( You can indeed. Your paw passes right through it, into the dark that you're entering. And as you walk in... ) ( The mirror's reflection becomes only you. Seems you won't be able to return the way that you came, but... That's fine. That's not new, for your Dark World adventures. )

( When you peer into the dark that the mirror projects, you see purple hills, eyes on the walls, and... no signs of life at all. Your call isn't answered whatsoever. Instead, your voice echoes through the area, as if it's in a hollowed out cave. )

( As if the nightmare answers your prayers, it seems you've found a chest. Opening it reveals... ) ( ... That seems to be a sword, black-and-orange with a bat hilt. It's not your weapon of choice, but do you take it? )

( As you approach the debris, you see behind it the form of a... That's a monster, isn't it? A deer monster. ) ( She turns to look at you, while sniffling. You get the impression she isn't like any Darkners here. If you've met her before, in fact, she may be familiar to you. )

(I'll get to replies I owe very soon!)

( You rush over to the castle in the center, and... ) ( The door is open. ) ( ... but there's no one inside. It's desolate inside, and it's the only thing standing in the entire area... everything else, destroyed. ) ( It seems like this is a dead end that leads you nowhere... )

( Your exasperation ends up just echoing against blue and purple cliffs. Whoever dragged you in here, they aren't here to answer for it. A shame. ) ( As you wander aimlessly forward, which is pretty much the only direction you can go... you pass by... ) ( ... oh, that's a destroyed building. )

( And jump through, you do. And for a while, you fall. ) ( It's not a very graceful fall. There's some kind of narrative irony in you and Noyno both falling, but differently. ) ( Not that you would know about that. ) ( ...in any case, you land with a graceless THUD. )

( They start, when they hear you. One hides behind the other — until they seem to recognize you. ) ( Then, they relax. ) "Oh, it's just you," ( one says. Which is puzzling, as you've never met them before. You don't have any idea who they are. )

( Your caution only makes the echoes of your footsteps that much louder. The sound reverberates throughout the dark corridor, loud and crackling. ) ( Your observation of the statues gives you specific forms to look at; you might have caught brief sight of them, when you met Ralsei. )

( It's very weird, isn't it? And unnatural. The echo indicates how little life there seems to be in the particular corridor you found yourself in. And it's very much a corridor — you're surrounded by pure darkness, pinching your path on both sides. ) ( No way to go but forward. )

( You have no reason to suspect that today would be different. ) ( Hometown has behaved normally for you. An average day, in the aftermath of multiple like it. Some Dark World adventures, certainly, but nothing out of the ordinary outside of that. You have a lot on your mind, but... )

( The Dark World is pretty familiar to you. You think you know it well. After all, you've created one fountain yourself; why wouldn't you know it? ) ( When you're visiting Castle Town, it seems normal to you. Normal, that is... Until you find a path that wasn't there before. )

( You're an amalgam of disparate parts in a world like this. Such a strange state of existence... and maybe, that's why you're the one called upon? Is it fate? Or is it, perhaps, something else? )

( You've seen the Dark World before. Brought Darkners to justice within it, at Cole's word. You know what it's like in there, despite how... strange it is. You get used to it, after you're in there for a while. ) ( And yet, even those used to it could be caught off guard. Just a little change... )

( And so, enter you do. Your palette gives it away, that this is indeed a Dark World that you've stepped into. And... it's a quiet and desolate one. ) ( You've never seen this part of the Dark World. This is no bustling city, nor is it even a pleasant town. )

( You've seen the darkest of dark. You have experience with it, in fact. Secrets you keep to yourself. Aspects of a journey you went through, that others don't know about. ) ( Traversing through the dark comes naturally to you. ) ( That's why you know something suspicious when you see it. )

( Finding glitches just seemed to be a natural pastime for you. Almost every game you touched, you'd find one. You have a knack for it... Like as if you're able to find all the cracks. ) ( You never would have thought that extended to reality. Who would? Those are just games. )

( As a prince of the dark, you should be intimately familiar with the feeling of something not being right with the Dark Worlds. YOURS is intact — for now. But, you can sense encroaching dark on the horizon. It belongs to a world parallel to yours... but it threatens the balance you uphold. )

A reminder this event has a Discord server! Its link is within the Google doc. (I fear the bots will get me if I post it.)

( The earth trembles. She breathes as the air crackles electric. The signs are there, in corners here and there; the Dark World is restless, struggling against its confines. It's hard to say what caused the instability, exactly. Maybe it's hopes and dreams gone wrong. Too much hoping and dreaming. )

THREADS