#echo in the mirror

[nikonikonek000]

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep - A Fragmentary Passage - The World Within

[attackoneyebrows]

Didn't he take another man's life to save yours? He was defending himself. He was defending you.

[levi-venn]

Mirror Squad

An HC I need to get out of my head so I can move on with my life (Hah, jokes on you, Levi, Bad Batch is your life).

So...Hemlock created a mirror image of the Bad Batch called the Mirror Squad, but it's not what you think. Turns out these clones were the ORIGINAL Bad Batch.

Their names: Crunch (Wrecker), Striker (Hunter), Circuit (Tech), Void (Echo/Memento - See Notes), and CX-2 aka Headshot (Crosshair).

Striker and Hunter

Circuit and Tech

Void and Echo

Crunch and Wrecker

Headshot and Crosshair

The Mirror Squad - Origin Story Concept

The Mirror Squad were the first batch of Experimental Unit Clone Commandos created on Kamino: Striker, Crunch, Circuit, Void, and Headshot. They were decommissioned due to their rebellious and unpredictable nature which made them a liability rather than an asset to the future Clone Army.

Because the Experimental Clone Program was an expensive endeavor, the Kaminoans did not decommission these clones, but rather put them in stasis for later research. They tried again another batch of experimental clones and this time only four clones survived: Hunter, Tech, Wrecker, Memento (see note) and Crosshair.

Note: Memento did not survive past his cadet years. Void and Echo's parallel are a coincidence.

When Kamino was evacuated, Hemlock scooped up the original Bad Batch squad, still in stasis within their pods. These clones were the first to be brainwashed and reprogrammed by Hemlock. Although their memories were wiped, their instincts to work as a cohesive unit remained.

Technically, the Bad Batch is a mirror image of what the original Clone Force 99 almost was, but this squad's official name is Mirror Squad.

[sollucets]

love for love's sake || episode three

[dumbnotstupidfuck]

shout out to brandon rodgers for giving us a bone chilling vocal delivery of ‘well, I’m not letting you, bitch’ that sounded straight out of every abuser’s playbook when you try to break things off, 10/10 no notes

[fantasy-seal]

"Comfort"

Fan art of Thorn and Ophelia from the Mirror Visitor book series, specifically in this painting the last book, the Storm of Echoes

[essektheylyss]

Seriously watching those two clips of the Essek reveals back to back was such a good idea. Their shock vs their excitement is so fun to watch.

FOR REAL. Honestly I am going to have thoughts and analysis tomorrow about how these scenes are virtually PERFECT echoes (ha) (or perhaps mirrors (extra ha)!) of each other physically, emotionally, and narratively, but for now I am just absolutely SCREECHING.

[lamaenthel]

people talking about echo's hand and I'm just sitting here vibrating with anxiety because he's in blank white stormtrooper armor. ya know, just like how Fives was wearing a random shiny's armor when he died

[mollysunder]

You guys notice how Melinoe and Hypnos might be playing out a much lower stakes version what happened between Narcissus and Echo? It's less about a doomed unrequited love, and more about projecting a false image onto a person that prevents you from ever connecting with them.

In the story, Narcissus is lost and can't see Echo, but Echo sees him and falls in love with him. And instead of listening to what Narcissus actually said, Echo projected onto him what she wanted to hear, a love confession. The misunderstanding dooms Echo to heartbreak and Narcissus to his death.

Once Hypnos wakes up, or they somehow meet in a dream, Melinoe will realize she kind of built a version of Hypnos in her head that doesn't exist. But instead of letting things go south, she'd recognize that it wasn't fair to Hypnos or herself to assume this romanticized version of him was the real him and she'd get to know the real Hypnos, this goofy muppet of a god.

Maybe that could be the resolution to Echo and Narcissus' story too. Right now they're both the inverse of each other's curse. Echo can only live as the reflection of other people's thoughts and voices. Even when you try to help her speak you're still putting words in her mouth and projecting what YOU think she wants to say her own identity is more a construction of your assumptions. Meanwhile, Narcissus' own curse has him project his self-obsession onto us where we must be as into him as he is with himself now and is largely disconnected from others because of it.

To break their curses means their own sense of selves need to finally be righted, and they'd take in each other as who they are, rather than their own idea that doomed them.

[nikonikonek000]

[mrs-trophy-wife]

“What comes back to you matches what you are putting out.”

—Abraham Hicks

[tarmac-rat]

The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman

[dathen]

Van Helsing grabbing Arthur by the neck and hurling him away to save Arthur from Lucy’s offered kiss

Dracula grabbing the blonde vampire woman by the neck and throwing her across the room to save Jonathan from their ‘kisses’

The three suitors and their deference to Arthur mirroring the three Weird Sisters with the blonde woman as their leader

Lucy at the same time echoing Jonathan lying helpless in the castle and the vampires preying on him

[sollucets]

love for love's sake || episode eight

[snapeaddict]

Snapetober Day 14 - Perpetual

Summer of 1998

The gargoyle gave way - Harry quickly climbed the flight of stairs leading to the Headmaster's office. He did it with relative apprehension. He had not been invited, had not even requested a meeting; yet he was granted passage, and he hoped that was a good omen.

He wanted to speak with Dumbledore, once and for all. He needed it. Then he would finally try to let go, to think ahead, and continue to grieve. One last conversation and he would leave the school for twelve months before coming back to complete his seventh year: they had all agreed upon this break, even Hermione. 

But he stopped, well before the threshold. There was something - a sound - resembling sobs coming from the office: desperate weeping that could not be muffled, no matter how hard one tried. He listened.

Slowly, he climbed the last steps and froze. 

Professor McGonagall was standing in the middle of the office. In front of her, on the headmaster's desk, lay what looked like a portrait, recently unwrapped; the frame was of a rusty colour.

That was all Harry could see. 

Slowly, the new headmistress turned around the desk to face the portrait of Albus Dumbledore. Her hands were shaking. 

"Albus... perhaps we should wait. Just... just until he wakes up..."

Dumbledore shook his head.

When his voice rose, Harry was struck by how tainted with grief it was. If Professor McGonagall was crying, he instinctively expected the former headmaster to take on the role of the grave, comforting figure: but his voice, if that was even possible, sounded even weaker than the headmistress'. 

"I am afraid Severus made himself clear", Dumbledore said, closing his eyes briefly. "No portrait."

McGonagall was wringing her hands. 

"I cannot - I - please. No. I need to tell him first... how sorry I am..."

"My dear-"

"You have had your chance, Albus", she cut him acerbically. "I did not."

For a moment she could not speak. She tried to calm herself down, and Harry watched as she reached the desk for support. She looked fragile - exhausted. 

"You have no idea... no idea what I have said... or done", she whispered after a while. "No idea."

"Severus never held any of it against you, Minerva", the former headmaster said sadly, almost hesitantly. "He knew... what his role entailed."

"I need to speak to him!" the headmistress shouted, jerking her head to look straight into his eyes again.

The features of her face were distorted by pain - her gaze was wet, red and terrible - she struggled to breathe. 

"I need to speak to him", she muttered again, leaning more heavily on the desk. Then it seemed that she could not take it any longer and turned her face away from Dumbledore's, back to the portrait that led beside her. "I must speak to him."

"I cannot let you do that."

"You sent him to his death!"

The silence was heavy- atrocious. Harry watched as the former headmaster lowered his head in shame, and he stepped back, almost falling down - this could not be... Dumbledore would never...

"No matter what you tell yourself, Albus", McGonagall said after a while, coldly - "No matter what you tell yourself or how much we owe you, the fact remains. He is dead - I must tell him that I am sorry. I must tell him... how much I cared for him. He must know that I mourned him as much as I mourned you, when he... when he... he must know."

Dumbledore shook his head.

"Severus had little if any agency over his life, Minerva. He was never in control. He decided against a portrait. Could you face him once more, having denied his wishes even in death?"

In response, the headmistress only made a strangled sound and took her head in her hands, throwing herself into the headmaster's chair in defeat.  

She looked like a woman who would never recover. 

"You know how this works, Minerva", Dumbledore spoke softly, cautiously. "Severus was not alive when this portrait was painted. He did not teach it anything. That portrait will be less than a mirror - we poured so much of ourselves into our portraits, whereas he -"

"But it still will be a faint imprint. The level of sentience also depends on the power of the wizard depicted - you know this portrait will retain something of him. It has to."

The painted Dumbledore stood up.

"It will. And this version of Severus - this echo - will understand that his very existence and cognizance are to be the result of us having ignored his last wishes, only to cleanse ourselves - to relieve ourselves from guilt."

McGonagall shook her head, but said nothing. 

"Severus' wishes deserve to be respected, Minerva, more than even you deserve to apologise to him. It must be so - it cannot be otherwise."

She remained silent.

"Let him be in control. Let him decide. What he was never granted in life, he needs to be granted in death. I apologise, Minerva - I never wanted to inflict this pain on either of you. I tried to save him... he was to come out of this alive... you must believe me."

Then they fell silent.

After a while, McGonagall took out her wand and laid it before her, her face unreadable. She looked up.

"So you get the chance to apologise to me, Albus. You can and you will. But I cannot. I never will, even though I have a chance, even a half-chance..."

"This is not Severus."

"I know!"

She seized her wand and pointed it at the portrait on the desk, standing up furiously.

"I am glad, Albus", she said coldly, her voice suddenly strangely calm.

Blue flames came out of her wand and wrapped the portrait with blinding vigour. From where he stood, Harry saw the paper slowly come out of the frame, writhe in the fire, grow distorted and black; it took only a few seconds for it to be reduced to ashes, and it was then that he noticed all the headmasters and headmistresses around the office standing up, paying their respects.

The light of the flames made the tears on McGonagall's face shimmer faintly. She watched the portrait burn until nothing but the frame remained.

After a while she turned away, her face dry, and looked once more at Dumbledore.

"I am glad", she said again, and the former headmaster did not hold her gaze. "I will blame myself for the rest of my life - I will never get to apologise - but so will you. And your penitence, Albus, will last perpetually."