Ari Riggs (ari_takeoff) wrote in tiberiusswann, @ 2011-03-30 11:36:00 |
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Entry tags: | ari, frankie |
Sunday November 2nd 2008
Who: Ari and Frankie
What: Sass and flying lessons
Where: Outside
When: Mid afternoon
Rating: R for language
Status: In Progress
Ari didn't like looking like an idiot. Having stupid pretty fairy wings made him look stupid, and trying to put on shirts over those stupid pretty fairy wings made him look stupid, and now in flying class he looked stupid. Granted, everyone else was still learning and wobbly and falling on their faces, but that wasn't Ari. He didn't like looking stupid. So he was outside, shirt off and barefoot, hiding on a side of the school that didn't get a lot of traffic. There was a crowd of little critters gathered around watching him, most of them curious and seemingly skeptical.
Standing up on a tree branch, Ari looked down at the ground. Ten feet wasn't that far down. He'd survive if this attempt failed, like all the other ones had. Flexing his fingers, he swallowed, rolling his shoulders. He could do this. He had to do this. "Okay," he said to himself, spreading his wings and then he jumped. And landed hard in the dirt, barely gliding as he came crashing down. "Ow!" he growled, getting to his feet, wiping the streak of dirt off his chest. "Mother FUCKER!"
Frankie had been out for a casual run, when she noticed several rabbits all running around the side of the school. They seemed oddly determined to get somewhere, much like the White Rabbit. And just like Alice, Frankie’s curiosity got the best of her, and she gave chase.
Rounding the corner, she came upon a collection of woodland creatures. They were all looking up, so Frankie followed their field of vision, but then they all quickly looked back to the ground as a young man collided with it. Running forward, Frankie dropped to her knees. “Are you okay?” she asked quickly, ready to call Starbuck to heal the guy when he quickly got to his feet.
---
Oh, great. The only thing worse then falling on his face was having someone watching. Grumbling and cussing, he stepped away from Frankie, running his fingers through his hair. Worse still, it was a hot girl who had seen him crash and burn. Wasn't that just great.
"I'm fine," he growled. "You can go now." A few squirrels chattered in the tree above them, which made Ari glare harder, looking up at them. "Nobody asked you!" he shouted moodily.
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Frankie looked up at the squirrels as they suffered Ari’s wrath, then back to him with a bit of confusion. “Can you talk to them?” she asked. She wondered, what with him being a sprite. It wasn’t uncommon for sprites to have such gifts, same with nymphs like Starbuck. Some of them could communicate with animals.
She got to her feet and brushed off her knees as she did so. “I’ll go if you really want me to, but I could stay and try to help. Up to you. I’ve never been great at flying either, and I was born with my wings.”
---
The glare that had been reserved for the wildlife was now directed at Frankie, and directed hard. He didn't need help from some stupid, know-it-all girl. Folding his arms over his chest, Ari looked her over, skepticism and disapproval all over his teenaged, moody face. "If you suck at flying, what the hell help are you gonna be to me?" he snapped. "I can fuck up fine on my own, obviously." He started stalking off, heading back toward the tree. If she was gonna stand there and watch him look like a retard, then fine. She could watch him make a dick of himself.
Hopping up, he grabbed a branch and hoisted himself up, swinging a leg over and situating himself on the branch. "You can help by moving outta my way. Or stand there... could use something softer to fall on..."
---
Frankie didn’t just stand there, and she didn’t cower under his glare. She was a stubborn, quick tempered Italian fire sprite. He’d have to try a lot harder to scare her off. Shouting at her wouldn’t work.
When Ari climbed back into the tree, Frankie peeled off her hoodie and let it fall to the ground. She stretched her wings a little before using them to fly up to the branch Ari occupied. “Starting up here won’t do you any good. Your wings don’t know the difference between falling and lifting off the ground. You can climb back down. Hurting yourself isn’t necessary.”
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Why this girl had decided to get all show-offy after Ari had already climbed the tree was lost on him. He stared at her for a moment, then sat down on the branch and crossed his arms over his chest. "For someone who sucks at this, you sure look pretty fucking airborne." Still... she was hovering, and he couldn't. And all his teacher was telling him was keep trying, and it would come naturally when it was ready to. "Okay hot shot, since you're apparently so goddamn brilliant, tell me what I'm missing."
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Frankie wobbled a little in the air, and landed in a less than graceful manner, motioning for him to come down to the ground and join her. “I’m not great at it, not the way other sprites are.. well, the ones born with their wings. I can’t flight all that straight, land oddly, and my wings get cramps sometimes mid-flight. I wasn’t able to get much practice until I came here, so the muscles aren’t developed. That’s what you’re struggling with. You couldn’t walk the day you were born, and you can’t fly the day you get wings. They have muscles in them like any other part of your body.. and those muscles need time to get strong. Plus, you don’t have any coordination yet, something else that takes time. You should flap them as much as possible, even when you’re just lying down on your stomach. Practice stretching them, moving them, getting a feel for how they work.”
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Ari scowled at Frankie even harder, mainly because what she was saying made total sense. His wings did cramp easily, and he couldn't even make the proper 'swoosh' noise when he flapped them, which probably meant he was doing it all wrong. "So what you're telling me, basically, is that I need practice." Well that was fucking great. That's what he'd been hearing for a week now. Practice practice practice.
Hopping down from the tree, Ari landed in front of Frankie, staying crouched a moment while his wings flapped to balance him. Standing up, he cocked his head to look at her, arms again crossing themselves broodily over his chest. "So pretty much you're not telling me anything useful, then?"
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“Yeah, basically. Just like anything else in life. You can’t jump in and be awesome at it right off the bat, well, unless you’re a genius or something, I guess they can. The rest of us have to practice.” Frankie had been practicing as much as she could for years, but she still wasn’t all that great at flying. Sure, she managed, but opportunities for practice were limited in a crowded city.
She sighed as he continued on with his dickish display. “I’m telling you that I’ll help you, practice with you, and try to speed up the process. But if you don’t want to learn.. fine.” For someone who hated his wings so much, he seemed really determined to use them. Frankie liked her wings when she didn’t have to worry about humans seeing them and locking her up in some government research lab.
---
'Dickish' was probably the best word to describe Ari. He didn't have malicious intent with his attitude, he just did it to be a severe pain in the ass. And obviously it was working on Frankie, though she hadn't stormed away yet. That in itself was curious. She was cute, but she was weird. "First of all, how the hell can you help me practice something I have to do on my own? And second, why the hell do you care? I mean why do you wanna help me?" Giving her a suspicious eye, Ari leaned away from Frankie. "What's in it for you?"
---
Frankie knew he wasn’t trying to be mean, just putting up a front. Maybe he came from a shitty home or had been hurt by someone he trusted. People in such situations tended to be suspicious and calloused toward others. She wasn’t offended, just annoyed. “There’s nothing in it for me. I thought you might want some help is all. No one was able to help me when I was growing up. I’m the only one with wings. It would have been nice to talk to someone else who had them when I was first learning.”
---
Even better. She was a do-gooder, one of those people that tried helping the world. Ari didn't want to become some pet project for her. "Except you're not helping me, you're just telling me stuff the teachers are already telling me." Still... he wasn't telling her to leave. Despite himself, and his attitude, Frankie was the first person to actually talk to him face to face here, and he was getting pretty lonely being far from home. Even annoying company was company.
"So how long did it take you, then? I mean you've had them your whole life but you said no one ever taught you anything, so how long did it take you to get airborne?"
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“Well, sorry, but I’ve never taught anyone to fly before,” she snapped back at him with a little glare. “Never claimed to be the guru of flight.” He really was a snot. Good thing Frankie had two younger brothers. She was used to dealing with bratty behavior.
“Actually, papa says I was good at flying before I learned to walk. I guess I sorta regressed once it was time to go to school. My parents had to bind my wings everyday with this brace thing. It was really uncomfortable, but it kept them hidden. I was so afraid of someone seeing them that I tried not to use them.” For a while she’d even begged her parents to find someone to remove her wings.
---
Sulking a bit, Ari stayed quiet, staring down at the ground and playing with the grass with his bare toes. It was freezing out here, but he hated wearing shoes, and wearing shirts cramped his wings. Being in a brace must have been awful, though at least her parents had taken a shot at letting her live a normal life. "Mine grew overnight. One night I went to bed, and the next morning I woke up screaming, my back was ripping open. And then I had these." He fluttered them a little, looking back over his shoulder to scowl at them. "I stayed home until we found this place, and then I came here."
Looking up at Frankie, Ari frowned a little before holding out a hand. "Ari," he said dully. "Figure since I whined at you, should at least tell you my name, or whatever."