On my first day of work at my new job the thing that rouses me from a restless, dreamless sleep is the trill sound of my cellphone’s alarm going off loudly. I placed it not far from me, and so I am able to swat it and shut off the alarm before it’s gone off for more than ten seconds, and a few moments later I open my eyes and stare, unfocusedly, at my ceiling with a childish smile on my face.

“Alright… I better get up.” I mutter, as I ungracefully toss the bedsheets that were on top of me to the side of my bed. I instinctively reach for my glasses as I quietly get out of my comfortably cozy bed and I slip them on my face. When I peer through the lenses on my face I am surprised to see that everything looks… worse than it ought to. I quickly take my glasses off, and look at my surroundings.

I am in the middle of my bedroom, and I survey the small space. It has little more than enough room for my bed, a desk with an older computer on it, and a few pieces of multipurpose furniture like a wardrobe packed with old clothes. I glance at the furniture and take a beat to test how it looks when I have my glasses off, versus when I have them on. It doesn’t take me long to realize that my vision has gotten remarkably better, to the point that the glasses actually harms my ability to see!

I place my glasses on the desk next to me and chuckle. This reminds me a bit of that old Spiderman movie from when I was a kid. I decide to embrace the weirdness of this and after taking a second to get used to the feeling of not having my glasses on I head into my tiny bathroom.

I step into the small space, occupied almost entirely by a toilet, a cube-shaped glass box where the showerhead is located, and a sink in front of a large mirror. When I look at my reflection in the mirror I come to a complete halt, and I quietly look at my reflection. I can feel my heart hammering in my chest as I gaze into the mirror, because as I look into the thing, I can see more than just my reflection.

As I gaze into the mirror, I can very clearly see from what must be the point of view of the reflection in the mirror. It is as though I can see from two sets of eyes at the same time, which is some downright supernatural shit. I then decide to try and manipulate the “Me” that is in the mirror, and I am surprised when I find that I can do so with eerie ease. My reflection blinks and I can watch it do so, and even feel myself gain the benefits of blinking without actually, physically, doing so.

Cautiously, I try to move my physical self and hold my reflection in place, and I am delighted when I find that I can do so with curious ease. So long as I devote a portion of my focus to my reflection, I can control it with the same ease that I can do things as simple as basic arithmetic.

I practice this skill while I turn on my shower. I still have a job to do and this is somewhat terrifying parlor trick doesn’t pay my rent so I can’t afford to be late just because I discovered I can do something freaky.

During my shower I eagerly practice using this power, and I find that with every second I focus on it the strange ability gets a bit easier for me to use. By the time I am done taking a shower I have spent several minutes practicing it and all I need to do to maintain my connection to my reflection is spend the same amount of mental energy it might take a high schooler to do basic addition or subtraction. If I cease focusing there is a brief window during which I can refocus to ensure the connection remains stable, but as I discover when I am finishing up my shower if I don’t refocus during that time the connection is lost.

As I get out of the shower I glance at the mirror and see that my reflection is missing. Internally the secondary window into reality through which I could peer at whatever the mirror could reflect is also gone. I stretch out my arm and I immediately sense the connection reestablish itself. It does so at a frightening speed, which is good for me since it means that if my connection gets disrupted I can easily reestablish it.

I work to hold onto the connection while I get dressed. I dress in a simple, professional outfit, grab what I was asked to bring on my first day, and in almost no time at all I find myself darting towards the door of my solitary apartment. As I step to the door leading in and out of my apartment, I feel my connection to my reflection weaken and then as soon as I step out of my apartment I feel it break altogether.

“Huh… I guess there’s a maximum distance this connection can work over?” I say, quietly, while I shut the door leading in and out of my home behind me. I wiggle the doorknob and test to make sure my door actually locked, before I take a few steps and reach the elevator call button that will let me reach the bottom of my apartment building. It doesn’t take long before I hear the soft “Ding!” of the elevator arriving.

I fully expected the elevator ride to be normal, but that was because I forgot about the fact that the the elevator’s side walls are made of reflective material. When the elevator door opens and I see inside the machine, I can suddenly see not only one alternate window into reality but no less than three. Because of this the ride down to the bottom floor of the building is a bizarre, dizzying one. And that’s only the start of the day’s weirdness.

When I step off of the elevator and onto the solid, relatively unmoving floor I feel a strange and supernatural expansion of my own physical power overtake me. I fall to my knees for a second, only barely holding onto my briefcase, as I sense my muscles becoming denser in ways that are probably invisible to the naked eye but that are not imperceptible to me.

My muscles feel stronger, improved in every respect, and I can keenly sense the changes that are washing over me. Knowledge hits me like a tidal wave hits a small car.

As I stare at the floor under me I can precisely sense how my body’s changing. Behind me the elevator door shuts, and I hear a soft sound as it begins to climb upward so I know I need to get up but… it’s hard for me to focus on something so mundane right now. My mind is tracking a thousand small and ten thousand big changes that are happening to me all at once. I can feel my understanding of myself growing tremendously.

In a quiet corner in the back of my mind I can feel a connection to… a space. It’s almost like a videogame, where there’s a sort of hotbar of items that a player can very easily and conveniently swap between at any time without opening the full inventory. I possess something exactly like that, and gazing at it is weird as it is filled with things like artwork of a beautiful, if gothic, looking weaponized chain, or an image of a box filled with what look like golden apples. I feel the fuller inventory I possess filling with items that are far stranger than the ones in my hotbar.

Something supernatural, with a capital “S”, is happening to me. I can feel all sorts of mysterious powers emerging within the depths of my soul, making themselves known to me even as I slowly begin to find the will needed for me to get up and make my way out of my apartment building. I manage to slowly drag myself to, and then out, the door leading in and out of the building I call home.

When I exit my apartment building I feel new windows into reality open up in my mind’s eye, and I can see myself from new angles. I know, now, what this is a manifestation of… I am a “Mirror Demon”, among other things, and this is a “Mirror Demon” ability. I am all by myself on an empty street, and though I can hear distant voices, faintly, I cannot see anyone else.

As soon as I feel the light of the sun on my skin I begin to feel better, and I can take a deep breath. I come to a stop right in front of a tiny and only barely noticeable bus sign, denoting the area in front of my home as a bus stop. This is right before I hear the sound of one of the city’s buses rolling down the street towards me. I smile as I realize that I have safely made it to the bus stop.

The thing is rolling towards me and with every passing second I can hear it closing the distance between us. It’s kind of a relief to see something so mundane, and so I turn towards it with a soft smile on my face.

When I actually lay my eyes on the distant vehicle I feel one of my powers activating itself within me, and I find myself staring into the bus. I can see what lies under the thing’s hood, as well as sense every individual component of the vehicle. The knowledge and suddenness of the sight makes me make a sound like a cat. I know that if I wanted too, I could easily reach out and use an array of powers on the vehicle. Even the distance between the thing and myself is not an obstacle to me. A part of me even wants to reach out and do something to the bus!

I manage to resist the urge I feel to flex my newly discovered powers and wait for the bus to reach me. When it gets close enough to me that it’s just a few dozen feet from where I stand I can feel myself gain another set of windows through which to view reality, and for the first time since my powers made themselves known I can see other people!

The people that I see are all sitting in the bus, be it the driver or the people who are relying on public transit. All sorts of people are on the bus, from a few people like myself wearing professional clothing, to a homeless man who is muttering in a corner all to himself.

Each person I lay my eyes on, even in this indirect way, is burned into my memory. I memorize every visible detail of theirs, and more than that I feel such things etch themselves into me in a corner of my mind. I know that as a “Mirror Demon” there are lots of nasty things I can do with that particular set of powers now that I have seen strangers for the first time since these powers… either became mine, or awoke within me.

The bus skids to a stop in front of me and I smirk as I listen to the door in front of me open. I can have fun here.

The figure that steps onto the bus is a walking wet dream, an embodiment of the “Latin Lover” stereotype. He is a man of medium height with a powerfully muscular physique, dressed in the handsome, well-maintained clothes of a young professional and he is carrying a small briefcase. His clothes cling to his body and hug his muscles, modestly framing them. There is an aura that clings to him that makes it hard for people to look away from the man.

He strides past the bus driver gracefully and he makes his way to an empty seat. As he does several eyes focus on him, some dreamily, and some curiously. There is an eerie universality to his attractiveness that makes him appeal to onlookers that disregards things like their orientation or aesthetic preferences.

The figure is silent as he sits down in an empty seat, and the bus begins to move again. No one on the bus suspects the figure is a supernatural being, but as he silently looks out the window to the left of his seat his reflections are hard at work. The mysterious man is engaging in subtle information gathering by making use of his powers.

The man’s nature as a “Mirror Demon” allows him to do a lot with a little. Merely by gazing at people through their reflections in a mirror positioned right behind the driver’s seat, he can gather valuable information and continue to practice his bizarre supernatural power.

He also discovers, much to his annoyance, that with the bus in motion he cannot yet connect to reflective surfaces that he passes by, even if they momentarily show his reflection. It seems that if the reflective surface only shows him for a few milliseconds is too short-lived even his powers can’t meaningfully connect to the reflection.

The windows through which the figure perceives reality allows him to quietly observe figures around him. He is, thankfully, content to be passive and to merely gather information. The figure doesn’t say a word the entire bus ride, and when his stop is approaching he merely gently tugs the bus’s mechanism by which to signal a stop.

The bus driver glances into the mirror and nods at him, which causes the man to faintly smile. When the bus slows to a stop the man quickly gets up and allows his connection to the bus mirror to fade away as he steps off the bus and sets foot in the coastal city’s bustling downtown district.

Graceburg, the city the figure lives in, is an elegant metropolis situated on the coast. It is a lovely place where many buildings are made from a range of architectural styles. Santi sees many people wandering the streets of the city, and he feels his reflections in a range of windows and even a few curiously placed mirrors, allowing him to study his urban surroundings with ease as he makes his way towards his place of employment.

The man walks away from the bus and towards one of the many office buildings which dot this part of the capital city of the state of New Hapsburg. He strides towards one of the buildings with purpose, an eager, sharp look in his eyes as he reaches the revolving door which stands between him and his first day of work.

The graceful figure enters the building and he walks into the place’s lobby with a handsome grin on his face. He is walking towards a front desk manned by a woman dressed in a security guard’s outfit who is watching something on an older looking desktop computer.

When he is almost in front of the woman and before he can say anything the woman silently taps on a clipboard placed in front of her. Santi chuckles as he looks at the clipboard but his smile disappears when he sees the contents of it change before his very eyes.

The clipboard, once containing a simple piece of paper wherein visitors signed in on their first visits to the building, is no longer a mundane object. Santi finds himself looking at a magical piece of paper explaining two things called “The Celestial Grimoire” and “The Celestial Forge” to him. Santi takes a second to read the contents of the arcane paper in front of him, which causes the security guard to get annoyed and speak up.

“Hey, buddy, do you not know how to-“ She says as she looks up and actually lays her eyes on the man. She suddenly stops speaking and is looking at the man with a ditzy look on her cute, if somewhat grumpy, face. Santi looks up from the paper as he grabs the pen affixed to the clipboard and signs the thing, smirking at the guard all the while.

“Hey, ‘buddy’. Sorry, I just… lost my focus for a second there.” Santi tells the woman, causing her to blush in embarrassment. He extends his hand towards her, his smirk never once fading from his face.

“I am a new employee over at Hayworth Industries. Today is my first day. My name is Santiago. You’ll be seeing me around.” He explains, causing the guard to regain her focus and composure. She takes his hand and shakes it, noting the firmness of his grip and his obvious strength.

“I’m Carol. Sorry, I just… haven’t had my coffee yet, you know?” She says, apologetically. His smirk loses some of its arrogance and turns into more of a youthful smile.

“Hayworth Industries? The office you want is on the third floor.” Carol adds, causing Santi to nod at her. He retracts his arm a few moments later, thanks her, and walks to the section of the building where a line of elevators are situated along a wall behind the desk. He taps the button, even as he feels powers seeping into him and a few more curious items fill individual slots inside of his inventory.

When the man steps into the elevator he doesn’t physically reveal his excitement, but he nearly screams, internally, as he takes into account the curious new abilities he possesses by virtue of his decision to live “A life of progress”. That curious decision stems from his desire to get new powers, which is precisely what “The Celestial Grimoire” and “The Celestial Forge” offer him, in exchange for him striving to continually do more and achieve more.

Knowledge of all sorts fill his mind. Whether it is things like how to do certain magical feats, such as focusing his arcane energy in a spot a bit aways from him for the sake of creating magical explosions or an understanding of physics so sublime that it vastly exceeds what the humans of this world know about matter and energy. The man’s mind is racing with all sorts of thoughts as the elevator he is in reaches the floor he has come here to visit.

The figure steps out of the elevator and into a busy office where all sorts of people sit behind desks and perform various tasks in front of bright computer monitors. Santi is quickly spotted by a man stepping out of a corner office, who brightly smiles at him.

“You must be Santiago! Welcome to Hayworth Industries. You’re earlier than I thought you’d be. Good work!” The man, clearly an administrator of some sort, says brightly. He steps towards Santi as he speaks and he is deceptively fast. The man extends his hand, causing the young man to brightly grin at him and shake his hand.

“Yes, I am. I’m so excited to be here!” Santi tells him, genuinely. The man, a middle-aged white guy dressed in ill-fitting clothes, chuckles.

“With those looks and that attitude you’ll go far here, my friend.” The figure replies, causing Santi to chuckle, internally.

“Now let me give you the tour and take you to HR. All you need to do today is fill out some paperwork and take a few tests.” The man, someone Santi assumes is a manager of some sort, reveals. He turns around and begins to walk towards the back of the office.

“Oh, and I’m Michael by the way. I’m your manager. You’ll find that I am a friendly sort who tends to disregard many formalities. I like to believe we’re a family here.” He explains, happily. Santi notes that the man is incredibly genuine, though he’s not sure how he himself feels about that “We’re a family” philosophy of Michael’s. Nevertheless Santi follows Michael quite eagerly, ready to put in the work and start earning some money.

Inside of him, the magic that constitutes the grimoire and the forge is hard at work. The powerful magic behind both artifacts is something that is fairly heavy duty, but Santi’s own potent powers are already protecting him and allowing him to get the most out of the two mighty artifacts. It only takes Michael and Santiago a few moments to get to the small corner of the office where the human resources personnel are hard at work, typing away on two slick desktop computers.