01. AIRSHIPS!! [Text]

[mech_and_mutt]

I didn't know we were gonna get the chance to get our own airships! I know I missed being able to wake up and see nothing but sky and clouds out the window. Made drying the laundry a lot easier, too.

But that kinda got me thinking- you couldn't get very far without an airship back where I came from, but a lot of the people I've talked to have said they've never seen anything like them before! I know a few people here have had SOME sort of flying machine back in their world, though. If yours did too, I gotta know- what were they like?

For that matter, how many other pilots do we HAVE here, anyway?

-Red

Comments

Video

[mech_and_mutt]

"You get used to it," he replies, reaching for his mug out-of-frame before stopping himself. "It just seems like a waste to take somethin' that big and just fill it with seats."

But that other question catches him off guard-- he actually looks almost upset by it at first."No. I don't."

...but a second, closer glance at the screen turns it to scrutiny. Now that she mentions it, this human's got some serious red-eye herself. "Hold on, I think the camera's messin' up. Lemme try--"

The view zooms out with a soft tink of porcelain as he sets the iMog down on the table, propped upright against his drink. "...That fix it?"

Re: Video

[conniemaheswaran]

Connie was fairly certain that human biology wasn't built to adapt to atmosphere that thin, but she lets it slide at Red's reaction to the glitch, and his subsequent attempts to rectify it. "...no, that didn't. Maybe it's some kind of glitch?" It certainly wasn't your run of the mill redeye effect, which required very specific conditions and a bright flash to draw out. Plus, only a few people were positive for it, and Connie wasn't sure that red pupils were a thing for... dog people. MogNet glitched out every so often, but what magical mishap on Earth could cause that kind of effect?

[mech_and_mutt]

"Sounds like it." If this thing kept turning on HIS camera with every incoming video message, he wouldn't be all that surprised if it got his eyes wrong, too. Grumbling, he grabs the slate once again and keeps it at its usual arm's length.

"So's that all that airship is where you come from? Just for... moving people? No cannons, no kitchen, no... frills?"

[conniemaheswaran]

She'd have to look at the errors page later to see what this was all about. "I mean, some have small pantries, and there are plenty used by the military... but yeah. They're generally just used for moving people, and they cost a bunch. Me and my parents generally save on that by using the warp network, but we're, like... three of the five humans who knows that it exists, so not many people travel by warp."

[mech_and_mutt]

"Warp network? Never heard of it, either." Got kind of a funny name, too. "Gotta be better than one'a those planes, though. I love flyin', but sittin' packed in like that with so many other people and nothin' to do..."

"Just seems like the fun would get taken out of it."

[conniemaheswaran]

Red had a point. Especially when you compared the experience of flying in a plane to flying in the Amecopter. "Yeah. It's pretty breathtaking for the first time... but after that it just gets boring, especially if you forgot to pack a book."

[mech_and_mutt]

"Exactly! I bet it's even worse if you're in one'a those seats in the middle and can't even look out one of the windows."

"Still, you got a pretty good eye for that sorta thing. You some kinda airship mechanic back where you came from?"

[conniemaheswaran]

Connie giggles at that. At least Red wasn't condescending because of her age, although he vastly overestimated her abilities. "No, not really. I'm just kind of, um, an enthusiast. Because that's what you do when you're living near an airfield for a few months and have no friends and not a lot to do. You look at planes."

[mech_and_mutt]

Hey, Red had seen a teenaged girl slam together her own racing aircraft back where he had come from- not like another young genius was outside his realm of possibility.

"You said there were other kinds? Y'got drawings in that book of the more interesting ones?"

[conniemaheswaran]

"Hm, not really, but... Oh! You'd probably like some of the older models of planes before they started going into mass production! I don't have a reference on me, but I can probably put together a quick sketch..." As Connie starts drawing, she asks, "So what was your home world like?"