Spaceship Parking, and then [Location Redacted], The Mainland, Wednesday Afternoon

[firstofitskind]

Liam had been deliberately vague in the note he'd left Verity on Christmas about where exactly they were going and why, but when they decided to make the trip he'd promised her today, he did make sure to mention that she'd want to dress for weather that was warm and humid.

He showed up shortly before the time they'd handwavily agreed to meet at the spaceship parking in the junkyard, just to quickly run his shuttle through pre-flight diagnostics.

[ooc: for the one who is mentioned!

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[arboreal_priestess]

And Verity was entirely intrigued by whatever Liam had planned, especially after he let her know to dress for warmer weather. And then meet show up at the junkyard. Where the starships were parked?

Yeah, there was mysteries all the way around.

Verity showed up with a cute summer dress under her heavy winter coat, shoes giving her several more inches in height. Knocking on the side of shuttle, she called in, "Permission to come aboard, captain?"

[firstofitskind]

The virtual glass that the majority of the shuttle's walls were comprised of shimmered as her fist made contact, and Liam tapped on the holographic display in front of him, turning off the glass so she could step through.

"Permission granted," he said with a grin.

Behind the pilot's seat where Liam currently sat, there were two purple chairs that looked as if they had been grown rather than constructed. In fact, the entire shuttle (other than the holographic display at the front) had a distinctly organic feel to it.

[arboreal_priestess]

"So, this would be my first time in a spaceship," Verity said, climbing on with a large grin. She took in the whole thing and laughed. "It's nothing like I'd imagined." She'd expected all clean lives and curves and shiny metal. This looked considerably more...homey. "Do I get the explanatory tour?"

[firstofitskind]

"Well," Liam said, "It's really just a shuttle, meant for short-range trips, so, uh. Pilot's seat," he indicated his own chair, "Passenger area," he pointed to the two behind him, "and if we had any cargo, we'd stow it on the floor over there." He grinned. "And that's the tour."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Well, now I feel confident I could fly this thing myself if I had to," Verity said, leaning over the back of his chair. "Shall I sit?" She jerked her thumb towards the passenger area. "I'm assuming this is a seatbelts kind of deal?"

[firstofitskind]

"Take your pick from the multitude of options available." All two of them. "The safety restraints should activate once you're sitting down," he added, bringing up the flight control. That's right. No control panels or joysticks here, the shuttle was piloted with literal handwavey.

[arboreal_priestess]

Piloted, designed, pretty much everything!

Verity sat, choosing the seat that gave her the best view out the front wall. "Onward Jeeves," she teased as the restraints came down over her. "Do I get any hints about where we're off to?"

[firstofitskind]

"What, the one about what to wear wasn't enough?" Liam teased right back as the shuttle began to lift off. With a dramatic sigh, he added, "Oh, all right. It's someplace that, in my world at least, human arrogance had nearly destroyed. Restoring it is one of the few things we could truly be grateful to the Taelons for." Of course, like all 'gifts' the Companions had bestowed, though there had been no outward price attached, a certain amount of gratitude had been expected on humanity's part.

[arboreal_priestess]

Wasn't there always?

"Ummm..." Verity tried to guess. "The Great Barrier Reef! Wait, no, swimwear would have been mentioned. The glaciers would have been involved dressing for cold weather. Uhhh, Easter Island? The Florida Keys. The Maldives?"

Honestly, at this point, she was just throwing words out.

[firstofitskind]

"Florida's in the right general direction," Liam admitted. "But think more south." In fact, they'd be passing over Florida in a matter of minutes, as it happened. Shuttle travel was pretty fast. Faster when one hopped through Interdimensional, but Liam felt like showing off taking the scenic route.

"Actually, I guess Easter Island's kind of in the right direction too. Between those two."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Only the whole of Central America," Verity said with a laugh, peering around with eager eyes out the window. The ground was speeding by so fast; she tried to calculate it and failed. Math was always more Alex's forte than hers. "The Carribean? The rainforests!"

Okay, playing 'what exotic locale am I surprising you with' was, perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of fun.

"The Bermuda Triangle! We're going to crash and live on a different creepy, magical island!"

[firstofitskind]

"Unless someone's sabotaged my shuttle, which I doubt, we're not crashing," Liam informed Verity. "But one of those guesses was correct. We're heading to a little piece of the Amazon in Peru."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Good," Verity declared. "Because I left all the Aeslin back home and they'd never forgive me if I abandoned them for Bermuda."

Okay, they would. As a Priestess, there was very little she could do that would lead to them not forgiving her; choosing one of them as a sacrifice hadn't even come close.

"They were very enthusiastic about your gift, by the way. There were fashion shows involved."

That she had watched because she hadn't fully forgiven herself for the sacrifice thing yet.

[firstofitskind]

"That's adorable," Liam said. "I'm kind of sorry I didn't get to see that for myself. I am glad they liked them, though."

They were coming up on their destination, finally, which meant Liam was bringing his hands together in a motion that looked as if he were holding an invisible basketball. The glowing purple sphere of energy that represented the Interdimensional Drive appeared between his hands and he pulled it towards him. The world around them vanished, replaced for a moment by the glowing energy fields of interdimensional space, before Liam used one hand to 'push' the ID drive in the direction of the viewscreen and they reappeared in normal space.

[arboreal_priestess]

Verity tried to keep an eye on what Liam was doing, but she couldn't take her eyes away from the window. First the world fell away to replaced by lights energy and then they were suddenly over a rainforest. She was from the Pacific Northwest, so she knew green, and yet she was still floored by just how green it was.

"That was gorgeous," she breathed.

[firstofitskind]

"It's even more amazing on the ground," Liam promised, as he began their descent.

[arboreal_priestess]

"You've been to the rainforest often?" Verity asked. "I mean, I'm guessing at least once, unless this is going to be even more adventurous than I was guessing."

[firstofitskind]

"My work took me there a couple times," Liam confirmed. "Both officially and with the Liberation." The latter of which had kind of led to why they were here today, as she would soon see.

[arboreal_priestess]

"So what did you do here?" Verity asked, impatiently waiting for him to...park or dock or whatever spaceships did so she could take her seatbelt off and get a closer look at their surroundings. "Either officially or with the Liberation."

[firstofitskind]

"Officially?" Liam said, finally managing to find a clear enough spot to set the shuttle down. "There were archaeological digs for Taelon relics out here. Unofficially... well. That's why we're here, as it happens." He'd stop being a mysterious little shit eventually, Verity. Promise.

But for now, he was finishing the landing sequence and disengaging the virtual glass so they could step outside. "After you."

[arboreal_priestess]

"Good, because the suspense is killing me," Verity laughed, practically bouncing out of her chair to get out of the ship. She'd been fascinated by it when she'd first climbed aboard but it was nothing compared to the excitement of finally getting to see the Amazon--and whatever Liam's surprise was.

"The air smells amazing," she said as they disembarked. She was wearing impractical shoes, but didn't seem at all discomforted by them.

Honestly, she'd worn higher in worse terrain.

[firstofitskind]

Liam supposed he ought to have maybe given her slightly more information than just 'dress for someplace warm', but she seemed to be managing okay, so.

"Even Taelon tech couldn't rid the world of air pollution. But out here? You wouldn't know it," Liam said, stepping carefully over towards a small stream.

[arboreal_priestess]

Even if he had, she just would have worn a thicker heel. Verity was very short, at a ridiculous 5'1, and her heels helped compensate for it.

If she could run across a derelict roof chasing an ahool, she could manage in the rainforest. "It's lovely out here," she said, looking around. A trio of brightly colored birds took off into the sky and something skittered through the underbrush. "I wonder if there are any cryptids in this world," she said, reaching for his arm.

[firstofitskind]

"Not the way there are in yours," Liam replied with a shake of his head. "But there is something." One hand reached to take Verity's, while he held the other out, palm open, and activated his shaqarava.

The pinkish-purple glow swirled in his palm briefly before he sent it gently arcing over the stream.

After a moment, there was a similarly-colored blast of energy from the other side, fizzling out a few feet from where the pair stood.

[arboreal_priestess]

"Okay, what is that?" Verity asked.

Other people might have looked a littler nervous or at least concerned that their date and some unknown entity were tossing off candy-colored glow beams at one another. Verity just looked excited and intrigued by it all: the lights, the mystery, the starship, everything. Any more enthusiasm and she'd be tugging him towards the stream to get a closer look at whatever was over there.