Avangard (WAY too bright): Soujel Aircity

Ravi hadn’t meant to go into this world. They had been under the assumption that they were just traveling through shadows like always. However when they stepped out, their surroundings were completely different from before. That’s what happens when I don’t pay attention to surges of power when I go through shadows. Ravi chided themself. 

Ever since they had first started traveling through shadows, they had slowly built up a tolerance for the migraines and dizziness that it created. But that also meant that they had dismissed the surge of power they had felt when traveling through this last portal. The good news was, they always kept their personal items on them, which meant that they didn’t have to rush to find a way back.

Something seemed off. Ravi, studied their surroundings. It wasn’t the alien looking creatures, or the modified humans, or the lack of clouds, even if all of those things were outside of what Ravi understood to be earth. It was the almost imperceptible buzz that Ravi could feel coming from beneath their feet. If it wasn’t for the miniscule movements of the shadows, Ravi wouldn’t have noticed it at all. While some might mistake the shadow movements as a shift of the lightsource, Ravi knew better. After all, they were shadows themself. 

Raising their hood, Ravi stepped out of the shadow and set off to explore. First of all, why was the ship buzzing. As they continued moving forward, they got sucked into a crowd of people. It made going in a straight line hard, but Ravi just focused on a large structure and pushed on in that direction. The surroundings were very bright, as there were no clouds and a lot of the decorations and buildings seemed to follow a theme of red, gold, wood and a white metal. While it looked beautiful, the brightness of the light reflecting off of the white and gold was making Ravi want to jump in the next available shadow. 

As they continued pushing their way through the crowd, they passively listened to the chatter around them. There were a few words that Ravi understood, but all of them were just swear words from earth. However, it also didn’t sound like they were speaking one specific language because of how different the words and pronunciations were.

Multiple of Ravi’s questions were answered as they broke out of the large group of people and creatures to find themself in a giant circular plaza. In the center of the plaza was a hologram with greetings and introductions in many different languages, one of them being English. 

 

“Hello! Welcome to Soujel, Avangard’s capital! Due to dangers on the land of this planet, we live above the clouds on what we call ‘aircities’ or ‘airships’! Soujel is the largest of all the aircities, and we are also proud to be the most diverse as well! Thanks to our sponsors, we also offer translation bands, which can be used to help you communicate with others. Speak to one of the individuals in the booths below to get more information. We hope you enjoy your stay and that you check out some of the many attractions, shops and experiences that Soujel offers!”

 

Behind the floating words, was a reduced 3D model of the airship. While it looked relatively small, one glance at their surroundings told them that the aircity was truly massive. 

A couple of steps forward brought Ravi into a line of people that led to one of the booths. From what Ravi could see, the lines were relatively even and they wondered just how popular this world was. Their line moved relatively fast, which Ravi was glad about because the crowd was starting to get on their nerves. 

Once Ravi got to the front of the line, the creature at the booth motioned to the sign above her.

 

“Introduce yourself to register language.” Was posted in a multitude of languages, one a few of which Ravi understood.

 

“Hello, my name is Ravi.”

 

The creature nodded and quickly pressed a button. “Welcome to Soujel Ravi. At these booths you can ask any question and we will try to the best of our ability to answer thoroughly.” She was clearly not speaking English, but the speaker next to her translated it.

 

“I was wondering how to get one of those translation bands?”

 

“Ah yes. There are two options by way of translation bands. You can either purchase or borrow one for up to one week. If you borrow one then after a week it will be shut down unless you return to one of our booths and get it rebooted. This is to prevent our bands from being stolen. You can also find a little green button, which when pressed, will reveal a small map of Soujel that can be zoomed in and out. Now, what would you like to choose?”

 

“I’ll borrow a translation band for a week.”

 

“Okay, we’ll need your name and what planet you’re from. ” The creature shuffled around in some drawers.

 

“Ravi from Earth”

 

The creature nodded and entered something into her system before handing Ravi a band. “This is a standard issue band, so as long as you keep it clean it will work. It is not waterproof, it is not lava proof, it cannot be used as a shield, do not try to inhabit it. Don’t take it apart, do not try to stick it inside of you. The band will be registered to your language and will translate any known languages into your own. When speaking with someone else, press the orange button and have them introduce themselves by speaking close to the band. The band will register who and what language it needs to translate. It can translate as many people as you need it to, as long as they are registered into the band. If more than four people are talking at once, then the loudest will be translated better. If there are any issues then return to one of our booths and we will fix yours or provide a new one as long as it is not greatly damaged. Thank you for visiting Soujel, do you have any more questions?”

 

“No, thank you.”

 

“Have a great week. Remember that the band will shut off after one week.”

 

Ravi nodded then turned away from the booth with their new translation band in hand. Now they needed to find a shadow. Preferably one that was very dark. The light was very harsh on this world, and Ravi realized that this might be the type of world that they’ll have to mainly explore at night unless they wanted to travel mostly by shadows. But traveling by shadows was tiring, and significantly less fun than walking in the world itself.

They found a spot right in between two large structures and sat down in the shadow with a sigh. The inner part of the band looked like metal, but when they put it on, it felt more like some sort of rubber. A clear film covered the outer part of the band, but it looked durable all the same. Inside one could see the gears and mechanisms of the band itself. Both of the buttons were on the sides of the band, so one couldn’t accidentally press them.

Ravi pressed the green button and a small hologram of the ship projected from the band. It wasn’t 3D but it was impressive nonetheless. Soujel’s shape was like a ship from earth, except it had wings. Those wings weren’t like the ones on planes back on earth, they were closer to what looked like bat wings. Ravi was intrigued as to what material they were using for those, and exactly what purpose they were for. There was a total of four main wings, two on each side. Six smaller wings were spaced out as well following a pattern of, small wing, big wing, small wing, big wing, and small wing. Unlike a boat, there weren’t any sails on the aircity, so Ravi assumed that there were some sort of thrusters or engines that were placed on the bottom of the aircity.

The map was sectioned into three main parts, the bow, the middle, and the stern. Ravi tapped the hologram where the bow was and it zoomed in. A quick scan over the names of places revealed that the bow was like a landing bay. There were multiple ports for ships to land in, as well as a storage area, registration building, and dorms as well. Some of the places were listed as private access, and Ravi wondered what they held.

Ravi pressed the green button to zoom out again and then tapped on the stern of the ship. There were mostly restricted areas and what appeared to be high end hotels. Of course there’s a section for rich people. Ravi wryly thought.

Nevertheless, the middle still held an astonishing amount of things for the average person/tourist to do. Besides residential areas, there were also many shops for both food and material items. There were restaurants, gardens, hotels, schools, parks, and trading services. 

 

For Ravi, there was only one thing on their mind. Find a nightclub.