every sailor trades comfort for glory, every lover trades hope for betrayal

Roleplay entry. Everything was fine until the FTL drive went offline...



I should probably explain something. When we're just hopping from the cold desert moon of Haven to one of the outlying mining colonies, even my little one-seater scout skiff can make it into space and back. It's hardly a long trip.



But this...the FTL drive isn't even necessary for short jumps like this, but something about it going out unbalanced the gyros. We're going to have to pull the whole thing into dock and go over it in sections. In the meantime, we had to get to the mining colony safely.



And we kept spinning and dipping in very uncomfortable ways.



I swear I left my stomach behind more than once.



And then we saw mountains through the screen...and they were approaching at speed.



And then we crashed.

It wasn't a destructive crash--it was more listing to the side, off the landing gear, crumpling one of the fins, and considering we were planning to pull it into dock anyway and go over it, straightening a fin is the least of our concerns!

when you build your house, I'll come by (part IV)

Last of the shots. (Continued from part III.)


(Either still in Kitti, or just edging into Tangle.)

[22:44] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) bats leaves aside

(Above the tall trees.)

[22:45] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): this has enough
[22:45] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Tangle?
[22:45] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): this parcel

To be fair, we are still pondering either moving from Caledon II, to Stormhold, or Tanglewood, or expanding holdings in Caledon II. We haven't decided yet.


(Fully in Tanglewood.)

[22:45] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): was mine then mags

(Close shot of the Aer Viator.)

[22:46] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): steam was here

(Sinking through the trees.)

[22:46] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): We'd have 750 to decorate, but the thing with Steam is, it needs very very little

Steamopolis is a gargantual build, true, so much going on in that thing, so many floors and back stairways and rooms next to other rooms...but the thing is, barring the occasional need for the odd bed, or couch set, a person could, if inclined, pop up Steamopolis and live there as is. There's a limited staff, furnishings, art, curtains, a power plant for the steam towers...it really has everything as it is.


(And coming to a halt on once and former Shatner lands. Future lands? Remains to be seen.)

And that's where we stopped. Takes a little doing, with the gaps, but we proved that with care, and occasional reduction in speed, at least with the lower-prim airships, Caledon can still be flown mostly end to end. We'll see if that changes in future. I hope it doesn't.

when you build your house, I'll come by (part III)

(Facing the open sea.)

[22:37] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Well, it goes up from here, Mayfair-Pensans, and up from Speirling, Stormhold
[22:37] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) looks for Tanglewood
[22:37] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): So....Speirling to Stormhold, take a left, Tanglewood
[22:38] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Or, Mayfair to Pensans and THEN take the left

(Facing the open sea.)

[22:39] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): look
[22:39] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): where we met
[22:39] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) smiles at the RoboKitteh
[22:39] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): It is, yes

(Stormhold? Pensans? I think Stormhold.)

Indeed. Even better, when I finally got the drive out of the sorry potato computer, I found an entire folder of shots I'd snapped on the fly from that event. Even though I could not place names to faces at this point, they'll be going up on my Flickr, or going up as entries here.


(Flying through Mayfair, Speirling on the left.)

[22:40] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Stormhold
[22:41] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): stormhold look vacant too
[22:41] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Many parcels are
[22:41] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): this isnt good for des
[22:41] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): No
[22:42] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): And close to Tangle, you can tell because all the trees got taller :D

(Homing in on Kittiwickshire?)

[22:42] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Next up: Kittiwickshire
[22:43] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): And Kitti proper

(More of Kittiwickshire.)

And the grand tall trees of Tanglewood ahead.

(Continued in part IV.)

when you build your house, I'll come by (part II)

(And into the Moors!)

[22:32] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Time shift again :D
[22:33] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): And coming up on the Moors
[22:33] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Could be a prim issue
[22:33] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Someone with absolutely maxed-out everything on their parcel

I don't believe I kept the bit of chat where he mentioned it, but he had earlier tried to fly over the Moors in another ship and had the ship return mid-flight.


(Banking in the fog.)

[22:34] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Fog rolls in, but we've made the crossing!
[22:34] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Next up, Vic City
[22:35] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Time shift, and across the border!

(Near Caledon Dream?)

[22:35] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): The island-ish bit is Caledon Dream
[22:35] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I know nothing about it
[22:35] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Other than that it apparently has its own moon....

And that I believe Duchess Magz owns it...


(The moon in question.)

[22:36] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): If we continue forward, we'll be in Mayfair
[22:36] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): then speirling
[22:36] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Yes

(I believe that's Speirling to the mid-left on this image?)

[22:36] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): and stormhold right?
[22:36] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Which I believe is no longer East and West Speirling, just Speirling
[22:37] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): let's try to get to tangle wood..

(Possibly approaching Tangle, and what IS the floating Moroccan lantern skybox to the far left?)

And now moving towards Mayfair.

(Continued in part III.)

when you build your house, I'll come by (part I)

Desert Bus for Hope 2020 is ongoing! In whatever form it's going to take, the pandemic being endemic now, at least in the US. Thankfully, Loading Ready Run is in Canada, where things are fairly under control.

At any rate, several months ago, the Duke and I decided to see how 'flyable' Caledon was, still.

[21:54] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): caledon
[21:54] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): let's rez the airship over caledon
[21:55] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Okay
[21:56] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) laughs
[21:56] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): The rez box is still in front of the house.
[21:56] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): obvious where our attention's been :D
[21:56] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): smiles
[21:56] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) clicks something by accident and falls into the basement
[21:57] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Okay. Make a note. Living room trapped.

This, actually, is not uncommon, even in houses I don't build? Half of everything we own seems to have built-in secret chambers.

Later...


(Preparing to depart from Caledon II.)

[22:09] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): let's fly around cal want to?
[22:09] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): and look before we buy
[22:09] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Sure.
[22:09] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Port me?
[22:09] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): ok
[22:12] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) looks waaaaaaaay up
[22:12] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): The Black Moth?
[22:12] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): yeah
[22:13] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): i can take it down
[22:13] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Well, no, just there's only one seat :D
[22:13] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): That's a fun ship, though

The Moth still has only one seat, but I did put out another on the viewing deck.


(Sitting in the Viator.)

[22:13] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): this has two
[22:14] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): It does? I found the one up top....
[22:14] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): hope in front
[22:14] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): you
[22:14] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): you sit where we have absinthe
[22:14] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): i drive
[22:14] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) blinks
[22:14] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I'm on the wrong ship

Oops.

[22:15] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Where'd you go?
[22:15] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): TP me

So there was a bit of merry ship-changing, trying to find one that steered effectively and sat two...


(The confusing where-do-we-sit-in-this airship.)

[22:22] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): try this one?
[22:22] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): if not manual fly?
[22:22] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): (if you cant fly an airship accross caledon, Caledon is dead..
[22:23] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Okay. Let's see how it goes
[22:23] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): uh
[22:24] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): i am in a tree
[22:24] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Oh dear
[22:25] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Running into a bit of lag, interesting
[22:25] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): yeah
[22:25] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): so which direction are we looking?

(The Caledon air trolley frozen in midair.)

[22:26] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Also, if you notice, the Ophelia's frozen, and I'm not sure that's intentional
[22:26] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): West
[22:26] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Tamrannoch is behind us
[22:27] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Next crossing is Cal proper
[22:27] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Ooh, time shift

We ran into a lot of those. Time shift, environment shift, fog, no fog...


(Facing Port Caledon, I think.)

[22:28] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Over the main port for Cal's shuttle
[22:28] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Port Caledon is straight ahead
[22:29] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): and former gearhaven...firth and middle sea
[22:30] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): the black moth
[22:30] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr) nods
[22:31] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Something used to be between Port Caledon and Caledon on Sea, and I've forgotten
[22:31] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner) smiles...
[22:31] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): really?
[22:31] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Really
[22:31] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I'd have to dig up an old map
[22:31] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Unless that WAS Gearhaven
[22:31] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Oh dear
[22:31] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): it was gearhaven
[22:31] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): lover
[22:32] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): I thought Mayapuri/Gearhaven was farther from Cal II
[22:32] Hiro Shatner-Orr (hiro.shatner): no
[22:32] Emilly Shatner-Orr (emilly.orr): Honestly, I remember it as being close to the Downs, so kind of confused

Go me, forgetting where the original Duchy actually was.


(Moving towards the Moors.)

And we were well on our way.

(Continued in part II.)

I could make all the tables turn

I should have learned from the first time I tried to conduct a train and it exploded. I should have understood when someone loaned me their flying carpet and it embedded in a wall.

Apparently, I am slow to learn.



I am also very bad at flying.



Very, very bad at flying.



So a new friend decided to teach me something he considered essential in the steamlands: piloting. It occured to me that in all my time on the grid, I actually hadn't piloted that many vehicles. The aforementioned trains, the sadly departed flying carpet, an occasional bubble, and one hot-air balloon. Oh, and at one point I had an airship, but I think its top speed was three miles an hour. It steered like a cow.

So he loaned me something called a monoplane, and talked me through how the controls worked, and...off I went. Nearly immediately I managed to figure out how to fly upside down. And the above shot is me plummeting towards the distant...I think Caledon Prime? Somewhere near Gibraltar Village, I think.



And this is me flying underwater.



I'm sorry about the temple. And I'm sorry about the village hall. And I'm sorry about the library. And I'm very sorry about the roof of the three-story house.


I'm sorry for all the things. Where's the control that means "straighten up and fly right"? Or even better, where's the control that means "STOP"???