lostcarnival | ⇨ 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

In the year she'd been with the Carnival, Eruka had accumulated a lot of objectively useless junk. Most of that is all gone now, of course, trash compacted wherever the Ringmaster deals with the detritus of her rotating case of Carnival workers.

Needless to say, the opportunity to do a little shopping therapy is too good to pass up! Let glorious materialism sweep all her troubles away! She's also dragged Tadpole Jackson along for the ride, stepping through the streets in a black and white furisode accented with her usual colors. Chatter seems to be the norm here, interdimensional travelers mingling along with each other, but at the familiar voice she turns to see what Carly's looking at in the ceramic store they've somehow wandered into.

And blinks, putting a hand to her chin.

"I don't know, Carly ... somehow, that just doesn't seem like you." That is, if Carly is talking about that fine pair of boob mugs on the shelf.

Edited 2018-09-03 07:45 (UTC)

"Heh, what are you talking ab-" She only now notices where Eruka's eyes are going.

"HAHHH!! I wasn't pointing at that..!! Below it! Below it!!"

It's the slightly more tasteful- well, significantly more tasteful, lizard mug.

Eruka giggles, waving a hand before she reaches to pick the mug up and give it a closer inspection.

"Don't get too worked up. You might end up hurting yourself again~" Of course, Shabondamashii is a better place for that to happen than most ... even if Carly injures herself flailing, it's an easy enough fix to stop by an apothecary or soak in another herb-laced tub.

"Speaking of which, how are you doing, anyway?" She must not be too shabby, if she's up and about. Eruka herself has had an easy recovery, thanks to not being very injured in the first place.

"Hehh!! Hurting myself!?" Carly puffs, her light flaring a bit at the insult. "As if that would even happen! That doesn't just happen because I get excited..!"

She says, sporting the injuries of someone who got too excited and ran into trouble,

Oh well. "Ah...if you're talking about my back though, it's mostly okay...the baths here have been really good about that..." she sighs, clearly relieved for the advantages of their vacation stop.

"That's good to hear." Eruka sets the mug down on the shelf, huffing a sigh.

"They really weren't kidding about the Carnival becoming more dangerous, were they? I don't remember my last stay being like this."

Destruction might be well and good, but Eruka's preference would be to not include herself in what gets destroyed, thank you very much!

Edited 2018-09-07 20:57 (UTC)

"Hooof, got that right...you left right before even a little danger hit, I think..." Carly notes, grabbing her chosen trinket and looking upward for a moment. "Let me think...." Ahhh..

"...Mn! Yeah! You left right when we were hired by the realm with a vampire war to help fight!"

Eruka can't help making a little face at that, shaking her head.

"What was a carnival doing getting mixed up in a war?" Never mind that that's what they're basically doing now...

"It was a contracted request I think," Carly explains. "When we arrived, the Ringmaster was hired to help turn the tides of war. I was a scout at that point, as you know...so I was one of the ones who helped to do so. Except, well..."

She grimaces.

"...They followed us back in secret...and attacked on our grounds. Some of us died- for good...we spent a few months in the Summerlands while the Ringmaster recovered, emotionally, after that..."

Eruka can't help but shudder. Yeah, no thanks -- she'd stayed out of any of that nightrunner business as much as she could when she was in the Carnival the first time around, and she still sticks by thinking it was the right decision. To think they'd actually led them back to the Carnival, though...

"I kind of thought the Ringmaster could protect us against something like that." She looks ill at ease, now, and not just because of the dizzying array of knick-knacks in this shop.

"...She thought so too," is Carly's quiet response. "...We all went to the Summerlands to recover after that- ...but she was so depressed over what happened... ...we stayed there for three months, almost," she finishes.

It was...not a good time for the Ringmaster.

"The Summerlands?" That's the first Eruka's hearing of that, and she cocks her head curiously at Carly, as if something's just occurred to her.

"You never thought of leaving, after all that?"

"Eh? ...I mean, what happened was terrible but..."

She frowns. "...I was one of those scouts. ...I was one of the ones who was followed back..! ...To leave right after something that was possibly my fault..."

Well.

She couldn't.

Eruka has a lot of experience in running away from situations that are definitely almost always her fault, so like ... sorry, Carly, she's the very definition of Can't Relate right now. She grimaces. Save her from noble intentions, geez...

"So? You weren't the only one who made that mistake. Besides, if you really think about it, it probably wouldn't have happened if you hadn't accepted the contract in the first place ... this was a carnival, you know."

Of course not. Carly has to grimace herself. "....Maybe, but..." She shakes her head. "It's hard to explain..! I might not like who talked me out of leaving, but... ...the fact is, I have limits to what I can run from, you know..! ...I've already caused too much damage to things to do that for smaller stuff," she mutters, gulping.

Who knows if she ever told Eruka about the ah...peruvian zombie cult that involved her taking a few thousand souls as sacrifice, but that's not important right now. (All signs would likely point to a big No!)

To be honest, Eruka could sort of respect the few thousand souls thing as long as her soul wasn't one of them, but it's not exactly light dinnertime conversation, so maybe she missed out on most of the details.

"Then you just keep running. As long as you don't get caught, it doesn't matter," she says stoutly. “Just look at the Ringmaster! Sure, her mistakes might be catching up with her now, but she has enemies that live for millenia and are functionally immortal, so that's different!"

Eruka points a finger a Carly, triumphant. "All you have to do ... is outlive the people looking for you!"

Edited 2018-10-07 00:20 (UTC)

Maybe. Definitely.

It's certainly not something Carly would have wanted to explain back then after all. Carly simply grimaces, unsure of how to...explain. How relevant Eruka's comparison is.

"...That would be...umn. Great if it wasn't related to 'gods' already..."

⇨ SHABONDAMASHII

SHOP TIL YOU DROP also second link is nsfw

i cackled tbh

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Carly: no i already plan on running from the mass slaughter i did, i cant run from MORE SHIT

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