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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Despite not getting the exact answer he's looking for, he inevitably gets the one he should be. He's not going to deny all of this is flattering. Like Strange, Tyki enjoys the attention, the explicit dance of attraction between two people. He's not afraid to be the reason marriages are off, or can he count the amount of married women he's had in his bed over the years. Anyone who talked was easily silenced by his family. The Noah were very to the point and concise.

"The other you? You mean what I have before me isn't all of you, Mister Strange? That certain seems unfair~" he teases, Strange's lips again failing to kiss him. He knows Strange might get frustrated the more times he fails, but none of that matter to him. It's why his hand pushes outwards, giving Strange a bit of a shove backwards, "Forever is a very long time and I'm sure that won't last."

This is irritating him more than he wants to admit. However, reckless Strange doesn't have much in the way of hiding his emotions. His hair burns a little brighter and the flames creep up closer towards his scalp: he's obviously irritated by all of this and stumbles backwards slightly at Tyki's push.

Strange opens his mouth like he's about to tell Tyki something, but then closes it a second or so later. When he starts talking again, it's in a tone of voice that's very 'I know something you don't know.'

"Let me touch you and I'll tell you about the other Jonathan."

"Hmm," he begins, mulling over the situation. Strange could be rather lethal if he wanted to, but then any man with magic could do so given the right point. Not that he could stop an intent to attack without violence himself. Tyki's also not wearing much besides a robe right now and a towel down below. His clothes were carefully hidden away along with his stuff, what wasn't stored in his body, and Strange was throwing up more red flags by the second.

"It better be worth my time or you'll find your hands off me faster than you were able to actually touch me, Mister Knowledge." Ignore the fact that they were just off the entrance and in between the festival and the bathhouse.

Victory! There's a flash of something smug on Strange's face as he attempts to grab onto Tyki's arm again. Kissing will come later. After all, if Tyki somehow doesn't think it's worth his time, better he falls through Tyki's arm than trip and fall though his entire body.

"Lambert and I were in an argument. During the middle of it, something odd happened and I split in two. The other me is so dull. He spent the whole time studying the magic and all sorts of nonsense like that." Strange lets out a dismissive laugh. "As if I won't be able to figure this out on my own should I choose to do so."

At least, he thinks he'll be able to figure this out on his own. "I'm not the only one it's happened to: Rita and Lambert split as well."

It's a small victory given the only reason Strange would be able to kiss him was if he had no choice or he decided watching Strange fluster over it later would be a more enjoyable option.

There's a dozen questions forming in his mind as he listens. At first, he comes to a theory it was because Strange spent so long of a time in the Mirror. But that quickly changes when he mentions Lambert and Rita. Lambert was close but then Rita wasn't, or at least not as close as Strange was given he was in it. Yet he can't dismiss the Mirror all together given strange things started happening when the Blue Rose appeared.

"Were you fiddling with magic at the time, or was it simply a verbal argument?" he questions almost demandingly.

"A verbal argument," Strange explains. Or at least, as verbal as it could be before Lambert punched him in the face. "And it wasn't even an argument about magic! We were arguing about Childermass."

He's still trying to cling to Tyki's arm as he explains everything. Fortunately, wanting Tyki to like him and wanting to keep Tyki by his side means that Strange isn't stingy with the details. He's explaining all this like it's routine, business as usual.

"The boss... was something the matter with Childermass?" he asks, Strange normally obliging in his own way, though right now he was putting the matter of letting him touch to the test. If he was cruel, and he was, he could ask a lot of dirty little secrets. He's going to find out for the rest of the day that others weren't so secretive either.

Tyki's not even stiff, letting Strange cling as tight or desperately as he wants to, his arm relaxed and affirmative. He'll only shift his arm if he feels it going numb.

"Nothing's the matter with Childermass," Strange explains. "He's just not the sort of man that Lambert thinks he is."

Strange clings onto Tyki's arm as they walk: both of his arms are wrapped around it. Still, he's matching Tyki's pace and keeping up with him fairly well, even if he is grabbing onto Tyki's arm like a sloth grabs onto a tree branch. And as they walk, Strange thinks for a moment. Tyki likes it when he tells him things. And right now, at this moment, Strange wants Tyki to like him, mostly so he'll fulfill all the slightly nonsensical yandere hypotheticals Strange has in his mind.

"You know, Childermass and Lambert are lovers."

Strange has an odd, slightly distant tone in his voice when he says that.

"Oh come now. You're the best of friends," he says teasingly, knowing full well that Childermass and Strange are from the same world, and the three of them had this counterbalance bond going on.

The implications are clear given what anyone sees when Tyki and Strange walk past them further towards the open fields where Strange wanted to set on fire. Now, he's not sure if he'll let go to do that, or at least not fully. There's always the possibility it'll just be some quiet place for the both of them. It's certainly where he'd take someone he wanted to be alone with. Tyki's already taken a chance on a woman in passing at the spa. Even Tyki had needs.

He blinks rapidly at the sudden revelation. Childermass and Lambert? Polar opposites for certain. Highly incompatible, yet... he could see it, the more he thought about it, "Really?" That would explain quite a few things.

Dark Strange is not the most fully realized creation, as he's composed of like four emotions. He's not entirely sure what to think about Lambert and Childermass being close. On the one hand, even now he wants both of them to be happy. On the other hand, Strange knows fully well that if Childermass wanted to drag Lambert away from him, then Lambert would follow. Which is dumb and stupid and it would be easier if they both stayed with him forever.

Strange clings tighter to Tyki, leaning into the man. Given the chance, he'll rest his head on Tyki's shoulder as he talks.

"That's why they worry so much about each other. Pay attention the next time one of them gets hurt." Because of course one of them is going to get hurt: the carnival isn't safe and both of them know it. "Lambert will be an idiot about it, but Childermass will worry in his own way."

"I'm always paying attention, Mister Strange," he replies with an implication that he noticed. He hadn't thought they were lovers. Perhaps really good friends that cared a whole lot. There was a lot that most didn't know about Childermass and he thought perhaps because they were close that the bond was just greater. To Tyki, Childermass and Lambert were both human and thus somewhat fragile to people like him, yet neither ever cared to be coddled.

This? This makes sense. A hell of a lot more sense. His eyes flick towards Strange as his head folds onto his shoulder like a smitten woman, commonly courted and always seeking his attention. "It must be nice," he says, not commenting all that much. "To have someone that close." Even as Tyki was well liked in carnival, he never really felt wanted except sometimes in Acquisitions and their job. Never picked, always offered. He just missed his family most of all.

"It's only nice when they're with you," Strange simply remarks. It's apparent from his tone that he's speaking from personal experience. But this? This is nice. Clinging onto Tyki, resting his head on his shoulder, Strange is just lapping up the comfort and attention and the fact that Tyki is here with him.

But as nice as this is, Strange is greedy and still wants more. He frowns a little, thinking to himself. Obviously, feeding Tyki information in exchange for actually being able to touch the man is a good idea in Strange's mind. But what else would Tyki not know? Strange casts his mind back to various things Tyki might not know about: Rita and 9S, his own period of madness, something involving Nightshade, what happened after they rescued Ignatius in Eden...hmm. That last one might work.

"If I tell you something else you don't know, will you let me kiss you?"

"I know," he responds, thinking of his family again, "But you don't want even a little time to yourself? It's just as refreshing to hop from person to person, place to place, with just as much relief." It's why he didn't like commitment, one woman, one man, all the time.

He stops when they reach that field, his intentions quite clear despite the way Strange is acting. It would actually be a decent setting to sneak away with a beautiful woman and he had it in mind to find someone to whisk away later. A flowing field of grass, an open area to battle, a nice quiet night with a light breeze and a sky full of starlight. Perfect for stargazing and a decent fuck.

"It would be have to be more than worth my time and I know you don't have anything that valuable, Mister Knowledge," he says, winking as he moves to sit down in the grass, already pulling out his cigarettes and matches, "I suppose I could give you one shot. Remember that game we were playing before about my contract. One guess. That's it. Or you can try to appease me with info I find worthy of a kiss. Your choice."

Strange's frown and wrinkle of his nose plainly tells Tyki what he thinks of this whole situation: this isn't fair and Tyki's being difficult. He's got a vague idea of what Tyki might start a contract for. The man enjoys new experiences, it might be just to see and experience different things. But he's not willing to bet the possibility of kisses on that.

Strange lays down in the grass, placing his head on the ground next to Tyki's. Information it is. He frowns for a moment before he starts to speak.

"Back in Eden, the carnival rescued Ignatius from being strung up and captured by that bear. West and I went with him and escaped that party. When we did escape, however, we had to pass through a wall of darkness created by that bear." Strange shifts a little, moving closer to Tyki, as he tries to rest his head against Tyki's legs. He obviously doesn't want to think about this and is moving closer to the other man for comfort. "The darkness brought up every terrible thought I had about myself. Every doubt, every failing...and it did the same for Ignatius as well. I don't know what he thought about himself, just that it must have been horrible."

There's a little pause before Strange admits, "And the reason why I don't want even a little time to myself is that there was a time when I thought my wife had died. I never want to be that lonely ever again."

The art of pleasing consists on being pleased. Give and take, push and pull, bend and flex. A night with Tyki is often easy but circumstances are different. He values Strange as a whole and not for what he can do. Sure, part of why he liked him was for his vast information, but there was much more to that. He enjoyed his reckless behavior, his spontaneous thought process, the way he was always able to give him a good time, the steadfast friendship he kept up with to the way he was always there to have his back. It's why he doesn't understand this split of self. He has to look further into it.

And yet Tyki knows how to please, to feed an ego in order to get what he wants. It's why he moves his hand under the back of Strange's head and scoots enough to pull his head up against his leg. Strange can't burn him, not without wanting to, and he's fine with letting the man settle. He's also aware that normally Strange would be rather off put by this and so he allows it now.

"I can imagine a few things. Sir Ignatius is a rather loyal fae, is he not?" he responds with almost certainty. Tyki understands this, having friends but doing ones duty. It would take only one word from the Earl to wipe out every friend he had made here.

But he lets Strange talk for the most part, looking down at him as he speaks. He listens because he cares, "Here or at home?"

Edited 2018-09-24 14:00 (UTC)

The more Tyki lets him close, the more comfortable Strange seems to be. He rests his head in Tyki's lap like it's the most natural thing in the world. Even now, a little part of Strange knows this is straight up Tyki indulging him. But honestly? He doesn't care at the moment.

"Both," Strange admits. "When I first arrived at the carnival, I thought she was dead. I even believed I buried her. Midway through my Greysol, I returned home for a while. It was then I learned she was alive, kidnapped and spirited away to a faerie kingdom. The thing that I buried was an enchanted piece of wood."

And then, as casually as if they're talking about the weather, Strange admits, "Thankfully, I helped kill the fae that kidnapped her. He won't bother us again."

He might've stroked that hair were it not somewhat flammable now, just to mess with him further and give him further ammo to tease him later. Right now though, he simply relaxes and allows Strange to do what he wants to. Despite his words earlier, this is valuable information.

That lifted brow returns as it kinks high, amused at the conversation given Strange buried a piece of wood instead of his wife. Trickery perhaps? A well placed con? He can't see something like that slipping past Strange so easily so either he was a greenhorn at his magic or his emotional distraught made him blind. Either way, he lets it go. He's not here to pick and tear him apart.

Unless he ends up at the carnival, he wants to say. He knows the Ringmaster has brought in enemies from his own experience with Allen and he's aware of another with Sans. He sneers down at him, "A perchance at murder is all one needs. Thankfully your wife is safe and sound, at home waiting for you. Don't you feel lost without your other half, Mister Strange?" To which he means his wife or his Light side is unclear.

That's...honestly a question he doesn't know how to answer. It's obvious what Tyki wants him to say. After all, with the way Tyki phrased it, it is a bit leading. And he desperately wants Tyki to be pleased by him and to not leave him the way that others might. So Strange knows what he should say in order to keep Tyki with him.

The problem is that he doesn't feel it. And though he knows it'd be best to lie and say that he does feel lost without Arabella, he can't bring himself to do so. He definitely feels lonely. Lonely, miserable, grumpy, and a little bit jealous of all his friends who have someone they love here in the carnival with them, but lost? Not really.

"Should I?" he tentatively asks.

"Shouldn't you?" he offers back, leaning down to press the point.

"Your marriage was one out of love and not obligation, was it not? A rather rare thing in a world full of politics and situation cravats," his voice low and concise, painting a picture of some cheezy story, "Just as your other half running around this bathhouse is every much a part of you as well. It is you, despite everything else you seem to glad to be rid of."

He gestures with one hand, waving it about a little dismissively. As he said before, he's not going anywhere for now, "I understand living in the now, indulging in happiness and the pleasures of life more than anyone. That level of commitment isn't something I can see myself getting into."

It's as Tyki mentions his other half that Strange narrows his eyes. As far as Strange can tell, there's really no reason to bring that version of himself up. Is this why Tyki's being so nice to him?

"If you understand living in the now, then why do you keep trying to stop me from doing so?" Strange grumbles. He pushes himself up off of Tyki, so that he can actually look the man in the eyes. He doesn't really want to leave Tyki and leave this conversation...but he also doesn't want to discuss his other half at the moment.

"Besides, it's better that I'm split. The other Jonathan can be useful, he can go off and do all the things that everybody wants me to do. I'll just stay with you."

Oh, he's hit a nerve. He can tell alone from the abrupt change in body language from relaxing to sitting up. It makes Tyki grin at the side of his mouth. Also Strange, you idiot. He's being nice because Strange is his friend and he always goes along with his whims.

"Because I'm attached to you, Mister Strange. I would hate to do something that would ruin that, not that you could get rid of me easily should this complicate matters down the road. Were this you, in all of your self, I likely wouldn't be as resistant," he says honestly and to the point. "Don't be so jealous of your other half. I'm not going anywhere."

That frown is still on Strange's face but it softens a little as Tyki speaks.

"You've got to promise that." Is this petty? Yep. Is this childish? Super childish. But Strange desperately wants to believe what Tyki's saying is true and is willing to resort to petty nonsense to make it so. "You've got to promise that even if I do something that doesn't make sense, even if I do something like that Ignatius business, where the entire carnival hates me for it, you'll still be my friend."

Because Strange knows that the likelihood of something like that happening again is pretty dang high.

It's kind of adorable how strongly he felt about this. The splits were bound to be annoying and yet all this tense air would feed him with valuable information. It would help him understand those around him more. Some of it, he would be grateful for, just like now.

"I promise," he says firmly, no hesitation lingering in his voice, "Even if I were to turn against you all for some reason or another, you'd still be my friend, because I am attached to you. You're reckless, irritating at times, have broken my con with your rash decisions, and often resort to tactics without thinking. But that changes nothing, Strange. I love you for everything you are."

He looks upwards towards that night sky, no longer to meet his gaze, "Little could change that."

This Strange isn't even trying to hide his emotions and hide his feelings. When Tyki says that he'll love him for everything, his face just lights up with excitement and relief. Good. That's close enough to remove his doubts and reassure him of Tyki's true intentions.

"I want you to call me Jonathan," he says, with a little smile. "None of this 'Mister Knowledge' or 'Mister Strange' nonsense. Surely we're close enough for that."

There's a pause, before Strange gives Tyki a wide grin. He's about to launch into one of those rash decisions as he moves forward and attempts to grab Tyki in a tight hug.

"But Jonathan is so long..." he snorts, his face plastering on an amused expression, that grin working its way into his features. He can keep teasing all he wants.

The hug is unexpected but he allows it because he's never one to turn down a hug. Even a monster of the carnival could do that and he'd have little to no reservations about accepting it. Try to grab anything else inappropriate and that might another thing all together, "Strange would be a better fit, given that is what you are."

⇨ SHABONDAMASHII

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