SHIP'S LOG:

Matte Kudasai

Bethany - 4/3/2018 8:03pm

Job claimed by Billy Sabab 2018-04-13 12:29:35

What: A lot of garbage

From: Psyhigh dorm 2700

To: The volcano at the other side of the world

Billy Sabab 4/13/2018 12:29pm

Dear Bethany,

We'll take that garbage. It will take us a couple of days to get there, as we've just left a load in the Rubbishes and will be starting on our way today.

See you at Psyhigh dorm 2700.

Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai

Billy Sabab 4/22/2018 9:54pm

Dear Bethany,

Sorry we're late. Getting out of the Rubbishes turned out to be more complicated than I'd planned. But we made repairs enroute and have finally landed at Psyhigh. We're moored at the airship dock on Subliminal Field. I've let the crew out to find some grub. Just how much garbage do you have? Can you haul it down to the field, or will we need to pull up to your dorm? Or your window? That'd be extra, keep in mind.

You can find me and the crew at the Spoonbender.

Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai

Billy Sabab 5/8/2018 9:31pm

Well we found someone with a load of old stuff they wanted to get rid of. It was room 2007, not 2700! And they'd never heard of Bethany. Andalasia dorm. It's mostly boxed up so easy to load. And a couple of haunted pinball machines, which I've promised to give them 60% on. The hold is nearly full up, but we'll spend one more night on campus before pulling out.

Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai

Billy Sabab 5/26/2018 10:41pm

That haul of cursed vintage arcade games from Psychic High School makes an unholy racket. Haunted pinball machines, possessed pachinko machines, love testers, grip testers, vindictive weight & fortune machines, angry punching bag machines--they're all going off in the hold at once and yelling at each other with all the bells and buzzers they've got. Nobody's had a good night's sleep for days.

Soon we'll land at Old Crag Station to meet the collector I know--Old Craig. Old Craig bought Old Crag Station years ago, when it was an abandoned mountain resort, and he hasn't done a thing to keep it up. Dusty carpets in the lobby and cobwebs on the chandeliers. It's always a bit creepy, but the crew will be glad to get off the ship and away from this noise. Hopefully Old Craig will take some off our hands.

Capt. Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai

Billy Sabab 6/14/2018 10:03pm

Time moves funny at Old Crag. I should have remembered that. So should have the crew. It seems like we've all been here before.

It's been a few days at least. With the skies so overcast it's like the days never really come. The resort sits like a castle--because it is a castle--and we watch from the top of the turrets as the fog stretches out in the valley below. That is, when we're not drawn into the eerie din of parties long gone by in the ballrooms, women in gowns and men in tuxes and the muted sounds of a big band from behind an aquarium. I swear Jack Nicholson sauntered by on our way to find the caretaker.

Old Craig has held off on letting us go till he's had a chance to try out all the merchandise--the load of haunted pinball machines and arcade games we brought from Psychic High School. Sure, there're plenty of drinks and plenty of food, but each day it seems we wake up hungrier than the last. Old Craig has promised us he'll make his decision just as soon as he has his Pinball Championships. Apparently he wants to give all the old machines a workout before he makes his final decision. So the crew and I are gearing up for a big game night, and then finally we'll be on our way.

Capt. Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai

Billy Sabab 7/7/2018 8:40pm

KA-CHING! KA-CHING KA-CHING KA-CHING!

Good god. What have we unleashed?

Rebo, Tender Max, Mr. Fripp, and young Chip--all crushed by the giant steel balls.

It seems the energies of those haunted pinball machines--once they were all plugged in and played simultaneously--formed an explosion of eldritch energy, turning the entirety of Old Crag Castle into a giant pinball machine. Giant silver balls--each big enough to fill a hallway, crash from floor to floor. We run for safety between the rooms. Sometimes the doors open and we're safe for a moment, other times they bat us back like flippers, throwing us into the paths of the relentless steel balls. That, coupled with the flashing lights and deafening bells, will no doubt be the death of the entire crew, unless we can work our way back to the ship. It's moored on the other side of the castle, but the balls keep coming our way. Look out!

KA-CHING KA-CHING KA-CHING KA-CHING KA-CHING!

Capt. Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai

Billy Sabab 7/30/2018 10:22pm

We're all gathered on the observation deck, watching the tower of Old Crag in the distance, and it's lighting up the sky and clouds like a thunderstorm. There's a faint echo of the bells and buzzers in the wind. Will it remain like this forever? Are the eldritch flames that fuel those haunted pinball machines eternal, or will they some day die out? For now, Old Crag stands like a crazy, flickering lighthouse in this ghostly mountain range, warning sky sailors to keep their distance.

The crew is patched up, as well as can be. Luckily ship's doc wasn't among the casualties. She's got all the heads bandaged and broken limbs set, and we've gathered on the observation deck to pay our respect to those that didn't make it--Rebo, Tender Max, Mr. Fripp, young Chip, and even Old Craig himself. He might have had eclectic tastes, but it was never his intention to create a human-sized pachinko machine from hell and then to trap us in it.

Nobody said that being Junkmen of the Air was a job for the faint of heart.

On top of the emotional losses, there's the loss on the whole shipment of arcane arcade games. That's both money and time spent with no payoff, and after the crew has mended a bit their minds will begin to dwell on the lack of liquid income for the Matte Kudasai.

Time to rustle around a bit in the hold and see what I can dig up for our next adventure.

Capt. Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai

Billy Sabab 9/1/2018 9:54pm

Found it! A flyer I picked up at a swap meet in Transversal awhile back:

=======================================

THE BIGGEST GARAGE SALE IN HISTORY

HAPPENING NIGHTLY

FOREVER

Visit the Piercing of the Spires for the widest
selection of rare, vintage, and gently used goods
offered at rock bottom prices across all the eons.
Take your pick of what's fallen between the cracks
of what was and will be. This flyer good for one (1)
admittance per lifetime. Ask for Lenny.

=======================================

That's the ticket right there. Been saving it up for a rainy day.

Capt. Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai

Bill Sabab 10/3/2018 10:53pm

Time sure flies in the Piercing of the Spires. Maybe it's the altitude.

The Matte Kudasai made the climb with no problem and docked at the sky gates of the city. My ticket was good for only one person, but after the events at Old Crag the crew were more than happy to spend their liberty on the ship, tending to some routine maintenance and enjoying the relative safety of their floating home. They had enough to get by for the month I'd be away, so long as they didn't blow all their personal stakes at the rough and tumble bars and parlors that exist outside the city walls for sailors just like them.

While a whole month passed for the crew, my own trip took me only an afternoon, subjective time. It's a well known side-effect of visiting the Piercing of the Spires, which is why all the other visitors you see are in such a hurry. If you dawdle here you can add a whole week outside. And still you see the visitors who have succumbed to it, and made it their home. They saunter at their leisure, stop and smell the flowers, some of them likely thousands of years old. What's left for them to return to outside? Nothing.

I, on the other hand, have responsibilities, and filled our hold with a load of cargo that should pay off very well, including an entire near-mint Shining Trapezohedron sound system, a collection of ancient texts concerning "The Traits, Features, Characteristics, Peculiarities, Mannerisms, Qualities, and Attributes of the Hymergian Man-Fungus" (with illustrations and maps intact), and a set of self setting and cleaning intelligent dishware. Plotting a course now to SALES!

Capt. Billy Sabab
Master of Garbology
Matte Kudasai