do you believe in magic in a shared bath's heart?

[dadsandals]

The bath at the mansion really is extensive -- probably more extensive than a lot of them have seen, considering there are literally multiple pools of varying temperatures, probably statues and indoor plants or something for atmosphere, steam rooms, complimentary bath things (everything in the manor is kind of complimentary but shshhh) and whatnot.

On this particularly fine and nondescript day, though -- there's a bit of a commotion whenever you wander in butt-naked for your soak or whatever you like to do in here (you can hang from the ceiling like a bat or something we ain't the judge of you); there's two enterprising wizards flitting about poking at things.

The thing with 🪄 Cid Kagenou 🪄 is that he is Very Into Baths, and Very Into Magic, and thus the Bath Magic is one of the few areas where even his li'l old self can shine. Or not shine, given that they've all been here for 2.5 days (extremely rough estimate) and the miracle is nobody has blown up the mansion trying magic yet. But there is definitely magic happening! Since there's already steam and everything.

And then there's 👓 Yamato 👓. Yamato is Here and enabling himself by watching Cid experiment with various things in the area. Initially he probably would've tried to stop him, but seeing what Cid's been doing has made him want to try some magic experimentation of his own. Pairing a teenager who kind of knows what he's doing with a man who has no idea what's going on makes it even more of a miracle that the mansion has not been blown up yet.

But if you look even closer, you'll spot various small differences:

🛁 all of the water has bubbles in it; the hot bath in fact looks like it has small duck-shaped bubbles just sort of trundling along, occasionally a duck pops and releases a puff of scented air (scents may vary at your discretion)

🛁 the cold water bath keeps turning different colors, maybe they should stop experimenting with it before somebody ends up blue for the week

🛁 some of the statues and potted plants have been slightly altered; nothing too outrageous, but at least one or two statues have been turned into roomba replicas and there's a potted plant with leaves that look like people in the manor's faces in miniature

🛁 the steam room is letting out an intermittent screaming noise that sounds very human, but there's no one in it

🛁 some of the bath soaps are extremely bright and keep on changing colors, as if they were colored like a disco ball (rave! in the bathhouse!)

............. Enjoy your bath!

(OOC: This is backdated to before the South mission so South Wizards get in on the fun too!)

Comments

[annihilator]

...Is that how they work?

[Malice has never encountered a ghost before. But anyway...]

That's a good point, though. Wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to have a little laugh at us, 'specially while most of us are hangin' out in the same place!

[shadowkin]

No idea?? The one time I really saw any of them was this divine ritual from the Holy Church where they'd summon past heroes to do arena matches... I guess it was a big deal festival and stuff.

It was worth the ticket price, though.

[Not that he even paid for the tickets himself, technically.

Anywho. Sometimes you have ghosts and then sometimes you have Big Deal Ghosts for religious gladiators. He comes from a Really Normal Place.

Cid looks into the steam room again and then sort of waves his hand around in there like it'd dislodge some spirits.]

I didn't expect this many people to come rubbernecking, but I guess it's not all bad. It's better if the spirits like people than if they hate us...

[annihilator]

Huh... Your world sounds wild.

[But anyway...]

Agreed. An' I'm guessin' they do like us 'cause most of us have gotten a pretty decent idea of how to use magic, yeah?

[shadowkin]

The sacred mysteries of the Holy Church are not for mortal men to know...... something something.

[But anyway, we don't need to talk about holy churches in the bath, that's even weirder than talking about the sights.]

I..... don't actually know if it's magic or magic knowledge they like?? Laz was saying they like countries or something, though I have no idea what that's got to do with us.

[Yes he just adopted Malice's nickname wholesale. Why improve on what works??]

[annihilator]

[Huh... Yeah, probably best to leave that alone and move on!! He does grin at that familiar nickname, though!!]

I heard that we've basically been claimed by the spirits. But I'm not really clear on why or what all that means. But I'd guess that means they like us, whether that's for our magic, knowledge, or any other number of reasons!

[We are a very interesting bunch, after all, what's not to love??]

[shadowkin]

I keep trying to figure out what it means, but nobody can tell me..... not even the books can really tell me. You'd think it'd be pretty common knowledge if it's supposed to be such a big part of magic.

Instead it's like being followed by foreign spies who also know exactly how you like your coffee and like... make you buy water from them.

[Judging by the way that metaphor panned out (that is to say, half-assed and half-improvised), it is the classic example of a metaphor growing legs, shedding its skin and running away from its cocoon.

Even Cid's not entirely sure what he's complaining about but he is pretty sure that there are pros and cons to this venture.]

[annihilator]

[Malice nods, then pauses as he realizes that doesn't exactly make sense... then nods again. Sure, he can roll with it.]

Guess we're gonna have to see if we can communicate with 'em ourselves. Kinda weird that the books don't have anythin' on 'em, but that's all the more reason to try to make contact, yeah? Best just to get answers straight from the source.

[shadowkin]

[Braincell-to-braincell communication....... or is it clown-to-clown communication, we just don't know at this point, even if they are currently surrounded by and/or participating in a whole steam circus.

Cid nods back gravely.]

Mmm, I mean... I guess a lot of mages and wizards and whatnot really like their mysteries-- [yeah, he kind of gets that part; you can't reveal all your secrets, so it's more like...] --so it's sort of like if you were playing poker with the foreign spies for the water, and then they really wanted to test exactly how you get your coffee.

Like a personality test.

[You shouldn't have enabled him because now this metaphor has busted out of its chrysalis and become a horrible moth of madness and mayhem.]

If all the magic sugar's any indication, though, I bet it's not that hard to pass.

[annihilator]

[oh this is definitely clown-to-clown communication, especially as malice just sort of nods at this metaphor continuing to morph into some horrible unrecognizable abomination.]

What's a personality test?

[but naturally he gets hung up on something dumb so here we are.]