Duplicate objects in two directions

[Raboo]

I want to write a diagram or flowchart in two directions like this ascii with duplicate boxes(objects).

    +---+
    | A |
    +---+
    |   ^
    v   |
+---+   +---+
| B |   | E |
+---+   +---+
    |   ^
    v   |
+---+   +---+
| C |   | C |
+---+   +---+
    |   ^
    v   |
    +---+
    | D |
    +---+

The closest thing I can do in mermaid is

graph TD
  .((A)) --> B.in[B]
  B.out[B] --> .((A))
  subgraph in
    B.in[B] --> C.in[C]
    C.in[C] --> D
    D --> C.in2[C]
    C.in2[C] --> E.in[E]
  end
  E.in[E] --> F
  F --> E.out[E]
  subgraph out
    E.out[E] --> C.out[C]
    C.out[C] --> G
    G --> C.out2[C]
    C.out2[C] --> B.out[B]
  end

And it ends up looking like this:

So my question is, can I make the two subgraphs align next to each other like in the ascii and having the arrows in subgraph "out" go in reverse order (instead of TD)? I mean forcing each subgraph top to bottom makes this looks really ugly and less readable.

[equackenbush]

I've run into similar scenarios where I've wanted more control to designate the return node in cyclic diagram. The closest I've been able to achieve is to use flowcharts and bi-directional arrows:

flowchart TB
    aNode
    bNode
    cNode
    dNode
    eNode
    fNode[cNode]
    aNode --> bNode --> cNode --> dNode
    aNode <--> eNode <--> fNode <--> dNode

The addition of a reverse arrow (<--) is potentially one solution to this issue.

[jgreywolf]

Related to #1344

[noraworld]

I had the same issue, but @equackenbush’s answer works for me.

Thank you @equackenbush 🙏