⇨ 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

[atouts]

Childermass can only shrug and drink before adding, "They really don't. I still don't understand their whole 'dying' thing. They just turn into a gem outright, one you can pick up and walk off with. I don't know if it would work the same for Steven."

[kingsroads]

"Peridot tried to explain it to me once...there's some sort of hard light nonsense." Which, based on Strange's frown, he thinks is incredibly stupid. It's light. How the hell can light be hard, it's just light.

[atouts]

Childermass has no idea what hard light is so that just gets a fairly blank stare and a squint out of him.

"I suppose if shadows can be hard, maybe it's the same...?" That damn bear sure could bend darkness to an obnoxious extent. "Although I don't think you can blame the bleeding diamonds on Steven being part gem, to be honest. Could be a change from the carnival's magic. I bleed shadows myself and that makes about as much sense."

[kingsroads]

"And I've got mirrors inside of me," Strange remarks, with a sigh. The carnival's weird and magic's nonsensical: at least they can all agree on that.

Though, considering people can bleed shadows and gems, that leads Strange to go down a different train of thought. "I wonder..." he muses, as he looks at his glass. "People here can bleed all sorts of odd things. Do you think someone could bleed alcohol?"

What a lucky bastard that would be.

i can't remember if he knows about ginko's booze blood or not oops

[atouts]

"I wouldn't be surprised," Childermass says with a laugh and finishes his own glass before setting it down to refill it. "Changes seem to go all over the place for some people. For all we know, Lambert's been bleeding alcohol forever and we just can't tell the difference."

strange sure af doesn't

[kingsroads]

"I would tell the difference," Strange clarifies. "Even if it was alcoholic blood, it would smell like alcohol. I'm certain I could piece out that scent quicker than you."

Because Strange spent most of his twenties being a fucking useless drunk!

[atouts]

Okay, that earns a scoff of disbelief. Childermass shakes his head and sets his drink down without taking a sip, lest he laugh it all out again.

"You? Please, I'd sniff that out faster than you ever could," he disagrees.

[kingsroads]

Strange laughs, as if Childermass is telling a hilarious joke.

"Shall we put this to a test then?"

[atouts]

"Mr. Strange, I spent my entire childhood around drunkards and criminals," Childermass points out. Whether he knew that before or not, well, he doesn't really talk much about his life, so probably not. "But if you're feeling bold, very well. Let's."

[kingsroads]

The problem now is that how exactly do you design a test that's 'who can smell alcohol.' Strange pauses for a moment, then brightens up as an idea comes to him.

"Don't let anyone take my seat," he says, as he gets up from the table. When he returns, he's carefully balancing a tray with five or so shotglasses on it, each one holding a clear liquid.

"One of these has alcohol in it—and I don't know which one it is either, the bartender set them down when I wasn't looking. We'll examine the glasses, take a sniff but not drink anything, then guess which one has alcohol."

[atouts]

Childermass looks at the shotglasses, looks at Strange, then fights back the urge to laugh at him. It's an idea, that's for sure, so he waves him to set the tray down.

"I'm not sure how anyone could mistake alcohol from water," he will say that much, "But let's see."

[kingsroads]

"If you have any better ideas on how to test this, I'll gladly listen to them," Strange points out, sulking a little as he talks. This is an alright idea, screw you Childermass. "Still, it'll do for round one."

Because of course there will be multiple rounds of 'who's the biggest lush.' There'll be enough rounds until Strange is certain he's won.

"You can make your first pick."

[atouts]

Childermass shrugs and picks up the first shot, giving it a gentle swirl around the glass before lifting it to his nose to take a sniff. Is it anything particularly telling?

[kingsroads]

Nope! That one smells like water. It's the second one from the right that has a faint smell of alcohol to the drink.

Strange is still watching, paying attention to what Childermass is doing as well as formulating strategies for drunk contest round 2.

[atouts]

He's... not doing a whole lot that would give him away, as he is still Childermass and, like Childermass, can summon up his unreadable poker face at will. He sets the glass of water down and moves on the test the other glasses similarly, one by one. In the end, after he's set all of them down.

"I believe I know which it is," Childermass says once he's done, looking at Strange expectedly to see what he'll do next.

[kingsroads]

Strange picks up the glasses himself, puts each to his nose...and then wrinkles his nose slightly when he gets to the one that smells like alcohol.

He probably should have come up with a better test. This is kind of easy.

"Shall we point to which one we think is the correct one? On three, perhaps?"

when ur account expires and all u got is 3 crows, a sister icon, and art

[atouts]

"As you say," Childermass agrees and holds up three fingers. He counts down, one, two, and— "That one."

On three he points at the second one from the right.

lmaoooooo

[kingsroads]

Strange points at the second one from the right as well. He frowns a little, before simply saying,

"Damn. We need a better test."

[atouts]

"Could be there is no decent test for this," Childermass suggests. "Unless you know of a drink that doesn't give off the exact smell of alcohol..."

[kingsroads]

"I'm certain there's one somewhere," Strange responds, with a shrug. It's a big multiverse and all that. "I just don't know where we'd find one or if it's here in the first place."

[atouts]

Childermass shrugs. That's likely true, somewhere, out there, but as they've no idea what that might be, he'll just say, "We could just carry on as planned and split a larger bottle of wine."

Which is to say, they could drink. A lot.

wanna montage it until they're good and drunk?

[kingsroads]

There's a pause where Strange frowns...and thinks...and mulls it over...and then almost instantly decides that yep, alcoholism is more fun than half-assed drinking games.

"Any particular preference on the wine?" he asks, as he gets up to go to the bar and purchase said larger bottle of wine.

up until strange realizes he's a cheater at least

[atouts]

Childermass will point out a wine at random, not even putting an iota of thought into it. Thankfully, it's affordable, and so they spend quite a bit of time trying to polish that off. Only, the more the drink, it becomes readily apparent Childermass isn't actually getting drunk. Strange is, certainly, so it can't be the wine itself...

He's just as friendly though, happy to help pour Strange another glass whenever his is empty and listen to whatever the man has to ramble on about without, for once, any judgment. That said, it probably doesn't seem fair, how much the shadowy magician seems to be putting away without so much as a slurred word.

so much sulking when that's the case.

[kingsroads]

It's at some point, where Strange is pleasantly hammered and Childermass is still annoyingly sober that he realizes this is happening again. Childermass is doing his...thing. That 'not getting drunk' thing.

"Stop that," Strange scolds Childermass as he vaguely waves a hand in Childermass's face. "You're doing that 'not getting drunk' thing again. We're supposed to be having fun so stop that."

[atouts]

To that, Childermass can only laugh and laugh a lot. Sorry, Strange, he's grinning at your expense.

"I'd wondered how many drinks it would take you to figure that out," he says, setting his own glass aside. "I could do this all night long if I felt like it."