Event: Healing Waters

[voidtreckermods]

"Good morning passengers, it is day twenty three of the month of Grasshopper. All passengers of the Voidtrecker Express require rest. Next stop Jema’grethy Island. All passengers prepare to disembark."

It is a very strange morning message that rings through the train on the morning of day twenty three but as the passengers of the Voidtrecker Express wake their screens glow with the colour of the void and a holographic screen pops up for them to read.

World #2554098133741: A world once inhabited by an ancient civilisation and now preserved as a historical site, nature reserve and well-being retreat. It is famous for its relaxing hot springs, calming atmosphere and beautiful beaches.

It is a popular void-traveller destination, particularly among void missionaries as a place to rest and recuperate after difficult missions.

The Voidtrecker Express will spend three days here, arriving today and leaving on day twenty six of the month of Grasshopper. The dressing carriage is open for your convenience.

It is time for a holiday it seems!

Preparation

For those who go to explore the dressing carriage they will find a variety of beachwear and wetsuits. One cupboard has a pile of tents and groundsheets in all four team colours.

One cabinet is exclusively filled with beach towels, in a kaleidoscope of colours, designs and patterns. Another is filled with different shapes and sizes of plain towel dressing gowns. There is even a cabinet with buckets, spades and small rock-pooling nets.

It seems they are in for quite an adventure.

Arrival

"Shortly arriving on World #2554098133741. Exit from void in ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one."

The train lurches and rattles as it leaves the void they will get a glimpse of silver-purple sky and a beautiful ocean below.

However some passengers might be a little more than distracted, one staring at that table for a second too long, another seeming lost in thought for a couple of seconds, a longer than normal pause in a sentence. They see a vision, a glimpse of a life that is not their own. Not all at once, but here and there as the train descends to the island.

But then it is gone and things are back to normal. Just in time, as they come to land.

Jema’grethy Island

The train has landed on a grassy ridge, overlooking a beautiful beach of white sand and the ocean beyond. It is warm, but not too hot, a cool ocean breeze cutting through the heat making it pleasant. Behind them is a grassy plain, changing to forest in the distance. There is the sound of birdsong in the purple sky. To the west the land is more craggy, the silhouette of a fortress in the distance. In a word, it is idylic. A sense of peace permeates the island.

A little more worrying is the volcano-like structure in the north. But even a quick glance will show it is not a typical volcano. There is no smoke and the liquid slowly running down it in rivulets is pink and blue.

Exploring the passengers will find beautiful beaches, ragged cliffs to walk and caves to explore. Where it is more craggy the beaches are made of pebbles- perfect for rock pooling.

The place has no people, but it is clearly maintained. The eastern beaches have racks of shallow boats, both canoes and one- or two-person sailing dinghies. There is also a small building in which scuba gear is stored, along with several waterproofed manuals and instructional literature.

Ruins of ancient houses are scattered across the island, but the main settlement is built into a rocky section in the north-west that has been secured with ropes and stairways cut into the cliffs, perfect for scrambles and hikes.

There are no living quarters, but there are sheltered sections with basic toilet facilities marked as camping grounds in five different sections of the island - by the hot springs, within the ruined fortress, beside the harbour, on the eastern beaches, and on the northern face of the mountain.

Hot Springs

To the west are the hot springs. They have both outdoor and indoor areas; the indoor areas being wooden loghouse saunas, changing rooms and storage sheds, whilst the outdoor areas are a tiered series of pools spilling down the side of the mountain and shaded by brightly flowering trees. The waters are hot, mineral-rich and soothing.

Perfect for overly stressed, world weary Void heroes...

(OOC: More setting information is here, please feel free to go wild with the setting and have a fun and relaxing time. You can use this post as a catch all for your holiday or make your own posts on middleofsomewhere. More information about how the memory event is structured is here!)

Comments

[iamnotgod]

"You are aware of pumice, yes?" Webmind asked, mostly teasing.

"We are not entirely bereft of ways to test chemical reactions, no - but if we wished for a microscope I do believe we have one on the train."

Most likely in Tony's lab, however. Or in Peter Parker's room.

[10billionpercent]

"Pumice." Senku said flatly. "Of course I am, but that's far from the most interesting thing lava can make. The biggest treasure is a skarn deposit. Besides, at the point it's cooled, it's not really lava anymore, it's broken down into several different materials."

That was what made volcanoes pretty cool.

Senku was completely unaware that there was a lab on the train, since it didn't belong to him, and he hadn't really met any other scientists.

"It's fine for now. I intend on keeping some intact anyway." He flexed one of the branches he found and pulled out the remains of his net and his knife, he just needed a good length of the rope.

"What we can do right now is a flame test."

[iamnotgod]

"Heating and cooling do have those effects," Webmind said loftily, before returning to a more normal tone.

"If we didn't take samples, I confess I would be disappointed. Would you like me to gather any other materials?"

Either for the fire itself or just for more Sweet Rocks.

[10billionpercent]

"More wood, we need it for combustion." Senku replied without much of a thought.

He tied a piece of the rope on either end of the stick and tested to see that it did in fact bend a bit like a bow. Satisfied with that, he collected a larger branch and pulled out his axe.

Despite being made of stone, it worked fine to break the wood apart, and then he set about splitting it in half so he ended up with a flat piece, but he was already breathing pretty heavily from that exertion, sweat beading on his forehead.

[iamnotgod]

Simple enough; Senku would have a few minutes of peace as he went about his work.

But (alas!) Webmind did eventually return, usefully-dry wood in hand and watching the effort curiously.

"I know this is an effective method of tool-creation, but would you like to swap roles? It is harder for me to tire, among other things."

He wasn't saying it to be insulting!

[10billionpercent]

Senku was the furthest thing from insulted he could be, he knew where his strengths lay and manual labour just wasn't it. He turned the axe around and offered it to Webmind handle first.

"All yours."

He did take the flat piece at least and sat down on the ground, placed the board between his feet and pressed together. Then he thought about what he was doing a moment and started unlacing the boots.

The last thing he wanted to do was start a fire and melt plastic.

Mini-timestamp to ready flame?

[iamnotgod]

What a fine team they made, then; Webmind took the axe, nodding, and made to continue Senku's work.

At least he wasn't plastic... mostly.

[10billionpercent]

It didn't take very long at all to go from nothing to using his improvised bow drill to create fire. It was almost like he was an expert in this particular area, one of many really.

He stoked the flames to get them a little hotter and held up the rock he'd found. "Now then."

Senku grinned and held it out to Webmind. "Try the back of the axe. If we can't smash this into some kind of granular compound, then it's higher on the Mohs scale than my axe, which is interesting."

[iamnotgod]

When you had to reformulate most things from scratch, it was all too easy to become an expert in anything.

Webmind could respect that.

Nodding in agreement with Senku's analysis, he moves the axe sharply down - and it cracks.

"With the appropriate amount of force, it seems quite brittle," Webmind concludes, freeing one hand so as to offer Senku a piece.

[10billionpercent]

"Hmmm." Senku mused as he took the piece, balancing it in his hand a bit, getting a look at the split before brushing his thumb along the sharp edge, which is enough to get a small cut.

"Interesting. Not so brittle as mica. Decent point on it though, might even be better than the knife I crafted."

[iamnotgod]

"That would be reason enough to keep it," Webmind remarked.

"Shall I try for another piece, then?"

He hefted the axe carefully.

[10billionpercent]

"Yeah, get a small piece, and then see maybe if we can crush it into a powder."

Senku was just going to watch because if Webmind could do it better than him, who was he to stop him?

"Powder's better for throwing into the flames anyway."

[iamnotgod]

"Indeed." Though if the sparks did anything other than dissolve into pretty colors, Webmind wouldn't be able to observe it...

There's another sharp crack, and then another. Jamming one small piece into as many infinitesimal pieces as possible is quite repetitive work!

[10billionpercent]

He was sitting down next to him, watching a little passively as he waited. "Kidnapping and all, this is a real interesting place I've been pulled into."

He meant that, there were all kinds of mysteries on this trip.

[iamnotgod]

"'Interesting' works to describe many things, both good and bad," Webmind stated, finally achieving his intended result.

"This should be a fine enough powder for our purposes. Would you do the honors?"

[10billionpercent]

"Yeah, rather versatile, don't you think?" Senku smirked, he hadn't said if it was good or bad because he didn't honestly know. It just was.

He scooped up the powder in his hand. "Alright."

Senku stood up for this and gestured. "Be ready to move back if we need to." He knew very well some things exploded when exposed to heat. He glanced once more at Webmind, to ensure he was ready and tossed it into the flame.

[iamnotgod]

Webmind knew what exploding flour could do; once told, he visibly tensed, before nodding.

"I can endure any explosion better than you can," he reassured, because for all he knew that was true.

... There was no explosion; oddly disappointing!

[10billionpercent]

Webmind was probably right, he was still a human - one who knew how to run like hell when it was necessary, but a human all the same.

He had his hands on his hips. How disappointing.

He'd exploded many things in his life, unfortunately, today was not that day. What did result from the fine powder was a blue coloured smoke that came out instead, drafting in his direction.

Senku really shouldn't inhale that, but it was a little surprising, and his shoulders seemed to relax, tension leaving his body. "....Huh."

[iamnotgod]

"... Are you all right, Senku?"

Webmind's going to need the play-by-play here, more's the pity; all he looked right now was confused.

[10billionpercent]

"I don't know what this is." He said slowly. "But whatever it is, is definitely causing the release of serotonin."

Senku felt relaxed, definitely, and in a better mood, but that was clearly some kind of chemical reaction and he definitely stepped back to inhale less of that.

"No idea if it's toxic. If it is, it's not toxic enough to kill me immediately."

Heading towards wrap, I think. This was a lot of fun!

[iamnotgod]

"For that, we would have to run further tests."

And possibly of a complexity they couldn't actually do here.

"For now, though, shall we share our findings with the others? I expect they'll want to know."

Thanks, it definitely was!

[10billionpercent]

"Yeah, of course. Science is for everyone, after all."

Senku sat down by the fire, away from the smoke. "Go ahead, I'll make sure it's out before I go anywhere."