EVENT LOG: FEATHERLY HAVEN RESORT & SPA

[lucetimods]

Who: All the lovebirds!
What: A bit of pampering and hijinks. Original event post here.
When: Feb 17th
Where: The Featherly Haven Resort & Spa (aka the hot springs)
Rating: If you feel your thread is heading for something steamier, please either fade to black or take it to an appointments post.

Also -- don't forget to add in your own character tags!

On the 17th, all characters will find an embossed invitation tucked inside the front cover of their journals, asking them to gather up by the hot springs for a marvelous party at the Featherly Haven Resort & Spa. Upon arriving, they’ll find that the area has been temporarily transformed into a luxurious vacation retreat. Although the weather is just as chilly as it should be in mid-February, the hot springs are compellingly warm and once the sun sets, the area is lit by grand torches. The usual hot springs buildings are somewhat incredibly replaced with what looks like a swanky resort -- though the building itself will disappear soon after the Shift’s end. There is a sizeable lobby, complete with plump couches and a droid-staffed bar. Each and every one of the hotel’s rooms is a honeymoon suite, stocked with champagne and fondue and yet more platters of fresh fruit. Courteous (albeit stoic) droids tend massage chairs and manicure stations on the resort's first floor, shaded by billowing, cream-coloured curtains. Others will be passing around festively coloured drinks, platters of fresh fruit, and -- of course -- huge complimentary towels to wrap up in once your soaking is complete: the whitest and fluffiest and most spa-like towels you ever did see.

Available both in the rooms, outside by the hotsprings, and in heaps inside the lobby, are little foil-wrapped and bite-sized chocolates. As with other items in previous years, each of these chocolates comes with a dizzying side-effect upon consumption:

White Chocolate will overwhelm its consumer with the desire to talk and -- more specifically -- the desire to share. Upon eating this treat, characters will want to chat the ear off of anyone near them, perhaps spilling some personal details in the process. But being chatty is a two way street, and so they will also press upon their conversation partners for details of their own lives. It’s a lethal combination: a nosy over-sharer.

Milk Chocolate will flush its consumer with the desire to be warm and affectionate with those around them. Hugs and kisses on the cheek will abound. Upon eating this treat, characters will want to throw their arm around those near them -- clasping close friends and associates alike. Personal space is no longer an issue.

Dark Chocolate will inspire quite another flavour of affection in its consumer. Upon eating this treat, a character’s libido takes over the driving seat. Many people around them become terribly terribly attractive and, as lust courses through the character’s system, they’ll hope to convince someone back to their suite for a little hanky panky.

Chocolate Coated Marzipan -- smooth and silky on the tongue -- evokes a spontaneous sense of...marital bliss. Those who chow down on this treat will find themselves tracking down someone they know they simply don’t want to live without. Whether this is someone they were previously attracted to in the week or a total stranger, your character will find themselves proposing marriage. And, (in)conveniently for them, all marriages may take place in the resort’s own Vegas-style wedding chapel! All ceremonies will be performed by a droid-officiant who looks disturbingly like Elvis Presley. Witnesses are optional but encouraged.

Comments

[all7seas]

And I overwhelmed with guilt.

[That had been a new feeling, for certain.]

And shame. And sorrow for you.

[wise_maiden]

... what was the whole story?

[This was silly. They hadn't been themselves, those lives hadn't been real... but maybe there was a better way of closing a door instead of pretending the room itself didn't exist?

Or did the door even have to be shut -

Too much thought. Instead she waits for him to speak again, with an attempt at a less somber expression.]

Could you... tell me now? Tell me what you were too afraid to tell her?

[all7seas]

[He reaches out for her, intent on pulling her close.]

I'm sorry, mostly.

[wise_maiden]

We didn't need the money. We were struggling, but... we were getting by, and that's what mattered. The fact that you would have come back, after everything that had happened. The boys ...

[all7seas]

The other me... [Funny how lovely and soft Raine is to hold, and how that brings back all kinds of other memories...] The other me would also want to tell you that he wanted you to have all the nice things that other women had. He wanted you to have the very best, in fact.

[wise_maiden]

She didn't want any of that. I won't say that she wasn't sometimes envious of the nice things other people had... because, who wouldn't have been, in a society like that?

[Words, so many words, and she's not entirely certain where they're pouring from. It just feels right to speak them, all of a sudden, as if they were loosed from some dark place.]

But at the end of the day what was most important of all to her was her family. Her sons, her mother, her brother... her husband. Too precious to give up for any jewelry, especially if it wasn't rightfully bought in the first place. She never wanted more than what she had -- she lived in constant fear of losing it all.

[all7seas]

[Losing it all...and what had that experiment been, but a trial of loss? Painful loss at that. Jack squeezed her more tightly against him.]

Well. I suppose it's a good thing we're not really those people, then, isn't it, lovely.

[wise_maiden]

Indeed. Their reality is... gone. If time had moved on for them at all, we can only hope that it would have better than ... what was given them when we knew them last.

[She felt... sad. His embrace was warm and comforting; she didn't know why she couldn't bring herself to protest it, as she had done so many times in the past.]

[all7seas]

Possibly she would have had to lock him in the basement for that to happen...

[wise_maiden]

You don't think he would have learned?

[all7seas]

He were an incorrigible dreamer, so....probably not.

[wise_maiden]

And she was far too much of a pushover to truly put him in his place.

[all7seas]

No, she wasn't! She was lovely and sweet and...

[He breaks off in a light kiss on Raine's forehead: both a familiar and foreign action to Jack Sparrow.]

It was never her fault. Not ever.

[wise_maiden]

Jack ...

[For a few moments, she's quiet, as if speechless. How could it not have been her fault? It had been so much easier to blame this on her weakness. The words tumble out again.]

Even after being in her shoes... it's easier to say in hindsight what she should have done differently. I don't know what I truly would have done had it really been me in her place. I ... can't even imagine being in that sort of position ... I try not to, really.

[all7seas]

Left him. You mean she should have left him.

[wise_maiden]

It might have been better for them both had they never... then he wouldn't have felt driven to outdo himself by pleasing her, when all she wanted was for him to just be himself. [It was so strange, speaking of them like that.]

... But I don't believe he ever really let her know himself. He was just... letting her know who he thought she wanted him to be. I mean ... well, you would know better than I.

[all7seas]

[Now that was just confusing. It was getting difficult to talk about themselves in the past tense third person. Lines were blurring and crossing.

Jack released her with a final gentle squeeze against her arms.]

I should know better, shouldn't I.

[wise_maiden]

We both should know better. Besides... it's not anything that can be changed.

[all7seas]

You know, darling -- you've been brilliant about it all. [Lots of women would pretty much just slap him every time they saw him after an experiment like that.]

[wise_maiden]

[That gets her to tilt her head at him again.] ... In what way do you mean that?

[all7seas]

You haven't hit me once!

[wise_maiden]

I only hit people when they deserve it. In this instance ... if it hadn't been for the experiment, it would never have happened. What good would come of hitting you for that? Although... [And a slight tease climbs into her tone.] I wonder if someone hitting him would do any good.

[all7seas]

I'm of the opinion that no, it actually wouldn't.

[wise_maiden]

... I see then. [A pause, an absent nibbling of the remaining chocolate in her hand.] We've spent a lot of time talking about them, haven't we? It's so ... strange.

[all7seas]

It felt right to me, somehow. [He rubs the back of his neck, wondering at his own glib attitude toward an often-taboo topic.] The talking, I mean.