Taking Flight into the Void - Airship Lost - Divine Blood Campaign - First Session

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Aeryn Lee's Travel Log - April 8th, 2011

[The camera is in motion showing it's owner pointing it at her own face. She is an exuberantly cheerful young woman in her early twenties. She has a mix of features usually only found in people of diverse heritage or enough money for custom cosmetic genetic modification.]

Hey all! Day two-hundred of my travels around the world and back again! 

[As she moves it is obvious she's walking through a very busy corridor of high-tech, curved design. Along one side is a sleek bulkhead and the other shows the view of a city lingering below. Only snippets of it can be seen behind the girl's face.]

Most of you already know this, but in case this your first time viewing my vlog, earlier this year the Seattle earthquake severely damaged the University and they made the shift to make a lot of classes being available on a digital format. By now, of course, most of the repairs are done, but I and a few other people decided to stick with the digital format and take our studies on the road. 

I've been down the coasts of both Americas and across to New Zealand and Oceania. Tomorrow we're heading back out over the ocean and making north for Okinawa. Currently, my plan is to get off in Seoul and start to travel across the CRCMP, into the NAA and eventually come back to the States from the other side entirely.

And this, everybody, this is Darwin, Australia.

[The city below is a small one by modern standards, with not much in the way of a skyline, but there are some beaches at the edge of the camera's view. Aeryn is trying to scan the skyline slowly and dramatically, but falling prey to her youthful exuberance and impatience so that it's a bit fast and blurry.]

Doesn't look like much, does it? But there are some great beaches here apparently. Let's find out!

Oh wow, everybody take a look down there. Let me just angle the camera a bit.

[The camera focuses in on a woman with bright red hair and tattoos visible all over the place. She is speaking to a young man about the age of sixteen years or so wearing the sort of high school uniforms common to Japanese school. It has a dark grey coloring with purple highlights.]

There we go. I've been trying to get her on camera for a while now. Look over there, see that lady talking to the high schooler twerp with all the luggage? Look at all those tattoos! I mean, she must have more ink than skin by this point. At least I assume so, not like I've gotten a look under the clothes or anything.

[She zooms in on the woman's face to show a set of red facial marks that seem to be a bit unusual compared to the rest of her tattoos.]

She's been here since before I was. I don't know, apparently she works on the move and just connects to keep up with her job. I bit like me I guess. I think some of those tattoos are cultural or something, but that still seems like a lot of art.

*Cut*

[The image briefly shows Aeryn's smiling face before whipping around an audience and an arena with a number of large crocodiles to show a man with a close-cropped beard and a bright Hawaiian shirt looking just that little bit bored]

Hey! So, I haven't been to the beach yet but see that guy down there in the Hawaiian shirt? He's from Seattle like me. Heck he was on the news a couple of times as some sort of  super cop. I think I remember he got some sort of commendation for doing something in Czechslovakia. I guess when you're a war hero no one cares if you look like a dork in a Hawaiian shirt. Anyway, he's down over there in one of the closer seats for the show.

[The camera whips back around to her broadly smiling face with someone in a clear staff uniform behind her looking about the audience.]

Oh, right, wait, the show.

[She whips around the camera and shows the arena below, taking a few seconds to get the angle stable, if a little bit off kilter. There's some sort of performance going on, but before she gets a good view of it, she whips the camera back around to her face.]

See that? It's a crocodile farm! They're huge! I mean huge. Look that one over there compared to the guy next to it. Apparently the ones in the wild get even bigger. Some of them even hunt and kill sharks. Awesome isn't it!?

[The staff member behind sweeps his view past her and almost seems like he fails to notice her and then does a double take to focus on her position as she continues to talk.]

But yeah, that guy over there, the detective in the shirt. His name is Malcolm Reynolds. I mean, he looks nothing like Nathan Fillian but isn't that funny? I mean he's a cop and a passenger rather than a criminal and the captain, but he's also a war hero just like Mal. 

[The camera keeps whipping between the man in the Hawaiian shirt and her face.]

Anyway, I...

[A hand clasps onto her shoulder and the camera starts pointing down at the floor.]

Umm? What?

The camera?

[The camera whips up to catch an off-kilter view]

No sir, the camera's not on.

[Given the stability and focus of the camera at the moment, Aeryn might actually have really forgotten it's on.]

Of course I'm not recording the sho-

*Cut*

[The camera is sweeping over the city with the sun setting in the distance. It's a little bit windy but a mostly clear night. The Sol Suna hangs over the city along with two other, smaller air-ships docked near the airports.]

Well there isn't much in the way of buildings but I've found a parking garage to climb to the top to and film the sunsetting behind the ship. There it goes right there, setting down into the ocean. Well, the outback. The outback is a desert and that's sort of like an ocean of sand, right? Anyway, so that's the sun setting behind the Sol Suna. Tomorrow we're going to set sail in that direction.

[The sky toward the south is starting to rapidly develop into storm clouds as bright flashes of light occur at a distance before Aeryn whips the camera to point north briefly.]

Wait a minute, what's that? See those lights over there in that direction?

[The camera turns back around south and zooms in, most of the action is going on past the curve of the horizon, but there is definitely something going on over there. A flash of light briefly pastes the shadow of a massive humanoid form against the clouds above.]

That's...one moment, let me check.

[The camera is lowered toward the ground below showing people watching the horizon in confusion on the sidewalk below before Aeryn lifts the camera back up and directs her smartphone at it and then turning it on her own face.]

That's...Vollstahl. Okay, I wonder if there's some sort of fireworks thing going on over there. 

[There is a loud, obnoxious beeping noise and the camera drops back down to stare at asphalt.]

Whoa! Okay, yeah, that sound is the emergency alert from the ship. It says. "All passengers please return to the ship immediately for emergency lift-off."

[The camera refocuses on the Sol Suna and then pans a couple of times between Aeryn's location and the ship.]

Ummm, yeeeah.

*Cut*

[The camera is shaking and catching moments of a lot of people staring at Aeryn as she passes by.]

Huff.

Huff.

Huff.

[Aeryn stops running for a moment and looks into the camera, breathing heavily.]

Maybe I should have taken a cab?

Huff.

[She starts to run again when a very athletic, dark-skinned man wearing security uniform and a rather dashing military style beret goes breezing past her.]

Oh, whoa. Look at him go! Wait, that's Mr. Holt. He's the security chief. Very British guy. I'll bet I can follow him to the ship.

[She tries to keep up but seems to be more focused on having the camera unsteadily focused on Mr. Holt's disappearing form. As he moves on out of her line of sight, she comes to another stop and leans down on her knees, her camera is pointed at one of her hands on the opposing knee.]

Or...or maybe not. I....I think I need to be in better shape.

*Cut*

So, I got to the boat and look over there and let me boost the microphone, that's the high school kid who came on board earlier.

[The Japanese looking high school kid from earlier is pacing back and forth angrily shouting into his phone.]

"Damn it, Minaba! Just pick up the phone and tell me...finally! Minaba what the hell is going on over there did you guys launch the...what? Wait is this another phone message? No, no, don't forward me to the next phone! Damn it....oh, right, Minaba is stuck in the hospital right now."

Well, he's having a bit of a problem, isn't he?

[The camera image starts producing an increasing amount of static. Aeryn is getting difficult to understand.]

Anyway. Huh, a little bit of static on the reception here. I wonder what's going on? Let me see if I can get to a better position.
 

*Cut*

[Aeryn looks a bit relieved and then returns to her brilliant smile, though it is a bit strained now as she talks. Behind her there is a brief burst of smoke that appears out of nowhere followed by a man suddenly panicking.]

Okay, okay, the camera is getting a bit less interference right now. And let's see if I can get a view on what's going on to the Sou---oof!

"Ahhh! The ship's on fire the ship's on fire!"

[Aeryn is hit from behind by a middle-aged man sprinting through the crowd of people on the upper deck and goes spinning into the railing, almost falling into the pool. The camera scatters out of her hand and catches sight of her pushing off the wall and turning to shout at the running man.]

Watch where you're going buddy! You could have broken my camera! What the hell's your problem anyway!

[Aeryn starts looking around and then starts looking around for the camera. It catches sight of the red-headed woman with the tattoos walking out from where there was smoke a moment before.]

Moment, moment. There you are, whew, thought I lost the camera there. Oh hey, look there's that lady with all the tattoos. I wonder what she's doing? There, maybe we should follow her, do you think?

[Aeryn turns the camera toward the red-headed tattooed woman from before and follows along behind somehow without being noticed.]

"Everyone, please calmly return your cabins. Some of you may have heard that there is an ongoing terrorist attack in the city to the south. Do not be concerned, we are well away from the activity and we are now launching and moving away from it."

[Aeryn turns the camera back to her face.]

Whoa, terrorists, let's take a look down there and wow, look at that storm building down there. That's a bit of an uncomfortable memory, there was a storm during the Seattle quake too. Oh, damn it, that tattooed lady is getting out of sight!

*Cut*

[The camera shows the red-headed woman again.]

Okay, there's the tatto-ed lady, she just said her name was Aislin, I think. Ashlen? Something Irish anyway. But yeah, she's talking to the guard just outside the bridge over there.

[Aeryn is whispering as she turns the camera back to her face.]

You know what, while we were walking I went back and looked through the footage, you know that guy that knocked me over crying about the ship being attacked? Well I looked, there was a bit of smoke and before the smoke the tattoo-ed lady wasn't anywhere and then after the smoke and the panicking guy she sort of walks from behind one of the decorative pillars and...

Hey, something's happening over there and-

Holy crap she's glowing red!

[A nimbus of vibrant and wild red-energy is erupting around Aislin as she whips her hand out ahead of her with a look of intense strain and shock on her face.]

*Cut* 

[Aeryn's face is again on the camera but then she swings around to show the darkened outer windows of the ship. She's in the corridors somewhere and has obviously left the bridge for who knows what reason.]

Okay! Okay! It's been a few minutes, the ship darkened a lot of the windows, but well, the sky seems to be gone. I know the internet is gone. The ship's intranet is still there, but the internet is gone.

[Aeryn turns the camera back to herself. It is quickly obvious that she has started to absent-mindedly start to walk away from the bridge.]

There was a lightning bolt or something that passed through the ship right as the sky vanished or turned grey, or something and...whoa, wait a minute!

[There's movement at the edge of the camera and Aeryn looks down another corridor of camera before looking back into the camera with an impish look of curiosity on her face.]

It's that detective and Mr. Holt carrying that high school kid. The kid looks a bit singed...and wasn't he bigger before? I'm going to see where they're going.

*Cut*

[The camera is again facing Aeryn who looks out of breath again as she stands next to a sort of open door and occasionally peeks around the corner at a crowd of people.]

Okay, so I kinda wish I was keeping the recording going the entire time, but there was a bit of a battery issue that I had to switch out. Anyway, Mr. Holt went off to marshal the troops or something, but there's the high school kid in the infirmary past the bunch of rich people complaining at the doctor. 

Let me zoom in.

[The camera carefully zooms past the image of the ship's doctor arguing with a bunch of well-dressed people on a girl with black-furred fox ears and two black fox-tails, both tipped in rid. Her face has odd, red facial marks and she's dressed in the same sort of boy's Japanese high school uniform the boy had been wearing, though these are oversized.]

Yeah, that's a tail, there's two of them and yeah, that's definitely a she and much smaller than before. And no I'm not lying. That's definitely the same person and they definitely went from being a human guy to being a black-furred fox girl with two tails. 

Well, sort of fox-girl. 

Still mostly human.

[The fox-girl starts to stir and reach up to her head before Aeryn whips the camera back around to her and places her finger to her lips. Then she looks back over toward the clinic off-camera.]

Sshh, she's waking up and....hey, they're going into the vents and that's the detective on his phone following her. Can I....no, I don't think I'm getting past that wall of one percenters there.

*Cut*

[The camera is facing Aeryn again before looking at the image of the bridge with Aislin sitting on the floor in a circle of glowing red energy as one of the ship medics uses a tattoo gun on her back and the woman speaks to the ship's captain.]

Okay, I got a little bit lost and back at the bridge look over there. Yeah, that's the Aislin lady sitting in a circle of glowing blood while one of the ship medics tattoos her back.

She's been talking about orthogonal space and higher dimensions for a while now. I'm not really sure what she's talking about. I sort of never got into the whole deeper math thing given that I went on to be a film major.

[Aeryn sweeps the camera to look out the bridge at the grey sort of non-sky outside the ship. Then it jerks away from bridge to another corridor.]

I'm guessing she's trying to explain something about what's going on and...ooo, something's moving that way.

*Cut*

[The camera is moving through the halls again, periodically pointed at Aeryn's face and then trying to avoid people out in the corridor. Engineers and such.]

All right, so I'm following Mr Holt again, and I think the air-conditioner stopped working. If I heard Mr. Holt right, apparently that fox girl decided to dismantle the climate controls. 

That sort of makes me a bit nervous, I mean we sort of need those, don't we? Don't they recycle the ship's air to keep it completely breathable at higher altitudes?

[Aeryn is indeed sweating a bit and has loosened the collar of her blouse a little bit.]

In anyway, it's getting a bit stuffy in here already and oh wait! There we go and let's see what's happening.

[She directs the camera to the engineering bay and shows the fox-girl, Malcolm Reynolds and Mr. Holt.]

There's the fox-girl, the cop, and Mr. Holt they're really giving her a telling off, let me tell you. I'm not going to adjust the microphone to pick it up just yet, but...Whoa!

[As Aeryn is talking, the fox-girl shrinks slightly and the fur on her ears and tails turn white. Her head turns a bit more narrow and angular though still seeming well within human shape. Aeryn whips the camera around to show her face.]

Did you see that?!

[She points the camera at herself and then back toward the action where the now white-furred fox-girl is trying to evade the cop and the security chief.]

That black-furred fox-girl just became a white-furred fox-girl! It's like some sort of anime!

[Trying to dive into the vents, the fox-girl is stopped by Mr. Holt just barely grabbing hold of one of her tails, resulting in her freaking out.]

Whoa, complete with grabbing the fox girl's tail and her crying "pervert."

Mr. Holt is having absolutely none of it though and...

[A massive hole seems to rip out of the wall within. The image of the ripping and the sky beyond seems very realistic, but there's none of the wind that you would expect from such a hole. It was also opening up in the wrong direction and should have opened up on the innards of the ship.]

The hell did that hole come from?

There's a hole in the middle of the ship!

We're all going to die!

Oh the Humanity!? What are we going to---wait.

[Aeryn's face shows she's starting to realize the hole isn't weird, but the camera shows that the fox-girl is running her way.]

Oof! Gah!

[Aeryn is knocked over and scrambles for the camera turning to face it.]

Whoa! She just about ran me over coming out of the engineering there!

And the hole....is sort of going away...did she make an illusion? Is she a REAL kitsune? 

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