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[lyingheart]

[ If one looks closely at the video, one might see evidence of the beak currently holding the camera as Arlert is attempting to film this for posterity. Annie is riding an unfamiliar Flygon, one with a banner on its side visible behind her knee. Annie is wearing goggles and a backpack. The savvy will realise it's straps and the rest heavily imply it's... a parachute. ]

Arlert, I told you it was going to be fine.

[ Annie says, glancing back toward the Hoothoot in question, but all it seems to be is her looking at the camera, while Arlert has apparently been flying alongside Annie this whole time. One might wonder who her jump instructor is... until one realises........... it's the Flygon.

On a called out trill, Annie and the Flygon go into a roll, Annie falling from the Flygon's back and spreading her arms out to her sides. The Flygon does the same, leading from lower down, and Arlert follows after hovering higher above for a heartbeat.

The falling seems to go on for a while, and then the Flygon calls out another trill, different this time, and Annie pulls the release, jerked back as far as the camera sees as her chute deploys and she's left floating in the air, the Flygon wearing their "Skydiving Instructor" banner and Arlert now lower down, circling below, until they catch a thermal and glide on closer to Annie once again. She turns her head, smiles at Arlert (at the camera), for once in her life apparently unguarded. ]

Peaceful after the fall.

[ And she wonders if that's not the best her life is ever going to give, anyway. ]

Comments

audio

[be_notorious]

[He's gonna wait until she's gotten situated before sending her an audio message.]

Lookin' good, sister! Nice moves.

[It looks like she's at least dealing with her losses more productively than he probably would have.]

[lyingheart]

[ responding just on audio is simple enough; it actually comes once she hits the ground, because visuals would grab her in the air, where-as audio was simple to miss.

so this is after a safe landing, with annie finding the recording was live, an accident on both their parts. she doesn't find it matters to her either way. congratulations, she leapt off a flygon! ]

Just like 3DMG, only with a bigger fall and no swords involved.

[ so not like 3dmg at all really ]

[be_notorious]

Looked a little like piloting a jumpship in for landing, too. Except windier.

[And maybe a little less protected but, eh. People live hard and play hard.]

You ever been able to duplicate some of that gear?

['Cause god, the tech here is nonsense.]

It seems like that'd be doable.

[lyingheart]

[ she can't talk about airships or the things she knows exists because #conundrums, but she does make a speculative sound. ]

Is there anything that's not windy about flight here? The only "airplane" crashlanded months ago, and its like hasn't been seen yet. Might have been a windy ride for them, too.

[ she breathes out in a softer sigh, still enough to be picked up by the device. ]

Haven't bothered. Isn't practical for much more than getting a rush navigating the bigger forests, and most aren't looking to fight pokemon themselves versus pitting their team against them. Can't replicate the swords, so I suppose one would be armed with blunt instruments... if one was so inclined.

[be_notorious]

I wouldn't know. I've not had the chance to fly yet.

[Which is a damn shame. He'd love to give it a try.] I still only got the six. None of 'em flyin'.

What's wrong with a rush? Sometimes it's worth it to live a little.

lmao im so sorry, roll with me on icons /face in hands

[lyingheart]

Falling off a Flygon's less expensive than working out the equipment when I'm not an engineer in the first place.

[ there's a small quirk of her lips that carries in her tone: ]

Want their number?

I feel self concious about mine being mostly the same batch of cutscenes, so-

[be_notorious]

Yeah. Why not. If I have time I'll check it out.

Especially if I can think up some competitions for the flying types.

Actually? Not a bad idea...

[He could stand the research.]

i laugh whenever i find what i'm left with so have some not appropriate ones

[lyingheart]

[ she sends him the number and a link to their website even as she's answering by voice. ]

Coordinated jumps, aerial hoops, lobbing objects into baskets, team competitions all aerial based... there's more than a few possibilities. All guaranteed to be racy in some way or another.

[be_notorious]

I could stand to come by and watch the races.

Let's hope that the staff is friendlier than Lord Shaxx.

[He just can't stand that one-horned moron.]

[forsaintcecilia]

[At first, Kazuki is totally confused by what he's seeing-- it's rare that someone records a video mid-flight, and for good reason. Watching for too long could definitely give you motion sickness. But he puts it together in a second, along with her intention to skydive.]

[He'd call something out, maybe an encouraging word, but he doubted he could hear him over the rush of the wind. He'll wait until she lands.]

[lyingheart]

[ in the meantime, he gets to witness her floating, and the quiet way she takes in the world as arlert keeps gliding and hovering alongside her. it's not perfect; arlert goes further or stays stationary while she's more drift influenced, and always coming down, down, down, with the flygon keeping more purposeful pacing.

the flygon trills out a gon and pulls up, wheeling its hind legs in an indication of running. annie signals with a large thumbs up, and the flygon leads her in for a running landing, with two on-ground human assistants running up to meet her, undoing her harness so she's not left attached to her chute.

sometime after that, arlert comes in for her landing, and the camera becomes a confusion of images. the ultimate result is annie responding to a live feed notification: ]

Kazuki? You still there?

[forsaintcecilia]

Yeah! I just figured the wind would be too loud, and you really seemed to be enjoying yourself, so I didn't want to disturb you-- But that was really cool! And you didn't look freaked-out at all. Kept cool the whole time!

[lyingheart]

[ she looks a little amused, canting her head to the side to encourage her bangs to slide off her forehead and out of her eyes somewhat. ]

Has Armin never talked about what it's like using the 3DMG back home?

[forsaintcecilia]

I think I've heard him say that word before, but I have no idea what it means.

[lyingheart]

I'm sure he'd be better able to explain than I am... regardless, the equipment used to fight there allows us a sort of flight of its own. Or advanced swinging around like lunatics.

[forsaintcecilia]

Flight? Or... Swinging around?

[You're going to have to try a little harder than that, Annie.]

[lyingheart]

[ but Kazuki, can't you just read her mind.... ]

We wear harnesses and cables shoot out from devices attached at the hip. I still have my uniform, if you wanted to see that for some reasons, and the harness system, but I don't have any of the equipment itself. You used the cables to pull you along, and shot them into a target to pull you along and change direction while in the air. So flying... in a fashion, while swinging around.

Video

[icecastlemadonna]

[There's no way Yuuko could ever do something like that herself, but somehow she can't stop watching as Annie and the Flygon fall through the sky. She lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding when Annie's chute pops out, though she waits until she's reached the ground before saying anything.]

Wow...that was really something. I can't imagine falling from a height like that...

[lyingheart]

[ for a young woman who's just jumped (or fallen, more) off a Flygon and come to a safe landing, Annie looks remarkably... at ease? Happy, even, with her features softened but her eyes perfectly open and clear. She needed something like that to clear her head after the last two months, it feels like, and the way it feels losing people she cares about... and those she has more complicated relationships with. ]

It's more freeing than I expected. We do a much lower down kind of free fall when making longer runs with out military equipment back home, but nothing like that. There's a whole world just spread out under your feet up there.

[icecastlemadonna]

Freeing, huh? I guess I can see how it would be like that. [Even if Annie seems a lot more comfortable falling from that height than Yuuko would be.]

[lyingheart]

Mm. Different from the things I usually do at speed when flying through the air.

[icecastlemadonna]

You know, thinking about it now, I've always felt something similar when doing jumps. Of course, it's not nearly as high in the air as you were, but I've found it kind of freeing myself. When I was little, I thought it was the closest I could get to flying.

[And there was also the risk involved from jumping like that, but still.]

[lyingheart]

However we experience that kind of feeling... I suppose it's all similar in that kind of freedom, isn't it? The illusion of flight, for a moment.

[ ... So what if most hers was a practical necessity. Sometimes she could almost, almost enjoy using 3DMG, usually when the end focus wasn't on destroying anything in particular. ]

[icecastlemadonna]

Yeah. Even if it isn't for very long, being able to experience something like that...well, it's definitely special.

[lyingheart]

... Special, huh? Yeah, I suppose it is. Here I thought it was just escapism.