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

on the island

[flatteries]

Under any normal circumstances Inigo would have been incredibly surprised and startled by a truck of all things driving around the island like that.

But when it stops and he sees all the minions on top of it and in it, Inigo is just entirely unsurprised. Yes, he remembers the time he tried to stop them from wrecking havoc on that poor medieval city!

"What.." He starts, frowns, then starts anew. "Why are you trying to conquer someone this time?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Same reason as always, so I can turn this world into a Netherworld." Zetta was nothing if not consistent in his motivations!

[flatteries]

Bless Zetta for being consistent, I suppose...

But bless him less for trying to ruin this perfectly fine vacation!

"Does it really have to be this place? I'd say it's pretty fine the way it is right now."

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Somewhere along the line, Zetta had decided that instead of yelling at what he considered really stupid questions, he would take them to their logical conclusion to demonstrate the idiocy.

"Okay, how many other worlds do we currently have access to for me to conquer?"

[flatteries]

Inigo can see the point in that question, sure, but he still doesn't think that makes it very logical!

"You seriously can't wait a week? Maybe two?" Don't even pretend you aren't going to tell Zetta the exact same thing on the next world you end up on, Inigo.. "It's not as if the train hardly ever stops! And this place is actually nice!"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"And the next place will be some disaster world that would be embarrassing to conquer. That's taking the easy way out!"

Zetta had strange standards.

[flatteries]

"Why would that be embarrassing? I'd say it's much more embarrassing for you to conquer some place where no one is even resisting you!"

.. or, well, Inigo knows everyone else on the train would stop Zetta if he really tried to go for that sort of thing.. but this place doesn't exactly seem to have an army of its own.

"Why not just wait until the train comes across a Netherworld and then just take that over?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"And how the hell long is THAT going to take?" Maybe, just maybe Zetta would have been more patient... a year or two ago.

[flatteries]

"Maybe it will be the very next one!" Inigo says, apparently not too fazed by Zetta using edgy words like hell.

"And won't you feel terribly silly then that you instead went for the quiet, peaceful place? You'll have so many regrets! Just imagine how much you'll tell yourself how perfect everything would have been if only you had been just the tiiiniest bit more patient!"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Why would I have regrets? What would be more perfect than getting my damn body back?"

[flatteries]

Inigo isn't too sure what making a Netherworld or whatever has to do with Zetta no longer having to be a book..

But honestly, does he care enough to bother figuring out the weird, weird rules of some different world? Of course not. He'll just roll with it.

"But it'll be such a big occasion! Are you sure you want to waste that on a place like this?"

[badassfreakingoverlord]

Zetta stared at him a moment.

"..Uh, yeah? Theatrics is great, but how about you be a book for a few years and see how much YOU care about ceremony."

[flatteries]

"Honestly, I can think of worse things.." He mumbles. Because seriously, Zetta may be a book, but here he is driving around with a truck full of minions. Some of us had to deal with a super depressing zombie dragon apocalypse, dude.

"But fiiine, just do whatever you want then."

It's not like Zetta ever seems to have succeeded in making any of the previous places they've been to into his personal world, so Inigo is fairly sure it'll be just fine this time around too.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Oh yeah? What worse things?"

Zetta heard a challenge and had to answer it, of course!

[flatteries]

"Well, imagine if you were a book, and alone and powerless!"

He gestures at the full minion circus troupe Zetta has got with him.

"There are a lot of people out there stuck in situations like that, you know. Just suffering with no one around to help them. While you have a whole group of..." He glances over to Zetta's entourage, looking less certain of himself as he continues to say, ".. friends.."

Are all of them really friends though.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"I MADE them. They're not even technically individual beings. This is all me. I am alone!"

You know, except for all his actual friends that he refuses to acknowledge as such!

[flatteries]

Inigo was already having a less certain expression by the moment.

But right now? Right now he looks utterly flabberghasted.

"You.. You made them?!"

Like.. in the baby sort of way?! Can Zetta get pregnant?! Does he even want to go further with this train of thought.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Bound ambient souls to objects," Zetta said, tipping forward slightly in a nod.

[flatteries]

Oh, thank Naga he doesn't have to think of the possibility of pregnant Zetta.

.. though..

"Isn't it kind of.. odd to make your own friends? I'm just saying.. It feels kind of lonely." Do you need some real friends, Zetta. Is that the problem.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Kinda odd to be a book, too. You do what you gotta to get through!" And it wouldn't be much of a game otherwise...

[flatteries]

If only Inigo was more up to date on Disgaea mechanics, huh. Then he'd understand.

"Yes, but-- Have you never considered just.. making friends with already existing people? And asking them to help you, since that's what friends do?" He may be giving this advice to entirely the wrong person.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Demons don't do friendships."

That flat and inarguable point point was probably a total lie, but Zetta believed it down to his soul.

[flatteries]

He frowns a little.

Like the idea of someone just.. not.. doing friendships is impossible to Inigo. His brain can't process it. Maybe it'd help if he actually knew what demons are, but it's not like they have those where he comes from so.. nope.

"You don't have a single friend on the whole train?"

Inigo can imagine him putting people off with the whole taking over a carriage thing.. And the weird wanting to conquer worlds thing.. But surely Zetta must have taken a liking to someone even amidst all that.

[badassfreakingoverlord]

"Do I, have I EVER, seemed like the type of person who'd have a friend?!"

He's attempted to shake down the entire train with a toll booth scheme no less than three times at this point.

[flatteries]

"Well, you'd be surprised. Some of the strangest types back home actually had friends.."

Don't ask him how! Like those weird, weird bandits who looked so much like each other.. Ugh. He'd rather not think about those.

"Besides, wouldn't you get lonely otherwise?"