concoursec | (no subject)

Entry tags:

(no subject)

Characters: Terra, Gwendolyn, Bulla, + anyone else capable of flight
Location: Skies of Dollet
Rating: PG probably!
Summary: Yay vacation! Terra's idea of recreation is going out to fly and explore around Dollet -- but not alone!
Open/Closed/Finished: Semi-Open

Though the weather in Dollet is pretty nice, there are still a fair amount of clouds in the sky. Terra, eager to stretch her legs on the ground and in the air, was one of the first out of the Garden. She'd go check out the town later, but right now it was early enough to not draw a large amount of attention from those stuck on the ground.

As such, Terra takes the air the second she has a moment to spare. With little hesitence, the slender girl darts quickly up through the clouds, only to hover a moment and take in the thinner upper atmosphere. Here it was quiet enough that she could enjoy the momentary peace, and recover from the past few days of stress and unease.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Terra was not the only one who had left the Garden early - having seen the weather forecast the previous day, Gwendolyn had gone to sleep early (meaning she had fought to the point of exhaustion in the Training Center, then gone to sleep, earlier than usual) so as to be among the first awake.

Quickly and silently, she made her way to the cliffs overlooking the town, spread out her wings, and took to the sky. And from that point on, she left behind the month of nightmares, the stress of exams, the slight anxiety of having a former foe on campus. There was just her, her wings, the coastal air, and that slight amount of gravity.

Setting herself in position, she dropped briefly, picking momentum before soaring back up, using the wind currents to raise herself higher still, until she could reach the clouds.

Behind her, Terra sensed the arrival of someone - that alone was enough of a surprise, being that she didn't know too many people who could fly. However, it was a welcome surprise.

She shifted around to face the girl, a small smile on her face. "Gwendolyn?" She hovered over to the spot that the Valkyrie was hovering through.

Gwendolyn too was rather pleasantly surprised that someone else had had the same idea.

"Good day, Terra," she greeted her friend, a smile barely showing, as her wings flapped to keep her at the same height. "'Tis a fair weather, don't you agree?"

It seemed they were the only ones - but that was all right. Terra folded her legs beneath her, hovering lightly as she watched Gwendolyn's wings flapping away.

"It is, I agree. I didn't think I'd run into anyone else out here -although logically there aren't a lot of people who are capable of being up this high, I imagine."

"True. Perhaps the others who can will come here as well - we rarely have such an opportunity, after all."

Gwendolyn began to feel the slight lurch of gravity strengthen... "Forgive me, I must descend for a moment. I shall return shortly." With that said, she started descending slowly.

The one recurring theme to Bulla's nightmares involved not being strong enough when it really counted. She could train in the Training Center, and she could lift weights, and there was Fight Club, but those things would only get her so far. And they wouldn't help with other things.

It was early, and there were plenty of white, fluffy clouds out in the sky. In short, perfect weather for practicing one of those 'other things' she could do.

Glancing around to make sure that nobody was looking, Bulla flew straight up into the clouds. She flew quite fast until she reached the clouds, not wanting to chance someone seeing her who wasn't supposed to. She blinked when she realized she wasn't alone, after all.

"Oh, hi," she said, offering a greeting with a little wave.

Fully in phoenix form, Marco took a leisurely flight around the Garden. It was a sense of familiarity, a reminder of home, the way he made rounds to watch over the rest of his crew, whether here or in his own world. He was used to have the skies almost all to himself. He still hadn't had any luck in finding out much more about there being other phoenixes in the world; phoenixes were known to be reclusive to begin with and originally Marco hadn't intended to give himself completely away. So when he saw three girls in the sky, he at first assumed he was hallucinating.

After blinking hooded eyes a few times though, they didn't disappear so he cautiously flew over to inspect the situation.

Buwah? Terra tilted her head when Gwendolyn started to sink, "Are.. you okay?"

Oh wait, newcomers! This distracts Terra from the peculiar sight of Gwendolyn sinking back towards the earth, as she sensed the arrival of Bulla. Surprised, and yet amused at the same time. "I guess we weren't the only ones with the same idea. Hello Bulla." She paused for a second, a puzzled look on her face. What was that she just sensed?

She shook her head quickly, focusing her attention on the blue haired girl. "Are you feeling any better lately?"

Gwendolyn barely missed Bulla as she started her descent, though at least it seemed her wings were still in good condition. She droppped slightly before using her newfound momentum to rise again.

On her way back up, however, she glanced... well. It wasn't every day that she saw a large blue bird. It looked larger than an eagle, at that.

Her warrior instincts not flaring up just yet, she decided to leave it be, and rose back to where Terra and Bulla were. "My apologies, I require a second wind at times. Good day to you, Bulla."

"It is perfect flying weather," said Bulla with a little grin. "The nightmares seemed to calm down after meditating every night and now I'm not having them anymore. It's nice."

She glanced back at the large blue bird, but shrugged it off for the time being. After all, she wasn't used to all the local animals. Perhaps the bird was one of the resident species.

"How are both of you doing?"

Marco blinked with a start and flew in closer to figure out how so many people could be in midair at once. It obviously wasn't devil fruit related, but with all the magic of the world and even the flying Garden itself, maybe flying was less rare here than his own world. He tweeted a hello, hovering closer and keeping up the pace, just to see if any of them could speak bird.

"Ah, is that it?" Terra smiled at Gwendolyn in relief - she'd been worried about that when Gwen had just sunk down so abruptly. "And I'm doing... better, now that the nightmares aren't quite so bad." That and her talks with Quetzacoatl and Shiva helped.

Terra glanced at the others when the bird drew near. It was obviously not a monster, or it wouldn't have just tweeted at them in a friendly manner. "Do you think it's someone's pet?" She wondered aloud, for she is incapable of speaking bird, alas.

"Likewise. Having nightmares with less frequency has done wonders for my health."

Despite her wings and affinity, Gwendolyn too was incapable of speaking in bird, though she could tell the tweet was a greeting. "I somehow doubt it - I would have heard of such birds being common if that were the case, and such size would make it difficult to hide in the Garden."

She bowed her head slightly towards the bird. "Good day, sir."

"Hi, Mister Bird," greeted Bulla, offering a small wave in the bird's direction to be friendly. She didn't know if he (if the bird even was a he) could understand what they were saying, but she had no problem with the bird joining them. Considering his size, he probably wasn't used to having anything in the sky bigger than hew as.

"Maybe there's other birds like this one here," Bulla suggested. "They're probably not that common but...it's not like we've been in this world long enough to know what's common or not."

Marco nodded at the hello and then shook his head at the idea of being common. Even if there were other phoenixes here, he was apparently the only blue one. And phoenixes were still rare. He had yet to find any others. He coasted along with the girls, still caught along the breezes and enjoying the warm air.

[Sea breeze doesn't hold a lot of appeal for Oswald. Neither does the view, or the calmness, for that matter. (Mainly because he never learned how to fully appreciate any of those things) BUT, the solitude holds a lot of appeal...As well as the rumors of beasts in the mountains. After several weeks of bad dreams, the creatures in the Training Center were becoming dull, and he still has some left over things to solve through violence.

Which is why he's currently trudging up one of the sea cliffs, looking for trouble. He wasn't, however, expecting to find people in the air. Least of all Gwendolyn-

...And that may very well be the biggest blue bird ever known to mankind in the skies. He's not entirely sure what to make of it, other then giving it a long careful ~~glare~~ look.

Don't mind the earthbound Shadow Knight. Even if he's paying a lot of attention to the flyers.]

[ Terra minds the earthbound shadow knight! Also, don't hunt Marco, he probably doesn't taste very good. Still when she notices the other, Terra tenses a little in surprise, and decides to drop in altitude. Since the flying folk were being watched, it'd be rude to ignore him, yes? As such when she's in hearing range...]

"Hello..?"

[He doesn't eat bluebirds. >B| ~~Chicken provides far more EXP.~~

Oswald doesn't move from where he's standing as she gets closer. He also still has that slight scowl in place...But he does also return her greeting. He at least has that much of social niceties drilled into him, if not much else.]

"Hail, flyer."

[ Terra glances up towards the sky with a startled expression. ]

No, it's a pretty nice day out, actually.

[ ... oh wait, he meant th- ]

Oh - I'm sorry, I mean..um. Yes, hail. Hello. [ ... ] I don't think I've seen you in Balamb before; are you new?

"I am." He also gave a single nod at that, his posture still rigid. Really, the only that showed Oswald wasn't in a stab-instead-of-speak mood was that the grip on his sword was loose, and it hung at his side, psypher pointed towards the ground.

"It was either attending, or wandering aimlessly. I've already had my fill of that." There was also the fact that it had set up circumstances to see the Valkyrie. His eyes slid back up into the sky as he said that.

"...You are acquainted with her?" He asked, watching Gwendolyn. And not noticing how abrupt of a subject change that was.

[ If Oswald was in stab-first-ask-questions-never mode Terra would be less inclined to have dropped down to chit chat with him. ]

"I see." [ She pauses when Oswald's attention shifts upwards, and glances up as well. That was an awfully abrupt change of subject. ]

"Gwendolyn? Yes, she's a friend." [ GASP! Gwendolyn has a secret admirer slash stalker? She read about those in the library :o! ] "Do you know her too?"

[ It's at this point that Gwendolyn notices Terra has been near the ground for too long, and decides to descend a bit to see what's keeping her.

Seeing Oswald down in the ground (he's easy enough to recognize, with or without his armor, thanks to the Psypher) gives her pause, and she has to remind herself that they're allies and that he's not about to re-enact Nightmare #15 for her, not with his sword loosely gripped or with Terra at enough of a distance to fly away in case of danger.

..Still, she decides to make her descent, slow enough to not startle trigger-happy Shadow Knights. ]

Marco was pretty undecided on whether to come say hello to his roommate, since it would mean switching back or being unable to speak. However, since the others were all swooping in, he landed gracefully, and only pausing long enough to drink in everyone's expression as he switched back to human. "Hey there, roommate," Marco grinned and ambled over.

He would take objection to that 'stalker' bit, if he heard it. ~~Regardless of how true it may be.~~ But since telepathy was not part of a Shadow Knight's repertoire, Oswald kept his eyes on the valkyrie as she drifted earthward, focused on watching her. His ears, however, stayed open and functioning, and he nodded again at Terra's question.

"I am acquainted with her; she comes from the same land as me...If from a different side of the conflict taking place there." Even with saying that, he showed no signs of being ready to resume said conflict-

Although he did jerk around in surprise for a moment when the Uber Blue Bird landed close by...And somehow, swiftly got replaced with that 'roommate' of his. Congratulations to Marco; he actually managed to get Oswald to have an expression other then glaring.

Take objection all you like dude - we all know about your Gwendolyn shrine. Of course, Terra's initial impression, right or wrong, aside, she was perfectly content to form a sort of air-corner near Gwendolyn when the other woman joined them. "Gwendolyn - this person says that he knows you."

Unsaid is the implication of You're lucky to have someone familiar here. It seemed every day Terra spent here, people showed up that her friends knew. Mulling this over, despite the implications that Oswald wasn't exactly originally Gwendolyn's best friend (didn't she read a book like that?), Terra glances up when the Blue Bird of Happiness swings down and ... shifts into that other person she recognized. Marco, right.

No reaction out of the esper though, but that is probably made up for the fact that Oswald's own 'buh' reaction. "So you were the bird." She mused instead, almost in the same tone as one would say, 'So Ice cream is delicious!' Then to Oswald, "I didn't know you two were roommates." And yet he didn't know about the bluebird's shapeshifting ability. Or is it a man who is a bluebird who wants to be a man, or a bluebird who wants to be a man who wants to be a bluebird...

.... now she's confused.

"Correction," Marco grinned like a sneaky bastard and fixed her grammar. "I am the bird. Sorry for not saying hi earlier. Can't talk well while flying." Unless they understood phoenix which he was starting to learn, no one ever did. Oh well, it was a mythological species. Not like too many people outside of his crew were crazy enough to bother with it. "Though I must say, you ladies all fly rather gracefully." Marco for his part, looked ever bit as deadpan as if he was just commenting on the weather. He watched the air between Gwendolyn and Oswald carefully as though he'd be able to know when to cut it should the occasion -- given their recent discussion; arise.

Gwendolyn, were she privy to Terra's thoughts, would question her on her choice of reading material - certainly any story that interpreted Oswald's actions as those of an admirer/stalker, rather than an uneasy ally checking up on his former foe, had some skewed perceptions. "We are acquainted, yes. Good day, Oswald."

Any notice on Terra's implications was waylaid upon the large bird transforming into one of the cadets she had seen around Garden - who was also Oswald's roommate, of all people.

"Thank you, sir. Your flying is worthy of note as well." She replied, still getting over the shock, despite having heard those stories about her father once turning himself into a horse.

In most of Oswald's experience, people tended to stay in one shape. Even if they were faeries. He still managed to close his mouth before it was open for too long, and stop staring...Even if he didn't go back to glaring straight away.

"All of you elected to come up here, solely for flying, instead of fighting?" That still felt a bit inconceivable for him...Although he couldn't fly, which didn't give him much when it came to reference. ~~Just experience in killing flying things.~~

"Why?" Subtlety, thy name is nowhere close to 'Oswald.'

Terra OS: Compliment Received.

Processing.

Processing.

Processing....|

Error! Unable to find definition of "compliment". Unable to execute gratitude.exe. Abort / Retry / Fail?

Terra blinks while her mind powers down for a half second, unsure how to respond to Marco's comment. When it reboots, she opts to rely on her default response. Confusion. "We do?"

Aww, Terra will help you fly, Oswald! Just give her your hand!

~~Also, don't kill her.~~

At Oswald's question though, Terra glances at the Gwendolyn curiously, to let her respond first. Then when it came to Terra herself, she replies with:"Why not?" It's as valid a response as Oswald's question, though after thinking on her response she adds. ".... As for me, I just... wanted to feel... free."

Bulla spent several extra minutes in the sky. It was fun having company up there, but having a big wide open space without worrying about potentially crashing into anyone meant that she could fly faster and try a few stunts. After playing around a little, she let herself descend to where everyone stood talking, fixing her hair as she slowly floated downwards. Why yes, she did have a thin comb tucked away in her boot the entire time.

"Why thank you Gwendolyn," Marco grinned, nodding at Terra, "Yes you do. Of course in my world, there's only about 6 people who can fly at all, so it's very rare." He rested his arms on the back of his neck and turned to the other male of the group. "I can't speak for the other fine ladies, but I go flying regularly. Easier to keep an eye on everything. And it's a nice loophole in the Disciplinary Committee rules. There's nothing about air being forbidden so I never have to tell someone to get back where they belong." But mostly, it was just familiar for him, the idea of looking out over his crew. And the Garden for all intents and purposes was starting to become much like that while Marco was here.

Gwendolyn shifted a bit to give Bulla some space to land, as she commented on Marco's statement. "Truly? Half of the sapient races in my world are capable of flight in some form." Granted, it was more like a quarter, since it was the female half of half the races, but details...

She took some time to answer Oswald's question, because she wasn't sure what she could say that he hadn't grasped during his years living in Ringford (unless what he got was 'Fairies are aloof strumpets who fly because they hate to sully their bodies with the ground', in which case, his confusion was understandable). She settled on the simpler answer: "Flying is as much a part of my nature as battle, and there are not nearly as many opportunities to indulge in the former as there are on the latter." Though she would have to make use of that loophole in the future, she realized. "Truth be told, I never feel more alive than when in mid-flight."

"Mostly it's just the best martial artists in the world who can fly in my world," said Bulla. "I'm...not one of those, but I did learn how to focus my chi like they can."

She giggled at Marco's description of the Disciplinary Committee loophole. Well, it was nice that they weren't all uptight there. Aside from the one punishment tour she'd gotten for being out after curfew to follow Terra, she'd stayed out of trouble. Not running into Seifer Almasy probably had something to do with that.

"I learned so I could follow after my dad and brother and my friend Pan," she admitted. "But it's fun...and it's a great way to chill out and de-stress."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

(no subject)

no subject

no subject

no subject

Damnit browser stop crashing :<

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject