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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Ah.

Ah.

"...Oh." Reira doesn't look like she's about to just walk away. Actually she just looks a little disappointed. Maybe a bit worried too. But...

Mostly disappointed. ".......you're in pieces too." Gosh Darn it guys.

"...I think I've stayed with worse people," she decides honestly, scuffing the ground with her sandal. "...Mostly you and the others have just been really sad, so. ...It's not that bad."

Realistically, there are far worse examples for her to openly hang around sir. ~~Like Foster. And Flowey.~~ As it is.

"...are you going to tell me I can't ask what's wrong and that it can't ever be fixed too, though..."

They are indeed in pieces.

Sistina tilts her head at Reira's repeated use of too - they've stayed out of the loop enough not to realize there's other doubles around, and the other Papyrus has their radio.

"What do you mean, too...?"

The idea that he's not that bad is something he can't accept. Sure, there's many worse ways to be, but. But. Papyrus laughs a self-mocking imitation of his old jubilant laugh, "Nyeh heh heh ...heh. Do you remember when Sans was in an egg? Do you know how that happened?"

"Papyrus," she hisses, somewhere between a whisper and an angry goose.

"People keep breaking into two pieces," Reira explains to the goose. "Yuugo became one 'happy' person and one 'angry' person. Sans is...ummm..." She frowns. "...Most of him is sort of normal, but all of his sadness is one person now, so it feels a lot worse..."

She looks to Papyrus. She still looks more worried than anything, and can sort of guess where this is going. "...Mnh... ...People have to die to go in an egg. That's what everyone else said..."

Reira isn't sure she likes what Papyrus is doing either. That laugh sounded kinda familiar in the flowery hollow way.

They're both surprised at Reira's first explanation, Papyrus going quiet and Sistina more attentive as she mentions their brother.

"Even Sans?" Sistina wonders, staring between Reira and Papyrus. They'd assumed it was something wrong with Papyrus, both sides and Sistina in agreement over it. "If it's not us, but something else..."

Papyrus shrugs, not ready to think about the implications, and locks eyes with Reira.

"Do they say, sometimes people help each other die?" His voice is more dark and unhappy than he's ever spoken around her. "Do I have to explain what I mean? I'm everything bad about me. I remember wanting to... I still..."

He finally cuts himself off and looks away. The Void's not pressuring him to seeing only one solution, but the feelings that motivated his 'mercy' killing in the first place were already part of him, and now it's even bigger.

Oh. Reira stares. And stares and stares, yet somehow the expression never dips into judgment. It is only a bit of sadness, a bit of concern.

A bit of understanding, when she connects the dots.

She doesn't speak immediately. It's not really something that you can respond to 'immediately' after all. He's saying he killed him. His brother. That's what he's saying.

But she knows what they're both like. She knows that if it were as simple as that, others would have done something. The Ringmaster, would have done something. So...

"...But you didn't like it, did you?" she asks patiently, looking directly to the skeleton. "...I don't know why things happened. Or exactly what happened, but... ..."

He feels guilty. She wonders if she should say that. Maybe he already knows, but... She look down. "...You don't feel like someone who wanted that for bad reasons. ...you feel like someone who's sorry."

As Sistina's watching, she catches the changes of expression on the child's face. The lack of shock or horror, when daemon and skeleton had both expected them. The strangely mild concern, patience, understanding.

What has Reira been through, that she's adept with instructing monsters on a battlefield?

But Papyrus catches only bits of it, as he's avoiding looking back at her face. He keeps circling around to the thought of getting up and leaving, and his teeth grind with indecision. It'd be simpler. Might hurt her feelings, but less painful for all involved...

"...No. Of course not." He doesn't deserve the least painful option. If she wants to ask, she can hear it, and then leave herself. "I was scared and angry. My reasons don't matter. Sorry doesn't cut it. If it wasn't for that egg..."

His brother would be gone.

It would be his fault.

"I just wanted him gone," Papyrus says, pressing fingers between the ulna and radius of his opposite arm. "Can anything fix that? I don't know what. Maybe something. I can't think of what."

He means that nothing he's thought of would fix it - to his satisfaction - and so doubts that anything could. But there's also a degree of, his thoughts just aren't reaching that far. the idea of anything being fixed, repaired, ever, seems as implausible as his other self's optimism. Everything breaks, and anything to make them more functional is just patchwork. The breaks are always there.

Sistina's about to chime in to say as much, then she startles like she's heard her name. She hesitates, looking between them - will he behave, or argue with himself at Reira like he has been with Sistina? - but the summoning grows more insistent, and she disappears.

Ah...there goes the goose Reira notes, blinking momentarily at the spot where Sistina stood. She supposes that is something to worry about later. "...I should sit too, I think," she says calmly. "...Important talks need people to be sitting." She's a bit larger than a goose, but it isn't as if there won't be room right?

Right. Reira is silent for a number of moments after. Taking a deep breath, pondering what she feels from Papyrus, and thinking.

She hasn't done that enough, before speaking, she supposes. It feels like as good a time as ever to try however. So she thinks for a little bit- before finally speaking. One part from experience...

Another part from something else.

"...I... ...wanted someone gone once. It wasn't for a good reason. Or a nice one. But I wanted it anyway," she says softly. "...I thought after, 'I wish I didn't do that', and said sorry, and all of those things...but I'd still wanted it," Reira continues. "And it still happened, and they were still hurt."

"...It's not the same as killing. But normally people don't get to try again, I think. Being able to try again... ...Even if saying sorry isn't enough, and even if trying again isn't enough, it's always a little more than before. Everyone always says 'bad things happen for no reason'," she rambles, "And that 'life isn't fair'. But...for that reason," Reira continues, looking up to the other, "...I think it's important. Taking the second chance. Because you know what almost happened. And you know what did happen," she emphasizes, her contract and her promise both coming to mind.

"And right now, the feelings you have... ...they're the type of feelings that say, 'We won't let it happen again'. That's what's important. You have an 'again' that you can keep safe."

Edited 2018-09-04 14:58 (UTC)

There's plenty of seating room in the alcove; Papyrus and Sistina get expressive with hands and wings when upset, and they'd sat somewhere with room to gesture as they talked.

Papyrus doesn't nod at Reira as she sits and settles down, but acknowledges her with the occasional glance as she thinks things over. Mostly, he looks back at where Sistina had been, and sourly imagines what the other Papyrus is up to. What message is their daemon going to return with...?

Then, Reira starts sharing, and he listens.

"I know," he says, and it sounds a lot petulant coming out of his mouth. He cringes and tries again, conceding, "I guess you get it," with a little of that hollow tone again. What she's describing does sound like some of what he feels.

"I should... be counting my blessings. The other Papyrus won't think long enough to appreciate how much worse it could be. 'Again' is nice... Better than nothing. Nothing's terrible. But again's..." He lets out a slow sigh. "If you hadn't told me about Sans... I don't know what I would have done, if he'd disappeared for good. Or if he'd gotten hurt, when we tried fixing him. I wanted to do better this time. I guess we did."

It's still not the relief it should be. Conceding that brings him to more of a numb state than a proud one. Papyrus looks down at her out of the corner of his eyesockets to explain, "Again's mean I could fail again, too. I don't like that, but it's true."

And the insidious thought is, if what's ideal about 'Papyrus' is painless lies, then isn't the real Papyrus - this Papyrus - painful truths?

In contrast, Reira seems quite motionless. For all that she is a child, she is unnervingly still, palms resting awkwardly on her knees thanks to the length of her arms. "I don't think anything where someone's in trouble can be fixed without something bad almost happening, or actually happening. If it could be, they wouldn't be in a lot of trouble..."

Reira considers Papyrus' other words however, quiet. "...it's probably not fair to say what you should do right now though. You're you- I already don't like when people tell me what to do, or feel. I just think it's important, knowing what certain feelings mean, or why they're there."

Her words are perhaps a semi-tangential ramble, but she continues all the same. "...and...also, you're not all of you right now. Like how one part of Sans can't be happy, there's probably feelings that you didn't get to keep. It's not fair to say 'you should feel different'. And even if the world isn't always fair, that doesn't mean I should be less fair.

"Wherever the rest of you is..." Reira trails off, looking back at Papyrus from wherever her gaze drifted mid-ramble. "...They're missing important things and feelings too. Like how you care about what happened, what you did that you don't want to do again. So..." The girl trails off again, more for her own benefit. "Mn. Yeah. Until you're one piece again...I think it's good, to just know, even if you're a little scared and can't count."

A pause, and she adds more seriously- "....I'm pretty sure being scared helps people stay out of trouble anyway. It helps me most of the time."

This time as Reira talks, Papyrus turns a little to stare, and unsmiling confusion spreads across his face. Partly because it's a difficult-to-follow ramble (he can't count??)... and partly because it's not what he expects to hear.

Most of this trip he's kept to himself and Sistina, the two tucking themselves in corners like this for arguments of pointed comments back and forth. A montage of airing all the accusatory frustration he usually only shows to Sans - and himself, in bad times. It's how he's been talking and thinking to himself, and Reira's comments don't have any of that, or the unyieldingly bright dismissal from the other Papyrus.

"None of this is fair," he says, sourly but with far less heat than before. "And we'll hear where the rest of me is soon... But, that isn't what you're talking about, is it. You're not telling me to do anything... Or think anything, feel anything... But you're encouraging something all the same."

His tail flicks against the base of where he's seated, clacking a few times as he thinks. She's been talking a lot, he figures, and she's normally very quiet... she can be patient with him while he thinks aloud.

"No shoulds, like this... That's more than half true, most of my ideas of how I should be are gallivanting around. Some of what he has matters. Some of what I have matters. And I can't do anything about it yet. Is that what you're saying?"

Something about the ideas clicks, and he squints at her. "Are you... encouraging me to be patient? With myself?"

She certainly can listen. Being quiet doesn't always make one good at that, but in this case it certainly does. Reira seems to have two modes- 'one word sentence' or 'shonen monologue'- at this point, so she very patiently waits for Papyrus to sort out what he's saying and asking.

...

And honestly, she needs to take her own bit of time to decide if it is or isn't what she's doing- that thing he's asked, at least. "Mnh. ...I think so," she determines, her voice more confident than her words would imply. "...With both the other you, and this you, I think. ....I... ...it feels like everyone's coming apart for reasons," she confesses quietly. "...When Yuugo did... ...just before he did, he felt scared, and upset, and confused... ...it wasn't that it was how part of him was after. It was before he became two people. Something was wrong... ...and he had to come apart because of it."

Reira pauses, trying to get the worry out of her voice before she goes on. "...I don't know what made you come apart. It's okay if I don't know, too- I don't even know why Yuugo, or Sans came apart," she adds. "But... ...whatever happened, it's important. And I think both of you have to think of something, in your own way, before you can go back together again. So it wouldn't be good to tell you what to do. ...I think you're supposed to find that out with your own feelings."

"I hope you can find it though. I don't think it's going to be a good thing if something bad happens to only part of you."

His squinting doesn't stop, though it screws into something a little more bewildered.

"...It's not a good thing if something bad happens to part of me," Papyrus says, slowly. He doesn't know whether he's making fun of her for saying something obvious, or trying hard to line it up so he doesn't say anything mean, or if there's some hidden layer of truth in it that he hasn't figured out yet. "If it was good, it wouldn't be bad. That's how bad things are, they're not good, not to any part of anyone... not even the most terrible parts..."

He trails off as one hidden layer of truth reveals itself, whether she meant it or not. Bad things happening to bad people are still bad things. Yelling at Sistina - or himself - just makes things even worse. Then he doesn't even get to feel neutral about neutral things.

"...Is all that stuff about thinking we need to think of something to go back together... something you know, or something you think? People think conflicting things all the time, without... breaking into pieces."

It might be difficult, as he is, to hold onto knowing that and really feeling the certainty of it for more than a few minutes. For now he pulls the tip of his tail into his lap and fidgets with it, loosening the joint to the crystal tip reflecting his time under demonic influence.

"Um, I only think it," she readily confesses, blinking. "...It feels like I'm right, but I don't know. But... If you could just go back together whenever, you probably would have gone to find the other piece and do that right? So it was probably important to think of things in pieces, for now," she determines, attention drawn to Papyrus' tail in the meantime.

"...I don't think breaking up into pieces normally happens...but... That's probably just magic stuff. At least it's just two, and not lots and lots of evil clones though," she hums quietly. That feels important.

"Yeah. At least it's not evil clones," Papyrus agrees, a little more lightly than he's been talking. That's an undeniable, genuine upside to all this. He feels terrible with guilt and anger and grief, unhappy churning feelings and memories of being all murdery, but he isn't evil. And his ridiculous idealistic counterpart isn't evil either.

Still. There's another reason why Sistina and the Papyruses assumed it was just them shattering like this, and while it's not as horrifying as what he's done, it's still a little alarming.

"But I'm in more than two. There's Sistina, and... look at this." He pops off that last joint without a flinch of pain, then holds it up for viewing. It's whole, and not crumbling to dust in his hand. "Did anybody recombine from something like this? Is this just me?"

"...But Sistina doesn't look like you. That's different," she notes, blinking as Papyrus pulls off part of his body.

She isn't very scared at least. "...Oh! ...Some duel monsters are like that..." At least, their animations were anyway. "..I don't think anyone else could. Um. Maybe Sans? I didn't see anything like that, but... You're all bones, so there's a way to put things back together really easy." Reira points at the areas of the joins on the hand, as 'proof'. "...We don't have lines like that. Um...not on the outside at least... ...So even if we could, there would be a lot of stuff in the way. I think everyone got different changes, though..." It's a big 'think'.

Over all she takes this rather well. "...Do you think, you could use it to do things you couldn't before? Like reaching higher things, or looking over things?"

She's getting rather distracted by this.

It's not the reaction he expected, given this was the last of a few ways he's gone deliberately ominous - meaning to scare her into choose to go away on her own. But he should have expected it. Reira's odd and always seems to react differently than others.

"You really can just take this all in stride, huh..?" Papyrus slouches in on himself, holding his tail and its disconnected tip in his hands, but there's a little smile in his voice.

"I haven't... tried any of that. Maybe... If you're right, and I go back to... one Papyrus, I'll try it."

"...I just try to understand things," she shrugs. "...If you're going to say things, it should be things you want to say, and things you definitely believe in... ...so they're things you have to think about too," she decides. Somehow this is related to that compliment, apparently.

She'll try to explain how at least. "...So...If something big is happening, and it seems scary, it's easier to think about it, and think about what probably made it happen. And then it's not scary anymore. Then it's just something else." So she's probably thinking of the splits and changes themselves, then.

As it is.

She smiles at the skeleton. "Mn...Yeah..! ...Good luck!"

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⇨ SHABONDAMASHII

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honestly the gag tag encapsulates the essence

sobs it really does,

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just a last couple tags for wrap-up?

ye!