TRIAL OF MIRROR LAKE: STARLITLOVER

Tuesday again? Several problems.

Adarsa's hand had found the button as soon as it flickered back to life, and he stood again in Seta's crimson halls. He limped to where SETA was waiting- next to that same statue, with the duck. Ducklett. Whatever. He looked up at the Gatekeeper, face determined, even if it looked like he'd been crying for an hour beforehand.

It had been a rather long week.

Adarsa swallowed heavily, leveling a finger at Seta. "You think I don't have perspective?" He started, voice decidedly weepy. "You don't leave here- you don't know who we are, or what we do." He was, what- a stupid computer program.

Adarsa looked up into the gold mask- gold like cuff links, like embossed edges of well-read books, like chains and eyes. "The perspective I have tells me that coming back is awful. It's agony, and it's pain, and it's worse than how it feels leaving! And that isn't a pain I'd wish on anyone!"

"... but..." Ada's hand grasped, uselessly, at nothing. "... but if you go back... that means there's a chance things will be different... isn't there?" He forced himself to look away, at the ducklett- just as gold, but more weathered. "Doesn't he deserve a second chance?"

If there was a hope for this one ducklett- was there a chance for him? For them?

The guardian seemed to relent, leading Adarsa amidst a small speech about grief and change. Which Ada didn't really need, at present, but he kept his mouth shut so the guy wouldn't kick him out again. He just followed obediently, until seta led him to- not even a door, just an opening carved in the stone walls, leading to blackness.

Adarsa stepped through, and was awash with sound- grasses and brush, crickets and cicadas and tree frogs, the crunch of grass underfoot. "How-" He turned, and the hall- and guardian- were gone, just the rest of the small clearing.

".... um. Okay." Adarsa said, looking a bit more- as if it were still there, but just hidden- before giving up and moving to sit by the lake.

He liked sitting by water- there was a park, where he lived, and it had a little lake or pond or whatever- and ducks or geese lived there, and little fish under the water.

And, sometimes, the memory of playing with his brother, splashing along the edge, before everything fell apart.

Adarsa looked over the water, the silver-still surface, letting himself fall into contemplation. Maybe... maybe there was a lesson here. Meeting up with Mars again had beem awful, and the same with Atsushi. Maybe he was meant to be alone? Just him and books and some cat, or something.

Maybe there wasn't actually hope at all.

Adarsa groaned. He'd vagued about his breakups to a creepy guy and had gotten teleported to a random lake. Great job.

He turned, on his hands and knees, to look over the water. It was perfectly still, despite the breeze, and... Failing the perception check, it looked fine, if he ignored the fact he wasn't there. Adarsa frowned, twisting and moving a bit as if that would coax his reflection into being. It didn't.

He turned, looking back towards the treeline. "Hey- um, guy!" He called, having utterly forgotten seta's name. "The lake is b-"

Something grabbed tight onto his wrist, and ripped him down into the lake.