fandomhigh | Flight and Flying (Friday, May 26, morning)

Anakin stood in front of the Flight Club shed with his hands hidden in the folds of his robe, looking every inch the confident Jedi.

He gave a short nod to the class as they assembled in front of him. "Welcome," he said. "My name is Anakin Skywalker. You can call me Anakin or Master Skywalker--I don't really care." Secretly he was hoping someone would call him Master Skywalker, but he wasn't going to mention that. He looked at the students and continued. "Today, we're going to fly podracers." He cleared his throat and opened the door. "Well, in a simulator, anyway." He gave a small smile to Rory and Sam. "The last one I built was made for, um, much smaller people."

Inside the shed were two 6 foot-long simulators sitting side by side. Anakin walked over to one with evident pride. "Okay," he said, pointing at the controls, "everything you need to fly a podracer is located on its 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 things are attached to giant engines--like 6 or 7 meter long engines--but these aren't real, and the simulator won't really give you the loudness that's normally associated with the podracer. But the simulator has been programmed to go very, very quickly." He pointed to the left-hand simulator. "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. "Okay. Today you can take a turn learning how the simulators work, then I've put you into pairs to fly against each other." He gave them a slightly predatory smile. "And if you'd like, after that you can fly against me. Fair warning, 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."

[OOC: ~~Plz to wait for the amazing OCD...~~ Done! Fly away!]

Oh, and in terms of simulator, mod yourself through whatever twists and turns you think you'd make, especially in the comment where you're by yourself. The modifications that Anakin has made cause the simulator on the left (the one that looks like his podracer) to be much more likely to spin into walls and down canyons and stuff if you don't have super-reflexes--but it's a sim, so you'd only get a "game over" type deal--no real damage.

ETA: He finally noticed that the sim was hinky. Both now work like they should, so you're on equal footing when you face off against each other.

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For some reason Cameron was getting even more nervous. "Leave some for me," he tried to sound cool about it, but decided that steering the conversation away from Molly was probably a good idea. "I actually wanted to ask you something."

"Sure thing," Anakin said, his mood lightening considerably.

Cameron relaxed and forgot about the images of planes being used in all the wrong ways. "I was talking to one of the new students, Marie, and she said she'd never been in a plane before. So I was wondering if you'd mind if she'd have a go at the flight simulator some time during the weekend?"

"Marie! I've met Marie," Anakin said, smiling. "And absolutely not a problem." He gestured over at the sims. "You want podracers, or something different? Maybe from this planet?"

"I was more thinking an airplane or something like the first sim you got me in? You know, open space and not a chance to crash against anything," Cameron suggested.

Anakin nodded. "I can do that," he said. "I'll set it up tonight--I can drop the keys off for you later." He glanced at Cameron's hat. "You're a Stickbug, right?" He's not smirking. At all.

Cameron was about to thank Anakin, but he forgot all about it as he noticed exactly what Anakin was looking at. "Yeah, I'm a stickbug," he pulled his cap further down and tried to look for a change of topic before Anakin said anything else. His gloved hand conveniently drew his attention. "So, what's with the glove?"

Anakin put his hand behind his back. "Um. Cultural thing from the last trip home?" he tried. "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Oh," Cameron frowned and touched his hat. "A glove loving culture? I hear those are a bitch."

Anakin grimaced. "Not exactly," he said. "But Obi-Wan said the effects of the...negotiations...should go away on their own." He glared down at the glove. "They just haven't yet."

"Ah," Cameron wondered if he wanted to know. "Maybe someone can help speed up the process?"

"Obi-Wan wanted this to be a lesson about patience," Anakin said, rolling his eyes, "but I'm trying to get it to go away as quickly as possible." He shook his gloved hand. "Because this is annoying."

"I think lessons are supposed to be annoying," Cameron said and was really starting to wonder what exactly was wrong with his hand. "Not thinking about it will probably help." Of course, he had brought it up.

"I'm trying," Anakin said, giving Cameron a wry smile. "Fortunately, I found some nasty poison ivy out in the woods to keep me distracted. The stuff is ridiculously itchy."

Cameron raised an eyebrow and decided he wasn't going to ask what he'd been up to. Of course, this might be good information in case a certain rodent got too cocky.

"Thanks for the warning, I'll try restrain my urge to go running around naked in the woods."

"I wasn't naked!" Anakin yelped. "I was doing some meditation--didn't check to see where I was sitting."

Now it was his turn to not smirk. "You meditate a lot outside? I guess the cabin thing does make it harder to find some piece and quiet."

Anakin nodded. "Exactly. Too many people around right now--it's hard to concentrate." He scowled. "But nature decided to fight back."

"Nature can be like that," Cameron said sympathetically. "I don't get the whole meditation thing, though. It drives me completely crazy."

Anakin shrugged. "I like the solitude. It clears my head."

"You don't get bored?" Cameron asked. "I keep falling asleep."

Anakin smiled. "It's time I spend learning more about the Force, connecting to the universe around me. It's anything but boring." He bit his lip. "Unless that sounds really weird."

"No, that makes sense. At least you can feel something. Those meditation books all talk about finding inner peace or something outside yourself and I don't know what but it's not like there's actually anything there to keep you entertained," he replied sounding a tiny bit frustrated. He really didn't get along with that whole meditation thing.

"It's there," Anakin said with conviction, "you just might be trying too hard to find it." He shrugged. "It took me a while to get the hang of meditation. Making your brain be quiet, it takes some effort."

"Nah, my brain's pretty empty," Cameron assured him with a grin as he tapped his finger against his temple. "I just don't think it's my thing. The sleeping sort of meditation however? Totally is."

Re: Talk to Anakin

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