The Reflections in the Mist Encyclopedia - (An in-depth look into the story)

General Story

General Story

Bio’s:

Mark Mathews

Age 29

Siblings: Andrew Mathews

Was working in a busy comedy club, night club and bar complex as one of the managers. Had been there for seven years and was tired of the job and needed a drastic change of career. Coming to his wits end and about to turn 29, he decided to go all out, leave his job and country and go travel Japan for three months.

Not that confident in nature and fairly introvert, he decided that he could not go by himself. The solution was to ask his brother to go with him. Although excited about going, Mark was deeply upset about leaving his girlfriend Jessie back in the UK.

The more sensible and cautious of the two brothers, Mark is often the voice of reason behind any situation.

Mark has very selective food tastes. On occasions he has been given food that he does not like .If there is no away around self-fixing the food, he will inevitably pass the food onto Roo.

Andrew Mathews A.K.A. Roo

Age 20

Siblings: Mark Mathews

Andrew had been out of college for a year and was working two part time jobs, one in a bar and one in a pet shop. He had no real direction in life and was getting pretty fed up with the way things were going. When his brother asked him about going travelling, although skeptical at first, eventually became really driven by it.

Roo is the louder and more outgoing of the two. He is referred to by Mark as ‘my bigger, younger brother’.

Roo has a natural ability of navigation, he is good with maps and remembering where places are after one visit. He has a quick wit and sarcasm inherited from his brother.

Roo usually ends up eating any food that Mark does not like. He is quite happy to do this.

Time Line:

Parts of the story are set alternately in the real world and sometime in the near future at the Mist village.There are also segments from dates leading up to the two brothers’ leaving for Japan.

The events that happen in the real world, loosely correspond to the chapters set in the Mist village.

Although the real world dates follow a chronological path, the Mist village days are fixed on a single date, as if the time didn’t flow there.

*February 2008 – Mark proposes the idea of travelling to Andrew.

*March - September 2008 – Planning of the trip.

*8th September 2008 – Flying over China, Marks eyes catches something outside the window.  The two brothers arrive in Japan.

*9th September 2008 – First full day in Tokyo.  They visit Shinjuku and go up the Government Building.

*10th September 2008 – A trip to Electric Town is cut short because of jetlag and heat stroke. They meet up with Jess in the evening for the first time.

*11th September 2008 – they get caught in the rain coming back from Asakusa Temple. Visit Trevor in the evening and get a phone.

*12th September 2008 – Travel to Mitaka and spend the day at the Studio Ghibli Museum.

*7th October 2008: I – Wake up in a strange place, meet something called the Translator.

*7th October 2008: II – Translator takes them to the lookout post.  Roo sees the eye in the cloud.