SHIP'S LOG:

The Sadie Hawkins

Armando Lupiz 12/24/2017 1:59pm

It's been a pleasant stay at Psychic High School, and we've had a great run at the Airship Drop Shop at their Winter Festival all week. We've sold out virtually all of our onboard stock, and have activated the Cornucopia Baskets to fill in the gaps. Using the Cornucopia Baskets for inventory does give us a slightly lower margin (15% going back to the centralized warehouses at Zephyr Air), but with nothing else to sell and tents deployed on the ground, it's still better to give up 15% than make nothing at all! Returns get to be a hassle though.

As we've got no pressing appointments, I think we'll spend a little more time in this port. We've still got to connect with Lilx to pick up our mail run, and perhaps we can drum up a few more sacks of cards and letters from the rest of the students and staff before we head out. But before long, I know the crew will start looking at the clouds and wanting to take to the skies again, no matter how idyllic this locale.

Captain Armando Lupiz
(The Sky Wolf)
onboard the continuous merchant dirigible Sadie Hawkins

Armando Lupiz 12/29/2017 11:57pm

Entropy. It's both the fuel and the waste of any continuous merchant dirigible. Irreversible in the sense that we're always moving forward, but timeless in the sense of our search for "surprisal."

Psychic High School always presents a lower-probability value matrix (i.e., when a low-probability event occurs). We may be going through the motions of selling low-probability tchotchkes to a random selection of psychic youth, but we're gaining an even greater wealth of low-probability information conveyed by each event. These kids don't know how good they have it.

We'll need to pick up the mail run from our client Lilix soon, and start up the next round of business based on the new local calendar. Seems like everybody's got a different one. Luckily we've got Zephyr Air to figure out all the yearly tax permutations (which happen on a rolling schedule given the metaversal structure of our runs).

Captain Armando Lupiz
(The Sky Wolf)
onboard the continuous merchant dirigible Sadie Hawkins

Armando Lupiz 1/3/2018 7:51pm

The Sadie Hawkins has been on the move since New Year's Day, Gregorian Old Earth calendar. Our stay at Psychic High School was profitable and blessedly uneventful. None of the crew went missing or was thrown in jail or assassinated. One injury at an underground robot fight.

Heading now for the Clouds of Magellan, picking up work in the Future, and on an interdimensional mail-run. Full steam ahead!

Armando Lupiz 1/15/2018 9:28pm

Deep space travel via airship is a beautiful thing. All this concern about "breathable atmosphere" is a scare tactic to keep people on their little planets. Truth is, we travel with the windows wide open between the stars, and make good time. Navigation, of course, is a breeze, because there's nothing but stars in all directions! A navigator's dream.

Tonight, the nebulas are purple, the quasars are white, and we're on a straight line through curved space, then looping 'round the Tannhauser Gate to drop of the first of our mail run. With nothing and no one in our way, it's a great time for the crew to concentrate on their simple duties. Like mopping and polishing. And whistle while they work.

Captain Armando Lupiz
(The Sky Wolf)
onboard the continuous merchant dirigible Sadie Hawkins

Billy Nails 1/31/2018 11:37pm

Hey kid! First time on an airship in deep space? Yeah, I saw you staring out the windows. Feels like we're going nowhere, right? Well that's because there's not much out here to gauge our clip by. Stars are stars and they shine so hard, and there's no telephone poles or clouds to watch go by. Those stars are so far away, they just sit there in the distance and it feels like we're standing still. Even with the windows open there's barely a breeze, and the Sadie Hawkins' arti-G keeps things so cozy you'd think we were in dock. But don't let any of that fool you. It's the Story Engines that keep us alive out here, shielding us from cosmic rays and space debris... if we hit a soda can at this speed the whole ship would explode into cosmic dust. Get down to the engine room and make yourself useful and you could learn a thing or to from old Howard, the Chief Librarian.

Armando Lupiz 2/9/2018 10:30pm

Docking in the Tarantula Nebula is always a pleasure. We've got history at the Uranographia Fields, so we always drop in at SN1987A to visit old friends. The docks are solid, the ground crews trustworthy, and the view is second to none--the skies are purple and green due to the local supernovae activity, like you're parked in the middle of an aurora. The locals are used to the exotic scenery, and honest enough not to take advantage of star-struck visitors. We'll take a few days here to stock up on supplies and gather some intel on the local stellar politics. We've got mail to deliver, and hopefully pick up some jobs along the way.

Starry Skye 2/15/2018 9:39pm

So I'm in the Rainbow Zone, the most popular milk bar the Uranographia Fields, when a fight breaks out between a pair of star tramps. Bam! Pow! They spilled my milk when they crashed on my table! All pretty normal for the Rainbow Zone. But when they cleared out I noticed there was a neat little package sitting on my chair. "Well THAT wasn't there before!" All tied up with string and in very clear handwriting in black pen: THE SADIE HAWKINS.

Was this package left for me? The tumbling milk twins a mere ruse to put something into my care? Me, the most amazing zero-G cat burglar and pickpocket in the Tarantula Nebula? Or did it really fall out of the dusters of the battling sky pirates? Perhaps it deserves a home in the Lost and Found at the Rainbow Zone? NO! Starry Skye loves a mystery above all else. Dare I open it and discover its contents and keep them to myself? Sell it through my underground network? Dump it in a Murky-Blaster Brand Garbage Incinerator?

Starry Skye may be a thief, but I do not peek into other people's mail. I took it upon myself to deliver this package to its intended recipient, no doubt moored at the docks. But on the way... oh, what complication! It seemed as if every assassin on SN1987A was after Starry Skye. A Rectilian Poison dart here, a Mantabulon Phantom Blaster there... my agility and star-class dance moves were on display all the way to the docks, leaping and pirouetting and diving over hovercars and robot street sweepers and sweet-smelling mushroom carts from Argus 9.

But upon arrival, what's this? A mighty airship bearing the name SADIE HAWKINS just leaving the docks, floating up into the starry night? Its mooring ropes still trailed behind, being slurped up into the mighty ship like spaghetti. And there was Starry Skye, grasping hold of the very last noodle, being slurped up like like an unwanted fly in the soup!

Billy Nails 2/21/2018 7:16pm

Feel that wobble, kid? No? Well neither does anybody else. But nobody knows this ship better than me, and I keep careful watch on her displacement. Everything that goes on and off this ship, old Billy Nails know it. But not this time kid! You can feel it in the tiniest of tremors when elevate and make a starboard turn. That's why you've seen me walking the decks, moving the watercooler, double counting the stores. We've taken on a little over a hundred pounds since we left SN1987A or my name's not Billy Nails! You just keep your eyes peeled and let me know if you see something out of kilter, something not ship shape.

I suspect we've taken on a visitor--a stowaway--but don't you mention a thing to anybody till we get more evidence.

Starry Skye 3/5/2018 7:25pm

I would have turned myself in. Eventually. Or not.

Oh, I wouldn't have been able to help myself--this crew (and its handsome captain) are just so gosh darn earnest and sincere! How could I not throw in with their lot? They're just brimming with goodness, they can't help but treat you fair and square.

However, since I was sniffed, stowed away, out by an obsessively compulsed boatswain, perhaps they're not treating me as gently as the would have otherwise. The captain (handsome as he may be) seemed pretty honestly... angry, during my interview. That's how I looked at it, anyway. Job Interview. The question was if my job was going to be chained up in some make-shift brig, or to offer my more... professional services.

"Like getting caught stowing away?" he asks. Not yelling as much at this point.

"Consider it youthful hijinks. I was just trying to deliver your mail."

"Yes, the package. A bomb?"

"Frankly I don't know. I didn't open it."

"And yet you smuggled it onto my ship. Planning to deliver it to us eventually? Perhaps leave it with us quietly before escaping in a life balloon?"

"I was considering my options."

"Open it."

"Excuse me?

"Open the package. Here." He tosses it across the table.

I really don't know what's in the package. Too light to be a bomb, frankly. I'm not an idiot. More likely a stack of fan letters.

I tear at the wrapping. Inside the wrapping, a small box, and inside the box, a bunch of soft cotton.

And in the middle of the cotton, a tiny chrysalis.

"Everyone stay completely silent," the captain whispers.

Armando Lupiz 3/21/2018 8:27pm

The chrysalis has remained stable since its discovery. Its markings were enough to put me into an immediate state of abject fear. Luckily old Billy Nails was the only other member of the crew to recognize it, otherwise we could have a ship-wide panic on our hands. We placed it in the bathysphere in the hold and set it on the shock absorbing memory foam, which is the best we can do to protect it from vibration. I've spent hours staring at it through the tiny porthole, praying we can find a proper place to unload it before... well, before all hell breaks loose.

In the meantime, I've allowed our stowaway basic privileges. So long as she fulfils a set of daily chores to Billy Nails' satisfaction, she can move about the ship. It may be the wrong move, but frankly we can keep a better eye on her this way and not have to tie up another crew member with guard duty.

Everybody on board has got to earn their keep, if they're not a paying customer.

Captain Armando Lupiz
(The Sky Wolf)
onboard the continuous merchant dirigible Sadie Hawkins