text ❁ seven years is also how long it takes to complete a ph.d.

[roseblooms]

Kit Fawkes shared a photo. 6/4 near Recollé University

Well, well. I suppose this means I can now officially join the "received a mysterious and vaguely threatening package in the mail with no prior warning" club. I have to admit, though, that in comparison to some of the things I've heard of people receiving? A broken mirror (?) does strike me as a little underwhelming. It's pre-broken, even, which I believe exempts me from any curse of seven years of bad luck. Quite frankly, all these shards of glass have got to be a safety hazard, and yet for some reason every time I go to throw the lot of it away, I end up second-guessing the impulse. Is that odd? I don't know what else I could possibly do with this, mind, and yet even so I...just can't seem to bring myself to dispose of the thing.

Comments

[thesettingsun]

Art piece? You'd still have to be careful with the glass, but even if you can't throw it away, you don't have to keep it all together, right?

[roseblooms]

I'm not much of an artist, really. Did you have something in mind? I'm open to suggestions.

[crushcard]

welcome to the club, i guess.
are you planning on getting the mirror fixed?

[roseblooms]

It hadn't crossed my mind, honestly. Do you think I should?

[ghostories]

maybe it has a hidden message!
"everyone is broken on the inside..."
"no one understands meeee"
something edgy like that!

[roseblooms]

Oh, it's certainly "edgy", all right. It's full of edges, all of them quite sharp.

[daemonized]

It's as if Retrospec is trying to heap bad luck upon you, if you believe in that sort of thing.

Why do you feel as if you cannot dispose of it? It it a matter of baffling sentimentality?

[roseblooms]

The good news is, I saw my reflection in a number of the pieces, so we at least have verification that I'm not a vampire.

As for disposing of it...I don't know, really. Logically, rationally, I know that I ought to. But every time I go to follow through, it's like I find some excuse to hesitate.

[true_noir]

Be careful. Something as simple as a mirror, or a pocket watch, could be a thing that carries awful memories behind it.

You might see a hallucination of the day it broke, when someone loved died. I think the most innocuous looking ones are the most dangerous. But, I doubt you'll be able to get rid of it. They're like albatrosses around our necks.

[roseblooms]

It sounds as though you're speaking from personal experience.

Both from the trying to get rid of it, and from the business with the memories.

[appraiser]

if it's from retrospec and they broke it
seven years bad luck to them won't garner much sympathy

maybe you could cover the shards with another piece of glass or sheet of plastic to keep everything contained? like a snowglobe

[roseblooms]

I may have to. I don't like the thought of losing any of the pieces, for some reason, but it's hardly a wise idea to let broken glass just sit around unsecured.

[originallutece]

I don't suppose there are any markings on it that might identify it? No dates or particular methods of craftsmanship?

In any case: either the memory will resurface soon or not, but I should think underwhelming better than the opposite.

[roseblooms]

Not that I can tell. I was just remarking elsewhere that it looks a bit evil in nature, though, doesn't it?

[manolia]

If you stare into the broken shards long enough, maybe you'll see your other self. Either that, or you'll see that girl from the Ring.

[roseblooms]

See my...other self?

[liberal_arts]

It is strangely beautiful. If taken as art, the meaning exists beyond simply its own form. Perhaps it is a rejection of your own reflection? That the true self is itself fractured, and thus could not be correctly conveyed by a single image? Is the image itself a lie that must be destroyed?

It certainly raises a lot of questions, but the best art usually does.

[roseblooms]

You think it's supposed to be an art piece, then. Not a mirror as a functional utilitarian item, but something with a greater meaning attached to it?

[judgementkazzy]

Maybe keep it in the box if you don't want to get cut on any of the pieces.

[roseblooms]

I may just have to. It's odd, really; I don't have much compulsion to take it out of the box or do anything with it, but when I consider getting rid of it in any way, it's intolerable.

[b0mbshell]

Kazuhira Miller Maybe you just haven't remembered what it came from yet. Nothing like something to look forward to,
I guess.

[roseblooms]

Kit Fawkes Unless of course it turns out to be some sort of evil artifact forged in the blood of a thousand innocents.
Kit Fawkes Does it look a bit evil to you, at all?

[complementing]

Minako Arisato nope not odd at all
Minako Arisato my roommate brought home an entire grandfather clock because she couldn't walk away from it when she saw it abandoned in the street
Minako Arisato to say nothing of the weapons me and a ton of other people have gotten in the mail

[roseblooms]

Kit Fawkes An ENTIRE GRANDFATHER CLOCK??

[antagonize]

Maybe they wanted to curse you with seven years of bad luck. As if everything else going on wasn't shitty enough.

[roseblooms]

Little do they realize I'm a graduate student, so I was counting on a stretch of trials and tribulations for approximately that length of time anyway.

I wonder if the curse attaches to me, though, if I received it pre-broken?

[crudest]

if you send all the shards in different directions do they come back home

[it's like 4pm when he says this is he drunk already]

[roseblooms]

They're glass, not magnets. Why would they come back to their source?