Obscure Observations (Crews 1 & 2)

[BungoTheElf]

Amidst my deep slumber, I gently awaken. In the haze of my darkened view are floating, shimmering, glimmering, pebbles. They twirl, twinkle, and even gleam with delight across and around the room- dancing with a cadence. Swirling above my head, grazing my cheeks, and lightly brushing against my outstretched hand and fingertips- their buoyancy knows no bounds as they glide in the zero of the ship.

Levitating, bobbing, drifting.

Among them join my sheets, lifting lightly, with my blanket raising upwards, uncovering my toes and leaving them cold. Yet as this cold feeling starts to spread, a sudden warm touch reaches and relaxes my body. What peers through the thick panes of the ship with a familiar homeliness is the sun. Reflecting light off, and illuminating all. And in this moment, a sweet scent tickles my nose, and it showers across the room together with the light. Eyes widening, I see an explosion of stars- a tiny galaxy for me alone. The expansion of light reaches beyond what it can see itself, setting alight a glittering cosmos of fragrant colors in never-ending motion. Edible celestial bodies unbound from their space, infiltrating and now becoming their very own.

These sweetened sugary stars,

Who left their jar open?​

 

[daisyflowers]

Spoiler: The return of the landing party

Aboard The Lopez, in my quarters, I awake from my power nap (earlier than I had hoped), to the sound of the metal airlock door gliding shut. I unzip myself from my SuperGull down sleeping suit, put my glasses on and head for the debriefing lounge. Sasha is admiring the contents of a celestial box and Hornsby is snacking intently on a bowl of mint-coloured chocolate stars.

‘Hey, we just returned from our exploration of that blue planet, we found some pretty cool stuff!’, Sasha beckons me, excitedly.

I approach the duo and crouch down, weary and a little uncertain. ‘Packets of fizzy pop asteroids, a limited edition 3 way magical donkey mirror, an inter-galactic cricket bat, 4 dimensional hairspray...’

‘You guys have seemed to have only thought about yourselv...actually, nevermind, I’ll take the cricket bat and keep it safe. Good work! Take some time off your duties.’

I pick up the cricket bat, turn away, and start to make my way back to my quarters. I look back and see Sasha, hairspray in hand, styling his fringe and admiring his images in the mirror. Hornsby wants Bones to play a game and is bribing him with chocolate stars to good effect. Hornsby is up to something but for the moment sleep is more important.

The doors to my cabin slide shut. I remove my glasses and sink into the feathery comfort of the sleep suit. Outside, I hear the cheerful laughter of Bones and Hornsby. They seem to be throwing fizzy pop asteroids to each other across the room. I drift back into my power nap to the relaxing twinkle of shooting stars as the asteroids fall onto the floor.

 

[Mairmalade]

Thank you for your patience! We're all caught up on accepting entries up to this point.

Please remember that the deadline for submissions, and voting on your favorites by reacting to them, is today, Tuesday, August 8, at 6:59 PM EDT.

 

[AgentBlade]

My computers audio log and my floral documentation from my recent planetary exploration

Spoiler: Observation and Documentation

AustinTEG06 @C.O.R.E cd /CORE/logs/
AustinTEG06 @C.O.R.E/CORE/logs play log_5489384.mp3
playing log_5489384.mp3 transcription provided:

Begin Log
Location: The Lopez
Date: *silence* I've lost count of the days
Today I went to the surface of the planet to document the flora, but as I was doing so we were hit by a sandstorm, thankfully my suits CORE navigation system was able to guide me back to the Lopez, I don't know where I would be without it.

Documentation can be found at /home/documents/planetary_exploration/XXI-PF4/flora
End Log

AustinTEG06 @C.O.R.E/CORE/logs cd
AustinTEG06 @C.O.R.E cd /home/documents/planetary_exploration/XXI-PF4/flora
AustinTEG06 @C.O.R.E/home/documents/planetary_exploration/XXI-PF4/flora nano flora.txt

Purple Oak
Quercus Purpura
Part of the Fagaceae family
This plant appears to be a normal Oak tree, however upon closer inspection the vines and leaves covering this tree have a purple gradient to them, the reason for this un unknown but it may be due to atmospheric conditions, while this tree appears to be Oak the fact its on another planet may mean that its in a different family entirely, further investigation into the this and other plants DNA would be required, for the time being I will document the plants names and family base on what they look closest too.

Pink Ivy
Hedera Pink
Part of the Araliaceae family
This plant, appearing to be a species of Ivy, has a strange pink coloration, with a purple tint at the edge of the leaves, testing shows that this plant is not poisonous but is actually safe for consumption! After adding it to one of my meals it enhanced the flavor 10 fold and made the space food actually good without having to choke it down, while I trust my suits scanners, ill keep this away from everyone until im 100% sure its safe.

Blue Lilypad
Victoria Caeruleum
Part of the Nymphaeaceae family
This plant is a Lilypad with a blue coloration and green highlights at the end of the leaf, the pads measure around 3 inches in diameter, with no visible flower, the fact that these Lilypad's have no flower confuses me, maybe they have evolved to live without one, while researching them I thought I saw a frog, but it must've been my imagination as I've seen no other Fauna on this planets surface, however is there are other animals here it would be revolutionary.

End of floral documentation

AustinTEG06 @C.O.R.E/home/documents/planetary_exploration/XXI-PF4/flora cd
AustinTEG06 @C.O.R.E sudo shutdown

 

[IonicKarma]

Writing a story in under 500 words is hard.



The spaceship slowly drifted closer towards the mysterious planet, its occupants stared intently from the large window of the bridge in awe. At long last, they had arrived at their destination, and it was even more beautiful than they could have imagined. The planet was covered in iridescent crystals and flora, giving the surface a constant shimmering appearance.

“So about our mission!” Gulliver projected his commanding voice at the group goggling at the planet.

“Can our volunteers step forward?”

Among the crowd of onlookers, three stepped forward. First Rosie, the iris blue cat adored by all Fauna, the shy brown deer, and Karma; the island representative. Each were outfitted with a special mint green uniform to designate their participation in this mission.

“Good, now I will go over our mission objective.” Gulliver asserted. “Our mission is to explore the mysterious planet below and find out about the environment down there, maybe even intelligent life.”

“Of course, we don't know whats down there, and it could be dangerous. But with these crystals, if anyone is in any danger, press this button, and all three of you will instantly teleported back to the ship.”

Gulliver then proceeded to hand a crystal from a nearby container to each of the expedition crew before waving them on.

The three mission volunteers glanced at each other, a mix of excitement and hesitation shared between them, before stepping through the glowing circle at the front of the ship.

The group reappeared on the surface of the strange planet and began to take in their new surroundings.

“Wow...” Fauna murmured mostly to herself, her eyes darting between the beautiful crystalline structures and the exotic plant life.

“Really is nothing like our planet huh?” Rosie commented while bending down to examine a peculiar looking flower. It seemed to be made entirely of crystal.

“Are we sure any of this is even alive?” Karma inquired, poking at a crystalline tree, causing a rippling waves of color to spread across it like a pebble dropped into a lake.

“No idea... But something had to make this, look!” Rosie pointed at a unique structure, formed out of neatly arranged cubes into what could be construed as a building.

“Hey Karma, wasn't that tree further away earlier?” Fauna queried, pointing at a tree right behind Karma.

She turned around and stared at it curiously, “Huh... I guess so...”

Instantly, the ground trembled as a giant crystal monster with massive teeth emerged from the ground next to Rosie where the flower once was, reaching out to bite at her. The tree near Karma morphed into a similar crystal monster, snapping at her as well. Fauna screamed and repeatedly pressed her crystal in an instant, they disappeared.

Suddenly, the group was back on the ship among stunned onlookers.

“What, back so soon?” Gulliver stared at them puzzled. “Didn't you want to explore the new planet more?”

Karma stood up gingerly, shaking visibly. “Actually, Nevermind.”

 

[Flyffel]

Dear Diana,

I am writing you a space letter, and to answer your first question right away, it will be sent to earth via a space post taxi! I'm not sure why some of my crewmates begged for a ride on the space taxi... After all, Space Camp has been so fun, I'm sorry that a terrible stomachache hit you as we were about to enter the spaceship and you had to stay home!

Here at the space station we have an awesome common room designed in our crew colour, and it includes a strategy meeting space and even a bouldering wall! I love bouldering! The furniture is even "shabby chic", sooo fancy!

I have to admit that it's pretty hot in the space station, apparently there are some minor technical difficulties with "overheating", but it's nothing to be worried about! So don't worry about me!

During the nights when I wake up (it's pretty hot) I have seen some tiny, green, glowing figures floating around! Do you think they are aliens? Our crew manager said that aliens, monsters and space whales don't exist and that I shouldn't worry. But I wasn't worried! I'm really HOPING to meet them all!

You know what's hilarious? Our captain is lost in space and keeps sending us these inaudible transmissions. We need like several days to decode a single message, how generous of our captain to provide us with so much entertainment! I think he is doing it on purpose!

We are about to land on a planet soon and build our own space stronghold there! Once everyone hears how fun it is up here in space I'm sure that everyone will want to come!

I hope you are feeling better now, and don't worry, next time we will come together!

Yours truly,
Flyffel

 

[Rhea]

Spoiler: Planet Pantene

You know how on cruises you sail around on a ship and dock in a new destination every day? Well this space camp is similar to that except the ship is a space ship and the destinations are all new planets.

Today we landed on a planet called “Pantene”. Usually I research the planet before heading out but I was busy collecting things for Gulliver yesterday so didn’t manage to study. No problem though, I’m sure my crewmates will help me!

The creatures on this planet are… hairy. Similar to Cousin Itt but much taller and thinner. They seem to be wary of us and back away whenever we try to go near them.

The planet is beautiful! Colourful flowers, pastel pink waters and huge bushy trees. Amongst the trees, the ground appeared to be sparkling from a distance. On closer inspection, I could see this was actually thousands of small bushes covered in silver berries. Apparently these are what give the creatures their long luscious hair.

After a while, I managed to build the trust of one of the creatures. Using my alien translator app on my Nook Phone, I was able to communicate with it. It explained to me the reason why they were all so scared of us. It was because of how in recent years, since the planet was discovered by humans, they have had several attacks from space poachers hunting them and collecting their hair for the luxury wig industry on Earth. I reassured it that we came in peace and that I would notify the space police to help prevent further attacks.

Soon it was time to return. The creatures gave us some berries to take home with us and we reboarded the ship. I can’t wait to see what awaits at the next planet!

Sorry - writing is not my thing!

 

[LoveGraceMarie]

I arrived on the spaceship this morning. Really it’s a beautiful place. Everyone is really friendly, but it must be said there’s an air of competition about as we settle down into our teams, one in each corner of the common room. Myself and a few others from team Actually, Nevermind have just come back from what we like to call “intergalactic foraging”. We discovered some glowing moss. Not like what we have at home back on our islands, no, but rather it’s… blue. And has a sort of power to it. It’s certainly fun to explore all the way up here. Later on we’ll be heading out again to see if we can find any life. All of us actually, all four teams. It’ll be fun to see if there are any animals to befriend on this particular trip. Imagine that! Returning to my island with a brand new villager from outer space! I wonder if we’ll find any more fauna as well. Some new flowers to examine would be nice, or some new bushes. Regardless, I’m enjoying my space trip while it lasts. I’m going to find as many new things as I can and leave no stone unturned. That’s ironic, someone on my team has just brought back a mysterious stone! I’ll report back later.

 

[Biyaya]

I hope this counts.

Spoiler: letter to the judge

To whom it may concern,

I am documenting some of the major issues with Camp Bell Tree that came up, chronologically as to the best of my recollection, as to take responsibility as a witness of the illegitimate acts taken within this supposedly safe and family-friendly event. I truly believe that Jeremy, the head of the Bell Tree and the related camp events, and the relevant moderators should be held accountable for their actions. I was crestfallen to have learned that previous atrocities were overlooked and reports were not handled properly in 2021, prolonging the operation of this summer camp event, especially when discovering I was signed up without my foreknowledge by my well-meaning and unaware mother.

Camp began with an unexpected incident which launched us upward to space. When this occurred, I worried that communication with family and authorities would be unreliable if not impossible, which ended up being true.

Onboard The López, we came to find many absurd “activities” that were the result of incompetent work staff, namely, tracking down alien eggs that undoubtedly were poached from foreign planets, amateur detective work in deciphering urgent messages from our negligent captain, and gathering parts for ship repair to avoid an asteroid collision that was kept secret from all campers until unintentional disclosure through the alarm system they were intending to disable.

A particular day of the camp, while investigating the Cargo Hold, many of my crew mates happened upon boxed up, miscellaneous supplies. Nothing seemed very unusual given the location we were at. We were given the chore of furnishing the underprepared common room, which involved a lot of heavy labor as some of the important fixtures were missing when we arrived. A couple of go-getter campers went hard on the task, which likely caused repetitive stress injuries, due to improper utilization of tools which was permitted by the Bell Tree staff. Many of the items we found for furnishing was found in this cargo hold. While going through boxes, a few of us saw live aliens scurrying around, a risk to all the people’s mental health and physical well-being. Particularly, a peer named Dino, who had a knack for and admirable dedication to locating eggs for our safety, was nearly mauled by one of these fiendish aliens. Liability belongs to the overseers who employed us to this risky task.

I truly believe that Jeremy and the staff of the Bell Tree are guilty and should be held responsible for the harm and danger posed to everyone aboard The Lopez this summer of 2023. I know your judgment is of ultimate importance and hope that my witness is of helpful value to you. Thank you so much for giving your time to hearing my concerns.

Sincerely,
Biyaya

 

[FraudulentDimetrodon]

Spoiler: Log for The Wishing Star - Wishing Window 2

Log for The Wishing Star – Wishing Window 2
Crew: The Galaxolotls
Reporter: FraudulentDimetrodon​

2023-07-30 22:00 UTC: T-minus 1 hour before Wishing Window 2 is expected to open based on provided star charts and calculations. Window is expected to remain open from 2023-07-30 23:00 UTC to 2023-08-01 23:00 UTC. No anomalies detected or delays expected. Methods of collecting Star Dust are expected to remain the same as Window 1, but amounts and collection intervals are expected to differ. Current procedure is to work under previous findings. Updates shall be made in accordance with any unexpected findings.
Actions taken: Crew mobilized in private quarters and instructed to report to The Observatory. Awaiting first sightings of Dust.

2023-07-30 23:00 UTC: Wishing Window 2 open as expected. Dust findings have been observed in accordance with the previous Window and provided data. Further observations over a longer span of time are necessary. Full update expected in t-minus 24 hours, but smaller updates will be provided as soon as can be confirmed.

2023-07-31 00:32 UTC: Shooting stars reported in vicinity of The Lopez by Captain Jeremy of Actually, Nevermind. Based on findings in the previous Window, Dust is expected to be collected upon observing new shooting stars, but unable to confirm at present. Confirmation expected in t-minus 6 hours.

2023-07-31 06:30 UTC: Further updates to Dust findings have been logged, but Dust from shooting stars is still unable to be confirmed. Unable to determine if Dust can be collected from observing shooting stars or if provided star charts are inaccurate.

2023-07-31 15:54 UTC: Shooting stars still reported, but Dust findings are unable to be confirmed. Reports from crew members corroborate my findings and analysis of findings indicate an error with provided star charts. Unable to test Dust collection regarding similarly-associated observations (i.e. alien abductions and asteroid collisions), but assumed to be similarly faulty.
Actions taken: Reported unexpected findings to MCC. Awaiting further instructions.

2023-07-31 17:04 UTC: Inaccurate star charts confirmed by The Chip Whisperer. Provided updated star charts. Further observations necessary to confirm accuracy. Update expected in t-minus 5 hours.
Actions taken: Crew notified of updated star charts and calculations.

2023-07-31 22:35 UTC: Shooting stars observed. Dust findings and collection are observed to be regular and as expected in correlation with previous findings and newly-provided star charts. No further anomalies detected.

-----
​

This story probably makes absolutely no sense without the context, the context being that this is a heavily-stylized retelling of how I metagamed the Wishing Star event so hard that I discovered a minor bug regarding the Camp-specific reacts, reported the bug, and it was fixed in an hour (ty Justin).

Today, I learned that the ISS uses UTC, which is what I assumed, but now it is confirmed. I also learned about ISO 8601, an international standard of date/time notation. Education! (If I messed up the conversions from either EDT to UTC or 12 hour to 24 hour, I'm going to be so sad.) Also, interestingly, depending on how I format my entry, my word count is either 386 with 2547 characters or 394 with 2543 characters. Further observations are required.

 

[Dinosaur]

Popping in with a last minute submission

Spoiler

Shuckles’s Space Camp Journal:

Day 1: I have decided to take Gulliver up on his space camp trip. We have officially left earth en route to a space station called 'The Lopez'. We were separated into teams and the group leaders have given us some activities to do while we travel. I have finished most of them, however the puzzle is incredibly hard. They are supposed to become more challenging as camp progresses. Hopefully our team can figure out a strategy!

Day 7: We arrived at 'The Lopez'. Of course almost as soon as we arrived Gulliver vanished into thin air! I should have known better than to trust that crazy seagull to stay in one place for more than five minutes! Green alien eggs have appeared throughout the space station. The group leaders have warned us that they may hatch. With any luck newly hatched space aliens are friendly.

Day ????: The alien eggs have hatched! The aliens are very friendly, many members of our team have befriended them. A few have even shown up wearing our team colour. They've even been trying to help us out with the Far Out Frequency puzzles. Space camp is really shaping up to be a ton of fun. I can't wait to see what comes next!

 

[FrostyAlmonds]

I'm about to speedrun read entries to vote. But before I do, to all of you who reacted to my story....I just wanna talk. I'm sure you reacted to signify you did in fact NOT open my spoiler(s) and read it's contents, right?