fandomhigh | Flight and Flying [Tuesday, July 7, 4th period]

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. Before we begin in the simulator, though, you need to recite the following pledge: I solemnly swear, upon threat of detention and possible bodily harm, to listen and follow Master Skywalker's instructions, not to bring food or drink within ten feet of the simulators, and to absolutely never start a fight anywhere inside the flight shed, as Master Skywalker will let my head get cracked open on something metallic, like I deserve, and then throw me into detention for the entirety of my time at Fandom High."

He was dead serious, too.

After the pledges had been recited to his satisfaction, Anakin 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."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Peter had already known he was going to be a TA for the class, so he skipped that part and went on to keeping an eye on everyone. Mostly Claire.

Anakin walked over. "Did you know about the other kid who can fly without a ship?" he murmured, nodding his head at Danny.

"Haven't met him," Peter admitted.

"You're both freaking me out," Anakin said, eyes sparkling. "Normal people need ships."

"Never claimed to be normal," Peter pointed out.

"Around here, it'd be a novelty," Anakin replied.

Peter couldn't argue that. "How's your kid?"

Anakin's entire face lit up. "Perfect," he said, completely unbiased.

"Got a picture?" Peter asked.

"Do tauntauns smell vile?" Anakin replied, pulling out a portable holoprojector from his belt pouch and flipping it on. A picture of a tiny baby in a pink hat with enormous blue eyes stared back at them.

Peter peered down at it. "Awwww. And there's a hat!"

"They come with them on this planet!" Anakin said. "It's very peculiar."

"What, like out of the womb?" Peter asked.

Re: Talk to Anakin

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"Peter!"

Claire was happy to see him. Partly because she didn't know he was there to keep an eye on her. Mostly because he was Peter.

"I have a present for you from my trip last week."

"You didn't have to," Peter said, as he went in to give Claire a hug. It was genetic, after all.

"I know, but I wanted to," Claire said, hugging back tightly. "Everyone should have a gift from another planet."

"Besides you?" Peter teased.

Claire poked his shoulder and stuck her tongue out. "Brat. I haven't seen you in ages. Did you know Nathan was in town last weekend?"

Peter couldn't help the instinctive facepalm. "Yeah, I ran into him."

"Sounds like it wan't a good meeting," Claire noticed. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Peter said, hoping looking cute would help change the subject. "How was your trip?"

Claire decided to let it go, mostly because she didn't want to get into what she and Nathan had discussed.

"It was great. I went rock climbing with Dinah and on a thoppter ride with Jon and we got to ride a giant sandworm."