Chapter Text
Not everything does what it seems to do.
The walls were quite warm, with the sun shining, blasting its rays everywhere. A logo had a bell, well, it wasn’t a bell. It was rather a representation of a bell. Like other individuals of its race, it didn’t have a name. However, it belonged to Glen William Bell. If this representation had a feeling, it would wonder why did its dead owner have a name and it did not. A little, innocent sister was sitting on the small, rather empty-restaurant, touching the warm, heated glass. Her delicate fingers were weakly poking the non-crystalline material, to call the attention of a beautiful Ulysses butterfly, whose wings were relaxed, and its abnormal face was just observing the flowers that were sitting next to the clean, amorphous solid.
Lili Zwingli, the representation of Liechtenstein, was sitting inside Taco Bell, admiring the butterflies outside of a window – a rather simple version of the first paragraph.
Basch Zwingli, Switzerland, came with two minimalistic – that’s how he and her sister call it – tacos, and a piece of chocolate cake. Both of the tacos were small, and they didn’t have the typical filling a Taco Bell taco had (So big, that it seemed to want to explode). More salad than meat, with no sauces, mainly lettuce and some pieces of tomatoes. The older brother made sure he didn’t forget the remedies for stomach gases – decrease them to a minimum. Liechtenstein, looking at the taco briefly before eating it, munched them multiple times, at least more than 20. Etiquette rules from Basch. Eat slowly, don’t speak when your mouth is full, always chew with your mouth closed, let your guest order first don’t put your cell phone on the table don’t reach across the table to get some of your companion’s food don’t yell to the waiter do send food that’s not cooked properly back remember your table manners . . . Liechtenstein.
After an hour and a half or so, when both siblings finished their meal at the seemingly utopic city of Zürich, Lili felt her left hand touch a strange object, in which her big, doll-like, green eyes didn’t see before, while she was waiting for her brother to return from the restroom – simply washing his hands and taking the medicine. At the first moment, to the recently-turned-teenager girl, it felt like an iron-like object. When the hand finally picked it up and she really sees what it was, a RPG-ish “image popped up” inside her mind, and it felt like a voice from the imaginary text was saying “You pick up a little bell that your left hand felt. Swing it? Yes, No”. To not look impolite, Liechtenstein put the bell inside her little, heart-shaped, white purse, to play with it at home. At the same moment, she saw her brother with his natural, serious expression, politely putting a single, white, dull, circle-shaped pill on the table. The sister knew what to do. Consciously, she did want to drink the pill, since it’s for the sake of her. Subconsciously, she didn’t, as it was a bit large and had a very, with bold and italics, very bitter taste. Going to the fancy-looking bathroom grabbing her tiny water bottle, before actually committing the action of drinking the pill, a little, useless memory that would be forgotten soon, according to her young mind, her own eyes stare at the mirror in front of her.
She always found mirrors fascinating. Just a reflection, according to Switzerland, but for the microstate, a simple reflection could return memories, traumata, and thoughts to your mind. Just a single glance at the own color of your eye could already bring thoughts. Just looking at your eyelashes could bring traumatic memories – if you had some.
Situations where you broke your favorite toy, or more serious ones, when your friend or one of your parents died.
Reminder how you looked at the mirror, and your eyelashes were soaking wet with salty tears. They were as salty as the typical sea water (The tongue just tasting one could slightly bring hunger). A simple reflection of something could bring up memories. Even the reflection of a pimple on your face could bring up thoughts. God did such a good, complex job on the making-off of the world and in the universe. Lili sometimes thinks He was surprised that the human race, that was made as a simple, ignorant primate, similar to the common chimpanzee, turned out to be rational. However, He knew that it would take billions of years for them to reach perfection.
All the thoughts inside the thirteen-year-old mind stopped. They simply stopped out of nowhere. It was more or less a reminder to take the pills. Holding her nose, the teenage micro nation’s tongue seemed to “burn” just by touching the surface of the convex-shaped circle. To get rid of that horrible feeling, she took multiple gulps of water, carefully holding the bottle to not spill on her red dress. The colorless, different fluid made a relieve to her, despite still having that black coffee-like taste in the final part of her tongue – The very area which is specialized in bitter tastes. Thinking of tasting buds, it just brought the memory of her older brother’s mouth exam, revealing that he was a hypo taster. Under. Less than normal. Deficient. That’s why he simply said that the sandwich he ate tasted like sandwich. He wasn’t sure what taste was like.
Liechtenstein returned from the bathroom with other thoughts, and a bit of excitation to play with the small bell. Happily taking her older brother’s hand to go to the car and to return home. Smiling at the blue, midday sky, other thoughts go to her mind, the brief reflection of her green eyes that wanted to disappear from the window set the chain of thoughts even more. This time, it was her imagination. The dream of stepping and making balls of frozen versions of rain drops, and look at some of those beautiful individuals who didn’t fall to the ground yet. Snowflakes. What if each snowflake represented the life of each person, or the memories of everyone? And the most beautiful ones being from the most revolutionary, intelligent, kindest people? The term “Special Snowflake” would only belong to the snowflake representing Jesus of Nazareth, she thought. Looking at the night, dark sky, bursting rainbow-like rays in multiple shades of red, pink, white and green. It even had a beautiful name, the Aurora. A beautiful name for a beautiful phenomenon, she thought. The rays would be slowly flying around the sky, expanding, seeming to want to replace the actual, blue sky. It was true beauty for Lili Zwingli. Like it was a truly supernatural, magic world. Each of the rays would make the clouds seem darker and blacker, but she would like the beautiful vision of stars in a pink and green sky. Sleeping early and waking up early, she would love to silently and calmly play at 5 AM, to just see the Aurora Australis.
What if… Auroras represent signs of hope? She thought. At sunset, it would be a message that the sun would appear again tomorrow, with or without clouds to lighten up our day, and at sunrise it would say to not be sad – it would say we have hope. It would be a proof it would appear again. The micro nation couldn’t believe our eyes couldn’t be able to see a wonderful thing such as The Sun – only with sunglasses. Our own star deserves respect, her thirteen-year-old mind says. It can give hope and love for people. It illuminates everything by its way. If only there was a way to truly see it, as Nasa revealed our star was actually white and not yellow… Then what colors Sirius, Pollux, Rigel, Pistol Star, and Antares are? Maybe Sirius is actually blue, Pollux is pink, and Rigel is green? She’d love to see blue, pink, and green as stars’ real colors.
The thoughts, unlike last time, stopped voluntarily, with her brother saying they’re home. Liechtenstein opens the purse and holds the bell with her right hand, walking to her bedroom. Curious of hearing how it sounded like, her index and thumb fingers swung it, and it made little, high-pitched noises indicating the conflict between the clapper and the bowl. Each vibration reminded her of Sealand, herself, and children in general, because it was so high-pitched and childish sounding. Ding. Each of them could relax any minds, she thought. The little sister decided to walk towards Basch and show the little gift she found herself.
“Basch! Look what I found in the restaurant!”
The brother, sweeping the floor of the living room, saw the little thing she recently got fascinated over. His eyes widened a bit, probably because of how surprisingly polished, clean it was and its golden color was shiny, clearly making the object look like it was finished in just a few hours ago. Suddenly, his ears heard his little sister swinging the bell to show how it sounded like. At the first moment his ears capture the sound, nothing happened to his mind, but seconds after she finished swinging, a strange thought appeared in his ancient mind. Déjà vu. He wasn’t sure if he experienced that. In fact, he was sure it never happened to him before. A thought that featured itself as blank. All white. No sound, nothing, just a white background. Then, an object popped up. An upside-down bell swinging like it actually loved to swing. Its bowl was very deformed and looked like it was modeled by a beginner. It was made of crystal. Every single segment of the bell was made of crystal. Each time the clapper conflicted with the bowl, it made a deep, but soft, soothing, and calm sound. It was singing. Switzerland seemed to look a bit shocked, looking at everything around the room.
“It’s actually very nice to see it…”
However, the brother seemed so confused that Lili still remained questioning herself.
“What’s wrong, Basch?”
“Never mind, Lili, it’s just a strange thought, that’s all…”
“That’s strange, I had this weird thought too! Some upside down bell that wanted to sing along with this little bell. It would be great to see two bells singing in harmony.”
Switzerland didn’t reply, he just became even more shocked inside. “Did she also have this thought?”, his mind questioned. Maybe the bell was supernatural or something. No, that wouldn’t be true, just an over the top conclusion. It’s just a coincidence. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. I hope that. . .
The rest of the day developed typically, just like any other days ever. It wasn’t abnormal, unlike in the Precambrian Period, where the day actually went faster and it was twenty-two hours long. Tidal effects? Maybe. The earth rotated, developing night and dawn for Switzerland and Europe. Lili Zwingli simply had the typical dream, surreal, strange, and bizarre. A SSB. That’s how she calls it. Sometimes, she dreams that she’s a whale, swimming around the sea, with her brother. This dream she had was one of them. However, strangely, everything was on fire, and the sea was intensely boiling. She hugged her brother, in which told her not to be scared, and suddenly pointed out a border around them that came out of nowhere. Just like the neutral border in Switzerland. It was like the fire was begging to come inside the border, but couldn’t.
“Lili.”
Liechtenstein awoke next to Switzerland, who shook her shoulder a bit. Her huge eyes saw the body and the face of his sibling, when she noticed the strange background behind him. A mixture of red, pink, white and green. As she got up, she looked around the strange world. Her foot first stepped on the ground, which seemed to be invisible. The micro nation didn’t fall at all, and the gravity was perfectly fine. Shocked, she realized how she was one-hundred percent conscious, and how it wasn’t a dream, at all. Wearing her long-sleeved, empire-waist nightgown, in which the color was baby blue with baby pink stripes, she held her brother’s hand, who showed a bucket of water, toothpaste and her toothbrush. She knew what to do.
Accompanying Basch after eating a sandwich for breakfast on her bed, she was completely fascinated by the world they were currently exploring, especially by some strange mirrors in front of them. Two lines, with seven mirrors in each one. Walking closer to them, she could see their frames were clearly in the shape of a bell, reminding of the bell she got yesterday. As they walked by the mirrors, she and her brother realized that they weren’t normal mirrors.
The first mirrors showed both Switzerland and Liechtenstein as babies. Even as a child, the brother had that serious face, but he still was cute, Lili thought. She remembered of the little yellow dress she wore as a newborn like it was last week. Time flies.
The second mirrors showed them as toddlers, around the age of two and three. Toddler Basch had a wet stain on his pants, returning his adult self an embarrassing memory of his constant bedwetting, that lasted until the age of eight. Toddler Lili was very cute to her current self. Her innocent, emerald-green eyes that she had since she was born. She remembers of a weird quirk she had, that was hitting her forehead – delicately, of course. She still lives with this motor tic, which sometimes makes people think weird of her.
The third mirrors showed them as younger children. Liechtenstein loved herself as a kid, she was as adorable as a little doll. In fact, she looked like those British Victorian era dolls. Those chubby faces, bright eyes, and white, porcelain skin. Her child self always loved to play with dolls. Real ones or paper ones, which you could put any dresses on them. She remembered the era in which her hair was tied into two braids. That innocent smile she always had. 5-year-old Switzerland was with a less happy face, probably the face of those children whose parents are in the military and they make them go there too. His outfit had a striking resemblance to his adult self’s clothes, and he even had his hat.
The fourth mirrors showed them as older children – age seven to nine. Eight-year-old Lili didn’t have much differences compared to her thirteen-year-old self. She already was fascinated with iron nails, and their infinite rings around them, that seemed to be born, die, be reborn and redie if you spun the object. The human race could always, and will always build amazing things such as the iron nail. Nine-year-old Basch didn’t have the innocent look anymore, instead his eyes were becoming like the ones of his adult self. He kind of had a sad look. Maybe it was a trauma Switzerland had and never told anyone.
The fifth mirrors showed a younger teenage version of Switzerland. Possibly 13 or 14. He was already getting older and looking a lot like his 18-year-old self. Growing and becoming really big. The mirror for Liechtenstein was blank, along with the sixth one. The sixth one didn’t have anything interesting, it was just Basch’s 16-year-old self. It was like a clone of him, only a little shorter.
The seventh and final mirrors just showed their regular reflections. Nothing interesting. Until Liechtenstein touched the final mirror of her timeline. Unexpectedly, it jumped, its glass seemed to distort into a fluid, only to harden up and show a very, very beautiful woman, with a pixie cut, little, small pearl earrings, a purple ribbon on her head, and a military outfit. Her eyelashes looked like fake ones because of how curvy and large they were. She had a necklace with a circle-shaped pendant and frame, dropping between her small breasts.
Lili could not believe of what her eyes were seeing.
“You look very beautiful, sister.”
“Thank you, Basch.”
The sister smiled sweetly to her brother, who just complimented her future self. This is why two of the seven mirrors on Lili’s side were blank – she still was a young teenager, of only thirteen years. Suddenly, both of them heard dragging noises. The mirrors are getting together in a group to form only one line. When the line was made, they slowly got together, unifying themselves – The glass becoming a fluid for a brief moment, and hardening when there was only one huge mirror. It wasn’t reflecting anything. The glass was blank. Lili and Basch seemed to be shocked and impressed by the surreal transformation they saw. The mirror slowly showed a green eye, blinking and blinking, like it was its eye. With large eyelashes and many red veins, it shut itself really tight. So hard that they weren’t very visible, and to fit the situation, the glass of the mirror started to crack. Fortunately, it started to fall to the opposite direction. The glass, breaking completely, with a loud, almost deafening voice, had tiny pieces jumping from the frame, with some of them falling to the ground, but some of them still remaining in midair.
The pieces that stayed in midair slowly transformed into those animals Liechtenstein loved. Beautiful, small creatures, whose singing was almost in the level of angels’, and eyes that remind us that they have souls too. Birds of diverse species, such as the Alagoas curassow, the Robin, the Cuckoo, the Parrot, the Eagle, the Falcon… Each bird was unique – Lili couldn’t find two birds of the same species, nor could Basch. They even had their bright colors, instead of just being a dull glass. At least they’re not like moths, Lili thought.
The remaining pieces of the mirror became a soft, gentle breeze, turning completely invisible. They simply vanished out of nowhere. Some parts of the breeze were white lights, that seemed to “beckon” both siblings. Shiny, and didn’t seem harmful at all. (It also reminded Basch of that little fairy from Japan’s game, Zelda…) They slowly walked in the direction the lights were going. More and more lights were generating and they were going faster, but nothing happened to the intensity of the wind. It just continued to be a soft, soothing breeze. The brother, holding his micro nation sister’s hand, as he accompanies the lights, that seemed to have somewhat of a cheerful atmosphere. Both siblings felt a strange feeling they were going to either jump very high, fall, or have the strange world’s gravity to be lost. However, none of the three things they thought actually happened. They actually started to levitate from the invisible floor, and to fly just like the lights, however in a much slower speed. Liechtenstein always dreamed of flying like a bird… And a whole lot of years be like, the dream came true. Switzerland’s mind suddenly takes out the memory balls with the breeze of the Alps. Something that made part of his and Lili’s everyday lives. It was incredibly amazing how the glass parts could imitate something he thought they were unaware of, if they even had the ability to think. It was exactly like the original to the point that if he was blindfolded, he couldn’t tell any differences between the glass pieces’ breeze and the Alps’.
Nothing seemed to develop in front of the siblings. However, because it reflected the sky, something was actually forming. Eye-shape “frame” of eyelashes. Pure black, as ebony. Finally noticing it, with the bottom part of her skirt deforming because of the wind, Liechtenstein noticed how the lights disappeared as they touched the “invisible eyeball”. Just a single physical contact with it and it suddenly disappeared – Like a glitch in a PS1 game. When it was the siblings’ turn, they realized the sudden disappearance. At the event their hair barely touched the “eyeball”, they went in this unexpected burst of energy, that was at the speed of The Flash’s record. Everyone around them was pure white, nothing behind, only a black hole at the front of them. Both siblings looked very shocked at the unpredictable moment. Basch looked a bit scared, but Lili looked quite happy and impressed, just like someone her age and with the innocence in her level would. Both of their hairs were deforming with the amount of high speed, becoming just like broom fibers, and to protect her ribbon and life, the older brother hugged her sister. The black hole, with had a huge resemblance towards those individuals of its race from space, became bigger, in which indicated both travelers were closer and closer each second. At the last second, everything became pure darkness, and the speed grew to infinity.