And really, they didn't seem to pose any threat. He was overreacting, perhaps.

"Who is doing this?!" He called out, stern and determined to sound unafraid.

[brother_alone]

He hates looking at them.

Josh has his beanie pulled down. His view limited to only his feet in front of him. There's no telling low long he's been wandering now. Every now and then he runs into something solid; spies reflections of his own boots in front of him.

Josh refuses to look at them.

The reflections that stare accusingly back at him. He doesn't want to see them. Doesn't need to see them. He knows already who he is. What he is. Thinks he does, anyway. No need to see those green eyes looking back at him full of every regret and bad choice he's ever made. Footsteps shorter and quicker as Josh shuffles through the snow, trying desperately to stay warm. He's been out long enough for the cold to have penetrated his coat. Long enough for his shoulders to tremble uncontrollably with each shiver.

He just wants to escape. Wants to get away from those faces.

~Out of costume for this thread~

[ikicklotsafaces]

A gloved hand gently presses against the back of the other man. Miles ends up sneaking up on people a lot more often then he means to because of ... his extracurricular activities, but somehow he gets the sense that he could have been making a crapload of noise crunching his boots through the winter weather and Josh wouldn't have noticed.

"Hey Josh." He says, talking on the quiet side, though loud enough to be heard over the wind. "Are you okay, man?"

[brother_alone]

In this chilly fog Josh has no way of knowing what's real and what isn't. There are no familiar landmarks, no sounds other than the wind and the sound of his shoes. If this is a dream, it's an awfully realistic one given how cold he is. No voices echo on the wind however. Nothing taunts him on the edge of his senses. Just these goddamned ice walls with their staring reflections.

The hand makes Josh jump visibly, turning around with green eyes narrowed and a steeled expression that softens when he realizes it's someone he knows. Someone he knows who is sane and more bundled up than Josh is out here.

"Miles..?" Is he okay? Is he ever okay? He nods, unsure he trusts his mouth to lie for him right now. "You're stuck out here too huh..."

[ikicklotsafaces]

"Sorry man." He says, pulling away his hand. "Didn't mean to startle."

Miles hasn't really picked up on the fact that Josh has hallucinations - every time he's been around the other young man he's had tasks to keep him engaged or it's been at a social gathering. It's not so much that Miles hasn't been paying attention as much as Josh is good at hiding his problems most of the time.

"This place is giving me the creeps." The young man says, glancing around at all the strange ice slabs arranged so deliberately.

[brother_alone]

"Nah, s'my fault. I'm fuckin' jumpy out here."

Josh rubs at the back of his neck then has to adjust his beanie so that it's properly back in place to keep his head warm as it can in this weather. The ice crunches underfoot as he shifts form one foot to the other.

"It's been like this no matter where I turn." Josh gestures vaguely to his side and vehemently doesn't turn to check on the movement in his peripheral vision as his reflections mirror the motion of his arm. "Usually I'm the one giving the spooks, not gettin' them. If this is someone's idea of a joke they're doing a bangup job freaking me the fuck out."

[ikicklotsafaces]

"We should probably try to find the way out."

Mainly because Josh is not wearing enough for how much the temperature seems to have dropped all of a sudden. Also because it's weird and unsettling around here. It's not ... setting off his spider sense, though, so they have that going for them.

"I wonder if there's something for us to climb on." People don't realize how much more you can see when you've got a little bit more elevation. He can't really attempt to wall crawl up the side of those ice things with Josh here, but he finds himself wondering if that would work.

[brother_alone]

"No clue, haven't seen anything around here b-but these goddamn mirrors, bro."

Perhaps Miles can limb atop one of these. All he'd need to do is move a few feet to the side. The visibility is so poor he wouldn't need to go far. But with Josh decidedly not looking at these reflections, he doesn't notice that one of them isn't.

A reflection, that is.

It's wearing blood stained blue overalls, work boots, thick workman's gloves. Clad in a full mask that hides its wearer's identity. Tiny sounds of ice cracking try to pierce the fog as the gloved hand reaches out and grabs hold of the arm Joshua was gesturing with. Now, Joshua wouldn't have reacted to seeing this. It's fairly standard for his hallucinations to be antagonistic, even frightening.

But it touched him.

His eyes are wide, staring down at his arm. He doesn't even think to pull away he's so shaken.

"Miles... Miles what the fuck, man--?!"

[ikicklotsafaces]

Miles is so busy trying to think of a way to climb up these ice protrusions without making it completely obvious he has spider-powers that he doesn't even notice the images swirling around in the mirrors - much less the fact that one of these creepy mirror people touched Josh

Except that he can't stay in problem-solving mode for very long. Not while the sounds of his friend very obviously freaking out beside him are taking place. The person touching Josh doesn't overtly seem harmful - and still not setting off Miles' spider sense, but his outfit has a very overt Texas Chainsaw Massacre vibe about it.

"Hey." Miles shouts in a voice that is very experienced in making people freeze. "Get your hands off of my friend right now."

And if the spectre hesitates in letting go of Josh for even a second, Miles his taking almost inhumanly fast strides to shove him off of his pal.

[brother_alone]

"Friend? He's joking right?"

Garbled words emit from the mask, almost as though someone's using an audio distorter. The man doesn't let go of Josh, nor does he make a move to look anywhere else. He laughs as the color drains from Joshua's face and recognition sets in. Miles' shove sends the masked figure crashing backwards into the ice mirror, shattering it into a million pieces. He may have stepped out of the mirror, but he certainly isn't going back in that way.

"...Y..You're not real..This can't be...."

Josh is still staring down at his arm, free hand wrapped around himself in a desperate attempt to calm himself down. how could it touch him like this? How could Miles see it, let alone touch...He knows that mask. Knows that outfit. And Joshua knows who's underneath it. Which is why nothing makes sense.

"Not real, he says. Oh buddy boy.." There's a rasping lisp to its voice that has nothing to do with whatever voice alteration is going on. "I'm so real you're gonna wish you weren't..."

[ikicklotsafaces]

Young Miles hasn't been faced with a lot of situations where he's needed to be protective in his everyday clothes. It makes him wish he was back home - where he knows all the places that he could sneak off and shoot a stray spider-web without being seen - or quickly change to Spider-man.

Either way, the teen is in full hero mode. His posture settling into a slight crouch, like he was a coiled spring ready to bounce in any direction at a given time. It hasn't quite registered how freaked out Josh is, but he does realize the two of them are talking like they know each other ...

"Josh? Should we run?"

It's at least a comfort that he can spider-smash though these ice walls if they wanted to just book it.

[brother_alone]

"Run like mice? Like insects. Are you gonna run Joshua?"

The man's already picking himself up and there's something not right about him when he stands straight. He's taller than Joshua is and the clothes he's wearing hang off him as though they're far too big. but he'd felt solid when Miles had shoved him--as though he were a steel beam. Not thick but definitely strong.

"Leave me alone!" Josh's voice breaks when he screams the command, swinging at the masked man with all of his lithe bodyweight. All it earns him is an amused laugh before the masked man is picking Josh up by his neck and pale white nails that are so long they've pierced the fingertips of the gloves are closing around his throat.

"You wanna see? You know, don't you? I'll show ya--" The free hand lifts up the bottom of the mask up and over his nose. Enough to show off deathly pale skin and the most grotesque set of fangs sticking out of an utterly ruined mouth. "Guess what comes next...??"

Lunch time, if the way he's pulling Josh toward that face is any indication.

[leaderoftheresistance]

John Connor, the leader of the resistance was out in a ice storm wondering away from the Nexus.

There was no threats of terminators, anywherearound here. Just the howling sound of cold winter winds. Luckily he remembered to wear his fur coat for times like these.

There were strange ice-like structures and a bunch of folks all staring at them like something was going on.

But the man was never that vain to stare at himself into a mirror, but what's the harm?

He walked closer but as he stared, he noticed his "reflection" turned metal..