#dark mirror

“Did our heresy not repulse you?” There was a trace of humour in her voice.

Dornuk shrugged again. “Lady Hashladûn sought to resurrect the Taken King. He had died, and no one had taken His mantle. Could there have been a greater heresy than this? We communed with the Deep, but it offered no answers, and it did not stay our hand. The Sky, though…” He didn’t know how to put it into words. This sudden, unexpected wholeness he’d felt when he’d first entered the Throne World, as if an ancient longing deep within him that he’d not known of before had finally been sated. “The Sky gives us rain that isn’t poison. I don’t know how else to say it.”

The Queen smiled softly, eyes-only. “I think I understand.”

The Knight gurgled in pain and collapsed, blood gushing out of their jaws. Dornuk saw it in slow motion: the sprinkle of black over marble, their massive form folding in half and crumpling to the ground, the flash of light as their Ghost came into view. The Guardian raised the gun again. Dornuk lunged forward.

Ten thousand years will give you such a cramp in the face!

Makes you wonder, where does the face go after the entrance ceremony anyway? Is it just dormant until next fall?

Does anybody ever talk to it? Does Crowley pop into the mirror chamber for a chat after he's done polishing the portraits of the Great Seven?

Has anyone even tried asking it what it meant when they said Yuu's world was beyond its sight or didn't exist or whatever it said in the prologue, I can't remember off the top of my head.

How does it feel about its monopoly on being a magical mirror's current upheaval by the Mickey Mirror in Ramshackle Dorm?

Why do the markings on its face look like Overblot eye patterns?

(The Art of Star Trek, 1995)

And while it doesn't necessarily look meaner that's what I've picturing ever since.

The exact quote btw:

It was Enterprise. But not his Enterprise. It was a dark gray, even enlarged, a gunmetal color, cool and unfriendly. The design was overtly the same—the great sloped disk of the primary hull, the nacelles, the secondary hull, all where they should be. But the secondary hull seemed larger, the nacelles were raked farther forward, and lower. The primary hull’s curve was deeper and now had a frowning look about it. If ships had expressions, this one had its eyes narrowed. It was a cruel look, and intimidating. Just visible, because of the rake of the primary hull, were the characters ICC 1701-D ISS ENT— The rest was curved away out of sight.

Come to think of it, it also gives me a bit this Andrew Probert design:

General NRC / World Headcanons

Magic mirror gossip: The Dark Mirror absolutely judges students’ outfits internally but would never say it out loud.

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listen. the Dark Mirror is thinking thoughts.

because you cannot convince me that a sentient, ancient magical artifact that has been staring at teenagers for literal centuries does not immediately go:

“hm.”

every single time someone steps in front of it.

it sees everything. the confidence. the delusion. the “this looked better in my head” outfits.

like imagine it watching:

a student walk up in a perfectly coordinated, couture-level dorm uniform → ah. taste. restraint. effort.

immediately followed by someone wearing three clashing colors, a cape they absolutely did not need, and boots that are screaming for mercy → fascinating. bold. wrong, but bold.

heartslabyul freshmen showing up day one dressed like they googled “tea party aesthetic” at 3 am → ah yes. i see the trauma forming already.

but the Mirror? says nothing. not a word. it just announces the dorm in that calm, ominous voice like it didn’t just mentally drag someone through the dirt.

because it is professional. it has decorum. it has seen worse.

and you KNOW internally it’s like:

“i have survived wars, curses, and royal scandals. i will survive this outfit.”