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Post by Megan Gwynn on Mar 28, 2008 12:39:37 GMT -5
It had been another disastrous performance in the danger room, Pixie realized as she had left the lower levels of the mansion well behind her team mates. She really didn't want to face their looks of disapproval or pity, both of which she would most likely be receiving later that day when they ate dinner. It wasn't that the other kids were being mean or anything, quite a few of them told her she'd be okay and she'd get better, but that didn't help her feel like any less of a failure.
Every time she had tried to fly she either managed to run into something or someone, foiling whatever task she was trying to get done and most likely the task of the other person involved. She hadn't grown up with these wings, she had grown up firmly on the ground. For the last half of the practice she had refused to even try and take flight, using her gymnastic skills instead. She had redeemed herself a bit then, but nothing could make up for her poor performance in the air. The worse she was, the less she wanted to do the practice she so desperately needed, it was just too embarrassing. It seemed she was born to fly, yet she couldn't, how could any one being be more of a failure than that? To fail at what you were born for?
Sticking the little earbuds for her hot pink nano iPod into place, she started to try and forget about some of the words they had said. 'Get some help with that..' 'Stay where you are' 'Just keep to the ground!' The last two weren't really options, she couldn't just sit back, not be an asset, just a lump on the field and flying was what she should be doing, without that she was just as useless as a lump.
Hopping up the stairs two at a time, it wasn't that hard of a feat, even with her shorter legs, she just had the boundless amounts of energy within her, wanting to get out. As she reached the top of the stairs, her jumps had become rhythmic, going with the music now playing in her ears. It was N'Sync's famous 'Bye Bye Bye' and she had memorized the dance steps when she was younger. With the last step jumped, she went into the choreography right out into the open, though it was a fairly abandoned entrance.
As the chorus ended, she laughed a bit at herself and pranced down the hall. The little sprite had almost instantaneously changed her mood by force of will and the luck of a good song coming up on random. She could get through this, she just needed a bit of help. Stopping off at her room as the chorus again began to play, she did the dorky boy band choreography again. Now as the song ended for good, she tossed the iPod down onto the bed and walked back out of her room again.
She now had the muse to get things done, to fix her problem. Well, one of her problems were when she wanted something, she tended to jump into it without thinking much first, but that wasn't quite the problem at hand.. right now. She was going to get better in the danger room and that was that, no ifs ands or buts.
Stopping in the middle of the hallway, headed on her way back toward the stairs she thought for a moment. How exactly was she going to get better? Asking her team mates for help was out of the question, she had enough pride to not want that. Or perhaps somewhere deep down she wanted to totally surprised them in the danger room with her miraculous improvements.
Doing a 180, she headed back down the hall toward where the older students tended to be. She could ask one of them, she knew enough of them by name by now, and if they said no, what did she care? 'Well... I'd feel utterly rejected and much more of a failure if no one was willing to help me..' She thought to herself, instantly turning back around. That wasn't quite worth it, right? Maybe she could independent study this sort of thing? 'No No No' she scolded herself, yet again turning to walk the other direction, rejection wasn't the worst thing, quitting was. You fail no matter what if you don't try? Or something like that.
Forcing her body to continue on her way with no more interruptions, she finally made it down far enough to where she could 'shop' for her help. Each of the doors seemed a bit like unmovable walls she could never get past, but as she noticed a small amount of light coming from one, she realized the door was cracked open, just enough to let the thin stream of light mark the hallway. Standing a foot or so away, she knew whose door it was, it was Pete's, or Piotr, she thought his actual name was, but she was never quite confident she could pronounce that, so she stuck with Peter.
Moving closer to the door she leaned her ear against it, trying to see if it was just left open on accident, or if he was in there, busy with something else. The crack itself wasn't enough to see inside, so she decided to just try and drop the unreasonable nervousness she felt. He seemed to be a very nice guy all of the times she had ever had to interact with him, and everyone else seemed to think he was a nice guy. Surely not everyone can be wrong, right?
Knocking on the door lightly, her ear still held close incase she could hear something, she cleared her throat quietly and spoke. "Hey, uh.. Pete? Are you in there?" She asked loud enough to be heard. Her brain instantly started to go back and forth between 'What the hell am I thinking' and 'It'll be fine, I can get some help' every millisecond.
((Sorry if it is way lame, I had a few too many Pixie sticks today, haha! Pixie sticks! That so fits, but yea, I'm hyped on sugar so if it is too ADD or doesn't work for you, let me know...!))
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Post by Piotr Rasputin on Mar 28, 2008 18:38:18 GMT -5
Piotr sat at the large wooden desk, hunched over a pile of books and paperwork that seemed to spread across the length and spill down onto the floor. First and formost in the pile was his well thumbed Russian-English dictionary, that had been well marked and annotated with little circular pencil marks. There was no sign of a computer or a laptop, nor would there have been room for one if there had been. Instead, there was an open pad of paper on his desk, on which Piotr had written in large, round, capital letters:
PERSONAL ESSAY: PLEASE WRITE, IN SOME DETAIL, ABOUT AN EXPERIENCE, AN ACHIEVEMENT, A PERSON, OR A MATTER OF PARTICULAR SIGNIFICANCE TO YOU.
That phrase, copied from the Vassar University application sitting half filled out on the top of the pile, was the only written on the page. The remaining space was covered in small tiny doodles: an eye here, a curved hand there, a half a face over there, little disconnected body parts that had nothing to do with each other and nothing to do with the question at the top of the page.
The table and floor were covered in pieces of paper, all similarly titled and similarly covered in drawings instead of text. The few times he’d begun putting words down, he’d ended up scratching out the first sentence before he was half way through, drawing strict, jagged lines through the words and shoving the paper away.
He just didn’t have anything to of particular significance that he wanted to share with the far away, faceless admissions committee. What was he supposed to write? About the way the sun looked when it set over the roof of his parent’s barn? About the feeling of having your body transform into pure metal for the first time? About coming home to find your little sister crying on the front lawn while your parents dissolved in a fiery inferno somewhere instead the house you grown up in? About the first time he’d benched pressed a car and the cheers and shouts he’d gone from his friends? About fighting for his life in the streets of San Francisco?
“Hey, uh… Pete?” A soft female voice and light knocking roused him from his thoughts and turned his attention to the door. “Are you in there?”
Dropping his pencil onto his paper, he covered the ground between himself and the door in two steps, pulling it open in one quick movement. He had expected to see Kitty standing there, sweaty and tired from the long afternoon of whipping her teammates into shape, but instead it was the tiny, winged girl who’d recently joined Kitty’s team.
“Hello.” He said, looking down at her with an expression he was sure showed his confusion at her presence. She was new, he thought to himself, maybe she’d simply mistaken his door for one of her friends or gotten lost and forgotten where she lived. Or maybe Kitty had sent her to deliver some message or note on her way back from class. The last thought sent his eyes running up the hall towards Kitty’s bedroom door, which remained closed and untelling. “Megan, yes? Can I help you with something?”
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Post by Megan Gwynn on Mar 28, 2008 21:19:11 GMT -5
Instantly stepping back from the door as he pulled it open, she definitely did not want to be looking like a snoop. She was a bit sad though to see the confusion on his face, and with the quick glance she caught, even from her height. The feeling didn't help with trying to phrase her words right. She suddenly felt like she was doing more than just asking a fellow student for help, she felt like she was intruding and being a bother.
He was with Kitty though, wasn't he? Surely he could understand her problem, and that these training sessions were much more than just playing around in a very high-tech room, hadn't he experienced some of the things she was so sheltered from? He had been a mutant for so much longer than she had, when the things that would scare her in the media were happening in the Mansion's back yard. She secretly scolded herself on not knowing the nitty gritty details, for her love of gossip, but she assumed that some things just weren't for her to be told through word of mouth.
Piotr and Kitty's relationship had always confused her just a tad. They were cute together, more than cute, adorable really, Kitty was just so innocent and lovely, Piotr would practically do anything for her, it was the type of thing that high school students like herself dreamed of, a guy that would give you the time of day without having to beg or dress slutty for. But what confused her most was why they didn't define their relationship more, EVERYONE knew they were crazy for each other.
With her brush of gossip running through her head, she began to feel more comfortable standing in front of the so called 'Gentle Giant'. He was just a boy, right? He had the failures and achievements just like everyone else.
Taking a deep breath she showed that she was gathering her thoughts before letting them all out. "Well, actually, I just was going to ask if you could help me with something." She said a bit fast, even with her attempts to think things through, she would eventually start to ramble, it was her curse, actually. "See, I've been having some trouble in the danger room. Kitty probably told you, but, well, I was just looking for one of the older students to help me out a bit, you know, so I don't suck so bad."
Pausing for a moment to catch a breath, her words were soon becoming just one jumble and her hands fidgety in front of her. She did sometimes have the habit of talking with her hands too, but thankfully she was just sticking to fidgeting. "It doesn't have to be now, I don't think, if you're busy and if you are I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you or anything, but if you're ever free or need a break or a laugh or a you know, whatever I'm pretty humorous when I try, not that I try to be funny but when I try to fly, you see I really do kind of just look like a fly on a glass window, have you ever seen that? Well it isn't very flattering but I could really just use some help like I said and you're an older student and better yet you know Kitty really well, maybe she'd appreciate it and, well. uhm..."
Stopping herself forcibly and moving her hands behind her back, holding them there tight as to stop the fidgets, she avoided looking up at him for a few long moments. Eventually she did glance upward and gave a sheepish smile. Hopefully he'd be able to catch about half of what she said, and hopefully he wouldn't just close the door on her. She couldn't say it hadn't happened before.
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Post by Piotr Rasputin on Mar 29, 2008 13:49:28 GMT -5
Thankfully for both of them, Piotr had grown used to deciphering the rapid, rambling, stream-of-consciousness style speaking that was so common among some of his teammates. He could follow about 70% of her speech, although she lost him for a second with the talk about flies and windows. He listened to he with a solemn and serious expression on her face, nodding at the appropriate places.
“If Kitty thinks I can help, then I am happy too.” He said once the girl had run out of words and paused, not realizing that he had misunderstood his girlfriend’s role in Megan’s decision to come for help to help. True he did wondered why Kitty had sent the girl to him rather then to Warren or Melody, but she was so busy and preoccupied lately that he jumped on the idea of playing any, small role in her life. He did, however, add the qualifying: “I don’t know much about flying, but I’ve spent enough time working with Warren and Melody to get the basics.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the pile of unfinished college applications littering his desk, the empty, unanswered questions glaring up at him from across the room. He had planned on finishing them that afternoon before dinner, but his mind felt so blank and uninspired that the thought of a break was more then a little welcomed.
“I was going to held down to the gym to lift some weights, but I can always put that off till after dinner if you’d like to work on the flying now.” He said, making the spur of the minute decision to put off the essays and help out Kitty’s little teammate instead. Maybe that would earn him enough boyfriend points to get Kitty to help him with him later on that evening. “Or later, if your busy now.”
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Post by Megan Gwynn on Mar 29, 2008 15:06:10 GMT -5
Pixie felt a little bad about dropping Kitty's name, there really hadn't been much to go on though and with her mouth moving a million times a minute, she didn't quite think first. She put it aside though and hoped the subject wouldn't have to come up again, she felt bad enough just bothering him like without adding deception. Well, it wasn't quite deception, it was a lack of correcting him, but if she did that she had the feeling he wouldn't be as eager to help.
"Oh, well, basically, uhm. It is more than just flying.." she said a bit embarrassed. Pixie's problem really wasn't just her flying, she couldn't catch, throw or do anything of those sorts. She quite basically just needed practice and didn't want to try and do it alone, she was always uncomfortable doing things alone. He could be a type of moral support system, or a security blanket incase she fell, he would definitely be strong enough to catch her, right?
She could almost see him working it over in his head as he looked back over his shoulder, surely at whatever he was doing before. Pixie resisted the urge to try and get a look at it, mainly because it would have been much too obvious, her trying to look around his much larger form. Instead, she settled for studying his face, trying to decipher what he was planning out to see if she was really being a bother or not.
Her confidence in the entire matter rose a bit though as he agreed to help. "Oh, I'm not busy now!" She said quickly, the enthusiasm in her voice returning. The muse was back and now she had recruited someone to help her with her goals. Along with that, he had mentioned dinner, it would be such perfect timing, being able to eat right after a practice session, she always found herself so extremely hungry.
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Post by Piotr Rasputin on Mar 29, 2008 22:57:34 GMT -5
"Oh, I'm not busy now!" She said, and with that he was committed to an afternoon of teaching. Not the way he’d planned his day, but maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. How hard could flying be, after all it was just jumping without the landing part at the end. It seemed simple enough to him. Of course his power was to turn his entire body to metal, which didn’t really take a whole lot of training or practice to get right. You were either metal, or you weren’t.
Glancing down at his outfit, he decided that if it was good enough for the gym it was good enough for flying practice. Stepping into the hall, he pulled the door shut behind him.
“Okay, let’s go.” He said, motioning her to lead the way down the hallway to where ever it was she’d decided to set up the impromptu lesson. “The danger room should be open, or we could go outside if you prefer there for practice. Whatever you thinks works best.”
“You said trouble flying? What kind of trouble?” he asked as they headed down the stairs. “Landing? One of the younger kids, he flys, but doesn’t stop. Just runs into the walls. Smack.” He demonstrated the nose by running one hand into the palm of his second. "They had me help put up padding so he wouldn't hurt himself."
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Post by Megan Gwynn on Mar 29, 2008 23:33:01 GMT -5
Backing up quickly as she wanted to keep out of his way as most as she possibly could, she kept a cheerful smile forcibly on her face. "Uh, well.. its a bit cold still to go outside.." She instantly became curious how susceptible Pete was to the weather. Pixie refrained from cutting slits in her hoodies for the weather, so she could continue to use them to keep warm.
She decided she'd get the chance to ask him all about his abilities later on and started on her way down the hall. Blushing instantly as he started mentioning the ways she could fail she looked up at him with wide, embarrassed eyes when he went through the motion of the smack. She was all too familiar with the padding as she had both problems.
"Its mostly landing.. I can direct myself fast enough to avoid hitting the walls now but it still isn't under control.. and I'm so scared to take off now and practice because I know I wont be able to land when I get tired or frustrated..."
Stopping at the door for her room she ran in quickly, putting her iPod away in a drawer and grabbing her helmet. Walking back out to the hall, done not more than ten second, she closed the door without bothering to lock it.
"So uhm.." she started, having to take about two and a half of her smaller steps per one of his. It was later wasn't it? She could ask now. "What all does your ability let you do? Do you get cold?" she asked, innocently enough.
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Post by Piotr Rasputin on Mar 30, 2008 11:48:01 GMT -5
"Uh, well.. its a bit cold still to go outside.."
“So we will try the danger room then.” Pete said agreeably. He hadn’t been thinking of the cold weather, only the large expanse of space the out doors offered. But she was right; he’d could hear the rain falling on the window pains outside and not even a farm-boy like him wanted to go out in it.
"Its mostly landing.. I can direct myself fast enough to avoid hitting the walls now but it still isn't under control.. and I'm so scared to take off now and practice because I know I wont be able to land when I get tired or frustrated..."
Before he could come up with a response to her admittance about her landing profess, she’d suddenly rushed into a nearby bedroom. He stopped suddenly, looking around with a bit of confussion on his face, till he noticed her name written on the outside of the door, along with that of her roommate.
He jammed his hands into his pockets, studying the decorations on her door intently while he waited, trying to see if there was anything he could learn about his strange, new student from them. There wasn’t, at least nothing he could puzzle out. It was like a strange code he didn’t get, and before he’d gotten anywhere, she reappeared with a crash helmet. A helmet?
"So uhm.. What all does your ability let you do? Do you get cold?"
She spoke up before he had a chance to question her about the helmet. He pulled his eyes away from the helmet to give her a confused look.
“Cold? No your thinking of Drake. He is the one who has the cold and ice powers. Me, I just…” With a shrug that gave away his inability to describe the transformation his body underwent, he simply transformed. His skin suddenly became hard and metallic, reflecting the light around them. His hair became a duller bronze, while his new metal eyes became darker and colder then his usual bright blue. “..do this.”
He was heavily and larger in this form, and the sound of his footsteps became large and heavy, making loud thuds that echoed through the hallways of the lower levels. Feeling a little self conscious at the size and noise of himself, he quickly changed back to his human form.
“Here we are.” He said, opening the door to the danger room and finding it, as he promised, empty. There was still the faint smell of sweat and energy from the earlier practice, but the sound of the students had long since disappeared.
Walking over to the small computer set into the wall, Pete flipped it on and entered his access code. He’d only been a full X-men for a short time now, so it took him too tries to remember the complicated sequence of letters and numbers he’d been given, but eventually the computer powered on and offered him a list of his most frequently used training programs. Most of his own programs involved getting shot at or lifting heavy objects, none of which would be appropriate to his student’s particular powers.
As an X-men, he had access to the training programs designed for the other students, but he didn’t thought that Warren and Melody’s programs might be a little too complex for the beginning flyer. He probably should have created a new program that involved lots of padded walls and soft squishy surfaces, but he’d never quiet gotten the hang of the programming features of the danger room.
"What setting would you like? he asked, putting the decision on Megan.
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Post by Megan Gwynn on Mar 30, 2008 14:13:23 GMT -5
Right, Bobby was the 'Iceman', Pixie should have been able to remember that by now, Piotr's size definitely made him stand out from the others. Jumping back a bit as he transformed quite suddenly, if she thought the older boy was intimidating before, the metal coating only made her that much more aware of the differences between them. She thought his ability was a cool one, actually, he was protected, so it was defensive, but he also was offensive due to his strength, a nice balance between both.
Smiling as the sound of his footsteps, it felt a little like an earthquake walking next to him. Pixie was all about pretending and for a moment, she held her arms out as it pretending to keep her balance.
"Woooaaah" she joked before looking back up at him. She didn't mean to make him feel awkward, or anything like that, she was just turning more and more into her bubbly self the longer she was with him.
Staring at him with innocent curiosity as he changed back, the thing she noticed most with his transformation was the eyes. They looked so nice, so friendly when they were blue, but in his metallic form, they were the complete opposite, to her at least.
"Here we are." he said as they arrived, but Pixie was quite confused when he asked her what they should be doing. "Me?" She asked surprised, staring at him yet again, like she would know more about the danger room's programs than him.
"Uh.. is there like.. a Gymnastics room one? Something padded and with all objects stationary" It didn't really need to be a Gymnastics room, but that was the only thing she could think of that was padded, and it was a good example for him to find something similar.
She could remember her days back as a little kid paying around in the middle school's Gym, filled with balance beams and vaults and mats. Plenty of mats. "Yes, mats are good.." she said aloud, but to herself, not noticing it may not make a whole lot of sense to Pete.
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Post by Piotr Rasputin on Mar 31, 2008 0:14:28 GMT -5
"Uh.. is there like.. a Gymnastics room one? Something padded and with all objects stationary?”
Piotr nodded and quickly access the program’s stored under Jubilee’s name. The girl was supposed to be some gymnastics god after all, and right there on the top of the list, right below “precision target hitting exercise number 008” was a gymnastics room. Without bothering to inspect the image, he hit okay.
Instantly the room around them was transformed into a large gym with a matted springboard floor and a series of large foam mats and blocks stretching along the corner. Large bright windows lined one wall, plastic and shatterproof, slightly tinted to protect from the bright sunlight shinning in from outside. Beyond the window was a California beach, complete with water, sand, palm trees, and the occasional surfer. Piotr stared at it.
It was amazing how real the programs were sometimes. He was sure that if he opened the window he’d smell the sand and salt water drifting in on the breeze.
Turning his attention regretfully away from the windows, he faced his short, helmeted pupil.
“Well,” he said, completely unsure of what to do next. He’d only been an X-men for a month now and had no idea what they did to train the younger students. He’d been trained himself of course, but being told to pick up increasingly heavy objects required a whole different set of directions then what Megan needed.
“Why don’t you fly somewhere.” He said, waving at the expanse of the room. “What way I can see what your talking about.”
And it would give him time to come up with something to do next.
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Post by Megan Gwynn on Mar 31, 2008 0:41:51 GMT -5
Megan had seen the danger room before, of course. She had seen it earlier that day in fact, but they were never so realistic as this was. They were more of the things she thought to have seen only in movies, realistic yet at the same time, not quite believable. This though, it was just as if she were in a gymnastics room, she couldn't tell the difference because there was no true difference to tell.
Fixing her helmet so it sat just right on top of her head, the strap comfortably beneath her chin, she allowed herself to turn away from her tutor, taking in the room in its entirety. She even paused a moment to stare at the washboard abs of the surfer out the window. Jubilee definitely had taste.
"Alright.." she said, deciding to have a bit of fun with her take off. Jumping up onto the Gymnastics' trampoline instead of taking off right away, she started out with a few simple bounces. Then going into a layout she flipped over in the air and landed on the springy surface, bouncing up even a bit higher.
Here was the tricky part, the part she could be embarrassed about. Starting up the flutter in her wings, slowly at first and not enough to effect her, but as they sped up and she gave one last good bounce, she stopped and hovered in the air.
Holding her arms out a bit awkwardly, trying to stabilize herself, she felt a sudden drop as the speed of her wings fluctuated. Over compensating for the small loss of height, her wings spazzed into overdrive, sending her backwards and toward the large springy floor mat at a downward angle.
Her feet catching on the mat when she finally got low enough, she tripped over them and was sent rolling across the floor with her momentum. Rolling into a fairly large 'cheese' or triangular mat used for teaching summersaults that was standing up at the edge of the gymnastics' floor, she knocked it over. Now finally stopped as she lay on the mat she had just knocked over, she just blinked up at the ceiling. She was used to this by now, and no matter how embarrassing, at least her teacher could get the idea of how bad she was.
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Post by Piotr Rasputin on Mar 31, 2008 17:26:06 GMT -5
“Okay Avaareya. I see why now we use the helmet.” He said with a shake of his head, a faint trace of a smile around his mouth as he tried to keep his focus. Walking over he placed one hand on the top of her helmet and hauled her up into the air with one hand. “Next time, no fancy tricks okay?”
The only thing he could think of was his earliest sessions with Logan, which usually amounted to the older man telling at him to pick up increasingly heavily objects and throw them, and shouting at him to try again when the object didn’t make the mark. He wasn’t sure that method would work for Megan, but he had no idea what other methods there were.
Walking into the center of the room with her dangling from his hand like a toy doll, he sat her down in the middle of the mat, a good distance from any of the walls or other objects. Placing her down her patted her head once, and opened his mouth:
“No trampolines, no funny jumps, no running into foam things.” He ordered, trying a mellower version of Logan’s ‘Don’t screw with me’ speech. “Just up down, okay? Keep it simple.”
“Can you go straight up?” He asked, lifting his hand to demonstrate. “Not jumping, just with your wings. Till your about as high as me.”
He held his hand over his own head to demonstrate what he meant. He was about a foot and a half taller then her, maybe a little more, so it was a considerable distance, but it should be doable for the flier.
“If you make a mistake or get flustered, then just stop moving your wings. Don’t try and correct it, just stop moving your wings and let yourself drop back down to the ground. It’s not that high, so you won’t hurt yourself.” It seemed as good a task as any. “Keep trying to you can get that high and hold it for… say three seconds. I’ll count.”
OCC: Avareya means "Crash"
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Post by Megan Gwynn on Mar 31, 2008 20:51:05 GMT -5
Instinctively reaching up as he grabbed the helmet, she grabbed onto his wrist and let out a small gasp. Refraining from kicking out for the ground, it would only make her look pathetic. She was used to being picked up by now, it seemed that everyone and their mother could do the action she found so hard early in the morning. Granted that none of them seemed to be able to do it so effortlessly, she kept her hold regardless, the firm grip she held helping her try to pull herself up and feel like less of a wimp. The man could literally palm her head for Pete's sake, she needed to redeem herself in some way.
As her feet were placed down on solid ground again she waited until a good couple of seconds after the pat to look up at him. She had to tilt her head more than usual due to the helmet blocking her view of her temporary coach. She didn't quite think she was trying to do any 'tricks' per-say.. but she did have a problem with taking off if she didn't jump. It was hard to get the angle right for a completely vertical take off, she either started running and leaned forward to get the lift she wanted, or jumped and tilted her body.
Looking up even further at his hand, it seemed so far away, like an impossible goal he set for her. She'd be climbing mount Everest more willingly than the task he set for her. Taking a deep breath before sighing she closed her eyes. Her wings began to flutter again, slowly at first, trying to get a feel for which way to angle their movements. Once she felt sure they were pushing the air directly beneath her, she let them pick up speed until she slowly lifted off the ground.
Opening her eyes, knowing enough to be aware that she had to see to do things correctly, she made it a few inches before having a problem. Trying to refrain from tilting forward to a flying angle she was more used to had worked for a little while, but when her wings accidently twitched to their more known movements, she was sent backwards.
Stopping her wings instantly and considering she had only been a few inches up, she was able to try and catch herself, taking three steps back until the inevitable crash sent her down to land on her butt. It was a springy surface but she still winced as she picked herself up a millisecond after. It was just a small set back and she didn't want him to feel the need to pick her up after that one.
"Your three seconds seem to be health hazard.." she grumbled as she walked forward back into her original position in front of him. She had had it though, for a moment, and despite her mumble of a response, she needed no encouragement to try again. Shaking her body loosely to relax her muscles, all tensed and ready from the fall, she closed her eyes again.
Just like before she started her wings slowly until she could feel again the air being pushed downward, she reached this goal faster than before. Keeping her eyes closed this time, she just concentrated on keeping the same angle, the same direction of airflow as she sped the fluttering up.
After a moment she could feel that there was no longer a floor beneath her, and she hadn't crashed into anything, so she opened her eyes. Looking down now at the one person she never thought she'd see from above. It was nice to know he wasn't hiding a bald spot from everyone, or a zipper to the gigantic costume that hid away his alien form.
As Pixie determined she needed to watch less science fiction as she hovered, her feet about five feet from the ground, her wings twitched at an off angle again. With the automatic shutdown switch so recently imprinted in her mind with his words, her wings stopped moving before the twitch in angle could cause her to fly off anywhere. With her wings no longer fluttering though, she dropped like a 91 pound rock, arms outstretched and mouth open with a very surprised "Ahh!" escaping.
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Post by Piotr Rasputin on Apr 1, 2008 1:02:06 GMT -5
Piotr caught Megan easily as she fell, not that it was a particularly difficult catch. Given her placement right above his head, all he had to do was stick out his arms and let her fall into them.
“That was good.” He said encouragingly as he twisted her out of his arms and deposited her back onto her feet in front of him. “The landing’s still needs work, but it was good.”
To be honest, he was a little surprised that had worked at all. She’d gone much higher then his hand, hovering directly above his head. Luckily she’d had her eyes closed for most of it, so she hadn’t seen the look of shock that must have crossed his face.
“Let’s stay closer to the ground though.” He advised. “Till we figure out a better landing strategy.”
He’d probably have to recruit someone else in for that one, since the idea of stopping her wings had seemed fairly logical to him till he’d seen it happen five feet up. But for now, they’d focus on getting her into the air and keeping her there, which seemed to be a big enough problem.
“Try to stay about, so high off the ground okay?” He held his hand about two feet off the ground, marking where he wanted her feet to stay. “That way when you stop flying, there isn’t so far to fall.”
“The up part is good, you can do that fine. You just need to practice it. Fly up, maybe two or three feet tops, you don’t have to go very high, just enough to get you off the ground. Then hold it for three seconds, like you just did. Then drop back down. Every day, maybe twenty or so times. The more you do that, the easier it will get.” He said, as he slowly backed up from her, putting about eight feet between them. “Next time we’ll practice on landing, instead of falling, but for now I just want you to practice going up and staying there.”
It was clear that Piotr’s training and experience was in what he called “lifting things”, as he had a weight lifters take on power training: Low height, high reps. Built strength and stamina, and increase to higher heights and more complicated movements. He had no idea if it would apply across powers, but given Megan’s crash helmet, it couldn’t hurt.
“Now, the forward part.” He said, as if she couldn’t guess by the space between them. He held up both his hands in front of him, directly in front of his chest, a new target for her to aim for. “Remember, we’re not going for height here. You just need to get a little bit off the ground. And if you get flustered or make a mistake, stop moving your wings.”
He braced himself, mentally and physically for whatever might happen. Lateral and Horizontal. It seemed as logical a start as any to him, sort of the basics of flying. Once they got that down, they’d start looking at pitch and turning and the dreaded landing. Once she got that down, well, she’d need to go to Melody or Warren for the fancy stuff.
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Post by Megan Gwynn on Apr 1, 2008 22:11:20 GMT -5
Megan was a little prepared for him to catch her, what good was having a six foot eight muscle guy beneath you if when you fell, he couldn't catch. Even so, the appreciation was there. Springy mat or not, it was probably an additional four feet to the ground. "Thanks.." she said as she was placed back on her feet, a small hint of gloom in her face at the failure portion of the practice.
She hadn't expected to go as high as she did, and it had been an exciting surprise, until she fell, but that actually hand't felt so bad either right? Wiping the small glimmer of doubt from her features before he could see, she was somewhat confused when he began to walk away from her. Was he afraid she was going to plow right into him now, or fall on him again? Surely if anything, he would do damage to her if there happen to be a collision.
He was gving her so much information in a short amount of time, she ws trying to concentrate ot remembering all of it. Practice, right, she could do what he was telling her, she thought. Biting her lip, a nervous habit she tended to have, she kept her eyes open this time as she began to flutter her wings. The angle was easy to get straight away now, and she was soon hovering a good foot or so above the ground. There were small fluctuations causing her to really hover, drifting an inch or so from any given height, but for the most part it was stable. Now to go forward, she finally realized why he had stepped away.
Thinking about it long and hard before making any moves, she then angled her wings differently to propel her forward, but the change was too fast. Instantly stopping her wings she landed on her feet, taking a few steps to stop herself. She had prevented herself from falling over, which was good, but she hadn't made it more than three feet. Giving Pete a sort-of 'sorry' look, she didn't mean to make this so difficult for either of them. Quickly running back to where she had originally started, she tried again.
As before, the up part was relatively easy now that it was so fresh in her head, and again as she tried to go forward, slower this time, her wings obliged and she was flying toward Piotr, Stopping her wings, hoping it would stop her momentum enough, she wasn't so lucky as she crashed right into him. With her arms crossed in front of her in an attempt to protect herself, she wasn't quite so worried about Colossus.
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