(Oh, hey! Story time! Look at that.)
Mirrors. Mirrors are the gateway to physical introspection. This is a fact understood by many individuals, on one subconscious level or another. Sometimes, when a culture comes to understand this fact, they begin to look past the physical appearance, and come to a metaphysical comprehension of things. The universe, people, and in rare instances, themselves. All this and more from the simple, and often times underestimated, look in the mirror.

Janice Evans took one such a look in the mirror one fine morning, and found herself in a rare place. To a point, Janice was an interesting example of the snow leopard-anthropomorphic species. FOr starters, she was unnaturally tall, ”clocking in” at just under seven feet tall. While her fur had grown an acceptable length to accommodate this, she still had a ghastly look about her. Baby-blue eyes and silver hair, while pretty, could only do so much to distract one from her skeletal frame, this fact extending to her black tank-top and ‘skinny’ skinny jeans. This is the visage Janice was presented with this one, fine morning.

And she hated it.

Janice lived in a country whose original was, and still is, lost on both it and its citizens, as par for the course of the progression of time. As it was, the land was now simply called “Absolution,” and a more fitting name it could not have. Here was a country, a home, a world - whatever one desired to call it - where everyone started on an even playing field. Here, dreams could come true. You could find the Rome to your Juliet, or the Romeo to your Romeo were you the type for such a thing.

Fortunes to be made.

Dreams made real.

All one had to do was be willing to work for it. Unless of course, your name was Janice Evans. Janice had been born in Absolution, and by way of simple disinterest, had never bothered to try and leave it, having been seduced as a child by the prospect of making her own dreams come true. As it stood, Janice thought sullenly. Things, her dreams. They didn’t look like they would ever come to fruition.

Out of life, the snow-leopard had only ever wanted three things. She wanted to be a famous, and

possibly rich, musician. Hrm...dingy one-bedroom apartment? Crappy furniture? Come to think of it, it just didn’t scream “Rich and Famous” to her. To continue this list, she’d wanted and wished for something that nearly all creatures desired. This is to say she’d wanted someone to share her life with.

She wanted a mate! Now, while her bandmates shared a lot of time with the snow-leopard, none of them seemed to ever show more than a passing interest in anything about her that didn’t immediately relate to her guitar skills(Something which people swore up and down would carry the band to great heights).

Yeah. Right. Thought Janice with a grimace.

(As a side note, if it hadn’t quite made itself known by now, our lovely heroine was just a belated optimist, when the mood struck her.) Aaaat any rate! All this aside, there was still the matter of her last wish and desire. This was what had her burning up in that mirror this morning, what had her nearly crying out in frustration, and it was a rather tricky thing to describe. See, as a child, Janice had grown up with two loving and caring parents. Parents who weren’t actually her parents. Unfortunately, Janice had been abandoned as a child, but! On the flip side, she was given a splendid and caring pair of parents - a black and bear accordingly as it were. Happy, lively, and on a rather off-topic note: Fat. They were exceedingly, exceedingly fat. The duo had raised Janice with each of them offering Janice a paw of support, while they used their free hands to stuff each other with a variety of pastries and other foodstuffs. As the snow-leopard grew up, her parents grew out, their figures leaving Janice with childhood memories of laughter and oils and butters - all of them used in whatever manner the situation demanded,(Janice most often had fond memories of laughter, bright and melodious sounds just ringing from her throat as she applied the aforementioned oils and butters to unwedge her parents from certain “Narrow” door frames and such.). Yes, it could be said that as a child, she had been practically surrounded by food, always in easy reaching distance of some cake, or some cookie, the same truth easily applicable to her meals as well. To a point, Janice’s childhood could be summed up as such:

If it wasn’t steak, it was turkey.

If it wasn’t a pizza, it was a burger down at the local burger joint.

Now! While Janice had avoided weight gain by some miracle, all this hedonistic stimulation had left the leopard with both a lasting impression and one esteemed wish. Janice wanted to be fat. She wanted to use two chairs at restaurant buffets, close out those same buffets, and she wanted to have a smile on a puffy array of cheeks and chins while she inevitably waddled her way out of the building - only to get caught in a double wide door-frame. She wanted to be every ounce and more, the fatties her parents had been. Unfortunately? Being broke, and being a musician of all things, didn’t make for a decent combination towards this end. To put it succinctly, Janice needed money.

Alas, Janice simply sat there this morning, an hour before she went to a small-time gig, and nothing to do with it besides lament her lack of money, and glare at her emaciated figure. Janice sighed and shook her head. She needed to get out of this bathroom; maybe go for a walk and get to the gig early, do an extra set, earn a few extra bucks, and get some due practice in. This was a brilliant idea. It would get her mind off of things for a bit. Deciding it would be for the bets, Janice stepped away from her mirror, away from her portcullis to herself. She turned away from the mirror, the sink it rested over, and walked towards the oaken door that lay between her, her bathroom, and her apartment,.

She needed to get out of here for a bit.