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]

"Or stupid," she offered with every bit the same conviction as she had used in describing Peeta's bravery.

Because for all Peeta Mellark was patient, was kind and loving and just purely good, he was an idiot, too. For choosing to love her. For constantly putting himself in harm's way for her. He deserved so much better than someone like her. But no matter how hard she tried, she could never convince Peeta otherwise.

"He could have had any girl he wanted."

Before the Hunger Games anyway. After, neither of them had a choice anymore in who they loved. Snow had stolen that option from them. She wonders, for a moment, if she would have fallen in love with Peeta anyway? If there hand't been any uprising, if Peeta had never been hijacked.

[greenjacketed]

"But he wanted you. Wants you. If you think he's such a grand young man, then you have to trust his judgment in that regard as well."

[stillplaying]

She rolls her eyes at that response, unable to keep the doubt completely out of her face. She trusts Peeta's judgement. Probably trusts him more than any other individual left alive in Panem. But when it comes to his opinion of her, she can't help but question. Can't help but find every excuse to prove him wrong.

"I don't," she admits aloud, scowling a little as she slinks down in the chair. "I don't understand it at all. I'm not nice. I'm not all that pretty. I kill things to survive. And that includes people. I'm not what any boy should want."

[greenjacketed]

"A woman what can look after herself is an attractive woman indeed. My wife, Katniss?" His voice stammered as he explained the raw allure in a creature such as Teresa Moreno. "We would spend months and months apart. And every time I saw her again, she would ask me the same question. How many French have I killed? And I would tell her. Teresa, I would then say, how many Frenchmen have you killed?

'Not enough, Richard'. Never enough. That was always her answer."

He rubbed a hand across his face. "She wasn't particularly nice to anyone but me. And even then, it were a stretch. Hell, girl! I'm not particularly nice. But me and her still wanted each other. And your lad wants you. You want him. Why must you question what's fit to make you happy, eh?"

[stillplaying]

The answer that came to her was surprisingly simple. It didn't take much thought at all, even after hearing the way his voice choked on mention of his wife. Another wife. Someone other than Grace. He had moved on somehow. Had found someone new to love.

She shook her head and looked down. The answer really was simple. "I don't deserve to be happy."

[greenjacketed]

Sharpe knew he was a thug. A murderer. A thief. A rogue. But he couldn't wrap his head around Katniss's hatred for her own self. Certainly, he understood the concept of being unworthy. Of a woman, of a rank, of a uniform. But never could he imagine being unworthy of happiness. Not when he'd grown up among sweeps and prostitutes who found the time and courage to be happy.

So when Sharpe heard I don't deserve to be happy, he understood it as I don't want to be happy. And that broke his heart.

"Is there nothing an old soldier could ever say to teach you that happiness ain't a thing you deserve or not? It's just a thing you get to be. Not every damn day. Maybe not every damn month. But happiness ain't got nothing to do with meriting it. If it did, there would be no marching songs. No jokes in the darkest corners of the worst pubs in the worst cities. No soldier would marry. Leave happiness only to the deserving and happiness would be as rare as...well, Christ, a bloody rare thing."

[stillplaying]

She was quiet for a long, long time after he spoke. Though she hadn't looked at him, still hadn't looked up from the floor, she had heard every word. Happiness ain't got nothing to do with meriting it. And yet, since returning to District 12, that had been exactly what she had thought. That for all the pain she caused those who loved, all the destruction that had happened in part because of her, she didn't deserve a happy ending.

Just go through the motions, Dr. Aurelius had said. Keep going until one finds meaning again. Somewhere in the past year, she had lost track of that advice. She had forgotten how to do that. She had forgotten a whole very lot.

"I don't know how."

[greenjacketed]

"To be happy? Bollocks, darling. I have seen you smile and it bloody well lights up the world."

[stillplaying]

Her eyebrows raise and the look on her face is clearly, clearly doubtful. He almost sounds as if he means it. Sounds like Peeta or Cinna were either of them talking to her right now. That her smile is capable of transforming the world. That she still doesn't know the effect that she might have on others.

"You don't need to exaggerate."

[greenjacketed]

"...I'm not well-educated enough to exaggerate, Katniss."

[stillplaying]

She scowls at that even as her cheeks tinge pink, pleased with the compliment. That she doesn't think herself all that pretty or attractive has been made clear. But she's still enough of a girl to want to hear otherwise. Even if the source is biased.

"Thank you."