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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

[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.