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

Bucky steps into the dressing car, a little late to the game, and can't help chuckling at how excited she is about the upcoming trip. "I dunno what an Onsen is, but I'll check it out with you," he offers. "What are those pins on your jacket?" They were beautiful but didn't exactly match one another, so he figured there must be some reason more than 'they look nice' to be there.

"Hot springs," Eva chirps brightly. Though, that brightness is nothing compared to how she near literally seems to puff up with pride at the mention of her badges.

She worked hard to get them.

"They're Gym Badges; they serve to show my skill as a Trainer and if I'm honest, I probably shouldn't be showing them all off like this, but..."

It's alright if she brags for a short while, right?

He flashed a grin as she puffed up. "I dunno, if you worked hard to earn them, there's no shame in showing them off," even though he'd feel similarly about the medals he'd supposedly earned in the war -- it's not like he had them, anyway, but he knew they'd been issued.

"And the hot springs sound pretty great, if you don't mind me keeping my shirt on," he was only slightly sheepish about it, as he admired her badges. "Is this a lot of badges?" He has no metric for this, but it seems like a lot to him.

"Sure?" The idea of wearing a shirt into hot springs is rather bizarre, but she's not going to question it.

Different worlds have different social norms.

"Hmm. There's four fullsets there and a handful of others- meaning I've been through at least four different regions and gained all the badges." Honest as she is, she's still rather sheepish about this. "It's common enough for people to get one fullset in their lives, given how hard training pokemon actually is, but to have four is deemed impossibly rare."

It's also as she'll get to admitting she is Famous back home.

"The place where metal meets skin isn't exactly pretty," he explains, tapping on his metal arm, and offering her a small grin. "Wouldn't want to upset anyone."

The topic of badges is a much more welcome one, though, and he's happy to have it. "Impossibly rare, huh? And yet, you still seem pretty young. You must be some kind of prodigy," he suggests. "Or are you just really lucky?"

-and just like that, the more welcome topic is put on hold due to the utterly blank look on Eva's face before it twists in a look of concern.

And maybe a bit of offence on his behalf. "You.... your world sees prosthetics as ugly?"

Have you ever seen a man turn into a tomato, Eva? Bucky is trying his hardest right now, giving his head a shake. “No, I... the scars are really bad. The arm isn’t removable, it’s actually embedded into my body.” He cant help reaching up with his flesh hand to rub at the scar tissue on his chest a little. “It’s worse than it would’ve been if it were just a stump.”

"Ah..." She's not really sure what to say about that revelation. "I... Sorry. I didn't know. Uh..."

She feels a little sick, now.

Bucky manages to smile for her and even chuckles a little bit, though there's no real humor in it. "Well, see, that's on purpose," he replied. "It happened a long time ago, no use being upset over it now, right? Besides, this metal arm works just fine. Better, even." He knocked a knuckle on his metal skin, as if that proved something.

"Yeah. That's true..." There's a curious glance at the arm, but she doesn't ask because as much as she wants to know, Eva's also not willing to make herself sicker, or go down a rabbit hole she can't unsee.

"But- I don't think of myself as a prodigy, or that young. Just someone who might not know the meaning of quit. Though. Satoru doesn't help."

Ahhh... give her two years and she'll have added several Kalos badges to her pile and then gotten caught up -like all the other protags in her AU- in the Mess that is Eternatus.

That gets a warm laugh from him. "Just promise you'll warn me when you run towards trouble?" he asks with a smile that makes his eyes crinkle at the corners. "It makes it a lot easier for me to have your back," but he understands now why he likes her so much.

He's a magnet for reckless idiots who have to save the world, and that's exactly how they talk about themselves.

"I'll try to, at least. But if I'd heading towards trouble, the rest of us should be, too."

Because trouble's what they, supposedly, are on the train to fix. Somehow. Even if they get limited information that turns out to be worse than expected.

Continued over here to avoid captcha.

Event: Healing Waters

Prep

Re: Prep

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