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

[wise_maiden]

Sounds like there must be some interesting stories about her as well.

[greenjacketed]

...A few. She led her own band of partisans throughout Spain. They called her La Aguja. The Needle.

[wise_maiden]

What an intriguing nickname. [She wonders if it has to do with swordsmanship - it seemed like a fitting name for one with a rapier.] How did she earn it?

[greenjacketed]

Her stiletto blade. But nicknames are sometimes cleverer than ever intended, for -- like any needle -- Teresa had a great eye on her. Quick. Clever. Fast. She was worth more to the war effort than I ever was or will be.

[wise_maiden]

That certainly more clever than any nicknames I've ever heard. [Or had been given. She cringes to think of Zelos's attempts at naming.] She sounds like a remarkable woman.

[greenjacketed]

She made a fine commandante to her troops. And a bloody fine woman, if you pardon the language. And a lovely wife.

[wise_maiden]

... a wife? [She hadn't been expecting to hear that phrase.] To ... you?

[Perhaps he had meant someone else, given his description of her, she didn't seem the type to tie herself down. Although she never did find out whether the daughter he once searched for was real ... but given what had happened during that experiment, it might have been better not to pry.]

[greenjacketed]

Aye. A Spanish guerilla and an English infantryman. We were an unlikely union.

[wise_maiden]

There's nothing wrong with that. [She doesn't know much about the Spanish or the English, but she's familiar with the concept of unlikely unions.] Your tales spoke of many women; I just didn't realize you were married to one of them.

[greenjacketed]

[ a low and pleasant laugh. ] I've been kicking 'round the army for a while, ma'am. You don't stay in one place for long. You...get to meet a lot of women.

[ he isn't shy about that fact. why should he be? he loved all of them, in his own way. he never treated'em badly. ] But Teresa was different. Half-soldier herself, really. We were married, but we never saw much of each other. She had her work and I had mine.

[wise_maiden]

When did you both decide to get married? Surely you had some time to spend together before your work separated you.

[greenjacketed]

I loved her. Simple as that. [ only it wasn't just that simple, was it? because... ] And there's the little one to think of. Teresa and I didn't want the wee girl growing up a bastard, if you'll pardon the language.

[wise_maiden]

I understand. [For the language.

So it was true, as vague as that time had been. Strange... and yet not unsurprising. Just sad.] And with your work, and hers... what did you both do then?

[greenjacketed]

...I saw'em when I could. She rode with us when it suited. Our Antonia stayed with her brother when we had duties to dispatch.

[ truthfully, antonia had come has a surprise to him. he hadn't met the baby girl until well after she was born -- but meeting her was the happiest moment of his long life. ]

[wise_maiden]

I'm glad she had somewhere stable to be. [Her tone is quieter, reflecting. The drinks either long empty or forgotten, along with the book, and a lone balled up and discarded chocolate wrapper.]

It must have been difficult, being parted from them. How old is little Antonia now?

[greenjacketed]

...I haven't seen her in two years, Miss Sage. An' I've only been here for one. But she were a year old when I left home and found myself in Luceti. Just a baby.

[wise_maiden]

That's very young... and being here can certainly feel longer than the amount of time that actually passes. [And really, the rest is poor comfort; things he already likely knows. No amount of logic could ever comfort that sort of bitter reality. Even if he does go back, from his words, it seems like he still doesn't have a guarantee of seeing the girl. It's very sad.]

[greenjacketed]

[ gruffly: ] She's better off with her mother's family, anyway. They can do for her like I never could. Not yet, at least.

[wise_maiden]

[It sounded like the sort of thing a person would tell themselves so the hurt wouldn't be as deep.]

... at the very least, the future is still ahead. I wouldn't write it off completely, regardless of how it seems now.

[greenjacketed]

[ he wonders if ramone would even let him see the child...? teresa's family loves her, but certainly does not love her father. most of them hate the british nearly as much as they hated the french. ]

I have some security, now. Back home. Or so I hope. I've thought about it much while I've been here -- that when I return, I would like to send her summat.

[wise_maiden]

I hope that you would be able to, when you return. I'm sure once she's... old enough to understand, she would be grateful for her father's support.

[greenjacketed]

Oh, I dunno. Some fathers ain't worth knowing.

[wise_maiden]

I've seen you around children. You do have a certain gentleness that... stands out with them. It must only make it harder on you.

[greenjacketed]

[ he's taken aback by her compliment -- it even widens his eyes, only slowly giving way to a slight smile. it's not a bad thing to hear about one's self.

even still: ] Ah, lass. If I'm decent wiv'em, I'm nothin' in comparison to yourself. Corralling a whole bloody school of them! If my little girl ever turned up here, you can be sure I'd see her education in good hands like yours.

[wise_maiden]

[As always, compliments cause her to blush, even if she's not aware of it.] ... Well, I do appreciate the thought. Although my point was... for you not to sell yourself too short, even where home is concerned.