Based on the concepts of both "Rift Apart set a precedent for alternate gender dimensional counterparts" and "what if in Meddling Mar Damas had recognized Mar immediately" we have today's prompt: Mirror Mar.
The little girl sat propped up on a reed mat beside the water, still flushed. Her brother still lay motionless on the mat beside her, nowhere near waking. As Damas watched from the dais, the girl traced her fingers over the boy's scarred arms, and an alarmed look crossed her face. Poor sprout. The brother had doubtless been hiding his injuries from her.
"Do not wake him," Seem cautioned gently, removing the child’s hand. "The eco must repair his organs or he will die."
It was the plain and unvarnished truth, but the girl burst into tears. Seem cringed, seeming unusually uncertain. They were knowledgeable about many things, but children were not among those topics. With a slightly exasperated huff, Damas left his throne and stepped across the stones. He knelt beside the pallets and forced himself to take the girl -- not Mar, it was just a freak coincidence -- by the hand.
"Come. Let him sleep. He will recover, child." He nodded to the scars. "Look: he is a fighter."
"But they're on the wrong side!" The girl burst into emphatic signs. "Wrong arm! Everything is backwards on this side of the Rift Gate!"
"Rift Gate?" Seem asked, their ruby eyes alight with interest, "You found a working Rift Gate, little one?"
"The last one!" The girl wiped her eyes, but her hiccups persisted. "Uncle Sig’s eye is on the wrong side, Jakky's scars are on the wrong side- and Jakky is a boy! Am I gonna be a boy when I grow up?!"
The adults exchanged bewildered glances. Tentatively, Damas extended a finger to brush away tears from round cheeks. Gods, she even had freckles like Mar, just on the opposite side of her-
"Little one," Seem said with stifled amusement, "Why would your brother’s gender have anything to do with yours? That's...really not how that works. You'll grow up to be you, not him."
"But except he's not my brother, he's me!" The child protested, "The sage said so! Except Jakky wasn't a boy when I went in the Rift and now all the scars are on the wrong side!" The girl twisted her green curls in her hands repeatedly, breathing quickening. "When did that happen? Are all my freckles gonna change places? I don't want my freckles to move! Why is everything the other way around?!"
Damas felt bile creep up his throat.
The backwards amulet around the girl's neck.
The shared features.
Gods, no.
He looked to the boy, eyes falling as if by instinct on a trio of freckles against the left side of his jaw.
The bile climbed higher.
It wasn't possible. It wasn't possible.
He'd heard legends of Rift Gates, but there was never anything in the old texts about this.
"What-"
His voice failed him. His hands shook.
"What is your name?"
The child looked stricken, and her tears began anew.
"You don't remember me? Are you all out of place now too, Daddy?"
Seem recoiled in shock, and Damas collapsed from his crouch to his knees.
No, no that would mean they were both- Please, no-!
What had the Precursors done? Who was the boy, then, if the girl swore they'd once been the same person? What had these children suffered?
"Mar?" he whispered in a shaking voice, "In your world, on your side of the Rift Gate, were you Mar?"
"Uh-sniff!-huh."
"Then...my Mar is...with your elder self?"
"Oh...I guess so." This Other Mar, a bit too old -- but not near as old as the boy on the other pallet -- looked pleadingly at him. "My Jakky is still in the Gate? I don't have to be a he and move all my freckles if I don't wanna?"
"I...would assume that is what happened, given...given your amulet," Damas faintly heard himself choke out, as if at a great distance.
The child, this Mar from another world, somehow managed to look even more crestfallen. "Then...that's your Jakky, right? You're...not my daddy...are you?"
Instinct took over. Damas swept little Mar into his arms, and tucked her head into the crook of his neck.
"No, little viper," he croaked, "I am sorry, I do not know if I had a daughter before today. I do not know if you differ from the child I remember. My Mar was...was two when last I saw him, much would have changed regardless."
"I'm six now." Mar hiccuped and held up the number on her fingers. "I'm not a baby anymore."
"I...see that."
"And I like slingshots and bugs and baby animals and coloring. But I don't like dark eco, only Jakky has to use it because all- all his eco got all jumbled up." Mar squeezed closer to Damas. "Jak said he wouldn't let me get dark eco. I don't wanna get dark eco."
Seem looked from this older Mar to the teenaged boy fighting for his life on the mat. A future version of Mar? It couldn't be true, they didn't want to believe it! This boy reeked of dark eco, while the child practically dazzled with unshaped prism potential. Surely no child of the House of Mar would stoop low enough to partake of dark eco!
Unless...
Seem eyed the scars again, and in spite of themself their hand rose to cover their throat almost protectively.
Unless Mar had not been a willing participant.
Damas followed Seem's gaze, and his stomach turned. Two Mars, both years older than they should have been. Alone, battered, collapsed in the desert- Had they been trying to get home? Had Mar been fighting to come back to him all this time?
Two Mars. A son and a daughter. A blessing, a miracle and yet- what had the Precursors put his child through? What were these scars, even on the little one?
Damas looked to the boy, motionless beside the orange...thing...he'd been found with, and he swallowed hard.
"Mar," he whispered, "Tell me everything."
___________BONUS__________________
When the boy called Jak finally awoke, he didn't remember the room he was in, just as Mar had warned. Nor did he seem to be particularly happy that Mar had given away any information whatsoever.
"Mar!" he rasped, "You can't just tell strangers your name! We've talked about this!"
"You're not the boss of me!" Mar retorted almost gleefully.
The boy pushed himself upright to point at her. "Uh, yes I am? I literally am the boss of you by default, kid."
"That's not what Daddy says!"
Jak lurched forward as Daxter coughed water all over them both.
Some sketches of Seem and Glim I had laying around, since I don’t think I will digitalize any of these anytime soon, oof.
Well, the Seem sketches in the middle row with various outfits is based on ideas I had for Seem being a sage, but not of Dark Eco, as I theorized about before. The two on the left are Seem as a Red Sage, as it is the Eco of power, I think it fits them. The one on the right, is Seem as a Light Sage, since they are the lead monk, perhaps one that can really get to use Light Eco through meditation/focusing.
Last but not least the other drawings are self indulgent, omg. Seem and Glim both in different outfits and flustered/swooning
1. Seem angry watching construction on Monk temple. 2. Seem and Sig heading to Kras. 3. Sig explaining to Seem how Kras works (they're unimpressed) 4. Seem in a Haven monk outfit which they use to go to Kras. I hc there are precursor monks in Haven who take on a more cyberpunk look.
Español/
Dibujos no usados de la pregunta de Kras!
1. Seem enojade viendo la construcción en el templo Monk. 2. Seem y Sig en rumbo a Kras. 3. Sig explicando a Seem cómo funciona Kras (no está impresionade) 4. Seem con un traje de monje de Haven que usan para ir a Kras. Tengo headcanon de que hay monjes precursores en Haven que adquieren un aspecto más ciberpunk.
I am by no means an expert, but it is noticeable that some elements of precursors and the monks are modeled after Hinduism, so I made these to point out some Hindu references...
