#if Sega aint gonna use them and the only thing we get about them is a nicknamed file and mirror staff

[marinerainbow]

A while ago, when I got into the NiGHTS fandom, I offered my own take on Selph- or as I called them, Mirrage. However, that was while I was still new to posting about my own headcannons, storytelling and character design (not that I'm an expert now). Looking back, I don't like how I made the post or described Mirrage's design too much. So here is my reprised post about;

Selph Mirrage the Forgotten

Story

As we all know, Wizeman was not from the world of dreams. A human with an evil heart trapped in a world where creation is life, it was only inevitable what he'd choose to do. However, as a human who didn't hold any one of the ideya, Wizeman needed to find a way to gain more power. Enough to overthrow the guardians and the firsts and create his own empire. The only thing he could do was to use his own black heart to create a whole new entity. One that would obey his command alone, and could deliver him the essence of the people of the night dimension.

That was the cycle that Mirrage was born. The first false nightmaren.

Mirrage was as cunning and cruel as Wizeman himself was. Perhaps even more so. Being created from greed for power and an insatiable lust, the porcelain nightmaren used their power of reflection and their various abilities to destroy all that were obstacles in their masters path. They had to start little by little, feasting on little pixies and beasts before they were strong enough to destroy a guardian. Every defeat, they would give Wizeman the essence of the fallen, and he would grow more unrecognizable and twisted. Though it never seemed to bother Mirrage, and they continued to do as they were told. Until, one fateful cycle, Wizeman became the tyrant we all know, and was able to take control of half of the night dimension; Nightmare.

Mirrage was meant to be his right and left hand. His sword and shield. When Wizeman took the throne, he made Mirrage his second in command, and even general to his growing army, giving Mirrage the luxury of a true first-class nightmaren. Though not out of respect. He knew Mirrage had to have the same desires he held, being born from his own heart. So this was meant to placate the mirror 'maren, until he could find a way to either break Mirrage down or destroy them.

His suspicions were correct, as Mirrage had never been truly loyal to the tyrant. Not even at the beginning. Every celestial and lunar they killed, they took some of the guardians' power for themselves, which prompted them to believe that not only Wizeman wasn't as powerful as he thought, but they could overthrow him themselves and take what they believed was rightfully theirs. After so long of playing the thankless servant, they were ready to face their creator.

However, they had vastly underestimated Wizeman. Not only had he beat them down, but he had prepared their prison for them by now, too; trapping them in the very mirror labyrinth they had created to lure in and confuse their victims- visitor and dream being alike. Stripped of their status and slowly being forgotten in the night dimension, Wizeman believed that Mirrage would never be an issue for him again... Though there was one thing that Mirrage never told him about their little nightmare.

They had found a way to connect their labyrinth with the reflection realm. They were able to travel throughout all of the night dimension, but only through looking glasses, bodies of water, polished metal, and anything else that held a reflective surface. They were not a part of Nightmare or Nightopia; they could only peer into the world that they once called their land, watching time and people pass by and experience everything they took for granted. While they were cursed to only watch.

And all it did was fuel their rage and vendetta against their prisoner. The cycle that they break free will be the cycle that everyone will be reminded of why they are the greatest nightmare to have ever lived.

Character Design

Mirrages appearance hasn't changed much. This is more or less redoing their suit, as well as a few touches.

Starting with their natural appearance, Mirrage is a nightmaren made out of porcelain and is as white as snow. If you touch them, they feel cool and smooth like a doll. However, their body and 'skin' move like they were made of flesh and blood; there are no visible joints connecting their limbs together. When hit, they crack and can even shatter, though they can always magically repair themselves. They're tall, around 7'9 to be exact, and have a very slim and androgynous body type. Though they can change it if so desired. I'm debating whether they have claws, or finger armor like the picture beneath. Maybe both?

Their eyes are rather unique. At least compared to the other nightmaren we've seen. They have a sapphire blue sclera and a bright yellow iris, and the white pupils are in the shape of a four pointed star. They painted their bottom lip gold and they have cat eye lashes, but that's the extent of their makeup on a normal day. They also do not possess a nose or ears like the other nightmaren, but could easily form themselves those features if desired.

Their cowl/horns extend outwardly and down the sides of their head and curve inward, as if framing their face like a mirrorframe. The cowl is midnight blue, with bright yellow stripes going down the horns and silver borders on both sides of all the stripes. I'm considering maybe a silver fleur swirl design within the yellow and connecting to the silver borders as well, though I'm not sure yet. Also, they have golden caps at the tips of their horns with tear drop shaped jewels attached, acting somewhat like earrings. What color they are, I'm currently debating with my friend Marshmallow. I'll be sure to touch up on this post later.

Their outfit I struggled the most with. I'm not the best at designing clothes, but I think I got it. I took inspiration from Balan from Balan Wonderworld and Jareth from Labyrinth. They have a seamless full body suit that is a sparkling midnight blue, with a lacey ivory cravat and frilled cuffs and chained golden buttons lining the breast. The legs of the body suit turn black in an ombre effect and connect to their sharp, black high heels with silver bottoms. The suit tail is a cut in a sharp V shape and reaches down to just a few inches below the knee. And pinned to their cravat is an oval shaped brooch with the same jewel their cowl jewelery is made of. Again, I'll come back to this later.

And finally, their voice. They technically can have any voice they want and can mimic anybody perfectly. However, they have two true voices that they like to switch between at a whim. Their feminine voice claim is Bayonetta from the game by the same name, and their masculine voice claim is the eel from Padak.

Tid-Bits

Their insides are an inky, coagulated mess. If you can strike hard enough, the black goo will drip out of the crevices. You can see a hint to what lies beneath when they open their mouth; it looks just like a black mamba, aside from their perfectly pearly white fangs- that are also porcelain.

They do have a staff. It was taken from them when they were banished, but they'll be able to summon it again once they are free. It is a gold and blue striped staff with a crystal ball balanced within a bejeweled golden hoop at the top. They can extend it long enough to walk with it, or shorten it to the length of a scepter.

Although while they're peering into the night dimension they can't touch anything, they still hold some power in their nightmare realm. If you meet them in the labyrinth, you'll find that their reflection could touch or grab yours, or any other object with you, without physically making contact.

Mirrage is a manipulative silver tongued snake, using whatever trick up their sleeve to gain the upper hand. They'll strike deals, make false promises, intimidate, anything. And they'll find a way to use your own words against you, so you better watch what you say around them.

Being created from a human heart, Mirrage is not a stranger to human desires. Not just for materialistic things, but even companionship. You could use this against them, but only if you plan your cards right. As a trickster, they can recognize a poorly thought out ploy attempting to be played on them, but they did also fail to overthrow Wizeman. Remember that. Just don't remind them that.

Being able to travel mostly unnoticed throughout the night dimension, they know many many secrets. I wouldn't recommend making your confessions near a lake or in front of your vanity if you wish for them to be unheard.

As you might have guessed, they use they/them pronouns and can easily change their appearance if they want to look more feminine or masculine. They don't know the meaning of 'cisgender'. They are whatever they like to be.

Since they aided Wizeman in the genocide of the guardians, that makes them and my OC Prism comnected... I may or may not be planning something with this.

Mirrage both respects and envies NiGHTS. They rebelled while still keeping their freedom. And Mirrage knows that that courage ideya shard must have something to do with NiGHTS turning on Wizeman. They think it might even save them from their prison. The trick however, is luring the little rapscallion into their realm in the first place.

When Wizeman finally falls and Reala takes the throne, Mirrage will present themselves to him, offering to help him become a better ruler in exchange for their status back... Though I'm certain we all know what they must be really planning by now.

Jackle... Is rather entertaining. They sometimes find their way to his guillotine and watch him do whatever he's doing at that moment. As far as they know, the failed first level has no idea about their existence.

The name Mirrage is a pun; combining the word mirror and mirage together to point to their character.

And that's my take two on Selph/Mirrage!! I hope you guys like my take ^^

[frostythefrostedfox]

What's your opinion on the recent Frontiers teaser?

Right between "Nothing", "Fucking boring" and "Is this game still a thing?"

Nah I am joking, my serious opinion is that this shit fucking sucks, its ass and I am sad it aint dying faster.

Let's start with the basic problematic stuff of this trailer

Eggman, why in the name of chao is Eggman tired, oh, let me guess, someone had the brilliant idea of "Lets make him lazy hahahaha", but guess what, WRONG, Eggman has been shown to be a fairly strong person, and have quite the physical prowess, where in fuck did this concept of "He uses machines bc he lazy" came from, really, because He has been shown doing physical activity before without breaking much of a sweat.

Second, these motherfuckers are so cheap they couldn't even get a few voicelines on the thing? Because I gotta be honest, this entire thing is very devoid of any emotion, it doesn't makes me feel anything, there is music sure, and there are things happening on the screen, but none is making an impact or being meaningful, they just stand there, clench their fists as if any of them was gonna do shit (because in case anyone forgot, the 3 stooges on the left don't have a physical form, Baldy McNosehair on the right aint certainly gonna fight this robot and Alexa 2 in the middle has no control over the robot so she is as useful as the first Alexa by Amazon.)

The fuck is this, really, the fucking flying fuck is this, this has to be the ugliest motherfucker I've seen all day, and I don't mean that as a compliment, is this supposed to be The End's new form? Because it looks like an amalgamation of all the other Titans into one, trying to look menacing and creepy but all it does is look like the failed fusion of Mistral and MG Rex from Metal Gear Rising, it even has Mistral's colour palette lol.

Wasn't The End supposed to signify your deepest fears (assuming for a second that was always a thing and not something someone in sega made up at the last instant to simply justify that awful touhou minigame at the end of the game) so why would this be in any form the physical manifestation of fear?

Again, the design is utter garbage, it only has two arms to the side, the rest are on top of that carapace thing on its back, which renders all arms automatically useless because they are barely able to reach for anything at the ends of it, he can't grab anything with those, they are just there to look menacing and "oh look, he's eeeevil" but they serve no function, besides, what is he gonna grab with it? Because there is only one titan with stuff to grab, and that's Knight, and that is only a sword and a shield, what you gonna use the rest of your arms for? Oh wait, for nothing! Just like I expected you to!

I assume this is the part that you and (literally nobody) everyone wanted me to talk about

This utter waste of screen time and hype-bait.

Why do I call it that? Because that's what it is, is literally what we had before but now the eyes are blue because blue is now the new orange or something like that, that is all that changed.

His transformation into this wasn't anything spectacular, just another burst of energy and ta-da, done. I'm sure 99% of the kiddies that are dying to play this shit aren't even old enough to watch the original dragon ball z, but when Goku turned into Super Saiyan 2 for the first time, not only there was a physical change on his appereance, it truly was something magnificent, you just had to be there; now, why would I compare this to SS2? Because in case anyone forgot, Sonic is just Furry Goku, and if you don't believe me, ask any actual sonic fan, not the newer ones that unironically think this game is well written, the ones that are old enough to consume alcohol, legally, in all jurisdictions of Planet Earth.

Anyways, i am getting sidetracked; this is supposed to be a "Teaser", why in heaven's name would you reveal your biggest card in a teaser? Is like the "Would you kindly" thing from Bioshock 1 was shown in the first trailer, y'all get what I'm saying right? Please don't ever play poker in your life, because you're gonna start jumping up and down when you get a pair of aces. Why the fuck would you show the "wowzers" moment of the update in a teaser, not even a trailer, a teaser.

Second, what purpose does this form serves? Super Sonic is already strong enough to easily conquer the other titans, he was never struggling in any point of the game as super sonic to kill them, he always had this "Imma kill you" expression mixed with "Pathetic" on his face, he killed all four titans without even sweating, why a new one would be a problem? This overhyped tech demo has zero idea of how to escalate a context because it aint escalating, is the same thing we had before, but then again, his new form also is the same one we had before but now featuring big blue evil demon eyes (or some bullshit like that some fans are gonna start calling it in a few days, or maybe they are already because oh my god we've never played a real game in our lives before.)

This form really serves zero purpose, it is just there to pretend like SEGA is trying to get sonic somewhere other than the bank to cash in all of their millions that the "highest selling game in the franchise" gave them while at the same time spending as little money as they can so they can maximize their profit margins; this form is just there to make you look the other way and be all hyped for "look super sonic with blue yes" so you can ignore the blatant problems of this game that are still not fixed and the updates actually added more or made them worse; this form exists so you can look up to big boy sonic team and thank them for the crumbs while at the same time chanting your mantra of "At least it aint forces" and/or "At least it aint 06" while you eat up whatever that is remotely serviceable and praise it to heaven and back not because is good, but because it doesn't sucks like 90% of the content we've gotten for the past 15 years.

But deep down I know all the answers to my questions

This shit was planned from the start, this is the same shit EA does with 90% of their games but everyone hates because is cool to hate EA, this is the same game that many other companies have played before, the whole "thank you for your imput" and then they wait until what people says alligns with what they were gonna do since the beginning so they can either say "look guys, we listened to you" if it comes out good, or "this is what you asked for" if it bombs; this is the same shenanigans we've seen countless times before, but since is SEGA, we must bow to them like they are reinventing videogames, but I guess I expected too much of the average internet user.

Don't think I'll ever forget when I predicted all of this shit almost a year ago and y'all called me "overthinker" and "paranoid".