MIRRORS

Mirrors reflect the truths of the world. Many of these truths are universally accepted, but there is a large chunk that the universe pretends doesn't exist. Truths that hide just underneath the surface. Just as we often cast our flaws in shadow when gazing at our own reflections, the universe too casts its own darkness. The mirrors don't differentiate between which truths to hide or which ones to reveal—everything is brought forward. Hard truths don't have to be ugly. It's entirely possible for them even to be beautiful, in fact, but that depends on your perception on the matter.

That's a word we're going to talk about a lot here, perception, from the Latin perceptio. With every single person comes a wholly unique perception; with so many different viewpoints how can we hope to paint a solid truth onto the page we're given? That's what history is...is it not? A solid truth for any curious to look back on. Unfortunately, unequivocal truth isn't something that can exist in our world, as there is always the possibility for someone's perception to differ. So, we value the perceptions of the majority—this we call canon. What the majority believe must be what is true—for that many people can't have it wrong...right? Sometimes, we get so caught up in our own colors that we forget we have painted a mess of reds and browns, getting so stuck in thinking that the way things are are the way they have to be. We look not in the mirrors but in what we think the mirrors would show us—what we want the mirrors to show us.

We shake our heads and ponder our current situation, wondering just how it could have come to this, and then turn the page to try again, not realizing we've turned the same page over only to repaint a horrid black over the previous splotches of paint. Sometimes we need to tear the page out and start fresh. Sometimes action causes pain, and sometimes it removes the pain altogether.

A new page turns—a cycle once chained by two souls has broken and the tides have shifted. Constants and deviations govern our universe and others like our own. Constants and deviations are what create life and its many uniquities. So quickly does the flower wilt and split the path in two—a choice to live or to die forks off into another possibility. Our universe has always occupied one such possibility. Our universe has always been very different from yours. Its fate was left up to one human—the one centered at the crux of its history. His decision created a new possibility by erasing the previous.

As the butterfly flaps its wings a hurricane is created far off in the distance. Our new possibility will have different casualties, different survivors, even a different hurricane, but such is the life that was chosen. Without our suffering our universe cannot exist, and without sad endings happy ones cannot be created. Devon knew this. In the final moments before his consciousness was wiped from the old possibility he understood the consequences of his actions. He put aside his own desires to give a new possibility for those who had less than a chance in his. It was a decision that heavied his heart, but lucky for him it was only heavy for an attosecond before his mind was destroyed completely.

In this new possibility we shall work our way through how things have changed for several lives that once existed in the old possibility. We're going to be stopping at several major faces, and I'll highlight some of the more minor changes as additions to the majors as we continue along. Who I am...we'll get there, I promise. For now, just follow along and everything shall make sense. Our journey back takes us to the early twentieth century—we're going to see the originator of it all.