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

[queenofsparkles]

It was only awkward because Glimmer panicked like a dummy. She's totally chill and not at all awkward now, no stress. Totally fine.

"So, um. You said that your kingdom was Eblan, right?"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Awkward was awkward! And what a blow to the ego! Last he checked he wasn't so unattractive that his flirtations merited panic, jyeesh.

"That's right." He quirked an eyebrow at her -- where was this going?

[queenofsparkles]

Panic is warranted when you kind of have a boyfriend! And were panicking already about him not being there with you! It's complicated!!

"I, uh." She bunches up her shoulders and looks away with a bit of a blush across her cheeks. "Never mind. I just... forgot for a bit. You've been really nice to me so far, so. I wanted to make sure I had it right."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Which was totally fair, if only he knew it... though his imagination, it had to have been his imagination, had come up with that as a reason...

Edge clambered up the cliff face a little more, the better to reach a ledge where he could properly stand and not worry about his grip. "And yours was... Bright Moon, but you're also heir to Moonstone?" Queen of one, Princess of the other, was how he remembered her introduction.

[queenofsparkles]

Glimmer watches him scramble up, and teleports up herself as he pushes himself onto solid ground, so she's sitting on the edge of the larger ledge with him.

"Right. The Moonstones is literally just - a giant magical rock, it's where my sparkle magic comes from." She smiles up at him, in her cute bathers. "Bright Moon is my kingdom." And then she glances away, with a flash of annoyance on her face. "Only someone on the train thinks I'm a horrible person just for being a queen."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Peter Parker?" Edge said, the most likely person in his eyes, and to judge by the scorn in his voice, not his favorite person in the world.

[queenofsparkles]

She looks a bit surprised at his suggestion. Her room-mate had seemed perfectly nice. "No, actually, some girl. She calls herself a wizard, she's got dark hair and a really bad attitude towards anyone who she thinks is high society. I just wanted to talk about her magic with her, it looks awesome!"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Oh." Hadn't been blasted by that person yet. Edge shrugged, though. "Honest truth is, people hate monarchs on the train. I've had a long list of people telling me I'm horrible, selfish, garbage... just because kings and queens on their world were bad people. The way I see it, that's their problem, that their world is such a mess that such terrible people gained the throne!"

[queenofsparkles]

"Right? And she was perfectly fine with me talking about magic and stuff with her, until I said I had princess powers! She doesn't know me!"

She says that with such force that she kicks her arms and legs out, and wobbles dangerously for a moment before she catches herself, and lets out a harsh sigh. "I've told a few other people, but no-one else was weird about it like that."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

Don't make him save you, Glimmer! You're cooler than that!

"Yeah, you just missed the right people." Like one spider boy he could name. "Don't let it bother you! Remember, they have a broken world, not you. So long as your people prosper and thrive, you know your own worth as a ruler. If they're blind to that, that's their loss and folly!"

[queenofsparkles]

"Yeah," she agrees; then more vehemently, "Yeah! I'm helping my people! I was the one making sure we had soldiers out to protect them and supplies when their farms got destroyed! I was out there on the front lines with my friends defending them! I'm a good queen!"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Right! So they're wrong and that's all that matters!" said the ninja who still took it all rather personally, the hypocrite. "You don't have any duty to them."

[queenofsparkles]

"Right!"

It takes her a moment to blink and think outside of the excited little moment. "Wait, kind of?" She frowns a little. "Even if they're wrong about us, we still have a duty to try and treat them properly. Otherwise they're never going to stop thinking we're just as bad as their horrible royalty."

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"That's not a royal duty, that's just who you are." Edge didn't bother to be decent to some of them, as she might in time find out. But then, Edge and Glimmer were quite different in some ways. "I mean, you don't have any duty to be the kind of queen they want you to be, especially when that's NOT a queen!"

[queenofsparkles]

"Well-- you can't be a good ruler if you're not a good person," she says primly, sitting up a little straighter. "My mother did her best to always raise me to be kind, even when I must have made her absolutely furious. And... sometimes I make bad decisions, but who doesn't? That's certainly not something that's exclusive to royalty!"

[onehandsomeslickninja]

"Right! Exactly! At the end of the day, are your people as happy and healthy as they can be? That's what matters!"

Edge got worked up over the attitude on the train often enough that actually being able to vent it to someone who felt the same way was a real relief.