Okay, so I've been having a bit of trouble keeping track of my cameras recently. Granted that proved a little bit useful recently but, still, I want to be logging all the events here for when we get back home.
I mean, can you imagine it?
Actual gods, demons, kitsune, and magic?
Wow. This is going to blow people's minds when we get back.
[Aeryn pauses and catches her breath composing herself.]
Anyway, my solution. So I still have the handheld camera, which is currently on the table looking at me, but I'm also going to have this body-camera thing here.
[She points to a brooch on her collar and leans forward to reveal that it was a small camera made to look like a tasteful bit of jewelry.]
So this way, I'll still be getting footage even if I drop the camera. And then I can edit in the different footages together later.
[The film cuts for a bit and a little bit haggard but still chipper looking Aeryn appears, sitting in the same place. She is sort of scratching at one of her hands which appears to be grey.]
Hi, just an editor's note here. Editing these things is really hard with one hand. I mean, it's all on the computer, but most of these programs seem to assume you have two hands and Ms Newell said this isn't likely to get better until a few more days.
[She shows her hand directly to the camera and it is definitely grey.]
And I really wanted to get this out before then.
[She looks down at her hand.]
It really itches by the way and scratching doesn't help because it's under the stone. I've asked about chipping away the stone, but the doctor and Ms. Newell both said that would be a bad idea. Something about lots of bleeding.
Anyway, on to the video.
[The video cuts again to a video of Rudyard and Lydia talking to a rather well-off looking woman in her early 40s perhaps. The discussion is a bit far away and hard to make out before the camera sweeps around to look back at Aeryn for a moment.]
So they've been arguing with those people for a bit now. Apparently people still don't realize that we're not in Kansas anymore....or, I mean, the South Pacific. Wait, it was Australia. Whatever...we're not on Earth anymore but these people don't know that.
I think Ms Locheia-Turan and Mr. Holt are trying to calm them down and keep people from panicking.
So, anyway, while that's going on.
[The camera pulls away and turns toward Aeryn. Then it pulls off to be picture in picture as the brooch camera keeps filming the hallway ahead.]
Ms. Newell is in that forward bay doing something magicky and Amaya is off fixing the environmental controls with the engineers. Earlier they were talking to the Captain about plans but I overslept or didn't get the memo or something.
Anyway, they were leaving as I was arriving so I missed the meeting, but no one is in the room right now. Sooo....
[A little bit more and she's walking into the conference room to look at the notes displayed on the whiteboard. There's a lot of talk about the shard and plans pertaining to is.]
Looks like they've got some real solid plans for what to do with the shard full of monsters below. So, yeah, setting up a beachhead, getting control over the steerage. Finding the archives. More plans than that. This is amazing, and I'll get to record all this!
"Ms Lee, what are you doing in here unaccompanied?"
Uhh, I'm just studying what I'm supposed to be doing ma'am.
[The handheld camera whips behind her back showing the floor. As the brooch shows Captain Fry walking up.]
"I'm aware of you posting these videos of yours to the ships intranet, Ms. Lee. I need you to be careful ---"
[The film cuts out and then cuts back in on a helicopter. Aislin Newell, Lydia Locheia-Turan, Amaya Yukimura, Rudyard Holt, the pilot and a guard are all crammed into the Jinn. Aislin is speaking.]
"Have we been to the building yet?"
[The camera swoops over toward Rudyard as he speaks.]
"No, Ma'am. We went to a different clearing we could see from the ship because you thought it was safer to appear there."
[Then the camera moves to look at the pilot.]
"This time we have a helicopter though so we can find a good landing zone."
"This is likely to be a lair already. It'll be a great shelter for the animals."
[The camera swooped toward Lydia just as the last words of the statement are spoken.]
"Maybe I should..."
[There a small sound and a burst of smoke as the camera turns toward where Aislin had been a moment before. The helicopter shakes a bit as the pilot curses in his surprise at the sudden appearance of the smoke.]
"Damn it! What the hell was that Nightcrawler shit?!"
She's down there I think.
[Aeryn's hand appears pointing out in front of the camera she scans around until she finds Aislin. Amaya leans in requiring Aeryn to adjust the camera again.]
"Hey! Senpai! What do you see down there?"
"Hello. Hello. Am I using this...radio, appropriately? I think there's a place to land over here, it looks good."
[A flash of red light appeared directing attention to the area.]
"All right, Pilot land this."
"Going in, sir."
[Amaya is looking around at about the same time and suddenly shouts out a moment or two ahead of Rudyard doing the same.]
"Pull up! Pull up! That ground's not flat!"
"The trees! The trees! There's not enough room!"
[The scene shakes about rapidly as everyone grips hold and the pilot deftly pulls up out of the landing approach without clipping anything. Everybody remains tight within the helicopter, never in danger as the helicopter comes back around to come over the area.]
"Is something wrong? Why did you not land the vehicle?"
[Amaya unbuckles herself and darts forward to grab the radio before anybody could answer.]
"Senpai! A helicopter needs a lot more room to land. If anything hits the blades it will be bad."
[Rudyard takes the radio receiver then and starts speaking.]
"And you need a flat landing zone, not just sort of flat."
"Oh...Hmm, this might take a little bit of time."
"How long is a little bit of time, Ms. Newell."
"About two hours, I think."
[Rudyard turns to the pilot.]
"How's power?"
"We're good, the battery's pretty full. I even have a reserve petroleum based engine if we get into trouble. Maybe ten hours total."
[The video cuts out to show Aeryn Lee again waving with her stone hand.]
"At this point, I engage time lapse filming."
[The video returns back to the scene as the video watches the conversion of several trees into sap below sped up over the course of minutes of video to the sound of The Eye of the Tiger. Then slows down as the song ends.]
"I spy with my little eye, something that is....fluffy."
"Is it Amaya's tails?"
"Yes."
[The video speeds up again as the sap below starts being turned into amber and formed into a wide flat area as more music something in Japanese about a "Neko-Romancer" plays while the video speeds up. Until it slows down again at the end of the song.]
"Okay, now that's a helicopter pad. Going in, sir."
[Aeryn grips tight with everybody else as the helicopter lowers down carefully and sets the helicopter down gently. The group gets out and starts investigating the remains of the building that sits at the center of the shard. There seemed to be a four floor building which was in ruins, a sort of broken up concrete courtyard within a wall. One back corner had been completely torn up and may have been cultivated somewhat. A picture-in-picture of Aeryn with a stone hand showed up in the bottom corner.]
So we found out that back corner was a graveyard later.
And see this sign here?
[The main camera points to an ancient, barely legible sign on one of the walls showing animals walking past a building with symbols over their head.]
Detective Reynolds says that's a sign assuring that the building is...
[Future Aeryn's eyes widen and she smiles broadly.]
...enchanted to keep the animals from finding it. But that didn't work out well later.
But first, more time lapse fun!
[The main camera spins to observe Rudyard and Amaya organizing the pilot and other security staff to fortify the building. The action speeds up with the main video switching between Amaya and the guards battening up holes in the surrounding wall. The A-Team theme music plays over the action before slowing down for a bit as Aeryn points the camera at the guard picking some stuff up from inside the building.]
Hey, Mr...ummm, Steve, right? Should you take that? It looks like one of those magic circles that Aislin makes.
[The guard pauses in his efforts to clear vines away from the debris he's grabbing and rolls his eyes. Then he turns to look at her. The picture in picture of future Aeryn is looking in the camera wide-eyed and pointing up at Steve on the video, mouthing out "I was right. He shouldn't have done that."]
"We have holes in the wall right now, so I'm not worried about some fairy tale right now, okay?"
[He tears away the debris and ripping up the vines, which start visibly dying on the video as Aeryn films them and Steve walks away to help wall things up. Then the matters speed up again and the sound of Macarena plays over the video. The video slows back up as Aislin views the central room.]
"Well, the gate used to be here."
"Used to be?"
[The camera whipped over to Rudyard briefly before turn back.]
"At some point the anchor on Earth-side got destroyed so it's been inactive for a long time. But I can connect it to the room I set up in the Sol Suna at least. I'll get started on that and..."
"Hey, we've got company!"
"Go on, I'll stay working on this."
[Aeryn ran out with everybody else as Aislin remained behind. She arrived to see Lydia pointing out a hole in the wall to show a small pack of those large displacer wolves from the first time that they had arrived. They're looking about curiously and confused.]
"They might find there way in soon. I'm going to set up defenses."
[Rudyard immediately turned toward the other guards after saying that and started breaking out mines. Aeryn films for a bit before moving away to look at the other side of the courtyard. For a moment she pauses and catches sight of Aislin still working in the gate room. Picture in picture Aeryn points.]
And this is where I decided to see if there were other animals around.
[The earlier Aeryn starts to talk as she gets to the wall and films video through it, catching sight of something on this side. She at least is whispering.]
Whoa, that looks like a giant green chicken or something. Wait, I've seen video of this before. I think one of these was following them the last time they took the helicopter into this place.
[The future Aeryn nods along as past Aeryn speaks, then shrugs and thumbs the heel of her palm into her forehead.]
[The sound of howling cut through the air and Aeryn started running over in time to catch the last sign of the wolves fleeing with their tails between their legs.]
"Wow, what did you do?"
"I disrupted their illusions so we could count them."
[The kitsune, now Akiko instead of Amaya shrugs.]
"They didn't seem to like it."
"Well, it's a natural mechanism for them. Imagine if something suddenly caused your arm to just stop working. Of course it terrified them."
[Aeryn point the camera at Lydia as she spoke.]
"Wow, so what is the deal with the giant green chicken?"
[Everybody freezes and turns to look at Aeryn.]
"Did you say green chicken?"
"The cockatrice."
[Which is when the shrieking sound of the cockatrice came to their ears and everyone turned around
to see the bear sized animal leap over the wall and land roughly, preventing it from getting far into the courtyard.]
"Holy shit!"
[The pilot shouts, taking several shots with a pistol before retreating as the beast rushes forward at him. The charge is interrupted by Rudyard releasing a stream of automatic fire from his SAW and supported by Steve firing with the carbine. Behind them, Lydia was lighting up some sort of laser bow and the video paused as the picture-in-picture Aeryn filled the screen and shouted, while pumping both her working and petrified hands.]
Laser!
Bow!
I mean, she calls it a "mana bow".
But it's a bow!
And it shoots blue lasers!
Laser bow!
Anyway, on to the video.
[The picture in picture shrinks down as the camera comes onto a scene of concrete falling over, having been pushed over by Akiko, the cockatrice and causing it to stumble into Aeryn throwing her aside and sending the handheld camera tumbling along. The view splits into three bits, the brooch camera, the handheld, and the future-Aeryn seeming to watch as the video happens.]
Oww! Oww! I can't feel my haaaann...what the hell?!
[Aeryn's fingers and hand were turning grey and solid as stone, with the phenomena working up her arm. Behind her and on the handheld, Rudyard is standing on top of the debris and pouring fire into the resilient creature until in pushes itself up and out of the debris as a shaft of blue light stabs into it. Sending it stumbling away as black images cover its face.]
"Get her out here!"
[Steve grabs up Aeryn and pulls her away as she watches the stone working further down her arm.]
Hey! Can someone help me with this, please?
[There is an explosion as the handheld camera goes flying up into the sky with a column of dirt that sends the cockatrice reeling aside, blood streaming and Lydia's shot seeming to have pierced its armor. Rudyard continued firing at it, keeping it away from people and limiting it to a particular area.]
"Ms. Newell, can you come help?"
"What? What's going...nevermind, I'm a bit busy fixing things in here. One of us broke the enchantments keeping the building hidden."
[The future Aeryn Lee filled the screen momentarily.]
See?!!
[Then things returned to the original arrangement as Akiko rushed in to the building's battered hallway and started looking over Aeryn's hand.]
"Okay, okay, Amaya says it's just changing the outer layer of your skin so. That's good."
[A flash of blue rushed past the camera from the handheld as it flew through the air after being kicked by the cockatrice.]
Can you stop it? It really, really fucking hurts.
"Hey, Amaya's the one that listened to those classes, let her walk me through it. We got you. Hey, Amaya, it's up to her elbow now."
[The handheld camera flew up on the blast of another mine and landed to show the cockatrice slowly standing up and shifting forward squawking aggressively but wearily.]
It's up to my elbow and it seriously hurts!!
[The picture of future Aeryn nodded and unrolled her sleeve to show her hand was stone down halfway to her elbow before speaking, putting the other videos on silent.]
It's been a day or two, I've healed a little.
[The sound came back on as a combination of heavy automatic fire mixed with pistol shots and a blue flash.]
"Here we go."
[Akiko tightened up, looking a bit nervous, and started pouring an amber-colored light into Aeryn's hand. Little boils and angry red marks erupted all up Akiko's arms as the amber flowed into the arm and the progression of the stone stopped. The past Aeryn breathed out a sigh of relief.]
Okay, it doesn't seem to hurt as much now.
"Owww...Senpai?"
[Aislin looked out to see down the hallway.]
"Oh, huh, well, she's probably a better healer than me anyway, I've never studied that. This is pretty much downhill from here. Have they killed the cockatrice yet?"
[The camera caught an upward view as a shaft of blue light slashed into the cockatrice, finally taking it's life away. It began to tumble back to the ground on top of the handheld camera, leaving it black.]
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