Subject: Wow, those Gatherings sounded fun.
Author:
Posted on: 2016-04-07 19:41:00 UTC
I'd love to meet up with you! Let me know ASAP where exactly you're stopping; it's hard to organize interplanetary travel on short notice! What would you say are the pros and cons of Ceres vs. Vesta?
So you remember the Titan Gathering back in '57-'60. And you remember me being conned into launching the Io Gathering only a few years after we got back. You may even remember that report finishing with us boarding our ship again for the long journey home.
Yeah... we kind of changed out plans around a bit.
So! Right on the back of the 2068-2071 PPC Gathering on Io, I present:
The 2071-2074 Pluto PPC Gathering
It was fun! I'd like to thank everyone who came along for the ride, and all of you following from back home.
We're thinking about hitting up somewhere like Ceres or Vesta on the way back in; maybe some of you homebound lot can pop up to meet us. You might need to leave soon, though - we're coming in quite fast!
hS
(And I know we won't stop
We've planned too many wonders for one little star
Though often the present
May seem too complacent
To take us that far
But I'll tell the story
And I'll draw the picture
And I'll sing the anthem that banishes doubt...)
(My only regret is that KittyEden is no longer around to follow this with a third Hypothetical Camping Trip. I don't suppose someone else would like to step in...?)
Ship was nice, food was decent, company was good, stops were fabulous.
I did notice certain flaws in the ship's mechanics, especially relating to the airlock doors, like how they closed on me, and how a voice saying 'Release it, release it, quick, before he notices!' went out of the speakers, before the space door ripped open and left me to be pulled out to space, and how my requests to be picked up were responded by nothing but a noise vaguely like a high-five, followed by complete silence, though I was prevented any major injury by the thankfully present extra-atmospheric safety suit.
All in all, pretty good.
I'd recommend the trip to some of my friends, but I've calculated that I'll be somewhere around Theta Centauri by the time this review reaches earth, so it might be a while before they get the message.
Here's hoping that plutonium-238 holds out, eh?
"I've calculated that I'll be somewhere around Theta Centauri..." This is just as bad as 'guys, it'll take 36 years to reach Pluto!'. You need to start checking your units, mate!
So hey, guys, when're we going to tell Larfen he's actually floating in one of the empty bomb containers...?
hS
I can't believe it took me such a long time to notice!
Thanks for pointing that out, hS.
It's actually going to be somewhere around Gamma Centauri!
Hooh, that could have been bad.
I'd love to meet up with you! Let me know ASAP where exactly you're stopping; it's hard to organize interplanetary travel on short notice! What would you say are the pros and cons of Ceres vs. Vesta?
On the one hand, Ceres has Ceres Station, which is a big help - unless you bring enough transport space to get everyone back to Earth, we're going to need to hire something that's actually legal to fly inward of the belt.
On the other hand, take a look at the maps:
Ceres' features are named things like 'Tupo' and 'Meanderi', a bunch of obscure harvest gods who no-one's ever heard of. I'm sure if Scapegrace was allowed off-planet she'd agitate (hah) for it, but...
Vesta also has a bunch of names nobody's heard of, but in this case they're Roman women or something. That looks more promising for finding something to talk about. Plus, there's rather more wilderness on Vesta.
On the other other hand, I'm not too sure about taking PPCers somewhere called 'Saturnalia Fossa', and we could probably have a good time on Ceres without even leaving Bright Spot...
((OOC: I have a very good extrafictional reason for eventually picking Vesta. Not telling what it is, though. ;)))
hS
Sounds like great fun! Anyone else want to perform scenes from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in Calpurnia Crater? No? Okay, I'll do it alone, then.
Vee and I would be delighted to bring transport and the necessary supplies for a proper Saturnalia -- wouldn't we, Vee?
One of my favorite Shakespeare plays, after all :)
~DF
There's also a Helena Crater, and the idea of playing MND on an asteroid is too good to miss.
Hmm... any others? I think for fandommy purposes we should visit fem!Severus at the very least... but there must be more Shakespearean women down there. (I guess we could do Antonia and Cleopatrus...?)
hS
They're all melancholy old men in love with younger men named Sebastian or a variant thereon (in order of obviousness of romantic connection: Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice (Bassanio is a nickname for Sebastian), and The Tempest). So we could do those plays, gender-bending every single character (gender-bent Twelfth Night is always fun). I like Antonia and Cleopatrus, too.
Or if we don't want to alter Shakespeare's original intentions, we can always visit Portia Crater and do Merchant of Venice there. Come to think of it, there's a Portia in Julius Caesar, too.
That's all I can think of for now. . . unless we've got any huge Octavia Butler fans here.
--Key
Has what the kleptocrats of your capitalist states "allow" their wage serfs to do affected me in the slightest? The Red Wedge might be under guard and over Minnesota, but it'd be daft if the Revolution only had one bloody warship. When you're back near Titan, let me know. A nonsapient drone will bring you further instruction.
Viva la Scapegracistas!
No warships at PPC Gatherings! It was bad enough when you brought that sub to the Welsh Gathering (still not... entirely sure how you got it up the mountain, actually); actual armed spacecraft are something else entirely.
I say this from the control room of a ship that flies by shooting bombs out the back. It's different.
hS
But you might want to remove the torture equipment. It might be pretty bad for your image.
Ships take quite a bit of fuel to launch - any space on yours, Key? I'll head to either stop with you, and will bring Board board games.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
-Vee
Could I have a stab at the Ill-Advised Camping Trip?
The whole thing was KittyEden's creation, so please don't think I have any kind of right to control it, but I'd say that if you can pull off the tone of the originals (or any other tone in the 'excited' range), I don't see why not.
(Also I'll note that I think she literally generated a random set of coordinates. If I don't get to drive a minivan down an ocean trench again, I shall be very disappointed. :P)
hS
This has been the best road trip ever. We got to do science! ^^
I make no apologies for the Alternative Fellowships RP. It was partly Phobos' fault, though. He really wanted to do the high-powered Fellowship.
Also, I probably made us watch all of HtTYD at some point. Just for the record. Since, IIRC, I already made us watch Farscape at some point. And maybe the Pern franchise, too, because by 2060 that might be a thing. We can hope and also dread a little, just in case.
As always, a very lovely report. I love thinking of all us ancients cavorting around on a spaceship, camping out in the halls like teenagers. ^^
(I think I know why we visited Drake, and pretty sure why we stopped off at Nix. Not 100%, but pretty sure. I'll let others take a guess before saying, though. *g*)
~Neshomeh