video | pokemon skydiving, call 1-800-555-6789

[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.]

[lyingheart]

Lord Shacks? Like the shanty houses in the slums?

[ Inquisitive furrow of her brow, because what. ]

[be_notorious]

No, like the sorta guy that thinks a pompous-ass accent and two x's in his name makes 'im better'n ever'body else.

He used to be a warlord before he took up shop in the Tower I work in. Wonder if that's what he went by back then, too.

[lyingheart]

... A warlord? That sounds horrible and exhausting.

[ she says this with a sigh. ]

[be_notorious]

That's my general opinion but there's only so much of the noble hero on the white horse routine you can take before you get tired of the shtick, and I lost my patience for it a long time ago.

[So long that only Annie probably knows. She's still the only one that knows what he is.]

[lyingheart]

Is there no middle ground between breaking yourself to save thankless idiots and setting the same thankless idiots at each other's throats?

[ she still cannot believe how he's any kind of sensible enough after living as long as he has. or experiencing as much as he has. ]

[be_notorious]

[He's pretty good at hiding the insanity back home, and here? There aren't any invasive Nine or Hive gods or psychic ladies or anything in his head. He's fine.]

Probably not. He thinks he's doing them a favor. I think I'm more honest in saying it's a business transaction. I get the supplies I need. They get paid. He tells 'em he's makin' 'em into better people.

Better killers. That's about it. At least be damn honest about what you're doin'.

[And there's the bitterness.]

[lyingheart]

[ Fine enough is fine enough by her. She doesn't need to worry about his end of things, as they know, considering she has the opposite fate waiting for her. If someone hasn't already managed to eat her while she lay encased in crystal. ]

Business transactions don't try to masquerade as ideals worth following. But even if they did... if the lie's easier, if being a better killer is all everything asks of you, then that's what most people end up being. Or doing.

It takes the special ones to try for anything upsetting the established way of things.

[ She'd note special doesn't mean good; they're different things. But she respects that "special," because it's what she never had in her. Not even when she wished she did. ]

[be_notorious]

[He has started to worry about her end of things, but he doesn't want to admit that to himself. He sure as shit isn't ready to admit that to her, if he ever will be. That means admitting that he's letting that soft spot become exposed. Mostly admitting it to himself, because he hates when people just become memories.]

[He really was worried about her when she was gone.]

I know one of the special ones. Pretty sure they'll decide how things play out. Not even big-headed Shaxx's got a chance against 'em.

[lyingheart]

[ It was her self defense mechanism, going quiet when Marco had disappeared. There are some deaths you're active and complicit in that haunt you worse than others. Marco pleading with her is one of them.

She'd not want to have made anyone worry, but it doesn't... occur to her that she really could have. ]

They tend to. For better or worse. Usually for the more chaotic.

[be_notorious]

Nothin' wrong with a little chaos. Sometimes people need shook off their high horse.

I don't know, though. Cleaned up too many bar fights in my day. I got some good stories out of it, at least.

[lyingheart]

What's one of your more absurd ones?

Sorry I'm slow as Christmas

[be_notorious]

There was this one time an Iron Lady came into my bar. Unknown to me [absolutely known to him] there was some warlords in my bar. An' she pulled out her righteously large gun and they got in a full firefight. Ever seen a woman do ballet across tables while shooting? Pretty sure that woman pulled off a 360 noscope, but maybe it was rose-tinted glasses.

[He has a soft spot for badass Titan ladies. It gets him in trouble, too.]

laughs no worries, i am too right now, life's happening Again

[lyingheart]

I have no idea what ballet is, but I'll assume it's impressive.

[ She says, a touch dry, but also... visibly amused. ]

[be_notorious]

It's elegant. It wasn't literally ballet, but it means the lady was light on her feet.

That's a thing that just comes with Guardians, though. Sometimes they get this little burst of physics. Like gravity stops matterin'. They can stay in the air a little longer than humans, so when they fight? Like fuckin' fleas bouncin' all over the place.

No gear, neither. Though I can make gear that boosts that.

[lyingheart]

Imagining something like that... it's truly a different sort of expectation for fighters than any we have back home. Being capable of such things without gear that allows them that kind of movement.

[ A pause, and a snort. ]

I'm glad nothing quite like that's back home. There's enough damage done as it is, any of the elegance... it'd be forgotten.