fandomhigh | Multicultural Fair! [The Gym

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!event: multi-cultural fair

Multicultural Fair! [The Gym - After Classes]

The benefit of doing something like this for the second time meant that Joan and Turtle had a much easier time of setting things up since they knew what worked and what didn't.

Turtle had, once again, provided decorations from Turtle & Canary. There was the requisite refreshment table, though it was primarily there to provide beverages, since most of the booths featured culturally appropriate food.

After set up was complete, Joan and Turtle sat down to catch up while they waited for the fair to begin.

[~~wait for the ocd or Turtle will kick you in the shin~~ OCD up! No shins were harmed in the making of this post!]

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"Full regalia," Karla agreed, though it hadn't struck her as such before. But Dinah was completely correct.

"To Kaeleer..." she said, teasing Dinah a bit. "To a Run. You know...one of those obstacle courses you fly through back home...?"

"Oh!" Dinah had to put her souvlaki down to clap her hands together, looking gleeful and pleading. "One of the big ones? One of the really fun ones? The dangerous ones?"

"Would I invite you to go flying and then give you a baby course?" Karla said, laughing. "You'd beat me up if I tried!"

"Both Runs are very dangerous, though the Blood Run is the less deadly of the two. It has the lighter Winds in it. But we'll be flying it in Kaeleer, which is closer to the Darkness, making it more dangerous than if we flew it in Terreill."

Dinah grinned, thrilled, and sat down in one of the chairs set near the web for the memory-sharing. "Yes. So. Cool." More flying! Not just practice!

Since Dinah had done this before, Karla skipped right over the introduction. Her hand was cut and the web activated practically before Dinah had finished speaking.

"The Blood Run," Karla said proudly, gesturing at the walls of ice that shot up hundreds of feet in the air. Though they were surrounded by towering ice on either side, the air was warm around them.

"Whooooooooaaaa." Dinah caught her breath at the image, no, more-than-image again, the memory of what it felt like to be there from Karla's mind. She looked over at Karla and beamed. "I never get over how real these feel!"

"Isn't it great?" Karla asked, laughing. "And I'm glad to be using that bit of Craft for this. Usually, we use it for mind-Healing and the landscapes tend to be much less pleasant."

Which sobered her a bit. "So," she said in a very casual, so-not-changing-the-subject kind of way, "the three Realms of my world are completely separate entities. Tereille, the Realm of Light, is here," she drew a line in the dirt at her feet with a toe. "Kaeleer, the Shadow Realm, is here," another line, this one below the first, "and then Hell, the Dark Realm, is below them both." A third line. "Hell is the darkest Realm, therefore the most powerful. The Runs are dangerous even at the lightest, but in Hell, death goes from a possibility to a probability. Terreille is the lightest, so the Runs are correspondingly weaker there. But 'weaker' in no way implies 'not dangerous.' The Runs are one of the very few things to exist in all three Realms."

Dinah caught that, remembering Tahiri, and reminded herself to mention that to Karla when they had a second alone soon.

"Hunh. Okay. So you've got like alternate worlds, that are really really similar, and all connected," Dinah said slowly. "Got it."

"The Runs are the only naturally occuring element that exists in all three Realms," Karla continued. "The only other thing that does is SaDiablo Hall. That's because the Territories of Dhemlan and Askavi exist in both Kaeleer and Terreille, and he has a Hall built in both Dhemlans. And one in Hell, because he rules there. The Keep also exists in both of the living Realms. But you'll have to wait to see that when you actually come to visit."

Karla took a deep breath. It was a lot to cram into just a few sentences. "Okay, lesson time done. Why don't you take a moment to...oh, I don't know. Try out your wings, maybe?"

Hopefully that surprise would make up for the geography lecture.

Oh heck yes.

Dinah dove forward, feeling wind on her face, with a screech of joy.

Karla wasn't sure why she hadn't expected that. This was Dinah after all. "Whoa! whoa! Careful!" she said, launching herself into the air. "This is a memory, but it'll still hurt like a bitch if you hit something."

Unlike the wings that Karla had brought home, these were real; a part of Dinah's 'body.' They were black and membranous, and very, very strong. "Your coloring is wrong, but you could still pass for an Eyrien," Karla said proudly. "You share their love for the sky."

Dinah grinned at her, floating for a moment, enjoying the feeling that these wings were really hers, the strength inherent in it, and said, "Okay, I'll be careful. Promise." The memory was carrying her along anyway, as it had when she'd ridden the unicorn all those months ago. The canyons of ice opening up before her, strange lights in the shadows, gleaming away; warm currents across her skin....

Dinah really was Eyrien in her soul; Karla was certain of it. Rather than say anything else, she followed Dinah's lead and let the memory overtake them. *Thank you, Prothvar,* she sent, though he wouldn't be able to hear.

She grabbed Dinah's hand and dove into the canyon.

Free fall. Hawk fall. They seemed almost to drift for a moment on the wind, before gravity sent then plummeting downward. She reveled in the speed, the adrenaline pumping through her veins. Ice walls sped up to meet them until Karla opened her wings, caught the Rose thread and took off down the Blood Run.

For almost anyone else, she'd stick to the White. But Dinah--Dinah deserved the Rose.

"Ohhhh..."

Dinah felt the rush as everything fell away for a second, fearful for just a moment, then the air caught them and she was being pulled along in Karla's wake, blood pumping in her ears and pulse racing as they flashed past columns of reflected icy light.

This is awesome!

They danced on the Winds, twirlung, spinning, dropping from one Wind and catching another. Karla lead the dance, probing ahead to untangle the Winds and choose the threads that would keep them relatively safe in the center of the canyon. Dinah could probably feel when they switch Winds--the very air itself would change, sudden currents would buffet them, causing then to gain or lose altitude, or skim across the surface of the ice walls, so close their breaths turned to mist. And the darker the Wind, the more wild the power, the harder to tame the air and stay aloft.

The greater the exhilaration, too.

Dinah was always going to love this as much as the first time she stepped into the air with Peter; no, more, because she was doing it under her own power, seemingly.

The gasps at every plummet were matched by every squeeee! as the current caught her, and the twirl as another breeze would flow by and send her careening to follow Karla. Not exhausted yet, no, not yet please, a while longer, just a while longer....

Of course they weren't done yet! Karla wouldn't do that to Dinah. But she was about to change things up a bit.

"You're turn!" she shouted, letting go of Dinah's hand. "This Wind goes steady for a bit. You lead!" She pointed in the distance, where a large ice wall thrust up out of the ground to meet them. "Till there. Go!"

"Yes! Yaaaay--" Dinah's cheer echoed off the ice walls, and she plunged downward, then let an air current carry her up in a gliding spiral to the top of the canyon.

Freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

"This way!" She spread her wings as far as she could, watching the sides, and swooped from side to side, unable to believe how awesome it was.

Another dip, and then she remembered folding her borrowed wings back, took a breath, and dove.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee....!"

Karla slipped from the Yellow to the Opal, diving down towards Dinah. The darker Wind was faster and would let her get below the other girl if necessary, spin out a net of Sapphire power to catch her if she misjudged her dive or caught and aircurrent poorly. If that happened, the shock would almost certainly jar her out of the illusion.

She didn't think that would happen, but Dinah liked playing things close to the edge.

Faster and faster and faster and then fwoop Dinah spread her wings, and zoooooomed upward with a change of angle, chortling and doing a somersault.

"Karla! This is wonderful! Whoops.." Dinah had to correct there for another current, one that had her swerving downward, still laughing. "I love this!"

"I couldn't tell," Karla deadpanned. "You seem fairly stoic about the whole thing."

She dropped from the Opal down to the Yellow, so as to not end up spiralling beyond her on a collision course with the ground almost a mile below she couldn't stop. The far well kept zooming closer and as it did, the Winds got rougher and more turbulent. "You're doing wonderfully," she called, "but don't let your guard down now!"

Even someone as reckless as Dinah got tired, though, and started to slow down. "Whooooooa." A current grabbed her, and tried to spin her out; Dinah corrected and somersaulted, then settled ofr a glide.

Gliiiiiiiide. And the far wall came into view even closer.

SWOOSH and Dinah gasped, feeling how the winds wanted to smash her into the side of the canyon. Ziiiing and they tugged at her wings again. Still holding on by her fingernails, though, to the feeling of flight and joy.

Karla flew forward and offered her hand, intending to drop them down to the White Wind. Dinah was getting tired--and so was she, truly--and it would be best to finish out the Run this way. No reason to crash this close to the end.

The ice wall was so close now, looming until it was the only thing in her vision. Karla angled upward, getting closer and closer to slamming into the mountain, waiting until the last second before breaking free of the Winds and rising up and over the edge. She landed on the top, panting, but grinning at the same time.

"Not...over...yet!" she said. "Have to get...there!" She pointed at the other side of the ice wall. What appeared to be a giant slide had been cut into the side of it and there, in the distance, was a small campfire. To the side of them were long, flat sheets of ice. "Ready to ride one down?"

Dinah took her hand with some relief; she was slowing a little, but she followed Karla as closely as she could as they soared upward and then flopped over the edge. At Karla's question, she laughed, caught her breath, and said, "Ohhhhhh yes." She squeezed Karla's hand, and sent, As beautiful as New Gotham.

At that, Karla spun around to give Dinah a quick, fierce hug. *Thank you,* she sent back, psychic thread flavored with happiness. *I'm glad you like my home.*

When both she and Dinah had caught their breath, Karla grabbed one of the ice sheets, strengthening it with Craft. It a way, it was much like the roller coaster they'd ridden in New Gotham; the slide was easily that high, though the drop was steeper. At the end, it curved back up like a ski jump.

"Be prepared to fly," Karla warned as she got on the front of the ice sheet. She tossed a grin back over her shoulder. "This is gonna be intense!"

Multicultural Fair! [The Gym - After Classes]

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