⇨ SHABONDAMASHII

[ringleaders]

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.

Comments

[soft_focus]

The daemon puffs- which in this case makes it look rather like a cotton ball- with pride. "We are FILLED with life!!" Very proud.

Reira is listening though, and blinks- fortunately still in possession of a whole 'pon' due to not yet going for a fish. Blinking, she slowly dunks the entire thing in, guiding it toward a fish. "Umnnh..."

The daemon leans over. Reira leans over. And...

Splsh.

"AH!" Fish-! "It's in!!"

[whattaprick]

Lambert smirks, rocking his weight back on his heels. "There. That wasn't so bad, was it?"

It's a good feeling, being useful, even if it's something this small and relatively inconsequential. "Are you taking that back to the carnival?"

[soft_focus]

Reira doesn't quite answer, but given the wide smile, is at least somewhat in agreement. She seems even more excited at the suggestion- "...I can do that..?!"

"Where to keep..." mutters the daemon, Reira momentarily ignoring them. There are more important things. Such as-

"Um! Thank you. ....Yuuya only showed me the candy cutting game, so I was stuck..." To be fair they kinda spent hours on the candy game. On the one hand he was thrilled to see her be a kid about something.

On the other, HOURS-!

[whattaprick]

"I'm pretty sure we can keep whatever we get here."

No side of Lambert, however, has any insight into how to keep an animal that isn't a horse or a hound, so Reira's on her own there. He's got no idea what the 'candy game' is, either, but the mention of Yuya has him looking a little thoughtful.

"Was this earlier?" he asks. "I ran into him myself, but he was pretty quick to take off."

[soft_focus]

Considering the shine in her eyes, she's quite eager to keep the little guy at least.

Maybe she can find a tank or something. Anyway.

Reira's focus snaps back, and her daemon as well seems to stare. "Um! Yeah. He showed me the candy game after Ginko and Tanyuu made the 'Shichi-Go-San' party for me..."

"It is for Seventh Year ones..!"

Among others. Anyway, that's not what seems important to her right now- not entirely. Reira frowns. "...why did he run away..?" That's what taking off means right?

[whattaprick]

“Seems like he took something I said the wrong way.” Lambert waves a hand vaguely, but there isn’t any real regret in his tone of voice, only a faint consternation.

“But he left before I could say ask. You wouldn’t know anything about it, would you? Why his soul is split apart?”

[soft_focus]

Yuuya takes a lot of things the wrong way. That isn't anything new.

What he took the wrong way isn't new either, but still makes sense though. Reira bolts stiff and upright, eyes wide. Her daemon for once, has more tells. "SECRET!" it yelps, ducking intto the hair. "We promised!!"

"Umm-!! Th...that's..." Reira swallows, looking away. "...We mentioned some things to you, I think, but he got mad about that..." She is only saying as much because she DID talk about it to Lambert before, on that note. But. "..."

She wonders if the promise covers Lambert or not, for that reason...

[whattaprick]

Now that’s an interesting reaction — but the information is new, too.

“He got angry about that?” He raises his brows, not mocking, but to express his own confusion. Because honestly, he has good reason for it. “All you did was tell me about your contract. What was so bad about that?”

[soft_focus]

Reira chews her lip- still looking to the side, and even taking a moment to take her new turtle fish as it's handed over in a bag. Her fingers twist over themselves and then over the knot of the bag, as she tries to sort out her internal dilemma.

"...Yuuya was why I had to make the contract though...remember?" she says quietly, looking up after a short bit.

"Claimed it HIS story, and 'not ours'!" the daemon huffs irritably, the topic still sore.

[whattaprick]

“I still don’t understand why he’d be angry about that,” Lambert says, honestly. “Why would he be angry about anyone finding out he made a contract to deal with someone who tried to destroy the world. I’m pretty sure half the Carnival’s made contracts for worse reasons.”

“Are you taking that or not?” the stall owner interrupts at this point, clearly annoyed to have people jabbering and taking up room at her stall instead of actively playing the game. Lambert snorts and motions for Reira to hand it over.

“Did he ask you not to tell anyone?” That’s what he has to assume the daemon’s reaction means.

[soft_focus]

"Umn-!" Reira holds it closer- she's taking it, she's taking it! And steps back from the game to make room for other patrons. For a moment, both her and her daemon are silent- unsure of what to say, and how to say it. Eventually however...

"...It's my story too, the part I wanted to tell," she mutters a little bitterly, frowning. "And..." She blinks, and breathes. "...Yuuya told me not to talk about my contract anymore, or say he was why I made it."

"...Already told You, however..." the daemon observes, squinting. Reira, as if only now realizing that, jolts her head upright.

"Umn...! ...R...Right, I already told you everything about the contract... I just didn't explain who Zarc was..." ...Which is probably the far more personal bit if she thinks about it. Bugger. She stares for a moment, before asking- "...What...did you say to Yuuya? ...About being a soul piece?"

It's interesting phrasing. But it's note worthy phrasing. Reira doesn't view Yuuya as being IN pieces.

She views him as being a piece.

[whattaprick]

“That his soul breaking apart worked out for him, so maybe it wasn’t a bad thing.” Yuya isn’t really someone any version of Lambert could perceive as incomplete, so he doesn’t consider it an insult — just a testament to Yuya’s own resilience.

Though what Reira says has him thinking. While he’s pondering over that, the seller hands him back a neatly bagged fishturtlething, and it’s while he’s holding it out to Reira and speaks, slowly.

“Are you and Zarc part of Yuya?” If a sliver of his soul had attempted to destroy the world and another part was, well, Reira, Lambert could kind of understand why Yuya wouldn’t want that spread around.

[soft_focus]

Hmm. Hmm.

On the one hand, (as she takes this lovely turtle fish), Lambert is...

Super Duper Wrong!!

And she should probably not correct him, or tell him the truth. ...Except one of two things will probably happen then. Either Lambert will assume he's right and really scare Yuuya (bad), or...

...Or he'll figure it out anyway. Holding her turtle fish bag, she's finding herself puffing her cheeks while trying to figure out how to handle that. It's not great.

Eventually she just looks a little dryly at Lambert. "......I don't have Yuuya's face," is what she starts with. "...Or Yuugo's. Or Zarc's." Thereeee's yer sign.

"But Zarc breaking into pieces isn't what happened to you, or everyone else," she continues easily. "...Because you're not a baby right now. ...And the world didn't break into two like lots of the others are," she adds- that part is Extra important after all.

[whattaprick]

“I don’t know what Zarc looks like,” Lambert points out sensibly, “And you’re little. You could still grow into Yuya.”

It’s a little dad humor to lighten what apparently seems to be a bigger deal to her than Lambert really grasps.

“So Yuya and Yugo were part of Zarc,” is what he gets out of what she’s saying. “What’s this about the world breaking, now? Did Zarc do that too?”

[soft_focus]

Hoof!! "...Mn-nh. ...That's 'stupid'," she determines, re-using that handy little word she's starting to pick up on.

"...can we sit down?" she says quietly, her daemon jumping down to take the form of a fox. "...it's a big story. ...and it's not one that should have 'guesses', so I have to make sure I say everything."

[whattaprick]

"I wouldn't know that, which is why I'm asking. None of you talk much about where you're from." Of course, he also doesn't really talk to Reira and Gongenzaka, and he spends most of his time with Yuya unloading his woes. Ordinarily, Lambert would wonder where she picked up the habit of saying that. It's none of his concern, though, and he isn't even overly insulted by her using it, just responding with a shrug and a slightly self-deprecating grin.

"But of course we can sit down." He'll let her lead the way to wherever she likes, betraying no impatience at however long it takes.

[soft_focus]

Mysteries, Lambert. Paradoxical ones.

There's no real preference to where they sit- a nearby bench suits just fine, and after Reira sets her fish bag gently in the small space between herself and the bench's arm, she takes her daemon into her lap to begin.

Having them here in reach helps a bit, somehow.

"....Where Yuuya, Gongenzaka, and Yuugo, and I are from, there are four dimensions," she begins. "All in the same world, I guess. Standard, where Yuuya, Gongenzaka, and I lived. Fusion. Xyz. And Synchro, where Yuugo is from. ...Before any of us really existed though... ...There was only one dimension."

"A Peaceful place. ...But soon, destroyed."

Reira nods, and fortunately clarified. "...Niisama's dad, 'Leo', made Solid Vision in that dimension. It gave the card monsters bodies, so they could fight in duels. Even though they were real though, they didn't want to hurt anyone. They liked, um..."

"Spars! Theatre!" barks the daemon.

"...It wasn't real fighting, anyway. Most people thought they were just cards...but..."

"Here, Zarc existed. Big- like you," the fox insists, not really thinking about how actually old Lambert is.

And again, Reira nods. "...Zarc was a duelist who could hear the spirits of the monsters. So he agreed with them. ...but he accidentally hurt someone with them once, and the people watching made him do more duels like that. ...The monsters still didn't like it...but he kept going. And going. And..."

"...Anger. Hate! He won, and craved more!"

"...Zarc used his cards to fuse with his four favorite monsters, his dragons. ...And together, all of the hate and anger could hurt people, even if the monsters didn't want it before. He wanted to hurt people for making the monsters hurt each other."

Reira quiets- and is again prompted onward as her daemon rubs their head against her chin before looking to Lambert with their eerie, near white eyes. "....He won," it repeats, and the girl nods.

"...Leo felt bad. ...he made 'solid vision'...and all of this happened because of it. So he took all the power of the earth, and made four cards to stop Zarc."

"Flowers. Birds. Wind. Moon."

"...But his daughter, Ray-neesama, stole the cards to face Zarc instead. She stopped him...and the cards did their job."

"Split, one to four. Reset, and begin again."

"Ray broke into four people, and Zarc, too. One for each dimension that the old one broke into. Inside each, a little bit of Ray and Zarc stayed, too. Because Zarc wanted to be one person again, and Ray wanted to stop it. ...But everything went to before it was destroyed, but different."

"Leo was the same. Most were. But small babies from Zarc and Ray, now had 'families'," the fox explains.

"Mnh. I don't know what kinds of families they had but...that was where Yuuya and Yuugo came from. They were their own people, though," she insists. "Pieces that grew up, with their own lives, and families..!"

"...But Leo remembered." the fox remarks grimly, and Reira lowers her head with a nod.

"...He wanted Ray-neesama back. ...So he tried to get her pieces. He destroyed Xyz, and tried to ruin the others...he put all of her pieces into a machine, until they lost their bodies..."

"And Zarc followed."

Reira bites her lip, continuing the story now that so much has already come forward. "...Yuuya... ...Yuuya tried to save Yuzu-neesama... ...But instead, the other pieces of Zarc fought each other, and made him fight...until Zarc took over, and used his body to come back. The four dimensions started to become one again, and he started to fight everyone, and try to destroy everyone... ...And everyone shouted for Yuuya," she continues almost monotonously, "...But Zarc wouldn't let Yuuya out. And no one could beat him."

"Ray, could."

"...But even though Leo used the machine to try to bring her back, she didn't have a body yet. Just a ghost. ...but...."

"We heard her cry. 'Let me help'!"

"...no one was able to stop Zarc. ...Leo even had the cards back, and he couldn't. ...But Ray could. She just needed a body," she whispers, not looking to Lambert. "...'Mom' said... ...'You're empty. A puppet'. ...Puppets don't have souls," her soft voice drones. "...So I told Ray there was room, and took her to fight Zarc.

"And while we fought, Yuuya took his body back...and helped us win. But Zarc tried to break it into pieces again to start over. No Yuuya, Yuugo, anyone...New people. People who wouldn't remember."

"Thus we Refused."

"...So I pushed Ray out. And pulled Zarc in," she hisses. "So that Yuuya, and the others, could be them. So the dimensions wouldn't break. ...I made the magic move faster, so that instead, Zarc would have to be a baby with me, and start over that way."

Her daemon has no more words.

Reira however, eyes still glued to the ground as a few tears gather, does.

"...Zarc... ...didn't want to be angry, anymore..." she says quietly. "...Before Yuuya's contract made the Ringmaster get me...get me and Zarc before we were 'gone', I felt his soul, and all his feelings. ...He... ...he was sad. Sad, and tired, and sorry, and scared. You can't make a feeling lie," she sniffs. "...He needs a new chance, to live, even if Yuuya doesn't believe me... ...They're not the same, like he's not the same as Yuugo."

Her daemon still has no words.

And it appears Reira finally has none herself.

[whattaprick]

It’s hard to say how a split half of Lambert takes all of this, though he listens to it all patiently, with a neutral expression. He lets Reira get it all out at her own pace, neither hurrying her along or slowing her down by asking questions, even if he doesn’t entitely understand. People getting turned into babies and reborn seems like an awfully specific thing and he doesn’t entirely grasp what Reira’s getting choked up about here. By all accounts, Zarc was a person who’d reaped what he sowed. Had he ever considered stopping just to tell this ‘Leo’ guy that he didn’t like what was happening? Trying to break the world seems a bit excessive, and Lambert should know.

There’s a considering pause while he considers how to respond. Then he reaches over to plant a hand on Reira’s head, though he doesn’t ruffle her hair or anything like that, just rests.

“I don’t really understand,” is what he begins with, bluntly. Even if he was all of himself, he doubts he would. “And I don’t understand how someone could be split into pieces and whole at the same time. But I do know one thing.”

There’s another pause.

“Your mom sounds like a real bitch.”

[soft_focus]

To be fair, Reira was paraphrasing quite a bit- one of those things paraphrased was the part where Zarc was first driven to complete and utter insanity by the conflicting words of a brutal audience and an agonized chorus of supernatural entities.

Also, Leo was just the inventor of the technology and never met Zarc. Even at the start, he should have kept his nose out...

"Ah..." Hands on her head are always a good motion to take- it's what her brother did anyway, so that's an A+ thing in her books. She doesn't know what that word completely means but-

"AGREED!"

"...I don't think we're supposed to say that word though." As it is. She does want to...try and explain.

"Mnh...I don't think Zarc was...'whole' whole. He had feelings and things, but a lot of him was still just being angry and wanting humans dead..."

"Like a bug, on a dog."

"...Yeah, that I guess. I think, if the Ringmaster didn't take us away for Yuuya's contract...after a while, we probably would have been just one soul, and someone new. It would have been like how the others were. Umn..."

"Cuttings!" Oh yes, she learned that from her science book.

With far more confidence than before, Reira explains. "Mn-! If you cut pieces off of a big flower, and plant them somewhere else, they grow into a new flower...which is sort of like the original one, but if you used different water, and dirt, and light, it's still different!"

"Zarc is the big flower...Yuuya, Yuugo, Yuuto, Yuuri...Little flowers, in different places."

"...Maybe if they all went together as babies, they'd have been the 'real' Zarc but... ...They were too different by then. So they couldn't do that."

Back to her mom though.

"...I did tell people that the Prince made me think of her," she muttered, blinking.

[whattaprick]

"Maybe the Prince should have tried marrying her instead." Ha ha ha... jokes that may or may not go over a kid's head, Lambert is also full of those. But moving back to the other topic...

"Yuya did say something about that," Lambert muses. "About them growing into different people, which was why they couldn't become one person again even if they tried." Not that Yuya had seemed all that enthused about that idea.

"He also said he died, when it happened. Splitting, I mean. This 'Ray' used the cards to do that?"

[soft_focus]

"Mnh. I don't think it's the same as 'dying'..." Reira remarks. "Umnh... ...If I wasn't here, I wouldn't have 'existed' anymore, but..."

"Recycle!"

"Like that I guess?" She pauses, trying to think of how best to explain it. "...A piece of who Zarc was stayed behind, but the other pieces became the other four people, with their own bodies..."

Anyway. Reira nods. "Mnh-! The Natural Energy Cards- Leo said they were 'the purest power of the earth', to stop a 'man made evil'," Reira quotes, squinting as she tries to draw the man's exact words. It's hard and she isn't sure she got it quite right, but the gist is probably something along the lines of their world's earth spirit.

So that's great. "He put them in four cards- 'Flowers', 'Birds', 'Wind', and 'Moon'." Now that she says that though, she realizes something. "...I guess I still have those...in me?" .... "...I don't think they do anything though."

[whattaprick]

Lambert pauses.

"'Not existing' is usually the same as dying for most people, I think." He'd just expected something a little gorier might have been involved, but then again, if it's souls, there can be a lot of violence with relatively little blood to show for it. That being said, she completely loses him when she starts talking about cards in her, which just gets a blank look.

The purest power of the earth, though, that's at least a little bit relatable (but why is the 'moon' a part of the 'earth'). He's had experience with that before, in another world, though he supposes he underestimated how important cards really were where Reira and Yuya are from.

"Yuya told me once your world doesn't have magic," Lambert says, absently. "That sounds a lot like magic to me."

[soft_focus]

...

"....Oh." Penuel catches it first, with Reira furrowing her brows. Well.

"...It's still not Yuuya that died then," she remarks with a bit of a confused frown. "That was Zarc that broke into new people, not Yuuya. Yuuya just got possessed for a while." The entire divide and non-divide is really the biggest matter of miscommunication for the two.

But as it is. Reira shrugs. "...Mnh...I don't think it...normally has magic?" she tries.

"Very unique..."

"...It was the only magic thing I ever saw..."

[whattaprick]

Lambert shrugs, indifferent.

"It doesn't seem like Yuya sees it that way. He said 'we died when it happened' and they got reincarnated." So it seems like either they have different memories of the event, or radically different interpretations of the same events. It's no skin off his nose, either way, but it's obvious this is maybe something Reira doesn't really grasp.

"Thanks for telling me about it, though," he says, after moment. "Even if he told you not to."

Oops.

[soft_focus]

"Already knew!!" the fox snarls, puffing up.

Reira as well scowls, no longer calm in the slightest. "You were the one I talked to before I made the promise..! You already knew everything I promised not to talk about..!" And.... "...And he isn't Zarc...! I keep telling him that, because he keeps getting sad about the things Zarc did, but that's not Yuuya..! Yuuya didn't do any of those things, just like Yuugo didn't! Zarc became different people..!"

"If Zarc becomes someone new, it is New and not Old!"