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

"I guess it sort of is like the carnival..." Rita muses. "Or how it used to be."

She doesn't particularly miss the performance weeks. Even this Rita would rather avoid the crowds and the stage work. But there is an odd feeling of nostalgia, even though it hasn't been that long since they stopped performances.

"...Hey, those look good!" And suddenly, her attention has been grabbed by a different booth, and she's gravitating toward it. It's a snack vendor, proudly advertising chocolate-covered bananas, though it also sells other fruit covered in chocolate, caramel, or other sugary syrups.

Yuya's own reminiscing is cut short as Rita wanders to another vendor. He pops the rest of the mochi in his mouth before following right behind her, using his slight leverage of height to peer at all the confections. "Yeah... which one do you want?"

"Hmm..." Rita looks over the selection. There are caramel apples, chocolate-covered strawberries and cherries, candied pineapple and kiwi slices... but in the end, she points to one of the chocolate-covered bananas decorated with colorful sprinkles. "That one."

The vendor obliges and hands one to her.

Yuya roots through his pouch and passes the cost of the treat to the vendor while Rita receives it. It looks pretty good, and he's considering coming back for one of the supplies later.

"What else have you tried around here? There's so much to do..."

There’s a look of surprise when Yuya goes ahead and pays for her. It’s not a big deal, when they all have ample spending money for things like this, but still. After a moment, she gives him a small, grateful smile.

“I’ve been to the baths and I tried some of the spa treatments... but this is my first time really checking out the town.” Mostly because she was too worried about wasting time that could be used for more important things... before the split.

"I haven't really tried the spa treatments. I've been in town a lot instead," he says with a smile, leaning back from the stall.

"Uh, but I'm glad you're still having some fun while we're here! There hasn't been a lot of that lately..." So much so that they had to stop the carnival operations and all.

Rita takes a few bites of the chocolate banana, starting with small nibbles; it's partly frozen, after all.

"Y, yeah... I guess so," she agrees, though with some uncertainty. "Even when we had time, I'd always find something more important to focus on. I didn't really think I'd go out and do much this time, either, but..." She trails off, frowning.

"But...?" Yuya grins a little wider, looking at her with anticipation as his brain starts filling in possible answers. She has someone special to share it with, she realized she doesn't need to be shy about enjoying these things, hell even just that she needs a break. They all do.

Rita shrinks under his look of expectation, her face flushing. Whatever he wants to hear from her, he's probably going to be disappointed. How can she even explain what happened, anyway?

"...It's complicated," she mutters, then immediately occupies herself with another bite of chocolate banana.

"Oh." A non-answer is also, frankly, disappointing. But if she doesn't want to tell him, he won't press her harder for answers. It is a little hard to read her evasiveness with her blushing in this instance, though. Strange said she was dating someone... is it something to do with that?

"Well... I'm glad you're having fun with the rest of us anyway!" He pulls that smile back up. "You want to keep looking around?"

Her gaze averted, Rita keeps eating, almost as if to use it as an excuse not to say anything. She glances back up at him at the offer, and hesitates.

If she doesn't tell him... is she deceiving him right now? Already, feelings of guilt are starting to gnaw at her. But seeing his smile... Right now, Yuya's telling her he wants to spend time with her, and she wants to believe it. Even though she's just a reject...

"...Yeah. I mean, if you want to... sure."

"Great!" Yuya perks up. Last time he tried to tug her along she didn't like it, so...

He bounces around behind her and starts pushing her forward by her shoulders to guide her. Is this even more annoying than grabbing her wrist? Probably, yes. "Let's go this way!"

"Huh!?" Rita cries out in surprise when he starts pushing her, but she doesn't really resist. This whole 'having fun with friends' thing is still new to her. "Hey, what are you..."

She quickly gets distracted by the festivities in their path, however.

Yuya laughs. He won't push her along for too long, once she starts going forward herself he'll let go and instead fall into step beside her. His gaze drifts along all the stalls, equally enamored with the bright lights and fancy displays.

Once catches his eye, and he points to where bright paper kites with fancy shapes and patterns are being sold. "Look--kites! Have you seen these before?"

He remembers her mentioning she grew up in a cave city, so... there probably isn't a lot of wind or room for kite flying.

Yuya remembers right; they sure don't. Not only that, but Aspio has a general lack of kids and fun things in general.

Rita shakes her head. "Only in books," she replies. "Didn't know they made so many different kinds."

"You can get them in different sizes, too. Let's go look." He gently nudges her before swerving into the kite stall. It's brightly lit inside, putting them on display.

Yuya's drawn by the ones shaped like animals, mostly fish, dragons, there's an octopus in there. There's also lots of flat cuts cut out like animal heads, especially cats. Some really psychedelic ones...

Yuya flips through them, smiling nostalgically. "These are really cool."

Rita looks over the different designs, her gaze lingering on one of the cat-shaped kites. She seems to be thinking about something, when...

"W... we should fly some!" she blurts out at Yuya, but immediately, her face reddens and she seems to regret the suggestion. It's a stupid idea, isn't it?

There's a pause from Yuya... and then he turns on his heels to look at Rita eagerly. "You want to? Yeah, let's!"

Yuya hasn't flown any kites since he was little. But this is something Rita's never gotten to experience, so he's going to completely support her adventure into lost childhood.

He makes a beeline for where she's standing, looking over the same kites she was. "Did you like these? Look, that one looks kind of like Francis."

"Does it...?" Rita looks them over, then seems to pick up on which one he's looking at. "Oh, yeah. It kinda has his eyes." By his eyes, she means that angry look Francis always seems to have, no matter his mood. It has a sort of striped fur pattern, too.

"...All right, I'll get this one," she decides, picking it up and handing a few coins to the vendor.

"Great!" Yuya swings back around the other side. Despite staring at them, he doesn't pick one of the huge three dimensional animal kites. Instead he picks a smaller one, shaped like a red dragon head, and pays right after her, before immediately launching into a conversation with the vendor about the best place they can go to fly them. There's a bit of back and forth with the directions before he's pointed south, to get to the shore. It's a bit rocky, but coast winds are reliable and there's plenty of sky.

Yuya thanks the vendor before turning to Rita anne's gesturing her forward. "It's a long walk, so we should go now."

"S-sure," Rita murmurs, holding her kite in front of herself.

They start walking, and she remains quiet for some time, looking nervous all the while. This might have been her idea, but she can't help but feel unsure.

Yuya walks on with much more confidence, though Rita's silence causes him to steal glances to her. She's not super talkative, but also the awkwardness is almost tangible. He wants to ask what's wrong, but... maybe not yet.

"Hey, wanna see who can get there first?"

He doesn't really give her a lot of time to confirm if she even wants to race before he's bolting again, taking an immediate lead. Cheater.

"What? ...Hey, wait--!" By the time Rita realizes what's happening, Yuya's already got a head start. Without thinking, she breaks into a run after him.

It's an awkward effort, as she's still clutching the kite close to her chest, and it doesn't take long until her bad form causes her to trip and stumble... but instead of falling on her face, she opens her wings and flaps them hard, sparing herself the scrapes and bruises. She proceeds to close in on Yuya by wing, flying just a few feet above the ground. Is it cheating? Maybe, but he cheated first.

Yuya laughs as he bolts ahead, determined to win for nothing. And then he hears the sound of her wings and looks back curiously.

"Wh--hey!" His attention snaps around as she starts to fly right past him, scrambling to pick up the pace. "Not fair, I can't fly!"

"Should've thought about that before you challenged me!" Rita calls back with a laugh. She doesn't relent, and continues flying all the way to the shore, where she lands and takes a few seconds to gaze out at the water while Yuya catches up.

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