middleofsomewhere | Event: Healing Waters

Entry tags:

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

"So your sister fights in one," is instantly what Tidus is hearing here, deciding to take it that way despite previous objections. You can't hide it when you say it like that, Inigo!

But it's alright, since Tidus--after a beat--has another thought on his mind. A curious glint catching in his eye (or is that something else?).

"So, your sister," he starts slowly, clearly looking to go somewhere. "What's she like? She pretty nice?"

The cape thing? He can take that. Sure, it's true, his sister does fight in one, except she pulls it off. Lucina could make anything look cool.

But it's the next part - that comes 100% out of the blue - that startles Inigo. Enough so that his feet trash against the bottom of the hot spring, slipping, making him completely fall into the water, head under and all.

Thankfully these things really are much too shallow to drown in, so a moment later his head rises up from the surface water, red from both embarrassment and the temperature of the water.

"A.. A.. Are you trying to hit on my sister, Tidus?!"

The pitch of his voice has risen at least an octave higher than the usual.

How does Inigo find every inconceivable way of having an accident? First the shuttlecock, then the basketball, now this! Of course Tidus worries when he goes down, for the briefest, barest millisecond that he forgets that the water isn't enough to drown him (maybe Inigo would find a way anyway), and then he scoffs, on the verge of what might be a laugh when Inigo comes back up.

But he holds it back, if not his grin, voice loud and chipper.

"What? You think she'd into me? We'd make a cute couple, yeah?"

Let's just make this worse on purpose.

There's a sound as if Inigo is choking on some leftover water that was still in his mouth after his little accidental underwater adventure just now. Maybe he ought to understand by now that Tidus is just teasing him, trying to rile him up on purpose, but Inigo has never been too good at catching on to those things before it's already too late.

At least it's good for Tidus's amusement here, huh.

"No way!"

He sounds weirdly determined about this. Like it's not some hypothetical scenario. Inigo sounds halfway towards ready to throw down to protect his sister's hand. (His face is still totally red though, and the way he half-sputters as he talks doesn't help make him seem any less ridiculous.)

"She's much too precious to give up to you!"

Tidus isn't sure if Inigo means give up in a bow-chika wow wow way or to give into dating him entirely, but he can go with either regardless. How can he do otherwise when Inigo is reacting the way he is? He can be so goofy sometimes. Tidus loves it (especially when Taiki isn't around to get upset with him).

"C'mon, man, I thought you'd be the one guy supportive of us! You should be happy! I wouldn't do anything wrong to your sister!"

He's never done this before, really--but then, he's never meant anyone quite like Inigo before, who gets lost in his defences and puts himself in situations like these. Tidus isn't even sure he can take the credit for this. This is all Inigo.

But he will absolutely go along for the ride, sounding as close to hurt as he can. ...while still wearing a smile.

Yeah, right! That hurt in Tidus's tone isn't going to fool him as long as he's still smiling!

Granted, that very same smile should be Inigo's clue that the other is joking about all of this in the first place.. And yet his mind can't reach that far, apparently. Just barely far enough to realise Tidus is not actually hurt at Inigo's refusal to let him date his sister.

"What would you do for her then, huh? You don't even know anything about her! You have no idea what she's like, so why are you interested!" He sounds defensive, but in an oddly childish kind of way - he kind of sound like he's an eight year old.

Or maybe that's just due to the way he's starting to huffily puff up his cheeks like a pufferfish.

Why is he interested? Because Inigo's giving him all the reason in the world (and more!) to be.

But now he has to keep this up, doesn't he. How long is this going to keep up for? Tidus can't even imagine, but for as long as Inigo gives him ways to keep going, he might as well, shouldn't he. And it's not too difficult, lifting a palm lazily from the stone side where he has his arms spread out, his body relaxing in the pool, caring little for space.

"That's not true. You told me all about her on the beach. About how serious she is, smart, hard-working... how much you admire her. Is it hard to imagine a guy could like a girl like that? 'Cause she sounds pretty stellar to me."

He's not exactly sure if that's all true. It's been a while, but Tidus remembers Inigo spoke spoke about her fondly, enough for him to figure he's close. He adds as well anyway, for another point: "And you're not that bad-looking, for a guy. Your sister's got to be even better."

Just saying.

Wow, bro.

No homo? Yes homo? Inigo actually looks pretty unsure of how to take that last part of a moment. He doesn't move from a moment, staring at Tidus with wide eyes.. It's a good thing his face can't turn anymore red than it already is from all this heat and how worked up he's been.

But a few seconds later he seems to remember that, right, he was busy being mad at Tidus! For trying to hit on his sister! But now he's complimenting her, and Inigo can't ever deny Lucina compliments, so.. ugh, what is he supposed to do now, huh?

"She is stellar." He definitely still sounds like a pouty child. "And amazing. And everything great. But you still can't date her!" Over his dead body, bro!! "Besides, then you'd have to be married to the Exalt. I can't imagine you having to deal with royal stuff all day!"

.. well, that's just him lying. Lucina won't ever be able to take her throne. But it's not like Tidus has to know that.

Huh? Oh. Oh!

"Oh yeah, that reminds me." Speaking of royalty and marriage and what exactly happens in that situation--he can't remember exactly if he was going to ask Inigo, but he thinks he might've. Well, he was going to now. "--if a guy marries a princess who becomes a queen, does that guy become a king? Do you have to be royalty to be a king? How does it work?"

He's actually curious as he asks this, a level of sincerity that was lost before in anything previous. Giving away that this isn't a spontaneous new thought, but one that's been on his mind before.

The whiplash from going from that stupid banter to a more serious topic is.. a lot. Not that Inigo isn't going to roll with it all the same, since it doesn't sound like Tidus is trying to make some sort of dumb joke through asking that, but he does need a moment to stare in surprise at Tidus before he can shake his thoughts back up into some order that allows him to think more clearly again.

He moves to lean against the side of the hot springs too, rather than lurking around the middle of it half-submerged like a shark in waiting. Or a particularly ridiculous pufferfish.

(On the opposite side of the thing though. Two brooos chilling in a hot tuuuub...)

"From what I know, it seems to differ from kingdom to kingdom." A serious inquiry gets a serious answer from Inigo, apparently. And it's easy enough to talk about this when he can mostly avoid having to mention anything he doesn't want to talk about. "Some kingdoms do function the way you describe, but back home in Ylisse there is only one Exalt. Though the Exalt's spouse may take up some royal tasks as well, if the two of them do wish for it to be so. The title only rests upon one person's shoulders though."

Serious to Inigo, but absolutely casual and normal to ask a pal to Tidus. He figures the way that Inigo stares at him is out of suspicion than what it actually is, which he doesn't actually think too much about himself. The question popped out thanks to a previous chat with someone else, and he wants to know!

"Exalt..." He's probably heard it before, but Tidus wants to say it with his own tongue, curious about the shape. He realises there's some different meaning behind it than just 'king' or 'queen'; the way he's hearing it than just one of the two words again, and figures to clarify- "So where you're from, it's just the royal Exalt? And that's the person in charge? You wouldn't be Prince Inigo?"

Like that?

At first he nods, but then a slight frown appears on Inigo's face as he thinks more about it.

"Well, it's different when it comes to children. It's since.." He shakes his head. He's never really had to explain anything like this before, so it's a little hard to put it into words. All of this were just obvious facts where he came from, and no one on the train really asked about it much, so..

"Remember when we talked about the first Exalt having made a pact with the Divine Dragon in my world?" You know. The talk with Bryn. But the Bryn part of that is just a little too traumatizing to refer to it that way instead.. "That pact with Naga is passed down through the royal bloodline. Quite literally, since it's in our actual blood. That blood is what makes the Brand manifest somewhere on our body over time."

He points to his eye, even though he did at least mention his eye having to do with his dragon pact back then with Bryn too.

"That Brand practically determines whether or not you're treated as royalty or not. I've heard that some children of previous Exalts were treated like outcasts by some of the people of Ylisse due to their inability to manifest the mark. People said it's since they weren't deemed worthy by Naga."

"That's harsh," is Tidus's first thought, and the first thing out of his mouth. Whether or not the marking has any credibility doesn't really matter to Tidus, his mind imagining what being an outcast in situations like that would mean. If just for a moment.

"So both you and your sister have the mark." But he doesn't linger on it, returning to the main subject and thinking out loud. Though this hadn't been exactly it, and his mind is wandering onto Yuna, being a summoner; the weight of that. His own father's popularity...

"Must've been hard. Was it a big deal for you two? Were you worried one of you wouldn't get it?"

Inigo doesn't say anything in return to Tidus's first remark, but the way his expression drops a little says enough by itself. It's not offense, nor sadness over Tidus thinking that - it's just agreement. Inigo can imagine how awful it must have been in that position. He has the mark, and he's already insecure enough about himself even with it.

"My sister is a rare case. She was born with the Brand already in her eye. That usually never happens." He shakes his head, thinking. "It's why everyone always said she was the perfect successor for father, chosen so early by Naga, especially since she grew only more competent and ideal as she grew older."

Judging by his tone, Inigo certainly doesn't disagree with that.

"I didn't have mine at birth, but I got it early on enough that I was too young to be worried about that kind of thing. I'm not sure if mother ever worried about me getting it or not. I never asked her."

There's a way that Inigo speaks about his sister that he can understand. He doesn't have siblings himself, never was that guy himself--but that was who people painted him as, always in connection with his father. It's different, but somehow similar. The same.

Most of all, it makes Tidus wonder what it was like growing up with someone like that: someone who everyone else saw as perfect. Seemed to think so himself.

"What was like?" He asks instead, moving on from Inigo's sister, to- "Your mother. You said she liked to dance."

He nods.

"She was a dancer before she married my father. Not nobility or anything.. She was just a regular person, getting by through dancing. But mother was..."

His voice trails off, and the look in Inigo's eyes almost gets kind of distant.

"She was always so gentle and kind. I honestly can't think of a person more infinitely loving than her. She just loved flowers, and dancing.. and making people smile."

Well, two out of three--and who does that sound like from here? There's a fondness between the two family members that's hard to deny, even from ~~the five feet apart~~ where Tidus is relaxing in the pool, the heat rising and making him laxer than he might be outside it.

He's never thought to ask Inigo about his family 'til now, and he wonders why not. His softened expression only make him want to know more.

"You were closer with her than your dad?" And, with a light laugh- "She teach you any moves?"

"Yes, I.. was."

The answer seems to come with some slight hesitation. Mostly stemming from the fact that his daddy issues are Awkward to even think about, despite the answer being true and obvious. He's always been much, much closer with his mother than his father, and her memory lives on more fondly within him ever since both their deaths.

But maybe it's something about Tidus taking him so seriously here, or maybe something about how relaxing the warm water is, but it makes him speak about it a bit more easily.

"Father wasn't around much. He had battles to fight, meetings to attend.. Of course he had a lot of important things to do as the ruler of the country." More important than hanging out with his children. "So I naturally grew closer to my mother, since she was with us all the time. She did everything with us, including.."

.. okay, this part is harder to talk about, relaxing water or not.

"I-Including dancing, yes. We danced together all the time when I was younger, though I obviously wasn't very good at that age. But she indulged me anyway."

Aww.

Tidus doesn't aww for real, but the sentiment is there, in the grow of his smile that isn't cheeky or quick, but fond. That's nice. And he can understand that kind of life too: a father always busy; a father he couldn't connect with, a life more with a mother who'd rather be with her husband.

--Ah.

Was it like that? He can't put any begrudging taste to it--it's so long ago, he loves his mother, likes his dad a lot more these days too--but he's thought about it over time. Would take having them both back in a heartbeat if he could, remembering what they were like more than as a boy just seven years old.

Well. Anyway. "I remember my mom cooking. Not professionally or anything--she liked making family meals when my old man was gonna be around. Something fancy. I don't know what she used to do though--she used to always be at home and my old man made the money."

And when you're a top blitzball player, money isn't an issue.

"You should show me your moves sometime! Do you do the dancing with the, uh..."

He lifts out his hands in a very poor example of ballroom dancing: one hand up high, the other to the side, and he wobbles them both. (That's the dancing.)

"This, in the big rooms?"

The faint embarrassment about him quickly fades while he listens to Tidus's story about his mother. With how absolutely fond he is of his own mother, of course Inigo enjoys hearing about other people's mothers as well - and he doesn't think Tidus had ever mentioned his mother to him before now.

And it's nice to think about. It's not a scene he's familiar with - living in the palace meant that there were always other people around to do the cooking, after all - but it sounds nice all the same. Tidus's mom cooking something. Them eating together as a family.

"You should tell me more sometime," he ends up saying, because Tidus has already made the topic move on once more. Inigo would gladly have talked more about Tidus's mom instead of about his own dance skills, thanks.. But he'll do his best to go along with it...

"And.. yes, I can do that. I did that with people at the last party on the train." He's very careful in his usage of the word 'people', if not just to avoid a very specific name. Or a very specific event at said party. "The dancing I learned from my mother are more solo dances though. They're meant to be seen. To invigorate people. .. well, when my mother danced them, anyway."

Fool, it was always going to round back to dancing.

But if there's anything Tidus ends up lucky with, though the thought occurs right away, the last party on the train recalls to Tidus which Inigo probably means, since he doesn't know which Inigo means--and then does, for the one he didn't go to. The one that Inigo had the start of his heartbreak at.

"Invigorate people?" But oh, isn't it even better Tidus has that to latch onto, a cheeky glint finding its way into his eye, the curl of his mouth. "So you can invigorate me, Inigo?"

Hint hint nudge nuddgeeee in tone form, paaal.

While they had been talking about serious matters, Inigo's thoughts had drifted away from it all. The setting. Their current state of - near full - undress.

But if there's anything that could bring the fact that he's sitting in the water with Tidus half-naked back into clear focus, it's those words. Especially since Tidus says invigorate me with that tone, and Inigo thinks back to just how good Tidus's top half looked back in the dressing room, and, and, and--

This is too much. He feels like he's going to explode with the combined heat of the water and his own embarrassment.

"Y-- You have a girlfriend!" He blurts out the first (dumb) thing that comes to mind.

Tidus bursts out with a laugh. "You can invigorate Yuna too if you like!"

He needs a few seconds to let some of that laughter continue to come out freely, sinking his arms into the warm water and nothing about his face looking like he's up to any good.

"I mean, it's not like that kinda dance, is it?" Heheheh. "Not that I'd have anything to worry between you and Yuna! I'm the one who needs to watch out!"

With Inigo and his very un-heterosexual ways.

He is going to drown himself right here and now in this hot spring. It's the only way out.

Yes, Inigo is actually staring at the water and contemplating it for a moment or two. It's starting to sound like more and more of an attractive alternative to having to sit here and listen to Tidus make these awful, awful jokes. Maybe he can shout really loudly for help and see if someone happens to be around and comes running over? Please, Naga. Anything is better than this.

"For your information, you're already sitting half naked in a hot spring with me, you.. you big jerk!"

He should be sounding angry, but as always with Inigo, he sounds closer to bursting out into tears instead.

Oh? Is that an invitation to slap his arms dramatically across his chest to keep any perverted eyes off his goods? Don't mind if Tidus does, a flash of shock on his face before he's grinning all over again.

"Big jerk? How'm I the jerk! You're the one who went there with it. I was just asking 'bout the dance!"

So what if he said a thing and it turned into a bigger thing. Not his fault!

Nevertheless, he lowers his arms--rather confidently so, chest even puffing out some.

"I don't mind if you wanna look." --Actually, he's kinda embarrassed in the next second after saying that, and his arms come to fold across his stomach. Just so there's less to look at...! Good thing there's all this steam already warming them up... "I'm used to it! Everyone wants to check out the top players of a blitz team! And I didn't work on this body for nothing."

...well, worked on it. But he's still good-looking! Right?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject