[ While it wouldn't be too out of place to see Sumina randomly fixing misaligned wall art or taking a cloth to a dusty surface and quickly wiping it clean on any given day, today she does so in the wake of her own shadow. Mischief for Sumina's shadow in particular comes in the form of doing the very opposite of these things.

Case in point: Sumina tries to set a nondescript abstract painting to level, only for her own shadow to poke it back to a slightly tilted positon. And then trying to fix it again. And it going askew again. And again.

She draws in a deep breath, and then looses the longest, most withering sigh. ]

Stars preserve me...

[ Being a very ordinary-shaped person, the silhouette of Sumina's separated shadow might be difficult to discern. She's just got one of those shapes that could belogn to literally any other of the NPC guests around here, you know?

Upon closer inspection, however, there is an ordinary-shaped shadow with a few not-so-ordinary features: the twinkle of starlight around where eyes would be, and every now and then... a very faint halo of what looks like cosmic plasma, like the solar wind of a sun's crown. And if you try to converse with it, it will respond, though it sounds like this. Weird!

It is escalating its antics from a few days prior, this time knocking vases off of surfaces entirely, pulling out every chair from a table, and leaving banana peels everywhere!! Watch your step! ]

a.
[ Ultimately, Sumina's shadow settles in at a tavern on the Ren Faire Floor, having the time of its life, dancing freely and humming loudly to every jaunty tune, standing on every table, chugging every pint of ale, though it doesn't actually have a body, so everything just passes through its now fully star-speckled silhouette and spills out onto the floor.

As soon as someone approaches with even so much as an intent to reunite it with its owner, the solar wind haloing its shape flares brightly, and the party halts.

...And then it throws a chair at you! You won't be getting this Shadow back without participating in a good, old-fashioned tavern brawl!

(The NPCs, at least, will mostly stick to roughhousing each other.) ]

b.
[ When the time comes for the shadow to return to its owner, the real Sumina can be found not too far away, having apparently tried to pursue her shadow but fully running out of energy. She is properly curled up on the grass beneath a willow tree, with a fake flower crown haphazardly placed on her sleepy little head. The shadow returns, joyfully shaking a tambourine in its hand to wake its owner up. ]

Mmmn...? So you're done partying...

[ We all know what happens next. Sumina's shadow sinks back into the ground, taking on its proper shape over the ground, but soon that plasma and starlight previously lining its shape seems to lift up from the shadow's silhouette and ensnares Sumina's body. ]

( feel free to hmu as usual for plotting! )