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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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 Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 11:03 am
"You-- ah," she paused, peering down at Red when she started then stopped, almost as confused as her for a moment. Well, Aulus would have to try and teach her commands, because it just seemed the bird was doing whatever Odette was doing. Which was good, a lot easier to get her to do what they wanted, but what about when Odette wasn't there? They'd need to work on that.. or maybe see if Odette could somehow teach her what the commands meant and to obey them. "Wait a second, not so fast there," she said with a wry grin. "It'll be hard to tell you what to do once you're up in the air, don't you think you should know how to steer and land first?" Definitely getting ahead of himself there. "To have her stop walking, just pull on her feathers a bit and lean back. To tell her which way to go, just push with your left leg to steer right, and right leg to go left. To go higher, squeeze with both legs and pull straight up with your hands. Down's similar, but push down instead and lean forward. Got it?" There, at least he'd know how to handle himself once he was up in the air instead of taking off totally unprepared. It wouldn't be her fault if he forgot, but it was at least fairly intuitive, nothing complex.
Mention of taking off made Odette ruffle her feathers, her gait becoming more awkward as she lifted her feet higher while walking and extended her wings partially. "Geooo?" Enough walking, she wanted to fly already! Talking could wait until after, couldn't it?
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:00 am
Oh... Yea, he probably was getting a bit ahead. Oh well, Claire was explaining now so that was all fine. He still felt kind of stupid though. "Yea, that sounds pretty easy," Aulus nodded, "and anything special for landing itself?" Seen as they weren't off just yet he probably ought to check on that, he didn't want to look like a prat and he definitely didn't want to fall off or get thrown off because of an incorrect signal.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:11 am
"Not really," she said with a shake of her head. "Same as telling her to go down, she'll get the idea quickly. To take off, squeeze hard with both legs and pull up on her feathers. You might want to lean forward too so you don't fall off backwards," she added with a wry smile. As funny as it'd be to see - and it would be very funny, as long as he didn't get hurt - she had a feeling he wanted to avoid embarrassing himself. "I'd say hold on tight for take-offs and landing, but you should hold tight the whole time." At least, he should since he was so inexperienced. She didn't always, but she'd been riding for years now.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 11:31 am
"Right!" Aulus grinned the grin of a man about to do something awesome, a man who wasn't apprehensive in the least! Newp! "Let's go then!" Following Claire's instructions for take off he held his breath and tried to forget everything he knew about gravity, which while it wasn't a huge amount was still a bit too much for comfort. Terminal velocity. What a name. Well, anyway, Odette wouldn't let him fall and would catch him even if he did so it was all fine... He really hoped Char had managed to deliver those flowers alright.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 2:55 pm
Aulus had barely said his last words and held on that Odette had already launched herself into the air with an excited "geoo!" Forget a slow or careful take-off, she wanted to be in the air and she wanted to be there now. Since the male human on her back didn't know the first thing about flying, she figured she'd better pick a good cruising height and speed, which were probably both higher and faster than Claire would've liked, but all the same she leveled off eventually and circled to see where her trainer was.
Said agent, as soon as Odette had first unfurled her wings to take off, preemptively squeezed Red's sides to urge her on too, hopefully before the new bird could react. They'd definitely need to work on training her with Odette on the ground because otherwise, she'd just follow her and not learn a thing about nonverbal commands.
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 3:12 am
The take off was a bit more jarring than he remembered it being when he’d flown with Claire, but he kept his grip and managed not to yelp in shock or anything embarrassing like that. As the Pidgeot’s flight levelled out somewhat, he even remembered to open his eyes. The view of the desert spread out below them, HQ looking like a toy, made the effort worthwhile. He definitely needed to get Red trained well enough to fly with him... Speaking of – well, thinking – where was she?
Red, in fact, was not far behind. The leg-squeezing was still a little odd, but she was beginning to suspect it meant something. Anyway, a moment after Odette had sprung majestically into the sky she was following with powerful beats of her wings. The human on her back was a minor hindrance, but not enough to stop her catching up with Odette. As she drew alongside the ruddy Pidgeot cooed, voicing something about how stunning, how achingly beautiful the Lady was in flight.
Oh, there she was, good. Aulus shot a grin over at Claire. “Well this is alright, eh?” he called over the wind of their speed.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:44 am
Odette cooed happily and swooped closer to the pair - not too close, obviously - and quite glad her precious trainer was alright. And Red's compliments weren't too bad, either, and she cooed again to thank her. She was beautiful and stunning, after all, and it was only proper that others should acknowledge that fact.
Unlike Aulus, Claire hadn't closed her eyes for the take-off, but also unlike him flying was second-nature to her at this point. If she'd known he'd closed his eyes, however, she would've teased him incessantly over it. "It is," she agreed with a light chuckle. Flying always put a smile on her face, even if she was on a different bird. "Why don't you try steering her around?" She suggested after a moment over the wind, hoping he'd heard her. She would be quite willing to lead, of course, if Red had any idea what the commands were, but obviously she didn't. They'd need to work on that, certainly.
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 11:59 am
"Alright!" Aulus called, "Try to keep up with us then!" Still grinning like a pumpkin he pressed against Odette's left side with his leg and lent in slightly. It was almost like riding a motorbike... With feathers. That flew. That would probably peck you to death if you compared it to a nasty noisy machine. Well, the comparison kind of worked in his head, he didn't have to tell anyone about it...
Even as he encouraged Odette to climb higher and make sharper turns and even tried a couple of short swooping dives he couldn't keep his mind off the flowers for long. Bloody stupid women, why did they have to come along and make things complicated? What if she didn't like the flowers? She would like the flowers, right? They were purple and, so far as he was any judge, they were pretty too. They'd certainly been pretty expensive, but he'd thought that quality was probably more important than quantity... s**t, had he said happy birthday to her when he'd arrived? He didn't think he had. He ought to have at least mentioned it, especially given the flowers were anonymous. Would it be too late to say something when they landed? She'd go back to her room after that, and his birthday wishes might still be in her mind when she saw the flowers which might lead her to wonder if they were from him... Ugh! Women!
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:09 pm
Aulus was correct in his assessment - if Odette ever found out he'd compared her to such a nasty, noisy, ugly machine she would indeed peck him to death. Luckily for him she didn't, so she obeyed his every command and swerved, swooped, and dove as he directed. She'd much rather have Claire on her back instead, of course, but maybe they'd fly later.
Unlike Aulus, Claire had all but forgotten it was her birthday, as she'd long ago deemed it unimportant, just another day like any other. At each turn Odette made, Claire quickly gave Red the same commands to at least get her used to them so Aulus could practice with her later. It made no sense to just tell the bird out loud which way to go, because then everyone would know - what if you were trying to fly from the enemy? They'd know every move you were about to make. She had a similar idea with battles, but nonverbal commands in those were harder to accomplish.
After flying around for quite a while, the two pairs of Rockets and Pidgeots managed to land without much trouble and made their way back to the building. Claire left Aulus on the grunt level while she continued up to the agent floor, finding her door without even realizing it before she slipped inside and leaned against the door with a sigh. Flights were always a bit of a workout - or at least hers were - but that was a bit more due to being on an unfamiliar novice instead of Odette. Still, it wasn't bad, could've been worse, like maybe wait a second what were those?
She hadn't noticed the subtle scent of flowers until she saw them on her desk and quickly stepped over. They were beautiful, luscious and purple, and she couldn't help but run a finger gently over the petals as she scanned the desk for any sign of where they'd come from. Her first instinct was that someone had broken in - how dare they - but another glance revealed nothing to be missing or disturbed, Zeus blinking sleepily at her from the bed, Artemis thumping her tail against the floor with her pink tongue lolling out of her mouth, Alexina batting playfully at Blue, and two flashes of white light sent Luc clinging to her ankle and Odette to preen in a corner. Huh. "Zeus," she said, pointing at the flowers with one hand, the other on her hip. "Who brought these?" The Pikachu merely blinked at her, one eyebrow twitching upwards as if to say you expect me to tell you? Well, obviously she didn't expect him to speak, but why would anyone bring her flowers...? ..oh, wait - her birthday! But.. who knew? "Lucas?" Zeus shook his head. "..it wasn't Alba, was it?" Nope. "Au--wait." No, he couldn't have, he was out with her all afternoon. ...but that didn't mean his pokemon weren't still in the base. "One of his pokemon?" Ah, there - she got a thumbs-up in response before the electric-type flopped over for another nap. It was probably Char, he seemed so.. so... Like a short butler or something. Well. There was only one thing to do about this.
In precisely 45 seconds, Aulus would hear a polite knocking at his door.
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 1:29 pm
The flight had been fun, great fun, well it had been when he'd been focused on it anyway. Still, he was a little glad it was over now, for much as he was extremely fit his muscles weren't used to that kind of strain and as such he was tired. Stepping inside his quarters which were mercifully empty - he supposed his roommate was in the rec rooms or something - Aulus closed the door and lent against it with a sigh, shutting his eyes for a moment. Why did she have to be so damn pretty, and so damn... well, Claire.
Anyway, no time for that right now. "Char," Aulus opened his eyes and regarded the fire-type - who was currently folding his laundry - very seriously indeed. "Did you carry out your orders?"
"Charr!" exclaimed the Charmeleon in somewhat affronted tones as he nodded his head. Of course he had. He had delivered the flowers safe and sound, because he had been told to do so! The fact that his master still asked whether or not he'd carried out simple tasks rather boggled his mind, if it had been something difficult he could have understood... Still, it was his master's right to do as he wished even if it didn't make a lot of sense.
"Good," Aulus gave a sigh of relief and stripped off his shirt, flopping down onto his bed with another sigh. "You put them on her desk, right?" Putting them on her bed had seemed somehow too... too... suggestive he supposed.
"Char."
"Yea, yea, alright, sorry, just checking." He had to check, he had to know it had gone alright because he couldn't exactly ask Claire... He never had said happy birthday. Maybe he'd do so belatedly tomorrow or something, that sounded like a good-
Knock?
Who was coming to see him?
"A minute!" Aulus called with a definite note of impatience as he sat up and rubbed his face. Probably his damn stupid roommate had lost his keycard again, the man was nice enough but he'd lose his own head if it wasn't firmly sewn on. Pushing his fingers through his hair Aulus crossed the room and opened the door with a scowl on his face... Which was quickly replaced by an expression of surprise - "Claire!" - which quickly shifted again to one of embarrassment. "Uh, just a sec!" Closing the door again Aulus practically teleported across the room to grab hit shirt off the floor and pull it on over his head before dashing back to the door and pulling it open again. "Uh, evening Claire, I wasn't expecting to see you again..." Oh s**t. His shirt was back to front and inside out. s**t. Nevermind, act cool, pretend you haven't noticed, and hope she wouldn't say anything.
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BlackFireKitsune Vice Captain
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:08 pm
The scowl was unsurprising - it was Aulus, after all - especially after his displeased tone. Thankfully he -- ...why didn't he have a shirt o-- .....okayyy...
Claire waited at the door with a bemused expression until he opened it the second time, and bit her bottom lip so she wouldn't laugh at the fact his shirt was inside-out. ...not only inside-out, but backwards as well. It seemed he wouldn't be lucky enough that she wouldn't notice. "Smooth, very smooth," she said instead with a small chuckle, looking up at his face again. Without giving him a chance to reply with some sort of comeback, and using some sort of teleportation of her own her arms were suddenly around him and she'd planted a kiss on his cheek. "Thank you for the flowers." Because really, who else would've given them to her? Neither Lucas nor Alba knew her birthday, and the only one who cared that she'd told was him.
The hug ended as quickly as she'd given it to him, and with a suddenly shy smile and a slightly pink tinge to her cheeks, she disappeared down the hall. More teleportation! ...or maybe she'd just gotten nervous, finding herself hugging him so suddenly like that. Nope, teleportation. Totally.
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 2:17 pm
...Uh...
Well...
She certainly hadn't been supposed to work it out, but all in all he was pretty glad she had. He watched her retreat down the hall with a rather stupid stunned look on his face, but once she was out of sight he found himself grinning so broadly his face kind of hurt. Okay, so it had been platonic but still! Maybe he'd feel mopy and miserable that platonic was all he was getting later on but for now - for once in his life - he was just happy with what he had.
Stepping back inside his room Aulus pulled his shirt off again and cast himself back down onto his bed before letting Red and Tortie out of the pokeballs. "Life," he informed the mystified pair, "is pretty good."
In the backround Char folded another shirt and smiled ever so slightly; in his opinion things could only get better. After all, how could any woman refuse his master?... Once he managed to instil some manner in the human, of course.
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