When pilots add nose art to their planes, it's usually of something that will remind them of home or inspire them to come back safely. Maybe the practice is different in your world, but I'm sure her sentiment wasn't far off.
[ It's almost hard to imagine someone bright and sentimental enough to paint a vehicle this way hanging out with Eustace... but it's nice knowing he had at least one person keeping him in mind. ]
Anyway, it's reading time. See you when I see you.
[ She sets to studying the manual, sinking into the cockpit seat and slowly flipping through pages with enough focus to drown out the infrequent commotion of the hangar. She probably won't notice Eustace's arrival until he makes his presence known. ]
[ True to his word, he shows up some twenty minutes later, carefully weaving his way through the numerous oversized vehicles stored in the hangar before arriving at his destination. It's not uncommon to see Ema deep in thought but it's a cute sight all the same: the pull of her brows, the slight purse of her lips, the way her shoulders hunch together.
He watches her for two whole seconds before finally leaning over to rap her gently on the head. ]
Figured it out already?
[ Maybe he can just stand off to the side and do nothing.... ]
[ She smacks him in the face with the user's manual.
Purely out of surprise, which is probably obvious from the way she jolts in place hard enough to shake the speedship on its supports. A split second later, she registers his voice on top of the fluffy ears poking out from over the manual, and she quickly retracts said manual. ]
Sorry! You surprised me... [ She frowns mildly and leans toward him over the lip of the cockpit. ] You really shouldn't sneak around like that.
At least he doesn't look angry when the manual's finally pulled away, even if one hand reaches up to rub at his nose. ]
I'll knock next time.
[ And not on her head next time, since he clearly needs to put more distance between them to reduce the risk of injury. Next time she might poke out an eyeball and then where will they be? Right back at square one, that's where. ]
[ She skipped to the important bits... more or less... She leans so that she can open the manual between herself and Eustace for him to see too and flips through the pages. ]
There's plenty on how to pilot the thing, but not much on safety features. Is there a parachute? An ejection seat?
[ Bold of her to assume that anyone stupid enough to race speedships cares about parachutes. But it's a valid question all the same, and Eustace goes over what little he knows in order to formulate a comprehensive answer. ]
You shouldn't be high enough off the ground to need a parachute, but I can ask for one.
[ Considering he's the one that got her this thing, it's his responsibility to make sure she doesn't crash and die. ]
I don't recall Beatrix making use of any ejection seat when she crashed [ how promising ] but I doubt it would make much of a difference.
[ He stares at Ema, frowning. ]
What exactly are you planning on doing that you would need both of those things?
[ She rests her chin on her arm and stares back at him. Why wouldn't she be high enough off the ground to need a parachute? Isn't that where planes go?? ]
Flying in the sky? I could... I don't know, run into a bird? Get run over by one of these other things?
[ She flaps the manual around vaguely at the other stupidly large vehicles in the hangar before sighing. ]
But don't get me a parachute. I'm sure there are better things to ask for. If this thing held up for Beatrix, I'm sure it'll hold up for me.
[ She doesn't want to think about Eustace trading an entire sex just for a dumb parachute... He's already giving her this speedship. And why? Because she briefly expressed interest in trying to fly the Grandcypher once? It's almost thoughtful enough to hurt.
She gazes at him for a bit longer, her eyes softening. And then she reaches up and takes her glasses off, only to stick them on Eustace's head. She releases her half-ponytail and promptly jams the supplied helmet on her head (she and Beatrix are mostly the same size, it seems) and turns back to him. ]
How do I look?
[ She assumes stupid... ]
i wish i could put those glasses on his face but he doesn't have normal ears, stupid
If you're about to get run over by one of those other things, a parachute isn't going to save you.
[ Those hulking space machines are ginormous? They are but tiny ants in comparison to the gundams. Also yeah she looks kind of stupid, but in a cute way? He probably looks just as stupid with a pair of pink-tinted glasses hanging lopsidedly off his head so they can match for once. ]
Like you care about your safety.
[ Which is a GOOD thing, thanks very much!! Please don't mind him as he taps his knuckles very gently against the side of the helmet. Heh. ]
Does this mean you're ready to try and fly the ship?
[ She does, in fact, care about her safety, so she will accept that answer. His tap on her helmet confirms that the fit is snug, and she smiles brightly at him. ]
Actually, the control mechanisms aren't as foreign as I thought they would be. A couple extra levers compared to what I'm used to, but I've already looked them up.
[ Being able to drive manual, as they do in Japan California, is finally paying off. Also, she reaches out to adjust her glasses on Eustace's head so that they're nice and level. Do not sport those chic scientific shades in such a sloppy manner, sir. ]
I figure it's do or die, scientifically speaking. Unless you'd like to give me that demonstration after all?
[ He frowns a little as her hands boldly invade his personal space once again, but holds still as she readjusts the glasses on his head. ]
It's all yours.
[ Sometimes you just gotta drop a person in the deep end and let them figure things out on their own. Nothing like good old-fashioned practical hands-on (and life-threatening) experience to really drill the basics into a person. That doesn't stop him from peering into the cockpit one more time, assessing her positioning - fine - and the placement of her hands and feet against all levers and pedals - also fine.
Is he still worried? A little bit, but presumably Ema is practical enough not to immediately jam her foot down on the gas pedal and zoom halfway across the island before he can even blink. ]
Whenever you're ready.
[ He will just...step aside a few feet so he doesn't get caught in the crossfire. ]
[ They're her glasses and she can do what she wants with them?? They just happen to be on him at the moment.
Anyway, since he is set on remaining hands-off on anything even remotely fun, it's time to fake it 'til she makes it. She mutters vaguely to herself as she reviews the layout of the cockpit, tagging each knob and lever with her fingers as she names it. If it seems like she's being a little neurotic about this it's because, again, she could feasibly die, and she is not exactly famous for her hand-eye coordination. But hands-on experience is indeed the best teacher, and you know what, death is barely real around here anyway.
One last thing. Ema takes a moment to tip-tap at her bracelet and request an audio connection with Eustace. ]
I assume this thing doesn't have a black box, so you'll have to do.
[ While he's accepting/rejecting that, she slides her goggles on, revvs the engine up (??), and settles her hands and feet in the appropriate positions. It's been some time since she's driven anything, but it all still feels somewhat familiar — which is still odd, being that this is a plane from a different world, but she'll have time to think about coincidental engineering later.
The hearty, growling thrum of the engine is invigorating and, she has to admit, encouraging. She eases off the brake and into first gear (or whatever its equivalent would be), a triumphant smile cutting across her face when the speedship doesn't immediately stall and/or careen forward and eat shit, instead peacefully pulling out of its spot in the hangar. She drives for the exit and successfully does not run Eustace over as she makes her way to the runway (or whatever space serves as a runway, who even knows what the hangar's layout looks like).
She takes a lap, feeling out the speedship's controls and handling as well as she can while still grounded. When she's satisfied, she drives to the end of the runway, turns the plane around, and prepares for takeoff.
So, like, the only kind of aircraft Ema's been on is your commercial jumbo jet. You know, the kind that has to go a billion mph, scientifically speaking, before it can manage to get into the sky. With that in mind, she is not jamming her foot down on the gas pedal and zooming halfway across the island... but she is carefully applying her feet to the pedals so that she can shift up to the highest gear possible in the amount of runway provided.
The speedship, being a speedship, is very fast. But Ema being Ema, backing down is not an option. If anything, she leans into it, her focus sharpening to a fierce point. The speedship achieves alarming speed before she finally angles its nose upward and it rockets into the sky, narrowly avoiding becoming a bullet into the side of a building. And now she's zooming halfway across the island.
[ Ema can rest easy knowing that he does in fact accept her connection. Truthfully, it's mostly out of habit; there's something about all this that reminds him the last time he'd been near a speedship (for mission purposes, of course), his transceivers hooked up to Zeta and Beatrix in event of emergency.
Even the hum of the ship sounds familiar, lightly crackling through the bracelet speaker while also echoing through his ears. He's content to watch her as she slowly hovers her way through the rest of the hangar, following behind with one hand loosely gripping the glasses on her head and only stopping so he can stand at the open doorway and watch her take off, blurring into the distance and then into a dot that shoots into the sky.
After about ninety seconds of nothing but whooshing air - and no sign of metal and wood splintering against the ground or the nearest building - he thinks it's probably safe enough to pipe up. ]
[ If Ema's been silent for the past 90 seconds, it's because she's been living in white-knuckled hyperawareness, acutely conscious of the ground falling away and the bland gray expanse of the sky filling her vision so completely that she feels as good as blind. She dares not crane her head around to look at the earth below, so she glances at the various meters on the dashboard instead, carefully leveling the speedship out and downshifting so she can decrease the speed.
It seems like a sturdy vehicle, far from liable to fall apart at a single inept touch, but she still handles the controls gingerly. Nothing like being fatally high in the sky to make her appreciate the well-being of her vehicle.
When Eustace's calm voice pipes up, it's grounding, but also a little too calm for her to relate to at the moment. ]
I don't see how you're so calm about this. This is terrifying!
[ In fairness, he's calm about everything. (Except mass murder, apparently.) More importantly: ]
I'm not the one in the ship.
[ And he's trying very hard not to imagine what it would be like, because the thought of being jammed into that small cockpit (again) with not even a single railing between him and his new future career as a furry pancake on the ground is deeply unsettling. Hence why she is piloting the ship and not him.
Though, maybe she shouldn't be piloting it either based on her reaction. He squints up at the sky again and predictably sees nothing. ]
How fast are you going? Slow down if it's that terrifying.
[ Or simply stop flying the thing immediately and park it back in the hanger so a mysterious unnamed character can casually commit arson one day in the nebulous future. ]
She mutters vaguely about units of measurement, followed by the faint mechanical sounds of pedals pushed and levers shifted as she continues to decrease the speed of the ship anyway. That is, until the speedship begins to wobble ominously, at which point she kicks the speed back up, reaching some sort of stable flight speed.
Finally feeling like she's reached a safe (if still somewhat blistering) constant, she breathes a sigh of relief. It's fine, this is fine. ]
Okay. Everything's under control.
[ She chances a peek over the side of the cockpit. She isn't terribly high up. Enough to definitely die if she falls out, but she's starting to feel comfortable that she won't, barring some freak accident. ]
You said these ships are used for racing? What's the mortality rate in your average race?
[ Does he look like a walking encyclopedia? And about speedship racing, no less. ]
Not sure. Not high enough to get racing competitions shut down.
[ Then again, maybe that has more to do with the prize money that comes with winning the famed Platinum Sky Cup than the possible risk of gruesome death via speedship crash. Either way, he's never been interested enough to even think about signing up. His feet will stay firmly on the ground, thanks.
While she's off sailing across the sky, he takes the glasses off his head and holds them in front of his eyes, squinting through the lenses. Hmm. ]
The piloting itself should be fine. Most of the reported injuries come from various gadgets the racers attach to their ships.
[ He will not be elaborating on that unless prompted. ]
[ The lenses of her glasses make for less "pleasantly pink filter" and more "intense, everything is blood red now," but otherwise, they would seem to be fairly innocuous.
Ema peeks out ahead and finds that she's flying over dense forest. Is there anything interesting hidden beneath those lush canopies, she wonders...? But she doesn't wonder for too long, because the thick fog blanketing the horizon is rapidly approaching, and even she isn't headstrong enough to try to blast through it (without preparation). She steers the ship back around, tracing a wide circle back toward town. ]
[ Creepy. Disturbed by the sudden redness of everything, he carefully pops the glasses back onto the top of his head for safekeeping.
Ema sounds less panicked now, in any case. Probability of imminent death: decreasing by the second. Still, he loiters around the hanger, wanting to confirm for himself that she makes it back in one piece, regardless of how long it takes. ]
Something like that. Speedship races, at least the big ones, are as much a test of pilot skill as they are about how many dirty tricks you can pull on your opponents.
[ Another reason why he refuses to ever enter one. ]
Hmm. Not my kind of race, but I can see why it would pull in the ratings.
[ Real life M*rio K*rt in the sky... It's a miracle it doesn't become a slaughterhouse, but in a way, that's reassuring. It has to mean the speedships are built to take a beating.
By now, she feels relaxed enough to start steering around for the sake of it, weaving loosely and pulling up to a high enough altitude to get a scenic view of the city. She looks down at the motley collection of buildings they reluctantly call home, and having it all reduced to a tranquil blob with nothing but the wind and the ship's engine to fill her head puts her in a certain kind of mood. She makes out the vague shape of the hangar and wonders if Eustace is still standing around there, looking up at her. Then again, she wouldn't be overly surprised if he'd already decided to leave. ]
It isn't so bad up here, actually. It's peaceful. Lots of space to clear the head.
[ Things she would've thought he'd like... After a moment's thought, she engages the ship's cruise control and lifts her bracelet to take a picture of the view. ]
Quick. Say cheese!
[ Snap goes the camera... It doesn't matter because he won't show up in the picture anyway, but it's the thought that counts. She sends the picture to him before taking control of the speedship again and bringing it back around toward the hangar. ]
[ Sorry to disappoint, but he (predictably) keeps his mouth firmly closed and just continues staring up at the sky. Is that dot Ema...
It's a strangely picturesque photo though, a view of the city he hasn't seen before. Not nice enough to make him want to plop his own butt in the speedship, but enough to make him nostalgic for the skydoms and the adventures he's had on the Grandcypher. ]
It's nice, up in the sky.
[ If he sounds a little wistful, it's only partially a figment of her imagination. He certainly looks like the same old Eustace by the time she finally makes it back to the hangar, though maybe the more surprising thing is that he's still loitering around and not already halfway back home. ]
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[ His eyes are watering at the thought of having to look at it for an extended period of time. ]
But fine. Were you planning on learning now?
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I don't have much else to do.
Come whenever you like. I have this manual to work through, anyway.
The paint job has its quirks, but it isn't all bad. The nose art really speaks to me.
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[ Time to get a headstart on that manual. ]
You mean her scribbles?
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[ She isn't denying that they look like shit... ]
When pilots add nose art to their planes, it's usually of something that will remind them of home or inspire them to come back safely.
Maybe the practice is different in your world, but I'm sure her sentiment wasn't far off.
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[ It's bully Beatrix hours 24/7 with him... ]
More likely she didn't want the two of us to feel left out.
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Unnecessary, I gather, but cute.
[ It's almost hard to imagine someone bright and sentimental enough to paint a vehicle this way hanging out with Eustace... but it's nice knowing he had at least one person keeping him in mind. ]
Anyway, it's reading time.
See you when I see you.
[ She sets to studying the manual, sinking into the cockpit seat and slowly flipping through pages with enough focus to drown out the infrequent commotion of the hangar. She probably won't notice Eustace's arrival until he makes his presence known. ]
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He watches her for two whole seconds before finally leaning over to rap her gently on the head. ]
Figured it out already?
[ Maybe he can just stand off to the side and do nothing.... ]
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Purely out of surprise, which is probably obvious from the way she jolts in place hard enough to shake the speedship on its supports. A split second later, she registers his voice on top of the fluffy ears poking out from over the manual, and she quickly retracts said manual. ]
Sorry! You surprised me... [ She frowns mildly and leans toward him over the lip of the cockpit. ] You really shouldn't sneak around like that.
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At least he doesn't look angry when the manual's finally pulled away, even if one hand reaches up to rub at his nose. ]
I'll knock next time.
[ And not on her head next time, since he clearly needs to put more distance between them to reduce the risk of injury. Next time she might poke out an eyeball and then where will they be?
Right back at square one, that's where.]Any questions?
[ How far....did she make it in that manual...? ]
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There's plenty on how to pilot the thing, but not much on safety features. Is there a parachute? An ejection seat?
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You shouldn't be high enough off the ground to need a parachute, but I can ask for one.
[ Considering he's the one that got her this thing, it's his responsibility to make sure she doesn't crash and die. ]
I don't recall Beatrix making use of any ejection seat when she crashed [ how promising ] but I doubt it would make much of a difference.
[ He stares at Ema, frowning. ]
What exactly are you planning on doing that you would need both of those things?
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Flying in the sky? I could... I don't know, run into a bird? Get run over by one of these other things?
[ She flaps the manual around vaguely at the other stupidly large vehicles in the hangar before sighing. ]
But don't get me a parachute. I'm sure there are better things to ask for. If this thing held up for Beatrix, I'm sure it'll hold up for me.
[ She doesn't want to think about Eustace trading an entire sex just for a dumb parachute... He's already giving her this speedship. And why? Because she briefly expressed interest in trying to fly the Grandcypher once? It's almost thoughtful enough to hurt.
She gazes at him for a bit longer, her eyes softening. And then she reaches up and takes her glasses off, only to stick them on Eustace's head. She releases her half-ponytail and promptly jams the supplied helmet on her head (she and Beatrix are mostly the same size, it seems) and turns back to him. ]
How do I look?
[ She assumes stupid... ]
i wish i could put those glasses on his face but he doesn't have normal ears, stupid
If you're about to get run over by one of those other things, a parachute isn't going to save you.
[ Those hulking space machines are ginormous? They are but tiny ants in comparison to the gundams. Also yeah she looks kind of stupid, but in a cute way? He probably looks just as stupid with a pair of pink-tinted glasses hanging lopsidedly off his head so they can match for once. ]
Like you care about your safety.
[ Which is a GOOD thing, thanks very much!! Please don't mind him as he taps his knuckles very gently against the side of the helmet. Heh. ]
Does this mean you're ready to try and fly the ship?
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Actually, the control mechanisms aren't as foreign as I thought they would be. A couple extra levers compared to what I'm used to, but I've already looked them up.
[ Being able to drive manual, as they do in
JapanCalifornia, is finally paying off. Also, she reaches out to adjust her glasses on Eustace's head so that they're nice and level. Do not sport those chic scientific shades in such a sloppy manner, sir. ]I figure it's do or die, scientifically speaking. Unless you'd like to give me that demonstration after all?
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It's all yours.
[ Sometimes you just gotta drop a person in the deep end and let them figure things out on their own. Nothing like good old-fashioned practical hands-on (and life-threatening) experience to really drill the basics into a person. That doesn't stop him from peering into the cockpit one more time, assessing her positioning - fine - and the placement of her hands and feet against all levers and pedals - also fine.
Is he still worried? A little bit, but presumably Ema is practical enough not to immediately jam her foot down on the gas pedal and zoom halfway across the island before he can even blink. ]
Whenever you're ready.
[ He will just...step aside a few feet so he doesn't get caught in the crossfire. ]
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Anyway, since he is set on remaining hands-off on anything even remotely fun, it's time to fake it 'til she makes it. She mutters vaguely to herself as she reviews the layout of the cockpit, tagging each knob and lever with her fingers as she names it. If it seems like she's being a little neurotic about this it's because, again, she could feasibly die, and she is not exactly famous for her hand-eye coordination. But hands-on experience is indeed the best teacher, and you know what, death is barely real around here anyway.
One last thing. Ema takes a moment to tip-tap at her bracelet and request an audio connection with Eustace. ]
I assume this thing doesn't have a black box, so you'll have to do.
[ While he's accepting/rejecting that, she slides her goggles on, revvs the engine up (??), and settles her hands and feet in the appropriate positions. It's been some time since she's driven anything, but it all still feels somewhat familiar — which is still odd, being that this is a plane from a different world, but she'll have time to think about coincidental engineering later.
The hearty, growling thrum of the engine is invigorating and, she has to admit, encouraging. She eases off the brake and into first gear (or whatever its equivalent would be), a triumphant smile cutting across her face when the speedship doesn't immediately stall and/or careen forward and eat shit, instead peacefully pulling out of its spot in the hangar. She drives for the exit and successfully does not run Eustace over as she makes her way to the runway (or whatever space serves as a runway, who even knows what the hangar's layout looks like).
She takes a lap, feeling out the speedship's controls and handling as well as she can while still grounded. When she's satisfied, she drives to the end of the runway, turns the plane around, and prepares for takeoff.
So, like, the only kind of aircraft Ema's been on is your commercial jumbo jet. You know, the kind that has to go a billion mph, scientifically speaking, before it can manage to get into the sky. With that in mind, she is not jamming her foot down on the gas pedal and zooming halfway across the island... but she is carefully applying her feet to the pedals so that she can shift up to the highest gear possible in the amount of runway provided.
The speedship, being a speedship, is very fast. But Ema being Ema, backing down is not an option. If anything, she leans into it, her focus sharpening to a fierce point. The speedship achieves alarming speed before she finally angles its nose upward and it rockets into the sky, narrowly avoiding becoming a bullet into the side of a building. And now she's zooming halfway across the island.
bye, see you on voice ]
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Even the hum of the ship sounds familiar, lightly crackling through the bracelet speaker while also echoing through his ears. He's content to watch her as she slowly hovers her way through the rest of the hangar, following behind with one hand loosely gripping the glasses on her head and only stopping so he can stand at the open doorway and watch her take off, blurring into the distance and then into a dot that shoots into the sky.
After about ninety seconds of nothing but whooshing air - and no sign of metal and wood splintering against the ground or the nearest building - he thinks it's probably safe enough to pipe up. ]
Still alive?
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It seems like a sturdy vehicle, far from liable to fall apart at a single inept touch, but she still handles the controls gingerly. Nothing like being fatally high in the sky to make her appreciate the well-being of her vehicle.
When Eustace's calm voice pipes up, it's grounding, but also a little too calm for her to relate to at the moment. ]
I don't see how you're so calm about this. This is terrifying!
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I'm not the one in the ship.
[ And he's trying very hard not to imagine what it would be like, because the thought of being jammed into that small cockpit (again) with not even a single railing between him and his new future career as a furry pancake on the ground is deeply unsettling. Hence why she is piloting the ship and not him.
Though, maybe she shouldn't be piloting it either based on her reaction. He squints up at the sky again and predictably sees nothing. ]
How fast are you going? Slow down if it's that terrifying.
[ Or simply stop flying the thing immediately and park it back in the hanger so a mysterious unnamed character can casually commit arson one day in the nebulous future. ]
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She mutters vaguely about units of measurement, followed by the faint mechanical sounds of pedals pushed and levers shifted as she continues to decrease the speed of the ship anyway. That is, until the speedship begins to wobble ominously, at which point she kicks the speed back up, reaching some sort of stable flight speed.
Finally feeling like she's reached a safe (if still somewhat blistering) constant, she breathes a sigh of relief. It's fine, this is fine. ]
Okay. Everything's under control.
[ She chances a peek over the side of the cockpit. She isn't terribly high up. Enough to definitely die if she falls out, but she's starting to feel comfortable that she won't, barring some freak accident. ]
You said these ships are used for racing? What's the mortality rate in your average race?
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Not sure. Not high enough to get racing competitions shut down.
[ Then again, maybe that has more to do with the prize money that comes with winning the famed Platinum Sky Cup than the possible risk of gruesome death via speedship crash. Either way, he's never been interested enough to even think about signing up. His feet will stay firmly on the ground, thanks.
While she's off sailing across the sky, he takes the glasses off his head and holds them in front of his eyes, squinting through the lenses. Hmm. ]
The piloting itself should be fine. Most of the reported injuries come from various gadgets the racers attach to their ships.
[ He will not be elaborating on that unless prompted. ]
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Ema peeks out ahead and finds that she's flying over dense forest. Is there anything interesting hidden beneath those lush canopies, she wonders...? But she doesn't wonder for too long, because the thick fog blanketing the horizon is rapidly approaching, and even she isn't headstrong enough to try to blast through it (without preparation). She steers the ship back around, tracing a wide circle back toward town. ]
Gadgets. Like weapons?
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Ema sounds less panicked now, in any case. Probability of imminent death: decreasing by the second. Still, he loiters around the hanger, wanting to confirm for himself that she makes it back in one piece, regardless of how long it takes. ]
Something like that. Speedship races, at least the big ones, are as much a test of pilot skill as they are about how many dirty tricks you can pull on your opponents.
[ Another reason why he refuses to ever enter one. ]
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[ Real life M*rio K*rt in the sky... It's a miracle it doesn't become a slaughterhouse, but in a way, that's reassuring. It has to mean the speedships are built to take a beating.
By now, she feels relaxed enough to start steering around for the sake of it, weaving loosely and pulling up to a high enough altitude to get a scenic view of the city. She looks down at the motley collection of buildings they reluctantly call home, and having it all reduced to a tranquil blob with nothing but the wind and the ship's engine to fill her head puts her in a certain kind of mood. She makes out the vague shape of the hangar and wonders if Eustace is still standing around there, looking up at her. Then again, she wouldn't be overly surprised if he'd already decided to leave. ]
It isn't so bad up here, actually. It's peaceful. Lots of space to clear the head.
[ Things she would've thought he'd like... After a moment's thought, she engages the ship's cruise control and lifts her bracelet to take a picture of the view. ]
Quick. Say cheese!
[ Snap goes the camera... It doesn't matter because he won't show up in the picture anyway, but it's the thought that counts. She sends the picture to him before taking control of the speedship again and bringing it back around toward the hangar. ]
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It's a strangely picturesque photo though, a view of the city he hasn't seen before. Not nice enough to make him want to plop his own butt in the speedship, but enough to make him nostalgic for the skydoms and the adventures he's had on the Grandcypher. ]
It's nice, up in the sky.
[ If he sounds a little wistful, it's only partially a figment of her imagination. He certainly looks like the same old Eustace by the time she finally makes it back to the hangar, though maybe the more surprising thing is that he's still loitering around and not already halfway back home. ]
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