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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"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."

"I've barely drunk anything," Strange complains. That's mostly true: his breath smells a bit like alcohol, but not as bad as it would be if he was legitimately drunk.

Once again, Strange pulls on Yuya's hands like this will yank the kid closer towards him. He doesn't want to let go. "And I feel fine enough. Don't worry about me."

Wait a moment. Strange's expression lights up with excitement as he asks, "Are you worried about me?"

Yuya stumbles forward a bit, briefly thrown off because Strange isn't normally a touchy person. Which has never been a problem for Yuya, it's just... weird, seeing him being the opposite now. That's what this is right now, isn't it? Opposites.

"Of course I'm worried about you. You're my friend, and you're drinking alone and you're hurt and you split into two people." If his hands weren't presently hostage, he'd grab for his radio. Sensible Strange was right to be concerned.

"If you're worried about me, then you should stay by my side! Just to make certain I don't get hurt more, of course."

He smiles widely at this, still not letting go of Yuya's hands. The neediness component of reckless Strange's personality is at the steering wheel. Yuya's worried about him. Ergo, Yuya won't leave him. Ergo, this is good and Strange needs to find a way to keep this as status quo as possible.

"... Yeah, sure." You know what, why doesn't he just play along right now. He doesn't want to scare Strange off when he just found him. Maybe he can lead him back to the bathhouse and to other Strange... or at least make a quick call. "Maybe we should both go back to the bathhouse, then? You should have someone fix your nose."

"I'm not too worried about my nose," Strange says, with a little frown. "The carnival has healers, I'll badger one of them into fixing it."

Besides, it's just a nose. He's dealt with worse. Strange is mostly considering the idea because Yuya suggested it and he can spend time with him that way.

"But if you're willing to come with me, I can try to find someone here."

"I'll come with you." He'd want to, anyway, just to make sure Strange actually makes it to someone to take care of his nose. Is he basically babysitting this Strange until they can get the other one over here?

"Come on." Yuya starts to back up, hoping that encourages Strange to follow him out of the bar. And let go of his hands, maybe, or walking is going to be hard. "What happened, anyway?"

Strange does let go of Yuya's hand, but he moves in a way that he's right up against Yuya, paying no attention to personal space.

"Lambert punched me," Strange explains, in a matter of fact voice. His propensity to gossip isn't something that Strange feels strongly or negatively about, so both sides have it. Strange rolls his eyes and looks a little disgusted as he continues to talk.

"He's been so emotional lately. He almost started to cry when I told him Childermass was going to leave him at some point." It's said super casually, like Strange is just talking about the weather, and in such a light tone of voice that Strange either doesn't know or doesn't care about the fact that something like that's a horrible thing to say.

Yuya tolerates the lack of space, as long as it isn't inhibiting their ability to move. Strange's look up disgust is only met with some apprehension on Yuya's end, as he admits what happened. And then, of course, he has to go and be a dick.

Yuya sputters. "That's awful! Why would you say that to him?!" Even if Strange couldn't tell they were in love, that's so mean! "He got split in two like you did, you know."

That'd explain being emotional. Maybe Strange kind of earned that punch, he's realizing.

"I know that—Celandine told me." And Strange trusts Lambert's weasel soul enough that if Celandine said Lambert split in two, Strange believes that. He's still treating this like it's no big deal as Strange follows Yuya towards the main bathhouse.

"And I said that because it's the truth. Childermass probably cares more about the Raven King or his stupid book than he does Lambert." There's a pettiness in Strange's tone as he digs in his heels. Reckless Strange has enough emotional depth to realize that Yuya's angry at him and that it would be best to find a way to fix this, if only to get Yuya to like him again...he's just not sure how.

"But that's perfectly fine! This means that when Lambert goes to England, he'll be going just for me." There's a pause, as he gets an amazing idea. "You should come to England too!"

That doesn't sit well with Yuya at all, but he realizes if Strange still doesn't know that they're dating (he assumes that's still a secret to him) then he might reveal way too much arguing about why telling Lambert his boyfriend doesn't really love him is fucking terrible.

"You still shouldn't say that about people's--friends," he grouses, expression twisting sullenly.

Absently he grabs for Strange's arm, just below the elbow, to make sure they don't get separated as they walk close to the crowd. "If you find a way, I'd love to visit you in England."

That, he at least admits sincerely. Strange is a dear friend to him, and he doesn't want to lose contact in a few months."

Strange 100% knows they're dating. It's just that his dark half is a completely callous asshole who's perfectly fine throwing people under the bus if it helps get what he wants. And in this case, what he wants is people to pay attention to him and help fulfill the super needy part of his personality.

"I don't want you to visit," Strange whines a little, as he lets Yuya grab onto his arm. "I want you to stay there. You, Lambert, Rita, Tyki...I want all of you to stay in England and stay with me."

On one hand, this is some weird split half of Strange acting and speaking irrationally. On the other, it's still part of Strange so this has to come from somewhere, right?

"I can't," he admits, squeezing gently. "But you know, even when we both leave the carnival... I don't want that to be it. I want to still be able to reach each other. Rita, Lambert, and Childermass too."

He doesn't really know Tyki though, sorry.

Yuya's trying to be reassuring and rational, but Strange isn't taking it. He looks profoundly irritated as Yuya says that he can't stay in England. Because why not? Yuya should be in England with him and Lambert and Arabella, it's as simple as that.

"I don't care that you want to reach us. I want you to be with me." He squeezes Yuya's hand a little bit as he tries to drag him closer towards Strange...despite the fact that they're both still walking.

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