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 Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2009 7:19 am
Atlas wasn't as outwardly exhilarated as Alcyone was: there was no laughing or cheering coming from his end, but he was still smiling broadly, and that was as happy as the girl had ever seen him. Because he was actually having some fun for once, and it made him glad to see that Alba was having fun, too.
"It takes a little practice to get it down just right, but once you get good at landing on your feet, it's really... uh, useful."
Yep. Useful. Because that was entirely the reason why Atlas had taken her outside to show her this in the first place. Though it really did go to show how good at training senshi Astraea was; there hadn't been any "By the way, you can also jump like crickets on crack now" when she'd left.
"Did you want to practice some more?" he asked, hands clasped together in front of him. "You can pick."
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Posted: Mon Dec 14, 2009 3:37 pm
In between gasps and elated laughter, Alcyone managed to speak out, "I just...I had no idea..that we could do that!" Her exhales became less and less dramatic as the girl began to calm down from her first big jump. Not even in her wildest dreams did she think she'd ever be able to be so close to flying, and as much as it was easy to dwell and be bitter towards Astraea for not giving her a detailed instruction manual on the do's and don't's of senshi-dom, she couldn't find it in her heart to.
She was genuinely happy and having fun without a backward thought on her new life, and she was going to keep it this way, bitterness be damned. She was grateful to have learned this bit physical feat as it were; Simon didn't have to show her.
Her hair bounced at her shoulders as she nodded a yes to Simon's question. "How far and high have you been able to jump? Is it possible to..." She paused her question to scope out another building to potentially attempt to leap to. Scanning the nearby buildings, her eyes fixed on a sky-scraper that was just a little bit further away from where they were standing, but a lot taller. "...jump there?" She finished, pointing at her chosen structure.
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Posted: Thu Dec 17, 2009 10:46 am
Mirthful grin on his face, Atlas followed Alcyone's finger to her chosen building, eager to see where they might be jumping next. The invisible line created by her pointing led his gaze to a wall, and he followed it up, up, up further...
And then his smile faltered.
"Err..."
He bit his lip, nervously.
"I-I don't... that looks, uh... m-m-m-maybe that's too h-high..." he stammered. He hated the thought that he might be putting a damper on Alcyone's mood by saying this, but he also very much did not want to die.
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 9:27 am
There was a confidence in Alcyone that had lacked in her previous youma encounter with Atlas, and it was a rare thing to find when it came to something that she had only ever done once before, especially if her first time was just a few minutes ago. She lacked the warning bells of danger that firmly rang in Atlas's mind, and instead, felt a reassurance that leaping to that height was more than just a little bit plausible. She didn't know how, but she knew, deep down and without a doubt.
"We can do this."
With high aspirations, Alcyone took the few steps she needed to be near the edge of the roof. Her skirt ruffled as she twisted her body around to face her friend, her right hand stretched out for his. Her face showed no traces of hesitation or second-guessing, and was instead complacent with an inkling of excitement. "Will you come with me?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 22, 2009 6:04 pm
He silently watched Alcyone take the handful of steps to the roof's edge, worry creasing his features and his hands awkwardly working their fingers from their position hanging in the air. He was scared. This much was obvious, easy to guess even if he hadn't been showing it, because he always was. Always nervous, always hesitant.
But still...
Alba had trusted him. So he would trust Alba.
Atlas took a deep breath, and, slowly, made his way to where Alcyone was standing. Their toes were peeking out into the empty air. She took his hand -- this time, it was trembling.
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 10:20 am
Her fingers entertwined with his and squeezed in reassurance, though she knew that the trembling wouldn't stop until their feet were safely grounded on the top of their destinated building. She was grateful that he had taken her hand at all, trusting her judgement despite his own fear; it spoke volumes about their developing relationship. She was beginning to realize that Atlas was not only her partner in this twisted life of crime fighting, but was also quickly becoming her best friend as well. She only hoped that perhaps he felt the same way about her.
"Okay," She began, "Are you ready? One...two......"
There was a pause, in which Alcyone took the opportunity to calmly inhale a last breath before kicking off the edge. "Three!"
The sensation of the cold, crisp air slapping against their faces would sting and numb their cheeks crimson as they made their ascension upward. They soared past window after window belonging to the building that very nearly scraped the sky above them, and with no signs of slowing down. To them, it felt as though someone had hit the pause button a few too many times on the remote; they were all too aware of each brick on the wall, cracked with age and harsh weather, or the color of each curtain that obscured them from being seen from within, had anybody been inside.
And so it was with surprise when they finally felt the tremor of a landing, their feet connecting so roughly with the concrete roof that it caused their knees to buckle and give way. Alcyone, who was still not used to the transfer between feeling as weightless as a feather to the immediate hands of gravity pushing at her shoulders, dropped. It wasn't a violent fall by any means, and she managed to avoid any bruising and scraping by instinctively letting go of Atlas's hand and bracing herself against the floor. All gracefully done with the largest smile to be found.
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Posted: Sat Feb 06, 2010 8:47 pm
This was different.
This was supposed to be horrifying, a thing of intense nightmares -- Simon had his share of falling dreams from early childhood up until present day; they still startled him awake once in a while, much to the irritation of his roommates. Heights were scary. Falling was scary. Being at the top of a very tall building was scary, the thought of trying to scale one in a single bound like some wannabe superpowered television protagonist should have been petrifying in and of itself.
But they were actually doing it. They were leaping up off their rooftop, counting the chips and cracks in the weathered bricks as they flew past them; they were rising through the air as if gravity had momentarily turned itself off for their sake (interestingly, that was the force Atlas drew his power from). They had jumped away from the building next to the library, rushing up for the next, and as soon as they had started they'd landed again. Solid ground, solid... roof. And where he should have been collapsing towards it in relief, there was only a little trembling of the knees and hands. It wasn't an entirely discomforting sensation. This was just far, far more excitement than he was generally used to.
The view was nice, if a little bit vertigo-inducing.
"Alcyone, are you okay?" he asked, although he didn't need to. She was smiling, she was fine. They were both fine, they were... both smiling, Atlas realized, noticing the present if slight pull in his own cheeks. They were okay. They were even enjoying themselves. Being a senshi seemed to be a job full of nothing but fear and misery for the both of them, but even if it was going to only ever be this once, they'd found a bit of happiness out of the job too.
Now all that was left to do was find a way back down.
[FIN]
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