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

[mtsilver_conquor]

"You're aiming to be the first into space, huh?" Eva grins. "You're also making me think it might be worth a try to ask for a planetarium where we could see the night sky. At least then it'd be something else to look at that's not the void."

[10billionpercent]

"Hardly the first. Humans have set their sights on space since long before I was born. The first man into space got there in 1961. Soviet, of course." He added as an afterthought.

"A planetarium would be nice, but so is looking at the sky itself. I have a telescope at home. A gift from a friend."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Well, I wish you luck. Though... what's a Soviet?" There's a very big blink because she knows she's missing context here. Never mind the date when it sounds like a Trade Calendar date.

She will come back to the telescope in a bit. "Is that a country, like Japan or Amerika?"

[10billionpercent]

"Sort of." Senku responded. "It was a collection of what was split up into separate countries later as a socialist state, but at the time this astronaut went into space, they were still the USSR. And you could consider it to be like a country, just like Japan or America." He said agreeably.

[mtsilver_conquor]

"USSR?" This time, there's just a blank look. "I assume that's not the Unovan Sea Search and Rescue?"

There is a very noticeable accent on the words. She is, technically, speaking another language after all.

[10billionpercent]

"No." Senku shook his head. "Would've been the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic." He commented wryly. "USSR was much faster to say, a lot less of a mouthful."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"I'll say," she agrees with a nod. "In my world, we landed on Tombe -the larger moon- in 29 Yōen, 7 Shiwasu and the team was lead by a Galarish woman and a Fioren person. That's.... as far as we've managed to get, though we plan to visit Joube when we can."

If they can; for all the technology they have, getting into space -getting humans into space and then back is dangerous.

[10billionpercent]

"Your terminology is completely foreign to me, so I'm not entirely sure how that relates to Earth, but I can tell you, the moon is the only place humans have landed. Now machinery has been able to explore further." Senku mused.

It was definitely dangerous, that was always a given, but he's probably surprisingly gutsy for a studious nerd.

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Sorry, sorry. I can explain if you like, but I think the Trade Count was 1867?"

No, that's about 100 odd years off the actual date but converting between the major calendars of her world isn't something she's actually had to do often. "So, because the machinery's been able to explore further, does that mean you're aiming to be the first person to go further?"

[10billionpercent]

Senku hummed a bit. "I wouldn't mind, but you'd have to start at the basics because what you said, I caught almost none of it."

His grin got wide at that and he chuckled. "That's a good goal, but not specifically, I guess. I want to see it with my own eyes, that's all. I want to see if I can figure out the mysteries that are lingering around. I'm just insatiably greedy for knowledge."

He was a lot less interested in the glory behind something like that.

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Nothing wrong with any of that as a goal," Eva says with a knowing grin. She's been there, done that and it's still the best goal and motivation to do something.

She sighs then shakes her head with a small laugh. "Unless you want me to monologue, it's better if you ask and I give the answer. But, I can ramble if you'd rather."

Not like she needs an excuse to engage Chatterbox Mode.

[10billionpercent]

"Perhaps you could define for me Yōen, Shiwasu, Galarish and Fioren to begin with." Senku said with his usual dry humour.

"But feel free to slip into a monologue all the same, I do it all the time." He grinned.

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Yōen's a year marker and the name of the era. It basically tells you how long the Empress of the time's been on the throne. Shiwasu is the tenth month of the year- the best month if you ask me."

Because it's her birthday month, but details. And now: Chatterbox Mode: Engaged.

"Galarish is a person from Galar, which is a region in the eastern continent called Eselia. Fioren is a person from Fiore, a region in Yamatai, which is the western continent. Yamatai is the only one that uses Yōen and Shiwasu, though. I couldn't tell you what the months Eselia uses because most of the regions have their own calendars. I think they only use the Trade one because of well, trade. They're a lot less organised than Yamatai is, that's for sure."

[10billionpercent]

"Got it." Senku answered, nodding to confirm that she could continue.

"That's interesting. So there isn't really an agreed upon calendar system throughout the different regions? I mean, trade's a good reason to have something, but once you're outside of the sphere of trade, it changes?"

[mtsilver_conquor]

"With Yamatai there is, but that's because we were once an empire."

Ish. It was complicated and she's not exactly a history nerd outside she knows the very basics. Her nerdery rests in pokemon.

"Pretty much. It makes things harder than it should be, but I think it's good, because it'd be so easy for say, Yamatai, to force everyone to use ours."

[10billionpercent]

"I honestly couldn't relate, because essentially at the time we had calendars and things, it seemed to be pretty standardized worldwide, but I do know historically that wasn't always the case." Senku hummed a bit. "Probably worldwide trade really helped that along."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Oh, I won't deny they're standardized in many regards, yet in others, they're not."

That is the smallest of pouts; the pout of someone who's ended up relying more on guidebooks than memorising conversions.

"I wouldn't doubt we'll get a standardized one, and same for a language, one day; there are only two continents in the known world, after all and we have global trade too."

More like very large islands like Australia, but details Eva's people don't know.

[10billionpercent]

"We've been on the Gregorian calendar for a long time, even prior to everything, and no, I don't actually know the history on that. If it's not scientific, I wasn't that interested in history." Senku admitted with a chuckle.

"Sounds like a small place, unlike the world I'm from which is incredibly vast."

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Makes sense to me- one can't know everything, as much as they'd claim to. Plus calendars tend to be esoteric?"

It's a guess, but it's as good as any.

"I guess it would be, but it's home, you know?"

[10billionpercent]

"I suppose. Do you find yourself homesick?" He asked, which might seem like a strange question, but he was just curious.

Senku was homesick, but in a way that could never be fixed, so he automatically dismissed it as being unnecessary.

[mtsilver_conquor]

"Yeah..." It's an easy admission and she sees no shame in it. "As much as I like travelling the Void and meeting new people, it's not... It's not home, you know? But, what about you?"

[10billionpercent]

He was at least giving her question due consideration before he hummed. "Probably a little bit, but I'm not really thinking about that. I'm more interested in the mystery behind the train."

Senku was always more comfortable with studies over his feelings, and even something as subtle as that was something best left avoided.

late ;_; shall we aim to wrap soonish maybe?

[mtsilver_conquor]

"True. We can't- We need to solve that before we can think about home."

As truthful as the words are, it doesn't mean Eva has to like her own words and there's a huff at the end as she flops back against the grass.

"Doesn't mean I want to think about it though." Well, right now, but details.

Yes, this one for sure

[10billionpercent]

"I suppose. I mean I'm thinking about home, of course I am, I had a lot going on there, but the train mystery is pretty interesting to me." Senku admitted with a wry grin.