middleofsomewhere | Event: Healing Waters

"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!)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Quite, thank you," Glorfindel said. "The view from up here is amazing. I was just taking a moment to take it all in."

He looked down at her. They hadn't spoken much previously, he didn't think. "I'm Glorfindel, by the way."

She looks around and can't help but agree, the view really was impressive.

She nodded, she knew his name. She had read the roster and he was pretty distinct in how he looked. "It do be being nice to be meeting you, Glorfindel. You can be calling me Buttercup if you do be wanting to."

She stretched out her legs on the rock, enjoying the warmth.

"Buttercup?" Glorfindel grinned. "Then I am even happier to make your acquaintance. I have an affinity for golden flowers. Tis what my House was named for."

"Mind if I sit next to you?" he asked.

She grinned at him and nodded, he could sit anywhere he wanted. She wasn't going to stop him.

"Your house? You do be being a noble?"

She isn't sure if such things are the same outside her world. Some worlds seem very different than her own, others not so much. But she can't think of what else 'House' might mean.

Glorfindel sat down next to her. He pulled a pastry out of his bag. "Would you care for one?" he asked her.

"I...was. Technically I still am, but most of my House is dead or sailed back to Valinor. Once I return, if they want me to, I may take up those duties again." In the meantime, he was the Champion of the Valar, which wasn't a noble position, per se, but he was the only one with that title, so...hard to quantify it.

"Back in Gondolin, my House was responsible for all the flowers in the city. We planted them in gardens everywhere so that the citizens would have something of nature and of beauty in their daily lives." And were one of the pillars of defense.

"Yes please." She never says no to food, and those pastries look delicious. She listens to his story carefully, he was a noble of a house mostly full of dead people, a house that was responsible for flowers. Probably why they were all dead, flowers weren't very useful. Unless they could be used in medicine or poisons.

"So you did be being nobles but you did also be being gardeners?"

That was an interesting combination. Most the nobles in her city just held parties and quietly hired assassins to murder each other.

They probably did other things as well, but they were less interesting.

He handed over the pastry and pulled out another for himself.

"My House wasn't noble, just myself. Everyone in Gondolin belonged to a House, you see. For protection, and so that they could be looked out for." Of course, some Lords were better than others, but that was a conversation for another time.

"Each House was responsible for a different aspect, trees, fountains, music, the tunnels, etc, and we split the time between guard duty and drilling, and making the city beautiful. Gondolin was a new city, you see, carved into a mountain, hidden to protect us from our enemies," he said smiling at her.

She bit into it happily as she listened, confused again at once. His house wasn't noble? But he was? Houses for protection?

A city carved into a mountain, people responsible for making it beautiful.

"Do beauty be being really important? To elves I do be meaning?"

Event: Healing Waters

Re: Island Adventures

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