middleofsomewhere | Event: 12 of Beetroot

Event: 12 of Beetroot

It's been a couple of weeks since they had evacuated Osiga. In that time, many of voidtreckers were busy with a project to try and solve some of the many mysteries that surround the train they travel on. By the eight day of Rabbit they've exhausted all avenues, and whilst they have learned quite a bit, there are still some clear gaps.

Just as that investigation comes to a natural end, passengers are woken up by an announcement.

"Attention voidtreckers and passengers of the voidtrecker express. We are travelling to system #2554098133741. I have sent word to the ministry who have arranged recuperation packs for you. You have had a difficult mission and you deserve a rest.

But it is not just for rest. Last time we visited the system voidtreckers shared memories. Though it is understood that many of you did not enjoy the experience it is notable that certain voidtreckers saw memories of this voidcraft. They were memories that this craft had not accessed. It led to more pathways opening up in the operation of this craft.

I have done some research on the system and I believe we can trigger the caves of memory. This voidcraft understands this might be difficult for the voidtreckers and passengers of the voidtrecker express and it is hoped that only those of you who consent to this experiment will take part.

Regardless this should be a time for relaxation also and the dressing room is open for your convenience. We will arrive in the morning.

The dressing carriage is indeed opened for those who go and look. It's filled with swimming costumes, beach ware, summery clothes and sun hats. There's even a cupboard of buckets, spades, rock pooling gear and picnic blankets.

There are also team coloured tents for those who want to go and sleep under the stars for a night or two, though the train is remaining on the island for those for who camping is their idea of hell.

12 OF BEETROOT

RABBIT 9-12 ~ MEMORY CAVES: BONDING ~ MEMORY MAZE: SEARCH FOR THE TRAIN'S MEMORIES
ASK QUESTIONS ~ LOCATION INFORMATION ~ MEMORY CAVES ~ MEMORY MASTER POST

JEMA'GRETHY ISLAND: RELAXATION

The next day the train announces their arrival and they burst out of the void. For those near a window their first view of the island will be of crystal blue sea and white sand. It really does look like a paradise. The train circles down before landing 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 idyllic. A sense of peace permeates the island.

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.

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.

The recuperation packs are found at the closest toilet facilities to where the train lands. They are simple things, small gift baskets with a couple of fragrant soaps, fancier hair products and skin cream infused with herbs to encourage rest and sleep.

There are some sweet fruit biscuits and a cheesy bread. The packs aren't named but there are some suitable for the younger passengers with tiny plush and colouring books. Quite a few designed for teens with a more engaging activity book and components for making a fancy mocktail with a cute stirrer. Adult packs have a small bottle of alcohol- there's a mixture between the packs and what looks like a stone. When placed next to the skin it will either warm up or cool down depending on what is needed.

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.

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.

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.

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.

MEMORY CAVES: BONDING

Shortly before arriving they will receive some information on their SCA. It will explain how those who once lived on this island went about making life bonds. Both people would bathe in the hot springs and then dress simply, barefoot and walk to one of seven rocks on the island. Their maps will pin point these, which is good because there's no real indication of what makes these rocks different to any other on the island.

Here they must offer their wish to know the other deeper and share food and drink. They can then go about their day. Sometime in the hours after they will receive their first memory, seen through their partners eyes.

However it seems that in envoking the ritual they have woken something on the island. Even those who did not take part or chose to bond to someone find themselves seeing a glimpse of another life.

On the second day they see another memory, through the eyes of their pair. When they come out of it they find themselves in a cave with their partner, chosen or not. The same happens on the third day, except for this final memory both pairs see both memories, watching from the sidelines as it plays out. They find themselves in the cave once more and this time, for many there is only one exit, to leave through together.

Please go here to play out the bonding process!

MEMORY MAZE: TRAIN'S MEMORIES

On the third day the train sends another message to their SCA.

"Activating the caves that share memories has been successful. I know this is a lot to ask of the voidtreckers, but any who wish to assist in discovering what it is that I have forgotten, the path is open now.

Those who wish to may go to the sacred rocks. Please be warned, I do not know how voidtreckers will fare. Please only go of your own free will."

Their SCA's once again show the rocks on their maps and when they get there, this time they are faintly glowing. It doesn't take much. One touch and their minds are drawn away from their bodies, into a labyrinth of caves. For anyone who comes across these people on the island, they look like they are in a deep trance, breathing, safe but far away in their mind.

The labyrinth is made of cool, dark rock. The walls have a glow coming from crystals in-bedded in them, allowing everyone to see as they move through.

At first there's no more to this labyrinth, or so it seems. But then they turn a corner, and they are no longer in cavern as it just was. They may be in their childhood bedroom, or in the middle of a battle they once fought. Perhaps they are not in their own memory, but someone else's. Scenes move rapidly and often merge, one persons into another, mixing to make strange scenes.

These visions don't attempt to ensnare them like some illusions, and those with protection from illusions and such techniques, will be able to find their way forward through the cave, and away from this triggered scenario.

Time barely has meaning. Indeed, when they finally emerge from the caves only a few minutes will have passed. But in that time they will have seen much, and eventually they may stumble across a fragment of memory that belongs not to a voidtrecker, but to the Voidtrecker Express itself.

OOC NOTES

OOC Post ~ Questions
~ You can either write memories in your tags or if they are longer/require a lot of content warnings you might want to write them in this post and link to them. Just start a top level with your character name to keep things organised!

~ For those taking part in the memory share bonding the cave post is here. Characters arrive in the cave after the second and third memory but it is obviously up to you if you play out the conversations after each or both! For those who do decide that their characters will bond- the cave after the third memory will only have one exit for them to leave together.

~ For those who signed up for train memories you will receive the snippet that your character sees- use these in tags as you will. There will be a conclusion post on the 24th which will put all of those memories together!

Art Credits: Header: Tropical Jewel by Steven Power, Thumbnail image 3.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Arrival

Ple Two's going to get up to more interesting things with the memory maze... later. Upon arrival she checked out what she brought one last time, as if it mattered much at this point. She was dressed comfortably and checking out the complementary goodies fairly quickly. Nice smelling... things. Snacks. ...she wasn't going to try to steal one of the adult packs as tempting as it was to try and smuggle a drink just for fun.

"Mmm... what to do first though..." she muttered. Of course she'd already spotted the super soaker boys. That might be fun.

Rocks 'n Beaches

Collecting pretty rocks is, ah, not really Ple Two's idea of a hobby, but it was something to get her attention, and maybe she'd find something actually worth making a gift to people out of. More interesting though... she leaned in as she spotted a crab. Had the crab spotted her? It was clear how Zeon's amphibious mobile suits took design cues from real crustaceans, here and there, especially from chunky little crabs like this one. There couldn't be much of a brain in it, but it still moved and explored and interacted with its surroundings. "Strange little fellow." Cute in an odd way. Possibly tasty, although that was quite unnecessary.

Hot Spring

Now what really helped with stress was a good soak. Taking a nice shower was fine, and swimming in a pool was enough for exercise, and the spa on the train did its best, but nothing matched natural hot springs, soothing, toasty, laden with minerals that may or may not matter but as long as you convinced yourself they mattered...

Ple Two had undressed and slid into the water quietly, leaning her head back. No shame here - trying to cover up would just mean less comfy feeling on her skin. It was too euphoric to lose even a little bit of that.

"Let's just put a whole mountainside on the train," she said quietly. "Just take the entire geological structure under the hot spring. I'm sure it's possible, right?"

Memory Maze

...well, she would get down to brass tacks despite wanting to become one with the water. Traveling with others meant sharing memories still, and she hoped to at least avoid Dublin, but there wasn't much control she had such things...

Edited 2022-05-19 04:09 (UTC)

"...I wouldn't get too close to it if I were you," Sanzo mainly had kept to himself while exploring the beaches. Truthfully, he wasn't even really dressed for the entire vacation experience, still wearing the usual slacks and purple-hoodie combo that came with anyone who had yet to wish their clothes back into existence upon the express. His expression and tone were indifferent if not a bit tired-sounding as he watched her watch the crab.

If he could, he would have kept to himself as much as possible during this 'vacation trip.'

But Ple Two couldn't help but catch his attention as she scurried about the rocks, slowly inching closer and closer to the crab that was also keeping to itself. Yeah, didn't she know what crabs do if you intimidate them?

"Maybe if I had a stick..." That might be mean? Do crabs get upset if you poke them with a stick and they pinch something they can't hurt? Their brains probably can't handle 'being upset' anyways.

"Anyways, they don't jump." They can scuttle pretty quickly, but she's pretty sure this crab isn't going to get the drop on her. "They're just neat."

"You would be surprised. Agitate it enough and it might just run at you," None the less he seemed mildly amused as he watched her continue to admire the creepy little thing. "... I personally think they're a little creepy. Kind of weird looking too."

He has a history with crabs.

Bastards can definitely be hostile if you give them proper opportunity.

"Possible." It wasn't too bothered yet, but she let it scuttle a bit further away without pursuit.

"I hardly saw wild animals at all before coming here, and I only see them when we stop places that I have time to see them here." Well, there were birds flying away from the, um, brutal catastrophe she played a part in back home, maybe? She was busy.

"No animals, huh?" Interesting. That was enough to tell Sanzo quite a bit about the girl watching the critter out in front of them.

"This is my first time seeing an ocean. Everywhere I had even gone had been entirely landlocked. I thought some of the rivers and lakes I saw were quite large. nothing like this, though."

He motioned to the little scurrying critter.

"Saw crabs, though. They taste pretty damn good if you find a large enough one."

"Not a lot of animals in space, for practical purposes." Even then she'd been a soldier despite her age.

"I wouldn't know how to kill and cook a wild animal. This one's pretty small anyways." It will find peace when she's done staring at it.

"... Space?" Should he sound as amazed at the concept as he was? Technically, they were traveling through dimensions, certainly something far more of a feat than just traveling through space. But he never even thought either option was technically a traversable option until recently. "Have you never been on a planet before?"

"Yes, space." Look at what your life is now, man.

"I spent very little time on Earth, and I was quite distracted by combat." And weird psychic stuff. "Then into space, then here."

"Hmn, I see," Space. Huh. Damn. That... Was certainly a thing he never really actually considered before. At least dimensional shifting he understood to degree. It was something known with the more archine of divine and and youki magics. Not something that was normally accessible to humans, but it was something he at least understood. But somehow finding yourself actually traveling through space itself? Like... Upwards?

Genjo Sanzo instinctively looked up towards the sky as he thought it over.

"It's not a train that takes you up there, is it?"

Edited 2022-05-28 15:03 (UTC)

"Not exactly. Have you even seen any kind of... rockets or fireworks?" She's trying to think of what people who don't know spaceships might still be familiar with.

"I know what fireworks are," he stated bluntly, remembering all too well a particular incident he had involving a guy who was a little too obsessed with them. "I don't get how that would work, though. It seems counterintuitive to have something filled with so much gunpowder hold the possibility of exploding with people on it."

Is she trying to describe something along with a large vehicle form of a firework, right? That's what it felt like she was insinuating.

Okay, that was a good start. "So you take a metal tube, the first to put a human in outer space was about... I believe thirty meters or so. But then instead of gunpowder, they used liquid fuels that would react energetically when mixed."

She sniffed at the mention of people exploding. "Even in my time accidents happen, but fatal explosions are no more common than a ship sinking or... I don't know, getting run over by an ox-drawn cart."

So sorry for the late! Tough month put me super behind on tags T.T

smithandwesson - 2022-06-26 03:36 (UTC) - Expand

Eh my last one took a week too :P

pleple - 2022-06-26 03:47 (UTC) - Expand

Ple Two - Open

Rocks And Beaches!

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