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

[dyingtohealyou]

Kind of weird to walk into a place where the plants suddenly look like your face, isn't it?

[dadsandals]

You don't find it flattering?

[ He's fucking around. He is absolutely joking. ]

[dyingtohealyou]

Why, do you think it's flattering?

[Because bud, in that case, terrible taste.]

[dadsandals]

I wouldn't know. I don't think there's one of me in here.

[ Spoilers: There is one. There's a leaf with his face on it on a plant next to Ahito's! ]

[dyingtohealyou]

[Turns to look directly at the plant with Yamato's face.]

You sure about that?

[dadsandals]

[ He looks where Ahito's looking.

He pauses.

His expression drops ever so slightly, but Ahito will probably notice. ]

...Ah. I see. It's...it's fine.

[dyingtohealyou]

[He can in fact see that.]

Not so flattering after all, huh?

[dadsandals]

No comment.

[ SWEATS...DON'T...WORRY ABOUT IT. ]

I can take it down if you hate it that much.

[dyingtohealyou]

Can't you just change it back?

[dadsandals]

You'll have to give me a moment to figure out how to do that.

[ SORRY, AHITO. ]

[dyingtohealyou]

...Now this I've got to see.

[From the baths.

Because he needs to dunk himself in some hot water to soothe the aches and pains of general existence.]

[dadsandals]

Okay, okay. Go ahead and relax...

[ ...and be thoroughly entertained.

Yamato will spent around 5 minutes sitting at the plant, trying various things on it that don't work or just won't come out of him at all.

At some point, he ends up transforming the shape of his plant.

Suddenly, there's a giant Ahito plant staring at Ahito right in the face. ]

Oops.

[dyingtohealyou]

[Watching with mild interest, eyes widening when the result is just beeg ahito plant.]

...How'd you make it worse?!

[dadsandals]

I don't know?

[ Sincerely, he doesn't. Beeg Ahito Plant is here. ]

Let me try this again.

[ He works his "magic" again...and the expression on the plant morphs into the one on Ahito's face now. One of pure terror and confusion. ]

Oh. Oh, that's not good.

[dyingtohealyou]

[Dude............]

It's kind of impressive how bad you are at this.

[dadsandals]

Hey, hey, I'm getting there!

[ He tries one more time...

...and miraculously succeeds in turning the plant back to normal (19). Holy shit. ]

See? There we go...haha...

[dyingtohealyou]

After several tries.

[Damn, dude.]

Good luck reverting the rest.

[dadsandals]

Who says I have to revert the rest?

[ He's not gonna!!!! ]

I got rid of yours by request. That's enough for you to enjoy your bath.

[dyingtohealyou]

Wow, just going to leave a mess for someone else to clean up I see...

[The adults here are so irresponsible...]

[dadsandals]

It's not a mess if people are fine with it.

[ Nobody asked for this. ]

[dyingtohealyou]

[Looking around the baths, particularly at people discovering the screaming steam room.]

Are they?

[dadsandals]

What do you think?

[ It's an honest question, but also. Please don't make him clean please don't make him clean. ]

[dyingtohealyou]

I'm not fine with it at all.

[dadsandals]

...

[ Ahito, you are seriously no fun. ]

Fine. I'll try to reverse what I did. I'm not responsible for all of this.

[dyingtohealyou]

[Why, because he's making you take responsibility for your actions?]

Thanks! I look forward to having a peaceful bath again.