Somewhere around here, if my sieve serves me. Can't look better right now, sorry.

t /re-lurks

Nilly, you're a superhero.

e. says it is different on the other side. upside-down, you are staring at your own insides, a thing and itself and a reflection and sliding into one another. it is hard to say which moves first. it gets mixed up and moving and the i and the me get lost.

but we may be different creatures with different sorts of eyes for looking.

//Not here, mistress. And I need some more sleep.//

//Okay, Dagfari. Talk to you later.//

"Hector, have you seen a, err, a teddy bear anywhere around? I seem to have... *mislaid* mine."

"I don't think so. Here- could be behind the couch. Let's look."

Penny leaves, and Hector and I set to some serious hunting.

"What's so important about this bear?" Hector asks, as we look under the chairs. Aimee and Miracleman stop talking and look at me, frowning.

"It's an evil bear," I explain to them all. "I was looking after it for a friend, you know- the way you do. She tries to take over the universe from time to time. I have a theory that she was allowed to watch too much Voyager at some point- seems to fancy herself as Queen of the Borg. It's a bit..."

I catch the look on Miracleman's face. "We'll find her, don't worry. She can't have got far." A rapid dive behind the couch saves me from the first blast of angry magic.

Yes! I managed to climb out through the letter box, and now I'm free!

Wild and free in Sang Sacre. Few things in this life are more fun- or more dangerous.

The moon is shining as I toddle- I'd stride, but it's hard for a bear in a skirt- down the street, stopping to admire myself in the puddles as I go. It must have rained while we were inside, there's water everywhere.

I don't mind. My fur will dry out soon enough, and in the meantime there are all these wonderful mirrors.

In the middle of the street, there's an especially large and wonderful puddle. No cars are around, so I wander across to look in it: but it doesn't reflect as a normal mirror would. I lean closer- are there people in there?

There are. I'm about to shout to them, or at the very least try and see who they are, when an unexpected van comes rushing down the street and straight over me. Face-first, I fall into whatever is on the other side of the mirror.

We were continuing quite quickly along the sidewalk when she suddenly wrenched my arm back. I jerk around-- she's twisted out of the grasp of my arm altogether-- and am about to yell at her, when I see she's not trying to fight, or run. Her expression is quite sick, in fact. She's swaying a little, at the knees, like she's about to fall over, and her hands are clutched at her chest.

I put a hand out, to catch her weight, but when my skin touches hers I get a quick, light shock of electricity, and I have to snatch it back in pain. She drops to the pavement a little heavily. Her head drops forward, and her whole body shudders. I can hear her whispering-- snatches of words, phrases almost swallowed in her mouth. this is not my body this is your own body this is this is and I own it and the grasses I will not I will not leave this -- I look around, frantic, at the people passing along the sidewalk, neatly sidestepping our panicked little scene. Would anybody know how to perform first aid assistance on a possibly-not-human evil twin? What exactly is happening to her? And will anybody stop for us if I start to beg for help? The level of unusual activity Sacre residents are inured against can be unhelpful at the most crucial of times.

I look back at her, and she's gone suddenly silent. Her body's still. I hold my breath. Then her head jerks back up, and she looks straight at me. Her eyes aren't quite as distracted as it was before-- it's still almost weird in its placidity, but less fuzzy, now, more focused. Directer. She stands, and says, politely, "I'm sorry. I didn't want to interrupt you, but I had to deal with that. It was a matter of immediate urgency. I'm not interested in leaving you quite yet." The clothes I put on her are gone now, replaced by another white robe. Static electricity crackles through her hair.

Her voice isn't any different, though. Hmph.

I look at her a little apprehensively. "Are you sure you're not related to Mary Sue at all?"

"A few metatextual familial relationships. But nothing you should worry about." She regards me steadily. "That's not my name at all. I came out of you; or I was you before you touched the mirror. You already know my name."

He me I just stands there sneering at me I he, fingering his black goatee absently.

"Listen, Snidely," I say. "Do you want to stay here?"

My teeth are chattering. I shouldn't be able to be cold, what with the stone body and all, but I am. It's not cold like winter but cold like an open wound, cold like hope draining away.

"Of course I don't want to stay here," he says. "I don't know who lives here, but they've got a serious problem with negative space."

"So we need to look for a way out."

"Does this mean we're going to make one of those cheezy truces, like when BJ and the Bear save Sheriff Lobo from crazy hillbillies and after they're out of the woods he gives them a half-hour head start?"

"Who says I'm giving you a head start?"

"Who says you're Sheriff Lobo?"

"Dudes, do you really want to kill each other?"

I consider the question for a moment. He bothers me, with his smug self-righteousness and his White Leather Pants. Why not just wear a Stetson and an ascot? But I don't particularly want to kill him. I want him to leave me alone.

But not here.

"All right. I won't try to kill you, if you won't try to bring me to justice."

"Well, you're safe for the nonce."

Nonce. Now I want to kill him. But it passes. It's too cold to really think about killing. My black leather pants do nothing to keep out the chill.

"What about him?" I motion at the lump on the couch.

"I think we need him. He seems to understand more about this place than we do."

"That's because I live here, man. I'm not going out there. It's too, like, harsh. I got everything I need right here."

"Except deodorant," I snap, and there's a moment of disorientation so horrible I'm sure I'm dying. My eyes spin around to examine the back of their sockets, and my intestines play tiddlywinks with my vertebrae.

When it passes sweat is freezing on my skin. "What was that?" I'm not sure if it's him or me that asks it.

"Just a mirror storm. They don't blow through here much. I got a handle on things here."

"We can't stay here," says the Do-Gooder. "We need you to come with us."

"I don't think so, man. Outside of this little bubble, this whole place is a mirror storm. And it's cold."

"I don't care about your damn bubble," I say. "We need to get out."

"Why?"

This one, I do want to kill.

The Difficult one grabs me by my shirt. It tears, and he grabs me by the neck. He's got a wild look in his eyes.

He does look kind of like Snidely Whiplash. All he needs is a hat.

"Dude. Doblerize, man. Chill."

"Listen!" He's freaking out on me. "We--are--leaving! And you, my odoriferous twin, are coming with us! Do you understand?"

"All right, all right. Take a pill, man. We'll go. It'll be a quest, like Final Fantasy. Only no saves, so don't get killed."

"Good advice," says the Do-Gooder. "You can let go of him now," he says.

As Difficult comples it strikes me that the Do-Gooder is like Dudley to Difficult's Snidely, and I laugh out loud. They both glare at me, only Snidely does it with a sneer.

I wonder if I should tell them about the monsters who live in the shadows and I decide it's not that big a deal.

"Let me grab my stuff," I say, and pick up the bag of Doritos. "OK, I'm ready." I scan the floor. "Wait."

"What?"

"Did one of you guys bring a teddy bear?"

I assess the situtation quickly. Three men, all with simliar apperances, wearing different colours of leather pants- and all backwards?

Yes, backwards. This must be a mirror universe, like Am used to go on about when she was studying Theocracker's History of Bizzarre and Twisted Circumstances. Oh dear. Better get this over with.

"Hi," I say, with the best smile I can manage. "Do any of you happen to know Clovis?"