fandomhigh | Flight Club meeting (after Comparative Religions class)

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Flight Club meeting (after Comparative Religions class)

Anakin stood outside the Flight Club shed and waited for the rest of the club to arrive. When they had, he cleared his throat and used the Force to amplify his voice over the chatter of the crowd.

"Today we're going to get to fly Senator Amidala's Baby." He smiled. "Some of us will be actually breaking atmosphere and flying the real thing. I'll be taking the first four students with real-time space flight experience who come up to me over to where the Baby's docked outside of town. The rest of you will get the try it in the flight sim, which has been programmed with the specs for a Naboo Royal Starship. It flies a lot differently than the Starfighter we tried last week--there's more mass to it, so it has a slower reaction time. There also aren't any weapons on the Baby, as it's a diplomatic vessel rather than a combat-equipped one."

He gestured at Cally. "Cally, one of our resident mechanical geniuses, is going to be manning the flight sim today. Try not to push all of the buttons and jam it up when you're flying it--it'll make both of us cranky."

He looked down at his notes. "For Parents' Weekend I've let the Student Council know that the flight sim will be open so you can show off your skills to anyone who might be coming. They'll also be welcomed to try it."

He folded up his paper. "That's it for now, unless you have any questions. Oh--I'm putting out a piece of paper for suggestions of aircraft programs to include in the sim--I don't want to keep using crafts that only I'm familiar with--it's not fair to the rest of you. Thanks!"

[OOC: Let me set up some anal-retentive comment threads before you come play.

ETA: All set up. Yay!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Kiki, seeing everyone clustered around the real ship - the thought of which scares her a bit - sits down hesitatntly in the simulator. Having been teaching broom-flying last week, this it the first time she's had a chance to try the sim.

She gingerly takes the controls and begins to move them. The simulator gives the impression that the world about her is lurching sickeningly, and she tries to steady her hands. Unfortunately, the jerk of her hand sends the sim-ship flopping sideways rapidly, the spin making her sick to her stomach.

Kiki winces as the simulator tells her she's just crashed. Badly.

"Ooooops," she murmurs, hesitantly taking the controls again.

*hits the reset button, smiling*

Careful there. You need to be more gentle with the controls.

"Erhm... thanks. I've never flown anything other than a broom before, and this? Even though it's a simulation, I'm pretty nervous to even touch the controls," Kiki nods, biting her lip.

She grips the controls a little more firmly and finds that this actually makes her hands tremble less. She attempts the liftoff again, and, although she again feels motion-sick and it is not at all smooth, the simulator tells her she's managed to get off the ground this time.

Kiki holds the craft in a completely straight line, not yet able to bring herself to try a turn.

Hey, don't worry, you're now officially better at flight sim than me. *laugh*

I'm totally not in this for the flying, actually. *scratches her head*

"R-really?" Kiki flicks her eyes away from the screen just long enough to glance at Cally, then focuses back on the screen, petrified of deviating at all from a tense, straight course. Her hands are gripping the controls tightly. "I mean, your advice worked, it sounds like you know quite a lot about flying something like this..."

Well, gentle is the key when it comes to all ships, really. You floor it too hard on a viper and you can... *pauses, realizing that "liquify yourself" might not exactly be the best term to share at this point* hurt yourself.

I just know that from fiddling with the controls. Easy does it, unless you're ripping out a fuel line.

"Gah... what?" Kiki says, her eyes getting even wider. "This seems to real that it's tough to remember it's a simulator."

Kiki pauses and then says, "Oh no. I just realized I have to land this thing."

*bites her lip*

Well, you're on your own there... I have no idea what to do. I just turn the flight sim on and off.

"Ohhh boy..." Kiki says. She holds steady for a few more seconds, then decides to try the landing.

[ooc: below, to tie up both threads.]

"Go Kiki!" Rogue says as she wanders over. "You're doing better than I will, I'm sure."

Kiki jumps a little, startled, and the sim-craft swerves abruptly. With a squeak, she pulls the sim-craft controls back to dead center and holds it there, all her muscles tense.

"Yeah," she gives a nervous laugh, "thanks - I feel like I'm going to crash it every second. This thing feels huge."

[OMG, that came out WAY dirtier than it was supposed to sound. Ooops.]

"Oh, crap, sorry." Rogue frowns. "You're doin' fine. Besides, it IS big. Senator Amidala's ship is huge."

"It's no problem," Kiki says. "But how am I supposed to land this?"

Kiki pulls at the controls, and initially, it seems to be going okay. Then a large flashing warning light appears on the screen, something about a hyper-acute angle of descent, and Kiki completely loses it. She pulls the craft's nose up too hard, and the warning lights double - there's another one flashing something about speed, another about fuel consumption, and there's about three or four proximity alarms going off.

"EEK!" Kiki has time to shriek, dropping the controls and covering her face. Peeking through her fingers, the simulator screen is filled with a video of a spectacular explosion - fireballs galore.

The screen goes blank for a moment, and then appears the words, "GAME OVER, MAN! GAME OVER!"

Kiki stares at it. "Oops," she repeats, faintly.

Hey, you did pretty good up until the landing. *smiles at Kiki* That's what the sim is for, so you can get used to that sort of thing without crashing and dying.

Climbing out of the sim on slightly shaky knees, Kiki answers, "Lucky thing, too. Professor Amidala would have my head - if there were any left of it after the crash, that is."

She smiles at Rogue and Cally. "Either of you like to give it a whirl?"

*steps back and shakes her head* Not me. I don't think I'd even get the takeoff right. I'm strictly the ground crew.

Rogue smiles nervously. "I'll try." She slides into the seat, gripping the controls with white knucles. "Alrighty then."

*hits the reset button*

You're ready to go. Remember, gentle is your friend.

Rogue swallows, and gently pulls the controls back, lifting the ship in the air. She's almost too gentle, and the ship bouces along the virtual runway before it actually start flying. She grins as it glides along the air.

"Holy shit!" Because the ship isn't high enough, Rogue has to dodge a tree rather roughly, rubbing the edge of the ship on the branches. She pulls up and heads up higher.

"First try," smiles Kiki admiringly, "nice job!"

"I've spent a lot of time watchin' people fly similar planes." She concentrates on the sim while she's talking. "It doesn't seem too hard, unless you're avoidin' enemy fire or somethin'."

You're doing great. Just keep an eye out for the evil penguins.

Kiki giggles. "Are evil penguins common when flying things like this?" she asks.

You should always keep an eye out for evil penguins. They're like ninja, you never know when they'll show up.

Flight Club meeting (after Comparative Religions class)

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