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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Peridot was sort of hesitant about this whole spa business at first, but now that she's been here a day or two, she's really starting to enjoy just getting to experience all sorts of new things.

That said, seeing Jasper out in the city and actually partaking in culture is straight up the first truly shocking thing that she has seen this entire trip. She had expected that in a recreation based world such as this one, the quartz would be off skulking in a corner and frowning about what a waste of time this all is. And yet, here she is! Out and about, trying on different varieties of pants for her horse butt. So unusual is this sight that Peridot decides that, after a few minutes of gawking surreptitiously from the next stall over, she's going to tail the other gem for a while, so astounded is she at this peculiar development.

Her efforts don't last very long though, because Jasper goes to a food stall next, and Peridot is just SO ALARMED by the sight of Jasper apparently giving actual consideration to eating something that she blows her own cover. "Are you buying food!?" She says loudly, emerging from behind a display rack of different artisanal cooking oils to confront the centaur.

Jasper straightens up, looking guilty. She knows this kind of thing is unnecessary, but --

"I've never tried it before," she says, a little surly, but not nearly as surly as usual.

Honestly, she'd expected some sort of violent outburst or straight up denial upon being caught, so that response just makes things even weirder.

"You're actually trying new things?" Peridot says, an oddly blank expression on her face. Then she bursts into a grin. "HA! I knew you'd come around to the idea eventually! Good work, Jasper!"

Shockingly, rather than being massively offended, Jasper just snorts and points out, "Well, it's not like there's anything else to do around here."

(Cut to light Jasper just taking a very serious business stroll basically for ever.)

Meanwhile, though, this iteration of Jasper is jabbing a finger at Peridot. "You must have eaten before. What's it like?"

Peridot is so pleased by this development of Jasper's that she doesn't even take offense to the finger jabbing.

"I don't know. Personally I think the whole process is kind of overrated," she says with a shrug. "Tasting things is nice sometimes though, I guess.

"Hmm," says Jasper. "I don't know if I like the idea of mashing something up with my teeth. It seems like it'd be... unsanitary. But humans all like doing it a lot."

"It is," Peridot nods. "That's why humans use these thing called 'toothbrushes'. They have to scrub out their mouths every single time they eat a meal! Or at least they're supposed to. I think in practice most of them only do it once or twice a day. Which I can't really blame them for, because toothbrushes feel weird."

Jasper frowns, looking down at her own face as she separates her lower jaw with one index finger. Her teeth situation is... a little complicated.

"Huh," she grunts. "Maybe I'll pass."

The engineer shrugs indifferently. It really makes no difference to her if Jasper wants to put organic garbage in her body or not. "I'm impressed that you were even considering at all, to be honest," she says, swishing her tail lightly.

"Oh," says Jasper offhandedly, glancing back at the food stall, "I think it's because there's two of me now."

Peridot freezes up, her expression stuck in a stiff looking and downright confused smile.

"...What?" is all she can think to say to that.

"I'm not sure what happened," she admits, "but there were two of me all of a sudden, and we fought, and... I don't know where the other one's gone, but everything's been a lot easier since then."

"What?" the smaller gem reiterates, this time with more force behind the question. Word hasn't gotten around yet that people have been literally splitting into two, so this is just leaving Peridot with a million questions. "Wait. WHAT? No-- What are you talking about!? There can't be two of you, that's not even physically possible!"

Jasper folds her arms. "Well, I fought the other one, so I know she's there. It's probably some kind of magic nonsense."

Some magic nonsense. Alright then.

Peridot is so not amused anymore.

"I don't suppose you bothered to tell the Ringmaster about this so-called 'magic nonsense'?" she groans, rubbing her gem. This is supposed to be a relaxing stop! Why are the relaxing stops never actually relaxing!?!

Jasper freezes, looking guilty. "Well... not yet..."

Jasper looking guilty? Jasper... not telling an authority figure about a potential threat???

"I'm going to talk to her," Peridot announces once she manages to pick her jaw back up off of the ground. She turns on her heel to walk away. Sorry Jasper, she wants to be thrilled about your new, more cultured and curious side but this is just way too damn concerning.

"Wait--!"

Jasper trots after her.

"Wait, Peridot --" She has to bend down real far to grab Peridot's shoulder, but she does it anyway. "It's not that important. It can wait."

Edited 2018-09-07 02:02 (UTC)

Peridot stiffens and cranes her neck to look back at Jasper like she's gone and gotten herself cracked again. "Are you insane? People splitting into two versions of themselves!? This could be a magical threat of incredible proportions!" she argues, trying to jerk her shoulder out of Jasper's grip.

Jasper's grip tightens, but her brow furrows anxiously.

"Rrgh..."

She lets go.

"Fine. You're probably right. But let me come with you."

Peridot half-turns and frowns at her, weighing how comfortable she actually is with that idea.

"...Ugh. Fine. It's probably best if you're there to explain exactly what happened, anyway," she concedes, letting her arms drop back to her sides.

Jasper huffs uneasily and follows Peridot.

"... Two of me would be more useful than just one," she says, which sounds like something she's been telling herself already, "so it probably isn't something that needs to be fixed."

Edited 2018-09-09 20:24 (UTC)

Peridot can't say she disagrees with that. She prefers this much more relaxed version of Jasper over the original. But, she also can't just ignore suspicious magical bullshit when it pops up.

Eventually they find the Ringmaster and get an explanation for what's going on. The mirror shards, the division of the light and dark in a single entity into two separate entities. The Rignmaster doesn't have much advice for how to deal with it either, beyond just making sure that neither half gets killed.

As they're marching away from that discussion, Peridot can be heard grumbling: "Typical. Of COURSE The version of you that I actually find tolerable would be the one made up of all the traits that you apparently hate about yourself!"

It's certainly a lot to process, but it's kind of still sinking in as they walk away.

"You don't know that," she says, a little petulantly. "I might be the light one. I like being like this."

"I highly doubt that," Peridot says bluntly. Though, thinking privately, there is something to be said for the fact that Jasper even had these sorts of feelings at all; distinctly un-gem-like feelings that she wanted to get rid of.

"You need to find your other half and reconnect with it."

Gimme that Dark Jasp

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