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

[stillplaying]

[Maybe she shouldn't have brought it up. Mentioned Rue. But the little girl knew so many people here. Katniss couldn't keep track of them all no matter how she had wanted to.

It's only going to hurt Aang more if she tells him the truth, isn't it? If she mentions Marvel's spear, the way it went sliding through Rue's body as if the girl had been made out of butter. How she held the Tribute from District 11 as she died, singing to the girl before finally breaking down into painful tears.

Dropping the conversation is a much better idea.]

Oh.

[savedtheworld]

[It may prove to be. Aang has all these negative emotions swirling inside him from hearing about these Hunger Games... It's taking a lot of self control to keep him from slipping into the Avatar State. He doesn't want to think about why she brought up a 12 year old; that alone is making him sick.]

I was 12 once. When I was 12, no one made me fight. No one asked me to kill. They just wanted me to grow up and be the Avatar. They wanted to take me from the man who raised me so I could learn to negotiate peace with the nations. They didn't want me to be who I was, but... I would have helped the world, right? But I was a coward. I'm the coward. I couldn't take that, so I ran away and got frozen. Then the Fire Nation went for my people. [He winces, trying to hold tightly onto Katniss's hand.] The air nomads were the most peaceful people, but the Fire Nation ended them all when they had the chance just 'cuz they knew the Avatar was one of them.

[stillplaying]

[For all that President Snow committed atrocities against the people of Panem, at least he had never tried to wipe out a nation of people. Even if everyone grew up thinking that District 13 had been wiped out, at least that had been the result of a war. Not extermination for... for what? To prevent something called an Avatar from living?

She squeezes his hand in return, frowning as she stared down into the water.]

Maybe it was a good thing you ran away then. Because that meant you didn't die.

[savedtheworld]

[He feels a slight relief from the squeeze, as he kicks at the water. It's a small comfort. But it's never enough. And might never be.]

Maybe. I wish I could've saved them, though. Any of them. Katara told me I shouldn't blame myself. And I believe her. But... but that doesn't make the guilt stop completely. I still feel responsible.

[stillplaying]

[Hearing that, Katniss swallows hard. Those words sound so very, very familiar. How many times has she said something similar? Collapsed in a heap of tears because it should have been her who had died in place of her sister. In place of Finnick or Mags or many countless others.

The guilt doesn't stop. She's starting to believe that it might not ever stop.]

Me too. They haunt my dreams at night. Every one of them, even the people I didn't kill directly. I'm still responsible.

[savedtheworld]

[There's a shudder in his spine at the "I didn't kill directly", because of what it implies. He's afraid to face that. He keeps his hold on her hand, feeling fragile.]

I see. I'm sorry that it's... it's not a pain that can just go away. Words like the ones Katara told me, they can help me to feel better about myself. So does remembering all the lives I was able to help. Remembering the good that you did manage to do, the lives you have been able to help... it doesn't make it go away, but it can still help you feel better. That it's good you were able to live.