Whoever created this junkpile was either mad, a genius, a wizard, or… not human.
The junk seemed to be a haphazard mix of all kinds of strange and wonderful contraptions. They all took shapes that were as much an art in chaos as anything else. While there were one or two examples of strange ‘original’ technology, weird box-like things that had buttons with no real clue on their purpose… almost 90% of the material looked to have been cobbled together from consumer products. TV antennas, computers, chips even a microwave that had a phone built into it.
All in all, this was a very strange place to be near and most sane people would stay away.
Somewhere in that pile there was one item that was absurdly powerful, though looked innocuous enough to any who would pick it up.
It was a strange hand-held mirror that looked like something out of the 19th century. It was quite ornate in its design, and quite sturdy with a perfect reflective surface. The reflection never tarnished, somehow any grime or dirt would flitter away from the glass. It was so good one could almost touch their own reflection.
When people discovered its properties, it was usually too late. So, it never was given a name… Magic Mirror seemed like a good enough title, but it could be called the Warp mirror or the Mirror of Dreams or perhaps the Door to Nightmares.
The Mirror had two small antennas at the top, taken from an indoor TV aerial. Two wires attached then crossed over in a twisted pattern down the back covered with what looked like an electro-magnetic shell. The wires travelled inside the handle through a drilled hole where… who knows ‘what’ lay inside.
The handle itself had two rotating knobs. One was marked ‘Course’ on the left and the smaller marked ‘fine’ on the right. A red button in the middle, which appeared to be some kind of ‘on’ button. If one examined it thoroughly they might find a very tiny radioactive source deep inside the system but nothing that would cause harm. Most likely a radium source taken from an old style smoke alarm.
There was also a ‘hidden’ button at the bottom which nobody knew its purpose but.. in theory it could be some kind of ‘return’ function? Though it didn’t appear to work or do anything. It might be broken.
When the mirror was turned on it would make a weird noise as the electronics did their... odd business. The screen would flicker a bit like an old CRT television set. Most would conclude that the mirror is actually a cleverly designed computer screen… and their suspicion would be ‘confirmed’ by what appeared to be ‘augmented reality’ being shown. It might even look very entertaining…
…but such people were now ‘doomed’.
Turning the fine tuning would result in the mirror reflecting subtle, small changes in what it could see. People would usually see the same place, the same people… but their clothes might be different. Different styles of hair, or perhaps wearing glasses. It all reflected perfectly, like seeing into another world. The fine tuning could go up to about ‘ten’ steps, where at its maximum one could see a variety of more peculiar changes such as people looking slightly more masculine or feminine, different colour hair or perhaps racial background or possibly full gender changes though it only did the minimum changes to history. A boy turned girl would still have the same general experiences perhaps people even treating her as a boy in more confusing memories. The knob could only go in one direction with the mirror turned on and would slowly rotate back when the mirror was ‘off’.
It was the Coarse knob though that gave the more… interesting and perhaps even ‘terrifying’ view of another world. It didn’t ‘click’ like the fine tuner and seemed more like an analogue style knob. Around the first quarter turn, one could expect gender and age changes… but so much more too. It was a world reflected where they were an entirely different history… perhaps even a world they would long for. Though it was never perfect. They might see themselves as poor and of course- tune further up to explore new possibilities. Now they might be rich, but are a completely different species. Beings of animal origins such as fox-people or rabbits, cats or even squirrels... mythological creatures such as fairies or sphinxes… or even a basic ‘mutated’ human possessing extra eyes, limbs, or breasts. More bizarre changes as they moved the knob further and further.
Going further up, entire realities change such that ‘magical’ worlds become accessible… they might see themselves as a new wizard or even a witch… or perhaps a magical girl/boy in some super hero style world, but their age would also be a lot younger or they might have entirely different families. Wilder and wilder changes… and just like the fine tuning knob it could not be reversed. One could see deeper into stranger reality but never go back…
Pressing the button expecting the machine to turn off though would result in… something else.
mirror would change reality to match what it was reflecting… at least from the perspective of the traveller. If the old reality still existed or not was an existential question too deep to answer. It might make sense that the mirror was like a portal but… it seemed so much more. Of course, the timer would turn the machine off automatically and send the person to whatever reality was configured.
The ‘ride’ would be extremely bumpy for the furthest edges of reality. It would be like falling into a whirlpool, as if passing through some kind of ‘reality singularity’ before being spat back out. Disorientation and dizziness are common side effects, but some have been known to be ill for a while.
Using the fine tuning alone, people would tend to feel like a brush of paint just ‘tickled’ all over their body and across the entire world. It was a strange feeling to be sure but there were rarely any side effects.
With this machine, reality was a constant swirl of chaos particularly at the very edge. Sending a person to the very edge of reality might result in the ‘natives’ bouncing them to some random dimension, likely marked in some way with a new ability or curse. They might not actually ‘fit’ in their new reality and be a perpetual outsider as a result.
Of course, memories of their ‘new history’ was not accessible… a person would now be living their new lives in this new world, in a new body with their old memories and have to deal with… well whatever they are doing in such a world. They might retain the mirror but not always to give them a chance to get back home.
Perhaps that was why this machine was thrown in the junk. It wasn’t very ‘good’ to travel dimensions. There was no control over the destination. It was random.
…but then again, perhaps someone could use such a device to never be found…
