SNAPCRAFT | Ch. 51 - Hall of Mirrors

Author's Note:

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Rebeltown wasn’t so much a neighborhood but more the ruins of one. It was the only part of the capital left from before Daisy took over. It was summer, and despite the late hour, the last rays of the sun were still more than enough to let Kai see the landscape clearly. Kai and Alex had dared each other to come here at night when they were boys.

All of the buildings had pre-turnover architecture, which meant that there were some beautifully worked details in the facades of the buildings strong enough to be still standing. Back then, people had cared about making things beautiful, but once Daisy took over, all houses gained the same boring, cookie-cutter, box-like look.

Even though Kai wanted to spare more attention to the ruins, navigating this place without keeping a close eye on where he walked wasn't easy. The road's asphalt was riddled with holes, and the piles of rubble and building debris made the floor irregular.

Legend had it that before erosion even got started in this neighborhood, there had been holes and debris aplenty. This was supposed to be one of the places that hadn’t accepted the turnover and fired every single bullet and exploded every bomb they could get their hands on before Daisy finished dismantling all the weapons on the planet.

He wasn’t sure if the story about a resistance was true or not. The man who had told him the tale was precisely the one he was looking for. Kai tried finding the place he’d been to only once, relying on a six-year-old memory and eventually found the distinct pile of rubble.

He could identify it because of the color of the stone and the nearby landmarks. The stone in this rubble was mostly white, presumably the color of the building that had given birth to it. Next to it were the mangled remains of a statue. The head had been cut off, and an arm and a leg were missing, but the monument had withstood the abuse of time and the horrors of war enough for Kai to make out its humanoid shape. He climbed what was left of the stairs and spotted what he was looking for.

Despite living a fifteen-minute walk away from a full city with thousands of empty houses, Old Seth insisted on living in a tent in this old place. Kai hadn’t even known that Old Seth existed until his name was drafted, and Daisy’s cybermonkeys came to fetch him and drag him to the exams. When he and Alex had gone to Trudy to ask about Seth, the response they got was that he was a crazy, old lunatic.

Kai walked toward the tent and called out, “Seth? You there?” A tent had no door to knock on, so shouting for the old man was the only thing that Kai could think of doing.

“Kai?”

A man in his sixties emerged from the tent. He had a warm jacket that Kai would never have worn in the summer but that the man kept buttoned up from top to bottom. The man’s hair was mostly gray, even though one or two black hairs stubbornly resisted in losing vigor. Even though the years tried to drag the man down, which was reflected in the hunched way he walked, he was still freakishly tall, much taller than Kai, only making him look older.

“Why on earth are you here, boy?”

“Hey, Seth. It’s been a few years. We need to talk.”

*

As Kai phased through the colorful wall, he was met with something he wasn’t expecting. Next to where he stood were two teenagers who were pointing and laughing at multiple variations of them. Some of the boys were freakishly tall and impossibly thin; others were bent in impossible shapes, making them look like twisted creatures. It took a few moments for him to figure out the reason for the disturbing illusion.

“Mirrors,” he whispered.

“That is correct. This is what is known as a house of mirrors.”

Kai approached one of the walls and looked at it at an angle, revealing the reflective glass. “And people enjoy seeing themselves in these distorted shapes?” asked Kai as he saw the two boys comment on their favorite variation of their appearances.

Maia shrugged dismissively. “Human psychology is beyond me. But if you would like to have the historical and physical perspective of this attraction, I’m happy to oblige.”

“It’s OK, thank you.”

“Very well, then.” Kai took a deep breath. He hadn’t meant it as ‘It’s OK, please share this useless trivia to distract me from getting allcure to save my life and that of my wife, and please, entertain me with your knowledge of history and physics.’ No. He had meant it as ‘It’s OK. I can do without the trivia. Please, just be quiet and let me work.’ Maia had chosen to believe the first.

“No one knows what the first funfair Hall of Mirrors was, but some people suggest it was inspired by a gallery with the same name built in the 17th century in the Palace of Versailles.”

“Great. That’s interesting,” commented Kai sarcastically as he tried to think of how to use this discovery. He tuned Daisy out as she went on about how convex and concave glass reflect light differently.

Back in the quarry, he had seen how powerful the [Mirror] card was. If he could just copy his mythic cards, he could cheat his way into the next round, possibly even to the finals. If memory served him right, the [Mirror] card had four hp. Did that mean he could get eight mega scrap droids if he took two pictures of [Mirror]? Would Daisy let him do that?

He looked at Maia, who was still discussing glass curvature and photons, and frowned. Why was she so chatty if this was such a great opportunity? Usually, when he was close to making a big discovery, she went dead quiet as if afraid of letting him know how close he was to getting a good card. Had Daisy picked up on the android’s tell? Or was Kai missing something here?

He approached the laughing young men and positioned himself to capture them, but when trying to frame them, he realized that things weren't going to be as simple as he had first imagined.

In the quarry, it has been challenging to find the right angle where the still water of the lake reflected the above landscape. At the same time, it had only been one mirror. Here, every single wall was a mirror. A thousand reflections of the boys stretched in every possible direction, distorted in every imaginable shape. How was he supposed to get the picture for a mirror when wherever he looked, the light bounced off mirrors indefinitely?

As he looked through the viewfinder, seeing the never-ending reflections stretching in all directions, he couldn't help but think of a card he had previously obtained through crafting. There might be an opportunity here anyway, so he decided to take a picture.

Capture successful.

Tries left: 9 of 22.

Infinity (Legendary)

1 of 1

An endless, limitless extent or quantity without a specific bound or endpoint.

Hp: 0

Vp: 11

Here it was—the legendary [Infinity] card. He had previously obtained this card by merging two [Mirror] cards but now got it through capturing. It was a good card that gave him a generous quantity of victory points, but he would have preferred it if he had gotten a [Mirror] card instead.

Possibly copying mythical cards he already owned made [Mirror] much more valuable than [Infinity]. It wasn't that he didn't have the possibility of copying cards using the photocopying machine upgrade, but the mirror card was almost a cheat card, allowing him to copy a legendary card without having to sacrifice other ones. If it also could copy mythic cards, then it could possibly be one of the most powerful cards in the trial.

However, how was he supposed to get a [Mirror] card if the Hall of Mirrors was rigged for him only to get [Infinity] instead? No wonder that Maia had stayed so chatty. It wasn't that there weren't mirrors here or valuable opportunities to discover, but the photograph wouldn't be easy to take.

Kai walked around, looking for a way to get a [Mirror] card. He hadn't realized this when he first entered the hall, but this ride was designed as a maze. As light bounced from mirror to mirror, the resulting optical illusions could easily make someone get lost. It was a strange feeling to walk in a hall of mirrors without seeing one’s reflection. Kai wondered if there was an upgrade like the one that gave him his shadow back but instead gave him his reflection. Perhaps that new [Tangibility] upgrade did just that.

Unable to see himself in the mirror, he just followed after the new arrivals. It was a couple and a young boy. The family walked through the hall of mirrors excitedly. The husband kept reminding his wife to resist the urge to touch the walls, not to ruin the fun of making it through the maze, but the wife kept cheating. The boy just kept laughing, not really caring about the ride but just happy to be with his parents.

Kai followed after them and realized that there wasn't a single angle that allowed him to get just one simple reflection similar to the one that had gained him a [Mirror] card in the quarry. As far as he could tell, the only place where he could get a simple reflection was near the end of the labyrinth, and it was with a convex mirror that made things look bigger than they were. Would he still get [Mirror] despite the distorted reflection? On the one hand, he didn’t have that many shots left, but on the other, he had much to gain.

He waited a couple of minutes for the next group to walk by. It was a young couple. As they faced the mirror, creating only one simple twisted reflection of themselves, Kai took a photograph, ensuring he got both the couple and their distorted form in the mirror.

Capture successful!

Tries left: 8 of 22.

Funhouse Mirror (Rare)

1 of 3

A curved mirror that creates a twisted reflection.

Hp: 4

Vp: 3

He looked at the card, surprised. It wasn't exactly a [Mirror], but it seemed to be fairly similar. What would happen if he copied a card using [Funhouse Mirror]? Would he get a perfect copy or a twisted one? And what did the twisted copy of a card look like? Facing the hidden potential here, he decided to take a second photograph.

Capture successful!

Tries left: 7 of 22.

Funhouse Mirror (Rare)

2 of 3

A curved mirror that creates a twisted reflection.

Hp: 4

Vp: 3

Kai took a last walk around and, satisfied with what he had done here, felt ready to move on. This had been a good stop in his tour, but he still had a few shots left and more of the fair to explore. He still hadn't gotten any clues as to whether recipes were hidden in this fair map. If there were, looking at the number of tries he had left on his camera, he wasn't even sure if he had enough slots to get the ingredients. If he did find a recipe, his only hope was that he had inadvertently already collected some of the ingredients.

Studying the map, he reckoned there was still about a third of the fair to explore. He spared a look at his opponent's score. So far, in this snapping round, many of the cards Kai had gotten his hands on only had HP and not victory points. Apparently, his opponent had a better experience in that regard since his points count had already climbed well over 200. Kai couldn't help but feel nervous about whether he would have enough points to get through to the next round. He really needed things to go his way. After all, allcure was only awarded to the top eight places, maybe even only to the top four.

In the history of his sector, they had only gotten allcure three times. One was at the very beginning when they reached the octave finals. Then, when Baldwin had reached the quarter-finals. And finally, when Trudy reached the octave finals years later. However, back then, there were many more sectors left. Maybe Daisy had proportionately reduced the number of sectors that received a batch of the miraculous medicine. He just had to press on and get to the next round to make sure he got what he needed.

Leaving the house of mirrors, Kai visited the next ride, which looked incredibly slow and sluggish compared to the other ones. The elevator tower offered the thrill of a perilous fall, and the bumper cars provided the excitement of hitting one’s friends or strangers with a moving vehicle without hurting them. This ride only went around in circles. Mostly, parents and young children sat on top of a variety of fantastic creatures that were pierced through sticks, kind of like what old Seth used to do to roast his rabbits and rats, but here, instead of spinning over the fire, the animals moved up and down in seemingly pointless movements.

Listening to the festive, joyous song coming out from speakers mounted on the spinning ride, Kai realized that there was one sound missing from the cacophony of the fair. He spared a glance at Maia, who had gone suspiciously quiet.

"So, what can you tell me about this ride?"

"It's called a merry-go-round," she replied drily.

The name seemed odd to Kai. "Is that just one word?"

"It's hyphenated—merry-go-round." The name made sense, given that children merrily went around in circles.

“Are you not going to tell me more about the history of the merry-go-round?” he probed, trying to get Maia to spill the beans.

“Why would I? You haven't shown any interest in the history of the other rides. I know when my trivia is unwanted, and therefore, I won't give you the privilege of listening to it,” she said with a tone of finality.

“'I didn't know that you, androids, knew how to pout.”

“I'm not pouting. I’m logically allocating my resources to where they matter. It's different.”

Maia’s behavior was definitely fishy, and there had to be something to this seemingly boring ride. Kai approached it and inspected the animals being portrayed; there were several horses of different colors, and as he saw the merry-go-round run a few circles, he spotted a horse with a horn sticking out: A unicorn.

He spared a glance at Maia, who was looking everywhere but at the merry-go-round. Was it because of the animals on the ride? Could it be that there was more than one way of getting the [Unicorn] card? He'd gotten it from photographing the shadow of the Arabian Oryx on the desert map, but seeing this childish version of one, he wondered if there was another way of getting the legendary card.

He had already concluded that there was more than one way of getting cards. Sometimes, more than one recipe yielded similar results. For example, whether he burned a log or a branch, he got an [Ash] card. A few moments earlier, he got a hold of an [Infinity] card by photographing the concept, but he knew that he could also get it by crafting.

Could there be another way of getting the unicorn card that wasn't through getting its shadow mixed with the [Light] card?

Ch. 50 - Yo Ho Incoherency

INDEX

Ch. 52 - Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces