lostcarnival | ⇨ SHABONDAMASHII

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⇨ SHABONDAMASHII

Who: Everyone!
When: Day 92 - Day 99
Where: Shabondamashii Bathhouse
What: With the Silver Mirror claimed and the animals of Eden relocated, it's time for the carnival to kick back and enjoy an interdimensional bathhouse and the surrounding festival city. Meanwhile, the scattered shards of the Mirror have an unexpected effect.
Warnings: Dark/Light halves acting weird.

THE BIG CLEANSE↴

As the carnival recovers, the Ringmaster has brought it to the gates of a famous interdimensional bathhouse to rest. She won't be joining you for most of it, though she will be checking in frequently and available by radio. She's fixed a large portion of the Silver Mirror after it shattered, but it seems like pieces are missing. She doesn't want to rest until the missing shards are dealt with, and the Mirror itself is locked away safely.

► YOUR OTHER HALF: The shards missing from the Silver Mirror didn't just disappear - after breaking apart in Eden, fragments of the object embedded themselves in the spirits of those not already touched by its powers, and those that had been the most fae-touched. That means, your characters. The effect of this, explained in more detail on the plotting post, is that some characters will be splitting into two versions of themselves: the Light, and the Dark. This doesn't mean good and evil, of course, it's far more complicated than that.

Splits can start happening at any time after arriving in Shabon, and initially characters won't know how to rejoin with their twins. Later on, it will become apparent that they need to reconnect via the shard of the Mirror they share... of course, in order to rejoin, you have to have both halves, and not all twins will be as eager to go back to the way things were before. This plot point is optional.

► SPA DAY: When you're not engaging in metaphysical division, you are free to enjoy the many luxuries that Shabon offers. Things will mostly have an east-Asian bend, like what you would see in the movie Spirited Away, but as long as it doesn't affect the setting much, you can honestly have whatever spa-type services available that you want. Food is served both in restaurants and 'buffet' style. There are also well paid sex workers here, if that is your thing, but make sure to tip well.

► FESTIVAL TOWN: The city surrounding Shabondamashii is largely meant to catch the business of interdimensional tourists. There are frequent parades and other events held, and the architecture is very closely packed. It's easy to get lost if you leave the bathhouse, but it's definitely worth it if you like party. You can pick out a few outfits for yourself and some fun nick nacks, but nothing that would normally require mod approval.

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"Looking for myself." It's an odd statement but Strange's frown tells Yuya that he's 100% serious about this and isn't really joking around. He's definitely swapped from 'fun Strange who's ready to congratulate Yuya and talk shop' to 'serious and slightly worried Strange.'

"Have you heard of this business involving people splitting into two?"

Yuya's shoulders slump and the confident expression drops.

"Not you too!" He shakes his head. "First Ignatius, and then Gongenzaka split up as well. But he put himself back together... how many people is this happening to?"

They're both surprised at Reira's first explanation, Papyrus going quiet and Sistina more attentive as she mentions their brother.

"Even Sans?" Sistina wonders, staring between Reira and Papyrus. They'd assumed it was something wrong with Papyrus, both sides and Sistina in agreement over it. "If it's not us, but something else..."

Papyrus shrugs, not ready to think about the implications, and locks eyes with Reira.

"Do they say, sometimes people help each other die?" His voice is more dark and unhappy than he's ever spoken around her. "Do I have to explain what I mean? I'm everything bad about me. I remember wanting to... I still..."

He finally cuts himself off and looks away. The Void's not pressuring him to seeing only one solution, but the feelings that motivated his 'mercy' killing in the first place were already part of him, and now it's even bigger.

"Oh! Uh..." Yuya rubs the back of his neck. It's kind of a long story, but if Haruhi is signing on with the carnival now, she deserves to know. "We went to Eden so we could steal a magic artifact called the Silver Mirror... they didn't like that, obviously. Well, some of them did. Anyway, we learned they were keeping people for experiments while we were there, and we came to save you!"

He spreads his hands wide at the end of the cliff notes version of that whole situation. With less kidnapping.

Oh. Reira stares. And stares and stares, yet somehow the expression never dips into judgment. It is only a bit of sadness, a bit of concern.

A bit of understanding, when she connects the dots.

She doesn't speak immediately. It's not really something that you can respond to 'immediately' after all. He's saying he killed him. His brother. That's what he's saying.

But she knows what they're both like. She knows that if it were as simple as that, others would have done something. The Ringmaster, would have done something. So...

"...But you didn't like it, did you?" she asks patiently, looking directly to the skeleton. "...I don't know why things happened. Or exactly what happened, but... ..."

He feels guilty. She wonders if she should say that. Maybe he already knows, but... She look down. "...You don't feel like someone who wanted that for bad reasons. ...you feel like someone who's sorry."

They do know that look. It's no small part of why Papyrus now resembles it; he's put so much effort into not falling into the same choices or mistakes as Sans, but there's similarities that only get erased when they're forcibly separated into another body.

Papyrus hesitates at the mention of his other self, so Sistina answers from the doorway.

"He's... out, exploring the city."

"Blithely smiling," he adds with a huff and an increasingly sarcastic tone. "Making friends, trampling all over their feelings, hurting them by accident, but it's okay because he just keeps trying his best."

"...They're avoiding each other," she clarifies.

"I assume there is at least towels." But it's too late to worry about it, given they're already in. Syrlya deliberates before setting against the edge at and angle from Strange, absently pulling his hand up from under the wine to inspect the liquid clinging to it.

And then, after a pause, he licks some of it off his index finger, just to see how it tastes. It smells like wine, but...

That's an answer Beau doesn't know what to make of. She squints for a minute as she stares at the shimmering lights.

"Wardrobe stuff. They told me to come here?"

Light lady's slip of the tongue - and the mannequin off to the side - both imply this is the right place.

"There's options for that," Beau points out, thinking back to Trostenwald. "Set-up, selling tickets, whatever."

Those sorts of jobs seem like they'd get even more monotonous than fighting off 'fae' and whatever else they'll be finding, now. Not as bad as reading history texts, but pretty boring.

"But I mean," she hurries to explain, "why are they still calling it that. Is it ironic...?"

There's something about this carnival group that they're not telling the newcomers, and the best way to get a second opinion is asking the other new hires.

"Uhhh... You know." Beau holds a hand around her waist. "Horse down here, human - or humanoid - up here. Like you?"

As soon as Strange hears that Ignatius split, his expression goes from slightly worried to real worried. He's got a vague idea as to what a split Ignatius might look like, and it's not good.

Still, he can't do anything about that until he reforms himself. The loss of Strange's recklessness means it's easier for this half of Strange to sort things in a sensible order.

"It's happening to Lambert as well. My theory is that it involves the Mirror. At first I wasn't sure, but studying some ambient magic surrounding Lambert and comparing it with myself proves the case." His magic is already way too influenced by the Mirror. Strange needed comparisons with Lambert and others to actually prove that. "How did Gongenzaka put himself back together?"

"That's what you're always wanting to do, isn't it?" he asks, sitting down on the bed near Papyrus but not right beside him. "Not the hurting people part, but... keeping this stuff separate. Avoiding the parts that you don't want to be true."

He considers it for a moment, and then goes on. "But some of that's more of a talk for the other guy, I guess. I think the difference between us is that you were always better at keeping those things distinct. Shooting for what you wanted things to be instead of what they actually were."

Sans rubs his shoulder. Even with so much shed from his mind, it's still a weighty thing to talk about.

"I've always admired that you could do that. It's not as ingenuine as it probably feels to you right now, either." He turns to look at Papyrus more closely. "But I think that kind of means that I've barely gotten the chance to know you at all, even through all that's happened. I mean you, you... the stuff without the other guy."

He smiles faintly.

"I know some of that is probably my fault. My other guy can be pretty loud, and you've seen him at his worst."

Edited 2018-09-04 02:41 (UTC)

A complete Jasper would find 'humanoid' offensive, but the half composed of her more desirable traits is holding onto the whole rigid species supremacist angle. This Jasper just raises an eyebrow at the correction and puts a hand on her... hip?? neck?? centaurs are messed up.

"I haven't heard that word before," she says. "This," she gestures to the whole... horse situation, "is new. It's good, isn't it?"

"The mirror?" Yuya pauses, but realization hits. "That's right, because it bends souls... I was at the healing temple, but I could see something in the sky burst and--something shiny was falling from it." Did they all get hit with some of its magic?

At Strange's next question, though, Yuya hums and looks aside as he tries to parse that whole mess of a day into the information Strange is actually looking for. He's a little distracted thinking about the other thing that came out of it, but.

"I don't know what was going on with him, uh, internally." He taps his chest for emphasis. "But the two of them grabbed each other's hand and walked into each other? And turned light, and then there was only one of him again, and he was normal. I guess since he wasn't worried anymore, he didn't feel like he had to be split."

Ignatius had been upset right before his split, too, so it that what's causing it. Having a lot of fear and doubt?

Yuusei shoots Carly a listless glance as he leans back across the edge of the heated bath she seems to have caught him in. It's more like a hot tub in general function, meant for multiple people of varying sexes, though this particular chamber's current traffic has left it rather empty.

Which is good for a couple of reasons, one of which being that Carly won't attract as much attention as she scolds the taur sitting below her.

The other reason is that the dark fragment of Yuusei's soul feels even less remorse for taking up the majority of the damn thing, his human arms folded along the floor as his upper back leans against the edge of the tub and his upper scaled claws resting on the submerged seat. His tail is curled around the circumference of the bottom of the bath, and his hind legs are spread wide open. He doesn't seem to care about just how indecent he's being right now. Hardly anyone else is here to judge him for it.

Except Carly, of course, but he doesn't seem to care much about that either.

Yuusei looks her up and down. His tongue runs lazily across his upper, then lower lip, highlighting a set of sharper canines.

"...I don't. Enlighten me."

The Silver Mirror, huh. "Really? Hm. Well, at least it's in good hands now. At least, I hope you guys are the good hands." After all, just stealing a probably magical mirror for no particular reason seemed pretty suspect.

"So, what'd you need the mirror for? What's it do?"

All of this is giving Strange more questions than answers. But one thing's certain: he needs to find his other half in order to reform and keep himself from doing something even more dangerous.

"Very well then," said with a terse little frown. "Then I should probably return to trying to scry for the other Strange. Yuya, if you somehow spot myself around the bathhouse, please tell me to stop being an idiot so we can reform and get everything back to normal."

"You can't find him even with that?" Yuya knits his brow. Is the other Strange blocking it somehow, or is it just this place?

Either way, Strange is obviously concerned about whatever's going on with him. After Yuya saw the state that Gongenzaka's other half was left in, he understands. "I'll help you look for him!I have my radio, so I can call you... is there any place you think he'd want to go?"

"We're better hands than Lilith," he says with a crooked smile. "I don't know everything it does... but it's a really powerful fae artifact called a miracle. And there's a lot of fae who are chasing us down, so we're getting the miracles to protect ourselves so they won't hurt us anymore."

Congrats Haruhi, you're actually now a fugitive in the fae courts.

As Sans comes over, Papyrus shifts his legs - to make a little more room, and also hide his fidgeting hands.

He snorts again at the mention of why he's like this, now that his usual faking it ways are collected in a separate body, but doesn't otherwise interrupt. Reira had mentioned Sans' split, into a 'sad' version and a 'sorta normal' version, but this... takes them aback. Sistina's dead quiet by the door, and Papyrus stares back at Sans, eyesockets already a little misty.

"Sans..."

He shakes his head, because regardless of what his brother's split did to him to bring this on, it's too much like he's absolving Papyrus, all undeserved.

"How can you say all that, when... What I did to you. That me doesn't respect anyone's feelings, just... his own idea of what's better. It's..." He remembers it feeling genuine, at times, a seed of genuine pulling fake things around and trying to change them. Now it hurts to see, because he can't share it, and it doesn't have any room for him.

"...But I'm worse."

Bones rattle as he bunches ungloved hands together.

"Even at your worst, you've never... attacked me. But I did. You know."

"I keep trying to scry for myself," Strange pointedly says, as he taps himself on the chest. Scrying's not all that useful when you're trying to look for yourself but split in two. Strange thinks he's almost figured out the spell to pinpoint on his other half, but it might take some time.

"As for places he'd want to go...bars or open places where there aren't many people." Two radically different places. Still, Strange has an idea of why he'd want to go to both. Bars because it's him, he likes bars. Open places because he was testing his magic before splitting. It would only make sense that the other Strange might want to keep that going.

Oh. That makes sense, actually.

"Bars and open places," Yuya nods fervently, looking a little more determined as he clenches his fist. "I'll go look now! If I use the mirrors, I can move around faster."

He wandered through so much of the city after all, if he focuses he can probably remember where he saw mirrors and bars. He bounces around Strange, putting his hands to the mirror and he concentrates on remembering any mirrors or fountains to take him immediately into the city.

Well, Ginko had almost managed to relax for a moment there. Now, though, he jolts in the water before looking up at Lambert. Which... isn't the best angle, even taking Lambert's changes into account. He averts his eye just before Lambert steps into the water.

"Uh-- hey. Yeah, this is a surprise." Running into Lambert, and also Lambert being... like this. "You seem to be in a good mood."

"No, I came in halfway through your Summerlands visit, after the Ringmaster came back from some sort of ordeal?" He never really asked the details because they hadn't been that important, not at the time. And right now, none of that mattered.

He nudges his elbow into Dark Sans back but doesn't let any other part of them touch. He had made a point to never touch Sans with his hands, not unless he had to. He respected boundaries of people he was attached to. "Hmm, if I had known that..." He wouldn't have offered a glass of wine or a bottle of hard cider in the past. Then again, Tyki never really drank in excess except with faerie ale. It was a pleasure, one he could control.

"It's interesting to see, given how much I've wanted to know about you. The both of you. You don't have to hide from me, Sans. Your soul is right. It's what makes you who you are. Shit head or not."

He grins at her.

"They want me to steal for them. I thought it might be interesting. We'll see." It was all true, of course. But the ringleader had also made him an offer he couldn't possibly refuse. His smile softens some after a moment.

"Don't feel bad for being human."

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⇨ SHABONDAMASHII

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honestly the gag tag encapsulates the essence

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sobs it really does,

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never be sorry

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