Still-remembered dream fragments.
A world above the clouds, of floating islands with their own territories and titles, and skyships that look more like giant cargo planes and ramshackle vehicles than anything zeppelin-like or overtly huge. A world run by a massive Imperial-style empire, who enforce their will over the various islands and territories but doesn't exert their influence over things like inter-country rivalries, so long as it doesn't interfere with business. A mysterious and lovely young fellow who turns out to be me, a perfectly androgynous deer anthromorph whose gender is only notable because he has half-formed antlers on his head - nothing massive, but just enough to show. We're not sure where I've come from or what I'm doing, but I've been signed up for one of the cargo-hauling organisations (imagine a ramshackle and steampunky take on the plane from TaleSpin) and they turn out to be secretly of the rebellious piratical bent, running supplies and things for rebel forces working against the Imperial overlords. They are rather insistent that they're rebels, not pirates, and are very fond of the terminology.
I strike it off well enough with them until one particular encounter. Tempers have been running high since we're running live supplies (farm animals) this time and that's even more illegal than just running rebel supplies - something to the effect of many more years suffering for illegal live trade than illegal weapons trade. But we all agree to do our job because we're being hailed by a rival cargo company, one that we know has been doing runs for the Imperials, and they've got one of our former crew (a purple raccoon) with them. Being the communications officer on the plane I bring them up on videoscreen and start negotiations as I've been ordered. While I'm partially responsible for negotiations it's not long till the captains are hurling invectives at each other and basically the two crews are making threats and arguments over communications and making it really quite stressful. So the rivals open fire and our massive cargo ship is forced to do a full roll in the air to avoid it - a roll that sets off some weak mechanisms in the cargo hold, dropping a good portion of our live cargo into open air where they quickly fall and are swallowed up by the clouds.
I throw down my headset and go storming off the bridge towards the cargo hold, confusing half the crew and actually kinda stopping the arguing momentarily. The reason way is shown a moment later, as with green flames burning everywhere I go 200% superpowers, launching out of the cargo ramp like some unholy combination of the Human Torch and Superman. I can't save the already lost cargo, so this mysteriously androgyne deer promptly starts throwing eyelasers and fireballs at the opposition's cargo ship. So small, but the beams and blasts are ridiculously powerful, and the rival company is forced to withdraw. We know they'll report to the Imperials and have to get a move on, and the crew are already fixing up the broken cargo ramp when I re-enter the ship and return to normal. Everyone gives me a wide berth as I calmly and coolly return to communications as if nothing had changed, and after some hesitation we move on as normal.
The dream ends with a time-skip and another confrontation with the rival company, and some plot-important dialogue insinuating I'm some sort of Imperial project or old superweapon left behind by an ancient race or something like that, along with a few insults. It closes with our ship getting blwon up, everyone evacuating to escape vessels while I fly someone else out on my back and threaten to blow the rival company out of the sky this time.
I strike it off well enough with them until one particular encounter. Tempers have been running high since we're running live supplies (farm animals) this time and that's even more illegal than just running rebel supplies - something to the effect of many more years suffering for illegal live trade than illegal weapons trade. But we all agree to do our job because we're being hailed by a rival cargo company, one that we know has been doing runs for the Imperials, and they've got one of our former crew (a purple raccoon) with them. Being the communications officer on the plane I bring them up on videoscreen and start negotiations as I've been ordered. While I'm partially responsible for negotiations it's not long till the captains are hurling invectives at each other and basically the two crews are making threats and arguments over communications and making it really quite stressful. So the rivals open fire and our massive cargo ship is forced to do a full roll in the air to avoid it - a roll that sets off some weak mechanisms in the cargo hold, dropping a good portion of our live cargo into open air where they quickly fall and are swallowed up by the clouds.
I throw down my headset and go storming off the bridge towards the cargo hold, confusing half the crew and actually kinda stopping the arguing momentarily. The reason way is shown a moment later, as with green flames burning everywhere I go 200% superpowers, launching out of the cargo ramp like some unholy combination of the Human Torch and Superman. I can't save the already lost cargo, so this mysteriously androgyne deer promptly starts throwing eyelasers and fireballs at the opposition's cargo ship. So small, but the beams and blasts are ridiculously powerful, and the rival company is forced to withdraw. We know they'll report to the Imperials and have to get a move on, and the crew are already fixing up the broken cargo ramp when I re-enter the ship and return to normal. Everyone gives me a wide berth as I calmly and coolly return to communications as if nothing had changed, and after some hesitation we move on as normal.
The dream ends with a time-skip and another confrontation with the rival company, and some plot-important dialogue insinuating I'm some sort of Imperial project or old superweapon left behind by an ancient race or something like that, along with a few insults. It closes with our ship getting blwon up, everyone evacuating to escape vessels while I fly someone else out on my back and threaten to blow the rival company out of the sky this time.