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The Glass Menagerie is a free-form place to share creative works you've developed. Whether its a short story about some characters, a parody, an illustration, or even something unrelated, all submissions are welcome.


Table of Contents:
2. A Cheesy Romance by BreadWorldMercy453
4. Assorted Valentine's Comics by iKaterei
9. Writing a TS by BreadWorldMercy453
16. Gotta Catch Em All by BreadWorldMercy453
17. Dark Mirror Soundtrack
18. Why Aren't You Posting? by iKaterei
20. Yomu's Story by TwoJacks
22. Dark Mirror Paper Dolls by iKaterei
24. The Contest by Avatara
27. ZOMBIE ATTACK II: ZOMBIES IN THE SNOW by BreadWorldMercy453
33. Young Iannah by iKaterei
37. How Retsy (almost) Saved Cythera by Selax
44. Dinner with Dave - TwoJacks Interview
46. Pumpkins, Pillows, and Procrastination by BreadWorldMercy453
47. The Potluck Party by Avatara
50. Kotodama by iKaterei
51. Mindcircus by Avatara
54. Kotodama: Pnyx by iKaterei
63. Raise the Roof by BreadWorldMercy453
65. Adventures in Non-Profit Organizations by BreadWorldMercy453
67. Random Character Drawings by iKaterei
69. The Molasses Murderer by BreadWorldMercy453
72. Sunlight by iKaterei
74. Moonshadow by "Moonshadow"
75. Bellerophon Wants a Pony by Pallas Athene
77. Rapierian and the Ponies of Christmas by BreadWorldMercy453
79. The Life of K (and other assorted DM poems) by iKaterei
80. Metaphorical Mirror by TwoJacks
85. Adriana Fanfic by BreadWorldMercy453
87. Guard Duty (Iannah) by iKaterei
88. Chase This Light (Nili) by iKaterei
97. The Danger of Things Unsaid (Katerei) by iKaterei
98. Out, Damned Spot! by Pallas Athene
100. Alt-Ayrit Obelisk Room (Concept Art) by iKaterei
106. The Alt-Ayrit Abandoned Area of Alarming Atrocities by BreadWorldMercy453
113. City Drifting (Young Katerei) by iKaterei
116. A Certain Death by BreadWorldMercy453 (Okay, that's not the real story name, but she didn't provide one.)
119. Pyrrhic Victoria by iKaterei
121. The Regret of Things Done by iKaterei

This post has been edited by Avatara: 21 November 2015 - 04:18 PM

Here's the fan-fiction I wrote based on Dark Mirror. I apologize to Tyry, Kat, Valy, Wizzy and especially Sely for what I've done to your characters! This story is in honour of Valentine's Day ^_^

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Once upon a time, there was a rather strange land called Cythera. It was a pretty cool place to hang out, except for all the evil beings messing with things. A young foreigner named Bellerophon once saved the land when it was on the brink of an evil takeover, but then he went back home; and ever since then other random heroic (and sometimes overpowered) folks have been periodically saving the land from evil.

An alternate version of the land of Cythera also existed, where alternate versions of the people of Cythera lived. These alternate people, in particular the alternates of Cythera's heroes, had some issues. They knew, whether consciously or subconsciously, that they were merely alternates of other original versions of themselves; and that was very damaging psychologically. Many of them turned evil from the psychological anguish. Some were determined to be "better" than their originals. In the end, they decided to invade Cythera (via a mysterious portal) and destroy their originals so that they would be thought of as the "true" versions of themselves.

One of these alternates was a dude named Rapierian, or Raltpierian if you will. His original, Rapierian, was a very mean person. He liked to annoy people for his own amusement. Sometimes he hurt or killed people. He was very unpopular in Cythera. Now Raltpierian came to the original Cythera not wanting to kill anyone. Far from it, it wanted to stop his evil fellow alternates from killing everyone. But before he could accomplish much in the original Cythera, his feelings were hurt to discover that his original was so unpopular. People judged him by how he looked, and thought he was a necromancer. He decided to confront his original about it.

"Excuse me!" Raltpierian huffed as he finally discovered his original, "is your name Rapierian?"

"Why, yes it is," Rapierian replied. "What's your name?"

"My name is Rapierian."

"Nice to meet you, Rapierian," said the necromancer.

"Nice to meet you too, Rapierian," said Raltpierian, and they moved forward to shake hands.

"NO, DON'T!" they heard someone scream, and a second later they saw Seralcard, who ran over and placed himself between the Rapierians.

"What's wrong?" Raltpierian asked.

"Need a drink?" Asked Rapierian, reaching into his cloak and pulling out a vial of something suspicious-looking.

"You two cannot touch!" Seralcard panted. "If you do, giant alien bug virus things will appear and kill us all!"

"Oh really?" Rapierian asked, grinning. He reached out his finger to poke Raltpierian and tried to dodge Seralcard.

Seralcard dived for Rapierian's finger before he could reach Raltpierian, and they both crashed to the ground, with the sound of glass shattering. Rapierian surveyed the damage, he lost a few vials and now his cloak was stained. He was livid. He turned to look at Seralcard, his face twisted in rage and his eyes full of hatred.

Seralcard scrambled to his feet and took a few steps away from Rapierian. "On-on second thought," he stammered, "have fun with the alien bugs." And then he disappeared into thin air.

"Time-travelling weirdo," Rapierian muttered, as Seralcard vanished. Already he felt considerably less angry, but was trying to come up with an amusing way to get revenge.

"Do you need help cleaning your cloak?" offered Raltpierian.

"No thanks, I have stain remover in here somewhere."

"Oh, okay."

"What did you want from me anyway?"

"I wanted to know what you've done to my reputation here!"

"Nothing, just getting by," Rapierian shrugged.

Raltpierian shook his head, "no, people really seem to hate you."

"So? It's actually pretty entertaining at times."

Raltpierian jerked back in surprise. "You... You don't mean to suggest... You're not saying you torment people for fun?"

"Of course, everyone needs a hobby to keep them sane. Or insane, in my case."

Raltpierian was shocked. "You are a mean person!" he exclaimed. "Very mean! I don't want to be friends with you! Don't ever come to me for help!" And with that, Raltpierian stomped away.

Rapierian shrugged and went back to his revenge scheme. Seralcard was a sneaky guy. He kept jumping back in time a bit to the same point. Getting revenge on him would be hard, because he'd probably just jumped back in time; and the next time he'd see him would be before he decided to get revenge on him. Yes indeed, this would be tricky.

Rapierian lay back, deep in thought. Maybe... no, no, that won't work... oh, if only... naw.... Perhaps.... no, of course that won't do... It nearly appeared there was no way around the time-travelling problem, when he suddenly jumped up in epiphany. That's it! Cheese! Cheese is the answer!

So Rapierian went over to the marketplace, where various merchants were selling their food-items.

"Would you like to buy some cheese? It's only six oboloi," asked the woman at the cheese stall.

"Yes, I would," replied Rapierian.

"How many would you like to buy?" she asked.

Rapierian bent over the cheese to inspect it. "Quite a bit, I'm going to be needing a lot of cheese- wait a minute! This cheese is marked nine oboloi! You said six! What are you trying to pull, you-" Rapierian looked up to give her a threatening look, and was silenced when he saw her face. She was stunningly beautiful. Why, she practically sparkled loveliness. It was as though she was surrounded by the most beautiful, glowing flowers, but she outshone them all... Rapierian tried to shake himself out of it. Why was he mentally describing her that way? That didn't even make sense!

The cheese saleslady smiled sweetly (and fakely). "How many would you like to buy?" she repeated.

Oh, she smelled so wonderful... or was that the cheese? Hmm, either way, he should buy a lot of cheese.

"How many can I buy at once?" Rapierian asked.

"One hundred."

"Ah, then I'd like to buy one hundred."

"Hold on a second," she scowled, "it's not that easy. First you have to go through every other number..."

Rapierian wasn't listening. Revenge hardly seemed important anymore. Her eyes were like the ocean... What was she even talking about? Best pretend he knew.

"Thank you, but I've changed my mind. I forgive Seralcard."

"Who?"

"The terrible man who broke my potions. It doesn't matter. Would you like to get a cup of coffee tonight after you close up?"

Her eyes widened and darted back and forth, "um... um... no."

Rapierian's heart shattered. "Why not?" he asked.

"Because, you're... evil."

"Thank you!" Rapierian smiled. "But then-"

"-Actually it's my lunch break now! Good day!" And with that, she gathered up her cheese and ran away.

Rapierian was left feeling very confused. He got the distinct impression that she didn't want to go out with him, but he had no idea why. He needed to talk to someone. Who could he go to for woman advice? Suddenly he recalled something Raltpierian said mere moments earlier:

Flashback

"You are a mean person!" Raltpierian exclaimed. "Very mean! I don't want to be friends with you! Don't ever come to me for help!"

/Flashback

Ah, Raltpierian would be most annoyed if he specifically went to him for help, wouldn't he? Rapierian smiled. Now he just had to find him!

A few minutes later, Rapierian spotted his alternate doing something suspicious on the outskirts of town. "Yo, Rapierian!" he called.

Raltpierian looked up and was surprised to see his original. "What are you doing here?" he demanded. "I told you I don't want to be friends with you."

"The question is, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to save this Cythera from my fellow alternates!" Raltpierian answered proudly.

"Yeah, you already mentioned that," said Rapierian. "But how exactly are you saving the world..?"

"Tch," Raltpierian scoffed and tossed his head back. "With complicated schemes you'd never understand." (Read Dark Mirror for more info)

"Whatever. Listen, I need help."

Raltpierian gasped. "You! Need help! Didn't I specifically tell you never to come to me for help?!" He looked very irritated. Rapierian laughed hysterically.

"That reaction was priceless! Forget the advice, that was even better!" Still laughing, Rapierian turned and began walking away.

As Raltpierian watched his original take a few steps away, his heart grew heavy with remorse. Here this evildoer genuinely needed help, and he had refused. How would he ever sleep at night again? How would he live with himself? He couldn't take it. "Wait!" he cried.

Rapierian stopped and turned back around to look at him.

"I'll help you," said Raltpierian. "What do you need?"

Rapierian launched into his story, explaining about the beautiful salesgirl and how she mysteriously ran away when he asked her out, and how he was so madly in love that life simply wouldn't be worth living without this girl.

"Hmm," Raltpierian scratched his chin. "That's a tough one. You say she didn't want to go out with you? How... odd."

Rapierian narrowed his eyes, "what's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, nothing! I mean, why wouldn't she want to go out with you? You're evil, you're mean, you have no regard whatsoever for fellow people..."

Rapierian grinned and tossed his hair. "Why, thank you! I know this, of course, but it's nice to hear it from someone else."

"I'm not exactly 'someone else,' but whatever," said Raltpierian, "the important thing is to romance this cheese lady. And I've got an idea."

"Well?"

"In this world, you have a Halloween-themed game patch, do you not?"

Rapierian affirmed, "indeed, Magpie's Pumpkin Patch."

"Yes, that. But in my world, we don't have a Halloween patch. We have a Valentine's Day patch."

Rapierian nodded thoughtfully. "Go on," he ordered.

"If you could install this patch on your world, it would undoubtably romance her and make her eager to date you! We just need to get an Alternate-world-to-real-world-patch-converter..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The cheese saleslady was speedwalking to the Citadel. She had heard all about Rapierian, and she knew that if he wanted something to do with her, she wanted to be as far away as possible. She was going to ask Judge Berossus for a restraining order.

As she entered the Citadel yard, she noticed the gate was mysteriously broken aside. She shrugged and continued in. Inside the castle, two men were arguing. These men were alternates from the alternate world of Cythera, and their names were Wizard and Selax. For simplicity, let's call them Wizald and Sealtx.

"This is my castle that I took over, and you have no right to barge in here!" Wizald was saying.

"Dude, I've been using you from the start!" exclaimed Sealtx. "I'm the mastermind behind this whole real-Cythera takeover, so quit trying to take credit for my genius!"

"Where would you be without me? Admit that I deserve all I have and all you have!"

"Oh yeah? How many people have you killed? I've killed at least-" At this point both alternates fell silent and began counting on their fingers.

Suddenly there was a bang and a piece of the ceiling fell in. A scary man with creepy eyes fell through to the floor, landing comfortably on his feet and seeming to barely notice that he had fallen through the ceiling. His name was Alternate Rythan, or perhaps Rylthan?

"Who do you two think you are?" Rylthan asked darkly.

"I'm the antagonist in this story!" exclaimed Sealtx.

"No, I am!" argued Wizald.

"You're both just wanna-bes!" Rythan countered. "I'm the most powerful bad guy in this story, and the biggest threat!"

"You?" gawked Sealtx, "more powerful than me? Yeah right!"

A screaming match erupted over which of them was more overpowered and dangerous.

"Silence!" ordered a fourth voice, barely audible over the screaming but so malicious that the other three fell silent. No one had noticed her until that moment, but a girl stood in front of the judge's throne. She wore a black cloak which billowed eerily behind her even though she was indoors.

"I am the ultimate bad guy!" the girl announced. "My name is Alternate Retsy, and I am a dark magess with powers none of you can even dream of. Not only am I as invincible as Alaric, but with the mere snap of my fingers I could destroy both Cytheras!"

She stepped forward toward her rivals, but her cloak caught on something and tripped her. She gingerly picked herself up and pulled her cloak free with a ominous ripping sound. As her cloak pulled away, it revealed a small mechanical fan, which had been set under her cloak for the eerie billowing effect. The fan was now jammed on the small piece of the cloak it had ripped off.

"Oh no!" Raltsy cried, tears pouring down her face. "You guys owe me a cloak and a mechanical fan!" And with that, she ran off.

The remaining bad guys quickly forgot about the distraction and went back to arguing with each other. Their verbal fight rapidly evolved into a physical fight, and as they beat each other up, they looked like a dust cloud with a head or limb occasionally poking out here and there.

At this point, the cheese lady gave up on finding Berossus, and left the Citadel. As she trudged back to the marketplace where she sold her cheese, she noticed that there was something very different about this place.

The trees, which were normally filled with green leaves, where now overflowing with cherry blossoms. The lanterns (which were now pink) were connected by strings of mini-lanterns, each of which was shaded with a pink paper heart. The ground was covered with heart-shaped confetti in varying colours of red, pink, and white. Her own purple day dress was replaced with a fancy white ball gown, frivolously adorned with layers of lace and satin ribbon. The walls of the buildings around her glittered. The awnings above the market stalls were patterned with red hearts, and also glittered. Dymas, the little boy who liked to play in the marketplace, had grown wings and was dressed in a diaper. He had also gained some weight. Okay, that one was kind of creepy...

The cheese lady turned her attention back to her own market stall. In front of it stood Rapierian, dressed in a white suit & cloak. As she approached him, he dropped to his knees. "Ever since I met you, I haven't been able to stop thinking about you. Will you marry me?" he asked her.

She grinned as happy tears bit her eyes. "Of course I will!" she exclaimed as she hugged him around the neck. She had forgotten that Rapierian was evil, and now saw him merely as the gentleman responsible for this beautiful world.

"Yes!" Rapierian said, punching his fist in the air. "By the way, what's your name?"

Suddenly Seralcard ran back into the area, dramatically interrupting the romantic scene! He looked wild with worry. "I sense Alternate Rythan near here!" he panted. "Where is he? I need to stop him before he destroys the world!"

"YOU!!" shouted Rapierian, jumping to his feet. As he did so, he knocked the cheese lady over. She tumbled to the ground a few feet away, and became horribly tangled in her many crinolines. Rapierian paid her no notice. "You!" he repeated to Seralcard. "Let's see how you like it when someone tackles you and then disappears!"

As Seralcard looked in shock at the somewhat-injured lady on the ground, Rapierian tackled him to the ground too. Then, laughing evilly, he reached into one of the pockets of his cloak, and pulled out a staircase. "I'll be in Odemia if you need me, fool!" he laughed, mounted the staircase, and disappeared.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"What the French toast?!" Rapierian exclaimed, as he found himself on a mountaintop. Or at least, partially on a mountaintop. Behind him and to the right was white nothingness. Way off in the nothingness, he could make out the Tree of Life, standing on a small patch of grass.

"Aw man," Rapierian muttered as he realized what happened, "wrong staircase."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Raltpierian was feeling very satisfied over having successfully transformed Cythera into a pretty Valentine's Day decorated world. He was quite sure that Rapierian would have no trouble getting his girl now. But still, he couldn't rest. The big bad guys were still at large, and he needed to stop them before they destroyed the world he'd just worked so hard to beautify.

So he wandered around, hands in his pockets, trying to figure out what to do. And he ran into Alternate Avatara (Avaltara), whom he had previously paired up with to break into the Citadel.

"Hey Avatara, how's it going?" Raltpierian asked.

"Not so good," Avaltara admitted. "I've yet been unsuccessful in meeting Selax and killing him."

"Aw, I'm sorry."

And so they paired up to look for Sealtx together. As they wandered around, they came to the Citadel, in front of which Selax was standing, looking important.

"That's him," Avaltara hissed. He strode up to Selax and said bravely, "You killed my wife!"

"No I didn't," Selax contradicted, "I am your wife!"

"What?!" Avaltara asked.

"Haha, just kidding. Did you really think a woman could be as ruggedly good-looking as me? Haha, no, I'm not the evil Selax, I'm the good Selax, from this world. I came here to kill the evil Selax, just like you."

"Really? Is he here?"

"He was. By the time I got here, he was already knocked out, as were the evil Rythan and the evil Wizard. They appear to have had a disagreement with one another. So I sent all their souls to the Shadow Realm where they are no longer a danger to any of us."

"Oh," said Avaltara. "That's good, I guess, but I really wanted to kill him myself."

Raltpierian put a hand on Avaltara's shoulder. "Maybe it's time to move on," he suggested, and Avaltara nodded.

All of the other main characters in Dark Mirror, sensing that their story was coming to a close, came out from wherever they've been and gathered around them. After they had all filled each other in on everything that happened, K (Katerei's alternate) approached Avaltara.

"I'm so sorry about what happened to your wife," she told him, "and I know I can never make it up to you; and I could never replace her, but..." she looked up longingly at Avaltara's eyes. "I love you. Do you think you could ever... love me?"

"Actually," Avaltara replied, "I think I like your original better. She's more... ladylike. You know?"

K's lib wobbled and tears spilled down her cheeks. "I don't know what I did wrong!" she cried. And she turned into a wolf and ran away.

Avaltara made his way over to Katerei. "We don't really know each other yet, and we're from separate worlds," he admitted, "but would you like to go on a walk with me?" Katerei looked terrified, but nodded. Avaltara smiled, picked up a cherry blossom from the ground, and put it in her hair.

Avaltara held out his arm to Katerei and she took it. As they walked past their fellow characters, Avaltara jovially told them, "I'm sorry the rest of you can't have a romantic ending, but there's just not enough girls in this story!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~THE END~*~*~*~*~*~*~

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 13 February 2010 - 07:21 PM

THAT WAS AWESOME 453!!!

Happy Valentine's!



Kain and Scry in "Kain Attempts Romantic Poetry"





Andru and Elie in "Love at First Fight"





Rapierian and Iannah in "Cyanide and Happiness"

Yays, those are adorable, Kat! I was so hoping you'd post sappy comics :D

Cast list:
Cyclops - Shanadar
Wolverine - Talos
Rogue - Katerei
Storm - Silver
Beast - Selax
Gambit - Yomu
Jean Grey - Avatara
Professor X - Wizard

Magneto - Selax
Juggernaut - Rythan
Shadow King - Firecat
Mystique - Alt Wizard

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 25 February 2010 - 07:03 PM

Could Silver & Selax trade x-men? I think that would fit better. ^_^

Alright, I fixed the cast list. I guess people would know thier own characters better than me.


Edit: I thought Avatara would make a better Jean Grey than Andru. Muahaha.

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 25 February 2010 - 07:03 PM

This is a story I wrote about one possible future of the Blazing Trails TS. The ending is really sad, so let's try to avoid this!

~*~

April, 2010

Jacks sighed as his regular check on the Cythera webboard showed that there were no new posts. In either TS, but particularly Blazing Trails. The story was moving along agonizingly slowly, but he could do nothing to help it along at this point, since he was the last one to post. He rarely even saw anyone else from the Blazing Trails in the channel. He wanted BT to last, but TSes are group efforts, there's only so much one guy can do.

~*~

Sely made it a point to catch up on Blazing Trails during the month of April. Once, anyway. And he didn't actually have to read anything because no one had posted anything. He felt pretty proud of himself for making the effort of catching up.

~*~

Wizzy made a very important decision this month: He decided to post in the TS! The first step: Catch up on it. Hmm, yes, he'd do that tomorrow....

~*~

Valy leaned against the wall around the corner of the hallway and caught his breath. The bad guys were seconds on his tail, and if they got ahold of this information he was protecting - well, best not even think about that. It was only thanks to pure agility that he managed to run from them. He had to set a trap, and fast.

He reached into his sack and pulled out a banana. The banana peel, if placed strategically, may be able to trip the bad guys. But they were only a couple of seconds behind him, would he had time to eat the whole banana? He certainly didn't want to waste it! That's when he noticed the starving child from a third-world country a ways farther down the hallway. Quickly, Valy peeled the banana, "hey kid, catch!" he called, and tossed him the fruit. In a movement more rapid than can be seen by the human eye, and therefore invisible to the bad guys, Valy placed the peel on the hallway floor. Seconds later a bad guy foot came down on it and slipped (the placement of the peel was perfect), causing the first bad guy to fall. The second bad guy tripped over the first and fell also. But there was a third bad guy, and this one had better reflexes than the first two put together. As soon as the first two begin to trip, Bad Guy #3 jumped over them all.

Valy was prepared for this, and removed his jacket, tossing it down the hallway to land over the (previously) starving child's face. He didn't want the child to have to witness what was about to happen. Valy kicked his leg up just in time for his foot to collide with Bad Guy #3's head on his way down from his leap. And when Valy kicks you in the head, you do not stay conscious. Valy bound the bad guys and dragged them down to the local prison (on his way out, he made sure the child was okay and gave him some more of his rations). All in a day's work.

After that, Valy had a rare moment of free time. He logged into the Cythera forums, read everything he missed, and posted on the BT OoC, "Sorry I haven't been around much, guys, it's been a little busy over here. I'm not sure when I'll have the chance to post again."

~*~

May, 2010

Wizzy made an important decision this month: To post in BT! Yes, he'd made this same decision last month, but he hadn't managed to make it past Step One: Catching Up on the Posts. After a month, he had finally managed to read the few posts that had appeared since he last posted. Of course, he didn't have time to post after that, but he was making tremendous strides.

~*~

Jacks, Shorty, and 453 had a discussion over #cythera, and had decided the appropriate course of action in BT was to have Anonymous be killed by ratlizards. This would prove the weakness and ignorance of the heroes in the story. It would also be fun and maybe even compel a response from Sely. The three of them posted the tragic death scene, and the remaining heroes in the TS continued on their quest.

~*~

Sely spent this month studying and taking his final examinations. Cythera never crossed his mind.

~*~

June, 2010

Wizzy was now working on Step Two of posting in a TS: Writing a post. Twice during this month, he managed to find the time to work on his post. By the end of the second writing session, he was content with his post and saved the file. He'd post it later.

~*~

Sely was finally free from his grueling semester of school. Unfortunately, he knew he had missed several questions on his final examinations, and he had no hope that his grades would be respectable. This would be the semester his GPA died. He lamented to everyone about this tragedy. He really couldn't focus on such things as Cythera.

~*~

Jacks continued to advance the TS, with occasional help. Sely had never complained about his character being killed off, and the other characters were doing very well on their quest. Indeed, killing off Anonymous had been the right decision, and the TS picked up a little after that. Overall, everything was going pretty well with BT. It could use more participants, but what can you do?

~*~

Valy settled down in front of his computer to write a BT post. Finally, some vacation time! He didn't know how he'd managed it, but he was grateful for the small break.

His fingers were covered in blisters from rescuing a damsel-in-distress from an intense fire, so it would be painful to type, but he would just have to tough it out. The TS needed him. And he had to make up for lost time....

There, that 50-page post ought to do it!

~*~

July, 2010

Several weeks after writing his TS post, Wizzy finally got around to logging in to post it. It seemed that a lot had happened since he'd last caught up, but he went ahead and posted it anyway, determining to re-catch up as soon as he could. Probably next Tuesday, he'd have time. He hoped the post he'd written was still relevant.

~*~

Jacks was still satisfied with the way BT was going. He had a few minor disagreements that were worked out over the channel or the OoC, but overall it was still going pretty well. A lot had happened since Anonymous's death, and the TS was going strong. Valy's post took a long time to read, but advanced the plot a lot. Wizzy's post on the other hand was slightly confusing, it looked like Wizzy needed to make a few small edits... For example, lines said by Anonymous as though he'd been there all along, when no one had previously mentioned an undead Anonymous. But with a little clarification, it could work.

~*~

Sely finally got his grades in, he got all A's. He calmly explained to his family how he had barely managed to scrape up those A's, and how it was almost pure luck that he wouldn't be able to expect next semester. However, he was able to relax a bit after that. He decided to catch up on the TSes.

As Sely read Anonymous's death scene, a furrow grew in his brow. "Well, that's no good..." he muttered, deeply disturbed. He continued reading. The TS went on, and on, and on.... How had so much happened since he'd last read it?

~*~

A post appeared on the BT OoC (by Selax):

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask for an edit. Maybe there has been a misunderstanding, but I want to continue using Anonymous. I don't want him to be killed off. Thanks for your understanding and sorry for the inconvenience."

~*~

August, 2010

No one knew how to respond to Sely's edit request. To edit out Anonymous's death would be a major re-write, and much of the TS would no longer make logical sense. It would almost seem easier to just delete everything that had happened since then, but there was already pages of it...

The question everyone asked was, why didn't Sely say anything before? To which his response was something along the lines of, "I was busy with school until recently. I've been on the channel constantly since then but no one showed up. Unfortunately now I have to focus on the upcoming semester, and will be unavailable until winter vacation in December."

~*~

It was at this point that the TS began to crumble again. Sely refused to let Anonymous die, so a major editing project was undertaken. Unfortunately one of the main pieces needing edited was Valy's massive post, which posed a problem because Valy was, as usual, busy saving the world; and Sely didn't want to edit his post without his permission.

On the plus side, Wizzy's post required less editing that was originally thought. Once his post was edited, Wizzy pulled out his TS Posting Checklist to make sure he hadn't missed anything. He hadn't!
(Wizzy's TS Posting Checklist:
1) Decide to post in the TS
2) Catch up on the current TS posts
3) Write a post
4) Post the post mentioned in Step 3
Note: All steps must take an absolute minimum of two weeks to complete. There is no time limit, the longer it takes the better (helps invoke suspense).)

When they finally got all the edits sorted out (which took a lot of re-reading and re-editing), what was left was pretty sad, and the writing once again slowed down.

And so the TS continued struggling for breath for the next two years until the ending was finally forced on it.

THE END!

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 05 April 2010 - 09:40 PM

BWM, I nearly died of laughter reading that. I was truly in a great deal of pain. Unfortunately, it seems to be fairly accurate so far.

Sorry to cause you great pain, Wizzy :( It is your own fault though, for not posting more. Also I'm not sure which story you were referring to, as I have accurately predicted the endings of both TSes ^_~

I note your motivational speech is still missing.

I'm not very motivated as of late.

So? That only means that you need to write a motivational speech to motivate yourself into writing a motivational speech.

Actually Sely, it means you have to write a motivational speech to motivate Tyry into writing a motivational speech (or just copy/pasting yours).

This is my second attempt to write a Dark Mirror fanfic.

The views expressed in this story are of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the characters saying them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Water, Earth, Fire, Air

Long ago the four pillars lived together in harmony. But then, everything changed when the water elementals attacked. Only the Stranger, brought from a distant land, could stop them; but when Cythera needed him most, Alaric sent him home. Years passed and a group of heroes came together to fight various evils. And although they're severely overpowered, their alternates are at least as overpowered as they are. But I believe Aang can save the world.

Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to translate that last sentence.

Previously on Dark Mirror:

Yomu: Oh boy, the disembodied voice is trading me a Graveler! ... Huh?! It's turning into a different Pokémon!

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Yomu gazed in shock at his new monster. It was HUGE. He flipped open his PokéDex:

"Golem. Its boulder-like body is extremely hard," read the PokéDex. "It can easily withstand dynamite blasts without taking damage."

"Incredible!" breathed Yomu. "I will be unstoppable! Now I will be able to stop whoever is behind this evil plot to take over Cademia!"

The Golem promptly began attacking Yomu's friends (especially Wizard).

"No!" exclaimed Yomu, "those are our friends! We are not battling them! Cease your attacks immediately!"

Golem roared and made a swipe for Yomu. Yomu "meep!"ed and ran. He found refuge behind a wall, and the Golem seemed too interested in Wizard to follow Yomu. As he caught his breath, he noticed someone else was hiding from the Golem behind the same wall.

"Hey," said Andru. "What is that thing?"

"That is my new Pokémon!" said Yomu, "but I believe it has some anger issues."

"Have you tried therapy?" suggested Andru.

"I have not. Can you recommend a good therapist?"

"Hmm..." Andru scratched his chin. "How about Katerei?"

Yomu frowned. "Katerei is not a therapist."

"She's not?" Andru was shocked. "Well, she's a girl. Same diff, right?"

"Maybe she could improvise something," Yomu considered. He looked out past the wall. The castle seemed to have taken significant damage, but Katerei and the other heroes were already fleeing the city, with the Golem hot on their heels.

Andru looked out too, and whistled. "Looks like we missed the action," he said, "but if anyone asks, I was buried in rubble in a noble act of sacrifice, okay?"

"Sure thing," mumbled Yomu, "I cannot believe I have the most powerful Pokémon in the world, and it will not listen to me!"

"Eureka!" exclaimed Andru, "let me see your trainer card!" Yomu handed it to Andru, who looked it over. "Dude, you don't have any badges!"

"Are you trying to kick me when I am down?" Yomu moped.

"No, that's the solution! That Golem was strong - at least lv 75! It won't obey you without a high enough gym badge!"

"Ohh!" realized Yomu. "All I need to do is collect the badges, then Golem will obey me and it will destroy the evildoers!"

"Maybe we have hope after all," Andru smiled.

"No," contradicted Yomu. "That Golem was my first Pokémon. Without it, I have none to use to battle against the gym leaders."

"Ohsnap!" Andru cursed.

"Alas," agreed Yomu.

They stood in silence for a few seconds.

"Why don't you borrow one of my Pokémon?" offered Andru. "I am a master trainer and have plenty."

"Indeed? I did not know that!"

"Yes, no one in your group seems to know anything about me. Anyway, I came here for the exclusive purpose of completing the Cythera Pokémon League." Andru picked through his Pokéballs. "Here, you can have this one. It is low-leveled, so it will obey you even though you don't yet have any badges."

"Thank you, friend!" said Yomu, and hugged him. Andru patted Yomu's back awkwardly.

"I must go now!" announced Yomu, accepting Andru's Pokéball. "The sooner I get these badges, the sooner I can save the world!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
LandKing Hall

Yomu walked into the throne room and addressed Alaric. "Your majesty, has Selax told you of the devastating troubles befalling our land?"

The king stared off into space for a minute. "What exactly Selax has done is actually really unclear," he replied.

"Ah," said Yomu.

"And what brings you here?" asked Alaric.

"I am looking for the LandKing Hall gym leader. Is he here?"

"That would be my head guard, Hadrian. Yes, he is here. He will meet you in the training room."

"Thank you, sire," said Yomu, and wandered over to the training room. Before long, Hadrian stepped in.

"I suppose you want the Ethereal Badge, huh?"

"Indeed," replied Yomu earnestly. "It is a matter of utmost importance."

"Then let's get on with it," said Hadrian, and tossed a Pokéball. A sweet, adorable little Nidoran burst out.

Yomu tossed the ball Andru had given him. And out popped... a crab. Not one of the giant crabs you'd find in a cave, but one of the tiny little crabs that run around North Shore Vineyard.

"Huh," said Yomu. He flipped open his PokéDex.

"Krabby. The pincers break off easily. If it loses a pincer, it somehow becomes incapable of walking sideways."

"Nidoran, go!" shouted Hadrian, "poison point!" Nidoran bared its poisonous teeth, and Yomu gulped.

"Krabby.... run!"

Krabby didn't need told twice. It made a mad-dash for the door and bolted for the other side of LandKing Hall.

Hadrian declared angrily, "out-of-bounds! What's the idea?"

"I apologize," said Yomu, "but Krabby did not stand a chance."

"You're not ready for the Ethereal Badge," stated Hadrian.

"Please, sir, will you not make an exception? I promise you it is a matter of the safety of the entire land of Cythera!"

"Oh, well, I guess if it's for Cythera..." Hadrian handed Yomu a small sparkling badge.

"Hurrah!" Yomu cheered, and held his new badge up for the camera to see.

"Need a bite to eat before you head off?" asked Hadrian. "My wife bakes a mean flatbread."

"Sustenance would be very much appreciated!" Yomu agreed. "I just ran here from Cademia, what should have taken a couple of days according to the generally accepted TS guidelines, in only ten minutes. I am famished!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Meanwhile, in Cademia

After setting fire to some major buildings, the Hand was getting bored. Yeah, technically they were supposed to be killing everyone, but come on, they had all night for that. It's not like any of the good guys could have any hope of defeating them. So, they decided to take a little rest from the mayhem and have a break-dancing competition.

The flaming ghetto proved to be the perfect place for their party. Krys brought her iPod (the alt-Cythera version of the "strange rod") and plugged it into a speaker system for the music. So far Ral had the most impressive maneuvers, but Kain matched him by accentuating his moves with firebending, a very nice effect.

As Kain finished his number, Jacob grabbed a piece of wooden debris stepped onto the dance floor. The others cheered, watching Jacob spin on shoulder. Except for Scry, that is.

"What's he even doing?" Scry asked. "This is so boring."

"You ready for a go?" Krys asked her, grinning.

"Maybe I will."

Jacob stood up and bowed; Krys pushed Scry onto the dance floor.

"Top this!" Scry announced, and pulled out her blades. She began doing a very risky mixture of break dancing and blade juggling.

The others gasped at her fearlessness and pulled out a bag of popcorn.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Elsewhere in Cademia

Our heroes had finally defeated Golem, but some of them were severely worn out. Katerei and Silverfish were trying to recover from the electric water attack, & Rapierian wasn't feeling too hot either. Wizard, of course, was seriously considering retiring from heroism.

They lay down on the beach of the northeast corner of the city to sunbathe and chillax for a bit. Is "lay" the right word to use in that sentence? Sorry, I always get messed up with those laying/lying verbs when you go into past-tense. I tried to look it up in the dictionary, and it sounds like "lay" is correct; but I'm not totally sure. Maybe I should email my grandmother, she was an English teacher. She'd probably want me to send her a copy of the story though, which is full of errors in grammar and punctuation.

Anyway, the heroes were sunbathing on the beach.

"I think we deserve a pat on the back," announced Silverfish. So they all rolled onto their right side and each patted the back of the person in front him/her, then they rolled over onto their left side and repeated.

But Talos was having trouble relaxing. "This sunbathing is stupid!" he erupted. "The sun is setting!"

Wizard tried to calm him. "Take it easy, Talos. We just took down an extremely large monster. We're invincible."

"What about the psychic blind girl?" demanded Talos. "She's invincible. She can see into the future and knows exactly how to block every attack. If you try to stop her, she'll kill you with her blades!"

"That is a problem," Katerei admitted, "but we're all injured. We need to wait for our health and mana to regenerate before we can even think of fighting anyone. And that takes time."

"I guess you're right," Talos agreed.

& so they all closed their eyes and tried to take a nap as the city flamed behind them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~...

"Hold on!" Selax jumped up suddenly. "This isn't helping!"

Katerei rolled her eyes. "Maybe it's not helping you, but some of us only have a limited amount of health and mana."

"That's not what I meant. In Cythera, your health and mana can only work on regenerating while you're moving. Lying down is just a waste of time!"

"Oh no!" groaned the heroes as they realized he was right.

"Looks like we're going to have to run around in circles for a while," said Wizard grimly.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
LandKing Hall

Yomu had prepared himself a cheese sandwich out of some bread and cheese that Emesa gave him. It was delicious. Unfortunately he had to rush on to get the other seven badges so that the Golem would obey him. But first he needed to find Andru's Krabby. Yomu wasn't sure where it went after it fled the gym battle.

"Krabby!" Yomu called, "Krabby, where all you? 'Tis time to come back to your Pokéball!"

One of the nameless LKH guards had offered to help him look.

"Is it possible it could have gone outside?" Yomu asked the guard.

"No," the guard answered. "Our metal detecters would've gone off if any electronics passed through the door."

"That is right..." Yomu remembered. They continued their search.

After they thoroughly searched the LandKing Hall without success, Yomu was dumbfounded. "Where could it be?"

The guard rubbed his beard thoughtfully. "There is one more possibility. Alaric's secret room."

"Secret room!" Yomu gasped.

"Secret room," the guard confirmed. "It is a white area, with a crystal ball and a dresser. Many have made it their life's ambition to reach this room and discover its magic, but none have succeeded."

"Ooh," Yomu breathed. This was good stuff.

"If I stand in the secret passageway beside Alaric's quarters, and you stand in Alaric's quarters, you may just be able to see it."

"Please let us try it!"

The guard agreed. They positioned themselves as the guard described, and sure enough, Yomu could see the Secret Room. And there, huddling beside the dresser, was...

"Krabby! How did it get there?"

"I haven't the foggiest," the guard called back from the passageway, "but you'd better summon it back into its ball."

"Ah, yes. Krabby! Return!" Krabby obeyed, and its data floated back into the Pokéball.

"Thank you very much," Yomu said to the guard, once he joined him in Alaric's quarters. "I do so much wish I could explore that Secret Room for myself; however, all of Cythera is depending on me. I must go collect the other seven badges posthaste! Perhaps some day we can investigate this farther?"

The guard winked. "I'm just a guard. I'm not permitted to speak of such."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Odemia

Yomu traveled to Odemia, home of the second Cythera League Gym. Milcom, the leader of the gym, showed Yomu his signature badge. It looked like a shiny, golden-coloured fowl.

"Wait, what do you call this badge?" Yomu asked.

"The chicken badge!" Milcom grinned.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cademia, the ghetto

"The Master" (also known as Alternate Wizard) was taking a walk around Cademia. It was unusual for him to actually get out, but his minions had been incommunicado, and he was lonely. According to his calculations, the city should be burned to the ground by now. The trouble was, it wasn't. It was a good start, but where were all the dead hero bodies?

As he wandered through the ghetto, he began to hear music. Music with a very strong beat. He followed the sound until he reached a small crowd. In the middle, there seemed to be a flaming cat break-dancing. And the small crowd around the cat consisted of five individuals - The Hand!

Firecat left the dance floor, and Krys replaced him. She did look pretty cool out there, but of course it's impossible to tell how much of that was real and how much was her illusion-casting. Wizard had seen enough. With his Psychic Mind Powers, he lifted a large rock and flung it violently and Krys's iPod, which was responsible for the music.

The iPod shattered, and as the music stopped, the cheering Hand immediately fell silent too. Krys awkwardly backed off the dance floor.

"What is going on here?!" Wizard demanded.

His minions gulped but said nothing.

"It looked," Wizard continued, "like some sort of dancing competition."

Still no response.

"WELL?!" Wizard bellowed.

"Yes, sir," said Jacob quietly. "It was a dancing competition."

"And I suppose you didn't invite me because you were all too scared to compete with me in break-dancing?"

"Yes, sir," lied Jacob.

"You were right to be scared," growled Wizard with an evil grin. He pulled his iPod out of his pocket and stepped onto the dance floor.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cademia, a few hours later

The heroes were finally fully restored (Rapierian was still hanging out with them too). Brimming with confidence, they set out to find some bad guys to fight, and save the city. After putting out a few fires, they came across Alt-Wizard and his minions, all of whom were lying on the ground panting.

The heroes assumed their battle stances, but the bad guys didn't move.

"What's with?" Selax asked.

"Dancing competition," wheezed Alt-Wizard. "I won."

"No," panted Ral, "you (*pant*) didn't. (*pant pant*) I (*pant*) did."

"Shut up," panted Scry.

Talos asked, "so, y'all don't want to fight us?"

The bad guys just panted in response.

"It would be dishonourable for us to battle them in that condition," contributed good-Wizard.

"But it would be dishonourable for us to let them go free to continue to destroy Cythera," pointed out Shanadar.

"I've got an idea!" announced Silverfish. "Rapierian, do you have any Essence of Llama with you?"

"Do I have any Essence of Llama with me?" he teased. "Is my name Rapierian?" He rummaged around inside his cloak. "... At least, I think so," he added.

Rapierian rummaged around his cloak for an awkward moment before- "ah-ha! Here it is, Essence of Llama!" He pulled out a scary looking bottle labeled with a picture of a llama.

"Um, Silvy, what's your plan?" asked Katerei.

Silverfish put on an adorable evil grin. "Let's turn them into llamas!"

Nobody could find any flaw in this plan, so they preceded. It was easy to get the bad guys to drink the Essence of Llama, because they were all so thirsty that they would've drunk anything. Within seconds, the transformation was completed. They made very cute llamas, except for Firecat, who was still flaming in his new llama form. Still, they seemed considerably less dangerous this way.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Cademia, the next afternoon

Yomu did it! It took him all night and most of the day, but he had traveled Cythera, and collected all eight Cythera League badges! Of course, he hadn't actually earned any of them, but still... He couldn't wait to go tell his friends, and use his giant Golem to attack the forces of evil.

He expected to see his Golem from a distance. After all, the monster was hard to miss. Maybe it was in the city somewhere?

Yomu wandered around until he came to a little house in which his friends were battling Selax's assassins. Yomu sidled up to Wizard, who was sitting to the side looking old and tired. "Yo, Wizard, what did I miss?" he asked.

"Lots! What have you been up to?"

"Check this out," said Yomu, pulling out his trainer's card and showing off all eight of his badges.

Wizard whistled. "Impressive."

"I know, right! Where is my Golem?"

"Golem?" asked Wizard. "Are you talking about the giant Golem?"

"Indeed!"

"That was yours?!"

"... What do you mean, "was"?"

Wizard sighed. "We destroyed it."

Yomu's lip wobbled. "You destroyed my Golem?"

"It really wanted to kill me. I'm not exaggerating!"

At this point, one of the assassins called a time-out, and everyone stopped fighting. The heroes gathered around Wizard and Yomu, while the assassins gathered in the other side of the room.

"Hey Yomu, how's Krabby?" asked Andru.

"Fantastic," said Yomu, not wanting to admit that he begged for his badges. "But it seems I am too late."

"Sorry about the Golem, man."

Yomu just nodded. "I think I would like to be alone for a little while," he said, and put on his hat.

Iannah walked over to the heroes. "Hey, do you mind if we take the fight outside? It's getting kind of stuffy in here."

"Good idea," the heroes agreed.

They moved outside, and Shanadar was about to blow his referee whistle, when someone ominous approached them.

It was Alt-Selax!

And he had a whistle of his own. He blew it. Everyone attacked.

It was only a few minutes before the heroes needed to call a time out. Before Alt-Selax arrived, they were confident in their victory. But now... he was just too strong.

"He's nearly invincible," Shanadar complained. "How could we defeat him?"

"By being absolutely invincible?" Talos suggested.

"But we can't do that," said Katerei.

Selax scratched his head. "Or can we...?"

~*~*~

Alt-Selax blew his whistle again, signaling the time-out was over. The heroes parted to reveal Shanadar... in a ridiculous outfit.

"Do you like my costume?" Shanadar asked the bad guys.

"You look like an old man," Iannah teased.

"Alaric, to be precise," Shanadar corrected.

"So what?" asked Bastian.

"So," explained Shanadar, "when you look like someone, you get their powers. And Alaric is invincible."

"Oh yeah?" said Alt-Selax. "Let's see just how invincible you are." Alt-Selax ground Shanadar to dust, but to no effect.

Alt-Selax furrowed his brow. "How is that possible?!"

Shanadar laughed, and with a single kingly spell, destroyed Alt-Selax and knocked out his minions. "The world is saved!" he cheered. The other heroes cheered too.

At this moment, Alt-Avatara, K, and Alt-Rapierian passed by at a distance.

"Whoa," said Rapierian, "is the story over?"

"Looks like it," confirmed Avatara.

"But I'm confused," said K. "What was the moral of that story?"

Avatara nodded wisely. "At times like this, we need to consult the Wheel of Morality." K and Rapierian suddenly noticed the large prize-style wheel behind them. Avatara pulled the lever. "Wheel of Morality, turn turn turn, tell us the lesson that we should learn! And today's moral is..." he waited while the wheel stopped. "Moral number four hundred and fifty-three!"

A piece of paper printed out of the wheel's printer system. Avatara picked it up and read it: "Avoid letting a day of the TS take a year to write."

THE END

This post has been edited by BreadWorldMercy453: 04 February 2011 - 12:12 PM

An "Unofficial" Dark Mirror Soundtrack (music to accompany you while you read the story).

Volume 1
Volume 2

Let's play "guess who everybody is!"

(Hint: not the same people as in the Valentine's comics. I'm just too busy/lazy to redraw them.)

Heh.

Yomu left.

"That's it? That's the end of my story? What the hell man?"

As the night slowly-"Hey! I'm not done! You can't just cut me out like this! I have a story that needs to be told!"

You know, it's very rude to interrupt the narrator.

"You're the narrator? Ugh, no wonder this story sucks! It's terrible just like you!"

Hmpf! You think this story has been easy to narrate?! Fine I don't care anymore! I quit! So there!

"Wait! My story! What about my story!"

"..."

"Fine I don't need you or you're stupid narrations! I can do it myself! And it's gonna be awesome!"

*ahem*

The night was slow as usual and Yomu was all dark and mysterious and cool. He uh.. he was walking and wasn't upset anymore, yeah, he was pissed! And wanted vengeance! In a world gone wrong Yomu was now the only source of justice! And it was time to bring the gavel down!

Yomu marched- No wait, Yomu put on the Hermes cloak and friggin flew into the city! Yeah!

"Come out bad guys! It's time to drop the gavel on your unjust behinds!" Yomu said with dashing good looks and a charming personality. Did I mention he's single?

All the bad guys were like, "Ah no! Man, this is the worst timing, we'll never take over the world now!" So they sent out the Hand and the demon army and all the other people hiding in the shadows, Yomu was just too big of a threat to leave out like that, they were smart but they would have been smarter to just go home and knit or something.

It was an amazing battle and if you didn't see it you should just kill yourself now.

"That was close!" Said Yomu, "I almost died at the end but I managed to unlock a secret power inside me at the very end that made me so powerful I won!" Said the fetcher with a demeanor that always seemed to leave you wanting more, more of that dark mystery wrapped deep inside that you could almost see if you just had the chance to spend more time with him, and maybe one day you could if you could reach him somehow, but he's dark and a loner and you hope you can change him but maybe that's all you can do, hope.

Yomu then grabbed them all and shoved them in a sack inside a sack inside a sack, it was like Inception but more complex and cooler.

he then lit the sack on fire and threw back into the portal. He then relieved himself onto the portal causing it to collapse on itself.

Back in town Yomu didn't need the thanks and gifts of the people, he was above that, he just wanted his solitude, a solitude of awesomeness that no one else could really compete with. Speaking of which all the other heroes were to injured in the end and Yomu had to save them all. They were all super grateful and K and Katerei even made out with Yomu at the same time and were like, "Oh Yomu you're so dark and cool, you should date both of us and stuff!" Yomu agreed and added them to list of rockin' babes he's bagged, it's a pretty long but exclusive list and any girl would be honored to be on it.

After that day Yomu went on to win many more battles and get some more cool items like get this, a gauntlet that does everything a gauntlet does, but can either write out or god mod anything thing it touches.

It was awesome.

The end.

Also that old narrator sucks!

I'm experimenting with a layout for the first post, because as people keep adding stuff it can quickly get hard to find that post you wanted to se again. Let me know how I can improve it.

I made up everyone's content names because nobody provided any. Also, all of your pen-names are really long and time-consuming to write out.

BMW453 pointed out to me that I somehow missed posting these character illustrations here. My excuse is they actually predate this thread (all drawn around January 2010.)

For anyone who may not have seen them at the time, I made a set of paper dolls based off Dark Mirror characters for my drawing class. Sadly not even all the main characters made it in due to time constraints - I'd like to do more one day, but we'll have to see. In the images below I arranged them to roughly depict the first confrontation at the judge's castle, but because they're separate dolls you can rearrange them in real life to tell your own stories.

Smaller versions are posted here with links to larger versions. Left to right:

Yomu, Shanadar, Beorn, alt-Rapierian



K and Iannah



Katerei and alt-Avatara

Yomu says, Pool's closed.


KEEP WALKIN'

This post has been edited by Two Jacks: 28 January 2011 - 11:14 PM

The Contest

To make this easier to write and read, some names have been altered. Any reference to characters, real or imagined, is purely superficial.

The wind whistled through the open meadow. The afternoon sun cast a red glow everywhere, as the light beamed through the smoke of a distant fire. A dry scrub brush rolled across the packed ground where two lines of people stood, staring at each other in anticipation. The time had finally come to settle affairs between the characters and their alternates.

Retsy stood alone on top of a small mound of dirt, towering over everyone present. Holding up a megaphone to ensure everyone could hear her, she squeaked out, "Listen up everyone! The way this is going to work is you'll all take turns in an orderly manner. Each of you will square off against your alternate, and then the team with the most points at the end wins!"

"Let's get this started, I have places to be!" Raltperian said.

"All right, Katereis, you're up first!"

Katerei looked nervously at Kalterei as they both stepped up to the podium. "Okay, what do we do?" Katerei asked Retsy.

"It's simple. I'll give you a word, and the first one who spells it correctly wins a point for their team!" Retsy replied. "Are you ready?"

Both Katereis nodded.

"Your word is...betrayal!"

"B-E-T-" Kalterei started off quickly, not giving time for her opponent to react. "-R-A...Y..." her voice started wavering and she burst into tears.

"B-E-T-R-A-Y-A-L!" Katerei said, taking advantage of the opening.

"Correct! Point for the Cytherians!" Retsy shouted.

"Uh, we're both Cytherians," Katerei pointed out.

"Oh, right. Point for the originals!" Retsy amended. "Okay, next pair!"

The two Katereis stepped down and headed back to their place in line. Both Avataras began to walk forward. As Avatara passed Katerei, he gave her a high five, but as Avaltara passed Kalterei, they both turned their heads away.

"This will be easy," Avatara said as the two of them got into position.

After the two Avataras indicated they were ready, Retsy turned to them and said, "Your word is...antagonist!"

"S-E-L-A-X!" the two of them said in unison.

"You both lose, get back in line!" Retsy waved them away.

"I don't get it," Avatara grumbled as he stepped down.

"I would've won if not for that damn elemental! He always ruins my life!" Avaltara complained.

"Stop whining already, you two! Rapierians, you're up!" Retsy shouted into her megaphone, causing everyone to hold their ears and wince in pain.

"Such a good choice for an adversary. Only I would be able to fully understand the magnificence of my intellect, but it won't be enough to defeat me!" Rapierian boasted.

"We're ready," Raltperian said to Retsy, pointedly ignoring his alternate.

"Okay!" Retsy leaned forward, "Your word is...hubris!"

"Hah, a simple challenge! Now, I'll dazzle you all with my magnificence!" Rapierian dramatically reached into his cloak and pulled out a potion. He leaned back to throw it, but Shanadar and some nearby guards pounced on him, quickly restraining him.

"Using poison is against the rules," Shanadar said calmly as he bound Rapierian's hands in handcuffs.

"H-U-B-R-I-S," Raltperian said, unfazed by his alternate's attempt to kill him.

"Um...correct," Retsy sounded disappointed. "I guess that's a point for the alternates." The team of alternates cheered while the originals booed Rapierian off the stage. "All right, both teams are tied at 1! Since it's getting late and I'm hungry, the next point will win the game! Selax! You two are up!"

Both Selax and Saltax stepped up to the podium. A hush fell over the field as everyone leaned forward in anticipation. The ultimate showdown between the real characters and their alternates was about to be settled in a contest of wills between the two elementals. Surely they had thought long and hard about this day. Surely they had every possible outcome planned out, and a contingency plan in place for every possible reaction their opponent would make. Truly, this would be a showdown that would be remembered for ages.

Saltax tapped the microphone on the podium, checking to make sure it was on.

Selax stepped up. Everyone leaned a little closer. "Um..." he began.

"Um?" everyone asked.

"Uh...we just wanted to say that we're too busy with schoolwork to actually participate. If we had the time, we would have shown you something totally cool, but we don't, so good luck!" Selax said, and then they both stepped back to their place in the line.

There was a big sigh of disappointment from everyone.

"Well, I guess it can't be helped," Retsy said unenthusiastically. "I guess it is up to whoever is left to settle this."

All eyes turned to the back of the line. Yomu stood facing across from Firecat.

Well little mouse, would you like to play against the cat for some cheese? Firecat's voice spoke slyly in Yomu's head.

"I'll humor you just this once, friend," Yomu replied as they headed up on stage.

"We're doomed! Yomu can't spell his way out of a box!" Avatara muttered quietly to Katerei as they passed by.

"Are you two ready?" Retsy said as they stepped into position.

"We'll take up this challenge of yours," Yomu replied. Firecat nodded quietly.

"Okay then!" Retsy paused a moment for dramatic effect. "Your word is...photograph!"

Sorry, my little pet, but this victory goes to me! Firecat boasted. He stepped up to the microphone...and let out a loud meow.

There was a moment of silence. Probably because everyone was busy holding their ears. Finally, Raltperian pointed out, "He's a cat, what did you expect?"

"Uh, right," Retsy recovered. "I'm sorry. That's incorrect. Yomu, can you spell 'photograph'?"

"Take your time! Don't mess this up!" Avatara shouted.

Yomu shooed Firecat away from the microphone and then leaned forward. "Photograph?"

"Yes, that's correct. Now, spell it," Retsy prompted.

"P-H-O-T-O-" Yomu began, his voice gaining in confidence as he said the letters.

"Oh no," Avaltara muttered. "We're going to lose!"

"He might actually pull this off!" Katerei whispered excitedly to her team.

"-G-R-N-A-P-Q-T" Yomu finished triumphantly.

Yomu's team looked stunned. "Does it sound like there's a Q in 'photograph' to you?" Avatara snapped.

"He can't help it. It's a disease that has plagued him since birth," Katerei said, trying to calm him down.

"I totally would've rocked that word, if I had the time," Selax complained.

Retsy looked blankly at Yomu for a moment. She briefly considered calling up the next pair, until she saw the two Rythans standing in line. Deciding she wanted to eat dinner tonight instead of sometime next year, she picked up her megaphone and called out "Close enough! Point to the originals! The originals win!"

The alternates booed in disappointment. The originals all cheered. Except for Rythan, who protested being unable to get a chance to show off his seventeen volume manuscript on spelling common words.

Retsy held up her microphone one last time. "Thank you all for coming to the War of the Worlds! Join us next week as we face off again...with cooking!"

Very funny, Avatara. But I'm disappointed in the lack of a Wizards showdown; I take it they were too long getting to the contest to participate