Flight and Flying [Thursday, July 12, 3rd period]

[sith_happened]

Anakin stood in front of the door of the flight shed and waited for the workshop students to arrive, his hands tucked into the sleeves of his dark robes.

"Welcome," he said, giving them a nod. "I'm Master Skywalker, and I'll be your instructor for flight this session. I'm from a space-based culture, so my expertise is primarily in those sorts of aircraft, but we'll also be working with the way people fly on this planet. We'll begin with simulators and if you convince me of your attention to detail and your ability not to die in stupid ways, you'll eventually be allowed to fly the real things." He pointed at Rory with a soft smile. "This is Rory Gilmore, and she'll be the TA for this workshop. Rory's from this planet and time period, and she took this workshop last year and is now familiar with most of the aircraft we'll be using." His smile took a turn for the teasing. "She's mostly here to make sure I don't make you all cry with my ridiculous expectations."

That was probably more true than he'd like to admit.

He waved a hand lazily at the doors and they slid open to reveal two podracing simulators sitting side-by-side.

"All right," he said, pointing at the controls, "everything you need to fly a podracer is located on the handlebars. You push them forward to go faster, pull back to slow down, and pull one or the other towards you to turn." He pointed at the buttons in the center of the console. "That controls the engines," he said. "You push the big button to light them up, and on these two models, you can push it again for an extra burst of speed." He looked at the class. "Which burns your fuel very, very quickly, so save that until you need it."

He raised an eyebrow. "Normally, these are attached to enormous engines--6 or 7 meter long engines--but these aren't real, and the simulator won't really give you the noise that's normally associated with the podracer. But the simulator has been programmed to go very, very quickly." He pointed to the simulator on the left-hand side. "This one, properly piloted, can get up to 950 kilometers an hour. The other can get up to 900. To fly a podracer at those kinds of speed requires iron nerves and split-second reflexes."

He clasped his hands in front of him. "Today you can take a turn learning how the simulators work, then pair up to fly against each other." He gave them a slightly predatory smile. "If you choose, you can fly against me. I built the real version of this podracer," he patted the left-hand simulator, "and used it to win a race when I was nine years old. And I won't give you a head start."

Comments

Talk to the TA!

[sith_happened]

She's here to translate from Anakin into Sane Person.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory was here, and she'd brought enough coffee for the entire class.

She'd be happy to share, but just as content if no one else drank it, really.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[sith_happened]

Anakin gave her a small smile every time he glanced over at her.

He was sneaky like that.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory'd already set aside a cup of black coffee for him, which she was patiently waiting for him to come get from her.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[sith_happened]

He wandered over while a few students were getting the hang of the simulator on their own.

"Thank you," he said, picking up the mug and taking a sip.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Welcome," she said, smiling. "You haven't reduced anyone to tears yet."

Re: Talk to the TA!

[sith_happened]

"The day's still young," Anakin commented with a wry quirk of his lips.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"I have cookies in my bag, too, in case that happens," she told him. "Keep it quiet, though."

Re: Talk to the TA!

[sith_happened]

"I don't like sharing," Anakin said, nodding.

Because she didn't know that or something.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Really? You? I hadn't noticed any possessive streaks or anything."

Re: Talk to the TA!

[sith_happened]

"Only when it comes to important things," Anakin told her, taking another sip from his cup.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Like coffee," she said solemnly.

Re: Talk to the TA!

[sith_happened]

"And pie," Anakin agreed.

Re: Individual flights

[the_merriest]

Rikku bit her lip nervously and scooped up the Judekitty. "Uh, is there any way you can ... ? I don't want to take him on the, uh, sim thing, 'cause he'd freak out and I'd ... probably get scratched up." She flailed. "Not that he scratches! He's not psycho or anything, honest."

The Judekitty blinked at Rory and yawned, looking far too mellow to be psycho.

Re: Individual flights

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"Sure!" Rory said, holding out her arms to take the Judekitty. "Student, not a pet, right?"

Re: Individual flights

[the_merriest]

"Thanks," Rikku grinned. "Yeah. Jude Lizowski? Flippy hair, wears a toque, skateboards a lot?" She gestured vaguely to his height and the flippiness of the hair.

Re: Individual flights

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"I thought I was him for a weekend!" Rory said in happy recognition. "Hi, Jude! Yeah, Anakin was a cat last week, so this is so not new to me."

Re: Individual flights

[the_merriest]

The Judekitty mrrred happily in Rory's direction.

"You did?" Rikku laughed. "Wow, Fandom's so ... no, you know, I can't even get surprised any more. And oh, wow, really? He turned into a kitty once before, but it was like a few months ago. I'm kinda hoping he goes back soon."

Re: Individual flights

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"He probably will. If you ever met Zero Hopeless-Savage, she turned into a cat like every few weeks, and always changed back," Rory promised. She bit her lip. "How are you, anyway?"

She wasn't going to push, but her tone made it clear that she wasn't asking in a small-talk way.

Re: Individual flights

[the_merriest]

"You don't think it's gonna happen that often, do you?" said Rikku nervously, looking at Jude. "'Cause it's kinda ..." An enormous pain when you want to make out with someone, which she was not gonna say to Rory. At all. "... annoying?" she managed without too much of a blush.

The Judekitty made a humphing sort of noise as if to say she didn't know the half of it.

"Oh! I'm ..." She stopped for a moment before giving the standard who-me-I'm-fine response and bit her lip. "I'm, uh. I'm getting out of bed and all. I'll be okay, it just ... sucks."

Re: Individual flights

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

Rory smiled gently. "Probably won't happen a lot. Never happened to me, anyway. And...you let me know if you need anything? Even if it's just an ear for a little while. Getting out of bed is better than most people would do."

Re: Individual flights

[the_merriest]

"Okay," she said, nodding. "Timing kinda sucked, with everything going on, you know? But ... I mean, he's still here. Just kinda fluffier."

She reached out to scritch Jude's ears and smiled wistfully. "And ... thanks. I kinda didn't, for a couple days. But maybe that's kinda okay, yeah?"

Re: Individual flights

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

"It's normal. Are you eating?" she checked. That was the first thing to go for her. "How about sleeping?"

Re: Individual flights

[the_merriest]

She nodded. "I, uh, kinda wasn't, at first, with the eating, but Jude was kinda ... good about just being like 'hey, what if I get food and leave it over here' and ... like that. I didn't really sleep last night, though. I mean, it's ... I tried, I just couldn't."

Re: Individual flights

[auroryborealis.livejournal.com]

She nodded. "No, I remember. It does get easier, I promise. Keep eating real food. I mostly did the coffee-and-no sleep thing for...way longer than I should have, last year, when he...." She nodded in Anakin's direction. "It just makes it worse. Take care of yourself if you can. And if you can't, let other people. That's the only thing that really helped, for me. And I realize he's a cat, but at least Jude's around for you, if...well, fuzzy."