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

[only_one_wei]

All right, let's talk about them then, see if we can't identify them.

[Wei Wuxian didn't need to use Empathy on Xue Yang, since he knew the story from another POV, though he did take into consideration that the other POV had a certain bias.]

Emotions are complicated things. And what starts as one, perhaps a little joy or desire for revenge in playing a prank or messing with someone, can change and grow, if something happens that isn't according to your plan.

When you first met Xingchen, how did you feel about him?

[xue_yang]

I wanted him dead. [It's not as simple as that but it is what he had wanted.]

But I also wanted him to suffer. I didn't want the death to be quick. [Which is why he killed all those villagers. Or rather..used Xingchen's hand to kill them.]

I hated him.

[only_one_wei]

[Wei Wuxian nodded. That was what he expected, and what A-Qing's memories showed. But they also showed something else. Something he wasn't certain that two of the three people were aware of.]

The two of you, well, and A-Qing, were together for quite some time. What other emotions did you feel?

Like, when he gave you candy, or praised something you did?

[The expression on Xue Yang's face when he realized that Xingchen's soul had shattered and he would not be able to bring him back, that was not the look of someone who simply had his plaything taken away.]

[xue_yang]

[Xue Yang stares at the ground as he considers those three years. He hadn't even realized that things had changed in what he felt. He doesn't even remember the exact moment when he stopped having Xingchen kill people. But at some point he had changed his mind and felt content to live just like they were for as long as they could.]

He was the first person to be nice to me. It made me happy. I didn't realize it then but I believe I know now that I was happy to be with him.

[And that is why things changed. Even if he doesn't understand what he feels towards Xingchen now, he does know that there was some appreciation for what he did for him.]

I thought we could stay like that forever.

[only_one_wei]

He didn't know that you were the person who had hurt him or others, so he judged you solely by your actions, and he liked the person he discovered.

[He looked at Xue Yang carefully.]

He found something within you to like. That is a very precious gift, if you...don't really like yourself, or wonder if there is a way to break out of a destructive cycle. [Speaking from a lot of experience here.]

Your past caught up with you, in the form of Song Lan. Did you feel that things spiralled out of your control quickly?

[xue_yang]

[There is an ache at Wei Wuxian's words. The thought that Xingchen might have liked some part of him and that he may have eventually redeemed himself for the things he did. But he no longer has that and has no way to know what Xingchen thought since things went so badly.]

Of course they did. He ruined everything. [With the help of A-Qing who brought him right to their doorstep. There is still anger there and a small twitch at the corner of his eye as he thinks about what she did.]

If he had never shown up who knows how long things could have gone on. [Perhaps Xue Yang would have eventually told Xingchen who he was.]

[only_one_wei]

[Wei Wuxian pursed his lips.]

It might have gone on forever, yes. Or it might have ended due to some other reason. Like Jin Guanyao's machinations. As bad as 'they' say you were, he was something else entirely. Sometimes fate has other plans for us. [says the man who came back from the dead.]

The trouble with the past, is that you cannot change it. No matter how desperately you might want to. [Wei Wuxian has few regrets, but the death of his sister and her husband were right at the top, followed by his foster parents. But the first two were directly his fault, the other he just couldn't stop because he didn't have the strength at the time.]

But, we can change the future. Make a fresh start, like you did with Xingchen. Like I am doing with Lan Zhan.

[xue_yang]

That is what I want to try and do..but it requires changing who I am in order to do so.

[And it is hard to undo all the years that he has behaved one way. He scratched the surface at Yi City but now it is like it is becoming all undone.]

But that isn't easy to do. I can't just wipe away everything I know and have done.