2022-05-04: Fall and Catch

• Cast: Rena Lancaster, Anita Rosetta
• Where: Colony at L1
• Date: U.C. 0096 05 04
• Summary: Rena and Anita go flying in EX-Gears. Rena slips, but Anita catches her. (Literally and metaphorically!)

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<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

It's time to fly EX-Gears! Anita's been fairly excited about this. It's an opportunity to share something she enjoys with a friend, and as such she's done a fair amount of planning ahead. She's chosen the location for today - one of the colonies along Lagrange Point 1. It has a lot of wide, open space and not a whole lot of air traffic within the colony itself, making it perfect for flight practice.

At present, Anita stands out in one of the colony's open fields, scanning the area. One of the colony's residential districts is visible in the distance and the skies are clear. There isn't scheduled to be any inclement weather for a while yet, meaning... they're in the clear!

She does, of course, already have her personal EX-Gear equipped. It's tailored to her specifications, including color scheme, and emblazoned with the insignias of Londo Bell and Kakapo Squadron both. They can be a little difficult to move around in, even while powered on... and yet, Anita seems like a natural.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

Rena is also excited! She isn't quite Eight in terms of being sporty, but she is able to keep up with Eight -- which says a lot. She also knows how much Anita loves EX-Gears and gliders. She had tried the latter a couple of times; she never quite had Anita's knack for it, but that was in the days before she became a Mobile Suit pilot. Now, she thinks, it might be different.

She stands next to Anita, and her eyes are on the residential district. She tilts her head, and whistles lowly. "We're high up, huh...?"

Rena is in borrowed EX-Gear -- so it has a light gray color, with wings out to each side. It has a Londo Bell insignia; she will have to add Kakapo Squadron's later. She looks at Anita, and her steps are still a little clunkier. "You're right at home in all of this, aren't you, Annie...?"

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"We sure are. It's great, isn't it?" Anita says, glancing toward Rena with a smile. "...We can go a bit lower if you'd be more comfortable with that, though.

She's kept a close eye on Rena's steps throughout the process. Her steps are clunkier, but she's doing pretty good by Anita's reckoning for someone who's still new to it - sometimes it can be a bit of a disaster.

"Hahah, yeah... I really am." Anita says with a chuckle, looking up into the artificial sky. "You know I used to feel a little... awkward, around other people, because of, well..."

Anita flexes her left hand demonstratively.

"But up there, it's kind of like I was able to... get away from all that. Like none of it mattered, because it was just me and the sky. I'm better about that now, but it still gives me some comfort, you know?" She says. "So that lead to me getting used to everything pretty quickly, and now... here we are!"

With that said she steps aside and does a quick gesture, prompting her EX-Gear's wings to sprout open.

"Do you know the basics already, or do you want a quick run-down?" She asks.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

Rena flashes a smile back at Anita, shaking her head. She doesn't have a fear of heights, mercifully. Despite her footsteps being clunkier, she feels sure of herself. But, Rena has always been very adaptable, and very quick to learn to a new thing. She grips the railing, but it's not out of nervousness.

Sometimes, Rena learns things suspiciously quickly.

"Mm, yeah," Rena says. She looks at the cybernetic hand for a moment, and her eyes linger on it, and then she looks back at Anita's face. "...That makes sense. Like you were away from everything else. I get that. I think... it's okay, if you still like that now."

Then, she smiles, and tilts her head. "I think I have it. Let's see--"

Her EX-Gear's wings also pop open, after she makes a gesture. Then, she rolls her shoulders. "I should be okay. We'll just... stick close together, just in case?"

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"Sometimes." Anita admits. "Though lately it's nice having other people up there with me sometimes, too."

She gives Rena room to prepare her own EX-Gear for flight, and when she says she should be good, Anita nods.

"Yeah. Don't worry, I'll be right there with you." Anita reassures with a smile. "If something happens, I'll swoop right down to help out."

With that said she activates her EX-Gear's verniers and rises into the air, stopping to hover briefly as she waits for Rena to follow her.

"I'll let you take the lead? Just remember - small, smooth movements are better." She offers as advice.
*** Redirecting connection to new port ***

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

"Do you have a lot of people that you go flying with? Anyone specific?" Rena asks, with a smile. And more than a little curiosity. She looks at Anita, her expression thoughtful for a moment, as her verniers activate, and she lifts up. The thought comes to her mind, unexpected and unbidden.

'She really is amazing, huh?'

She wishes she had half of that natural calm and cool. What Rena has, she has to project and pretend. She actually hesitates, lost in thought, then she shakes her head quickly. "Th-thanks, Annie," she says. "You're... you're something else."

She breathes out, then she lifts up. The verniers lift her -- and she makes a small movement, slipping forward in the air -- and she moves just ahead of Anita.

"Right. Small movements. Like this," she says, as she turns in the air. "It's a little... different, moving my body to do it."

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"Nah, no one specific." Anita replies. "I've just been helping out here and there with some of the new recruits."

She shrugs, then.

"...Though that's more of a group activity, I don't really get the chance to go flying one-on-one like this often. It'll be nice." Anita comments. She pauses, then, as Rena thanks her, and chuckles good-naturedly. Does she notice that hesitation? It's hard to say. "Am I? Well, if you say so, it's probably true..."

She lets Rena get ahead before following after her, watching as she practices turning.

"That's it, you've got it." Anita encourages, and smiles. "Yeah... it can be rough at first. Especially if you start trying to overcorrect. Just think of it like... hm..."

Anita pauses for a moment, considering a comparison.

"Try imagining a joystick, like your body's a plane and you're moving it that way." She suggests. "...Is that a little too strange?"

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

Rena cocks an eyebrow for a second. Anita, taking on extra tasks? She knows how rare this is, from personal experience! Though, it does speak to how much Anita loves EX-Gears. She cracks a smile, though. "Well, I'm glad I'm special!" she says with a laugh.

Then she nods. "You are! You're one of my best friends, for one thing." And probably the least complicated of her best friends.

She turns -- and it's a little wobbly. She almost spins, but she corrects herself. She listens as Anita explains, and holds her arms carefully. "No--no, it makes sense. It's... kind of like AMBAC movement, in Mobile Suits. A computer does that, but--it moves the limbs of the Mobile Suit, to conserve momentum in zero gravity."

But different, too. There is air resistance here -- and other things besides. "I think... hm." Rena moves her arm, and she starts to turn. "So the thrusters will adjust, matching the angle of my arm--"

Rena moves her arm. "My arm's at thirty degrees--" A movement. "Thirty-four, no movement, thirty-eight--ah! Okay, about every eight degrees, the thruster adjusts, and I think the velocity is directly related, at a ratio of--"

She starts spewing math at Anita. Maybe this isn't the friendly outing she imagined.

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

Anita joins in the laughter, though she does smile when Rena points out that she's one of her best friends.

"...It's kind of nice to hear that sometimes." She says.

And then, they're flying. It is nice, flying with someone. She watches Rena. She's wobbly, but she doesn't intervene just yet - she gives Rena time to correct herself and she does.

"Yeah, something like that." Anita agrees, in regards to it being AMBAC movement. It's close enough - and if that's what Rena needs to get it, that's what matter.

...And then, Math Happens. Anita is alright with math, especially when flight terms are involved... but Rena is on a whole other level entirely. She stares, blankly for a moment.

"...Yeah, I think you get it." Anita says encouragingly despite, herself, not getting it.

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1. $#mcp version: 2.1 to: 2.1
   

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

"I can say it more, if you want to hear it me," Rena answers Anita, with a smile of her own. She reaches a hand up to her cheek -- but her ashen hair is tied up, rather than being loose to catch in the EX-Gear. She does wear her hair rather long, after all.

She floats up -- and she runs through a few more trials. She calculates each movement aloud; some of it is in her head, but more complicated math, she needs to talk to. At the end, she looks at Anita.

She turns bright red.

"...o-oh, um--" She never knew why she could do that. She knew people in school stared at her like she did something impossible, when she did. She learned to not do that. "S-Sorry! I got carried away, Annie. But... you're right."

She smiles. "I think I do. So..." She starts to lean back -- getting ready to go into a long dive. She doesn't yet, though. "...Ready?"

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"Thanks." Anita says. She certainly wouldn't object if she decided to!

All the while, Anita makes sure Rena is doing alright - and, she certainly seems to be! She seems to be catching on quick, though Anita is fairly used to that from Rena by now. When Rena looks back at her, bright red, Anita shakes her head.

"It's fine, it's fine." Anita says with a smile. "You do what you need to do, yeah? ...It's impressive, honestly, that you can rattle all those numbers off so fast."

But Rena thinks she gets it... and gets ready for a dive.

"Oh, that's pretty daring." Anita replies... and then grins, readying herself as well. This is the kind of acrobatics she likes doing. "...I like it. I'm ready when you are."

When Rena dives, Anita will follow right after.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

"I'm not sure how I do it. It just kind of comes to me," Rena admits, a little sheepishly. "Thinking of it like AMBAC movement is interesting, though. I wonder--aah, maybe that's something to puzzle through later."

She is supposed to be flying, not designing, right now.

Rena smiles, her eyes on Anita. She calms down a little; less red-faced, and more confident, as she starts to tilt backward. She spots the way Anita grins, and that proves infectious. After all, Rena fell in love with piloting Mobile Suits because the speed appealed to her. There was always something thrilling about it.

Doing so outside of a Mobile Suit... well, that's even better.

"Here we go, then," she says. She nods -- and she tilts the rest of the way back. The verniers swivel -- and the wings actually flex, slightly -- and she suddenly goes into a dive. The bangs of her hair sweep backward, sharply, as she goes into a tight dive.

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"That's even more impressive." Anita comments, as Rena admits that it just comes to her. She grins, though, when she can see the seed of an Idea forming in Rena's head from the way she interrupts herself. That's something she's familiar with. "Did you have a flash of inspiration?"

It's true, though - now's the time to fly, and the time to dive. As Rena descends, Anita follows, trusting herself to her EX-Gear as she speeds through the air. She lets herself speed forward through the air, descending like a blue and green missile - and even shows off a bit, spinning through the air.

All the while, though, she keeps track of Rena - ready to intercept her if it seems like she won't be able to pull up in time. She's pleased by that shout from Rena, though - that sensation that she, too, feels the thrill.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

"Maybe, it's--I'll have to work on it later," Rena says. She grins at Anita. "Maybe I can show you, if it all works out?"

It might be highly technical and highly confusing. She has to hope Anita will understand -- or at least, she can sort of follow along -- but it's a problem for later. She beams up at Anita, right until she isn't looking at her because she tilts back into a dive. She goes into a spin -- a blur of grey, as her EX-Gear speeds ahead. She speeds downward with a shout, crying out. There isn't any spinning for her.

But she does pull up. It isn't graceful, per se; it is a nice arc, though, leaving two trails through the air from the tips of her wings, as she arcs up.

She looks back over her shoulder. Her face is red, and she is breathing hard. She found this exhilarating, and her eyes are wide.

"Annie!" she shouts, as she looks back at her friend. "This is incredible!"

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"I'd like to see it!" Anita replies. But that's for later. For now, everything vanishes as the speed overtakes them, the world rushing by as they both descend. Anita watches Rena carefully... but in the end, Rena makes it by herself, without her needing to intervene. It's not graceful, but it is her first flight - that she made it at all is enough to make Anita proud. And her excitement after the fact... Anita grins back.

"Right? This sort of feeling, that's what got me hooked on it in the first place." Anita replies. "Nothing beats the feeling of just... immersing yourself in the speed."

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

Rena turns, rotating on her back so she faces Anita. She keeps flying -- but she looks up at Anita, now. She beams at her, that happy and exhilarated look on her face. Her eyes stay on Anita's -- and she speaks louder so her voice carries, as she talks to her. "I can tell! It's... it's sort of like you forget everything, for a moment, as you're soaring!"

She smiles. "Well... except I knew you were with me, too." She tilts her head, her cheeks still a little flushed. "I was glad for that!"

She beams -- and then she turns. Rena turns, starting to bank -- but she gets a little too into it. Her arm moves, and then that sends her into a spin. Maybe she got a little to overconfident. Rena's spin turns into a midair tumble, out of control.

"Ah--crap! Annie!"

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"Yeah, it's great." Anita agrees. The feeling of letting everything melt away except for you and the sky... It's a sensation that's difficult to replace. She chuckles, though, as Rena points out that she knew she was with her.

"Always glad to be." Anita replies. Rena turns, then... but the turn soon turns into a spin, which turns into a tumble.

"Try to stay calm. I'll be right there." Anita says, a hint of urgency creeping into her tone. She accelerates quickly to catch up with her, and once she does she begins to try and match her rotations. The timing on it is a little tight - if she's not careful, she'll just get smacked by the EX-Gear's wings or Rena herself. But, situations like this are what her acrobatic flight training is good for. She descends quickly, aiming to hook her arms around Rena's and pull back to reduce momentum, while at the same time shifting her weight to level the both of them out and cancel out the rotations.

"Are you alright?" Anita asks, once all is said and done.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

Rena flushes, just a little, when Anita says that. She could tell Anita that she is cool -- but she could tell her that a lot.

And then she goes into her spin. She feels her heart pounding; her breath catches in her throat, and she starts to panic. Anita tells her to stay calm, though, and some military training kicks in. She closes her eyes, regulating her breathing -- and then opens them again, and she sees Anita coming in. It's not the blur of blue and green from earlier, so inspiring, but it is amazing. Precise movements, to match erratic ones.

Rena sees her come in -- and she stays still, until Anita's arms are close to hers. She lets Anita pull her close -- and then she hooks one arm around Anita's, and takes Anita's flesh-and-blood hand with the other. Rena looks up at her. (Literally; she is upside down relative to the ground.)

"Y-Yeah," she says. She tilts her head. "Sorry. I got a little carried away..."

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

For a moment, it's frightening - it's the kind of thing that can go very wrong in a moment, but thankfully that doesn't happen. Rena's training helps make Anita's job easier, and soon enough, the moment is over. When Rena takes her hand, Anita gives it a gentle squeeze of reassurance before sending her a smile.

"Hey, it's okay, we both made it out alright." She replies. "Just remember, small movements. Anything too big can throw you off like that. I'll have to teach you how to recover..."

She puts that thought aside for a bit, though.

"Do you want to set down? Get your legs back on solid ground a bit?" She asks.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

Rena blinks her eyes a couple of times, as she feels that gentle squeeze. She smiles, and then she slips her fingers between Anita's. Is it strictly necessary? Probably not, but it feels comforting, after the brush with danger there. Her head tilts a little. "Mm-hm," she agrees. "And a little excitement isn't a bad thing, right?"

She laughs, and then she nods her head. "Right. Small movements. Learning to recover sounds like it would be a good idea. I--ah--"

She considers for a second. "I'm okay, if we want to fly like this for a little bit. If--if you want. But we could also set down, too, if it's safer."

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

It's a little surprising, but Anita doesn't object to it. If it makes her feel better, she doesn't mind it.

"Right? We do it because it's exciting." Anita replies with a chuckle. "Yeah. It's easy in theory, the hard part is drilling it in so that you can recall it and do it when you actually need it, even while panicking..."

Rena considers her answer and Anita waits, and when she says she's okay Anita nods.

"Alright. If you're okay to keep flying, I don't mind staying like this a little longer." Anita replies. She was worried Rena would be a little shaken after that brush with danger... but, it looks like she needn't have worried.

<Pose Tracker> Rena Lancaster has posed.

"Yeah," Rena agrees. She laughs, even. "A little danger makes it exciting. Even if I don't think I want to do that alone." She would rather not end up crashing on the ground. Thankfully, Anita is there. She nods her head, because it makes sense.

It's like training -- something where she will know what to do, because of her training, even in a dangerous moment. She tilts her head, as she considers it. "I'm looking forward to learning, then."

Her eyes stay on Anita's, for a moment, and she smiles. She bobs her head -- not too shaken by the danger, but it might help that she trusted Anita to get her out of it. But, pointedly, she isn't letting go. "All right, then. Let's keep going, together, Annie."

<Pose Tracker> Anita Rosetta has posed.

"Yeah, probably better not to do that alone..." Anita replies with a sheepish laugh. Fortunately Rena is eager to learn! "Great! We can earmark that for next time, then - something to motivate us to keep it up."

After all, it'd be nice to do this again sometime.

Rena doesn't let go, but Anita doesn't mind. It's a different sort of flying from what she's used to, but in a good way. Instead, she just smiles.

"Right - together." She agrees.