middleofsomewhere | Event: Healing Waters

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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

Thankfully Madoka doesn't startle as easily as she usually does. Maybe it's something about this island. Everything is just so pretty, so calm.. and so peaceful. Even when things seemed peaceful in some of the mission worlds they've been to, there was usually a sense of foreboding, like they were waiting for something to happen.

There's none of that here. So even though the girl looks up from where she's been squatting at the side of the rock pool, her eyes wide with surprise as she hears Tidus speak up, she doesn't seem scared at all.

".. Hmm." She slowly smiles. It's warm, but mostly just very polite. "You're right. I guess they're not worried about being caught here.. It must be nice."

For a moment the girl's face drops to the sight in the water again before she continues talking.

"Do you like fish, sir?"

Look, does Tidus look that much older than her? Not really. But Madoka is trying to be polite here!

Oh no. 'Sir'... well, it doesn't sound the same as when Romeo calls him mister, but his mouth still tightens in a grimace that's kept to himself there and the forced off his lips.

"Tidus--just Tidus's fine," he shares, no embarrassment slipping in before he continues. "I like eating fish, but it's more, hmm...we're stuck on a train all day, and we don't always get to see sights like this, right? This entire island--it's beautiful. I used to sit and admire the view back home, but then...oh!"

A fish splashes up, breaking the water's surface, glittering scales sparkling like sapphires in the light. The abruptness of it gets a small chuckle out of Tidus.

"You see that? Someone's feisty."

She seems to be attentively listening to him, all ears despite the fact they've never spoken before, but then there's that little 'oh'--

And Madoka immediately looks to see what he has spotted. It's easy to see the fish with how shiny it is, and Madoka's mouth drops in slight awe as she watches it.

The comment just makes her giggle more.

"So cute.. It's like watching a nature documentary!" Not that Madoka ever does, but she's seen her dad back home watch them on TV! "I've never even seen anything like this back home, I don't live close enough to the sea for it.."

It's said still slightly shyly, but the atmosphere on the island is just too good to be completely meek in the face of a stranger - or at least a face she's seen around the train, but who she's never spoken to.

"Did you live by the sea, s-- um, Tidus?"

There's a hint of her shy nature in her words. Or is that youth? One or the other, and he just hopes he didn't unknowingly wander into a secret rendezvous, but she'll have to gather up her courage and tell him to buzz off if so--or he'll just do it, if someone else comes along.

For now, it seems fun, or genuine, this little exchange. Tidus nods quick to her question, a 'mm!' behind his lips.

"A big city by the sea," he illustrates. "And I lived in a boat! Since the city's so big, it has a lot of docks everywhere so you can get where you need to go. Plus, it's a lot of fun to live in a home you can move!"

He's a grin all the way through, not deceitful, but he's going to sell it and make it sound as charming as he can. Which isn't really too hard--most people weren't used to hearing about a city like Zanarkand.

"We have the view of the sun on the water every day too... Do you have a good view like that where you're from?"

"That's such a unique way to live.."

Madoka's voice trails off in the way that is a telltale sign of the fact that she's imagining it in her head as she speaks. She's pretty sure that she's heard of it before - people living out on boats as their home - but it isn't anything she's seen in reality before. The place she comes from is just too urban for it.

She can imagine it's nice though. If not just from the smile on this boy's face. To Madoka it's obvious he really must like it there.

"Um, we don't really have anything like that though, no." She shakes her head, glancing back into the water. "I mean..! Mitakihara is a really nice place, but it's a lot more like a big city. Um, though not as big as Tokyo, I guess.." The girl only now seems to realise that maybe Tidus hasn't even heard of Tokyo. Which is a wild idea, but she's encountered it plenty of times with how long she's been on the train now. "There's just.. a lot of really big and high buildings everywhere you look! I think you'd have to get up on one of those to get a view that nice."

"Are you from Earth?" Luckily for Madoka, or maybe for Tidus, he heard about a Tokyo just recent--recent enough for him to remember the name as soon as she says it, for it to mean something in his ears. A city with a million people in it, and he saw pictures to go with it. It was a bizarre, plain looking city from his point of view. Zanarkand was large--larger even, he thinks--and its building taller, more beautiful in their shapes and variety. But he recognises that same crowded look they both share, at least have that in common.

"A guy showed me Tokyo today!" he explains however, pointing a forefinger up. "Webmind, have you seen him? The machine guy. He has pictures in his face--or his wires." Uh, one or the other. "He said it's the biggest city on Earth!"

She eagerly nods when he asks if she's from Earth. At first she assumes it's since he's from there too and is just happy to meet someone from the same place.. But alas, she can glance from the rest of what he's saying that it's most likely not the case.

Madoka hums a moment, thinking, but then nods. "I think I've seen him.." Not really spoken much to him, though, but.. you know, someone like that certainly stands out.

"Even I didn't know it's the biggest city on Earth though! There's so many other big cities.. That's kind of amazing."

To think she's be learning facts about her own world from someone who isn't even from there..

"Although that kind of place really would be too busy with me.. Um, I-- I don't deal with crowds all that well. Mitakihara is a lot better. Although I don't mind this very quiet but pretty place either."

"Hey, I get that," he says reassuringly. "Even in Zanarkand, I lived around the outside, where it wasn't so busy and you didn't have all the noise. It still travelled out, but that was nice too. You got the best of both worlds."

He brings his hands close, close to cupping, each hand to signify each. The tranquillity and calm of the sea, the life and energy of the city. He hadn't experienced in a while...honestly, he didn't know what it was like anymore.

"What's it like in Mitakihara?" What a mouthful. "Is it the kind of place with trains and..." What else, what else- "Computers?"

"Yes, we have both of those." She says it easily, without even looking surprised. After the sheer amount of months Madoka has spent on the train, people not being used to trains or computers is just about the least odd thing possible she could hear.

"I think that most people who come from Earth are from a pretty similar place.." Since it seems like Tidus has at least spoken to some others from Earth. Sure, there could be differences when it comes to points in time, but as long as the others are from a modern version of Earth as well.. "It's.. a pretty peaceful place. We luckily don't have monsters attacking like in a lot of the worlds we visit."

That's not the full truth, but technically it's not a full on lie either, since most people don't know about witches or the danger they pose.

"I was living a kind of normal life before I ended up on the train." .. And like, the last few weeks in her own world were pretty wild too but sssh, she doesn't need to burden someone she's talking to for the first time with that! "B-- But I don't mind!"

She quickly looks at Tidus, as if she's trying to make sure he doesn't get the wrong idea.

"Even though it's a little hard sometimes, I kind of like being here on the train. Maybe not for the train itself, but.. um, it's just nice to be able to meet so many people you'd normally never get to know, you know..?" She smiles awkwardly. "Is that a little weird to say..?"

It doesn't surprise Tidus that she's from a relatively normal life. Or rather, it might be wishful thinking, just expecting to hear that and find that alright, fine, as it should be. At the same time, he knows Earth--some Earths, and maybe even most--aren't perfect. Even though Kitty seems to come from somewhere she can go to school (because, how many of his friends had gone to one? had the time to? didn't have other things ruining their lives?), it wasn't a picture perfect life.

"Not at all," Tidus answers her, shaking his head. "That's the best part if you ask me. Getting to meet people, hear and see, and know about different worlds - I never knew about it. How big everything is. Bigger than where I'm from."

Life had already shown itself to be larger than he'd always taken it - knew on some level it was, but never actually thought about. Never considered. Looking out to a sea and watching the sunrise and sunset, but never thinking about life beyond, or what that even really meant.

"What's some of the things you heard about that you like? Like..." He drags out the word, thinking. "Hmmm... the most unbelievable!" Aha! "Do you remember? What shocked you the most?"

Some of the awkwardness in the girl's smile fades the moment she sees him agree. It really is a sentiment she can understand. It was one thing when her understanding of her own world was turned on its head back home only recently, but finding out there's so many other worlds? It's been mindblowing.

"Ooh.. So many things!" It's like the longer Madoka talks with Tidus, the more the initial meekness seems to fade from her. Especially when he starts about such Relatable Topics as man, some of the worlds represented in this place sure are odd!

"It's so hard to pick the most unbelievable.. um, I think the one that still makes me feel a little dizzy sometimes when I think about it too hard is just how old the elves are! They're such nice people, and.. well, they don't look old, right? But then you see their ages listed, and it's just-- just so much!"

There's a face Tidus makes when she mentions the age of the elves; his eyes pop, in that way when he has something to say, but he's listening, waiting on his turn. But he absolutely does have a few things to say about that!

"Yeah, yeah! When I first got here, I thought the thing was broken, making ages up! There's the ages it doesn't know and some names. But I had a friend when I first got here, he looked about my age, but I found out he was fifty!" Fifty, Madoka!

"Fifty?!"

At least she seems to share Tidus's surprise. The girl's eyes go wide, and she covers up her open mouth with her hands, as if she feels like she's being impolite otherwise. Somehow the fifty almost feels more surprising than the weird elven ages, since it feels more like an actual age someone could be...

"M.. My papa back home isn't even fifty yet! But you're saying that he looked like he was the same age as you, Tidus?" Madoka still looks surprised, but the gears in her brain are turning, crunching away to try and figure out how that could be possible.. "He must be using some really impressive beauty products!"

Clearly that's how it works, right?

Tidus's laugh is light, and he shakes his head.

"I don't think it was that," he grins--although, Drizzt was good-looking, admittedly. "He was a drow--I think it's drow? He looked kinda like the elves that have the pointed ears, but his skin was darker! No glowing like Glor if you know him -- actually, he could make everything pitch black!"

It was fun to talk about the guy -- fun to remember him outside his own thoughts and the occasional wondering of what he was up to. He'd have to try and remember details - names - of where he said he came from, see if he can ever look it up and find out more ... just as a reminder.

"Cool power though, right? He also had this friend he called a panther that became a statue." He cups his hands close, indicating the size (of the statue, not the panther!). "A panther's sort of... a longer cat. Bigger. About this height."

He waves a hand around up to the size of his chest from where he's crouched. A big girl!

So he was kind of like an elf, yet not..? At least the age not matching up to his appearance could be explained by that, though it feels almost weird at this point to imagine anything remotely like the elves being something as mundane as fifty.

Madoka is quiet for a moment, trying to take it in as Tidus talks on, but then the last part makes her smile - a tad awkwardly, since she doesn't want to be rude, but--!

"Hmm, I know what panthers are! We have those back home.. or, um, well, not anywhere near where I live!" Before Tidus imagines she lives out in the middle of the jungle or something.. "But I've seen them at the zoo before.. But I'm glad that he had a panther friend! If it was his friend, then it must have been a very friendly panther."

At least the concept of friendly versions of what usually are predatory animals isn't too strange to Madoka anymore.

"I actually have a kitty friend on the train too, but he can turn into a lion, not a panter." A beat, and then she adds, almost a bit more awkwardly, ".. nor a statue."

Edited 2020-08-27 20:54 (UTC)

"The statue thing isn't normal to me either," he shares, a pull of a smile, as if sharing a joke. And he's yet to hear about anyone else keeping their friends in tiny statues. It's all about the pokéballs.

"But what's a lion? Never heard of those. I don't know a few of the animals other people do," he admits, also adding: "I didn't know what a panther was either 'til my friend introduced his."

As if Tidus didn't already give that away, but it doesn't cross his mind. He's just so used to having to explain things like this. The curse of being stuck on a mulit-dimensional travelling train...!

"Oh! Okay."

There's only a moment of surprise before Madoka smiles. Maybe a few months ago the idea of someone not knowing much about animals that are so normal to her would have been strange, but Madoka has gotten very used to these kinds of interdimensional differences while on the train.

She even scoots over to sit just a bit closer to Tidus - it just feels so unfriendly to talk from the other side of the rock pool! And Madoka is eager enough to explain.

"A lion is kind of like a panther. It's also a very, very big cat, but the difference is that a lion has a mane! So it has lots of hair around its head. I don't think any of them live near the sea." So that'd be an explanation for Tidus never having heard of them, even if they do exist somewhere out there in his world.

He keeps crouched by the rock pool, waiting inquisitively on her, and then humming as she explains. A very big cat with a mane... it has him looking off, upward--was there anything like that he knew? Even as a fiend, even if it weren't an animal...

Before he nods, a small 'oh!' escaping once he makes a connection.

"I have a friend like that! Back in Spira!" He grins. "Kimahri. He's a ronso. They're a race- he's blue, with a horn... quiet, but a great pal. Kinda got a face like a cat too. A big cat on two feet."

Tidus waves up a hand as high as he can get it, which isn't that high up where he's crouched. "Taller than me!"

Madoka looks like she's trying really hard to envison this in her mind now. It's kind of hard, since the description is unlike anything she knows, but thankfully Madoka has a vivid enough imagination that she can kind of get there.

"Ooh.. So your world has really beings than mine!" It's not just that Tidus lives around water and therefore just hasn't seen lions because of that, huh. "Where I come from, all people just look like me. Um, I mean, of course people have different skin colours, or different hair or eyes..! But no one is blue, or looks like a cat. Then the people on this train must all be pretty normal to you, Tidus."

You know, despite the huge robots. Or people who look like literal animals.

"Iiit's a mix," he says, wobbling a hand sat flat in the air. "I'm used to more than just human-looking people, if that's what you mean. But they made up most of the population where I'm from. And I haven't met anyone who looks like any of the other races from Spira."

Is that odd? He's never really thought about it before. Humans really were the more prominent people in Spira, and even here...

"You think humans are just more popular?"

"I wonder.."

Madoka feels like thinking about how many worlds are out there and the many possibilities contained within them always goes over her head a little. The thought is just.. so big. So overwhelming. It's so odd to think that she had once been living a normal life, thinking she knew the edges of the world, all there was to it, only for it to unfold to such a kaleidoscope of worlds.

".. It's big, isn't it?"

The girl's gaze moves from the rock pool, instead looking up at the sky hovering over them.

"All the worlds out there, and all the places out there.. Just thinking of them makes me feel a little dizzy. Especially since I'm just one person in the middle of all of it. Do you ever feel like that..?"

Madoka changes her view higher, and Tidus can't help but do the same once she's finished speaking. Wondering himself, curious. If it were the sea, he might agree: there was a distance and endlessness to it that Tidus could never escape when he looked out to it. That made him feel--simple. A piece. Small in the scale of life.

"I like that," he starts, head bobbing as it comes back down, his arms rested on his knees. Considering the vast stretch of space to hold so many planets and life. --well, sorta.

"I mean, it's weird--it's hard thinking about everything your world's put up with and knowing there's more going on out there. Or there's people who could come and sort it out, but they didn't." That's a bummer.

"But if it's always been like that... well, I'm still me." He looks, from the rock pool and its fish, the coral, over to Madoka. "In the end, I've always been me. And you're you, no matter how many people there are. We're all making a difference to the ones we meet, and that's okay with me. I like my small life."

His words draw the girl's gaze back over to him. She listens to him thoughtfully, but smiles when Tidus arrives at the final sentiment.

"You do?" It's not too surprising. A lot of people would like that life, right? Madoka does too. It's only when things started to escalate to the point everything got to back home that she really started to appreciate her everyday life. Eating with her family. Hanging out with her friends after school. The little things. "I guess.. I feel the same."

She slowly nods.

Even though Madoka is well aware that she won't be so small anymore for much longer. But to burden someone she doesn't even know with that.. It doesn't feel right, so she doesn't mention it.

Instead she giggles as some more fish jump up in the rock pool.

"I think they're pretty happy with their small life too."

Tidus regards the fish, laughing in tow with Madoka's, glowing at the sight of the energetic little things.

"They're lucky. They get to swim all day!" And wouldn't that be the life? To return to that life: doing what he wanted. Zanarkand, the endless sea, blitzball and decided what he did, when. How did he ever become anything other than that guy?

"No wonder people get pets on the train. I miss seeing fish whenever I want." But it wouldn't be the same without the rest-- this environment, the rock pool and all. Tidus looks across at Madoka.

"Hey. You know how to swim?"

For a moment she ponders suggesting maybe they could get a small aquarium on the train-- but then she remembers that there's at least one smart talking cat very fond of fish, even though it isn't her own, huh.. That might not make it the best idea.

But his question snaps her out of that thought before she can consider it anymore than that anyway.

"Huh?" She seems a tad surprised, like she didn't see the question coming, but then she nods. "Yes! I didn't go swimming back home a whole lot, but I learned how to!"

i still can't believe this

don't challenge me

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