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

Hot Springs

[mtsilver_conquor]

There's a laugh from another, equally nude woman, or so it'd seem given she's half in the water. Though unlike Nerdanel, Eva worked her way up to the hotter spring. "I know right? It feels like an age since I've been to a proper one like this."

Alola's just did not compare, full stop, to Kanto's. "What about you?"

[marriedanidiot]

"Did you have a lot of places like this at home?"

Nerdanel sinks into the water with a happy sigh.

"The closest natural springs to us were at Aule's Forges. But Feanaro worked out hot water on demand at our house. We were the first to have it - and quite popular a design it was!"

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Yeah, though some are far more famous than others. Around Kanto, there's a couple of dozen famous ones and I've been to them all."

Some multiple times.

Eva blinks before her brain catches up with what was said. "He invented hot water plumbing?"

[marriedanidiot]

"Mmhmm." Nerdanel finds a spot that she can sit with just her head above water.

"Before, we used to do it with furnaces, and that worked well enough, but it was annoying to have to heat them up all the time when you wanted a proper hot bath. He plumbed them through the forges, and since they never were allowed to burn out if folk were in residence...why, it saved a good deal of time! Not everyone was so fortunate, of course, so many folk just used the old fashioned route."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Yeah, and once you go hot water plumbing it's near impossible to go back."

The week travelling through Viridian forest had been eye-opening on that account at the very least.

"Still, I wonder if that's how it was first done in Arkea, too. It sounds like it'd be the sensible thing to start with..." It's more musing out loud than anything and there's a quick shake of her head before Eva continues. "At any rate, hopefully, everyone was able to have it eventually?"

[marriedanidiot]

"Oh, there was a lot of innovating, when he showed it off. The hot water, not the plumbing part, mind." She nods.

"The issue is keeping the water hot, you see? It's fine if you've got access to a forge or a hot spring, but otherwise... " She shrugs.

"In the end, there was a system set up with the sun and kitchen fires, but it still wasn't terribly practical for small households, which had to use the large public baths." She sighs. "And when Feanaro left... well. Most of our innovators left with him. We've still trying to work out a smaller system, but most of the small households either rely on larger neighbours or the public baths if they want to do more than what can be managed on a stove. Unless they've a good Singer, it's just not practical to keep a fire going at all times."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"True, and suns-heated water is never as good," Eva says with a sage nod, only to fall silent as she listens to her elf-mum talk, a nod and 'hm!' every now and then, as is only polite.

"Still, it's only a matter of time before he's back, right? That said... What about working in magic to help shorten the time required to heat water, or is that what a Singer does?"

[marriedanidiot]

Nernadel grimaces.

"I... they say that Feanaro will remain in the Halls until the Final Battle at World's End. Whether tis true or not... I do not know. I have... resigned myself that this time here is a gift, for both of us. Possibly the only chance will we have until the End."

She pulls herself away from those thoughts.

"A Singer is one who knows how to work with the world's music. I suppose you could consider it magic? But all of us can do it at least a little. Some make a proper study of it."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"I didn't mean to bring up bad memories. Though, yeah. Better to take what you can, yes." It's soft but heartfelt and Eva means it, and for one of the very rare times in her life, she shelves that curiosity. She doesn't need to know what the End is, even if she can guess.

"I would, yes, and if it can be studied, then surely you could figure out a way to harness it or bind it to something for the desired effect, right?"

She has no idea what magic can really do, but it's magic. It can do anything, right?

[marriedanidiot]

"It's alright." She smiles at her, and puts her grief aside. "It is as it is."

"The main issue is that the Songs for fire are fickle and changeable, like fire is itself. Dangerous too, if one is not careful. It's often too much effort when straightforward methods will work better."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"True that and I can think of a million things that'd fit what you described."

There's a wry laugh and headshake as she sinks deeper into the water. "It sounds for as many answers as the Song provides, it creates as problems?"

[marriedanidiot]

"Well, only if you don't know what you are doing. In Tirion, we really only use the simple tunes of work and crafting. Little you can do wrong with those! But my Makalaure says in Beleriand... in Beleriand they learnt to use it for War. Those Songs are far more destructive."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"I wouldn't mind seeing that in action one day - the simple tunes. Not the ones for War..."

There's a shake of her head. "I... I can actually imagine how destructive that would be."

Because pokemon are, at the end of the day, forces of nature.

[marriedanidiot]

"My Atarinke could use them, maybe." She says soberly. "But I have never made an effort to learn them."

Although she could, she knows. She knows the Songs for building. Would destruction be that hard?

(Makalaure could raise a river, they say, or sing a mountain down, and Maitimo fought with fire limming his blade and could hold wills to his cause with voice alone. Tyelkormo laughed with the voices of the wolves he hunted, Carnistir fought with the fury of the mountain storms and they say the lake at his stronghold swallowed the unwary, and Atarinke, her sweet boy most like his father, they say his blades never dulled, and were hungry always for blood, hunting even without hand to guide them. Even her youngest two... the whispers of Beleriand speak of Ambarussar as twin demons with blood on their teeth and eyes afire... all her sons were dangerous, but it grieves their mother to know what they became)

"And as to that... I can show you, if you wanted, some of the ones I use for sculpture?"

[mtsilver_conquor]

One of these days she will learn all the names of her adopted family then declare they all have Too Many Names.

Today is not that day, and Eva grins at the offer to watch her elf-mum do magic. "I'd like that."

[marriedanidiot]

Just think, it could always be worse, it could be Turin or Aragorn they are talking about.

"Come, let me show you then." Nerdanel smiles back at her fondly.