⇨ SHABONDAMASHII

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

B, darkness no parents

[kingsroads]

Strange hasn't figured out the fact that something odd and magical is happening yet, though there are a few signs. The biggest one is that his scrying is acting up and shows Lambert in two places at once. Still, his magic has been acting up period, so Strange just assumes this is yet another aspect of that.

He obviously sticks out as he enters the bar. Not just because the light reflects off of Strange's scars like he's a walking disco ball, but he's his normal, happy, talkative self as he sits right next to Lambert and gives the barkeep a small smile.

"Whiskey, if you don't mind." And then Strange turns his attention back to Lambert. "I've been looking for you, you know. They've got at least three different saunas here and I don't want to try them alone."

[whattaprick]

The response is a little sluggish in coming. In fact, at first, it seems like Lambert doesn't realize he's being spoken to at all, until Celandine tugs sharply on the hem of his robe and Lambert blinks, lazily rolling his head to turn a slightly glassy gaze on Strange.

"Why? Couldn't get anyone else to go with you?" he wants to know, slurring. "Is water not Iggy's thing?"

He sniggers meanly into his cup, knocking another shot back, and Celandine chirps in dismay from the floor.

"He doesn't mean that," she swiftly pipes up, but then more honestly amends, "He does mean it, but -- he's not himself right now!" She seems terribly flustered and upset by all of this, fur puffing out as she paces.

[kingsroads]

When Lambert mentions Ignatius, Strange can't help but frown a little. What does Ignatius have to do with this? Celandine's response only makes him even more confused. How can he mean it but not mean it?

The bartender slides over a whiskey. With a nod, Strange takes it. Whatever is going on, he'll probably want to be drunk.

"It's no use trying to pretend you aren't interested. You were the one who dragged me to the sauna last time!"

[whattaprick]

Lambert waves a hand in the air, lazily, the sleeve of his robe slipping back from his wrist to show freshly-healed scars along the back of his forearm. Looks a bit like someone's taken a knife to hit and made several criss-crossing lines across it.

"Whatever," Lambert shrugs, listlessly. "If you want me to go, I'll go. 'Cause that's all that matters in the end, right? Whatever makes you happy."

[kingsroads]

What the hell is going on here? Strange is watching with a confused frown as Lambert keeps taking. He has the distinct feeling that he did something wrong except he can't think of what the hell it actually is.

"This would make you happy as well. I imagine the steam would be good for your wounds." Maybe. Strange isn't sure how steam works. "Besides, it'd be more fun than getting drunk by yourself."

[whattaprick]

Lambert snorts. “And now you’re telling me what I should think and feel too?” A little wobbly, he points an accusatory finger at the magician.

“It’s not really about making me want to feel better, Strange. It’s because you’re lonely. If we’d met outside the Carnival, we wouldn’t even have anything to talk about.”

The problem with being split into a light and dark side when you have so many parts of yourself you’d cut out if you could: they don’t necessarily mesh together into any sort of a consistent personality. Case in point: when your shitty self doubt, your need to please people, and your tendency to run your mouth and feel guilty about it later all run together. Guilt flashes across Lambert’s expression flashes nakedly before he shakes his head and turns to his drink again. He’s clearly not drunk enough, if he can still string sentences together.

“Lambert...” Celandine sighs, then looks to Strange. “I don’t know what happened, but apparently, there are two of him now.”

[kingsroads]

Strange gives Celandine a confused look. Two of them now? What the hell did she mean by that? And what the hell happened in the first place?

Strange isn't smart enough to back down and stop pressing when it's obvious there's odd magical shit going on. He takes a sip of his whiskey before pausing and then continuing to talk.

"Considering we're going to meet back in England, of course we'll have things to talk about. It would be boring otherwise."

"Since you're coming to England, we'll have plenty to talk about. I won't stop chatting with you."

[whattaprick]

“You didn’t even want me in England in the first place,” Lambert answers fatalistically. “And you’re right. I’ll just embarrass you in front of all your high society friends. And your wife.”

He knocks back the last of his drink, then drearily drops his head to the table with a thunk.

“Just go, Strange. You don’t need me. And I ... I don’t need you.”

As far as lies Lambert has told, that’s got to be among some of the more unconvincing yet.

[kingsroads]

That is an entirely unconvincing lie. Strange just gapes, looking way too confused and way too offended.

"Of course I want you in England! When have I ever said that I wouldn't?" He's a little bit angry that Lambert would think otherwise.

[whattaprick]

“When I told you I was planning on it,” he says, with the practice of someone who’s repeated this to themselves over and over for a while, “You know what the first thing you asked me was? If I’d thought about it. If I was sure I’d be happy. You said I can’t rely on you for everything — but you didn’t even tell me what I could rely on you for.”

He turns his head slightly, still plastered to the table, to look at Strange — and even in the muted light here, his eyes are red-rimmed. Lambert’s shadow, stripped down to all his insecurities and unhealthy coping mechanisms, is one miserable son of a bitch.

“You probably don’t even remember,” he says dully. “Not that I expected you to. It wasn’t important to you.”

[kingsroads]

He vaguely remembers the conversation when Lambert said that he was going to England. Yes, he did express doubts. But that's only because England is so different from the world Lambert knew. It was out of concern, not thoughtlessness. Right? It had to be.

It's in that moment of doubt that Strange splits. One version of him takes a few steps back, watching the situation with a quiet, worried frown. The second Strange is still sitting at the bar. He gestures for another drink before turning and giving Lambert a small smirk.

"If it wasn't important, I wouldn't have asked. You rush into things headfirst. Forgive me that I wanted to check that you were actually thinking with your head for once."

It's really not good when one of the things Strange hates about himself is the fact that he can be so callous.

[whattaprick]

When Strange splits, Celandine squeaks in dismay.

“It’s happening to you too!” She squeaks. “This is terrible — oh, Lambert, can’t you get your head out of your ass for a second?” She normally isn’t so harsh, but miserable, drunken Lambert has sorely tested her.

“Well, you’re half right,” Lambert answers, huffing quietly. “I wasn’t thinking with my head.” ‘With his dick’ would be the joke to make here, ‘with his heart’ too embarrassing to say, but Lambert is too tired to even joke about it.

[kingsroads]

The Strange that's standing activates his third eye, watching the other Strange and Lambert with a small frown.

The Strange at the bar takes his drink and knocks it back in one gulp. "Considering that Childermass is in England, I know exactly what you were thinking with." He frowns a little, looking over at Lambert. "You're only going over there for him, aren't you." Though he's trying to hide it, there's a little needy tone in his voice.

The quiet, standing Strange finally speaks...and he's totally ignoring the other two, talking directly to Celandine. "Celandine. Whatever this is, it doesn't look like a spell I can easily break. It's magic, though, and an oddly familiar one at that."

[whattaprick]

Indeed, as Strange looks with his magic vision, he’ll find it distressingly familiar. There’s a distinct aura of darkness around the gloomy Lambert, thick enough that it would practically choke himself, and the other Strange is similar.

“I told you,” Celandine says mournfully. “He isn’t himself right now — not all of him. I don’t know how but he—he’s split himself apart. He’d never let you see this if he had a choice...”

This half of Lambert, in the meantime, is too sunk in his own misery to pick up on that neediness in Strange’s voice. “Doesn’t matter,” he shakes his head. “He doesn’t want me there either. I’d just be one more problem for him to worry about.”

[kingsroads]

"Who cares about him?" the seated Strange whines as he scoots a little bit closer to Lambert. "I want you there myself. Childermass can go to hell if he tries to say otherwise."

The standing Strange is still examining the magic. "I'll need to do a bit more research before I can see if I can break it myself. I'm not going to impose but feel free to bite me whenever I do something thoughtless."

The seated Strange looks over to give the standing Strange a scowl. "We don't need research, I can fix this by myself."

[whattaprick]

“All right,” Celandine agrees. She’s a touch confused, but it only makes sense... how Strange would have split differs from how Lambert would. They’re different people.

Apparently, the words are enough to earn a sputter iof indignation from Lambert, who finally finds his temper.

“I care about him,” he flushes, and looks down. He cares, but he knows Childermass deserves better, knows the selfish, childish desire to keep him to himself is something Childermass ought to be running away screaming from if he had any sense. “Don’t talk about him like that. You don’t know him.”

[kingsroads]

"I know him better than you do," Strange snaps. "I knew him when he was Norrell's spook, spying on magicians and innocent women alike. He'll abandon you as soon as you get in the way of what he wants. I won't."

It's Lambert's childishness and selfishness butting up against every needy thought Strange had and worry that he'll be abandoned by those he cares about. The seated Strange reaches over to grab Lambert's arm in a slightly possessive manner.

The standing Strange winces at this. Giving Celandine a little frown, he turns back towards the two seated and starts to mutter, attempting to dispel the magic.

[whattaprick]

Lambert flinches at that. It sounds too much like what he thinks at the worst of times, and it’s worse coming from someone else. He can’t just tell himself it’s in his own head (his lighter half having taken the healthier coping mechanisms with him) and that he’s making it up.

“I knew that already!” he rails. “I know I don’t make a damn difference! But I don’t care!”

And now here’s a horrific sight: Lambert’s actually beginning to tear up.

“Let go of me!” He’s still stronger that Strange is, physically, and the urge to get away is strong enough that he has no problems finding the urgency to yank his hand away.

[kingsroads]

The seated Strange looks so proud of himself as Lambert essentially says he's right. The standing Strange, however, has enough sense to know that things are going south fast.

"That's enough," sensible Strange says, giving reckless Strange a frown. "Lambert, come with me. We'll find your other half and get this fixed."

"He's not leaving!" reckless Strange whines, as Lambert yanks his arm away. "You want him fixed? I'll break the spell myself!"

And then reckless Strange quickly leans back in and tries to kiss Lambert smack on the lips. On the one hand, he is trying to dispel the magic. On the other hand, he's using tongue.

[whattaprick]

Initially (for some reason) Lambert thinks Strange is going for a head butt, and jerks back in alarm. However, he’s drunk and his reflexes are shot to shit (when you’re a useless waste of space, what use do you have for combat ability) meaning the magician lands his kiss with no problem. The initial shock of it is powerful enough to make Lambert’s brain shut down, jaw going slack and unresponsive.

Meaning Strange has a good three seconds to mush his mouth against something that’s essentially a dead fish for as much action as he gets. Celandine is similarly stunned speechless, and then her shrill voice cuts across the silence.

“Lambert!”

It galvanizes the witcher into action, and he jerks like he’s being yanked by puppet strings. He wrenches his face away from Strange and slams his fist squarely into his nose, hard enough to knock him back. Glasses clatter off the counter, but that’s not the only thing that shatters, as it’s accompanied by shooting pain in his hand.

[kingsroads]

Fun fact: Strange doesn't know that he's gained a thin, mirrored covering over his inner organs, including the bones of his nose. Another fun fact: he's about to find out. There's the sickening crunch of Lambert's fist knocking Strange's nose askew, but there's also a slight, muffled noise like shattered glass.

The problem with being composed pretty much of reckless, neediness, yearning for validation, and callousness is that reckless Strange literally has no idea how to react when Lambert punches him. He blinks, looking damn confused, like a deer in headlights.

Sensible Strange looks embarrassed. He puts his hand on his head, rubbing his nose in irritation, before he looks over at Celandine. "That's it. The sooner I figure out what's wrong, the sooner both of these idiots can be back to normal. I'm terribly sorry, Celandine, and hope I'll figure something out soon."

And so, sensible Strange storms out of the bar, leaving reckless Strange looking over at Lambert, a little confused. That confused expression only gets more intense when he pushes down one of his nostrils, blows like he's trying to expel something stuck in his nose, and a few mirrored slivers (as well as a ton of blood) fall down into his hand.

[whattaprick]

"What? You're leaving me with both of them?" Celandine can't help but squeak in dismay, ears and tail shooting up as she looks at sensible Strange storming out. The least sensible Strange could do is take his worse half with him! She doesn't want to be babysitting two dysfunctional halves, especially when she's completely sure she doesn't want to touch one of them!

Lambert, in the meantime, has pushed himself to his feet, cradling his injured hand with the other and hissing as his fingers brush hard material embedded in his hand. What the hell...? He looks up just in time to see dysfunctional Strange blow snot and glass into his hand and hisses, jerking back.

"What the fuck is wrong with you!" That goes on the physical and metaphorical level as well. The bartender, on the other hand, doesn't seem too pleased to have patrons that are willing to punch others on his premises, and is raising a hand to beckon the bouncers over.

[kingsroads]

Strange still has no idea what's going on and is having a damn hard time trying to wrap his head around the fact that he sneezed mirror. Thankfully, Lambert yelling at him is providing a good distraction. He doesn't have to think about things he doesn't know what to deal with. He can just think about this situation instead. He wipes his bloody hand off on his trousers as Strange takes a few steps closer to Lambert.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Strange responds, eerily mirroring Lambert's anger and tone of voice back at him. "I was trying to fix this, you asshole! Or do you want to remain a pathetic drunk?"

[whattaprick]

Lambert can only laugh at that, loud and hysterical.

"You want something to fix? Try fixing yourself first!"

"Lambert," Celandine says warningly, her eyes on the advancing bouncers. She thinks Shabon doesn't have a jail, but she'd rather not find out the hard way. Lambert shakes his hand out, feeling the sting in his knuckles and only getting angrier.

"Stay the fuck away from me," he snarls. "I don't want to see you again."

[kingsroads]

What? No, no, this is exactly the opposite of what he wanted! Strange goes from confused to downright angry as Lambert tells him to go away. If Strange has his way, that's not going to happen at all. His hair flares up, burning brighter as he looks at Lambert with a scowl.

"I'm not letting you leave me!" Once again, he reaches out towards Lambert and attempts to grab his wrist. But if Strange succeeds this time, a set of claws are digging themselves right into Lambert's skin.