SHIP'S LOG:

The Sadie Hawkins

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.

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 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

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 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 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 12/17/2017 10:46pm

Arrived Psychic High School under pleasant weather and easily moored at our old hitching post on Sunblimimal Field. Tents deployed, cargo unloaded and merchandised for the school’s Winter Festival. Crew taking shifts on retail duty for the week and performing routine maintenance.

For all the bluster of experienced sky sailors, I can sense the crew is ready for some time on shore without barfights, risk of being pickpocketed, or shanghaied, or even assasnated. Psyhigh is a civilized place, and no doubt the suburban atmosphere of this world reminds many a sailor of warm beds and sidewalks and parks, of 7-11’s and Targets and Thai restaurants in strip malls. It reminds them of the homes they had before they fell out of their strollers or wandered off and weren’t claimed for seven days—before they were picked up and taken far away by Zephyr Air to defray expenses.




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

Armando Lupiz 12/12/2017 11:57pm

I am pleased to report that the Sadie Hawkins had a successful dropoff with the consignees. The Monkey Priests themselves met us on the dock (well, maybe not the Grand PooBahs, but definitely ones in priestly gear) and the terms were settled as arranged. Of an even greater surprise was that all hands were accounted for as we got under way--even with a bit of shore leave, every one of my sailors was able to find their way back to the ship before we left. Not that any would have wanted to stay behind, as feelings are none too hospitable to sky sailors of the human persuasion here in the Monkey Kingdom. Old wounds from the war die hard, on both sides, and it's best that we don't scratch them too deeply. Especially when there's rum involved. The Monkeys do make an amazing banana-coconut rum.

Now we're headed to one of my favorite ports of call--Psychic High School! Every little knick knack and doodad we've ended up with in the hold would love to end up in somebody's stocking at that place. Plus, it's a safe and wholesome port of call, if you know what I mean. It's safe to let my sailors out--they won't get too roughed up by the student body.

It'll be a few days till we get there, but looks like smooth flying ahead.

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

Billy Nails 12/9/2017 5:48pm

First time to the Monkey Kingdom, kid? Pretty grand, isn't it? The towering ruins, the jungle vines, the flowers. It is one of the most magnificent approaches you'll see as the ship makes its way up river to Omomyidae. But now that we're moored and have some liberty, don't forget all the sky sailors that got shaved by those Monkey Pigs! They still got the hunger for hair, I hear, so you make sure to take a buddy or two when you're ashore. Best you stick to Sapientown, and if you're looking for a night out, and visit the Lost Airman--that's a safe place for greenhorns like you.

Armando Lupiz 12/5/2017 11:55pm

The Sadie Hawkins would be happy to take your job, Lilix. We love visiting Psychic High School, and, if this weather holds up, we plan to be back to your school before Christmas--still in time to be your source for unique and meaningful holiday gifts, including fortune-telling goat skulls, everlasting "Free No More" love commitment jewelry, and wild jerky flavors you can't find at your local 7-11. We'll also be happy to take your pack of penpal letters along with us when we leave, and drop them off as we're able.

In the meantime, still nothing but miles and miles of open ocean as far as we can see. We were lucky to spot a group of singing "grandmother" whales breaching ahead of us today--in time to change course before we were caught up in the massive thought wave emanations they use to try and contact their home star system. Their excessively large exposed brains were a sight to behold in the late afternoon sun. Who's going to tell them their old sun has gone nova? Not us! We steered clear of the turbulent psycho-weather, and are continuing to head full steam for the Haplorhini Kingdom.

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