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

Good thing an island can't tell Tidus to hush, 'cause wouldn't anyway, giving Kitty's yielding a "woo, woo!" with a whistle with his fingers to go with it. Like the girl entering the swimming scene is worth all the celebration!

"Now you're talking! And if you miss your stories so much, I can tell you one," he teases. "Hmm, maybe a story about the passengers of a shipwreck washing ashore a purple-yllic island? And oh nooo, now they get to eat fish and swim all day!"

She laughs, shaking her head a little as she comes to a stop just where the waves met the sand, letting the ocean lap at her feet for a moment to get used to the temperature again before walking further into the ocean.

"Oh no, how tragic," she says with a grin of her own. "So what happened?"

"To the boat? It was a cruise ship, and they just hit...a giant whale! Right on its backside. It tickled the whale, but that meant it flapped a fin and made the boat turn over!"

Wow, how creative.

"It's okay though. Nobody died! And even their things floated over in suitcases and trunks. Some games too, if you don't want them getting bored. Maybe some TV? How does some TV sound?"

She snickers. "How would a TV work on the island?"

"Kitty," he says, the start of his mock-exasperation obvious, "This is a cruise-ship filled with over a hundred awesome-powered people. One of them can get the TV to work. And the fridge-freezer. We need somewhere to put all the fish and to cool our coladas."

Duuuhh. Heh.

She snorts a laugh. "Right, of course. How silly of me. So luggage, games, TV, and fridges. This is sound like a pretty nice way to get stranded."

"You ain't got any complaints, do you? What, do we need more danger to spice things up?"

"Did that sound like a complaint? I'm perfectly all right with how it's going so far." She grins a little. "But a story does need a conflict of some kind. Otherwise it's not much of a story."

"Truuue," he admits. "Della would get bored if we didn't have some danger. Alright." Treading here, thinking...

"What kind of danger do we want? A storm's boring... --oh. How aboout... there's a temple deep in the woods and someone finds a sacred artefact." With appropriate accents and emphasis.

"Like that? What genre are we going for here?"

She snickers. "Action, apparently. But a temple in the woods sounds intriguing. And obviously, if it's guarding a sacred artifact, it's gotta have a bunch of booby-traps."

Because what kind of temple doesn't have traps?

"Absolutely. Floors that open up beneath you, Puzzles where you have to put spheres into the right slots to open up the path to the next room?"

A beat. "I had to do that last one."

She took a quick moment to dip under the water, pushing back her hair once she resurfaced.

"Really? What for?"

"Trials," he says like a groan. Ugh. "Summoners need to get through the puzzles so they can get to a spirit they pray to. I was a summoner's guardian, so we went through them with her."

He lifts out a hand, droplets of water splashing up as he does.

"Not that I know why they needed all the puzzles first! Tradition, or something. A waste of time if you ask me."

She can't help a small frown. "Maybe it's like having them think on their feet? Learning to assess and figure things out?"

She's not sure what a summoner is exactly, so she doesn't know if that's something they'd need.

Tidus is frowning too. "Mmm, not really. It probably gets them ready for meeting with the Fayth, but it's just a lot of hassle."

Trials are dumb.

"All I know, is that the summoners have to pray, right? It's like uh...a special power. It's a big deal back in Spira, or was. Had a whole religion around it." A pause. "You know what religion is?"

She nods. "I do, yeah. I actually practice one myself, back home."

Kind of loosely, but still.

"What's that like?" he asks, curious. "Does everyone practice it?"

This might not be the best conversation to have out in the water, but this is the first he's asked about other religions. He can't help but wonder.

Continuation here

Event: Healing Waters

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