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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In the later half of the week, Strange's room will be disturbed by an audible crash from the bathroom, accompanied by a high-pitched yelp and a groan.

The good news is, Yuya didn't break anything as he hit the floor. The bad news is, that hurt.

By this time, Strange has accidentally split. Thankfully, Yuya gets to deal with his sensible half, not his reckless half who said sensible half is currently trying to find: there's a basin of water set on the bed and Strange has been attempting tracking spells.

There's a pause while Strange goes through the options and decides that yes, that must be Yuya. He knew the bathroom, his other half would be more coordinated than that.

As he gets up, Strange is taking a few steps away from the door. Yuya most likely needs a cold compress, his magic is still acting up, he's not going anywhere near Yuya while he makes an improvised compress out of two pairs of socks.

"I hope that was you, Yuya," he calls out.

"It's me..." he sounds dazed, and there's silence for a half a minute after he confirms his presence while it occurs to him: he's in Strange's bathroom.

And then he's scrambling to get up, which just results in smacking his head against the sink and that also hurts but you know what, that's not what's important.

"I did it!"

That is.

The half-assed cold compress is one frozen pair of socks with another pair of socks on top of it. Strange winces as he hears the thud of Yuya's head on the sink.

Very carefully, he opens the bathroom door and hands Yuya the cold compress. "The question now is if you can return to your room."

Yuya takes the sock after he uses the sink to haul himself to his feet, but he doesn't put it to his head. He doesn't really even pay attention to what it is. He just kind of holds it while giving Strange an eager, slightly manic grin. "Do you want me to try now?"

He's already pressing his hand to the mirror.

Strange nods. His grin is a bit less manic but definitely proud and interested. "After all, I want to see your technique with my own eyes."

He takes a few steps back from the mirror and activates his third eye.

Yuya nods, turning to the mirror and furrowing his brow in concentration. The first attempt is a struggle to pull the magic together, but Yuya stops and tries again with more success.

It's not far off from the way Strange explained it, although Yuya's more successful efforts reflect more along the lies of the behavior of his shield, with the magic concentrating around him. When he pushes into the mirror, Strange can see it anchor to the reflection--and then he's gone. With the sock compress.

Back in his bathroom, he's stabilizing himself, watching the reflection to see if Strange is going to follow.

Strange doesn't say anything as he watches. However, based on his expression, he's obviously proud and very impressed by Yuya's work.

And yep, he does follow. Just a moment or two later, Strange appears in Yuya's room via Yuya's mirror. He's giving him a huge grin, super impressed by all this.

"This is what I'm trying to tell people! You managed that magic because you took my framework and made it your own. Yuya, I'm so proud of you."

This is what he's been trying to tell Lambert. But hey, it counts.

Yuya blushes faintly with an extremely pleased expression plastered on his face at the praise.

"I wouldn't have known I could if I didn't have you teach me," he says, humble, but it's clear from the way he looks he's absolutely excited with himself. "And it didn't take me as long as the shield, this time."

For an initial success, anyway. He's going to find that 'consistency' is a lot more difficult with this spell, especially when he starts trying to push other people through it.

"The more magic you do, the easier you find it. Any proper magician figures that out sooner or later." And, based on the smile and the way that Strange gestures to Yuya as he speaks, it's obvious he thinks he's a proper magician. Strange still looks so proud and so impressed as he continues talking, like a parent who's kid just won the spelling bee.

"I'm certain you can start piecing out magic yourself now. Just focus on what you want to do, use what you know as a baseline, and work up from there."

"You think so?" He doesn't know where else to go from here. That's suddenly a whole wide world of possibilities, especially since Strange had managed to teach him magic Strange himself can't really cast.

Either way, that's exciting. "I can't see magic like you do, but... I'll try! And I can still ask you for help if I need it, right?"

"Of course you can," Strange remarks, with a little nod. As far as he's concerned, Yuya can always ask for help and he'll be happy to give it.

"Though not right now," he briefly chides. It's obvious from the fact that Strange is still smiling a little that he's teasing Yuya a bit. "Obviously you couldn't have known, but I do need to get back to what I was doing before you interrupted me."

Namely: finding his dipshit other half.

"Oh, did I interrupt something?" He still sounds slightly sheepish about the teasing. He hadn't meant to, obviously, it's just they'd already established Strange's mirror as one part of the practicing. He can start using another one, though. That's the next step isn't it? Going to other mirrors?

"What were you doing?"

"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?"

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?"

"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?

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?"

"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.

"Best of luck. And again, keep in touch if you find anything." Since Yuya's using the mirror, Strange isn't going to use it to get back to his room. Instead, he gives Yuya one last look to make certain he gets through the mirror alright, then heads back to his room to resume scrying.

Turns out that sensible Strange guessed right: reckless Strange is in the city, at one of the bars, frowning slightly as he looks down at a half-drunk glass. He's not really paying attention to anything else. He does look a bit beat up: there's a few scraps and scratches on him as well as a visibly broken nose.

It takes longer this time, but Yuya successfully bounces through the mirror. It still being inconsistent and Yuya having no real idea where the bars are, though, does mean most of his investigation ends up on foot.

Luckily, in a place like Shabon not a lot of patrons are worried about things like 'drinking ages', so Yuya at least has no trouble investigating bars. He perks up upon recognizing the other Strange immediately, and carefully navigates around patrons and tables to get to him.

"Mr. Strange! There you--oh." He visibly cringes. "You don't look good."

When he hears Yuya's voice, it's Strange's turn to perk up. He looks legitimately delighted and, abandoning his drink, ditches his table and starts to make his way over to Yuya...only to frown when Yuya points out the fact that he does look terrible.

"What? No, don't worry about me, I'm fine. Come back inside and have a drink with me."

He makes a move to grab one or both of Yuya's hands as he talks.

Strange won't have any issue grabbing Yuya's hands, who just continues to look at him with worried concern. "Your nose looks broken!"

That's super not fine?? This must be what the other half of Strange was worried about. Instead, Yuya tugs against his hands. "Maybe you shouldn't be drinking anymore, either."

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