Second Flight [Video]

[hot4engines]

[Kaylee looks like she's been working already, even though it's morning; she has a pair of sturdy goggles resting on her head, and her face is sweaty and smudged with oil and dirt. However, she's as cheerful as ever.]

I been workin' on a project, and it's got me to thinking about something. Now, I ain't from Earth- I'm from the future... well, I guess it should be a future where humans left her behind and settled elsewhere. I live and travel on a spaceship, and while it's totally normal for me... I'm kinda at a loss sometimes as to how to explain it to folks who don't even know there's somethin' beyond the sky.

It's somethin' that comes up for me a lot, so... other folks who know about space traveling, how would you talk about it?

Comments

[schrodingersghost]

You're from space? Seriously!

[Danny may have been fanboying a little. He'd dreamed of being an astronaut for years. Even if it probably wasn't possible for him anymore.]

What kind of spaceship do you have?

[hot4engines]

I do live on a planet, but I pretty much live in space, yeah.

[Oh, you shouldn't have asked. Kaylee lights up at one of her favorite subjects.]

Her name's Serenity. She's a Firefly-class ship, named so for the big engine on back burns like a firefly's tail when she takes off. She's old but sturdy and stays in the air where most ships'd fall apart. I'm her mechanic.

[schrodingersghost]

That is so awesome! How long can you stay in space? Back home even astronauts could only stay up for a short time.

She sounds amazing! What kind of fuel does she run on?

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[kingpawn]

[ OH look. It's Kaylee. Making a good, WHOLESOME video. ]

I can't say I know much about space travel, but what kind of project are you working on?

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[hot4engines]

Oh, lotsa things at once. Buildin' a ship, soupin' up a few hovervespas, fixing hovercars and appliances... I'm all over the place.

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[kingpawn]

Hah! Well it's good to hear you've been busy. Sometimes that's the best thing to be -- distracted and focused on multiple things.

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[oceanthief]

I don't. It's a lot easier to just leave it alone than try and explain something like that.

[mostly because a) gem technology is radically different from anything she's seen humans produce and b) it's progressed to a point where Lapis herself isn't entirely sure how they're working now. she'd rather not think about it more than she has to.]

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[hot4engines]

Suppose that's true. It's such a huge part of my life I can't really avoid it sometimes, though. When I first got here I kinda took for granted that it was the same for everyone.

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[oceanthief]

It kind of feels like we're the odd ones out when it comes to space travel. It's...a little weird to think about, honestly.

[being trapped on a single planet with no possibility of escape? that sounded like hell to Lapis even before the mirror incident.]

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[kanadian]

Honestly? I just put it like that. That you're from far and out beyond the sky -- and don't get into the details about how it works.

It's just a little too complicated.

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[hot4engines]

That sounds like it'll do the trick. Me, I gotta stop myself from gushin' about my ship, too- I love her so much.

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[kanadian]

You, uh, that into your ship? [ A squint. ] Is she that special?

[standardization]

Would it be all right for me to ask about what the project is? The one that you're working on, that is.

[hot4engines]

My main one right now? I'm buildin' a ship from scratch.

[standardization]

Are you planning on going out into space here?

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[youbastard]

I usually try to be unspecific if I can, just leave it at general descriptions of it being really far away or things like that. [ She shrugs. ] And hope really hard they don't keep asking questions. When they do ask questions I try to keep it simple. It's hard explaining how we travel as far as we do.

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[hot4engines]

Yeah, that's one of the things I get stuck on. You can say "very far", but far can be relative if you spend most of your life ridin' a hovercar back and forth across the city, ya know? It's easy to overthink stuff, though.

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[youbastard]

I feel like that's one of the reasons a lot of people really can't get it completely. If you've always been on Earth and the furthest you've gone is another country, that's their reference of "very far" and anything beyond that just seems out of the world for them. [ Get out Ellie that joke is awful. ] Some places I've been don't even have a reference point.

[quantifies]

What is there to talk about? It is a simple matter of physics and engineering.

[hot4engines]

Now, see, I agree with that- but I met people here who ain't even aware there's other planets, much less stuff on 'em. Might make perfect sense to you and me, but I figure it could blow your mind if you'd never thought about what's out there.

[quantifies]

All the more reason to speak to them plainly and expand their understanding of the universe.

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[abadidea]

[The goggles got him interested first. Then the future-speak. It's not hard to get Isaac's attention most of the time >.>]

Usually, try to gauge the conversation by throwing out ideas and seeing if their eyes glaze over.

"What do you do, Isaac?"

"I'm a deep space systems specialist."

"A...what?"

"A space engineer."

That's usually where it ends up. There aren't many people from "the future" around here, and it's weird to call it that.

[OOC: So, I'm not really sure how I missed this. AT all. BUT I'm really sorry!!]

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[hot4engines]

[No worries!]

Yeah, I've had more'n one conversation like that. When I got here, I sorta took for granted that everyone'd know what I was talkin' about, and I didn't quite get that it weren't 2517 any more. Even though they did tell me we was on Earth, and I don't live there...

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[exsithstential]

That depend entirely on what you'd like to communicate. I for one would love to hear more about your spaceship adventures. One intergalactic traveler to another.

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[hot4engines]

Well, ain't nothin' special- I was the mechanic on a cargo transport ship called Serenity. We floated any which way, took jobs as they came... it was pretty great.