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

[impacter]

I suppose we could try a counter-spell, but we would need to find the source of the enchantment first...

Mmm, I might need to go grab a robe if that's the case... [He doesn't sound necessarily excited about that.]

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

The source? Does it leave any objects or anything like that?

[Otherwise he's pretty sure the source of the enchantment is Cid over there, and we can't count on him to dispel this!]

[impacter]

No, nothing like that. Remember that in many matters, you can't create something from nothing. That includes having noises come from nowhere.

It's likely one of our pranksters has changed something in the steam room to emit noise. Even the air itself can be manipulated if we're unlucky. But the noise itself can't just come without a source.

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

[Kiryu keeps to himself that sure seemed to him a lot of the magic they're all wielding involve creating something from nothing. Perhaps...it's teleporting objects from somewhere else to the wizard's hands? Did the sugar thing work by plundering sugar somewhere in the world, then?

You can ponder the intricacies of magic later, Kiryu, focus on the now]

Fine. Let's find a source, then. You're the captain here.

[Because clearly Kiryu isn't the knowledgeable one here, hah]

[impacter]

Am I? Well, I suppose I should act the part.

[He'll gesture towards the steam room, though he's not heading there himself, instead heading back towards the changing area.]

Give me a moment to go get something more appropriate. I'm afraid I won't be able to do anything useful if I turn into a boiled lobster before we've even started.

[It won't take him very long - he just has to go fetch a bathrobe. Kiryu might understand why when Solomon reemerges with his robe with very obvious markings on his legs and part of his neck.]

After you.

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

[Having a whole bunch of circles inscribed on your skin seems like asking for trouble, thinks Nick, haha.

Kiryu enters the steam room, guard up just in case it turns out something is more dangerous than it seems at first glance! Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be anything...]

No mortal danger.

[He does raise a hand to try to cool things down around himself and Solomon, though. A steam room it is, but you never know if things can go topsy-turvy and begin heating everything up. May as well ensure they'll both have more time than usual to overcome such scenario, then!]

[impacter]

[this is why we dress in long layers regardless of the temperature!]

Such a brave and courteous Central representative.

[He does appreciate the change in temperature, though, a careful stroll around the steam room as the heat slowly dissipates to something more bearable. It's rather bare, no visible items outside the draining and venting.

The scream echoes like the haunting of a ghost, reverberating across the rock and tile with a location that's hard to place, seeming to echo into the floors and walls. Though it perks Solomon's attention, he doesn't seem perturbed for very long.]

Let's see if you can think with your magic, dear Kiryu. We have no visible threat to the eyes, but magic can be a sixth sense with practice.

Does anything stand out to you?

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

[He has to focus, but comes with an answer]

...it's like it's around us. Like it's the air itself...

[...hmmmmmm...]

The steam itself may be what got changed with magic.

[It's what fills this place constantly and gets renewed often. Either it's the steam itself, or the mechanisms that create the steam were]

[impacter]

Mmhmm. Something like a vapor is hard to enchant all on its own. It's unstable.

So if's not the vapor itself, then where is the source?

[themanwhoerasedhisname]

Not in the vents, since that's meant for the vapor to leave. The source must be the steam generator, then.

[Which he gets to search! It must be that, he's sure!]

[impacter]

There we are! Though given the level of technology here, I don't know if "generator" is the best term to use.

[Not unless they have one of those mana-stone-powered technological doodads from the West, anyway. Who knows.]